Illusions | Loki & Jane

2. Intimidating Stranger

Five years earlier:

Jane was poking the peas on her plate boredly. She really didn't know why she had agreed to this. Darcy had been annoying her over three weeks and the only way to prevent the woman from setting her up with someone, or worse putting her online on a dating-website without letting Jane know, was to go out with an actual person. So she decided to tell her that she would go on a date with Dr. Jacob Mitchell. He wasn't a astrophysicist like her, nonetheless, he had a doctoral certificate in physics and maths and was working for NASA, making the calculations for the satellites' orbits.
She had met him at a seminary about the Einstein-Rosen-Bridge. She had been absorbing the words of the professor, who was explaining his theory on the wormhole, through which it should be possible to enter another world or even time. She had found it extremely interesting, whereas Jacob Mitchell had been sleeping half of the time and made quiet sarcastic comments the other part of the day. Jane had noticed that he had always been staring at her in the pauses and tried to avoid him, but when the seminary was over he had rushed towards her, asking her about her opinion on the 'Multiple-Universe-Bullshit'. She told him that she had actually quite liked it, though she didn't know if she should believe it and that she was planning on investigating and studying it herself. That was all she had used on words that day, because Mitchell had not stopped talking about his opinion, about that he was sure the milky way was the only universe, furthermore that they were living the only time and about work and how important he was to the people on earth, who were all depending on cellphones, navigation systems and the internet. He was quite nice and smart, yet narcissistic and narrow-minded.

Her best friend wasn't stupid, Darcy had known Jane for a long time now and wasn't going to believe her declaration just like that, so she forced her to actually, really text Dr. Mitchell if he would like to go on a date, who unfortunately really seemed to like her and said yes.

"It will be good for you!" Her friend squealed with sparkling eyes, as an answer to Jane's frustrating groan. Darcy was thrilled that she finally would go out again with the opposite sex and told everyone, including Erik, who called her to congratulate her.

Really? It was only a date for God's sake! And hopefully not the last one in her life, although with Mitchell it would be the last one.
Her last boyfriend had been an idiot as well. He had been a doctor, a medical doctor and was good at his work, but lousy as a partner. Dr. Donald Blake had forgotten her so many times, while she was waiting for him to show up on their date. After the relationship had ended, on her account, she hadn't been going on a date for two years, because she preferred to work anyway and it was more important in her opinion than some guy.

"...But if the orbiting body enters the atmosphere, the standard assumptions no longer reply and then we have to change the calculations. Do you understand?"

"Hm?" Jane hadn't been listening. She had asked him how one calculated the orbit of the satellites, but hadn't expected him to be rabbiting on about it, uninterrupted for over half an hour.

"Do you understand?" He repeated the question, looking at her expectantly.

"Oh yes, I am sorry, I am really tired. Should we pay soon and go home?" She forced a smile on her face, trying not to look as uninterested as she truly was.

"Yes of course." Mitchell nodded understanding, signing the waiter, who luckily didn't take too long with the bill.

"Thank you for the lovely evening." She said, trying to be nice when they stood outside. She just wanted to say goodbye, when he grabbed her arm. "Let me take you home." He said, pointing at his car.

"No thank you." She quickly replied, trying to get rid of him. "I love to walk."

"Alright then I'll walk with you. I will not let you wandering alone in New York around this time." the man said much to her dismay. She sighed and agreed, there was no way he would leave her alone. Luckily it were only a few blocks to her mom's house, where her lab was, so she would not have to bear his talking for too long. Her mom had died of cancer when she had been only nine and her father had moved to Philadelphia, when she was old enough to live on her own. So she had transformed the house of her parent's into her lab. She had a small apartment in Queens, which she had to move out of, due to higher rents. Two years before her father had a car accident, which he unfortunately hadn't survived and so from that day on she was alone, living in Brooklyn, in her own lab.

The streets were wet from the rain, which had poured on the grounds all day long and the clouds were hanging low, yet is was dry for a moment. It was a mild February-evening, nevertheless she buried her face into her scarf, walking quietly, while she let Mitchell speak.

She watched the people, which ran past them. She saw families walking by with their children and couples walking arm in arm - she quickly increased the space between her and Dr. Mitchell ; she really didn't want him to give the idea, he could do the same - most of them were in a hurry, like they always were in New York. Some of the people were sitting in corners, leaning against a exterior wall of a house and begged, others were making pictures of buildings and alleys, probably tourists, Jane thought.

There was nothing more or less strange about these humans and their differences than on other days, since she had seen so many similar people with similar activities, yet there was one man, who caught her attention immediately. She already saw him walking from far, or more like sliding really. He was wearing a suit with his head held high, he had such a proud walk that she was sure, he was some sort of royalty. His shoulder-long black hair was gelled behind his ears, so that his face was completely visible, which she found highly attractive. She didn't know what it was, but his expression was showing kindness and tranquility, yet somehow she could sense a darkness in him, which attracted her extremely, strangely enough. She couldn't keep her eyes of him, he was laughing quietly, probably about something on his mind. He hadn't seen her yet, his eyes were focused on the road before him all the time, however just the moment when the man passed Jane and Mitchell, his eyes shot at her, as if he had been waiting for the right opportunity to look upon her face. The woman froze on the inside, when seeing his beautiful green eyes. It was a feeling she had never witnessed before, she sensed thrills running down her spine and couldn't say if she liked it or hated it. For the woman the time had stopped turning, merely for a moment, because she could have sworn they walked in slow-motion. It was like he was looking into her soul and his gaze made her flustered. The man kept the eye contact confidently and smirked at her briefly. Jane ripped her eyes off of him, feeling the heat rushing to her head and continued walking, so the intimidating stranger wouldn't see her blush.

What did just happen? What was this intense impact he had on her? She had never witnessed a feeling like this before; feeling perplexed, joyful and in awe at the same time. She turned around to look at him one more time, but he was gone, vanished in the crowd.

"Are you alright?" Mitchell asked, looking at her worried.

Jane snapped out of her state. Oh yeah right, he was still walking next to her; she had blanked him out completely. She nodded as a reply. "I am just tired and I have a slight headache." She lied. "Ah we're here." She said happily, as she looked upon the small row house. "Thank you for bringing me home." She quickly gave him a hand, before he could think about hugging or kissing her. "Bye!"

She was alone finally! She sighed relieved, smashing the door behind her and kicking her shoes off. She looked around the house, she was not the cleanest person around, more like the chaotically type, so her home looked like that as well. Magazines, mostly about astrology were distributed among the living room, she tiptoed around them and plonked herself down on the couch.

She let the past hours replay itself before her eyes. This evening would certainly not repeat itself, of that she was sure, however this one man on the street had made an impact on her. She wondered who and what he was. He must have been a powerful person, or he was just extremely confident about himself. Nevertheless, she had never seen so much self-assurance in one person, not even in any royalty she had seen on TV.

Jane shook her head, confused. Why was she even thinking about this weird topic? Didn't she have better things to do? Like continue her research on the black-hole-theory! She didn't even know him! She got up from the sofa and tiptoed to the bathroom, undressing herself in order to take a shower. She would not think about him anymore! She had to concentrate on her work and would probably never see him again anyway!

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A/n: Hm.. I think I know who that stranger was... hehe !
Well of course I know, I'm writing the story, lol!

Oh and I am writing after the movies, not the comicbooks, just so that everyone knows. And well I don't know according to the movies where Jane's parents are, so I threw in a slight info from the comics and my own imagination.