Unexpected

What If...

"I love to see your smile, to see you happy." His smile slowly shrank a bit as a contemplative expression took over his face, "I'm afraid I've been the cause of sadness, fear, anger, and confusion for you more than I've been the cause of your happiness."

"I'd be happier if you were here." I sighed, the tingling of my skin and the warmth in my chest undiminished. Slowly I reached out towards his hand that he had resting on his thigh, hovering my fingers an inch above his. His eyes flickered between me and my hand before he turned his palm upwards so that it was almost as if we were holding hands. Our hands were like us now, so close and yet there was so much distance between them.

"And what if I were? If I could be beside you in the flesh, what then?" Loki's voice was quiet, soft, and hesitant.

I refused to look up from our hands, not daring to meet his eyes. I could almost feel his gaze. "If you were here..." I longed for him to be with me again. I longed to feel his arms around me and to bury my face in the crook of his neck and to kiss him again and to know that he was really there, but... the thought hurt too much. He wasn't here and there was no way that he could be here. "Let's not go over 'what ifs', Loki..." My voice sounded fragile even to me.

'What's the harm?" he asked gently, "If I were on Midgaurd right now, sitting here with you on your sofa, I'd take this hand" he wiggled his fingers under my hovering hand, "And pull you close to me so that you could hear the beat of my heart and I would never let you go again. We would stay here in our embrace and forget about S.H.I.E.L.D. and Asgard and weapons and wars."

"That sounds nice," I breathed, timidly lifting my gaze.

The corners of his lips twitched, "And you could sing to me to pass the time."

"And you could read to me until I fall asleep again." I added with a brush of smile.

"I suppose I could, but then again if you fell asleep I would figure it was because I was boring you."

"I could listen to you read for a dozen years and never grow tired of it." The soothing thought drove the encroaching gloom from my mind, "What would you read to me?"

"Old tales of Asgard I suppose." He mused, "There's a tale of two forbidden lovers that I think you would enjoy. I'd be interested in dabbling in some of your midguardian literatures as well. Your Shakespeare fellow had a few interesting plays I understand."

I caught onto the game, tilting my head to the side,"But what if we got hungry?"

"Well, obviously you would be in charge of cooking. You'd make that soup again and we would read side by side, our fingers entwined."

"I'd have to introduce you to more dishes wouldn't I? You've never tried stir-fry or pizza or fajitas or watermelon..." I pursed my lips faintly, "Of course to pay for the books and food we'd need jobs."

"Jobs?"

"While you're a prince in Asgard, here you're an intergalactic criminal, and that doesn't pay bills."

"I suppose a couple thousand years of Asgardian diplomacy and battle training wouldn't be transferable knowledge." He assented, his banter producing a smile on both of our lips. "Would you stay with S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Shrugging, "I don't know. I believe I am really doing something useful with S.H.I.E.L.D., but I suppose it would be impossible for me to keep you a secret from them. They wouldn't be very pleased with you for returning to Earth and they'd be even less pleased with me for aiding and abetting you, let alone that I had fallen in love with you. I guess we'd have to get different jobs on the run from the government."