Unexpected

Coming to Grips

As we drove through the streets of D.C. I couldn't help getting a sense of Déjà vu from when I was trying to drive Thor through the streets of London. At least this time I wasn't driving on the left side of the road, nor was I trying to drive us towards a battle! Loki seemed interested in watching the city go by and the workings of my car.

"I still do not understand your Midgardian technology and vehicles." He commented before reaching out curiously to touch the radio dial, "They're very different than those of Asgard."

The radio dial in my car was not just a knob, but if you pressed it, it was the on and off button for it. While fiddling with it he accidentally pressed it and suddenly a radio commercial was blaring through the car's cabin, making me jump! In a second my hand flew out to turn the volume down!

To be honest, I like to jam out in my car, so the dial had already been turned up high, but apparently, while fiddling with the car's knobs and buttons Loki had managed to turn it on full blast! As soon as we could actually hear ourselves thinking over the random car dealership's radio commercial, Loki and I started laughing at being caught so off guard.

When we arrived at my apartment, I led him up to the third floor. It was strange. Through his mastery of illusions, Loki had made it so that I could see him, but that he'd be basically invisible to anyone else. No one else would be able to perceive him. I tried to act casually though, as if it were just me roaming up the stairs and through the apartment's hallways. Luckily for me, in this extent, my training definitely helped me play the part, not that it would really do anything.

By now it was late morning, so most people were gone to work or school or something. The apartment building was no doubt virtually empty. In fact the very halls seemed strangely quiet, though that could've been my paranoid mind acting up.

My keys jangled against each other as we reached my door. Just as I inserted my key into my apartment's lock I heard a doorknob clicking. My head whipped to the side to see Sharon coming out of her apartment, decked out in her usual scrubs. She made eye contact with me, her face passive for a second before her brows came together into a confused expression.

"Hey, Penny."

"Sharon!" my voice seemed to come out too loudly before I rushed to regulate it to a normal tone, trying to keep my casual act on, "Hey, what's up? Heading to the hospital?"

"Yeah, just a shift in the infectious disease ward."

"Oh, I see." I winced a bit at the thought of having to spend my time in a place that had 'infectious disease' in the very name! It made my skin crawl a bit. Letting a bit of light sarcasm creep into my voice, "Sounds like fun."

"Right." She smiled a bit, "I'm surprised to see you here though. You're usually off at your job by now aren't you?"

"Yeah, uh, you see, Steve and I kind of took up running, but he's away today, but I thought, well, that I should keep running anyways, but um, today... something came up and I realized I needed to pick a few things up back here, so yeah."

Wow, Penny. Great excuse. I wanted to roll my eyes at myself, but that probably would've looked weird to the nurse.

I wasn't lying, none of that was a lie, but of course I'd left out a lot of information. It took a lot for me to resist flicking my gaze over to look beside me where Loki was standing. This was so weird! She couldn't see him at all! Is this sort of how it would feel to see ghosts?

"Ah." She nodded, "Forgot something at home, huh?"

"Kinda." I shrugged, finishing turning my key in my lock and pushing the door open, "Well, I don't want to keep you. Don't want you to be late to your shift on my account."