Giftless

Chapter 15

"Wake up, love," Loki shook you awake. You opened your eyes blearily. It seemed way too early; your alarm hadn't even gone off. When you glanced at said alarm, you saw that it was 2am. You groaned and rolled over to go back to sleep and hopefully ignore the annoying trickster who thought 2am was an acceptable time to be awake. "Darling, come on, wake up," he shook you again and ripped your blanket off of you.

Rude.

"Loki, what on Earth could possibly be important enough to wake up for at 2am?" you demanded grumpily.  You weren't a morning person, especially at 2am.

"Nothing, so get up," he replied too jovially. 

"Loki!" you threw one of you stuffed animals at him in aggravation.  It was bad enough that he camped out in your bedroom to protect you. 

He laughed and dodged the stuffed animal.  "If you do not get up on your own, I will throw you over my shoulder and carry you there. I am not letting you miss this," he threatened. You rolled back over to face him.

"Would not," you grumbled, quite grumpy at being woken at 2am, and more grumpy at being kept awake at 2am. "I need sleep, Loki," you whined.  He reached down for you like he really was going to throw you over his shoulder. "Fine, fine, I'm up!" You sat up and let him haul you to your feet. He wrapped a robe around you and summoned slippers with fluffy insides for you. "This better be worth it," you told him as you let him steer you from your suite.

"It will be, I promise," he told you softly. He led you to the stairway, and steered you upstairs. You went with him on autopilot, half asleep due to the hour.  You hesitated when you got to the door outside, there was nothing up on the roof. He tugged you along after him anyway.

In the middle of the roof, a picnic style blanket with pillows and blankets on it had been set up. He grinned at your sleepy confused expression. "Come along, darling," he bid you and led you to the blanket. He laid down on his back and pulled you down to join him, also on your back laying against him, using his arm as a pillow. He pulled the blankets up around you, for your benefit as you were the one who would get cold.

"What's going on?" you asked him, cuddling up with him.

"Just wait," he purred in your ear.

A minute later a beautiful meteor shower erupted in the sky. It was beyond words how gorgeous it was. You watched the meteors stream across the sky.  You gasped and stared in awe up at the sky as you watched together.  

Loki chuckled. "I told you it would be worth it," he whispered in your ear.

"You were right," you told him, enjoying the sight.

"And nothing on Earth," he added with a chuckle.  He was proud of himself for his sneaky words. 

You looked over at him then, too curious for your own good. "So why did you come to Earth?" you asked. You knew he wasn't from this world, but he hadn't told you exactly why he had come back yet. You were pleased he had, but you were still curious.

He hesitated a moment, before he finally answered.  "My brother and I were...banished for lack of a better word, after Thor's banishment, after he returned to be the heir to the throne.  I didn't really fall from the bifrost, that was made up for the movie.  It is a tradition among the royal family. Only the heir stays at the palace, any other sons must go make their own way in the world, a quest of sorts. Once Thor was married and had an heir of his own, Balder and I were sent to find our own way. The eldest is not always chosen to be heir, it is supposed to be the child most worthy, and Odin chose Thor for that honor. 

Anyway, Balder had said that he found a world where we could be kings, where we could have the birthright and the rule he so desperately craved. I agreed to go with him, thinking it a primitive world, that we were to set up a colony there.  It would've been a valid quest, one worthy of honor had we succeeded. Instead, we came across Thanos and his army.  Thanos tortured us, though Balder less than I, as he agreed to work for the mad titan willingly.  We were eventually sent to Earth, and you know how that went. Once I broke free of Thanos' mind control, of course I switched sides, but damage had already been done to your people," you heard the sincerity and regret in his voice and knew that he really hadn't meant to be on the wrong side. He had been tricked, which was pretty impressive. "Balder escaped and has also gotten quite skilled at hiding from my ability to see the future. My skills there are not great, and I only get glimpses of what is to come, but I have seen nothing of what he will do, not for many months now. I returned to Earth to make amends,"