All cats are grey in the dark

Chapter 12

Eldrid straps her wand into her thigh sheath beneath her red skirt and slips on the leather jacket that Natasha picked out for her. On her feet, she wears black boots made by someone called 'Doctor Marten'. She opens her balcony door and steps out into the cool summer breeze, placing one foot then the other onto the balcony railing. Without a moment's hesitation, she steps off, giving herself to the wind and the magic flowing through her fingers.

Mere feet from the floor, she strains to be upright and lands on one knee, as Natasha taught her that any hero should land. Apparently, it distributes the weight evenly or something.

Eldrid doesn't' really know where she's going, just that she needs to go somewhere for a little while. She tethered Loki to Natasha so he can't go more than 20 feet away from her at any one time and he was not happy at all but Natasha agreed to look after him for a while. 

Eldrid takes herself down the road into a rectangular park full of children running around and parents desperately trying to control their offspring. See, moments like this were where she saw that Asgard and here weren't so different. There was a similar place near her quarters on the palace grounds. If she climbed to a specific spot on the wall, she could see over to all of the children playing on the climbing apparatus. The equipment was different there though. Here, it's metal covered in peeling colored paint whereas back home it was gold and copper, polished to shine but coated in a special paint so that it didn't heat up in the sun. One thing was the same though: the children. Little balls of energy running around like tiny cannonballs. Nothing was difficult for them. They knew exactly what they had to do: have fun and be kind. 

Eldrid found herself missing when she was so carefree. When she ran around with her brothers and her sister and they made 'soup' with mud and leaves in the back garden. Or when they used to take sheets into the forest and build forts to 'defend' against the 'vartal monster' (their father). Or even when they used to help their mother in the kitchen by peeling potatoes or stirring the stew. The most apparent difference from then to now is the confusion swirling in her mind, clouding every thought.

She slumps down onto the grass, stretches her legs out in front of her and lies her head back. Her eyes drift closed. She loses herself in the sound of the shrieking and fun.

A while later, she is shaken awake by Steve who kneels over her looking worried.

"El, are you okay?"

She sits herself up on her elbows. "Yes, Steve, I am okay, why?"

"Well, you were just lying on the floor, I thought you were passed out." He sits down beside her with his legs crossed and looks at her with those insightful eyes.

"I was just... dealing with some things."

"Anything I can help with?" 

"Someone to listen would be nice?" She sits up fully, mimicking how Steve is sat with his legs crossed.

"Sure, go ahead."

"I've never really had a normal life. My parents died and my siblings too, I lived at the palace from a young age, surrounded by the royal court with very little emotional interaction. I didn't have friends, no family, only really Frigga who cared for me. I offered to bring Loki here because I saw a vision of... what would happen if they kept Loki locked up. It was a vision of fire and death and destruction. Not entirely of his doing though, he just sowed the seed that began it all. In fact, he died in this vision before any of it began, that's what I was trying to prevent.

"So, I came here with him. I went from having no social interaction, no friends, to having all of you guys and Loki at my side. Then, last night, Loki and I had a night together." Steve's eyes widen in surprise. "No, not like that! He took me for a picnic on the roof, we stargazed and then he took me to bed when I fell asleep. It was a lovely night but Natasha seems to think that it was a date."

"Is it an issue if it was?" Steve asks.

"Yes. Everyone I've ever loved has died or left or been tortured, I came here to change Loki not to become his love. It's all wrong. I don-don't know what to do."

"I'm going to give you some advice now, okay? Speaking as someone who waited too long to see what was right in front of me, take it while you can."

A grin stretches across Eldrid's face. "You're talking about Sir Barnes aren't you?"

"Yes." Steve flushes pink. "Now, shall we head back to the tower?"

Word count: 807
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