Two of A Kind

10- In Anger

Aite followed Loki into the sound proof conference room, the same room they'd  watched the rest of the team deciding if they could trust her. Had it really been just two months ago?

"What was that about?" Loki demanded as soon as the door closed.

"I was just having some fun." She scoffed.

He grabbed her by her shoulders and turned her to face him. "It was you on Asgard all those years ago, wasn't it?" He shook her shoulders when she didn't answer. "Wasn't it?!"

She nodded soundlessly.

He pushed her away from him and started pacing, ranting every step along the way. "You started all of this! I never would have noticed how much they favored Thor if they hadn't taken his word that it must have been me. I never would have started those crazy plans to prove myself more worthy than him."

She planted her hands on her hips. "Oh no you don't. You're not blaming this all on me. You were playing tricks on Thor and his friends all day. The ribbons and flowers were nothing compared to some of the things you pulled."

He turned and wagged a finger in her face. "The pranks I played were illusions. It took three hours to untie Thor's hair. And I was grounded for over a year."

She waved a hand dismissively. "Like a year is anything to beings like us."

"That's not the point."

"Then what is?"

"Your blatant disrespect. Your contempt. Every time I try to help you, try to be nice to you, you treat me like I'm breaking some moral code only you know anything about."

"What do you expect me to do? Throw myself at a man I know is going to meet someone else? A man I know is going to grow old with someone else while I'm busy sleeping through the next five thousand years?"

"You're not sleeping through anything. You're right here. And I'm not interested in finding anyone else. Why else would I be trying so hard to get your attention?"

"I don't know!" She yelled back. "I don't get it, okay? I came back here, under your plan, expecting everything to run smooth as clockwork. Not only do I almost kill myself trying to save you and your brother, but now I'm stuck here."

"Where you obviously don't want to be."

"Where I don't know where I fit." She countered. "Where I'm constantly waiting for the other shoe to fall. Where I can't go home because I'm already there and I'll just fall into the same magical coma. The only friends I have are mortals who don't quite trust me. And the only person I actually know won't even go through the crap that made us allies because I came back and fixed it for him."

She huffed. "I don't expect you to be grateful. I don't expect you to be the person you were, but damn it, you were my mentor. We worked together for hundreds of years trying to get to this point." She threw her hands out in frustration, deflating as the truth came out. "I don't belong here and I don't know what kind of damage I'm doing by staying."

She turned away, plopping down on the table and whispered. "The more I interact with the people here, the bigger chance I'm taking of something worse happening."

Loki watched her close her eyes and try to get back to the eternally happy, if somewhat misguided, imp they'd all grown used to.

He lifted her chin with two long, elegant fingers and waited for her to look at him before talking. "Tell that to the people of Xandar, who were nothing one minute, and back to their normal lives the next. Or to the people this team has saved over the last few weeks since you used that purple tyrant's plan against him. People no one would have been able to help if you hadn't saved us all."

He reached up to wipe a tear off her cheek. "You have done more good in this universe in the past two months than I have my entire lifetime."

"Not to mention you turned a scheming, backstabbing, menace back into the brother I used to have." Thor spoke up from the doorway.

Aite looked past Loki's shoulder to see Natasha, Jane, and Thor smiling at her.

"You may not have been meant for this time, but you do belong here." Natasha added.

"And stop selling yourself short. If a time traveling, goddess from another world can't make it work with a guy that's obviously smitten with her, what kind of a chance do I have here?" Jane motioned between her and Thor.

"You really can't give her that kind of logic to work with. She'll run with it and then we'll have a big, blonde Asgardian baby running around the facility. And drinking all Stark's alcohol." Loki reasoned.

Aite laughed. "I don't remember anyone saying anything about making something work here." She motioned between herself and Loki.

"Of course you'll be together. You are his Threyja." Thor answered, as if that solved everything.

Aite's eyebrows shot up toward her hairline. "What?"

"Asgardians know when they've met their Soulmate." Jane answered.

"My Father used to tell us the story of how he met Mother. He'd say he knew from the moment they met, but he had to convince her he was serious."

"Of course, Mother told the story differently. She always said he had to convince himself he was worthy of her." Loki corrected.

"Yes. That always did sound more like father, didn't it?"

"That doesn't make sense."Aite rubbed her temples, trying to ease away a headache before it could start.

"It does though." Jane interupted. "You said you'd never met the older Loki's wife, that you'd only heard him talk about her, right?"

Aite nodded. "Him and the few helpers we had on Jotunheim."

"And if you return to your home now, when you know the younger you is in a magical sleep, what happens?"

"Our life forces would meld, making a new version of the both of us." She turned to explain when Loki made a skeptical face. "My distant cousin, Eris tried to stop herself from handing over that golden apple she's famous for. She ended up making things worse."

"So then it stands to reason, it could have been a you from a different time line that didn't want to risk the same thing happening." Jane finished.

"Then why not tell me the truth?" Aite asked.

"Would you have done things the same?" Loki asked.