Of Greater Sires

Early the next morning, before Loki had woke or the sun had begun to rise, Raeyn was up and dressed, making herself a cup of tea. Before slipping on a pair of Converse to match her hoodie and skinny jeans, she tip toed to Loki’s room to make sure he was still fast asleep. Peering in, she found him tangled in his sheets just sleeping quite peacefully. She stood in the doorway a moment too long, leaning against the frame and simply watching his chest rise as fall.

Then she forced herself to remember the events of the night before. Jaw clenched, she moved out of his door and down the hall silently, taking Stark’s old coffee mug with her as the elevator took her down to the floor level.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” JARVIS asked, speaking for the first time that week.

“What are you talking about JARVIS?” she asked unemotionally, not trying particularly hard to hide her guilt.

“You know what I’m talking about. That was quite an assortment of DNA on your clothes last night.”

Raeyn shrugged, not answering but bidding the computer program farewell as she exited the building. Far far away, out in the ocean, Raeyn could begin to see a bit of dawn’s light. She marched through the streets that were just beginning to wake up. She stopped once to refill her mug with the sweeter choice of hot chocolate before continuing to weave her way through the streets and alleyways until she found herself in front of the familiar cellar. However, this morning a woman only a little older than Raeyn looked sat outside, her eyes lifted to the sky. A small, sad smile decorated her face, and it seemed it had lingered there for quite some time.

She didn’t glance down to look at Raeyn. “It’s up there somewhere,” she whispered instead, more to herself than to Raeyn.

Raeyn blinked in response, looking up at the sky. Many nights ago, Loki had woken her up to show her something amazing — with their superhuman sight, the galaxy that Asgard laid in was beautiful as it slowly came into view. Surprised, Raeyn glanced at the woman and then to what she was looking at, and it was in that general vicinity. Though to her, it would only look like a star, as it did to Raeyn’s mortal eyes right now.

“Asgard,” Raeyn replied in surprise. The woman broke her gaze at the star to stare down at Raeyn in surprise.

“You must be Ramona.”

“Eyre?”

“Yes.”

There was a silence. “I’ve heard it’s beautiful.”

“There was a time that I wished to go there,” Eyre said sadly. “I was told of it… by a friend. He said he’d like to show it to me someday.”

Raeyn nodded, trying to hide her surprise. What Asgardian had this woman come in contact with? The only reasonable response would be Thor, she thought to herself.

“He disappeared after all this happened,” she said sadly.

“I am sorry,” Raeyn said. There was another short silence.

“How do you know of it?”

Raeyn shrugged. “I know as much as the next person,” she glanced over at Eyre to give her a look. “Please don’t…”

“I won’t tell anyone,” the other woman assured Raeyn before collecting herself and moving towards the cellar.

“From what I heard, I thought you probably wouldn’t come back.”

Raeyn shrugged. “I needed to get away.”

Eyre gave a knowing smile as they stepped into the musty place once more. “It’s addicting like that.”

“Ramona!” Lew called, sitting up in her sleeping bag, and nearly spilling her coffee down her shirt. The other few in the room turned look up at the new comer, but Raeyn didn’t recognize any right off the bat until she met Agent’s eyes.

He gave a polite smile and stuck out his hand once more. It surprised Raeyn how professional he was. “Nice to see you again, Ramona.”

“It’s nice to be back,” Raeyn sighed. Even moments after stepping into the cellar, she felt so much more relaxed and at home. But still, nagging her at the back of her mind, Loki still constantly resurfaced her memory.

“Can I get you anything?” Eyre asked, hanging her coat up next to the door.

“Do you have anything to drink?”

Eyre nodded, moving over to the old refrigerator. “Lemonade, tea, milk… never mind, the milk’s gone sour. And Diet Dr. Pepper.”

“Erm… anything a bit stronger?” Eyre turned to give Raeyn a surprised, but knowing look.

“We practically have a full-fledged bar in here,” Agent said matter-of-factly. “It’s been harder for some people to get over the past.”

Raeyn nodded, thanking Eyre for the wine, and took a large gulp. “It’s not so much the past for me as it is the present.”

Agent gave a small snort before leading Raeyn over to where the few people were sitting.

“This is Ramona, guys, she’s the new girl who stopped by yesterday,” Agent said before sitting down.

“’Mona? That cool?” one of them asked before taking a gulp from a silver tin. Raeyn shrugged.

“Yeah, whatever you want.” She tried to sound nonchalant, but even she could not hide her smile. Even if Ramona was not her real name, she had never been given a nickname before. And she didn’t even know this man’s name.

Throughout the day, different faces trickled in. Some Raeyn knew, but most she didn’t. All of them were quite friendly (though some a little crazy, drunk or hung-over) and Raeyn quickly became even more attached to the group of mortals. What drew her was their passion — even though it may be wrong in her eyes, their passion was far greater than any other mortals’ that she had come across. It made them seem more like equals and less like the lesser intelligent mortals that she had dealt with for the past eight hundred years.

And just like the day before, dusk came quickly. Raeyn excused herself a few hours before the sun would set so that she would not have to rely on him for a way to get home.

“Oh, Ramona!” Lew called, standing up to run over to her and whisper in her ear. “We’re having a meeting next Wednesday. It’s going to be pretty big… If you meet us here at sunset, we’ll take you there.”

Raeyn nodded, trying to keep any emotion off her face as she left. She managed to croak out a goodbye as the cellar door swung shut.

With the new atmosphere and lack of distractions, the thoughts that Raeyn had pushed back flooded her mind once again. It’s going to be pretty big? What was that supposed to mean? Surely they did not have a weapon that was powerful enough to overthrow Loki, with all his Asgardian strength and sorcery? And if they did, where did Raeyn stand? Would she keep to Loki, remaining Raeyn of Midgard, or would she leave that behind her and become Ramona?

After the elevator doors swung shut behind her and no longer was she wearing her converse and jeans, but instead a gorgeous green dress given to her by Loki, she managed to reach the couches before collapsing there. Curled up and breathing heavily, she began to cry, surprising even herself. Even still, she stayed there for what felt like an eternity and just let her stress flow away with her tears.

Loki came up to their home and hardly noticed her at first — she was curled so tightly on herself that she was not visible over the couch, and her cries were so soft that it took even his Asgardian ears a moment to place the noise. Creeping over to her, he wondered if she was in the middle of another nightmare before he saw her. Concerned, he sat next to her and delicately placed a hand on her back, making soothing noises until she looked up. Through red and puffy eyes, she gazed at him pitifully. Her entire appearance radiated pain — her crouched body, her swollen, parted lips, her ragged breathing.

He gazed at her for a moment, letting the surprise sink in of once again seeing her so broken. Staring at her, he realized that there could certainly be people as troubled as he. And he had always thought he was forever meant to be alone…

“If this is because of what I did yesterday, you have no idea how sorry I am. I wish I could tell you that I could go back and fix it, but memory modifications are permanent and I’m so very so--” He stopped to catch his breath once he noticed Raeyn shaking her head slowly.

He sighed. “What can I do for you?”

Pursing her lips, something inaudible escaped her lips sounded like a mix between a sob and “go away.” She picked herself up, hugging her shoulders in a death grip, and ran to her quarters for the night, leaving Loki utterly confused.