Lesser Gods

The weeks passed slowly after that. After immersing herself in the world of the remaining Avengers, in her mind she was drifting further from her husband and being swallowed by the problems of the men living beneath them. To Loki, it was only moodiness from the pregnancy. Her belly was growing quickly and her mind seemed a million worlds away. He did not mind, though, because she seemed happy, at least. And of course she would come back down to earth when the child was born.

They sat at the dinner table, Raeyn scarfing the hot soup down as if it was not burning the roof of her mouth to high heaven and as if she had not eaten in days, and Loki stirring it waiting for it to cool a bit. Once Raeyn's bowl was gone, and Loki's was still untouched, Raeyn looked up at him with an odd expression.

"Is everything alright, love? Are you feeling well?"

Raeyn sat up straight once more. "I've been thinking..." she said slowly, resting her hand on the bulge in her belly, “I know you don't like speaking about it, but what happened between you and Thor?" Her voice was admittedly strong to start off with, but quickly faded to a nervous whisper, as if she wished she could take back what she was already in the middle of saying.

Loki's smile quickly faded as he stared at his wife in awe. He was not angry, as Raeyn had thought he would be, just resigned and shocked. After a moment, he nodded slowly and swallowed harshly.

"I am sure that you have seen what I have written on floor R7," he said, giving her a knowing smile. "You did not simply stumble upon that cage those months ago. So what else do you wish to know?"

Raeyn swallowed. "Did you ever forgive him?"

"I wish I could," Loki said hoarsely. "I hold so much hate for him... and I wish I could just let them all go and things go back to the way they used to be. It's not even as if I wish to keep them here." Suddenly, Raeyn realized that Loki was not cryptically speaking of his feelings towards his brother, but blatantly talking about the remaining Avengers in Stark Tower -- but he did not know that she knew of such things.

"But it's just not that simple anymore."



It was, once again, the early hours of the morning. Loki had fallen asleep hours ago, but Raeyn was slipping some clothes on and into the elevator. Almost unable to contain her smile, she hurriedly pressed the R7 button and descended into the depths of Stark Tower. When the elevator doors opened once more, Raeyn was lifting her skirts and padding across the cement floor, through the maze and stopping next to the very familiar glass wall. It hardly took a moment for Thor to emerge, but his shirtless, disgruntled appearance no longer bothered Raeyn in the least.

“Thor, I spoke to your brother about you today!” The words slipped from her lips without her even realizing, and she resisted the urge to girlishly cover her lips with her hands. Thor was in mid eye rub when she made her announcement, and her bleary blue eyes shot open.

“What did he say?” Thor responded just as quickly, not even taking a moment in his shock.

Raeyn smiled slowly. “He still loves you, deep down. I believe that one day he will see you as his brother once more.”

Thor stared at her with his mouth agape for the longest moment before a small smile appeared on his face and he wiped at his eyes.

“Thank you, Raeyn.”