Lesser Gods

Raeyn’s eyes shot open one morning, woke by the tiniest stir of her husband sitting up. She sat up a tiny bit to watch Loki stand up, the barely risen sun reflecting off his toned body as he slipped on his armor followed by his robes, and finally lacing up his boots. Finally, he turned to face Raeyn and noticed that she was awake. He crossed the room with his long strides and she smiled up at him. With one cold hand on her belly, he bent to kiss her softly. She bit her lip and grinned up at him when he stepped away, his nose still barely touching hers.

“I love you,” she breathed, watching as his eyes lit up a tiny bit, as they did each time she spoke the words. Leaning towards her once more, his lips lingered on hers for a moment longer than usual before he pulled her nightgown just above her lacy underwear to press his lips to her baby bump.

“I love you, too,” he breathed back, his voice still husky. Hesitantly, as if all he wanted was to crawl back into bed so his wife could curl against him once more, he walked out of the room. Raeyn smiled daintily and waved: “Don’t work for too long, I want you back here early,” she called softly as he passed out of her sight.

“Of course, love!”

She gave a small laugh of happiness before curling into the pillow and falling back into a peacefully sleep.

It was many hours later that Raeyn woke up; the sun was high and turning the drapes that billowed around the windows transparent. The wind coming through the opened window had a chill to it — even to the girl who slept next to a Frost Giant. Closing the window harshly, she wandered through the room lazily before grabbing a mug of tea and sitting next to a window looking out over the city. She sighed happily — this is certainly not where she saw herself being when she was a child, but it was the happiest ending she saw for herself. Strangely enough, though, her heart pounded away in her ribcage as if she were sitting in a scene simply radiating serenity. Downing the rest of her drink, she paced around the room. Just as she was perfectly content where she was sitting, she needed to leave. There was a small feeling in the pit of her stomach telling her to get off of floor twenty two. But where to go? She had just sat with Thor yesterday, and Bruce always seemed too busy to fill the awkward silences when she was with him. Loki was, of course, busy with his own work. Her old friends were gone or did not have a memory of her. That left… the Captain, no less. Rolling her eyes, she slipped a pair of stretchy black yoga pants on and a dark blue knee-length coat; it was quite cold in the under floors of Stark Tower this time of year. Even Thor had cut his habit of wandering around shirtless.

Sighing, she reluctantly pressed the R7 button and waited as she descended into the depths of Stark Tower. The doors opened, and surprisingly she was met with the shocked expression of Steve Rogers gawking at her. He wore a light leather jacket, making him look as if he were about to go out somewhere. It’s just the cold, Raeyn told herself as she took a step out of the elevator.

“Look, Rogers, I know I told you that I would leave you alone, but I can’t stand the thought of leaving you all alone down here in the cold…” Raeyn’s voice drowned out as she looked up at Rogers once more. His eyes were wide, almost with anticipating fear as she continued to watch her move towards him. “What is it-?” At that moment, something — or someone — landed just behind Raeyn and suddenly there were gloved hands wrapped around her: one covering her mouth, the other around her neck to restrain her. A scared, animal like noise that came from Raeyn’s lips was muffled by the red and blue latex. She squirmed, at first catch the gloved man off guard by her strength. She fought from his grasp only to fall to the cold ground, knocking the air out of her.

“Damn, she’s strong,” the guys muttered, grabbing her by her wrists and pinning them behind her as he forced her to rise. His voice was young, strong, and… oddly familiar.

“She’s one of Thor’s people,” Rogers explained, stepping out of the opened cage. Raeyn’s eyes widened, but with this man’s hand over her mouth she could not say or ask anything. The Captain gave her a pitying glance, as if the hero part of him wanted to save the defenseless mother to be, while the other part wished horrible things on her.

“What do we do with her? She could be trouble.”

Rogers shrugged. “I don’t care,” he said evenly, as if he were trying to force the words out.

Hearing this, the man’s grip on her tightened. “Sorry about this.”

Biting down on her captor’s hand, she whimpered and tried to scream as she tried to wriggle her way free desperately. But still, his hands closed around her neck as if he were about to snap it. Slowly, even as she tried to struggle, the air simply was not coming to her lungs. Just as Raeyn thought she was dead, Rogers spoke up.

“Parker!” he barked, his voice erupting from his throat as if he had been biting the warning back for quite some time. “She’s pregnant.”

The hands reacted immediately and released her. She collapsed into a heap on the floor, her fingers nails clawing at the cement as her lungs clawed for air once more. As soon as she could, she flipped herself over to face the two men and scrambled away instinctively. Her jade eyes rested on the man who had just tried to kill her — he was completely covered in the material that had rubbed her neck raw, and large white eyes glowering down at Raeyn were the only way Raeyn identified him as a human. She screamed, trying to get back, with one hand protectively covering her belly. It was a pathetic attempt to get away, for in two strides the masked man was upon her, swinging something over his head and down onto her skull. Her eyes fluttered, her brain still reeling from the impact.

“Fuck, she was loud. Think anyone heard her?” the masked man asked. “I wasn’t going to kill her, you know,” he added defensively before she completely blacked out.