Leave You Be? Never.

Ch. 3 - What's Your Deal?

Loki

I had been observing the woman for a couple weeks. Thor lectured me and warned me to stay away from "Monet". I had to painfully sit still and listen to his incessant blabbering as he forced mjölnir to my chest, keeping me down.

I had been staying away to keep both myself and her safe from the rambling of the great Thor and lecturing of The Avengers, meaning I hadn't confronted her. Yet.

The Avengers had left two hours ago for a most likely long mission, possibly lasting a full week. Again, I was ordered to stay away from the lady until their return. Unbelievable how they expected me to obey.

She walked towards the bar as I was laying on the armchair once more, rereading the book of Shakespeare since it has been the most interesting one yet.

"Monet?" I asked with my head still down facing the book, making her jump, "Are you of French origin?"

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't see you there. I thought you were told to remain in your room."

"I apologise for startling you, love. And yes, I was but they can't expect me to spend several moons in my quarters without getting any other space to breathe."

"Hm. Yeah, that makes sense."

Agreeing with me? Again? And ignoring my use of the pet name. She already left a surprising impression on me. I looked up to meet her eyes, already observing me.

"So you're name," I begun again, "according to it, you must be European."

"Oh, not fully. My father was French but my mother was Pakistani," she answered.

"Was?"

"They died when I was younger. No biggie though. I still had my older sister and younger brother."

She had spoken in past tense a second time. "Had?" I inquired once more.

"My sister recently died, from some disease that passes through our genes, and my younger brother ran away the second he turned eighteen. But please don't tell anyone. I don't want to worry Bruce, he loved my siblings. Especially Blaise. He wasn't very close to Christine but he knew how much I looked up to her."

"Ah, I see." I was speechless. I wasn't expecting that, out of anything. "Well, my condolences of their passing."

She chuckled.

"Something amusing to you?" I hadn't meant to use such a passive-aggressive tone.

"No. I just find it funny when people say pass. What? Did they pass gas?" Well she surely knew how to bring humour into a situation. "No," she continued, "they're dead."

"You're humorous. I like that."

She beamed.

"I have a few family issues myself," I said, a few being an understatement.

"Oh? Would you like to, I don't know, talk about it?"

"A story for another time, I suppose."

Silence crowded the room for a few short minutes. I looked back down, unpausing my story.

"So who are you?" she asked. I raised my eyebrows at her, tilting my head to the side as I reached her gaze once more. I seemed to be tilting my head at her a lot. She interested me.

"I mean, everyone here seems to not like you much and Bruce seems to always be scared to be around you while Steve would be lecturing me to stay away from you. Who even are you? They never bothered to explain." She paused for a moment to think. "And what kind of name is Loki?"