As you wish: Short Stories

The TVA

     I was putting the laundry away in Loki and my room when it happened. It had been an uneventful day up until now. Loki and I woke up, wrapped up in each other. It was early, too early for Hel to be up, yet. We enjoyed our little bit of free time together as we waited for our little goddess of death to wake up. We had finally convinced her to sleep in her own room over the last week. Not that we didn't enjoy having her with us, but she was always with us and Loki and I had no time for intimacy. Morgan, Tony's daughter, definitely helped in convincing Hel. Since Morgan was Hel's senior by two years, Hel tended to want to do and like the same thing as her best friend.

     When it was time to get out of bed, Loki gave me a kiss. He normally went to get Hel up and dressed while I dressed and got breakfast ready. I made French toast and cringed as Loki drowned his and Hel's food in syrup. Today seemed to be an energetic day for our daughter. Luckily, Morgan had a lot of energy this morning, too. While Loki took Hel next door to play with Morgan, I did chores around the house and ran errands. Tony had given Loki and I another cabin on the lake. Not exactly next to theirs, but close enough for Hel and Morgan to run back and forth.

     After I had gotten back from the getting groceries and picking up some new soap for Hel, I started putting everything away and cleaning up. I switched a load of laundry in the dryer and went to go put Hel's new soap away. It was strawberry, like mine since she wanted to smell like mama, but it was still a soap made for sensitive toddler skin. I picked up the toys and clothes on Hel's floor before making her bed. In a few years, Loki and I will have Hel do clean up all of her space on her own, but she was still too young to really follow through. She would keep getting distracted by things and forgetting her task. Hel tries to help clean, especially when she's helping me cook in the kitchen. She had a strange fascination with food.

     When the dryer chimed, signaling that the clothes were done, I grabbed my basket and went to collect them to fold. I walked passed all of Hel's artwork we had hung up on the wall and smiled. She was getting better and staying in the lines and not just scribbling all over the page. Morgan's lessons were paying off, it seemed.

     My and Loki's room was smaller than our room at the compound and tower was, but we didn't need the extra space. We were grateful for the cabin Tony gifted us as a wedding present. I loved being close to him and Pepper, but also being far enough away to still have our space. I sat my basket down on our bed and started to sort the clothes and fold them, turning occasionally to put them away in the dresser or closet. Because of this, I chose Loki's side of the bed to fold since his side was closer to the closet and dresser. That meant that I was facing the door, with my back to the large sliding, glass doors.

      I felt a tingling sensation over my skin. That was the first sign that something was happening. It settled like a blanket of static around me. I stopped folding and waited for a second.

"Sammee..." I heard Loki's desperate voice, only he sounded different. It was coming from behind me and I turned to see an orange doorway shrink until it disappeared. Loki was standing a few feet behind me, his eyes were filled with tears. His hair was shorter and he was wearing a white button down tucked into black slacks, with a black tie and a halter over his shoulders. He had a small cut on his left brow, but looked physically alright other than that. Loki was holding some kind of device in his hand. "You're alive..."

     Those two words solidified to me that this wasn't my Loki. He was from another timeline. One where I died, apparently. Before I had time to respond, Loki took three large strides forward and took my face in his hands, holding it gently. Carefully, not wanting to scare him, I reached up and softly pulled his hands away from my face as I pulled back a little to smile gently.

"You're not my Loki," I chuckled, repeating something I never thought I'd need to say again. He stared at me for a second, looking like he was memorizing me, until the sound of the cabin door closed loudly.