Coffee and Books 1

Chapter 40

"A joke. Don't worry, I'm not planning to take up a sword on your colleague."

"You won't meet him anyway. He was transferred to another unit."

"I suspected something like that. Loki has got other agents on his detail now. There is another every time, only Williams is a fixed face."

"It's not a popular assignment," Sharon admits.

I chuckle. "I guess it's pretty boring following Loki around. It's not like he is making evil plans in his secret lair."
She doesn't react to that. "I don't see you around much," I remark. "You've been away?"

She shakes her head. "Desk duty."

"You did something wrong?"

"I helped out a friend. Let's leave it at that."

"Ok. Your call. You still dating Captain America?" I ask her to change the subject. I have not seen him since he visited me in the hospital and that is over two months ago. I tell Sharon as much.

"Steve is... away."

"He did something wrong too? I'm starting to sense a pattern with you two."
Sharon abruptly gets of the bike and takes her bag to leave the gym. I start after her.
"Sharon, wait! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. I just... I just wanted to talk. I'm sorry if I said the wrong things out of ignorance."
She stops at the door and looks at me. "I don't mean any trouble, Sharon." I put my hands up in a gesture of peace.

"Then what do you want?"

"Uhm... a friend?" I smile at her. "I would much rather have Steve and you keeping an eye on me and Loki than all those random agents."

"We were just there for the gala. A one time thing, as a favor for Thor."

"Oh. And that time in the gym?"

"I was close by, that's all."

"Ok, so there is no reason you could not get a drink with me right now?"
Sharon is surprised by my question and she just looks at me, not saying anything.
"I promise, no double intentions. It would just be nice to have a friend who isn't freaked out by this whole world of superheroes and magic and stuff."

She reluctantly agrees to meet me at a bar across the street from Stark Tower in half an hour. I get upstairs to change. I have some clothes in Loki's closet, as I sleep over a few times a week. I leave a note at the coffee table, telling Loki where I am, in case he gets home before me.

Sharon needs some warming up, but we actually have a good time together. There are a lot of things she is not allowed to talk about, so we keep the topics neutral. She does ask me about my abilities. "Doesn't it freak you out, having magic?"

I shrug. "Not really. I don't really think about it as having magic. I still feel the same. S.H.I.E.L.D. made a big deal out of it, but it's not like I can physically hurt someone with my powers. I can make them feel better or let them pour their heart out. Not that exciting if you ask me."

"Making people talk can be useful," Sharon says.

"Loki said the same thing," I chuckle. "But there is no need for me to do something like that. S.H.I.E.L.D. already has miss Romanoff to make people talk, I think she has more skills than I do."

"You want to work for S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"I did not say that!"

When I get back to the Asgardian apartment, Thor and Loki just got home from the council meeting. I ask them how it went.

"Good. We managed to reach consensus over the conditions to a new settlement. Now we have to talk those over with the Norse government." Thor is pouring himself a beer in the kitchen. He offers me one.

"No thanks, I've already had a drink at Downtown Bar tonight."

Loki actually raises an eyebrow when I mention the bar. "I met a really nice guy on the street, he insisted on buying me a drink," I tease him. My dark haired prince is such an easy target when it comes to this sort of things.

"Very funny," he grumbles, sliding his arm around my waist to pull me against him. "I don't share, my little wolf."

"Me neither," I tell him, wrapping my arms around his neck to kiss him.

"Good." Loki lifts me up, my legs around his waist, and in a few long strides he takes me out of the room, to his bedroom.

-----------------------------------

Thor and Loki are flying off to Norway again, for another week of meetings and talks. Two days after they left I get a video call from Loki. I laugh when he shows me the small room he is staying in, there isn't a surface that is not covered in a corny flower print. "Where did you end up now?"

"The right place, actually," Loki says. "It's a tiny hotel, just two rooms, owned by a man named Sverre. Nice guy, he knew our father. We had to settle Odin's hotel bill."

I use Google Maps to look up Flekkeroy in the south of Norway. It's an island close to the city of Kristiansand. "I've been there once. Not on the island of Flekkeroy, but in the city nearby. I've got family there. It's a beautiful part of the country."

"It sure is. I'll take you someday, my little wolf."

----------------------------------

Author's note:
Well... that's all folks!
I used this last chapter to tidy up some loose ends and to create a rough outline of the future for Ylva. I hope you enjoyed reading my story about Loki and Ylva as much as I enjoyed writing it! I wrote almost daily for this story, many times waking up with ideas for a new scene. Putting it into words often had to wait, as I have a family and a job. But it was fun to work out my ideas in my head during the day.
At first, I hesitated to put it online for all the world to see, as reading fanfiction used to be somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine. However, if I had so much fun with it, why not share the joy?!

Psstt... there will be a short epilogue. ;-)

The nomination period for the Fiction Awards 2018 has started! So head over to thefictionawards to nominate your favourite books and authors! Of course, I'd love it if you would nominate me :-) You can nominate until May 20th.
Thanks in advance and enjoy this book!