Coffee and Books 2

Loki's view - scene 5

"Hello!" She sounds cheerful. "Since you are staying here a little longer, can I get you anything? Tea, coffee? A muffin?"

Loki studies her. Again, there doesn't seem to be anything extraordinary about her. Yes, she's pretty and her welcoming attitude towards him continues to surprise him, but she's not a witch or a sorceress. Or she must be really skilled at hiding her powers. Meanwhile, her big blue eyes start to show a little uncertainty under his gaze.

"Look... uhm... about last week.." Her voice is soft. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to intrude on personal affairs," she says, telling him she had not expected to be there at all before she falls silent again.

She's apologizing to him! Not because she's some servant who's afraid of him or because she did something stupid, but because she seems to know how wrong the situation was. Loki bites his lip. His first reaction to her sudden intrusion should have been anger, but it was not. It's curiosity.

"Tea, please. Earl grey."

Loki watches the girl as she walks back to get his tea. His ward seems to slow her down a little, there's an almost imperceptible pause in her step, but it's as if she determinedly walks through it.

Getting new books is no longer the main objective of visiting Coffee & Books. The girl is. Or rather, her ability to walk right through his magic ward, Loki corrects himself. She continues to do it, each time with less trouble. After a day or three his ward doesn't even pause her anymore, yet it works perfectly fine on other people. Loki can enjoy a quiet visit to the coffee shop, to enjoy his book and a cup of well brewed tea. The only one who comes near him is the girl.

Her company is nice too, Loki allows himself to think after a couple of days. She talks to him about little things and she is quite the reader herself. The girl's inviting him to talk too, but she's never intrusive: she has a good intuition and picks up on the smallest signs of body language. It's what makes her intriguing to Loki, next to the mystery of his ward not working on her.

It's a quiet morning in the coffee shop when she comes to sit next to him, perching on the wide armrest of the brown leather couch. Usually she just keeps standing when she talks to him, but this time she seems to have some more time on her hands. His cup of Earl grey tea sits steaming on the coffee table.

"I read a big piece about you and Thor in the New York Times yesterday. I didn't know you got interviewed?"

Loki sighs when he thinks back to the interview. They are pushing him into being the posterboy for Asgard, along with Thor. He is to be paraded around in front of the mortals, a humiliating job. "Tony Stark's idea. He thinks the people should know more about us, about Asgard, now we're staying on Earth for a longer period of time."

"Ah..." Ylva answers with a slight shrug. "So it's to charm the people? Well, I guess you guys are technically aliens, real out-of-space aliens. Maybe it's not such a bad idea to let the public get to know you a little better."

It's the first time she calls him an alien, although she knew from the beginning he came with Thor from Asgard. It's not something that seems to bother her though. Just like her uncle she doesn't treat him any different, unlike other people do. Granted, most other people he has met until now are S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and those have a bad opinion of him anyway.

"Maybe," Loki says to her. "Or it just draws unwanted attention."

Ylva looks around at the vacant seats in his vicinity, his ward still keeps everyone away except her. "Yeah, I can see you don't like a lot of attention," she says, a hint of laughter in her voice.

Loki just shrugs. "I like my peace." She is, with the exception of her uncle, the only mortal whose attention he can tolerate at bad days. He even found himself starting to look forward to his daily visit to the coffee shop.

The girl just thought of something important apparently, she lowers herself on the couch and leans over to him. "You did this, right?" she hisses at him between her teeth. "You use magic to keep the other people at a distance."

It's funny how she says 'the other people', as his ward is supposed to keep her out too. Loki is impressed she figured it out, humans are usually blind as a bat when it comes to magic. There is definitely something about her and it amuses him. He smirks and winks at her. "Shhh... our little secret."

Her eyes grow big and Loki can see different emotions flash across her face. He sees surprise, anger and then she suddenly starts laughing uncontrollably. She even rolls to her side on the couch, clutching her stomach. It's not the reaction he had expected, but this girl has a pleasant way of surprising him.

Eventually she wipes the happy tears from her eyes and sits up again. "I guess I should have known," she chuckles. "Loki the Trickster. What else can you do? Make this table disappear? Transform me into a mouse? Oh! Can you make this carpet fly?!" Her feet tap the old Persian rug that's underneath the coffee table.

Her list of cheap party tricks shows she has a very human view of magic, but it stings him that he is not even able to do the silly tricks she mentions. Unconsciously he touches one of the metal cuffs on his wrists, the reason his main entertainment of the day is going to a coffee shop to have a read and chat a little with a mortal girl.

"Are those made by Stark?" the girl asks, nodding to his cuffs. Loki looks away from her, feeling his insides turn to ice.

This time she doesn't pick up on his negative body language. Or she just ignores it. She even gets up from the couch to take a seat on the coffee table, right in front of him. The girl is so close, he can count her eyelashes.

"What do they do?" she whispers softly, motioning at the cuffs.

Loki levels his breathing to calm himself down. The girl probably means well, but she's touching a subject he definitely doesn't want to talk about. Not with some mortal. A little mortal who even tries to take his hand, like he needs comforting.

"Loki, what do they do? Can you please tell me?" she pleads. Her big blue eyes are filled with worry.

"Go back to work, Ylva," he states curtly, getting up from his chair. At the last moment he remembers to take his book and jacket, leaving the bookstore in a hurry.

Her concern is genuine and that is what disturbs him most. Or is it the fact that he actually wants to answer her questions, to tell her what's going on with him?

Author's note: Well? What do you think? How did you like Loki's side of the story? I stopped at this point, because... well... we all know what happens after this.

Image found on Google. Credit to the artist.