Another Life

To belong nowhere

Author's note: Hey, everyone! This is one of my favorite parts of Another Life and I hope you all like it as much as I do. For the reading of this chapter, I recommend listening to the song "No roots" by Alice Merton. Thank you for reading! If you are liking this story PLEASE vote and comment! Feedback is very important to me.

Chapter 5: To belong nowhere

Two days went through, and Jane ignored Loki with some difficulties. She did not completely stop talking to him; she just decided that it was better for her if she only said the essential instead of having real conversations. It was not easy for the scientist to avoid the god of mischief because he kept insisting on conversations many times, and, deep down, she felt good while talking to him. Before Loki arrived, Jane was sure that she would find his company unpleasant and repulsive; however, it was the exact opposite. She could not know for sure whether he was tricking her or showing a different side of himself. The warrior remembered herself all the time not to fall into his trap and proceed with the capturing mission. Jane thought that one of the main reasons why she enjoyed being around Loki was because she was feeling very lonely.

It was 6 p.m, and Jane was coming back from the grocery store with two shopping bags. Loki saw her entering the house through the kitchen and walked in her direction. She rolled her eyes and locked the front door behind her, wondering what the trickster wanted. On that day both were wearing casual clothes. Jane was feeling lonely, so her heart kept motivating her to keep talking to Loki, but her brain said that she should remain cutting him off. He grabbed the two bags from her hands and said, smiling:

- I can keep them for you. – Before the Valkyrie could say anything, he held the bags inside the pantry, which was between the kitchen and the dining room. Jane smiled when Loki was not looking and slapped her face right after, angry at herself. "Jane, stop being stupid! He is evil... but also protected me back when the Aether was destroying my body. No! He is the world's biggest liar, end of the story.", the mortal thought, starting to have her feelings divided again.

- Thank you. – Jane quickly said, biting her lip and almost running to the living room to avoid Loki. Unfortunately, he had always been very stubborn, so he did not let her get away that easily. He was feeling a horrible agony because of the way she had been ignoring him in the past two days. The Asgardian would hardly say it aloud, but he cared about Jane's opinion and wanted badly to find out what was going on.

The woman picked up her computer from under the coffee table, plugged in her charger, sit on the left corner of the sofa, and started checking her social media. She was sick of getting obsessed with her emails due to job applications she sent some weeks ago and decided to relax a little bit. Loki walked for a minute, observing her, and sit next to her. He kept a safe distance not to irritate Jane.

- I'm glad to see that you stopped to stare at the computer screen with your email box open. – Loki commented, taking a look at what the woman was doing. She smiled and sighed, still worried about her emails. A response from the two universities she sent a job application could come at any moment. Although Jane was a Valkyrie, she could not imagine her life without scientific research. She had been fascinated with science since she was a little girl.

- So am I... - Jane answered, in a low tone, almost whispering. Pretending not to care about the scientist, Loki got up, grabbed a book from one of the light-wooded shelves of the living room, and started reading it. That was one of Jane's favorite books: "A Brief History of Time," by the renowned and deceased scientist Stephen Hawking. The god of mischief had always been curious about how Midgardians explained the universe. He sat on an armchair close to Jane and browsed through the pages.

- You mortals are indeed creative to explain things... I like it. – Loki said, with a mischievous look on his face. Jane briefly looked into his eyes, nodded, held a smile, and continued what she was doing. "Why is she not talking to me? We were just getting to know each other!" he wondered, very upset and trying to think about a strategy to make the woman talk. "Why does he make me smile so easily? Damn it! Loneliness really changes people...", Jane thought, annoyed with the fact that she had to hide how weirdly comfortable she got in the Asgardian's presence.