Another Life

Some old friends return

Author's note: Hey, everyone! Thanks for reading! I have no music recommendations for this chapter. I hope you all like this part of the story. Please vote and comment if you are enjoying Another Life!

Chapter 6: Some old friends return

Despite having enjoyed her hugging moment with Loki, Jane knew that she had to go back to reality. For three days, she was able to keep a considerable distance from the trickster. She barely talked to him, trying to remind herself of who she was dealing with. Jane had breakfast with Loki at 10 a.m, but the two barely spoke because they were still feeling awkward after the way they looked at each other three days ago. Besides, the two of them were thinking about that moment the woman laid on him while crying in her bedroom. Jane's thoughts were very divided between how horribly sad she was because of her unemployment and her ongoing undefined relationship with the trickster. The scientist had never felt so safe in Thor's arms as she did in Loki's the night before. The god of mischief had never been so intrigued by a woman before he met Jane.

Doing her best to forget the weird events, Jane changed into her regular clothes and went for a walk around the neighborhood one hour after breakfast. The human had to get the god off her mind before it was too late.... Actually, it already was since she could not stop thinking about him in the past three days. Her rational side kept whispering to her that she was falling into a trap. However, it was tough to listen to that when her emotions were a real mess. Jane untied her hair while she walked, trying to focus on her decadent scientific career... which was not much better than the situation with Loki, but a start.

- Maybe the queen is right. I'm wasting my time on Earth trying to fulfill a stupid dream while I could be living in Asgard and act only as a Valkyrie... - Jane whispered, with her head down. At that instant, a notification arrived on her cellphone, so she grabbed it from her pocket to see what it was and got very surprised. It was a message from Erik Selvig, a science professor who knew her since she was very young. Another one came from Darcy Lewis, her best friend, and former fellow researcher, on a Messenger group chat. They were both her research partners back in 2011 when she was trying to prove that Nordic gods and the Nine Realms existed.

Erik's message was, along with an address: "Hi, Jane. Darcy and I arrived in D.C yesterday, and we want to see you. Meet us for lunch today at noon in the restaurant Founding Farmers?" and Darcy's was: "We miss you, girl! Spill all the gossip at our reunion!".

Jane smiled after reading what Darcy wrote because she missed their fun moments together. She had not contacted Darcy or Erik since the previous year due to her almost obsessive focus on finding somewhere to work at. Probably the scientist would not have had the initiative to send a message to her two friends, so she was glad they had it. Without any second thoughts, Jane agreed to have lunch with her friends that day, prolonged her ride, and walked to the restaurant with thirty minutes remaining for the meal. It was only a twenty-three minutes' walk till Founding Farmers. Jane did not notice, but a very famous Valkyrie of the queen was following her... and a furious one.

She felt a little embarrassed by entering the restaurant since most clients were dressed up while she was wearing casual clothes. Jane had almost no make-up on, was wearing a Super Mario t-shirt, dark-blue legging pants, and grey snickers. Only her hair was okay because it was loose and combed. At least Darcy and Erik were not with fancy clothes either, and they smiled when laid their eyes on her. Darcy had light skin, just like Erik, dark-brown wavy hair, and greenish eyes. Erik's hair was short and blonde, and his eyes blue. Both got up and hugged Jane. After the hug, Darcy fixed her glasses and said:

- Jane, I'm so happy to see you! How have you been? – "Besides being almost broke, unemployed for two years, having exchanged the weirdest looks with the god of mischief and also cried all over him... Everything is just fine!" Jane thought distressed. Instead of telling the truth, the woman took a deep breath and answered: