— ᴛʜᴇ ᴛᴡᴇʟꜰᴛʜ ʟᴀʙᴏʀ.
Wendy puts on the kettle for a nice cup of tea while keeping her eyes carefully on Presley. The girl was reading an old, withered book that Wendy didn't recognise. Perhaps she picked it up from the library, she gathers and decides not to question it. Her hands were shaking as she puts down two cups on the coffee table. Presley looks up for a moment and mutters a thank you. Wendy blushes and turns around before she notices it. Starting this conversation was turning out to be much more difficult than she had thought it to be.
"Hey, is something going on?" Wendy spins around to see Presley looking up from her book. Her blue eyes were piercing and questioning, one eyebrow cocked into an inquisitive expression. "Uh, w-why do you ask," the Darling girl counters. "First the blushing and darting away of your eyes and now the stuttering?" She puts her book down on the table and rests her chin on her hands. "Okay, tell up."
Wendy slowly approaches the chair and sits down. Her hands were nervously smoothening out the non-existing wrinkles of her skirt. Presley keeps her gaze locked on her best friend. She wonders what was going on with her to make her so flustered. Did she do something? Had she said something wrong? A feeling of self doubt was starting to build up inside her. Was she really going to lose the only friend she had left, the one she fought so hard to get back to when she was still in the Enchanted Forest?
"Presley.. have you ever felt like you wanted to spend every minute of every day with someone? To have someone you can always rely on, to always have a shoulder where you can cry or vent whenever you need?" Presley leans back in the seat. Sure, she has had people in her life who she trusted, but usually that ended up in sadness and grief. They left her, they abandoned her at her hardest moments.. or they died. The only person not to have done so by now was Wendy. "Uh, sure. Though that tends not to end well for me," she responds, chuckling awkwardly at the end.
Wendy did not know what to say either and an uncomfortable silence settles in the room. The frizzy haired girl tries another attempt to start a conversation. "Have you ever been in love, Presley?" The taller girl frowns at the question. "There were a few.. though it was just silly crushes. Nothing that lasted long."
But Wendy did not give up. She was finally getting some answers from her. Now she just needed to build towards what was actually on her mind. "But what did you feel for those people?"
Presley leans back and sighs. These questions were getting kind of intimate and personal. "Ugh, I don't know. I just.. liked them. Whatever they did could not be considered wrong because it was them doing it. I had to laugh at every silly joke, even the bad ones, because it was that person who delivered it and you just want them to be happy. I thought about them even when they were not around and wanted to be with that person. Does.. does that answer your question?"
Wendy nods her head. She takes a deep breath. Now was the time to ask. Just ask, Wendy, she tells herself. But her heart was drumming so loudly in her chest. "Have you ever felt like that around me?" Presley pauses. She takes this moment to really see Wendy.
Her red cheeks, her hopeful brown eyes and.. rosy lips.. and beautiful dark blonde locks that she had brushed behind her head and held together with those cute bows she always wears.. wait, she was trailing off. "You mean.. am I in love with you?"
The fact that the smaller girl didn't respond and had her eyes downcast spoke volumes. Presley was utterly shocked. There was really no other way to describe what she was feeling than shock. Wendy Darling was in love with her.. She just admitted to being in love.. with her?
Presley feels herself heat up as dark thoughts start to enter her mind. How could someone like Wendy Darling be in love with her when there were so many out there less damaged and less undeserving than her? What had she done to deserve Wendy coming onto her path.. and what price did she have to pay for that to happen?
"Say something, please," Wendy begs. She leans forward and grabs her hands. "Please, I need you to tell me anything. But just speak to me," she tells her. The silence between them was killing her with anxiety. Presley's face was unreadable as she was so lost in thought.
Just at that moment the kettle behind her started to make its presence known. Wendy grabbed the opportunity to stand up swiftly and put it off the fire. She feels a tear slip down her cheek, which she wipes off before anyone could notice. Why did she have to say something? It had messed everything up between them. She should have just kept quiet and suffer in silence. Better than to suffer in silence as Presley was probably pondering how to let her down easy..
"I love you, Wendy."
The blonde turns around so fast that she almost swiped the box with teabags off the kitchen counter. She didn't bother to hide her watery eyes or blushing cheeks. "Y-you do? You're not saying it because you feel guilty or forced to so you do not upset my feelings?"
Presley didn't respond, but instead she stands up and marches over to Wendy. The smaller girl had no time to say anything either as Presley gently cups her cheeks and lowers her head. Her soft lips brush over hers, her lipgloss smearing over Wendy's lips. It was as if their lips were barely touching, so soft did Presley kiss her, but to Wendy it was heavenly. Her hands slide through the blonde messy locks of the blue eyed girl. She let her fingers brush through them gently as Wendy pulls Presley closer, forcing their lips to touch more intimately.
And nothing had ever felt so good.
°
Presley stumbles inside the cave, still a little breathless from escaping Cerberus. Loki looks up at her arrival and smirks lazily. "Congratulations, you're not dead." The blonde narrows her eyes on him, still bound on top of the stone by his wrists and ankles. The snake above his head released another drop of venom. Loki winces a little when it hits his skin, causing a sizzling sound to fill the room and the stench of burnt flesh to hit Presley's nostrils. "Congratulations, you're still not doing anything," she grumbles sarcastically.
She marches deeper into the cave and stands by the god's feet. "Now tell me what my Last Labor is, so I can get the information I need from you and go on with my life." "So impatient," the Norse God tuts, shaking his head for as much as possible in his current restraints. Presley's eyes blaze up with all the pent up frustration and dislike for him. She balls her fist and puts it down on the rock to which he was bound. "You're so slow. Sounds almost like you don't want to miss me," she taunts, followed by a smirk that could easily match with his.
Seems like he taught her more than a few magic tricks, Loki thinks in an amused manner. "You want your last task to be done with? As you wish. You remember one of the first stories I told you?" Presley leans back, a little surprised. She had expected him to tease her a little more, delay so he could annoy her. She hadn't thought he would give in this easily. And then there was the question he asked, which confused her. Why would he ask about stories he told her? What did it matter?
"You told me so many things that did not interest me, so please forgive me for not knowing what you are talking about," she remarks sarcastically. Loki smirks at her sarcasm. "Well, I did not expect you to remember. After all, your brain resembles that of a goldfish. What I was hinting towards is the story I told you of my imprisonment." Presley raises an eyebrow in curiosity.
Of course she remembered the story. Loki had offended a bunch of gods, as usual, and he fled, also not strange. He transformed himself into a salmon, but he was captured and bound to this rock with the entrails of, what is said to be, one of his sons (Loki told him history got it wrong and that it was a cousin), Narfi. They also placed this snake above his head and tied it into place so venom would drip onto his face.
Presley crosses her arms, her head nodding silently. "I seem to remember you telling me that story, yes. But what does that have to do with my last task?" Loki smirks in response. "Simple. Your Last Labor is to free me." The blonde takes a horrified step backwards. Was he actually serious? "You are crazy if you think I will let you run rampant and cause chaos like that. What kind of fool do you take me for?"
Loki shrugs for as much as he was able to. "The kind who is searching for answers. It is easy, girl. Free me and get your answers, or waste all the time you have put in the Eleven Labors you have already fulfilled." Presley was silently seething. Of course he didn't tell her. He knew she wouldn't go along with his plan if he had told her all the Twelve Labors at once.
"Now, are you going to stand there all day or will you help this poor, very knowledgeable man out of his restraints so he can tell you what he knows," Loki calls out, breaking her away from her thoughts. She was hesitant to use the dagger in the sheath around her waist. She didn't trust him, but she also wanted to continue on her journey and find out who she was. So that all of this was not just for nothing.
Loki smiles with glee at the indecisive girl lingering in the cave. "It is simple, really. Free me and you will get what you have always desired. Answers." He lowers his voice to barely a whisper, an evil gleam in his eyes.
Presley slowly takes out the dagger from the belt around her waist. She looks at the blade in her hands. She could decide to just leave and never return, but then all of this would have been wasted time and she would be stuck at another dead end. If she did this, she might be able to figure out what she needed to know. After that, she would never have to see Loki again if she didn't want to. He would no longer be her concern. What did she care about what he would do after being freed from his restraints? If he started a war with the other Norse Gods she wouldn't notice. And, she thinks to herself selfishly, she didn't really have anything to do with the other people from the Enchanted Forest. They have seen evil wizards and monsters all their lives, surely they could survive the chaotic mess before her that called himself a god.
And her nasty habit, her selfish thought, always won.
She glides towards the rock with her dagger in her hand. Loki watches her every move, almost shivering in excitement. Presley slowly cuts through the meaty restraints as she tries to forget what they were made of. First she had freed his left ankle. She notices how the restraints had left a circle of paler skin around his ankle from all the years that the minimal sun of the cave didn't reach it. Loki releases a satisfied sigh as he rolls his ankle and bends his knee, trying to get the stiffness out of his joints. Presley moved on to the right ankle and Loki did the same again.
Then she moves to his upper body. She presses the dagger against the bindings again and begins to saw it loose. Presley just wanted it to be done with right now. To have it over with and stop thinking about what she was doing. She just reached his last restraint, his left arm, and closes her eyes as she starts to cut through. When it was finally cut open Loki sits up straight on the rock. He smirks devilishly, his gaze on the girl dressed in dark breeches, a pomegranate coloured dress shirt and a dark leather corset vest over it. "Thank you very much, Persephone."
Presley cringes at hearing the name. She watches in silence as Loki slowly slides off the rock that he had been bound on for centuries. He was surprisingly graceful and swift for someone who hasn't even stood up for so long. Deciding to get done with it all she takes a step forward, capturing the god's attention. "Now, tell me everything you promised to tell me so I can get on my way."
Outside the sky was rumbling. Presley dismissed it as an upcoming storm and puts all her focus and attention towards the god. "Oh yes, I promised to tell you everything I know about you." He scrapes his throat and smirks at her. "About forty or fifty years or so I projected myself out of the cave. You've seen me do it before." "When I met you, yes," Presley says, remembering what seemed like such a long time ago. When she just left Storybrooke behind her and found this mountain. After she killed that boar and had Loki lead her to him.
The God of Mischief shrugs his shoulders. "Sort of, yes. Well, as I was saying, I was projecting myself out of this cave. See what humanity was doing, play a few little games in a nearby town, when I saw this poor beggar girl on the side of the street. Nothing important, I hear you say, but this girl had something I couldn't quite put my finger on. So, I decided to observe. I figured this girl could perform magic. With training she could be a powerful sorceress. I led her up here and started training her."
Another rumble was heard outside, but Presley was so captivated that she didn't give it a thought. "And that girl was me?" "Yes, it was. She introduced herself as Persephone and I taught her all I knew. When I wanted to teach her more advanced, more.. interesting magic, she refused and left the cave. I had not seen her since, until you came here on the mountain."
Presley blinks.
And blinks again.
Her eyebrows narrow in confusion. "Uh.. is that all?" Loki smirks and shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly. "Did you expect more, then? Sorry to disappoint."
Presley stutters, barely able to comprehend all of this as the sky was bursting outside the cave. "B-but, you said you would tell me everything you knew!" "That I did. I told you everything I knew," he responds. His eyes twinkle in delight at seeing her anger building up. "But that is nothing! I want to know where I came from, what I am, who I am. You haven't told me anything about that," she screams. She feels herself grow more and more furious. Adding the pent up frustration of the last Eleven Labors and she was ready to explode.
"Can I help it you never told me?" Presley growls lowly, feeling the fury rise inside of her. "You asshole," she screams. She lifts her hand, a ball of fire licking from her fingers.
Loki laughs at her. "Now, now, watch your language. You can not blame me for not asking further about what I exactly knew. Did your parents never teach you to never trust the God of Mischief? Oh well, if you actually have parents. That we both don't know, I fear-" But before he could continue making snide remarks at the blonde, she throws the fireball in his direction. He easily dotches it, making her even more angry.
She raises her hand and creates another fireball. Presley was ready to lunge again when the ground suddenly started shaking. They both lost their balance for a moment and look at each other in confusion. "Did you just-" they ask in unison, confirming at that moment that neither of them was causing this. Loki looks at the entrance of the cave, making Presley turn around as well. A purple and green mist was seeping through the entrance, slowly filling the cave. "What is this," the blonde girl asks as she lowers the fireball in her hand.
"I don't know," Loki responds, not liking the thought that he did not know something. The God of Mischief and his former student look at each other in confusion as the smoke washes over them into a Portal to a different world.
To Storybrooke.
°
"You seem awfully cheery," Loki remarks as Presley drops a duffel bag filled with provisions and other necessities on the ground. "You seem awfully alive, sadly," she grumbles. However, she was determined not to let Loki spoil her mood. Nothing could make this day worse. Not when this was the day that Wendy Darling and her officially started dating.
A smirk graces the man's elfish features as he grabs an apple from the bag. "Why so hostile to your old teacher," he asks as he begins to polish the apple on his sleeve.
Presley stops walking away from the open space by the cave. She stands still but didn't turn around or look over her shoulder. "I haven't forgiven you for your lies, you know."
Loki didn't seem so apologetic about it. "And we both know that I, technically, didn't lie. I simply never told you the whole truth, but that is your fault for not questioning the God of Mischief," he explains, managing to shift the blame for the entire confusion completely onto her. Not that she expected anything more from him.
"Asshole," she mutters belows her breath before she leaves the cave behind her completely.
Okay, maybe some things could definitely dampen her mood.