I stumbled back, missing my footing on the ground and fell down. Cold stone met my back, and I clenched my eyes shut as the pain throbbed down my spine. Pushing myself gently into a sitting position, I watched the swirling blue beam fade back into the sky. The gym bag I'd been clutching was looking a little battered next to me, the strap fraying where it met the main bag.
"Are you Thor's friend?"
I jumped, and slammed a hand to my chest to try and quell my racing heart. A man appeared by my side, shirt sleeves rolled up underneath a fastened waistcoat. His beard was trimmed, framing his face in a way I recognised from an old news clip. Tony Stark.
"Yeah," I whispered, pushing myself onto my feet. I wobbled more than I anticipated, and my stomach churned as I tried to steady myself.
He rested his hand on my arm, with his other on my shoulder. "I'm Tony, one of Thor's friends told me you were coming."
I nodded slowly, still trying to get used to the feeling of being on Earth. The air felt different, but in a way I couldn't describe. I felt lost, confused, and as a twisting sensation clenched my gut, I knew I was about to be sick. "Bathroom!" I managed to choke out, clutching my hand to my mouth as Tony's dark eyes flashed with realisation.
I followed his run through a set of doors I didn't see, and grasped the bucket he thrust into my arms. I buried my head, feeling hot tears roll down my cheeks with furious speed.
I rolled my head back, kneeling down as I set the bucket a short distance from me. I saw Tony's feet walk around the edge, before his hands rubbed soothingly down my back. "He said you were pregnant."
I couldn't hold back the shaking sob as it hit me just how alone I felt without Loki next to me. I nodded at Tony, wiping the back of my hand against the line of saliva that was stuck to my chin. "I'm Dahlia." I sucked in a breath, and forced my breathing to slow down. "I don't know if I am or not. Odin, Loki's dad - well, not really his dad. Thor's dad, said I had fulfilled a prophecy about being pregnant, but they don't exactly have tests on Asgard."
Tony's eyes were wide as he listened to the story, before he pushed a breath through his cheeks. "I won't lie, I hate Loki. I do, but I will help you okay? He didn't force you into anything right?"
I sat back at his blunt confession, but told myself that it was about New York. Thor mentioned the Avengers hadn't forgiven Loki for the torment he caused, but I still felt a little put off by how rude Tony came across. "Of course he didn't force me."
He helped me to my feet, then picked my bag up. "You're the lady who was stuck as a prisoner right?"
"I only served two weeks in the prison." I muttered, before looking up to Tony's slightly amused raised brow. "I was made Loki's Carer." I added, before taking my bag back from him.
"Then he knocked you up." I followed his way down a corridor into a lift positioned half way down it.
I frowned as we waited for it to arrive, the button now lit up green on the panel at the wall. "I like to think it was a little more romantic than that."
Tony just smiled, obviously finding something funny in what I was saying. I bit my lip and looked down at the floor, my hand subconsciously lifting to cup my stomach.
"Do you want to take a test?"
I flicked my head to the right, following Tony into the large lift. "A test?"
"Pregnancy test," he pointed at my stomach. "I know for a fact my girlfriend keeps some in our bathroom. It might help you calm down a bit."
"I am calm." My cheeks flushed red.
The doors reopened and we stepped out into a living room. "Yeah right, I would be calm too if I was kidnapped by a God, kept hostage on a different planet before finding out I was carrying a mass murderers baby before being sent back to Earth without anyone by my side." He scoffed.
I stopped walking, and glared at his back. I could feel the telltale signs of tears pricking my eyes, but the need to defend myself outweighed my small crying session. "I wasn't kidnapped, and whilst I was there against my will in the beginning I found happiness on Asgard. And stop talking about Loki like that, he didn't have any control over what he was doing!"
"Loki?" A red haired woman stood up from the sofa, brows pulled down. "How the hell does she know Loki?"
"She's the girlfriend." Tony muttered.
The woman stared at me, then shook her head. "Someone please tell me what the hell is going on before Rogers comes back and I have to tell him what on Earth is happening."
Tony turned back to look at me, his eyes softening into a look of sympathy. "This is Dahlia. Dahlia, this is Natasha Romanoff, and my girlfriend Pepper Potts." I tried to smile politely, though my mind was still racing. I recognised Natasha's name from the signed presents I had been given from the Avengers.
"You're the girl Thor accidentally took to Asgard?" Natasha tilted her head, as she must have remembered the gifts too. I nodded, clutching onto the bag strap that was sat on my shoulder. "How did you get here?"
I gulped, and Tony helped manoeuvre me into one of the armchairs. I offered him a grateful smile, before swallowing back the fresh wave of tears. "Asgard is under threat. I think the Frost Giants want to target Loki, and Odin said because I was carrying his child I had to leave."
"You're pregnant?" Pepper gasped, before moving forward to clutch my hand.
"I don't know!" I sobbed, balling my hands into fists before pressing my palms to my eyes. "I don't know what's happening anymore."
I felt a hand on my back, helping me to stand before I was ushered back towards the lifts. Pepper smiled at me, cradling me against her side as she pushed a door open to a small bedroom. "Wait here," she murmured, offering me a box of soft tissues before leaving the room.
She reappeared a few minutes later, holding three small blue boxes. I got the hint, and followed her into the en-suite bathroom. She slid the tests from the box, then looked expectantly at me. "Have you taken a test before?"
I shook my head, taking the instruction leaflet from her hand as she prepared the counter next to the sink. I knew the general gist of how to take the tests, but the small writing helped distract me for a few minutes.
"I'll wait outside," Pepper smiled again, soothing my racing heart as she stepped out the room. I wiggled out of my black training trousers, and sat on the cool toilet seat.
"You need a wee, come on." I urged myself, closing my eyes. "Rainstorms, thunder - no, not thunder." I forced the image of Loki and Thor out of my mind before sighing. "Waterfalls, lakes, cold water on a hot day."
I almost rolled my eyes back as I felt the sudden urge to wee, and I fumbled for the tests that were on the counter near my side. I shoved them between my legs, wiggling a little to try and aim.
I slid the caps back over the tests like the box told me to, and placed them on the folded sheets of toilet roll that sat next to the sink. Pepper, hearing the flushing toilet and the water from the taps, poked her head around the door. "Why don't you come and tell me about Loki?"
I followed her lead as she sat on the edge of the bed, and sighed quietly. "I don't know what he told you, about New York and everything. But it wasn't him. I mean, it was him who did it, but it wasn't him."
Pepper tilted her head, obviously lost by my train of confused thoughts. "What?"
"He was being tortured. The days he spent in New York... he was being mind controlled. He tried to explain it to me one night but I didn't fully understand it. Except," I sat back, "one night he had a nightmare and tried to strangle me-"
"He what!" Pepper leant back, eyes flicking over my face.
I held a hand up, "I know that sounds bad, but it wasn't him. You see, his eyes are normally this green colour, but that night they were blue. That's how you could tell he was in this state of mind control. That's the only time I saw him with blue eyes, but I know that when he came to New York it wasn't him in his own mind."
Pepper was quiet for a moment, "the others might not take that as a way to forgive his actions."
I nodded, "I know. But I love him and I already know that we probably won't see each other again." My voice broke as that sudden truth hit me, and I broke down all over again. The tears spilled over my cheeks as I shook my head, and Pepper enveloping my side did little to comfort me.
A short alarm rang out from the bed, and Pepper leant back to slide her fingers across the screen. The blaring noise stopped as she turned to look at me. "Go on." She urged.
I left the comfort of the edge of the bed, and slowly walked over to the three tests that lined the counter. I checked the box, once, twice, three times.
But there was no mistaking it.
I was pregnant.
***
~ONE YEAR LATER~
"Oh honey, I'm home!"
I rolled my eyes as I heard the door slam open, and didn't bother looking up from the comfortable seat I had just sat down in. "Fuck off Tony."
"Is that any way to speak to the Godfather of your children?" Tony snapped back playfully, his body appearing through the doorway that led into the small sitting room.
"It is when the Godfather in question calls me honey."
Tony had helped me move away from the bustling streets of New York, by finding me a small stone cottage in a quiet village in Cornwall. Though I wasn't originally from the south of England, the warm summer that I got to experience felt a little like the heat I was used to on Asgard, and the cobbled streets reminded me of the marketplace Loki would take me to.
I'd flown over during my third month of pregnancy, shortly before I found out I was having twins. The panic set in when I realised I was truly by myself, but Tony being the charming and helpful man he was, began to visit me for a week every month. He stayed with me for a full month after I gave birth, and still made his trips now the babies were three months old.
"Decorated the nursery yet?" Tony asked as he threw himself onto the sofa that lined the shortest wall.
I nodded my head, a smile pulling my lips up. "Do you want to see it?"
He left his bags abandoned in front of the closed front door, and followed me around the small bungalow to the back bedroom. I pushed the door open slowly, making sure it's creak wouldn't cause my two sleeping children to wake up.
"It's very you." Tony murmured, walking around the small room. Two painted white cots were pushed against one wall whilst a matching white rocking chair was sat opposite. A small cupboard filled with nappies, clothes and blankets sat between the two, also painted white.
The window opposite the cots gave a view of the sea, and from our position up a hill we had a pretty good view. The pale blue walls matched the sky during the clearer days during the summer, and the pale blankets in the cots were as close a match as I could find.
"There's no pink in this room?" Tony frowned.
"There's pink handles on the cupboard," I pointed to the pastel drawer nobs that sat on each of the drawers. "I don't really like a lot of pink."
"But Freya might." Tony peered into the cot closest to him, when I heard a soft yawn.
"You've woken her up now. I just managed to get her to sleep." I muttered, watching as he slowly leant over the side to pick up my daughter. Her eyes widened, the strength of green still surprising me when she stared wide eyed at Tony holding her.
"Tyr will want feeding now too." I glared at Tony, "you have no idea how hard it is to get them both to sleep."
"I still find it weird you named them after Norse gods. Didn't you meet all of them?"
I sighed, and swung my upper body over the cot to pick up my now crying boy. I cradled him, trying to slow his steady onset of tears before giving up and sinking down into the rocking chair. "I wanted them to have something they could share with their father." I pulled my top up, guiding Tyr's mouth in the right direction. "Talking of which, have you heard anything?"
Tony's teasing smile slipped as he knelt down to sit on the floor, crossing his legs under one another as he shook his head. His eyes dropped to Freya's unblinking eyes as he whispered a quiet, "he's still missing."
I felt my throat close up like it did every time Tony brought updates from Heimdall. Thor had come to visit me during the month the babies were due, to tell me Loki had disappeared during their war, and no one had seen him since. The day he left was the day the Frost Giants retreated, and nobody, not even Heimdall, could find a clue as to where he'd gone.
"I just want him back." I whispered into the silent room, the only noise being Tyr sucking loudly as his hunger died away.
My eyes drifted to the small framed images of Loki and Thor I had hung around the room. Some were sketches from old Norse mythology books, and some were paintings and prints of the brothers that I found online.
Tony had helped clear Loki's name as a war criminal, even though he hadn't fully forgiven him, and there had been a sudden flurry of fangirls pronouncing their crush on the tormented, tortured soul that tried to take over Earth. Only Tony and I kept quiet, letting them go crazy at the expense of Loki's looks that reappeared in the news, whilst we knew the truth.
"He'll come back." I slid Tyr back into my arms, burping him gently over my shoulder. "He promised me he would always come back for me."