Old Habits Die Hard (Loki)

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By the time Liz reached her room, she felt dizzy. It took her three tries to open the door before she got it to work properly and when she was over the threshold, she suddenly sobbed loud. Back pressed against the door, her feet slid out from under her and she ended up on the ground, crying - the sort of cry that involved your whole body.

She didn't want Peter to have to break Annie's heart. It wasn't fair to either of them for them to be here and have to deal with complications, so clearly it would be better if Annie could just spend time with Peter and Peter wouldn't have to skirt around the issue with Annie.

This was for the best, even if she felt like her world had been hollowed out.

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Loki had opted to sleep in and not leave the room when his thrall left to go to breakfast. Even on day 4, he knew that under most circumstances if he didn't race out, the mortal girl would assume she was to bring some sort of food back for him.

The loud sob brought him out of his doze and pulled his head up to identify... his thrall having a grief-stricken weeping fit against the door. As though she hadn't had the fortitude to do more than enter the room before breaking down.

More curious than anything else, he jumped off the bed and crossed the room to investigate the crumpled mortal girl.

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Her mind is reeling so hard she had a headache and there was nothing pretty about the way she cried - there were tears, sure, but snot too. Eventually the kitten's body came into view and it was enough to turn the sobs into more quieted crying. She wiped her nose with the sleeve of her shirt.

"I'm sorry I didn't bring you food." She managed to say with a hoarse voice, then she sniffled and shuddered as she suppressed a sob. "I just - I just... I don't even know what happened."

She had to say it out loud. She had to. "Peter has a daughter here."

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Yes, yes, apologies, she was very well trained despite having no actual training. Loki was more interested in the rest, and waited patiently for the rest of the story for several seconds. At that point, it became obvious that that was it. The whole story was 'Peter has a daughter'. Not only was it not something that merited literal collapse from grief, it made no actual sense unless Loki was very wrong about how mortals worked.

He jumped on her legs and climbed up her torso enough to smack her face with a tiny paw. This is ridiculous. Stop.

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The bat of his paw momentarily stopped Liz's crying and she tried to produce a smile. It was a weak smile, but there seemingly to reassure the kitten she was okay, even if she didn't feel like she was at that moment.

"I told him... I told him I didn't love him. I said I still loved Max and that I'd been using him. I - I broke up with him." Her left hand grasped her right wrist where the friendship bracelet always was. She wore it everywhere and never took it off until now. It made her wrist feel bare and cold.

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Loki tilted his head, and even on a kitten his expression said '...what?'

On the one hand: good. Do what you had to, let sentiment burn to ash. On the other, there was no way that cutting loose the dead weight should cause this level of ridiculous grief. Dead weight was just that, dead. For one insane instant, Loki wondered if perhaps this was what it felt like for people to deal with him: faced with insane nonsense that served no real purpose.

Except, of course, for the fact that he did make sense. With one exception, his schemes didn't involve setting the bulk of his life on fire and running away. And even in the exception, he hadn't cried about it. Clearly, his thrall hadn't sufficiently thought through her plan, whatever it was.

He batted the girl's face again. So what are you getting out of this?

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If she knew the question, she'd answer 'nothing.'

Liz wiped her eyes with her hands. "I'll be surprised if he ever wants to speak with me again... But maybe it's for the best. I'm not Annie's mom. I don't want to upset her while we're here. Maybe this is just the universes sign to give up trying to get to his world."

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Ah, so that was it. She was looking for profitless ways to make herself miserable and she'd found an extremely effective one. Masochist. That didn't make it less stupid, but it had something like a reason at least. Even if no one who thought 'signs from the universe' was a valid reason to do anything could be entirely reasonable.

Loki slid-hopped down her to sit on the ground near her instead.

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"I wish you could talk so you could tell me what you think I could do." But his presence seemed to calm her down a little and Liz reached out to pet the kitten on the head. "I wish things could be easier, too."

She sighed softly, sniffling. "First I almost get ourselves killed, then I say all those mean things to Peter....I think I really messed up this time."

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Loki was certain she didn't actually want to hear what he had to say, which was almost enough reason to say it anyway and laugh at the consequences. But since the chain of links from doing that to having to deal with Thor was a clear one, he kept his peace.

Instead he continued to sit still and let her pet his head.

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She reached over and gently scooped the kitten up off the floor. "It must be easier to be a kitten, huh?" She offered a weak smile to the cute animal.

"I swear I'm not normally like this. This has just been a strange couple of weeks." She rubbed under his chin.

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It was easier being a kitten, even if it wasn't a permanent solution to everything. It likely wasn't even a long-term solution. But it was the solution of the moment, and a good one. Loki purred, to indicate agreement, and also approval of the chin-rubs.

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She smiled a little and leaned down to kiss him on the top of his head.

"Thanks for listening... And for not telling me I'm just seventeen and all my feelings are temporary." She nuzzled his face lightly. She felt a little better for just a few minutes, but that was something at least.

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Loki batted vaguely at her face again. Distance between faces, girl. But at least she wasn't necessarily collapsed weeping anymore

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A soft small laugh escaped when he batted her. "Okay, okay sorry." She took a deep breath. "I'll go get you some food. You're probably hungry." She'd go to the bakery just in case Annie and Peter were still at the restaurant.

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Loki considered, then climbed on her again to sit on her shoulder. Who knew what would happen if she didn't have a minder? If nothing else, he'd be able to jump down and go about his business if she did end up having another fit.

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She looked surprised, but not unhappy. "You want to come with me?" It sort of felt really nice, actually, that she'd have company even though it was a kitten.

She climbed to her feet, careful of the kitten. She took a second to look in a mirror she hung beside the door. She definitely looked like she had been crying. Liz rubbed her eyes a few more times and decided she wasn't going to be out long enough for it to matter much.

"I've been thinking of names, by the way. How do you feel about Shadow?"

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Balancing while she stood up was a trick, but being more intelligent than an actual kitten meant Loki knew how to shift his weight to stay in place rather than overbalance and fall off.

As for names... it would do. Far better than 'Iron Man' or 'Nick Carter' by a fair distance. Loki meowed.

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It didn't seem like the kitten had any objections - as much as a kitten could, anyways - so Liz settled on Shadow as his name. "I'll make sure to get you something special for listening."

Liz felt as though the kitten had done a lot to calm her down and she was grateful to him.

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Loki purred. Why not? She was a good thrall, after all - despite her tendency towards masochism, she was ready to submit to proper authority. And that was really all he wanted in a thrall.