"Are you sure this is safe?" Loki asked you from were he was standing next to Eclipse. You had saddled up Eclipse and was now trying to convince Loki to get onto your dragon behind you.

      "Traveling by dragon is much safer than traveling by car." You told Loki matter of factly.

      "And where, might I ask, did you get that statistic?" Loki asked you still not believing you. "Humans don't usually ride dragons."

      "It's me who your riding with." You told him, "And I'm not very good a driving cars. So when your with me dragons are a safer way to travel. I don't know how many accidents I've almost caused. Sometimes I wonder if I am a better flyer, or if there is just less things for me to hit in the sky."

      "This is not marking me feel better." Loki grumbled at you.

       You just laughed at him. "Why do you think the Avengers have band me from driving?" You asked him teasingly. "Especially Tony. He does not want me crashing any of his cars."

Loki hesitated, looking to Eclipse before looking over the side of the balcony. You could see him physically cringe away. "It's a long drop down." Loki informed you from where he was looking down at the ground.

"That's what makes it more fun." You told him.

Loki gulped. He was seriously stressing out about this whole flying thing. This was one of the first times he had actually shown his fear to you, so you decided to take it seriously.

"If it will make you feel better I promise to take it as easy as I possibly can." You told Loki your voice gentle and un-judging.

Loki looked back up at you with a slight look of fear in his eyes. "Promise?" Loki asked, not sure if he should believe you or not.

"I promise Loki." You told him.

"It's just, my brother has dropped me one to many times." Loki confessed after a big pause.

"I'm not your brother." You told him, still keeping your voice calm and happy.

     He sighed, agreeing with you on that point before reluctantly giving you his hand. You took it pulling him up behind you on the back of Eclipse. He held his hands out, not sure what to do with them, or what to grab onto to keep his balance. The saddle was quite flat, and Eclipse was covered in smooth, flat, scales.

      "You can grab onto me." You told Loki gently. He placed his hands on your shoulders, not daring to put them on your waist. He was a prince after all, and his mother taught him to respect women and their boundaries. Touching a woman's waist was a no go for him.

      You sighed, roiling your eyes. You hated when you gave people rides and they grabbed onto your shoulders. Yes, you knew it was out of respect for you. But when they grabbed your shoulders and not your waist it was much easier for them to pull you off balance. You just hoped Loki had good balance, or else both of you would be falling to the ground in no time. He was so much bigger than you were so it would be easy for him to pull you off balance extremely fast.

"You good?" You asked Loki, seeing if he was ready for take off. You weren't going to tell him about your pet peeve of people grabbing your shoulders, you didn't want him to feel uncomfortable.

"Just don't drop me." Loki grumbled at you. He really didn't like flying it seemed.

You agreed that you wouldn't before you turned your attention to Eclipse. "Keep this flight nice and steady bud." You told him under your breath so Loki wouldn't hear. Even if he did he would pretend not to listen to your conversation with your dragon. "This is Loki's first time trusting us. I would hate for us to mess it up."

Eclipse purred in agreement and both you and Loki could feel his chest vibrating beneath you.

"What was that?" Loki asked you, sounding like he was about ready to bail out on you.

     "It's just Eclipse." You told Loki calmly, trying to ease his fear. "He purrs when he's happy."

      You felt Loki relax before you signaled Eclipse to move. Eclipse walked up the steps to Tony's small flight deck. It was the place where he usually landed before walking into the tower. You and Eclipse used it a lot as well, it was easier to use than most other things. You felt Loki tense up again as Eclipse walked to the edge of the flight deck. "Nice and easy bud." You reminded him when he stopped at the edge, his two front feet gripping the sides of the deck.

Eclipse opened his massive black wings, including the two he had at the base of his tail. Before he gently leaped off the side of the building. He only fell five feet before he had enough wind under his wings for him to glide away from the tower.

Even though Eclipse was gentle and slow Loki still tightened his grip on you. His body tensing up from his fear.

     "It's ok Loki." You told him gently as Eclipse soared over the city, high above the tops of the skyscrapers. "We won't drop you. Your safe." Your voice was gentle and un-judging. Something Loki missed deeply from his mother.

       Loki slowly began to get more comfortable with flying as you and Eclipse took it slow, not wanting to scare him off. You flew into the clouds, the sun shining down on you with its warm glow. The sky was so big and so open. Whenever you were up here you felt so free.

      "It's beautiful." Loki finally told you as he looked down over the city. "I've never seen Earth like this before."

       "Nature is even better than the city." You told Loki as you gently glided on the wind. "I'm just glad I got you up here. That you trusted me with this."

       "Do people not normally trust you?" Loki asked you curiously. He could understand why people didn't trust him. He was the god of lies after all. But you? You were just some dragon riding mortal. Why would you be untrustworthy.

      You shrugged, you never liked opening up to people. Never liked to tell them how you truly felt. But Loki had trusted you with his fear of flying. You would have to return the favor for him to trust you again.

       "People are difficult." You told Loki, not quite finding the right words. "Dragons are easier." Loki waited patiently for you to continue, not pressing you for more answers. This was the most valuable he had ever seen you. He could tell this was a difficult subject for you to talk about. You never cared what anyone thought of you. Always seeming so care free and unbothered by anything. If anything you always seemed to not care about even the most important stuff. But this? This was difficult for you.

"It's that I don't get close to people." You told Loki after a long pause, you were grateful he was sitting behind you so you didn't have to look him in the eyes while you talked to him. "Every time I do it seems to go horribly wrong."

"A boy?" Loki asked you, thinking that you were hurt by a boyfriend or something silly like that.

"No." You told him with a slight smile.

"A girl?" He asked you again. Thinking that it must have been a girlfriend that had wronged you. "There is nothing wrong with that." Loki assured you quickly before you thought he was judging you for your sexuality.

"No not a girl." You told him with a laugh at his uncomfortable tone. "Well, not the way you're thinking. You were right the first time. I'm into boys, not girls. Though I'm a firm believer in that you love who you love."

Loki nodded but looked at you for more answers. "I have a hard time with making friends as it is." You told Loki going back you your long winded explanation. "I couldn't get a significant other, even if I tried.... When I was little I didn't have any friends in school." You told Loki deciding to tell him about your wounds of the past you had never told anyone. "It was hard, but I learned how to deal with the loneliness. Then when I got into Jr. high. That's just a school for older kids." You informed Loki who most likely didn't know what a Jr. high was. "I found a group of people who let me hang out with them. It took a while but I finally began to trust them. Thinking that they were my friends. So I would take them to my house to hang out. My father is a doctor so growing up my family had quite a bit of money. Whatever I wanted I usually got if I worked for it. My parents didn't just give me things. I had to earn them through chores or hard work. Once I cleared the neighbors whole backyard full of weeds. They were old so I did it for them so they could plant some pretty flowers. Anyway, when my friends found out about all of our expensive toys they began to care more about my things then they cared about me. During the winter all they would want to do is go snowmobiling. I would take them out, of corse, but they never wanted to make cookies with me, or watch Christmas movies. During the summer all they cared about was when the next time I would take them boating. Never once just wanting to hang out with me." You heaved a sigh, your heart beginning to hurt just thinking about all the things your so called friends put you through. It was hard for you to talk about because no one seemed to understand your point of view. Loki waited as you tried to keep your emotions in check, before you started up again. "I tried to tell them about how I was feeling, but they would always make me feel like the villain. Telling me that I was just being selfish for feeling this way. Or telling me how lucky I was to grow up in a wealthy family. That they would give anything to be in my shoes. So I continued to try and keep them happy. Finally my parents told me to see if they were truly my friends and told me to stop letting them use our expensive equipment. They told me to do thing like watch movies with them, and even throw parties and invite them over for candy or s'mores. They didn't tell me to stop letting them come over, just to stop letting them use me for my stuff. When I stopped taking them out snowmobiling or boating they started to tell me how selfish I was and how bad of a friend I was becoming. I tried to tell them that my parents just wanted family to use our stuff, that they didn't just want us out all the time using it. After a while though they just stopped. I would invite them to my house for movie night but no one would show up. They would start going to other people's houses but never tell me. I would still eat lunch with them at school, but they would ignore my existence. I was beginning to feel broken and empty inside. One day they told me that we couldn't eat where we usually ate so we had to move. They told me where to go. When it was lunch time I went there and waited for them, but no one showed up. I waited there every day at lunch but no one ever showed up, then I saw one of them walking in the hallways right before lunch. I followed her to where we always sat for lunch and there they all were. That's when I realized they lied to me to get rid of me. I can't tell you how bad I felt about myself after that." You told Loki a signal tear streaming down your face. "After that day I learned all over again how to be alone. How to not trust anyone and how to not care."

Your voice faltered after that as more silent tears fell. You hand never gotten over your emotional wounds from that experience. You tried to hide it. Tried to not let it show, but you always felt like it was your fault for how things turned out, no matter how many times your family told you otherwise. Being around people made you feel like trash. Like you didn't matter, like you didn't belong. Dragons, on the other hand, never made you feel like you were nothing. Dragons gave you a purpose.

"I'm sorry." Loki told you gently when you were silent for a long time, lost in your old memories. Eclipse also checked in with you, looking back at you, concerned over your emotions that you hardly ever lost control of.

      "It's ok." You told Loki trying your hardest to have a carefree positive tone. You furiously wiped away your tears, mad at yourself for crying over nothing. That was in the past now. It didn't matter anymore, you had Eclipse by your side now. Nothing else could hurt you.

     You couldn't go crying to Loki, he didn't care. Plus he had been through so much worse, he probably thought of you as pathetic now that you told him about your past.

     "Your not pathetic for being deceived." Loki told you, "naïve and young? Yes. Pathetic no."

      "How did you...?" You asked Loki turning back to face him. How did he know what you were thinking?

      "Your thoughts were loud." Loki told you apologetically. "I didn't mean to pry, but sometimes it can't be helped. Especially if you've been holding onto those thoughts for a long time, begging silently for someone to hear you."

You turned back around in your saddled, not knowing what to say to that. You really just wanted to drop this conversation all together. "Looks like we're here." You told Loki happily jumping to a different topic completely.

Eclipse gracefully flew down to a little restaurant that was by a road in the woods. You had discovered this place when you went exploring over upstate New York. It wasn't anything fancy but the people who ran the restaurant loved Eclipse, and they did have some pretty good food.

     You and Loki dismounted before walking inside, Eclipse fallowing you as you did.

      "If it isn't (y/n)!" One of the workers called out when they saw you. You smiled politely and waved as more workers came over to say hi to you, or more accurately Eclipse.

       The workers cooed over your dragon, stroking his head and loving on him. Eclipse didn't mind the attention. He didn't love it, but he didn't really care either. So he stood there and purred, giving the workers the show that they wanted to see.

       "(Y/n)!" The owner of the restaurant greeted you like an old friend. She was a little old lady, but had a lot of attitude. You smiled and gave her a wave as she approached. "It's been so long. How have you been?"

        "It's been busy but good." You told her happily. "I wanted to get my friend out of the tower today." You told her as you gestured to Loki. "I thought he would like your food."

       "Of corse you did." She told you warmly reaching up to pinch your cheek. She then turned and told the workers to get back to work. They all did what she asked, scurrying away to do their jobs, not wanting to get scolded for disobeying her.

The owner showed you and Loki to your seats, and gave you both a menu before leaving to go do her job. You sat across from Loki at a nice little booth that sat right in front of a massive window, looking into the woods. Eclipse lied down right next to the two of you happily waiting for his breakfast.

      You and Loki ordered your breakfast, with Loki ordering the same thing as you. He didn't know Earth style cuisine so that was the safest choice for him.

     The waiters brought out yours and Loki's food along with Eclipse's. They usually just gave Eclipse all the extra food they weren't going to use. Or day old food they couldn't sell. Eclipse had a strong stomach, and though he usually ate raw fish he could down human food like it was no ones business. You didn't let him have human food all the time however, you didn't want him to get sick off of it. But he could have it for a meal every once and a while.

"So, when did you and Eclipse meet?" Loki asked you. After you had just spilt your guts to him he wanted to know more about you. He figured Eclipse was a safe topic you could talk about without crying over.

"When I was 15 he crash landed in the woods near by my house." You told Loki as you ate your food. "I never was afraid of the woods so I went exploring, trying to find the star I saw fall from the sky."

"The Star was Eclipse." Loki summed up, trying to keep up with the story. You nodded.

"I found him in the woods. His right wing was broken form the crash and it looked like he had gotten into a pretty nasty fight. So I gained his trust slowly and took care of him while he healed. When he was all healed up he decided to make me his dragon rider. He tied us together with magic. After that I went to Dakarus to train to become a warrior."

    Loki nodded, you could tell he wanted to press for more answers, but you were quite done talking about yourself. He knew that.

    "What about you?" You asked him. "I know that you are from Asgard and that you are a prince, but what do you like to do?"

    "I like to read." Loki answered you with a smirk.

    You rolled your eyes at him in response. "I know that."

    "Growing up I played a lot of pranks on my brother." Loki told you. "I once even turned him into a frog."

    "No!" You laughed pretending to be shocked. Thor had told you about Loki growing up, but you had never heard this story. It did sound like something he would do though.

    "I did." Loki exclaimed happily. "He wouldn't stop bugging me." Loki told you beginning his story. "You see, while Thor was gifted with the broad strength of a warrior I was gifted with the cleaver brains of a trickster. This caused some contention. I was the brightest mind to ever go through the learning hall of Asgard. I passed all my classes with flying colors, and tests came naturally to me. I was so smart, in fact, that I skipped a few years and ended up studying in the same year as my brother and his idiotic friends. One year we all had to take the tests of hero's. It was an extremely challenging exam that tested ones smarts and not ones strength. Unlike the test of warriors. I studied for weeks to get the highest marks in all of Asgard. But as I studied Thor wouldn't stop bugging me to take his test for him. He continued to ask me to shape shift into him and take his exam for him. He told me to just pass him, nothing more nothing less."

    "I'm guessing you said no?" You asked him, as to which he nodded.

    "But even after I told him I could not he continued to bother me. Telling me I just didn't know how to turn into him. That my magic was too weak. So in retaliation I turned him into a frog. As you can imagine he was not to pleased with that development."

    You laughed at his story, imagining Thor as a little angry frog hopping around. Loki laughed with you at the memory.

    "I made it so no one in Asgard could reverse the spell until Thor passed his exam himself."

    You laughed even harder at that.

    "The Allfather wasn't too pleased that his golden son had to go to school as a frog for a few days, but I did give Thor the incentive he needed to pass. Just barely mind you."

    "Poor Thor." You giggled. "I don't know how he ever made it out of his childhood in one peace with you as his brother."

    "I wonder the same thing my lady." Loki told you with a glint of mischief in his eyes.