"Fucking hell you gods have some stamina." I gasped, still out of breath from our...activities, pulling a jumper over my head and checking the mirror to make sure my hair was covering my eye.

"You're done already?" Loki grinned up at me from the head of the bed, highlighted in a light sheen of sweat as he sighed breathily and sat up. I shot him an incredulous look and scoffed, pulling on some joggers and throwing him a t shirt.

"We've been awake three hours and have done nothing else. A girl's gotta get a breath." I rolled my eyes, smirking a little as he chuckled and came up behind me to fix a small kiss on the skin of my neck.

"I could go at it all hours of the day and still desire you." He muttered by my ear, locking his gaze with mine in the mirror as he stroked the deep purple marks on my flesh and smirked devilishly. I let out a breathy laugh, running my fingers through his hair as his head rested against mine.

"Oh don't get me wrong, Greensleeves, I still want you to bend me over this cabinet and make me lose my sanity-" I smirked, revelling in the dark shift in his expression as he turned me in his arms and pressed a long, lustrous kiss to my lips.

"Buuut- i'm not sure my fucking heart will hold out." I smiled when he pulled away. His expression dropped a little and I could see a little concern flash in his eyes as he frowned.

"Are you oka-"

"I'm fine Loki, I'm simply a mere mortal...remember?" I grinned, chuckling as his face visibly relaxed and he smiled back, tucking the hair against my face back behind my ear, causing me to withdraw a little, suddenly vulnerable under his intense gaze.

"Definitely more than that, darling." He smiled lightly.

He tutted softly, running a gentle finger over the scar as he watched me, his eyes full and wide, bursting with an affection I didn't think i'd ever seen directed at me. And it made me feel weak, scared even...but so incredibly warm and safe at the same time.

"You need to eat." He suddenly pulled away from me, guiding me towards the door as I sighed loudly and allowed him to push me out the bedroom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Dear gods, as superior as Asgard is, they really should be catching on to these midgardian treats by now." He shook his head softly, biting down on another mouthful of cinnamon bun with a hazy look of pleasure in his eyes directed at the sweet, sticky treat in his hands.

I giggled and dusted my hands off, taking a long sip of my coffee as I watched him in an almost adoring fashion, utterly bemused and softened by the fascination he had with 'midgardian' cuisine.

"Do you guys not have sugar in Assplace?" I frowned, smirking when he shot me a look.

"Of course. The natural fructose in our finest fruits, and the cane our people harvest for breads and such." He uttered, sucking the last cinnamony icing trails off his fingers as I chuckled and rolled my eyes.

"This is practically the same thing, only there's a hell of a lot more sugar in this shit. I could give you a recipe or two to take back to them today if you'd like?" I commented, offering the coffee pot which he took gratefully and poured another mug. I grinned as he took a sip, realising how much I'd conditioned him to my exact tastes during his stay on Earth, feeling mighty proud of myself for changing his mind on how he viewed such an 'inferior realm'.

"I'm sure they'll live, enjoying their grapes and apples." Loki grinned, mirroring my amused expression as I rolled my eyes and stood to wash the dishes.

"I damn well hope you've become more of a lightweight for Asgardian alcohol as well, after only indulging in our 'weak spirits' for so long." I muttered to myself, opening the spirits, cupboard only to find it lay bare, my precious bottles replaced with a singular box of orange capri suns.

"I worry I may have." He sighed, tensing up a little when he turned to see me frozen in my tracks, staring at the pure disappointment before me. My jaw went slack as I reached my hand in to pull out the juice pouches, feeling a mild irritation grasp me. I shot him a glance, seeing the sheepish look on his face instantly.

"Ok- look- it was mostly Abby okay, all I did was show her where they were." He quickly shot out, raising his hands in surrender as I drew to my feet, glaring right at him.

"So you were an accomplice in the crime." I muttered quietly, taking a step towards him as he stepped back.

"Darling, I really think you should consider-"

"Don't throw a tantrum, Aurora." A hesitant voice called out, freezing me in my tracks as I turned my accusatory gaze from Loki to glare at Abby who'd suddenly appeared in the entryway.

"And don't make me sign you up for some local alcoholics anonymous either, you've survived illegal experiments, entire mafia attacks and this dude trying to end the world, I think you can go on without a little bit of substance abuse." She warned me, placing a hand on her hip as she stared me down with that irritatingly powerful glare every mother in the world seemed to have unlocked.

I blew out a frustrated breath and popped open the juice pouch, sucking it dry as I stared her down before spitting it out into the bin next to my foot.

"Guess I'm going on a supermarket run today then, that wasn't in my plans but, hey. Thanks for getting me out the house." I uttered snarkily, hearing Loki tut beside me as I resisted the urge to throw the entire crate of juices at his head for the audacity.

Abby just rolled her eyes, sending me a knowing smile as she rounded the table and picked up a cinnamon roll, her eyes glinting with something mischeivous I couldn't quite place my finger on.

"Good luck getting out the house sunshine. You're inability you comply was a liiiitle too predictable so I 'Aurora-proofed' every possible exit." She grinned, helping herself to coffee as my jaw went slack.

She what?

I stared at her for a few moments as she ate, genuinely speechless at this sudden attack I, for some reason, hadn't seen coming. Then I began to smirk. I laughed to myself seemingly at the absurdity of it all, and the naive confidence of this woman for the assumption that she'd been able to outsmart me.

"Sweetheart, I'm a trained ex assassin. I don't think you quite understand the skill set I've acquired. So thank you, but I'll be taking my keys, and heading off now." I grinned, pulling my car keys off the hook and throwing her a salute, before glaring at Loki and exiting the kitchen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Let me out...please."

"That depends, are you gonna return with eight litres of pure spirit or not?" Abby chuckled, paging through her magazine as she softly patted the sleeping infant in her arms.

"No? I haven't thought about touching a drop of that for days." I threw my hands up in the air, pulling a face at Jack from upside down on the couch when he scoffed and shook his head lightly. There was a quiet laugh from Abby as she lowered her magazine, running a gaze over me as I glared at her.

"Nice try, Honey. You've still got the shakes. Have another gatorade." She smiled softly, going back to her magazine as I huffed and pulled myself up into an upright position, nearly falling over from lightheadedness after being upside down so long.

"Fuck that. I've downed at least seven in the past few hours." I groaned, lying back and fiddling with the bracelet chain Loki had got me. Jack caught my eye as I looked up, quickly glancing from my fidgeting hands to my face, a softened look in his gaze.

"Still nothing?" He offered sympathetically and I groaned as I quickly shook my head, not wanting any sympathy from him as god knows I'd already been drowning myself in it the past week.

I hadn't heard a word from him in three weeks. Three fucking weeks. Like damn I knew he had a realm to run and all that bullshit but he could at least drop by for a quick kiss or whatever. My guess was something bad had happened up there and he was having to work overtime to sort it out. Ragnarok? or something? God knows that was my best guess. But however many weeks he'd be gone, it sure beat the two years I hadn't seen him after that damned Earth attack.

"Get some exercise maybe?" Amy quipped, thankfully distracting me from my inner turmoil as I shot her an incredulous glare.

"Ah yeah, excuse me while I jog laps round the fucking kitchen." I scoffed, shoving a pillow over my head for a moment, before quickly discarding it after quickly realising it smelled a little too much like him. I sighed as I stood up, feeling both pairs of eyes watching me closely to make sure I didn't do anything dumb, or simply breakdown altogether.

"Well, nice talking to you both, i'm going to go chug the surgical spirit from the bathroom." I grinned, turning on my heel, ready to phase out the room before a voice stopped me.

"Yeah we poured that away too." Jack supplied monotonously.

"Son of a fucking bitch!"

~~~~~~~~~~

"Thor, I know you have little patience with me right now."

"That's quite an understatement, brother." Thor growled angrily, still wielding Mjolnir.

"Okay, okay I understand. And I will take you to Odin. I just need a-a moment- just a moment, there's something I have to do." Loki pleaded softly, hands raised in a placating gesture

"Loki-"

"Thor please, just five minutes in Midgard."

Thor's brow furrowed for a moment as he watched Loki, truly watched him, taking in the clear distress etched on his face and a look of something in his glistening eyes Thor hadn't seen in a long time. This was more than just him getting caught out- this was- this was-

"It's Lady Ace isn't it...Loki?"

"Aurora- Aurora is her name." He spat back quickly, shaking his head softly to dispel some of the frustration he'd began to feel building up at Thor's distrust of him. Not that he could entirely blame him.

"Have you- did you-"

"Thor please, we don't have long." Loki began, sounding frustrated as Thor took in a deep breath and nodded once.

"Five minutes brother." He sighed quietly, waving Mjolnir by Loki's face once more until he flinched. He observed his brother as the words left him, watching the relief flood his expression as if by magic, and seeing his eyes close lightly, his mouth downturned with a look of regret.

"I don't think I've ever seen you like this before. And over a mortal? After everything you s-"

"Yes thank you, Thor I am quite aware of the irony of it. Please save your quips for the journey home." Loki muttered irritably, grabbing Thor's arm and teleporting them back to the bifrost.

"I knew there was something about you two." Thor spoke, almost smirking as Loki shot him a displeased glare, and began preparing for the journey down to midgard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I sighed to myself, folding up my clothes from the laundry to throw back into the wardrobe, and carefully avoiding any Loki related garments that I'd probably end up balling up in my arms and shoving into my face for a solid hour. No I needed this distraction. I needed to indulge myself in any mundane activity that would take the growing impatience off my mind, and the irrational thoughts they brought with it.

Maybe if I tried just hard enough, I could summon Heimdall to shoot me up into Asgard so I could give Loki a slap or two and drag him back down to Earth. I froze in my tracks, halfway between throwing my bras into a drawer, as I genuinely considered the idea for a moment. That was of course until the crushing realisation that the damned god had in fact switched out Heimdall for some low life other gatekeeper who hated my guts.

No luck there then.

In a flurry of frustration I kicked over the laundry basket holding my washing, seeing it tip over and spill out onto the floor with a red sort of anger in my gaze. I decided quickly then, to move onto the next chore I'd given myself, since becoming bored with each other task after no longer than five minutes into it.

Damn I really needed a fight or two for this wasted energy I had unfurling inside me, energy Loki had always helped me wear off when he could...before of course running off to Asgard for a month and leaving me to my own fucking devices.

I sighed deeply and shuffled over to my bedside table, shovelling empty gatorade bottles and gum packets into the trash bag I held in my hand. I would never usually let my room get like this, but recently I'd been a little gentler to myself in the way that I didn't bully myself into doing things anymore, like training, and washing, and cleaning this fucking room. I much preferred rather to self soothe and wrap myself in comfort until the bad thoughts fizzled out.

Jack however didn't seem to like my new regime, and had taken on a role of making sure I stuck to daily functions any normal human being should be able to follow. Like making me eat regularly, forcing me to shower when being too close to me on the sofa was a crime on his nostrils, and tending to my flowers.

I supposed I should've been more grateful than I felt. But part of me just wanted them to let me deteriorate. I wanted to show them I too suffered in ways any normal human would, and I could show vulnerability. And the other part of me...Well that was just stuffed with a hollow kind of guilt. A guilt that never let me forget how undeserving I was of the love Jack and Abby showed me when I was struggling.

I cursed under my breath and knocked the last tissue into the bag, moving my hand to scoop some wrappers in there as well, when something caught my eye. Something only a little out of place amongst the mess. Small, but so obvious.

I dropped the bag by my feet and dusted my hands, picking up the delicately placed paper folded up on my nightstand, signed in scrawled black ink on the outside, and a scratchy mass of words within. My eyes skimmed the first words as I frowned...

And all of a sudden, the breath I had within me had been knocked out of my lungs, and the blood seeped from my face as I looked down at the letter in my shaking hands, unable to look at anything else but the inky letters spelt out before me in a handwriting that could belong to no one else.

Aurora,

Things have gotten a little complicated up here as you may have come to realise due to my prolonged absence and lack of communication back to you this past week.

For this I can only apologise profusely, and ask that you don't hold it entirely against me when I return.

I'm sorry, my love. This wasn't how it was supposed to go, and, given the choice, I wouldn't hesitate to come back home to you. This place isn't my home like it used to be, and lately i've been realising how little need I have to overrule something so trivial, when I know my only home is you.

I scoffed out loud, reaching up to dab at my eyes that had seemingly gained some moisture for one reason or another, before reading on, muttering a quiet 'you cliche little bastard' under my breath as my eyes jerked from left to right over the words with the eagerness of a wild animal spotting it's prey.

Thor returned, speaking of Ragnarok and how close it was to ending the entirety of Asgard in itself. So with great regret my dear, I believe I have to say a temporary farewell, not quite knowing when it will be that this is over and I can come back to you.

I hope you're well, darling, and coping fine without me there. It worries me to leave you so soon after all that's happened but hesitantly I leave my trust in Abby and your brother to take good care of you. Please stop covering your face with your hair. The 2010 era was not a good look for you midgardians and It would be unfortunate to come back to a civilisation regressed to that time as a result of you. And besides, you wear that scar incredibly well.

I hope to see you soon, love.

Loki.

I let out a breathy laugh once i'd come to the end of the letter, realising only then that i'd been dropping salty tears across the paper as I read it, and now looked an incredible mess, sporting mascara tracks and a runny nose.

bastard

How long had this damned thing been sitting there on my nightstand? How many times had I slept with my face right close to it and had it skip my notice each time? How long had he been gone since he sent this? And how the fuck did he think he was getting away with leaving a note right by my bed and not saying a proper goodbye?

fucking bastard

I shook my head softly as I poured over his words again, rubbing my eye with my sleeve to relieve some of the tears that still demanded a grand performance from me, dripping depressingly over the smoothened paper and blurring the ink a little by his signature.

Lifting it up to my face, I pressed it by my nose, inhaling the slight hint of his scent that lay tantalisingly against the writing, mixed wonderfully with the sharp smell of ink and paper.

How long?...

How long til he was back?...

Did I have to just sit here uselessly and wait for him as he risked his life to defeat this cunt? Did I have to wait around and drink electrolytes all fucking day instead of helping?

God he better show his damn face soon.

I sighed to myself and pressed the paper to myself, almost hugging it as I sniffed and tried to calm my erratic heartbeat. What the fuck was I doing? Crying over this? And then These poor women who were married to the military waving off their husbands who could go months without word from them, and here I was basically forgetting how to function properly without him by my side.

I'd gotten so pathetic recently, and it wasn't a good look.

I began to stand, placing the letter perfectly gently in my drawer, midway through closing it when I heard it.

A loud, shocking scream, that shook the walls of the very house, and struck a violent claw of chills throughout my entire body as it clattered its deranged symphonies about my ears. I froze for a second as it's echoes scraped an agonising din over the walls that suffocated me, and for a second I just stood, my hands shaking as I processed what had happened.

At the second loud cry I grounded myself, immediately phasing into the living room where i'd heard her echoing screech coming from. My eyes flickered around the room as I took it in, seeing the distressed looking infant sat back in his high chair, on the verge of tears, and Abby, looking like she was about to faint, mouth dropped open in horror as she watched Jack through wide, terrified eyes glistening with tears.

I followed her line of vision slowly, as I looked over to Jack...or what was left of him, feeling my own jaw go completely slack as I watched his arms turn grey and crumble into nothing, the disease spreading to the rest of him as his chest and legs began to disintegrate. I choked out a cry as he turned to gaze at me, blatant terror inscribed over his glassy eyes, and that tear stained blue gaze that was the last thing I saw, before they froze over with a stony fragility that quickly cracked and crumbled away, leaving nothing but a scattering of debris where my brother had been standing.

I fell to my knees instantly, losing any sense of what was happening as Abby cried out and flew at the remains of her husband, scooping up the little ashes like she'd somehow be able to summon him back to life with the mixture of his remains, and the tears streaming softly from her eyes.

"Please, Jack no." I uttered hoarsely under my breath as I crawled over to the scene, my ears clattering loudly with the cries of both Abby and little Rory who was now violently sobbing, watching his mother claw at his father's remains. He shouldn't have known what was happening. Surely not at the small age he was. But there was something in his cries that sounded a little too much like mourning.

I choked back a sob as I reached her, pulling her into me for some kind of stability as she screamed out and sobbed into my shirt. But I just sat there, eyes glued to the spot my brother had been standing only seconds before, trying so desperately to wrap my head around what the fuck had just happened. And more importantly what I had to do to stop it happening to Abby or little Rory.

I quickly reached for the high chair, pulling it towards us so I could grab Rory and transport us out of here and to safety, or to anywhere that wasn't here. My hands reached over to the bawling baby to take hold of his little arms, and that's when I saw it...

and my heart stopped...

"Oh fuck, oh no no no what- what's happening I don't- what the fUCK." I yelled out loud, pulling away from Abby as her red rimmed eyes pulled back to me, growing suddenly wide when she noticed it too.

"No, god no, Aurora make it stop."

"I- I don't know how." I croaked weakly, my stomach twisting sharply as I watched my fingers crumble into dust before me, and my legs dropped me to the floor as they began to disintegrate. I choked harshly as I lay there, seeing Abby's petrified face blurry above me, yelling at me to stay with her. But I didn't think I could. I couldn't fight this time. There was nothing I could fight.

My heart was slowing gently, and there was no longer any pain anywhere. I felt weightless, like I were no more than a scrap of paper against the hard wood floor. I could tell most of me had begun to crumble away by the time my thoughts started to get quieter and all I could hear was distant sobbing as my vision shut out and my head became empty and cold.

There was nothing.
And I was everything.

~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: .........,
please don't kill me :)