~ Avenging Doctor ~

Mostly.

Gambit's gumbo might come back and bite her in the ass later, depending on her tolerance for the level of spice. Kurt and Loki had gotten used to it by now and it still occasionally made for a terrible time the hours after ingesting.

('It be too good, y'can't help y'self, non?' no, no he could not!)

Loki's plan was very good but he had not given her the final piece of the puzzle and she was very quick to note that it was missing something. At this observation there came a slow uncurl of Loki's smile, a sort of devious grin that always made Kurt's tail sway worriedly when he saw it.

"You'll be safe as kittens, darling, given that you won't be the one having to dine with Allfather so intimately. I will."

And with a flourish of his hand gesturing at his chest there came a green glimmer of magic that rippled across his body. As it did the form melted away and became smaller, leaving behind the perfect duplicate of Jane Foster, still smiling in that unsettling manner befitting of such a man as Loki.

It was evident that Loki wanted her to be impressed. The green shine of magic slid along the Asgardian’s form and shifted the taller man into a more petite visage - an identical copy to Jane herself. Had the doctor not actively been endeavoring to not be impressed with Loki, then she would have found the display fascinating. Magic was science that people of her world could not explain, so such a transformation would have had Jane out of her seat and inspecting the duplicate for any sort of flaws or imperfections. Her mind brimmed with inquiries. Was he a perfect copy? How could he be when Loki had not seen Jane in her entirety. Did his mind supply what he thought she looked like under clothes or was the illusion some sort of amorphous thing without layers underneath? She sincerely hoped it was the latter. Was he able to make adjustments without fully shifting back? Even now her legs itched to stand. Instead Jane kept her expression firmly impassive.

“Yes, well,  this doesn’t actually answer any of my questions.” Jane began flatly. “How will you looking like me, get me an Idunn apple and how will that protect me once you and your crew have ransomed me back to my future in-laws?” Jane had been so engrossed in her thoughts about how the illusion worked, she had failed to notice the tingle of magic across her own form.

When she caught a dull reflection of herself in the metallic wall of the ship, her eyebrows raised- a surprised expression crossing the false Loki’s - her own face. She traced a finger across her cheek bone and her fingers through her hair. everything still felt like herself even though she now looked like the Prince. Fascinating. Jane scowled then, realizing that she had let herself slip. 

"So long as life remains, there is always hope… and so long as there is hope, there can be victory!"

jack of no trades.

master of fuck all

@dr-foster asked: have you been keeping an eye on me?

[ ϟ ]—– The question is like a spark flung from flint, and standing in the threshold where corridor meets lab, where god meets doctor and the past meets present, thunderer could feel the warmth of it spread through his chest.

A smile does not emerge just yet, neither is swift answer given. For a prolonged moment the god simply drank in the sight of her, every inch of features traced with something gentle in the bright ceruleans.

' You ask that as if I ever stopped.'

Tease is barely audible in the warm bass, only a hint of it turning the rumbling tone a touch softer, and here the lips quirk finally, crafting a faint smile.

Moving through the sterile hush of Stark's laboratory is measured and tentative, as one would walk through some ancient sanctum, careful not to touch the scattered instruments and notes. Her work, divine in its own way.

' Two eyes and two ears in fact,' and whether eyes and expression carry evidence of his longing mattered so very little in this moment, when he finds himself near and able to regard her more intently.

' Heimdall has been quite kind to lend me his, when requested...,' and voice carries something regretful now, only briefly before it becomes gentle and steady once more. Nearby holo-displays flicker with models of golden light and neural pathways, turning tresses a fraction more luminous, and there is a brief one-shouldered shrug after head tilts a fraction.

It was the flash of light and ozone that gave him away as he appeared. Plus, a strange feeling that, with a lack of proper study or observation, Jane could only dub ‘magic’. Backlit by the garish hall light, Thor’s face was mildly obscured in shadow. Jane knew him all the same. His features and deep accented voice had been committed to her memory and reminisced over each day during the years that had mysteriously kept the both of them apart.

The doctor’s dark eyes watched Thor, her brows lifted slightly as she continued to wait for an answer to her inquiry. Had he been watching her? Was that why after all this time, Thor had chosen to show himself now? Or was his arrival merely convenient timing? An act of the universe’s chaos or fate?

As if he ever stopped. Thor admitted it with such warmth that Jane had a hard time finding the idea an intrusion on her privacy. The smile that followed was like a spark of electricity from the god himself- directly into heart. Her palms started sweating from nerves as Thor finally stepped into the room, approaching her with cautious longing. He looked wrong in this lab, as much as she wanted to see him. He was fantasy mingling into a world of facts, figures, and reason that had not conjured an explanation for him yet.

‘Pull yourself together.’ Jane commanded herself silently, wiping her hands on the sides of her jeans as discreetly as she could manage. He looked as heroic and handsome as he had that last day in the desert. Jane hadn't washed her hair the night before and was pretty sure the bags under her eyes would have to be checked if she were taking them to the airport. For goodness sake, she’d held organs and lives in her hands without any worry before and now just seeing Thor was making her antsy.

Seeing…. Jane reached a hand out and put it on Thor’s arm. Muscular. Warm. Completely real. Her hand dropped to her side again.

“I had to make sure you were really here. It’s been a strange day…” Her explanation was followed by a few beats of silence before Jane quite unexpectedly threw her arms around the Thunderer in a joyful hug.

“You’re really here! I missed you too.” Once again, she quickly shifted gears and broke away, her hands shoved at Thor’s chest in a valiant, but ineffective, way.

Does Jane have a habit of climbing on counters, or basically anything, in order to reach things her short self can’t reach? Yes.

A plot where, due to being able to study various Super Soldiers, Jane is able to reproduce the Super Soldier Serum. This is in an effort to break it down and cure common diseases (based on the success of Steve Rogers) and not to make more soldiers. Except now she has a target on her back because of it.

They just wanted a reason to have a little bit of joy and he couldn't blame them for taking advantage of the moment when it came. Yes, they wanted to mourn those who had died, especially their queen, but if they could do so while raising a drinking horn they preferred it.

It was just that Loki's surfacing anxiety preferred he either hide or lose it completely out in the open. He could not have that and he could not have Jane see that.

It didn't surprise him to find she had left the feast before he could even gather himself. Thor appeared to be fluctuating between moody, kicked dog expressions and a faux glee when cornered by others. Loki had a mind to corner him too but his stomach churned again.

No. He needed to leave, to find solitude.

---

How long had she been here? Loki stood over where the midgardian laid curled up, surrounded on all sides by stacks of books and half-unrolled parchments. It was the first time since earlier that evening that his body didn't feel on edge, that his gut didn't feel like it wanted to rise up to his throat.

Jane sleeping so peacefully...

Loki lifted a hand as if he might stroke her hair but instead there flowed a plume of green smoke that fell across her body until it solidified into a true blanket, velvety and plush.

While she slept he took to the library much like she appeared to have done. There had to be a solution here but their problems were numerous and intertwined in ways even she couldn't understand.

And would she even believe him if he tried to explain? Loki had been reading the same line of the tome open before him at least over five times now and on the sixth attempt his head snapped up at the soft sound of Jane waking.

He waited quietly for her to rise, to see him.

A day spent fully immersed in research worked wonders as a balm to soothe the frustration and devastation of the morning’s announcement  and Jane’s failure to put an end to Asgard’s archaic rituals in regards to soul mates. It was the sort of work the doctor was used to. It somehow made her feel accomplished even if she had nothing to show for her effort. Yet. What her studies HAD accomplished, was comforting the doctor enough to lull her into rest.

When at last Jane’s eyes opened toward the distant library ceilings, it was difficult to determine how much time had actually passed. The sky outside the windows, dark when she fell asleep, had lightened considerably. However, the sun- was it a sun? Jane had certainly noted a celestial light source like Earth’s sun during her visit to the ‘realm eternal’, but she had not had the chance to study the astronomy of Asgard. Whatever it was, a sun for the purposes of her own Midgardian understanding, had not appeared yet. 

Jane sat up and slowly rolled her neck side to side, more out of habit from sleeping in uncomfortable positions rather than true discomfort. As she did, a blanket slipped from her shoulders and Jane’s brow furrowed from lack of recognition. Her slim fingers rubbed the strange lush fabric - emerald. The doctor turned in place to face the desk, where she had left stacks of tomes for her research, to find she was less alone than desired. Making matters worse, the company was the last person Jane wanted to see- perhaps second. Odin sitting there watching her sleep was about as appealing as inserting a scalpel into her own eye. 

Loki wasn’t watching her with an expression of sinister intent or glee at her discomfort. His green eyes observed her now, but open on the table before him was one of the books Jane selected for research. He couldn’t be helping her. Not when this entire mess stemmed from Loki himself.

not a sexyman not a babygirl,

           but a secret third thing...

                       SOME CUNT!