Alternatives Chapter 4

Sarah had hung back a few steps behind Thor when they entered the cafeteria, trying to find Loki in the mass of agents and office workers sitting at the tables in the vast room, finally spying him, brooding over a bottle of water, eyes downcast to the table before him.
  "Brother," Thor pulled out a chair from the table and bade Sarah sit. She tried to shake her head but Thor took her by the elbow and guided her down.
"I will fetch us food, and then we may talk." To her horror, she watched Thor navigate his way through the crowd towards the food tables at the far side of the room, then chanced a glance at Loki who was staring at her, as she had expected.
"He is ever the gentleman, the golden boy." Loki mumbled, taking a swig of his water.
"What's wrong with being a gentleman?" Sarah countered.
Loki remained silent, eyes now trained again at the surface of the table.
Sarah sighed then, putting her hands onto the table, studying her fingernails, "Did you eat?"
His eyes flickered to hers then away, "No."
She started to ask why but was cut short.
"Because the hunger within me at this very minute cannot be satisfied by food or drink." His hand shot out to cover hers, "It can only come from the ability to make your life a living hell so long as you remain my keeper," He paused, "Since killing you seems not to be an option." The smile he proffered her would have been enough to melt the deepest snows if his eyes had not remained cold and hard.
From across the room Thor happened to glance in their direction and was pleased to see that they seemed to be talking, surprised by his hand atop hers, but still pleased.

             She yanked her hands away from his, narrowed her eyes, "Are you serious? Are you really that crazy?" She whispered fiercely.
His smile faded little by little until it had disappeared. "Perhaps Fury is right, you should reconsider his offer to reassign you." He was taken aback when she slammed her hands on the table making people around her turn and look,
"Okay, you little shit," She growled, "We're going to play a game, it's called "better the devil you know" I certainly can be reassigned, and I can recommend one of my fellow agents to take my place. I know a man right now who would love to take care of you. Your little stunt half a year ago killed his brother who worked in one of the buildings downtown that were destroyed by those flying whales, whatever they were.  In fact, I will march right back to Fury's office and ask him for immediate transfer. I guarantee within forty-eight hours you'd be at my cubicle on your knees begging me to help you."
Loki laughed aloud but it was halfhearted.
"I will remain assigned to you.."
"You're ever so gracious," Loki mumbled.
",If you stay out of my damn head. I am generally honest and if you ask me what I'm thinking, I usually tell you unless it's none of your business."
Loki sat back in his chair, "But my dear, your mind practically invites one to enter, the doors are always thrown open and there's so much room inside.."
Sarah was three feet from the table when she heard Loki behind her, "Hold…wait," She whirled around aware that they were now attracting more than a little attention, "Sit down."
She shook her head, she could see Thor starting back for the table with two trays.
"What about a truce?"
She waited.
"I will endeavor to keep from your thoughts. You will treat me with more respect. Is that too much to ask?"
"You have to earn respect. You can't claim it by birth alone, not here, and I can't trust you." She started to turn away again.
"Please?"
The word took the wind from her sails quickly and she turned yet again to him in time to see Thor place the trays on the table.
"M'lady, you must eat, sit."  He pulled the chair back out for her and she sat down again, but didn't touch the tray in front of her.
"I am glad to see the two of you talking." Thor enthused, picking up the breast of chicken and tearing into it. "Loki, we have found work for you here in the offices. It will occupy your time, perhaps it will help you to rehabilitate as well."
Loki said nothing until Thor continued, "You will be an errand boy. You will take supplies to the offices as needed, deliver mail, run for items upon request,"
Loki reached over and gripped Thor's sleeve, "Do you mean I am to be a common servant?"
Thor nodded, "If you must see it that way then so be it. Tomorrow morning Sarah will be down to fetch you and show you what you are to be doing."
He put his forehead in the palm of his hand, "I am in hell, truly."
Sarah stood and excused herself, "I'm going to get something later. I have a lot of work to do and I've blown the morning for the meeting." Thor stood, dragging Loki with him,
"Then we will speak with you later, Miss Miller."
She gave a small smile to Thor and quickly walked away.
"Did you manage to make progress with Miss Miller, brother? Will you try to be more agreeable."
He grunted, pushed the tray away from him and stood back up. "I will eat later as well. I need to be alone."
Thor watched him go, shrugged, took his brother's uneaten lunch and began to tuck in.

                               Loki heard the beep and burrowed down deeper under the covers. Another beep, then another.  He threw the pillow over his head.
Sarah put her hands on her hips, feeling for the familiar side pocket of her suit jacket, remembered she'd worn her regulation training  v-neck shirt and running pants today, planning on visiting the gym after her shift. She reached up where she draped her lanyard around her neck and took a small card in her hand, passed it over the panel beside the door and entered Loki's quarters. It was quiet and she almost wondered if he'd left without her until she peered into the bedroom and could just make out his form beneath the covers.
      "Lights, half power."  She said and the track lights in the ceiling cast a cool glow into the bedchamber.
"Loki," she put out her hand, steeling herself for any retaliation, and shook his shoulder, receiving not a blow to the chest or a loud shout, in fact, he did nothing but pull the covers tighter around him with a groan.
"We're going to be late if you don't get up." She shook him again, this time getting the reaction she expected as he pulled his arm from under the covers and swung it in a wide arc.
"And if I am, what then?" He mumbled into the pillow. "Will they cast me out of here?"
"They might, want to risk it?" She pulled at the covers, "Come on," pulled again and they slid from his back.
"Oh shit, what the hell happened to you?" She blurted it out before she could stop herself.
Loki rolled over, swung his legs to the floor and stood up, catching her off guard as she backed up, leaning over her, wanting, begging her to hit the perimeter bracelet again. He would build up a tolerance to it one day and on that day, she would never know what hit her.  She put her hands to her face and turned around,
"Jesus Christ, could you have waited until I left the room? Next time tell me you're naked."
He waved his arms in a sweeping gesture, "You wanted me up, and I live only to do your bidding."
She pointed to the closet across the room to her right, "Get a button down shirt and a pair of black slacks out of there, I'll have to stop and get you some shoes on the way, those boots won't work. Goddamn it. Warn me next time."
She left him to dress and sat on the couch, irate when he didn't bother to close the bedroom door and she was forced to keep her gaze focused on her lap. "The body of a god, holy hell." She thought to herself, wincing as she realized where she was, she tried to think of the color green, soothing, cool, calm and when he didn't come striding out into the living room red with rage, she relaxed, certain he hadn't 'heard' her.
He stood in the bathroom, fingers poised above the fourth button as the words echoed in his mind. For the briefest moment, he was at a loss. She was a mere human female but the thought that she'd not been revolted, that she'd possibly even appreciated what she had seen, served to build that familiar aching throb between his loins to a fever pitch and he leaned against the counter before the mirror in frustration and anger, willing it to pass quickly.

"I'm leaving in two minutes." She called to him. She stood up from the couch and moved to the door just as he walked into the living room.
"Woman, you would make the gods weep." He sat on the couch and pulled on his boots and straightened his pant legs over them.
"Lead on, master." He bowed slightly to her and they stepped out into the corridor. Sarah turned to the right to head towards the elevators but sensed he wasn't behind her. She turned around and was right, he was, in fact farther down the corridor, his hand reaching for a panel on the wall.
  She broke into a trot but was too late as the door to Lab 3 slid open. Doctor Banner whirled around at the sound just in time so see Loki, then Sarah coming up behind him. Loki was not looking at Banner or at Sarah, however, he was looking at the scepter, sitting in a cradle on a metal examining table before him.
"Loki, come on." Sarah said, her hand reaching into the pocket of her running pants, searching for her cell phone.
Banner caught her eyes and grinned reassuringly. "Here to visit an old friend?" he glanced at Loki.
Loki put his hand out to the scepter, causing them both to tense up, waiting, but he never made contact with it, his fingers splayed out in the air above it.
"It has changed." He murmured, "It is no longer a weapon." He closed his eyes, opened them, "It is a port key."
Banner walked over to him, "What do you mean, how has it changed?" He held up his tablet, ready to type. Loki stared at Banner, "The green menace, I wonder that I did not feel you so close by. Perhaps I am sorely out of practice. I mean that the scepter can create a portal when held in hand. I would not touch it without proper protection.
Loki turned away from Banner and the scepter, the spell broken, and walked out of the lab without another word. Sarah shrugged to Doctor Banner, "I'm sorry. I'll get the security code on the door changed, alright?"
Doctor Banner watched them as they left and then glanced at the scepter, "Right down the hall, comforting."

                                  Sarah managed to find Loki some shoes in the uniform room. When they got to the mail room, she stood there watching the organized chaos that was doing its little dance in preparation for the day, then signaled for a short, balding but trim dark haired man to come over to her.
"Raul, this," She almost considered giving him a different name but figured it wouldn't really matter, when you worked at S.H.I.E.L.D., it was hard to keep something like this a secret for long, "Is Loki. He's going to be working here in the mail room and doing errands around the office. I'll stay with him today, help him get the hang of where to go and what to do."
Raul looked from Loki to Sarah and back, "Okay, Miss Miller, anything you say."
             She expected but wasn't prepared for the amount of stares and whispers they received as office workers, agents and technicians alike took their mail from Loki's hands. He was silent most of the day, his countenance belying nothing but a determined resignation to his lot. She was pondering speaking to Fury about a quieter, less confrontational line of work by lunch time when they took a table off to the side of the cafeteria, Loki kicking off his shoes and leaning back in the seat.
"  'Tis a wonder your kind does not die of boredom." He moaned, stretched, then unwrapped the salad he'd chosen.
She sat across from him with the same dish and was struck how much he would look like just another office worker were it not for his long black hair reaching past the collar of his shirt and his protracted height, there was something else too that made him stand out but she was unable to put her finger on it.
They ate in relative silence and she began to truly relax around him, finally for the first time since he'd arrived.
Feeling confident, she said to him, "You never told me the answer to my question in your quarters this morning."
He took a long swallow of water and looked up at her briefly, "I did not feel the need to."
Sarah frowned, "Okay,"
He was quiet for a few more minutes, "As part of my punishment for my actions here on Midgard, I was forced to endure one hundred lashes  before being imprisoned for six months until my brother had the ingenious idea that bringing me here to Midgard to serve the humans might make me empathize with them."
"One hundred lashes, that's inhuman." She thought about what he had done here that constituted inhumane but pushed it from her mind for the sake of keeping him calm and rational, unable at this point, to see him and the monster that wished to take over the whole of Earth as one and the same, sitting as he was in front of her at that moment.
"And there you have it,"
Sarah cocked her head, "Your DNA is the same as ours, the properties may be different, maybe it's a bit stronger than ours but essentially we're the same."
She could see she'd crossed the line yet again as he balled his hands into fists, "We are as different as night and day, heaven and hell.." At least he was keeping his voice low, "There is no comparison."
She shook her head, in for a penny in for a pound, "Yes there is, I have the same DNA, bones, muscles, tissue, I bleed the same color as you, you're simply practicing racism on a higher level."
Loki looked at her, shook his head, and finished his water, "I don't see it."
But Sarah had already stood up and was walking towards the garbage can. Loki closed his eyes, pursed his lips in frustration and followed suit, trying to catch up with her.
She was already in the hallway outside the cafeteria when he caught up to her, "Will you slow down woman?"
"Will you speed up, man?" She retorted, kept her pace up to the elevator.
"Do you hold your American president on the same level as yourself?" He asked her as they stepped into the elevator.
"Of course not, he holds a higher office," Loki seemed about to speak but she held up her hand, "But, he is also human. I'm not talking about rank here though, I'm talking about the basic makeup of a human being, molecules, atoms, the stuff of the universe. You prove to me that you're physically different than me and I'll believe you."
"And how would you have me do that?" He crossed his arms and stepped back.
"You know what, I don't care if you're made of unicorn horns and bubble gum. I'm starting a headache so let's just focus on work for the remainder of the afternoon." She closed her eyes, put her hands to her temples and rubbed them. Suddenly two hands were pulling hers away. She opened her eyes, felt his hands on her face, thumbs at her temples. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be concentrating.
        She began to feel a curious drawing sensation, like something being pulled from the center of her mind, the pain subsiding until it vanished completely. Loki took his hands away from her face as the door to the elevator opened to the supply floor. "Can you do that?"
Sarah shook her head, mute.
"We are different,"