How do you know me?
Loki’s foster parents had always told him to keep his religious disbeliefs to himself. All the other kids believe in God, why doesn’t Loki?
He never understood where the disbelief came from himself. Maybe it had always been there.
But Loki had always had it. He would see the other children at school talking about church or praying and he felt sorry for them.
The thought that someone needed some holy deity to pray to just seemed funny. People couldn’t stand the idea that maybe there was no purpose to life and maybe life hadn’t been designed by anything other than itself.
And he especially hated when people credited their own creations and achievements to some sort of divinity. If you’ve done something then you should be proud of it.
But Loki had kept silent all through school. He didn’t let anyone know how much he detested religion and how flawed it ultimately was. It was never easy, because for some reason the child services had decided to name him after a Norse God when they found him. It had made his life into one giant hypocrisy. Here he was, an Atheist who had no need for religion or a God, named after an ancient God.
But only the truly learned schoolchildren knew the Norse Pantheon. So few knew of Loki’s somewhat double identity.
Loki kept his Atheism stifled all through public school. And when he went to college he exploded.
He started the first secular society at his college. He began having monthly meetings for ‘recovery from religion’ where he talked to people who felt bad about leaving religion but ultimately had to because their beliefs didn’t help them anymore. He wrote papers about the inherent flaws in every religion.
And after he graduated he went onto grad school, and then after that he earned two separate Ph.Ds.
And during all his time in school he began writing for various magazines and newspapers about the abhorrence of religion and his hopes for a secular world.
His first book, Beyond Faith was on the New York Times bestselling list and it allowed him a large following and several televised appearances.
The world was not ready for someone like him, but it got him.
Loki loved his job. He wrote for a magazine fairly regularly, taught a religious studies class at NYU and was still making television appearances even three years after his book was published.
He had just had the best week, he’d published an essay about how horrible the idea that homosexual is a sin and he’d debated a creationist on television. He was still riding the high when the worst thing happened.
The Avengers formed.
Now, Loki had no problem with super powered humans and a few spies protecting the world from the forces of evil. To each their own.
But there was a guy in the Avengers who claimed to be a God. And not just any God, but the God of Thunder from Norse mythology.
He told the press that his name was Thor. And fittingly, he could control the weather and he carried around a magical hammer and could fly.
Even though he appeared like a nice enough guy during interviews Loki hated him.
This ‘Thor’ had ruined everything. He had made people point at him and say, ‘Look! A God! All the Gods must exist if this one does!’ And Loki hated it.
Loki was pretty sure Thor was just a super human and not a divine being. Maybe he was a mutant or something.
Either way, after the Avengers had saved New York from some crazy person named Doom Loki had been denying all kinds of interviews. Because he knew they would all want him to recant everything he had ever said and jump on the religion band wagon.
And Loki knew that if he said anything against the Avengers then their PR people would be all over him. And he wanted to wait until classes were out for the semester to do that. He couldn’t teach his students if he had Avengers and SHIELD attacking him.
So Loki waited a few months. And aside from the random day when New York would completely shut down during an Avengers fight and the occasional interview and televised appearance Loki’s life was fairly peaceful.
That was until one particular night.
Loki had gone out to the bars with his friend and fellow teacher, Matt and they split up to go home pretty late.
Loki had spent a little too much money on drinks, so he was just going to walk home and preferably pass out. He had an afternoon class to teach the next day.
It was all going well until two guys decided to jump out of the shadows and mug him.
Loki was shoved up against a wall in an alley and a gun was shoved under his throat. There were definitely two guys, and Loki wasn’t strong enough to fight them both off.
But he did struggle.
“Let me go!” Loki yelled as he shoved them back. But they just punched him and yelled.
“Give us your wallet!” They said.
Loki managed to kick one in the groin, and he noticed that it started raining.
The other mugger raised the gun and was about to pistol whip Loki, when he was grabbed by an arm and thrown into the other wall of the alley.
“Oh shit Avenger!” One of the muggers yelled before they both ran off.
Loki glared at their retreating forms and then pushed himself away from the wall and dusted himself off. He assumed whatever Avenger had just saved him was already gone but then he heard a sharp intake of breath.
Loki looked up and wanted to die from the irony.
Thor had saved him.
Thor took a step forward so that the light behind them illuminated his features, and Loki had to admit he was a very good looking man. He didn’t look like a God though. He just looked like a powerful man.
The Hammer hung at his hip and he was wearing the ridiculous armor he always fought in.
Loki raised an eyebrow at his slow approach. Because Thor looked like he’d seen a ghost. His eyes were wide and he kept trying to say something. But his voice kept failing him.
“Loki?” Thor choked out.
Loki took a step back from him. All his senses instantly alert.
“How do you know my name?”
Loki was not prepared for Thor to surge forward and wrap his arms around him. And wasn’t sure if he should return the hug or not.
“Oh Loki.” Thor whispered.
How does he know my name?