A God Amongst Men

A God Amongst Men

Chapter 1: Anywhere, but There: 
 

Loki's hands trembled as he stared down at them with horrified green eyes. More so at the blood that coated his hands. The crimson so bright against his alabastor skin. His vision moved to the young boy sprawled out on the floor. "S-sean?" He took a step forward. "I...I-I can fix this..." 

 Mobius hunched over him protectively with a deep seeded anger burning in those eyes that had only ever held kindness for him. "They were right. You are a monster. You can't fix this." 

 Loki quickly shook his head as he took another small step forward. "Mobius I'm sorry. It was an accident I can fix this. Please let me  fix this." 

 "No, Loki." 
 Loki jolted awake with a sucked in gasp fingers clenched in the sheets on his side of the bed. It took him a minute to process that he was awake before he was able to start calming down. Running one still faintly shaking hand through his hair as the other one rested over his heart. It had been a long time since he had had a nightmare. 

 Once the loom had been saved and thus the crisis averted they were able to start sending people back to their timelines. It took a while, how long he wasn't sure, there was no way really to pin down how much had been spent at the TVA. It could have been hours, could have been years. It didn't really matter. 

 As they had started nearing the end of their duties though he had gotten himself so worked up about where he was going to go. Nowhere was really good for him, only to be called silly by Mobius before he had been taken by the hand and lead through a time door to the place on the Sacred Timeline where he had been taken from and from there he had gained himself a new family. 

 The first couple of years had been so hard. He was certain if it hadn't been for the tenacity and patience of endless kindness of the man lying next to him he would not have made it through those tough times. He had been paranoid all the time. Constantly looking over his shoulder scared to leave the house. He refused to use his magic at all so the nightmares had been way out of control. Sleep had been hard those days, but he was just so scared that the Mad Titan or Heimdall or Odin and if not them then there was always SHIELD and the Avengers themselves, his brother. So many enemies on this realm that could come and destroy this small life he had made for himself. 

 As the years had passed and with some therapy (read a lot) and a lot of meditation he had finally crawled back to an okay head space. HIs mental defenses had had time to heal and repair themselves from the damage Thanos and The Other had done. He still rarely used magic. Only a handful of times in the last couple years and he was still paranoid. Barring vacations because they always went somewhere discreet and fairly private where the chance of recognition would be low for him he still didn't like to be far from home. He was okay running errands such as the grocery shopping and occasionally liked to go to thrif stores and books stores, but rarely did he leave his little town in Ohio. Most importantly they stayed the fuck away from New York. At all costs. 

 He also did get to watch Sean and Kevin grow up. Got to be a part of their lives and he treasured them as much as he did Mobius. There was nothing he would trade them for and nothing he would not trade for them and their happiness. 
 Loki felt his heart slowing at last as he reminded himself of how much he was truly loved. At how far he had come and took a deep breath at last. He wasn't feeling quite ready to go back to sleep though. He pushed himself up into a sitting position and took a look over his shoulder to make sure that he hadn't disturbed Mobius, but the man was sleeping away. Snoring a little and Loki smiled at the content look on his face before he pushed himself up. 

 On his way to the stairwell that lead down to the first floor he stopped first by Kevin's room and took a peek inside to make sure all was well and shook his head a little as he saw his glasses askew on his face. His switch which was warning of a low battery lying on his stomach with one of his hands still loosely holding it. So he stepped in and carefully pulled the glasses from his face and folded down the arms and tucked them in the case on the nightstand and then the switch on it's charging station on the dresser so that it could charge for later use. 

 Kevin was in his Sophomore year of highschool now. Loki had his suspicions about a girlfriend and so did Mobius, but there hadn't been anything outright said yet so they were still waiting for some sort of confirmation. He was so smart. Such a creative mind. He was hoping to pursue some sort of journalism career. Loki had thought it might pass as Kevin had always been one to bounce from one thing to another from month to month, but Journalism had been a fixation for about a year now. 

 He pulled himself away and collected a couple articles of laundry that had missed the clothesbasket and put them in said basket before he closed the door quietly and moved along to Sean's room where he could see the desk light on under the door. Sean was a senior in high school and he was starting to look at different colleges so it wasn't unusual to see him up a little later researching different schools and it was the weekend so it was okay. 

 He gave a knock on the door and once he was granted entry he smiled a little. "Finding any place interesting?"
 

Sean spun around in his rolling chair. "I have...it's just I don't know what I want to do. Something in science..."

 "Want to talk over a cup of tea?" 

 Sean contemplated the offer before he shrugged. "Sure. Are you okay though?"

 Loki nodded as he lead the way downstairs. "I am. I had a bad dream and it left me a little shaken, but I am alright. Now what kind of science are you interested in?" That wasn't exactly surprising either. Sean had always liked math and puzzles. 

 "I don't know. Chemistry is fun. There's a lot you can do with that. Biochemistry is cool, but I also really like to draw I think it would be cool to be some sort of a graphic designer." 

 Loki pulled down a vanilla chai tea holding it up for Sean's approval and once he was given a nod he shut the cupboard and got into a different for two cups. "Well, I do not know to much about how college works, but from what I understand you do not have to decide right away do you?" 

 Sean shook his head as Loki put the water on to boil. "No, not right away. I think you have like two years before you have to actually decide. There's a couple schools in New York-" 

 "Sean you don't need to go so far away." Loki said with an air of casualty to hide the fear that gripped him at the thought of his baby boy in the den of his enemies. "There's so many other nicer cities and schools to go to much closer. You don't have to stay in state, but not so far away." 

 Sean shrugged a little. "It really isn't though. It's only like eight hours by car. Less by plane." 

 Loki shook his head. "To far away for me to get to you in a reasonable amount of time if something were to happen. Plus do you know how dangerous that city is? It's on the news at least four times a month with some new threat running amuck and making a mess of things."

 "That's what the Avengers are for." Sean with an excited smile. "I might have a chance to meet Ironman. Or Thor!" 

 Loki forced himself to suppress the shudder and the flinch at the thought of his enemies and his brother. "Sean please consider somewhere else. We both would not be able to bear it if something happened to you." He wasn't sure his anxiety would be able to take it. 

 Sean pouted, but he finally backed off a little. "I'll...I'll look at some other schools."

 Loki nodded as he felt relief run through him. "Thank you." He said softly as he pulled the kettle off the burner before it had a chance to screech and wake everyone up. "Anywhere else that you want to go I don't mind. We will make it happen I promise you alright?" 

 Sean nodded and watched as Loki set to work fixing up the cup of tea. "As for deciding what you want to do, I would look at how much enjoyment you would get out of each one of the options as a long term career. It would not do well to go into something that would not bring you fulfillment or happiness."

 "Oh I know. I was thinking about maybe something like working with snakes and stuff, but I feel like if I worked with them to much as a job I might not want to take care of Hiss."

 Loki hummed as he finally handed over a cup of tea to Sean. "That's a good idea." 

 Sean smiled at the praise as he took his cup of tea and blew on it a little as he slipped off the chair he was sitting on. "I'm gonna go do some more research." He said through a yawn. "Because I think once this gone I'm gonna be sleepy." 

 Loki nodded. "Sleep well then Sean." he said as he watched him go up the stairs before he sighed and made his way out to the living room where his little reading nook had been built into one of the window sills. Mobius had had it added in just for him and it was probably his favorite spot in the house. 

 He felt bad for keeping the kids away from New York, but there were just to many risks. Too many things that could go wrong. He knew they didn't understand. It hadn't been a problem when they had been younger, but as with any child the older they got the more the appeal of a so called forbidden place sang to them. Once upon a time he had been the same way. Curiosity had very literally killed the cat. Keeping them away was for the best though.

 He sipped at his tea and shook off the lingering anxiety both from his dream and from the bomb that Sean had dropped on him and dropped off his cup in the kitchen before he made his way back upstairs. Noting that the light in Sean's room was off now. He carefully slid back into bed and cuddled back up to Mobius and let himself drift back off.