ET
"I hate this so much."
"No, no, y-you look great...!" Jolene couldn't stop herself from laughing at how awkwardly he stood in front of her.
The poor thing had his arms slightly extended out like he thought he might fall over in his new clothes. She had insisted they get him something a little more casual for today, and he'd picked a long-sleeved green shirt and jeans, and she had to admit they suited him quite well.
"I feel naked." he huffed, pink coloring his cheeks as he folded his arms.
"Oh come on, it's not revealing at all...!" She snorted. "You even have long sleeves when it's relatively warm."
He huffed at her. "I still don't like it." He awkwardly tugged at his sleeves, looking rather self-conscious. "Why do I even need these, anyway?"
"Because I wanted to take you to the animal shelter I volunteer at every weekend and I doubt you want to ruin your suit." She chuckled at the way he seemed to pout at her. "I think you'd like it, though...! We have different animals like cats and dogs...!"
He blinked at her obliviously. "What are dogs?"
She gave him a blank stare and he just sort of stared back at her. "You're joking."
"No, really, what is a dog?"
"You're joshing me."
"I'm not lying, I have no idea what that is."
She gawked at him. "Oh, my gods, you really have no idea what dogs are."
"No, I don't."
"We need to fix this right away!" She grabbed his wrist and dragged him to the register, the young man yipping in a bit of surprise.
They got the clothes paid for and she led him down into the subway so they could hop on a train. Loki looked disgusted by everything around them, his arms pressed so tightly against his sides it was like he wanted to melt into himself to avoid touching anything.
"This place is disgusting." he sneered.
"Yeah, I know." she admitted. "But it's good transportation."
He grumbled and covered his ears as their train came screeching to a halt before following her onto the car. They both sat down together with Loki warily watching the people around them, but no one really paid them any mind, caught up in their own little worlds.
"I don't like being around so many people." he muttered.
She placed a hand on his arm and gave him a small smile. "I know, but I promise, no one really knows what you look like. Not here, anyway. That was classified info."
He pursed his lips, still looking uncomfortable, but thankfully relaxed under her touch. She watched as he reached into his pocket and pulled out some sort of green ribbon before using it to pull his hair back into a bun. And she desperately hoped her blushing face wasn't terribly obvious.
The whole ride, she was reviewing the cover story she'd made for him over and over again until she was certain she would remember it.
They climbed off the train at their stop and emerged back into the city, just a block away from the shelter. She held his arm the whole time, grinning.
"Remember your cover story?"
He gave her an overdramatically exasperated sigh. "Actor from the UK, I know, I know, it's not the first time I've lied, Jo."
"Good." She grinned encouragingly as she pushed the door open to the shelter.
"Oh hey, Jo!" the young woman at the desk, Stacy, greeted with a grin. "How was work this week?"
"Ah, you know, same old." Jolene chuckled, putting her hair up into a ponytail. "Oh, but there was some interesting news about Dr. Helen Cho...! She's managed to create synthetic tissue, it's really cool...!"
"Amazing...!" Stacy beamed before her eyes then darted to Loki. "Who's the new guy?"
Jolene glanced over her shoulder, seeing Loki just sort of awkwardly standing there, puffing a loose strand of hair out of his face. "Oh, this is Tom." she lied with a smile. "Tom Hiddleston. He's a new friend of mine."
She glanced up at Loki to see him put on a polite smile as he greeted her friend. "It's a pleasure."
Stacy gave him a grin and extended a hand out to him. "Nice to meet you! Name's Stacy. You from the UK?"
He looked confused at the way she held out her hand but shook it anyway. "Er, yes, I'm from London."
"That's really cool!" She smiled at Jolene. "How'd you guys meet?"
"Online." She shrugged with a smile. "So anyway, anyone new?"
"We've got a Golden Retriever, recently rescued. He doesn't have a name, so we're trying to figure that one out."
"What's his story?" she asked, not noticing Loki wander away from her while she was in the middle of her conversation.
Loki's interest in the conversation quickly vanished, much more interested in the barking coming from a room behind the desk. Very curious, he wandered away from them and went into the room, shoving his hands into his pockets. All around him were creatures he had never really seen before. They were like wolves, and yet... not? They came in different sizes and shapes and colors, some with deeper barks than others, some with more fur and others with less. Were these the 'dogs' Sig had gone on about? Hanging on every door was a piece of paper that seemed to have the creatures' names on them, as well as their ages. All except for the last one he got to.
In the last cage was a rather large dog with heavy fur, curled up on a bed with a pair of bowls beside it. The dog perked up when he noticed him and immediately hurried over to the cage door. Loki knelt down and stared into the eyes of the sandy-colored dog as it panted with a stupidly happy expression, its tongue sticking out. "I'm naming you Thor."
"Why Thor?" a voice asked from behind him.
"Because he has the same foolish face Thor does."
He looked over his shoulder to see a young man with ruddy brown hair beginning to laugh, leaning on a cane at his side. He had freckles like Sigyn, but they were splashed over most of his face while Sig's were sprinkled across her nose, cheeks, and shoulders. Loki knew immediately from the lack of magical aura that this young man was an ordinary human, but despite that fact, Loki couldn't help but smile a bit at his laughter.
"I think it's a good name for him." the young man chuckled as he limped over, leaning heavily on his cane. "And someone will definitely want to adopt a dog with Thor's name."
Loki snorted as he stood back up. "They're idiots then."
"Not a fan?" the young man chuckled.
"Nope."
He laughed again at his honesty, before holding out a hand to him. "The name's Theodore, Theodore Bell. But everyone just calls me Theo."
Loki glanced down at his hand, before carefully reaching out to shake it. "L- er, Tom. Hiddleston."
Theo grinned. "Nice to meet you, Hiddleston."
The dog started to whine and stood up against the door, clearly wanting to get out and meet them. The young man carefully opened the door, putting a leash on the dog's red collar before leading him out. The dog jumped around the disabled man happily, before he started pulling on the leash to get to Loki as well.
"Wanna pet him?" the freckled man asked.
"No, I'm quite happy standing over here." Loki said, taking a few steps away from the dog. He didn't want to spend ages cleaning off his new clothes.
"Tom, don't wander off...!" Jolene jogged into the long room up to his side, then looked up at the young man holding the dog. "Oh, hey Theo...!"
"Hey, Jo." He grinned lightly. "Tom a new friend of yours?"
Jolene smiled and nodded. "Yes, he is...!"
Loki glanced between the two. "You know each other?"
Jolene giggled at him. "Well, duh...! We both volunteer here. Oh, is this the new puppy?" she asked when she noticed the dog.
The dog wagged his tail excitedly at the new person, whining and jumping to greet her. Theo laughed and handed her the leash so she could pet him.
"His name's Thor." Theo chuckled. "Your friend came up with the name."
"Did he now?" Jolene raised an eyebrow at him. "Why Thor?"
"Just look at that face." Loki pointed at the dog, who gave him a painfully innocent look as his tongue stuck out of his mouth.
Jolene looked down at the dog, then gave Loki a smirk that immediately made him suspicious. Before he could ask what was so funny, she let go of the leash and the next thing he knew, he was pinned on the ground by the dog with its slobbery tongue licking his cheek.
"Sigyn!!" he exclaimed while she and Theo laughed a few feet away.
The dog whined happily at him as he lay on his chest, staring at him with big brown eyes. Loki glared up at it, trying and failing to hold back his slight smile of amusement.
"Yes, you are certainly worthy of the name."
Theo knew it was rude, but he couldn't help but stare at the black-haired man as he pushed the dog off him with a small laugh. He could have sworn he'd seen this guy before, he felt it in his gut. He didn't exactly have a face Theo would forget. He was tall and lithe with slim cheekbones and long dark hair and the most otherworldly green eyes Theo had ever seen. He should know this guy, but ever since his... accident two years back, his memory had been pretty fuzzy.
Theo limped over to help Tom back to his feet as Jolene pulled the dog back into his kennel.
"Thank you." Tom nodded, then sneered at all the hair on his clothing and began dusting himself off. He had a similar accent to Theo, but it was a little... off, though Theo wasn't sure why. "Ugh, what a mess."
Theo chuckled in amusement, looking up at his face. Now that he was closer, he realized that his gut had twisted up, his hair standing on end for seemingly no reason. "Do I know you from somewhere?"
Nervousness flashed across the man's face and then vanished so quickly that Theo's trained eye just barely managed to catch it. "I'm an actor." he replied evenly, so calm that Theo almost doubted what he'd seen.
"Oh? What movies were you in?" Theo asked as innocently as he could, leaning on his cane and keeping his own nervousness out of his voice.
Tom pressed his lips together in a thoughtful manner. "Well... I was in... Narnia."
Theo raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Which one?"
"All of them." Tom replied.
He'd admit it, this guy was a good liar. He'd be convinced if he hadn't caught that brief moment of nervousness earlier. Before he could continue his line of questioning, Tom spoke up, his eyes focused on his cane.
"Why do you need that?" he asked. "Your leg seems fine."
Theo had to snort at this guy's bold question, but his voice was so genuinely curious he couldn't be offended. "Got paralyzed back in 2012, during the whole invasion thing. And this guy," he reached down to pat his frozen limb, "never got better. So now I gotta use a cane."
He watched as the color seemed to drain from Tom's face as he stared down at his leg. At first, Theo assumed from his horrified expression that he realized how insensitive his question had been. But then he noticed the small tremor in Tom's hand and the slight shake in his breathing.
"Hey!" Jolene suddenly popped back up beside Tom, taking his arm and giving Theo a forced smile. "Sorry to interrupt, but I really want to show Tom around the place. I'm sure he's going to love everyone here!"
Theo raised an eyebrow at her but nodded. "No prob. Nice meeting you, Tom."
"Likewise." Tim replied slowly as he followed Jolene.
Theo went about his business, feeding the animals and giving them lots of love before moving on to the next one, but the entire time he kept an eye on the pair as they walked around the shelter. Jolene was showing him the younger dogs and cats they had here and excitedly held out a kitten for him to hold.
"She's super sweet, you're gonna love her." she insisted.
Tom sighed dramatically before taking the whining kitten into his hands and Theo paused what he was doing to watch as he held the little thing up to his face. His eyes were narrowed as if trying to either intimidate it or determine if it was a threat. And then the little kitten licked his nose, and Theo had never seen someone go from wary to utterly awestruck within the span of three seconds.
"See, she likes you!" Jolene grinned at him.
Tom laughed softly as the kitten continued to meow and lick his nose, his face lighting up. "Well, I quite like her as well."
The feeling in his gut that screamed danger subsided shortly after Jolene started nearly drowning Tom in kittens. At that point, he'd had to sit down on the floor, laughing as they crawled all over him. One of the kittens tugged the green ribbon out of his hair, loosening his bun until those wavy black locks fell over his shoulders, and if Theo's face heated up at the sight, no one needed to know.
By the time he was finished taking care of the other dogs about an hour later, Tom had put all the exhausted kittens back in with their mother, chuckling to himself as he gingerly petted the black mother cat.
"You're doing wonderfully." he told her as if she could understand what he was saying.
Jolene giggled at him, leaning against the wall as he closed the kennel back up. "We should get you a cat."
He chuckled, then looked down at his clothes to see all the hair the kittens had left behind. "Ah, yes. Then I can deal with this every day."
Jolene laughed and Theo had to smile gently at the two. Maybe his gut was wrong, Tom seemed like any other normal guy. Maybe his danger-radar was out of touch. After all, since his leg got paralyzed, he wasn't really out in the field anymore.
"Enjoy the shelter?" Theo asked when Tom walked past him, peering into the golden retriever's kennel.
"Yes, I quite like it." Tom smiled. "Sweet little creatures. Even if some of them drool."
"I have never heard someone in this century refer to animals as 'creatures.'" Theo snorted in amusement.
Tom gave him a smirk. "I'm older than I look."
The smirk was innocent, teasing. But for whatever reason, it made his stomach drop and he could have sworn he stopped breathing for a moment. He only relaxed when Tom moved away from him.
"Well, it's been fun, but I have some other things to do."
"You're such a hermit." Jolene giggled. "You know your way back home?"
"Of course I do." Tom replied dismissively, then paused. "Oh, wait. We came on those atrocious trains."
Jolene laughed and went up to him, holding up her phone to show him what trains he needed to take. "Just be careful, alright?"
"I'm not my brother, trust me." He rolled his eyes before turning to Theo. "A pleasure meeting you, Mr. Bell. Perhaps we'll meet again."
With a small bow and a mischievous glint in his eye, he was gone. But Theo knew he'd see him again.