twenty
"would it be a crime to dream of you?"

Casia shifted uncomfortably in the dress that they'd graciously provided for her. Despite her previous complaints, she already missed her leather jacket. For a woman who only wore dresses that hugged her figure so tight she couldn't breathe, these free-flowing garbs were unlike her.

Thor seemed to think so too when she finally emerged from her room after trying to figure out who stared back at her from the mirror's reflection for far too long.

"I never thought I would see the Casia Radcliffe in a pretty dress," Thor commented as the door softly clicked shut behind her and she took his arm as if she'd been raised as he had.

"Pretty?" She questioned, clasping the opportunity to have a harmless flirt with both hands. "Is that my compliment for the day?" Her elbow nudged his side playfully.

"I compliment you all the time!" Thor protested, grinning down at her like the giant teddy bear he is. If his smile could be compared to anything, it would be the moon for it shined even when the night drew in. Lighting up the dark effortlessly and without thought. It was just what the moon did. It did not question, it just fulfilled. "You just don't remember because you were high on the pain medication Doctor Greer gave you."

"How could I forget," Casia mumbled, unable to turn away. "I'm just grateful Lusine had a change of heart and decided that I was better alive than dead."

"We always seem to talk of Lusine," He said, being the one to turn away and give a nod to a passing friend. "Not that she isn't a good friend of mine, of ours, but I should like to talk to you about you, not about her."

"Oh." Was all Casia could manage for a while as her heart ticked over ad her mind kicked into gear. "Well, what would you like to know?"

"How about do you have any siblings, for a start? And are they as hopeless as my brother?" He asked, sending a clap of thunder rattling through her bones with one look of those endless eyes. Oceanic in every description possible.

"Two. An older brother and a little sister," She answered and then it was her turn to avert her vision, locking the focus on walking. "Though I have not seen either of them in ages. Suppose sometimes blood ties just aren't enough, huh?"

Thor frowned, the expression overcoming his entire face. He did not understand how she could be flippant about the distance between herself and her family. Was family not filled with the ones you held onto for as long as you could with all the might you could muster? Were they not worth fighting for? Not worth loving even through the turmoil and anguish?

"You do not wish to see them?" He questioned further, determined to dig to the roots.

"No," Casia said, "and I'm pretty sure they don't wanna see me either, to be honest."

"Perhaps when you go home to Midgard you could send word to them. Family would not be disappointed to hear from you, I am sure," Thor assured her. Assured her even further with those eyes of his that just swam with simple honesty and hope for all that was good in the world to come to fruition.

"Maybe," She replied, focusing attention on putting one foot in front of the other instead of remembering the faces of her siblings and how they'd begged for her to stay. To stay and be happy with them, to repair their home with them, to not abandon them when they needed her the most.

To push the cruel and venomous words of Dalton condemning her, branding her a selfish woman, exiling her from returning to their quaint little home she'd adored her whole life until the darkness had come for them too.

-

-

Immediately, Casia was thankful she had the Prince of Asgard on her arm as she entered the expansive hall filled to the brim with Asgardians who were already drunk and still guzzling wine.

In fact, she was not surprised to spot Lusine seated amongst a small group of men pandering for her attention as she drank straight from the wine bottle. The ruby red dress fanned around her, cutting it fine at concealing her chest and revealing her legs through the slid as she lounged. When she caught Casia's eye, she shot her a wink before she turned to toy with one of the men who'd wormed his way to her side.

Casia stifled a laugh and followed Thor through the compact crowd, avoiding stumbling men and women and inhaling the scent of alcohol and freshly cooked food on the air.

When her and Thor took a seat, he poured her wine without asking and said, "This is a tame evening feast. Just wait until a battle victory and you will truly see how the Asgardians celebrate."

"Tame? I'm pretty sure that man over there just lost a finger," Casia shot back, eyes almost bugging out of her head at the sight of the sliced finger, but the man did not seem slightly worried as he bellowed a laugh and picked up his detached finger to chase his lady friend around the table with.

"A standard evening," Thor replied with a shrug of his shoulders as he slid the wine to Casia who was all too happy to drink it, joining in with the customs. He watched her down the entire glass. "Wow, maybe you really are half-Asgardian if you can drink like that." He chuckled, reaching the flagon to provide her with a refill.

Casia suppressed a burp. "If I'm drinking to keep up with co-workers, I've gotta go hard or go home," She joked. "Besides, if I ever let Clint drink me under the table I don't think I'd ever hear the end of it."

"Clint may be adept with that bow and arrow but he sure isn't a drinker." Thor laughed, lifting his tankard to his mouth, chugging and then wiped the froth with the back of his hand.

"He definitely isn't. Poor guy couldn't hold his drink to save the world," She replied, relaxing her shoulders and sinking into the situation. While it was unusual, it wasn't as horrible as she thought it might've been.

She'd imagined drunken brawls, disgusting men and fatty food, but the reality was exquisite, she had to admit.

Casia frowned slightly when she saw the flash of Lusine's red dress flicker through the crowd, but turned to see her still swanning upon the cushions, sipping her wine as a man with peculiar facial hair got awfully close to her. She appeared to be watching him with disinterest.

Before their very eyes, her form dissipated. A wisp of magic on the air as it dissolved between his fingertips where they'd rested upon her thigh. The man slumped, defeated.

"Fandral always was enamoured by her, but never took her hand in dance at the time of The Winter Ball." Thor had followed her gaze, it seemed, and appeared to even be amused at the sight they'd witnessed. "After her associations with Loki, no one else bothered to ask."

He didn't seem shy to talk of his brother's history with the goddess, even if he didn't seem to want to speak of it all the time, which was an annoyance to Casia's curiosity. Thor was the only one she could ask; to question Lusine of it would be a death sentence, of that she was certian.

"That's a shame," Casia commented, turning to Thor. He seemed to regard her with a questioning look as usual. If she could give him all the answers he needed, she would. But she'd need to know them herself first.

"Indeed," He confirmed, knowing that 'a shame' was a definite understatement for the disastrous clash of Loki and Lusine, but also knowing that it was all that needed to be said. "Anyway, is she going to commence your training soon?"

"Who knows," Casia grumbled, "I want to begin as soon as possible, but she seems to have other ideas."

"You've hardly been here a day. She will need time to rest and so will you. Truthfully, it's quite commendable that you're still walking after all the energy you expended on Midgard," Thor said, raising his tankard to her.

Casia raised her eyebrows, leaning back in the chair. "Another compliment? God, what's come over you, Odinson?" She quipped.

Thor watched her lick the wine off her wet lips and she did not miss the wandering gaze.

"Let me compliment you for once and just take it," Thor replied, but grinned all the same. "Besides, where are my compliments, Radcliffe?"

"All in due time," She said, glugging down more wine before she could flirt further, even if it was entirely harmless.

She tested her luck time in and time out. Trying the line with every guy she met. Sometimes she knew exactly what she wanted and got it with ease. Other times there was more of a chase until she caught the prize.

But other times, Casia had no idea what she was gunning for and this was one of those times without the need for further thought. To see his face light up as she teased and jibed at him was an utter delight to behold, undeniably so.

-

-

Lusine left her illusion behind to be fondled by the drunken warrior and slipped away with a bottle of wine in one hand and heels in the other, bare feet hot against the cold stone floor, the wine in her system leading her astray.

She knew she should not have gone to see him and yet she did it anyway because she could.

The two guards on the entrance saw her coming from a mile away with that elegant red dress, though she was only recognisable by features when she got close enough to slur a few words and lift a hand to knock them out.

She stepped over the bodies and into the dungeon. Slunk down the steps as if she were owned the place.

There was no flicker of acknowledgement as she passed by Cathal Kella who lay alone in her cell.

When she at last reached Loki's cell, he turned to face her with surprise, hand braced against the wall as he simply asked, "You came to see me?"

"I did," Lusine replied, dropping her heels to the floor and stepping up to the clear wall between them.

For a moment, she traced his face with her vision, noting his green eyes and the bags that lay beneath them. He could not help but feel her analysing his every feature and never want her to stop.

Within the blink of an eye, her power ignited in a whirl of white magic. When she reappeared within his cell, he did not seem shocked by the act. Lusine set the bottle of wine down on his little table: a minimal furnish to such a white-washed cell.

"I could not bear the thought of you alone."

"And so you decided to pay me a little visit?" His eyebrows raised. He watched her pour the wine into a glass, but caught her wrist as she moved to lift it to her mouth. "The only reason you're here is because you're intoxicated, Lusine."

"What else is there to do in a place that reminds you of each and every one of your dastardly sins other than drink away the days?" She replied, but set the glass down once more. "I suppose you're imprisoned for life?" She questioned, distastefully.

"Yes," Loki said, stone cold, his fingers uncoiling from her wrist in slight amazement that this was her. This was Lusine Volkov, not a projection or an illusion to toy with him. She had truthfully come to him just to sit in his cell and converse.

Lusine crossed her arms, taking a seat and folding one leg over the other. When she glanced around the cell, she saw nothing but torture in all of it. There was nothing slightly stimulating besides a few old copies of books and food and drink.

"This is no place for a Prince to live," She commented, watching him as he took the seat before her and helped himself to the wine she had poured out. "Yes, you commit criminal acts, but was there a choice in the matter?"

"If only Odin had not expended his yearly mercy on you," Loki said, its loyal companion a low laugh, "maybe then we would not be seeing one another in the dungeons."

"There is always a maybe, isn't there?" Lusine replied, clasping her hands together, twisting the silver ring on her thumb around and around as she lounged in a false sense of relaxation. "Always a maybe."

"Is that not how the world works?" He countered. "A life full of maybes and regrets. All of which inevitably come back to haunt you." A ghost of a smile traced his lips as he met her eyes, which lazily regarded him as he suppressed another hiccup. "Gods, how much wine have you drunk?" He asked jestingly, moving the bottle out of her reach as she went for it.

"Not enough," Lusine grumbled, taking the opportunity to grab his glass of wine from the table and take a giant gulp, letting it simmer in her throat as it went down to coalesce within her belly.

When Loki sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, her gaze snapped to him, flooded with ardent blue just as they had been the night he'd first pressed his mouth to hers on the ballroom floor, felt her skin beneath his fingertips and wanted more.

"And what do you regret?" She hiccuped again as she spoke, her shoulders jumping up. With a slur, she asked, "Is it taking me to bed what you regret?"

Loki's brow converged into a frown as he sat up straighter. Was she so drunk as to assume he wished to have never have fallen in love? Emotions were a cruelty, he supposed.

"No, never," Loki replied, "Why would I believe such a thing?"

Lusine forced her hand to remain steady as she set the glass down, a saddened smile pressed upon her lips.

"Then why did you push me away every time I begged you to love me back?" There was something sobering about their conversation. Maybe it was the emotions or the fact that it was a conversation that had been needed for quite some time, but Lusine no longer felt like drinking until she drowned. "Did you really ever love me? Or did you just love the power thriving within me and the way I let you own me?"

Loki's face twisted into an expression she didn't think she'd ever seen upon his cheeks.

A hurricane whipped across him, lightning flickering in his eyes with complete despair for what lay between them, swirling in the bottom of the wine bottle amongst other sins, singing its sombre melodies right into their ears like a siren to an unfortunate sailor.

"What does it matter now?" He asked, fingers curling tight around the arm rests as he leaned forth towards Lusine who peered at him from behind the mangled wall she'd thrown up between them. Forged from the rubble of the life he'd once promised her.

"I just wanted to know, that's all," Lusine replied quietly, but did not stray from his stare.

"Why? So you could run off back to Midgard to frolic with the captain of justice and all that is good in the world?" Loki shot at her, the chair cracking beneath the force of his anger curling around it.

"Jealousy is not an admirable trait, Loki," Lusine said coolly, but within her gut the tides twisted and turned. Unsure whether it was the alcohol or the weight of the conversation, she folded her hands over her stomach and rose from the chair, stumbling only ever so slightly.

Loki scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Don't flatter yourself," He said shortly, crossing his arms across his slight body.

"Enjoy the wine," Lusine replied stiffly and before he could utter another remark, she was gone.

All that remained was a wisp of magic to remind him that she had truly come to visit him and, again, it had ended in disaster.

When would either of them learn?

-

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