The Call [Loki x Siren Fanfiction]

Chapter 13

Serendipity POV

Once we were closer to shore, I let the absolutely soaked Loki run ahead, both to check for humans and to let me change in peace. I’ve used this particular beach several times this time of day, and only twice was there a human on it. I just don’t want him to see me change. If he saw that… I don’t know what he would think. I just don’t want him to run away when he sees. 

As my tail begins to split, I grit my teeth and try to stop a scream from escaping. Every time. Every time I do this it is absolute agony, but every time I come back to do it again. Why do I come back? What do I desire that I can’t just stay in the ocean like I’m supposed to? 

What if I just got into the water and never came back out. What do I keep leaving for? Why don’t I stop trying to change and just go back into water, right this second? 

As I’m considering this, I halt the change. What’s stopping me? Do I want to just declare the surface a lost cause? I could go back into the ocean, forever. Everything I need to live is there. I’ve got food, I’ve got ocean to swim in, I’ve got fish to play with. 

“Witch, are you almost done?” Loki calls to me with a sense of urgency in his voice, pulling me out of my thoughts. 

Huh. 

I take a deep breath and continue on, trying to stay quiet. As my muscles begin to form, I hear sand being kicked up. I whip my head around to see who it is. It’s Loki, running towards me, but looking at the sky instead of me. 

“We’re out of time! Put this on,” He throws a dress at me without looking at me. “I’m going to have to carry you,” 

“What!?” I half cry at him. 

“There are humans here and they do not seem to like you, so we have to go, right now,” 

Dear lord. I pull the dress over my head and try to scooch up the shore a bit more, but I’m having a hard time focusing on anything other than the feeling of the lower half of my tail being ripped apart into legs. 

“Ok, it’s on,” I tell him. He barely hesitates before squatting down and wrapping one arm under where my knees are starting to appear, and the other around my back. His touch on my legs is painful, but I can’t tell him that. He’s doing what he can. 

My knees are now fully formed, and I break the skin on my lip trying to stop from crying out. The transition is a thousand times worse today, probably because of the incident with the divers. Loki glances down at me, worried. 

This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen. I didn’t want him seeing me like this. 

My ankles finally split, and I cannot describe how much better I feel now. Now that I can devote some energy to other things, I notice that there are many many many humans running towards the water, probably looking for me. I’m right here. Why are they not even looking at me? 

“Loki,” I whisper, unsure what’s going on. “Why don’t they care about us?” He laughs, proud of himself. 

“Illusions can be helpful, don’t worry about them hearing you. As long as I’m conscious, they can’t see or hear us. The only way for anyone to find us would be if they ran right into us, which probably won’t happen.” 

I nod, not bothering to ask how in heck he knows how to make illusions. The pain in my legs finally dissipates, telling me I’m ready to walk. 

“Ok, I’m good, let’s go,” I tell Loki. He tilts his arms and kind of dumps me on the ground. I stumble for the first few steps, but then I get the hang of it and we’re running at a good pace. I can hear Loki panting next to me. He’s not gonna be able to run at this pace and keep up the illusions much longer. I begin scanning street signs and trying to figure out where we are. 

As we cross one street, I halt and do a double take of a sign. Here we go, hopefully Lacy is still here. 

“Loki, c’mon, we can hole up here for the night,” I tell him, he looks at me, confused but relieved. 

“A tavern? Why are we here, little witch?” He asks me, but follows me as I walk around back. 

“A few years ago… well, I think it was a few years ago, I worked here off and on for a few months. The lady who owns it, Lacy, said that if I needed a night or two the next time I passed through to let myself in,” I tell him.

We get around back, and Loki wrinkles his nose in disgust at the conditions of this particular alley. I spin in a circle, trying to find the old garbage can. I spot it in a corner, and drag it over next to the door. I climb up and feel around in the gutter for the small metal box. When I find it I can’t hold back a small cry of triumph. I climb down and replace the garbage can before opening the box and rooting through for the right key. Loki watches over my shoulder, slightly confused. 

“Lacy always left a box of keys back here. Her rules were that if you ever got to know where the keys were, you could use them if you needed to. Now I guess I’m finally taking her up on her offer,” I explain. I grab the blue key and slide it into the door lock, and then the black one into the bolt. Both unlock, and I swing the door open.

We creep in, Loki closing the door behind us. I set the box on top of the coffee machine so Lacy will see it in the morning, and head behind the counter to look through the boxes of room keys for one that’s available. 

“Here we go!” I exclaim in a whisper. “Room 14,” I tell Loki. I head for the stairs, and Loki follows me like a dog. We sneak upstairs, stopping a few times to tell him what floorboards are loud. We make it down the hall with only having hit two boards, which is quite impressive when you know how many of them are creaky. 

I slide the key into the lock and pull it open silently. I turn around to face Loki and put a finger to my lips, a silent warning. I gesture to him and tell him to wait in the hall. I head into the room, and do a quick check for an occupant, as some rooms have more than one key. Once I’m convinced it is unoccupied, I go back to turn on the lights and invite Loki in. 

He shuts the door, and we both dive for the bed, letting our bodies relax for a moment. I turn my head towards him, he looks peaceful. 

I sit up and survey the room. We’ve got a dresser, a desk, a bathroom, and a bed. Crap. Only one bed. 

I glance back at Loki, who is already passed out. I don’t blame him. The past few days have been a lot of work for a huma- an Asgardian, especially the whole towing him 50 miles to shore part. His arm will probably be sore for weeks. 

I need to sleep too. Do I sleep on the floor? Or maybe get another room? No. The floor is hard, and probably cold, and I can’t take two rooms from Lacy, especially since I don’t know how long I’m going to be here. 

I guess we share the bed. 

I lay back down and roll over, staring at the wall, trying to ignore the fact that Loki is right behind me, and we are sharing a bed. 

As I fall asleep, I get to stop and process everything. He seriously carried me for a good ten minutes while sprinting, and he covered us with probably multiple illusions, on top of having survived a fight with three boats of divers.

And now we’re sharing a bed. My last thought is that we can never, ever, ever mention this to Stark.