Chapter Text
Never had Loki seen a place on Midgard so bereft of life. The streets were devoid of people, the houses boarded up and falling to ruin. He had lost a bet to Thor and the forfeit was to be sent by Heimdall somewhere on Midgard to stay for the next week.
It seemed Detroit was living up to his thoughts on Midgard. Unimpressive and beneath that of Asgard. Still, it was rather nice to walk in the dark with the only sounds being some sort of small wolf that seemed to follow him in the shadows of the tall grass.
Every so often a beaten-up car would pass and the streetlights would flicker before fading back into pleasant darkness.
That was until he walked for long enough to find a large (for Midgard anyway) house, lights barely visible through thick curtains. The state of the house was marginally better than the others but still would require much work to return it to its previous semi-state of glory. Music was emanating through the walls; a simple drum beat with a string instrument playing over it. It was ominous and strangely alluring.
Might as well find some fun here, Loki thought to himself. He skipped up the concrete steps to the front door, debating whether to press the button or simply bang on it loud enough to be heard over the music.
He wasn't sure what the button would do so that decided it for him. He pressed the button gently, hearing its shrill beep ring out loud. The string instrument upstairs stopped instantly, followed by the percussion a moment later.
There were no sounds coming from the house and no movements in the darkness he could see through the frosted glass in the door.
"What do you want?" A male voice finally sounded from above him. It was deep and followed the same pattern as his own speech.
Interesting. Is this the British accent they speak of? He had to admit it was rather appealing if he did say so himself.
Loki retreated down some steps to get a view of the now open window, the figure still hidden from view. "Hello there, mystery voice. You seem to be the only life here for miles. Rather interesting to stay in such squalor, don't you think?"
"Fuck off," the voice answered simply, sounding bored with the entire encounter. That wouldn't do, he was in the presence of a God the ungrateful worm.
"No, I don't think I will," Loki smiled. "I'd like to meet the Midgardian that thrives here. I've got an awfully long week ahead of me."
“Midgardian?” He heard the man whisper to himself. Ah yes, of course he wouldn’t know that name. Loki hated the name ‘Earth’. It was so painfully common and dull.
“Yes, Midgardian. You mortals would call yourself humans.”
There were no sounds coming from the house that even Loki’s sensitive ears could pick up. He wondered if the man upstairs had resorted to the tactic of ignoring him when the door in front of him was ripped open with so much force the wood creaked in protest. He would have admonished them for showing such animosity towards him but when he got his first glimpse of the man, he was shocked.
He first noticed that the man was topless, pale smooth skin over an athletic build. Lean muscles with the tantalising ‘V’ that Loki was rather fond of that lead to a pair of low-riding tight dark jeans. Next, he noted the long black hair that fell across one of his eyes. That was when he saw that the eyes that pinned him with an angry stare were anything but human. Even in the low light he could see that they were a strange yellow-green with a thick band of black around the outside of his irises. Then he clocked the sharp pointed canines from his teeth-baring snarl.
Oh my, what do we have here? He wondered.
The man halted abruptly when he saw Loki, no doubt taking in his otherworldly leather and metal attire, his aggressive stance becoming hesitant. “Were you about to attack me, mortal? Don’t stop on my account, I think I would find your attempt rather funny,” Loki asked nonchalantly, dragging his eyes away from where they had begun to wander down to the man’s chest again, totally not noticing that he had a soft dusting of hair between his pecs and a lovely trail that disappeared below his jeans.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“I am Prince Loki of Asgard. You may address me as Loki. And you might be?”
He tilted his head, not unlike a dog would when someone would speak to one. “Adam. I’m Adam,” he answered timidly with a gulp that showed his Adam’s apple bobbing.
Loki decided he liked this man. There was an air about him that spoke of an old, troubled soul. A kindred spirit. “Well Adam. Aren’t you going to invite me in?” Adam hesitated and Loki could see the war in his eyes. Torn between saying no and sating his curiosity. Loki didn’t have time for games. “I’ll let myself in then,” he said, ascending the stairs with all his princely swagger. Adam didn’t move from the middle of the doorway when Loki approached, but he did put a rough hand on his shoulder to stop him from entering the house. To Loki’s surprise, there was more strength behind him than he expected from a Midgardian, able to withstand a fifth of his power. Interesting.
Adam licked his lips nervously, noticing Loki wasn’t some feeble human he could manhandle. “You’re not human.”
Loki chuckled darkly. “What part of Asgardian prince did you not understand?” He asked sarcastically, shrugging off Adam’s hand and barging past him into the mess that was his home.
There was clutter everywhere. He had been to Midgard a few times throughout the years and the house appeared to have something that belonged to each of the last four centuries. The walls were painted in dark reds and blacks and wires ran across the floor like hordes of snakes. Quite frankly, Loki was rather disgusted at the disrepair and general unclean state this man kept his house in, but he was determined to stick out his plan of playing mischief on the poor unsuspecting victim.
He paid no mind to the resigned sigh behind him, and the soft click of the door closing and ventured further into the house. All the kitchen counters were covered in old music junk, cabinets either empty or filled with thin horizontal packages stacked haphazardly. The spare rooms that were devoid of furniture were filled so much you could hardly walk five feet into them. Ground floor scan completed; Loki moved to ascend the stairs.
Adam was shadowing him silently, though Loki could feel just how much he disliked the situation. The next floor was much the same as the first, albeit seemingly more lived in. After traversing a long hallway, he entered a large room, filled with musical instruments and technology he knew nothing of. This must have been the room the music was coming from.
Wires continued to wind around the floor and Loki carefully walked across them to the curved sofa, settling down with his legs spread and arms thrown over the top of the back cushion. He watched as Adam cautiously entered the room after him, hands flexing at his sides. “Were you playing before I so rudely interrupted?” Adam nodded. “Well don’t stop on my account. I rather liked it.”
Adam was again seemed to be torn as to what to do. Loki left him to his internal debate and surveyed more of the room. There were mainly string instruments of many different shapes and colours with a lone elaborate drum set near the wall. Amongst the wires were odd looking buttons with knobs and lights. It disgruntled him that he was finding the set-up intriguing. It was then his eyes fell to the glass on the table. A high-necked small capacity wine glass that was stained with red liquid.
Weird eyes, sharp teeth and something looking suspiciously like blood. Loki had read tales of Midgardian mythology. A certain creature that would prey on mortals in the night and leave exsanguinated corpses for others to find come morning. He had yet to find evidence of other mythological creatures so far, not that he was actively looking. The thought of finding such beasts was stroking his insatiable need for knowledge. His time here was going to be more interesting than he thought.
“You’re a vampire,” he said as a statement, his excitement shining through his voice. Adam froze his fidgeting, eyes wide in panic. Eyes he now saw had lost their non-human appearance; replaced by dazzling blue eyes.
Loki gave in to the realisation that he found Adam ridiculously handsome. Their appearances were so similar he would believe Adam to be a doppelganger, albeit a more morose version.
“Wh- why would you say that?” Adam stammered.
Loki rolled his eyes. “I think the teeth gave it away. Were you going to drain me of my blood and leave me to die on this wretched carpet of yours? Not a very nice way to treat a guest.”
“You smell different to the zombies.” Zombies were another thing Loki had read of. Thoughtless rotting corpses that only strived to eat the brains of the living, which he would say most of the population was already with their mindless devotion to awful people.
“And pray tell, how do I smell to you with that powerful nose of yours?”
“Like early morning frost and pine.” Frost. The word brough unpleasant thoughts to the surface but he batted them away. Now was not the time to delve into his disgusting heritage.
“Hmm,” he replied indifferently, kicking his boots up onto the table, knocking off some papers in the process.
Adam sighed and walked towards Loki, dropping to one knee to pick up the papers off the floor and Loki stopped breathing for a moment, cock twitching. It was now his mission to make Adam kneel for him in a completely different scenario one way or the other.
He rose as if completely oblivious to Loki’s reaction and cradled them to his chest, looking awkwardly down at the floor.
“Um, it’s going to get light out soon.”
“Ah yes, your aversion to sunlight. No bother, I shall entertain myself while you rest.” Adam looked as if he was about to argue, and Loki smiled. “I am not yet finished with you. I wish to know more about you. I will see you in the evening.”
Adam understood the dismissal and sighed, realising he had no choice but to let Loki stay what with being so much stronger than him. He was treated with the sight of the vampire’s back when he turned to leave, standing tall with prominent shoulder blades and dimples above his jeans.
Loki let out his own content sigh and with a wave of his hand removed his armour with seidr. Today he would take a thorough look through the shelves of this man’s home to ready himself to question Adam relentlessly when he woke.
Best forfeit ever.
xXx
There was an absurd number of portraits that Adam had hung on the wall, Loki thought. More than would seem the norm. Hardly any of the cracked dark paint was visible though that was a good thing going by how the rest of the house looked. Many of the people in said pictures were what Midgard would call scientists and mathematicians: the very few mortals he had read about in books that Loki thought were head and shoulders above the rest of the insipid population.
For example: the wonderful Newton was why Loki knew that Asgardians, while not that different in physiology from Midgardians, had a mass much greater while on Midgard. More gravity acted upon him while here. The knowledge hadn't been useful for anything, but knowledge was knowledge.
Then there was Rosalind Franklin who discovered the double stranded left-helix structure that was DNA. Loki approved of her place on the walls rather than that of the thieves that were Watson and Crick. The four bases present in human DNA were much simpler than Asgardian's six bases, and the eight found in Jotnar. How half breeds were even possible was a mystery Loki still hadn't found the answer for yet.
And of course, Einstein. The methods of discovery used on Midgard were primitive compared to some of the other Nine Realms, but it got the job done and they had managed to catapult their civilisation to higher living standards and was well on their way to traveling the cosmos, though their short life spans hindered most plans.
Tragic, really.
Still, Loki was excited to pick Adam's brain and see if he was as smart as he hoped. His intuition was almost never wrong but there was the possibility of the portraits belonging to someone else if the lone picture frame on a shelf was anything to go by.
It was of Adam dressed in eighteenth century garb, features still youthful as he was now and accurately missing a smile yet the woman posing with him was the opposite. She gave the impression she was happy, a soft smile on her face as they gazed into each other’s eyes. Her hair was long and thick, styled in dreadlocks and held away from her face by a thick band. Lovers perhaps?
Either way, she wasn't in the house. No voice had come from down the hallway when Adam left.
Loki decided to investigate. Sunlight was shining through a sliver in the curtains when he left the music room in search of Adam's quarters. His room was the only one with the door closed. Grinning, he pushed open the door soundlessly and closed it behind him.
The room was blacked out course, not that it mattered to Loki. Even this room wasn't safe from clutter, the only empty space that being a small trail from the door and a perimeter around the bed. Adam was sleeping heavily in the middle of the bed, curled up in a ball perpendicular to his pillows. The black satin sheet was tangled around his legs, covering up to his hips, still nothing on his upper half.
Everything inside Loki was screaming at him to enact mischief but he hesitated. Adam looked peaceful in his sleep; the air of sadness Loki picked up on earlier was blissfully absent.
Just a small amount? his mind begged.
Eventually he gave in and began scouring the room for stackable objects. He got himself a nice pile of various items and laid on his side behind Adam, close enough to note that his skin didn't give off blistering heat compared to his Jotun coolness. He was lukewarm no doubt from being undead and Loki was just fine with that.
By the time he was finished, Adam was covered in boxes, a lamp, small random trinkets, and several books. He had also taken the liberty of threading pencils and some long sticks he assumed were for drumming through the vampire's hair. Adam hadn't even so much as shifted in his sleep much to Loki's glee. Now all he could do was wait for the man to wake.
He shifted to put his back against the headboard and picked up the book he had wanted to read rather than stack and lost himself in the principles of biochemistry for a few hours.