[future loki - firefly!verse]

[trickster_loki]

The man who sits by the crossroads doesn't look particularly remarkable to any who pass him by. His clothing is, after all, rather shabby and held together by patches and prayer. He wears a wide-brimmed hat that looks like it may have once been a respectable shade of black but is now so faded and dust-covered that one would never guess. By his feet

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[bloodandsteel]

He may not notice, but there's a girl watching him, even now.

Her hair isn't red anymore, and her eyes and skin are darker. But she's the same woman, centuries later, and she recognizes him from these new eyes just as easily.

For the moment, she's content just to watch over him.

[trickster_loki]

You don't live as long as he does and not learn a sense of when someone is watching you. It was one thing when he was putting on his little show, watchers are expected. But now he's alone, despite the various people here bustling around him. They pay him not a second glance.

But something is making the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, even if he takes care not to show it outwardly as he strolls along. Even so, he's looking for his watcher.

This would have been easier, once.

[bloodandsteel]

She waits in the shadows and in the crowd for him to reach his destination, or at least to stop on the way, before she shows herself. She isn't sure if he'll recognize her or not, what he's lost since then.

Strange, how he was diminished but she was still strong, her people were, his people all dead but him as far as she could tell.

And then again, the world still had need of her and hers.

[trickster_loki]

He doesn't, quite, reach the place he'd been headed, stopping when the feeling annoys him enough to turn and actually look.

Which would be about when he actually catches sight of her. Except...she doesn't look like anyone he can remember meeting. Nor does she look like someone who means him an ill turn. Not somebody's muscle, not the Feds. Not from what he can see, anyway.

So he frowns at her, tips his hat up a bit, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"

[bloodandsteel]

She smiles a little. "You don't remember me, do you." No, of course not. Poor Loki, what he has become, such a small thing compared to what he was. Not that she misses what he was so much as mourns ... grieves, maybe, for a hurt done to her friend.

[trickster_loki]

He tilts his head to the side slightly, curiously. "Should I?"

He had, after all, known many women in his time. But there's something about this one. Something familiar, now that he's looking for it. Loki takes a step closer to her, his expression thoughtful.

[bloodandsteel]

"You might. We knew each other well, once upon a time."

But that had been before he lost his memory, his sense of self. She wonders if it's something he can regain again, or if it is gone forever with the rest of his people.

Poor Loki.

[trickster_loki]

Once close enough, he reaches out to touch her cheek, but stops short of actually doing so, though she can still feel the warmth of his skin near hers.

He asks, with a wry twist of his lips, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away?"

[bloodandsteel]

She smiles, and it's only a bit wry, mostly real. "Something like that. An even longer time ago, before everything ended and we had to start over again." Before Ragnarok. Before you nearly died.

"A great deal was ..." Torn from you. No, not that. "A lot happened. You barely survived."

[trickster_loki]

He makes a face, "I do remember."

He's not that broken.

And he thinks he remembers her too, even if she looks different. He lets his hand actually touch her, gliding his thumb over her skin. "You look different."

[bloodandsteel]

"Good." There's a smile now, a real smile, leaning her cheek into his hand a bit. Enjoying his touch.

"I do that, now and again." Which he might remember, or might not. Perhaps his initial confusion had simply been over her new form. Though, time was somewhat long and not so long ago at all, he would have recognized her no matter what she looked like.

Ah well.