The Tear of Celeste

Chapter 22: Childhood Stories

You decided to give Loki some space, so you spend the rest of the morning in your room, sitting at the computer and just relaxing.

When you came down again for lunch, you were greeted by the smell of food.

You got to the kitchen and saw that Loki was cooking, humming a tune you did not know, and even smiled at you as he saw you.

You smiled back, glad to see he was in a better mood now, and tried to sneak over to see what he was doing. "Whatcha making~," you asked, trying to look, but were shooed away by him.

"It's a surprise, go sit on the couch," he instructed, turning back to his cooking.

You rolled your eyes and went to the couch. "If this is another one of your pranks Loki I swear to-"

"No pranks dear, just sit down and pick a movie," he said while cooking.

You roll your eyes and turn on the tv, flipping through movies to find something you would wanna watch, but you did not find anything interesting so you turned it off again.

"Not finding anything to your liking?" He asks as he walks over to you with two bowls.

You move on the couch to give him space to sit down and shake your head. "Nah, you can pick something if you like."

Loki sat down and gave you one of the bowls. "No, that's fine," he says before taking a bite of food from his own bowl. He did it in a very animated way, almost like he is showing you it is not poisoned.

You look at your bowl, finding a lot of chopped-up meat, bacon, potatoes, onions, and herbs, all grilled and placed in a bowl with a fried egg on top.

You gasp, recognizing the meal and eagerly scoop up a big spoonful. "I have not had this in forever!" You said happily, before putting the spoon in your mouth.

He tilted his head in surprise at that. "You know it?"

You chew excitedly, making happy noises, and grin at him, swallowing with a happy hum. "When I visited the Nordic countries for school this was my favorite," you say, enjoying the old flavors once again. "That's where I studied Norse mythology," you told him.

You had very quickly learned that all you had on Norse Mythology you might as well throw out the window in this place, it did not match up, so it had been easier just to listen to Thor's stories rather than try and guess from what you knew. Luckily you never asked Loki about the horse incident.

"You seem to have traveled a lot," Loki comments before he takes another bite.

You nod and look at your bowl. "Yeah, I have a hard time staying in one place," you told him honestly, shifting your weight. "Always moving to new places, new cultures, stuff like that."

He looks at you intrigued. "Are you looking for something?" He asks, a tilt of his head.

You looked back at him and blinked. "... I don't know," you say honestly. "It's more like... No place ever really felt like home, you know?" You looked at the tv, even though it was just a black screen. "Never really felt like I belonged anywhere." Before now at least.

"I know the feeling," he says, looking at his bowl too. You remember what Thor said about Loki being adopted and give him a worried look, but he shakes his head, clearly not interested in talking about it.

You think of another question to ask instead but bite your lip. He looks at you doing that, but you don't notice. "You don't have to answer, but can you tell me about Stella?" You say as you turn to him, his eyes quickly going from your lips to your eyes.

"I'm sorry what?" Loki looks a bit confused. "I think the sorcerer has more info on the subject," he says, looking back at his food.

"No, I meant more... The way you talked about it made me feel like you saw it before yourself, and it sounded kind of personal!" You explained, looking at him with big eyes.

He looked back at you, not really wanting to tell you this story, but something about the way you are looking at him made him start talking "... I was a kid when I saw it."

You grinned, settling into a blanket with your bowl of food. Storytime!

Loki rolled his eyes at you but grinned. "The Stella festival is very big in my realm, normally around that time of year we celebrate the days starting to get longer again." He puts his bowl down to talk with his hand. "But when The Stella comes to visit it's on a whole other level! The lights in all the land are turned down, the normal golden city turning silver to better capture her light."

His eyes light up in a way that makes your heart beat faster as you watch him.

"It even seems like the sky itself dims as she comes flying, stealing all the light around her only to shine it out again in a magical coloring light, the colors all blending together yet standing alone, it is a truly magical thing to see!"

He gets more animated the more excited he gets. "I was supposed to stay on the grounds with my parents and brother that day, standing proudly at the front gates to the castle as she came close, but I was in my rebellious years! So I snuck out," he said, giving you a mischievous grin.

"My mother had told me a lot about her beauty, so I rushed out to steal one of the smallest ships that could go into the sky! I wanted to see it up close!" He explained his hands moving through the air like a plane as he explained how the ship he stole looked like.

"I flew up as far as the ship would go, further up than I had ever been before as she arrived, and Mother was right, she was so beautiful! A diamond of rainbows shooting across the sky." He sounded in awe like he was describing a goddess.

"So did you get a good look?" You ask. A bright smile on your face.

"Better than I would have ever dreamed!" He said the excitement of a child in his voice. "It was a miracle! As I was flying just trying to keep up with her, just trying to fly below her for as long as possible her light hit my ship!" He said it in a way that you knew it was a good thing.

"Suddenly my ship flew higher than was supposed to be possible, and faster! You should have seen it! It was like her light was giving me and the ship the power to get closer to her!" He said in awe, his eyes far away from the memory. "For just one moment I was no longer under her! But flying by her side!"

You looked amazed, and you could almost picture it, a child-like Loki, probably early teens, stealing a ship and flying side by side with a shooting star!

"It was truly amazing!" He says, leaning back with the warmest smile you have ever seen. "She let me fly with her, and then gently lowered me back down to Asgard, leaving with the promise of returning," he said, and his smile was suddenly somber. "... But she didn't."

You realized the tragedy of the story as it ended. The Tear of Celeste would never again fly across the Asgardian sky, and Loki would never get to fly beside it again.

"..." You reached out to take his hand. "Don't be sad because it's over. Smile because it happened."

As you touched his hand you both suddenly jumped, pulling away from each other. You had never touched his skin before and you had not expected him to be cold as ice! But more than that it felt like electricity had shot up your arm.

He stood up, grabbing his bowl and yours, you both having finished eating. "I think that is enough story time for now," he says, moving to the kitchen. "I will be in my room for a while," he said, rushing past the stairs and into another hallway.

You nodded, just looking after him, not really able to say anything. You looked down at your hand after he was gone, clenching and unclenching it slowly. It was still stinging from the weird shock you have gotten, but not in a way that was painful or even felt bad.

It felt.... Rather nice.