Anu raged through her family's palace on Vanaheim. Her newly coronated sister had just ordered her to go to Midgard. Not as ruler, not with any suitable marriage in mind… simply to keep an eye on things!

True she'd never been to Midgard, but she had heard enough to definitively know she would not like it. Her sister Zinia, the Queen, had just returned from the realm herself with horrible things to say about their poverty and standards for what was considered an appropriate way to treat other people.

She was to join some sort of group called The Avengers. Thor, her to-be brother-in-law was a member as well and promised she'd get along with the Midgardian group. He said they were the closest things to gods on that realm.

Anu was walking—or briskly anger-walking—alongside Thor to the room of Mimir's basin. Mimir was the Spring from which the Vanir could travel the Nine Realms of Yggdrasil. It was like the Asgardian Bifrost, only considerably more deadly.

She would not be allowed servants while living there. Even her reigning sister had been allowed none, but she was only visiting, not living there. She had only been allowed two enormous trunks and she had to undergo the introspective process of defining what was truly important to her. Her clothes would also be unacceptable on Earth so she packed a minimum.

Zinia wasn't even there to see her off. She and Loki were in Alfheim, back to her royal progress. Then she would return to Vanaheim for her wedding. Would Anu even be invited to that? She was certain she would, but it deal feel a great deal as if she was being exiled currently.

Next to her, Thor was more upbeat. He liked Midgard. He'd found a woman there; her own mother had found her father there. Still, Zinia herself had come back completely unsubtle in her disdain for the realm.

They reached the room of The Spring. Anu had forgone enchantment in favor of the heavy fur of a tiger, something she might need depending on when and where she traveled in the realm. Thor was cloaked as well. Her sisters and parents waited for her.

Thor took some time with his new betrothed, whom he would see again soon enough, Enir, kissing her softly. She was glowing.

Her parents took some time to give her a last few words of advice, all of which Anu primarily ignored. Her stomach was clenching and unclenching in anxiety. She looked around at the sisters that still remained in Vanaheim. The second eldest, Tiamat, had been much braver when she left Vanaheim to marry Apollo in the neighboring cosmos of Andromeda. And no one could ever match Zinia's outright enthusiasm for having an excuse to travel elsewhere.

Essure, Enir's twin, held her close, a few tears escaping. Now that her twin was engaged to Thor, she'd gotten much closer to her other sisters. Only still left were Nanshe and Kia, so busy was Thor with his betrothed. But to be honest, she didn't want to have to mull over this terrible goodbye. She stepped into the large stone basin in the center of the room after a final hug with everyone. The basin was being filled by the icy waters of Mimir, a spring connected to one of the three roots of their cosmos, Yggdrasil. Thor stepped in with her, carefully covered in his cloak, and lifted Mjolnir. Lightning spiked through the water and to his hammer, and they were gone.

The landed in what appeared to be a great room of abandoned Midgardian technology. Thor had let her know in advance it was an abandoned military base. They couldn't land directly in DC or New York without attracting a lot of attention.

They were surrounded by the ones she supposed were The Avengers: A man in an iron suit, a soldier decked in red, white, and blue, an average man with glasses, and two agents decked in black—male and female, the male with arrows pointed at her. In front of them all was a towering man with an eye patch. Anu had not expected herself to appear so slight in comparison to mere Midgardians. She discarded her great winter robe, realizing how hot and stuffy it was in the room. She wore a simple pale pink sheath that complimented her strawberry blonde hair. With little dark magic in her, she was not as pale in complexion as her sister but she was much smaller and slighter. It made her look weak and she could tell those surrounding her were not impressed. It made her scowl and cross her arms defensively before anyone had even said anything.

The man with the eye patch stepped up, "I'm Agent Nick Fury. Are you… are you Zinia's sister?"

"Yes," she hissed.

"Everyone, this is Princess Anu of Vanaheim," Thor said stepping in but they were not to be deterred.

"Are we going to have to look after her?" the woman in the room asked.

"How is she supposed to help us do anything?" the man with the arrows added.

The man with the glasses look on quietly for a moment before saying softly, "Sometimes impressive things come in small packages."

"Well then," the man inside the iron suit demanded, "Impress us."

She summoned all of her confidence and produced a burst of energy from within herself that rippled out from all directions. The force of it even sent Thor flying backwards.

"Alright," Agent Fury said, "That's a good start."

"Well," the Man of Iron said, "She's not staying at my place."

At first, Anu hadn't known exactly what that meant. All she knew was that she had been arranged to stay in Stark Towers. When she finally remembered Tony Stark and Iron Man were one in the same, she asked where she was meant to stay. As a royal, she had never been denied hospitality… but Stark insisted his tower was only just now finishing up renovations that fixed the damage the last god did. Thor was already heading back to Vanaheim to take hsi betrothed to Asgard, so Anu was about to be left all alone.

None of them wanted her. She was being shuffled around like common cattle. She actually felt like crying, but held it in stoically. Finally, the Soldier out of time came forward on her behalf.

She almost hugged him but, still feeling both spiteful and prideful about her predicament, she only offered him a curt handshake and a simple "Thank you, Captain."

"So, how old are you?" he asked as he drove them to his apartment in Brooklyn that he'd moved back to since the events in DC. He was trying to be polite; everyone had been rather rude to the girl and she'd stayed bitterly silent since.

"Nine hundred and seventy," she answered, looking at him quirking up an eyebrow. "And you?"

"Technically 95, but when I was lost in the 40s, I was still in my twenties," he continued. "Is there some kind of… scale? How old you would be in our years?"

"18 or so," she said with a shrug. Really she was more like 17 as she had not had her 1000th birthday ceremony yet.

Did they think this would be some sort of fun pet project for him? Steve wondered. He was still trying too hard to get himself to regulate to 2014. Even after all his time in DC and all he'd learned about SHIELD and Hydra, he still could not seem to adjust. And he wanted to be out looking for Bucky, but no one else had stepped up and she was definitely here to stay even if it was on the streets. He cast a glance her way. She was still staring straight forward.

Still, he couldn't deny the wonder of a Vanir goddess. Her name was purportedly "The Heavenly One" in Ancient Sumerian, according to He'd already seen Queen Zinia and knew that there was at least one race of beings more impressive than the Asgardians. Zinia had seemed to glow from within; not to mention, she'd tamed Loki.

This whole age situation was rather strange though, he kept thinking. Tony loved reminding him he was technically 95. This girl was apparently just under a millennia, a considerable bit older than the soldier, but simultaneously only just 18 or so. Either way, she knew way less about Earth than he did, and he was trying to move on with his life.

She had practically cried—no wait, she had cried—she had practically grieved, when informed she couldn't keep her servants. Though she called them "handmaidens" and insisted they were "old childhood friends!" She had repeated the story to Steve in the car when she finally found her voice or, at least. room in her bitter attitude for complaints. Everything about this girl wasn't just out of this world—because there were cultures like hers on Earth—she was just entirely un-American. Steve sadly thought that might be worse and he walked her into his New York apartment. If she was going to expect to be waited on, she would be figuring some things out-

He had just locked the door behind them when she had latched onto him, crushing her lips to his. He was shocked at how much he immediately enjoyed the kiss, and how hard it was to convince himself to stop her. She was surprisingly strong, kissing him with adore, but he still pried her off fairly easily.

"What are you doing?!" he cried at her in shock, panting and holding her far off of him.

"What do you mean? Surely this is why they put me with you?"

Steve both knew what that meant and, simultaneously, had no clue what that meant.

"Look, young lady," he said pointing at her, and started to blush when he saw her hold back a laugh, "That will absolutely never happen between us. They put you with me since we're both… adjusting to Earth right now. That's the end of it. Also, no one really put me with you; I was the only one nice enough to take you in, if you'll remember. And you're too young for that kind of… that kind of… anyway!"

She did finally break down and laugh. "Oh Soldier Out of Time," she said, clutching her own sides, "I am nearly 1000 years old and sixth in line for succession to the throne. Do you really think I've never been with a man before?"

Steve blushed, avoiding her eyes. She laughed harder still, her eyes widening in realization. "Oh that's right!" she exclaimed, "You're not even 100. You're just a baby, that's adorable. Well, when you're ready then."

Steve had never so vehemently disliked a woman before, especially not so immediately. But all he said was, "Let me show you to your room."

Of course she wasn't happy with her accommodations. Even after SHEILD had offered him a better place… even after Tony had offered him a better place, he just wanted his small place in Brooklyn. He had no clue, yet, why they had put up a princess of another world up in a lowly place like this… but he was going to find out. It might have been characteristic of Tony to shun someone from his home, but certainly not every single one of his colleagues. She'd put on a big show of dissatisfaction.

Finally, exhausted from all of the inexplicable trials of the day, Anu had passed out. He lay her into her bed softly, not risking trying to undress her. He could only imagine how she'd react to that, but he knew it would be unfavorably.

Hi everyone! This is a spin-off fic from my Loki / OC fic "For the Nine." I say spin-off and not sequel because 1) The stories are concurrent timelines and 2) This should be able to stand alone without reading the other, though I encourage you to check the other out. "For the Nine" is rated M for some very brief, fairly tame, sexual scenes. They cross over each other as of chapter 16 in the other story. I'll be explaining everything that needs explaining, but the other has other realms very fully fleshed out while this is almost all on Earth. That's everything, hope you enjoyed!