Disclaimer: I do no own anything pertaining to Thor (whose story was created by J. Micheal Straczynski and Mark Protoseivh)or anything else you might recognize. "Deep in The Heart of Texas" written by Gene Autry.

A/N: 6 May 2013 - There are OCs in this story, only one is important. None of the actual other movie characters appear in the story, from Thor or The Avengers. They are spoken of often, but they won't appear in this story. This is the first story of a series currently called Various States.

It's Like a Whole Other Country

I can feel my world crumbling / I can feel my life crumbling away / I can feel my soul crumbling away and falling away

-Muse, "Falling Away With You"

No, Loki.

The two words ran through is mind, shattering his world into tiny, sharp pieces of metal that cut into his bone, searing and dragging white hot pain into the depths of his being.

Realization dawned quite clear for Loki as he stared at the man he had called Father.

He would never be good enough.

Never would anyone's approval belong to Loki Laufeyson.

No, Loki.

He had been loosing his grip, struggling to hold on to the slippery staff. Loki allowed his hand to unclench.

"Loki, no!" Thor roared.

Loki paid no heed to Thor, keeping his eyes locked upon the Allfather, unable to clearly read anything in the lone eye the man used to see. Loki let go, staring blankly at Thor and the shattered remains of the Rainbow Bridge. Both grew smaller and smaller till Loki rolled so he could no longer see what used to be home.

He had no home.

Closing his eyes, Loki allowed his heart to shatter into a million jagged pieces. He felt his heart's broken pieces scatter. The white hot pain of rejection, the deep blue of sadness, the raging red of revenge, the green of envy, the black of anger— they all fractured around him and he knew no more as the nothingness of the abyss hugged him like a lost son.

I close my eyes / Thought I was lost but I was stranded / I go outside / To my surprise the sky had landed

-Something Corporate, "Fall"

His nose suddenly was keen. Due to the fact he'd just fallen into the nothingness between realms, he ought not to be smelling anything. The moment he'd let go of Gungnir, nothing reached his nose, eyes, fingers, or anything beyond his internal dolor.

And then there was nothing.

It was blissful in a sense, feeling nothing.

This was not abyss, as it smelled. Grass, heat, ozone, animals, scents Loki did not know and familiar scents such as juniper, sage, cedar and pine. This place smelled quite a bit like home and somewhere he'd never been.

It always felt. The ground was hard, he was surrounded by a material that felt like the cloth of his cape.

Cracking an eye open he found he could see again and it was indeed his cape covering his face. He moved his head to the side, allowing his eyes to take in the scenery. Scanning, he doubted any sort of afterlife looked like the scene greeting his eyes.

He was in neither Hel or Valhalla.

Clearly, he was somewhere in between.

Or somewhere else all together.

Loki pushed himself up with his hands, feeling the cape fall off his head completely.

The ground felt odd here. He'd never felt ground such as this before— and he was well traversed.

"What the hell…"

Loki froze. He heard movement above his head somewhere that sounded much larger than he currently was. He looked to his left and right and frowned. Everything was a lot larger than Loki currently was sized. He was clearly in a land made for giants. He'd fit right in being a Frost Giant midget.

"Look at this, Dell," the voice went on above his head.

"What?" another voice asked.

"It's a perfectly made cosplay costume," the first voice announced. "What's it just doing lying on the side of the trail?"

A face suddenly appeared right before Loki with huge light green eyes. The face, female if going by the soft angles and abundance of hair, scanned the rather large sized clothing Loki was currently rather tangled up within.

"There's a cat in that pile, Jess," the second voice announced.

A cat? Where?

"Bloody hell. There is a freaky cat in the Loki costume."

"Loki costume? What are you talking about?"

"This is a perfect replica of what Hiddles wore in Thor," Green Eyes announced, turning her head to address the other voice.

Green Eyes was huge. And where was this cat? Loki tried to stand and failed to really get any taller. The ground was still rather close and he was…

"I mean, I bet this is nicer than the actual costume. Look at this craftsmanship and the detail in the armor," Green Eyes went on, fingering the edge of cloth that appeared to be a super sized version of Loki's cape. She reached over and picked up a piece of gold armor and turned it over in her hands. Loki reached up to snatch it back.

Wait a second…why was his hand a black paw?

"I mean…the detail…carvings…stitching…gleam…why…like, where…why would…what? What? What?"

Green Eyes continued to sort through the pile of cloth, metal and leather Loki was standing within…as a cat.

He was a cat. Why was he a cat?

"It's not…what? Where…what is…What? Ohmygod. This….whoa….how can….is that really? Wow….that's…oh…"

"Jess, mind forming an actual sentence? And get away from it, okay? What if it's got rabies or something?"

"The costume or the cat?"

"Both! It could have fleas. Poncho had fleas once, remember?"

"No. I think I might have deleted that. I remember when he got sprayed by a skunk, though," Green Eyes said, running her fingers over the material that had been Loki's trousers.

Before he turned into a cat.

Normally, Loki would not allow someone else to touch his things, let alone his clothing, but in his current cat-like state, he couldn't bring himself to care.

He was a forsaken cat for crying out loud.

Maybe he'd died and had been reborn a kitten?

"Seriously, look at this. It's not any kind of metal I've seen before or cloth. It's so freaky."

Didn't explain why his clothing was in a heap around him, though. Or why he remembered his past life so clearly.

"And you've seen a lot of metal and cloth in your days," the girl called Dell inquired, sarcasm dripping in her tone.

"Yes. I had a mouth full of metal for six years. And I wear clothing on a daily basis, thank you very much," Jess the Green Eyed girl snarked back. She turned her attention back to the pile of clothing and yanked out a boot. "Wow. This is…huge. Whoever lost this must have been a pretty tall dude."

She set the book down and picked up a few more pieces of armor, one being his chest plate.

"I'm pretty sure Loki's second costume weighted something like thirty pounds— this is clearly a replica of the first movie. Not enough leather, more cloth-like material. Less weight. Do you see the helmet? It'll have shorter horns because he's his ego is still somewhat in check."

Jess stood up and stepped over Loki and his pile of clothing. Loki did not want to look behind him as he'd spot he had a tail. He could feel his tail twitching behind him. He had no desire to see that.

Loki was a cat.

Why was he a cat?

Loki reached for his magic and found none. He had tapped his entire reserve at some point. Likely due to this place he'd crash landed on. Realm? Planet? Rock? Where was he?

"No helmet," Dell said. "Can we go? I'll call animal control or something."

"Aren't you the girl who isn't allowed to go to the shelter because you bring home stray, pathetic, diseased animals?"

Dell did not voice an answer.

"You're a crazy dog lady. Maybe I'll be a crazy cat lady?" Jess went on, chuckling. "You're right. No helmet. Bugger. I hate that helmet, but I'd love to have the complete costume." There was a long pause before Jess added, "I'll make an awesome cat lady. Come on, admit it."

Jess knelt down before Loki again, a soft look on her face as she studied him. She held out her hand. Her nails were a strange, vibrate green color.

Strange.

"Jess, you can hardly feed yourself. How are you gonna feed a cat?"

"Very carefully," Jess said, still looking at Loki, meeting his gaze.

Loki debated on what he ought to do.

He was clearly on a strange world without magic and he was a stuck as a cat till his magic recovered from the trauma of…falling through the void/abyss/space/time/whatever. Loki was acutely aware of how hungry and tired he was as he wearily studied Jess's hand. He couldn't remember when he had last ate. Or slept.

More than likely before Thor's failed coordination.

Jess's hand was huge compared to him.

Why was he so damn small all the time? Too small to be a proper Frost Giant. Too small to be a proper Asgaridan. Too small in this dumb realm/planet/place/whatever as a dumb cat.

His eyelids drooped a bit and he stretched himself out slowly in his cat form without really thinking about it. Jess chuckled.

"Now I know why they call it cat position," she muttered.

"You know, I'm not sure the hand sniff works with cats like it does with dogs," Dell offered.

"Well, it didn't hurt did it?"

"He could have clawed you."

Jess withdrew her hand. Jess got to her feet, her knees making a rather loud cracking noise (which made the woman groan). She put her hands on the small of her back and studied the pile. She glanced downward as Loki turned to gaze back up at the other woman.

Loki stared at her feet, which were encased in a pair of very bright orange…boots? Well, they weren't a familiar form of footwear. And they were blindingly orange. Loki gazed up at her, taking in the odd arrangement of what passed for clothing she wore to go with the odd footwear. She had a lot of bare skin showing.

Why was this person not dressed properly? She was showing off a lot of skin. What if someone attacked?

Loki turned his attention back to the pile behind him as Jess stepped around him and began to gather up the pile.

Why had his clothing not transformed along with him? When he had transformed his shape before, his clothes always came along for the journey.

"What are you doing? Remember the fleas?"

"Does that cat look like he's itching?" Jess asked. "Plus, if I get fleas, I'll just come to your house and give them to your dogs."

"You will not."

Jess snickered.

Dell sighed deeply and began to help gather up Loki's amour and clothing. Jess moaned a few times about the MIA helmet. Loki figured MIA meant missing, as that was what his helmet was: missing. He had no idea where it'd gotten to after it was blasted off his head when Thor had destroyed the Rainbow Bridge and the Biforst.

Loki had attempted to stop him and failed, the memory which made Loki's stomach burn unhappily.

"I'll put an ad or something online— Twitter, Facebook, Google— and say I found a Loki costume, the one from Thor—"

"You are such a geek to know that," Dell muttered.

"— and a cat with freaky green eyes. If you'd like these things back, call me maybe."

Dell groaned. "Okay. That joke is so over."

"Is not."

The sound of the two women gathering up Loki's clothing filled the air around him. He backed up a bit as the two moved around, eyeing them with slight distrust.

"You know, the cat's eyes match yours. That same freaky not really green or blue color you've got going for you."

"Sea foam green I call it. Or at least that's the crayon I always used," Jess proclaimed, studying a gauntlet. She shuffled around the pile of cloth, leather, and metal in her arms. "No fleas. Or bed bugs. In fact, it looks pretty clean. And smells kind of nice. Kind of smells like a guy. Woodsy. Here sniff."

"You sniffed it?"

"Duh. I sniff everything."

"How could I forget? You've sniffed shampoo up your nose more times than I care to remember," Dell grumbled.

"Oh, you've forgotten perfumes, body washes, body butters, soaps, lotions, face wash, scented oils…"

"Never let her go into The Body Shop," Dell told Loki, kneeling down. Loki took a good look at Dell for the first time as she tentatively reached out to scratch his head. She was the exact opposite of Jess— wild black hair, light brown skin, dark brown eyes and was a head shorter than Jess when she stood up.

Loki gazed up at the women who stared back at him. One was pale, one dark. One with light green eyes, one with dark eyes. One with light hair, one with dark hair.

"You wanna come with me or stay here?" Jess asked. "Either way, I'm taking the costume. I mean, seriously, why would someone spend all that money and/or time on this thing and just leave it in a random pile along side a trail in Texas where the stars at night/are big and bright…"

"Deep in the heart of Texas," Dell finished singing, holding the pile of Loki's clothing to her chest. "This is heavy. Come on."

"So, what do you say?" Jess asked, kneeling down again.

Jess held her hand out again and waited for Loki to do something. He did not want to be carried by this woman, nor did he want to spend time with her. He mostly wanted to be alone. But, he was a cat and he was tried, thirsty, and hot. This Texas place was much more hot than Asgard. He eyed Jess's hand. He butted his head against it and waited for her to scoop him up. Instead she quickly scratched behind his ears and stood.

Loki was still on the ground.

"Come along, Loki."

How had she known his name?

Jess turned around and walked off down a path, leaving Dell and Loki behind.

"Jessica Witton, cats do not follow you like a dog!"

"Well, he clearly didn't want to be picked up. Just like Mars. I already got a paw to the face for trying to pick up an animal today," Jess replied, pausing. "And I thought you wanted to get going. Isn't Benedict going to be home soon and want his dinner?"

Dell didn't answer the question, instead eyeing Loki.

"You really gonna call him Loki?" Dell asked.

"We did find him buried under a Loki costume," Jess said. "You rather I call him Hiddles?"

"God, no. It's bad enough you usually refer to Ben as Benedict," Dell said, nose wrinkling.

"Not my fault his parents named him after my favorite British actor of the moment," Jess replied.

"His name is Benwah, not Benedict. He's French," Dell sighed tiredly.

"Yes, Benoit is French for Benedict, duh."

"You pronounced it wrong, again. It's pronounced Ben-WAH, not Ben-OIT"

"I went to Beloit, not Bel-wah. Hence, my pronunciation is correct ," Jess laughed.

"God, I wish I wasn't American so I could grumble about you Americans and your mispronunciation of words," Dell grumbled.

Ah, Loki was in Texas where Americans lived, not French.

Not that Loki had any idea what that meant. He'd never heard of Texas, Americans or French.

"Come on, Loki. I actually have a can of tuna to feed you."

"Can you feed cats people tuna?"

"Dude, you feed your dogs margaritas and processed cheese."

"Mars loves cheese!" Dell said, starting after Jess.

Loki was not sure if he was mad he had not been picked up or mad he was excepted to simply follow. As the they turned a corner and vanished from view, Loki started after the two girls (or women, Loki was having trouble gaging their ages), knowing he couldn't sit along the trail forever. He needed to figure out where in the Nine Realms he was (besides Texas where Americans lived and not French) and his next move. He could not go home to Asgard, not after what he'd done. There was nothing left there for him.

He had killed his birth father and attempted to destroy his home world.

He had no family. He had no home.

Shaking his cat head, he broke into a trot to keep up with the females.

Sometimes, that's okay / Hear what others say / I'm here, standing hollow

-Korn, "Falling Away From Me

Loki recognized the large metal like object on wheels from when he'd sent the Destroyer after Thor during his brother's banishment to Midgard. This one was smaller and a rather alarming shade of yellow.

It was highly likely he was on Midgard— the only place Loki had seen the metal contraptions.

Loki let out a curse, which came out sounding like an angry meow. Jess paused and peered at him in question. He glared at her and trotted passed her, sitting down near the yellow contraption Dell was busy dumping his clothing into.

"All right, in you go, Loki," Jess said opening the back door of the yellow contraption. He eyed at her for a moment before gracefully leaping. He landed on a soft surface and jumped again onto an even softer, slightly bouncy surface.

"He's going to get cat hair all over the seats," Dell muttered.

"Eh," Jess said, closing the door.

Loki sat down and waited. Two more doors opened in front of him and the two females got into the contraption. Jess sat behind a wheel of some sort. The front was covered in lots of dials and buttons, a few which Dell began to turn, though they yielded no results. Jess stuck something silver into the dash and turned it.

Loki startled as several loud noises issued from the contraption, none of which were familiar to Loki's cat ears. The noises were so loud, Loki was unable to hear what the two females were conversing about. Instead he threw his paws up over his ears and buried his head in the pile of clothes Jess had dumped next to him. He burrowed in and waited for the noise to stop.

The noise took a very long while to stop. By the time it finally stopped, Loki refused to move from his position under the pile of clothes.

"What is wrong with him?" Dell asked.

"I dunno. Loki, come on, we're here."

Loki did not move.

"Well, I've got to get dinner ready. See you later. I might give you a call to make sure you and the cat are still alive," Dell said.

"Thanks. I doubt he'll kill me," Jess replied.

"I dunno…you named him after the guy who tried to take over the world and called us all ants," Dell said, her voice fading.

Loki poked his head out, but didn't see where Dell had gone. Before he knew what was happening, Loki was scooped up. He tried to worm his way out of the grasp. Jess ignored his efforts as she started up some stairs. She walked down a walkway and used some sort of odd device to open a door. Upon entering, she dumped Loki on the floor and allowed the door to slam shut behind her. Loki tried to move away, but his paws slipped out from under him. He tried to stand still, but his paws slid forwards and backwards.

What fresh hell was this?

"Try the carpet," Jess suggested, pointing in front of her at a different type of surface.

Ignoring her, he attempted to move at top speed, only to have his paws completely fail him. He wound up on his belly. Jess chuckled, picked him up a little and dropped him onto a surface similar to the one in the metal contraption.

"Ah, the joys of traction," Jess laughed, walking passed Loki, who was now sure footed. He carefully explored the area covered in carpet.

There was not much.

Her dwelling was rather small. Even from Loki's view as a cat.

"Here. Water. Tuna. Don't die on me, please," she said, setting down two small bowls near the edge of the carpet and another area with the evil slippery surface. "I'm not putting the food on the carpet, so you're gonna have to figure out how to walk on this fake wood stuff. If you drink and eat like Mars or Poncho, I'll be paying for new carpet when I move out of here."

Jess stood back up, knees not cracking this time, and wandered off. Loki carefully approached the bowls, sniffing. He had no idea what tuna happened to be, but it smelled like the fish that sometimes found its way to the feasting tables. He carefully took a bite and decided it was all right.

Loose ends tangle down / And then take flight / But never tie us down / But never tie us down / Off I go / Where I fall is where I land

-Greg Laswell, "Off I Go"

"So, I guess I'll need a bed and litter box for you. Gross. Why can't cats just go outside like dogs?" Jess asked, taking a seat at a table with a strange object sitting on the middle attached to various things with odd looking cords.

Loki eyed it for a moment. The table was located on the slippery surface, opposite the cooking area and where Jess had put his food and water. Curiosity getting the best of him, Loki used the last bit of carpet and leapt onto Jess's lap and then onto the table to investigate the odd object. He hit it with his paw, but nothing happened.

"I could get you a leash, collar and some bags," Jess said, moving him away from the object. "Then I wouldn't have to figure out where to put a litter box…no room in the bathroom. Plus, gross. It like needs its own room. Not that I have room. Oh, what was I thinking bringing a cat home. I'm turning into Dell. Soon, I'll be banned from going to the pound. Not that I got you at a pound."

Loki turned and stared at her as she ignored him and the odd object in front of her. She was writing in a book of some sort, making a list of items. Loki pawed at the odd flat object sitting in front of the taller object with cords. It was filled with what appeared to be letters of some sort. Loki didn't recognize them, but they looked somewhat familiar.

Upon pawing this object, the taller one lit up. Loki backed up several paces.

"Bah. Okay. Whatever," Jess said, still writing her list. "Cat food is just gross. Most pet food is gross. How do you eat it?"

She looked up finally and peered at Loki. He attempted to shrug, but wasn't sure if he pulled it off.

"Did you just shrug at me? Do cats shrug?"

Loki shrugged again.

"Dude, you're so my cat," Jess commented, looking back at the list. "Well, I guess we ought to go to the pet store. DUDE! I can take you with me! People take their dogs, I'm so taking my cat."

Without any warning, Jess gathered Loki up off the desk. She grabbed a few other things Loki didn't see before she was out of the dwelling heading for the yellow metal thing. Loki attempted to escape (he had no desire to go in that thing again), but failed. Jess got in on the side with the wheel and dumped him in the seat Dell had used before. Loki got into position and waited for the loud noise. It happened again, but sounded differently sitting in a different seat.

"I know car rides suck," Jess commented, turning the wheel and staring out the window in front. "I wonder how they sound to a cat. Dell kept all the a/c on high and radio on loud last ride."

Suddenly there was a lot less noise. Loki slowly raised his head up.

"The a/c in this stupid car has two settings. Off and full blast. So in the summers, if you want music, you gotta turn the radio on loud it hear it over the air. Stupid cheap car. Not that I can afford much else working at Sephora peddling makeup," Jess babbled on.

Jess continued speaking for the entire time they were in the car. Loki discovered, besides working at Sephora (whatever that was), she had a useless piece of paper, she hated French Connection, Communism would never work because people were greedy, Urban Decay made the best eyeshadow and primer, capitalism and some guy named Ed were plotting against her, she hated Dior mascara, and she was still up in the air about HD foundation as well as her stance on barbecue sauces.

"True Texas BBQ has no sauces. But, I just can't really get on board with lackign sauce," she argued. "Oh, and don't get me started on ice tea verse sweet tea. Did you know that at Chick-fil-a they call it diet tea? Just plain tea equates diet tea. Welcome to America! Granny always told me I'm not a proper Southerner because I can't stand sweet tea. I'm pretty sure Texas doesn't think it's part of the South. It's Texas. Granny forgot she wasn't in Georgia anymore."

The contraption came to a stop. She turned it off and scooped Loki back into her arms. He made an angry noise, which she ignored, and walked towards a building that smelled strongly of other animals.

Must be the pet store.

His nose was assaulted with an array of scents, none of which Loki enjoyed. He made a noise in the back of his throat that came out sounding like an angry purr.

He just purred.

How embarrassing.

Jess glanced down at him and chuckled. "Yeah. Not my kind of joint either, Loke."

Loke?

"I guess you need a collar. Which one do you want?"

Loki was jostled in her arms till he was hanging in front of the human, before an array of collars in varying shades and patterns. He blinked his green eyes a few times, wondering what she wanted him to do.

"Pick one."

Loki craned his head around to glare at her. Huffing, he turned and stared at the display of collars till he found one that was acceptable. He pointed with his paw. After another jostling, Jess used her now free hand to grab the one Loki had pointed at. She turned to exit the area and came face to face with someone dressed rather badly. Loki deduced the person must work at the store, as the logo on the building was stitched on the shirt the person was sporting. Badly.

"Did you just have your cat pick the collar out?" the human squeaked.

"Uh, yeah."

The person looked rather disturbed. Jess shrugged, moved passed the person and headed off to another section of the store.

"He acts like it's not normal for cats to pick out their own collars," Jess grumbled. "Granted, I guess it's odd. Poncho and Mars don't really pick much. Well, except if you give Mars a choice between cheese and anything. Always the cheese."

Jess fell silent as she grabbed a few more random items, some of which she hung around Loki's neck. She grabbed something that was cushy, then grabbed something that looked like a containment box. Loki hissed at the sight of the thing, which caused Jess to stare at him. He wormed his way out of her grasp and perched himself over her shoulder. Not the most comfortable, but it worked better than being held.

"It's for your outhouse, Loki. I'm not going to lock you up, you dork," she muttered. "Now, let's look at food."

With her arms full, she headed for an area of the store that really smelled foul. Loki felt his nose curl a little and his tail soon followed. He let out an involuntary hiss.

"Agreed. Tuna might not be the best for you, but seriously. This stuff makes me want to barf and it's not even open. You've yet to throw up the tuna, so we'll just stick to tuna till I do some research on what else you can eat that isn't actually cat food. Honestly, before we domesticated y'all, you didn't live on processed cat food."

Jess turned on her heel and stalked back towards a less smelly area of the store. She headed for the door, but did not exit. Instead, she dumped everything on some sort of moving belt, including Loki.

"Uh, ma'am? You're cat is on the…"

"He's fine. Just don't ring him up like they do Maggie," Jess said, digging through a bag she'd slung across her body at some point. Loki let out another angry meow at her, letting her know he didn't like this moving belt or being dumped with all the cat items. She glanced up at him and said, "Oh, shut up."

Loki hissed, but sat down and watched the person 'ring' the items up. Jess used some sort of card to purchase the items, gathered the bags and Loki up and left. Loki crawled out of her grasp and wrapped himself around her neck so he could paw at her head to show his annoyance. She ignored him till she dumped him back into the metal contraption.

Here and now / Seems I'm standing on the edge / Looking down I can clearly see your face / In the crowd / Makes me feel I'm not alone

-Aqualung, "If I Fall"