Once the four of us were sitting at a table at the local Steak N' Shake waiting for the (obnoxiously bored looking) waitress to get to our table, I took stock of Evan. Brown hair, blue eyes, somewhat a mix of Caucasian and Asian, maybe a year's difference with me agewise, not overly muscular. He looked like the kind of guy any girl would fall for if she were looking for a handsome guy with a warm feel about him.

But in spite of all that, I just couldn't put my finger on what he was. Whatever he was, he didn't seem threatening, but considering they hadn't told me about this, Lucas and Debi must not have known he wasn't human. How Lucas didn't know was strange. Magical beings always stuck out to other magical beings. Tricksters especially should sense others long before someone like me could, so Lucas should have spotted him immediately.

“You said you were taking it hard after Yelena broke up with you,” Debi said from behind her menu. She set it down a second later. “You seem to be pretty much over it.”

Evan shrugged. “Some days are better than others. Besides, I didn’t wanna drag your guys’ date down.”

Lucas put his arm around Evan’s shoulder. “And Debi and I are grateful to ya.”

I kept my mouth shut for the time being. I was only going to ask Lucas anything if Evan went to the bathroom, or something. I didn’t want to make a scene, or anything. Most of the other people in the restaurant wouldn’t know anything about magic, so just outright asking Evan right now would probably cause everybody to laugh at me.

“Y’know, you haven’t asked Nora anything,” Debi decided to say, dragging me into the conversation. If I didn’t turn red-faced, I’d be amazed.

Evan shrugged. “I didn’t wanna pressure you,” he said to me.

I shook my head. “It’s okay. I’m just here to make sure this double date is a double date.”

He laughed. “Yeah. I’m still sorry about that.” He looked embarrassed, which only muddied my questions about him more. “I kinda figured we’d just let things go… Naturally? I guess?” He quickly covered his face with his menu.

I had to admit, that made me giggle lightly, which also pissed me off because it meant I was probably finding him cute. Regardless, I just took a sip of the complimentary water to cover that up. "It's okay, really. Ask me whatever you want."

He slightly lowered the menu. “Okay… Lucas told me you came out here to get away from your dad, that true?”

Jesus, that was a question. I wondered what Lucas’s spell would let me tell him. “Pretty much. He’s kind of overbearing.” That made sense. It was also ridiculously true. “Plus, back at home, I didn’t really have any opportunities. It’s a…” I almost wanted to laugh, “...Small town. And after graduating high school, I just wanted to go somewhere else for college.”

His eyes lit up in interest. “You’re going to college?”

Pretty sure the red face came back. “Not yet. I haven’t really even decided what I’d wanna go for. Right now, I’m just a waitress.”

Debi shot me a surprised look. “You still haven’t picked something to major in?”

I shook my head. “No. I just… I have too many interests to pick from.”

Lucas laughed. “Like what?”

I glared at him and nearly growled, “Don’t. Even. Try. Lucas.”

He gulped and quickly hid behind his menu. “So, Evan, are you going to ask my sister out?” he asked quickly and quietly.

Evan had been taking a drink, and because he and I were sitting across from one another and such a crazy question would cause one to spit their drink out if this were a sitcom, naturally he spit his drink all over me. Why, oh why did I choose the white tank top?

“Lucas, what the hell?!” I nearly shrieked.

“What? He was the one who did it!”

“Because you... Ugh, why?!”

Evan stood up and said, “Lemme go get some paper towels, or something. Be right back.”

After he was gone, Lucas breathed a sigh of relief. “I didn’t think he’d ever get up.”

“You planned that?!” I demanded.

“Yeah, I needed him gone.”

“And you had no other way of getting him to leave than to make him spit water on my shirt?”

Debi patted me on the shoulder. “Just be happy you wore a white bra, too.”

“Not helping,” I growled at her. “What the hell did you do that for?” I asked Lucas.

He leaned over the table and kept his voice down. “Look, I’ve only ever met him one other time, and I didn’t notice this then, but… He’s not human.”

“Oh, you did notice.”

“Whaddya mean?” Debi asked.

Lucas answered, “He’s magic, just like Nora and me, but I can’t really tell what he is. I don’t know why I didn’t see it the last time, but it’s… It’s like he’s poured magic all over himself or something.”

“Can somebody do that?”

Lucas and I ignored the question. “You’re a trickster, there’s not supposed to be any kind of magical beings you can’t figure out.”

He nodded. “I know, but… Unless he’s another trickster, I guess. I dunno. Sometimes my radar’s kinda screwed up, like when I met Eve’s new host or the last time I saw Karma when she turned me into a toad for six weeks.”

“She turned you into a toad?”

“Oh, yeah, her reality changes still affect you.”

“Who is this Karma person?” Debi asked.

“An ex-girlfriend that didn’t take too kindly to me.”

I was starting to feel water dripping into places it shouldn’t (AKA down my boobs). “Look, I’m gonna go to the bathroom and dry off. If they finally come to take our order, I want a mushroom and swiss, but whatever happens with Evan, just… I dunno, act naturally.”

I stood up and made my way to the restrooms. Lucas actually recognizing that Evan wasn’t human was a relief, though I wish he’d found a better way to make the guy leave the table than making me an entry in a wet tee-shirt contest. I honestly think he got a tiny ice cube in my bra or something, because I was starting to freeze. I wouldn’t exactly be fond of grabbing paper towels and locking myself in a stall to get undressed in a not-fast-food restaurant, but I would rather not feel obnoxiously cold the rest of the night.

I stopped just short of going in the restroom when Evan stepped out of the men's room, carrying a wad of paper towels the size of my head. He looked half surprised and half relieved, like he hadn't wanted to carry that wad all the way back to the table with him.

"Nora!" he exclaimed. "I was just about to get back to the table, but there was this guy hogging the paper towel dispenser and I needed to get an employee to replace the paper towels and…"

Dammit, he sounded so sincere, like he was trying so hard to either impress me or at least just be a decent guy. What if that was all this was, really? What if he was just some magic being who lived a normal human life and just wanted to get over getting dumped by his now ex-girlfriend? It wasn’t unheard of. Hell, Lucas and I were gods trying to live normal human lives, so we were doing the same damn thing.

But I just couldn’t shake that something was off about him. He should have recognized that Lucas and I were magical beings, but he hadn’t even suggested he knew it. If he did know what we were, why was he hiding it? And what exactly was he? And if he was somehow completely oblivious to what Lucas and I were, then why? I couldn’t decide which questions needed answers first.

I just mumbled out a “Thanks,” and grabbed the paper towels before rushing into the ladies’ room. Drying off was annoying, but quick, and I was back at the table in less than a few minutes.

The conversation quickly sparked back up again, specifically about my interests and what I might do if I decided to go to college. Luckily, Lucas must have thought of that ahead of time because I had a few pre-programmed responses that just sort of flowed from my mouth involuntarily. The whole conversation was pleasant and seemed very normal.

The only good part of this was that I started to feel more at ease around Evan. He actually did seem like he was just trying to live a normal human life, because he never once suggested he was anything other than an average teenage boy talking to an average teenage girl. I never even got a slight bead on what he was, because he just didn’t seem like he was anything special.

The meal was, well, about as could be expected from a Steak N’ Shake. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible. A little above what you’d get at Burger King or McDonald’s but below what you’d get at a real sit down place. I wasn’t all that fond of the onion rings, though, and resolved never to order them again. Luckily, Lucas swapped plates with me and gave me his leftover fries, which amused Debi to no end.

The next stop on the “date” was a park not far from the Steak N’ Shake, and naturally, Debi and Lucas ditched Evan and me as soon as they could, ducking off to a different part of the park before I even noticed them leaving. More and more I was starting to think this whole thing was just their way of hooking Evan and I up, even after we found out he was something magic.

“Wow, they just poofed off somewhere, didn’t they?” Evan asked.

“I’m not surprised,” I answered, “Lucas has done this to me before.”

He smirked. “He sets you up with friends of his and sneaks off to leave you alone with them?”

I nodded. “It’s happened more than once. I should be wise to this crap by now, but I guess I just like to let him have his fun.”

He sat down on a bench we had aimlessly wandered toward. “Debi did say that your brother likes his tricks.”

I walked over to a railing just a few feet away from the bench. The park was huge, almost obnoxiously so. The area we were was like an observation deck that looked out on the main section of the park, which romanticised itself as Just like Central Park, but Smaller, when it was, in reality, nowhere near that big. I could see the rest of the city from where I was standing, but the park was still massive.

I turned around and leaned against the railing. “Yeah, he loves tricks, alright.”

Evan stood up and walked over to me. “Um… Nora… I’ve actually been meaning to ask you something all night.”

“What?”

“Well, seeing as it seems like Debi and Lucas left us all on our lonesome in some effort to get us to hook up, I just wanna know one tiny thing: Are you a god?”

Okay, coming out and just asking that was probably the most surprising thing Evan could actually do. It also answered the question of whether or not he realized what Lucas and I were. “I… Uh… What?”

He rubbed at the back of his neck. “It’s just… I can tell these things, y’know? You and Lucas have been putting out magic energy by the boatload ever since I met you.”

“You realize I could just ask you what you’re talking about and you’d seem like a crazy person, right?”

“Honestly that hadn’t occurred to me, because I know you should be able to see my magical energy, too.”

Fuck. He got me there. Also, the way I phrased the question was kind of a dead giveaway because I honestly hadn’t put any thought into what I was saying. He had me dead to rights on the whole You’re a magical being, too thing. I just sighed. “Okay, you’ve got a point there. I’ve seen it all night long and it’s kind of bothered me.”

He suddenly seemed more interested in me. “So, who are you really?”

“I can’t say.”

“Are you hiding from someone or something?”

I shook my head. “No, I mean literally. I’m under a spell that stops me from blurting out my real name.”

He looked confused. “Um… Okay?”

I just nervously laughed and asked, “Who are you, exactly? I haven’t really been able to get a bead on you all night, and Lucas couldn’t tell who you were, either.”

He smirked, then jumped up onto the railing. With a snap of his fingers, he changed from the good looking guy I’d been talking to into a monkey with light yellow fur, a long dark yellow beard and holding onto a staff like a walking stick. “You can call me Sun Wukong!” he almost shouted, with a sense of glee in his voice that suggested he’d been waiting to spring that on me all night long and had only just now gotten the opportunity.

I blinked several times rapidly. “You’re… You’re a monkey?”

He snapped his fingers again and changed back into Evan. “Not really. I’m not even the first Sun Wukong. Every male with magic powers born in my family has been given the title Sun Wukong in reverence to our ancestor, the real Sun Wukong. My name actually is Evan. My family came to the US way back when during the whole railroad-building phase.” He dropped down from the railing and leaned against it. “So, there’s nothing you can give me about who you really are? Can Lucas tell me?”

I sighed again. “There’s one thing I can do.”

I held out my hand and called Mjolnir. After a second or two, I remembered the house was a decent distance away from us, and while the hammer was fast, it wasn’t supersonic. So, naturally, the hammer took its sweet time getting from my bedroom to my hand. Honestly, it liked to take its sweet time anyway, even when I was a man. Evan just stood there, looking at my hand with a kind of annoyed anticipation that told me he was waiting for something exciting that hadn’t happened yet.

Thankfully, after a few more minutes of waiting, the hammer shot into my hand and lightning started to crackle all around us. Evan fell backwards, clearly surprised and frightened, and trying his damnedest to get away from the random lightning strikes. After a second or two, the lightning stopped, but I did notice a tree had been struck and one of the branches had fallen onto the bike path that weaved through the park. Thankfully, nobody had been riding it. I hoped.

After finally regaining his composure, Evan stood up and the excitement in his face almost made him look like he was glowing. Granted, Sun Wukong was a shape-shifter in mythology, so maybe he could glow like that. I wondered how he got through the day without accidentally shape-shifting into weird things.

"You're… You're Thor?!" he squealed.

I nodded. "Not like I can actually say it, or anything. But, yeah."

"That's fucking awesome!" After a second, he asked, "Wait a minute, isn't Thor supposed to be a guy?"

I felt an intense desire to bash his skull in with my hammer. "That's not important," I said through gritted teeth.

He seemed to take the hint. “Okay, yeah, I suppose it is. So, what are you doing on Earth? Don’t the Norse gods generally stick to their own realm?”

I clipped Mjolnir on my belt and brushed some hair behind my ear. “Sort of. It’s not like Earth is boring, or anything, I like it a lot. I dunno, I guess it’s just… We’re not really… I can’t really describe it, honestly. It’s like I feel there’s a reason we don’t come here, but I can’t actually think of it.”

“Then why are you here now?”

“Punishment for screwing up big time.”

“Somebody can punish the God of Thunder?”

I felt myself blush, for some reason. It was like he was complimenting me, or something, plus I almost felt a little embarrassed about the fact that I was about to tell him that the Norse God of Thunder was basically on Earth in a time out like she was a little girl. “My dad.”

That seemed to appease him, though. “That’s… Actually a good point. I didn’t think about that. So, that means your brother Lucas is really Loki, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, but he’s nowhere near as bad as the legends say. I mean, he may have been, back before Ragnarok or -- hey, I can say Ragnarok -- but he’s, like, the best brother somebody can have.”

“Big surprise, reality isn’t like mythology,” he said with an air of sarcasm. Not really all that strange, considering he was an example of just how different reality and mythology really was, just like I was. “Wow… I know Thor... That’s, honestly, the craziest thing I’d ever thought would come out of all this.”

I felt myself smile. “Really? Have you never met another magical person before?”

He shook his head. “Nope. Not outside my family, anyway. This isn’t exactly the kinda town that magic stuff happens a lot.” He sat on the edge of the railing. "I'm not gonna lie, when Debi told me about the cute blonde she wanted me to meet, I just thought she wanted to hook me up with you and get over Yelena quick."

I sat down on the bench. "She probably was, though I wouldn't be surprised if this was as much for me, too."

He smirked. "You saying the Goddess of Thunder needs a boyfriend?"

I glared at him. "No, but it would probably be just like her to get us both out of a rut by playing matchmaker for us." I sat back on the bench. "No offense, or anything, but I'm not really interested in dating right now."

He shook his head. "None taken. I don't mind being somebody you can come talk to whenever you need it, though."

I smiled. "I'd like that."

* * *

After getting home, Lucas followed me into my bedroom and shut the door behind us. "So, what is he?"

I stood there with my hands on my hips, a stern look on my face. "I don't remember telling you that you cold come in my room."

He didn't budge, instead just standing in place with a look on his face that suggested I hurry up and answer his question. I returned his look with one of my own that suggested I'd rip his balls off if he didn't leave. Instead of leaving, he just repeated, “Well, what is he?”

I sighed. He wasn’t gonna leave until I answered the question, clearly. “He’s the modern descendant of Sun Wukong.”

He blinked. “He’s the what?”

“You heard me.”

“I did, I’m just not sure I understand it. What was he doing?”

I sighed again and dropped Mjolnir off on my dresser. “Exactly what he said: Getting over his girlfriend dumping him.”

Lucas crossed the room over to my desk and sat down. “He’s not… Trying… Something?”

I rolled my eyes. “And what would he be trying? He’s a normal guy who happens to be magical, he didn’t even know who we were until I told him.”

He rubbed at his chin. “Hmm… So… Are you two dating?”

I pointed to the door. “Out, Lucas!”

He laughed. “C’mon! He likes you, and I could tell you seemed to be into the conversation with him.”

I kept pointing at the door. “I mean it, leave or I start swinging the hammer.”

He stood up and walked toward the door. “Okay, okay…” He unlocked the door and slipped out. He then opened the door and poked his head back inside. “Just, y’know, tell me when you two wanna be alone and I swear I won’t tell Aunt Helen what the noises really are.”

“Lucas!” I shouted, just before throwing Mjolnir at the wall. It went straight through, then through the wall to Lucas’s room and finally the outside wall of the house. I just facepalmed and felt so damned embarrassed that I almost wanted to lock myself away and cry.

From downstairs, Aunt Helen shouted, “Nora! No hammering the house!”