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Freya smacked him behind her, and put on a brave face. "Don't be ridiculous, yehr not darings me teh does anything, we're already doings it!" She huffed out, the nervousness in her voice still completely apparent. She took a step forward, stumbled, and then began to walk at a normal pace.

At least, she thought it looked normal. She was walking awkwardly stiff, and did not look natural at all.

Those first few days were less troublesome than they ever could have imagined.

Freya and Kettil were too soft and human to raise any real alarms. She'd managed to keep her wings hidden quite well, and for the most part, they managed to observe the human world on a daily basis without ever making anyone suspicious. There were a few mistakes, mostly for simple things like wording and monetary needs, but no one had ever stopped them to ask them any real questions.

Until the last day.

It had to be the last day.

They were deep in the city. They'd been doing so well staying out of trouble, and perhaps they'd gotten a little cocky, but they thought they would be able to handle it. And it wasn't as bad as it could have been, until they took her.

Freya did not know exactly when the crowd had separated her and Kettil, but once she realized the hand guiding her in a direction was not his, she began screaming. It was too late to hear her; she was already inside the building, being pushed up a flight of stairs, and shoved into a tiny, well lit room -

- filled with other women. Other winged women. Freya let out a sharp gasp, and leaned in to whisper.

"Are you all stolen valkyrie, too?"

One woman snorted and made a lewd comment about how something had been stolen from her all right, but Freya could hardly hear it - a human woman was ripping her coat off, and her shirt, and unhooking her wings until they slammed out freely in the tiny room, which caused several of the girls to swear in annoyance.

"Did they really need the finale girl to come in winged? As if they give us any room as it is in here."

"It's ridiculous, like, who even is going to care about us when they see that monster."

Freya balked. "I am not a monster, I am-"

"We know, sugar tits." The woman who was re-applying a new bra to Freya's breasts (and how rude!) said, in a thick accent. "You're an angel."

"Well." Freya giggled in embarrassment. "Not exactly."

For once, the laughter that came from the room sounded genuine, and not sarcastic. None of the other Victoria's Secret models Freya was now saddled with thought they were angels, either.

"HOOTER!"

Freya was being rushed away, but when she heard Kettil's voice she flung herself back to try and get to him. Unfortunately, the stage managers had no time for her shenanigans, and she - along with all the other ladies - disappeared backstage before he could get anywhere near her.

"Right this way," A buff man ushered Kettil and his father. He hadn't looked very hard at the passes, and just took the two for common paparazzi. He led them to one of the seats near the end of a long raised platform, and bid them to sit down. "Show'll start in about ten minutes."

The lights went down in the giant room, save for the ones that lit the long walkway everyone seemed keen to sit in front of. Music began to play, a wordless ethereal kind of song that inspired thoughts of heaven. They were accompanied by the flashes of clouds and feathers playing from screens all the way at the back of the stage, to give off the finishing touch.

Someone began to speak from an unknown position, using the microphone's echo system with an over-dramatic flair.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we welcome you tonight. We are proud to present our newest line of high fashion, yet dramatically comfortable lingerie and underwear suited for your every need. Without further ado, we give you our very own - Victoria's Secret - Angels."

The announcement might have cleared up why someone had confused Freya as one of the models, but if it hadn't, the next few minutes would do the trick. The girls filed out one by one, each of them wearing ridiculously tiny underwear or frilly, sexy lingerie. They stepped hard and purposeful as they walked down the runway, turning on their heel once they got to the end of it and sashaying down to give the next model her moment. It was a ridiculous showing of women wearing tiny, inappropriately see through underwear that honestly couldn't have actually been very comfortable - not that comfort seemed to ever be their real concern, seeing as they had heavy wings strapped to each of their backs, bouncing with each step. They were all white, and big, and fluffy - but none as big as Freya's.

This parade of sexy ladies went on for almost half an hour. So far, there was no sign of the valkyrie that had been spirited away.

The women kept coming, wearing new and more ridiculous outfits. The further into the show they got, the bigger the wings seemed to get, as if they were trying to build up to something. And they were.

The music swelled, and the lights began to pulse in rhythm with it. An aria swelled in the music; a woman's voice, singing high pitched notes in perfect tune. The lights on stage blinked completely out for a moment as the music stopped; when they flickered back on, there she was.

Luckily, someone had had the clever idea of actually talking to the woman before shoving her on stage, to tell her what they wanted of her. When Freya received an actual explanation of why they'd dressed her so skimpily, she sighed a breath of relief.

Fashion was her life, even if it had never been human fashion she'd covered before. If all they wanted was to use her as a model for a fashion show, she knew she had the knowledge to fake it. That's what reapers did, after all, wasn't it? They faked being human all the time. Especially famous ones.

She could do this.

The lights spotlighted on her, and her wings snapped out in full, covering the entire back of the stage. The gasps from the audience were a little satisfying, and she couldn't help but admit to herself that this was more fun than she'd thought.

Studded heels clicked down the runway, with a snap to each step and the jut of her hips. She stopped at the end, turned on one heel, and the whirl of her wings accidentally blew a hard wind across the entire first few rows. She heard the exclaims, and her cheeks flushed with embarrassment - until she finally saw him, sitting in one of the chairs, and the ruse was forgotten.

"Hi baby!" She whispered - as if there was any way to hide the fact that she was saying hello to someone in the audience (how unprofessional!). She started walking back, distracted due to beaming at Kettil from where she was, and one of the impossibly high heels tried to bend her ankle enough to make her fall. Fortunately for Freya, she had a built in capacity to keep herself from falling on the floor.

Unfortunately for Freya, that meant she was hovering in mid-air in front of a giant group of human beings.

Now there were gasps, and the sound of cameras snapping away, but she felt nothing but dread at the sound of it. She landed quickly back on her feet, and heard whispers of can you see the wires? and amazing technology and really outdid themselves as she passed.

She turned again, standing at the back of the runway. The rest of the models returned to the stage, all of them lining up in front of her wings, since there was literally nowhere else to stand.

And finally, the announcer yelled out his dramatic end speech, while the girls posed until the lights left them in darkness. When they did, she could feel almost all of them slamming into her wings to try and get off stage. She snapped them close to her body as quickly as possible, and walked off with a whine.

This was not turning out to be the exciting experience on the runway she'd always hoped for.

Once the show was over, the lights in the room all turned on again, and people rose up from their seats to mingle. There were fancy looking hors d'oeuvres being passed around, and the crowd itself seemed made up of either those trying to take pictures of every person there, or those posing for said pictures constantly.

But there were always a few who were just there for the food.

The side doors opened, and the models - still wearing their outfits and wings - filtered out into the crowd. They were welcomed with a great big cheer, and immediately began greeting and posing with guests at the gathering. It became hard to get to them through the crowds, but one in particular did not seem interested in posing or staying still at all.

She'd smashed her wings as close to her body as possible, and shook the hands of everyone who kept reaching out to try and get her attention, but Freya was literally shoving through the room trying to find Kettil and his father. She couldn't see where they were, and it was difficult to really get a good look because stopping for even a moment had an arm around her waist and a random stranger trying to take a picture with her.

So she kept walking, batting away any attempts at publicity, and finally let out a very uncouth yell.

"HOOTER WHERE ARE YEH?"

The women directly in front of Freya cringed at the agony of her loud voice.

If only Freya had someone telling her not to act like a lunatic at the gathering.

She heard his voice, and almost considered flying over people's heads; but settled for just butting them with her wings until she was finally through and back in his arms.

Yes, they were quite fond of each other's work.

She tackled him and wrapped her arms around him, clinging to him as if she was scared someone was going to rip her away any minute. And they were - people were seriously trying to get her attention still, to come and get a photo opportunity. She buried her head in Kettil's neck and kissed it, before bending up to grab his face in her hands and plant a deep, inappropriate kiss on his lips.

That stopped the requests for a minute or two.

"Hooter," She whined, still kissing him. "I missed you."

It hadn't even been an hour..

Freya let out a whine when Kettil was pulled out of her arms, but she realized that it was his father doing it, and his words successfully disciplined her back into guilty obedience.

The murmur began anew, and before Freya knew it someone was tugging her away by the waist, and holding her in one arm while he held one of the other angels in another. He was an older gentleman, with a strange air about him that people seemed to find charming. His tag said Hefner on it, and he acted too friendly with a woman in her underwear for Freya to act the part.

The picture came out terrible, as Freya was looking at him like a lunatic, and the photographer asked for one more. She looked his way this time, trying to smile. It was awkward.

"Great job, hun." Mr. Hefner informed her, once the pictures were taken. You looked beautiful up there. Ever think about coming down to the mansion? You're just the kind of - "

Someone else was pulling her by the arm, trying to get her to take a picture with a short, overly excited man who smiled with brilliantly white teeth. "That trick with the floating was real magic, how'd they manage it?" The photographer asked, even as he snapped the pictures. Freya thought back to what she'd heard people whispering, and just vomitted the words back at him.

"Wires. Amazing Technology. They really outdid themselves this year."

The answer appeased the man enough to leave her alone. The short, smiling man she'd taken a picture with was already posing with a different person - and she was quickly getting tired of being passed around like a piece of meat.

She reached for Kettil again, forcing herself to do nothing more than hold his hand. A photographer asked them to pose together with Coyote, assuming them to be someone of worth, as well. Now this was a picture Freya was willing to take.