A follow on from my earlier story "Mr Sinister isn't a Fan of Ethics". If you don't want to go back and read that, here is a synopsis to fill you in: Loki and Gambit had their DNA stolen to make a kid. This all took place before the Thor film. This one takes place after the film, one year on, but still before the House of M saga.

This is dedicated to my friend Bewareofbicycles, who has the view that Loki is too cute/awesome to die. Enjoy.

Loki was falling. Falling away from Thor, away from Asgard, away from his home. They would think he was dead, and sooner or later would forget about him. He could hide his existence from them, and live on Earth while he waited. Waited to get his revenge. As he fell it was a simple matter to use the remains of the Bifrost to travel to Earth. It shouldn't have been possible, but he did it. The fools. They would think he was dead.

. . . . .

Gambit felt alone. As alone as he could be in a mansion filled with X-Men and hormonal mutant teenagers. Rogue had gone on one of her journeys to 'find herself'; although this time it hadn't been his fault. Mystique had shown up, just long enough to do the damage, then had gone, leaving a troubled and angry Rogue in her wake. She wouldn't be away too long though; she normally had a 'revelation' after a couple of weeks or so and then come back.

Jari, his son, had gone off to Wales for a few weeks. Pixie had dragged him off to introduce him to her family, and Jari had seemed quite eager to get back to Britain for a while. Even Wolverine had gone. When all else failed Gambit usually engaged in 'friendly' sparring with his team-mate, which always ended with Gambit in a mess complaining about the unfairness of mutant healing factors.

All in all he was bored. That is, he was bored up until the point when a very bedraggled Asgardian showed up on the basketball court. It was the shouts that alerted him: not shouts of terror, as the students were used to unexpected teleporters, but shouts of annoyance.

Gambit ran down from his room to the courts, and thankfully arrived before Emma and Scott. Loki had fallen over and appeared to be unconscious. Gambit looked around for help, and caught sight of Nightcrawler nearby. In a second the teleporter was beside him, and helped carry Loki indoors to the medi-wing. Once in the wing a furious Emma came storming in.

"What is he doing back here?" She demanded, her voice sharp.

"I don't know- he's unconscious." Kurt was standing nervously behind Gambit, wondering what he'd got himself into.

At this Loki came round, and groggily sat up. He acknowledged Gambit with a nod, then caught sight of Emma.

"Oh great. You."

"Oh great. It's awake." Emma turned her head.

"Charming as ever." Loki looked at Kurt. "Hank, right? You've lost weight."

Kurt bristled, and drew himself up to his full height. "My name is Kurt Wagner, but I am also known as Nightcrawler!"

"Right." Loki swung his legs over the bed and made to stand up. "Where's Jari?"

"He's in Wales, with Pixie's family." Gambit answered.

"I see. Children grow up so fast." They both feigned sadness. "Anyway, I'll be off. Nice to see you again." He tried to walk out the door, only to be stopped by Emma.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Wales. Or New Mexico. Somewhere I can think."

"Oh no you don't. You Asgardians always come to Earth for a reason. What are you up to?" Emma had her arms crossed and was giving Loki her killer stare.

"Believe me; I don't want to be on Earth. And in case you forgot, or if you are simply ignorant, I can teleport." Loki then turned to Gambit. "Fancy a bit of fun? You can tell me where Wales is."

Emma guessed what was going on. "Remy le Beau you will do nothing of the sort! Don't you dare…"

But she was too late. Gambit and Loki had vanished into thin air, leaving a fuming Emma and an impressed Nightcrawler.

"He can really teleport all the way to Wales in one go? Unglaublich."

. . . . .

"So, what are you doing on Earth?" Loki and Gambit had landed somewhere in the Lake District. It was a little off, but it gave Loki time to regain his strength and get his bearings.

"I couldn't really stay on Asgard. If I stayed there I don't know what would have happened to me. At the best I would have been banished to Earth anyway, so I wasn't loosing anything by coming here."

"Why would you be banished?" Gambit was curious.

"It is a very long story." Loki took in his surroundings. They were in the middle of a wood, surrounded on all sides by densely packed trees. "Although it looks like we have a very long walk."

"We're walking? Can't you just teleport?"

"Not yet. We'll have to wait a bit. And I need to find out where on Earth Wales is." Loki picked a direction and walked. Gambit followed in silence, and it was a few minutes before he asked again.

"So why would you be banished? I thought you were royalty"

Loki sighed. As they walked out of the wood and into the nearest town he told Gambit everything that had happened in the past few weeks. When he had finished he looked at Gambit expectantly. "I can understand if you no longer wish to travel with me. If you do not want to associate with a traitor."

To his surprise Gambit laughed. "Why don't you just go back, say you're sorry, you're not dead, and all that. This sort of thing happens all the time with the X-Men."

"What happens all the time? People betray their family or people come back from the dead?" Loki was curious.

"Both. But I guess Asgardians aren't as forgiving as we humans, oui?"

"They aren't. But I'll figure something out. I won't stay on Earth, hidden, for the rest of my life. No offence intended. I am sure you are very fond of your planet." Loki pointed ahead of him. "Look, there's a town up ahead. Maybe we can find out where we are."

Gambit squinted. "How can you tell there's a town? I can only see grass."

Loki laughed. "Asgardian, remember? And you might want a change of clothing; you are quite conspicuous at the moment."

Gambit was about to reply that he could say the same to Loki, but then realised he had changed his clothes to fit in. "How-" he began, but then remembered. "Right- Asgardian."

. . . . .

Once Loki was confident he could teleport to where Megan and Jari where, he and Gambit left. They arrived just outside a small Welsh village, and began to head in.

"Where does Pixie live?" Loki asked, looking around him. "And why are these people staring at us?"

"Je ne sais pas. I'd guess that they don't get many new people around here." Gambit put his head down. He didn't like the looks he was being given.

Loki forced a smile on his face, and walked over to an old lady sitting on a bench. "Excuse me, we were wondering where we could find…" he looked at Gambit to supply the name.

"Megan Gwynn."

"Yes, we are looking for Megan Gwynn. Do you know her?" The old woman glared at Loki.

"D'you mean Barry Gwynn's girl? Her with the pink hair? The one with the English boyfriend?" She made it very clear she didn't like Pixie much, or Jari.

"Yes. That's her." Loki was still trying to smile.

"She'll be in the park down the road. Always plays her music too loud, she does, at all hours. I must say I was relieved when she went off to that fancy boarding school, she was always…"

Loki turned away and immediately headed to the house in question without saying anything. The woman turned her attention to Gambit. "You're not French are you? You sounded French. I…" But Gambit had hurriedly caught up with Loki, leaving the woman speaking to herself.

They reached the park and found Jari and Pixie sitting on the grass. Jari jumped up when he saw them, and ran over.

"Hey, what are you doing here? I came to Wales to escape from you two you know." He smiled, then stopped when he saw Loki's face. "What's happened?"

"It's a long story." Loki said, and pointedly looked at Pixie, making it obvious she wasn't to hear.

"Yeah, it's really long. I'm not sure I want to hear it again." Gambit added. Loki glared at him.

"I just needed to warn you. Do not try and go to Asgard. For one thing the Bifrost is gone."

"But what about the back entrance you showed me?" Jari was confused. Why couldn't he go to Asgard?

"Especially don't use the back entrance. Everyone thinks I am dead, and that I betrayed them to the Frost Giants. I just need to lie low on Earth until I can clear my name and go back. Understand? Do not mention this to anyone." Loki's voice was grave, and he stared at Jari. Jari nodded.

"Sure. Okay. You going to be alright? I mean, you should be fine, people betray the X-Men and come back from the dead the whole time, and there's never much of a problem there."

Loki laughed. "Yes, I heard about that. Asgardians are different to humans though."

"I thought the same too." Gambit interjected.

"Okay. Well, er, thanks for letting me know. And, um, you're not going to be staying in Wales are you?" Jari's worry was obvious.

"Don't worry, we will be going now." Loki turned away. "Goodbye."

"Bye!" Jari was relieved to see them go. Things always got messy when they were around.

. . . . .

"You lied to him." Gambit said. He and Loki were sitting outside New Mexico, Loki's next destination.

"I know. I'm sorry. But if I told him the truth, that I really did bring the Frost Giants into Asgard, he would never want to see me again."

"You never know, if you explained why he might understand."

"Maybe. But he grew up on Earth, and humans tend to be very touchy on the subject of trust and honour. I'm surprised you don't seem to have a problem with it."

Gambit shrugged. "I was a world class thief. Believe me, there's nothing you can do to do with betrayal and trickery that I haven't done. And I know what it's like to go to extreme measures just to get noticed, or to be accepted."

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Did we just have a heart to heart conversation?" Gambit asked Loki jokingly.

"I hope not. " Loki laughed.

"But seriously" Gambit persisted. Loki stopped laughing.

"No."

'Je ne sais pas' means 'I don't know'. I thought I'd include practically the only French I know.

"Unglaublich" is 'incredible' in German.

There won't be as much of Jari in this one as in the last one- this one's all about Gambit and Loki. Let me know what you think!