It didn't take a genius to work it out. Well, apparently it did because she was the only one to have realised. Odin had been acting strangely, in ways that weren't explained by loss or sadness. If anything, it was quite the opposite. But then he'd disappeared. Perhaps it was the way she'd seen him looking at her during the feast honoring the fallen – a look like that from the ancient King of Asgard left even her feeling disconcerted. Or the way he'd insisted on keeping the various colourful characters that filled Asgard's dungeons alive. Whatever it was, she'd known long before he left.

To everyone else, he'd gone without a trace – to Amora, she knew exactly where to look, and found exactly what she expected. The passageway to Midgard was horrible, at the bottom of the sea that surrounded Asgard, and down a long, narrow corridor of sharp rocks. Breathing equipment was a necessity – luckily for them there were plenty of spells that could replace anything physical. But neither of them had ever managed to navigate the rocks without tearing their clothes, and sometimes skin.

She'd stolen out in a boat – in the silent, still hours between night and morning, when even those guards who are supposed to be awake were dozing off. She shrouded herself in a spell, and reached the spot within a few minutes. If there was another boat, similarly hidden, she didn't have time to look for it. She didn't need to either, as a telltale strip of dark fabric floating on the water told her all she needed.

The passageway to Midgard, like all the others, moved periodically. The last time she visited it deposited her in the place the mortals called America, though when she climbed out of the water, filthy and brown unlike to sparkling, clear water of Asgard, she could tell almost right away that this was somewhere else. She closed her eyes and listened as people walked unseeingly past her. Their voices sounded like hers. England, it must be. She focused herself, closed her eyes and listened for something else now. It'd only been a week, he couldn't be far. She sensed an ancient magic nearby, hard and electric but frozen, waiting. Of course, his brother was here too. No doubt Mjolnir was hanging up in the corner of his mortal woman's flat.

She ignored that, and focused again, this time searching for the familiar feeling of dark, quiet energy. She wondered if Loki knew this trick too, if he used it to make sure no one was looking for him. Almost immediately it was there, again not far away, but in the opposite direction to Thor. Amora smiled.

It wasn't hard to find his flat – as the crow flies it was just a mile away, and Amora flew, as a crow, right through an open window. The bright, airy room was empty. It was minimally, tastefully decorated, with a cold looking black couch and stark white walls. A large monochrome image of some trees punctuated the monotonous white, and a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows filled the room with light. A black and silver clock on the wall said 7, and the half-light told her it was 7 in the evening. Despite the fact that Midgard was clearly in the midst of summer, the flat was cold.

The kitchen was at the other end of the large room. Black granite lined the surfaces, and there were cupboards of dark wood. She smiled, wondering what kind of character Loki was playing here. Remembering the way the water tasted the last time she visited Midgard, Amora hesitated before picking up a glass that sat on the side. Thirst overcame her though, and she turned the tap. Asgard's pressurized system meant that the water from their taps came straight out of springs in the ground, and filled their wide stone basins with pure, cool, sweet water. Here the water was stagnant, it tasted like chemicals, metal and dust. But she had come a long way, and shape shifting was always hard on her. After downing a second glass, she heard a scrape at the door.

It swung open, and two men came through, each with an arm around the other's shoulder, their heads close together, and laughter on their lips. One had dark brown skin with a shaved head, and was wearing a white shirt, rolled up to his elbows and open at the collar. The other was pale cream, the skin she knew so well. His black hair was cut short and styled in a way that was undoubtedly popular in Midgard – the waves he usually hid by combing it back were falling around his face, messy in a deliberate way. He wore a tight pale blue shirt, like his companion it was open and showed the base of his neck. He held a blazer over his shoulder with his free hand. Amora noticed the other man held his by his side, bunched up in a tense fist. Loki might be in disguise, but she was pleased to see he was still making people nervous.

They hadn't noticed her, absorbed in their joke as Loki laid his jacket over the back of a chair next to the door, and reached to take the other man's as well.

"Here you are…I've been waiting for hours" Amora lied, a smile spreading across her face as she sauntered out from the kitchen. "Oh, you have company!" she said, looking at the mortal man, who's nervous look was replaced immediately with one of confusion. Mortals labeled themselves in strange ways, she knew. Often the women, and sometimes the men, would be left bemused by the immediate attraction they felt for her.

Loki rolled his eyes, though before he could speak the mortal stuttered "Uhhh, I'm, I'm sorry I didn't realize…I'll, I'll-"

"Oh nonsense..." Amora cut him off, and gestured towards Loki, "You like my friend do you?" the mortal looked sheepish, and nodded. "Good, well" she smiled a dangerous smile, and approached them "…how do you feel about having two of him?"

The mortal's eyes widened as Amora shifted her body into a perfect replica of Loki's – complete with tousled black hair, open shirt, and trousers that were looser than they had been when the men came in. She smiled, and approached Loki, slipping an arm around his shoulder and giving him a, mischievous grin and a wink. He rolled his eyes again, though she knew amusement when she saw it in him. The mortal squeaked, and staggered backwards from Loki, out of his arm and began to scramble for the door handle.

"Wait" Loki began, before giving up, and simply saying "I'll call you" as he kicked the door shut and turned towards his double. "What are you doing here?" he asked, and Amora smiled in his body.

"He seems nice" she said, "though he can't really like you that much, I'd love to have two of you to myself all night"

Loki's face was a mixture of annoyance and amusement. There was a hint of excitement there too, but that would wait. Turning back into herself, the mischievous smile disappeared from her face. Now she saw him standing there alive, the anger she'd pushed to the back of her mind rushed forth. She grabbed Loki by the neck, pulling him down and then smashing him against the shiny wood floor. "Ah!" he managed before the breath was knocked from him, and Amora was astride him, digging her fingers into his neck.

"Why did you not tell me?" She shouted at him "I thought you were dead, how could you?" the anger coursed through her with unexpected power – she'd been so focused on finding him that she'd almost forgotten how it felt when she thought he was gone. She squeezed harder, and he choked, his hands trying to pull Amora's fingers away from his neck. They were matched when it came to almost everything, including strength, but Amora's fury was giving her the edge. Loki's hands began to lose their power, and in desperation he thrust upwards with his hips, throwing her off balance just long enough for him to force himself free. He threw Amora down on her back, and pinned her there as he gasped air back into his lungs. Both of them were panting, their faces just inches away. Eventually Loki let go of her arms, climbed off her and leant against the back of the chair, his eyes still fixed on Amora's as he rubbed the purple marks on his neck. He coughed.

"Perhaps it would have been better if you'd never found out" he said, spitefully.

Amora had propped herself up on her elbows, and she said "Don't be like that. You've done much worse after someone's hurt your feelings"

"You just tried to kill me!"

"You actually killed people. You're such a little brat" Amora sat up, "Why didn't you tell me"

"I knew you'd work it out"

"No, I don't believe that. I only saw you once! And you didn't even know I was going to be there"

"I tried made it obvious when you did see me though"

"Oh yes of course, because there's no way in Hel that the widowed King of Asgard wouldn't look at me like a choice piece of meat he wanted to devour" she said, sarcastically, "If anything Odin would have been more likely to look at me like that that you would!"

Loki smiled, but looked sad. She shouldn't have said 'widowed', Amora realised. After his smile left, the sadness remained, and he looked down at his hands. He seemed lost. No wonder he'd run away, she thought, no wonder he was hiding.

"Did you know she taught me my first spell?" Amora asked, after a silence. Loki looked up. "I was very young, it was a couple of years after the war. You were still small enough for her to carry you around. People were gossiping, wondering where the King had got his second son from" She smiled, hoping he'd find his notoriety amusing rather than irritating. "I was sitting in the main square with some of the long-grass from in between the paving stones, trying to make a pyramid out of them – do you remember that game?" Loki looked strange. He nodded. "Well she came up to me, I don't know why she was walking through the square with all those guards behind her and you on her hip, or why she'd approach an ordinary child like me…but anyway, I was twisting the tops of the blades together, and she showed me-"

"How to spin it so that it would propel itself upwards, and float in the air?"

"…yes. Then you could make it fly in different directions-"

"With the tip of your finger"

"yes"

Loki smiled that sad smile again. "That was the first spell she taught me too"

It wasn't often that Amora lost control of her emotions, but she couldn't hold back the tears that now filled her eyes and poured down her cheeks. Loki moved towards her and took her in his arms, as she choked out "I'm so sorry" into is creased blue shirt. He placed a hand gently on her head, tears that he'd been hiding since his imprisonment flowing silently down his face.

This was not how Amora had intended their meeting to go, but all the anger left her, replaced with desolate sadness for the woman who'd always been so kind. After a while she calmed down and broke free from Loki, to sit back on the floor.

"You should feel honoured" she said, wiping her eyes, "I wouldn't let just anyone see me like that"

"Me neither" he replied, wiping his own eyes too. "You must be exhausted. I know just what you need" he got to his feet and extended a hand, which she took.

"You should put some ice on your neck" Amora said, feeling slightly guilty.

"Oh, that'll be gone in a minute, you aren't that strong" Loki teased.

Together they walked to the kitchen, where Amora jumped up to sit on the shimmery black countertop, while Loki opened a large metal cupboard in the corner. She couldn't remember what those were called, but they had the same use as the icehouses of Asgard. "This stuff is delicious" Loki said as he opened up a pot, and took it over to a small machine with a glass jug inside it. "I can't believe they don't have it back home"

Amora watched as he scooped dark brown powder into the top of the machine, and filled another part with water. "So tell me about your little friend" she said, trying to lighten the mood. Loki pressed a button and the machine choked into life.

"He has…excellent stamina" he grinned, crossing the kitchen to stand between her legs, which were parted as she sat on the counter. Loki placed his hands on the sides of her thighs, and looked into her eyes "and he's very well put together…"

"Oh? I'm almost jealous. Though I'm not sure of who" Loki laughed and playfully squeezed her thighs. "Perhaps I shouldn't have scared him off, we could have had some fun together. Though it looked like you were having quite a nerve-wracking effect on him…"

"Well, I may have played a little trick on him last time. For fun"

"I can't say I'm surprised…what did you do to the poor man?"

"He was seconds from the edge, and I may have…" Loki gave her a dark look, and fixed his gaze on her. It started with his eyes, which flashed to red, his face bloomed into blue, and the ridges rose up from his skin in less than a heartbeat. Almost as soon as it happened, he was back to normal. Amora burst out laughing.

"And I take it he noticed?" she said.

"My timing couldn't have been more perfect – he noticed, but I did it right as he climaxed, so he couldn't pull away or do anything apart from spill his seed all over his stomach with a horrified expression on his face" Amora's laughter was so infectious that Loki barely managed to finish his explanation before collapsing himself.

"He must have run screaming from the room afterwards" she giggled.

"He was braver than you think…or more well mannered at least…he still let me finish before scrambling together a hasty excuse to leave" This made Amora laugh all the more, and Loki continued, "I was going to explain tonight! He seemed more strong minded than most of these mortals…but you put a stop to that" He paused, not laughing now, and pulled her towards him until her hips were at the edge of the counter.

"I apologize," she said.

"No you don't" Loki replied, and kissed her.

His hands slid their way up her body, and into her hair as his tongue explored her mouth, rediscovering her taste. He pressed his crotch between her legs and, feeling the pressure of his hardening cock, Amora reached down, placing her hands on his cheeks and pulled him closer, crushing him against her until they both moaned.

Loki's hands left her head and pulled at the waistline of her trousers, and Amora broke their kiss so she could kick off her shoes and wriggle out of her skintight clothes. Loki fumbled with his shirt buttons and gave up, pulling it up over his head and tossing it on the ground. His soft, pale skin reflected the warm light of the setting sun. He unzipped his trousers, and Amora grabbed him by the wrist, pulling him back into their kiss. Loki's hands found her breasts, which he softly squeezed, gently brushing his thumbs over her pink nipples.

Amora reached down and found his cock, stroking her hand up the shaft before running her thumb over the tip, just has he was doing with her breasts. He broke their kiss to inhale sharply, looking down at their aching bodies. Amora brought her legs up and wrapped them around Loki's waist, with one hand gripping the edge of the counter and the other one guiding his cock inside her. They pressed their foreheads together, breathing deeply as she stretched around him, and he filled her.

Loki's hands left her breasts, one finding the small of her back to keep her close. The thumb of his other hand found her clit and he pressed slowly, watching her eyes flutter closed and feeling her body relax around him. Very gently, he began to circle his thumb, and slowly pushed himself deeper inside her. When she moaned and pulled him closer with her legs, he sped up the movement with his thumb, increasing the pressure, kissing her neck and collarbone as she gasped. Tension built inside her, muscles began to spasm as she reached her climax, gripping the counter hard enough to crack the stone, and bucking her hips uncontrollably.

She placed a hand on the back of Loki's head, meeting his dark, intense gaze. He had barely moved inside her to keep from coming too soon, and now he began to thrust into her, fast. His hands found her hips and dug into the flesh, almost lifting her up from the counter. Amora gasped as he fucked her, sweat breaking out at the base of his neck, and a flush on his cheeks. She pushed his hair out of his face and kissed him passionately, messily, until he broke away, panting. His eyes closed, his head fell back, and he cried out, shaking as his orgasm ripped through him.

After a moment of breathlessness, Loki wrapped Amora in his arms, and she rested her head on his chest. "Mm…that drink smells good. What's it called?" she asked.