Loki stabbed his eggs with a crispy slice of bacon and smeared the yolk all across his plate. He liked to get his hashbrowns good and eggy before he even started eating them, but the new cook at Bill's Diner wasn't the best, and always managed to overcook the eggs.
Across the table, Leah quietly sipped on a vanilla milkshake while she pretended to read the morning's newspaper. Loki knew she wasn't reading it, because she hadn't flipped the page since they sat down nearly twenty minutes earlier.
"Do you want to go see a film? I believe there's one about a giant dragon-lizard right now," Loki said. He stuffed his eggy bacon into his mouth, eating the whole thing at once.
Leah looked up and gave him the least-convinced look he'd ever seen on her face.
"Do I want to sit in a dark room with you for two hours?" she asked. She sighed and looked out the window with a hum. "Oh, let me think about that for a minute."
"Fine," Loki said.
Leah smirked at him over the rim of her milkshake, which Loki ignored with all his being. Every time he asked she found some snarky way to turn him down, but he thought that perhaps if he asked enough times, she'd run out of sarcastic remarks.
"Well, I'm going back to Alfheim again. We never did get to their alehouse." He picked up one of the small sausages with his fingers and ate the whole thing.
"No, you decided to go home and sulk," Leah said.
"Yes, well. No. No I didn't. I went home to conduct important experiments."
"And?"
Loki looked across the table at her, trying to determine just what game she was playing this time.
"And I'm going to go steal my boots back," he said.
Leah chuckled and took another drink of her milkshake. "I think I do want to see this. If nothing else, it might be funny."
Loki sneered at her and focused on his hashbrowns instead. Sometimes, he didn't know why he kept her around. Except for the whole having no friends on Asgardia thing, but that was a tiny detail.
They finished their breakfast with minimal sniping at one another and made their way back to Asgardia and Yggdrasil. Loki's car was still stuck in a ditch, which meant another long walk, but it was a pleasant day for it. The air was still cool, with a breeze that swept over the plain in the most stereotypical fashion, all with the threat of almost unbearable heat later in the day. Luckily, they weren't going to be on Midgard when that happened. If Loki's plan went accordingly, they would be in an Alfheim alehouse after a spot of burglary. And even if Loki's plans didn't always go off without a hitch, he did tend to get what he wanted one way or another.
Once on Alfheim, they didn't take the same path they'd taken before. The guards would never let them back into the city, but the front gates weren't the only way in. The portion of the river the city was built over was wide and shallow, but with a swift current. They walked along the bank to the northern edge of the city, sticking to the shadows and underbrush as much as possible. There were few guards along the walls, but they took no chances. They sat beneath a large yew tree, watching for any signs of movement along the wall. As the sun set, the entire city seemed to twinkle and sparkle as lanterns were lit. It reflected off the water, lighting the whole area as if the sun were still low on the horizon.
"There are vents and grates in all the streets that open to the river," he explained. He looked over at Leah's heeled boots before turning his attention back out to the river. "Be careful to keep your footing. The surface is deceptive."
When he looked back at her again, it was to look her in the eye. He said nothing, but she nodded all the same, calm and confident and completely unmoved. With a smirk, Loki stood again and offered his hand, almost surprised when Leah took it. They stepped into the water, slowly walking out toward the centre. The riverbed was sandy, but it was a small mercy in the face of the current. Even with sure footing, Loki nearly lost his balance as the water came to his waist. He stopped and tried to right his balance, pulling hard against Leah as she pulled against him to keep her own balance.
"Can't you just teleport there?" she asked once they both stood still again.
Loki grinned widely at her. "Where's the fun in that?" he asked.
Leah rolled her eyes and started moving again. Each step they took was measured carefully. They dug their feet into the sand and leaned against the current, pausing at the end of each stride to regain their balance once more. At the deepest point, the water came up to their chests, making each step a full-body exercise. Though the water was cold as ice, neither Loki nor Leah were bothered by it. The river was one of seven that flowed from the mountains, and sometimes would carry snow and ice, even in the summer.
As they crossed the river, each step took them that much farther downstream, until they were beneath the city itself. From underneath, it wasn't the shining white stone as from above, but all moss and algae and small, spiny creatures clinging to whatever they could to keep away from the sunlight. They came to a round vent, several feet across, which opened up to a darker street above. Loki dug his heels into the riverbed, anchoring himself as well as he could before turning to Leah. Without bothering to explain his plan, he grabbed her by the hips and lifted her up so she could push the vent out of the way. As she leaned her weight into it, Loki nearly stumbled. He tried to correct his balance and leaned too far the other way, nearly taking Leah with him into the water. She grabbed the edge of the vent and held them both upright until Loki caught his balance again.
"That was close," he breathed heavily, watching the swirling water around his chest.
"Lift me up," Leah told him, very much not looking back down at the water.
Loki lifted her up through the open sewer hole and watched nervously as she disappeared from his sight. A few moments later, she returned with someone's bedsheet and lowered it for Loki to pull himself up with. He climbed up quickly and lay down on the flagstones to catch his breath. When he sat up again, Leah was trying to wring as much water from her dress as she could.
"That was fun," Loki said.
Leah flung what water she could at Loki and shook her head. "You're a lunatic," she said.
"You're the one who hangs out with the lunatic," Loki shot back.
He got up and tried to determine the best way to dry off, but leather breeches and scale mail weren't made for wringing out.
"I think I've ruined these pants," he complained.
"And your gloves," Leah pointed out.
Loki looked down at his black leather gloves and frowned. He liked those gloves, but Leah was right. They were good and ruined after that little stunt. He wasn't about to admit it, but he hadn't exactly thought that one all the way through. He shook the water off his hands as best he could and looked up at the city's tall towers.
"Aingard has no dungeons," said a familiar voice in his ear. Loki glanced over at Ikol, perched on his shoulder, and realised belatedly that dungeons weren't exactly possible in this city.
"No winding mazes of tunnels to hide treasures and trinkets in," Loki concluded. Even Asgardia had some earth beneath it to house dungeons. The city on the river had only river.
"What?" Leah asked.
Loki looked over at her, and then up to the tallest tower. "There," he said, pointing. "You hide your treasures in the most difficult place to reach."
Leah looked up at the tower as well. "I suppose Halfi would be foolish to unleash the crown's power so soon after stealing it. He'll have hidden it away until we forgot about it."
"Oh, yes. That too," Loki said. Ikol took flight and Loki followed after him, trusting the bird to lead them through the city. Their path wound almost randomly through shady alleyways and unoccupied buildings. Ikol didn't exactly seem to care that Loki and Leah couldn't fly over some of the high walls and taller buildings, and Loki lost sight of him more than once because of it.
The quiet road they were following ended abruptly when it came to the back of a large house with several dozen smaller apartments. Some of the windows had small balconettes, but even the lowest of them were too high to be easily reached. Without a word between them, Loki and Leah began searching around for anything that might help them. But along with its disgusting oneness with Nature, Alfheim was annoyingly clean and tidy, in even its most crowded of cities. There were no stray ladders, or stacks of boxes or barrels to climb on. Just bare flagstones and clean, sturdy walls.
"Don't you know where we're going?" asked Leah finally.
Loki looked up the wall in front of them. "No. I was following Ikol."
Leah didn't sigh and roll her eyes, but she was very close to it. Loki cast a glance in her direction and did sigh.
"Oh, fine. We'll do it your way," he said.
Before Leah could stop him, Loki pulled her close and held one arm tightly around her waist.
"Loki, wait," Leah protested.
He didn't wait. They were pulled in every direction at once, through a swirling void that erupted into a flash of bright light. The ground beneath their feet shifted, no longer the solid stone of the alleyway. Suddenly, the ground beneath them was steep and mossy, and almost slick.
Leah carefully pulled away from Loki, holding her hands out for balance so she didn't fall off the roof Loki had teleported them to.
"I hate you," she said breathlessly. "What was that for?"
Loki took a step away, nearly slipping himself. "I wanted to get a better look at the city," he said.
Five storeys above the streets was a fairly decent look, as they went. From up on the roof, he could see the streets winding and twisting around the buildings. Whether this city suffered from poor planning from the beginning, or if it had been the result of buildings being built and rebuilt over time was unclear. But either way, there was no straight path from where they stood to the tower keep. At least, not on the ground. Loki looked at the roofs, all covered in moss and grass, and how they all seemed to connect to more than one building. He grinned widely and pointed off toward the north.
"This way," he said with a grin.
The leather soles of his boots offered no grip or traction as he walked along the roof, but the thick moss muffled their footsteps. They weren't stepping as lightly as elves, but they weren't stomping about like ogres either. After a few steps, Loki stopped to let Leah catch up. He offered his hand, and was almost surprised when she took it.
"If I fall, I'm taking you with me," Leah said unexpectedly.
Loki frowned. "Falling would be bad," he agreed.
"Then you better hope I don't fall."
Loki moved closer to the top of the roof so they could grip the pointed edge. It wasn't much of a handhold, but they were slightly less likely to fall painfully this way.
Soon, the vaulted roof gave way to a flat terraced garden. Loki and Leah climbed over the balustrade and ran quietly along the path as it curved to the west, closer to their goal. At the end of the terrace, they came to another vaulted roof, this one even higher than the previous. Loki climbed up onto it first and once more offered his hand for Leah, but this time, she refused it. She climbed up after him, and the two made their way up to the top once again, quickly making their way along it.
"Are you doing anything tonight?" Loki asked.
Leah scoffed and stumbled. "Now?" she asked. "You're—? Yes. I'm getting dragged all across Alfheim when I could be watching the iGame of Thrones/i finale."
Loki looked back at her. "That was two nights ago," he said. He'd assumed everyone would have seen it by then, surely.
"I haven't got to it yet. I had other things to do." Leah stopped to un-snag the hem of her skirt from a small branch that was caught by the moss.
Loki snorted. "Like what? And Aingard is hardly 'all across Alfheim'."
He hopped over to the other side of the roof and slid down it. The bottom connected to a high wall, covered in thick vines which looked good for climbing. Leah followed after him despite her protests, out-pacing him as they climbed to another high terrace. From there, the path to the tower was a straight shot along a final vaulted roof. With a wide grin, Loki ran along the terrace and leapt to the roof, almost sliding off when he landed. He grabbed hold of the moss to stop his fall, pulling several tiles loose. Leah climbed up more carefully, stopping to help Loki back to his feet before making her way back toward the top.
The opposite end of the roof joined with the tower itself, with several small windows within easy reach. Loki climbed through first, wriggling through and falling to the ground with a heavy thud. He could hear Leah laughing as she climbed in after, and he watched as she landed no more gracefully.
"Watch the drop. It's a big one," Loki warned after she'd already hit the ground.
"Thanks," Leah said. She climbed to her feet and followed Loki as he carefully walked across the dusty room to the door.
The room wasn't empty, but it had been long unused. Crates and boxes were piled high, covered in old sheets and a heavy layer of dust and grime.
"Everything they've stolen, no doubt," Loki said.
Leah peered under one of the sheets and nodded. "They probably couldn't find a black market for old guards' uniforms," she said.
Loki quickly turned round and pulled away one of the sheets, immediately wishing he hadn't. He choked on the dust that sprang up, having to lean against the pile of crates to keep his balance. When he finally regained control of himself, he looked into the top crate and pulled out a feather hat.
"Oh, look at this!" he said, holding it up. It was a gold and white pointed cap with a small brim, and several large blue feathers stuck in the band. The feathers were bent and crumpled, but still all in one piece, and it was enough to make Loki decide that he'd rather wear that. He took off his horned diadem and hooked it into his belt by his dagger, and replaced it with the feathered cap.
"How do I look?" he asked, adjusting the hat on his brow.
"No more ridiculous than usual," Leah said.
Loki chose to ignore the implications there and turned back toward the door. "Once we get to the stairs, the rest will be easy. Just a quick climb to the highest room in the tallest tower."
He tried to make it sound fun, but even he knew it would be torment. Still, he pulled the door open and peered out, finding the curved corridor empty.
"Is it just me, or has this been suspiciously easy so far?" he asked.
Leah pushed Loki's feathers out of the way to look out as well. "Aside from the almost drowning, and almost falling, you mean?"
"Yes, aside from that."
They stepped out to the corridor and slowly walked along the inner wall. "Yes it has," Leah agreed. She looked back, expecting to find someone patrolling the corridor, but the only sounds at all were their own footsteps.
The outer wall of the corridor was lined with small chambers. There were no windows, leaving the corridor dark and still. The only light that shone was that which escaped from the gaps beneath the doors. There was only one door on the inner wall, and Loki was beginning to think they'd missed it when they finally found it. Leah pulled it open and the two of them peeked through the small gap, finding no-one on the other side. The stairwell was lit by a skylight in the roof, and wound tightly upward. There was nothing on the inside keeping a climber from falling to their death should they stumble, so Loki and Leah kept to the wall as possible as they started their ascent.
"This is the worst date ever," Loki complained.
"This isn't a date," Leah told him.
"This is the worst not-date ever," Loki said, correcting himself.
Leah looked up, trying to lean away from the wall just enough to see how far they still had to go, without losing her balance entirely. Loki stopped and did the same, and then looked down.
"We're much closer to the top than we are to the bottom, at least," he said.
"Aren't you going to offer to hold my hand again?" Leah asked him.
"Why, so you can take me with you when you fall?" Loki smirked and kept climbing, keeping a few steps behind Leah just in case either of them did stumble.
"What were you doing on Sunday?" Loki asked.
Leah shot a quick glance over her shoulder. Loki was pretty sure he saw a suspicious tilt to her mouth, but it was too dark to properly tell.
"I was having some me-time," Leah told him. "In the bath, with my StarkPad."
"Oh," Loki said. And then his brain caught up with the rest of him, while his feet suddenly decided to lag behind, and he almost did stumble. "Oh! Uh. Right."
"Don't fall," said Leah, almost sounding like she was enjoying herself.
Loki looked down at his feet to make sure they were still working. When he looked up again, he found his gaze gravitating toward Leah.
"And stop staring at my ass, Laufeyson," Leah said.
"Okay." Loki looked at a point above Leah's head, since that seemed safe enough.
Leah laughed, though Loki wasn't sure what was so funny all of a sudden. The stairwell suddenly felt too warm, even with the breeze that came through the skylight.
"Look, I think this is the last one," Leah said. She stopped on the landing and tried to push the door open, but it was locked.
"Here, look out," Loki said. He carefully nudged in close and pulled out his lock picking kit. A moment later, he thought better of it and put the kit back on his belt.
"We'll do it the other way," he said. He ducked down to peer through the lock, able to see the vague shadows of objects on the other side. There were no lights on the other side, but the two of them were glad to leave the perilous stairwell for the unknown darkness.
The tower's tallest room was circular, and was the only room on that level. There was no curved corridor to grope around until they found a door. Only more locked boxes and chests and various treasures left out for an unwitting burglar to trip over.
"Loki, something's wrong," Leah warned, staying near the door.
"You're right," Loki agreed. "It's far too dark in here."
He snapped his fingers and summoned a light, allowing him to search through the treasures in the room with relative ease. The room wasn't organised in any visible way, with everything seeming like it had just been placed in the first empty spot. Loki had some idea of what he was looking for though, and soon found exactly what he was looking for.
"Aha!" he called out.
Leah stepped closer, but not close enough to leave the light from the stairwell. "You found it?" she asked.
Loki pulled a pair of black leather boots from the box and sat down on the floor. "Would you like a pair? I'm sure they have some in your size."
Leah gaped at him while he pulled off the boots he was wearing and put on the pair he was in the process of stealing. "Are you serious? What is wrong with you?" she demanded.
Loki scoffed. "I have needed new shoes for a year," he said. "And these ones are so much better. You can actually climb up waterfalls and rainbows and whatever you want." Loki could barely climb a ladder in the pair he'd been doing a good job at wearing down to nothing. The soles were worn smooth and thin, and he was pretty sure both the heels were dangerously close to having holes worn through them.
He threw his old boots into the box and walked back over toward the door. "Let's go find that crown now."
Leah huffed indignantly and shoved him away. "Next time just go to Hot Topic like everyone else."
"My car is in a ditch, and the nearest mall with a Hot Topic is in Shawnee. I'm not going to walk to Shawnee," Loki argued. He shooed her away from the door and started back down the stairs.
"You can teleport. Why do you even need a car?" Leah asked. Loki was actually surprised she was following after him.
He shrugged. "That's what Midgardian teens do. They get a car and go to the mall to ignore their friends in favour of their smartphones."
"You're not Midgardian."
Loki tried to turn round to look back at Leah, but he nearly stepped right off the stairs. He quickly caught his balance, but decided to keep his attention on where he was going.
"No, but. Neither are you, but I've seen you hanging around with those high school girls. The ones with the fetching black eye make-up." For a while, it had struck Loki as odd that Leah would talk to anyone other than him. But then he realised that not everybody went out of their way to avoid their peers in the name of not getting randomly punched. "What do you even talk about?"
"The idiot boys in our lives who drive us all crazy," Leah said.
Loki grinned. "You talk about me to your friends?"
He could practically hear her rolling her eyes. "That's one way of putting it."
"Does that mean I'm your—"
"No," Leah said before he could even finish.
"Fine." Loki focused on taking the stairs all the way to the bottom of the tower. At the landing, the space opened up to a wide hall, which looked just as empty and deserted as the tower itself had.
"Where are we going, Loki?" asked Leah.
Loki chewed on his tongue while he considered that very question. "The throne room, I think," he said. "It's always guarded, even when Halfi isn't in there. If I were hiding an evil crown of power, that's where I'd put it."
He nodded toward the nearest window and jogged over to it. It opened out to an overgrown little garden. He pulled himself up onto the ledge and looked out at the short drop to the ground.
"Come on," he said, before swinging his legs over and hopping outside. He waited for Leah, watching as she climbed onto the ledge to follow him out. She froze suddenly and looked over her shoulder at something Loki couldn't see. But he could hear it. Someone shouting, and two someones running.
"Damn!" Leah said as she jumped out of the window.
She and Loki ran across the garden, gaining distance while the guards struggled to climb through the window. They leapt over a tangled hedgerow and crouched behind it, hoping that in the dark, the guards would just run right past them.
"Loki," Leah hissed.
Before Loki could ask what had annoyed her this time, she snatched the feathered hat off his head and threw it to the ground. The guards ran past them, but only by a few paces before one of them turned around.
"There they are!" he shouted.
"Time for running!" Loki shouted back.
He grabbed Leah's wrist and pulled her to her feet as he picked a random direction to run. The garden was enclosed only by a short balustrade, which they leapt over easily to get to the main road. As they ran down it, lights in windows began to flicker on, with the occasional curious face peering out at them.
"I think we're becoming Alfheim's Most Wanted," Loki said as he turned a sharp corner down a narrow street.
"Whose fault is that?" Leah asked.
"Mine. Sorry." He dared a glance back, annoyed to find the guards still chasing them. "Oh, just give up already!" he shouted at them.
One of the guards raised his bow and loosed an arrow, catching Loki in the shoulder.
"Not fair!" Loki stumbled from the indignation of being shot, and reached back to break the shaft so it wasn't in his way.
"Loki!" Leah shot a glance over her shoulder to the pursuing guards, and then pushed Loki through an open doorway along the road. The building was large and airy, but the air inside was thick and heavy with dust. It was an old storeroom of sorts, but for what, Loki couldn't tell. It was too dark, and he was too preoccupied to care.
Large bay doors opened out over the edge of Aingard's bridge, leaving an unguarded drop to the river below. There were no windows, nor any other doors that he could see. As the guards approached, blocking the only other exit, Loki groaned and turned to Leah.
"I'm sorry," he said. He picked her up, ignoring the pain in his shoulder and dropped her into the river below.
"Loki, you bastard!" Leah shouted.
Loki ignored it and turned to face the guards, raising his hands above his shoulders.
"Gentlemen. Perhaps we can work something out, just between the three of us," he said. He smiled hopefully at them, but felt that hope fade at the way the guards laughed.
One of the guards waved his hand and stalked toward Loki as the other broke away and wandered off to the far wall. Loki took a step back, trying to put some distance between himself and the guard, but the guard closed the distance just as quickly.
"I think we can work something out," said the guard. "I think we can work it out so you never step foot on this, or any other realm again, and we get a reward for making that happen."
Loki took another step back, away from the guard and the bay door. He could have easily leapt out the same way he sent Leah, but it would have felt too much like giving up.
"Yes, let's work on that," he said. "I was just sent here for one little thing, and once I've had it, you will see no more of me."
"I like that," said the guard.
Loki didn't see the other one in the shadows, and had little time to react when he was grabbed from behind. Suddenly, both guards were on him, forcing him toward the centre of the room. As they wrenched his arms about, the arrow in his shoulder dug in anew, but he tried not to do anything quite so unmanly as screaming about it. Even if he did want to. Badly.
"You're making a terrible mistake," Loki said, trying to fight against them. But they were bigger than he was, and there were two of them, making it a terribly unfair fight.
"I don't think we are." The elves lifted him off the ground and forced him down onto his back. Loki tried to roll away, but found himself rather unable to. He was confined on all sides, but it wasn't until the lid shut over him that he realised he'd been stuffed into a large box. One of the guards shoved a knife under the lid, bending the blade so it couldn't be pulled out. It left a small gap for air to get in, at least. He wouldn't suffocate, so there was one small mercy.
He heard the locks clicking shut and began thrashing against the sides of the chest with all his strength, but there was little room to move or gain any kind of momentum. He tried to avoid the knife
"You can't just leave me here!" he shouted.
"You're right."
Suddenly, he felt the chest being picked up, and realised exactly what was about to happen. He started thrashing about again, ignoring his shoulder and the knife and everything else. And then suddenly everything was swinging, and then falling. When he hit the water, it was like hitting cement. His teeth clacked together and he hit his head twice, once in the front and once in the back, at the impact. But worse than anything else was the water coming in through the gap under the lid.
Loki kicked and punched with everything he had, but the lid wouldn't budge for anything.
"Loki!"
He realised he could hear splashing nearby, and was suddenly very glad he'd dropped Leah off the bridge.
"Leah, please don't let me drown! This would be a terribly embarrassing way for a god to die!" he shouted.
He could feel her tugging the chest against the current. He could also feel himself sinking as more and more water poured in from under the lid. He was surprised when everything seemed to stop, except for the water, which wasn't stopping at all.
"Leah, the knife. Get the knife!" Loki said, still kicking as hard as he could.
He couldn't see anything, but he could hear her splashing and moving outside.
"I can't. It's stuck," Leah said.
"Oh, wait." Loki twisted and shifted around, finally reaching his dagger on his belt. Not sure what else was left to do, he started stabbing wildly at the lid above him, tearing chunks and splinters out of the wood. It was already more than he expected to get. With the water rising, forcing him to sit up as much as he could, he managed to gouge a hole into the lid. The sight of the sky was enough to startle him, and he started hacking and stabbing even faster.
"Loki, look out," Leah said.
Loki lowered his dagger and tried pulling on the planks instead. Leah did the same from the outside, throwing her weight into every motion. Between the two of them, one of the planks cracked loudly, collapsing the entire lid into itself. Loki shoved the mess away and scrambled out of the chest with surprised laughter. Before he even knew what he was doing, he pulled Leah close and kissed her. It lasted only a few seconds before he came to his senses and stumbled away, turning his side to her.
"Sorry. Please keep your knees to yourself," he said.
Leah stepped toward him, making him fairly certain he was about to get kicked. Instead, she surprised him by throwing her arms around him in a desperate hug, which would have been nice if not for the arrow still in his shoulder.
"Ow, ow, no," he said as he flinched away. Suddenly his shoulder felt like it was on fire, and all he cared about was getting the arrow out of him. "We need to go. Somewhere else," he said.
Leah nodded. "Where?" she asked.
"Somewhere with a roof? Preferably nearby?" Loki said.
Leah nodded and looked around. There weren't many options for shelter nearby, and Loki wasn't sure what options there were farther away. Nothing that he could…
He cringed and pinched his nose, realising his own idiocy.
"Loki," said Leah, and he could hear that she realised it as well.
"I know," he said. "I panicked and forgot. Again." He looked up at her, glad it was dark so he didn't have to see her judging him.
"You're not human," Leah said.
"I know," Loki said, looking away again.
"You're picking up a lot of terribly bad habits from pretending you are."
"I know," he repeated. He knew she was right, too. He didn't even know why he did it at all. "Sorry."
Leah sighed deeply and slowly. They were still standing knee-deep in the river, still within sight of the bridge. It was hardly the place to be having any serious discussions.
"I need to look at your shoulder, but I can't do it here," she said finally. "I have a sewing kit at home."
Loki nodded and looked around again, trying to regain his bearings. He wasn't good enough to hop between the realms, so they'd have to get to Asgardia first.
"This way," he said, pointing. He trudged out of the water with Leah close behind him, quickly finding the path back to Asgardia once he reached the bank. Neither of them said anything on their way back to the branch of Yggdrasil they'd come from.
—
Leah had her own magic, but it was a very specific vein of magic. She couldn't travel or conjure with it, but the skills she did have were powerful and useful beyond measure.
Unfortunately, those skills did not include any of the healing arts. Loki sat on the floor without his tunic, with Leah behind him slowly trying to pull the arrow out of his shoulder without causing any more damage. Under just about any other circumstance, Loki would have been overjoyed to be in her apartment without a shirt on, but he was in far too much pain to be happy about being there.
"You're lucky he only shot you once," Leah said, slowly working the barbed arrow out.
"Yes, lucky me, for getting shot," Loki said. He hissed and flinched when Leah pulled on the arrow again. "Ow, just get it over with."
"I don't want you to bleed on my carpet," Leah said. She tugged on the arrow a few more times before it finally came loose with a tear and a pained yelp from Loki. Moving quickly, Leah pressed a damp hand towel to Loki's shoulder and reached out for the compartmented plastic box, full of coloured threads.
"Green?" she asked, prying it open with one hand.
"No, don't bother, I think," said Loki.
Leah hummed quietly and started to get up. She reached over Loki to grab his left hand and pulled it over his other shoulder so he could hold onto the hand towel.
"Stay here and don't bleed on anything," she said.
Loki flinched again, but not as hard. "Okay." He watched her walk back to the part of the apartment he was never allowed to go to, which he assumed was probably where the bedroom was. Leah was gone for only a few moments, and returned to the living room with a dark shirt and a large adhesive bandage. As she sat behind Loki again, he pulled the hand towel away and looked at it. He was bleeding more than he expected, but he still didn't think it was enough to make it anywhere near the carpet.
Leah quickly unwrapped and pressed the bandage to his skin. It was already starting to hurt less, which was a good sign that the arrow hadn't been enchanted or cursed in any way. Not being enchanted or cursed by arrows was always a good thing.
When she was done, Leah handed Loki the shirt and put her sewing kit on the table on her way to the sofa. Loki started to put the shirt on, but stopped and pulled it away to look at it. It had Iron Man's arc reactor printed on the front, with the words I AM IRON MAN on the back.
"It glows in the dark," Leah said.
Loki frowned at it. "Why do you have it?" he asked. He gingerly pulled it on and looked down at the arc reactor on his chest.
"I like Iron Man," Leah said with a smirk and a shrug.
It was the last thing Loki expected her to say. "Why?"
"Have you seen him?" asked Leah.
"Ah." Loki considered this. He'd seen Iron Man, both in and out of the armour suit, around Asgardia rather frequently over the years, and the only thing he really noticed was his ridiculous choice in facial hair.
"Not really my type. I don't like people with beards," Loki said. He shifted on the floor and leaned back on his elbows, watching Leah form some sinister though.
"Of course. I've seen the way you look at Daimon. You've even stopped pestering him about wearing a shirt," she said.
Loki laughed and rubbed his eye. He hadn't even noticed he'd stopped, but of course Leah did. "Yeah, I would ride him into the sunset if he let me," he admitted.
"Not if I get to him first, mister."
They both laughed easily. Biting his lip, Loki lay back and rested his head on his hands. "It's a race, is it?" he asked.
Leah laughed again. "Race? No, I'll fight you for him," she said.
Loki snorted. "Then I've already lost. You'll win. You're mean when you fight," he said. He sighed deeply as he looked up at the swirling patterns on the ceiling. He looked for any hidden images in them, but all he saw was plaster and paint smeared around in an attempt to look artistic. It was almost disappointing.
"So, are you going to tell me what happened? In the river?" Leah asked.
Loki sat up just enough to look at her, for a moment surprised to see something that almost looked like concern. And then he realised she was probably just sick of waiting, and he sat up all the way.
"I don't know," he said honestly. He'd not given it much thought, because he still couldn't believe he'd been stuffed into the damned thing to begin with. "I'd tried just about everything to get into one of them. It was suspiciously easy to…"
He stopped, realising exactly what he was about to say, and not sure if saying it aloud would jinx him.
"What?" asked Leah, and now she did look concerned.
"Elven magic always has loopholes," said Loki. He leapt to his feet and made quick tracks to the window. He wasn't sure what he expected to see, but nothing looked out of the ordinary. Leah's apartment had a stunning view of Asgardia in the distance, almost glowing in the setting sun. Nothing seemed like impending war or doom or destruction, which meant either Halfi hadn't tried to use Loki's possible drowning to start a war, or no-one in Asgardia cared enough to bother.
He wasn't sure which option was more insulting.
"I broke out," Loki said. He turned back to Leah, suddenly far more elated than the situation called for. "That's how they did it! The crown. That's how they took it! Come on. We have to go back!"
"Right now?" asked Leah, even as she stood. Loki was already making a dash for the door, and stopped to turn to her.
"I'm pretty sure they think I'm dead, so they probably won't expect it," he said with a shrug.
"Do you want to change first?" Leah asked.
Loki looked down at the printed arc reactor on his chest and shrugged. "Not enough time. This will do."
Before Leah could ask anything else, he let himself out and ran down the old cement stairs three at a time. Leah was a little more slow, taking the time to make sure her door was locked before following after.
