Thanks for all the views in just a mere four days, guys 3 Hope this chapter doesn't bore you. HA!

II.: Cigarettes, Storms, and Tricks

Dark and colorless clouds had long since completed the task of completely covering the skies above the city that rarely slept, leaving the four astronomers in a cold-ass warehouse. Luckily it was heated, and small enough to hold in the heat and circulate it among the four. The lights were the power of practical floodlights, since the generators would temporarily spazz the fuck out on occasion, then turn off though every time before the shut downs they'd pump in so much electricity that Harry would have to go out and shut off the breaker for a bit.

Though sometimes when it was cold the entire damned place went cold as death, the other few times the heater would regulate the temperature just fine. A small and quaint place, really. Though it was small looking, it was hella spacious on the inside; even if it looked miniscule from the outside. Okay, the word "miniscule" was a bit over exaggerated.

The moon had disappeared with the midnight sky as well, leaving a pondering Loki to sit and stare at the condensation forming on the window at his side, which was now, of course, closed tightly. Not even the truck that had pulled in caught the wonderer's attention. Nope, not because he hadn't cared who it was—oh, if he had noticed, he'd be worrying at the start—but simply because he didn't care about much at this moment. Well, aside from wondering how Sif was fairing, and then about how he himself would fair with the obvious storm coming.

Loki never fared well with storms, no; he was far from fairing when it came to them. Sometimes they would give him headaches, for some very odd reason (though the rain helped soothe the headaches), and the coldness of it made his hands cramp up—which, above all, was pretty bad. Most of the time, he would just sit back, try and read a book, compose some music, or just have a damn cup of tea. On rare occasions, the man would take walks to the nearest coffee shop. Lordie, coffee sounded great right now.

"Hey, mister writing man," A high voice snapped Loki out of his thoughts. "Daydreaming again?" Jane piped up, raising a pampered eyebrow at the pale man in the seat, ash tray in front of him, as well as a notebook, the current open page with all kinds of different, miscellaneous scriptures and hypotheses.

Laufeyson's head turned towards her, brows raised in a look of "I'm sorry, what did you say? I was too busy not really caring". "No, I was," Loki tried, his eyes wandering to the man by the young lady's side. His eyes quickly snapped back to the woman; "Jotting down mindlessness."

Jane sighed out a small, "Like always," as she then turned to the blonde at her side. "You two have met, right?" She asked.

"Hm?" The blonde man mused, blinking cerulean eyes at the brunette seated beside him. "Oh, yes, I remember you!" He offered a smile, extending a hand out to Loki and grabbing it in his own, shaking friendlily. Well, friendly to him at least.

"A— ha, yes, Jane introduced us together a while ago," Loki assured himself , feeling as if his arm was getting rather ripped out of his shoulder socket. Thank the Gods the man had stopped the handshake in time. "Thor, isn't it?" Wait, they met before?

"Yes, and you, Loki, the master writer," Thor stood back, crossing his arms with a smile broadly upon his chiseled face; "It's a fair pleasure meeting you again."

"Oh, stop it, that compliment kills me enough when Darcy says it," complained the Wiccan, in a rather dead tone. Apparently they did meet once. "How are, er, you," Loki's eyes shifted over at Jane, who had been called over for something by the infamous Darcy. "You two..?"

Thor's face portrayed that of a mixture that of embarrassment and amusement. "She's been," the blonde gave a sigh, "She's been good, the both of us, actually."

Loki took the time to study this man's dream-induced smile, how sort of… Well, how slightly self-mocking it looked, really. "Actually, she's been stressful in her own ways lately…" Thor's smile faded.

The smaller male took on a small frown upon his face, worrying at his bottom lip. "You're annoyed by her," Loki stated.

Thor's expression turned rather dark, and Loki wondered how the hell one person could be so expressive with just their eyes only. "Why would you think—"

"Your very aura tells me so, Thor, I mean—You two didn't even show any affection towards each other when you first came in."

"Oh, says you, mister now so-called mind reading writing man."

"What I'm saying is that you two don't look to have a healthy—"

"How would you know that, sir?" Thor cut off, watching intently as the smaller male looked as if he was biting his tongue. The blonde gave a laugh. "You barely even know me, do note."

You barely know me, Loki immediately thought, the pair of blue orbs burning his earlobes. His vitreous nerves were slowly getting frayed, by just how the slightest amount of ignorance that a small conversation could obtain and turn on the sour side from not knowing the smallest of secrets. Let it go, Loki. Just let it slip and pass.

"I," Laufeyson started, hand slipping around his abandoned, now cold coffee, the liquid warmthnening with just a short touch, lifting it to his lips to take a small sip. "You're right, I'm just being benightedly minded," he easily lied, letting out a pseudo-apologetic sigh.

"I'm only tugging on your leash, my friend, don't be so fictitious," Thor laughed out, voice bellowing throughout the small warehouse. Loki felt his ears grow hot. Damn him for not wearing a hood today.

"Fictitious," Loki mimicked, throwing the word around his mind for a moment. "I didn't expect such an intelligently chosen word to be in your vocabulary," A small, mischievous smirk twitched at Loki's lips.

Thor himself couldn't manage not to smile with the pale man. "Neither did I, actually." Those chosen words caused both, full-grown men, to snicker beside themselves.

"Well, look who's brash," Loki sighed out caustically, shaking his head, apple'd cheeks flushing the slightest bit of rose.

"And you, deemed devious."

"Some of us live up to our names."

"Says who?"

Loki couldn't help the "Bitch, please" look that came to his face, looking half-heartedly over at the epitome of manliness. "You're kidding?"

A small, friendly slug was delivered to the Witch's shoulder, which was most likely meant to be a nudge, but turned out to be like a sort of bear-like, short rasp; the window besides him lurching open momentarily off of the aura jolt that quickly surged through his veins. Luckily the oaf didn't pay any attention to it, still holding his soft smile. "You know I'm kidding, trickster," said Thor, leaning just against the desk surface.

Lord, was this guy a jejune handful. He was like a grown up child, almost—in respects of his common sense, just a little bit. Though he was a homely seeming person, in all due respect to that, since most people here in New York and Jersey were rather rash and curt. Thor, on the other hand, well… He was a happy alternative.

A small silence fell between the two men, only the soft chatter of the girls (not to mention to frequent Harry over there) audible from this side of the room. "You like staring at people, don't you," Loki accused softly, turning his head to Thor, who had blinked in a small feeling of slight awe.

"I apologize, I didn't know you had eyes on the side of your head." Thor tilted his head, expressiveness quite loud. "Where do you come from?"

What kind of question was that? Where did Loki come from? Um, a womb, what else? "You're probably wondering why I look so different and sound so different from other people: is that right?" Loki gave a near aggravated sigh, taking a wild guess that Thor's silence meant to go on.

"I come from a long line of Celtic and Norwegian mythology lovers, that is where my name came from," The brunette started, nibbling on his lip. "The accent is from my mother, father," – an uncomfortably cold shiver inched up Loki's spine at the mention of his father, and Thor seemed to notice as he made a quick attempt to change the subject. Well, at least a small bit.

"Accent? I barely noticed," The thunderous man bluffed, earning an almost invisible smirk from Loki's worrying, pale and thin lips. "I come from the same line," Thor boasted, smile returning to his godly face. Loki was already starting to dislike it in the best way possible. The guy had to be a fucking model, or… Something! To Hell with it, he would probably ask Jane later anyways. "Same thing with the name as well."

"Ah, you act as of your name, Thor. It doesn't surprise me."

"As do you, Loki."

Don't strangle him, don't strangle him went on in a repeated loop inside of Loki's head, eyes closed as he quickly thought of a sort of leeringly luring retort. "You have no idea, thunder boy." Loki muttered boldly, deciding finally that he should probably leave before this encounter turned into a homicide scene. So, grabbing the leather jacket, he stood, and slipped his arms through the slim sleeves, snatched his lighter and pulled out his most likely last cigarette of the night.

"Well, I should really be off now," Loki mused, taking a long drag from his cigarette. The suggestoion of him leaving was sudden, but he needed to see if Sigyn had been with any other alleycats, and if the doves weren't dead.

Oh, and poor Thor frowned; but allowed the short-lived frown to turn into a small grin. "I hope to see you again, trickster~."

With a roll of the eyes and a small smile, Loki replied with a small, bewitching "Don't get your hopes up, thunder boy." It sounded half hearted, but the subtley slinky look that Loki gave the blonde was quite copious—and maybe just a little… Cute?

Woah, woah, woah, there! Cute? Really, Thor? You've just seriously called the man you barely just cute? By the time Thor had unwrapped himself from his own thoughts, Loki was gone, a small amount of toxic smoke lingering in the air. Where the hell did he go, Thor thought for a moment, turning behind him only to see the sliding door just then close; the brunette man gone.

Loki really was some sort of trickster at heart, wasn't he? Thor would only have to find out sometime; maybe not soon enough.


Head rested against the armrest, Loki took in the sound of the rain, the gentle rolls of thunder, and the small, distant flashes of light that rang throughout almost the entire city. The lightening wasn't too close, so Loki wasn't very bothered by it at all. No, not bothered this time.

It almost comforted him. In a way that made bubbles form in the pit of his stomach; the sides of his lips twitch up slightly.

A sickeningly sweet feeling he could swear he had never felt before.

The piano played though Loki was quite a few meters away from it. It was another witch thing—a lot of true witches knew magic. Unless it was a born gift, which Loki could never fathom it to be. A lot of the times he would read or see accusations of the Craft being black magic, but he himself knew better than that. What right did others have to judge him and his practices, right?

Sigyn tugged him from his thoughts, pawing at the hand that was hanging from his side. "Yes, cat?" Loki asked in a low tone of perhaps slight annoyance; the cat had ruined a nice little daydream.

The Laufeyson man's brow s raised slightly, taking in a small yawn, lanky hand covering his mouth for a short moment (which did indeed slow the piano down a small bit, for he was getting quite tired now). All was well and comfortable, before Sigyn started to mewl again. "Okay, Sigyn, you may be in heat, but that doesn't give you the right to nag so mu—"

There was a knock at the door.

It sounded hesitant, but quite loud. It was unlike Loki was used to hearing or had ever heard. He rose to his feet slowly but swiftly, raising his hand, and pulling his fingers together, then slowly waving them to the side with a small outtake of breath. There, the locks were undone.

The pale pianist took in a small, apprehensive breath, hand clasped around his right wrist. "It's open." The witch called out.

Why didn't he have the sense of security? And again, he was just letting someone that he didn't even recognize into his house?

Loki waited a moment, before the knob on the door turned, the door slowly cracked open, and two eyes hesitantly peered in.

"Oi~."

Oh, damn- A very. Long. Night.


A/N: Don'chya just LOVE cliffhangers :D? I've been low on inspiration, so it probably wasn't too exciting xD If you were wondering, I am going to tell you that yes, while Thor had a small moment of spacing out, Loki did "teleport" (there really is no other word I guess) to the door, leaving him in the cold with Jane. WHy? Because I must be a super bitch to hi- Nah, Thor's my oafey boy. Again thanks for the small amount of support, guise o u o