First Loki was aware of temperature. Namely, that he was hot. It was such a discomfort that it started his brain down the road to consciousness.
Then came the pounding in his skull.
Finally, when he reached that place halfway between awake and asleep and he tried to move, he discovered that his entire body hurt.
Like...really hurt. Like he'd actually tried to compete with Thor during their morning workout routines. Which was silly; he hadn't been able to surpass that lughead in anything physical since the sixth grade.
He couldn't help the groan that escaped as he tried to roll over enough to sit up. Loki swayed upright and looked around.
He was in a large room of gleaming wood, on a couch that he wouldn't have seen fit to give to his mother's dog. It looked...sat on. In some places the dark red fabric actually looked...worn. Which meant this was not home. So where was he? And why was his thinking so muddled?
He buried his head in his hand. His muscles were sore. His bones were sore. Hell, his teeth were sore. What-
"We got off on the wrong foot."
There. That husky voice. That was a voice he remembered. Not many people told him 'no,' and this voice had.
Slowly he raised his head and saw her.
More clothed than before, she was wearing gray leggings, scuffed sneakers, and-
"That's Thor's sweater," Loki croaked. Thor had been here. Thor had been here long enough to do something that involved taking off his sweater.
At that thought, Loki shifted on the couch and unzipped his jacket. Ahh, that was better. Much cooler. It even cleared his brain enough for him to notice his cap was askew on his head. He removed that too and ran a hand absently through his hair. Stuff was hurting less. His eyes narrowed at the offensive woman standing before him.
The woman plucked absently at the hem of the blue cashmere with the hand that was not pointing a taser at him. It was five sizes too big for her. She shrugged sheepishly and it slid down one shoulder. One flawless shoulder.
Loki blinked a couple of times to clear his brain further. Good Lord, was he so hard pressed he was starting to notice Thor's spoils? His gaze zeroed in on what she was clutching.
"Did you...tase me?" he asked incredulously.
She flashed him a half-smile. "Like I said, we got off on the wrong foot, what with all that breaking and entering and tasing stuff. Do you want to try again?"
But Loki couldn't get over that last bit. "You tased me."
"You broke into my house!"
"You tased me!" he snarled. "Don't you have any idea who I am?"
"I don't give shit one about who you are, guy." She grimaced. "Loki," she amended. "You could be Jesus Christ, the last lord and savior, you still do NOT break into a house in the middle of nowhere and grab a girl, dude. Do not."
The utter temerity, the sheer indignation of it all had Loki rising as she finished and was met with a wiggle from the taser is his direction, a jutting chin and flashing blue eyes.
"I said let's try again. We can start fresh or I find out what this thing can do at full charge." Now her eyes were boring into his almost desperately. "I really do prefer trying again. And not holding grudges, I am way big into not holding grudges. Especially when I don't have snow shoes. Not that not having snow shoes would stop me from trying to make a getaway if I had to drop you again but...you know..." at this she trailed off almost nervously, like she was afraid of saying more. The taser, which she had been waggling for effect during her speech and was making him quite nervous, grew still.
At the mention of snow, he grew sober. "Jane, is it?" Her silence wasn't helping. "How do you know my name?"
"How do you know mine?" she retorted, with an eyebrow cocked impishly at him. He chose to ignore her question for the time being. Softening his features, he attempted to implore with her.
"I need to find my brother most urgently. He is needed in the city. More urgently still as the roads are starting to be shut down."
"And your brother is Thor."
"Yes."
"Why on earth do you think he is here?"
Loki narrowed his eyes. She didn't need to know that through the years it was much easier to secretly trace his brother's movements than to ask his brother what his travel plans were. One morning he might play hooky in New York and Loki would find him through pictures online at an all night foam party in Prague. His brother loved to fight, loved to celebrate, and was the face of the family. It was Loki's job to keep tabs on him, keep him under wraps and on one glorious occasion, drug him with enough Benadryl to knock out an elephant and smuggle him out of Dubai in a horse kennel. The GPS he had hidden in Thor's car placed him here. With this woman in a secluded cabin.
"...if he has gone out on an errand...or decided to build a bloody snowman in a field for you, we need to find him. The storm is getting closer."
"I guarantee you, sir, he has not been here in at least two days. It's just me, the telescope, and mama's little helper." Another wiggle from the taser.
Loki sighed and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. He counted to ten in French, then in German, and when he wasn't yet ready to speak nicely, in Mandarin.
"Do you want to count in Spanish, too?"
His eyes popped open and he stared at her.
She shrugged. "You move your lips when you speak."
"You know Mandarin?"
"I know what counting to ten looks like in any language. My parents did that with me for years."
Change the subject. Win her over. Find out what she knows. "Thor warned you about me, I take it."
It really didn't matter what Thor might have said about him, it was what he might have said to the good doctor about the potential merger that was scheduled for...as soon as he dug his brother out of whatever crevice he had buried himself in. Geographical or female.
Where was the imbecile? And what exactly had Thor told her? Who knows what pretty whisperings that muffin head liked to utter after his passion was spent. Thor was like a dog; pet him and he would bond most affectionately...until the next bone came along. Loki was known for being the wordsmith of the family...and that also meant he knew when to cease speaking. It wouldn't occur to Thor that sweet mutterings and insider information were not the same thing.
She seemed to consider his question carefully. "I was told you were British. That's about it. But ah...I have good news and bad news."
"What is the bad news?"
"The storm's not getting closer...it's here. Level three snow emergency has been declared. While you were...you know..." she made indelicate snoring sounds. "You were out for a couple of hours. I had to google concussions and everything. I don't think you have one but you hit your head going down and I wasn't sure. But I checked your pupils and everything. I think you're okay. Do you feel okay?"
For the first time in a long time, Loki was at a loss. He had lost Thor against the explicit wishes of his father, he had been tasered, knocked unconscious, and was now seemingly trapped in a cabin in the middle of the woods with his dear brother's latest slop.
"...what's the good news?" he finally asked.
She tightened her grip on the taser, but stopped pointing it at him. "I lied. There's no good news. The radio says the blizzard is now a nor'easter. Take a look-" she gestured out to the windows.
Loki did a double take as he realized what he thought was a wall that was painted white was actually windows that were more than halfway covered in snow. From what he could see, there was no visibility beyond the first few feet. If this was a nor'easter they were in more trouble than he thought. Not only was a nor'easter a blizzard on steroids, it was everything bad about a giant snowstorm combined with hurricane force winds, a vast drop in temperature, and could sometimes-
There was a small series of crashes off in the distance, and he jumped.
"And it's thundering."
Finally her bravado ran out and she collapsed in a oversized green chair across from him.
"Can we start over? I'm kind of freaking out right now – it's the Day After Tomorrow outside, there is thunder snow, I didn't even know that existed, I used the last bars to google that shit before my reception was wiped out by the storm, and I am trapped here with you and I'd really like to not taser you again. So you don't freak out and I won't zap. Deal?"
Loki whipped his phone out of his pocket and groaned inwardly. No reception. Just to be on the safe side, he tried dialing the home office. Nothing.
The gravity of the situation was starting to hit him. "Where's Thor?" Loki said quietly, earning him a glare and a sniffle from her.
"I told you, I don't know."
He decided to tell her. "He has a GPS in his car. It says that he is here."
Jane started, stood up and retreated to the bedroom. When she came back she was holding a small blue box with antannae pinched between two fingers. "Is this it?"
He took it from her. On the side it said Odin CommCorp.
Dammit.
"Where did you find this?"
"Under the bed. With this sweater."
This was too much.
As he stared at the logo on the side, whatever frustration he had felt at tracking Thor down in the middle of nowhere boiled over. Stuck in the middle of a blizzard when they were both supposed to be in their offices, in the city, tying down the biggest mergers since Microsoft and Nokia but no – Thor had the majority vote since Thor was the CEO and god help the president and their father, Odin, make a non traditional business decision like say let the more mature younger brother actually lead the company...fuck, just show up on time not covered in confetti and smelling like appletinis and now who knew where he was, this all might fall through, and guess who would be blamed?
With a roar, he threw the offending GPS across the room where it shattered against a wall. That didn't make him feel better so he kicked away the end table he had hit his head on. He had a sadistic streak, he would be the first one to admit it, and it sung at the sight of fear on the woman's face as he struck out. Jane jumped out of the way, her taser in hand and backing against the far wall as he threw the couch cushions against a lamp, shattering it, before stalking to the door of the cabin, heading outside and slamming it satisfyingly loud behind him.
