Dean and Loki were very close to going for Uriel's throat the second they heard the inflection in his voice as he spoke to Sam. While they forgave Castiel for subtly reminding Sam of his mistake concerning Ruby, they held nothing but loathing for Uriel.
Unlike Castiel, who only stated fact and held no genuine disgust or other emotion towards the fact Sam had been drinking Ruby's blood while he slept with her, Uriel all but called Sam an abomination for it. And that pissed both Dean and Loki off.
Fortunately Loki's more...vengeful...side kicked in. He managed to hide his presence in Dean's soul. Barely.
It wouldn't do for Uriel to report that there was an Asgardian sharing his soul with Dean Winchester, the Righteous Man. Castiel hadn't exactly been in contact with the Asgardians, much less Loki. And while Odin's favorite punishment was well known among the gods, no one was currently looking for Loki.
Which meant he could cause as much chaos as he could until that secret was blown. Especially considering the fact he knew something was up behind the scenes with the angels.
Still, Loki held his peace and managed to wait until the angels were well out of hearing before he laced the room with cloaking spells. The same spell that hid him from Heimdall's view also hid him from most angels, provided they weren't actively searching.
Once that was done, Dean and Loki let loose every swear word they knew to describe Uriel. Sam managed to keep up with most of it, but he was openly impressed with the variety of swear words Dean had acquired from Loki. And he didn't limit himself to four letter words either.
"Feel better?"
"I'll feel better if I made that arrogant feather duster grovel on his knees and beg your forgiveness," said Loki furious.
Sam snorted...then he realized Loki was serious about that. Seeing the look on Sam's face, Loki gave him an amused stare.
"You might believe in heaven and God, but I have a different afterlife waiting for me...and that's if I'm lucky. I don't know about Dean, but odds are I'll end up with Hel for eternity, even if she won't actively torment me like most who enter her domain."
Sam became quiet, then asked "Do you think we could visit Fenrir after this?"
Loki's lips quirked upward. Sam and Fenrir had gotten along immediately, and Sam's inner dog lover had even thrown a ball a few times for Fenrir to chase. He was now one of Fenrir's all-time favorite people next to Loki himself.
"How about I take you to visit Fenrir and Jormungandr?"
Sam perked up at that.
He had been wanting to meet the World Snake, since he got along really well with Fenrir. Then Sam's lips suddenly twitched.
"Isn't Dean terrified of snakes though?"
Loki smirked as Dean started cursing his brother out without much feeling to it.
Because he had been unable to shield properly while under the influence of Ghost Sickness, Dean had been stuck with a plethora of ridiculous fears...including snakes.
Loki, of course, had never been terrified of snakes even as a child. It was hard to be terrified of something you could hold a reasonable conversation with...and the fact one of his children was in fact a massive snake with venom far more deadly than any on Midgard had nixed any feeling outside of amusement rather easily.
"Dean would like me to tell you to go 'screw yourself bitch'."
"Not a chance in Helhiem, jerk," countered Sam easily, smirking.
After being told even a fraction of what 'Dean' had gone through in hell, to say nothing of what Loki experienced. Dean had been unwilling to go into detail, but when Sam asked Loki...well, he got more information than he bargained for. It hadn't taken long for Sam to beg off hearing any more.
If after hearing about hell and the torture Dean had endured, Sam happened to occasionally share the same bed as Dean so his brother had something physical to hold onto, his brother never said a word. Sam's presence was more than enough to act as a buffer for the memories, much less the nightmares that came with them. Loki also never brought up the fact Sam was more or less keeping them sane after that. He had never shared a room with anyone, much less taken comfort from Thor. And Frigga had more or less stopped coming in to check on him after he had turned fifteen...physically anyway.
Asgardians lived longer, but they also matured slower as well.
Loki was about to make a comment when Dean's phone rang. It was a burner, one used mostly as an emergency. Their permanent phones were charmed as much as Loki had been able to, given his limited magic and the fact he was trying to hide the fact he remembered who he was.
It also didn't help that he had yet to take his 'true' form given that New York was not a distant memory and he really, really didn't want to tip of Thor...or S.H.I.E.L.D. just yet. And the less said about alerting Odin, the better.
Dean took one look at the number and said "What happened?"
"Fury's onto you, or at least knows that the two 'Good Samaritans' as the Avengers have been calling you, are hunters. I managed to divert some of his attention away from you for the moment, but the man's smart. Toss the phone after you're done and finish the hunt fast. He's likely tracking my calls as it is."
Dean/Loki cursed.
"Wait...they actually call us the 'Good Samaritans'?" said Dean incredulous.
"Stark coined it, apparently. Since they don't have a name for either of you, they call you that instead. Avoid the house if you can. That should hold them off for a bit longer."
Dean did not look happy.
"Thanks for the heads up."
He hung up and took the burner phone straight to the bathroom. The sound of something being smashed to hell and then flushed was heard.
"Fury knows it was a hunter who has the guns. He doesn't have a name yet but he's probably tracking Bobby hoping for the 'Good Samaritans' to make an appearance."
"'Good Samaritans'?" repeated Sam incredulous.
"They didn't get our names and I made damn sure they didn't see our faces... but apparently Iron Man coined the name when he spotted us fighting off the aliens in New York and it stuck."
Sam blanched, as he realized something. His hand flew to where his anti-possession tattoo was.
"My shirt... I never thought about it twice but one of the blasts partially burned off my shirt during the fight. The spell obscured my face but not the rest of me," said Sam.
"Fury probably ran into Bobby and found out about hunters, so when he recognized part of the tattoo he figured out that it was a pair of hunters. Then he called Bobby to find out who, but didn't know Bobby already knew about the theft," rationalized Dean. "Shit. This means we'll have to wear a fake charm to obscure our facial features in case Fury thinks to try and find a pair of 'dead' hunters."
It wasn't that Loki disliked making excuses for his spellwork. It was just he really, really didn't want Dean to have to explain why they were wearing one in the first place.
"Let's gank a pair of witches and get the hell out of dodge. The sooner we distance ourselves from this area, the less chance Fury has to find us," said Dean tiredly.
Thanks to the fact Loki could see auras, coupled with a few minor spells the demon-based witches couldn't exactly detect, it took them two hours to kill the idiots trying to resurrect Samhain.
Boy, were they surprised when Loki kicked their asses. More so when Sam was able to use some of the magic Loki had taught him to keep them pinned.
"Sam, I think it's time we accelerated your magical knowledge," said Loki irritated. He did not like the fact Sam had almost come close to failing with his shields.
Sam wasn't going to complain, as he knew Loki took secret pride in the fact that his new brother was more like him than Thor. Having someone to share his magic with seemed cathartic to him. Especially when Sam could fight as well as any of Thor's companions, yet still had a mind to almost rival Loki.
Fury was irritated that Thor had taken so long to reply, but when he told Thor about the hunters and the supernatural, he wasn't very surprised at all. Well, outside of learning most of the stories he heard came from Earth.
"I have heard tale of such creatures, but I was unaware that they originated on Midgard," said Thor. He frowned. "Loki would know more about them, if he were still here."
Fury turned to look at him intent.
"What do you mean, 'if he were still here'?"
Thor looked very uncomfortable.
"Odin has declared Loki banished without his memories, and he will be forced to go through a mortal life until his lesson has been learned. From what I understand he was sentenced to live as a vagrant with no home," said Thor without looking anyone in the eye. It was clear what his stance was on the matter.
"And if Loki's memories were unsealed early?" said Fury, pieces falling together in his mind.
"To undo such a seal would require more effort than mortals could devise. Such a strain would almost certainly kill him, if not drive him mad. Even if he did manage to survive, it would take extraordinary effort or a miracle for him to be functional enough to avoid being found by Heimdall, much less Odin," said Thor carefully.
Fury had a sudden realization.
"Let's say Loki somehow managed to unlock his memories and stay sane. Could he somehow hide himself from your people?"
Thor hid his hopeful expression, but Fury saw it anyway.
"It is possible, but extremely unlikely. Loki was a master sorcerer, and he has hidden himself from Heimdall on many occasions and he knows the Old Paths better than anyone currently living. There is also the fact that Hel has said she had seen her father recently, but she never said how recently. His reserves, however, would be low. Very low."
"Weak enough to capture, then?"
"Do not underestimate him. If Loki truly is behind the theft, then he is still too dangerous for mortals to handle. And illusions are child's play for him."
Unspoken was the fact that if Fury did find Loki, then Thor was to be informed immediately. Otherwise he'd be impossible to deal with and might refuse to help when they needed it.
So long as he didn't have to deal with an insane Asgardian, Fury could care less.
It was bad enough he had to keep someone watching Robert Singer in case two men fitting the general description of the 'Good Samaritans' happened to visit.
Bobby managed to call them three more times, usually by having Ellen, Jo or Rufus act as go between.
He confirmed there were people watching the house, and he didn't think they were watching for him and his activities. Even if it made hunting awkward, the fact was he'd rather keep the boys at a distance than let Fury have them after how thoroughly Dean had managed to piss him off.
Dean...or Loki rather, considering he was smarter than Dean, had obviously figured they needed to obscure their faces until something gave.
Bobby didn't know what was going on between Loki and Thor, nor did he care so long as Dean/Loki wasn't hurt from it.
He knew Loki was still banished, and that his 'father' was still angry over what happened in New York. But he didn't know how Thor treated Loki normally.
So if he had to contact them through third-parties to keep them safe just a little while longer, he would. At least until Loki did something to earn Odin's forgiveness.
Because right now, they would kick him out of Asgard if he tried to return, and he didn't think Loki could handle it.
It was strange, thinking of the pagan Loki as one of his 'sons', but considering he was also Dean...it felt right. Whatever he had done in New York he had paid many times over by spending forty years in hell with Dean being tortured. And the affection he felt for Sam and Bobby wasn't faked.
In Asgard...
Thor was somewhat anxious and worried.
Loki might have found a way to break the seal prematurely. There were several signs he had not only done so, but that he had retained some of his magic. Enough, possibly, to use the old paths.
Frigga distinctly remembered an instance after Loki's initial disappearance when she felt his presence. It had passed her in one of the halls and shortly after several tomes on magic and lore had disappeared without a trace. Some from Loki's room, which only a select few maids could enter without falling to one of Loki's lingering "pranks" to keep the unwanted out. Not that many had, and Frigga had only noticed some of the books had gone missing because she knew Loki's "system" when it came to reading.
The reason Thor was unsure how to feel about the possibility Loki remembered...was because in order to break such a powerful seal, something traumatizing and painful would have had to happen. Such as a near-death experience, or torture beyond what most mortals would be capable of.
Odin had insured Loki would grow up in a relatively safe family and area...but what if one of the many monsters that roamed Midgard had found him? Without his memories Loki would have been defenseless against them, and Fury himself had confirmed he suspected Loki had somehow ended up in a hunter's body.
And Hel had said herself that she had seen Loki recently, and Thor sincerely doubted Loki's mortal self would know how to traverse the paths, much less enter Helheim and leave unscathed.
Only Loki was generally welcome in Hel's domain for any period of time, much less allowed to leave freely.
"What troubles you my son?" asked Frigga.
Thor looked at his mother, unsure if he should tell her what he suspected. Then again, Loki had always been closer to her than he had ever been with Odin.
"Loki."
Frigga paused, before she cautiously asked "What of your brother?"
Thor told her what little he knew. How he suspected that Loki had broken the seal on his memories, how he had been behind a theft on Earth from the mortal organization, how he was possibly behind a series of pranks on the Avengers...and how Fury was beginning to look for him on Earth, in his mortal form.
"We must inform your father. If Loki had indeed begun to remember, he may need his powers back."
Especially, Frigga left unsaid, if her son was around demons. They were hard for mortals to handle, much less an Asgardian trapped in mortal form. And if the demons learned he wasn't fully human...
Frigga managed to hurry, despite wearing a dress.
Odin heard Thor's suspicions, Frigga's memory of an incident when she felt Loki in Asgard and might have even passed him in the castle...how Hel had mentioned Loki had visited recently.
Odin sighed. Even bound Loki was a trouble magnet. He just had no idea how much trouble until he went to check on his wayward son personally.
What he Saw had him blanch quite impressively for a god.
Loki had not only managed to get himself into trouble, he was currently being watched by nothing less than a full squadron of ANGELS.
Frigga was horrified.
"Are you sure, husband?"
"I would know an angel when I see one, wife. And he is surrounded by one and is even arguing with a Seraph and a lower angel, with a third close by. A diminished angel can still do harm."
Frigga looked close to worry about her son.
Odin kept watch over Loki, who went by the name of Dean Winchester, as he worked with a taller man who Felt of demon-taint. Strangely, he also felt of Asgardian magic.
Perhaps Thor's suspicions weren't as far-fetched as he had believed. Only Loki would be able to teach a human mortal how to use magic like an Asgardian.
Loki's magic was much diminished, barely average for a human mortal...but Odin's eyes could see in the little mannerisms that the seal had indeed been fully broken.
How Loki had managed to stay sane through it, he did not know.
Watching "Dean" and his brother manage to fight off demons and angels, while helping a weaker angel regain her power, Odin decided that perhaps the test he had planned to put Loki through would determine if he was ready to return to Asgard.
Even if the memories of his actions in New York had yet to fully fade.