A/N: AU for after Fandral gets the pursuing flying-boat off their tail. This would be a much better plan!

When Jane opened her eyes again, they were still in the little flying boat. Well- she and Loki were.

"Where's Thor?" she said, trying to sit up. It was like moving through molasses.

"Lie down. He's fine."

Loki's voice was commanding – but quiet. For some reason his attempts to give orders didn't grate on her like Thor's. (Or Odin's. The bastard.)

"Okay, but where is he?" she said – lying down.

"I pushed him over the side." Loki looked down at her, as if daring her to argue. "More ships were following us. Odin couldn't care less about me – or you. It's Thor he wanted. They stopped to fish him out, and we got away."

The reasoning wasn't terrible. But still.

"Now hang on, and don't distract me."

Loki gunned it hard suddenly, and the speed picked up. Jane's stomach didn't. But this wouldn't be a good time to throw up, so she tried not to.

"Are you going to be sick?" Loki said.

"No. Pay attention – watch the road!" He was, though. He hadn't taken his eyes off the road – or sky, or whatever.

"Silence distracts me. Say something."

She swallowed. They really were picking up speed. She sat up just far enough to peek over the edge of the boat...

And she almost had a heart attack. "Loki!"

He laughed. "If it were easy, everyone would do it."

"Shit. Shit, shit, shit!" She was holding on. As if that would help.

"I almost never make mistakes here."

"Almost?! Loki! That's a rock – are you nuts?"

"Possibly."

He didn't look nuts, though – he looked focused. Intent. Terrified – but also like he was having the time of his life.

Jane hung on and kept her eyes open as the tiny, tiny split in the rock grew closer-...

"Get down," he ordered – quietly again.

She did, just in time. When they zipped into the mouth of the cave bits of rock and metal rained down on her, amid awful screeching as the craft scraped the walls.

But Loki stood unflinching at the wheel, unblinking even, making tiny course corrections, keeping the scraping from becoming a disaster. Despite herself, she was impressed. Maybe they were going to survive this after all.

The noises stopped, suddenly, as they shot out of the tunnel and into open space. "Ta-da," Loki sang.

As they sailed over the desolate wastes of Svartalfheim, Jane's heart finally slowed and she was able to concentrate on other things besides praying for her life. "What's going to happen to Thor?"

"The cells," Loki said absently. "Probably mine actually; it's vacant. His friends will break him out. He'll come rushing headlong to where we are, somehow, to blindly throw himself in the middle exactly when the situation is most delicate."

But he sounded... satisfied. She didn't understand. "That's supposed to help us... how exactly?"

"What?"

"I mean – you said he's going to mess up the plan," she prompted. "I'm asking how that could possibly be a good thing."

"Because the plan is not going to work," Loki explained. "Hold on – we're landing." As he put the craft down, he started talking again. He sounded a little like a crazy person, but it was no worse than Erik had gotten lately. "When a plan's going to work, you want it to go according to plan. Right? Right." He didn't wait for any input. "But when a plan's not going to work, then any disturbance or interruption, or the intervention of some unexpected chaos, can only help. It can give you a chance where there was none. Can you pick locks?"

"What?" She was going to have to learn to do more than just stupidly repeat what, if she ever wanted Loki's respect. Which reminded her: "And – sorry – what's going to happen to me? We never really covered that. Thor would have protected me. Will you?"

Loki finished landing, then let go of the stick and turned to look at her. "Yes. Thor would kill me otherwise, and I don't have a death wish."

"Oh." That was... fairly reassuring? She was glad that he'd explained it as self-interest; she wouldn't have believed anything else. "Okay, well... good."

"Can you pick locks?" he said again. Held out his bound wrists to her.

"Uh, no. No, I can't. Sorry."

He sighed. "It's all right, I'll talk you through it. Come here."

It had taken Thor so long to learn to talk to her, rather than at her. But Loki, on the other hand... Thor had described him as strange and friendless, but already he had managed to put her almost completely at ease. She wondered if he was lying. He was supposed to be good at that.

She watched him retrieve slivers of metal from hiding places in his collar and belt. "Take these," he said. "Stand beside me, it's easier." He held the cuffs up. "See the hole just beneath the larger blue screw?"

"This?"

"No – sorry – the smaller hole. Yes. That's the keyhole."

"Okay."

"The straight piece I gave you – that goes in first. Slide it in, and when you feel an obstruction get to the left of it. Then, push the piece up and hold it. Can you do that?"

"Up like over our heads, or up like in front of us?"

"In front of us."

"Okay."

"Do it. I'll tell you what to do with the second piece next."

Jane did as he said. His breath was on her while she worked, and it was a little distracting but she couldn't exactly ask him to stop breathing. "No," he murmured, "You missed the-... yes. There. Gently, yes, a little further..."

She felt it against something. Something with give, something she could shift. "Okay... that?"

"Mm-hm. Good girl – you have steady hands."

Aaand, she needed to hear that about seventeen more times, purred just like that, right against the skin of her neck.

Or, maybe she really didn't. It wouldn't be just Loki who got killed if Thor found out that she was thinking-...

"Okay. Now what?" she said, loudly enough to drown out her thoughts.

"Now take the second rod and just stick it in there." There was a growl in his voice now – and amusement. She would bet anything he was doing it on purpose.

"I shouldn't be gentle this time?" she teased. Let him see he couldn't intimidate her by perving. "You want me to just shove it in?"

"I do like you."

She opted to ignore that – joking around was one thing but open flirting was a step too far. "This?" When the second piece went in, it glowed green in her hands and then started to smoke. "What the-...?"

"It's a magic pick," Loki explained – in his normal voice again. "Give it a moment, it has to shift its shape a little."

She could see the metal oozing and bulging. "That's amazing!" She leaned in for a better look – and coughed. "What's that smell?"

He shrugged. "Jotun flesh burning, I think. It is pretty foul, isn't it. Sorry. Give it a moment."

"Jotun-? Loki!"

"Hold on. Ah – there." As soon as the cuffs clicked open, he ripped them off his wrists and flung them down. "Much better."

His wrists were smoking – and ringed with burns, raw and open. "Oh – euw, yuck." Jane made a face but didn't turn away; she'd seen worse. "Do you need anything?"

"No. It'll heal." He smirked. "And I think it will be best for both of us if Thor returns to discover you saying things like euw and yuck to me. We've had problems in the past."

"Problems." She didn't doubt it. She herself was on fire with lust, or if not lust, then... then something. She wanted. Wanted.

Loki stepped to the helm of the boat. "Ready to go?"

She could hardly hear him. "Go? Go where?"

He pointed, over her shoulder. "Away from that thing."

That thing? What thing. Ah. Suddenly she got it: the source of her want. She could feel him calling to her. "That's Malekith's ship."

"Yes. And I imagine it doesn't corner nearly as tightly as this one." He patted the steering stick. "If we can play keep-away for a couple of hours until the Convergence is well and truly over, the universe will thank us. Or-..." he snorted. "It won't, but it should."

It was hard to think with Malekith's desire pounding in her blood. She tried to say something rational. "Loki. Um. Thor wanted to go to him right away," she reminded.

"Yes, well, Thor was worried that you were dying. I can't say I find the prospect nearly as distressing as he did."

She had a sudden desire to jump out of the boat. He was right there. His ship was slowing. Landing. "I- I have to go to him."

"Mm. Is he calling to you?"

She nodded.

"Is it getting worse?"

Nodded harder. She had never wanted anything so badly in all her life.

"We can't have that. Give me your hands."

She was too busy pining to think what he must mean, and held her hands out obediently.

"Good girl." A sudden, painful pressure at her wrists and she realized Loki had clapped the cuffs on her. No – cuff. He had crammed both her wrists together and locked one of the shackles around them, and the other around his own left hand. "It's a good thing you've got skinny arms."

"Loki!" She tugged uselessly and twisted to try and see over her shoulder, forced to bend over as he sat at the helm. "I have to go!"

"No you don't. Sit down."

"Please!"

"Do you want me to hit you? Really – do you?" he pressed, when all she did was keep fighting. "It might help clear your head."

"I want you to let me go!" She'd had no idea he was this strong; thrashing around with all her strength couldn't even make him lose his balance. He ignored her. Even when she screamed in frustration and soccer-kicked him.

"Sit," he said again, and a good yank sent her sprawling to the floor. He was moving the steering-stick; they were rising into the air. "They've landed; it will take them a few minutes to take off again. That's our head start."

"I hate you," she said to his feet. And she did.

"That's fine. You're in good company. Ah-... He's seen us. Hang on."

The End.

This one I might continue at some point. It's fun!