"Whoa! What? Wait a minute! Could you please say that again?" Emma asked, very much confused, fighting back an urge to shout out her words.
Distant calls of a lonely owl echoed through the evergreen-forest around her as if the hooting of that nocturnal creature would have been enough to answer her question.
Just like good little scouts, the mutant-god team was having an outdoor supper in the dark woods, being miles away from other living human beings as Logan had found an empty, outlying campsite where to park his van.
They were all sitting in a half circle on long wooden benchs around a cosy campfire that Logan had put together from not-so-dry woods and a good pour of gasoline. The smoke and the stench of the fuel had taken some pleasure off from the moment but otherwise they had been having fun, chatting, jesting and eating pizza and drinking beer (Emma had preferred soda due to her particular reason).
In other words they had been starting to get along as a team, until the talk turned back returning the Tesseract to Asgard, and the Asgardians dropped the bomb on Emma in passing, like it wouldn't have been a big deal.
"Which part?" Thor asked innocently. And Loki gave him a scowl, shaking his head, resenting his brother's lack of discretion.
Emma stared frowning at the three men who all seemed to be more or less fine with the idea. "That part when you kind of implied that you two are going back to Asgard!" she cried out and then turned to Loki who sat by her side. "What about us? Loki, tell me it's not true."
"That is what we agreed," Thor affirmed carelessly, munching his tasty pizza. "Didn't we, Loki?"
It was all dark around them but in the light of the campfire's flames Emma saw Loki's face well enough to tell that he had become unhappy about the matter.
"Emma, I was going to tell you," Loki said and placed his half eaten pizza slice back on top of the box and spoke with his hands, waving them gently and calmly to emphasize his words. "I would take you to Asgard with me once we find the Tesseract but I fear it could be too dangerous for you. We haven't really used the Cube before, and its powers could be too potent to a mortal. Thor and I agreed that it would be wiser that I will return to Asgard with him, fixing the damage we left behind." He smiled playfully and picked up her hand. "And I must say that there is a lot of fixing to do. But once the Bifrost rebuild, I will return to take you with me. You will be safe there. No SHIELD. No Hydra…"
"What?" Emma shrieked, and got on her feet, just trying to understand what he was telling.
"Loki, you will have to negotiation that with Father first," Thor reminded and tucked in for the fourth slice. "And Emma, you are taking this pretty well. Loki thought that you might be upset."
Emma only frowned at Thor, mouthing 'no shit!'
Logan frowned too. "Hang on now, fellows. You didn't say anything about taking her with you. She's not leaving Earth!"
Emma gasped, scowling at Logan on her other side. "Y-you knew about this?"
Logan switched his beer bottle to his left hand and lifted his right in the air looking ignorant. "Hey, I just agreed to take E.T.s across the country to their space ship so they can go home. That's all."
"Technically it is not a space ship. Not even close," Thor mumbled, amused, flushing down his mouth full with a gulp of beer. "It is an Infinity Stone that can create portals."
Emma felt dumbfound and shocked, trying to understand the whole situation. At one moment everything had been fine, she had been holding hands with him and laughing to his jokes, and the next Loki was telling her that he was leaving. She couldn't fit that into her head.
"Loki, didn't you say that it was dangerous for you to return? That they would kill you?" she asked in a smaller voice.
Loki got up too but his gaze dropped down with remorse and retuned back at her eyes again as he stepped closer. "Yes, that is what I believed, but Thor assured me that Odin wants me to return…"
"Yeah? And he's probably there polishing the big, golden gallows right now," Emma snapped, stepping over the bench and moving further away from the men, not wanting to even think about Loki leaving her. It hadn't even crossed her mind. She was mad at him for not telling her earlier. And she was terribly afraid that what if Loki was wrong, and there was a death sentence waiting for him back home.
Loki followed her calmly but he was slightly mortified for having this talk in front of his brother and her father. "Please, my dear. Calm down. I am not abandoning you. I shall return to retrieve you," he promised trying to touch her arms but Emma pulled away.
"Please, don't touch me right now!" she warned, seething in anger, walking a circle. "When did you plan this with the Mr. freaking Hammer-time?" she asked pointing her finger at Thor accusingly. "When were you going to tell me? And…. and you don't make decisions concerning me without asking me. You didn't even bother to ask if I wanted to come along or not to some other planet across the space! I'm not some fucking souvenir you can pick up with you!"
Logan finished his beer while listening to the lovers quarrel behind him. "That's damn right. She's not going anywhere," he cut in, being protective of her like a proper dad (of a teenager).
"Stay out of this, Logan!" Emma hissed menacingly, feeling of been betrayed by him too.
The god of mischief seemed less mischievous but very confused, finding her indignant words towards him unduly demeaning. "Why are you being like this, Emma? You said you want to see Asgard and you want us to be together, no matter where. I thought you would have been pleased."
"Pleased…?" Emma was about to rant more but then she narrowed her eyes suspiciously, bottling up all the nasty words that were willing to come out. That was what she had wanted earlier. "I need to think," she sighed, frustrated, running her hands over her hair.
Then she turned and walked into the darkness passing the campervan, just wanting to be alone for a while.
"Emma, please!" Loki called out for her softly and followed her with his gaze. He was about to go after her but Logan stopped him on his tracks.
"Let her go, buddy!" Logan said as if he would have meant it for completely.
"Evidently you would like that," Loki snapped. "In fact you must be enjoying this."
Logan really couldn't deny that. He picked up another bottle of beer from a six-pack and uncapped it. "Sit your ass down and let her calm down! Don't know about the women of your place but here when the ladies go like that you'll give them some space, all right?"
Loki stared down at the man with a pitiful smirk. "Hm, so that is how it went with you and her mother?"
Slowly Logan rose up on his feet, grabbing a hold from Loki's jacket's decorative lapel which made the trickster god only glowering down at the man offensively. "That's it! I'm not taking anymore bullshit from you, buddy."
"Unhand him, Logan, or you will have to deal with me," Thor protested and stood up too, ready to defend his brother if needed.
"Yeah, yeah, sit down princess! You'll get your share later. I'm having a fatherly discussion with my would-be son-in-law, if you don't mind," Logan grunted. And stupefied Thor just stood there, his dignity being dented so rudely by a mortal.
Logan's eyes turned back at the deity in his grasp. "Now, you listen up, Loki! You might have fooled Emma but you ain't fooling me. Maybe you're in this for fun, but she sees you as the next from God. She trusts you with her life even you pulled her with you into this deep shit with that SHIELD and now you're leaving her to deal with the aftermath alone. I couldn't care less if you'd be gone forever, but I don't like you hurting her. If you're leaving for good, then be a man and don't lie to her. Say goodbye! And better do it nicely!" he gruffed through gritted teeth and released his grip.
Loki stared down at the man challenging, but swallowed the first witty remark that entered his mind, glancing at Thor again. Odin's sons stuck together again it seemed! A fight with Logan could have looked bad in Emma's eyes, he reasoned and gave up, settling for getting the last words and making those simple enough for the man.
"No matter what you say, Logan. No matter what you do, I shall never leave her," Loki swore, making it sound nearly a threat. Her father existing or not, she was still his. Then he turned and went after her, his green cape waving behind him.
"Maybe you should!"
Logan's discouraging words reached his ears as he was walking pass the camper and it inflamed his annoyance. To him it seemed that Logan saw him the same way as the Asgardians did; unworthy, no matter what he did. Logan saw him unworthy for his daughter. In any situations they would have never become the best friends, but around the campfire it had felt like Emma would have been the glue keeping the unfitting pieces together with her high spirits, and when she had left, things had returned to normal.
… …
The pale crescent of the moon peeked behind thin misty clouds, shedding some light into the dark wilderness where the tall spruces and pines towered high above him. Loki followed down a dirt-road and found Emma sitting on a big rock further away on riverside, only 90 yards away from the camper. Her still silhouette against the width sparkling river looked so small and down-hearted.
"My Valkyrie, I am sorry. I do not want us to quarrel. You are right. I should have spoken with you earlier," he begun gently as he approached her.
She sat up straight, her back at him, wiping her eyes and sniffing her tears. "Yeah, you should have. Why does it some times feels like you're just playing with me?"
"I am not. Not with you."
Slowly Loki walked closer to her. He knew exactly how much it hurts when significant matters were left untold. "Could you please look at me, Emma?"
He waited for her to turn for a few steps but she didn't move. He didn't like to talk to her back but found no other choice. "Please, do not be crossed with me. You were so happy that we were finally together. I didn't want to spoil it. I didn't want us to waste this night by worrying about it. I would have told you tomorrow. Thor is more of action. He blurted it out like an idiot that he is."
"I thought it was a good idea… having Thor with us and all, you know." She took a breath to gather herself, staring at the river where the water sparkled and flowed like quicksilver. And she would have wanted to take a long dive there, in the cold, dark water. "And it is, right? You can go back home and be with your family. It's great. After everything what happened there, they want you back. At least you have a home where to return." That was more that she could say for herself, she realized. "And your mom, Frigga, seemed great and caring. I just…" She swallowed and turned at him, standing up and watching at him in the darkness, seeing his dark frame moving closer.
With his own Asgardian outfit and the gleaming golden details in the moonlight he looked like a strong, fairytale warrior-king and it reminded her that they truly were from two different worlds. The weak light of the moon illuminated half of his pale face, the shadows making him look terribly sad as he stood there right in front of her.
And she felt sad too, scared even. "I'm not mad at you. I just don't want you to go. I don't want you to leave me, not for a minute," she whispered, her voice breaking and eyes getting wet again. The issues left by her mother's abandonment made her clinging onto him with such a need that she couldn't bear it.
"Come here," Loki said tenderly, offering his hands, and pulled her in his arms when she went to him.
She held him tight and let out a small and sad titter. "I'm sorry. I'm such a fool but I want to keep you here with me. I don't know what I'm going to do without you. I'm scared of loosing you, Loki."
"You are not loosing me, my love. I will return to you," Loki whispered into her ear, stroking her hair on the back of her head, pressing his cheek against her golden locks. "And if it is not Asgard you want to go then we can stay here. We can be anywhere you want."
Still holding him, she looked up into his eyes. "Tell me you're scheming something. That once you'll get that Tesseract-thing you'll snatch it and we'll… I don't know, take over some nice isle in the tropic and live like kings there," she suggested with a weak grin.
Loki caressed her face with both hands, his thumbs drawing little circles on her cheek-bones. A caring smile settled on his eyes that made her melt inside.
"Before. Before I might have done that. Before I fell in love with you," he spoke in a soft, soothing tone as though sharing his innermost thoughts with her. "Thor was right when he said that I am a different man when I am with you. I should try my best to make things right from now on, because of you, so that we can be together."
A smile didn't stay on Emma's face as she watched at him confused, not wanting him to change too much. And when he talked like that, he was pouring sweet, hot fudge through her ears straight into her soul with his wooing voice. "I'm… um…" She swallowed the rest of her tears, touching his hands. "Damn! I've had such a bad influence on you."
"Well yes, comparing to you I used to be such a blameless saint everybody loved."
Emma grinned and Loki broke into a chuckle and she joined him, they both laughing and wrapping their loving arms around each other.
Hearing his cordial, soft small chuckles made her happy again. Emma felt his chest heaving up and down with his breathing and laughter, his body pressed against hers. After the chuckling died down, they held each other a long time that way. She felt his arms around her, protective and safe. Her forehead against his jawline, she smelled the divine scent of his skin. And it made her heart purr with overwhelming feelings of closeness and that mad animal magnetism she felt for him.
If their time together was limited for now, she didn't want to spend any of those precious moments by arguing or talking. She ran her hands over his chest, up to his neck, dying to kiss him and desperately wanting to be close to him. She wanted to give that Trickster an irresistible reason to return to her, something that he would remember.
Loki sensed the tension in her body and it sent a wave of warmth through him in the cool evening. Their eyes met again and he lowered his face to hers and kissed her gently, tasting her inviting mouth, feeling her hot breaths on his skin. She pressed herself against him more tightly and moaned softly as their tongues found one another.
Her small hands travelled over his body, caressing him, studying his clothing as if trying to find their way onto his bare skin. She responded to his kiss more needily, more hungrier, her lips never completely leaving his as she took a few sharp breaths, her eyes checking up on his.
When her hand tucked boldly under his long, leather vest exploring his crotch, trying to find buttons to open or a belt to unbuckle, he parted from her mouth with a sorry, deep breath. "Emma, my brother and your father are sitting right there on a hearing range," he whispered, restraining himself and pulling her hand gently away from his territory.
"Then let's go deeper into the woods," she whispered back at him, her moist lips continuing to brushing his. She just wanted to be close to him, anywhere, in private.
He smirked, revealing his dimples, his emerald eyes glimmering in the dark playfully. "Ohh… Logan already hates me. I dare not to think what he will do to me if he catches me defiling his daughter out here," he whispered, but like to play with that arousing thought.
"A bit late to worry about that. Take a skinny-dip with me in the river and I'll show you how to breathe underwater," she said with a tempting, husky voice, hiding her grin because she knew that she sucked when it comes to talking sexy. So, she sucked his bottom lip instead, humming in pleasure while tasting something even sweeter than chocolate. "I'm ravenous for mischief, my king," she whispered into his ear, cheek to cheek, in an arousing way, sending Loki's imagination running wild with even more erotic fantasies.
Guiding his right hand, she helping him to slide down the long zipper of her jumpsuit, agonizingly slowly, unveiling a white tank top underneath and then lifting her daring gaze from her revealing clothing up to his eyes. His hand slipped down on her waist on its own, under her suit and returned back up on her breast. He heard a soft moan escaping her mouth and he felt her shivering, her hands returning around his waist. He could tell she wasn't wearing anything under her tank top, her nipples getting harder under his touch and he felt himself swelling.
He sighed deeply, leaning to her. He loved it when she called him 'her king'. "My little teaser, what am I going to do with you?"
"Anything you want. I am only yours," she whispered, her breathing quivering while his hands kept caressing her and diving deeper inside of her open jumpsuit.
"Anything?"
Loki let out a desirous groan unable to resist that innocently seducing offer. He reminded himself that he was a higher being, not so easily tempted by earthly cravings, but she was luring out his primal senses. He preferred a proper bed, clean sheets and an absolute privacy. But what the hell! Out in the nature in the moonlight, against a tree trunk or in the water, and veiling them with his illusions had to do for now.
Easily he threw her over his shoulder like a fire-fighter, ready to carry her into the woods with a lust of a wild man, ready to fulfil her desires and his own.
To suppress her own surprised shriek and laugh, Emma covered her mouth while hanging on her belly over his shoulder, and holding on with another hand from his smooth cape.
Thou shall never tempt your god! she advised herself as it strongly looked like Loki was really going to go for it, and her chest was flooding with mixed emotions from anxiety to burning heat. She had promised him anything. What if he would turn them into some wild creatures? What if he wanted something she wasn't ready for?
"Shit!" Logan's grunt drifted towards them through the darkness and Emma lifted her head towards the camper in the distance. "Emma! Emma! Where the hell are you?" Logan's voice called for her, louder, hastily and coming closer.
"Loki!" Thor shouted too, his voice sounding worried. "Brother, do you hear me?"
Loki groaned, holding tighter from her thighs and glancing at her over his shoulder. "Should we disappear? Or do you want me to kill them both?"
In the distance Logan's frame emerged from behind the camper and the light of the campfire disappeared suddenly as if it would have been put out. "Emma! Run into the woods! They found us! They're here!" Logan shouted as loud as he could.
That caught Loki's and Emma's full attention and they noticed the glowing lights of an approaching jet drawing closer high on the dark sky, still far, miles away, above the tree tops. A cone of light from the aircraft was sweeping the ground below it. The distant hum of the jet's engines was becoming hearable and growing stronger as they stared up, stupefied, Loki lowering her on her feet and taking a hold of her hand.
"We are here!" Loki shouted to the others, taking a serious tone and pulling Emma with him towards the trees.
"Head to the woods!" Logan yelled back to them.
Emma gasped, her grip tightening on Loki's hand while running with him into the even darker woods, her feet feeling weak under her. Worry was filling her already wildly pounding heart. "Is it SHIELD? How the hell did they find us so soon?" she shrieked, doing her best lifting her feet on a rough, bumpy ground, wading through the dense underbrush side by side with Loki.
This was not the way she had been planning to conquer the woods with him!
She saw a flash of Logan's figure running between the tall tree trunks in a sweep of the approaching light-cone. And she noticed Thor's broad frame moving there too, his red cape fluttering in a flash of lights behind him. With a growing panic the whole situation brought an image of an old-time jail-break movie into her mind, and she could imagine herself being an escaped convict on the run, which she pretty much was. A rough brush from a spruce branch against her face made her focus with the running.
The jet came closer, the loud vibrating sounds of the engines filling the air and then the aircraft was dropping altitude, hovering slowly straight downwards onto the wide opening where Logan's van was parked.
Logan and Thor ran closer to Loki and Emma and they all slowed down when they saw each other in the dark forest, taking a breath and moving carefully forward, listening.
"The three of you go! I can take that aircraft down and handle them," Thor suggested, squeezing the arm of his hammer, glancing behind him.
Suddenly Logan stopped and turned around. "Hang on! Wait a sec!" he yelped, lifting his hand at Thor, staring up at the descending jet. And others followed his example and stopped moving.
"Hey, Logan!" A strong female voice called out from the jet's loudspeakers and Logan heaved a relieved, unbelieving sigh, hearing a dear, familiar voice. "Professor thought your gang might need a place to crash for a couple of days. Care for a lift?"
"Storm!" Logan recognized the voice immediately and a broad smile spread all over his face. He let out a small, amazed chuckle. "It's alright! They're friends of mine!" he shouted to the others over the noise of the jet.
The imminent danger being over, Emma and Loki trudged to Logan through the scrubs, Emma more puzzled than Loki. "Your friends, huh? Your friends own a spy-jet?" she asked, winded, nearly accusingly, pointing her free hand up in the air and holding onto Loki with the other. "How the hell did they find us?"
The bright landing-lights of the jet sieved through the tall spruces, creating moving shadows all around, and revealed Logan's proud grin. "That's what they are good at. Get ready to meet the X-men, kid."
"More of your kind?" Loki guessed, not appreciating to get anymore company. And the worst part was that they were Logan's friends. He hated the timing. An hour later if would have been just fine.
"At least they aren't SHIELD," Thor reminded and walked to his brother and they exchanged flabbergasted looks, pondering what kind of creatures they were meeting next.
Emma bit her lips, unable to keep her notion to herself; "The X-men? A transvestite boy-band, right?"
Logan shook his head, cursing inwardly at his genes that had apparently given her his wry sense of humour too. His kid was as bad as he was! "Hey, these people are my friends. They're mutants like us. Some respect now!"
The way he said it and what he said, it didn't sound like him at all anymore, he realized. This fatherhood was killing him!
Then in the increasing light from above, Emma's unzipped suit caught Logan's attention and he knitted his brows disapprovingly, scowling at Loki. "What the hell were you two doing out there?"
That shut her smart-mouth up. "Nothing!" Emma felt her cheeks burning red as she hastily pulled her zipper back up, not daring to glance at Loki. If the jet had come a few minutes later, she would have probably been running naked!
"For your information, I needed to pee. Alright?" she informed grimly, feeling like an idiot for needing to defend herself. That man had been her father for a few hours now, but she wasn't a kid! She had a right to have a sex-life! To admitting it was another thing.
"Yeah, right!" Logan doubted but felt a sudden need to stride back against the draught caused by the descending aircraft. With his animal senses he couldn't miss the scent of her female pheromones running wild for her boyfriend and he found it very, uncomfortably disturbing. It was as if she'd have been in heat, and he needed to keep a distance with her because it was screwing up his mind. It was wrong and freaking him out. If he had a kid he wanted to see her as a kid not as a woman of his own kind!
"Oh shit! Everybody, cool down now!" he grunted through his teeth, mainly taking to her, and to himself, pondering and praying that the two godlings were immune to that bestial, instinctively sensual allure of hers.
"We are cool!" Emma shouted after him, confused by his weird behaviour, pondering what the hell was wrong with him. She was cool, or at least cooling down.
Greatly bewildered Thor dropped his stare down at her. The god of thunder preferred brunettes and in normal circumstances he probably wouldn't have given her a second look. She simply wasn't his type. In fact, he found Emma's ice claws a major turn off, thinking that maybe those were the real reason Loki was so drawn to her. Loki was a Frost Giant after all and got to be into ice, right?
But after seeing it Thor couldn't stop looking at her bosom awkwardly. It was not that he wouldn't have seen breasts before, and hers were rather small and covered but he found them rather… "Perky," he blurted out without thinking, his mind being clouded by that strong biochemical attraction.
"Excuse me?" Emma gasped, noticing that he had been checking up her bosom.
Her hardened nipples were bulging through the fabric of her jumpsuit as it was glued onto her front in the jet's air current. Loki had gotten her overly excited, all right!
Quickly she crossed her arms over her chest, scowling at him and flipping him the bird. "Sleazebag!" she murmured, offended, pressing herself against Loki for seeking shelter. Suddenly everyone was behaving weirdly!
Loki narrowed his eyes at Thor, picking Emma under his arm protectively. "Brother, please! Offend her again and I will turn you a frog for permanently!" he resented and left with her.
Thor gasped. "What? No! I was speaking about the… cool breeze," he cried out and slapped himself in the face to clear his head. What the hell was wrong with him? He desperately needed to find Jane!
… …
By the time Emma, Loki and Thor made back to their campsite, the mysterious, dark-silver jet was already landed and they caught Logan embracing a white-haired woman in a warm and friendly manner. And suddenly Emma felt strange yet curious as her father's live was being introduced to her in so short notice.
With a quick look in the lights coming from back of the opened aircraft's rear-hatch, the woman looked pretty with her short, all white hair and golden olive skin. And to her puzzlement Emma felt uneasy, a sting of jealousy perhaps. It wasn't that she would have been jealous of him, or that she would have been nursing hopes for him and her mother to unite. Those dreams of her childhood had died ages ago in her teen years. But she had already been planning to hang around with Logan if Loki was going back home for unspecific time. Now she wasn't so sure of her future plans.
She squeezed Loki's hand and decided to be happy for Logan. She would have been a fool to think that a man like Logan didn't have a life of his own with lady friends and all. And that lady was easy on the eye. Emma had expected some sort of uniform, but the lady wore a casual black jacket and blue skinny-fit jeans.
She grinned as it was time for a payback for all of Logan's parental lecturing concerning Loki and her.
"Jeez! Logan, save some of that for later, will you!" she teased with a bold smirk.
Logan rolled his eyes while breaking off the hug and his friend gave to that an amused smile. "Zip it, kid! And come over here, I want you to meet a friend of mine," he yelped over his shoulder more gently now, then he continued to his friend in a quiet tone: "Sorry, she's a terrible wiseass. I don't know where she has gotten that from."
"Really? It must be running in the family." The woman grinned and offered her hand at Emma.
When Wolverine's kid stepped out of the shadows, revealing her face, Storm studied her a moment with a surprised expression as if she'd have known her, and it made Emma thinking that she must have some dirt on her face or something. Or, then she should have known her, but she couldn't because those memories hadn't grown back after her brain damage. So, she just decided to take care of the introductions fast and simply.
"Hi, I'm Emma Morgan."
"Hi! Ororo Munroe. But everybody calls me Storm," the lady said friendly when they shook hands. But she kept studying her a few second longer than usually when two people meet the first time and it made Emma more uncomfortable. "So… you're Logan's daughter?"
Emma tried to ignore the strange atmosphere and smiled. "Yeah, that's what I was told. Is that a bad thing?"
"Oh, sorry. No, of course not! I'm just surprised."
"Yeah, I know, she looks nothing like me but we do share a few genes," Logan said approvingly and glanced then at the two E.T. boys from under his furrowed brows. "But I don't know who these two weirdoes are. They just keep tagging along."
To hide her mild annoyance Emma brushed her loose locks behind her ear and lifted her hand on Loki's arm as he stepped next to her. "Storm, this is Loki Odinson. He's my… um…" She watched at him begging him to fill in their current status that was a bit mystery to her too at the moment. Could she call him her boyfriend? Everybody else did!
"I am her suitor," Loki declared, solemnly, returning her gaze and Emma felt her cheeks turning red again (cause that had been so sweet and dreadfully lame at the same time). He hated the word 'boyfriend', since he wasn't a boy anymore and they certainly were beyond friendship.
Logan rolled his eyes, putting his hand on his hips, murmuring something unpleasant about him being more of a 'pursuitor'.
Ignoring Logan, Loki took Storm's hand and held it softly from her fingers it like a knight in the princess-fairytales and bowed lightly. "Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Munroe."
"Same here…" Storm stammered, being smitten with his charm and soft voice, and surprised of recognizing him. "You're Loki of Asgard, aren't you? Oh my god! The kids in our school love your tricks. They have been following your 'green idealism' in the Net and they think you're very brave. Are you a mutant too?"
Loki smiled, coyly at first. He had truly become known around this realm! "I am sorry, no. I am an Asgardian. But I am greatly pleased to hear that the children are adopting greener values. The young ones are the future after all."
"Yeah."
They held eye contact and hands only a few seconds but those few seconds felt suddenly too long for Emma who found herself being a spectator of their – what seemed as an obvious checking each other out – introduction. And a whole new emotion rushed over her; she caught herself being insanely jealous of him like an alpha wolf defending her own territory.
To stop herself doing any drastic actions, Emma stepped back and gave way to the other Asgardian.
"And this hunk of a guy is Thor! He's a god…" She heard the words coming out from her mouth and noticed Loki shooting her a questioning glance, as if asking what the hell. "They are brothers… so they're both… kind of… gods. Um…" She swallowed, wishing that the earth would have swallowed her now, feeling Loki's gaze drilling into her. She sounded like an idiot! "Thor, what were you a god again?"
With courtesy Thor held Storm's hand too, not being so eager to making a number of his divine status, being actually a bit awkward thanks to Emma's introduction. "I am the god of thunder," he said lamely. "Because I can make… thunder and lightning bolts."
Storm tried to look impressed. "Oh? It takes a god to do that now days? Wow! That is something."
Logan heaved an annoyed sigh. "Yeah, these fellows like to think very highly of themselves."
Storm watched at the god of thunder with a quick realization. "Ah, so, you're Thor? Professor Xavier asked me to deliver you a message," she begun and went for her jacket's pocket picking up a small note, reading the details from the note. "He said that you might want to know that 'fury from shield if after Jane Foster'. Does this mean anything to you?"
Thor stared at the woman puzzled, a worry growing in his face as his gaze met with Loki's. "Jane? SHIELD is after her now because of me? I have to find her! Where is she?"
To his own surprise Loki found no pleasure of his brother's troubled situation even he had mentioned of that possibility to Thor in several occasions. But in those times he had done it only to mess up Thor's mind, and now he didn't want to gloat by saying 'I told you so'. He clenched his lips together and said nothing at all because anything coming out from his mouth would have sounded smug at the moment.
Storm handed the note to Thor. "She should be in this address, I think. You need a lift there?"
Thor looked more than troubled, checking up the handwritten note. "Where is this 'Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh'? Tell me? Which way?"
Strom let out a thinking murmur and checked her surroundings and the direction of the jet. "Pittsburgh is about 200 miles to North-East. I think it's that way," she told pointing her hand at that direction. "I can give you a lift. It's no problem."
"That is very kind of you but no, thank you. I have got this," Thor said lifting up his hammer.
"OK?"
Jane Foster? There was that name again, Emma pondered slightly troubled as Thor pulled Loki with him aside to have a private chat. She couldn't tell what they were talking; it sounded a whole different language to her. But their argumentation got heated and they were nearly roaring to each other for a while before they seemed to come into a mutual understanding, then turning their gaze at her. And Emma gulped. She wasn't sure if that was a good sign at all. Their sudden and aloud strife had gotten her on her toes, fearing that things would get physical between them again.
Logan stepped next to Emma, staring at the Asgardians. "What's going on with them?" he asked whispering.
"I don't know."
Loki gave Emma a compassionated look. "Everything is all right," he reassured her before she had dared to ask, his voice returned soft and caring, and his words understandable for her again.
"Yes. My apologies," Thor said to their crowd and they patted each other in the arms brotherly. That was the closest thing to a hug Emma had seen between them two.
Then the godlings stepped further away from the aircraft, disappearing out of her sight. The lights shining from the jet's opened rear hatch made in impossible for her to follow them with her gaze into the darkness. So, she saw it wiser to go after them. After taking only a couple of steps, a glowing, golden flash in the darkness made her freeze. She recognized it as Loki's magic; that illuminating golden glimmer being visible only for a tiny moment.
She heard them exchanging a few words over a strange whirling and spinning sound that kept growing stronger. Then with a sudden whoosh, she felt a fierce gush of wind drawing air straight upwards as if a small angry tornado would have emerged out of nowhere. She gasped for air in the unnatural draught, her heart taking an extra beat with fright as it felt like something big had just been sucked up from the ground.
Her hair still flowing in the wildly stream of air, she lifted her eyes up at the dark sky and saw something human-shaped flying fast against the moonlit clouds and then disappearing behind the tall treetops as it kept flying across the sky.
"Shit!" Logan murmured gaping, staring up at the dark, cloudy sky. "You did that?" he asked from Storm who only shook her head.
"Nope! Anyhow, can I get the rest of you to the mansion? Professor is waiting to see you…"
Greatly concerned Emma dropped her gaze down, scanning the darkness and walking forward, not paying attention anymore to Logan's and Storm's conversation behind her. Otherwise the campsite was completely silent. The air was settling after the gust, loose dirt and small things like light twigs and spruce's cones raining back on the ground.
"Loki?" Emma cried out, getting more worried, moving further on, out from the light-cone of the jet.
"I am still here," Loki's soft voice answered her, cutting through the darkness between them before he manifested from the shadows in front of her.
She heaved a relieved sigh, hurrying to him and touching him at first from an arm length to make sure he was real. "Loki, what the hell was that? Did you two fight again?"
Loki took her both hands in his. "Thor had to go seeing someone. He was demanding me to come along but… I said that I was needed here," he explained, glossing over their wrought-up debate, studying her as if trying to see inside of her mind, the insecurity returning in his behaviour.
Emma checked up the sky once more, gawping. "That was Thor? He can fly?"
Loki didn't appreciate that admiring tone in her voice. "Only with Mjölnir."
"All the way to Pittsburgh? That's cool. He's going to see that Jane Foster –person, isn't he?"
"Apparently so."
"Hey, kids! We should go now. Storm is taking us to Westchester for tonight!" Logan shouted to them. Storm had convinced him that the Professor had taken care of SHIELD; the agents wouldn't come snooping around to the mansion in a while.
"In a minute!" Emma shouted back to him, unwilling to end her conversation with Loki. "Now you really have to tell me who Jane Foster is, if she makes guys fly like that."
In the meagre light that was illuminating his face Loki looked uncomfortable. It felt like Thor and that wretched woman of his were the reason that his happiness was hanging in the balance once more.
"Jane Foster is the woman Thor loves. A mortal. He met her in New Mexico while he was exiled there…"
"You mean she is Thor's girlfriend?" Emma grinned at first but swallowed then, staring deep into his eyes, her expression turning serious and mirroring his. "Oh my god…" She trailed off, understanding now why he had wanted to kill that specific lady.
That would have been the worst possible revenge to his brother! And only then she realized how dreadfully angry and mad and desperate he must have been when ending up in Greenland where she met him.
She fell completely silence, watching at that beautiful, divine creature who had wooed her so completely that she had been willing to give up everything else in her life for him. He would have killed an innocent woman in cold blood whose only mistake had been just for loving his brother.
Loki knew that cautious look of hers. He read her like an open book, keeping her hands in his, holding on gently. "Emma, please say something."
She had to think, hard. "If we would have made it to New Mexico together, would you have really killed that woman?"
"Like I said, you made me put aside those plans. We should not dwell on it anymore."
Emma moved so close to him that the tips of her shoes bumped against his. "Loki, I want you to be completely honest with me. When we first met, when you asked if I was Jane Foster…"
"Please, stop right there. Don't do this."
"…and to save my own ass if I would have lied and answered yes, would you have killed me then?" she asked with serious tone.
Loki took a deep breath, the memory of that moment haunting him with a realization that only one wrong decision then could have terribly altered everything between them. He was silent and still before he answered. "I would have. Unmercifully. Without the slightest consideration," he said simply, nearly coldly, his eyes getting wet.
Her throat tightened and she could only nod, dropping her gaze down, feeling so very unreal. She couldn't tell why she felt so shocked by this, she had known it from the day one and yet she had fallen in love with him.
Slowly she tried to claim her hands but he didn't let go of her.
"Please," he pledged as she tried harder to free herself from his grip and he felt his heart lurch. "You asked me to be honest. This is as sincere as I can be. We have come a long way since the night we met. Emma, everything changed with you. You were my greatest distraction and yet the only thing clarifying my vengeful thoughts. I could never hurt you, you must know that. Look at me!" he begged lifting her hands with his on his chest and she obeyed, watching at him tears brimming in her eyes, only wanting to hold him even a small part of her feared him again after his brutally honest confession.
As though one obsession had been replaced with another, he couldn't let go of her. He wouldn't; she belonged to him.
"You wound me with your fearful eyes, my love. Have I not yet proven myself to you? There are no more secrets between us. I shall accept that I will never be a king. I cannot create thunder or lighting like Thor does. I cannot fly. I am unworthy, for all of that. But I do love you, Emma Morgan. And if you would ask me, I would save this world for you or burn it to the ground. As long as you want me, I will never let go of you. That, I swear," he said passionately like a poet with his soft, deep angelic voice.
He waited her to say something, anything at all, a desperate look seizing his emerald eyes. His breaths became deeper. He held her hands against his breast, his fingers caressing the back of her palms and entwining with hers. "You said you love me. You said you do not care what I have done in the past… Please, say something."
Emma didn't know what to say. She just stared back at him, her forearms resting over his chest pinned there by his hands. She loved him. Too much, she reflected, even she couldn't always fully understand him or his intentions. It was honesty she had asked from him and that's what he had given her. And this was testing the limits of her understanding towards him.
She took a breath and exhaled it slowly through her mouth to soothe herself. "Loki, I love you, but sometimes I wish I could truly see what's going on inside your head."
His face looked sad even a gentle smile played on his lips. "I am afraid you may not like what you would find there. To be honest, I don't like everything what is inside of my head. There are too many demons. But that is why I keep you here, safe from them," he said and moved her hands over his heart.
Feeling his heart beating fiercely under her palms, she fell for his sweet words, tears rolling down on her cheeks. She knew she was a helpless sucker for him, wanting nothing else but him. And yet so unsure, was she more of a fool to trust him or disbelieve him. But like he said, they had come a long way from their first encounter, so long that what happened then didn't matter anymore. The closeness they had shared had been like a healing force, making her whole. She wasn't ready to give it up, ever.
She needed a moment to pull herself together and then she eventually spoke her mind: "What you said, it's not true. I don't believe you."
"Emma…" Loki begun with a helpless sigh.
She slipped her hand free from his hold and hushed him down, her fingers on his lips, feeling his soft and sensitive skin under her fingers. She wasn't done yet. She lifted both of her hands on his face, caressing him, leaning onto him.
"You will always be my king," she said gently and saw confusion sweeping over his face. She knew now he needed her as much she needed him to be complete. "Who needs freaking thunder anyway? It just spoils everyone's perfect day. Loki, when I'm with you, I feel like we can fly. You are worthy so much more than you realize. And if Asgard didn't see that, if they didn't respect you then… fuck Asgard! They don't deserve you. But if you are going back, we'll need to set some ground rules to make this long distance relationship work."
His beautiful face lit with such variety of emotions that he couldn't say another word. He scooped her in his embrace and kissed her with devotion, drowning her in his love.
"Hey! Get your damn asses in the jet already! I mean it! If you two are making out there again, I'm going to come over there and start chopping off some Asgardian body parts!" Logan's grumpy voice called out in the dark.
