Bucky woke early to the sound of someone rapping on his apartment door. He sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. The tiny armchair in the corner was definitely not the most comfortable place to sleep, but he'd insisted on Loki taking it. Not that that stopped his shoulder from aching in protest, of course.

The knock came again. Bucky glanced at the clock and cursed. Why was someone at the door at 3 in the morning?

"This better be important," he grumbled as he unlocked the door and swung it open. "What?"

"Telegram for you, sir." Bucky took the proffered piece of paper.

"Thanks." He shut the door, then unfolded the paper as a growing dread pooled in his stomach. You knew this day would come. Hell, you signed up for this shit. Bucky told himself. That didn't make it any easier to unfold that tiny, oh-so-important piece of paper.

Sgt. Barnes,

You are hereby assigned to the 107th Infantry Regiment, effective immediately. Report to U.S. Army Garrison Fort Hamilton 0600 Jan 7 1943 for further orders.

There was a signature, but he didn't bother to read it. This was it. It was finally happening. Somehow, it had seen so much more...glamorous, more like the adventures of some hero when he first enlisted. Before some of his old friends ended up dead in this godforsaken war.

Now, it seemed he was next.

Loki lay very still, keeping her breathing even and shallow. Unbeknownst to Bucky, she had woken up as soon as the telegraph officer knocked on the door - and she could hear his very thoughts (It wasn't snooping if he was practically yelling in psionic terms, right?). Ironic that he considered this war godforsaken, when in fact the goddess sent to oversee it was less than ten feet away. Then again, she wasn't supposed to intervene, so he was probably right about that after all. Not that Loki had any plans of simply sitting on the sidelines until this was all over. Where was the fun in that?

The goddess of lies mumbled something unintelligible and moved to sit up. Bucky's head immediately whipped around to face her, and Loki faked a yawn and a catlike stretch to complete the illusion. "What time is it?" she asked.

"Almost four."

"Why are you awake at this hour?"

"I've got my orders. Shipping out in two days with the 107th."

"The war?" Loki was suddenly very awake. Finally, a chance to do what she was sent to do so she could go home!

"Yeah, the war. What else?" Bucky grumbled.

"I'll come with you," Loki said.

"What? No, you can't."

"Well, why not?" Loki asked. "I can fight."

"The army doesn't let girls enlist."

Loki smirked. "Oh, is that all?"

Bucky stared at her. "What do you mean 'Is that all?' It's not like you can fool them into thinking you're a guy - there's a full medical examination and everything!"

"Is that a challenge?" Loki asked.

"If it is, it's one you can't win. Although why you'd want to enlist is beyond me."

"Well, why did you if it's so terrible a fate?"

"I thought if Steve knew I was going he'd stop trying to sign up himself. He's got all kinds of medical problems, zero self-preservation instincts, and enough patriotism to run the country if they could turn it into electricity. He'd be dead within a week if he found some recruiting officer desperate enough to override his medical exemption."

"So you did it to try to protect your friend?"

Bucky chuckled. "More like a younger brother, really, who won't stop picking fights with guys twice his size."

"Sounds like he'd get along well with my older brother," Loki told him, laughing quietly. "He doesn't know how to back down from a fight either. Sooner or later it's going to get him into serious trouble, but he refuses to listen to me. 'Sister, you worry too much. I know what I'm doing.'"

"Are you guys close?"

"We were once. Our family is...complicated, to say the least." And our father is using the crown to turn us against one another, but my fool of a brother is too stupid to realize what is happening, Loki thought, but didn't say out loud. Although - and she refused to admit it - she and Thor had begun drifting apart long before the throne ever entered the equation. "I came here alone."

"Is that why you wanted to sign up for the war?"

"More or less." Loki sighed. "We should get some sleep before the sun renders such activities impossible."

Bucky chuckled. "You've got a real weird way of saying stuff sometimes, you know that, right?"

"My apologies."

"No, no, it's not bad or anything, just different. Kind of reminds me of Tolkien's elves."

Loki's mind spun. Did they know about Vanaheim? Or Svartalfheim? And if they knew about those, what of the others of the Nine Realms? Or Asgard? "Elves?" she asked with a small laugh, feigning simple curiosity.

"Yeah, from his book, the Hobbit. It's really good; you should read it sometime. Anyway, you're probably right about getting some sleep. Good night, Lisa."

Loki breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't figured it out yet after all. How long could she keep up this charade? Sooner or later, something was bound to give away that she wasn't an ordinary Midgardian. If it wasn't her speech patterns, it would be something else. The foreigner excuse could only hide so much. How long before he realized everything about 'Lisa' was a carefully concocted lie? No, she told herself firmly. She would never let him find out, if only so she could continue to enjoy...whatever this was (friendship, maybe?) as long as possible.

"Good night, Bucky." Using the nickname felt strange, to say the least, but somehow right at the same time. Loki smiled softly, and for the first time in a long while, it wasn't a smirk, and it wasn't a carefully constructed mask.

Maybe it wasn't all a lie, she told herself as she fell asleep.