A Quinjet speeded over the magnificent pure white glacier. Clint Barton sat next to their pilot, eyes sharp, looking for their targets. When the snowstorm was finally over they had been airborne fast and heading after the malevolent demigod Loki.

Barton glanced at the screen in the front control panel over his pilot shades. It still showed no heat sources on the ground. No traces at all. He contacted the second team in another quinjet. "Anything yet?" Barton asked.

"No, sir. There is no sign of them here. And we are at the coast already."

"Alright. Return and keep looking," Barton said and then contacted agent Coulson who had stayed behind, cleaning up the mess in the research facilities.

Coulson answered quickly. "Barton, tell me you have found them."

"Sorry, sir. The blizzard has wiped off all their traces. Are you sure they were meant to be heading straight to the west? It's nothing here."

"Yes. Due west is the only safe route to the coast and to the nearest town. According to Mr. Vuori, Emma Morgan was fully aware of that. I don't believe she would go risking her life by trying to take another route. They should be somewhere there heading west."

"Fine. We'll keep looking."

… …

After long awkwardly silent moments, Emma had come into a conclusion that the trickster god was really a mean, devious prick who enjoyed messing up with others and tormenting them with his devilishly frolicsome pranks. Cursed to be that being who had given him the looks and voice of an angel, she thought. Loki had fooled her, making her to fall for his sweet talks and the kiss that still made her heart racing if she dared to think about it. She did her best not to and just concentrated driving, ignoring his attempts of engaging her into a conversation with some witty remarks. It would have been so easy to be infatuated with him. That is if she wouldn't have had to worry about that he might have actually killed her in a whim. She found his mood swings very confusing and scary, but reflecting that what he had told her about his past she couldn't completely blame him though. Things like that would have probably messed up the best of us, she reasoned.

Sitting on his side of the seats (as Emma had not dared him to cross the invisible line between them ever again), Loki watched her struggling with the emotions he had left her with. The kiss, he admitted, wasn't considered his normal reserved and calculating behavior. Neither was the outburst that had nearly driven him forcing himself on her. A part of him regretted that. He would have never behaved like that back in Asgard, no matter if he would have been sitting on the throne. He hardly recognized himself now from what he'd used to be. He had strayed far from the composed, obedient Odin's son he once was. Now being a troubled, tormented soul without means to return what he had been. Everything had changed from the moment he found out the truth about his real parentage. And if he was to survive in this world of mortals there was no turning back to the old. A desire for revenge was his fuel that drove him now. No matter how deep in the sense of insecurity he wallowed he wouldn't settle for anything less than a throne.

Dusk was soon upon them and all Loki saw was snow and ice all around them. He was beginning to realize that their journey could easily take at least another day like she had told him. He gave another glance at his quiet companion, wishing her to say something, anything. He had liked their little talks. Those had given him something else to think about.

Loki dropped his gaze down for a few seconds and lifted it back at her again. "Join me in death?" he said as if for a dark suggestion.

"Huh?" Emma turned at him looking worried, afraid that he had freaked out again. She hadn't given him any reason for it this time.

Loki showed a cd disc's covers where he had read that line. There were also other names of songs scribbled down. He frowned questioningly. "Planet hell; very descriptive about this place. Over the hills and far away. Well, that what it seems where we are heading. Silver bride? Now that is something new," he murmured doing his best to read the handwritten scribbles. "What is this?"

Emma looked relieved even it took a moment to pull herself together. "That's ah… Peter's top ten favorite songs from his homeland… burned into a disc. When ever he felt homesick he used to listen that…"

"So, it is music?"

"Yeah. A bit dark and melancholic, making you want to split your wrists kind of stuff. Oh, you would love it! Let's play some!"

Loki gave her a scowl putting the covers down. She didn't even know how close to death he had been, willing to let go. It still pained him, but like always he hid his pain and uncertainty behind a veil of mischievous humor. "Are you still upset about the kiss?" he asked in a conciliatory tone.

He had tricked her to talk. Emma heaved a long, annoyed sigh, not bothering to look at him again. His beautiful green eyes were like poison. She couldn't afford to get lost in his gaze. It had been simply the best kiss she'd ever had, and it had been with a violent, mad, seductive alien. She had a lot to be upset about. "If you really want to know, I am upset because you nearly forced yourself on me, you threatened my life, you treat me with no respect and you are only making a big joke about it all."

"Would it be any consolation to you if I would say that I am sorry?" Loki asked carelessly, pleased that they were talking again. He could have said that he was sorry about everything he had put her through. But he never apologized for himself, not the way he would have really meant it. And she had challenged him, and lost.

"You just don't get it. I hate you no matter what you'd say."

Loki grinned, thinking about just the opposite. "Oh, could we not settle up this disagreement… kiss and make up?"

Emma bit her lower lip annoyed, keeping her eyes ahead, unable to understand the situation she was in with him. "Prick!" she murmured, hiding the word under a cough.

Black peeks of mountains reaching up from the never-ending ice far ahead caught Emma's attention as she keep driving, according to the compass, due west. The white scenery was slowly turning into a pink fairytale-land as the setting sun behind thin reddish clouds colored the world around them. The knolls and snow mounds all around cast long shadows, giving the right picture that the scenery wasn't flat but wavy like dynes of a desert with some smaller and bigger mounds.

Emma slowed down the speed, having a bad feeling. There was something about those far away mountain peaks and the direction of the shadows that didn't feel right.

"Something's wrong here," Emma pondered aloud. She got the most uneasy feeling in her gut as they were passing by yet another pointy mount and she hit the break, stopping the SnowCat.

Lazily Loki glanced outside and then at her. "Not enough snow for you?"

"The sun is setting soon… but the shadows are pointing into a wrong direction," she realized and glanced at the compass. It showed that they were heading due west but the sun seemed to go down in more of south than west. "The sun is setting in a wrong place."

"Well, that is unlikely," Loki remarked but then gave her a frown. "You are not trying to tell me that we are lost, are you?"

"I don't know," she said worry in he voice and picked up the compass from the dashboard. As she did that, the needle of the compass turned, correcting the direction. "What on earth? There is something that makes the compass malfunctioning. We don't use the GPS because if would screw up the readings of the radio telescope. Compass is calibrated correctly. It has always worked…" Emma explained moving the compass around in the cabin, the needle of it turning and pointing to her right. There was only one thing inside the truck that normally hadn't been there.

Emma closed her eyes, falling into a frustration. "Oh, no way…" she whispered and swallowed hard, turning at Loki. "Do you happen to have a magnetic field of your very own?"

"Why? Are you feeling irresistible attraction towards me?" Loki asked with a small grin as Emma stared at her compass that was pointing at him.

She lifted her seemingly worried but annoyed gaze at him slowly. "Yeah, right now my fist feels irresistible desire to punch you in the face," she snapped and jumped out from the truck, hoping the fresh air clearing her head. "Oh shit! We are so screwed here."

"So, we are lost! It's not end of the world. We will take the right course and keep going," Loki said lustily as he followed her outside, sounding suddenly like an eager boy scout.

He was taking it awfully well, Emma pondered, thinking had he done it deliberately. When he approached her, Emma noticed that the compass needle returned pointing straight towards him again. "Do you know what this is?" she asked showing him the compass like she would have been talking to a kid.

Loki glanced at her primitive instrument and snorted with an amusement. "Even the ancient Vikings knew what that is," he told in a way that showed him being offended by her demeaning question.

"Then you also must know why this small needle is not pointing to north as it should, but to you?" Emma asked, getting her ranting gear on. "You… you didn't bother to mention that perhaps you ate evil, magnetic cereals for breakfast from your golden bowl, while you we sitting on your big golden throne, pondering what to do up there in your perfect golden world. Then you came up with a great idea; why not go spoiling some poor mortal's day. Hey, there's one! I'll just hop there and destroy her whole life, little by little. It'll be so much fun to see her suffer, it's not like she hadn't suffered enough already…"

Loki narrowed his eyes and parted his lips before he really said anything, listening to her smartass whining that just kept going. "Are you quite done? Your ludicrous mewling is very vexing, and it is not helping us," he said as though he would have been the only adult of the two of them now.

Emma didn't have time to express her own annoyance when a sudden aloud cracking and growling sound caught their attention. The ominous voice carried from a far away and sounded like a clasp of thunder. They both froze for a second, staring at each other and then at the direction they had been heading, the very same where the sound had came from.

Loki swallowed, his worried gaze sweeping the reddening horizon. "What was that?" he asked cautiously, wondering had the beast of Jotunheim made its way on earth. Or maybe Thor was paying him a visit. That wasn't good.

Emma didn't like the sound either but she at least had an idea what caused it. She had used to hear the glacier talking hauntingly; the ice growling under unbelievable pressure. But that had been something quite different. It had been a sound of huge solid ice breaking with a boom. A birth of a new baby iceberg? Or a crevasse? It seemed that they had been heading straight towards an ice fjord. Definitely a wrong direction!

"What's the matter, big guy? Is a Frost Giant scared of some ice?" she asked sounding careless, which she was not. And even less so as she saw Loki giving her a mean glare, hoping she could have taken it back.

Loki found nothing amusing about his true origin, and Emma making fun about that rubbed him up the wrong way, making him regret he had told her about his Jotun parentage. "What did you just say to me?" he asked in a low, dark tone, walking towards her and she was moving backwards away from him suddenly alarmed.

She wished no rematch with him. She had had enough of his dark side for that day. "Look, sorry… I say stupid things when I'm nervous… Don't blow a fuse now! I didn't mean anything…"

Very uncomfortable feeling filled Emma's heart as she felt a small shake under her feet like the snowy ground would have given in a bit. She stopped moving and froze where she stood, lifting her fear-filled eyes from the snow at Loki who strode towards her. "Don't come any closer!" she whispered to him, raising her hands at him with a hope to stop him.

Bad-tempered expression on his face only grew deeper as Loki approached her. "Have you not yet learned that you are in no position to tell me what to do?"

"Please, listen to me…" Emma begged in a silent voice. She didn't even dare to move.

Loki lifted his finger at her. "No! Now you will listen, you little…"

As Loki stepped closer to her, the snowy surface gave in under his weight more than it felt comfortable. He saw from Emma's terrified look that they were in serious trouble just before they both begun to fall with the snow that broke under them. The forever blowing wind had drifted a solid frozen bridge over the width crevasse that was now unveiled.

Loki's survival instincts worked fast while he was falling inside the ice canyon, seeing nothing but the light-blue wall scurrying around him. He conjured two daggers and stabbed them hard on the icy wall. Biting into the solid clear ice like two lifesaving anchors, the daggers held him, stopping him falling. His body jerked by the force of sudden stop and he was left hanging there by both hands. Without really thinking much, he reached his right arm as far as he could and managed to grab a tight hold from Emma's left wrist as she was dropping pass him, screaming. She slammed against the ice wall in his grip, letting out a grunt of pain, her screaming ending with the thud.

Loki cast a worried glance down at her, holding her with one hand and hanging from the dagger with another against the wall that exuded coldness. The six feet width ice canyon gaped under them like a mouth of a gigantic beast waiting to swallow them into its bottomless belly. He saw how the snow that had broken under them kept falling into the darkness of the endless pit below. The canyon continued miles and miles on both sides to his left and right. He looked up and getting back there was at least twice of his height. The wall was nearly vertical in both ways, lacking any juts or overhangs to take a grip or rest.

Hanging again above a cold abyss gave him a nasty reminder of his very last moment in Asgard. He could hear Odin's voice in his ears: "No, Loki!"

It had been so easy to let go, leaving it all behind. He had not truly belonged there anyway. But nothing had become any easier after it. The dark thoughts were lurking in the back of his head, eagerly to come out to play, and it was tossing him into an emotional turmoil. This is the end… They know what I have done… Just let go…

"My son, do not let go!"

For a moment he thought he heard Frigga's gentle voice echoing in his mind as though she would have been there on the Rainbow Bridge with him. He could see her standing there, reaching her hand down at him with a look that was pleading and encouraging at the same time.

"Do not let go, Loki!"

Then he snapped out from it, the phantasm leaving him like a fading illusion, tears brimming in his eyes. He couldn't tell had it really been Frigga visiting him with a projection of herself or was he starting to seeing things. But now he could hear that it was Emma's voice that spoke to him.

"Please, Loki, don't let go!" she begged, her voice trembling hard. She was holding from his hand with hers, her head on the level of his boots. Her every small whimper and sob echoed inside the icy canyon. "Loki, please..."

He was the only thing keeping her safe above the certain death and he was literally holding her life in his hands. His tight hold was hurting her wrist but she found it as a better option than being a lifeless mass on the bottom of that crevasse. She had looked down and it had been a big mistake. The canyon seemed to continue forever down, the whiteness of the ice walls fading to blue the lower the walls continued down and then turning completely black where lights didn't reach anymore. It was soon getting dark, and she couldn't bear the thought of hanging there in the pitch-black night.

With a small groan Loki pulled his arms a bit to ease his muscles, the stretch starting to feel in his body. In his right hand she felt light but his left arm was begging for mercy as it was holding them both. He watched down at her with a glint of sorry in his serious face, knowing now he should have listened to her warning. He wasn't happy about their current situation but she looked simply scared to death. He couldn't blame her though. So was he but he didn't want to let it show, and he let out a rough groan again.

"You are sending very confusing signals here. First you did not want me to touch you and now you are begging me not to let go of you. My dear, you have to make up your mind!" he snapped sarcastically, dangling her in his grip.

Emma answered to him with a pleading look, terrified of him letting her go now. He realized that she didn't find his joke amusing at the moment so he gave her a convincingly compassionate smile. "It is alright. I swear to you, everything is going to be alright, Emma Morgan," he assured in a strong voice that hid well his sense of hesitation and insecurity, the surrounding canyon giving his voice a godlike echo. He glanced up once more with a thought. "I am going to swing you up there, so ease your grip on me."

Emma gasped when he begun swaying her back and forth. "No, no, no! No swinging! There's at least 15 feet up there. I can't… I can't…" she whimpered in panic. That was impossible.

Loki grimaced, his nose wrinkling as he concentrated hard, hoping the dagger to hold them long enough. "Trust me! You must let go or this will not work!"

"Trust you?" Emma screamed. "You damn trickster! Would you even trust yourself on this one?"

Loki glanced at her, a tiny grin rising on his uncertain face. "Well, I trust you to give us a kiss if we both would survive out of this one. Right, my Valkyrie?" he smirked and prepared for the swing. He had to do it right. There were no second changes. "When I say now, you will let go. You understand? Are you ready?" he rasped out.

"No! No way in hell!"

"You will do it, woman, or I will shake you off right now!"

"Jesus Christ! You are insane! You are a fucking psycho!" Emma screamed in panic, only tightening her grip on him.

Loki frowned but was going to ignore her words. "So, are you ready?"

"Fine! Yes, you loony! I'm so going to die!"

"I swear I will not let you die," Loki reassured, not feeling so sure about it. "Let go, now!" he shouted roughly and with one more sway for speed Loki put everything at stake, fiercely flinging her upward and releasing his grip from her wrist. His dagger slipped off the wall and he begun falling again. He hated falling, the helpless sensation of having not control of anything. A dagger still in his left hand, he conjured a throwing knife to his right hand, and hit them both hard onto the wall. They held and he was safe again, but only barely. Then he lifted his gaze up, watching Emma flying up in the air screaming. Loki panted mouth open in uneasiness, steadying his own swinging on the icy wall, following her with his gaze as long as she remained on his sight a couple more seconds.

She was practically catapulted up from the crevasse by his force, reaching 4 feet above the snowy ground before belly-landing on the edge of the icy cliff, her upper body and right leg on the safety of the firm solid glacier, only her left leg hanging over the edge. The landing impact knocked the wind out of her and when hitting her pubic bone hard against the edge of the cliff she believed she got some kind of clue how it must felt when a guy got a kick on his balls. She rolled further away from the edge to safety, squirming on the snow in pain lying on her back. She knew the pain wouldn't last long but she thought about shoving snow down in her pants to relieve the aching while her breathing returned to normal. Her left wrist was still hurting and Loki's rough spin had only made it worse, but she was thankful she was alive.

The sun was setting lower and the opposite sky was already getting darker. Not believing it had actually worked, Emma let out a tiny giggle while jolting up and groveling on the edge, gazing down at Loki who struggled with climbing up with his weapons. It looked anything but easy. Gaping down again, made Emma feeling dizzy. "It worked!" she yelled in a great relief but then got worried for his sake. "Are you alright? Can you make it?"

Some loose, fine snow fell down on Loki as Emma moved on the edge far above him. He blew the snow off from his face and watched up at her from 22 feet away now. He wasn't even there yet where he had left his other dagger. "A little help? Please?" he panted in a pledging tone, looking somehow helpless for a big mean deity, and hanging like a large black and green bat from the white wall.

"Okay…" Emma whispered, unwilling to go dangling there again, thinking hard how to reach to him. "There's a rope in the truck. I'll get it, you don't go anywhere!" she said and crawled up on her feet, hurrying to the trunk, pain in her crotch.

"Was not planning to!"

The left hand's dagger slipped off the icy wall again and Loki grunted, pulling himself up and thrusting the weapon again on the ice with force that caused the ice cracking around the dagger. "Hurry!" he shouted after her.

He pondered would he hear the vehicle's engine roaring and roaming away or maybe even straight towards him down into the pit like she had threatened to drive him into an ice canyon. He came into a conclusion that she might have been just that mad to do it. He might have pushed her over the edge in emotional level with his teasing. "Damn!" he sighed in a shivering voice and lifted his worried eyes up.

Frantically Emma tied the rope around the SnowCat's front tracks, and secured it, since there was no bumper in the truck, thinking that she had to be mad for not shoving the shovel into his face and driving the whole vehicle at him. She could have gotten rid off him for good. From the bottom of that crevasse he wouldn't have been tormenting her anymore and she might have actually done a great favor to the world by letting him rot in there. But she just couldn't do it and she knew she might live long enough to regret it. After all he had saved her life and she felt it as her obligation to return the favor.

With hasty steps she returned on the edge with the rope. "I'm here. I brought the rope," she informed breathing quickly in distress and carefully throwing the rope down. "Come on, Loki! You can do it! " she encouraged him, peeking cautiously down. She looked all the way down of the dizzying vertical wall but there was no sign of him there anymore like he would have just...

"Loki?" Emma shouted, dismay growing inside of her, staring down of the empty canyon. Her own echo was the only sound answering to her. It was too late? In a shock she slumped down sitting on her knees, her hands beginning to shake, and her throat tightening. "Loki," she whispered with a trembling voice, unable to understand that he'd had plunged down after saving her. "Oh god… oh no…"

She felt sick on her stomach and she sat a bit further away from the edge, rubbing her aching wrist and closing her eyes, pondering could he still be alive down there and what was she supposed to do now.

"Did you miss me already?" Loki's voice asked sounding exhausted, sugared with a sprinkle of irony, and accompanied with a long tired exhale.

His voice startled Emma and she glanced at him over her shoulder, seeing him sitting on front of the tracks of the SnowCat facing her. "Loki?" Tears rushed into her eyes when she noticed that he was fine, that annoying smug grin on his face. On that moment she wasn't relieved or happy to see him, she was mad as hell as she crawled up on her feet, one hand holding onto her aching crotch.

"Ohh, I did not realize you missed me that much," Loki sighed wittily and gave her a curious, enticing look.

Emma snorted and went to him, shaking her head in disbelief. "You mean, sick bastard!" she said under her breath in an upset tone, stepping in front of him a frenzy gleam in her wet eyes.

"Is that your way of thanking me for saving your life?" Loki asked with a mild smile, watching upwards at her while sitting. He had saved her, and he expected a bit more than that for thanks. He had given all he could to pull himself up just in case she would carry out her threatening to kill him. How was he supposed to trust anyone but himself? He wasn't going to give her a pleasure of getting rid off him that easy.

"I thought you died!" Emma said furiously. And for a moment it looked like she was going to slap him in the face, her hand rising but instead of smacking him, she touched his cheek softly. It was a move Loki had not been prepared, his hand already around her wrist. His smile turned to doubt and then to slight bewilderment, his green eyes showing his wish for tenderness as she placed also her other hand on his face, touching him gently, hesitatingly moving closer, leaning to him and hunching a bit since he was lower than her while sitting.

Against his expectations, she pressed her mouth on his in a whim, giving him that damn kiss he had been asking for with his tease. She hadn't planned it to happen, but it felt good at the moment and he was a hell of a kisser. His face felt soft under her palms, his chin like it would have just been shaven. His lips were thin but perfect and he knew how to use them.

Loki closed his tired arms around her in a wonder, feeling the warmth of her mouth on his lips and the passion in her kiss. She had taken his jesting about the kiss seriously but he wasn't complaining.

Her unsolved issues of intimacy made his tightening hold feeling uncomfortable around her and she pulled away from him. Loki was left for yearning more, staring into her eyes in a bit of awe when she drew back from him.

"That was for saving my life," Emma said with a fervent whisper and then gave him the hard slap in the face abruptly. "And that was for you being such a mean dick sometimes," she continued, taking a few steps back, shaking her stinging palm.

Loki let out a short uneasy chuckle and watched her as she circled him, taking a seat behind him on the SnowCat's tracks. He couldn't be happier for being alive. That kiss had made his day and he was going to let that slap go unnoted in the current situation. It hadn't even really felt anything but a small stinging on his cheek. The trickster god turned sitting the same way Emma was, beholding her with a fondly, intrigued smile. "Hmm… I shall accept that for thanks."

Emma stared at the pink-purple horizon colored by the sun that had just sunk beyond the horizon. It had been a damn fool thing to kiss him. "By the way, we lost the compass," she said awkwardly and glanced at him quickly, returning her timid eyes at the sunset, trying to get a grip of herself, rubbing her sore wrist.

Loki lifted his eyes up at the darkening sky. It was going to be a clear night. Faint waves of the green flames were fluttering on the northern dark sky. He liked those colors. "It is alright. We can navigate by the stars," he assured and couldn't resist the desire to wrap his arm around her shoulders. She sat there next to him like a small bird and he took her under his wing.

Emma winced when she felt his arm around her, already regretting that she had encouraged him with that kiss and aroused his temper with the slap. "Please, don't to that." Her voice was small like it would have more been a prayer than a request.

Loki pulled his hand away reluctantly, honoring her wish for this once. "Are you going to start this again?" he asked, thinking wasn't it a bit too late for her playing hard to get.

"It is not you. It is just that…" Emma's breathing was shivering. Of course it was because of him, and then again, he had nothing to do with it. "I can't stand people touching me." She was quiet for a moment. "I don't want anyone coming too close to me. That's why I have loved this place. Here aren't too many people around and the geeks I work with are as eager hugging that I am."

Then the fact entered intro her mind that she couldn't go back working in to the research unit anymore, not after what had happened there. They would see her as a freak now and in the worst scenario someone would come after her again taking her away to be locked up. She was going to miss that place. And what if something really bad had happened to her boss, Scott Davis? What if he died? They would blame her. She pushed those thought off her mind. She just needed to survive out of this one alive and see where it gets her. Loki was the only thing she should have been worried about at the moment.

She glanced at him again and noticed that he had been staring at her a while in silence listening. "Do you think we could we just sit here for a while?"

"Of course," said Loki, his voice strangely radiating compassion like he wouldn't have ever had a mean bone in his body. He could read between the lines that someone had hurt her, maybe more severely that he had. But he didn't want to go digging her painful memories, he had enough dealing to do with his own. Though, it seemed they had things in common; neither of them didn't let people come too close, both of them had something to hide, both of them had been wronged by their families. Loki realized he could have gone on that list a long while.

He noticed her scooping up some snow and pressing it on her left wrist. A momentarily flash of sincerity went thought him and a small concern flinched on his face. "I am sorry if I hurt you," he said giving a tiny nod towards her hand when she turned at him.

That was the first sorry he'd said, and it puzzled her. "You are? It's ah… it's alright. Just strained wrist. I have had worse. It'll be as good as new soon."

There was a bit remorse and guilt in his eyes. "It is a good thing you heal fast," Loki said and closed his palms together, his elbows leaning to his knees. He gave her (and to himself) some time to be quiet, taking a breath and only admiring the frozen scenery in nearly imaginary colors.

They just sat there unsure, like thinking what the hell to do next, the width crevasse, miles long maybe even dozens of miles long, making it impossible to continue their journey forward. It was a breathtakingly beautiful sunset, the colors slowly fading away and the evening turning darker. He could understand now why she liked the place. Even in its cruelest form the glacier showed them its beauty. A shared close to death experience had a way to turn one's thoughts to the right tracks, momentarily at least.

Cold gusts of wind played with her long hair and she tried to restraint them. He could have just gotten up and get it himself but Loki conjured the blanket from the truck into his grip and placed it gently over her shoulders as if she would have been asking for it. "Here," he said with a soft whisper as if an act of apology.

They exchanged looks like it would have been the very first time they'd had ever laid eyes at each other.

"Um… Thanks," Emma sighed, confused. She wouldn't have needed the blanket for warmth but it blocked away the wind nicely and she pulled it tighter around her. It had been a kind gesture from him, a bit too nice from an alien creature who had kept threatening her for a day. "And, thank you for saving my life."

"No. Thank you," Loki said softly and glanced at the rope fastened to the vehicle's tracks and turned his eyes to her again. "After all I have done to you, you would have really helped me. Why?" he asked, realizing he hadn't been the easiest companion to travel with.

"I guess I didn't have it in me to leave you down there… but you seemed to managed fine without me."

A grin visited his lips and disappeared, Loki taking one more deep breath. "Perhaps I jumped into conclusions, expecting you to ram that vehicle down on me."

Emma bit her lips, fighting off a grin. "Yeah… I thought about it," she admitted with an apologetically grimace.

They glanced at each other a little bemused, Loki gawping at her. "You must be the most indecisive person I have ever met," said Loki in a joking manner, and after seeing each other's expressions they both let out tiny, confused laughs.

Emma couldn't really decide which side of him scared her more; 'the dark and mean treating her unfairly one' or that sweetly compassionate behaving like a dream one' she was soon falling for. Maybe his scary side was just a build up shelter, a survival mechanism of some soft, protecting the more vulnerable softer side of him. His life hadn't been the easiest one, she reasoned. "So, perhaps we both worked out of character here. Could we just agree that none of this ever happened?" she said and swallowed in uneasiness.

Confusion in Loki's gaze turned into a tiny grin revealing his mischievous side that hadn't gone anywhere. "I see why not. Everything will be returned to normal and you will find me tormenting you anew in no time," he assured, his eyes glimmering with a gentle tease.

Her forehead furrowed Emma gave him a small uneasy smile. "Right? Looking forward to it."

Loki beamed at her in a way that could have lighted up the whole northern glacier. He liked her humor. He saw no reason why not to like her. "Now than you mentioned it. I recall you insulting me with at least five different expressions a moment ago…"

"Um, yeah… about that…"

"You say stupid things when you are nervous?"

"Oh, I was totally, extremely nervous," Emma swore, her voice giving away her nervousness again. "I may even have the Tourette syndrome. You know, I can't stop cursing…"

Loki chuckled at her slightly worried expression and she let out an uneasy laugh with him. "I am sorry… I was only teasing you," he admitted with an apologetic grin. Maybe he should have tried to be less thin-skinned from now on.

"You're one sick puppy," Emma murmured shaking her head smiling. Maybe in somewhere very deep down he wasn't that bad he had let her to believe. That mean, beautiful, divine prick!