Life on Midgard was not as bad as Loki would have guessed it to be. Not now that they were falling into a routine and had finally moved away from the Avengers. In fact, without Thor and his friends constantly breathing down his neck to make sure he wasn't "up to anything", living on Midgard was practically pleasant.

They'd officially moved into their apartment and, while it was nothing compared to the splendor of Asgard or even of Stark's Tower, there was something about the place that felt like home. It was three bedroom, with a room for Loki and Maisy to share, one for Linn, and the tiny spare that was quickly becoming Maisy's design space (honestly, you could not get far into the room without being drowned in fabric). There was a small kitchen that was rarely used except for the microwave feature (none of the three residents was particularly well endowed with cooking skills). There was only one bathroom, which was a disaster in the mornings, and it was much smaller than any of the restrooms Loki was used to, but they made do.

The whole place was furnished with what Stark had salvaged from Maisy's last living space on Midgard, which meant Linn was sleeping on an air mattress until they had time to purchase a bed and Loki and Maisy were squished onto a twin sized mattress. His feet only hung off the end a little and Maisy had only woken up on the floor once.

They needed to visit a furniture store soon.

There was a futon couch, which they might have slept on instead, except the frame was missing the cushion. Stark said that the cushion hadn't been there when he'd had Maisy's old place emptied and Maisy wondered if her old landlord had taken it for some reason. Until a new cushion could be found or made, the frame of the futon sat in the living room with all of the throw pillows piled on top of it to make it semi-comfortable.

The living room also held a beanbag chair and a bookcase that Loki had insisted on. He'd brought a few of his favorite and most used books from Asgard with him and they stored the few books Maisy owned there as well. When they'd first unpacked her books Loki had teased her to no end, as they were mostly well worn romance paperbacks with shirtless men on the covers - usually with a scantily clad woman clinging to him and looking up at his face adoringly. Maisy had blushed and tried to stuff them back in the box, but Loki made sure they had a place of honor on the shelf. In the same box there had been many textbooks as well, many of which Maisy tried to sell with some luck. She gave the money to Loki to spend on new books to add to their little library. He'd yet to make a trip to any bookstores.

The apartment, though they were still getting used to it, fit their little family well and Loki found that he quite liked it, even if the walls weren't gilded in gold.

Maisy worked most weekdays and Linn was at school, which meant that Loki had very little to do during the week. Every once in a while, Thor would pop in and ask him how he was doing or let him know that Stark wanted to check in. And Stark definitely kept up the "pestering clause" on the contract Loki had signed. The official document stated that Stark could demand Loki's presence at the Tower at any point in the day and if Loki didn't comply within the hour then Thor was meant to drag him in. So far the only time that had been necessary was when Stark had called Maisy's cell in the middle of the night and it had been turned off. Thor, who had a key to the apartment, had burst in and dragged a sleepy, cursing Loki all the way to the Tower, scolding him the entire time.

After that Loki had been issued an official Avengers phone, which was meant to be left on at all times. Loki hadn't been that interested in the device until he learned about prank calls. He and Linn, when Maisy wasn't home, spent a great deal of time calling restaurants and asking after customers by names such as "Ahmed Adoodie", "Ayma Moron", and "Harry Butz".

When he wasn't prank calling, summoned to the Tower, or reading, his days were usually filled with boredom. He'd promised Stark that he would work on a way to locate the scepter (it had not been found at the French Hydra base or the two other bases they'd raided after that), but he could not make himself do it.

In truth, he did not want the thing to be found. Bringing it out into the open again was just asking for trouble. Trouble that was big, purple, and probably quite pissed off that Loki had lost, not one, but two Infinity Stones. It was better to leave the scepter with Hydra. Even if they used it to wreak havoc, they would still be much easier to stop than… others who wanted it.

Of course, he couldn't tell the Avengers this, or it would be admitting that he'd been following someone else's orders when he attacked New York. The less they knew about his weakness, the better. So Loki had no plausible excuse for why he wasn't finding a way to locate the scepter and Stark had no reason to stop bringing it up.

"Why don't you come in today and see if any of my equipment can help you figure this out?" Stark asked over the phone. He had not even given any greeting when Loki had answered, he'd simply jumped right to business.

"What makes you think your stupid mortal inventions will be of any help to me?" Loki asked, sitting in the beanbag chair and staring at the ceiling fan as it slowly circled.

"Maybe they won't, but maybe the environment of the Tower will be more productive than sitting around in your pajamas, missing Maisy while she's at work," Tony said cheerfully.

"That is not what I'm doing," Loki lied.

"Oh please, you're like a dog. When she leaves the house you're miserable and when she comes back you wag your tail and jump all over her."

"You aren't doing a very good job of convincing me to come help you, Stark."

"I'm just saying, working on a project has got to be better than moping around all day, right?"

"If I didn't know better," Loki stood and began searching for Midgardian-ish clothing to change into so he could walk to the Tower without causing mass panic, "I'd say you miss my presence, Stark."

"Ha!"

"You call me at all hours and demand my presence," Loki sneered as he uncovered a pair of jeans, "You are constantly inviting Maisy and myself to come over. What? Can't stand your boring Avenger friends without me there to liven things up?"

"Are you coming or not, Reindeer Games?"

"I'll be there in twenty minutes."

"Great."

Loki hung up and finished putting on jeans, a shirt, and a coat (Maisy had insisted he have at least a few clothing options that would blend in). He grabbed the golden scarf Maisy had made him for his birthday as well and sighed as his hair got in his face. Swiping one of the hair ties from the bathroom and putting his own locks in a ponytail, he headed out, making sure to lock the apartment behind him and leave protective spells for when his wife returned.

He still wasn't entirely convinced that Tyr wouldn't find a way to get to her even on Midgard. There were so many protective spells on their new residence that even Heimdall couldn't find it unless he was searching purposefully. Maisy and Linn ought to be safe until he returned if they got home before he did.

He couldn't account for their trips home - as Maisy took the subway and Linn walked (another great feature of their new place was how close it was to the high school). It would be impossible to protect them on their commute, but he could at least ensure that they would be safe once they got to their destinations.

His own travels to and from the Tower were boring. New Yorkers were generally in too much of a rush to recognize him and if they did a double take he always changed his face with magic the second time they looked at him. As much fun as it would be to scare them all, he knew it was more trouble than it was worth to get spotted.

That day, however, he could not shake the feeling that someone was watching him as he turned onto the street that led to the Tower. Never one to shake off a suspicion, he paused and looked around him. No one seemed to be watching him. Still, he had to be sure.

Turning down a side street, and then into an alley, he decided to wait fifteen minutes and if no one approached him then he would continue on. If someone did come up to him he would be prepared.

After ten minutes a young man biked past him with the smell of pizzas following behind. The delivery boy eyed Loki suspiciously, but didn't stop on his journey through the alley. Loki watched the boy as well and as he did so he did not hear the footsteps behind him until a blade was pressed to his throat.

"Looks like you're waiting for someone, princey."

Loki smiled and laughed slightly.

"I am."

"Whose that?"

"You," he spun, disarming his would-be-attacker, and pointed her own knife at her, "I wish I could say it was nice to see you again, Blaze, but I doubt anyone would be speaking honestly if they said they missed your face."

"So it is true, you and your precious human wife moved out of the palace and into this dump," Blaze crossed her arms over her black leather jacket, "How come?"

"Your father is about as fond of Maisy as you are."

"Tyr made you move?" She asked curiously, "Interesting. For once my dear old dad did something that helps me out."

"So you want me on earth, hmm? Shall we skip this banter and you tell me why that is?"

"I'm not dumb enough to tell you anything that might help you out, princey," she laughed, "You'll just have to find that out later. In the meantime, I should let you get back to your walk."

"You just wanted to sneak up on me, tell me that you are glad I'm on earth, and then leave? You aren't after anything else for the time being?"

"Well, now that you mention it," she beamed at him, "Mind telling me where the Avengers are going to hit next? My friends at Hydra are curious."

"You've left Surtur for a Midgardian terrorist group? That doesn't seem like you."

"Surtur sent me, actually. It's a long story that I'll tell you eventually, but for now I just want to know where the next hit is going to be."

"Why should I tell you? After all, I've allied myself with the Avengers. I don't like the idea of giving the enemy a clue as to our plans," he tucked her knife into his coat and crossed his arms, looking down at her.

"Fair enough, but tell you what," Blaze stretched lazily, "You tell me where your next hit is so that I can look good in front of my friends and I'll tell you where they are hiding the scepter."

Loki froze and narrowed his eyes at her.

"That's right," she grinned, "I know you're looking for it. I also know that you probably don't want to open up your mental connection with it again. Probably isn't a fun thing to have yourself be controlled and owned by an Infinity Stone, is it? So why go through all that trouble when I could just tell you where it is?"

He didn't answer her, but he considered her offer.

"It's not like the Avengers are going to have any trouble taking down the next base, even if Hydra knows they're coming. I mean, it's the Avengers. They took down most of the Chitauri army for the Norns' sake!"

"Very well," Loki figured it couldn't hurt to tell her. The worst that could happen was that one of the weaker Avengers died and the Hulk was unleashed on Hydra. It wouldn't be a big deal in the grand scheme of things, "The next base on their hit list is Samara."

"That's in the really big Midgardian country, right? Russia or whatever?"

"Now where is the scepter?"

"I'll leave you a note in Samara, princey. Or, how's this? I'll leave you a magical map that only you can see and it will show you which base the scepter is at, as well as a few other Hydra bases so you can impress your friends."

"How do I know you'll actually hold up your end of the bargain?"

"Like you deduced, I want you on earth for a reason. Maybe taking down Hydra is part of that reason," Blaze smiled and then walked away, "And if you wouldn't mind, don't tell the Avengers how you got this information, yeah? We wouldn't want that nice school the pink brat attends to catch fire, would we?"

"No, that would be a pity," Loki rolled his eyes as if he didn't care one way or the other.

"Until next time, princey!"

Loki watched her go and then continued his walk to the Tower. He could think of no reason why he should tell the Avengers of his encounter, they didn't need to know. This way he could come with them to Samara, raid the base, get the location of a few more bases, which he would share, and finally, he would lead them to the scepter. And then he'd be done with the blasted thing and he could let his brother's friends worry over it.

If having the scepter in the Avengers possession looked like it was going to bring big purple trouble to Midgard, well, then he'd take Maisy home and deal with Tyr once and for all. And possibly Odin too. Then they could watch Midgard burn from the safety of the throne in Asgard.

Whatever Blaze had planned would be dealt with in time and then he and Maisy would live happily ever after. At least, that was the plan.

A note from the author: Plot lines are colliding! Dun dun duuuuuuuun!

Thank you for reading/favoriting/following!

Special thanks to my reviewers:

Ceres Friggadottir: I hope the personal stuff is going well or at least on it's way to getting better. :) That's awesome that you posted your own fic! I'll have to go check it out sometime! :D

Guestanewone: 1. Bucky doesn't really show up in this fic, but like I said to the other guest reviewer, I may or may not be planning a fic with him in it, which probably will take place in the same "universe" as Loki and Maisy's story so they might bump into each other! ;) 2. I am on board with that theory! I think it makes a lot of sense, though I think Loki was at least a little bit in charge of his own actions, but mostly being controlled. I can't say one way or the other about future scenes, but... maybe.

Dragoncat: Yeah... he might be regretting the skin tight spangle suit now lol.

Ninja Squirrel: I love the image of Loki walking through a doorway and getting a face full of saran wrap. XD Also, if Midnight chose to show her emotions she would probably jump for joy at meeting Black Widow. If her parents let her she would totally get an hourglass tattoo.

Thanks so much everyone! Till next chapter!