Chapter 14.
He admired her smile, and watched her as she pushed a stray strand of her hair behind her ear as she opened the lobby door, pausing for him and started up the stairs. He watched every line and soft curve of her face as she turned and the way her lips stretched how they formed the words she spoke. Every line and inch of her was taken in and etched in Loki's mind as she turned and laughed again making a joke he had missed as he was lost in his inner thoughts. She was such a vexing girl to him, yet endearing at the same time. He tried his best to accept that she held no ill judgments for what he was, but could not fully trust her words. No one could ever fully trust or not fear him because of what he was, why was she different? Her eyes however held no fear or disgust, curiosity lined with kindness, but he was not still sure of what he saw himself.
So much like Frigga.
Her desire to unlock puzzles, to find answers in the how and why, along with her intelligence would always be her greatest strength. Her ability to think quickly would keep her alive. Yet he still feared for her life, and wanted to keep her in a room where nothing could touch her or bring any harm upon her. He was completely fascinated by the girl walking in front of him, so beaten down by a heartless world but able to come back from the bruising. Stronger and more resilient than before, ready to keep fighting.
He wanted to keep this puzzling creature for himself only, to just let her talk as she observed the universe, and to listen to her and what she had to say.
She unlocked the door to their room and opened it, jumping up and falling face first onto the bed and lay very still. He grew concerned as she lay flat on the mattress and no movement came from her for several moments, he reached out to see if she had knocked herself unconscious but she pushed herself up and laughed.
"That was less than graceful." He said and snorted at her, relieved she had not hurt herself.
"We should find a way back to Asgard." She said as she sat up and he set the bags on the desk next to her bag.
"Do you really think it would be any better there?" He asked her and she pulled the hair band out of her hair and shook the black locks out with her fingers. He sat down on the side of the bed and watched her as she looked up at him and sighed.
"Honest opinion?" She asked him and he opened his hands as she pulled her sweater off over her head.
"Always."
"I am really not sure of anything right now." She said and untied her boots and pulled them both off and removed her socks. She stuffed the socks into the boots and stretched her feet out in front of her and began scratching at the back of her hand. He sat forward and put his hand over both of hers to stop her.
"I know it is a nervous action, but you are going to make a sore spot." He said and she smiled as she stood up and walked over to the bathroom and turned the light on before closing the door behind her. He sighed and cursed himself, but remained hopeful he had not offended Lilliana.
"I am going to clean up, I am dying for a shower!" She shouted through the door. "Play your cards right, and I will save you some hot water. I feel so cruddy and I may have sand in some really weird places. I also do my best thinking in the shower."
Loki laughed to himself and heard the door lock as she turned on the water, he closed his eyes and remembered the stories Frigga once told him in his youth. The one about the maiden who could quell even the most savage of beasts came forward in his mind and he smiled to himself sadly at the memory.
Frigga would have wanted to adopt this fragile girl and nurture her every step as she learned to control her powers, and Frigga would have succeeded long before he had.
Possibly have even shoved her at Thor in an attempt to marry him off to the girl and he would watch the small woman fade next to him in every way. Even in her willful spirit, her flame diminishing as she was pushed to the back by Thor's commanding presence. Loki sighed, finding the thought tragic in itself.
"Tell me about the stars Mother." He remembered himself saying to Frigga one night so long ago, when time and tide had not taken their toll. A time when lies were not forced into the light, and he wanted nothing more than acceptance as a Prince.
"They are the souls of the bravest and kindest hearts to keep us warm at night Loki. They guide us and give us direction, showing us the way when we are most lost." She told him as he stretched his small hands up to the sky.
"Will my soul be there one day?" He turned and asked her and she looked down at him smiling sadly at his question. Death was always an uncomfortable topic for her, and she adored life so much more.
"Do not look so forward to death that you seek it openly my son, you have so much living to do first." She said and smiled down at him as she covered him up to his chin and kissed his forehead. Her smile as always kind, but always on the verge of revealing the truth that he was not truly her son, but she still cared for him as a Mother would. It was never in her nature to not love those who loved her first.
"Sleep now, and dream of great things." She said and left the room and the lights dimmed as he looked back out his window toward the sky and imagined the stars as beings, giving each of them names until he fell asleep.
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I felt so much better when I walked out of the bathroom, my hair was clean and I no longer had sand in weird places, and I did find that. Loki was asleep in a carb overdose on his side with his arms crossed over his chest. I was bored and still wide awake so I sat down on the end of the bed and picked up the remote and cracked one of the Cokes as I flipped through the channels for anything interesting. I found District 9 and stopped and watched the whole movie before I opened a bag of gummy bears and sat watching it until the end. Behind me, Loki shifted a few times as he slept and I tried to keep the sound down so he wouldn't be bothered by me. I chewed a candy as the credits started rolling and Alien was announced as the next movie.
Loki rolled over and rubbed his face as he settled onto his back, and I turned up the sound a bit so I could watch the movie at a regular volume.
"Hello sleepy head," I said as he looked at me with one eye between his thin fingers and glanced at the television. "Gummy Bear?"
He sat up and took a couple of the candies from the bag as the movie started, so I turned back to the television and he sat up and scooted next to me.
"How long have I been asleep?" He asked as he opened the other Coke and regarded the television with detached interest. I fixated on the movie and did my best to answer him as I tried to pay some attention to the film in front of me.
"About an hour." I said and focused back on the television. "You were so cute and peaceful, drooling all over yourself, and not trying to take over the world."
I freaked out a bit internally at the joke I cracked, but felt relieved when he ignored it and sat forward and smiled at me. He settled back next to me and took a long drink from the bottle of soda and took more interest in the movie.
"Don't be cute Little Mouse." He said and took another candy from the bag in my hand. "What is this?"
"A movie called Alien, I saw it once but it was a really long time ago." I said and he looked at me. "The people on the ship are commercial pilots for a corporation and they got a signal from a dead planet, the company wants them to check it out before they return the rest of the way back to Earth."
I took another drink and he raised an eyebrow at me as we watched the movie with detached interest, and rolled his eyes at what we found entertaining. I jumped a couple times and hid my face at the scarier scenes, Loki wanted to turn off the movie seeing that the blood and violence bothered me. He reached for the remote a couple times but I stopped him and he relented, but I was still freaked out by it.
"This is probably not the best thing for you to watch." He said and looked at me concerned and I nodded but ignored him to see the ending.
He winced at the same time as me when the monster came out of Kane's chest and I leaned close to him as he convulsed and the blood splattered all over the walls of the ship. Loki wrinkled his nose at the entire scene and I buried my face in my hands through it, turning into his shoulder and almost unable to watch more.
"That is a bit far." He said and I nodded at him.
"I cannot agree more there. But my brain has been running full tilt for the last two days. I need to turn it off for a bit." I groaned as the room darkened and I pulled the blanket over my shoulders and stayed with the movie and shrieked as the full grown alien attacked the crew, picking them off one by one.
"I really don't see the entertainment in this." He said and sat closer to me. "You are terrified and shaking like a leaf, perhaps something else?"
"No, I want to see the end." I said and he stopped pushing at me to change the channel and continued to watch the movie with me, becoming more and more disgusted with it as it came to an end. I laughed a bit when I saw his body language relax as Ripley blew up the ship and escaped. By the end I was pretty much done with gratuitous violence, so I turned off the television and threw the blanket off me stretching. I turned on the lights and I groaned and looked at Loki, who shook his head and I rolled my eyes at him.
"It is all fake." I said and got out the maps and sat back down on the bed. "Rubber props and raspberry syrup."
"Still not very entertaining if you ask me." He said and looked at what I was doing.
I opened the road map of Washington State and spread it out on the bed and pulled a highlighter out of the package we bought and put the cap in my teeth and pulled. I carefully marked a route that was easy enough to follow that took us through Olympia and up I-5 toward Joint Base Lewis McChord. I made other marks on the map as I thought carefully, and I chewed at my bottom lip, I turned on some Skrillex as I worked and made more marks on the map of places we could stop if we needed to.
Loki watched me work with interest and I sighed and sat back thinking as I looked at everything and did a quick search on my phone and altered the route to go down the 512 freeway through Puyallup. I then made a few judgment calls on the route after that marking out more spots and possibilities and sighed.
"We steal a car here, but we are going to want speed on our side later." I said and he looked where I pointed on the map. "Olympia has some car dealerships, so we will look into one there and see about stealing a better car there from one of them. The car will be hotter than hot, so we will need to maybe take a side trip through Puyallup and through Auto Row. Ditch the old car if we have time and continue up through Bellevue and across I-90 to Seattle. There we disappear into the crowd and wait until we find the rest of the geeks, or they find us." I sighed back and he looked at me as I worried he would not approve of the plan.
"Clever." He said and he traced his finger up the route as I watched. "Perhaps we could skip the theft in Puyallup and just get a different car in Bellevue."
"I was thinking that myself, and I-5 is going to be a total cluster fuck the day after tomorrow, so maybe we can bypass Puyallup all together, or maybe just stop for a food break. We can dump the Olympia car in Bellevue and with all that Microsoft and tech money running around, we will have the option to get us a really nice car before going into Seattle. That is where you will com in. We are going to need our Sunday best, like tails and a cocktail dress." I looked at him and he raised an eyebrow at me as I showed him the screen of my phone.
"Stark Industries is hosting a Gala at the Hilton near Bellevue Square." I said and he smiled down at the phone. "Modern cars are next to impossible to steal thanks to the chip technology, so we need to get our hands on the keys. We are going to briefly crash, I will break into the Valet Station and steal a set of keys and we just have to go into the garage and get the car across the street."
Loki read from the phone, and smiled at me wickedly and I knew he had something to add. I cocked my head at him and sighed, waiting to see what he was about to add.
"One request." He said and I smiled at him as he raised a finger. "We steal Stark's car.
I threw my head back and laughed openly as he handed me back the phone and I changed the music to something less grating and tapped Seal.
"We make it that far, and you have yourself a deal." I said and tapped the highlighter on my hand. "Remember that no plan is completely foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool."
Loki sat back and looked down at the map thinking, and I kind of liked how he felt he could make suggestions and his input was actually good. It was nice having someone else around with half a brain.
"Agreed, but remember that you have more talents than most other beings here." He said and I smiled as I took one of the wire coat hangers from the closet and began making a rudimentary Slim Jim.
"How fast of a learner are you?" I asked Loki and he watched me work on reshaping the hanger.
"Why do you ask?" He said and I stopped working and looked up at him.
"You may need to drive some." I said and pushed my sleeves up on my arms as I returned to my work.
"I'm still drained, and it is a long road trip, I don't want to wreck the car along the way and attract attention." I replied and he nodded as I looked back at my work.
"I will pay enough attention to handle the task." I fought with the packaging on the pliers and he sighed and took it from me, opening it for me and handing me back the tools.
"Cool." I said and took another drink from the bottle of Coke. "Just a heads up, if we get caught, I'm a hostage."
He rolled his eyes at my joke as I finished the Slim Jim and set it aside for later, I looked at him as I folded the map and put it in a side pocket of my bag and he sighed.
"Your humor is, as always, amusing." He said sardonically and I laughed.
"Don't take yourself too seriously. We are essentially planning to break several laws here, some of them are actual felonies. But this is the best plan we have at the moment, unless you have any better ideas. Totally open to suggestion here."
"You seem to have it sufficiently planned out." He said and crossed his arms as he looked down at me, the good old arrogant Loki coming out again. I rolled my eyes and ignored him and thought about what we needed for our first car.
"What more could I possibly add?" Loki opened his hands as he sat on his end of the bed and looked at me.
"Great. Now all we need is a deck of cards." I said and rubbed the back of my neck and sighed, trying to not look worried as he stood up and leaned against the wall in thought. I groaned and stretched my neck as I looked at the map of the peninsula and tapped the palm of my hand in thought.
It was getting late, but I was way too wired for sound to sleep at this point and I changed bands on my phone as I thought about how crazy I had to be to even think of what we were about to even consider doing. I closed my eyes and started swaying to the soft music, not caring he was watching me and I turned and picked up the trash and put it all in the waste basket.
"The one hunting you." He said then, breaking the quiet and I turned and looked at him. "What plan do you have for him?"
I shrugged and sat back down on the end of the bed and looked back up at Loki and he watched me. Flashes of a knife slowly heading toward my face made me shudder and I wrapped my arms around myself. I leaned forward and looked back at the wall and tried not to show how I felt, failing miserably at it.
"I don't know." I said and shook again. "I don't even know why he wants me, can we not think about him until Seattle? I honestly just don't want to be afraid for a few minutes more."
I unwrapped my arms from around myself and looked down at my hands as Loki sat down next to me, I tried not to think about the last forty eight hours and his hand closed around one of mine. Trying to offer some comfort as a friend and I sighed at the attempt.
"He is not going to stop until I'm dead is he?" I asked Loki and he squeezed my hand quietly, his fingers feeling nice as they wove in between mine from the back of my hand.
"Let me kill him. " He said and I looked at him as if I couldn't comprehend the words he said. "I do not like being controlled and what I saw in my mind, the images of what he wanted to force me to do to you, I intend to make him suffer so much more."
I turned and looked at him, my heart becoming a lump in my throat as my lower lip trembled. I looked down and wiggled my toes as I tried to not think about what would make Loki hate someone that much, what was intended for me in the near future.
"Do I want to know?" I asked him and he pulled his hand back and looked down in shame.
"I will let you keep your ignorance." Loki said and I blinked and shook for a moment and tried not to cry. His hand came up to my shoulder and I looked back at him and our eyes met and I found something in there that threw reason completely out the window, and the logical parts of my brain stopped working in that moment.
Some part of me clicked into overdrive, and I put my hand up to his face and he sighed at my touch. Hesitating, I leaned close to him and I felt his warm lips on mine and he stiffened suddenly but slowly relaxed and pulled me close to him and returned the kiss.
We broke the kiss quietly, and I sat back and he looked at me and I turned nervously and feeling like a complete idiot. I realized what I did and felt a bit of shock and shame at myself for it. What was I thinking?
"Sorry." I said feeling embarrassed and his hand snaked around the back of my neck and pulled me back to him and he kissed me again. Shocked, I stiffened but melted into him as he stopped and let out a slow breath and grinned at me. And his arms came up around me, and I looked into his eyes and saw a spark of something deeper there.
"Don't be sorry." He said and laughed at me, his hand smoothing my hair.
"I issue no complaints." Loki pulled me close to him and sighed as I lay myself into him and smiled into his chest as he pulled me closer.
"What are you doing?" I mumbled and tried to pull away, but he tightened his arms and refused to let me go.
"Keeping you safe." He said and nuzzled my hair with his nose.
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I woke up first the next morning, and rolled over to see Loki asleep on his stomach, half his face buried in a pillow and I smiled at him. I sat up and stretched my arms over my head and pulled my sweater down in the back and located my boots at the foot of the bed. I put them on and slipped out into the hall quietly with my coat in my hand and walked toward the lobby.
Nothing more had happened last night after we basically made out, but I still felt weirdly happy as I put on my coat and walked through the lobby doors. I took in the sunny fall morning and jumped in a puddle childishly as I walked water splashing from my boots. I carefully descended the stairs toward the main drag and admired the colors of the late fall trees and heard a boat horn in the distance.
I walked to the coffee shop near the grocery store and ordered two Vanilla Chai Lattes and had them throw in two Cheese Danishes. I put my headphones in and walked back up to the hotel and may or may not have taken my time returning with the hot drinks and morning snacks as I looked in the window of a closed shop and saw my reflection, not quite recognizing the woman who looked back at me but I found I liked her.
I stopped off in the lobby and asked about ferry sailings to cover our butts when we left this evening, and the woman printed me up a copy of the Bainbridge Island Run and handed it to me.
"Thank You." I said and folded the paper up and stuffed it into my pocket, the balancing act of the two drinks and the food must have been comical to see as I walked up the stairs, but I did not complain. The sight of me juggling lattes and Danishes must have been even better as I struggled to get the key out of my jeans pocket when the door flew open and I was greeted by a wild eyed Loki.
"Mornin' sunshine, Latte?" I asked and how I managed to not dump hot milk and tea all over the both of us still remains a mystery to this day, because he pulled me in the room by my arm and I spun around as he closed the door and held me tight to him for several moments.
"Where did you go?" He asked, obviously upset and I rolled my eyes at the question.
"I got us some breakfast." I said extricating my arm from him and waved a paper wrapped pastry under his nose. He took it from me and sat back on the couch as I handed him a drink and sipped at mine as I sat cross legged on the bed.
"Don't do that again," he said and sighed. "I was worried when I woke and you were gone."
"Sorry." I said and shrugged as I looked at him. He glared at me and I rolled my eyes at him in response.
"I will be sure to warn you next time, but I am fine I went to a very sinister coffee shop though. I think the owner may be a Warlock." I joked and he looked at me and rolled his eyes.
"I do not find that funny." He snapped at me but still smiled at me.
"Drink your tea." I sighed out and he sipped it after removing the plastic lid, if he was going to get all overprotective on me, this whole deal was never going to work out.
"You are still hunted, think about that." He said and wrapped both his hands around his cup as he looked around the room. His eyes returning to me and I shrugged in response to him.
"I am painfully aware of that fact," I said and groaned. "But can you please recognize that I am a survivor and can handle a lot more then simple coffee run?"
He looked down at the contents of his cup and thought silently to himself and I felt bad for getting snippy with him, but I couldn't go through this with him hanging over my shoulder every time I turned around.
"I can." He said and looked up at me and squinted back down at his tea. "What kind of tea is this exactly?"
"It is called Chai." I said and he nodded. "I had them add vanilla for some sweetness. They pour steamed milk into it and it gives it a richer taste."
"I like it." He said and I laughed at him, throwing my head back as he drank some more.
"Score one for Earth." I said and he smiled as he threw the wrapped pastry at me.
"What do we do today?" He asked as I tossed his Danish back to him, and started unwrapping mine.
"We look for possible cars, and make sure we know where they will be tonight." I said and Loki looked at me as I took a bite of the sugary confection, and chewed.
"How many do you intend to actually steal?" He asked me with genuine interest and I laughed.
"Just one, but we need to have at least four options in case of several contingencies. And they need to pass my quality control before we mark them as such. Automatic Transmissions, no alarms, and older than 1999. The car alarm thing is the most important. I don't want to get stuck with a shotgun in my face or trying to outrun an angry owner in the middle of the night through unfamiliar streets." I said and he leaned back and studied me.
"This has happened before?"
"Yeah, I once was going after a Ferarri for Dave and the owner caught me, I had to run with a shotgun going off over my head. Took me a week to get all the bird shot out of my shoulder. Dave nearly lost his shit when I told him I had to scope out a different car." I said and pulled the back of my shirt up to show him the only scar I had from the event. It was where a very stubborn piece of buckshot hit me that I had to dig out with a pair of tweezers and a razor. I super glued the cut shut, and meant to see about getting a tattoo over it to remind myself to duck. I never got around to it though, and maybe it was a good thing.
"I don't even want to tell you how much that hurt. But a job is a job, and you don't say no to Dave." I laughed and Loki turned pale at the scar.
"You are a survivor, but if this is going to end like that," He said as I tucked the back of my sweater into my jeans. "I wish to protest this action. I do not relish the thought of tending any wounds that you may receive."
"You are in this too, and taller than me, you technically are the bigger target. Also, this is exactly why we are going to scope out the cars first. That way we know what we are getting into." I said and he looked at me as I finished my breakfast and drained the last of my latte.
"You are clever, I like that. When we return to Seattle, may I pay this Dave a visit?" He asked me and I raised my eyebrow as I looked at him.
"I have a few things I would like to do to him for threatening you." He said and I smiled but shook my head at him.
"Let's avoid trouble Magic Dance." I said and sighed. "I am a survivor, and maybe looking for trouble is not the best thing to do right now. But if we cross paths with him, you can have all the fun you want. I just don't want to watch." He nodded at me and I flopped back and groaned at the ceiling in thought.
"It is going to be a long day Little Mouse, are you strong enough to handle everything?" He said and I gave him a thumbs up over my head and rubbed my face.
"You bet your ass I am."
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By noon, we had found and made notes about five different cars that were good possibilities and we began wandering the main drag, weaving in and out if different stores and looking at things. Loki found some interest in items that lined the shelves of a New Age shop, and admired the different crystals and carved stones when I laughed like a hyena and held up a shirt for him to read.
"If found, please return to Loki." He read and I laughed as he gave a bemused smile and chuckled. I folded it up neatly, putting it back on the shelf and paid for a purple and black Shemaugh. As he looked at a few books, and sighed.
"Maybe you should have gotten the shirt." He said as we walked out of the store. "Seeing you wear that about Asgard could be amusing." I laughed hard at the mental image and nodded.
"I take it that you don't laugh much." I said to him, and he looked at me in veiled surprise.
"I do when the occasion calls for it." He replied giving me a bland look as I rolled my eyes and looked up at him. Yeah, I was flirting, and it was awkward.
"You should do it more," I teased and sighed. "It is a nice sound."
We walked along and looked in windows, and admired some clothes and different antiques. Eventually finding ourselves on the edge of the town, on a sandy beach with a lighthouse, long abandoned and we looked in the windows to see nothing but the decay left behind by years of neglect. I heard whispers of ghosts as I approached the building, and I stepped up on my toes to look in the window at another angle and saw stacks of ledgers and records left on a desk haphazardly. A coffee mug, left by a careless Park Ranger sat covered in a layer dust, and I stepped back and the cold breeze made me shiver.
We climbed the rocky sea wall and found a nice place to sit and watch the container ships glide past us on Admirality Inlet, from parts of the world unknown to the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma. They would offload their goods and wait to be loaded with goods for export, leaving the same way they came in and heading back across the oceans toward exotic ports.
I rested my head onto Loki's shoulder and he put his arm up around my back, I mused that we could have passed for just another normal couple sitting on the rocks and watching the ocean. The sad truth was that our lives were so far from normal, it was scary. Two messed up people just trying to survive, neglected and pushed into the background to just become furniture by the people we trusted. Born to believe on thing, to have the tablecloth ripped out from under us and to be shown we were something completely different. I sighed, and he turned his head and looked at me.
Pay no attention to the truth behind the curtain, it will depress you and make you hate yourself.
The sun was warm, and the wind off the ocean cold, but neither one of us complained as the ships created wake turbulence that slapped off the rocks around us and the world rotated on, ignoring us as we observed it. I wanted to stay on those rocks and never leave, eventually becoming part of them, adding to the strength of the sea wall. Fading into obscurity, but I knew that life and time pushed on and waited for no one.
"What is that?" Loki said and pointed to the black fin connected to a black and white hump that breached the surface and let out a misty spray.
"An Orca Whale." I said and it surfaced again as it passed us and we watched it as its tail came up and slapped the water as it dove under the surface again. "It is probably migrating south before the winter makes the water of Puget Sound too cold for it to survive. It will winter in the warmer waters off the coast of California and Mexico and come back next spring." I said and it surfaced again to let out a misty spray that sparkled and created a rainbow in the sun.
"It is beautiful." He said and I smiled at his observation.
"It really is." I said and felt sadness creep in, thinking about all the times I never really just sat and watched the world. Instead I spent so much time hating it, and I was filled with regret at my arrogance.
"This is nice." He said calmly, and I giggled at him.
"I am glad you approve." I snuggled in closer to him and he seemed to enjoy the closeness of me and I sighed again as we sat quietly. Looking at the horizon and smiling out at the ocean and its vast mysteries. I took in a deep breath of the salty waves and let it out slowly as we continued to sit and watch the container ship pass us by.
"I had a thought." He said and I laughed as a ferry lazily appeared on the horizon, and began growing as it came closer to us.
"Don't hurt yourself." I poked at him.
"Be civil." He chided and I giggled. "But you do know that everyone in Asgard is going to seek my head, and assume that I used my gifts to sway you."
I laughed again as the ferry navigated the channel and the bell on one of the buoys began to ring from the disturbance on the water as it rocked back and forth. I had thought of that last night and I pretty much though it would be best to keep my distance from Loki to save his hide when we got back. He did not need my shit in his life, and he would probably be better off if it went that route.
"I will set them straight if it comes to that," I said and smiled into his neck and he made a surprised sound. "I know you have tried, I could feel it, but it never worked. I think my gifts have made me immune."
"I know, and I have tried, mostly to calm you down before you loose control of your powers when you are upset, I apologize for the attempts." He said and I nodded.
"It is fine, if it bothered me so much, I would have said something earlier or knocked you off your feet or something." I said as the ferry started turning to enter the Inlet and he let out a breath.
"I am glad I have your forgiveness, but I still wonder if I deserve it."
"Shut up, you admitted to it and apologized, I forgave you. Just don't do it again, it is easy to ask for forgiveness, but actions are the real measure of how much you really regret what you have done." I replied and he tightened his arm around my back.
"Do you believe in atonement for one's sins?" He asked and tensed, obviously fearing the answer, and I sighed and pecked him on the cheek gently. He looked over at me and I gave him a sheepish smile and he chuckled to himself.
"Yes, I do." I said and rested my head again. "I believe that second chances are sometimes all we have. I also believe that all you have to do is ask for them, or let your actions speak for you where words fail you. Sometimes all we have are those chances, and if only one person forgives you. Then that is forgiveness enough." He relaxed a bit and smiled, and I felt his head turn and he gave a quick exhale to show he approved.
"Can I ask you a question?" I asked him and he nodded to say that I could.
"Why do you even want to be a King? It sounds like too much trouble to go through to one up someone like Thor." He chuckled and took in a breath.
"Wouldn't you want to command power and respect? To have the adoration of a populace, and to be worshiped for your greatness?" He asked me and I laughed and shook my head.
"No," I said and he jerked a bit. "Honest truth, I wouldn't want to be that lonely, and crowns are really lonely things. People love you for just being in charge, and I want to be loved for the person I am. Not some stupid title or the fact that they fear me."
"You are a strange girl." He said and I looked at him, pulling back a bit.
"What do you want more, to be respected for who you are? Or to be respected for what you are? You will be very lonely up there, and eventually you will hate the burden it will become. Look at me, everyone is more afraid of me because of my genetics and whatever is inside me. I'm cursed by them, why ask or force loyalty when you can let them come to you in respect for who you are." I said and sighed feeling stupid for what I had just said.
"I see your point Little Mouse," Loki said. "But I fear Thor taking power and causing calamity for Asgard, he is arrogant and fool hearted. His power will be fleeting, and I would fear him not for myself, but for you as well."
I groaned and rested my head back on his shoulder sadly.
"And you are not arrogant yourself?" I said and I could feel him turn his head and look at the top if mine. "Don't look to change the order of things when it is not yours to change."
"You truly see me." Loki said and I suddenly felt fear that I had said too much, and tried to vanish a bit. The ocean stirred and slapped on the rocks below us as we watched the ferry go by, its engine droning as it pushed against the tide and I felt Loki put his hand onto my shoulder and rub it gently.
"You asked my opinion, sorry if it is not the one you were looking for." I said and he chuckled a bit and leaned his cheek onto the top of my head.
"I value it," He said and I smiled. "Honesty is rare, and I like that, but you deserve a King."
"I don't want a King," I groaned and he looked into me. "I want someone who cares about me enough to protect me. Someone who shares their knowledge with me and respects me, the goofy guy who lets me call him Magic Dance." He laughed again at me and I felt annoyed.
"I don't like when you are upset." He said and I lifted my head and looked at him.
"Then stop looking for things that are not yours, and be content with the cards you have been dealt, you keep fighting against what is to be, and you are going to loose what you do already have." He looked at me and wrapped his arms around me as he kissed me, and pulled back gently and rested his forehead against mine. My eyes focused and I felt shy again as he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath.
"That is what I am afraid of, becoming so blind by ambition and drive again that I forget the things that matter to me. I will always fear loosing that." He replied and I smiled sadly, a ship horn echoed off the shore and I let out a breath.
"Then don't be ambitious, just strive to be alive." I said and shivered in the cold wind off the ocean.
"Are you cold?" He asked me and I nodded. We didn't move again for a long time and I rested my head against his shoulder as I hugged him. I was not exactly sure what he was thinking and I was scared to ask, worried that I would not like the answer as I pulled back a bit.
"We should go, we need to get some things form the grocery before tonight." I said and he helped me down from the rocks, catching me as my foot slipped and I nearly fell into a void between them into the frigid water below.
"Your opinion will always matter to me Little Mouse, and if I am not to be a King, then I shall be content to be your Tutor." He said as we walked back to the town, the lighthouse a lonely sentinel, guarding the Inlet against invisible invaders.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"I have to warn you," I said as Loki picked up my can of Red Bull and looked at it. "That is a massive amount of caffeine you are about to ingest."
He raised an eyebrow at me, and look a large drink from the can and cringed as he swallowed quickly from the taste, I gave him a sheepish grin as he went into the bathroom and filled a glass with water and drank it and shuddered at me. I crossed my arms and looked at him and giggled at his reaction.
"Bitter." He said disgusted and I laughed. "How can you drink that willingly?"
I put the other three cans into my bag and continued to laugh as I packed everything, doing a last check of the room to ensure we didn't miss anything. We did not want to leave anything that may trip the cops or anyone else to the fact that Loki was once here, and I wanted to be sure we put several miles between us and town before they realized that we had stolen the car.
"I need something to keep me awake." I said as I slipped the Slim Jim into my jacket pocket and used a hand towel to wrap the hammer and screwdriver before putting them both into the bag on top of everything. I then checked the flashlight to see if it still worked, despite my just putting fresh batteries into it.
Measure twice, cut once.
I then slipped the rapid release folding knife into the top of my boot and performed a few practice draws as Loki watched, mostly to make sure I could pull it fast and flip it open in an emergency and also to burn off nervous energy. I returned it to the top of my boot and sighed as I drained the last of the can of Red Bull, and tossed the empty can into the air, knocking it into the trash with a pulse of energy.
"It is coming back." I said and looked at him. "Good thing too, I may need to blow up some security cameras along the way to cover us."
"Just take care no to stress yourself too much Little Mouse." He said and I looked at him and nodded as I threw the room keys onto the bed.
"Concern for a friend?" I teased and zipped the bag shut and checked the time on my phone.
"Concern for you." He said and put his arms around my waist, turning my head gently to look me in the eyes. "Do not let your need to protect me outweigh your self preservation."
I smiled at him and nodded, but made no promises, at this point we needed each other to survive and I would walk through hell itself to keep him breathing if I had to.
"We better get moving." I said and he sighed at me. "We have to get onto the road soon if we want to make Olympia before dawn, and we still don't know which cars will still be where we found them this afternoon." I began to shrug my bag on and he stopped me before I could and took it from me, and looped his arm through the straps and I gave a snort.
"Be careful, not only for yourself." He said and I smiled at him nervously, and fought to keep my doubts from surfacing.
"You too Magic Dance," I said and wrapped the shemaugh I bought earlier around my neck, and carefully arranged it so it draped down the front of my coat so I could pull the scarf up over my nose and mouth. He opened the door and tossed his key onto the bed next to mine as he waited for me to finish arranging myself, I tucked the braid of my hair down the back of my coat to keep it out of the way.
We walked down to the Lobby and checked the map of the town I kept folded up in my pocket as I nervously checked my phone again. We pushed through the doors and into the quiet streets of Port Townsend. We walked quietly, no joking or banter as walked away from the downtown and we headed into the residential streets. I slipped my hands into the pair of black leather gloves and opened a button on the wool coat as we headed down a darkened street.
Loki followed me as we walked fast to the first car we saw as a possibility, but the 1992 Subaru Station Wagon was gone. I cursed internally and we wasted no time walking to the second spot where we marked as our second possibility. That truck was sitting in front of the house on the gravel lined sidewalk that edged the road, and I quickened my pace. Loki broke off from me and continued to walk toward the end of the block. My heart started pounding in my chest as I crouched down in the bushes and waited for his signal to start working on getting the 1985 Chevy Pickup truck. It was older than I liked, but it was a late enough model that would keep the cops from going out of their way to look for it and time was going to become a luxury.
Not long after I hid, I saw a flicker of green light at the end of the road and I slipped from the bushes and around the driver's side of the truck. My heart hammered in my chest as I slipped the wire out of my coat and began working quickly and as quietly as possible.
It actually took no time to get the truck open and I slid down behind the steering column and turned the flashlight on and put it into my teeth as I pulled the pliers out of my pocket to hot wire the truck. My hands shook as I felt for the wires, when a flash of silver caught my attention and I looked dumbly at the set of keys hanging from the ignition. I could have cheered at the key, and smiled to myself as I looked around myself in the cab and found three beer cans on the passenger side floor and laughed to myself as I slid up into the seat.
"Thank god for drunk rednecks." I said and unlocked the passenger side door and started the truck, releasing the parking break and putting it into gear. I drove to the end of the road where Loki stood, the illusion of a dog sniffing about the grass at the side of the road on a leash in front of him as he watched the road. He saw me, and made the illusion vanish, and I nodded as he climbed into the truck quickly and looked around himself as he sat down.
"I thought that would take a bit longer." He said and I laughed as he buckled his seat belt and I turned to drive around the block and back toward the main road.
"The owner left the keys in the ignition, how thoughtful of him." I said and laughed as he looked at me. "The dog was a nice touch back there."
I turned on the headlights and followed the road carefully to Highway 20 and made another turn toward the main road through town.
"Thank you." He said and smiled sheepishly and looked down at his feet frowning as the smell of stale beer floated up from the floorboards.
"Do you think the rest of our plan will run this smoothly?" He asked as he tossed the smelly beer cans out the window, and I shrugged as I took the map out of my pocket and checked the rear view mirror and found it blissfully empty.
"We can hope." I said as I accelerated toward the 101 and away from the town. "We have a full tank, and there will be a place along the way to refuel, I also promised you we would steal Stark's car." I smiled at him as he watched what I was doing carefully, and eased back into his seat looking comfortable.
"This is actually a bit fun." He said to me as we hit the 101 interchange and I laughed again.
"Wait until the second date," I said and wiggled my eyebrows at him. "We hold up a liquor store and liberate a Third World Nation."
He laughed at my joke and rested his hand on my knee as I drove on and the road disappeared under the truck tires and we drove forward into the night.