No sound reached Loki's ears from inside the decrepit hulk of metal and thin wood, but light leaked into the night from cracks along the blacked out windows. Aaron might be there - and so might Emilie.
With barely a glance to ensure no naive human would see him and call for help, Loki strode up the rocky driveway, across a strip of overgrown grass, and to the front door. He reached out and touched a finger to the flickering porch light. Frost crackled as it spread across the glass and inner filament. A brief sizzle and the light burst before going out.
Loki drew his dagger, the blade blending into shadow as it eluded all light. The doorknob stuck once before turning smoothly beneath his other hand. As he stepped inside, his eyes darted around an open living room and kitchen area, where brown beer bottles laying on their sides fought containers of food for space. He wrinkled his nose at the scent of stale beer, but kept his knife ready at his side.
No Emilie, and no Aaron, yet.
Stepping quickly, he passed cardboard containers as he made his way further in through an opening on the side of the room. A quick glance into the first on the right showed a bedroom, also empty of people but holding plenty of clutter, trash, and more beer. Where were they? Why wasn't anyone confronting him yet? Loki searched a bathroom and a room made for cleaning clothes that had another exit, but both were empty.
The house was empty of people, but he could find something else here that could lead him to where they were. If not… he could go back and bring Thor with him next time.
Loki returned to the bedroom. A second glance showed a central pile of men's clothes from which others seemed to radiate, and a pair of weights sitting in a corner on top of a cement block. He walked around a bed on the floor with mix-matched sheets and a blanket twisted into a pile. Something dark and metallic wedged between the top of the bed and the wall caught his eye.
His knee rammed into something as he knelt. With a hiss at the familiar pain, Loki dug under the blankets and pulled out a book titled Les Miserables, its cover soft from use.
His hair fell forward around his face as he bent his head forward and opened the book. A flower was nestled into the binding, its petals faded from time. After a moment Loki closed the book softly and set it to the side before grabbing what had first caught his eye.
The handle of the object was cold as it filled the palm of his hand, as was the barrel and chamber, and Loki knew it was a weapon of death. He discarded it for a second metallic object that had been hidden from view by the first.
It was slim and black with a drawing of knives stuck on one side, with what felt like a sheet of glass on the other. When his finger tapped the glass, he saw Emilie with a smile forced onto her face, and beside her a smug man with short blond hair and some muscle, but nothing compared to what Thor had.
Loki's eyes lowered as he listened to a car rumble by the trailer and a dog bark somewhere nearby. Legs and arms loose, he stood. If Aaron was as attached to this device as other humans were, he would be back for it soon, and Loki would be ready.
He would set up snakes and spiders at the front to meet Aaron when he arrived, and wait in one of the other rooms.
New plans branched into being in Loki's mind as he walked out of the bedroom, but all stopped as he heard the crack of the front door opening.
One step after another Loki rounded the corner out of the room and on down the dim hall.
"What the hell?" Aaron asked, and stopped in the middle of the living room. Behind him, Emilie raised her head, her small frown flipping and breaking open into a wide smile despite the fresh black eye that was beginning to bloom on her face.
"Hello there. I have a debt to settle on Emilie's behalf, after which we will both be leaving, if she has no objections?"
"None at all," Emilie said as Aaron again questioned why Loki was there and stated that Emilie wouldn't be going anywhere with him.
"She can go wherever she pleases you brute." Loki put away his knife - he wouldn't be needing it.
Aaron took the last step to tower over where Loki now stood still in the middle of the room. His muscles bunching in his arm and chest, Aaron swung a meaty fist at Loki's face. Loki ducked beneath the blow and stepped behind the man. Aaron was forced to turn around in place to follow him before he could swing again.
"How slow you are," he taunted.
"Shut up!"
Aaron made a grab for one of the bottles sitting on a small table beside the couch. Loki readied himself to dodge a blow, but instead, Aaron threw the bottle.
When Loki caught the projectile in front of his hips, his legs were knocked out from beneath him. He fell to the floor, pulling his head in so that it only clipped the edge of the table.
Pushing away the sudden pain in his head Loki shoved himself up with one hand while grabbing the foot that swung at him with the other.
Aaron crashed down with a much heavier thud. As he groaned and looked up at Loki, whatever thought had been there was gone now, only pain and murder sitting within his eyes.
"Stay down," Loki said anyway.
Aaron yelled wordlessly while Loki stepped back and allowed him to climb to his feet. Chin tucked in Aaron charged at Loki, managing to just stop short of slamming into the wall when Loki sidestepped him. Before he could turn around, a fist slammed into the side of his square face.
"That was for the black eye," Loki said with heat as the brute shook his head to clear away black spots.
Before he could recover, Loki punched him again in the face, slamming his head back against the wall. Continuing to move he swung at Aaron's soft stomach.
Onion and beer breath left Aaron in a rush as his lungs emptied. He fell to his knees to kneel on the stained carpet. Loki swiftly kicked him in the stomach with his boot before he could catch his breath, and punched him so that he sat there without moving.
"Stay awake," Loki ordered as he crouched beside Aaron. "Still awake?" Loki asked the clouded eyes that searched for his own as his fingers laced around Aaron's forearms.
Loki's hands lost their light tone and blue spread like ink in water to cover the skin.
"You will never touch her again," he said as frost reached for the warm skin beneath his hands.
Aaron jerked in his grasp, trying to pull away, but the grip that held him was stronger than what such a wimpy man should have.
"You will never go near her again," Loki said as Aaron began to scream.
Loki ignored Aaron's screams, remembering the terror in Emilie's eyes when Loki's illusion had made her eyes lie and see him as Aaron. Pale blue ice spread beneath Loki's hands, seeping through muscle to dig into skin.
When Aaron's screams turned piecing and tears ran down his cheeks, Loki let go and stood up.
"Say it; you will never go near Emilie again," Loki demanded.
Aaron whimpered a string of something that sounded vaguely like the words Loki had asked for.
Before Loki could open his mouth to say anything else, a small foot swung into the space between him and Aaron and kept going.
As Emilie's well-aimed kick struck between Aaron's legs he slumped to the side with a moan, eyes closing as he fell conscious.
"Serves you right, you ass. You abusive, horrible, horrible…"
She turned and placed her head on Loki's chest, her words lost to sobs. Loki slowly wrapped an arm around her frame as it shook.
"Shh." He whispered into her hair.
It stunk, having gone days without being cleaned, but he didn't pull away. When she continued to cling to him, he rubbed her back while she cried.
"Thank you," she said once her tears dried. "Let's get out of here."
As she started for the front door, Loki heard sirens, in the distance now but coming closer.
"No, the other way." He said.
He waited for her to turn, and nod her head. "Yeah, I hear them now, too."
Emilie lead the way to the exit Loki had seen in the washroom.
"Is there anything you want to grab now? I doubt you shall be able to come back."
"No," she said with barely a moment of thought. "My wallet was taken the other night, and there's nothing here."
She opened the door, and with a twist of her head to check both directions, climbed down the back stairs. Loki followed a step behind her as they went through the narrow space between two other trailers. They climbed over hitches and stood still when the machines with the sirens barreled past.
"What now?" Emilie asked Loki at the gate to the trailer park.
She leaned against the chain-link fence encircling the compound, eyes looking at something far away that he could not see. Maybe her thoughts whirled, or maybe they lay still from shock, Loki could only guess. Mind reading was not among his many talents.
"I have a brother waiting for me to come back and release him, if he has managed to last this long," Loki said with a smile and a shake of his head. "If Alfather, father has found him out, he will be furious with me for disobeying him -"
"Can I go with you?" She interrupted, the pitch of her voice pushed up and breathless.
Loki turned his head to look at her before speaking.
"Go back with me?" He asked softly. "That thing may live here, but this is your world, this is what you know. Could you leave that?"
"You seemed to get here quick. You have a way back and forth so I could always come back, and besides," she said with a grin as she linked an arm around his, "I heard the guys guarding me call you the Trickster. Aren't pranks easier to pull with a little help?"
That explained her grin. One spread across Loki's face as he thought about it. Maybe she was right - there had never been any stopping his coming and going, and oh, what fun they would have.
With her arm still linked through his own, he stepped out to the middle of the street.
"Guardian!" Loki leaned back his head to yell at the sky.
The night sky began to glow brighter and brighter, until it split and light surrounded where they stood. In a moment they were gone, leaving nothing behind but the sound of fading laughter and a strange symbol stamped into the ground.
After all, what sort of match would his father be for Loki with another at the Trickster's side?