ASGARD: SOMEWHERE IN THE PALACE

Thor entered a room he was never allowed into as a child. This was Loki's room, full of tricks and gadgets that he had no idea the meaning of half of the time. A large wooden desk sat along the wall, covered with scrolls written in a strange mixture of all languages of all realms. He did not know any of the codes, but he looked down at the schematic anyway, of a ship, a longboat, one that folded. Loki had always had some pretty strange ideas.

He sat down on the massive four-poster bed, staring down at the schematic. He could not read the calculations or understand the point, but it meant so much more. It was of Loki, and his papers almost seemed to be the only small scraps of what was left. He always came in here when he was feeling sentimental, which was something Loki would probably kill him for. Right now, he was longing for the past as well as hoping for the future.

He remembered when they were children and they used to venture out into the furthest but friendliest realms and explore. Loki always let him take the lead, but walked with more purpose, a massive stick in his hands that he helped to guide him over rough terrain. Nothing seemed to bother Loki when they were children, and wherever they went, he would always find some sort of interesting device and bring it back. He had many alien devices here in his room, some of which he reverse engineered to make even bigger and more extravagant devices. Of course, no one gave him the credit he deserved.

The only thing that bothered him was all the attention that Thor stole, the first son and heir. He understood why Loki would detest him for that.

He also remembered the first evil deed that christened Loki down the path to evil. The Dwarf Witch. It changed him, in ways he would probably never know, or even want to know . . .

He understood that while Loki could never be the same, he could never get those years back, he believed that he was doing the right thing. He had met Lady Isabella in New York. There had only been one other person that was not an Avenger to fight their way through the streets of Midtown, to Stark Tower, and tear down the security to make it almost to the roof. If he and the Avengers had been a few minutes later, Isabella of Detroit would have been Earth's great hero.

And despite the ferocity he saw, there was a great kindness in her, and while he did not understand why one would be so kind to a man that had tried to kill her, she was kind, and listened. She had to be to let him crawl into bed next to her when he was frightened. In a way, Isabella reminded him of a slightly more firm and unrelenting version of Frigga. It was clear that she was a mother, long before she had introduced her young daughter to him.

He stared at the schematic for a bit longer and decided that the next time he ventured to Midgard; he would give his brother the papers that he had found.

"Damn."

Fury was waiting for them, and as soon as he saw the three, he flew into a rage, "an order is an order, Rodriguez. The prisoner's travel privileges have been revoked. This unsanctioned trip could have cost lives."

"The prisoner," Loki scoffed, "what a way to make a man feel special."

"But it didn't," Bella replied stiffly.

"This is a blatant misconduct. You have ignored all your responsibilities of an agent under my command," Fury continued, "You or other innocent people could have been killed! You are out of warnings, Rodriguez. My patience with you is growing thin."

Loki sighed, "please, Nicholas, allow me to explain."

"Pipe down, you."

"If I may, Nicholas."

"I said 'pipe down'," Fury snapped.

Loki was not at all fazed. If there was one thing he had grown accustomed to over the years, it was being yelled at, "I take full responsibly, you see, I was, as you humans say, climbing the walls. Agent Rodriguez and Captain Rodgers here offered to escort me one block away for lunch. On completing said lunch, we were to return forthwith to this place. We honesty did not believe that something so petty would be an efficient use of your time as commander of SHIELD."

Fury eyed him, ready to kick his ass, "the three of you disobeyed a direct order."

"And who may I ask neglected an order from the Council?" Bella arched an eyebrow, "you're forgetting, Fury. I can see every lie you have ever told. Since when did the rules make a difference to you?"

"Since the god of all gods entrusted me with his crazy fuck of a son," Fury bit back at her, "and it seems quite clear that you two are having-."

"What?" Bella bit at him, "a relationship? Christ, Fury, you really are a sick dude," she shook her head, sighing.

"You may accuse me of something I have done," Loki crossed his arms, "but do not accuse me of something I have not; otherwise I shall have to do it." There was a half-smile on his face, but with an icy glare from Bella, he 'pulled his head in', as the humans said.

"We're friends, that's all," Bella sighed, "Stevo?"

Steve shrugged, "you two do seem pretty close . . ."

Bella growled, "Not you to . . ."

Loki began to fume, and as they argued semantics, he slowly got angrier and angrier. It was one thing getting into trouble for something he did, but worse when somebody accused him of something he did not do. He was suddenly reminded of how Odin always believed Thor over him, and that only made him angrier.

"Why would he hit a guy to protect your honor if he wasn't getting a little something else out of it?" Fury bit at her, "and why do you keep insisting that you don't need to be relieved on the detail?"

"I call that being a good agent," Bella bit back.

"How dare you insinuate such a thing," and that's when Loki lost it, and hit Fury in his one good eye, and was promptly arrested.