Thank you all for the nice reviews! It really motivates me to keep writing :]
Asgard had a cat problem, which wasn't really a problem for Rae. She wondered if they worshiped them like the Egyptians, or maybe the cats here really did posses magical properties. That was just what she needed in her life-magical cat gods. Her fiancé-wow, definitely ex-fiance now, still getting used to that-had made her give her cat away when he moved in. That was probably the first sign things were going to go south. Never trust anyone who doesn't like cats. They might end up outing you as the one who triggered the explosion in the research lab of S.H.I.E.L.D. and lead the SOs to where you're hacking the database to catch you in the act. She was still wearing the ring, she suddenly realized with a surge of anger. But before she could rip it off like it was on fire and chuck it into the nearest ditch, she got a better idea. Rae examined the hideous gold circle, encrusted with generic, gaudy diamonds, reflecting the odd angles of the Asgardian sun. There was what appeared to be a market in the courtyard just ahead, and the trinket was surely worth something. At least, worth more currency than it was a fond reminder of her dearly betrothed.
"Looking to sell?" said a smooth voice. Rae turned to see a woman draped with jewelry, leaning languidly against a flowering tree. In her arms, a black cat squinted its emerald eyes contentedly.
"Yes, I am," Rae replied. Well that was convenient. She smiled at the stranger, and gingerly stroked the cat's ears. "What a pretty cat," she blurted, before catching herself being so awkward. Damn these animals, turning her into a blubbering idiot.
She met the woman's eyes and held out the ring to her. "It's all I have. How much is it worth?" Rae had never bartered in her life. She was fully prepared to be swindled. But the woman took the ring like it was the most delicate of treasures, and turned it round and round in the light. "You are a noblewoman, where you come from?" she murmured. Right. The jeans sort of screamed Not-From-Around-Here.
"Uh, no. It was a gift. Engagement ring."
"And now you want to sell it? Hmm," the woman's bracelets jingled faintly as she put her hands down and eyed Rae curiously. It felt just a bit too intrusive.
"Yes. I do."
"You run from him as well?" the woman had gone back to studying the ring.
"I don't-wait. Only one person knew I was running from anything, Heimdal," suddenly Rae felt her heartbeat race with anxiety and just a bit of anger. Fool me once and all that.
"I...only guessed," she countered quickly. Too quickly.
"Why are you following me, Loki?"
She dropped the cat, grabbed Rae's arm, and whirled her into a small space between two buildings. In a shimmer of green, the arms pinning her to the wall belonged to the fallen prince himself. He was pretty tall close up. Tall enough to make Rae pretty uncomfortable. His eyes flicked around frantically, assuring they were alone. When he seemed satisfied, the eyes locked onto Rae's. That heart attack was a definite possibility at this point.
"You know," he hissed, voice low and sinister, "if I killed you now, there wouldn't be a single Asgardian who'd even know you were ever here."
Rae rolled her eyes in an attempt to mask her growing panic. "Please. You would have killed me right away if there wasn't something else you wanted."
He roughly let her go and stepped back. "Maybe I just like to play with my kill before I finish it off," he grumbled, but it was clear she had won this one. "Very well. I have questions, and I cannot learn much from a corpse. But let me be clear: if you so much as hint that I am not dead, my curiosity will quickly fade."
"I can work with that. Let's trade answers, shall we?" Rae rubbed her arm where he had gripped it, then quickly pretended not to notice the imminent bruising because she was a big tough mortal who could totally handle this. So there.
Loki huffed and walked around the corner. After a moment of standing in confusion, Rae saw him step back and give her an impatient glare. "Well, do follow me, Lady Rae of Midgard." She complied.
A six-foot stone wall had surrounded the courtyard. Here, and the end of the alley, Loki deftly flicked his hand and the stones shimmered to reveal an archway. They stepped through without a word, and the stones reappeared after them. On the other side, an ancient forest creaked and swayed in the golden glow of the late afternoon sun. A small "oh" escaped on a breath before she could help it. After years of studying other-worldly plants and animals for a living, this was basically too much for her to handle.
If only the circumstances had been different. She would have preferred not slipping away unnoticed into a secret forest alone with a murderous, insane God of Lies probably never to return again. You take what you can get in this life, though.
Loki said nothing until they were a good distance away from any sign of civilization. Deciding this was sufficient, he turned to face her under angular shadows from the twisted branches surrounding them. "Very well, first question-" he began.
"Why does everyone think you're dead?" Rae interrupted. Loki sighed as if this was the most tedious question he had ever been asked. "Long story, very dull, not important. The point is, if the Allfather learns I am not in fact rotting in a ditch on Svartalfheim, then I'll rot in a prison cell instead."
"For that little business of unleashing an alien army on New York."
"My my, you are a quick one. My turn. Where did you get that?" he pointed a long finger rather rudely at the girl's side, and it took her a moment to realize he was referring to the Tesseract segment. "S.H.I.E.L.D. had it. I didn't know much about it...my work was more with alien dirt and digestive systems and really thrilling things like that. But I did know it could move people between realms."
"How did you activate it?" he demanded, voice rising in pitch with curiosity and excitement. He was looming over her again, looking down expectantly like a child about to receive a present. This was a good indicator that she should probably never let Loki get a hold of the sliver.
"Nope. My turn. What did you do to Heimdal? Isn't he just going to tell everyone you're alive? Or did you kill him as soon as you were done?"
Loki's lip flinched a bit with disgust and he backed off. "Despite what you may have heard, I don't just murder everyone in my path. As long as my memory spell holds out, Heimdal lives to be impersonated another day."
"So there's method to your madness."
"I don't know if that was a question, but it's my turn anyway," he snapped, then flashed a wide, charming smile. "Just what exactly is your plan?"
There were a few beats of silence, and Rae because acutely aware of the subtle "wwsshhh" of the flying insects, the unique shade of almost turquoise leaves, and the occasional crackling of the wind through the trees. Her attentions were drawn all around her to this entirely foreign world, the way the very air felt new, and the ground beneath her feet was comprised of entirely different biological material...her plan...her plan...the plan. A pale gray bird with impossibly long tail feathers cut elegantly through the twisting branches and she held her breath until it was out of sight.
Loki studied the mortal girl in front of him. She was plain and seemed all angles; from the point of her noise to the narrow turn of her eyes, the light color reflecting hints of green from the sun and the forest around them. When he had had time for women, they had been soft, doe-eyed, dark-haired conquests that seemed to only exist in the very heart of the night and disappear before morning, like magic. Looking at this woman was like staring directly into the sun. He wasn't sure if he should look away or try to adjust.
"I can't answer that one."
Loki blinked a few times. "What?" Distracted. He wanted to study new things, find out how they work. How she worked.
"My plan. I guess it was just to explore Asgard and figure something out. Exist for a while. Until I get a plan."
"You do not wish to return to Earth to complete your vengeance?" he prompted. A free ride on the Tesseract and a war waged on S.H.I.E.L.D., sounded like something he'd like to be involved in. But Rae laughed. "No, I'm not trying to go back there until I have a death wish. I'm pretty sure the entire planet will have me on a wanted list any minute now. I blew up some pretty expensive equipment and leaked some really sensitive intel, and with just the agents' words to go on, the world is going to see me as a terrorist. There isn't any more I can do now that I've been identified."
"How were you identified? A moment of carelessness perhaps? Human error?"
The young woman seemed to shut down. She swallowed and looked away, uncomfortable. "You already asked your question," she said softly. Loki smirked, knowing weakness when he saw it. This would be one to save for later use. "True, my lady," he bowed with mock humility and paced away a few steps. Rae watched his fluid movements, likening him to a ghost after all, gliding through the dancing shadows. "And what would you ask?" came that voice, silver-sweet with the rise and a prick of danger in the fall.
"Everything," Rae groaned. "I'm tired and hungry and I have no money and the person I tried to sell this damn ring to turned out to be a not-dead shape-shifting asshole so I'm sort of running out of options here."
Loki gave a quick burst of laughter at the unfamiliar insult. "If you think I am an asshole-" he mimicked her accent "-you clearly haven't met anyone else from this awful rock." Rae was distracted from the glow of the natural world around her then, and turned her full attention on dark-haired man with the hardened expression not doing much to mask the wild in his eyes. She suddenly held a wealth of questions; if he hated everyone so much, why did he want to be their king? Why didn't he kill her now that he knew the answers and take the Tesseract? Why was he impersonating various Asgardians instead of just going somewhere else? Wasn't there anyone whom he would want to know he was alive? And, most importantly, where could a girl get some food around here? But all that came out was, "Why are you doing this?"
The tall Aesir seemed to grow small, and green eyes searched the cluttered forest floor as he wove the correct words in his mind. "No one has seen me in a very long time. Call me arrogant, but I suppose I enjoy the company when I'm not pretending to be someone else that they'd rather speak to." And her possession of a powerful artifact which she could control at will-and clearly did not even understand how great a feat that was-certainly didn't hurt her case. He smiled, a pathetic, strained little smile, and started off, as if curving back towards the city. He led Rae with finger tips just touching the small of her back, as if she were made of flames, before dropping the hand again entirely just as she noticed it was there. "Let's say I shift into some kindly commoner, who stumbled upon this Midgardian refugee-you poor lost soul-and we'll trade that awful ring for a bottle of wine."
"Best idea I've heard all day."