Hello everyone! The next chapter is here, hope you enjoy it ^^

I don't own the Avengers, only Emma and the alterations made to the story.

Help from a God

Eleventh day

I decide to work out a bit today, since it's been a while. Usually I make sure to train an hour or so every two days, just to keep it up. Of course, I don't always succeed in doing that, and the training I do isn't that hardcore. Especially if you're comparing me to the people I live with at the moment; real life superheroes.

Thor's already at the gym, when I arrive. He's one of the people I talk the least to actually, I don't know why. I consider turning around and leave, but instead I walk forward with a smile. Maybe I can use this opportunity to get a bit more knowledge about Loki from another point of view. Not to sound sneaky or anything.

"Hey Thor!" I exclaim, which makes him turn around with a big smile on his face.

"Emma! How nice of you to join me." It wasn't exactly to join him I came down here, but okay. Let's just go with it.

"Yeah, I thought I could use the workout," I shrug. I pick up some of the lighter weights next to Thor and start lifting. Soon a sweat is forming on my skin, and my breathing is becoming more strained. Therefore I take a short break, and sit down on the bench watching Thor. He is apparently not tired, even though he has been down here for a lot longer than I have and his weights are much heavier.

He notices me sitting down and sits down next to me. "You remind me of Sif," he says out of the blue.

"Who?" I ask. Well, I know who she is in the myths, but I don't think they're accurate, so I decide to just ask.

He frowns confused. "Anthony said you were well-versed in the myths?" Even though it could easily have been said in a bad way, he instead just sounds curious, like he honestly thought I would know. And not in any way does he sound like he thinks I'm stupid or something for not knowing.

I shrug. "Well, I know that in the myths she is the goddess of fertility of the earth, she has golden hair and she is married to you. But I've heard that you have a girlfriend? Jane Foster?" I end it hesitantly, not really sure if that's okay to bring up.

He laughs. "In reality she is one of our finest warriors, one of my friends and she has brown hair not golden. And Jane Foster is truly my girlfriend, I guess it is called on Midgard." He smiles softly thinking about her.

"I guess the myths can really get it wrong sometimes," I laugh. "So what's she like?"

"First of all, she's strong; physically and mentally. A lot of people didn't believe it to be right that a woman wanted to fight, but she did it anyway and managed to prove her own worth. She is also intelligent, but not as much as my brother is. She is more headstrong than a strategist."

"Were they good friends then? Loki and Sif."

"Not at all, they would always fight. I think my brother hated how she would prove to be better at fighting than him, and she hated his tricks and cunning nature. But I believe had they worked together, they would have been perfect partners, they would complement each other well." He ends with a sigh.

"That's too bad," I say awkwardly. I try to think about something else to say, 'cause Thor's mood seems to have taken a turn for the worse. "How was Loki as a child then?"

At this he looks up again, gently smiling. "He would always get us in trouble. He would come up with pranks and tricks, and people would always find out it was us who did it. But he also always took the blame, of course I would always admit to have been part of it too. We had fun."

I laugh. I can totally imagine a small Loki and a small Thor running around playing tricks, and then getting in trouble for them. "He would take the blame?"

"Yes, always. He would never allow me to take the blame; he would always admit that he had come up with the idea. But he would never take the blame if it wasn't his fault, that he hated; being accused for something he didn't do. But who really likes that?" he shrugs.

"I guess you're right." Hmm, I would have never thought that he was so honorable to take the blame, instead of Thor. I would have thought he would just let Thor get in trouble. Guess he's hard to read. I stand, "Should we continue?"

"Yes," he smiles. With that we continue training for about half an hour more.

I want to ask Loki something a bit weird today, and I'm not really sure how to put it. There's so many ways I could say it, and I really want his help. I don't want him to laugh at me either. I just want him to help me. That's why I'm currently just sitting next to him on the bench. He's silently eating the food I brought him, and I'm just sitting there.

When I continue staring at him, he smirks and says, "You know it's your turn today, right? You didn't forget?"

I smile back, less hesitant than him. "Of course not." I sigh. "I actually have to ask you something. It's a bit… unusual, I think that's the best word." I look into his eyes, and see only patience. "Okay. Don't laugh at me please, but I need some advice." I wait for him to nod at me before continuing. "I have this friend, Samantha, and she texted me about something."

I notice him frowning slightly, so I pause to look questioningly at him. "What?"

"What is "texting"?" he asks confused.

I smile, and take my phone up from my pocket. "This is a phone; with that you can communicate with others even though they're not near you. You can both call them to talk with them, and you can text them, write them a message," I clarify. I can see that he understands, so I continue.

"Okay, so Samantha texted me about a guy she knows, a friend of hers, who apparently would like to meet me." I open my phone and find the message to show him. "Look here. This is what she wrote." He leans forward a bit to read it, and then nods. "I have never met him, but Samantha says he's nice and clever. Well, she clearly thinks he's good enough, and I trust her, but…"

"So what exactly is the problem?" he asks me. "I don't quite understand what you need my help with."

"The thing is that I don't know if I want to date someone right now, or if it would be fair to him to lead him on like that, if I don't." I seriously don't know what to do. I was dating someone for about a year, and that ended four months ago. We're still kind of friends; we don't talk that much, but sometimes. The only reason we broke up, was because he moved to Australia. But now, I honestly don't know.

"So you want me to decide if you should accept the offer or decline it?"

Well, when he says it like that. "Umm, yeah, kind of. One half of me says "Why not date him? It's not like you're too busy", but the other half says "Do I even want a boyfriend right now? I don't want to break his heart"." I sigh.

"You're thinking a bit highly of yourself, aren't you?" he smirks. It takes me about ten seconds to figure out what he means, but when I do, I gently smack his arm.

"You know I didn't mean it like that!" He seems surprised by the smack, but quickly covers up. "But anyway, what do you think I should do?"

(Loki's POV)

"Hmm…" For a while I don't say anything else, and I notice her starting to get restless. "I don't think I can help you with that, Emma. You need to take a look into yourself, and decide what you really want to do," I say as gently as I can.

"I guess you're right," she agrees hesitantly. I decide to make her forget about it.

"So… Can I see the phone? You can ask more questions, while I look," I smile carefully. Immediately she nods and hands her phone to me. I gently examine it and then uses the same movements as her to make the screen change. It's almost like magic the way it works. I quickly figure out exactly how to handle it, and as she notices this, she asks me a new question.

"Is it true that you can change your shape? Shape shift, I mean." It's almost disturbing how much the mythology apparently contains about us. Some of it isn't true, of course, but much of it is. And it's kind of personal stories, to be honest. Some of them the other Æsir don't even know about.

"Yes," I curtly nod. But of course she continues.

"Can you change to anything?" she asks excited. I decide to indulge her.

"Yes, of course. It's hardly any trouble. It's some of the least I can do, but quite useful anyway." After a pause with silence, I look away from the phone and up at her. "Aren't you going to ask me the most important question about magic?"

She frowns confused. I must admit she looks kind of cute like that. "I'm afraid I don't follow you… What would that be?" She sounds interested, fascinated, and not in any way scared.

"If I can do magic right now," I say, while closely watching her face. I notice her every reaction; when it goes from surprise to fear to fascination to excitement, all in under half a minute. Sometimes she's almost too naïve, but I guess that's part of the reason why I haven't hurt her… yet anyway. Of course, the main reason is that I'm waiting for the perfect opportunity.

Oh, who am I kidding? There has been plenty of perfect opportunities.

Her next question shakes me from my thoughts. "So can you? Do magic right now, I mean."

I watch her face closely. But I must admit to myself that I actually trust her not to tell anyone, or to use it against me in any way. "Yes, I can."

I wait for her to walk away, or run away, from me. But she doesn't, she just keeps sitting next to me on the bench, barely concealing her excitement. "Can I see it?" Her eagerness reminds me a bit of Fenrir when he was young. Not that I see her as my child. She couldn't be further from it.

"Emma, I don't really think that's a good idea," as soon as I see her disappointed face, I continue, "but actually I have been using magic every time you went in here, except from the first time. I used it to shield the cameras, I didn't think it was a good idea for you to be seen in here," I say hesitantly.

She smiles at me. "So you used it to protect me? That's sweet of you, Loki. Maybe I'll get to see it some day, I guess."

It's impossible not to smile back when she smiles like that, so of course I smile back at her.

"Well, I guess I'd better get back now, before someone comes looking for me," she says while standing. "See you tomorrow, Loki." She waves and then leaves.

After she has already walked out of the door to the room, I realize that I'm still holding her phone. Without even thinking about it, I open it and finds the message from her friend. I push the "reply" button on the screen and writes a quick message, after reading Emma's latest message to her friend to be able to match her language.

"Hi Sam! Sorry, but I'm not really interested :( I don't really want to date right now. Tell him sorry ;-) See ya soon 3"

I then push the "send" button, and close the phone after closing the program.

(Emma's POV)

"Aren't you going to ask me the most important question about magic?" Loki asks me.

I frown; what do I need to ask him? I can't really think of anything. "I'm afraid I don't follow you… What would that be?" I look expectant at him, and notice that he is watching my face closely, before answering.

"If I can do magic right now," he says calmly, still watching me. I must admit that I didn't expect that at all. But I guess if he has his magic right now, he actually has a really good way to harm me. My eyes glance at the door out quickly. Well, he hasn't done anything to me yet, so I don't really think he's going to. Do I trust him? Yes, I guess I do. At least a bit. I would absolutely love to see him doing magic. It must be… well magical, and beautiful. Magic is really cool, at least if it's anything like the magic in Harry Potter.

"So can you? Do magic right now, I mean." I wait excited for his answer. He doesn't look like he was expecting me to be this excited. I guess I really shouldn't be. I just can't help it.

I can feel his eyes on me, studying me, before answering, "Yes, I can." Oh my god! That is so awesome.

I can barely conceal my eagerness. "Can I see it?" God, I sound like a small kid in a toy store, or something.

But then he crushes my hope. "Emma, I don't really think that's a good idea." My disappointment must have shown, 'cause he continues, "But actually I have been using magic every time you went in here, except from the first time. I used it to shield the cameras, I didn't think it was a good idea for you to be seen in here."

I don't even hear him saying he has used his magic, 'cause I pay closely attention when he says that he has used it for my sake; because he didn't think it was a good idea for me to be seen in here. I don't consider that it could be because he plans to harm me. No, it's because he cares. At least a little bit. "So you used it to protect me? That's sweet of you, Loki. Maybe I'll get to see it some day, I guess." I smile gratefully at him.

My smile grows when he smiles genuinely back at me. "Well, I guess I'd better get back now, before someone comes looking for me." My dad would totally do that, if I was here for too long.

"See you tomorrow, Loki." I wave and leave the cage, and then the room.

After leaving him, I walk towards me and my dad's room, still thinking about what to write to Samantha. But first I make sure to walk past the lab, to say a quick hello to my dad, just to let him know I'm alright.

Reaching my room I decide to just sit down and watch a movie or something on my computer. Good thing I brought Pirates of the Caribbean. That's my favorite, and right now I really don't want to think about what to write to Sam. Too difficult!

Later when I'm done watching the movie and I'm in the middle of reading, I decide that I want to listen to some music while reading. But my phone isn't in my pocket. Weird. Maybe I left it somewhere? Like on the table or something. So I look through the entire room, very efficiently. And even consider going to my father to make him help me, but then I realize that the only time I've had my phone up from my pocket today, was when I showed it to Loki.

I hurriedly walk to his room, making sure not to be seen by anyone. Because not only would that look suspicious and weird, I'm also pretty sure I'm not allowed to visit him for anything but giving him food.

He looks up startled, when I appear. He immediately sits up straight, from where he was lying down. "Hello, Emma. What's the matter?"

"I think I forgot my phone here earlier. Do you have it?" I ask him, suddenly worried that he might not have it. 'Cause then I really don't know where it went. But his answer makes me breathe in relief.

"Yes, I do. I only realized it, after you left. Otherwise I would have called after you," he says, reaching behind him on the bench. And there it is!

I quickly walk in to get it back, not even thinking about it anymore. "Thank you so much, Loki." I smile gratefully.

"It's not like I really did anything," he smiles back.

I laugh slightly. "No, but still. Thank you. I'd better return to my room, I'm not actually supposed to be here now, you know. And I don't think losing my phone in here is a very good excuse, 'cause I'm not exactly supposed to show it to you."

"Yeah, wouldn't want you to get seen in here. Then I wouldn't get any company," he smirks and I blush slightly by the thought of him actually wanting me to come back.

"See you tomorrow then," I smile.

"Yes, I will see you tomorrow."

Then I walk back to my own room, and listen to music while reading, until I have to make dinner ready for the others. If food's my only real responsibility on this trip, I'm glad. I really like cooking, and it takes up a couple of hours every day and I get to see Loki.

Thank you to everyone who favourited, followed and reviewed, it means so much to me ^^ Please continue to do so. The next chapter will be here on monday!