Wow! I have 80 reviews! That is just amazing! THANK YOU!

This is another of the scenes I've had in my head from the very beginning, so I hope I've done it justice! More Stark/Efa banter too, which is fun to write, I just hope it reads well! And I couldn't think of a chapter title, so this one kinda sucks…

o

Chapter Seventeen:

Invisible Enemies

"Loki?" Efanna asked timidly.

Loki looked up at her, standing to the side of his armchair, looking almost exactly as she had when he had first seen her. Tight fitting grey jeans, purple hoodie with some ridiculous slogan on it; biting her lip and wringing her hands. The only difference was this time she did not need her scarf or gloves to shield her skin from his touch. Since the phone call after lunch she had been rushing around her little cottage, 'preparing'. She'd arranged for someone to care for her farm animals and even packed bags for them to take when S.H.I.E.L.D. picked them up. It seemed quite obvious to her that they were going to leave and not return for some time. Loki had watched all of this from the armchair by the fire. He had not hindered her, but he was certainly not going to help.

"Can I have a hug?" Efa asked, holding her arms out imploringly.

Loki sighed at this strange girl. For all her intelligence and maturity in some situations, in others she acted just like a child. She chewed on her lip as she waited for his answer and Loki was tempted to reject her as punishment for dragging him into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s path. In the end, however, he gave in and stood up so she could wrap her arms around him, loosely joining his around her back as she buried her head in his chest. Since he had let her touch him, he had become used to her physical nature, but it still baffled him.

"I promise you Loki," she said, looking up at him, "That I will not let them kill you, torture you or imprison you."

Loki's eyes were grim as he looked down at her. At least she understood the gravity of the situation and was under no illusions of how S.H.I.E.L.D. would treat him. Her promise was sweet, but he doubted it was one she could keep. After all he had done, one girl would not be able to sway the minds of the organisation he had infiltrated and attacked. As he watched her eyes blaze with determination however, he found himself musing that if such a thing were possible, this mad, irrepressible, stubborn creature would be the one to do it.

He was about to point out the folly of her words when her form first stiffened, then slumped in his arms. Her Vision lasted mere seconds, but the impact of it was clear. Her eyes were wide when she looked up to his and he felt her hands grab his shirt behind his back.

"They're here," she told him detaching herself and running to the door, dog at her heels, "Or they will be, very soon."

Loki rolled his eyes and followed her hurriedly, wondering what she hoped to accomplish before Stark and his contraption had arrived. He pulled on his boots and found her stood in the snow by her buried vehicle, her eyes fixed beyond the gate to the lane.

"Efa, there is no point in you being out here!" he told her harshly, "You cannot hope to accomplish anything! Get back inside before they arrive and see you."

"Too late," she muttered, her eyes still staring through the billowing snow.

At her legs her dog's ears were pricked and he stared intently in the same direction. Loki followed their gaze but saw nothing of any nature, alarming or otherwise, approaching.

"Efanna," he said sternly, "There's nothing there."

She looked at him incredulously and started to mouth a protest, but was interrupted by a sudden flurry of snow and a large thud as a gleaming red and gold suit landed before them. Loki noticed Efanna breathe a sigh of relief. He only wished his thoughts could be so calm.

Stark looked around in his ostentatious armour. His gaze halted as he caught sight of Loki.

"Oh, it's you," the metallic voice sounded as he raised one arm threateningly.

Loki held his hands before him, painfully aware of how incapable he would be at surviving an attack from Stark's suit.

"No, it's not!" Efa called, causing Stark to notice her for the first time, "Well, it is him, but he's not what I called you about."

Stark raised his faceplate to reveal his sceptical expression. He didn't lower his arm.

"So you're not bothered about the Norse God of Mischief and Lies standing right behind you?" he asked sarcastically.

"Not at all," she replied calmly, "And he's not actually a God you know, he just inspired one. No, I'm worried about that."

She pointed up the lane and both Stark and Loki turned.

"What the snow?" Stark asked sardonically.

"What? No!" Efa cried, "The creepy-ass misty ice creatures coming towards us!"

She looked between the two men, both of whom had an eyebrow raised in almost an identical expression.

"Please tell me you can see them," she said, uncertainty creeping into her voice for the first time.

"There's nothing to see, ginger," Stark told her arrogantly.

She glanced back to the lane then turned her head to Loki, eyes pleading.

"I can't see anything there, Efa," he assured her, locking his eyes back on the overzealous war machine in front of him and trying to figure out a way he might be able to survive should a fight break out.

"Great," she muttered ironically, her eyes darting around the yard and back to the lane, "You can at least see the mist though can't you?"

Loki let his eyes shift back to follow hers. There did seem to be a patch of mist gathering and moving towards them. Stark however, wasn't feeling so generous.

"Right, once you've finished freaking out about the weather, you mind telling me what you're doing with an interplanetary war criminal in your back yard?"

Efanna, however, ignored him, her eyes alighting on the ground at Stark's feet where the snow had melted from the heat of his thrusters. With impressive speed she ducked down by his legs and straightened, hurtling something over the gate and into the patch of mist. Stark and Loki watched her strange actions with curiosity which strengthened to amazement as the small stone she had thrown suddenly stopped in midair about a foot on the other side of the gate, froze over and then exploded into a thousand tiny shards.

"Uh, right," Stark muttered, his visor reattaching itself, his attention now focussed on the invisible force approaching the gate before them.

"Now do you believe me?"

Loki moved to Efa's side as the already frosty wood of the gate slowly iced over completely. Stark sent a few blasts through the faint patch of mist but this achieved nothing but melting a small patch of the ice and singing some of the bushes down the lane.

"Well, you're right, I think there's something there," Stark's voice admitted from his helmet as the gate started to crumble and disintegrate, "I can't see it though."

"Nor I," Loki agreed, one arm hovering about Efanna's waist, ready to pull her away.

At their feet, the dog gave a low growl, his hackles raised and his teeth bared.

"Well, Pip can see them," Efa told them.

"Great, we're being attacked by an invisible force of icy death," Stark drawled mockingly, sending a few more blasts into the air above the gate, "But don't worry, the dog can see them."

"You missed," Efa informed him, "They keep dodging."

"Well my aim would be a lot better if I could see the damn things," he retorted.

At this point the gate finally gave up and exploded, sending icy splinters across the yard. Loki jerked Efanna to the side as one flew past them, grazing her cheek. The patterns of the snowfall seemed to shift slightly, and Loki guessed their attackers were moving towards them. Suddenly Efa squirmed within his grasp and managed to wriggle out of his arms.

"Don't you dare!" she called angrily, running over to place herself before the door to her hen barn, which was slowly icing over just as the gate had done, "I've not lost a single one of them to foxes, I sure as hell ain't losing one to you!"

Loki rolled his eyes as he called out to her, determined to get this stupid girl to see sense. Of all the things to risk her life for, she chose her chickens. Ice was starting to form on her clothes and her breath frosted in front of her. His voice died in his throat however as she slowly toppled to the ground.

"Damn," he muttered, racing over to her limp form. Of all the times for her to have a Vision.

He knelt down between her and where he assumed the creatures to be, gently shaking her shoulder and preparing to pick her up when he felt an icy touch on his shoulder. He turned his head, but could see nothing behind him but a slight patch of mist. The presence of the creature was obvious however, not only from the cold pressure he felt on his shoulder but the way the fabric of his shirt was crackling and disintegrating to fall apart in tatters. With shock, Loki watched as the pale blue of his Frost Giant form washed across his skin from the creature's touch, spreading across his back and chest and down his arm. As it did so, the numbing cold seemed to lessen.

All this happened within seconds and Loki's response was instinctive and equally as quick. He span, bracing his arm out and felt a jarring thud as it impacted on the creature his eyes could not see. The pressure on his shoulder disappeared and the mist seemed to retreat somewhat from behind his back. Loki looked down at his arm in wonder. The milky paleness of his usually alabaster skin had given way wholly to the blue of his Frost Giant form. The raised markings that decorated his body had appeared along his fingers and hand, stretching up across his arm and down into his chest.

"Stark!" Efanna called suddenly, jolting Loki from his wonderings, "Use thermal imaging!"

Loki looked about to see Stark glance down at her briefly before turning back to the patch of mist.

"Gotcha," he muttered.

He raised his arms again in a rapid series of blasts that this time struck their targets. A high pitched screech echoed throughout the valley and the mist suddenly dissipated, a strange mixture of water and ashes falling to the floor in about half a dozen small piles across the yard. Loki looked back at Efanna to see her sat in the snow, propped up on one arm and grinning. Noticing his gaze she turned her head to him and her white eyes widened in wonder. She reached her hand up to touch Loki's chest. He watched her intently as her fingers gently traced the patterns on his skin. Although he knew she had Seen him like this before, Loki was still surprised that she did not recoil in horror. As they watched her hand travel down his arm, the colour slowly faded from his skin, leaving it once again pale and unblemished. Loki felt himself hold his breath slightly as he waited for her reaction.

"Huh. Well that's useful," was all she muttered.

Loki raised his eyebrows at her.

"That's all you have to say?" he asked hesitantly.

"It looks prettier in real life," she added, shrugging as Loki's stare turned incredulous.

"Okay, hate to break up the love-in," Stark interrupted before Loki could say anything further, "But what the hell was just up with his skin?"

Loki's gaze hardened and Efanna sighed as, in unison, they turned back to the man of iron.

"It's because he's a Jötunn," Efa explained patiently, "Or at least he was born one."

o

Tony's question of 'What's a Jötunn?' was drowned out by Loki's more insistent one.

"What do you mean 'at least I was born a Jötunn'?" he asked, his voice low and dangerous.

Efanna sighed. She guessed he would've picked up on her phrasing. This was going to require some very delicate explanation and she rather wished Tony Stark wasn't breathing down their necks whilst she had to give it. She fixed her eyes on Loki's, internally begging him to remain calm.

"I mean what I say," she told him softly, "You were born Jötunn, but that's not what you are now. At least not entirely. And, as you guessed, I don't just mean that because you're currently in mortal form."

Loki's eyes were guarded but he was silent and waited for her to explain. That was certainly an improvement on when she'd first met him. Perhaps he was ready to hear this after all.

"When Odin found you, Loki, he made a choice," she began to explain, "He chose to take you as his son and in doing so he evoked a magic, a magic which made his choice irrevocable. When he first held you, that day in the temple, this magic changed you. Your skin turned from blue to milk, your eyes from red to green. In touching you and deciding to take you as his own, he transferred some of his own being into you. From that day forward you were never purely Jötunn, but a mixture, a hybrid of sorts. Jötunn from your birth parents, Asgardian from your adopted father and later Frigga, when she also accepted you as her son. In doing so they became your true parents, Loki, for they contributed as much to your existence as either Laufey or your birth mother, and that's just in a physical sense. Odin and Frigga were the ones to raise you, and so in truth, you are more Asgardian than Jötunn."

Loki was silent as he crouched in front of her, emotions flickering behind his eyes. Efa could see that his jaw was clenched and he looked on the verge of punching something. Or perhaps her. She pushed herself upwards so she too was crouching as she was starting to get wet from the snow. She reached her hand out hesitantly, but couldn't decide whether this was a good idea or not, so she left it hovering between them.

"Did you never wonder why you never looked like a Frost Giant, even before you could control your appearance with magic?" she asked him gently.

"Did you just say Frost Giant?" Tony asked from behind her.

Efanna shot him a look that could have quelled an entire army and he held his hands out before him in defeat. At least living with Pepper was teaching him some sense.

"Loki?" she asked timidly, turning back to him.

"Why did Odin never tell me?"

His voice was barely audible and Efa could feel the anger radiating from him. There was a part of her that was having to fight not to draw back from his barely controlled rage but she knew she could not abandon him now. Any move she made could be taken by him as a rejection in this vulnerable state, and that would ruin everything, ruin him.

"He knew that you already saw yourself as an outsider," she told him quietly, "And he knew that if he told you the truth of your birth that it would only confirm that opinion in your eyes. He wanted to wait until you could prove to yourself what he and everyone else saw – that you were a true and loved Prince of Asgard. He hoped that then, when you learnt the truth, it would not change you."

The green of Loki's eyes burned and the tendons of his arm were straining.

"And when I found out for myself? Why not tell me this then?" he asked harshly, "Why leave me to believe I was a monster he had always despised?"

"You didn't give him much of a chance, Loki," Efa reminded him cautiously.

Gingerly she placed her outstretched hand on his arm, only to have him roughly shove it away. Although she was not surprised by his action, Loki's rejection stabbed at her heart.

"I'm not saying he was right to keep it from you," she assured him, "I'm not saying I agree with his actions, that he didn't make mistakes. I'm only telling you his reasoning for them."

"And why did you not tell me?" Loki asked dangerously, locking his eyes to hers as his voice raised, "If you knew of this all along, why did you wait until now to include me in information that I should have known from the beginning?"

"What would you have done had I told you earlier, Loki?" she pleaded, trying to push down tears as she felt how close she might be to losing him, "It has taken me so long to gain even the smallest amount of your trust, and you have fought me every step of the way. I have never lied to you, but if I had told you everything you would have thrown it back in my face. You know I don't see you as a monster, Loki, and I never have; but you have only just accepted that. You weren't ready to hear this! If I had told you earlier you would have accused me of trying to manipulate you, just as you are seconds from doing now. Loki-"

She reach out and held his face with both hands, not letting him pull away.

"You know I would never hurt you," she told him firmly, staring him straight in the eye and not backing down, "You know I would have told you the very second I thought it would help you, rather than do you harm."

There was a long silence and Efanna could hear Tony shuffling awkwardly behind them but she did not let her gaze waver. Eventually Loki reached up to detach her hands from his face. He held them for a moment and gave her a single, slow nod, then stood up to face Stark. Efa breathed a sigh of relief and Pip came up to nudge her cheek. That could have gone a lot, lot worse. He hadn't even hit anything.

"Okay, first things first," Efa said as she stood up and brushed snow off her trousers, "You two – no fighting."

She stared at each of them sternly, almost like a mother scolding two arguing siblings, before turning her attention to Tony.

"I take it you have questions," she commented calmly.

"Uh, yeah," he replied, an eyebrow raised, "Where shall I start? Maybe, why the hell were you able to see those … things, and I wasn't? Or perhaps why you're getting all cosy with Daddy Issues here? How about how were you even able to call me in the first place – I kinda get why now; but no one even knows that number, and how did you even know this was going to happen anyway?"

"Don't know; bad choice of nickname; already told you; you'll find out soon enough."

Loki smirked at Efanna's offhand response and she had to resist the urge to grin back at him. She knew how much her flippant remarks annoyed him and how much he would enjoy seeing them directed at someone else. Tony's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Okay then," he retorted, "Let's start with you telling me just how the hell Rudolf here is even in some snowy farm in the middle of God knows where instead of Asgard where I was under the impression he was being punished? By the way, what happened to the horns?" he added glancing at Loki.

"We're in the middle of Wales," Efa corrected, "And Odin banished him so I went to Cardiff to meet him, he strangled me for a bit, then I brought him here. And the horns are taking a leave of absence. Mercifully."

Both men now had their eyebrows raised, one in disbelief, the other in amusement.

"Riiight," Tony drawled, "So you're saying he strangled you, so you decided to bring him home?"

"I brought him home because he didn't have anywhere else to go, not because he strangled me. I'm trying to break him of that habit, but he's not as easy to train as Pip."

Pip nudged his head against her leg at the mention of his name and she reached down to give him a scratch between the ears.

"What, so he's like, your pet?" Stark asked, eyebrow raising further. Loki's eyes flashed dangerously.

"Phft, of course not!" she snorted, "Who'd keep Loki as a pet?"

"I can see the attraction."

"Yeah, well your sanity is almost as questionable as his."

"Eh, I'm not sure I'd go that far," Tony argued, shrugging slightly, " And if he's not your pet, then what is your relationship with him?"

"He's my friend," Efanna said with a smile, "Just like you."

"Nice thought sunshine, but I've only just met you, you're not my friend."

"I never said I was, merely that you were mine."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"Nope," she said with aplomb.

"Is she always like this?" Stark asked, turning to Loki who stood with his arms folded against his bare chest, watching their verbal sparring match with amusement.

"You get used to it," he replied dryly, with a long look at Efanna. She grinned and poked her tongue out at the two of them.

"Okay, so you're telling me that you called me up out of nowhere on a number I somehow have but haven't given to you, in order to save you from an attack by invisible ice monsters that you somehow knew was going to happen several hours before it actually did, whilst neglecting to tell me you are currently keeping an insane Asgardian/Jötunn hybrid as your house guest, who you now claim to be your friend?" Tony recapped, sounding profoundly cynical.

"Pretty much, yeah," Efa replied happily.

"You, missy, have some serious problems," he told her, "And what the hell is with your eyes? Are you blind or something?"

"I'll let you figure that out for yourself. How long till the jet gets here?"

Tony gave her a very long stare to which she smiled innocently back at.

"Oi, Legolas," he said into the com in his helmet, "What's your ETA?"

"We're locked onto your location, should be about three minutes." Efanna and Loki could just make out the response as Tony's helmet was open. "You figured out what our mysterious summons was for?"

Efa took Loki's hand and gave it a quick squeeze when they heard Clint Barton's voice.

"Yeah," Stark replied, with a long look at the two of them, "And you are not going to believe it."

"That sounds promising."

"Remember, be nice," Efa murmured in Loki's ear, gaining her a scowl, before she turned back to Tony, "Three minutes? They must've come from the Helicarrier then. I'll go get the bags."

"You packed?" he asked.

"Well duh, we're going to need a change of clothes and S.H.I.E.L.D. are not getting me into one of those catsuits," Efanna retorted, "Natasha might look good in them, but there's no way I could pull one off."

She grinned and ran back towards the cottage before he could say anything else, leaving him staring after her with his mouth slightly open.

Eeep! What d'you think? I hope you liked my explanation of Loki's heritage. It always bothered me in the movie that they never really explained why he didn't look like a Frost Giant until he was touched by one/touched the casket, even before he'd learnt magic. This explanation popped into my head and made a lot of sense, and I also cross-checked it with the movie, so it works! I think Odin made a lot of mistakes in his parenting, but that he is really a nice guy, just a bit hopeless when it comes to understanding how things might affect people's feelings. My dad's a bit similar, but he has mum to correct him, and you can't really correct Odin 'cause he's King and all that so he didn't have that saving grace! I don't know if it will ever get that far, but I think it would be really cool to get Efa to meet Odin at some point! She certainly wouldn't be worried about giving him a piece of her mind!

I hope I'm writing Stark okay, he's a complicated one, and now that more and more characters are coming in things are going to end up being quite complicated! I'm just hoping I can do everyone justice! Any more nickname ideas for Stark to call anyone would be greatly appreciated. I REALLY suck at nicknames. If I use one of yours I shall try and give you credit, but I may well forget, in which case tell me off and I'll amend it :D Thank you to all who've given ideas already. They shall be used, I am sure!

So yeah, give me reviews and I'll hopefully have the next chapter up soon! I've already written most of it :O but I think it needs a fair bit of tweaking still, and I want to know what you think of this one first, so I can change any bits you think I'm doing wrong!

Oops, really long here, sorry! Thanks so much for all your support! x