"Err… Guys…"
Dutiful as ever, Steve was the only one watching the monitors to check what Loki was doing, when he noticed something strange was happening in the glass cell.
"Guys, you should really look at this…"
Tony and Clint turned, slightly annoyed, and their eyes widened.
"What the fuck is he doing there?"
Loki was seemingly writing something in the air. The weird thing was that glowing green traces were left where his finger had passed. From the viewpoint of that particular camera they couldn't read what was written, but suddenly Loki just disappeared, teleporting out of the cell again.
"JARVIS, what did he do?!"
Tony panicked. The AI turned the camera so that they could read the message.
"This is not an escape attempt. BRB. Just got to do something. Loki."
"I don't believe it. JARVIS, where is that bastard?"
"He's in the bathroom on the same floor as the cell, Sir."
"And he is doing what?"
"I believe he is on the toilet, Sir."
That made Tony shut up and the others all chuckled.
"Apparently even gods need to use the loo from time to time…"
"I want to go check on him."
"Clint, you will do no such thing!"
"But…"
"Go there and I tell everyone you wanted to have steaming hot toilet stall sex with him."
Natasha didn't know why she stopped Clint from invading the toilet armed with a cell phone to gather blackmail material, but for some reason she did. She would have sworn Clint pouted for a second before he rolled his eyes and let it go.
"JARVIS will warn us if Reindeer Games decides to leave the building or break my stuff, right?"
"Yes, Sir."
Tony grinned.
"That's my boy."
The other Avengers now all rolled their eyes. Tony's relationship with his AI was even weirder than the toilet habits of certain Norse Gods.
(Pagebreak)
Lori was still silently crying with her knees to her chest when she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. She almost screamed, but that changed into a squeak of happiness when she saw the mystery hand belonged to Loki.
"Loki!"
The god grinned.
"Hello little mortal…"
Lori didn't even comment on the nickname, she just flung herself in his arms.
"I missed you! I thought they were going to torture you or something and I thought I was never going to see you again and then that creepy spy woman was trying to make me talk about you and how did you ever get out I thought they…"
The flood of words only stopped when Loki held his hand over Lori's mouth. He had forgotten how much that girl could talk…
"It takes more than a bit of Plexiglas and expensive machinery to keep me confined. It was hardly an effort to get out."
Lori smiled.
"Of course it was. You're awesome."
"Of course I am, little mortal…"
"Puny, but awesome."
"Hey!"
Lori laughed again, her tears all forgotten. Loki felt better too…
"I thought I owed you an explanation. After all I have brought you in trouble… again."
Lori shrugged.
"It was less bad than getting mauled by those overly muscled idiots. Speaking of which, how did it go with your brother?"
Now it was Loki who shrugged. Yet, there was something dejected in the movement and Lori knew.
"You fought, didn't you?"
"Not really. I told him the truth, he cried, we said goodbye. It was nothing more elaborate."
"You… said goodbye?"
"I'm not going back to Asgard. There are ways to travel the universe without the Bifrost, pathways that cross even this forlorn little world. I don't have to go there ever again."
Lori looked a bit sceptically.
"And what about closure?"
"Closure?"
"Yeah, I mean, you told your brother "the truth", but… what about your father, and the rest of your family?"
"They're not my family."
Lori shook her head.
"They are the only family you've ever had and you know it."
Loki frowned at Lori.
"Don't tell me what I need to do. You know nothing of them."
"I know enough to think it will do you good to throw the truth in your adoptive dad's face. If you don't it'll follow you for the rest of your days. And mind you, that's a lot of days in your case."
Loki just made a derisive noise, unwilling to admit there was truth in Lori's words.
"I didn't come here to be spelled a lesson, mortal."
"Wasn't trying to. I just hope you'll give that evil overlord of Asshole Garden what he deserves. You know, royal ass-kicking, Loki style."
The indignant expression on Lori's face made Loki smile despite everything.
"Maybe I will. Now, you have missed Thor's horrendously lacking explanation of what happened to you and me, therefor I have the honour to explain it once more. If you want to know, that is."
Lori gave him the "Duh" look, and Loki started explaining. In opposite to Thor, magic was his forte, and he gave Lori a colourful story of the Norns, their magic, the Tapestry of Fate, and everything else even remotely related. She listened attentively and when Loki finally finished his story, she stared at him with open mouth.
"Wow. That's… so… wow. That's just really weird."
"It is rather logical, when you taken into account the amount of creatures in the universe. There will always be someone who is a lot like you, statistically."
"From magic to statistics…" Lori chuckled.
"Didn't one of your famous writers say that there are lies, damned lies and statistics? Since I am the God of Lies, that makes statistics my domain as well…"
Lori laughed, and Loki laughed as well.
"No, seriously. What do they call us then? Soul mates or something like that?"
Loki shook his head.
"Oh no, soul mates are souls that fill each other in perfectly. We are much too… alike for that, in soul terms. You could call it familiar souls, I guess. The magic of the Norns is sacred and well protected, I know far from as much of it as I would like to."
Loki admitting he didn't know everything? Lori smiled at that. She crawled a bit closer to him on the sofa. Sitting close to him she realized it would probably be the last time they were together like that… softly she remarked.
"This is really goodbye, isn't it?"
Loki didn't say anything, but his silence answered Lori's question. The girl sighed.
"I hate goodbyes. They're so final."
"They don't have to be. I have done my time, so I am a free man now and I can go where I want to. I might just visit you…"
"As if you would find the time for that when the whole universe is in front of you…"
Loki smiled a bit melancholically at her.
"Having the whole universe in front of you is not the most pleasant sight, Lori… It makes you feel smaller than anything, takes away the value and worth of everything including yourself. I would rather never face that sight again."
"So… you have seen that already?"
"Oh yes. But that's not important now. Besides, the universe has plenty of time while you don't. It's a matter of priorities."
Lori blushed violently.
"I'm a priority to you?"
Loki shook his head in disbelief.
"You're such a silly little mortal. You know I don't like a lot of people. That makes those I do like immediately more important as they are much rarer."
"If you make me blush any more my face might explode."
"We can't have that, can we?"
They both laughed, and the slightly tense atmosphere dissipated with their laughter. Lori wanted to ask about Thor, she could almost feel that there was more to be told, but she respected Loki's privacy and didn't prod. It wasn't really her business anymore now anyway…
(Pagebreak)
They talked a lot, mostly ridiculous jests they had exchanged since the first day they had been stuck together, but without a trace of bitterness in them. Loki almost didn't mind it so much anymore that Lori consequently called him Puny when he referred to her as "little mortal". When finally the Avengers became suspicious of Loki's apparent obstipation, asked the invisible voice where he was and entered the living room with their weapons drawn, he and Lori only looked at each other, knowing this was indeed goodbye. Not final, but still goodbye. Loki agreed to come with Thor to Asgard one last time, to let Odin know he had successfully completed his punishment and to gather his things… on one condition. He wanted to bring Lori home himself. The request caused a bit of a fuss among the Avengers, but Director Fury gave permission, knowing that Loki wouldn't harm Lori.
And so Lori experienced teleportation for the very first time. Loki had told her to hold her breath and close her eyes, albeit forgetting that human beings can't hold their breath that effortlessly. When they appeared in front of Lori's house, she loudly gasped for air and coughed like a chain smoker.
"I… N-n-(cough)-never…(cough) w-want t-t-to do… t-(cough)-t-that again!"
"I'm sorry."
Lori shook her head and concentrated on evening her breathing a bit. Then she smiled and hugged Loki, like she had done the first time they were supposed to say goodbye.
"I will miss you…" She looked up at him. "Promise me you will kick that Mr All-Father's ass. I will feel a lot better knowing that man gets it back."
Loki just smiled, and pulled her a bit closer in the hug. He didn't do hugs, usually, but he had been doing a lot he usually didn't do lately so he decided to humour the mortal female.
"Little poison-tongue, I will miss you too. Promise me you will eat regularly and not ever let anyone get away with insulting you, and then I'll see what I can do in the ass-kicking department."
"I promise."
Lori had just said that, when Thor landed in the middle of the road with a thunderous bang.
"Brother! We must leave!"
Loki bent to Lori and whispered.
"Is it any surprise that he got run over quite a few times already?"
"You'll have to tell me that story once…"
"I will. When I return I will tell you."
"I'm holding you to it!"
Lori watched how Thor took Loki's hand and yelled loudly at the sky. Suddenly a bright light surrounded them and a second later they were gone. If not for the impact crater Thor had left behind she could have thought she imagined it. Sighing deeply she walked back to her house. She tried her best not to think about the obvious, namely that Loki was really gone now, possibly on the other side of the universe even. He was literally worlds away. How was it possible she already missed him after five minutes?
(Author's Notes)
At long last, a new chapter! I'm sorry guys that it took me so long... there was a skiing trip without internet first, and then exam results that totally took away my writing pleasure for a while, and so it came to take so long. I'm sorry, sorry, sorry! Please review... Your reviews give me inspiration, and I rearlly can use it atm...
Chocolate chip cookies (with those yummie melting chunks in them, hmmm) for Lokitty, Tiryn, TheSillyKitten, xLokiLover69x, no-MY name's Anonymous, AvengersGirl-LokisSpy, lilirox187, I love you guys! Please keep reviewing!
