Written to: Good Life - OneRepublic, crosspost from AO3
Nubivagant: Moving among clouds.
"I have never been to this City of Angels before," Thor tells Loki as Loki herds him onto the plane.
"Remind me why you wanted to go there?" Thor asks as Loki cuddles Modi to his chest and motions for Thor to put their baggage into the overhead bin. "And why could we not have taken Mjolnir?"
The fact that the plane didn't sink instantly to the ground was relieving to Loki; it meant Thor hadn't smuggled Mjolnir somehow past the TSA, though that irritating woman with the smug smile and the gloves had spent rather a long time with her grubby hands pawing all over Thor's crotch while Thor looked bemusedly on.
"I fancied trying to be a Midgardian for a few days," Loki explains, smiling and giving Modi a kiss on the forehead as Modi grabs curiously at his hair. "Being Midgardian means no seidr, no Mjolnir, no nothing. Rather helpless."
"Rather helpless, indeed," Thor mutters as he buckles himself into the seat beside Loki and leaning over to peer out the window. "I have no idea about the reliability of this metal bird. Rest assured, small one," he says to Modi, who babbles up at him, "Mjolnir will come flying if I call her so that you and I can escape. Your mama, whose horrid idea this was, will perhaps be able to pilot the plane. He has proved rather adept at stealing and wielding aerial machines with plenty of buttons and dials."
Loki smiles, rolling his eyes, and tries to ignore the death grip Thor has on his hand as the plane taxis down the runway, gathering speed until it finally takes off with a jolt that has Thor's heart rising into his throat.
Once Thor finally opens his eyes and convinces his jaw to stop clenching, Loki grins at him and points out the window with his elbow. Thor looks past him at the city of New York and the blue, deep water of the ocean soaring past far underneath them, the cars like bright red beetles scurrying about on the thin strips of road.
Modi gasps as the plane tilts upward, soaring into a thick layer of clouds. All is white until the plane pops out, its shadow pressing itself against the golden tops of the clouds, and Thor watches in amazement as thick cottony spirals swirl up around them like an airy castle, the wings cutting through minarets and spires that Thor has only before seen with Mjolnir clasped firmly in his hand.
Loki smiles at Thor's helpless wonder, at the way Modi presses his tiny hands against the airplane window to see the clouds better, and thinks that perhaps being Midgardian is not so bad after all.
Once they hit turbulence somewhere over the Midwest, Loki sighs and rubs his temples as Thor begins to chant an Asgardian prayer very loudly, his knuckles white against the armrests.
He pinches Thor roughly the instant he sees Mjolnir tagging along, riding the grey swells of cloud in the plane's wake. Thor manages to wrench open his eyes, and per Loki's hissed request, sends Mjolnir flying back to the tower before it can rip through half the plane.
Thor glares at Loki and mutters something about how people probably called it the City of Angels because people died in the process of getting there, and Loki blatantly ignores him.