When Max snapped back to consciousness, she was vaguely aware that something was touching her. Curled up on her side, she struggled to gauge what was real and what was still a part of her unfocused dreams, but she knew that there was something in the air duct with her. It tickled a little, like someone running their fingers over her back, and she immediately thought of Loki. However, as the fog cleared and she remembered where she was, she became acutely aware that it could not be Loki. No person could fit comfortably in the air duct with her.

Fur brushed across her hand. Something was tugging on her pants, on the tape wrapped around her feet. Horrified, her eyes shot open, and in the darkness she saw familiar shapes hopping about.

Rats. Rats moving too quickly for her to count, perhaps drawn by the smell of sweet candy and half-eaten chips and bloody feet. One crawled up her back to her side, snuffing along her arms, and in that moment she screamed like she had never screamed before. She flailed, continuing to shriek at the unwelcome guests, and knocked her head on the top of the air duct as she flew upward.

The creatures seemed distressed by the sound, but one had the audacity to continue eating through the hole in her pants—another was gnawing at her duct tape. Her heart pounded so soundly in her chest that she thought it might break through, and Max crawled backward—still shrieking and groaning and hyperventilating—so quickly that she toppled off the edge of the air duct before she had a chance to brace herself.

Down she fell, landing hard on the gravelly earth below, and she didn't care how much fucking noise she made. Pain. Pain and horror and more pain. Most of the rats stayed up in the duct, but the few that clung along for the ride were violently swiped away as she bounced back and forth between each foot.

"Max?!"

Loki's voice echoed through the tunnel shortly after, and although she could hear him jogging up from behind, she couldn't focus on him. Instead, she stumbled away, across the tracks so that she wasn't near the air duct anymore, and propped herself up on the wall as she started to dry heave.

If there had actually been anything worthwhile in her stomach, she probably would have vomited it right back up.

"What happened?"

His hands were soothing on her back last time, but now they made her jump—this was going to do some emotional damage. Stepping away, she leaned back against the wall and ran her hands through her hair.

"I woke up and there… there were rats… eating… me," she managed. That wasn't entirely true. She couldn't feel any oozing wounds—they were probably more interested in the food in her pockets.

"What?"

"Rats," she repeated shakily. "There were rats all over me, and they were biting the tape and the food and one crawled up on my arm…"

She doubled over when she gagged again, thinking that this would be the time when she spat out a load of stomach juices. Nothing came, and she coughed through her disgust and mortification the best she could.

"Rats?" He breathed a lengthy sigh. "Max, are you serious?"

"No, I'm just doing this for kicks," she groaned, hands on her knees and head bowed as she tried to take a few calming breaths. However, when she shifted, the bottom of her pants brushed against her foot, which made her jump again.

"You really need to control yourself," he told her, each word sounding less and less impressed with her as they came in punctuated syllables. "Do you know how much noise you were making?"

"Rats!" She straightened up to push against his arm, which did nothing. Her voice bounced off the walls and down the tunnel, but she didn't care. "There were rats all over me!"

"Yes, yes," he hissed, grabbing her by the shoulders—with surprisingly accurate aim in the darkness—and giving her a light shake. The movement hurt the shoulder she previously dislocated, and Max squirmed out of his grasp. "I'm sure it was very…" He seemed to fumble over the wording, "jarring to wake up in that situation—"

"Don't patronize me!" she shouted, pointing in the vague direction of the air duct. "That was horrifying!"

He stared at her for a moment, the whites of his eyes noticeable in the dark, and then turned and marched away from her. Max leaned back again, her body trembling as the adrenaline started to fade. She then reached into her pocket—what was left of it—and pulled out the remaining bits and pieces of vending machine candy. There were bound to be more vending machines along the line, and she wasn't about to munch on something that a rat got to first.

Loki had come to a stop on the tracks, his outline long and lean and tall against the dull yellow lighting at the end of the tunnel. He seemed to move quite stiffly beforehand, and Max licked her lips as she watched him, waiting for him to carry on without her. He didn't need to stay.

She bet he regretted carrying her along.

"We can't linger here." His voice was calm when he finally spoke again, and Max perked up at the sound. "You've alerted anyone nearby to our presence."

She pursed her lips, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed. "Sorry."

"No matter," he turned and started back toward her. "I believe I have found a line that will bring us close to Stark's tower. It will require a great deal of walking—"

"Great."

"But," he continued, the calm veneer wavering a little, "it may get us there by tomorrow evening."

She didn't want to go to Stark Tower. While the man's enterprise kept the building looking spritely, almost anyone who walked by it knew there was nothing happening on the insides: lights were on but no one was ever, ever home. However, she wasn't exactly in a position to argue with him, especially over something like the direction of their forced march.

"Okay." It was all she could think to say now that her body was starting to collapse in on itself. All of yesterday's (Today's? She wasn't sure how long she had slept.) aches seeped back into her muscles and joints and bones, almost to the point where standing there was tiring.

"How are your feet?"

She glanced down at them, and despite the fact that she couldn't see them, she wiggled her toes all the same. The soles of her feet were aching and they burned when she put too much pressure on them.

"About the same."

"Up you go, then."

He crouched down for her to clamber up onto his back, and once she had her legs wrapped around him, she realized that she needed a bathroom.

"We need to take a quick pit stop before we go too far," she insisted as he marched toward the end of the tunnel. He didn't stop when they crossed over into the illuminated station, and she assumed it was because he had already assessed the area.

"No stops, Max."

"No, this is pretty necessary," she told him, reaching out to grab the nearby platform—a sad attempt to slow him down.

"Max—"

"I just need to use the bathroom, and then we can keep going."

He stopped abruptly, which worsened the pressure on her bladder. "Can't you just… hold it?"

"What?" She scoffed noisily in his ear, which made him flinch away. It was difficult to get the full effect of his expression, but he was definitely displeased with her again. "No, I can't hold it."

"Well, you'll have to."

"Look, we can take five minutes to find a bathroom, or I can just go right now," she told him, feeling downright disgusted with herself that she needed to make this kind of ultimatum. "It's your choice."

Neither of them mentioned that he could just set her down and leave her there. However, his irritated, somewhat defeated, sigh indicated that it wasn't a consideration—yet.

"Fine," he muttered, setting her on the platform and hopping up. "I found one on the level above, but we must be quick."

"Yeah, obviously."

Loki shot her a look as he helped her to her feet, and she smiled weakly in return. Once she was back on his back, Loki darted across the platform toward a staircase, and then turned left at the top. If she was correct about where she assumed they were, they were about three levels below the main street. Sure enough, there was a small bathroom on the next floor that suited Max just fine. The corridor was empty as they crept along, and Loki's feet barely made a sound. He paused once when a light bulb burnt out on its own, but otherwise they ran into no other disturbances. Max suspected that if they were closer to the surface, there would have been a greater chance of running into other people.

Loki waited outside at her insistence, not wanting to be carried straight in to the toilet. Her feet disagreed with the decision, but the cool tile was soothing on her blistered and frayed toes.

After relieving herself, Max spent a couple of minutes at the sink. She rubbed down her whole body with water, pink hand soap, and some paper towels, stripping out of her pants and blouse in order to get everywhere. Time was of the essence, she knew, but she wasn't sure when she would get an opportunity like this again. The bathroom itself wasn't especially clean, but there were no rats or gravel or dirt anywhere to be seen, and that was all that mattered.

She was a mess. Her hair was starting to look stringy and greasy, and after a few failed attempts to knot it around itself, she decided to let it continue to hang loose. Her eyes were a little bloodshot and her lips were peeling—dehydrated. There was a bruise where she had been hit with the gun yesterday (today?) on her lower cheek and chin, and it was tender to touch. Unfortunately, it wasn't the only bruise. Her arms were littered with small marks, including the outline of Loki's fingers around her wrist.

In a panic, Max checked for signs that the rats were in fact not eating her. Aside from the holes in her pockets and some missing tape, she didn't appear to have been bitten where it mattered. Still, she shivered at the memory, and then quickly redressed. Leaning against the countertop, Max lifted a foot to inspect. The tape seemed to be holding well enough, but when she tried to unwind it, the cuts beneath stung so horribly that her eyes watered.

"Fuck," she muttered, smoothing the tape back down and sighing. It was going to be a nightmare getting it all off.

"Max?" She heard Loki tapping on the door. "Let's go."

She didn't want to move. It took every ounce of strength in her to push her body away from the sink, dragging her sore feet across the tile until she reached the door. She didn't have the fight in her today. Everything felt heavy now that she was fully awake. Her stomach gurgled angrily, but she couldn't think of anything worthwhile to satisfy it. When she stepped out into the hallway again, she immediately envied Loki: while he might have seemed tired, he looked perfectly fine—the image of perfect health and virility.

They said nothing as she climbed up onto his back, though her legs and thighs were not impressed with the idea of wrapping around his torso again. This must have been what riders felt like after a long day on a horse—or something equally tiring. She didn't mention the pain to Loki, however, for fear he would be insulted that she thought of him as her horse.

Before they descended down into the tunnels again, Loki carried her toward a row of brightly lit vending machines. Much to her pleasure, one was for drinks, and with her still on his back, Loki wrenched the cover off and she grabbed two bottles of water to rest in her pockets. They then stocked up on any of the sweet and salty treats that tickled their fancy.

"The ice cream will feel good on your gums," Max noted, one hand wrapped around his neck as the other shoved a bag of Skittles into her already over-packed pocket. The gun against her left leg took up too much room, but it was more important than food. "You should have some."

"My mouth is fine," he noted stiffly. However, before they left, she forced him to get her an ice cream bar, which she then fed to him as they marched back down to the subway platform. He seemed more inclined to eat it when she was offering it as a treat, though her stomach didn't do its excited somersaults when his lips touched her fingers today.

She didn't have the energy to get excited—it had all been wasted on screaming about rats.

Their march through the subway lines continued to be an isolated walk, though Loki stopped at every entrance to ensure that it remained as such. Once she had finished munching on a bag of pretzels, and felt a little sick, Max tossed the garbage away and wrapped both arms tightly around Loki's neck. When he made no noise of protest, she buried her face against his neck and hair, preferring the comfort his natural scent brought to keeping an eye on their situation.

She stayed like that for a long time, listening to his breathing and the painful silence of the rest of the tunnel, feeling his hands gripping her legs and his warm skin against hers. It was comforting, to be like this, and a small part of her had wished she could have slept next to him somewhere instead of alone in an air duct. After all, he certainly would have been nicer to wake up to.

"Max?"

Her eyes opened slowly when he whispered her name, and she blinked a few times, focusing in on the pale skin of his neck.

"Hmm?"

"Are you alright?"

He readjusted his grasp on her legs, jostling her a little.

"No." Her response was dull and monotone—she couldn't force the cheer today. Nolan was dead and the world had gone to alien hell, and there was nothing she could do about anything.

He turned his head slightly to the side, and Max pressed her forehead against his cheek, sighing a little. When he straightened out, she hugged him tighter and shut her eyes again, preferring it this way.

"How do you like living here?"

"Well, it's been pretty shitty the last couple of days," she mumbled against his neck, which made him chuckle. The sound was enough to make her smile, even if it was only fleetingly. "It's okay, I guess."

He was silent for a few moments afterward, and Max glanced up at him when she realized he was waiting for something more.

"I like living with Pat," she admitted, knowing perfectly well what he was doing. She gave him a small squeeze, unsure if he could feel it or not. "It's really busy here all the time, and I thought I'd hate it, but I like that I can get something to eat anywhere at any time of the day or night." She paused for a breath. "I mean, I also thought the people here would be rude assholes, and a lot of them are, but there are also a lot of people who just want to chat with you if you're waiting in line for something… It's surprising."

"Oh?"

He paused at the edge of the darkness, peering into the light, and once he started to move, Max continued in hushed tones.

"Garret and Tiffany moved with me," she told him. "They're…" Somewhere out there—fighting for their lives, hopefully.

She swallowed thickly.

"Are they married yet?"

"Yeah," she said weakly. "They had their ceremony last year and the reception was at the karaoke bar."

"Very sentimental."

"It was," she agreed, nodding as they slipped back into the darkness more. "It was nice."

"And your brother—"

"What was that?" Max didn't mean to cut him off. It wasn't that she wanted to talk about Nolan, but she could answer a few nonspecific questions if it meant Loki kept this little game up. However, she stopped him when she spotted something ahead of them: a flicker of light. It bounced off the walls. Round, weak, and soon joined by a second beam.

"Is that a…" Loki trailed off as Max's head whipped back, looking over her shoulder to find the source. There, at the beginning of the tunnel, were outlines of three men. She couldn't tell if they were in uniforms or normal clothing, but Loki certainly didn't wait around for her to find out. He took off along the track silently, and Max clung to him with the fear that one of those flashlights would reflect off her back in the meantime.

Unfortunately, as they neared the end of the tunnel, three more silhouettes awaited them at the other side, and Loki came to a swift halt when she gasped. He then backed up against the wall, pressing her to it as they watched. For a while, the outlines lingered on the edge of the tunnel, faint beams of light flashing into the darkness. However, soon the outlines disappeared and the beams became stronger, and she knew they couldn't stay hidden for long.

"They might be people," she murmured, her fingers digging in to his shoulder for support as she squinted into the black tunnel.

"Yes, because our fortunes were so blessed when we last saw… people," he muttered in return. Max frowned.

"Well, what do you want to do?"

He said nothing. Instead, Loki inched along the wall, one hand pressed against it, until they were beside a metal door.

"We'll need to make a slight detour, it seems."

"Loki—"

He rattled the handle, which didn't give in the slightest, and then took a step back and kicked the door. That managed to do something: the metal dented noisily, and voices reverberated off the walls around them. She held tight when the second kick knocked the door clean off its hinges; there were lights on them now. Loki darted inside, turning slightly to the side to glance back at the newcomers—who were noisily scurrying in their direction.

"Where are we going?"

"Do you think I have some mystical knowledge on the inner workings of this underground pit?" Loki snapped as he hurried down a narrow, damp, dark corridor. They came to a fork just as voices started to echo behind them, and Loki opted to go left. This time, Max had absolutely nothing to contribute to their escape: she could barely see, let alone register where they were.

Loki ran until he trampled over something that sounded like metal grating, and Max winced when he stopped abruptly and turned back to investigate.

"Let's not do anymore ducts," she said, squealing a little when he ducked down and wove his fingers through the dark slates. "Nope, no, let's see where the tunnel goes…"

He ignored her and unlatched her legs hurriedly, knocking her back onto the ground. Groaning, Max sat up as he wrenched what appeared to be a manhole covering of sorts up and off, and then jumped in.

"Loki!"

"Jump down, Max—"

"Have you lost your…" Her demand fell flat when she saw lights bobbing on the wall at the entrance to the corridor, and she swung her legs over the side and dropped down, trusting that he would catch her.

He did, and when he set Max down on the wet ground, she immediately realized where they were.

"The sewer?" she hissed, her eyes narrowing at his dark form. "We're not staying in here!"

"I like it far less than you do, I assure you," he fired back, "but I'll not go back to them. We'll find a way out."

"Ugh." The stench wasn't quite as overwhelming as she would have expected, but she could see strings of… something hanging from the roof of the cavern. Just as the subway air was dry and stale, the air here was thick and humid with moisture collecting on the walls. There was a thin stream of water running down the middle of the hallway.

"Come," he beckoned, crouching down in front of her. "We can't stay."

"I know, I know," she said as she clambered up for the umpteenth time. "I don't hear them anymore."

"Doesn't mean we can linger—"

"I know, Loki," she muttered. "I'm just saying."

He sighed again, long and drawn out, and his body was tense as he started forward. He was a little too tall to fit comfortably in the tunnel standing, and with Max on his back, he was forced to squat even lower. She felt guilty, naturally, but now that they were in the sewer, she was even less inclined to walk on her damaged feet.

The tunnel eventually grew, and soon enough he was able to stand comfortably. Unfortunately, that meant the waters ran deeper, and Loki stayed off to the side the best he could, slipping and sliding over the wet stone walkways. Although there was less of a chance of running into the enemy in the city's drainage system, Max would have taken the subway tunnels any day. The waterways were not only slippery, but they continued to vary in size, and there hadn't been any means of escape for almost an hour. Loki tried the best he could to navigate, and he handled the occasional hill or slope with more dignity that Max could have ever done.

Still, she could practically feel his frustration. His body was tense and stiff, no longer the pliable comfort it was earlier. He huffed and grumbled whenever they came to a tunnel that was too narrow to fit them both, and she could feel him grinding his teeth when they came back to a spot they had already passed.

Her eyes were accustomed to the darkness at last, but it wasn't as though there was much to see. A sewer was a sewer, no matter which one you were in. She felt claustrophobic in the small tunnels and overwhelmed in the large ones. Her feet dipped in the water occasionally, and Loki's pants were soaked from stumbling into deep drop-offs.

Eventually, the tunnel they had been wading through for ages finally emptied out into a great cavernous hall with a pool in the middle. There were countless other streams that fed into it and took from it, and Max squinted up when she realized there was light trickling in from the ceiling. She assumed they had crawled their way up to the surface.

Loki waded out into the pond, treading carefully to avoid any holes. Max, on the other hand, focused on something that caught her eye.

"What's that?"

She pointed toward a tunnel on the other side of the hall, which was filled with the sounds of running water at all speeds. Loki paused for a moment, perhaps searching for whatever she saw, and then marched toward it. While there were bits and pieces of gunk hanging from the ceilings of the tunnels, this stood out to Max because it appeared the gunk was in the middle of the hall, stretched inward in long, thick strings.

In fact, that was exactly what it was. As Loki approached the hall, Max saw four wires attached to the opening of the circular tunnel—two on each side—and they stretched inside as far as she could see like thin planks.

"What purpose do these serve?" Loki mused, reaching toward to touch them. He plucked one of the wires like a guitar string, and its sound resonated down the tunnel. Max shrugged.

"Nothing that I can see," she admitted, reaching out to touch them herself. Loki leaned forward to oblige her grasping fingers. The wire was cool and solid, and she didn't have the strength to make the ones she touched sing like Loki did.

"It must lead somewhere." Loki ducked down under the wire and staggered into the tunnel—Max winced when she scraped her back along one of the thick threads.

"Maybe to a trap?"

"It is not Pagurolid technology," he told her, his boots slipping on the wet floor as he walked along. The tunnel was high enough to permit him to stand, but the arched ceiling forced them both to duck their heads a little if they wanted to stay clear of the water running down the slight slope. "I have never seen it before, at the very least."

"Me neither."

He glanced over his shoulder at her and she shrugged.

"Stay alert," he told her. Max rolled her eyes.

"I know…"

He sighed.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

So, the rat scene was actually one of the first I pictured when I was planning this story. There were others, but this was pretty early in the developmental planning. It turned out precisely how I imagined it. Maybe Max overreacted, but think back to the previous story: remember the mouse in their apartment? How horrified she was? This was basically her nightmare. A living nightmare. On top of other nightmares. And hell, it would be my nightmare too, honestly.

I really enjoy the feedback I've been getting. It seems that people grasp what is happening with Max and Loki's relationship, and that's awesomepants. I wanted to show some more of the tension in this chapter, how they are both getting frustrated and tired and weighed down by everything, and they don't really have anyone to take it out on but each other. Like I've said before and some reviewers have noted: can't wait to write a Loki point of view chapter. From my plans, the next chapter will be focused on Max, but the following will be Loki.

The fact that he hasn't ditched her speaks volumes to me, but Loki seems loyal to the ones he truly cares for—Thor is a whole different can of worms, mind you.

Anyway, short notes tonight. I started my new job and it's early mornings now, and I'm exhausted. I hope to either work the next update by the end of this week or next week.

UNTIL THEN, MY DARLINGS! Ten points to whoever can take the title of this chapter and find the theme song it fits with!