A/N: Mwahahaha! You guys were hoping to read some sex, weren'tcha? Well, sorry, but I've got a rating to live up to (and last time I checked, it WASN'T 'M'). In other news, sorry that it's another chapter that's a day late, I've been a little on the busy side lately.

For one review a day, you can help inspire a struggling, tired author who's occasionally going through writer's block. Please, save the writers, people! XD

*EDIT: I have now changed the rating to 'M'...

Chapter 17

The Why and the How

Content, I sigh blissfully as I stretch. Camping has never been so fun!

Squinting slightly, I look towards the entrance of the tent, where the morning rays of light just poke through. Loki had gone out about half an hour ago to get the fire started and work on getting breakfast ready. I smile in contentment as I hear movement outside.

Maybe I should get up, now?...

Nah! Another few minutes!

Grinning widely, I snuggle deeper into the warm and comfortable blankets, ignoring the neatly folded clothes lying near the front flap of the tent. It's way too fucking cold out there for me to even consider leaving the warmth of the tent. It's so warm, in fact, I'm sure he used some magic to make it this cosy.

The zip to the flap loudly announces a new arrival to the tent. Loki peers his head in, raising his eyebrow when he finds me in the exact same place he left me in.

"Shana," he says sternly. "You are coming dangerously close to being titled the Goddess of the Lazy."

"Aw, shucks," I wave my hand half heartedly. "You really know how to get a lady blushing." Loki's eyes widen slightly as his cheeks redden. He gives a weak cough while I grin at his reaction.

"Not quite what I meant, you old pervert, but yeah," I throw him a cheeky wink. "That also."

Clearing his throat, Loki says, "The meal will be ready soon. You should get up and dressed as soon as you can."

"You could always just... give me the food... in here... in bed..." Tilting my head to the side, I smile at him flirtatiously and batter my eyelashes at him. He gives an innocent smile in return.

"Either you leave the tent, or you do not eat at all." Threat received and acknowledged, I sigh.

"Fine, spoil sport." Abandoning the blankets, I stand up clothed with nothing but the air. His eyes widening again slightly, Loki's eyes start frantically moving over me, pausing every now and again in the same places.

"Chuck me my clothes, sweetheart," I order, holding my hand out to receive them. With a smug smirk on his face, Loki grabs my clothes and enters the tent to pass them to me.

"It bereaves me to watch you cover yourself," he says mournfully as I accept the clothes.

"Don't worry, love," I say with a mischievous smile. "I promise you that you won't be feeling that way for much longer." His eyebrow twitches as his smirk returns with appreciation.

"You know, Loki," I say as slip my underwear on. Loki hums in blank acknowledgement. "You're a very confusing sort of bloke. You brag about the many girlfriends and one night stands you've had, but blush when I so much as accidentally reference last night?"

"Yes, but I assure you that never has any of my partners been quite as... blunt as you." I pause getting dressed in favour of looking at him in disbelief.

"Really? No one?" Loki looks thoughtful for a moment.

"No one aside from the Elven Sisters of Qualora- they truly knew no shame."

"Do tell," I say with a cheeky smirk.

"I would," he says slowly. "But a gentleman does not impart upon his lover the tales of previous people with whom he has bed." My eyebrow twitches at this.

"Gentleman, you say?" I ask him with a smirk as I carefully walk up to him, my T-shirt, jeans and trainers still lying abandoned on the floor. "Well, you're lady's hungry. She got out of bed for food you'd promised her," I pout at him playfully. "Food that... smells like it might be burning." His eyes widen slightly in realisation. He quickly slips out through the flap of the tent.

With a rushed, "Excuse me!" he gone.

Gentleman my arse, leaving food to burn so he could oggle my body (flattering though it may be). Though I have to say, I appreciate the gesture. After all, I'd rather not hear tale after tale of just how sexy the Elves are; how delectably nimble the Vanir can be or how much of a rare delicacy the Frost Giant maidens are said to be, and how there was once a time when Loki 'wouldn't have minded a bite.' All of this is just perfect for my self-confidence.

Outside, I can hear the clatter of pans and soft cursing, followed by muttered words in a foreign language I still haven't gotten round to learning yet.

Loki's head pops back through into the tent and gives me an exasperated look.

"Half of your clothing is still lying on the ground," he points out drily. "Not that I am complaining, of course. If you wish to eat in your underwear, then by all means, do so. I am certainly not one to stop a lady from doing as she wishes." Rolling my eyes, I give him the world's most fake laugh.

"Hahaha, right. Well, you can go shag a tree or something." Picking up my clothes, I slip them on. "I might act like some kind of savage, but even I don't go that far."

"You should take care with your words," he says warningly. "That would be offensive to many inhabitants of the realms who prefer to wear nothing."

"Yeah, just like how the term 'mortal' would be offensive to some people here on Earth because they like to think of themselves as God-like beings?" I retort sarcastically. "Seriously, anything can be offensive. I just tend to roll with it and speak my mind, darling."

With a disapproving frown (the silvertongue within him must be slowly dying of frustration at hearing my viewpoint- how can you win people over with such a total disregard for other peoples' feelings?) he slips back out of the tent to let me dress in peace.

Once I'm done getting dressed, I head out of the tent to see food being dished up.

"Not bad," I hum, seeing the array of meats and salad. "Glad to see it didn't burn."

"But it did burn," Loki says matter of factly. I look up at him with a raised eyebrow- both wondering why he bothered to point it out, and why the proud god who can do nothing wrong actively admits to letting the food burn.

"But not only had I managed to save it using Seidr, but I also managed to improve on the meal quite spectacularly." Of course he owned up to burning the food just so he could brag about his mad magic skillz. Rolling my eyes, I sit down next to the man, accepting the plate off of him and following his gesture to start digging in at the buffet-style selection of meat, fruit and salad.

"Of course your magic not only saved the meal but accidentally made it the embodiment of edible love," I say as I take my first bite of the perfectly cooked ham.

"I had never said anything of it being accidental," Loki says as he cuts into what looks like steak. "It was very much deliberate."

"Of course it was," I tease fondly. I have to say, though, that despite previously being distracted into burning the food, he actually did a damn good job at making it.

For a while, all that can be heard is the scraping of cutlery against ceramic as we enjoy the meal. The wind rustles the leaves, causing a sharp and sudden chill to invade the clearing. I shiver in my shirt and jeans, not nearly prepared for the cold chill.

"If I may?" Loki says from beside me. With a wave of his hand, the chill is replaced by warmth and I sigh in appreciation.

"Thanks," I say gratefully, smiling up at him. "Though... do you have to do those little hand motions?" He frowns in confusion.

"I fail to see how it matters," he answers, looking at me like I'm a mad woman.

"You know, the hand gestures you make when you do magic. I doubt it's like in Harry Potter where every spell has a specific wand movement and certain phrase to go with it, and one wrong move could leave you with the head of an ass and the body of a bitch," I explain. Staring at me for a moment (most probably trying to gauge whether it's even worth his bother answering the question), he finally answers.

"No, it is not required, but it helps me focus on the way I intend to shape my Seidr." I suppose it kind of makes sense.

"Kind of like an artist looking at pictures for inspiration, then?" I ask him. He chuckles at my attempt to make sense out of it.

"Not in the slightest, but it may be the closest you might come to understanding it," he dismisses. We return to the meal, but I can't help returning to the topic of magic in my mind. At first it's just thoughts of how awesome magic can be, and how brilliant it would be if I could do magic. But then my mind backtracks to one particular moment of magic- something that lead to me being here, right now. The moment I arrived. The moment that Loki had arrived. But this only manages to feed my curious brain further with unanswered questions.

How did Loki originally get here? No one has asked or attempted to answer that question- no journalists, scientists, and certainly not the Avengers. From what Loki has slowly told me throughout the couple of months I've been here, his Dad certainly hadn't played a roll in him coming down to Earth, as his entire family had thought he'd died. From what I can gather, it sounds like he'd also been trapped whilst falling from the 'Bifrost'- the bridge between realms, making it difficult for him to have travelled such a long distance.

So... how did he get here? Our better yet: why here?

"Why did you invade Earth?" I ask him, choosing to start with the more fun question first. Loki pauses in his eating (I'm surprised he's still doing it; I stopped eating about halfway through my musing) and turns bemused eyes on me. The confusion soon bleeds away, however, and is replaced with a look of understanding. Us mortals are, after all, still an inferior race compared to the super powered Asgardians. Why bother with us?

"When I fell into the void between realms, there was no escape," Loki begins explaining, his gaze turning sharp as he talks. "A distant world had welcomed me into it's cold, uncaring arms. It was a small rock of a realm; verging on lifeless and inhabited by the cast offs of the realms. Upon his throne in this realm sat a beast of a man- if he could be called as such." He pauses in his explanation; his eyes grow ever more distant and drift over my shoulder as he recalls the events that led to his failed invasion.

"He spoke such sense at the time," Loki continues saying. "He told me that Midgard was the way to break my father's hold on me- that they would know to fear my name after conquering this world." A mad glint seems to enter his eyes as he says this. It vanishes as he turns to look into my own eyes.

"I could feel him break into my mind," he says in a soft monotone. "Warp my magic and sanity to go alongside his desires. Even now, I know not whether it was me who wished to see this world break apart and crumble to mere dust, or if it were him."

He falls into silence as he stares at me intently. As the moments stretch on, I realise that not only does it seem like he's now stopped talking, but he's also waiting for my reaction.

"Okay," I slowly say, trying to gain some time to get my thoughts in order. "So you were brainwashed? Because if you were, then you can't be blamed for any of it, right?" I ask him more than tell him. For all the bad things he did during his invasion (as well as the way he had acted while invading) I'm not entirely sure if everyone would feel the same way that I do about the whole situation.

The silence stretches on for a while longer- long enough that I begin to wonder if he's going to answer at all. Finally, he opens his mouth to speak.

"The All-Father might excuse me for the invasion due to me not being of a healthy mind. However, he would still need to punish me for the attack on Jotunnheim and my acts of treason prior to the Midgardian attack," he informs me, his voice softening from the monotone it had taken on during his reminiscing.

"That is why I cannot make my presence here known. Regardless of whether or not I am responsible for my actions against your Realm, I will be punished for my previous crimes," he pauses in his explanation, a pained grimace crossing over his handsome features. "The punishment would undoubtedly be as harsh as the aforementioned crimes... which would most probably make it my execution," he finishes almost silently. I stare at him in shock, the words floating weightlessly through my brain.

A world without Loki? I don't give a shit whether he's my captor, my friend, my lover, or just some wicked super villain who might be having me on. I can't think of a world without him. Who would roll their eyes at my immaturity the way he does? Who would make me free delicious meat everyday simply because they can't stand steak made rare, or chicken made with an extra side helping of salmonella? Who would walk around, acting like a posh prick just begging to be made fun of... and not try to kill me?

Sure, a lot of people might be able to fill those roles easily enough... but not the way he does, I'm sure.

"Don't worry, Loki, darling," I can't help but say dramatically as I lean my head against his shoulder. "I won't let those fuckers take you." I feel him shift from under my head.

"Are you ever serious for long?" he asks me, sounding unimpressed.

"Of course," I say in response. "I just hate tense moments like this where all we talk about is death. It's good to lighten up the mood a little bit every now and again." Loki is still and silent after I give my answer. We both stare into the still burning fire, with Loki's plate (still half filled with his third helping of food) left abandoned to the side.

A/N: I wasn't too sure about the scene where Loki blushes at Shana's accidental implication of the night before, but my writer's instincts told me to leave it in as it's perfectly fine, so... hope you guys enjoyed it, regardless!