"Would you rather... shave all your hair off or wear it so long that it swept along the ground behind you?"

"I'm still failing to see the point of this game."

"There really isn't much to get. It kills time and you get to know a little more about the other person," Reagan shrugged. "It's just a good way to pass the time on long car rides or, you know, when you're trapped away in a prison cell for all of eternity."

Loki was reclined on his bed and Reagan lay on the ground with her legs propped up against the wall, her ankles crossed. Their most recent lesson had long since been abandoned though neither had realised it had happened nor just how much time had passed. As was becoming commonplace, the pair had become distracted when disagreeing over something insignificant - on this particular occasion, it had been about where the inflection should be placed in the word controversy.

Loki was rapidly discovering that Reagan's attention span was far shorter than he'd initially hoped for. What he wouldn't admit to her, though, was that it was in fact rather dull being trapped in a cell for all of eternity - as she put it, and so he didn't really mind so much when their conversations strayed from their lessons and into new territories such as this. Not that he'd ever make her privy to that information.

Reagan herself was finding that she was in much better spirits of late. She was adjusting to life on Asgard, having a much better understanding of their ways and how to integrate herself into them. Having an ever-present tour guide in her mind helped with that admittedly. She was sleeping a lot better, no longer on edge as she had been when she'd first arrived. And while she never expected the gossip to die away completely, she could feel the way the common folk were slowly growing disinterested in her. Her spells were improving, growing stronger. And much to her surprise, this new truce with Loki seemed to be lasting. All in all, she was enjoying her time on Asgard far more than she ever thought she would.

She felt... peaceful.

"I suppose I'd prefer it long," Loki conceded at last.

"I knew you'd say that," she smirked.

"How so?"

"You just seem to really like your hair, you don't strike me as the buzzcut type."

"And what about you? Which would you prefer?"

"Oh, definitely long," she agreed. "I'd worry that if I shaved it all off, people might think I'd slept with you."

She smirked at him teasingly and Loki flicked the small, crumbled parchment ball he'd been playing with at her in response. It shot harmlessly through her projection but he still managed to make her flinch a little.

"It's your turn," she prompted, whilst wishing she could throw something back at him in return.

Loki let out an exaggerated annoyed sigh but complied.

"Would you rather... die by the blade or in the vacuum of space?"

"Jesus Christ."

"What?"

"Nothing, it's just a little dark, isn't it?"

"Not ten minutes ago you asked me if I'd rather spend the rest of my years deaf or blind."

"That's completely different."

"It is not."

"Is so."

"Is not."

"Is so."

"Do you think if I did lose my hearing then perhaps I wouldn't have to endure listening to you in my head anymore?" Loki teased.

"One way to find out," Reagan said. "Find me something sharp."

"Ah, so death by blade it is."

"Please," Reagan said as she stretched lazily. "I could totally take you."

Loki scoffed. "In what universe?"

"This one, bitch, let's go."

Loki blinked at her in surprise, she met his eye and seemed just as startled as he was.

"Sorry. I got a little overenthusiastic there."

"Yes, I dare say you did."

"Well, at least now you know what happens when you cross me."

"I was already aware of those consequences; I end up with crude drawings of genitals burned onto all my bedding."

Reagan threw her head back and laughed.

"Okay!" Reagan said by way of announcing herself. "I really think I've cracked it this time."

"Hello to you, too," Loki responded, not even glancing up from the page of the book he was reading.

It turned out that Reagan had been quite serious about her threat to find a Midgardian that Loki actually liked, and she came to him every few days with a new suggestion. The pair had quickly formed a recurring routine of her appearing in his cell, convinced she'd found the one, prattling off some nonsense about some idiot mortal followed by Loki dismissing the suggestion completely. Surprisingly, each of his rejections only seemed to spur Reagan on, each one pitched with more and more determination. Determination, Loki suspected, to prove him wrong about something. It would explain her passion for the project.

She had started by introducing him to some obvious ones - Earth's great artists like Mozart, Shakespeare and Da Vinci. He'd actually been aware of all of them and insisted that he was less than impressed.

"I'm not a hack," he'd told her. "I planned to take over the planet. I did my research."

She'd had a moment of clarity not long after that, realising that she'd been going about it from completely the wrong angle when she'd gotten it wrong once again.

"You can't not like Gandhi," she'd groaned at him dramatically. "It's Gandhi."

"Please, it's common knowledge he was a sex pest."

"Whoa! You can't say that." she'd admonished.

Loki had given her a look. "I can do whatever I like."

"He said from his prison cell," she'd drawled sarcastically, before peering at him curiously. "...Is that actually true?"

"Do your research," he'd grinned, ever-infuriatingly.

Of course, Loki didn't like the do-gooders. Why would he? They bored him. So, she had moved on instead to oddities, troublemakers and conspiracy theories.

"I've got a good one today," she insisted, with all the confidence in the world. "I think this is the one. This is the day I break you."

"I'm having the strangest sense of déjà vu," Loki pondered. "Whyever could that be?"

Reagan just ignored him, moving to the corner of the cell that she had deemed her 'lecture corner.' While she was slow in building the shields in her mind up to a satisfactory standard, the same could not be said for her projections. She'd learned to bring the objects around her with her projected self as well, using it to her advantage when pitching a new Midgardian in the form of visual aids. Loki watched her, secretly amused, as she began to stick her notes to the walls of her chambers so they would reflect into his cell. She had really upped her game since he'd knocked back so many of her suggested "likeable Midgardians."

He'd never admit it, not even to himself, but he was beginning to enjoy her company. More than that, he'd begun to look forward to the time he spent with her. While she still annoyed him to no end, there was something about her that he couldn't help but to find charming. She was overwhelmingly stubborn and could be quite the hot-head, but she was also funny and insightful and while they teased each other relentlessly, something he'd noticed about the way she poked fun at him was that she was never cruel. She was never needlessly harsh. Even when her jokes were at their driest, their most sarcastic, she never once struck him as malicious. He told himself time and time again that this was foolishness on her part - naivety. Convincing himself to believe it, however, was another matter altogether.

He was pulled from his thoughts as Reagan cleared her throat, indicating that she was ready to begin.

"Okay," she said, stepping into her lecturer persona as she spun to face Loki, who leaned back against the wall, watching her. "Today I am going to introduce to you one of the greatest human beings to ever exist. The only man in US history to ever successfully single-handedly hijack a plane, hold an entire airline hostage without harming a single person, collect a $200,000 ransom, escape by parachute, and has never been captured to this day."

Loki's eyebrow quirked and he sat up a little straighter, not saying a word. Could this really be about to happen?

"This is the story of the man, the myth, the legend - and one of my personal all-time favourite people-"

Loki couldn't suppress his smirk. This was going to be utterly delectable.

"The absolute badass known as D.B. Cooper."

She looked Loki's way, hoping for a reaction.

He couldn't resist.

"Alright, I'll admit you've piqued my interest," he said as he settled a little more comfortably into his seat, indicating that he was giving her his undivided attention. "Tell me all about this all-time favourite person of yours."

Reagan absolutely beamed at that. It was by far the most enthusiastic response she'd received from him so far and so she launched eagerly into her story with a newfound fervour, excited to think that she was at last on the right track.

"Oh my God, okay! So, let me set the scene. The year is 1971 in Portland, Oregon on Thanksgiving Eve and we are boarding a plane to Seattle. Now, we think that he picked this date because there'd be fewer people travelling. Thanksgiving is-"

"I know what Thanksgiving is," he assured her.

"Oh, great. So, security for air travel was pretty lax - you could basically just show up, buy a ticket and go where you wanted to go. And let me just tell you, one of the reasons that D.B. Cooper is so impressive-"

Loki bit down on his lip.

"-is because security was so poor, plane jackings were actually a super common occurance. They were literally happening an average of once every five days."

"Truly?"

"Yes. But no one else ever got away with them because no one really had a legitimate escape plan, just a list of demands and a destination they wanted to be taken to."

"Expect for D.B. Cooper," Loki added.

"Exactly!" Reagan agreed, excitedly. "Anyway, we board the plane, we take off, the stewardesses start handing out refreshments and when one of them got to a man wearing sunglasses who sat alone in the middle of the back row, he handed her a note. Now, she just thought he was flirting with her and so she put the note in her pocket without even reading it so Cooper actually had to call her back and be like... uh, you should read that. I've got a bomb."

Reagan seemed all too amused by the idea and Loki sat there, studying her, having to try far too hard not to smile.

"Anyway, this stewardess then comes and sits down next to Cooper. He opens a case and shows her that he has what looks like a bomb. He tells her to go to the cockpit and make his demands for him. And what he demands is $200,000 in cash, for the plane to be refuelled when they land in Seattle and four working parachutes. Which is another reason he was so smart-"

Loki had to close his eyes for a moment to maintain his composure.

"-the fact that he requested four parachutes instead of just one. So the authorities couldn't actually tamper with any in case he decided to take hostages. So the stewardess gives the pilot his demands and then goes back out and keeps talking to him, trying to get hints about who he is or where he's going. She asks if when they land he'll allow the other passengers to get off safely which he agrees to so long as he gets his money first which I think is pretty cool. And she also asks him if he's doing what he's doing because he has a grudge against the airline. And what he says to her is really interesting. He tells her he doesn't have a grudge against the airline but he does have a grudge."

Reagan continued to unfold all the events, helpfully peppering in little trivia facts along the way to give Loki context of Midgard that she assumed he'd be unaware of.

"Something I really like about him, too," Reagan said, Loki at this point was in a state of sheer disbelief that she wasn't just saying these things on purpose now. "Was that when interviewed, the hostess that he interacted with this whole time said he was really kind to her. She said he was polite and conversational, and whenever she'd start to panic he'd calm her down. In fact, when he wanted to lower the rear stairs in mid-air so that he could escape the poor girl completely freaked out because she thought she'd get sucked out and die and so he let her go into the cockpit with the pilots where she'd be safe and lowered the stairs on his own."

Reagan shrugged.

"I just think as far as thieves go, he sounds like a bit of a sweetheart."

That one almost killed him.

Reagan went on, she told him the conspiracy theories surrounding the story, delving into the most likely suspects. She spent a fair bit of time on who evidently seemed to be her favourite suspect - a transgendered woman who had not been allowed to remain in the air force due to her sex change.

Loki sat patiently through her lecture, enjoying how passionately she picked apart the story. In truth, a small part of him didn't want to spoil her fun, but a far, far bigger part of him had to see her reaction. And that was definitely the part that was going to win. In fact, there wasn't a force in the universe that could stop him from doing what he was about to do. The Atraxis themselves could come for them at that very moment and it still wouldn't deter him - he would merely find a way to make them wait their turn.

When it finally came to an end, she turned to Loki expectantly for his reaction. She was smiling brightly, confident that she'd finally won him over.

"So? What do you think?" she pressed.

Loki pulled himself from his seat and moved toward her, hands clasped behind his back as he inspected the makeshift police sketch that she'd done her best to recreate.

"Alright, I'll admit it." he gave her a quick glance, before returning his attention to the sketch. "I do like this one."

She gasped and moved closer to him, excited energy positively bursting from her.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yes, you're right. He's quite fantastic!"

She couldn't contain herself, bouncing up and down on the spot and clapping her hands.

"I mean, he really is brilliant," Loki continued. "Such a genius plan. And he sounds quite charming, daring, cool under pressure... Not to mention handsome"

He watched her, the way her brow creased with blooming suspicion even though her hesitant smile lingered in place.

"I mean... yeah..." she answered slowly, suddenly unsure. As if waiting for a punchline.

She squinted her eyes ever so slightly as she studied his features, knowing him well enough now to know when he was up to something.

He turned to her at last with a wide grin. "He sounds like quite the trickster."

Loki watched as the gears in her mind shifted into place. Her smile faltered a little and her eyes suddenly flicked between Loki and the police sketch and back again. Even as comprehension dawned on her, he could see her trying to reject it. Her whole expression began to shift and her head seemed to tilt in question against her will.

Loki gave her the tiniest of nods. It seemed to be all the confirmation she needed.

"No," she said at last.

"Oh, yes."

"No, there's no way." She walked to the other side of the cell then turned around and came back when she realised there was nowhere else to go. "That was you? You're D.B. Cooper?"

"I am, indeed."

"You're lying." she laughed.

"Not this time I'm afraid."

"No," Reagan said adamantly, her eyes flicking back to all the notes she'd pinned to the wall. "No, no, no. There's no way. It's not possible."

"It's not probable," Loki corrected. "And yet, here we are."

"Prove it."

"How can I prove it?"

"I don't know, that's not my problem."

Loki went quiet for a few moments, contemplating the details Reagan had recounted, searching for some detail she may have omitted. Another grin soon formed on his face.

"The stewardess," he said at last. "The one you said called him kind."

"Yeah..."

"Her name was Tina."

Her eyes flew wider than he'd ever thought possible.

"Son of a bitch!" Reagan exclaimed, earning another satisfied chuckle from the dark-haired god.

She stared up at him, taking in the sight of him, as if she was now seeing him from a totally new perspective.

"You're actually D.B. Cooper," she repeated once again, her fingers pressed into her temples in her state of sheer disbelief.

"I am."

"Loki... What the hell were you doing hijacking a fucking plane?!"

"I lost a bet to Thor."

"You lost a bet to..." Reagan trailed off, taking in a large, steadying breath and pinching the bridge of her nose. "I hate you so much."

"Come now, that's not true," he said lightly.

"Oh, it absolutely is."

"No, it's not," Loki protested. "Before you began your tale you called me one of your all-time favourite people."

Reagan looked up at him with fresh horror on her features. For once, utterly lost for words.

"It's always nice to meet a fan." Loki teased and her face contorted, if possible, to look even more scandalised.

Reagan's eyes darted around the room as if looking for an escape as she remembered all the compliments she'd inadvertently showered over him in the past half hour.

"Oh my god, I'm your fan!" she said, mortified. She buried her face in her hands. "Oh. This is so embarrassing."

Loki laughed out loud once more. He found himself laughing a lot more often when she was around.

"Oh god," she whined, her voice muffled by her hands as she hid her face from him. "Now I'm going to have to figure out how to erase your memory and that just sounds like sooo much work."

Loki just shook his head, thoroughly enjoying himself. His features were still stretched into a smile so wide that it was beginning to make his face ache. It had been a long time since he'd felt so gleeful.

"So, when you said you had a grudge..."

"Yes?"

"It was against Thor, wasn't it?"

"It was against Thor, yes."

"Oh, my God. You have no idea how much time I've spent wondering about D.B. Cooper's goddamn grudge. I wish I was dead."

Hours later, the novelty of the joke had worn off ever so slightly for Loki due to it's unexpected snowball effect. Once she recovered from the initial embarrassment of the situation, it turned out Reagan wanted to know every last detail about the events which had occurred on that fateful day. Every last detail.

"But was the bet to steal a plane or to get the money?"

"Neither. I owed Thor a sum, he failed to specify the type of currency. I wanted it to be something he couldn't readily spend," Loki responded. He was reclined against his pillows, one arm tucked behind his head, the other slung over his eyes to block out the light. Reagan sat cross-legged at the end of his bed, much to his chagrin, staring at him as she pressed him for detail after detail.

"Are you almost out of questions?" Loki asked for the umpteenth time.

"No," she said dismissively. "Was the bomb real?"

"No, it wasn't."

"Did you have a backup plan in case you got arrested?"

"I wasn't going to get arrested."

"But what if you did?"

"I would have just cast a spell and got away," he told her as though it was obvious.

Reagan let out a heavy sigh.

"Have you ever come to Earth as any other infamous unsolved mysteries?"

"In all honesty, I can't answer that. I wasn't even aware this was one."

"But that's so unfair," Reagan said. "I can't risk making this same mistake the next time I pitch a Midgardian. I'll die."

"Next time?" Loki repeated. "Have you not achieved your goal? I admitted to liking D.B. Cooper."

"Yeah, and obviously that doesn't count," Reagan protested. "The only Midgardian you actually admit to liking can't be you!"

Loki smirked, smugly.

"Why not? I think it's rather fitting."

"Yeah, I do have to say, it makes a lot of sense."

Loki lifted his arm away from his face to peer out at her to find she was already smirking at him rather affectionately. A matching smile involuntarily tugged the corner of his lips.

"Go on," he relented. "What else do you want to know?"

"Where'd you get the sunglasses?"