Living low-key

It was a long journey, but the two kept walking without breaking a sweat. Loki had no intention of telling her how near the Bi-frost really was, all the while leading the way far away from their intended destination.

'This place seems nice and calming, yet I crashed in a war zone. Typical.' she said smugly. But it wasn't beautiful. Loki had deliberately and quite unnecessarily changed their surrounding nature to look more… dark. Just like he was feeling. Nevertheless, he kept walking ahead without letting it show. Loki always knew how to keep up appearances.

'Crashing? Well, I have never seen anybody crashing with such grace, as you did. Speaking of which, who are you?' inquired Loki.

'I am a lady' she said, raising her chin up.

'Don't flatter yourself, little one.' he laughed, 'But you must have a name?'

'My name is Nevaeh, and you must be – Count Dracula?' she smirked.

'I am Loki, Pri—'he paused. 'My name is Loki.'

'Loki, huh? That's cute.' Nevaeh said.

'No, it's not.' Loki muttered, but quickly continued after watching her pouting face, 'You must have a last name, as well?'

'Do you?' she asked, glancing side-ways at him. Loki decided to drop the topic then and there.

No doubt he was intrigued and had many questions in his mind, but he wondered, what good would come out of this? Disclosing family matters? Families are wildly overrated!

Loki needed to know the reason behind his change of appearance when she entered Asgard. How did she enter Asgard, that too without needing the Bi-frost? Why did he freeze? What did he see? How did she knock out the guards and break his staff? What was in that little device that made an icy chill run down his body? The questions inside his mind were increasing with the number of breaths he took. Loki was facing a conundrum, he wanted to know all about her, while maintaining his own privacy, without disclosing anything personal about himself that the girl could use against him in the future if she needed, as people often did. He decided to avoid asking mutually applicable questions all together, in order to avoid her interrogation regarding his life.

Although, he could just make her spill every detail, being a master manipulator and what not, but again, what was the fun in that? Loki decided to appear as a mortal to her, lacking even the slightest of power, which would be quite difficult for himself.

A sharp metallic click pulled him out of his thoughts and the sight of Nevaeh halting to light a cigarette mildly surprised him.

'You are a smoker?' he asked amusedly.

'Yeah and a drinker too.' She pulled out a blue thermos from her bag and offered it to Loki, 'Strawberry shake?' she asked politely.

'I am fine, thank you. Say, you are an intellectual? Riddle me this, is it logical for a mortal to smoke?' Loki asked snidely, bending a little while passing beneath a low hanging tree.

Nevaeh halted in her track. 'Are you implying that you are not a mortal? What are you then?' she asked quickly.

'What am I?' Loki raised his eyebrows. 'I am not going to dignify that with a response.'

Although she did seem pretty confident of herself as she walked alongside Loki, he had a feeling that she was anxious. They were strolling down a suspiciously muddy path, which was too dirty to be a part of Asgard, thanks to Loki's unnecessary trickery.

Loki glanced at her side-ways and sighed. He had the ability to journey for days without feeling tired, but she was a mere human. It was past midnight and Loki wondered how long she could keep up with this path before feeling the need of nesting for a shelter.

'How many times have you been here before?' Loki asked.

'None. Actually, I have no idea where I am right now. I just to need leave as soon as possible. What is this place called, anyway?' Nevaeh asked.

Loki halted in his tracks. He couldn't understand how one can know nothing about Asgard yet land within it by the help of an out-of-order device. Humans weren't known for doing such things. Loki thought it as illogical to lie to her about where she is and the girl was smart enough to find out the truth about her whereabouts even if Loki tricked her.

'Asgard,' he replied, refraining from further comments. She giggled.

He looked at her with confusion, 'What is so funny?'

'Nothing. Sorry. So, where is this place exactly? How come I have never heard of Asgard?' Nevaeh asked.

'Lack of knowledge is common among humans—'Loki paused mid-sentence after watching her halt in mid-track and turn around to watch him through perplexed eyes.

'Humans? What are you—'she paused, but quickly continued, 'Asgard is like some unknown village I have never heard of, right?'

'More like a planet.' Loki admitted, although he understood her confusion. The girl hadn't seen anything other than the forest, a distressed family, some guards and his own dashing self.

Nevaeh was blinking in stunned silence. She slowly spun on the spot, looking at everything through rapidly blinking eyes. 'A planet?'

'Uh-huh.'

She shot Loki an exasperated look, as though Uh-huh wasn't a good enough response when someone finds out that they are standing on a completely different, alien planet.

'Dude – are you serious right now?' Nevaeh hushed, but immediately snorted, 'How – how is this possible? I mean – I don't understand. We have our own planets, but Asgard isn't one of them. I mean – an inhabitable planet we have never heard of – what the fruit-cup!' she was looking thoroughly bewildered.

Loki decided to put her mortal brain to rest. He started ahead on the tracks and motioned her to do the same. 'Yes, Asgard is a planet. Humans don't know about Asgard because, well, they are ignorant.'

Nevaeh nodded in the slightest. 'I can't defend my species when I am walking on a planet we have no clue about. So – where does Asgard stand exactly? The order from sun is – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. So where is Asgard? Is it the ninth planet? I mean –'Nevaeh paused to catch a breath.

'Okay, stop talking.' Loki said, 'Allow me to talk.' Loki began telling her how Asgard doesn't have an orbit and all about the nine realms, internally wondering how interesting and easier the explanation would've been if he had used his magic to show her the same. He expected her to get more confused, but she was quite literally glowing with happiness by the time he finished speaking.

'Wow, I don't believe this. If there are so many planets, the issue of over population could vanish! I mean – Earth is getting a little crowded. There are so many people –'Nevaeh was interrupted as Loki started sniggering.

'Yeah, humans can't stay here. They already have a planet. It's not our fault that they are burning through their resources like brainless maniacs' Loki laughed. He waited for her to defend her species this time, but she merely chuckled.

'So, tell me, Loki, what makes Asgard special?' she asked chirpily.

'It is nowhere close to special,' Loki stated instinctively. 'The squabbles over the throne, bloodshed and war, the royal family drama and tedious battles with the same consequences stuck in an infinite loop. That is what makes Asgard a cliché, but not quite special,' he finished and took a long breath, halting in his tracks. Nevaeh opened her mouth to speak, but Loki quickly continued, 'Let's call it a night, shall we? We can start afresh at dawn.'

'What? Are you saying that we will not be trekking the entire night? I wanted to see the stars which cannot be seen under this dark tree cover!' she pointed a finger upwards.

'Yeah, well. No stars to see here,' Loki said simply. He shadily twisted his wrist; a small fluttering piece of square paper appeared in his palm. He stroked it once gently before it went soaring out of his hand and towards the adjacent woods.

'Where would we even find a shelter? Let's just keep walking,' she added and started along. Loki quickly turned her in the opposite direction by her shoulder and pointed towards what looked like a little storeyed house, which Nevaeh could've swore wasn't there when they first arrived here.

'Isn't – isn't that a bit too convenient? Nevaeh asked with mild suspicion. Whose house is it?'

'You don't have to worry about that,' Loki said.

'You are definitely normal, right? Because if you turn into monster, or a Dracula, and try to kill me, I swear to God, I will split you in half. Just like Kenobi did with Darth Maul,' she finished in what felt like a threatening voice, but her odd words didn't entirely sound like a threat.

'I have no idea what that means, but I will take your word for it.' Loki retorted, walking towards the front door.

'Is this your home?' she enquired.

Loki snorted bitterly. 'No.'

'So, we are breaking and entering the house?'

'No and no,' Loki replied curtly, opening the front door.

The house was too clean and pleasant to be true for Nevaeh. The living room was carpeted with green, containing a sofa, a couch and a dining table. The adjacent stairs led upstairs, painted in white.

The square paper was a fold-out house, that had been quite handy for Loki since centuries. The parchment was originally a fold-out resting chamber which was often used during long battles by einherjar and warriors. But, Loki had redecorated it by his finger, turning it into mortal accommodation.

'What is a cute, little rustic place doing in a patch like this?' Nevaeh said, looking around the house. 'And why isn't anybody home? This is a bit too clean – so there must be people living in here and they must be highly—'Loki cut her off mid-sentence. 'You worry too much. No more questions,' he ordered.

Nevaeh scoffed, 'Whatever, man. I am going upstairs to find myself a room'

'I would settle right here. You go ahead and settle in as well. We will leave at the break of dawn, so be rested. It is a long journey tomorrow' Loki said, making himself comfortable on the living room couch. Neveah gave him a nod and trotted above.

She found a nice room upstairs, and took a look around. It was painted in a warm pink. A wooden, comfortable-looking bed sat right in the middle of the room, next to which was a window sporting the forest's view. She observed that there were no personal aspects to the house; no pictures, paintings or memorabilia of any sort.

'Odd,' she muttered, but jumped in the bed, nevertheless.

It had been such a long day. She longed for her home and wondered how foolish she had been to land in a situation like this. Nevaeh sighed heavily and closed her eyes. Father was right, I have no knowledge regarding the world. May be this journey would benefit me. I am in a new place and no one knows anything about me which is convenient. Especially when at times people have called me "dangerous to be around", thought Nevaeh. But Loki didn't think of me as dangerous. Odd, sure, but not dangerous, otherwise he wouldn't be sleeping right downstairs.

Nevaeh recalled that she knocked out four soldiers within seconds, and yet, he voluntarily participated in showing her the way. Maybe that was normal behaviour for the people of Asgard, she thought as she sat up straight and slowly pulled out a book from her bag-pack. She searched the pages for a blue feather, which was her bookmark, and submerged herself in the printed words, while quietly drowning her worrisome thoughts.

Below a few flights of stairs, on a couch nearby, Loki was lying down and staring at the ceiling unblinkingly. A few hours ago, he was burning down his home planet – or at least the planet he grew up on, but it was unintentional as the source of all the chaos was purely his rage. His fury had led to a fire so wild that they would be still putting it out. And yet here he was, calm as a nun, casually lying on a couch, and secretly protecting a mortal, all the while pretending to just help her find her way back home.

Why this charade? He wondered and shifted in his couch. Why not just dump the mortal back where she came from within seconds, and continue your quest for greatness and power? And what was the girl even thinking?

The moment she arrived, Loki was literally threatening a family with children in it, and yet here she was, exactly upstairs, probably asleep. Loki sighed heavily and closed his eyes. How can she even be sure that I am a good person? I can kill her while she is sleeping with my bare hands. What if I were a monster? She barely even knows me! But I am a monster, he thought. An icy chill ran down his spine. He pushed out his toxic thoughts and stretched his senses, to see what was going with his decoy.

Several miles away inside the palace of Asgard, Loki's illusion sat on the throne, holding Gungnir in his right hand and smiling to himself. He had just dismissed Sif and The Warriors Three who wished to bring him back. Thor was not coming back to Asgard, at least not till Loki had done something about the things he had in his mind.

'Are you asleep?' a voice came from behind.

Loki made a startled little sound. His shut eyes snapped open. 'What are you doing? Why aren't you asleep?' Loki demanded, quickly standing up and brushing his clothes.

'I couldn't sleep,' Nevaeh said, and took his place on the couch.

'Maybe you are hungry. Here, take this apple' Loki said, conjuring one out of thin air behind his back and offering it to her.

'Thank you, that is very kind. Where did you get that, anyway?' she asked taking it, and raising an eyebrow.

'I found it in the fruit basket.' Loki lied.

'Sure, sure,' she took a bite. 'So what is troubling you?'

'Nothing. Why? Do I look troubled?' he asked, standing and watching her eat the apple as she sat comfortably on his couch.

'I asked because you weren't asleep, troublesome thoughts are mainly key to that,' she said, nodding wisely.

Loki could've easily conjured a chair out of thin air, or even a bed, but that would've hinted at him being more than your average-Asgardian local boy, so Loki merely sighed, settling on the floor instead, silently wondering how much humbler he'd have to be to participate in this charade. He looked at her but said nothing.

'Fine, don't tell me,' she shrugged while lighting a cigarette. 'Tell me, what is your favourite colour? I am guessing green?' she asked after blowing the first smoke behind her back.

'I do not have a preference for colours. I am not a teenage girl!' Loki snapped.

'Mine is black. I like all the colours. Except orange'

'What is wrong with orange?

'I don't like the colour. I don't own anything orange other than that time when I used to play basket-ball, in which case the ball was orange,' Nevaeh told him. 'You know, there was this one time when Father's day was approaching and my little cousin asked for a fluorescent-orange pig as a gift from his father. I would've understood if it were at least yellow!' Nevaeh finished, wrinkling her nose and she started laughing hysterically, making Loki frown.

'I don't understand. Did he wish to roast the pig for the Father's day feast?' asked a confused Loki.

'What? No!' she started laughing even harder. 'You misunderstand. He wanted an orange piggy bank, you know – to put money inside it? What are you talking about?' she finished, frowning laughingly. Loki felt a tad silly and started to snigger himself.

'You said earlier about squabbles over throne, I have watched that stuff in movies.' Nevaeh paused to tap the ash off her cigarette tip inside another spare, empty cigarette box. 'But, is that true? Is – is Asgard under dictatorship?' Loki felt a slight tremble in her voice when she asked that last question.

'I wouldn't call it dictatorship. Asgard is a vast kingdom—'Loki paused to watch her jaw drop dramatically.

'A kingdom? Man, that is so cool,' she hushed. 'So, Asgard has a King and Queen who rule – a part of it?' she asked with uncertainty.

Loki shook his head. She clapped a hand over her dropped jaw. 'They rule the entire planet?' she asked disbelievingly, her voice muffling under her fingers.

Loki nodded slowly. He didn't understand why she was making such a big deal over his kingdom. His kingdom. Loki imagined her reaction if he revealed that he was the King of Asgard at this very moment as they spoke. That she was sitting in front of the king himself, but he bit that urge.

'Tell me, Loki, what is Asgard's royal family like? And explain the squabbles-thingy you mentioned earlier,' she said interestedly, cupping her cheeks with her palms, her eyes gleaming with curiosity.

Loki sighed heavily, thinking that he had brought this upon himself when he'd mentioned the kingdom. 'It is not that interesting. The king has two sons and – they both fight over the throne.'

'That's it? You just provided a textbook definition of 'squabbles-over-throne' That's not good enough! Who is the king? What is his name?' she asked

'Odin,' Loki answered in one word, trying to keep this as short as he could.

'And the haughty princes?' Nevaeh giggled, slyly winking at him, as though he were a little girl who owned ponies.

Loki laughed, 'Thor and—'he paused, and looked at her expectant, curious eyes. 'Ikol,' he said after a few seconds.

'Thor and Ikol? Nevaeh frowned. 'Does every name on Asgard consists four alphabets? Loki, Thor, Odin, Ikol—'Nevaeh was counting on her fingers, but Loki quickly interjected. 'The queen is Frigga! With two 'G's.' Loki started counting on his fingers too. 'F-R-I-G-G-A. Six alphabets, see? Nothing odd here.'

'Oh, alright. Anyway, what do the princes' look like?' she asked, her questions never ending, but Loki answered this one with the utmost delight.

'Thor looks like a smelly oaf, whereas Ikol is slim, splendid and simply spectacular,' said a grinning Loki, who was quickly getting fond of this talk. Berating his brother indeed gave him a hint of satisfaction and lying to the girl was ridiculously easy. She was believing everything he said without thinking twice.

'Well, if Ikol is so spectacular, then why do they keep fighting? Why not just make him the king? And does their dad – Odir – even want to step down from the throne?' asked Nevaeh, as though they were discussing a movie.

'Odin.' Loki corrected her. 'It's never that easy. Their petty squabbles have tormented this realm for decades, even centuries.'

'Huh? Say what? Exactly how old are these dudes?' she asked gaping at him.

Loki laughed, 'Let's just say old.'

'And what about your family? Are they okay with you journeying with me? Have you contacted them to let them know about your whereabouts?' she asked politely. Nevaeh watched Loki's face twitch in an unpleasant manner.

There was a short silence which was broken by the words, 'I have none. They are all dead. I am an orphan.' Loki's eyes looked unfocused, staring at something beyond the adjacent solid wall.

'Oh my god, Loki. I am so sorry,' she said quietly, her voice barely audible. Loki nodded quietly. There was a long moment of silence, this time broken by Nevaeh suddenly bursting into tears. Loki swiftly got up and sat next to her, utterly bewildered.

'What in the universe happened to you?' asked Loki.

Nevaeh was sobbing, tears flowing down her cheeks. Loki conjured a napkin out of thin air and gave it to her, which went completely unnoticed by the latter, who in turn took the napkin and dabbed her eyes over it.

'If I had known, I wouldn't have brought it up. I am such a – moron. You never once – mentioned your family. I should've taken a hint! I am more than smart enough, but I just couldn't – shut up!' she sobbed in between her words.

'Hold on, you are flooding the couch because of them? I thought you were just going berserk.' Loki said laughingly. 'This is funny. If you hadn't told me, I would've never guessed that in a millennia.'

Loki realised that she had stopped crying now and was looking at him in mild confusion. He wondered if his lie about being an orphan had touched a nerve somewhere. 'You never speak about your parents either. Are you an orphan as well?' Loki asked her casually.

Nevaeh shot him an annoyed look. 'Oh my god, no' she scowled.

'You know, you don't have to say my name in every other sentence, or synonyms of it,' mumbled Loki, in a voice that was barely audible.

'My mom, my father, my dog. I have one best friend, and one master. That's my family,' she said, sniffling her nose.

Now it was Loki's turn to frown. 'Master? You look nothing like a slave!' he said, perplexed. Nevaeh paused a moment to shake her head. 'By master, I meant – a teacher. My teacher.'

'And what does this master teach you? Archery? Prayers? Discipline? How to petrify well-skilled, out-worldly guards?' Loki asked interestedly.

'More like math, but sorry to disappoint you,' she said, smiling thinly.

'You don't have any brothers or sisters?' Loki asked.

'I am an only child. But I do want a sibling. Even now, but that is not possible. So, I complain on this topic on a weekly basis and nag my parents. I keep track. I have a chart drawn of it' she finished smugly. Loki wondered to himself if she was exaggerating certain elements.

'Trust me, you do not need a brother,' Loki waved his arm in firm disapproval. He suddenly adopted the tone of voice of a person who was attempting to teach an important life lesson to the young and naïve. 'You are better off alone. You have your parent's undivided love, attention, devotion, and care. When you have a sibling, everything gets divided in half. Sometimes, even your very soul gets torn apart in half.' Loki said those last words without thinking them through and he quickly glanced at her.

'You took a dark turn there somewhere, but sure, I will take your word for it,' Nevaeh said, glancing at him through slightly squinted eyes.

Loki was amused at her utter lack of grasping his meaning and thanked her naivety. Loki wondered what was so unique about her presence which made him blurt out his feelings in such an unexpected manner, which was quite surprising for himself because his silver tongue was usually not the kind to slip under such shady circumstances.

'So, what were you exactly doing back there? In the woods? Pointing that golden rod-thingy at that poor, little family?' Nevaeh asked in a slight accusatory tone. Loki didn't like accusations, especially correct ones.

'I was protecting the kids from the fire!' Loki snapped.

'It looked like you had kidnapped the kids and were threatening their parents,' Nevaeh said. Loki wondered if she had noticed that much, then why in Helheim had she agreed on his company.

'I was merely asking for an explanation upon their incorrect absence at such a time. I can't help it if it looked that way. But I do have a soft spot for lost, lonely and frightened boys who were abandoned by their parents' Loki said bitterly. He watched her open her mouth just to close it again. Loki had a feeling that she was about to say something consoling. He waited. He needed consolation.

'So, who started the fire?' Nevaeh asked.

Loki's fists clenched; this was not what he had expected. 'A monster,' Loki said. Other than self-torture, Loki's hobbies also included scaring lost girls from all around the nine realms.

Nevaeh's eyes twinkled. 'For real? There was a monster back there?' she hushed, as if asking about a harmless unicorn. Loki nodded.

She clapped her hands together in excitement. 'Holy Sith! I want to see it!' she cried, clapping a hand on his back. 'How did I not see the monster? I could've fought it and saved Asgard's folks!' she said in a heroic voice. Loki had yet another urge of revealing that he was the monster she wanted to kill, but he immediately supressed it, thinking that he knew better than to be honest.

'How? By attempting to drown him in your strawberry shake?' Loki arched an eyebrow.

Her face flushed with redness. 'I meant – I could've burnt it by my lighter or something. Never mind that! Tell me, are there frequent monster-attacks on Asgard?' she asked.

Loki had a rising suspicion that she was trying to change the topic on purpose, and a monster-related topic was not something that he was agreeing with at this moment. Especially, after the peculiarly disastrous day he had suffered.

'No! It is approximately 4 hours till dawn. Are you sleepy yet?' asked Loki.

'I am not, no. How far is that bi-thingy again?' she asked

'Pretty far' Loki said. She was about to ask another question, but Loki waved his arm in an unnoticeable and unusual manner.

'Oh, okay,' said Nevaeh, suddenly yawning as she got up from the couch, looking tired out of the blue. 'I am going upstairs and sleep for a while.'

'Alright,' Loki said innocently, feigning surprise at her sudden change of mind.

'Night, Loki,' she sang as she went upstairs. Loki sank low on the couch in a blinking second, glad to escape her harsh interrogation.

'Good night, little human,' he sang back, and smiled to himself, 'Such a mortal.' He turned in his spot, falling asleep within minutes.