Suspicion

It was late in the night, and they settled inside yet another suspiciously abandoned house, which was too convenient to be true for Nevaeh. After the Déjà vu of choosing a room upstairs and Loki settling on the couch, Nevaeh went downstairs to finally confront her counterpart regarding, well, everything.

'Hello there!' Nevaeh said, appearing suddenly behind Loki and making him turn around in mild surprise.

'Hi,' Loki said quickly standing up. Nevaeh scoffed; she hated when people responded incorrectly. She took his seat on the couch.

Sighing, Loki settled on the floor, and watched her rather awkwardly.

'So, buddy, what's up?' Nevaeh asked, being sarcastically sweet, but he could watch the words, or possibly curses, rising inside her mouth and her eyebrows twitching in an unpleasant manner. 'WHAT – WERE – YOU – THINKING—'she began screeching at the top of her lugs, but Loki cut her off mid-sentence, 'Listen, there is always an explain—'

'Oh no, sir! You went down right crazy and—'

'But, I was just—'

'I was being nothing but a delight, and you—'

'WILL YOU LISTEN?' Loki asked, clicking his fingers sharply in front of her nose in an exasperated manner. 'I am –'he paused and took a deep breath, 'I am sorry,' he said finally. 'We don't know each other well and my thoughts led to a little conflict inside my mind. What I did was wrong. I never meant to upset you' he said quietly, looking at her with innocent eyes.

Before she could respond, Loki quickly continued, 'I am mad at you as well though, because when someone does something foolish, you don't just walk away, you fight back! To make that unexpected farewell even more pleasant, you threw a rock at my head, and threatened me with a boulder!' he said wiggling an accusatory finger at her.

'I throw stuff when I am angry, and I am sorry for that. I was just scared when you acted like that. You yelled at me!' she said. Suddenly, Loki felt a little twinge of guilt inside his chest. This can't be! Was he really feeling bad for making a human a little scared?

'I am sorry for scaring you' Loki admitted immediately.

'Don't worry about it. I am glad we sort this out, because the walk till here was pretty awkward. It's good that we broke the ice' she said happily. Loki chose to ignore her last word.

Soon, Nevaeh wanted to know all about Loki's journey while she told him regarding hers. Loki was glad to find out that she had a pleasant time, despite their separation, and listened all about her adventures which solely included her and that demonic creature. He sensed that she was strongly missing him. Loki wondered if she felt the same when he wasn't around her, but suddenly stopped; why was he comparing his presence with that of a baby demon?

'Where did you learn to speak Dragon language?' she asked curiously, again cupping her cheeks with her palms, and looking down expectantly at Loki from the couch as though they were in a slumber party.

'They are the local creatures here, so one gets quite familiar with them,' Loki said, which was again a tiny lie.

'Yet, one was being attacked by the familiar creatures' she mocked, 'Seriously, how can you be both familiar with the language and with the dragons themselves, yet somehow manage to end up being attacked by them?' Nevaeh asked disbelievingly, 'I was speaking to Crystal non-stop without even knowing that he is capable of understanding what I was saying!' she said proudly.

Loki felt indignant. 'Stop bragging, girl. You met a harmless baby! The ones surrounding me were his old, bitter ancestors! And who in the universe names a male dragon "Crystal", anyway? He hates that name!' Loki lied. He had no idea what the demon thought of its new name.

Nevaeh dramatically gasped in horror, 'No, he doesn't! He loves it! He has to love it – because that is his name!' declared Nevaeh.

'Hey, did you catch what they were saying as soon as Crystal arrived back there and they were rolling around? I heard them making a lot of noises to each other while I was yelling at him,' she asked Loki.

'He was saying something about wanting a dead star,' Loki scratched his chin. 'One can never be sure. Some dragons are outlandishly crazy!'

They kept talking about dragons, and after a while, Loki hesitantly asked her a question which was bothering him since a long time. 'Why did you try to save me?' Loki asked quietly.

'Huh?'

'You heard me' said Loki, glancing at her with tad suspicion for giving such a feebly dumb response.

'Why did I save you?' Nevaeh asked, raising an eyebrow.

'Yes, why? You threw a rock at me, which hit me right on the head and then you threatened me with a boulder! One would conclude that you want to incur harm! Well, any rational person might. Then why did you try to save me?' Loki asked, almost hissing.

'First of all, I did save you. Secondly, the rock was thrown due to anger, and my intention was not "to incur harm" Geez, lighten up!' Nevaeh said, frowning at him.

'Figures. Why would anyone even want to harm me? I look spectacular' Loki said airily. Nevaeh nodded in agreement.

'Yes, you look like a slightly evil witch who can turn towards the light,' she said, wiping the smile off Loki's face.

An annoyed Loki waved his hand unnoticeably. Out of the blue, for reasons unknown, Nevaeh was suddenly getting up and calling it a night.

'Night, Loki' she sang as she went upstairs.

'Good night, annoying human,' Loki said, but he didn't lie down, instead he quickly got up.

Loki knew that his sudden outburst had alarmed Nevaeh, but he was sure that she would get over it. Loki was never the one to lose control of his emotions and snap under the situation. Deep inside his heart, he knew that the core of his anger was due to one fact; that Odin had conveniently fallen into Odin-Sleep when it was time for him to answer his lies. Things were beyond his control regarding his father, but the same could not be said about his mother. The thought had been running in his mind since he'd left the palace, but the sight of his mother explaining her husband's faulty actions was not the one he wanted to experience. But, he needed to know. He needed to hear a soothing explanation that would give him enough emotional stability to rule his kingdom.

Loki stood still on the spot when a hint of green gleamed brightly on his chest. He teleported himself inside his bedchamber. He hadn't stepped inside the palace since he had left it in anger.

He flicked his arm to make his decoy illusion disappear and started walking towards the all-father's chamber. He entered and saw Frigga sitting quietly beside Odin, staring at him through slightly unfocused eyes.

'Mother' Loki said, announcing his presence and sitting opposite to her. 'How are you feeling?'

Frigga shrugged his question off but fixed her gaze on Loki.

Loki watched Odin sleeping inside the glowing veil, deep in Odin-Sleep and he closed his eyes for a moment while his mother quietly watched him. He had to come here himself. He had to see his mother. He opened his eyes and looked at her while she watched him back. 'I never get used to seeing him like this,' Loki said finally after the long silence. They were talking about Odin's health, but Loki couldn't keep the words inside his mouth any longer. The only question he wanted to ask his mother, while looking her in the eye.

'So why did he lie?' Loki asked Frigga.

'He kept the truth from you so that you would never feel different. You are our son, Loki and we, your family' she said with a hint of pain in her voice, 'We mustn't loose hope that your father will return to us, and your brother' she finished looking at Loki intently.

Loki was taken aback, Thor was banished, what did she mean? 'What hope is there for Thor?' he asked her quickly.

'There's always a purpose to everything your father does,' Frigga said, 'the same thing can be said for me, but I tend to be more careless than him.' she smiled.

Loki internally scoffed. He would take all the necessary action required to ensure that Thor will not return back to Asgard, at least not till Loki figures out his own path to glory.

After he left Odin's chambers, Loki went to the great hall to look at the throne. He had waited excruciatingly long for this moment, yet his face was stony. He strutted onwards and sat on the throne, exhaling a long breath. Loki scoffed again; it didn't feel special. Why would it? When Thor was about to be the King, everyone was making a fuss over him. He had a coronation, he received everyone's love and appreciation, and when it was Loki's turn, nobody cared. Because nobody wanted him on the throne, not even Odin. He couldn't enjoy the throne as much as he had expected. He wondered if the lack of his excitement is caused from not conquering the throne himself, and because he just received it because he was the only one left.

Loki's illusion stayed behind, as an invisible Loki got up from the throne, and teleported himself back to the house in the forest.

He began pacing the length of the room contemplating his entire day's events with the mortal. Loki thought that he'd dodged a bullet back there in the forest; he was literally fighting almost 7 dragons' moments before Nevaeh had a view of the place. She could've easily found out that there was nothing regular about him.

Loki kept pacing the length of the room, thinking. He yelled and screamed at her, yet she saved him. She threatened to hit him, and now claims to do that in pure anger. Loki scoffed, the girl was clearly lying, and his judgement was too clouded to see it, as it always was.

She had stormed off completely in the opposite direction, yet when Loki was in minor trouble, she had conveniently reached there with a bejewelled dragon to play hero. Now that's convenient, Loki thought.

His brain was bubbling with confusion. The girl clearly wants something from me, maybe she already suspects that I am something that can be used, just like my father did. Loki knew that even if all the dragons would have fired at once towards him, he wouldn't have died, but she wasn't aware of this. Saving someone's life implies placing them in a life debt, so that when she would eventually ask for something beyond despicable in return, he would have no other option but to obey.

Loki thought to himself; of course, there was an ulterior motive in her mind, and what that is, he would find out soon. He had been taking things too lightly, trekking with a girl who somehow managed to knock out his guards and befriend a vicious demon. There was something more to Nevaeh than she was letting on, and he was lost for whether it was a good-more, or a bad-more. Loki made a mental note of paying more attention to her behaviour.

'Who is always that chirpy anyway?' Loki said out-loud, scoffing, 'fake,' he muttered, before shutting his eyes tightly.