Buh-bye!

Nevaeh opened her eyes hazily and looked around; the cold breeze was flowing in through the window making her hair tingle over her face. She sat up yawning, and noticed that it was early dawn. The sun was nowhere to be seen. She knew if she slept again then she would wake up another day later, so she concluded that she needed a distraction.

She got up and went downstairs to see if Loki was up as well. She found him lying on the couch with both his hands crossed in front of him, like a vampire in a coffin, deeply asleep. Maybe for the first time ever, she thought that he looked simply breath-taking. Maybe it was due to the fact that he was strongly resembling a vampire; with his pale white cheekbones, sleek, combed back hair, gothic clothes and his locked fingers.

Nevaeh stood there for a moment before disappearing upstairs.

Loki snapped his eyes open and sat up on the couch, feeling a bit uneasy. What was she doing here when he was pretending to be fast asleep? Had she figured out that he was the monster who had started the fire? Was she plan on killing him? He would definitely kill her first if she attempted such a thing!

Loki hated feeling uncertain. This has to stop, he has to do something soon!

Nevaeh returned after two hours when Loki was completely ready. He had once again put on not-so-different-yet-different clothes, with his hair sleekly straightened backwards.

'Hey, ready to go?' Nevaeh called as she came downstairs.

'Yes.' he said, quickly getting up, 'You look better, did you do something different?' Loki asked analysing her. She had braided a few strands of her hair at the top of her head and the rest of her hair were flowing behind her. She was wearing olive green shorts, paired with a white t-shirt and the same black boots.

'Nah! Just the same old me. I had time, so,' she shrugged as they set off.

They were walking for about two hours without the occurrence of anything eventful. Loki was surprised at her refreshed enthusiasm. She was repeatedly asking him to keep the dragon's home address handy with him, just in case they ever needed to see him, which he was sure that they wouldn't. Their talks today mostly comprised of topics which were initiated by Nevaeh and Loki had sullenly participated in.

While walking down a considerably narrowed forest path, Nevaeh was smiling to herself. Loki glanced at her suspiciously. 'Why are you smiling?' he asked her. He wanted to add like a villain, but she wasn't really looking villain-y.

'Oh. We would reach the bi-frost soon and I am anxious yet excited to go home' she said.

'Why anxious? Are you on the run?' asked Loki.

'What? No! I told you arriving here was an accident! My parents would be worried about where I have been for so long! Especially since I never made it to Grammy's home. But I am pretty sure they would calm down once I tell them all the things we did!' she said, slapping him on the back, overly chirpy.

'And how does one meet with such an accident?' Loki asked as though he were talking to a slow person.

'One doesn't know! Hence, one calls it an accident!' she retorted. 'Look, I was messing with this device that I wasn't supposed to touch, and then, Boom! I was suddenly in a different place, and then I met this dude and he said that he can fix it for me, I think. Everything is blurry for some reason. And then there I was, walking out of the portal as if stepping inside my Grammy's home. But, there was fire everywhere and then I saw this green, gothic guy attempting to murder a family—'she was interrupted by Loki who clicked his tongue in impatience.

'Yes, I am familiar with the rest.' Loki said, now wondering whether everything she was saying was a lie.

'How far is the bi-frost? It can't be that far, I mean, we are trekking for two days now,' Nevaeh said. Loki knew that he had to invent something immediately.

'It isn't far! Look,' he pointed a finger at the distant outline of a hill. 'Right there, below that hill is where the bi-frost stands.' Loki lied.

'Would I need my broken device for that?' Nevaeh asked.

'You would not, no.' Loki said.

They continued walking ahead the narrow forest path when the adjacent bush fluttered. Loki sharply looked at the source of noise and spotted an injured pigeon, vaguely fluttering its wing.

'Look, Oh my god! He is injured! We should do something!' Nevaeh said, quickly kneeling beside it.

This was it. Loki laughed at her disbelievingly and waited for her to drop the act. 'What?' she snapped exasperatedly by his unacceptable expression.

'You are not seriously saying that you want to "try and help" that pigeon?' he asked laughingly.

'What the hell is so funny in that?' she asked him, now quickly getting irritated and turning her attention towards the pigeon again. Loki smirked. What indeed was funny, was the notion of a girl who knocked out a bunch of guards just for the fun of it, and was now kneeling beside a pigeon, pretending to care.

Loki was standing behind her, still looking at her disbelievingly. Fine, he thought, closing his eyes for half a second. If she wants to play games and tricks, then so can I. Loki knew that she was lying. No one can be that good without wanting something, and he remembered vividly that she had told him that she despised pigeons. Did she think that he wouldn't remember it? He remembered everything! And yet here she was, pretending to care for a pigeon, simply to gain his unachievable trust! He smiled, opening his eyes, and welcoming the upcoming chaos.

Loki opened his eyes only to watch a happy Nevaeh getting up. There was no pigeon in sight.

'Where is it?' Loki asked sharply, looking around the bushes.

'Oh, the pigeon flew away. I think it was just pretending,' she said laughingly and began walking ahead once again. Loki looked at her suspiciously before following her.

'How exactly does a pigeon pretend?' asked Loki. 'When we saw him, he looked half dead!'

'You should've asked him, I am not qualified to answer that on his behalf!' Nevaeh said smugly.

Loki scoffed. Flew away, he thought, she was lying! She probably fed that pigeon to some animal to cover her lie!

Loki squinted at her side-ways; she looked normal, more beautiful than normal, at the very least. Nevaeh's skin was glowing subtly, as they walked next to each other in the forest of Loki's beautiful Kingdom. He shook his head a little and rubbed his face by his hands.

Loki closed his eyes for a mere moment and stopped in mid track, sighing heavily. Nevaeh didn't realize it till she was a few steps ahead of him.

'Loki?' she glanced back at him, standing frozen on the ground behind her. He shook his head lightly once again.

'I – I have to go. I forgot something. Wait for me right here,' he said and started moving away from her.

Nevaeh looked at him with confusion. 'Loki! Wait! Where are you going?' she yelled wildly as he started backing away from her while apologetically raising his hands along with his eyebrows.

'I promise, I will be back! Just stay right there. Please, trust me!' Loki said, disappearing amongst the woods, and out of view.

'At least tell me how long you would be gone! Why are you leaving? We are almost there! Loki! – Loki!' she bellowed. She ran a few steps ahead, but he was nowhere to be seen…