"I Left"

'You – scared me – so – much!' she sobbed as tears fell down her cheeks. 'I thought you were –'but she couldn't finish the sentence, so she kept sobbing.

Loki had his eyes shut as he felt her tremble under his glowing body. He had no idea where he was, had no clue how she had found him, was lost for the odds of him being alive, but he couldn't care less about all of that at the moment. In this moment, when he was clutching the hysterically sobbing girl, who was hell-bent on keeping him alive and close to her, the girl whose heart was blinking gold along with his own.

A tear drop rolled down Loki's nose. 'Fate – chose heaven,' Loki said, smiling lightly. Nevaeh turned to look at him, but there was no questioning look on her face. On the contrary, her bloodshot and tearful eyes turned narrow and her face cracked into a knowing frown.

'Heaven or hell; Leaving that question to fate?' Nevaeh said. Loki's eyes grew wide, answering Nevaeh's question. 'I heard it right before you fell –'

'You heard it?' asked a wide-eyed, golden Loki and received a nod as a response. Loki sighed, laughing warmly. On any given day he would've badgered her with questions, but after the recent events, he simply kept smiling and gazed into her eyes. 'Well, you are heaven, aren't you, Nevaeh?' Loki whispered, putting a strand of wet hair behind her ear.

'I had no idea you realized that,' Nevaeh said, her cheeks turning a deep shade of red.

'I knew you were heaven-like when I first set my eyes on you. As far as your name is concerned, I realized the depth of it the instant you revealed it,' Loki said.

'You are the one who is looking heavenly right now,' hushed Nevaeh. Her eyes were reflecting the glow of Loki's regenerating skin.

'Because of you. Whatever you did, Nevaeh, I will be forever grateful. I almost saw a white line back there—'he was interrupted as Nevaeh clapped a hand over his mouth and closed her eyes.

'How did this happen?' Nevaeh asked quietly, withdrawing her hand.

'Thor returned! Need I say more?' Loki said scathingly, but continued after a scoff. 'We were having a few disagreements, when father woke up – and I told him about my idea,' Loki said quietly.

'Your dad woke up? But that is so good, Loki! How did he wake up?' she asked happily.

Loki stared at her through cold eyes. 'He woke up when we were fighting –'

'I thought you said you guys were merely arguing—'

'It's quite the same thing with us.' said Loki. 'Anyway, my father rejected my plan – and – I let go.' His eyes turned misty as he stared outside the bubble into the darkness.

'Let go of what?'

'Them. All of them. I left,' Loki said.

'Loki, what did you do?' whispered Nevaeh.

'There was no point, Nevaeh. I had thought of commencing my plan for almost a year now, and then not only Thor ruins it, but my father dignifies my honourably brilliant gesture by saying, and I quote, "No, Loki" while looking me dead in the eye,' he spat, tears falling down his cheeks. 'Nothing I do shall ever be right in his eyes and now, he has his beloved son by his side. Thor has returned and I can bear no longer to stay beneath his shadows. So I left Asgard,' Loki said, rubbing his eyes roughly.

Nevaeh was blinking at him in stunned silence. 'So they just let you leave?' she asked disbelievingly, wondering if she ever said that to her family, they would ground her forever.

'I am not a child, Nevaeh!' snapped Loki as though he had just read her mind. 'I can leave whenever I want to!'

'Did they ask you when you would be returning?'

Loki laughed mirthlessly. 'I was pretty clear that I shall never return. I was as clear as anyone needs me to be in such a situation.'

Nevaeh was cautiously looking at Loki as if expecting him to burst into tears any moment, but he just stared coldly back at her. 'But will you not miss them?'

Loki laughed again. 'I am not a child,' he repeated.

'Agree to disagree. But you know what I mean! You literally just got your brother back! Your father finally woke up from his mystical coma! You could have had a proper conversation with him, ask him all the questions you—'

Nevaeh paused in mid-sentence when Loki sharply got up and took a lungful of air. 'Actions speak louder than words! And both his actions and words were hell-bent on rejecting ME!' spat Loki as Nevaeh stood up, getting alarmed. 'His last words to me were 'NO, LOKI! – NO! – ALWAYS – NO!' he bellowed tearfully. An alarmed Nevaeh quickly went towards him when she saw the bubble rumbling under the anger in his voice.

'I get it! One would think that I have lived a pretty full life but I know how you feel! There were things I wanted to do and couldn't because my parents wouldn't let me! And that's fine, Loki. It is normal to feel angry, but it is just pathetic to sit by and do nothing about it!' finished Nevaeh fumingly, making Loki wonder about her words.

'What did you want that you do not already have?' Loki asked amusedly, as though he wasn't just screaming at the top of his lungs.

'It doesn't matter! Now tell me how you managed to land so dramatically,' demanded Nevaeh.

'I landed in New York, yes?' asked Loki.

'Yes, in the middle of the ocean,' Nevaeh informed him.

Loki took a seat inside the bubble, touching its surface. 'And you arrived here inside this ball? And found me where, and how?'

'It's a bubble! And no, I made it after finding you. It would've been tediously slow to travel inside it, and also, I don't know if one can even do that,' Nevaeh said.

Loki sighed looking at a standing Nevaeh and gestured her to take a seat next to him. She did as she was gestured. Loki touched the surface of the bubble, emitting a pale blue light which enveloped it wholly. It started moving ahead, gliding very slowly, but smoothly as though the water were sky. 'This way we can catch up and reach closer to home at the same time.'

Nevaeh laughed, looking around the bubble which was now glowing blue under the sea. After her relief of Loki's increasingly healing body, Nevaeh could finally take a proper look around the enormous depths of the ocean. They were surrounded with nothing but water and darkness.

Nevaeh raised her wand and flicked it, sending a blue spark to match with the colour of their bubble. It went forward, lighting their path as they glided ahead. Nevaeh exhaled a long breath, finally watching here and there as little, alarmed fishes hid in their multi-coloured rocks to peek at their moving slower-than-a-turtle-bubble. They were so deep inside the ocean that the only light was the one hovering ahead their pale blue bubble.

'So, you like capes now? Tell me, who was the inspiration behind this odd choice of clothing?' Loki asked slyly, glancing sideways at her.

Nevaeh scoffed, untying the knot at the front of her neck. 'This is not a cape! It is a cloak.' She grabbed the sopping wet cloak and put it on her lap. Loki was looking at the cloth with a heavy frown on his face. He gazed back and forth at it and Nevaeh, who was bending ahead while grunting a little, reaching out her arm to grab her wand which was lying at the far opposite end inside the bubble.

Loki sighed again, straightening Nevaeh by her shoulder and flicking his finger to make her wand come soaring towards her in a flying second. Nevaeh caught the wand and scoffed lightly; she could've easily reached out for it!

The Cloak was dripping water inside their bubble, but before Nevaeh could even raise her wand to dry it out, a still-heavily-frowning Loki gently ran his index finger over the cloak making it dry, warm and toasty in yet another blinking second.

'Alright, then. I will just sit here and look pretty,' Nevaeh said, rolling her eyes and raising her wand to dry her own wet hair. Loki heard her voice as though it came from a distance. He distractedly ran his hand through her hair making it as dry, shiny and smooth as before.

Nevaeh chuckled and shifted in her seat to take a good look at a silent Loki while placing her wand aside. Loki picked up the cloak in his hands. He laughed lightly as he rubbed it by his fingers. 'Am I dreaming?' Loki whispered, staring wide-eyed at the black cloak, his hands trembling ever so slightly as he held it...