Plotting Plans

After the movie ended, they departed the mall. Nevaeh was looking in a positively happy mood. Loki suggested they stop by some place to eat; it was past afternoon now and they hadn't eaten anything other than popcorn and milk duds which had come invisibly soaring towards them during the movie.

'I know a place that isn't far from here,' Nevaeh said, remembering a time when she and Joe were lost in Brooklyn and they had discovered a small pub which later became their Brooklyn-bar. After walking for four blocks they entered the pub which was quite crowded for a pre-evening. Nevaeh located an empty table opposite the bar, and they walked towards it.

'We are not sitting on that,' Loki said, holding Nevaeh's forearm before she could take a seat and pointing towards the battered wooden chairs.

'Oh, for God's sake, just take a seat,' Nevaeh pleaded, analysing the chairs which weren't so bad.

'Oh, indeed. His sacred bottom is not touching this filth,' Loki said, shaking his head in firm disapproval and quickly waving an arm before Nevaeh could stop him. She looked hastily at the chairs but nothing happened, and she wondered why Loki waved his arm as he gestured her to sit down, which was immediately answered as felt a warm cushion as though she were sitting on a fluffy chair.

'This is better!' Nevaeh chuckled, bouncing a little in her seat, which looked odd because she appeared to be sitting on the same battered wooden chair. 'See, this is fine, awesome even! You just can't show what you are doing openly in public. Subtlety is the key,' she said happily, bending ahead on the table to pat Loki on the head for a job well done. They ordered two beers along with fries and Loki retold her how his sleep was broken by her mother's arrival.

'I was not expecting my parents to return today. I felt like I might faint after I saw her in my room,' Nevaeh laughed, but Loki didn't. The fact that their days were incredibly hectic before they had the opportunity to engage in these mundane activities had jumbled up his mind. He remembered an incident.

'You did faint!' Loki said. 'In my bedchambers! On Asgard!'

'Right before you kicked me out,' she nodded.

'Why did you faint?' Loki asked sharply. 'Was my heroic feat of forgiving my brother too much for you?'

'I never saw that part, actually,' she wondered out-loud. 'I must've fainted before that.'

'But why? Was it the flame?'

'Loki,' Nevaeh sighed, 'you must brace yourself for this.'

Loki impatiently looked at her, ignoring what he was told. 'Well?'

'Your helmet; the huge, gold horned one, I fainted when I saw you wearing that for the first time,' Nevaeh said quietly.

'Why? Because you weren't expecting such a fierce fashionable choice on my part?' asked an indignant Loki.

'I am afraid, not. You remember that childhood freak-accident I told you about?' Nevaeh asked slowly.

'The one with the stone? Where it scared you by showing you the devil's horns?' Loki laughed, wondering how scared little Nevaeh would've been at that time.

Nevaeh was waiting for Loki to figure it out by himself. It was a sensitive enough topic as it is for her but Loki was merely sitting there and smiling, waiting for her to say more.

'Yes, what about that incident?' Loki asked after a long pause. Nevaeh sighed. Loki was overly smart at times when least required, but when one needed his intellect, he behaved like the slowest person.

Loki's eyes suddenly bulged to their fullest as realization hit him and he gaped at Nevaeh. 'No' hushed Loki.

'Yes,' Nevaeh said, a little relieved that she didn't have to explain it to him.

'No,' Loki hushed again.

'Yes,' said a slightly annoyed Nevaeh.

'NOOO—'

'YES! Loki, stop it!' Nevaeh snapped, intently watching a hysterical Loki who was now laughing with slow pauses.

'How – how can this be?' Loki hushed, suddenly feeling out of breath.

'I have no idea,' Nevaeh said. 'Watching you wear that helmet which gave me nightmares since I was a kid, it shook me. I couldn't breathe after seeing you wear that. And I fainted.'

Loki was still processing it, wondering what could possibly lead the stone to show his helmet to a child version of Nevaeh. 'This is bullshit.'

'I know,' Nevaeh said. She wanted to distract Loki, who was looking as though he were on the verge of having another tantrum. 'We need to get back on the topic, Loki! My parents are here!' She sharply clicked her fingers in front of Loki's nose to bring him back into his body which was sitting in front of her. 'Man, this is not good. We haven't discussed anything about what we are going to tell them about our departure,' Nevaeh said with a hint of sadness.

Loki decided to think of helmet-theories later. He needed to hatch some schemes with her right now. 'Then, let's discuss. You claim us to be clever enough to outsmart a Sphinx then we can surely figure this out over a couple of beers,' he said, raising his pint as she clinked her bottle to his.

'They returned early from their trip just because I didn't receive their calls! You get what I am saying, right? We need to think this through! Our plan needs to be really good. They should be backed in a corner with no weapons at their disposal,' Nevaeh told him.

'You think they will attack us?' Loki asked with a small frown, immediately making a mental list of the weapons he should pack before their confrontation.

'What? No! By weapons I mean parental excuses; Not this year, not today, not alone, not old enough, not young enough, not nothing!' Nevaeh said, slapping a hand on the table and making it thump loudly, the knives and forks bouncing a little over it.

'Easy, little one. You will get what you desire. Speaking of which – do you remember when I told you all about the nine realms?' Loki asked and she nodded. 'Well, you told me how you feel about each and every one of them, and I have arrived at a final decision—'Loki was interrupted as Nevaeh happily clapped her hands together and started laughing excitedly while moving her upper body in a swinging motion, her hair flowing from one side to other along with her head.

'Don't ask me which one. Let it remain a surprise,' Loki said firmly.

'Like an unknown holiday destination? You are so awesome!' Nevaeh said.

They were planning their journey very carefully, Loki explaining all about how nothing is ever what it seems in the magical world. Nevaeh felt entranced as she heard him speak; informing her about the do's and don'ts of any new planet, never to pick up things without thoroughly analysing them first, not to meddle with the creatures or the habitants. Nevaeh was a witch, but had never stepped foot on a magical planet other than Asgard in her entire life. She couldn't wait till they left for the new unnamed planet, where she could finally learn to extend her powers without any interventions.

Loki demanded to know the basic requirements of her parents that would make them comfortable with her staying on a different planet along with him. Nevaeh told him how easier things would be if her parents were to believe that there was an adult supervision of some sort, but she also told him that the idea was killed the moment when Loki had claimed to be an orphan.

'Why can't we tell them that I am royalty?' Loki asked. She merely shook her head in strongest disapproval.

'You intend on lying to your parents?' Loki asked, quietly hiding his amusement.

'No! We will just pretend that you are still the same Loki my parents know!' Nevaeh said, making him increasingly puzzled.

'So, you plan on lying,' Loki said.

She shot him an annoyed look. 'Are they going to question me whether the boy I brought home is the Prince of Asgard? Oh, I don't think so! Then it's not lying,' snapped Nevaeh.

'You do not wish to reveal my identity. Why is that?' asked Loki, only to receive yet another glaring look from Nevaeh.

'You do realize that if you had been honest since the beginning, I had no problem in letting them know that you were the King! But, you didn't! You lied! And the only thing I do not wish to reveal is the fact that you lied to us about everything!' Nevaeh said fumingly. 'I understand why you lied. They will not! The only thing they will see is the twisted dark lies, not the reason behind them! And besides, if they find out that you were lying then they will never let me leave with you!'

'Fine. Orphan boy it is,' Loki said.

'Look, I will tell them about you as soon as I figure out what they have been hiding from me. That way they cannot even attempt to make you feel bad about lying, that is, if they have indeed hid something from me,' finished Nevaeh.

'That's a bit too cunning for your behaviour. Is my manipulative presence affecting your way of thinking?' Loki smirked.

'What I said is only logical,' Nevaeh said, 'and I do not want them to give you a hard time for lying. You have been through enough.'

They plotted some more different ways to make her parents vulnerable to their words. 'Not a different planet! We are telling them that we are planning to stay on Asgard,' she said.

'I don't understand why,' Loki said.

'Because they are going to be awfully reluctant to allow me to go away with you for a prolonged period of time if they find out that we are planning on staying on a completely new planet they have never heard of, that too all by ourselves! I will be grounded for a lifetime,' Nevaeh said.

'Then, Asgard it is,' Loki said simply. 'Here's what we will tell them.'

Nevaeh listened intently to his surprisingly amazing ideas which were bordering on winning her parent's approval and she had a thin smile across her face as she nodded slowly at his suggestions. An hour passed and they were still deeply plotting their harmless lies, which were her only ticket out of Earth.

Soon they departed the bar and headed towards her home while they ate her favourite strawberry flavoured ice-cream cone with rainbow sprinkles. Realising that Loki had already finished his, she offered Loki a bite but quickly refused to provide him with the same when he opened his mouth wide enough to gulp the entire cone in a single bite. Nevaeh's arm was wrapped around Loki's in which she was holding her cone as they walked on the road, when a group of four guys passed them and one of them accidentally bumped his chest on Nevaeh's shoulder.

SPLAT!

Her ice-cream cone hit the concrete road as they halted abruptly in mid-track. Nevaeh whipped around, leaving Loki's arm, to face the guys who had halted as well and the one who had bumped into her made an apologetic face.

'I am sorry babe—'the guy started saying as he stepped ahead to apologize but his voice slowly faltered. He paused to clear his throat a little. Nevaeh was waiting for him to finish his apology with an impatiently bent neck when the guy stretched his head upwards and started coughing rather loudly while running a hand over his neck. One of his friends clapped a hand on his back, frowning at his face as it slowly turned red and he gasped for breath. Nevaeh shuffled her feet a bit anxiously as she watched him making weird faces and sounds as though he were choking on a nut. The boy doubled down and hit the floor on his knees in a blinking second…