Blunder In A Bar

Nevaeh couldn't understand who would attack them. 'Who is doing that?' She pushed Loki aside a little and stood on her toes to look over his still stretched cape but quickly turned to her right as she felt a strange cold breeze move through the air. Loki once again sharply moved and deflected the spell by his hand before she could even register it. 'Who is doing that? And why?'

Loki had an angry smile on his face as he stood with parted and slightly bent legs, with his right hand outstretched. There was a flash of green light from behind them and several green beams plummeted right at them, spinning in circles and surrounding them through all the sides. Loki sharply dropped on one knee and pushed both his hands at his sides. Nevaeh's feet shook a little as a green layer of shield enveloped them entirely, much like the bubble they had travelled in the ocean, but this was clearly magical-attack-proof.

Loki straightened himself, rubbing his nose by his finger and staring at the thirteen beams that tried to shoot at them at once getting deflected in one mighty blow. 'Why?' yelled Loki, startling Nevaeh. She looked at his slightly red face contorted with rage. 'And for what?' he added. He was too furious to wait for an answer, and he certainly did not want one in front of Nevaeh.

Loki threw his palm ahead of him and the woods in front of them caught immediate fire. 'AHHHH!' yelled Loki and jerked both his hands in a flying motion as if he were an eagle. The fire spread wildly and engulfed the entire perimeter around them. The trees were bursting with flames. The air was getting enveloped in thick smoke.

'Loki! NOOO!' yelled Nevaeh, grasping his hand to stop him, which turned out to be a mistake. She felt as though she had rested her palm on a burning iron rod and she withdrew it with a sharp gasp. 'Agghh!' Nevaeh caught a glimpse of burnt flesh just before Loki grabbed her wrist.

'Come here' Loki said and just like that, they teleported from their mystical protection and directly on – the Heaven's rooftop. 'Show me,' Loki said as soon as the evening sky over the open lounge appeared in front of their eyes, followed by innumerable gasps and a few shrilly shrieks.

Loki didn't even hear them. 'Next time when I am setting mystical fire to a forest with my bare hands, think twice before holding them, huh?! Do you even think with that brain?' yelled Loki at the top of his lungs. On any given day, Loki would've received a sharp fist on his head, but she was too – in shock to do that.

'Oh, Loki! No!' Nevaeh whispered faintly as the whole, crowded rooftop's occupants stared at their sudden gleaming appearances. The ones who hadn't witnessed them were being nudged by the ones who did, followed by urgent whispers. The people who weren't being nudged, certainly heard Loki's furious voice. There was a couple occupying their usual seats near the fountain sitting with their mouths wide open. They had appeared right next to them, and Nevaeh was lost as to why Loki teleported them amidst this crowd.

Loki took her wrist to analyse her burnt palm and he faintly ran a hand through his hair as he experienced this déjà vu, although her palm wasn't cut open in numbers, but was emitting a little smoke.

Nevaeh shot Loki a fatal look which silently screamed "you created this situation, you handle it," but Loki's attention was transfixed on her palm to read her face. He rubbed a finger over his chin, apparently oblivious or just unable to give a care about the two dozens of people openly staring at them.

Loki brought her hand in front of his face and stroked it gently. 'I see what caused your wound, and I take it away,' he whispered. A dazzling green glowed on Nevaeh's palm, making her finally divert her attention from the staring spectators and stare at him once again. Loki healed her hand which visibly glowed green. He lavishly kissed the back of her hand while bowing a little in relief.

'Congratulations, you healed my hand! Now, do something!' Nevaeh whispered. She couldn't possibly take on the role of the scientist detective and claim everything that had just happened to be yet another optical illusion; there were too many witnesses.

'About what?' Loki asked.

He soon received a sharp kick in the shin and he yelped in pain. Her heels were intentionally pointy. 'Loki! Do something!' whispered Nevaeh through bulging, urgent eyes.

Loki sighed and looked around. The people inside the bar were completely confused about what had happened on the terrace while the ones surrounding them kept blinking at them in stunned silence.

Loki cleared his throat, but didn't say anything. He lifted his index finger in the air. There was complete, tensed silence on the terrace, apart from a neurotic girl who was frantically clicking on her lighter to light a cigarette, apparently unable to handle the suddenly silent environment, but the evening's cold breeze was wiping out the flame.

Loki withdrew his finger to cover the tip of Nevaeh's lighter halting her frantic metallic clicks. The flame stood still and she hastily lit her cigarette, mumbling 'Thanks', while internally thanking that he merely helped her block the air, without the palm-bursting-into-flames-thing he could've done.

The crowd was still silent. They were glancing at them with a hint of fear blended with curiosity, as though expecting an explanation. Nevaeh puffed her cigarette and went into a trance for a second. Visualising what would happen if she began a speech starting with 'Magic exists. Wake up, people! You just saw it with your own eyes!'

Loki once again lifted his finger in the air and murmured something. A lady started to whisper something urgently in her husband's ear but he shushed her. Nevaeh couldn't understand what Loki was trying to accomplish by dramatically lifting his finger this way. Her brows narrowed as she saw the tip of his finger blink green for a second and his face crack into a mischievous grin. Loki flicked his finger up in the air. The crowd gasped unpleasantly.

'I have been told that ignorance is bliss for your kind. So, that light–'Loki pointed towards a thin green spark soaring in the air above them and disappearing in a blink, 'that is my gift to you. The gift of allowing you to stay as ignorant as you are right now, even when magic slaps you across the face,' Loki finished in a giving smile, spreading both his arms.

The tip of Nevaeh's cigarette was accumulated with a long chunk of ash. She was staring at Loki, lost for words after hearing his words. The words he chose to escape an embarrassingly wrong situation they had created in the first place. Her attention diverted as the people slowly resumed their chatter as if nothing ever happened. The couple occupying their usual place near the fountain suddenly got up and left the terrace altogether. Nevaeh noticed that their eyes hinted the slightest green.

'Loki what did you do to all of them?' Nevaeh asked. Loki gestured her to take her usual seat and she obliged, sinking low in the chair. 'They are fine!' Loki said, sitting himself down. Nevaeh fixed him in a spill-it-now stare.

'They are merely forgetting what happened since we arrived,' Loki said simply.

'You wiped their memory?'

'Only from the time of our arrival. All the memories they are developing after my spell would be encoded as normally as the ones before. No changes whatsoever,' Loki said, explaining a little elaborately because he could see her brows twitch in an unpleasant manner. She remained silent. 'Would you have rather preferred it if I had just killed them for witnessing our arrival and that little healing feat?' Loki asked. Nevaeh lit another cigarette.

'No, no,' she said quickly. 'You did the right thing. Although that speech was just – never mind. I was thinking about who attacked us back there, and why. Explain what happened in Vanaheim,' Nevaeh saw Loki's eye flicker in the slightest. Whenever situations like these occurred, Nevaeh couldn't help but feel a tad suspicious of Loki. She knew that Loki lies as though it were his permanent, full-time job. But she also knew that she was not prepared to process any new lies on his part. It was too soon to lie again after everything he did. Even for him. She wanted to believe that.

'It is complicated,' Loki said quietly.

Nevaeh sighed in relief; at least he wasn't denying that nothing was up. She dropped her interrogative-investigator look. 'Someone attacked us back there, on purpose,' she said. Loki nodded as he heard her speak. 'Do you know who it was? Were we trespassing or something or were they after you?'

Loki took in a deep breath. 'When I arrived on Vanaheim, at dawn, I ran into – an old teacher.'

'You never mentioned any Master before –'

'That's because I was nary a kid back then! Those were mere additional teachings to enhance my fairly advanced magic of that time. Anyway, I didn't take the idea of being spied upon quite well when I was encountered in the forest of Vanaheim,' Loki said, glancing once at his finger nails in a casual manner and nodding his head as he spoke.

'He spied on you?' Nevaeh hushed.

Loki smiled. She had assumed the gender of his teacher, and he was not foolish enough to correct her. 'It doesn't matter! I asked to be left alone! And I am sure we were attacked by the same person,' Loki said.

'It was not a lethal attack, per se,' Nevaeh shrugged. 'Those were stunning spells, so we would've been petrified at the most. But what would anyone gain from such an attack? Is it possible that he just wanted me unconscious, so that he could have a word with you in private?' Nevaeh asked, as if it was perfectly normal to petrify people for some privacy and personal space.

Loki had a suspicion that it was the other way round. He had a thought of Amora petrifying him in order to have a word with Nevaeh, or just kill her. He knew she wasn't above that, for all intents and purposes. A chill ran down his spine and he shivered a little.

'Loki, are you okay?'

'Yes, love. I am. And it doesn't matter. The point is that my teacher went rogue and earned disrespect throughout Asgard, in the later years,' Loki said.

'Your master went to the dark side? Like – like Vader?' hushed Nevaeh.

'I thought Vader was the apprentice' Loki said, frowning a little.

'He had an apprentice too. Oh my god, you were Ahsoka Tano! And your Master was Vader, who turned to the dark side and you left him!' Nevaeh said, happily clapping her hands together.

'Ahsoka? Who is he?' Loki asked. He remembered the movies, there was no one by that name.

'You will find that out once we settle in. We will watch Clone Wars. But I thought once you begin to teach me new stuff, I would be your Ahsoka, and you would be Anakin,' said Nevaeh. This made Loki thoroughly confused.

'Didn't he turn to the dark side?' Loki asked, wondering what she was implying here. Nevaeh scoffed.

'Sweetie, who are you kidding? You turn to the dark side on an hourly basis!' snapped Nevaeh, but lovingly brushed his hair. 'But I won't let you surrender yourself to the dark side. Being a little sinister at times is fine, but life is nothing without the light,' Nevaeh winked at him.

Loki blinked. Since the moment he had talked to her parents, he hadn't been able to get one thing out of his mind; her parents fear of her. They had implied that Nevaeh had tried to kill someone who had hurt one of her friends, but in this moment or even since the moment Loki had met her, he cannot bring himself to imagine her trying something like that; the girl who was sitting in front of him, humming to herself while sipping her wine. She wasn't capable of harming anybody.

'Why are you looking at me like that?' Nevaeh scowled.

Loki hastily changed his expression and cleared his throat. 'Nothing. I – I was just wondering. There are so many things about you that I still don't know.'

'The feeling is mutual.'

'Then why don't we start right now? Why don't you tell me a story about a time when you were, say, the angriest you've ever been,' Loki said with a thin smile.

Her reply was instantaneous. 'When I watched phantom menace,' Nevaeh dramatically closed her eyes. 'Oh, the horror! I threw a tantrum after watching it.'

Loki slapped a hand on his forehead. 'No, I mean something more personal. Or at least, real.'

'Hmm – let's see. Oh, there was this time when I was a teenager and it was my birthday,' Nevaeh paused. She shook her head as though reliving an utterly bitter memory. Loki leaned ahead with curiosity. 'Candice, the friend I told you about in Asgard, crashed my party wearing a cheaper version of my birthday dress, even when I had specifically told her not to do that. And when I had a bitch fit, she went home to change her clothes and wore an Indian Saree to my party! She borrowed one from her neighbour who happened to own one! With bangles and everything! I mean – what?' Nevaeh waved her arms in pure disbelief.

'A Saree?'

'It's an Indian wear—'

'I know what it is. I don't understand why you – Never mind! Is there anything else? Something that mattered! Something that made you furious or hurt you – made you feel like seeking vengeance!' Loki said with persistence.

'That is oddly specific.' Nevaeh was looking sceptical. 'But, yes.' She closed her eyes for yet another brief moment and opened them. Loki watched her as she lit another cigarette. 'I – I tried to kill a guy once.'

'You don't say!' Loki said in an unnecessarily high pitched, baffled voice.

She halted her cigarette mid-air and nodded slowly. Her left eye was narrowed. Loki felt his heart race in his chest. 'Actually kill? Or, kill in your imagination?' he asked.

'Oh, it was very real,' Nevaeh said coldly.

Loki felt butterflies in his stomach. 'Tell me about it.'