Outdoor Outburst

'You called my daughter abnormal? Abnormal?' Samuel snarled, prodding the wand in his chest. In the blink of an eye, Ariel grabbed the wand at its centre and stared at her husband, who wasn't meeting her eye.

'Dad, no,' Nevaeh quickly started towards them, but Ariel shot her a cautionary look.

Daniel was sweating. 'No – no. I didn't –'

'He definitely did. Ask anyone. Everyone heard it,' Loki said simply, care-free of the fact that Samuel was growing blood thirsty by the second.

'Dad, it is fine. Let it go,' Nevaeh said weakly.

Loki noticed that Ariel was muttering something under her breath. The wand glowed gold for a mere second. She removed her hand. Samuel looked furious, but removed the wand from Daniel's chest as though she had rendered it useless. He threw his wand aside and grabbed Daniel by his neck cuffs.

'What exactly did you find abnormal? Huh? The fact that she chose a cockroach to date? Do you even know who she is? WHO WE ARE?' Samuel bellowed at the top of his lungs. Loki noticed that Ariel had backed a step behind from her husband but was staring at him with a calculative expression on her face. Samuel jerked his head backwards to crash it against Daniel's. Joe muffled a scream.

Samuel's head swung towards Daniel's with power capable enough to crack his skull open in two. Ariel clapped a palm on her husband's forehead mid-swing and halted him with striking resistance, her hand not even budging an inch behind while collapsing with such strength. Samuel's eyes snapped shut.

Loki laughed lightly, his mouth openly-open in amusement. He lip read Ariel's whispering words. Castiel, don't! Calm yourself! You are better than this! Nev is right here, not in front of her! Loki was so busy reading Ariel's words that he didn't even notice that Samuel's head shone a hint of golden. Samuel's grip on his neck loosened.

'Daniel, get the hell out of here!' Nevaeh snapped. He did not wait for another second. Loki watched him half-run, half-sprint away from them and made a mental note of paying the boy a personal visit someday. Ariel withdrew her hand slowly. Samuel opened his eyes.

'Dad, you shouldn't have!' Nevaeh grabbed her flustered father and hugged him tightly. 'Seriously, what were you thinking,' she cried.

Samuel caught sight of his wife shaking her head lightly. 'You – you are better off on Asgard for a while, kiddo. It would be good for you. To be around people who respect you for the way you are.'

'I am glad you feel that way.' Nevaeh turned around to see if Daniel was completely gone, and it appeared that he had. 'And, Loki, I do not blame you for doing what you did. If I were there, I would've done a lot worse. But I am proud that you were wiser,' Samuel patted him on the back, 'Nev, I hope you didn't give him a hard time after acting that way.'

Loki had a rising suspicion that Samuel had asked this question as a subtle hint towards his wife to spare his own soon-to-receive-hard-time, who was still glaring at him as though he were her mortal enemy.

'No, I loved his gesture! She didn't,' Nevaeh pointed a finger towards Joe, who quickly squinted at Loki. 'I – I had mixed feelings about it,' she said uneasily, still recovering from the dramatic events that had happened.

'Actually –'Nevaeh leaned ahead and began whispering something in Samuel's ear. Loki quickly sharpened his senses. That's when I first considered that I could, you know, someday think about dating Loki. He was awesome with those daggers – umm – butter knives.

Loki silently chuckled.

'Oh, kiddo. That is so wrong on so many levels,' Samuel said out-loud but chuckled heartily and kissed her on the forehead. Loki was feeling quite good about everything, the whole situation had turned out better than he had hoped. They walked back to the house and wished her parents good night before calling it a night.

The night passed slowly. Loki had left the two of them alone because he felt like the girls should have the rest of the night to themselves, especially when Nevaeh's moving was a mere day after tomorrow.

Loki slept uneasily, and he had no idea why. Her parents' outdoor-outburst had pleased him, yet his sleep was disturbed and blurry. His mind drifted from one vague dream to another, or were they mere thoughts swarming in his subconscious?

The morning set in after a couple of hours and Joe hurriedly left her home after breakfast. Her parents were not present during the morning, nor did they come downstairs after that. Loki and Nevaeh took opportunity of their absence and thoroughly discussed their next day's commencement. Her parents' were adamant on seeing her to Asgard themselves, which is why Lodin had insisted that he would escort the pair to the temple along with Nevaeh's unnecessarily huge luggage.

She was almost done packing, which wasn't difficult because she was quite handy with wrapping things up quickly. She had five suitcases; clothes, shoes, books, toys, accessories and miscellaneous. She had tried to stuff her enormous bear inside one of the suitcases even though Loki had bet her all his red gold that she will never need it once during their journey. Despite neatly arranging most of her stuff in the bags, her room was still looking quite full.

They were sitting out on the porch. The wooden deck creaked slightly along with the sounds of approaching footsteps followed by a few lovey-dovey giggles.

Nevaeh turned around in surprise to watch her parents' half-run half-walk on the porch in their bathing suits and towels in their hands. They were sopping wet yet glowing like a torch, as though they were returning from a meeting with sun itself.

'What have you kids been up to?' Nevaeh asked in a parental voice.

'Oh, Samuel was still pouting when we went to bed last night. So we went for a swim instead!' Ariel chirped.

'Till where? Japan?' Nevaeh asked genuinely. Her mobile chimed once in her back pocket but she ignored it, as she usually did.

Samuel chuckled, 'Don't be silly! We just swam a bit ahead, hit an island, lit a fire, got some flowers, but they floated away.'

'Why don't you take a nap, then? Do you want lunch?' Nevaeh asked.

'No, no. We are pretty beat. May be an evening snack, and then we have your farewell dinner.' They trotted inside to head upstairs.

'Your parents are quite something, aren't they?' Loki amused.

'They are – happy. Always have been. That's their secret' Nevaeh said.

'And what about you? Are you happy?'

Nevaeh glanced at him, sitting next to her with the same aloof attitude he always carried, but without causing destruction or chaos, and she appreciated that. She had wanted nothing more than for him to be his good self and she wanted to be with him while he did so. Their most-awaited journey began tomorrow, the time when she could finally be free. Loki was the source of all of that happiness.

'I couldn't be any happier.'

Loki laughed, 'wait till tomorrow.' Nevaeh pinched Loki's nose when her cell phone chimed thrice in a row. She didn't check it. Loki remembered that her phone kept doing that since the morning but she had refused to take a look at it.

'So you still aren't telling me where we are going?' Nevaeh asked. She got up from the chair and walked towards the porch.

'It's a surprise, love.'

'Will I have cell reception there?' She halted on the wooden edge and rested her foot on it.

'No'

'Well, how – how would I contact anyone if I needed to?' Nevaeh was framing her question very carefully.

'Why would you feel that need? I would be with you. And the whole point of going away was freeing ourselves, was it not?' Loki asked in a testy voice.

'I know. But, I would someday feel like talking to Joe or my parents. I mean, I have never done this before. Stayed away from home,' Nevaeh's voice trembled a little. Loki swiftly got up and walked towards her. He wrapped her in his arms and brushed her hair off her shoulders.

'This is not a kidnapping. I am not forcing you to do anything you don't wish to—'

'Loki, no. That's not what I meant—'

'Sh! Let me finish' he whispered, 'if and when you feel like talking to your parents, you know we can do that within a minute. You can pop in home and talk all you want, then come back. It's not like we need a bi-frost to visit Earth!'

Nevaeh felt guilty for asking such stupid questions. She had seen how easily he could teleport them. Her cell phone chimed in her back pocket and Loki felt like tossing it into the ocean. She rested her head on his chest, 'I am sorry. I am just nervous about leaving. But, this is eustress not distress, so don't you worry. Let's go upstairs and pack a few last things. I still have to perform that enhancing charm on the teddy bear bag-pack as well. It's just not fitting,' Nevaeh finished exhaustedly and slapped him on the arm.

'That stupid bear,' Loki muttered, but went upstairs with her nevertheless.

In the next hour, Loki leaned on the couch while Nevaeh stood over her teddy bag with her wand in her hand. She had stretched the bag, but her bear was too big for it. Soon, Loki realised that "packing a few last things" was going to take time after all. They were once again surrounded by a cluster of shoes, boots, books and a few remaining toys which she was considering to bring along with her. Loki sighed as he saw her muttering frantically and prod the already enhanced bag with her wand.

He got up. 'Why don't I give you a hand?'

Nevaeh gestured him to take the floor and sank low on the couch. She pulled out her cell from the back pocket and stared at it. Daniel had left twenty three voice messages and thirty seven text messages. She quickly opened them. 'Help. Come. Over. Alone. HELP. DANGER.' Each of the word was sent in one separate text. Nevaeh had a bad feeling about this, thinking that the only person who'd actually attempted to physically harm Daniel was sitting in front of her.

Or was he?