"Where are we going?" Loki asked, tired of the uncomfortable silence.
"I already told you! We're going shopping!" Katerina replied, chuckling.
"Yes, but what market will we be 'shopping' at?" His emerald green eyes had a genuine curiosity in them.
"It's called 'Walmart'. Midguardians shop there a lot because they have just about anything and it's pretty cheap."
"I take it wealth is important here?" he asked, turning his head to look out the window again.
"Of course! Money means power, security and status!" she replied.
Loki's eyes lit up, "What kind of power?"
"Maybe this world isn't a punishment after all," he thought, grinning to himself.
"NO! That's what got you in trouble in the first place!" Katerina said, as if reprimanding a pup.
"I deserve a little more credit and respect than that!" he hissed.
"To be trusted one must first be shown to be trustworthy," she rebutted, gripping the wheel and clenching her teeth.
"So you can trust me to not kill you in your sleep, yet the moment I ask a simple question about your world, you assume the worst!" he growled. His temper was beginning to get the better of him.
"You've been willing to do anything to gain power in the past! What's changed to keep you from doing it again?" she asked. In her eyes was a dangerous fire.
"Now you believe I am who I said I am?" he smirked.
"I hate to break it to you 'Lord Loki', but you're just a crazy man who just happens to look like Tom Hiddles!" She was at her breaking point and if the argument didn't end soon, someone was going to get hurt.
"So you do think me to be a madman!"
"I'm sorry, but Loki is just a story! Something the Vikings, and later Marvel Comics, made up! He's not real and the sooner you realise that, the better!" Katerina snapped.
"W-w-w- what?" Loki asked. Had the ants truly forgotten?
"I can tell you verbatim everything that Loki has ever said. Why? Because I happen to be one of those people who can memorize movies well. Sir, I don't know what happened to you to make you think like this, but you should know you are not Loki." Katerina pitied the man, but she knew she couldn't let him keep up his charade.
"I don't believe you!"
"Ahem and I quote: 'Enough! You are, all of you are beneath me! I am a god, you dull creature, and I shall not be bullied by...' Hulk tosses Loki around like a rag-doll for several seconds. Then smashes him into the ground. As the look of utter shock crosses Loki's face, Hulk grins and says to him: 'Puny god.' He leaves as Loki groans in the newly made crater."
"How did you know of that? Only the brute and I were present!" Loki was shocked, and rather confused.
"I and the rest of the Avengers fans know that because we paid ten bucks a pop to go see the movie. A lot of us did, several times, and cosplayed as our favorite characters too!" Out of the corner of her eye she could see 'Loki' as he tried to make sense of what she had said.
"I am a... story? Something man conjured out of his imagination?" he asked.
"You are real, Loki is not," she replied. The angry edge to her voice now gone.
"I cannot exist, yet be a myth. I am one or the other!"
"I don't know how to get this through your thick skull, but you are not Loki! You are a man who is sick and needs help!" Katerina realised that the man was dead set on being Loki and nothing she said or did could change that.
"You fool!" Finally, his emotions took him from Loki the Asguardian to Loki the Jotun.
"HOLY SHIT!" Katerina shouted. She swerved, nearly crashing the car.
"Now, do you believe me?" he asked, his red eyes boring into her hazel.
"Do I really have a choice?!" Katerina pulled over and put her hazards on. She needed to catch her breath and, poorly, attempt to rationalize this.
"What was that about me being a myth and a children's tale again?" He smirked.
"How is that even possible? Earth Zero is just the Marvelized version of this world... and other dimensions don't exist... at least not this kind!" Katerina was beginning to hyperventilate. Even though she took him in, she did not sign up for this.
"Our worlds are connected- " he began.
"No! This world is where the movie you come from originated! I can show you pictures when we get home. New York is safe and sound," she said, trying to convince herself more than anyone else that this wasn't happening.
"In the words of one of your wise men: 'I think therefore I am'," he replied, smiling softly in spite of himself.
"That only applies in this world!"
"You humans seem to believe in what you can see and touch. I know you can see me." He gently placed his hand on the seat next to her own. "And I know you can feel the chill. With this evidence, can you still deny me?"
"I'm hallucinating! I have to be hallucinating!" Panic seeped into her voice, causing it to crack.
"Hallucinations can't draw the attention of oncoming chariots like the black one pulling up now."
"The what?" Katerina squeaked.
A knock on her window confirmed it.
"Ma'am, roll down your window for me," the officer said with a southern drawl.
Katerina did as she was told, praying to whatever or whoever would listen that the officer wouldn't ask too many questions about her smurf-esque passenger. She pulled out her license and registration before the officer even asked. One could never be too much of a brown-noser when it came to cops.
"Is anything wrong?" he asked, pretending to take interest in the papers to avoid staring at the bizarre boy with her.
"We were having a bit of an argument. I pulled over so he could get out and we could both cool off a bit. We're fine now, though." She didn't think she was any good at lying, but in this case the truth would send her straight to a hospital.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive, officer, thank you for your concern." Katerina replied trying to keep the nervousness out of her voice.
"Alright, you two have a good day and try to stay outta trouble," he said, handing back her license and registration.
"You too!" She smiled, rolling up her window. She merged into traffic with the feeling that the cop didn't quite believe her story.
"That was way too close for comfort!" she said after fifteen minutes of silence, her voice still shaky from all the "surprises".
"Would you rather we went home and went to the market another day?" He couldn't quite explain it, but something about this girl - no, this woman - compelled him to protect her and comfort her.
"No, I'm fine. Plus, we're almost there," she replied. "Oh, and you might want to shift back to a more human looking version. There are no theaters around here, so I can't use the excuse that you're cosplaying."
Loki smiled and his skin color returned to "normal".
