Ineffable- A Loki Fanfic

9

Loki woke first but he refused to open his eyes. Clara's hair was soft against his face and smelt unfairly of something kin to lavender.

'I've been alone for entirely too long for this.' He thought and gently opened his eyes. Loki was wrapped tightly around her and her arms tightly around his. There was a simple smile on her face and Loki gingerly attempted to pretzel his legs in hers. Success.

"You know," She mused, sleepily. "You did promise not to use your godly charm and this isn't exactly how most friendships begin."

Loki felt his heart skip a beat, when she spoke.

'Well, that's new.' He thought playfully. Of course, she must have just startled him.

"Weak mortal hearts." He muttered under his breath.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Clara rolled onto her back to look up at him with a teasing grin.

Loki opened his mouth to give her a silky retort but when his eyes met hers, something else happened entirely. Her smile faded and when her lips came back together he noticed for the first time how much he wanted to taste them. They appeared to him soft and sweet and before he could stop himself, he ....

"Loki! You jackass get up!"

Clara was kicking the bottom of his feet from outside the tent and his eyes shot open.

'A dream, oh gods.'

"What?" He sat up and looked at her, she was put together, ready to go and looked irritated as usual.

"It's going to rain again soon but we have been in this spot for too long already. We need to move and find a different solution. Rainstorms can last a long time here, days, sometimes weeks and we aren't going to survive in that tent together for that long."

"And why not?" He asked indignantly.

"Well for starters you are a bed hog and also, you snore."

"I beg your pardon but I certainly do not snore."

"Ok fine, whatever your princeliness desires to hear, but really, get up, let's get moving."

Clara walked away and Loki rolled over onto his stomach and groaned loudly into his hands in frustration. He had to get a handle on his emotions, they were running freely and he had always been so guarded before. Granted, it hadn't exactly worked out so well for him in the past and right now he just wished he could hug his mother and tell her how sorry he was for being such an ass. From what he saw provided to him by the TVA he felt like some version of himself got that chance with Thor and that was good enough for him, for now.

"Hear that." Clara turned to Loki when he was done packing up their tent and gestured out into the forest.

"Can't say I.."

"Shhh, listen,"

Off is the distance he could hear the shouts of men but they were very faint.

"We are going to have to tread carefully for a while knowing they are in here."

"Yes madam." He agreed and they took off in the opposite direction of the voices, trying to get as much distance between them as possible.

"There is a series of caves near here that we can use to hide out in for a few days. It might be a little tricky to find them in the dark, especially if it starts to rain again before we get there."

After a few hours, they still hadn't found the caves. Luckily, the rain had held out so far and they couldn't go any further without falling over.

"I thought you said they were nearby." Loki collapsed on the ground and let out a big sigh.

"I THOUGHT they were. I do know a lot about their forest, but not nearly as much as you seem to think I do. Remember, I haven't been here that much longer than you. I misjudged the distance but I know we are getting close. Let's just ... I don't know, rest a while? We won't beat the rain if we stay all night."

"I wouldn't mind one more night in the tent." Loki smirked and Clara rolled her eyes.

"I bet you wouldn't." Not Mobius and Clara said at the same time. Loki was startled and didn't know which of them to look at. He hadn't stopped to think about it too much, but it had been a while since he hallucinated his dearly annoying friend. Usually, he had a habit of showing up when Loki was going through an inner crisis, so that wasn't a great sign.

"What are you looking at?" Clara, raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah Loki, what are you looking at?" Not Mobius winked and disappeared.

"Nothing, I... I'm just tired." Since his last dream, Loki's head had felt foggy and untethered. It was starting to make him feel nervous like he was losing his grip on reality. Yes, he was glad to have someone, a real someone, to talk to, but he was again confusing a budding friendship with something more. Trying to untangle his feelings just seemed to make more knots and her buried his fists into his eyes trying to disrupt his train of thought.

"Yeah, me too." She sighed. "Well, let's try and rest." They laid next to a small fire Clara made, not talking, but not sleeping either.