Georgia Frost

Questions

The two of them arrived at the outskirts of the city around eight-thirty. It didn't take long to find a hotel and rent a room, thankfully. Loki had created an illusion to disguise himself, so they didn't get any awkward looks. When they got up to the room, Aubrey collapsed on the bed, exhausted from the day and desperately trying not to freak out.

It wasn't working. What were we going to do? Aubrey asked herself. We were literally on the run!! From the Avengers!! There was no way they wouldn't find us! We were doomed! She voiced her thoughts to Loki, who just rolled his eyes.

"We'll be fine, Aubrey," he said. "Now move over. I'm tired too." She sat up and realized there was just one bed. Of course there was. Whatever. Aubrey scooted and made room for him. He sat down but didn't switch the light off. No matter what he said, she was 99% sure he was kind of panicking too.

Only five minutes had passed before Aubrey got up and looked around the room. A deck of cards lay on the TV table.

"Know how to play go fish?" She asked Loki, who shook his head. Aubrey grabbed the deck and brought it back to the bed. "I'll teach you."

"I do not care to learn your midgardian games," he said.

"I do not care," Aubrey said, mimicking him. Annoyed, he glared at her. "You brought me. You're going to deal with me now."

"I should have left you," he grumbled. She ignored him and dealt the cards out while explaining the game. Loki relented and played it with her, having nothing better to do.

They had played several rounds when Aubrey set her cards down and looked up at the ceiling. Loki saw her and guessed what was running through her mind. 

"Even if they do find us, it will take a while if we keep moving around," he said. 

"But they will find us eventually," Aubrey said.

"We've got magic," Loki said.

"Correction: you have magic. I don't," Aubrey argued.

"You have magic, too. You just can't use it yet," Loki told her.

"Yes, but that basically means I don't have magic," Aubrey said.

"So learn to use it," Loki challenged. Aubrey sat up and glared at him.

"No."

"Stubborn," Loki chuckled.

"Not stubborn."

"What are you then?" he asked. Aubrey hesitated.

"Scared," she finally admitted.

"Why?"

"What if I hurt somebody?"

"You're talking to the wrong person if you're scared of hurting somebody," Loki said as he rolled his eyes. "That's kind of what defending yourself means. Hurting your opponent."

"I don't care."

"Then I cannot help you."

"Would you have anyways?" Aubrey's question hung in the air for a good minute in a half before Loki spoke.

"Yes," he told her. "I was planning on it."

"Oh. Well...thank you..." Aubrey said awkwardly. Loki gathered up the cards. "That's not how you shuffle them." Aubrey reached for the deck and demonstrated how to shuffle them properly. "There. That's how you do it." Loki tried to mimic her actions, and was surprised when they flew everywhere. He picked them up and tried again. They flew everywhere again. Aubrey laughed at him. He frowned and threw the cards on the bed.

"That is impossible," he said, disgusted. Aubrey shuffled them again, just to annoy him. Loki took them back and put them in the box. "We're done with these now."

"You're just mad because you can't shuffle them," Aubrey teased. He ignored her and tossed them across the room back onto the TV table. They sat in silence for a few minutes, neither feeling like going to sleep. Their minds were still racing at a hundred miles an hour.

"Is there no chance that I can go back home?" Aubrey whispered. She felt Loki stiffen beside her.

"I do not believe so. Not in the foreseeable future, at least," he answered. Aubrey clenched her jaw and stared at the floor.

"Damn. I was...I was actually starting to figure life out before you arrived, you know," she said shakily. "Life was just now beginning to be something I could handle. But then you came and uprooted me, and shook my whole world to pieces again." Loki turned his head to look at her. "I...why does it always have to be me? Why can't I just have a regular life, Loki? Why'd you have to come to my house, of all the places in the entire world?"

"I...I am sorry," he murmured. He sounded almost ashamed. Aubrey felt her nose start to sting.

"I can't say I forgive you, Loki. I'm pretty mad, I can't lie," Aubrey told him, picking at the blanket.

"Would you rather I had not taken you when I escaped them in your house?" Loki asked quietly. "Would you rather have been taken into custody, interviewed, and eventually tested on? I promise you, I was trying to help you." His words caught Aubrey off guard. 

"I thought you were just trying to protect yourself?" she asked.

"Maybe not," Loki said, offering her a half-smile.