Unexpected

Flying High and Dressing Up

I sat silently in my chair, buckled in and staring out the window as New York faded in the distance and the sea sprawled out beneath us like a turquoise, rippling cloth, for some time. My mind reeled with the reality of what we were off to do. I was now on a mission that would set off the alien invasion... and I didn't even know what I was supposed to do, or what my part in this whole thing was. Finally I felt eyes on me and turned to see that Loki's blue-green ones were gazing into mine. I got kind of distracted by them. Weren't they that rich, emerald green? But I remember seeing them as a turquoise-green too.

"Loki." I said, not breaking eye contact, "What color are your eyes?"

He blinked at me in confusion, "Green."

"All the time?"

He hesitated, then answered with some certainty, "I've only not seen them green once."

I nodded my head, not quite sure about his vague answer, but there was something about the guarded way he'd said that that made me feel like I shouldn't pull on that thread. I looked down at my hands and folded them, "So. When are you going to tell me what the plan is?"

"Eager to know, aren't you?" He smiled, then held out his hand to the side. "Well, we have quite a long flight ahead of us, plenty of time to go over details, but first, let's just enjoy some time." As he spoke one of the men, a tall, bald one with a scar running over his smooth scalp, dug into one of the bags the group of five had brought, pulling out a pair of books and placing them in Loki's outstretched hand. Loki then passed me one of them and I saw that it was the second Harry Potter book, the one I had started reading.

"Reading?" I asked. Why wouldn't he just tell me what this was all about? Seeing that I wasn't going to get anywhere with it, however, I opened my book to my page and set about reading. "Okay then."

Quite honestly it was pretty uncomfortable reading in the plane, and not just because I had no real idea why I was on that plane at all. Unlike when I would read with Loki in his room, we were in a small compartment buckled in to airplane seats instead of curling up in Loki's armchairs. Peeking out of the side of my book, I saw that the five combat-ready men just sat there on the other side of the plane, staring blankly ahead of them and whispering amongst themselves occasionally. Their presence and empty eyes that I found falling on me every once in a while made me feel incredibly self-conscious, but not as much as Loki was, himself, making me feel. I was aware of him sitting right in front of me as we faced each other, holding our books and reading, our knees almost touching since his legs were so long. Every time I shifted my position, usually out of discomfort from sitting still so long or because one of the minions were looking at me, I seemed to bump my toes into his boots or my leg would knock lightly against his, and twice after I accidentally did so I found Loki looking at me, making me blush and stare back down at my book.

Using my phone as a clock, I occasionally checked it, watching as the hours passed by. After about three hours of flying, sandwiches were passed out for lunch, and about an hour later I had to get up to use the restroom. Having not slept well or long at all the night before I found that I was growing rather sleepy, and though I tried to struggle to stay awake, I found that I drifted off into a nap.

A couple of hours must have passed by before I was jerked awake, opening my eyes to see Loki smirking at my sleepy, slouched over wakening. My face reddening again for what felt like the millionth time, I looked away trying to find the source of the sound that had woken me up, and found as I turned in my seat that I was most likely woken up by the sound of the door leading to the pilot's cabin closing with a snap as Clint came back into our cabin. After takeoff he'd gone up to the front to be the co-pilot, but now he buckled into a seat near Loki and my seats.