Final Frontier (A Post Endgame Loki Fanfiction)

Chapter 3

It was going to be a long winter.

I knew that without a doubt.

Saving Loki seems like the worst decision I ever made.

No, I shouldn't say that. I don't think I could have lived with myself if I willingly let someone die. Life would have just been a lot easier if I didn't have to live with him.

He seemed anxious and on edge, ALL THE TIME. Like he was always afraid that SHIELD was gonna appear out of nowhere and capture him again. He reacted to every single noise and every moving shadow. He seemed more defensive than fearful, but still, his constant tention was driving me crazy! The only peace I got was when he went out to stand on the ice, as if he was calling out to the Tesseract. Joke's on him though; Tesseract wasn't even there.

Loki's hands were still chained together by those heavy, other-worldly looking cuffs, so he hadn't been able to do much. However, I hoped to fix that problem today, for his sanity and mine. I'm not sure if you've ever been stuck living with somebody who's handcuffed, but if so, you have my respect.

Every time he moved, the cuffs clattered and jangled. Jingle jangle, jingle jangle all hours of the day! Living alone, I had gotten used to the complete silence of the Alaskan Bush.

And now that silence was broken. Constantly.

Because his wrists were stuck together he couldn't put clothes on his top half. He kept the illusion of a shirt going (whether for my sake or his, I didn't know) but it didn't do anything to actually keep him warm. The cold didn't seem to bother him though, except that if he got too cold, his skin would start turning blue, and that put him in an even worse mood than usual. So whenever he left the cabin, as he often does, he wore my fur cloak. The cloak had no sleeves so the cuffs didn't matter.

Today Loki, Koda, and I were making the long treck into town to take care of some routine business. The closest town to my house was called Casper; it was built on an old ghost town. The population numbered just over one hundred, and it didn't get many visitors. It was about six miles up the channel from my cabin, and normally I would've taken a boat, but seeing as the water was capped with about a foot of ice, and my boat was literally frozen in place, that's not a possibility.

It was all good though, Koda and I had a sled.

"Okay, we've got camping supplies, pelts, buncha fish, gas cans, my rifle. Do we need anything else?" I asked Koda. He stayed silent. I didn't live completely off the grid. I did use gasoline from time to time, mostly to power my chainsaw and a generator when I really truely needed them. And once in a blue moon, it's nice to visit civilization for some social interaction and news of the world.

"Cool. Let's get you hooked up." Koda pulled the sled from the front, and I help him push it from behind. I knelt down and clipped the sled lines onto Koda's harness as he sat still for me. He knew the drill.

"Pardon me, but exactly how far away is this village you spoke of?" Loki asked. I admit over the past few days he'd actually mellowed out some. He still seemed tense and on edge twenty-four seven, but as far as temperament goes, his venom levels seemed to have subsided.

"It's about half a day's walk. We're gonna have to stay a few nights at least. If I don't have enough fur and fish to trade for what we need, then we'll have to find odd jobs to cover the rest." I answered as I pulled on my micro spikes.

"And are the people there somewhat connected with the world?"

"Well, if your face is plastered all over the national news, then yeah, there's a chance someone'll recognise you. Can't you just, I don't know, magic your face like you do your clothes?"