Icecold and Redhot

Loki awoke about an hour before midnight from another nightmare. This one had been about Heimdal chasing him with his spear down the Bifrost, and Loki kept running knowing that even if he’d reach the end, he couldn’t use the Bifrost without Heimdal’s spear. Now, he was sitting up on the couch, trying to calm his breathing. As his heartbeat slowly stopped drowning out all other sounds, he heard a moaning and whining coming from the bedroom. He slowly got up to take a look. He quietly opened the door and saw the redhead tangled up in her bedsheets, writhing around in a nightmare of her own. He hesitated in the doorway. He hadn’t forgotten what happened the last time he intruded on her privacy. But, he argued, he couldn’t go to sleep with her moaning and twisting in the other room, so he walked over to the bed and said: “Wake up.”
It didn’t have the desired effect. Of anything, her writhing became worse, and she said softly: “Marcus… please…”
He laid his hand on her shoulder and shook her, saying “Wake up, Rub-”
But before he could finish, Ruby had twisted around and grabbed his arm. He was now half-standing, half-lying face forward on the bed with his arm twisted behind his back and a knife to his throat, which she’d apparently been hiding under her pillow. As soon as she saw it was him, she let go. Loki got up and tried to regain his posture while Ruby calmed herself down.
“You shouldn’t do that,” Ruby said plainly.
“I’ve noticed,” Loki answered dryly.
“What were you doing here? Was there something you needed?”
“You were… rather loud.”
“Ah,” Ruby said, raising an eyebrow, “I’ll try to have quieter nightmares then.”
She looked at him questioningly. “Why were you awake anyway?”
“The wind,” Loki said simply. The wind was still howling around the house, as though it was determined to rip it from its roots and carry it away.
“I see. Well… Good night then.”
“Right,” he said and he left the room. He laid down on the couch again and tried to get comfortable. He listened to the wind, making the small house groan and squeak with every blow. Suddenly there were two golden, glowing eyes above him and a hand at his throat. He groped at the hand and tried to pry it off, but it was like a steel clasp. He was lifted from the couch, and only now he realized how small his attacker was. His feet were still touching the ground slightly.
“Who are you?” a voice asked angrily.
“Ruby?” Loki asked in return, recognizing the voice, “What are you doing?”
“You led them here. They’re here.”
“What do you…” Loki started, but then he heard the sound of a helicopter nearing them.
“SHIELD,” he concluded.
“Yeah, SHIELD,” Ruby said impatiently. “God, why did I ever let you in?”
She finally let him go, and her eyes slowly stopped glowing.
“So, what did you do?”
“New York.”
“Wait, that was you?”
Loki nodded.
“Oh great. I couldn’t just get any criminal, no, it had to be the alien version of Osama Bin Laden. Just great.”
While she ranted, Loki tried to look around for a weapon as inconspicuously as possible. He was at a disadvantage. The girl could decide to turn him over to SHIELD and there would be nothing he could do about it. She was strong, stronger than a mortal ought to be, and more perceptive, it seemed. He could try to take the knife she was still holding in her hand, though it was risky. But he couldn’t see any other option. He quickly grabbed for it while trying to get hold of the little redhead. She, however, seemed to have read his mind, and slipped between his fingers like water. Before he could think “This was a bad idea,” she had already twisted around him and put her knife to his throat, holding his head back with her other hand.
“Bad move, Loki,” she said, slightly amused. “You know, the way I see it, you’re the one who got me into this mess, so you’re the one who’s going to get me out of it, whether you like it or not.”
Loki grunted and squirmed uncomfortably in her grip.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you. Do we have a deal?” she asked, giving the knife slightly more pressure.
“Yes,” Loki said reluctantly.
“Great!” Ruby said cheerfully and she released him. “So, what’s the plan?”
Before Loki could answer, there was a knock at the door. Ruby cursed.
“See, that’s what you get for attacking me, otherwise I would have noticed that,” she whispered angrily. “We need to go.”
“How? They’re standing at the front door and most likely have the place surrounded.”
“Don’t you have like, special alien powers?”
“Before I was banished, the Allfather took them from me.”
“Let’s see what we can do about that.”
Ruby moved closer to him and seemed to examine him closely with more than just her eyes, her hand hovering a few inches in front of his chest, slowly moving around. Her hand suddenly stopped in front of his heart. She seemed to have found what she was looking for and said: “This might hurt a bit.”
Before he could ask what she meant, her eyes closed and her brow furrowed and Loki felt a sharp pain around his heart, as though someone was brutally pulling the stitches out of a wound he had there. He gasped in pain and fell to his knees.
“What did you do to me?” he panted.
“I gave you your powers back,” she answered simply, as though it was obvious.
“You know magic?” Loki asked incredulously.
“No. But all magic is a form of energy. And energy is my forte,” she answered. “C’mon, we need to go. Can you hide us?”
“Yes,” Loki said, having recovered from the shock, “I can.”
There came another, more urgent knock from the door.
“Let’s go. Through the backdoor,” Ruby said, leading the way.

Ruby softly opened the door, putting a finger to her lips. Loki made a gesture with his hands, concealing them from prying eyes. They stealthily slipped out into the night. Thank god for the wind, Ruby thought. Otherwise they’d surely heard us. There were two agents stationed at the backside. Just as Loki and Ruby wanted to slip past them, a voice came in through the walkie talkie of one of the agents.
“There’s no answer. Prepare to enter the house,” it said.
“Copy that,” the agent answered, and he signaled to the other agent to move towards the house. They started in the direction of the house, and the direction of Ruby and Loki, concealed from their eyes, but not their touch. Ruby watched the agents closing in, one from the left and the other from the right, making it impossible for them to slip away from the side. She shot a look at Loki, who looked equally concerned. Making a split second decision, Ruby forcefully pushed her left hand forward, knocking the left agent off his feet.
“AH!” he exclaimed.
The other agent immediately held is gun at the ready, looking around for trouble. When he saw his colleague sitting down on the ground, he lowered his gun with an irritated expression on his face.
“Hunter, what the hell are you doing?” he asked, walking over to him to help him stand up.
Meanwhile, Ruby beckoned a surprised looking Loki to follow her to the right, where her car was.
“Something knocked me over,” the agent named Hunter replied in a British accent.
“Yeah right.”
“I swear, Mack!”
They argued for a little bit, but then became quiet again. Loki and Ruby softly entered the car, and Ruby stuck her keys in the ignition and waited.
“What are you waiting for?” Loki whispered urgently.
“For them to enter the house. The chance of them hearing us leave is smaller when they’re searching it.”
So they waited. Suddenly Ruby sprung up, hearing them break down her doors, and started the car. She kept her ears tuned to signs that they’d been heard, but there were none. Yet. Slowly she drove the car down the muddy road, making sure to keep the engine as quiet as possible. Before they were out of earshot, however, they could hear shouting coming from the house. Immediately Ruby accelerated, cursing all the while. She veered the car around a narrow turn, scarcely preventing them from slipping off the road.
“Watch out,” Loki shouted despite himself.
“Thanks for the tip,” Ruby growled sarcastically, racing down the muddy road in the complete dark. A sound could vaguely be heard above the howling wind, a rhythmic pounding. They’d started the chopper. Ruby cursed again, and was this time joined by Loki, who mumbled: “Seven hells.”
“We can’t outrun the chopper,” Ruby said. “We need to get out of sight.”
And with that, she steered a hard right, landing the car into a creek and causing Loki to curse again. The car groaned and stopped moving. Loki had scarcely recovered his senses from the blow when he was ushered out of the car by Ruby.

They were now running into the woods, and Loki couldn’t see a thing. He stumbled along behind Ruby, constantly tripping over roots and branches.
“Where are we going? Why did you run our transportation into a riverbed?” he shouted at her back when he’d really fallen down.
“We needed to get out of sight. This will buy us some time while they search the car,” Ruby answered, gripping his shoulder harshly and helping him get up.
“As to where we’re going,” she continued, grabbing his arm and guiding him through the pitch black forest, “I know a place. We can hide out there ‘till morning. Then we need to find some way to get out of here. You didn’t happen to have a long term plan of escape, did you?” she asked hopefully.
“I know of a passage to Alfheim, located here on Midgard.”
“Midgard? See, I knew Loki sounded familiar. You’re a Norse god!” she said, half looking back at him, all the while moving along at a steady pace.
“The Norse god of Mischief, right? Who’d thought,” she said amused. Behind them a searchlight was turned on, lighting up the road and the crashed car.
“Crap,” Ruby said, “we need to move,” and she started running, pulling Loki with her.
“We’ll never make it,” Loki panted.
“Don’t worry, we’re almost there.”
“Almost where?”
Ruby didn’t answer, but simply jumped down on what appeared to be another road. Behind them the search light was scanning the forest. Smaller lights had appeared and were also sweeping the forest ground. There was shouting in the distance. Ruby guided Loki through the dark to a house and released his arm.
“Our car got stuck in the mud on the way back home, got it?” she said. Before he could answer she knocked loudly at the door.

“Adam!” she called, “open up! It’s me, Ruby!”
There was a cluttering inside, the lights went on, and the door opened. In the doorway stood a sleepy-eyed man in his thirties. His eyes widened when he saw the pair of them all windswept and dirty from walking through the forest.
“Good heavens, Ruby! What happened to you? How did you get here at this time of night?” he exclaimed.
“Come now Adam, it’s not that late for us young people,” Ruby answered amicably. “Mind if we come in? The car got stuck in the mud on the way home, you know how it is with this weather.”
“Of course!” Adam said, stepping aside to make way. “But what were you doing out with this weather?”
“It was necessary, I’m afraid. Had to pick up my friend here,” Ruby answered, gesturing to Loki.
“This is Logan, by the way.”
“Pleased to meet you,” the man said, sticking out his hand, “Adam.”
Loki shook it, quietly admiring the ease with which his new partner in crime made up lies. He could almost see himself learn a thing or two from her. Almost.
“Ruby here fixes everything and anything around the house that runs on electricity,” Adam explained, wrongly assuming his new acquaintance would be curious how he knew her.
“I see,” Loki said.
“Logan here was my neighbor for many years when we were young,” Ruby said in return, when Loki remained quiet.
“Ah, I see,” Adam said, raising his eyebrows meaningfully. “And now you’re catching up?”
Ruby rolled her eyes and smiled and said: “Yes, Adam, old friends catching up. Anyway, I hate to ask this, but… Can we sleep here for the night? I don’t think I can find my house in the dark.”
“Oh, yes! Of course! I’ll prepare the couch. I hope one of you doesn’t mind sleeping on an air mattress, though?”
“Oh no, I’m sure Logan doesn’t mind,” Ruby said, giving a devilish smile to Loki.
“No, I don’t,” Loki said, shooting arrows with his eyes towards Ruby. Her grin only grew wider.
“Well, then, let me get some pillows and blankets,” Adam said, walking out of the room.
“Why did you tell him my name is Logan?” Loki whispered as soon as the man was out of earshot.
“Loki isn’t exactly a common name here. Besides, if SHIELD questions him, he won’t actually give them your name.”
“But he will give them yours,” Loki countered, but Ruby couldn’t answer because Adam came back with two pillows, two blankets and an air mattress.
“I hope this will do,” he said, laying the supplies down on the couch that was standing in the small living room. “What is all that noise?” he said, looking out the window. The helicopter had gotten closer, and so had the shouting.
“I think there was another bear sighting today, close to the village,” Ruby answered nonchalantly. “They’re probably just searching for it.”
“In the middle of the night?” Adam said, more annoyed than incredulous.
“Can’t they do it at a more civil time?” he asked, but he didn’t seem to expect an answer, because he promptly wished them good night and left them in the living room.
“That went pretty well, don’t you think?” Ruby said cheerfully, quickly turning off the lights to avoid detection and making her bed on the couch.
“Oh, you probably should start inflating the mattress,” she said with another evil grin.
Loki shot her another angry glare and started to blow air into the mattress. Ruby got comfortable under her blanket on the couch and looked on as Loki inflated the mattress as though she’d never seen a more amusing sight. Luckily, now he was no longer a mere mortal, it didn’t take long. Once he’d gotten comfortable – as far one could get comfortable on an air mattress – Ruby said: “We’ll have to get up at the break of dawn. We’ll leave a note.”
“Hoping they’ll have stopped searching by then?” Loki asked sceptically.
“Yeah,” Ruby answered, suddenly not sounding confident anymore, “hoping they’ll have stopped searching by then.”