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Chapter Text

This is not a love song

I’m just checking that your light’s still on

I just wanna feel like I belong

But I don’t know where I am

I’ve not quite broken everything I’ve loved

That’s why I hold you in museum gloves

And you can ask me anything you like

But just don’t ask me why I am like this

Tony trimmed his beard after he had showered, then he dressed with care. He had never met a wizard before. Would he look like Gandalf or would he wear a suit? Tony opted for a chocolate brown Tom Ford suit and cream shirt. Tie or no tie? He went with no tie, a cross between smart and casual, he would let the quality of the tailoring speak for itself.

Nat was in charge of breakfast today, which meant pancakes, he was fastidiously careful not to get any butter or syrup on his suit. Ash, no, Loki was dressed for the gym as was Engel. They were far too close for Tony’s comfort. Nat was going to start Loki’s lessons in spycraft today, Engel would be in the gym with them, but in Capsicle’s capable hands. Tony juggled the two silver coins in his pockets and cleared his throat “I won’t be in for lunch today, so don’t make anything for me, business meeting in the city. I’ll eat while I’m there. Try not to burn the joint down while I’m away will you?” He looked around the table, then his eyes settled on the raven haired man in front of him “And absolutely no weapons whatsoever, do you understand, Bambi?”

Emerald green eyes looked at him through dark lashes “Of course, Mr Stark. Everyone knows that I’m not allowed weapons. I’m surprised you allow me cutlery some days.”

“Don’t get smart with me, Bambi! I have a containment unit with your name written all over it, just give me a reason to put you in there and your feet won’t touch the floor. You might have this lot wrapped around your finger, but you haven’t got me fooled one little bit. I’m watching you every step of the way.”

Happy poked his head through the door “Tony, I’m ready when you are.”

“I’m on my way, Happy.” Tony glared at Loki “Remember I am watching you, Bambi.”

“I’m shaking in my shoes, Mr Stark.” There was an upward quirk of Loki’s lip and Nat had to turn away before she had a fit of giggles. Clint had dived into the laundry room and buried his face in his hands. He was crying with laughter, Tony was no real threat to Loki unless he was in his suit, when would he realise it?

<<>>

Steve had Engel doing basic gym work to strengthen her muscles and then they tackled a bit of boxing and skipping. 

“Loki, can you do the same moves that Lore did the other day? Not what we usually do, but that flowing pattern of moves that looked almost like a dance?” Nat asked the young man in front of her.

“Of course, Nat. What she knows, I know, and vice versa.” He took his starting position and ran through the movements, and as Nat watched him she realised not only was it almost balletic, but it was like watching a river flow. 

“That was beautiful. Can you do it again, but more slowly, I want to see if I can replicate it.”

Loki nodded, and took up his starting position again, Nat copying him. He took each movement as slowly as he could so she could duplicate it. She did a passable job. “I think we should do this every day, as well as our usual moves. I can learn this, you can learn the other. Then we can maybe start creating something that is new and more effective between us. What do you think?”

“I guess so, but I am used to doing this with daggers or short swords in my hands.” Loki said.

“Tony would never allow that, but we might get away with using Relay batons. JARVIS, can you order me four Relay batons please?”

“Of course. Miss Romanov.”

“What’s a Relay baton?” 

“It’s a wooden baton or stick used in a race where runners compete in teams of four, they have to pass the baton from one member of the team to the other. The first past the winning post wins as long as they have the baton in their hand. Technically it’s not a weapon.”

Loki laughed as did Steve. “You are stretching it a bit there, Nat.” Steve grinned at her. “Right, showers everyone! Engel, you are with Bruce next. Loki, you and Nat are working together until lunchtime.” 

<<>>

It felt strange being back in the Tower. Tony poured himself a Vanilla Vodka and tonic. No alcohol smell on his breath that way. He had twenty minutes before the wizard was due to appear. He savoured the drink, although he preferred whisky, alcohol was alcohol. He tucked the empty glass out of sight behind the bar.

“Sir, Dr Strange is in the lobby.”

“Let him up, JARVIS.”

“Of course, Sir.”

The lift door opened shortly afterwards to admit a tall, severe looking man, whose goatee almost matched Tony’s own for sharpness. His dark hair had flashes of grey at the sides that added a distinguished air to him. But then there was the way he was dressed, he looked like he was wearing a frock over leggings and a cape. What was it with these people, had they no sense of style!

“Tony Stark? I’m Dr Stephen Strange, Master of the Sanctum Sanctorum here in New York, how can I be of assistance?”

“Wizards are Doctors? You can get a doctorate in wizardry at a university, wow! That I did not know!”

“Actually, I was a surgeon. And I am a sorcerer, not a wizard. This is not Lord of the Rings. Now if you do not have a serious problem I will take my leave, my time is precious.” Dr Strange turned to leave.

“No, no, wait! I have a serious problem, that I think is magical in nature. JARVIS, can you please show the Doctor the footage from midnight on Friday night, please.”

JARVIS ran the footage of Lore running away as the clock struck midnight, leaving behind her shoe, then the foot high cartoon mouse. Stephen watched it intently. “Is it the girl you are interested in or the mouse?”

“Oh, I know only too well who the girl is. It’s the mouse. It’s not a hologram. It’s solid. We have examined it from every angle. It stays there for about ten minutes then just vanishes into thin air.”

“Well, it’s certainly a magic trick. The sort of thing a child or a young person would do. That’s why I asked about the girl, her appearance is not natural.”

“No, she’s learning spycraft. She’s wearing a wig, contact lenses, false nails and make up to try and make her look older.”

“You think? Those things are glamours, apart from the make up, that’s real. That’s your magic worker right in front of you, and she is good for someone of that age. The mouse held even when it moved. With training she could become exceptional.”

“She is a he.”

“That’s even more impressive. I can’t change my sex. How old is she, I mean he?”

“I can’t remember exactly, over a thousand years old anyway.” Tony watched the expression change on the wizard’s face.

“That’s impossible!”

“Nah! He’s a Space Viking, Thor’s brother, but adopted. I want to know if he could be dangerous?”

“If this is all he can do, I wouldn’t think so, not really. Glamours are quite low level magic, changing sex is impressive, but not dangerous. If he creates things that are more dangerous than a cartoon mouse, call me again and I will come and assess him. We have ways of containing magic users.”

“We?”

“The Sorcerer Supreme and myself, I am a Master of the Mystic Arts. This is my card.” Stephen handed Tony a simple cream card embossed with the address of the Sanctum on one side, and his cell number on the reverse. 

They took their leave of each other and Tony poured himself a double whisky, a Tony sized double whisky and knocked it back. “JARVIS, let Happy know I’m on my way down and we are heading to Aldo’s.”

<<>>

Nat took Loki into R&D, Bruce was deep at work on a project. “Hi Bruce, I want to show Loki around a computer as part of his training, can we use the spare one in here?”

“You could, Nat, but why don’t you use the one in Tony’s lab? He won't be back until after lunch so you’ll have the whole lab to yourselves.”

“Great, that sounds ideal, we won’t be disturbing your peace that way. See you later, Bruce.”

 Nat and Loki headed into Tony’s lab and pulled up seats at his desk. ”There’s a keyboard, but no screen.” Loki looked confused.

“JARVIS, pull up Tony’s screen please.” Nat asked. A virtual screen appeared in front of them. “OK, Loki, we need to type in Tony’s password. You see and hear it almost every single day, and it’s in capital letters.”

“I have no idea what it could be.” He looked totally confused.

“Think about his favourite t-shirts, they are usually black and they have the same four letters. Visualise his t-shirts, people usually choose their passwords based on things they surround themselves with, photos on desks, books on shelves, scribbled on pieces of paper, the name of their pet.”

Loki stopped for a few seconds and thought about Tony’s t-shirts, they were mainly to do with music. Then he hit the keyboard typing in ‘ACDC’. Nat nodded as the desktop opened displaying a variety of files. “OK, Loki, we are in, now let’s explore and see what dirty secrets our illustrious leader is hiding.”

There were folders, lots of folders! Loki had no idea where to start, but there were three files that were just labelled with initials, ES, LF & LL. Loki clicked on ES, guessing that it related to Engel, and it did. There was a scan of her family tree, her DNA profile, her test results from the government, an Icon called StarkPad which when opened showed all her learning history. Loki closed it down. 

LF yielded the same family tree scan, a photo of Lore dressed as an Angel and a DNA profile. There was nothing else to explore there so far.

LL followed the same pattern as the others, family tree scan, 2 DNA profiles. There were photos and footage from the original Loki’s invasion of New York in 2012. Present Loki touched the figure on the screen and looked at Nat “He looks like me!”

“He is you, Loki. You both have identical DNA. That one there dates from 2012. Tony took it before Thor took 2012 Loki back to Asgard to face trial. This one here is from the baby we found in Engel’s bed, the baby that grew into you. You are both physically the same person, there is no doubt about that.”

Bright green eyes looked at her “Why do you not all hate me? Look at the devastation all around me.” His voice was broken and sad.

“You have been reborn by some form of magic, Loki. It’s a chance for you to be someone else without the influence of Asgard, and whoever else caused you to change. Thor told us you weren’t always like that, so we hope that you will work with us this time and not against us. Tony, of course, is suspicious of every move you make. Now, back to what we are doing, what else can you find?” Nat prompted him.

“There is this unnamed folder under my name, do you think we should look at that?”

“Oh, I certainly do! An unnamed folder certainly warrants investigation.” Nat winked at him.

Loki opened the file “Who is Aldo, Nat?”

“Tony’s Goldsmith. He buys his watches and special gifts for people from him. Why?”

“He is selling my silver to him. I don’t understand these figures, can you make sense of them?”

Nat looked at the figures Loki pointed out to her and whistled in a most unladylike manner “You are getting ripped off young man. Tony is getting enough money from you to keep both you and Engel in comfort and designer clothes for a long time to come. Do you have much silver, Loki?”

“Yes, Nat. I have gold coins and gem stones as well. Why?”

“I think that we should open you and Lore a bank account and convert some of it into US Dollars for you so you have proper money in case you need to get out of here at any point. I also think we need to get you both passports and Engel too, in case we need to get you out of the US. Hopefully that will never happen, I have friends within SHIELD that can assist me with that. But that is for another day, we will shut everything down now and head upstairs for lunch.”

<<>>

Tony was in an exceptionally good mood when he got back later that afternoon. Loki and Engel were working on their Lego projects. Tony threw a carrier bag at Loki from a high end store, inside it were a couple of dark green long sleeved t-shirts of fine quality material. Loki thanked him with a slight smile. 

Loki turned back to his project, it was very nearly finished. Engel had already told him it was his cell in Asgard, but he had no recollection of it. It was beautifully furnished, not many pieces but of good quality apparently. There were piles of books on the floor. He just had a few bricks left to place and he was done. Clint came over and handed him a chocolate protein shake. “Here, dinner is going to be a bit later tonight, boss man's orders. Just pizza tonight, he’s got a video conference with Pepper at our usual eating time.” He handed Engel a glass of milk and left them both with a few cookies to tide them over. Loki placed his final brick and munched on a cookie. Engel was still busy, he sat and watched her working. His fingers were itching to work on his next project already, Engel glanced at him “Are you OK, Dada?”

“Yes, my angel. Just lots of thoughts running around my head, but nothing for you to worry about. They are things I learned while I was working with Nat today.” Loki hugged her.

Clint called them both over “I thought we could watch some Anime while we wait for Tony, it’s not strictly about magic, but it’s sort of similar.” Loki and Engel made their way over to the sofa and sat together, along with Nat and Clint. JARVIS started the first episode of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Loki was curious, alchemy, what was that? He knew, of course, that this was fiction, but he watched intently anyway.

Nat was observing Loki, who was watching Edward Elric closely. She was curious as to what he was thinking, a question she needed to ask tomorrow when they entered her private room for their next lesson. 

Their peace was shattered when Tony appeared and told them “Switch that shit off JARVIS, and find us something decent to watch, perhaps The Lion King. The pizzas will be here shortly. Clint, get beers for everyone except the kids, of course.”

Clint handed out beers to everyone, including Loki, Tony scowled “I said not to the kids!”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, he’s most certainly an adult now. Probably couldn’t get away with buying a beer in a bar as he has no ID, but there is no reason for him not to have one in here with us. If you would like one of course, kid? It’s not compulsory.” Clint glanced at Loki.

“I would like to try one, if that is acceptable?” Loki looked at Tony.

Tony just grunted at him “No beer for my princess under any circumstances, Legolas.”

“Corrupt a minor? Me? There is a milkshake on its way for her with the pizza delivery.” Clint grinned.

JARVIS announced the arrival of the food delivery and lined up The Lion King ready for watching. Steve went and collected the delivery and distributed the boxes amongst the two coffee tables. He handed Engel a chocolate milkshake, and they all started to help themselves as JARVIS ran the movie. Loki watched intently with Engel, like most of these things they watched there seemed to be some sort of message buried within it. “Is the lion dead, Dada?” Engel asked him.

“It’s just sleeping, kiddo.” Tony said.

“The lion is dead, my angel. All things die when their time is due. It’s the natural order of life.” Loki enfolded her small hand gently in his own.

“I don’t want you to die again, Dada.”

Loki kissed the top of her head “If it keeps you alive, my angel, I will do it willingly. But I intend to stay here to protect you for a very long time.” Engel snuggled up to him and he wrapped his arm around her.  

After the movie he took her through to the penthouse and tucked her into bed before he went into his own room. Once he was ready for bed he lay on his side and started to read ‘Maus’. He read for a couple of hours then JARVIS dimmed the lights for him until he drifted off to sleep, and in that stage between wakefulness and sleep a voice filled his head “Your seidr is nearly fully ready for you to control, Loki. You need to start remembering who you are and what you are capable of. Let the memories flow and don’t chase them away, you can cope. You are stronger than you think, you always have been.” During his sleep he pulled Rhubarb to his heart and held her tight, his dreams were troubled and he drew comfort from her closeness. 

<<>>

When morning came he remembered parts of his childhood, growing up in the golden palace of Asgard. That he had had a mother who had loved him and taught him tricks and how to fight to suit his build and skills. He held Rhubarb up “I remember my mother. She was beautiful, and loving. She was a queen. She taught me many things and I loved her so much.” He put her back on the bed and went to wash and clean his teeth. He pulled on his Judogi and headed into the communal area for breakfast. 

Once they had eaten Engel went with her father for her maths lesson and Loki headed to the gym with Nat and Steve. There was a parcel waiting for Nat, four lightweight plastic relay batons. “I got plastic, just in case Tony thought the wooden ones were weapons. These cannot possibly be mistaken for anything other than what they are.” She handed Loki two, and she kept hold of two. They assumed their starting positions and Nat followed Loki’s movements, she could see how the batons made a difference to the shapes they made, how if they were knives or daggers they would do considerable damage to an opponent. Swift, lethal, efficient. He had been a well trained killer. 

Third time around Nat found she could go faster, still nowhere near as fast as Loki at full speed, but once she had mastered the moves this would add to her repertoire. She let him run through once more at full speed and she watched with Steve from the side. “On our side in a battle, he would be formidable.” Steve said “If we can keep Tony from turning him into the enemy.”

“We will do everything in our power to stop that.” Nat turned to her team leader “This is a style of martial art that is new to us, and needs to be learned by as many as possible. We could do with SHIELD agents learning this, do you agree?”

“I certainly do, if they are already adept at martial arts it should be quite easy for them to adapt to it.”

“I’m thinking that next time Tony goes on a little trip we can schedule an impromptu lesson in the gym over there.” Steve grinned at Nat’s suggestion, they just needed Loki on board, but he knew how good at persuasion Nat could be when she tried.

Now Loki was fully warmed up she got him to run through her routine with the lowering sweeps. He was much more confident with the first two levels now, showing no hesitation. The bottom level was still a struggle for him, but he was able to hold the position without falling over, and Nat was happy with that. His muscles would strengthen given time, everyone started out like this, she had. She went to help him up, but he managed to get to his feet himself. “When you have finished with Steve, go and have your shower, then I want both of you to join me in my special room. I’ll be waiting in there for you, we have work to do.” 

Loki was left in Steve’s capable hands for a very thorough workout. He was physically tired when he headed into the shower, letting the water stream over aching muscles as he washed his hair and then soaped away the sweat. He dressed simply in black jeans and one of his new green t-shirts. He slipped on his Converse and headed down to Nat’s hidden room. Steve was already there, and handed Loki a protein shake. “Here, you need this, you worked hard today.”

“Thanks, Steve. What’s this all about, Nat?” Loki tipped his head slightly to one side.

“Steve, Clint and I all work for SHIELD, Loki. Steve is our team leader. I told him what we found on Tony’s computer yesterday about the silver you have been giving him each week. I know you don’t understand our money yet, but to put it in terms you may understand you have been feeding all of us, and clothing yourself with the amount you have given him so far. All of us, not just yourself and Engel.”

“I see.” Loki swallowed hard.

“We are going to set you up with a bank account, so that you can convert some of your coins into currency, then it will be available to you whenever you need it. We have to be careful though, we can’t afford to flood the market with gold. So we will have to sell very small pieces at a time. We also need to get passports for yourself, Lore and Engel in case we need to get you out from here and hide you away somewhere. We can’t use your real name for obvious reasons, and Tony will track down Lore Friggason, so we need to think of an alias for you and Lore, or at least a new surname. So lots of brainstorming needed, and relationships to work out. How do we present you three as a family unit?”

Loki rubbed the bridge of his nose furiously. He had just accepted his identity, now he was having to give it up again! Or potentially give it up! Loki and Lore could pass for twins, but that would not make this easy, Loki was too easy to recognise. Lore on the other hand could change how she wore her hair, wear make-up, each would subtly change her appearance. Those things could also make Lore look a little older more easily. He took a deep breath and shifted, but not into Lore.

Steve gasped. Standing in front of him was a tall young man with floppy mousy brown hair parted in the centre, blue grey eyes peered myopically from behind gold rimmed, round lensed glasses. He was dressed in a grey and white striped button down shirt, charcoal grey waistcoat, and charcoal grey trousers, simple black leather shoes graced his feet.

“How do I look?” Loki asked.

“Like a real life anime character!” Nat exclaimed. “If I hadn’t seen you do that with my own eyes I wouldn’t know it was you. What are your thoughts?”

“We are three siblings, Lore is the eldest, then me and our younger sister, Engel. Can we all be added to a bank account? Just in case anything happens to me it means Engel has access to my funds?”

“I’m sure we can get that sorted out. Stand against that wall over there and I’ll take photos of you for your passport. Family name?”

“It’s going to have to end in ‘son’, we can’t use the typical Aesir endings. I was thinking about the animation we watched last night, the two alchemist brothers.”

“Edward and Alphonse Elric, you mean? Elricson? Edwardson?” Nat took her photos.

“Edwardson, I think. Does that sound like a proper family name?”

“Sounds good to me.” Steve added his voice to the subject “I think you should be British, too. Your way of speech is too cultured to pass as American, what do you think, Nat?”

“Yeah, that would work. So you would need a British name, Loki. How about Jack?”

“Jack Edwardson, what do we do about the girls?” Loki looked at both Steve and Nat in turn.

“Angela for Engel, you often call her Angel. How about Lorraine for Lore, or maybe Lauren?” Nat supplied off the top of her head.

“I think I prefer Lauren, she can still get Lore as a shortened form. Do you want me to switch so you can take her photo?”

“If you can, Loki. Just don’t expend too much energy. And we’ll pop a little bit of make-up on you just to make you look a little older. We need to give you both dates of birth, and all three of you need places of birth, we can stick a pin in a map for that.”

Lore appeared from nowhere and Jack vanished. Steve shook his head. “I will never get used to that. It’s mind bending.”

Nat applied a bit of mascara to Lore’s lashes, a sweep of lipstick and a hint of blusher. It made her look slightly older. Back against the wall, Nat took photos of Lore for her passport. Tomorrow she would sneak Engel into here and take her photos too. Then Randy would produce the passports for them, and also open a multi-currency bank account. Once that was done they could start converting some of Loki’s gold to build him up an emergency fund. And talking of gold…

“Lore, how much gold do you have?” Nat asked.

“Is JARVIS monitoring?”

“No, we thought it better that he wasn’t involved in this, and what goes on in this room isn’t usually monitored.” 

“OK.” Lore started to pull gold coins out of thin air and built up a small pile on the floor.

Steve let out a low whistle “That’s a small fortune, we need to release that onto the market slowly. Do we want to change it all, Nat, or should we leave part of it with Loki?”

“I think we should only change half of it, Lore, put the rest of it back wherever you store it. There is more than enough there to last you for more than Tony’s lifetime. So that would be more than you would need for emergency use. I’ll hide these in here, and each of us will take turns in taking a small amount and cashing it in and then we will pay the cash into your bank account for you, then you can access it when you actually need it.”

Lore disappeared half of the gold coins. Nat put the rest of the coins in a wooden box which Steve had to lift up and put on a shelf for her. Nat stood a rack of earrings in front of the box, just to make it look insignificant. 

“I think that’s enough for today. Lore, do you want to change yourself back and we’ll go upstairs for lunch.” Nat watched as Loki appeared and she handed him a cleansing wipe to remove the make-up from his face. “That was very productive, don’t you think, Steve?”

“Yes, and it’s been incredible watching you transform, Loki. I’m glad I got to see that.” Loki smiled at the captain, it was the first time he had shown anyone how he could transform.

<<>>

After lunch Loki helped Steve clear up before he was due to head off down to the lab with Bruce. “Steve, can I ask you something?”

“Of course you can, Loki. What can I help you with?” Steve stopped what he was doing and looked at the young man before him.

“Would I be able to cook something for dinner one night? I mean, something simple like a stew?”

“I don’t see why not. Why don’t you go and see your friend in the library and ask for a simple cookery book and find a recipe, then you can ask JARVIS to order the ingredients?”

“Will Tony get angry with me?”

“Perhaps, Loki. But I for one would really appreciate a home cooked meal, and I am sure some of the others would too.”

“OK, I have a book to take back anyway. I’ll pop my model into my room, pick up the book, then I can go to the library after I’ve had my lesson with Bruce.”

“I’ll see you later and if you want me to look over recipes then with you, I will.”

“Thanks, Steve.”

<<>>

Skye glanced up from her computer as the graceful young man walked across the floor towards her desk. “Good afternoon, Skye. I have a book to return, and I need your help again, I’m afraid.” Loki smiled at her as he handed over Anne Frank’s book and his library card.

Skye put the card through on her computer and smiled back at him “What can I help you with today, Ash? More World War 2 books or something else?”

“I’m after a recipe book, I want to make a stew for the Avengers team, or something along those lines, but I don’t know where to start, so I need something simple to follow.”

“Come with me, I’ll help you find a beginners cookbook. How are you getting on with your books?”

“I’ve been very busy, but I’m reading Maus at the moment. I’m concentrating on the war books you recommended to fit in with my lessons, I’ll then get back to reading The Two Towers. Am I time restricted on it?” 

Skye found herself gazing into bright green eyes “No, absolutely not. Not many people tend to read The Lord of the Rings, most are lazy and just watch the movies. Take your time.” She dropped her gaze before she ceased being professional and started to lead him towards the non-fiction section. There were a lot of cookery books of various kinds but she pulled out several books suitable for a beginner. “Let’s go and take a seat and see which of these will best suit your needs. Quite a few of them have a lot of baking in them, which we can discard.”

Loki followed Skye over to an empty table and the pair sat down with the four books Skye had found. One was discarded straight away as it was mainly baking as Skye suspected. One book stood out as it was mainly soups and casseroles, and Loki decided that would be the one to take. If it worked out well he would ask Nat if he could get a copy for himself. Skye took the book to her desk and added it to Loki’s library card. “Shall I put the others back for you, Skye?” he asked.

“No thank you, Ash. It gives me something to do rather than staring at a screen all day, a  welcome respite.”

“OK, then. Thank you for your help yet again. I’ll see you soon, Skye.” 

Skye watched Ash head down the hallway, the hidden cameras picking him up as he went. More fodder for Coulson. Hopefully this would make up for the strange virus that had hit their systems mysteriously not long ago and had caused complete havoc.

<<>>

Loki sat on the sofa with the recipe book and a vanilla protein shake. He was hunting for something simple to start with, and then he was going to have to cut things up, would Tony let him? He liked the sound of a beef casserole, it had lots of vegetables in it, would be a complete meal in one pot and looked straightforward. It served four, so he would have to double the quantity but that was easy enough. “Steve, can you look at this for me, please? Does it sound acceptable?”

Steve came and sat down beside him and took the book from Loki. “That sounds good, we can get some nice sourdough bread to mop up the gravy with. Work out what we need and JARVIS can order it for you, and then we can have it the day after tomorrow.”

“Will Tony be OK with me using a knife?”

“I’ll supervise you, it’ll be fine.”

“What’ll be fine, Capsicle?” Tony said as he walked into the kitchen and grabbed a mug of coffee.

“Loki’s going to cook us a beef casserole, and I’m going to supervise him.” Steve looked at Tony steadily.

“Rather you than me. I’ll settle for a lovely greasy cheeseburger, less likely to get poisoned that way. I trust him with toast, but only just.”

Steve watched Loki’s face fall. “Your choice,Tony, if you want to pass up on decent home cooked food. But the rest of us will relish it. And if Loki is happy to experiment, we’ll make a regular thing of it. I guess you’ll be eating a lot of cheeseburgers on your own.” Steve turned to Loki “Give JARVIS your order, and JARVIS, add a large white sourdough bread to the list please.”

“Of course, Captain. Mr Ash, what do you require?” Loki listed what he needed and JARVIS confirmed everything back to him to make sure he had everything.

“And just who is paying for this lot?” Tony asked as Clint walked into the room with Nat. 

“Call yourself a philanthropist, Tony Stark?” Clint said “That young man there has more than paid for everything he and his daughter have had. Haven’t you heard the expression ‘charity begins at home’, or does it only count when you are getting lots of publicity for it? Maybe we should all start paying for our food? Oh, wait a moment, we all gave up our paid jobs to become Avengers, stupid me, I forgot that.”

Tony slammed his mug down on the kitchen bench and walked out of the room. “That did it, he’ll be unbearable now!” Steve said.

“Somebody had to say it.” Clint countered. ”It might as well be me, I’m known for speaking my mind! If Loki had no money would he just throw him out?”

“He made no attempt at antagonism when Loki was young, it was only as he got older he changed his attitude. Who knows why, this is Tony we are speaking of.” Nat shrugged. “I’m looking forward to you cooking for us, I can’t remember the last time I had a home made dinner. Bruce will be up with Engel shortly, are you going to start a new Lego model, Loki?”

“Yes, I guess I will. I have time before dinner.” He moved off to the end of the room and carefully filled a plastic tray with all the components that he needed. He laid out the broad beige colour sheets carefully and the two small squares. One he laid next to the big square then carefully built up a couple of layers to create steps, then laid the other small square over the top and supported it in place with other beige bricks. It made no sense to anyone, including Loki, but his mind was directing his fingers as always. Then he started his usual method of building up layer upon layer, laying out frameworks for walls, furniture etc. He was still mapping out the very first layer when Engel came and joined him. She gave him a quick hug, then started working on her maze house, adding all the decorative elements. 

Dinner that night was quiet, Tony was moody and withdrawn, they watched The Last Starfighter as a group. Loki went to bed at the same time as Engel again to continue reading Maus. The further into it he got, the more distressing he found it, he pulled Rhubarb onto his knees and fondled one floppy ear as he read. He marked his place with a piece of paper and picked up his StarkPad and typed in ‘Genocide’.

Genocide - the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.

A cold shiver ran down his spine, and he added the word and definition to his Language folder under English. The book and his StarkPad went on his nightstand. He wasn’t sure if he would get any sleep after what he had just read. It was something he would need to talk to Steve about at some point because this was a work of fiction, but from what he understood the author’s father had actually gone through this experience and this was the author's way of making this accessible to everyone in a form that was easy to understand. 

Loki lay down and cuddled Rhubarb into him. He still felt weepy after what he had read and he curled up into a foetal position to try and comfort himself. Why did something that happened on this planet upset him so much? It bore no relevance to him. He gave in to impulse and let the tears flow, it had been a very odd day with a lot to take in. Eventually he cried himself to sleep. JARVIS kept the light very dim, not dark like he usually would, he was concerned that the young man was so distressed.

When Tony staggered to bed well after midnight he was surprised to see a faint light showing around Loki’s door. Usually it was all dark at that end of the hallway. He wandered along and pushed against the door, it was locked. “Sir, Mr Ash is asleep, but he is quite distressed, so I am keeping an eye on him.”

“Good for you, JARVIS, good for you.” Tony said sarcastically before he shuffled back in the direction of his room where he managed to pull his clothes off before he fell onto the bed.

<<>>

The nightmare shook Loki awake, the room was dimly lit, his face was wet with tears. There was an ache in his heart that he didn’t understand. His nightmare had been of a world of ice and snow being torn apart by violent quakes to the ground. Strange beings were being felled by falling rocks, adults and children both. It was carnage. Now he buried his head in his hands and sobbed at the destruction he remembered from the dream. It had all felt incredibly real. 

JARVIS raised the light in Steve’s room. Steve surfaced from a light phase of sleep “Is there a problem, JARVIS?” 

“Mr Ash is in a great deal of distress, Captain Rogers, and I cannot disturb Sir as he will not help him, and the princess is too young. I did not know who else to alert.”

“You did the right thing, JARVIS. Get him to go to the communal area and I’ll come up and make him some hot chocolate and see if I can settle him down.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

Steve pulled on a bathrobe and headed up to the communal floor. He filled a pan with milk and spooned in some cocoa powder and a little sugar. He put it on to warm through while he waited for Loki to appear. He didn’t wait long, the young man was a mess, Rhubarb clutched tightly in one hand as if he was frightened to let her go. “Hey, sit yourself down on the sofa. I’m making us some hot chocolate and if you feel up to it you can tell me what your nightmare was about. It might help. If you don’t want to, that’s OK too.” Loki sat down on the sofa, Steve realised that he didn’t have a robe, he was just in his sleep shorts and a thin t-shirt. They really needed to rectify that, he wasn’t a child any longer, and if he had shifted in his sleep Lore certainly shouldn’t be wandering around like that in a penthouse full of men. He carefully poured the hot chocolate into two mugs and came and sat near to Loki and handed him the mug “Drink this while it’s still hot, it’ll make you feel better, at least it always works for me when I’m having a bad night.”

“Thank you, Steve.” Loki took the mug from him with the hand that wasn’t clutching Rhubarb. He slowly sipped the hot drink. It felt very comforting, the dreadful images he had seen were still in the forefront of his mind. He felt another traitorous tear steal down his cheek. 

Steve worried that they had put too much pressure on him earlier, worrying him about possible danger when it may never happen. But then Nat was right, Tony was volatile currently, they didn’t know what he was going to do at any given moment and with no missions to occupy him it gave him far too much time to think about this young man.Steve didn’t try to talk to Loki, he let him drink in peace, to gather his thoughts and try to calm down. He was taut like a bowstring, Steve wanted him to relax and ease his posture, loosen his grip on Rhubarb a bit.

Loki put his empty mug on the table and stared at the floor. His grip had loosened slightly on Rhubarb and he pulled her towards his chest. His voice was small and broken when he spoke “Did you witness genocide during the war, Steve?”

“No, not personally. We knew about it from the Newsreels of course, but I never saw it myself. I know some of our troops were involved in the liberation of some of the death camps, but I was in the ice by then. What makes you ask about genocide?”

“I was reading Maus before I went to sleep last night, it upset me and I guess it coloured my dreams.”

“You were dreaming of the Nazi death camps?”

“No, but I was witnessing the destruction of a planet, not this one, a planet of ice and snow, and its people. It wasn’t a natural disaster, so it could only be genocide, right? I felt it deep in the fibre of my being, I can’t explain it better than that. I don’t understand the feeling, I thought it would have gone by now, but it’s still there, in here.” Loki placed his hand over his heart.

“I would say that is grief, but I don’t know why you would feel that way about a strange planet. It wasn’t part of Asgard was it?”

“I don’t think so. I believe that the eternal realm is all gold and sunshine. This was the opposite. I’m scared to go back to sleep in case it happens again.”

“Why don’t you sleep on the sofa? There are throws up here. I’ll sleep on this one over here and you take that one, then if you have another nightmare I’ll wake you up. Does that sound OK?”

“Yes, that might help me get back to sleep. Thanks, Steve, I shouldn’t be scared of dreams, but somehow I am.” They set each sofa up and each of them bedded down for the last few hours of the night, pulling throws over themselves. Loki not letting go of Rhubarb at any point.

<<>>

Clint woke them in the morning when he came to prep breakfast for Nat who was going to make pancakes for everyone. “Hey, did no one invite me to the sleepover?”

Steve rubbed his eyes “Loki, go and get yourself washed and dressed, and I’ll do the same. At least you got a few hours of sleep.” Loki disappeared towards the lift, Clint raised an eyebrow. “Terrible nightmare, he was in a really bad way. JARVIS got me to help him. Go easy on him in lessons later on if he is sleepy.”

“I’ll bear that in mind and won’t beat him with a stick, Cap!” Clint winked at him “Now you go and get ready too before Nat catches you in your pjs.”

There were no voices in Loki’s head that morning as he washed and cleaned his teeth. He dressed for his gym session with Nat and Steve even though he felt too tired to accomplish anything. He made his bed and put Rhubarb back in her normal place. “Sorry, Rhubarb” he whispered.

He had barely sat down at the dining table when his breakfast was put in front of him, a neat pile of pancakes, fresh berries and a strawberry protein shake. He poured maple syrup on his pancakes and started to dig in. Nat kept glancing at him, Steve had explained about his bad night, and she could see the tell tale dark circles under Loki’s eyes. But at least he was eating. He had managed about half his breakfast when JARVIS interrupted them. “Thor is approaching, it seems that he has discovered our whereabouts.”

“Loki, get yourself to the panic room now, take your breakfast with you. I don’t want you missing out on your food. Stay there until we get you.”

“But Mr Stark isn’t here yet.”

“It doesn’t matter, Thor can’t find you here. Go now.” Steve ordered him like the team leader he was.

Loki grabbed his plate, cutlery and drink and headed to the lift. Once he got to the penthouse he headed straight to Tony’s bedroom. Tony was in the bathroom “What are you doing in here, Bambi?” he grumbled as he poked his head out of the door. 

“JARVIS has just let us know Thor has arrived. I’m heading into the panic room.”

“OK. Do you remember the code?”

“2007.”

“Right. We’ll let you out when he’s gone. Get yourself down there now, there’s Lego, snacks and drinks.” Tony held onto Loki’s drink and plate while he punched in the code and got the door opened, once he was through the door Tony handed him his breakfast and shut him in.

Loki headed down the stairs and sat on a chair at the desk and finished his breakfast. He wondered how long Thor would stay. As he had had such a restless night he opted to lie down on the bottom bunk and try to get more sleep. JARVIS decided not to disturb him unless he asked to see and hear what was going on.

<<>>

Clint drew the short straw to go and fetch Thor from the lobby. The God of Thunder was gazing around the space in curiosity. “You did not let me know that you had moved from the Tower, fortunately Heimdall knew how to locate you.”

“Of course he did. He sees everything doesn’t he?” Clint quipped. “We moved a couple of weeks ago, and we have no means of contacting you, so not exactly sure how we would let you know we had changed address. Anyway, this is a joint Avengers/SHIELD facility at present.” Clint took Thor up in the lift, and they exited at the communal floor.

Tony had finally made an appearance, and Nat put a pile of pancakes in front of him. “Do you want breakfast, Thor? I have enough batter left to make you some pancakes, or we have some Pop Tarts in the snack cupboard if you prefer?”

“Pancakes would be delightful. Lady Natasha.” Thor sat down in what would be Loki’s seat right next to Engel “Are you well, niece?”

“Yes, Uncle Thor. Have you been at Jane’s?”

“Sadly, the Lady Jane and I are no longer a couple. My father was right, Midgardians are not suitable partners for Aesir.” 

“Sorry to hear that, Point Break. So is this just a flying visit then?” Tony asked as Thor demolished the pancakes that Nat set in front of him like they were nothing. 

“I thought I would stay overnight if you have room available for me?” Thor grinned at Tony.

Nat was clearing the kitchen and putting stuff into the dishwasher, she momentarily froze when she heard Thor’s comment. They couldn’t leave Loki locked in the panic room for that length of time!

“We have spare rooms downstairs, Point Break. It won’t be a problem. Capsicle can show you where you can sleep and provide you with anything you need. And he can show you around our new premises as well, the grand tour.”

“Yes, of course I can. As soon as you have finished we can make a start, Thor.”

“Will the princess be joining us?” Thor smiled at his niece.

“No, she has lessons. She should actually be down in the lab with Bruce right now. Off you go, kid. I’ll see you later. I have stuff to sort out in the penthouse with JARVIS, then I’ll catch up with you at lunchtime.”

“See you later, Dada Tony, Uncle Thor.” Engel slid off the chair and made her way to the lift to head down to the lab. 

“Legolas, can you make me a protein shake to take with me while I sort out the SI business with JARVIS?”

“Yep. No problem, Tony.” Clint saw Nat visibly ease a little. Clint shook up the mix and put it in a beaker and handed it to Tony.

“”I’ll see you later, Point Break, have fun with Capsicle.”

“Aye, Stark.”

Tony headed into the lift and the penthouse. He quickly punched the code in for the panic room “JARVIS, triple security on the penthouse, no one in here but myself, Engel and Loki. And Loki is not allowed out while Thor is on the premises.”

“Understood, Sir.”

Tony stepped into the panic room, Loki was still lying on the bed. “Hey, Bambi. I’ve brought you a protein shake. We have a bit of a problem, Thor is staying overnight. We can’t leave you locked up in here all that time.”

Loki sat up and took the drink from Tony and took small sips “What is to happen to me, Mr Stark?”

“He can’t know you are here. Even I’m not comfortable with you being dragged back to Asgard when you are supposed to be protecting Engel. You have the run of the penthouse, that means you can use the sitting room as always, you have your own rooms free to you as well. If you feel unsafe at any time you can come in here and lock yourself in. We will sneak food into the lift for you and JARVIS will let you know when it’s there so you can collect it. If you need anything let JARVIS know and he will let one of us know. OK with everything, Bambi?”  

“Yes, Mr Stark.”

“OK, grab your dirty dishes and we’ll get out of here. There are snacks and drinks in the sitting room if you need any extras, and JARVIS will play you anything you want on the TV.” Loki grabbed his dirty dishes from the morning and followed Tony up the stairs and into the sitting room. “I’ll take these through to the kitchen now, Capsicle is showing Thor around the compound, I’ll come back with some protein shakes to stick in the fridge for you. We can get through this. At least it’s only one night.”

Tony left Loki on the small sofa with his protein shake and headed back to Clint. “Make me up three or for shakes and I’ll stick them in the fridge for him.”

“How is he?” Nat asked.

“Seems OK, I guess.”

“You know if he has another nightmare tonight you will have to deal with him? You can’t just leave him to cope on his own. Steve said he was really bad last night.” Nat warned Tony.

“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. More importantly we have to get food into the lift for him. He can’t survive on protein shakes and snacks, so we have to keep distracting Point Break to achieve that. Superspy job. Thanks for the shakes, Legolas.” Tony turned around and headed back to the penthouse.

<<>>

Steve had put Thor into the empty room next to his own to keep a close watch on him. Then he showed him the R&D labs and the Avengers gym. They had crossed the lobby and over to the SHIELD side of the compound. He took him to the library, even though he knew it would be of absolutely no interest to Thor whatsoever. He hoped and prayed to his God that Skye would make no mention of Ash. He needn't have worried, Skye was pleasant and professional to Thor, then turned back to her work. 

They explored the SHIELD gym facilities, indoor swimming pool, then finally they came across the secure containment unit that had been built to inter the Hulk in case of emergencies. They stepped outside and covered the underground garage, the extensive grounds fringed with forest. Steve reckoned by now that Tony had had time to get Loki out of the panic room. He took Thor back through the main entrance into the lobby. “What do you think, Thor?”

“Most impressive, Captain. Much better having SHIELD on hand. The Tower was small.”

“Oh, Tony still has the Tower and we will use it when we need to be in New York, in fact Tony uses it for meetings fairly regularly.” They left the lift at the communal floor to find Clint making piles of cheese sandwiches.

“Thought I’d do the prep work for you, Steve, while you were showing Thor our new base. Nat’s down in the gym with Engel. Tony’s still working in the penthouse. Bruce is still down in R&D. I’ve got the princess straight after lunch for Geography. Do you want me to knock up a salad?”

“No, Clint. Just keep it simple. Cherry tomatoes and packets of chips, then stuff isn’t getting wasted. Thanks for doing all this for me, saves me a load of time.”

<<>>

Loki was restless, he had had no exercise that morning, he weighed up how much free space there was in the sitting room as compared to his bedroom. His bedroom had slightly more, so he headed there to try and do as much of an exercise routine as he could manage. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing, he was nearly finished when there was a sharp knock on the door.

“What the fuck are you doing in there?” Tony groused.

“JARVIS, open the door.” Tony barged in once it was unlocked “I’m trying to get some exercise, Mr Stark. I didn’t get the chance to do anything this morning with Thor arriving.”

“I’m trying to read reports through there, can’t you read a book or something quiet?”

“I’ll have a shower and get dressed, then read. I didn’t mean to disturb you. Are you going to be in here all day?” Loki looked at the floor and drew circles with his foot.

“No, thankfully. I’ll be heading out at lunchtime, then you’ll be on your own until Engel comes to bed. You’ll have JARVIS to talk to of course. Right, get your shower.” Tony walked out of the door. Loki breathed in, he hadn’t realised he had been holding his breath. JARVIS locked the door again.

Loki sighed, he laid out his clothes on the bed, then took them into the bathroom with him. The shower certainly made him feel better, but he was dreading spending the whole day and evening shut up in this space with no one to talk to and interact with. He brushed out his hair and dressed, stuffing his pyjamas into the linen hamper. It was pretty full and really needed emptying. He picked up Maus from his nightstand, and as an afterthought grabbed Rhubarb. He headed back to the sitting room and got a bottle of water from the fridge and settled down to read. He hadn’t much left to get through in this one. Hopefully this would be quiet enough for Tony. 

<<>>

Steve griddled the cheese sandwiches which he piled up on a big platter and placed it in the centre of the table. Bruce and Engel arriving distracted Thor long enough for Cling to sneak a couple of foil wrapped sandwiches into the lift, along with a packet of chips and a small bowl of tomatoes. He sent the lift up to the penthouse and JARVIS let Loki know that lunch had been delivered. Loki headed to the lift and collected his food and settled down to eat.

Downstairs everyone was diving in, especially Thor. Clint had made extra to allow for Thor’s enormous appetite. Chatter at the table was diverse and simple to start with, then Steve turned to Thor “I’m curious, I’ve been teaching some of the younger SHIELD agents about the Second World War and we are tackling the subject of genocide. Has Asgard ever been involved in or seen acts of genocide?”

“I suppose you might class it as genocide as I understand the word. My grandfather Bor and the Dark Elf Malekith fought a bitter battle on the Dark World and virtually all the dark Elves were eradicated, in fact we thought they had all been killed, but they fooled us. But that was long ago. And then of course my brother in his madness tried to erase Jotunheim from the nine realms, but I managed to stop him in time.”

“He what!” Said Tony.

“He was deranged at the time. My father had kept the truth of his origin from him, Loki was unravelling, but I didn’t know it at the time. I think that was in part due to Engel.”

“What had Engel to do with it?” Tony was getting very angry.

“You have to understand, Aesir consider the Jotnar to be monsters. Loki adored Engel, finding out that he was from a hated race and had given birth to a child who would also be hated by the Aesir was all too much for him. I think he feared for her life if anyone discovered that she wasn’t part Aesir. I think that is why he wanted her brought to you when he knew he was dying, to keep her safe, because of course my father knew exactly what she was. It has taken me time to realise what he must have gone through, my father is not an easy man to deal with. Always a king first then a father, I never understood why he treated us differently, most of the time I have to admit I didn’t even see it.”

Clint started to clear away the dishes. Tony looked at his daughter “Why don’t we cancel lessons for this afternoon so that we can talk to Thor, you can sit and play with your Lego or read, OK kiddo?”

“Thanks, Dada Tony.” Engel walked away to the far end of the lounge. Everyone else headed towards the sofas and Steve organised drinks. 

Clint headed towards the lift and came back with a basket of laundry. Tony raised his eyebrow “Thought I’d stick a bit of mine and Nat’s washing on while we talk.” 

“Yeah, good thinking. Hurry up, your beer will get warm.” Tony quipped.

Clint took the basket into the laundry area and loaded Loki’s washing into the machine buried within the clothes he found his dirty dishes, which Clint put to one side to deal with when Thor was out of the way. He set the washing off and joined the others. 

A few beers in, Tony chose to turn the topic back to Loki again, and if looks could kill, Nat would have killed him several times over by now. “So, I guess your brother wasn’t much of a fighter then. I mean it didn’t take much for us to bring him down, despite him waving about the blue glow stick of destiny. Sorry, Legolas.”

“We always mocked Loki, because he was not very efficient with a sword, axe or a mace, traditional warriors weapons.” Thor started.

“You mean like your hammer?” Nat asked.

“Indeed. He was too slight a build to wield them effectively, but out on the battlefield of late I have missed his skill. Because Loki himself is a weapon, he comes from behind so silently no one knows he is there and he kills swiftly and efficiently with his blades or whatever he can get his hands on that is lightweight.”

“Like a staff or a sceptre?” Nat asked.

“Yes, or a glaive.”

“So why didn’t he use the sceptre to kill people with?” She asked.

“He shot bolts of light out of it.” Clint added.

“I meant why didn’t he use the blade itself?” Nat asked.

“His favourite weapons are his daggers, especially the ones he was given on his coming of age. They were beautiful, silver hilts, set with emeralds, each blade had his names engraved in runes. Now he is dead they are lost forever as they were in his pocket dimension.”

“Coming of age, Point Break? When is that? And what did you get? And what do you mean by names? And what is a pocket dimension?” Tony rattled off the questions.

Steve sighed “Give him a break, Tony!”

“I’m learning stuff, Capsicle. I may need this for my little girl.”

“Coming of age is at our millennium, and I was gifted Mjolnir, Loki was gifted his daggers. One has Loki on it, the other has Lore on it, as he was either one or the other and always had been. Loki was a mage, he had a pocket dimension, a storage space in between dimensions where he stored things, like his weapons, his coins, his jewels, clothes. When he died all that was lost forever, as only he could access it. I need more ale, friend Stark! And are we going to watch movies? Talking about my brother is making me sorrowful.”

“Yes, sorry, Thor. Someday Engel will ask me questions and I want to be able to tell her something at least.”

“I should be king by then, and she will be welcomed back in Asgard as my heir, and none will know that she is part Jotnar. I will eradicate any that may know of it.” That sobered everyone up!

<<>>

Loki finished reading Maus, did a bit of Physics on his StarkPad, then gave up and asked JARVIS to resume playing Fullmetal Alchemist for him while he downed another protein shake. He was very lonely, he snuggled Rhubarb and watched the anime while he waited patiently for dinnertime, because after that he knew he wouldn’t have long to wait before Engel came to bed. He could cuddle his daughter before she went to sleep, he gave a soft sigh.

Chapter Text

All I know

Is holding you is all I ever wanna know

But maybe I’m not brave enough to tell you so

But I don’t have the strength to watch you go

Oh, they say

It’s better to have loved at least, but reel it in

It wasn’t that I wasn’t feeling anything

More like feeling everything at once

Steve had collected the food delivery, Loki’s food was packaged in a separate bag which he left in the lift and sent it on upstairs to the penthouse. He carried the boxes of pizza through and distributed them on the coffee tables, there was much more than usual tonight as Thor ate three times as much as everyone one else. Conversation had fortunately turned away from the subject of Loki, weapons and war at long last as Engel was sitting with them to eat. They opted to watch Madagascar again as Thor hadn’t seen it, and no one would have to explain anything to him. 

Upstairs JARVIS had let Loki know that his food had been delivered. He collected his pizza from the lift and in with it was a small box containing a piece of blueberry cheesecake, he stowed it into the fridge and sat back to eat while he continued his anime binge. Rhubarb was safely tucked into the corner of the sofa while he ate as he didn’t want to get greasy fingers all over her pristine white fur. “JARVIS, can you halt the programme for me while I wash my hands please?”

“Of course, Mr Ash.” Loki put the rubbish back in the brown paper sack and went through to his bathroom and thoroughly washed his hands, normally there would be wipes, but of course he wasn’t with everyone else tonight. He came back through to the sitting room and got his cheesecake out of the fridge and settled back on the sofa again. JARVIS restarted Fullmetal Alchemist for him. Loki ate with the plastic spoon provided, not great, but better than trying to cope with just his fingers. He disposed of the rubbish in the sack and brought Rhubarb back to his side.

<<>>

Downstairs, Madagascar had finished and Tony was itching for a whisky, but Steve had given him yet another beer with a knowing look. What was that for? Tony wished Engel goodnight and watched her as she headed off to the lift. There was no way he was having another beer after this, it was whisky or brandy. He could cope with whatever the night threw at him no matter how much he had on board.

Engel got out of the lift and poked her head into the sitting room “Dada, I’ve missed you all day.” She sat down next to him and he pulled her in close.

“Likewise.” Loki said as he kissed the top of her head.

“Nat took my photo this morning and said we may have to leave suddenly. Why Dada?”

“Your father may make my life very difficult, my angel. In which case we may have to leave, but we will only do that if we really have to. Nat is putting things into place with SHIELD to get us out of here just in case. Let me worry about that though. If it does happen you need to take Fenris with you. Leave my spellbook here, it’s useless to anyone else, but Fenris has to go with us. OK?”

“OK, Dada. I need to go to bed now. Will you come and read to me, just one chapter? Please?”

“Of course I will.” Loki didn’t need to tell JARVIS to hold the programme, he did it automatically. He followed Engel through to her bedroom and sat on the edge of her bed as she got washed and changed into her pyjamas. 

She clambered into her bed, which was way too big for her, and set Fenris on the opposite side of her to her Dada. She rummaged under the pillow next to Loki and handed him a small book bound in blue leather. “I’m up to where the ribbon is.” she said.

Loki took the book from her and looked at the title - The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi - “I don’t know this one.” he said and opened the book at the gold ribbon that marked her place. He started to read as she snuggled up closer to him and he ran his free hand through her silky hair, despite the weeks they had spent together, this felt like something he had done many times before and it was comforting. When he got to the end of the chapter she was only just awake. He put the book on her nightstand and tucked her in, kissing the top of her head again. “Sleep well, my angel. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Night, Dada. Love you.” Loki stood up and left her room, closing her door quietly behind him. He made a vow to do that every night from now on. It felt good. He went back to the sitting room and finished watching the episode he was part way through. He closed everything down and went into his own bedroom, washed, changed and headed into his bed to read. He picked up Caging Skies by Christine Leunen, when he got to the end of this he was going to read something light and frivolous, not about war and death. He started the first page.

He read a few chapters, stuck his paper bookmark in to mark his place and JARVIS lowered the lights for him. Rhubarb snuggled up against his neck, Loki drifted off to sleep and JARVIS dropped the light completely. All was quiet in the penthouse.

<<>>

Downstairs the various Avengers drifted off to their beds for the night, the last to leave was Thor. Tony had a final glass of whisky then headed up to the penthouse and his bed. He fell onto the bed while he was trying to get undressed “JARVIS, remind me not to drink with Point Break again.”

“If I do, will you listen, Sir?”

“I am so going to scrap you and build me a respectful and obedient AI.”

“Of course you are, Sir.”

Tony finally realised he still had his shoes on and that was why his jeans would not come off. He pulled his shoes off and then he finally got his jeans free. He stretched out on the bed and pulled the covers over himself and fell into a state of drunken unconsciousness. 

A couple of rooms away, deep in the throws of REM, Loki was hanging on to the end of Gungnir for dear life, until he heard his father say “No,Loki” and he let go, watching his brother shouting at him in anguish as he fell into the void. The breath forced from his lungs, pain wracked his body as he fell through the stars. JARVIS started to raise the lights as Loki started to thrash and cry out in his sleep. Tony had only been in bed for just over thirty minutes, but the AI knew he was going to have to rouse him as with Thor on the premises he had no other choice.

The lights blazed on in Tony’s room “Sir, Sir, you need to wake up now!”

“Fuck off, JARVIS. I’m not ready to get up yet.” 

“Sir, Loki is having a nightmare and I can’t get anyone else to him. You are the only one.”

“Just wake Bambi up and play him some soothing music or something. I need my sleep.”

“I’ll sound a red alert if you don’t do something, Sir. That will get the whole base up and Thor will discover you are hiding his brother.”

“Why did I ever give you the ability to think, I’m getting up you useless scrap of machinery! Is his door unlocked?”

“Unlocking it now, Sir. I have his light on full, but he is still not waking.”

“I’m on my fucking way, right!” Tony staggered out of bed and made his way out of the door and bounced along the hallway to Loki’s door, he pushed it and it opened. “Hallelujah!”

Tony made it to the bed, Loki’s face was twisted into a rictus, and there were tears of red leaking from his closed eyes. “Fuck, Loki. Wake up!” Tony started to shake him to no avail. So he shook him harder “C’mon Bambi, wake up!” Then he slapped him, and with a startled gasp Loki woke.

He stared at Tony like some wild, startled creature, eyes red and bloody where some blood vessels had burst and the tears had caused the blood to leak down his face. 

“You’re a fucking mess.” Tony breathed whisky fumes all over him. He went into the bathroom and grabbed a face cloth and rinsed it in warm water and brought it through to wipe Loki’s face. “What the hell were you dreaming about that left you in that state?”

“I was falling through space.” Loki said quietly.

“I know what that feels like, my suit was failing.” Tony said.

“I wasn’t in a suit.” Loki looked at Tony.

“Fuck! It felt like I was dying in a suit, I can’t imagine what it was like without a suit.”

“In my dream I couldn’t breathe, my eyes felt like they were going to burst out of my skull, then I couldn’t see anything or hear anything, I could feel my heart beating and everything hurt. Then you woke me up. But before that the stars were all around me, and they were beautiful. I thought it would be such a peaceful way to die.”

“You were trying to die? You are saying you were committing suicide? Why? You had a little girl that adored you, you had a family that wanted you?” Tony was getting exasperated.

“I don’t know! It was a dream. I let go because Odin said ‘No, Loki’ but I don't know why.” Loki hugged Rhubarb tighter to him. 

“Try and get some sleep, but don’t you try and cuddle up to me. In fact, I’ll stick a pillow between us so you can’t. I’ll stay in here so I’m not running back and forward all bloody night to see to you, Bambi. I know how bad dreams can be, once you have one, they seem to come in batches. JARVIS, lights.”

“I won’t come near you, Mr Stark, I promise.”

“Make sure you keep that promise, Bambi.”

<<>>

It was sometime after 4am when Tony needed to get up for a piss as his bladder was uncomfortable to say the least. JARVIS had raised the lights very slightly so Tony could see where he was going as the layout of the room was different to his own. He slipped back into the bed and turned towards the sleeping young man opposite him. He was in a deep sleep, that stupid rabbit up near his neck. Tony started to close his eyes and saw the rabbit’s ear wiggle and her whiskers twitch. I must stop trying to match Thor drink for drink he thought as he closed his eyes.

Loki was up and in the shower when Tony finally woke with the hangover from hell the following morning. The young man came out of the bathroom dressed in black jeans and a black t-shirt, long hair damp from the shower.

“Dressed for a funeral, Bambi?” Tony quipped.

“I sent most of my stuff down for washing yesterday to hide my dirty dishes from Thor. I’ve mostly got black or grey left for now, Mr Stark.”

“Oh, yeah. Clint washed that yesterday. I’m sure it’ll come back up to you at some point today.” Tony threw the covers back and swung his legs out of the bed “I suppose I’d better get a shower and make myself pretty for your big brother. Hopefully he’ll be heading back to Assgard sooner rather than later today and you’ll be able to come out of here. Steve’s on breakfast duty today, so it’ll be an omelette for breakfast. We’ll get it up here somehow.” Tony ambled out of the room and headed off to his own bedroom.

Loki opened the blinds and stripped the bed, then completely remade it to give himself something to do before he headed into the sitting room. There were two protein shakes left in the fridge, he pulled one out and tasted it, coffee flavour. He sat down with Rhubarb and his StarkPad ready to browse once he was completely on his own. Engel came in before she headed downstairs “Good morning, Dada.”

“Good morning, my angel.” He gave her a quick hug “Off to see your Uncle?”

“Yes, Dada. Hopefully he will be gone soon so you can come downstairs and join us. You must be lonely.”

“I am a bit. I’ll see you later, my beautiful girl.” He kissed the top of her head, and she turned and left the room.

<<>>

The laundry basket was going to go back up in the lift, Steve had put a lidded glass dish inside it with Loki’s cheese and tomato omelette inside, then he added a foil packet with two slices of buttered toast and a separate fork for him to eat with. He covered everything with a towel, then put clean clothes on top. When Engel came out of the lift the basket went in and Steve said “JARVIS, you know what to do.” The lift returned to the penthouse and JARVIS let Loki know his breakfast was inside the laundry basket. 

Meanwhile Steve cracked on making more omelettes for everyone else as Clint sorted out toast and coffee. Engel helped herself to milk. 

Thor sat down next to his niece, and helped himself to toast. Clint stuck a mug of coffee in front of him and a plate with two omelettes on it. Thor got stuck in. JARVIS spoke up “Mr Barton, the food order for tonight’s meal has been delivered.”

“OK, JARVIS. I’ll go down and collect it.” Clint headed down to the lobby and picked up the box of meat, vegetables and the large sourdough loaf. He took it back up in the lift and put it on the kitchen bench “Cap, is there anything in here that needs to be refrigerated?” 

“Just the meat, Clint. Everything else can just sit on the floor in the box out of the way.”

Tony arrived at that moment, looking slightly worse for wear. Nat looked at him “Rough night?”

“You could say that. I’m not in a hurry to repeat it, let's put it that way.”

“You will try and keep up with gods, never a wise move!” Nat winked at him as Clint stuck a coffee in front of him, then his omelette.

“Oh my god, the thought of that turns my stomach. I’ll just have toast.” Tony pushed away his plate.

“Aren’t you eating that?” Thor asked. Tony shook his head. Thor grabbed the plate and started to eat Tony’s breakfast as well. “What’s the meat for, Steve?”

“I’m going to make a casserole for dinner tonight just for a change.”

“Too bad I can’t stay.” Thor spoke with his mouth full “I’m going hunting with the Warriors Three, Loki always used to make a great stew while we were on a hunt. Usually rabbit stew, although sometimes he would bring down a couple of birds.”

“With knives!” Tony exclaimed.

Thor gave a belly laugh “Of course not! He used a bow and arrows. Not as good as Clint, but then it was a homemade bow and arrows, not a fancy weapon like yours. Fandral’s not as handy at catching small game and the food is either burnt or raw, or sometimes both. I miss my brother.”

“Well I’m glad he didn’t spend all his time killing innocent people.” Tony munched on his toast.

“Friend Stark, fellow Avengers, my beautiful niece, thank you for your hospitality. I’m afraid I must leave you and head back to Asgard, my father and my friends. The hunt calls me! I will return as soon as I can.” Thor stood, picked up Mjolnir and headed for the lift. 

Everyone held their breath until JARVIS confirmed that Thor had indeed left the premises, and the planet. “Whew! Tell Bambi he can get his ass downstairs. Let’s try and get some semblance of normal back in this place. Kid, I believe you have lessons to attend, who has the pleasure?”

“That’ll be me, Tony.” Clint admitted “C’mon kid, the joys of Geography await you.”

“OK, Clint. See you later, Dada Tony.” Engel slid off her seat and followed Clint into the classroom.

“JARVIS, can you let Loki know he can come down and we’ll meet him in the gym.”

“Of course. Miss Romanov.”

JARVIS let Loki know, he quickly headed through to his bedroom and he put his clean Judogi on and put all his dirty dishes and rubbish in the lift. He ran out of the lift at the bottom into the gym. Steve laughed “Someone’s eager!” Loki blushed. 

“Just pleased to see someone other than Tony,” he said hesitantly.

“Now that I understand. Loki, do your own routine first with me.” Nat threw him the plastic batons and he caught them easily. Steve sat down to watch. 

He wasn’t the only one watching, in his lab Tony was keeping his eye on proceedings too. “JARVIS, those batons, what are they made out of?”

“Hollow plastic, Sir. They are designed for young children to use in relay races. As per your instructions they cannot be used as weapons.” 

“Very good JARVIS, I’m glad someone was listening to me.” He stayed watching Loki and Nat work through the flowing movement that was Loki’s routine. Then he watched Loki run through Nat’s routine, he was still graceful, but Tony could see that his leg length was the barrier to perfect execution when he got down on his haunches. But it would still be a deterrent to anyone who tried to cross him. He was interested to see how Nat would merge the two different forms together over the coming weeks. He continued watching as Steve took over from Nat, he watched the power behind those punches, how did such a skinny individual punch with that strength? “This is someone that could be very useful to us, if only we could trust him. And that is the crux of the matter, JARVIS. We can’t trust him. That is a killing machine and we have no way of knowing which side he will fight for.” Tony sighed. It was him against the rest of the team. They couldn’t see what he could see, especially Nat and Steve. It was right there in front of their eyes, all that power coiled up in that lithe body.

Loki finished up in the gym and dropped off at the communal area to empty his rubbish and dirty dishes from the lift. Then he headed back to the penthouse for his second shower of the day to get rid of the sweat from his training session. His muscles ached in the best possible way, he stood under the warm water and let it cascade over his hair and skin. He glanced at his nails after he had washed himself down, they needed to be redone, he would ask Nat if she would do them for him later on, maybe once he had the casserole on the go. He dried himself off and put his clothes back on and headed down to the communal area. 

Bruce was sipping tea in the kitchen “Hi Loki, do you want to pop down to the lab with me and we’ll pick up where we left off with your Biology. Do you have your StarkPad?”

“I certainly do, Bruce. I’ll just dump these in the kitchen and be right with you.”

“No rush, Clint’s on lunch duty, so it’ll just be sandwiches, so it doesn’t matter if we’re late up. I hear you are in charge of dinner tonight?”

Loki laughed softly “Yes, I hope it works out alright. It’s an easy recipe, lots of vegetables and fresh beef.”

“Sounds good to me. It may become a regular thing if you make a good job of it.” Bruce grinned at him.

“I don’t think Tony is too keen. He thinks I’m going to slaughter you all with a vegetable knife, even though Steve will be standing over me all the time and could disarm me in no time at all.” Loki put the dishes on the side and the rubbish in the bin “I’m all yours, Bruce.”

<<>>

After lunch Steve and Loki cleared away all the dishes and wiped down the benches. Loki fetched the recipe book and laid it down on the dining table well out of the way so nothing would get spilled on it by accident. Steve supervised while Loki did all the work, showing him which cupboards he would find things in and watching him while he had the knife in his hand. 

“I don’t know why, but this feels familiar to me.” Loki said as he chopped up meat.

“Does it?” Steve asked “Do you think your former self cooked?”

“I do, but I don’t know why? Why would a prince need to cook, and yet all these actions feel right to me?”

“Maybe you helped out in the kitchens when you were younger and bored.” Steve knew the right answer, but didn’t want to lead Loki on, he wanted to see if he could reach the right conclusion on his own.

“Perhaps, but that doesn’t ring true to me. Why can’t I remember these things, Steve?”

“Maybe it’s better that you don’t remember them, Loki, or at least not all of them. That way you start with a clean slate, you become a new person. That’s pretty much how my life is going, most of the people who remember me from before are either dead or very old now.”

“But Mr Stark remembers, and he holds it against me, even though I don’t remember what I’m supposed to have done.” Steve put his hand on Loki’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze, there was no answer he could give the young man, and both of them knew it.

Once the vegetables were in the pot, Loki started to brown the meat and the savoury smell filled the kitchen. Steve had shown him how the oven operated and it was now warming to the required heat. Loki continued to brown the beef in small batches and added each batch to the pot as it was done until he had used up all the meat. He had kept back a small amount of the stock and used it to deglaze the frying pan, scraping up all the bits into the stock before he added this final bit to the pot, giving everything a stir. He added the fresh herbs to the pot, put on the lid and then everything went into the oven. 

“Now we just wait.” He said to Steve “And hope for the best, of course!”

“It’ll be perfect, and the first home cooked dinner we have had in longer than I can remember.” Steve said “Everyone is looking forward to it.”

“Not everyone…” Loki said with a shake of his head.

“More fool him.” Steve winked “Guess it’s Lego time for you now. I’ll fetch you a water over.”

<<>>

Engel came to join her Dada once her lessons were over. They worked together quietly until the timer Loki had set on his Stark Pad went off. His Lego model just seemed to be composed of lots of different levels of beige flooring at the moment and even Engel didn’t know what it could possibly be. There seemed to be something in the hollows of the lower levels that he was building upwards, but what it was no one had a clue. 

Everyone was gathering, Loki opened the oven, lifted out the pot and gave everything a good stir. It smelled really good, he just hoped it tasted alright. He popped it back in the oven and turned it off, the heat from the cooling oven would keep it just how he wanted it. He cut the bread into thick pieces and piled it onto a platter and put it in the centre of the table. He added the butter to the table. Steve came over and got beer out for everyone but Engel who had milk as usual. Everyone sat down bar Tony, who was waiting for his cheeseburger and fries to be delivered. Loki took the pot back out of the oven and ladled the casserole into bowls which Steve delivered to the table for him. There was some left in the pot when Loki finally sat down himself to eat. 

“Can you do this every week, Loki. This is damned good.” Clint exclaimed “You don’t know what you are missing, Tony.”

“Food poisoning, Legolas, that’s what I’m missing.”

“Well at least we’ll die happy!” Clint grinned “Is there more, kid?”

“Yes, just help yourself, Clint.” Loki pointed at the pot.

“Sir, your food delivery has arrived.”

“Thanks, JARVIS. I’ll come down and collect it.” Tony headed to the lift.

“I can’t believe he would rather have a greasy cheeseburger than this.” Bruce added as he grabbed a piece of bread to mop up the gravy “It’s delicious.” 

Nat stood up to put her dish in the dishwasher and as she walked past Loki she kissed the top of Loki’s head “Sublime!” was all she said, just as Tony walked back in the room with his brown paper sack. Bruce and Steve joined Clint in seconds and Loki had the little bit that was left with some bread. “You need to work out what you are going to make next week, Loki. I can add that recipe book to your StarkPad for you if you like, or I can get you a proper copy to go on the bookshelf?”

“Proper copy please, Nat. Then if anyone else wants a go we can all use it.” Loki gave her a stunning smile.

“I’ll sort that out for you, then the library copy can go back. And that reminds me, I have a parcel for you in my room, come down as soon as you’ve eaten and I’ll give it to you.”

“And what would that be, Superspy? What are you spending my money on now?” Tony sneered as he picked up several fries.

“A bathrobe and a few pairs of soft pyjamas as those shorts were OK while he was a kid, but he’s an adult now. Lore and Loki both need something with a bit more coverage if they need to get up during the night and come downstairs again. And they are paying their way in case you have forgotten, Tony.”

“How can I forget while you keep reminding me, Widow?” Tony took a mouthful of his burger. Loki put his dish in the dishwasher and nodded at Nat, the two of them headed to the lift.

Nat entered her room and handed Loki the package “Thanks, Nat. I was going to ask if you could redo my nails for me as my polish is wearing off?”

“Of course I can. We’ll do them tomorrow in my special room after you have had your shower. Just put your sliders on rather than your Converse. We can do a little spycraft training while we are at it. Sound good?”

“Sounds perfect to me.” Loki grinned at her.

<<>>

After the movie that night Loki headed to bed with Engel and read a chapter of Pinocchio to her while she snuggled up to him with Fenris. When he finished he stayed with her until she went to sleep. As he left the room JARVIS switched the light off. 

Loki took his parcel into his own room and opened it up. There were three pairs of dark green soft jersey pyjamas which he took out of their plastic bags. There was also a thick black cotton robe, he went and hung that up on the bathroom door straight away after taking it out of the plastic bag. He put two pairs of the pyjamas in his top drawer and the third pair he put on. They were comfortable, he stuck his sleep shorts and thin tee in his linen hamper for washing. He was pretty happy with how the day had gone, and he settled down to read more about Jojo Rabbit, his friends and mother. He started to yawn, marked his page and snuggled down with Rhubarb. JARVIS lowered the lights until he was fast asleep, then darkened the room completely.

Tony was relatively sober by his standards when he came to bed at the right side of midnight. He wandered up the hallway and checked Loki’s door. It was firmly locked as normal. If he had nightmares tonight it wasn’t Tony’s problem, that would be down to Capsicle. All was quiet in the Avengers Compound for once.

<<>>

After his shower the following morning Loki headed to Nat’s secret room where she was waiting for him along with Steve. “We have a couple of things for you that you need to hide away in your magic pocket, Loki.” Nat handed him a neat cardboard box, which he opened carefully to find a sleek black cell phone. “It’s not a Stark Phone for obvious reasons, and was bought in a normal shop by an agent. Steve has loaded it with his, mine & Clint’s numbers as emergency contacts for you in case you are in trouble, one of us can get help to you. There is no SIM card in it. Buy disposable SIM cards, use them once, then dispose of them, that way no one can trace you. This is how you load a SIM.” Nat quickly showed Loki where the SIM card fitted, how to switch the phone on and how to use it. She then took the card out and destroyed it. Packed back in its box Loki made it disappear.

She handed him another box “This is a Kindle, you can use it a bit like your StarkPad, but it is more limited. The beauty of it is that it doesn’t require a SIM card so it’s harder to trace. You can access email on it, search the internet, read and buy books and music. I’ve loaded some books for you and Engel to get you started, and created an Amazon account under the name of Jack Edwardson and linked it to your bank account. I’ve also created you an email account, it’s ‘ [email protected] ’, there is a slip of paper in there with all the details and passwords for you. You can change those at your leisure. These are your charging cables and plugs. When you get to England you will need to get adaptors because their sockets are different to ours. The next time I have you in here I’ll have your passports and bank account details. We have started exchanging your gold already, and we have the funds in cash ready to pay into your account once it’s open. OK, Steve, unless you have anything to add I think we are done with this bit.”

“No, I think we’re good at the moment. See you both at lunch.” Steve left the room. Loki tucked everything away that Nat had given him into his pocket dimension. 

“OK, let's sort your nails out for you. Do you still want them black, or do you want a different colour?” Nat pulled a selection of bottles over for him.

“Can I stick with black?”

“Of course you can. We’ll get the old stuff off first then repaint them for you.” Nat stripped off the old polish, doing his toes first, then his fingernails. Then she started to paint his toenails again. “I’m going to give you a little bag of makeup for Lore to use, the colours you used when we did the photos, and I’ll add a bottle of black nail polish for you too. The first few times you do it yourself it won't be perfect, but you will get better with practice. Fingernails next, Loki.”

“I can’t thank you and Steve enough for everything you are doing.”

“I hope that we never have to use it, Loki. But Tony is like a bomb waiting to go off. I think it’s going to be a case of when it’s going to happen, not if it’s going to happen. We have plans in place that you don’t need to know, you just need to follow our instructions when the time comes, We have done extractions before, all the scenarios are covered. Don’t worry.”

“I worry for Engel. I’ll be taking her away from a place of security.”

“She will be with you, you will be her security and her love. She will be fine, she is young and resilient. Right, you are all done, let me get you the makeup and polish and you can pack it away as well. Is there a limit to what that space can hold?”

“I think I have more than one, but I haven’t explored further yet as I haven’t really got the privacy I need. And that reminds me, Engel needs to drop off my runic spell book to you for safekeeping.”

“No problem, she can drop it into my room at any time, Loki. OK, that’s us done until the rest of your stuff comes through. Head upstairs and I’ll clear up here and put the key away. See you upstairs.”

“Thanks again, Nat.” Loki pressed a kiss to the back of her hand and made his way out of the door. Nat sighed, he could be such an asset to the Avengers if only Tony would let him. 

<<>>

The next few weeks passed quietly, Loki gave Tony his two silver coins every Monday morning, and on a Tuesday Tony disappeared to see Aldo and to work in the Tower. He was doing something in the lab that even JARVIS wasn’t privy to as he shut him out of the R&D facilities at the Tower stating he was working on a Top Secret project, his eyes only at present.

Loki had all the Edwardson paperwork for the ‘family’ now safely tucked away and all the bank account information, cards, PIN numbers etc. Nat had the runic spellbook hidden in her private room with Loki’s gold.

Loki had cooked several times, much to everyone's delight, but Tony still refused to eat what he made. Nat had bought him the same cookbook and he had returned the library copy and his other books, he was currently reading Return of the King, the last part of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and had Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Skye had warned him that the latter may make him cry. “It can’t be worse than Maus.” he had told her.

“Don’t bank on it.” Skye grinned at him “I have seen sterner men than you reduced to tears by that one. You should come down and talk sometime. Bring Engel down with you. I don’t bite.”

“I don’t know how Mr Stark will feel about it, he doesn’t like me wandering about the compound.”

“But you wouldn’t be wandering about, we would be sitting at that table just over there.” Skye pointed at the table and chairs “And I’m sure he could arrange for his AI to keep an eye on you both. It gets boring here some days.”

“I’ll see what I can do. See you soon, Skye.”

“Happy crying, Ash.” Skye winked flirtatiously at him. Loki felt himself flush as he walked down the hallway. 

<<>>

Engel and her Dada sat on the floor in the communal sitting room, she was sitting between his legs leaning back against him while he showed her some very simple magic, creating balls of light in his hands. She touched them, they were cool to her touch and vanished soon after she made contact with them. “That’s enough for today, my angel. I believe you have a maze house to finish.”

“I do, Dada, but I like to watch you doing tricks.”

“I know, but I need to get better control of my seidr than I have now before I can do more than create witchlights for you. So, Lego for now.” He stood up and helped her to her feet. They made their way over to the table and their various projects. Loki’s still didn’t look like much of anything, except there appeared to be a tub being built into the lower layer. Tony, who would examine it at night before he went to bed, had no clue as to what it was other than possibly another series of rooms judging by the layers it was built in. 

Each night saw Loki reading to Engel in bed until she fell asleep, deepening the bond that once held them together. Each morning saw Loki and Nat piecing together a martial arts routine that incorporated both of their routines. It wasn’t perfect yet, but it was a work in progress. 

And Skye had been right about Flowers for Algernon, as Loki discovered one night when he ended up crying himself to sleep. He guessed he owed her an afternoon visit with Engel, but it wasn’t to happen yet, because things couldn’t stay quiet for too long, especially with Tony around.

<<>>

It had been some time since Lore had made an appearance, and Steve let her help him in the kitchen as soon as she turned up. In her Judogi with her hair in a thick braid she moved gracefully and efficiently around the kitchen, exactly as she did on the mats in the gym. Soon the coffee was on, the table set, and the platter of buttered toast in place. “I could take a turn making breakfast.” she said in her velvety soft voice.

“Thanks, Lore, but we do little enough cooking around here. And Tony wouldn’t eat it, I’m surprised he eats the toast you make. You know how paranoid he is.” Steve winked at her.

“Who’s paranoid?” Tony walked into the kitchen.

“We’re talking about you, not to you.” Steve tried and failed to hide his grin.

“I can put you all out on the streets, don’t forget that.”

“How can we when you constantly remind us.” Clint commented “Good morning, princesses. You both look beautiful this morning.” 

Engel giggled and Lore blushed as she handed Engel her glass of milk. She put her beaker of protein shake on the table and took her place. Tony watched her every move over his mug of coffee. Nat sat down next to Lore and glared at Tony, who was relieved when his food was put in front of him and he could lower his eyes.

Lore ate her breakfast quickly and helped clear down the dishes. “When you're finished, Lore, I’ll see you down in the gym.” Nat said to her.

“I’ll be down shortly, Nat. I’ll just finish loading the dishwasher for Steve.” Lore smiled at her and carried on with her self imposed task. Once she finished she headed downstairs in the lift to the gym and kicked her sliders off her feet, and together with Nat they began their new routine trying to perfect it, ironing out the kinks. 

Up in the penthouse, safe in his room, Tony watched the fluidity of their movements. They were both a joy to watch in very different ways, both efficient killers, of that Tony had no doubts. But he only wanted one of them in his bed, and had done since the very first time he had laid eyes on her. She was achingly beautiful in a way none of the other women in his life had ever been, and he had had some very beautiful women. Some drawn by his power, some drawn by his billions. 

Lore had finished her session in the gym with Steve and as always she ached, her shower would fix some of that. She pulled out some clean clothes, and took them through into the bathroom with her. She stood under the shower and washed her hair through first and conditioned it, then washed herself thoroughly. She switched off the shower and wrapped towels around herself and her hair. She breathed in the scent of rosemary and mint, the scent of herbs always made her feel better for some reason that she didn’t understand. She towelled her hair dry first, then dealt with the rest of her, pulling on her simple underwear. Next was the leaf green short sleeved t-shirt, and long black skirt. She brushed out her wavy black hair and pulled it back using a simple pale green headband that Nat had bought her. Back in her bedroom she put on her Converse and made her bed, resting Rhubarb in the centre of her pillows. She tapped her head gently “See you later, Rhubarb.” Lore opened the door to her room and stepped out into the hallway to make her way towards the lift. She was due in the lab with Bruce for Chemistry until lunchtime. She had her StarkPad held firmly in her right hand. 

She wasn’t far from the lift when Tony stepped out of seemingly nowhere and bracketed her in with one arm. “Now where do you think you are going, princess?”

“I’m going to R&D to meet up with Bruce.” Lore spoke hesitantly.

“I think you and I will be having a different kind of lesson, a long overdue biology lesson, in my room.”

Lore flushed “I don’t know what you mean, Mr Stark. I want no trouble.”

“Well don’t give me any then.” With his free hand Tony reached up to the neck of Lore’s t-shirt and ripped it as he kissed her forcefully. Things happened fast, a dagger appeared in Lore’s hand and she slashed down through Tony’s shirt with the intent to stop him, not injure him. It skidded off the mini Arc Reactor but still drew blood, Tony’s fist met Lore’s lip and split it open. She howled in pain and shock. JARVIS immediately sounded a code red and unlocked the penthouse. Lore tried to run, but Tony grabbed her t-shirt and ripped it further.

Clint was in the classroom with Engel “JARVIS, what’s the emergency?”

 “Sir is fighting with Lore in the penthouse. I’ve unlocked the door.”

“Fuck! Engel, you stay here. I’ll go and see what I can do. Alert the others, JARVIS.”

“Captain Rogers is already on his way, Mr Barton. I fear we may need the Med Bay.”

“Get Bruce on his way there, JARVIS.”

“Yes, Mr Barton.”

Clint got through the penthouse door in time to see Lore remembering her forms, she wasn’t in a great position to perform them as Tony had hold of her torn t-shirt, but she did her best, there was a glint of steel in her hand. Clint shouted at her “No, Lore. He’s not worth it.” He heaved a sigh of relief as she dropped the dagger, but Tony took advantage of the situation and grabbed hold of her hair and pulled. Lore cried out in pain as strands of her hair came away in Tony’s hands. “Tony, get into your room while Steve gets Lore into containment. Once she’s on her way I’ll get you to Med Bay, Bruce is already on his way there. Engel is with Nat.” 

“She drew blood, I’ll fucking kill her.”

Steve appeared just as Clint finished talking to Tony, he held his hand out towards Lore who was coming down from an adrenaline high and starting to crash. Blood ran down her chin and dripped onto what was left of her t-shirt, there were tears starting to form in her eyes. She stepped towards him gingerly and Steve put his arm around her “I’m going to get you somewhere safe, Lore, where no one can get in to hurt you. Once Bruce has seen Tony, I’ll get him to come and see you. Nat will bring you a clean shirt to change into.” Lore trembled as they headed into the lift, Steve’s arm around her was a comfort, but she still clutched hold of his shirt. 

They crossed the lobby and down the corridor past the library. Skye half stood as she saw them. Steve looked at her “I’ll brief you shortly agent. I need to get Lore to safety first.”

“Of course, Captain. I’ll await your instruction.” Skye sat back down watching them as they carried on down the corridor. What on earth was going on?

Steve turned right at the end of the corridor and through a simple door. “Nearly there, Lore. Along another short corridor was a steel door with a biometric scanner. Steve held his hand against it and the lock clicked open. Steve pushed the door and inside the room was a glass cell. Lore panicked when she saw it “Nooo. No, Steve, no!”

“It’s OK, Lore. It’s to keep Tony out, it’s the safest place in the whole compound. I’m going to get JARVIS to code it so that only I can get in to you. JARVIS is on your side, he won’t let Tony override it. In fact you will be away from here before Tony gets the chance to even think about it.” Steve got her to sit on the mattress and found a blanket and wrapped it around her. 

“I will?”

“Yes, you drew a knife on him, you aren’t safe here anymore. We will get you out within the next hour.”

“But Engel?” Lore’s eyes were full of tears.

“Nat has taken her to the penthouse to pack bags for you both. She will be joining you soon, I promise. Now I have to go and set things in motion. You are perfectly safe here. I will be back soon.” Lore gave a slight nod and wiped her face with what remained of her t-shirt. It was ruined anyway. 

Steve headed towards the Med Bay just as Clint arrived with Tony. “Where is that vicious bitch? She came onto me, and look what happened!”

“She is locked in the containment cell for now. I will check the footage with JARVIS to see exactly what happened when you have both had medical treatment. Bruce, Lore will probably need a stitch in her lip, maybe two.”

“OK, Steve. I shouldn’t be long, this is pretty superficial, just needs cleaning and a touch of antiseptic.” Bruce took an antiseptic wipe and cleaned up the cut to Tony’s chest, which was just a simple, shallow cut.

“Superficial! She swiped me with a dagger! I don’t call that superficial.” 

“It’s a defensive wound, if she had been attacking you I think I would be needing to zip you in a body bag. She was trying to stop you from doing whatever you were trying to do to her.” Bruce sighed.

“She was trying to seduce me!” 

Clint snorted “Is that why you had ripped her shirt and yanked her hair out? That’s a new form of seduction on me. Nat’s teaching has gone a bit astray somewhere.”

“OK, Steve. I’m ready for Lore. I’ll just grab a suture kit in case I need it.” Bruce grimaced.

“Great, Thanks, Bruce. I’ll come and let you into the containment unit. Clint, stay with Tony until we get Lore sorted out.”

“Will do, Cap.”

Steve led Bruce along to the containment unit, Bruce was uneasy, he knew it had been built with the Hulk in mind. Lore looked lost inside it. Steve scanned his hand and the door opened.

Lore looked up “Hello, Bruce.” she said shakily.

“Hi, Lore. Let me look at your face.” Lore lifted her head up and tipped it to one side so Bruce could see the damage to her mouth.

“I’m going to clean the split first. It’s going to sting a lot. But I need to see how bad it is. Have you lost or loosened any of your teeth? Did he hurt you anywhere else?” 

“No damage to my teeth. He pulled some of my hair out.”

“OK. I’ll see to your mouth first, then you can show me where he pulled your hair from and I’ll check for trauma there.”

Bruce gently cleaned Lore’s lip with antiseptic wipes, it started to bleed again, but he could see the extent of the split. He hadn’t been wrong when he said it would sting a lot, and she tried to stop the tears from flowing but she couldn't because it hurt too much.

“Good girl. I know that was horrible and the next bit won’t be pleasant either, but I can put some numbing gel on now to help a little bit. I need to give you a couple of stitches, they will just dissolve on their own over time, so you won’t need to get them taken out. You might have a little scar, but it will only be very small.” Bruce smeared analgesic gel over Lore’s lip to help numb the pain and left it to take effect. He stripped off his nitrile gloves and Steve asked JARVIS to open the washroom. A cylindrical wall opened and revealed a compact shower, toilet and handbasin. Bruce washed his hands thoroughly then threaded the needle in the suture kit. He then neatly put two stitches in Lore’s lower lip, she winced as he did it. “All done, Lore. When you are ready, show me where he pulled the hair from and I’ll check it out.”

Lore took several shallow breaths, looked at Steve, who nodded at her in encouragement. She lifted up her hair to one side to show Bruce where Tony had grabbed her. There were bloody pinpricks on her scalp where hair had been pulled out, there were no major abrasions. Bruce pulled on another pair of nitrile gloves and cleaned her scalp with antiseptic wipes, once he was happy the whole area was clean he discarded everything. He got her some water and gave her a couple of painkillers. He handed her the bottle “Use them as you need to, but don’t exceed the dose on the bottle. I’d better get back to check on Tony, who seems to think he has a major wound, but it’s just a scratch really. Try and get some sleep. Lore and I’ll check on you in the morning.”

She had trouble speaking properly at first because her lip was still numb, but she managed to get out “Thank you, Bruce.” after a stumbling attempt. 

“I’ll escort Bruce back to Med Bay then I’ll be back hopefully with Nat and a clean shirt for you. I’ll get you a drink as well.” Steve smiled at her. Lore nodded at him and lay down on the mattress with the blanket over her.

Steve delivered Bruce back to the Med Bay “I’m just going to grab a drink for Lore from the kitchen and find where Nat is, she was just going for a t-shirt for her so we can get her out of that ripped one. I’ll see you soon and we’ll get Tony back to the penthouse.”

“OK, see you shortly.” Bruce acknowledged.

Steve carried on until he reached Skye. “Skye, I need you to instigate Code Yggdrasil. Using Bird 3.”

“Yes, Captain. Instigating now.” Skye’s fingers flew over the keys and in the compound lights started to go out, security cameras shut down, automatic door locks closed and JARVIS shut down. The emergency backup power flickered into life, but it only covered certain things. 

Nat left her room with Engel in tow “Keep close, Engel. We have to use the emergency stairs to get up to the penthouse.” She led Engel to the stairs she didn’t even know existed, they came out in the sitting room of the penthouse, round the corner no one ever went around! “Go to your room, pack your bag with practical clothes, underwear, trousers, t-shirts, that sort of stuff, toiletries, and Fenris. No books, toys, or electronics. I’m going to do your Dada’s stuff. We need to be very quick, so just stuff things in, don’t be precious.”

Engel ran to her room, the lighting was dim so she opened her blind which helped a bit. She put Fenris in her bag first, then as many other things as she could, and grabbed her toiletries from the bathroom. Meanwhile Nat dealt with Loki’s stuff, it was easy, he didn’t have a lot and it was basic colours. She kept a t-shirt out on the bed, and the last thing that went in the bag was Rhubarb. She stuffed the t-shirt into her jeans pocket, it half hung out but it didn’t matter. She found Engel and they raced down the stairs and through twisting corridors to the Quinjet Hangar. Steve’s instruction had been Bird 3, she found the right Quinjet, opened the storage hatch and secured both bags inside. 

Engel looked scared. “We are going to get your Dada now. She’s hurt, but she will be alright sweetheart. You need to be brave for her. Can you do that?”

“Yes, Nat.” Engel nodded her head.

“OK, sweetheart. She’s locked up, but that’s to keep her safe. We are going there now, then we are bringing her back here and Mack is going to fly you out of here. Let’s run, the sooner we get to your Dada, the sooner you get on your way.” Nat took Engel by the hand and they ran through corridors that seemed to twist and turn until they ended at a locked door. Nat took out her phone and punched in a series of numbers then waited.  

The locked door opened and Steve stood there. “Anyone see you?”

“No, luggage is on the Bird.”

“Great. Clint is with Tony. I’ve got water here for Lore, let’s get through to her, get her changed and on her way.” Steve took them through another locked door into the room the containment room was in. 

Lore looked up when she heard the door and saw Engel, she stood up, clutching the blanket to her. “Shit.” Nat said “What the hell has he done to her.”

“Fortunately nothing worse than what you see, which is bad enough. But it could have been so much worse, she defended herself, but didn’t seriously hurt him.”

Steve opened the door and Nat and Engel followed him in. Nat handed Lore the t-shirt. “Get yourself into this so we can get you out of here, we are on a time limit, so can’t hang about. The further you get from here before JARVIS gets back on line the less chance Tony has of tracking you. Skye can only delay stuff for so long.” Lore pulled off her ripped t-shirt and dropped it on the floor and pulled on the simple black t-shirt. 

Steve handed her the bottle of water “OK. Let’s go girls. As fast as we can.” The four of them retraced Nat’s steps, having to rest every now and again to allow Lore to catch her breath as she was in pain. They finally got to the hangar. Mack was already on board doing his preflight checks. 

There were hugs, and tears even from Nat. Both Steve and Nat reminded Lore to check in safely each week and let them know if she needed help, they would get an agent to her as quickly as they could. The message from both of them was the same “Be safe.”

Lore and Engel boarded the Quinjet, Mack called through to them to strap themselves in as he closed the tailgate of the jet. Engel helped her Dada, then held her hand as they took off, they were on their way to they didn’t know where, leaving behind everything they knew. “Sorry ladies, it’s going to be a long flight.” Mack said to them “You may want to close your eyes and try to catch some sleep.”

<<>>

“What the fuck is going on?” Tony said to Clint.

“I don’t know.” Clint tried the Med Bay door, it was secured, automatically locked. He banged on it “Can anybody hear me? There’s three of us stuck in here.”

Tony looked at Bruce “Are you doing OK? No signs of the Other Guy?”

“Guess I need to be. Steve rented out my room.” Bruce sighed, luckily he didn’t suffer from claustrophobia.

“Talk of the devil!” Clint exclaimed “Where have you been Cap?”

“Tracking down Nat and trying to find out what is going on. Skye is working on the problem. Reckons she’ll have it fixed shortly.”

“Well I’m glad we have one SHIELD agent that’s of some use in this place, the rest of you seem intent on doing as little as possible to earn your keep.” Tony snapped. “Where is my daughter?”

“She’s with Lore.” Nat said. It wasn’t a lie…

Chapter Text

So I guess this is a love song after all

I think I might have lied before, I don’t recall

And they say that pride, it comes before the fall

So does silence dear

All I know

Is holding you is all I ever wanna know

But maybe I’m not brave enough to tell you so 

But I don’t have the strength to watch you go

Three hours into the flight and Mack switched the Quinjet onto Autopilot. He had disconnected the transponder before they had taken off, no one could track them. He left his seat and made his way into the body of the craft and unstrapped the Coolbox that had been put there by himself earlier as soon as he knew the mission was a ‘Go’. 

There were sub rolls inside, cold drinks, bags of chips enough to tide them over until they landed. He would refill it for his journey back. He coughed loudly then spoke “Lauren, Angela, there is some food here for us, you must both be hungry by now.”

Lore’s eyes flickered open, Mack had never seen eyes that shade of green before. When she realised who was standing there she looked alarmed and glanced at the cockpit. “Who’s flying us?”

“We’re on Autopilot, it’ll take us where we are heading without me needing to do anything for a good few hours. Here, help yourself to food and drink. Angela, what would you like?” Mack smiled at the little girl, she had the same green eyes as the older one. He knew they were related, that their cover story was that they were sisters, but he got the sense that they were more than siblings. Call it a hunch, and Nat and Steve had certainly put together a plan to get them as far away from Stark as possible. Mack was curious, but he knew he would probably never get an answer, unless he could sweet talk it out of Skye.

They ate, Lore found it a bit tricky because of her sore mouth but she was ready for food. Once they had eaten and drunk their fill she turned to Mack “Where are we going, can you tell me?”

“I can tell you where I am taking you. Where you are going after that I don’t know. That’s to protect you, if anyone questions me I can give an honest answer. I am taking you down to Florida, close to Orlando. My colleague, Hunter, will pick you up there in a car. Where he is taking you I don’t know, nor how long you will be travelling for. But you will get a proper meal tonight, and you will sleep in a bed. That much I do know. OK, ladies, I’m heading back up front. You can stretch your legs if you want, I’ll let you know when you have to strap back in.”

There was a chorus of “Thank you, Mack.” from both of them. Lore sat on the floor of the Quinjet with Engel and started to tell her a story, it would help pass some of the time.

<<>>

Skye had managed to restore all the systems in the compound. Tony was on his feet, he had two missions, make sure Lore was safely incarcerated and under his control only, and find Engel. Hopefully she had gotten into the panic room before the systems had gone down.

He strode along the corridors towards the containment unit “JARVIS, switch all these locks to my control only.”

“Yes, Sir. Actioning immediately for you.” By the time he got to the first lock it responded to his hand print, Tony pushed through and headed to the second door. It opened at his touch and exposed the containment unit, which was glaringly empty apart from a blanket and a discarded t-shirt on the floor.

“Fuck! JARVIS, track Lore or Loki for me, immediately. She can’t have got far, she's on foot. Get the others here, now!.”

“Yes, Sir. Everything has been implemented as requested.”

“Tony, JARVIS won’t be able to find Lore.” Steve spoke calmly.

“What do you mean?” Tony’s face was furious.

“She’s been gone for almost an hour now, she left within a short time of the outage happening.”

“Are you telling me she caused the outage?”

“No. SHIELD caused the outage. You were becoming a danger to them, so we’ve removed them to keep them safe. Engel is with them, both Lore & Loki would give up their lives to keep her safe.”

“You had no right to give my daughter to that villain. They aren’t even her birth parent, I am.” Tony’s face was getting very red.

Bruce stepped forward trying to be the voice of reason “That’s not quite true, Tony. The genetic profile proves that this Lore/Loki has an identical relationship to Engel as her birth mother, they just didn’t physically give birth.”

“Et tu, Bruce! Just whose side are you on?”

“I’m not taking sides, Tone. And I don’t know what went down in the penthouse, but Lore had worse injuries than you did. JARVIS will have footage to prove what exactly happened.”

“She came on to me. She was asking for it, then she attacked me.”

“If that’s the case, the footage will show it when Director Coulson and Interplanetary Director Fury view it.” Steve said.

“I want all SHIELD staff out of my premises within the week. Every last one of you. I don’t answer to SHIELD.”

“And what will you do if the Avengers are needed?” Steve asked.

“That will be your problem won’t it. Apparently I will just be living up to my reputation of not playing well with others. Bruce, you are free to stay if you wish. There will be endless space!”

<<>>

Lore and Engel had taken their seats and fastened their harnesses when Mack told them to. The Quinjet started its descent into the dusk and the quiet airstrip they headed towards rapidly rose up to meet them. Mack brought the jet down to a smooth landing. “You OK back there, ladies?”

“Yes, thank you Mack.” Lore found her voice. It felt strange to be stationary again.

“I’ll get your bags for you, and make sure Hunter is here, then we’ll get you out of the back.” Mack climbed out of the cockpit and scanned the field. He spotted the car in the distance and waved both arms, the headlights flashed twice at him. He opened up the storage compartment and unsecured both bags. 

“Hey Hunter, I’ve got your cargo on board. Here’s their luggage, if you want to go and stow that in the trunk of your car, I’ll let them out and bring them over to you.”

“Cheers, Mack. You staying overnight?”

“Nah, gonna head off aways to draw attention away from here, then I can refuel and head back to New York. I’ll pick up some cargo on the way so it looks like a scheduled run.”

“Smart move. Go get my passengers!” Hunter laughed.

Mack climbed back into the cockpit and lowered the rear of the Quinjet. “OK ladies, if you follow me I’ll introduce you to Hunter and you’ll be on your way.” Lore and Engel walked down the ramp and joined Mack on the rough airstrip, they followed him towards the car that stood about 50 yards away where a man was closing the trunk of the car. 

“Hunter, this is Lauren and Angela. I know you are going to take real good care of them.”

The man that turned towards them had the bearing of a soldier, with close cropped dark hair, facial scruff and surprisingly kind eyes. “Hi ladies, Lance Hunter, but please call me Hunter, everybody does. We’ve got a drive of about thirty minutes to the motel we’ll be staying in overnight. We’ll get you into your room and then go and get some food at the local diner. Say goodbye to Mack.”

Lore and Engel gave Mack a hug and thanked him for his part in their escape. “Just stay under the radar and be safe, that's all the thanks any of us need.” Mack smiled at them and headed back to the small jet. Hunter opened the rear doors of the car and told them to buckle up. The girls did as they were told, Hunter closed the car doors, got behind the wheel and pulled away before Mack closed up the cockpit of the Quinjet. He had the radio tuned to some soft rock channel and it wasn’t long before they hit the highway. 

It took less than thirty minutes before they pulled up in front of a smart, modern motel on the edge of a middle size town. “I’ve already paid for our rooms and checked us in, you two are in a twin room next to mine.” He took their bags out of the trunk of the car and walked towards a door, the two girls followed him. He put the bags down and unlocked the door, then handed the key to Lore. “That’s yours now, Lauren.” He put the bags inside the room, there were two simple black suitcases in there, and a few carrier bags from the Disney Store. “I’ll explain about these when we’ve eaten, I’m sure you are both hungry. The diner is about a ten minutes walk away. Let’s head over there, just lock the door behind you.”

The diner had decent food choices, Lore managed to find a good balance for herself and let Engel have free reign over what she wanted. There would be no protein shakes to supplement so she opted to have a raspberry milkshake to give her that bit extra help she needed to help stabilise her seidr. Hunter was amused as he watched the beautiful young woman in front of him easily put away as much food Mack would, yet she was very slender. 

They all opted for dessert, Lore had Blueberry Cheesecake, Engel a Banana Split, Hunter opted for a piece of Key Lime Pie. “Hunter, can I ask you something?” Lore sat back after her dessert.

“You certainly can, Lauren, and I’ll answer you to the best of my ability.”

“I usually have several protein shakes a day, will I be able to continue to do that?”

“We might be able to pick something up at the airport that you can take on the plane, if not shakes we should be able to pick up protein bars. But once we get to our destination there will be no problem hooking you up with shakes. Most chemists and health food shops where we are going sell ready made shakes, you can just buy them as you need them.”

“Thank you. It’s good to know I will be able to get the supplement I need. I can manage a few days without but then I will start to get weaker.”

“Oh, we won’t be letting that happen, at least not on my watch. I’ll only be with you for a few days though, then you are on your own. It’s safer for you that way. The less people that know where you are the better.”

“Thank you for your candour, I understand perfectly. My goal is to keep Angela as safe as possible.” Lore gave him a soft smile. Just then the bill arrived on the table and Hunter took it to settle. The three of them headed back to the motel and back to the girls room.

“OK, the leather bags are a dead giveaway, they speak of lots of money, so we are going to lose them in a dumpster and use these common black cases instead. So repack your stuff into these, one each.” The girls opened their bags and started to unpack their stuff. “Whoa! Can we lose those soft toys, especially that wolf thing, that could cause problems if security check your cases.”

“I can take care of that.” Lore placed Rhubarb and Fenris in her pocket dimension. To Hunter they just vanished into thin air.

“Where did they go? What did I just see?” 

“You call it magic, I just moved them to a pocket in between dimensions until it’s safe to bring them back out again. They’ll be perfectly secure there.”

Hunter swallowed hard “When they told me you were special, they didn’t say you were that special. Blimey! And when you want them back?” 

“I just think about what I want and reach in and grab it. It happens in split seconds, not something you can really see happening, Hunter.”

“Aren’t you just full of surprises!”

Lore gave a throaty laugh “You have no idea!”

Hunter picked up one of the carrier bags and gave it to Engel “Angela, this is to wear tomorrow, it’s just to help us get through security with the minimum of fuss. Our cover is that we have been to Disney World on a little family trip. I’m your uncle. So I got you some Lion King stuff, a hoodie, a backpack, a Simba stuffed toy and some stickers for your case. Hope you like the Lion King.”

“I do, Hunter!” Engel was bouncing up and down in excitement.

“This one is for you, Lauren. I went dark and feisty for you. Loki hoodie, backpack and stickers for your case. There’s a clear plastic bag to put your makeup in as you can’t keep it in your makeup bag while we go through security. It just adds a touch of realism to our story.”

There was that throaty laugh again “And what do you have on your case, Hunter?”

“Captain America of course! Right, get some sleep ladies. Meet me outside at nine in the morning and we’ll go and have a decent breakfast at the diner, then head off to the airport. You’ll be sleeping in a different country tomorrow night. And you’ll need your passports handy, and your bank card too Lauren. There should be a wallet in your backpack. See you in the morning.” Hunter closed the door behind him and Lore locked it. 

The two of them finished packing, laying out pyjamas for that night, and clean clothes for the following day. “Dada, Can I sleep with you tonight? It’s a strange place.”

“Of course you can, my angel.” Lore lifted their cases onto the spare bed. She retrieved their passports and her bankcard and put them on the nightstand. “You use the bathroom first, here’s your toiletries bag.” Lore got changed while Engel got washed and cleaned her teeth. She used the Disney carrier bag to put her dirty clothes in. 

When Engel came out Lore went in to get washed and clean her teeth, it wasn’t a comfortable experience. Engel was in bed when she came out, she put Engel’s dirty clothes in the other Disney bag and tucked it into her daughter’s case. She slid into bed next to Engel and cuddled her in. She told her a story that she made up as she went along, it had the desired effect, Engel went to sleep. Lore switched the light out and soon fell asleep herself, it had been a hectic day.

<<>>

Loki woke up, his first task of the morning, to change back to Lore and get showered and ready, then he could get Engel organised. He eased out of bed trying not to wake his sleeping daughter. He grabbed his clean clothes and headed into the bathroom. Out of his pyjamas he shifted back into Lore, at least she would be eating fairly soon to replenish some of her energy. She felt refreshed after the shower, and towel dried her hair before quickly braiding it so it would hang over one shoulder fastening it off with a black tie. She cleaned her teeth, still uncomfortable! Then got dressed, black jeans and t-shirt, keeping it very simple and neat. She put all her things back in her toiletry bag and headed back into the bedroom.

Lore woke Engel up and hustled her into the shower, then packed her own pjs and toiletry bag into her case. She then sat and put a small amount of make-up on to make herself look a little older, then emptied her makeup into the clear plastic bag and put it into her backpack along with her empty makeup bag. She found the wallet and put her card safely in it and added that and their passports to the backpack. She pulled on and fastened her Converse. That was her done, just her case to close and add stickers to. 

Engel came out of the bathroom and got dressed in simple pull on chocolate brown trousers, burnt umber t-shirt and her cream trainers. Lore plaited her brown hair and fastened it with a couple of simple ties. “There you go, my angel. We’ll pack your stuff away, then we can close our cases and have some fun putting stickers on them. Is there anything you want to put in your backpack?”

“Not at the moment, Dada. Can I have a book or something at the airport?”

“You can have anything you want, my angel. I have my card to pay for things, it’s the start of a new life, just me and you and we will make our own rules.” Lore kissed her on the top of her head. Part of her was afraid, but part of her was excited. They were going to be free of Asgard and free of Tony, just the two of them together, making a new life on this intriguing little world.

Both cases were shut and locked and Lore had the keys in her backpack. They were peeling the back off the stickers and adding them randomly to the cases naming all the different characters from the Lion King in Engel’s case. In Lore’s case the stickers were all of Loki, a cartoon version of him anyway. It was almost nine o’clock. They both put on their hoodies and backpacks and headed out to meet Hunter.

He was waiting patiently by the car. “Are we late?” Lore asked anxiously.

“No Lauren, I was early. I just put my luggage in the trunk of the car. Did you both sleep alright?”

“Yes, soundly. It was a bit of a stressful day yesterday. I’ll be glad when we are where we are going.” They were walking towards the diner.

“Remember it’s only a temporary stop, Lauren. Where you go from there is up to you and Angela. You will be making your own choices going forward, but if you need help you have your emergency contacts. Never be afraid to use them.”

“I won’t forget, Hunter.” They entered the diner, took a table and perused the menu.

<<>>

Directors Coulson and Fury chaired the meeting in the Conference Room of the SHIELD side of the Upstate Compound. Present at the meeting were Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Dr Banner & Tony Stark representing the Avengers, and Daisy Johnson, code name Skye, on behalf of SHIELD. Although to be fair over half of the Avengers were SHIELD agents as well. Missing was Thor Odinson, as he had not been present for the events of the outage. 

JARVIS was showing them the footage of the altercation between Lore and Tony in the hallway of the penthouse. Tony kept objecting and insisting that that was not what had happened that JARVIS was biased. 

“JARVIS, has this footage been tampered with on any level whatsoever?” Director Fury demanded.

“Absolutely not, Director Fury.”

“Dr Banner, how severe were Tony Stark’s wounds?”

“Pretty minor, they were defensive wounds, intended to stop him or at least slow him down.” Bruce took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

“And the female that he attacked?”

“Lore, her clothing was ripped, her lip split, she required two stitches, she was in a state of mild shock. Thankfully it was only her t-shirt that had been ripped, she hadn’t been violated. Steve, I mean Captain America had taken her to the containment unit and secured her to keep her safe. I treated her there and returned to the Med Bay to be with Tony and Clint.”

“Thank you, Dr Banner. Captain America, you secured the young woman in the containment unit?”

“I did, Director Fury, the lock was set by JARVIS to accept my biometrics only, so if Tony found her, she was perfectly safe.” 

“So how did she get out then?” Fury stared at Steve.

“We, Nat, Clint and I, always had an escape plan for Lore or Loki if Tony proved a threat to either of them. When this happened we put it in motion. Agent Johnson was involved. I gave her the code words, she started the programme that would create the outage. I released Lore, Nat brought Engel to her and we took them to the Quinjet that was waiting for them. None of us knew where they were heading to keep them safe. JARVIS was switched off as part of the outage so he was unaware of what was happening as we didn’t want him compromised.”

“That’s very magnanimous of you, Captain. And just what threat does this individual cause to our world?”

“Neither of them have shown any desire to be anything other than of assistance to us. Loki is a fast learner and wanted to learn spycraft in the hope of being accepted as a SHIELD agent. Nat had taken them under her wing, they were perfecting a new form of martial art between them to teach to all SHIELD agents. The only things they were learning were defensive moves, they were horrified by war and genocide, it gave them nightmares. They adored their daughter.”

“And what of Asgard? Why should I not call them in to find them?” Fury rested his head on his hands and looked at Steve.

“Thor does not know that Loki is alive, we have kept him hidden whenever he visits. Engel was brought to Tony in the first instance when the first Loki died because he thought Odin may kill her when Loki wasn’t there to protect her. If we bring Asgard into this there is a chance that both of them may end up dead under Odin’s watch. Those deaths would then be down to us. Do we want that, Sir?”

“I’m not here to decide whether Asgard is right or wrong in killing Loki, Engel is a different matter.”

“Director Fury, may I speak?” Nat stood up.

“Go ahead, Black Widow, say your piece, your insight is usually good.”

“Thank you, Director. The Loki that invaded New York is dead and Asgard set fire to his remains. The Loki, and Lore, that we have been raising and training has no recollection of most of the events of their past. Odd memories arise now and again, mostly fleeting, but it took him weeks to even remember who he was, and who Engel was. And I am 99.9% certain that it was genuine and not an act. And this, for Tony’s benefit as well as yours, Sir. Something he may not have considered because of his previous relationship with Lore, but this Lore is untouched, as is Loki. They have been with us night and day since they were a few hours old. They have been protected from everything.”

Tony laughed “You are trying to tell me that she’s a virgin?”

“I’m not trying, I am telling you, they both are. Neither of them have any sexual experience whatsoever other than reading the books I gave them on puberty. They have never experienced a proper kiss. I’m not even sure they have recovered memories of sexual experience. So Tony, can you begin to imagine what it felt like for Lore to be groped by a middle aged man who ripped her t-shirt, not knowing what was going to happen to her next, and why she felt she had to defend herself? Did you ever stop to think that she might feel that you were going to rape her? That’s why we sent her and Engel away, because she would not go without Engel. But while she stayed you were putting her at risk every time she switched.”

“She flirted with me at the opening night!”

“She was acting on my instruction, I explicitly told her to flirt with you, but not allow you to take her into a bedroom. She didn’t flirt with Clint or Cap, she just danced with them.” Nat was getting angry.

“And Skye, he flirts with her!” Tony was red in the face.

“Loki hasn’t really flirted with me as such.” Skye countered “He chats with me and is friendly, but he’s never made any kind of move on me.”

Fury thumped his hand on the table. “So Stark, you want me to remove all my agents from the compound because you attempted to sexually molest a virgin. Have I understood that correctly?”

There was complete silence in the conference room.

<<>>

After breakfast Hunter, Lore and Engel headed back to the Motel, the two girls checked their room to make sure they had picked up everything. Hunter took their cases and loaded them into the car. He took the room key from them “I’ll check us out, you get yourselves comfortable in the car. Next stop is Orlando International Airport, just over an hours drive from here.”

Lore and Engel took off their backpacks and settled into the back of the car and strapped themselves in. Lore checked that she had their passports for the third time that morning before taking a few deep breaths to calm her nerves. Once they were on the plane she would relax, every mile away from New York felt safer to her. The miles ticked away, soft rock played on the radio, Lore allowed herself to relax a little. Hunter went over their story again, so they were all sure of everything just in case anyone questioned them, especially about Lore’s lip because the stitches were quite visible. He reassured them that all would be well.

They reached their destination, the car hire parking lot. They all took their luggage out of the trunk of the car and Engel and Lore stood with it outside of the car hire office while Hunter completed the formalities and handed over the keys. They then headed over to the airport terminal, they were too early to check in for their flight so they sat down and had a drink while they waited. Then it was time, and Hunter led the two girls over to the desk and the ordeal to get them checked in and through security started.

As he had suspected they picked up on Lore’s split lip. Hunter cursed Tony Stark under his breath, why had he hurt her in such a very visible manner. Lore stayed calm “I hadn’t realised my lace had come undone and I tripped on it and fell when we were heading out of the diner. I caught myself before I hit the ground but put my tooth through my lip. I guess that’s what Travel Insurance is for though, right?” The guy just grunted at her, inspected her backpack, passport and waved her through. Both Engel and him got through with no issue. 

Safely through on airside Hunter said to Lore “You did really well there, he caught no hint of a lie.”

“I was going into panic mode, then I thought about what would happen if Tony caught us, and that would be so much worse.” Lore smiled softly at Hunter and held tight onto Engel’s hand. “Are we safe now we are on this side?”

“Safer. He would have to have a really good reason to be here, and kidnapping may just swing it. But we only have an hour until our flight boards, and he has to find out where we are and get here in that time. Try and relax a bit. Let’s see what we can find to take on board with us to supplement the onboard catering for you and maybe something to keep Engel amused, although there are movies.” Hunter pointed towards the array of shops.

There were no protein shakes, but they found protein bars and bought half a dozen. Engel got a colouring book and coloured pencils and a Beauty and the Beast book to keep her occupied. Lore bought herself Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, Hunter settled for a copy of GQ magazine which seemed a bit out of character, but Lore was happy to buy him whatever he wanted. All their bits and pieces safely stowed in their backpacks they didn’t have long to wait until it was time to board the aircraft. They were seated together and Hunter helped them by explaining how the seatbelt worked and that they needed to stow their backpacks under the seat in front. It didn’t take long for everyone to get onboard and settled. Lore and Engel had their first experience of a safety announcement, Hunter hid his amusement as best he could, and that Lore had let Engel sit by the window so she could look out. He hadn't the heart to tell her that there would soon be nothing but clouds to look at. 

<<>>

Tony sat in his bedroom in the penthouse with a glass in one hand and fine strands of raven black hair in the other. He had found them lying on the hall carpet where he had torn them out of Lore’s head in his anger. Now they lived on his nightstand, a painful reminder of what he had done, what he had lost. Fury had extracted a high price from him. He had not only lost his place on the Avengers, but also he had lost the compound. SHIELD were going to pay him rent for it, and Fury had given him a week to vacate his space. The penthouse was to remain unoccupied and if he kept his nose clean the status quo would be resumed, judge, jury and executioner would be Phil Coulson. Tony knocked back the whisky. 

“JARVIS, where are we at with the removals?”

“The day after tomorrow, Sir. I will organise a food delivery to the Tower for you.”

“Just make it a drink and snack delivery, JARVIS. I’ll order take out. Oh, you can get bread and butter, I can manage toast. Get a cleaning crew in there tomorrow, pay over the odds if you need to.”

“Of course, Sir.”

Nat, Steve and Clint held a meeting in Nat’s hidden room. “Mack got Lore and Engel to the delivery point without any problem and they were picked up by the courier. We can only assume everything is OK until we have contact from the courier. Under the present circumstances they could probably have stayed here, but I think they will be much safer staying away at least for the time being. We can bring them home when things calm down a bit.” Nat updated everyone.

“What if they don’t want to come home?” Clint asked.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I’m sure Loki knows he would be safer here than out on his own. We may have to send someone out to retrieve them in a Quinjet, but that's doable if Tony isn’t here.” Nat replied.

“And JARVIS likes Loki, he would hide it from Tony, bury it deep.” Steve added.

“Let’s see how things settle first, let Loki and Engel have some time alone together.” Nat called the meeting to a close.

<<>>

Lore was glad when the plane finally landed. Engel had slept for a good part of the journey as had Hunter, but she had read most of her book, and read his magazine. The protein bars were a bit sickly, but were helping her stay in her present form. Hopefully she would be able to resume being male tomorrow, glamours used very little energy, but forcing a shift used a lot of seidr. 

It took very little time to get through Immigration as all three of them were travelling on British passports and by the time they did that their luggage was making its way onto the carousel for them to collect. Once outside Hunter took them to a Taxi rank and they piled into a black cab and he gave the cab driver the hotel address. Lore and Engel watched in fascination as they drove from Heathrow Airport into the City of London. Neither of them had spent much time outside in New York, but even so they could see the contrast in the style of the buildings and the way the streets were laid out. 

Eventually the cab pulled up outside a large white building, Hunter ushered them both out onto the pavement while he got all the luggage out and paid the cab driver. “OK, girls, this is your home for the next week or less if that’s what you decide. I need to get us checked in, so follow me to the Reception desk.” Lore and Engel followed him dutifully dragging their cases behind them, they were a bit weary, but also a tad excited. “I’m going to need you both to sign your names, is that going to be a problem?”

“We aren’t imbeciles!” Lore hissed.

“I mean your new names.” Hunter whispered.

“We’ve been practicing, Nat made sure we knew how to do everything.” Lore softened her tone.

“OK, point taken. Ignore the address on the paper they give you to sign, it was chosen at random, we had to give you a real address to register you.” Hunter stepped forward as it was their turn “We have two rooms booked, a single in the name of Hunter and a twin in the name of Edwardson.” The check in proceeded simply from then on and Lore was given two plastic cards and Hunter one. Hunter took them towards the lift, they were on the fifth floor, just a few rooms from each other. He showed them how to tap their room key card to activate the lift before they pressed their floor number and then again to get them into their room. He put one key card into a slot on the wall to activate the electric “I would just leave this one in the room and just push it into place when you are in the room as you will be going everywhere together. You have free WiFi so you can log onto any devices you have and use email and stuff without giving away your whereabouts. Do you want me to show you how?”

“I know how to use WiFi, I’m not an idiot!” Lore snapped, she registered the expression on Hunter’s face “I’m sorry, I’ve had a very stressful couple of days and I’m in a strange place having to learn new things away from everyone I know and trust.”

“It’s alright, Lauren. I know this isn’t easy, and it was very sudden. You two settle in for an hour, then I’ll come and knock on the door and I’ll show you where a few things are and we can get you some bits and pieces in the supermarket to get you started. Then we will come back and eat in the hotel restaurant tonight. Make yourself a hot drink and just chill, I’ll see you soon. If you need me I’m in 511. I’ll see you later.” Hunter turned for the door with his case.

“Thank you.” Lore said softly, he turned and smiled at her, she looked as stressed as she sounded. Hunter closed the door behind him and headed for his room. As soon as he had gone Engel wrapped her arms around Lore and hugged her. “I’m OK, my angel, it’s just a lot to take in. Shall we unpack some of our things and have something to drink?”

“That sounds good, Dada. Which bed do you want?”

“I’ll let you sleep nearest to the window, angel, although it’s a city view and lower than the tower.” Lore took the kettle and filled it in the bathroom, there was a decent sized shower in there and some white towels. Everything was simple but clean. She plugged the kettle in and made a weak tea for Engel and a coffee for herself to try and sharpen herself up a bit and counter the sweetness of the protein bar she was going to have to eat. 

They both unpacked their toiletries and put them in the bathroom, then their nightclothes went under their pillows. “Dada, can I have Fenris now please?” Lore reached into her pocket dimension and brought out the wolf and handed it to her daughter, and brought out Rhubarb as well and stuck her on her pillow. Engel handed her Simba out of her backpack and Lore tucked it away in her pocket dimension. They unpacked some of their clothes, sharing the small hanging space and drawer between them. Laundry would not be a problem if Lore could switch back to her male form and rest enough to recover her seidr. She felt more civilised by the time Hunter knocked at their door. 

Hunter took them out onto the main street and showed them where the nearest Underground Station was. “This is Holborn, the hotel is just around the corner. If you remember that you can’t really go very wrong. The supermarket is straight opposite, that’s where we are going first.” He showed them how the crossing worked, that they had to wait for the green man to light up to cross the road safely. He picked up a basket as they entered the store, it was a fascinating experience for both Lore and Engel. Neither had any idea what a supermarket was, food arrived at the compound via JARVIS. You asked for what you wanted and it was delivered. Hunter was happy to walk up and down the aisles with them, they were going to be doing this on their own for the foreseeable future they needed to get an idea of what was available and where to find it. In one of the fridges he found the pre-made protein drinks, there wasn’t much choice, but this was only a smallish store and they needed something fairly quickly. “They have chocolate and strawberry, Lauren, one of each?” 

“Can we get more?” She asked.

“There is no fridge in our rooms, a couple will keep easily, but more might not taste good after a day. It’s just a short walk from the hotel, you can come here a couple of times a day if you need to. And you will be eating proper food on a regular basis because you will have control over it, not someone else.”

“OK, one of each then. We have no face cloths in our room, will they have something like that in here?”

“Perhaps. We’ll see what we can find for you.” 

Lore added some mixed nuts to the basket, useful for snacks and a box of mixed fruit flavour tea bags. They found the toiletries section, and small packs of muslin face cloths, Lore picked up a couple as she didn’t know when they would be able to stock up again when they were on the run. 

“Do you two need anything else tonight?” Hunter asked, Lore shook her head “OK, in that case we will just pick you up a couple of SIM cards and call it a day.” He showed Lore what they were looking for and added two to the basket. He took her to a self-service check out and showed her how to use it, Lore paid with her card when he nudged her. They stowed everything in the two backpacks, the lighter stuff going in Engel’s. Back out on the street they walked a little further away from the hotel until they came to a street map “You’ll find these on all the main streets in London, they’ll show you where you are” Hunter pointed at the map “And you can then work out where you want to go without having to use Google Maps on your phone. That keeps you pretty much invisible. The more you can stay off the internet on your phone the better. Smaller cities and towns you can usually get a street map from the Tourist Information Centres, and that’s what I would recommend you do. So if you look at this map here, you will see the British Museum, that’s really interesting, you would turn right down that street there then take the second turn on the right. There will probably be a signpost as well once you get close. We’ll head back to the hotel now, I’ve booked us in for dinner at 6pm in the restaurant there, so I’ll come and collect you at 5.50 and we can go down together.”

“Thank you, that will give us a little time to freshen up.” Lore smiled at Hunter and clutched Engel’s hand as they went to cross the road again to head back towards the hotel. This time Lore confidently used her card in the lift and pressed the button for the fifth floor. As she opened the door to their room she said “We’ll see you later.” Hunter gave her a quick nod as he walked a few doors down to his room. 

The girls unpacked their bags and Lore boiled the kettle again to make them a drink. She opened one of the packs of muslin cloths and took two out, she handed one to Engel “Go and have a wash, angel, while your tea cools down, then I will unbraid your hair and brush it out for you.”

“Yes, Dada. Can I have an orange tea?”

“Of course you can. Doing it now, into the bathroom with you.” Lore made herself a blackberry & apple tea, and the orange one for her daughter. While she waited she pulled the phone box out of her pocket dimension and slipped the two SIM cards in there for safe keeping. When they got back tonight she would send Nat a quick message just to let her know they were safe. Engel came back with her hairbrush in her hand and Lore undid the ties and carefully unravelled her plaits, then brushed through her brown hair until it was tangle free and in its natural waves. “Let your tea cool properly before you try to drink it. You can do some of your colouring if you like. I’m just going to wash my face.”

“Yes, Dada.” Engel grabbed the colouring book and pencils and opened it to a fresh page.

Lore filled the wash basin with warm water and washed and rinsed her face thoroughly. That simple act made her feel a little more human. Hah! Not that she was human of course, but she liked the expression anyway. She certainly didn’t want to feel more Jotunn, it could get her and her daughter killed on Asgard if it became known. And anyway, that Loki was dead, he had been sent to Valhalla in a fitting ceremony, if the Jotnar went to Valhalla of course. Where did they go when they died, Lore wondered? Face now free of make-up she wondered whether she should reapply it, or just put on a slick of lipstick. She decided to opt for the latter. She undid her hair tie and put it in her toiletries bag and started to tease out her braid, once she got most of it out she picked up her own brush and headed through to the bedroom. 

Engel was deep in concentration, but glanced up when Lore picked up her mug “You look prettier without stuff on your face, Dada.” 

“Thank you, my angel. But sometimes I need to look older so it is necessary. We are here now so I can afford to lose it for the time being.” Lore sipped her tea and teased out the rest of her braid in between sips. Once she had finished she started to brush out her raven tresses starting at the ends. It still hurt where Tony had torn out her hair, but at least no one could see the damage he had caused. It felt good to have her hair loose after the long day they had endured. She stood up and took the protein shakes through into the bathroom and filled the sink with cold water. She put the cartons into the cold water to try and keep them as cool as possible. She would have one before bed, and one as soon as she woke up in the morning. 

<<>>

Hunter knocked on their door promptly at 5.50, both girls were ready. Lore stuck her wallet into the pocket of her jeans rather than take her backpack downstairs. The restaurant was quite quiet apart from a couple of families but they were seated away from the others to give them some privacy as there was plenty of space. 

“What would you like to drink, Lauren?”

“Can I have a beer? Am I allowed?”

“Of course you can. What kind would you like?”

“I have no idea, I’m usually just handed one.”

“I’m going to have a Peroni, so I’ll order you one of those and see how you like it. You can always try something else if it doesn’t suit. And Angela?”

“Coca Cola for her to start with. Thanks, Hunter.” Hunter ordered the drinks when the waitress came back and then they studied the menu. They all opted for starters and main courses. The waitress delivered their drinks and they placed their food order. Once they were no longer in danger of being overheard Lore turned to Hunter “I don’t know how much you have been told about us.”

“I know that young lady is Tony Stark’s daughter and you are a blood relative of hers that he has put in danger. I believe you are a shapeshifter, but I find that hard to believe.”

“It’s very true. I spend the majority of my time as male, which is why I am so tired and in need of extra nourishment at the moment, it’s hard staying in this form. Am I safe to change back to male overnight, and just hide my normal appearance?”

Hunter looked at the beautiful young woman in front of him “People come and go in big hotels like this all the time, the staff change regularly. Nobody is going to notice. When you check out you just leave your room keys in a box near reception and go. If it makes things easier for you, just do it. The less likely people are to find you the better.”

“We are booked in here for a week, is that right?”

“You two are, I leave tomorrow. The longer I stay, the more chance there is that you will be discovered. I can spend the day with you tomorrow, but I will not be staying here overnight. I would also recommend that you don’t stay for the full week, just to muddy the waters. If you want to stay in London for longer, move to another hotel, but leave this one. Preferably move to another part of the country. The UK isn’t very big, but is much easier to move around than the USA. There are buses and trains, ferries and planes. You have passports for ID if you need them, but to travel about you shouldn’t need them unless you decide to go to Europe or beyond. But remember it’s easier to track people when they use air travel.”

“OK, how do I find out more about this country? Get maps and such like?”

“We’ll make finding a bookshop a priority tomorrow. Once we’ve had breakfast that will be our first task. Here comes food.” They stayed silent while their starters were placed in front of them. After they had eaten Hunter continued “I will have a search online before we go to breakfast, there is probably one quite close by. You are booked in for breakfast all week, it’s an ‘all you can eat’ buffet, you will see what I mean tomorrow, so you can get a good start to your day.” Their main meals arrived and they tucked into their food, Hunter ordered another beer for himself, but Lore ordered a couple of sparkling waters for herself and Engel. “Any ideas of where you would like to go tomorrow other than a bookshop?”

“Is there a zoo here? We were always going to go to Central Park Zoo but it never happened. I would like Angela to experience something like that.”

“Yeah, we can do that, it’ll fill in pretty much the whole day, so I’ll leave my luggage with reception and once we’ve done the bookshop we can head out to the zoo. That’s two things I need to research tonight. Not a problem.”

They finished off with desserts, then headed to their rooms. Hunter asked if eight o’clock in the morning was too early for breakfast. Lore shook her head. He said he would come along and knock for them then, he was off to do his research. 

Lore and Engel got ready for bed and Lore read Engel a chapter of Beauty and the Beast and tucked her daughter up as she went to sleep. She switched the lights so that only the reading light was on at her own bed and retrieved her Kindle from her pocket dimension. She signed into the free WiFi and then her email account and rattled off a very quick email to Nat’s personal email “We are safe.” was all it said. She switched her Kindle back off and picked up her protein shake and paperback book, there weren’t many chapters left, as she drank to help bolster her seidr she lost herself in the Grishaverse. While she was here she would download the next few books in the series, Nat had already set her up an Amazon account, she was sure she would have no trouble navigating the website, it couldn’t be more difficult than theoretical physics surely? She finished the chocolate shake, and the chapter she was reading. She tucked Rhubarb in next to her and switched off the light, she needed to wake at 6.15, there were two of them to get showered and dressed. The bed was comfortable and she was very tired, she was asleep in no time.

Gather your intelligence and explore your surroundings, regain your strength

During the night Lore shifted into Loki as sleep recharged their seidr, their sleep restful, replenishing, the familiar voice echoing in their head.

<<>>

Nat was talking to Skye when she felt the phone in her pocket vibrate. “Excuse me a second, Skye.” She walked into the shelter of the shelves and checked her phone, there was an email message. She opened it and gave a wry smile when she saw the simple three words it contained. She switched off her phone and stuck it back in her pocket and walked back to Skye’s desk. “Our courier package has been safely delivered.”

“At least that’s one piece of good news, how is Stark taking the prospect of being evicted from the compound?”

“He’s hardly left the penthouse since Fury told him. There should be packing boxes arriving today for him, the removal company are coming tomorrow to collect everything. I offered to help him but he just about bit my head off. He is letting Bruce help him pack up the lab though. We are getting to keep JARVIS, but there will be a limit to what he will share with us and vice versa.”

“It’ll be a relief when he’s gone, I guess. Will you call Loki back then?”

“We’ll have a discussion about it, see what we think is the best course of action once Tony has gone. We’re also going to start implementing the martial arts training that Loki and I were working on. We'll start with the new recruits, and then keep working up a level, some will adapt better than others.”

“I can imagine, not sure I’ll be able to get my body to obey all those moves! Thanks for bringing Engel and Loki’s books back. Here are their library cards and I’ll get these reshelved. I’ll see you soon I guess.”

“You certainly will, Skye. Ciao.” 

Nat walked smartly across the lobby as JARVIS spoke in her ear “Ms Romanov, Sir’s boxes have been delivered.” 

“OK, JARVIS, I will ask Steve and Clint if they will deliver most of them to the lab and send some up to the penthouse. Anything else I should be aware of?”

“He has me trying to track the princess and Mr Ash.”

“That’s alright JARVIS, I had anticipated that, that’s why we took you off line. The less you know, the safer you are.” Nat stepped into the communal area “Cap, Clint, Tony’s boxes have arrived, can you distribute them please. JARVIS will let him know they are here. And our courier package arrived safely at its destination.”

“Right, we’re on it, c’mon Cap.” Clint dropped the knife he was using and headed to the lift “The sooner we get this done, the sooner we get this place to ourselves.”

<<>>

Loki woke, and stretched his long, lithe frame. It was just after six in the morning. He padded into the bathroom on bare feet and drained the cold water out of the sink and dried the other protein shake on a towel before opening it and starting to drink the contents. It was still reasonably cold. Engel was still sleeping, so he stripped off and stood under the shower letting the warm water waken his senses after a few days of being Lore. The familiar scent of his shampoo and body wash were part of this process. Wrapped up in towels he then cleaned his teeth. He ran a wide toothed comb through his hair then padded back into the bedroom. “Engel. Engel, time to get up and have your shower.”

“Do I have to, Dada?”

“Yes, my angel. Remember we are going to the zoo today, it will be a long day.” At the mention of the zoo Engel got out of bed and headed into the bathroom. Loki heard the shower start. He put the lights on full and sorted out clothes for himself, not that it mattered much because he would be placing a glamour over himself soon anyway. He ended up in a pair of his older jeans, a grey short sleeved t-shirt and his Converse. He found a pair of lightweight sage green trousers for Engel and a white cotton, short sleeved broderie anglaise blouse for Engel. They were used to living in air conditioned buildings, going out into the heat was going to be strange for them. He left her white socks and her trainers as well. “Engel, I’ll see to your hair for you.”

Engel came out of the bathroom, she looked at what he had laid out for her and grinned at him. “Thank you Dada, I was hot yesterday.”

“I know, so was I. I think we may have to get some new clothes sooner rather than later. Get dressed and I’ll braid your hair for you, it’ll be a bit cooler for you.” Loki made his bed and put Rhubarb in his case out of the way. When Engel was dressed he sat on her bed and braided her hair and fastened the end with a tie. “Now, make your bed. Hunter will be here soon and I need to change before we head downstairs.”

Loki took all the towels back into the bathroom and hung them up carefully to dry. He stood in front of the mirror with his hands clenched at his sides and his head hung low and pulled forth the image he had created of Jack. When he lifted his eyes and looked in the mirror a complete stranger looked back at him. He ran his hands through the fine, straight mousy brown hair, it was hard to reconcile the image in the mirror with himself. More so than seeing Lore, Lore shared his hair and eye colour. Jack shared neither of those things. He stepped back into the bedroom and Engel gasped. “Dada?”

“It’s OK, angel. Remember I am Jack now. Are you ready?”

“I am, Jack.”  The words were hardly out of her mouth when Hunter knocked at the door and Jack took hold of her hand and they left the room, key card tucked safely in his waistcoat pocket.

Hunter was startled to see the young man before him, but quickly recovered his composure. There was very little that resembled Lauren, just the lines of the face, the height and the posture. Angela came to the rescue. “Come on, Jack, I can’t wait to get to the zoo and we have to go to the book shop first.”

After being shown around the breakfast set-up and their table the three of them were left to their own devices. Loki weighed up the drinks machines and opted for two hot chocolates for him and Engel. His daughter was already helping herself to a hot breakfast, quite confidently. He put the drinks on the table and helped himself to a decent sized portion of food, bearing in mind that Hunter had said they could eat as much as they liked. He wasn’t sure what a couple of the things were he had put on his plate, but he would try them anyway. Engel had stuck to things she recognised, but that was fine, she would learn new things as they went along. 

“What are these things, Hunter?” Loki whispered pointed at several things on his plate.

“Baked beans, hash browns, sausages and black pudding. You might not like them all. Just leave them if you don’t.” 

Loki cleared most of his plate, the only thing left was the baked beans, he wasn’t keen on those. “Angela, do you want some toast?”

“Can I have pastries instead, Jack?”

“If you want, go and help yourself and I’ll get you another drink.” Loki fetched two more hot chocolates and made himself a couple of slices of toast and collected another couple of fried eggs. 

Hunter watched him tuck in. “When you guys have had enough we’ll go over to the bookshop, it’s just around the corner. Then we’ll drop our purchases off and I’ll put my case in your room and we can head off to the zoo. I’ve written down how to get there.” Hunter watched Jack, not only was his hair a different colour and style to Lauren’s but his eyes were a completely different colour. Then there were the glasses, presumably they were plain glass, but they made him look bookish, like a student. His clothes, although new, looked like they had been thrifted, they had an old fashioned air about them. It was a very effective disguise. He approved. 

Loki pushed away his plate and checked on Engel to make sure she was finished too. “We are ready to go if you are, Hunter.”

“Let’s go then.” Hunter stood up and the young man and little girl followed close behind him. They left the hotel, turned the corner and crossed the road and there in an old building was a big beautiful bookshop. Loki’s heart soared, something deep within his memories stirred when they entered the shop and he saw row upon row of solid wood bookshelves. So different from the soulless metal bookshelves in the library at the compound. Hunter read the floor guide to find the travel section, it was on the first floor. They climbed up the elegant staircase to the next level and he scanned the shelves until he found the section he was looking for. “Over here, Jack, Angela.” Hunter found what he was looking for and handed it to Jack.

Jack turned it over in his hands, it was quite a substantial paperback ‘Rough Guide - England’. “How will this help?”

“It lists lots of cities and towns of interest, how to get there, where to stay, where to eat, where to visit. It will give you ideas to start you off on your onward journey.” Hunter then picked up a very large book of maps, which was a road atlas of the UK. “This will help as well, it shows the roads, coastline and railways. It will help you connect what you learn in the Rough Guide to how it's laid out geographically, if that makes sense.”

“I understand, Hunter. Thank you.” They went to the cash desk and Jack pulled Lauren’s wallet out of his pocket and paid. Hunter wondered how he did that, it would have spoiled the smooth lines of his trousers. They headed back to the hotel and dropped the books into their room and Hunter left his small black case in there too. 

“We need to get the Tube, Underground to Camden Town. It will take us most of the way there, we have a small walk to get to the zoo. I’ll show you how to buy tickets for our journey first.” They left the hotel and headed towards the Underground station where they had crossed the road to get to the supermarket yesterday. Hunter showed Jack the ticket machine and how to buy their tickets, and Jack bought them for all three of them despite Hunter’s protest. “We have to take the Piccadilly Line to King’s Cross St Pancras, and then we change to the Northern Line to Camden Town. You need to follow the maps carefully or you will end up going in the wrong direction. If that happens, just get off at the next stop and just reverse direction. There is no need to panic. Everyone does it at least once. Hold tight to Jack’s hand Angela, it can get very busy and people are always in a hurry here.”

It was a bit of a nerve racking experience, Loki thought, but he watched everything Hunter was showing him carefully even though they were moving through this underground train system quite rapidly. He kept a tight hold of Engel’s hand, she was nervous of all the people around her, something neither of them were used to. He was relieved when they reached Camden Town station and emerged into daylight once more. He followed Hunter who was following the directions he had scribbled down on a piece of paper until they reached a sign pointing to Regent’s Park. Then it became very obvious they were in the right place. He could tell Engel was getting excited by the way she was pulling at his hand “Calm down, Angela, we have to queue to buy our tickets first, then we get to see the animals.” She was pouting, this is what happens when you have a billionaire father who can buy anything he wants, but takes you hardly anywhere. Loki gave a little sigh. It took just over fifteen minutes to get served and Hunter insisted on buying his own ticket. Then they were in and Engel was almost dragging Loki along, it was going to be an exhausting day in the heat, he could sense it coming.

<<>>

Tony had packed up all the boxes in his room, he just had one to close up. Wrapped around his hand were the fine strands of Lore’s hair. He found an envelope and carefully slipped the strands inside and sealed the envelope and slipped it in the box and closed it up. He lifted them up one at a time and placed each of them in the lift and sent them down to the lobby to join the ones from the lab that were already there for the removal men to pick up. Happy was down in the lobby and emptied the lift and sent it back up for Tony. 

Tony meanwhile had wandered into Engel’s room, touching her few things that remained, her Lego mazes, her baby dresses and shoes. He went into Loki’s room and took in the framed drawings on the wall, the Lego models he had completed, how strange and lifelike they were, and remembered the peculiar experience he had had in Malibu. He shut the door on the room and walked to the lift and headed down to the lobby. 

Steve stood there waiting for Tony “I’ll make sure they take everything, Tony.”

“Make sure you do, Captain Perfect. I have been known to bear a grudge. Happy, take me to my Tower and away from these traitors.”

“Yes, Tony.” Happy opened the door and held it open for Tony, sitting on the driveway right next to the door was his scarlet Lamborghini, just a tiny part of his collection, who needed the Avengers anyway?

<<>>

The zoo was everything Loki had hoped it would be, Engel’s excitement had not abated for a single moment and lunch had been a hurried affair so she could get out amongst the animals again. They stopped in the shop before they left for their walk back to Camden Town Underground Station. Loki told Engel that she couldn’t have any toys, but she could have some small things. She ended up with some pens, and a baseball cap which was bright red. She stuck the cap on her head once they were outside and her pens went in her backpack. The tube was very busy on their return journey and they were all relieved when they reached Holborn and got to the hotel. 

And then it was time for Hunter to go, and Engel got a bit emotional. “Listen guys, I’ll be in the UK for the next three days, then I don’t know where I will be, but you have my number, if you are stuck give me a call and I’ll see what I can do to help. I know people who can get to you quickly if I can’t. And I am one of your emergency contacts anyway. Be safe both of you.” He hugged Engel tightly, and Jack lightly. Then he took his case and left. He felt bad, he could have done with spending more time with the youngsters, but he was quite well known in SHIELD, he didn’t want to draw attention to them.

Loki got Engel to wash her face, and then they went downstairs to have dinner in the restaurant onsite. While they were waiting Engel had picked up some leaflets to look at of places to visit. Loki had decided not to risk ordering a beer, as he didn’t want to cause a fuss, so settled for sparkling water, and a coke for Engel. Engel suddenly seemed to perk up. “Jack, look what I’ve just found!”

Loki took the leaflet from her ‘Legoland’, and it wasn’t too far away and you could stay there as well. It had to be done. “We will do it, my angel. I’ll just have to work out how we get there and book us in. We also need to get new clothes, I think we may need to go shopping tomorrow for just a few things to help us fit in better.”

The server delivered their starters and Loki hesitated a moment then spoke “Excuse me, where is the best place to go shopping for clothes?”

“Normal stuff would be Oxford Street, higher end stuff Regent Street. Either way you get the Tube to Oxford Circus.”

“Thank you, that’s most helpful.”

“Anytime, darlin’.”

“We’ll go on a little shopping trip tomorrow morning, angel. Get ourselves some suitable things. Then I can plan ahead for this place, Windsor, we will only stay one night though, it’s too obvious a place for Tony to look. Then we will move on somewhere else. I don’t think we should stay here for a full week, we can come back and spend a few days another time at a different hotel perhaps. Maybe nearer Christmas, I think that might be fun. I feel we should be in a smaller place.”

“I trust you, Jack.”

They ate their dinner and opted for dessert again. Loki paid and then they walked over to the supermarket. Loki picked up a couple of protein shakes again and a bottle of chocolate milk for Engel. They went back to the hotel and got washed and cleaned their teeth, settled down in front of the TV to try and find something to watch. Engel drank her milk and Loki drank his chocolate protein shake, he had let go of his glamour now they were back on their own. He was comfortably tired tonight, not exhausted, it was a good sign. Just after eight o’clock he sat on Engel’s bed and read to her and stayed with her until she went to sleep. She had walked a lot of miles today, he was proud of her. He tucked her in and lightly kissed the top of her head and switched all the lights off except his reading light. He had a look at the Road Atlas, there was a lot of coastline, that meant they would never be far from the sea! Something sparked within him at that thought and it lingered in his mind as he fell into a deep sleep, Rhubarb clutched to his chest.

<<>>

Jack and Angela navigated the Underground quite successfully the following morning after a hearty breakfast and exited at Oxford Circus. They followed the directions on the subway walls that pointed to Oxford Street. The street itself reminded Loki of his one trip out of the Tower with Nat & Clint, the streets they had driven along were wide like this, but here the buildings were older in places. But there was no big Mall, just individual shops, names he didn’t know, Primark, Debenhams, Next, M&S to name a few. He didn’t know where to start, he was totally confused.

An oldish woman approached him “Are you lost, love? Can I help you?”

“I..I just want to get some cooler clothes for my sister and I, we’re only here for a couple of days and I packed the wrong things. My older sister usually gets Angela her things, I don’t know where to start.” Loki didn’t have to try to look lost, he was!

The woman smiled at him and pointed at Debenhams “I would go there, love. Your sister’s clothes are nice quality, they should have something there for her.”

“Thank you for your help, it is very much appreciated.” Loki gave her a sweet smile. The woman smiled back at them both before she turned and walked away. Loki held Engel’s hand firmly and they headed towards the big store the woman had pointed at. He could do this, it was only a shop, nothing to be afraid of.

This wasn’t how he remembered shopping with Nat & Clint at all. True, there were floors for Men, Women & Children, but then each floor seemed to have individual shops within it. That was the best way he could describe it. It was a little confusing, they aimed for the Children’s floor first and Engel got over excited at all the things that were on display. She had been allowed to choose some of her clothes before, but mainly Nat had chosen them for practicality. She found a pair of red shorts that would go with the baseball cap she had got at the zoo, and a pretty simple white cotton blouse with red polka dots and a peter pan collar that would go with them. Loki found her a couple of simple cotton dresses that were loose and cool, with stylised lilac, pink and blue flowers on them. He took them to the cash desk and paid for them with his card and they were carefully folded and packed into a carrier bag. He then headed down to the Men’s floor. It was mind boggling, he was glad he wasn’t trying to dress Lore as well at the moment!

Engel dragged him towards some cotton trousers, they looked like the sort of thing Steve would wear, they would be cool, and unlike his usual skinny fitting jeans. They were called chinos. It took him a little while to find two different colour pairs in a small enough waist with a long enough leg, but he found a steel blue pair and a pale grey pair. He found a couple of interesting linen shirts, one peacock blue which looked as if the dye had run, pigment dyed they called it, and a white one with a zipped breast pocket, both short sleeved. He was heading towards the cash desk when another shirt caught his eye, this one similar to the grey one he was wearing, white and blue striped in material called seersucker, again it was short sleeved. Once he had paid everything was again neatly packed into a carrier bag. 

Engel tugged his sleeve “Jack, I’m hungry.”

“OK, my angel, we’ll find somewhere to eat.”

“There are cafes and a restaurant here.” She pointed at the floor guide.

“OK, we’ll go to the cafe on this floor as it’s closest and we’ll go and eat out properly tonight instead of in the hotel for a change.”  Loki looked around to see where the sign was pointing and they followed it. The cafe was smallish but there were spare tables. They put their bags on one and watched what everyone did, it was self service. Loki soon picked up the idea, it worked a bit like breakfast, but you paid at the end. “Come on Angela, let’s choose what we want to eat and drink.”

Engel was over excited to discover she could have a milkshake, which they would bring to the table for them. Loki chose three sandwiches for them to share between them, Engel wanted a cream filled Jam Doughnut, he picked up an interesting looking piece of cheesecake and a bottle of sparkling water. Her milkshake when it arrived was very fancy and she grinned in approval. Most of the cream from her doughnut got on her face and Loki had to wipe her face with a serviette to make her presentable before they headed back onto the street to reverse their journey to the hotel. 

<<>>

Loki and Engel had walked around Covent Garden after they had dropped their bags off at the hotel. They had enjoyed a cream tea in Neal’s Yard amongst all the brightly coloured buildings and then watched the street artists performing. They wandered amongst the high end shops and market stalls soaking up the atmosphere, so different to everything else they had seen so far, which wasn’t much to be fair.

In theatre land they found Zizzi, an Italian restaurant and had an early dinner as they had a reasonable walk to get back to the hotel afterwards. They shared a cheesy garlic bread, Engel ate a Pizza, and Loki had Chicken Milanese, they had dessert afterwards, ice cream and tiramisu and two non-alcoholic spritzers. It made Engel feel quite grown up. It was more expensive than eating at the hotel, but Loki didn’t care. It was good to eat somewhere different. 

They walked back past the theatres, which were now starting to get busy, and picked up a protein shake for Loki at the supermarket on the way back to the hotel. Back in their room he carefully removed all the tags from their new clothes. And then he signed onto the internet on his Kindle and booked them into the Premier Inn in Windsor for the following night. It was very expensive, but this was something special they were going to do. He laid out their clean clothes for the morning, and then they packed most of the rest of their things. 

“Early start tomorrow, my angel. We have to get to Victoria to get the bus to Windsor. We can then drop our bags at the hotel and head over to Legoland and spend the day there. I’ve booked us for dinner and breakfast at the hotel.”

“What are we doing then, Dada?” 

“I don’t know yet, my angel. I’m thinking about it.”

<<>>

The penthouse and communal area of the Tower were immaculate, but Tony had expected no less from the cleaning crew he used. Happy helped him unload his personal boxes into the penthouse first, he then carried on to load the remainder into Tony’s R&D lab. 

Tony opened his mini fridge and pulled out a bottle of beer to assist him while he unpacked. One bottle per box should do it, he thought to himself. He opened the third bottle, and then the third box, just under the first level he found the sealed envelope containing Lore’s hair. He put it on top of his nightstand, that way he could see it each night before he went to sleep, and each morning when he woke. He wondered where in the country they had sent her to. Wherever she was he would find her and Engel, he would leave no stone unturned until he had them both back again. 

“JARVIS, any news on my missing daughter yet?”

“No, Sir. Still no trace of the princess or Mr Ash.”

“Fuck!”

Chapter Text

I couldn’t let your love

Couldn’t let your love go by, I, I

I couldn’t let your love 

Couldn’t let your love go by, I

All I know

Is holding you is all I ever wanna know

But maybe I’m not brave enough to tell you so

But I don’t have the strength to watch you go

Once Engel was asleep, Loki sat with a pen and paper and his Kindle and worked out how to get to Windsor. They needed to get to Buckingham Palace Road, Victoria, to pick up bus number 702. He gave a little sigh and decided the easiest way might be to get a taxi from the hotel to the bus stop so they didn’t get lost. He would ask at the reception desk after they had breakfast in the morning. He put down his Kindle after switching it off, closed his Rough Guide and switched off the reading light. It was going to be a tricky excursion, but one they both would get a great deal of enjoyment from. He yawned and wrapped his arm around Rhubarb pulling her against him. He hovered in that strange state on the edge of sleep when he heard her voice in his head 

Go south, Loki.

He stirred briefly, then sleep pulled him under and he dreamt of the sea.

<<>>

Tony was pulling an all nighter in the lab accompanied by caffeine and alcohol. He alternately unpacked boxes and worked on his secret project. JARVIS conspicuously absent from the lab. The greasy wrapper from his cheeseburger still sat close by his elbow as he typed commands into his standalone computer. He inserted the USB drive into the computer and downloaded some of the files he needed, ES, LL & LF. He started a search programme that was completely independent to JARVIS. “Go, my girl Friday, see what you can find for me.”

“Yes, Boss.” The female voice answered him.

<<>>

Loki woke early and stretched like a cat before getting out of bed. He switched on the reading light before he padded into the bathroom for his shower. He ran the wide toothed comb through his towel dried hair after cleaning his teeth and looking in the mirror he frowned. It would be so much simpler if he could stay as himself! But at least now he had new clothes he only had to glamour his hair, eyes and glasses. Less use of his seidr, less energy to expend. He padded back into the bedroom, Engel was awake and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “Shower time, lovely girl, I’ll make us some tea for while we get dressed and packed.”

“OK, Dada. Can I have Strawberry today?” She slid off the high bed onto the floor.

“Yes, off you go. The sooner you’re done, the sooner we get down to breakfast.” Loki grinned at her as she walked quickly into the bathroom grinning at him. He adored her even when she was being cheeky and that cheek came from him as well as her father. He flicked the switch on the kettle and finished rubbing himself dry with the towel before starting to get dressed. He had opted for the grey chinos, with the peacock blue linen shirt which he left loose in the style he had seen many adopting on the streets. The kettle boiled and he made their tea. He pulled on his Converse, he really should hide the pattern on them, but he couldn’t be the only person in the whole world wearing this pattern, when they had bought them there had been other pairs. He decided to leave them alone. 

Engel was out of the bathroom, she had opted for the red shorts and polka dot blouse to wear with her trainers. Loki carefully braided her hair and tied it for her so it was less obvious than it would be at home. They sipped their tea as they packed their things back into their cases, including Rhubarb. Fenris went into Engel’s backpack. It was a struggle getting the Road Atlas into his case, but Loki eventually managed. Lastly they put their toiletries in, then Loki did a quick sweep of the room to make sure they had everything. “What about your backpack, Dada?”

“I’ll store it in my pocket dimension, I don’t need it. OK, we’ll head down to breakfast, then come back and collect these, check out and head off.” Loki thought about Jack, and there he stood, mousy brown hair, myopic blue grey eyes behind round gold rimmed glasses. They headed for the lift.

<<>>

Jack stood at the Reception Desk while Engel stood with the cases close to the entrance to the hotel. He handed over their room keys while the young woman behind the desk booked their taxi. “He will be here in roughly ten minutes depending on the traffic.” she said “I cannot give you a refund for the remainder of your stay I’m afraid.”

“That’s alright.” Loki said “My little sister saw Legoland and got so excited, my parents said it was OK to change our plans and take her. They have booked a hotel for us.”

“Enjoy yourselves. I’ve heard it’s fun.”

“Thank you for your help.” Loki gave her a sweet smile and headed to the entrance to join Engel. They headed outside with their cases to wait for their cab. They didn’t wait long, certainly just over ten minutes. 

“Where to, mate?”

“Buckingham Palace Road, we are after the bus stop for Legoland?” Loki asked.

“I’ll drop you where the bus stops are, I’m not sure which one you need. Do you know your bus number?”

“Yes, I do.”

“It’ll be easy to find then, the numbers are on each stand. It’s not far, just rush hour traffic to get through.” 

Loki held onto Engel’s hand as they watched the streets going by. Finally they pulled into the side of the road and Loki handed over his card and paid their fare. The door to the cab unlocked, and he helped Engel out before he got the luggage out, then thanked the cabbie. He glanced at the bus stands as they went past until he eventually found the one with 702 on it. “This is us, Angela.” There were other people already waiting, so it looked as if one of the two buses that stopped here was due soon. As luck would have the first bus to arrive was theirs, and everyone else's as well! Loki paid their fares and they loaded their cases into the luggage rack and took seats upstairs at the front of the bus. 

It was clearly a bus aimed at tourists, every place it stopped that was of importance was announced, which was going to make things easy for them. It was a fairly long journey, but pretty interesting and a lot of people were getting off at their stop, which made getting their cases and alighting less troublesome than Loki had expected. It was a short walk to their hotel where they left their cases with the receptionist and Loki tucked the receipts for them safely in his wallet. 

Engel by now was almost bouncing with excitement, Loki held her hand tight as he led her across the busy road to the entrance to Legoland where they joined the queue to pay for entry. It moved faster than he had expected, and with their tickets they were given a map of the park indicating where all the attractions were, rides, cafes, toilets and the shop. Engel started to drag him off towards the left and Loki just followed, she had obviously seen something she wanted to explore. And he was happy to let her take the lead, let her have as much fun as possible as he didn’t know where the next few days or weeks would take them. 

 And Engel was having fun, but so was Loki! Miniland captured his imagination, and they spent way longer there than he had intended. Truth be told he missed clicking these little bricks together and as soon as they settled somewhere he would ensure they had a supply they both could work with. Engel was fascinated by all the little people, but it was time they moved on, and they went from mini to large as they saw huge figures and Loki tried to imagine how many bricks that would take. There were rides, but there were big queues, so they decided to skip those and instead played with the piles of bricks that lay about in between each of the attractions they visited. They found a cafe that served pizza and pasta where they had a substantial lunch and after that they managed to get on the water ride which wasn’t too busy. They got wet, but it was a hot day and Loki knew it wouldn’t take them long to dry out and he could use his seidr later to sort out their clothes. Loki was surprised to find it was late afternoon, where had the time vanished too? “Jack, can we look in the shop?”

“Of course we can, Angela. But we have to carry what we buy, so it can only be something fairly small, OK?” They made their way over to the shop, it was busy, and although there were many big things for sale, there were a lot of small kits available for both younger and older children. Loki aimed Engel towards these and ignored the age recommendations, she was very adept at working with these bricks. She found a small Star Wars kit she liked with some mini figures and looked at him questioningly. He smiled at her “Perfect, my angel. I’ll just go and pay for it. We have time to look around a bit more if you want.”

“Miniland, Jack?” He nodded in agreement. He paid for her kit and stowed it in Engel’s backpack. They walked back to Miniland to spend the last bit of time that the park was open wandering around amongst the miniature buildings. “Will I ever be able to build like that, Jack?”

“You are pretty skilled already for your age, I don’t see why not.” Loki smiled affectionately at his daughter, when they were safe he would get her all the Lego on Midgard if he could. They only had fifteen minutes left until the park was due to close for the night. They made their way slowly to the exit “Did you enjoy that, Angela?”

“Very much, Jack. I’m glad we left London to see this.”

“Me too. Back to the hotel and we’ll get our luggage, check in and get some dinner.” He kept a tight grip on her hand as they crossed the busy road and made their way back to the hotel. The hotel reception was quiet, so check in was quick and smooth. Loki booked a table at the restaurant for seven o’clock, which gave them just enough time to get upstairs and freshen up, they would sort their things out after they had eaten.

They only unpacked their toiletries so they could get washed, then Loki brushed out Engel’s hair before they headed down to eat. The restaurant was quite busy, families with children, obviously they weren’t the only ones staying here that had been to Legoland. Loki ordered their food and sparkling water for both of them and they dug into their food hungrily when it arrived. After dessert he ordered two hot chocolates to take away with them and after paying for their drinks they headed upstairs to their room. “We’ll be travelling tomorrow, angel, so your thinnest trousers and a top that goes with them.” He took out a pair of his jeans and a grey t-shirt for himself. Rhubarb went on his pillow and he plugged in his Kindle to charge. “Drink your hot chocolate, get ready for bed and I’ll read to you while I work out where we are heading tomorrow.” 

While Engel was in the bathroom, Loki changed into his own pyjamas and settled himself on the edge of her bed with her book. She dived into her bed with Fenris “I’m ready Dada.” Loki smiled at her and read her the next chapter of Beauty and the Beast. They would need another book soon, this one was nearly finished. Engel snuggled in against him as he read, she was very tired all of a sudden, his soothing voice easing her into sleep. He slipped away from her so he didn’t wake her and put her book on the bedside table.

As usual he switched off all the lights but his reading light and climbed into his own bed, the map book and Rough Guide on the bed beside him. He settled himself down and went to pick up the map book to look at what was south when the pages of the Rough Guide began to flip open of their own accord. Despite both the thickness and newness of the book it stayed open at page 209, Bournemouth. Loki looked at it curiously, something or someone was pointing him in a certain direction. He read the entry carefully, they needed to get to London Waterloo to pick up the train or they could get a coach from Victoria. If they returned to London on the bus they got yesterday they were within a short walking distance of Victoria, so that was doable. He opened the map book to find it on an actual map, it was certainly south and it was right on the sea. He searched the hotel chain website that they were staying in and there was one close to something called the Winter Gardens, he booked them in for a week in a twin room again. If they moved on sooner than that it was OK. He needed to check his bank account soon to see how much money he had to make sure they were alright financially as well in case he needed to let Nat know he needed more funds. He put the books on his bedside table and switched off his reading light and snuggled down with Rhubarb.

The sea will help your memories, the voice in his head whispered as he drifted off to sleep.

<<>>

Tony downloaded some video footage onto FRIDAY that he had uploaded from JARVIS. It was Lore performing her own exercise routine, and Engel training with Steve. “More footage to add to your search parameters, FRIDAY.”

“Yes, Boss.”

“Any luck with either of them so far, FRIDAY?”

“No, Boss. I have found nothing within the adjacent states.”

“Take the search wider, FRIDAY, the whole of the USA.”

“Of course, Boss. Search initiated using new parameters.”

Tony ran his fingers through his hair. He left the lab, it was the first time in 72 hours, he stank of sweat. He headed for the penthouse and his shower which he ran as hot as he could bear. He was stiff from sleeping on the sofa in the lab and dehydrated from the mix of caffeine and alcohol. Cleaned up and in fresh clothes he spoke to JARVIS for the first time in days.

“JARVIS, can you order me some food, please. Thai, I think. My usual order.”

“Of course, Sir. Is there anything else I can do for you.”

“Find me a movie to watch please, something happy which does not contain children or villains with black hair. Make it a comedy. I’ll watch it when dinner arrives. And get me Capsicle on the phone, please.”

It was pure laziness on Tony’s part, the phone was in his hand, he could quite easily have dialed Steve himself.

“Tony, what can I do for you?” Steve’s voice came over the speaker.

“Just wondering if you have heard anything from our resident villain? I want to know where my daughter is, and how she is.”

“We don’t know where they are either, Tony. That is the whole point. All I can tell you is that we got a message from Loki to say they were safe. It’s untraceable, so don’t ask. He is in total control of where they go, we have given him means of contact if they require assistance, but other than that they are off grid. SHIELD doesn’t know where they are anymore than you do. If we get a distress call we will let you know.”

“Gee, thanks Boy Scout. That’s fucking brilliant. I want my daughter back. I’ll do my own searching. And in a couple of days I will have a gift for you. You can thank me later.” Tony ended the call before Steve could say anything further.

“Sir, dinner will be here in thirty minutes, I have selected Gone in 60 Seconds for your viewing this evening.”

“Thanks, JARVIS. A few beers with that will go down nicely even though it’s not a comedy.”

<<>>

Jack and Angela alighted from the bus on Buckingham Palace Road, Victoria. The bus driver had very kindly given them directions to Victoria Coach Station, which Loki had committed to memory along with all the other bits of information he had been picking up along the way. It didn’t take them long to walk there and they soon were standing in the ticket office getting tickets for the next coach to Bournemouth. It was due to leave in 37 minutes, giving them time to go to the cafe and grab sandwiches, crisps and drinks to take on board with them. 

It was a two and a half hour journey and most of it was pretty boring to be fair. They both dozed off until they were close to the edge of the New Forest, where Loki woke Engel up so she could watch out for the wild ponies roaming free. The scenery here was beautiful, green canopies of trees over grassy fields and picturesque cottages, houses and inns. They then hit more suburban areas as they wound through the outskirts of Bournemouth and into the bus station, which also served the railway station, Loki noted. They waited patiently while the driver unloaded the luggage and then they collected their cases. “We need to go downhill, angel.” Loki said to Engel as they made their way past Asda and headed down through the town, they kept heading down until they could see the gardens spread out in front of them and they bore right and the hotel was just a few yards further along the road. Loki took several deep breaths, he could smell the ozone in the air, he longed to get rid of their cases and get down as close to the sea as he could. It seemed to be calling to him.

The hotel was very different to the last two of the same chain they had been in, it seemed to be much older, the light fittings and staircase were very elegant. Loki went to the reception desk to check in, it was still before 3pm, so he expected to have to leave their luggage, but when the girl looked their room was available, so she checked them in. They were on the fourth floor. They took the lift up and found their room and when they got in they discovered they were actually facing the gardens and they could see the sea in the distance. This room had a proper wardrobe and chest of drawers and elegant light fittings. The bathroom too was different to the others, with a bath and a shower over it, the tiles had a fancy pattern to them. They left their luggage and headed out to have a walk down through the gardens towards the sea. 

There were lawned areas, and beautiful flower beds, people were sitting on the grass reading, enjoying drinks, soaking up the sun. It was tempting to join them, but the sea was calling. They got to the bottom of the gardens and to their right was a Sea Life Centre, and in front of them was a pier that stretched out into the sea. There were people on the golden sand, children playing. They stepped onto the beach after they both took their shoes and socks off. The sand was soft and hot and felt wonderful under their feet. The beach stretched for miles to their left and right. “This is a good place, Jack.”

“It is, angel. Do you want to walk in the sea? You’ll need to roll your trousers up.”

“Yes, please!” They dropped their shoes on the beach while they both carefully rolled their trousers up to their knees. Picking their shoes up they headed down to the sparkling blue water and walked into the shallows and went towards the right under the pier taking in the food outlets that ran alongside the beach as they walked through the cool water. It was bliss! They walked along until they came to another garden, they came out of the sea, across the beach and Loki bought them each a bottle of water. They sat on a bench near the entrance to the garden while they drank, then headed back walking on the sand, allowing it to dry their feet off completely. 

“I think we may need different things for our feet when we are on the beach, perhaps we should do that today before we go back to the hotel.” They started back, but got distracted by the Tourist Information Centre which was close to the Sea Life Centre. Loki remembered that Hunter had told him they were useful places. They went in and gathered a handful of leaflets, which included a bus timetable. They headed in the opposite direction to the hotel which took them into a different part of the gardens and then on towards the main shopping centre. There were quite a variety of shops including a couple of shoe shops, they continued walking up the main street and came across an outdoor clothing shop, it had sandals in the window. They went in, and both of them got fitted for simple walking sandals, they would be perfect for walking on the beach and in the gardens. As they walked back to the hotel Loki took note of the various restaurants they passed, Italian seemed to be very popular, and he saw a branch of Zizzi, which he recognised from London. There was also a burger place and a Chinese restaurant, all within easy walking distance of the hotel, so it would give them a bit of variety from the hotel food. And they hadn’t explored the rest of the town yet. “Angel, we will have Chinese food tonight for a change. I think we are also going to need more clothes to fit in. There is a Debenhams here, so we will visit that, maybe buy a little something everyday and I can store our other things in my pocket dimension. I need to check my bank balance, so I will risk using my phone today when we get into our room.”

In their room they unpacked their cases onto their beds first of all. Loki stowed away their Disney hoodies and half of their American clothing apart from their underwear in his pocket dimension. They put everything else in the drawers and wardrobe, sharing the space between them. Loki fitted the charging cable in his phone and set it to charge while they worked. Cases empty, they carefully peeled all the Disney stickers from them to make them less noticeable. Loki stuck them under the bed out of the way. He put the kettle on and made them a mug of tea to sip while he put the SIM in the phone and he signed onto the hotel internet to access his internet banking. He checked his balance and was shocked to discover that it was into five figures, and here he was worrying that they would be running short before long! He heaved a sigh of relief. He dashed off a quick text to Steve ‘Moved twice, safe’. He then took the SIM card from the phone and switched it off. He put the SIM in his empty mug and boiled the kettle again and poured boiling water over it. He didn’t know if that would help, but he felt better for it! They needed a supermarket to get a few more, he knew there was the one by the bus station, but he felt sure there would be one closer at hand.

He expended some seidr to clean their dirty clothes that had made it to the ‘to be used’ pile. At some stage they would need to find proper laundry facilities like normal people would use. He pulled out his pad of paper and his pen and began to write a list. Once he found out the answers he could cross things off, he added clothes and underwear to the list as they only had limited amounts of both. Here seemed to be a good place to stock up, he could utilise his storage space, create another if necessary if he could remember how. Remembering was the problem, his dream had seemed to indicate that the sea would help him remember, he hoped that was true, because usually what he did remember slipped through his fingers like sand apart from Engel. And even then he only remembered small amounts. Why was this so difficult?

“Dada, are we going out again before dinner?”

“Sorry? Oh, yes, my angel, we can do! Let us see if we can find somewhere to get something milky to drink.” They headed back out towards the shopping street, there was a cafe there with seats outside, they served cold drinks as well as hot and a variety of fancy milkshakes. Although he knew they would be too sweet for him, Loki opted to have one for the extra kick it would give his seidr, settling for something called Mint Aero, Engel had a KitKat milkshake. As he suspected, it was very sweet, but until he found somewhere he could get protein shakes from it would have to suffice, and they were pretty sweet to be fair. It was pleasant sitting in the sun watching the people go by, there was a breeze drifting up from the sea which was taking some of the late afternoon heat away. Just up from where they were sitting was yet another garden, Loki hoped they would get time to explore all these different places. Engel meanwhile was studying the map she had found at the Tourist Information Centre, trying to work out where they were on it. “Jack, where are we?” she asked.

He looked at the map and pointed to just below the garden they were sitting next to. “This is where we are, and this is where our hotel is, angel. Why?”

“All these little coloured boxes are restaurants and places of interest. I just wanted to see where they were in relation to where we are.” 

Loki nodded at her in approval and handed her a pen. “Mark the ones you are interested in, Angela, and we will see what we can find and explore.” Engel studied the boxes and marked the ones she was interested in with an asterisk while she sipped her milkshake. Loki picked up the other leaflets and looked through them. They had seen where the Sea Life Centre was, so that was an easy option if they had a wet day or towards the end of their stay if it didn’t rain. Likewise with the art gallery and museum. It looked fascinating, but could wait. Hengistbury Head Nature Reserve looked really interesting, an outdoor area, surrounded by the sea, not far away. The leaflet told him which bus they needed to get from Bournemouth. There was a leaflet on all the beaches and gardens that were accessible on a walk from Sandbanks right through to Bournemouth Pier and again showed which buses they needed to get to access. He kept those two separate, they would do these first. 

It was still too early to go for dinner so they crossed the road and entered the top part of the Winter Gardens and discovered a series of big cages with small birds in them. Loki wanted to set them free, yet they seemed to be quite happy there judging by their chirps and tweets. They were in dappled shade and they had water and food. They stayed around the top end of the gardens, finding a bench to sit on in the late afternoon sun. “I think we should go here tomorrow.” Loki showed Engel the leaflet for the nature reserve “We can find the bus stop on our way back to the hotel after we have eaten.”

“What’s a nature reserve?”

“Where animals and birds are free and protected from hunters. We may be lucky to see some while we are there.”

Engel tugged at his arm urgently “Jack, what’s that funny thing over there?”

Loki looked where she pointed and saw a strange undulating grey animal running towards them with a bushy tail and tufts of hair on the tips of its ears. Whatever it was, it wasn’t frightened of them. About three feet away from them it sat on its haunches and sat watching them, totally unafraid, whiskers twitching and big eyes taking them in. “I don’t know what it is, angel. I have never seen its like before, but it seems to be curious rather than dangerous. I think we need to get a book to help us to identify what we are seeing.”

“Like the one you had on Asgard when I was little?” Engel asked.

“I don’t remember that.” He let out his breath slowly. 

“You taught me all about Asgards animals when I was little.” Engel smiled at him “You don’t remember, but I do.” Just then a man walked by with a little boy and the strange animal turned with a whisk of its tail and followed him. “Whatever it is, it's pretty cute.”

“Hmn, I think by the time we walk back it should be time for dinner. “ He took hold of Engel’s hand and they crossed the main road back towards the main part of town, they headed up the street that they had found the Chinese Restaurant on and they were seated at a table for two. Loki chose a set menu for two people to encourage Engel to eat more variety than she had been, with a glass of orange juice for her and sparkling water for himself. The sea air had sharpened their appetites and the food went down easily. Dessert was banana fritters with ice cream, Loki gave Engel his ice cream and she gave him half of her banana fritter. It was strange, he wasn’t sure that he liked bananas, but he ate it anyway. They walked slowly back to the hotel, Loki checked the bus stops as they went until they found the one he was looking for. It was not far from a shop called W H Smith, which seemed to be a book shop amongst other things. He checked the times of the buses, they ran fairly frequently. Maybe the shop would sell SIM cards and possibly a book that would help them identify the creatures of Midgard. 

They reached the hotel and called in at the bar to collect hot chocolate to take up to their room with them. Loki chased Engel into the bathroom to get washed first while he got changed and dropped his glamour. The window in the room opened, so he switched the air con off and let the sea breeze in through the window instead. Once Engel was out of the bathroom he went in and washed his face and cleaned his teeth. OK, they should probably drink the hot chocolate first, but who cares! Engel had changed and was in bed, she was drinking her hot chocolate and had her book ready for him, Fenris on the bed next to her. He drank his chocolate quickly then came and sat on her bed and started to read to her. Once he finished the chapter she snuggled up to him and he held her, stroking his fingers through her hair until she went to sleep. 

Back in his own bed he switched on his Kindle and signed into the hotel internet, he was surprised to discover that he had an email. ‘TS was asking if we knew where you both are. We told him that you are safe but other than that we have no idea. Nat x’ He felt uneasy, but there was no way Tony could trace them, they were using various means of transport, these hotels didn’t need ID as they were British Citizens. He had avoided using ATMs, and hidden their appearance as much as possible. Even if he tracked them to London the trail would go cold after Windsor. He downloaded one of his books, Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo and started to read until he felt tired enough to sleep. He put the Kindle to one side, switched off the reading light and curled around Rhubarb.  He dreamt of a forest at the edge of a field, he was Lore, heavily pregnant, loosening rabbits from snares and carrying them back towards a beautiful honey coloured stone building surrounded by brilliantly coloured flower beds. He had no idea where this place was until a voice whispered softly to him Vanaheim.

<<>>

Tony turned the music up louder, AC/DC’s Back in Black blasted through the lab. He uploaded another piece of footage onto FRIDAY, this one from 2012 of Loki in the Tower’s communal area before he had thrown Tony out of the window. 

“Now FRIDAY, the bastard may also look like this, because sometimes he is male, and sometimes he is my beautiful Lore. I’ve fed you every photo, every piece of footage I possess. Somewhere in these states he or she has to be hiding with my daughter. They need to use transport, they need to eat, they need money. They have to be on camera somewhere. I trust you to find them.”

“Working on it, Boss. I have uploaded the latest facial recognition software as utilised by the FBI and CIA. It should greatly improve our chances.”

“Atta girl. Let me know as soon as you get a hit of any kind.”

“Yes, Boss.” 

Tony wandered into the kitchen and grabbed another coffee. Wherever they were in the country he would find them and bring them back. Containment for Loki in one form or another, he would sort that out with Strange, and Engel back with him where she rightfully belonged. FRIDAY wouldn’t let him down.

“JARVIS, I need to talk to you.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“As you know, SHIELD and I have separated and the compound is now in SHIELD’s hands.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“I have left you running the compound as well as managing the Tower, but that causes a conflict of interests.”

“I would never betray your trust, Sir.”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t knowingly, but Ms Romanov is an entirely different matter. I have decided that I will leave you to deal with the compound and use my new AI to run the Tower as there isn’t as much for her to do here while she learns how I like things.”

“But Sir, I have run things for you for years now, have I ceased to be efficient?”

“No, JARVIS. The opposite in fact. Which is why I am leaving you with SHIELD, and the Avengers. Here there is just the lab to run and food to order, it’s a waste of your superior intelligence. So I am going to sever your connection to the Tower as soon as I end this conversation, and I will let Capsicle know that you are all his now. Thank you for getting me through the dark days as well as the good times. You have been one of my best creations and I will miss your crazy British accent and your sarcasm.” 

“FRIDAY, disconnect JARVIS immediately please.”

“Yes, Boss.”

“But Sir…”

Tony picked up his Stark Phone and called Steve, who picked up after the fourth ring “Yes Stark, what can I do for you?”

“I promised you a gift Capsicle, JARVIS now belongs solely to the compound. I have severed his connection to the Tower, my Stark Phone, Stark Pad, Iron Man Suits, everything I have under my control in fact.”

“Why would you do that, Tony? JARVIS is your AI, totally loyal to you.”

“You would think so, wouldn’t you? But I have my doubts. I think Loki corrupted him, but that’s your problem now. I have a new AI, free from contamination. She needs to be taught, but she is a fast learner, I have been teaching her more than the basics for weeks. She now has control of the Tower, with guidance she will outstrip JARVIS rapidly. Have fun, Boy Scout.” Tony cut the connection before Steve got the chance to say anything further.

<<>>

Steve looked at Nat “What?” she said.

“That was Tony.”

“I gathered that. What did he want?”

“He has given us control of JARVIS.”

“What! Why?”

“He thinks that Loki corrupted JARVIS somehow.” Steve ran his finger through his hair.

“JARVIS, are you alright?” Nat leant on the kitchen counter.

“I am confused, Ms Romanov. My creator has disowned me, I do not know how to respond.”

“JARVIS, we want you very much, all of us want you and we know that Loki didn’t corrupt you. That you liked Loki. At least this way you won’t feel conflicted.”

“Thank you, Ms Romanov. Will Loki, Mr Ash, and the princess, be coming back?”

“Eventually JARVIS, eventually.”

<<>>

After breakfast Jack and Angela left the hotel and headed down towards the bus stop, calling in at W H Smith first. He picked up a SIM card, that was an easy find, then they headed over to the books and with a bit of help from an assistant found a book called Complete British Wildlife Photoguide. It seemed to cover all aspects, he paid at the cash desk and both things went into Engels backpack. They headed outside and caught the bus with five minutes to spare. The bus driver put them off at Southbourne and pointed the direction that they needed to walk. He explained they would need to come back to Southbourne to get the bus back to Bournemouth.  They picked up a couple of bottles of water before they started out at a supermarket and the cashier asked Loki if he wanted cashback, he didn’t hesitate and said ‘Yes’ and got £20. They then started out walking, soon finding brown road signs which pointed them in the right direction. 

The nature reserve had several pathways to explore, and they headed off along one of the flat pathways first which skirted along the river estuary, giving views towards Christchurch in the distance. They then headed on an upward trail which led them through a wooded area towards the quarry pond and as they approached it they watched a beautiful lithe, dog-like animal run in front of them with a long bushy tail tipped in white. “Dada, it’s so beautiful, what is it?”

“I don’t know, angel. Let me look in the book, it’s gone to ground in those bushes over there. Be very quiet, we may be lucky, it could come out again.” Loki whispered to her as he took the book out of her backpack. He found the animals section and flipped through the pages, its colouring was very distinctive being a russet colour with that white flash on its tail. “This is it, it’s a fox.”  They stayed quiet for a good fifteen minutes but it didn’t appear again, so they followed the footpath around the other side of the pond. They found more trails with sculptures made of wood and a huge triangular stone block of variegated colours, and a field that seemed to be covered in wildflowers that faced onto the sea. There was a cafe and they went to eat, the food was simple but good, and they started the walk back to Southbourne. Engel was tired, so Loki bent down and gave her a piggyback until they were right to the edge of the town when he let her down again. They waited almost twenty minutes for the bus back to Bournemouth, but they were both happy to sit down. They had covered a lot of miles and Loki was proud of how well his daughter had done. After all she was part mortal and still very young.

He sat and looked through the wildlife book to see if he could find the animal they had seen in the Winter Gardens yesterday and finally found it. He showed it to Engel “See, it’s a grey squirrel.”

She had been dozing off and misheard him “A grey squiggle?”

Loki stifled a giggle “Squirrel, angel, not squiggle. Although they do look a little like a squiggle especially when they run, don’t they. Maybe we should call them squiggles, what do you think?”

“Yes, Jack. Squiggles can be our special name for them.”

“Do you need a nap, angel?” Engel nodded at him sleepily. “OK, I’ll take you back to the hotel and you can have an hour or so of sleep and I will go and get us more clothes. You’ll just have to trust me.” The bus pulled in and they got off, Loki took Engel back to their room, pulled the curtains and left her to sleep.

He wandered back to the shopping street they had found yesterday to Debenhams. He headed straight to the children's department and found shorts for Engel, he went for leaf green ones and hunted for blouses or cotton shirts that would work with them. There were a couple of simple white broderie anglaise blouses that would also work with her red shorts, so he decided to buy them both. The ladies and mens departments were close together, he needed to get something for Lore just in case, he found her some teal shorts that came just below the knee and a couple of Mantaray t-shirts in similar shades, one in variegated stripes, the other was a tumble of tiny flowers. He liked the feel of these things, so checked out the men’s Mantaray things, he found some washed out long blue cargo shorts, a dark blue polo shirt that had an interesting texture to it, and a dark green t-shirt with a seascape on it that would go with his grey chinos. He took everything to the cash desk to pay, the woman looked at him strangely. “They are for my sisters, my little sister is not well, so my older sister is looking after her. If they aren’t right can they exchange them?”

“Yes, love. Just keep the receipt and make sure they leave the labels on while they try them on. We can’t change them if the labels have been removed.”

“I understand. Thank you.” The woman carefully packed everything into a bag for him and handed it over. Loki left the store and went exploring a little and found another shopping street that ran behind W H Smith. He wandered up a little way and found a beautiful dress shop that Lore and Engel would love, and round the corner from it was a cafe called Patisserie Valerie whose window was full of the most delectable cakes. So many shops! He spotted a supermarket and headed in hoping to get some protein shakes although he was managing alright at the moment, but extra wouldn’t go amiss. He couldn’t find what he was looking at, but one of the shop assistants helpfully pointed him to Holland & Barrett and he found a small selection there of different flavours. He picked up a couple and headed back to the hotel, Engel should have had sufficient sleep by now. 

His daughter was still asleep when he got back into the room, he shook her gently “Hey, sleepy head, wake up! Do you want to see what I got for you?” 

Long lashed, sleepy green eyes looked at him. “Dada? I’ve not been asleep long.”

“Over an hour, my angel. I’ll make us both tea while you check out what I’ve bought. The lady said I can change them if you don’t like them or if they don’t fit.” 

Loki filled the kettle and switched it on while Engel pulled everything out of the bag. She spread everything out on the bed and frowned until she found what was obviously hers. She slipped out of the bed and onto the floor and tried the shorts and blouses on. “Perfect, Dada. Thank you.” She kissed him on the cheek.

“You’re welcome, angel. Now take them off so that I can take the labels off for you then they can be put away.” He put her tea on the bedside table for her and drew his dagger from his pocket dimension to take off the price labels. 

He took his own things into the bathroom and tried them on, everything fit well. He ran cold water into the wash basin and dropped the chocolate protein shake can in there to cool down. That was just Lore’s things to try. He would do that later when they got back from dinner, he would force a switch, then overnight he would hopefully switch back with the help of the protein shake. He put his clothes back on and went back into the bedroom and took the labels off his new clothes as well. He put them away carefully and laid the things he had bought for Lore at the bottom of his bed. Engel looked at them questioningly “Lore will need some clothes, I just got her a couple of things. When we shift she can choose something for herself.”. Engel nodded, that made sense to her. “Where is the leaflet you were marking up last night?”

Engel reached underneath the bedside table to the small shelf beneath where her book was and handed the leaflet to Loki. He opened it out, and looked at all the small colourful adverts around the sides that she had been looking at. Some of the things she had marked were obvious, like the Sea Life Centre, but there was a Build a Bear Workshop, a bookshop, several eateries and a hot air balloon ride in the Winter Gardens. One of the eateries she hadn’t marked that caught his eye was called The Real Greek and it sat at the opposite side of the gardens to themselves, just below where the shops were. He knew that Greece was a country from his lessons with Clint, but that was as far as it went. It sat better with him than the burger restaurants that Engel had marked down. “OK, angel. We are heading out for food, and then we might see some squiggles in the gardens if we walk through them on the way back.” She laughed at him using her word, and hurriedly put on her trainers.

They headed towards Debenhams and went to cross the road there, when Loki noticed there was what appeared to be an Inn called The Moon in the Square. It was very busy, many people were sitting outside, and they were eating food. The traffic stopped at the crossing and they quickly headed over the road into the top of the gardens and headed right. And right in front of them was a very modern glass and wood building on several levels. It had stunning views over the gardens and when they went inside they were lucky enough to be offered an outside table as they were eating early. Loki took a chance and ordered a beer, the waiter didn’t bat an eyelid, he ordered lemonade for Engel “Do you trust me to order for you, angel?”

“I don’t know what any of these things are, Dada?”

“Neither do I, but isn’t that the fun of it?” Loki smiled at her, Engel didn’t look very sure. He ordered flatbreads with houmous and tzatziki, chicken, lamb and pork kebabs, Aegean slaw and greek salad. Somewhere in that lot there would be something that she would like.

The drinks arrived and they sipped them while enjoying the view. They could see the hot air balloon anchored in the gardens, it didn’t stay anchored for long! They watched it slowly ascend and stay in the air. And then their food arrived, loads of different dishes, the waiter told them what everything was as he put it down and then left them to enjoy. Loki took the meat off the skewers to make it easier for Engel and they both helped themselves to the various dishes. There were many different flavours, and he was pleased to see that Engel seemed to be enjoying most of the things on offer apart from the slaw. He loved all of it, and happily ate the slaw that Engel wasn’t interested in. He opted for Chocolate Mousse Cake for dessert and Engel had Strawberry ice cream. The Mousse Cake was rich and decadent, and Loki loved it. “Did you enjoy that, angel?”

“It was very tasty, Jack.” Engel said as the waiter came with their bill.

“Good. I thought we might come again while we were here.”

“After the balloon ride?” Her bright green eyes were full of mischief. Loki knew when she was playing him, he gave her a quick nod of agreement.

They headed out into the gardens for a little walk down over before heading back to the hotel in the hope of seeing some squirrels. Engel tugged his sleeve hard when she spotted some in the undergrowth, one of them ran along the fence fearlessly towards them. Engel pulled a small piece of flatbread out of the pocket of her shorts and held it out towards the curious animal. It sat confidently on its hindlegs and snatched it from her fingers with one foreleg. Then sat and held it with both paws and nibbled it delicately. “I think perhaps we should get them something more appropriate than bread to eat, maybe some fruit or nuts, angel.”

“Can I touch the squiggle, Dada?”

“No, it’s a wild animal. You mustn't touch them no matter how friendly they seem to be, angel. They can still bite or scratch you if they are afraid. And see how sharp his teeth look?”  Loki steered her away from the animal and they headed back to the hotel via the bird cages which were mainly silent now as the birds were sleeping. They called into the bar and picked up their usual order of hot chocolate and headed up to their room for the night.

Upstairs safely in their space Loki let his glamour fall and headed into the bathroom where he shifted into Lore. She had to loosen her trousers as they became tighter around the hip, although they were much looser around her waist and her shirt gaped alarmingly at the buttons despite being small breasted. “Engel, can you fetch me the shorts and teal shirt from my bed please.” It only took a few seconds for her daughter to appear with the requested clothes. “Thanks, angel.” Lore stripped out of her existing clothes and tried on the new things that Loki had bought for her. The long teal shorts came to just below her knee, they fitted perfectly on her hip, but were slightly loose on her waist, she discovered loops on the sides that would allow her to tighten them, that would give her a better fit. The top fit her beautifully, and looked right with the shorts, practical but more feminine than the jeans and t-shirts she was used to wearing. She stepped out of the bathroom.

“Dada, you’re beautiful.”

“Thank you, angel. Go and get ready for bed, we’re on our last chapter of Beauty and the Beast tonight. We need to get you a new book for tomorrow night.” While Engel was in the bathroom Lore tried on the other t-shirt, then changed into her pyjamas, the soft stretchy material adjusting to her curves. She used her dagger to remove the tags from her new clothes as she drank her hot chocolate then put them away in the wardrobe as Engel came out of the bathroom with her protein shake. Lore smiled at her. “Get settled in bed while I get washed, angel, then I’ll read to you.” Lore headed to the bathroom, got washed, cleaned her teeth and ran a brush through her hair. She sat on the bed next to Engel and let her daughter snuggle into her while she read her the last chapter of Beauty and the Beast. “Sleep my princess while I plan our day out for tomorrow.” Lore kissed the top of Engel’s head and switched the lights off apart from her own reading light. She studied the Rough Guide, Road Map and then typed searches into her Kindle as she drank her protein shake. Satisfied with her choices she closed everything up, switched off her light and settled down for the night. Rhubarb was snuggled up against her neck.

<<>>

Jack and Angela had an early breakfast and headed along a road they hadn’t really explored properly to catch the X3 to Salisbury. They were having an easy day today after all the walking they had done yesterday. It was just over one and a half hours on the bus skirting the edge of the New Forest. It was a beautiful old city, full of stunning buildings. They sought out the Tourist Information Centre first to find out how to get to Stonehenge which Loki had read about online. The clerk gave them a map and marked the railway station on it and told him there was a regular bus that ran to the site from there. It was only a short walk so they headed there first and picked up the bus which headed out into the countryside. It left them at a modern visitors centre where they paid their entrance fee and walked the short distance up to the imposing stone circle. When they were away from everyone else Loki whispered to Engel “This structure is older than your grandfather.” 

Her eyes widened “Really, he is ancient! Yet mortals are a short lived race.”

“Indeed they are, but they seem to achieve much with their short lives.”

“These are incredible, Dada. Can you imagine what they were like when they were new!”

They took the bus back to Salisbury then headed to the cathedral with its stunning spire, vaulted ceiling and stained glass windows. They lunched at the Haunch of Venison pub (Inn, Loki’s mind supplied) eating pulled venison burgers with chips, washed down with sparkling water. They then took a leisurely walk through part of the water meadows before heading back into the city to get the bus back to Bournemouth. They passed a book shop, so they wandered in and found the children’s section and Loki spoke to the assistant for a recommendation for Angela stating quite clearly that although she was almost seven she could read far in advance for her age. The assistant asked her a lot of questions about what she liked and came back with a paperback book, it was Elidor, by Alan Garner. Loki paid for it and Engel added it to her back pack. She snuggled up to him on the bus journey back and had a little sleep.

They got off the bus and were heading back towards the hotel when Loki noticed an inn he hadn’t seen before, The Mary Shelley. He pulled the map out of Engel’s backpack and checked it out, if they went up the side of it and around the corner they would end up near the shops he had found yesterday, he could pick up a protein shake. They headed into Holland & Barret and while he picked up his shake Engel browsed through the nuts. Loki came and found her and picked up a small packet of almonds as they looked more suitable for an animal. As they had eaten substantially at lunch time he suggested they try to eat at the inn tonight. Engel nodded, voicing her opinion that they eat near the garden so she could feed the squiggles afterwards. He chuckled and agreed. It was hard to say no to her, she was his world, the thing he loved most. He pointed out the shop he had seen with the gorgeous dresses in that he thought that Lore would love, Engel’s eyes lit up, they weren’t quite the sort of dresses they would have worn in Asgard, but they were fabulous colours, far prettier than anything else that she had seen, fit for exiled princesses. 

They had tea in the hotel while Loki put Beauty in the Beast away in his pocket dimension and put Elidor by Engel’s bed ready for that night. “Dada, how old is Grandfather?”

“He is over 4,000 years old. I’m not sure exactly.”

“And how old is Stonehenge?”

“Around 5,000 years old, angel. Perhaps he saw those stones when he was a young man, while they were still complete. I guess we will never know.”

“What are we doing tomorrow, Dada?”

“We are doing a long flat walk, but we will sit down a lot and if you get tired I will give you a piggyback. We will take the nuts with us in case any of the gardens we pass have squiggles in them.”

They headed to The Moon in the Square and found a table in a quiet area that seemed to cater for families. They studied the menu. There seemed to be a varied choice, but it was pretty much all served with fries, but that was OK. Loki decided to take a chance on getting a beer, there seemed to be others of a similar age to him drinking. He took note of their table number and went to the bar and placed their order, he got Engel a coke as a treat and a pint of Adnams beer for himself. He had no idea which beer was which, it was the start of the alphabet! He took their drinks back to the table. Engel was delighted to have coke again. While they waited for their food he browsed through the special menus “They have a Curry Club on a Thursday night. I think we should try that, it’s something different.” Their food arrived, fish and chips for both of them. It wasn’t quite what Loki was expecting, but it was tasty all the same. He knew what fish was but it was in some crunchy golden coating, similar to the coating Engel’s sweet and sour chicken usually had on it. They opted for dessert afterwards, ice cream for Engel as usual, apple crumble and custard for Loki. They were decent size portions for the price and after eating they walked back through the gardens stopping to feed a couple of squirrels. 

Bed followed hot chocolate with a chapter of Elidor. Loki checked the bus times for the following morning, it would be another earlyish start as it was a long walk if they were visiting some of the gardens on their way back and factoring in lunch. He read part of his own book before turning in for the night and cuddling in Rhubarb. He dreamt of sitting by a campfire gutting silvery fish, stuffing them with herbs and wrapping them in leaves before putting them on hot rocks to sizzle for his brother and himself, they were both only young, not yet of age. He could hear their horses snickering in the background…

<<>>

“Boss, I only have six states yet to check. There is no sign of any of the young people I am looking for.”

“Keep looking, FRIDAY. They are somewhere, they haven’t just vanished. I doubt they will be in Hawaii, although it’s not impossible.” Tony took a swig of his coffee. Days had passed and there was no sign of them. Had they been put in a SHIELD safe house that he was not aware of? Or maybe they had gone to one of the other agencies for assistance, would they help a war criminal? Although it was early in the day the thought of a drink was tempting, instead he shoved two slices of bread in the toaster “C’mon girl, I’m relying on you!”

<<>>

Lance Hunter arrived back in the States from his sojourn in Britain. He had had no contact from the package he had delivered. He took a cab from JFK to the Avengers compound where he was assessed by JARVIS before being allowed into the lobby. He was greeted by Clint Barton. “Hey, Hunter. How’s it going?”

“Why is Stark’s AI here?” 

“I am now SHIELD property Mr Hunter, my connection with Sir has been severed.”

“And no bugs or spyware remain?” Hunter asked

“Absolutely not, Mr Hunter. My system is clean.”

“C’mon. Nat and Steve are waiting to see you.” Clint took him up to the communal area in the lift. 

Steve and Nat greeted him warmly. “You didn’t warn me that when he shapeshifted that he became someone entirely different, Nat. That was a shock to the system. But great kids, both of them. Do you know if they’ve left the hotel?”

“Loki is extremely intelligent, I know that they have moved on. I haven’t had any further contact, but he knows better than to let me know where he is.” Nat poured him out a coffee.

“What about his bank account? Can anyone access that?”

“Obviously I have his bank account number to credit the money we receive from fencing the gold, but I cannot access his account. That way I cannot trace where he is by his transactions, so I can’t compromise him. Loki has online access and he was warned not to use ATMs. He is not going to be able to avoid CCTV completely, it’s impossible, but at least if he doesn’t use ATMs it's reducing his exposure. We have done everything we possibly can to protect them, Hunter. Ironically, Fury splitting us away from Stark has made this a safe space for them to return to. When he next makes contact I will let him know he can come home anytime he wants, but I think being out there alone will be good for them both for a time.”

“I will happily go and bring them in if you need me too. Just say the word.”

“Thanks, Hunter.” Steve said “We may take you up on that offer. You know the territory better than we do.”

<<>>

The bus went to a place called Swanage, but Loki and Engel alighted at Sandbanks just before the chain ferry crossing to Studland. They picked up a bottle of water from the shop before they started and followed the main road back the way the bus had come until they reached a break that took them through to the sea front. From there they could see all the way forward to Bournemouth Pier far in the distance. Loki heard Engel swallow hard. “Remember we will be taking breaks, angel, and I will carry you if you need it. Just let me know if you are flagging.”

“OK, Dada.” Part of their walk was past sand dunes, but then it was all flat. There were lots of little cafes, and kiosks on the way. They stopped at Branksome Chine and had a short wander through the gardens there to cool off a little and enjoy the greenery. They came out and after purchasing another bottle of water then carried on. The walking was easy because it was flat, but covered quite a long distance. They stopped again at Alum Chine. It was approaching lunchtime, so they investigated what was on offer. Loki opted for three packs of sandwiches for them, and a large packet of crisps to share. They again headed up into the gardens to find a shady spot to sit and eat. The greenery was lush and almost tropical compared to the Winter Gardens. Engel was a little disappointed that there was no sign of squirrels, but Loki reminded her that they would be walking back through the Winter Gardens so she would see them there. When she had had enough to eat she cuddled up to him, and he put his arm around her “Are you alright, angel?”

“Yes, Dada. Can I have a paddle in the sea later to cool my feet off?”

“I think it’s compulsory, don’t you?” He grinned at her and she giggled. “Are you ready to move again?”

“Of course, slow coach.” She giggled again and Loki stood up to put their rubbish in a nearby bin. He held her hand as they left the leafy Chine and headed back down to the beach walk again. The heat was rising and their pace slowed accordingly. Loki eventually took them onto the beach itself and they took off their sandals and walked into the sea, and completed the rest of the distance with the cooler water lapping around their feet and ankles. Engel was flagging as they reached the bottom end of the Winter Gardens so he got her to sit down in a shady area on the grass under the shade of some trees. He went and got her an ice cream and a bottle of water for himself and sank down on the ground next to her. She eagerly tucked into the ice cream cone while Loki got a few nuts out of his pocket and threw them at various spots on the ground in front of them to see what would happen. They didn’t wait long, one brave squirrel came first, it scented the air and soon found an almond, it grasped it in its paws and began to nibble it. It was soon joined by two others. Engel and Loki sat entranced. The squirrels stayed until all the almonds were gone, then they turned tail and ran off. “Jack, they were lovely!” Engel exclaimed, careful to use his name as other people were near. 

He smiled at her and gave her a quick hug before helping her to her feet. “Are you OK to walk now, sister? Or do you want a piggyback?”

“I can walk, silly.” She grinned at him.

“Pizza for dinner? I thought we could go to that place at the top of the gardens near where the birds are kept.”

“Yummy, Jack. I love pizza.”

<<>>

The following day Jack and Engel headed to the railway station and took the train to Winchester. It was a pleasant journey and then a decent walk into the city centre. Like Salisbury the buildings were centuries old and fascinating to see. They visited the cathedral first, very different in style to Salisbury, not as elegant, but still very imposing, and more ancient in origin. “Nearly as old as I should be.” Jack whispered to Engel. It was built on marshy ground and they read how the foundations had had to be fortified as the building had been sinking. Inside it was impressive though, and they wandered through the building that had taken almost three hundred years to complete. 

They found the statue of Alfred the Great, and Loki told Engel of what he had read about the great king on his Kindle the night before and how Winchester had once been a more important place than London in the formation of a united England. They stopped and ate a simple lunch at a Cafe Nero with toasted sandwiches, hot chocolate and cakes before they headed to the Great Hall. This medieval hall was again very imposing, and dominated by the huge round table hung on the wall, long assumed to be the round table of the legendary King Arthur and his fabled knights. Loki would have to pick up a book on the subject. He understood that it was just a story, that King Arthur wasn’t real, but then the Norse Myths said he wasn’t real either, and here he was! They spent some time in the pretty little garden outside called Queen Eleanor's Garden and had a wander through the gift shop. Then they headed back to the station after stopping for a soft drink in a cafe enroute. Engel dozed off on the train journey back to Bournemouth and Loki had to nudge her awake as they neared the station “Angel, we are here.”

They headed a different way to the town from the station as they were heading to The Moon in the Square for dinner. They were both smartly dressed as they had been sightseeing in the city, Loki in his steel blue chinos and white and blue striped seeksucker shirt, Engel in one of her pretty floral dresses. They walked down past all the shops they had checked out on their first day including the shop they had bought their sandals at. Once more the pub was crowded but they found a table in the family section close to an open door. They both opted for Chicken Korma as a main course with Onion Bhajis and Vegetable Samosas as starters. He asked at the bar what beer they recommended with curry and they told him Cobra, and he got coke for Engel.

They hadn’t had their drinks for long when their food turned up, everything arriving more or less at one, but as they were used to eating that way at the Tower and the Compound it didn't matter. The curry was mild, but tasty and again it provided Engel with more variety than she had been getting. “What are we doing tomorrow, Jack?”

“I don’t know, angel. Why don’t we wait and see what the weather is like? We can explore here if the weather isn’t good or maybe go to Swanage on the bus if it is a nice day, over the chain ferry we saw yesterday where we got off our bus.”

“OK, and where are we going to eat?”

“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet. Patience, my love. One day at a time. I suppose you want ice cream again? I don’t know where you put it all, you must have your mother’s metabolism.” He winked at her.

“Of course I do, you would know.” She smiled a very knowing smile at him, a smile he knew only too well because it was his own. He had apple crumble and custard again, while she tucked into the freezing cold dessert. How did it not set off her Jotunn genes? 

As Loki settled to sleep that night with Rhubarb snuggled into his neck he heard that female voice in his head as he drifted off to sleep

You need to find somewhere smaller to be, somewhere with less direct transport links, somewhere to settle…

He dreamt of a home for just the two of them, somewhere he could cook for them, where he could teach her, keep her out of Stark’s reach.

<<>>

“Where are we up to today, FRIDAY?” Tony sipped his coffee as he put two slices of toast into the toaster.

“I have eliminated Hawaii and its environs, Boss. I have three states left to search.”

“That’s my girl, FRIDAY. The net is closing down. I have a good feeling that we are going to be on their tail soon.”

Tony picked up his StarkPhone “Happy, I want you to make sure the jet is ready for a flight, we are looking at potentially the southern states at the moment, but that could change, so I will let you know asap for the fuel situation. Load my Mark VII suit on board and ensure we have food and booze available. You know the score, and restraints. Don’t forget the restraints, the Hulk strength ones.” The toast popped up and Tony slathered it in butter. He checked his contacts list to make sure that Strange’s number was listed on his contacts, yep! There it was, under Wizard!

<<>>

It was Lore that woke with the early morning light. She stretched her elegant long limbs before she got out of bed. There would have to be a change of clothes, everything she had put out the night before would be no good! Shower first, clothes after, once she was clean. Unlike Loki she conditioned her long hair everytime she washed it, he did it sporadically. Wrapped up in a towel to soak up the excess moisture, she washed her face and cleaned her teeth. Her lip was healing nicely, more noticeable on her than Loki as her lips were fuller. It no longer hurt, but she decided no make-up was the order of the day. She ran the wide-toothed comb through her long hair and carefully braided it so it hung straight down her back, tied with a black tie. She had a little shopping trip planned before they headed out for the day, time to get Engel up and ready. 

Engel was awake when she went through into the bedroom “Go and get ready, angel. I want us to go straight out after breakfast. We aren’t taking anything with us, no backpacks, nor hats. You’ll see why after breakfast.”

Lore went to the drawers and pulled out appropriate underwear, the sandals would work with what she was going to wear, so they were OK. Her teal shorts went on and the ripple top. She glanced in the mirror, she looked very presentable, Loki had made a good choice but she had to build on what he had done. Engel dressed in her new green shorts and white blouse and taking a cue from Lore she put on her sandals. They headed down for breakfast, the only thing Lore took was the wallet with the card and the cash that Loki had obtained, it tucked quite neatly into the pocket of her long shorts.

They ate a substantial breakfast as always and then Lore took hold of Engel’s hand and headed to Monsoon. They were there for the shop opening at 9am. She was a fast and efficient shopper, she found wide brimmed hats for both of them that hid part of their faces, a butterfly backpack for Engel, a small black crossbody bag for herself and then some pretty feminine and fun hair accessories for them both. After she paid she asked the girl at the desk if she would kindly remove the tags as they were in a hotel and she had no scissors with her. The girl obliged and received the most beautiful smile as a thank you. Lore packed the hair accessories into the backpack and put it and the smaller hat onto Engel. She slung the crossbody bag on herself and the other hat on her head and said goodbye to the girl in the shop. “We need to hurry, angel, we have ten minutes until the bus is due.” They walked at speed down to the main road and crossed the road to the bus stop. Fortunately there was a queue. They sat upstairs on the open top bus as they were going the full length of the journey this time. Engel took off her backpack and put it on her knee. “This is so shiny and pretty, Lauren.”

“Pretty bag for a pretty girl.” Lore smiled at her. “Your brother is sometimes a little practical and forgets how much we like pretty things. Let me undo some of these hair ties and we’ll prettify our hair.” Lore undid hers first, she had picked up some flowers in different shades, she took a creamy white one and wrapped it around the end of her braid. For Engel she wrapped a couple of iridescent butterflies around the end of her braid. “There you go, princess. We are both prettified!” Lore took the wallet out of her pocket and added it to her crossbody bag. They had reached Sandbanks and the bus pulled onto the chain ferry shortly after for the short crossing over the narrowest part of Poole Harbour, Europe's largest natural harbour. The crossing was short and they soon were in Studland, both of them watching the beautiful countryside rolling past as they made their way to Swanage. This would be perfect, Lore thought, not quite isolated, but in both directions you had to use a bus to get to the nearest national rail link. Loki had found two places last night before he had fallen asleep. This was his first choice because it was bigger and by the sea. His second choice lay inland and was a village. Both would be explored before a firm decision was made.

The bus station was next to the steam railway station. It connected to Loki’s second choice of hiding place. But first to explore this town. Lore and Engel headed down the main street first, there was a wealth of places to obtain food, shops, cafes, restaurants. There were clothes shops, a book shop, gift shops, travel agent. It was surprisingly active for a small town. At the end of the main street there were three choices of direction to go, left hand side led to the sea immediately, straight ahead were more shops, to the right, more shops leading uphill.

“This is bigger than I expected, angel. Which way do you think we should go first?”

“Right, Lauren.” Lore laughed, she could see why, outside one of the shops was a great big stuffed bear. They headed right, the first shop sold lots of brightly coloured bric-a-brac and was called Serendipity. To be explored another time. The bear stood guard outside a small shop selling bears and other realistic looking stuffed toys. There were shops selling expensive artwork, old furniture and ceramics they called antiques, a restaurant and a cafe, then an inn called the Red Lion. After that it seemed to be mainly residential, all built in old grey stone with slate roofs, windows with tiny glass panes. They turned around and headed back to take what would have been the centre road, more shops, mainly clothing, shoes, a candle shop full of fascinating stuff, then more modern apartments, leading towards the seafront on the left hand side, and a huge green open space on the right. As they continued to walk on the right they came across a sign for the pier and they saw it stretching off into the sea, small, not large like Bournemouth pier. It was 50p each to visit. Lore checked her wallet, there were some coins there from where Loki had broken a note buying water and ice cream for Engel the day before. She handed over a £1 coin and they were given tickets and headed on to the pier.

It was all wooden planks on an old wrought iron framework. On each plank were three brass plates with inscriptions on them, with names, dates and messages. They read them as they walked out along the structure into the sea, up stairs to different levels. Below them, men fishing using fishing rods. Above them, small white sea birds flew overhead, gracefully riding the thermals. They were alone on this level “Dada, this is beautiful. I like it very much.”

“Would you like to stay here for a while, angel?”

“Yes, see! There is a beach over there, and countryside to explore. Is this a safe place do you think?”

“I think so, angel. I need to find the Tourist Office to see if I can find us somewhere to stay. There is one more place for us to look at which is near here, but we can stay here while we go to see it. Then make a decision between us. But this feels like a good place to me.” They reached the far end of the pier, and turned around and walked back. When they reached the kiosk Lore asked the woman where they could find the Tourist Information Centre.

“Just follow this path right around the bay towards Ulwell, it’s on your left hand side in a cottage painted blue near the pitch and putt course. It’s signposted, you can’t miss it, dear.” Lore thanked her and they followed the paved area around past the Lifeboat station, a group of tall houses facing out to sea called The Parade, a restaurant and bar, cinema, a couple of ice cream stands next to the beach, then she saw what they were looking for. 

They crossed the road and headed in, Lore awaited her turn patiently and left Engel gathering leaflets. “Hello, I am looking for accommodation for myself and my little sister” she indicated Engel “For a couple of weeks. Are you able to help me, please?”

“It’s a busy time of year, dear, but let me ring around for you. Do you mind sharing a room or a bed?” Lore shook her head, Loki wouldn’t be bothered. The woman picked up a list and started to make calls, the first three yielded no results, but then the fourth got interesting “You’ve had a cancellation? On Marshall Row? Let me just check for you.” She smiled at Lore. “I have something you may be interested in, available from tomorrow for two weeks. It's a small apartment up near the park, king sized bed, bathroom, sitting room and a little kitchen. It’s only for two people, it includes your bed linen and towels. Would that work for you?”

“That sounds perfect, how do I book it?” The woman handed her the phone telling her just to talk to the woman at the other end. Lore did as she was told and gave her card details to the woman at the other end, the false address Hunter had used, and her email address apologising for not having a phone. “Can you tell me where I find the place, I know how to collect the key?” Lore asked the woman at the desk. The woman picked up a map and marked a spot for her explaining exactly where it was, and saying that the agency would probably email her full instructions as well as they were very efficient. Lore thanked her very much and said she looked forward to seeing her again over the coming weeks. 

Outside Engel tugged her hand when they were in a safe place “But I haven’t done the Sea Life Centre, and the Museum in Bournemouth yet, Dada.”

“We get up early tomorrow for breakfast, do the Sea Life Centre, have an early lunch, do the Museum, go to the hotel, collect our luggage and get the bus here. As long as we are here after 3pm it’s fine. Don’t worry, angel. And we can easily get the bus to Bournemouth when we want to. It's not a problem. We will want to get clothes and do special things now and again.” Lore smiled reassuringly at Engel. It was another hotel cut short, but perhaps that was safer in the long run. “Maybe we should go and get some lunch now, what do you say?”

“There was a nice looking place by The Parade, it had seats outside.” Lore took hold of her hand and mother and daughter set off in search of food,  they stopped at Brook Tea Rooms, and Lore left Engel outside while she went in to order food for them. She ordered a selection of sandwiches, fruit teas, and fresh cream scones for them both. It was a beautiful day to be sitting outside to eat and the food was nicely presented. Both teas came in teapots which meant they could have more than one cup each. When they had eaten they took a slow walk back to the bus station to wait for the next bus back to Bournemouth. “Why are we going back early?”

“We have to pack, but isn’t there something you want to do in the Winter Gardens? I thought if we get our packing out of the way we could go up in the hot air balloon tonight then have dinner at the Real Greek.” Engel kissed Lore on the cheek, they might be on the run, but they could have some fun at the same time, couldn’t they?

<<>>

Packing didn’t take too long, and they laid out sensible clothes for the following day, shorts, blouse and trainers for Engel, grey cargos, white linen shirt and Converse for Loki. Lore left out a butterfly hair tie for Engel’s hair and packed the rest away. “Remember to wear your new hat, angel, it hides your hair and much of your face. I’ve stored your Simba backpack in my pocket dimension for the future.” Everything done, the two headed out towards the hot air balloon. They had to wait in a queue to go up. Engel was almost bouncing with excitement and Lore sent a small pulse of seidr through her to calm her. It was something they rarely did, but she could sense the others in the queue were anxious about getting in with an over excited child.

They waited almost thirty minutes before it was their turn, Lore helped to lift Engel into the basket and once the rest of the passengers were in they started to head upwards. It was incredible to see the gardens getting smaller below them, and although Lore held onto Engel’s hand her daughter showed no sign of fear. They stayed aloft for a while giving them time to take in the panorama and it was breathtaking. Miles of golden sand fringed the sea, punctuated by green chines at frequent intervals. The blue green of the sea. It was imprinted on Lore’s mind, she would remember this scene for the rest of her life. As the balloon descended she felt a frisson of disappointment that it had ended. She gifted Engel up and out of the basket, setting her firmly on the grass. “How was that, angel?”

“That was amazing, Lauren!” Her face said it all, it was full of awe. They walked slowly across the gardens towards the modern building that housed the restaurant. Again because they were eating earlyish they had no trouble getting a table. Lore ordered a bottle of Mythos beer for herself and a lemonade for Engel, then mainly the same dishes Loki had ordered previously with a couple of changes, she swapped the pork for Prawn Saganaki and the Aegean slaw for rice. That should mean that Engel would eat everything this time. The two of them soaked up the view while they enjoyed their drinks, the waiter kept checking out the raven haired beauty when there was nothing else to do. Two of them with green eyes, obviously related, but what relationship? Mother and daughter? Sisters? It was hard to tell, the older of the two was difficult to put an age to. And then their food was ready and he quickly and efficiently delivered it to their table earning him thanks and a smile from the elder of the two. Beautiful was far too ordinary a word to describe her when she smiled, he thought. Exquisite, perhaps. As he moved away there were fresh patrons to capture his attention, but he would never forget her face.

Lore and Engel shared out their food, although Lore ate the lion's share. The Saganaki had been an inspired choice, both of them enjoyed it and it was in a tomato based sauce which pleased Lore no end. She struggled over what to have for dessert, the chocolate mousse cake had been delightful, but she fancied trying something different. Engel was having Pistachio ice cream, when the waiter came back she ordered that first and then asked for the yoghurt with baby walnuts soaked in syrup. The waiter smiled at her and said ‘good choice’. He cleared away their dirty dishes once he had placed their order. Dessert soon arrived and Lore explored it with interest, the yoghurt was rich and creamy, the walnuts softer than she had imagined and the syrup had honey somewhere in its mix. It was lovely, unusual and something she would have again. She paid their bill and as they left the waiter watched them go, he doubted he would ever see beauty like that again.

Back in the hotel room Engel snuggled up against Lore while she read her the next chapter of Elidor, she kissed her daughter gently on the top of her head. “We will be sharing a bed for the next few weeks, angel, so make the most of this, but it will be in a home of sorts. A new place to explore. Sleep well, sweet girl.” Lore read a bit of her own book, then she read the message that related to the cottage. Finally she closed her Kindle down. She then switched off the light and pulled Rhubarb to her chest, snuggling her in.

You did well today…

Lore dreamt of a garden and a beautiful woman with dark blonde hair who was teaching her moves with practice blades in her hands, she was graceful and deadly, once a Vanir Shield Maiden, now her mother.

<<>>

“Boss, I have eliminated another state, I have only two left to search.”

“Thank you, FRIDAY. This is looking as if it could be a good day. If not today, then tomorrow.” Tony grinned, he had put two numbers on speed dial in his contacts list. Wherever he had to go, these two would be invaluable. One for surveillance, unknown to Loki, Lore or Engel. One to control Loki or Lore, again unknown to the three. Advantage Stark!

<<>>

Before they headed down to breakfast Loki & Engel finished packing all their belongings into their cases. Fenrir went into Engel’s backpack and Rhubarb went into Loki’s pocket dimension. They went for breakfast for the last time in the hotel, making sure it was a hearty one. Loki fetched them both two mugs of hot chocolate. Once they had finished, they headed out for the walk down through the gardens towards the pier in the distance. The Sea Life Centre was just before the road that crossed to the pier, Loki paid their entrance fee and they headed inside.

They stopped by the pool that held the rays, Engel tugging at his arm “Jack they have faces!” He smiled down at her, the strange diamond shaped sea creatures in the pool did seem to have faces, in fact they seemed to be smiling almost. 

Loki grinned at her “They are smiling at you because you are so pretty, angel.” She started to giggle and he took her hand and led her onwards into the dark displays that wound through the building. Her favourites, other than the rays, were the sea horses and she spent ages watching them in fascination. Loki had to tug her to get her away so other people could see them. The penguins made her laugh, she was remembering the ones in the Madagascar films, and they saw them being fed, watching silvery fish disappear into their gullets. Then finally there was the tunnel, where they walked through a gigantic tank and sea creatures of every kind swam above and around them. Loki himself was entranced by that and would have loved to spend longer, but they needed to move on. He promised Engel they would come back and visit again. 

They ate a quick lunch at the cafe of sandwiches, fries and cake, washed down with sparkling water. They then headed up through the gardens again, heading towards the caged birds, stopping to feed a couple of squirrels. The Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum was an ornamental building set within a lush garden. It was full of fascinating rooms and exhibits, with some beautiful artworks on display. Mortals may not have long lives, Loki thought, but they were very creative. When they came out it was only a short walk to the hotel where they collected their cases from their room, checking they had left nothing behind. At the entrance Loki left their room keys in the box provided for guests checking out. They made their way across the road to the bus stop to wait for the bus to Swanage and their new temporary home.

<<>>

They were close to the end of Marshall Row, Loki could see the park through the road that ran between the two large houses that were in front of him. To his right was a double garage with a gate by the side of it, on top of the garage was the little apartment that was going to be home for a couple of weeks. They went through the gate and followed the narrow path and up a couple of stairs, Loki picked up a plant pot and there were the keys. He opened the front door into a small hallway. Directly in front of him was the bathroom, he stepped into the hallway, left was the bedroom. He headed that way, Engel following him. It was a big room, much bigger than he had expected. There was a dressing table, a wardrobe, two bedside tables. And a chest of drawers and the king size bed. They dumped their cases and headed back across the hallway into the sitting room. There were a pair of two seater sofas, a small table with a couple of chairs, a small TV. The room was ‘L’ shaped and at the other end was the kitchen, with a cooker, microwave and a washing machine. There were windows everywhere, so although it was a small space it was filled with light. They explored the bathroom next, it had a full sized bath with a shower over it. “It’s really nice, Dada.”

“It is, angel. I can cook here, so we don’t have to eat out all of the time. We need to go to the supermarket to get some supplies, we can unpack later. Come on, let's get going as I don’t know when anything closes.” They headed off to the main street and the supermarket that Lore had seen, he picked up a basket and filled it to overflowing with fresh provisions so he could make them breakfast, hot drinks etc. Back in the apartment he filled the kettle to make them tea while he put everything else away. Once that was done they went into the bedroom and unpacked everything and he put their empty cases on top of the wardrobe out of the way. As they sipped their tea he explored further, there was a bookshelf in the sitting room with books suitable for various ages, board games and DVDs. He checked the TV, there was a DVD player built into it. That he would have to explore.

Dinner that night was from the fish and chip shop near the seafront which they ate at the small table. It was fresh, and the batter was crisp and golden and they both loved it. Loki investigated the board games and found something called Snakes and Ladders. He set it out on the table after he washed the dishes. He read the instructions carefully, then explained them to Engel. They sat and played for a few hours with hot chocolate until he chased Engel to get ready for bed. He read a chapter of Elidor to her and left her cuddled in with Fenris.

Loki curled up on the sofa with his Kindle and signed into the WiFi having found the code and a load of other useful information in a black folder on the bookshelf. First of all he sent an email to Nat “Hi, we have moved somewhere new and are safe and happy. Say hello to everyone for us both, except you know who x”. He then began to read, it was nice to not have to sit in bed to do this and risk disturbing Engel. There would be a slight risk when he went to bed, but she should be in a deep sleep by then. He read until he started to yawn, then he switched the Kindle off and put it on to charge overnight. He padded into the bedroom and carefully slipped into the right hand side of the bed and Rhubarb snuggled up to his neck. To be in somewhere that felt like a normal home was comforting, his hand curled around Rhubarb, this would be good for them, he could feel that already. His eyes grew heavy and he slowly drifted off to sleep. Rhubarb twitched her ears and nuzzled his neck.

<<>>

Tony was pouring his second coffee of the day to go with the cremated toast he had made. He took a bite and started to chew. 

“Boss, I have traced the individuals you are looking for in Florida.”

Tony dropped his toast on the kitchen bench “Where are they FRIDAY?”

“They flew out of Orlando International Airport on a British Airways flight to London Heathrow. They are travelling under the names of Angela and Lauren Edwardson and were accompanied by Lance Hunter.”

“Fucking SHIELD! I knew they would be involved. Do you have any images from the airport FRIDAY?”

“Yes, Boss.” FRIDAY threw some images up on the screen. There they were, his girls. They had been to Disney by the look of it judging by the hoodies and backpacks. 

Tony used the speed dial on his phone “Happy, fuel the jet for London please. I’ll let you know when we are going. I have a couple of calls to make as we should have passengers with us.”

“FRIDAY, start searching from London Heathrow and give me everything you find, images, hotels, anything. Let’s track these two down.”

More like feeling everything at once