california 02 // loki's romanoff prelude

ten // the first one

They got off at a service near a junction heading for Lake, and Paul and Liz drove off with the last of Loki's tokens. He should have felt bad lying to good people, and they were great people, both of them, but he couldn't feel bad for long. Not now, not when he was here, not when he wasn't alone.

He turned to Natasha, about to say something, when he noticed that she was looking decidedly moody, the good humour from the car obviously vanished.

'God,' she said, sinking down to the floor. He waited for her to get up, but she didn't. She just squatted there, her hands on her head. 'God. What am I doing?'

'Are you alright?' She still wasn't getting up, and he wondered if he should squat down with her. He decided against it. 'Natasha?'

'I'm not okay, alright? What day is it?'

Loki thought. 'Tuesday?'

'Well done, clever boy. I meant the actual date?'

He didn't know. She sighed.

'I can't believe I'm still miles away from L.A,' she muttered, 'with a guy I don't know, and no car.' She added something else in a language he couldn't understand, but he got the meaning.

'It could be worse,' he said, to be comforting, but it just sounded awful.

She half-laughed. 'How could it be worse?'

A plop of rain suddenly landed on Loki's nose. He looked up at the sky, and the sky rumbled back.

Thunder. He thought of Thor, and wondered if his brother was mocking him. Then the heavens opened up and rain poured down. Within seconds, he was drenched through.

'Fuck,' muttered Natasha, getting to her feet. She hoisted her leather jacket above her head. 'It got fucking worse.'

Bewildered, he watched as she plodded off towards the service station. He couldn't figure her out. Just when he thought they might be friends, she went barrelling off in another direction. He wondered if he should follow her, or if they were parting ways for good.

Parting ways, probably. He was Loki, which was just a few sounds away from lonely. Loki, ever alone.
When she was halfway across the car park, she turned and yelled to him.

'London boy!' He still didn't know why she called him that. 'Are you coming or what?'

Loki only hesitated a second before running after her.

The service station was a huge one, as big as the feasting hall in Asgard. Every surface was shiny white, and spotlessly clean. Loki tried not to think about his dream about the blue cube, and walked closer to Natasha.

She didn't look back at him once, which both puzzled and annoyed him, because he was sure he had had his arm around her just earlier that day. He watched as she walked right past the coloured fast food shops, past the hotels advertising warm clean beds, past the bathroom. He watched as she headed straight for a bar - and he stopped.

'What are you doing?' he called after her.

'Getting a drink,' she called back.

He ran after her and grabbed her arm. 'No, that's bad.'

Natasha rolled her eyes and pulled her arm away from him. 'I didn't say you have to come.'

'But - whose idea was it to build a tavern in a place where people are going to drive away from?'

She kept walking forwards. 'This is America, detka.'

He watched as she shoved open the door and went inside without even looking back at him. She had left him the choice of what to do next - follow her, or go it alone.