House Chapter
"Mira!" Loki was shaking me, "Wake up, it's time to go!"
"Go where?"
"Skiing, remember? We said we'd leave early!"
"Who's we?"
"Everyone but you. The lines get long at about eight. Everyone got their skis last night while you were sleeping. They're all down at breakfast right now, you slept in. We want to leave in less than an hour."
"Since when were you so excited about skiing?"
"Since I did some research on it. With my natural skill in the cold, I should be able to pick up the sport rather quickly.
The hotel restaurant was buzzing with activity. There were two chefs preparing omelettes and pancakes to the specifications of the guests, and there was also a self-serve buffet. I saw Tony in line and was about to go say hi but Loki stopped me.
"We cannot all be seen together, it will cause far too much excitement. We're going to meet up at the top of the main ski lift."
"Oh." Now that I looked around, I could see just about everyone else in semi-disguises.
Breakfast was quick and the ride to the mountain as well. I think I saw Rose on the bus but I wasn't sure, I lost her as soon as we arrived.
The gondola ride up was rather awkward, there was an attractive young man in the lift with us, and he hadn't realized that Loki was my boyfriend.
"So Angel, did it hurt when you fell from heaven?"
"Excuse me?"
"You're Angel, the Avenger. So did it?"
"Did it what?"
"Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?"
"No." Loki's cold voice cut me off, "Because I was there to catch her." He wrapped an arm around me possessively but that didn't dissuade the man.
"This your first time skiing?"
"Yeah."
"You know, I've been skiing since I could walk. I could show you the ropes, I've got some moves I know you'll love." He wiggled his eyebrows. Now he was making me uncomfortable.
"I know you aren't talking about skiing anymore, now as you can clearly see, I have a boyfriend and I do not intend to leave him for the likes of you."
"You don't know what you're missing, darling."
"Oh, trust me." The gondola docked and the doors opened, "I'm not missing anything." Loki and I got off, grabbed our skis, and left hand in hand.
We were the last ones to join the Avengers just outside the lift.
"What took you two so long?"
"There was a creep on the lift trying to pick me up."
"Oh, Angel, did it hurt when you fell from heaven?" Loki mocked in a high-pitched, nasally voice. The others snickered.
"There's a restaurant up here on the mountain that we want to try. Should we meet up there in, say, two to three hours?"
"Three hours. That'll give us enough time to find all the good spot to ski." We all got our own maps and sort of split off into groups by skill level. Pepper had decided to take advantage of the spa and have a day to herself but everyone else was here. Loki and I ended up in our own little group.
"There's a lift that runs to just above this. There isn't anything too extreme from top to bottom, should we try that first?" Loki shrugged and nodded.
"Have you ever done this before?"
"Once."
"That explains why the boots didn't make you fall over."
"You can't move your ankles for a good reason." Loki grumbled about it for a moment but then went out onto the snow.
"You know what you're doing?"
"I've been watching the others. I'll enchant your skis to follow mine."
"Ok, just so slowly please. I don't want to fall."
Loki picked up the sport a lot faster than he had hoped to, two trips up and down form that ski lift and he was breezing through it in a parallel ski. I was doing ok, but while I would've been fine staying on this slope until I got a little more used to it. At my request, Loki had released the spell on my skis, giving me full control. The next run Loki chose was an extension of the one we were on, we took two lifts up, to a higher altitude, and went all the way back down to the original. On our second time going down, I began to notice something. I was losing feeling in my toes and hands. I mentioned it to Loki on our ride up.
"Do you need to go somewhere warm?"
"No, I'm not that cold, but I'm starting to notice tingling."
"Ok, then you let me know if it gets worse."
"I will." We got on the second ski lift. I could see the wires holding us up going for quite awhile up ahead, we were in for a long ride. I leaned against Loki as best I could. It was difficult with the metal bar between us and our bulky winter clothing but we managed. Once we reached the top, we went to the spot right before the big slope began and when I looked down and saw the steepness, I had to admit, I was slightly intimidated, but everyone else was going down quickly, parallel skiing with ease. That could be so difficult, could it?
"You ready?" I nodded and went first. I started slowly, trying to parallel ski like everyone else. I found that turning completely horizontal to the slope of the hill was essential to parallel skiing, turning brought me to a stop, I continued for a ways, and turned sharply again, doing a complete 180 degrees. When going slowly, it was quite easy, but the challenge came when I was going faster. There was an icy patch coming up, and I learned the hard way that ice made it harder on the calf muscles to turn sharply. I turned, but couldn't find enough traction on the ice and went down hard. My skis stayed on, but I slid quite some distance before coming to a stop.
"Mira!" Loki came to a halt beside me, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm good." I grabbed his offered hand and he pulled me up. My legs shook a bit and I slipped forward into Loki. Our skis interlinked and I found myself flush against his chest.
"Do you need to rest?"
"No, I can keep going." I shifted myself downhill a bit, freeing up our skis.
"Race you to the bottom?"
"You're on!" I pushed off him a bit to get going. From there, it was smooth skiing, packed snow covered the ice and some powdered snow rested on top of that. Every time I turned, I sent up a wave of it. The feeling of the wind again my face, or what was exposed anyway, was unparalleled. I felt free and I wasn't even flying! But despite my head start, Loki passed me by quickly and waited for me at the bottom.
"How did you do that!?"
"You forget, darling, I have a bit of an advantage."
"A frosty advantage." I hit him on the arm, "Let's go again!"
We spent the remainder of the three hours on that singular stretch of mountain and each time, Loki beat me to the lift. The numbness in my limbs continued but I wasn't going to mention it to Loki, he would take me inside and sit with me for the rest of the day and we were here to be outside and have fun. I fell down a couple more times but Loki didn't stop, mostly because he was far past me by the time it happened. However, on our last run before heading into the restaurant, I won but as I was telling the story to the others, Loki cut me off.
"There's a very good reason for that, another skier ran into me and we both....how do you put it....wiped over?"
"Wiped out."
"Yes, we both wiped out, I lost both of my skis and by the time I got them back, Mira was already at the lift."
"Is that your way of saying you let me win?"
"No, his pride can't handle that. If you won, you won fair and square." I looked to Loki, whose blush confirmed Tony's words.
"Guilty as charged."
Lunch was nice, Tony had pulled a couple strings with the restaurant and gotten us a private room so nobody would recognize us. As it happened, the special of the day was pancakes with raisins and powdered sugar, typical breakfast food but I had it anyway. Loki couldn't wrap his head around why I would want breakfast food for lunch and I tried at least twice to explain that breakfast food was only cool to have when you weren't eating breakfast. At last, he gave up trying to understand and muttered something that sounded like "backwards Midgardians" under his breath. I was the only one who caught it though, and I didn't react.
Since Steve had spotted several larger groups earlier, we didn't see the harm in staying together for the afternoon. Feeling had returned to my limbs within the first five minutes of being in the restaurant and they seemed to last longer the second time around than the first, probably because I had gotten a bit more used to all the cold and snow. After awhile of trying all the different little runs, we decided to go all the way to the top of the mountain and go all the way to the bottom, back to the buses, and go back to the hotel after that. We planned our route carefully, planning when we would split into advanced groups and beginning groups for short stretches. But as it happened, everyone aside from Steve felt confident going on black diamonds. Well, I didn't feel totally confident but I wanted to try one. It would be a shame to come all this way and not even try, so we agreed that I would accompany Steve on all of the easier slopes aside from the longest black diamond on our route, then Clint would go with him.
The ride up to the top was long, boring, and cold but once we got there, seeing all the mountain peaks and clouds took my breath away. Flying this high was one thing, but actually standing on solid group and being at this altitude was another. The air was totally clear up here, away from the polluted skies of New York and LA. It was even better quality than around the house!
"Mira?" Loki had come up behind me, "We're ready to go. Are you?" I shook myself back to reality and met his gaze.
"Yeah."