That night, Loki spent the night in my chambers. For the first time since Thor was first cast out onto Midgard and Loki found out his true heritage, sleep did not elude me. Instead I slept peacefully for the better part of the night, with the trickster at my side. When we finally woke, it was to a knock on the door. I slid off of the mattress and my heart raced as the cool air of the room washed over me.
"Lady Anna, it's just me," Thor called out, nearly inaudible as he attempted to keep his voice down.
I glanced back at Loki to see him sitting up, his bright eyes staring into mine searchingly. A sigh left my lips as Thor knocked once again. With an annoyed groan, I opened the door only slightly and pulled the prince in with one sharp tug.
"We're leaving now. Get ready quickly and we need to get Loki-" the god's voice trailed off as his gaze scanned my bedroom and fell upon the other visitor.
"Already done," I interrupted, snatching clean clothes from my closet and heading towards the bathroom.
I shot the princes a pointed look, catching both of their attention and tearing them away from their glaring contest.
"Behave yourselves," I warned, eliciting a scoff from the dark haired man on my bed.
"Loki," I snapped, causing his eyes to widen in surprise at my tone.
Once sure the two were able to keep away from each other's throats in my absence, I rushed into the bathroom and tugged on a pair of pants as well as a thin shirt. After I was sure I was entirely decent, I left the bathroom to retrieve my armor. As soon as the door shut behind me, my armor was hovering in front of me. It was then that the brothers caught my eye, making me roll my eyes in annoyance as I saw Thor's hand wrapped around Loki's throat.
Groaning, I channelled enough magic to send my left gauntlet flying at Thor and allowed it to strike his arm hard enough to surprise him as well as cause him to release his grip.
"Enough," I spat, "This plan of yours only ends poorly for me so at the very least you could behave yourselves."
As the two gods stood down, I was able to slide into my armor in peace. It was when I strapped my bracer into place that a hand grazed my own. My gaze shot up to meet Loki's as he stared at me with a hint of concern in his eyes, and I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze before checking the straps of my bracers for the last time.
"Let's go before I think too hard on the misfortune this will bring me," I sighed, taking Loki's arm in one hand and Thor's in the other before heading for the door.
"We're taking the ship they crashed into the throne room. Loki will bring us through one of the rifts in Asgard and into Svartalfheim," Thor informed before shoving the door open and heading down the hall.
Loki and I exchanged a shared look of disbelief before jogging after the elder prince to catch up with him. Despite my doubts regarding our plan, I kept silent as I was sure my worries could bring unwanted attention from nearby guards. When I pulled myself from my thoughts, I saw that Loki was doing a perfectly good job of attracting attention himself as he transformed into Captain America.
"Do you wish me dead?" I hissed, placing a hand over his mouth and pushing him against a pillar before Thor had the chance to.
As a small group of guards passed a few yards in front of us, I felt Loki tense and jumped when his arm rested on my shoulder and his eyes filled with unsaid apologies. I shook my head silently and backed away as the guards disappeared, only for my place to be taken by Thor who snapped handcuffs on the trickster. A silent look of disapproval silenced Loki's complaints as we continued on our way to meet up with Jane. As we approached, I saw a look of realization cross her face as she took in the raven haired man's features. My mind reached out briefly and felt her intentions before she ever lifted a finger. As her hand raised to slap him, I caught her wrist and held it tightly in my grasp.
"Don't," I warned, slowly releasing her hand before noticing Loki's smirk.
The man's mouth opened as if to release a snarky comment, but I quickly interrupted him.
"Not a word," I hissed before backing away and watching silently as Sif threatened the god, warning that he would be dead if he betrayed us.
For the rest of our journey to the ship, the halls we chose were fortunately devoid of any guards, however; when we arrived at our destination a small group appeared and attempted to stop us. Volstagg chose to stay behind and hold the guards off, allowing the princes, Jane, and I to board the Elven ship. It was only when Thor began mashing the buttons that I realized just how absolutely screwed I was.
"Press it gently," Loki suggested.
"I am pressing it gently it's not working!" Thor shouted, pressing every button in sight until we were finally off the ground.
A cringe made its way onto my face as our ship crashed into and destroyed most every column in sight. I stood beside Loki and sighed as the two brothers began to argue with each other once again.
"Why don't you let me take over? I'm clearly the better pilot," Loki questioned as Thor smashed into yet another building.
"Which one of us can actually fly?" Thor retorted, making me roll my eyes in annoyance.
"That is not remotely similar, nor does it matter in any way in this situation," I responded icily.
"If we are caught, it will not be your head on the line. You would allow Anna to die merely because of your pride? Pathetic!" Loki hissed, visibly tense.
When Thor did not respond, I carefully rested my hand on the trickster's bicep in an attempt to hold him in place. We stood for a while longer as Loki fumed, still releasing a witty comment every once in a while and making me laugh softly when he did so. A small smile appeared on his face but it quickly dissipated when the ship was hit yet again by Asgardian weaponry.
"Thor. Let me drive," Loki ordered, accentuating every syllable and now visibly shaking with rage.
I watched in silence as Loki stalked towards the blonde, who merely smirked at him in response. This only fueled the ravenette's anger, and he would not listen to my protests as Thor opened the door to the ship. The elder prince pushed past his brother and approached me calmly. My hands went to my scimitars but I was too late. By the time I was close to having them drawn I was falling from the ship and towards the water at a terrifying speed.
I shouted obscenities at Thor but they were drowned out by the wind rushing by as I fell. When I was able to flip around and look back up, I noticed Loki diving after me looking panicked, rightfully so. When the thought that he may have jumped hit me, I screamed at him disapprovingly.
"You can't fly, now we're both going to be incapacitated," I yelled over the wind, just as he wrapped his arms around me and sent us spinning around so that he was under me.
My breath caught in my throat as he held me so tightly my ribs felt as though they would not take the pressure. As the water approached us, I shook my head at the god in annoyance and closed my eyes for a moment to gather my thoughts. It would seem that when going at this speed my mind found it hard to keep up.
"I won't let you take the fall for me," I shouted, flipping us around a few yards above the water and using my magic to keep us in that position.
A look of horror crossed Loki's face as I felt as though we were close to having a crippling landing, but instead of water being my cushion, I instead fell onto something hard and metal. My head spun as my brain attempted to make sense of my surroundings. The familiar face of Fandral elicited a small chuckle from me, but when Thor landed on the ship with Jane in his arms I staggered up and glared at him.
"I see your time in the dungeons have made you no less graceful Loki," Fandral chuckled, "And even now you let your woman suffer in your place. What sort-"
My heated gaze quickly turned to him as Loki struggled to his feet, the cuffs making it more of a challenge than usual.
"You, shut it. And you!" I hissed, turning back to Thor in rage, "You pushed me."
The two men in question remained in silence, and Loki still chose to stare blankly at Fandral after the blonde's low comment.
"You carried her down but could not manage to not be an ass for more than a minute?" I huffed, gesturing at Jane in annoyance.
"She's human-"
"Just because it wouldn't have killed me doesn't mean it didn't hurt. I'm risking everything for you and your mortal and what I get in return is a damaged back. How kind, princeling," I interrupted, stalking towards Fandral and scaring him away from the controls before turning to Loki.
"Loki just get us out of here," I ordered, breaking him from his trance and bringing a maniacal grin to his lips.
"Of course, darling."
A/n: If there is to be a lemon, it will be later in the story. Let me know if you guys want one or if you would like it to remain at just fluff.