Elemental {Avengers}

28. Lukewarm Heart

" You know, In Asgard, sometimes... I used to sneak into Thor's closet and swap around parts of armour with different suits. It was like mix and match. He would come out of his room one day looking like a complete fashion disaster" Loki grinned. " Your turn"

" I wasn't allowed to do anything of the sort. And you know that" I said.

" There must be something mischievous that you did; Red Room or not"

" Fine." I sighed, a puff of white air coming out of my mouth, like a dragons breath. "I used to sneak food to the girls on the occasion when I came back from a mission. I did get caught once, and I never did it again. So, I don't think it really counts"

" That's too good. It has to be something mischievous. Something... kind of evil"

" ... I sneaked out of my room, to see you for the first time? Nick Fury seemed too tired to stop me from meeting you."

" I thought you were there to question me" he smiled, teeth and all.

" I was restless, and was wandering the tower, until I stumbled upon you" a faint flicker of a smile crossed my face. " It was completely by coincidence. I was stressed, so I went for a walk"

" So you sneaked past the guards, for me?"

" Something like that" I said. " Not guards, per se, but rather ... Tony Stark and his army of robots"

" I see that as sacrifice enough" he laughed. " Just like standing out here is. When are we getting back inside? I'm freezing my Asgardian ass off"

" I thought you were a Frost giant." I questioned.

Loki sighed, as if he'd explained my question to countless others before me. " Unfortunately, my genes managed to miss the giant part in frost giant, so I'm just a frost person. An abnormality, and that's why the Frost giants abandoned me, because I was- I am an embarrassment to their bloodline."

" One of the rare ones, then." I mumbled.

" Rare?"

" Come on. How many Frost people are out there? My guess is zero to none other than you. It makes you... unique, unrivalled. You have the power of disguising yourself as a person, with all the Loki magic. And, you can use the powers of the frost giants to your advantage. The better of both worlds. Not to mention that you're the rightful King of the Frost Giants. And, the prince of Asgard."

" You really think so?"

" Yep" I said, biting my tongue in concentration. " I know so. I mean, the strength and power of the frost giants, plus the prestige of being brought up as an Asgardian, the knowledge, magic even."

I was attempting to make a tunnel of ice to the car, a sure way that we wouldn't be snowed in overnight, and that we could potentially get away if any threat arrived. For safe measure, I had to make an ice dome around the cars, so that they wouldn't be covered in snow. 

It took a lot of concentration, and as I wasn't feeling particularly icy or cold-hearted, it was harder to create a dome thick enough that snow wouldn't concave, but thin enough that it wouldn't take all of my concentration to keep cold.

I realised that I would have to have some amount of concentration throughout the night to keep them up. And I supposed that whilst I was sleeping, the weather would be cold enough to leave the ice alone, but when morning came, I would have to concentrate a fair bit to keep them up. 

It would have been easier to use fire to melt away all of that ice in the morning, but I couldn't find one ember in myself, not one spark like that other day. And Loki had outright told me that he wasn't going to do it again, unless our lives depended on it.