Paradigm Shift | By : AlexPhoenix Category: Marvel Verse Movies > Avengers, The Views: 4077 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1 |
Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the Marvel/Thor/Avengers universes. The only thing I own is Alex, Ronan, and their actions/thoughts. This is all for fun; not monetary values. |
Chapter 3: A Perplexed Pal
I turned toward the source of migraine inducing light rays, feeling a real disappointment for the lost moment. I really needed to get my head checked if I thought I was having a heartfelt moment with an alien stranger. Thankfully, the source was Ronan coming to save the morning with his Tow Truck of Epicness. Suddenly, the light wasn't so unbearable. Gods bless the man for getting there in record time, and saving my stupid ass from wanting to kiss a kook.
I shoved myself away from the kook in question and Phoenix, like a teen who'd just been caught with her hand down her boyfriend's pants, and waved at the approaching knight in shining Dodge Ram. He slowed his truck to a stop a few meters away from the nose of Phoenix and put it in park before he hopped out.
Ronan was as beautiful as Loki, only in a different way. Ronan was the kind of guy you'd find in a Hollywood action movie, where Loki would probably a university professor that had a ton of students fawning over him. Ronan was six foot four and packed with hard muscle. Every time I watched him move, I waited for his biceps to rip his shirt to shreds. Ronan was built like a sexy brick house, with wide, firm shoulders, arms that Andre the Giant probably couldn't wrap his hands around, and a six pack that was hard enough that you could use it to grate cheese. I was pretty sure that all the man did was work out, fix cars, and eat protein bars. He had light brown hair that was cut short, and currently messy with sleep, with a pair of perfectly full lips set above a square jaw. His eyebrows were full over emerald green eyes and a slim, straight nose.
While I was busy gawking at him, like I horrible had a tendency to do, I somehow failed to notice him bounding toward me at full speed until he'd scooped me off of the ground. I let out a pathetic squeak as he wrapped his arms around my legs and flung me over his broad left shoulder. The air in my lungs decided to abort the mission of breathing and manned the escape pods, leaving me gasping for oxygen.
"Hi Alex! How are you?" Ronan chirped, sounding far too cheery for someone whom I'd just woken up at a God awful hour.
"Trying to breathe," I gasped. "Whatever you do, don't fart."
"Hey, the beans gotta go somewhere," he joked.
"Do it and I'm stabbing you in your ass cheek," I warned, slowly lifting up his leather jacket. The air finally learned that the mission of life needed to be completed and found its way back into my system.
"You're no fun," he whined, bouncing my body on his shoulder to shift me so I didn't fall into the dust. I let out a little 'oof" sound and contemplated where to hide his sexy body. Surely, both Loki and I could manage to lift that much dead weight if we tried hard enough.
"I'll be a barrel of monkeys if you put me down," I said as sweetly as I could manage.
"Who's this, then?" he asked, completely ignoring me. The ground rushed by beneath his feet as he made his way towards Loki. I wondered if throwing up in his back pocket would make him put me down. Deciding that it would be a bad idea, I sighed and continued my task of pulling up layers of fabric so I could reach the tan skin underneath.
"Ronan, this is-"
"I am Loki of Asgard," Loki said, cutting off my attempt at introducing them.
One of Ronan's hands left my legs, and I knew that he was holding out his hand as a polite greeting. Good Guy Ronan. Saving the day, picking up damsels in distress, and greeting passers-by. All in a hero's days' work, I guess!
"I'm Ronan Donaghue of Texas. Nice to meet ya, Loki," Ronan said, still sounding far too cheery. I was starting to think that the cheer was a mask for contempt. He couldn't possibly be that happy about being in the middle of a desert at one in the morning to help me and my new acquaintance.
I finally made it down to Ronan's back skin. With all the layers he had on, you'd think he'd planned on standing in a meat freezer for a few hours. Granted, in the winter time, that's exactly what the desert became. But, it wasn't winter time yet. The freak.
I waited until I felt his hand clamp back down on my legs, and then I mercilessly pinched his back, pulling out the tiny peach-fuzz hairs as I did.
"Ow! Ow! Jesus!" he yipped, squirming. He took a few steps away from Loki and arched his back in a feeble attempt to get away from my pincers. "Stop it!"
"Putmedown!" I rapidly ordered, not relenting in my tweezing torture.
He was running in circles now trying to escape. I could only imagine how utterly idiotic we looked to Loki. It was enough to make me laugh out loud.
"Stop pinching!" Ronan yelled, still trying to get away. It seemed he either liked the pain or he was so tired that it wasn't registering in his brain to just drop me in the dirt.
"Put me down!" I repeated, still tweaking at his skin. "I will kidney shot you! I repeat, I will kidney shot you!"
"Alright! Enough!" Ronan shouted.
Before I had time to even think of blinking, I was on my ass in the sand staring up at a grimacing man who was huffing for air. He rubbed a hand over his sore skin, and I had to force a frown on my face. The last time I felt victorious, the moment had been horribly crushed under the weight of defeat. Come to think of it, that had been about thirty minutes ago. I got on my feet and aimed my mock frown at Ronan as I spiked my fist into his arm.
"Ow!" he winced, grasping his bicep. "What? Pinching the shit out of me wasn't enough? Now you're gonna beat me up, too?"
I hit him again on his other arm and gave him a toothy grin. "Yep."
"OW! God, you're mean," he said, furrowing his eyebrows.
"I never claimed to be burdened by the boundaries of niceness," I said with a smirk.
He seemed to give that a moment of thought, rolling his eyes upward for a brief moment. He gave a curt nod, apparently deciding that I wasn't bullshitting him. "True. So, what's going on with your car? And where did you say you're from again, Loki?" Ronan asked as he made his way back to Phoenix. I followed on his heels until we reached her, moving to stand by pale figure on the passenger side as Ronan made his way to the driver's side door.
"Asgard," Loki repeated, with the same regal air he'd shown me.
"Huh. Is that in the middle east or something?" Ronan asked, slipping his hand into Phoenix's open driver door to pop the hood.
"Does he sound like he's from the Middle East?" I mumbled to myself, opening my eyes a bit wider for effect. It was stupid of me to mumble to myself, make facial expressions, and then hope no one noticed, but I never claimed to be intelligent, either.
Loki heard my whispered words and gave me a look that I couldn't comprehend. It seemed amused, yet annoyed. How can someone look both amused and annoyed at the same time?
"No, it is not. It is in the fourth r-"
I put a hand on Loki's arm and interrupted him. He might think it was quite rude of me to cut off his answer about the universal realm he'd come from, but tough titty. I was doing it in an effort to keep Ronan from calling the guys in white coats who had hug-me jackets, padded rooms, and amazing drugs.
"It's in the fourth region of Great Britain," I lied. I had no idea if any of England's regions were numbered, so I figured that Ronan didn't either. I also had no idea as to why I was lying to my friend just to help someone who might actually need a straightjacket, but oh well. It was too late to go back now. Nope. If anything I had to forge ahead and dig myself a nice big hole that I wouldn't be able to crawl out of later on. Because that's just how I roll.
Ronan had made his way to the front of Phoenix and had propped up the hood as Loki and I had been speaking. He pulled a flashlight out of one of his many jackets, and flipped it on so he could scan over the engine parts.
"Woah! England, huh? That's pretty neat. You ever been to that palace? What's it called?"
"Buckingham Palace," I offered. I stared at the front tire, hoping that maybe it would act as a conscience and tell me to shut up and stop lying. I had no such luck.
Loki glared down at me with his bright blue-grey eyes, clearly unhappy at my interjection. "No. I have not had the pleasure of going to Buckingham Palace."
"That's a real shame, man. I hear it's a nice place. Of course, it has to be a nice place if a queen lives there," he rambled. I let Ronan talk to the open air about the places he wished he could visit in England. I opted to tune him out in favor of pulling Loki down and explaining why I had so rudely interrupted him.
I grabbed hold of the stiff, leathery collar, dragging the tall man down as I raised up on my tip toes to whisper in his ear.
"I'm sorry I interrupted you, but you can't go telling people that you're from another realm of the universe. Just because I believe you, which I barely do, doesn't mean that others will. People down here aren't very . . . open to things they don't understand. They tend to actually lock up people they don't understand in a padded room and pump them full of drugs, and I don't want that for you. So, ix-nay on the universal ealms-ray," I whispered rapidly. I was so close to his ear that my breath bounced off of his skin and hit my face in a hot blast of cinnamon scented air.
Loki pulled away just enough to nod. His face was serious as he whispered, "I understand."
I flashed him a relieved smile and turned back to Ronan just in time to catch him lifting his head out from under the blood red hood.
"Well?" I asked, stepping away from Loki to put a comforting hand on my baby's body.
"The belt snapped, alright. I’m gonna have to tow her, just like you said," he admitted.
"You doubted me?" I asked, frowning with mock affront.
"I always doubt you," Ronan smirked.
"Gee. Love you, too, fucker," I said, twisting my lips. He flashed a charming smile at me. It was enough to melt a lesser woman into puddle. Thankfully, I only got a little bit gooey.
The smile faded as a thought passed through his eyes and seized a hold of his brain. "Oh. I'm gonna have to replace a few things in here, as well. They're lookin' pretty worn and it'd be cheaper for you to just replace 'em now."
I raised an eyebrow at him and walked around to the front of the car. "What needs to be replaced?
He skimmed his beam over the engine. I looked down as he named each worn out part, pausing his light where each piece rested within the machine. "Water pump. Belt tensioner. Thermostat. Nothing too major."
"At least it's not a tranny, right?" I asked, smiling weakly. My poor baby was in rough shape.
"Exactly," he nodded, clicking off his flashlight and lowering the hood. "Those transvestites cost a pretty penny. Which I know you don't have."
I pouted, playing a sad child that just heard they weren't getting the toy they wanted. "I want a pretty penny transvestite."
"Close her doors and I'll give you one," Ronan smirked, winking at me.
"Are you gonna dress in drag and tie a red ribbon around your neck for me?" I asked with an innocent, toothy grin.
He shook his head and started walking backwards towards his truck. "No. I was just thinking I could get you Tim Curry."
"He's all old now! The Frank-N-Furter costume just wouldn't look good on him anymore. I think I'd rather be tranny-less. Thanks."
Ronan chuckled and spun around to ensure that he didn't bust his ass. "Close the doors!" he yelled over his shoulder, laughter still thick in his tone.
I smiled and did as he commanded, closing Phoenix's open driver and passenger doors with the care of a mother. Once my set task was completed, I made my way back over to a silent Loki. He watched Ronan with a cold patronizing gaze as the buff man got in his truck. It was a look that could probably make Stephen Hawking feel like an incompetent moron. How could this man seem so warm one minute and so hard the next? It was like watching a pendulum swing back and forth on the emotional scale.
As I watched Loki watching Ronan, it dawned on me that I'd once again completely forgotten that the professed alien was in our presence. He seemed to fade into the background when Ronan and I were talking, like an armor wrapped fly on the desert wall. Was that why he was glaring at Ronan like he wanted to put thumbtacks in the mechanic's steel-toed boots? Could Loki possibly be pissed because Ronan had caused me to forget about him once again?
"I apologize for disregarding you yet again," I said, deciding to skip the preliminary of asking him if his feelings were hurt. I turned my gaze to the open expanse of land beyond the cars, not really seeing anything but the blackness that enveloped the empty field.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Loki turn to look at me. "You make apologies so quickly," he said in a gentle tone, "as if to clear your head of your misgivings by speaking about them as soon as you possibly can. Yet you have done nothing wrong. Why do you find it necessary to do such a thing?"
I turned my head to look up at him, losing myself in the tornado of thoughts that flooded my mind. Why did I do that? Was it to dispel any guilt that I might feel about a situation? Was it to make other people feel better? Was it because I hated it when I thought that certain people were mad at me? I didn't know for sure, and it bugged me. A hand brushed my elbow, snapping me back to reality like I was a rubber band. My teeth were worrying away at my bottom lip, and I hadn't even remembered biting it.
"Alex?" Loki asked. He was studying my face as if he were memorizing every last emotion that passed over it. And, Gods, the way he said my name...
"It just clears the air and helps me make sure that no one feels slighted. I find that it's better to ask if I've pissed someone off rather than just assume I've done nothing wrong," I said, using the best explanation I could come up with while shrugging dismissively.
"I can assure you that I do not feel slighted in the least. This man seems to be a friend to you," Loki said, motioning his head toward Ronan, who was busy hooking the tow truck up to my car. Something passed through Loki's eyes as he talked about Ronan. Something that made it look like his royal highness despised the lowly mechanic.
"He is," I nodded, studying Loki's long, handsome face.
"Then why should I, a being you've only just met, take precedence over a friend?" he asked, giving me a small, reassuring smile. The smile even reached his eyes, forcing out the distaste I'd seen only moments before in favor of an understanding warmth.
I anxiously smiled back. "I never said it was a rational train of thought."
"No, you did not," he replied, his own smile growing into a grin in return.
"So, Loki," Ronan jumped in, "how'd you get out here?"
He was done hooking Phoenix up to the truck I'd affectionately named Big Bubba, and was now waiting for Loki and I to wrap up our little talk so we could head for town.
Loki opened his mouth to speak, and I cut him off before he could so much get out a syllable of the phrase "BiFrost rainbow bridge".
"Hang gliding accident," I blurted out, causing the men to give me two completely different looks. Ronan stared at me with pure disbelief; Loki stared at me with a sense of frustration that quickly morphed into comprehension.
"A hang gliding accident?" Ronan asked incredulously. He looked between me and Loki, waiting for a more elaborate answer. "People hang glide at night now? In that kind of get up?"
"It's a new, underground form of hang gliding for true thrill seekers. The suit is a new aerodynamic design. Plus, it looks really badass," I explained. If I'd lived in backwoods Alabama, I'd have been accused of lying through my tooth. The only thing I hadn't lied about was how badass Loki's clothes were. They were more than likely custom made and fit him like a second skin.
"Since when do aerodynamic hang gliding suits have metal and trenchcoats?" Ronan asked, furrowing his brow.
"Since they figured out that the limited amount of metal and the flow of the cape creates just enough weight and drag to keep the hang glider from going berserk in a high wind gust," I fibbed. I was beginning to get worried at how easily I came up with such detailed lies. I was going to have to get that checked out. Maybe I had some sort of disease that made it easy to spin tall tales.
Ronan glared at me. No matter how effective I was at throwing out my logical lies, he was not taking the bait I was trying to feed him. He wasn't entirely ignorant, I could give him that much.
"So what happened in this accident, Loki?" Ronan asked, folding his impressive arms over his chest.
"It all happened so fast," Loki said, huffing out a nervous breath of air. "One moment I was flying through the sky and the next I was lying on the ground. It was quite a whirlwind event."
I stared up at Loki, astonished. Somehow he'd told the complete truth while also supporting my web of lies. Well, at least he told the truth as much as I could imagine. He did seem to have fallen from the sky. I reigned in my surprise, hoping that Ronan couldn't tell what I was feeling simply from looking at my side profile.
Ronan stared at us both, his brows drawn down over his scrutinizing green gaze. I relaxed my body in the way I usually did when I felt that Ronan was being ridiculous. His quizzicality of the situation was refreshing, yet troubling. He'd never questioned anyone like he was questioning Loki. It made me think he was jealous. Of what, I had no idea.
Ronan glared at Loki, and Loki returned the favor. The weight of the extraterrestrial king's presence became heavier, until I felt like his body was wrapped around my own. It wasn't. His body was still a foot and a half away, but it still felt like he had enveloped me in a possessive, yet caring embrace.
Ronan was the first to back out of the glare contest. He sighed, running his fingers through his disheveled hair as he shook his head in defeat. Loki's nearly suffocating presence around me pulled back, as if it were being sucked back in to his slim form.
"Okay. A hang gliding accident it is," Ronan yielded. He looked at me and roughly jerked his thumb in Loki's direction. "You ready to go drop him off at a hotel?"
"Actually," I started out slowly, hoping to somehow soften my words by slowing them down, "I'm bringing Loki to my place tonight." Ronan's jaw dropped open to voice his protest, but I cut him off with a raise of my hand. "None of the motels are open right now, and the nearest open hotel is in the next town over, which is quite a drive. And at this time of night, you'd probably favor sleep over a highway."
Ronan's mouth snapped shut and twisted around painfully as he tried to come up with a flaw in my logic. He failed. And by the rate at which his wide shoulders drooped, he failed miserably.
"Fine," he surrendered, flinging one open palm upwards and letting it flop back down to his side. "Get in the car." With that, he spun around and stalked back to the driver's side of Big Bubba. He kind of reminded me of a petulant child who was told that he couldn't have his sibling's toy.
I looked up at Loki, giving him a small, apologetic smile in the hopes that he would forgive Ronan's immature behavior, and started for the car. Loki followed, keeping stride with me. It must've been an embarrassingly easy task for him, because he didn't suck in even one ragged breath like most people do when they walk with me. I smiled at the thought of six foot four Ronan breathing heavily as ran to keep up with me. I may only be five foot three, but I stretch my gait far enough when I walk that I might as well be a six foot speed-walker.
"Thank you, Alex," Loki said as we reached the car, "for all you've done for me on this night."
"The night's not over yet, sir," I said, wrapping my fingers around the door handle. I flashed a smile over my shoulder at the metal adorned man before opening the passenger side door and climbing into the cab. Loki was right behind me, pulling the door closed behind him as he scooted in next to me.
Suddenly, I was very glad that I was at least somewhat skinny. I was squished between a brick house and telephone pole in a relatively tiny truck cab. I might as well have been a bug being squished between two rocks. This was going to be a fun ride back to town.
Ronan turned over the ignition and shifted the truck into drive. As he gently pressed his foot down on the gas pedal, he draped his right arm around my shoulders in a possessive hug that made me want to whack him in the kneecap. Instead of causing serious injury to his patella, like I really wanted to do, I wrapped my fingers around his wrist and lifted his arm away from my shoulder. I carefully placed his hand on the steering wheel and gave him a sideways glare.
"Both hands on the wheel, Cool Shack," I said in a warning, yet playful tone.
"You're no fun," he scoffed, repositioning his hands on the vinyl circle. He shoved his foot to the floor, and we sped across the New Mexico desert toward the newly rebuilt town of Puente Antiguo.
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