Loki just watched, mostly amused. But her efforts were good, her progress was good, and he was rather impressed with how well she had taken to magic.

After a few more moments, Elaine's concentration broke and the light vanished. She massaged her temples for a moment.

"Don't push yourself," Loki advised. "You don't want to end up with a magic-backlash migraine. Those last a few days."

"Trust me, I don't plan on getting a monster migraine," Elaine said. "So I think I'm done for today."

"Good choice." Loki was quiet for a moment. "Stark has been mentioning returning to California over the past few days." There was a question hidden in his words: was she going and could he maybe come too?

"Yeah, he gets sick of the city every so often," Elaine said. She looked at him, about to ask why it mattered, and it clicked. "Wait, you want to go to Malibu with us? I thought you liked not having to interact with people too often."

"It would be less troublesome than having to stay here and deal with the prattling fools Stark employs." Loki scowled a little.

And Elaine knew that Loki did not suffer fools at all.

"I'll see what I can do," she said.

Loki inclined his head regally. "Do let me know when you have plans," he requested.

"And if I go, I will help you acclimate to the magic on the west coast. It has a slightly different flavor to it."

That sounded intriguing, so Elaine just nodded.

"I'll talk to Tony," she said.

"Excellent." Loki allowed himself to smile, more open and relaxed than normal.

Elaine noticed how relaxed he seemed to be.

"You're in a good mood," she noted.

"Life is currently pleasant," Loki admitted with a dip of his head. "And no one has bothered me of late."

Elaine grinned.

"Not hating Midgard quite so much anymore?" she asked.

"It has its own charms," Loki admitted, his lips twitching just a little.

Elaine just grinned.

"You know, we could take you to the aquarium again," she teased. "You seemed to like it before."

Loki snorted but didn't reject the idea.

"Asgard does not have such creatures. I found them entertaining to watch."

"We'll make sure to take you there again soon, then," Elaine said. Stretching a little, she stood up. "And I should go talk to Tony and see what he thinks his plans are for going to Malibu."

Loki nodded and watched her go. He could always make his own plans if they weren't willing to let him go with.

Once she was out of Loki's living room, Elaine headed down towards the workshop. Chances were good that Tony was down there.

Tony was indeed down there. So was Kae, and Elizabeth, who was learning very bad habits from Dummy.

"Dummy, no, she does not--Dummy, how many times do I have to tell you that small bots are not for playing with?" Tony glowered at his first bot. "I swear I will give you to a community college."

Dummy just whirred happily and picked up Elizabeth, who made a happy beeping noise and allowed herself to be carried across the workshop. Kae just laughed, perching herself on a bench.

Elaine just laughed, leaning in the doorway.

"What is going on down here?" she asked.

"Chaos. They're invading my workshop, I'll never get anything done," Tony complained.

"We are not invading, you gave me access codes," Kae shot back, floating Elizabeth back over to her. The little bot whirred excitedly, clearly happy to be floating. "Besides, I could be so much worse."

"Hey, hey! What did I say about telekinesis in my lab?" Tony yelped when his StarkPad started floating. "Dammit, Kae, no! Bad! I'll donate you to a college to dissect right along with Dummy!"

Elaine couldn't help it; she bit her lip to try to hold back her own giggles and held out a hand, concentrating. Her little blue-white light appeared and this time, instead of making it change colors, Elaine made it move away from her and over to Tony and Kae.

"No!" Tony yelped. "No magic! No magic and no telekinesis! Dammit this is my lab you should not be floating things--Kae, stop it, put me down, goddamnit don't make me call Bruce down here!" Tony scowled fiercely at Kae until she put him back on his feet. Really, he'd only been a few inches up.