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loveisnotadagger · 3 years ago

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Love is Healing - Chapter Four

Chapter 4/?

Warning: There is a brief mention of when Loki let go of Thor's hammer when he was hanging from the Rainbow Bridge and how he had basically tried to kill himself by doing that. It's literally maybe three sentences, but it's there if that triggers something for you.

The only thing Loki really saw was the girl – no, Arianna; he remembered her name now. She has shoulder-length, honey blond hair, much like the color of his mother's hair, and bright ocean-blue eyes. That was all he noticed at that point and that was only because she was standing over him.

He took her in within the few seconds it took for his pain to register and then he felt as if he couldn't breathe. So intense was his agony that he couldn't even find the strength to scream out loud even though he knew he'd opened his mouth to do just that.

"Your ribs were broken," Arianna said. "I couldn't heal them completely. I'm sorry. I know it must be extremely painful."

She went on to tell him every other thing she'd found that needed to be healed. He no longer had any bruises, and she had healed his lungs, which had been damaged by the broken ribs.

"What you really need is food and water."

"Food sounds wonderful," Loki admitted weakly.

He couldn't actually remember the last time he'd eaten. He did, however, remember that when he'd been under the control of Thanos he would sometimes miss many days' worth of meals when he wouldn't cooperate.

"I think we should start with broth. See how well that stays down before we give you solid food."

Before Loki could reply the door to the room opened.

Loki hadn't been paying attention before, but now that he could focus on something other than pain, he realized he had no idea where he was.

He would have to worry about that later, however, because the only thing that mattered at the moment was that he was weak and in pain, and the person who had opened the door was the man who could turn into a beast.

Loki had never moved so quickly in his life. It caused him more pain, but he didn't care. This man wasn't going to get hold of him again. He wouldn't survive another round of being smashed around.

He threw his legs over the side of the bed, intent on getting to his feet and running, using whatever strength he had left to push past Banner and get away.

"Loki," Arianna exclaimed, but he ignored her.

A sharp pain went through his chest and it had nothing to do with physical wounds. He'd trusted Arianna as much as he could trust anyone. He'd allowed her to lead him out of his tormented mind only to have him awake here with the one being in the whole of Midgard that had been able to hurt him.

As soon as Loki's feet hit the floor, he stood up only to fall right back down. The pain that fired throughout his body took his breath away and jarred him enough to break through his adrenaline-addled body.

So he couldn't even stand? How was he to escape his fate if he couldn't walk?

"Loki," the girl whispered, kneeling beside him. "I know what you're thinking, and it's not true. I didn't betray you, and Bruce will not hurt you. He has no reason to now."

Loki didn't respond vocally, but when Banner tried to help him stand and sit back on the bed Loki allowed it without complaint. The doctor was surprisingly careful and gentle with him.

"He needs water and food," Arianna said. "Broth to start off with. He is extremely malnourished."

Banner nodded. "I'll have Tony get something brought here. What should I tell Thor and –"

"They'll want to see him."

Loki noticed that Arianna was looking at him. She wasn't dictating that they had to see him. She was giving him a choice. He could decide for himself.

He gave a quick nod and Banner left. Only a few seconds passed before both Thor and his mother flooded into the room.

"Loki. My son," Frigga said and sprinted to his bedside. "You're awake."

"Careful," Arianna said. "He's still in pain. I wasn't able to heal him as fully as I wanted to."

"He is able to be awake," Thor said. "That is enough."

"Okay, well . . . I'll leave you guys to it."

Loki stiffened when Arianna touched his shoulder, but she didn't remove her hand.

"I'll be back shortly with some water and your food." ----------

Once outside the room, Arianna slid down to the floor with her back against the wall. She was exhausted mentally and physically. She'd had to break through Loki's defenses and she'd had to fight against Thanos. If he was that powerful in Loki's mind, she hoped she never came across him in real life.

She'd been anxious to get outside and help the victims of the earlier battle, but now she was glad she had to wait. She probably couldn't hold up against a flea at the moment.

Unbidden, tears stung her eyes. What was she doing? What had she been doing for the past however many hours? She'd been helping a criminal. True, Loki had been through a lot, but did that matter, really, in the grand scheme of things? Who knew what he'd done before he'd been tortured? Maybe he'd been bad all along. She didn't know.

A quiet sob escaped her and she clapped a hand over her mouth. She would not do this here where just anyone could walk by and see her.

"Aries?"

A figure hovered over her – short, dressed in black, red hair. Natasha – before sitting down with her. Arianna should have known that Natasha would be nearby. There was no way Tash would've gone far knowing her friend was in the other room with a psychopath.

"What's wrong? Did Loki hurt you?"

"No. Loki can barely sit up or stand. He's . . . he's – if he'd been human before now, he'd be dead."

"But he's not."

"No. I helped him a little bit . . . he's not him. Or . . . maybe he's more himself than ever. I don't know. But he's not the guy who tried to take over the world."

"That's a good thing. Why are you crying?"

"Because he's been through a lot, Tash. And I felt some of it. And I'm tired, and I just can't do anything else today."

"Then don't. You always push yourself too hard and then you end up feeling awful for days."

Arianna knew that was true, but she also knew she had several reasons for doing so. Because her best friend was a superhero, whether Natasha believed that or not, Arianna felt the need to prove that she was as useful as the other Avengers. She couldn't actually fight the bad guys, but she could clean up their messes. That was her job – or it had been until now.

"Am I crazy for wanting to heal him?" she asked. "I mean, I feel it was the right thing to do, but –"

"It is unprecedented," Natasha said. "But you also wouldn't be you if you didn't want to help. Just because he's a villain doesn't mean he can't also be a victim."

"He is," Arianna said. "He is a victim."

Natasha smiled softly. "Sometimes you care too much, Aries. Sometimes I think you're in the wrong line of work." ---------- Inside the room, Frigga was apologizing to Loki.

"Why did you not say anything before I stripped you of your powers?"

"I did not wish for you to know," Loki said.

What Loki wished was for Thor and Frigga to leave him alone. He was sitting up to save face, but he needed to lie back down. It was physically hurting him to stay upright.

And where was Arianna? He wouldn't admit it out loud, but he felt just a bit better with her in the room, and he would definitely need her with him once his mother and brother left. None of the other hero-types would dare touch him with her present.

Just as he was getting close to keeling over, Arianna came in. She was balancing a tray with a bottle of water and a steaming bowl of what Loki assumed was the broth she'd mentioned earlier.

"Hey," she said. "I got some vegetable soup and, obviously, water. You should lie down. I've got you covered."

She gestured to the tray she was holding. It had two legs that came down, one on either side.

Loki relaxed against the mattress, but he couldn't say he felt any more comfortable at all.

Arianna placed the tray down, one leg on either side of him, and then she reached down on the side of the bed. There was a small click and then then head of the bed was moving upward.

Loki stiffened. What kind of magic was this?

"It's just a hospital bed, Loki," Arianna said. "It'll help support you while you eat."

The soup looked good and smelled even better. He was so hungry, though, that the smell almost turned his stomach.

"Don't force yourself to eat, but you do need water. Drink it slowly or you'll get sick."

Why was she being so nice to him? What did she want?

"How long are you going to stay?" Arianna asked, looking at Thor and Frigga. "Not that you have to go, but you probably made the records with that energy spike you let loose by coming to this realm."

"In the morning when you begin the healing sessions again, we will leave," Frigga said. "You need to sleep and someone will need to stay with Loki."

"I am not a child," Loki said. "No one needs to stay."

That was a complete and utter lie. He needed someone with him because he really couldn't do for himself at the moment. The only thing that had been keeping the pain at bay had been his magic, and now he didn't even have that.

And . . . Arianna was going to continue to heal him? Why? For what purpose?

"Why would you do this for me?"

Arianna smiled softly. "Why wouldn't I?"

"I tried to destroy this city," he responded as if it were obvious.

"You didn't want to destroy it. You wanted to rule it."

Those were his own words from earlier and now she was throwing them back at him. Before he could respond, however, Arianna saw her way out of the room.

Both Thor and Frigga had small grins on their lips and Loki rolled his eyes.

Loki didn't find anything funny about having his words thrown back at him. In fact, it only made him remember her earlier words. She'd wanted him to help save her city even though he'd been the one to bring destruction down upon it.

Lost in his own thoughts, Loki was surprised when warm liquid filled his mouth. It was the vegetable soup. It had a savory flavor as if it had been made with chicken broth.

His mother had brought a spoonful of soup to his mouth. Thankfully, Thor had already gone; Frigga must've sent him away.

Loki was able to eat a few of the vegetables, but he stuck mostly to the broth. He was able to finish his water, however. ---------- Down in the lobby area, Arianna and the other Avengers were lounging around on the furniture, waiting for word on what they were supposed to do next.

Director Fury had called Tony to schedule a meeting, which just meant they'd been given about a five-minute heads up on Fury's arrival. He'd probably gotten readings of energy when Frigga had arrived on the balcony of Stark Tower.

What if he found out they were harboring Loki there? What if Fury already knew?

They would try to take Loki away and Arianna didn't know if she would allow that, not without healing him first. If she intervened, however, they would probably take her away too. They would arrest her for aiding and abetting – or they would try to. Natasha would probably stand by her and Clint would too, not because they cared what happened to Loki, but because they cared what happened to her; Thor would help her if only so she could continue helping Loki; Tony would stand by her just to make Fury angry.

The only wild card was Steve Rogers. If he thought them taking Loki was the right thing to do, he would let them.

Bruce wouldn't want to be involved at all.

When Fury arrived, Arianna basically shrank into herself. He was one of the most intimidating men she'd ever met. It had nothing to do with his height or the fact that he wore an eyepatch. It had everything to do with the way he carried himself. He had a no-nonsense attitude along with all the confidence in the world.

He could back that confidence up, too. He had the power and ability to do pretty much whatever he wanted, and he usually did whatever he had to do to get a job done.

"Where is he?" were the first words that came out of Fury's mouth.

"Where's who?" Tony asked.

"Don't play dumb with me. Where's the one who killed Coulson?"

"He is hurt," Arianna said softly. "And he can't be moved."

"Can't be moved? If I were to try and take him from here, who would stop me?"

Thor was the first to step up and then it was Arianna. Standing next to the god of thunder, Arianna didn't think Fury was all that frightening. Tony stood by her as Arianna had thought he would.

Natasha and Clint hesitated, but Natasha did say, "Director, from what Agent Grace says Loki was tortured into submission. He was promised more pain if he didn't obey."

"And did Loki just offer up this information freely?" asked Fury, sarcasm lacing his voice.

"Not exactly," Arianna said.

And here was the turning point. She could either fess up and be turned into a weapon or she could keep quiet about everything and let Fury find Loki and take him away.

"Director Fury, I saw into his mind. I . . . didn't want to, but –"

"You what?"

"It's complicated," she said.

"I suggest you uncomplicate it," Fury demanded.

"I manipulate energy, Director. That's how I heal, and you know that. I can do pretty much anything I put my mind to."

"Like reading minds . . ."

"It was more like I could see what was in the forefront of his mind, and I didn't mean to do it. Our energies merged together and I just did."

"Why wasn't I made aware of this? Do you know how much you could do?"

"Yes, and that's why I didn't let you know. I mean, I'm basically a power source – like the Tesseract, and you wanted to make nuclear weapons out of that. I refuse to be used for destruction."

Arianna was aware she was exaggerating a bit. She couldn't really do anything she set her mind to, but she could do a lot. She had never really practiced, though, and she didn't really want to. She was fine not knowing how much she was capable of. She could heal people and that was enough for her.

"We have everything under control here," Tony said. "The guy is contained and no longer a threat."

"The energy readings you received earlier were from another Asgardian coming into our realm, sir," Natasha said. "Thor's and Loki's mother. She stripped Loki of his powers, so he really is harmless."

"He's mortal now," Thor said.

"He's still a terrorist and needs to be taken into custody," Fury stated.

"Not until he's better," Arianna said. "Give me a week."

"A week and he'll be better? Strong enough to be moved?"

"Yes. There are emotional traumas as well, but I can't really mend those."

"Well, we have psychologists to deal with that," Fury said. "You have a week, Agent."

Without further ado, Fury walked out the same way he came in.

"Thor, do you mind getting me the Tesseract? I can't actually heal Loki in a week, not by myself."

"What do you intend to do with it?" Thor asked, not suspicious but curious.

"Borrow energy." ---------- Loki was lying down and trying to sleep when Arianna came back to his room. He'd thought she was gone for the night but he'd obviously been wrong.

Thor was with her and he was carrying the container that held the Tesseract. What were they doing with it? He'd failed in his mission, and he couldn't get the Tesseract to Thanos now that he was mortal.

"We have a problem," Arianna said. "Fury wants to take Loki away. I bought us some time, but . . ."

"But?" Frigga asked.

"He only gave me a week." Arianna looked at Loki. "You don't want to be hurt when they take you from here. They might not hurt you further, but they won't take the time to heal you either."

"Are you sure no one would harm him?" Thor asked. "When Fury had him before, he asked me to . . . torture Loki to get information. He didn't seem to like it when I refused."

Arianna wasn't surprised when she found out Fury had suggested torture, but it had been different then. Fury didn't need information anymore and they already had the Tesseract.

"I want to spend another couple of hours healing you tonight. I can't heal the lashes until the infection leaves your body, but I can take the burns away, as long as you don't fight me this time."

"Of course I won't fight you," Loki said. "I don't think I was the one blocking your power last time."

Thanos, Arianna thought. Of course.

"Okay. I'm gonna need the room again," she told Thor and Frigga. ---------- "Oh, why isn't this working?" Arianna cried as she tried for the fifth time to draw the Tesseract's power into herself. "I did it without a problem earlier."

"Earlier you had not depleted your own energy," Loki said. "Your body is simply tired, as is your mind."

Loki had been watching her struggle for over thirty minutes now. Perhaps he was not meant to be healed that night. Pain was not new to him, so he could endure it.

"How did you end up with Thanos?" Arianna asked softly.

"I was . . . I fell off the Rainbow Bridge in Asgard."

"The what?"

"It's a bridge to other realms. When used with the Bifrost, it can take you anywhere in an instant."

"Oh."

Loki explained that he and Thor had been fighting and then Thor had destroyed the Bifrost. Both Loki and Thor had been hanging over the edge and Odin had stepped in. Odin had grabbed onto Thor and Loki had grabbed onto Thor's hammer. Loki had let go.

"And you woke up in a hell dimension?"

"If I'd had it my way, I wouldn't have woken up anywhere."

Arianna froze where she sat with the Tesseract in front of her, the blue cube shining bright but its power still not accessible to her.

"You wanted to kill yourself?"

Instead of answering directly, Loki said, "When I was a child I would spar with Thor. We had little toy swords and battle armor for children. He always won due to brute strength. Odin would pit us against each other in all things physical until I eventually just stopped fighting him."

"Did Odin get angry?"

"Yes."

Loki didn't know what he was doing. He shouldn't have said any of that. He didn't open up to people and especially not to people he'd just met. He blamed it on the pain he was in and the gratitude he tried not to feel for this girl for caring enough to help him. The extreme exhaustion didn't help him hold his tongue either.

"So, Thor is a warrior," Arianna said. "And you? What did you like to do?"

Loki was surprised to find Arianna was looking at him with open curiosity. She wasn't just asking. She really wanted to know.

"I spent most of my time in the library or studying magic with my mother, which made me an outsider."

"Why?"

"In Asgard men are expected to know how to fight. That's how they are recognized as men. It's how they are ranked. If you don't know how to fight, it is frowned upon."

"But you know how to fight."

"Yes, but not the way Thor does. He's stronger and bigger. I can't just punch my way out of a situation."

"Oh. And magic? What do they think of that?"

"It's considered underhanded. I can fight hand-to-hand if I must, but magic is my strength. I use it when I fight."

"I see nothing wrong with that."

"Of course not. You're a woman."

Loki noticed his remark made Arianna tense up and he realized how condescending he must've sounded.

"I assure you I didn't mean that the way I said it. I only meant that it was normal for women to study magic. Not so for men. There are very few warriors who are female."

"Hm. I hate fighting, so I would fit right in there. And I don't consider what I do to be magic. Others might see it as such because they don't understand how it's done, but . . . to me it's as natural as breathing. Or it normally is."

Loki realized that he knew next to nothing about this girl – and to him she was a girl. He was almost fifteen-hundred-years-old and she was probably twenty-five at the oldest.

Loki had been able to look into the other Avengers before he'd even attempted to fight them. Since Arianna had been called in only slightly before the attack on the city, he hadn't thought to ask Barton about her. He hadn't even known she existed.

She was by far the most interesting of the Avengers. She had so much power yet to look at her made one think otherwise. She was treating him like a friend would even though they couldn't be friends. They barely knew each other.

"Why're you being so nice to me?"

"Why not?"

That was the same answer she'd given earlier when he'd asked her why she was doing everything she could to heal him. It was infuriating.

"Don't give me that. I tried to take over your world. I destroyed half this city. You have every right to hate me. Aren't you angry? Do you not want revenge?"

To Loki's surprise, the girl laughed softly.

"You forget, Loki, that I saw into your mind. I know enough to know that your psyche was messed with enough to twist you into something you really aren't. And you're right. I could hate you, but I choose not to. Hate is a poison, one of the most lethal kinds.

"And correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the feeling that you hate yourself enough for everyone. We don't need to do it for you."

For some reason, unknown even to Loki, her response made rage flow through his veins.

"Why do you care?" he almost yelled. "What are you getting out of this?"

Loki noticed with some satisfaction that Arianna had flinched when he'd raised his voice. That was when he realized the conundrum that was Arianna. She was both one of the boldest and most easily frightened people he'd ever met. She didn't care for confrontation, but she wasn't afraid to tell anyone what was on her mind either.

"I care because . . . I don't know. I don't really have a good reason. I just care about people. I don't like seeing people hurting or suffering when they don't need to."

This she said softly, as if she were trying not to wake a sleeping child, but then she looked at Loki more seriously, almost glaring.

"As for what I'm getting out of it, it's peace of mind. I don't help people just because they need help. I help because I can, because I have the power to. I find it revolting that there are so many people in this world who can help but choose not to.

"So to ease your troubled mind, this has nothing to do with you. I'm trying to heal you for the sole purpose that you are suffering and I can end it. It makes me feel better when I help those in need.

"Now if you don't mind, please shut up. I'm trying to work."

#loki #loki/oc #loki x reader #loki/ofc #love is healing #chapter four

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chipper9906 · 3 years ago

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Heal The Cracks Within My Heart - Chapter 2: Rubble and Ruins

<- - - Previous Chapter

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR LOKI SEASON 1 EPISODE 6 ‘FOR ALL TIME. ALWAYS.’

Pairings: Loki/Sylvie

Rating: General Audiences

Chapter Word Count: 12,627

Overall Word Count: 24,700 (In Progress)

Status: Multi Chapter Fic - In Progress (2/?)

Chapter Preview:

“You know what would be nice? If we at least once got to kiss without either of us crying. Two for two’s a bit odd, isn’t it?”

He had thrown the joke out there in some sort of an attempt to lighten the mood. That’s not to say that he wanted to divert from this conversation, but more because of the way he could see that Sylvie was sinking back into her memory of that day, and he knew that would lead to no good. Nothing but self-blame and a whole lot of regrets - as seemed usual for nearly every decision a Loki has made in their life.

But the attempt at a joke did not get a laugh out of Sylvie. Not even a smile. Instead, he felt his heart leap into his throat at the way her eyes - that were still boring deep into his soul - flickered down to his lips, lingering there for just a moment before returning back to his intense gaze.

“We’re not crying now.”

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Miiphus was one of the smaller planets that existed within the universe. At least, smaller than most other planets from its neighboring systems, to the point where the entire population of this one planet was probably equal to around the population size of one city on any other planet.

It had its charms, though. For one, those that were born and lived on this planet got to experience the whole ‘small town’ vibe that was lost to time to many civilizations as time went on and the population grew and grew. That kind of scenario where you personally knew everyone in the village, almost as well as you knew your own family. Hell, everyone practically was family. It was vital for this kind of small community for everyone to help each other, for everyone to treat one another like family. It was the only way to survive.

This… was not the impression the two of them received as they first stepped onto Miiphus, however. At least, certainly not for Loki. The very first moment he stepped out from that Time Door, he had to pause to take a moment and absorb the horror of what they'd walked into. Sylvie was striding on ahead, apparently with a destination in mind and, apparently, not being phased at all by what surrounded them.

It was… complete and utter destruction. There wasn’t a single step he could take without stepping on rubble, of whatever remained of a family’s home that once stood proud and tall, sheltering its occupants within. Whatever the city once was, was now reduced to nothing but smoldering debris, and — to his horror — the occasional charred body laying about, their clothes now pieces of blackened rags that clung to soot covered bones and whatever bits of burnt flesh that hadn’t completely succumbed to the heat. The white color of their bones stood out amongst the debris, shining in the dark night as the glow of the five moons over their heads shone down.

“What is this place?”

“Miiphus,” Sylvie answered dutifully from ahead of him. ��Fourth planet in the Dioscuri System. This is -- was -- pretty much the only city it’s people had built.”

“Are you sure the Apocalypse event hasn’t happened already?” Loki called out to Sylvie, resuming his pace and chasing after her once he realized how far ahead she had gotten already.

“Certain,” Sylvie asserts, glancing over her shoulder to make sure he was keeping up. “If you think this is bad… just wait.”

Loki didn’t know where to look. He didn’t even know if he wanted to look. There’s only so many tiny, child-sized corpses that were holding onto the remains of their parents — families frozen in that one moment of terror — that he can take before his violently turning stomach threatens to empty its contents.

Which, now he thinks about it, would probably be nothing more than bile. He couldn’t even remember the last time he ate…

Billows of ash were kicked up into the air with every step they took, careful not to tread upon a loose skull here and there. His lungs burned with every inhale, not just for the soot that was starting to cover them, but with the knowledge he was breathing in more than just soot. How much of this ash was compromised of the remenants of this planet's people? How much peeling skin, flakes of bone, and burnt organs were filling his lungs?

“Don’t think about it,” Sylvie’s voice, thankfully, snaps him out of his thoughts. He had seemingly come to a stop without realizing it, and Sylvie stood watching him with a knowing look. “It’s not worth dwelling on. There’s nothing we can do.”

Loki swallows thickly, his throat feeling tight and restricted. He tries his best to follow Sylvie’s advice, keeping his gaze from wandering over to his surroundings. He keeps his eyes focused on the back of Sylvie, following her lead as she guides them out of the ruined city. Despite his attempts not to let his eyes wander, he can’t help but take the occasional glance whenever they entered a new street. The consistent level of damage inflicted upon each building was almost impressive when he thought about it from a different viewpoint. Or, at least, the viewpoint he once had. Turns out, all it takes is to be imprisoned by an overwhelmingly powerful organization that dictates all of time and decides that you don’t have the right to exist in their universe for him to change his mind about the allure of control over others.

It’s of a great relief when he sees the buildings around them becoming sparser and sparser, appreciating the lungfuls of fresh air he was breathing in as the city landscape gradually changed to flattened farmlands. “Do we even need to hide in Apocalypses anymore?” Loki asks, jogging forward to reach Sylvie, walking side-by-side. “I mean, what with everything going on, I doubt us being in the wrong place is going to show up on their radar anymore.”

“Maybe not,” Sylvie agrees — or so Loki thinks. “Or maybe now that there’s an infinite amount of TVA’s out there, it might be best to assume they could know more than we do — especially if He Who Remains is in charge of them — and He himself could be doing all he could to hunt us down, and kill us; just like we’re trying to do to him.”

“Right…” Loki mumbled awkwardly, scratching at the back of his head. “Um... if that is the case, then… what if some of the TVA’s have already figured out that we’re hiding in Apocalypses? I’m sure if I could figure it out, then-,”

Sylvie came to a sudden stop with a tired-sounding sigh, holding out an arm to stop him mid-stride. He did so, looking around to see if she had spotted something he hadn’t noticed. “You could be right. Thing is, we really don’t know. We don’t know anything, it feels like. Everything that could happen, could happen; it’s already happened, or it’s about to happen, or… or…. or I don’t know. But what I do know is that hiding in Apocalypse’s has worked in keeping me alive for the past thousand years or so, so I’m going to keep doing that until it doesn’t.”

Sylvie didn’t even wait to hear his reaction, carrying on forward and leaving him standing there for a few seconds staring at the space she just was. Loki shakes his head, bringing himself back to reality and chasing after her once more.

“I’m going to apologize in advance for all the questions, because I know they’re annoying-,” Loki begins, and it at least gets a huffed exhale of laughter from Sylvie. “-And I don’t mean to sound like I doubt your navigational skills but… how do you know where we’re going?”

The mostly flat farmland had given way to more of a hilly, uneven terrain, spotted with the occasional stubby tree that probably provided hikers and nearby farmers with much-needed shade in the heat of the day.

“Because I’ve been here before,” Sylvie’s voice comes out breathy, the two of them slightly winded by the up and down climb of the land. She had come to a stop at the top of the hill, taking the time to catch her breath as she waits for Loki to reach her side. He reaches the top only a few moments after, bending over to place his hands on his thighs and take in deep lungfuls of air that his body was demanding, the cool night air freezing as he inhales sharply through his teeth.

The movement of her hand out of the corner of his eye catches his attention, glancing up to see her gesturing at the valley below them. Not that he needed for her to point it out; it was kind of hard to miss the multiple rows of tents that were nestled into the valley, stretching as far as the eye could see. Small campfires were dotted between the tents, and he could just about make out the sight of people milling about the place, evidently enjoying each other’s company despite the late hour.

“What am I looking at?” Loki asks, slowing straightening himself back up to a stand.

Sylvie turns her head to look at him, a sad smile on her lips at his question. “The last of this planet’s people.”

This was… this was it? All that he could see, to the ends of the horizon… an entire planet’s population reduced to numbers that could fit in a single area he could see from a few miles away. The quiet of the night had never seemed so eerie now, looking down to what he knew was likely the last night of an entire planet’s existence.

“Come on,” Sylvie says softly, the delicate touch of her fingers against his hands a welcoming comfort. She gives his hand a light pull, a request to keep moving, and he follows after her without much thought. He wasn’t too sure why, but the idea of going towards all these people and intermixing with them felt like… like they would be intruding. The TemPad wrapped around Sylvie’s hand was a guarantee that they’d get out of this, that they’d hop away to yet another world and leave this one far behind. But for these people, it was their very last night. It almost felt like… like they were mocking them.

They closed the distance far too quickly for Loki’s liking, the glow of the multiple campfires growing stronger and stronger as they approached. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Loki whispered lowly to Sylvie. “Won’t they notice us?”

“They won’t care,” Sylvie assured him. “They’ve already lost so many people; the idea of strangers doesn’t exist to them anymore. They’re just happy to see someone that's…”

“-Alive,” Loki finishes her sentence grimly, grimacing as he looks around to the last of the survivors.

Sure enough, as the two of them weave through the small gathered crowds of friends, families, neighbors, everyone, people barely bat an eyelid at them. There are a few occasional curious glances, accompanied by whispers of a language he does not know, but they soon turn back to the fires they were huddled around, absorbing the warmth the flickering flames provided.

Loki feels some of the tension building in his shoulders drop away as they manage to find a somewhat secluded spot at the other end of this refugee settlement, sitting just at the edge between the mass of makeshift tents and the seemingly infinite stretch of wilderness beyond. It seemed that whatever group that had been situated around this fire had retired for the night, the last of the flames flickering pathetically in the blackened pile of wood and ashes left behind. Loki gives a quick glance around to their surroundings, making sure no one was watching as he guides his magic towards the fire, encouraging its flames to become rekindled.

“Impressive,” Sylvie remarks at the sight of the newly born flames that roared to life, their color briefly a light shade of green as they’re created under the effects of his magic. It lasts for less than a second, though – not long enough for anyone lingering nearby to notice the strangely green-colored fire before it’s returned to its usual comforting orange glow.

“It’s a neat little party trick,” Loki comments with a sly smile, taking a seat on one of the logs that had been rolled over to the fire. It felt as uncomfortable as it looked. “I might have set fire to Thor’s cape a few times while I was learning it.”

Sylvie rolls her eyes at him, though the small smile pulling at the corner of her lips gave away her amusement. “And they were entirely accidents, I’m sure.”

Loki grins unashamedly at her as she drops down next to him with a tired-sounding huff, rolling her shoulders back in an attempt to alleviate some of the built-up tension. She grimaces at the soreness of her muscles –particularly in the stiffness of her neck – bending it left and right to try and work out some of those knots.

She nearly jumps to her feet at the feeling of hands on her shoulders, making the pain even worse as she whips her head around to see who was touching her. She supposed she shouldn’t be too surprised to see it had been Loki, who looked about as startled at her reaction as she had felt at his touch, already having removed his hands from her as if he had touched a boiling hot stove.

“Sorry,” He says, eyes wide as saucers as he holds his hands out in front of him in a clear message that he wasn’t going to touch her. “I… probably should have asked first.”

“What were you even trying to do?” Sylvie asks, placing a hand on the spot of her shoulders where his hands were moments ago.

“...Trying to give you a massage?” Loki states like it were obvious – which for most, it probably would be. “It’s just, you kind of looked like you needed it, and I thought maybe you’d…” Loki trails off awkwardly, clearing his throat as his gaze drops away from her inquisitive one. “Never mind. It was a stupid idea-,”

"No, don't apologize, it's..." Sylvie begins to explain. “Sometimes, it’s just… hard to switch off that paranoia. Nearly every close call I had running from the TVA was because I let myself relax too much — let my guard down in times I thought I was safe.”

Loki nods in understanding, but the guilt still had yet to leave his face. He held his hands in his lap like he wasn’t too sure what to do with them now, tapping his fingers against his arm in a nervous repetition.

Sylvie sighed quietly to herself, wondering how exactly it is that they managed to find a way to make every single quiet moment between them awkward in some kind of way. Then again, in their defense, this wasn’t exactly something they had done before. Flirting with strangers she had no intention of getting to know was something she had learned quickly as she grew older within apocalypse after apocalypse. Truthfully, it was easy. Turns out it doesn’t take much coercing to get someone into your bed when the world is crumbling apart around you. A few looks, a few suggestions here and there, the constant reiteration that this would be their last night on the planet, and BAM — yet another mark to add to the tally of her body count. The non-murder one, she means.

But… it wasn’t like that with Loki. She had no plans to seduce him, get her fill, and be gone before they even got the chance to know her name. What she had with Loki was... something she had never had before. Something didn’t know she had even wanted before. Whilst there was no denying that the most physical side of her attraction to him resulted in the same kind of, um… cravings that were just as prevalent as all her other romantic endeavors, she had never felt this… this more emotional attraction. He understood her like no one ever could — more than she understands herself, it sometimes felt like. And as much as she feels she too understands him, she’s overtaken by this desire to know more. She wants to know everything about the man sat by her side, down to the pointless stuff like what his favorite color is. She wants to know what it feels like to have his hands on her body, and for her to welcome it, not jump three feet in the air and have to fight back the urge to take a swing. She wants to know what it’s like to open her eyes every morning, and feel her heart race not from fear but from exhilaration and contentedness at the sight of him laying next to her, instead of yet another stranger.

She wanted… him. Every part of him, from the good to the ugly. Long ago, she had accepted that she would live her life with only herself for company. And now? Now, she found it next to impossible to envision a scenario where he wasn’t by her side.

Except now, it seemed that she had knocked any and all confidence that Loki might have once had, and the moment was fading from view before it had even gotten the chance to start. She bit down the frustrated groan she wanted to release, feeling like she had just kicked a puppy with how dejected Loki looked.

“Promise me this won’t stop you.”

Loki glances up in surprise at her words. “Promise you… what?”

“I know I’m not…” Sylvie’s face scrunched up as she tried to think of a way to put this. “I’m not the easiest person to get along with. And I know that it’s even harder when we’re…” She struggled to find the right word, opting instead to gesture between them with a flail of her hand.

Loki stared back at her with one rather judgemental-looking eyebrow raised. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to be a bit more concise than that-,”

“I’m trying to say that I don’t want you to stop trying,” Sylvie got out in a rush, the flush of heat to her cheeks a sensation she hadn’t felt in quite some time. “All of this is super new to me, and yeah, it might take me some time to get used to it. But I will. So long as you-,”

“-Keep trying,” Loki finished for her with the subtlest twitch at the corner of his lips. “I think I can do that.”

“Good,” Sylvie sniffled, trying not to act as awkward as she felt, playing off the redness that had spread across her face as heat rash from the fire. “Just so we’re on the same page.”

Loki couldn’t help but chuckle softly to himself at her failed attempts to act nonchalant, not withering In the slightest at her light-hearted glare. “So… do I try and give you a massage again, or…”

Her glare only strengthened. “You can be an incredibly infuriating man at times, I hope you know that.”

“Oh, I’m very aware,” Loki replied. “But I also feel it adds a bit to my charm, don’t you?”

“Hmm… I’ll have to get back to you on that one,” Sylvie said, stretching out her limbs in the direction of the fire, savoring the warmth that radiated from it. What she didn’t notice was that, as she stared into the beauty of the flickering flames and spitting golden embers, Loki’s eyes were still fixated on her, enjoying a different type of beauty — though one that was no less mesmerizing: the light from the fire bouncing off her face, casting shades of soft oranges and reds that battled with the shadows of night and the sharp bright light from the moons overhead.

“Sometimes I can’t believe you’re another version of me,” Loki wonders out loud, resting his chin in his hands as he continues to drink her in.

Sylvie cocks an eyebrow at him, regarding him out of the corner of her eye. “And why’s that?”

“Because you’re just so…” Loki paused, and the trailing end of his sentence was enough to arouse Sylvie’s suspicions - though she still waited patiently for him to finish his thoughts. As someone who prided himself on his choice of words and rather extensive vocabulary, he suddenly found himself devoid of words. Really, there was only one word echoing around in his head as he looked to her, and… and maybe he was overthinking all of this. Maybe the simpler option was the best.

“Because I’m…?” Sylvie tried to get him to continue his sentence, the playful smile on her face hinting that she was expecting Loki to say something insulting here in an attempt to rile her up.

“Beautiful,” Loki’s voice was soaked in a softness he didn’t even know he could reach. It was clear Sylvie wasn’t expecting this answer, the teasing smile on her face dropping away to a look of genuine shock. “Although, I’m sure you know that already, and I’m sure I’m not the first person to tell you that, but-,” And there he went, rambling away again. She just seemed to have that effect on him.

The touch of her hand on his knee was enough to bring his ramblings to a stuttering stop, effectively drying up any words he were to speak - or, at least, any words that actually made some sort of sense.

“It’s the first time I’ve heard it from someone that matters,” Sylvie tells him.

Loki smiles, placing his hand atop hers on his knee. “Then I’ll be sure to say it more often,” He says it like a promise — one he fully intends to keep.

There was that part of her, a part she’s sure will always be buried deep within, that was telling her to stop all of this. It was one of self-preservation, needing to be cruel to prevent the heartache later down the road. It was hard to shake off the years of saying goodbye to every person she’s ever crossed paths with, only getting to know people for the briefest of times before they’re obliterated from the universe. She learned fairly quickly that it was better to stay away and live a lonely life than one of single-day friendships and infinite, painful goodbyes.

Even now, after all that’s happened, it still remains there. It was all supposed to end with her sword plunged into the chest of whoever ran the TVA, and she had done that. And yet… here she was again, running from the TVA and creating yet another plan to take out their leader again. Oh, and there were multiple versions of him somewhere out there, most likely already out on a quest of conquest. There was even a chance that He already knew of them, from where some form of the TVA out there hot on their tails having reported these two stubborn variants in possession of TVA equipment to their all-powerful leader

Well… at least she didn’t have to go it alone this time. Even with that voice screaming at her to get away from Loki as fast as possible, to separate herself from him before those already messy, judgment-clouding feelings only grow all the more messier, and all the more stronger. No, this time, it was different. This time, she would not listen to that voice. She would allow herself to have these moments, of his touch on her, and she’d…. she’d let herself want this — because God’s help her, she does.

“Wait, hang on a minute,” Sylvie starts, narrowing her eyes at him in amusement. “What you just said… are you insinuating you don’t find yourself beautiful? You? You’re a Loki -- narcissism is what makes us!”

“Well, I’m not sure if beautiful is the word I’d use…” Loki said. “Perhaps ‘dashingly handsome’ or perhaps even ‘dapper’, or something along those lines. But… it’s also ‘beauty in the eye of the beholder' and all that, is it not?”

Sylvie somehow manages to pack a whole lot of sarcasm into her hum of agreement. “Kind of sounds like you’re just trying to fish for compliments now.”

“Is it working?”

“Afraid not.”

Loki ‘tsked’ with a click of his tongue, shaking his head in mock disappointment. “You should know better than to lie to someone who does it professionally, Sylvie.”

“And what exactly is that supposed to mean?”

“I saw the way you looked at me back on Lamentis,” Loki said, getting a confused eyebrow raise from Sylvie. “In that little mining cabin? I couldn’t quite figure out if you were going to threaten me to get the TemPad, or seduce me.”

Sylvie’s snort of laughter chipped a tiny bit of his ego off. “I was trying to enchant you. Needed to find some way to get close enough to you without getting a knife in my throat.”

“And seduction was the best way to go about that?” Loki exclaimed.

Sylvie shrugged her shoulders. “Worked before.”

Loki wasn’t too sure why the thought of Sylvie looking at others in the way he had looked at her made him feel quite so bitter. Actually, that was a lie. He knew exactly why he was feeling like that. He just didn’t like to admit that the claws of jealousy had dug in quite so deep.

“Well, now I feel like I owe you a compliment, what with you looking so downcast,” Sylvie said, giving his shoulder a playful nudge with her own.

“Only if you mean it,” Loki grumbled, flicking out a hand to cast a bit more of his magic to revitalize the dying flames of the fire.

“You know, there’s a reason I kissed you back in the citadel-” Sylvie began, only for Loki to quickly interject.

“Oh, well I had assumed it was due to me pouring my heart out to you; unless me becoming a crying mess suddenly made me irresistible to you-”

“Would you at least let me finish what I was saying?” Sylvie shoved his shoulder perhaps a little bit harder than she should have, nearly sending Loki sprawling off the log. “Look, I could give you the usual compliments, with the -- what were the ones you used? Dashingly handsome and what not?”

“But… you won’t?”

“No, I won’t. But not because I don’t think them, but because… because whatever this is-” Sylvie gestured with a hand between them. “-It goes deeper than all that.”

“Ah…” Loki said quietly, looking away to the fire with a nod of his head. “You know, the whole ‘beauty is on the inside’ thing is what people say to ugly people.”

Sylvie did all she could to bury down the urge to shove him into the fire. “All right, you want the truth?”

Loki perked up at that, looking back over to Sylvie in anticipation.

“Have you ever heard the term ‘the eyes are the windows into the soul?’” Sylvie asked, getting a somewhat confused-looking nod in response. “You’re a very skilled man, Loki. Especially in the art of manipulation, and deceit. You somehow find a way to twist everything you say, to turn serious conversations into a game – one where somehow you always end up on top, knowing everything you set out to discover, without the other person even realizing they’ve lost. I’ve seen the sharp wit of your thoughts reflected in your eyes when we first met, and you were trying to play that very same game with me. I’ve seen the… cruel humor shining in them as you fight, the enjoyment you find in inflicting that kind of pain.”

Sylvie’s eyes were boring deep into his as she spoke, and Loki wondered what exactly his eyes were giving away in this very moment.

“But when we were in that citadel? When you were begging for me to stop, and I had my blade held to your throat? I saw none of that in your eyes. No ulterior motives, no trickery. Just… you. You, bearing the entire truth, and it didn’t even matter how much conviction your words held. I saw it all in your eyes, anyway. And that’s when I knew, I…” Sylvie huffed out a quiet laugh. “I was doomed. I couldn’t kill you. And I didn’t want to hurt you, either. But I knew that I was going to have to if it meant keeping you safe. Even from me.”

“And so you kissed me,” Loki said.

“And so I kissed you,” Sylvie echoed softly. “Because I knew I needed to say goodbye, and because… because it was the only way I knew how to say that I felt the same.”

Loki looked down to the ground, sliding his tongue across his upper lip unconsciously before he spoke. “You know what would be nice? If we at least once got to kiss without either of us crying. Two for two’s a bit odd, isn’t it?”

But the attempt at a joke did not get a laugh out of Sylvie. Not even a smile. Instead, he felt his heart leap into his throat at the way her eyes — that were still boring deep into his soul — flickered down to his lips, lingering there for just a moment before returning back to his intense gaze.

“We’re not crying now.”

It was as clear an invitation as any. And yet, the thought of leaning in and closing the distance between them still filled his body with uncertainty and hesitation. Not because he didn’t want to — in fact, just how much he did want to was all kinds of terrifying with how much it overwhelmed him — but because… truth be told, he was scared of messing this all up. Both times they’ve kissed, he had let her take control. She had been the one to make that first step, to reach out to him and let their lips slide together. She had been the initiator, and he had been the eager and willing participant.

Now though, that didn’t seem to be the case. The tension was building between them with every passing second, and he knew full well that Sylvie was doing all she could to say ‘Kiss me, you idiot’ without actually saying anything out loud. And yet, that fear remained that he’ll step over the line, push her boundaries too much, and… that’d be it.

But he’d made a promise to her. He said he’d keep trying, no matter what.

So he kept his promise.

Loki leaned forward, pausing a hairs-breadth away, their lips barely brushing against each other. He gave her that opportunity, that moment where she could decide if she wanted to pull away. He gives it a beat, a single breath of anticipation against his mouth. He thinks she may start to say his name - most likely to call him an idiot - but then he swallows up her words with his lips. There was no rush to it. No in the moment, emotions on a knife’s edge, desperation to it like there had been the other times. It was just… them. She wasn’t kissing him because it was a goodbye, or a distraction, and he wasn’t kissing her in the fear that he may never see her again. It was simply because they wanted to, and because they can.

Loki’s hand drifted up to her face, caressing the side of her jaw and leaning deeper into the kiss. Heat seemed to burn through his veins, almost as if he was actually sitting in the roaring fire nearby instead of being sat next to it. It felt like his entire body wanted to sink into it, into their kiss, into her. And, judging by the way her hand had latched onto a patch of shirt by his chest, scrunching it up so hard that he could feel the scratch of her nails against his skin, she wanted it just as much as he did.

And… that’s when the cheering started.

They both startled apart, ripping their hands away from one another and instinctively reaching for their weapons. It appeared that a small group of the locals had wandered over, curious to know who the newcomers were, and had walked into quite the sight. Both Loki and Sylvie wore matching red faces at the sounds of their cheers and hollering, not understanding a word of what was being spoken but understanding the teasing in their tone nonetheless.

“Seems we’ve attracted quite the audience…” Loki murmurs to Sylvie, leaning his head towards her to keep his voice unheard from the locals.

“They… they didn’t do this last time,” Sylvie whispers back. “No one took notice, or came over to see who I was.”

“Well, it’s not like last time, is it?” Loki spoke to Sylvie, but his eyes were cautiously trained on one of the locals who had stepped away from the group, approaching the two with a big smile on his face and an object in hand that he couldn’t identify from here. “You weren’t with me.”

They both still kept a hand on their weapons as the man approached. The man didn’t seem to take notice — and if he did, he didn’t seem to care. Like the others of this planet, he was dressed in a long robe that cut off just after the ankles, it's likely once strikingly turquoise color now covered in a layer of dust, with various rips and tears slashed into the silky looking material. The smile had yet to wipe from his face as he arrived at their fire, babbling away in whatever language it was that these people spoke. Neither had any clue as to what the man was saying, but the friendliness of his tone seeped into his words, and whilst the two of them remained somewhat wary, it did help to relax some of the tension that had been building since the man arrived.

“I’m sorry, we… we don’t speak your language,” Loki tried speaking slowly and carefully, enunciating every syllable clearly.

The man did look slightly taken aback by the strange language they spoke, and for a moment, the two of them wondered if they were going to have to use their blades after all. There was a good chance they might be mistaken for these people's enemies, and trying to claim your innocence when both parties don’t speak the same language was going to be quite tricky…

Thankfully, however, it didn’t seem to be the case. The man seemed to brush by the issue of them speaking an entirely different language quite quickly, plastering the beaming smile straight back onto his face after he got over his initial shock.

“Yalti,” The man spoke one word, enunciating just as carefully as Loki had prior. He pointed a finger to himself as he spoke, prodding at his own chest. “Yalti,”

“Yalti?” Loki repeated the word, pointing at the man. It seemed to do the trick, the man’s smile somehow brightening even more.

“Yalti!” Yalti, apparently, proclaimed, jabbing himself in the chest with even more enthusiasm. Yalti then pointed his finger to Loki, raising his eyebrows expectantly.

“I think he wants to know your name,” Sylvie craned her head towards Loki to speak quietly, as he had before.

“Oh, um,” Loki cleared his throat, mirroring the man’s previous actions and pointing a finger to himself. “Loki.”

“Loki?” Yalti spoke his name with great care, as if pronouncing his name wrong was of a great rudeness. “Loki!”

“Yes, Loki,” Loki repeated himself with a small chuckle, the man's enthusiasm rubbing off on him.

The two of them startled once more as Yalti shouted something to the group nearby, followed by the yell of Loki’s name. The sounds of the people’s cheers were something odd to hear, especially as they were then followed by a single word, yelled out to the night sky.

“ LOKI! LOKI! LOKI! ”

Loki could only turn his bemused gaze over to Sylvie, who looked just as flummoxed with what was going on as he felt.

“Perhaps they know me?” He offered, looking between all the people, that who were of a species he did not recognize. “I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing…”

As the cheers began to die down, Yalti started to speak to them once more. Of course, they still didn’t know what he was saying, and whilst Yalti looked a tiny bit frustrated at the lack of communication, he still seemed to be having fun with what was going on. He reached out a hand, this time pointing his finger towards Sylvie.

Sylvie gave the man a polite smile, pointing to herself as she answered his silent question. “Sylvie.”

“Sylvie!” Yalti gave her name the same treatment as Loki’s, passing on her name to the crowd. And, just like with Loki, they returned her name in a chorus of cheers that tugged at something within her heart. She hadn’t had many people to tell her name to. In fact, until meeting Loki, there hadn’t been that many times she had even heard it being spoken to her. And now here she was, listening to a group of survivors chant her name like she was their savior. Like she had done something good, just by being here.

“ Sylvie! Sylvie! Sylvie!”

“This is… surreal,” Loki said, unsure whether to keep his eyes trained on the — now clearly — inebriated crowd as their cheers slowly drifted off with them as they dispersed into the night, or on Sylvie, as she watched them leave with a look that somehow both made him want to smile, yet comfort her at the same time.

“That’s one word for it,” Sylvie utters gently.

Whilst the rest of the group had disappeared back to wherever it was they had come from, there was one lone figure who had chosen to remain. They both watched as Yalti dropped down onto one of the other logs grouped around the fire, taking a long swig from what Loki now recognized as a canteen. Yalti took deep gulps from it, appearing to savor every last drop. Loki almost made the joke to calm down; it wasn’t the end of the world. Except… it was, and the joke didn’t seem quite so funny anymore.

Yalti catches their stare, pulling the flask from his lips with a friendly smile. His hands go into the interior of his robes, pulling out another flask and offering it to them. Not one to pass on such a kind gesture, Loki reached out to take the flask from him, hoping the smile he gave in return showed his appreciation.

“Really hope this isn’t poison or something…” Loki half-jokes to Sylvie as he unscrews the lid, taking a precautionary whiff of its contents. Whatever it was, it smelt strong, strong enough that he could almost taste the bitterness of it just from its smell. It was accompanied by a musty, sweet kind of odor though, the two opposites clashing yet, oddly, complimenting one another.

Loki throws caution to the wind with a shrug of his shoulders, bringing the flask to his mouth and taking a tester sip. The beverage was, indeed, bitter overall in taste, burning as it slipped down his throat. But when he let it settle on his tongue for a moment, he could taste the hint of something sweet that he had smelt before, something almost like… honey? Something rich, with an earthy and kind of smokey taste. Some type of whiskey, perhaps? Or, the closest thing to whiskey that this planet had. Whilst he was more of a wine kind of guy, even he had to admit that the smooth flavor of the drink had its charms.

“You’re not going to get ‘very full’ again, are you?” Sylvie teases him.

“Only if you join me,” Loki challenges her, offering out the flask for her to take with a flash of teeth.

He hadn’t really been expecting for her to rise to his challenge, and so it filled him with a strange sort of delight when she took the flask from his hand, taking a deep drink from the flask herself. She caught his enthralled yet shocked face from the corner of her eye, handing the flask back to him with a shrug.

“Nothing happens until daybreak,” Sylvie tells him, enjoying the warmth of both the fire and the drink as it settled in her belly. “Can afford to have a bit of a rest until then.”

“Right…” Loki almost forgot that they were in the middle of an apocalypse. It seemed much too calm for it. “So... you’ve been here before?”

“Just the once,” Sylvie says, her mouth twisting into a grimace. “I try not to go back to an apocalypse I’ve already been in. Less chance of the TVA figuring things out that way, and…” Sylvie trails off, her grimace deepening even more. “I suppose it’s easier to watch strangers die, than faces you’ve seen before.”

“And… and what of home?” Loki asks timidly. “I don’t know if you knew, but um…”

“I know,” Sylvie’s voice came out as nothing more than a whisper. She brings the flask back up to her mouth to take another much-needed drink. “Ragnarok, right?”

Loki smiled sadly, giving a small nod of his head. “I… where — or when, I suppose — they took me from, it was before then. I only found out myself not too long ago, when I was searching through the TVA’s files on apocalypses to… well, to find you.”

“Then you probably know more than me,” Sylvie said.

“You never went there? I would have thought, of all the apocalypses you could go to-,”

“Loki, I already have to live with the knowledge that Asgard — my Asgard — is gone; wiped away from the timeline, and dumped into that dreary hole. All that were on my timeline: my people, my family? They’re… they’re gone. Probably devoured by Alioth,” Sylvie’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears, her obviously distraught voice catching the attention of even Yalti, who had mostly been politely ignoring their conversation that he didn’t even understand. “So yeah, funnily enough, I didn’t really fancy having to actually watch it be destroyed with my own eyes.”

“Okay... okay...” Loki said gently, the sight of her pain reflecting itself onto him. “I get it, okay? I just… I wasn’t really thinking about it that way. I was… I was just thinking of home, and… and how much I miss it.”

“ ‘Least you have more memories of home than I do,” Sylvie huffed miserably, holding out the flask for Loki to take. He does, and she crosses her arms across her stomach, leaning against them atop her legs. “Sometimes I wonder how much I remember of home are actual memories, or… dreams of what I think it was like.”

Loki swallowed down his mouthful of whiskey nervously, shuffling in place on the log. “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but…. do you remember what happened when the TVA took you? Any idea what your Nexus Event was?”

Sylvie gave a slow shake of her head side to side. “Wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, really. I was just… existing. Playing with my toys, I think. I had this…” Sylvie paused for a moment, a genuine smile of nostalgia creeping onto her face as she lost herself in her memories. “-This beautiful hand-carved boat. I think father might have even crafted it himself, I’m… I’m not too sure.”

Loki found her smile infectious, feeling the corner of his lips tick up in response to the glazed, lost in thought look in her eyes. The smile didn’t last long, however. Not with the implication behind her words. Had she really been that young when the TVA took her? Just a child, playing with her toys, and that was enough for the TVA to deem her unsuitable for the timeline?

“That’s when the TVA came,” Sylvie said, the hardness returning to her eyes once again. “It was her: Judge Renslayer. She wasn’t a judge at the time, though. Still had to work her way up the rankings — no more than a hunter back then,” Sylvie let out a humorless laugh. “Think I might have delayed her promotion a bit when I escaped under her watch.”

“Ah… that’d explain why she seemed to have it out for you in particular,” Loki connected the dots, thinking back to the fog-filled chambers of the Time-Keepers, of the vicious look on Renslayer’s face as she prepared to wield her weapon against Sylvie.

“I hope Mobius got her,” Sylvie spat. “Stabbed her with her own damn pruning stick -- give her a taste of her own medicine.”

“She was his friend once,” Loki pointed out. “He might think twice about sending someone he cared about to the Void,”

“She didn’t think twice about pruning him.”

“I’m just saying,” Loki continued. “Mobius, he’s… he’s got a good heart. He trusted me, even when everything else told him not to. Maybe you’re right, and he went straight back to the TVA, walked into her office, and pruned her. Or… maybe he saw the face of someone who was a friend, and found he couldn’t do it — even when he knew she would turn against him if given the opportunity. Maybe put her in a time-loop-,”

“Alright, I get it,” Sylvie huffed in annoyance. “You’re comparing him and Renslayer to me and Mobius -- other Mobius. Are you trying to say that I should have killed the other Mobius?”

“What? No-! ” Loki spluttered. “I’m saying that there’s a chance that Renslayer might still be out there. Whether that be with her still in charge at the TVA, or one of their prisoners, or… I don’t know. I’m still not entirely sure what her role is in all of this.”

“She didn’t even know about the Time-Keepers,” Sylvie brought up. “She was in the dark as much as we were, and yet… she didn’t care. She still wanted to stop me --stop us -- and protect Him.”

“Are we sure she didn’t know about He Who Remains?” Loki asked. “It seems odd that she’d be so desperate to protect Him, when she doesn’t even know who he is.”

“Maybe she won’t be the only one to react that way to the truth of who their leader really is,” Sylvie said. “Maybe some, like Mobius, will want to tear it all down. But others like her? Maybe they just… can’t deal with the thought that all their work was for nothing. Maybe they cling onto the idea that they did something of importance, and that He Who Remains did what they did for a reason.”

Loki groaned softly, barely resisting the urge to bury his face into his hands. “It’s… it’s all going to be such a mess. I don’t know if Mobius will have taken over, or if the TVA broke out into civil war, or…” Loki shook his head, leaning his head back with a heavy sigh. “We need to find a way back, Sylvie. Mobius is going to need our help, and… as much as I hate to admit it, we’re going to need the TVA’s help with this, too.”

For a moment, Sylvie said nothing. Loki could only sit, waiting awkwardly for her reaction, wincing in preparation for the argument that’s about to come.

“I think you might be right.”

‘Well, that’s a first,’ Loki thought.

“Come again?”

“Don’t start,” Sylvie shot him a look of warning. “I was thinking about it earlier when I made the Time-Door to this place…” Sylvie held up her arm, the two of them watching the mesmerizing glow of the golden cracks streaking across the TemPad. “This TemPad, it’s… it’s nothing like the ones I’ve used before – the ones all TVA workers have. I’m still learning how to use it, but it’s… confusing, to say the least. I can just about select a place and-or a time with it, but… clearly I don’t know everything, since I accidentally sent you to the TVA in an entirely different timeline.”

“Is there any way to select a certain timeline?” Loki asked, glancing between Sylvie and the TemPad.

“I don’t know,” Sylvie said. “With the TVA’s Tempad, there… there wasn’t a need to jump between timelines, because there was only one available to them. They weren’t exactly jumping into different branches, rather… they were jumping to the time and place the branch originated from and pruning it out of existence before it could develop into a separate timeline.”

“But… that’s not a TVA TemPad,” Loki pointed out the obvious. “It’s ‘He Who Remain’s’ TemPad. He said it himself didn’t he, that his first variation in the thirty-first century discovered technology to open up Time-Doors between multiverses? Surely he then used that to jump between the different timelines and… prune them all until only his was left.”

“Maybe,” Sylvie says, dropping her hand back down to her lap. “There’s another problem, though.”

There was always a damn problem. “What is it?”

“I’ve got no idea how much charge is left in this thing,” Sylvie gestures lazily to the TemPad with a twitch of her hand. “Maybe ‘He Who Remains’ found a way to give it infinite charge -- or maybe it’s stuck with the same limitations the TVA’s TemPad’s have.”

“So… there’s every chance the next Time-Door we open could be the last?” Loki guessed.

“That’s what I’m thinking.”

Loki leaned back on the log, taking in a deep breath through his nose. “Then I suppose we better make every one count.”

Sylvie nodded her head in response, looking down to the TemPad as she dragged her fingers leisurely over its smooth surface. It responded to her touch, leaving a glowing trail along the golden cracks that followed wherever her finger went. It seemed almost… alive in the way it responded to her touch.

“What exactly happens here?” Loki brings her attention back to him. “What causes the apocalypse?”

“War,” Sylvie answers, her eyes trailing off to the ruined city that was now no more than a shadowy background displayed on the night sky. “Some other civilization in this solar system that had left these people alone, for the most part. Not too sure on the specifics, but… there was some sort of disagreement between the two planets. Whatever it is… let’s just say that the other planet is much more advanced than this one. These people… they stood no chance against the power they hold.”

“And so… what, they just decide to wipe out the entire planet to win the war?” Loki asks.

“Apparently so,” Sylvie answered. “At first light, the other civilization sends down a warning. One last offer for them to surrender, and save what remains of their people.”

Loki glances over to Yalti, who had been watching them converse in complete and utter silence. Despite not knowing what they were talking about, the look on Yalti’s face was that of a haunted man. Strangely still, whilst it was Loki that was looking to him, Yalti had his eyes fixated on Sylvie, who shuffled uncomfortably under his peering stare.

“I’m guessing they don’t take the offer?” Loki asks Sylvie, tearing his gaze away from Yalti to look to her.

“No,” Sylvie is unable to look away from Yalti as Loki did, feeling a strange bundle of nerves begin to rise at just how intensely he seemed to be observing her. “No, uh… they don’t.”

“Why not?” Loki asks, even though he knows Sylvie doesn’t have the answer. “Their city is destroyed, it seems like they barely have enough resources to survive, let alone to rebuild. What’s left here that they’re willing to die for?”

“Pride?” Sylvie guessed. “Stubbornness? An unwillingness to leave their home?”

Yalti slowly stood from his place on the log, the movement catching both Loki and Sylvie’s eye. They watch, ready to leap into defense at a single wrong move as Yalti somewhat stumbles towards them, having a difficult time walking in a straight line with all the alcohol that was running through his veins.

His hands go into his pockets once more, and Sylvie and Loki look to one another, waiting for the inevitable moment a weapon is pulled on them. Yalti’s hands slide back out of his pocket, now clutching a small, square-shaped device that appeared to be made of some sort of sleek and shiny metal, with a smoky glass screen sat on top. Yalti slurred out a few words in his native tongue, gesturing to the device as he does so. When they only blink blankly at him in response, Yalti gives a bit of an annoyed huff before running his fingers across the metal square. A dull light emits from the screen on top, and it’s only a few taps of his fingers across it later that a holographic image bursts to life above the device.

It was… a picture of a young girl. Maybe around eight, ten at most. It was more than just the glow of the screen that lit up Yalti’s face as he looked to the girl with a fond smile stretching across his face. He glanced over to Loki and Sylvie, and they both were somewhat startled to see the tears that had begun to build in his eyes. Yalti pointed to the little girl, then pointed his fingers back at himself, jabbing himself in the space above his heart multiple times to try and get his point across.

“It’s… his daughter,” Loki breathed in realization. “And she, um… Sylvie, she kind of looks like-,”

“-Me,” Sylvie finished Loki’s sentence for him. “She looks like me.”

Loki was starting to understand why Yalti had been staring at Sylvie as much as he had now. The image of the girl, whilst somewhat grainy and flickering, still showed a striking similarity to Sylvie — or, at least, how he could envision her to have looked when she was a young girl herself. Sure, there were a few minor differences here and there: such as the girl's eyes being a tiny bit wider, or her nose having a slight downward turn to it that Sylvie’s didn’t, but… for Sylvie, it still strangely felt like looking back in time at herself.

Yalti pressed atop the screen once again, and the image burst to life. What was once a still picture changed to a moving image, displaying the little girl out somewhere amidst this planet's countryside. The girl giggled with delight as she ran through the long grass of a meadow, being chased by Yalti, whose own booming laughter rang out into the cool night air around them. Yalti reached out a hand towards the holographic video, as if trying to reach for his daughter within. But of course, his hand only passed through the displayed images, and the smile slowly dropped away from his face.

The hologram flickers, sending the video into a mess of glitches, becoming almost recognizable as it struggled to continue playing. Then it flickers again, and again, and all three can only watch as the hologram disappears altogether, sucking away its bluish light until they’re left in nothing more than the orange and reds of the fire. Loki and Sylvie exchange looks as Yalti keeps his eyes fixated on the powered-down device. He closed his eyes, the movement squeezing out a single tear that sluggishly trailed down his face, leaving a clean line through the dust that had caked his skin.

When Yalti opened his eyes again, he seemed almost relieved to see them still sitting there. Perhaps, when you’re going through the end of the world, not many people are willing to listen or share in your individual grief, especially when they’re all going through grief of their own. Yalti caught their eye, raising a hand to point in the direction of where the image of his daughter once was, before pointing over his shoulder to the remains of the city. He then raised his hand into the air, whistling a long note that dropped in pitch as he lowered his hand down towards the ground. They hadn’t needed his mime-like explanations of what happened. There was only going to be one reason why the girl on his holographic device wasn’t with him.

“I’m sorry,” Sylvie says, hoping that the meaning of her words comes across in the gentleness of her tone.

Yalti gives her a shaky smile, taking a single step towards her — probably the most steady movement he’s made since he joined them by the fire. He lowers himself down onto his knees in front of her, raising one hand up to her face and tenderly cradling her cheek. Loki sat in silence, not wanting to interrupt such a moment, yet also wanting to step in, knowing that Sylvie would likely feel uncomfortable with a stranger touching her this way. And yet, Sylvie did not shove Yalti’s hands off of her, nor did she look all that disturbed by what was happening. Yalti speaks to her again, and the raw emotion packed into his voice as he got out those few trembling words was enough even for Loki’s chest to clench in sympathy. The two of them could only stare at one another – this poor, unfortunate man haunted by the vision of who his little girl never got the opportunity to grow up to be, whilst Sylvie was haunted with her own visions: the vision of the happy life, and the caring father she never got to experience.

Yalti’s hand dropped away from Sylvie’s face, bowing his head to her in what Loki could only assume was either some form of respect, or perhaps even their way of saying goodbye. He gets clumsily back up to his feet, clumsy enough that Loki briefly wonders what the chances were of him falling straight back into the fire was. Fortunately, they didn’t have to witness such a thing, as Yalti seems to get his feet under him.

“Sylvie,” Yalti says her name, one of the only pieces of their language he had learned from them. He then turns to Loki, repeating the same bow he had given to Sylvie. “Loki,”

Loki found himself mirroring the bowed movement without much of a thought, tipping his head towards the ground. “Yalti.”

Yalti shot them one last grateful smile, lifting his hand and giving them a kind wave — a gesture they at least recognized. Then, just like that, he had turned away from them, walking off in the direction of the tents and the welcoming town’s people within.

“You okay?” Loki made sure to ask Sylvie as soon as possible.

“-‘M fine,” Sylvie tried to brush his concerns off, but Loki could easily pick up on the little sniffle she made after saying this. “Bit of a shock, I guess. But I’m fine.”

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Loki said, trying to catch Sylvie’s gaze as she stared blankly into the fire. “But if you do… I’m here to listen.”

Sylvie glanced over at him, managing to force out a somewhat strained-looking smile. “I will. Someday. Just… not today.”

‘I will’ was better than just a ‘no’, Loki supposed. Not that he could blame her for not wanting to talk about what had just gone down. He picked up the flask from his side, offering it out to Sylvie again. She looked down to it, looking moments away from reaching out for it. She seems to think better about it though, shaking her head in a ‘no’.

“Probably a good idea,” Loki said with a soft chuckle, tucking the half-drunken flask into his shirt pocket. Sylvie seemed to be lost in her own thoughts, eyes unfocused and glazed over as she played absentmindedly with her fingers in her lap. Loki watched her quietly, content to sit here in the comfortable silence they had found themselves in.

But the silence didn’t last long. They almost didn’t notice the gentle notes being sung from somewhere within this planet’s little make-shift town, being crowed out by what must have been a fairly decent-sized group. The beginnings of the song at least seemed to snap Sylvie out of whatever thoughts she was trapped in, the two of them perking their heads up simultaneously, listening out for the direction of the sound.

Then, another chorus of voices joined in. Whatever this song was, it seemed to be known by all of this planet’s inhabitants. And then another group joined in. And another. The voices just kept adding to the song, the soft undertones of the song growing louder and louder as more people add their voices to it.

It was… it was beautiful. They didn’t know the meaning behind the lyrics of the song, but they didn’t need to. The power behind it seemed to vibrate through their chests, chilling and somewhat haunting in sound, yet… undeniably beautiful to hear. It was not a song of hope, nor was it a song that was sung to inspire defiance in the face of almost certain death.

It was a goodbye.

“How do you do it?” Loki asks, his voice no more than a murmur amidst the chorus of voices that filled the air. “All those different apocalypses, so many civilizations you’ve watched be extinguished… How did you keep going?”

“Because I had to,” Sylvie answers woefully. “You know, every day, I would ask myself the same kind of thing: What’s the point anymore? What is there left to keep fighting for? Everything I ever knew was… gone. My life was nothing more than endless running, trying to keep one step ahead of an organization that knew everything that was ever going to happen. I would dream of the day I finally came face to face with the Time-Keepers, and I tried to grab hold of the feeling I imagined I’d experience as I sunk my sword into their chest.”

Sylvie frowned, almost as if she was annoyed with herself. “I could never imagine it, though. But I kept chasing for it, because… it’s all I had. I didn’t want to think about what came next, because once I earned my freedom… I didn’t know what to do with it. What would there be to keep me going?”

“A new chance at life?” Loki offered. “The opportunity to do whatever you wanted, and not have to worry about the TVA deciding you weren’t allowed it?”

“That’s what should have kept me going, yeah,” Sylvie said with a shrug. “But it wasn’t. Every time I opened up another Time-Door, and I watched the last moments of the world I had come to know for the shortest of times… I told myself that that was why I was doing this; because my mission wouldn’t just free me. If I ended it, then… I would end all of that misery. Their worlds wouldn’t have to be put through an apocalyptic event, just because some all-knowing dickhead wrote it into his story. People wouldn’t have to lose their daughters, their sons, their family, everyone they love, because one man thought they would need it to ‘be changed by the journey’. That’s how I did it, that’s why I forced myself to watch the ends of a thousand worlds. Because without that anger, that desire for revenge on other’s behalf? Then…”

Loki already knew what she was going to say, but in no way did he want to hear her say it.

“Then one of those days, I might not have bothered to open up that Time-Door.”

He might not have ever wanted to hear such words from her, but that wasn’t to say he didn’t understand. He glanced down at where the flask of whiskey was peeking out from his pocket, fighting back the temptation to take it out and drink from it once more.

“I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but, um…” Loki began awkwardly, eyes darting between the ground and Sylvie’s waiting gaze. “I’m glad that you went through all that, if it meant that… you, uh… you chose to keep fighting.”

Sylvie huffed in disbelief at his words, lightly tapping her boot against his leg. “Yeah, I’m sure you're grateful that I stuck around long enough to single-handedly screw up every single timeline by creating an infinite amount of ‘He Who Remains’, whose only desire is to rule over them all.”

“We both fought to be stood in that office at the end of time, Sylvie,” Loki reminded her. “Don’t go and place all the blame on yourself.”

“You’re not the one that held that sword though, are you?” Sylvie countered. “I killed him, and I can’t share that blame with anyone else.”

“You did what you thought was right,” Loki tried his best to counter her self-sabotaging efforts. “And you’re here now, aren’t you? Trying to set it right?”

“Doesn’t mean I should have done what I did.”

“Maybe not. But what’s done is done. Yes, there’s… there’s an unfathomable danger that we’re now going to have to face. But just think about how many lives you changed with your decision. All those people who made one change in their life, perhaps one to try and better themselves, and they get to continue to live that life without one single ruler deciding that it doesn’t fit into the story he’s crafted.”

“I know, I just… I can’t stop thinking about Him. I don’t even know how much time we have left before he - whichever version of Him - makes his first move. Maybe he already has, and we just don’t know it yet. How long before the war he starts stretches out across every timeline I created by killing him?”

Sylvie brings her hands up to her face, rubbing her fingers across tired eyes. “All of this… because one man decided he should be the master of everyone’s destiny…”

“Well… at least he did one good thing,” Loki claimed, much to Sylvie’s confusion. She dropped her hands away from her face, looking to Loki with an almost wary frown as she waited for him to elaborate.

“And what’s that?”

“He weaved the strings of fate together that led me to you.”

“That was awfully sappy,” Sylvie lied straight to his face, pretending she didn’t feel the bubble of warmth that filled her chest and was trying to force an embarrassingly giddy smile onto her face - which still crept onto her face, despite her best efforts to contain it.

“Ah, you love it,” Loki said, and a part of Sylvie hated that it was entirely true. The sight of the abashed smile on her face brought out a tender one of his own, enjoying this brief moment of something good that they got to share; something he had a feeling came few and far between when living a life composed of the ends of others.

The songs of the people had long since died off, leaving them with nothing more than the sounds of nature around them, and the strangely pleasing sounding cracks and pops of the fire as it continued to burn away. The night was quiet, but not in an eerie way. It felt like the world was inviting them to rest: the blanket of warmth from the fire washing over them, combined nicely with the cooling breeze that brushed over their skin; the reassuring feel of the other pressed against them, sat side by side, shoulder to shoulder, knowing that the person next to them would keep them safe.

The touch to Loki’s shoulder surprised him, glancing down to see that Sylvie was resting her head against his arm and using him as her own personal pillow. Which, he found, he did not mind in the slightest. She had closed her eyes, looking the most at peace he thinks he’s seen her be since… never, now that he thought about it. Even in the brief nap she got aboard the train on Lamentis, her sleep did not look particularly restful; almost like she was sleeping with one eye open, ready to defend herself if the need arises, never one to show a single ounce of vulnerability to anyone.

‘I can’t sleep around untrustworthy people’

The warmth of her skin bled through the thin cotton material of his TVA shirt — a sensation he’s not particularly used to. In fact… he’s fairly certain no one has ever used him as a pillow before. There certainly weren’t many people he would let rest against him, or even be as close to him as she was. It was insane when he thought of how much had changed in such a short amount of time. How much he had changed. His perspective had shifted entirely, becoming the kind of man he used to laugh at. Love was weakness. Love was giving someone else the opportunity to take advantage of you, distract you from what truly mattered. Love was something that turned you soft, that made you think twice before doing what needed to be done.

Oh, how he was wrong. Love was… power. Love was giving yourself to another person -- not relying on that other person to make you whole, but to better one another, to strengthen the weaknesses you thought were buried and hidden.

Love was… everything that she was.

For a while, Loki just… sat. It felt like his eyelids were being weighed down, and his entire body felt ready to sink into itself and fall into that deep, dark nothingness. But he knew that, even in a place like this where everyone seemed friendly, that it was important for at least one of them to keep on guard. Especially when said place is the location of a fast-approaching apocalypse. But as the minutes ticked by, and the effects of drowsiness seemed to dig its claws in, it didn’t take long before he found his head leaning to the side, resting against the top of Sylvie’s head where she had finally fallen into somewhat of a restful slumber as she laid against him.

The minutes that passed by seemed to last for hours, time slowed down as it mocked him in his efforts to stay awake. Even now, as he looked up at the impressive expanse of stars sprinkled within the night sky, it almost looked as if some of them were missing. Huge chunks of space where stars should be simply vanished, left with nothing but a blob of pitch black.

Actually… it looked more defined than a blob. There was… a certain shape to the missing spots, kind of thin-looking with large appendages sticking out from either side. And… and now that he looked at them… were they… were they moving?

“Sylvie…” Loki regretfully whispered to get her awake, not wanting to interrupt her much-needed rest. “Sylvie, the stars are gone.”

The strangeness of his statement roused Sylvie from her groggy state, blinking blearily up at him as he stared transfixed at the sky. “The stars are… what?”

“There’s so many of them,” Loki tore his eyes away for just a second to tell her, before they snapped back to the various different spots of emptiness. “It… it looks like someone punched out holes in the sky…”

It took a few moments for her blurry vision to focus onto what Loki was referring to, squinting up at what did in fact look like splotches of the sky that had been reduced to nothingness. It wasn’t until she saw smaller, almost impossible to see black blurs of movement that looked to be falling from the missing spots that the reality of what was happening crashed into her. Loki could feel her entire body go tense next to him, shooting up from the log with the most frantic and downright panic-stricken look he’s ever seen for her, frightened enough that his body seemed to instinctively react – jumping up from the log as adrenaline shoots through his system, looking wildly between the falling objects and Sylvie.

“What? What is it-,”

“They’re not holes in the sky,” Sylvie stated the obvious, fumbling for the TemPad. “They came early.”

“Who did?”

“The other civilization,” Sylvie answered, her fingers shaking as they swiped across the TemPad. “Those are space-crafts, Loki. And that’s not a warning. This is it; this is the end.”

It was only then that it sunk in for Loki. Other people nearby had also taken notice, a confused murmur rippling across the fields. People had begun to leave their tents, taking a look for themselves to see what was going on. It didn’t take long after that for the screams of terror to break out, erupting into chaos as these unfortunate souls scrambled for cover that did not exist.

That's when the bombs hit. Or, he assumed they were bombs. Not that he could hear the explosion. At least, not from here. Not yet. But he could certainly see it. He could certainly see the multiple waves of blistering fire as it erupted upon contact with the ground, watched as the wall of destruction was forced towards them. There was nothing he could do, no magic he could use that would shield them from the force of the blast that was about to hit them.

"Sylvie-,"

"I'm working on it!" Sylvie was still frantically tapping at the TemPad, and the reminder of their early conversation about how much charge might be left in the TemPad came rushing back.

This could very well be it. This could be their last moments, once again stood side by side, watching as the end of a world, the end of their time, approaches. Unstoppable. Inevitable.

They were met with the horrific sight of the night sky set aflame, watching as this tidal wave of death washed over the little town. It kind of reminded him of Alioth: of the time it barrelled towards them, intent on swallowing them up and reducing them to nothing. Loki could on watch on in horror, taking in the sight of these people’s little make-shift homes disintegrating from the intense heat, those sheltered within barely able to get out a scream of agony as they’re burnt to a crisp with it-

And then the ground under their feet turned into a rectangle of gold with a familiar-sounding blip, only able to meet Sylvie’s relieved eyes for a split second before he once again found himself falling, sinking down into the Time-Door manifested below them. His last view of this singular world — one he knows he will never forget, whilst being yet another average day for Sylvie — rushing by as he dropped.

He knew now why Sylvie did all she could not to get attached to anyone. For when he thinks of Yalti, he won’t think of the kind stranger that offered them a drink and shared his memories with them. He’ll think about how he knows what the smell of a person's skin boiling off their body is like, and the gurgled scream he gave as his body began to melt.

He could only hope that somewhere out there — whether that be in a separate timeline, or in some semblance of an afterlife — that Yalti will get to see his daughter again.

On the bright side… he now had more fuel to fan the flames burning deep in his stomach. He knew that finding a way to eradicate ‘He Who Remains’ from the timeline — from every timeline — is a task made from necessity. But after witnessing something like this? Knowing that he may have to watch many, many more?

He might just take pleasure in watching the light leave the last variation of ‘His’ eyes as they bring him to his end.

Next Chapter - - ->

#sylki #sylki fanfiction #sylki fanfic #pro sylki #loki/sylvie #lovedagger #enchantricks

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queen-of-the-avengers · 4 years ago

Text

Pick A Side

Characters: Steve Rogers x Stark!Reader, Tony Stark

Word Count: 1,886

Warnings: angst, captain america civil war and sokovia accords spoilers

Request by @previouslyforgotten: Alright this takes place during CACW and the reader is Tony’s daughter. He expects her to take his side but she takes Steve’s side. Maybe bc she thinks it’s right idk? But she’s like “I love you dad, but you can’t ask me to not choose what I think is right”?? And maybe make it buckyxreader. Or maybe Steve? Or whoever it doesn’t matter. But I’ve had this in my mind for awhile and I figured I’d ask.

Summary: You’re a Stark, so people expect you to take your father’s side on everything. When the Sokovia Accords are presented, you have a choice to make: will you take your father’s side or the side you believe in? What will it do to your family?

Squares Filled: captain america for my second card of @star-spangled-bingo // rivarly for my second card of @avengersbingo // balconies/rooftops for my second card of @happystevebingo

Author’s Note: If you have any requests, please send them in! This is unbeta’d and any and all mistakes are all on me.

Being Tony’s daughter is something hard to live by. It holds a high standard for everyone who hears it. People expect you to show up to events, to be as smart as your father, to protect those when they ask, to be a hero even though you don’t know how to be one, and to make sacrifices that a normal eighteen-year-old wouldn’t dare to make. Being Tony’s daughter has put a lot of strain onto your life, but you knew one thing to be true: if you hadn’t been his daughter, you wouldn’t have met any of the people you live and work with.

And what wonderful people they are.

The person you grew closest to would have to be Natasha. She understands how suffocating Tony can be, so she offers you a place to rewind and let go of everything that is bothering you. She knows a bit too much about being trapped inside your own head, to have so many people relying on you to do the right thing and to show up and to be what they expect, and she takes that all away.

The person you love to have fun with is Bucky. He’s the one you go to when you need to get out of the house. Despite being trapped with HYRDA, he does know how to have a good time. He grew up in Brooklyn in the 1940s, he loves to dance, be outside, to hike, to be involved with nature in every way possible. He finds peace in doing that, and you love to join him.

The person you love to learn about magic is Wanda. She is always looking for an excuse to show off her powers, and you go to her whenever you want to learn about what she can do. She manipulates minds, and you admit to asking her to make you see what a world would be like if there were no problems and everyone is happy. It’s a delusion, but you just want to live at that moment even if it is for a few minutes. She’s loyal and trusting, and she’s a really good friend to count on.

The person you go to about knowledge is Thor. He knows everything about all the worlds in the Nine Realms. He introduced you to Heimdall who showed you what he can do. Thor is a crazy and silly friend, but his heart is always pure. He makes you laugh when you’re feeling sad, and you trust him with your life.

The person you go to about science is, of course, Bruce. The people you go to about athletic skills are Sam and Clint. The people you go to learn about the new world are Shuri and T’Challa. When you have an existential crisis is Vision. You have so many people to fall back on, and you are so grateful to have each of them in your life. Being Tony’s daughter allows you to have so many opportunities that not a lot of people are going to have.

Steve, though, well, he’s a completely different story. He’s all of those put together and more. He is your other half--when he hurts, you hurt. When he is passionate, you feel it too. When he cries, you want to sob. Everything you feel is because of him. He holds your heart like no one else does. He provides you with a home, safety, and comfort. You don’t just trust your life with the man, your life is the man. You live for him. You breathe for him. You fight for him. Everything you do is for him. Your love for him is so strong, you sometimes cry at night by yourself because you just get so overwhelmed with your feelings for him that it physically hurts.

You’re more like him in more ways than one. You have the exact same serum inside your body as he does, and that makes you the second Captain America to walk the face of the Earth. Everyone calls you Major America since you’re much younger than Steve, and Major is one rank below a Captain. As a joke, everyone thought it was funny to have your suit be just like his, but you’re not complaining. Captain America’s suit is very sexy and tight-fitting. Out of all the suits you’ve seen the team wear, Steve’s is the best. Although, you are a bit biased. Your love for him makes you think everything he does is sexy and right. You are caught in his web, and you’re not sure if you want to be untangled from it.

Yet, no one knows about you and him.

There are some suspicions, but nothing had been confirmed with most. Natasha, Vision, Thor, and Wanda know, but they don’t say anything about it. You tell Natasha everything, Wanda sees Steve in your mind when you picture complete happiness, Thor hears you ask Heimdall about Steve all the time when you’re with him, and Vision is just too smart not to know. They all keep your secret, but you’re not sure how much longer you two can go on without your father knowing.

You want to tell him, but you’re at a point in your life where you need to choose which side you want to be on; the side of justice or the side of family? The government wants to pass a thing called the “Sokovia Accords” that states they get to regulate people that have “superpowers” and dictate where they are needed and when they get to help. The events that led up to that were, of course, what happened in Sokovia with Ultron, the attack on New York with Loki and his alien army, the battle of Triskelion in Washington D.C when Bucky was the biggest threat there was at the time, and the most recent attack in Lagos, Nigeria between the Avengers and Brock Rumlow or Crossbones.

Tony picked the side the government is on along with Natasha, Rhodey, Vision, T’Challa, and the newest member, Peter Parker. Steve has the rest on his team. Everyone is waiting for you to make a decision, and it’s the worst decision you ever had to face. There is too much at state on either side, so you don’t exactly know what to do. Well, you do, but one of the two most important men in your life isn’t going to like it.

On one hand, Tony is your father, and he took you in after your mom died. He’s given you everything you could have ever dreamed of and more. He’s the best father a girl could ask for. He’s been there for you through thick and thin, and you owe him your life. There is nothing you wouldn’t do for that man.

On the other hand, Steve is the love of your life. Your soul combines with his making him the only person in the entire world who not only gets you but completely understands you. There are times where you don’t even have to say a word, and he knows what you’re going to say. It makes those emotional times go by very easily.

Your mind is telling you to pick your father’s side because he had your back and now its time for you to have his. However, your heart is telling you to pick Steve’s side because these accords will rip this team in two. Yes, a lot of people have died because of these attacks, but you also saved billions by preventing catastrophes. If it weren't for you and your team, there would be aliens killing all of New York with a psychotic maniac as their leader, Ultron would have wiped out humanity so that he could start fresh wit obedient robots at his feet, and many more attacks.

These accords aren’t what’s good for your team and humanity, and like you said earlier, one of two most important men in your life just isn’t going to be happy with what you pick.

“Y/N, it’s time to make a decision. Are you going to sign or not?” your father asks.

All eyes are on you inside the conference room. You’re legally allowed to make this kind of decision, and since you have the same serum in your body, you have a say whether or not these accords are going to be a law or not. Tears threaten to spill over your eyes as you grasp the paperwork in your hand. He’s going to hate you, you can feel it.

“Y/N?” Tony asks once more.

“I love you, Dad,” you begin with a cracked voice and end with a whisper, “but you can’t ask me to not choose what I think is right. I’m sorry, I’m not signing.”

You push the paper away just as a few tears rolled down your cheek. You can’t seem to look at your dad in the eyes because you know you’ll see the hurt, anger, and betrayal you have left on his soul. Steve knows how hard this is on you, so he takes matters into his own hands.

“You’re not being serious right now, right?” your dad asks angrily.

“Tony don’t do this. You know she did what she thought was right,” Steve steps in.

“Like hell, she isn’t. She’s only doing this because she’s fucking you,” he snaps.

More tears spill over your eyes as you got up and hastily leave the room. This is painful as it is, you don’t need your father telling everyone that he thinks you only did this because you’re shacking up with the head leader of the other side. You don’t know where you’re going, but as soon as you take a step outside, you let out a loud sob. You’ve walked right onto a balcony, and you’re grateful no one is going to see you breaking down. Your knees buckle and you almost fall, but familiar and strong arms catch you before you hit the ground.

“He hates me,” you sob into Steve’s chest.

He brings you over to one of the patio chairs and sets you down on it.

“He doesn’t hate you,” Steve sighs.

“I can’t choose his side. I can’t believe that these accords are a good thing for us. Fighting against them is the right thing to do, and I hoped he’d just see that. I didn't even know he knew. God!” you sob more.

Steve doesn’t know what to say that would make you feel better right now. Instead, he decides to hold you, comb his fingers through your hair, and make sure you know that he isn’t going anywhere right now. It’s not fair how your father is treating you, but he’s going to make sure you understand you have someone on your team to back you up.

These accords are a bad thing, and if you can get everyone on your father’s side to see that, then maybe you can start the process of healing.

However, you know you’re never going to get to that stage because just like you, your father is a very stubborn man. You’re not sure what’s going to happen with the two of you after this is over. One side has to win; you just hope it doesn’t destroy the relationship you have with your dad.

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lonelyghosts-stuff · 4 years ago

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Chapter 2: Dead Man Walking

Word Count: 2186

Chapter 1 | Chapter 3

Master List

Warnings: None

The brunette who took out the guard next to here revealed herself to be Agent Maria Hill. After briefly introducing herself, she pulled out a laser cutter device and proceeded to quickly cut a large hole through the floor of the transport vehicle you all were in. When the car came to a momentary stop, the five of you slipped out through the hole and made your getaway to another vehicle on the side of the road that was awaiting you. Without hesitation, you followed them into the car, taking a seat.

youtube

Thousands of thoughts raced through your mind as you tried to get some semblance of an understanding of what just happened. Panic and pain dominated your mind as you began to fixate on the injury to your shoulder. You tried to think slowly and thoughtfully, trying to comprehend everything that happened, anything to distract you from the pain. It wasn’t so much of the physical pain in your shoulder that hurt, but the overwhelming confusion and panic that was bearing down on your subconscious. You began questioning yourself and your decisions.

‘Why did I do that?’

‘Why did I try to be a hero?’

‘Why didn’t I just trust that Captain America had it under control?’

‘Why am I here?’

‘What’s going to happen to me?’

‘Where are we go-’

Your train of thought was suddenly cut off as you felt the car stop. Stepping outside, you realized you were parked outside of a large dam in a forested area. You followed the others out of the car and towards a metal, barred door that led into the inside of the dam’s facility; Captain America was assisting the redhead to walk as she clearly was in more pain than you could ever relate to. You felt as if you were going through an out of body experience, feeling like you had no control over your legs as they made you follow along. It was almost as if your brain was telling you that it was too late to turn back now.

Once inside the dark, damp innards of the dam, a man started to run to you guys, alert and awaiting confirmation.

Agent Hill quickly informed the man of the redheads and your conditions. “GSW, Natasha has lost at least a pint.”

“Maybe two.” Sam added, concern lacing his voice.

“This one doesn’t appear to be too hurt, but she’s clearly very shaken.” Agent Hill gestured to you.

“Let me take them!” The man responded in a helpful, but serious tone.

Before you could respond, Agent Hill did and held the man off briefly. “She’ll want to see him first.”

Not wanting to overstep any boundaries, you sucked it up and suppressed the pain and panic and followed Agent Hill as she led Captain America, Sam, you, and the now identified Natasha, into another room. Once you stepped into the room you saw a man with dark skin and an eye patch over his left eye lying in a hospital bed.

To your surprise, given the nature of the situation this man appeared to be in, he snarked, “About damn time.”

After settling down and having people attend to yours and Natasha’s injuries, the man (revealed to be called Director Nick Fury by the man caring for your shoulder) went on to describe the numerous injuries he has as well as the fact that he faked his death using something called Tetrodotoxin B which slowed his heartbeat down to one beat per minute. You got patched up and continued to listen to what Nick Fury had to say; seeing as you had nowhere else to go, you figured you might as well commit all the way.

You were filled in on the situation (some information was clearly omitted, not to your surprise as the whole thing seemed very confidential) as well as more formally introduced to the others on a name basis. The organization S.H.I.E.L.D has been compromised as members of a terrorist organization known as HYDRA have infiltrated and gained power within. Additionally, you learned about a project called ‘Project Insight’ made in order to take out threats to society before they could occur by the means of weaponized helicarriers and DNA and psychological evaluations and algorithms used as a targeting system. Under the influence of HYDRA, the project was planned to commence soon, something that would result in the deaths of thousands upon millions of people. While the group continued to converse, discussing what to be done, you backed into the corner of the room. Your whole reality felt like it was crashing down on you and that you were sinking. If this was something that had even Captain America nervous, it must be serious.

“Y/n,” Natasha gently yet sternly said, snapping you back into focus. “Are you okay? I mean, you didn’t even really have anything to do with this.”

“I...I’m not sure. I don’t know how I could be of any use-but it’s not like I have anywhere else to go now. They-whoever they are-know my face now. If I tried to back out of this, I’d just be walking into a trap or something.” You breathed, shakily. You felt tears welling up in your eyes as you felt more and more overwhelmed with each second that passed.

“Sorry to break it to you, but even if you don’t help us directly, we wouldn’t exactly be able to just let you walk out of here anyways.” Nick Fury added. “You know too much about this whole situation, as a civilian no less, to just let you get out of here at the moment.

Your heart sank into your stomach as you felt a lump in your throat form. You hadn’t even thought about that; even if they do manage to take down HYDRA and stop the helicarriers, there’s no saying that you’ll be free to go. The gaze of the other fell hot and heavy on your skin as they awaited your response.

“Nick, we can’t just keep her here like a prisoner… And we sure as hell can’t force her to join us!” Nat abruptly shouted as she stood, wincing a moment as she grasped her shoulder.

“Well that’s too damn bad.” Nick stood, “But unfortunately for her, she’s gonna have to stick around until at least we fix this situation.”

Natasha opened her mouth to respond, but you cut her off as you stood up as well. “He’s right, Ms. Romanoff. I can’t just go back out there. I’d be a sitting duck. Besides, who would I be to say no to helping the Captain America?” A strange and sudden surge of confidence filled you. You couldn’t even believe the words coming out of your own mouth and, based on the facial expressions the others made, they certainly weren’t expecting it either.

“Y/n, firstly, you can call me Natasha or Nat. Secondly, what do you think you’re doing? You can’t possibly be thinking of putting yourself at even more risk?” Natasha blurted.

“Yea, and you’re not really the ‘soldier’ type. You’d only get yourself killed. And I don’t want that.” Captain America, or Steve Rogers, added with a hint of solemnity.

“I mean, she did put up a pretty good fight on the overpass.” Sam chimed in with a snarky and mischievous smile plastered on his face. “And you better believe I’m coming to help too! Pass up an opportunity to help Captain America? I’d have to be even dumber than those HYDRA bastards.”

The room fell deathly silent for a moment as the look of deep thought took place on everyone’s faces. You fidgeted in place, nervous about what they were going to say, nervous about what would happen to you in either situation, nervous about the situation overall with the looming threat of weaponized helicarriers, and nervous about what kind of support you could even provide.

“Fine. Help if you want. But I can assure you no responsibility for anything that may or may not happen to you will fall on me.” Nick Fury finally responded, breaking the silence.

Steve looked as if he was about to object, but he instead held his tongue, turning to instead give you a grateful, yet concerned smile. Immediately, the air was filled with the sounds of planning. Nick Fury had three, large computer chips in a case that he displayed to all of you. Agent Hill went on to explain that, in order to prevent the helicarriers from being able to reign down their terror, each one would need to be infiltrated and have one of the chips inserted into the main system drive of each ship, disconnecting HYDRA’s control over them.

After the plan was set, you all had some breather time. Steve went outside for some fresh air, followed by Sam, while you remained inside to talk to Natasha.

“Hey Ms. Roma-I mean, Natasha.” You approached Natasha when she was on her own. “I was wondering if you could, maybe, just if you’re willing, to possibly… give me some pointers? I know you can’t give me the full training deal or anything with this limited time but… I want to be as useful as I can. If I’m going to get taken down, I don’t want to go down easily.”

A caring and gentle smile appeared on Natasha’s face, “Yea, sure. But before I show you anything, you have to tell me. Why are you so set on doing this? I mean, first you randomly jumped into a fight that wasn’t even your own, but now you’re going in further to infiltrate a high security compound to help take down a terrorist group. What’s your motivation?”

“I-I…” You took a deep breath, “I don’t know… I mean, I kinda do I guess? Okay, um, let me start from the beginning. Back in 2012, my whole world was shaken. I mean, it turns out, aliens and Norse gods exist apparently. And some aliens and one particular Norse god really had it out for us. I was on a trip in Stuttgart, Germany to visit an old friend of mine when he, or… well, Loki, appeared. I was in that crowd he had boxed in. I felt like I was trapped in a nightmare. When he commanded us to kneel, I hesitated. I didn’t want to give in to some random dictator, but then he shouted it, and I caved in.” You hesitated for a moment before continuing.

“After a little while, one, elderly man stood up, right next to me. He said he would not bow to men like Loki. I wanted to stand up too and remain strong, but I couldn’t move my legs. It’s like they were made of jelly.” As you continued recounting your experience, Natasha simply nodded, listening intently.

“That’s when Loki aimed his spear, scepter, thing, right at him. He said he was going to make an example out of him and a bright blue light began forming at the end of the scepter and then… well, and then he fired it right at the man. I was right there and I felt the power of it rushing towards us. I was too close to the man, I was going to get hit too. Right then, my life flashed before my eyes as I was paralyzed with fear. Suddenly, Captain America jumps down right in front of us, deflecting the beam right back at Loki with his shield.” Tears threatened to spill over your eyes, but you held them back to continue.

“He saved my life. Mine and many others. I was frozen there, in awe and fear at the same time. When the people started scattering, I stayed there. I felt so weak in comparison, I felt like I didn’t deserve for him to have saved me, seeing how cowardly I am. When he began fighting Loki, I suddenly snapped back into reality and ran to a safe distance from which I watched him fight. Even when Loki seemed to have the upper hand, Captain America never gave in. He fought until Iron Man showed up and together they took him down. Something changed in me that day. I resolved to never be the one who just stands to the side while others do the work, or to never be so helpless and in need of rescue. I got registered to carry a gun for self defense and I also took classes in self defense for the past year and a half. I mean, I’m no super soldier or fighter like you, but I can handle my own at least for a short time. I just feel like I need to help. Not only to make it up to Captain America, but to just do something, anything I can to help people in general.” You took a deep breath as you tried to calm your heartbeat down after revealing your story to Natasha.

“Well…” Natasha started as she placed a hand on your back, “guess we better get started on some training and practice!”

#winter soldier #avengers #captain america #fan fiction #fanfic #bucky fanfic #steve rogers #sam #falcon #falcon and the winter soldier #mcu #marvel #marvel cinematic universe

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tarithenurse · 5 years ago

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Stolen - 5

Pairing: Loki Laufeyson &/x fem!gifted!reader Content: Angst, threats, creepiness. A/N: Have some hugs!

5. The Beautiful People

... Reader ...

Loki hadn’t lied when he had foreshadowed a turn in events within days.

“Put this on.” He tosses a bundle of mixed fabrics at your face.

It’s a struggle to figure out what goes where as you untangle the silk and organza before you can see that it’s a dress fit for Lord of the Rings LARPing. “You gotta be -”

“I’m not. Now put. It. On.”

An awkward silence follows where both of you wait for the other to do something, but eventually the god groans in annoyance and points to the bathroom door as if you could trust having a minimum of privacy even there as long as he remains in the room. Still, you oblige.

Stripping down to your underwear, you slide your arms into the cascading sleeves, already loving the smooth feeling of the white inner layer. It tickles as you pull the dress over your head and allow it to fall into place, but the lovely feeling evaporates when you look in the mirror. A white tent with soft green mosquito net over it, your mind objects sarcastically. Perhaps it would pretty on someone else? The wide cut barely holds on to the shoulders, making you feel naked even if the dress covers decently otherwise. Add a lack of makeup or elf-like hair and it’s obvious that this must be Loki’s way of grinding you further into the dust of self-loathing. No amount of silvery embellishment at the seams can change your mind.

Speaking off the captor, his voice cuts through the door at that moment. “If you do not hasten, you’ll regret it.”

I already regret everything. Opening the door, you shuffle out to him with your head held low.

... Loki ...

Though not unpleasant, the sensation of a tiny warm spark in his chest startles the former prince of Asgard when he lays eyes upon his prisoner. Intriguing, as she has been since he first learned of her existence, [Y/N] is not supposed to be anything else than a tool in his plan yet her countenance has appeared unbidden in his mind at the most inconvenient of times lately and now...now a softness towards the woman is taking hold within Loki.

Displeased with himself, he refocuses. “Lift your arms.”

She does, granting him access to tie a silver sash around her waist. As he finishes the knot, he lingers to enjoy [Y/N]’s fragrance and the sound of her speeding breathing, a tempo which he involuntarily adopts and follows as cold fingers play with her hair. One more detail. With a twist of hand, the Jotun reaches into a pocket realm to pluck out a thin, silver tiara – nothing more than a circlet, really, fashioned to the likeness of a snake with emerald eyes. Once in place, Loki hums in approval.

“One might even think you weren’t simply a mortal.” Of course, she doesn’t seem to believe him but merely keeps her gaze on their feet. “Ah, yes...you must go barefoot. Your instructions are simple, my pet, you shall -” he continues, calmly circling her –”do exactly as I say: speak only when spoken to, pretend your presence and task is of your own free will while letting any and all decisions fall to me who must remain at your side throughout this quest. Furthermore, you will heal the priestess. Failing to do any of these things will result not only in your own punishment but also in the death of those you care about. I have sent Arox to Midgard, your Earth, with instructions to kill in two days from now unless I personally retract the order. Do not test me. You will fail.”

[Y/N] is fighting to keep her poise, eyes brimming with tears she is too stubborn to allow to fall – a willpower Loki finds echoed in the set of her jaw and the teeth biting into that perfect bottom lip. A single sniffle escapes before she dries her eyes with the back of her hands.

“Let’s get it over with, then.” There isn’t even a hint of a tremble in her voice.

Deciding not to say a word at risk of betraying how impressed he is, Loki reaches once more into the other realm and retrieves the priceless cube he escaped from New York with. Even after all the pain and trouble, he knows the importance of keeping it out of reach of his former “master” - it is as vital to his plans as [Y/N] is.

Bending his will to resonate with the Tessaract, a shimmering bauble of indigo swallows them and spits them out a second later. Loki is familiar with this way of travelling whereas the woman stumbles slightly. Grabbing her by the upper arm, the Jotun straightens her and locks her in place next to him.

“Smile,” he orders with a whisper, and right on time too. From all sides the sound of running feet hails the arrival of the temple guards.

... Reader ...

Survival instinct dictates paying attention to people with weapons aimed at you but honestly, your eyes would be glued to these people either way. Woah. They are... Your brain wriggles to find a proper label only to come up empty and dazed by the view.

Every single person is different from the next while still being the epitome of perfection: godly toned bodies, ideal skin, lustrous hair. There is even a sort of glow that you thought strictly belonged to anime characters rather than actual flesh and blood humans. Humanoids. On second look, you do notice features fit for fantasy novels. My life has turned into a sci-fi-fantasy! Too bad the cold presence of Loki standing next to you is a strong reminder this isn’t a pretty story waiting to be enjoyed.

Words are shouted. Loki replies calmly, a soothing balm which seeps into the voices as a conversation carries on while you stand there lost, waiting for a cue.

“Sweet [Y/N].” Loki finally turns to you. “Explain to the kind people of Alfheim what you hope to accomplish.”

His eyes hold a warning only you can see. Cold, hard, like precious stones cutting through your soul easily because they have been sharpened with knowledge that he, this so-called god, is mad enough to do exactly as he has threatened.

So of course you readjust your lips into a sweet smile. “I am here to lend my skills and heal the Priestess.”

The chorus of sing-song voices is the only proof that your announcement has been well received until they signal for you and Loki to follow them.

For the first time, the surroundings begin to stand out as if the place didn’t even exist before. Fresh lines and curves shape arches reaching for the heavens – without the dark weight from the Gothic architecture of Earth – with wide windows and doors giving every wall an airy aesthetic. Marching along the hallways of the building, its grandeur is evident in the glittery stones it seems carved from, cool under your bare feet. Crystals are hung from the ceilings, catching the natural light and amplifying it...but not fracturing it into the shards of rainbows you would expect at home. Passing niches, you catch glimpses of golden statues of serene men and women, the metal somehow softened by potted plants that are leaning in as if to hug the figures.

“Do not gawk.” Loki’s voice is enough to bring your spirits down just as they were beginning to take flight at the wonders around you.

You had expected to be brought directly to the priestess and for the agonizing wait before Loki’s verdict of your cooperation to be over as soon as possible. Instead, you’re brought to a grand room with chaise-lounges and poufs scattered over a mix-match of soft carpets where you are told to wait. Servants come and go with fresh fruits and golden wine which you can’t stomach any of despite your abductor’s gleeful enjoyment of it all – all you can do is to walk about in a daze for the fear that you will fail.

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imagine-loki · 6 years ago

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Packless Monsters

TITLE: Packless Monsters CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: 47/? AUTHOR: nekoamamori ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine you’re a werewolf who ends up in the company of Loki in the Avenger’s tower after saving Pepper’s life RATING: M NOTES/WARNINGS: Also on AO3 click here

You reclaimed your position standing at the head of the table. Confident, though your outfit currently consisted of sexy lingerie and Loki’s cloak. Loki stood protectively behind you, a reassuring presence. He didn’t know what you were going to say, but he would support your decisions.

You turned your attention to Samuel and Fenrir, though you addressed the room at large. “Though I killed Jareth, I have no intentions of taking over as Alpha myself,” you heard the sighs of relief from the others. While it was your right to take over the pack, and could definitely do it with Loki at your side and defend your position, you had no intentions of living in this hell or staying here a moment longer than you had to. “Samuel, will you make the announcement that anyone wishing to be considered to be the new Alpha is to meet in the courtyard in an hour’s time?” Samuel was technically in charge until the next Alpha was chosen. He had been sent here by Fenrir to watch over the pack while they decided if Jareth could be left in charge.

“I will. Rachel and I have been staying in the Alpha’s house. You are welcome to make your preparations there,” Samuel replied. He really meant ‘please put on real clothes before your boyfriend kills us all for seeing a single centimeter more of your skin than he deems acceptable’

You nodded and took Loki’s hand. “I will see you in an hour’s time,” you told the room. You turned, grabbed your combat boots from where they’d landed when you’d shifted forms.

“Are you sure I should not just kill them, darling?” Loki asked mournfully, reminding the group at large that you were protected very well from moronic overgrown dogs.

“I’m sure. The sooner I pick one of them, the sooner we can go home to our family,” you replied and kissed his cheek.

“Your family is here bitch,” the third snarled. You whirled to face him, to face his accusation. “You’re the one who turned your back on us, on your duty to the pack. Now you come back here with this… false mate and claim rights to dictate our lives?” He was complaining you weren’t married to Loki too, but that wasn’t the part that pissed you off at the moment.

“I turned my back on you?” you snarled at him in indignation. “I didn’t do my duty? You all have failed in your duty to those weaker than you. You have all failed as dominants. I left to escape blatant physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, which you all turned a blind eye to. My only crime to deserve that abuse, those correction as Ferris like to call them was not being able to give peace to the pack. You all know damn well that a tortured Omega has no peace to share and none of you did anything. I saved my life by leaving this hellhole and now you have the audacity to claim that I turned my back on you?” you growled.

He opened his mouth to speak again, his eyes narrowed in challenge, when you realized his fatal error, and fatal it would be. He had questioned your relationship with Loki. He didn’t realize yet that he was a dead man. Loki turned calmly to you, tucked his cloak more firmly around you protectively and kissed your forehead. “One moment, my darling,” he told you warmly, but too courteously, too pleasantly. Before you could do anything, Loki had moved from your side and was holding the wolf by the throat against the wall. He didn’t even say anything to the terrified wolf, just killed him viciously, splattering his blood all over the walls. He dropped the body to the ground, disgusted.

“You had all been warned,” he told the horrified wolves in the room as he returned to you and wrapped an arm around you, tucking you safely against his side. “Allow me to make the warning explicitly clear so no more mistakes are made. Y/N is mine. She is under my protection, under my care, and my love. Official marriage or no. She. Is. Mine,” he growled the words at the wolves with such deep malice in his words that you’d never heard before. “I have the power and training to kill you all without breaking a sweat and you all, Samuel and Fenrir excluded obviously, deserve it for your crimes against my lady. The only reason any of you are still breathing is because she believes your actions were due to a corrupt leader and has too big of a heart. I do not and I shall not allow insults upon my lady to go unchallenged. Do I make myself clear?” he demanded of the room at large.

The wolves, dominants all of them, and all the strongest in the pack bowed their heads to him and muttered “Yes, sir,” like obedient puppies.

You leaned up to kiss his cheek. “Come along, love, let’s let them get this mess cleaned up. We’ll see them and the others who wish to petition to be Alpha in an hour,” you told him warmly. Dominance challenges and displays of violence had been your life for 18 years. His display didn’t affect you.

“As you wish, darling,” he replied and kissed the top of your head. His arm still around you, he walked out of the room with you. There was an audible sigh of relief from the occupants of the conference room as the tension and danger left the room. Loki stopped you a few steps outside of the room. He gestured to your outfit. “Allow me, little wolf,” you nodded and he kissed your forehead. You sneezed as his magic shimmered around you and you were dressed again in your outfit from earlier, including all of your daggers.

“Thank you,” you told him warmly and kissed him.

“Are you sure you would not like for me to just kill them for you?” he asked again.

“Not yet. They get a chance,” you reminded him. He sighed and pouted.

“Very well,” he grumbled.

“C’mon, we have an hour. Let me show you around.” He didn’t want to see any more of this place than he had to, and you didn’t want to really show him either, but he needed to see the hell you grew up in.

So you gave him the tour of the compound, showed him the cafeteria, the school which was empty at this time of day, training room, the bachelorette wing where the unwed females lived, and finally stopped in front of an apartment. You hesitated, staring at the familiar door. “What’s in here, love?” Loki asked softly. His anger and temper had been rising throughout the tour. He couldn’t believe that anyone had been raised here and he hated that you had.

“The closest thing I had to home,” you finally said and raised a hand to knock on the door. You waited, fidgeting with nerves for the door to open. You relaxed and actually smiled when Dan opened the door.

“Y/N!” he exclaimed and wrapped you in a hug. Loki stiffened behind you, but didn’t kill your brother on sight. “Come in! I heard you were back! Samuel told us you came for the Choosing. Hey, Loki!” he called over your shoulder. “Come in! You’re looking a lot better than last time I saw you. Knew sis could fix you up,” he grinned. Loki actually gave him a small smile, the first smile given to anyone besides you since he’d been here.

You walked into your old home with Dan and realized how…small it was. You hadn’t noticed compared to a dorm room, but the apartment was tiny, dingy, old. Ethan came running in from their shared room and nearly tackled you in a hug. You grinned and returned the hug. “I missed you,” you told him. “You grew,” you accused. He laughed.

“It’s been four years, sis, of course I did,” he teased.

“I’m sorry I had to leave, kiddo,”

He growled. “I’m not a kid anymore.” You rolled your eyes.

“Sure you’re not,”

“Dan said you had to leave, but…” his eyes were sad, haunted. You pulled him to you in a hug.

“I did have to leave. Jareth was just going to keep hurting me if I didn’t,” you told him softly.

He nodded against your shoulder. “That’s what Dan said. Mom… wasn’t as nice,”

“She kept your room the way you left it,” Dan said, drawing your attention away from Ethan and painful memories. “She kept insisting you’d be back. If there’s anything you want to take with you…”

“You’re not staying?” Ethan asked.

You shook your head and pointed to the Avengers magazine on the coffee table. “You know I’m working with the Avengers. Loki and I can’t live here. We have a lot of things to do on the outside. And work for Fenrir too,” you told him. Plus, you couldn’t live in this hellhole again, but you wouldn’t tell Ethan that. For all that he was a teen now, he was still your kid brother and didn’t need to know about that. “So you can have my room,” you told him. He jumped for joy at that. You gave him a small smile and took Loki’s hand, leading him to your old room.

“You lived here?” Loki asked, horrified still. You nodded. The room was smaller than your dorm room, the tiny window was barred, the walls undecorated gray concrete. The room was nearly barren besides the small bed and the belongings you’d left behind in your haste to leave.

“Yep, this was home,” you told him sadly, looking around the small sad room that had been your refuge.

“Never again,” he snarled, pulling you into his arms and holding you too tightly. “Never,” he growled. “Whatever it takes, whatever I have to do, you are never living like this ever again,” he swore, anger and sorrow in his tone.

“I won’t ever have to,” you reminded him. “I’ll have earned my degree in a couple months. I have a good job with Stark Industries, a place in the Avengers, I have a place to live, and more importantly, family and home,” you reminded him. He relaxed and kissed the top of your head. He finally let you go and you gathered up a few belongings you’d had to leave behind the night you left, digging under your bed for trinkets and a couple old well-loved books. You’d chosen clothes over anything sentimental the night you left. You packed a small bag of sentimental things you’d had to leave behind. “Would you do me a favor?” you asked softly, hesitantly. He inclined his head. You handed him the bag. “Mind sending that home for me?” you didn’t want to carry it around the compound, didn’t want anything to happen to it.

“Of course, love,” he replied and the bag vanished. You sighed in relief.

“Thank you.” You hated asking him to use magic on your behalf and avoided it as much as possible. The fact that you had told him how much it had meant to you. You knew he appreciated that you didn’t use him for his abilities. “That’s everything in here,” you took his hand and dragged him from the room before he could blow it up out of anger that you’d lived here. “We need to get going to the Choosing,” you told Dan and Ethan when you left your room.

“We’ll see you there,” Dan replied. You hugged them again, they shook hands with Loki, and you and Loki left the tiny apartment. You opened the door to leave the apartment anyway, and saw your mom about to open the door to come in. You stepped back into the living room, thinking optimistically that she’d want to see you.

She looked shocked for an instant before she glared at you. “You dare show your face here after what you did?” she demanded, stepping into the room after you. She slapped you hard across the face. “You ruined all of our chances!” she shrieked. Loki swept between you and grabbed her wrist when she raised her hand to slap you again.

“You get one pass because you’re Y/N’s mother,” he snarled at her, squeezing her wrist so the muscles creaked in protest and she cried out. “And that is only because she cares. You have never cared for her beyond using her as a pawn for your own schemes. You ignored her pain for years and I will not forgive you for that. She killed Jareth, yes, and he deserved it many times over. If you harm her in any way, shape, or form, again, I will kill you despite the fact that you are her mother. Are we clear?” he growled. She whimpered a protest. His hand squeezed on her wrist and you heard the bones shatter. Loki moved, turning so she was in the room and you were backed through the door. He pushed your mom toward Dan. “Do not let me catch sight of her again,” he told Dan, who nodded his agreement.

Loki swept you both through the door in the next instant. He placed a cold hand against your cheek. “Are you alright?” he asked, using a touch of power to heal the bruise before it could even form.

“I’m fine,” you told him with tears in your eyes. He snarled at your tears and took a step back toward the apartment to kill your mom. “Leave her be, Lo. She’s never going to change and I never have to see her again after today.” He growled, but kissed your forehead.

“This is her only pass, love,” he told you softly.

“I understand that. I’m sure Dan will press that information upon her too. We’ll never see her again,” you reassured him. He nodded and you took his hand to finish the tour. You showed him the Alpha’s house and Rachel greeted you both warmly. The Alpha’s house was basically a mansion in the middle of the compound, at the edge of the outdoor training yard/park that was in the middle of the compound, surrounded like the prison-like building. Loki’s temper was on edge again that the Alpha lived here while the pack was in the prison.

“Children, come along. The dominates are going to be playing out here soon,” the pack nanny called across the park. You grinned and stepped away from the Alpha’s house into the park proper and howled a greeting to the pups.

They howled back and ran over to you, swarming you and Loki in happy wagging tails. Some of them had been running in human form. “Mega! Omega!” they called happily. Most were boys of course, but there were a couple of girls in this puppy pack. You grinned and petted and greeted all of the puppies. Loki was right there beside you, happy around the children.

One of the guard wolves announced the hour with a howl. Your time was up. “Puppies, go with Nanny now. We have to play with the dominates,” you told them kindly, but firmly. There were sad puppy noises, but they obeyed and ran over to the nanny. You waved to her and went to go face the applicants for the position of Alpha. You kept your hand in Loki’s. His temper was too volatile right now to be left to his own devices.

You saw the assembled men waiting for you. Fenrir, Samuel, and most of the pack were there as well. They wanted to see who would be chosen for the new Alpha. Your brothers were there too, though thankfully no sign of your mom. You stepped up onto the platform set up for outdoor meetings. Loki followed, a threatening dominant presence. Plus you still weren’t letting him go to slaughter all of the wolves. The crowd in front of you silence at once. “You all know me. I am Y/N, Omega, formerly of this pack, now of the Alpha pack. Samuel has told you the tale, leading to why I’m standing in front of you on this day, but I retell it now. Hear the truth in my words. Jareth challenged me to a dominance battle. I won the challenge. Afterward, he attacked my mate in wolf form, and infected him against his will. As was my duty and right, I killed him for breaking our laws. Our laws are clear now. Either I must take up the mantle of Alpha myself, or choose someone worthy to rule the pack,” there were murmurs, surprise that a tiny Omega had won a dominance challenge against an Alpha, surprise he had even been dumb enough to challenge when it wouldn’t benefit him, surprise that you had killed him for hurting your mate. There were more whispers about old myths of the Omega’s rage. You raised a hand to silence them. “Would any who wish to be considered for the position of Alpha of this pack, please step forward now?”

The men who had been in the conference room all stepped forward (besides the one Loki had killed of course), a couple other ambitions young men, and… Dan. You hadn’t expected Dan to submit himself for consideration, he wasn’t one of the most dominates, but… that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. You glanced over at Samuel, who nodded. Your decision was made, but you had to pretend to give them a fair shot. You leapt lightly down from the stage, waving to Loki to wait up there for you, and went to question each man on his motivations, intentions with the pack.

You stepped back to the stage when you had finished. Loki reached a hand down and lifted you easily back up onto the stage. You kissed his cheek in thanks. “My decision is made,” you announced to the crowd. “The next Alpha will be under the guidance of Samuel and his mate Rachel, as they have agreed to remain here until he is trained and ready to rule on his own. He wants to lead the pack into a new era that aligns with Fenrir’s plans and goals for the wolves and is the best man for the job, caring not only for the pack as a whole and power, but also for her people. With that said, my decision is that the next Alpha is Daniel,” you gestured to your shocked brother.

There were some surprised whispers, but the proper applause came. You leapt lightly from the stage again to hug Dan. “Congratulations,” you told him.

“Just because I’m your brother?” he asked softly so the others wouldn’t hear.

“You heard my speech. It’s because you’re the best man for the job. Do me one favor, though. Move Ethan into the Alpha’s house with you and not mom,”

“Done,” he told you firmly.

You kissed his cheek. “Then my work here is done.” You hugged Ethan, Samuel, Fenrir, and Rachel goodbye. Loki said his goodbyes as well and actually congratulated your brother. You took his hand to leave and escape this place for good.

“I’ll invite you home once we get this place in proper order!” Dan called after you. You waved in reply.

“So, where would you like to get ice cream from?” you asked Loki after you’d climbed back in Tony’s car.

“The little place near the tower,” he replied automatically. You grinned and drove straight there. That shop knew you both and were no longer surprised when Loki turned Jotun while he ate his ice cream. They were polite and didn’t pressure you just because you were famous. You stopped in front of the ice cream place and told the car to drive itself home. You could walk back to the tower from here.

“The usual dearies?” the lady behind the counter asked when you walked in.

“How about the Bad Day Special instead?” you asked as you stepped up to the counter with the still emotionally compromised Loki. He kept a step back, his arm wrapped around you to reassure himself that you were ok.

“Coming right up. Go find a table. I’ll bring it over to you,” the lady told you kindly. She would add it to your tab. You smiled, thanked her, and took Loki’s hand to lead him to your usual table. You frequented this place a lot.

“Calm down, Lo. The pack business is over. We never have to go back there again,” you reminded him once you were both seated.

“You were raised in a prison worse than the dungeons on Asgard, you were insulted by those…men, and your mother hit you, and you expect me to be calm?” he growled, frustrated, angry, sorrowed by your life before you’d escaped.

“Yes, I was raised there. Yes it was awful. I ran away from that life. The man who insulted me is very much dead. I’ll never see the woman who birthed me again,” even you growled at that.

“When I take you to Asgard, I’m sure Mother will adopt you as her own,” Loki said, a fond smile appearing when he thought of Frigga. “It’s what she does. She’s gentle and kind and loves everyone, and she will love you, my darling,”

“I’d love to meet her someday,” you told him warmly. “I love my life now. I love every minute that I get to spend with you. I love my work, I love the team and the weird, crazy family we’ve built together. I love my life, but more importantly, I love you,” you told him firmly. He smiled truly then, relaxing since you were properly happy, safe, and out of that hell.

He was still smiling when the ice cream lady brought you two overflowing bowls of the chocolatyest ice cream she had. Loki turned Jotun the second the ice cream touched his tongue, but no one commented on it. It embarrassed him, but if no one said anything, he could ignore it. Plus he loved ice cream, desserts in general, but most especially ice cream.

“I love you as well, little wolf.”

#Loki #Lover #Submitted fic #submission #chapter 47 #packless monsters #nekoamamori

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bewareofchris · 7 years ago

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@chamiryokuroi, i have so many feelings and so few of them are good that i almost don’t want to go into it on the internet. but,

(This turned into a dissertation) OBVIOUSLY THERE ARE INFINITY WAR SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT.

first off let me say that I walked into this movie with the expectation that marvel was going to behave in a predictable marvel way. and what exactly is a predictably marvel way to act?

Cap is the Hero, Tony tries but fails, Thor can’t understand that reference but he’s super powerful, for reasons unknown powers that worked yesterday fail today, a critical part of the plot hinges upon a relationship or a decision that the audience hasn’t had enough time to form a bond with and so the critical emotional peak of the movie falls flat

so what happened in Infinity War?

Lets get started by saying that I don’t honestly care if Loki dies, but I am 100% disappointed that he didn’t have a better plan, more action or a real shot at doing anything. I mean. This little shit is basically a cockroach that’s been alive forever and he’s done all kinds of shit in that time but the BEST IDEA he had was to try to stab Thanos right in his stupid face?

I see that the Bifrost works however it wants now. Good to know.

WOULD YOU FUCKING MAKE UP YOUR FUCKING MIND ABOUT TONY FUCKING STARK’S GLOWING FUCKING CHEST MY DUDE.

Look, I don’t think its a leap for Tony to wear nanobots and a hoodie that turns into a suit. I think that’s 100% in character, but Marvel you’re a bunch of morons that took the shiny thing out of Tony’s chest several movies ago you can’t just show up now and act like that didn’t happen because he looks better with it. This is like 0% relative and 100% nitpicky but it’s part of a greater Marvel Realized That Was Silly So They Changed It and Acted LIke We Wouldn’t Notice issue.

Bruce exists in this movie basically as a cheap joke and a town crier. THANOS IS COMING, THANOS IS COMING. Its like someone in the group writer meeting was like: dude, the Hulk is too much. We’ve literally seen the Hulk take on everything. We’ve established he’s undefeatable. We can’t go back now. How are we going to deal with the Hulk being a thing? And the guy sitting next to him, balancing a pencil on his nose was like IDK what if we just like, inexplicably and for no reason we ever need to explain, make the Hulk not show up? What if the Hulk gets hurt or scared by Thanos? And he doesn’t show up? OH DUDE then Bruce can use an Iron Man suit and we’ll do the trailers and make it look like the whole group is there!

You know else is too fucking powerful to let loose too early in the movie? Thor. You know they did this in Age of Ultron too, they were like: lets give him a vision of Ragnorok and send him to a sparkle pool to take his shirt off and see things, so he could not be present when Cap was fighting Ultron. Here they send him off with a Rabbit (this genuinely amused me no lie) and Groot. And Thor speaks Groot. A language he learned in high school. He’s 1500 years old. How does he remember high school Groot? but that’s not important, what is important is that he’s off on a side quest waking up some dead star to forge some Thanos-killing weapon because as we see in the final battle as soon as Thor shows up looking hella fine, the show is basically over.

COULD SOMEONE PLEASE SLAP THE FUCK OUT OF STEVE GOD DAMN ROGERS. Look, I understand that its upsetting when someone randomly suggests that killing themselves is the only way to save the planet but Rogers, if you aren’t the single most annoying hypocrite that ever walked the earth. (At least the movie did point this out. At least it did that.) “We don’t trade lives?” FUCK YOU STEVE. It was ONE FUCKING LIFE versus HALF THE FUCKING UNIVERSE. Everyone can do that math. One Life < Half the Universe. SEE, THE OPEN MOUTH GOES TOWARD TEH BIGGER NUMBER YOU SANCTIMONIOUS FUCK.

Honestly, Steve at the end, collapsing as he said ‘oh God’ is the only part of the entire MCU wherein Steve seems to sort of grasp that just because he wants the world to work a certain way doesn’t mean it will. I hate to be a petty bitch but I’m 100% okay with everyone dying because at least Captain Fucking Rogers was wrong AND THE STORY CANNOT DENY IT.

This is going out of order, I’m sorry.

Lets talk about Thanos. I actually liked Thanos. I bear him no ill will. He’s completely insane, but he’s doing what he thinks must be done for the greater good. (*COUGH* THE SAFEST HANDS ARE STILL OUR OWN */COUGH*) He is consistently insane which is nice.

but honestly. I mean, honestly, if this bastard was this set on doing this shit and this capable of it, why the fuck didn’t he show up earlier? Was it because he didn’t know where all the stones were? I feel like it’s been a couple of movies now that he should have known where most of them were? Why not collect them one at a time? Why not send out his assortment of assassins to collect them individually? He could have gotten all of the not-earth stones and then shown up to the party like HAHA BITCHES GUESS WHO THE FUCK I AM and 0 people would have known.

but this way is good too. I guess.

This plot hinges entire on a string of inconveniences. If not for bad timing, this series of events would not have unfolded in this way. I try not to get bitchy about conveniences because things happen in real life that would seem a lot like the cosmic writer whose dictating our lives never took a writing class, BUT if it progresses your story and makes things easier for you (the writer) to accomplish what the plot (and not necessarily the characters) needs/wants to happen next it’s lazy.

The iris mechanism breaking?

Thanos having already found the reality stone?

Gamora secretly being the only thing he loves?

Nebula only escaping after it’s too late?

Cap’s abilities being literally ‘whatever the story needs, is he mortal, is he not?’

Bruce and Hulk’s domestic issue

Dr. Strange apparently being able to not only tolerate 14 million alternate futures but also remember them with enough confidence to make decisions for everyone without consulting them

Everything that happened when Quill found out about Gamora

The end part where the axe to the chest didn’t stop Thanos

the convenient core-member survival of the Avengers

I truly believe in my heart that Marvel decided to kill Black Panther before they realized how popular that movie and character would be and fuck them.

While we’re at it. Fuck them for that whole thing. Like I get that T’Challa was leading his people, but the movie is framed in a way where he’s kind of an afterthought?

They definitely underestimated him, that’s all I’m saying. And Shuri.

THEY MISUSED THEM. THEY DID NOT TREAT THEM FAIRLY.

Look, I love Tony and I”m super happy that the MCU finally, finally stopped treating him like he was insane. Don’t get me wrong here, having Thanos show up and having Tony be like I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS is great.

What’s not great? Is the fact that Tony who literally has been waiting for this this whole time suddenly had very little back up plan? He had enough time to send Peter Parker a suit but he didn’t have a trove of alternate suits, or weapons, or anything that he could have sent along with it? I know he had a few minutes to think but ALIENS ARE INVADING IS LITERALLY THE THING HE’S BEEN FRETTING ABOUT SINCE AVENGERS 1.

I’m just saying, they could have had him be slightly more prepared.

Having said that, Tony was amazing.

One of the best parts of the movie is that twenty seconds where it looks like he’s having a stroke when he realizes he’s working with idiots.

WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU LET THEM GET THE GAUNTLET OFF IF YOU WERE JUST GOING TO HAVE QUILL FREAK OUT?

No I’ll tell you. Because it’s Marvel.

Honestly that fight V. Thanos in space was amazing. 10/10. Until Quill.

I have never been more furious about anything in my life than I was about Thanos trying to smash Steve Rogers into the ground and being unable to. Like, even his face seemed to be conveying some kind of ‘what is this bullshit happening before me’

(IS HE MORTAL? IS HE NOT?)

I also hated Steve’s shields, but I appreciate that they went with a pointy design so that he could more directly murder his helpless victims in combat. Someone needs to introduce Steve to Jeff Goldblum because I feel like he’d either invite Cap to join the harem or the gladiators or both and it would be glorious either way.

Gamora’s death shouldn’t have won the soul stone because Thanos is a piece of shit. He’s nuts. The Soul Stone should have just thrown her back up there while laughing hysterically something like “AHAHAHA MY MAN, YOU’RE A PSYCHO, HAHAHA, YOU DON’T LOVE ANYTHING.”

That moment when you realize that if even one thing had changed in this movie the entire sequence of events would collapse. That moment.

Also, how the living fuck did Tony live through getting impaled? How? HOW.

Dr. Strange: LET TONY LIVE Thanos: like, aren’t you a medical doctor? Dr. Strange: yes, but that’s not important Thanos: I’m not a medical doctor, like I’m just a crazy man, but he is definitely definitely dead. Dr. Strange: ok, yes, but. Thanos: no wait, I’m just--you’re really going to give up the time stone, a stone that as of this moment is basically impossible to get off you, just because you want Tony to live? He’s definitely going to die. I stuck this whole sharp thing through him. Dr. Strange: I KNOW IT SEEMS UNLIKELY BUT ROBERT DOWNEY JR SELLS MOVIES, OK. HE’S ADORABLE. Thanos: ...whatever dude. Give me the green glowy thing

NO HUMAN BEING CAN COMPREHEND 14 MILLION ANYTHINGS. This isn’t a number people can relate to. It’s meaningless. Why do all these movies have to overact? Lets blow up a whole planet, lets kill half the universe, lets act like a human mind can comprehend 14 million alternate timelines

The fanservice in this movie was incredible. Like, I’m now convinced there’s a whole team of interns at Marvel scouring the internet for more jokes.

“Hey boss, they seem to think Rocket trying to steal Bucky’s arm would be hilarious. So should we do that?” “GREG MY BOY WHAT A FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC IDEA.”

I loved Tony’s whole outfit. I loved the nano bots. I even loved at the end when he was running out and he had to redistribute them. It was amazing

“Home” says Steve Fucking Rogers, the international war criminal that was like ‘but he’s my friend’. BITCH THAT ISN’T YOUR HOME.

I’m actually 100% furious just at the fact that Rhodey who supported the accords immediately didn’t give one fuck about them as soon as it was convenient to want to be on Cap’s side instead. I’m FURIOUS that the Accords didn’t matter. They never did, but the fact that Rhodey was the last man standing that believed in them and he handwaved that shit away as soon as he laid eyes on Steve’s gruff unshaven face, its just like getting kicked in the nuts.

I just looked it up apparently Black Panther and Infinity War were filmed back to back which meant that Marvel had 0 idea how well Black Panther would do in theaters and honestly that must have been why they were like “ah yes you guys remember T’Challa? Well. basically he just gives Steve some shields and that’s fucking it.”

(I know he did more than that, but he was still treated like a convenient secondary character who had convenient abilities, like Groot who couldn’t be bothered to do anything until someone needed an axe handle.)

C O M M U N I C A T I O N. It really could have solved so many things. Dr. Strange: 14 million alternate futures Tony: cool. how many did we win? Dr. Strange: 1. Tony: wait what? TELL ME EXACTLY WHO DID WHAT Dr. Strange: I’m sorry I can’t just tell you the plot I’m not Mark Ruffalo.

Peter Parker did break my heart.

this is just personal preference but since I don’t find Chris Pratt funny at all, basically all the minutes that were put into his character were wasted on me

This movie cannot stand on it’s own. That’s not a negative. You don’t go see a movie like Infinity Wars if you haven’t already spent the last decade on the others leading up to it.

but, my dudes, you did not set up Wanda/Vision well enough. And so much emphasis was put on this. SO MUCH. She’ll have to destroy him, it’ll have to be her. Ok. Cool. So lets get to it.

I may be heartless.

Gamora crying when she though she’d killed Thanos felt more authentic than Wanda��s entire crisis about Vision.

But, hey, I’m sure in the next one they’ll do something stupid as fuck that’ll make the emotional punch of this movie completely fucking worthless.

#Infinity Wars #Avengers Infinity Wars #the american dreamsicle #whats bigger than an atomic clusterfuck? an infinite clusterfuck!

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queen-sands · 7 years ago

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My Beloved - Part 3

Summary: Princess Lyanna Avon of Planet Zirkon (OFC) had been hiding on Midguard for two peaceful years with the Avengers under the alias, Dr. Lillian Zane. That is until Loki showed up making demands and revealing the truth to everyone she cared about.

This chapter leads back to the beginning of Loki and Lyanna’s story - their tumultuous first meeting.

Pairing: Loki x OFC

Part 1 Part 2

Tags: @rcarbo1 @thequeenofgood

A/N: Let me know if anyone wants to be added to the tag list of this fic. and PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK. It’s always welcome ^_^ My asks are always open :)

Loki stood on the balcony, looking over the Kingdom, his hands resting on the railing. He savoured this stolen moment of solitude – the relative peace and quiet it offered. Below, he could see the palace servants scurrying about in haste preparing for the arrival of the Zirkonians. One of his mother’s ladies stood dictating the perfect positioning of a flower pot by a doorway. They would decide on one angle, only to find it not quite right and move it again. He watched them focus on that little thing and change it not once or twice, but thrice.

He rolled his eyes and stared heavenward. Forever caught up in the insignificant and the mundane...is there not more to life than this?

Loki tried to stay away and above all the excitement swirling around the palace. He turned a blind eye to overzealous decorations and a deaf ear to all mentioning of the Zirkonian princess. Yet, they kept dragging him right into the middle of it.

“There you are, brother!” Thor’s voice boomed from behind him, the cheer making him wince. With a hand on Loki’s shoulder, he said, smiling, “Come, your betrothed will be here soon.”

“Must I?” Loki asked.

Seeing his obvious discomfort and disinclination, Thor laughed. Loki glared at him, eyes flashing emerald, but it only made the blonde god laugh harder.

“Yes, you must,” Thor said. “Or mother will have your head.”

“A better fate than marriage for sure.”

Frigga was losing her patience. Of all days for Loki to be late, today was the worst. Within moments, the Queen and Princess of Zirkon would be arriving with a host of their Royal court and Loki was nowhere to be seen.

Yet she held her smile in place. It was not queenly to show anything other than elegance and benevolence. Internally, though, she seethed.

When Thor stepped to stand by her side, she glanced at him expecting to see Loki tagging along but Thor was alone. “Where is he?” If her voice came out in a hiss, she couldn’t help it. Thankfully, only her older son heard it.

He looked around, over the crowd, his height offering him an added advantage. “He was right here. I could have sworn he was right behind me,” he said, his fair complexion marred with a look of confusion. Except Loki was nowhere to be seen.

With a self-satisfied smile, Frigga reached up to her other side, letting her hand fly a foot above her only to be met with a soft thwack.

“Ouch!” Loki exclaimed, his invisibility charm falling away. He stood tall, rubbing a spot behind his head, and narrowed his eyes at his mother. “You cannot hit me like I’m some wayward child.”

“Then maybe you should stop acting like one. Your betrothed with be here any moment now.”

Thor laughed loudly, as usual, only to be suddenly choked up. Frigga looked towards him to find a green snake wrapped around his throat, tightening his airway. “Loki!” she hissed angrily.

Loki quirked an eyebrow at her, his face a complete mask of innocence. “Yes, mother?” A little smirk lurked on the corner of his mouth.

“Can you please not try to kill each other for once? At least for today.”

“If you insist.” With a sigh of defeat and a wave of his hand, the snake strangling Thor disappeared. Ignoring the murderous glare thrown his way by his brother, he looked straight ahead towards the entrance. “How much longer must we wait?” he asked impatiently.

Frigga’s reply was interrupted by the fanfare announcing the arrival of their guests, and with a warm welcoming smile on her face, she stepped forward to greet the Zirkonian arrivals.

Thor sidled up closer to Loki. “Impatient to see your beloved betrothed, are we, brother?” He grinned, the altercation moments before completely forgotten.

Loki glared back in response. “Well, I would like to see what my father bartered me for.” Against my will, he added internally.

The two queens embraced each other like long lost friends. “Welcome to Asgard, Queen Arianna,” Frigga said.

“Thank you, your Grace,” Queen Arianna replied just as warmly. “Allow me to present to you, my daughter, Princess Lyanna.”

From behind the queen, the princess stepped forward. Her face carefully blank and composed, she looked up at the Asgardian queen before her. She offered a graceful curtsey that made Frigga beam down at her.

While her mother and the Queen of Asgard spoke softly inquiring about the journey and such, Lyanna looked around her. There was quite a crowd gathered for her arrival, which made her slightly self-conscious.

Then her eyes rested upon two men, standing taller above everyone else. One light haired and bright as if he was the sun, the other dark haired and gloomy as a brewing storm. The golden haired one smiled at her, his blue eyes twinkling. She wondered if he was her betrothed. She wouldn’t have minded. He seemed to be quite nice. But she saw him nudge the gloomy one next to him excitedly.

Lyanna turned to the other, offering a polite smile to him as well and was only rewarded with glaring green eyes. The vehemence in his expression startled her and made her step closer to her mother.

“That is my betrothed?” she heard him whisper furiously at the golden haired god. “She is nothing more than just a child!” His displeasure was clearly evident in his voice and Lyanna heard it loud and clear.

Her heart was crushed. They had not yet been even properly introduced but he already hated her. She didn’t understand what she could have possibly done wrong to incur his anger towards her. Her eyes filled with tears and she hated herself for it. She blinked furiously to hold them at bay and stared straight ahead, avoiding meeting eyes with anyone anymore.

The feast held in honor of the Zirkonian princess was like any other Asgardian feast – merry, loud, and rambunctious. The Asgardian royal family, along with their guests, were seated on the dais looking over the rest of the party merrily enjoying the freely flowing wine and feasting on the variety of meats on offer.

Lyanna was seated between her betrothed and her mother. Conversation moved effortlessly around her, yet she received only silence from Prince Loki. She tried not to feel upset about it. He was not conversing with anyone else either. Thor sat on Loki’s other side, and he was easily ignored as well. So she thought not to take his silence personally.

She simply sat there and stabbed at her food. If she imagined it to be her betrothed’s face, she dared not say as that would be improper.

Feeling eyes on her, she glanced up to find Loki watching her. She raised her gaze to meet his. Green met violet. Deep down, she knew he expected her to look away, flinching from his hard stare. This was exactly why she didn’t. The thin line of his mouth was transformed by what was almost like a smirk. What reason he had to be smirking was oblivious to Lyanna.

Their staring match was fortunately interrupted by Odin. “Princess Lyanna,” he called out to her, his voice booming over the noise of the crowd and music, both of which came to a halt at the sound of their King’s words. “I hear you are quite gifted with music.”

“I am, your highness,” Lyanna replied softly.

“You must sing for us,” Queen Frigga implored, beaming.

Lyanna looked over the hall, which had to be filled with at least five hundred Asgardians. All of them were now staring at her, waiting with expectant faces. She felt the self-consciousness creeping in. She looked to her mother to find her smiling encouragingly down at her as if to say, You can do this, Lyn. She purposely avoided looking at her betrothed. His look of disgust and boredom probably would not help with her confidence. Confidence that she direly needed right now.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, she reminded herself that it was no different than singing with her mother. There were five hundred more people listening in now, but if she closed her eyes, she could pretend they weren’t even there. So that was what she did. She closed her eyes, and let the music take over.

When she sang, the hall stayed completely silent, entranced by the melody. They stared in awe, even the king himself, for none could believe such powerful notes could come out of one so small. Yet they did. And those notes held everyone transfixed where they sat.

But Lyanna remained unaware of all of it. Her eyes remained closed to the awe she had inspired. When the chair next to her scraped over the floor, she finally opened them to see her betrothed walking away while she was in mid song. It was the worst kind of insult to walk away from a performance. It did not go unnoticed by her. He was making a clear statement – he was not impressed with her. And yet, she dutifully finished the song.

Amidst praise and applause, she gracefully smiled at her audience. So no one could see the bleak disappointment in her eyes.

She was used to being loved and adored by everyone. Yet here she was betrothed to a prince who seemed to be utterly determined to hate her and she had no idea how to change his mind. This was completely new territory for Lyanna.

Soon, the feast came to an end and her mother took leave from the King and Queen of Asgard to return home as planned. Lyanna accompanied her mother to the Bifrost to bid farewell. Her betrothed should have been with her as per tradition, but Prince Loki was nowhere to be found. Thor excused himself to go find him but Lyanna paid no attention to that. She was far too focused on figuring out how to convince her mother to take her back to Zirkon.

She was done with this betrothal.

No one knew where to find Prince Loki. He had his ways to conceal himself in unexpected places of hiding, away from prying eyes.

Unfortunately, due to years and years of tormenting of each other, Thor was the one exception. He knew just where to find his little brother when he was in a vile mood.

Loki was in the abandoned courtyard that he uses for his own personal training, undisturbed by others. There were targets laid out in a neat row. Currently, Loki was abusing one such target with his throwing knives.

Thor remained a careful distance away and cleared his voice. “And whose face are you imagining now?”

“Could be yours, could be father’s, could be anyone’s,” Loki muttered without missing a single throw. Unsurprisingly, each knife landed right where it was intended. He had excellent marksmanship.

“You leaving in the middle of her song probably hurt her feelings.”

“If you are so very concerned about her feelings, why don’t you marry her?”

“Listen to me, Loki,” Thor implored, making Loki finally stop throwing knives and focus on him. “She didn’t ask for any of it either. You were at least a grown man capable of understanding what it all meant. She was just a newborn babe when this betrothal was made. She had no choice in the matter, just like you, brother. Our fathers doomed you both to this fate. You can either fight it in vain or you can actually make an effort to get to know your little bride. She maybe a child now, but one day soon, she will be your wife. It’s better to have a willing one than one that is hell bent on making your life miserable.”

After those impassioned words, Thor left Loki to his own devices. After all, no one could make Loki accept anything. Thor could tell him the rights and wrongs of it all till he was blue in the face but in the end, it was up to Loki to truly accept it or not.

Loki knew that his brother was right. He could have handled his feelings about this arranged marriage better. In truth, it was his father he was truly angry with, not his bride to be. Like Thor said, she had no say in the matter either.

With a sigh of resignation, he made his way down to the Bifrost to make amends as best as he could.

He caught the mother and daughter alone in a moment of privacy. The princess was hugging her mother and sobbing into her dress.

“Please take me with you, mother,” she pleaded desperately. “I cannot stay here. He hates me! I cannot marry someone who hates me!”

Queen Arianna’s eyes met Loki’s over her daughter’s head. If there was a slight accusation veiled there, Loki felt he was well deserving of it. “He doesn’t hate you, Lyn,” Arianna said, trying to soothe her weeping child.

“He does!” Lyanna insisted. “He’s ugly! He’s mean! And he hates me! I want to go home, mother, please. I hate him!! Don’t leave me here with him.”

Loki knew that it was her hurt that propelled those words to be said but it still affected him. It’s true he was nobody’s Prince Charming. He was no golden god with sunkissed skin and golden hair. He was no Thor. Even his betrothed, who had been tied to him all her life found him wanting. He should have been used to that by now. After all, he was always found wanting.

“Lyanna, my love,” the queen said, kneeling down to be eye level with the little princess. “Loki will be your husband and you will grow to love him.” Lyanna shook her head in disagreement but the queen went on. “Asgard is your home now, Lyn. Do me proud. Be the princess I raised you to be. You must do your duty, little one.”

It was as if those words had a magical effect on the princess. The tears stopped flowing. She wiped the wetness away from her face and stood up straighter. “Yes, mother,” she agreed, in a resigned tone. “I understand what is expected of me. I will do my duty.”

With a sad smile, Arianna laid a kiss on her daughter’s head and hugged her tight. Her eyes once again met with Loki’s, seeming to plead with him for something. Understanding, he gave an imperceptible nod.

When the farewells were said and the Zirkonians had departed through the Bifrost, Loki cleared his throat to get Lyanna’s attention. She turned around to finally see him standing there. “May I escort you back to the palace, Princess?”

“I can find my own way. Thank you, Prince Loki,” she said, politely but definitely declining his courteous offer. It was a dismissal, and the realization made Loki begrudgingly admire her.

With her back ramrod straight, and her head held high, she stepped past him.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t stay for your entire performance,” he apologized, truly meaning it. “You have a beautiful singing voice,” he added.

She turned around to face him. “I’m glad you enjoyed it,” she said with a gracious nod of acceptance. “But I’m afraid that was the last time you get to hear me sing.”

“Excuse me?” Loki asked, confused by what she meant.

With her nose held high, even though he was twice as tall as her, it felt like he was looking down at him. “You will never hear me sing again,” she clarified for him imperially. “You’re not worthy of my music.”

With those parting words, she walked away from him without a single backward glance, leaving Loki shocked into silence.

Part 4

#loki x ofc #loki x reader #loki fanfiction #loki imagines #tom hiddleston x reader #tom hiddleston x ofc #tom hiddleston fanfiction #marvel fanfiction #arranged marriage #loki #tom hiddleston

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fanficwriter013 · 8 years ago

Text

Little Genius

Pairing: Male Reader! X Peter Parker, Reader is Tony’s adopted son

Summary/Request: Can you do a Peter Parker x male!reader where reader is Tony's (adopted?) son and has been dating Peter in secret for a while, but the reader is still in the closet (maybe Peter is out? Idk?) and then the avengers find out somehow? @graysonmalfoy

Word Count: 4820

Warnings: Adopted, slight angst (slight slight, it’s the first paragraph, you can skip that one), spans TWS through AoU. Clintasha, awkward/clumsy Peter, almost fatherly Tony

If you want a fairy tale that isn't this story. He had never had it easy. His earliest memory was of burning his hand on the stove trying to make his own dinner. The next one of screaming and blood, but the heavy footsteps walked away as soon as his dirty rotten, no good parents were dead. The next of a man in a suit and wearing sleek shades taking him in. He thought it would get better, and it started to for the next eight years. That would be when (Y/N) lost the only good parent figure he ever had. When Loki killed Phil Coulson.

Coulson had had a contingency in place, and that passed him over to the care of Agents Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff. That was cool but could also be painful when the spies were sent on missions together. He'd particularly been a miniature agent when Coulson was his guardian, and living with the spies only further sharpened his skills. They liked to sneak up on him, and he needed to be trained to take them down before they got to him.

He was also passed around a lot, sometimes the spies would be gone on long missions and (Y/N) would go to another agent. He knew of Tony Stark but had had minimal contact with the genius. That is until two years later. Natasha had disappeared with a fugitive Steve Rogers, Clint was going on a long mission. Thor couldn't be contacted, nor could Bruce. Clint didn't want to leave a then fifteen-year-old (Y/N) alone for however long his mission would take, or until the whole SHIELD, Steve conflict blew over that left Tony Stark.

“Don't get in my way, don't blow anything up. You can have parties but I need to be invited. Ask JARVIS for things you need.” Those were the instructions when (Y/N) was dumped at Tony’s Tower. It was another week before he saw the genius again.

“You look like shit. When's the last time you slept, or showered? Should I just ask JARVIS?” He snarked, from his seat at the table in the only kitchen in the tower that had food. (Y/N) had been working on his homework, the perks of Coulson was that he was heavily schooled and had graduated high school at age 13. He had been encouraged to apply to any college he wanted, but when (Y/N) had lost Coulson, he had picked one of the online schools. He was now in his second and would be final year working towards his bachelor’s degree. Which he was starting to think would be the first of many.

“Mister Stark has not slept for forty-two hours, and the last shower was fifty hours ago.” The British AI’s voice rang through the kitchen giving (Y/N) his answer. He shook his head before placing a bookmark in his textbook. “Put down the coffee, go take a shower and then sleep for at least eight hours or I’ll have JARVIS shut down so that you can’t access the lab for a week.” He knew the only way to get the genius to do anything was under threats, a tip he had heard when he was younger and Natasha was busy playing Natalie during the day.

“Whoa there tough guy, think you could actually take out JARVIS?” That was the cocky confidence that he had heard being complained about for a solid month. (Y/N) nodded his head. “All I would have to do is corrupt a couple sections of code, and then you’d have to proofread it for a month to make him operational again.” He had accidentally stumbled into the access window for the AI’s code and had been learning it for the past couple of days.

The sideways grin quickly melted off the billionaire’s face, and (Y/N) fought to keep the smirk off of his own face. He had always been underestimated, and he kind of loved to see people eat their words. It happened a lot when he had had to go to the base with Clint and Natasha, and the agents had seen him practicing on a punching bag. He had taken down his fair share of agents and had gotten some big grins from Clint.

“Don’t worry about it, lots of people underestimate me.” He said with a shrug. Tony gave him an odd side eye but swept from the room to get some rest. It seemed that that encounter changed the way Tony acted around (Y/N). He was making an effort to get to know the young boy he was currently in charge of taking care of.

Tony was not great at small talk, and he would mostly babble on about the projects he was working on down in his lab. (Y/N) was finding it easy to sit and listen, and put forward some alternative viewpoints. Tony had a tendency to only see the mechanical view, and (Y/N) could separate himself and see other angles for the genius to evaluate. He could see when he hit at a particular angle that the genius hadn’t seen and that Tony would kick himself in the ass for. Sometimes it was a simple solution, other times it was just a matter of another point of view. (Y/N) was starting to believe that Tony trusted him, and his input.

It was about two months into his stay with Tony when Steve showed up to the Tower. He’d explained after Tony insisted that if Steve wanted any kind of Stark help that (Y/N) could be trusted to be fully briefed on the situation. Steve had explained that SHIELD had fallen because SHIELD had been HYDRA all along. Steve had grand ideas to continue on the SHIELD mission with Stark’s help since it had been a Stark that had founded SHIELD, to begin with.

That had started the beginning of the Avenger’s Tower. (Y/N) was in the logistics part of the SHIELD that Tony funded but Steve was running. Tony had set him up with his own lab and had him running some research on potentially enabled candidates for recruitment purposes. It was how a one Mister Peter Parker, or as the teenager called himself Spiderman, came to be on the radar.

“Tony, did you see the file I sent you?” He asked at the weekly Wednesday night dinner. Tony always spent Wednesday night with (Y/N), and Friday nights were movie night with all the Avengers. The genius nodded.

“Mmhmm.” He started to talk with his mouth full and had received a sharp eyebrow raise from (Y/N). “Yeah, he shows some promise. I want you to conduct some field research, maybe evaluate the kid’s fighting style. You know, like that file you put together on Kamala Khan.” He said, and (Y/N) nodded.

This dictated his schedule for the next few weeks. The Spiderkid hung out at libraries and pizza shops, and (Y/N) needed to get to know the alter ego along with the hero side. It seemed that Parker was either really dedicated to being as invisible as possible, or he was just super clumsy. In the first three hours that he had been watching this tiny brunet boy, he had spilled three glasses of soda, dropped five textbooks and had tripped over his own feet a whopping total of fourteen times.

It was the fifteenth time that the kid tripped over his own feet that changed things. The boy had been on his way back to his table from the bathroom and was on a one-way trip to a concussion when (Y/N) stepped in. The spiderboy was going to collide into his table, so really it was more shifting his body weight. The boy weighed absolutely nothing, and catching him before he caught himself, by the head on (Y/N)’s table was easy.

“I’m so sorry, my brain works too fast for the feet to listen.” The poor child’s face, and yes he was only a year younger than (Y/N) but that made him a child, was beet red. He let out a nervous laugh. “It looks like I’ve fallen for you.” He ended his statement with another nervous laugh. (Y/N) smiled at him before realizing the boy back onto his own feet.

“It’s not hard to do, especially when one’s as clumsy as you are.” He said, and Peter gave him a small look of confusion. “What can I say, I’ve had my eye on you.” The thing about growing up with spies, and then living with a notorious playboy meant that he oozed charm. “I’m (Y/N),” he paused, trying to decide what last name to give. “(Y/N) Stark.” He might as well just jump off the deep end here.

The boy cocked his head to the side, obviously confused about (Y/N)’s surname. “Is that supposed to impress me?” He deadpanned, and (Y/N) had to give him some props for the nonchalant response.

“I've gotta couple of other names, you could pick your favorite. Barton, Coulson, and Romanoff are all my possible surnames.” He couldn't remember his biological last name or that one would have been in the mix too. There was a brief moment where (Y/N) could watch the wheels turning in Peter's head before the realization flashed in the boy's brown eyes. Coulson’s name wouldn't probably mean much but the other two would, and especially now that everything was public record.

“Peter, I mean my name is Peter Parker.” The attempt to not make the conversation an awkward fanboying session was admirable. (Y/N) gestured to his table, which had a slice of pizza and his engineering notes on it.

“Care to join me?” He asked a part of it was for the sake of the file. But there was a softer, quieter part of him that couldn't help but notice the soft gleam in the Spiderlings eyes, and a word, cute, floated through his mind.

For the second time in the past five minutes, Peter's face turned a tomato red. “I don't wanna bother you. And I'm doing a science project, wouldn't be good company anyway?” He phrased it like a question like he was trying to use his school work as an excuse. (Y/N) shook his head and walked over to Parker’s table and gathered the boy's books.

“I insist, and you might find that I could surprise you. In regard to my intelligence that is.” He said, spreading the boy's school stuff across half of the table.

As it turned out the project was not for school. It was for better tech for Spiderman. (Y/N) played along with the school project front, and suggested some ideas that would make the web slingers work better. Sure (Y/N) didn't get a lot of his own work done, but he had made some progress on the file and also in maybe making a friend his own age.

That day he had Peter had exchanged phone numbers. It was the first secret he was going to keep from his family, or should he say try to keep. Since he knew Clint and Natasha were sneaky, but he didn't think they, any of them, word approve of him being friendly with a target and possible agent recruit.

It had been another week before there was a text exchange, that Peter had initiated. It was another lie, of course, but the actual excitement about the success of the project and the “grade” it had gotten was somewhat real. The actuality meant that the web shooter was working and the novice crimefighter was stepping up in that world.

(Y/N) had noticed a small flutter in his stomach when he read the name on the screen. The conversation quickly turned into other areas, mostly that awkward small talk getting to know you stuff. Which had veered into talking about this obscure little coffee shop that Peter had just discovered and was obsessed with. He had slyly and in the most endearing way, had asked to see (Y/N) again. He had wanted to text back right away but didn't want to be too eager. And there was the other side, the non-spy side, that wasn't so sure meeting was the right decision. He’d argued with himself for a good thirty minutes before deciding that Coulson would have wanted him to make friends and to push his comfort zones. That Coulson had wanted him to have a normal life, and he agreed to see Peter again.

(Y/N) was dying. He didn’t know what to wear, his stomach felt like it was literally turning inside out. He had lived at SHIELD for years of his life, his father had been Phillip Coulson. His next set of guardians the deadly twin assassins, Barton and Romanoff. Why was he this nervous over something that wasn’t even a date? If any of his guardians saw him in this very moment, they would laugh at him and then make bets about the chances of (Y/N) puking or making a god awful fool of himself.

He was finally able to find some clothes that would make him look good, but without seeming like he was trying too hard. But then actually getting out of the Tower was the hard part. Today of all days, everyone was on base. Which meant everyone wanted to talk, and making a quick escape was just not going to happen. Here he had put all this effort into this not a date thing and he wouldn't even be able to get to the coffee shop on time.

“I'm just saying that that mission could have gone a lot smoother had we had a hacker on deck over the comms.” Nat and Clint had just gotten back from a mission to gather data, and it had not ended well. They both had some bumps and bruises.

“Listen, guys. I'm glad you're both back. I'll look into running some coding trainings and the next mission will be better. But right now I gotta study for my last final, so I'll talk to you later.” He said, grabbing his backpack and heading out.

“Tony, what did you do?” Natasha asked once the elevator doors had closed. “You've corrupted our son, lying to his guardians like that.” She hissed, crossing her arms over her chest. Clint gave her shoulder a rub, and Tony just shrugged.

As it turned out, even being ten minutes late, he still made it to the coffee shop before Peter did. Which was fine, he could grab a table and start his studying. Since Coulson had taught him the best way to lie was to base the lie in truth, he did have a final he needed to review his notes for.

The time got away from (Y/N), and when he finally resurfaced from his notes it was two hours later. Peter must have gotten caught up with his other personality. A check to his phone revealed nothing, and so he logged into the Stark interface to check out new reports. When he didn't find anything, he decided it was time to go back to the Tower.

(Y/N) had gone to the library the next day. He needed to take his online exam in a public place, where he couldn't be accused of cheating. It was his last final and then he'd go into working full time at the Stark version of SHIELD. He had been halfway finished his exam when he became aware of a lurking presence. He pushed that to the back of his head to finish the multiple choice exam. After another ten minutes, he had finished the exam and received his grade. He had answered one wrong and was kicking himself for it. It was when he was leaving that the presence made itself known.

“Hey, (Y/N),” Peter called too loudly and was immediately assaulted with a chorus of shushing. The boy had his arms full of his books and notebooks like he had hastily gathered his things. (Y/N) waited for the boy to catch up with him before the pair exited the library.

“Did you wanna put your stuff away?” he asked, he knew what had happened yesterday and knew the boy was going to try and offer an excuse. But (Y/N) wasn't so sure he wanted to hear it. Coulson had made sure to instill some values, and the situation from yesterday could have been considered a sign that whatever inkling of a nothing that had started wasn't a good thing.

“I do but I owe you an apology, and I don't want you to leave,” Peter said, shifting his body weight and books around. (Y/N) took his school bag and put it down on the bench the pair were standing in front of. Peter took that as his green light and dumped his stuff on the bench quickly organizing it and shoving it inside his own backpack.

“Listen, about yesterday. I got hung up on some stuff. And while I should have sent you a text or a carrier pigeon or something. I didn't, and well the text couldn't happen because my phone is trashed and I don't know any pigeons. What was I saying?” Peter asked, to which he got nothing in response. “Oh right, I'm a jerk. Is there any way I could make it up to you? Like coffee, my treat?” He asked, pulling a smashed pile of phone from his pocket. Like he knew he needed to prove that the phone was ruined for his words to mean anything.

(Y/N) pulled the phone from Peter's hand, the engineering part of him was looking to see if it was fixable. “This is really dead. Like I have a bachelor's degree and even I can't fix this.” He said it made him appreciate the indestructible Stark phone that had been tossed his way after he had threatened JARVIS’S code. The casual mention of his schooling had caused Peter's eyes to grow to a comically large size. “I'm fifteen, and I just earned my Bachelor's degree. If you wanted to know I graduated high school at thirteen. So I guess a congratulatory coffee would be good.” He explained, there really hadn't been much for him to do at SHIELD but his schoolwork. Besides the fact that Coulson was a very strict parent.

Peter nodded. “Cool, cool. Wait a second. Did you just agree to go out with me?” He asked before his mind could catch up with his mouth and he tried to shove his entire fist there to stop it. (Y/N) nodded, grabbing his bag off the bench.

“Come on, you owe me like three coffees, you dork.” He said it lightly, he was teasing. Especially since the dorkiness was so incredibly endearing.

The coffee date went surprisingly well. (Y/N) felt like Peter had started to tell him about his alter ego at least five times before the boy backed out. Lying wasn't for everyone, and genuine hero types would have a hard time with the secret and their other personality. At the end of the night, (Y/N) had offered to see if he could get a Stark phone for the spiderling. And while the boy protested, (Y/N) knew that he secretly wanted one. He had also made a joke about sending him a carrier pigeon, and Peter had responded with an invitation for dinner.

“Like a date, Parker?” he asked, just because he wanted to give the boy shit. Peter's face had flushed a deep red color, and he had started to stutter. “Relax, I'll meet you outside the library at 7, the day after tomorrow. Dress somewhat nice.” He told him with a smile before he left the boy, awestruck behind him.

“Hey, Tony?” (Y/N) called as he walked into the lab. He had learned the hard way to announce himself when he went down to the labs, otherwise, Dum-E would try to attack and there was a fire extinguisher involved, it was not pretty. A grunt from a far corner of the room told him the genius was pretty busy.

“I'll make it quick.” He promised, and the genius poked his head out. “This phone is demolished, but I was wondering if we could try and salvage some of its data to incorporate into a Stark phone. It's for a really clumsy friend.” He had stolen Peter's phone, it wasn't hard when it wasn't functional. The hard part would be either rebuilding this phone or getting the lower tech to corporate with the Stark tech.

“When did you make friends?” Tony asked it wasn't as rude as it seemed. (Y/N) had rarely left the tower and had only ever socialized within SHIELD and the Avengers. “But yeah, it shouldn't take longer than ten minutes. The biggest issue is gonna be the reading the data. Just leave it on the counter there, I'll have JARVIS remind me to do it. And I'll let you know when it's done.” he explained, going back to his work in the corner.

JARVIS had informed (Y/N) that reading the data and making the phone a Stark phone had taken four minutes and thirty-three seconds. He had taken the phone and made sure there were contacts and stuff before he headed out to the library for his actual date with Peter.

(Y/N) had gotten to the library at 6:30, as it had been an empty tower and he needed to get out without questions when he could. When he had arrived, from a different direction and hidden from view, he had noticed that Peter was already there and was pacing nervously, while muttering to himself.

He made a big show of walking up to him, and Peter had smiled warmly at him. “So, I kinda stole your wrecked phone. But for a good reason.” He said, handing over the new Stark phone to Peter. His eyes lit up, like a child seeing a tree full of presents on Christmas. He gingerly took the phone and looked it over. “It's practically indestructible, and most of your data from the old one was salvageable. So you've still got pictures and contacts and stuff.” (Y/N) finished explaining, and Peter flipped the phone over in his hands a couple of times before putting it in his pocket.

Peter lunged forward, grabbing (Y/N) by the collar of his jacket, and smashed their lips together. It was a small kiss before the spiderkid realized what he had done and quickly stepped away. “I'm so sorry. Please don't hate me. I forget sometimes that just because I'm gay doesn't mean everyone else is. I didn't mean anything.” He was rambling like something bad had happened in a starter relationship. (Y/N) waved a hand in front of him.

“Stop, Peter. You're breaking my heart here. You gotta stop and talk. But also listen. Did you ask me if I wanted this to mean something?” he asked, and the boy shook his head. “And wasn't I the one asking if this was a date?” he waited for Peter to realize and nod. “We may not all be gay. But I certainly am, even if I'm not necessarily out about it.” he finished, it had been something that he had known since he was seven. And since Coulson had been so great, he hadn't had to fight with himself to feel comfortable. When he had lost Coulson he just hadn't told anyone else, but he wasn't trying to hide it either.

“So do you wanna hold my hand and go to dinner, or do you not want this to be something?” he asked, and Peter turned a soft shade of pink but he wove his fingers together with (Y/N)’s.

As first dates go, the one with Peter went pretty well. Peter only spilled one glass of water and it was on the table and not on the floor. The conversation was easy, and (Y/N) even walked Peter home at the end of the night. Where the pair shared their second kiss.

From that point on, the two were constantly texting. (Y/N) had met Aunt May, and she was great. Peter had been to the Tower, but only when the Tower was empty. At this point, (Y/N) just wasn't sure how to approach the subject. Especially with the Avengers of all people. Steve was nice and all but he was from a whole other world, in regards to culture, and (Y/N) couldn't possibly imagine what he would think of gay people. Tony, he was sure would be cool with it, along with Bruce and probably Thor. But he wasn't sure how Nat and Clint would react.

(Y/N) had been battling with this for a year, and Peter was just the sweetest about it. He didn't try to pressure him, and he was understanding and didn't think that (Y/N) was ashamed of him or trying to hide him. He'd offered on several occasions to be there for the coming out of the closet party, just for support.

But it wasn't until Bruce and Tony had made the mistake of creating a sadistic AI that made its own body, did (Y/N) seriously start to consider it. It was partially due to Wanda, who had started to say something about what (Y/N) had been thinking which would have outed him. It had been a spur of the moment decision to text Peter to ask him over, and he'd asked FRIDAY to give him clearance when he got there.

It was a Friday night, so everyone was gathered for movie night. Tonight's pick had gone to Clint and Natasha and they had chosen some horror films and some spy films. It seemed like the perfect kind of environment to invite someone to. It was also a low-pressure meeting of the family since they couldn't talk through movies they wouldn't be able to drill Peter with questions.

Unfortunately, (Y/N) was in the kitchen getting popcorn and other junk food when Peter arrived at the common floor. “Hey, Spiderkid, right? What are you doing in my tower?” He heard Tony ask, and knew that Peter was trying to come up with some excuse or explanation.

“Stark, not just your Tower remember? Pepper’s got at least 12 percent, and I think I deserve at least 3 percent. So with that in mind, I think I have the right to invite my boyfriend over for movie night. Especially since the brand new Avenger is here, one that previously tried to kill all of you. No offense, Wanda.” he had wound up rambling and had needed to shut himself up. His stomach was doing that thing where it had moved and was trying to turn itself inside out. While he watched Natasha’s blank face and Clint’s that had slowly slipped into a frown.

“Seriously, kid. You picked now to do this? I just lost a hundred bucks. You couldn't have waited six more months.” Clint shifted and pulled out his wallet, handing over some bills to Natasha. She gave him a knowing smirk before walking over to (Y/N).

“Honey, we're spies. You don't think we couldn't tell. This is who you are and we love you.” she said, giving him a quick hug before moving over to where Peter had frozen just outside the elevator. “Now, you. We don't know you, we know of you and there's a file on you. So don't think you can get away with anything. And if you so much as split a hair on Coulson’s kids head. I can kill you 6 different ways that would make it look like an accident.” She hissed, going full momma bear mode on Peter. She turned quickly on her heel and settled into the overly large recliner with Clint.

“Are you gonna watch the movie with us or what?” This came from Tony, who raised his eyebrows in a knowing way. He moved to one end of the couch, patting the spots open next to him. (Y/N) put down all the junk he was still holding and took the spot next to Tony, and Peter took the one next to him.

Movie night went as well as expected. Peter was able to get into the swing of the snarky comments that the team would make throughout the movie and contributed a couple good one liners. It went so well that it made (Y/N) question why he had ever been afraid to come out to the Avengers in the first place. They were his family and they loved and accepted him just the way he was.

#fanfic #fanfiction #avengers #peter parker x reader #reader x peter parker #peter x reader #reader x peter #marvel #spiderman #reader insert

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alittleoptimistic · 8 years ago

Text

Oh Peculiarity

Summary: In which a young Loki meets Cisco Ramon

Loki was going to kill him. Well, to be honest, his 'killing' would probably involve drugging the idiot and watching Thor humiliate himself.

A truth serum would be satisfying…

Loki shook his head. Either way, the prick deserved some form of punishment because one does not simply fire a malfunctioning portal gun at one's younger brother, confident that it is entirely non-operational.

Idiot.

And now he was stuck here, in this busy realm, and it was snowing, and Loki was in loose summer clothes.

He shivered.

At least, he wasn't wearing armor. That might have been a bit conspicuous.

Loki wrapped his arms around himself and took in the emptying park. The snow fell softly around him and the few nighttime stragglers that there were-were on their way home. Midgardian devices honked at each other, slushing through the ice. Their tall, gray buildings surrounded the park.

This was definitely Midgard.

And it most definitely was not.

It was the smallest shift, like playing a song in a different key. The same song but… not.

Rubbing his hands up and down his arms, Loki hardly left footprints as he walked across the snow. No one had appeared to notice his arrival through the portal.

Then again, humans always were a non-observant folk. "Pardon me," he asked a woman passing by, "Could you tell me what realm this is?"

The woman raised her eyebrows and scurried away, tucking her chin into her chest against the cold.

"Oh, thank you," Loki muttered. "That was so very helpful."

Maybe it was the light. Was it different here?

How?

And where the heck was Thor? He should have found him by this point.

Running a hand nervously across the back of his neck, Loki pulled out onto the road. At least, it appeared to be a road. It looked similar to the ones in Asgard. Unfortunately, unlike what Loki was familiar with, the metal carriages did not stop as calmly as they did in his realm. Perhaps it was because these carriages were much faster than horses. A few screeched to a halt, barely missing him, and Loki observed the drivers' red faces calmly. No need to get worked up, he thought.

"What on Earth are you doing? Get out of the road!"

Earth. This was Earth. Midgard, then. But at the same time, Loki could feel in the pit of his stomach the twinge of displacement. Something was off here. Rolling his eyes at the irate drivers, Loki crossed the rest of the way and watched in bemusement as the drivers muttered to each other and spun back into the flow. Humans were strange creatures.

Crossing his arms and tucking his fingers into his armpits to warm them, Loki put his head down and walked steadily down the road. Fine. If Thor was going to take his sweet time, he might as well find somewhere warm to wait.

Or better yet, figure out how to get back on his own.

Loki smirked, imagining Thor's face as he calmly strode into the room. "Did you miss me?"

Oh, that was too good to be passed by.

Forget waiting for Thor, he'd figure this out by himself.

It was then that he felt something even stranger than the displacement.

Someone was watching him. Loki paused and drew back from the sidewalk so that his back rested against a brick wall. It was scratchy and cold, and he could feel it through his light shirt.

Carefully, Loki closed his eyes. Where are you, he thought?

It felt like magic, the probing, wobbly consciousness bubbling around him. A Sight? Probably. But just like everything else, the magic was different from anything he had encountered before.

And when it came to magic, Loki had encountered a lot. Focusing on the consciousness, Loki grabbed hold of its trace with his mind and pushed off the wall. Gottcha.

Now he'd just follow the magic back to wherever it came from. The magic did not feel malevolent, on the contrary, it was quite afraid. The magic writhed in his grasp but Loki was far too strong for it to escape. Pausing to concentrate, Loki hushed it and continued following the trail like a bloodhound.

He wished, as he crossed the road, ignoring the numerous carriages, that it was possible to speak to the consciousness, reassure it that he wasn't going to hurt him or her.

As it was, he held his grip on it tightly, but not tight enough that it was painful.

After dodging several carriages, running into several Midgardians, and hopping over a fence (what was the point of a fence if you could jump over it so easy? Loki found himself in front of a large circular building. Curiously he glanced up at the sign above him. If he had been Thor, he would not have been able to read the odd human dictation.

But he was Loki, and if he couldn't beat anyone with a sword, he'd do it with words.

"Star Labs," Loki murmured to himself. What was a lab? Some form of a healing room? The consciousness he was trailing grew restless, more panicked now, and with an eye roll, Loki let it go. Immediately it zipped back to its owner. Hands in his pockets, Loki focused his magic once more and teleported into the building, following the consciousness. He opened his eyes to a dully lit room filled with Midgardian devices. Technology, he remembered.

The first thing he heard was a series of curses.

"Holy frigging-" The voice stopped, and Loki turned on his heels, an eyebrow raised.

He crossed his arms, amused. "I'd suggest knowing what you're doing before spying on someone like me." Finally, Loki located the owner of the magic he'd felt. There was no one else in the building but them.

A shiver of surprise lit Loki's eyes. It was a boy. A mortal. It had been strong magic too. Since when did mortals have the ability to wield such a talent?

The boy had shoulder length black hair and held some sort of weapon in his hands. His eyes were wide and dark. The weapon: a gun, probably. Loki reasoned it was not the usual human type, given the wafts of cold air emanating from it.

"Fascinating," he murmured, opening his arms palm outward. "Well? Go ahead then."

The boy blinked. Hesitated. "You're asking me to shoot you?"

"I'd rather you not, but I'm mostly certain that my superior biology will take care of any damage you think that might do. Then again, there's also a good chance the gun will turn me into an ice cube, and where will we be then?"

The boy clenched his jaw, and Loki knew the boy wouldn't fire. Instead, he spoke. "First explain how you did that. I was… experimenting. No one else ever sees me."

Loki feigned innocence. "Sorry, how did I do what?"

The boy didn't seem to have the words to explain himself. He flapped one of his hands in the air helplessly and finally shoved it down again in irritation. Poor thing, Loki thought sarcastically. "I take it you mean, how did I hold your consciousness? I did it quite simply. But you wouldn't understand."

The boy's face morphed into slight irritation. "Who are you?" he asked sharply. "And how the heck did you get in here anyway? What do you want?"

"That was, at least, three questions and you expect me to answer them all while staring down the barrel of a gun."

Slowly, the boy's weapon began to lower. "I didn't mean to spy on you. Sometimes things just…" He trailed off, and Loki didn't need to hear the rest of the sentence understand. The boy's pained eyes spoke enough. How much had this Midgardian seen? With a roll of his eyes, the boy clanked down the weapon on a desk. "Forget it. And I thought this was going to be an easy night. Look, you make one wrong move, and I'll calling my friend. Believe me, he will knock the crap out of you."

"Is that so?" Loki crossed his arms and sat back against one of the desks. They were silence for a moment, and then Loki sighed. "Well then, this has all been absorbing, but I need a way back into my realm, and it is not likely Thor will find the ruddy 'on' button anytime soon." He pinched between his eyes, sensing the growing headache. "I'm not here to hurt anyone. I think I'll just figure out a way back like I-"

"Wait." The boy stepped forward, and Loki paused.

"What?"

"Did you say, Thor?"

Loki cocked his head. So the pompous idiot was known in this realm as well. Oh, joy. "Yes." he said slowly. He didn't want the little mortal misunderstanding him. "My brother. Thor."

A growing excitement filtered through the boy's eyes. "The Norse god?"

Now where did that come from? Loki snorted. "He's hardly a god, although he likes to think he is. Why is this important?"

"Why is it important?!" he parroted. The young man was getting worked up now, bouncing slightly from foot to foot. But suddenly he stopped. "There's not really Norse gods. That's ridiculous."

Loki shrugged, conceding nothing. He changed the subject smoothly. "What's more important is who are you? Mortals don't wield magic."

The boy blinked. "It's not magic. There was an explosion a while back which altered some people's genes. It may seem like magic, but it's not. It's science."

"Science is magic. Your science is just extremely… What's the word? Oh yes. Primitive." Loki spun away and began walking around the room. He poked at a few items, turning them over in his hands. "So your genes have been altered, giving you the gift of Sight. Well, at least, it's interesting. You could be quite powerful if you knew what you were doing."

"The gift of Sight?"

"Do they teach you anything on this planet? Yes, the gift of Sight. You see visions? Things you don't want to see but do? Outside of time. Future, present, past."

The boy was very still. "How do you know that?"

"The magic has a familiar feel. I've heard of a few people who can do it. No, that's a lie. My mother can." Loki turned a glass orb which's purpose was beyond him, and placed it back on the desk. "I've tried my hand at it, but I'm much more proficient in illusions." Loki finally stopped in his curious walk and took a good look at the boy who stood stiffly in front of his desk. "What do they call you?" Loki asked.

"Cisco." Cisco's eyes were wary. "Why are you here?"

"I've come to demolish the universe," Loki muttered sarcastically. Cisco didn't seem to find this funny, and Loki had to resist rolling his eyes. He sighed. "Truthfully, my brother is an idiot and accidentally trapped me here. I've got to figure out a way back."

"Your brother... who's the god of lightning and thunder and all..."

"Why do you keep going back to that?" Loki muttered, irritated. He turned toward the boy fully. "It's hardly relevant. He's Thor. My father is Odin. And I'm Loki. There. Has your curiosity been sated?"

Apparently not. Cisco's eyes went even rounder. "I thought you said you weren't evil!"

"Technically I never did." That was not helping the situation, Silver Tongue. Sometimes he didn't know why he couldn't keep his mouth shut. "But that's beside the point. I'm not here to hurt anyone."

Cisco snorted. "You expect me to believe the god of trickery and lies is honest."

Now it was Loki's turn to be surprised. "That is what I am known for? You lot need a refresher. I'm not evil. Although, more than half of what I say is usually not true. However, as if this moment, the truth is quite convenient."

Cisco glared at him. There was silence for a long beat.

"This is crazy. I still don't believe you're a god."

"Annnnd here we are again. Do you usually circle your conversations like this? I'm not a god. Neither is Thor. We die eventually. That rumor only began when Odin first traveled to Midgard. I'm just a heck of a lot stronger than you are, and to be honest, I'm considered rather pathetic in comparison to some of the other Asgardians." Loki smirked at this as if it didn't bother him. It did.

Cisco was silent again, his finger trailing on the desk thoughtfully. Suddenly he looked up. "You keep talking about realms. You said you needed to get back to your realm, right?"

Loki stepped forward. He was taller than the boy, but only by a bit. "Yes."

"Oh…" Cisco smiled in realization. "Oh, I get it. Parallel universe. No dur. That's why I saw you in the first place. I only see things from other universes. So that means you're from another universe. That is so cool."

Loki wasn't sure what exactly 'cool' meant. Mortal slang. "I'm not from Midgard, or Earth, as you call it." he said slowly. "If that's what you mean."

"An alien then?" Cisco looked grinned. "An alien from another universe. Who calls himself Loki. Do you realize how amazing that is? And you just waltzed in here."

Loki let the boy rant, standing in silence as Cisco hoped around the lab. "Can you fly?" he asked suddenly.

Loki blinked. "Um… no. Why would I be able to fly?"

"I dunno! Anything's possible!'

Alright. Enough of this. Loki pushed away from the desk he leaned against and started toward a door leading deeper into the building.

"Hey!" Cisco called. "Where are you going?"

"I can feel the 'science' down here," he called sarcastically. "It'll be easier to teleport across the border if I find a place where it's thin."

"That… makes sense." Cisco quickly padded after him. They went down a hall and a staircase until they stood before a locked metal door. Cisco's voice came tentatively from behind him, and Loki had to restrain himself from lashing out in irritation. The mortal had done nothing wrong. "So… are there Frost Giants too?"

"Hmm?" Loki looked away from the door. The strange difference was adamant here. If he teleported while within the room, Loki knew he would be spit out into his universe. He got the feeling that his being in this universe did not sit well. He felt a bit like a rubber band, stretched and stretched. With some prompting, he'd fall back in line with his reality.

Only now Loki realized he hadn't responded to Cisco's question. "Yes, yes. Frost giants. Dreadful creatures. Their skin is so cold you get frostbite just by their touch."

Cisco's eyebrows lifted. "That sounds… terrifying."

"Quite so." Loki knew the door was locked. Muttering under his breath, he felt it click open. Satisfied, he turned and entered the room, leaving a gaping Cisco in the doorway. "How- how did you do that?"

"I told you, I'm good with tricks and such."

"You mean magic."

"Precisely."

Loki walked toward the center of the room, where a circular arch was suspended. As he approached, the air in the arch rippled and folded in on itself. A gate.

Well. More like a wound. Loki had read of such injuries. Something catastrophic had happened in the universe, breaking down the walls of reality herself.

"I imagine you get all sorts of unfavorables through here. You really ought to patch this up." Loki feigned at poking the anomaly.

Cisco shifted his weight. "We're working on it. There's a man… Zoom. We've been trying to catch him."

Loki frowned. "What sort of name is Zoom?

Cisco snorted. "What kind of name is Loki?"

Loki smirked. "Touche." He flexed his fingers and idly peered into the wound marring the air. It rippled in fascinating complexity. "I find superior intelligence is quite useful when going against someone of superior strength," he murmured, about Zoom. "Have you thought of setting a trap?"

Cisco nodded. "We did. It didn't work. He didn't fall for it, and Barry almost died."

Who was Barry? Loki tutted softly. "Obviously, it wasn't a very clever trap." Turning, he clasped his hands behind his back. "Listen, I'm rather good- no, I'm an expert that traps. If you'd like some inspiration…" Loki moved his hand in a well-practiced way, and a small green coin appeared in his palm. Showoff. He flicked it to Cisco, who caught it clumsily. "I'd be happy to help. I haven't got anything better to do."

Cisco looked up at him with eyes an odd mixture of distrust and gratitude. He squinted at the coin. "What? Do I click my heels?"

Loki blinked, confused. "No. Why would you do that?"

"Nevermind. How does it work?"

"Flick it in the air until it lands on tails. A line will open up across the barriers, and I'll hear anything you say. Probably." He shrugged indifferently. "If I feel like listening."

Cisco gave him a withering look and tucked the coin into his pocket. "Well, thanks, I think."

Loki smirked. "Good luck, Mortal."

"Uh, yeah."

With that, Loki closed his eyes. He muttered the spell under his breath, an unusual, slippery thing, and fell into the wound.

To Cisco, it looked like he'd vanished in place.

For several seconds, there was complete silence. Finally, Cisco let out a strangled, half-laughing sort of sound.

"What the actual heck?" he whispered. Holding the coin between his thumb and forefinger, he lifted it to the light and pursed his lips. With a frown, he dropped it to his side. "No one is going to believe me."

Loki smirked, crossed his arms, and waited. The halls had wonderful echoing capabilities, and Thor's inability to whisper made it easy to listen.

"Loki?" A pause. "Loki, this is not in the least bit humorous. Come out."

But he wasn't going to come out. At least, not yet. He'd traveled back to his realm without mishap, and to his delight, only moments had passed.

Now here he was, his past self having just been skirted away.

"Bloody trickster," Thor muttered. "I will tell Father."

What an idiot. Loki waited a moment and then stepped into the weapons room. And… now.

"Oh, that's smart, Thor," he quipped. "Tell him how you blasted me into some infernal version of Midgard and left me to fend for myself. I'd like to see how that would go."

Thor gave a satisfying start and spun around, shocked. The portal gun was still in his hand. "How- Where did you go?"

"That's for me to know and you to wonder."

"But-"

Loki rolled his eyes and came closer. "Let's put this whole sequence of events in a box and bury it, yes?"

Thor frowned. His eyes glittered with suspicion. Loki did not forgive that easily. "How did you get home?"

Loki clapped a hand on Thor's shoulder. "You know that thing you neglect all the time? Yes? Well, I used it."

"What did you use?"

"My wits."

Thor shoved him without real irritation, a small smile tugging his lips. Exiting the chamber, he shut the door behind them. "You sure you're alright?"

"Peachy," Loki replied, deadpan. "Now, if you wouldn't mind, you do have somewhere to go, do you not?'

Thor thought for a moment and frowned. "Lessons," he hissed irritably. With a sigh, he started down the hall. "You coming?"

"I'll be around later."

With a dismissive wave of his hand, Thor jogged away, head held high, glad to have gotten away clean from his mistake. Loki stayed back in the shadows, suppressing his grin.

It was not until several hours had passed that Thor noticed his newly sprouted monkey tail.

#Loki #cisco #crossover #the flash #flash #thor #pre thor #fanfic #fanfiction #cuties #fic

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