Growing love and the seventh stone | Loki fanfiction

Chapter 3 - Nighttime tea

I carry Loki into my living room and he sits down carefully on the sofa.
"So, lets see", I say and sit down next to him. "Lift your arm so I can look at your wound."
He breaths heavily and looks at me. "I don't need a doctor."
I raise my brow. "You are shaking and injured. You asked for help. In my house I don't let people alone with their problems, regardless if they might have taken over New York or may be the villain in someones perspective."
"In someones perspective?"
I press my lips together and look at the ground. "If I hated you I wouldn't have let you in. Now lift your arm."
Loki looks surprised. He even is so taken aback that he lifts his arm a little bit.
I try to be gently and part the ripped leather of his armour. I accidentally touch the wound and Loki breaths in sharply. "Ouch", he says through clenched teeth.
I look at the wound. "It's not a deep cut. Have you been hurt by some ... special weapon or something?"
"No", he says and stares at the ground. "It was just this damned widow girl with her damned knifes ... and I am feeling so ..." He looks away in embarassment. "The pain is not usual. It is more ..." Loki searches for the right word. "Spicy? And I feel heavy and everything is so -" A chill runs over him and his hands shake even more. "It's like wet but more internal, and it hurts, and ... why are my fingers turning blue? This isn't my Jotun form!"
I blink. "Are you describing being cold?"
He looks at me. "I am half frost giant, I know how cold feels."
I glance at his fingers that look almost purple like on winter days where you forgot your gloves. "Have you ever been cold?"
He looks irritated. "I just said -"
"Yes, you know how cold feels", I interrupt him. "You know the sensation on your skin. But do you know how it is to be cold?"
Loki thinks and for a moment I just hear the pouring rain outside. When he speaks, he does it really concentrated. "Does it come with feeling heavy? Like your arms don't want to move and your eyelids are just like ... about to close?"
I frown. "You are describing being tired. And you are injured to the point of bleeding. And you are cold. You are incredibly vulnerable, feeling things you never felt before ..." An idea is forming in my head. "Can you use your powers?"
A painful expression gets on Loki's face.
My mouth opens a bit in disbelief. "You are mo-"
"I AM NOT MORTAL!", he screams.
I flinch and move a few centimeters away from him. "Don't scream at me."
He looks at me, his eyes are like green fires of rage, pain and fear. Then he starts coughing again, it sounds deep and rough and almost like he is about to cry. "I ... I think I might ...", he whispers.
My mind snaps out of its frozen state and I finish his sentence. "Need help. Of course you do." I examine him. "You are drenched with rain, probably ran and fought a lot to get to my house. And it's windy outside. Of course you are cold, why haven't I thought of this? Every inch if you is wet." I stand up. "Please stay here and try to get out of your armour, I don't have any ideas how to open this thing. And we have to get you dry and warm. I will get some first aid for your injuries, a towel and some hot tea."
He looks up at me. "Stupid mortal drink", he grumbles.
I smile. "Still the old Loki, I see. I'll be back in a second."
Before he can protest I leave the room. What a crazy night. I walk to the bathroom and get a bandage and the towel. On the way back I set the water kettle up and take a pullover and sweatpants. Then I enter the living room again.
Loki looks at me, his upper body in just a thin black shirt that is wet from the rain and sticks to his well built arms. I can't help to look, but I walk up to him. I hope I don't blush, but based on his tired smirk, I do. I ignore it, hand the towel and the bandage to him and put the clothes next to his armour laying on the sofa.
"I will get the tea and you can bandage yourself, okay?"
He nods. I go back into the kitchen. I get two mugs and open a drawer to choose the tea. One package says 'Get well soon!'. I shrug and pick it up. 'For coughs and rough lungs', it further says. "Close enough", I mumble and put the tea bags into the mugs. As I pour water on them, Loki's voice from the living room reaches me.
"(Y/N)?", he calls. "I ... um, I might need your help again."
"Coming", I say. I take the mugs and move to the living room. As I enter, I see him naked from the waist up with the bandage in his hands, trying to figure out how to use it.
I try go ignore his body, place the mugs onto the table and sit down next to him. "Here", I say, roll it out and hand it back.
Loki looks at it and nods. He carefully presses it onto the wound.
"No", I say, "you have to ... oh come on, give it to me."
"I can do it myself", he says a little stubborn.
"Doesn't look like it", I respond.
He looks at me, at the bandage and at the ground. Then he sighs and hands  it over. I wrap the bandage around him carefully. He is still shaking, but not as much as before. Loki watches me. "I don't want to go too far with my conjectures, but it seems like you 'don't hate me' was quite of an understatement."
I look up and see his mischievous grin.
"Spare me from these stupid comments", I say, but I smile back. "Or else I would have to diagnose you with feeling better and being able to leave."
"You wouldn't be so heartless, right?"
"Heartless?", I say and finish the bandage. "You are the one killing people."
Loki's smile fades a little. "After a while you get used to it."
"That doesn't make it any better." I give him my pullover.
He pauses and looks at it. "Now that is just humiliating."
"Do you want to freeze to death or not?"
Five minutes later he is dressed in my clothes, wrapped up in a blanket and looking miserable.
"I hate this realm", he says.
"Well, that's your problem", I say, pick up his mug and hand it to him.
He examines it.
"Be careful, it might be -"
But he already spits the tea over the blanket. "It burns my mouth!"
"Yes", I sigh, "that's because it's hot."
"I hate this realm", he mumbles again. Then he discovers the little 'Get well soon!' text on the paper at the end of the tea bag string. He just sighs.
"Feeling better?", I say seriously and check his temperature again. He is warmer now.
Loki stares into his tea. "Yes", he forces himself to say.
"Okay", I respond. "Now ... do you mind telling me why you are here?"