Meant To Be (Loki x reader)

Chapter ninety - The Aftermath

A/N: Alright guys, this is it! I won't be posting tomorrow night but then the night after I'll post the last two chapters (there's a part one and part two) and then that's it *insert sad noises here*. I'll save all the emotional garbage for the final A/N I think <3 (also I couldn't find another gif of Wakanda and spent ages looking so this'll do) (also sorry for the late update)

...

You stared at Nebula, a barrage of emotions coursing through you as you saw her. Relief was one of them, you were sickened to admit, but it was there, amongst the guilt and the sadness and the gratitude.

A green woman was crouched over her, shaking. Gamora. How was she here? Quill was stood beside her, looking shell shocked. You tried to understand, but couldn't; your brain wasn't up to it right at this moment.

You turned around and put your head against Loki's chest, wrapping your arms around him tightly.

Breathing.

You had no right to cry. You had everything you would ever need right here, in your arms. Loki put one arm around you and placed his other hand on the back of your head, making it ten times harder not to sob.

It could have so easily been you stood in Quill's place, or Loki. Loki's arm tightened around you a fraction. You had no idea how long you stayed like that for, but eventually people started to move. There were others to mourn; wounded to tend to.

And where was everyone going to go? You felt fresh wave of grief as you remembered that the compound, your home, had been destroyed. It was an obvious fact, but not one that you'd been thinking about prominently for the past hour or so. How long had it been?

When you pulled away from Loki the first person you saw was Tony. He was with Pepper, and he looked so unbelievably tired.

But he was smiling.

He beamed so widely when he saw you stood with Loki that you almost started crying again. But you wouldn't let yourself. Not even when he stepped out of his suit and hugged you for the longest time, whispering "This is the hug I promised you on Titan".

Next was Bucky. You tried so hard not to cry, you honestly did. Then Nat, still reeling from losing Clint, but smiling now. Then Steve. And Bruce. And Scott and his girlfriend and her parents, and then Thor again, and Rocket and Peter and Rhodey and Okoye and her friends and the king of Wakanda and Pepper and even Strange...

And then back to Loki. You barely had to wonder where he was before he was by your side. You'd been away from him for approximately five minutes, maximum, but you couldn't stop yourself from kissing him again when you saw him. Properly, this time, uninterrupted by aliens and spaceships.

I missed you so much. I can't tell you-

You don't have to. I know.

You smiled, shaking your head as you pulled away from him, your faces still inches apart.

You will never know. And I'm glad you'll never have to.

Strange was working overtime today, creating more portals to take people back to where they had come from. Most people were going through a portal to Wakanda, including you and all of the Avengers who now had nowhere else to go in the immediate vicinity.

"We'll rebuild it." Bruce kept saying, mainly to reassure Nat. You didn't really care about it being rebuilt. You would have liked your stuff back: your sword from New Asgard, but that was gone. You really weren't that bothered. Loki had his arm around you. That was all you cared about.