Loki, my darling

VIII

In the kitchen I found Nat and Bruce, giggling and having quite a few touchy touches, you know. "Morning, love birds," I said as I entered, only making them giggle more. I rolled my eyes and opened the fridge. I ended up grabbing a few slices of the leftover pizza and a fruit salad. "I'll go eat in the living room, I feel like you two need some privacy," I said while leaving the kitchen. I still can't believe Nat wasn't even hungover, she drank A LOT.

In the living room, I only found Steve, he was watching the news on TV. "Anything interesting on there?" I asked, to which he replied with "Nope," and turned the television off. I sat down on the couch and started eating my food. "You look pretty well considering how much you drank yesterday," said Cap. "Well, it takes a lot of work to get an Asgardian hungover, that's one of the perks of being one," "Well, I guess Nat sweat the alcohol out when she was with Banner, thank god they went to his lab. I didn't drink much, Bucky however refuses to get out from underneath his blanket. Tried to take him for our usual morning run, but he swore he'd die if he had to get up," he chuckled. I laughed "Oh my god, really? He didn't even look THAT drunk, but that's how it works for him I guess." "I haven't seen Loki yet, you think he's hungover? He doesn't technically have any Asgardian blood, does he? That's what Thor once told me at least..." "No I think you're right, he doesn't. But he hardly drank at all yesterday," "Maybe we should check on him?" "That sounds reasonable actually, considering it's already the afternoon and even I am awake. I'll go see if he's alright once I've finished eating," Steve nodded and then we changed the subject and talked until I ran out of food. "Well, I think it's time for me to check on Loki," I said and stood up, "I'll let you get back to watching the boring news," I added as I saw Cap already reaching for the remote. "I'm that predictable, huh?" he asked and I answered with a "Yup," while leaving the room.

Having managed to put my plates in the dishwasher, I headed upstairs. When I got behind Loki's door I raised my hand to knock, but then hesitated. Suddenly the door opened, right before I could actually knock, and there he stood. "Oh, um, hi. I was just about to knock," I said awkwardly. I saw the worry on his face, I guess he thought I came with the problem he told me to come to him with, so to clear it up I added, "Cap thought I should check on you, since everyone else was already awake, more or less," "Oh," his mood lightened immediately, "I was afraid it was something else, but in that case, here I am, all well, I've been up for a while actually but I figured it doesn't really matter whether I read in the corner of the living room alone or I in my room, still alone.." he looked a bit sad about the alone part. "Well, you could always come and sit next to me in the living room and chat, or read if you want to, and not be alone," He smiled at me, "Really?" "Of course! Nobody should be forced to be alone. And I like your company, you understand me in ways other people don't, so I would gladly hang out with you," and that was all true, I felt safer around him for some reason, safer from even my own thoughts. Especially from my own thoughts. I secretly hoped I would have the same effect on him.

"Well, in that case, I will gladly come downstairs, I was gonna come to grab something to eat anyway. Have you had something already? Feeling better than you did last night?" I nodded. "Yes and yes. I would probably be in a much worse state if it wasn't for you actually, so thank you, again," I said, smiling at him. I saw he was happy about that, it was in his eyes, I could read them like a book, I don't know what it was about those eyes that made me feel that weird dizziness in my head again. I turned myself around to go downstairs, and added: "Come on now, let's get you some body-fuel." He followed me, laughing. I went straight to the living room, where Cap was now watching a cold war documentary, still after all the years trying to acquaint himself with what had happened while he was inside an icicle. I guess that was his way to deal with that trauma. "Loki's fine. He's grabbing some food and will join us then. What are we watching?" "It's called "Red Army", it's about.." "Cold war." "That's right, I am still predictable," he laughed. Then Loki came, with a bowl of fruit salad and the two slices of pizza I left behind. I laughed to myself, but Cap probably thought I was laughing about what he said and Loki probably thought so too. Or at least I hoped so, wouldn't wanna seem like a weird fool. When Loki sat down next to me Steve said "Nice to see you didn't run away to take over the world, Loki". Loki's face dropped and I saw it hurt him, even though I knew Cap was just joking. "STEve!" I said, "I know he's made mistakes, but you should give him a chance to prove he's changed and is regretting the past. After all, if you expect him to change his ways and attitude and to trust you, shouldn't you do the same when it comes to him? Trust goes both ways, you taught me that yourself." Steve looked baffled, he obviously hadn't thought about it like that. "You're right, Cass," he said "I'm sorry, Loki, I didn't mean to be inconsiderate." "Well I forgive you, and I hope someday you can forgive me for my past actions," Loki said and then whispered to me "Thank you, Cass, this means a lot to me," "Always," I replied and then proceeded with explaining to him what we were watching. I think the Cold War movie was actually much more interesting to me and Loki than it was to Steve, as neither of us had had no Earth history lessons or stuff like that.

After the movie ended Steve decided it was time to make some dinner, so he started heading towards the kitchen. "Will you make more of whatever you're making so others can have some too?" I asked him, "Fine by me, it's about time you get something healthy in that stomach, you've been eating almost exclusively junk food as much as I've seen." "Fair enough, that's true. Sushi just tastes better than broccoli puree soup," "And that's a fact." added Loki. Steve groaned "Another fast food fanatic is so not what we needed," then we all laughed and Steve went to make dinner. Nat and Bruce had gone to his lab again, apparently he needed to test something he was working on and needed her help with that. I am not sure how much actual work they were getting done though.