mischevious

Chapter 17 (abigail)

I watched as they left through the front door. This was probably the shortest visit we ever got from them, and that was saying something when at one point she just made sure my dad was here when I was dropped off as a child. Through everything recently with my father being against Loki and me, I had hoped this didn't somehow add fire. Pepper looked like she was ready to cry and before I knew it, I was wrapped in someone's embrace, but I knew it wasn't Loki's.

"Why didn't you tell me?" My father asked as gently as he could and I let a tear fall. "When? Why? Why wouldn't you tell me?"

"Because I didn't want anyone to know. It was shortly after my eighteenth birthday and I just...it was hard enough calling out for Loki and Thor followed..."

"You both knew? And you didn't tell me?" My father's voice became angry and I tried to shrink away from him.

"I asked them not too." I said gently while pulling away. "And I thought I was fine, but then I heard what they were saying and I..I just lost it."

"This was something she had to decide to tell, not Thor or myself." Loki said, and I could hear the restraint in his voice. He wanted to scream, I was sure everyone in the room did.

The silence that followed was deafening, the tension in the room could have been cut with a knife, and yet nobody said anything. We all just stood there as though we were afraid of tipping the scales and another full on civil war would break out. Nobody knew what to say and when I was finally brave enough to look around, I felt like everyone was looking at me as though they were ashamed of me. I wish I could have taken back what I said in this moment because I couldn't imagine them looking at me the same way again.

"Were you two.." Pepper finally spoke and I knew what she wanted to ask without really asking it.

"No. Loki and I were just friends then." I slowly moved into Loki's embrace and for once my father didn't look like he wanted to punch Loki.

"You actually avenged her?" My father questioned.

"Of course I did." Loki told him, the venom in his voice was the usual when he and my father didn't see eye to eye or if they said something that bugged each other.

"Let me be very clear," my father tried to keep his voice even. "I still don't like this, and I still do not trust you. However, you did help my daughter. No matter how absent I may have been, I still tried."
I looked up to my father and tried to give a strong smile. "I'm sorry. I asked them not to tell anyone. I know you'll never understand, but we do love each other."

I knew that everyone in this room was finally able to at least try to see what I saw when I looked at Loki. I didn't see cold eyes, I saw the same softness and calm I did as when I looked out into the ocean. He was never the monster everyone believed he was, just someone who wanted to live up to a purpose that he himself didn't know what it was. I had hoped that somehow, at least part of that purpose had something to do with us because I truly didn't believe I would've made it through without stupidly running back to that abusive asshole if it weren't for him. Hell, I probably wouldn't even be on this continent if it weren't for him.

We all just stood there in the aftermath of everything, everyone holding glances like they wanted to ask questions or as though I was someone completely different. There was no saying if Mia would have told them what she had walked into or how she had spun that around. We all had our secrets and how we relaxed.

******

We had all gone back to our normal within days. I had been relieved that I did tell everyone after all about what had happened, and even though there was only a bit more respect from my father for Loki, not much changed in how everyone felt about our relationship. Not everything could change over night, but when we had been together for almost a year, I had hoped something would loosen up the tension.