Growing love and the seventh stone | Loki fanfiction

Chapter 18 - Coloured glass

We walk down the streets while I try to keep my pulse rate down.
"Could you make the illusion a little more permanent?", Loki hisses next to me.
"I would if I could!", I hiss back. I look at him, the disguise of an old man is flickering in some places. It is the next day and we are both too nervous to not spar like burglars on their first act of housebreaking. "Too bad I am not a wizard who practiced like 1500 years", I add.
"I am a sorcerer, not a wizard, and too bad that I am not one at the moment, too. Because if I was, we would be already in that tower." He looks up at the Avengers Tower which rises proudly over New York, only a few streets away. His hair flickers again. "Damn it, (y/n)!"
"I learned magic, like, yesterday! You said I was ready. Or did someone just say that because they were impatient?"
Loki mutters something under his breath.
"Fine", I say. "I like you too."
He smiles mischievously at me. I see his green eyes darting through the illusion.
"At least I know the really important spells", I sigh as we continue walking.
We arrive in front of the Tower and I concentrate more on the illusion again. Security people are guarding the entrance, and if they see Loki standing in front of them all hell will break loose.
I take a deep breath as I focus on the plan. In the last days I have learned five spells: Shape-shifting, making illusions, exploding things, going through walls and a little bit of flying. Even if the last one is - let's say improvable - the others are working quite well. I close my eyes and perform the small hand movement for the explosion spell.
A garbage can blows up across the street. People scream and scatter away from it, the security guards turn their heads. In that moment, Loki and I go through the wall into the building.
As we calculated, we don't end up in the entrance hall, but in a corridor behind a wall next to it. The light is dimmed and the atmosphere rather heavy. It is clear that not many people are supposed to be here, the grey tiled floor is strictly clean and the dark walls swallow most of the light coming from the strait lamps above us.
Loki and I exchange a look.
"This is the right way", I whisper, remembering the tracking spell I did before.
"Good", he says. "You can let go of that illusion spell, if we are found it doesn't really matter how I look. We should concentrate more on other things."
I nod and let Loki glimmer back into his usual form. Then we begin to slowly walk down the corridor.
As we continue walking I get more and more nervous about not meeting anybody. I am glad about it but am also gaining the feeling that something isn't right.
"Could it be a trap?", I whisper.
"It's normal that nobody is here", Loki responds quietly. "The more important something is, the less people are allowed to work with it. And I would say an infinity stone is quiet imp-"
But he can't finish because I push us against the wall. One door opens and a scientist (he looks like one judging by the white tunic) walks in our direction. I quickly construct an illusion to make us look like the wall we are pressed against.
The scientist looks up from his clipboard for a second, then he frowns and continues walking. When he disappears behind another door, I sigh.
"That was close", I mumble.
Loki looks down at me and the corners of his mouth twitch amused. "I don't think we are supposed to be this close during an important mission."
I realize I still press him against the wall and his lips are just centimeters away from mine. "Well", I say with a smirk. "I am dating the god of lies, mischief and chaos. I do what I want."
I kiss him. He enjoys the kiss and seperates his lips from mine again only hesitantly.
I sigh. "I wish the world was easier and I could kiss you without worrying that somebody might kill us. But I see we have to go on."
Loki looks at me with a mix of melancholy and tenderness. Then he nods. "Yeah, let's ... let's get the stone."
After what seems like an eternity of tenseness and going through more walls while meeting almost nobody, we arrive in front of another door at the end of a hallway. It is thicker than the others and clearly more important. It is secured with a lock and more defense mechanismic looking technic I don't really know.
I take a deep breath. "Ready?"
Loki's eyes seem hungry while he stares down the door. "Ready."
And we glide through the door.
I open my eyes again. We stand in a dark room. The only thing emitting light is the colourful tesseract-like cube in the middle. It is placed in a showcase, and the walls out of glass mirror the different colours. Blue, green, yellow, red, orange and purple. Reflections dance on the walls, a green shimmer wanders slowly over Loki's face.
Before I can say something, he takes a step forward and smashes the glass with his elbow.
"Loki!", I hiss.
He does not look at me, he takes the cube in his hand and stares at it, still with this hungry look.
"Loki, did that thing hex you?!"
He shakes his head and breaks eye contact with the cube. When he looks at me, his glance seems normal again.
"I ...", he whispers. "I ... no. Sorry, I should have ..."
But he can't finish. The door flings open with a crash.
"Don't move!", the harsh voice of a security guard calls. "Don't move and maybe you will get out alive!"