Mirror of the Soul (Loki x Reader)

Chapter 3: You're Adorable When You're Tired

You spent most of your time in the months that followed in Tony's lab.

A few days after Tony had thrown biscuits around your room, the details of that moment had clicked in your brain. Somehow, you'd been able to meet your uncle's eyes without any consequences. No pain at all. You'd not told him though. He didn't need his judgement clouded by a fluke.

Whilst he seemed to be making progress - however painfully slow - you spent most of your days asleep on the small sofa in the corner of the room. For most of the experiments that your uncle ran you were actually rarely needed. He just sat talking to JARVIS, running hundreds of simulations.

When he did test his inventions on you, it was sadly never long before you ended up passed out on the floor or cradling your skull in pain. You'd had to limit the number of tests you performed as each failure had brought your heart closer to stopping. One disastrous attempt had ended with you blind to the world for an entire week. Despite this, you stayed by Tony's side, always ready to give encouragement no matter how badly the tests went.

Occasionally, Bruce would join your uncle in his research but he never spoke to you. Not out of rudeness, of course. Aside from Tony, he was the only Avenger that seemed to understand the importance of leaving you alone. It didn't mean he ignored you, though; every now and then he would throw screwed up pieces of paper your way with little messages scribbled across the pages. Your favourite messages were the ones were he complained about Tony. There were a lot of those.

The other Avengers still tried to engage you in conversation but, as bad as it made you feel, you'd started leaving the room whenever someone tried to talk to you. Contradictory as it may seem, around the Earth's protectors you never felt safe. They were too kind, too caring. They made it too easy to forget how dangerous it was when you opened yourself up to the world.

"Y/N! Wake up!" Tony said, jumping up and down like a kid high on sugar. Shaking you by the shoulders, he practically screamed at you to get off the comfy sofa.

"How long have I been asleep?" you grumbled, pulling the blanket over your head.

"About ten minutes. Now come on!"

Trust Tony to finish his 48 hour long stint just as you drifted off to sleep. With a deep, unappreciative groan, you threw your heavy legs off the sofa and forced yourself to sit up. Rubbing your eyes, the world around you still blurry, you told him, "This had better be worth it."

"It will! I'm sure this will work." He dragged you over to his work bench and sat you on a tall stool. You had to lean back against the bench to stop your body from swaying in exhaustion.

"Right, put these on for me," Tony ordered, handing you a pair of glasses. The frames were attached to hundreds of wires which, in his haste, Tony had managed to pull into a very impressive knot.

He tapped away on his computer and the lenses soon acquired a blue tint. Looking over his shoulder, Tony asked you to describe the technical readouts that appeared inside the lenses. You didn't understand a word you were saying but suspected it was good news when Tony poured himself a celebratory drink. "Okay, I think they're ready. Do you want to try them out?"

You nodded nervously, now completely awake. Anxiously lifting your gaze to your uncle's eyes, you stared on in amazement. Clear as day, Tony sat before you - without a shimmer! You focused harder, searching for any sign of the yellow mist that usually surrounded him but could find nothing. For the first time in weeks, you felt a stupid grin tugging at your lips.

The sharp lines on his face softened and his brown eyes shone in the artificial daylight of the lab. The transformation was stunning; he looked ten years younger, smiling in a way he'd not done since you were a child. However, moments later, a crinkle appeared on his forehead and you were blinded by a bright flash of yellow.