Unbreakable Bonds

Projection

I wake up to a cold bed and a silent room. Loki must have left as soon as I went to sleep last night. He's probably annoyed that he was woken up so late at night. I wonder how long my mental blocks were down for? I hope he didn't see any of my nightmares - I don't want his pity. I don't want anyone's pity. I feel that Loki would be the last person to show any. I get up and conjure some comfortable clothes before heading downstairs to the common area, it's almost noon and I could kill for a coffee. The tower seems quite today, maybe Sunday is a rest day? I grab an apple from the kitchen before heading down to the cafe to grab a coffee, why is it that coffee always tastes better when you don't make it?

On my way back up I decide to head across to Tony and Bruce's lab hoping that one of them will be there. To my luck, both of them are. They're too absorbed in what they're looking at to notice me come in. "Please tell me you guys asked Buck before you took his arm? He's going to be pissed otherwise and I don't think you want to meet a pissed off Bucky!" I call looking over their shoulders. They both turn to me, Tony smirking and Bruce looking very confused. "Oh shit, you actually stole it didn't you!? I'm not kidding when I say you don't want to meet a pissed of Bucky!".
"Relax kid, I'm sure he'll be fine especially since we're adding some upgrades to it" Tony said smugly. Bruce on the other hand is looking very nervous, Tony obviously told him a different story. "I'll cut you a deal Stark. You make my room soundproof and I'll go and tame the wild beast before he comes and knocks your door down?"
"I'm not sure how he'll knock it down without his arm..." right on cue we hear a distinct crash. Bucky is very protective over that arm. "It's a deal now get out of here before he tears my tower down"
"Thanks Stark!" I shout over my shoulder, grinning as I run off to stop Bucky. I let out a soft laugh as I hear Bruce starting to shout at Tony.

When I get to the room where Bucky is staying, I can see that he's turned over nearly every piece of furniture that's not attached to his wall. "WHERE IS IT?" He shouts to the empty space in front of him. I go over and wrap my arms around him from behind and stand on my tippy toes to give him a peck on the cheek, this always calmed him down. "Not now Y/n! I can't find my arm. Someone's stolen it!"
"Calm down Buck, Bruce and Tony have it in the lab. I'm pretty sure they're adding some new features to it as we speak, Stark has some pretty dangerous tech up there..." I say smirking knowing that's all I'll have to say to stop his rampage. "What kind of tech?" He asks curiously, turning around to look at me for the first time. "Just a few bits and bobs. You'll have to go and check it out for yourself. Maybe you could suggest some modifications as they go?" Bucky's eyes light up at the thought and he gives me a swift kiss on the cheek before running down the hallway like the overgrown child that he is. I sigh looking at the mess he made and quickly flick my wrist to fix it all. I don't want Stark kicking him out of the tower, I only just got him back.

***
I haven't seen Loki all day and I'm starting to wonder if he's avoiding me? Nat and Barton caught me after I'd calmed Buck down and told me to meet them in the training room so they could see what I could do. The training room is massive, Tony has thought of everything and made sure that there's a space for everyone to train and practice their different abilities. As I walk in I see Barton letting some arrows fly into moving targets and Nat is busy fighting off chitauri holograms... man they seem so real! They both stop what they're doing when they notice me staring with my mouth wide open. They're good at what they do, I can see why Fury hired them. They invited me in and I practiced sparring with Nat, she doesn't know that I took it easy on her. Clint tried to show me how to shoot an arrow but I was awful at it. I preferred hand to hand combat with my trusty daggers. We trained and talked for a few hours, I also showed them a few different things that I can do with my magic. I threw some items across the room and made things disappear only to reappear where I wanted them to be. We called training to an end and I started walking away thinking about grabbing a bite to eat. "Hey Raven, wait up!" Barton shouted. I stopped and waited for him at the door, he looked nervous. "So I've been thinking about it and I should have let you call me Clint from the beginning. I just didn't know you and what you were capable of an-"
"Clint, it's okay. I don't need an explanation" I said smiling from ear to ear. "I'm honoured that you trust me enough to make a bond with me, thank you." Clint let out a long breath and gave me a hug before he walked back over to Nat. I definitely wasn't expecting that.

***
It was getting late so I excused myself and made my way back to my room. They were trying to teach Thor Uno again and he still wasn't getting it. I explained it to him and it's like you could see the cogs turning in his mind as he processed the new information. He hadn't lost a game after that. I still hadn't seen Loki all day and I was kind of glad. I don't know how much of my thoughts he saw or heard. As I open my door, I see Loki sitting on my couch in his usual spot and give him a questioning look. "What? It's peaceful and no one thinks to look for me here." I just roll my eyes and go to make myself comfortable on my couch. "Why can't you remember our adventures of Asgard as children?" He asks curiously. At least he's not pressing me about my nightmare. "Well, do you remember how I said that Hydra worked out how to forcefully break most of my bonds?  Yours was one of the first that was broken. I only managed to hold on to a few of my memories from Asgard and that was a very difficult thing to do with what they were doing to me. Bucky and Fury's bonds are they only ones that they couldn't break - they didn't want to kill Bucky and used me to manipulate him. They just couldn't get their hands on Fury to kill him." I looked down, what he didn't need to know was that most of my miserable memories are from Hydra. "I asked Tony to soundproof my room by the way. I don't want to wake you up the next time I have a nightmare" I say. He seemed to ignore what I said and asked "What does it look like to you, your bonds that is?" Now this was a question that I was excited about. My face lights up knowing that Loki of all people will appreciate this kind of magic. The excitement on my face must have been evident as Loki put the book that he was scanning through away and gave me his full attention. I stood up and projected the bond from me. I'm now encased by a shimmering, transparent, golden tree with different coloured branches coming out of my body, some thick and some thin depending on how strong the bond is. "Each person has their own branch as I said. See this one here?" I say pointing to an emerald branch on my left shoulder. It's thick and has started growing leaves, it's roots slowly spreading towards my heart. That's when it'll become nearly indestructible, he needs to know my real name before that happens. "That's you" I smile at Loki. He stands up with a smile playing at the corner of his mouth, awe written all over his face. He walks over to me and circles around, checking out all of the different bonds. "How come the roots are travelling towards your heart? Doesn't that hurt? What happens when it gets there like these two have?" Loki ask pointing as he speaks, he's genuinely curious about all of this and it makes me happy knowing that someone has an interest in me with what I hope are pure intentions. "The brown and the grey roots are Fury and Bucky's. Theirs have only made it to my heart as they know of and use my real name. It doesn't hurt, it's elating when they reach my heart. It's a hard feeling to describe, but know that it is amazing."

We spend most of the night going through each bond, explaining which one belongs to who. We also used my projection magic for Loki to show me the memories that he has of us as kids. They all seemed to revolve around us annoying Thor.

Loki looks over to me as I sit there reading a book about the history of Asgard that he's lent me. "Would you like to visit Asgard again one day? It is your home after all, I know that my mother, Frigga, would be pleased to meet you as would Odin. I would also like to help you with your magic, I'd like to teach you how to harness more of it without using so much energy?" He asks with utmost sincerity. "I'd really like that Loki, thank you" I smile, feeling the roots of our bond sneak closer to my heart.