✍🏻 Bonds of Fear (Loki)

8 - Exception

Feer

I woke up in the darkness of my room, wheezing and unable to catch a breath. It took me a while to even realize where I was, trying to wrap my head around what has happened. It was ages since I had nightmares and at least then I knew the reasons behind them.
And once I dealt with it - going against Fury's rules and consequently getting the sticker of an unstable lunatic - the nightmares were gone.
Job done.
But now I had no idea not only what has caused it but what did I dream in the first place.

I ran myself a hot bath, soaking in it for an hour and when I saw I am in no danger, I began to slowly let all of my emotions come back.
My whole body was hurting and I had a splitting headache but at least the bruising on my ribs wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I've definitely had worse. My hands were still trembling when I was reaching for the soap and I tried to recall what exactly was in that dream but it only made the headache worse.
Arleene was definitely in it, that I was sure of, which was nothing out of the ordinary as she was always in both my happy and horrific dreams. But what exactly was the nature of the nightmare, I could not tell. And most of all, why did it have such an intense effect on me.

Choosing comfort over curiosity, I let it be not to worsen the headache, and got out of the bathroom, changing into my daily clothes. It was only 4 am but there was no point in even trying to go to bed and instead I aimed for the upper floors, needing to find out how Loki is doing.
He was already gone when I woke up, possibly leaving the moment I fell asleep and since I was not sure if what I did to him was really gone, I wanted to make sure he is alright.

When I knocked on his door there was yet again no answer and after peeking in, I noted the flat is empty. Though my own emotions were still a mess I was certain he was not playing invisible again and hiding.
I paused and leaned against the wall, assuming he would not be stupid enough to leave the tower without me, since it was one of the conditions securing his comfortable stay.
There was then only one other place I could think of and I called the elevator.

The fresh air of the city, not yet polluted by the morning traffic, brushed against my cheeks and I took a deep inhale, letting it fill my lungs, aiming for the section of the roof where the small garden was.
Loki was sitting against one of the trees, staring at the dark sky and deep in thought but he did look at me when he registered my presence from several meters away.

"You okay?" I asked when I stopped by his side, not sitting down.

"Never been better," he said, voice laced with sarcasm.

"I mean it Loki," I pressed on with impatience, "I didn't plan for that to happen. It went wrong."

"Hmm," he clearly didn't believe me and diverted his gaze, staring now somewhere into the distance, "so what memory were you trying to pull out?"

"None," I replied and he looked up back at me with a frown, "I wasn't trying to pull out anything. I can feel other's people emotions and I can transfer them from one another."

He narrowed his eyes at me, his gaze even darker with the absence of daylight, and with the long silence that followed I shifted my weight to fight the discomfort of his intense look.
When he still didn't say a thing, only analyzing my face with deep curiosity, I turned around and was about to leave when he grabbed my wrist.
I turned back and glanced at his hand on mine, noting the grip is incredibly gentle, so different from the way he was handling me until now.

"So you didn't plan to bring out -" he paused, searching for the right words.

"No," I answered, saving him the trouble, "I only wanted to give you a small dose of fear and sorrow so you know what I can do. Somehow the mixture I used, was similar to your past experiences and they reacted with each other. I didn't plan for that to happen."