Loki Laufeyson - The Experiment {1}

Chapter Five - Trusting

I immediately stiffened at the new person walked in. I was a woman, which immediately confused me. Woman barely ever came to see me, it was always male scientists. She continued to walk towards me and I moved back a little, watching her warily.

"Hey sweetie." The woman smile comfortingly. "I hope I didn't interrupt anything." She carefully shut the door behind her and my eyes darted to it and then her face. She slowly moved towards me, clearly trying to keep her movements to a minimum, and sat down on the chair. Her eyes darted down to my bracelets and she smiled.

"I see that Tony managed to finish the bracelets." She remarked. "He spent a solid five hours in there, I had to drag him out of there to have lunch." She chuckled slightly and I looked back down at the bracelets, not sure what to say or if I should say anything. I continued to spin the bracelets around on my wrist, the repetitive movement distracting me from the woman in front of me and my thoughts. She leant forward and I immediately looked up sharply, stiffening as she gently took my hands in hers. I flinched at the touch and looked away, but I knew better than to pull away, because that would have me punished for sure.

She rubbed the top of my hand in what I guessed was meant to be a comforting way, and it was, slightly. Her hands were soft and smooth, I had never met anyone with fingers as soft and it was like she had been made without any imperfections. I slowly looked up at her and saw her smiling at me comfortingly.

"You look like you need a good clean." She said softly and I ducked my head, knowing that I must look like an absolute mess with my matted, greasy hair, dirty clothes and torn skin. "Would you like a bath or shower?" I hesitated for a moment, biting my lip as my brain worked over time to try and figure out if it was a trap or a trick question.

"A shower." I replied timidly after a couple of seconds of silence before I quickly added on. "Please." She smile and nodded, standing up and still holding onto my hand. I immediately stiffened but had not choice but to stand up. My legs shook slightly and the woman watched me carefully, clearly wanting to help me, but she thought better of it. She slowly walked over to my cell door, slowing her pace so I could keep up with her. My legs slowly stopped shaking after a couple of steps, but my ankle throbbed from experimenting a couple of days ago where the one of the scientists had kicked me.

The woman opened up the door and I immediately tensed up, looking out into the hallway, immediately looking for any sign of danger, my hands fisted, ready for a fight. Outside my cell room didn't seem that different from HYDRA, and I immediately began to question whether I was still in HYDRA or not. The hallway was made from bright white brick and a grey cement floor. The ceiling was white and there were blinding circular lights built into the ceiling roughly every sixty centimetres. The woman, finally letting go of my hand, looked over her shoulder at me and noticed my wide-eyed expression.

"This isn't what the whole tower looks like." She smiled softly. "This is just the bottom level, with all of the cells. Tony decided that it was probably safer for all of us, including you, to keep you somewhere...contained." I could sense in her tone that she didn't seem too happy with Tony's decision, but I didn't say anything. We reached an elevator at the end of the hallway and the woman reached out to press the button with an arrow pointing upwards. The lift pinged after a couple of seconds and the doors slid open, revealing a rather spacious lift with walls lined completely with shining wood and metal handrails going around the edge. We both stepped inside and I watched curiously as the woman clicked a button that had a 2 engraved on it. It lit up and the lift doors shut before I felt it begin to move upwards. I wobbled slightly at the movement and I grasped the handrail, my eyes wide. The woman gave me a sympathetic look but I saw too focused on staying upright to see.

After about thirty seconds, the lift stopped and pinged again, the doors sliding back open, revealing a very fancy room with plush maroon-coloured carpet. It went all the way to a black railing that went all the way around a circular gap between all of the levels, allowing a clear view to the levels below. There were brown leather chairs with small amounts of gold detailing and a large glass coffee table surrounded by at least five brown chairs. Books and papers were scattered over the floor and there was even an empty coffee cup on a small table next to one of the chairs. There were also pillows, a mix of beige and white, scattered over the whole level.

"My guess is that someone started a pillow fight." The woman chuckled slightly, noticing me looking at the pillows. She bent down and picked a couple, throwing them back onto the chair. "Or they got into an argument and decided to use pillows as weapons." I watched her, unsure of what to say. She turned back to me and gave me a smile before nodding over to polished wooden doors spaced across the off-white-coloured curving wall.

"Those are all of the bedrooms." She explained. "You're lucky we had a couple of spares, although Tony wasn't exactly happy to clean it out. I swear I didn't know he had so much junk." She rolled her eyes and chuckled, walking over to the very last door on the right, pulling the door handle down and opening up the door. She stepped inside and I had no choice but to follow her.

The inside of the room was a plain design compared to the one outside. The floor was a cream-coloured carpet with white skirtings and off-white walls. We walked down a small hallway before it opened up into the pain section of the room. There was a beige double couch against the left wall, taking up most of it. There was a pair of glass sliding doors that led out onto a small balcony with black railings. Beige sheer curtains were pulled to both sides of the glass doors, the ones on the left hidden between the small gap between the white marble bench top and the off-white wall. Built into the marble bench top was a small silver sink and dish rack, there three white cups were stacked upside down. Above the sink were white cupboards with silver handles.

"There is a bathroom through there for you to use." The woman interrupted my wide-eyed staring, nodding towards a white door that was down the end of another small hallway next to the end of the kitchen bench. "There is also a bed and some clothes in the cupboard that will hopefully fit you.." She turned around and I followed to see a whole little room cut into the wall where a double bed with beige blankets and white pillows was neatly made. Against the back wall on the left side of the bed, there was a polished wooden colour, matching the bed legs and bookshelf nailed to the wall.

"There's also a TV that drops down from the ceiling there." She pointed up to the ceiling where there was a small square outline in the middle. "And over there." She pointed to another one just over the glass coffee table. "Just make sure you get the right remotes for them. The one for the lounge room is on the kitchen bench and the one for the bedroom is in the drawer of the left bedside table." She fell silent, watching me as I tried to take in everything with wide eyes. I slowly walked over to the bed, running my fingertips along the blanket, immediately overcome with the urge to jump onto it and wrap myself up tightly.

"What do you think?" Asked the woman after a couple of moments of silence. "I know it might not seem like much, this is just the basic layout of all of the rooms. You can always change where things are and I'm sure you could find more things somewhere over the tower if you want different colours or styles." She finished rambling, biting her lip nervously as if wanting my approval. It was the weirdest feeling.

"It's amazing," I said, looking up at her and smiling softly. "Thank you." I quickly dropped my eyes, not exactly comfortable with eye contact, but I didn't miss the smile lighting up her face.

"If you need anything while you are having a shower, feel free to let JARVIS know and he will tell me." She said, speaking up before the silence became awkward. I nodded, and saw her begin to move out of the room out of the corner of my eye. I looked up quickly at her retreating figure, only for her to look over her shoulder at me and give me a small smile before she disappeared down the hallway, The doorway opened before it clicked shut, leaving me alone in the room.