Loki Laufeyson - The Experiment {1}

Chapter Seventeen - One More Week

LOKI POV

Within the first week of being in Asguard, Emily had definitely improved. She didn't seem to see it, or wanted to admit it, but I could see it, and so could my Mother. Instead of Emily not being able to control a small flame in her palm, she could not only do that, but created one almost the size of her whole hand. A small improvement was better than nothing.

The only problem was that her power used up so much of her energy, and the training normally finished because Emily either fainted or could barely stay standing. This led to her having afternoon sleeps and my mother and I would often spend that time trying to figure out different ways Emily could control her power and why it was so difficult to control. We hadn't really made any big breakthroughs, but we were still trying.

"Loki?" A sweet timid voice cut through my thoughts and I looked around Emily's doorframe to see her standing there, dressed and ready for breakfast. My Mother had tried to get her to wear dresses, which were apparently meant to be easy to move around in for training, but Emily wasn't comfortable in anything except long clothes, normally of a dark shade. For training, she tended to wear black jeans and a loose oversized grey t-shirt, even though it was the middle of summer. I had even ditched the normal clothes I wore in Asguard and settled for t-shirts. It puzzled me as to why she insisted on wearing such long clothes, but I figured she must be trying to hide the scars on her body. I had seen the ones on her wrists and arms when I clipped up that bracelet, and the ones on her legs when she had rolled up her jeans when we sat at the jetty, and they looked pretty horrific. I always hated to think about what she had to go through at HYDRA, and what she could have gone through if I hadn't found her.

"Loki." Came her sweet voice again and I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts before I looked back down at her. She giggled softly and stepped out of her room, shutting the door behind her. "Come on, we're going to be late for breakfast." I nodded and grinned at her, holding out my hand for her, letting her put her small hand in mine before I teleported us down to the Dining Hall for breakfast. Thor, Mother and Odin were already there when we appeared and then all looked up at us, Mother giving both Emily and I a smile. Emily returned it and we both sat down, filling our plates with the steaming food in front of us.

That was another thing I had noticed about Emily, she was absolutely amazed by the food, yet she only half filled her plate. I wasn't sure if she just got full really easily, or if she thought she would get in trouble for eating too much. I wouldn't put it past HYDRA for doing something like that to her. The small amounts of food didn't seem to be affecting her though, if anything, she seemed to be gaining more weight, which was a good thing. She didn't look like she had been starved anymore, her arms didn't seem fragile and her bones and tendons were becoming less visible. Her beautiful eyes almost always had a happy spark in them and she just seemed brighter.

"So, mortal." The annoying voice of Odin cut through my thoughts and I clenched my hand around my fork, clenching my jaw. I hated how he refused to call Emily but her real name, he was being arrogant and it made me want to stab the fork through his eyes.

Emily looked up at Odin, and I immediately noticed her body go tense. This always happened whenever Odin spoke to her, which was a rare occurrence. I knew she was afraid of him, and I hated Odin for making her feel that way. She was so relaxed around the rest of us, even the staff and other people in town, but Odin always put her on edge.

"I heard that you've been making progress with your training." Odin continued and Emily nodded timidly. "That's good, I'm sure your other mortal friends will be happy to see you again."

"She's not that ready yet." Mother interrupted before I could even open my mouth. "We've made progress, but not enough."

"I've given you a week." Odin replied firmly. "That should have been plenty of time, and way too much time to have a danger within Asguard."

"One more week." Frigga said firmly. "One more week and she should have enough control."

EMILY POV

One week was barely any time to control my power. I had barely made any progress in the one week I had already been here. I trained harder that I did before, which exhausted me a lot more and I lost control more often. Thankfully, Frigga managed to get me under control easily, but it wasn't enough. Within the first two days, I had accidentally burnt down a tree, several rose plants and created a lot of scorch marks in the grass. Frigga was able to regrow it all thankfully, so Odin wouldn't have to find out.

When I wasn't bursting my guts out with training, I either spent my time sleeping and trying to regain my energy or sitting in the library trying to read. I was pretty fluent in English, but I had spent so many years reading in Russian that I was a little rusty with English. Loki sometimes sat with me, reading in silence and occasionally helping me pronounce words I didn't know.

When the end of the week roll around, Odin kept his promise and made Thor and Loki take be back to the Avengers. I was slightly sad to be leaving Asguard, but I had the feeling that I didn't belong there and that I was more... at home at Stark Tower.

When we were preparing to leave, Frigga gently grabbed my hand and pressed something cool into it, wrapping my fingers over it. She pulled away and I carefully unfurled my fingers, looking down at my palm to see a little golden charm shaped into a small flame.

"It's for your bracelet." She nodded to my wrist where the moonstone bracelet was under my jumper sleeve. I fiddled with the charm in my hand before looking up at her and giving her a small smile. My eyes drifted to Odin standing far behind her, his face expressionless, and my smile faded a little. I looked back to Frigga and gave her another small smile before Thor called out and the Bifrost whisked us away. 

AN: 

Don't we all wish we could live in Asguard? Honestly, I would love it. 

So what do we think so far? Don't forget to comment and vote and ask any pressing questions!