Of Life And Hope

·.¸¸.·♩♪♫ 🄲🄷🄰🄿🅃🄴🅁 42 - 🄱🅁🄾🅃🄷🄴🅁 ♫♪♩·.¸¸.·

You hummed. "I don't know if I'm ready." Peter looked at you, his eyes encouraging you to continue. "It's just... I don't think I'm ready to just... Go back to everything like nothing happened."

"But you don't have to," Peter pointed out, "you can take the experiences and all new things with you and just... make new choices."

You smiled at him. "I'll think about it."

-~:~-

"There's someone who'd like to meet you," Peter announced, walking in with your dinner.

You drowsily sat up from the bed and blinked at him, surprised that he was there. The thing is – a few hours earlier, a guy named Bruce had come in and removed any of HYDRA's controlling devices from your neck, after which you had moved into what Peter said had been your room before, well, everything.

You had been under the impression that you now had to get dinner yourself and Peter apparently understood that because he chuckled. "I thought I'd bring you food one last time since it would probably be pretty overwhelming to meet everyone at once, especially now that you have nothing to fear for the first time in forever."

You nodded slowly, sitting on your bed as Peter occupied the chair at your desk.

"You said someone wanted to meet me?" you asked a bit unsurely, not sure if you had dreamt of him saying that.

"Oh, yeah," he nodded, remembering, "Mr. Loki, you can come in now!"

You looked at the door and raised a brow at the man who seemed to tickle some memories in the very back of your brain.

He seemed nervous. You could tell because he was fidgeting with something you couldn't see because it was hidden in his palm.

"Do I know you?" you suddenly blurted.

Loki drew in a sharp breath and Peter took that as his cue to leave the room, closing the door behind him.

Loki just stared there awkwardly, not saying a word though his eyes seemed to speak so much.

He wanted to tell you something important, you knew that.

"Uhm, you can take a seat," you offered, smiling timidly.

He did so, still too stunned to speak.

You had changed a lot, he knew that from the cameras of the White Room. But now that he saw you in person, he understood how different you actually were.

You were paler, looked more tired, and the spark in your eyes that was always present almost a year ago was now missing. Not to mention the metal that was so visibly covering half of your neck up to your right ear.

But you were talking to him and he was grateful for that, despite everything.

You sighed, pushing the tray of food aside as you looked at his grim expression. "You knew me before, didn't you?"

Loki nodded. "Y/n, I'm... I'm your brother."

Your eyebrows shot up with surprise. "Peter told me that I was raised in different orphanages."

"You were," Loki nodded.

You frowned. "Could you explain?"