In-between Love Sweat And Tears (Loki Short Stories And One Shots)

Knowing

Today was not what you thought it'd be.

After Darkness finally regained her strength you had felt much better and were almost back to being your quirky self. You were even able to eat normal foods again (carefully and in small quantities). The morning had started out comfortably in the early hours before it developed into you having a conversation (and some fun) with Loki.

"So I found out something." You tell Loki, playing with his hair softly as you're both laying lazily in bed before the sun's even risen. He's resting his head on your shoulder, his hand rubbing your upper thigh gently in a calm manner as the rest of his body is slightly sprawled over yours. He's only in pajama pants (which causes you to try not to give into your temptation), as you're wearing the shirt that's supposed to be on him, buttoned up only halfway from the bottom (since he's the one that did that). "Oh, and what would that be?" He asks, his words slightly muffled by his lips being buried into the crook of your neck.

"I heard that you were thinking about me before we had even been introduced to each other." He lifts up his head to look at you, a bit of surprise dancing behind those emerald green gems. "Who told you that?" "A friend of a friend's friend." "Thor." "W... Well, it came from him, but he didn't tell me himself. Is it true?"

Laying his head back on your shoulder so that you can't gauge his emotions, Loki hums against your neck. "What if it is?" You smile, leaning your head against the backboard of the bed. "I'm just curious."

"I could feel it radiating from you.... It was a couple of days after I was supposed to be imprisoned on Asgard but I was instead held in a cell, and then taken to the fifth floor instead of outside." You thought back to that day, where everyone in your office had left you to do their work for them while they had a caucus. You realize now that they were just abandoning the building because of the attack, and just left a note with you. Wow, you really went into work with all of that going on and didn't even bat an eyelash. "Was.. was it bad?" "Not at that moment, no. I was honestly ready to put up a fight when they let me into the room where you were, until I saw you."

Your cheeks reddened. "Oh? Did I leave you breathless like it was love at first sight?" You teased. "No, you left me stunned because of how painfully normal you looked. I had been ready to battle." He teased back, making you snort a bit in laughter.

Smiling, you thought back to how it had all been from then on. "Hmm... Sometimes you were warm, was that to keep me from-" "From feeling my Jotun temperature all the time, yes. But now I know that you can literally withstand my cold touch.. which is so very phenomenal." You gently dance your fingers along his neck, making him shiver. You began thinking back even more, to when you had woken up in the hospital that first time, and the conversation you had had after being forcibly relocated. "... We spent almost an entire year not speaking to each other. From being separated and then my coma..." 

Loki's sat up now, and has gently pulled you into his arms to hold you. "Yes... It was the worst. I felt as if I had been dead myself, and was suffering in Hell before Thor had gotten me... And then the feelings became so much more intense." You look down, rubbing his arms slowly. He had never liked to talk about this, but it had been long enough surely, as he was talking without choking up. "That... Entity was supposed to have been extracted... That's what I had thought had happened. And perhaps it did, but now it's back in you.." You nod carefully. Cerena had made her way back to you, much more dormant now, you hoped.

"When Thor had said your body wasn't your own, he was correct. I didn't recognize you, nor the movements you had, and definitely not the black pooling smoke surrounding you.. When I delved into your mind, I never thought I would have to cast such strong spells to reach 'you'. And when I pulled the real you out of that prison within your mind, I wanted to kill you myself, all over again."