✍🏻 Bonds of Fear (Loki)

14 - Annie

Loki

It took her hours to fall asleep. Scheming and plotting while I was silently lying behind her, craving to be able to read her thoughts. To have a peek into her cunning mastermind. If the scene she played out for Oliver was anything to go by, it would surely be a treat. If only she wouldn't be so sensitive to mind reading. But alas. Like when she was high after I used my healing powers and she said that one line that made me stop in my tracks.

"You know, everybody always says that your power lies in your deceitful magic, but I think it's your intelligence that people should be afraid of. That is your power."

The only other person who ever said that to me was my mother.

Thor had his strength. I had my magic. It was only Frigga who saw something more in me. I couldn't believe Feer came up with it in her own head but the second I tried to invade her mind, her headache started and I had to stop. She was too high to figure out what caused the pain though she did sense the guilt I felt for attempting it. Now, even when asleep, I was certain she would wake up the second I tried anything. And just as with me, her power didn't lie only in her ability to sense people's emotions. She was so much more than that and people were afraid of her for all the wrong reasons. Underestimating the power of her manipulation. It was mesmerizing to watch in action but equally terrifying, making me just a bit more cautious around her.

Having no need for sleep, I stayed up the whole night and tried to figure out what it was that she truly wanted. What her ultimate goal was. And what part she wanted me to play in her plan to get there, certain she wasn't so welcoming to my presence out of pure entertainment. I was racking my head, hating how little information I had to go by while her shallow breathing against my chest was giving me thoughts way more dangerous than any of her deadly webs.

When the first, morning light hit her room she stirred and I focused on my shield, not wanting her to feel from me anything of importance.

"Morning," she mumbled and pressed her back closer to me.

"Morning, earthling," I said, letting my hand run up and down her thigh. "Slept well?"

"Strangely, yes." She rolled to face me, her eyes adjusting to the morning light.

"Why strangely?"

"I usually don't like sleeping next to other people."

"I guess you never slept next to a God."

"I guess not," she laughed and I was glad she woke up in a better mood than the one she went to bed with. "When will our lesson start?"

And there was the reason for it.

I laughed and moved my hand over to her ass, giving it a tempting squeeze. "Whenever you would like to." She wiggled in excitement and shot out of bed, heading to the bathroom and saying over her shoulder she just needs to arrange a dinner with Tony and Pepper and would be ready right after.

She did the arranging for tomorrow night while we walked to the lower floors where the training rooms were, talking into one of those little black machines that transferred voices at great distances. One of the very few useful things humans invented. She hung up with a pleased smile, stuffed the thing into the pocket of her leather jacket, and started to bring her hair up into a ponytail.

"Getting into the fighting mode?" I asked, finding it amusing how invested she was in something as ordinary as sword fighting.

"You bet, I'll kick your ass in no time. Don't underestimate me."

"I would never dare to," I answered honestly and watched her face break into a proud grin as she didn't sense a lie.

The jacket ended up discarded on the floor the second we entered the training room and she assumed a position in the middle of the open space, her feet slightly apart to keep balance and rubbing her palms against each other. "So?" She asked, eager and licking her lips. "Show me the sword."