Loki: Mischief & Sorrow

Battle 3

 After they got out of the tank, they danced and partied the night away till after cake and presents when Loki started having an asthma attack, he took out his inhaler and used it to hopefully help him breathe, Loki started to feel faint sitting there still not able to breathe, his inhaler not working to stop the attack, then the last thing he remembers was himself starting to fall and Aquata going "Loki!?" then it was just blackness. Loki woke up in his bed hearing the familiar sounds of the vent next to him, but it was different this time, his mouth was able to move without a tube in the way and he was able to move to some extent, "Loki, love, are you ok?" he heard Aquata ask worried from somewhere he couldn't see, he tried to talk but nothing came out of his mouth, he moved going to sit up so he could see, but an arm stopped him from doing that. Strange then spoke "not so fast Loki, let someone help you," Strange helped Loki sit up and as Loki got a feel for his surroundings, Celeste walked over to her mommy and asked "is daddy going to be better soon mommy," and it just broke Loki's heart to hear his daughter say that like there was a chance he was going to die. "Mommy's not sure when Daddy will be better sweetie, do you want to go sit next to him?" Aquata answered, Celeste must have nodded as the next thing Loki knew Aquata was carrying Celeste over to him, she set her down on the bed, Loki reached out to stroke his daughter's straight raven hair to let her know he was ok. Celeste started to cry and just snuggled up with him like she had done when she was a toddler who had a bad dream. Loki then used sign language to ask for a pad of paper and a pen so he could communicate with everyone as only he, Aquata, and the twins knew how to sign. "What did he just say?" Thor asked recognizing what his brother was doing, "he asked for a pad of paper and a pen" Aquata replied picking up a spiral bound notebook off her bedside table and bringing it over to Loki. She then signed "are you ok?" to Loki only for him to nod back before writing on the pad "was all this from my asthma attack earlier?" Aquata read what he wrote and looked at Strange hoping he could explain better than she could. Strange read the message "yes Loki, it was the attack that caused all this. When trying to open the air way again we were unable to stop the swelling to allow you to breathe on your own, we also couldn't intubate normally hence why you have what is called a tracheotomy to allow air flow so you could breathe with assistance." Strange explained. Loki gently touched his neck feeling the tube and connection point, he then signed to Aquata "how long will I be on the vent this time?" Aquata asked Strange Loki's question, "It's hard to say how long, the only fixed point I have is we will remove it when the swelling goes down enough for him to breathe on his own" Strange answered. Loki put his head back against the headboard and closed his eyes, it was all overwhelming for him. Aquata sat down and grabbed his hand and tried to calm him, "I know it's not the best conclusion to your birthday, but we'll get through this, we always do love" she said brushing his hair out of his face and kissing his hand. "We will leave you alone to rest brother" Thor said picking up Atlantan, all but Aquata and Celeste left the room, Celeste had fallen asleep against her father so Aquata just checked to make sure everything was connected and working before going over to the couch across from the bed and tried to fall asleep, she knew that this time Loki was not going to be sleeping for years on her but it still wasn't ideal she just listened to the sound of the machine and looked over seeing Loki looking over at her, she sat up and Loki signed over to her, she had missed the first word he signed but the part she caught was him asking "some water" so she guessed he was asking for water. She stood up and walked over to grab the glass of water with a straw, she held it where Loki could reach it and he took a drink being in pain as he swallowed. Aquata sat on the edge of the bed again next to him and held him close hoping that with her touching the water her healing ability would kick in and help.

A few days passed and the swelling in Loki's throat was slowly going down, each day it was easier for Loki to swallow when he drank and he was also very slowly being able to breathe. Aquata ran the kingdom while Loki was confined to bed. There were a few things that she had to physically bring to Loki for him to sign, as they needed to be signed only by the king as soon as possible. Most of the rest she was able to decide on her own and anything she felt was not in the best interest of her people was vetoed before it even got to the desk. Thor tried to help in any way he could but with him being retired from the working royal part of his heritage he really couldn't do much besides watch Loki while Aquata was in parliament or in the throne room taking condolences and offerings from her people. After about three weeks Loki was able to move air on his own so Strange came and removed the trech from Loki's neck stitching him up in the process, Loki wondered if it was going to leave a scar but Aquata assured him it would make him look hot. Loki was then stuck on a liquid only diet till the stitches were out, there were many times he pushed the glass away signing that he wanted real food, but Aquata held firm "Loki you know that you can't have that till your trech site closes up, now please one sip, for me." Aquata said one-day when he did that, Loki rolled his eyes and took one sip from the straw, his one sip turned into the whole glass of smoothie Aquata made him, she figured it was because it was cold, and felt good on the area where his neck had been cut into, or the fact that he was just that hungry. Two weeks later Strange came back and took out the outer stitches of the wound and gave Aquata instructions on how to slowly reintroduce solids into Loki's diet he said Loki could also begin talking again in small whispers at first and gradually getting louder till he was at normal tone and volume. Aquata hugged Strange, "Thank you Stephen," she said while hugging him, Strange hugged her back knowing what she's been going through, "that's why I'm here" he said before breaking the hug and turning to leave. The next day Loki sat in his office with Aquata, signing to her about what he missed only to say a few things like "aah, I see" in small whispers, he relied on Aquata to be his voice whenever he was in conference with someone, most protested her being there at first, then said she could stay as she translated the signs coming from Loki.