You Go, I Go

Chapter 6

After a debrief, and dinner with the remaining Avengers, everyone retired to their rooms for the night. Loki couldn't help but toss and turn. At some point, he felt a familiar force attempting to enter his mind. He smiled, and relaxed a little, allowing her in, into a calming memory of Vanaheim. It was a trip he took with Frigga when he was still a teenager.

"You could have just asked to enter my room," he smiled as Sylvie took a seat beside him on the ledge he was perched on.

"Yes, but I don't think I would have gotten to explore you more as a person that way," she replied. "I wish I'd had the chance to get to know my family like this." Anger bubbled in Loki on Sylvie's behalf. "It's no use getting angry about it now," she told him, laying a hand on his shoulder softly. "It's done."

"I just wish I could reverse the pain they caused you," he breathed sadly.

"I know," she said. "But you have me here and now, and you can make me feel better about our current issues."

Loki arched an eyebrow. "Oh?" he asked. "And how would you propose I do that?"

Sylvie laughed. "Oh, Loki," she chuckled, shaking her head. "You and your mischievous mind. I'm next to you right now. I wouldn't be able to connect with you otherwise."

"I gathered that," he quipped. "So, what now?"

They came out of the enchantment, Loki opening his eyes to see Sylvie crouched beside his bed. He shuffled his body over and held his arms out, gesturing for her to join him in the bed. She crawled in beside him, feeling small all of a sudden. She wiggled into his arms, resting her face in the crook of his neck. He kissed her head and squeezed her gently.

"Seeing Thor today must have been a lot," she sighed.

"Not as much for me as it was for him, I'm sure," Loki responded.

"Mobius feels bad, you know," Sylvie told him, receiving confusion from him. "About making fun of you. When he told you his theory about our Nexus event, and he made fun of you, he was angry at you for betraying him. However, he didn't realise it ran this deep. He didn't realise it was really love."

"How many people have you enchanted without their knowledge?" Loki chuckled.

"I didn't," she replied. "It was when I killed He Who Remains. The entire Sacred Timeline flashed before my eyes. It was... overwhelming, to say the least."

"So..."

"I know how everyone felt up until I killed He Who Remains," she supplied for him. "I could feel it, if that's even possible."

"And you saw it all as well?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied. "It was exhausting. I almost collapsed and passed out where I stood. There's a boy, Peter Parker. I took note of him. He battled in the Civil War between the Avengers in 2016."

"What about him?" Loki questioned.

"Something happened recently," she told him. "Around the same time, we were in the Citadel, Strange and Peter were messing around with the multiverse trying to reverse the damage of Peter's 'unmasking' as Spiderman. It caused chaos, which ended in Strange having to erase this Earth's memories of Peter. Spider-Man, Peter's vigilante identity, still exists, though. He lost a lot of really important people in his life... I want that to be the first thing we fix when we become the rulers of the multiverse."

"Wait, you want to rule the multiverse with me?" he asked, shocked.

She scoffed. "Of course, that's all you'd get from all of that," she chuckled. "Yes, you idiot, I want to rule the multiverse with you. I couldn't do it on my own, as per Kang's helpful tip. I do have to warn you, though. I felt everyone's feelings. That means yours, too. I felt the betrayal and hurt you felt when I pushed you through that door."

"Sylvie, I-"

"Don't," she told him. "Don't say anything. I felt the good stuff, too."

"You mean-"

"I knew you loved me before you told me," she informed him. "I denied it to myself, but it was so overwhelming... I could feel you the most. I didn't want to admit it was true because then that would mean I'd have to stop lying to myself. Stop telling myself I didn't love you back, at least not like that. But I do. I love you, too, in the exact same way you love me."

They shared a tender kiss before she rested her head against his chest and fell asleep, with the beat of his heart guiding her through peaceful dreams. When they awoke the next morning, they felt incredibly well-rested. That soon changed to a tense and embarrassed feeling as they exited Loki's room straight into a hall full of Avengers. It wasn't much help when Bruce, Carol and Scott all smirked at them. Wanda had a scowl on her face. Still sour about The Vision, Sylvie noted. Thor looked minorly uncomfortable; he'd been feeling uncomfortable with Sylvie and Loki's relationship given it was basically like them loving themselves. The whole "them having their own separate personalities" hadn't quite eased his mind on the whole thing, but he was trying, which was all they could really ask from him.

Sylvie cleared the silence by clearing her throat. "Are you all aware of a superhero by the name of Spider-Man?" she asked.

"Yeah," Bruce responded.

"He's just a small-time vigilante in Brooklyn," Stephen said. "What about him?"

"We need him on our team," she informed them. "You lot don't remember, but his name is Peter Parker, and Strange, you helped him a couple of days ago. He was unmasked and he was so desperate to undo it, you two fell into the branching of the Sacred Timeline. You had to erase everyone's memories of Peter Parker, even in those who knew him."

"I'm so careful with messing with time," Strange stated quietly, almost in a whisper.

"It's pretty on-brand for you to be irresponsible, Stephen," Carol chuckled. "How did you get your injury that stopped you from doing surgery? Oh, yeah, you were texting and driving."

"Easy!" Bruce groaned, stepping in.

"The branch wasn't Stephen's fault," Sylvie told them. "In fact, the whole thing would've gone smoothly had the timeline not started branching when it did. But Peter is alone and having to start life over. I need to help him help you all. He's resourceful, and Tony mentored him as well."

"Great, that probably means he's reckless," Bucky groaned.

"Please," she begged. "He's a kid, he's a little reckless, but he's got heart and experience. He went to outer space and got dusted by Thanos. He deserves this. If it wasn't the right thing to do, I wouldn't focus on him."

The Avengers looked at each other, then nodded. "Okay," Carol said. "He can join us. But you have to explain everything to him. This time stuff is confusing without your freaky abilities to see people we don't even remember existed."

Sylvie nodded. She'd hardly noticed, but Loki hadn't let go of her from his embrace since they left his room. The grip had tightened when they were confronted by the hallway of Avengers, but it had slowly loosened to a love grip as they spoke about Peter. He wasn't sure if he did it out of protectiveness for her or comfort for him. Probably both, he decided.