Loki Imagines: Reader-Insert Story Collection

Unique

Anonymous request on imagine-loki @tumblr: "You are so wonderful! Truly one of the best Loki Imagine blogs out there (and I have seen plenty). But, I have a special request for a short story if you don't mind. Smut or no smut, it doesn't really matter, but I was wondering if you could an imagine where the reader is wounded and is taken in by the Avengers, where they meet Loki. He's intrigued by the new guest, and they learn they have similar backstories."

(The following work was submitted to the above tumblr blog)

You feel pain all over your body as you try to crawl into cover, while all around you the remnants of a ferocious battle scars the street and drives deep cracks into the buildings. As your vision becomes increasingly blurry, you hear a voice call out and glimpse a broad-shouldered man clad in blue kneeling down next to you.

"We're...gotta....her...to the base...!"

"Casualty...collateral."

"Get the...!"

It's hard to make out the conversations, but you feel your body lifted and placed on what seems to be a gurney, and as you slip out of conscious you think to yourself:

"Going to the liquor shop at 2 AM was a terrible idea."

With a gasp, you wake up in a white-walled room. You're lying on a hospital mattress -- a rather comfy one that seems to warmly embrace your back -- and a heart monitor beats beside you while a saline drip has been inserted in your arm. Further out, some more hospital mattresses lie empty, and a large glass pane provides view into what seems to be a hallway straight out of Star Trek ship, with futuristic light panels and sterilized-looking walls. Even the fire extinguisher attached to said wall looks like it was given a customized makeover.

"Well, you're awake," says a voice.

You practically jump in place. When you turn to the source of that voice, you see a man walking toward your bed -- a tall man with a slim frame and long black hair, wearing a strange dark-green getup that reminds you of some online pictures that you've seen years ago...

"Loki?!" you blurt, remembering that in those pictures this man had been attempting to do some unsavory deeds to a group of people before Captain America intervened.

"Relax, dear," Loki says. He pulls up a chair and sits down in it. "I'm not here to hurt you. And if I did the Avengers wouldn't take so kindly to me, seeing as we're inside an Avengers compound." He purses his lips, his face showing a bizarrely comical expression. "Not to mention that I'm a little bit more of a good guy right now, and I'm actually eating out of their pantry."

"...What do you mean? Didn't you...screw up New York..?"

Loki sighs. "I know, I know. I did some unforgivable things. I'm not expecting everyone to just let go of them. But, I'm not going to hurt you -- at least more than I've already accidentally done."

At this, you glower at him. "What happened back there? By the liquor store? I was just walking down the street and..."

"We -- the Avengers and I -- were going after a particularly unsavory individual." Loki leans back and crosses his legs, his voice taking on a casual, eloquent tone. "Fortunately or unfortunately, I happen to have known him, so I helped with the chase. And when we did find him, he got a little bit...how do I say this -- belligerent? We fought him, and you happened to be there."

"I see..." you murmur. It's not everyday that a desire to risk one's life buying a Twinkie leads to being bedridden in an Avengers compound. And talking to Loki no less. Though there's certainly something strangely comforting about having him by your bedside right now, even if he doesn't have a good bedside manner. "Why're you even here anyways?" you ask.

Loki shrugs. "It gets boring here sometimes."

You raise a brow, and are about to add some of your own smart-ass phrasings when Loki then adds:

"Plus, you got hurt because of me, so I have a bit of responsibility; at the very least, I should be the one to tell you what happened to you."

You feel your lips grow into a small smile. "Is this the you that's turning a new leaf?" you ask.

"I assume so," Loki replies. He then points a finger at you. "Hey, if you think I'm trying to become a Captain America, I'm not. In fact, it was Steve who got to your side and carried you to safety."

"I'll have to thank him then," you say. "Thank you, too, though...for being here."

"You're very welcome." A smile grows on Loki's face as well, making him seem quite affable. If it isn't for your knowledge of his past, he'd probably come across as a perfectly fine Avenger.

"Waking up alone on a hospital bed...It's not fun," you say, the volume of your voice tapering off at the end of your sentence. Indeed, today would actually not have been the first time you had to be in critical medical situation. "I've been in and out of the hospital a lot as a kid, so..."

"Sickly childhood?" Loki tilts his head slightly, as though he recognized something in your face. "I dare say I'm familiar with that. Very much."

"Aren't you like, a super-villain? How'd you get sick?"

"Ex-super-villain, mind you," Loki protests before continuing on. "I was-- rather different from the rest of my kind, and my childhood was filled with my father's magical attempts to...make me more similar to said kind. They way he explained it was that I had a dire malady of some sort. Took him a millennium to finally admit to me that I was actually just 'unique.'"

"Oh," you murmur. Inside you arises some kind of odd satisfaction in knowing that even a powerful magical being can know what it's like to be an outcast. Loki might just as well be pulling your leg, but you sense a vulnerability in his voice that makes you want to open up to him more. "Well, if 'unique' means having superpowers and a British accent, I'd love to be unique any day," you say.

"Trust me, you won't enjoy my brand of unique. Your human beauty standards would roast you alive."

"I don't see anything ugly about you."

"Eyes are easy to trick," Loki says, winking softly.