Unexpected

Agitating Experiments

I made my way through the crowd until I reached the emptier side of the room where Loki was sitting. There was something particularly strange in his posture and expression. He was sitting on a little, low to the ground ledge with his scepter in his hands, the gem glowing brighter than usual. His shoulders were held stiffly and his head was facing forward, his eyes staring hard ahead of him, flickering to the sides like he was watching something. His emerald eyes held a look of fear, but also professionalism and some subtle anger or disgust. I approached him from the side, trying not to exactly gain his attention, just see what was up. Upon getting closer, within some yards of him, I caught sight of a gold-green shimmer floating in the air and a moment later a glimpse of turquoise. He was using some sort of magic or something.

Now, standing ten feet from Loki, partially to the left and in front of him, I watched his eyes move like he was watching a movie and saw how his expression changed. What kind of magic was this? What was the reason? He wasn't throwing up an illusion like he did to disguise us yesterday, nor did it look like he was using any of his tricks like making his scepter disappear. It was interesting, however, to pick out the gold, green, and turquoise glints that seemed to go hand in hand with his magic whatever the purpose of it was supposed to be.

Suddenly he whipped his head to the side like he had been smacked and started breathing heavily. His eyes were focused in on reality now and they sparkled with fear now that he had apparently been trying to hide before. He tried to pull himself together for a moment and stared forward, shakily with a look of determination. What had he been doing? Why had he reacted like that? Swallowing, he took a deep breath and stood up, looking around him, his eyes landing on me straight away.

Heat ran over my face again as I realized it must look like I had been staring at him. Frozen in place I wasn't even sure where I was supposed to look, I was so embarrassed. Why'd this keep happening to me? Licking my lips I tried to think of a reason why I was standing here watching him that would hopefully make myself look less stupid. My mind was blank however and it turned out that Loki was the first to talk.

"Penelope." His voice was a bit raspy and he cleared his throat before going on, "How are you this afternoon?"

"I'm fine. My, uh, hands are much better; I think I can stop taking all those painkillers now."

He nodded his head, "Good." He reached his hands out to me and I obediently placed my hands palm-side up in his and he inspected them for a few moments, "I am glad that you're almost back to full health again."

His hands were cold under mine and I found it to be odd as man hands tend to be warmer. "How, um, how did your, uh, 'business' go this morning?"

For a moment his eyes flashed some sort of strong emotion, "Fine enough. My business partners are becoming a bit restless, but Doctor Selvig assures me that he's almost at a breaking point."

It was at this moment that I decided to not tell Loki that I had just sent the same man off to take a break.

He looked off for a moment to see two scientists coming up to us, "I'm afraid that I have some matters to attend to today and I do not believe I'll be able to have your company at dinner this evening." He informed me, sending the scientists a look to tell them to stay away for a moment and wait.

"Okay. I'll leave a tray in your room for you when you can get to it." I said, not exactly liking the way one of the scientists, who had happened to be one of the ones that had done some of the tests on me, was looking at me, like I was an experiment.

"Thank you." He said, nodding his head in farewell as he took a step towards the two waiting lab coats.

"Loki." I spoke up against my better judgment, his strange episode earlier and the subtle nervousness in his posture and mannerisms since had me feeling kind of worried about him who usually held himself with such authority and regality. He stopped and looked at me questioningly. Taking a quick breath to force me to continue, I asked "Are you okay?"