The Sound of Silence

Chapter 9

 You slept for a few hours that night, cuddling the little Loki teddy bear. You fell asleep remembering your wonderful day out. It was so good to feel normal again. You weren't normal, you'd never be normal, but you had proven you could be out among people again.

As usual, you only managed a few hours of sleep at a time. You actually dressed for your midnight wandering on a hunch, and took your hoodie with you instead of wearing it. You'd throw it on if you bumped into someone who had a negative reaction to seeing your scarred arms. With you laptop and Lokibear you went downstairs to the living room and turned on Tony's huge TV.

It took effort to log into your Facebook account. You thought it'd be safer to log in at 2am. You were wrong. You were bombarded with messages from your friends the second they noticed you had logged in. They were all demanding if the stories on the news were real, if that really was you, where you'd been for the last year, etc.

So you carefully wrote out a long status explaining the past year and how the story on the news was real, that was really you, the scars were real (though not that you could speak the future), and yes, you had spent the day with Loki.

You posted some of the pictures from the press, picked a new profile picture, since your last one was from a dance recital two years ago, and began scrolling through a year of news and drama from your friends.

Loki found you crying an hour later and ran to your side. "Y/N, what's wrong?" he asked, concerned and looking for what could have made you cry. You shook your head, nothing was wrong.

[Happy tears] you signed quickly.

"I don't understand," he told you softly, settling himself on the couch next to you.

You pointed at your laptop screen. -Y/N! You're alive!- was the single message there.

You tabbed over to the word doc you left open on your laptop and typed out an explanation to your worried Loki. -My best friend, Sammi. All of our friends called, IMed, messaged, and did everything they could to wake her up to tell her I was back. Someone actually called her house phone and woke her dad so he would wake her. That kid is grounded for the next year for waking the police chief, but she got up at 3am. For me-

Your silent words couldn't convey how shocked you'd been that your friends would do that, or how much it meant to you that Sammi jumped out of bed at 3am to talk to you. You had expected to be rejected for being gone for a year. You hadn't been expecting this.

"Of course they did, darling," Loki smiled and kissed the top of your head, reassuring himself that you were ok while being adorable. "You should answer your friend..." he added, noticing that you hadn't responded. You nodded and set the laptop on the coffee table.

[I'm going to call her. Can you move out of the camera shot?] He nodded and moved to his usual spot on the couch. Somehow Lokibear ended up in his lap while he read a book, pretending not to eavesdrop on your conversation.

You shrugged on your hoodie before opened the videochat and pressed the call icon next to Sammi's picture, praying she would actually answer. She answered immediately. "Y/N!" came her shriek through the speakers.

"Sammi! It's 3am!" Came her dad's voice from somewhere in the background. You knew he was yelling from his bedroom, which was just down the hall from Sammi's. You couldn't help laughing.

"Dad, my best friend is back from the dead, let me talk to her!" Sammi shouted in the direction of her dad's room. Sammi's dad came bursting into her room a moment later.

"Y/N?" he asked, looking at you through her computer.

You nodded [Good morning, Chief Morgan. I'm sorry I called so early, sir. Sammi was worried] you signed the words carefully. He looked so relieved.