Babysitter to the God of Mischief | Loki ✔

Chapter Twenty One

"Loki?" I walked back over to his bed, after closing the door to Thor. He sighed quietly, but didn't answer me. "Loki, what can I do to help?"

He twisted his head to the side, then gently pulled himself so he was sitting on the edge of the bed. "In the bathroom there is a tub of the blue cream I used to treat your back. Remember?" I thought back to when I'd first been made his maid, and nodded. "Fetch it and bring it in here."

I walked quickly to the bathroom, not wanting him to be in any more pain. I found the tub on a shelf buried in the back of one of the long cupboards that stood pressed against the far wall, full of little bottles and boxes of what I assumed were healing remedies of some kind.

He was still sat on the bed when I came back, but his chest was exposed as half of his shirt was pulled over his head. His arms were sticking out at an odd angle and I could hear a frustrated groan come from inside the shirt, the material muffling his voice. Though I knew he was hurting, I had to bite my lip to try and not giggle at the sight. The God of Mischief had been beaten by an under shirt.

I placed the tub on the floor by his feet and held a hand against his shoulder, stopping his movements. "Let me."

I carefully bunched the shirt up so it would come off easier, without dragging against what I now knew where injuries on his back. His head popped out, his hair ruffled and wild as he stared at the floor, his cheeks turning a slight pink.

I slid his arms out, and folded the shirt to sit next to him on the bed. He glanced at the tub on the floor, and staying quiet as I picked it up, and walked around the bed. My eyes widened as I saw his back, a wave of nausea hitting me as I realised what they'd done.

His back was ripped red raw, with peeling skin covered in both dried and fresh blood. No wonder it had hurt him to move; any movement of his body and they would be ripped back open.

"Wait a minute." I jumped off the bed and ran back to the bathroom before he could question my actions. I wet a cloth, wringing it a little before filling a shallow bowl with warm water.

I placed the bowl in his hands, then sat behind him on the bed, crossing my legs carefully under one another. He hissed when I first wiped at the skin, and I instantly pulled my hand away, to see the cloth covered in red. "Hold the bowl out," there was a long pause as I waited for a reply. "Please."

He obliged, resting it comfortably in his hand, to the side so I was able to access it. It took several minutes for his back to look clean again, and it took a lot longer for him to acknowledge my repeated apologies that I hadn't meant to keep hurting him.

"Should I dry it before I put the cream on? It's still a little damp." I crawled off the bed and took the bowl from Loki's hands as I waited for a reply.

"It should not take too long to dry. Wait and I'll tell you when to apply some of the cream."

I nodded my head and replaced the bowl after cleaning it in the sink. My thoughts were still spinning as I walked back across the room. "Loki?"

"Dahlia."

I sucked in a breath, then knelt on the floor in front of him. I wrapped my hands around his, my fingers looking embarrassingly small compared to his. "Why did they do this?"

I saw his body tense, then caught the slight shake of his head. I desperately wanted to know the truth, but I feared if I continued my line of questioning it would result in Loki shouting at me. I liked the guy, a lot, but if he shouted at me then I would probably burst into tears and hide away.

So I stayed kneeling at his feet, my head gently resting in his lap as his fingers threaded delicately through my knotted hair. I rubbed my hand along his leg, feeling him relax onto the mattress a little more as I did so.