The Scientist (Loki x OC)

Pt. 5: Comfortable?

"Please hold still."

"How can I possibly be still while you're yanking like you are?"

Back in Luna's apartment, she was forced to brush out Loki's very tangled head of hair; with her own brush, no less. As soon as they got back in, he had headed straight to her room to grab her brush and do it himself, but he instead took his frustration out on it. He did his hair more harm than good, so Luna was forced to somehow convince him to let her fix it. So there they were: him sat on the couch while she stood behind him.

"Just be calm for five seconds," Luna pleaded a bit. "I've almost got this one out." The struggle continued with this particularly stubborn knot. She worked as quickly and carefully as she could, but it just wasn't relenting. She decided to abandon the brush and use her hands to coax Loki's hair into submission. It was near impossible to resist the urge to take a pair of scissors and solve the problem, but she persisted in her current efforts.

Loki hadn't spoken or voluntarily moved, instead electing to stew silently in his mild anger. It seemed that old habits die hard. To his surprise, the movement of Luna's hands in his hair began to relax him little by little. The sensation reminded him of the way his mother would fix his hair and soothe him as a child. He closed his eyes and pictured her. The fierceness in her eyes, the kindness in her smile, the comfort he felt whenever she held him, the eternal wisdom in her words. As intelligent as Loki was, he always seemed to learn something from her.

A few pricks on his scalp alerted him to the fact that Luna had returned the brush to his head for a few more passes, this time pain-free. When she seemed satisfied with the state of it, she put the brush back down and carded her fingers through Loki's hair, prompting him to resume his musings. It wasn't too long until she stopped her motions altogether.

"Alright, all done," she sighed and leaned back to admire her work. It was just about perfect. Loki lifted a hand to pass it over his head. It felt so much better, perhaps the best it's been in a while.

"Thank you," he said, turning his head in her direction. She merely smiled in response before walking back to her room to rummage around in search of something. She returned a few moments later with something in her hand.

"Here, give these a gander," Luna said, handing the thing to him. It was a pair of glasses. "They're an old pair of mine. The lenses are functional, but they're at a low enough power to be reading glasses." Loki turned them over in his hand before unfolding them and putting them on. He could still see clear enough through them.

"Well, Superman, you're officially Clark Kent." He didn't get the reference at all, but she smiled amusingly to herself anyway. He stood up when he felt that she was finished with her immediate tasks. "Ok, I'm going to check if I need anything else for the store real quick so you can get ready with the clothes Dr. Strange gave you." She went back in the direction of her room once he stood to do as she suggested.

Once in the safety of her own space, Luna took her own glasses off, closed her eyes and placed her fingers over them, sighing deeply. It had been a very eventful 24 hours, too much for her liking. She appreciated that Loki wasn't a very extroverted individual, but she liked her own presence most of the time. It wasn't his fault, but she now felt that she bit off a little more than she could chew when she insisted on him staying with her.

But where would he be right now if she hadn't spoken up? How would he be feeling? The very thought put an even more sickening feeling under her skin. She didn't have to like it all the time, but it was the right thing to do, for Loki's sake. She found the presence of mind to do what she intended on doing and checked the contents of her bag. Everything she needed was present and accounted for.