Giftless

Chapter 33

You dawdled coming home from your last exam Wednesday afternoon. Loki protested until your dawdling took the form of kissing him. For some strange reason he suddenly stopped protesting at that form of dawdling. You were finally free for the summer and you wanted to enjoy it for at least a little while before you had to get back to training.

So you sat on a park bench halfway home and made out like giddy teenagers. You enjoyed every single moment of it and you were both grinning and breathing heavily when you finally stopped procrastinating and went back home. You walked hand-in-hand and you babbled about silly things like how you were going to throw your school uniform in the back of the closet and not have to look at it for three months. You also very kindly did not tell him that your schedule next year would be filled with as many AP classes as you were allowed to take. He didn't need that kind of worry in his life. He would find out in September regardless.

You had an hour of combat training with Loki and your daggers before an hour with Fury and his torture. Your control wasn't getting any better unless there was an actual threat to make you react with emotion instead of actual control.

It wasn't going well.

You were relieved after dinner when you could curl up in your pajamas on the common room couch with Loki. "Kat!" Tony called from the doorway to get your attention. You got up to see what he wanted. Your bangle was back on your wrist after training. You didn't want any accidents when you were already raw from training. It was safer for everyone.

"What's up?" you asked him, wondering why he was coming to see you. He glared at your pajamas, but they weren't indecent, so he really couldn't say anything. Besides, it was practically summer. Tank tops and long pajama pants were not inappropriate. Except that you had been cuddling with your boyfriend. That was the part that was the real problem with Tony. He really needed to get over you having a boyfriend.

"A package came for you," he said and handed you the small box he was holding

You looked at it confused since you couldn't remember ordering anything recently. "Thanks," you replied absently as you pulled a dagger from the sheath at your back to open the box with. You heard Loki chuckle at your unconscious use of his gift, while Tony just looked dumbstruck. He knew you had the dagger sheath, but kept forgetting that you were accustomed to using it.

Inside the box was a DVD. It was one of those blank DVDs, not a true professional one. Someone had written 'Avengers 5' on it in black sharpie. There was a note inside too.

<I got the studio to let me end you an advanced copy of the film we were shooting at the compound. Don't show it to anyone else.

-Tom>

You grinned and held the DVD up for Loki to see. "We have something to watch tonight," you told him. He returned your smile.

"Kat, we're all going out on patrol tonight. Fury got intelligence that The Harlequin is back up to her tricks. You and Loki are to stay here. You're not up to field work yet." Tony told you firmly. You nodded your agreement. You knew you weren't up to field work, yet. You wasn't up to anything that had to do with your powers.

"Be careful," you told him. you didn't want him hurt on patrol.

"I always am," he replied with his trademark smirk. He gave you a hug, gave Loki a threat about his behavior towards you that was half-hearted at best, and went on patrol with his team. You bounced over to the TV and put the DVD in before curling up with Loki to watch it.

About a half hour in to the movie, you realized why Tom had sent it to you. The studio had used the kiss scene with you and Loki, the one you had goofed around and made instead of the actors. You had just been playing around that day, seeing how long it would take the crew to realize you weren't the actors, or more accurately, that Loki wasn't Tom. For some reason, they had used the footage of you and Loki instead of the footage of Tom and Kelly. It was extremely hard to tell the difference, but you saw the scar on your leg clearly in the shot and knew without a doubt that it was you. You paused the movie and just stared at it.

"That's us!" you told Loki, who just nodded, amused at your shock.

"We obviously did the kiss better than the actors," he laughed. It was unheard of, but so was your situation with the actors.

You laughed over it and you were just about to restart the movie when Loki put his hand on yours, stalling your movement. You looked up at him confused, but there was no time for more than that.

"Kat, run!" he ordered you urgently.

He kicked up the coffee table in front of you as a burst of flame flew toward you. The table acted as a shield between you and the attack of the fire throwing clown who had broken into your tower. There were more clowns who had broken in and Loki threw bolts of magic at them while he shoved you to get you to run into the kitchen. You did, expecting that he was following.

He didn't follow you. He stayed where he was and used magic on the clowns in front of him, teleporting them somewhere else. He didn't see the two who had come in the back entrance.

Worse than that, though, the clowns broke the rules of your world. They came to a superhero battle with guns. After magic erupted in the world, guns in a superhero battle had become fairly unheard of. It only took you a moment to recognize the fact that they were holding guns, and they were aiming those guns at your Loki. "Loki! NO!" you screamed, running back to the hall between the kitchen and the common room. Loki turned in slow motion as the guns went off. You drew two daggers, throwing them as you threw yourself into the fray, shoving Loki out of the way.

The clowns fell to the floor, daggers protruding from their throats. You turned to Loki and breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't hurt.

The bullets had missed.

The bullets had-

Your legs fell out from under you. That didn't make sense. Nor did your legs buckling and you falling to your knees. You looked down in confusion and saw the flood of red gushing out of your chest and stomach. You gasped in horror and pain as the realization finally broke through the shock and you collapsed the rest of the way to the floor.

The bullets hadn't missed.

"KAT!" Loki screamed, rushing to your side. "Nononono, Kat!" you heard the horror in his voice.

You looked up at him through bleary shock clouded eyes. "You're safe," you whispered. "T-they didn't hurt you." Your words wouldn't come. Your breath wouldn't come. You tried and failed to pull air into your lungs. You tried to breathe through the pain. You gasped, fighting for every ounce of air as your life was slipping away.

"Stay with me, love," he ordered. There was so much green light. His hand was on your chest, by your heart, trying to hold the blood in as it streamed around his hand. "Kat! Stay with me!" he ordered, his voice a desperate growl. The green light darkened as your world was fading away.

"I... love... you..." It was important to tell him now.

It was too late to tell him later.

"KAT! NO!" Loki howled.