The Prince and the Sol

Chapter 3

STEVE'S POV

Like usual, I'm up first in the building. I pull on casual clothes and go for a run around the compound, grabbing a small bouquet of daisies I picked up yesterday at the supermarket before I leave. Under almost any other circumstance, I would be ecstatic to be back at the compound. I push the thought from my head. There's somewhere I need to find, anyway. A week ago, we put in memorials for the lost Avengers. Names and quotes, mostly. As the person closest to him, I had to choose Buck's quote. "Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men." It's from President Kennedy, and I know our lives have been anything but easy. There's one stone in particular I need to visit today.

It's cool outside for an August morning, and I get a good twenty laps in before slowing down and stopping at the reason I came outside in the first place. Running has always been therapeutic for me, like if I could run enough, I could escape my problems. It never works. I stop in my tracks when I realize I'm not alone, and the person in question probably wants to be.

Loki sits cross-legged on the ground in front of a small marble stone, white against the green grass. His eyes are shut, almost in meditation. I get the feeling he's been sitting here for a while, maybe hours. I've seen him less over the last few days. He mainly keeps to himself in Eliza's room, reading or spending time with Thor and Pepper. We haven't talked that much, something I'm okay with. I'm not sure I'm ready to unpack all of my feelings, and I know he isn't, either.

"You don't need to stand in silence. I know you're here." He opens his eyes and stands, placing a hand on the stone as he does. I hold up the little bouquet as my reason for being here.

"I don't mean to interrupt. I just wanted to put these there today." Daisies. Her favorite flower. Sweet and simple, just like her. I blink back a few tears. Not now.

"Thank you." His voice is barely a whisper, but the sentiment is there. I knew Loki as an Avenger, and Loki as the retired husband. He was much more energetic, charismatic, and daring. Each time I visited their place, he and Eliza could never stop teasing each other, like the honeymoon phase never wore off. He was happy. None of those qualities are in the man before me. He's a shell of the man he was, broken and torn-down. It's like he can't find the daylight anymore.

"It's the least I can do." I shrug and kneel before the little stone that bears the engraving Eliza Rey Odindottir, along with a quote chosen by Loki.

"How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world." It's a Shakespeare quote, one that sums up Eliza's nature incredibly well.

"I'll be going now," he mumbles, ready to be out of my company. He teleports away in his green light. I sigh and kneel in front of the stone.

"Hey, Liza. Today's going to be tough on everyone, and I'm going to have to be strong again. I'm so tired of being strong for everyone else when I'm breaking inside." I shift, trying to gather my thoughts. I just let them all out, like I would if she was actually here, sitting on the ground across from me.

"I'm not trying to be selfish, but it's hard being the one that everyone leans on. You understood. You knew what it was like feeling like you have to constantly fix everything. And you did, you always fixed things much better than I do.

"Loki loves you so much. I hope you know that. I don't know what he's going to do, and the rest of the team is besides themselves, too. So if you're somehow still out there, now would be a great time, little sister." My lips form into a small smile as I say these last words, just because of how true they are to me. "Happy birthday," I whisper to the stone before rising and jogging back to the compound.