Broken

Perfect

We sat in my house with a SHIELD agent called Agent Hill at one end of the table. She eyed Loki warily as she spoke.

"We do owe you a great debt of gratitude, Loki, but you have to put the cuff back on." 

I took Loki's hand under the table and uncurled the fist he had made, and then smiled politely at Agent Hill.

"Agent Hill," I said kindly. "Loki and I are Soulbound. That means that if Loki's powers are suppressed, my powers are suppressed, and we cannot risk that for a month at least, because all the healing I've been doing will be undone, and I'm sure you wouldn't want that." 

Agent Hill smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Yeah, I know. It's just a formality that I put handcuffs back on him. Please don't resist. We just have to do a session with specialists about certain information."

I squeezed Loki's hand and let go, allowing him to raise his wrist together in front of him. Agent Hill shook her head and moved his hands behind him, then cuffed his ankles and held the chains in her hand.

"Come with me," she said, leading him out to a soundproof van. She pushed him in and closed the door, then went to the porch and sat with me. We chatted politely for a few minutes until I felt a burst of pain. I gasped and stared at Agent Hill, who looked surprised.

"Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Nothing..." I gasped as I felt another burst of pain. Were my wounds re-opening? No. Why would I feel pain then...

Loki.

I jumped up and raced to the van, my knees giving way as pain shot across my body. I heard a faint and muffled scream. I slammed my fist against the door and the pain stopped abruptly.

"Go away!" yelled a voice. "We're in an interrogation here!"

Agent Hill put a key in the lock and the door slid open, revealing an awful sight.

Loki was chained to a machine, an electric machine. He was only in his trousers and his bare chest had a sheen of sweat. His head hung limp. He seemed disorientated with pain. I knew exactly what they'd been doing.

"Get away from him, you monsters!" I roared, shoving them out of the way. I switched the electricity machine off and unchained Loki, pushing the men out of the way when they tried to stop me. "It's not humane. Don't you dare lay a finger on him."

"Did we accept this?" asked Agent Hill, looking nauseated. The men gruffly shook their heads. I heard her yelling at them as I flung Loki's arm around my shoulder and supported him inside.

I set him down on the couch and he collapsed, breathing heavily. "Emilie, it's fine, I am used to it by now." he croaked out, trying to lift his head. I pushed him down so he was lying down properly and looked at him in horror.

"Used to it...?"

I felt rage at the monsters who had done this to an already broken man and wanted to go strangle them all. Instead, I wet a face towel and wiped him down gently, listening to his breathing. The door opened and Agent Hill entered, holding Loki's clothes.

"Emilie, Loki, I am so sorry about that!" she said, looking saddened. "I swear we didn't authorize this. Whatever we can do to make it up to you..."

"Kill those bastards but don't apologize on their behalf," I said angrily, although my hands remained gentle. I combed Loki's tangled hair out of his face and inspected the cut on his lip. Someone had slapped him across the face.

Agent Hill nodded and left. I heard the vans drive away.

I touched the corner of his lip tenderly and wiped the blood off. Loki watched me, his breathing evening out properly, his eyes growing sharper as the effects of the electricity wore off.

"I'm sorry you saw me that way, too," he said quietly, his eyes avoiding mine. "I am ashamed that they all saw me like that."

"You shouldn't be sorry!" I said, angrily. "Loki, nobody deserves torture. Everybody has motives and those men just wanted to watch someone scream. Nothing about what just happened was right, and you should have told me before this!"

I finished combing his hair and went to find a clean shirt for him to wear. When I came back he was sitting up, inspecting his ankle scar, and I tossed him the shirt.

"I felt the pain, Loki. I don't know how you withstood it for longer than that."

I left him to change and I went to wash my face and forget the horrible events I had just watched. One problem was... I couldn't and would never forget it.