Loki X Reader One Shots || 𝐹𝐿𝑈𝐹𝐹 + 𝑆𝑀𝑈𝑇

Secret Almost Lovers (Part 5)

Loki's voice seemed to have sliced everyone's strings of thought in two, because they spent several seconds finding the ends and knotting them back together again. Two things must have shocked them, the first being his words. Several bemused expressions were tossed around the group of 'heros' like a beachball over a crowd at a music festival. The prisoner Loki? The Loki who had wrought havoc on an entire population of people? That Loki was in love? Was he even able to feel such a thing? At least three of the Avengers had assumed he was just flat out incapable of any kind of positive emotion, let alone love.

The second thing that had surprised everyone was the fact that he had spoken at all. So rarely does Loki acknowledge their existence in the first place, it's quite possible they'd all forgotten (or, for some, never heard) what his vocal chords even sound like when in use. He'd never so much as chatted idly about the weather, let alone spilled a drop of feeling or gifted them with his inner thoughts. And yet now here he was admitting that he's utterly besotted---to a room crowded with his enemies. 

Some of them, anyway. No doubt he has many, many more. Knowing him, he's probably proud of that fact, too.

Loki's previously silent disposition seemed to work in his favour. Seeing as the one time he spoke up was to claim affections for someone, one can only assume that his affections are an object in which he treats with the utmost seriousness. Y/N, and what he feels for her must be very important to him, if declaring his love for her to the room at large means breaking his vow of almost-silence.

His love or his plans. His plots. His schemes. The Avenger's expressions had softened with his confession, then slowly hardened like concrete as their previous doubts set back in after momentarily being washed away with a strange sort of admiration.

Tony, as usual, was the first person to find something to say. He'd turned back to Y/N and did so quietly:

"Could we have a word with you outside for a minute, Y/N?" It was a question but definitely not an invitation.

Y/N flicked an apologetic glance at Loki. The idea of leaving him out of the loop---talking about him behind his back---made an uncomfortable heat begin to boil her blood, but Loki didn't seem to mind. With a sick feeling, Y/N realised that was because he was used to it; watching the world happen around him without playing an active part.

"We won't be long," she tried; a feeble attempt at making him feel included, but he merely inclined his shoulders.

...

'We won't be long' was a lie, not that Y/N had meant it to be. She'd tried very hard to prevent it from becoming one, but those Avengers didn't half go on.

Y/N could see their point, granted. Had she not known Loki as well as she does, and if she was in charge of keeping the entire planet safe, she too would have the same concerns. At first, she had fought for Loki's corner---well, their corner, now that they're an item. That thought alone gave her the strength required to hold her tongue in her mouth and her fists stiffly by her side. She knew a physical fight with Iron Man, Captain America, and the rest, was not one that she would win, but she'd have liked to give it a bloody good try.

She's not a complete idiot, though, so instead of socking Tony Stark in his bearded jaw Y/N stood and soaked up his verbal punches with self-controlled patience. He probably hadn't meant them to be 'verbal punches' but Y/N couldn't help seeing his jabs at her judgment, competence, and boyfriend as such. Several times Steve reached out a large hand to give Tony's arm a nudge, his voice low with warning as he said 'hey' or 'Tony' when he felt said man was going a little too far. If anything, Y/N found that more insulting, this group of people who have nothing really special about them besides gadgets and several lucky accidents (or unlucky, in Bruce's case) treating her like she's a petulant child. When it was Clint's go to lecture Y/N she couldn't help rolling her eyes so far back into her head she got a good look at her brain. At least Tony said what he thought. He'd been direct. The others were just patronising.