Chapter Text
Loki blinked at you and sighed heavily.
Your phone started ringing and you answered it, holding up a finger to silently quiet Loki. “Crazy storms are due.” It was Nathan, one of your farmhands.
You nodded absently. “Yea, yea.”
“Did you hear about New York? My cousin’s roommate’s brother was rambling on about how there were like aliens or something?”
You blinked hard, glancing at Loki, knowing he could hear your phone conversation. “Hey, Nate, listen, you think you could take the day off today? I have something of a flu bug coming on and I didn’t sleep well.”
Nathan paused for a moment, “you’re offering me the day off? Hell ya! Sure, let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you out. Thanks boss!”
“Yea, sure.” You nodded again. “You take care, too.”
“So you’ve successfully delayed your mortal employee from,” Loki paused, seeming to hesitate.
“Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be such an asshole to you, I’ve just got a lot going on and I have a ranch that I need to run.” You looked around, feeling harried.
Loki’s face softened. “I forgot this would be as much of an inconvenience to you as it is to me.”
You cast him a grateful look. As you looked at him, you felt your gaze lingering, originally you had only intended to give him a once over, or just speak in his direction but now that you were standing this close and the kitchen light was illuminating Loki, you had a chance to truly see him.
He had dark circles under his eyes, so dark they looked bruised. This was further accented by the split in his lip and the slowly healing scratches visible wherever you could see skin. He had a haunted look about him, something in his eyes that troubled you.
You recognized the way he was forcing himself to stand tall, remembering when you’d see other creatures with severe injuries.
Something in your wrist tingled, where the snake was and you felt alien emotions flooding through you. Some of it was intense pain, long lingering pain from injuries applied again and again. There was sadness too, abandonment, hopelessness, were these emotions Loki was feeling?
You swayed where you stood, a sharp stabbing pain burning down your back.
“You can feel it.” Loki said softly, his eyebrows furrowing as he looked at you sadly.
“What’s happening to me? Why… It’s like the snake is connecting everything…” You trailed off, absently rubbing at the spot on your back and wishing against hope that the pain would lessen.
Loki looked away from you. “It’s an echo of what I’m feeling, yes. It’s seeming to go both ways.”
“What did Jane mean about you being Thor’s evil brother?” You asked abruptly, feeling the sensation of loss and betrayal flooding through you. Tears threatened to spill and you felt your vision go fuzzy.
Loki had looked back at you when he spoke, though he was now picking at something unseen on his hand, an absent, nervous gesture.
“It’s an empathy rope too, it would seem.” Loki muttered, holding up his arm to study the snake tied to his wrist.
You rubbed at your head. “I think I need a nap, or a drink.”
Loki chuckled.
You nodded at him to follow you, before winding your way into the house through the kitchen. You felt parched suddenly, as though you hadn’t drank water in weeks, maybe months. Your throat felt like parchment, dry and choking and you found yourself sweating at some unknown heat source.
Loki opened the cabinets until he found a suitable glass, tugging you towards the sink and filling it with water. “Drink. It’ll help.”
“What the hell happened to you?” you choked out after you downed three glasses of water. It would never be enough.
Loki looked away again.
You felt a pang of sadness. Your vision darkened, threatening to black out. Just as your legs gave way, you fell into darkness.
In the darkness, you saw Loki fighting with someone, his brother, Thor. You knew this instinctively as if you were reliving a memory. The years of Thor’s brash arrogance, the golden child, loved by all. A whirlwind of visions flashed in front of you, seeming to navigate the story of Loki’s life. And when it came to him clinging to Odin’s spear, hanging off the edge of the bifrost, you felt the hollow and despondent loathing coursing through your veins. You could feel the disappointment of your, his, people. Your father… His father? It was difficult to tell where you ended and Loki began.
Your hand slipped from the spear, and you were falling. It was dark, something was blocking you from knowing what was happening. Some force shielded you from the flames and screams that were also your own.
Your eyes shot open and you were breathing hard, laying on your bed.
Loki knelt by your side, studying your face as you stopped thrashing.
“What was that?”
Loki arched his brow at you.
“Who is Thanos?”
“How do you know about Thanos?” Loki asked sharply. He twisted around, searching the dark corners of the room but it was empty.
You opened and closed your mouth, stammering. “I, I don’t know. I just… It felt like a dream, I think I saw your life flash before my eyes.”
Loki scowled darkly and stayed quiet, but this seething anger radiating from the snake seemed to answer your question.
“What happened to you?” You whispered, the reverence of the moment demanding quiet.
Loki’s eyes snapped towards you then just as quickly looked away. “How much did you see?”
You shook your head. “Everything, I think, it goes dark after I, you, fell from Odin’s spear. You were dangling there, barely tethered to life and he told you that you weren’t good enough?”
Loki straightened up, wincing slightly at the movement and tried to turn from you, but his arm remained close to yours, ensuring the snake didn’t go taut.
Loki finally spoke bitterly, breaking his silence. “You saw that?”
You shook your head again, still feeling dazed. “what’s happening to me, to us?”
“There’s no point in telling Odin everything I’ve seen, I’ve done. Humans were murdered and I acted out against him, that’s all he cares about.”
“But what about Frigga? Why not tell her?”
Loki’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “You saw her too?”
“Yes. You were the rightful king…” You scrunched your eyes shut and tried to think. “What happened?”
“You’re the first person to ask that. Believe it or not.” He replied dryly.
“Wait what?”
Loki shrugged.
“You went from a lifetime of like thousand years keeping Thor in line and then after a falling to your death, no one asked why you came back with an army? Let alone where you got it?”
Loki looked away uncomfortably.
“Thor starts a whole war, after a centuries’ long peace, and he spends a long weekend on Earth and that’s worthy enough? He didn’t change at all! He went brashly running in and risking his friends’ lives-”
Loki’s hand covered your mouth, silencing your babbling. You blinked at him. “It matters not to the Allfather.” He said wearily.
“So now you’re here as some sort of punishment?” You pushed his hand away and to your surprise he let you. “So what do you have to do to go home, do you even get to call there home after how they treated you?”
Loki chuckled darkly. “It will do no good either way. I imagine if I can become smitten with you in much the same manner as Thor is with your half-sister, that will be enough for Odin to…” He trailed off uncertainly.
After a moment he waved his hand and green light shimmered over it. Your eyes widened in shock.
“Odin can’t exactly take my abilities away in the same way he did Thor, and yet.” He sighed again, turning away from you.
“Hey, I may not know everything that’s going on with your,” you hesitated, wanting to say messed up family but didn’t want to offend him. “Family.” You said instead, “but might as well make the best of it.”
“And how do you intend to do that?”
“Well I can see you’re not some evil megalomaniac.”
Loki blinked at you but stayed quiet.
“And it’s not like I can really continue my life as normal.” You held up your snaked wrist. “So what do you want to do?”
“Just like that?” Loki arched his brow.
“Sure, why not?”
Loki smirked. “This might be the beginning of something lovely.”