A Child of Mischief (Loki/Avengers story)

26. A New Day

The light of the late morning sun shines through Cora's window touching her face, warming it up. Cora rubs her eyes and the pain in her side twinges. Making a pained hissing noise, Cora slowly sits up and grips her side.

Slowly getting out of bed, Cora grits her teeth as she tries to get control of the pain. Looking in the mirror, she looks herself in the eyes and talks to herself.

"It doesn't hurt that bad. You can get through the day. Suck it up and put on a brave face, because it's time to prove everyone wrong." Cora says and stands up straight.

Opening the wardrobe next to the mirror, Cora begins to pick an outfit for the day, but is interrupted by a knock on her door.

Wincing as she walks to the door, Cora slowly opens the door to reveal Olivia standing on the other side.

"Can I come in?" Olivia asks, Cora nods and steps out of the way to let Olivia into her room. As Olivia enters the room, she takes in the sheer size of it and gasps.

"What's wrong?" Cora asks as she closes the door. Olivia turns around and looks at Cora.

"You've got the biggest room out of all of us. Not one of us has a room this huge." Olivia says and looks around. Cora lightly laughs as she watches Olivia's expression.

"Did you need something, Olivia?" Cora asks, Olivia turns back to Cora and nods.

"Just to tell you that, Loki said your sidelined from doing any sort of extensive training today. He also ordered you to take it easy, until the nursing staff gives the okay for you to get back to training." Olivia says and Cora turns and closes the wardrobe doors upon hearing this.

"What does he expect me to do? Just sit in here all day and watch from the window as everyone else gets to go about with training." Cora asks, Olivia lets out a strained chuckle.

"You won't be missing anything, trust me. By order of Loki as punishment for yesterday's fiasco, we're working on rebuilding the village today. Without using our powers." Olivia says, Cora's eyes go wide as she hears this and turns to Olivia.

"He's making all of us rebuild the village, without using our powers?" Cora asks as she looks toward her window.

"Not you and Peter. Just the others and myself. Peter volunteered to help though, but Loki shot down that suggestion. Claiming that since Peter was following orders from higher up yesterday, and keeping tabs on you. He didn't need to worry about rebuilding something he certainly did not have a hand in destroying." Olivia says, Cora just stares at Olivia with wide eyes.

Looking at her mirror, Cora walks over to it and places her hand against the glass, Olivia stares in wonder as Cora does this.

"Okay, just needed to make sure I wasn't in any sort of nightmare realities." Cora says and turns back to Olivia, who chuckles as Cora looks at her.

"I would've done the same thing, had I been the one to be in your situation." Olivia says, and watches as Cora slowly walks toward the oversized closet.

Cora quickly grabs black jeggings, a loose fitting gray shirt, and a dark orange colored flannel shirt. As she leans down to grab her combat boots, she stops, drops both shirts and jeggings, then grabs her side as the pain begins to shoot through her. Olivia quickly goes to Cora and helps her stand back up.

"Here." Olivia says and picks up the boots Cora had been trying to grab. Setting the boots on the trunk at the end of Cora's bed, Olivia turns to Cora and helps Cora sit down in the chair in front of the mirror. Then picks up the clothes from the floor, and sets them on the bed.

"Thanks." Cora says through gritted teeth as she tries to control the pain.

"Should I go get one of the nurses?" Olivia asks, before she's even done asking the question, Cora shakes her head. Olivia nods and stays put.