Unfettered (Loki x Reader)

Chapter 35 - Homecoming

"Are you ready to go, My Lady?"

Thor's voice floats across the room as his heavy, lumbering footsteps tell you he draws near. You shift on the bed, swinging your legs over the side and standing - nearly tripping on the hem of your dress. Thor catches you, helping you to catch your balance.

"Can I please take them off, Thor? Just for a minute?" you plead, desperate to catch just a single glimpse of Asgard before returning to Earth.

"No. You heard Lady Eir," Thor sighs. "They must stay on for another day."

"But I can see!" you argue. "In the last several healing sessions I could see just fine! Please, Thor. I just want to see the city once before I go."

"I understand my lady. But I cannot take a chance of something going wrong," Thor says as a warm hand finds its way to the small of your back, guiding you forward. "Eir has demanded the wraps be left in place for another day. And my father has demanded your return to Midgard this afternoon. There is nothing I can do."

"Why is he making me leave so early?" you question as Thor guides you down to sit in a small, velvet-cushioned chair. "I thought you said I could stay another week? You said you'd take me to see the town."

"Truthfully, I know not, my lady," Thor says as he begins to run a brush through your hair - which has grown in length a suspicious amount since your arrival.

Eir had explained that her magic had likely stimulated uncharacteristically rapid growth. So over the past month, you had taught Thor how to braid it. With Eir's healing, you can also withstand normal touch again. So although Thor's fingers occasionally brush against your scalp and the skin of your neck, there's no pain in your briefest of urges to link.

As Thor brushes your hair and begins to braid it from the crown of your head, you wonder aloud about the treatment you had received on Asgard.

"You know, I never really got an explanation," you say.

"Of what?" Thor answers.

"Of this," you say gesturing at your eye wraps. "Of what Eir actually did to me. Besides cause my hair to grow crazy fast."

Thor chuckles, then curses as you feel a strand of hair fall from his grasp and tickle your neck. "Ask your questions," Thor grumbles. "And I will answer what I can."

"Well, I don't know. I mean, Eir told me that when Steve pulled me off of Agent May, our connection was broken prematurely," you muse, leaning into Thor's gentle touch as you speak. "Part of me got stuck in her head, and part of hers got stuck in mine. And because her mind was broken, it started breaking mine too. That's why it hurt so bad when people touched me. My body was trying to open too many links."

"Aye," Thor muses, running his fingers through your hair, making progress on the braid. "That is my understanding as well."

"Well, she said that the reason I had trouble seeing was because I was seeing through not only my eyes, but Agent May's eyes as well. Her physical eyes, and her memories. Like a bunch of mirrors casting reflections."

"If she says so," Thor laughs. "That part was less clear to me."

"But I don't understand how she healed me...was it magic?" you ask.

"In a way."

"What does that mean?"

Thor ties off your braid, and comes around face you. You feel him kneel before you as he gently tucks one loose strand of hair behind your ear.

"Your ancestors called it magic, my lady. Today, you call it science. Here in Asgard, it is one in the same."

You roll your eyes beneath your eye wraps at Thor's ambiguity. While you have gotten used to his flowery speech, you still at times find it too poetic to fully understand. It makes you wonder why Thor speaks like he's trapped a thousand years in the past.