Prince of earth

Chapter 8

Skye walked into the gym and saw Loki on a bench press lifting weights. He'd disappeared for a while, and Skye was getting irritated listing to Fitz and May complain about him being on board so Skye decided to go find him. She was curious about him, unlike May and Fitz, she didn't feel any reason to distrust him. So far all he'd done was save a lot of people.

"You know you really shouldn't do that without a spotter" she advised, noticing that he was alone in the gym and was lifting a hefty amount of weight. Loki lifted the weights and hooked them back on the rack.

"And you shouldn't sneak up on people who are foolishly lifting" he retorted as he sat up, a bit out of breath.

"Jemma said you were injured, should you really be doing that?" Skye asked, handing  Loki a towel.

"Probably not, but I know my limits" he said, wiping the sweat off his face. "Can I do something for you?" Loki asked, wondering why Skye came to interrupt him. He'd been having a good time by himself.

"No, I just.... I don't know anything about you, and I'd like to." She told him a bit awkwardly. He wasn't exactly hostile, but he was a little cold and distant.

"Why? What does it matter?" He asked back. Skye shrugged a bit uncomfortably.

"I don't know. You're here, you're going to be part of the team so I just thought-" Loki cut her off abruptly.

"I'm not part of any team. I'm only here to get Fury off my back. As soon as he says he trusts me I'm leaving." He said rather abruptly. Skye just nodded a bit. She wanted to get to know him but he clearly wanted nothing to do with her.

"Okay. Sorry to bother you" she turned around and started walking out of the gym. She wasn't hurt by his words or intimidated by him, but it was obvious that he wasn't interested in talking and she didn't care to waste her time.

Loki could see that she was disappointed and maybe even a bit offended. It was clear Enough for Loki to know he blew it, he knew he should be trying to make friends not pushing everyone away again. It was just hard to let go of his nature.

"Wait, Skye" Skye turned around.

"I'm..." he trailed off and sighed deeply, but Skye came back anyway.

"I'm not good at this" he confessed. Skye pulled up a chair and sat across from him.
"Good at what?" She asked.

"This... I have a lot of baggage and I'm trying not to bring it here with me. It also doesn't help that it's been a long time since I just sat down and had a friendly conversation with someone" he explained. On Asgard the only people he was friends with by the end was Thor -which didn't really count because they're brothers- and Katarina, who he was friendly with, but still wasn't very close to. "I don't like letting people know me, I keep things to myself and I keep myself out of peoples reach" he told her.

"Well If that's the way you want to be then that's up to you. You don't have to make friends if you don't want to" she told him.

"It's not really how I want to be. At least I don't think so. Even if we aren't friends, I'd like to be able to be honest with people. At least a little bit. I really am trying it's just difficult for me" he admitted, which is itself was an achievement for him.

"Why is it difficult?" She wanted to at least understand him, even if she didn't know him very well.

"Because I'm used to lying. Usually when someone asks me something that makes me vulnerable I lie. I don't let people get inside my head or get to know how I operate. Quite frankly this is the most honest conversation I've had in years, and I'm a bit out of practice" he explained. Letting her know how his mind worked was a bit scary for him, even if he wasn't really telling her anything about his life. Skye smiled a little bit.