Prince of earth

Chapter 11

Chapter 11
Mack entered the lab and saw Loki slumped over, laying on the workbench and surrounded by scraps of armor from the chitauri and what appeared to be his own notes. Mack didn't know how long Loki had been in here, it must have been a while though since Loki came in here when they left Egypt and they were only about an hour away from New York. Loki didn't look very comfortable, his chair was too tall to let him comfortably lay in the workbench, so he was hunched over and his neck was bent at an awkward angle. Mack had no idea how anyone could fall asleep like that.

"Hey, E.T" Mack tried to wake Loki up so he could at least have him go back to his bunk to finish sleeping.

"Loki, wake up" Mack said again as he approached the workbench were Loki was breathing slowly and still deeply asleep. Mack hadn't seen Loki look so relaxed and non-threatening since meeting him.

"Hey, wake up" Mack said again, putting a hand on Loki's shoulder to gently shake him awake. But As soon as he put a hand on him Loki sat up abruptly and immediately scrambled to his feet in a panic, and His hand went to his side where he should've had a dagger, and thankfully there was nothing there or Mack would've needed a doctor.

"Woah woah, calm down E.T" Mack said calmingly, taking a step back to get out of Loki's space. Loki realized it was just Mack and he wasn't in danger and sighed deeply. His heart rate had jumped up in a second and now he needed to slow it back down again.

"You startled me" Loki said, dropping back in his chair and resting his elbows on the workbench. He put his face in his hands and breathed deeply as he raked his hair back from his face.

"Yeah I noticed. How long have you been in here?" Mack asked, seeing all the pieces of armor scattered across the workbench and Loki's many notes.

"I don't know... I was here for a few hours and then I closed my eyes for a minute... and I guess I fell asleep" Loki explained tilting his head from side to side to try and get the crick out of his neck. He then went back to working on the chitauri.

"You should go get some real sleep, you don't have to have all the answers before we land" Mack said, putting a hand on Loki's shoulder again.

"I don't need to- what are you doing?" Loki started to explain that he didn't need any more sleep, but then stopped short when Mack started moving his grip around Loki's shoulder.

"Jeez man, have you every relaxed in your life? Why are you so tense?" Mack asked, now kneading at Loki's shoulders with both hands.

"I'm just a tense person- would you stop that?" Loki said as he smacked Mack's hand to get him to let go.

"You need to loosen up" Mack informed Loki as he took his hands off him.

"Noted. Now leave me and my tension alone" Loki said, though he didn't turn back to his work quite yet.

"You know who could help you get rid of that tension is May" Mack suggested. He seemed serious but Loki thought he must be joking.

"That's sounds more like the setup for a deadly practical joke than advice" Loki said back skeptically. Mack laughed and shook his head.

"No seriously. May is the best at working out knots" he added, to which Loki just didn't respond, thinking Mack must be trying to set him up "but she's also really OCD about it, so if you don't want her working on you then you better stop stretching your neck like that" he added when Loki kept trying to work out the stiffness in his neck his own way. Loki straightened out his neck again and eyed Mack suspiciously.

"Why are you acting so..." Loki trailed off without finishing, to which Mack raised an eyebrow.

"Why am I acting so... what?" Loki shrugged a little bit.