Wild Heart (Loki x reader)

3. Sparring With the Team

You found the indoor gym/training room, (or more accurately, the gym/training floor) with relative ease the next morning, with a little help from Jarvis.

      "(Y/n)!" Steve Rogers greeted you excitedly when you entered the room. "Right on time."

    You smiled politely, walking over to the group of heroes that were all standing by the giant floor mats that were there for sparing practice. Everyone from yesterday was there other than Thor, who you assumed was somewhere in the tower with his brother who you hadn't personally met yet. But at the moment you had more pressing matters to attend to. Like going through today's orientation.

"The Professor has already sent us your report cards." Steve continued. "Everything from your grade reports to the powers you have."

"If you already know what I can do than why...?" You asked, not finishing your question in fear it might come off as rude.

"Are we making you show us what you can do?" Natasha supplied.

You nodded.

"We may have read about you." Steve told you. "We may know, on paper, the things you know. The things you can do. But we need to know how you handle situations. How you move. What your comfortable with. And we can only do that if we get to know you. How you move, how you react. We can only learn stuff like that by watching you use your powers, and getting to know who you are."

"Ok." You agreed, understanding a little bit more as to what they were wanting to learn from you. "What do you want me to do first?"

    "First we are going to observe how you handle yourself in stressful, absurd, and potentially harmful situations." Bruce Banner told you.

      You looked at them all blankly. Not understanding what Dr. Banner was talking about.

       "We want to see how you would handle yourself in a fight." Natasha supplied upon see the confusion written all over your face.

        "Oh..." You replied, embarrassed, "about that. I'm not the best at fighting. I thought the Professor had already informed you all about that."

       "He did." Tony Stark agreed. "But we still want to see how you would fight if you were caught off guard. Knowing how you will naturally react to something potentially dangerous will help us teach you a fighting style that will best be suited with your animal instincts."

      "Animal instincts." You mumbled, silently cursing you even had those. Out of all your powers your animal instincts were the most annoying.

       "The animal like instincts you possess." Tony frowned, as he looked over his packet of notes. "I'm pretty sure I read that you have that power in here somewhere."

      "No, no. I do." You assured him as you stepped up onto the mat.

"Great." Tony replied. "That solves that. Natasha would you mind?" Tony asked Natasha, gesturing to the mat you were currently standing on.

"Not at all." She assured him with a smile as she took off her shoes and stepped up onto the mat.

"Are we not using a dummy for this demonstration?" You asked the team, trying to sound as neutral about the situation as best you could.

"Don't worry (y/n)." Natasha assured you with a kind smile. "I'll take it easy on you for your first go around."

       "Perfect." You beamed at her. "Though that's not was I am worried about." You mumbled under your breath, through your smile so no one could hear. "What are the rules for this fight?" You asked them.

"Don't hurt each other." Steve told you. "But other than that everything else is on the table. You can use any of your powers that you feel is necessary to pin Nat down for five seconds straight."

You let a breath, trying to calm your racing heart. It wasn't everyday that you got to spar against an Avenger. It wasn't everyday you got to spar period. You didn't want to accidentally hurt anyone.

"Ready?" Steve asked you and Natasha.

"Whenever (y/n) is." Natasha said.

You looked over at Steve, catching his eye and nodded.

       "Great. I'm going to count backwards from 3. When I say go you can start. Got it?" Steve asked.

       You and Natasha both nodded.

"3, 2, 1. Go."

The moment Steve said 'go,' you leaped forward, changing from human to lioness in midair, knocking Natasha flat on her back. You kept your large padded paw on her rib cage, applying enough pressure so she couldn't get away but not enough to hurt her. A low growl rumbled in your chest as you looked Natasha in the eyes, warning her not to fight, your 3 inch long canines mere centimeters from her face, ears pinned back. You could feel her heart racing, beating on her ribs, as she looked back into your amber colored eyes.

       "Times up." Steve announced after what felt like eternity but was only five seconds.

       Immediately your ears perked up and your growling stopped. You took your ginormous paw off of Natasha's chest and stepped away.

Natasha slowly got up off the ground. She was a bit shaken but not injured. "Are you ok Nat?" Steve asked her.

Natasha nodded. "I just wasn't expecting her to change forms so fast." Natasha explained.

     "So the Mighty Avengers decided to add another abnormality to their collection of oddities?" A cool, accented voice asked from the doorway.

       You looked to where the voice was coming from, curious as to who it could be. There, standing by Thor, was a tall slim man with shoulder length raven black hair. He had a pointed face, with calculating green eyes that looked like they could see through anything. The man was wearing an all black, perfectly tailored suit. The only part of the outfit that seamed off was the think metal, or stone, collar with wired rune like designs etched into it that rested on his neck. You knew who this man was the moment you saw him.

          Loki.

        He looked just like he did on the tapestry down in the lobby.

       "Loki." Tony fake smiled. "You made it. I didn't think you would show."

      "Yes well, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to watch my brother's friends get trounced by a..." Loki looked you over with a calculating eye. "What kind of Midgardian beast is that?"

"The high and mighty god of mischief doesn't know what a lioness is?" Tony asked with a snicker.

"Don't jest me." Loki warned, his voice laced with threat. "I've seen creatures you couldn't even dream of. Your Midgardian critters are nothing compared to the beasts we have on Asgard."

       Loki was about to say more when his older brother placed a warning hand on his shoulder. "Enough brother. We are here to support the new member of the team. Remember?"

       Loki huffed and rolled his eyes, muttering something in a language you had never heard before.

"So this is the easiest of your animals forms you can change into?" Steve asked, turning the attention back on you.

You quickly turned back into yourself again, in the same workout clothes you had been wearing when you came down to the training room. It had taken you a long time to figure out how to shift back with clothes. It was really embarrassing when you were first trying to figure it out. "Yes." You told Steve. "My lioness form is the easiest of the animals I can turn into. But that doesn't mean I can't turn into other species."

Steve nodded. "Mind if we do a few more sparing exercises?"

You shrugged. "If it helps you guys, I guess a few more sessions wouldn't hurt." If you could take them down painlessly and efficiently you could hold your animal instincts back for small little sparing sessions.

"Great." Steve smiled, stepping up onto the mat. "Let's begin."