Wished Away : Loki x neutral!reader

9. Second Nature

After Loki thanked you for helping him get his seiðr back, he goes to his room to try and familiarize himself with his magic again. What once felt like second nature to him, is now foreign and difficult for him.

He slowly starts by trying to conjure a flame. It takes some time, but he gets it. Every time he conjures one the flames get stronger.

He itches to cast an illusion, or to shapeshift, but he knows he isn't there yet. He hates that he has to learn it all over again. Centuries of practice all wasted.

As much as Loki would love to use his magic more often, he is especially careful to not use it around anyone. He can see that everyone is waiting for him to do something—to hurt someone.

Loki spends most of his time in his room practicing, so he's grateful that you're still bringing him dinner every night. Something he still doesn't understand why you do.

"Loki? Can I come in?" you call to him through his door.

He quickly stops away the illusion he was trying to cast, and opens the door for you. He looks down at your hands, which holds two plates instead of one.

Loki looks up at you, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

You chuckle, "One of these is for me because I was actually wondering if I could join you for dinner? If it's okay with you?"

"Why don't you want to eat with the team like usual? They like you," Loki asks, still confused.

"Because I want to eat with you. Now move over, Steve made rice and sirloin," you smile at him.

Loki takes his plate from you and then slowly moves out of the doorway to let you into his room. You sit on his bed, and he sits next to you, unsure if he should.

"So how is it to have your seiðr back?" you ask, looking at him.

"It's nice," Loki answers. Weren't you supposed to be scared of him? Like everyone else? He was sure you would have changed your mind by now and realized that it was a mistake to give him his magic back.

You eat a spoonful of rice. "Can you do anything cool?"

"...I am able to cast small illusions." Loki's plate sits ignored on his lap. He's too confused to eat. You were being nice to him and he didn't know why.

"That's really cool! So, you could cast an illusion of a butterfly?"

He nods, before making a small butterfly fly around the room. Loki watches as you follow it with your eyes in wonder.

"Woahhh," you say your voice trailing off. "I can't believe you can do that. That's amazing!"

The illusion stops. He didn't mean for it to, but your compliment distracted him. The only other person who ever complimented him on his magic was Frigga, he wasn't used to it.

"Sorry," Loki apologizes.

"It's fine, we need to eat our food anyways," you chuckle.

You have dinner a lot with Loki over the next few weeks. His magic slowly improves, and he shows you what he's learned every time you eat with him.

Loki thinks he trusts you. He definitely trusts you more than anyone else in the tower, even more than he trusts Thor.

You don't judge him when he messes up a spell, or for New York. You treat him like a person, not like some villain. You're nice to him.

-

a/n: hmm developments. developments.