Never Alone Again

Part Eight - Comfort

The next morning you woke up and sleepily worked your way down to the kitchen. Loki was already seated at the table, drinking from a mug of coffee. The sight of him made your memories of last night come back to you and you immediately woke yourself the rest of the way up.

You entered the room through the big glass doors and sat down on the opposite end of the table from him. Tony was in the kitchen, staring Loki down as he ate a bowl of cereal. There was a lot of tension in the air, so you cleared your throat to try to break the silence.

"Well, I'm still alive, so we can stop angrily staring at each other now, thank you." You said.

Tony sighed, rinsing out his bowl in the sink and sitting down at the table next to you. "Good morning to you too, kid."

You looked over at Loki, who was refusing to say anything. The three of you sat in silence for a moment before you had an idea.

Hey.

Hello, y/n.

Tony continued to sit quietly, just looking out the window.

He has no idea.

It would seem so.

You smiled.

"What's got you so happy?" Tony asked you.

You were caught off guard. "I, uh, just remembered something funny that happened the other day."

"Hm." Said Tony, eyeing you suspiciously.

I am playing a dangerous game.

Those are always the most fun to play.

Stop, you're going to make me laugh.

I'm not the one making the choice to have a conversation right now.

He wasn't wrong, but there was something so fun about being able to rebel right in front of your own father without him knowing about it.

Do you have anything you want to do today?

Perhaps we can continue where we left off last night.

Yeah, that sounds nice.

Shall I meet you in your room later?

Yes. Make sure Tony doesn't see you.

That will be easy.

You smiled again, this time turning away from Tony so he couldn't see. You were excited to spend more time with Loki, and wanted to get him to talk more about himself.

Eventually, you smacked your hands down on the table, announcing that you were going to go back up to your room.

"Good plan." Said Tony, finally getting up to leave.

With that, you left.

You sat in your room and waited for Loki to arrive. Some time passed and he still hadn't shown up. You were having trouble reaching him through your powers, so you decided to get up and go find him.

You pulled the door open and immediately smacked into Loki's chest. He caught you before you could fall backwards, and you just hung there in his arms, staring into those deep green eyes.

"Now, now, can't have you falling for me." He joked.

You frantically pushed yourself away from him, your face turning pink. "Absolutely not."

He laughed as he entered the room, sitting down on your bed. "Come on, who can resist?"

"Me." You said flatly.

Oh, what a lie that was.

You had thought he was attractive from the very beginning. Sometimes it made things very awkward for you. No matter how hard you tried to ignore it, he just kept saying things like that. It made your heart flutter.

Absolutely not, we are stopping that train right there, thank you. You told yourself.

Loki patted the space on the bed next to him. "Shall we?"

With a heavy sigh, you moved over and sat down next to him, resuming the same position you were in the previous night. You were actually almost finished with the book, as it wasn't very long. Sometimes Loki would interject with small stories from his time in Asgard. It made you really happy to see him open up to you.

Eventually, you reached the end of the story. Loki quietly closed the book and returned it to the shelf, before sitting back down next to you.

"So." He said.

"So?"

"I've told you a lot about me, but what about you?" He asked. "Tell me about you."

You hesitated. Giving away any sort of information about yourself could give him something to hold over your head, and potentially use against you later.

"Come on," he continued. "You can't build trust without effort from both sides."

You looked down. "You're right. What do you want to know?"

"Anything."

So, you decided to tell Loki the story of how Tony Stark came to your rescue. You told him about how you lost your parents, and how the Avengers were the only group of people you've ever really gotten to know. He listened intently, not interrupting or interjecting some silly quip like he normally would.

After you finished, you were a little shaken up. Loki reached out and placed his hand on your arm in an attempt to comfort you. You instinctively went to pull away from him, but he tightened his grip.

"It's okay, you know." He said. "If I wanted to hurt you I would have done so already."

You relaxed, and leaned in to him. He put his arm around you.

"Thank you," you whispered.