Eagle (A Loki love story)

Chapter 109

Under Loki's care, I didn't have another 'Jotun episode'. Unannounced, at least. Another heat wave had hit Asgard, so I made my excuses to the Warriors as to why I couldn't train with them on the particularly hot days and spent any time away from Loki in an ice cold bath. It was unpleasant, but we wanted to avoid another trip to Eir so it had to be done. Due to the heat, the baby always, without fail, turned Jotun at some point every afternoon so Loki made sure he had several opportunities to return and check on me, or to come if I called to him.

Hannah was the first one to become concerned with me skipping out on training but I assured her that the heat was giving me headaches. To make up for it, I got up early and trained with them in the mornings, before the sun began really beating down on the training grounds. However, I did not have keep up appearances and make excuses for long, because just a little over two weeks after we discovered the pregnancy, I was summoned to the Bifrost by a guard who claimed that Heimdall had 'news of extreme importance and it was vital that I receive it right away'. When I arrived at the dome, Heimdall, who never really had any sort of emotion on his face, was looking worried. That really got my blood pressure up, but I forced it down for the baby's sake.

"I do not savor telling you this, but I must tell you two things before I begin. The first is that you may wish to sit and the second is that you may also wish to wrap up your affairs here for an extended period of time." I plopped myself down on the shallow steps in the center of the dome and nodded for him to begin.

It took him a full twenty minutes to explain to me just what had happened on Earth over the past couple of weeks or so. I had him go back to a few of the details several times, just to make sure that one: he wasn't wrong and two: that my hearing wasn't impaired. He had certainly been right about me needing to sit down. I couldn't imagine what would've happened to me if I'd been there. The world had done the unthinkable: try to control the Avengers through the Sokovia Accords. Heimdall gave me a detailed summary of the preliminary argument that had broken out and splintered the team, that it had ended with Steve getting a text saying Peggy was dead, the bombing of the UN, the death of the Wakandan King, the emergence of the Black Panther, T'Challa, that Bucky had been framed for the bombing and flushed out of hiding, how Steve and Sam became wanted criminals, how Sharon the Neighbor had helped them identify that the psychologist who spoke to Bucky wasn't who he said he was, a detailed account of the battle in Leipzig, the introduction of yet another new player, the high school kid Peter Parker, or Spiderman, how Nat had betrayed her team, and Rhodey's life-changing injury. I had been more than surprised to learn that there were more Winter Soldiers, that only Steve and Bucky had gotten out of Leipzig, that the rest of those who fought with Steve–Pietro, Wanda, Sam, Clint, and Ant Man–had been imprisoned in the Raft prison of all places, that Tony had joined Steve's side (until he found out that it had been Bucky who had killed his parents, so he probably wouldn't cherish knowing that I'd known too), and that neither side was talking to the other. And worse, we still didn't know what kind of galactic threat was on the horizon.

"Would you like me to send you anywhere?"

"Hang on, I need a moment." In truth, I had a plan, I just needed to confirm a few things and contact Loki.

"Kitten? What is it? Is it the baby?"

"No, it's not that. Loki, something terrible has happened."

"Where?"

"On Earth. I cannot explain it now, but I need to go there!"

"But–"

"Please! The Avengers have split up. I need to try and pick up the pieces before it's too late!"

"I'll be right behind you. Where shall we meet?"