Room AU

Chapter 03 - The Cold Truth

The next morning Fenrir wakes, shivering and snuggling closer to his mother, surrounding himself in her warmth. He is astonished by the purple bruises around Ma's throat. As if Ma feels his gaze, Loki wakes and musters a smile. Fenrir notices the white clouds of their breath in the air.

"Ma, we're dragons."

Loki sits up and registers the chill. She can clearly see her breath in the air so she gets up out of bed and turns on the lamp, no light. Fenrir is crushed to find the Jeep lying slightly crushed, one wheel snapped off.

Loki opens the refrigerator: dark inside. She's appalled.

"He's cut the power." She glances at the keypad: the little red light is out. With a wild, illogical hope, she hurls herself at the door and claws at its edges - but it's still locked. Fenrir watches bewildered, he's never seen her try to open it.

"Open you son of a bitch! Open!" Loki whimpers, hitting her hand against the door again and again. She rests her forehead against the unmoving door and allows herself a moment to cry. Fenrir lies in bed, completely under the covers frightened at Ma's outburst.

Loki shivers and realizes that they need to put on warmer clothes than the ones they are in currently. She wipes her face of the tears and puts on her bravest look, turning to face her baby who is wrapped in their blankets.

"Fenrir come," she says, and he follows her to wardrobe.

"Ma... I'm so cold..."

"I know baby, here," she starts handing them all of their clothes they own, which isn't a lot. Fenrir is clothed in at least six ratty T-shirts and a few of her own long sleeve shirts. She puts him in his shorts and then the big jeans over them. "Go climb back under the covers while I get dressed."

She pulls on the rest of her clothes, leaving nothing but hangers in the wardrobe. She is starting to not feel her toes anymore, so she slips on one the few pairs of socks, they have left, leaving the rest to put on Fenrir.

Later in the day, Fenrir is at the table reading to his injured truck from Alice and Wonderland.

"For, you see, so many out-of-the way things had happened lat-ely-"

"Lately."

"-lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible."

Loki comes to the table and doles out half-thawed green beans from a freezer bag onto one of the plates. "Lunch, my love."

"No thanks."

"We have to use them up before they rot. Once we eat, we'll feel warmer."

Fenrir makes himself chew a limp bean. Loki nibbles a few, with a show of enthusiasm. Fenrir looks at his three-wheeled truck. "When's Thanos going to put the power back?"

"Soon."

"When's soon?"

"Once he's not mad with me anymore."

Fenrir watches the bruises on Loki's throat move. He hates that he was the one that he caused pain for his Ma.

"I hope he never comes back not ever."

"Fenrir. Think about it. You know, if he never comes back, you and I will be stuck. We will get nothing."

"No Sunday treat?"

"No anything. No food."

Fenrir tries the bean again - then spits it out quietly. Loki watches him, kisses him, forces herself to begin telling him the truth. The nasty, ugly truth she's been hiding from him for so long, she feels ashamed of herself. But now, she has a reason, Thanos is running out of money and the man would rather let them starve than release them. She would love to keep him innocent and hers forever, but he needs to experience life as she had, not rotting away in a stupid garden shed in the backyard of a monster's house. She needs to find a way to get Fenrir out, but she can't do that unless her baby understands the world around them.