Room AU

Chapter 04 - Chance at Freedom

The next day, Loki is back up and active around Room and she watches Fen chomp down on a granola bar as she picks up an apple from the counter.

"Would you like a bite, my love?"

Fenrir nods and she slices a piece off for him with a knife, he eats it with a happy hum.

Loki bites in to her slice and winces. She reaches into her mouth and pulls something out. "Ah, finally. I was beginning to wonder."

Fenrir stands on his chair, so he can see what his mum is holding. "Bad Tooth? Can I have it?"

At first Loki wants to throw it away, but shrugs, "Sure, if you want it."

Later, he is watching nature documentaries while Loki cleans up from breakfast. He watches, fascinated as baby snakes emerge from the shells, poking their small heads out. Loki is tying up the trash bag and finds the discarded truck and realizes that Fenrir has destroyed it. She gives a small smile and puts the full bag of trash next to the door.

"Are snakes real?"

Loki's head shoots up: this is the first time that he's attempted to believe her about the world since the argument. She quickly runs to the couch, sliding next to him.

"Totally real. I had a pet snake. He was so cool, he was a green tree python. I named him Jormungandr. He was as long as you are tall."

Fenrir's eyes are wide, and he hangs on his mother's every word. The light coming back to her eyes as she describes the snake.

"Your Uncle Thor gave him to me for my 16th birthday. He went everywhere with me, Grandpa didn't care for that much but-"

On the TV: "We now see the cheetahs prepare their young for their first hunt, meanwhile the lions are settling down for a long nap."

"Lions and cheetahs-"

"They're all real, Fenrir."

He is even more curious now and switches the channel to a 1970s British sitcom, Are You Being Served?

"Real?"

"Ah, they're real people playing dress-up, pretending to be people who work in a department store. But nonetheless, those are real people."

Fenrir is puzzled by that, so he switches channels to Tom and Jerry.

"Just TV?"

"You're getting it! I'm so, so proud of you baby!"

Fenrir watches the slapstick violence with relish, giggling.

"When Thanos comes back, I'm going to beat him up."

This totally demolishes Loki's mood, and she marches over and shuts off the TV. "We can never do that, Fenrir. One night I tried to hurt Thanos. I stood behind the door with the lid of the toilet tank."

Fenrir glances over at the toilet, confused because the white toilet sits with the water tank exposed. It had always been that way, or so he thought. "What lid?"

"It used to have a lid, it was the heaviest thing in Room. When he came in I tried to smash it down on his head. But I messed up, Fenrir. He shoved the door shut and grabbed me by the wrist - that's why it's sore now."

There is a pause in the room, the silence heavy.

"We could wait till he's asleep and kill him dead."

She sighs, she had thought this too. Like mother, like son, she guesses. "Yes, we could, but then we'd have no more food - and we wouldn't know the code, on the door, to get out."