Trapped in the Shadows

Chapter 32 - Trying to Return to Normal

Within the next few days, I was able to remember much of my life before getting captured by Hydra. On the first day following my surgery, I had been given permission to leave my cell, but my magic-restraining cuffs had to remain on so that I could neither try to kill anyone nor escape back to Hydra. However, the Avengers decided that they could trust me again and eventually allowed my powers to be restored.

Although I was given my freedom to do as I pleased around the compound, I still hadn't had the chance to talk to Loki after my surgery. I wanted to know why he had had wasted so much energy to help me. I knew what it was like to over-exert myself magically and I would never have chosen to do so for someone that I was impartial to. Besides, Loki was known as a master of concealing his true emotions. He never would have let a weakness show unless he lacked the energy to put on a facade. I never should have been able to tell that he was tired, yet he clearly looked it at the end of the surgery.

Now that I was thinking about it, I decided to search the compound for Loki. It was easy to find his brother, but it always seemed that Loki was hiding somewhere. Knowing that if anyone knew where Loki was then it would be Thor, I asked him about his brother's whereabouts.

"I have not seen him today, but I would assume that he can be found in the library, Lady (Y/N). I can go collect him for you if you would like," Thor replied, but I brushed him off.

"No, thank you, but I will go check myself," I flashed him a smile before heading to the library to find Loki.

He was indeed in the library, sitting at one of the tables and reading a book. I approached him somewhat hesitantly, afraid that he would be angry with me interrupting his read. However I wanted answers, so I asked, "why are you still here, Loki?"

He sent me an annoyed look before placing the book he was reading down on the table, "(Y/N), couldn't you see that I was otherwise occupied?"

"I apologize, but I needed to talk to you. Now why are you still here? You came to help capture me, but I've been successfully captured for quite some time now. Don't your people need you?"

"If you must know, Thor and I plan to leave together and he wished to make sure that you were alright before returning home. Besides, we left the Valkyrie in charge and I am confident in her abilities to keep the country from complete disarray," he replied simply, his voice completely detached from emotion as normal.

"You and Thor arrived separately, why have you decided to remain here, with people I know still don't fully trust you, when you are more than capable of leaving on your own?"

Loki gave no response and I sighed, "Loki, I don't understand why you have been helping me. I know that the illusion you created for my surgery was incredibly taxing on your body, so why did you do it? You have no attachments to me and I am sure none of the Avengers would have cared if you had returned home as soon as I was captured."

He remained silent, making me wonder if he was just going to outright refuse to answer my questions. I huffed in frustration and was about to leave when he finally succumbed. "If you must know the truth, I have grown to care about you. I am not aware if you remember our lessons, but in that time I began to admire your drive and compassion. When I thought about it, our lives seemed similar. We were both abandoned as children, raised without our parents informing us of this adoption, and discovered the truth of our parentage on our own. The only difference between us was that while I was neglected and became the monster that I had been told my kind was, you were loved and grew to be incredibly caring."

"Loki, you are not a monster. You have done things that are wrong, absolutely, but that does not mean that you are a terrible person. We act on our past experiences and you certainly haven't had a past leading you to become selfless and willing to risk your life for others. Besides, you don't want to be seen as weak, so you push everyone away. I don't think anyone actually hates you, but you have to show them that you do care otherwise they're not going to trust you."

"Yes, well, I must go find myself something to eat. If you would please excuse me," Loki began, picking up the book he was reading and standing from the table.

"Wait, Loki," I stopped him so that I could go over and give him a hug. "Thank you for everything that you've done for me."

Although hesitant, Loki did eventually wrap his arms around me in response, making me happy that he was showing affection. However, the moment was quickly broken by a quick knock on the door and my father coming in.

"Oh, Loki, what are you doing in here?" Tony asked, clearly having expected to see find me in here alone.

"He was merely making use of our library while he stayed here. It was actually I who came looking for him," I explained as I pulled away from the embrace. "And how about you? You don't normally come by the library, you spend most of your time in your lab."

"Well, there was someone that I felt it was time to introduce you to," Tony replied as Loki left the library, clearing not wanting to be in there while the two of us talked.

My brows furrowed, "who?"

A young girl, appearing to be about three years old revealed herself from behind the door and Tony explained, "this is your little sister, Morgan."

"I-I have a sister? I don't remember her at all."

"No, you wouldn't. Pepper and I never got the opportunity to tell you," Tony replied as Morgan watched me warily. "We were going to tell you the day you were captured, but Pepper-"

"Was called away for a meeting," I finished, proud that I actually remembered that day. "And then you refused to say anything without her there." I turned my attention to Morgan, who still seemed very uncertain. Hoping to appear less intimidating, I gave her a large smile, "Hey, Morgan. I'm so sorry that we haven't had the chance to meet yet."

"It ok, daddy told me you are sick," she replied, still a little hesitant, but seeming to gain a bit more courage. "Are you feeling better?"

My smile widened as I nodded, "yeah, I'm feeling much better now and hopefully we can spend more time together now that I'm healthy again."

-

(A/N): God I am so tired, but I have no excuse to be so I'm giving you this little chapter! Just so you know, I'm mostly just establishing that Morgan exists to go along with canon but she unfortunately won't be a major part of the story moving forward just because she has no real relevance to the action. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!