Percy P.O.V
He finished off his pizza and then the team all decided that they wanted to watch a movie. Although, they first had to explain what a movie was to Loki who was much less used to the customs of 'Midgardians' as he called them. It only took about ten minutes in which he had some strong opinions on what a good movie should consist of. They decided to watch Hamilton which was technically not even a movie, just a musical. Why did they chose it, you might ask? well he didn't really know why, it was chosen by majority rules. He hadn't seen it yet and was actually looking forward too it, but there was also this gut twisting anxiety that had settled in him as soon as it was decided that he was going to meet his uncle tomorrow. At intermission, everyone decided to take a break and find more snacks, make quick calls and whatnot. So, because he was feeling restless, he went out to the balcony overlooking the city. It was all lit up beautifully and for the first time since before the war, he really had a chance to look out over the city and simply admire it.
"I know your there," he said, sensing someone behind him in the water particles.
"Perseus," he heard the silky voice of Loki.
"It's Percy, Loki," he said as the god sat down in a chair next to him. His emerald green eyes were mesmerizing and Percy found himself getting lost in them, it was like falling into some kind of endless abyss. Or how deer feel gazing into headlights. One of the two. He quickly pulled himself up out of his thoughts and looked away from those eyes.
"I know that many wouldn't think of me to be the first to say this, but even though I have mostly only heard of you through stories, the burdens you've carried, the burdens you still carry, and the wounds they have caused you are something no person should ever have to go through. I may not know the extent of your scars or the losses you've dealt with, but I can see your sorrow even when you do not wish to show it. I am truly sorry for all the pain you've been put through and...if you need someone to talk to...I'm always willing." Loki said, his voice like a soothing melody.
"You know, for someone who's always so cynical that was really sweet," Percy said without really thinking about what he was saying. Sweet?! Really? Where had that even come from? But the god just chuckled and nodded his head
"Loki, have you ever felt like you were always being used when you were useful and forgotten when you're not? Like you're just one more useless pawn on some infinite chessboard?" He asked the god, turning the conversation. "Sorry for the sudden shift," he laughed self-consciously, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck and turning his gaze to the ground.
"I know what you mean. I was put in a similar position, I was always overlooked by everyone, the only time I would get recognition was either when I was needed or when I messed up. My father always cared more about my brother, the 'Golden prince'," Loki said his voice full of pain, anger, and scorn that hadn't been acknowledged in some time.
"How do you get out of the cycle? How do you stop playing as a pawn?" he asked, letting some of his own genuine emotion break through into the cold night air.
"I'm not so sure that I ever did. I don't think I would be much help to you there." Loki laughed bitterly this time and Percy felt some sort of stirring emotion in his chest. He was sorry that there was someone who was just like him, used, exploited, invisible. He wished he could help, that was his fatal flaw at it's finest. Loyalty until it either kills you or breaks you. For him to connect with someone, to know them, to find some sort of companionship and comfort in their presence, it would ignite that loyalty, which often led to guilt over the wrong thing said, the wrong action preformed.
Loki P.O.V
He had seen Perseus sitting alone on the balcony, and he felt that he should talk to him, he didn't know why, but he was drawn to the beauty of broken things. He always had been. When he'd looked into Perseus' eyes earlier, they were shattered. He knew the hero pretended to be okay, but he saw past that, saw through the illusion because he was a master of creating them for himself. He saw all the little cracks and broken pieces. He wanted to make him whole again, and he didn't know why. He felt a strange emotion when he thought of him, like he wanted to protect him from all other harm, he's been through to much all ready. It's a surprise he's still sane.
When Percy had asked him if he'd ever felt like a pawn, he told him about some of his own struggles, he'd opened up to him for no conceivable reason. He'd seen the ravenette's sea green eyes gazing in his own, but when he looked at him he looked down and blushed. At first, this amused him as he made quite a little game of it throughout the discussion, he liked seeing the other blush. But then he wondered why, maybe he didn't like eye contact, maybe he was embarrassed, or maybe, maybe he liked him. No. He dismissed that thought as soon as it entered his head. Someone like Percy liking a god like Loki. It was impossible. Nobody saw him that way, nobody liked him that way.
However these thoughts didn't last as we began to truly talk. Something about the night, the atmosphere, the beginnings of a bond shared between two people, it made the fear of remembering things, or the fear of judgement leave. They opened up to each other and exchanged stories.
Percy started telling him about how he had developed an intense fear of suffocation after almost dying in a musk bog in Alaska. And in turn he told Percy about how he was shunned and rejected as a child while his brother was favored.
Then they began to talk funny stories, better times. He told Percy about one time had had tricked Thor and the warrior's three into walking into a cell and then locking them into a dungeon. Percy started talking about a girl named Hazel and how she didn't know what a chicken nugget was and Leo took about an hour to explain it to her. He had no clue what a chicken nugget was, but they seemed interesting. Then Percy's face fell as these memories no longer brought him joy, they only reminded him of what he had lost. Loki reached out, gently, tentatively, and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I know what you're thinking, what you're doing to yourself. So don't. How about you tell me about your tall, dark, and mysterious emo kid cousin." he suggested and Percy shrugged.
"You already know a lot about him from the stories, and I mean they're probably getting ready to start the movie back up anyway."
"Okay, let's go," Loki said, although he would have rathered sitting on the balcony and talking with Percy for the rest of the night.
He sat next to Percy on the couch for the rest of the movie and smiled as those broken eyes met his again and the teen moved closer to him, leaning against his shoulder.
Percy P.O.V
He moved closer to Loki and leaned against his shoulder for the rest of the movie and was glad that he didn't pull away, he even seemed pleased. After the movie was over, He went to his room and fell asleep quickly. He hadn't slept in a while because when he slept, he dreamt, and when he dreamt, well things got ugly to say the least.
He saw Tartarus again. The entity he hated so. The one who tortured him every time he slept. The primordial started by whipping him, 100 lashes he tried not to make a sound, but the tip of the whip had a celestial bronze point that dug into his flesh and around 50, he couldn't help it anymore, he screamed.
After the lashes were over, Tartarus moved onto various other kinds of torture that it seemed to enjoy, like slowly drawing a blade over Percy's flesh, branding him, and even cutting words into his flesh with a knife and spreading poison over them. When Tartarus finally left, to get more items of torture and brainstorm how to make him scream more, he saw Loki somehow in the corner of his vision. The god rushed to cut him out of his bonds, and brought him back to the real world.
"Perseus, what was that? Are you okay?" Loki looked him in the eye as he talked.
"It was Tartarus, he tortures me in my dreams, Ah I'm going to go take a shower now, you know because I can water heal and all that. Please don't tell anyone else about this though, and just like I don't know go back to bed or whatever gods do in the middle of the night, I don't know," he told the god getting up, Loki looked astonished as he saw all Percy's injuries and the blood all over his sheets.
"Perseus! Your hurt!" Loki said, concerned.
"I know, water healing, remember?" he said as he walked to the bathroom, shut the door and turned on the shower, feeling the soothing water wash over him, fading his cuts and bruises, filling him with more energy. Then, in the privacy of his own bathroom, he broke down and cried.
Updated version of Chapter 4
word count 1651 words
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The Broken Hero (always an angel never a god)
Fanfiction*UNDERGOING MAJOR EDITING* Percy Jackson has lost everything after the giant war, his friends, his family, and his sense of belonging. On top of all this, he is dealing with flashbacks and painful tortures in his dreams. When the avengers find him...
