Intertwine

10 - Pinewood and Lavender

Slowly I pulled off my mask. With his green and black asgardian leathers expertly moulded to his lean shape and his dark hair swept back, he looked like he hadn't changed a bit.

I felt my breath hitch in my throat, my heart roaring in my ears. After all this time did he still give me butterflies?

It was as though I was staring into a mirror as I a watched every emotion flash across his face at once. 

That single second of shock was enough. 

I slapped him across the face. If anything he looked even more shocked. 

I punched him in the face. He fell backwards, down three steps from the platform that the diffuser was on.

I looked at him, my two fingers pointed towards him, his eyes locking with mine as I spoke. Mustering all my strength, all my energy, I blasted my power through my mind and into his. "Sleep." I commanded. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he lay still.

"Damn." I looked up. Steve was leaning against the doorway, his shield by his feet. "If I knew Loki could be defeated that easily I don't know why we even bothered."

I looked down at the sleeping Loki. His face looked almost peaceful, barely a bruise on his stupidly perfect skin. "I don't like using that. I just didn't have many other options. It's the power I refused to show you all. This guy is notoriously hard to knock out. And I wanted him out cold before he could start talking." I looked around to see the girl, who Loki had referred to as Alina, slumped near the door.

Steve saw who I was looking at. "You made a friend? You take the girl, I've got Loki. I've taken a scan of the room which is all we need but the others have got company." I looked at Cap closer. He had a gash across one arm and a bloody nose. I ran and grabbed the hard drive and secured it to my belt.

I walked over and picked up Alina. She was surprisingly light. "Let's go." I told him. "And don't be too gentle with Loki. He doesn't deserve that."

I drew enough power from Cap to mimic his increased strength for the walk back. I was feeling incredibly drained after using my vocal manipulation. 

"That thing you did back there, getting Loki to fall asleep, how did you do that?" Steve asked, dragging Loki by a foot while I had Alina in my arms. At first he'd complained about moving Loki through the facility like that but after I gave him a death stare he complied with my wishes.

"I like to call it being very persuasive. As i mentioned it's the thing Thor keeps telling me to show people. I've made mistakes when using it in the past, so I vowed never to do it again. I also vowed never to show my face to that asshole," I nodded to Loki, "so as promises go I don't have a great track record. It's not that useful anyway. It uses up a lot of my energy so I can only do it once in a while. I don't even remember when I started and stopped using it, or really even what it was that made me stop. Just that it was bad."

Steve nodded. "It was a pretty hard slap you gave him. You put a good swing into it." 

"He deserved it."

"I don't doubt that."

"And he deserved the punch." I grunted.

We were close to the exit now. "Roara, you okay?" Steve asked tentatively.

I turned to face him, "Do I look okay? I just saw Loki for the first time in 4 centuries. That is a fuck of a lot of time. I got gassed. I got shot at. I think I chipped a tooth. I have no idea where Thor is, and I'm carrying an unconscious half starved woman in my arms. Did I mention I got choked? Because that happened."