Green sunrise | Loki fanfiction

Part 8: Blue

"Okay, but that doesn't explain where the monsters came from!", Tony says and lays his hands on the table in the control room. In front of him there is a glowing hologram of one of the weird things that attacked us today.
Loki wanders around the table, examining the monster from all sides. His cape is flowing behind him and the sleeves of his armour are restored. After we started to feel better, Tony immediatly called all of us into this meeting. The others stare at the hologram and watch the monster fulfill little attacks Jarvis has recorded. Natasha and Bruce read a small text that lists up the things we know about the monsters.
"Yes, I know, Tony", Steve responds. "We don't know where they came from, but we know how they got here. By portal. That means we are prepared next time, we can close the portal quicker and save more lives."
"Fair point, but that still leaves the question of the where and why." Tony watches attentively as the hologram spits a little gush of fire into the air.
"Personally I doubt that they accomplished coming here all by themselves", Bruce enters the discussion while fumbling with his fingers. "They didn't seem to show any signs of higher intelligence."
"Yes, they were basically animals", Natasha agrees. "Dangerous and fire spitting animals, of course, but animals. There has to be someone who made the portals and put them through them."
"So we have another enemy", Thor growls. "Coming from space. Great."
"Aren't all our enemies always coming from space?", Tony asks with sarcasm in his voice. "Are you sure that you don't have another evil brother, Thor?"
Loki and I scowl at him, then Loki opens his mouth for a comeback. "Or maybe someone is building robots again and one suddenly turns evil."
"Enough", Steve says and holds up both of his hands in an attempt to stop the discussion. Tony throws him an annoyed look and swallows his answer.
"We should focus on how the portals are closed and work out fighting strategies", Clint continues as if nothing had happened. "And then we may get behind the person behind the attacks."
"So you think they will come back soon?", I ask. I rarely spoke in this meeting, but I try my best to act as an Avenger. "The monsters, I mean."
"Unfortunately, our enemies never seem to stay away for a long time", Natasha says. "And we have to expect that they will also know a bit about us now."
"You can say that again", Loki agrees with her, sighs and puts his hands behind his back.
"Perfect", Tony says and stands up straight. "So a new enemy we know almost nothing about and monsters attacking the earth. Love my job."
Loki rolls his eyes behind Tony's back and I can barely contain myself from doing the same. We all know he loves to be everyones hero. He just likes to complain.
"So I expect training", Steve says. "Every training pair will work out a strategy against the monsters this afternoon, and we will compare them this evening."
"Maybe one hour before dinner?", Bruce asks and looks questioning at everybody.
"Sounds good", Clint says and the others nod.
A second of silence goes by, then Tony claps his hands once. "Great planning, guys. Meeting is over. Everyone go do your stuff."
Mumbling ensues while the Avengers, including me, leave the room, already discussing ideas.
I walk next to Loki whos cape still flows after him. My steps are skippy and I get excited with the new task. "This will be great, that is something we can do, right?", I say to him. "Work out a strategy and then beat the monsters! I mean it will still be dangerous, but this time we have the chance to be prepared. We wont get jumped again and maybe I have even more powers that I can use! Isn't that awesome?"
Loki looks at the ceiling for a moment and exhales his breath in one long annoyed sigh.
I put my arms akimbo. "Really, Loki, shouldn't we be over all that 'you act like you are annoyed of me but secretly find me cute' stuff?"
He throws me a glance from the side and a light smirk is on his face. "Cute? I should find you cute? Maybe you are projecting your feelings onto other people. Do you find me cute, (y/n)?"
I try to find the right words to answer, but fail. I know exactly what he has done. Loki is good with words and turned everything I said around without even slightly responding to the content I tried to bring across, plus embarassing me. But still I am not glibly enough to figure out an answer as clever as his.
And on top of it, his question forces me to think about my feelings about him. Deep inside me I know the answer, but I absolutely wont tell him that. Not when he remains as stubbornly sly as always.
His smirk grows into a grin and I believe that my cheeks get slightly pink.
"You better think about fighting the monsters", I snap finally. "Personally I wouldn't wonder about my training partners feelings if my enemies have the power to burn off my skin to turn me into a blue popsicle."
That wipes the grin off his face and he replaces it with the usual grumpy expression. I feel satisfied at first, but when we step into the training room and he still doesn't change into a more friendly expression, I get a bad conscience.
"Sorry", I mumble as the door clicks shut. "I shouldn't have said that. Are you ... do your arms still hurt?"
Loki looks at me with a cloudy face, then his features soften. "They are okay", he grumbles. He stretches out his hands and wiggles the fingers. "See? They work."
"I see", I respond and a smirk scurries over both of our faces, over his only grudgingly.
"Can I see the wounds?", I ask and take his left hand to examine his fingers. "I wonder what my powers can do. Bruce said he didn't have to do much with the medication."
Loki says nothing, he just lets me look at his hand and stretches and curls his fingers when I carefully move them. They are not as cold as in the medical room and actually quite soft.
I exchange a short glance with him, then I roll his sleeve up to his elbow. No sign of any fight is on the pale skin.
"Is the ... is the wound on the other form?", I ask quietly.
His face hardens and he seems to bite his tongue to stop some words coming through. "I don't like to show it", he eventually presses out.
"You really don't have to be ashamed for it. Not in front of me." Hesitantly, I add: "You could do it slowly."
Loki stares at a point over my head. Just as I think he wont respond, he takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. Then, slowly, his fingertips turn blue. I watch wordlessly as the colour spreads down his fingers. The palm of his hand follows soon and I feel the cold of his hand in mine. Eventually, his arm is coloured in an icy blue and fine white lines run from his fingertips to his elbow. The blue stops there, only his left underarm is transformed.
When I look into his face, I see him staring at a corner of the training room. I glance down again and see the light new skin where his wounds were. It looks like very old scars, fading out and almost disappearing.
"Wow", I say and slide with my finger up his arm. "My powers really are strong, and I didn't even train healing. No wonder I passed out after using them." My finger glides down again and I see Loki involuntarily shaking as a shiver runs down his spine. The hair on his not blue arm has risen.
I hold his hand for another second, then I let go. "Thank you", I mumble.
Loki nods and shrugs at the same time, so it is more like a weird twitch. "So we better get into training", he says with a firm voice.
I nod, glad he interrupted the silence, and get into fighter position.