Green sunrise | Loki fanfiction

Part 17: Glad you're back

I am not sure how it went from there, but I know that we made it through the portal. Back at the earth, there were more aliens attacking ... and at some point the other Avengers joined us. My memories really blur since then, and I only know that everything went black in the middle of the fight.

I open my eyes and close them again because of a blinding light. I slowly blink and see that I am in the medical room in the Avengers Tower, the bright sunlight shining through the window. I lie in that bed again, and as I quickly look to my left, I see that Loki is there. I exhale and let my head fall back into the pillow.
Then I feel my body hurting literally everywhere and I groan.
Next to me, Loki opens his eyes and looks at me with a slight smile. "Awake?"
"Yes ...", I sigh. Then suddenly the latest events pop up in my memories and I slide closer to him, grabbing his arm, the closest part to me. "How are you? Are you okay? God, I am so thankful ... it's so good to have you back." I want to caress his cheek with my thumb, but I restrain myself. "Are you okay?", I whisper again.
He sighs. "If I would say yes, it would be a lie." Loki looks at me hesitantly. "But I have to say to you that I am sorry. For asking you to come alone to a place like this. I ... I was never good at apologies." He looks at the ceiling. "I know I was asking for too much. I just couldn't ... it ..."
I feel my eyes tearing up and pull him into a tight hug. "Please don't say that, I don't want you to be at the mercy of such horror. Rescuing you was worth it. I was going up the walls in here, wondering if something happened to you ..."
Loki's body is tense, then he eases a bit and wraps one arm around me. "I just know you experienced some ... stuff ... and learned some things about yourself nobody wants to learn about themselves. Ever."
The image of the bloody left-overs of the alien come to my mind and my stomach shrivels.
Loki takes a deep breath. "Thank you. I mean that."
I nod and pull back, trying to stop the crying. "Sorry", I snivel.
He frowns. "For what?"
I laugh while a few more tears fall out of my eyes. "For crying. And for flinging my arms around your neck again."
"Oh, I don't ... uhm, if it's you, it's ... well, I guess I can tolerate it."
I watch surprised how his pale cheeks turn a little pink. As the silence continues, I clear my throat and ask again: "So ... how are your wounds? Is everything healed?"
Loki seems glad that he can answer to something more superficial. "Like the last time, the deepest wounds are healed." He stretches out his arms (I am a little sad about losing the body contact) and shows me the clear skin. "But ... well, they hurt me pretty bad ... with, uhm, heat ... and it kind of feels like I have bruises all over my body. And not like small bruises ... bruises like I fell down all the stairs of Avengers Tower." Loki folds his hands over the blanket and looks almost embarassed.
"Oh", I say. Then I put on a stern look and point with a finger at him. "No being embarassed of your own pain."
Loki frowns, almost like a child who got denied candy. "I wasn't."
"You was."
"No, I wasn't."
"You w-"
"Stop disagreeing with me or I will throw you off the bed."
I smirk. "You said that to me some time ago and I still know how that ended."
Loki meets my glance and that provocative grin is back on his face. "Yeah, with nothing important except Tony barging i-"
A soft knock on the door interrupts us. We exchange a look and I call: "Come in!"
The door opens and Tony steps awkwardly into the room, looking almost everywhere except at us.
"Stark", Loki says coldly. He stares at Tony and I feel Loki's body temperature drop.
I shiver and do not dare to break the heavy, frosty silence between the two. Then it comes to my mind that I didn't ask if Loki spoke to the other Avengers yet. Maybe he became unconscious too. It certainly doesn't look like any tension has been resolved at all.
"Uhm, yeah, Loki", Tony replies, still looking away from his eyes.
Loki says nothing.
"I just wanted ...", Tony clasps his hands together, "to ... apologize. I mean ... what I said was not right, and I understand that it upset you ..." Finally he finds the courage to look at Loki. "And I don't want this to happen again. Like, this whole situation. I want to say that I will ... I will work on my capacity for teamwork. And I will make sure this doesn't repeat itself." He swallows. "Uhm, we as the Avengers, which you are a part of of course, thought that I should make up for it. And I thought, that, maybe, if you like, we could throw a party? Because you seemed to like them in the past and ... yeah."
Loki raises his eyebrows. "A party?"
Tony nods and takes a deep breath, breaking eye contact again. "Yes. If you want to of course and when you are in good health again."
Loki nods shortly. "I will think about it."
Tony's glance scurries over to him. "Okay. Good. I will be ... on my way now then ... if there is nothing else?"
Loki looks at him, then he pulls a small metal triangle out of his pocket. "I stole this from one guy. It seemed to be important. Maybe you know what to do with that."
Tony takes the triangle and turns it around. "Hm. Okay. I will see what I can find out about this. Thank you." When nobody says anything anymore, he quickly leaves the medical room.
I throw a careful look at Loki.
He sighs. "Let us not talk about that. Not now. I will just ... let it be for the moment."
"Okay", I reply. After a small pause, I say: "I am glad you are back."