Kenna Stark

XXVIII

Kenna slowly peeled her eyes open. She was lying on her side, still in the infirmary. In a bed beside her was Loki, laying flat on his back staring at the ceiling. A quick glance around the room and she saw Nat and Wanda, also in infirmary beds, sleeping peacefully.

"Loki?" Kenna croaked out. Loki's head turned towards her, a smile forming across his face.

"Hello darling,"

"How long have I been asleep?" She asked, pulling herself up so she was sitting. Loki sat up too and swung his legs off the side of the bed. He stayed there, facing her.

"I don't know," he admitted, their beds were close enough together that he could reach over and hold onto her hand, "I have not long woken myself."

"Did you find out how I got my powers?" Loki's soft smile faded.

"Later, darling, when Natasha and Wanda are awake," he glanced over at the sleeping women, "and the others are back."

"Why? Why can't you just tell me now?" He stood up, still holding her hand, and came to sit on the edge of her bed. His other had reached up to cup her cheek.

"It's better when the others are here?"

"In case I lose control again?" Her tone struck through him, a dagger in his heart. Her eyes turned angry as she glared at him, her skin already heating up under his palm.

"It's a complicated story, my love. One that I cannot tell on my own, I need Natasha and Wanda. It also makes sense to only tell it once." To his relief the heat faded from her skin. He began to smirk at her, making her roll her eyes.

"There was something else I wanted to talk to you about..." she played with her bottom lip between her teeth.

"What's that?"

"That little box I saw?" Loki breathed out a short laugh and looked down at his lap.

"And which box would that be?"

"I don't know... I think there might have been some jewellery in it?" She shrugged innocently. Her smile dropped from her face when a serious look crossed his.

"Before that," he said, squeezing her hand a little. "I think we should talk,"

"That's never a good sign, talk about what?"

"Valkyrie," Kenna's face turned to stone as she shrugged off his hands and snatched her own away from him.

"Why would I want to talk about her?"

"Because we never did."

"I don't want to."

"We have to."

"Why?"

"Because I love you," Loki sighed deeply, "I love you, and I need you to know why."

"Why what?"

"Why it happened." Kenna folded her arms across her chest and fixed him with a look saying go on. "Being on Asgard was like being a child again. Thor got all the glory, even when it was me who took down that monster, me who captured it for imprisonment, me who took it to Asgard, but... Thor was there. And if he is there I disappear. Valkyrie hung out with me. When she came back with us, she was again the only person who spoke to me. Everyone else instantly started talking with Thor, so I offered her a tour.

I was fighting with her. She said something about my mother, I don't even remember what it was now it was so insignificant. But we fought, she was winning so I did the first thing I could think of to distract her."