Meant To Be (Loki x reader)

Chapter eighty eight - Just a scratch

"What?" Loki asked, unsure if he'd heard correctly.

"Yeah, Thanos died, but now he's back, and we've got to go now and fight him. So shush, while I figure out how to do this." Strange demanded, waving him away.

Peter sat down heavily on the floor, staring at the ground. Loki looked down at him, and followed suit.

Five years.

You were alive, that he knew, and was entirely grateful for. But it had been five years.

"I'll be back in a minute." Strange suddenly announced, before standing up abruptly and disappearing through a portal. Loki watched the place where he'd vanished, wondering how you'd got back to Midgard from this place. Maybe you hadn't.

Where were you? How were you?

You would have moved on. Loki knew it, but didn't want to believe it. Five years.

He'd proposed to you. You wouldn't have worn the ring for that long, not if you'd thought him dead. Christ, you would have had to live with that feeling. Every new thought that came into Loki's mind felt like an iron clamp tightening around his heart.

He couldn't decide whether he hoped you had moved on and found happiness or still loved him and had inevitably been miserable for five years. No, he knew exactly which one he hoped, and it was the most selfish thing he'd ever wished for.

Strange had said 'the Avengers' had got the stones back. Were you included in that team? Was Thor? God, was Thor even alive?

Loki pushed his palms into his eyes, wishing he could stop thinking for just a moment. It was painful.

He wanted to see you more than anything, and make sure you were okay. What would he do if you'd moved on? What if you'd married someone else? Had children? No, stop. Stop it. There was no point worrying until he knew.

Peter was watching him when he looked back up.

"Are you okay Mr. Loki?"

"Just... call me Loki. And no." Loki told him, before realising he'd probably been too harsh.

"Sorry. I'm-" words evaded Loki as he thought of you when he'd disappeared three minutes ago. Five years ago. You'd been so heartbreakingly terrified, and there had been nothing he could do about it.

Now that was five years ago for you, and three minutes ago for him.

"Me too." Peter said, hanging his head.

Suddenly Strange reappeared through a portal, breathing hard.

"Right, get up. It's time." he panted.

"Time for what?" Peter asked, standing up. Once again Loki followed suit.

"To fight- did I not just explain this to you?" Strange sighed, before creating yet another portal with his hands, and gesturing for everyone to follow him through it.

You were on the other side, Loki could feel it. He was terrified.

Quill went first, followed by Drax and Mantis, and then Peter. Loki brought up the rear, his mouth falling open slightly as he saw Thanos' army surrounded by hundreds of glowing portals, out of which thousands of beings were pouring.

"Did you do all this?" Quill asked Strange in disbelief.

"Well, technically no, but yes." Strange replied.

Loki wasn't listening. There was a girl with purple eyes stood across the growing battlefield in front of a mound of smoking debris which looked as though it had minutes previously been a large building, and she was staring right at him.