Prince of earth

Chapter 27

Loki woke to the sound of rapid tapping on his window as the outside rain pattered against the glass. He was barely half awake when the low rumble of thunder echoed through the sky and brought Loki out of his very comfortable sleep.
He tried to ignore the noise and go back to sleep, but another crack of thunder echoed across the sky and Loki knew he wouldn't be getting any further sleep.

He sat up and climbed out of bed, then staggered to the window and pulled open the curtains, still half asleep and groggy. Even though it was raining and the clouds covered the sky, he could tell the sun was up and he wondered how late he'd slept.

Mack told him to get a lot of sleep, and even though he fully intended to do so, he was still surprised when he looked at his phone and saw that it was half past eleven in the morning. He knew he'd be on his own for the next few days so he didn't really mind that he'd slept so late, it felt good to be that relaxed.

He put a robe on over his pajamas, breathed in deeply to get his body going for the day ahead, and walked out to the kitchen to make himself some tea. On the way there he saw the box of books Des had gifted him and felt an odd sense of contentedness; It was quiet, he knew he'd be left alone, and now he has something to read. Reading was an activity he'd sorely missed for the past several years and now he had a perfect setup for it. Even though the end of the world might be at hand, Loki felt that he personally was going to have a pretty good day.

He went to the kitchen and made his tea, then sat down on the couch so he could pick out a book to read. He wasn't familiar with any of them so he just grabbed the first one he noticed and opened it up.

Once he got comfortable with his book and his tea he heard another boom of thunder. He knew the thunder of earth had nothing to do with Thor, he knew that Thor was on Asgard and had no idea Loki was even alive, but there was still an odd sense of familiarity that came with the sound of thunder for Loki. It used to be a sound he'd literally run from, but now he found it very comfortable.

He shook his head and tried to ignore the thoughts of home and the sense of familiarity. But as soon as he started reading he felt that he couldn't relax; He got the feeling someone was watching him or he was somehow in danger.

The last time he'd been able to sit and read was back on Asgard, and he ended up getting assaulted by one of the guards and had to be saved by Fandral. Before that it had been several years since he was at home enough to just sit and read and enjoy himself, and his mind wouldn't let him enjoy his time now.

In typical Loki-fashion, he got stubborn. He wanted to enjoy himself and he became determined to force himself to relax, even if it made him crazy. He focused heavily on the words he was reading and didn't look over his shoulder, didn't check to make sure the door was locked, didn't go make sure there weren't intruders in his room, and didn't investigate every time he heard someone walk down the hall outside his apartment, even though he had the urge to do all of those things.

It took a little while, but his paranoia eventually took a backseat and he was able to relax and read his book in peace without feeling fight-or-flight responses every time he heard a sound.

He realized after a while why it was obvious how tense he was to anyone who touched him; it took tremendous effort just for him to sit still and not be on edge, every muscle in his body was working hard at making him do nothing, no wonder his back was full of knots.

but even though it took enormous tension for him to enjoy some light reading, eventually those nerves went away and he was able to enjoy the rest of his day in peace, reading his new books and enjoying the occasional clap of thunder.

=*****=

For the next few days Loki was waking up at much more reasonable times, though no one would start characterizing him as an early riser. For a few days it was nice to be away from all the noise of SHIELD, but now he was starting to feel a bit on edge. It had been days and he hadn't heard a single thing form any of his team, he wondered why they weren't communicating with him.