Sentiment

Chapter 6

Rosabelle looked at her almost finished project and rubbed her eyes tiredly. "JARVIS, can you keep this hidden and tell no one? Specifically my dad?"
   "Of course, Miss Stark." Rosabelle smiled at the AI's loyalty. She trusted him fully in secretive things. When she was little she had told JARVIS to not tell Tony that it was her who broke his computer after attempting to play on it. "Will you be back tomorrow same time?"
   "Yeah, I will." Rosabelle walked out of the workshop with a yawn, accidentally bumping into Steve. "Oh, Steve! I'm so sorry." she apologised, stepping away from him awkwardly.
   "It's okay, Rosabelle." he assured her. "I should be the one watching where I was going." he looked at her curiously. "What are you doing at such a late time?"
   "Oh! Um. . ." Rosabelle hesitated, quickly coming up with a lie. "I was just tinkering with my own suit because I was bored. I guess I lost track of time."
   "But weren't you visiting Loki?" he frowned. "We noticed you left quite early."
   "Yeah, well. . .Loki was in the same state like the last couple of days, I decided to leave early. Not going to happen again, I was bored." she lied. Suddenly a voice entered her mind.
   "Don't elaborate. Keep it simple and quick, but convincing."
   "Anyway, I'm going to go and sleep now. Big day tomorrow with visiting Loki and all."
   "Don't keep mentioning the lie."
   "Alright, see you later Rosabelle."
   "Bye!" She walked away scolding herself. "Stupid, me." she cursed. "I am so horrible at lying."
   "You'll get better."
***
Weeks went by after that incident, and Rosabelle had finally finished her project on helping Loki heal his hands.
   She walked to his room excitedly, the smile on her face never faltering. It wasn't until she arrived did she lose her smile. All of the Avengers were there, surrounding Loki. "Guys?" she called to them. "Dad, what's going on?"
   They turned to her and gave her fake smiles. "Nothing is going on!" her dad said quickly. "Just wondering how Reindeer Games is going."
   "O. . .kay. . ." she said slowly. "Well, can I go to him? You know how I usually visit him. Alone." She turned to Thor. "When did you get here? I didn't see any Bifrost opening today - not to be rude or anything, of course."
   "I was visiting Jane Foster before I came here." Thor answered.
   "Okay, well like what I said before, can I see him?" She noticed they were blocking her way from seeing him. "Guys I'm not stupid, seriously what is going on."
   The lamp that was on the nightstand beside Loki's bed fell to the ground, making everyone's attention go to it. But it didn't last long - soon the nightstand was being lifted. "What the. . ." Clint trailed off. Suddenly the team were pushed to the side against the walls, making Rosabelle see Loki wide awake.
   "You're awake!" she exclaimed. Not thinking about her actions, she dived to him and gave him a tight hug, but not tight enough to hurt him.
   "Rose - wait!" Tony panicked, knowing what Loki was like. Expecting his daughter to be hurt by the criminal, all she got was a weak hug back. "What. . .?"
   The Avengers watched as Loki returned her hug gently, burying his face in her neck. "He's not hurting her." Natasha stated.
   "Like we predicted." Clint added, only for Tony to glare at him.
   "Alright, I think that's enough!" Tony said loudly, walking towards them. Loki lifted his head from Rosabelle's neck and glared at Tony, his hold tightening around Tony's daughter.
   "Loki said don't come any closer." Rosabelle murmured over her shoulder. The team looked at her shocked.
   "How do you know, Lady Stark?" Thor asked her shocked.
   "He. . .he speaks to me in my mind." she hesitated. "He responds to me whenever I visit."
   "He's brainwashing her!" Tony panicked.
   "No he's not!" Rosabelle retorted, pulling out of the hug to glare at her dad. "I just said he talks back to me."
   "How would you know he isn't brainwashing you?" Clint asked her as if Loki wasn't even there.
   "He promised he wouldn't hurt me." she revealed. "He said he would never hurt me since I'm the only person that is kind to him."
   "Rosabelle Marie Stark, come here this instant." Tony said calmly. "We need to have a chat. Now."
   Feeling conflicted, she glanced to Loki to her father's team. She really wanted to talk to Loki more - especially about her project, but she also had to talk to the team about the demigod himself.
   "Go." Loki told her in her mind. She turned to him with furrowed brows, to see him looking at her sincerely. "I'll be fine, love. Besides, your father wants to talk to you along with the rest of that team."
   "Are you. . .are you sure?" she asked unsurely, forgetting that there were others in the room. "What if they -"
   "Darling I have magic." he told her. He pulled her in with a bit of some difficulty, and rested his forehead on hers. "Thank you," he told her, "for your kindness. I'm afraid I would have gone mad if you weren't there."
   "You're welcome." she whispered. Loki nudged her nose with his slightly, pushing her forehead a bit, motioning for her to go. She smiled at him gently, before pulling away from his cold body. She turned to the silent Avengers. "Okay, let's chat."