Eagle (A Loki love story)

Chapter 42

The pool itself was semi-circular, winding around the circumference of the room, our bed was on a circular island in the middle of it. There were four entrances to the pool, two from the island and two before the bridge. Around the borders inside the pool ran a bench, the function of which was currently unknown to me. The water of the pool in our room was just as pleasant as the water in the normal pool. The only difference between the two artificial bodies of water were the series of red buttons placed strategically around the room rigged to activate the two or three dozen water jets in the middle of the floor and the walls. Loki obviously had no idea what the purpose of the jets were because the first thing he did when he got in the pool was inspect the one closest to him. I decided to try and lighten the mood by starting the cycle of the ten minutes for which the jets would run.

"Waaaaah!" Loki shot away from the wall but when he noticed that the ones on the floor were also active, he got as far away from all of them as possible.

"They attacked me! What did you do!?" I burst out laughing.

"Loki, calm down. This is a hot tub. It's supposed to 'attack' you." I swam over to him, "You're supposed to lean up against it. It'll feel good." Loki looked unsure but followed my example and sat on the bench, slowly sitting back against the wall, angling himself so the jet hit his lower back.

"This is....peculiar. I have never felt anything quite like it. What is its purpose?"

"It's supposed to relax sore muscles by providing a massage."

"I can do that for you, Kitten, you need not rely on such things." He pulled me onto his lap and began rubbing the muscles behind my collar bones. I leaned forward, enjoying how his strong, long fingers gripped my skin and pulled just enough to loosen up the muscle but not enough to actually hurt or leave marks. After a few minutes, the jets turned off and Loki stopped.

"What did I do?"

"You didn't do anything. The jets are on a timer. I'll see if I can get them to stay on longer." Reluctantly, I pulled away from Loki's wonderful embrace and floated over to the control panel located on the wall directly behind our bed. After a few minutes, I managed to get the set time to go up to twenty minutes instead of just ten. I made to go back to Loki but he had come to me, hitting the control and picking a spot so we didn't hit the controls but we were also out of sight from the door.

"Sit." He pulled me onto his lap once more but this time, I was facing him. My legs wrapped around his waist so that the jet behind us hit both of them and his back. He pulled me flush against his front, guiding my head to rest in the crook of his neck. My legs unwrapped themselves and I shifted so I was sitting sideways. Loki was content with my decision and began to half-scratch, half-rub my back. The way I was sitting, only my head was above water. The rest of my body felt weightless beneath the dense fluid as it hung suspended by nothing. My hair, since it was so long, wasn't sticking to the surface, it was fanned out around me.

"Just let your mind go blank." At the sound of his voice, a heavy sense of calm came over me. It was just the two of us here in our little sanctuary. No one else would find us. We were safe, sheltered from the oppressive will of SHIELD.

"Let your stress fade away, breathe it out. Breathe in the silence and the peace." Loki's chest vibrated softly under my chest as he spoke and said vibrations travelled into my body, deepening the sense of calm. That, combined with the feeling of the water and his hands on my back, particularly around where my wing joints would be, took me away from the world of the living and into the land of those who slumbered.

Loki's POV

Mira's entire body went slack moments after I spoke to her last, her head shifting down a bit slightly, making a ripple effect with her hair. It flowed gently and slowly, like a river of silken chocolate beneath the surface. I could tell that Mira was still slightly disoriented by the time change and that, by the growing dark circles under her eyes, she had not slept well last night, the impending arrival of the Avengers stressing her out. She needed this. This peace. I didn't care how much panic we caused the others, we would go back when she woke. They wouldn't find us here. We were safe. With that in mind, I pulled a pillow down from the bed and leaned my head on it, intending on catching some sleep myself.