Giftless

Chapter 10

You woke from a dream of cool arms lifting you, of being cradled to a cool strong body, of sweet honeyed words in a familiar accent. When you opened your eyes, it took you a minute to remember how you had gotten to bed. You felt yourself turn at least ten different shades of red when you remembered that your dream had been real. Or at least you thought it had been real. You'd have to get up the courage to ask Loki later. That wasn't going to be easy.

You did see a new illusion rose on my nightstand, which kinda confirmed your 'the dream was real' theory. You smiled at it and finally got out of bed.

You went downstairs to find myself face to face with Fury. You tried not to cower away from him. He was the most powerful person here and the leader of this entire operation. You didn't see him often, and you were sure he was still pissed at you for the previous day. He glared at you when he saw you. Yep, he was still pissed. "Things are heating up with The Harlequin. Everyone is stepping up to double and triple shifts to keep up with her and her clowns. There's going to be few if any supers around here. I don't want you taking advantage of the lack of supervision. You are grounded for a week. You are not to leave the compound for any reason besides school. I'd ban you from that too if I could," he paused his tirade to let his words sink in. You nodded demurely, not willing to pick a fight with him over this. "Loki will be your guard, since we can't bring him out to the field yet." He held up the shackles that had been on Loki's wrists for the last month. "If I get any indication that you are going to cause any trouble, you will be wearing these until the threat with The Harlequin is over. Understand?" he demanded.

"Yes, sir," you replied meekly. You could play the meek little powerless human when it suited you. Fury turned and led you with a hand on the small of your back, pushing you into the common room where Loki was already on your couch with a book. You only didn't protest the treatment since you were already grounded.

"Loki, your first mission is dull, but you're the rookie. You have to earn your keep and earn your place. You're to guard Kat. 24 hour surveillance. Make sure she stays safe. And out of trouble." Loki nodded his assent and you fwumped onto you spot on the couch.

"He acts like I'm a troublemaker or something. He's just pissed about yesterday," you grumbled. You really didn't do anything to get in trouble for. Really. Loki chuckled.

"A little mischief is surely not a problem," he purred the words and you couldn't help remembering what he was the god of.

"He threatened me with chains for even thinking about causing trouble," you reminded Loki grumpily. You didn't want to get in more trouble. "That doesn't sound like fun,"

"What did you do to deserve such a threat and reputation?" he asked, curious.

You sighed heavily. "It was an accident," you grumbled. "And it was last year. I went to the lab to look for something to dye my hair. I knocked something over, on accident, and all of the team's costumes turned pink for a month until it wore off. There may have also been an explosion..." you told him. He started laughing, practically roll on the floor laughing. You glared at him. "He's also gotten annoyed when I don't play victim the way he wants." Loki raised an eyebrow, so you elaborated. "I go help out with the training sometimes. They like for me to play the helpless victim, the person being rescued or guarded or whatever. I like to remind them that victims won't always act logically. So I'll do things like run the wrong way, start 'hysterically crying' and refuse to move, grab the nearest weapon to attempt to help them, etc," Loki was roaring in laughter now and you couldn't help joining him.

"It is good training for them," he eventually said between laughs.

You nodded. "That's what Fury reminds them every time my interference ruins the training plans..." you grinned. "But apparently that makes me a 'troublemaker' in his eyes,"