Guardian

Chapter 20

1804.

Livia lay on the cold stone table, trying to keep any sounds of pain from escaping from her lips as they conducted their 'research.' It was the first time any of her captors had truly tried to understand what made her special, the rest had been more determined to punish her for her crime of existing.

But that did not mean that it hurt any less. The instruments that they used to poke and prod her resulted in the same pain as she had gotten by the hands of those wishing only to punish her. They drained her of blood, enough to leave her unconscious on the table but fortunately their greed was not so great that they drained her of her life along with the blood.

But she woke up groggy and weak, unable to even stand properly on her own. So her captors let her rest until she was well again to take more of her blood. They were convinced it had healing properties as they had proved it difficult to mark her skin. They figured that the skin simply healed itself faster than a human's and if they were to inject into another then they would transfer that ability to them. A hypothesis that they would soon discover was horribly wrong. They did not know this at the time, but not all bloods mixed and hers was one that could not be given to save a human life.

-

(Olivia's POV):
I took in a deep breath as I opened the door for the Avengers, trying to calm my racing heart. I didn't know how they had found me nor why they suspected that I was harboring Loki, but I knew that this visit was not going to turn out well for neither Loki nor myself.

"Y-you're the Avengers," I marveled, hoping that my acting skills would work on them. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, you can actually. We're going to need to do a search of your apartment," Tony Stark spoke, the faceplate of his Iron Man suit lifted so that I could see his face.

"Um, can I ask why?" I backed away from the door so that they could come in, hoping that it would show that I was not being hostile, simply wary.

Thor was the one to speak this time, his eyes scanning the apartment as a few other members began fan out, "we were informed that you had a man in your apartment tonight whom you called Loki. It just so happens that my brother, Loki, has escaped his cell on Asgard and we have tracked him to Earth. Would you care to explain yourself?"

It suddenly hit me that it had to have been Tyler that alerted them to Loki's presence and I knew that I would be using this against Loki should he ever desire to interfere with my personal life again. That was if I was able to have a personal life after the Avengers were done with me.

"That was a misunderstanding. I have a childhood friend named Loki, he was actually named after your brother, but before he attacked New York, of course. His mother was really interested in Norse mythology, hence the name. Of course, he regrets that now and has been planning on changing his name but that is a very tedious process so he has not gotten around to it yet."

"The apartment is clear, there is no one else here," the Black Widow spoke as she emerged from my bedroom.

"So where is this friend of yours?" Thor questioned and I was painfully aware of all of the eyes on me.

"I threw him out, right after my fiancé left. He sort of threatened my fiancé and kicked him out of the apartment so, naturally, I was pissed at Loki. I'm assuming it was Tyler who notified you of all of this?"

Thor nodded, "was there a reason that you did not tell your fiancé about your friend?"

"Tyler can be," I paused, wondering how to best describe him without escalating this situation further. "Jealous. I did not think it wise to tell him that I had a close friend who was male, I knew that he would overreact. I guess tonight proved that assumption true. God, what have I done?"

"You and Tyler are going to be married yet you never mentioned Loki once to him?" The Black Widow questioned, clearly the one who I needed to convince of all of the Avengers.

"Well, I never thought Tyler needed to know. Loki just moved to New York a week ago, he got a studio to start showing off his work - he's a painter - so he moved into the city. But before that, it didn't seem necessary to be concerned that Tyler would find out about him so it was just easier not to mention him at all."

"Do you have his address? We would love to go have a chat with him," Tony spoke, making me internally panic.

Loki, I know you can read minds, please tell me that you have been listening to this conversation, I thought desperately, praying that he could help me out of this whole.

I gave the Avengers a smile as I waited for a response and told them, "yes, let me go find it, I know I wrote it down somewhere."

Yes, I can hear you, you don't need to scream. Calm down, I knew the minute they arrived that I would need a viable place to be living that wasn't on your couch. I managed to get an apartment, I left the address on your vanity. I'll sort out the rest, don't worry.

I let a sigh of relief once I entered my bedroom as saw the scrap of paper just as he had promised. Guessing that Thor would probably recognize Loki's handwriting, I copied the address and then hid the original in a drawer.

"I found it!" I announced in victory as I went back out to where the Avengers were conversing amongst themselves.

Tony snatched the paper, "thank you, but we have one more question."

I could hear my heart pounding in my head, afraid that they had found something in my apartment that proved that I was harboring Loki. But I swallowed my fear as I asked, "yes?"

"How long have you and Loki known each other?"

"Oh." I had to pause to let the relief flood through my system. "Forever it seems. I think his parents brought him over from England when he was five and she almost immediately became friends with my mom, so that must have meant that I was three when we first began to hang out. It's been almost thirty years now."

"That means it can't have been your brother who befriended her," Tony told Thor and I frowned.

"The real Loki's been to Earth before he invaded? Shouldn't someone have realized that he was scouting out the planet or something?"

Thor shook his head, "I do not know how many times he has visited Earth, he knows passages between realms that no one else does. He may have visited many times. But if you knew him from that young of an age, then we do not need to worry about that. We shall go visit your friend and then I am sure that this will all be cleared up."

"You wouldn't mind giving him hell for me, would you?"

-

(A/N): I go back to school on Monday (well, visually anyway) and I'm lowkey dreading it even though I only have two classes and their both honestly going to be really interesting classes so I don't know I'm not more excited? Anyway, hopefully they won't interrupt my posting schedule! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!