A gentle pressure on your forehead roused you from your dreamless sleep. Peeking your eyes open slightly, you smiled when you found Loki leaning over you.
"Hey." You whispered before yawning. The previous night's welcome back dinner with the whole team, followed by a long overdue game night, and then waking up multiple times throughout the night to your soulmate's kisses had left you pretty out of it.
"Good Morning, darling. I'm on my way to meet Thor. Heimdall reached out, and my brother wanted to meet at this hour to discuss whatever the seer had to say. It's still early. You should try to get some more rest, call for me if you need me. We'll be in his room and I can be back here in an instant."
"Mmmkay." You answered, still half asleep.
Loki chuckled, leaning down to kiss your lips this time before flashing away.
You reached over to his pillow, pulling it in close to you before once again drifting to sleep.
Sometime later the brush of a hand through your hair, followed by another hand trailing up your exposed leg pulled you from your slumber once more.
Smiling, you sighed and turned your body towards where you thought Loki stood over you.
"Well then, pet, it seems with our time apart you've grown soft."
You'd thought wrong.
Springing up into a crouched position, you let your powers out, immediately covering your naked body and trapping Reams where he stood at the edge of your bed, grinning maliciously at you.
"Ahh, there's the fire I love to see. Such a good pet afterall."
Before you could think of what to do next, the sound of a weapon powering up behind you tore your focus away from Reams.
Ducking down just in time to miss the shot from a blaster, you whipped your head back up to direct another stream of shadows at the other two Hydra soldiers blocking your bedroom door.
You weren't lenient, your shadows making quick work of snapping their necks. As the twin sound of their bodies thumped to the floor you turned your head back to Reams, where you'd managed to keep him secure in your power.
His smile was nowhere to be found.
"You bitch." He seethed, obviously not happy at this turn of events.
Using your power to lift him up in the air, you kneeled on the bed smiling at his struggling form. You closed your fist slightly, your shadows mimicking the movement and tightening around him.
He glared.
You smiled.
"Yearning. Decayed. Thirteen-" He gasped out between short breaths.
You froze, waiting for any type of reaction your body might have.
Nothing.
Not even a twitch.
Your smile deepend.
"Nightfall. Frostbite. Three-"
"Don't you know that doesn't work anymore?" You teased.
You could see his panic rising, but still he tried in vain. "Hostile. Hasten. Nine. Gate-"
"Oh do shut up." Your shadows rose to cover his mouth, muffling his voice. "Good pet." You laughed a little manically.
Is this a mental breakdown?
Is what a mental breakdown? Loki responded via your bond.
Come see for yourself.
Are you alright?
Yes, actually.
Good. Give me a moment the oaf is struggling to get to the point.
You laughed, tilting your head to the side as you considered all the things you could do with this opportunity.
Time. Alone with your tormentor.
Take your time.
There's a lot of other things I would like to be doing with my time, little one. Many of them would have you questioning your sanity in all the right ways.
The images he sent to you almost distracted you from your present situation. Almost.
You carefully muffled your thoughts from Loki. Not enough that he felt cut off from you, but enough that he wouldn't be able to tell what you were doing.
Refocusing on the monster trapped in front of you, you once again squeezed your fist a marginal amount. This time when your shadows tightened, you heard something break.
Deciding you wanted to hear his pain, you removed the shadows from his mouth.
He grunted.
Not good enough. Make him scream.
"Tell me, are you scared?" You asked, voice gone dark. He'd once asked you the same question.
He didn't answer, just spitting out a mouthful of blood as he groaned.
His lack of reaction made your blood boil. Edging closer to the end of your bed, you adjusted your shadows so that they held him up by his neck. Wisps of blue trailed around his wrists, wrenching his arms behind his back at an unnatural angle.
This time when something snapped, he screamed.
Satisfaction crept through your body.
In this position, he was completely open to you, trapped and vulnerable with no choice but to endure whatever you planned.
"Liv?"
Your smile disappeared when you heard Steve call your name from the other side of the door. He'd been spending the night in Bucky's room lately to help with the nightmares that plagued your friend.
"Looks like someone's about to get caught." Reams' gurgled words alerted Steve to his presence.
You ground your teeth together when Steve busted your door down before you could put up a shield.
"You shouldn't have done that." You spoke evenly to your prisoner, ignoring the super soldier's shock behind you.
Deducing you only had a few moments before calvary arrived, you sent another wave of shadows out. Slicing through Reams' uniform, cutting to the bone instantly wherever these new shadows came in contact with his body.
He screamed again, not stopping this time.
"Olivia-" It seemed Steve had gotten over his initial shock. "Put the man down."
"I'm sorry Steve." You answered without taking your eyes off Reams. "But you are the only man in this room. This-" Your shadows encircled Reams' neck slowly cutting off his air supply. "This is a monster."
Steve sighed. "Olivia, this is not what we do here."
"I know. This is what they do. What they did to me. I'm simply returning the favor."
Steve took a step closer to you, you squeezed your shadows a little tighter. Steve noticed and froze.
Smart.
"Dearest, smart might be pushing it when it comes to the Captain."
You rolled your eyes when Loki joined the party in a flash of green.
"You told me you were alright." He reprimanded, using his magic to cover you in a set of silk pajamas. You let the shadows that had been shielding your body from view, join the ones holding up your tormentor.
"I am perfectly fine." Your tone took on a chilling lilt, betraying your true feelings at having this monster in your room. Your safe space.
"Loki, tell her to put him down." Steve interjected.
Snapping your head to glare at Steve, you snarled. "I will put him down, when I'm ready to put him down."
"I think it best you leave." Loki said to Steve, not moving from your side.
"With all due respect, I'm not going anywhere." Steve answered.
At this point you could hear the ding of the elevator, followed by the footfalls of likely the rest of the team.
Not wanting anyone else interrupting, you spoke once more to the man that haunted most of your dreams. Giving him the same speech he'd once given you.
"You can scream, if you want. No one will mind and I've found that I love it when you scream."
You weren't really sure what your shadows did at that point. You'd willed them to do the most damage they could.
And he screamed. The most god awful blood curdling sound you'd ever heard.
Then his neck twisted to a not so healthy angle, snapping his consciousness out of existence before you let his empty shell of a body fall unceremoniously to the floor.
"Jesus christ!" Tony exclaimed from the doorway to the hall.
He had one hand on each side, supporting him as he leaned in and looked around at the damage.
"That's it. We're moving." He grumbled before stepping over the two bodies littering the doorway to make room for the others to observe the carnage.
***
"...not healthy."
"...can you hear us?"
"...to the lab. She needs..."
You were floating. Well the sheets you felt beneath you where you sat in the middle of your bed told you that you weren't actually floating. But your head felt like it was.
You just stared at the prone form on the floor in front of you, ignoring the conversation. Watching with a closed off fascination as the blood leaked from his body, forming a puddle on your rug.
Part of you was braced, waiting for him to get back up. To start hurdling vulgar words in your direction, promises of everything he would do to you if he had the chance again.
Part of you was still floating. Trying to get out. But you were stuck.
Your shadows hadn't yet dissipated, instead they slithered around you protectively. Everyone was afraid to get too close.
"...did they even get in?"
"....bypassed the main frame."
"...Friday disbanded. Will take me days to fix."
"....need to move her."
"...agree. She should not be in this room right now."
You wanted to leave. You didn't want to look at his face for another moment longer.
But you couldn't find your voice. Your mouth was frozen in place like the rest of you.
Concentrating, you felt a glimmer of something inside of your mind. Like a piece of your soul was there, just waiting for you to notice it.
You mentally latched on.
Elskan min?
Your eyes finally moved from Reams' body, and met Loki's green gaze from where he stood protectively in front of you, keeping the team at bay.
I want to leave.
You felt a tear fall down your cheek.
When Loki moved to lift you from the bed, the team protested thinking your shadows would hurt him. But your shadows were part of you, and you would never hurt him.
He lifted you gently and you immediately tucked your face into his neck, using his long hair as a curtain.
You felt him speak to the others, his words rumbling through his chest.
Then in a flash of green you were in his room down the hall.
He tried to place you down on his bed, but you tightened your grip on his shoulders refusing to let go. So instead he moved to lay down with you in his arms.
You could still hear the team arguing down the hall.
I want to leave.
"We have left your room, little one. No one will bother us here."
No. I don't want to be here. I don't want to be in the tower.
"As you wish."
When the harsh air conditioned air was replaced with a cool mountain breeze, you took a deep breath leaning back to look around at Demon's realm.
Your eyes landed on Loki, now in his frost giant form, and you watched silently as he carried you from the middle of the lake, to the soft pile of furs behind the waterfall.
When he once again laid down with you in his arms, you swallowed a few times before speaking into his chest.
"I lied. I'm n-not fine."
"I know, dearest. I've got you." His arms pulled you more firmly against his chest and you let the tears fall.
You cried for the little bit of humanity you'd lost killing someone. Torturing someone.
You cried at the thought of almost being taken again.
You cried for the grip Hydra had managed to keep on your mentality, almost taking you from this world.
You cried for Bucky and all that he'd endured when you were rescued and he was left behind.
You cried for feeling like you were alone in this for so long.
You cried through the memories of the torture and experimentation you'd experienced at Hydra's hand.
You cried for not being enough to save Bucky and yourself.
You cried for shutting Demon out of your life for so long.
Finally, you cried for Jimmy. The child you'd already considered your own before he was prematurely ripped from this world.
When the final tremor left your body, Loki continued to brush his hands up and down your back, whispering sweet nothings until you drifted off in his cool embrace.