A/N: I'm so so sorry about the lack of updates. I know it's been months. I tried to update it over Christmas, but it just wasn't ready. However! It's ready now, so I hope this makes up for me never updating, for which I am truly sorry. The next update will probably be another long wait, because I have piles of work and tests to do, so all of that takes priority at the minute. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this, and sorry again for the wait. Thank you.
Love, abbiemca x
Chapter Thirty Three - Recovery
Ava's View
Three days had passed. Asgard's cobbles were clean; back to their gleaming golden colour thanks to the numerous volunteers who had helped to sweep the streets. The palace was bustling with people. Homes had been destroyed, and anybody who had nowhere to stay had been welcome to stay in the house of Asgard until homes were repaired and replaced. I liked it better this way, there was more of an atmosphere, more feelings in the air.
I kept Mari close. Everytime I saw her on her own, memories of Sondra's past flooded back to my mind and I just couldn't allow the same thing to happen to her. I'd look after her. Until something was sorted, until everything has calmed down, I'd look after her. Seeming as my bed was a kingsize bed, we both shared it, and I'd read her a story or two from the huge book of fairytales that Tom had presented me with. She knew more than I did, of course, but she still didn't know all of them, and she always picked a new one each night, much to my delight.
Once she had drifted asleep, I always waited a good fiften minutes until I attempted to sleep. I didn't want her to feel alone. Especially when she had nightmares every night. Just as I used to be able to with Loki, I could sense the nightmares whilst they played out in her head, which woke me up each time. I never read Mari's mind. I didn't think it fair. However, unlike Loki, Mari did not object to me gently waking her and soothing her whilst she was going through the ordeal of the nightmares. Also unlike Loki, she could not block her nightmares from my mind, meaning I always knew when she was suffering.
There had been little improvement on Loki. Thor came to see me each day, as apparently, I was not permitted to see him. I had caused an uproar over that, but apparently nobody knew whether the stories that I were telling about us forgiving each other were true, no matter how many people I showed the ring to. They didn't think I could be trusted with him.
But, I mean, when do I ever follow the rules?
Now.
Now I follow the rules. Considering last time I was reckless, I had started a war.
Thor would update me each day, and try to falsify a smile on my behalf. I didn't need to be a telepath to know it was an act. Thor was just as distressed as I was. And like Thor, I also put up a front.
Are you okay, Ava?
Oh yes, I'm fine. I'm coping, anyway. How are you?
Nobody doubted me. I even had Sondra and Thor fooled. The only person who was in anyway dubious about my emotions was Will, but I never stayed with him long enough for him to work it all out. I didn't have to hide anything from Mari, though. With both her parents gone, I think she found it comforting that she was not the only one who had lost somebody extremely important to her. She didn't feel embarassed, or scared, crying in front of me. I did my best to calm her down, to sooth her.
I missed him, and I didn't even dare to think what would happen if he didn't... If he didn't wake up.
Thor had told me Helena was looking after him personally, and that she was trying everything she could. There had been no improvements, and she had been close to giving up. But Thor had insisted that she keep trying, but she had told him heartily that there was next to no hope.
At that point, I had brust into tears and Thor held me in his arms for a while.
Tonight, there was a huge banquet taking place. Apparently, in Asgard, deaths were mourned by having a huge feast. I suppose it is a little bit more uplifting than moping around for a few weeks, isn't it? Thor had told me that it was a formal event, and I had to attend, there was no backing out. He'd also told me I'd have to dress appropriately.
Which meant a dress.
Mari had the option on whether she wished to attend or not, as she is classed as a minor. She seemed really excited when I had told her about it though, so now I was trying to cajoule Will into making a dress to fit her, consdering most of mine were too big for me, nevermind Mari.
"Please Will? I'll do whatever you say for a day." I tried.
"You'd last all of about thirty minutes taking orders from me, Ava," He said, with a small smile on his face. He didn't meet my eyes, he just folded all of his fabrics robotically on his desk.
"Oh please, Will. It's not for me, it's for Mari."
"Ava you know I'd do it for either of you, but do you realise how many people have asked me to make clothes for them after their homes have been destroyed?" He said, this time, looking over his glasses to stare at me. He looked worn out. His large eyes had dark rings underneath them and the scleras where bloodshot.
"Do you not have any spares then? Just small dresses?" I pressed. I could tell he was becoming slightly annoyed with me, but I just didn't want to leave empty handed. He let out a heavy sigh, and gently placed down the fabric he was holding, half folded.
"I'll have a look," He snapped. I blinked in surprise at his tone, but soon recovered. I wasn't used to quiet little Will snapping at me. My eyes followed Will around his large workshop, and he kneeled over beside a large, wooden chest. He pulled out numerous articles of clothing, and settled with three different pieces before walking back to me. "Here. Are any of these of any use to you?"
He laid the three small dresses out in front of me. They were all roughly the same size, but were in three different colours, One was blue, another was purple and the last was a sunset red. I stood for a good five minutes staring at them, before I looked back to Will with a smile. "What are you smiling at?" He asked me dubiously. I didn't say anything, and he soon rolled his eyes and turned away from me.
"Go on, take all three, but bring back the two you're not using, please," He said, and I grinned at him as I picked up the dresses.
"Thank you, Will," I said, leaning over to him to kiss his cheek lightly. I began to dart away towards the door before he changed his mind, but then I stopped myself and called back to Will. "Are you going to this feast tonight?"
"Of course," He replied, without looking at me. I nodded, but he didn't see.
"See you there then. Don't be working yourself too hard Will."
"I'll try my best."
+*+*+
I arrived back to my room, and Mari was waiting for me, with the large book of fairytales open on her lap. She looked up from the colourful pages as I opened the door, and she shifted the book from on top of her knees.
"I brought you some dresses from Will, but I have to bring two of them back to him. So can you pick your favourite for me, please?" I asked her, and her eyes lit up as I laid out the three dresses on the bed. Mari took her time, and I had begun to sift through my own wardrobe looking for something to wear.
"I already picked you a dress, Ava," Mari said to me. I turned around from the clothes hanging in front of me, and stared at the little girl.
"You did?" I asked her. She nodded with a small smile, but she gave me no indictaion to where or what it was. I looked at her in confusion, and she held up the small blue dress to me.
"I'll wear this one. Can you tell Will thank you from me?" She asked, and I moved back to the bed and scooped up the orange and purple dresses in my arms.
"Of course I will, I'll be back in a moment," I said, and I pictured Will's workshop in my head before teleporting myself to the very place. Will was still stooped over his desk, but this time he had a needle in his hand and was sewing something very small together. He didn't so much as flinch when I appeared right in front of him.
"Back so soon?" He asked without looking up from his stitching. I placed the two dresses down on a free stool near his desk.
"Mari said thank you for her dress," I said, with a smile. Will glanced up at me this time and gave a small bow.
"My pleasure," He said, and his eyes darted to a large clock he had hanging in the workshop. "Time's moving fast... Please don't tell me you need a dress too?" He groaned. I laughed and shook my head.
"No, no, I have plenty. I'll leave you to it, Will, see you later," I said, before disappearing again and reappearing in my room with Mari. In the few minutes that I had been gone she had gotten herself changed into the little blue dress Will had supplied.
She gave me a twirl once she realised I was back and I smiled down at her.
"You look lovely," I said, and she grabbed me hand and towed me towards the small balcony on my room's window. She walked forward, and picked up the long dress that was hanging on the edge of it. I assumed this was the one she had picked out for me earlier, and I retrived it from her grasp. I held it out ag arm's length so I could get a proper look at it. Mari had picked out a floor length, emerald dress. As the light from outside shone onto it, the fabric glittered as beams of light ricocheted off each stitch. It had no sleeves, it was made to clutch my body. I wondered for a moment, why she had picked out this dress, but I arrived at the answer in less than a second. Green. Of course it was going to be green.
"Thank you, Mari," I said quietly to her. I glanced up at a nearby clock and bit my lip. An hour left. "Ill go get changed," I said, more to myself than to the little girl standing in front of me.I slipped into the bathroom attached to my room, and quickly changed from my normal tunic and pants into the long, emerald dress. When I was finsihed, I flicked my dark hair away from my face and stared at myself in the intricately deisgned mirror that hung in front of me. I stared at the reflection as if it was a different person.
I'm not going to lie, I did look pretty good in the dress. It was just all of the connotations that went with it. Green was - is - Loki's colour. It reminded me of the shorter green dress that I'd worn when he took me out into the town for dinner, when we spoke to Mari and Sofia. Maybe that was another reason why she'd chosen this dress for me. I shook my head, and cleared my mind of all the memories. I looked back at myself in the mirror again, and brought my hair back around to frame my face. I gasped. I looked like I hadn't brushed it for weeks!
I abandoned my reflection and ran to the bathroom door, before almost falling through it. Mari stared up at me with wide eyes and I smiled sheepishly at her as I tripped over the door frame.
"Mari," I began, "I need you to fix my hair."
*+*+*
Mari did as I asked, and I soon had a large braid flowing down my back, and she had intertwined tiny crystals, from god knows where, in between my dark strands of hair. I spun around in front of her as she had in front of me, and we both grinned at each other. I held my hand out to her, and the golden charm bracelet on my wrist caught the light, and Mari's eye.
"What's that?" She asked me. My eyes fell to the bracelet.
"It was a present. Look," I said, as I crouched down and held the horse charm between my fingers. I rubbed it a little, and the horse let out a tiny neigh and shook its head. Mari gasped and reached out to touch it. I smiled.
"Does the bird do that too?" She asked and I nodded before tapping the tiny bird given to me by Frigga. The bird hopped and tweeted, much to Mari's delight. Mari tapped each charm over and over again, to see their reactions. When she had finished, I stood up straight, and her small, warm hand found mine.
"Ready?" I asked her, and she nodded with a smile.
"Ready."
+*+*+
We made our way down the corridors of the palace, passing numerous people, both commoners and royals, and I smiled and nodded to a few of them along the way. Mari said hello to a few, but after a while, she got a little shy and hid herself behind the flowing green fabric of my dress. I held her hand a little tighter and quickened the pace to the hall in which the feast was ging to take place.
"Ava!" A voice called, and I recognised it immediately. I turned, still holding Mari's hand, and faced Sondra.
"Hello," I said with a grin. "Haven't seen you for a while," I said, and she shrugged before pulling me into a large hug.
"You're a sight for sore eyes, let's put it that way. I've been part of the clean-up in Asgard. It wasn't exactly pretty," She explained. She wore a shimmering blue dress, which looked silver in the light. It had very thin sleeves, and she then wore a translucent cloak over it, which was made mainly from glitter than anything else. Her blonde hair was left to hang loose, in large curls. She wore her silver necklace around her neck, with the 'S' engraved on the front.
"Well, at least it's all over now," I said with a small smile.
"Hardly. Asgard still requires massive rebuilding, people can't live in the palace forever, there isn't enough room," Sondra stated with a sigh.
"But there's hundreds of spare roms everywhere-"
"Ava, you know they aren't my rules." I nodded, and then broke into a smile, determined to change the conversation to a lighter topic. Mari had moved from behind me, as she knew Sondra more than the other people flocking around her. Sondra gave her a smile, before returning her attention to me.
"Where's Will?" I asked her, and I raised an eyebrow at the same time. Sondra gave me a pointed stare.
"How am I supposed to know?" She quipped quickly.
"Well... The two of you have been very close lately, so you know..." I began, a grin playing at the corners of my mouth.
"Close!" She spluttered, and her face blushed a deep scarlet. I laughed at her now bright red features.
"Ha! You like him don't you? Aw, Sondra's got herself a little crush," I teased, and Sondra looked at me confusedly.
"A crush?" She asked. I laughed to myself.
"Sorry, erm, an infatuation, then," I said. I had begun to realise just how many words and phrases I take for granted back on Earth.
"I do not!" She snapped. Mari giggled and I laughed along. Sondra shook her head at us, and then looked towards the large doors leading into the hall. "Come on," She said, "I want a seat."
Mari and I followed her towards the hall, and I made sure she didn't get lost in the throngs of people around us. We walked into the hall and were met by an enormous table to fit hundreds of people, which was absolutely covered in food of all shapes, sizes, flavours and textures. My mouth had begun to water just looking at it.
I pushed Mari along, towards the table, and I sat down beside her. Sondra followed us and sat on my other side, but she kept turning her head and looking around the hall.
"Looking for Will, are we?" I asked her, and I received a hiss and an elbow to the ribs. I chuckled to myself and then turned to Mari.
"Tell me if you need anything and I'll get it for you," I said to her, and she nodded with a smile.
"Thank you," She said quietly. I smiled back at her.
"You're welcome," After around ten minutes of sitting around and chatting, the majority of the palace had filed in and taken their seats. Thor sat next to his mother, along with Sif, Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg. I waved to Thor, smiled at the warriors three and nodded to Sif. At least we were now civil to one another. Odin sat at the head of the table, with Frigga beside him. Will had came in late, and taken the empty seat next to Sondra, which she had reserved for him. I raised my eyebrows at her when he sat down but she just glared at me. Tom had also arrived late, but sat opposite his younger brother, rather than beside him. Thor, Will, Tom and the rest of the men were wearing their best armour, and each piece of metal shone under the room's lighting and the each piece of fabric were made from rich colours and textures, whilst all women in the room wore extravagant dresses.
Odin quietened everyone down by tapping on the side of his golden chalice. He cleared his throat and stood at the head of the table. Everybody sat in silence and awaited his speech.
"Greetings to all in attendance of the great feast tonight. As you all well know, this feast is held in the honour or all we have lost in the recent battle we have had against the realm of frost, Jotunheim. Although Asgard came out victorious, everybody lost. Many lost mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, friends, homes, belongings... it is all of what we lost which we shall remember tonight. Asgard's forces fought valiantly, and all of those who took part should be extremely proud of them selves, and you are all honourable citizens of Asgard. However, those who helped along the sidelines, medics, blacksmiths, tailors, everybody, should not be without their praise. Without your efforts, this battle could not have been won. So, I wish to say a large thank you to all in attendance today. A few words go out to those who could not be here today, due to present circumstances. Helena, our head medic, could not be here today due to the remaining casualties within her infirmary. Without her, we may have had very different outcomes in this war," Odin continued with his list of honourable mentions in the war, but I couldn't help but feel guilty for the whole thing. It was me and Sondra who had worked as the catalysts for this whole war, and we were responsible for everything and everybody that people had lost. I took a deep breath before returning my attention to Odin. "And I hereby finish my speech and acknowledgements, and you all enjoy your banquet in memory of those who could not be with us today," He finished by lifting his golden chalice into the air, and returning to his seat. The silence was then broken by the audience - us - applauding the All-father, and then tucking in to all of the glorious food that was set out in front of us.
Mari could only reach to a certain point, so I filled her plate full of colourful pieces of food for her. She had mainly requested fruit, which was no doubt because it was the sweetest thing on the table. I didn't have a clue what I was eating, there was definitely no pizza or chips here. I took a little bit of everything and placed it onto my plate. I didn't particularly care about which fork is used for which food, because it was all going to end up in the same place anyway; my stomach.
All of the food was absolutely delicious, I still didn't know what any of it was, but it was amazing nonetheless. I chatted to Mari, and Sondra when she wasn't giving her full attention to Will. I smiled at Tom from across the table, and he returned it. The feast was full of people eating, laughing, joking, shouting... it was great to be here. Everybody had been moping around recently, including myself, trying to pick up the pieces of what had been destroyed, and trying to make people feel somewhat better. It was a tiring ordeal, and this feast, although it was held in remembrance of those we have lost, was almost like a reward for everything we had tried to fix.
The feast continued, the food didn't seem to run low, and people we still laughing and chatting, a few of the men were drunk *cough* Thor *cough*. Although everybody was still enjoying each other's company, people were a lot quieter than earlier. It was calmer than before, and people were listening more to each other now.
"What time does this feast finish, Ava?" Mari asked me, and I could see her eyelids drooping and her eyes getting red around the edges.
"Um... To be honest, I don't think it does. But I'll take you back to our room when you want to leave, okay?" I said to her. She nodded and tucked into her pudding. I smiled at her, without realising that the whole hall had fallen into silence. Mari looked up from her desert, and followed the eyes of everybody else, which all seemed to be pointing towards the door.
I wasn't particularly interested, but it was only Mari's reaction to whatever everybody was looking at that made me look. She had gasped, dropped her spoon, and clasped her hands over her mouth. I followed her gaze to the doorway, and saw a figure, dressed not in armour, but in a simple black shirt, and dark pants. He was tall, slender, with long dark hair. His hands were bandaged. I joined in with my company who were now just a chorus of gasps, however, I was the first one to stand from my seat at the table. The man stood at the doorway didn't move, he just grinned, as he enjoyed the attention that he was getting from his entrance. Nobody seemed to notice me standing up, and hardly anybody noticed me running to the figure, either.
When I reached him, I threw my arms around him and held him tight. He winced slightly as I embraced him, but he still put his arms around me.
"Did you miss me?" Loki asked, his voice low in my ear.
"What a stupid question," I stated, and he just laughed as he hugged my body tight to his.