Bandages
A Matantei Loki Ragnarok Fanfic
12/2/12
Summers were always a drag for Loki. Cicadas droned ceaselessly outside, heat waves rolled continuously from the ground and there was never anything for the trickster god to do. This summer was even worse than others. Every day became the same as the last; boring. Where was Mayura? At college or at work.
Surprised?
So was Loki. When the mystery loving girl first told him that she was enrolling in college and found a part time job, Loki fully expected her to be in his study within a week; bawling about how hard it all was. One week went by, then two; spring turned into summer and Loki refused to admit that he wanted to see the pink haired girl. Admitting it would indicate his defeat; one in which his children would relish in exclaiming in loud voices.
Believing that he was making a wise decision, Loki passed his time by practicing his magic, reading and taking long walks. He enjoyed the exercise, even through the blistering heat. Most times, Ecchan stayed in the cool house while Yamino cooked and cleaned and Fenrir napped or made managerial comments. This left Loki to wander the streets alone. As always, Loki was limited to the distance he could travel on his own two feet, but one day, he traveled further than ever before. And what he saw was far from comforting.
Huddled over a table, a curtain of pale pink drew Loki's attention. It was a color he knew so well, dreamt of in his, normally, monochromatic, grayscale dreams. That pale shade was more than a color. It meant cheerful laughter, heartfelt tears, warm embraces and even warmer smiles. It meant promises of adventures, excitement and exhausted peace. It meant Mayura.
His heart, initially leaping for joy, quickly died and turned to stone in his chest, weighing heavily against his lungs to constrict his breath. Mayura, his Mayura, hadn't noticed him; was too interested in the young, handsome man sitting beside her, pressed up to her side and talking softly into her ear. The smile that used to lighten his soul became an anchor, forcing him to stop, weighing him down, as he saw it being directed to another.
Had he not made his affection clear to her? He may be in the form of a child, but they both knew that his appearance meant little. Perhaps it was too much for Mayura to handle. She knew he was a god, that he had children, some not even in the form of humans. It was a lot to handle. Loki thought that he was an understanding person. Should their circumstances truly become too much for Mayura, he was prepared for 'the talk' and any heartbreaking repercussions.
What he did not expect was a betrayal. When she danced into his office to say she was studying at a nearby college and working, it did not feel like she was dumping him and running away. But what did Loki know about love? Or of women? He was a playboy; he could make women swoon at a street corner meeting, but he had no idea how to keep a woman happy for any extended period of time. But, he tried. He really, truly, did.
Logic fled his mind and all Loki was aware of was the icy wave crashing around him as his jaw clenched and his breathing seethed. From the edges of his vision, blackness crept in, honing his focus singularly on the vision before him; not that he was seeing anything else around him, anyway.
That was probably the cause of the start to his real problems. In his trance of jealousy, Loki stepped out; out of his zone of safety and into the domain of the wicked metal boxes of doom. Breaks squealed, yells filled the air, and yet, Loki was oblivious to it all; his attention only on his goddess and only knowing that she wasn't looking at him. She would look at him, Loki promised himself; he would look into her crimson eyes and would find the truth. No one tricked a trickster god.
Fate had a different card to deal, however, and Loki never saw it coming. There was no pain, only the suddenness at the translocation. His vision was no longer on the bit of red of her eyes, but on the vast blueness of the sky instead. The blackness at the edges disappeared for a bit as his hearing returned. There were screams, yells, horns and lots of scrambling feet as people rushed to the scene.
"Boy, are you alright? Can you hear me?" a worried face entered his vision, but Loki just frowned. It wasn't who he wanted to see. He wanted her.
"I'll call the ambulance," a voice said somewhere off to the side. It wasn't important to Loki. He felt like he was dying, but it had nothing to do with the minivan.
"Loki-kun?"
Loki felt a stabbing pain in his side.
"Oh my god, Loki-kun!"
Fire-like pricks of pain flared along his right arm.
"What happened, Loki-kun?" Mayura pushed everyone back, "Get away!"
"Mayura," Loki spoke in barely a whisper, the damage to his ribs inhibiting his speech abilities.
"I'm here, Loki-kun. How did this happen?" Mayura brushed sweat soaked hair from his forehead with soft fingers. A bit of ink smeared from her fingers to his skin and she tried to wipe it away gently to no avail.
"Mayura," was all Loki could say. That time, it was more of a sigh in comparison to the first which was more a question.
"I'm right here. Oh, how did this happen? You're always so careful about everything. Now you have to go in an ambulance," Mayura started to fret, her brow wrinkling and worry cast a dark shadow within her eyes.
"Mayura," that time, the whisper was more definitive , his only way of telling her that everything was going to be fine.
"You're right. You're always right," Mayura closed her eyes, took a deep breath and opened them again. "Loki-kun?"
Mayura's wails drowned out the sound of the emergency sirens. The medics had to pull her away and thrust her into the care of the bystanders as they loaded the broken, unconscious boy into the back of the van and drove off to the nearest hospital.
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Harsh antiseptic odors assaulted Yamino's nose as he ran into the hospital and looked around for where his father could be. The smells affected not only his human nose, but also his sensitive tongue, that, as a snake, he used to taste the air. All signs of Loki were masked, so Yamino found the directory to lead him to the emergency area. In his haste, the man bumped into several walls, avoided careening into several people, if only narrowly, and finally came to a halt in a noisy, yet highly strung waiting room.
People sat in the many available chairs, but Yamino knew better than to look there. The person who called him in a panic had no one around her to calm her nerves to the point where she could sit still. Hard as it would be, Yamino told himself that in light of the current situation, he would remain calm, poised, collected, while Mayura fretted. Moving to the pacing girl in the middle of the room, Yamino found that it was difficult to catch her attention.
"Mayura-san," he finally blocked her pacing just enough for her to tilt dangerously as she automatically tried to avoid bumping into him.
"Yamino-san!" Mayura exclaimed when her eyes focused on the man's face and recognition clicked in her mind. "You're here."
"I came as fast as I could," Yamino led Mayura to a vacant chair and pushed her into it. "I was worried."
"I'm sorry, I have no idea what happened. Loki-kun is always so careful about everything. Why he would step into traffic is beyond me."
"Mayura-san," sitting beside her, the man fidgeted with his glasses before asking, "where did this happen?"
"Where? Outside, near the shopping mall by the bridge-side train station. Why?"
"Loki-sama walked all the way over there. It's over five kilometers, Mayura-san."
"Well, we both know that Loki-kun likes to walk everywhere," with a nervous laugh, Mayura looked down at her twisting fingers in her lap and tried to muffle her sniffs.
"Ah, Mayura-san," Yamino started to panic. He could smell the salt tears, even if the wall of hair stopped him from seeing them in her eyes.
"Yamino-san, I just want him to be okay," hiccups accompanied her words as Mayura tried to wipe away the moisture in her eyes before they fell, but they made an uneven, splotched pattern on her skirt anyway. "I need to talk to him."
Just as Yamino opened his mouth to say something ingeniously thoughtful, a set of doors slid open and a doctor stepped out. Mayura's head popped up at the sound of the doors and she rushed forward, dragging Yamino behind her.
"Doctor, how is Loki-kun?"
"He's going to be just fine if he rests and allows his body to heal. It is actually quite amazing; a boy his size up against a vehicle of any size is usually much more serious," the doctor had to put his hands up to stave off any bubbling excitement. "The wounds Loki-kun had are serious enough, but he definitely has a stronger outlook than other cases."
"Can we see him?"
"Just for a little while, sir. Normally, we only allow family members," the man jumped back as Yamino interjected.
"We are family!"
"Follow me then," the hallways were empty in the emergency wing. "We will keep Loki-kun here in the hospital for a while. In the morning, if he's stable enough, we'll move him into the children's critical care wing."
"What if he's not stable enough?"
"Don't worry, miss. We'll just keep him in Recovery until we can move him."
They entered the recovery ward, doctor in the lead, to show them to Loki's bed. He gave the nurse a set of whispered orders, then excused himself.
"Loki-kun," Mayura sat in the chair beside the cot and look wistfully down at the sleeping form. "You have to get better."
"He will, Mayura-san. Don't you worry about that."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"How can you say that with so much conviction?" Mayura looked at the bandages that wrapped up the boy's arms and disappeared beneath the rolled cuffs of his shirt. The respirator mask was also giving Mayura cause to pause.
"Because I have faith. Complete, unconditional, faith. I believe that Loki-sama will come back."
"Just because he's," Mayura mouthed the next two words, "a god," then resumed in her normal voice, "doesn't mean that his body can take this kind of attack."
"Loki-sama has more tricks up his sleeves than you know."
"I surely hope so," Mayura sighed and brushed her fingers lightly over Loki's hair before the nurse told them their time was up.