AN: Prompt from Skadi that there be an angsty hurt/comfort fic where Loki is being patched up by Darcy. I sort of manage. I was listening to Vorspiel of Das Rheingold when I wrote it. I recommend googling it and watching one of the youtube vids made for the piece as you read this.
Loki is like a baby bird with a broken wing Darcy found when she was eight. Mom said no, you can't keep it, let's take it to the animal hospital but Darcy can't just take villainous gods to the hospital. Darcy can't do anything, really, because there is something too heavy on her legs and what good is saving someone if you can't use your legs? She ducks her head until the shell of her ear is against his lips.
You're worth more to me here, he says.
Stay, he says.
Darcy laughs, he laughs, there is a purple bruise swelling around his cheekbone. Darcy thinks she can hear the feral roar of the Hulk out beyond the wreckage. It makes her shiver.
Her shirt is a ragged, bloody mess but there is a splotch of pristine white still and she rips at it until it's bunched in her hand. Blood on his broken nose is dabbed up. She can feel his fingers like ice on her cheek bone. She closes her eyes and he tells her no, no, don't do that. She can feel the spark of something heating up his fingertips and it's like static electricity. It zaps her awake, just for a moment.
No, no, wake up, Darcy. Don't do that.
I need you to stay awake.
Please.
But her smile is that lazy one she gets before she crashes, the one she gives him when she has been trying to pull all nighters to ace tests the next morning. He knows that smile, he loves that smile. Right now he hates that smile. He manages to lift a hand to hers and the torn shirt rag is pulled away. Blood cakes his upper lip and nostrils.
Save me a seat in Valhalla, I'll make sure they'll offer me a place too, he says. His voice cracks. His heart aches. She is asleep. She won't wake up.
His test ends with her life. His banishment is over. His lesson is learned, mistakes made aware. His magic floods his bones once more.
Loki is like a baby bird with a broken wing like the one Darcy found when she was eight. Eventually he will heal but it won't be in her care.