Chapter 11

Conversations and Old Hobbies

Day four, Ivona thought. After showering she had just flopped back into bed with her dark brown hair still wet. The pillow underneath her head slowly became soaked but she couldn't care less. Fingers absentmindedly played with the crude metal bracelet on her wrist as her brown eyes stared at the ceiling. The skin underneath it was normal, having healed after her confrontment with Loki.

She's bored. Her mind is just so bored. She doesn't know what to do with herself now that she isn't allowed to talk to the others. She knows what the warning of talking to his lackeys is now. She doesn't want to know what true punishment would be. The brunette shuddered at the thought. It only makes it worse now that he knows what she fears.

She continued to play with the bracelet, running her fingers over the runic inscriptions. Her mind bounced from wondering what they meant and back to what to do. A stupid, crazy thought passed her mind.

She sighed.

"Am I really that desperate?" she asked herself. After a beat, she continued, "Yeah, and insane. Why must humans be such social creatures?" she whined before getting up.

/\\/\\/\\/\\

Loki had a feeling Ivona wouldn't have stayed in her room even after yesterday. That woman had such a will for a human that it almost baffled him. Frightened and in pain, she would still fight. She was fascinating and irritating. Her fear of being touched seemed to pull him towards her all the more. Her smooth voice rang through his head, 'fascination can easily lead to obsession.' And how right she was.

He watched as she entered the room he was in, the same that contained the Tesseract. He was previously watching it and its progress. He kept a straight face as she walked towards him, ignoring the men around her. She finally decided to abide to the rules he had given her.

She seemed a bit calmer now, acting more civil. Inwardly he smirked. It appeared that she was quite the social creature, desperate enough to come to him. He didn't mind it though, so long as she behaved properly. He just didn't expect her to do this. She seemed rather dead set on avoiding him.

When she gave a crooked smile, he returned his gaze back to Selvig working on the cosmic cube. She stopped at his side, also watching the scientist. After a moment she finally spoke. "Is this what you do all day?"

The raven-haired man looked down at her. Interesting. She really was willing to speak to him. Did she not know what he really was? She had to have seen that he was jötunn when she looked into his mind, hadn't she? "There are other things."

She made a noncommittal noise, falling silent for another moment. She waved to Selvig when he noticed her, but otherwise did nothing else. "So, what is Doctor Selvig trying to do with the Tesseract? Or am I not allowed to know?"

"He is finding a way to stabilize the portal." He already knew that she had seen the scientist's notes on the cube. And even if she told anyone, they wouldn't be able to stop it.

She now looked at him surprised. She didn't believe that he would divulge any information to her. "For what?"

He smirked at her. "My army."

She gave him a hard look, crossed between doubt and confusion. "'Army'? If it's from the portal, that means they're from space…Aliens?" Dear god, her words came back to haunt her. When she and Clint had talked about this, she had called it completely shit.

"Chitauri," he corrected her.

She shrugged. The name made no difference to her. "Whatever. If it works, it'll certainly be interesting." There's a touch of truth in her voice.

"It'll end in this world finally being ruled."

Her mind flashed to last night's dream. She shook it off. "Why do you want to control Earth?"

"You murder each other with your so called freedom. I mean to rule Midgard to bring you peace. You will be free of freedom. Life will be simpler," he spoke confidently.

And she could almost see his point. If only it didn't go against human will, it could work. "No human would be happy with that," she tried to argue back calmly.

"Are you sure? What is true reality but as how the mind perceives it? It is the same with happiness. Look at the good doctor. Even if being controlled, he is still happy. If the mind thinks it is happy, then why believe otherwise?" He watched the confliction in her eyes. It pleased him to see that he would be able to get her to accept his view if she was already considering it.

(Little did he know of the dream she had the night before. It was what really made her mind consider what he said.)

With a twisted smirk, he placed a hand on her lower back. She jumped at the contact, eyes wide. He loved the reaction, anticipating it. "Come, I will show you what is being planned. I'll prove to you that it is not bad for these humans to be controlled."

She glared at him, but didn't argue. It wouldn't be such a bad thing to find out the plans. His touch was uncomfortable though. That ass was doing it purposely, knowing she didn't like it. But it was only until later that she noticed his touch didn't trigger fear like Ethan's touch did.

/\\/\\/\\/\\

After getting bored of following Loki around like a little puppy, she decided to do something else. Looking around and finally asking Selvig, she eventually gained several sheets of paper along with a pencil and pen. She decided to take up her old hobby of drawing. If she actually got into it, she would probably spend a few hours doing it. In the past she could easily waste time drawing. How much could honestly have change since then?

Retreating back into the silent calm of her room, she went to the table. She sat in a half-lotus position and leaned over the table top, trying to find out what she should draw first.

After about two and a half hours, she had several sheets of sketches spread about the table. One was of the chamber; the point of view came from the rafters where she stayed with Hawkeye and at its centre the cube. Another was of her younger sister when she was five, before her death. Even if her parents loved the child more than her, she harboured no resentment against the sibling but instead loved her wholly. Another was from one of Loki's memories. The landscape of his home realm (? She wasn't entirely sure if that was what it was called) from the view of the bridge.

The one she was currently working on honestly surprised her though.

It was Loki, standing tall and proud, sceptre in hand. She didn't know what spurred her to draw him, but she was now regretting it – only because his outfit was a pain in the ass to draw. With her memory it's simple to remember, but the designs are just annoying.

Ivona sighed in irritation, putting the pencil down. She stretched her arms above her head, joints popping. Looking at the ceiling, she thought about what she drew.

She thought back to when she went through counselling. The psychologist at SHIELD had once made her do a HTP test to measure her personality. Glancing at the drawings on the table, she wondered what they would mean, if they meant anything. The brunette covered her face in her hands, groaning. She never did like this psychological stuff; sometimes she thought it was just bullshit. But it had helped her.

Glancing at the drawings only once over, she got up from the table. She's been cooped up in there for too long. She deemed it time for another walk around the bunker.

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