Planning this chapter has been the source of a lot of headaches, and given that little TBI I have going on here, this story could be qualified as unhealthy for me. Seriously, I'm losing sleep. And I can barely sleep anyway. I'm talking, staying up ALL night unintentionally.
Complaining aside, I love this chapter. I had to cuddle a milk carton to stop the flailing. It was really freaking cold. Asdfghkl.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers. I do own Lily. *Insert little one liner in the disclaimer that I doubt anyone ever notices*.
_-x-_
Day 17
She walks in, her feet are shuffling. She's nervous, and for a good reason.
Lily Coulson, her nametag reads, and she's without a doubt related to the agent. The cheekbones are completely undeniable. And adorable.
"Hello, my dear."
Her heart rate doubles. "Hello, Loki. Could you please sit on your bed so I can get you your food?" she says quickly, her words jumbled.
"As you wish," I roll out, sitting on my bed.
She walks in and sets down the tray, getting back out as soon as possible.
I stood back up, waiting for her to say something to the effect of goodbye. Nothing.
"Well, my goodness. You don't even talk to me. You just walk off without a word."
She stops, spinning around to face me. "Oh, Loki. We'll be seeing each other three times a day. You'll be sick of me in no time."
She opened the doors and slipped out without another word. I smiled to myself.
What an interesting specimen.
X
My hands meet her temples, while she stands there, completely still.
I can see all of it. Everything. So much of it is running past me, streaming through my mind, and flashing before my lids. It's all there.
She hits the ground.
It feels like I'm falling now, but there's water, all around me. The water is cold.
I gasped, sucking in as much air as I could. More air, I need more air. I'm drowning.
"Lily?"
Reality. In bed. Stark Tower. Bruce.
"What's wrong?" he asked, sitting up and laying both of his hands on my cheeks. My head was pounding, and my breathing was ridiculous.
Wrong? I don't know what's wrong. Is something wrong? Bruce is entirely too close for me to be thinking clearly.
"I… I just…," my eyes started watering up.
His features softened for a second, and instead of pressing on and making me talk about it, he let the room fall silent.
I blinked, trying to absorb the tears, but only making the situation worse. A droplet rolled down my cheek and landed on his hand. He looked at his hand and back at me.
Without a word, he pulled me into his lap and wrapped both arms around me. I leaned into him and cried on his shoulder.
I guess it's safe to say that I've been inside of Loki's head now. Involuntarily, yes. But nonetheless, I've seen it.
Does this make me Loki's number one target? Probably. Does this mean my days are seriously numbered? Probably.
I don't want to die, not now. Things are going my way, finally. After all of these years, my life is working. My internship is almost over, even if I'm not exactly working right now. I have a spectacular job in line. And friends. I have friends I actually enjoy being with.
Then Loki searches my head, and apparently lets me search his. That's all it takes to turn it upside down. God forbid my life be enjoyable.
How do I fix it? How do I make things better? I don't. I wait for Loki to take his revenge.
I can't solve anything, hence crying into Bruce's shoulder for twenty minutes. Thank God for him.
He isn't gone yet. He didn't leave once I fell asleep. He stayed. He freaking stayed.
The tears stopped flowing freely, and even started to subside. He's still here, I'm still here. We're okay, bad dreams or not.
"You stayed," I mumbled into his shoulder.
He laughed, "I take it you're okay with that?"
I pulled my head out and nodded.
"I can't stand it when you cry," he whispered, tucking a stray curl behind my ear. Rush of blood to the cheeks.
I smiled for a moment, trying not to think of the most significant incidence coming to mind. Namely, when he kissed me. I was about to cry then. And when he complemented my hair, I was on the edge of a breakdown.
When I cry in front of Bruce, it ends well, to say the least.
"You're burning up," he said suddenly, testing my forehead with the back of his hand.
Oh, of course. I forgot. High grade infection and allergic reaction, how am I supposed to remember that?
He sat up further in the bed and went to work checking on my leg. With the first layer of gauze removed, I could see blood already.
"Look up for me?" he asked gently.
How do you say no to that? Freaking how? Even if I do want to see how horrible my leg looks, I can't say no to that, at all.
His reaction to the wound was audible, to say the least.
"Worse?" I asked nervously, still not looking at my leg.
"Well, the rash is much better, but the infection's a little bit… worse," he explained slowly, obviously understating how much worse the infection was.
"Great," I said, ready to start crying again. "The Second Aid Kit is in the living room, isn't it?" I swallowed.
"That's where I left it," he said with a weak smile. I smiled at him briefly, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed. I shifted all of my weight onto the good leg.
"There's no way I'm gonna let you walk like this," Bruce said, already standing in front of me.
"Well… I don't want to stay in bed all day," I pouted, reluctantly agreeing with the no walking rule.
Bruce pondered the thought for a moment. "Okay then," he said, putting an arm around my shoulders and using the other to support my knees, "I'll carry you."
Spectacular. I think I need to blush more today.
He lifted me up in a swift motion and walked towards the door. I tried to ignore how easily he was carrying me; my cheeks were hot enough already, not thinking of his general "muscularnicity".
Bruce set me down on a couch and handed me Tony's favorite blanket while he scanned the room for the medical kit. This blanket is amazing. Soft, warm, yellow. Tony has good taste in blankets.
Bruce mumbled something about antibiotics and walked off in the direction of the kitchen, and most likely the pill cabinet.
I looked around the room - my goodness, I'm not alone in here. "Good morning, Thor," I called over to the God, who was passed out on the couch opposite mine. His face was smushed into the pillow, making for a truly hilarious sight.
"Mrrragh," he sat up, ignoring the drool on his pillow.
"Sleep like a God?"
"Daughter of Coul, what is the time?" he asked, ignoring my question.
"Ask Bruce," I mumbled, put off with his lack of usual friendliness. Granted he slept on a couch half his size. That would make me grumpy too.
Thor got up and walked towards the kitchen to question Bruce on the time.
To be fair, he asked a good question. He has a thing for sleeping in, but I usually don't. I have those blasted SHIELD alarm clocks to blame for that.
Judging by the view from the window, it looked to be sometime around noon. Maybe. I'm too used to Colorado to judge New York time.
In due time, Bruce walked in, two pills and a glass of water in hand. Glass of water. Water.
I swallowed the pills and resumed my position of looking up while Bruce treated my leg. I've already counted the ceiling tiles twice.
He cleaned off the wound and even considered stitching it up right then and there. Without the right medicines, sterile needles, and considering the time that's passed, it wouldn't be worth it.
This isn't fair to Bruce, I decided. Him being as amazingly sweet as he is, and me making him worry. Keeping him out of my mental loop is just wrong; he deserves to know that I'm going insane.
"I drowned," I said abruptly, still looking up at the ceiling.
"You what?" he asked, stopping the wrapping process.
"I had a dream last night, and I drowned," I swallowed.
Bruce looked stunned, worried, pained. So many feelings. "That's why you couldn't breathe when you woke up, isn't it?"
I nodded. So I didn't wake him up with my outburst, he was already up by then. He definitely could've left earlier then, if he wanted. I'm so ridiculously glad he chose not to.
After another minute of mixed emotions, Bruce resumed wrapping my leg.
Despite making him worry, that was a good move, I decided. Now he's not in the dark on the seriousness of my situation. Even if I haven't told him about the Loki dreams, he knows there's something wrong.
He sighed, "Hungry?"
"Yeah," I smiled, trying not to be alarmed by how quickly I was picked up and carried to the kitchen.
Bruce and his muscularnicity.
_-x-_
"THESE APPLIANCES MAKE ME PROUD," Thor boomed, satisfied with how quickly his toast was toasted.
Yes, Stark Tower was outfitted with some badass appliances. My eggs were poached in record time, and they tasted incredible. I guess that's Bruce to thank, not the appliances.
Thor was channeling Paula Deen with his toast buttering methods, using half the tub on one piece. I didn't stop him from it, though I made sure not to let him butter mine.
Two eggs and three pieces of toast later, I was full, and feeling gross because of it. Thor was in 7 pieces of toast and a full carton of eggs.
Thor was also laying on the floor.
"My hair feels disgusting," I mumbled, running a greasy curl through my fingers.
"It looks fantastic," Bruce smiled between bites.
"It needs washed," I said slowly.
"Does it?"
"Yes. My hair needs to be washed."
"That's an opinion."
"My opinion."
"Your opinion."
Pause.
"Will you carry me to the shower now?"
_-x-_
I watched the water collect in the tub and tried not to think about my dream. It felt so ridiculously real.
And you aren't supposed to feel things in dreams. Was it a dream at all?
Cursing my thought process, I shut the water off and stepped out of the shower, only using one leg at a time.
Pepper's pants look hilariously long on me, so I've been reduced to wearing her shorts. The normal fitting ones are tight on me, because the woman is a freaking rail. Size 2? Hell no. Short bodies are curved, all day every day.
The loosest pair worked reasonably well, though I'm sure these look ruffled when she wears them.
As far as tops go, the one flannel shirt in her closet reminds me too much of home to refuse.
I let my wet hair down from the towel and combed it out with my fingers. Tangles, tangles, tangles. How Bruce finds this mess fantastic confuses me to no end.
I would be like Clint and say something like "Speak of the Devil", but Bruce is so incredibly un-Devil-like, I wouldn't be able to say that.
"Lily?" he said urgently, knocking on my door.
"Yeah?" I called, worried by the tone of his voice.
He busted through, breathing a sigh of relief upon seeing me. "Whew, God. You're okay."
"Why would I not be okay?" I smiled.
"Just, the shower water. With the dream, and everything…," he tried to explain without embarrassing himself.
"Oh. I'm fine," I said, scratching the back of my neck. I'm lying to him again.
"Good," he said awkwardly, starting to close the door.
"Bruce?" I called to him before the door was fully closed.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for worrying about that," I started. "And for the eggs, and carrying me around everywhere, and treating my leg, and staying last night, and… yeah. Thanks for everything," I finished lamely, turning my gaze to the floor.
In my peripheral vision, he was smiling. "You're welcome… for everything."
Pause.
"Can we hug now?" he asked with a dead serious face.
I laughed, "You still don't have to ask."
He smiled, walking over and putting his head on top of mine, arms around my waist. He swayed from side to side, in a slow rhythm.
From here I could hear his heartbeat, and eventually, I heard it slow down to normal. It was usually pretty fast, from my experience.
Knowing I helped calm him down… well… it made me blush.
He certainly did have a combination of effects on me; one minute making my heart rate go through the roof, the next making me feel so composed, even when I'm a complete mess.
We work quite well for each other, actually.
"Thor's making broccoli salad for you," he mumbled into the top of my head.
"Are they married yet?" I laughed.
"He's waiting for you to do that. He's not a vegetable priest."
_-x-_
My phone rattled against the countertop next to Bruce. He picked it up and read through a text with a confused expression. I finished up my broccoli salad, which Thor did an excellent job on, and wondered who was texting me.
He typed a reply.
When the phone vibrated again, he shot up from his chair.
"Lily, I need to hide you," he said, already moving to pick me up again. Hold on, hide me?
"Why?" I whimpered. My head started pounding again while he carried me out of the living room.
"He's coming."
The look in his eyes told me exactly who was coming. Why this soon? My head started spinning.
"Just stay calm, okay?" he said, stepping into the elevator and elbowing a button I couldn't see from this angle.
"Where am I hiding?" I asked him, trying not to panic.
"The basement has the best security, so you're going there."
"Where are you going?" I asked, not wanting him to leave.
"I have to help them," he said, making a point not to look me in the eye.
The elevator door opened finally, and we walked out into what could only be described as Tony's lab. Or his playground. Toy box, maybe?
He set me down within reach of a chair, knowing I'll be hanging out in here for a while.
"Be safe," he said, kissing my forehead.
I moved a hand to his neck, gently pulling him down to my level.
"You be safe, too."
In the exact same moment, we moved in for a kiss.
Or two.
Maybe Three.
Sixteen.
Just lost count.
"Banner, we must make hast-," Thor called from the elevator, until he saw us. Then he turned around and kicked an imaginary rock.
We continued, to say the least, until we could both feel the sheer awkwardness radiating off of Thor.
Then we stopped. "I could've done this earlier," he smirked.
"Days ago," I smiled up at him.
With a second kiss to the forehead, he pulled his arms from around my waist and ran off to join Thor, who was blushing.
Who am I to talk, though? My cheeks have a fever of their own.
And I can't help but feeling that I'm not going to be working at SHIELD in the future after all.
_-x-_
Notes
Hey, Thor is satisfied with the appliances and Bruce and Lily kissed again. All is right with the world? NOT FOR LONG.
I dearly hope you've enjoyed this chapter, even if it was majorly on the short side. And can I just say this right here: 800 reviews and over 500 followers. Never, ever, in my wildest dreams could this have ever happened. AND SOMEONE ACTUALLY GOT THE RUGRATS REFERENCE FROM LAST CHAPTER.
LIFE= COMPLETE.
Just kidding, my life was completed when I saw Mark Ruffalo on Sesame Street.
Catch you on the flip side,
_-Maddie-_