Guns and Roses: The Drabble Challenge
Twenty-Six: Diamond
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Some days were better than others, the days where he actually felt autonomy over his own thoughts. Part of him was grateful for the wards put in place to isolate and secure his body; it gave him time and energy to sort through the chaos and roaring in his head.
Today was not one of those better days.
Flashes of blood and the stench of the Other filled his senses, choking him as he struggled to push back the chilling laughter of his captor. The stars were going out again, and his stomach churned as he spied a Chitauri standing over the motionless body of a blonde woman. His mouth opened in a soundless scream as claws ripped and jaws snapped.
With a sudden onslaught of clarity, he found himself yelling at nothing as he pounded at his cage.
Loki tried to calm himself. No use giving his wardens more ammunition to mock him. A shaking hand reached out to grasp his cot and lever his weak and undernourished body to sit.
He did not want to sleep. Sleep was just another war zone that crossed him back over into madness. But eventually he succumbed at the shadows creeping over his vision.
At first her consciousness in his was like a balm over his battered mind. He had been fighting the poison over his will for too long, it was nearly impossible to distinguish relief from pain to the black mindlessness of unconsciousness.
But then he realized what he was seeing and doing, and a torrent of emotions washed over him. If he was not completely aware that he was asleep, he would have assumed he was dreaming. But unlike the Other's nightmares and demons that were sent to him night after night there was no escaping this particularly sweet torture.
He did not wish to escape, either. Whether the complacence was out of some perverse sense of masochism or out of desire to have the slightest scrap of false happiness, he was not entirely sure. It was like all those nights, sitting outside Rose's bedroom, seeking out that thread he eventually was able to latch onto without giving a thought. It felt like soothing terror and fear of his beloved, and seeking solace within her peace.
It felt like home.
Loki was, however, lost to the joy that was not really his, nor was it his to give.
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"Hey! You're back! They didn't 'ave banana at the grocer, so I got you chocolate." A calm and beautiful Rose Tyler rounded the corner of the living room and nearly ran into him.
"What—what are you doin' here? You're supposed to be—"
"Gone?"
"Uh. Yeah."
"I…I cannot quite recall," Loki lied, hoping that she would just believe he was part and parcel of her own dreamscape. Humans were even more gullible in their dreams, after all.
"Oh, well…" she blinked, accepting the sudden appearance of the black and green clad alien in her living room. "Glad you're back."
"Who were you expecting?"
"The Doctor. Should be back any minute. I can set another place at the table—"
"That won't be necessary. I am not planning on staying for long." He wished he could. He could almost smell the perfume Rose used so often that she apparently wore it in her dreams. "He lives here, then—the Time Lord? Do you feel obligated to rehabilitate him into domestic life?"
"No, that would be ridiculous. I mean, I can't just leave my husband to wander the streets homeless, can I?"
Oh, how he hated the sheer honesty of the human subconscious.
"You are married?" Loki managed to reel in the venom attached to the word and substitute something that sounded more like detached interest.
"We will be, in December," Rose said, fumbling with the ring on her finger, almost like she wanted to hide it.
"Congratulations," he replied almost too quickly. "Really, I wish you two the best."
"Loki."
"Hmm?"
"Are you alright?"
"Always," he bit off, shooting her a sharp grin. He tugged away from her hand, part of him ripping apart from the need to touch her again. Even if it was just a ghost of what had been and would never be again.
The diamond of her engagement ring twinkled as she faded from his sight.