He certainly didn't need any more prompting. Loki turned on his heel. He wanted to make it clear that he hadn't meant to hurt her, but something told him any attempt at an explanation wouldn't go down very well. Besides, it was better to let them think this was premeditated than have them think that he was in any way unstable.

The walk to his room was, as usual, long, so he had plenty of time to reflect on his actions.

No excuses this time?

No excuses. No one he could blame, except himself. Was this what it would take for him to come to terms with his actions? Nova had trusted him, had asked him to watch her back, and he had done this to her.

Once in his room, he picked up the nearest book in an attempt to distract himself, but what was the point? His mind was blank, unable to read or absorb anything, and he gave up when he realized he'd not only been reading the same page without absorbing a single word, but he had been reading backwards and had arrived at the top of the page . . . again.

Loki closed the book and stood up, rubbing his face with his hands in some kind of attempt to regain some focus. He walked around the room, stopping in front of the mirror to look at himself. His pale face was framed with raven-black hair, which he admitted to spending way too much time on. His emerald eyes, (he was ashamed at the wave of relief he felt every time he saw that they were green), stared back at him judgingly, and Loki got the impression that they wished they belonged to someone who was actually sane.

A knock sounded at the door. Time to face the consequences of his actions. Rearranging his features into a cold, uncaring mask, he opened the door. Standing there, looking more than a little uncomfortable, was Maximoff and Rogers. Loki could guess why they had been chosen to confront him. Rogers was here because he was the unofficial leader of the Avengers, so all the hard tasks fell to him, and Maximoff because she was powerful. He would never admit it, but she was more powerful than he could hope to be.

"Is she okay?" The words were out of his mouth before he could stop to think. Not only had he given up any advantage he might have had by being the first to speak, but he had also shown that, in some way, he did care what happened to Nova. Which he didn't.

Liar.

"She'll be okay," Roger said, and his eyes added silently 'no thanks to you'. "Stephen says it's the fastest recovery he's ever seen. Somehow she wasn't at all affected by. . . " he trailed off, and somehow the silence seemed more accusatory than if he had just straight up and said it.

Loki took a moment to allow himself to relax inwardly before realizing exactly what Rogers had said. "Wait, Strange is here? That second-rate wizard is here?"

"Yes, we called him because none of us have any sort of magical knowledge. He seemed the best bet." Loki didn't think this was the best time to point out that, in fact, he himself was the best source of any kind of magical knowledge. "In fact, Dr. Strange is waiting for us in the meeting room." Rogers spoke sharply, in the tone he usually reserved for commanding troops, not that he did much of that. He motioned for Loki to follow him.

Loki followed hesitantly into the Avenger's current meeting room. 'Current' because they could never stay in one place very long, and had had half a dozen meeting rooms in the last few months. This particular meeting room was plain, consisting of a solitary table with chairs around it. Each part of the table held little parts of the person who sat there. Stark had left his half-drunk cup of coffee on the table and whatever little object he had been tinkering with at the time. Rogers, who had completely rearranged the seating on the first day so he could sit next to Barnes, had an American Flag in his pen holder, and Romanoff had a gun on top of her notes, left from the last meeting.

Loki couldn't help personalizing his sliver of desk, and had left a green and gold pen behind, as well as his notes from their last meeting, which he should have brought to his room to study. His eyes couldn't help but drift to the seat next to his, which was Nova's unofficial seat. She hadn't customized her area, although her papers were covered in loopy, scrawling handwriting that somehow managed to look neat at the same time. Kind of like her, elegantly graceful and clumsily naive all at the same time.

What was he doing? Had he just been thinking about Nova's handwriting? Focus, Loki.

Dr. Strange had claimed the front of the room, the place usually reserved for presenters coming to pitch ideas or plead for aid. He looked as annoying as ever, with his stupid cloak and flair for the dramatic. Just because Loki himself was dramatic didn't mean he couldn't hate on other dramatic people. It certainly didn't help that Strange had thrown him into a portal for an entire thirty minutes. Falling like that, for so long, was one of the many life experiences that Loki would prefer to forget.

"Well, it seems that you somehow managed to mess up again." Loki did not appreciate the 'I-told-you-so' expression on Strange's face. "We made an agreement with your brother when we let you stay. If you were to in any way misuse your power, we have the right to forcefully suppress it for a period of time until we can trust you again."

"I beg your pardon, what?" He hadn't just said what Loki thought he just said. Thor had not agreed to this. There was no way his brother had agreed to this.

Strange sighed. "Well, your brother technically doesn't have any idea, but maybe he should consider reading what he signs." That did sound like Thor. So trusting. "We, or rather I, am allowed, when the Avengers see fit, to restrict your power. Because of Nova's quick recovery time, and the fact that we don't want your brother to come blazing in, lightning everywhere," that also sounded like Thor, "I am only going to take it away for a month."

Loki took a step backwards. "No, no, no, you are not going to take away my seidr."

"I'm not going to take it away, I'm just going to stop you from being able to access it. The spell will wear off of it's own accord after a month." He spoke with the air of someone trying to explain calculus to a toddler, and Loki did not like his patronizing tone. "Please just cooperate."

"Don't you dare touch me, wizard," Loki spat, and took another step backwards, arms up.

"Steve, Wanda, please just explain to him that this won't be permanent," Strange said, practically sighing between words.

Maximoff spoke up. "It's like a pair of handcuffs. They can come off at any time, and they're just there to make sure you don't do anything. . ."

She trailed off, so Loki filled in the sentence. "Dangerous? Destructive? Psychopathic?"

She winced, and then shrugged awkwardly.

"Fine," he snapped, and held out his hands. "Do your worst, you second-rate sorcerer."

Strange just barely managed to refrain himself from rolling his eyes again. He did those odd, silly, hand gestures that summoned up glowing orange circles. Frankly, it would have looked quite ridiculous if Loki didn't know firsthand how much damage those glowing frisbees could do. Yes, a mage should be dramatic when the occasion necessitated it, but a mage should also be able to be secretive when the occasion necessitated. A few more uttered incantations summoned similar glowing frisbees underneath his feet over his head. The last time this had happened . . . he wasn't going to think about the last time this happened.

Loki could feel the spell locking away his magic, as if Strange had summoned up an iron box and was proceeding to siphon all his seidr into it. The familiar hum of magic, just beneath his skin, patiently waiting to be used was draining away, fast. And by the Norns, it hurt. He doubled over in agony, and barely managed to keep from screaming. He would not beg for his power back, no matter how large a chasm it ripped in his chest.

When the pain and orange glowing runes faded, Loki found himself panting, on his hands and knees.

Pull yourself together, weakling.

He stood up shakily, brushing nonexistent dirt off in an attempt to remain nonchalant. Hopefully no one could notice that he was trembling. "Well, is that-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the door, which had been closed by Rogers when he had entered the room, banged open in a flurry of motion. Barnes, the one who had so carelessly opened the door, announced his presence with a quick 'hello' before realizing how out of place he was.

"Should I leave?" He asked awkwardly.

Rogers waved him in. "No, it's fine."

"Well, um, I'm here because Nova's awake. She's fine, whatever . . . happened to her didn't seem to affect her at all, and she wants to see you." The last part was addressed to Loki, although he didn't realize that until he had glanced behind him and found that there was no one else that Barnes could be talking to. That couldn't be right, though, and Loki said as much.

"No, no, she said she wanted to see you, and I can guess why . . ." He gave Rogers a look, and the two of them had a telepathic conversation that consisted entirely of them looking at each other.

"Alright then," Rogers said, after the telepathic conversation was over. "You know where the MedBay is, right?"

"You're just going to . . . let me go there alone." It was more of a statement than a question.

"You're not a threat anymore. We all know that your magic is your main and most dangerous weapon, and you don't have access to it right now," Strange said pointedly. It hurt that he was right.

"Whatever," Loki said nonchalantly, and exited the room in (what he hoped was) a dramatic swirl of fabric and movement. He would never admit to anyone how many hours he had spent back on Asgard practicing how to pivot to make his clothes whirl in the most dramatic way, or how long it had taken him to break his nasty habit of looking back over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't doing anything wrong. He did not need anyone's approval. He also would never admit just how unsteady he was, and how, when he pivoted, he had almost lost his balance and ended up face-first on the floor.

Loki strode down the hallway, extremely aware of the red light that meant other people could, and probably were, watching his every movement. Without even realizing it, Loki was thinking about things to say to shift the blame, ways to hold someone else accountable. Once he came too, and found where his thoughts had gone, he immediately erased the entire train of thought.

He came to the MedBay, or more specifically, the room where he knew Nova would be kept because it was the same room she had been in only a few weeks ago. This was the room reserved for any Avenger that got hurt, as well as any threat that they didn't want regular doctors to interact with. He wondered where Nova fell these days. Probably the Avengers category, if only unofficially.

Is that jealousy I hear?

Can you just be quiet for one moment?

Definitely jealousy.

Fine, maybe I'm a little jealous.

Question is, who are you jealous of?

Obviously I'm jealous that the Avengers prefer Nova, who they've only known for a few weeks, over me.

Sure you aren't jealous that Nova prefers the Avengers to you?

What is that supposed to mean?

Of course the Voice would go quiet the moment Loki actually wanted to know something. And yes, he really did consider the Voice to be something different altogether, certainly not a part of him. How else could it know things that he didn't know?

You know these things, you just refuse to accept or acknowledge them.

And there it was again, being annoying.

He looked at the door for a moment, trying to figure out if he should knock, or just open the door, or perhaps turn around and never come back. That seemed like a nice option right about now. His course of action was decided for him, though, when Romanoff opened the door on his face.

He saw the door coming, but weaker reflexes and delayed reaction time thanks to whatever spell Strange had put on him meant he couldn't get out of the way in time. The door slammed into him, somewhat painfully.

He wrinkled his nose to hide his pained expression. "Rude."

"Maybe if you paid attention, that wouldn't have happened," Romanoff pointed out, and didn't look sorry at all.

"So . . ." he trailed off and raised an eyebrow.

Romanoff shrugged carelessly and gestured to the door in a universal 'just go and don't ask any questions', so he did.

The hospital room looked exactly the same as it had a few weeks ago, except this time Nova was awake, and bored. She was fiddling absentmindedly with the various tubes that connected her to the diagnostic machines in the corner of the room.

Loki wasn't sure what to do, so he just walked in and shut the door behind him. The noise from the door must have alerted Nova to his presence, because she looked up. She looked nervous, but that was understandable. He wasn't exactly sure why she had agreed to see him, even asked to see him, but she had. It was probably to yell at him, criticize him, and generally get angry at him, but at least she was willing to look at him.

And why do you care so much that she's willing to look at you?

"Look, I . . ." She paused, twirling her hands around the bedsheets, unable to meet his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"I know I messed-" He did a double take. "Wait what?"

Nova buried her head in her hands. "I'm really sorry, please believe me, I don't know what I was thinking, please please forgive-"

"No, no, I know what you said." Loki interrupted her, brows creased. "Why in Norn's name would you apologize to me?"

Now Nova looked just as confused as Loki felt. "I pushed you too hard. I was trying to show off, and I paid for it, and I was apologizing for my actions." She looked up hopefully. "Does that mean you forgive me?"

"Wait, let me get this right. You are apologizing to me because I lost control and could have seriously harmed or even killed you?"

"I mean, when you put it like that it sounds weird, but yes." Loki ran his fingers through his hair, (which he knew from experience made it stick up like an angry porcupine, but he didn't really care about that right now), and tried to wrap his brain around what had just happened. It was ridiculous for Nova to take responsibility for his actions.

"This is not your fault. I overreacted and hurt you, and I'm . . . I'm sorry." There, he had apologized. He could be a good person.

Nova blinked a couple of times, and then asked tentatively if that meant he forgave her.

"Yes- well, you have nothing to apologize for, so no." Loki paused at Nova's sad expression. "What I mean is, yes I forgive you for the thing you didn't do. Will you . . . forgive me?"

Nova waved her hand as if to brush away his question. "Yeah, sure," she said absentmindedly, and then changed the subject. Loki would never understand this girl. "Do you have any idea how to remove these tubes?" She held out her arm and tugged gently on one of the sensors that was supposed to monitor her heart rate . . . or something.

He walked over. "Not sure if you're supposed to remove those. They do . . . stuff."

Nova hummed in response, but didn't stop tugging. "Do you think I can just rip them off?"

"That doesn't sound like the best idea."

She shrugged. "I don't generally have the best ideas, but I haven't died yet." She tugged harder. "On second thought, some of my not great decisions have involved getting imprisoned in an alternate dimension for a couple hundred thousand years, so maybe I shouldn't trust my instincts . . ." She let go of the tube and patted it awkwardly, as if it was alive.

Loki almost succeeded in biting back a laugh. Nova glared balefully at him, but the corner of her mouth twitched upwards. "Stop laughing at me."

He was so relieved, that somehow Nova was still his friend.

You said 'friend'. You've never called her that before. You've never called anyone that before.

Somehow the revelation shook him. 'Friend'. He'd never had a friend before, unless you counted Thor, but Thor was family. He'd never thought he needed, or would have, friends. And yet here he was, calling Nova his friend.

Then again, she was unlike anyone he had ever known.

ENDNOTES: This is the last update for this week! I'm going to take weekends off because weekends are quite busy for me. See you all next Monday :)

(Also, thank you to everyone who's liked, followed, and commented. It means so much to me!)