HELLO. I am back! This chapter was pretty hard to write, not gonna lie (that's pretty obvious from the amount of time it took me to get this chapter out). I feel a little stuck, so if there's anything you guys want to see from this story, let me know. A very big THANK YOU to: Suzululu4moe, Lord Mortensen, sakuraHU0328, RimK10, xTsuizuru, 1968, Guest, madaraswife, 3milly, LeonaMasha, ChubbyBunnE, LoveandWinning, nobodyreallyimportant, MillersMoonPrincess, hemllock, Momo Mango, darth-sakura, thetinypuppy, heartbeatstumbles, Elle,L, StarKiss666, Guest, redruby8, liasora, AwesomeFangirlOtaku01, Natasha, PrettyKitty77 and The Keeper of Worlds!
I don't own Naruto or the MCU. Enjoy!
The house was pure chaos when Sakura came loping back from the California bush. Wiping off the sweat on her brow, Sakura quickly steps between Pepper and Tony, who are screaming at each other, a stranger with dark hair sitting beside a wounded Happy Hogan.
Skirting past the argument without them noticing, she gives the dark haired woman a pointed look, and places her hands on Happy, who sighs as his pain melts away. The green glow flares to life and the dark haired woman gasps. "It can't be…"
Sakura takes note of the odd comment but doesn't reply, aware that all of these people have chakra coils, albeit incredibly weak and feeble from a lack of use. She briefly wonders if the woman is sensitive to chakra natures, especially one as refined as her own, but focuses on the strange chakra signature emanating from her friends' wounds. The echo of the chakra attack has imprinted briefly on his chakra coils, malevolent and familiar, although she can't quite put her finger on where she's felt it before.
"Tony," Sakura says, snapping the two out of their argument. "Somethings not right."
Before she can say anything else, the earth tumbles and the world turns upside down. Sakura had the sense to grab Happy and duck, dodging the falling debris. When she gathers her wits and can once again see the blue sky above her, she checks to make sure Happy is without injury. She then scrambles over to Potts and Tony, fearing the worst, but sees no signs of the man. She carries Happy and hauls the blonde woman from the debris as carefully as possible, and looks to the sky, wondering where the Man of Iron escaped off to this time. Pepper, blinking dust from her eyes blearily, asks, "Where's Tony?"
Sakura wraps an arm around the quickly panicking woman and whispers, "Our Tony faced aliens and an angry god with a vendetta and made it out alive, he'll be fine, Pepper. He will be back when he's ready to come back."
Sakura stares up at the sky that lights up with explosions: all of Tony's work destroying themselves in front of her eyes. She feels nothing but a slight ache, aware of how he holds Pepper as they, too, stare up in wonder. She averts her gaze when they share a kiss and knows she has never been unfamiliar to the longing of love, or lack thereof. Unwilling to break their moment, she waits for the two to return their attention to her and she smiles, any traces of her surprising feelings hidden and buried to be forgotten. She reaches for Pepper, whose skin glows slightly with the aftermath of the Extremis, a perversion of natural energy and chakra. She raises her hands and places them glowing on her shoulders, the healing energy already beginning to wash away the odd, orange parasite in the blonde woman's system. The chakra coursing through the blondes' system is not the typical chakra imprint left over from elemental jutsu— it would have a different taste and feel to it. It feels almost like… the symbiotic relationship common, and exclusive to the jinchuriki, but that makes no sense in this world. It worries her, regardless. Nothing in this world has shown any true chakra usage or manipulation the way she is familiar with, until now.
Pepper sighs as she feels it disappearing, and Sakura can't help but echo the sentiment. After their home crumbling to dust and Tony disappearing, followed shortly by Peppers disappearance, —only for both to show up in a dramatic showdown—, Sakura wants nothing more than to return to normal. The theatrics remind her vaguely of Naruto at home and his penchant for trouble finding him in the most flashy, non-ninja way possible. As she heals Pepper, Tony looks fondly at the pink haired woman, his two most important people, his simple and small world surrounding him.
"Hey Sakura," he said softly and she didn't look up from her work. "Do you think you could fix this old thing?" He tapped his glowing chest piece and Pepper's breath hitched somewhere in the back of her throat. Sakura shakes her head and says, "I'm sure there's something I can do."
Loki centers his attention to a point in the inside of his cell, his cage, and clutches at the piece of paper crumpled in his hand that rests on his thigh. His back to the wall, he stares at the opposite one of his shuttered world and lets his eyes flutter closed for a moment, reliving each word written in his head. The paper that had been tucked away, hidden from others and maybe even himself, that he did not have the courage to read, until now.
His shaky peace is shattered when the woman he called mother for so many years appears suddenly in his cell with a swish of her elegant robes. She does not expect him to be on the floor, but takes her son's unusual behavior in stride. She doesn't talk, knowing that since their first interaction, he rebuffed each of her attempts at a conversation. She knows that Thor has not received even a single glance.
She crouches before him and watches him with careful eyes, although he will not meet her piercing gaze. The fact that she never told him about his birth and his origin still stings, and he struggles to let go of the noxious feelings sitting low in his sternum.
Frigga has always been in tune to her children, and knows immediately when something is wrong. "What is the matter, my son?"
Loki casts her a brief flicker of a look, and grasps onto the small letter tighter, creating a crinkling sound that immediately catches Frigga by surprise. "What is this?"
Loki brings it close to his chest, and looks down, unsure for the first time in a long time. After some time and hesitation, he offers her the parchment and startles when his hand doesn't phase through hers. She is there, she is real. And gently, she unfolds the letter, finding a small, practical scrawl conveying a message:
Loki,
I don't know when I'll see you again. Or if I will ever see you again. Thor has promised me he will update me on how you're doing, although I cannot imagine you'll be too pleased with your new prison. It may be gilded, but a cage is a cage, nonetheless.
I feel a sense of urgency while writing this. You remember the first thing I said to you? You remind me of someone from my old world, although I never told you about him. His name is Sasuke. He's always been a jerk, although his family history has a lot to do with it. He's made a lot of mistakes. He has hurt me and our teammates, and I don't mean just emotionally. And yet, each one of us could see past his hurt and see him: that's why we love him so fiercely, even after all that. That's the thing about love. It's unconditional.
I tell you this because Sasuke could change. He did, and you can, too. You've made some mistakes, and none of us can redo the past, but you have a long life ahead of you. I would hate to think you'll spend the rest of it collecting dust.
Yours,
Sakura
Frigga holds a hand to her mouth, unable to stop the shine in her eyes. She knows her son better than he knows himself, and finally, someone notices what she's seen since he was first placed in her arms.
"Do…" Loki stops himself before forging on, "Do you really think she's right?"
"Oh, Loki," she pushes back his hair with a tender hand, laugh airy and full of emotion, "Truer words have never been spoken."
And she hugs her son, clutching him to her, feeling relieved for the first time in a long time. She pulls back, still unable to let go. "So," she trails off with a sly smirk. "Tell me about her."
Her son lets out a sharp bark of laughter, shaking his head ruefully. He grabs his mother's hand, and says "She's unlike anyone you've ever met." There is a pause, and then, "You'd love her, mother."
"Oh really now," Frigga's smile widens, and she pulls her son close again. She's already confident that she would. And finally, Loki begins to heal.
Tadaaa! Only a year in the making, oops. Please give feedback and leave a review! Until the next chapter.
Anbu-chan