Weeks had passed since Taylor Stark had last felt the extreme chest pains that she knew to be caused by Loki, and she was almost glad that they'd stopped; almost. She desperately longed to feel the pain sometimes, juts so that she would know that Loki was alive. But the blonde hadn't felt them since they day she deemed his 'death'. That particular night had been extremely difficult for her and her dreams were plagued with horrible images of Loki dying in various ways. Each time she would wake up in a cold sweat, and each time she force herself back to sleep, only to be awakened by nightmare each time; it was awful. Taylor had been sitting outside by the pool with her drawing pad when her phone rang. She narrowed her eyes; she'd told Tony not to bother her when she was outside.

"What?" the blonde asked in an annoyed tone.

"Hey, there's the crazy artist!"

"I'm busy, Tony, what do you want?"

"Just seeing if you accepted that date I set up for you."

"No. Bye." She hung up and turned her phone off, dragging her hand through her golden trusses. Tony had been trying to set up dates for his sister in order to get her out of the house, but she had declined each one. It was too soon, she'd told him, and she meant it. Part of her still hoped that Loki was alive and that he would come for her, but Tony was not so optimistic. The two had often argued about the fact and it always ended with the slamming of doors. Taylor loved her brother, and knew that he loved her, but she was getting annoyed with him. "How Pepper puts up with him all the time I'll never know," she said as she picked up her pencil again. She'd had to buy new art materials since she'd left her other on Asgard, and doing so greatly hampered her artistic skills. She missed her favorite pencil; she missed him still. The former warrior sighed and flopped onto her back, staring up at the clouds and the shapes they took. Some looked like horses, some fish, others bobs, but each one was different. She found herself slowly drifting off beneath the warm sunlight and curled up where she lay, allowing herself to drift off slowly.

The void of space that Loki had fallen into had been merciless, cold, and evil. He'd let go in hopes of dying, but quite the opposite happened; he'd been saved. By whom he didn't know, or care, at first. But when his savior began nursing him back to health, he slowly began to administer something else into the fallen god's system; poison. Loki's mind had slowly been poisoned, and he didn't even know it. It wasn't until AFTER he learned the identity of his rescuer that he learned of the he discovered the awful truth. But it was too late for him. Thanos had done his work, and Loki was now but a pawn in the Titan's plan to rule all of the Realms. Each time Loki tried to escape, Thanos would cause a shooting, crippling pain in Loki's mind, and forced him to stay. Eventually, he stopped trying to escape. How long had it been before the pain ended? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? He didn't know. But what he DID know is that he was tasked with the retrieval of an ancient treasure that once belonged to Odin: the Tesseract.

Taylor awoke with a start with an all too familiar pain in her chest; her ocean eyes wide as she clutched her necklace tightly. She had been hoping for the pain, but never actually thought it would come. An almost smile twisted onto her lips as she forced herself to stand.

"Loki… he's… he's alive…" she breathed out, "he's alive!" But her joy quickly turned into terror as lightheadedness spread over her. She wobbled towards the house slowly, but tripped over a pool chair. Water burned her nose as Taylor struggled to get back to the surface. She'd fallen into the pool, and her vertigo spell was making it nearly impossible to get out. She tried to scream, but mere bubbles rose to the surface. The blonde's arms grew tired spots flashed before her eyes as her strength quickly left her. Everything slowly began to grow dark, and Taylor stopped fighting.

Loki had finally agreed to retrieve the Tesseract, and was about to set off on his journey to Earth to find it, when an overwhelming wave of pain hit him. At first he thought it was Thanos again, but he then remembered that Thanos played with his mind, and this pain was in his chest. The god gripped one of the nearby rocks until the pain passed, but it didn't. The pain grew worse, and Loki collapsed to his knees on the ground. Finally, the pain passed and he was able to stand again. But the strange pain did not go without thought as he made his was across the alien landscape. He wondered what could've caused it, and why. Taylor never once crossed his mind; she'd been pushed to the back of mind by Thanos in an attempt to gain control, and it had worked very well. …or had it?

Taylor had slipped into an unconscious state, floating in the pool water. The water had fully soaked through her clothes, and was slowly filling her lungs. But just as she began to sink, someone grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the water. She could feel herself being pulled back to the land of the living and it felt like someone else was trying to help her. Her eyelids fluttered open and she sat bolt upright, coughing violently. She spit up water and collapsed to the ground again, desperately trying to catch her breath. The chlorine in the water had made her vision blurry but she could feel someone near her.

"H- hello?" she coughed again and rubbed her eyes, "Tony?"

Taylor heard the scuffle of boots moving away from her, but there was no answer. She wanted to know who had helped her because obviously someone had.

"I...I know you're," she coughed, "there…" the footsteps seemed to pause in their retreat and come back to her and Taylor grabbed in the direction of them. Her nails grazed something, and she tried to crawl towards it. Her vision was still blurry, and it made things much more difficult, but she was determined to find who had saved her. "W- wait…" she called after them, dragging herself along the ground, "please…" The female's vision was beginning to clear up the farther she crawled, and she managed to catch a glimpse of familiar leather boots. Her heart thudded against her ribcage from the strain of crawling, and again she collapsed onto the ground. She had begun to fall back into her unconscious state and her eyelids were heavy. "L- Loki…" she mumbled under her breath before allowing her body to succumb to the forced slumber.

Loki stared down at the fragile looking woman, emerald eyes wide with fear. Was she dead, he wondered, crouching down next to her to check for breath; it was there. He ran his hand over her wet curls, before gently lifting her small frame into his arms. He couldn't stay, but he couldn't just leaver her lying outside unconscious. Loki carried Taylor's sleeping form inside and laid her on the couch, brushing the curls from her face. It had been quite some time since he'd seen her, yet she still looked the same.

"Taylor… wake up, Taylor, please." He whispered softly as he pulled the blanket over her. But his request fall on deaf ears and the blonde didn't even flinch. He sighed sadly and leaned over to press a sot kiss to her forehead. The sound of a car pulling up outside caused the god to jump up from the couch and run to the window. Taylor's brother had returned and he would be caught if he didn't leave; casting one last glance at the sleeping woman on the couch, Loki teleported himself out of the house.

All of what had uncured after Taylor had fallen asleep had taken place without her knowledge. She woke hours later on the couch beneath the blanket, and clothes still soaked. She groaned as she sat up, staring down at her soaked clothes in confusion.

"Hey, Sleeping Beauty finally decided to wake up!" Tony teased as he came up the stairs from his workshop.

Taylor looked over at him, then back down at her clothes.

"What happened?" she asked, but it sounded like a mere whisper.

"My guess? You fell asleep on the couch after you went for a swim in your clothes."

She stared at her brother with a blank look on her face, blinking.

"…Pool…?"

"You ok there, blondie?" he raised a brow at the clearly confused blonde on the couch. "Maybe you should go change and get some water to drink or something."

"Y- yeah… maybe." Taylor drug her hand over one side of her face and got up from the couch, instantly realizing this was a horrible idea. The vertigo from before had returned, and she fell back onto the couch. Tony rushed over to her aid, hazel eyes wide with concern.

"Tay?" he poked her, "are you ok?"

The blonde nodded slowly and rose to her feet again, this time with help from her brother. She shook his hand off of her arm and swayed back and forth a bit until the vertigo spell finally passed. When it did, she ran her hand through her damp curls and slowly made her way into the kitchen, all under Tony's supervision. She got herself a glass of water and drank it down before attempting to get back to her room. She swayed slightly and grabbed onto the doorway before finally reaching her bedroom; Tony followed her to her room.

"…I'm fine, Tony. Really."

"Fine? You nearly toppled over the couch." He folded his arms.

"…I need to change…"

"So?"

"So, go," she waved him away with her hand and closed the door. The tired blonde waited until she felt Tony was gone before she tugged off her wet clothes and tossed them into the bath tub to dry. All she had left to ware was her Asgardian tunic, so she pulled that on over her head, then pulled her now dry curls into a ponytail. Taylor crawled into her bed and snuggled beneath the warmth of her blanket, her mind drifting back to her near death experience. She knew someone had saved her, elsewise Tony would have come home to find her dead in the pool. She let out an aggravated sigh and held up her hand to her face, ocean optics taking in the black leather beneath her nails. She knew the second she saw it that it had come from Loki's boots.

"No freaking way…" she breathed out, sitting up in her bed. "Loki?" she looked around the dark room, hoping to see him pop out of the shadows; nothing. She frowned, "if you really are alive, and you can hear me, thanks." She waited longer this time, then gave up and curled back beneath the covers, drifting off.

Each and every word Taylor had spoken had been heard by the god. He had concealed himself in the shadows of her room to watch over her, and resisting the urge to reveal himself had proved a difficult challenge. But she had fallen asleep and there would be no harm and checking on her. Quietly, Loki knelt beside the sleeping blonde's bed, sliding his hand down her arm; she didn't even flinch. A smile crept onto his lips as he gazed down at her still form. She was still beautiful, even asleep.

"I've missed you, my dear." He whispered, his long fingers tangling in a strand of her hair. "But don't worry… soon we will be together, and no one will be able to say otherwise. Not even Odin himself." He leaned over her and kissed her forehead again, but the pain was too much and he fall backwards onto the floor. Thanos wasn't going to allow him even one moment with her, and was quick to remind the god of his mission. Loki shook his head and stood up, "I will return for you, Princess. I swear it." And with that, the god stood up and vanished from the house. But not before leaving a small, but simple, sign of his visit there: a drawing that Taylor had made for him back on Asgard. He had kept it with him at all times, and he knew that Taylor knew this. When he left, the drawing stayed behind on her nightstand where she would surely find it in the morning.