Preposterous

"A wife?" Thor was obviously having as much trouble with the statement as Asta was. She couldn't imagine even striking up a friendship with the terrible man at her bedside. Besides which, he was a prince. From a different world. "That's preposterous." Asta was inclined to agree.

The hand in her hair had frozen into a fist. "I'm flattered by your endorsement."

"That is not what I mean, Loki. In centuries, you never so much as attempted to seriously court a woman. You pushed aside those who pursued you, you never looked twice at a woman once you'd bedded her."

"Those scheming harlots wanted titles and privilege, nothing more. Why would I give them the attention they craved?"

"And yet here I find you fighting tooth and claw to stay beside this Midgardian girl, one who seems to have appeared from the ether. Where did she come from? How did she manage the impossible and win your love?"

"I never spoke of love," Loki spat.

"You don't need to, brother. Your actions speak for you."

The hand withdrew from her hair and Loki's frustration crackled through the air.

"You call her beauty," Thor continued.

"How observant of you."

"They all think it her birth name, not a pet name. It's obvious you gifted it to her."

"That's a bold statement for one so usually oblivious."

Thor's sigh filled the room. "I am sorry. I'm sorry I failed to notice something so momentous was happening in your life. You wear a hardened shell, but I must have been blind to never see a change in you. The way you are with her…"

"I'm the god of lies. No one is a better actor than I. You saw what I wanted you to see."

"Even still. There is much more to this story, isn't there? They tell me she has no memory."

"No. The Allfather saw to that."

"She was tested?" Thor asked, astonished.

"Oh yes," Loki replied. "She was placed in an underground labyrinth with the incarnation of fear itself."

"But no mortal could pass that test—not without assistance! Not without our enhanced endurance and senses."

Loki gave a bitter laugh. "And I'm sure that's why the Allfather chose it. She failed, of course, and was thrown back to Midgard like a used rag, her memories stripped clean of any knowledge of me. Unfortunately for her, I was too deeply embedded in her life, and that meant she lost everything she'd ever known."

"All her memories? That's—just how long had you known her?"

"Since she was a very small child. When they removed me, they left her an empty shell, easy pickings for the vultures at SHIELD."

"Did the Allfather know you'd been here? And so often? Does Heimdall? Are your powers really that great that you can shield yourself from their gaze and keep us all in the dark?"

"When no one expects much of you, it is easy to exceed those expectations." Loki sounded beyond weary. The stroking fingers returned to her hair, sending goosebumps marching across her skin.

"This is why you came to Midgard. Not merely in revenge against me, but to harm those who held her prisoner."

"Wouldn't you?" Loki said, so quietly Asta could barely hear him. "I tried to let her go, when she failed. I truly did. I didn't even search for her, because I knew she would have no recollection of me. I assumed she would return to what life she had, but the Chitauri showed me what had befallen her. Would you have left her where she was, caged like an animal? Locked up to be examined and tested until she broke to their will? This is what your precious human race are capable of." The softness of his voice had given to way to something filled with menace.

"They didn't harm her," said Thor. "What would you have preferred, that she was left to wander this realm without resources or any hope of finding her family?"

Conversation lulled again, while Asta sifted through what she'd understood of their conversation. She was fairly certain that at least part of this was the result of a serious head injury, because it seemed the brothers were talking about Loki being in love with Asta, and her having travelled to Asgard at some point in the past. As Thor had said, it was all preposterous. Unless they were talking about another girl, which was a more reasonable explanation.

A path of glass beneath her feet, all the colours of the rainbow.

Utter darkness, her senses as good as broken, and the same scarlet eyes from years before waiting up ahead.

An ancient man telling her she'd failed, offering her a red apple.

She stifled the disquiet inside herself at those fragments of memory.

"When did you bring her to Asgard?" Thor asked quietly.

"What does it matter?" Loki replied, in apparent boredom.

"I'm trying to piece events together, because for the life of me I cannot determine when this occurred."

"Don't strain yourself so, I know intellectual exercises tire you. I brought her mere months before your failed coronation—it was the announcement of your big day that prompted me. If you were going to get everything you wanted, then I at least wouldn't be left with nothing—I would have a wife, but of course Odin denied me even that."

"And that is why you betrayed us all."

"It wasn't betrayal. It was a plan, something far grander than you would ever be able to concoct, to prove once and for all that I could do what was best for Asgard. I might not have your brute strength or be able to command the forces of the realms with a smile, but I could do what even the Allfather could not and finally bring about the end of the frost giants. Maybe then he'd trust my judgement."

"You hoped he would relent and bring her back."

"I hoped he would see I was doing the right thing when I brought her back myself. It was only in the void I realised he didn't disapprove because she were mortal. No, his disapproval stemmed from what I was. He already had schemes of his own to marry me off to a Jotun whore, and put me on their throne. She stood in the way of all that. What I wanted never featured in the decisions he made."

"Why did you never tell me about her? Why keep her a secret?" Asta found herself pitying Thor, his desperate questions seeping through the fog of exhaustion. He was trying to understand Loki, despite all he'd done, without reproach. Thor was invested in his brother even still, and sounded hurt that he'd been cut out of something so monumental in his life.

"Odin bade me hide her existence until after she was tested."

"I don't just mean when you brought her to Asgard. You knew her years; you chose to keep this secret. I don't understand, brother—I only ever wanted your happiness."

"And what chance did my happiness have once she'd been introduced to the rest of the court, especially you and your kind with your incessant peacocking? Everything I have ever had, I have had to share with you. Even those who called me friend preferred you. For once, I wanted something that was mine alone."

"Did you have so little faith in her feelings for you? Is that the problem—could you not share your happiness because your jealousy tainted it?"

"You seek to diminish my every emotion, so forgive me for not being willing to trust you with this."

"I am sorry. It was never my intention to make you feel that way. I've grown, brother, and I will do whatever it takes to make amends with—"

"Save it," Loki cut in. "I have no need for your pathetic apologies."

The silence stretched on this time, the air thick with the tension between the brothers. Eventually, the chair scraped across the floor again, and Thor retreated.

When she finally gained the strength to open her eyes, she didn't recognise the man standing at the end of the bed, but knew immediately it wasn't Thor. Though he was well-muscled and had the stance of a soldier, he wasn't large enough to carry the voice she'd heard before. He looked all too human.

She hesitated to glance to the side, where the black hulk of Loki slumped against the bed, his head resting on his arm. He looked far from peaceful in sleep. Cuts graced his skin, bruises welling beneath his eyes, and his hands were similarly battered. Thick chains stretched from his wrists and neck, disappearing from her eye line.

"You're awake," the guard said. She nodded. "Do you need anything?"

She gestured, trying to indicate water. He crossed to the nightstand where a pitcher and cup waited. Her eyes adjusted to the room, which looked all too similar to the one Loki had locked her in during the invasion, though it was definitely a different one. The windows only took up half the exterior wall and were covered in slatted blinds, keeping the sunlight out. They were still in Stark Tower.

"I'm Agent Barton," said the man, offering her the cup. Her hands shook as she gripped it, but she managed. "With SHIELD."

The water was a cool blessing, and she eagerly downed it all. "What happened to him," she croaked, pointing at Loki.

"He got hulk smashed."

"He what?"

"He picked a fight with something a lot bigger than him, and he lost. Thor says he'd normally heal much quicker, but he's been using all his energy to help you."

"Well, he can stop. He looks like hell."

Barton shrugged. "Doesn't bother me either way."

"How long was I asleep?"

"A day and a half. Did you know you snore?"

She ignored him and shifted her legs experimentally, aiming for the edge of the bed, on the opposite side to Loki's prone form.

"Is there a bathroom?"

"You sure you can stand?"

"I guess I'll find out."

Asta made it under her own steam, and winced when she saw her reflection. Her hair was in a worse state than Loki's rat's nest, and she still seemed to be covered in the grime of the day before she blacked out. They hadn't even stripped her out of the SHIELD clothes.

She opened the door and peered out at Barton. "Can I shower?"

"Be my guest. Towels should be on the rail. I'll ask for clean clothes—knock when you need them."

She took longer than she needed under the hot spray, but it felt like she was shedding more than just dirt. She was healed of any injury she suffered—not an ache graced her muscles—but she couldn't shake the exhaustion. Flashes of her dreams came whenever she closed her eyes, and when she curled her right hand she could still feel the burn where she'd held the Tesseract. There should be a cut across her palm, one that couldn't have healed in the time elapsed, but her skin was whole and unscarred.

So, apparently a god was in love with her. That was something to box neatly away and ignore until she had the strength to deal with it. That time might never come, but it definitely wasn't something she could cope with today. There was also the issue of her plan to escape his grasp and SHIELD's, but if the war was over, she wouldn't be able to hide long from either of them. She was back to being a pawn. There wasn't enough caffeine in the world to combat how tired that made her feel.

The clothes Barton handed her were another set of SHIELD issued garments, and someone had also taken the time to include a comb and a hairdryer. That gave her more time to hide away behind a locked door, avoiding her own thoughts and whatever the world was going to start demanding of her once she left this bathroom.

Only when there was nothing else to do did she release the lock, tiptoeing back out in the bedroom. Barton was waiting by the window, the blinds now open, with his back to her. She glanced at the bed and found a slitted pair of eyes staring back at her. The time of avoidance was at an end. Loki was awake.