Just so you are all aware, four days have passed since Angel and Sharon arrived. We are on the evening of the fourth day.
Dedicated to Kyla, who enjoys torturing me in a loving manner
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Sharon inspected her surroundings with great interest, feeling somewhat disoriented from the turn of events that had occurred in the past few hours.
She'd escaped shield, trekked through the forest, before stumbling upon the God of Mischief who wanted to make her his Queen. Since when is my life a Grimm's fairytale? She thought to herself, Well… my life never really has been 'normal'…
Now she was standing in the middle of a makeshift bedchamber in an abandoned underground mine where Loki brought her after she agreed to join him.
She looked over to the door as she saw two maids enter the room, "We've come to clean you up my lady." They said, before widening the door for a basin to be brought in and set in the middle of the room. They then proceeded to bring in several buckets of steaming water and filled the basin.
I always was curious about Shakespearean bathing rituals… she thought to herself before starting to take off her dirty clothing.
*.*.*.*.*.
Angel paced around the lab for about an hour, trying to wrap her head around recent events. The feeling of the weight in her stomach and on her shoulders was overwhelming, but she needed to keep moving in order to stop herself from going nuts and manipulating a pilot herself to take her to shore and find Sharon.
Steve came in and saw Angel looking frazzled, pacing the room frantically, "Hey I just heard about Sharon, any idea where she may have gone?"
"None, absolutely no idea. She usually leaves a note or gives me some notice but she didn't." She gestured to thin air, feeling even more frantic.
Something was seriously wrong that Sharon wouldn't tell her where she was going or even that she was leaving, she knew Sharon was scared, but this seemed overboard even for her. Something must have happened between her and Clint…
"wherever she is I'm sure she's fine, maybe she just needed to get away for a while."
"Well she should have told me so that I could go with her. We never leave each other, and if we did, I thought that we would at least be able to inform the other of their destination. No, something happened between her and Clint and I'm going to squeeze that hawk's neck until he tells me." She started for the door.
Steve grabbed her arm and swung her around so she faced him, "Angel you need to calm down."
"No I need Sharon back here where she's needed. Now let go of my arm," Angel said with a tug, but Steve held on.
"She's a grown woman Angel, she can take care of herself, it wasn't like she was doing much anyway."
Angel's eyes flared with anger, "Everything this mission is depends on her."
Steve looks confused, "What do you mean?"
The weight in Angel's stomach just got heavier with guilt. She felt tears well up and she realized Steve needed to know, and he was probably going to hate her, "I have something I need to tell you." She said in a whisper, leading him to her desk chair and making him sit.
"Whatever it is Angel, I'm sure it can be helped," Steve said, Angel let out a bitter laugh and shook her head.
"Trust me, it can't," She took a deep breath, "I'm sure you've heard of the mutant phenomenon that has been happening in this decade."
"Yeah, people with mutated genes who have special abilities," Steve said with a nod, the whole concept was still a bit abstract to him, but he got the gist of it.
"Sharon is a mutant. She can absorb other people's abilities and use them to her advantage, that's how she read the energy signature. We need her here to track the signature and maintain the Tesseract." She said.
Steve looked confused, "Okay… Why did she leave then?"
"Natasha found out and came and told me that she knew, when I told Sharon she got scared," Angel sighed, "Sharon had it very rough growing up, a good majority of the civilian population look at mutants like the scum of the earth, she's seen her fair share of that hatred and a lot of it has left her scarred. She was scared that Natasha would tell everyone and they would react poorly. What doesn't add up is why she didn't tell me and why she actually left. Usually we can talk things out and figure out something, but something happened between her and Barton that really set her on edge enough to leave."
"So we bring her back and figure it out, it doesn't sound like too serious a problem having a mutant on board." Steve said, grabbing Angel's hand and stroking the back of it, "After all, we have an Asgardian God and a hulk on board too, she's not alone in this."
Angel swallowed before slipping her hand out of Steve's grip, "Two mutants… There are two mutants on board." She looked him in the eye, the truth in her eyes.
Steve froze and stared at Angel, not sure how to comprehend that information, "I…. what?"
"I'm a mutant, I gained the gene from my mother. Tony doesn't have it," Angel said, looking at the floor, "I have the ability to manipulate people and put thoughts in their head."
"Wait," Steve stood and walked a few paces back, "You can make people do things? Did you use it on me?"
"God no!" Angel sobbed, stepping forward to grab his hand. He stepped away from her and walked around the desk, "I haven't used my abilities on anyone on the ship. You believe me don't you?"
"I don't know what to believe honestly. I need to go think about this…" He walked over to the door.
"Steve, please!" Angel pleaded, following after him only to stop when the door closed as he left the lab. Angel collapsed onto her knees and sobbed. Sharon was right, they think we're abominations…
*.*.*.*.*.
The dress Sharon was offered to wear was beautiful, a deep turquoise with delicate patterns woven in silk thread with matching slippers. Sharon smiled, "It's beautiful, but I'd really rather where my own clothing." She said.
Loki smiled, "I'm afraid your other clothing has been disposed of, and this dress is far more fitting for you. It'll make you look like a queen."
"Do you have something a little more… practical? I won't have much mobility wearing a corset and long skirts," Sharon said, feeling annoyed he took the liberty of disposing her personal items.
Loki chuckled and walked toward her, placing his hand on her cheek and touching his forehead to hers, "You're a queen, leave it to the servants to be practical," He brushed his lips on her jawline, "You'll be the most beautiful goddess of the nine realms."
Sharon's spine tingled as he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. Sharon's eyes widened and she stepped back, breathing a little heavily. Loki stared at her, "Was that too forward of me?"
"Just a tad," Sharon send, feeling a little winded and disoriented, "We only just met this afternoon."
"Yes but I've known about you for a while now. We are what earthlings like to call 'soul mates', we're meant to be together," He smiled and caressed her cheek once more, "Soon you'll realize it."
With that he left the room, leaving the dress on the bed for Sharon to put on unless she wanted to where the bathrobe for the duration of her stay. She sighed and walked over to the dress and looked at it, I hope I'm not making a mistake…