Hi! So As a promised, here is another one, with Loki! It is a little shorter, I am sorry, but SHERLOCK WAS OFF HIATUS for 2 weeks. There was no place for anything else in my head :D But read, review, enjoy! :)

Let me know if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes.

I own nothing but my OC and plot.

XIX

It all went well. And then he opened his eyes.

A mist that had been blinding his sight for so long was gone as fast as it appeared. And all that he saw was only an echo of some horrible dream. It had to be, it was the only explanation. Unless it wasn't and all that he remembered was a truth and it was the reason he was sitting in another glassy cell. Those emotions he thought were false were his own and the actions that seemed mad were real. He felt it all went horribly wrong.

The room around was empty without any machines as the last time. Loki had to smirk. It was so easy to escape from the flying device before and the fools around had no idea until it was too late for them to stop it all. They even showed him how to use the cell and he gladly did it the moment he realised his brother was trapped there. But as idiotic as they were, somehow, he was the one trapped again.

There was so many thought in his head now. There was no order in his head. The memories blurry and intentions unfocused. He had to close his eyes again and force his mind to function. Because one thing he was certain of was, that this could not be the end of all the effort and pain he put into this. Loki could not lose. And he will not.

He started with facts. Tesseract was probably gone from his reach, secured at some safe place and guarded by many. The chances of getting Tesseract back were close to zero. There had to be another way. On the other hand, he was probably being watched as well although he had no idea how. This Midgardian form of mechanics was confusing and Loki had no intention of understanding it. He needed only enough so he could leave in one piece. Best unseen. But honestly, he was not blind enough to not realise what he did in only a few short hours. He didn't really care about the buildings he destroyed or the people he killed, the little ants were nothing to him, even though he wished to avoid spilling blood as much as possible. They could be still alive if they let Loki do as he liked. However, the dead possibly meant world to the group of "heroes" who, by some kind of miracle, defeated his army of Chitauri and smashed him to the floor.

Loki had never seen a creature as strong as that green one. And he didn't wish to see it again. But the others...he could not think of a way they could win this round. An army against a skinny woman, a man in ridiculous suite, another in iron one, the next only with a couple of arrows and...and Thor. But the woman tricked him into telling her his escape plan just before it happened, the blue one fought with inhuman strength, the iron man flight to the space without a thought and the archer cheated him with an exploding arrow. Yet there were still six against thousands. It made no sense.

But it all didn't matter anymore. The past happened and future was yet to come. Loki was not defeated, unless he gave up. And that will never happen. There was one was he could escape this all, but that required patience. And a lot of hope.

He heard metal move against the floor and then steps approaching him. Immediately, he knew who it was, so there was no need for opening his eyes again. Why not let some illusion deal with his brother's annoying complaints? He never knew it was not real anyway.

"Did you miss me brother?" as always, the last word sounded like a poison. "Or did you come to tell me how I lost and you won?" Loki sat on the floor leaning against the wall, eyes closed. His illusion was walking only inches from the glass.

"Neither. I came to talk Loki." The familiar voice said. Loki almost laughed. Again, he did not realise it was not him talking.

"You were never good at talking, so why bother?"

For a while, Thor didn't answer. Loki imagined him standing in front of the fake Loki with his sad blue eyes and hurt expression. "No more illusion brother." That made his eyes open at once. He knew. How?

But Loki did as Thor said. The illusion was gone and he was there, bruised and tired, but real. "Now you see me." He said quietly. As he expected, Thor was standing right in front of him with that pitiful look in his face. Loki didn't need his pity. But despite all the hurt and anger he felt when Thor was around, there was something else in his chest that he could not understand. Sentiment. Memories. Weakness. Betrayal.

"I will take you back home," Thor started and looked down at the floor. He was probably thinking about the talk they had hours before. The first time Thor appeared, the one thing Loki didn't expect. "And before you say anything, Asgard is your home. The only home you have ever known."

Loki was silent. Seemingly innocent words, but not to him. To him it was like a punch in the gut when he could not defend himself. His throat was suddenly dry and his limbs heavy. Not the only home. Once, for a short time, he had another, didn't he? It was so long time ago. He could barely remember. He didn't want to remember.

"Give me a kingdom and I will come."

"You failed Loki. And you should be thankful for your life."

Loki laughed as quietly as possible. "And why? You are not able to kill me anyway."

"No," Thor admitted and looked at his brother. "But Father is."

Loki looked up in a heartbeat, not sure what to do. Thor was right and somewhere deep down, Loki felt an unwanted, almost forgotten emotion. Fear. However, he made sure none of that was shown on his face. He made no answer. "Mother and I are going to persuade him to spare your life. You should not try and make it worse."

"You don't really expect me to thank you, do you?" Loki stood up and took a step forward. His muscles were stiff and hurt at every move, but he tried to ignore that. He had worse. "I would hate to disappoint you."

Thor shook his head. "I do not expect anything from you anymore, Loki." Hurt was screaming from his face.

"Is that all?" Loki asked. He was getting tired of this empty words. He had a much better time alone.

"No. I want to know why you did it."

A wicked smile appeared on his brother's face. "You talk about me like I'm a mad man and yet you ask me for my reasons. Do you really want to know?"

Thor exhaled. "No. It does not matter now." He turned around, ready to leave. As his hand was on some strange metal flickering thing, he turned around again and looked Loki in the eyes. "I guess Milla was right. There is no turning back for you."

As he left, Loki found himself leaning against the wall, breathing heavily with a racing heart. Images filled his head and emotions his chest. One word, one little word and the wall he was building so carefully was shaking like a leaf in the wind.

Milla. The reason he did it all.

And Thor knew her.

"Well, that was wild."

Leo and Milla were sitting on the grass in the garden with a bottle of wine between them. Everything around them screamed "lazy". The way gentle breeze was playing with Milla's hair or the way sun was slowly rising to the sky. All movements of the two were slow and tired, even blinking looked like it took a lot of effort. The only source of energy were little morning birds singing above their heads.

"Yes." Milla agreed with a lazy smile and closed eyes. She stretched her legs and leaned on her elbows. The endorphins were still rushing through her blood and protected her from sleep. She needed that as water.

"I would love a second round." Leo admitted, drinking wine from the bottle. Leaning on a tree with eyes a bit red from the exhaustion, he was still very handsome to look at. So every now and then, Milla was stealing a few seconds of the view. She liked when he noticed and smiled or winked.

"Patience, love. I am too exhausted after this." She reached from the bottle and drank. It would taste good at the beginning of the night, but now, after a few hours filled with a few bottles of whatever was offered to her, it tasted like a poisoned, bitter water. She made a face after swallowing it and Leo smirked.

"I have always wanted to see you drunk."

"I am not drunk. Just tired."

"Drunk or tired, it looks the same now. Dream fulfilled."

Milla nodded and looked at the fading stars. She hadn't seen sunrise for a long while now. Even when she stayed up half of the night or went home from some ball, she didn't think about sitting down and enjoying the view. But there was a difference between looking at the start of a new day and realizing you are alone and sitting on a grass with a person you like, half drunk and aching from the night spent dancing. Everyone would prefer the second scenario.

"You are right, I will fall asleep any minute now anyway."

"No, don't." He looked at her with a half smile. "I would really want to kiss you right now."

Milla laughed and shook her head. "To bad I wouldn't let you."

"Oh, really?" in a heartbeat, the bottle form her hands was placed on the ground and he was only inches from her face, staring deeply to her eyes and moving closer. For a second, after she realised what was going on, she let him play. But as soon as his lips were almost touching hers, she pulled back and let him fall on the ground. She laughed.

"Yes, really." His palm was resting on her waist, but slowly, he went back to his tree in defeat. Luckily, he was smiling. He was smiling the whole night. Actually, she was smiling too, which had not happened for a long time.

A day before, Milla woke up at noon with an idea. She decided to organize a last minute ball, not for all her rich and powerful and of course demanding friends, but for common people she helped before or knew from her walks to the city. And so she did it. At once, she divided the work and hired some more people as waiters and waitresses, so everything would be perfect the following day. And then, she went to town to invite some guests.

Of course, Leo was one of the people that could not miss the event. She invited his father as well and a few other Guardians who she knew loved local entertainment. She made sure there were loads of alcohol and food and a good band and that everything valuable was safely hidden in some locked room. She had been on this kind of parties before and it never ended without at least one fight and something broken.

So when all the guest came to house, there was a few seconds of awkward silence. No one knew what to expect from a party in such a great house organized by a rich lady. Milla tried to talk to everyone at the entrance, so there was not time to realise what was going on inside the house. As soon as Emma told Milla that there was only murmur and nobody was dancing, she sighed. Well, she expected that. At once, she found Aaron, her friend Guardian whom she had known since forever and asked the band to play louder and faster. And they danced, or better said, ran through the dance floor and laughed and very soon, more and more people were joining. After half an hour, there was no place to move and a part of the party moved to the garden.

Hours passed like minutes and now, as she was looking back at the night, she wasn't sure if everything that was supposed to happen really happened. She blamed alcohol. And the heat. And dancing. Truth to be told, she drank a lot more than a host should. But the thing was, she could do that, because there were no people who would accuse her of being impolite while being drunk. These people, simple people with a lot easier and less pretended life were only laughing lauder every time she almost fell or insulted someone. Oh how she had missed that, honest faces and real laughs everywhere around. All the sounds that rich parties missed.

And the people she talked to! Young or old, it didn't matter. They all had something interesting to say. A sewer helped her repair the zip somewhere after midnight and meanwhile gossiped about a horrible fashion sense of some high lord that she was sewing a suit for. Apparently, he wanted to combine red with green and pink and black. Or later, some baker invited her to invent and bake her own pie whenever she wanted. Another women complimented on the food, apparently cooks and asked whether she wanted to throw these partied more often. One little boy crashed to her as he was looking for his friends playing hide-and-seek. She turned him away from the hiding. Or a boy, old enough to try drinks got so drunk they had to carry him away while he was threatening to fight everybody. And many, many more.

After some time, she was barefoot and sitting in the garden, sipping water to calm her stomach down. Tony was sitting next to her and his son standing in front of them. A few children were asleep under the trees and on benches while mothers were looking for drunk fathers to take them home. It was really late. So late, it was almost early.

"Tony?" she said while she was trying to beat Leo in staring battle. Her eyes began to water.

"Hm?" he was obviously resting with his eyes closed. Half asleep.

"Can Leo stay for the night?"

"It's almost morning Milla."

"Can Leo stay for the morning?"

"Of course. If it was up to him, he would never leave this house."

"Father!" Leo broke the eye contact while Milla was laughing. Tony smirked and Leo rolled his eyes.

And now, as they were sitting in the grass surrounded by broken glass and napkins and emply bottles and bowls and plates, she could not feel more peaceful. Energy was slowly leaving her and she let it, she had someone to carry her to bed anyway. She gave up and rolled towards Leo and rested her head on his thing. He automatically started playing with her hair. If she were a cat, she would purr.

"I love nights." Milla said almost in a whisper.

"Nights? I remember you said you love mornings." He replied. Leo wasn't sober either, in fact, Milla preferred him this way. Gentle and in a good mood, but also very friendly. But when he was not sober, it was easier for her to stop him without remorse.

"Yes, I love a whole kinds of things." She opened her eyes and find him looking at her and grinning. She smiled too.

"Like neck kisses?"

Milla laughed. Of course he remembered that one. "Yes, and bites, I love bites." There. A little more to keep him interested.

"Hmm, what else, my lady?"

"I love this moment right here, right now."

"Then you should do this unexpected parties more often."

"Not a good idea, people would get greedy and in the end, I would be the bitch. Honestly, I have no idea why I did it. But it was interesting, wasn't it?"

"Yes. I haven't seen such a fight in a long time."

Milla laughed and closed her eyes again. She knew there will be a fight and a fight it was. As usual, two men started fighting about a woman. One wanted to dance with her, the other wanted to drink with her and both were drunk enough to decide a battle was a good idea. And so they went outside and people parted when they saw what was going on. In the end, one had a broken nose and the other a big bruise under his eye. But the interesting thing was how it ended. The woman they were fighting for came between them and slapped them both with all her strength. They were so surprised when she walked away, that they forgot why was the fight important. In a while, Milla saw them laughing at something with beer in their hands. And she went to congratulate the woman on a great slapping technique.

"I hope you are not one of those men who think woman can't fight?"

"Not that they can't, it's just unnecessary. Why don't you let us deal with it?"

Milla had to sit and look him in the eyes with one raised eyebrow. She had met people with this idea and she had always tried to prove them wrong. Not at once, she didn't want to fight, but in time, show them, that woman are as capable as met, if not more. But this time, she had no time nor mood for thinking about a way to show him. "Because we like being independent. Darling, I would be dead over a hundred times if I didn't know how to fight."

"But you are an exception." He said softly and made her lie down again. "Probably a deadly one though."

Milla smiled, but not as happily. "Sometimes. Let's talk about something else."

"All right. So why do you like night?" He changed the topic as she wished. Was he even realising it? That he was doing everything she wanted him to do? If yes, he obviously didn't mind. And she liked having him around. She was too tired to think about this more.

"Well, every part of the day carries something different, a specific feeling." She said slowly in a tired voice again. She almost felt sleep taking over her. "For me, nights are filled with peace, they are a safe haven for heavy thoughts. And yes, this night was a pleasant exception." She heard him laugh. "What else? Mornings are playful, they make me curious as I said before. And yes, this morning is an exception as well, I am too tired for adventures."

"What a pity." He sighed.

"Noon is a chaos, busy and hot, the best time for work. And evenings are just like this morning. Lazy and full of comfort. The only difference is that you see a sun going down, not up." She pointed behind the tree to a space between house and another trees. Sun was going up.

"You should be a poet you know?" Leo said as he helped her up to her legs. He suggested going to sleep for opening his eyes was harder after every time he winked. She agreed.

"So am I sharing your bed tonight?" He asked as she was trying to find her other shoe. The grass was cold.

She looked up and laughed. She didn't think about that. But why not? He was too tired to do anything anyway. Or at least she hoped. But what about when he wakes up? The alcohol would be gone from his system. What then?

Milla had just opened her mouth to answer, when Emma ran from house, shouting her name. At once, a hidden alarm in her head started screaming. It was too early, something must have happened. Something bad. She let the shoe go and walked back to Leo who looked as confused as she did. She frowned, waiting till Emma reach her.

"What happened?" she asked while Emma was catching her breath. A concern filled her when she saw how pale she was and panic rose in her chest when she saw blood on her hands. "Emma, what happened?!" she repeated, louder. Suddenly, the tiredness and alcohol was gone, replaced by adrenaline.

Emma looked at her, a pure fear in her eyes. Milla froze on the spot. And waited.

"Milla...it's him...he's back. Injured." That was all she managed before Milla understood what was she talking about.

"No." She whispered so quietly, she doubted anyone heard that. A shiver ran through her body. And then, it was her running. Barefoot, pale, heart beating in her throat as fast as if she was the one that fought just seconds ago. She knew Emma was running just behind her, so when she reached the house door, she let her go first to show her where.

But she didn't have to. Trail of blood did it for her. It lead her to the living room. And then, she had no idea what she was doing. Nothing around existed for that short moment. People standing around and shouting were gone. She heard only her own heart and breath. There was a little pool of blood and more was dripping from everywhere. She felt her legs moving closer till she saw him. Deadly pale.