#sometimes one wanders down into the basement and peers wide-eyed into the machine floor like a startled deer

[eats-the-stars]

pleased that my new workplace passed a test i have called: can i take off on this day I was scheduled to work?

answer was yes, which sounds like “of course they would say yes that day is like 2 weeks out” but the thing is, it was not immediately followed by “as long as you can find someone to cover your shift.”

however, this day IS part of the weekly shift I agreed to cover during the holiday season, so it is NOT part of my normal shift schedule, and technically qualifies as an extra day. so...this is just, like, test part 1. still happy my workplace passed, though

#work stuff #i am a little paranoid because i used to work in a restaurant so u can imagine how understanding they were about time off #which was not at all #my call center job was a bit better because they gave me a set number of sick days and were like 'do not be sick more than this' #but like i do get sick more than 3 days a year i am sorry but i do not have the immune system of a god #if there are ppl out there who do not get sick more than 3 days a year i do not believe you are real #for real tho whoever designed my immune system did not know what they were doing #but yeah so far i am happy with my new job so i kind of have this feeling like it's too good to be true? #like i am looking for the catch but i also don't want to find it #normally the biggest 'oh no' is 'i have to deal with customers' #and then there are a bunch of smaller rib jabs and shin kicks to follow up the big customer gut punch #but this job...no customers #sometimes one wanders down into the basement and peers wide-eyed into the machine floor like a startled deer #but i do not need to talk to them or acknowledge them in any way we all just bustle around doing our jobs like nice little worker bees #until someone takes pity and scuttles off to inform the supervisor that a real life person wandered down into our domain #and they need someone to lead them on shaky legs back into the light #but yeah the pay is good by my standards #the number of hours i work a week on my normal schedule is good #they asked me to work an extra shift and cover some scattered days for ppl who were sick or had appointments #but i felt like i could easily say no to all those #and i did say no to a few days w/no issue #partly as a test but also if i was busy that day #so yeah...no problems with the job so i am like 'where is it?! where is the problem?!' #hopefully a problem will just not manifest and my gut will accept that in time

[lunarfox22]

Bloodied and Broken - Part 8

Pairing: Loki x OFC (of color)

Warning: Violence, language, blood, mentions of suicidal thoughts, angst, fluff

Words: 1958

AO3: Bloodied and Broken by lunar_fox22

FFN: Bloodied and Broken by lunarfox22

Summary:  Loki has fallen from the Bifrost, a disgraced prince. He meets Angela Lawrence, a SHIELD agent who helps him, but can he let go of his scorn? Or will he betray the only person who is on his side?

Part 7 - Part 9

Masterlist

AN: The first part is a dream.

I'm moving these over to my new writing works tumblr. Please forgive any confusion!

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“Again!” her father’s voice rang out through the room. He was in the back, looming - watching like he always did during training sessions. It had been like this since she was old enough to hold a knife - that age being six.

Angela was drenched in sweat, and she was panting hard trying to catch her breath after sparring with three grown men. She was only ten. She stood up straight, took a deep breath, and charged at the man right in front of her.

Only to be knocked flat on her ass.

“Enough!” her father bellowed. His dark figure came strolling over and the men around her gave way to him. He stood over her, and she looked up in fear. His dark skin shined under the intense lighting of the training room, and in his visage she could only see disappointment. “Grab her and bring her to the treatment room.”

Panic seized her. “No no no no no,” she begged. The men grabbed her by her arms and she began to struggle with all her might. She hit one of them in the crouch and he doubled over, but he was immediately replaced by the other one. “Please! Dad! I’ll do better, I promise! Just don’t–”

“Be quiet, Angela.” He snapped, and then left the room.

The entire way down she struggled - kicking, screaming, and crying. Her father was nowhere to be found the moment they opened the basement door (aka the treatment room). It was a damp, dark place. The only light that was given off was some old fluorescent lights that blinked above. A bunch of equipment was in there, and surrounding a medical exam table, that came with restraints.

She was strapped down to the table, though it took them some effort. She knew they were - that her father was - going to use that glowing cube on her again. So she fought like her life depended on it. By the time they had her wrist strapped down and her legs, her father had emerged.

“Calm yourself,” He instructed. He walked passed the table, straight to another machine and booted it up. The men around her attached some sticky heart monitors to her and soon the room was filled with the sound of an EKG keeping track of her fast heartbeat.

Angela watched as her father retrieved the blue, glowing cube with a pair of metal tongs, and put it in place. He came over to her, and gazed down at her.

Her lip trembled and the tears wouldn’t stop rolling down her cheeks, “Please, I’ll be good I promise, just–”

“That’s enough. We do this so you’ll be the best. You’re my perfect little weapon, Angela.”  he brushed a piece of hair from her face as he spoke softly to her. “Now open.”

She reluctantly opened her mouth and he all but shoved a mouthguard in there. She closed her eyes and waited.

She heard the machine whirl to life, and then that was the last thing she heard. The pain that coursed through her body was tremendous. It felt like pure molten lava coursing through her veins. Like something was trying to fit under her skin. All she could do was scream.

“Angela! Angela, wake up,” Loki commanded as he shook her shoulder.

Angela’s  reflexes took over before she could comprehend what she was doing. She snatched the hand that was on her shoulder, and bent it backwards. She quickly turned over to see who it was that had touched her.

Loki’s jaw set, and he stared down at her waiting for her to let go of his hand. He realized she wasn’t fully awake, and didn’t know what she was doing. “It’s me - Loki. You were having a nightmare.”

A look of realization dawned on her face, and she dropped his hand, “Oh my God, I’m sorry. I–”

He resisted the urge to rub his hand, but he did subtle roll his wrist to relieve some of the pain. For a mortal, she had quite the grip. “It’s alright, darling,” he soothed.

“Did I wake you up? I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she sat up in the bed and ran her hands through her hair in exasperation.

This was a recurring nightmare of her past. That man tortured her and experimented on her for years. He trained her to be a killer. He wasn’t even her father. Just a rogue ex-agent of SHIELD named Marshall Corbain who had kidnapped her as a child and killed her actual father. Fury said that Marshall was once a top agent at SHIELD, but then wanted to restart HYDRA and took the Tesseract and ran. SHIELD had tried tracking him down for 20 years.

Loki watched her carefully, unsure of what exactly to do. He wasn’t sure how she would react to him trying to comfort her. Whatever the nightmare she had was, it obviously caused her a lot of grief. Yet, she didn’t seem too shaken by having a nightmare. It was almost as if she had them frequently. But he decided to approach her with care, “It’s alright. There’s no need to apologize,” he tried to soothe her again. “I was having my own own nightmare of sorts.

Angela’s gaze slid to him, searching for any lie in his face - in his eyes. When she didn’t find any, her features softened. She graced him with a small, tired smile. “Well, thank you for waking me up.” She turned so her feet were now on the floor, sitting next to him. “I’m just going to watch a bit of TV or something now. You can go back to bed. I promise I won’t bother you again.”

He kept his gaze on her. She hadn’t faced him again. Her gaze was directed towards the floor where her feet lay and she resembled a scolded child almost. His heart almost clenched in his chest. Though he believed Angela to be kind, he never thought her weak. In fact, he thought she was fairly strong in every sense of the word. Seeing her like this… didn’t settle well with him.

“I doubt I would be getting any sleep, anyhow.” He offered softly.

Angela’s brown eyes rose and she peered at him, once again searching. He kept his gaze leveled, knowing somehow that she wouldn’t want to be seen as weak. He wouldn’t want to be seen as that either.

Once she found whatever she was looking for, she softened again. “Well, do you…wanna watch a movie with me then?”

He nods, gets up from her bed and opens the door. With a grin he gestures for her to lead the way. She smiles at him, and slowly heads to the living room. She only turns on the lamp, opting to mostly remain in the dark. Loki comes in just as she turns on the television, and starts the DVD player. They decide on some cheesy comedy movie before settling down into opposite ends of the couch.

The previews played and Loki’s mind wandered back to her behavior after he had awoken her. “So, does it happen often?” he asked, glancing at her.  

Angela had arranged herself so her feet were taking up the middle part of the couch, and her arm rested on the arm of it, holding her head She turned to look at him, bewilderment on her face, “Huh?”

He dug himself deeper into the couch, spreading his legs to take up more room before him since hers weren’t there, “Your nightmare. You didn’t seem too shaken by it.”

He had caught her off-guard. Sometimes, Loki was far too observant for her liking. Usually it was her who noticed everything, not the other way around. She tried to deny it but all that came out was a lousy, “Um.”

So she took a moment to try again. But, lying to the God of Lies seemed like a dumbass thing to do. So she told him the truth. “Yeah, it does.”

“Does it have anything to do with why you returned home in such a state?” he questioned.

She fixed her gaze to the TV, but still answered him. “No, not really. That had to do with my job.”

It occurred to her that she passed out here in the living room. But when she woke up, she had been in her bed. She looked down at herself and realized that one.) her jacket was off. Two.) so were her shoes. And three.) her face didn’t feel covered in dry blood any longer. So that meant Loki must have helped her out.

She didn’t expect him to just leave her there, no, but she was used to picking herself back up by herself after things like this happened. Still…

“Thank you for taking care of me,” she said softly.

The movie had begun, but Loki wasn’t paying attention. His focus was still on Angela. He smiled at her before speaking again. “Think nothing of it. I do believe I owe you.” His grin then turned wicked, “Besides, far be it from me not to help a pretty damsel in distress.”

Angela snorted, then rolled her eyes before focusing her attention back on the movie.

“How did you end up like that?”

“I just did too much at once. But, I had to so,” she shrugged.

“With your powers?”

He head snapped to him, her eyes wide, “Excuse me?”

He eyed her carefully. Did she not want him to know? “I wished to know what was wrong. So I checked you over with my seidr, darling,” he explained. “It relieved your powers to me, but I couldn’t quite make them out. They were weakened.”

She shifted uncomfortably, before settling down once again. “Yeah,” she admitted. “I overdid it with my powers. I can’t control them that well.”

Loki’s mind drifted to how she looked when she came through the door. It still didn’t sit right with him. “They seem to work well with my seidr. Perhaps I could train you to control them?” he offered.

She froze. If she could control her powers, then maybe she wouldn’t be hit so hard with them when she needed to use them. But everytime she used her powers, she was reminded of how she got them. She would  have to consider it. “I don’t know…” she replied to him finally.

He nodded slowly. “Think it through.”

They both lapsed into a silence after going back and paying attention to the movie. Angela’s mind was more occupied with the decision of Loki’s offer. Soon though, her eyelids grew heavy and she started to lay down on the couch rather than sit. Then before she nodded off, she remembered that he said he had a nightmare tonight as well. Her head lifted slightly from the arm of the couch so she could look at him.

“What about your?” she asked softly.

Loki had actually been watching the movie and her voice broke him out of it. “I beg your pardon?”

“Your nightmare? Earlier you asked me if I had mine often. Do you have yours?”

He shifted. It wasn’t technically a nightmare. But the prospect of Thanos and his minion unnerved him. His minion had only come once before tonight, but he was sure he would see more of him, “More so lately.”

She nodded. He hadn’t asked her what hers was about, so she wouldn’t ask him. But she did feel bad he was having nightmares. It was never enjoyable. “I’m sorry,” she whispered before closing her eyes again.

Loki watched her slowly fall asleep, an ache in his chest. “I’m sorry as well,” he whispered. Though he wasn’t sure if he was only sorry for her nightmares or something else.

#loki x ofc #loki x oc #loki/oc #loki/ofc #loki #loki fanfic #loki odinson #loki laufeyson #bloodied and broken