Chapter 2
The first thing that Loki registered was the hot press of light against his closed eyelids. There was a soft, constant noise of movement nearby- likely he had fallen asleep in the garden while Frigga finished both of their projects on her own. He did that far too often.
Frigga was always amused, but Loki felt rather guilty each time. He didn’t mean to fall asleep on her- he simply had never been great at sleeping, and had only gotten worse at it as the decades passed by.
She wasn’t humming a tune like normal, but there were plenty of reasons she might not. No cause for alarm.
Except, he didn’t smell the garden when he breathed in through his nose.
How odd was that? Where in the garden had they chosen to work? It clearly wasn’t their normal spot.
Blearily, he forced his eyes open, his curiosity outweighing his groggy need to catch up on as much sleep as he could.
He blinked, processing, as his world focused and blurred a few times before stabilizing into normal vision.
He… was not in the garden.
“Ah, so you finally decided to join us, hm?” a pleasant voice said as he tried to puzzle together the bizarre scene in front of him.
He had never been somewhere so… coldly mechanical before. Even the dwarves had a rugged naturalistic feeling in their decor- and their merge with nature was nothing in comparison to the other realms.
Here, however, there were almost perfectly formed walls, of equal length, the same shade of synthetic grey. The smell was sterile and awful, and it made him want to scream and shred it down until nature could reclaim her territory.
The air was so stagnant around him it was stifling and he hated it. It squeezed on his skin, uncomfortably warm and unfairly thick.
It was wrong.
As if sinking through layers of mud, the strange words registered and he rolled his head around, trying to find the speaker despite his body feeling heavier than the densest alloy.
The speed at which he processed what he was seeing was, frankly, rather embarrassing.
That man was clearly a midgardian- or human, as was their preferred name, if he recalled correctly.
The man looked extremely mild, to the point that it was suspicious. He wore a formal midgardian suit and tie, and gave Loki a smile so bland and blandly pleasant it would have fooled anyone else.
But not Loki. No amount of unassuming ordinary-ness could hide the intelligence sparkling in his eyes. This man was not to be underestimated- even above the general rule to avoid underestimating others Loki did his best to follow. (After all, most underestimated him, and it always worked well in his favor and bad in theirs. He knew better.)
Loki was too tired and disoriented by far for this. His head felt like someone had spent the better part of an hour or so pounding nails into his very skull.
Why was he even on Midgard? Did they know he wasn't one of them yet? Loki needed to be in top form, no matter his physical state (what was wrong with him?) and remain flexible. Whether or not he had all the answers, he needed to get them, and figure out what strategy he needed to hold the greater power- preferably without them becoming aware of it.
Loki licked his lips. They were dry and chapped. He tried to speak, then paused, cleared his throat and tried again. It rasped out of his throat painfully, but he ignored it. (Never let them see your weakness. Unless, of course, you had a way to use it to your advantage.) “Was I out terribly long, then?”
He wanted to add something pithy and make himself more interesting at the very least, but instead his voice caught in his throat and he began to cough. And once he started, he couldn’t stop.
He lurched forward, unable to hide his pain and weakness, and coughed like he wished to hack up his insides. Which he really, truly didn’t. That was when he really learned what state he was in- his headache intensified, naturally, and the way the world spun around his eyes told him exactly how dizzy he’d gotten at the sudden movement. Considering his unknown situation and his uncontrollable coughing, Loki genuinely wasn’t sure how it could be worse. (Which was something he knew better than to think- he had learned long since not to challenge the norns)
“Ah, not sure that’s a good idea,” the man hummed. “Here, let me get you some water.”
Loki barely noticed as he rose from his hard, ugly, plastic chair to go find water. He was a little preoccupied with trying to figure out how to take a breath that didn’t rattle in his chest.
How long had he been out?
“Here, this should help.”
Loki refused to jump, but there was no doubt that his heart rate picked up. When had he returned? How long had it taken him to fetch the water?
Loki didn’t know. And he was not fond of feeling out of control, in any capacity.
He blindly reached out, figuring the man couldn’t hurt him any more than he could have when Loki was unconscious.
Except, it was not a cup of any kind. Loki looked up wildly, staring at the object in his hands, other mouth politely covering his ragged coughing as he stared at the squishy vessel of what was possibly water in his slender fingers. It crinkled and made an alarming cracking sound and he dropped it onto the unfortunately scratchy thin blanket he only now saw covered his legs. (Why hadn’t he noticed it before, felt it before? He had always had incredibly sensitive skin- why did the sensation feel so distant?)
“Wh-” he tried to say.
The man tsked. “It's a water bottle.”
Loki looked up, his gut sinking slightly. He’d just failed some kind of test, he was pretty sure. And that was only confirmed by the glint in the man’s eyes, offsetting his placid expression.
This man was too sharp to pull the wool over his eyes now.
“I don’t f-” he coughed sharply, the motion sending a scalding hot blade through him, “follow.”
His coughing finally began to abate as the man hummed again and retrieved the ‘water bottle’ and twisted the odd little cap on the top. Loki felt like a helpless child as he accepted it again from the man, as the man quietly explained with precise instructions how to drink from it.
Loki carefully brought the tip to his mouth, pretending it was a normal water skin, and carefully poured it into his mouth.
He refused to sputter and dribble water. He may have fallen far, but he had not fallen to that level yet.
After he had drank his fill- the crinkling was horridly distracting and he despised it- the man capped it once more. Loki brushed his arm over his lips absently, his breathing settling. “I meant it,” he said, as crisply as he could. “How long was I out?” he hesitated for a moment, before adding, “and how did I get here?”
The man seemed prepared to answer, but Loki couldn’t help but interrupt one last time, his lips twitching with amused self-abashment as he did so. “So sorry, that was terribly rude of me. First, my name is Loki. And yours, friend?”
The wrinkles around the man’s eyes creased as he smiled a tad more genuinely. “Agent Coulson,” he said, tilting his head appreciatively. “And you broke the roof of our safe house. I brought you to our medical, where you have been unconscious for the past week or so.”
Loki cringed. “Ah. That is… delightful.”
The man- Agent Coulson- huffed a slight laugh. “One way to look at it,” he agreed. Then his gaze sharpened. “Now, my turn to ask the questions.”
Loki repressed the urge to suck in a quick breath at the suggestion. The agent would absolutely notice and come away with something Loki had no plans for him to know.
“Alright,” he said evenly, relaxing his hands on the fabric and smoothing his face in a shift that would have been unnoticeable to anyone but this man- not that the agent reacted.
He was good.
“First, how do you feel?” Coulson said kindly, breaking the ice. (And, of course, still gathering valuable information.)
Loki said, after the perfect lengthed pause, “Quite well, beyond the catch in my chest,” he hummed. “A tad dizzy if I move too fast, but that will fade soon,” he assured confidently.
“Of course,” Coulson agreed easily. “And now, I must ask- you aren’t human, are you?”
Loki smiled at him, letting his teeth show slightly- which he knew were just a hair too long and sharp for a midgardian. “And what do you believe the answer to that will be?”
Coulson gave him a mild smile. “I doubt that a normal human would fall from the sky, break a concrete roof, and wake up a week later perfectly fine. Nevermind your different biology and your confusion at the sight of a water bottle.”
“No, I’m not human,” Loki confirmed, slightly perturbed at how quickly he had given the game away. He was normally far better at such things. “I am what midga- excuse me, humans in your preferred tongue, called a ‘god’ in the past. I’m uncertain if we are still worshiped- I haven’t checked in a few decades,” he admitted, slightly sheepish.
Couldon’s eyebrows raised. “A god, you say? I suppose this means that you are, in fact, the nordic god Loki?” He was remarkably unruffled.
“The one and only,” Loki gave him his most wickedly mischievous grin. “I’m afraid mortals have likely exaggerated the tales far beyond the truth, as they always did. They never were good at keeping track of it all, always getting confused,” he said fondly. “In truth, I would name us naught but ‘asgardians’ as I, personally, remain aware of our limitations. We are not nearly as divine as some of us prefer to believe,” Loki said simply, choosing the words he spoke carefully. As an experienced liar, he was an expert in knowing who would catch him out in his lies. Which Coulson absolutely would- at least until he relaxed.
Coulson was silent for a few beats, considering. “Okay. We might come back to that later. For now, do you know why you came to Earth?”
Loki shook his head. “Unfortunately, I have a disturbing gap in my memory,” he admitted, heavily displeased, allowing his face to scrunch up in slight disgust at the situation. Genuine emotion, when carefully selected to slip through the masks, were what truly sold a con of any kind and allowed him to get a leg up and hold his own truths back. Even to professional evaluators such as the man in front of him. And there was no doubt that such an admission left a bad taste in his mouth.
Coulson hummed, straightening his tie and cufflinks absently. “As far as we can tell, someone tried to strangle you. It is easily possible you might have some amount of memory loss from it,” he explained. “Do let us know if you remember. Has anything like this happened before?”
Loki reached up and touched his neck lightly, wincing at the pain that panged through him as he made contact with the tender skin. What had happened?
“Have I woken up without memories in an unfamiliar place, in an unusual state?” he asked wryly. “More times than I care to admit. However, never has it resulted in me falling to Midg- Earth,” he added.
Coulson took this in. “Alright then,” he decided. “Do you have any more questions for me at this time?”
Loki shook his head, hesitated, then asked, “You said you are an agent. What agency do you work for? Where exactly am I?” He gave Coulson a look that he had been reliably informed was rather piercing and intimidating.
Coulson tilted his head ever so slightly in a subtle gesture of respect. “I work for S.H.I.E.L.D. In other words, the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. I wouldn’t worry, however- me and my very close team are keeping this off the books. No one but us know you’re here.” So saying, he rose, patted Loki on the shoulder and left. “Get some rest, Loki-the-god.”
Loki huffed, but obediently let oblivion drag him back down like the felled prey of some starving predator. He wasn’t in immediate danger- there was no point making his situation worse by being hasty. He had best gather his strength and search for the best path to take.
He hoped his healing would hold as strong as it normally was, even if he hadn’t noticed its normal harmony humming quietly in the back of his mind yet. It was likely he had simply exhausted its reserves. It would be functioning as usual when he woke, he was sure.
Still, ‘Is it ideal that none know my location for me or for them?’ was his last thought before he surrendered to sleep.
“I shall talk to him,” Frigga’s melodic voice soothed, but Thor was no fool. She was more fearful than he was about the situation- he was far more furious.
“Will Loki yet live when the Allfather,” Thor spat, “allows the Norns to soften his heart? No, Mother, your kindness does Odin and Loki both a disservice. Naught will come of your gentleness. Fathe-”
“Thor,” Frigga said, her voice steely. “Anything you try will only result in your situation mirroring Loki’s. I will not watch both of my sons suffering the same fate. Keep your head down, serve your penance and please him, and we will get your brother back one way or another. First, we will try to convince Odin. If that fails…,” Frigga paused, looking into Thor’s eyes meaningfully. “I have no intention of leaving Loki defenseless on Midgard. He is my son, and I will not have him so separated from his family. But let peace enter your heart, dear child. Loki is hardly helpless even without his powers.”
Thor sighed. “I know, Mother,” he relented, deflating. “I just- I am his big brother. I should have, shouldn’t have just stood there and watched. I should have listened to him in the first place, instead of letting him take my punishment. I should have done better, should have protected him, should have-”
Frigga gently cupped his face, cutting him off and directing his gaze to meet hers. “What’s done is done, my son. You did the best as you saw it in the moment, and now you see your actions from the unique vantage point of hindsight. You will learn from this, and we will recover the situation, I promise,” she told him, words soft and warm. “Stay firm and do not lose hope. Your brother would have many a thing to say if he heard so,” she said, her voice taking on a lighter teasing tone.
Thor laughed shakily. “Aye, he always does.” He breathed in deeply, straightening his shoulders and back. “I will make up for this,” he vowed. “I will make you proud and bring Loki home, whatever it takes.”
“Oh, my child,” Frigga said, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear before resting her palm, warm and soft and strong, on his shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze. “I am already proud of you- you and Loki both. I always am.”
She smiled at him, and he smiled back.
‘Hold on, Loki,’ Thor thought firmly, strength returning to his body.