"Covered"
Inspiration:"Ivy" by Taylor Swift
Loki x Married!Reader
Loki always knew to be awake for you until at least after midnight. Sure enough, you burst in just before the witching hour, the dried tears still evident on your face due to your cheap, drug-store mascara.
“Darling,” he whispered, arms open and waiting for you to fall into them, which you did immediately. “What has he done tonight?”
“It wasn’t horrible tonight, just a few scratches--”
“--any scratches on your skin are too many,” he muttered, kissing your forehead as you gripped his torso so tightly that Loki feared he could lose air. The words were heartbreaking, coming from his lips. Loki always wished he could do more, but this was an impossible situation.
Your husband was one of Stark’s top investors, which was how you’d met the Avengers. Having married your husband on a whim, you had no idea the darkness he kept inside him, and he immediately began using you like an accessory in public, and a worthless whore in private. The taunts became hits, the hits became whole hours of beating you down, and then, eventually, those became assaults in your bedroom when you couldn’t get to the door to lock it in time.
“He said I can’t come to the complex any more to see you…I think he knows,” you said quietly, leaning your head against Loki’s shoulder as he gently ran his fingers through your hair, whispering gentle ‘shushes’ that comforted you.
Once you and Loki had met, the chemistry between you was unavoidable, but you kept your feelings just for one another, for fear that your husband would discover it and pull out his funding, or worse, murder you. However, you had no ability to leave, as he kept your finances under tight control. If you ever went to leave, you’d be penniless and living under the Brooklyn Bridge inside of a week. Plus, if your husband pulled his funding from the Avengers, everyone else would be standing right behind you in the unemployment line, and you couldn’t do that to everyone.
Loki knew this, and he knew that all he was able to do in the moment was to treasure you, keep you in a softer embrace that welcomed you instead of entrapped you, and to be your wings whenever the day came that you decided to fly away.
“You’re safe now, you’re here,” Loki said quietly. “One of these nights, I won’t be stopped from finding him and ripping his life from his body…”
“Loki, please,” you sighed between your fresh sobs. “That won’t heal the scars any faster.”
“How can you allow for this?” Loki answered, his voice growing in anger. “For nearly a year, I have let you tell me what to do about that…that cretin,” he hissed. “He would’ve been executed a long time ago on Asgard for daring to raise a hand against you, and I would’ve personally seen to it.”
You shook your head. “I can’t leave. You’ll all suffer for it.”
“And do you know how much I suffer, watching the person I love subject herself to torture for my sake? Love, I can handle myself, and so can the others,” Loki promised, holding you even tighter.
“But where do I go?” you asked. “I’m not strong, or magic, or special.”
“No, no, no, you’re the strongest of us all, my dear,” he answered you. “But you can’t keep putting yourself in between that rat bastard and us. One day, you’ll die for it, and then what happens?”
“Maybe we shouldn’t be doing this,” you muttered.
You felt Loki’s hand on yours, his freezing palm completely enveloping your small hand. “It is your choice, but then I would worry about you every day for the rest of your life.”
“What if he DOES find out?” you asked. “Perhaps he’ll burn the complex down and kill us all!”
Loki shushed you again, kissing your cheek and holding you even closer. “I will cover you from him. Let me protect you. Please. I don’t want to watch this unfold helplessly from the sidelines anymore. If I were a real prince, I would’ve slain that brute for you a year ago.”
“I’m afraid mortal matters are much more complicated,” you replied, finally beginning to calm down, the burning pain from the scratches on your arm and collarbone fading away. “You would’ve been extradited to Asgard, or forced to rot in a prison here on Earth.”
Loki was beginning to get angry. “It would have been worth every moment. In fact, I have a mind to seek him out right now, regardless of what happens.”
“Let’s just pretend we have a cottage in the middle of a valley,” you proposed quickly. “Far away from it all. In some little village where no one cares what happens out there in the city. I’d rather go there.”
Loki knew this game well. It was a game of your own invention. The pair of you would lie in one another’s arms and paint the perfect life for one another, and you often fell asleep in one-another’s arms, deep in imagination, deep in bliss.
“And what does it look like tonight, my dear?” he asked, his temper beginning to give way.
It looked different every night. “It’s an old stone home, covered in ivy, at the top of a hill a little ways from the village, up a dirt path and behind a gate. There’s one large tree standing over the house, protecting it when it rains or snows. There’s a fire pit out back, and we spend every night sitting by it, letting the flames warm us until we run out of wood.”
“Are there others?” Sometimes there were children with you. Sometimes Thor was there, roasting something over the fire pit. Sometimes even the others on the team were with you.
“Not tonight,” you answered. “It’s quiet, it’s dusk, and it’s just us.”
Loki smiled. “My favorite time.”
“It’s so quiet tonight,” you whispered. “My ears almost feel hollow.”
“Ah yes,” Loki added. “Not even a chirping cricket to serenade us.”
“But you’ll always be there,” you said. “Covering me. And that’s all I need for now.”