the smell of heaven
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𝐈𝐓 was May 2013- the fifth to be exact.
Outside the closed widow frames, a thin but grey fog had already laid itself over the buildings, while the early morning hours were just breaking in. The sweet scent of spring- a mixture of blooming flowers and sun-warmed hay- filled the fresh air like a bottle floral-perfume. Like a shot of espresso the delightful fragrance burned in one or another's lungs.
But something about the atmosphere was quite different this morning. Today was one of those days, on which people usually opened an expensive bottle champagne, picked up dinner from a famous restaurant and celebrated deep into the late hours of the night. Well they had all reason too. Exactly one year and one day ago, the Avengers had won the battle of New York. The victory had been all over the news, people of the folk came together and thanked the superheroes with short videos, photos, hashtags and sweet drawings for saving the monstrous city, and so lots of lives.
Because of the brave Heroes no more Chitauri's were flying on their little spaceships through the streets of New York, no blood-thirsty demigod was threatening the population with his glowing spear and no more agents from S.H.I.E.L.D were exploring a dangerous blue cube, which was summarized in Bruce's words, a 'huge collapsing neutron star- teleporter'.
The city was finally at peace, the broken parts were fully rebuild and everything had found his old glow again, that caught tourists attentions.
A couple of them were already waiting for the superheroes in front of the Avengers Tower again, hoping to get a picture with the superstars. But from outside the tower was still buried in silence.
The rising sun knocked gently on the windowpanes and only from the laboratory speakers was loud AC-DC music to be heard. Tony the man, who was always working screwed and upgraded his new suit, while everyone still seemed to be tangled in their soft blankets, nearly everyone.
Loki, in a drowsy state of mind, stared at the dark ceiling, his jaw clenched in pain. Once again the young prince had awoken heavily breathing with dark sweat stains on his shirt and sat now exhausted and in an uncomfortable position as well, on his mattress.
A deep grumble left his sore lips before his head hit the pillow once again. One of his hands was slowly rubbing over his heated forehead, the man's skin clearly too warm for a frost giants naturally colder body temperature.
In fact, a perfectly normal human temperature could already be deadly disease for the cold hearted creatures, born between ice and snow.
Since the black-haired god had been exiled to Midgard for an indefinite period of time, his nightmares had gotten worse and worse day by day. He could return home after he had proven a change in behavior, his father had said, but how on earth was he supposed to do that?
Loki- no matter how exhausted and tired he was- could barely find sleep, because every time he tried to drift off, terrifying memories of war, torture and pain shot in his mind. Once deeply fallen into the world of dreams, Asgard's broken troublemaker could neither escape the guilty feeling for his actions, nor the blood red eyes, which haunted him every night and belonged to none other than himself- or the frost giant version of himself.
After rolling sleepless from one side to the other for what it felt like an eternity, his bare feet pressed against the cold floor now. With shaky fingers the prince pulled the sweaty T-shirt over his black locks and threw it in a corner as if it mattered nothing to him. Dressed only in his dark-green night pants, loosing having form his hips, Loki walked over to the small desk and grabbed the glowing thing, which Stark had called a "Mobile Phone". The least he could do to bring joy over his miserable state was to attack his brother's farm in an online game.
even after living here for quite a while the god of mischief was still not really interested in Midgardian-technology or in those games, in which you could fight against other players online, but to be honest, he actually found a linking in his Telephone. Well and the other things Loki enjoyed about Midgard was the sweet peppermint chocolate they sold in the coffeeshop around the corner. Back on Asgard they had neither chocolate nor coffee, two things he grew very fond of. For feeding the sweet teeth in his home-realm, the maids just brought huge silver plates with grapes, berries and nuts- nothing compared to the Midgardian snack's.
His eyes, shining like emeralds in the light, wandered through the room, of course way smaller than his chambers back in the palace. The morning sun, already shining through the small gap of the black curtains, tickled his face, and if Loki listened carefully, he could even hear the birds singing outside, between the awful loud car engines. One of many things, the young prince would probably never get used to. His lips were sealed and the brows drawn together to a thin line.
Playing with the blue ring on his finger, which Frigga gave him during one of her visits, Loki settled down on the soft green bedsheets once again and thought of her, his mother, the queen of Asgard. A thing he did so often, especially after he had found himself terrified from a nightmare. His mother was the only person the handsome troublemaker had ever opened up to and she was also the only soul in the nine realms, who knew about the nightmares. Nevertheless, she lived a whole realm away now. He missed her, a lot. Yet, despite all this pain he felt in the deepest of his heart, Loki could stop his lips from curling to a smile. Frigga was special indeed and he loved her no matter what.
Out of nowhere, the princes thoughts were rudely interrupted by some strange noises, coming directly from the kitchen. Instantly the black haired- man interest in the sudden source of noise and frowned in curiosity.
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"And who the hell are you, woman?", a tall man growled with his croaky morning voice, before ruffling through the black mess of his wavy hair. Honestly, I wasn't exactly sure, if I should have been more shocked to see someone up at this early hour, or because of the fact, that this guy wore no shirt and had some sweat stains on his porcelain-white skin.
"April, nice to meet you. Is there a chance, that you've seen Tony Stark somewhere or perhaps, do you know where his lab is? This tower is a fucking maze. Aaaaaand I'm not supposed to say the f-word, right?" That was my quite wonderful answer. The stranger chuckled, as I watched him, while he was walking over to the fridge and filled himself a glass of milk.
"Are all of Stark's bedfellows already moving into the tower? Should I be frightened of you my Lady?"
"Excuse me? I'm not one of Tony's bedfellows, Jesus Christ! But if I might say so, you look like as if you just had some nice company. Maybe you're the one with the changing bedfellows in this building," I mumbled in disgust and turned my attention back to my cooking. Sighing I scratched the gold-brown dough from the pan onto a plate. "Want a PanCake Fellow?"
"Is this supposed to be a joke woman?" The man suddenly hissed and pulled a package Lucky Charms out off a cabinet instead. He made very clear, that he wasn't out for small talk.
"Hey wait a minute, do I smell PanCakes? Oh, I do! Morning April, didn't expect to see you up so early." Tony joined us in the kitchen, a happy smile played on his lips, before he stole the filled plate right out of my hands.
"And honestly you Reindeer Games, I expected even less to see here. Having fun? Whatever, put on a shirt goddamnit, I'm eating and she's not even full grown! We don't want to see your godly features!"
"I'm twenty-one Tony!"
"Sure sunshine whatever you say. Listen, we should hurry with the PanCakes before the others get up." With that statement, the billionaire devoured his first plate with only a single bite and waited hungrily for the next one to land in his stomach.
"I made literally three bowls dough Tony, I think it should be enough for everyone. Don't you worry about starving." I rolled my eyes and leaned against the kitchen counter, arms crossed over my breasts.
"Well, then you haven't seen a blond, Pop Tart-addicted god with an empty stomach in the morning. That's worse than him," he laughed and pointed at the black-haired man, who let out a snicker.
"To good he's Pop Tart and not PanCake addicted, Thor seems like a total sweetheart. Alright never mind, so what's on my To-Do list for today? I'm up fort everything! Maybe calling back some angry business-man, struggling with your stubborn network, or just buying red, white and blue sprinkled doughnuts from Starbucks again?" Stark clapped with his hands and tapped on his watch.
"Clever girl, so that's why you made PanCakes, you didn't want to go to Starbucks hmm. For this cheekiness, I should let you run to Starbucks every day. But no, neither of your listet task. I've got a way better job for you today."
"Okay, try me", I grinned and put my hands on the hips.
"Just make yourself comfortable here Ap, look around, turn on the TV and have fun, whatever you young girls do these day. You have nothing to do, forget we gotta celebrate tonight! Until then I uh- have to attend to a 'very important' S.H.I.E.L.D meeting. Fury wants to discuss some plans about this guy," he explained and clapped the tall guy on the shoulder, who almost choked on his milk. "God, Fury's boring speech is gonna kill me, because then Rogers is gonna say something and then Banner has to tell us his opinion and I just sit there and roll my eyes- uhh shoot me already, please!"
"I mean, I tried," the other man answered, mischievously smirking, before he ate another spoon full Lucky Charms and settled down on the couch, skipping through the pages of his book. The book in his hands looked pretty old and the pages were toned in a dirty yellow, yet it seems interesting. Where do you even get such old pieces?
"Oh I remember it pretty well Loki, thanks for that. For the protocol, two seconds after his attempt tu murder me, he threw me out of a window and that's not the craziest party, because we are now sharing a kitchen together. Alright with five other Pajama-Party-Club members too, but I don't mind them, only Reindeer Games and Thor are eating my favorite cereals on a daily basis! Screw you, hope you feel ashamed. Forgot you don't have feelings."
In one moment I smiled because of Tony's frustrated complain, but in the next, the memories hit me like a freaking bullet. The attack, the chaos and him responsible for all of it. I was so frightened. I used to blame me for the moment, in which one of his aliens grabbed my arm, before he threw my head against a rock, so that a rush of back overcame me. Because if I wouldn't have lost my conciseness, if I would have fought tougher, I wouldn't have heard the terrible screams of death, leaving my fathers lips.