The Tesseract
You really didn’t want to go to sleep, irregardless of how tired you were. The thought that you might close your eyes and see the freakish being on Vormir once again—that you’d be dragged back to your old life—was enough to set you on edge.
Before you had half a mind as to what you were doing, you found yourself wandering through the halls of the palace, your feet carrying you towards the vault of Asgard’s treasures. Turning into a ghost allowed you to pass through the walls and past the guards, and you returned to solid form once inside the doors.
You weren’t sure why you’d been drawn to the room. It wasn’t like you could possess the Casket of Ancient Winters, nor did you want to. Violent energy seemed to be barely contained within it, like the winter storms it held within were attempting to break free.
Despite your confusion, your feet tugged you over to a pedestal, where a single blue cube sat, and you drew in a ragged breath. Now this, this was power. It made sense now.
The Tesseract. The space stone. Thor had taken it back to Asgard after Loki’s misbehaviour on Earth, and here it sat, easily accessible to Loki and the rest of the palace. An infinity stone casually sitting right there on Asgard, not unlike the very substance which your body was heir to. Sheer power, only a foot away from you.
Your hand lifted of its own accord, fingers curling through the air as you subconsciously reached for it. If you were to possess it, you would be unstoppable. Not even the Avengers would be able to prevent you from doing whatever you so well pleased.
The little cube looked harmless, glowing up at you as your fingers gradually grew closer. You could stop this, prevent yourself from making contact, and yet you didn’t want to. It had something to show you, you knew.
Your skin brushed up against the surface and, like a brilliant flash in your mind, you saw a spaceship. The picture quickly zoomed in with seemingly no regard for the outer structure, passing straight through walls to show you the man who sat in the control man. It was that man of your nightmares, the very one you’d been attempting to avoid.
Letting out a gasp, you stumbled backwards from the Tesseract, crashing into the hard frame of someone who’d snuck into the vault, one you hadn’t heard. Even before you turned around, you knew it was Loki who ran his hands up your arms, attempting to soothe you as he pulled you back against his chest.
“What did it show you?”
“The man’s massive ship. He is hunting for me, Loki, and I know he shall be successful. There is nothing I can do to stop him.”
“We won’t let him get you. I shall kill him with my bare hands if that is what is necessary. No harm at his hand shall befall you, this I swear to you, y/n.”
“Please don’t promise that, Loki. You have no hope of keeping it.” You turned around, sliding your arms around his neck and pressing your ear to his chest, listening to his heart beat. It beat slow and steadily, echoing in your ear as you listened. A strong heart, one not so easily broken. A reassuring thought.
“Let me take you to bed,” Loki said, hands encircling your waist. “It’s late.”
“I don’t want to sleep alone,” you confessed, blinking back the tears that materialized in your eyes. You were scared, truly scared, and for one of the first times in your life, the source of your fear was not in front of you. You could not properly confront it. And so it made your knees tremble, your palms sweaty, and your brain full of worst-case scenarios.
“Then come with me.” Loki pressed a kiss to the top of your head. “I won’t leave you.”
You cast a look back at the Tesseract as Loki walked you out of the vault. It glinted in the firelight of the room so innocently, its simple appearance betraying nothing of the secrets it held. And you got the sense that it had all the more in store for you, should you ever come in contact with it again.
Something told you that you hadn’t seen the last of the space stone.