To Those No Longer Vanished
“Good morning, min elskede…” Sylvie hummed in a soft singsong voice as she placed a gentle kiss on Loki’s cheek.
Inhaling sharply Loki blinked his eyes open to see Sylvie sitting atop the bed beside him looking rather amused.
“I wanted to let you sleep after last night,” she smirked coyly.
Loki exhaled deeply and brushed her arm with lazy fingertips, enjoying the little shiver it prompted.
“Come here,” he murmured softly as he tugged gently on her wrist to pull her forward.
The kiss felt subdued as Sylvie leaned down just enough to press her lips to his. Loki made a slightly frustrated sound and surged up into her lips hungrily.
A playful chuckle emanated from Sylvie as she pulled back just enough to keep Loki off balance and unable to deepen the kiss. She rested her hand on his chest and pushed him back down on the bed where he flopped dramatically.
“Now who is the sadist, my love?” he grumbled petulantly, “Surely there is nothing more painful than to be denied your kiss…”
Sylvie shook her head fondly, “So greedy, and you call me insatiable.”
Loki huffed with frustration as she got up off the bed wearing only the button up shirt he’d worn the night before. It hung loosely on her, only buttoned with the few that remained attached.
She went to open the curtains further and the bright morning light glinted off the golden chain around her neck.
“Any idea about the time?”
“Clock is on the nightstand,” Sylvie said absently as she looked out over the city and noted how different it all looked.
Leaning over to reach for the clock he squinted to read it, “Ah, quarter to ten, I certainly did sleep.”
Loki climbed out of bed not caring about his nudeness and walked over to stand behind Sylvie. He placed his hands on her hips and kissed her neck very gently while pressing the front of his body fully against hers.
Sylvie closed her eyes and sighed with temptation at the feeling, then figured they had enough time and turned in his arms to meet him in a bruising kiss.
After their morning lovemaking Sylvie stretched out on the bed with satisfaction. Loki panted and rolled over to trace his fingers over her chest.
It thrilled him to see her completely bare save the ring on its chain which he’d given her, and secretly hoped she would never take it off.
“Well darling, where are we off to this morning?” He asked with a hazy love drunk expression.
“I want to see Tasha. We were technically only in New York for a day so I’d like to go back to just after where we picked up Steve—”
“Ugh. We may have to contend with that second-rate sorcerer again,” Loki huffed against her chest as he peppered unhurried kisses down to her rib cage.
“We had a very loose agreement, if he returns we’ll just firm up the details. Strange may be a knob but I think he can be reasoned with,” Sylvie shrugged as she idly ran her fingers through Loki’s messy hair.
“Mmm love hearing you disparage that hack,” Loki hummed heatedly into her skin.
Sylvie gave him the barest swat of reproach as she smirked, “Now don’t you start again, we need to get moving and I hate trying to resist you.”
Loki chuckled and fought not to grin like an idiot, “Yes my love, as wonderful a game as that does sound, you are correct.”
It took a few more minutes for Loki to actually let Sylvie off the bed, but he followed reluctantly when she did.
Loki dressed them in more contemporary clothes and retrieved the TemPad. He did a simple time reversal from the jump they’d done the day before and sent them back to the Avengers Headquarters in New York.
On the other side of the portal Loki and Sylvie found themselves on the top floor of the building which appeared to be empty
Loki walked around looking for signs of garish wizards lurking around any corners but eventually came back to Sylvie who stood texting on her phone.
“No sign of Strange—why don’t you just call her?”
“Yeah I tried that, thanks,” Sylvie said irritably before stuffing the phone in her pocket, “no answer—just dial tone.”
“Ah,” Loki shrugged, “perhaps—”
<Excuse me Mr Laufeyson but you are receiving a call from Mr Stark.>
Loki looked around in bewilderment and Sylvie pointed up vaguely. Suddenly a holographic representation of Tony Stark appeared in front of them looking somewhere between amused and irritated.
<“You know, I don’t understand the point of having top grade security if people can just show up in the building from nowhere.”>
“Stark, good afternoon,” Loki attempted to be cordial, “Sylvie and I opened a portal and it happened to bring us here—”
“We were hoping to find Natasha, Tony, is she here?”
<“Well, Sylvie—my favorite Asgardian, I am not currently in the building, nor is Natasha—but it looks like Banner’s down in the research labs.”>
“Great, thank you Tony,” Sylvie smiled looking rather smug and Loki rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms.
<“My pleasure, just maybe try the front door next time—I get alerts for sudden life form fluctuations in the building and I was about to take Morgan out for ice cream.”>
“Our apologies, Stark—we’ll find a more suitable arrival point for next year,” Loki said wearily.
<“Take it easy, Kylo Ren, follow your girl and keep away from the Dark Side, you might still make a Jedi yet. Nice to see you, Sylvie.”>
“Thank you Tony,” Sylvie smiled and Tony winked and gave her a wave before the hologram disappeared.
“I honestly don’t know why he persists with references and analogies he surely knows mean nothing to me,” Loki said dryly.
“I think he just likes to take the piss since you make it so easy,” Sylvie teased with a playful smirk.
Loki breathed a haughty sigh of exasperation and Sylvie laughed before taking his hand to pull toward the elevator.
“Let’s go see Bruce, I think he’s at least still too afraid of you to dare try teasing.”
“Oh lovely, I’ll remember to count my blessings,” he grumbled sarcastically as he followed Sylvie into the lift.
Ignoring his moodiness Sylvie pushed the button to send them down to the R&D level and gave his hand a gentle squeeze which he couldn’t help but return.
Down in the research lab Bruce Banner was trying out a new software he was developing to help people affected by the blip.
So far he was running into a lot of roadblocks and he lifted his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose in frustration.
“Hello Bruce. We have unfinished business.”
The doctor’s blood ran cold for a moment at the sound of Loki’s menacing voice behind him. He spun around to see the God standing very still and looking quite intimidating.
After a tense moment Sylvie stepped out from behind the doorframe fighting not to laugh. She gave Loki a light shove as he began to chuckle and walked over to Bruce.
“Sorry about that, Loki was acting a bit peevish so I promised I’d let him give you a little scare,” Sylvie bit her lip to keep from grinning as Loki shook with silent laughter.
“Oh, um, hi Sylvie—and Loki, when did you get in?” Bruce still looked a little bewildered as Loki wiped at his eye in amusement.
“Only ten minutes or so back, but Tony called and informed us you were down here.”
“Got it, well, it’s nice to see you—even if that kind of gave me weird flashbacks.”
“Apologies Bruce, I couldn’t resist—I admit it wasn’t particularly kind, but my need for amusement won out and you suffered the brunt,” Loki explained with a placating grin.
“Yeah, uh… I get it, ‘Mischief God’ and all that…” Bruce said with a shrug, “was there something I could help you with or was this just a social visit?”
“Well, we were actually wondering if there was any chance you’ve seen Natasha lately?” Sylvie asked hopefully.
“Natasha? No, I haven’t seen Nat in oh, probably six months?”
“Six months? Did something happen or is she undercover or…?” Her heartbeat quickened with concern.
“No, no, nothing like that, she just moved out to California. Said she wanted a fresh start, and now I guess she’s teamed up with this vigilante guy,” Bruce said with a shrug.
Sylvie stared at him in disbelief, “‘Teamed up’. With a ‘vigilante guy’…” her tone was flat and uncomprehending.
Bruce sighed and shook his head not knowing what more he could say in explanation.
“Honestly, Sylvie, I have no idea. But the last I heard she was out west fighting crime with this guy, and they apparently make quite a team.”
“Do you know what city she moved to?” Loki asked, piping into the conversation helpfully for the first time.
“Uhhh, Frisco, I think,” Bruce said after a moment’s consideration, “I’m pretty sure, no definitely, because Scott lives in San Francisco and he emailed me a local newspaper link about it.”
Sylvie looked slightly incredulous at the idea but pushed past it, “I know it’s a long shot but any clue as to how I might find her? I tried the number she gave me last year but it didn’t work…”
Bruce looked a little sheepish and scratched the back of his head, intentionally avoiding eye contact, “Yeah, uh—Tony has a tracking system for all the Stark Tech phones… but I guess when Natasha figured it out she ditched hers…”
“Right,” Sylvie sighed and tossed her own phone onto the table irritably.
“But I might have a way… I wanted to be sure she was okay, so I had F.R.I.D.A.Y. on the lookout for unusual behavior…”
Bruce turned to his computer screen and started pulling up windows and filtering data.
“Any luck…?” Sylvie asked hopefully as she stepped close to look over his shoulder.
“Well—in order to track unusual behavior, the system set up a baseline for consistent, ‘regular’ behavior—”
“Yes, we understand—please, the suspense is killing us,” Loki said sarcastically with a dramatic huff of boredom.
Sylvie glared at Loki who pretended not to care.
“Yeah, okay, so—apparently she visits this one spot on the eastern side of the presidio every other Tuesday for some reason around noon… don’t know why, but F.R.I.D.A.Y. categorized it as ‘Routine’ so… maybe start there?”
“Perfect. Thank you Bruce, for everything. I hope to see you again sometime,” Sylvie smiled gratefully.
“Of course, anything for the woman who gave me the missing piece in the puzzle of quantum mechanics in relation to the many worlds principle,” Bruce beamed at her happily.
Loki and Sylvie both stared at him blankly but then something clicked and Sylvie smiled, “The algorithm, yes, you’re welcome.”
Once they’d said their goodbyes Loki and Sylvie headed back to the elevator. Sylvie punched in the time, date and destination to open a portal and they stepped through and into another city 3,000 miles away.
Arriving on a windswept hill facing the Golden Gate Bridge Loki immediately conjured coats for Sylvie and himself.
Looking down at the comfortable jacket she now wore, Sylvie smiled and took Loki’s hand to give it an appreciative squeeze.
Just as Sylvie began to take a step a gust of wind buffeted against her violently. The unexpected current of air knocked her into Loki who caught her with a pleased smirk.
“Careful love, weather can be treacherous—even without an apocalypse.”
Sylvie rolled her eyes but used the excuse to hang onto him bodily for a few moments more while the wind died down a bit.
When the breeze felt calmer Sylvie stepped back slowly, Loki’s face the picture of childish petulance at the loss of her body pressed against his.
Down the hill Sylvie was struck by the large field filled with erect marble slabs, a number of which seemed to be in the process of being removed.
A small group of people stood near the memorial consulting with one another and pointing to different engraved slabs.
Among the group stood one Natasha Romanov, a clipboard in her arm and chewing on the end of a pen distractedly.
Sylvie grinned and started walking briskly down to greet her friend. Loki sighed and shook his head softly, remembering how the two women were together, then followed after her.