1.
Loki was in shock.
He won't get back on his feet. When he woke up in Wakanda, he didn't know what had happened to him. And when Shuri told him about the injured spine, he realized with horror that he's couldn't feel he legs.
"Loss of sensation below the knee joint," the girl concluded after the examination. She was still explaining something to him and Thor for quite a long time, but these words passed the man by. He heard the verdict.
The world collapsed for him. And how else, when you find out that you are doomed to sit in a wheelchair for thousands of years. The very thought of it made a sicked. Why is all this necessary? Be a burden to Thor? He's got enough problems right now without his crippled brother.
He lay there, bound by an brace that held the operated spine firmly in place, his view completely blank. He didn't want anything at all. He wanted to die.
The only thing that could somehow cheer up- the lack of strict bed rest. They put him in the chair just a couple of hours later. Nor did they delay the departure of the Odinsons to Norway, where the asgardians had recently arrived.
***
Thor was extremely grateful to stark. Thanks to his relations was able to resolve the many problems associated with alien refugees. Permission for settlement development, residence permit, and much more.
One of the problems was Loki himself, or rather, the attack on new York. The SHIELD wanted to take him under arrest, but to trickster's great surprise, stark and everyone who was in Wakanda with him. Trickster was tested on a lie detector. Fury was already preparing the camera, what was his disappointment when the arrest was lifted.
This all happened within a week of their stay in Midgard. He remembered her vaguely. Apathy absolutely to everything that is happening: where they are taking him, what they will do, and even if they kill him, it doesn't matter.
***
Right now, Loki was just lying in his and Thor's trailer . The man kept tossing and turning on the hard bed to find some sort of comfortable position. Only the construction supporting the trickster's body did not allow this to be done. Today was disgusting weather. It had been raining steadily since morning, so the wizard was forced to lie in bed all day. Not that he had a busy life now, but when the weather was nice, he usually sat outside, which is much better. When Loki had to spend the whole day lying down, he became quite despondent. The feeling of his own insignificance devoured from the inside. Everyone is busy with something and only he looked at everything from the side.
He was distracted from his self-torture when Thor bursting in. All wet, with a box in his hands. Loki glanced at his brother. He did buy them his teapot, just as the mage had asked.
"The thunder God can't protect himself from the rain anymore?" he chuckled as the drops dripped from his brother's wet clothes.
Thor was really busy solving various external problems of the settlement, so he only appeared here at night, and sometimes in the morning. He didn't have enough time for Loki physically. Several times there were attempts to take my brother with me, but he refused. Thor understood why, but he didn't want to admit it, pretending that everything was normal between them.
The younger Odinson didn't want to get out of New Asgard. He decided to lock himself up in a van, and then, if all went well, in a house somewhere on the outskirts of town, unless something else happened to him.
To some extent, the mage felt that he deserved this fate.
–The weather is great, do you want to go for a walk?– winked at Thor.
– Are you Kidding me?
–I like the rain. I won't let you get wet.
Loki let out an exasperated sigh, closing his eyes.
–Leave Me Alone, Thor...
he was looking through Thor. The thunder God took off his wet jacket and sat down on the edge of the mage's bed.
– How's your back, brother?
Loki looked somewhere through the Thor. His viewwere so blank after what had happened. There is no longer that light.
"Is that what you want to hear?
" Thor shook his head.
"I want to hear the truth, Loki," he said, patting his brother's knee, which made him flinch, not expecting to be touched.
The sensitivity, even if very weak, still remained.
– No. I really don't have any pain. Just nothing.
He wasn't really bothered by the pain, at least not physically, but his own futility burned through him.
***
Thor didn't answer. It was stupid to annoy his brother with empty encouragement, so mocha got up and decided to make tea.
Loki is still staring at the ceiling, or rather at the second tier of the bed, until the Thunderer brings him a Cup of hot drink. Trickster tried to sit up on his own, but the corset wouldn't let him, making him feel like a turtle turned over on its back.
Seeing this, Thor held out a hand to help him up.
The man sat up and somewhat reluctantly took the mug from his brother's hands.
He wanted to howl from my own helplessness. He simply cannot get out of bed on his own.
Thor sat down next to him.
Usually he always told everyone that everything would be fine. Unbreakable optimism. But in the case of Loki, this was not appropriate. Odinson realized this, though not immediately. he couldn't accept that his brother cannot walk and the chances of putting him on his feet are negligible. Everything seemed so unreal and not serious. As if all this was some kind of stupid joke, in the spirit of his brother, and one fine day, Loki will simply be forgotten and get up from the wheelchair as if nothing had happened. Only the state of the trickster suggested otherwise. The man was morally broken and no one could help him. Absolute indifference to everything that happens.
***
-Stark said he would try to put you on your feet.
Thor sipped his tea loudly. Loki froze.
-Will rewind time back, or what? This is kind of the part of the Warlock. Or am I not aware of something?
“Don't start, please,” Thor sighed. The magician wanted to turn away, but the corset did not allow his neck to move, after which he simply closed his eyes.
- Do you remember Rhodey? He, too ... - the Thunderer stopped short.
"He too" what? Both did not want to admit the fact of injury.
There was a silence. Rain drummed on the roof, and a light bulb flickered every now and then. There was the soft puff of a trickster and the rhythmic tapping of neatly clipped nails on the cup.
- He can make a device so that you ... you can walk again.
The last word he uttered was barely audible. Loki chuckled. How strange to hear that. Stark offers him help, why would he? Although, this is more likely to help Thor, who cares about the magician, which caused so many problems several years ago.
- Why would he that?
- I don’t know, he wants to help, and what?
- Well, yes, in gratitude, for “all good things”,he grinned wistfully.
- Eh, Loki ...- the god of thunder stretched out torturedly, “we must start living in the present. What's wrong with an outstretched helping hand?
Loki said nothing. Accept Iron Man's help? In any other situation, he would consider it humiliating, but now, this is perhaps his only chance to feel full again. Loki agreed.
***
“Well, Loks, if you ever want to walk for us,” Tony held out his hand, helping the man to get out of the wheelchair. Loki, ignoring this gesture, grabbed one of the bars, jerking up from the gurney.
A moment, and behold, he stands. Worth again. Almost himself.
Thor stood behind and rolled the Loki's chair slightly away from his brother.
- Come on,Bambi, a couple of steps.
Loki gripped the handrails in a death grip. The legs were like strangers and he could not bring himself to move. Fear. The legs did not obey, the trickster was simply afraid to collapse before their eyes. It's humiliating. An unpleasant, previously unfamiliar burning sensation was felt in the calves.
- Well, I insure.
Stark, standing in front of him, spread his arms wide, as if preparing to catch.
Swallowing, the trickster, overpowering himself, tried to put his right leg forward. The brace firmly held the paralyzed limbs. Of course he was shaking and the other leg was moved with great difficulty. The first steps. He, until his whitened knuckles, grabbed the bars.
-Well, brother,
- I can't take it anymore! ... - screamed the trickster, at the moment when the spine pierced with acute pain. Losing his balance, he dropped to his knees.
***
In the end, it turned out that Loki had the wildest spasticity. Yes, he will not have muscle atrophy, but the ability to walk again is no available.
There was also an attempt to resort to magic. Alas, just as unsuccessful. Two different streams of magic refused to sync in the trickster.
“Unfortunately, you have to get used to the wheelchair.” - Strange concluded.
***
And so, he was again sitting next to the van.