The Souls

Loki hadn't quite known what to expect.

These people were dead. Vanished from the Universe they knew. Dead.

He'd never quite experienced this either, so he didn't know what to expect.

Confusion? Guilt? Anger?

Yes, definitely anger. Rage. Fury.

Sadness

Depression.

Any of those.

However, he certainly hadn't been expecting this... nothing.

There was absolutely nothing. Now, Loki didn't claim to be some kind of expert on emotions, but even he knew that people should feel a bit more than nothing when they died.

Everyone was sitting in their little groups and basically sulking. Which, he guessed, kind of made sense.

Seeing as they were dead and all.

Loki, at Gamora's insistence, had conjured some more sofas.

A lot more sofas.

Gamora was sitting with her Guardians. Her family, as she had told Loki. By the looks of it, someone was missing, because the Groot kept asking about him. And if Loki remembered those Groot lessons well, the missing Guardian was called Rocket. And he heard them mention someone called Nebula, the sister Gamora had been speaking off.

Vision had not left the red headed woman's side since she arrived. Her name was Wanda, as he had heard, and of all the people around here, it didn't seem like she really minded being dead.

She smiled a lot whenever she looked at Vision. A great contrast from the first time she Loki had seen her. She was a witch. Loki was sure of it. He couldn't help but wonder how powerful she was. Obviously, not as powerful as Loki himself, but still, he wished to know.

T'Challa and his sister Shuri were deep in discussion. From what he had heard, the two were the King and Princess of their country, Wakanda.

Well, they had been. Before they had died. It seemed that that was the issue they were discussing at the time.

Doctor Strange sat in his chair with his back straight and his eyes closed. Whether he was sleeping or meditating was unclear, but he didn't seem to be there at the moment. Either way, the 'Spiderman' child had wide eyes glued on the doctor the entire time, as if the man were God himself.

Bucky, the man with the metal arm, was sitting with Sam Wilson. Loki had made sure to make their chair a love seat rather than two separate ones like the others He had hoped that it would irritate them, and by the way they looked, it looked like he had been right

They didn't seem to like each other very much, as was evident by the way Sam would shoot Bucky a hard glare every time he so much as said a word to him.

Their exchanges, or lack thereof, were quite amusing, hence Loki's refusal to make them separate chairs.

Loki, of course, was sitting by himself.

Just as he liked it really. He was used to being alone, so he wasn't at all bothered.

He was quite bored though. And seeing all these people deep in discussion made him curious.

He really shouldn't have spied on them... but he was the god of mischief, so really, he had no choice.

Loki left the illusion of himself on his plush sofa, and the next thing, he was a fly, finding itself in the arm of the couch that held Gamora.

She was sitting with her back straight, and Loki would have thought nothing of it if it weren't for the hand that was griping tightly onto the hand of the human Guardian. Quill, was it?

Loki had arrived just in time to hear the one called Drax finish a story.

"-And that is why it's all Quill's fault." He said with a nod.

Quill was staring at his lap, unblinking, while Gamora stared at him with a blank face. It seemed that Quill was used to this look, because he was doing everything in his power not to meet it.

Gamora blinked for the first time in a while.

"So…" she said quietly, "So you… you had him."

"Yes," nodded Drax.

"You had the Gauntlet off his hand."

"Correct,"

"But he broke out of Mantis' spell because Peter…"

"Because Peter woke him up, yes," Drax confirmed.

Gamora was still looking at Peter with a blank stare.

Quill just cleared his throat and scratched his neck, while Drax glared at him with his arms crossed, and Mantis looked from one Guardian to the other, looking quite scared.

Groot was just picking at a leaf growing on his arm, seemingly uninterested in the whole conversation.

"Peter," Gamora finally said.

Peter said nothing.

"Peter look at me."

He didn't look.

"Peter-"

"Okay, I just wanna say, from the bottom of my heart… my bad,"

"Peter-"

"Okay, I'm sorry!" he finally snapped, "I'm sorry! I didn't… I didn't… I wasn't thinking, okay? He'd just told us that he had killed you!" he finally looked at Gamora, "He told us that he had killed you, Gamora. Of course I wasn't thinking. How was I supposed to think anything when he had killed you?" Quill's voice broke, and he looked back at his lap, "I know I didn't exactly help the fight," he said softly, "I know I screwed up. Big time. I know that. But he killed you. He told us you were dead, and I was just supposed to sit back quietly? No. No way. I'm sorry I ruined everything. I know it's my fault, I do. But I can't apologise for how I reacted when I found out that the one thing I love more than anything was dead. I can't apologise for that. I won't."

Gamora was still staring at Quill, but her face was no longer blank. Or angry.

"Peter." She said softly, "Peter look at me."

He still didn't move. So Gamora reached up and turned his face towards her.

Peter blinked rapidly, seemingly trying to blink away tears. He frowned when he saw her face.

"You're… you're not angry." he said slowly, "Why… why aren't you angry?"

"Oh I am." She scoffed, "But still… you punched Thanos in the face for me."

Peter's eyes lit up. He grinned, "I did. I totally punched him in the face."

Gamora smiled softly at him, shaking her head fondly.

Drax's frown only deepened, "But did you hear the part where he ruined everything?" he asked Gamora, "I think you missed the part where he ruined everything."

Loki fought off a scoff at the group. Flies didn't scoff, so instead, he just left the arm of the sofa, moving onto the next one.

The one which sat Vision and the Witch. They weren't doing much talking. Just leaning against each other and holding hands and being generally nauseating.

Loki was about to move on when the witch let out a small laugh.

Vision looked at her with a smile, "What is it Wanda?"

She just shook her head, still laughing, and then looked up at Vision.

"Nothing just… you remember one of the last things you said to me when we were still alive?"

"Well yes, Wanda I remember everything. Would you like me to recall all our conversations from the last few hours of our lives?"

His genuine-ness when asking the question made Wanda grin.

"No Vis that's okay. I'm talking about when we were in Wakanda. When you... when you told me to kill you. You said, "We are out of time."

"Oh." Vision nodded, "Yes I remember that too."

Wanda nodded, "All we've wanted for the past two years was to have more time, you know. And now… it seems like all we've got is time."

"That is true," nodded Vision, "Well, as they say, be careful what you wish for."

Wanda sighed, "Yeah. Yeah, it's true."

They sat in silence for a little while again, and then Wanda spoke.

"You know another thing you said to me?"

Vision tilted his head.

"You said you loved me."

Even as a fly, Loki noticed how Vision froze.

He cleared his throat, "I... uh… I, um… yes. I realise that that… that was never something I had said before. And I... well, I…. I um…I... I did… say that. Uh, ahem, you see I… I was…. I… you were… I… uh…. I-"

"I love you too."

Vision shut up promptly, his eyes wide at Wanda, He let out a loud sigh, "Oh good. That's very good. I never wanted to say it until I was absolutely certain you would reciprocate. That… that's why I waited until I was about to die."

Wanda shook her head fondly at him, "that's absolutely awful, Vis. You know, honesty is an important part of every relationship. Or so I've heard."

Vision smiled at her, "I've heard that as well." He cleared his throat softly, "So... so this is… a relationship then?"

She gaped at him, "It's been two years Vis."

He nodded quickly, "Yes. Yes of course. Yes."

Her half smile never left her face as he grew more and more flustered.

"Well," Vision cleared his throat again, "Since honesty is such an important part of... of this relationship, I feel I should be honest about something else."

Wanda's eyebrows rose, "Yeah?"

"Yes," he cleared his throat nervously again, "When we were in Wakanda and you… you were about to… well… destroy the stone. I told you that it was alright because you could never hurt me. Remember that?"

"Vividly." She said.

"Alright well… well that was a lie." Vision admitted, causing red eyebrows to shoot up, "It actually hurt a great deal. Dying. Both times really. But especially when you were doing it because it took so long." He wasn't looking at her anymore, which was good because her gaping mouth didn't look very happy.

"vision!" she gaped.

"I'm only being honest! Like you told me to be."

Loki took this as his que to leave. Fighting couples were not his forte. He flew off their sofa, and found himself on the one that housed the King and Princess.

Loki almost bypassed their conversation completely. He wasn't very interested in the goings on of Kingdoms he didn't care about, but as it turned out, their conversation was far from what he had been expecting.

"Shuri," the King sighed, holding the bridge of his nose, "For the last time, that is not why they are called sneakers."

Shuri looked at him like he was being particularly stupid, "Sneakers, T'Challa. Because they sneak."

"But we were just in America, and they told you that that is false."

"America is wrong brother." she said, matter-of-factly.

T'Challa shook his head, "If they invented the sneakers, don't you think it's their right to decide why they are called sneakers?"

"And that is why I have designed a better version. They don't even touch the ground, brother. Perfect for sneaking. So, as the new inventor of the sneaker, it is my right to give them a new definition."

T'Challa shook his head, "No. No, that is not how it works. And besides, floating shoes? Really Shuri?"

"Well yes, obviously." she shrugged, "I only have one working pair at the moment." her shoulders slumped suddenly, "I swear those still alive had better not touch my lab."

T'Challa smiled sadly at her, "Okoye and Mother will kill anyone who tries,"

Shuri nodded curtly, "Good. The world deserves my Sneakers. And besides, my first pair was made specifically for Nakia," she smiled, "I hope she finds them."

T'Challa's smile seemed even sadder than before, "She will." he said softly, "And she will wear them with pride."

"While she drives a sword up Thanos's purple little-"

"Shuri, no!"

Loki flew away from the two. He didn't really want to be around them. He especially didn't like that Princess, Shuri. he didn't know why.

A tiny part of him, that he usually ignored, told him it was because she had her older brother with her, and Loki did not, and he was just jealous.

The more rational part of him, of course, dismissed that thought immediately and concluded that he didn't like her because... well, he just didn't like her.

So he moved on, and landed at the sofa's that sat the sorcerer and the child.

Peter, as he had introduced himself, was still looking at Strange with wide eyes, while the doctor just looked at him tiredly.

"Okay yeah, but what's your actual name? I feel like since we just died together, we should at least know each other's name."

Doctor Strange blinked, "Peter, I told you my name."

"But your real name," insisted the child.

The doctor just looked tired, "Stephen..." he said.

Peter nodded, "Yeah..."

"...Strange."

"But what's your real name?"

Loki flew away immediately. It seemed like this conversation was going to take a while.

He landed on the Love Seat that sat The Winter Soldier and the Falcon. The two were sitting as far apart as they could manage, just staring straight ahead`

Silence. Finally. Why couldn't the others just sit quietly like these two? People needed to appreciate a good-

"Do you think he's okay?"

The fly sighed. He spoke too soon.

The Falcon glared out of the corner of his eye, "I thought we agreed not to talk."

"I know. But I'm just wondering… you think he's okay?"

"How am I supposed to know? I'm dead."

"Yeah but... do you think he's okay?"

The Falcon let out a long sigh, "Bucky, I'm seriously gonna need you to shut up."

"Sam, Steve is all alone out there. With both of us dead, who knows what stupid thing he's gonna do?"

"He's not alone, he's got Nat. She'll set him straight."

"Yeah but do you think he'll be-"

"For god's sake man!"

Loki couldn't help but smile to himself. Besides silence, his next favourite thing was seeing others argue. Perhaps he should have made their chair even smaller...

He was back to his body only moments after. Once again, he looked around at everyone. The Guardians. The Vision and the Witch. The King and the Princess. The Sorcerer and the Spider-boy. The Winter Soldier and the Falcon.

What a sad bunch they all were.

Loki felt sorry for them, really. But he felt ever sorrier for himself. He's the one who had to deal with them after all. Deal with all their sadness and their angst and all their... feelings.

For who knows how long?

...How long?

How long would they be here? Why were they here?

...and how would they get out?

Loki shut his eyes with a sigh. Well, it looked like they had all the time in the world to figure it out