Chapter 7
Although it was now usual for Loki to return from Thanos’ bloody and unconscious, what was not usual was to have the guards return within the hour, ready to haul Loki back to Thanos if needed.
“No,” Brunnhilde protested, a flare of desperation awakening inside her. “You can’t. He’s not even awake yet. He’s not-- he’s not ready, you can’t take him back--”
The guards paid her no attention and proceeded to grab Loki under the arms.
“Stop, get your hands off him,” Brunnhilde snarled, fear giving way to anger. “Stop-- alright, I said STOP!”
Brunnhilde lunged at the closest guard, who made as though to step aside, but Brunnhilde was faster. She kicked him--hard--and while he was doubled over, she grabbed his throat and tried to throw him against the wall, only to be suddenly brought to her knees by a swift kick from another guard. A punch to the face followed, and then a hard jab in her gut that left her spluttering and winded. Perhaps before she would have been able to take them, but after weeks of malnutrition and lack of nourishment, she was easily weakened. Before she knew what was happening, she was being picked up and thrown back. Her head hit the ground and the last thing she saw before blacking was Loki being dragged away.
=•=
“I have to say, I’m very disappointed in our progress,” Thanos rumbled.
Loki grimaced and shook his head, trying to discern real noises from the ringing in his ears.
“However,” Thanos continued, “I can’t say that I’m not the slightest bit impressed. You have grown since we last met. You have built up… resistance. Nerve. I’ll have to admire that. Perhaps your love to hear yourself speak has declined.. I’ve barely heard you say three words strung together.”
Loki glared.
“But as much as I would love to be quietly impressed, we can’t continue like this. I can’t have you remaining quiet about the whereabouts of a certain Infinity Stone.”
“I’ll never tell you anything about the Tesseract,” Loki rasped
Thanos gave him a look of mock surprise. “He speaks! How startling. If only your first words were something less… disappointing.”
He waved his hand and Loki’s world crumbed, reduced to nothing but pain.
=•=
When the guards returned, Loki wasn’t with them.
Brunnhilde forced down the instantaneous panic that swelled in her chest and scowled. Thanos wouldn’t kill Loki. He needed him. Unless it was an accident…?
The guards, to nobody’s surprise, kept silent, but only grabbed Brunnhilde and jerked her along with them. She bared her teeth at them and half-tried to throw them off, but with a few forceful pushes she was subdued and brought along the dark hallway.
Although she couldn’t see as she was brought into an even darker room, Brunnhilde could feel the familiarity of the area around her. Thanos’ chambers. However, this time, she and Thanos weren’t alone.
“Brunnhilde?” a hoarse voice whispered. “Is that you?”
“Loki?” Brunnhilde gasped, a ridiculous amount of relief flooding her.
“Ah, so you two do know each other,” Thanos murmured, putting an odd amount of emphasis on ‘know’. “I was hoping that.”
Brunnhilde frowned and got the feeling Loki was doing the same thing.
“You see,” Thanos sighed, “as I was trying to control-- sorry, I mean cajole-- Loki into talking, he started screaming. Screaming words, actually, or one word. A name.” He paused. “Do you know what name he was screaming?”
Brunnhilde heard rather than saw Thanos lean forward slightly.
“Well… I’ll give you a clue. It was the name of the girl standing in front of me now.”
Brunnhilde remained silent as a peculiar feeling twisted in her stomach. She shoved it away, telling herself she would study it later.
“So I thought about the two of you and realized, what with the hard times and close quarters… well, who knows…”
Brunnhilde gritted her teeth.
“Maybe torturing Loki won’t make him talk, but maybe…”
Loki caught on a second before Brunnhilde did.
“No!” he yelled, jerking forward. Guards grabbed him roughly and threw him back. Brunnhilde opened her mouth, half-turning to him, but she didn’t succeed in continuing either of those motions for one, very simple reason: a knife stabbing her through the heart.
Looking back, Brunnhilde realized that there was no knife, and certainly nothing going through her body, just a considerable amount of pain. She didn’t know how it was happening, but soon, the knife of pain was shooting through every reachable part of her body. She dropped to her knees and opened her mouth in a silent scream, refusing, or perhaps unable to, make a noise.
Loki stared at her in horror, eyes glazed over as he watched her torture. Then he whirled to face Thanos.
“Stop this. She has nothing to do with this. Nothing. Let her go, stop it, STOP IT!”
Thanos merely chuckled. “Of course. If, that is, you tell me where the Tesseract is.”
Loki gritted his teeth and glared. “Never.”
“Then the pain must go on.”
And so it did. Brunnhilde wasn’t sure if the pain was actually getting worse, or if it was just becoming more unbearable as it dragged on. She wasn’t sure if she started screaming or if she continued her silence. She wasn’t sure if she was even still in Thanos’ chamber. All she know was that it hurt. Bad. So bad that she couldn’t explain even if she wanted to.
At last, at long last, the pain ceased, and Brunnhilde was left gasping and twitching on the floor, red and black creeping away from her vision. Loki was staring at her, white-faced and terrified, fists clenched by his sides.
“Did you…” Brunnhilde whispered hoarsely, directing her implied question at Loki.
“I didn’t tell him anything,” Loki replied, looking pained. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want any of this to fall on you--”
And then the pain slammed into her again and Loki disappeared once more.
=•=
When Brunnhilde came to, she was no longer in Thanos’ chambers but instead in the old cell. The valkyrie never thought she would be so relieved to see it.
“Hold still,” a familiar voice murmured.
Brunnhilde craned her neck and shifted to see Serlah kneeling over her, a rag in one hand. She relaxed slightly and allowed Serlah to hold the rag to her forehead, breathing a sigh of relief at the cool moisture.
“Is it bad?” Brunnhilde asked.
“I’m… not sure,” Serlah replied uncertainly. “There aren’t any external cuts or bleeding--”
“There’s not?” Brunnhilde turned to try and look and laid back down with a wince. Everything was sore.
“--but you have a lot of bruising. Whatever happened to you…” Serlah trailed off with a frown.
“I’m not even sure,” Brunnhilde muttered, slowly sitting up with a wince.
“Take it easy,” Serlah warned. “It’ll be pretty painful, but I don’t think it’s fatal or permanent.”
Brunnhilde nodded distractedly, having just seen Loki, who was leaning against a wall, awake but looking distant. He hadn’t noticed she was awake yet. She made her way over to him.
“Brunnhilde,” he said in relief when she sat down next to him. “You’re okay?”
“Maybe not okay,” Brunnhilde replied with another wince. “But alive.”
Loki nodded anxiously, keeping his eyes on her. “I’m so sorry.”
Brunnhilde nearly laughed. “What for?”
Loki shrugged uncomfortable. “I didn’t want you to get involved. I didn’t tell you about the Tesseract for that exact reason, so you wouldn’t get involved. And yet, even though I tried to keep you away from him... “ his voice turned bitter, “he still managed to get to you.”
Brunnhilde shook her head. “It wasn’t your fault. You don’t need to apologize.”
“Maybe not. But I… before, I said awful things to you.”
“Before what?”
“Before everything. On Sakaar, with Thor, on the ship, even here in this cell. I just want to say sorry for everything.”
Brunnhilde was quiet for a moment. Then, “It’s okay. You’re okay. I forgive you.”
Loki gave her a small smile.
There was a silence that was somehow filled as Brunnhilde and Loki looked at each other.
“Did he mean it?” Brunnhilde asked finally, her voice oddly soft and strained.
“Did he mean what?”
Brunnhilde took a deep breath. “Did he mean it when you said you were screaming my name? Was he telling the truth?”
Loki looked at her steadily for a moment, a quiet light reflecting in his dark eyes. “Yes,” he told her finally.
He was close. Too close. How had he gotten so close? Brunnhilde’s hand was touching his. Her breath quickened. This shouldn’t be happening. Brunnhilde told herself to lean back.
She didn’t.
Instead, when his nose brushed hers, she leaned forward and closed the short distance.
Loki’s hand came up to cup her face as their lips met. Brunnhilde tried to calm her racing heart, but it was impossible to think about anything other than the man in front of her who she thought she hated but somehow didn’t, who she’d realized a long time ago she didn’t hate, who she maybe realized that she loved. His teeth brushed her bottom lip and Brunnhilde couldn’t resist a small shiver. It was slow and steady and chaste and Brunnhilde told herself she didn’t love it but she did. Loki shifted slightly a brushed a strand of her hair back with his free hand.
Loki pulled back slightly and Brunnhilde tried to ignore the rushing disappointment in her chest and instead focused on how badly she needed air. After a moment to breathe he was back, lips against hers, cradling her face and letting his tongue brush her lips.
Brunnhilde was kneeling in front of him now, desperation almost pouring from her as she clutched at him. This was not the time or the place for romance, and Brunnhilde knew kissing was about as far as they’d get, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy it. She settled into him, their bodies pressed together, loving this, this kiss, this moment that was eternity,
Across the cell, Barow was grinning at Serlah.
“I’ll be taking your food rations,” he teased proudly.
Serlah just rolled her eyes and made a shushing motion at him. “Don’t interrupt!”
“Interrupt who? Them? Come on, they’re in their own world, they can’t hear us.”
“Yes, we can,” Loki’s exasperated voice came from the other side of the cell. “And shut up, please and thank you!”