Blown up
The explosion had been brutal, and had thrown both Shuri and Peter (Parker) flying a good mile, yet, somehow they were unscathed, unharmed. Neither the force of the blast nor the fall had hurt them: there were no abrasions, no broken bones, not even broken skin. Something had protected the, something had shielded them so that they wouldn't be hurt.
"wAS.. WAS IT YOU?" Peter asked, his ears still ringing after the force of the explosion. It would take a while until his ears worked again.
Shuri shook her head. By the time she thought of engaging any protection mechanisms they were already in the air, being thrown at high speeds. So, she didn't have time to fix anything so it couldn't have been her and it clearly hadn't been Peter... And there was only another person in the room with them when it had happened.
"Loki!"
There was a blood trail and a green and black figure thrown on the floor some metres ahead of them, and he'd been the one closest to the blast.
Shuri and Peter, still a bit unsteady on their feet, clumsily ran towards the figure. It was so, so bad. Peter gasped and his hand went to his mouth. Shuri tried not to let emotions rule her, tried to think the best course of action, but even she was having trouble thinking rationally.
Loki was twitching, half of his face was covered in gashes and there was... there was a big gaping wound in his abdomen, you could practically see the organs underneath. God, that explosion had taken a big chunk out of him.
Loki was breathing in a loud, wheezy, irregular way, and blood kept pooling out under him, his eyes glassy and unfocused. He seemed to want to say something, but when he tried to speak only more blood came out.
"Oh my god, Shuri, what do we do, what do we do, what do we do?"
Peter's absolute freak out wasn't helping at all, but she understood the sentiment perfectly. Her mind, instead of finding clever solutions as she normally did, was now only drawing blanks, panicky on the inside, also thinking "what do I do?"
"We should probably stop the bleeding, right?" Shuri said, but she didn't know what to stop it with.
"Spider net?"
"I don't know... Those things are so... sticky... What if they get in the way of his body healing, become part of the problem too?"
Yes, that was a concern. Loki seemed to be half gone already, and he'd nearly died trying to save them. Both of them called everyone they knew, but there had been some cave ins because of the explosion and it was going to be difficult to get through to where they were, especially with most of the more technological people away on missions. And Loki didn't have a lot of time.
It was... painful to watch. Peter had known that joining the Avengers would have many bad things as well as good, but didn't imagine he would have to see the innards of somebody he appreciated out in the open because he hadn't been quick enough to get away from an explosion and somebody else had to shield him. Peter liked Loki, he was his go-to guy for all things off the record and off the books, he was the one that encouraged him to do the craziest things and he couldn't, wouldn't just die because of a stupid explosion...
Shuri had had done some sort of tourniquet, had checked the vitals and given Loki the last of her "mega-energy" pills and was trying to get one her suits in a necklace things to work (at least the suit would keep him from bleeding out or getting too cold and as horrible as it sounded, keep all of him inside of him) but it had been damaged in the blast, and she could figure out how to undo the damage, sure, but it was so complicated what with the way her hands were shaking, and the water in Loki's eyes and Peter's wavering voice next to her...
Peter had put Loki's head on his side, so that he wouldn't choke on blood, and was trying to... hell, he was just talking, he didn't know exactly why.
"Loki? Loki, man, you with us? Is there any way to... kick off your magic... make it heal you? I've seen you do that, to people, there must be a way for you to heal yourself too, right?" Loki's green eyes were fondly looking at him, despite the pain and the horror of the situation."Don't! No finality, no speeches, Loki, we are not letting you die, ok? You've done that enough times. Come on, use your magic!"
But Loki couldn't use his magic, not with all that pain fogging everything. He couldn't, but maybe....
Shuri watched, amazed, how green light passed from Loki to Peter, and how he passed out, finally.
"No!!!" Peter screamed, shaking the wounded man, to no avail.
"Peter!" Shuri said, formulating a theory. It was maybe far fetched, but Peter had wanted Loki to use hi magic, and then that light... "Peter, you heal him."
"How?"
"With magic -look, look at yourself."
Peter's hands were glowing green, and he understood.
"But... I don't...."
Shuri kept her head calm, although she was fascinated with the working of this, and the implications of this. If magic was transferable, oh, the things she would do. But now there was a mission, Loki needed her and so did Peter, confused as hell with what he could suddenly do.
"You just put your hands softly in the wound, and visualize yourself healing him, imagine the tissues being remade, ok? Just think about it, concentrate on that."
Don't let the boy realise you have no idea of what you're saying, Shuri. This could still work.
Miraculously, it did. Sure, Peter was unsteady and stopped many times (even cried a little when he couldn't get it to work), but he managed to fix Loki up enough so that he could half walk - aka be carried by Shuri and Peter to some safer place.
When Loki woke up the next time, it was to lively voices.
"We wanted to thank you for shielding us." Shuri said.
"And I wanted to thank you for trusting me with your magic, even if only for a short while." Peter said, smiling.
"Can I try too?" Shuri said, hopeful. "Maybe some other time when you're not dying?"
"Mayhaps, princess. We shall see."
"Yes!!! Well, in the mean time we brought some games, and some books and some movies..."
Loki seemed confused. Peter clarified.
"There's no school until September. And we decided we were going to keep you company until you recover."
"Shield you from the horrors of boredom and not knowing what movie to choose while you recover."
Loki smiled.
Unexpectedly, he found himself happy at the idea of company. Once upon a time, he'd thought all midgardians low and dull. But now he knew better. And as they were watching vine compilations in an oversized medical bed, Loki was grateful.
Even to explosions.