Appendicitis
Prince Loki was... different.
After the battle of Wakanda the royal house of Wakanda offered Thor a place to stay, and a privileged place as counselor in all royal matters. When his brother came back, Thor asked asylum for the sorcerer and although there was some opposition and some voices against it, eventually and with some conditions, Loki too was granted sanctuary in the capital.
Okoye had made some effort to get close to the man, as she feared he could be a threat: to the country, to the royal family, to everyone. But, alas, despite his many intellectual gifts, in emotional matters he was pretty easy to read and to mold. Okoye suspected that he hadn't had many friends growing up, and he only required some praise (maybe a compliment on his magic, or a comment about his good mind for strategy) and then he became your best friend. If you somehow mentioned that you thought he was better than Thor at anything, then you assured his never ending appreciation.
His way of thinking was a bit over-the-top for Okoye, a bit excessive, but no one could deny that the guy was brilliant, in his own confusing and complicated way. He was one of the few people able to challenge Shuri (finally, she said when she met him, somebody who thinks at something similar to my speed! The rest of the genius people have been so disappointing) and he knew how to make things with the least amount of fight, of blood loss. So she actually didn't mind having him around, and often went to him for advice.
But now, she wished she was alone and not with him, because he would have been a good help in getting her out of this... situation.
Somebody was trying to get T'Challa's throne (again) and this person thought that maybe it was better to take the most dangerous people surrounding him away from the king, so that they wouldn't mess with him. First, it was Shuri who disappeared. As they were investigating what had happened to her, both Okoye and Loki were gassed and taken to a prison cell. They were dressed in cotton shirts and tracksuit bottoms, and had been stripped of all weapons, even the most secret ones.
Whoever had taken them had been smart, and careful and knew who they were taking. To have taken them both so easily... this was not going to be an easy foe to defeat.
When Loki woke up, his hands were wearing some sort of bracelets, that made him feel an electric shock every time he tried to do magic. This was bad, so bad, and even if he tried to ignore the pain from the electricity to get rid of the bracelets and manage to get them out of there, he couldn't, and was just getting weaker.
Nevertheless, he kept trying to get them out. He thought of a dozens schemes, tricks, ways of escaping. None of them worked (this person, whoever they were, were very smart), but both of them kept trying, kept testing the different parts of the cell, kept trying to convince the guards that came with food to help them, kept using any and every idea they may have to get out.
She didn't mind so much (she'd been held prisoner before, she could endure it) but she worried about Shuri and the king. Also, she was beginning to get worried about her cellmate. As a god, she figured he could weather anything, long time without eating, bad conditions... But the last day he'd been looking paler and weaker, refused food and held his midsection, as if in pain.
And as time went by, Loki only looked worse, until Okoye felt the need to mention it. She had never judged anyone on their looks, but the prince could be sick, which was a factor to be taken into account when planning other escape attempts.
“Are you well? You look.... sick, if you don't mind me saying.”
Loki half smiled.
“Something's wrong inside of me. About to break.”
“What?” Okoye's eyes widened. How could he be talking about that so casually? She'd found, ever since she met the god, that he was too careless with his own life. She went next to him, put her hand on his forehead.
He was burning up.
“If I had any of my magic I would be able to heal myself... enough at least to keep going, but these damned contraptions... I'm sorry, General. I've failed you. All of you.”
Okoye just frowned, not understanding. Something had apparently broken inside of him and still he had hoped that he would get the best of what was clearly a technologically advanced mastermind. Someone not even her could figure out, or get close to, and that was saying something.
“If Thor was here... he probably would have done something... Someone would have come...”
Okoye didn't believe what she was hearing.
“Are you serious? You nearly got us out three times in four days. You're not failing anyone, Prince Loki.”
He shivered as a wave of pain coursed through him.
“Your princess also, she would have been...better... than me.... Anyone else....”
“Do you really think so little of yourself, prince? Do you really have such a distorted image of yourself?”
Loki's brow furrowed, confused. What was she talking about?
“You have more than once put yourself in danger to help your subjects and you are one of the most brilliant people I have ever met. And believe me, I know a lot of brilliant people. And yet you keep tearing yourself down, comparing yourself to Thor. Yes, you are different, but that it's not bad, you have strengths he lacks.”
Loki wanted to thank her, wanted to smile, but his stomach hurt too much. He was holding it tightly, wishing he could believe her words... He was better now than he had been when he found out about his true parentage, more accepting of himself, but still, there were days.... Days when he felt like he did when he was wrong, small, inappropriate, a failure of a second son, never quite living up to who he was supposed to be.
Like this day.
There was an intense pain in his abdomen and he felt terribly nauseous. Unbecoming for a prince to look like that, so ill, so broken...
“You let me handle this.” Okoye said, but she knew the situation was tough.
Loki most likely needed surgery and even if she had known what the hell to do, there was nothing sharp in that cell to avoid their escape. They had needed to get out before too, but now there was a clock ticking. Loki was in extreme pain, and every minute that he spent without his magic he was only getting worse.
But what to do? All of her and Loki's schemes hadn't been able to help in any way. Deep inside, Okoye knew that their best option was to wait for someone to come for them... But the idea of doing nothing while Loki agonised didn't tempt her. Not at all.
She wanted to comfort him, but she didn't know how. She was a warrior, a soldier, not quite so adept at being soft and emotional, at being... comforting. And Loki, he had always seemed fragile to her, both emotionally and physically, very easy to hurt. She was good at punching doors, not at giving help, not at giving hope.
Loki was hunched in on himself, trying to drown out the whimpers, and his face was a grimace, and she had to do something. All her life she had protected royalty, all her life she had protected her people, and that included Loki now.
“Just try to breathe through it, yes? Don't let it... Think of a good memory, huh? Think of how happy Thor was when you came back! Think of when you beat Shuri at that game you guys invented and she clapped and bowed to you....”
He tried to look at her, focus on her voice but then Loki's eyes closed and he cried out in pain.
Something had very literally broken inside of him, and the pieces were damaging the rest of him.
“No, no, no” Okoye was saying frantically. “Don't do this!”
It was twelve agonising minutes later that Loki lost consciousness.
Okoye shed one single tear over the prince's pain and her own impotence to help.
Three hours later they were rescued by Nakia and Thor, who took his brother in his strong arms and flew him to some medical care. Shuri, who had been released some days ago, quickly started working on him, assuring both Thor and Okoye that she would fix Loki in no time.
The next day, there she was, the fierce general sitting on a foreigner's bedside reading a book called “Seven ways to help deal with low steem”. Maybe in the cell she hadn't been able to help him much, but she would help the man, one way or another.
That she vowed.