Deaf
The explosion was quite literally deafening.
Loki stood there, in the middle of the field, covered in his own blood, hardly able to see, and terribly distracted by an awfully loud ringing in his ears. It was the only thing he could hear, the only thing he knew. He put his hands over his ears but the ringing didn't stop, didn't lower, didn't change at all. Because it wasn't coming from outside, but from him. This was bad, so bad.
He wouldn't be able to hear anyone coming his way, wouldn't be able to hear himself to see if he was saying the spells right, wouldn't be able to.... concentrate with that ringing. His hand were shaking from the aftershock of the explosion, and he was extremely disoriented, not remembering where he was or how he'd got there. Not the ideal situation to lose one of you senses.
Thankfully for Loki, someone with nice intentions was coming his way. Kraglin had been distant enough from the explosion to be only slightly stunned, and was looking for survivors. That's when he found him, one of those elegant Asgard people, all covered in blood and with frantic eyes.
“Wait... you're Nebula's friend, aren't you?”
But the dude (Nebula's friend) hadn't even noticed that Kraglin was there, because he simply couldn't hear anything. He was still shaking and didn't know where he was really, or how to get to some sort of transportation, how to get back to the others. And he couldn't hear, which made everything so much more difficult. He would have simply collapsed on the floor and let himself go for a bit, if he hadn't been so tense from the explosion.
And then someone touched him, and he nearly jumped.
It was someone he didn't he knew, but who looked familiar. It was hard to keep track, with all the Avengers and Guardians and all of their adjacent people... each one of them had families and/or friends, and Loki hadn't cared enough to learn the names or faces or all of them.
The man was saying something, but Loki couldn't hear over the awful ringing in his ears. Oh, it was splitting his head in two, the ringing, and how he still felt as if the world were shaking.
“What?”
The man repeated the sentence, and Loki motioned for him to repeat. He couldn't hear him, not at all, but maybe he could infer what he was saying by the movement of his lips. Loki figured that if he hadn't attacked by now, he was probably not a foe.
Kraglin repeated his sentence for the third time and Loki's mind thought he caught something.
“Nebula? You know Nebula?” Loki screamed, because unable to hear himself he was having difficulty finding a volume in which he knew he would be heard.
Kraglin flinched, but smiled. This was most definitely the guy he'd seen with Nebula and he was most definitely deaf and still shaking from being to close to the explosion. Still, there had to be a more efficient way of communicating that him mouthing everything a lot and Loki screaming at him. There was.... there was a walkie talkie.
Kraglin pointed at it, and Loki nodded, still a bit out of it.
“Try to contact my companions, if you don't mind.” Loki screamed.”I wouldn't be able to listen to them anyhow.”
And so he did.
“Yes?”
“Quill?”
“Kraglin? I... Are you all right? We heard there was an explosion. But how come you have this comm?”
“I'm here with Nebula's friend.”
Peter was surprised.
“Nebula doesn't have any friends.”
Gamora glared at him with the force of a thousand knives, and Peter grimaced.
“I mean,” he continued, backtracking and regretting instantly, “technically we're all friends of Nebula, but....”
And then Loki's unmoderated voice came from the comm.
“Who is it? Is my brother around?”
“Loki!” Valkyrie said, surprised.
“Loki is kind of Nebula's friend...” Gamora noted.
“The thing is” Kraglin continued, trying to get his message across. “This Loki was too close to the explosion and can't hear anything now.”
“Is Thor there? Tell him to get some root of Efflinden if there's any, or just some Rownez potion.”
“I know where to get that.” Valkyrie said, and took the comm. “We'll have to find the Grandmaster, but he owes me a couple of favours. We'll go for you when we get these things, and anything he might have for deafness. You, buddy, look after Loki properly while we get there... or else a Valkyrie will come for you. We've lost him enough times.”
Well, now Kraglin was terrified. There was some Valkyrie woman who knew he was supposed to be looking after this friend of Nebula's who had taken the brunt of a terrible explosion and was supposed to be a god of chaos or something like that. Oh, joy.
“Wait, lady! How do I communicate with him?”
“You don't have anything to write on? Just tell him to use his magic to write on air, or you know, take his palm and write with your finger on it. Just make sure he doesn't hurt himself further, ok?”
Tall order. Still, the Valkyrie lady had some good ideas, even if Kraglin knew it wasn't going to be enough.
“Will do. I'll look after him.”
The dude (Loki was apparently his name) had dried blood from a gash in his temple all covering one side of his face, and one of thighs had a big bleeding wound too, and as well as both his hands. His eyes were bloodshot, irritated and unfocused, while his breathing was loud and irregular. They needed to find a safe place and minimize the damage. Because a) he didn't want to experience that Valkyrie's wrath and b) maybe looking after her buddy may make him win points with Nebula.
“Hey! Loki!” Kraglin waved his hands and himself in general in front of Loki to get his attention, and then said, vocalizing nearly every letter, and pointing: “Give me your hand.”
Loki did so hesitantly and reluctantly, and Kraglin carefully started writing in his hand with his finger, and Loki very surprisingly giggled at the contact.
“It tickles.” He screamed.
This was not the concept Kraglin had of royalty, or of anyone that could be considered Nebula's friend. Condescending, vicious, dangerous: yes. Ticklish: not in his wildest dreams. He slowly and carefully wrote the words magic, write and air and Loki's eyes widened, lit up.
“Of course!” Loki screamed, even louder. “Why didn't I think of that!”
And suddenly one of his fingers was glowing green and he wrote in clear elegant writing in the space between them.
What did my companions say? Was Thor with them?
He touched Kraglin's hand suddenly his hands were glowing too. He grinned. Kraglin had always loved magic.
No Thor, but a Valkyrie was there, said she could get what you need, and to look after you while they get it and come back here.
Loki nodded. This was good – the Valkyrie wouldn't let them down.
Kraglin wrote again.
We should find somewhere safer, and maybe I could bandage some of those wounds of yours.
Of course, Loki replied, lead the way. Excuse me, may I have your name?
Kraglin.
Oooh, Nebula's told me about you. She finds your company rather pleasing.
That put Kraglin in a good mood for the rest of the evening.
They found a nice cave not far, and decided to rest there. Kraglin bandaged Loki's wounds and kept Loki awake writing with his finger and vividly re-enacting stories he'd lived while with the Ravagers. Loki decided that he liked the Ravagers and respected their ways. May he would have thrived in an environment of relatively honest criminals like that.
He stopped hearing that high pitched noise, but his hearing didn't return in the next two days. True to his word, Kraglin looked after the injured god, changed the dressings of his wounds, found some water and found, made sure he wasn't getting worse. He'd been the unofficial nurse of Yondu and Quill more than once, and he knew his way around an injury.
When Valkyrie and the others arrived, Loki was napping peacefully in the cave using his own torn cape as blanket and Kraglin was using his glowing finger to sketch himself a nice outer spacey wedding.
After so many horrors they had lived, it was nice to see such a pleasant scene, and she stayed in silence for a bit, enjoying the peace, the sweetness of the whole thing.
Tragedy was part of their lives, but companionship and hope were too. Solidarity.
Not all was bad.