Work Text:
The hum of the air conditioner faltered for a bit, making me groan. The most highly advanced building in the northern hemisphere and we couldn’t get a damn air conditioner to work. The air that was blowing wasn’t nearly enough to get to every room and being on the bottom floor meant the least of it got to me. I rolled over my sparsely covered bed to look at the clock. 3:17 a.m. Thank God I didn’t have anywhere to be tomorrow or else I’d be throwing things at Tony while he worked. I rolled back over and stared at the ceiling, willing myself to sleep. I tried taking deep breaths and counting backwards from 100, but someone else’s groan snapped me from my trance. The walls were pretty thick in the building, so it must have been exceptionally bad for Loki to be that upset. I bit my lip, wondering if going to him to commiserate together was a good idea or not. Probably not, but what the hell; he’s supposedly a frost giant, so maybe he’d be able to provide temporary relief.
I rolled out of bed and put on some shorts before peaking out into the hallway. No one was ever down here this late, but I still felt like I needed to sneak around. Seeing that the coast was clear, I tiptoed down the hallway before stopping at his door. I paused in front of his door, momentarily rethinking my decision. What if he didn’t want to be disturbed? What if my presence annoyed him further? I shook my doubts off, thinking that if he were to provide any relive, it’d be worth the rude comments he’d undoubtedly give me. I knocked quickly and quietly on his door, hoping that I hadn’t just imagined his groan and woke him up. I heard some muttering and feet shuffling before the door swung open, revealing a very aggravated and hardly dressed Loki. He seemed like he was about to snap, but once he realized it was me and not one of his lesser-liked companions he softened a bit.
“What could you possibly need at this hour?” Loki asked. I suppressed rolling my eyes, because he was kind of right.
“I can’t sleep in this heat, and it looks like you can’t either. I just wanted to rant to somebody who understood or, at the very least, do something to distract from how hot it is,” I said. He cocked his eyebrow at me, amused.
“What do you have in mind for a distraction?” he questioned, all sense of aggravation lost, and now replaced with humor. I did roll my eyes this time, and blushed. What a poor choice of words, Rosie.
“I’d do anything to keep cool at this point. Don’t you have a potion in there that can create snow or something?” I questioned. He inhaled deeply, a small smirk on his lips.
“Temperature can’t be conjured by potions. But, I have been trying. No such luck, unfortunately,” He stood aside and guided his arm to show the row of bottles and books lying around. I stepped into his room to get a closer look, marveling at his makeshift workshop. I’d seen him do some experiments in the lab, but nothing like this. The machine-like clean of the lab was completely foregone for the messy, unorganized cluster of items in here. I walked over to the long table, walking down it and looking at all the items. Some were clearly from Earth, while most looked to be from other worlds. I’d almost forgotten that this mess actually belonged to someone, until Loki cleared his throat.
“Try as you might, I doubt you limited knowledge in potions could actually benefit us at this time. If I’m unable to cool us off, it’s unlikely that it’s even possible,” He said, shutting his door and walking over to a large bookcase.
But if he was a frost giant… why would he need a potion to make it cold?
I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to think of a polite way of asking that. He must have noticed because he looked confused at me.
“I didn’t actually expect you to try your hand at potion making. Don’t think about it too much, you’ll hurt your head,” he said.
“Is it really necessary? Potions, I mean?” I asked, with a much more timid voice than I anticipated.
“What do you mean by that?” he asked. I bit my lip once more and looked away, avoiding eye contact at all cost.
“Shouldn’t you be able to cool off because of your… lineage? Why would you need to call on potions for help?” I asked, with the same small voice. He scoffed at me.
“I’m not particularly fond of my heritage, so calling upon it for something as trivial as coldness isn’t something I’m willing to do. Not for myself, and certainly not for others,” Loki snapped at me. I don’t know if he realized it or not, but he was stalking over to me and now towering over me, while I tried to remain unafraid.
“I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have asked,” I gulped, using all my might to retain my neutral expression. His anger faltered a bit when he looked down at me, sensing how scared I was. I’d seen him express his anger to Thor and some of the others, but he’d never been this hostile with me. The heat really is getting to everyone.
“I should go. Sorry to have disturbed you,” I said while looking down. I began to rush towards the door by his voice stopped me.
“Wait,” Loki said, barely above a whisper.
I wondered if he’d actually said that or if my mind was playing tricks on me. He turned to me, a worried expression on his face.
“It’s very hard… It’s difficult for me to summon the strength from that… side of me. I usually don’t do it without the help of a power source, but I could try,” he said, looking at me. I nodded fervently, wishing for his powers to work so we’d both feel better. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Loki stayed like this for a few moment, breathing deeply and eyes clenched shut. After a few beats, I felt the air around me grow cooler. I wasn’t able to hold in the sigh of relief that exited my throat when I felt the air get colder. Loki was clenched, breathing deeply, concentrating. The coolness radiated from him and started to get icy. The floor became slightly slick with ice and some of the metal things in his room began frosting over.
I was grinning like I was absolutely insane. The air felt so good on my overheated skin and it felt like I was finally able to breathe. I heard him take in a deep breath, finally relaxing his tense muscles and standing to his full height. He opened his eyes with a triumphant smirk on his lips.
“Oh, Loki, you're the best!" I couldn’t contain myself and threw my arms around him. His skin was so cold it felt like pure ice on me, making me feel even better. I unconsciously pressed the side of my face to his bare, cool chest and felt him tense once more. I immediately dropped my arms and stepped back. "I'm... so sorry. You just felt so... nice," I couldn’t contain the embarrassed blush on my cheeks, even if my body wasn't hot any more.
"It's um... it's alright. I can... uh... go do your room now – if you like?" He said, clearly uncomfortable. I secretly felt proud of myself, reducing the silver-tongued god to, well... a bumbling teenager.
"That's okay, I don't want you to overexert yourself. Do you mind if I take your couch?" I pointed over to the small loveseat in his corner.
Almost immediately after I said that, Loki barked out, "No! I'll... go do your room," and quickly stalked out. I wanted to slap myself. As soon as I started making progress by becoming Loki's friend, I had to go and make it awkward; typical.
I followed after him and walked in on him with his back to me, standing in the middle of my room, the same tension resting on his shoulders. After a few moments the same cooling affect took place over my room and I could barely make out some ice formations on my window. I stood much further away from him this time, not wanting to make it any weirder than it already was.
"Thank you, really. I probably would've melted had you not been here," I admitted. Any hint of discomfort disappeared when he turned back around to me.
"Well, we can't have that now, can we. I fear you'd be much less attractive as a puddle," he said to me. My eyes widened and I felt just as embarrassed as when I shoved my face into his chest. It was clear I wasn't going to be able to respond to that, so he just continued walking out of my room, but paused at the door.
"Don't tell anyone what I can do. I'd hate for my services to be... abused," he said, turning to me.
"Don't worry. I'd much rather have you all to myself," I said without thinking. I opened my mouth back up to retract what I've said, but the amused expression on Loki's face told me the damage was already done. "I didn't mean... Like, I don't think you're mine... or anything... I just... You've been so kind and I-"
"Darling, I'm unquestionably yours. All you need is ask," Loki said. I just nodded, knowing that opening my mouth would only result in much more embarrassment that I wasn't sure I could handle. "Sweet dreams," He said before quickly exiting and shutting the door.
I instantly collapsed onto my bed and held my deeply reddened face in my hands. What in the ever-loving fuck would possess me to say that? Had I lost my mind? Maybe the heat was getting to me too... yeah. I'll just blame it on that…