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To say Loki was surprised was almost too much of an understatement. He had resigned to his room for the night after a great length of time away from Stark’s Tower of mortals, and he hadn’t quite prepared himself for the inevitable run-in he would have with your sleeping form sprawled on his bed. Loki enjoyed your company a lot, and you enjoyed his. But this was not your room or your space; it was his.
So, what in the Norns were you doing in his bed?
He was tired, body aching from restless nights spent battling unforeseen evils that menaced the galaxy you called home. If it wasn’t so much of a hassle to prevent such fragile creatures from going extinct, maybe he would enjoy the chaos of the melee combat. But your race was so inexcusably delicate that it was growing increasingly hard to ignore the question of how the lot of you had survived so long in the first place when mortals were so terribly vulnerable.
You didn’t move from your spot as he shut the door behind him. Loki even wondered if you were alive as he made a point to make more noise than he usually did as he paraded about the room. After closer inspection, he came to the conclusion that you were, in fact, very alive. And very asleep.
He opted to let you be after a moment or two, realizing that there was no point in trying to wake you because he was far too tired to deal with the conversation after. So, he grabbed a change of clothes, a bit quieter than his previous actions, and went to take a shower. The water cascaded down his body, pooling at his feet. As Loki stood under the water he began to question your reasoning for being on his bed.
The two of you were close, any of the other team members could have pointed that fact out, but it was a rare sight to see you in his room. He wondered why you slept so effortlessly, and so very peacefully, in a bed that was not your own. You were typically guarded, protecting your heart and your mind as well as your body from all who approached, so what were you doing being so openly defenseless in another individual’s private quarters?
Possibilities ran through his mind as the water progressively became lukewarm over time. Had you mistaken his room for yours? No, of course you hadn’t. Did you somehow faint upon finding an enchanted item in his quarters? No, he would have noticed. The list continued on until he grew tired of questioning your presence knowing he would never be certain unless you told him the reason for you sleeping on his bed.
When the God of Mischief turned off the water, he took his time preparing to sleep. If you were sleeping in his bed, where was he meant to rest? He most certainly was not going to sleep anywhere else. He was much too stubborn to just give up his quarters like that.
Minutes passed painfully slow as he returned to where you laid peacefully, curled in on yourself as if you were trying to shield yourself from onlookers. That Loki definitely didn’t understand. Nobody dared enter his room besides you, so there was no reason to try to protect yourself. He pulled his chair next to the bed and sat down, elbows resting on his knees as he leaned closer to you.
Was he supposed to wake you up and kick you out? Nobody would put it past him to do such a thing, but he didn’t want to confront you. He was tired. So, he didn’t wake you, and he didn’t give up. Instead, he found compromise. If you were bold enough to fall asleep in his room, he would just sleep beside you. After all, it was his room. If anyone should leave, it shouldn’t be him. Besides, the bed was big enough to fit two people.
Loki silently stood from the chair and rounded the bed. Because you had changed to your current fetal position, he didn’t have to worry about pushing you to the other side of the bed, so really all he had to do was lay down. Yet, it took him ages to do so.
Was this alright? Would you hate him if he laid beside you?
He shook his head, almost revolted by his own acknowledgment to how this might make you feel. He wasn’t the one crossing boundaries here. But somewhere deep inside the god he knew exactly why he cared so much that you were in here. He would never dare admit it, though. No, Loki had too much pride to admit that he had a weak spot, especially since that weak spot was a mere mortal.
Loki laid down still as a statue. So still, in fact, that the strain would probably tire his muscles eventually. He stared at the ceiling for what felt like ages before he allowed his body to ease into the mattress. Of all the nights to be here, why did it have to be the one where he was too tired to be able to stay this restless?
Perhaps the sound of your breathing was calming for him, coaxing him to sleep like a lullaby. Maybe it was nice to have someone sleep beside him as though he was not threatening. Or maybe it was just so pleasant to know that you were there. No matter the reason, Loki was comfortable, and with the soft sound of your breathing echoing in his ears, he fell asleep.
***
It was still dark when he was startled awake by your movements. You were still fast asleep it seemed when he opened his eyes, but you had moved. Loki was frozen, unable to comprehend the situation for a few moments as he took in the new position you had found yourself in. Surely, the two of you had shaken one another’s hands, and you had given him a hug in the spirit of the holiday season, but this — this was different.
Your arm fell around his waist, rising and falling with each breath he took. Your head was resting on his shoulder, a gentle weight, but a weight nonetheless. Your other arm was curled tightly to your chest, but your hand gripped onto the fabric of Loki’s top as if it was a comforting blanket for a child.
Loki wasn’t quite sure if he should be comfortable or not.
He tried to move away without waking you, but it only caused your grip to tighten. You were cuddling him. The god had never experienced this type of affection, or contact, before.
In an effort to wake you before you woke up the next morning completely disgusted for having touched him so intimately, Loki whispered your name. You hummed in response, eyes not opening. He whispered it again. You hummed again. He turned on his side, and your head gently fell to the pillow, but you still didn’t wake.
You were a heavy sleeper, Loki took note of this as he put his hand over yours, attempting unsuccessfully to release your hold on him. This only caused you to latch onto his hand instead of his top. He sighed as he laid face to face with you, facing defeat. And well, if the God of Mischief was being entirely honest, this wasn’t the worst thing to happen to him. He’d take being cuddled and holding hands with you over fighting other alien races that were attempting to kill him. Actually, if he was honest, he’d take this over sitting in a room with Natasha Romanoff staring him down from across the table. He’d probably take this over any interaction with the Avengers.
As long as he was being honest, too, Loki had to admit that he admired the vulnerability you showed in front of him. The others always seemed to be ready to pull out their weapons with him in the room, but you would waltz into a room with nothing but a sandwich or ice cream and a spoon to protect you if he was in the room. He not only admired that; he appreciated it. You treated him like you trusted him, and in turn, he began to trust you. If he didn’t trust you, he wouldn’t have slept in this room.
You hummed in your sleep, grip tightening ever so slightly around Loki’s hand. He found himself reciprocating the gesture as he leaned forward ever so slightly to rest his forehead against yours. Now, Loki wasn’t quite sure what peace and comfort truly felt like these days, but he was pretty sure this was close to it.
“Loki?”
He pulled back swiftly when your voice rang in the darkness. He attempted to untangle himself from you in the process of pulling away, but you held him in place. After all, he wasn’t going to use all his strength to combat you — he wouldn’t do that, but you didn’t know that.
You weren’t entirely sure what was happening, and you felt pretty embarrassed to have been caught sleeping in the god’s bed. However, you were more shocked at the fact that he seemed to be enjoying it when you awoke.
The two of you laid in silence. Loki was on the very edge of the bed, facing the ceiling, but his hand still held on to yours.
“Loki,” you whispered, hoping not to startle him again. You tightened your grip on his hand just in case, though. It was his turn to hum, almost as if he didn’t quite know what to say. You didn’t blame him; you were pretty damn speechless yourself. “When did you get back?”
The question was mostly in order to deter any questions he might have about your presence, but you were also kind of curious to know how long he had been laying with you. He didn’t answer for a long moment, letting the silence consume the two of you for a little while longer.
Loki wasn’t entirely sure what to say. He’d been there for a few hours at least, but if you knew that, what would you think? He almost cringed at the fact that he cared so much about what you thought of him. But then he remembered a conversation the two of you had weeks ago, and he knew he couldn’t lie. You liked honesty, you respected honesty, and Loki, in his moment of vulnerability opening up to you, had promised that he would try to be honest with you. Even if he lied to every other person in the room, he promised not to keep you in the dark, too.
“A while,” he responded quietly. You nodded into the pillow and turned to lay on your back, mirroring Loki’s own position. Your hands, fingers still entwined, resting on the sheets between the two of you as you both stared at the ceiling.
“How long have you been in here?” He reciprocated the question, and you felt your chest tighten as you realized that you’d also have to come clean.
“A while,” you said, repeating the same words that Loki had uttered seconds before.
“May I inquire for your reason to be in here?” He questioned. In your peripheral vision, you saw him turn his head to face you. You turned to face him as well, immediately taking notice of how the moonlight streaming through the window reflected off his features. When you didn’t answer, Loki pondered over the possible reasons he had thought of before. Then, he thought of the most absurd thing. Did you miss him?
“Your room’s,” you paused, “nicer than mine.”
“Our rooms look identical,” he countered.
“No,” you tried to defend your answer, knowing that the lie was futile when said to the God of Mischief. “Your room has a bigger window.”
Loki turned his head to stare at the window. In the light, you watched his jaw clench and eyebrows furrow in concentration. It was as if he was attempting to measure the dimensions of the window in his mind, and you couldn’t help but let a small breathy laugh escape your lips. You knew Loki was right — your rooms were completely the same with only personal design tastes as the difference. Loki knew he was right, too, but he couldn’t quite understand why you were lying.
Upon hearing your laugh, he turned back to look at you. His lips parted as he thought of something to say, but he stopped. It wasn’t just him that looked glorious in the moonlight; you did, too. And he saw it. He saw the way your smile shone in the darkness and the way your features were defined with shadow, and he had to admit, if you had been standing among Asgardians, you would still have been the most beautiful person in the room at that moment. With this thought in his mind, Loki became painfully aware of the feeling of your hand in his, and he felt his own chest tighten.
“Loki?” Your voice was small as you watched the words fail to leave his lips. Was he mad at you? Of course, he had every right to be. You were basically trespassing. “Are you okay?”
He closed his mouth and looked back at the ceiling, fingers tightening their grip on yours. You didn’t press further.
A normal person would think that they should leave, but you weren’t really normal, so this didn’t apply. Besides, if Loki wanted you to leave, he would have said so to your face. Part of you wondered why he hadn’t asked that of you. Part of Loki wondered why he hadn’t asked that of you either. The answer was clear, though.
Minutes passed. Neither of you spoke. Something in the air became lighter between the two of you as each second passed, almost as if there was a point of unspoken clarity reached. You turned back on your side to face the god, and he mimicked your movement. This went on for a while — slow movements towards one another until he was inches away and your hands, fingers still locked together, rested between your chests. The two of you weren’t as close as you had been when you slept, but somehow the both of you had never felt closer.
“How was the mission?” You whispered, voice virtually inaudible in fear of disturbing the moment.
“Tiring,” Loki responded. You felt his thumb brush against the back of your hand.
“Sorry for taking up your bed.”
Loki said nothing in response. Instead, he leaned his forehead against yours, reenacting the position you had been in before you startled him. You allowed yourself to close your eyes, a feeling of comfort overtaking you.
“Loki?” You whispered, feeling yourself grow increasingly drowsy.
“Yes?” Had his voice always been so relaxing? It sounded the same, you were certain, but there was something different all the same. He sounded so at ease, and you couldn’t help but hope you were the reason for it.
“I’m glad you made it back safe.”
“Me, too,” he answered before you felt yourself get pulled into a deep sleep.
***
When you awoke, the light was streaming in. The warmth of the body beside you absent. You sat up, realizing that Loki was nowhere to be seen. Allowing yourself a few moments to adjust to the morning light, you wondered if he had actually come back that night. Loki didn’t seem like the cuddly type, and maybe you had just caught him at a weird time so he felt obligated to give in to your touchy-feely sleepiness.
You emerged from Loki’s room as discreetly as possible and made your way back to your own. Changing swiftly into casual day clothes, you made your way to the kitchen where everyone was typically already having breakfast. The chattering could be heard from down the hall before everyone even came into view, and you felt your heart rate quicken at the thought that everyone might know you had slept in Loki’s room unannounced.
Nothing was different, though. Thor was speaking loudly about the mission he and Loki had gotten back from. His storytelling was as vigorous and over-exaggerated as usual, but he had everyone’s attention. Everyone except Loki’s who’s eyes were already trained on you from the other side of the kitchen.
You approached him slowly, grabbing a nearby mug before reaching beside the god for the coffee. As you prepared your cup, Loki turned to face the counter, placing his mug down.
“How did you sleep?” His voice was quiet, drowned out by Thor’s thundering voice.
Your cheeks heated, “Fine, how about yourself?”
You technically didn’t have anything too major to be embarrassed about. Sure, you had done some innocent cuddling, but nothing else had happened.
“Best I’ve slept in a while,” he admitted, and he wasn’t lying. You looked up to meet his gaze, his face dangerously close to yours, before glancing back over to where everyone had their back to you and him. Loki’s eyes followed your gaze, grinning. He let out a breathy laugh before picking up his mug again. “I must admit, seeing you on my bed was quite the surprise.”
“Right,” you said, eyes cast downwards, “About that, I’m sorry.”
“No apology necessary,” he responded, taking a sip from his cup. “Next time, though, I’d like to be there when you make the decision to claim my bed as your own.” Startled by his answer, you just about choked on your coffee. You placed the mug in front of you, resting your hands on the counter before turning to him. Eyes wide, you stared.
Now, Loki liked teasing you. It was something he did regularly, and just because the two of you shared that small intimate moment, that wasn’t going to change. In fact, after a lot of thought this morning when he awoke to you sleeping so soundly beside him, limbs tangled with his own, Loki knew exactly the reason why his chest had tightened last night. He had also pretty much figured out the reason why you were in his room, so the teasing was only going to get worse. Affectionate in his own devilish way but still worse.
“What?” You asked, eyes still wide.
With his devilish grin still playing at his lips, Loki leaned down. His lips brushed your ear as he whispered, “You can explain tonight.”
As suggestive as it sounded, when the god pulled away, there was a look of sincerity in his eyes that said something different. The devilish grin faded into something much more intimate, and as you searched his face, you felt his hand fall on top of yours. His thumb brushed your skin before stilling.
Seconds later, when Loki walked away to stand among his brother and the others, his eyes met yours again, a silent language being spoken to you. And you knew that everything had changed; everything was about to change between you two.