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Loki's hands were shaking when he pushed himself up in the little crater his body had left in the floor. Or better the beast had made with his body in the floor.
Everything seemed to hurt yet he felt like he had been wrapped in cotton. The pain was a dull throb throughout his whole body rather than a stabbing pain located at an injury.
Blood trickled down from cuts in his face and Loki touched his fingers to the bridge of his nose. It didn't feel broken. His fingertips came away sticking red anyway.
Loki only managed a few inches over to the steps running throughout Stark's apartment before he collapsed to the ground again.
Now there was some stabbing pain in his sides and abdomen. His mouth tasted faintly like iron. Interesting. His body also seemed to weigh a few tons more than when he last checked. Everything was heavy.
The unmistakable sound of something heavy touching down on concrete made Loki slowly turn around before slumping back against the cold steps. Norns his back was killing him. He just wanted to lay down and never get up again if that was possible.
In front of him stood the six Avengers. The Hawk, the Soldier, the Beast, the Widow, Stark and his brother Thor.
"If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now," Loki joked. No one laughed. Loki felt his body shake just from the exertion of keeping his head up.
The silence was tense for a few more seconds, then Thor closed the distance between him and Loki and roughly grabbed Loki's arm.
In one swift pull, Loki was on his feet, clutching a hand around his ribs and wheezing. The world was spinning around its own axis in too many directions at once.
Sounds reached his ears as if he was under water and Loki could only distantly make out Thor calling his name.
"Brother, are you alright?"
"I am not your brother," Loki grit out through his teeth and straightened himself, trying very hard not to wince at the feeling of his organs tearing apart.
"Are you alright?", Thor repeated and softened his grip around Loki's arm.
"Me? I feel like a million bucks," Loki spat out. Stark barked an exhausted laugh at that.
"Where'd you hear that one?", he asked, picking at a bit of debris on his armour.
"I think I might have said that once," the Hawk mumbled under his breath and folded his bow.
Loki didn't bother to answer Stark's question again. His mind was too foggy anyway. He didn't know where he picked the saying up. Possibly from the Hawk. Possibly from another human he'd had under his control.
The world was still spinning around him and the floor was still tilting, though a little less violently than before. Thor's hand fell away from his arm and he said something. Loki couldn't hear him.
"I'm fine, Thor," Loki insisted when he glanced at Thor's worried frown. An amused grin spread over his own face at the look of Thor's stupid expression.
The longer Loki was just standing there, the more the cotton around his senses seemed to fall away and the pain overtook everything that was muted before.
A sharp stab into his abdomen forced Loki to his knees and a painful cough tore from his throat. Thor crouched down beside him and his warm hand was back on his shoulder.
Another cough racked through Loki's body and something wet splattered from his lips onto the floor.
Blood.
Huh
Thor made a frightened noise and Loki couldn't help but laugh. He felt the iron in his mouth stick to his teeth. He must look completely mad now.
"Brother, are you alright? Where are you hurt?", Thor asked as if it wasn't entirely obvious.
"How bad can Asgardians get hurt?", the Soldier asked, pressing a hand against his own side. The uniform looked charred in a few places. Chitauri could aim after all.
"Not Asgardian," Loki mumbled, vision swimming and blurring around the edges. He felt himself sway even in his position on the floor and Thor's grip on his shoulder tightened.
"As bad as any human I would say," Thor answered the question and lifted his free hand to force Loki's head upwards. The worried crease between his brows only deepened when he examined Loki's face. There must already be bruises forming all over.
"Judging by the way my floor looks," Stark said with more than a little bite to his voice, glancing at the green monster, "Reindeer Games' innards here wont look all too good either."
The colour drained from Thor's face at the assumption. Loki's mind was too groggy to care.
The pain was dulling again, only this time it felt different. Less like a protective cotton layer and more like the ability to feel anything was seeping out of his body.
"'m cold," Loki whispered despite himself and shivered under Thor's warm hands.
"I suppose your father wants him alive, even if he's a war criminal?", the Widow asked. Loki could barely make out her face around the black spots in his vision.
Thor didn't answer right away. Instead, he pressed his hand against Loki's clammy cheek and his jaw twitched in a way even Loki's brain could still recognize.
"Thor, if you do want him alive, we need to get your brother some medical attention like yesterday," Stark said, stepping up close behind Thor's back. Loki didn't have the energy to correct anyone on his heritage anymore.
Thor said something. Loki didn't understand him. He saw his lips move but no sound reached his ears.
Maybe this is still training, Loki thought suddenly. One more of The Other's simulations that he'd failed.
Thor threw him a very confused look. Had Loki said that out loud? He couldn't feel his tongue anymore.
The world shifted and Loki faintly felt himself being moved by strong arms.
Pain stabbed into his sides, taking over his soul and body and engulfing his vision in white fire.
Pitch black darkness was the only thing that followed.