Avengers Imagines (Part One)

Loki x Reader - Holding out for a Hero.

A/N- Please excuse how long this author's note is going to be, but I had a very funny dream the other day that I thought you would all appreciate. So in this dream I was a famous Scriptwriter (#goals) and had somehow ended up married to Tom Hiddleston. For some reason we were invited to go on Lip Sync Battle and because I am that bitch we said yes and I decided to deliver an incredible performance of Holding out for a Hero by Bonnie Tyler. However, throughout the performance I was donning costumes and dramatically transforming into Loki... It looked fucking cool and the song is now stuck in my head. So this imagine is based very loosely on the song Holding out for a Hero by Bonnie Tyler. Enjoy!

You had always cut down the same alleyway to get home from work, every day since you had started there the year before, and never had their been any trouble. By all accounts, it was the safest part of Manhattan, you had done the research in order to convince your parents that you would be safe living along, and you had never even heard of an incident taking place. But since superheroes had been forced into the accords everything seemed different; criminals were no longer scared of being caught.

You were only a few steps down into the dark when you saw something moving behind one of the oversized dustbins that lined the wall. Your feet stopped in their tracks, and you craned your neck in an attempt to see what was hiding in the darkness. When you saw the shape of a person you hesitated further, glancing behind you only to see another person waiting for you. With that your body went into fight or flight mode, and you sped up, hurrying down the alley and hoping that you would make it out onto the lit street before anyone could catch up to you. Your plan was ruined, however, when the man stepped out from between the bins, and straight into your path.

"Give me your bag." His voice was strangely calm as he held out his hand, the other resting on his belt. You hesitated, clutching the handles of the bag a little tighter.

The man was gesturing for you to hurry up now, his hand flapping wildly in your direction. "I don't have any money," you told him, your voice shakey and weak in comparison to his own.

"Just give me the fucking bag," he growled, reaching forward and yanking it from your shoulder, causing you to stumble forward with the force. When you finally steadied yourself he was riffling around in the bag, but he soon swapped to glaring as he dropped it to the floor, his eyes focusing on you. "Empty out your pockets."

You whimpered as he took a step towards you, but you reached down none-the-less, pulling the pockets of your hoodie so that they hung inside out at your sides. "I don't have anything," you yelped as you felt hands land on the pockets of your jeans. Tears began to flow as the second thief came around to stand in front of you with the first. 

"You live alone?" the new man asked, his voice was rougher than the first, and it sounded like he had been smoking a pack of cigarettes a day since the day he was born. You shook your head, though you knew it was a lie. "Anyone else home tonight?" he demanded and you quickly nodded, hoping that you would be somewhat convincing. 

He went to ask another question, but was caught off guard when he heard someone clear their throat behind him. He glanced back, and as he moved you caught a glance of a man dressed head to toe in black, standing at the far end of the alley. "Are you bothering this woman?" His voice was as smooth as silk, and you could hear his footsteps growing louder as he came closer to you.

"What's it to you?" the first man demanded, though he took a tentative step away from you as he spoke.

"It just seems rather cowardly, scaring a young woman on her way home," your helper muttered.

The second man seemed to grow agitated, and you took a few steps backwards as he reached for his belt, pulling a gun from his waistband. "Who the fuck are you calling a coward?" he growled back, causing you to whimper as you moved further away. 

The man in the black chuckled slightly, and you felt your jaw drop; you were being robbed, and the only person who could help was completely and utterly insane, just your luck. "Don't threaten me," he told them, pausing midstep as the gun was raised at him. You watched in amazement as he lifted his hands, and his clothes seemed to ripple, transforming into a costume you had seen on the news when you were younger. Loki.

Both men seemed to lose their bravery as your saviour transformed himself, but the idea of them slinking off unscathed no longer seemed enough for Loki, and he reached out, gripping the gunman by his shirt and lifting him up, slamming him into the wall. "Stop," you yelped, your knees shaking when he turned his gaze to you. "There was no harm done, just let them go."

He seemed confused, but quickly turned back to the man in his grasp. "If you ever come near her again I will kill you," he growled in the man's face, before dropping him to his feet and watching as he ran from the alley and out into the street.

"Thank you," you murmured, taking a deep breath now that your attackers were gone. You rested your back against the wall and lifted your head to look at the sky as you attempted to calm yourself slightly. When you looked down again Loki was gathering your things from the floor and placing them back in your bag. You moved closer, kneeling to pick up a compact mirror that had shattered upon impact with the ground. "You ought to change back into your other clothes," you told him quietly, moving over to the bin and dumping the shards of the mirror into it, "some people around here are still pretty bitter about the damage you did."

He straightened up, making a noise of agreement as he placed the bag into your hands, "you don't seem bitter," he uttered, causing you to smile.

"I have no choice, you just saved me," you told him, causing him to let out a small laugh, "villain's don't do that, so something must have changed."

"A good deal had changed but I doubt that undoes any bad deeds." He looked sort of sad as he changed back into his civillian clothes with a flick of his wrist. 

"No, but everyone deserves a second chance," you uttered softly, "there's this all-hours diner down the road that does really good pancakes. Come with me, my treat." He smiled slightly as you started walking, with him following close behind you. 

*Time Skip*

You spent hours sitting in that little diner, the waitress refilling your cup an uncountable amount of times as you sat together and talked about anything that came to mind.

"It seems to me," you started softly, "that you are willing to change if people were just more willing to give you a second chance."

He shrugged slightly, "I do not blame them for their lack of trust," he told you and you frowned.

"But you shouldn't let them treat you like this anymore," you whined, "you have made a lot of mistakes, but everyone deserves forgiveness if they are willing to work for it."

"Perhaps you are too forgiving," he murmured, giving you a small shrug, "some people do not deserve forgiveness."

You tilted your head, "was what you did to New York wrong?" you asked him and he let out a burst of laughter as you furrowed your eyebrows at him. "Answer my question," you demanded, "were you in the wrong?" He nodded his answer and you smiled slightly. "Do you feel bad for doing it?" he nodded again. "Do you want people to forgive you?"

He paused slightly, "yes," he told you and you let out a small chuckle.

"Then why shouldn't we forgive you and move on? You are capable of doing so much good for this planet, why not help you forfill that potential rather that isolating you?"

The way you smiled at him in that moment, unbeknownst to you, sent a shiver down his spine and warmed his stomach from within. "Thank you," he told you softly, his hand tightening around the napkin he was holding. His eyes landed on the milkshake in front of him, and your smile softened slightly as you reached out, placing your hand on top of his.

"You have nothing to thank me for," you uttered, drawing his gaze back up to your sweet face. "You saved me, remember."

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