Winter's Hearts

Chapter 15

"How long is she going to sit staring at that drink without moving? It's kinda weirding me out," Stark's voice, not unkind, maybe worried, but you were too focused on the glass in front of you to pay him any attention. The trip to Valhalla was longer from Midgard than it was from Asgard and it always took time, and usually sleeping it off, before you regrounded yourself in reality. So you focused on the drink, on the feel of the glass, the condensation on the outside, the smell, its appearance.

"Until either she grounds herself in reality again, we're done here and I can take her to bed, or she falls asleep on that couch," Loki replied with a hint of an edge to his voice. "Stark, she just visited the land of the dead. Her soul left her body to do that man the honor of making sure he has a good afterlife. It's hard on her. Always has been. Give her a minute,"

"Lohk, play nice," you told him automatically, catching the hard edge to his tone. His hand stroked your hair.

"We're almost done here, love. Are you back with us?" Loki asked. You blinked quickly and looked up at him. His tie had vanished while he was working and his shirt sleeves were rolled up. His expression was kind, but a hint of worry.

"I'm ok," you told him and got back to your feet, setting the glass aside.

"Smurfette? You up to helping? Jarvis is still down. We don't have security, elevators, anything," Stark explained as you kicked off your heels, damn things were uncomfortable and you refused to wear them a moment longer. All of the guys had their sleeves rolled up, ditched their ties, jackets gone, Nat's heels were gone too, though she was wearing someone's discarded suit jacket. You and Loki had both ditched your armor back to your party clothes, though you hadn't remembered doing it. It had taken a lot of work to clean up the conference lounge. Cap was still dealing with cops and the dead body. Stark was looking at one of Jarvis' screens, no longer in his Iron Man suit. "J says next to me, you're the best one with his code,"

"He only says that because he's too nice to say that I'm better," you teased. Stark gave you a smirk.

"We'll see about that, Smurfette. We need to get down to my lab,"

You nodded. "We taking the stairs or you want a lift?" you asked. Most people didn't like teleporting, but you really didn't feel like taking the stairs either.

"Much as I hate to say it, lift. There's robot corpses littering the tower," Stark sighed.

You nodded again and reached a hand out. He stiffened. "I know you hate being touched, but physical contact is necessary," he nodded and you clapped a hand on his shoulder, careful not to touch bare skin. "Lohk?" you looked over at your charge.

"I'm still needed up here. I'll be fine, love," he gave you a reassuring smile.

"You better be," you told him. You didn't like leaving him alone, but he was a trained warrior and surrounded by the rest of the team and Thor. He wasn't helpless.

An instant later you were in the lab and let go of him. There was still a robot down here. "Stark, stay back," you told him as you summoned your blades and slid defensively in front of him. You leapt into action before the robot even began to move. It was destroyed in seconds.

"You're handy to have around," Stark commented.

"Nice of you to realize," you grumped back at him as you vanished your blades. "Looks like they got Jarvis through there," you pointed at the robot arm sticking out of one of the actual terminals. You removed the debris and got to work with Tony reconnecting all the pieces of Jarvis back to the mainframe. "Oi, Shellhead, it's fucking hot down here. Can you promise not to touch me?"