Summary: A Reconciliation. A Happy Ending. Roll Credits!
Pairing: Loki x Reader
AN: Hello friends! We’ve made it! the final chapter of this little series I wrote. I wanna take a minute and say thank you for all the love. It’s been very scary putting my writing out there but I’m glad people are digging it. This is the end. As always, I hope you like reading it as much as I liked writing it.
Links to other parts here: Pt. 1 Pt. 2 Pt. 3. Pt. 4
You avoid that room for a few days. You find other activities and shrug off everyone’s concern. You say you’re just tired and that’s actually not a lie. You haven’t been sleeping well.
It’s only when Tony makes some comment about “Reindeer Games looking worse than usual” that guilt wins the day.
I shouldn’t have to feel guilty, You remind yourself as you walk. Although I did kinda work out a theory about him without telling him.
Being right doesn’t make up for that. You should have just asked him. He probably would have said something.
But he’s in the wrong too. No one, no matter how angry they are, should speak to someone like that. And if you’re going to apologize, so is he.
The silence in the room is heavy as the door clicks shut.
Loki is pointedly not looking at you. He heard you come in, but his back is to you. He stands at attention, ready for a fight.
“Good morning”, your tone is even. He doesn’t respond.
How very mature.
“I’m going to clean up” You say to the air.
This is absurd. What are we twelve? You walk around to try and catch his eye and he shifts to keep his back to you.
“Unbelievable”
“What was that?” His tone is icy, menacing.
“I’m not going to repeat myself to someone who won’t even look at me”
He turns slowly on his heel. Dragging out the time before his eyes find your face. The set of your jaw. How your brows are slightly lifted. You’re meeting his gaze with an odd amount of openness. It puts him on his back foot.
“I said, you’re unbelievable. The silent treatment? Really?”
“Oh darling I think you’ll find this is exactly what’s to be expected of me”
If this is bait you don’t take it. You didn’t come here to pick another fight.
“We both know that’s not true”
“Do we?”
“Yes” you abandon the cleaning and take a step towards the glass. “You’re better than this. It’s silly of you to pretend you aren’t”
“What am I better than?” he snarls at you and starts stalking around his enclosure. “Better than reacting accordingly when someone insults me? Better than lashing out at someone? Better than lying and scheming and whatever else you so pointedly accused me of.”
“But you don’t want to be those things” you keep your voice level.
He stops, standing completely still.
“Before that fight, which I will take some credit for. You said you wanted to stop disappointing people.” You start walking towards him, keeping your eyes on his half turned face. “I am giving you an opportunity, right here right now, to do that. Are you willing to take it?”
He turns to look at you, his blue eyes meet your own and you see.
He’s afraid.
“No one has ever offered you this before have they?”
Loki thinks. He remembers a continuously raising bar. One that he could only just barely grasp before it moved again. Just out of his reach. He remembers the look on his brother's face right before he fled Asgard. He remembers his mother, the one person he always seemed to be enough for.
Until recently.
His eyes find the floor.
“I suppose, people have given me that chance before”
“So you’ve just been too afraid to take it?” Your voice softens with every word. You’re trying to understand.
“I’d hardly say I was afraid. I simply...”
“I’m coming in there” You cut him off and place your hands to the glass.
With a flash and a shiver you’re standing nose to nose. Loki stumbles backwards as you find your footing. With a slightly wicked grin you settle neatly on the floor.
“Sit” you say with a gesture to the floor in front of you.
“Come on” you coax off the God’s quizzical look, “We’re going to game this out.”
Loki sits across from you, mimicking your criss-crossed legs. His brows are furrowed with that quirk you recognize as confusion.
“I’m gonna start” you fidget with your hands as they fold and unfold in your lap, “I’m sorry for snapping yesterday. I was trying to answer my own questions about you without asking you. I was on edge and got heated and said things I didn’t mean. That’s not an excuse though, and I am sorry”
You sit back on your hands and look at him. He fidgets uneasily. His gaze drops from yours.
“Am I supposed to apologize to you now?”
“Only if you’re sorry.”
He looks up at you, eyes wide.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean”, you lean forward, elbows on your knees, “I’m not going to make you say or do anything you don’t want. If you aren’t sorry then don’t apologize and I’ll be on my way. I’ve said my piece”
“What happened to ‘gaming it out?’” Loki's attempt at air quotes makes you let out a laugh that you’re quick to cover with your hand. You shoot him a sheepish grin.
“I’m sorry I don’t mean to laugh at you. Those were excellent air quotes”
He loses his focus thinking about your laugh. It doesn’t matter if you were laughing at him, he'll do anything to hear that sound again.
“As far as ‘gaming it out’ goes”, you repeat his inflection and mime his air quotes with a smile, “We can’t get any further if you aren’t sorry. It would be a waste of both of our time.”
“How so?” Loki is mimicking you now. He leans forward, resting his arms on his knees.
“Well, it would be a waste of my breath to try and help someone who isn’t sorry for hurting my feelings. And if you aren’t sorry, then it doesn't matter what I’m going to say because you aren’t going to listen.”
“And if I am sorry?”
“Are you?”
The room is silent. The air is heavy with expectations and both of your nerves.
Loki’s blue eyes find yours again. Open and honest and raw. You don't see the Trickster God. The man who almost took over New York. You see a scared boy, terrified to do something he’s never tried before.
“Yes” It's almost a whisper, like if it doesn't work he could take it back.
“Yes what?”
“Yes, I’m… I’m very sorry. For what I said to you. For… that whole day honestly. It was uncalled for and rude and…” he shakes his head, “I’m sorry. I really am.”
You look him dead in the eye as your face breaks into a slow smile.
“I forgive you. I really do”
It’s quiet again, the comfortable kind. It feels like a moment. Like one of those moments. So you reach out and grab Loki’s hand. He blinks before offering you a small smile. You return with that same sheepish grin and when he stands you stand with him. Hand in hand the whole time.
“What happens now?” He asks, looking out at the room around you.
You give his hand a squeeze, “Well, tomorrow I’ll come back here and clean and we can..”
“No”, Loki puts his hands on your shoulders. He tilts your chin up so you’re looking at him. Your breath mingles as you breathe him in. He smells like cedar and old books. You smile.
“I meant what happens right now”
You knock your nose against his lightly. He watches an idea flash across your mind.
“Right now, I’m going to put on music” you say. Taking one hand and reaching for your phone. You pull up a song, any song it doesn’t matter.
“Care to dance?”
You give him a knowing smile. He returns it with an almost wicked grin and pulls you to him.
I wanted to do a full version but the full dance part was hard so I may need to just do base first before I add in detail. I’ll see to it that I color and edit this one first XD
You're Good Undercover, But I'm Better Under the Covers
leopardwrites | John/Sherlock | M | 10,012 words
Sherlock may be the better dancer of the two of them, but John's not too shabby at one particular dance...
"I could teach you," Sherlock says off-handedly when they calm down again. "If you wanted, that is. Not Ceroc, I can't stand that style of dance. Something proper."
Dancing (it all starts when John and Sherlock go to a Ceroc class together, undercover of course, and well, they have some priceless moments ahead of them like John realising that "Larry is a serious Ceroc-goer. Shit.") and a lot of lovely UST! I also really enjoy the characterisations here, and the story's just so funny and sweet and hot. Great work!
