thirteen
"hide in the shadows"

Lusine ripped the dress from her tormented body and let it drop to the floor as she yanked herself into one she'd previously left hung over the back of a chair, left to clean later. Always later. Always more important things to be doing than cleaning, but without the extra pair of hands around anymore... Dresses just got left to gather dust.

The bottle trembled in her hands as she poured out the sweet red liquid. Even drinking it brought her back to simpler times, so she filled the glass to the brim as she pulled her thoughts back one by one, catching them as they fell between her fingers and danced at her feet, jesters dressed in ebony.

The wine was sloshing down her throat as the firm knock sounded on the door. She drew the glass back from her lips, wiped the excess from her mouth with the back of her wrist, attempting to ignore the black veins that had begun to emerge there like the beginnings of a spider's web.

"Come in," She called out from where she lay atop the covers of the bed of a soldier, not a princess.

The door cracked open and in stepped exactly who she'd been expecting would tip-toe his way in: Steve Rogers.

"I wanted to apologise on Tony's behalf. He shouldn't have attacked you like he did," Steve said, leaning against the door frame. Lusine took a long drink as she regarded him, blue eyes dark and he met that gaze with reliance.

Lusine sat up, put her wine to the side and patted the bed beside her in a simple request, which Steve accepted without too much of a hesitation in his mind. The bed sank as he took a seat beside her, warmth radiating from him.

"You do not need to apologise for him. If he was sorry, I'm sure he would have come and found me himself. So," she lifted her atmospheric vision to him again, just as striking as always, lined with the stars of the cosmos. Perhaps a star for every sin. "What did you really come here for?"

He scratched the back of his head as he flickered from feature to feature just trying to work her out, but maybe she was beyond that by now. Walls already sky high and climbing higher and higher as the days went on. As she fell into self-hatred further and further, beyond the reach of hands stretching out to her.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," He admit.

Lusine's eyes widened with surprise for his care. It stood in stark comparison to most other men who's perched on the edge of her bed, intentions lustful and fingers twitching to rip her dress and taste every inch of the enchantress. It was refreshing to say the least, but to say the most would be to say Lusine found it endlessly intriguing, despite herself, despite the love she had for another.

"I have calmed down now," She replied, gathering her wandering thoughts up as they rushed away from her grip like scattering spiders fresh from the mother. Lusine wet her lips, tasting the sweet wine on her tongue as every single one of her senses became all too aware of his close proximity, too aware for her own liking. "I'm definitely in control again now."

If she were the woman she'd been before she'd come to Asgard, she would have kissed him for the smile that graced his mouth in a perfect storm of genuine relief and handsomeness.

"I'm glad to hear that," He said, smiling softly, skin crinkling into crow's feet beside his eyes.

"Thank you for helping me, Steve. When the force inside of me was trying to claw back into power, I could hear you saying my name and it helped me reattach to reality and remain... myself. So, I am forever in your debt," She responded, reaching her slender hand across and squeezing his as he had done for her. "I think I would have killed him if you didn't."

"You really think you wouldn't have been able to stop yourself?" Steve asked, more bluntly than she imagined he'd meant it to sound from the wince that followed. He began to apologise, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that."

Absently, Lusine ran her thumb over the back of his hand. "It's okay. I've dealt with the costs of my power for a while now. When I was young, no one thought anything of it, but then when I went to Asgard it grew faster than anyone could have predicted it would. All the chaos it fed on expanded its hold on me and before I knew it I was... I was a shadow of myself."

she swallowed the stone in her throat, gripping his hand with both of hers now, heart warming as he turned her palm into her and let her fiddle with his fingers as she began to tear down the wall between them of her own accord.

"It was like I was watching from behind glass. I knew what was happening, but felt powerless to stop it. The first time I was truly terrified of myself was the day my brother and I fought. I had killed his wife after she'd done some awful things."

Her head dropped, not being able to witness those hope filled eyes that had once looked at her turn to ice.

"Her corpse was unrecognisable. Lycus came for me and I lost control." The first tear that ran down her cheek was swept away by Steve's free hand, his fingers a kiss of the wind on her skin. Lusine lifted her chin and stared him in the eyes, unblinking. "He died from his wounds."

"Lusine, you-"

"I'm a monster, Steve, don't you get that? I killed my own brother because I couldn't control this surging power inside of me. And I have been tortured every single day since for my sins," She croaked, hating herself for even uttering her story to another.

Ashamed, guilty and burdened, she sat beside a super soldier who fought for justice and all that was good in the world. She was far from good with her skewed morals and love of chaos.

His hand dropped from her cheek. "That wasn't you," He reasoned. As he felt her hands go loose around his own, he gripped her tighter. Not letting her withdraw now to start building that wall up again. "It's not you."

"I don't want to be her anymore," Lusine choked out, voice cracking and fluttering through the air to mingle with the remaining shards of her soul. "She is a liar. She is a murderer. She is unjust." With every word, she sunk the dagger of regret deeper into her own black heart.

"There's always time to repent. You will live for thousands of years, Lusine, make the next centuries count and the years already gone by will be insignificant in comparison," He told her, promised her.

The way her endless eyes searched his face for a lie struck deep, carving a line through the ocean and parting its waters as he wondered how the universe could be so cruel as to break someone in the way Lusine was broken.

"You are a good man, Steve," She said, slipping her hands away from him and reaching up to brush hair from his forehead without even thinking about it. Her fingers brushed his skin as gently as a butterfly landing upon the brightest flower in the garden, soaking in the sweetness of its nectar, savouring it. "I do not deserve this trust." Still, her cheeks glistened with tears in the dim light.

"I believe in you," He said without hesitation and felt his words to be true in his gut and in his bones.

That utterance in itself shuddered Lusine's entire being. Never in all her years had anyone told her such a thing. For much of her life, she had always been the problem. Always been the secondary to the heir. Never quite good enough, never trusted, to bear the crown.

His words sunk into her flesh and were held tight by that little glimmer of light that sung with joy inside of her as she believed him. After constantly looking for a lie, she had found nothing but the truth written across his expression.

"Thank you," She said at last, tear-stained lips turned up into a brittle smile. "That means more than you could ever imagine."

-

-

The words of the goddess rang through Casia's head as the doctor removed her cast, frowning the entire time as if it wasn't fair that she should heal abnormally quickly from an attack so brutal on her body. As if she deserved to be bedridden.

She wished she had someone, anyone, there just to laugh with her, but Thor was gone and everyone else was busy or had no clue where she was. God, she'd even want that dastardly Volkov there if she would provide some comedic relief from the silence that stuck around her like tar.

The doctor turned her arm over in her palms. "Any pain?" She asked, frowning from behind the wide frames of wired glasses that dominated much of her face.

"No, none," Casia replied, dumbfounded. How was this even possible? She'd broken bones before and had never healed anywhere close to as quickly before. So, why now?

Either way, healing quicker was definitely a benefit and one that she would not turn down. Not in her line of work. If she could get shot in the shoulder and be healed by the next dawn, she would thank this newly rooted power for the rest of her life.

"Right, well, aside from the bruising, you arm is good. we've done all the scans and somehow you've almost completely healed, Agent Radcliffe," Doctor Greer said, scanning through the clipboard notes. "Do try to be more careful next time."

"Aren't I always?" She quipped in sharp response for a woman who had been near death only days ago.

When they'd rushed her in on that stretcher, no one imagined she would make it through the night, let alone be up and walking again in an inhuman time frame. Doctor Greer had taken the case and had worked tirelessly to attempt to figure out why she had healed so rapidly this time around. It wasn't Casia's first time in the med bay by a long shot, but this was the first time her body had shifted up a gear and healed itself lightning fast.

Lusine Volkov had been the only other patient she'd ever had that was able to do that, but hers seemed a conscious decision as soon as she was awake. And a painful one to say the least. Perhaps to call it painful was an understatement and an insult to the truth of its wrath.

"No, you're not," Doctor Greer replied, tucking her glasses into the pocket of her lab coat and regarding Casia through low eyelids. "Look, whatever you're getting yourself into this time... It's not a game and you should not treat it as such. These are gods, Casia. Gods! You're very lucky that you're not dead."

"So everyone keeps telling me," She mumbled, standing from the bed without even thinking. Both women blinked at the action. "Well," Casia said, diverting attention, "looks like I'm good to go."

"It seems you are," The Doctor said, humming as she bent to analyse Casia's fully functioning legs. "Maybe we should run a few tests..."

"No," Casia put her foot down, halting the doctor as she made to prod her knee cap, "no more tests. I've had enough of tests that show nothing and explain nothing beyond what you already know." Like a child, she threw a tantrum and Doctor Greer did nothing but roll her eyes at the act.

She'd seen it a million times before: probably the oldest trick in the book of patients fed up of being locked away from the world like a precious glass doll. Casia was far from made of glass, but she wasn't indestructible. Lusine had proved that with insane strength and blood lust akin to a rogue wolf.

"Fine," Doctor Greer said, no more. But if you feel any pain, come back here immediately." Her lips curved into a teasing smile as she added, "Now, would you like me to call you an escort back to your room, or can you walk yourself?"

Casia grinned widely. "I can walk myself," She replied. "Thank you, Doctor."

-

-

Casia grinned the entire way from the medical ward. Basking in the release with every step she took, considering the bruising along much of her body a mark of pride rather than a mark of the death she had almost succumbed to, been in the ragged claws of when she'd been dragged back by bright light.

As she rounded the corner, she watched Captain Rogers slip out of someone's room.

"Enjoying yourself, Captain?" She called down the corridor, watching his face mould into one of confusion and relief at seeing Casia up and walking again, running that mouth of hers to anyone who would listen as usual.

"Well, I-" He swallowed, cutting himself off at the door opening once more, enraptured by whoever dwelled there.

Lusine emerged from the room, standing between them. When she caught sight of her, Casia swore her shoulders sagged and her lips lilted into a soft smile that made her look more Earthly than she had ever appeared before.

"Good to see you're making use of yourself, Agent Radcliffe. Will you be joining us? Or are you going to lie in bed for another few days?" Lusine toyed with a honourable smirk upon her mouth, testing the waters.

Steve glanced down at her, catching the play in her tongue.

"Are you guys finally going to put an end to that miserable god's plans?" Casia countered and folded her arms across her chest, not missing the shadow that rushed over Lusine's face in a crashing tidal wave at the mention of the god of mischief.

"Yes," Lusine replied, lips tight as she subtly stepped away from Steve.

"Then I'm in," She said, brushing non-existent dust from the shoulder of her uniform as she hid her enthusiasm. "When do we start?" This was her job. This was everything she'd ever been brought up seeing, doing and breathing.

Nothing would stand between her and getting the mission completed, not even Lusine Volkov's anger issues.

"Maybe it's not the best idea," Steve began and both women cut their gaze to him sharply. "You've only just recovered."

"Just let her help, Steve," Lusine replied, surprised to find herself in line with Casia. "An extra pair of hands against an army would be beneficial, don't you think?"

"I didn't heal abnormally quickly for the first time in my damn life just to get benched," Casia huffed, challenging him with a stare.

Lusine looked to him, one eyebrow raised as they awaited his answer as if it would change a thing.

"Fine, you can come," Steve said, giving in at last, "but know that this won't be easy."

"Nothing about the last few weeks of my life have been easy. I think letting off a bit of steam might be good for me, Captain, just like you seem to have been doing with your new intergalactic friend over here," Casia said, smirking as Steve's ears tinted red.

Lusine's jaw tightened impossibly at the comment. "Mind your tongue, Agent Radcliffe."

Casia's arms dropped from her chest to her sides. "It was only a joke," She defended, immediately wishing she'd armed herself before leaving the med bay. Lusine Volkov was unpredictable and she'd already learnt the cost of that once.

She didn't plan to experience it again.

Lusine didn't reply, but, from the way she walked like a storm, there was no denying that Casia had hit the wrong button with that comment and, guiltily, it almost felt good to hold one thing against the goddess, even if it could land her tongue on a silver plate, seasoned with her own blood and bone.

-

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#captainvolkov?