WARNING: Some parts of this chapter include descriptions of gore/blood, which may be disturbing to some readers. 

Sleeping in Loki's room became almost like a nightly routine, one that I looked forward to every day. Not only did it help me sleep peacefully without the worry that he would be taken away from me, but it also helped me get used to being close to me. He still let me initiate all of the touches, and even though he was more than happy to wrap his arms around me and bundle me up against his chest, I could still feel his underlying worry in every muscle of his body.

While it sucked a lot that Loki and I couldn't go out together in the mornings, the girls tried their best to create a substitute from my stories. We baked almost every day, considering I didn't have much to do while confined to the compound. The treats ranged from 'probably could be sold in a café' to 'absolute disaster', and more than once we had accidentally set off the fire alarms.

The afternoons were the only times I got to myself because all of them would bundle into Tony's office and come up with plans to take down HYDRA. The only reason I wasn't included was because they didn't want me to be possibly triggered and become HYDRA's puppet again, revealing all of the plans to take them down. It stung a little because I knew that was highly unlikely, but I also didn't want to be the reason that we stuffed up taking them down once and for all. Bucky wasn't allowed in them either and I knew that he hated being redundant more than me.

To take my mind off what would no doubt be a dark spiral, I either tried baking on my own, reading in the library or just watching a movie. More than once when the meeting was finished, Tony would critique my movie choices, saying that they were way too graphic for me. It was like he thought I was a child or something just because I was that small, though he defended himself whenever I brought that up. The scolding normally ended when I reminded him that I had done much more horrific things in real life, which earned me a couple of concerned looks from the others.

"Hey Em, are you awake?" Loki's soft voice next to me broke me out of my thoughts and I rolled over in his loose arms to look up at him. "Hey darling. Stark's called me down to his office. I'll be back soon though."

"At this time?" My eyebrows furrowed as I looked over his shoulder at the clock on the wall. "It's like 10 o'clock at night."

"Yes, well he does tend to like irritating us with his insomniac tendencies." He smiled softly, slowly beginning to sit up and letting go of me. "I promise I'll be back soon. Will you be okay here yourself?"

"I'll be fine." I nodded, pulling some more blankets over myself to make up for the lost warmth. "Come back quickly."

"I will." He chuckled, gently pressing a kiss to my forehead before he slowly slipped out of the bed and before I could blink, the door was shut behind him.

I sighed and slowly sunk into the pillows more, drawing the sheets up to my chin in the suddenly big bed. I promised myself that I would stay up to wait for him, but my eyelids had different ideas and soon they were drooping and covering everything in darkness.

I was standing in the foyer of the compound, sunlight streaming in through the large panels of glass that made up the window. It faintly heated my skin and I closed my eyes to soak up its warmth, breathing out a soft sigh.

"It's much better outside, I can promise you that." A voice spoke up from behind me and I slowly turned around to see Loki standing there.

He was dressed in long black pants with a loose grey top and a green long-sleeve shirt slung over the top that really brought out the green of his eyes. He walked towards me with a soft smile on his face and reached out to gently wrap his arms behind me, pressing my body in close to him.

"You look beautiful today darling." His hands gently rubbed my back and I looked down at the clothes I was wearing.

It was a short yellow and white checkered shirt with a brown woven leather belt across my waist. It was sleeveless and paired with the short length, I could see all of my scars shining in the sunlight. But I didn't feel self-conscious about them, not in Loki's arms. I looked back up at him, a cheeky smile stretching across my face.

"You don't look too bad yourself." I giggled, the sound surprising for a moment but he just chuckled.

"Come on, let's go outside." His hands dropped from my back and gently took up one of my hands instead, softly squeezing it as he pulled me towards the door.

I was immediately hit with the warm humidity, but with the gentle breeze blowing, it was almost refreshing. I stepped off the concrete of the compound and realised that I was barefooted, but the grass was soft and lush under my toes. Birds chirped softly in the trees and I even spotted a squirrel running through the grass in the distance.

"Isn't this much better than staring at it through glass?" Loki spoke up, slowly stopping.

"Definitely." I nodded, turning around to face him full-on. "Thank you."

"It's nothing darling." He smiled, gently sweeping some of my hair out of my face before his head dropped down to press a soft kiss against my lips.

It was suddenly like a drug and I couldn't stop my body from leaning in closer to him. My eyes were already shut and my hand gently travelled up his back to try and pull him closer. His lips curved against mine and his own hands slowly worked their way up through my hair. It was blowing gently in the breeze and his fingers carefully wound around the rebellious strands. My lips continued to press against his and I stood up on my tiptoes, desperate for more.

Suddenly, his hand tightened in my hair and horrific pain burst throughout my scalp as my head was sharply yanked to the side. I stumbled and fell into the grass which was suddenly a whole lot sharper than I remembered. The hand disappeared and I looked around to see that the grass was no longer bright green or luscious, but rather each blade was a shard of glass that was deeply imbedded into the blackened ground. I looked around in panic, trying to scramble to my feet as blood sliced through my skin like it was butter.

"Hello." A voice purred from behind me and I spun around, fragile feet crunching down on more of the glass.

Standing barely a step behind me was Strucker, his metal eyepiece reflecting the sun as he smirked. He stepped forward and grabbed my hair, sending more pain flaring throughout my scalp as he tugged me towards him and smashed his lips against mine. Bile rose in my throat and I desperately tried to shove him away from him with my hands, but I only succeeded in smearing his clothes with the blood leaking from my hands where I had cut it against the glass.

"Emily!" A voice suddenly roared out and I kicked Strucker in the gut, only to turn around and see him standing off in the distance.

I turned around to see who I had kicked and saw Loki lying on top of the glass. He was slowly sinking into it, larger than normal shards breaking through his shirt at an achingly slow rate. With each shard that burst through his skin, blood splattered everywhere, painting the other pieces of glass nearby and my skin too. He was letting out pained sounds with each piece, which felt like they were piercing through me. I desperately tried to move towards him, but my feet suddenly became stuck in the ground. I looked down and saw that it was no longer glass under me, but the sticky expanse of what looked like blood. I tried to take a step forward, but with each movement, it gurgled and sucked at my feet, slowly dragging me down. I clawed desperately at my ankles, trying to get free from it, but it quickly sucked down my arms too. The metallic stench was quickly filling the air and choking every one of my senses.

Strucker began to stalk forward and I tried to scream at him to stop, but no sound escaped my lips. He walked over to Loki and picked him up off the glass that had skewered his body like he was a ragdoll. Loki groaned and slowly looked over at me, blood leaking from his lips.

"Emily." He called out feebly, but it was quickly cut off by a gurgling sound as more blood spewed from his lips.

I tried to scream his name, but the bloody liquid had already begun to snake up my neck and when my lips parted, it lept at the opportunity to seep in. It tightened in my throat and tugged down on my jaw as I tried to keep my mouth open. Loki's eyes were slowly losing light as I continued to try and break free, my eyes focused on only him. The liquid seeped down my throat and coiled in my stomach, burning me from the inside out. I tried to thrash but it had me locked tight. My nose slowly sunk under the liquid, my head throbbing as I slowly lost my last source of oxygen intake. Loki slowly slumped in Strucker's grip, his head falling forward seconds before blood gushed out of his face. It flooded the ground and the last thing I saw before I was pulled under was a wave of the ruby-red liquid rushing over my face.