InsaneJournal

Who: Valkyrie, Darcy, Loki
What: Taking care of Valkyrie.
When: After being shot and these texts.
Rating: Yellow, for non-descriptive wound care.

Loki used the same path he had opened before to get Valkyrie to their home. It was the swiftest method, even if it was a calculate risk. The journey was claustrophobic and harder to navigate through than the first time, and Loki knew that rift there would not be of any use at all after he came stumbling out the other side. It closed behind him, and he stood still only long enough to find his equilibrium again. Once steadied, he looked down at Valkyrie's face with a grimace, taking her to her room and nodding toward her bed, conjuring a clean blanket over her bed so it wouldn't be left a mess.

Once he laid her out, he set to work gathering supplies and removing her outer armor with the wave of a hand, so that it landed across the room with a clatter. He hissed when he got a good look at the wound and was able to gather a better idea of the damage as he cleaned away the blood.

"Whoever has done this shall pay dearly," he hissed under his breath, holding one hand over the wound so that the green glow of his magic moved in the wound, trying to staunch the worst of the bleeding and dull the pain at the same time. It might help her relax enough to speak coherently, or so he hoped.

With his other hand, he took out his phone and texted Thor and Darcy, because he could only imagine what sort of patient Valkyrie would be. The sort that would probably try to crawl back out to help others and protect Asgard's King, that's who.

"Do not move," he instructed, unsure if Valkyrie was capable of answering quite yet. "You will damage things further."

Valkyrie, for now, was only capable of weak humming sounds, her mind addled by pain and confusion and a whole lot of sweat. She half understood what Loki said, half of it things she’d been aware of in some capacity. After that initial moment it didn’t occur to her that she might die anymore. Thor hadn’t and she was older and sturdier than Thor thanks to her former job. But she was worried; being left immobilized was still a concern, and she’d been taken down in the middle of something important.

The burn, while still there, had subsided a little but Valkyrie still felt a lot more confused than she would like to be. It took her a while to recognize her room, for one, and now her head throbbed something fierce. She hadn’t been hurt in eons, didn’t even remember what it was like. This was a rude, rude awakening.

Suddenly Dido came barrelling through the door to Val’s room, obviously aware of her owner’s presence. She jumped onto the bed and smelled the wound, giving a confused whine when she pressed her snout against Val’s hand but she did nothing. More whines followed as the dog realized her beloved owner wasn’t alright. It became a begging of sorts, directed at Val’s face and which Val was only mildly aware of.

A sigh slipped from Loki's lips as he set his phone aside and focused on healing, except for having to wave a curious dog away from a wound that needed to not be sniffed at. They certainly did not need a jostling right now, while he tried to weave damaged vessels together. He cast a sheet over her and continued his work.

"Sit," Loki said, and was pleased when the dog settled down by Valkyrie's side as it was clearly well trained. As long as it wasn't infringing on any treatment, it might be good for her to have some source of comfort. Loki knew he wasn't the most comforting presence, and this might help guide her out of her current state of mind. Since Valkyrie was out of it, he directed his instructions to the dog instead, "Next time I shall close the door behind me. And you had best sleep at the foot of the bed and not on top of her."

One wrong move that might undo his work and he would have start over again. This would make for a very angry Loki, who was actually more of a cat person living in a house full of dog people.

Dido whined at Loki, not understanding what he was saying, and proceeded to lick Val’s face and nuzzle her neck as though trying to wake her up as she did in the morning. But things were different this time and the dog felt that too. The whining became louder yet more pitiful, and she addressed Loki again with accusatory sounds.

Val murmured something even she did not understand and her fingers twitched; at that point Dido decided to resume licking her hand and nuzzling her face in equal measure, not noticing how Val had finally moved her eyes, blinking slowly. She turned her face to the source of the dog breath, a welcome respite from the sickening smell of blood.

Blood smelled of metal, and was much more welcome a scent to Loki than dog breath. Although he supposed this slobbering display of affection was doing some good. Even if it was not at all as clean an environment as he would have liked. It was delicate work, and it tried his ever thin patience to have such distractions. Even so, he persevered and the worst of the bleeding stopped, enough that he could lay a clean cloth over the wound and wash his hands clean in a bowl of water. He would need a few minutes before he tried to continue, after taking a path he had opened forward and back again, a mending and turning an entire wall into feathers to aid those trapped? He was already feeling a drain. Magic wasn't some bottomless well, and he was no healer. He sat on the edge of the bed, letting the dog slobber all over her owner, and waited for Darcy's arrival with half-opened eyes.

The dog whimpered and whined in what he supposed was his direction, and all that Loki could utter in response was a grunt of acknowledgement.

Darcy came over with a lot of things. She’d gone to the store and gotten food. Tons of mac and cheese. Ice cream. Donuts. Several types of pasta. Then she’d brought things to do. All of her video games, with the consoles. Books. Televisions. Movies. Board games. She had a lot of board games. She also brought over stuff to play Dungeons and Dragons if they were in the mood for it. It might have taken her a while to get everything and pile it into her car, but eventually she was on the road and headed back to where she used to live.

Eventually she knocked on the door. Or rather she tapped on it with her foot. Her arms were full, she couldn’t knock.

“Help, I need someone to help me!” she called out. “Oh it’s Darcy. My hands are full. Help I’m gonna drop all this shit!” Which basically meant that whoever was inside (and not injured) should totally come and help her.

This wasn't the New York Sanctum, so the door didn't open itself by request. Every time she kicked it, the door shimmered with a golden wave of light, like there was a magical door alarm to alert them of intruders trying to batter their way inside. Or Darcy Lewis' foot, which pretty much sounded the same to Loki as someone knocking down the gates to a besieged city would.

"Do not move," he reminded Valkyrie and eyed the wound cautiously, before running downstairs and opening the door. He blinked only once before lunging forward to grab what was in her arms. He didn't even stop to look it over, but was wondering how someone so short had managed to carry this much all at once. He promptly touched each item and they promptly disappeared so that only the food was left, and those things he sent to the kitchen with the wave of a hand.

When he could finally see her face again, Loki felt at ease enough to playfully tease her, "I am glad to see you...and half of your worldly possessions, as well. Have you anything else you would like me to carry for you? I'm afraid that I must be swift. I shouldn't be away from Valkyrie's side. She is still bleeding, although it is greatly slowed."

As relieved as he was to see Darcy and to have her there, safe and unharmed, he was also very concerned for Valkyrie, as well as Thor and Sif.

As the stuff in her hands disappeared, she let out a sigh of happiness. That shit was heavy yo. But don’t worry, Darcy is a bro who lifts.

“Hey, you said I needed to entertain and I don’t actually have a gladiator ring, and you said she was hurt so I just had to think of things I liked and then.. It snowballed.” Not that she was apologizing. Cause she wasn’t.

“So what the hell happened? Was it the Hulk?” she asked, following him back towards wherever Valkyrie was. She wasn’t sure what happened to all of her things but they were around somewhere. If only she could just be like ‘hey margaritas’ and distract her that way, but the stupid Asgardians didn’t even feel margaritas. Sigh.

It was a good thing that it had snowballed, as he wasn't sure how long it would take to mend her back to a point where she was battle-ready once more. Thor had taken three miserable days the last time, where Thor was unable to move. And this was worse. The more that they had to keep Valkyrie busy while helping her to remain still as much as feasibly possible, the better.

He looked appreciative and nodded while closing the front door and leading her upstairs and into Valkyrie's room. He spoke quietly, "Yes, it was the beast run rampant in the city. There are likely many dead or dying. Thor and Sif are helping to save who they can. I believe Valkyrie was attempting to talk to it when she was wounded. If only I were a more skilled healer...."

His voice trailed off and all he could do was shrug, as though they would all have to make do. He nodded once at the faithful dog by Valkyrie's side and moved to check the wound again. It wasn't bleeding as much, which was good.

He leaned over more to get a good look at Valkyrie's face, saying, "Hello, our brave heart. Is your pain worsening?"

He wasn't sure if he would get a response, but he hoped she was capable by now.

Only vaguely aware of what was going on, Valkyrie hummed and groaned and attempted to calm the obviously nervous dog but her mouth felt dry like paper and she suspected there was nothing she could say in general, much less to calm her poor dog down.

She heard voices, becoming aware that two friends were now by her bedside. Despite Loki talking near her Val only made out a portion of what he said, mind swimming in and out of the ‘now’. It hurt to breathe, she had suddenly realized upon trying to draw a deep breath. When she heard and felt Loki’s presence nearer to her face Valkyrie’s eyes fluttered open.

“Where’s Big Guy?” She managed.

It was an improvement that she was more interactive, and Loki mustered a smile in response. He checked his phone for an update and, by this time, there was enough information to give her the definitive answer she was seeking.

"It's safe and slumbering," Loki said, setting his phone aside. "I shall endeavor to heal you. But you must stay still so you do not ruin what I am able to weave back together. Your body will mend itself, all I am doing is trying to hasten it along and lessen your pain. Darcy is here to keep us company with Midgardian entertainment."

And Loki proceeded to carefully place the things that had disappeared in the middle of Valkyrie's room for Darcy to sort out where it should go. It was quite a lot of stuff. Midgardians apparently liked...stuff. Loki wasn't even certain what most of it did, but he gave Darcy an appreciative smile for helping them, and then went back to fussing over the wound. Moving the sheet aside just enough to remove that bloody cloth, Loki hovered his hand over the wounded area to try to force magic in to weave veins and bone back together. It was easier now to get the full extent of what was damaged.

"If you were mortal and somehow managed to survive such a wound," he said, "I doubt you would ever function normally. As you are not mortal, the damage is better contained. It is likely you should be your rambunctious self within four days time. Thor was fully healed in three, save for the scar, but this is...something new."

They were evolving, perfecting their weapons so they were deadlier. Even Loki realized the need to stop that from happening, before this planet's few actual defenses were being killed off, one by one.

Darcy was about to chime in about how you shouldn’t call the Hulk an It or call him any other names, but she didn’t want to start an argument when they were supposed to be doing other things. Teaching him about how to gender people could come at a later date. For now she was all too happy to entertain Valkyrie to the best of her ability.

“Hey Val,” she chimed in as she entered. “Holy shit, you look awful. In the hottest way possible. I’ve come to entertain you.” Which was apropos because Darcy was nothing if not the court jester. “I know you like to fight things, and since you can’t actually fight things, I was thinking that maybe we could play games. Where there’s fighting. I’ve got two kinds. One is hooked up to the tv with lots of pretty visuals and fun stories about murdering people, but you have to press a button to murder them basically. The other is more in your imagination and you roll dice but you get to make your own character and I narrate the story and the fighting is all in your head. Which I know.. Sucks but..” she trailed off and finally took a deep breath.

“Or we could read?”

Loki was smiling. This was worse than she had thought. She must be at Valhalla's gates with one foot firmly planted in this world still. Upon hearing that Bruce was safe, the corners of Val's lips twitched upwards a bit and she sighed. It hadn't been for any effort on her part, but she was glad someone had been able to calm him down.

When he started on his medical tirade, sort of sounding like the nurse who'd taken care of her as a child, Valkyrie simply laid there quietly. She had already suspected that moving was a bad idea and, against her usual self, had no wish to do so right now. Upon mention of Darcy, Val looked over to her and attempted to smile again, but didn't quite make it. The gorgeous human, however, seemed to be taking all this with nonstop word vomit as her plan and Valkyrie attempted to listen to her as she talked about entertainment, but failed to make it all the way through.

"It's the foundation of my whole look usually." She told Darcy, visibly beaten. "I'd shrug but I don't want to. We'll do whatever you'd like, I trust your judgement. But I've been hearing all about these lewd badly written novels. A thought."

Once again Loki went on about her wounds and Val huffed (painfully) at his estimate that she'd take longer to heal than his brother. He might be the King but she was older and made of sturdier stuff, a valkyrie for fuck's sake.

"We'll see about that." Her look turned more earnest. "Thank you."

And then, she turned casually back to Darcy. "Sure wish someone helped me out of my now ruined armor..."

Faking it was easy, she’d done it for ages. What was another lifetime?

To Loki, Hulk was still a mindless brute, and his opinion had not changed. He haughtily looked down upon the big green monstrosity as more of an object akin to a battering ram rather than an entity capable of being engaged with, outside of things being smashed. Including himself. Hmph. Tentative peace was fine, but the more he was able to disregard the beast's existence, the better his quality of life was. He would leave that interaction to the likes of Thor and Valkyrie.

What was a more pleasant and potentially hilarious thought, were those lewd and badly written novels. On a whim, he tried to read 50 Shades of Grey and didn't get far. It was just awful. Perhaps Darcy had something of better quality.

"Kindly refrain from turning or shifting while you are in bed," Nurse Loki insisted, before pointing over to the corner of her room. "I discarded some of your armor to clean the wound. I'm capable of removing the rest with a spell, but I was waiting for you to become coherent again. I didn't want you to stab me in the face for taking the liberty, without permission."

Valkyrie was likely more free spirited with such things, but Loki had proper conduct instilled in him, having been the one who absorbed Odin's teaching like a quietly watchful little (scheming) sponge. Too much, obviously, which also helped drive him off the deep end of the Bifrost. Even so, he hadn't used his magic without permission. He smiled momentarily at Darcy because see? Sometimes he can do things right.

Sometimes. Fifty percent of the time. In that hazy shade of grey area that had nothing to do with poorly written pseudo sado-masochism.

"Is there anything that you would prefer to wear?" he asked Valkyrie. "And while I do not advise alcohol, I can fetch you some water."

Val said nothing to Loki's request, but did decide to only move her head from now on... up until she couldn't not move anymore. When Loki revealed why he hadn't removed the armor completely before she was fully conscious, Val snickered. "Good idea."

Without moving too much, Valkyrie tried to peer down at her wound, but couldn't see much, and lifting up her head forced her abdominal muscles to tense, which was probably damaging. She wanted to see, however; another mark of another failure would only really register once she saw it. Maybe she could take pictures with her phone later.

Although she was far more conscious now, Val still didn't follow Loki's line of thought jumping from what to wear to what to drink, and so she blinked at him in confusion. "I can't wear liquids, Loki. This sleeveless shirt and the shorts I have on under the armored pants will do for now. So just... Tug 'em off. Boy if I wasn't falling to pieces I'd be enjoying you two in my bedroom while one of you stripped me off my clothes a lot more."

Turning on her heels, Darcy went through her things until she found her books. “Oh yeah, I have a lot of smut. Really good stuff too.” None of that Fifty Shades bullshit. She found the perfect one and then handed it over. It was a good book, full of tawdry and very lewd stuff. Enough to make her cheeks blush. Well maybe.

“Oh you want some help? I can do that.” She reached to help Val out of her armor. This whole thing would have been easier if Loki could have magicked it away, but she didn’t know if that was something he could do with the whole Valkyrie thing. Maybe. “Well you know, once you’re better, I’m always down for a threesome.”

Well she would. Don’t look at her like that. “We could do page 207 in that book. It’s pretty hot…. Annnnnd she’s asleep.” She looked over to see Val passed out.

Too late. Loki was staring at Darcy. He did glance at the sleeping Valkyrie, and gave a nod in the affirmative that she was, indeed, asleep. A good thing, since it would give her time heal and she wouldn't be dealing with any discomfort.

"I'm not sharing you," Loki stated, while idly thumbing his way through the book's pages until he hit page 207. He blinked profusely at what was there and then looked at Darcy with one raised eyebrow and a sly smirk. "Someone is a naughty girl. Are you going to read this to us as a bedtime tale?"

And despite calling her naughty, Loki kept skim reading it. He finally looked up and took pity on Darcy and magicked the rest of her armor off except for what Valkyrie indicated so the warrior wouldn't be jostled awake. While he was reading, he whispered, "I must heal her again soon, to try to mend things while the wound is still fresh. Before that, do you need my help to set up your entertainment?"

Turning on her heels, Darcy went through her things until she found her books. “Oh yeah, I have a lot of smut. Really good stuff too.” None of that Fifty Shades bullshit. She found the perfect one and then handed it over. It was a good book, full of tawdry and very lewd stuff. Enough to make her cheeks blush. Well maybe.

“Oh you want some help? I can do that.” She reached to help Val out of her armor. This whole thing would have been easier if Loki could have magicked it away, but she didn’t know if that was something he could do with the whole Valkyrie thing. Maybe. “Well you know, once you’re better, I’m always down for a threesome.”

Well she would. Don’t look at her like that. “We could do page 207 in that book. It’s pretty hot…. Annnnnd she’s asleep.” She looked over to see Val passed out.

Too late. Loki was staring at Darcy. He did glance at the sleeping Valkyrie, and gave a nod in the affirmative that she was, indeed, asleep. A good thing, since it would give her time to heal properly and she wouldn't be dealing with any discomfort.

"I'm not sharing you," Loki stated, while idly thumbing his way through the book's pages until he hit page 207. He was wide-eyed and blinking profusely at what was there and then looked at Darcy with one raised eyebrow and a sly smirk. Midgard was a racy place, indeed. "Someone is a naughty girl. Are you going to read this to us as a bedtime tale?"

And despite calling her naughty, Loki kept skim reading it. He finally looked up and took pity on Darcy and magicked the rest of her armor off, so the Valkyrie wouldn't be jostled awake. As he went back to reading, he said in a hushed voice, "I have to heal her again soon, to try to mend things while the wound is still fresh. Before that, do you need my help to set up your entertainment?"

Belatedly she realized that he was looking at her. Her eyes went a little wide, and she gave him the most innocent look she could manage. It wasn’t that innocent. “I just meant. I mean. You know. If you ever wanted to share a girl. Together. I wouldn’t say no. That’s all.” She shrugged a little. She hmph’d slightly. It was not that boring, dammit. It wasn’t her fault that Val had just fallen asleep in front of her.

She watched him read the book, hoping it got him all hot and bothered and unable to do anything about it. Ha! “Um.. nah, I think I got it. I just have to plug some things into the television. Everything else is pretty much always set up.” Well unless they were playing a board game. Then she would set it up when they were going to. If they were going to.

Loki was never beyond seeing who could hold out the longest, as he slowly turned a page while watching her. She certainly had some interesting reading material. And there was nothing innocent about her look, or what he was reading, or Darcy Lewis in general. That was what Loki liked most.

He didn't mind playing games either, but he was a poor loser and often bent the rules in his favor. It was a good thing that he was clever enough that he often won more than he lost. If only life worked the same way.

"Hmm...if you do not wish for my aid, then I will not intrude," he said, pulling up a chair to the bedside, sprawling into it for an extended stay. "If I can impose after things have calmed, I might have you show me the manner in which you make mac and cheese. If it is comforting food, as it is said, then I will need vast quantities of it. And Valkyrie as well, while she is recovering."

Asgardians were durable because they were of a higher density than other living beings, and so it took more effort to mend that which didn't want to be easily manipulated or moved around. It would take multiple times a day to do delicate work in increments, which meant he would require more food, and would frequently nod off. As long as he won a game - by cleverness, cheating, or negotiating any rule bending - he would be in a better mood. And with Darcy there to help them, it did not feel like such an insurmountable task. He grew bored quickly, and could only imagine that Valkyrie would become restless and irritable from being idle.

In the meantime, Loki was discreetly peeking at Darcy while she set things up. If it looked like she might see him, he quickly averted his gaze as though he had been reading the entire time.

It wouldn't do to be so...obvious.