Work Text:
NIGHTMARES
Sleeping has been hard for you for weeks now. You’ve found yourself doing all that you can to stay awake, when the inevitable finally happens and you can no longer fight the exhaustion, your sleep is restless and plagued by nightmares. This night is no different. Your dreams are peppered with horrific images, things you actually saw during the Infinity War, but also glimpses of things that could have been, one of the lovely side effects of your powers. This night you’re blessed with one of your favourite scenes, Loki and Thanos. You see it as if it’s a movie. You watch as Loki is killed, and all you want to do is scream, but no sound comes. You try to will yourself to wake up, try to rip and claw your way back to consciousness, away from the nightmare but the dream won’t let you go, and you feel like throwing up and your heart won’t stop hammering, you can feel it in your chest and your throat and—
There’s a cold touch on your stomach, an arm wrapped around your middle, pulling you close, a voice pulling you up out of the nightmare, saying soft things to you as you wake up with a violent jerk and a scream that hurts your throat as its ripped from your lungs. You push yourself up slightly off the mattress, as much as you can with the arm wrapped around your waist, heart hammering, chest heaving and covered in sweat, awake but not quite back to reality.
“Hush, pet, you’re awake now.” A voice says behind you, silky smooth but lined with worry. As reality clears around you, you begin to relax back onto the bed, back into the embrace of the man behind you. Loki. Alive. Breathing. There. You lie still in his arms, trying to calm your breathing and relishing the almost coldness of his skin against your over-heated body.
“What was it tonight, Love? Do you feel like telling me?” Loki asks softly when he thinks you’ve calmed down a little bit. He’s running gentling fingers over your belly. You take a deep breath through your nose and, a little bit shakily, turn over in his arms so you can look at him, help your brain grasp that this is real and that you’re really awake. When you meet his eyes with your own you can see the worry in his, the scant light of the moon through your bedroom window giving just enough light that you can make him out in the darkness.
“It… it was you again.” You start shakily, feeling panic rise again like bile in your throat, and you drop your eyes from his because this is always so hard. No matter how many times you guys do this, it never gets any easier. “I saw him kill you again.” You finish, voice barely above a whisper, and gruff as you try to keep from going back into a panic attack.
“Oh, Love.” Loki says softly, lifting the arm from around your waist so he can stroke his cool hand over your cheek. “It’s alright now. I’m here, I’m alive.”
And with that you’re suddenly in tears. You tuck your head up under his chin, wrapping your arms so tightly around him that if he were anyone else you’d be worried about hurting him. You so softly, body shaking in your lover’s embrace, as he puts his own arms back around you and whispering soft things to try and comfort you.
Eventually you calm back down, and your grasp on him slackens. You nuzzle gently into his neck, and he chuckles softly. Loki uses one hand to gently move your head back so he can look into your now bloodshot eyes, the worry still evident in his own.
“Look at me, pet.” He says softly, “I’m here. They’re nightmares. They’re horrible, but they’re not real.” He manages a very slight smile, brushing your hair back from your face, trying his very best to comfort you. “I have them too.” He admits lowly, and you find yourself comforted by this last admission. The panic is banished from your mind with his words, the tightness in your chest loosened. He gently brushes the last of the tears from your cheeks and kisses your forehead gently.
“Yes.” You reply softly, leaning into his soft touch, “You’re here. And I love you so much.” Your voice is rough from the prior panic and crying. “My sweet Prince…” The last part is barely above a whisper before you lean up and kiss him softly. He returns the kiss readily, the hand that was on your cheek moving up to tangle in your hair and pulling you almost impossibly closer. The kiss is chaste, different from his kisses when you’re in more passionate situations, but no less loving, probably even more so. His tongue swipes gently against your bottom lip and you break away from the kiss with a weak laugh that his mirrors, a genuine smile gracing his face that makes your heart go funny in your chest. The two of you are quiet for several minutes, simply laying in each other’s embrace.
“Can you sleep now?” He finally asks softly, fingers that were in your hair combing through it gently. You’re finally fully relaxed again in his arms, nuzzling back into his neck and nodding hesitantly, the fear of sleep still there, but eased by his soothing.
“I think so..” You say softly, voice muffled by his skin, “As long as you’re still here when I wake up…” The last part makes him chuckle lightly.
“I’ll always be here, pet.” Loki assures softly, smoothing his hand over your shoulder and down your arm before draping it back around your waist.
“Just… Wake me back up if I’m having another nightmare… Please.” You say slightly shakily, already starting to doze back off.
“Of course, my sweet.” He says lowly, sensing you falling back asleep. He strokes his hand up and down your back as you drift back off fully to sleep. And when he think’s you’re completely out he says,“I love you, too. More than you will ever know.” And he places a soft kiss on your forehead. You smile slightly in your sleep, the dreams that follow are sweet for the first time in weeks, and you cuddle further into his embrace.
-END-