To Be Reborn The Butterfly

Loki awakens with a jolt. She had another nightmare. This one vivid. Filled with blood and death and loneliness. It is more than she can bear. Loki slips out of bed and walks down the hall to Steve’s room. The door is locked.
“Jarvis?” Loki whispers.
“Yes your Highness.”
“I’m scared. Is Steve awake?”
“I’ll ask him.” The AI replies. Loki could swear the damn thing possess an actual sense of humor. Loki hears movement inside Steve’s room and he answers the door. He is bare chested and wearing pajama pants.
“Loki are you okay?” Steve asks with genuine concern.
“No!” She bursts into tears and falls into his arms. “Can I stay here with you?” Steve is acutely aware that Loki is wearing little more than a paper thin cotton baby doll nightgown. But with the tears streaming down her face and onto his chest he finds he cannot turn her away.
“Yeah…um…come on in.” Steve turns down the bed and they both slide in. Loki curls up into the curve of his body, sobbing lightly. Steve wraps his arms around her, petting her hair with his hand. She smells like lavender. Her long raven hair is splayed out everywhere. Steven feels his erection growing and has to actively think about other things to quell it. It would be ungentlemanly to take advantage of her in her fragile state, and Loki is a good girl. She is a lady and a princess, plus Thor would kill him if he ever found out Steve fucked his sister. After a while Loki’s sobs die down and the two fall asleep in tenuous affection.
It takes two weeks for the living areas of the tower to be repaired. The group got used to eating out three times a day since the kitchen was toast. Loki takes up combat training in earnest. She practices with the others in the gym, throwing her daggers at targets over and over again until she is cross-eyed. She is actually very talented at it. She needed to be. For whatever reason that has yet to be discerned, Victor Von Doom is after the scepter, and after her. She can’t stay on the sidelines of this fight. He’ll be back, and he will be targeting her.
Loki has also found it necessary to double down on her magic practice. Tony and Bruce even went out of their way to make up targets for her to throw fireballs at. Loki finds she spends most of her time in the gym these days. When she isn’t training for combat she is keeping up new found ballet skills. She’s rather fond of dancing and wonders if she did it much in her old life.
Steve has pleasantly discovered that Loki has the stamina necessary to pair off against him in the boxing arena. None of the others do. Thor probably would, but he’s not here. That’s not to say that the others aren’t tough, or skilled, or physically fit. They are, but none of them are super human like Steve is. Except Bruce. But no one wants the Hulk to come out and play just for a boxing match. Loki is a quick study and pretty soon she is putting Steve on the mat just as often as he is putting her on the mat.
Natasha, Clint, Tony, and Bruce all watch the two exchange blows. Everyone sees what is happening but no one talks about it. It’s the little touches the pair exchanges. The way one will linger a little too long over the other when they are down on the mat. It is the way they both look at each other only when the other isn’t looking. Steve’s hands will even tremble sometimes, like he is…..just….ITCHING….to touch Loki.
Months go by. Clint, Natasha, and Steve go away on several missions to track down Doom and gather intelligence. They have had little success. Victor Von Doom always seems to be one step ahead of them and only letting them find what he wants them to find. It’s frustrating. The more time progresses the more the group worries that it is building up to something. It is winter time again. The slow build up between Steven and Loki feels like a bomb about to explode. Thanksgiving comes and goes, this time without Thor. He is squashing some rebellion in some backwater village with Sif and the Warriors Three. Loki has yet to visit Asgard.
The others have started a betting pool on when Steve and Loki will go on their first date. They’ve given hope of them having actual sex. Loki is too naïve and shy, and Steve is too proper. But the cold weather brings with it an unexpected event none are prepared for. Least of all Loki and Steve.
It is at little after one in the morning when Loki awakens to a terrible pain in her lower abdomen. She pulls her comforter off to find she is sitting in a pool of brown dead blood. She hauls ass to the toilet.
“Jarvis-wake up Pepper and Natasha and tell them it’s an emergency and that I need them. A lady emergency! No men please.”
“Yes your Highness.” The AI replies.
“Jarvis, bring up the transcript from the anatomy book I uploaded for Jotunn fertility. There’s an illustration I need Pepper and Natasha to look at.” Loki vaguely remembers reading about this. Loki has lost her plug. It is the build-up of dead blood and uterus lining that must be flushed out leaving her womb fertile and ready for the heat. It only happens once every 20 years. Loki’s body is preparing her to breed. Pepper arrives first to the grizzly scene. It looks like someone was murdered in here. The smell, however, is unmistakable. All women recognize that smell that they get every month when this happens. Jotunn females only get it once every 20 years.
“Loki! Oh my god! Are you okay?” Pepper freaks.
“I think I’ll be alright. Can you look at the diagram on that screen? My memory is a little fuzzy at the moment.” Pepper does. The English translation spells out the problem plainly enough. Natasha arrives and takes in the bloody scene. The two women help Loki to the tub to hose off and scrub down. Pepper removes the bedding and replaces it. But Loki is stuck in the bath tub. The blood just keeps pouring out of her. It is embarrassing. Pepper knows what the diagram shows but the copious amounts of blood makes her wonder if Loki needs medical attention.
“It says here that the bleeding will last for about a day, and then the egg will release. Loki is there anything you want us to do?”
“The blood is just an annoyance. It will stop after a day like the book says. It’s what happens next that I need to discuss with the two of you. Jarvis please bring up the transcript for the next page. Read it out loud for all of us please.”
“….once the egg is released the male has seven days to fertilize the female to produce offspring. Once conception has occurred the fever will cease and the female will return to her normal state. Failure of the male to properly mate the female will result in death.” Pepper and Natasha’s eye bulge out of their heads as they look at Loki.
“Loki is Jarvis saying that if you don’t get pregnant you’ll die?” Natasha asks.
“That is the gist of it yes, but there is a section on Jotunn birth control. Jarvis please skip to that.” Loki says.
“….For Jotunn couples that do not wish to bare more offspring: Contraception in Jotunns is generally not advised and risky. Warning! Current known infertility potions are poisonous to Jotunn females. Do not take! It is the responsibility of the male to bring the female to multiple and continuous sexual peak to bring down the fever. Failure to do this will result in death. Use of small animal skin sacks may be used to collect the seed and prevent it depositing in the womb. This method is especially not recommended for childless females experiencing their first heat due to the risk of fever death. Proceed with caution.”
Jarvis concludes the section and the two humans look at Loki with deep concern.
“I don’t want children right now! I’m barely a year old myself. Besides it wouldn’t be fair to whoever volunteers to fuck me. It’s not like I have a…a husband. Or a mate as the book refers to.” Loki says with fear.
“Who are you going to ask?” Pepper asks. Loki looks at Natasha.
“Thor.” Natasha says.
“Thor WANTS to make babies with me. I can’t ask him. In the heat of passion he will fill me up with every ounce of seed he has. He won’t be able to hold back in spite of himself. Even if he gave me his word, on this….I just can’t trust him to honor my wishes. If Thor even thinks for a second I might die of the fever he will use it as an excuse to put a child in me and ‘save my life.’ It can’t be him.”
“Steve then.” Natasha says. The three look at each other. Really the only other option is Bruce, but there is more of a father-daughter vibe between the two. It has to be Steve.
“But if something goes wrong, would you be okay with getting pregnant with Steve’s baby? Because Steve might have to make the same call and Steve….for him this is a big deal too. He might say no.”
“Asking Thor is a last resort.” Loki says firmly. There’s a knock at Loki’s bedroom door. It’s Tony.
“Hey ah Pep? Is everything okay in there? You guys have been in there for over an hour.”
“Uh…Yeah. We’re fine.” Pepper yells through the door.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Tony asks. Pepper looks to Loki. She doesn’t want to violate her privacy, but Tony is eventually going to notice what is going on.
“You might as well tell him.” Loki says with a resigned voice. Pepper nods and leaves the room to explain the situation to Tony.
“So it’s literally fuck or die!”
“Tony this is serious! Loki doesn’t want to get pregnant and she wants Steve to be the one to mate her.”
“Karma is really awesome sometimes. Poor Steve the 90 year old virgin is going to have to bang Loki for seven days straight, and if he fails to give her enough orgasms she’ll die.” Tony says with tears of mirth in his eyes.
“TONY!” Pepper is about to rip his head off.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. You’re right. You’re right. Can I be the one to tell Steve?”
“NO!”

Notes

I know you Thorki lovers are worried. Fret not. I have a plan.