Second Chances

Tuesday morning started with a team meeting where the last mission was discussed, as was the freezing and defrosting of the training area, following up on possible leads for who may wish to harm Loki, and the status of the Tower. Maia, as she hadn’t yet asked anyone but Charles to call her Sigyn, explained that Charles was helping them clear up her memories, as she remembered both sets and it was helping with both proof of who she was and keeping her own head in order. They arranged to use Banner’s cell after lunch and Steve was still hopeful that with all the progress she was making that she would be able to join the team.
As they had some time to kill Sigyn asked Loki if she would mind if they did some sparring in the gym. As she had no real workout clothes he changed her into a vest and leggings, after she turned down his original offer of leather pants and tunic. She was happy barefoot and they reached the gym to find it empty, everyone still reorganising themselves after the meeting.
‘I’m kind of glad it’s empty.’ She said as she looked around the well equipped area, with machines to one end, a boxing ring, several hanging punching bags and a large matted area.
‘More angry sex?’ He asked and she turned to find he had changed into perhaps the most casual thing she had seen him in, besides his lounge pants. His grey tunic had the sleeves rolled back, his pants soft black leather, his feet bare.
‘Not in the gym.’ She waved her finger at him playfully.
‘You used to be much more fun, Sig.’
‘And you used to be able to make us invisible with your powers, but then you went all megalomaniac without me and tried to take over the planet.’
‘I recall having to stand, naked and invisible, for the best part of half an hour while you and your father had to discuss the merits of sleeping with a window open because he could not take a hint.’
‘It explained why my window was left open every night.’
‘Mmm, not at all because you were sneaking back into it before dawn.’
‘Definitely not. I was a lady, remember.’ She smiled at him as he approached.
‘And what are you now, if not a lady?’
‘So many things it’s hard to remember.’ She shook her head. Her hair was braided down her back out of the way for what they were about to do.
‘One thing is certain, you are still my Sig.’ He stroked her cheek, smiling warmly at her.
‘I am that.’ She grinned back. ‘So, before you get too carried away with the touching, I wanted us to spar like we used to on Asgard. It’s different to the hand to hand training I’ve had as Maia and I don’t know how much of it remains with me, if any.’
‘We will need to be careful. Your body, while quite delicious,’ he raked a gaze over her, ‘is that of a human, until you allow me to have Thor fetch you one of Idunn’s apples, and I could easily hurt you.’
‘You know I told him not to, huh?’ She pulled a face.
‘Thor does not like keeping secrets from me. I suspect he thinks it will encourage me to lie less.’
‘Does he even know you?’ She stepped back and began stretching.
‘Some days I wonder.’ He shrugged as he watched her moving her limbs into various positions to allow a greater range of movement. ‘Tell me, sweet, can you still do the splits?’
‘I used to be able to, you pervert, I’m not trying it now.’
‘A simple questions.’
‘About how far you can push my legs open.’ She laughed. ‘Take it easy on me, Mischief, but let’s get started.’
‘Anything for my beautiful girl.’
Loki started her out slowly, going through several basic moves that she had once known and she soon picked them up again, her memory reminding her body how to move and when, enabling her to soon move a little faster. After a short while Nat and Sam turned up, planning on hitting the machines, but the Asgardian prince and small apparent former Asgardian fighting caught their attention. Nat began pointing out similar moves in various other martial art forms and taking mental notes of moves she had never seen combined in such a way.
After almost an hour Sigyn felt more like herself, although slower as a human it soon flowed smoothly and she was ducking Loki’s swings and landing her own blows on his torso. They were just running through a particularly long bout where they had met one another’s strikes with practiced hands that Sigyn swung a backhand into Loki’s chest, her power bursting out of her as she did so, throwing him across the room and into the back wall with enough force to break the brickwork.
‘Oh my God, I’m so sorry!’ She rushed across the mats to his side where he was picking himself up, Sam and Nat heading over to them.
‘Those were some impressive moves, kid.’ Sam said as Sigyn helped Loki to his feet.
‘Thank you, I didn’t mean that last one. Are you okay?’ She pulled Loki’s tunic up to see a bruise already fading.
‘Nothing broken, dove.’ He assured her through gritted teeth as the pain began to fade.
‘I don’t know what happened.’ She looked down at her palms while Nat examined the wall.
‘I believe your body is remembering how it was used before, but as you do not have full conscious control over your sorcery it is running entirely on what it thinks to be correct.’
‘Makes sense, unfortunately.’
‘Why unfortunately?’ Sam asked. ‘You’ve got some seriously sweet moves.’
‘But they’re not entirely under my control. We’re working on it but it’s erratic. I set two fires accidentally on Sunday and you saw what I did on the security footage of the training room.’
‘Your control is coming, love, make no mistake.’ Loki assured her. ‘But perhaps that is enough for today.’
‘Next time you do this, hit me up.’ Nat smiled at them. ‘It’s pretty awesome to watch.’
‘Hopefully I won’t leave it another…’ She looked up at Loki with a frown. ‘How long have I been gone?’
‘Too long, sunbeam. Over seven hundred years.’
Her mouth dropped open in sheer surprise. ‘Shit, that’s a long time.’
‘Longer than we were together.’
‘Second chances are great.’ She offered him her hand and he took it, causing her to flinch as pain ran through her fingers.
‘Ow.’ She mumbled as she looked down at her knuckles, finding them cut and black and blue.
‘How did you not realise you did that?’ Sam asked as he held his hand out so he could examine the wounds.
‘Power and adrenaline, I guess.’
‘Loki, why don’t you go grab you both some lunch, I’ll take Maia down to medical and patch her up.’ Nat offered.
‘Is that alright with you, petal?’ She gave him a raised eyebrow. ‘You can’t still be mad about petal?’
‘I can be.’
‘Very well, princess, are you happy with this arrangement?’
‘Sure.’ She nodded.
‘Come on.’ Nat linked arms with her, the two women so similar in height it was easy. ‘You know, I just realised, were you an actual princess?’
‘Actual princess, responsibilities, stupid gold headdress the works.’ She nodded as they left the room.
Sam nodded to Loki. ‘You’ve gotta teach me some of those moves, man.’
‘Perhaps when I do not have orders from two very bossy redheads.’ Loki smiled as he went for the door.

Notes