#thor: that's a horrible punishment for looking at a different women but at least you can hear people. try not to go overboard with revenge?

[worstloki]

Amora: if you die WHO is going to have subtextually homoerotic sword fights with me that stem from our major unresolved tensions with each other?

Loki: If I die the Midgardian "World Health Organization" is going to do WHAT

[lugialagia]

Painful lesson

Summary : As a punishment for his attack on Midgard, Loki is sent on that same planet to learn how humans lifes are fragile and precious. Tony decides to make him visit patient in a hospital. Loki truly didn’t expect to go out of this with a broken heart.

Pairing : Loki x reader (3rd person)

Words : 2,566

TW! : diseases, leukaemia, death.

This was a big day for Loki. The Prince had been taken to the dungeons right after his arrest on Midgard, and Odin ordered to lock him in a cell while he was thinking of a proper punishment. The King and his other son, Thor, talked together about said punishment and came to an agreement. Loki will be sent to Midgard, stripped of his powers, to make amends for the trouble he caused. To learn how Midgardian’s life was precious.  

He now stood in the Stark Tower while Tony and Thor were talking about him like he wasn’t here. Not that he minded it. Thor was arguing the fact that his brother couldn’t be taken by SHIELD or thrown in a cell. His punishment was to live among humans.  

Tony then had an idea. “You’re gonna pay a visit to patients at the hospital.” Loki shook his head to pulled out of his thoughts now that he was addressed at. “And what shall I do there?” He almost sighed. Tony leant back on the couch, staring at the God in front of him. “I want you to stay with them, talk to them, help them, distract them. I want you to see how life isn’t easy for ‘mortals’.” He quoted. “Some have small injuries, some have biggest that could change their life. And some must live with diseases. You’re gonna learn everything with their own stories.” 

Loki huffed but nodded still. Even if he doesn’t want to, he didn’t have a word to say. Tony led him to his room, where he would stay during his punishment. He didn’t want the God to run around in the city so at least here, he -and Jarvis- could have an eye on him.  

The next day, Jarvis woke Loki up early in the morning. With a groan, he rolled out of the bed and prepared for his first day on Midgard. When he stepped out of the room, Tony was already waiting for him, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. “C’mon Reindeer Games, get a smile on your face for your first day.” Loki rolled his eyes. How could he smile when he didn’t want to be here in the first place?  

Tony led him to one of his cars and drove him to the nearest hospital. Once inside, they got to the third floor where Tony tried to find the head nurse he contacted for this job. They greeted, Loki with a ‘I really don’t want to be here’ look, and the nurse thanked Tony for trusting her. “I’m gonna pick you up at 5’. Be good and don’t cause trouble.” He warned Loki before heading out. Loki grumbled something under his breath and looked at the nurse for more explaination.  

“So, you will go to these rooms.” She said while holding out a piece a paper. “And all you have to do is talk to them or help them if they ask for something. One hour per person.” Loki took the paper and looked at it. There were at least 8 names on it. He sighed and nodded. “Alright...I guess I should start now.” The nurse nodded. “If you need something or have question you can wait in here.” She said while pointing to a door. “I’ll come by eventually.”  

Loki then made his way to the first door. Room B809. He knocked, because he was polite after all, and walked in. There, in the bed, was a man, probably in his mid twenties. He looked up at the door and wasn’t even surprised by Loki's presence. Loki frowned at the lack of expression on the man's face. He expected to be yeld at or simply for him to be afraid.  

The God walked closer and saw the right side of his face was burned out. Whatever caused this made it good. Loki hold out his hand, wanted to be as nice as possible so maybe, just maybe, Stark would end his punishment soon. “I am Loki, but I think you already know me.”  

The man looked at his hand and gave him his left hand instead of his right. “Jonathan. And yes, I do know you.” Loki was confused as to why the mortal was giving him his left hand. Did he already made a mistake? Jonathan saw the confusion in the God's eyes. “I would have liked to give you my other hand but...I don't have any.” He said while pushing down the blanket off his body.  

Loki made a small face of distaste when he saw that he didn’t have anything past his shoulder. “I apologise. I was not aware of this.” Jonathan dismissed him with a wave of a hand. “It’s okay. They told me you should learn everything by yourself.” Loki let out a small ‘oh’ and sat on the chair next to the bed.  

Since he was here to talk with the patients, he asked Jonathan what happened to him. It was the simplest question. The man told him that a grenade exploded not far from him when he was on the battlefield in another country. His arm was ripped off and all his right side was burnt. This man was a warrior. Well, at least for Asgard. If he was Aesir, he would have been treated like one.  

Surprisingly, the talk between the two was easy. Loki tried to not be his usual cold self -just because he wanted to get out of his punishment as fast as possible- but he was feeling strangely good with Jonathan. And the hour went by really quick. Loki stood up and made his way to the door, looking at his list and heading to the next room.  

There, he found an old lady with Alzheimer. He didn’t know any of it, what it was. The name was scribbled on the paper, and it was the only thing added on the list, but it didn’t give him any idea to know what it was. The woman had no idea of who he was and somewhat, he was glad. Loki talked with her and handed her water glasses, changed the channel of the tv, and while they were talking, the lady just kind of forgot what they were talking about and even forgot who he was. Confused, he told his name once again and tried to talk a bit more with her. When he left the room, he rubbed his hand on his face. So she had some kind of memory loss? At least, that’s what he concluded.  

He then moved through the list, visiting other men and women, all suffering from different kind of diseases. Loki even saw a child. He was barely seven and couldn’t walk because of a problem in his spine. The God felt a pang in his heart. How can a small child be striked by such a huge burden? Again, he was a mortal. Asgardians couldn’t suffer from this kind of things. Loki made sure the kid was good. He was gentle and soft, they talked about his favourite things at school, what he liked to do at home. Loki even read a book with him. After an hour, he left the child who was smiling brightly at him, saying that he hopped Loki would come back. And that made him feel something. He smiled at the kid and nodded, promising he would visit him soon again.  

The last patient on the list and he would be free. Until tomorrow. The God made his way to the door and entered the room. There lied a woman, probably the same age as Jonathan, or maybe a bit older, she smiled softly when the door opened. Loki could tell she was very weak and he wondered what kind of problem she had. He presented himself and she did the same. “Y/N.. It’s nice to see new faces.” Somehow, that drawn a smile on his lips as he sat next to the bed. “So, may I ask why you are here?” He asked gently. Y/N looked at him sadly. “I have leukaemia. I’m going through radiotherapy for now and I’m on the waiting list.” Loki frowned, not knowing what she was talking about at all. Of course, she saw the confusion written on his face and she explained everything.  

After a lot of explaining -because Loki loved to learn new things- they started to talk about lighter subjects. He was feeling very at ease with Y/N, her way to be wasn’t repelling him and that was surprising.   At the end of the hour, Loki needed to go back to Tony, who was waiting for him in front of the hospital. Of course, the genius started to ask questions about his day, if he were good and all of that, but the God didn’t reply, preferring to stay quiet and walk back to his room once they arrived at the tower. The whole evening, he couldn’t help but to think about Y/N even if it was very strange for him to think about someone else than himself or his mother. * * * The next day, Loki grumbled when Tony left him in front of the hospital. But this childish attitude was wiped out when he saw Y/N name on the list among new ones. So it was with a light, barely visible smile, that he started his day.   During the afternoon, Y/N heard a knock on her door and smiled when she saw the ravenette. “Hey Loki, nice to see you back today.” she greeted with a smile. “Pleasure is mine.” he replied as he sat next to her bed. “I wanted to ask you, what kind of magic you can do?” Y/N asked curiously. “Ah, well. A lot of things. Short teleportation, illusion, spells, shields, energy flux, summoning objects...” Loki started to explain. Of course, Y/N was intrigued by all this, her eyes already sparkling with interest. “I want to see!” she exclaimed like a child in front of a magician. This surprised Loki, but he happily complied, glad to finally find someone that was liking his magic abilities.   They spent the whole hour like this, Loki just showing his talent. Every time, Y/N was watching with the same glitter in her eyes and the God liked to watch into her gaze. For once, he had someone that was looking at him, and him alone. It felt good to finally be adored for being himself, for possessing magic. Something that wasn’t well seen on Asgard –at least for men. Because men were supposed to be strong and fight with honor. Magic was considered as a way to cheat, it was supposed to be used only to heal or to grow plants, not to fight in a war.   * * * Days passed and Loki came to see Y/N for the first few days, but then, her name wasn’t on the list anymore. He wanted to pass by and talk for a bit, but he couldn’t, he didn’t have time with his schedule. Then, after a week of not seeing her, he finally saw her name on his list. Suddenly, his day felt less horrible. When he came into Y/N room, he had a smile plastered on his face. But it soon faded away when he saw her face. She definitely didn’t feel any better, it was worse.  

“Hey Loki. I finally get to see you.” Y/N smiled a bit. “I asked the nurse for you because honestly, I miss our talk.” Loki felt a real pang in his heart. She had missed him. Him. No wait, it was their conversation. But it still meant that in was him, right? Shaking himself out of his thoughts, the God sat on the chair next to her bed. “I also miss our talk.” he admitted. “You don’t seem to be better.” he then stated sadly. Y/N sighed and shook a bit her head. “I’ve done a lot of exams and radiotherapy. I’m exhausted and they’re also giving me more medicine.”  

Loki looked at her sadly but Y/N decided to change the mood and ask more question about the God. So they talked the whole hour, both of them almost forgetting Y/N actual state. When Loki left, they felt lighter, just a bit, because they saw each other, but they mostly were sad. Y/N because she wanted Loki to stay, and Loki because Y/N wasn’t feeling better.  

***

The next days were the same, once they got to see each other, the next they wouldn’t. Loki also liked a lot the kid he had seen the first day. He was so demanding and Loki loved to show you new tricks or read to him. But his favorite patient still was Y/N.  

The more the days passed, the more they grew close. They had a lot in common and their conversation were easy, like they knew each other for years. And the more they were close, the more it was hard for Loki to go back to the tower. And Tony could saw it. He could see the change, the sadness in his eyes, even if the God always kept a straight face, but the man never said anything.  

***  

Weeks passed and Y/N health was getting worse. Loki didn’t like this. Didn’t like to see her like this. She had started chemotherapy and it was making her weaker and weaker each time Loki was visiting her. But it was needed to try and erase this leukaemia. He saw her hair falling little by little but Loki still found her beautiful and he reminded her. Even with all this, Y/N still kept smiling, because the ravenette was here with her.   After some more time, Y/N couldn’t even move without it hurting too much. She was terribly weak and the chemotherapy didn’t seem to work well. Still, Loki tried to cheer her up, to be there for her when he could and she was definitely glad for that.  

Until one day, she couldn’t even look at the God. She felt her body giving up the battle. Loki was his usual self, but it was even painful to speak. So she listened to the sound of his voice and let herself relax. “Y/N? Are you still with me?” he asked softly, looking at her with concern. She could only whisper at this point. “Come here.” she demanded. Loki bent over the bed and placed his ear next to her mouth. “I love you.” Y/N murmured. Shocked by her words, Loki froze but the moment after, his lips were on hers, kissing her softly, showing her that her feeling were shared. When he pulled away, she murmured the words back to her...but it was too late. The woman passed during this loving moment. The God didn’t understand at first why she wasn’t reopening her eyes or why she wouldn’t say anything. But then, then he was blank. He held her hand and stared at her beautiful face for the rest of the hour. Until he was ushered out of the room. That day, when Tony came to bring Loki back to the tower, he could see something was off. He didn’t even manage to say the whole question, that Loki was already crying in his arms. Tony whispered that he was sorry and hugged him back. “I have learnt my lesson.” Loki sobbed into his neck.