Something Wicked This Way Comes

||8- Bifrost||

Sunlight peaked its way through the living room windows, disturbing the gentle, stagnant air of the room.  Katalina's eye lids fluttered, the sun warming her skin.  There were dogs barking, a song bird outside one of the windows singing, and Loki's soft breathing.

Kat's eyes flashed open. 

She was on the couch across from Loki. She'd fallen asleep again—and from the stiffness of her back—she had slept all night. Her stomach starting to growl forced her onto her feet. It let her to her kitchen to where Loki's clothes and medicine still laid on the counter.

She stretched, reaching for an apple.

Loki would need actual food. He'd stomached soup that she had made the night prior after she'd woken him up, but he needed more than that. Kat moved to her fridge as she took a bite. Her stomach grumbled in response—she needed food.

Kat reached for the carton of eggs and an avocado she had placed in the fridge to slow its ripening. Everything else was already on her counter and she closed the fridge door. Protein supported wound healing; he'd need a plethora of fruits and vegetables too, and healthy fats like the avocado she held. Katalina was nothing close to a dietitian but it was clear that his wound was not the only thing she had to worry about. Asgardians were not human. She had no idea how many calories Loki would have consumed before he was injured. Eventually, she was quite certain he'd complain if she got it wrong.

But not now, when he kept drifting in and out of consciousness.

She'd be lucky to get a full meal in him.

Shaking her head, she turned back to cooking. Most of her knowledge of working with food had come from her father. She could still remember rummaging around the small kitchen of her childhood home, bumping into each other, as her father let her try to help with dinner. It was as vivid in her memory as if it was yesterday. He was a gentle, soft-spoken man, who had only chuckled when she had accidentally gotten egg shells in the batter they were preparing, then patiently showed her how to do it correctly.  Katalina missed those days.

She was halfway done with breakfast when heard Loki stir.  Or rather, felt Loki awake.  His energy seeped back to himself in response to his eyelids flickering open.  Finally, the pressure in her head stopped building.

A small grumble like noise left his lips and Katalina watched from behind the island as he slowly sat up. Her mix-matched gaze hovered over his form before flicking back to preparing his plate.  A second later, she felt his eyes on her, but at the point, she had finished. 

Grabbing his plate, then the glass of water she had poured, she rounded the island into the living room.  He watched her, eyes tired and curious.  Katalina remember the pulse of energy she had felt the day before.

Katalina sat the glass and the plate on the coffee table and pushed it flush again the couch.  She couched, lifting the fork and pointed at what was on the plate. 

"You've barely eaten since I found you," she started, cocking her head, "partly my fault.  I don't know what you eat on Asgard, or how much, but you need to get food in your system.  It's the only way you are going to get better."

And just to test his buttons, she added lightly, "and I promise, this isn't poisoned."

A sound that could have been taken as a faint, scoff, came from Loki as Katalina stood back up.  It had been light like her comment and she had to turn back to the kitchen before he could see her amusement.  She retrieved her own breakfast and positioned herself at the island so her back wasn't entirely to Loki and she could still see him.