hey, you with the pretty face

welcome to the human race.

When her fingers start to tingle and her heartbeat is thrumming wildly in her ears, Sakura can tell something is wrong - something is going wrong.

There is an averageness about the day, in that she wakes up early and goes to work at the hospital and has lunch with her team. It is a quiet, peaceful time and entirely mundane. Naruto is loud and golden, eating ravenously beside the quiet, pale Sasuke. She isn't that hungry, eating with mild motions, and everything is just extraordinarily normal.

But as her chopsticks fall from her hands and her bones seem to purr with anticipation, Sakura feels like screaming and crying and throwing up in one enormous moment.

She wants to lie down and let her stomach and mind settle, but instead an ugly, neon blue light fills her vision, the voices of those beside her fade from frantic yells to mechanical buzzing, and all she can smell is burning metal.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong chants through her head like a mantra.

And then she is gone.

And then she is falling.

Sakura curses at the approaching grey floor, righting herself despite the dizziness and nausea running through her. The humming of her bones seems to harmonize with the hum of crackling power around her.

She doesn't move for some time, trying to calm her breathing and blinking against the bright blue… electricity? Something massive and shining and unstable is whirring above her and it seems to be impatiently urging her to move.

She scrambles to come up with an explanation, in her mind, as to what is happening. Nothing is familiar, the entire feeling of the world around her seems unnatural. She tries to place how she got here, who she was with and—

There is a sudden, piercing pain in the back of her skull so intense that she would have screamed were her throat not horribly dry and there weren't so many people staring at her.

She…

…There are a lot of things missing.

But she is… Sakura. Sakura Haruno. Her name she knows for sure.

Sakura, still crouched low, stares at the concrete floor and tries to ignore the singular, piercing stare that has not strayed from her form. There is still a sparking mass of something moving above her, and she has no memory of anything, and she just feels like crying.

She thinks… she knows that she is a fighter. That is something in her body, in her bones, not in her mind. Can't lose that. Ok, ok, that's- that's something.

She knows for sure, as well, that she can think this through. She is smart. Strategic. That is something that started in the mind but has become ingrained in her soul, somehow. Years of having to rely on intelligence and little else, she surmises.

There is… light. Or something. Liquid, flowing through her. It's weird and thick and heavy - in importance, not density. As if she has an awareness of her blood stream, she can feel that there is an energy humming underneath her skin. That is also… something, and it is something she can appreciate.

She knows she can trust her body. Completely. It feels as if it is yearning for a fight, something that both intimidates and awes Sakura at the same time.

Her mind, less so.

Ok. Ok, she doesn't have… everything. But she has the basics, probably. Maybe. Maybe if she gets out of this strange grey room with the weird… thing on the ceiling, she can sit down and think and work towards… something. Getting out is now her priority.

People are still staring at her.

She feels as if she is interrupting something.

To look up, then, and see fallen bodies, strange grey boxes with flashing lights, and a group of men staring gravely at her - she feels right in this assumption, and wants to laugh at how viciously strange life can be.

The blood surrounding the bodies doesn't make her sick. So, she is used to seeing things like, like that. Some sort of pity rises in her throat but she pushes it back down.

Directly in front of her lays a man, dark in clothing and complexion and expression. She knows he is hurt, is bleeding, and disoriented. Something surges forward within her and the energy that has been a quiet mumble jumps at the chance to manifest around her shaking hands.

She is so confused and overwhelmed and feels like her skull is going to cave in.

But a pair of black boots are heading confidently towards her, and the calm green surrounding her palms switch instantly to the blue of a rushing river. The sharp pain in her head makes a brief return, but her body knows not to bring her blue-tinted hands anywhere near her own face.

She'll save that information for later.

Sakura makes eye contact with the man approaching her, and feels something within her twitch.

She doesn't know much, and is generally confused as to what is going on, but there is a part of her - the part that fights and doesn't flinch at bloody bodies and has liquid power running through her - that knows he doesn't scream danger.

No - he whispers, hisses it.

With pale skin and dark hair and green robes, gold accents that shine whenever a trembling light glances off of him. His eyes are not completely focused and he is sweating and breathing heavily but Sakura knows, instantly, that he is the most powerful man in the room.

There is a part of her - the part that is confused and feels like crying and doesn't trust her own legs to help her stand - that wants to melt into the ground and avoid this powerful, powerful man.

The other part of her whispers that she can probably still knock him out.

And then he hits the ground.

There is a pain bursting on his chest, and he is swearing a lot, when the sizzling blue portal behind him spits up something- someone else.

It's hard to focus through the pain of head hitting concrete and what feels like a cracked sternum, but it is easy to focus on the woman in pink that falls to the floor with practiced ease.

From what he can see (which isn't that fuckin' much) she is glancing around warily, taking in the environment the same way he, or his men, might. But her features are distinctly foreign, her clothes don't seem to resemble any he's ever seen, and her bright green eyes are strikingly memorable. Yet he could not put a name to that face if he tried.

Her hands glow green for one moment, then blue the next when the Asgardian steps towards her.

And it is her hair, not her clothes, that is pink.

Nick hates how colourful these motherfuckers are.

And then he is interrupted.

There was no mention, not even in passing, of another being maybe, possibly coming through the wormhole with him. After him.

An attempt of trickery on him is laughable at best. Pitiful, at worst. He hopes, for the sake of those... hiring him, that they are as unprepared for this development as he.

He feels as if the grand tension of the room has been near-sucked out and his jaw clenches at the blow to his grand entrance. Loki can always appreciate his own theatricality, so to strike down the leader of the opposition and walk out with the Tesseract in one swift motion would be a rightful introduction, he thinks.

But the woman that has fallen out of the wormhole is brightly coloured, made up of defined muscles and petite build, and he could nearly inhale the energy radiating off of her. The power. Her hands are surrounded in a steady green light, suddenly, and Loki's simmering anger turns to a peaked curiosity. All he can do is grin.

She looks up, directly at him. Her eyes are a piercing green, more vibrant than the energy of her hands, and she has decidedly delicate features for someone that practically screams raw strength and energy.

His interest is piqued, and as he glides toward her, he nearly feels sorry for her.

Then her hands are surrounded by blue energy, and his grin widens.

To intrigue the God of Mischief is a very dangerous thing indeed.

The man has stopped less than one foot from her, and Sakura is unafraid to look him in the eye. Or too afraid to look away. Not sure

He holds a tall sceptre, peaked in blue light, in one hand, his free fist clenching and unclenching beside him.

And then, it is being held out towards her.

Sakura glances back and forth between the hand and his heavy gaze, and when his grin stretches further, she thinks he is amused by her confusion.

She clears her throat, and stands, slowly and hesitantly. His hand does not move - he steps closer, minutely, towering over her smaller height.

The other part of her pushes her to lash out with blue fists and then help the one-eyed man that she thinks is maybe bleeding out.

But the confused part of her decides to open her mouth, and ask in a voice that she hopes isn't shaking:

"…Foe?"

Loki, were he a lesser man, would be whooping right now.

This tiny, naive, stupid creature that is humming with power has absolutely no idea who- what he is. She is wary, he knows, but more than that, she looks lost. Confused.

Purposeless.

And he was thrust into this world to give purpose to those without it.

Loki shakes his head, grin twisting into something more deliberately soft, and takes two steps closer. He can see that she wants to be strong in this moment, and the energy that flows within her is pulsating in a tone that could resemble a warning - stayawaydon'tcomeneardon'ttouchstayaway.

The girl, though, takes in his placating smile and the men at his back and wills the blue energy away. Loki could cackle at the frustrated hum it is emitting, it's anger at the woman wielding it almost palpable. The girl wants her confusions eased. The force she has wants him dead.

Pleased, he moves further towards her until he can reach out and place her small hand within his own. Her body tenses, coiling to strike - and he knows, now, she is a warrior. One that is lost, but a warrior nonetheless.

He leans closer, taking in her large eyes and features that are too-soft for the warrior she is. And then Loki says:

"No. King."

Sakura faints.

/an/

i want to faint, too. oh my gosh.

i've been reading ff for a very long time and i've never found the inspiration, or worked up the courage, to try and start a story of my own.

i found that inspiration after watching infinity war. holy heck. whatta great movie. so let's write about the movie that was released 6 years ago, yes?!

i want to try and continue this, and have an expansive, long story that maybe goes through more of the movies... and i will for sure if i can continue to be inspired, and there is a positive reaction. life is hectic and wild and i want to put my time into things that other people find interesting and want to read :)))) any critiques are appreciated ! i want to try my best to do right to these complex characters so please please let me know if there's anything that is wildly ooc.

adieu !