Kay, so I was playing amnesia and I thought of this. That is all.

I own nothing.

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Screams. That was all that they could hear – they being Bruce, Steve, Natasha, Tony and Thor. They briefly looked at each other before bolting down the hall to the rec room, where Clint's screams had come from.

They had expected many things, many, many things, ranging from Murdering blobs to a deadly pterodactyl. What? It could have been. But they had not expected to rush into a darkened room where Clint instantly turned and screamed from the intrusion. He had one of the walls connected up to, was that, a game? The speakers in the roof spewed out eerie music and Clint's eyes were wild. He quickly stabbed the Tab key with his finger and ripped himself away from the keyboard.

"What the Hell, Clint?" Natasha was the first to speak, "We thought you were in trouble!"

"I was!" he replied, "Dude, no joke, soooo scary…" He was met by a reply of disbelieving and mocking laughter.

"Yeah right," Steve commented, "Barton, it's a game, and while I may not understand the technology yet, it is clearly not real. Stop making such a racket."

"Yeah, I dare you to play it and not be freaked out. I dare you."

"Clint, I'm not playing a stupid game."

"Maybe we should call you Captain Chicken instead"

"Clint I-"

"I like it, has a nice ring to it – Captain Chicken"

"Clint sto-"

"Maybe we can get your logo changed to a drumstick or something-"

"FINE! I'll play your stupid game!" Rogers yelled.

"How is he- Clint, he doesn't even know how to play." Tony addressed the main issue. He hated scary games, he just wanted to get the hell out.

"What is this 'game'? I see no way of actively participating in it." Thor questioned loudly

"Of course you don't. You don't understand anything," Tony replied exasperated, "How is it Loki understands everything about this planet but you can't grip even the barest necessities?" he sighed into his hand.

"Well now," a dark, smooth voice interjected, "How very intriguing – first a litany of screams and then mention of my name – one would think I was executing a plan again." They all jumped. Even if Loki was no longer actively plotting to take over the world his appearing skills still freaked them the hell out – they should be used to it by now. He leaned casually one of the darkened walls.

"Yeah, well, Clint screams at nothing and Thor can't understand anything" Banner said as a way of explanation.

"Really now." His slick voice slid across the room.

"Let me reiterate my question to you;" Tony spoke, drawing his attention. Tony liked being the centre of attention. Especially the centre of Loki's attention, but no one had to know that. "Why do you understand everything yet Thor can't handle even modern speech? I know you could if you wanted." He continued to steer the conversation away from the horror game.

"I don't think he gets everything-" Natasha cut in, "And for god's sake (Loki smirked) will you turn that noise off – it's disturbing."

"Thor never was quick on the uptake – he'd rather attack problem with force than patience – isn't that right brother?"

Thor, catching only the end of the sentence answered quickly with; "Of course brother – now what is this? How can I see this room yet not walk into it." He was ignored by the group as a whole.

"I still don't see your pop-culture knowledge. If you're so good, then I challenge you to say the first thing that comes to mind when I say this next name."

"Alright." Loki seemed incredibly smug when Natasha could theoretically pull a fake name from the air.

"Sam Sparro."

"When he sings black and gold he's really thinking about Heimdall back on Asgard. Screw political correctness, you wanted something – done didit gurl. Now, Captain, I believe you have a dare to complete." No-one questioned him. They all knew of the all-seeing gatekeeper by now. Tony, Clint and Banner were having a hard time keeping their laughter contained. And why did he sound so normal speaking that way? Poor Thor or Cap would probably die via awkwardness if they even attempted it.

While Clint was explaining the controls to Rogers, the other somehow ended up in an argument which ended in them all saying they could last at least 20 minutes before they paused the game from fright. They wanted to make it an hour, but there were seven of them and Clint assured them it would be near impossible. Tony, as much as he hated the game genre, was not going to let himself lose. Clint went first to show them how it's done. He lasted a dismal five minutes filled with mostly running around in the same room and whipping the screen around to every noise. Nothing even of note happened. Clint swore he paused just to check his sanity, but a pause was a pause and he was out.

Then the Captain sat down. He clumsily manoeuvred the keyboard, and clicked the buttons a might harder than needed, but he didn't break them – which Tony counted as a plus. He also counted Loki coming closer to view the reactions and his subsequent nearness as a plus. Steve wandered around the room and jumped in his seat when the wind blew some papers across the screen. To his defence, the sound of the wind was pretty loud, and it caused Clint, who was sitting right next to him to jump as well. He figured, looking around, that they all got a bit jittered by it, until his gaze landed on Loki beside him. The god was probably trying damn hard not to just laugh and ruin the silence created by the others – if his thinly pressed lips were anything to go by.

"What was that?" Steve screeched softly as he spun around in reaction to a noise. It was a mouse on the floor. Nice. Tony could hear the low rumble that escaped Loki's chest but he doubted the others did. Loki now had a hand up covering his mouth trying to squash his laughter back inside. It was pretty funny to watch the super-soldier freak out. Steve paused the game when one of the boxes, with an expectantly loud noise, launched itself across the room without as much as a warning. He screamed and so did everyone else – you know how it is, you wouldn't have gotten so scared if the movement remained in the screen but when others around you jumped, it was creepy. Natasha let out a sharp, quick squeal. Banner made a noise somewhere a cross between a yell and telling someone to hush. Thor belted out his displeasure. Clint screamed out something along the lines of 'Shfuuu'. Tony maintained his scream was manly, if only because it was a low 'whuuuuu'. Loki started with an 'Ah' which instantly digressed into a somewhat nervous laughter. It may have seen endearing to Tony. But no-one had to know, right? His time was 4:21, but they figured they'd give Clint a 1 minute penalty seen as he paused out of nothing whereas Cap was assaulted by flying boxes, putting Rogers in the lead.

Banner played next. He sifted through the boxes, found a note and they discounted the reading time. Picked up a tinder box and was the first person who even walked into a dark enough space that he needed to turn the lantern on. They put his calm down to his years forcing himself to remain so. He had to do a large puzzle which continuously threw scares at him and was especially tricky. Looking at the levers which bellowed a loud noise through the speakers when he touched them he yelped out a quick "What!" Loki ended up helping him solve the riddle by softly pointing out that IV is four in roman numerals, not six. Apart from that lapse in concentration, he was playing pretty well until he rounded a corner and almost ran into a walking monster. His scream started out softly and ended rather loudly as he turned and high-tailed it. His scream hit an octave higher as he turned and found the guy was following him, paused the game and bit his fist, trying to block the high keen that escaped his throat. Natasha, Clint and Rogers had all let out the same bellowing yell at the sight of the monster, and then continued with stunted whines throughout the rest of the chase. Thor jumped back with a yell, hands outstretched as a form of protection and knocked into Natasha, almost causing her to fall to the floor. Loki yelled out 'God Dang it' as he placed a hand over his sure to be racing heart. Tony skittered away from the screen with a deranged yell, pushing himself closer to Loki. Loki just looked his way and smiled. And so what if Tony was supposed to be paying attention? Banner came in with a time of 7 minutes and 58 seconds – by far the greatest score, bumping Rogers to second and Clint into third.

Tony insisted he go next. He was getting hot; it wasn't from being scared almost out of his skin, and it most certainly wasn't because of the way Loki had been standing right friggen next to him! He was determined to at least beat Clint, so when the doors flew open his just shook the screen with the mouse and forced his hand to clamp down without hitting the pause button. And then the clicking noises started as his sanity drained and everything was swimming in and out and was it really his fault if he kept yelling 'stop it' to every noise he heard. The he heard the tell-tale 'bluuuuuuuuragh' of the monster and slammed his fist onto the pause key as quickly as he could, yelling out a rather long 'nooo!' The others made similarly loud noises, consisting of 'eeeeh', 'fuuuuu' and 'uuuuuh'. Except Loki who let out a sharp 'Gah!' followed again by the laughing and then a final 'shoosh' of air. He clocked in at 5:17. He counted that as a win seen as he only wanted to beat one person but ended up beating two, making him currently second place. The hammering in Tony's chest could probably be considered hazardous and that didn't improve when he got back to his place by Loki and he was gifted with one of Loki's new found soft smiles which indicated genuine happiness and amusement. They decided to take a small break as Clint showed Thor how to play – they weren't allowed to leave the room though – that would be unfair if they were allowed to gain their wits.

Tony's heartbeat wasn't calming down as loud noises kept shaking through the speakers while Clint tried to teach Thor. He knew he was freaking out. It didn't help at all that the room was dark and he was forced to hide from monsters in a game where he couldn't even hurt them. It made him feel more vulnerable than he cared to admit – although the adrenaline rush was fun, the constant anticipation was certainly doing no good for his body. And some of the scenes looked just a little too cave-like for him to appreciate. He was sure the others could hear his heartbeat – it felt like it was about to rip out of his skin. Looking sideways and catching the look Loki was giving him, he seriously considered that he could hear it. Loki's flicked his eyes to Tony's chest and back up, eyes locking again, and was that, no, it couldn't possibly be worry in the tricksters eyes – dare he hope? But Tony was pretty most 100% sure Loki could hear his heart hammering in his chest. He gave the god a weak smile and Loki's eyes flitted before he reached out and tugged Tony towards him. Tony could barely believe it when smooth fingers grabbed at his shoulder and pulled him in. Sure, they weren't standing on top of each other, but Loki had his hand rested against Tony's back and he could feel the cool fingers through the fabric of his shirt. While his heart continued pumping at an accelerated rate he felt calmer. He showed this by smiling somewhat at the god, and the answering smile he got in return, albeit small, did absolutely nothing for his current problem with his heart-rate.

Finally Thor's counter started and he barrelled into the game. He clicked continuously and kept putting his hand in a vat of acid, as well as being completely dysfunctional with opening doors. They paused the timer each time he was stuck with a door. Thor, Tony decided, was the loudest gamer yet. He bellowed at just about everything and hid at the slightest hint of noise. Whenever he spent too long in hiding they took that off too. Loki's hand twitched slightly at the slightly more frightening scares, although Tony was surprised he noticed through his own jumps. And then the screen suddenly listed sideways and the speakers pumped out a slamming noise before a monster came into view. Thor yelled for a long time, even after his palm had repeatedly smashed into the keyboard and all they were staring at was the pause menu. Bruce was gaping at the screen head tilted back as he moaned lowly from shock. Cap still had a very long 'whyyyyyyy' flowing from his lips. Natasha was catching her breath over the other side of the room decidedly close to Clint, who was all but holding her in terror. Tony kind of wished his scenario was similar. As it were though, he really had nothing to complain about. He hadn't really done much about his situation other than somewhat tasteless flirting at Loki – note the 'at', it was not reciprocated that often, apart from a delicately raised brow, which kind of looked like a challenge and a warning all at once – and yet the god still had his right hand on Tony's back and now had his left hand rubbing small circles onto his left bicep. It was really calming, although that might just be because it was damn distracting. Thor ended up lasting just shy of 16 minutes, placing him in a close second. Tony thought he might have made the whole 20 even if was only because he couldn't find the pause button. Not that there was a pause button anymore – the keyboard was trashed.

Natasha slowly made her was across the room to grab another keyboard and plug it in. Loathe as she was to admit, it was her turn. She looked around before she began, noting the scared states of all the patrons – except Loki, he seemed far too calm, and maybe smug, with Tony practically forcing his way into his arms. But then again, he lived on chaos, so no surprises there. She also took the time to memorise everyone else's times, because dammit she wanted to win. She started off well, with an overconfident 'I got this', only turning off her lantern when she heard a truly disturbing noise and hiding when it continued. Her downfall was when she came across a monster and, instead of hiding she figured she could run around it. It killed her. They counted that as a loss. She cursed the hell out of all of them, but it didn't make them jump the same way the game had only moments ago. He heard a low chuckle at her outburst and was surprised to feel it through rumbling tremors in his back and a cold breath on his ear. How close were he and Loki again? Oh, close enough he could feel the others body almost constantly. How was he doing? Swimmingly. Literally. His vision was about to begin flying all over the place and his chest felt incredibly tight. Tash only got around 3 minutes and 6 seconds, placing her dead last, something that Clint was undoubtedly happy about and had no qualms showing, even if it meant receiving a punch in the arms from black widow. They figured they'd have another break while Clint, still rubbing his arm, would show Loki the controls. But then Loki was already halfway across the room and Tony already missed him. Stupid feels.

Loki pulled the keyboard and mouse closer, shrugging off the others questioning glares with a simple; "no I'm good, I got this all under control." He smirked as he continued playing. He made small 'ft' noises with his mouse as he shoved boxes aside, stopping when he had cleared a path. They decided to take that away from his time, coz, really, he wasn't doing anything, even if it was a part of the game and even if he did look cute doing it. When he first saw the monster it was at a distance and looking the other way, but it was the only way he could go. His first words were 'no fucking way' spoken lowly and through some mix of aggressive and nervous. He looked around for a second and ran back a bit – they took it off of his time – before he took in a large breath. "Okay, so, looks like I can only go," he started as he walked towards the guy, "S'up brah?" he spoke, once again showing his affinity with modern lingo as the monster turned around. He then continued with a somewhat humorous scream as he ran in the other direction, as if he was considering being scared but couldn't open his mouth enough to yell. He turned as the guy puffed into smoke. "Uh, fucking poofers man." He exclaimed running back down the hall, "I'm so sick of this hallway" he ground the last word through a clenched jaw. And then he walked into a room with a guy strung up six ways from Sunday. "ew, why?" he spoke as he walked down the stairs, "Who put you there?" he jumped backwards as guy spoke. "oh, oh, your nice. Oh your nice." he said, and his voice just sounded like it made the smiley face emoticon. "Oh, and, you have no jaw. How are you even talking to me? What was your name? Agrippa. Nice to meet you Agrippa." He talked back to the guy, calming himself through the distraction. Again, they took the time away. The nest time he came across a bad guy he kept up a litany of 'oh, no, not you. No. no. no go away. No no no nonononono.' When the guys noticed him but couldn't reach him he just laughed and cackled a 'you can't do shit brah' at the monster before he sidestepped around it and he made it into the next section. Again, they reckoned he wasted a bit of time and took it off of him. Tony most definitely noticed how Loki was watching the timer. The following scenes in the torture chambers were decidedly unsettling, and Loki walked through them groaning 'Uh, grotty, filthy, uh man, that's so gross, yuuuuuk.' He swung open doors with enthusiasm, announcing loudly 'knock, knock' and running away when he walked into a monster. Coming across nights and dark spaces he told them he didn't trust them and ripped them apart. When they finally got back to Agrippa his time was almost up, but the others were trying their hardest to penalise him. And then he chopped off Agrippa's head and seemed shocked; "Oh man, I- I didn't mean to do it, I swear. No! I didn't mean to do it!" and then when he realised he was supposed to, "Oh, I'm supposed to take you with me? God dangit man, stop talking. Oh, heh, I'm A-gripp-en his head." He said the last sentence in an amused accent, before he turned and walked head first into a monster. He jumped violently and screamed "NO!" as his finger quickly flew towards the tab key. He buried his face in his hand, "Nooo, he was right in my faaace…" he tampered off. Suddenly his head snapped up and they all looked to the timer. Exactly 20 minutes. He jumped up screaming "Yeah" happily into the air. "haha!" He looked happy, but Tony's heart was still rapid-firing his blood through his veins, so he smiled weakly and walked outside. Loki followed and the others assumed that was it and left to do whatever it was they did.

Tony went to his room and flicked on the light. Only it was broken so he was shrouded in darkness and he'd already closed the door, cutting off the light from the hallway, and it was dark and was it always so cramped in here? Was it always so hard to breathe? He almost died when his foot connected with the edge of his bed, those stupid monsters were still fresh in his head and he couldn't see a damned thing.

Light flooded the room for a mere second and all he could see was the silhouette in the darkness, and oh my god he was going to die. He heard his name called out but he couldn't figure out how to respond over the rushing of blood in his ears and that thing was here somewhere and god it was right in front of him he could feel it's presence.

And then he had arms wrapped around him and a cold breath on the side of his face, something brushing against his cheekbone. He was fully encased and there was nothing he could do, but somehow the whispers in his ears and the cold seeping onto him helped him calm down. Finally, his breathing stopped coming so raggedly that he could hear what the whispers were saying; "Tony, calm down. Tony, Tony, it's fine, you're gonna be okay. I would say 'I'm here' but that doesn't seem too comforting seeing as it's me it's coming from, but I swear, you're fine. Nothings gonna hurt you. Tony, Tony? Can you hear me Tony?" he nodded dumbly against the chest he was pulled against, and the answering puff of relieved air against his ear made his chest constrict again, but, he noted, in a much better way than before. And then he was being held at an arm's length, his arc reactor shinning a dull blue onto the face of the god in front of him. Loki looked for something in Tony's eyes, his own wide and searching, before he was apparently content with what he saw and gave a small nod and smile. The smile lifted his cheeks and touched his eyes softly. His lips curled up slightly, and it wasn't malicious, but genuinely happy and relieved. Oh god, what Tony could do with those lips, what Tony wanted to do with those lips. He found himself leaning closer, even if the gap between them wasn't all that large to begin with. Loki looked at him with question and confusion in his eyes, and Tony thought maybe he was going to make a mistake. Maybe he was going to push too far too fast, but the thought hardly got a seconds notice as he found his lips assaulted by the most wonderfully cool texture. It wasn't all that harsh, just a press, waiting to be accepted or denied, and boy did he accept. You better believe he accepted, he accepted with everything he could accept with. He gave and took everything in the clash and fight that followed. And he thought absently – maybe the scary game wasn't so bad if it ended like this.

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Before you say anything – yes I did take a decent amount of lines from other people's play throughs, but I also took a fair chunk from the reactions created by my friends and I.

Hope you enjoyed.

Stay awesome.

Time to get back to studying.