So, hello everyone, I'm Joana. Ah, this is my first Avengers piece of fanfiction – I saw the movie and it kind of made me think about many ideas for plot.

The summary was very bad, therefore I feel like explaining a bit: this is set post-Avengers. We'll have Avengers-reunited scenes and peeks on Loki's situation. I tried to make it interesting and plausible. I'm very sorry if anything turns out OOC. Reviews and nicely-written critique are always welcome.

Flamers will be adopted by my family.

Thank you for reading!

-xox-xox-

"So, Thor, what happened to that psycho-brother of yours?"

That was Tony Stark, mindful and gentle as always. Of course, it was not that Loki had warmed his way into the hearts of the others, but every Avenger knew how the God of Thunder was sensitive to the subject, and had been treating the matter with a tactful silence. Since Thor had come back from Asgard claiming his brother had been punished, no one pressed him further - this rule being broken by the return of Iron Man to the house, for it did appear that the man found it highly amusing that the Norse god still cared for his brother after everything he had done.

Thor looked only mildly annoyed at such a blunt approach, stating in his powerful voice:

"He has been punished, as I already told you, Man of Iron."

"Yeah, yeah" answered Stark, dismissively waving his hand and ignoring the meaningful looks that his companions gave him. "But what was his punishment?"

"Oh" the blond man sighed, showing very clearly his unwillingness to answer. "He was banished to Midgard, his power was taken from him - and, of course, I have been told that those brave warriors—what's their name?—ah, the S.H.I.E.L.D. people send someone to watch over him, in case he causes any kind of trouble, which I find highly unlikely."

"Wait, he is here?" said Steve, looking up, for the first time taking part in the conversation. He had been, with all the others, trying to ignore Stark's behavior by focusing on his food, but now he seemed alarmed, for his duty had been awaken. "Here on Earth?"

"Yes, Captain of America, he is here, though I must reassure all of you that he is no threat anymore. Odin, Father of All has taken his powers of illusion and magic."

"Well, that's a relief." murmured Clint Barton, low enough so only Natasha Romanoff could hear him, and she rose her eyebrows slightly, allowing her lips to twitch as to show her amusement.

"How do we know that this S.H.I.E.L.D. person won't believe his lies and help him somehow?" stated Tony, showing a very unexpected rationality for a man who spent most of his time worshipping his own ego. "I mean, the guy is nuts, but he surely can talk."

"Do you know who they sent to control him, Thor?" asked the Black Widow, looking only mildly interested in the conversation. She only wanted to assure that no one was actually going to enslave her partner again and go around telling him to kill people, like Loki had done not long before – if the demigod was actually being punished, he was her business no longer.

"Ah…" Thor thought for a very long moment before replying. "Someone named Clemens, or something."

"Heard about." said Clint, noticing how Natasha seemed to be trying to figure out if she knew someone with that name – she was only a remembering-names-person when it came to potential targets. "It's somewhat of a freelancer – I myself saw some prisoners coming back after being with Clemens: they were like little trained puppies."

Romanoff scoffed at that notion, but Hawkeye ignored her, continuing:

"I think everything is settled then."

"Yeah, but what if?" insisted Tony, looking at his companions in mocking disbelief. "I man, there is no prisoner like him. Don't you think this is probable, Thor? You know how that brother of yours is."

The God of Thunder now looked positively weary of the subject, starting to slowly move away.

"Nick Fury assured me they had someone to take care of the matter, and I have no reason to doubt him on his choice. Now, excuse me, I shall get some food - I believe I saw those delicious Poptarts in the kitchen."

As he left, Stark looked back to his fellow companions with a knowingly look.

"Very nice way to end an argument." he declared.

-xox-xox-

At the same time, somewhere in the middle of England, Loki stared at the place it would serve as his prison: an old house, that an architect could describe as from the Regency era, because of its large windows and somewhat squared structure, which was surrounded by a well-kept garden. The powerless, unruly demigod had not much time to appreciate it, for Nick Fury, who had personally come to watch him being locked up and who was standing by the door, soon pointed the away inside, telling him that he could be going in. Banned and powerless, Loki didn't have a choice, though he felt cross for being told what to do by someone who was, from his point of view, so much below him. He then walked into the house, taking notice of the hall and stairs - all was furnished neatly, but, compared to Asgard, there was impossible not to think all of it dull - before deciding to walk into the first room he saw.

He entered what could be called a drawing room, which at first appeared to be just as empty as the rest of the house. But on a second look he caught sight of a woman sitting on a cushion that was set nicely by the window. She was reading a book, and her face was thereby hard to see, but her hair was of a dark brown and combed in some sort of braid-bun, and, as her figure did not move to his entrance, he slowly took a few steps. He was about five feet from her when she looked up.

"You must be Loki." her tone was unsurprised, so the God of Mischief could perceive that she was expecting him.

"That I am, mortal. " he replied.

"I am Sophia Clemens." she continued swiftly, obviously noticing how unwillingly he was to carry on with the conversation.

Loki could see her clearly now – she was not very different from any other human he had seen during his stay on Midgard. Young, thin, seemingly softspoken and not at all threatening. Clemens. If that was the agent chosen to look after him, to make sure he would not make any mischief… Well, assuming that was the case, Loki couldn't suppress his vicious grin while commenting:

"I thought they would send someone stronger to watch over a demigod like me. Are they fools?"

Sophia did not seem annoyed – in fact, she beamed at him, brightening up at the sight of his proud expression.

"Oh, I am very fit to look after you, Mister Loki, you shouldn't worry."

Was it only his impression or there was mockery in her tone?

She stood up, revealing that her light blue dress was simple, and, more, that she didn't seem to be hiding any weapons. Holding her book with her left hand, she outstretched her right hand.

"A pleasure to meet you."

Yes, she was surely mocking him. Loki did not shake hands with her, staring at her with a disbelieving and disgusted expression that no one could ever find amicable. That didn't seem to trouble her as well, for she only pursued her lips and went back on holding the book with her right hand.

"Seems like I'll also have to teach you earthly-manners." she said, smiling composedly for a while before turning serious and all calmly-looking again. "Now, for the rules. They are very simple, so I don't think you'll have any problem in memorizing them. One, you cannot leave the house without express authorization from Fury or me. Two, you cannot lure people in the house in order to escape. Three, you cannot communicate with anyone from outside without the already mentioned authorization. Oh, four, you cannot try to use human technology to contact people too. Is that clear?"

"Why do you think I should follow those rules?" Loki retorted, growing even more peeved – maybe he could frighten her a bit, pretending to go for her throat. Clearly this woman had no sense of whom she was dealing with. Or maybe she was deranged. That would account for her smiling, and, of course, for trying to control a god.

"Well, I must say I expected you to say that." with that she sighed, shaking her head slightly before adding:

"First of all, it is very unlikely you will be able to leave the house on your own, because the system requires me to perform a series of actions- actions I must perform alive and conscious, not to mention voluntarily. As to call or contacting someone to help, you must have noticed that we're pretty much in an isolated area. Human technology is easy, I know you to be exceedingly smart, but in order to hack into my system you would have to learn a very great deal."

Noticing his expression, she paused only for a moment before saying, shrugging a bit:

"I wouldn't recommend killing me either, there are many ways for S.H.I.E.L.D. to notice my absence."

Before Loki could reply, and, oh, he had a lot to reply to her (for example, telling her he would go for her throat anyway), the austere, eye-patched leader of the organization walked in.

"I see you meet Miss Clemens. Very good." he then turned to her, apparently ignoring the very resentful expression Loki was now wearing. "Are you in need of assistance?"

"Oh, no.' she replied, apparently amusing herself. "I think I've got everything under control.

Now, Loki was actually considering going for her throat.

-xox-xox-

Reviews are love.