B- Breaking it to the team
The next morning Tony woke up from Jarvis' voice.
'Sir, I thought you would like me to inform you that the Avengers are currently all in the kitchen, and mister Laufeyson is also making his way there.'
'Shit.'
Tony was immediately completely awake. He shot up, jumped out of bed and quickly pulled on some pants. He almost ran out of his room, down the corridor until he ran into Loki.
'Good morning, mister Stark.' The god said, looking mildly surprised by the billionaire's behaviour.
'Yeah, good morning, Loks.' The billionaire sighed. 'Look, all the Avengers are sitting in the kitchen,' Loki didn't look very comfortable with that news, 'and they don't know that you're here, of course.' The playboy continued. 'So, um, what are we gonna do?'
The trickster raised one eyebrow. 'Well, mister Stark, why do you ask me? I am mere a prisoner here. This is entirely your decision.'
Tony sighed irritatedly. 'Yeah, well, maybe. But... This is your problem too. I mean, Clint's probably gonna flip and shoot you in the eye or something, and Bruce...'
The name of the doctor made Loki cringe a little. 'Still, you are the one that should make a decision, mister Stark.'
'Yeah. Well, let's just go and meet them.'
'What?' Loki said bewildered.
Tony smirked. 'You said I could decide, so... I decided we should just break the news to them and see how well that goes.'
'Are you insane? They'll kill me!' Loki almost screamed.
'So now you do care. I was starting to wonder if you cared at all what would happen.' Tony said, then smirked a bit and continued. 'But really, I think it's the best to just try to explain the situation to them. I don't really see another way.'
Loki still looked sceptical, but resigned. They walked down the hall together, until they got to the end. They could hear the other Avengers talking. Thor was there too, with his loud voice it was easy to identify him. At least they'd have one person on their side.
'So, you ready?' Tony said, looking at the god standing beside him.
'Are you sure this...' Loki began, but he was quickly cut off by the billionaire.
'Of course. I mean, what could go wrong?' Tony smirked, then stepped into the open room.
'Ahem, can I have your attention for a moment, please?' He began, while walking further into the room. All the Avengers' heads turned towards him.
'Hey, you finally slept a bit, huh?' Clint said, 'You were starting to look like a zombie.'
'Ha ha ha, funny.' Tony replied sarcastically. He glanced at Thor, who was just waiting for Tony's next move. Okay, let's do this.
'Um, I've actually got something to tell you all.' He cleared his throat. 'We've got a new housemate!' he said with a big fake smile. The sounds that started at that statement all stopped when said housemate walked into the room. Immediately you could hear the cocking of two guns, a bow being aimed and one person trying to control himself with breathing exercises.
'No, no, no. You don't have to do that. It's okay.' Tony said with his hand up, trying in vain to calm everybody down
'It's okay?! There is one of the most wanted criminals standing in the room and it's okay?!' Clint yelled.
Before everybody could start screaming accusations at Tony, Loki spoke.
'I do not wish to harm any of you. I am here merely to sit out my punishment, so that I may return to Asgard.' The god said, standing in the middle of the room like there were not two guns and an arrow aimed at his head. O, and let's not forget about the angry doctor.
'Why the hell should we believe anything you say?' Natasha said, looking angry, which was rare. She didn't really show emotion. Like almost never. This wasn't looking very good.
'It is true, my brother has been sentenced for his crimes. His punishment is to stay here on Midgard, without his powers, to learn more about the people he tried to enslave.' Thor spoke up, standing next to his brother.
'Okay, I get that you're behind him, Thor, he is your brother after all, no matter how crazy he is, but you, Tony?' Steve said. 'Why are you so calm about this? I mean, this is your tower and he is a criminal.'
'I know,' Tony said, taking a step forward, directly into the line of fire. He should have worn his suit, damn it. 'But I don't think he's here to enslave anyone. I believe he has no intentions to do any such thing.' Why the hell was he defending the god? Let's not forget all he had done. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make himself believe that Loki was just downright evil and crazy.
The playboy saw that the soldier and the assassins were not believing him, so he turned to the doctor.
'Bruce, are you okay?' he asked, concerned for his friend and his home, if the doctor would hulk out.
'Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I'm in control.' Bruce said, raising his head to look at Tony with a weak smile. 'But Tony, why is he here?'
'Don't you notice something different about him?' Tony began, hoping his friend would understand. 'Look at his eyes.'
Clint began shouting how ridiculous all this was and that they should just kill him, I mean, he didn't have his powers anymore, so why not, but Tony raised him hand to stop him.
'Shut up, Clint. Bruce, tell me. Don't you think it's weird?'
Clint and Steve were both completely oblivious to what the two scientists were talking about, but Natasha seemed to understand it, at least better than the other two.
Bruce nodded slowly. 'Yes. It is a possibility. Do you really think it's true?'
Tony nodded his head. 'Yes, I do.'
Bruce looked him in the eyes, then nodded again. 'Okay then. I trust your judgement.' Before he could say anything else, an angry Clint interrupted him.
'What judgement? What the hell are you all talking about?!'
Loki cringed, and because everybody was now focusing mainly on Tony, they didn't notice. Except for Tony, but he thought it better not to address that subject. Before Tony could say anything to Clint, Bruce spoke.
'During the battle his eyes were blue. Much like yours were, Clint. Now his eyes are green. Since he has no powers at the moment, he cannot have changed his eye colour magically. This would indicate that he has been under the influence of the Tesseract during the New York battle. Tony believes that he has been, and I trust his judgement.'
'But... He's the god of tricks and lies and whatever!' Clint began, but was interrupted by Natasha, who put her gun away.
'Clint, I'm not too happy about this either, but look at it this way. If he's staying here, we can all keep an eye on him and ensure he doesn't do anything bad. If we wouldn't let him stay here, we also wouldn't be able to see what he's doing.'
Clint looked her in the eyes, and then lowered his bow. 'Okay, then. But if you do anything at all suspicious,' he said, turning his attention to Loki, 'I'll shoot you.' Then he walked out of the room, probably going to the training room to cool off.
Tony nodded gratefully to Natasha, then turned his attention to Steve. 'So, what do you think? Can he stay?'
Steve sighed, and also put his gun away. 'Yeah, he can stay. If he behaves.' He then looked at Loki, before walking away. Natasha soon followed him.
Tony looked at Thor and Loki.
'So, that went well.'
