A/N: Thank you to everyone who found the premise interesting enough to follow and keep reading. This chapter is a bit longer and includes cameos from a couple of other Avengers. And more of them will be appearing in later chapters. I hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer: Yep, I still don't own the characters.
It's spring when a subset of the Avengers are called to assemble in Washington, D.C. Namor the Sub-Mariner and Loki have teamed up and are holding hostages in the Capitol Building. Congressmen and civilians alike are trapped.
When Captain America, Hawkeye, and Black Widow arrive, Namor is calling for the end of humanity. The American government is polluting his waters with trash and oil. The only way to stop it and to protect his kingdom, according to the Atlantean, is to destroy them.
Loki in his full Asgardian armor, meanwhile, is leaning against a pillar looking slightly bored. But then he spots his old adversaries and smiles.
Captain America just manages to raise his shield, blocking the dagger Loki has thrown at him. The soldier and the alien rush towards each other and meet with a crash.
Taking that as their queue, Black Widow and Hawkeye engage Namor. The enemy would have easily overtaken either one of them, but together they are a ferocious team. Namor tries to fly out of their way, but Hawkeye takes him down with an arrow. Their fight continues, fists and legs flying and deflecting. Black Widow throws an upper cut, making contact with Namor's jaw. He responds with a punch to her stomach that sends her flying two feet. Hawkeye takes the opportunity to punch the enemy's gut a couple of times. This only makes Namor angry, but it gives Natasha an opportunity to rejoin the fight. All three are too focused to notice the other battle happening on the other side of the visitor center.
Loki and Captain America have been trading punches both physically and verbally. There is a dagger in each of the god's hands. The soldier holds his shield ready to strike. "You and Namor? Really?"
"I was bored," Loki explains.
"So you decided to hold the American government hostage."
"It sounded much more amusing when Namor described it," he says as he throws one of the daggers rather low and immediately follows it up with a punch to the Captain's now-exposed jaw.
"You didn't seem to be having fun when we came in," the soldier responds with a wince. He throws his shield at a pillar where it bounces off and hits Loki in the back of the head, sending him down to the floor. The shield is back in his hand as though it had never left.
Loki takes a moment to stand up. "Well, you took care of that. You're certainly far more fun than these ghastly people." He rushes at the Captain, dropping down at the last minute and swiping the soldier's legs out from under him.
As he falls, Captain America feels pain shooting up his left forearm. When he looks, blood from a gash is already staining the arm of his uniform. He looks at Loki who is still crouching nearby, a blood-stained knife in his right hand.
The sound of a small explosion reverberating around the marble walls gives them pause. Smoke follows Namor as he flies towards the Capitol's exit.
"That would be my queue to leave," Loki announces and disappears.
xxxxxxxxxx
After the debrief at S.H.I.E.L.D., Steve is back in his apartment. It feels good to be out of the uniform and into a pair of khaki's and a dark blue shirt. Artie Shaw and his orchestra are playing through the speakers of his iPod. JARVIS, Tony Stark's artificial butler, had loaded it with music he thought Steve would like. (It was weird thinking of a thing that could think.) Once loaded, the iPod was really easy to use.
Steve sat on the couch with his pencils and sketchbook. Drawing always helped him to relax. The tension from the day's fight is just about gone when the sound of two sharp knocks interrupts him. Steve puts his tools on the coffee table and goes to answer the door. As soon as he grasps the handle, he knows he is back to his pre-serum self. There's only one person it could be.
Loki is standing outside his door in the same black slacks and forest green dress shirt he had worn on his first visit.
"It was a Hell of a fight. And you went straight for me. Almost like you wanted me all to yourself. Made me feel special," Steve greets him, trying not to focus on how much taller Loki looks now as compared to earlier in the day.
"Not you. I went straight for Captain America, defender of that greatest bully - The United States."
"Not that again. You and Namor were the ones attacking, hurting people." Steve motions for Loki to enter, closing the door once he does.
"For their own good, I assure you. Well, the Atlanteans' own good, anyway."
They sit in the tiny living room area. "My arm is all healed up by the way. Thanks for asking," Steve sarcastically remarks before offering his visitor a drink, which Loki politely declines.
Loki notices the sketchpad and asks permission to look through it. (Loki is nothing if not polite.) Steve gives his assent, and the god starts reviewing it page by page. Most of the sketches are of a woman with dark hair and fair features.
"Peggy," Steve says after the tenth image of her produces a questioning look from Loki. There are also some pictures of military men amongst the ones of Peggy. "My friend Bucky and some of the guys from the war."
There are still more pictures of the woman, and Loki finally asks who she is.
"Peggy," he says again.
"You miss my meaning. Who is she to you? A lover?"
"A friend." Steve doesn't really want to talk about it, but for some unknown reason he does. Maybe it's the music taking him back to those memories or the fact that the god appears to be really interested. Whatever the reason, he tells Loki how he met her, about their interactions when he was in boot camp, about how she was there when he received the super serum, about her spirit and her determination, about how he was supposed to have met her so very long ago.
"You love her." There is no emotion to the statement. It is simply a fact.
"Yeah."
"Agent Romanoff once told me love is for children."
"She's wrong. We all need love. I hope someone changes her mind someday," he adds.
"And the man? Buster?"
"Bucky," Steve corrects. "He was my best friend. We grew up together, looked out for each other. He took a bullet for me during the war…died. I couldn't save him." His eyes focus downward, eyelashes obscuring the blue irises full of sadness.
"It must have been very lonely waking up here…now."
"It was," he admits. "Everyone I knew was gone, taken from me. I had no control over it." Steve pauses and looks Loki in the eye. "You do."
Loki ignores the implication and keeps carefully turning through the pages. He next comes to a series of sketches of the Avengers and their alter egos. The alien asks about them, but Steve refuses to answer, afraid he might give away something Loki could use later.
Loki keeps flipping. He's surprised to see himself a few times. In fact, it is a sketch of the god that Steve had been working on when he arrived. "It is quite a good likeness."
The artist shakes his head. "The eyes are wrong. And the grin...can't seem to get that right."
"Would it help if I sat for you?"
Steve is surprised by the offer. "Yeah, that'd be great if you don't mind."
"I have no other engagements this evening."
Steve takes the sketchbook and turns to a new page. He moves some lights, and begins to draw. After a while..."Could you smile for me?"
Loki frowns instead. "I do not smile on command, Captain Rogers. If you want a smile, you must earn it."
Steve thinks about the type of smile he wants. The mischievous one, he decides, where Loki looks like the cat who swallowed the canary. "Tell me about the pranks you played when you were a kid."
"Pranks?"
"Yeah, you know, tricks. A time you got Thor in trouble."
Loki searches his memory. "We were just boys," he begins, "and I was just discovering magic." There was to be a feast in honor of Thor's first solo kill on a hunt. Odin was so very proud. Loki admits he may have been a teensy bit jealous; Odin had never looked at the young black-haired god that way. All the way back home, Thor was talking excitedly to his friends about how delicious his first kill would taste and how he might let them have a bite or two if they treated him nicely.
"And your friends?" Steve asks.
"I stayed a little removed from the group," Loki responds. Thor did not need his brother at that moment. He had enough sycophants around him, and he grew very full of himself. And was it not a brother's duty to remind the God of Thunder that he was still a boy?
The smile Steve wants begins to creep across Loki's face, and he immediately starts to capture it on paper.
At the feast, everyone sat at their designated places - Thor at his father's right, and Loki beside Thor. Horns marked the arrival of the felled beast. It took two servants to carry it in and lay it before the hunter. Everyone was praising the beast's size and Thor's prowess in killing it. Odin's son grabbed the knife on the table and plunged it into the meat. "That's when I made the beast jump up and scream," Loki remembers gleefully. "You should have seen Thor's face. The color had drained completely out of it. His mouth was gaping open, and he had the most fearful look in his eyes." The God of Mischief can't keep the laughter out of his voice, and it makes Steve laugh, too. "The whole court was in an uproar. Ladies were screaming. Well, not Sif, but that was to be expected. And over all the din was Thor's voice yelling, 'I killed it! I swear! It was dead!'"
For a moment Loki is lost in the memory, but then as he silently recalls what happened next, remembers the pain of it, his face drops. "Odin punished me afterwards. I learned to be more careful then." After a pause, the god returns to the present, looks to the artist, and asks, "Did you get what you need?"
"See for yourself," he replies and hands Loki the sketchbook.
The subject looks at the drawing of his smiling self for a long time, making Steve more nervous with each passing second. "It is well crafted. You have much talent." He hands the artist back is sketchbook.
"Thank you for letting me." Steve wants to ask about Odin's punishment but decides against it, afraid the question will make the god leave and not want to come back.
"I daresay you missed your calling, Captain Rogers. You should be spending your life creating art, not defending governments."
"Thank you, but I don't think S.H.I.E.L.D. would be too happy if I decided to change professions."
"Haven't they taken enough from you?" Once he sees Steve's reaction, Loki quickly apologizes, notes that it is none of his business, and bids the artist good-night.
And again, as soon as Loki has left the apartment, Steve returns to his tall, toned, and muscled body.
