Steve Rogers was looking at the ice on his glass of scotch. The ice, always following him.

Police have been on his neighbour's flat all day and he wished it was over. He wished they would leave him alone with his memories, and his little frozen life. His memories of war, when they called him Captain America. He'd been so patriotic and heroic. And all for what? He lost his best friend. He fell on the ice, almost got frozen. Thinking he was dead, Peggy accepted a transfer to Ukraine. He couldn't locate her now, even if he wanted to. Without the war, he was lost in a world he didn't understand. He'd lost everything and everyone after that war.

He lost everything and for what? To defend a country that was now plagued by crime, corruption and darkness. Where were the values he defended? Where were the honest decent people who he thought he was defending against the nazis? When he went out on the streets he could only see thieves, gangsters, manipulative women, people made rich by the war. Even the law officers had become corrupt and ambitious. One couldn't trust anyone in these dark times.

Phil Coulson had been a change from all of them, a nice breather. He was a good man, honest, dutiful and he'd admired Steve for his deeds on the war. He was a good american and a good cop. They talked about justice and becoming old-fashioned in a too-fast-moving world. A world where the stars and stripes, as the values they symbolised, seemed to be meaningless.

But he'd been mixed in a shady business and had told Steve one drunken night. A shady business that involved the police high-powers working with bad people, doing questionable things. Trying to make profit by putting lives in danger. Even cops. A very dark business indeed. They didn't know that Steve knew, and that the way it should stay. Phil had told him not to say anything, because not only his job as a cop would be in danger but the powerful people behind it could try to take him out, silence him for good. Like they were trying to take out the man in front of him.

Silvertongue.

Tall, lean, pale like a ghost, wearing a shirt with an old green tie that matched his eyes and a black trenchcoat. His hat shadowed his face while he looked around the house. Not much there to see.

He had come with his partner, Barton, trying to find out who the hell was behind everything before they locked him up for good. It was normal that they tried but Steve didn't think he had much choice. If the big guns out there wanted him gone then there probably wasn't much he could do.

"Could you tell us exactly what you saw?" Barton asked, pacing a bit. He was wearing a trench coat and a suit, and they looked good. He looked nervous.

"It was only a shadow. The shadow of a man. I can't tell you more." He promised Coulson he wouldn't say a thing. Steve can't betray that trust, can't break the promise he made.

"Do you of anyone who would want to hurt your neighbour?"

"Him." He says, pointing at Loki. "I know what Phil did to ya. Almost died, right? And no one paid for it."

If he couldn't tell the truth without breaking his promise, then the easiest thing would be to stick to the official version.

Well, this is going nowhere. Loki thought, feeling increasingly hopeless.

"It wasn't him. I was with him all night, couldn't have been him." Clint said, angry. "Do you know of anyone else?"

"Coulson had no enemies, he was a good man. People loved him, on the neighborhood and on the job. No one had any reason to hurt him."

That much, at least, was true. People loved Coulson. That was why it was so grave that he was gone. Why the whole power of the law would do their best to crush this man.

They were silent for a while. Loki knew the man was holding himself back, but decided to let it go. Let his conscience do the job. He was an honest man, wouldn't hold on to the lie for long.

"Let's go, Clint. I guess we can't prove anything... There's just no clues. I just hope they take me to the electric chair and this is over soon. Thanks for your time, Captain Rogers."

Barton seemed angry and threw a coin with which he'd been playing. The coin hit Rogers' glass and effectively shattered it. The best aim in the country, just as they said. Silvertongue gave him another melancholic green-eyed look and Steve knew he couldn't let that innocent man go to jail. He was better than that, he had values, standards. He promised Phil he wouldn't say anything... But god only knew what they'd done with Phil. Whoever had set up this whole thing was far more dangerous than this man who was just trying to prove his innocence - this man who was being framed. He had to speak up - for justice.

"Wait! You didn't hear from me, but Coulson was involved in something big. Fury and the rest are working on some new weapon, and improved version of the gun Coulson shot you with. Phil tells me they've an entire arsenal. And... apparently you are the only one who can shut them down. They're saying this new arsenal can take down people, stun them - without killing them and without lasting effects."

"But it does have lasting effects. That blue material is poisonous." Loki says, suddenly starting to understand.

"This whole thing is probably just to shut you up before you say anyhting. I imagine they want to use this thing on criminals, to catch them and then let them die in prison. I - I didn't object when I learned about it because I knew they knew about you, about your visits to the hospital, about the side effects and I thought the project was done. Over. But this is clearly an operation to take you out of the picture."

This gave a whole new light to the matter. Yes, they already knew (from the start) this was to take Loki down, but now they have a new angle: weapons.

"Thank you for this, Rogers. You truly are the captain of american values."

They left. Clint was confused.

"What did you mean the material they shot you with is poisonous? And you've been in the hospital? You dying and you didn't tell me?"

Loki's always been a man of fragile health, but he didn't expect this. He thought he knew all about his partner, he thought they had no secrets. But hell, the man known for his lies and half-truths. Maybe he'd been too naive to think Loki "lord of lies" told him everything.

"I'm fine." Loki said dismissively "We have to focus on this. Fury and the rest of them won't tell us a thing but there's someone else who controls weapons in this town."

Yes. He knew perfectly well who he was speaking about.

"Stark. But he hates us. I because I couldn't be bought and you threw him off a window."

They had a misunderstading, the two of them which had indeed ended with Stark flying out of a window. Most people thought Loki would be dead after that, but they understimated Loki's tricks.

"Yeah, well - but Stark has a weakness. Liquor... and pretty red headed ladies." Loki mentioned casually.

"Nat."

"Are you willing to ask her to do this for me, partner?"

Clint thought about it. Did he really want involve Natasha in all this?

But it was the only way he could think in Stark would talk to them. And they probably had a better chance at figuring everything out if they cound with her. He sighed.

"Yes. But only if you tell me about the poison and those lasting effects you've been hiding from me."

"Deal."

It was raining and while Clint and Loki got soaked in the streets of New York a russian spy was waiting.

Stark didn't stand a chance.