Chapter four – To humiliate a God

It was early when Loki was rudely awakened by a fog horn in the ear. He jumped almost a foot in the air and landed heavily on the floor with a grunt. Looking up still dazed he saw a none descript S.H.E.I.L.D agent holding a bowl.

Sitting up Loki sneered at the man as he approached the glass. There was a two way hatch built in to one side of the cell, the agent opened it up and placed the bowl inside, closing the hatch back up he pressed the button on the outside and the sheet of glass in front of the bowl slid up.

Loki reached in and curled his delicate fingers around the warm crockery and peered into the white stodgy slop it contained with an air of distain, his lip curling into a look of disgust. Looking back in the hatch he noticed the distinct lack of cutlery with which he was supposed to use to consume this swill.

The agent just gave him a cruel smile from the other side of the glass walls of his cell and waited patiently for Loki to say something to him. Taking the bait Loki lifted one elegant black eyebrow and asked mockingly.

"And how and I supposed to eat this slop?"

"With your hands, like an animal, stick your face in it and lick it clean like a dog, personally I couldn't care less, you're a monster. We can't kill you and I'm sure as hell we can't do anything to hurt you." He smiled that cheery smile again tinted with just a little cruelty. "But I can sure as hell humiliate you to the best of my ability. Enjoy, Your Highness."

With a mocking bow the agent left a swagger in his steps as Loki silently fumed with rage at his treatment. He controlled his anger only by reminding himself that he would not fall so low as to show the insignificant mortal that he had managed to anger him.

Looking once more at the off white mass wobbling about in the bowl he pushed it back untouched into the hatch. There was no way he was going to lower himself to eating like an animal. Instead he sat down cross legged on the floor and closed his eyes letting his imagination wander and help his body forget the fresh ache of his muscles after his less than comfortable night.

~X~

"Listen big guy if you're going to hang around outside the Lab all day we are never going to get anything done. Now I love having all eyes on me as often as possible but when in working with microscopic, highly fragile and volatile machine parts…I'm not loving the penetrating stare you seem to have going on."

Tony was not a man known for his grasp of the subtle but considering he was talking to a man with a large hammer and a currently frustrated disposition he thought it was time to have a go at it. Thor had not moved since he and Bruce had started to try and repair the teleport system about three hours ago, and Bruce couldn't really concentrate when in the corner of his eyes he could see a large blonde head craning to try and see what was going on.

Thor sighed; he didn't really know what to do with himself. Since Loki was locked up in the holding cell he had wandered round the ship turned away from all of his friends due to their regular activities on the Hellicarrier.

Hawkeye was away on a new mission as was Natasha; Nick had suggested getting the two as far away from Loki as possible was the better idea than letting them stay so close to a man they both had reasons for wanting dead. Erik Selvig was monitoring the Tesseract to see if he could explain what was wrong with it and didn't have time to talk and now he was being turned away by Bruce and Tony.

"Look big guy I know you're bored, why don't you go down to the gym and hag with the Cap? You both share the muscles in this team perhaps he can distract you for a while. Without distractions up here this will go a lot faster."

Nodding Thor clapped the playboy on the shoulder and headed off to the gym, not noticing the fact that the man had to rub his arm furiously and roll up the sleeve of his shirt checking for bruising. The God finally found the Captain punching bags in the gym about ten minutes later.

Thor was just closing the door behind him when Steve gave a particularly hard smack to the bag and the chains holding it to the ceiling gave way and the bag flew into a wall sand leaking from a split in the side. "Damn it…" Steve hung his head.

"An impressive punch," Thor commented watching Steve turn his lowered head to the side to look at the blonde. "On Asgard you would no doubt give some of our best a run for their money."

"Thanks, what brings you down here? I didn't think Gods needed to train to keep their muscles looking like that." The Cap went over to the by now only half full punching bag and lifted it up with a miserable expression on his face. Nick was going to be by no means impressed that he was wrecking his gym.

"We train, but I suppose my real reason for coming here is to district myself from my boredom, I have nothing to do in this world." Thor pulled himself onto the side of the boxing ring sat leaning back against the ropes.

Dropping the bag Steve walked over and jumped up next to him leaning back with his arms crossed. He had seen that look before, mostly in the mirror. It was the face of a man who felt he didn't belong here, not to mention the fact that he had problem practically written on his forehead.

"You're stressed about your brother." Steve said simply

Thor looked at him for a moment before nodding gently his fingers playing with the wrist strap of his hammer.

"Look I can't pretend to understand what happened between you two, and I really don't like him in I'm completely honest, he's a psychopath-"

"He is not what you think he is!" Thor's outburst was shocking. Normally when his brother was badmouthed he would wait until the speaker was finished before asking politely that their opinions where kept to themselves. "He is just lost."

Steve patted Thor on the shoulder. "How about you tell me what happened between you two, from the beginning."

~X~

Loki was just starting to come round from his mediation when that ballasted fog horn was set off again. He had been stuck in this glass fish bowl for three days now and he was hungry, starving in fact. Each time the same damn agent brought him his food he was left without the cutlery with which to eat it.

He refused to bow down to the man's infuriating mockery about eating like an animal and each time food was brought he had left it in the hatch for when they came to collect it. He hadn't eaten for three days in total so far and he had slept very little also. He was being kept under surveillance and the damned horn would be set off at random intervals during the day, usually when he was tired and about to fall asleep again.

Looking a lot more dishevelled than he would normally allow, he tidied himself up as much as he could. When he turned round he saw Thor standing at the glass watching him with some unreadable emotion in his eyes. Loki just looked back through tired and black rimmed eyes with his lack of sleep.

"You look terrible Brother." Thor looked him up and down; he had never seen Loki look so out of place. He walked over to the serving hatch and put something inside locking it back up he pressed the release and the screen on the inside rose.

Loki looked at the small book inside and reached out picking it up. The title was printed inside on the first page, 'The Count of Monte Christo'. Loki closed it again and looked back at his bother. Neither said a word, Loki turned on his heel and walked to the other end of the cell, opening the book he let his eyes scan the page and read to himself in silence. The next time he looked up Thor was gone.