Author's Note: I was planning to release this chapter yesterday but I just had no muse to finish it yesterday. Sorry guys but at least I could get it out today.
This chapter is mostly just writing about the aftermath of the last chapter and some fluff. Its not much for action or humor but it is what it is. Hopefully the next chapter turns out a bit more exciting.
I thank you guys for all of the Alerts, Favorites and Reviews. You guys are amazing, each one of those makes me feel really good. Its not often I get complemented on my stories.
And of course, leaving reviews may make me more inspired to finish chapters faster. ^^
Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers.
A few minutes after the collar was stopped, Loki passed out into unconscious. It mattered not to the trio of hero's, ever since Loki stopped thrashing around on the ground they engaged in loud conversation.
"What was that Thor!?" Tony spoke loudly and angrily.
"That was the precautions in which the All-father instated to help us control Loki's behavior," Thor answered back without the slightest change in his tone as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
"That was for control? Thor, he was in immense, inhumane pain!" Tony was still flustered from seeing the proud, crazed demi-god thrashing around the floor in agony. Loki was the enemy, heros didn't give villains given sympathy but after seeing that Tony wouldn't be able to un-give it.
"We are gods Stark, we are able to take considerable amounts of pain," Thor was in the process of trying to defend Odin's choices from Tony scathing tone.
"I don't care, he got hulk smashed into a marble floor in which he broke through but yet he still able to mock us. Look at his state now Thor! He is down on the ground not moving!" Tony's temper grew once again, making him raise his voice louder and louder. He didn't care for the green eyed demi-god in the slightest but after seeing the expression on his face as the collar took over, he did feel sympathy.
"My brother did everything to deserve that friend Stark."
"No one deserves to be in intense pain! There are rules written about torture on Earth!"
The argument continued loudly but Steve didn't care much for listening to it. As soon as Tony "turned off" the collar he rushed to Loki's side. Loki's eyes were only open for a few seconds after the end of the attack. His eyes rolled back quickly after and his body went limp.
Steve, at this time felt as if it was now safe to look closely at Loki. His eyes settled to the most affected area of the collar, his neck. What Steve saw made him gasp aloud.
A gruesome design of red stripes covered Loki's neck. They were coloured an angry red and contrasted on his pale skin. The severity of the burning was different on each individual burn with the most severe closest to the collar. Steve's thoughts returned back to mention of the second black collar and he was disgusted. Odin was supposed to be Loki's fath-adopted father; he remembered on how touchy Loki was about the subject. How could any father do this to their kid, adopted or otherwise?
Steve let his voice rise loudly above both Tony's and Thor's discussion; it took on his captain voice, leaving no room for argument. "Stop bickering and look around." Steve gestured to the fallen demi-god sprawled out on the ground. His voice took on a less harsh tone as he got their attention. "Tony I'm going to take him to his assigned room but I need the directions to it."
Tony replied quickly, "The one meant for him is on Thor's floor, just two rooms away from Thor's room is prepared for him but I don't think a room full of bugs, camera's and an electric fence around the balcony isn't the best for him right now."
Steve spoke again, "What room would be good for him then?"
"Throw him in one of the nicer guest rooms on the fourth floor," Steve gave a nod as he approached the demi-god again. He hesitated for a second, stopping in front of the defenseless god passed out on the floor. If he wasn't out, he would probably lash out angrily if he knew the ones who he had dubbed as enemies showed compassion to him. After that brief moment he picked up the limp body from the ground, careful not to excessively brush his burns. It was done easily due to Steve's super human strength and it did help that the god felt lighter than Steve would have thought.
It was strange to see the villain defenseless; it didn't feel right at all. The demi-god was meant to give them venomous looks and mess with their minds by using twisted words. He wasn't meant to be passed out or even be curled up in agonizing pain. He was a villain and nothing more so he was always meant to be seen as a cold murderer… right? Steve's thoughts were confusing as he walked through the halls with the unconscious demi-god draped in his arms.
He took the elevator mostly due to the fact of he wanted to get Loki to the room as soon as possible. Most days he would just use the stairs because he preferred it to Tony's horribly fancy elevator and because stairs were more familiar to him. Plus he didn't get tired easily so he could easily go up Tony's multiple flights of stairs without even a change in his breathing. He walked into the steel elevator without any complaint, unlike Thor he was didn't find it to be a metal box of moving death.
The elevator sped up the process to get Loki somewhere where he could time out his unconscious state peacefully. It only took a few minutes of cheesy elevator music until he reached his designated floor. Steve walked to one of the rooms closest to the elevator and opened the door without the slightest of problems. He placed the unconscious Loki onto the bed, making sure he put the dark haired demi-god into a comfortable looking position. For good measure, Steve also went to shut the curtains but place one of the blankets over the unconscious demo-god.
He moved to the door slowly, he didn't really want to leave the unconscious demi-god alone after seeing how venerable he was. Steve finally decided not to stay; all because he knew when Loki awoke he wouldn't appreciate any of the Avengers hovering over him or even being visually worried by his condition. Steve could already image Loki spitting venomous words at them and glaring at them with both cold and angry eyes.
Loki hurt; he could feel the after effects of the attack. His eyes slid open but he didn't do much to move except to slide a hand to the most irritated area. He let his fingers make contact with his neck and he pulled them back quickly. The contact just irritated the burns more even when his hands were frigid from his jotun heritage. Even with the short time of contact he could feel the increased heat and feverish feel from his seared skin.
Seeing in no point of lying in the bed any longer he sat up, his burns protesting every movement. His calm green eyes moved to the midgardian time keeper placed on the opposite wall, it was later than Loki originally thought. By this time my burns should have been replaced with mended skin… He was thinking about the state of his wounds. He assumed the worst about them, that the collar probably would restrict his healing to an almost human level. The thought of being even similar to a mortal infuriated him.
He sighed as he moved around the room, inspecting his surroundings. The Avengers placed him in a semi-small area furnished with a large bed, a night table, a large window and two doorways. It wasn't something that he expected to be placed in, a thought of a prison with barred windows and a small bed that was bolted to the floor came to mind.
Loki moved cautiously through the room, much as if he expected for there to be traps placed at every corner. He moved to one of the doorways, it revealed a bathroom fully furnished with appliances that midgardians often associated with cleansing. It looked like it wasn't compromised in a visible way and because of that, Loki felt slightly at ease. He was still cautious though. He stopped in front of the large mirror, only to frown at the complicated red stripes covering his whole neck. The Black Sabbath shirt he had stolen from Tony showed no damage from the flames so this made Loki convinced that the flames were enchanted in such a way only to damage him rather than his surroundings.
His green eyes scanned the shower with curiosity. He had used a variation of the cleansing box during his last trip to midgard. He remembered learning of its function from the archer's mind. He decided on freshening himself up with the contraption. He removed the stolen midgardian clothes from his body as he moved into the rectangular box. His hands fiddled with the dial, he turned it on so the dial was in the middle and then he turned on the overhead sprinkler. He was showered with a burst of luke-warm water. It felt nice but his hands moved again to turn the dial all the way to the part marked with a "C."
The water turned ice cold and Loki's burns were temporally soothed. A careless thought about Asgard came to his mind. The baths at Asgard were always too hot, this is perfect. The thought brought the slightest pang of negative thoughts. He quickly forced that train of thought from his mind by focusing the chill of the shower.
He closed his eyes and took a break from thinking; he focused on the feeling of the chilly water hitting his skin. It felt nice to put his overactive mind to rest for once. Loki continued like this for several minutes. He opened his eyes eventually, only to frown. His attention had settled to his arms. Both of them were no longer the pale skin tone; it was coated with intricate markings and the colour blue. His eyes moved along his entire body to see the spreading transformation of colour. His hands stopped the flow of water by pressing the controls off quickly.
Loki moved out of the shower and snatched up a towel to cover himself. He took a few shaky breaths, trying to stop the spreading blue colour. He felt automatically relieved as the colour started to change again, this time the blue receded. He dried off his body quickly and put on the stolen midgardian clothes once again due to the fact he didn't have anything else to change into. His burns were temporally tamed by the water but now they returned in full force. The shirt rubbing against them brought bursts of pain but Loki endured them, he adapted to the pain and practiced so his expression didn't even change.
Loki left the bathroom in order to search the room for anything that could be useful, preferably something that he could cover his neck burns with. He didn't like any of the Avengers to see that he was still somewhat still affected by earlier. The only useful thing that came up in his search was a roll of gauze where he found in a cabinet in the bathroom.
Loki rolled them around his neck, using the whole roll to cover his neck. His burns stung horribly with the constant contact but it was better than letting the Avengers seeing his weakness. After a short time of practice he no longer reacted from the constant pain. At that time he decided to leave the safe haven of the room and face his captors. Loki knew that if he stayed away from them for an extended amount of time it would be seen as weakness and maybe even fear. Those were feelings we could never let his enemies see or assume; Loki knew from experience that they could quite be easily used against him.
He opened the door and started his way down to the kitchen.
"Loki has left the room, Mr. Rodgers." A crisp British voice sounded from the walls. Steve seemed to perk up at the news slightly. Loki had been out for quite a while and he had stayed in the room for even longer. Long enough for Steve to question if Loki just went back to sleep, this time of his own accord. He could have just asked Jarvis what Loki was doing but he didn't feel right on using Jarvis to spy on the demi-god's every move.
The three resident Avengers were all in the living room watching a movie on Tony's excessively large flat-screen. That was the only thing that the Avengers decided on, since they coouldn't go out to a restaurant or even to a take-out place all because they were all pretty much on house arrest along with the demi-god. Tony fell asleep on the couch before barely any of the movie passed and Thor was watching the movie with full attention while shoveling handfuls of popcorn in his mouth, mesmerized by the moving, talking animals on the screen.
Steve was sitting on an arm chair with a sketch book clutched in his hand. Before the announcement he was drawing a tree filled landscape. After it, he had started shaking Tony awake.
"Mmmmm," As Steve was shaking Tony awake he started making humming voices, when he finally opened his eyes he made another indecipherable noise. "Hmmmmarrrrwat." Then it finally turn into words, "I was sleeping Steve! Why can't you read the manual for the Blu-ray player rather than harassing me for-"
Steve interrupted the ranting Tony with a simple sentence. "Loki has left the room."
At that sentence Tony seemed to sit up with the slightest amount of guilt and unease imprinted on his face. His hand quickly moved to the pause button on the Blu-ray player's remote. Tony didn't have a clever comeback to retort with.
"See? I have told the both of you that Loki was just choosing to keep his distance for a fair proximity of time before returning to our presence, friends," Thor stopped his devouring of the popcorn to speak to the pair.
"Hmm..." Tony acknowledged Thor with a hum. "Jarvis, were is Loki headed?"
"He is traveling downwards on the stairs at the current time, I believe his destination is the kitchen," Jarvis continued without even the slightest of flaw in his words. Tony couldn't help but grin slightly. The demi-god only stomached possible contact with them for food.
In only a few minutes some disturbance could be heard in the kitchen. They could hear the opening of the fridge, cupboards and the moving of chairs. Not even one of the Avengers, Earth's mightiest heroes made a move to go any closer to the location of a certain green eyed god. They didn't how the demi-god would react to them; it could be a positive or negative experience. Almost everyone assumed it would be the latter.
The noises continued and the movie wasn't resumed, curiosity still consumed Steve and Tony's mind. Thor moved back onto eating his popcorn which was depleting quickly. The irritating sound of Thor crunching mouthfuls popcorn was the only sound present other than the noise of the movement in the other room.
The chewing stopped and a loud voice boomed through the room. "Friend Stark, may you create more of this popped corn?" Thor was loud and after his brief sentence there was silence, the noises of movement in the kitchen now ceased to exist. Steve thought of Loki as a deer, preparing to run after the first sound of a possible threat. The metaphor ended as Loki moved into the living room, with quiet but quick footsteps. Tony seemed to pretend he was asleep again, Steve averted his eyes from the entranceway and back to his drawing and Thor opened his mouth.
"Brother!" Loki sent a glare Thor's way but the blonde man ignored it. "I am gladdened that you decided to join us!" Loki was giving all the Avengers a distasteful glance at this point. Tony still continued his façade of faking sleep but Steve looked up. Steve couldn't help but notice the blnding white bandages wrapped around Loki's neck.
"I have not-" Loki's voice was raspy and he stopped in order to correct himself by clearing his throat. "I have not come to join you. I merely wish to retrieve sustenance and my book." At this time Tony decided to "awaken" from his cat-nap.
"Are you wearing my shirt?" Tony's voice wasn't of anger but rather disbelief. He never imaged Loki would ever wear casual human clothing rather than wearing leather and armor. It looked strange to see the green eyed demi-god looking like… like… a human! Tony remembered fainted the demi-god wearing the clothing earlier before the out-burst but he didn't call it then.
"That I am," Loki answered but Tony was surprised once again, the god didn't lead with an insult and his green eyes moved down to the ground since Tony had arisen. The dark haired man seemed to lose his poisonous edge over the course of a few hours. Then the events of his last encounter of the day came back a full force at Tony, the demi-god seemed not to want a repeat even at the cost of his own pride.
Tony didn't say anything after that; the guilt temporally silenced his quick tongue. Loki moved over to grab a book that sat upon the coffee table. Steve had to interfere to attempt to diminish the awkward. "You are free to join us Loki."
Loki gave Steve a look that could also be used if the soldier grew a second head, it was of disbelief. That expression only stayed on his face for a brief second because he turned away and stalked back to the kitchen. He gave Steve no answer.
Steve frowned at Loki's reaction. Thor spoke up right after Loki's departure, "Don't be offended, my friend, Loki is distant from everyone at this point." A sad look crossed Thor's face but it disappeared as he turned back to Tony. "Stark, I wish for you to fetch me more of this delicious popped corn."
Tony broke out of his trance and spoke to Jarvis. "Give Thor the instructions to make his own popcorn Jarvis."
Steve intervened, believing another brotherly bonding session wasn't in anyone's best interests, interrupted, "I'll get you the um… popped corn." Steve took the metal popcorn bowl from Thor and started moving toward kitchen entrance.
Steve found Loki in a staring contest with a can of soup. His eyes were focused on instruction side and he was seated at the large table placed away from the appliances. When he noticed Steve's presence, his head moved over to the super-soldier. He didn't say anything; he just looked at Steve as if he was waiting for him to speak. When nothing was said Loki covered the silence with words. "It's not polite to stare." His words were mocking and his mouth curled up in a small smirk. Steve didn't answer; he just stayed at his post in the entranceway.
When he got no answer from Steve he started to talk again, "How do you make this To-ma-to soup? I've read the instructions but I have not much experience in midgardian cooking." Loki's tone had lost the condensing tone in his questioning.
Steve answered Loki with a smile, "Here I'll show you." Loki seemed a bit surprised by the friendliness but he passed the can to Steve. Steve went into action and Loki watched curiously as the super soldier pulled out multiple tools from the lower cupboards.
The soldier spoke again in a kind tone, "Would you like it made with milk or water?" Loki frowned at Steve's tone but he gave it a moment of consideration before answering. He thought of pleasant taste of Asgardian milk but wondered if Midgardian milk would even compare to the taste.
He decided to take a chance, "Milk."
Steve smiled again and turned away. A deep scowl now covered Loki's face as he thought of the soldier's current kind behavior. His main theory was that he wanted to deceive Loki by acting like this to him now and reap the benefits when Loki gained back his power. That was the only rational explanation for why his enemy was trying to play upon his humanity and morals. It was quite a shame that he had none. A cruel smile crossed Loki's face as he thought of taking the solider down first for his deceit.
Steve seemed to read Loki's smile wrongly. "You know what is good with tomato soup? Grilled cheese! I'll make some of those too. I think you'll like them, Loki. I think I'" Loki stared at the ecstatic Steve with disbelief; another theory came into Loki's mind as he watched the blonde man pour the red contents of the can into a pot. Was the man really tried to befriend the estranged and monstrous adopted brother of Thor? Not to mention his enemy. Loki shook the though from his head, such an idea was preposterous.