Around the time Thor appeared in the middle of Tony's living room, they were all far too exhausted to be all that surprised, and Clint only raised his head a fraction, his eyes red and tired, and stared blankly as the thunder god, Jane, and Sigyn appeared in a blur of light next to the coffee table, all wearing distraught and fearful expressions.
"Something terrible has happened," Thor panted heavily, his breaths shaky, and Natasha glanced away from biting her nails to sigh over at him.
"Yeah, we get that," she deadpanned, tears staining her cheeks, and the god faltered at the sight-Natasha, the unbreakable, teary and scared.
At a loss for words, Sigyn inched past him to rush to the spy's aid, frowning with concern, her mirror eyes glittering with water as the frozen raindrop hanging against her throat dangled, glinting as it caught the light of Tony's living room.
"What's happened, Natasha?" Sigyn murmured questioningly, pressing her lips together while the Black Widow recounted the day's events to the newcomers, trying as best she could not to burst into tears for the umpteenth time.
Saddened by the sudden turn of the previously good day, Thor took a much needed seat atop the mahogany coffee table, Jane hovering, eyes wide and shocked, behind him, a slender hand covering her mouth. Rubbing the woman's back consolingly, Sigyn thought of her sons, and of their unknown whereabouts, that pang of motherly concern slicing through her like never before, and she could only hope that Loki knew what he was doing, and where he was going.
Shakily, Clint stood to stretch his legs, his phone yet again warming his ear, forever resting between his shoulder and head, as he tried to contact Steve, and finally threw the phone down on the recliner with anger, frowning and red-faced as Pepper flinched at the sudden action.
"We should just drive over there, see if he knows anything," Tony started quietly, oddly solemn for anyone with Stark blood coursing through their veins, but Pepper stared at him, just like she had all of the times he'd gotten a bad idea and acted, impulsively and childishly, on it.
"We need Loki, Tony. Steve can't help us right now," she murmured, and looking to Thor, tilted her head, "Where is he, anyway?"
The god gave her a melancholic look and put his face in his hands, his blond tresses tumbling loosely over his thick fingers, blue eyes glistening.
"I don't know. He went to retrieve our children, and no one seems to have any idea as to where he's gone. Even Heimdall cannot see him, and I fear…"
Trailing off, he lifted his head, frowning as Jane, moving beside him, reached out to squeeze his hand reassuringly, smiling as the light caught the creases on her face, the small lines that hadn't been there years ago, her brown irises now not as bright as they were when he'd first kissed her. Ignoring the sinking feeling in his gut, and pushing down his increasing worry over Selene, Thor looked to Tony, who sat, deep in thought, with a look of pure concentration setting his features firm and tense, his body as still and silent as a statue.
Suddenly, Tony snapped his fingers, and everyone looked to him, hopefully expectant and cautiously skeptic, all shimmering eyes trained on the billionaire.
"I…got nothing," Tony murmured dejectedly, frowning sadly, and Thor slumped, face red with grief. Natasha threw her hands down and stood quickly, her teary eyes burning as she swiped at them.
"Great. Our kids are missing, we don't know where they are or who took them, and our only chance at finding them has gone on his own self-proclaimed vigilante mission and might get himself killed!" Kicking the chair she'd just been sitting in, and scaring Pepper so much that the red head jumped, Natasha balled her hands into fists and punched the back of the chair, and Tony winced as his new furniture fell victim to the abuse. Clint rushed to her and wrapped his warm arms around her waist, holding her close and murmuring in her ear, and she stilled, relaxing against his chest and sniffling, trying to quell her sadness.
For the first time in a long while, Tony was surprised to see them display such affection publicly, and the shock only served to worsen his mood. If the Black Widow was willing to be seen in such a state in front of even her closest friends, then circumstances were dire. Pepper swallowed thickly and sighed, turning to Sigyn, who watched the couple sadly, her fingers lazily running over the raindrop against her skin, her mirrored eyes bright with tears.
"Can you track him?" Pepper asked the goddess quietly, and the woman shook her head, averting her gaze to stare at her feet, still donning the green slippers that she'd neglected to change out of that morning, her pale face spotted with dots of rosy color.
"Loki is far more superior than I in sorcery; any attempt I made to track him would only result in us all being led astray. My husband is very smart, and I can only hope that he knows what he's doing." Her lilting tone faltered for the briefest of moments, and Jane looked over to her friend with concern, that familiar motherly instinct to encompass the frail woman in her embrace rising up to the surface.
But Sigyn was far from frail, and so Jane stood her ground, refocusing on comforting Thor. Clint turned his head slightly, his rough skin brushing against Natasha's fiery curls, and he furrowed his brow.
"So, we wait. We sit here and we wait for Loki to return, if he returns?"
Tony stood, cracking his neck, and smiled.
"Or we go find Steve."
...
Beth was warm, soft and slumbering against his side, and Steve was content, completely and perfectly, to sit and watch the end credits of her latest favorite movie scroll across the screen, slowly fading from sight as new words appeared. Her light curls cascaded over his shoulders, and he smiled as he turned to gaze adoringly at her, the hot puffs of air emitting from her rosy lips tickling his neck as her eyes moved beneath their lids, her mind cloaked in dreams.
With his arm around her slender shoulders, he could feel the coarse material of her work clothes, her waitress' uniform still dusted with flour from earlier that day.
He could remember it, her tired, sluggish knocking, and the way she'd exaggeratedly waved her movie in the air, smiling teasingly when he'd relented and let her into his apartment. He could recall her exhausted eyes, her limbs worn from another taxing day at the restaurant, and her loving murmurs of how eager she'd been to see him when she got off, only stopping on the route from her job to his room to swing by her house and pick up her DVD.
Her name tag, slightly faded from all the times she'd nervously rubbed her thumb against its smooth surface, poked his arm, and he stifled a laugh as he shifted in his seat, slowly so that he wouldn't wake her. The wafting smell of popcorn and butter lingered in the air, and he knew that when he drove to the upbeat café in the morning, he'd still be able to smell the scent clinging to her clothes as she served him pancakes, and breakfast would be that much better.
A persistent, urgent kind of pounding interrupted to peaceful silence, and Steve sighed heavily as he turned his attention to the door, which shook slightly with the pressure being forced upon it, and he smoothly snuck out from under his snoozing girlfriend to gently and softly pad to the door, hurrying to end the knocking so it wouldn't wake her up. Opening his door, the Captain was surprised to see Thor, his hand suspended in the air, ready for another knock, and the rest of the Avengers behind him, save Bruce. Natasha and Clint both wore stony expressions, and Sigyn clung close to Jane's side as they huddled behind Thor, and Tony had a protective arm around Pepper's waist. Confused, Steve ran a hand through his light hair, swallowing.
"What is it this time?"
...
"So we just need to find Loki," Steve murmured as they hurriedly rushed down a crowded sidewalk in Manhattan, ignoring the awed stares and phones held up in the air, feet burning as they all quickened their pace to avoid the attention. Behind him, Natasha rolled her eyes, and Tony was relieved to see that she was back to her normal self.
"If it was that easy, Rogers, we'd have done it by now," she murmured sharply, and Sigyn eyes widened as she suppressed her grin, walking briskly beside Thor as his crimson cape billowed behind him.
"Maybe we should call Bruce, see what he thinks," Tony offered, panting slightly, as they all but began to jog, and Pepper, in her best heels, ground her teeth together against the nagging pain in her feet. Steve shook his head, though no one saw the gesture.
"Bruce is on a much-needed vacation." Tony rolled his eyes, and sped his walking so that he could meet Steve's eyes, glancing sideways at him as he accidentally brushed up against a staring passerby.
"By 'vacation', do you mean 'date'? Because we have more important things to worry about than-"
"He's fine, ok? We can do this without him, this time," Steve interrupted, a bit too rudely, and Tony went silent, falling back to be at Pepper's side as she gave him a sympathetic glance.
Jane, busy with the phone in her hand, looked up from its screen.
"I could contact Darcy and Erik, see if there have been any energy surges in the past few days," she suggested lightly, her thumbs flying over the keys, her mind running through all of the possibilities.
"And if there have been any?" Clint asked, his bow and arrow bouncing, from where it was strapped faithfully to his body, against his back due to his quick, energy-expending walk. Jane looked to him and blinked, as if the answer was obvious.
"Then we start there. Track down the source, if we can, and maybe we can pinpoint a location, or if it's happened multiple times, we can find a common link."
Thor smiled at his wife encouragingly, and Steve nodded solemnly.
"Ok, sounds good. But first, I think we should go to Asgard and figure out what's-"
Abruptly, a flash of green blinded the group, a sphere of energy forming and bursting in front of them and blasting the windows of the small store beside them, pieces of glass shattering and raining down on them all, and Pepper screamed as she covered her face protectively, dropping to the ground in fright. Clint threw his hands over Natasha, and her gun, previously strapped, hidden, to her thigh, was already in her grasp, and Tony, splayed out on the ground atop a mound of glass, hurried to help his wife up, while Thor and Jane struggled to assist Steve, whose face was scratched and littered with cuts, small lines of red decorating his skin.
The energy faded quickly, and they all turned, still shielding their eyes from the light and shielding their ears from the screams around them, to see a familiar silhouette strewn over the sidewalk, groaning in pain as the tendrils of magic curling around his body dissipated.
Sigyn, the only one moderately unaffected by the blast, rushed to him, and knelt at his side as she turned his limp form over, so that they could see his face, and she ran her hand over his cheek worryingly, and Thor moved to her side, concern glowing bright in his eyes.
"Loki," she whispered breathlessly, and, beneath her piercing gaze, he made a small noise, his pallid eyelids closed, a thick, dark liquid coating his ebony hair. She carded her fingers though it and gasped, scared, as she looked him over.
"What's happened to you?"
But Loki didn't respond, and even his small groans of pain ceased as he went unconscious, long, aching lines of blood covering his face and hands.
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