A/N: I know last chapter was shorter than usual, so I thought I would just add this chapter really quick, like one big weekend update. I hope you enjoy! :)
Intermission 1 - End
Tony clapped his hands as they all sat back down in the main gathering room, the giant plasma screen TV set to 3 AM the morning of the first day after the Hydra compound. The figures on the screen were still frozen in their respective places, the camera angled from a corner area of the motel. Steve frowned, "Aren't there not supposed to be surveillance cameras in the rooms-"
"These are leftovers from SHIELD," Tony explained, setting out the popcorn bags for everyone, "We decided it would be a waste of money to hunt them all down and remove them, so the feeds are usually diverted to a database here for further review in case we need to see anything from them. It's what we looked through the first day, trying to find Bucky and Clint. If I'd known Scarlet could divert the data I wouldn't have even attempted to look." He sat down finally, "We all good, we ready? This is the first day, let's see if we can figure out how we got to that McDonalds drivethru." He pressed play and everyone sat back to watch.
Day 1
After another hour or so, Scarlet rose first, grumbling. The only word that came out of her mouth was a low moan that could barely be translated to "Fooooooood…."
Loki, apparently awake, muttered from the floor, "That would be rather delightful right now…" He opened his eyes and looked to the couch, peeking up at Victor. He raised his hand and shook the man's shoulder, "Wake, Von Doom. We have need of you."
The man moaned, turning away, "No… 5 more minutes."
Silver laughed as quietly as he could while Loki, obviously hungry and irritated, slapped one of the most dangerous criminals known to man, "I demand you wake up and feed us."
"Food in...fridge or something…"
"There is no fridge, you oaf!" In response to this, Victor let out a high pitched whine that made the Avenger's watching the tape laugh so hard they had to rewind to hear what Loki said next. "Useless, useless man… I'll have to do it my- GAH!" Loki had attempted to rise, but a small snap indicated the stitches had ruptured in the process. He lay back, pale. "Wonderful. Just… Wonderful." He coughed.
Silver got up and kicked Clint and Winter, "Wake up, Loki's hurt himself in the first seconds of his futile quest for food."
"I will kill you if you continue to mock me."
"Yeah, sure." Silver yawned, stretching quickly.
The two Avenger's immediately applied first aid to Loki and helped put his shirt back on, while Silver took on the daunting task of waking Victor. He attempted shaking him, talking to him, and threatening him, all of which were in vain. Finally, impatient, he punched the man in the stomach and retreated too quickly to be harmed. Victor gasped for air and hurled himself from the couch, looking for his enemy. Instead Scarlet's puppy dog eyes drilled into his crazed ones, "Food…" She whimpered.
He immediately deflated, shlumping back into the couch with an exhausted sigh, "Oh… Can we...order in or something? Is that what we should do?" He asked Clint. After he did this he went to brush the hair back on the right side of his face, and when his fingers registered burn marks he realized he'd removed his mask. He seemed confused for a second, looking around. When no one freaked out about it, he relaxed significantly.
Meanwhile, Clint seemed surprised his opinion was being taken into account. He thought for a second then nodded, "If you pay in cash, yeah. Not so bad. Though… pizza for two hungry super-criminals, super-heroes, and mutants each… that's a little much to go to a motel room of one."
Victor sighed, cracking his neck, "Just order it, we will leave soon. And aren't these places notorious for not caring about what their patrons do? Anyone who sees will probably just think Silver has some strange-"
"I'm not sure where that sentence was going, but please don't finish it." Silver muttered.
"Yeah, and by the way, who's mind is in the gutter now?" Clint asked teasingly.
"Gutter? What did you think I was going to say? I was just going to say strange appetite… My god man, what kind of people do you know?"
"I know Tony Stark…" Clint shrugged.
"Note to self," Scarlet said absently, "Keep a ten foot distance from Tony Stark…especially if he's with pizza."
The Avengers all flicked their gazes from the TV to look at Tony, who rolled his eyes, waving for them to continue watching the group on the video as they set up for breakfast pizza. Natasha and Thor chuckled when Steve muttered something about, "Oh, that's what Bucky meant…" They continued to watch as Clint and Winter hacked their Starkphones so they wouldn't transmit their location or their call, then called in their order, only to pause.
"Oh, what do you guys want?"
"I thought we decided on pizza?" Scarlet shrugged.
"What kind?" He clarified.
"What do you mean, what kind?" Silver asked.
Clint's mouth dropped.
"What is pizza, anyway?" Loki frowned from the ground.
Clint shuddered as if he were disgusted and barked into the phone, "I want 10 supreme pizzas."
"Supreme?" Winter and Victor shared a confused look.
Clint slammed his hand over his heart as if in pain and gazed into the world with vacant, wide eyes as he stated their address. When he hung up he just shook his head, "I bet none of you have even tried ice cream."
When four out of five shook their heads, and three of those four asked what ice cream was, Clint twitched so violently in shock that he seemed on the verge of seizing. He began ranting, claiming that the likely reason for their villainous doings was directly proportional to their lack of ice cream exposure. Soon enough, Silver saw a car pull up with a man stepping out of it carrying far too many pizza boxes. He walked as carefully outside as he could to greet the deliveryman, take the pizzas, then avoid eye contact with the woman at the desk in front as he returned to his room.
The Avengers fast forwarded through the breakfast as each person in the room was too hungry to speak past the sheer amount of food they needed to consume, and once each box was empty and tossed away, Clint asked, "So, what do you think?"
"Twas good, mortal." Loki nodded from the propped up position Victor held him in with his legs. Victor sat on the couch with Loki before him on the floor, one foot on either side of him, letting the man lean back without having to support any of his own weight.
"Really good!" Scarlet clapped, in her excitement accidently floating any loose items around her.
Silver grinned, "Is ice cream this good?"
Clint matched Silver's enthusiastic smile, "Ten times better, at least. I promise you that."
Victor laughed, "We should try it sometime then. Perhaps we can grab some once Loki regains his magic."
"Speaking of which, how long you think that will take, Kiki?" Clint asked the god.
Loki growled at the name and attempted to launch himself at Clint, only to topple over, thankfully caught by Victor, who dragged him onto the couch, laying him over his lap and pulling up his shirt with a frown, "Please refrain from injuring yourself."
Loki hissed, "I am a god! Do not treat me like some pet-" suddenly he ceased his ranting and sighed in relief as soft green magic flowed from Victor's hand over his wound, obviously easing the pain. His eyes fluttered closed and his breathing slowed. The Avengers watched intensely as the people on screen all cocked their heads and Bucky chuckled.
Winter whispered softly, "Is he… Purring?"
Victor seemed surprised, but a grin was plastered to his face, "I think so…"
Scarlet began to giggle, whispering to Silver, "I always thought he looked like a big cat."
Victor gently adjusted Loki, who seemed to be asleep or just too content to care, so that he was more comfortable, "Alright, everyone shower or whatever you need to do so we can get on the road again."
"Yes, Dad." Scarlet said, rolling her eyes. However, she easily hopped off the bed and rushed to the bathroom, shouting behind her, "Ladies first!"
Clint cursed, "Great, now she'll use all the hot water."
The next hour was a terribly surreal one for the Avengers watching the tape as Winter, Clint, Scarlet, and Silver all fought over the single bathroom. They shouted at each other and as the shouting increased, Loki's features drew tight again and this seemed to signal to Victor that enough was enough. He carefully set Loki down before going to the bathroom where Scarlet was fighting with Clint for a tooth brush that came from god knows where, and Silver and Winter were arguing over who got the shower next. He simply walked in before stating very coldly and calmly, "There is an injured god in the next room who you are on the verge of waking. I will assist him in gaining revenge upon you for this mild inconvenience if you four do not calm down and act maturely. Do I make myself clear?"
The four looked sheepishly to each other and nodded like guilty children.
"Good. Now, Hawkeye and Winter, I suggest you let the children have the bathroom first, then you may have your turn."
"Ch-children!?" Scarlet looked terribly affronted, but before she could say more, Loki's voice echoed in from the next room.
"Darling, you and your brother are little more than two decades old. Barton is nearly twice that age, Victor and Winter are multiples of it, and I think you have an idea of just how old I am. Do not take it as an insult that we might see you as children."
Scarlet and Silver pouted, but accepted this quietly. The next fifteen minutes went by with little incident other than Victor returning to Loki, placing his hand over the god's wound once more. Interestingly enough, Loki reached up and continued to run his fingers lightly over Victor's scar. When asked why he simply shrugged and said it was interesting. By the time it was Victor and Loki's turn to have the bathroom, Loki waved for Victor to go first while he removed his own stitches, his wound now little more than a couple pink welts running up his side. Victor came back soon and let Loki have his turn, and once everyone was ready they escaped out the window.
Victor took the wheel this time, Loki called shotgun before Clint could, and the twins clambered into the way back, throwing a stolen towel over the bloodstained seats. Clint sat behind Victor, while Winter sat behind Loki, both men leaning over the seats in front of them to see the two villains poking at the GPS in the dashboard.
"Where do you want to go?" Victor asked.
Loki shrugged, "I know not where to go from here. Where are we?"
Clint played with the touch screen a bit before stating, "We're in… New Jersey, near to New York."
"Well, let's avoid that state altogether…" Loki sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, seeming almost guilty.
"Agreed," Victor moved the images on the screen around, "So, what do you guys think?"
Winter took that moment to lean forward, moving the map around, "Here." He tapped the screen. "It's a bunker that was blown up when Steve pissed off a German scientist trapped in a machine." Everyone but Clint gave him an odd look and he shrugged. "It's a little bit in ruins, but it does have some weapons lying about. We could use some considering we just took down a Hydra base…"
Victor nodded. "Alright, anyone else?" When no one came up with anything he set the destination. He asked Scarlet to pass him his mask from the back where he'd left it the night before, but before he put it on, Loki reached over and took it under the guise of wanting to inspect it. Victor smiled a bit and began driving calmly according to the robotic voice that rang out every so often to direct him. As they drove everyone fell back into their seats silently, likely pondering their current situation. Loki lost interest in the mask within seconds, opting to stare openly at Victor's scar. Silver fell asleep quickly and didn't wake for another half hour. When he did he looked around before saying one thing.
"Thirsty…"
"Alright, do you two even know how to use your words to politely ask for something instead of just stating what you want or feel like?" Loki frowned at them from the front seat.
Silver seemed confused, "We never had to say more than that to get what we needed."
Loki rolled his eyes, "Well, next time you want food, you say 'I'm hungry, could we please find some nourishment?' or 'I am in need of drink, shall we procure some?' You two need some manners."
"What are you? Our mom?" Scarlet asked.
Loki glared at her, "Why am I suddenly the mother?"
"Cause Victor's obviously the father here?" Clint shrugged.
"What does that make us?" Winter asked.
Scarlet grinned, throwing herself between the seats to hug Winter and Clint, "Uncle Winter and Uncle Hawk!"
"I hope we're brothers, 'cause if you think Winter and I are gonna be together romantically you're gonna be sorely disappointed."
"Natasha might murder me if she even supposes anything between us." Winter chuckled.
"Really? Steve would tear me apart if he thought I'd take his precious Bucky Bear from him." At the mention of Bucky Bear, Loki frowned.
"What is this Bucky Bear you speak of? Does Captain America sleep with one of those stuffed animal toys for children?"
"No," Clint grinned as he explained, "Winter's name from back when he knew Steve was Bucky, but when Steve lost his precious teddy bear, Bucky replaced it with himself, so Steve calls him his Bucky Bear."
Scarlet coo'd, "Oh that's adorable! You two must be the sweetest couple!"
Winter flushed pure crimson, stammering, unable to form a coherent sentence, while Clint sadly shook his head, "Unfortunately, Winter isn't brave enough to tell Steve his feelings, and Steve's in denial."
"What?!" Scarlet's jaw dropped.
"Why don't you just tell him?" Silver asked, confused.
"Seriously!" She waved her hands wildly.
"Calm down, Scarlet," Victor peeked over his shoulder, "I can't see out the back window when you do that."
"Sorry… and is Captain America the blond man? The one with shorter hair, not the overly large one with long hair."
Clint nodded, "Yep, and the two are, like, perfect for each other."
"Clint!" Winter hissed.
"Oh, what? Like Captain America can hear you? It's fine, no one here is gonna tell him you're in love with him, christ."
"I am not!" Winter turned, embarrassed, pressing his face into the window.
"Truly?" Loki asked, looking back at him with an amused smile. "You simply light up whenever he is mentioned."
Winter made a defeated sound, choosing not to meet anyone's eyes. Scarlet poked his shoulder till he turned to her, blinking at him with her best puppy dog eyes, "Do you love him, Uncle Winter?"
Winter sighed, looking down, muttering a very quiet, "Who couldn't love him…?"
Pause 1
"So uh…" Nat said awkwardly after Tony paused so they could all look to Steve for his reaction, "This was probably not how Winter wanted Steve to find out."
Steve sat looking at the screen, paused on Bucky's downcast gaze, his cheeks burning as red as Steve's were in that moment. His eyes were watering and he rose, obviously intending to move towards the elevator when Tony jumped over the couch and stood in front of him, "Whoa, there. Hold up. I know you just overheard a confession of love from your long time best friend, but if you go down there and confront him about it, you'll have to reveal that we have this footage. And I think we should all finish watching it before we tell them in case there's something we probably should not have seen. Even you have to admit that."
Steve swallowed, obviously torn between listening to reason and shoving Tony out of the way and rushing down to see Bucky.
They all waited with bated breath for Steve's reaction.
He turned sharply and sat back down, grabbing the remote and forcefully pressing 'play.'
Day 1 - Continued
"Aw…" The Avengers were all shocked to hear the sound not only come from Scarlet, but from Clint, Loki, and Victor as well.
Victor shook his head with a grin, "Adorable."
Clint looked in surprise at the two in front of him, "Well look at you two, being all soft and what not."
"Oh hush, Barton. It is rare that you see someone as devoted as Winter. He trusted two arch-enemies just to save the man he loved." Loki gave him a chiding gaze, even as a smile played over his lips.
"Hey! I did that for Natasha!" Clint whined.
"But you're young," Loki shrugged, "His love has lasted about twice as long as your lifetime, and despite it being fruitless he has not abandoned it. I know for a fact that your love is not unrequited in the least, so you could not have gone through such trials to prove your devotion."
"That's not fair!"
Silver laughed, "Hey, Mom and Dad are happy for the moment, don't push it, Uncle Hawk."
"Okay, children, let's quit with the family stuff. It's weirding me out." Clint growled. Winter didn't speak up, still flushing to the point he was redder than Thor's mantle.
Victor turned to them, "Let's all stop for a moment, what do you guys want from here?"
Winter finally lost his color when he realized where they were, "Why are we in line for McDonalds?"
"I thought this would be the safest place to get a drink. What do you guys want?"
"I know this sounds strange, but I'm hungry." Loki turned to Clint, "What do you recommend from this temple of food?"
Clint shrugged, "Anything, as long as you get the fries with it. Just pick one." He waved to the menu.
"Clint," Winter slapped his arm, "Idiot, the people at the window will see us!"
Victor shrugged, "I'll take care of it, don't worry. What would you like?"
They pulled up just then to the menu and a voice startled Victor, "Hello, welcome to McDonalds, how may I help you?"
"Oh, uh… one second please. Orders?"
Silver called out, "Just a coke for me, thanks."
"Same here!" Scarlet screamed.
"Shhh! Quiet down." Victor rolled his eyes, turning to Clint and Winter, "You two?"
"Just a Big Mac and coke." Clint nodded.
Winter sighed in defeat, "A coke for me, thanks. And Clint, didn't you just have seven pieces of pizza for breakfast?"
"Yeah, shut up." Clint frowned, "I'm worried about Nat, I can stress eat…"
Loki smiled to himself as he told Victor, "A chicken...nugget meal. And whatever this 'coke' is."
Victor reiterated the order. As they waited to pull up to the window, Loki began to fidget with the radio, using it as an excuse to hide Victor's mask behind him in the process. Every time he landed on an actual song, Clint would get excited and Loki would scrunch his nose up in distaste, changing it quickly, consequently upsetting Clint. Finally, Clint barked, "God! Leave it on one station, dammit!"
"These songs are atrocious!" The god barked, "How do you expect me to listen to them?"
"With your Asgardian ears!"
Loki's demeanor turned poisonous, "I am not Asgardian…"
"Right, sorry Frosty, my bad. With you Jotun ears!"
"Say that one more time, Barton, and I will not hesitate to smite you!"
"Hey! No smiting!" Victor shouted.
"U-um...excuse...me?" A girl stood wide-eyed at the window.
"Oh, uh, sorry. Road trips, you know how it gets." Clint said, suddenly leaning over Victor's seat through the window, pulling some money from his wallet, "Here you go."
"Uh...huh…" She blinked and shakily took the money. "Um… here are your drinks…" She handed some drink trays to Victor, who took them and passed them back to be distributed. "And your food…" She paused before handing it over, noticing his scar and the god beside him, "Are...are you Dr. Doom…? And… Loki?"
Victor turned his head slightly to hide his scar, and when Loki saw this he leaned forward, looking straight into the girl's eyes, "Stop staring at us and relinquish my chicken nuggets unto me, or I will crawl out of this car and murder you. I will pry my sustenance from your cold, dead hands."
She practically tossed the food at them with a "Have a nice day!" before quickly shutting the window and bolting.
Victor paused, "There was a man holding up a phone behind her… I believe he was taking a video of that encounter."
"Yeah… we should probably change course now, just in case…" Clint sighed.
"Where to?"
Winter shrugged, leaning over the seats in front of him to poke at the GPS, "Why not just anywhere?" He jabbed a random spot which took them to a state park over in Pennsylvania. "Why not there?"
"Sounds as good as anything I can think of right now." Clint shrugged. "We're just waiting on Loki getting better. Speaking of which how are you- Wow, you're really going at that." He laughed, watching Loki practically inhale his meal.
"Silence, Barton. I'm still angry with you. And I'm getting better… I just need lots of food and some time. I can feel my magic beginning to reform."
Victor began to drive again, turning on the radio, "Now I'm going to just choose a random channel, we're going to leave it there, and no one's going to complain." He poked the shuffle and suddenly country music drawled out over the speakers.
Everyone cringed.
Victor changed it without complaint to an 80's channel.
They listened to this for a long while, simply driving for a couple hours more before Victor pulled up to a gas station. He reached over to Loki, palm up, and the god reluctantly gave him his mask back. He placed his mask on and got out to hook the car up to the gas pump. He leaned against the door calmly as people nervously finished up what they were doing and fled as fast as they could. Loki gestured for Clint to lower his window and he leaned back to talk to Victor.
"Can we get some sustenance from inside?"
"Sure, go in with Clint to pay."
"Can I go too?" Winter asked.
"Me three?" Silver raised his hand.
Victor sighed, "Go for it." He replaced the pump and returned to the car as the others left. The screen split in two, one showing Victor and Scarlet, the other focusing on the other four. Tony called out to Jarvis to drown out the one to listen momentarily to Victor and Scarlet, seeing that the girl seemed to want to ask something.
"Dad?"
Victor rolled his eyes, "Yes, Darling?"
They laughed for a second before Scarlet asked, "Why are you with us?"
Victor frowned, "What do you mean?"
"You could have just flown off with your Doombots but you stayed with us. Why?"
Victor nodded, rolling his shoulders as if sore. He removed his mask and set it down before rubbing his eyes. "It was because of Kiki. I don't know. I just… I couldn't let him die. Don't ask me why, I honestly don't know. Just finding him there on the ground… I know what it's like to have your magic taken from you, to be helpless… I didn't want him to be alone on top of it all..." Victor shook his head, "Don't tell anyone I said that."
"Why?" Scarlet laughed, "Are you going to smite me?"
"No, there will be no smit-" A shot rang out, "What the hell!?" He looked over to the side and the Avenger's turned their attention to the other video feed.
The store clerk was shooting at them with a gun. It wasn't long before the car doors open and the others piled in. Loki was paler than before, wheezing, "That did not go so well. But at least we obtained our nourishment."
"Call it food, Kiki." Clint said through a mouth full of doughnut.
"Don't call me that again and don't talk with food in your mouth, Barton, it's revolting."
Victor quickly pulled away. "Can we still head the way we were before?"
"Yeah, there are at least three different highways we could take…" Bucky looked through the GPS, "They won't know where we're going just yet."
"Alright. Note to self. Don't go shopping with Supervillains…" Clint muttered.
"What did you expect?" Scarlet asked.
"I don't know. I never really thought that I'd ever be stuck in the Evil League of Evil."
"Evil League of Evil?" The twins asked together.
"Oh great, we're in a musical now…" Winter muttered, tearing open a bag of chips.
"I'm not even going to ask...but if anyone begins singing, I will tear out their tongue…" Loki sighed, eyes fluttering in exhaustion, "Did anyone get shot?"
Clint shook his head, "The man had terrible aim."
"Good…" Loki fell silent.
"Let Loki rest, okay?" Victor whispered back into the car.
Everyone nodded. The next few hours of driving were filled with silent munchings. Loki woke somewhere along the way, they didn't know when because they were fast forwarding, but by the time they stopped it was dark out and they were pulling into another motel. They repeated the same process as before, with Winter questioning the limitlessness of Clint's wallet as they climbed in the window. They took similar arrangements as before, though Loki and Victor shared a small couch, each lying on their own side, curled up.
Sometime in the middle of the night, Victor tore off his cape and rested it over Loki's shoulders, to which the God snuggled deeper into the fabric and relaxed. Clint, apparently awake at the time, chuckled before Victor shot him a death glare.
Tony paused at 3 AM like before.
Intermission 2
"So." Tony started, "We're gonna break here. And you three can go visit your buddies, but no mention of anything. Nothing out of the ordinary. Is that understood?" When Steve didn't make any indication of hearing this Tony raised his voice, "Is that understood, Cap?"
"Yeah." He nodded tightly.
"Okay, then go."
The three got in the elevator, this time the descent was silent, though Thor patted his shoulder and Natasha rubbed his back. When Natasha and he parted this time in the hallway, she called after him, "Relax, act natural."
"I'll try." He sighed.
At the last checkpoint he took a deep, calming breath, and entered to see Bucky.
Bucky was just sitting there, staring out into space. Once again, catching sight of Steve, he leapt to his feet, blushing a bit, "Hey, Stevie…"
Steve's heart did some strange inverted flip and it took all his composure to smile, "Hey, Buck."
They were silent for a while, just looking at each other, before Steve walked closer, leaning on the glass again. He didn't break the silence though, Bucky did that, "So...what have you been up to? If I can ask that."
"Eating a lot of popcorn…" He sighed.
Bucky smiled, "I remember going to the movies with you when we were little…" His eyes suddenly snapped back up to Steve's suspiciously, "What are you watching?"
Steve shrugged, trying to remain calm, "Just some movies of Tony's. We're just waiting for the military and politicians to get back with us for the time being…"
"Oh…" Bucky frowned. He seemed to struggle with saying something before finally asking, "You can stay down here with me, you know…"
Steve's heart twisted and he felt a lump in his throat, "I can't, Buck. I need to go back upstairs when Tony calls."
Bucky frowned, "Stevie...what's wrong…" He approached the glass, leaning his side against it, mirroring Steve so he could rest his head against it. Steve got the strange feeling that this was almost what it would look like to lie down in bed next to Bucky...only vertical… and instead of a bed there was glass. He shook himself inwardly for thinking of such stupid things, listening to Bucky's next words, "You don't have to lie to me if you can't tell me what you're doing…"
"I'm sorry, Buck…" Steve felt tears in his eyes, "For everything...truly I am… I just wish-" Before he could say something else,Tony cut in.
"Captain! Get up here. Bruce microwaved us some leftovers for dinner."
Steve nodded, looking one last time at Bucky, who seemed scared and confused at the tears in Steve's eyes. He waved goodbye and walked out.
Natasha and Thor didn't say anything when he had to wipe the tears off his cheeks.
