Running at Full Tilt: Chapter 9
Sooo...a week long break is not conducive to writing. I have been brain dead this entire time. -_- I am so ready for summer. I am heading back to school tomorrow, so no guarantees to updates. Not abandoning the story in any way shape or form, but you might not hear from this story for a little while.
So, how is Loki going to react when he realizes where he's sleeping? Also, conversations in this chapter! You might need a tissue or two!
I also realized that I have never put this in: I have no beta. Any and all mistakes are my own!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Predator movie or characters, same for Avengers. That belongs to Marvel.
Warnings: Violence...probably lots of angst.
Who are we anymore?
Loki was comfortable…which was how he first realized something was wrong. He had not slept comfortably in well over a year. Tendrils of his nightmares still swirled in his mind, as he pushed towards consciousness. His body was still laying out on the cave floor, but his head was resting on something much more forgiving.
The rain was barely a noise to notice anymore, so he listened for the sounds of those sleeping around him. He counted six steady breathing patters (though Black Widow's was quite difficult to discern). Deciding it was safe to check his surroundings, Loki slowly pried his eyelid open. The fire had been doused, and there was only dim light to see by coming from outside the cave. Loki could see the Captain, archer and assassin across from him, and hear the doctor and Stark beside him. Then…
Loki tensed and completely froze when he realized what he was sleeping on. His findings were only confirmed when a large hand gently ran over his hair. Loki nearly had a heart attack when his head unconsciously pressed into the hand petting him, showing him affection. No! Loki was not some affection-starved child! He clenched his eye shut tight in hopes that it would all go away, and this was just another nightmare of the Chitauri's mind tricks. But it was not to be.
"I know you are awake, Brother," Thor whispered. Since when had Thor ever learned to be quiet in any capacity? Loki, as swiftly and quietly as he could, fled from his spot in Thor's lap and glared at the Crown Prince.
"What do you think you were doing?" he hissed. Loki was not going to go running back into the oaf's arms just because he was magically exhausted. Thor sighed and stretched.
"You were exhausted and fell asleep on the floor. You started having nightmares, but calmed when I touched your hair like Mother used to. You looked so uncomfortable and in pain, so…"
"So you dragged me into your lap like some child," Loki growled quietly. He could not believe how humiliated he felt. Cradled in Thor's lap as though he were a toddler, right in front of his enemies. Oh, he was certain they had a wonderful laugh over it.
"Loki…" And now Thor was talking to him like he was a child throwing a tantrum over nothing! No! He refused to be treated this way. Loki crouched in front of Thor and held his spear point so it was barely an inch away from the Golden Prince's neck.
"Get this through your thick skull. I am not some doll that you can turn on and off to do with as you will. You cannot and will not treat me like a child you have saved. I. Am not. Your brother."
"I know." Loki froze, shock filling his features. Thor had barely spoken above a whisper, but it was like he had screamed it at him. Thor had finally admitted it, agreed with him, and yet…it did not feel anywhere near as satisfying as Loki thought it would. Thor spoke to the ground, while Loki remained silent.
"I know you are not my brother. You are not the same Loki I grew up with…but I am not the same as I was either. We have both changed greatly, Loki. It is like we are now two different people. I don't know you as you are now, and you don't know me. We are not brothers now, because we are not the brothers that grew up side by side. I know this. But I want to be brothers, again…just not as we were." Loki…really did not know what to do. He had never heard such maturity from Thor, and the man was actually conceding defeat without a fight.
His spear lowered so it was no longer prepared to strike. The rain was now deafening, where before it barely registered in his ears. It felt as if the ground was being pulled out from underneath him. For all the times Loki insisted Thor was not his brother, he always knew the oaf would still see them that way. Loki still had that small cushion to fall back on…just in case. But now, Thor wanted to start over, not as brothers but as strangers. It made him reexamine everything.
All of his memories of them together as children, when they were older and began to drift apart, when Thor was banished and Loki found out the monster that he really was….when Loki was found by the Chitauri and wanted Thor, his brother, to save him. When he didn't and Loki believed that he was completely and utterly alone and unloved in the entire universe.
But this…this gave him a small spark of something he hadn't felt in a very, very long time: Hope.
Thor saw it and felt like crying out for joy. For so long there had been nothing but rage and pain in his brother's eyes. Now, there was something Thor could work with. He had spent most of the night thinking of a way to get through to Loki, and something finally came to fruition just when he was drifting off. Never let it be said, that Thor never came up with good ideas. Not that he was lying to Loki. No. They weren't the same people that grew up together, and Thor did want to get to the point where they could be brothers again. He would never see Loki as anything less than his little brother, but he wanted to know the man that he had become.
The moment was broken, when Tony started to stir. He shifted and slowly began to wake up. As Loki and Thor were distracted by the inventor, Natasha and Clint cracked their eyes open and shared a look.
They had, of course, heard everything spoken between the brothers. It was…unexpected to say the least. Thor had always been adamant that no matter what Loki was still his brother. He would insist upon it like a stubborn child. However, this new development changed quite a bit. It seemed that Thor had actually taken time to think like Loki. Just a small glance at the blond prince told them that Thor still thought of Loki as his brother. The victory in his eyes was hard to miss.
Natasha confirmed with Clint via their assassin connection that they had to speed up their plan. Instead of waiting a while longer to ask Loki about the Chitauri, they should ask now, while Loki was still vulnerable and disoriented.
So, they slowly 'came awake', making enough noise to catch Loki's attention. Tony was busy poking Bruce awake to care about the others. Steve seemed to sense that everyone else was awake and blinked his eyes wide open. He, like Black Widow and Hawkeye, had heard the hushed, frantic conversation. Steve was a light sleeper, but he knew when to keep his eyes shut and mouth open. One look at the two beside him, and he knew they were planning something.
Loki had tried to pull himself together, and slip on his mask of indifference, but it was nowhere near as effective as usual. His eye had a distinct sheen to it, and he kept shifting his grip on his spear.
Loki wasn't sure what to do with himself. Never before had he felt like acting natural was a difficulty. When he had found out about his true parentage, there had been no need to reign in his emotions in front of the Allfather. Now, his world had been rocked again, but he was among enemies. (He refused to acknowledge them as allies.) He was under no illusion that some of them had heard what was said between himself and Thor, but he was having a hard time caring at that point in time. His mind was preoccupied.
"Loki, tell us about the Chitauri." Loki's head whipped around to face the red-haired assassin and glared at her blank expression.
"What?" Clint looked like he wanted to say something antagonistic, but bit his tongue to stave it off.
"You spent a lot of time with them, I'm guessing. How did you manage all that time? You couldn't have been planning the invasion for that long. It was too sloppy, and we took you down too easily. What I've seen these past couple of days is someone completely different from the one that we met on Earth. You've certainly gone through a lot since then, but for someone as independent and strong-willed as yourself, surviving here wouldn't change you so drastically." Loki's glare was enough to burn a hole right through her head if he could put enough magic into it.
Lucky for her the wards prevented that level of spell. Despite Loki's obvious hatred towards the topic being broached, Natasha continued, undisturbed.
"I just can't wrap my mind around it, Loki. Either you're really stupid or you're really smart. Which is it?" Loki scowled at the woman and found himself being watched by everyone. He had long dealt with people staring at him for a variety of reasons, but this was different. In a few of their eyes was actual concern, for the rest, curiosity. Never before had he been scrutinized so intensely….and not known how to proceed.
"I do not see how this is at all relevant to the situation we are currently in." Tony casually leaned back against the cave wall and wished for a scotch in his hand.
"Think of it as introducing yourself. All we really know about you is that we can kick your ass if it comes to it, you do magic and then there's the little bits and pieces we've been able to get from Point Break. You don't want everything we know about you to be from your dearly loved big bro do you? You know plenty about all of us, yet we know very little about you." It was a risky move, but it seemed to be working. Loki's scowl was turning less 'wounded cat in a corner' to calculating.
"Oh? And how would that be advantageous to myself in any way?" Tony smirked. The others watched the inventor and Trickster scrutinize each other for a few moments, before Stark opened his mouth again.
"Because despite what all of the legends say to the contrary, I get the feeling that you're the kind of guy that likes to play fair. So, what do you say? Even the playing field? It's not like we'll be able to tell if you're lying anyway." Natasha was not impressed by Stark's ability to prod Loki in the direction they wanted, because she already knew that the man was capable of it. He just didn't normally use his abilities for anything beyond schmoozing stock holders and competition.
Loki truly seemed to be considering it, and was just a hair's breadth from either agreeing or completely shutting down. The assassin watched as his eye flicked to Thor just for a moment, and then she grinned in triumph (on the inside of course).
"Very well. What is done is done. It is not as if I ever plan on invading your useless planet again." Steve's eyebrows rose pretty high at that statement.
"Really? So why did you attack in the first place? You just don't strike me as a guy that gives up on something he wants." Loki raised a brow in return at the Captain's question. To give off the air of indifference, Loki sunk to the cave floor and sat back against a relatively smooth section of wall.
"Perhaps I simply know when to step back and wait for a better moment, Captain." At the Captain's concerned look, Loki rolled his eyes. "However, I never wished to subjugate your little planet. There was no reason for me to." Hawkeye scowled.
"You seemed to have plenty of reasons. You monologued about them all the time." Loki gave the archer a decidedly unimpressed look.
"Yes, and everything that comes out of my mouth is the complete truth. I do not care about Midgard. Besides, if I was ever going to take over your planet, I would never do so as disgustingly obvious and violent as New York." He scanned his eye over the Avengers watching him. "I could slip into your government buildings and whisper in the ears of each and every one of your kings and presidents with no one ever knowing I was there. I would rule your world, and you wouldn't even know it." The truth behind that statement made a shiver go down all of their spines. Natasha was the first to break the chilled silence.
"Fine. So you never would have done it the way you had. Then why did you do it? You weren't at the top of the food chain, that much is obvious. But why you, then? Why make you the front man?" Loki waved his hand in the air.
"I was convenient. An enemy and traitor to the eyes of all Asgard. Known to all other realms as Liesmith and the God of Chaos and Mischief. I had fallen into their laps quite literally." Thor leaned closer to his brother and tried to keep too much concern from seeping into his words.
"Loki, did they hurt you?" The green-eyed god hissed and scowled at Thor.
"What would that matter? I am obviously too weak either way, as I gave in rather than dying. I am no warrior, only barely a man with fancy women's tricks up his sleeve. Besides, according to anyone in Asgard, I would have been able to talk my way out of anything. They could not hurt me unless I allowed them to." That was probably as blatant as Loki was going to willingly get about that topic, but that didn't stop the others from pushing.
"You just boasted yourself about your 'Silver Tongue'. Why couldn't you talk your way out of it?" Tony knew just how to press buttons, and was not disturbed in the slightest by the scowl then thrown his way.
"The Chitauri barely have enough brain cells to understand orders from their superiors. They are violent creatures that enjoy the pain of others, and feed off of fear and the power it gives them. They would not listen to a thing I said. Believe me, Stark. I tried, but you cannot bargain with such single-minded monsters."
"But then obviously you had to have talked to someone other than the Chitauri. Otherwise how would you have gone from that to taking over the Earth and stealing the Tesseract?" Loki did his best to hide it, but the others saw the slight paling of his cheeks as the question brought to his mind the one who had told him what to do.
"Come on, Lokes. Who's the man behind the curtain?" Loki did not even bother scowling.
"This conversation is over." And it was.
I do not have the next chapter written for this story, meaning it will take a while before you will see an update. I will do my best to get it to you before the month is out. Fingers crossed!
Please review!