Just a brief warning: this is a little bit darker than the previous chapters. Not like majorly dark, but not a water gun fight either.
"I propose a contest of strength!" Thor announced as he burst into the Avengers kitchen.
"What?" Clint replied sleepily from where he was stretched out on a pair of bar stools, nursing a mug of coffee.
"A tournament. To see who among us is the most skilled fighter."
"I think that's a great idea Thor." Tony said, wandering in from one of the labs. His hair was mussed and his clothes were covered in stains from his latest project.
"Absolutely not. Tony, no one is having any tournaments in this tower." Pepper said, following Tony into the kitchen. "Hello Clint, Thor."
She grabbed a bagel from the fridge and wrapped it in a napkin. Giving Tony a quick kiss, she stepped into the elevator. "If I hear you held a tournament in here, I'll tell Fury." The elevator doors closed, blocking Pepper from view.
"Jarvis, what does Ms. Potts' schedule look like?" Tony asked as soon as Pepper was gone.
"She is in meetings all day Thursday."
"Perfect!" Clint exclaimed, the coffee having finally woken him up.
~*~*~
Thursday
Tony stepped into the middle of the arena that had been set up on the roof.
"It is my great pleasure to declare these Thorsday Games, begun!"
He pressed a button and the sound of applause echoed through the air. The Avengers, plus Loki and
Bucky, stood silently in a loose circle around the arena, waiting for Tony to cut the theatrics.
"The first event of the day is knife fighting. Loki, one of Asgard's best knife fighters, will be one of our contestants. Would anyone like to challenge him?"
Immediately, Bucky's metal arm shot into the air. Steve glanced at his friend in surprise, then shrugged. There were a lot of things he didn't know about Bucky.
"Our challenger, Bucky Barnes!" Tony motioned for Bucky to step into the arena.
As they shook hands, a look passed between Loki and Bucky. Tony moved to hand them each a knife, which they both refused in favor of their own. They began circling each other, looking for a weak spot.
It was Bucky who made the first move, stepping close and slashing at Loki's arm. Loki reversed his grip on the dagger as he jumped backwards, out of reach. Soon they were engaged in an intricate dance of slashes and blocks, both flowing flawlessly from one move to the next. In the end, it was a small thing that decided the outcome of their competition. Loki slipped for just a fraction of a second. Bucky was already in motion when Loki stumbled forward, causing his knife to slice a long, diagonal line across Loki's chest. Bucky stepped back and lowered his knife. Loki dropped to his knees, looking at his hands. Appearing to make up his mind, Loki cast a ball of green magic around himself and Bucky. As the light slowly cleared, the Avengers found themselves facing a statue of Bucky. Loki was nowhere to be seen.
Inside one of Stark's control rooms, Bucky and Loki sat next to each other watching the video feed.
Seeing the team's confusion over the statue of Bucky, the pair burst out laughing.
"Start up the holo-screen, Prince Laufeyson." Bucky said, chuckling at the thought of their friends faces.
"Of course, Sergeant Barnes."
Loki replied, casting a viewing screen over the Avengers' heads. "Greetings, puny mortals. I am Loki of Asgard…"
"And I'm The Winter Soldier."
"You mortals are so gullible. As if a knife wound would do anything more than scratch a god such as I."
"And I'm certainly not that sloppy with a knife."
Loki muted their end as the pair chuckled. As they watched the Avengers look about in confusion, trying to figure out why it had gone quiet, a pillar of rainbow light appeared in the center of the arena.
Bucky turned to Loki, a questioning look in his eyes. "Is that -"
"Trouble." Loki replied as the pillar disappeared, leaving a dark haired woman standing tall in the middle of the arena.
"Lady Sif." The male Avengers chorused.
"What is this? You are having a tournament and didn't invite me."
"My apologies, Lady Sif." Tony replied, although he didn't look very sorry.
"Since you're here now," Natasha said, stepping forward, "Care to go a few rounds?"
"It would be my honor, Lady Natasha. But first, I have to teach a certain prince a lesson." Raising her voice, Sif called, "Loki Laufeyson, I challenge you to a duel. Here and now, with swords."
Loki appeared in front of Sif. "Of course, although I prefer knives."
Wow, two chapters in two days! That's got to be some kind of personal best.
Anyway, this chapter is loosely rooted in this prompt I got from Ice-Dragon111 "You could do a chapter where Loki and Thor pretend to 'fight' to prank the others, but Loki then pranks them all-including Thor- by using his magic to make it seem like he gets hurt."
After seeing the Winter Soldier and falling in love with Bucky Barnes' character, I felt like he was a better fit for it than Thor, and it just kind of went from there.
I feel like Loki and Bucky would be good friends for some reason. Maybe just because their personalities are kind of similar and they both have inner darkness, or something. Anyway, I think they would both have the darker, slightly sadistic sense of humor that would be needed to pull of a prank like this. (For those of you that have seen 'Now You See Me', think the glass tank trick at the beginning.)