Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.
Natasha woke to an empty room, but it was a long while before she was conscious enough to recognize where she was. After time passed she vaguely heard people enter the room and try to talk to her, but her mind was still glazed over with drugs and their faces were only blurs above her.
When her mind cleared and she could speak, she told the nurses to keep everyone out of her room. She did not want anyone to see her injured and weak, or at least not any more than they already had.
It was a few hours later that she heard shouting outside of her door, and she slowly turned her body so that her toes touched the floor and she was sitting up. It took her a few deep breaths to get up the nerve to try to stand, and she was surprised to have her feet hold beneath her. She walked carefully, weakly to the open doorway of her room and placed her hand on the frame to steady herself.
She had originally meant to close the door, but when she recognized the voices, she stayed hidden within her room to listen.
''It is your fault that Hogun and Volstagg lay injured in those beds!'' Odin yelled, his deep voice so loud and booming that a tremor ran through Natasha.
''I was brave!'' Thor rumbled, and she heard his fist hitting the armor on his chest in emphasis of his words.
''You were foolish!'' Odin shouted. ''The moment an opportunity for bloodshed presented itself, you ran forward with no plan. Your head is so clouded with the thought of glory that you have no room for any other!''
''Father, I need to speak with you.''
This voice did not belong to Thor, but to Loki. The low, pleading purr of his voice made a shiver run through her.
''Not now, Loki!'' Odin barked. She heard the shuffle of the heavy Asgardian armor, and she surmised that he had turned back to face Thor. ''Perhaps it is a blessing that your coronation was interrupted. You are still a child. You are not worthy of the crown.''
The wall beside Natasha shook as Thor struck it with his fist, and his cry was full of anger and pain. She heard his footsteps retreat quickly from the hall, and a second pair make their way slowly away after.
''Father...'' Loki called weakly after him, but the footsteps did not stop. It was a long while before she heard Loki move from his place in the hallway, and she was surprised when it was in the direction of her room.
She started to move back from the doorway, to not draw his attention as he passed, but he turned to enter her room and froze when he saw her standing before him.
''Agent Romanoff,'' he said, his voice wavering from his surprise. ''I did not think you would yet be awake.''
She did not answer, just looked down at his hand, which had found its way to her arm. His fingers were gentle against the soft flesh, and though it was an innocent gesture of concern, from Loki it was out of place and made her uncomfortable.
He moved his hand away quickly, and he laced the fingers of his hand with the fingers of its opposite. They fidgeted nervously in front of his abdomen, and he cleared his throat awkwardly. ''I was visiting some of our warriors that were injured. I thought I would stop and see how you were fairing as well.''
''I'm fine,'' she said breathlessly, a sudden fatigue rushing over her from standing for so long too soon after her recovery.
His eyebrow raised slightly, and his lips pressed into a hard line of concern. ''I think it best that you return to your bed, Agent Romanoff.'' Instead of waiting for her to answer, he took her arm again and led her toward the hospital bed she had vacated. She obligingly sat down on the edge of the bed, and was surprised when he sat down in the chair beside the mattress.
He did not look at her, just stared blankly at the floor. She figured whatever he had wanted to talk to his father about was worrying at his mind and had him distracted. She fidgeted with the wires still stuck in her arm, and it made one of the machines beep unhappily beside her.
The noise surprised Loki, and brought him immediately back to attention. The beeping stopped when Natasha forced her hand away from the wires, and she met Loki's gaze.
''You were worried enough to check on me?'' she asked. ''A mortal?''
Loki opened his mouth the speak, and though words at first failed him, he finally found the right ones to say. ''We fought together, Agent Romanoff,'' he said softly, his expression as pure and innocent as she had ever seen it. ''In Asgard, that means something.''
She did not say anything, just looked to the floor and let silence fall over them.
''What happened in Las Vegas?'' he asked her suddenly.
Natasha grimaced. ''I saw the Frost Giants when I entered. The spinx was filled with them. They did not see me until I had my hands on the Casket. I don't remember the rest.''
Loki's eyes narrowed at her, his lips drawn into a tight, angry line. ''We had not planned on you encountering Frost Giants. You must have known you would not get away unscathed when you saw them. Why did you not leave?''
Natasha blinked at him, as if the thought had never occurred to her. ''Our mission was to retrieve the Casket.''
''When you saw the Frost Giants, you must have known that you would fail the mission,'' he persisted. Again, she stared blankly at him. His eyebrows raised, his expression incredulous, before it twisted in anger and disgust. ''Are you mad?''
She said nothing, just blinked and looked away from his intense eyes. His anger faded quickly, replaced by something he rarely felt for anyone but himself. Pity. ''What happened to you, to make you such a lost creature?''
Her eyes returned to his, blazing with a fire that he had not seen in them before. ''Get out,'' she spat. He had not meant the words to sting or to bite, yet it appeared that they had. He stood slowly, his expression drawn and guarded. His long legs brought him to the door so quickly that she only caught the edge of his cape as he slipped into the hallway and away from her.
Natasha had a strange feeling gnawing at her stomach for the next few hours, and it took her a while to recognize that it was guilt. Loki had made her angry with his words, but that had not been his intention. He had unknowingly struck one of the few sore spots that Natasha possessed, and she had lashed out at him for it.
She ignored the machines and the angry nurses as she removed the wires from her arm and vacated her bed. This time she did not stop at the doorway, but instead ventured down the hall in search of Loki. Many of the agents she passed as she left the infirmary gave her strange looks given she was clad only in a thin hospital gown, but she ignored them.
When she approached the quarters she knew housed the Asgardians, she finally spotted Loki at the end of the corridor. He disappeared around the corner, and she hurried her pace to catch him before he entered his room. But she heard his voice just before she turned the corner herself, and stopped short as to not interrupt.
''I wish to see my father,'' she heard Loki demand, and she peered silently around the corner to watch the exchange.
Loki was standing in front of a door with two Asgardians positioned between, and he was addressing the first guard with an urgent expression. Their weapons were crossed at the center, blocking Loki from entering the room.
''As we told you before, Prince Loki, the Allfather does not wish to see you,'' the first guard said, his voice monotone. Natasha wondered how many times since she had seen Loki last that he had attempted to see his father. It seemed whatever had been eating at Loki in her room at the infirmary had been more pressing than she originally believed.
''You will not deny me again,'' Loki pressed, anger prevalent in his tone.
''Prince Thor has upset the Allfather, he wishes to be alone,'' the second guard inserted.
''I am his son too!'' Loki growled. ''You will move aside or I will move you myself!''
When they refused to move, Natasha was surprised when Loki delivered on his threat. In a matter of seconds the two guards were incapacitated, lying in two separate heaps on the floor.
When Loki slipped inside the room, Natasha stepped from her hiding place around the corner. She silently ghosted across the floor, and peered around the door frame to look into the room though the small slit that Loki had left open.
Loki entered the room, and found Odin standing with his back to him and his staff discarded beside him on the bed. His hands were clasped at his back, and he was staring blankly ahead, deep in thought.
''I need to speak with you,'' Loki said, his voice small and weary.
''I do not have time for you,'' Odin said without turning to look at him.
''Am I cursed?'' Loki asked, ignoring him, and tension appeared across Odin's shoulders. By the time Odin turned fully around, Loki had let blue completely consume his skin. Odin did not flinch when he saw, and calmly met Loki's blood red eyes. At Odin's lack of response, Loki let the blue fade away again.
''No,'' Odin answered, his voice grave.
''What am I?'' Loki asked, and though his expression was blank there was a pleading in his voice that begged for anything but the answer he knew was coming.
''You are my son,'' Odin replied calmly, but Loki caught the hesitation, the flicker of doubt in his eye.
''What more than that?'' he asked, and the words were acid on his tongue. He took slow, deliberate steps towards his father, watching the weariness that grew on Odin's face with each. ''The Casket was not the only thing you took from Jotunheim that day, was it?''
When words were at first lost to Odin, Loki stopped his progress across the room, a few feet short of his father. ''No,'' he said finally.
''In the aftermath of the battle, I went into the temple, and I found a baby,'' Odin continued, his words careful but true. ''Small, for a Giant's offspring. Abandoned, suffering, left to die. Laufeyson.''
''Laufeyson,'' Loki said slowly, as if in shock.
''Yes,'' Odin confirmed.
Loki looked back at Odin, when the realization truly hit him. ''Wh... Why? You were knee deep in Jotun blood, why would you take me?'' he demanded, his voice hollow.
''You were an innocent child,'' Odin answered, but there was something behind the words. An ommission, a lie.
''No,'' Loki said, anger beginning to rear its ugly head inside of him. ''You took me for a purpose. What was it?''
Odin did not answer, and though Loki knew it then, he needed to hear it. ''Tell! Me!'' he screamed, his body bowing forward with the force of it, and he felt tears burning his eyes before Odin even spoke.
''I thought we could unite our kingdoms, bring about an alliance, bring about permanent peace, through you,'' Odin answered, his voice defeated and sad.
''Wha...'' Loki stumbled in disbelief, in horror, in fear.
''But those plans no longer matter,'' Odin finished gravely.
''So I am no more than another stolen relic, locked up here until you might have use of me,'' Loki stated, anger making its way past the tears that leaked down his face.
''Why do you twist my words?'' Odin demanded, but Loki ignored him.
''You could have told me what I was from the beginning, why didn't you?'' he persisted, his anger growing.
''You're my son, I wanted only to protect you from the truth,'' Odin insisted.
''What? Because I... I'm the monster who parents tell their children about at night?'' with each statement, his anger grew. It grew until the words that fell from his lips burned like acid, and he spoke over Odin's pleads. ''It all makes sense now, why you favored Thor all these years. No matter how much you claimed to love me, you could never have a Frost Giant sitting on the throne of Asgard!''
Odin first fell to his knees, and then to the floor. At first Loki did not seem to notice, his anger making his eyes as red as they were in his Jotun form, but when it dawned on him what had happened the anger drained away.
He heard the door creak, and looked up to see the frail Black Widow standing in the doorway in her hospital gown. When she met his eyes, she saw nothing but a lost child, and she felt tears burn at her own eyes in the face of it.
''Get help,'' he said, his eyes wide in shock as he knelt to the floor beside his fallen father. ''Please.''
At first she was frozen, but his face was pleading when he looked up to her again. She was gone the next moment, but returned shortly with a few Asgardians at her heel. They flooded into the room to aid their fallen king, Loki pushed aside, and as she watched them kneel beside him, Natasha feared the severity of the consequence that the loss of the king would be for the war.
Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The story is progressing a lot slower than I originally intended, but I actually like how it is playing out. I am taking my time with the development of their relationship and the different plots. Though I love the little ball of crazy that Loki is in the Avengers, the emotional depth that he possesses in Thor gives me a lot more to work with. That's why I kept the original scene at the end, between Odin and Loki. I hope you are all having as much fun as I am. Please keep reading and reviewing!