Loki wasn't surprised that Thor was still thrumming with boundless energy, still in his battle armor and still by his side.
What surprised him was that Steve, after listening to his explanation, also took up his shield and stood to defend him in arms with his bro-... With Thor.
But the third, and biggest surprise yet, was when Tony Stark came in without his suit on, only Loki's laptop. He put it on the table in front of him, opened the screen, and made a movie play.
It was an apartment similar to his, with Darcy and some kind of metal armed man sitting side by side.
"I'm going to kill him, see ya later." said the Iron Man himself, walking away from her.
Hawkeye was bent to speak lowly, urgently, both hands on his weapon and aimed at the Iron Man.
"Darcy, I know you're friends with the guy, I know what kind of person you are, with your heart the size it is. I know you'll regret it if he gets hurt-"
"I'm not going to hurt him," Tony interrupted, one of his suit legs apparently malfunctioning, making him jerk and twist to try and lift it from the floor. "I'm going to kill him."
The Tony standing beside Loki shifted as though he still felt inclined, and the Trickster was ever more grateful for the Captain's shield, and Thor's hammer.
"Speak up, Darce." Clint said, and took aim at Iron Man as he made to leave and do the deed. A sweat broke on Loki's forehead, but the Iron Man armor once again misbehaved, a foot getting locked into place when he next tried to step. "You're not gonna let your friend get killed. And I know - and you know I know what you look like when someone hurts your feelings - and this is the 'hurt feelings' face. She's fine." he was tense, all sharp lines, clearly not liking what he was saying.
"Our definitions of 'fine' are not the same." Tony retorted.
Loki privately agreed.
"She's thinking." he went on, and Loki wondered how good a friend the Hawk was to the Midgardian girl, to have her studied so well. He wondered if the little human man had ever earned her silence to know. He surmised not... And felt insurmountable guilt that he had. "Give her a minute."
There was a full minute and a half of silence, of clicking noises from the man's metal arm, and the Iron Man suit constantly adjusting as the man wearing it shifted from foot to foot. Loki had never seen such a serious look upon his face; which was concerning, since only a few years prior had he engaged in war with the man.
"You don't gotta say a thing, doll." the metal armed man said. It started off easy, friendly. But the tone he took on was deadly and dangerous, softened only by the small endearment. "But if he hurt you, you just nod your head, darlin', and Stark's gonna go shoot his head off."
"I'll technically relocate his bone mass. He's gonna be jelly. Painful jelly." Tony said easily. "It's new tech. I thought it was an appropriate test run. But jelly goes splat, so. After I figure out what my new toy actually does-"
"The people I love always lie to me." Darcy said. The film crackled, momentarily going to snow, like the recording was bad. "And I didn't expect it, but I should probably know better." She sounded - even. Very level headed. The film wound back in to crystal clear sharpness, and Loki could see that the Hawk had been right - she was, for lack of a better term, buffering, the way his videos sometimes did on his laptop.
...The people I love always lie to me...
She loved him?
"I don't lie to you." the man with the metal arm offered.
"She doesn't love you." Iron Man snapped.
She huffed like a bothered horse.
"Tony, don't kill him. He just - it doesn't -... It's fine. I'm just - I'm just... I thought I was smart enough to see... I don't know why I thought that, maybe... just maybe, there was a decent person, under it all." The noise he could hear, there was a high chance it was his own heart shattering. "I think I am stupid."
There were loud, abrupt protests from both Avengers, but the metal armed man just shook his head very slowly.
"Well I must be." she snapped, and looked up at the Hawk. The film waved, the whole image distorting for a long second. "Because this keeps happening to me."
"What does?" Iron Man said quickly. "Who's done what? When? Give me names-"
"Darce." the Hawk said shortly, cutting through the man's mounting tirade. "Cup cake. Baby. You aren't stupid. I told you once, I'll tell you again - it's that big heart beatin' too loud. You can't adopt all of the puppies, sweetheart, no matter how hurt they are and how much they'd love you and how good you can fix them." he pointedly looked at the man with the metal arm, who was too busy looking at Darcy to notice.
"I didn't want to adopt him." she snarled, and Loki could feel the absolute heat rolling off of her tiny frame. "I wanted to be his friend. I wanted him to be okay. I wanted him to show his stupid fucking father what he was worth - I wanted him to exceed expectations! I wanted him to be happy. I wanted him to be content."
He felt ice cold all over, small and shamed in ways he had never felt before. He should've told the truth to her - the make up was false, but the attack had been real. Her care of his injuries had just... made him feel.
I wanted to be his friend. I wanted him to be content.
She loved him.
"Doll, need ya to listen to me." The stranger muttered. "He ain't worth your worries. He ain't worth you anger. He ain't worth punchin' things, alright?"
Loki agreed, and put both hands up to his mouth holding in all the apologies he wanted to say. It wouldn't work - videos didn't work like that.
Darcy looked at him, then, the metal hand linked with hers, up to his face. He was thick, built wide, with angular features and intense eyes. There was a small quirk to his lip that looked like he was trying to smile, but Loki could see it was false.
"Why does it keep happening to me?" she whispered. "Why do I trust anyone?... It just hurts."
"I know, sweetheart." his human hand touched her brow, swept hair behind her ear, lingered on her cheekbone. His thumb swiped - and at first Loki thought it was affection, but no. She was crying. "Want me to beat him up for you?"
"No." she reclined into the couch, looking small and tired in ways that made Loki's heart sink into his stomach. "I don't want anyone to hurt him, any more. He's already damaged enough."
She explained what had happened, his lie, his make up, thinking the worst of both Clint and Tony. Iron Man said nothing, but the Hawk owned it - telling her that yes, they did beat him up a little bit, but not as much as she thought, and it was only the once when he had been sneaking around at all hours of the night.
She eased into the metal armed man's side, putting her head on his shoulder.
"Well, even if that's no excuse for physical harm," she sighed, and smiled. But Loki knew what her real smiles were like, and the one on her mouth was the filthiest of lies. "It's good to know that when my feelings get hurt, a bunch of pretty superheros come to defend my honor, or whatever."
"Let's be honest," the man put his metal appendage up behind her head so she could more easily fit against his side. "I'm the prettiest one here."
Tony leaned over and hit a button that made the movie stop playing. Loki took his hands from his mouth and folded them in his lap. He felt chastised, but the man had yet to speak a word.
Tony held up a single finger at him.
"You get one more chance." was his only warning. "And with or without her permission, between your brother and Captain Spandex, come hell or high water, I will get to you, and I will end you. You get one more chance, Loki." the use of his actual name clued him into the fact that he was in quite a serious predicament.
"Just. One. You hurt Darcy again, you're a dead man."
"Fair." he said softly, but found that his silver tongue had turned to stone in his mouth, and couldn't speak another word.
"Good." he walked past both big blonde men, and left the room.
Loki thought he'd be escorted to his room to preside in solitary once more, but instead, the Captain said: "Milk or sugar?" and offered him a cup of tea.
Darcy opened her eyes to find her head nursed in the curve of James' shoulder and metal arm. His human fingers were lightly stroking the back of her hand, the one resting on his chest, right above his heart. She shifted, blinked, and lifted her eyes to his. He was smiling softly, eyes studying her.
"Feel better?" he asked, low.
"Mm." she sat more fully, looking around, hand still lazily on his chest. He made no effort to take his hand from hers, nor did she. "Always sleep good when you're around."
"What?" Clint, in the kitchen, eyebrows up. "Since when?"
And at that point in time, Darcy really didn't care what Clint had to say. She was angry with him, angry with Tony, hurt by Loki. If they hadn't been such abusive pricks, maybe the whole scenario could've been avoided. So she pointedly did not speak to him, curling her hand around James' fingers and pulling him into standing.
"If he follows us," she said quietly. "I'm going to punch him in the face, so be prepared for abrupt and useless violence."
"Usually am." he said, and lightly squeezed her fingers, allowing himself to be lead away.
Maybe Clint got the hint, but he stayed where he was. Darcy had the idea that he'd be still in her kitchen area when she got back. James linked there fingers, giving her a small, sly smile when she glanced at him. It made her feel warm all over, that he made that effort, and they wandered all around the tower, hand in hand, not really talking, just wondering.
They wound up at the labs, where only Bruce was working. And somehow, he very casually started explaining the basics of genetics and took her blood to tell her what blood type she was and such. There was a moment when he saw something, making a low humming noise, but didn't mention why.
Darcy didn't care, because James was winding his fingers in hers again and asking if she wanted to decorate the batch of cupcakes he'd made that morning.