Loki skated down the Tower halls, feet clad in thick socks for that perfect slide, on his way to the kitchen. Thor was still asleep, snoring away, which mean Loki would either have to wait for food, have cereal (the oven, stove, microwave and, as of recently, the iron were still off limits – trying to fry an egg on an iron removed his rights for un-creased clothes as well unless someone else was willing to help) or go and beg from someone else. He tried having cereal but there was neither cereal nor milk nor anything edible on Thor's floor.
"JARVIS, anyone making food?" Loki asked once he reached the elevator.
"The only one awake at the moment is Mr Barton, sir." Loki frowned, he had avoided Clint, and to a lesser extent Natasha, because they both acted coldly towards him but he was really hungry. Popcorn was not valid food and it was all he had eaten since lunch the day before. Loki let out a sigh and stepped into the elevator, commanding to be taken to the archer's floor.
Clint's floor looked like a student house, nothing quite put away and nothing quite clean but with an overall system for not losing anything he needed. Loki walked to the kitchen, the layout on every living floor was mostly similar, and noticed it was empty. He didn't want to just steal food, which is why he was trying to ask someone for some, but if Clint wasn't there then he'd have to think it through again. Loki silently cursed Thor for not keeping the kitchen stocked with proper food that didn't require cooking. There wasn't even any fruit.
Clint had fruit. Loki swiped an apple from the bowl on the counter after scaling up cabinet and walked back to the elevator. Looking back Loki probably should have pinched fruit from someone else, someone that wouldn't fire an arrow through the food when he was just about to take a bite. Loki just blinked, looking sheepishly at his now empty hand.
Clint Barton, looking fearful clad in nothing but a pair of pyjama trousers casually pointed an arrow at Loki but not looking like he would actually fire it and kill the boy, injure maybe but not kill.
"You have five seconds."
"Thor doesn't understand you have to buy food and I was hungry." Loki explained, looking longingly at exploded apple, "I was going to ask you but you weren't here." Clint didn't lower the bow, giving him the same deadpan look, "I'll go bother someone else." Loki pressed the button for the elevator but after waiting awkwardly for a few seconds and the box not arriving Loki asked what was happening.
"Sir has said you and Mr Barton are to talk out your problems and has had me stop the elevators from reaching Mr Barton's floor." Clint just shouldered his bow and put his quiver on a nearby bookshelf (out of reach of use-to-be psychopaths) before making himself a bowl of cereal.
The two of them didn't speak for the duration of time it took for Clint to finish his breakfast, all the while Loki sat against a door pouting with his head on his knees. Once Clint was finished eating he got up, dumped the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and told Loki to move so he could go through the door. When Loki didn't move the archer just nudged him out of the way with his foot.
The two still didn't speak when Clint came back a little bit later fully dressed and showered, Loki was now sitting upside down on the sofa with the TV playing in front of him while he scrolled through the internet on Clint's StarkPad. Seeing this, Clint switched the channel and pinched the tablet from Loki who just let out a 'hey!' but was ignored.
"What did I do to you? To make you hate me so much." Loki asked after they had been sat in silence for almost an hour (turned out Loki liked the program Clint was watching).
"You led an army to Earth." Clint didn't even look at Loki as he said it.
"There's more than that. I looked it up weeks ago but the media doesn't have all the details, it doesn't even have my name anywhere, just that someone caused an invasion and a portal opened above the city with some blurry photos! No one will tell me anything!" Loki shouted, gripping his hair with his hands but that didn't prevent the headache from stabbing his mind.
"You want to know, fine! You took over my mind and several others, caused the deaths of hundreds and the destruction of a major city! Then opened a portal to another dimension right over the Tower! You killed Phil!" Clint shouted back in turn, pacing back and forth away Loki trying to keep his distance, "And here you are acting all innocent, like you never did anything wrong and everyone's buying it." There were several more moments silence.
"I'm sorry Mr Barton, I really am but I can't change what happened. I'm not lying when I say I can't remember anything, is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" Loki asked, looking at his socks and hearing a sigh from the other side of the room.
"No, not really." Loki wrapped his arms around his legs and buried his face against his knees, "But I can give you a chance. If you start turning crazy again I won't hesitate to shoot you." Loki gave him a small smile, trying to wipe away the tears drying against his cheeks, "Don't even try it, I'm not falling for the cute act."
"Can you at least feed me, I'm starving." Loki flopped back onto the sofa dramatically, wincing slightly when his arm caught against one of his horns, he tended to forget about them.
"Did you just injure yourself on your own head?" Clint looked to be holding back a laugh.
"Apparently so, I wish I could say it was the first time doing so but that would be a lie." Loki looked at his arm where a small gash was beginning to well with blood, it was only a scratch but, like a paper cut, it was bleeding quite a lot.
"Ouch, I'll get a bandage or something for you, just don't get stains on the sofa." Loki nodded and went to stand in the kitchen, away from the easy-to-stain carpet and furniture, while keeping his hand pressed against his arm. Loki had injured his arms before on his horns, it was mainly when he was bringing his hands up to his head, he would scrape his arms and wrists against the extra appendages. Perhaps his skin was weaker than other Jotnar or maybe it was just a normal growth period similar to teething or when you bite the inside of your own mouth.
"How do you hurt yourself on your own head?" Clint laughed as he walked back into the room, first-aid kit in hand.
"You try having sharp things attached to you." Loki hissed slightly when Clint wiped the gash with a damp cloth and bandaged it up; he then wiped Loki's head to clean off the deep coloured blood.
"No thanks, they don't look comfortable, nor do the claws." Clint gestured to the nails on Loki's hands, they were very claw-like and Loki needed to give them a proper trim. Same with his hair, it was now past his shoulders and usually tied back in a ponytail or loose braid; everyone poked fun at it (minus Thor) but Loki refused to let any of them near his head with sharp objects, especially Stark.
Arm covered up Clint stood back up and put the kit back where he got it from.
"Just be glad I got control of the freezing everything thing my skin did." Loki stretched his arm out slightly, it was basically a strip of gauze held on by medical tap, it was obvious that Clint was trained in first aid but it wasn't his specialty.
"What are you anyway? Some sort of living ice cube?" Clint poked Loki's head.
"Jotun, or Frost Giant." Clint just raised his hands in an 'I have no idea what you just said' gesture, "They inhabit Jotunheim, it's one of the nine realms and it is a land made almost entirely of ice. I haven't visited often and when I have it wasn't on good terms. I don't believe I am welcome there any longer if they were to know who I am and what I did."
"I want to ask why but I won't like the answer, will I?" Loki shook his head looking back at his feet, and then Loki remembered something important.
"I have to ask everyone something!" Clint just blinked at the sudden shout and jump from the boy in front of him, "The Quidditch World Cup, it's in a week or so, I was wondering if the team wanted to come."
"That's the one where everyone rides around on brooms, right?"
"Yep!"
"The magic sport, we get to see magic properly?"
"Yep!"
"Deal. I'll even put up with you alone if I have to, I'm not missing out on magic." Clint said, trying the elevator again, surprisingly there was a ding and the doors opened.
"You could've just asked." Loki formed a lumos spell in his hand, which Clint just stared at and tried to poke, "This could burn your hand off and you just go and poke it? How have you survived this long?"
Clint just laughed, "Pure luck."
"Have you made up?" Stark grinned from over his coffee, he looked like he had a layer of soot covering his face, as did Bruce who poked his head around the corner. Something probably exploded.
"I'm being taken to magical sports final. I don't think we should invite him, Loki, he did trap us after all." Clint said, ushering Loki towards the kitchen past the startled billionaire.
"Who made you in charge of inviting people?"
"I did, just now."
"Jerk, and I don't think Mr Stark deserves to come either, do you wish to come Mr Banner?" Loki grinned innocently, ignoring the shouts from the last occupant in the room.
"I'd love to, Loki, is it okay for us to join you? You won't get into trouble for bringing us?" Bruce asked ("Am I invisible?!").
"I don't care. Have you seen Thor yet? Steve? Natasha?" ("Why not Lady Natasha? It's Lady Darcy and Lady Jane." "Because Natasha said she doesn't want to be called that and she scares me") Loki finally got around to the long awaited cereal despite it being closer to 1pm but he was still in his fluffy set of pyjamas (they were a gift from Darcy and really comfortable, who cares if he looked like a little lamb) so it still counted as breakfast.
"Steve's out in the streets and Natasha is on her floor. I think Thor's calling Jane on video chat."
By the end of the day, all the Avengers were looking forward to a trip to England. Loki eventually agreed to take Stark as long as he paid for their tickets and travel there ("You'll spend all that money on tickets but you still won't get me a kitten?" "Magic world is great, evil hell spawn not so much" "What about a snake? A Hedgehog? A dragon?" "If you find a dragon you can safely keep as a pet then I will gladly let you keep it").