Thor had led me back up to the living room, sat me on the sofa and told me to stay put as they ate in the kitchen. I was sitting on the chair listening to their conversation in the kitchen,
"I don't see why you had to say that though, do you think at all before you speak?" Steve sounded exasperated,
"I don't see how I said anything wrong"
"You made it sound like we sent her there to be tortured or something like that. Put yourself in her place, what would you have done?"
"I was just saying Fury doing nothing was better than what we were discussing before we picked her up. Don't act as though you didn't think Fury was…"
"It does not matter now. She is returned to us and we can help her now, her punishment has been long already, how do you intend to help?" I was glad father had stepped in, if they carried on talking about my time in Fury's custody I would be heading back to Asgard with my lips still sown shut before they remembered I needed to make it up to them. The sound of cutlery scraping plates was all that filled the silence for a while until Tony suddenly spoke,
"Well we'll get started tomorrow then, if it's anything like yours it'll be over and done within a couple of days" I felt the annoyance at finding out he had suffered for such a short time,
"Her anger runs deeper than mine, even if she knows the truth she must speak, she may refuse to do so for some time"
"Couldn't you talk to her about it? You know what it's like, you could get her to understand" there was silence again until Natasha finally spoke up,
"What do you know about her childhood?" I could imagine the shrug from father that would have followed the question,
"She does not speak of her past to me, we are not as close as a parent would wish"
"But she was willing to attack the Avengers for you" Barton snorted in derision,
"The plan was never to attack the team, she was to infiltrate you and help me get Tony only if necessary. I was aware her line of work meant this was a task she was capable of completing" he sounded fairly irritated,
"So she told you what she did?"
"No, I asked but she would not tell. She may have known me her entire life but she knew I only knew her for months of my own, circumstances which are more likely to create suspicion than trust. If you wish to know of her past you shall have to ask her"
"Couldn't you ask then tell us?" a set of cutlery clanked against a plate,
"I shall not ask. Anything she chooses to share with me, stays with me" a chair scraped across the floor, "you shall have to discover what you wish to know for yourselves, and you should bond with your child" I quickly shut my eyes as I heard him walking into the living room, feigning sleep.
The sofa dipped next to me, I felt a hand hover over mine before it was pulled away. The other room had fallen into murmurs of confusion at Loki's actions and general dinner talk,
"What was it like?" the question was followed by silence, then a jab to my side that made me jump. I glared at him as he gave a smirk, "you can't trick me," his smirk dropped, "I know you were listening to the conversation. Was it a good, childhood, as they called it?" I stared at him, blocking out many images of my childhood that jumped to the forefront of my mind, I gave a quick nod but he just stared at me, both knowing I was lying. He grabbed me and pulled me against him,
"You can tell me, it will go no further" he rest his cheek against my head, "when you're ready" I nodded as I tightly hugged him back.
"Okay, so you're right, we should..." Stark's voice was loud, as I went to pull away from Loki he held me tight so I couldn't move, "oh. Sorry, do you want a minute?"
"It would be nice" I managed to get out of the tight grip and shook my head, shuffling to the edge of the sofa. I saw the look passed between the pair of them as I brought my legs up to my chest and rest my head on my knees. Stark came and sat down between us, the television instantly flickering to life, the atmosphere was thick and improved slowly as the others joined us and started laughing and joking at the show they were watching.
I made no attempt to pay attention to what was happening, fathers question had brought up many memories that I hadn't ever wanted to revisit unless absolutely necessary. I found them flitting through my head in a jumble, some playing out for a long period of time while others flashed past like speeding bullets.