There's not exactly Loki whump in this chapter...but it's still in here for a reason!

Loki was pretty sure they had done this on purpose.

Scratch that. He was very sure they had done this on purpose.

The Avengers had expanded drastically after Stark had idiotically played with an infinity stone. They hadn't needed everyone on this most recent mission to go invade (yet another) Hydra base.

So, of course, they had left behind him and Barton.

Of course.

Loki had had this whole day planned out since last night: eat a late breakfast after Clint had long gone off doing whatever, grab a thick book to read and a few snacks, and hide in his room for the rest of the day. A bit cowardly, sure, but the avoidance, in this case, was necessary.

He hadn't expected Clint to eat a late breakfast, too.

Which was why he was now sitting uncomfortably in the kitchen, trying to chew as quietly as he could and ignoring the fact that Clint was leaned against the nearby counter, glaring at him with borderline murderous eyes while chomping on some Eggo waffles.

He stabbed his fork into his own waffles with enough force to break the plate underneath if he had pushed a little harder. (Were waffles really all they had? Stark could live off of coffee alone, but the rest of them...? He really needed to restock his pantries. Or maybe Loki could do it for him and use it as an excuse to avoid Clint for as long as possible.)

The silence was getting to him, and Clint knew it.

He reached for the bottle of maple syrup to add another ungodly (pun totally not intended) amount onto his plate, just as Clint moved to do the same thing.

They stared at one another for three. Long. Seconds. (Not that seconds are ever longer or shorter than normal. They're just seconds. (Loki didn't know why his internal dialogue kept getting off track.))

"You...can have it first," he said. The words felt foreign in his mouth.

Clint gestured at him with his hand. "No no no, go ahead."

"Um, no thank you. Just - just take it." Loki smiled thinly. "I'm really trying here."

"Why don't you take it?" Clint smiled a very fake smile. "Just like you took my free will. Yeah...remember that time you put me under mind control?"

"Gee, yeah. I think I do. I've apologized. What else do you want me to do?" Loki asked, exasperated.

"I don't know. Act like you're sorry?"

"The syrup's all yours, Barton. I think I've had enough." Truthfully, Loki thought he had had enough of the waffles, too. His appetite had shrunk in the last few seconds.

"Nope. It's yours. I'm not touching it until you do."

"No! I insist."

"Just take the goddamn syrup!"

In the end, none of them got the maple syrup.

"You have got to be kidding me."

Loki stiffened upon hearing Clint's voice behind him, grip tightening on the plastic bags in his hands.

He had actually gone and done something productive after breakfast, and what happened when he was putting the groceries away?

Clint came into the kitchen. They really did have the worst luck.

"Had a great time blowing off steam, Agent Barton?" he asked, trying not to grit his teeth.

"Yeah, yeah." Clint nodded nonchalantly. "Had pictures of your face on all the targets. Hit every single one."

Loki winced, trying not to imagine what that would really feel like. "I can't imagine that arrows would be useful against anything remotely dangerous."

Clint seriously looked like he was trying not to murder him. Which was a pity, really; he'd be free of the archer's begrudging nature if he were dead.

"Look, dude." Loki wasn't sure how to react to being called a 'dude'. "I'm gonna be sitting on that couch playing Mario Kart for the rest of the afternoon. We don't have to have a problem if you just stay out of my sight."

Loki was pretty sure they already had a problem, but decided to ignore it and say, "Deal."

The deal was broken within 30 seconds.

"What's the problem?" Clint asked into his phone. "Oh, that's bad...uh huh...we're on our way."

"Hey, Loki!" he called. Loki walked into the room from where he had been eavesdropping in the hallway. "Suit up, or whatever. One of our SHIELD bases has been attacked. They need us."

With a nudge of his magic, he had changed into clothes suitable for battle. "Okay, that's not fair," Clint muttered, running to his room.

Soon, they were standing awkwardly in the living room. Loki hadn't even begun to figure out how to work directly with Clint. Before, they had always worked as a full team, and their interactions had always been limited to through others. But now...

He decided to break the silence first. "It can't be a coincidence that Hydra's attacking this base when everyone else is away."

"Yeah." Clint nodded, grim. "Their intel was probably false, then."

"Could it have been a trap?"

"Dunno. We gotta focus on this thing now."

Before Clint could protest, Loki grabbed his arm and teleported them to the SHIELD base.

"What the hell?" Clint stumbled, losing his balance temporarily before righting himself again. He pointed at nothing in particular. "Never do that again."

"Noted." Loki didn't want to give him additional reasons to kill him.

He looked around. The area was in chaos, more chaos than Loki had ever seen when it came to SHIELD, and smoke was pouring out of several holes in the building.

"This base is mainly scientists," Clint said. "On the paperwork, all agents; but practically, just civilians privy to classified information. No field training."

Loki winced. "So no allies?"

"Not yet, at least." He sighed. "Guess I'm stuck with you."

The fight was well on its way when backup finally arrived. Other SHIELD agents, mind you, not the Avengers, who were across the country.

He fought Hydra agent after Hydra agent, occasionally ushering a scientist out of the way or putting a light shield around any important work he found.

Clint fought beside him, proving that his arrows were, indeed, highly dangerous.

At some point during the fight, Loki was knocked to the ground. Hard. A knee was dug into his back, but he blasted the hostile away and got back up again.

He leaned against the wall to catch a tiny breather. "Watch out!" He was slammed to the ground again, this time by Clint. A bullet dug itself into the wall where his face had been.

Loki's eyes widened. He needed to be less careless. "Thanks," he gasped out, trying not to gape at Clint. (Didn't Clint want him dead?)

He shrugged. "Don't mention it."

And they went off to fight again.

Loki didn't know how long it had been since the fight had started. Time seemed to have blurred together. Everything looked the same, and he had multiple sore cuts and bruises.

But soon it was over. Or, well, he thought it had been.

"Phil!"

He turned to see Clint running to a badly wounded man on the ground. Loki recognized the man. He was the same one he had supposedly killed three years before. How was he still alive? Was he a twin?

Loki winced. This man surely had more bad luck than him and Clint combined.

"Hey, Phil. Stay with me!" Clint turned, eyes desperate. "We need a medic!"

Loki ran over, looking at the gunshot wound in his chest. He winced, memories coming up of stabbing the man in the same place. Clint was putting pressure on the wound, hands drenched in blood, as he tried to keep the man awake. "Hey, hey. Open your eyes. Come on, Phil."

Loki grimaced. The man wouldn't survive unless he did something. "Move your hands."

"No! He's gonna bleed out. You're just gonna kill him again!"

Loki did nothing to hide his wince. "No, I'm just going to heal him."

Clint seemed to take a deep breath to calm down and think clearly. "Okay, okay." He moved his hands away from the wound, grabbing one of the man's hands instead and squeezing. "But if you kill him..."

Loki nodded. "I know." He pressed his hands down onto the wound, causing it to glow green. He closed his eyes and pushed a little more of his magic into the man's body, causing the bullet still stuck inside to disappear. Then, he began to try to mend the internal damage.

He opened his eyes after what seemed like an eternity, when in reality, had only been a few minutes. He looked down. The man's face was slack now, but the bleeding had lessened and nearly stopped. "He should be stable," Loki said, standing up to move away from the scene.

He leaned against a wall and simply breathed. This had taken a lot out of him, and he was feeling slightly faint. He tried to wipe the sweat off his forehead, but ended up smearing blood on it instead. He tried to still the shaking of his hands when he realized how much of this man's blood was and had been on him.

Footsteps. He opened his eyes (When had he closed them?) to find Clint next to him, looking like - looking like he was seeing a new person.

"Thank you," he said. Loki was taken aback by the sincerity.

He waved his hand vaguely, watching as the man, Phil, was carried to the ambulance on a stretcher. "It's...fine."

"Wanna head back to the tower now?"

Loki raised his eyebrows. "You don't want to go visit him?"

Clint shrugged. "I'm not technically supposed to know he's alive."

"Oh." Loki nodded and tried to understand why. Probably Fury's doing; most definitely Fury's doing. "Okay." He offered a hand out for Clint to grab so they could teleport out of there.

"Oh, no way." Clint put his hands up in the air. "No more teleporting. Besides, you look like you're gonna topple over.

Loki did, in fact, feel like he was going to topple over. "No I'm not."

"Come on, we're taking a car."

"This measley piece of fabric is supposed to protect me if we crash?"

"Just put your seatbelt on!"

"I really am sorry," Loki said into the slightly more comfortable silence of the car.

Clint sighed, keeping his eye on the road so Loki wouldn't freak out. (Apparently, the rest of the world's traffic wasn't like this; it was just New York that was this bad.) "I know, it's...been a bit hard to accept it, after..."

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry, too, y'know. I've been kinda an ass. I gave Wanda a chance but not you. But then you saved Phil, and it just sorta clicked that maybe you're not so bad after all."

"I suppose I'm not very good at showing sincerity in my apologies."

"Oh." Clint snorted. "That's an understatement."

"I really am-"

"Stop apologizing. It's getting annoying." Loki clamped his mouth shut. "Okay, heart-to-heart over. What do you wanna do for the rest of the day?"

"Well, I was planning to read a book..."

"That's boring."

"Well what do you have in mind, then?"

The other Avengers came back to find no severed body parts, fires, or holes in the walls.

What they did find was Clint and Loki having a knife-throwing competition in the training room. (Loki just might have been losing.)

Natasha smirked, watching the duo taunt each other. "What did I tell you guys?"

I dunno, I'm not...too happy with this one. It seems a bit rushed. But please review! Pleeeeease? *puppy dog eyes because they always work*