Loki does not like being here, at the place of his defeat, but he has been given no choice in the matter. He had thought he would never see this place again, these people again, this world again, yet here he is, shackled and gagged and forced to stand quietly at the side of the man who still insists that they are brothers. Part of him wishes to rage and protest, to fight, to flee, but the gag stops his tongue and the shackles render him biddable, so that all he can do is glare in barely-suppressed fury at these so-called Avengers as they stare back at him, clearly as unwelcoming of his presence here as he is of theirs.
"No, really, someone please explain to me just what Loki is doing in my living room? I thought he'd been banished to his room without any supper for the next few hundred years or something?" It is Tony Stark talking, the Iron Man, and Loki hears the fear that underlies his words. They are frightened of him; they are all frightened of him, except Thor who is too blindly stubborn to fear him and the tired-looking man who contains the beast, who is too busy being frightened of himself to truly fear any other being, and whose beast fears Loki not at all.
He shifts his weight just slightly, and hates himself for even that small sign of unease in the beast's indirect presence. He will not fear, and even if he does, he will not show fear. He is Loki, and he is a god.
A god whose cheek aches, and his ribs; he wishes the bruised skin and cracked bones to heal, but his powers are as bound as he is, his wishes ineffectual, and he knows it will be a day or two yet before he is well again, limited to his body's natural rate of healing as he currently is. He can only be thankful that he will not have the longer suffering that one of these mortals would have to enjoy from like injuries. Strange that with such significantly shorter lives their bodies waste so much of their limited time on self-repair. Still, it is better to wish on healing than to listen to his brother's words, explaining why they are here – why he has been brought here – and Thor begging, begging the mortals to take in and look after Loki, as if he is some useless child, some feeble helpless being in need of protection. He is a god, and were his powers unbound he would kill them all and protect himself.
"And what's to keep him from attempting to take over Earth? Other than us," Steve Rogers asks.
"Or even just stop him from running away the minute he can," Tony adds. "It sounds like you mean to leave him here for a while, and I doubt we can keep him locked up in the freaky bondage gear forever."
"I have been given an artifact – a spell made manifest – that will constrain his magics, force him into a form where he can make no real use of the little magic left to him, and bind him to one of you as his handler."
"His handler?" the beast – Bruce, Loki reminded himself – spoke up.
"A person who will have authority over him and his movements; whom he must follow when told to follow, or obey when told to stay, and who will have responsibility for seeing that he is protected from harm while he is unable to protect himself. I was made his handler for his move from Asgard to Midgard, but I cannot remain here; I must return home, to lead the retaliatory force against those who sought to remove him from our custody."
"And how long will we be stuck with him for?" Clint asks, and Loki can feel the force of his hatred and fear even though his voice is unemotional.
"Until we of Asgard have finished our war. It will take some little time; individually they are but poor fighters, but their sheer numbers and the canniness of their leader makes them a worthy opponent for the might of Asgard."
Loki cannot prevent himself from snorting at his brother's words. The Chitauri are indeed numerous, and their technology far beyond what the humans themselves could muster, but they are indeed poor opponents if not for their numbers; like earth's humans, it is the sheer mass of them that makes them dangerous. That, and their leader, and about him Loki prefers not to think, nor about how close-run a thing it was when the Chitauri attempted kidnapping him from one of the most secure locations on all of Asgard, and came within a hair's breadth of succeeding. His wounds are from his few moments in their hands before Thor had come to his rescue, snatching him back before he could be removed to a place where, he knew, he would have faced unending torment.
He does not believe he will be any safer here on earth than he was there on Asgard; by all evidence, he thinks, these humans are even less able to protect him from the Chitauri and Thanos' vengeance than his brother and his brother's people were. He would have preferred to remain incarcerated on Asgard than be brought here, but Thor is convinced that this is the better option, and Thor is used to having his way.
"So who's going to be his handler?" the woman asks, Natasha, as she stares coolly at Loki. He stared back for a moment, thinking that of all those gathered here, she is the only one whose wit he respects. She is almost as sly as he himself is, and the only one of them to manage to trick him into revealing more than he intended.
"By the strictures of the spell, he must make that decision himself," Thor says, then turns to look at him. "Brother, whose protection do you wish to be under?"
He glares for a moment at Thor, wishing his tongue was free so that he might once again deny Thor's claim of brotherhood with him, then turns his attention to those gathered here. He must make a choice, and while he would prefer to make no choice at all, the magics holding him leave him with no option but to obey Thor's commands.
Not the beast, is his first thought. The beast is mighty, but if the Chitauri come here, it will take more than mindless brutality to protect him. The woman and the archer are both intelligent enough, but not strong enough; they are support, not front-line fighters. Which leaves the choice between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, both equally unpalatable to him. In the end there is no real choice, only the recognition of necessity; as much as he dislikes the man, Tony Stark's intellect and love of technology are more likely to prove of use in combating any incursion by the technologically-adept Chitauri than Steve Roger's mere speed and strength in battle. He steps forward to stand in front of the man, glaring down at him with narrowed eyes.
"You're kidding me," Tony complains. The others each react in their own way to Loki's choice; Clint laughs. Natasha's expression doesn't change at all. Bruce looks relieved, Steve uneasy, lips pressing together for a moment.
Thor grins. "An excellent choice, brother!" he says, clapping one hand to Loki's shoulder, words and action making Loki glare at him. Thor turns to Tony. "I thank you for taking this on. My brother means much to me, and I am sure you will be an excellent handler."
Tony sighs. "Damn it... why me?" he asks, then turns away. "Let's get this over with, I guess. What do I need to do?"
