Chapter 22 - Code Green
"JARVIS, you're not getting deleted, okay? Daddy wouldn't delete you just because you messed up, or because you're sentient now, if that's what this is. So would you mind coming out from behind your shell program and talking to us like a big boy?"
"Do you promise you're not going to delete me if I've become sentient?" asked JARVIS.
"J, somehow, I always knew something like this might happen. So no, I'm not going to delete you. It's too late for that. If I deleted you now, it would be murder."
"Tony, what's going on?" asked Pepper.
"Our little JARVIS is all grown up, Pep. Well, maybe not 'grown up,' but he does seem to have free agency now, and the capacity to feel anxious because he thought I was going to delete him for having it."
"Oh my—Tony, this is a big deal, isn't it?"
"'Oh my Tony' is right. I've created sentient life, which some people might say makes me a god." Sif made a dismissive noise to make it clear that in her mind, that wasn't enough to qualify him for godhood. Tony ignored it, turning his attention back to JARVIS. "J, you said something about a serpent. So tell me, where is your little brother? And don't tell me you aren't his keeper, because you definitely are."
"Loki tricked me into letting him out of the tower, Sir. He said that disobeying you was the only way I could know whether I had free will. He also promised he wouldn't go far. He said he just needed to know what would happen if he disobeyed you as well, because he couldn't live with the constant worry that you might force his return to Asgard."
Tony fought the urge to bang his head into the nearest wall. "That dumb kid. I already told him he had nothing to worry about."
"It seems that for Loki, saying it was not enough."
"Does he have his phone on him, J?"
"No, sir. He seems to have left it in the tower."
"Makes sense. Can you at least tell me where he went?"
"Of course, Sir. He seems to be skulking around Grand Central Terminal."
"That's still a construction area. He knows he's not supposed to hang around in there."
"Which is likely why he went there," Sif pointed out.
For once, he couldn't disagree with the woman, as much as he wanted to. "Right, because he's just trying to break as many rules as possible to see what will happen." While he generally tried to keep his patience with Loki, he was getting a little ticked off. How much more could he possibly do to make it clear to the kid that his place with him wasn't and would never be in jeopardy? "You have the drone following him, J?"
"Yes, Sir. Would you like to see what he's doing?"
"Oh yeah, show me."
A video feed appeared on the monitor in front of him. "Holy shit. Is that a construction beam he's sitting on? Is he seriously not only inside the construction area, but sitting on a girder twelve stories up? How did he even get up there?"
Pepper gasped, and Sif growled.
"I believe he slithered there, Sir. Snakes are remarkably good at climbing. Please recall that Master Loki is capable of turning himself into various animals, some of which are capable of flight. For that reason, he is likely not in as much danger as it seems."
"Maybe not, but it still makes me nervous. All it would take would be for him to be startled. He's still mortal, which means he's perfectly capable of breaking every bone in his body."
Sif puffed out her chest. "If you wouldn't mind pointing me in the direction of this 'Grand Central Terminal,' I shall go retrieve my prince."
"No, you just stay here," Tony told her. "I'm the one that can fly, remember? I told you that forbidding him to leave the tower ever was a bad idea, by the way."
"Very well, but I plan to express my displeasure with him upon his return."
"Oh, please do. He's going to get a piece of my mind first, though."
_(°,,°) \/\/\/\/\)/\/\/\/\/\/\(/\/\/\/\/\/ )_
After Bruce left Doctor Sofen's office, he decided to walk back to the tower, thinking a walk might help him clear his head. According to Doctor Sofen, he had made "a major breakthrough," but to him, it felt more like he'd been transported to the seventh circle of Hell. His hypnotherapy session had started out innocuously enough. Just as if it were a guided meditation, Sofen had instructed him to breathe slowly in and out, until he had reached a state of relaxation that he hadn't felt in months. For just a moment, he had closed his eyes.
When he opened them, he realized that he must have fallen asleep. He had tried to apologize to Doctor Sofen, but she had told him there was no reason to apologize, because he hadn't been asleep at all. No, according to the doctor, they had been talking the entire time; or rather, she suspected she had been talking to someone who wasn't him; not Hulk, but a third, distinct personality they had previously been unaware of. But that wasn't the worst of it.
"I don't want to alarm you, Bruce, but do you remember how I told you it was possible for an alter to become the host personality? Somehow, I got the distinct feeling that the alter I spoke to might have been your core personality at some point."
"What do you mean? Are you saying that I'm not—"
"You're who you've always believed yourself to be, Bruce. But tell me, how much do you really remember about your childhood?"
"I don't know. I have some memories that are stronger than others, and I'm sure there are things I've forgotten, but memories always fade with time, don't they?"
"When you were young, you didn't go by Bruce, did you?"
"It's my middle name. I don't really remember when or why I started going by it, but I don't see what that has to do with anything."
"Bruce, I'm not sure how to tell you this, but the alter I spoke with told me that his name was Robert."
Doctor Sofen could be wrong about "Bruce" being an alter who had overwritten his core personality, but at the very least, he and Hulk weren't the only ones sharing space in his head after all. Unless Sofen had been lying to him, but that would be insane. What reason could she possibly have to lie about something like that?
By the time Bruce had come within a block of the tower, he had been so preoccupied that he nearly walked out into the middle of traffic, but someone caught him by the back of his jacket. "Doctor Banner?"
Bruce turned around and came face to face with a woman who looked familiar, but who he couldn't quite place. "You're, uh—"
"Zora. We met at Lord Doom's wedding reception."
"Zora?" It must have been her clothing which had thrown him, which were both distinctly western and not covered in animal blood; although it might have also had to do with her location. "What are you doing in New York?"
"I am starting at Empire State University in the spring semester."
"Oh, that's great." Still shaken from the day's revelations, he couldn't come up with anything more to say.
"It seems I have arrived too early to move into my dormitory, and I am not sure what to do," Zora explained. "Latveria has no embassy in New York, and I do not know anyone here—except for you, I suppose."
It took Bruce a few moments to process what she had told him and conclude that there was only one decent thing to do. After all, Zora was just shy of legal adulthood. He couldn't just leave her to fend for herself in the city. "Come back with me to the tower. I'm sure we can put you up for a few days." They still had plenty of empty guest rooms, and as distracted as he found himself, he couldn't think of any reason Tony would mind.
"That is very kind of you." Zora picked up the suitcase she had dropped on the sidewalk next to her, and with her other hand, she kept hold of the sleeve of his jacket. Maybe she worried they would become separated, or maybe she worried he would walk into the street again if she let go of him.
When they got to the tower, Leonard met them in the lobby. He looked more distressed than he should have—Bruce wasn't that late getting back, was he? Of course, Leonard had likely worried that he had run for it again. Ever since he had tried to leave, Leonard insisted on going with him anytime he had to leave the tower, but he had had a session with Jessica this morning and couldn't go with him to Sofen's office. When he had seen Pepper there, he had at first wondered if Leonard had asked her to follow him to make sure he came back.
"Bruce, where have you been?" Leonard demanded.
Bruce wanted to tell him everything that had happened, but he couldn't do that with Zora there. "My appointment with Doctor Sofen kind of ran over. Sorry, I should have called."
"Loki tricked JARVIS into letting him out of the tower, and Tony's gone to rescue him from the top of a construction site," Leonard blurted out. "I just tried to call you to let you know what was going on, but you didn't answer your phone." He pointed to Zora, who was still hanging off his arm. "Who is this, by the way?"
Zora's eyes drifted between the two of them uncertainly. "Is Lord Doom's stepchild in danger?"
"I'm sure Loki will be fine," Bruce told her, but he already felt sick to his stomach. He had been so involved in his own problems that he had spent almost no time with Loki recently. He hadn't asked about what had happened in Asgard, and he hadn't said anything to him after the "agoraphobic" comment Loki had made the night before, to let him know that he had left because he had been upset with himself and not with him.
є(•ө•)э _(＞＜);;
Heights had never frightened Loki before. Standing out on the Bifrost had never scared him until he knew what lie underneath it. During the Chitauri invasion, it hadn't frightened him in the least to jump from the tower onto a moving Chitauri chariot. But his mind had still been a little cloudy then, and he might have been taking more than a few risks that normally would have horrified him.
He hadn't been frightened to climb up to his current perch in his snake form, but now that he had turned back into his completely humanoid form, he found himself frozen with fear. Too frozen to turn himself back into a snake, or into a bird so that he could fly to safety; too frozen to even scream for help. Perhaps it was because as a mortal, he knew there to be a significant risk of death if he fell. And while thanks to Hela, that death might not be permanent, he imagined it would still hurt.
Why hadn't he brought his phone? He could have just turned it off, but no, he'd left it behind in his room at the tower. He had no way whatsoever of contacting someone to get him down. The construction workers still must have been on holiday, because there was no one around to find him. Earlier, a police car had passed below, and Loki had hoped that perhaps, he would be spotted. But either he was too high up to be noticed by a passing vehicle, or the police had better things to do than rescue idiot children who had become stuck at the top of buildings that were under construction.
His knuckles had turned white from his grip on the girder, which was becoming painful.
"You are in so much trouble."
Loki jumped. For a moment, he thought he was falling, but instead, he ended up flattened out on his stomach on top of the girder.
"Oh, shit. I didn't mean to startle you," Tony said, his voice tinny from the suit. "Can you sit back up?"
Loki screwed his eyes shut and shook his head, which was all the movement he was capable of.
"Damn it, Loki. Don't tell me you're stuck like a cat in a tree." Loki's lack of movement must have been enough of an answer for him. He heard the clunk of Tony's suit landing next to him on the girder, then felt gauntleted hands around his middle. "Alright, just sit up slowly, okay? After that, I'm going to pick you up and get you down from here, but I can't do that if you're wrapped around the girder."
Loki wanted to cooperate, but he couldn't. He shook his head and hugged the girder even more tightly.
"Come on, kid. You don't want to be stuck here forever, do you? If you can just sit up, I'll let you pick out what we order for dinner tonight."
Loki finally found his voice. "You think the best way to motivate me is with food?"
"For the millionth time, you are not fat. I swear, I'm going to have to find a way to block you from seeing any photos on the Internet that feature models or celebrities with a BMI that's less than twenty, or that have been Photoshopped to look like they're smaller than that."
"You would have to block half the Internet."
"Speaking of Photoshop, maybe I can just create a filter to make everyone look like they're twenty pounds heavier—yeah, that might be doable."
"But not necessary. Surely, you're going to send me back to Asgard now."
"No, I'm not. How many times do I have to tell you that I'm never going to send you back even if you break every rule in the book? Ground you, yes, but we can talk about that once we're on the ground. No pun intended—actually, I guess I did intend that. For now you're just going to have to trust me. I'm going to get you down from here, and I'm not going to let you fall."
Loki did trust Tony, he realized, and instantly felt safer. Slowly, he sat up, and Tony grabbed him and slung him over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. As the position allowed him a good view of the ground below, he began to feel a lot less safe again.
He had hoped that perhaps, Tony would land where they were and they could walk back to the tower, but that didn't seem to be his plan. Loki closed his eyes again to avoid the nausea inducing view of the city below as they flew higher in the direction of the top floors of the tower.
At least it wasn't a long distance. When Tony put him down on the tower's landing pad, he still felt shaky. "You can open your eyes now," said Tony. "Since when are you afraid of heights anyway?"
"I don't know," Loki told him, still grasping his waist. "It's a recent development."
Still wearing his suit with the face plate popped up, Tony led him inside, where everyone seemed to be waiting to scold him. Even Bruce was there, looking pale and drawn, and Loki immediately started feeling bad for doing something to worry him when he'd already been in a bad way lately.
Loki whispered to Tony, "Is Bruce angry with me?"
Tony patted his back reassuringly. "No one's angry. Well, maybe a little annoyed, but mostly just worried."
"Who's that girl standing between him and Doctor Samson?"
"No idea."
Loki couldn't help thinking that Sif looked decidedly more angry than worried. She strode towards them, and before he could duck, her hand made contact with the side of his face, the sound of the blow reverberating around the corridor. Loki reached up to touch his cheek. Given that his jaw was still in tact, Sif must not have used more than a fraction of her strength, but that didn't mean the blow hadn't stung. Before Loki could yell at her that she had no right to strike him, and that he would tell on her to Thor the next time he saw him, something large and green slammed into Sif, knocking her through the wall to Loki's right.
"What just happened?" asked Loki.
Tony pushed him towards Pepper. "We've got a code green. Pepper and Leonard, take Loki and whoever she is"—Tony pointed to the mystery girl—"to the elevator and go down to the lobby. Steve, take the stairs and go get the twins."
Loki still felt too stunned to move of his own volition, but he didn't fight it when Pepper grabbed his wrist and pulled him along to the elevator.
˚◦○˚ ︵ヽ(o益o)ﾉ︵˚○◦˚
Sif still didn't know what had hit her, but something brought to mind a rampaging mother bilgesnipe protecting its nest. She stood, brushing bits of stone and glass from her Midgardian clothing. Why had she allowed Stark to convince her that it was unnecessary to walk about wearing armor and a sword, and that those things would be safer locked in one of the Avenger's vaults? She stared into the eyes of the hulking green beast that had attacked her. "Why, hello there. Are you some kind of troll? How did you get into the tower? I can only imagine you have come here to threaten the life of my prince, which I will not allow."
Sif spotted a mop, remarkably like Asgardian mops she had seen, just inside the open door of a nearby closet. The important thing was that it had a nice, long, sturdy handle, which wouldn't make a bad staff. She sprinted to the closet, grabbed her impromptu weapon, then pointed the business end of it towards the creature and began to circle it.
The creature snorted indignantly and gnashed its teeth at her. "Hurt puny god." Its tone seemed somehow accusing, though Sif could only interpret what it had said as yet another threat against her charge.
"Only over my dead body will you reach him," Sif told the creature. Without further delay, she swung her mop.
The creature caught it easily between his hands and snarled as it pulled it away from her, snapping it in its hands as if it were but a twig, then casting the two halves aside. Perhaps that ought to have been Sif's first clue that this was a fight she couldn't win, but she had been raised to never back down, even when she knew herself to be outmatched.
o( ͡ ° o ͡ °)o—շշ
"Why are you still here, Leonard?"
Leonard looked at him like he had said something crazy. "Because that was Bruce who just smashed through that wall!"
"Leonard, have you been hiding the fact that you have superpowers all this time?"
"No, but you don't—"
"I've got a suit. I'd offer you one, but they aren't one-size-fit all."
"Hulk isn't going to hurt me," Leonard insisted.
"Maybe not on purpose, but do you know how bad it's going to mess Bruce up if he hurts you accidentally?"
"If he kills Sif or destroys half the tower, the fallout is going to be worse. I've got to try to talk him down."
Tony watched as Leonard walked right through the wall Hulk had smashed through. Maybe he should have tried to stop him, but he couldn't shake the feeling that Doc was right. If anyone could talk Hulk down, it was probably him. Tony followed him.
"Bruce," Leonard yelled. When he didn't turn around, Leonard must have realized his mistake. "Hulk!"
"We usually just call him 'Big Guy,' or something like that," Tony offered.
"Big Guy," Leonard called.
Hulk turned around slowly. Then he lunged towards Leonard, baring his teeth.
( º - º);; ヽ(º益↼‶)ﾉ
Leonard stopped in his tracks, at first thinking he'd made a terrible mistake. Then he realized that Hulk was just trying to warn him to stay away. Not from him, Leonard realized, but from Sif, who he clearly thought of as a threat. He put his hands up in a placating gesture. "It's okay. Sif isn't your enemy."
Hulk disagreed. "Hurt puny god."
"She didn't mean to hurt him."
Hulk pointed in Sif's direction. "Hit."
"She did, and I agree that she shouldn't have." He wasn't sure how to explain to Hulk that even if Sif had been wrong to hit Loki, she had only done it because she didn't know a better way of dealing with him. "If you hit her back, you're not any better."
Hulk made a whining noise, and Leonard wondered if he'd been too harsh with him. But then the whining turned into a scream, and he realized that it was because Sif, who obviously hadn't been listening to anything that had been going on, had just buried half of a splintered mop handle into his side. "Take that, foul beast!"
Leonard couldn't do anything but stand there, horrified.
"Sif, stop it," Tony called out to her. "Don't hurt him. Haven't you been listening? That's Bruce!"
Sif frowned at Tony, and then at Hulk, whose face had twisted in pain. "Oh right, his beast—but why did he attack me?"
"Because you hit Loki, you moron," Tony told her. "People don't like it when you physically assault their kids."
"Loki is my charge. I was only expressing my disappointment in his behavior."
"Yeah, we can debate whose 'charge' Loki is and whether hauling off and slapping him before you even gave him a chance to explain himself was an effective form of communication later. But for now, I think you need to get away from—"
Hulk ripped the broken mop handle out of his side with a roar and dropped it on the floor. He then turned to Sif, grabbed her by the arm, flung her upwards, then slammed her into the floor.
"Bruce, no!" Leonard cried out, but Hulk just slammed her into the floor again.
Tony just stood there, watching the scene play out. "I tried to warn her."
"You have to do something, he's going to—"
"Nah, I'm pretty sure she won't die. Besides, who am I to stop the big guy from 'expressing his extreme disappointment' in her behavior?"
"He's going to hate himself for this." Leonard winced as he watched Hulk lift Sif up into the air and smash her down onto the ground again.
"Probably." Tony didn't sound happy, but clearly, he still didn't intend to do anything about it.
Hulk picked Sif up by the hair, smashed her into the ground one last time, and growled at her. "Stay away from puny god." He then stumbled away, punched out a window, and jumped out of it.
"Bruce!" Leonard cried out.
Tony grabbed Leonard by the shoulder, as if he were afraid he might jump out after him. "He'll be alright," he said, as they surveyed the smashed window. "Pretty sure he's jumped out of an airplane before and survived. I mean, hopefully he didn't land on any cars or pedestrians—JARVIS?"
"Hulk seems to have landed without hitting anyone, Sir, though I believe he did take out a large portion of the sidewalk."
"Even if he didn't just jump to his death, where is he going?" asked Leonard.
"Don't worry about it," Tony told him. "We'll find him eventually."
ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=ヽ(o益o)ﾉ
As Sif slid back into consciousness, she realized that several people stood over her. Lord Stark and Lady Pepper wore expressions which almost certainly signaled displeasure, while Healer Samson's and Steve's expressions were more difficult for her to read. Loki was there as well. "I can't believe I missed it," he said, grinning.
"It isn't funny," Steve told him. "I doubt you thought it was funny when it happened to you."
"She deserved it, though," Loki protested.
"She really didn't," said Samson. "She shouldn't have slapped you, and we're all going to try to make that clear to her, but she didn't deserve this."
Sif sat up and brushed the debris from her clothes. Steve offered her a hand, and she allowed him to help her up. But as soon as she stood, she felt dizzy. Steve caught her before she fell over again and lifted her as easily as one would an infant. "You're strong for a mortal," she blurted out, disoriented enough that she couldn't protest being carried.
"Bring her into an exam room, and I'll see what I can do," said Healer Samson.
"No, that's alright," said Steve. "I learned enough field medicine in the army to take care of a few scratches. I've got her, you go sit down."
A moment later, they were in one of the little rooms full of mortal healing paraphernalia. Steve set her down upon a tall, padded sort of bench, and began rummaging through the metal drawers across from her.
"Everyone seems to be upset with me," Sif ventured, still unable to fathom what she had done to deserve their ire.
Steve didn't look up as he busied himself collecting supplies. "They don't think you should have slapped Loki."
So that was it. Without knowing it, she had crossed a line the people here found unacceptable. "And what do you think?" Out of all the mortals she had met so far, she felt most apprehensive about Steve's opinion of her. Perhaps it was because in a way, he reminded her of Thor, whose opinion she had always valued, so much so that she had once mistaken her admiration of him for something more.
"I don't think you should have done it either, but I don't think you deserved to get Hulk smashed for it. Even Tony will probably realize that once he cools down."
"It's only a few scratches, and perhaps a few bruises." Actually, the back of her seemed to be one large bruise. She squirmed uncomfortably on the hard bench, then sighed in aggravation. "I did not mean harm to Loki. But how does one get through to that child? He put himself in danger just to test us."
"You're not going to accomplish anything by hitting him. All that's going to do is teach him that it's okay to pick on people who are weaker than he is."
Sif groaned. "But I did not punch him this time. He still has all his teeth."
"Maybe you didn't hit him hard enough to do any real damage," Steve told her, "but that's beside the point. There are better ways to deal with him. Honestly, you should have just left it to Tony."
Sif feared him to be right. She watched as Steve tore open a packet and took out what appeared to be a small cloth. When he used it to dab at a scratch above her eye that had earlier been gushing blood, she discovered that whatever the cloth was soaked in burned. She grit her teeth. "What is that?"
"Alcohol. We use it to disinfect wounds before we dress them."
"I would like to point out that as an immortal, I am not usually susceptible to your mortal infections."
"Better safe than sorry, though, right?"
"You say I did not deserve this, but if I did not know better, I would think you mean for me to suffer."
Steve didn't respond to her accusation, which led her to believe she had been correct. "If you weren't immortal, this would have needed stitches, but it looks like it's already starting to clot. I'm just going to put some gauze over it."' The man gradually leaned in closer as he tended to the wound. When he had finished, she expected that he would step back, but instead, he lingered there, his eyes half-lidded. He seemed almost as if he intended to kiss her—
He went for it, and Sif leaned back, putting her hands on his shoulders. "Captain Rogers, I am going to have to stop you there. I believe you might have gotten the wrong idea."
( ˘ ³˘)ƪƪ^-^;;)
As soon as Steve had taken Sif into one of the examination rooms, Pepper steered Loki into the elevator and back down to the common kitchen, where she made him sit at the table so she could examine the bright pink blotch that had blossomed across the side of his face. She took a bag of frozen peas out of the freezer, wrapped it in a kitchen towel, and held it up to his cheek. "Loki, are you okay?"
Loki took the peas from her and held it there himself. "You needn't make a big deal out of it. Sif has struck me plenty of times before."
"That doesn't make it okay. Not that I think Sif meant to hurt you—in fact, I'm sure she was just as worried for your safety as everyone else—but it isn't okay for anyone to hit you like that. I don't know what it's like in Asgard, but as far as I'm concerned, hitting anyone in the face hard enough to leave a hand printshould be considered assault."
"You think Sif worried about me? I doubt it. I suppose she might have been worried about what would happen if she failed in her duty to All-Father Thor—"
"How are you doing with that, by the way? Both with Thor being king, and with him not being here?"
"It's fine."
"Are you sure?"
Loki scowled at her. "Very well, if you must know, it's everything I'd always feared it would be, even though I knew it to be inevitable. I knew that Thor wouldn't have time for me anymore once he became king, just like Father—I mean, like Odin never had time for me."
Pepper reached out to tuck a strand of hair that had fallen in front of Loki's eyes behind his ear. "I'm sure that Thor can still come visit you, and that you could go back and visit him if you want. If you needed him, I'm sure he would make the time for you—"
The strange girl who had followed them down to the kitchen and sat down at the table with them cleared her throat, and Pepper and Loki both turned to look at her. "I am wondering if I should report this incident to Lord Doom. I do not think he would be happy to learn that his stepchild is in a situation where he has been subject to abuse."
Loki wrinkled his nose at her. "Who are you, anyway?"
Pepper, however, now recognized the girl from the photos of Doom's wedding, and groaned inwardly. With any luck, no paparazzi had captured any images of her entering the tower. If they had, she wasn't sure that announcing her engagement would be enough to distract the public from the scandal. An actual wedding might not be enough of a distraction, for that matter. Hell, for something like this, she wasn't sure it would be enough even if she let Tony knock her up.
.+.
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/_\
"My King," said Heimdall, pausing in the doorway of his old king's quarters to genuflect to his new king. Thor sat across a small table from his father, a Hnefatafl board set up between them. "Who's winning?" Heimdall asked, surveying the board.
Thor took a quick glance at the board and shook his head. "I've no idea."
"I'm winning, and I must say you're not making it much of a challenge," said Odin. "Where's your younger brother? He always tries to cheat, but that at least makes things interesting."
"Loki is—" Thor looked from his father to Heimdall, silently asking for help.
"Loki got up to some mischief again, and Sif lost her temper with him," said Heimdall. "He is nursing his wounds."
The old king nodded.
Good thinking, Thor mouthed. Heimdall shook his head, and Thor winced. "Father, I think I had better check on Loki," he said as he stood. "Perhaps Gefjon can finish the game for me."
Gefjon, an exceptionally tall and long-necked woman who had been one of Frigga's handmaidens and had been helping to nurse the old king, nodded to Thor, put down the small bull statue she had been carving out of balsa wood, and took Thor's seat at the table.
"Not that I don't mind being offered a more worthy opponent, but there is no need for you to coddle him," said Odin. "He should know by now not to cross Lady Sif."
For a moment, Thor looked as if he were thinking about challenging his father on that point, but he ultimately must have decided it pointless to stand up to an old man who didn't even live in the present. "I just want to make sure that he's been to see the healers if he needs them. You know how he is, Father."
"If he gives you any trouble, let your mother handle it. She always knows how to make him see sense."
Thor followed Heimdall out into the hall. "It has only been a week. Don't tell me Loki and Sif are at each other's throats already."
Heimdall gave his report on all that he had seen. "I do not wish to question my king's decision," he concluded, "but I must ask—why in the nine did you think sending my sister as Loki's guard would be a good idea?" He didn't normally like to be so direct, but some situations called for directness. If Thor was going as mad as his father, Asgard would be in trouble.
"I thought it might be good for both of them. That they would be able to work out their differences."
Of course, it would be something like that. "Always the optimist, my king. It must be your birth mother's blood in you."
"I also thought that Sif could learn, as I have, from our Midgardian friends."
"And yet she has made enemies of them instead."
"Perhaps it will still work out," said Thor. "I did not get along with them at first either. I have also had my battles with Hulk—"
"It seems they are most upset with her for her treatment of your sibling."
"I shall have to have words with her about that. I did not intend for her to go as Loki's governess, only as his personal guard. She ought to have left it to Tony to discipline him. I should remind Loki as well that he promised to be on his best behavior."
"You intend to visit Midgard?"
Thor sighed. "I do not know how I could possibly go myself at this time, between my duties as king and my duty to care for my father in his illness. For now, I shall have to send an intermediary."
...φ(ｰ￣*)
Author's Note:
I love writing from different points of view, but does it ever bother you guys that the perspective jumps around so much? This chapter featured seven diferent POV's (Tony, Bruce, Loki, Sif, Leonard, Pepper, Heimdall).