Captain America stared down at his shield, eyes fairly distant as he thought of something else. The star still had a scrape across it from where a particularly large frost giant had hit it, but the surrounding paint was fine.
He could hear Nathaniel and Cooper outside; they were both shouting at one another. It had warmed back up that morning, especially now that the sun was out.
Banner walked past his door, glancing in at Captain America. He paused and took a few steps back.
"Hey. Uh. You okay?" he asked.
Captain America looked over at him and it took him a second to respond.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking." he stepped away from the shield and joined Banner in the hallway.
"Natasha keeps tryin' to convince Hawkeye that we need to leave here." Banner said "But he's not having it."
"Not surprised." Captain America said with a scoff that was partially amused and irritated.
They started walking down the stairs, conversation falling silent. Captain America's eyebrows went up as he looked up and saw Hena by the window. She was brushing her hair with a decorative bristle brush as she looked out the window. As she heard the footsteps, she turned fully towards them.
"Good morning." she said with a smile.
Captain America paused for a moment before nodding slightly "Good morning."
She glanced back towards the window and then continued brushing her hair after a moment.
Captain America shared a glance with Banner, before walking into the kitchen where Hawkeye was getting Lila a snack.
"Any word from SHIELD?" he asked quietly.
"Concerning what?" Hawkeye asked.
"The scepter." Captain America said.
"They still don't know we have it, if that's what you mean." Hawkeye replied plainly. Thor glanced over at them and then looked back at Hena. Her hands were behind her head, twisting a portion of her hair into a braid. Then she wrapped it into a circle so it sat on the back of her head like a bun and the rest of her hair hung down her back. As she turned, Thor quickly averted his eyes, turning them towards the kitchen.
Hena then walked over and out of the door. Loki was right outside, still reading his book. She stopped and looked at him.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
Loki looked up and then glanced away for a quick second "What do you mean?"
"Let's go out there." Hena said, gesturing into the field. The ice pile from their battle with the frost giants was still on the ground, slowly melting. The cooling weather definitely wasn't helping it to go away.
"I am reading." Loki replied. There wasn't technically any sarcasm in his voice, but the matter of fact tone inferred it.
"I know, I also enjoy reading. But not right now." Hena said with the same light tone "Come out here."
"You are saying it as if you asked me to do it already." Loki replied. He slowly shut his book and then held out an arm towards the steps of the porch. She immediately smiled and started her way down. Loki followed her after a moment, hand cupped around the book at his side.
Both Thor and Captain America watched them in silence and then the soldier spotted Tony outside working with the scepter.
"What the hell is he doing?" Captain America asked, beginning to walk over in irritation.
"He wanted to make sure that SHIELD doesn't have a way to keep tabs on it." Hawkeye said from behind them in the kitchen. Captain America stopped and glanced back.
"Don't worry." Hawkeye said, tossing a towel onto the kitchen counter and then leaning on it "I did the same thing."
Captain America let out an amused sigh "Yeah, well, maybe he's right. And it's better safe than sorry right now."
"At least you don't owe him an apology." Hawkeye replied.
"You know, I probably do." Captain America said with a hint of a smile.
"Well, it's still most likely his fault." Hawkeye replied. Banner leaned to see Tony and then made his way out the door.
"I forgot she was here." Captain America said, gesturing after Hena.
"Hena?" Hawkeye asked.
"Yes." Captain America said "That's another thing I need to talk to Stark about. Her father wasn't even going to let her stay if he hadn't chimed in."
"True." Hawkeye conceded "Have you noticed she has this weird glow around her?"
"Oh good." Captain America said, looking at him in surprise "So I'm not crazy."
"Yeah, she, like, shines almost." Hawkeye replied. He looked at Thor "Do you see it?"
"Yes." Thor replied plainly "But she is a magical being so I don't think it is significant."
Hawkeye shrugged, mostly with his eyebrows.
A moment later, Thor walked past Captain America and out onto the porch. He was watching Tony and Banner check on the scepter, but his eyes wandered over to Hena and Loki. His younger brother stared at her in amusement as she mimiced something. Then she shrugged. The God of Mischief nodded at her and then replied briefly. His book was back open now. Hena shrugged, spreading her arms wide. Thor watched Loki with a solemn, yet thoughtful expression as he conversed with her. Hena rose up to her toes to peer at his book. She balanced for a moment before Loki lowered his arms. She immediately went back down with an indignant scowl and pushed his arms back up, making him laugh for a moment.
Cooper and Nathaniel were both swinging their swords into the ice, seeing how much ice they could chip away at a time. For once, Coooer was allowing Nathaniel to brag without flaunting his own skills. Hena watched them with raised eyebrows and pursed lips.
"So what are you guys doing to stop the dark beings?" Hena asked, glancing over at Loki. He looked up and then tilted his head quizzically.
"Which ones do you mean?"
Hena pulled her head back slightly, eyes opening a bit "There's more than one?"
"Well...yes." Loki replied "There's the frost giants trying to invade Earth as one."
"Frost giants aren't dark beings." Hena said, her voice questioning "You know who I am talking about."
"You were the one who inferred it was plural." Loki responded, looking down at her in amusement.
"Yes, I suppose I did." Hena said "But I meant it as a group. I refer to Asgard as plural too."
"Ah." Loki replied, sounding very patient. However, he didn't continue.
"Ah? Ah, what?" Hena asked in exasperation.
"At the moment we are not doing much. Odin has ordered Thor to fend off the frost giants and the frost giants only." Loki replied "So we've waited. And waited some more."
"I can't tell if you are pleased with that or not." Hena said in response. Then she leaned and gestured at his neck "What bastard did that?"
Loki glanced at her briefly and then took a big breath in.
"One of the worst ones there is." he said.
"Not one of these guys, right?" Hena asked, waving back at the house.
Loki let out a breathy laugh "No. Not them."
"Good. I would've gone and beat them." Hena replied.
Loki smiled down at his book "You probably could too."
Hena turned to face him, arms folded "Alright, I have a feeling there is some sort of an insult somewhere in there."
"There is not." Loki objected lightly, eyes amused.
"I think it goes along the lines of 'Hena is so small they wouldn't even try to defend themselves.'" she replied.
Loki looked at her from the corner of his eye.
"Wow."
"What?" Hena asked.
"For someone who has a hard time reading my mind, you certainly picked up my thought process there."
Hena opened her mouth indignantly and started hitting him on the arm. Loki leaned away, laughing as he vaguely defended himself.
"Okay, okay!" he said "I'm joking, goodness."
"I don't think you were." Hena replied, eyes serious.
"Yes, I was. We've sparred before, remember?"
"Mhm." Hena said, still sounding disgruntled. Then she let out a deep breath.
"Do you want help to heal it?"
Loki shook his head slightly "No. But thank you."
"Are you sure?" Hena asked "Because I feel like you would have done it by now if you could."
"They heal on their own after a while." Loki replied, echoing his words to Thor.
Hena let it go at that and didn't try to convince him any further, despite her curiosity.
She ran a hand through her long hair before pushing it behind her shoulders. She currently wore a light brown and green dress that was lined with armor around the wrists, chest, and waist, making her look even more tiny. There were strands of fabric that hung off that she kept wrapping around her hands absentmindedly.
"Why are you trying to read my mind?" Loki asked, without looking up at her.
Hena's shoulders dropped slightly as she relaxed her attempt to see his thoughts. She scowled.
"Because I don't want to see what you're thinking, that's why."
"Hm." Loki raised his chin slightly in acknowledgement "Well, currently, I'm thinking about this book."
"You never let me see what you're thinking." Hena replied "It's a little bit frustrating, to be honest."
In fact, Loki was the only person she had ever come into contact with that she couldn't read unless he let her. It wasn't hard to read passing thoughts, but she could only get deep with physical contact. Memories were still relatively easy though.
"I am sorry." Loki said, glancing at her. Hena kicked at him and he leaned away slightly, eyebrows going up.
"You're being sarcastic." she said. Suddenly her eyes opened wide and seemed slightly fearful for a moment.
"Whoa. What is that?"
Loki turned and looked up to see an Ironman suit heading towards the general area of the house. His eyebrows went up for a moment.
"Oh. One of Stark's suits he wears." he said.
Hena smiled "Stark? What is this? You're on a last name basis?"
Loki's eyes flicked over in her direction for a moment with a small smile.
Hena looked at him, almost as if waiting for an actual response, but then returned her eyes to the metal humanoid figure. It landed a bit off from the house and she immediately began walking towards it.
"Midgard is very weird." she said, but her eyes were slightly fascinated, if not laughing. Loki raised one eyebrow and then shut his book softly before following her. She easily caught up with the machine, eyes scowling slightly.
Thor watched her as he stepped outside the house. It still baffled him at how small she was, even compared to Hawkeye and Tony. For a being who wasn't mortal, this was quite peculiar. Not that there weren't smaller Asgardian women, but this woman from Anaheim appeared so fragile. However, her demeanor showed nothing of the sort. Once the suit had deactivated, Hena's eyes narrowed and then she glanced away. Instead, she looked at the scepter. She began to walking in its direction, head tilted a bit. Oddly enough, the glow of the sceptor almost seemed to intensify as she got closer. Thor frowned slightly.
Then Loki extended an arm in front of the princess of Anaheim lightly, seeming to appear beside her.
"It might be best if you stayed away from that." he said, his voice mild.
Hena looked up at him "Why?"
"I'd just rather you didn't go near it." Loki responded.
Hena glanced back at the scepter for a moment before letting out a deep breath and nodding slightly. She turned back towards the front door and Loki lowered his arm. Thor watched slightly and then Hena looked up at him with sparkling eyes.
"So this is the great Mjolnir?" she asked, nodding at his hammer.
Thor glanced down at it, then back at her "Yes."
"Mind if I try something?" Hena asked.
"With it?" Thor asked, sounding fairly surprised.
The princess nodded back and the God of Thunder hesitated a moment before walking down the steps towards her. Loki watched with a mildly interested expression.
Thor stopped in front of her and Hena took one step back.
"Will you set it down?" she asked.
Thor scowled slightly, but he let Mjolnir drop to the ground. Hena jumped at the loud bang and gave Thor an intense stare down.
"Why would you do that?" she asked "I said set it down, not throw it at the ground."
"It was getting too heavy for him." Tony pitched in. Apparently he had turned around to watch the interaction. As had several of the others that were previously in the house.
The amusement returned to Hena's face as she slowly crouched down by the hammer. Thor folded his arms slightly as he watched her, not too affected by her rebuke. After a moment, she reached out a hand and put it flat on the weapon. Volstagg tilted his head slightly, confused.
The spot under Hena's hand dimly glowed gold and then Mjolnir suddenly began to hum. It slowly began to get louder and louder and vibrated intensely. Thor watched, obviously shocked until Hena removed her hand in a swift movement. She smiled slightly and glanced up at Loki. He raised his eyebrows back at her.
"How did you do that?" Thor asked. Hena turned to him.
"I can amplify power." she replied "And this has a massive reservoir." Then she stood up, examining Thor's face.
"Amplify power?" Volstagg echoed, walking down the steps "In what manner?"
"Well, like Mjolnir." Hena said "It doesn't work as well when I can't use the power for anything. But I can amplify magic extremely well. Like Loki's, for example." she turned to the God of Mischief and looked briefly surprised for a moment as she gazed up at him.
"Oh my goodness, it feels like you've doubled in height since we saw each other." she said, shaking her head slightly at him. Loki's eyebrows went up in amusement.
"Well, I certainly have not." he replied.
"Okay, but you've grown taller for sure. I remember how tall you were." Hena said.
"I don't doubt it." Loki replied.
Hena glanced back at Volstagg "Anyway, I can strengthen his powers really easily. Natural power is a lot easier to deal with than artificial power."
"What would be considered artificial power?" Volstagg asked.
Hena lifted an arm and pointed at the Ironman suit "Things like that."
Tony followed her gaze and then looked back at her.
"And, I don't know, Loki's power is just most similar to mine." Hena continued.
"So, is that where the whole mind reading and connection thing comes into play?" Tony asked "You know, amplifying the power of their brain or something?"
Hena regarded him for a moment "No. Most people don't have any power to increase in the first place. I mean, no offense."
"You can just tell me I'm a useless piece of crap, it's okay." Tony replied "Give it to me straight."
"No, I didn't say that!" Hena said indignantly "Just because you don't have magic doesn't mean you're useless."
Behind her, Loki shrugged slightly, almost so no one would have noticed. But Hena looked back and waved a hand at him.
"Stop it. That's mean." she returned her eyes to Tony "My whole family can read minds. It's just kind of been inherited. We can also sense emotions."
"That must be burdensome." Volstagg said, raising his eyebrow curiously.
Hena shrugged "No. You learn to separate your own feelings from others. My parents blocked that part of my power when I was young. They're doing the same for Mazi now as well."
"Interesting. I suppose that would be wise." Volstagg replied.
"Do you have children?" Hena asked.
"Uh, wouldn't you already know that if you can read minds?" Tony asked with clear feigned innocence.
Hena shook her head before she spoke.
"No, I really try not to be invasive. It also takes effort." she replied.
"Oh." Tony said trying to sound as if he genuinely learned something. Hena looked back at Volstagg.
"Yes, I do." the warrior responded.
Hena smiled slightly and then took a deep breath as she looked at the others. Tony raised his eyebrows briefly and then turned around to walk towards the house. Thor was still looking at Hena and then back at his hammer.
"Did you find anything, Stark?" Captain America asked, breaking the silence.
Hena blinked at him for a moment, but she didn't say anything.
"No. Not a damn thing." Tony replied "Which I'm still not quite convinced is true, but no. I didn't find anything."
Captain America just raised his eyebrows for a moment before nodding. Then he turned around and walked back into the house.
"Oh my goodness." Hena said "You all do it."
"What?" Loki asked.
"You call each other by your last names." she replied.
Loki smiled slightly "It's not actually that rare of an occurance."
"Well it is very unusual to me. It's like someone calling me 'Anaheim'. Or calling you 'Odinson.'"
"Actually, it is not very much like that at all." Loki replied. Hena looked over at him with a tilted head at the same time as Thor.
"Oh yes. I forgot you don't like that." she said, looking back away "But I don't even know what to call you. You don't like Odinson. You get offended when I call you Laufeyson. So I don't even know what to call you."
"Loki will do." the God of Mischief responded. Thor's eyes widened as she used his biological father's name so lightly, but Loki didn't react how he expected.
"Maybe I'll just call you by your mother's name." Hena said "Because you like her. Friggason. Sounds lovely."
"It doesn't work like that." Loki replied with a hint of amusement.
"Why not?" Hena asked, obviously trying her best to be difficult.
"It just doesn't." Loki replied.
"Of course not." Hena said "But you seem to be defying a lot of other rules, so I think I can call you that. I mean, I could call you by my father's name, but you'll probably say 'it doesn't work like that.'"
Loki just smirked slightly, but he didn't say anything.
"What?" Hena demanded.
"It doesn't." Loki said smartly.
Hena rolled her eyes and shook her head. She kicked an irritated leg out at him, scowling.
"It's just not what I am used to." she said "In Anaheim, our family just keeps the name of the realm."
"I believe you actually complained about that the last time I saw you." Loki replied, looking at her with one eyebrow raised.
"Yes...well." Hena said, blew out a deep breath "Apparently, I ought not to complain."
Loki nodded slightly and she glanced back at the children for a moment.
"You don't think they have this place under surveillance, do you?" Banner asked, lightly tapping a pen once on the stack of papers sitting on the table before setting it down.
"No, definitely not." Hawkeye said "Fury helped me get this all set up. And I trust him. We have definitely given it a thorough search many times."
"How recently?" Banner asked.
"In the past year or so." Hawkeye replied "Why?"
"SHIELD doesn't seem to respect anyone's privacy." Banner said.
"Is that a sly insult in my direction?" Black Widow asked with a small smile "Because I'm the one who came and got you from Calcutta?"
"No, I don't blame you." Banner replied.
"But I definitely sense some bitterness there." Tony said. He shrugged "That's okay. It's to be expected."
"No, I just want to make sure we aren't broadcasting the details of our situation to everyone." Banner went on "Because I don't trust that Fury would really leave any one of us alone."
"Yes, he actually bugged Thor's room on Asgard." Tony replied. He closed his eyes with a small shake of his head "Signal is fantastic."
"There are very few people who know about this place." Hawkeye said "Only those who have met Laura. Fury told me he would leave them out of anything that should come up and I just trust him. He knows Laura, they're friends, so I don't think he'd put her in danger."
Banner just nodded in return. Hawkeye began walking towards the door as he saw his kids walking up the porch steps. Laura had called them in for lunch several minutes ago and they were just now getting around to it.
"What is her name again?" Cooper asked as soon as he came in the door.
"Her out there?" Hawekeye asked, gesturing outside. Cooper nodded quickly.
"Hena." Hawkeye replied.
"She looks like an angel." Nathaniel reported. Hawkeye's eyebrows went up at that.
"Kid's not wrong." Tony said.
"Like, she shines." Cooper added, causing Captain America to scowl over at Tony.
"Yes, you're right, she does." Hawkeye replied, glancing back as Laura beckoned the boys over into the kitchen. Cooper high fived Black Widow as he went by.
"How in the world did you manage to keep all of this a secret?" Banner asked under his breath, looking around the house as if he didn't really expect an answer.
"I make a lot of trips every month." Hawkeye replied.
"You must write off a lot of travel expenses on your taxes." Tony said, tilting his head "What's the going rate for a SHIELD operative these days?"
Black Widow smirked over at him as though she had a witty comeback planned, but then she glanced down at her cell phone. Tony leaned to see as she stood up and put it to her ear.
"Director." she said, smiling even though Fury couldn't hear her "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
She moved around the table and began walking towards the door.
"Yes, actually, we did have a rather esteemed guest visit." she replied dryly "From the way he spoke, I assumed you wouldn't have known."
"I'm offended on Fury's behalf." Tony said, raising a hand slightly "He knows everything."
Captain America put a finger to his lips briefly with a scowl as he tried to listen.
"Yes." Black Widow lowered her phone, apparently done with the phone call.
"That was...fast. What did he want?" Hawkeye asked.
"He wants us to meet with him. In town." Black Widow replied "And by us, I mean you and me."
"But what did he say?" Captain America asked.
"Councilman Malick and him had a chat apparently and Fury would like us to check in. SHIELD suspects us of stealing the scepter." Black Widow said with a small, slightly peeved smile.
"And are you planning on going?" Captain America asked.
"It would be more suspicious if we didn't." Black Widow responded.
"They are very needy." Tony said dryly.
Hawkeye didn't say anything, but he walked past him up the stairs. Black Widow waited for a few minutes and then he appeared at the top again, his bow in his hands.
"You're not leaving that for us?" Tony asked.
"Call if anything happens." Hawkeye said, glancing at Captain America.
"They'll be okay, Hawkeye." the soldier replied, looking at him.
"Yes, even Loki seems to be on your family's side." Tony said.
"I didn't say they wouldn't be okay, I said call me if anything happens." Hawkeye replied "Come on Natasha." he turned to walk out the door and Black Widow hesitated a moment before following him.
Thor watched them, face obviously questioning because Hawkeye spoke to him briefly before heading down the porch steps.
Both Nathaniel and Cooper immediately noticed that he was heading for the vehicle and began running over to him. They still had their swords in their hands and had to throw them to the side to give him a hug. He patted them with a small smile and apparently informed them he would be back in a while because then they backed off and picked up their swords again.
Black Widow waved at them as she walked around the car.
Hena and Loki were in their line of sight and both glanced over as the SHIELD agents got in the car to leave. Then, Hena walked over to the the Anaheimien guards. The Asgardian men stood a bit closer to the scepter than them. Thor watched her, head tilted thoughtfully as she spoke to her guards like friends.
The temperature had dropped quite a bit by the time Black Widow and Hawkeye returned. A cold breeze blew by as they walked up to the house. The porch lights didn't illuminate the area surrounding the house very well, but Loki was still outside. He seemed to prefer being outdoors at night. The guards weren't far off from him, but they were facing the other way.
As they walked into the house, Captain America looked over from his spot by the kitchen. He stopped leaning against the wall as if he was expecting them to report something, but Hawkeye looked past him into the kitchen. Laura and Hena were in there talking together at the moment.
"Are the kids asleep?" he asked.
Laura leaned to see him "Yes, they are."
Tony's eyebrows went up "That sounds like you have something really grave to tell us that you don't want them to hear."
"No, just being a parent." Hawkeye replied with a small sarcastic nod at him.
"What did he have to say?" Captain America asked, cutting to the chase.
"He asked us the same thing as Malick did." Hawkeye replied "Except, I think he was expecting us to tell him something different."
"To be honest, I was thinking about doing it." Black Widow responded, folding her arms with a small smirk "You never know, SHIELD could be extremely helpful."
"SHIELD could be, you're right." Tony said "But they won't be. Not right now."
"They'll probably be off of our scent for a little while. I don't really know if he believed us, but he didn't try to dig any deeper." Hawkeye replied.
"Good." Captain America said "Until we get word from Asgard, they shouldn't know anything about it."
Thor blinked at him with a little bit of surprise as the solider had been so resistant of Asgard's lead before.
Hena began walking out of the kitchen, eyes scowling slightly. There was no way she hadn't heard their conversation, but she appeared more intent on something else. After she walked over to the door, she leaned her head out, keeping everything else inside.
"Loki!" she called, her voice lightly anxious.
"Yes, ma'am." he replied, sounding much closer than her yell would have warranted.
"Oh, sorry." Hena apologized, with a small laugh "Why are you still outside? You're going to get killed out there."
Thor's eyebrows went up and several of the others shared a questioning glance for a moment.
"I forgot you don't like the dark." Loki's muffled voice came again.
"No, I really don't. Something could be coming to grab you and you wouldn't even know it." Hena replied "Besides, it's getting cold and you're going to freeze out there."
"Me? I think I am fairly immune." Loki asked, his voice lightly humored. Hena paused for a moment.
"Okay, fine, that was stupid, but really, you should come inside." she said.
The God of Mischief replied something, but it was inaudible to everyone except for Hena.
"Loki. You are testing my patience!" she said, pulling back inside the house.
"What patience?" Loki appeared in the doorway as he closed his book. Hena turned to him immediately and he took a step to the side quickly, hands up.
"I'm joking, I'm joking." he said quickly, eyes slightly amused, but also relatively serious.
Hena looked at him dubiously for a moment and then slowly turned away. Once her back was to him, she smiled as if just barely hanging onto a laugh. Loki watched her walk away before opening his book back up.
Fandral and Volstagg shared a look, as if wondering the same thing.
"Right." Hawkeye said, returning to their conversation "SHIELD obviously has some uneasiness, so we'll need to be careful if we go in public again."
"Oh." Tony spoke to him with a slightly dramatized sound of relief "Thank you for saying that. I was getting ready to make a public announcement, but now that you said that, I'll make sure I don't."
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