CHAPTER 14
When Clint entered the kitchen two hours later, he was surprised to see Steve sitting on the couch with a mug in hand across from where he had left the two lovebirds not too long ago. It was common for team members to run into each other late at night. Once, Clint had walked in on Thor who had been learning how to bake a cake at four in the morning in nothing but a bathrobe and his boxers. While it wasn't the weirdest thing he had walked in on (Tony had once made him sign a legal document to never speak of what he had seen), it had ended with a plate of pretty decent chocolate cake outside his door the morning after which was always a winning scenario.
Steve, however, was a different story.
Ever since the group had made the crazy decision to become a permanent team and, even more insane, become roommates, Steve had been on a strict schedule that nothing other than emergency calls or a mission could break. The guy wakes up at 5:30 in the morning to head to the gym and begin his day which Clint could understand to a degree. Yes, they were professional heroes now which meant early training regiments and strict lifestyles. But, for Clint at least, that translated to starting the day at 8am at the earliest. By that time, Steve was already at SHIELD headquarters getting debriefed on what the daily mission would be or being told he would be free to spend the day doing as he pleases which usually involves sketching in various neighborhoods in New York or sparring anyone who was willing (usually Natasha or Thor). Then, before the fun could really begin, Steve would bid goodnight to the team and be in his room by 9pm unless there was a movie night or a party of some sorts. The night they had gotten to know one another better was probably the latest Clint had ever seen him up and energized. There is no better way to describe it other than Steve was a grandpa when it came to staying up.
Which would make sense because, technically, the man was old.
So seeing Steve alone at two in the morning unprompted was quite unexpected. As the elevator closed behind him, Clint could see his teammate jolt in his seat before whipping around with to see who had entered the space.
"You scared the shit out of me! I thought everyone was asleep."
Although he seemed lively in tone, Steve was wearing a slightly gruntled sweatshirt and sweatpants with seemingly fuzzy socks sticking out of his shoes looking as though he had been or was heading to bed. It was quite a contrast from the casually put together look he always maintained.
"I'm surprised you're awake." Clint walked toward the kitchen in a clear path towards to pantry where he looked around until he spotted the packaging he had woken up craving. "I thought after this shitty day especially you would have been in bed by now."
Steve scoffed, taking a drink from his mug. "I couldn't if I tried."
A pack of Oreos fell on the kitchen counter as Clint closed the pantry door. Immediately, Steve walked over and peeled back the unopened seal and took a couple from the container, further surprising the archer. "I thought you don't eat past 8pm per your weird workout diet thing."
"When I'm stressed I do whatever I want." Steve said with a mouthful of cookie. "And it's not weird. It's just good for your body unlike ordering Domino's pizza at 3am."
"There's no need to attack my terrible eating habits. I was just making an observation." Taking a handful for himself, Clint took a seat on the kitchen bar stool next to Steve. "And know that we're all stressed so you're not alone. If you want to talk about anything, I got you."
"Thanks but," he shook his head, "I don't want to burden you when you've got your own feelings about everything going on."
Clint shrugged. "I'm a pretty great listener and, fully to brag, a pretty good therapist. I got myself through a lot of trauma in my childhood."
"I'm not sure that's how therapy works."
"It does when you're poor."
Steve nodded. "Touché."
Clint propped an elbow onto the counter and leaned his head against his hand. "So what's bothering you?"
"Well," the soldier looked torn before answering, "I went down to see Loki earlier after you all stormed off."
"Oh…"
It wasn't that Clint was mad at Steve for going, it was just that he didn't understand the appeal. Since returning from his moonlight walk with Bruce and seeing Natasha waiting and smiling, he had kind of forgotten about their devastating loss from earlier in the day. He had almost gone down to the cell see the traitor as soon as Natasha had been cleared by medical but Clint still wasn't sure about what he would have done. Did he feel betrayed? Absolutely. Did he think Loki was a bad guy? He didn't know but apparently neither did Steve.
"I thought I was going to go tell him off. I wanted to punch something- to punch him- so badly but something in my gut kept telling me there's something else at play."
"I wouldn't have minded if you would have punch him."
That made Steve laugh. "I probably should have, but…" he sighed in discontent, "I didn't make it all the way to confront him because," he sighed again as Clint began to wonder if Tony really was the most dramatic of the group, "I got in another fight with Tony and I needed to leave."
Clint didn't truly understand the Tony/Steve relationship because, as of recent, they were trying so hard to be friends but somehow it always seemed to end in shouting matches. Natasha and him got in fights but they were petty and short lived. All they needed was one night to talk it through and they were right back to where they had left off. Watching Steve and Tony fight like they were on a soap opera was exhausting to watch so he couldn't imagine what it was like to live.
"So you and your work husband got in a fight. Personally, I'm still mad at him for what he said to me earlier so if you need someone on your team, I'm sold."
Immediately, Steve swooped in while shaking his head. "We are not ganging up against him! Anyways, the point of me saying that was that I went back later to see Loki and, again, I thought I was going to kill him. But, I don't know." He ran a hand across his face in frustration. "I don't know what to think anymore with the world possibly being destroyed by Thanos soon so I did something really dumb."
"Interesting of you to have brought a game to play."
Steve was standing in the doorway of the cell, visibly upset, with a box under his arm. Loki had moved from the bed to the floor with his back against the farthest wall. While his voice had an air of ease to it, the god himself looked like hell in a SHIELD issued hoodie over his Asgardian get up. His hair stuck out in multiple directions and his face looked tired and, as hard as he tried to hide it, worried.
"I do better when I have something physical to do."
Saying nothing more, Steve entered the room and placed the box on the bed before leaving to grab an extra chair from outside the room. Loki took these actions as an initiative to grab the chair he had kicked over and place it on the opposite side of Steve, who was refusing to look him in the eyes. As he took a seat, Steve pulled out a checked board from the box and dumped the pawns for both players to sort through.
"You did not bring down a chess board."
Steve laughed at the sheer craziness of the situation "Yes, I did. I don't know what I thought I was accomplishing but it felt right in the moment."
"You're a grandpa. You know that, right?"
"Yeah, I do."
"I promise you, you will lose. And by a lot."
Loki's voice wasn't taunting so much as it was testing the waters. As far as the god knew, the shield could come out at any moment and he didn't need reminding of how painful that weapon could be.
"That's not why I am here so, in all honesty, I don't really care."
Steve's voice was firm but could not entirely hide his wavering anger. So he, also, wasn't here to kill him. That took Loki by surprise and kept him silent as Steve finished placing his pieces on his side of the board.
"I'm assuming you know how to play." Steve still did not look at him but kept his focus on his pieces.
"I do." Loki replied, more intrigued by this oddly civil moment they were sharing than the game itself. "This game proceeds you by many years but I have been playing for centuries." Steve said nothing in response other than making his first move across the board. They remained like that, silently moving and taking pieces, for two full games. It wasn't until halfway through the third, after Steve took one of Loki's knights, that either of them spoke.
"Did you intentionally hurt Natasha?"
The bluntness of the encounter threw Loki by surprised, seeing as he thought of the other man to be either highly aggressive with their emotions, which Steve had not been, or rather dismissive.
He did not wait for an answer before continuing. "Did Thanos tell you to turn against us?"
While the air had been tense through each game, it seemed that there was nothing left to breathe. Careful not to say the wrong thing, Loki turned to a tactic he had avoided until his recent encounter with the Avengers.
"I am not one to do honesty, Captain. I'm sure this character flaw does not come as a surprise to you seeing as I am the god of mischief. However, I want to be truthful and have it be taken so when I say that I am not sure who fired on you today. It would be easy to say it was Thanos as it easily could have been. But something was different and…" Loki took a deep breath before moving a pawn, "I am uneasy at the thought that it may have been me who fired the blast."
All he got in response was a stoic face and a nodding head but as they continued to play, the tension between them faded even as Loki won for the third time in a row.
"You know, I appreciate honesty." Steve added after some time. "I appreciate you offering to sacrifice yourself for this world though I am still confused by your motives."
"You and me both."
"I don't think you're a bad guy." Loki froze with a pawn in his hand and his eyes on the board. "I don't." Steve reiterated. "Whether I trust you is a different story but, if you really wanted us dead I believe you would have already killed us."
"Funny." Loki turned to Steve expecting to see an insincere look on his face but found him to be open and attentive. "That's exactly what Romanoff said to me."
That was news to Steve who hadn't seen any of his teammates since his disastrous encounter with Tony. "She was already here. Figures." Together, the two of them packed the game up into its box making quick work in silence. Once everything was back in its place, Steve placed the box under his arm and headed towards the door.
"If you need anything," Steve called out, "just give shout. We will figure this out."
The captain closed the door behind him and headed out, completely missing the small genuine smile that pulled at the corners of Loki's lips.
"So you think he's good?"
Steve sighed as he pulled Oreo package closer to himself. "I don't know but do we really have time to figure it out when Thanos is putting us on the brink of war? I do think that Loki is key in fighting this guy."
"I do, too." Clint took a bite of his cookie before continuing. "Do you think Thanos made him hit Natasha?"
The other man opened his mouth to speak but stopped as he looked like he had been hit with a realization. "Or maybe that's the whole point!"
"You lost me."
"What if the whole point of that incident was to make us not trust him and, on top of that, make him not trust himself?"
As he brainstormed, Clint got up and began to pace the kitchen. "That makes sense! Think about it, didn't you say that Thanos said he was surprised that we teamed up with Loki? I think he knows he can't take us, SHIELD, Thor, Loki, and, through association of the two brothers, Asgard. So what does he do? He closes communication between our world and theirs and he gives Loki a bad PR stunt."
"AND," now Steve was standing up, "because he probably knows that Loki isn't the terrible maniac he's made him out to be, Thanos has put doubt even in Loki's own head so he is reluctant to help us."
"And having Loki and the team think he hurt Natasha will give Asgard less of a motive to help us both protect and fight with the guy they also don't trust!"
Steve was already running out of the room when Clint called out, "Hey! Where are you going?"
"I'm getting the team. I think we just figured this out!" He responded over his shoulder before running down the hall and out of sight.
Loki could sense his visitor before he even rounded the corner.
"I have it on good authority that you are thinking of killing me."
Nothing changed on Tony's stoic face as he walked towards the cell. "I think we can agree that we have bigger problems on our hands." Intrigued by his calmness, Loki hopped off of the chair he had been sitting on and walked to face the billionaire against the glass.
"Then that means there's only one other thing you could possibly be here for."
Tony nodded. "I need you to tell me everything about the tesseract and please," he stepped forward to stare the god down, "spare no detail."
