I'm not entirely sure how long I spent staring up at that ceiling, contemplating my almost inevitable demise before an obnoxiously loud knock interrupted me. My first thought was that the one they called Hawkeye had taken the earliest possible opportunity to put an arrow between my eyes. JARVIS quickly put that train of thought to rest by informing me that the cause of the knocking was Thor. No sooner than I had walked over to the door, it flew open, missing my face by mere millimetres and crashing loudly into the doorstop.

"Brother!" he greeted, a few decibels too loud, as usual. I chose not to bother providing that with a response, although unfortunately I wasn't granted even a single second of peace. "The Man of Iron sent me, to let you know that you're required upstairs for dinner and I'm to escort you there and back," he informed me.
"Oh what fun," I said sarcastically. "What are they serving? Pizza with a side of vengeance?"
"I promise no harm will come to you," he replied, reciting the beginning of a promise from our childhood.
"Did you remember that promise when you threw me into an abyss?"
"I know I have never been the best at keeping my promises to you, but I have always meant it. Every word," Thor solemnly informed me.
"Lies don't become you Thor. You'd be better off remaining within your areas of expertise, rather than trying to delve into mine."
"I hope one day you'll be able to see that was never a lie." He turned and left through the door, expecting me to follow… which I did. Given the Avengers current guise of hospitality, it would have been unwise to give them reason to break that any sooner than necessary.

The lift doors opened and presented me with the view of the Avengers just about to begin their evening meal. "I'm glad you could join us… I was just about to send a search party after you," Stark said by way of greeting.
"There was no need to worry," Thor replied, obviously not understanding the Midgardian's joke.
"You and Reindeer Games can sit over there," he said, gesturing to two seats at the far side if the table, between the Black Widow and Hawkeye. Thor and I made our way over and he took the seat next to the Black Widow, which meant that I was forced to sit next to the one Avenger who hated me the most.

No sooner than I had sat down, I felt a fist contact my face, so naturally I punched back, which resulted in a sickening crunch and Hawkeye receiving a nosebleed. He barely seemed to notice, and he stuck again, this time hitting my eye, with the swelling obscuring my vision slightly.
"That's enough," Thor shouted, while the Black Widow restrained Hawkeye.
"I should take my leave," I suggested, making to leave.
"That's right! Run away you coward!" Hawkeye shouted at me.
"Yeah, you're not exactly going anywhere right now," Stark said. "I gonna have to take you to the medbay," he said. Both him and Thor directed me through various corridors and down a couple of flights of stairs to the 'medbay'.

"I'm sorry brother," Thor started to say. "It was an oversight on my part and I will do my best to ensure that any thing of this kind does not happen again."
"It was no oversight. Simply just an example of why my remaining here is not in the best interests of anyone."
"Here," Stark interrupted, handing me an icepack. "It should help with the swelling." I took it and gently pressed it against my eye. "I'm sort of sorry about that, but then… you did kind of deserve with the whole mind control thing. That wasn't cool." I stared at him, hoping that his ramblings would either stop or reach a point where they became coherent. The former occurred, and I made the suggestion that I return to my room to allow the Hawkeye to receive medical attention without any further conflict. Both Stark and Thor agreed that it would be the best course of action, and the two of them escorted me back to my room. Thor returned about twenty minutes later with some food which remained on the windowsill untouched. I was just about to go to sleep when JARVIS said, "You are now authorised to access the library on the ninth floor," he told me. I knew that the reason for this update had to, at least in part, be Thor's doing. While I had little interest in Midgard's literature, it would be useful to have a way of passing the time when I knew I would be forced to remain here for a very long time.

"Would I be permitted to make a visit now?" I questioned.
"Of course," he replied, and invited me to enter the lift. When I had reached the correct floor, JARVIS informed me that the door I was looking for was located at the end of the corridor. I opened it to find a large, brightly lit room filled with bookshelves. While nowhere near the standard of Asgard's library, was remarkable nevertheless. Of course, at the time I had rather low expectations of anything regarding Midgard, and it wouldn't be until much later that I regarded it in any other way.

I perused the shelves for a while, occasionally picking up a book to read the first couple of pages before inevitably placing it back in its place on the shelf. "JARVIS, what book would you recommend?" I asked after a while.
"I would imagine Shakespeare's works would be something that you would enjoy. Have a look at the shelf behind you," he told me.
"Thank you," I replied, before turning to find the books that JARVIS was referring to. I located a book containing Shakespeare's complete works, before returning to my room. I seated myself on the edge of the bed, opening the book and beginning to read.