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"Is this some inside joke?" Loki asked when he got too annoyed with Steve's burst of laughter.

"Kind of. There is this film about a little lion cub born into the lion royal family. He is to become the king after his father, but his evil, envious uncle murders his father and then banishes the little lion away. So he's waiting all the time to come back to defeat his uncle, the usurper, and assume his rightful position as the king of all the animals." Steve began to explain the plot to the surprisingly carefully listening young god.

"How come they let the uncle usurp the throne in the meantime? I suspect that the animals would not take kindly to a king who had murdered his predecessor." Loki commented, fully aware of the irony.

"No one knew it was the uncle who murdered the king. He concealed it." Steve explained. In a way, it was nice to be able to explicate the wonders of the 21st century Earth to someone even less familiar with them than he was.

"That sounds practical." Loki mumbled. When Steve gave him a suspicious look, the God of Mischief rather turned the conversation around. "Do you have a painting of this film-thing?"

"I think we should be able to find some in Tony's laptop. I will try to take a look." Steve said and reached for one of Tony's portable computers. He googled the Lion King and then turned the screen in Loki's direction.

Loki had to smirk sadly when he saw the pictures. There was a beautiful, joyous family. The father obviously occupied the supreme position, so his every word would be followed as law. The mother would sit there while looking at everyone tenderly. The lion cub, the straightforward choice for the future king, was sitting under his father's protection, looking as his younger copy.

The evil uncle was positioned a bit outside the true royal family. His body was less muscular and leaner than the king's. His mane wasn't in the colour of sun as the king's; it was threateningly dark.

Loki decided that he didn't like this film.

"You don't like it." Steve commented. For the first time since his conversation with the would-be-conqueror-of-Earth started, he actually wondered how and why he was chatting with the tricking god.

"No, not particularly." Loki responded. He was saved from having to elaborate on his answer by Thor coming back from the kitchen.

"Loki. You should rest. Why aren't you lying down?" Thor asked while holding a big bowl with some substance in it. Then the Thunderer noticed Loki's t-shirt.

"Stark gave it to me." Loki said before Thor had any chance to remark anything. "Apparently, it comes from some film if you know what exactly that is."

"Yes. Jane showed me some." Thor answered. He was trying to hide his amusement, but he knew he was failing miserably.

"Of course." Loki rolled his eyes. Thor and his women.

"Anyway, you were to lay down. Why are you still sitting?" Thor scolded Loki.

"I was putting the t-shirt on. You can't do it that well when you are lying. Especially not when your shoulder is a bloody mess." Loki wondered why he always needed to react sarcastically when Thor approached him. He supposed it was a defence mechanism of some sort.

"Well, the t-shirt is now on so lay down." Thor was losing patience rather quickly.

"Is that an order, your majesty?" The younger brother challenged immediately.

"No. I know very well that had I given you an order, you'd do everything in your power to do the exact opposite."

"You're not as stupid as you seem. Which is not that difficult to achieve actually."

"Loki, please. Can you lie down?" Thor articulated each word carefully.

Loki sighed. Theatrically, he took the most comfortably looking pillow and placed it against the armrest. Then he carefully laid himself down on his back. He winced and bit his lips. Despite Bruce's bandaging, it still hurt him to move. Once he was lying comfortably, he gave Thor a challenging look.

The older brother sighed both in annoyance and satisfaction. He put the bowl on the coffee table and then he went to the other side of the sofa. Loki was following him with his eyes all the time.

Thor took a blanket crumpled at the end of the sofa and spread it out. Then he laid it out over his brother up to his chin. Loki was looking at Thor curiously for the whole time.

"I think you should sleep, little brother." The blonde god winked at Loki while picking up his bowl to move back to the kitchen area.

"Yes, mum." Loki replied sarcastically.

"I will take this as the biggest compliment you have ever given me." Thor shouted back and continued towards the kitchen without another word.

His brother's comment made Loki freeze in spot.

It was the truth.

He may have spoken with irony, but the mere idea of his mind connecting Thor to Frigga was a huge compliment to the Thunderer. It showed that his brother's little caring gestures reminded Loki of how his mother would treat him.

Loki's eyes watered involuntarily. This whole situation was so unreal. He had secretly hoped that if he came back to Thor's spaceship after the destruction of Asgard, his brother would have appreciated his role in saving the Asgardians and they could go back to the time when they thought the world of each other.

Yet even in his wildest dreams, Loki wouldn't have imagined the transition to be so quick.

Their falling out may have been hiding under the surface for centuries, but the real fight happened out of blue. Why couldn't reconciliation happen that way too?

Also, Loki had to remind himself that it wasn't that easy. Since coming to Midgard, the younger god suffered a great deal of misfortune which may have moved the Thunderer's heart a bit.

"Are you ok?" The soldier's voice brought Loki back into the room.

The Trickster blinked quickly a few times. "Why would you care?"

"You remind me of someone." Steve mumbled sooner than he could stop himself.

Loki raised his eyebrow. "Did you have to battle some particularly evil and sticky enemy of yours?" The hint of irony was back in to protect the trickster from hearing that he probably reminded the soldier of some villain personality from his time.

"You saw yourself in the lion's uncle, didn't you? That's why you didn't want to keep looking at that picture." Steve changed the subject unexpectedly and caught the mischievous god off guard.

"No." Loki answered firmly after a pause. His tone of voice was very convincing, as would be expected from the God of Mischief. Yet Steve knew he was lying.

"You didn't answer my question." Loki continued reluctantly after another pause. He was quite curious to discover more about the soldier. Also, by some miracle, he was having a civilised conversation with a normal person who wasn't sneering upon him or wasn't afraid of him. That was quite a nice change.

"Who do I remind you of?"

Steve looked Loki, who was lying on the sofa covered by the blanket up to his chin, in the eyes. He saw no evil animosity in them, only simple curiosity.

"His name is Bucky." Steve answered slowly. When there was no recognition visible in Loki's features, Steve took the courage to continue. "He is my best friend."

"I remind you of your best friend?" Loki stated incredulously. None of that made any sense to him.

"In some ways. Also physically. Bucky has these wild, untamed black hair as well." Steve smiled when remembering the face of his friend who has finally recognised him after all these years.

Loki was curious to know more, but he saw that Steve was in deep thoughts and so he wouldn't interrupt him. Instead, he waited for the soldier to get ready to speak up again. Loki sensed that there was some issue with the friend. There must have been. Loki was the definition of issues so he would have hardly reminded the soldier of his friend have their relationship been flawless.

"You know, Bucky would probably also see himself in the lion's uncle by now. It was not always the case." Steve began saying. Loki didn't bother correcting him that the analogy was wrong because he saw no connection between himself and some stupid animals.

Steve seemed to be struggling with himself whether to continue talking or not. He longed to talk about Bucky with someone who wasn't involved with the whole mess. He could possibly talk to Thor, but he wasn't sure that the God of Thunder would fully understand what he was trying to say. Well, maybe he would get it better than anyone. But right now, Steve wanted to talk to a person who may understand Bucky more than his friends could.

In the end, it all got to the point whether he trusted Loki enough to confide in him. Steve knew that he didn't; yet seeing the god lying on the sofa covered in bandages, Loki really didn't seem to be much of the threat. Especially considering that Fury was coming in the evening. By that time, there should be more light on Loki's actions. Steve suspected that if Fury discovers that Loki's actually been working for some of their enemies against Thor, he will probably throw him into the deepest cell in SHIELD's possession. However, being a witness to how Loki interacted with Thor, seeing the spark in his eyes when his brother returned a joke or the sentiment when the Thunderer showed that he truly cared about Loki's well-being, Steve doubted that.

Anyway, it shouldn't do any harm to tell Loki about Bucky.

"We were always best friends. Me and Buck. We would protect each other. Bucky would help me out when my stubbornness got me into trouble. We could rely on each other. He was like a brother to me. No. He is like a brother to me." Steve breathed out deeply. "And then the war came. Bucky went to the war. He had no idea what he was getting himself into. And then I followed him…in my new enhanced and famous version. When Bucky saw me for the first time, he didn't care. Nothing changed for him. It didn't matter to him whether I was weak and defenceless nuisance or strong super soldier. He would never use me neither to raise his ego nor his social status. He was my friend and that was it." Steve found it difficult to continue and so he stopped for a moment and closed his eyes to calm himself down. He didn't expect to hear the familiar voice.

"When me and Thor were young, we would always do everything together. We loved spending time with each other. But as we were getting older…something changed. It didn't seem genuine anymore. Thor would use me to raise his ego and I him to raise my status. I hated Thor so much for always letting me to be in his shadow. Always taking the spotlight for himself. But I never stopped loving him as a brother. I suppose that only recently I understood that he never did it on purpose. He just…never thought that far. Which is hard to blame him for because our father, I mean Thor's father, encouraged him to do so. You never met Odin...he was that type of person who deep down you know is malevolent and unpleasant, but you still finding yourself being desperate for his affection and approval. Had I been the golden child, I would probably have behaved like Thor did, letting my brother stay forgotten in the shadow, being grateful to be able to please the Allfather."

Loki paused for a moment.

"If you and your friend could always selflessly rely on each other, then I think you found something very unique. It means that you would never be alone. It is horrifying to be truly alone, convinced that no one cares whether you live or die." Loki felt like letting the burden off his shoulders. He didn't fully understand how come he was able to talk with the soldier about such personal topics. Maybe it was his calm demeanour or the fact that Loki was comfortably wrapped in a blanket. Maybe, only maybe, it had something to do with his mother visiting him when he passed out while Thor was tending to his shoulder.

Be happy.

That's what Frigga told him.

"You're probably right." Steve answered the god who was staring at the ceiling. "Some people are impossible to please and one must understand that they are not worth wasting one's effort on." Steve thought about the Accords and the bone of contention they brought amongst his friends.

"But then Bucky got captured. I managed to get him out, but I didn't know that they had already messed up with his mind. We would…we would go to a mission together. Everything seemed fine. And then it all went terribly wrong and Bucky found himself hanging from a train above a deep valley. I was trying to pull him back. He extended his arm. I almost got him. But almost wasn't good enough. The door broke, and I saw Bucky falling into the indefinite space under us. The nothingness consumed him. I never dared to hope to see him again."

No, Loki.

"But you did see him again."

"I would always imagine seeing Bucky. But when I truly did, I wasn't prepared for it. As I said, they messed with his mind. They turned him into a killing monster. They called him the Winter Soldier. My friend, whom I always known as strong yet tender, wouldn't recognise me. In fact, I could hardly recognise him as well. He would kill without remorse. He would set things on fire. Only later did I understand that he wasn't in control of himself." Steve continued uneasily.

Loki wondered whether this was how Thor felt when he was forced to watch how his brother was attacking Midgard.

"But Bucky did fight the mind compulsion. We battled together against a man who tried to tear us apart. Yet in the end, Buck understood that he couldn't rely on his mind and so he let himself be literally frozen until I could find a way to break him free from the influence. I don't know how to do that and so my friend is as good as dead now." Steve finished. "I can't talk about this with anyone. I can't even let anyone know Bucky's location."

"Why not? I am sure your…friends would have helped you." Loki didn't understand; didn't the Avengers always fight for the good together?

Steve eyed Loki seriously and the god could see the anguish in the soldier's eyes.

"Bucky killed Tony's parents."

"What?" Loki found himself saying.

"He didn't know what he was doing. Or he was but he wasn't doing it voluntarily. I don't know. It is just so messed up." Steve hid his face in his hands. "I can't hate Bucky for what he did. He wasn't himself. But I know that Tony cannot just forgive what happened. We declared truce for now and we are trying to be friends again, but I would never tell him where Bucky is. I am afraid he would just get there and kill him."

For a moment, neither Steve nor Loki spoke; both lost deeply in their own thoughts.

"Your friend shouldn't remind you of me. He is nothing like me." Loki whispered. Steve looked up sharply.

"What do you mean?" He asked Loki in offensive manner.

"You said they compelled his mind. And so Bucky rather than posing a danger let himself be disposed of. Not many people could do that. He seems to be really brave." Loki said seriously.

"Some would chose the easy way out. He didn't. I think you can be proud of him."

"Why did you say that Bucky was nothing like you?" Steve was perceptive and attentive, he wouldn't let the god slip out that easily.

"Am I not the one messing with people's minds?" Loki answered after a moment.

"I don't know." Steve said only. Loki shivered uncomfortably.

"You should probably get some rest." Steve commented after a moment and got up.

"Why are you so kind to me? I don't get it." Loki said, still staring at the ceiling. He couldn't stop the words coming out of his mind.

"Kind?" Steve wrinkled his brow.

"When we came into the flat…you attacked neither me nor Thor. And now you talked to me."

"That is not kind. It's just…normal."

"I suppose that depends on how you've been treated." Loki whispered, half-hoping that Steve didn't hear him.

"As I said, Loki, you remind me of my friend." Steve said and walked away.

Loki's head was full of thoughts but fortunately, the weariness soon overcame him, and the god fell into a surprisingly peacefully slumber.

…

"Should I wake him up? Thor contemplated loudly.

The food was finally ready, and the God of Thunder wanted his brother to get stronger.

"Let him sleep, Thor. I think he needs to rest." Bruce commented, and Thor decided to follow the doctor's advice.

Meanwhile, the Avengers sat around the table to enjoy the lasagne that they managed to cook.

"Earlier, you were talking with my brother." Thor said while Bruce handed everyone the plates with the warm food. He was aching to talk to Steve about the moment but didn't know how to bring it up.

"Yes. It wasn't anything important." Steve dismissed the topic. Thor was determined to ask Loki more about it when his brother wakes up.

…

After the meal, the Avengers spread around the building. Tony went to his lab to work on some new prototypes. Steve decided to read some 21st century literature and Bruce, still tired from all the adventures on Sakaar and Asgard, went to take a nap.

Thor moved to the living room to sit on the sofa facing the one on which his brother was resting. Loki looked so much younger with his eyes closed and the expression on his face worriless and relaxed. He shifted from his position on back to sleep onto his side, keeping his injured shoulder up. Thor smiled. Loki would always sleep on his side. When they were small and they shared chambers, Loki would often sneak into his brother's bed and fall asleep with his head on Thor's chest.

Happy that his brother seemed to be safe and undisturbed, Thor got comfortable on his sofa, determined to keep an eye on Loki to make sure that no harm would come to him.

…

"Loki, you need to wake up." Loki heard a distant voice. He mumbled annoyed and slightly shifted his position.

"Brother, please." The God of Mischief heard the voice more clearly now. When he felt a hand touching him, he woke up instantly and instinctively flinched. He shot up into a sitting position, his head dizzy and his mind unfocused. Distantly, he understood that it was dark behind the windows.

"We start in five minutes." A cold, self-confident male voice spoke.

Loki recognised the voice immediately.

He instantly diverted his gaze in the direction of the voice. His eye pupils widened in visceral fear; his hands turned into fists and grabbed the blanket as if in an attempt to hide himself from the man standing in front of him.

The evening has come.

Fury was there.

The interrogation could begin.

Where was Thor?

Where were the Avengers?