Chapter Five: Right Here
Natasha stood outside Barton's room and knocked, then again with more force when no one answered. "The machine is ready, we have to go." She spoke heavily through the door, then leaned against it and listened. She could hear him in there and he wasn't moving with any particular urgency. "Hey!" She barked, accompanying it with a pound on the door with her fist. "I know you know I can hear you in there!"
"So what?" He snipped back.
"I will kick this door down, so help me God."
"Nat," he couldn't help but laugh, "it's not locked."
She opened the door slowly and found him standing in the bathroom with a toothbrush in his hand. "Did you just get up?"
He gestured to his attire-clearly sleepwear-and answered, "Obviously."
"Okay, first of all, it's one in the afternoon. Second of all-there's no need for this attitude. I'm not Fury and I'm not looking at you under a microscope. I don't think anyone is."
He threw the toothbrush back into its holder. "First of all, you literally just criticized me for sleeping in late. Explain to me exactly how you're not looking at me under a microscope."
She stepped into the room and closed the door. "I'm not, I'm merely concerned. You've been acting-"
"I don't want to discuss my actions with you, if that's quite alright. And why do we need to be there to send off Thor, anyway?"
"We need to be there in case anything goes wrong, this was explained to us yesterday. Come on, let's go. Get dressed."
He plopped down on the couch and searched for the TV remote. "I'm not going. You all feel free to have loads and loads of fun without me."
"What am I supposed to say to Fury?"
"Send him up here," Barton quipped without making eye contact, "I've got a few choice words for him, anyway."
Elsewhere
The night had gone by awkwardly. Eve had wrapped herself in the towel and stormed out, slamming the bedroom door and shouting for Loki to just wait a minute while she got dressed. When she let him in, now clad in night clothes that covered up more skin, he made a passing comment about how she was "suddenly modest." They went back to bed and actually slept until late morning.
Though only eleven o'clock, Eve was already anxious and waiting for Sam to show up. She wanted to sit by the front window and stare outside, but she had to pretend to go about her business as usual. Which, since her job exploded, consisted of laundry and TV.
While eating breakfast, Loki suddenly asked her, "How do you make money?"
"Well, I used to work in an office. I did simple data entry."
"Used to?"
"I worked in the city. When those things invaded, they kinda blew up my building. Not the entire building, but definitely that floor and everything above it."
"The city? New York City?" She nodded, much to his dismay. He at least thought he had ported a territory or two over. To be just outside the city where Thor and his many powerful associates resided was certainly problematic. He hid his disappointment well and continued. "The Chitauri were-"
"What?" She interrupted him, startled by the foreign word.
"The Chitauri?"
"That's what those alien things were called?"
"Yes. Thoseā¦" he sighed, "alien things."
Eve heard a noise outside by the front door and her head snapped to it instinctively. She calmly looked back at her food and hoped he didn't notice how twitchy she was being. Her plan had been to avoid suspicion so that he wouldn't feel a need to read her mind, but she was obviously terrible at keeping secrets. She kept her eyes on her plate and prayed.
"What is wrong with you?" Loki narrowed his eyes at her as she looked up slowly. "You're staring at your meal as though it were a work of art."
"Well, I am a very good cook," she laughed lamely then rested her head in her hand, defeated.
"Why did you look toward the door?"
"I thought I heard a noise. Perfectly normal reaction."
"If you have to explain to me that's it's normal-it probably isn't. I'm more concerned with why you look like you've done something shameful."
"My, uh, joke, was shameful."
He raised one eyebrow. "That's true. Yet-"
She had to think of something, anything, to throw him off the scent that she was waiting for someone to arrive. "I feel weird that you saw me naked!" She blurted before gathering their dishes and chucking them in the sink.
"I wasn't done," he stated, annoyed.
She grabbed the dish soap from under the sink and squirted way too much onto the dirty plates, all while looking at him. He looked on in amused shock and grabbed an apple from the basket in the center of the island. He walked to the sink, causing her to take a couple steps away from it, and rinsed the fruit off before taking a large bite. He crossed his arms and examined her. Her body language was undoubtedly nervous-and in a different way from the day before. She was scared and embarrassed-it seemed the girl always had a reason to be embarrassed. He took another bite and noted her arms, which had found their way to her hips again. This time, they were there as a defense mechanism, unlike the night before, when they had been there confidently. His thoughts wandered not-so-accidentally to the memory of her bare in front of him.
"What are you doing?" She asked abruptly, nervously.
Shaken back to the current moment, he took another bite of the apple and walked away from her. "Nothing," he replied as he left to sit in the living room. He heard the water from the sink as she washed the few dishes they has used. He set the partly eaten apple down on the table and decided it was time for an experiment. He held his right hand out in front of him and concentrated. He smiled in wicked delight as his fingertips and eventually whole fingers began to disappear. He was regaining his power slowly. He closed his eyes and threw a blanket of protection around the house, something he would be able to supplement as his powers grew. This way, Heimdall and subsequently Odin wouldn't be able to find him, and Odin would not be able to drain his powers any longer.
His celebration was short, as a knock came at the door-followed by a man yelling, "Eve!" Loki sprang up and met her in the kitchen, grabbing her away from the sink by the arm. She dropped the plate she'd been washing and splashed water on them both. He looked down at his newly soaked abdomen and shook his head-there was no time to be annoyed at that.
"Someone is at the door," he whispered harshly. "Someone who knows your name."
Eve glanced behind him to check the clock on the wall. It was before noon-why was he here so early? He'd never checked on her this early before, he usually waited until it would definitely be inappropriate according to society's standards to still be sleeping. She blinked, gained her composure, and lied to the God of Mischief. "I don't know who it could be."
Loki dragged her to the door and had her look out the peep hole to find out. She jumped, startled as Sam knocked heavily again and shouted once more, "Eve!"
"Who is that?" He whispered directly in her ear, sending a swift chill down her spine in one smooth pulse that was over too soon.
"That's my friend Sam," she faked an attempt at a whisper. The words came out loud enough that Sam heard her-as was her intention.
"Eve, I hear you in there!" Sam shouted, causing her to shrug at Loki.
"Guess I have to answer it now," she mused, reaching out for the handle.
"No!" He continued his hushed tones, though this one sounded extra threatening. He put his mouth right up to her ear again. "Tell him you need a minute."
"Just a minute!" She exclaimed, her voice cracking due to nerves.
"You will tell him that you have a gentleman caller over and that he cannot stay," Loki instructed, "and if you say anything apart from that, I will end both of your lives. I will cut off his legs and beat you both to death with them."
She turned her head towards his, looking disgusted. "That's an unnecessary level of violence, I think," she commented.
"I just want to make it perfectly clear that your death will not be painless if you do anything other than what I've asked."
She nodded and reached out for the handle again. He hid behind the door as she opened it. "Sam!" She greeted him warmly.
"Eve, you haven't answered any of my messages since last night-" Sam tried to walk in the door without being asked, the way he had a hundred times before. She put a firm hand on his chest and pushed him back outside. "What's going on?"
"I'm gonna level with you here, Sam," she scratched her forearm in nervous shame, "I kind of have a guy over."
The look on his face was one she hoped to never see again. "Oh," he managed to say, though he echoed more disappointment through his newly found slouch than anything else. "Oh," he repeated as he thought on the news again.
"It's nothing serious-" she tried to comfort him, though it soon became apparent that those were not the right words to do so.
He stepped back and glared at her. "No? Good. I'm glad you've found someone to pass the time. Just know that when he's long gone-you're going to really feel the guilt you ought to. I mean for hurting me, making me worry."
"To be fair, Sam, you can wait twenty four hours to hear from me. You don't have to assume I'm in some mortal peril." As the words came out, she winced. She was in mortal peril-and she'd just accused him of being a nut-job for assuming what was true. Now, he may never come back. The statement was something she'd wanted to say to him for a long time, and in any other instance it would have been an appropriate critique of his behavior. Yet, she chose now.
He closed his previously scowling mouth to turn and go. He flipped his car keys around in his hands, trying desperately to burn off the furious energy she'd given him, and swiftly drove away. Eve walked back into the house and slammed the door behind her. She walked to her bedroom and fought back whatever emotions came to the front of her brain. First, regret. Then, annoyance. Last, anger.
Loki followed her, not at all phased by the display. "Was that your lover?" He asked as though it were a joke.
She didn't even turn around no answer him with a loaded, "No."
"Are you sure? He seemed very distraught that-"
"Am I sure?" She whipped around to face him, now. "How would I not be sure?" She shook her hands in front of her in frustration. "I'm going to lay down," she informed him before crawling into the bed and closing her eyes. She felt a weight drop on the other side of the bed and opened them again, flaring her nostrils.
Loki sat next to her, long legs stretched out, with one of her thicker books in his hands. He glanced at her before engrossing himself in the story, not at all concerned with her aggravation, and said, "I'll be right here."
