Chapter Five

"Loki! Thank God you're all right!" Annie exclaimed, making a run at Loki and throwing her arms around his neck.

"Yes, I am fine. It was all a misunderstanding," Loki assured her as he hugged back. Annie pulled her head back just far enough to give him an incredulous look.

"I'm glad your definition of 'a misunderstanding' is broad enough to include getting electrocuted and kidnapped-"

"It was not quite that bad," Loki said soothingly. "I recovered very quickly." It was true: according to Stark, Loki had even been breathing unassisted by the time they put him in the restraints, and he had recovered consciousness shortly afterward. By Asgardian standards, really, the incident was almost not worth speaking of.

And none of this seemed like the sort of thing he should relate to Annie, particularly not with Stark right there.

The Iron Man was looking at Loki in considerable puzzlement, which reminded Loki that Stark could not see or hear Annie and was therefore observing only one side of both the conversation and the embrace. Loki had decided he liked Stark, and therefore did not plan to hold a grudge over the incident in the schoolyard, but the expression on the Iron Man's face was too amusing not to enjoy for a while longer.

"Invisible friend, Loki?" Stark asked finally.

"Tell him I'm your invisible girlfriend," Annie suggested, poking Loki gently just below the ribs, where it transpired he was quite ticklish. It was interesting, really, that he had lived a thousand years and had somehow never discovered that before.

The look on Stark's face just kept getting better, but Loki relented slightly.

"I am a sorcerer, remember? My friends also have... supernatural characteristics."

"I see," Stark mused.

Mitchell and George, who had been hanging back a step, now got involved, Mitchell simply reaching over Annie to hug Loki.

"You're sure you're all right?" the vampire asked.

"Yes. I might ask the same of you," Loki replied. "I understand the condition of our house is… distressing."

"The condition of our house is, it's an ex-house," George announced, in a voice high with rage.

"Sorry about that," murmured Stark.

"It's not quite that bad," Mitchell, always optimistic, assured him.

"It most certainly is that bad," George insisted. "What the hell happened? Annie showed up at the hospital and told us you'd been abducted by Iron Man-"

"Oh, come on. Arrested, maybe," Stark protested. If it had not been so soon after the full moon, perhaps George would have reacted less violently, but as it was he turned a bloodthirsty glare on Stark, pushed his spectacles firmly up his nose, and practically shrieked,

"In this country, being 'arrested' involves police officers and warrants and legal representation. When someone, including a superhero, just shows up at your job and zaps you with electricity and drags you away to God-knows-where, that's being abducted."

"Exactly," Annie agreed, obviously beginning to get angry all over again.

"And I'm sure he's very sorry for doing it," Mitchell spoke up quickly, glancing at Stark as though trying to calculate exactly how much of this he would put up with before remembering he had superpowers.

Loki was quite sure Stark was not very sorry for his actions, but the Iron Man responded to Mitchell's pleading look and said, apparently sincerely,

"I really do apologize. Thor's explained the… flaws in my reasoning, and I promise it won't happen again."

"Great, wonderful, so we're all friends now, right?" Mitchell exclaimed, looking nervously at Loki for confirmation. Loki nodded. Annie looked disbelieving and George was irate.

"You're just going to let it go?" he demanded. Annie made noises of agreement. Mitchell began to look desperate.

"I consider this a matter of personal growth," Loki explained piously. "It is good for me to… let things go."

Neither George nor Annie appeared convinced, and indeed, Stark began to look suspicious as well. It occurred to Loki, with regard to Stark, that he was probably viewing yet another illustration of the Midgardian maxim, "It takes one to know one."

"Truly, it is over and we have more important things to think about now," Loki said rapidly, wondering if he could take Thor aside and ask him not to mention the cell or the restraints to the housemates. "I have made an agreement to aid the Avengers in finding out who cursed Steve, and what manner of spell it was. I hope I can count on your assistance?"

The hopeful look he turned on his friends was not merely for effect: since moving into the house, Loki had tagged along on a number of adventures related mostly to vampire activity in Bristol. He had not, however, led any quests of his own. In fact, as far as he could recall this was the first time he had ever been in a position to ask anyone to follow him into anything. It was an unnerving experience.

"Of course," Mitchell said immediately, as George and Annie nodded.

"And speaking of Steve, how is he?" George asked.

"He is much the same as he was, although perhaps a little more genuinely fearful," Loki admitted. "Perhaps we should begin by, what is the expression, 'filling in the blanks' with regard to him. Tony Stark, you... visited our house... before you came to the school to find me. What happened?"

At this, Stark began to look quite genuinely uneasy. Fidgeting slightly, he explained,

"Well, we got the message from Jane Foster." He glanced around the group and seemed to decide to begin at the beginning. "Obviously, we were out looking for Steve after we lost him in that battle-"

"-I think we should leave that part until later," Loki interrupted, when it appeared Stark was going to begin at the very beginning. He prompted, "Your colleague Mr. Coulson received word from Jane that Steve was with us."

"Yes. It seemed awfully weird that he'd just vanished like that. Jane said he was with you, and as I say, it was clear from her message that she knew he was a guest. But, well, your reputation kind of preceded you, Loki."

"What does that mean?" Loki replied.

"It means that SHIELD has a file on you, covering your... adventures on Earth, from the time Thor arrived in New Mexico until he returned home to... have a word with you." Loki had to concede that span of time would not give anyone the most favourable impression of his character or intentions. "And, of course, they know the mythology. Which, as you kindly pointed out to me, is pretty much entirely the inventions of primitive people who drank too much." Stark paused, then asked wistfully, "Is the helmet for real?"

"The one with horns? Yes. The helmet is for real," Loki admitted.

"Good. The helmet is awesome," Stark said happily.

"I have no idea what has become of it," Loki told him. "I lost it in the explosion when the first Bifrost was destroyed."

"Mother has it," Thor spoke up for the first time. "Or, rather, I believe it is now in your old chambers, along with your other belongings."

Loki was touched by the sentiment implied by Thor's words, although in his memory his chambers were cold and stank of loneliness and anger. The horned helmet was a suitable memorial to those times.

"Very well," he addressed Stark. "You received the message explaining where to find Steve. And you came to our house?"

George made a noise that suggested he was going to disregard the phase of the moon and turn into a wolfman again on the spot. Stark looked apologetic as he resumed his story.

"Right, well, we went to your house."

"Jane did not pass on the message that it was wisest to speak to one of us at another location first?" Loki asked.

"Well, yes she did, but we thought you were holding Steve hostage so we figured we'd go directly to the rescue," Stark explained uncomfortably.

"And this did not proceed exactly as you expected?" Loki asked, arching one eyebrow.

"Um, no. I banged on the door, and when nobody opened it I, um, kind of did it myself. And then Steve threw the sofa at me, and it all went downhill from there."

Loki had in the past been accused of having an unusual sense of humour, which had always struck him as unfair. However, despite his very real sympathy for how terrified poor Steve must have been, he was suddenly visited with a mental image that gave him a powerful urge to laugh. For the sake of time and his reputation, he controlled it.

"Very well. You... captured Steve." Stark nodded. "And then you came to the school to find me." Loki thought it best to skip over that part of the story. "We all know what happened there. Annie, you say you then went to the hospital to find George and Mitchell?"

"Okay, I don't think it's fair the invisible friend tells the story," Stark spoke up. "Considering I can't see her." Loki sighed, reached out with his right hand, and laid it on Stark's shoulder. Stark blinked and then smiled charmingly at Annie. "Well, hello there."

"Truly, Stark, you are worse than Fandral," Thor sighed.

Annie, rather to Loki's concealed relief, was unmoved by the charm offensive.

"Hello," she said coldly. "Yes. I went to the hospital to find the boys, and then we all went home to check on Steve. Who was missing. Along with the front door and the windows." Stark gave an apologetic shrug. Annie went on, "We had no idea where he was, or you, so we were trying to clear up some of the mess and figure out where to start looking when Thor showed up with that man."

"Phil Coulson," said the man in the sober suit, with a neutral smile, when he realized everyone was looking at him. The fact he was missing part of the conversation did not seem to concern him.

"Thor explained that you were both safe, and that it was best if we joined you," Annie said. "So I packed the boys a bag and got some of your things together-"

"We would have helped her," George announced, in his high-pitched voice of fury, "but Annie was the only one who could get upstairs without a staircase."

Loki's mouth dropped open. "Please tell me you are joking.

"I'm as serious as a superhero battle," George snarled.

"SHIELD will look after that," Coulson promised.

"I'd love to know how you plan to explain it to the rest of the street," George snapped.

Coulson shrugged. "The street's been cleared. Gas explosion. Fortunately, nobody was home when it happened. We've put the neighbours up in a hotel while we, or should I say your insurance company, investigate the leak and repair your house."

George stared at the quiet agent. "A 'gas explosion'? And how do you explain Iron Man tearing the front door off the hinges?"

Coulson shrugged. "Never happened. The official story is a gas explosion. Repeat it often enough and people will believe it."

"Really," George said.

"It's astonishing what you can convince people of," Coulson said calmly.

"It is true," Loki agreed. "Apparently, half this realm believes I go around giving birth to horses."

"It was just one horse," Stark said. "Foal, I suppose."

"I think it's best if we don't think about the mechanics," Mitchell winced.

"I agree," Loki winced back. He turned to Thor. "So much for what happened today. We-" he indicated himself and his housemates-"still do not know what happened the night Steve suffered his, his injury. Perhaps you and Tony Stark could explain it to us."

"It was quite confusing at the time," Thor admitted. "We became aware of magical activity in that forest, and we simply went to investigate. Honestly, brother, I thought it might be you."

"Me?" Loki tried not to sound hurt, but Thor looked shamefaced and said quickly,

"There seemed to be no harm being done, merely unexplained magic. We merely went to determine its source. I thought perhaps you were practicing spells in case the vampires returned to pose further danger. When Stark, Rogers and I went to investigate, I was expecting to simply introduce you to my companions and then perhaps return to pay a visit to your household."

"Oh," Loki said, relieved.

"When we entered the forest, the magic became aggressive, and so I knew it was not you," Thor went on, looking earnestly at Loki as if to convince him. "We could not place our attacker, there seemed nothing to fight, and so I called down the storm to protect us. Steve became separated from us, and it was some time before Stark and I returned to the carrier and realized he had not come back on his own. We returned to the forest to look for him, but there was a great deal of magic still present and so I believe our adversary must have hidden him from us-though apparently not from George. It is a very good thing you were there to find him," Thor added, with a warm smile in George's direction.

"Okay, I'm not entirely clear about one thing," Stark spoke up. "What in the name of sanity were you doing out there in the woods during a thunderstorm like that? Or in fact, just what were you doing in the woods at night at all?"

George pushed his spectacles up his nose and frowned at Stark. "It was the full moon," he replied.

Stark raised his eyebrows. "You're an astronomer?"

"No, I'm a werewolf," George replied huffily.

It took Stark a moment to realize this was not sarcasm.

"You're a what?" he said then, in a voice polite with shock.

"You did not mention this to your companions?" Loki asked Thor in an aside.

"No. Nor did you tell Stark," Thor reminded him.

"I'm a werewolf," George was repeating, in an offended voice.

Stark nodded, looking nearly as stunned as Steve had the morning George brought him home.

"Okay, let me see if I've got this straight," he said carefully. "Your household, Loki, consists of a wizard, an invisible girl, a werewolf, and... an Irish guy?"

Everyone looked at Mitchell, who sighed.

Then his eyes went black and his lips drew back from his fangs.

"Holy shit," Stark said, backing up a step so Loki almost lost his grip. Mitchell shrugged and returned to his normal, friendly aspect. Coulson merely looked interested.

"Vampire," Mitchell explained unnecessarily.

"I'm a ghost," Annie added helpfully.

"Of course you are," Stark nodded. "Does Steve know about you?"

"Not really," Mitchell said. "Loki explained about himself, but we thought piling on too many details might not be a good idea, in the state he was in."

"I am in full sympathy with that decision," Stark said decidedly.

"It is, perhaps, time to be more forthcoming with him," Loki suggested. "And at least to find out exactly what he remembers of that night."

Stark glanced at Coulson.

"I'll sit this one out, I think," he said.

"Good idea," Coulson agreed.