The Runaways
by: muaaimoi
Summary- Basically a street kid au. There are issues and avengers but they all turn out okay anyway. Also, stony, Thorki, Phlint ,and Brutasha, because damn it, just because.
3.
Out of all of them, Thor leaves the house the most.
It's not a particularly new thing. Thor had been wondering when they found him, and it was a habit he'd continued. While Natasha could be reliably found working out in her off time, Clint was surely practicing his aim somewhere, Bruce and Tony where in their 'Lab', as they'd taken to calling the small bedroom, every second they could squeeze out of the day. And Steve himself, when he wasn't working, was usually cooking, or like Natasha, working out.
Thor was something of a wild card. Some day's Thor would show up at the gym to work on the machines, sometimes he'd be in the kitchen, he could even occasionally be found in the Lab helping Tony pound Steel with a hammer so ridiculously large only Thor could lift it. And sometimes he'd just be gone.
What's surprising about this, is that he never tells them where he goes. Even now, when they have phones, when it's so easy to let each other know. There is nothing on his behalf. There's never a text saying 'gn 2 str' like Clint or Tony usually drop, as succinct as possible and mostly devoid of vowels. No " I will be at the park." Mimicking Bruce and Natasha's shared love of careful grammar. Granted, Thor prefers to text in all caps, a fair analogue to his tendency to boom things rather than say them. But he never lets them know.
Not where he's going, or how long he'll be gone.
It's oddly inconsiderate.
Thor is usually better about such things. Consideration seems to come easily to him. He always makes extra when he cooks, often goes out of his way to force feed certain reluctant geniuses when Steve's not there, which he really, truly appreciates. Thor had been perfectly happy to take up Steve's part in their acts in the park. He even has a habit of tagging along when Tony and Bruce have somewhere science related they want to go, keeping an eye on them when they're liable to lose track of what they consider unimportant things. Like where they are, or what time it is.
Thor is usually reliable, if seemingly unable to manage consistent. A weird paradox Steve doesn't think about too hard. Thor is always there when they need him after all. What more can they ask of him?
So Thor wonders away for long periods of time, and it's not an issue. At least, not until he shows up with his brother.
A brother. None of them had had a clue Thor even had a brother.
It's remarkably like a slap in the face. Coming home to see every one gathered around the table, eyes solemn and shoulders tense. Uncomfortable. The only one who seemed happy was Thor, beaming widely at a thin, dark haired, pale kid, fidgeting with his sleeves.
It breaks one of their most important rules. Unsaid, but following after the ever important 'don't ask'.
''I thought none of us would ever bring anyone home.'' Steve says, the first time he ever lays eyes on Loki, not that he had known who he was at the time. He was too busy trying not to flip out, holding it together by the very skin of is teeth, to bother to ask.
It's just not done, it's so obvious, that for a moment Steve doesn't want to believe it needs to be said, that it isn't startling, glaringly clear. It's one of their rules. The few sacred ones between them that keeps them whole, keeps them together. Home is a sanctuary, home is where they can be happy, be themselves, home is a place that no outsider is ever allowed to intrude upon. Not ever.
And yet there he is. A person he doesn't know in the least.
" Steve." Thor near shouts happily, looking completely unbothered, completely at ease. You wouldn't know he's just wronged them all." This is my younger brother, Loki, I have been searching ceaselessly for him for many years."
" You have a brother?" Steve says, mind working furiously. It does explain a lot, the wondering, the occasional heartbreaking silence. It doesn't excuse it, what Thor has done. But it does explain a lot.
" Verily." Thor booms, meeting his eyes. And it's suddenly clear to Steve that Thor doesn't care. That he was perfectly aware of what he'd done and would gladly do so again. Loki means the world to him.
" I am no brother of yours!" Loki hisses, locking burning green eyes onto Thor. " We are of no blood relation. Your parents took me in out of pity for a runt. You are no kin of mine! That's why I left!"
" You are my brother!" Thor roars suddenly, all previous joy turning into rage. " You are the family I choose. I searched for you day and night. When our parents gave up, I refused to do the same. I swore to find you. I left to chase after you. I understand, if you never want to go back. I won't force you. But don't deny me Loki. Don't pretend even for a moment that something as foolish as blood would change your place in my heart."
This is clearly not the kind of conversation that they should have been having in front of them. Steve feels like he's intruding, even while half remembered conversations slide into place. Thor's vehement insistence that family are those who make you happy. The people you love. Not those who your born to. All those questions he'd buried, times where he had followed the rules, when he hadn't asked through his burning curiosity. Something tells him that soon it won't be much of an issue.
That there won't be much left to ask Thor, not after this.
" How kind of you." Loki snaps, dripping sarcasm," How Noble. How generous of you. How typical of Thor Odinson. Taking pity on a loveless runt."
" You know, I think that's the third time you've called yourself a runt. You do realize you're actually pretty tall right?" Clint interjects.
Steve gapes at him a little. He's not the only one. Bruce's mouth shuts with click once he realizes it's open. Natasha pinches the bridge of her nose and mutters to herself in Russian. Only Clint would blithely interrupt what is clearly a passionate argument and not feel awkward in the least. Well, maybe not only Clint...
Tony rolls his eyes.
" Something tells me you guy's have had this argument a few times before. Hell, you guys probably had it before you got here." He says, and the way Thor and Loki look away proves him right.
Tony sighs, " Okay guy's, this is how this is gonna go. Loki, you're already here and something tells me that Thor will challenge anyone who tries to send you a way to a fight to the death, so just stay the night. We still have to talk about it obviously. But it can wait till tomorrow. It's not like any of us are going anywhere. Besides you guys have been in the kitchen for hours and I've been getting hungry here. I'm even willing to help Steve cook for once! I'm starved. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. You don't want Bruce getting cranky, trust me on that. We're totally Science Bro's, so I would know."
Every one at the table just kind stares at him. Nobody moves.
Tony runs a hand through his unruly hair.
"Also, this is me kicking you out, clearly. I knew I shouldn't have bothered trying to be subtle, I'm no good at it. So shoo, mommy and daddy need to have a grown up talk in the kitchen. No eavesdropping now."
It isn't until everyone else has left that it occurs to him to wonder who mommy and daddy are suppose to be. But the first words out of his mouth are, " Why didn't you call me?"
Tony should have. Hours, he'd said. There had been a stranger in their home for hours and Steve hadn't known. He balls his fists, tries to fight off the rage the thought brings to the fore. It isn't like him, he's not one to be easily angered, he's usually the rational one. He's the guy who stays calm. But it's hard, there's a stranger in their home and he feels so useless. He'd rather be angry, it's almost easier, feeling mad.
"Sit down, will you?" It isn't until Tony says it that he even realizes he stood. Steve makes himself sit, opens his hands with a show of will power that almost leaves him impressed with himself. Then he meets Tony's eyes. He knows the look he finds there, it's remarkably like that first day all over again, though he hadn't known what that look meant at the time. Tony is assessing him. Weighing pro's and con's, action versus inaction, course of actions plotted and re-plotted at the speed of light, or however fast geniuses thought.
"Tony. Tell me." Steve orders, the silence is killing him, he can't wait until Tony has decided the best course of action. As far as he's concerned, there really isn't one at the moment.
" It doesn't have to be a bad thing." Tony blurts, catching him off guard.
" What?" Steve demands. What part of 'Stranger in our home' did Tony not understand? Of course it was a bad thing!
" It's not like with your friend." Tony says, totally out of left field as far as Steve is concerned. What did Bucky have to do with anything? But Tony plows on, oblivious, or deliberately ignoring his confusion. With Tony, it was hard to tell." Loki's a street kid too. And Thor loves him, that's obvious, he ran away just to follow the guy, that's love, right? I mean it sounds pretty romantic to me, but I'm an only child, the hell do I know about brotherly love? Mind you, Loki has to be a total drama queen, running away and throwing a fit just because he was adopted? Man, I wish I'd been adopted. And Clint's right, what's up with the whole runt thing? Ok, I'll give him skinny, he's pretty thin. But he's not exactly little. Just because he's not built like a mac truck like you, or like Thor doesn't mean he's small. I'm small, Clint's small. Loki is way too big to realistically be calling himself tiny. It's insulting, I'm insulted right now. Totally insulted, Steve."
" Tony." Steve cuts in because Tony is just babbling now, and he won't stop unless someone interrupts him. They really do need to talk. He realizes he's smiling, which isn't conductive to being serious at all, but he can't help it. Tony's babbling is endearing. It's nothing new, Tony is always making some sort of noise, tapping on things or humming under his breath when he's suppose to be quiet. Muttering absentmindedly to himself when he's focused on something, or nonsense when he's sleeping. And that's not even factoring in all the talking he does. If left to his own devices, Tony would talk for day's. Babbling, for being as common as it is for Tony, is still hopelessly adorable. Steve doesn't understand why this is, exactly, but it makes him feel this wave of warm affection for Tony every time he does it. His previous anger stands no chance. He feels a calm settle over him, eased by the familiarity of the situation and has to shoot Tony a considering look. Whose to say that hadn't been Tony's plan all along? Stupid, sneaky, brilliant geniuses, Steve thinks, trying to force his smile away. He'd had better luck with the rage.
" Why didn't you call me?" Steve asks again, in the hopes of getting a straight answer for once. It's a pretty futile hope, but who ever said hope springs eternal had been onto something.
" Okay, getting back on track." Tony concedes, at least." Look, it hadn't even occurred to me that not every one would run away from the people of their past like their ass was on fire until we ran into that friend of yours. Seriously, it hadn't even been in the cards. But then Thor shows up with the guy he left his past for, and well, I've never seen him that happy. Don't get me wrong, we weren't happy about it, the rest of us I mean. But you have to admit, once you put the whole he's in our house outrage to the side, we were all strangers once. And it's not like the guy's hopeless, I mean he's skinny as all hell, but he's been on the street for years, according to Thor, that means he's either got guts or street smarts or some serious brilliance he figured out how to make work for him, it might even be all three. Either way, he's a survivor, and not acknowledging that is pretty stupid at this point."
Steve nods, because Tony's right. Surviving is hard, it's something each of them is intimately aware of. And if Loki's managed it all this time...Well, he has Steve's respect at least. But still, it grates, the very idea of someone else...He can barely stand it, barely believe it. He doesn't want to." You want him to stay?"
" No!" Tony says, with a vehemence that surprises him. Tony crosses his arms, an action that always comes across as Tony hugging himself, rather than the defiance the gesture is intended to imply." I don't want anyone in our house. Not now, not ever. I'ts ours Steve, it's all we have."
" Yes."Steve sighs in relief. That's it exactly, that's what he feels, what he thought they all felt. That understanding, the true value of their home. Of the one thing that was solely theirs, solely safe in the world." I know."
Then Tony slumps." But that's just what I feel. What we all feel, probably. And Bruce and I were talking about it in the lab. Before Tasha and Clint got here. I mean, we all left, maybe we didn't have a better place to go, but at the end of the day, we thought we were better on our own than where we were. And no matter what we were leaving behind, if there was even anything to be left, we all have that in common. Whose to say Loki's not the same? I mean it seems stupid to us, but he left. It's not like we know the whole story. Anyone's whole story, in this house, it goes unsaid. We're all blank slates here, even when were not. And that's what matters right? What makes it good, safe."
Steve buries his head in his hands because he doesn't want to look at Tony. Doesn't want to see all the jagged edges he studiously avoids. And that's exactly what he means isn't it? Not asking, it's not just themselves that rule protects. It's each other, too. Seeing people you love broken, that hurts. And they already hurt enough all on their own.
" So what do we do?" Steve asks. More to get off the subject than to get a real answer. But he doesn't want to talk about it. He never wants to talk about it. And that truly is the beauty of being with people who understand. He doesn't have to.
" Well that's up to you, isn't it?" Tony says with an almost careful flippancy.
" What do you mean?" Steve demands. They all live here, it should be a communal decision. Perhaps they should take a vote.
" We discussed that too." Tony says, instead of giving Steve a straight answer. Someday Steve will figure out how ask Tony things and get him to answer the question directly. On the first try, even. Until then he supposes he'll have to make due with half answers and if he's particularly unlucky, deflections." When Tasha and Clint arrived. We talked about it. About who should get the most say and why. The lab makes more than their act in the park. But the park act precedes it and in many ways enabled us to set up shop. So we're about even there. Tasha says the act was Clint's idea though, and he does do most of the work anyway so he gets priority vote, if it ever comes to that. Bruce gave me lab ownership rights since most of what we do for cash is technical and I showed him how to do it. So my votes after Clint's. So ideally by order of importance it would go you, Clint, me, Natasha, Bruce, and then Thor, since he came last and is more of a free agent anyway. Not that it matters, you get to decide."
Steve makes a frustrated sound in the back of his throat." What do you mean, why am I first? Why do I get to decide?"
Tony looks at him, incredulous. " That's obvious, isn't it?"
" No." Steve says, finding himself resisting the urge to roll his eyes." If it was, I wouldn't be asking now would I?"
Tony, asshole that he is when it suits him, does roll his eyes, as though Steve where being exasperating and it wasn't the other way around." This is your place, duh. Sure Thor's down as your roommate or whatever, but you're the one who got your doctor friend to sign on. Besides you work your ass off most of the week to pay the vast majority of the rent. And when your not working, your keeping that gorgeous shape of yours, or making sure the rest of us are eating. Let's face it Steve, your captain of this ship."
Steve flushes slightly at the compliment, he always does. He like's that Tony notices he's built, and more than that, that he likes it. He tries not to, he doesn't want it to be awkward between them. Tony says things like that to all of them. Calls Natasha as beautiful as she is deadly. Compliments Clint more on his arms than his skill with a bow. He's heard him tell Thor he's a 'blonde god' and Bruce 'a choice piece of ass, and that's without factoring in that gorgeous brain of yours, darling'. Tony thinks nothing of calling him hot, or drool worthy, it shouldn't make him flush the way it does, shouldn't distract him so thoroughly. But it does. Despite being a house full of teenagers, sex isn't an issue. Not really, he knows, or at least is aware that there are people that want him that way. Girls, and the occasional guys, that look at him at the gym. And he's not the only one. All of them are attractive. It's not something he's too conscious of but he knows none of them would have trouble finding that kind of company, if they wanted it.
And for all he knows maybe they do. Maybe Natasha meets up with people after a run. Thor might have a girl or a guy somewhere. Or maybe Clint doesn't just go to the store, and maybe Tony and Bruce do a lot more than science together. But somehow, he doesn't really believe that. Any of it. The only person in the house he really knows has sex is Tony, and that never happens when he's in a good, happy place. They are all street kids after all, and sex means both a lot more and a whole lot less to them than to others their age. Being on your own changes everything. And even while they are all together, he doesn't like to think about them in such terms, romantic ones, it's just another way their still alone.
Steve shakes his head makes his mind come back to their conversation. It's utterly stupid." Sure, the apartment I got, with the papers you made. And the job I have, thanks again to the papers you made. The apartment we wouldn't be able to keep if you guys didn't pay for what I'm missing come the day rents due. And all the food I cook you guys buy. And almost everything else in the apartment someone else got their hands on."
" Yeah, yeah." Tony says waving his argument away. " I told the others you'd say something like that. I guess on some level they think so too since Clint says my vote should go over his, and Tasha and Bruce backed him. But they agree. I'm not saying we're dead weight here. We all pitch in, that's why this works. If Loki does stay he'll be expected to do the same. I get the whole 'you don't think it's fair that you get so much say thing' but that's exactly why you do. We wouldn't dream of giving you so much veto power if you were some dick who let power go to your head. You're honestly the most responsible one, out of all of us. And on some level we all know, we all trust, that you'll do your best to do the right thing here. So go ahead cap. You get to choose. Tomorrow Loki can stand trial, Thor will be presenting his defense, no doubt. If I were you, both of you, I'd think about it long and hard."
" Both?" Steve asks, and then flushes. Registering the utter silence of the apartment. The others hadn't even bothered turning the tv on and pretending to watch it. They live in a whole in the wall, their isn't even a proper wall between the kitchen and the living room, just a paper screen Natasha had produced from somewhere. Of course the others have been hanging on to their every word.
The eavesdropping comment, Steve now realizes with the benefit of hindsight, had been a joke.
" By the way, I wasn't kidding about the food." Tony says.
And Steve can't bite back the laugh that bubbles up. Geez, this is his life.
XxX
Long chapter is long. Wow this might be the longest I've ever posted 0.0. Hopefully it was well worth the wait. Thank you those kinds souls who reviewed! It helped a lot! Loki has been introduced, did I do good? Coulson's coming up soon, and maybe pepper, but that's still a little iffy, what do you guys think? Let me know! Please review!
