Heeeeey. So I meant to get this uploaded last week but then I got distracted and just now got around to it instead of doing the other things I should actually really be doing right now. I just wanted to thank everyone for their reviews so far-constructive ones included-and their dedication to this fic!
On a side note, guess which one of these I'm making up in this fic. Is it:
a) Myths dealing with Loki
b)It's a.
So...sorry.
Read, review, and enjoy!
In a perfect world, everything would have settled down quietly after Clint gave his cautious and grudging approval of their relationship. Unfortunately, this wasn't a perfect world. This wasn't even close to a perfect world.
Actually, if it was, Tony would be out of a job…
After the team figured out about them, it was like when they had all first moved in—the flow of the tower was off somehow. Everybody tried their best to keep out of everyone else's way. Meals were taken separately. The only exceptions seemed to be Tony and Bruce and Clint and Natasha. The latter wasn't a surprise to anyone, and Bruce moved as comfortably around Tony and Loki as he did Tony and Pepper, which is to say awkwardly, but certainly trying. Well, maybe a little less effortlessly than Pepper. She had a way of putting people at ease and Loki definitely never tried to put people at ease. Well, maybe a little with Bruce. He was still incredibly cautious.
The point was, everything was complicated now. Tony hated complicated. It lead to problems.
"Just wait," Tony says as he and Loki get ready for bed. "This is going to blow up any day now. We've just been lucky that we haven't gotten called out yet on a mission."
"None have told your director about us yet," Loki says as he sprawls on the bed. He blindly reaches for a book on the nightstand and Tony pushes it closer to his hand as he walks by. "So I can be content with that for now."
Turn out, Tony's right. It just takes a couple of days to get there. It starts with a tentative truce by the team. And by "truce," Tony means that Natasha forces everyone into the same room for dinner and no one is willing to tell her no.
"Tony!" Natasha yells over the music, leaning into the doorway of the lab. "We're ordering pizza. Team dinner tonight. You're required as well, Loki."
With that, she disappears. The two look at each other. Loki's face clearly says he will not be there.
"I'm not arguing with her," Tony says. "And if you aren't there, she will cause physical harm in order to get you there. And then we'll eat pizza happily while I bleed out."
"You inspire confidence with every word," Loki says with a roll of his eyes, turning back to his work.
Several hours later, Jarvis' voice comes over the intercom. "Sirs, Agent Romanoff has informed me that if you do not remove yourselves from the lab in the next five minutes, she will tie you up and make you watch as she blows up all of your projects."
"That's a low blow," Tony says. "You would never let her do that, would you?"
"She also would like me to remind you that she knows where my processers are, and is willing to forcefully shut them off, if need be."
"Huh. So she does. Well, shall we go see the kids?" Tony asks, spinning to face Loki with a slight quirk to his mouth. Loki tries not to grimace. "Oh come on, it won't be so bad. A few snide comments here, a few sarcastic comments in response, Nat will pit people against each other, Clint will start shooting arrows, and if we're lucky, Bruce won't Hulk out tonight."
"Does that happen on a normal basis?" Loki asks. He's wondering if it's too late to disappear.
"Don't be ridiculous. Only on Fridays." With that, Tony grabs his hand and drags him to the elevator.
Natasha has complete control of the situation when they make it upstairs. Steve is downstairs getting the pizzas, while Bruce and Clint are pouring out glasses of water. When Tony tries to make a beeline for the bar, Natasha intercepts him by looping her arm through his and directing him to the kitchen. Tony sends a pleading look to Loki, who tips the whiskey bottle at him.
"Loki," Natasha snaps. Tony's face falls. Busted. "Will you help Tony set the table?" Her voice is honey sweet. Loki hesitates for a second before deciding it's not worth it. For the sake of Tony—and Tony's relationship with the team, he supposes—he'll do it. If Tony's putting in the effort, he better as well.
"Of course, Agent Romanoff." His voice is just as sweet. Just because he's willing to put the effort in doesn't mean he's going to roll over and admit defeat.
She smiles as she hands him a stack of plates. When he walks into the dining room, he makes sure to walk as close to Clint as he can without being accused of trying to set him off. The archer bristles and steps further away with a glare.
"Feeling suicidal, love?" Tony murmurs as he slides around Loki, placing napkins by the plates.
"Only on Thursdays," Loki remarks back.
"Good thing it's only Wednesday," Tony says, disappearing back into the kitchen. "Explain to me again why we can't drink at dinner?"
"Because I said so," Natasha says firmly.
"That's never stopped me before," Tony declares, then looks back at Bruce and Clint. "Has it?"
"It has," Bruce confirms.
"Many times actually," Clint adds.
"No wonder all of my memories of Natasha are terrible," Tony says.
"Tempt me, Tony, please. It's been so long since I've had an opponent that can't fight back."
"Can we compromise and say no hard liquor?"
"I'll make you a deal. You drink the glass of water Clint and Bruce set on the table and I won't blow up one of your projects."
"Deal," Tony says weakly.
"Surely you know by now how to handle a tense situation without alcohol," Loki says, coming in to lean against the kitchen counter. Tony leans back against him.
"I don't know if you remember how we first met, but I'm pretty sure three minutes into our conversation I was offering you a drink."
"Hm, that is true. I stand corrected then."
"I don't want to know," Clint firmly decides. "Although, I'm pretty sure the fact that you even talked with him at all is proof of every label any psychologist has ever given you."
"Well that proves it then. I made the right choice in sitting down for five minutes. After all, most of those psychologists labelled me as a genius."
"And a narcissist," Clint adds.
"And with a tendency to be suicidal," Natasha adds thoughtfully.
"Who, me? Suicidal tendencies? Never."
"I have an inclination to agree with Agent Romanoff, as rare as that is."
"There's actually a lot we agree on," Natasha says. She and Loki stare at each other for a few seconds, their eyes saying everything, before Loki nods.
"Very true."
"Uh-uh. Not happening. Come on, icicles. Let's find out what's taking so long on this pizza."
"Sorry," Steve says as he walks into the kitchen. He has four pizzas stacked in one hand and another three in the other. Dinner time around the tower tends to run on the expensive side. "The delivery guy didn't believe that all of these pizzas were for us."
"Because we're the Avengers or because there were so many pizzas?" Clint asks as he helps Steve set down the boxes.
"Both, I think," Steve says. "He must be new."
They sit down at the table, and Tony thinks that if anyone got a picture of this, it might almost look like a normal friendly dinner. Except for the fact that no one is talking. Tony gets fidgety. Natasha gets glarey. Loki remains stiff, hardly even touching his food. Come to think of it, it took him a while to actually eat in front of Tony too. This had been an even worse idea than he thought.
Tony leans back. "Well this was pleasant. However, Loki and I both have important projects going on down in the labs."
Natasha scoffs. "Tony, you aren't actually doing a single important thing down there."
"And what the hell do you know about what I'm doing down there?" Tony says, automatically defensive. In a way, she's right—he's not doing any work for the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D, or S.I. Right now he's working on theoretical stuff and sometimes that his favorite thing to do.
Natasha takes a deep breath and her face relaxes a little. "What I mean, Tony, is that we need to think about the team right now. This has completely thrown off our group dynamics. I understand you're making advances in your field, but this is more important."
Under the table, Loki puts a hand on Tony's leg, a shock of cool reminding him to remain calm. Tony takes his own breath of patience. "Fine. I've already told you guys that this discussion was closed, so I don't know what you want to talk about."
Steve shifts in his chair, muscles tense. "Tony, if we're all going to live here, we need to establish new boundaries."
"If you don't like how things are, you're more than welcome to leave," Tony says, leaning forward, all business now.
"Tony," Loki's voice is low, a warning that Tony accepts with a twitch, but doesn't ease his posture.
"Tony, we're not saying that we want to leave. Just that they—we—need time to adjust," Bruce says, taking off his glasses to clean them. Bruce is still cool in his book, because he's actually made an effort. He supposes Steve might not know that Loki won't approach him first, but Natasha and Clint have to be well aware. If they aren't making the effort, they're never going to get anywhere. Clint is starting to look more rigid by the second.
"And how, exactly, are we supposed to be helping that process along? Is that not what we were doing already?" Tony asks.
"We were existing," Natasha says. "But we were not a team."
"I'm still not seeing what this-"
"Tony," Loki says quietly. "It is not you that they are concerned about. They want something from me, do you not?" he asks, looking to Natasha.
She breathes a sigh—possibly of relief. "I told you we should've taken the more direct route," Natasha says to Steve.
Tony blinks. "In what world did you think the direct route wasn't the right answer?"
"When we were trying to be subtle, Tony," Clint says, though his mood is decidedly sour.
"You have to understand," Steve tries, "that there was a…structure in the tower, before we knew about you. It's been completely thrown off now. We haven't told Fury yet, because you've pretty much taken away that option, but I'm worried that our ability to work as a team is suffering, and if we can't get that solved, I will tell Fury." Steve's face is firm with the decision. Tony looks like he's got an opinion on that, but Loki pushes a bottle of whiskey that he materializes from the bar in his direction. Tony's glowering, but he pours them both a drink, pauses for a second, then pours one for Natasha and Clint as well. Clint downs his in one drink.
"I understand, Captain. I apologize for causing any problems," Loki says. Next to him, Tony starts having a coughing fit. Bruce swears he hears the word 'liar' get coughed out somewhere in there, but Loki doesn't even blink, so he assumes he's hearing things. "Perhaps it would be best if you continued to operate as if you never knew that I was here. I assure you, I have no desire to participate in your…'team bonding' activities."
"Uh-uh," Tony says, setting his glass down firmly. "Now that you know he's here, if I have to participate in them, so does he."
Natasha takes a drink from her glass. "He's not part of the team, Tony. He doesn't have to if he doesn't want to."
"You guys make Pepper participate in them."
"We don't make Ms. Potts do anything. I don't think anyone can make Ms. Potts do something," Steve says. It might be the first smart thing he's said all night. "She likes to join in sometimes, that's all."
'If you would give me advanced warning, I will make sure I find other things to occupy my attention when these team moments come up," Loki says generously.
"Like hell you will. When we have a date, I refuse to pick team bonding over my date night."
"See? This is what I'm talking about, Tony. You can't-"
"I'm gonna stop you there, Cap. See, I'm pretty sure you're about to say that I have divided loyalties or some bullshit like that because I would pick my boyfriend over a team night. First off, I'd like to note that it's not likely to happen all the time, unless you guys start getting worse at picking out these…activities. Secondly, let's talking about the missing guy in this room. Where, exactly, is Thor on this glorious evening?"
Steve shifts again. "He's…with Jane."
"Oh, that's right. Because Thor gets a pass on almost any game night because he's not dating a former homicidal sociopath."
"Please, your compliments are too sweet," Loki murmurs, but he seems hardly upset. His eyes light up as Tony talks.
"Thor is-" Steve pauses as he tries to consider the right words to continue with. Natasha, not nearly as shy, finishes for him.
"He's better at taking orders," Natasha says. "And he gets along with everyone." She looks at Loki, then changes her mind. "Well, almost everyone."
"But it is something that I've been meaning to discuss with him as well," Steve says firmly.
"You did not," Loki says smoothly.
"I don't need a God of Lies to tell me that was a lie. Have you ever seen Steve's tell? It's terrible," Tony says idly, pouring himself another drink before shoving the bottle in Clint and Natasha's direction. "You let me know when you've laid down the same rules to Thor as you seem to want to lay down on me. Until then, I have important breakthroughs to conduct. Come, love. Let's go break some rules."
Silence follows after the pair leaves. Finally, Bruce releases a tense breath and begins stacking up plates. "Well," he says. The rest of them begin to move, helping to clear the table. "That didn't go nearly as bad as I thought it would."
It all settles down for a while. Loki comes and goes, and luckily nobody ever asks about the 'where does Loki go when he's not here' part. When he's here, Tony and Loki pretty much isolate themselves. Sometimes they join the team for dinner, but they haven't gotten much better. When Loki's gone, the team watches movies or plays games—Thor included.
Still, Tony can tell that Steve isn't completely comfortable with this set-up. When he finally gets sick of it, he approaches the captain after game night.
"So. You seemed completely fine with this when you first found out about it. In the name of trying to get to your goal and stopping your brooding looks you shoot in my direction when you think I'm not looking, what's the problem now?" Tony asks. Steve looks surprised at first, then leans back against the couch, running a hand through his hair.
"It's just, I don't know Tony, don't you think this is all just a little bit dangerous?"
"Have you actually looked at what we do for a living?" Tony asks. "S.H.I.E.L.D pays you to throw yourself in the middle of losing situations and make them winners. Dangerous is a little underwhelming anymore."
"I just mean, Loki killed a ton of innocent—and not so innocent—people, some of them in cold blood. Don't you wonder if, maybe, he's just waiting for us all to let down our guard?"
Steve seems so honestly troubled, but Tony can't even begin to understand it. "No. Have you been paying attention-"
"I understand that he's changed," Steve says hurriedly before Tony can finish his sentence. "I really do. I just…he's known for lying, Tony. If he wanted to, I'm sure he could play all of us and we wouldn't know until it was too late."
"Oh for-he's not going to attack us, Steve, unless something has gone terribly, terribly wrong," Tony says, throwing his hands up in the air in forfeit.
"How can you be sure?" Steve asks.
"Is my word not good enough for you anymore?" Tony asks quietly. He's starting to lose his patience for Steve's constant paranoia. Steve hesitates to answer and Tony leaves without another word.
Tony's working in the lab two days later—alone, because Loki is working abroad today—when Steve storms in to the lab. Tony hardly notices, because he still working to make the theoretical not so theoretical, but he definitely notices when Steve slams something down on the table behind him. His heartbeat flares, and for a second he feels a cold, damp wind blow across his face, smelling like sun-heated sand, before Steve speaks.
"I thought you said this wasn't a problem," Steve says, and man, is he pissed.
"Oh hi Steve, yeah, no problem, just walk right into the lab, I'm definitely not doing anything," Tony says, sending one last glance at his work before turning to face Steve. He takes one look at what Steve put on the table before his facial expression closes down. "Where the hell did you get that?"
"If this is so safe, explain to me why Fury just handed this to me," Steve seethes.
It's a picture, one that S.H.I.E.L.D definitely shouldn't have. It's damaged, but obvious enough. Loki, in the middle of a fight with a bunch of undisclosed people. He's fighting with knives, and in the shot, one knife is buried in a man while the other knife is dripping blood.
"Jarvis, where did S.H.I.E.L.D find that?" Tony asks. Everything could be blown, in this second, if he underestimated S.H.I.E.L.D at all. "And, more importantly, do they have more?"
"I have found the file, sir, but there does not appear to be more."
"Fury said they had been monitoring a lab for shady deals. When they went to do a checkup, the security was down and their system was completely wiped. Did you do this, Tony? Did you cover up these…these murders for him?"
A deadly calm flashes through Tony's body. He should've recognized the signs, realized that Steve was trusting him less and less, but apparently he hadn't. Tony is reminded why he had always kept people out of his life. "S.H.I. 's files are woefully incomplete," Tony says pleasantly, but he knows Steve can recognize the dangerous tone in it. "Would you like to see the full photo? Jarvis, be a dear, won't you, and pull up that shot from the security cameras?" Tony had backed up their entire system onto Jarvis, so he could continue to look through it. He thought he had wiped the whole thing, but apparently S.H.I.E.L.D had managed to find one damning photo.
"Of course, sir. I believe this is the picture you were looking for."
On the screen, the same picture of Loki appears, only this time it's the whole thing. Which includes, standing back to back with Loki, Tony in his Iron Man suit. "This is what, thankfully, S.H.I.E.L.D didn't get."
"Tony, what the hell-" Steve breathes. "He can't stay here anymore," Steve says, seeming to break out of the trance the photo put on him. "He's clearly manipulating you."
"You're hilarious, Rogers. I thought I just heard you try and tell me what I can and can't do."
"Tony, he had you help him murder people."
Tony laughed bitterly. "Who did Fury tell you owned the base?"
"Just some up and coming cooperation-"
"A.I.M, Steve. A.I.M owns the base."
"That doesn't mean that you kill-"
"Steve, let me ask you a question. Would you consider those agents to be soldiers? Accepting orders from their superiors and acting on them?"
It seems to throw Steve off. "I mean, I guess, but-"
"Now tell me Steve, when you fought in the war, how hard did you try not to kill an individual soldier to go straight for the person in charge?"
Steve shuts down automatically. They don't ever really talk about Steve's part in World War 2, mostly because of Steve's silent request, but Tony's feeling like making a point today, and if that means destroying Steve, he's kinda willing to right now. "That was different."
"Oh please, do explain Captain. How is killing a solider in a war on a battlefield different than killing a soldier in a weapons war at their home base?"
"We're supposed to be heroes now, Tony, and we should be better than this!" Steve says.
"Oh my god, you are so blind!" Tony laughs. "Steve, what do you think happens when you hit an ordinary human with your shield?"
"This isn't about me, Tony," Steve says and Tony sees it for the deflection it is. "This is about the fact that you said that Loki wasn't a threat to us, when he clearly is! He's still just as blood thirsty as before! You're putting the whole team in danger!"
"I offered you an out!" Tony throws back. "I told you that if you didn't like it, you could leave! No one is making you stay here!"
"Tony." Loki's voice is quiet, but it still easily catches Tony's attention. He had been so caught up in Steve that he hadn't felt or heard Loki arrive. He turns wild eyes to the god's calm green eyes. Loki thinks it's possibly the angriest he's seen Tony before, and he's been here long enough to know why. If he projects anything but calmness, though, he knows Tony will act regretfully. He steps in between the two men. "This is not the best time to be having this argument."
"I didn't even start this god damn argument! And since when have you been on his side?" Tony's gestures are sharp and short, and Loki's been around enough to know when Tony is too angry to think before he acts.
"I am not on his side," Loki stresses. "But you are close to saying poorly thought words and I would not have you do that on my part." Steve's about ready to say something, Loki can tell, but luckily he's blocked from Tony's view. Much longer, however, and Loki may not be able to control himself.
"Tony." Natasha's voice draws Tony's eyes away from Loki. Apparently she's managed to sneak into the labs without him knowing as well. God he wishes this tower was empty of all of them. "Go to the training room. Take that new repulsor you've been working on and work off some steam. Clint's already down there."
"Does this discussion look like it's done? Because I'm not leaving until it's done. I won't have some holier-than-thou asshole bashing down my boyfriend and accusing me of-"
Loki manages to catch one of the flailing hands with his own and interlaces his fingers with Tony's. His face is schooled into complete ease, even if he wants to join Tony in throwing the oh-so-perfect captain from the balcony. "Tony," Loki says, and Tony's face shuts down, his lips thinning out. Oh, they'll fight about this for weeks to come, but Loki will get his way. It just comes at a price. "I do not expect you to forget this happened, but you must consider your words carefully. I will join you shortly."
"I'm sure you will," Tony retorts, yanking his hand from Loki's grasp. He steps around Loki to send a glare at Steve. "This is so not over."
Silence follows his departure, and Loki flinches when the lab door slams shut. The doors are designed to close on their own—Tony had put the extra effort in to force it closed. He takes a moment to compose his thoughts. When the elevator doors close, Loki turns slowly to Steve, who's still watching Loki with the same careless anger he had at the start of the argument.
"Perhaps, when you wish to raise an issue with a teammate, you should not immediately assume that said teammate would betray everything they have worked for without proof. Nor should you assume that I would ask him to do so," Loki says smoothly. There are doubts, in Steve's eyes, that swirl around and battle with his anger. "You are lucky that I am willing to spend the next week soothing Tony's anger, or else you would have found yourself cast out from this house."
"You don't get to tell me-"
"No, but Tony does," Natasha interjects before he can finish. "And believe me, if Loki hadn't stepped in, he would've kicked you out without a second thought. If you were lucky, he'd still work with the team but I doubt you'd be able to get him to listen to you for a long time."
"I do not take insults lightly," Loki says, taking a step forward. Steve tenses and stands straighter. Good. Loki wants him to feel threatened. "I suggest you chose your words more carefully next time." He steps back, and looks to Natasha, effectively banishing Steve from the conversation. "I will return shortly."
"Steve," Natasha sighs. She looks over at the picture of Tony and Loki fighting and thinks carefully about what she wants to say next. "Fury probably didn't tell you everything he knows about that group because he knew that this picture would get you angry and dedicated to finding Loki. I happen to know, because I was the one who found the information, but that particular branch of A.I.M is known for one thing—child mutation experimentation. I wanted to move against them earlier, but Fury didn't think we had enough information. When they found out that all of the records were wiped, including security, I knew it was Tony and Loki. I checked in with Professor Xavier as well—unsurprisingly, they had sent Storm and Jean out the day before to pick up a group of kids from Tony. Xavier said that Tony made him promise to keep it quiet."
"They-they broke in there to-to save kids?" Steve asks. He looks like a mixture of horrified and sick. Natasha wonders how much of it is because of the kids and how much of it is at his own actions.
"If you had read the myths, you'd know that Loki has a…tendency to be a bit protective of children. Particularly those that are…different. Loners. Special."
"But-"
"Besides that," Natasha says, straightening and becoming the agent she was trained to be. "I really hope I don't need to tell you that this team is the only hold S.H.I.E.L.D has on Iron Man. If we break that hold, you're not just screwing yourself over, you're screwing over everyone."
Steve goes quiet, and Natasha watches him carefully. Finally, he nods. "I'll…I'll think about it. But I still think this is a bad idea."
"Well it's a good thing you're not in the relationship then, isn't it?"
Clint finds Steve brooding in the common area a few days later. He's staring out at the city, but Clint doubts he sees any of it. Loki and Tony have been strangely absent from the tower, although Jarvis assures them that both are still present. Natasha and Bruce make sure to check on them every once in a while, mostly because they're the only ones who can do so without getting something thrown at them.
"See something you like?" Clint asks as he picks an apple off the counter. Pepper and Bruce stash healthy snacks around the place in hopes that they'll actually eat them. It sorta works.
Steve starts and turns back to Clint. His face is tight, and it takes Clint a second to realize its desperation. "How did you move past it?"
"Past what?" Clint asks, but he's pretty sure he knows.
"Past the whole 'mass murdering god' part of this."
Clint is definitely not qualified to talk about this, but he really should've expected it. "I mean, have you asked them about Loki's side of the story yet?"
Steve flinches minutely and he takes that as a no. "Have you?" Steve challenges.
"Kind of. I've gotten enough to understand that what lead Loki to that…it wasn't pleasant. I don't need to know more of it, because I also kind of trust Tony."
"Kind of?"
Clint shrugs. "As much as you can trust a self-destructive, egotistical, genius."
"Don't let Tony hear you say that," Steve says, turning back to look out over the city.
"He's heard it more times than he can count. If he got a dollar for every time someone said it, it might equal how much money he has now."
"And that's all it took for you to move on?"
Clint sighs and leans against the bar. "Oh man, I don't think my method works for anyone else other than me. Natasha can be…brutal. But efficient. Plus, it's still a work in progress."
"Perhaps, Captain, it would be best if you told me your concerns." Loki's voice is smooth and quiet, but not challenging. Both teammates turn quickly to see him emerge from the hallway, dressed in a pair of dark jeans and one of Tony's button up shirts. Considering the fact that Tony's down in the lab, it's likely he was coming from the bedroom. Clint suspects that they haven't been sleeping together lately. "After all, everyone else on the team has approached me, but you are too busy avoiding me to do so."
Steve looks at Clint who shrugs. "First couple days. Had to have my questions answered."
"I assure you that I am willing to answer your questions as best as I can, particularly if it would cease this…tension."
"When's the last time you actually spent some time with Tony where you guys don't argue?" Clint asks. Stormy eyes turn to the archer, who gulps and shifts uneasily, despite himself. "Right. Got it."
Steve sighs and rubs a hand down his face. "I didn't mean to-"
"You did," Loki says easily. "But it is not hard to make Tony and I fight, though perhaps not this strongly."
Steve seems to be having a hard time figuring out what, exactly, he wants to say, so Loki starts the conversation. "If you are worried for your own safety or, I suspect, for your teammates' safety, you should know that I have no interest in harming any of you."
"Except Thor," Clint interjects. Loki shoots him another glare.
"A special case, I assure you. Should you spend thousands of years with him, you would want to cause as much bodily harm as well. But should my assurances not placate you, know that there were certain promises that Tony and I made to each other before committing to this relationship, and any harm, physical or mental, to the team was one of them."
"What were Tony's promises to you?" Clint asks.
"And you always keep your promises?" Steve asks over the archer.
"Unless there are extreme circumstances, yes. If you do not believe me, you may ask Tony. He would make me promise no harm to himself when I first started visiting."
"Seriously?" Clint says, choking on a piece of apple. It seems to put Steve at ease a little though, so Loki merely nods.
"I'm just having a hard time thinking of you as a different person than the Loki we fought with."
"Then don't," Loki says, which surprises Steve enough to make the man look back to the god. "I have lived a long time, Captain, and complete changes to my personality are unlikely to happen in the span of a few years."
"Then-"
"But that does not mean that I was completely…whole the last time you met me. My mind was, hm, fragmented."
"I can actually attest to that one," Clint speaks up, drawing both of sets of eyes. "Uh, there was some overlap in that whole, uh, mind control thing." Oh god, he should've never spoken up. Their eyes are making him sweat and it's bringing up memories he's been doing a really good job of forgetting. "At the time, it seemed normal, the things I picked up, but after I'd had time to recover, I realized that you weren't really-you know, I'm not really sure how to phrase this without you killing me."
"I think we get the picture," Steve says quickly.
"The word he was looking for was 'sane.' I was not completely sane." Loki shrugs, and Clint's pretty sure he picked that up from Tony because he never did it before. "I am not afraid to admit to the truth."
"And you just…got better?" Steve asks skeptically.
"Hardly," Loki says. "But I am working on it."
"And Tony-Tony helps?" Unsurprisingly, the skepticism is still there. Tony is rarely considered the best one to help in any situation.
"He does." Loki doesn't even hesitate.
Steve rubs his hand through his hair in frustration and turns away from them. He picks up his own apple out of the bowl, more to do something with his hands than to actually eat it. "I just-I need time."
"And we are willing to give it to you," Loki says. "But we would appreciate if you did not call Tony's…morality into question."
Steve's face colors. "Yeah, I'm-I'm sorry about that."
"You are not," Loki says, just as easily as he had been earlier when he called Steve out. Clint wonders if he's gotten a lot of practice with Tony. "But you might be someday."
"Just, these missions. You do them often?" Steve asks.
"We have done a couple. It is difficult, however, as Tony is well watched and we must be careful that S.H.I.E.L.D does not find out."
"Why doesn't Tony just bring the knowledge to Fury himself? Then the mission can be carried out on the official channels."
"Primarily, neither Tony, nor I, trust S.H.I.E.L.D's intentions. We would rather do it ourselves where we may control the outcome. But also, much of our knowledge gained is not…legal."
"Tony's always doing illegal things," Clint puts in.
"It is not necessarily just Tony doing them," Loki says.
"Loki! Perfect," a new voice says frantically. Pepper bustles into the room, her arms loaded down with two bags of food and a stack of paperwork, plus her phone in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. "Can you run these papers down to Tony? I'm running behind schedule. And I brought you guys some food. Thai should be arriving for you, Nat, and Bruce soon."
Loki accepts the paperwork out of her hand while Clint relieves her of the bags of food. "Do you not have a secretary who could run such errands for you?" Loki asks.
Pepper gives him a tired grin. "You know Bethany hates Tony. Besides, I needed to pick up one of my suits from my room here. I'm flying to Tokyo tomorrow for a meeting. Thanks Loki!" she says, giving him a kiss on the cheek before running back to the elevator. When he looks back, Steve and Clint are staring at him. "Yes?"
"Man, it took us forever to get on her good side, and even then, Steve's the only one who's ever gotten the 'kiss on the cheek' thing," Clint says. "How'd you do it?"
Loki's smile is slow and full of such mischievousness that it sets Steve and Clint on edge, but Clint can tell it's not dangerous, whatever Loki's about to do. "I do believe, Agent Barton, that you have a saying? A magician never tells his secrets."
With that he takes some of the food and the paperwork and heads down to the lab. If he can hold out long enough for Steve to apologize to Tony, the two of them might even return to talking status before one of them snaps and starts up a new argument.