AN: i changed Steve's mum because of sequel reasons :)
"Okay," Bruce says, finally sitting back down on the couch. "It's been way too long, we need to call the cops." He's clasping and un-clasping his hands nervously in his lap and Clint's pretty sure he's got no sleep for this entire trip.
It was always going to end like this, Clint thinks, well not like this with half their group most probably kidnapped, but with police at least. He's not sure how it could have ended any other way, if he's completely honest. Barney is going to be really upset if his van gets seized as evidence and he doesn't even want to think about how pissed his Mom'll be.
"You want to do the honours?" He asks, pulling out his phone because he already knows Bruce'll say no (it's always polite to ask though.)
Bruce shakes his head, worrying his bottom lip, "How can you be so calm?"
Clint shrugs as he dials the number, "They're with Tasha. There's not really anyone I'd feel safer with."
The agent sitting opposite them has a ridiculous amount of dandruff on his shoulders and Thor has the overwhelming urge to brush it all off.
They're on Stark's private jet, it's 4am and they've found his brother and his friends.
His parents are arguing a little way off too quietly for Thor to hear but he already knows it's about Laufey, about how his father didn't tell his mother Laufey had been released. Thor's not really sure if it would have made any difference. Maybe they would have told Loki sooner, but he would have run still, Thor knows that now. It's just his brother's nature. He'd be angry too - is angry but he doesn't have time to think about that right now.
Steve's mother is a few seats away from him, listening intently to agent explain about negotiation techniques and Laufey's demands. Her hair is caught up in a messy bun and she's still in the uniform from that god awful diner she works at. Her eyes are fierce though and Thor sees where Steve gets it from. Peggy's there too for some reason, right by her side. She catches Thor looking at them and flashes him a small smile. Thor tries to smile back, doesn't quite make it.
Howard Stark is there too, sat alone looking wrecked. It's strange, seeing him so undone, on tv and at the few galas Tony's dragged them all to he's always looked so prim and proper, not a hair out of place. Now, he's pale, worn, his shirt is rumpled and his hair is mussed.
He'd offered to pay it all, every million Laufey asked for but his company is still discussing it and the FBI aren't keen.
"If we don't come across as strong then he'll just keep demanding more," the agent had said. "Your boys are valuable and he knows it." He doesn't talk about Steve or Bucky or Natasha much. All he said was that Laufey wouldn't be above hurting a hostage.
"So, shouldn't we be trying to get them out of there rather than wasting time negotiating?" Steve's mother had snapped and the agent had shifted uncomfortably and mumbled about not pandering to criminals.
Clint's mother and brother are a few rows in front of him, they're meeting Clint and Bruce in New York. At least those two are free.
Thor feels a little guilty, he should've gone to find Loki, not sent his friends. He could have snuck past the police if he'd tried hard enough. ("They would have caught you," Jane had said, "That would have wasted time they could have been using to find Loki.") He really wishes Jane was here.
("Did Laufey hurt you?" Natasha hisses in his ear in Russian.
His whole body hurts but he's not going to tell that. Not that she doesn't already know. He shakes his head and she rolls her eyes at him.)
"And you know this how, Mr Barton?"
Clint rolls his eyes and the officer sat in front of him gives him a pointed look until Clint's mother sighs loudly. He's under eighteen so she has to be present for his interrogation which is good because by the time they're done here she'll be more pissed at the police than at him.
"Because as soon as the others left we followed them." He says, which is true. He and Bruce had held out a grand total of ten minutes before following the others.
"And you did this how?"
Clint sees no point in lying because he's banking on the fact that the police will be too caught up in the kidnapping to bother charging him with anything. Besides, even if they do think about charging him he'll probably get brownie points for being honest and heroic and things. "We borrowed - "
"Stole," the officer mutters. Clint's mother cuffs him.
Clint narrows his eyes, "We borrowed a car from the Rhodes family. We followed them to the house and waited around a whirl but they didn't come out."
"And you left at what time?"
"Around 7pm? I don't know exactly. We left after some rich lady banged on the window and told us the neighbourhood watch was against loitering or something." Clint wonders what she thinks about the fact that her nice neighbour was currently on the front page of every newspaper for kidnapping five kids.
"And once you left what did you do?"
"Went back to the Rhodes house."
"Where you were staying without their knowledge," the officer says, noting something down. "And why did you not call the police then?"
Because I'm a moron, Clint thinks.
Laufey's men drag him out of their little cell-room unceremoniously, in what Tony assumes is the early hours of the morning. It must be because as they drag him down the corridors he winces at the pale sunlight pouring through the windows.
They sit him in another room, in front a table. There's a bowl of cereal and a glass of juice and Tony's never really been lucky charms guy but he isbeyond hungry. He's slurping up the milk and trying to imagine Laufey pushing a shopping cart around and buying kids cereal when the man of the hour walks in and sits down opposite him and fucking grins.
"So, Mr Stark, how are you enjoying your stay?"
"The room service is rubbish," Tony says, meeting Laufey's dark stare. "Is this the part where you cut of my finger and send it to my dad? Because our mail gets screened. And even if you did get it to him he'd probably just bill you for the table you damage."
Laufey chuckles, a low rumble. "No, Anthony, I won't be cutting off fingers just yet. Your father just requires more solid evidence that you are indeed in my custody."
"And that will involve...?"
"Oh, you know, the classics, a photo of you with today's newspaper." Laufey waves and a man appears holding a paper and a Polaroid camera.
"Wow, I'm glad I merit the boss himself coming down to snap a few pictures of me," Tony mutters. "I hope you don't expect me to strip for you, Laufey, because that is strictly third date territory."
Laufey looks unimpressed, "Stark, I may not be willing to kill you but I am perfectly happy to send your tongue to your father if that will help you keep quiet."
Tony shuts up pretty quickly after that.
"We're going to move you," Alexi announces, bursting into their room. "Split them up," he says chirpily to the men behind him.
Loki doesn't bother arguing, he watches as the others band closer together, half in amusement, half in sorrow. He's led out last and just as they're reaching the backdoor Laufey appears, face stern. He looks at Loki for what feels like a very long time and then says, "You know I have to do this."
Loki bites his lip. He knows. But... "Yeah, I know." He says, lump in his throat. This whole thing has been a disaster and part of him wants to run, go to the police and talk for hours about all he's seen at Laufey's and all the things he's learnt about Odin. Maybe he can get emancipated, just fuck off to Canada or somewhere where no one come running after him. Maybe he could even take Tony, at least so he wouldn't get himself kidnapped and ruin everything again. Moron.
Laufey looks away, "You won't be harmed. Unless you try and run." He looks back, eyes dull and Loki's expecting a goodbye, at least a goodbye, but instead Laufey just shakes his head and walks away.
He thinks it should maybe feel worse than actually does. He keeps expecting to cry or something but all he feels is this bubbling rage because he'd gone through so much to get here - so fucking much - and it feels like Laufey had been waiting for this all along. He's so fucking pissed at everyone and everything that he feels like he's going to break.
Thor's pacing. He and Clint and Bruce have been kicked out of the crisis room, or whatever the hell the agents are calling it. They're in the next room of the hotel they're holed up in.
"Dude, could you please stop?" Clint snaps, "You're spazzing me out!"
"I just don't understand why we can't be in there! He's my brother!"
"They want to keep it small so they don't have any distractions," Bruce says calmly. Damn him for being so calm.
They're searching Laufey's house, they know Tony's alive at least. Laufey sent them a picture. They think he'll keep the others alive for a while at least and fuck, fuck this is all so horribly real.
Clint drums his hands on his knees, "I get that you're nervous but you're making me twice as nervous and there is only so much one boys heart can take!"
Thor throws him an irritated glance and keeps pacing until Peggy bursts in, shaking her head and says, "They weren't there. They couldn't take Laufey into custody because they'd made a deal with him."
"So, what now?" Bruce asks, while Thor's still trying to process what she said.
"Laufey wants them to pay but they're still trying to negotiate with him so he's raised the ransom."
"Fuck," Clint breaths, "Fuck."
"But Stark said he'd pay it all," Thor snaps. "Why don't they just let him?"
Peggy sighs and strides in to perch on the edge of the bed beside Clint, "Apparently, Mr Stark isn't as wealthy as he'd have us believe. Most of his money goes into the company and so it was down to the board to vote on it."
"And they voted no? Jesus, I sense some mass firings coming up." Clint mutters.
"No, they voted to do as the FBI says," Peggy corrects him. "Mr Stark doesn't gave enough money on his own to pay it all off and I hardly imagine the Romanoff's or Steve's mother coming up with the rest."
"I don't understand why they just don't let them pay," Thor says, running a hand through his hair. "He could kill them."
Natasha is bundled into a four by four with tinted windows by a stern man with a pistol at his hip. "This doesn't have to be painful," he tells her as they pull away from the curb. Her hands are zip-tied together, ankles too. It's 9am, or there abouts, and driving anywhere in New York at this time is, in Natasha's opinion, really fucking stupid. The cars going so slowly that if she could get through she could be out of the car and safe within a few seconds. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the room she needs to free her hands. Yet, anyway.
"Where are you taking me?" She asks, "I heard the news as you marched us out, Stark said he'd pay."
"The Feds won't take it," her driver rumbles. "Fucking pricks. You're going to a safe house." He glanced at her in the rear view mirror, "I'm sorry you kids got mixed up in this, you know. I hope it doesn't get bloody."
Natasha cocks her head, "And if it does?"
"Don't worry. You'll be one of the last to go, the boss likes you." He says, like it's supposed to make her feel better.
Natasha wants to tell him that she won't be letting that happen but she'd rather not converse with a man who's kidnapping her. Or aiding in her kidnapping.
It takes them almost two hours to get to the safe house, a drive that by Natasha's reckoning should have taken twenty minutes. At least the driver had stopped for bagels.
They park round the back of a small row of shops and Natasha is led to a flat above a laundrette and pushed into another small locked room. "It's soundproof," the driver says. "So scream all you want, though, I'd rather you didn't. My associate will be arriving soon with another of your little friends and he really doesn't like noise."
Natasha glares at him and he shakes his head before slamming the door. Natasha sits down as she hears the snick of the lock. She's in there for about ten minutes when the door swings open again and a very grumpy man with a broken nose shoves Steve in with a disgusted groan.
Steve has a black eye and a triumphant smirk, he's also shivering fairly dramatically. Natasha looks him up and down and arches an eyebrow.
"I punched one of the guys who was driving me so they threw me in the back of the truck," he explains.
"You're shivering."
"It was a refrigerated truck," he adds, rubbing his arms with increasingly desperate moments.
She rolls her eyes and opens her arms, "Just so we're clear this isn't a hug. It's just to keep you warm."
"I know," he tells her, smiling gratefully. When he's stopped shivering quite so violently they break apart and sit down, backs against the wall. "How long do you think they'll keep us here?" Steve asks and Natasha knows that he's probably heard all about how their negotiations are going on the car radio or seen it on news stands on the drive over. He's probably just trying to distract her a little.
"They'll probably move us around a lot while they're negotiating." She says, drawing her knees up to her chest. She sighs, "Do you think maybe we should have just left Loki to his own devices?"
Steve huffs, "Maybe. There's no way we would've talked Tony out of going to find him though. Would you really have let him go running off on his own? That kid's a mess."
Natasha smiles despite it all, "I suppose you're right."