"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
Yes, in fact, he was, but Taylor wasn't about to say that out loud. She had to admit, it was a bit of a compromising situation she was in—making out with Loki in a hospital bed. She'd probably be a bit taken aback too if she'd walked in on one of her teammates with their tongue down someone throat (ahem, Tony) but that didn't mean she much appreciated being disturbed either. Unfortunately, Steve's intrusion also brought her brain crashing back down to earth and as she broke the kiss with Loki, a fierce blush dusted her cheeks. Whoops.
"Um…no," she replied, clearing her throat awkwardly.
"You mind giving us a moment," Steve said, addressing Loki specifically this time.
She felt his grip tighten on her hand, just slightly, and prayed he wouldn't argue. This was not the time to be picking fights with her teammates, especially Steve. One of the most important things she'd learned in her time as an Avenger was that the team had to be unified during crisis. A little spat over romance was not something to risk all the nine realms over. With a sigh that could only be described only be described as frustrated, Loki disentangled his hand from her hair and straightened and fixed his clothes.
"I'll be back to check on you in a little while," he informed her, "I have some research to do in the library."
Taylor nodded, thankful that he wasn't going to put up a fight about it, and adjusted her hair while he brushed past Steve and out of the room. She heard Steve's boots crossing the polished floor and looked back at him without shame or apology, but she was somewhat surprised to see that his expression wasn't hard or angry. He looked embarrassed, which was entirely understandable, and a little shell-shocked sure, but not at all how she expected him to be after catching her and Loki kissing.
"Hey," she said as he finally reached the bedside, "how do you feel?"
She indicated the various bandages and stitches currently holding him together.
"Uh, alright, I guess. Better than you by a long shot," she grinned at his attempt at humor.
"What about Bucky?" she asked worriedly, "Will he be alright?"
If anyone knew Bucky's condition, it would be Steve. The two were inseparable, a perfectly synchronized team on the battlefield, and still the best of friends off of it. Taylor had no doubt that Steve had run straight to Bucky's bedside as soon as his own wounds had been managed.
"Yeah, he's resting now, just got hit in the head pretty hard. Doctors said he should wake up soon."
Relief flooded her mind at the news—enough for her to ignore the lingering awkwardness for a moment.
"How about everyone else?" she insisted, "Are they okay?"
"Everyone's fine, Taylor," he chuckled, "just focus on getting healed up yourself."
He paused for a second before continuing, settling himself where Loki had just been.
"You took one for the team today. If it wasn't for you we'd be in a lot of trouble."
She sighed, a sick feeling settling in her gut as she remembered the reason she'd had to fight the Helheim soldier in the first place.
"Yeah, well, we're not in the clear yet. Not with Sigyn still out there in the universe somewhere," she pointed out with no small amount of apprehension.
Not only that, but she'd found out she was half fire-giant too. It was almost laughable, considering she could barely reach the top of the refrigerator, but there was no denying it. At least she had an explanation for the origin of her powers after all those years, but it wasn't like it had been a burning question in her mind either. That was one truth she would have rather left in the dark. Steve, noticing her plummeting mood nudged her companionably, shooting her a brotherly smile.
"Hey, one victory at a time. Let's just take this time to rest and adjust our strategy. We're all alive and now we're a little smarter than before. We'll get her next time," he promised.
She smiled genuinely at him. In all this strangeness—between apparently having some sort of feelings beyond the platonic for Loki, and getting into a fistfight with a ridiculously powerful sorceress—it was nice to have this little bit of familiarity. Steve had long been one of her best friends since he'd showed up at her place all those years ago. He'd always been a model of both inner and outer strength for her—her team leader and her surrogate brother.
"Yeah, we will," she agreed.
"So, um," he cleared his throat loudly, eyes shifting around uncomfortably, "you and Loki…has this been going on for a while or…?"
She rolled her eyes, lips curling up despite herself. No, he wasn't angry, which was more than she could have hoped for out of any of the Avengers. She couldn't imagine what she would have done if he'd taken it as badly as she'd originally expected.
"It's a new thing, actually. Like, really new," she answered, "Like, just-happened-and-then-you-walked-in new."
His eyebrows shot up nearly to his hairline and he grimaced, but it was obvious he was attempting not to grin at her. Yep, just like a brother that one. Oh no, I walked in on you? What a shame!
"Sorry about that."
She snorted and pushed lightly at his shoulder.
"No you're not," she accused good-naturedly.
"No, not really," he admitted with a laugh, "you plan on telling the team?"
Taylor tipped her head back against the pillow as she considered the question. She didn't know what she'd tell them if she did. She was only just coming to terms with the fact that she might have romantic notions towards Loki. Okay, understatement of the century, she internally scoffed. Well, she wasn't going to keep anything from them, but she couldn't really inform the others of anything until she knew for certain what the situation was between her and Loki. A single kiss—even a mind-blowing one—didn't make a relationship.
"As soon as I figure out what to tell them, yeah," she replied finally, "I still don't even know what's going on and we're kinda busy trying to save the world right now."
She groaned and rubbed at one eye with the heel of her hand. Oh, the complications just kept piling up.
"Oh gosh, I have the worst timing," she sighed.
Steve took her hand, and she didn't miss the particularly feminine, finger-shaped bruises peppering his.
"Don't worry about it, Tay. Take it from the world's leading expert on waiting too long: don't. Just remember rule number two."
She rolled her eyes and grinned widely. Rule number two: no romantic interludes during the mission. Taylor would have thought that rule would go without saying, kind of like "Thou shalt not murder" but apparently somewhere along the time she'd been training with Natasha, Clint, and the others, they had become actual, concrete, numbered rules. She'd sort of broken rule number three already, which was "don't magically fall for bad guys" but then Loki wasn't technically a bad guy anymore, even though he liked to pretend he was.
"I'll keep that in mind, mom," she teased.
He sighed and gave her the look that reminded her she could be a little shit and smoothed her hair down.
"Alright, get some rest, kiddo, you need it."
She smiled at him and nodded, settling back into the mattress with a yawn. No longer in pain thanks to Loki, she could finally get some much needed rest.
"See you later, Steve. Come get me if anything happens."
"Sure thing."
Loki was gathering all the information he could about Sigyn and he was seriously considering digging into the forbidden material in the Vault that would explain just how she was doing to reanimate Keziah. No matter what, he now had a feeling Taylor held some significance. It was no coincidence that she targeted Taylor first when they'd been captured in the dungeons, or that the two had fought one-on-one for so long either. Out of them all, he'd have to prepare himself and Taylor the most.
Try to focus on the centuries old text and not the taste of Taylor still on his lips, he bent over the pages, skimming the words to absorb as much as he could in so short a time. It would take more than what was accessible in the library, he concluded quickly. Wrestling permission from Odin to look at the really useful books would be a battle all on its own, but they were already at a steep disadvantage. For all their powers, the Avengers could only do so much against magic—and they only had one sorcerer whereas their adversaries had two.
"Loki."
And, predictably, the soldier made an appearance. Loki looked up from his work with a drawn out sigh to address Steve.
"Time doesn't ever seem to be your strong suit, Rogers," he said.
"Yeah, well, neither does yours lately," Steve replied.
Loki may not have known the Avengers outside of trying to kill them for very long, but he recognized that tone of voice well enough. Taylor usually sounded like that right before she was about to tell him something she knew he wouldn't like. It was hard; it was stoic; it was the voice of authority. Unfortunately—or maybe fortunately—Loki had a feeling he knew what was coming.
"If you're going to lecture me about Taylor…" he began.
Steve held up a hand to stop him, taking a couple steps further into the library. He looked worried and a little haggard, in Loki's opinion, like the weight of the world rested solely on his ridiculously broad, serum-enhanced shoulders. Well, that wasn't wrong—in fact, he had the weight of the whole Nine Realms on his shoulders.
"She's an adult and she can make her own choices," Steve assured him, "and if she sees something in you…well, I trust her judgement."
"Something"? What did that mean? Did Taylor see something worth loving? Worth saving? She was wrong if she did, and Steve was a fool to trust her for it. There wasn't any saving to be done in Loki's case. Everything he did still remained selfish. The only reason Loki hadn't defected to the thus-far winning side was because Taylor sided with the Avengers. If she…well, he didn't want to think about that, but if she did, he'd defect for the sake of survival. So no, there was nothing for her to save or fix.
"Look, whether you want to play the denial game or not, you two matter to each other. The fight today got nasty, and fast; we were lucky she had you by her side. Taylor's reckless once she gets a mission. She's younger than the rest of us, and hasn't been at the hero game for as long."
Loki frowned and pushed away from the table he was still hunched over, trying to figure out where this was going now that his initial assumption was wrong.
"I need you to keep an eye on her. We all watch out for each other, but Taylor could use one more person keeping an eye on her, especially since Sigyn has painted a target on her back. You only seem to care about Taylor, and that's fine, but if you do…mean it."
Loki's brow furrowed as he considered the implications of this—and the fact that even Steve Rogers realized he had more than a vague interest in Taylor.
"I will…try," Loki said finally, the words rolling around in his mouth.
"Good," Natasha said as she entered, "glad we got that off our chests. Any luck with raising Keziah?"
Glad to be focused on something that didn't cause Loki a massive headache and an awkward tightness in his stomach, he frowned at the page in front of him.
"None. These books are practically useless considering all that I need to know. Thor and I will have to appeal to Odin for access to anything that will help."
He really didn't want to ask any favors of Odin.
"Thor's nearly done in the medical ward. You two should get together and talk to Odin," Natasha informed him.
Loki nodded and got to his feet, brushing his hands of dust. He'd check in on Taylor before he went to Thor, make sure the spell he'd used to help with the pain was still working properly. She'd seemed troubled before he'd left—and before they'd kissed. If she wasn't asleep he'd…what? Make sure her mind was at ease, his brain supplied, although he wasn't sure just how he'd do that.
"Right," Steve said, more to himself than anyone, "once you and Thor have spoken to Odin and get some information, we'll all meet and discuss our strategy. It's time we made a real plan of attack."
