So sorry for disappearing for so long. Days turned into weeks and then weeks turned into months. Here's me trying not to let it be years before my next update.
Hope everyone had a great Easter!
Unbeta-ed. And sadly, I own nothing.
Loki sat on the ledge on the rooftop of Stark Tower, his legs dangled over the building. He had a light blanket over his shoulder; Thor had insisted he wore it. Never mind that he is Jotunn and that there was only a very slim chance that he'd be cold. Normally, Loki would've argued with Thor, adamant not to let his big brother baby him in any way. Normally, Loki would've just teleported before Thor could get the chance to sneak the blanket on him. But this Loki only nodded mutely and this Loki said nothing when his brother and Dr. Banner sat silently only a few feet behind him.
And that was how Steve found them when he wandered to the roof. He walked towards the two unwanted guardians and spoke to them softly. After a few words of assurances, he was able to get Thor to follow Banner into the building to get some rest. Truth to be told, the Captain had wanted to speak to Loki alone.
And when Thor and Banner had disappeared into the building, Steve walked towards the ledge and sat down next to Loki.
Just as Steve opened his mouth to speak, he was interrupted by Loki's soft voice, "Please do not ask me how I am doing if you do not want me to lie."
After a few seconds of hesitation, the Captain replied just as softly, "Very well, I won't."
And there they sat, together on the roof, as the sun set upon the city.
"Tony is coming back. We need him and Ironman to deal with the Chitauri threat," Steve said, his tone was filled with regrets.
Loki nodded and said, "His return is inevitable. I understand."
"Loki, we should..." Steve begin but he was once again interrupted.
"I do not wish for Thor to know about Tony. You promised he won't find out," Loki turned towards Steve anxiously.
"Loki, what happened wasn't your fault, you know that right?"
"That is irrelevant and won't change the fact that it happened. My reputation is tarnished beyond repair, telling Thor won't help me or the situation. Please, you promised..." Loki begged.
But Steve shook his head, unwilling to believe that Loki would still want to keep this from his brother. Tony is still a friend of Thor, would it be right for Thor to remain ignorant of the situation?
"Please, Steve. Thor is all I have now. He would be disgusted to know that I let his friend bedded me," Loki continued to beg.
Steve was appalled that Loki would think so low of himself. He took the god's hand in his and said,"Loki, none of that is true. Thor loves you, regardless of what happened. And he's not all you have. You have friends here. Bruce, Sif, and me."
But there was no getting through to Loki and finally, Steve relented, "Very well. If that is your wish, then I shall keep my promise."
Loki nodded gratefully and they continued to sit in silence again.
As the sky darkened, Steve finally found the courage to ask the question that he has been waiting to ask.
"Loki, if there is a chance, if there is a way to save your life, you would tell me, right?"
Wordlessly but as gracefully as he could, Loki stood up and moved away from the ledge. Steve made no move to follow him. And then, without turning back, Loki replied, "I told you I am beyond repair. There is no saving me now."
With that, Loki walked into the elevator to bring him down to his room. Steve closed his eyes and sighed but still, he did not follow.
"We need a plan to eliminate the Chitauri. Is there anything Asgard can do to help us with this threat?" Fury asked as he massaged his temple. He could feel a headache creeping up on him; oh, what he would do to turn back time and send these aliens back to where they came from before things got this ugly.
They were having a meeting at Stark Tower; SHIELD, the Avengers and the Aesir warriors. Even Loki was there, but he had remained silent throughout the meeting.
"I can send another bomb or bombs into whatever portal they opened?" Tony suggested. Aside from Loki, Bruce and Steve, everyone else were surprised at Tony's lack of childish behaviour and they wondered just how long Tony could last with this new-found too-mature-for-Stark behaviour.
"Do we have enough energy source to do that? Nuclear energy?" the Black Widow asked as she raised her eyebrow at Fury.
"There could be more than 1 portal. Can you do destroy them all?" Sif asked as she glare at Tony. She did not know why but she did not like him. Perhaps it was just intuitive.
"Oh honey, I'm Ironman. Of course, I can do it," Tony replied with a flirtatious wink while everyone else that were familiar with him silently groaned at his behaviour.
"Sif is right. We don't know how many portal will be opened and there's only one of you, Stark, you might not have enough time to deliver the packages to all of the portal. The last one nearly killed you," Romanoff said.
'And it should have,' Tony thought bitterly as he braved a regretful look at Loki but the god only kept his glance at his own hands.
"You have nothing to say, Loki? After all, you brought them here," Fury said as he glared at the trickster god.
"Director, this is not my brother's doing. These Chitauris..." Thor tried to defend his brother but his rant was cut short by Loki himself.
"You do not need to destroy all portal. You need to only destroy the one portal where their sorcerer would no doubt be opening the other portals from. The rest would shut once the sorcerer is dead. I should be able to tell you the exact one to target."
Nick Fury narrowed his eyes at Loki and asked, "Why should we trust you? How do we know you're not helping them by directing our efforts somewhere else?"
Thor had jumped to his feet and growled but Loki stood with him and had his hand on the Thunderer's chest to stop him from doing something foolish and said softly, "Peace, brother. I am well."
As Thor sat back down with a heated glare at the Director, Loki turned towards Fury and everyone at the table and said, "I will do this to repay a favor to those who had helped me in the past. Otherwise, I would have just left your world to the mercy of the Chitauris. And I should tell you now that they have none."
"Trust me, or trust me not, mortal, I do not care. Just have everything and everyone ready for battle and stay out of my way," Loki continued as he walked out of the room. For once, Fury did not know what to say to that.
"Maturity does not become you," Loki said as he waltzed into Stark's lab.
As his entrance was a surprise, Stark jumped and spilled his drink all over himself. "Sheeesh, warn a guy would you?" Tony said as he tried to brush of the liquid on his shirt.
Loki narrowed his eyes at the drink that Tony deposited on the table and said, "I thought you were cured of your ailment?"
Tony looked at him in surprise and sheepishly said, "Oh, yeah, that's not alcohol. That's just OJ."
But Loki waved at him, unconcerned with his explanation, "Do what you will Stark, I am hardly your guardian. You need not explain yourself to me."
After a few moments of silence, shamed silence on Tony's part, the engineer said awkwardly, "Look, I wanna apologize for what I did to you. I want to blame it on the alcohol but what I did was so wrong on so many levels, and I know that. I know there's nothing I can do to make up for it but I really wanna make it up to you. If you could tell me..."
And that was when Loki interrupted him," Speak no more of it. Ever. I do not wish to be reminded of it. Do what you will with the remainder of your life, I do not care. But you are right, you do owe me. And I am here to collect."
And Tony Stark had no reason to deny Loki his request.
What do you think Loki's request is?
As usual, thanks for reading and following this story. Much, much appreciated.
To new readers: Please note that English is not my first language. I apologize in advance if you find any errors in my story.
Also, reviews *may* make me write faster. :P