Chapter 13: Truce
Still studying for my future-determining exam but couldn't resist writing, so here's a quick update. Enjoy :)
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Fury's voice is steady, but his opaque eyes glint of danger and icy rage. "You're supposed to be working on the portal."
"Study break," Tony says, blank-faced.
After clearing out of the shambles that was once Loki's cell, they had no choice but to inform Director Fury of the recent misadventure. The team congregated in the conference room of base—Loki, Steve, Jane, and Bruce all seated in a row, in that order, while Tony stood like a spectacle before them, confronting Fury with smugness and dry-humor as his last defense.
"This isn't funny Mr. Stark." A noticeable vein twitched above the Director's brow. "You just threatened the lives of everyone in this base, in this city."
Tony sucks in a breath through his teeth, drumming his fingers against the flat surface of the table, as every and all sorts of excuses flood his mind. "Well, yes, but if you think about it, it's not really entirely my fault."
"It was entirely your idea." Jane says sourly, and Tony whips his head around, eyes narrowed and lips twisting to a frow.
"This is an Avengers meeting. Why is she here?" He shakes an accusing finger—to which Jane snorts—before redirecting his grievances to the Mischief God seated a few feet away. "And what about him? He's still public enemy number one, and we could be sharing confidential stuff."
"Apologies Mr. Stark." Loki tilts his head, eyes half-lidded and lips curved in faint mockery. "But considering someone had damaged my living quarters, I am currently displaced."
"Cheeky." Tony clicks his tongue, and prepares a retort, but the Director disrupts him before he could digress any further.
"Stark." Fury warns, and the inventor sighs in defeat, resuming to defend himself in his usual self-righteous way.
"My point is, why the hell would you lock the most dangerous criminal Earth has ever faced in a flimsy glass box that even I can break without even trying?" Tony is always quick to point fingers, provoking a thunderous frown from the Director.
"Are you insulting the competence of our technology?"
"Somebody has to."
"Our containment chamber was not designed to withstand thirty-two consecutive condensed-energy blasts from the inside."
Tony turns to Jane once more with all his childish woes. "You are such a tattle-tale," he nearly hisses, and Jane simply gapes at him for a moment, before huffing indignantly from the chocking rudeness of the accusation.
"For Christ's sake, Tony!" Steve has to repress the urge to pull out his own hair. "Leave Jane alone. You know it's all on tape."
"And, Captain." Fury remarks, which immediately prompts regret from the soldier for drawing attention to himself. "I purposely placed you in charge of supervising Loki so that freak mishaps like this doesn't happen."
"I stepped out for an hour at most." Steve half-pleads, "I didn't think Tony would—blow everything up."
"Next time, think it through." The director reprimands with an air of finality, and Steve groans in frustration, burying his face in his hands.
"You know," Tony frowns disapprovingly as he implements himself as the center of attention again, "If that's all it took to wreck the damn thing, Loki could've broken out of here any time he wanted, if he had his powers."
"Can you offer a better alternative, Mr. Stark?" The director arches an unimpressed brow.
"Actually, weren't you working on something like this a few months back?" Bruce joins the conversation for the first time.
"No." Tony blinks very slowly, but the doctor remains persistent.
"Yeah, that thing you locked me in," he reminds him unsmilingly, "And then asked ever so kindly for me to 'Hulk out.'"
"No, shut up, Bruce." The billionaire snaps, before whispering not so discreetly. "I don't want him in my tower."
"Actually, I think Dr. Banner has offered a considerable alternative." The director allows himself a grin, and it's Tony's turn to frown in indignation.
"Really? You're going to give Loki to us? Do you actually believe that Avengers Tower is more secure than SHIELD?"
"No," the Director half-taunts, amusement in his eyes now that the tables have turned, "Which is why I will be assigning agents to secure the tower. I'm thinking up to a quarter-mile radius."
"Oh, no, no, no!" The billionaire fervently protests, eyes widening in almost-worry. "Now you're just pissing me off. "
"You're the one who broke our containment chamber."
"You don't honestly expect me to believe that SHIELD only has one containment chamber."
"That was our best one."
"This is because I wouldn't show you the blueprints to my new anti-gravity shields, isn't it?" Tony's features twist in shocked outrage, voice rising to an unpromising decibel. "You were looking for a reason to send your drones into my lab, well no fucking way!"
"Your accusations are unfounded and absurd." Fury coolly responds, showing no intent in proving his innocence, which the inventor welcomingly interprets as a haughty confession.
"And you're petty and full of bullshit!" He spits vehemently, body quivering in repressed rage. "I don't want Loki or you in my tower."
"Okay, everyone—just, stop." Steve rises to his feet, finally having heard enough. All eyes fall to him, but he doesn't waver or move under the sudden attention, imposing himself with authority instead as he turns first to Tony and then to the Director. "Sir, we consent to transferring Loki to the tower—"
"No, Steve," The inventor snaps with renewed vigor, "This is not your—"
"Let me finish, Tony." Steve says decisively as if speaking to soldiers, and Tony's jaws promptly snap shut. Without further interruptions, he locks eyes with Fury again, speaking with both assertion and respect. "The damage to the containment chamber is completely our doing, and we apologize. Since the tower apparently contains a functional substitute, we agree to secure Loki, and I will make it my personal responsibility to ensure his well behavior—and of those around him—better than I have done presently." Steve begrudgingly adds the last bit, remembering Fury's admonishment towards him earlier. Loki is but a vague form in the corner of his vision, but the soldier can almost feel the pair of assessing eyes bearing down on him. He very carefully does not move.
No one seems to have any objections, so Steve opts to continue. "And in return, sir, we ask you to secure the tower only from the outside. Mr. Stark may have his reservations, but if you want to show the rest of us that your intentions true, and the decision to transfer Loki is purely tactical and without personal motives, you will respect our boundaries."
They stare at each other for a long moment afterwards, the truce hanging heavily in the air between them, before the Director finally speaks, "Very well, Captain, I accept your conditions."
"And Tony?" Steve turns to the inventor, who mumbles a reluctant "whatever," but the gratification of reaching common grounds is short lived.
"What about Dr. Selvig?" Jane tentatively asks, reminding everyone of the professor's apprehension towards Loki, which he had made clear before agreeing to affiliating with SHIELD.
"What about Clint?" Bruce sighs and adds, reminding them of the archer's fervent detestation for the Mischief God, which certainly wouldn't have dwindled since the last time they met.
"Tony and I—" Steve shoots a warning look just as the scientist was about to protest. "We will speak to them."
The meeting is adjourned after they've reached the agreement, and Fury arranges for private transportation to take Loki to the tower. Soon, several armed agents enter the conference room to marshal Loki out, which Steve thought is hardly necessary because—despite being chained and without magic—the god also has no intention of threatening their shaky alliance, at least for the moment. And during the eleven days he had spent evaluating the god, if Steve had learned anything from the toil, it's that Loki can't be forced; whatever he chooses to share is solely based on his own accordance, although, that's not to say he's impervious to reason.
Loki walks a few steps ahead of him down the hall, poised and silent and surrounded by guards, and Steve feels a twinge of guilt that the god had to sit through the whole debacle, while everyone talked about him as if he's not even there. Steve wonders if he should say anything at this point—encouragement, assurance, an apology maybe—but the prospect of forced pleasantries feels equally as unwelcoming as the gaping silence.
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When Dr. Selvig returns to find Loki in the common area with the rest of the tower's usual inhabitants, his only reaction is a tight-lipped frown—which Steve is thankful for because Tony's exaggerated concerns were grating on his last nerves. Oh Christ, the old man will have a heart attack. He could die, Cap, and his death's on you. We're going to kill him, and it's all your fault.
Fortunately, that is not case, because, unlike the rest of them, Dr. Selvig is a polite, reasonable adult, although telling Clint would be different story entirely. But to be honest, since the archer is currently deployed in Eastern Europe and probably won't return until Loki is long gone, Steve have been not-so-secretly hoping that the conversation could be spared altogether. In theory, Clint would never need to know.
Once everyone is seated around the breakfast table, Steve explains their situation, and the professor, in turn, is surprisingly open-minded—wary of the god in the room—but composed under the circumstances. The soldier nonetheless assures him in every aspect he could think of, promises that Loki will be contained in the prison Tony had specifically designed, and surveillance by Jarvis at all times. Steve will personally oversee him if he were to leave the cell, and since the tower is big enough, they will never have to be in the same room, or meet eye-to-eye, if it's what the professor prefers.
"That's not necessary, Cap," Selvig says, shaking his head, "Don't need to make any special accommodations for me."
"I—" Steve hesitates briefly, thrown off by the professor's easy compliance. "We just want to make sure that you feel safe in the tower, because your expertise is greatly valued and appreciated, and—"
"I'm fine. It's all fine." The doctor waves a dismissive hand, rising from his seat. He maneuvers his way to where Loki is sitting silently and motionlessly beside Steve. The god looks at him dubiously for a brief moment, before the professor finally speaks with a sigh, not begrudgingly but not thoroughly willing either.
"Past grievances aside, we share a similar goal now. Let's make this association—however brief it may be—a pleasant one."
He extends his hand for Loki to shake, and the god takes it without hesitating for too long, blank-faced but Steve can tell that his eyes are searching.
Another gaping silence ensues, and feeling pressured, Steve clears his throat, awkwardly concluding the evening. "Well, now that everything is settled, I guess we can all now—"
"Wait, Steve," Tony says abruptly and then stands up after a supportive nudge from Pepper. "I want to say something. To Dr. Foster." The rest of the sentence retreated gradually to mumbles, but is still articulate enough to decipher.
"Me?" Jane sits straighter in her chair, looking uncomprehendingly to Tony and then everyone else.
"Following Dr. Selvig's very admirable and moving gesture to—erm—Loki." The billionaire sucks in a breath, seemingly fascinated by the marble swirls of the table. "I would like to propose a truce, in the interest of scientific progress and planetary welfare, Dr. Foster."
The silence that follows is cavernous and engrossing, as all eyes fall to Jane with varying degrees of curiosity and expectancy.
"I—" For a moment, the astrophysicist is simply stunned to silence, but she quicklt composes herself, rising to meet the inventer. "Well, I guess, in the interest of scientific progress and planetary welfare, I accept this truce, Mr. Stark."
Tony extends his hand, which Jane takes, and they shake with grins of amusement tugging at both their lips. Bruce at that instance decides to clap, slowly and tentatively at first, before Pepper bursts into laughter, joining alongside. Soon, the rest of the onlookers are laughing and applauding too, while Tony and Jane humors with feigned bows and modesty.
Steve glances at Loki, who has his brows pinched and lips slightly pursed, as if trying to grasp what had just happened. And at that moment, Steve found the sight so endearing, that he wish he could plant a kiss against that high cheekbone, just to elicit a reaction, although he perishes that thought almost immediately.
The meeting ends soon after, and they all part their ways. Tony and Steve are left to shepherd Loki to his new cell located on the vacant floor right below Tony's lab, which Steve soon realizes, is literally vacant with the exception of the cell.
"This place is kind of creepy." Steve remarks to the cinderblock walls of the windowless, unfurnished room. The bare protruding light bulbs along the ceiling glow a dull yellow, tinting everything to this morbid color. "You sure this is okay?"
"It's fine." Tony says noncommittally as he calibrates the containment chamber, which itself, doesn't look bad at all, occupying a good quarter of the room and dividing the space in contrasting modernity and grotesqueness. The fluorescent lights soon flood beyond the transparent walls, somewhat counteracting the bleakness from where Steve is standing. "The cell works perfectly. I just never had the chance to do anything else with this room."
Loki shifts next to Steve, peering curiously into the glass chamber. It's roughly the same size as the one in SHIELD, but the ceiling is slightly lower. A bed rests in the center, and Steve had requested a table and two chairs, so that his books wouldn't simply be a pile on the floor anymore (and there would also be a place for him to sit if he feels like lingering during one of his visits). But after realizing the eeriness of this place first hand, Steve feels reluctant to leave Loki here alone.
"Can we move the cell somewhere else?" he hopefully proposes, but the inventor shakes his head.
"Can't. It's bolted down. Otherwise, I would've just given it to SHIELD and spared us the trouble." Tony catches the worrying wrinkle between the soldier's brows, and makes a huffing, impatient sound. "What. You're worried that he's not going to like it?"
Steve wants to protest, but soon realizes that he has no grounds to. Loki is a still prisoner here, and this—it's definitely better than a lot of the alternative prisons in the world. He then wonders what prisons on Asgard is like, especially that of a fallen prince.
"It's fine." Tony rolls his eyes, "Loki doesn't care if the walls aren't flower patterned, right Loki? Tell Cap, it's fine."
"It's fine, Captain." Loki says absently as he steps inside the open doors without needing any coercion, examining the books and his new furniture.
"If he needs anything, he can tell Jarvis, and Jarvis will tell one of us." Tony closes the doors behind the god and gives the sturdy walls a good pat. "Aright cool, let's go."
Steve still feels oddly unsettled, but Tony tugs him away. "I'll be down tomorrow morning, alright Loki?" He turns to say just as they reach the stairs.
"Good night, Captain." The god responds without turning around.
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