Is this real?
A/N Hello again!
Disclaimer: I own nothing, it all belongs to Marvel!
Over the next few days, Lena keeps a close eye on Loki.
A closer eye than he would like, thinks Loki sullenly. He knows the Avengers don't trust him because of New York, but he thought they trusted him enough to not have a incredibly annoying telepath following him everywhere.
Like, literally, everywhere.
There's always a small shadow he can see out the corner of his eye, and even though he can never see her, he knows she is there. He keeps walking into solid, invisible objects which squeak, and vanish quickly, and there are certain blurs in his vision, blurs caused by something he doesn't quite understand.
Being prone to tricks himself, he can usually recognise where people are tricking him. But this time, he knows it is happening, but he's not sure how. The girl is not of Asgard, or any of the more magical realms, so it can't be magic. The girl is of Midgard, the most boring and mundane of the realms.
So what is it that sets her apart?
Sure, the other Midgardian Avengers have their power, but their power is easy to source. It's not always logical, or expected from such a weak population, but it's obvious if you know where to look. But there's no obvious answer here.
Loki would ask Stark or Banner to analyse her DNA, but there is no way either of them would do that.
He could ask any of the others if they know. He could ask Rogers about the serum.
But every time he tries to get near, they all back off, or he finds a purple force field blocking his path.
He rolls his eyes. Loki Laufeyson, ridiculed and effectively imprisoned by a small human girl.
And to think, he could be ruling her, her world, her realm, her life. Instead, it almost feels like the other way round.
Loki always thought his tricks were harmless, and that no one minded. Now he knows how damned annoying it is.
He also knows never to take chances with his choice of clothing.
Lena stands on the edge of the wire platform, looking out over New York. The sky is dark, but the city is lit up, bright lights flashing all over. She can't see any stars.
There's a gentle breeze in the city, and it blows her hair slightly, and cools her down. It's a hot evening.
The platform stretches out from Stark Tower, and there is no logical reason as to why she should want to be here. It's not exactly secure, not meant to have someone standing on it. No safety measure, nothing beneath her except a plummet to the hard concrete of the pavement.
Not that a fall would hurt her necessarily, of course. She could stretch down, lower her speed, touch the floor. She could simply put up a force field like a bubble, and bounce across the city.
She's been experimenting with her powers all her life, and with the arrival of Loki she's really seen the importance of it. Being an Avenger means she will have to fight, and when she needs to she will need to be ready.
Could she use the force fields as a method of flight? For example, if she created a platform and stood on it, could she control where it went?
Lena sighs. There's only one way to find out.
She flexes her fingers, and puts her mind to work, concentrating on a small disc of force field. It appear in front of her, shaking slightly.
Lena bends down, and leans towards it. She waves her hand gently, through the force field, and frowns when she only feels a slight resistance. Other than that, her hand passes straight through.
She bites her lip, and closes her eyes, really concentrating on a solid object. When she opens her eyes, it's there exactly how she pictured it. She runs her hand towards it again, but is met with a hard surface. Lena puts her hand on top and presses down; it holds firm. Would it take her weight?
Lena stands up, still biting her lip, but smiling slightly, and prepares herself mentally for the step. The disc is just about big enough for both feet, but maybe after some practice she could create bigger ones, or two, one for each foot.
She looks down at her trainers, then takes them off. She holds her foot above the force field for some time, contemplating the outcome, weighing the pros and cons. Eventually she steps on with one foot.
Although there is a slight pain in her head, the disc holds steady, and she continues to concentrate on a solid object, and steps on with the other foot.
Now she is floating, properly floating, above New York City. The wire platform she stepped off from is still in touching distance, should she need to step back.
Just like every time she discovers something new, she feels free and alive. The wind rushes through her hair, stronger than usual, and she struggles to balance.
Deciding not to tempt fate, she steps off the disc, back into the platform, and watches as the disc vanishes. That's enough experimentation for one night.
Loki watches her with an expression halfway between amusement and awe. He's also kind of smugly pleased with himself, as he's managed to sneak up on her, and she hasn't noticed. Or maybe she has, and is choosing to ignore him. He wouldn't blame her either way. She looks pretty preoccupied.
He sees her experimenting, and this intrigues him. She's pretty strong, why would she need to develop further?
Before, he might have taken advantage of this. Her wanting to develop could be a sign of not happy with her lot, and Loki would have been perfectly happy to exploit this, turn her into his ally and use her as a weapon.
Instead, he just wants to tell her to stop, tell her all the reasons why she shouldn't risk it. Loki swear silently to himself.
When did he become so soft, so caring? Maybe there is something wrong with him. No, he reassures himself, it's not that he cares for her, it's that he cares for his brother, and if the girl was hurt then his would upset his brother. That's it.
Loki likes this theory.
But he quickly disproves this theory when the winds knock her off balance, and it's all he can do to not run out there, catch her and tell her off, to tell her to never risk her life like that again. He stops himself quickly though, annoyed with himself and her.
Annoyed with himself for caring, for not being Loki, for being someone different, someone he hasn't quite got to terms with. Is this what it is like to care? Thor always spoke of it as something good, but he sees nothing good about wanting to nut hurt somebody.
Annoyed with her for making him care, even though she has done nothing except follow him around.
Loki could hit himself. This whole visit was stupid. As if he could make peace with the Avengers. As if he could care.
Buts he's still relieved when she steps back onto the wire platform, and turns to come back inside. That's when he has to melt into the darkness, and return to his room to ponder his predicament.
The next night, Lena goes out to the platform again. All day she was on edge, waiting for when she could get out and practice again. She wanted to tell someone, but she knew all the Avengers would be worried for her, would not want her hurting herself. Even Clint, especially Clint, would tell her she was being silly.
Due to this, she almost told Loki. But somehow, she feels as though he's mad at her for something. He keeps sending her glances, glances full of emotion, but she hasn't quite worked out what the emotion is.
It must be hatred, Lena decides. Loki could feel nothing else for her, after all. And she certainly doesn't feel anything for him.
Denial, a little voice in her head says. Denial, that's where it starts.
Lena frowns, then mentally slaps that little voice. She won't listen to it. Like she was told, she will hate Loki, because he did bad things. She will.
With this fresh determination in mind, she begins to practice.
Loki watches her again. He watches until he's sure she must be exhausted, and she should have stopped hours ago.
Concern rises in him like a cloud of steam, and suddenly his heart is controlling his head, and he is walking out.
"Aren't you tired?" A voice echoes across the silent night, and Loki realises, too late, that it is his. Lena spins, her eyes wide and alert, scanning for attackers and threats. Her shoulders are tensed, her arms lifted in front of her face, ready to fight.
Loki frowns to himself. He usually has this effect on people, but it had never hurt before.
When she sees his relaxed stance, and the genuine worry in his eyes, Lena feels herself relax. Wait, what? Faced with Loki, God of mischief, and she is relaxing? Double check yourself there Lena!
Lena fixes a firm glare on her face.
"Why should you care?" She keeps her voice steady, layering it with anger.
Loki visibly recoils, and Lena wants to apologise, and finds herself doing so.
"Sorry, that was mean." The anger is gone from her voice, and she looks at her feet.
Loki looks more shocked than she feels at her response. He smiles, and Lena wants to smile too.
"Oh that's okay. It was a perfectly fair question. It's just you've been going for a while not as long as yesterday." Loki mentally slaps himself, as he's just admitted to watching her.
An amused smile crosses Lena's face as she steps down from the disc she created ,larger than yesterday's.
"So you were watching me?" She smiles cautiously.
Loki blushes as red as a tomato.
"No..." Lean raises her eyebrows. "Yes. Okay, yes I was." He looks at the floor. "There's not much going on here." He tries.
Lena keeps her eyebrows raised.
"So what you are telling me, that in New York, city of lights, of restaurants, of everything, you couldn't find anything better to do than watch me practice flying badly?"
Loki doesn't reply.
Instead he kisses her.
It happens so fast Lena doesn't notice at first, doesn't see him until he's kissing her, one hand at her cheek.
Clint can't sleep. He doesn't know why, but he can't. He has that funny feeling something is going on that he doesn't know about, something he doesn't like and has to put a stop to.
And, as Tony often says, Clint's 'sixth sense' if often right, so he needs to find the source of his problem, and stop it. Fast.
He walks into the kitchens of Stark Tower, and notices the toaster is still plugged in. His shoulders sag in relief, and he walks over to unplug it. That must have been it.
Nothing major, phew.
But when he unplugs it, the funny feeling doesn't go away. It's still there, a nagging doubt in his stomach.
He wanders round, his eyes peeled, looking for anything out of place.
He notices an open window, the one by the wire platform. He does to close it, when he sees what must be the source of his sick feeling.
Clint sees Lena kissing Loki, her arms wrapped around his neck, and a balloon of anger at Loki swells up inside him. He's also angry of Lena, of course. He will deal with Lena first.
He could punch something. He probably will. He just hopes it isn't Loki.
Lena breaks off, blushing, when Clint yells. He hears Loki swear softly, before Lena takes in Clint's angry face and runs towards him, away from the equally angry looking Loki.
Clint steps backwards, and turns away as Lena climbs, shaking through the window.
She's never seen Clint this angry before, and it scares her as much as the fact that she just kissed the God of mischief. She doesn't say anything, and waits for Clint to speak.
It takes a while for Clint to formulate the right words in his head, due to the fact that he is seeing red, and it's the middle of the night.
"Lena, why? You know how dangerous that man is!"
"Look, Clint, I don't see why you are so angry at me."
"I'm not angry at you, well I am, but mostly , I am mad at him!" He snaps, and gestures out the window. "I told you what he did, did I not? I told you about his tricks, and games? I told you not to trust him!" He lifts his hands above his head, totally exasperated. How could he be so stupid as to let this happen?
"It's not what you think!" Lena protests.
"How is it not?"
"He's not tricking me, I know he's not. I really feel for him." The desperation in Lena's voice is clear, and she begins to cry. "Clint, I really feel for him." Clint stops, and checks himself. He finds the source of anger is also at himself, for letting this happen. He realises he views Lena as his little sister, and he doesn't want anything to harm her. Then he remembers she's a telepath, and blocks the thought.
He opens his arms, and Lena runs into them, hugging him tightly.
"Clint." Her muffled voice says. "Clint I don't know what to do."
Clint doesn't really know what to say. He pauses before speaking.
"I just don't you to be hurt, Lena, I'm sorry. I just don't trust that man, and I don't want him to take advantage of you."
Lena doesn't reply.