Camila was actually never supposed to join the initiative, but a chance encounter changes the whole game.

From Nick Fury's point of view


She wonders out of the lift, cursing under her breath and stands still just outside the lift doors as they shut, leaving her in the darkness.

Camila feels the walls trying to find a switch, but she misses it. Seemingly having given up, something else catches her eye. The glow of the city's lights, from the full length glass wall of the Stark building.

Nick Fury squints at the screen, trying to follow Camila's figure cross the dark room in the security tape.

He sees her make her way there, sitting by the glass. Staring distantly at the view, lost in her thoughts. Tapping the window. Then the familiar voice ringing out in the darkness. She turns over her shoulder, and he knows the look accompanied on her face. Wary, ready to strike, her defenses up.

Loki appears, and she registers him. Camila doesn't recognize him, but he can't blame her. Many things about the Avengers Initiative and other S.H.I.E.L.D. incidents were kept from her because of her rebellious and uncontrollable behavior.

Tension shows between the two as Loki joins her near the glass, leaning on the pillar opposite hers. Fury is holding his breath, anticipating the worst. After all, he's seen it all. But there was no assault, barely a threat. Instead, he watches them make small talk. He can see the Camila is trying to profile him, understand what threat he was, so she continues to question him, coolly and unfazed.

Loki responds with glances at first, then stares, and then short replies. He can see him letting his guard down from the body language, the less rigid posture and softer stare, unaware that all this is recorded by a camera in the corner of the room. Could it be? The man seemed to be taking a trip down memory lane. Was it guilt, or regret in his eyes? Or maybe it was just all an act to manipulate her.

Camila wouldn't be tricked so easily though. Her guard is still up, until-

"What could you have done so badly that you ended up with S.H.I.E.L.D.? I mean you don't, well-" she asks, observing at the ragged clothes he wore. Loki wasn't exactly recognizable if compared to during the Tesseract incident. No more were the long green cape, black and gold armor and horned helmet.

Loki glances at her, before looking down. There is a pause. A long, tense, pause.

"I'm a pawn in someone else's game. And when I try to take back what was, is rightfully mine, I get my punishment for stepping out of line."

And something shifts in Camila. He can see it in her eyes, looking at Loki and looking down as she is lost in her thoughts.

"Well" she pauses. "Hello fellow prisoner" she says with a small smile. "We're both pawns in someone else's games." She shrugs. "Gets tiring sometimes, I get it."

Loki looks at her, confused.

"You have dark circles under your sunken hopeless eyes. You're… having a hard time. I was there once, so… I know." She looks out to the city laid before them.

Loki, from leaning on the pillar, slides down and sits there. He is no longer just putting up with her, he is interested in the conversation now. Two of them sitting on the carpet, across one another.

"A pawn in somebody's game?" he asks quietly.

"Yeah." "Because you're different, so they try to mold you into their idea of perfection. To use you. Pretty much that."

"And you are different because?"

"Because… just because."

Pause. "I can see that."

And for the first time, there is true confusion in her eyes.

"Really?" She shakes her head, doubtful. "How?'

She gets up, and Loki glances up, eyes then flickering to the lift. She however, makes her way to the counter, guided by the lights. Loki watches her as she opens the fridge, flooding the room with fluorescent light. She grabs a few bottles, placing them on the counter.

"I'm just getting myself a drink" she says, "I think we're going to be stuck here for long. I'm thirsty and I frankly don't care what Tony Stark thinks, so-" and she shrugs.

She grabs glasses, and both Fury and Loki sitting there are entertained to her mixing the drinks in glasses and tasting them. The first few sends her tongue flickering out in disgust, and then she has found the balance between the drinks, and sips it, satisfied.

"You're a fighter." Loki says suddenly. He didn't forget about her question.

Camila stares at him. "Well, you are very observant." She manages long later, with a smile. She joins him back at her spot with a glass in hand.

Fury begins to see what he had been trying to deny throughout the whole tape, as they share more small vague snippets of themselves each. Both of them have put their shields aside, and are revealing a different side from what S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever recorded from Camila's time on the hellicarrier and Loki's previous interrogation rounds.

The small talk continues, and Fury can't help but see the underlying intimacy of the whole scene unraveling before him. Then Camila seemed to have knocked all her walls and defenses down, getting a little too comfortable. And something was ostensibly off about her at that moment.

Suddenly and ever so unexpectedly, he hears a giggle. Camila was giggling. He leaned forward in his chair, unable to believe what just happened. Loki was also frowning at her.

"Its just sad, the both of us." She laughs, shaking her head.

"Oh god, and this kind of bullshit with S.H.I.E.L.D. will never end, the stupid asses. Just leave people be won't you?!" She hollers, looking at the balcony level of the building. "Idiot Avengers. Real idiots." She mutters.

Loki gets up and heads over to the counter, picking up the bottles. He pours a little of the liquids in each of them and tastes it, and confirms Fury's suspicions.

"You are drunk, aren't you?" he calls to her.

"No, those are soft drinks" she says, with a slight whiny tone, and falls over to the side, shaking with laughter.

"You are." Loki says, looking fixatedly at the high mess she was becoming.

"Shucks. I think I am" She is interrupted by another fit of laughter before she can continue. "I've been sober for two years, see, on board the god damned flying ship."

Loki pauses. Throughout their whole conversation, they didn't exactly introduced themselves yet, Fury noted. Camila was drunk and probably helpless in the presence of Loki. Dangerous criminal. Sly and cunning trickster. And she didn't even know. Now was the time for the worst. Fury held his breath.

"Miss." Loki began approaching her. Fury bit his lip.

He gently grabbed the glass from her. She was still drinking from it, clearly already too intoxicated to know she should stop.

"What?" she says, her speech somewhat slurred.

"No more." "You're… going to hurt yourself." Now Fury found himself frowning at Loki. This too, along with everything from that security tape so far, was just so unexpected. Apparently he had not seen everything after all. Loki cares for her.

It took a little while for Camila, in her drunkenness, to respond. "No, no- please don't" Loki placed the glass on the counter, and she tried to get up and over to there, but she could barely place one foot after the other. She stumbled, and Loki, who saw it coming, managed to take long strides over and hold her up by the shoulders.

"Stop." He said, true concern in both his voice and eyes. She stares at him dazed and sorrowful, but doesn't resist. With his help, she makes it to the leather coach. Loki finds another pillar to lean on. There is silence in the room for minutes, until it is dissolved by sobs. Soft sobbing from Camila.

Fury had seen her cry before. Her every movement on board on the hellicarrier, and at the beginning of her training, it was hard, and the changes she had to deal with made her a little emotional. He had seen her, crying in the corner of her cell, before she suspected that she was watched by the organization even with the 'privacy' of her own cell. But in the lounge room in the Stark building, her crying made her look even more helpless than ever before.

Loki sat by her side, hesitant at first, but then consoling her, shushing her crying. Camila would then turn to face him, still tearful, and whisper something that even the cameras didn't pick up. Loki then wiped the tears on her face. Their faces were so close.

Then Camila collapsed onto his shoulder. She was knocked out from the alcohol. The lift doors slided open with the ring of a bell, and Fury saw the whole Avenger bunch descent on Loki. He was dragged by the collar away by his golden haired brother and Stark punched him in the gut, sending him bending over in pain. Rogers had taken Banner to a side, trying to keep him calm. Clint was shaking Camila.

Fury paused the video. He didn't need to see anymore, as Clint had already reported how the rest of the event unfolded. Instead, he looked up to see the faces of authorities from the World Security Council looking at him expectantly.

"I know she has formed some-" he didn't know how to put it. "some connection with him."

"Not just any connection, this is a highly sensitive one, one that your agents would never get through the interrogations."

"So you're going to let a teenager fraternize with a dangerous criminal, who could be just playing with us? He is manipulative. You cannot let this relationship continue."

"You may disagree, but the council has come to a decision, which overrides yours. Do not force us to suspend and replace you."

He paused. After the Chitauri incident, because of the conflict with them over the nuke, such a thing had almost happened. With the Avengers Initiative going strong and with Camila to consider, he didn't want someone else handling them. As much as he hated to admit it, he had no choice.

"How far do you want this to go?" He stared up at those indifferent faces.