An Earthborn Asgardian

This is a Harry Potter, The Avengers Crossover. The main pairing is Harry/Loki. The story will explore how their relationship has shaped them, and how it will come to shape the universe.

As you very well know I don't own the plot or the characters that you recognize.

Part 3: The Reunion
Words: 2 502

A Thursday in May, a normal day to most people, a day at the end of the school term, a day when you could look forward to your summer leave, or for some a day when you worked to plant the fields in preparation of the growing season. Not that it mattered to the people employed at SHIELD. What time of year it was had no importance, not beyond what certain days meant to the rest of the populace in anyhow.

When you were an employee of one of the widest reaching federal organizations in the USA you could forget about holidays tied to dates, summer vacation and the whole dream about a steady life with a wife, kids, dog and house. You got time off when there was little happening, which incidentally was never, but the people working for SHIELD knew this, and they were prepared to make sacrifices, otherwise they wouldn't be there.

Director Nicholas Fury was aboard the Helicarrier, seeing to the repairs and retrofits that were being made, his mere presence making people work more effectively and he could see over any administrative work from here as well as from a land bound office making it was a win-win situation.

He'd heard that Loki had once more tried to escape earlier that day and it bothered him. He didn't understand why the self-acclaimed god would try to do it when it had been proven again and again that it was no use.

Fury didn't like not knowing things. He didn't like not knowing what Loki had planned. It made him anxious. He didn't like unpredictability and Loki was unpredictable. He had some layers that were easy to interpret. The standard wanting power and an audience as Stark had pointed out, but the motives that lay hidden under the surface remained hidden to him.

"Director?"

"What is it, Agent Hill?"

"You have a call. Harry Potter."

"Patch it through."

Fury walked into a side office where he could speak privately with the man. He had worked with Potter a few times. He too was unpredictable, and much too powerful to make Fury feel comfortable. It was like dealing with a worse version of Stark, mixed with common sense, and the authority of a president, making it all that much harder to know what would happen next. But for all that Potter was as skilled as his top agents, had more political clout than he himself had, and nearly as much money as Stark he was just human, and that was a comfort after having been forced to deal with an extraterrestrial maniac.

"Fury," he answered gruffly.

"Hello, Director. I've heard that you've had a tough month."

"Yes." He refrained from saying anything like, what do you have to do with it? And why don't you have anything to do with it? We could have used some assistance.

"This is a mere call of courtesy, Director. I am on my way to see Loki and I thought you'd want to know."

"Excuse me?"

"Is he in the holding cells in New York, aboard the Helicarrier or elsewhere?"

"Potter," Fury growled, "what do you think you're doing?"

"Either, I'm fixing a mess or making one, don't know which yet."

"That's not very helpful."

"I know, but it's the way it is. Now will you give me the information I want or do I have to get someone to hack into your systems?"

"New York," the Director bit out, knowing that Potter could and would hack into their systems if he wasn't told.

"Thank you. I'll talk more to your later." The line went dead.

"Damn it," he muttered, walking out on the bridge again. "Hill, I need to get to NY, five minutes ago."

"Yes, sir. A quinjet is being prepared for you, the flight path confirmed; you can leave in two minutes."

.:oOo:.

Loki didn't have to wait long for Harry to show up. Only hours after he had spoken with Thor the silence in the cell was broken as a man appeared with a small crack. Loki didn't bother to berate Harry for using apparition when he could have travelled much smoother and arriving completely silent with a technique he has shown him years before as he usually did, he was too busy taking in the man with hungry eyes. It had been far too long since he last saw his Harry, and he was searching for anything that had changed about him.

There weren't many changes to be found. This was only to be expected with how slowly the wizard was aging since becoming an Asgardian. The hair was the same as always, inky black and stubbornly sticking up at strange angles, most evidently at the back of his head. Green eyes bright, scar clear on his brow and frame tall. Sadly he was dressed in a baggy red hoodie obscuring his finely toned torso, but that was just another thing that hadn't changed about Harry. The only change Loki could see was a couple of new wrinkles on his forehead, likely put there because of stress and worry - because of him.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Harry said in a menacing whisper, stalking closer, hand held out gripping his wand. He flicked the tool lazily in the direction of the surveillance system and Loki knew that he had in some manner made it dysfunctional, rendering their conversation at the very least partly private.

"Pardon?" he said innocently, smiling in a way that would seem honest if you didn't know Loki. Harry though could see the wicked glint in the trickster's eyes and he wasn't fooled.

"Do not play games with me! You! You!" He spluttered, while Loki just watched him calmly, enjoying the show. "You made sure that I was stuck on the other side of the planet so that I wouldn't interfere with your so called plan to take over my home world!"

"I did," Loki admitted without a hint of remorse.

Harry was seething. "May I ask why?"

"You are welcome to do so." Loki grinned, knowing that he was testing the wizard's patience and enjoy it ever so much.

"If there ever was a time for being serious, it is now. What happened? Why have you been gone? I-I…" though he still looked angry, Harry's expression had gone softer and he sat down next to Loki on the cot, their sides almost touching. "I missed you so much. I felt lost and I…"

"Hey!" Loki reached out and touched Harry's cheek, enjoying the feeling of warm skin under the pad of his thumb. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to leave you. Things happened and I. I made some bad decisions."

"I was worried about you. Can you understand that? Last we spoke you were so upset. I hardly recognized you. Then I heard about something going on in New Mexico, your brother was there, wasn't he?"

"Thor," Loki snorted, a flash of anger flickering in his eyes. "He…" the God of Mischief bit down on whatever words he had planned to say, shaking his head a little. "It doesn't matter now."

"I don't believe that. I think it matters. I think it's a very central part of the story, but explanations can wait." He smiled wistfully. "I thought that I would demand to know everything as soon as I saw you. I had planned to yell at you until you told me all you knew. I imagined slapping some sense into you. But I think you're already bruised enough and I find that now that I'm here with you it can wait. I'm just glad to see you again."

Harry wrapped his arms around Loki and buried his nose in his long hair, breathing in the familiar scent of frost and magic, feeling all the anxiety that had built over the last year leaving him as he exhaled. Loki answered to the embrace, pulling Harry closer.

"I've missed you too."

"If it had gone much longer you would have driven me to call for Heimdall," Harry murmured.

The words made Loki stiffen and push Harry away, giving him an angry look. "You wouldn't!" he growled, teeth bared in a snarl. "I've done everything so that you could grow into yourself without their interference and you would willingly draw their attention!"

"It was no longer about me! It was about you, and I would have done anything for you!"

"Would have?" Loki caught the past tense.

"Yes," Harry said so low that it was barely said at all. "Would have."

"And now?"

"I don't know. It's been a year and you- you tried to enslave mankind!"

"I had my reasons," Loki said in a resigned way.

"Then why?"

"I thought explanations could wait?" Loki gave a weak version of his usual smirk.

"Try again," the wizard said unfazed.

"I did it because of you."

"What!" Harry jumped up, staring wide eyed, his wand once more trained on the trickster. "You're lying! You cannot possibly blame this on me! I will not stand for it."

"So you cannot take the truth?" Loki sneered. "Like you couldn't take the truth the first time we met? Poor little Harry, it's always you isn't it? It's always you who are responsible for the deaths of others in one way or another and then you feel the need to step up and be the hero, or maybe the martyr."

Harry could only stare, breathing hard and feeling like he'd been punched in the stomach, getting the wind knocked out of him. He knew Loki could be cruel, but he hadn't expected it. Not now. Not to him. Not after what they shared. "You've changed," he said coldly, voice void of emotion.

"Yes. You do change when you learn that you are not the person you always thought you were. You change when you are cast out and when you are forced to accept allies you would never have considered unless you were truly desperate in your struggle to come home again." Loki was breathing hard as well. He had risen to his feet too, and he was looming over Harry, using the negligible height difference to his advantage.

"What? Loki?"

"I am no Odinson," he murmured, voice less harsh again. "I am the monster this world now perceives me as."

Harry crossed his arms, gazing mutely at the other man, waiting for him to clarify.

"I'm a Frost Giant, Harry. I was so small at birth that my true father didn't want me. I was a disgrace to his linage and he left me for death. And then the Allfather came along, victorious in the battle against the monsters of the ice. Filled to the brim with self-righteousness and pity disguised as mercy he took me in, making me believe that I was a prince who one day could ascend to the throne." He scoffed. "What mockery! I would never be allowed onto the throne of Asgard! No Frost Giant would ever be allowed in a place of power in the realm of gods, and the Jotuns had already shunned me, so the Allfather's hope for an alliance was the foolish dream of a feeble, old man. I'm not Loki Odinson, not Loki Laufeyson. I'm Loki No-One's-Son, a monster, who no one could ever love. So why not behave like it?"

Harry moved in a flash.

.:oOo:.

"Guys look!" It had been a few minutes and with the call made by Clint everyone looked back at the screen. They had looked away feeling uneasy as the pair embraced, and choosing to give them some privacy, but it was mostly to spare their own sense of sanity, or that was what Tony had said. Both men had been standing, something having disturbed what had appeared to be a peaceful reunion and as Clint called for their attention the man in the red hoodie moved like flash, punching Loki in the nose. The trickster's eyes filled with tears and he grabbed at the appendage, blinking at the other man, completely stunned. The force of the blow had forced him to sit back down again.

"Wow, I'm starting to like this guy," Tony said, smiling widely at Loki's pain. "Damn, I wish we had sound! This must have been good! I can practically imagine the crunch…"

Loki lowered his hands and they could see that his nose was broken, the bridge had gone crocked and it was oozing blood down his chin.

"He truly is one of my people," Thor mused, not appearing all that concerned about his brother's health. "The force needed to hurt us is not possessed by common mortals."

"What does that mean?" Natasha asked. "That he is an Asgardian?"

"I am not certain," Thor answered meeting her eye. "I have never encountered anything like it. If what Loki told me was true, that is. It has happened that my people have come to Midgard and lived here, much like I was forced to do a year ago. We would then immerse ourselves into your people, able to go unnoticed. Harry could be a man who chose to do that, but if he was once human and my brother reawakened some long slumbering heritage I do not know what it will mean. I only know that I will have to bring him with us."

"You'll take him with you?" Bruce asked.

"It is necessary. My father must be informed, and he must be evaluated."

"But he isn't a criminal is he?" Steve asked. "From what we've seen in the files Stark brought up the man is like us, a person who protects people. It wouldn't be just to bring him against his will to stand trial for something he isn't responsible for."

"Be that as it may, he is a witness, he is close to my brother and now that he has become one of us he is bound by our laws. He will come."

.:oOo:.

"Was that necessary?" Loki asked a few moments later, his voice slightly muffled because of the blood trickling from his nose. "What did I do to warrant that?"

"You were being an idiot, wallowing in self-pity and I had had enough of it." Harry flicked his wand, making an angry jab and Loki's nose snapped back into place. He jabbed again, and the blood cleared away. "You stupid, stupid…" Harry walked closer and sat down next to him. "You are not a monster. Whatever it is that you have done, you are not a monster, and whatever it is you have done I still…" Harry went silence. He wasn't good at emotional stuff. He gazed into Loki's eyes, seeing so much pain and hatred there. He wanted it gone. "I love you."

Loki blinked. "You do? Even if..?"

"Yes. My mind is telling me that I shouldn't forgive you. My heart has known enough pain and only recognizes the love now. I love you. You, not your name or your actions. You."

End Part 3

AN 7th July 2013:

There we have part 3. I liked it. Mhmm. Even if it was shorter than the previous two. It was fun writing Harry and Loki together, I don't know if they acted strange, but I think it would be rather tense and as a lot of emotions of different kind were at work it wouldn't be all lovidovi. I hope you enjoyed it too and that you'll tune into the next part.

Oh and thanks to Kai19 for letting me use the line you provided in your review.