AN: So basically we're at a point where there is no return, the final part of New Years Eve, I'm very nervous about this chapter, it really shapes the rest of the story from here on, so, er, yes, little nervous.

Chapter Eleven

Loki was in free fall.

Hello pavement, you beautiful thing, I'm coming, getting closer, in a choice between you and being torn apart by the monster, you will win every time.

He braced himself, covering his face with his arms, tensing his body, oh this was going to hurt. The pavement on the streets of New York were about to be decorated in a fashionable, but sticky new colour called, 'hint of Loki' - but the pain he was anticipating never came. His body was snatched from the air, he was caught by a strong arm and just as he thought that Stark had put his suit back on after all, he opened his eyes to see a familiar blue and red outfit. They dropped in the air a little as Parker threw up a new web, and Loki quickly adjusted himself to his usual position mid-swing, before Parker would have to create a new web rope.

After a few streets Parker switched from the main thoroughfare to the side roads and the entire journey was spent in a complete, uncomfortable silence until they reached Loki's building and Parker practically threw him through the window, where he landed on his hip with a thud.

Loki sat for a moment and then picked himself up, turning to face Parker, about to launch into a tirade at him for not going home when he told him to and putting himself in danger, when he saw that Parker had removed his mask and was glaring at him furiously. He was balancing on his injured leg on his tip toe, trying to keep the weight off it.

Just as he was about to ask him what he was looking at him like that for, Parker drew back his arm and punched Loki square on the jaw, the strength and shock of it knocked Loki onto his arse, and he held his jaw shocked, looking up at Parker, not sure if he wanted to pick himself up again, eventually deciding to stand to his two feet because it would make it a lot easier to strangle Parker to death.

Again, just as Loki was about to speak, Parker launched himself at him, grabbing him by the neck of his hoodie, and shaking him so hard the hood fell back.

"Don't you ever, EVER, pull a stunt like that again," said Parker, so angry his whole body was shaking.

"What are you-"

"You didn't know I was there!" said Parker, "You jumped and you didn't know I was there!"

"Yes," said Loki, there was no point in lying, "I didn't know you were there."

"WHY?" said Parker, shaking him again, "What the hell did they do to you so that you jumped? From that height? You would have been killed!"

"I… It was what they might have done," said Loki, "I was happier with the prospect of facing the pavement."

"NEVER AGAIN!" said Parker, "DO YOU FUCKING HEAR ME? NEVER AGAIN!"

"I TOLD YOU TO GO," said Loki, suddenly furious himself, no one spoke to a Prince of Asgard that way, Parker shouldn't even have been there. "I TOLD YOU TO GET AWAY AND YOU IGNORED ME, YOU COULD HAVE BEEN SERIOUSLY HURT!"

"YOU WOULD HAVE DIED!" shouted Parker, "YOU WOULD HAVE DIED IF I HADN'T BEEN THERE!"

"I KNOW!" shouted Loki, "THAT'S WHY I JUMPED!"

Parker released his grip, his eyes welling, and staring directly into Loki's, "What did you do?" he asked, "Tell me, Puck, please. Just tell me, just trust me. What did you do that was so bad, that it makes you act this way? That makes you so scared of the Avengers that you jumped from the top of their building?"

"I…" said Loki, "I can't tell you, Parker."

"Why not?" said Parker, pleading. "Why can't you tell me? Why can't you just trust me?"

"Because," said Loki, "you'll hate me."

"No, I-"

"Yes," said Loki, "yes, you will. You'll hate me Parker."

"So you'd rather die?"

"Yes," said Loki, realising this himself as he said it, "I'd rather die."

"Stupid, fucking, moron," said Parker, then he put his arms around Loki, hugging him tightly.

Loki breathed, and put his own arms around Parker, hugging him back. "You're my only friend," said Loki, "you're the only friend I've ever had. I've just realised how important it is to me, and now it's too late because tomorrow… Tomorrow… tomorrow I'm going away for a long time. I don't think I'll ever see you again."

Parker drew back, angrily running his hands through his hair, looking at Loki, shaking his head, "Tell me what's happening. Tell me what's going on."

"They want to talk to me," said Loki, "and when they do, they will probably realise who I am, then I'll be locked away."

"Then run," said Parker, "run, I'll help you get away."

"If I run," said Loki, "they'll start looking for you. Tony Stark is not a complete buffoon, he has the means to be able to track you, figure out who you are."

"So you're just going to hand yourself over to protect me?" said Parker bitterly, "why?"

"Because you saved my life," said Loki, "I owe you a life debt."

"I'll cancel it."

"It doesn't work that way."

"Then I'm going with you."

"NO!" said Loki, grabbing him by the shirt of his costume, "If you go with me, no amount of persuasion will convince them that you did not know my true identity. They will lock you away with me, and trust me, you will not last as long as I will."

"Let. Me. Help. You," said Parker, gripping his hands to Loki's forearms.

"I can't," said Loki, "it will destroy you. I destroy everything. Everything I touch turns to ashes. I will not allow myself to become the source of your destruction, I am supposed to be protecting you."

"You could walk away from all of this," said Parker, "you're just making excuses, you could save yourself. Forget me and just go, I don't have to be Spider-man anymore, I can lock him away, I can't see you be taken away and locked up in some prison for the rest of your life. You've helped people, you've saved people, you've helped me, no one forced you to do any of it, you chose to do this, you decided. You. No one can take that away from you, no matter what was in the past, that has to count for something, so either you leave now, tonight, get out of the city and hide someplace where they'll never find you, or I am coming with you tomorrow."

"I won't allow it," said Loki, "I'm not dragging you down with me. I owe you my life, I can't destroy yours to return the favour."

"We are in this together," said Parker, "the day we met I invited you into my life and I'm not going to let you throw yourself to the wolves for me, no, not going to happen."

"I don't have a choice," said Loki, "if I flee, I leave you to them, if I go to them alone, then I will be able to convince them you knew nothing and they won't lock you away forever."

Damn sentiment.

"Go fuck yourself," said Parker, and he moved his arm, shooting a web at the cowl and yanking it off Loki's head.

"No!" said Loki, turning, covering his face, he still had the domino mask glued in place beneath the cowl, providing him with partial cover. "I won't let you do this."

"Take the domino off," said Parker behind him.

"No," said Loki shaking his head, "I won't."

"What's the point?" said Parker, "if you're heading to your doom tomorrow and I'm never going to see you again, what's the point of hiding yourself?"

"So that I can go with the knowledge that I had a friend," said Loki, "but maybe you're right. Because I was fooling myself to think that I could ever have a friend."

"I am your friend," said Parker, and he saw Parker's hand reach around him, holding out a wet cloth to him. "Take the domino off. Trust me. I'm a big boy, let me make my own decisions, like you've made yours. Let me decide whether or not you're completely beyond redemption. Everyone gets a second chance. Everyone. Even you. So trust me, I'm your friend, take the goddamn domino mask off and face me."

Loki gave up and took the cloth, keeping his back to Parker as he peeled off the mask and brought the cloth to his face, washing off the black-out make up from around his eyes. He dropped both to the ground and took a deep breath and turned to face the only friend he'd ever truly made.

"It's good to finally see your face," he said, "Loki."

He held out his hand, holding out the cowl to him, Loki was incredibly confused by this action because realistically, he should have been on his arse by now. Parker's fist should have been pummelling his face, leaving him a bloody mass before carting him off and dropping him on the Avenger's doorstep.

"You know who I am?" said Loki.

"I've known for weeks," said Parker.

Loki felt like the floor had disappeared out from under him, and it must have shown in his face because Parker moved towards him, but Loki shook his head and kept his footing, barely.

"What?" he said, "what? Weeks?"

Parker began counting things off on his fingers, "You've been twitchy from the start about the Avengers. You said you were here during the invasion but you didn't tell me your story and trust me, if someone was here during the invasion then they want to tell you what happened to them during it. You don't know anything about pop-culture and I mean nothing. You never let me see your face even though you've seen mine and you know where I live, which could have only meant you suspected I would recognise you and weren't some random, run of the mill, street criminal. You have magic but that thing you got on your wrist - yeah, I've seen that you're shit at hiding it - it is clearly blocking something so it's probably some kind of prison manacle you can't get off. You're incredibly strong and agile and you can flip yourself all over the place so either you spent your life training with Buddhist monks, or you had to be not a normal human, oh, and occasionally you let things slip without realising it and when I've googled them they've come up hits on pages about Norse mythology. I'm a fucking genius, Loki, and sometimes you can be a complete moron."

Loki's mouth hung open, "I don't understand," he said, "why did you not say anything? Why haven't you handed me in? Why?"

"Because I wanted you to tell me yourself," said Parker, "I wanted you to trust me." Then he stepped forward and put his hand on Loki's shoulder, "And because, you're my best friend."

Loki had to sit down. Immediately. He sat himself on the floor unceremoniously, Parker crouched beside him, then moved so he was sat crossed legged beside him.

"You ok there, chief?" said Parker, "You're looking a little pale... er."

"Just trying to process it all," said Loki, in something of a haze.

"So," said Parker, "what are we going to do tomorrow to make sure that they don't find out who you are?"

"What?" said Loki, looking at him, "I don't understand, why do you still want to help me?"

Parker shrugged, "Because you've been trying," he said, "you've had my back since the first day, you helped people when you didn't have to, you've been pretty determined not to drag me into your shit. I mean I don't know what's going on with you, what your plan was to take over the world, but you don't seem like the same guy."

"I…" said Loki, "It was part of a bigger plan. I did not actually expect to win."

"Well you can tell me what the real plan was another day," said Parker, he took Loki's right hand and rolled back the sleeve and un-stringed the home made bracer and ran his finger across the rune bracelet. He turned it around Loki's wrist a few times, examining it, "Tell me about this. Does it not work properly? I'm guessing it's supposed to be blocking your magic, but you can still access it, right?"

"There were two," said Loki, "that's how I was able to escape, the other was removed, temporarily, and now I can access a little, not a lot, but enough so I can get by."

"And you can't get it off yourself?" said Parker.

"If I could have, I would have by now," said Loki.

"Alright," said Parker, dropping Loki's wrist, "now I need you to tell me what they know, or what they think they know about us."

"We won't be able to fool them," said Loki, "Stark is reasonably intelligent, and if the monster is with him they are two very smart individuals, though it pains me to say it."

"Well I'm a fucking genius," said Parker, "and you're not so dumb yourself, I mean you're a moron, but you're a pretty smart moron, I think we're just as smart as those guys."

"If I'm caught, you'll go down with me," said Loki.

"They'll have to catch me first," said Parker, "so tell me, what do they know?"

"They think we're brothers," said Loki, "they think you're the impulsive one, and I follow you for your protection."

"So far, so good," said Parker, "we can build on this. So tell me what you know about them."

Loki told Parker everything he knew, they talked for hours, going over details, Loki instructing Parker the keys to building lies, Parker giving Loki information so they could build a credible story.

It was four in the morning when Parker stood to leave, "Ok, I'm going to go home, get some sleep. Long day tomorrow, gotta make sure my aunt sees me at least once so she doesn't know that I got caught up in fighting those attack bots or whatever they were."

"How are you going to explain your leg?" asked Loki, pointing, Parker was still limping on it, and it really needed to be bandaged.

"Usual," said Parker, "if she asks I'll say I fell off my skateboard. I'll tape it up when I get home, it should be ok in a few days."

"Alright," said Loki, "get some sleep, Parker."

Parker limped towards the window, pulling his mask back on over his head, then turned and looked at Loki, "If you're gone in the morning, I'll understand. In fact, I'd probably be a little bit relieved. But I promise you, Loki, I promise you, I won't let them take you away from me."

"I'll be here," said Loki, "I won't let you down."

"You never have."