Loki jerked awake, back stiff.
The over soft bed made it difficult for him to get up, but he managed. He glanced at the time; just past two in the morning. Restless and unusually awake, he threw on soft clothes and wrapped a scarf partially around his face. Intent on doing something about his restlessness.
Navigating the unfamiliar mansion turned out to be more frustrating than anticipated. By the time he made it outside he was hot and annoyed but the crisp night air tempered his anger. He took a moment to recall where they were today. It wasn't Berlin, they had stayed in a hotel there. Wasn't Austin, it had still been warm there.
With an irritated "tsk" he realized he could just check his phone.
No location available.
"Ugh, unreliable Midgardian technology."
Dark pine forests stretched out around the mansion. He felt trapped in by some great unknown force.
Experiencing a moment of weakness, his longing to get away from the team for a few hours overcame him and he closed his eyes, stuffed away his guilt, and felt his body shift.
He opened his eyes and stood on the streets of New York. Resoutly ignoring the lights of the Tower in the distance, he hiked up his scarf and tousled his hair to better cover his face and began to wander the streets.
In a way the city reminded him of the market streets of Asgard, dirtier, lit by a harsher light, but the spirit was similar.
He spent the next few hours roaming, gazing at neon signs, people watching the kind of rabble he expected to find in the streets past midnight. The weight of the Infinity Gem ever present around his neck.
Around four he noticed a man begin to follow him. Rolling his eyes Loki continued walking but conjured a knife that he gripped tightly. As he expected he heard the man approach him not long after.
The man sped up and jostled past him, Loki felt the thief's hand grab at his phone in his pocket. The pickpocketer murmured a fake, hasty apology as he snatched the phone.
"Oop- sorry."
Loki rolled his eyes again, and caught the thief's arm with a disapproving frown. His knife disappearing as he realized the man was no real threat.
"That was disgraceful and not at all discreet."
Tightening his grip, Loki let the man jerk himself back in an attempt to get away. Bones crunched in the pickpocket's wrist, he dropped the phone and let out a cry.
"Aaaugh- My fucking wrist!"
Pulling the struggling thief closer, Loki glared at him.
"If you're going to pickpocket someone you do it in the middle of a crowd, idiot. And get better at picking targets because you've been tailing me for a while now and you still managed to size me up incorrectly. You are a pathetic excuse for a thief, whelp."
Loki released the man, who stumbled back onto the dropped phone, with a "crunch" of glass. The failed pickpocket took off running, cradling his broken wrist.
Satisfied, Loki turned away from the shrinking figure to check on his phone. Shattered glass surrounding it betrayed its condition before he could even flip it over. Sure enough, the screen was completely ruined, it wouldn't even turn on. Loki scowled and pocketed the wrecked phone to throw away later.
Shaking off the encounter, Loki continued his roaming, letting his mind settle, not thinking about the stressors waiting for him back among the team. His thoughts kept returning to the charity gala later that day, to watching Tony drink himself into incoherence once again. The image haunted him and he spent some time purging it from his thoughts, putting off his worries for later.
By the time his favorite coffee shop opened he had settled back into a meditative like calm and it had begun to sleet, rain and ice collecting on his outer jacket in an unpleasant mush. With a quick few changes to his appearance he slipped into the softly lit coffee house, shaking off the accumulation of ice and unwrapping his scarf. He ordered and sat peacefully for a while.
When the time came that Loki knew he should return he hesitated. Ever since he was a child he had hated fulfilling social obligations that were not of his own planning, it had always taken some bartering with his mother or Thor to get him to reliably make an appearance. And those parties had alcohol that would actually let him ignore how dull the company was.
The weight of the Space Gem pressed against his chest.
He stared out the frosted window, hand hovering over his chest, weighing his options.
It wasn't the first time he'd thought to use the Gem to at least partially avoid the team on their hellish "vacation". He knew it could be done, he'd only not done it to not aggrieve his own conscience.
"I am already away… and it is still me…"
He shook the idea off for now, though he let it linger in his thoughts for another instance. Knowing full well the time would likely come sooner rather than later.
Paying for his breakfast and rewrapping his scarf, Loki exited the building and slipped into a nearby alleyway, careful to avoid the eyes of the now bustling street. He let the alterations to his appearance fall away and, tapping into the gem to do so as he still had no idea where the mansion was but could see it in his mind, left New York.
It was snowing when he arrived back at the mansion. Light spilled from its many windows and even from afar he could hear raised voices coming from inside.
Loki rolled his eyes and steeled himself.
Steve's voice rang out as Loki paused at the door.
"Tony! Tony, deep breaths. I promise he's not-"
A loud jingle sounded out when Loki opened the front door and the commotion stopped. First Steve, then Thor rushed over to the balcony on the floor above him. Relief washed over both of them and, much to Loki's surprise, Steve vaulted over the railing and began to approach him.
"You."
"Me…?"
The other avengers appeared at the balcony moments afterwords, acting as quiet onlookers.
Steve grabbed Loki's shoulders and looked at him darkly, speaking low.
"Where were you?"
Taking cues from Steve's whispered words, Loki muttered a response, feeling more than a little antagonized.
"I went for a walk, is that illegal?"
With a heavy sigh, Steve glanced back at the other avengers.
"No, it's not. We tried to call you, what happened?"
"I dropped my phone, it shattered."
Loki offered up the mangled phone. Which Steve shook his head at exasperatedly.
"Tony- Tony thought you'd left."
Looking over Steve's shoulder, Loki eyed Tony. Upon a quick inspection Loki noticed Tony's disheveled hair, the stress lines furrowing his forehead, among other things including the anomaly that he was up so early.
"I'll deal with it."
Loki took a deep breath and pushed past Steve, maintaining eye contact with Tony as he ascended the staircase. When he reached Tony he cleared his throat, standing stiffly, hands locked at his side. Ignoring Tony's glare.
"Would you like to talk?"
With a deep scowl, Tony turned sharply away.
"Not right now. I need some more sleep."
"Excuse me?!"
Vaguely insulted, Loki roughly spun Tony around to face him. This turned out to be a miscalculation as Tony swung at him and Loki was forced to roll with the punch to avoid hurting Tony. The intent of the blow jarred Loki more than the impact. He stood in shock as Tony stalked off down a hallway.
00000
Tony slammed the door behind him as hard as he could.
"I said "later", asshole."
He took a deep, shuddering breath, hoping to calm his thudding heart, he massaged his forehead. Finally he collapsed onto the bed face first. Much to his chagrin, he only had a few moments of silence before his phone buzzed. With a groan he groped for the nuisance.
It was Pepper.
Confusion took over him as he stared at Pepper's name, trying to think why she was calling him.
"Oh yeah… she's coming to this party."
He answered the phone and put it on speaker, laying back down, letting Pepper speak first.
"Tony, you there?"
"Yep."
A long silence, he could practically feel her concern radiating through the phone.
"... Alright, good. I just got off the plane I'll be there in about an hour or so. Are you feeling okay, you don't-"
"Nah, I'm great. See you in an hour."
"Tony-"
He hung up the phone, almost immediately regretting the decision. Realizing he hadn't told the rest of the team Pepper was coming, he silently weighed his options. Reluctant to move from his spot.
00000
Pepper was a welcome help for their preparation. Her presence at least seemed to keep Tony from drinking too much before the event started, though Loki noticed him slip a flask of something into an inner pocket in his suit coat. Despite that everyone was in remarkably high spirits as they stepped into the S.H.I.E.L.D. provided van. Though the scuffle from the morning hadn't entirely been mended as Tony still avoided Loki as best he could.
The presence of Pepper also freed Loki from his moral obligations. Freed him to use the Space Gem.
Once inside the venue he took a quiet moment and split his mind, a physical duplicate of himself appearing in the Tower. He focused on the party, mind split between the bustle of the gala and the quiet of reading in the empty tower.
He was laughing at a joke Natasha made. He was sipping tea, lounging in the dark.
Occasionally he would focus more on one copy than the other, leaving the other copy on a kind of autopilot, though he could always see what the other was doing. The anomaly had taken him weeks to get used to and understand, this was the first time he had tried split his consciousness doing something that required such mental energy on one side.
He spun tales with Thor to onlookers, the two of them sipping champagne and reenacting certain bits with dramatic flairs, he saw the smile in Thor's eyes. He prepared a meal for himself, breaking out his stock of spices he'd almost forgot he'd stored away. He listened to Bruce excitedly answer questions about gamma radiation to a couple of wasted interns, who were eating his words up. He practiced fighting while split in the empty training floor.
Late into the night Pepper got up on a stage to deliver a speech and Loki noticed Tony slip in beside him, very drunk. His friend tugged on his scarf and Loki intoned his head, drawing focus away from the him who was currently meditating.
"Yes, Tony?"
"Hey, hey I'm ready to… to talk, yeah? Y'know, from e-earlier. I wanna-talk…"
"... Very well."
Loki surveyed the room quickly, eyes drawn to the almost deserted patio covered in snow. Grabbing Tony by the arm he maneuvered the two of them outside. He noticed how Tony immediately began to shiver and so took off his outer jacket and scarf and handed them to Tony who frowned at his pale shirt with a look of concern, all while putting on the outer layers with some difficulty.
The intent frown prompted a tired response.
"I am not cold, you should know why."
Tony blinked rapid fire before speaking.
"That's… not- what is…"
A moment of silence filled the air before Tony flicked his eyes up to meet Loki's. He squinted at Loki but whatever thought he was formulating he seemed to drop as he stuck his hands in his pockets.
"I kinda wanna apologize- for earlier but I reeeally don't want to because you kinda deserved it. Haaha. So uh, sorry but no not actually!"
With a barely contained eyeroll, Loki dryly replied. Tower Loki stood from his meditation, continuing to barely make a dent in his thought process.
"Sure, that's very gracious of you. But that is not what I care about. I do not care that you punched me, it did nothing, I wanted to talk about what's been brewing within in the team and… something else but not right now. I want to talk when you are sober, Tony. Do you understand?"
Looking offended, Tony crossed his arms.
"Hey- that's not fair and you…"
Tony trailed off, looking past Loki, to inside the building.
"What's goin' on in there? Is… that a bird?"
"What?!"
Alarmed, Loki spun around and his heart dropped. A large black raven circled the crowd of shocked people, cawing loudly, a parchment was tied to its ankle.
"Muninn."
Odin's second raven circled the crowd, protesting harshly to their shocked outcries, the scroll attached to its ankle fluttered with each beat of its wings.
Beside him, Tony muttered, oblivious to Loki's panic.
"How'd he get in there…?"
Loki zeroed in on Thor among the crowd and watched, frozen in horror, as Thor reached his arm out and the bird descended. Muninn landed lightly and offered out its ankle.
The world was spinning, Thor was not a fool, it would be obvious that Loki was involved. There was no doubt in his mind that he would need to act fast to avoid maximum damage. But he couldn't move, there was a buzzing in his head and a tingling in his fingers and he couldn't move his legs.
Something else buzzed but Loki continued to think, Thor was untying the parchment. Tony said something that was lost in Loki's mental fog.
After a few moments Tony elbowed him, speaking louder, waving something in front of his face.
"Hey, Antlers! Jus' got an alert from Jarvis. Somethin' wrong at the Tower. Can you… go check….?"
Loki shuddered back to life.
"The Tower!"
His head buzzed, a familiar feeling. He focused on his copy with difficulty, his vision faded from Thor reading the parchment.
The security system around the Mind Gem sent electricity shooting through his body, his fingertips tingled. He was so close it was right there. His head buzzed at fever pitch.
"No! No, what are you- am I-?"
He forcibly pulled away, horrified at how difficult it was to change the path his mind was set on. His head buzzed so loud, so very loud, and the gem was right there… The gem, that gem. He had to get away. Still horrified and ashamed he drew back to himself, well aware that time was still passing. He closed his eyes and became of one mind and body again.
Thor was making his way swiftly through the crowd, Muninn no longer on his arm but circling his head. Loki stepped back hurriedly, the cautious, angry glint in Thor's eyes told Loki all he needed to know. He had mere seconds now before Thor would be upon him, now was the time for action. It took all his effort to stop backing up, to straighten and face Thor.
His brother was upon him. Loki glanced at the parchment crumpled in his hand before meeting Thor's eyes.
"Thor, you need to understand-"
"Why, brother, why?"
Here was not the place for this conversation. Loki shifted his gaze to the restless crowd, then to Muninn who cawed at him sharply, a symbol and conduit of Odin's presence. He took action and grabbed Thor by the arm.
"Do not smite me!"
And the two of them disappeared from the courtyard.
AN: Officially the worst at updating. To my defense I had a to write a completely different short story for one of my classes and that took a lot of writing energy but I'm finally back into this. I have this grand plan of going back to my old stories and slowly reformating them so they read like normal stories but if I'm being sincere that's likely not going to happen any time soon. I am working on the next chapter so hopefully it'll be up sometime soonish?