Disclaimer: I own nothing that is owned by someone else.

AN: Thanks for reading. I hope you all enjoy.

Steve's mind had been rattled with all sorts of things for weeks. Steve was trying to be very cautious of Loki, as Bruce had said that Loki appeared very 'damaged' and so Steve opted to avoid contact as much as possible with the former god, not wanting to cause any more damage. In fact he hadn't interacted with Loki at all so far. Tony had, which worried Steve because Tony could be very abrasive and his and Loki's personality were bound to clash. He hoped Tony was being careful with how he was treating the situation, he expected Loki would probably react very strongly to being angered or upset. He wasn't called the god of chaos for no reason and that was a proven fact, Steve knew about Loki's madness firsthand. He knew about Loki's arrogance and evil and his opinion of Loki wouldn't change until he was clearly proven wrong. But, regardless of his opinions, he was still obligated to protect Loki as he was someone who could potentially help them to save their world if they were lucky and Loki wasn't tricking them, so Steve made sure that for the most part he knew where Clint was, because while he would like to give his friend the benefit of the doubt, there was too much at stake to be overly trusting of him. He was still friendly and kind towards Clint; Loki had damaged him a lot. True he was most certainly accountable for his actions, but one should be aware of the details that brought about the reaction Clint had towards Loki.

He was sitting with Clint at that very moment, at the table, in the overly costly kitchen that Tony had designed. No one else spoke to him, especially not Bruce and Thor who both seemed to hate him at that moment. He hoped things would get back to normal soon. Clint was cold and distant, nothing like the archer Steve knew and whenever Thor or Bruce crossed paths with him there was a clear feeling of anger and hostility in the air and whenever Steve mentioned Loki Clint would become very irritated and annoyed with him.

The clock on the light green wall said it was 5:45 AM and the sound of coffee brewing could be heard. They had already made peanut-butter toast, bacon and eggs and were gradually chewing at their food and moving it around with their forks in the silence of the early morning. The sky was as bright as it would ever be that day, pure white light gazing over their shoulders from the window. Steve loved the peace and purity that morning seemed to bring to him.

"It's a beautiful day." Steve said, looking out the window. He didn't know what else to say, he just wanted to break the cold silence.

Clint didn't answer, not even looking up from his half-empty plate.

"Natasha told me we're finally going to talk to Loki today." Steve said, getting up to pour the fresh coffee into two cups for the both of them.

Clint suddenly gave him a look of alertness, as he placed the cups on the table and sat back down.

"So he's finally going to talk." He said, looking thoughtful, "I suppose I won't be able to be there to hear the plan firsthand then…" he chuckled, bitterly.

"Yeah…" Steve said, "But we'll tell you the plans and give you the info later on… At least I will, anyway…"

Clint sighed in frustration, "Why is Bruce so pissed-off at me?" Clint asked, suddenly. Steve flinched at the cussing, but said nothing about it. "I get why Thor is, but why is Bruce? What the hell did I do to him?"

"You endangered Natasha." Steve said.

"She did that herself and it's not like she hasn't been in worse situations, it was probably a piece of cake for her. She's not a child." Clint said.

"She's his girlfriend, Clint. He loves her." Steve said. Clint scoffed.

"I know I fucked up, but why does he have to be such an asshole? I said sorry and I'm helping you guys, even though I'm supposed to be retired and could be at home with my wife and kids, and he's still being a passive-aggressive dickhead."

"Like I said, he loves her. He genuinely loves her… You need to be patient, because if you prove yourself deserving then he'll forgive you, he's a reasonable guy. And could you please watch your language?" Steve said.

Clint glared at Steve, "I'm beginning to think he'd rather take Loki's side than mine, even though I was his teammate and saved his life a million times and Loki's the little shit who tried to kill us and rule the world like a fucking tyrant."

"He'll forgive you eventually, Clint." Steve said, "Things will get back to normal. We've all been able to forgive and forget each other, despite the odds. Things'll get back to normal."

Clint laughed, "Were things ever normal to begin with?"

Steve chuckled, "I suppose not." And he took a sip of his coffee.

..::..::..::..::..::..::..::..

"Wakey, wakey!" Stark called and he turned on the blaring lights and opened the blinds to expose blinding light and Loki shut his eyes tightly.

"What are you doing?" Loki asked, irritated.

"I made waffles." Stark said and he dropped a plate in Loki's lap, making him have to sit up, his eyes still squinting in the brightness. "Okay, well, I didn't actually make them as much as I used already made batter from a box and mixed it with water and put it in a waffle iron and pressed a few buttons, but still."

"What time is it?" Loki asked, still squinting.

"Six!" Stark exclaimed, sounding utterly delighted. Loki's eyes were still only a little adjusted to the sudden light, but he could still see the strange Midgardian food on his plate. "There's also chocolate milk on the nightstand."

"Six?" he uttered, as he looked up at Stark from the squares covered in thick amber liquid on his plate, "Why are you waking me up so early?"

"Excuse me? I bring you waffles and chocolate milk in bed and this is how you treat me?" Tony cried, with feigned emotion.

Loki glared at him.

"Hey, don't look at me like that! I got up at six in the morning and brought you breakfast even though I could be in my bed for at least three more hours; I'm practically a saint right now."

"Why have you awoken me and given me breakfast?" Loki asked.

"Because its morning and morning means breakfast." Stark shrugged and took a bite out of his food.

"That's not a valid reason to wake someone up so early."

Stark sighed, looking as though he was trying to organize his thoughts, "The reason I'm here is actually to, um… Kinda give you a heads up. When everyone else is awake, they're gonna start asking you questions about Odin and all that stuff, sooo…"

Loki sat up more on his bed, worry filling his thoughts.

"Barton—"

"Nah, someone'll give him the info when we're done talking to you. I'm pretty sure Thor would kick his ass if he even tried to come in." Loki felt a little relief and though it wasn't complete relief it still felt like a weight was lifted from him. He was constantly worried about Barton and now the man didn't seem like too much of a threat. Loki trusted Thor to be able to stop Barton from trying anything again. But he still had to worry about how he would go about answering the avenger's questions, he wasn't looking forward to it and an overwhelmed feeling rose in his chest. Loki looked up again and for a moment Stark gave him a knowing look, as though he were reading his thoughts, before going back to eating, his face dropping into its usual casual expression.

"Why are you telling me this?" Loki asked.

"Because I wanted you to be prepared. If I didn't wake you up early, they would probably have woken you up and started when you'd just woken. Some of them will be completely relentless with their questions and they might be a bit… overwhelming. I just thought you might want to be prepared, nobody wants to be bombarded with questions as soon as they wake up, or at all for that matter."

Loki just stared at Stark a moment. Why would he want to help Loki, of all people…? Oh. Because he doesn't want there to be any 'commotion'. Obviously. Loki was well near mad, if he wasn't already and Stark didn't want him to 'go out of control' or decide not to help them.

Loki sighed, looking down at the food Stark had given him.

"I never really wanted to rule Midgard." He said, before he could stop himself.

"Huh?" Stark said, confused by Loki's sudden statement.

Loki sighed, he didn't know why he was saying this.

"None of it was really my plan, and anything that was my plan was made to fail as much as possible. I just wanted to get away…" he hated thinking about this, the very thought of what had happened to him left him with a sick feeling in his stomach and a he felt a twinge of pain he had memorized long ago from what they had done to him, a memory so vivid he could feel it crawling down his skin as though he were really there again.

"The Chitauri… and Thanos… they— I sometimes wish I had just kept falling through the void. I would rather they never found me, falling forever in that abyss." Loki wasn't sure why he was even talking about this, let alone talking about it with Stark.

"So, they… torture you?" Stark asked. Loki flinched ever so slightly at the word, bringing back a rush of terrible thoughts and feelings, scarring memories that would never leave him. And Loki couldn't answer the question. It would hurt too much to even nod in acknowledgement to that question. So he stared into Stark's eyes, hoping the look in his own eyes would answer for him.

Stark shuffled in his seat a little, before talking: "A while ago, I was captured and tortured too. They were trying to get me to make dangerous weapons for them. I thought I was gonna die, far away from my home in a ratty cave. It was terrifying. 'Changed me forever and not all in positive ways." He finished.

"You never made those weapons, did you?" Loki asked.

"No, but if I didn't have a plan for how to escape, I very well could've; I was a complete asshole back then, not that that's changed much." Stark chuckled, it sounded bittersweet. "And also, I'm not saying I know exactly what you've been through either. Just that I can relate a little."

Loki looked away from Stark, he felt ashamed. He'd wished he'd found a way out that wasn't as chaotic. He wished he had done something similar to what Stark had done. The voice in his head telling him he didn't have that many options at the time and certainly not as many as Stark had, dealing with nothing but fellow humans, didn't help him feel any better or any less guilt-ridden about the past.

Stark sat up and placed his dirty plate on the chair, before sitting down next to Loki on the bed, making Loki have to scoot over, "Hey, here's the deal. I'll try to make sure they don't bombard you too much with their questions and you'll watch a movie with me." Stark said, changing the subject, he was probably bothered by his own past.

Loki nodded in agreement. Stark picked up the cup of 'chocolate milk' from Loki's nightstand and handed it to Loki.

"Thank you." Loki said, taking the cup. But he wasn't really thanking him about the chocolate milk.

Thanks for reading, everyone. I hope you all enjoyed. And until next time,

PH