Chapter Text
„What the hell was this?“
„I have no clue.“
„Seems to be coming from the roof.“
„Come on, let’s have a look.“
___
The first thing Loki became aware of was the freezing cold running through his body. At the same time he felt his head pounding like crazy, more and more intense with every rapid heartbeat. Then, darkness. No matter where he looked at, it was pitch black. He couldn’t even see his hands in front of his eyes. Wait, his eyes… they were still closed. Maybe it would be wise to open them. So he tried and opened his heavy eyelids. Now he could see, but his view was still blurry and he needed a moment to focus on the ground in front of him. He propped himself up on shaky arms so he was sitting upright, wincing while doing so.
„Where on Hel am I?“ he asked himself and looked around. He was definitely on top of a building, but which one? Slowly, he stood up on shaky legs but closed his eyes again as the pain in his head intensified. Loki breathed heavily, which seemed to help with the dizziness at least. Carefully, he stepped to the end of the roof and became aware of his surroundings. The God of Mischief looked at a building opposite him. It had to be the highest of them all and his architecture was unmistakable even for the stranger to Midgard. It was the Empire State Building, so he was in New York then. Suddenly, there was a shiver running down his spine as he looked downwards. He could see a heavily damaged logo, where only an „A“ was left of it. Loki swallowed visibly. Odin really dumped him straight in front of Stark. The Tower has been heavily damaged by his Chitauri army and was still being restored. But apparently it was occupied because he could hear the drawing of a bow.
„Turn around. Slowly.“ Loki recognized that voice. It belonged to the archer, whose mind he manipulated. The Trickster raised his arms in surrender and turned around slowly. He was facing not only Hawkeye, but the whole team of the Avengers, minus Thor of course. They all stared at him with a disgusted look on their faces and drew their weapons or raised their fists.
„Hello, nice to meet you again.“ Loki greeted friendly, but his charm didn’t take effect this time.
„I thought Thor brought you back to Asgard.“ Tony replied as he took a step towards the God of Lies.
„Oh, he did.“ he grinned back und lowered his arms again. He knew they wouldn’t kill him in cold blood. At least he hoped they wouldn’t.
„Why the fuck are you here, then?“ Tony spit out furiously and looked at his enemy with wide, threatening eyes.
„Well, you have to thank Odin for that. That’s my punishment. He banished me from Asgard and sent me here.“ Tony was speechless. How could Odin do that, putting that heavy burden on Midgard. Again. Hadn’t he killed enough people already?
„I can’t believe it. What kind of punishment is that? You should’ve been hanged!“ Natasha almost screamed. She was obviously furious, like the rest of her team.
„Harsh words from the mouth of a contract killer. Maybe you should have also been hanged for all the things you did in the past?“ he replied casually but seemed to have more difficulty standing upright. It also became a lot harder to breathe, he noticed. Natasha glared at him angrily and was about to take a step towards Loki but Tony held her back. Clint still had his bow pointed at Loki’s chest, just in case. Oh, how much he would love to send an arrow right through his heart, but he knew he couldn’t do that. But there was something he could do, just to soothe his conscience of course. He could at least shot him in the leg. That bastard definitely deserved it and he would heal quick anyway, right? So he did what he thought was right and lowered his bow before releasing the arrow. It went right into Lokis thigh.
„Argh!“ the Trickster screamed and fell to his side, pain written all over his face.
„You pathetic little creature!“ Loki spit and grabbed the arrow with his right hand. It stuck deeply in the middle of his right thigh and blood was flowing freely from the wound and though his shaking fingers. Tony turned around with a shocked and confused look on his face but Hawkeye just shrugged.
„What? He had it coming.“ he tried to reason but it didn’t take a lot of effort. The others didn’t really sympathize with the god. But Bruce took a step forward and narrowed his eyes.
„Is he sweating?“ he asked and raised his eyebrow.
„There is an arrow sticking out of my thigh, you fool! Of course I am sweating!“ Loki ranted through clenched teeth and breathed heavily.
„We should pull it out so that it can heal properly.“ Tony said. He was standing next to Loki and grabbed the arrow to pull it out in one swift move.
„Don’t!“ Loki tried to stop him but it was too late. Even more blood was streaming down his leg and onto the ground beneath.
„Oh, would you have preferred that it’s growing into your thigh? You’re welcome by the way.“ Tony mocked and rolled his eyes. Bruce took another step towards the Jotun and glanced at his still bleeding thigh.
„Shouldn’t it be healing already?“ he asked Loki, who seemed to have some trouble breathing but was still propped up on his left elbow.
„Is this concern showing in your eyes, Banner? That was your name, right? I only met this ugly, dull creature before.“ Loki knew that he probably shouldn’t upset the Avengers more, but that was just in his nature. He was way too proud to admit that his wound wouldn’t heal because he simply had no magic. He would rather die, then the archer would at least feel guilty about it. He doubt that he would feel very much of it though, but humans were pathetic beings. They would even mourn the devil.
Loki’s strength finally left him and he fell on his back. His face was white as a sheet and he was sweating profusely. The wound was still bleeding steadily.
„I think you nicked an artery, Clint. It’s bleeding pretty heavy.“ Natasha said, but with no trace of concern. Barton just shrugged again but had to admit that perhaps his idea wasn’t that good after all. What if Loki would die? Ah, what the heck, he would deserve that too! At least that’s what he was trying to tell himself.
„He’s starting to lose consciousness.“ Bruce stated and was sitting next to the god now. He and Tony were the only ones showing a slight interest to him.
„He shouldn’t do that, right? I mean, the wound should heal.“ Tony thought and scratched his head.
„I…can’t…“ Loki tried to explain but failed miserably. In the end he was getting weak and wanted to tell them that he wouldn’t heal because Odin took his magic from him. But it was too late as his vision began to darken. His head lolled to the side and his eyes started to close.
„Tony…“ Bruce warned but Stark had already noticed and looked at him.
„Ehm…alright, what are we going to do?“ Tony looked around nervously, as if searching for an answer.
„We have to bring him to the medical bay!“ Steve spoke for the first time since Loki arrived on top of Stark’s Tower.
„Yeah, seems like the right decision. Or does it? I mean it’s not like he destroyed half of New York.“ Tony muttered. A natural habit when he was nervous. At least Bruce could think clearly, so he waved to Steve.
„Help me with him.“ together they hauled him up and carried him to the med bay.
„God, he’s heavier than he looks!“ Bruce grumbled as Tony opened the door for them. They laid him on a bed before Bruce cut off his pants with some scissors.
„Can you give me gauze and dressings from that cupboard, Steve? A lot of them.“ Bruce asked nicely but also slightly stressed out. He really wasn’t that kind of doctor.
Tony, Bruce and Steve worked together as best as they could and finally stopped the bleeding within ten minutes. Clint and Natasha took a seat on a couch in the far corner of the room and watched the scene from a safe distance.
Loki was hooked up to a monitor that showed his heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen level despite Bruce knowing what was normal for the god. But he could at least see when something was changing. Loki was still unconscious but Tony tied him to the bed anyway.
„Okay, what now? What are we going to do with him? Should we contact S.H.I.E.L.D.? Bruce asked but his question was answered with Tony shaking his head forcefully.
„No, we better keep them out of it. I don’t want to deal with Fury and his little cockroaches now. He doesn’t seem to heal, maybe he lost his mo-jo?“ Tony joked and took a seat on the couch next to Clint. Bruce and Steve also grabbed two chairs and sat down next to their teammates. Everyone was tired from todays event, but nobody had any clue what to do with the injured god.
But it seemed they were finally getting some answers as they could hear a loud thunderstorm outside. Everyone knew what was following. So it was only moments later that a concerned looking Thor stepped through the door to the med bay.
„There you are. Have you seen Lo…“ he stopped as he saw his brother lying lifeless on a bed, shackles on his ankles and wrists.
„What happened? Loki?“ he ran towards his brother and touched his shoulder lightly. Deep concern was showing on his face. When he got no reaction at all from Loki, he turned around and looked at his teammates, clearly shocked. The Avengers have all stood up as soon as Thor came through the door seconds ago.
„There was a small…incident.“ Tony began to explain while walking towards the concerned god.
„I’m all ears, son of Stark.“ Tony almost grinned, he always loved Thor’s choice of words but he held it back this time. The situation was too serious.
„I shot him.“ Clint replied nonchalantly and looked at his fingers.
„What? Did Loki attack you?“ he asked, but nobody could look him in the eye.
„I wasn’t even near that coward.“ Thor turned around franticly. Loki had regained consciousness again.
„Loki, what do you mean?“ he walked next to Loki’ bed, his expression full of worry. Oh, how Loki hated when Thor looked at him like that.
„He thought I deserved it and just shot me. I couldn’t even defend myself.“ Loki chose his words wisely. He knew how to make his brother angry. He didn’t add more though. He wouldn’t admit it, but he was still extremely weak.“
„You did deserve it, to be honest.“ Tony tried to lighten the mood when he could see the anger in Thor’s eyes. Loki closed his eyes and hoped that it would look like he just wasn’t interested in their conversation. Well, he wasn’t but in truth he was just too exhausted to keep them open any longer.
„You can’t really blame us that we didn’t greet him with a hug, Thor. He killed a lot of people and destroyed half of the city.“ Steve tried to reason with him and it seemed to work this time. Cap sighed audibly, he really wasn’t in the mood to deal with an angry God of Thunder.
„What’s wrong with him, Thor? I’m certainly not sorry for shooting him, but I thought he could heal himself.“ Clint wasn’t worried but truly interested. He knew that the brothers could endure a lot more than humans and were also able to heal themselves in a certain way.
„My father banished Loki from Asgard and sent him here, to Midgard. He also stole his magic, he isn’t able to heal himself anymore. Of course his body is still not as fragile as your weak human vessels but that’s in our nature, he can’t take that from him. But Loki kind of lives from his magic. Without it he is weak and similar to a human body.“
„So, does that mean he is human now?“ Natasha frowned.
„I’m afraid that without his magic, he is more equal to a sick human than a healthy one.“ Thor looked at his brother sadly, whose eyes were opening slightly.
„Brother…“ Loki tried to reach his brother with his hand but was hold back by the shackles.
„Is this really necessary?“ Thor asked and turned to Stark who was definitely responsible for that.
„Just because he’s sick doesn’t mean that we will forget what he has done. Reindeer Games back there ist still an enemy to the earth and therefore an enemy of the Avengers. I am asking you, Son of Odin, do you usually let your enemies walk around freely as they please?“ Tony said sarcastically but Thor, contrary to expectation, didn’t seem to react to that and stayed calm. He ignored him instead and turned to his brother once more. He looked even paler than usual. Beads of sweat were forming on his forehead and he had dark bags under his eyes.
„Tell me brother, is this the end?“ Loki whispered. He was too weak to raise his voice more.
„No, Loki. I won’t let that happen. Sleep now, it will be better tomorrow.“ Thor laid his hand on Lokis sweaty forehead and the Trickster relaxed visibly. He closed his eyes and fell into a healing sleep.
The Avengers were watching from a safe distance. Nobody dared to interrupt this private moment. Yes, Loki was their enemy but he was also Thor’s brother and he was one of them, a friend. They had to trust him for the time being. He has always been reckless and naive when Loki was involved but deep down they knew that there was more to it.