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Chapter Text

Minutes before the Prince's arrival

There was an evacuation. Standing a few yards from the helicopter pad is Agent Phil Coulson and walking out of the helicopter is Agent Maria Hill and Director Nick Fury of SHIELD. The two advance towards Coulson.

"How bad is it?" Fury questioned him.

"That's the problem, sir. We don't know." Coulson leads the two through the facility, staff running around and only taking the necessity. "Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago."

"NASA didn't authorize Selvig to test phase."

"He wasn't testing it, he wasn't even in the room."

"It just turned itself on?" Agent Hill jumps in.

"What are the energy levels now?" Fury adds on.

"Climbing," stated Coulson. "When Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered the evac."

It wasn't long until Fury made it into the lab where the Tesseract was being detained.

"Talked to me, doctor."

"Director," Dr. Selvig greets.

"Is there anything we know for certain?"

"Tesseract is misbehaving."

"Is that supposed to be funny?"

"No, it's not funny at all," Dr. Selvig frowns. "The Tesseract is not only active, she's...misbehaving."

"How soon until you pull the plug?"

"She's an energy source. If we turn off the power, she turns it back on, If she reaches peak level..."

As if it was listening, the Tesseract sparked, shaking the whole facility.

"I am Loki of Asgard, and I am here to warn you about an invasion coming."

Loki was a little proud of himself. He thought it was going to be difficult to one, find the right people about the invasion, and two, find the right words to explain the situation. During his time with Thanos, he had been thinking of what to tell the people of Midgard to convince them how important and serious the situation is and therefore, find ways to prevent it. He is rather capable of convincing people for obvious reasons, but other than his attributes, he was great at manipulating, convincing, bartering, and persuading. Perks of being the God of Mischief and Beauty. Yet, Loki had never been to Midgard for a long time, so he's not aware of which tactic to use. In certain realms, Loki had to use different types of strategy, from batting his lashes at a leader to manipulating an entire council. That being said, Loki decided to go for simplicity. Straight to the point and hopes the small enough detail will garner their attention to follow Loki.

However, the response the beautiful prince received was silent. Everyone was staring at him, some mouth agape and some seeming to refuse to blink.

His smile slowly falls.

Guess not.

"...hello?" Loki speaks once more, eyes scanning around the room. "...do I need to repeat myself?"

"Loki? Brother of Thor?" Says a voice to his left. A man, wide eyes filled with curiosity.

Wait, did he say his brother?

"Thor?" Loki straightens himself. It's...been a long time since someone other than himself say his brother's name. It's refreshing. It gives him hope. "You know my brother? Is he here?"

"I, I, we, uh, my team and I were researching in the desert where we encountered your brother and, uh," he hesitated. "and hit him with our vehicle."

"I beg your pardon?" Hit? With a vehicle?

"Yes, but we did help him from then on. I'm Dr. Erik Selvig," he pulled his hand out to Loki.

It must have been the time when Thor was banished.

"In that case," Loki smiles at him. "I thank you for looking after my brother, Dr. Erik Selvig."

Someone cleared their throat. The prince turns to the man with the eyepatch. The leader.

"Excuse me, but you said something about an invasion?"

"Oh, yes! I would love to stay and explain it right here, but..." The prince turns back to look at the Tesseract. On cue, the Tesseract's energy quickened and sped up.

"Sir, this place is about to blow," the man next to the leader said. "Drop a hundred feet of rock on us, it's going to bury us."

"He's right," Dr. Selvig checked. "The portal is collapsing in on itself. We got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."

"Well then," Loki gave all of them his winning smile, the one that everyone falls for. "I suggest we leave. Oh, and please do be sure to take the Tesseract."

"Who's that?" Agent Hill managed to ask, not taking her eyes off the new person who definitely does not have the jurisdiction of being here. Not that she's blaming him.

"He's Loki, he's a god and a prince," Clint answered, who's also not taking his eyes off him as well.

Nick Fury can't really blame the two. Hell, he can't really blame everyone in the proximity of the prince. Including himself. He's beautiful, beyond gorgeous. Especially that damn shy smile. Fury scans around and—

Yeah, all eyes are on him.

He's currently looking at the sky with a crestfallen look and Fury, and probably everyone else wants nothing more than to—

Okay.

Enough eyeing him. He needs to assess the situation.

Thankfully, everyone was able to evacuate from the facility within minutes though Fury can still feel the energy and heat from where they stand. The Tesseract is in a briefcase, as well as the scepter. Loki explains more about the invasion, the leader and his godawful plan, The Other, and their army. He also explains the scepter and the functions of it. He informs Fury of the abilities such as energy blasts, gaining control of an individual by the tip of the blade on the heart, making them loyal to whoever controls the scepter, and being the "key" to the portal for the army. And how it is dangerous. So be careful with it.

"It also helps me communicate with The Other," Loki told Fury then pauses, almost realizing something important. "It also lets them see the progress I've done."

"So, what you're saying is," Fury started. "they are aware you just betrayed them."

"Yes..." a beat. "By now, they are looking for another plan to subjugate Midgard."

Loki frowns, and even that, he looks beautiful. Loki pulls out a dagger, looking at it, and staying silent for a long time. Fury wants to rest his hand on the prince's shoulder (is he even allowed to?) to bring him back to reality when he looks back up at him.

"Don't worry, we'll help you." He exhales deeply, biting his lips. And, man, whoever was still gawking at him—oh who was he kidding, there isn't a single person here who isn't gawking at him—is probably having some sort of notion. "It is only a matter of time before Thanos will find a way to open the portal and invade Earth."

"How long do you think we have?" Agent Coulson asks.

"Not long. Not very long."

Fury narrowed his eye at that. Loki gave Coulson the briefcase that has the scepter, smiling at him as he reminds the agent to be very careful with it. The way Coulson looks when the prince smiles at him would have been funny if Fury wasn't worried about what Loki said.

"Sir," Agent Coulson turns to him. "What do we do?"

Fury stood there, looking down, considering.

It is only a matter of time before Thanos will find a way to open the portal and invade Earth...

It is only a matter of time before Thanos will find a way...

It is only a matter of time...

The beautiful god is right; it is only a matter of time before the invasion comes.

Sir, what do we do?

He then looks up, now determined. There was only one thing to do. It was the only thing to do. With the help of them, they will stop the invasion.

"You were there?"

"Oh, yeah. I was starting to root for that guy. He was taking down our men left and right."

Loki scoots a little closer to Clint, much to his delight. "Anything else? What happened to his hammer?"

"Well, he couldn't pick it up," Clint shrugs. "I really thought he would be the one."

Loki hums. "It was during his banishment. He needed to prove himself worthy once again," Loki shakes his head before smiling at Clint and looking around. "So...this is Midgard."

"What do you think?"

"It's...rather empty."

"Ah, yeah," Clint looks around at the now ruined facility and the remote desert. "Don't worry. After everything...I'll take you out and see the better part of Earth."

"Really?" Loki lights up, his knees bumping next to Clint's. "You would?"

Clint let out a couple of stutters, face heating up quickly, and quickly nodded his head. "Y, yeah, uh yes! Me and Nat will do a good job."

Loki glances away for a second before looking back up and gives Clint the most wonderful thing he has ever seen. His shy smile.

"I would like that," Loki glances at Clint's weapon. "Where I'm from, not many use bows."

"Know how to use one?"

Loki nods, grabbing one of his arrows. "It was mandatory for my brother and I." He bit his lips at the thought of home, ignoring the man attempting to hold back a squeak. He looks back at him, smiling.

"It has been a while, however. Can you do a demonstration for me?"

Loki stifles a laugh as Clint quickly nods once again before grabbing his bow. If this is one of the heroes that will aid him...

Then he knows he is in good hands.

Chapter Text

Somewhere in Brooklyn, in a boxing gym, Steve Rogers, known as Captain America, is bashing the punching bag, hitting, striking, clobbering, and pummeling it harder and more forceful with each hit. Memories from the past keep coming back to him. He's running, he's fighting, he's dodging bullets, he's talking, he's shooting.

There's not enough time! I gotta put her in the water!

His fury keeps increasing with every hit, and with every hit, every memory, it gets more vigorous. The plane, the Tesseract, Peggy's picture. Peggy. He closes his eyes, still pummeling the punching bag like it was it was to blame.

You won't be alone.

Strike. He opens his eyes.

Oh my God.

Strike. He can't stop.

This guy's still alive.

With a final blow, Steve tears the punching bag open, off of its chain, sand spilling out on the ground. He breathed heavily, standing there and staring at the mess he made, not that he cared at that moment. Seventy years. Seventy years and he's still here, alive. After taking a deep breath, he walked over to another punching bag, laying there with five more of it, and picked it up. Once he hooked it up, he begins to punch again, though this time a little less brutal. The last thing he needs is to run out of punching bags.

"Trouble sleeping?" said a voice from afar. Steve looks over to see Nick Fury, standing and watching him. He sighs.

"Slept for seventy years, sir. I think I've had my fill."

"Then you should go out, celebrating," Fury walks towards him. "Seeing the world."

Steve stops punching and glanced at Fury for a few seconds, panting. He walks over to the nearby bench while disentangling the tapes from his hands.

"I went under. The world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."

What we lost.

Now, that left a sour taste in his mouth. He lost everything. He was willing to sacrifice himself, had sacrificed himself. For his country. For his friends. For Bucky. For Peggy. And then what did life do for him in return? He's here. Alive. And the war has ended. But he's not surrounded by everybody he knew. He lost everything.

What we lost...yeah. No one says what we lost.

"We've made some mistakes along the way...some very recently."

"You're here on a mission, sir."

"I am."

"Trying to get me back in the world?"

"Trying to save it."

With that, he hands Steve a file. He took it, looking at the picture of the Tesseract.

"Hydra's secret weapon," Steve frowns.

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you," Fury stated. "He thought what we think; the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited energy. That's something the world sorely needs."

"Who took it from you?"

"It's not that someone took it from us, it's more of someone, ahem, it's more of someone came, uh, out of it."

"What?" Steve looks up in confusion.

"He's called Loki. He's..." Steve's mouth twitch, it's...amusing to see Nick Fury of all people, getting a little flustered, if you will. "Not from around here."

Oh?

"There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in," he continues. "The world has gotten a lot stranger than you already know."

If Steve listens closely, he would have heard the "not that I don't mind" mumble coming from the director.

"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me," Steve stood up from the bench, grabbed his bag, and walked over to the rest of the punching bags.

"Ten bucks says you're wrong...actually, make it twenty. There's a debriefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment."

Steve listens as he picks up a punching bag and heads toward to exit.

"Oh, yeah. Before you leave, Loki wishes to," Fury clears his throat. "Introduce himself. He's, he's waiting for you out in the hallway."

"Understood."

"Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?" Fury asked before Steve can leave.

"You should have left it in the ocean," Steve replied as he continued to walk out of the room.

Once he was out, he sees a man staring waiting in the hallway, whose back was facing Steve. He sees him pulling out a dagger, twirling it, and staring at it.

That has to be the guy Fury told him about.

"Hey, you must be you Lo—hoh—" Whatever Steve was going to say was out the window the moment Loki turns to look at him.

Or maybe the words were stuck in his throat. Either way, he's lost for words, and can't speak even if he tries to. He almost drops the punching bag. Steve can feel his heartbeat speed up, feel his face heating up, and he's even breathing a little heavy, even though he's positive that he has no air in his lungs because just wow. He's tall, with medium-length black hair that's slick back, pale skin, and green eyes. He's beautiful. He's really, really gorgeous. He's very, so extremely gorgeous. Especially that small smile he's giving to Steve. And the eyes, those beautiful green eyes. And, and—everything. Steve most likely looks like a fish out of water, opening and closing his mouth.

"The soldier," Loki said, tilting his head slightly. That voice, too. He looks him up and down, which made Steve stand a little straighter. "The man out of time."

"I, I, uh," Steve managed to say. "I, I, yes, that's, that's me."

Steve shyly smiles back. Boy, he's probably making a fool out of himself. He looks at the dagger.

"If I, uh, may," he gestures to Loki himself, recalling what Fury just told him. "I believe I'm, I'm not the only one who's uh, who's out of time. The Tesseract..."

"Oh, yes, that." Loki glances at his dagger once again, pausing before smiling down at it. He bows at a fifteen-degree angle. "I am Loki of Asgard and this," after standing back up straight, he motions to his dagger, "is Angrboða. She is happy to meet you."

Oh...

The weapon is sentient... And he told Fury that nothing would surprise him minutes ago.

"Wow, um, Hello." Don't make yourself more of a fool, Steve. "I'm, uh, I'm Steve of...Brooklyn." Oh yeah, he definitely made more of a fool out of himself.

Though, it's worth hearing Loki's laugh, smile widening a bit more, making his eyes squint a little. Even his laugh is perfect. His face heats up even more if that was possible, heart pounding, feeling mushy, hell, he probably has a heart shape in his eyes, gawking and admiring the person right in front of him. How can a person who Steve only met in less than five minutes make him feel like he was blessed by God himself?

Loki looks past Steve and nods before looking back at Steve. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Steve. I'll be going now, Fury is waiting for me."

Loki began to walk off. And a thought crossed his mind, one he didn't like.

"Wait," he shouldn't have, he really shouldn't. But he dropped his bag and grabbed his forearm.

Loki looks back at him in confusion, tilting his head. "Yes?"

"Will I see you again?" Steve feels his face burns more than ever and he had to force himself to let go of his grasp on the beautiful man. You can't really blame the poor guy for not wanting to let someone like Loki walk out of his life.

"Of course," Loki gave him a small smile.

Steve stayed where he was, staring at the man walking away with Fury until he can't see him anymore.

He owes Fury twenty bucks.

Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, Tony Stark, Aka Motherfucking Iron Man, is slicing off a pipeline transport with a laser from his hand. After that, he places an energy reactor, which then lights up. With that, he soars out of the water and into the sky, heading towards Stark Tower.

"You're good on this end. The rest is up to you," said Tony, speaking to the person on the other line.

"You disconnected the transition line?" said the voice, Pepper Potts. "Are we off the grid?"

"Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy."

"Wow, assuming the arc reactor takes over and it actually works?"

"I assume," Tony stated. "Light her up."

And just like that with just a switch of a button and the Stark sign lights up.

"How does it look?" Pepper asks.

"Like Christmas but more...me."

"Sir, the telephone," Jarvis' voice interrupts the two on the topic of Potts Tower. "I'm afraid my protocols are being overridden."

Ruh-roh.

"Stark, we need to talk," said a voice.

Tony picks his phone up and sighs, looking at Pepper for a second before answering.

"You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark," Tony can see Pepper trying hard not to laugh out loud. "Please leave a message."

"This is urgent."

"Then leave it urgent."

Right when the words came out of his mouth, the elevator door opens and, lo and behold, appears Agent Coulson, with his phone pressed to his ear.

"Security breach," said Tony. "That's on you."

"Mr. Stark."

"Phil!" Pepper greeted with a smile. "Come in."

"Phil?"

"I can't stay."

"Uh, his first name is Agent."

"Come on in, we're celebrating."

"Which is why he can't stay."

"We need you to look this over," Coulson said to Tony, holding out files toward him. "As soon as possible."

"I don't like being handed things—"

"That's fine because I like to be handed things," Pepper jumps in. "So let's trade."

That being said, she passes her glass to Agent Coulson, takes the files, grabs Tony's glass, and holds the files to him, who begrudgingly took it.

"Official consulting hours are between eight and five every Thursday," he told Coulson, gesturing with the files.

"This isn't a consultation."

"Is this about the Avengers?" Coulson raised a brow at Pepper. "Which I, I know nothing about."

Tony scoffs, walking towards his database. "The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought, and I didn't even qualify."

"I didn't know that either."

"Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others."

"That I did know."

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore," Coulson said.

"Whatever, Ms. Potts, got a second?" Once she was right next to him, he continues. "You know, I thought we were having a moment."

"I was having twelve percent of a moment...this seems serious, Phil's pretty shaken."

"How would you notice? Why is he, Phil?"

"What is all this?"

"This is, uh," Tony open his arms, showing many different profiles emerging into a holographic layout roving in the air. "This."

Each screen and profiles have different sets of people. Captain America, the Hulk, and Thor, but there was one specific person that caught both of their attention. Pepper gasps loudly, putting her hand over her mouth and Tony chokes on nothing but air, staring at this magnificent being. Mid-long, black hair slick back, green eyes, pale skin, and probably the most pleasing small smile that's plastered on his face. He's fucking beautiful, gorgeous, captivating, appealing, irresistible, and simply perfect.

"First of all, goddamn," Tony managed to say. It felt like just looking at that fine piece of art made him forget to breathe. He zooms in on the true meaning of life and beauty. "Second of all, goddamn."

"You could say that again," Pepper agrees, leaning towards the holographic picture.

"Who's this beautiful lightning bolt that's electrifying me?"

"His name is Loki," Coulson answers. "And you, you ought to, um, to, respect him, he's, uh, he's a prince...and a god."

From the way he stammers, Tony (and Pepper) is not the only one who probably has the hots for this alluring Loki guy. If anything, if he was a bad guy, he would have all of them on their knees within seconds.

"It all makes sense, now, wait, hold on, Agent, you said he's a what?"

"A god."

"A god?"

"A god."

"Well," Pepper huffs out. "I'm going to take the jet to D.C. tonight."

"Tomorrow."

"You got homework. You have a lot of homework." She pauses before fishing out her phone, taking a picture of Loki, and pocketing her phone back.

With that, she walks off, asking if Agent's driving by LaGuardia. Tony sighs and after a long time (a very, very long time) of staring at this so-called god, he sees the Tesseract and grabs it.

Why does he have a bad feeling about this?

Inside the Quinjet, Steve's watching footage of the Hulk attacking. He hears the pilot talking, forty minutes from base. Agent Coulson gets out of his seat and made his way to Steve.

"So, this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?" He asked Coulson.

"A lot of people. You were the world's first superhero," Coulson replied, smiling. The one and only Captain America is in the same Quinjet as him. "Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original forum."

In the footage, the Hulk roars destroying a jeep. "Didn't really go his way, did it?"

"Not so much. When he's not the thing, though, the guy's like Stephen Hawking." Steve looks up at Coulson with a confused look. "He's like a smart person."

Steve went back to the tablet as Coulson continues.

"I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you. Officially." Steve smiles at that. "I sorta met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping—"

And there it is.

Steve stood up and walks close to the front, Coulson following.

"I mean, I was, I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it's really just a, just a huge honor to have you on board..."

"I hope I'm the man for this job."

"Oh, you are. Absolutely." Wow. "Uh, we've made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input."

"The uniform? Aren't the stars and stripes a little...old-fashioned?"

Coulson exhales. "With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old-fashioned."

The two stayed silent after that. Until Steve asks the one thing that has been on his head since the night before.

"Is, um," he felt his face heats up, looking away from Coulson, nervously. "Is, uh, is Loki going to, you know, uh, be there?"

"Oh, um, uh, yeah, yeah! He's, uh, he's waiting for our, um, arrival." Coulson coughs in his hand, his face also heating up.

Just the thought of knowing Loki is going to be there made Steve's knees weak.

This Quinjet needs to hurry the hell up.

Chapter Text

Loki takes a deep breath, holds it, then releases it. Midgard is nothing like Asgard, it's a little strange but he doesn't mind it quite one bit. The prince finds the people here endearing, unlike the ones from back home. Fury's agents were fawning over him with eyes wide and gawking at him. One of the agents was so busy looking at Loki that he walked into a wall. Loki "blessed" him by covering his smile with his hands, hiding a small laugh before helping him pick up the fallen paperwork. That seems to open a door for agents introducing themselves to the God of Mischief. They were respectful.

It was nice.

He speaks to Dr. Selvig for the most part aside from Fury and Clint. They mostly talk about the scepter and the Tesseract, and their abilities and energy force. They also talked about Thor. About his time during Midgard, he talked about the growing relationship between him and this woman named Jane, talked about the hammer situation, and the Frost Giants attempting to kill Thor. Dr. Selvig also told him how Thor spoke to them about his brother who he needs to constantly protect from pursuers...He misses his brother.

He misses Asgard, his mother, and his father, both of them, but he misses Thor the most. Goodness, how he misses Thor. Their last moment...the look on Thor's face when Loki lost his grip...

The look on his face will forever haunt him. His moment with them was more haunting. He thought he would be used to it; the praises, the declaration of love, the doting, the loyalty. But when he was with them, it was smothering, suffocating. It was absolutely abhorrent. He wanted nothing more than to have his brother with him during that time. But at least he wasn't truly alone, Angrboða was with him, the one comfort that reminded him of home. The said dagger is now sending love and support through their connection which he reciprocated.

Loki straightens himself, now feeling determined. Now is not the time to sulk, he can worried about finding a way to get back home, as of right now he needs to focus on helping Fury with the invasion, and will work alongside others including Steve and Clint—

The prince frowns. Where is Clint? He hasn't seen him since last night... In fact, he hasn't seen Dr. Selvig as well. He told the prince that he will look after the scepter so he can rest. His frown deepened, pulling out Angrboða, sensing her distress.

"I know, Angrboða, I know," Loki smiles, standing up from his seat. "Why don't we check on Dr. Sevlig, shall we?"

He greets any agents he passes as he makes his way to the laboratory room where the scepter is being kept. However, no matter how much he gives them a sweet smile, he grows more worried the closer he gets to the room. Loki rolls his shoulders as he straightens himself a little more. He needn't worry, everything will be alright. He is going to enter the room, Dr. Selvig will greet him, then they will proceed to talk about the scepter and later about Thor, and Loki will laugh at himself for worrying too much.

He enters the laboratory room.

Dr. Selvig is nowhere in sight. The scepter is gone. His heart sank, blood running cold. Angrboða also shares her panic. He looked around and his heart sank even more.

Where is the Tesseract?

This is not good. This is not good at all. Where's Clint? He quickly walks out of the room, looking around he sees three agents, straightening themselves in an attempt to look presentable. Loki walks up to them.

"Have you seen Barton, Agent Barton? Or Dr. Selvig?" It took a while, the three agents looking at one another before shaking their heads, one stammering out a no. This cannot be happening. Loki quickly shakes his head before furrowing his brows, commanding, "Find someone who has."

He watches them radioing other agents, hiding his despair from their response. None. No one has seen any of them. He bit his bottom lip. How can this happen? Where had they—

The Other. It must be his doing. He has to be behind this.

It was the only possible reason as to why. He's not sure if the anger was from him or Angrboða. He's wasting time standing here. Nodding to himself, he softly bowed to the agents and stormed off to where Fury was.

"This is not happening, this is madness..." He said to Angrboða, who agrees with the God of Mischief.

The Quinjet lands on the Helicarrier. Agent Coulson and Steve walked out. That's when a woman with red hair walked up to them.

"Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers," Coulson introduced them.

"Ma'am?"

"Hi," she answers, then nods at Coulson. "They need you on the bridge. They're starting the face trace."

"See you there." With that, Coulson walks off, leaving Natasha and Steve alone.

They both walk together.

"It was quite the buzz around here," Natasha started. "Finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"

"Trading cards?"

"They're vintage, he's very proud."

The two see Dr. Bruce Banner, who's nervously looking and moving around while people around him stroll past him.

"Dr. Banner," Steve walks up and shakes his hand.

"Yeah, hi," Bruce said. "They told me you would be coming."

"Word is you can help us with the Cube."

Bruce nodded and looked around. "Is that the only word on me?"

"Only word I care about."

Bruce nodded once again, smiling a little. "It must be strange for you, all of this."

"Well," Steve looks around. "This is actually kind of familiar."

"Gentlemen," Natasha butts in. "You might want to step inside in a minute. It's going to get a little hard to breathe."

With that, the three feel the Helicarrier starts to shake.

"Is this a submarine?"

"Really? They want me in a submerged, pressurized, metal container?"

As they inch towards the edge of the Helicarrier, four fans on each side emerge, lifting it into the air. Steve watches in wonder.

"Oh no, this is much worse," says Bruce, smiling.

Inside, the two follow Natasha. Agents sit in front, watching the viewscreen. Agent Maria Hill shouts out orders before turning to Fury, declaring they're good to go.

"Good. Let's vanish." That being said, the Helicarrier rises and camouflages with the sky. Steve and Bruce look around in awe and wonder. "Gentlemen."

Steve walks up to Fury, and pulls out a twenty-dollar bill, giving it to the latter. Fury didn't say anything to him and only took it, smirking a bit. Fury walks over to Bruce, extending his hand out, Bruce shooks it, though a bit hesitant.

"Doctor, thank you for coming."

"Thanks for asking nicely. So, how long am I staying?"

"Once we check the Tesseract, you're in the wind."

Just then, someone walks in, someone very beautiful, someone Steve has been hoping to meet once again. Just like that, everyone falls silent, stopping what they're doing, and staring at the most gorgeous man that has ever walked on earth. A few gasps, a few gapes, a few lost their ability to move, and a few choked on air. It seems like no matter what, no matter how many times he walks into a room, the world stops for him and only for him.

Natasha felt the air in her lungs vanish instantly the moment her eyes landed on him. He was beautiful, even with the worried look on his face. Even when he's frowning, he's beautiful. She can feel her heart speeding up, suddenly growing nervous, feeling her face warm up. This must be the guy, the prince, Clint was talking about. Natasha thought he was exaggerating about the prince, but holy hell, the more she looked at him the more she thought Clint didn't exaggerate enough. He has this look that makes her want to protect him. Natasha can already hear the "I told you so" but honestly, she doesn't mind. She can't look away, even if she wants to. He's that beautiful.

Bruce has to force himself to close his mouth before he makes a fool out of himself. He's captivating, enchanting, just downright stunning. The moment the man walked in, with a frown that was somehow lovely, Bruce couldn't move. He feels his heart race, thumping against his ribcage, feeling tensed and relaxed at the same time. It doesn't make sense but he doesn't care. He has black long hair that's slick back, and beautiful, beautiful, green eyes. He's also tall and pale, and his worried expression makes Bruce want nothing more than to walk over to him and comfort him, protect him from whatever is hurting him. He wants to, and he would if he could remember how to move.

Meanwhile, Steve smiles, timidly. It's not even a minute, and he's already feeling flushed in the face. His heart begins to pick up the pace. If anything, Steve believes he's gotten more beautiful than the last time he saw him. Loki was picking at his left palm. He looks disturbed and worried. The thought of something making Loki worry makes Steve want to go up to him, console him, and shield him from any danger and anything that will make him feel troubled again. As Steve was ready to walk towards him, to ask what was wrong, Loki swiftly moved right in front of Fury.

"Fury, something happened. Have you seen Dr. Selvig? Or Barton?"

Fury has a surprised look on his face but quickly composed himself. "No, I—"

"It's the scepter! It's gone! I checked the laboratory, the scepter was gone. The Tesseract is gone! No one has seen Dr. Selvig or Barton."

The others have gone rigid. What? Straightaway, someone tried to radio Clint while the others checked the camera footage. Loki bit his lips, ignoring the stares as he waited. They found it and Loki moved closer to see it. One thing straight, Dr. Selvig's eyes were never that bright blue...and glowing. One moment Loki sees Selvig scribbling down some notes before pausing and looking down at the scepter, grabbing it, and placing the tip on his chest, Clint walks in asking what the hell he was doing before Dr. Selvig repeats his actions. And then, Loki sees the two of them respectively placing the Tesseract in a case and taking the scepter away. As they leave, for every agent they pass Clint will press the tip of the blade to their chests.

"The Other," Loki breathed out. "It has to be."

"The Other?" Steve turns to Loki.

"The one who gave me the scepter. He's...think of him as an 'advisor' for the invasion."

"Where are they now?"

"We have to find them," Natasha crosses her arms. "As quick as possible."

Loki frowns before he lights up, smiling at the redhead who straightens herself.

"I can find them as quickly as possible," Slowly, he pulls out the arrow Clint told him he could keep. "I can use my magic."

"Magic?" asks Bruce, who jumps a little when Loki turns to face him, most likely just realizing he was there. "Um, I, uh, I mean, I, I don't, don't understand what you, uh me—mean by magic."

"Have we met?"

"Uh, I," Bruce stammers. "I'm Dr. Bruce, Bruce Banner."

Loki straightens himself, narrowing his eyes, and in a confident intonation, says, "I am Prince Loki, God of Mischief and Beauty and I can use magic to locate not only the scepter and Tesseract but also my friends and Fury's agents." Loki pauses before adding, quietly to himself, "Well, I like to think they consider me as a friend..."

"You're a what?" Steve blurted out, both brows raised high to his hairline.

Natasha tilts her head, raising her own eyebrow.

Bruce only stares at him with a mixed expression.

"A prince."

"I think he meant the god part..."

"You can locate them?" Fury interrupts before anyone else can ask the handsome prince any further questions.

Loki nodded enthusiastically and with that, he placed the arrow on a table, his hand hovering over it, and closed his eyes. He begins to chant. No one can't look away, it was almost like the god put everyone in a trance. Soon, Steve and the rest noticed some small green speckles around Loki's hand and the arrow.

"To me," Loki whispers, before opening his eyes, glowing white for a second. He tilts his head in confusion.

"Oh damn." Said a voice somewhere in the background.

Oh damn indeed.

"They are looking for...Iridium? S, Stuttgart, Germany?" Loki turns to Fury, in hopes he understands it. The only response he received was a nod.

"Captain," Fury said, glancing back at Steve. "You're up."

Steve nods and walks out. As he left, Loki followed him.

He grabs his forearms, stopping him. Steve turns and right away his face heats up, instantly getting timid but smiling at him nonetheless.

"Um, uh, yes?"

"I'm going."

"Wait, what?"

"I'm going with you."

"I don't think," Steve frowns. "No, does Fury approve...wait doesn't matter, you could get hurt and the last thing I want is to—"

Loki's brow twitched, tsking at the answers. Loki would have found it sweet over the fact Steve was worried if it wasn't for the knowledge that Clint and Selvig are helping with the invasion, granted involuntarily. If Steve's going to be like that, then he's going to have to do his thing.

Loki places his hand on Steve's chest, ignoring the man's flinch before pulling him down by his collar. He smiles as Steve's face heats up even more, his eyes widening and body going tense. His lips pursed and Loki can practically hear his heart thumping against his ribcage. The tip of his nose touched the prince's, feeling his breath against his skin, still keeping eye contact. He smiles at him very lovingly. Loki can feel Angrboða's smugness through their bond.

"But Steve," he pouts, drawing out the man's name. "I don't want to be all alone here. You wouldn't want me to feel lonely, no? Please, let me go with you?"

Steve stares at the prince, opening his mouth and closing, stuttering and trying to speak.

"Uh, I, uh, um, al—alright," Steve nods rapidly. "Okay, okay, you can go."

Loki grins before moving a little closer. Steve closes his eyes, ready for...anything, really, except he only hears a small laughter. He opens his eyes just in time to see Loki moving away. Steve couldn't stop himself from looking dejected.

"Thank you, Captain," Loki says, lilting the last word before walking away, leaving Steve flustered and red in the face.

Leaving him surrounded by jealous agents nearby.

Chapter Text

Stuttgart, Germany 

Outside the museum, guards stand in their position. One standing on the roof, scanning until he hears a noise under. He looks down, seeing that his guards were hit with an arrow. Quickly, he raised his gun only to be hit as well, falling off the roof. Clint and his men approached the doors of the science building, locked. He sees the retinal scanner, pulling out an eye scanner from SHIELDS, waiting for the others.

In the gala, two of Clint's men walked down from the stairs, towards Doctor Heinrich Schäfer, one of them using the staff as a cane. Immediately, one of them hit a guard nearby with the staff. Meanwhile, the other rushes to the doctor, grabbing and flipping him over a table that was close by. Some ran, and some watched as he pulled out a device and rammed it into the man's eye. The moment the doctor twitched and twisted in pain, the crowd began to run out of the gala. Simultaneously, from Clint's scanner, the doctor's eye appears in a holographic form. The door opens and Clint walks in, finding the glass cylinder of iridium, in one of the cabinets.

Police arrived at the gala just as the two men walked out, with the people still running for safety. With no, hesitation, the two raised their respective weapons, shooting at the police cars, the scepter's energy flipping them over. More of the controlled agents arrived, surrounding the people, and raising their weapons, ready to execute them. The one using the scepter raised it at an elder man when Captain America arrived out of nowhere, diving down in front of an elderly man just in time, the energy hitting his shields. Loki arrives next, seemingly appearing from thin air.

"You know," Steve said out loud, however glanced at Loki. "The last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing."

Loki smiles before helping the captain. "Is that so?"

"Yeah. I'll tell you all about it after this disagreement."

It wasn't hard. Loki went after the agent with the scepter. Out of him and Steve, Loki is aware of how powerful the scepter is. The agent tries to smack Loki with it, only for the prince to vanish instantly, a fake. The real Loki appears near the agent, sweeping his legs. As he falls, Loki pulls out Angrboða and carefully slices the agent's hand, making his grip on the scepter loosen. Loki yanks the scepter back and slams his foot down to the agent's chest. He turns over to check on Steve, admiring the soldier fighting against two agents, taking them down one by one. The final agent raises his guns to shoot at Steve but a sound coming from the Quinjet distracts all of them. Loki frowns as he looks up, seeing a... is that a flying metal man?

Tony Stark, Iron Man, flies down, hitting the man from afar.

"Good move," he said, mainly to himself.

Steve stood next to him while Loki stood back, staring at the new person who helped them. The Man of Iron, Loki recalls Fury telling him about the hero.

"Mr. Stark," Steve greeted.

"Captain."

Loki blinks before scanning around the crowd to check whether people were hurt. They are all staring at him. Of course. Very soon, someone whistled in his direction, some looking him up and down. Loki looks over at the elderly man, who is on the floor, seemingly shocked at the near-death experiment.

"Are you alright?" Loki asks, kneeling down and helping him up.

"Yes, yes, I am now."

"I apologize for all the trouble..." Loki glances at the flipped cars, silently cringing at the sight. He looks back to see Steve tying the unconscious agents.

"Good thing there are men like you."

"There are no men like me," Loki exhales, laughing a little out of embarrassment.

"There are always men like you."

Loki looks back at Steve and the Man of Iron, smiling. Loki was thinking rather differently from what the men stated, there is actually no "man" like him on Earth. And yet:

"I suppose you are right."

A light caught Loki's attention. He turns back to see a flash blinding him. He let out a surprised huff, covering his eyes with his forearms before every citizen rushed towards him, either thanking or complimenting him, the majority having a device that flashed a bright light at him, hearing a clicking noise. He thinks Clint told him about cameras before. Loki was practically surrounded and couldn't see where is Steve and the other one. He tries to look for them but all he sees are people complimenting him, exclaiming that they will treat him like a king, and even declaring their love for the prince.

"Captain?" Loki calls out, attempting to move.

"Loki?" He hears back.

Someone grabs his arm.

He senses Angrboða's stressing out. Letting out another huff, this time more in irritation, Loki raises the scepter up to the air before letting out an energy blast to the sky. The action seemingly makes everybody move away from him. He sent warmth to his weapon. "Do not worry, Angrboða, I am fine."

"Alright, alright people, back away from Prince Charming." Loki looks over to see the Man of Iron.

"Thank you," Loki smiles at the metal man.

Silence. Then:

"...god...damn."

"Excuse me?"

In the Quinjet, the agents were still knocked out. Loki and Tony talked after the "goddamn" event ("I wasn't damning you, I swear!"), Tony full on begins flirting with Loki. Loki smiles, feigning obliviousness. When fighting alongside Fandral for centuries...well, as the saying goes, takes one to know one. Tony grabbed his hand, kissed it, formally introducing himself, complimenting the prince, and declaring he had been such a fan of mythology, especially of Norse, as a child, which the prince let out a small laugh at that, tilting his head. And boy was that music to the man's ears. Especially that damn smile that makes the man stuttered.

"The one and only Tony Starks getting flustered? Never thought I see the day," Natasha commented after Loki sat on the seat facing the unconscious agents and Tony started talking to Steve in hushed tones, ignoring the distant thunder.

"Do you really blame me?" Tony retorts, eyeing the prince, who seems to be telepathically communicating with Angrboða.

"No, I don't." If Natasha wasn't busy, she would've been eyeing or talking to Loki.

Steve narrowed his eyes at both of them, warning the two.

"What? You wouldn't want to, you know," Tony raised his eyebrow and clicked his tongue, jerking his head to Loki. Steve opens his mouth but closes it as he darts between Tony and Natasha, blushing a little, remembering what happened that made Steve allow Loki to come as well.

It shouldn't bother him but it did. Which is something he never really experienced before. Sure, there were times when he felt a little bit of jealousy during his time in the war whenever some guy was flirting with Peggy, and there were even times when he felt insecure when it came to Peggy and Howard's dynamic. However, this is something else, something different. The thought of Tony flirting with Loki or even Natasha eyeing the god makes him grind his teeth. Steve frowns, he wonders if it's an effect of his beauty. He thought back to what happened after stopping the agents. The citizens surrounded the prince, taking pictures and complimenting him. He had never witnessed that before...he witnessed fans cheering for their idols but nothing like what happened with Loki. Steve should ask Loki about that...

"What's your thing? Pilates?"

"What?" Steve was brought back to the conversation.

"It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple of things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle."

Steve looks at him. "Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in."

"Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you."

Suddenly, thunder and lightning can be seen and heard loud and clear.

"Where is this coming from?" Natasha frowns.

More thunder rumbles above. Loki looks up, staring at the ceiling earnestly and keenly, with an almost unhappy yet still beautiful expression. The sound of thunder soothes the beautiful prince.

"Loki? Are you alright? You seemed...scared." Steve asked in a concerned tone, ready to sit next to Loki should he require comfort.

However, the answer he got was confusing.

"I'm simply overly fond of what follows," Loki smiles sadly before looking back up.

Tony and Steve look at the God of Mischief in confusion. Uh, what? Suddenly, boom.

Something heavy landed on top of the Quinjet, making it shake a little. Quickly, Steve rushes for the shield and his helmet and Tony grabs his own helmet. Once he put it on, he pressed a button, opening the ramp.

"What are you doing?!" Steve yells out but Tony ignores it.

A man with a weird getup landed on it. He's blond with muscles, holding a big hammer, and looks like he could kill Tony with only a paperclip but that's not going to stop him. Loki let out a loud exhale, in shock, eyes widening. The man (he was no man, but a god) walks towards him with an extremely angry look on his face. Tony raised his arm to shoot but he simply jabbed his hammer, sending him back flying.

"No, stop!" Loki attempts to take his seatbelt off. The new guy didn't listen but walked up to Loki, and ripped the seatbelts off before he roughly grabbed him by the neck, stared at one another for a second, and started to drag him away. "No, what are you—"

Twirling his hammer, the two flew off.

Tony groans, getting up. "Now there's that guy."

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha yells out.

"Think that guy's a friendly?" Steve asks with a sarcastic tone, rolling his shoulders and internally preparing for the fight he knows is coming.

"Oh, I'm sure," Tony replies. "He took Prince Charming and I'm not about to let him go."

"Stark, we need a plan of attack!"

"I have a plan: Attack," after that, Tony flew out and pursued Loki and the would-be kidnapper.

Steve held in a groan and grabbed a parachute to follow.

"I'd sit this one out, Cap," Natasha advises.

"I don't see why not."

"These guys come from legends, they're basically gods."

"There's only one god, ma'am. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." As he finishes his sentence, Steve jumps out of the jet.

Loki never felt more comfort as he heard the thunder. He's sad but he feels comfort and safe. Protected. Then, he heard one that was too loud. Too strong. It made him sit up, staring at the ceiling. He can feel Angrboða getting anxious.

"Loki? Are you alright? You seemed...scared." He hears Steve ask.

Scared. Loki wanted to laugh at that. Why would he be scared of a little lightning? Lightning and thunder had always protected him from harm, always looking out for him. Loki gave him a smile.

"I'm simply overly fond of what follows."

However, there was a loud bang on top of the Quinjet and a sudden jerk came afterward, jolting the prince and everyone else. Loki suddenly felt cold and warm at the same time, his heart suddenly racing. He turns to see Steve and Stark getting ready, the latter pressing a button and opening the ramp. And he turns to the opening ramp.

There, stood his brother. And he feels his racing heart stopped and all the air in his lungs gone. Then the emotions flooded.

Loki wanted to laugh, wanted to smile, wanted to sigh, wanted to cry, goodness how he wanted to cry. Yet, when he opened his mouth, only choked words came out. He was about to lift his hands to unbuckle his belt when the look on his brother's face stopped him. He knows that look on his face. It's the same as the time someone attempted to abduct him back in the training room, the same look when Loki told Thor the exact people who kidnapped him during the battle of Nornheim, the same look whenever someone challenges Thor in a fight in exchange for Loki...

The same look when Loki lied about her beloved Angrboða, lied that someone tried to take him.

If Wrath had a face, it is similar to the face of Thor's.

Thor slams Mjolnir into Tony and with that, he regains his ability to speak.

"No, stop!" He exclaims, struggling to take off his seatbelt. Thor only stalks up to him, ripping the seatbelt, and pulls him up by the nape of his neck gently, and they locked eyes. Loki wanted to, once again, cry. For one second, time froze as they stared at one another. It has been so long since they saw each other and Loki could have sworn his brother's eyes have a red tint and watery. Then, it all happened too quickly. Twirling Mjolnir, he drags them away. "No, what are you—"

The next thing Loki knew, the two were flying away, away from the jet. After a little of trying to resist and some "Thor, stop!", "Enough Thor!", "Thor!", "Thor, please stop!", and his favorite "You idiot!", they were close to the mountains, still going too fast.

"Thor, Thor, slow down! We're, we're going to—"

Thor didn't slow down but maneuvered his body, wrapping his arms around his brother, and landing on the side of the mountain, breaking Loki's fall, both groaning at the sudden impact. They stayed on the ground for a few seconds, both staring at the sky and panting one from shock while the other from adrenaline before the younger prince quickly squirmed off and got up, the older following.

"Thor, you oaf!" Loki declares, looking up at his brother.

"Are you hurt?"

"No—"

"Have they done anything to you?" Thor drops Mjolnir and begins to check on Loki.

"No, they haven't—"

"Any wounds?"

"Brother—"

"Do you—"

"Thor," Loki smacks Thor's hands before placing his own on each side of his face forcing him to look him in the eye. "Compose yourself, you..! You...I..."

Whatever he had to say dissipated as he looked at his brother, actually looked at his brother. That's when he noticed all of it. The bags under his eyes, how he can feel more stubbles against his hands, how he looks and feels more strong. His hair is longer too. Once barely resting on his shoulders, now passing it, some are slightly wavy and few curly. Loki's hair had also grown out but... He doesn't understand why his brother's hair being longer of all things is getting to him but it is. Maybe because it reminded him of Mother. Because it's evidence that it has truly been so long, he thought. Finally, his eyes begin to water and he feels a lump in his throat as he pulls one of his hands back to grasp some of his brother's hair.

"Thor, your hair is long..." he finally whispered out his thought, voice choked near the end.

Thor, in turn, places his hand on the nape of Loki's neck once again and clenches his jaw, a tactic he uses whenever he tries to smother his cries. It didn't work from the way his eyes matched Loki's. The younger prince let out a small keen before quickly—finally—embracing Thor, who reciprocated with no hesitation. He shudders as he slumps his head between his brother's shoulder and neck. He allows his tears to finally fall, allows his own shoulders to shake as he feels his older brother's head rest on said shoulders. They stayed like that for almost a minute, both cherishing each other's presence.

"I thought you dead," Thor croaked.

"I thought so, too..."

The two stayed like that for a little while longer. None of them want to let go. It's almost like there is a force where they can't separate, and just as he hears the thunder, he feels comforted, safe, and protected in his older brother's arms. Loki forces himself to pull back from Thor yet still remains close.

"What happened? After I..." Loki frowns, suddenly remembering the prevention of war. He straightens up, "Is everything alright? The Bifrost was destroyed, did Father manage to tell my—"

Then Loki clamps up. He never told him about his origins, he didn't have a chance to tell him... Loki looks down, suddenly feeling insecure (and maybe a little scared).

"I'm sure he...your father...told you my true parentage, did he?" He asks as he grinds his teeth and then presses his lips together. He wanted to tell him, not his father and not his mother. He didn't want Thor to hear it from them! How did they tell him? Did he inform him about his plan? About giving the Casket? Is he going to—

"Loki, look at me." He did and he was greeted by a look of not only sadness but love on his face. "We were raised together. We played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of this?"

"I remembered your declaration of hunting down the Frost Giants, your deep-rooted hatred of them. I remembered the books and stories stating they were monsters. 'Hunt them down and slay them' you say..." Loki quickly looked away in (almost but not quite) shame before looking back at him. "When I found out...For a moment, I thought you would...to me..."

"Do you truly think so little of me...? No. No, it's not your fault, it is mine," Thor looks so...sullenly that Loki's heart is breaking for him. "I was a child, Loki. And I've grown. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry about everything..." he exhales before muttering, "Some brother I am..."

"You're a good brother," Loki claims, grabbing Thor's hand in both of his own. "I shouldn't have thought you would hurt me, I know you never will. Never."

Loki looks down at their hands, biting his lips out of stress. For a second, all he wanted to do was put the blame on their parents. Maybe if they had told them from the start, things would have been different. If their father told them about his true origins or if their mother told Thor about viewing from a different perspective, then maybe... Loki blinks then tilts his head as looks down at Thor's wrist armor. That shape...

"My horns," Loki gasps softly, his fingers slowly tracing the shape.

"To remember you. Remember the one who will always matter to me..."

Loki looks up, smiling before once again resting his head on his brother's shoulder. Thor, in return, places his hand right back on Loki's neck, his index, and middle finger right on his pulse. It helps him to know that his brother is truly alive and not dead. Speaking of:

"How?"

"I don't know, I wish to know as well. It was...not good and yet, I've seen worlds you've never known about, and fortunately, or unfortunately depending on which side you are on, I have seen the true power of the Tesseract."

"Who showed you this power?" Thor seethes at the mere thought. "Where is the Tesseract?"

Loki sighs, "I know not where. I will tell you about who once..." Loki pauses before smiling as he feels Angrboða being left out. Puffing out a small laugh, he pulls out Angrboða, twirling her so the handle is pointing at Thor to take. "Angrboða misses you and she is feeling rather fussy for being unincluded."

Thor lets out a small laugh before taking the dagger himself. "I miss you, too, Angrboða." Thor rubs the fiery orb in the middle of the cross-guard with his thumb, which Angrboða seems to enjoy, judging by the emotions she's sending to Loki. Thor smiles a little wider before giving the dagger back to his brother.

Loki straightens himself a little more, now serious. "Thor, Earth is under our protection. An invasion is coming and we have to stop them. I'll tell you everything that has happened and what we can do."

Thor furrows his brows and then nods, Mjolnir flying back to his grasp and pointing it at the younger prince. "Alright. You listen well, brother..."

Suddenly, Angrboða sent a warning to Loki, making him tense. He turns to his right to see a blur of bright colors coming towards his brother.

"I—"

"Thor!—"

Before Loki could warn him, Thor was knocked off the mountain by the blur. It stunned the younger prince, not quite knowing what just happened.

"...hello?" Loki couldn't help but say.

Thor and Tony crashed into the forest that was surrounding the mountain the brothers were on. Thor picks himself up while Tony still stands, a few feet away, opening his helmet.

"Do not touch me again," Thor stated, annoyed. It was one of Loki's kidnappers because of course it is. Goodness, why couldn't people leave his brother alone?!

"Then don't take my stuff."

That statement made the god even more upset. "My stuff"?! How dare he?!

"Loki is not yours. You have no idea what you're dealing with," Thor declares, gripping his weapon.

"Uh," Tony looks around and then back at Prince Charming's kidnapper. "Shakespeare in the park?"

Silent.

"Doth mother know you wear-eth her drapes?"

"This is beyond you, metal man," Thor narrows his eyes. "Loki will stay with me."

"Yeah, I don't think so, the prince will stay with me," Tony's helmet closed. "Stay out of the way...tourist."

And, in one quick move, Thor pulls Mjolnir back and hurls it at Tony, knocking him back into a tree.

"...okay," Tony said, squinting his eyes.

From the mountain, Loki looks down on what's happening. What are they doing?!

Thor raises his hands, Mjolnir coming back to him, then swings the hammer. Tony stands back up, lifting his hand boosters, sending an energy blast at Thor to a tree then flies towards him, kicking the god, making him fly back. Thor pulls back Mjolnir and raises it to the sky, pulling thunder and lightning then points the hammer to Tony, sending him lightning bolts at him, making him slowly fall back but still standing.

"Thor, no, stop!" Loki yells out but it seems the two can't hear him or wish to not listen.

"Power at four hundred percent capacity," Jarvis stated.

"...how about that?" Tony then fires his blasts to Thor but he manages to regain himself. Both charged at one another, meeting in the middle, flying up, hitting branches, to the nearby mountain, where Tony smashes Thor into the side of the mountain.

Thor pushes out of the mountain, taking Tony with him, and landing back, destroying possibly every tree that they hit. Thor punches and as Tony is about to return the favor, the god grabs him by the wrist, as well as the other when the man tries to use it, and starts crushing it, much to Tony's liking. As quick as possible, he shoots out an energy blast to the elder prince's face, then places both hands on his shoulder and headbutts with his titanium-gold alloy, mind you, a beat passed, then Thor retaliates with his own headbutt, actually sending the guy back. Tony quickly flies back to Thor, grabbing him, and chucking him to a tree, destroying it.

Thor looks up at Tony, all the patience he has is gone. Tony swung at Thor and missed, to where the latter hit him on the back, then on his head, and lifted him up and smashed him down, as hard and painfully as he could. Thor called Mjolnir back and just as he was about to slam it down to the metal man, he used his boosters to escape, making the god lose balance and fall down. Looking back to see where Tony went, he got a punch to the face from said man.

"Thor, Stark, stop!" Loki continues to yell out. Steve stands next to him, on time. He turns to the captain. "Please, this is all just a misunderstanding..."

Steve only nodded and approached them.

"Hey!" As the two were ready to go at it again, Steve's shield hit both of them in the chests, grabbing their attention. "That's enough!"

Steve comes down and puts his attention on Thor.

"Now, I don't know what you plan on doing here."

"I've come here to help Loki!"

"Then prove it," Steve said. "Put the hammer down."

Hearing that made Loki's eyes widen. Oh, no.

"Um, yeah, no. Bad call. He loves his—"

Thor, tired of the metal man, backhands him with his Mjolnir, then raises his hammer.

"Thor, no!" Loki yells one more time in hopes his brother will stop and listen.

"You want me to put the hammer down?!"

"Thor!"

Without warning, he jumps high, rising, ready to hit the captain. Quickly Loki jumps down, running towards the two of them, closer to Steve as the soldier raises his shield. Right as Thor is about to slam Mjolnir at the shield, Steve pulls Loki even closer to him, crouching. And as Mjolnir collided with the shield, it created gigantic shockwaves, blowing up every tree around a mile. Loki yelped as Steve's grip on him tightened, who was doing whatever it took for them to not fall back. A few seconds passed before the two stood from their crouch.

Tony looks around at the mess they made. Well, the mess the others made, he was knocked back out. Steve only stared at Thor who looked around the mess. Loki quickly rushes back to his brother.

"Thor, are you alright," Loki implores, now checking to see if his brother is hurt, placing both his hands on each side of Thor's cheeks.

He scans everywhere to see if Stark left a mark on him before Thor replies, "I'm alright, brother."

Loki glances back at the mortals before looking back at the elder prince, then says in a very sincere, quieter tone, "They're not our enemies, brother. They're here to help as well...they're not like the others."

"Wait, hold on, Doe Eyes, your kidnapper is your brother?"

"I, yes but this is all a misunderstanding. He thought you've all kidnapped me."

"Why would we—"

"It happened before."

"Yes, many times," Thor tuts, looking away, like he's remembering all the encounters. "Many, many times..."

"Are we done here?" Steve asks, sighing.

The four simply stand there. Loki took his brother's hand, grinning at him, truly grinning. He returns the grin with his own, of course, squeezing his hand in reassurance. Loki leans his head on Thor's shoulder, nodding. His older brother is here and that's all that matters. They have a lot to talk about, but not here, not in front of his new friends. For one thing, what happened after he fell, the next is coming home, after that, his role in the family dynamics that will undoubtedly change, and finally his role in just about everything, Asgard and Jotunheim. But that's for later, right now he's enjoying having his brother back in his life.

Meanwhile, Steve shifts from one foot to the other. There is that feeling again: jealousy. He internally scolds himself as he feels that emotion. This is his brother, he reminds himself and how he's not even with Loki, there is no reason he should feel envious that Loki is grinning, grinning not smiling, at someone who wasn't him. And it seems he wasn't the only one feeling jealous. He glances at Tony who is clenching and unclenching his fists, with a little bit of wiggling his fingers when he unclenches it, as he also watches the brothers being affectionate. There is a grim frown on his lips.

Oh, boy.

This is not good.

Chapter Text

Bruce was checking through the files and information on the scepter and the Tesseract. He's looking at the holographic Tesseract as someone enters the laboratory. He looks up and suddenly gets red in the face. His heart begins to race once again, both tensed and relaxed at the same time.

"Hello," Loki smiles at the doctor.

"I, um, hi."

"You will be the one to help us, yes?"

"Uh, yeah, I, I hope so, ha."

Loki kept smiling at him, staring at him. Bruce was sure his face was like a tomato. Why is he smiling at him like that? Why is he staring at him like that?

"C, can I help you with something?" Bruce smiles back.

"Are you," Loki falters, looking away bashfully, bashfully! Did he do that?! "I do not mean to intrude but are you, are you one with the gods?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Are you one with the gods? You...have this...godlike being within you."

Bruce froze, eyes widen. How?

"I, uh, I..."

Loki frowns, now walking towards him until he's sitting next to him, making him antsier.

"I, I'm just some guy, just, a mortal."

"Do...you know what you have inside you?"

"I," Bruce closed his mouth, debating then continued. "Yes. Can you...can you see it?"

Him?

"I can not see it but it's hiding within you, shadowing you, resting, waiting."

"Waiting?"

"For danger."

Bruce frowns. So much for hiding the other guy from the beautiful prince.

"I...sorry, I, um..."

"No need."

"You think of me differently now, a monster?"

Loki raises an eyebrow, making Bruce feel some kind of emotion.

"Think of you," Loki looks at him up and down, and that makes him feel an even different kind of emotion. "As a monster?"

Loki had this look on his face, almost hesitating to say the next thing. "Where I am from, We have these...enemies...known as Frost Giants...who Asgardians considered as monsters, who were ruled by Laufey, king of Jotunheim."

"Frost Giants? They're known as these villainous, awful monsters in your home?"

"I'm adopted and Laufey is my true father."

"...oh." God damn it, Bruce.

"I am simply saying that I do not see you as a monster. I'm the monster parents tell their children about. For me, I brought the monster."

"Why do I have a feeling that there's a difference between us?"

Loki stares at him, before raising his hand close to Bruce. Bruce wants to move away but for some reason, he trusts the prince. His hand is close to his forehead but still does not make contact.

"May I?" He asks, tilting his head.

Quickly, Bruce nods his head. His heart literally hits his ribcage the moment Loki places his middle and ring finger on the middle of his forehead. Without meaning to, he closes his eyes. And the next thing he knew, he saw some kind of visions, of these beings, tall, blue beings with red eyes and a few lines around their face. If Bruce could say one word to describe them, it would be powerful. However, there was one that was different from the rest. Similar features but...something else. The one looks like Loki, but instead of pale skin it's blue, green eyes are now red, hair is a little longer and taller than he is. Bruce stares and stares and stares and stares. He was in awe, so this is what Loki was talking about, a Frost Giant. In what felt like minutes Bruce was back at the laboratory, with Loki, pale and green eyes staring at him, giving him a small smile though, he looked to be distant, self-conscious, insecure.

"What do you think? Appalling? Horrendous?"

"No!" Bruce couldn't help but exclaim. "I, I don't think so!"

Loki appears to look shocked, as if he couldn't believe what he was saying. As if that was the first time someone had ever said that about a Frost Giant. Did the prince really think that little of himself? Bruce frowns, surely he knows that he's quite attractive, doesn't he? Or maybe...it's something else.

"I, I think you look nice in that form. I think you're aesthetic, attractive, good-looking, and, and handsome, and anything but appalling..."

Bruce forces his mouth shut, getting flustered in the face. Did he just embarrass himself in front of the gorgeous god?! Loki only stayed quiet, staring at him with those beautiful wide green eyes. Oh, man, he probably thinks he's weird, or awful, and probably doesn't want to talk to him ever again and Bruce will never get the chance to at least be good friends with—

However, Loki smiles at him, very kindly, like he appreciates what he just told him but quickly looks away, still smiling nevertheless. He's...flustered?! Bruce did that?! Him?! Any other person would have never seen it, but Bruce is close enough to see pink scatter across his face.

"You're very kind, son of Banner."

Bruce is flabbergasted, he made the God of Mischief go bashful and flustered. Man, the smile he's giving to him makes his heart jump and suddenly nervous. He smiles back at Loki. He's so nervous, the other guy should have been out but...it feels like just being close to Loki calms him down before he can turn.

"I, uh, haha, I'm, I'm just telling the truth, that's all."

Loki nodded.

"Oh, forgive me, but I volunteer myself to retrieve you. The others are waiting for us now," Loki stood up, smiling at him. "I will be waiting for you outside."

"Yeah, er, yeah! Sure, no problem, I won't take long!"

Once Loki walks out, Bruce slumps, sighing.

"...he really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce asks out loud, to no one in particular.

"They have an army, called the Chitauri. I was meant to 'lead' his people. They will win me Earth and in return, they will obtain the Tesseract," Loki says.

"They're not of Asgard or any world known," Thor adds.

"An army?" Steve asks in a serious tone. "From outer space?"

"So, they're building another portal," Bruce jumps in. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor asks.

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend."

"The scepter Loki had brought with him has Selvig under some kind of spell," Natasha explains. "Along with one of ours."

"I think it's about the mechanics," Bruce switched the subject. "Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing, agent," said a voice from afar. Tony Stark, walking next to Agent Coulson, mumbling something before turning back on the rest. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did to SHIELD."

He continues walking, and looks at both of the Gods, winking at Loki before looking at Thor. "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing." Then pats his forearm twice, then looks at Loki again, giving him one of his oh-so-charming smiles. "Tell me his name again, Honey-Pot?"

Loki gives him a charming smile of his own, ignoring the gulps and stuttered breath around him (and ignoring Thor's glare at everyone) before crossing his arms. "The one who is meant to be advising me is simply known as The Other," Loki's smile quickly turns into a frown as he continues the next sentence. "However, the one who some would call the 'puppeteer' of this plan, this genocide, is the Mad Titan Thanos."

"Ooh, spooky—"

"Very."

"And what do you know about this Titan?"

"Not...a lot, if I'm being honest," Loki looks up in an attempt to remember. "While I was with them for what felt like an eternity, He and The Other only spoke about...me. He only told me about his plan to find the 'stones' and essentially 'remove' only half of the universe's population. Needless to say, someone to be cautious of," Loki shakes his head and then continues. "I promise, I will properly explain it and go in depth after we stop this; it will ease my mind knowing his army is anywhere but near Earth."

"Any reason he's not operating this mission?" Steve frowns. "If he wants the Cube then shouldn't he be advising you?"

Loki shrugs, "He informed me about how he is needed somewhere else. Something about his children... I do recall him stating his children will...ahem...like and approve of me."

After that, just about everyone's mood turns sour at that insinuation.

"Right," Tony grumbles. "back to the portal, it means—as wide, and stay open as long, as they want. Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the topsails..."

Tony looks around, pointing at someone, "That man is playing Galaga!"

Steve looks over at where he pointed, in confusion and curiosity. As well as Loki (who waves at the agent and who in return waves back).

"Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did," He looks down at the monitors, covering one eye. "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns," Agent Maria Hill responds.

"...sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source. A high, energy density," without anyone's knowledge, he puts a hacking implant in the monitor. "Something to, uh, kick start the cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"Last night."

Silent.

"The packet, Selvig's notes, and the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Do they need any particular kind of power source?" asks Steve, tired of Tony talking.

"They got to heat up the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," answered Bruce.

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion on any reactor on the planet."

"Finally, someone who speaks English."

"...is that what just happened?" Steve could not believe this, looking around. The god brothers don't blame him as they too look at one another in confusion.

"It's good to meet you, Doctor Banner, your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

"...thanks."

"Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube, I was hoping you might join him." Fury walks in.

"Let's start with that stick of theirs. It may be magical, but what, um, what, uh, what Loki told me, it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon," Steve adds, ignoring his own stammering.

"Yes," Loki nodded, as he once again gained everyone's attention, much to Thor's chagrin. "It is a powerful weapon. Whoever wields it can control the minds of others. The scepter is simply that. A scepter. But within it, something stronger. Powerful to corrupt one's mind. Dangerous. Just like the Tesseract. They are almost one and the same; with the scepter, you can find the Tesseract."

"Then if that's the case, I like to know how to reverse it considering it turned two of my sharpest men I know into its personal flying monkeys."

Both Loki and Thor frown at that, looking at one another once again in confusion before Thor speaks his mind. "Monkeys? We do not understand."

"I do!" Steve interrupts.

Silence.

An eye roll.

A beat.

"I, I understood that reference," he said more composed but nonetheless still proud of himself.

"...shall we play, doctor?" Tony asks Bruce.

"Let's play some."

In the lab, Bruce studies the powerful scepter, scanning, and detecting. Tony was on the other side, looking at his monitor, solving whatever he needed to solve. The two talk, detailing anything about the scepter. According to Loki, who accompanied them to help with the scepter told them details about it, in hopes of helping them. It was hard for them to listen, as the prince was extremely beautiful. Though, in the end, the two were able to pay attention, knowing that learning the scepter is more important than admiring Loki. Or is it? Once he left to find his brother, the remaining two kept talking about the scepter, eventually joking.

"You know, you should come to Stark Towers sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it, it's candy land."

"Thanks but last time I was in New York, I kinda broke...Harlem."

"Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension...No surprises."

"Ow!" Out of the blue, Tony pokes Bruce with an electrical prod, ignoring the "hey!" and an irate Steve walking in as he closely stares at the doctor.

"...nothing?"

"Are you nuts?" Steve questions Tony with annoyance.

"Jury's out," Tony answers Steve before going back to Bruce. "You really have a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? A huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?"

"Funny things are."

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve glanced at Bruce. "No offense, doc."

"No, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

"You're tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark."

"You think I'm not?"

When Steve didn't say anything, Tony continued.

"Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"...you think Fury's hiding something?"

"He's a spy." No. That doesn't sound right. "Captain. He's the spy. His secrets have secrets. It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

"Uh," Bruce stammers on his words. "I just wanna finish my work here and..."

"Doctor?" Steve pressures softly.

Bruce sighs. "A warm light for all mankind. What Loki said about the Cube and the enemy jab at Fury."

"I heard it."

Bruce points at Tony. "Well, I think that was meant for you."

Tony offers some blueberries to Bruce who accepts it. "Even though Loki knew nothing about the tower, Barton does."

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly—" Tony gives Steve a look. "...building in New York?"

"It's powered by an arc reactor, a self-sustaining energy source," Bruce answers, turning to Tony. "That building will run itself what, a year?"

"That's just a prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. It's what he's getting at."

"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? W, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place."

"I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files."

...what?

"I'm sorry, did you say—"

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?"

"Yet, you're confused about why they didn't want you around."

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not possible."

They continued back and forth. Tony says this, Steve says that, and Bruce looks at the two of them.

"Steve," Bruce interrupts. "Tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?"

The captain exhales softly. It could be a possibility. But then again, it couldn't. Steve mentally shakes it off and tells the two to find the cube. He walks out of the lab. The idea is still in his mind. Is he going to regret this? Still torn, he looked at the only two paths and decided to walk to the hull of the ship.

Chapter Text

"How is Mother?"

"She is well."

"And Father?"

"As well."

"And my...uh, other father? And Jotunheim? The war?"

"Mother and Father were able to inform them of what had happened to you, how it happened, and the Bifrost. Your death, ah, stopped the war, after learning about the involvement of the rogue Frost Giants. Before I came here, Father told me he would inform your...father."

"I see... and Asgard?"

"They mourn, for you."

"I see," Loki utters once again, looking down.

Thor exhales softly, "Asgard lost their jewel."

Loki shook his head. They stayed silent for a while, enjoying the peace. Agents pass by them, some of them manage to force themselves to not look their way, while some risk a glance, only to be met with a glare from his brother. They have been separated for a year and the brothers are attempting to catch up on everything. Thor told Loki what happened after Loki fell, how Father had to use all his might to hold Thor back from jumping, how their mother became a grieving mess, and how Asgard went eerily silent. Meanwhile, the younger prince told Thor how he felt when he was falling, the suffocating obsession he had to endure from the army, more about the Mad Titan Thanos, and how disturbed and unsafe he felt by the Other, by everyone. Loki huffs out, resting his weight on his brother. Thor also told his time on Midgard when he was banished, how he met Dr. Selvig and two ladies named Darcy and Jane. Loki even teased his brother about him and Jane. Not to mention, Thor, of all Asgardian, falling for a mortal.

Loki managed to convince Thor to stay with Coulson (and ask about Jane) as Loki stretched his legs and went for a walk around the Helicarrier. Loki can't blame his poor brother for not wanting to separate, he too didn't want to leave his sight however they had been sitting and talking for an hour and so, and his legs were starting to fall asleep. As he walks around, he nods in acknowledgment as he passes by agents, secretly enjoying their cautious glances behind him as if they were waiting for his brother to pop up and "greet" them. He enters what he hopes to be an empty room and then locks eyes with one Natasha Romanoff.

"Oh! Hello," Loki greets, giving her his signature smile. "I believe I haven't had a proper conversation with you!"

"No, I believe we haven't," she gave him a pretty smile. "I'm Natasha."

Loki tilts his head before he brightens, and his smile turns to a grin. "You're the one Barton was telling me about!"

"He told you about me?"

"Yes, he told me how you are smart, a great fighter, and an even greater friend," Loki nods before he pauses as he looks at her, unknowingly making her feel...shy. "However, he never informed me how...pretty you are."

Natasha resists the urge to bite her bottom lip. "You think I'm pretty?"

"Oh, I think you're very pretty," Loki answers.

He may be the God of Mischief but beauty recognizes beauty. Meanwhile, Loki has no idea what he's doing to Natasha. Never in her life has anyone made her feel this...nervous. It was always the other way around. And then this guy, this prince, a god, waltz up and now she's doing everything in her power to not act like a middle school child with their crush. The weird thing, however, is that she doesn't mind this giddy feeling.

"What are you doing?" Loki notices that she has sheets of paper and open books on the table, along with...treats..?

"I'm researching you," Natasha answers casually.

"Me?"

"Yes."

Loki strolls over to her, looking down at the books and sheets of paper. Svadilfari...cutting Sif's hair...sewed lips...huh, Loki's a little interested in the stories Midgard wrote of him. Loki then glances at the treats.

"And those?"

"You've never had them?" Natasha asked, a little surprised.

"I can't say, no," Loki peers down at the treats. The treats are colorful, and the outer parts seem hard while the middle has a soft cream that matches with the color of the treats.

"They're macarons," Natasha tells them, then smiles. "Wanna try some, Your Highness?"

Loki hesitates before picking one of the treats, macarons, with his index finger and thumb, it was pink. He hesitates once more before taking a bite of it. He slowly chews it before quickly biting the rest. It's...delicious! Loki glances down at the rest of the macarons for a split second and it is enough for Natasha to slide the snacks closer to the prince. Loki took one, then another. And another. He pauses on the fourth one as he looks back up at Natasha, giving her an embarrassed smile.

"I, ahem, I apologize. I believe I'm stealing your macarons." Loki then places a hand on his cheek, seemingly checking to see if it's warm.

God, the prince has no idea what he's doing to Natasha. She had to take half a second to compose herself, giving him a reassuring smile. "No, it's fine, promise. You can have them."

"Are you sure?" Loki brightens once more.

Yeah. So worth it.

Natasha nods.

The prince gives her a thankful smile before grabbing another macaron and then looks down at his so-called mythology of him. One caught his attention. From the scattered papers and books, it was clear the mortals were misinformed about the stories of Loki and Thor and Asgard. One caught his attention. From the pictures, people had mixed thoughts about what he looked like, mixed between black hair and green eyes or fiery red hair and red eyes to match it. One caught his attention.

Angrboða.

Giantess. The "One who brings sorrow". Mother of Monsters. Lover of Loki.

The mother of Loki's child.

Loki wanted to throw up all the macarons he ate. His beloved Angrboða. He ignored how his hand was shaking. He picks up the paper and reads it. And reread it. And reread it.

Angrboða is the mother of Loki's child. She is very strong and is associated with chaos. A giantess who almost killed Loki then spent time with him and then spent a night with the beautiful god. She gave birth to a beautiful shape-shifter named Jörmungandr, who can shape-shift into a snake or a wolf. She was part of a clan that can shape shifts to wolves. Odin learned of Loki and Angrboða's child and—

Loki felt a wave of negative emotions as he read the next line.

Odin learned of Loki and Angrboða's child and threw him into the sea when he was a snake, believed to have killed him. But the snake grows and grows. Until he is encircling Midgard.

Good child, Loki found himself thinking, oddly feeling...pride.

Once Loki knows the texts are forever ingrained in his head, he puts the paper down. Loki has many mixture of emotions. Loki can feel Angrboða's mixture of emotions.

The main two are anger and sadness. He wonders...had Angrboða lived...would they...

"Loki? Are...you alright?" A hand rests on his shoulder and he refrains a jolt.

He looks down and sees that Natasha looks very...worried.

The prince quickly smiled at her, and said, "Yes, I'm simply a little disturbed by all these misconceptions." She's unconvinced and he doesn't blame her, it's not one of his proudest lies. Thankfully, Natasha became distracted by someone speaking to her from those earpieces Clint explained to him. He frowns then rests his hand over hers. "What's wrong?"

She looks up, opens her mouth before closing it, and gives him a smile of her own, "Nothing for you to worry about, but Fury needs me so I have to go."

Beauty recognizes beauty, but takes a liar to know one.

"Alright," Loki nods at her. "I do hope we can talk later."

Her smile turned into a genuine one before she bid him farewell and then left the room, leaving him alone with the notes and macarons. Before he too leaves the room, he glances down at the papers and books. Once again, one of them caught his attention.

He left the room with a few papers on his person.

"As soon as the doctor left, we moved Jane Foster. We've got an excellent observatory in Traunsee," Coulson showed a monitor with a photo of Jane Foster. Thor stares at the photo, observing every detail. "She was asked to consult there very suddenly yesterday. Handsome fee, private plane, very remote. She'll be safe."

"Thank you," Thor nods. "It was no surprise the enemies took Eric Selvig. I dread what they plan for him once he's done. Erik is a good man."

"He talks about you a lot. You changed his life...you changed everything around here."

"They were better as they were. We pretend on Asgard that we're more advanced. But we, we come here battling like Bilchsteim."

"Like what?"

"Bilchsteim. You know, huge, scaly, big antlers."

...

"You don't have those?"

"I don't think so."

"Well, they are repulsive, and they trample everything in their path."

"Are you telling the Son of Coul about Bilchsteim?"

Thor turns to see Loki stopped walking towards them and turns to the photo of Jane.

"This is Jane Foster? She's very beautiful."

"Yes, she is."

Loki looks up at Thor, noting the look of longing as his brother looks at the photo. He then noticed Coulson frowning as he listened to whoever was on the other line from his earpiece. Right, he came here for a reason.

"Something is happening, Thor," Loki whispers to the eldest.

Thor tensed at that, also looking around then back at him, frowning but still allowing his younger brother to drag him out of the room.

"I was wrong, director." At that point, Thor and Loki enter the lab, right after Natasha, hearing Steve's vexed tone. "The world hasn't changed a bit."

Bruce looks at Natasha, visibly upset. "Did you know about this?"

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?"

"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"What is going on?" Loki frowns, allowing his brother to calmly move him a little beside him.

"That's what I would like to know. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

Fury stays silent, then points at Thor. "Because of him... Because of them."

The brothers were taken aback. Because of them? Without realizing it, Loki places his hand on his brother's forearms, almost trying to reassure him.

"Us?"

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. Two days ago, we had another visitor telling us there was an even greater threat out there with an army. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"Our people want nothing but peace with your planet."

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Loki and Thor glanced at one another before facing Fury again. That answers his question. "And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve retorts.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Thanos to it," Loki narrowed his eyes. "And his allies."

"It is also the signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war," Thor backs his brother up.

"A higher form?"

"You forced our hands. We had to come up with some—"

"Nuclear deterrent. 'Cause that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?"

"I'm sure if still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep—"

"Wait! Wait! Hold on, how is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"

"I thought humans were more evolved than this."

"Thor..."

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"

"Did you always give your champions such mistrust?"

"You're not my champion!"

"That's enough, both of you!"

"Are you boys really that naive? SHIELD monitors potential threat."

"Captain America is on the watch list?"

"We all are."

"It is not your concern, Doctor."

"You're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?"

"Stark, I swear to God, you make one more—"

"Verbal threat, I feel threatened!"

"All this arguing is pointless and foolish, not to mention there are other things more important than this!"

"Honey, listen—"

"Are you calling me a yellow liquid substance?!"

"Hey, you don't call him that—"

The team kept arguing, not paying attention to anything or anyone. Outside of the Helicarrier, a single carrier floats steadily over the ship.

"Transport 66 Bravo. Please relay your passcode. I got you on the computer but not on the student log. What is your hull, over?"

"Arms to ammunition, over," Clint answers.

Inside the Carrier, his crew is preparing and suiting up, including himself, pulling out his bow and arrows. Meanwhile, back in the lab, the rest are still arguing.

"You speak of control yet you court chaos," Thor said.

"It's his M.O., isn't it?" Bruce jumps in. "I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're, we're a time bomb."

"You need to step away," Fury warns him.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asks, putting his arm around Steve who immediately smacks it down.

"You know damn well why! Back off!"

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage."

Silent.

"The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire."

Steve smiles sardonically, "Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero? Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

Outside, the ramp of Clint's carrier opens. The carrier steers next to one of the turbines at the engine. Clint stands, holding his bow, and pulling out his explosive arrow. He stares at the engine. Then, he pulls his arrow back, hundreds of feet away from the engine, and releases the arrow. It pierces into the engine, beeping. Meanwhile in the lab...

"Put on the suit," Steve suggested. "Let's go a few rounds."

Thor laughs at that, making Loki semi-glare at him.

"You people are so petty," Thor states. "And tiny."

"Thor!" Loki hisses at his brother.

"Yeah, this is a team..."

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his—"

"Where?" Bruce interrupts Fury. "The cell?"

"Cell?" Loki tilts his head at that.

"The cell was just in—"

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't. I've tried."

Everyone stayed quiet, stunned at what he just declared. The man crossed his arms.

"I got low," Bruce tries to explain. "I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So, I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk."

He glares back at Natasha who doesn't seem fazed at all and continues.

"You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

Without breaking contact, Natasha places her hand on top of her gun, as well as Fury. Thor moves in front of Loki, almost blocking Loki's view from Banner.

"Doctor Banner," Steve gain his attention. "Let go of the scepter."

Bruce turns back to see that he is holding the scepter. He places it back on the table. Out of nowhere, the computer beeps.

"Got it," said Tony.

"Sorry kids," Bruce begins to walk over to it. "You don't get to see my little party trick after all."

"Located the Tesseract?" Thor asks.

"I can get there fastest."

"Look, all of us—"

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard."

"Thor is right, no human is a match for it, and we can keep it secure."

"You're not going alone!" Steve grabs Tony's arm, who smacks it away.

"You're gonna stop me?"

"Put on the suit and let's find out."

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit."

"Can we just not argue, right now? We need to stay focused!" Loki exclaims, already getting annoyed by their pathetic little argument.

"Oh my God," Bruce said, looking at the monitor. As he was about the say the location, everyone was thrown in different directions. Only Natasha and Bruce are thrown off the lab, down in the lower room.

"Loki?!" Thor yells, hitting the ground.

"I'm alright!"

Steve looks at Tony. "Put on the suit."

"Yep!" Steve helped Tony up and the two ran out of the lab.

"Thor," Loki lifts himself off the ground. Instantly, Thor moves close to his brother.

"Hill?!" Fury presses his earpiece.

"External detonation...Somebody's got to get outside and patch that engine!"

"Stark, you copy that?!"

"I'm on it!"

"Romanoff?!"

"Huff...We're okay."

Thor grabs Loki and pulls him out of the room, possibly somewhere safe.

Bruce is groaning, he's trying to suppress his anger but he's failing. Natasha is maneuvering her leg that was stuck under the heavy object.

"Doctor..."

A Groan.

"Bruce," Natasha huffed out. "You got to fight it. We're gonna be okay. Listen to me."

Two agents appear to check and help her out but she extremely waves them away. Knowing what would possibly happen, the two bolted out of there.

"We're gonna be okay," she continues, ignoring the growl coming from Bruce. "Alright? I swear on my life, I will get you out of this, you will walk away, and never ever—"

"Your life?!" Bruce finally turns to face her, angry, voice deeper. A part of his face is green. He's growing, shirt ripping slightly. Natasha is now prying her leg off of the object. He fell off, growing even more, then turning back to her, fear in his eyes. Natasha stares back.

"Bruce..." she whispers.

Her only response was a growl, in which she began to move her leg out once again. Once she was able to, she got off, turning back to Bruce, to Hulk. He looks back at her, now growling. Natasha runs up the stairs with the Hulk chasing after her. She jumps up, grabs the railing, and lifts herself up. Rolling under the turbine and crawling through the pipes, the Hulk follows, like a predator following its prey. She managed to escape, making Hulk let out a roar.

Thor and Loki stop running, looking at one another.

"Did you hear that?" Loki exhales out.

"Aye."

On the Bridge, Fury runs in, seeing the chaos around him.

"Bring the carrier about to one-eight-zero headed south! Take us to the water."

"Navigations recalibrated after the engine failure."

"Is the sun coming up?!"

"...yes, sir."

"Then put it on the left! Get us over water! One more turbine goes down and we drop!"

On the Helicarrier port, Steve pulls the door to the port side. The third engine is not looking good right now. A large wedge of the port side is torn off.

"Stark!" Steve yells in his earpiece. "Stark, I'm here!"

"Good. Let's see what we got." Tony, in his Iron Man suit, flies over, getting a close look at the engine, and observing every damage and layout. "I gotta get this superconducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors and work on dislodging the debris."

Tony then starts to push the stuck rotors, looking over Steve, and points.

"I need you to get that engine control panel and tell me what relays are in overload position."

Steve nods at that and Tony flies into the cooling conductor. Steve jumps over to the other side of the broken railing, trying to go where he needs to go. Once he's there, he opens the control panel.

"What's it look like in there?"

"It seems to run on some sort of electricity."

"Well...you're not wrong." Who knew the captain could be quite witty?

Tony continues to blast any broken debris off the engine.

"The relays are intact! What's our next move?"

"Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump. I'm gonna have to get in there and push." Tony answers.

"Well if that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded!"

"Then stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to stay magla—"

"Speak English!"

Tony represses a sigh. "See that red lever? It'll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it, wait for my word."

Steve looks to the other side where the lever is, moves back, and jumps towards it.

Natasha continues to stealth away from the catwalk, only to stop, hearing the thumps. The room vibrates. She pulls out her gun, slowly looking around. Then, the roar from the Hulk came towards her left, very, very close to her. She fires a shot into the pipe, the smoke hitting the Hulk's face. Hulk, in return, smacks it.

Natasha runs through the corridor, the Hulk following from behind, tearing the hallway. Then the Hulk slaps her into the wall, falling on the floor. Natasha looks up and for the first time in so long, she's afraid, more afraid than anything.

Loki and Thor had been following the roar, chasing, running towards it. Loki turns to his right and pulls his brother to a halt, his eyes widen at what he is staring at.

"Thor, Thor, Thor," he smacks his brother's shoulder, pointing with his other hand. The two see, who seems to be...Banner, except different to put it lightly, slapping Natasha to the side.

"Loki, stand back," Thor tells him before running to the beast.

The Hulk raises his hand once again to smack her but is tackled away by Thor, tackling him to the next room. Both of them roll off the floor, looking at one another, ignoring the workers who were running away. Natasha pants, not believing what just happened. Loki ran to Natasha, checking on her.

"Are you alright?" Loki implores, worried in his eyes. He places both hands on each side of her face, carefully maneuvering it, trying to see if there are any injuries.

Immediately, Natasha feels relaxed and safe when she sees the beautiful prince. She nods quickly, catching her breath.

"Are you injured anywhere? Any bleeding? Any—"

Natasha rests her head on his chest, near his shoulder, listening to his heartbeat which quickens the pace. Right now, she needs to calm herself down on what just happened a few seconds ago. She could have died. If Hulk smacking her to a wall left her breathless and possibly with broken ribs, who knows what would have happened if Thor and Loki weren't there... Natasha leans in more, pressing her face closer to the prince's clavicle. Don't judge her, she just experiences that and a very handsome gorgeous prince is worried for her safety, she has every right to be needed comfort by him. Loki visibly relaxes and wraps his arm around her, squeezing her shoulder in comfort before his hand up and down her back. Goodness, he hopes he's doing this alright.

"It is alright, now," says Loki, looking back to where his brother is, combing his free hand through her hair, which simply helped her relax even more.

He wishes to go and help Thor out but right now, Natasha probably needs him more. So, he stays there, waiting until she doesn't need him any longer. It's not that he worries for his brother's life or anything, he knows he can handle himself. It's more on Bruce's life but then again, who knows, maybe his strength challenges his brother's?

The Hulk movers around, roaring at Thor before making his move. He swings and misses. He swings again and misses, but Thor adds his very own swing, striking him in the face. Getting annoyed now, Hulk tries to bring his arm down only for Thor to use his hand to stop him, adding his other.

"We're not your enemies, Banner," Thor grunts out. "Try to think!"

Hulk lifts his arm and punches him, sending him back.

Loki can't see them fight but he can sure as hell hear them. Bruce must be strong to not be phased by Thor's punches. He hears his brother trying to talk to Bruce, only to hear something that so happens to sound like a hit, and someone colliding into something. Loki tensed at that. Judging by the very loud footsteps, Thor was the one who was hit. Loki softly cursed, squeezing Natasha a little tighter, either trying to comfort her or himself or both, continuing to run his hand through her hair. He can sense Angrboða getting worried for the older prince.

"Go," he hears Natasha.

He looks down at her, frowning. "I..."

"I'll be fine, Thor needs you right now. I, I just need to compose myself," she looks up at him. Loki honestly doesn't believe her but nods nonetheless, telling her to be careful, moving her where she can lean against a wall, and running off to Thor and Bruce.

Thor crashes into another pile of crates. He lifts his head, feeling something. He wipes across his nose and sees that he's bleeding. He smirks at that, ignoring the roar not that far from where he was, and extends his hand out. The roar is getting more louder and closer but Thor ignores it, concentrating and focusing, not at all worried. Just as the Hulk came right at him, Mjolnir flew and went to his hand, letting Thor uppercut Hulk, making him crash into a fighter jet. Hulk lets out a frustrated growl, rips out the tail of the jet, and throws it at Thor, who slides and ducks under it. He then throws Mjolnir at Hulk who catches it but to his surprise, knocks him back. he tries to lift the hammer, but lo and behold, he can't, no matter how he tries. Being distracted, Thor took the chance to knee Hulk in the face. He grabs his hammer, using the hammer to lock him into a chokehold.

Fury checks his monitors as Hill walks past. "We need a full evac on the lower hanger bay."

Hill nods, heading to the exit. Then she sees something sliding on the floor, what looks to be a...

"Grenade!"

As she yells that out, she turns back, and grabs the agent that she walked passed by, going over the railing, just in time as the grenade went off.

Fury pulls his gun out, moving behind the side of the entrance. Clint's men walked in, ready to shoot anyone on eyesight. As Fury can see two of them, he grabs the rifle from the second, and hits him with his gun, shooting at the first one who turns back. Once he was done with the second one, he marched towards the first one, pistol-whipping him, and kneeing him.  He doesn't see the third one who aims his rifle at Fury. He was about to duck when the third one was shot by Hill.

"We got perimeter breach! Hostiles are in SHIELD gear. Hold on to every junction," said an agent.

Hulk crashes under the floor, grabbing Thor with him, and sending them both to the ground. He groans. He knows he's supposed to stop Banner from hurting anyone and everything but...he's having fun. He never had this fun since Loki fell. He never had a challenger that could match him. Not being able to get himself up, Hulk grabs him by the neck and lifts him. Simultaneously, Fury, Hill, and other agents are having a shootout with Clint's men.

"We have the Hulk and Thor are in research level 4, numbers two and three are done!" said one of the agents.

"Sir, the Hulk will tear this place apart!" Hill exclaims.

"Get his attention."

"Escort 60, proceed to wishbone an engage hostile!" Hill pressed her earpiece. "Don't get too close!"

"Copy."

The pilot heads his way to his destination, seeing the fight between Hulk and Thor.

"Target acquired."

Hulk grabs Thor, hurls him to the wall hard, and slams him to the ground, groaning.

"Banner!"

Thor widens at the familiar voice. Oh, no.

"Loki, no," Thor grunts out, getting up.

The Hulk turns at the captivating voice, eyes widening at the sight of Loki. Beautiful.

Simply. Beautiful.

"Bruce, please," Loki smiles at him, not breaking eye contact.

Hulk slowly walks towards the beautiful god. Honestly, Loki can't tell if he's blushing or not, he's, well, green. Loki also walks to the Hulk, hoping his presence will soothe him. He seems to be getting smaller. That's a good sign, no? However, the poor pilot who was seeing this thought the Hulk was going to hurt the gorgeous prince.

"Target engaged!"

With that, the pilot pulls the trigger, firing at the Hulk. Bullets hit Hulk everywhere, Thor runs to his brother, yanking him down behind the crates and covering him from the bullets. Hulk turns, letting out a roar, starts running, and leaps out. Towards the pilot.

"Target angry, Target angry!"

Loki gets up, pulling Thor with him.

"Where's Banner?"

Loki answers the question by grabbing Thor's jawline and making him see what he is seeing, staring at the green thing on the jet, destroying it. Thor pulls his brother to somewhere safe, resting his weight on the younger brother, supporting most of his weight. He extends his hand out for Mjolnir.

"The Mighty Thor," Loki grins. "Beaten by a mortal."

"A mortal who can turn into another form, bigger and enormous than me...I wish to fight with him once again."

Loki shakes his head, tsking at his brother. Suddenly, everything began to tilt.

Chapter Text

Thor doesn't know what happened. One moment, his brother was helping him, and the two were near what Banner was talking about, the cell, and then, everything started to tilt, Clint's men were nearby, shooting at them (well, more at Thor than Loki), he pushes his brother inside, everything was tilting, someone opens the cell, somehow he is in the cell, his brother is being taken away much to his horror, and now he's falling.

The container is moving around, flipping too much. He's gravely trying to break the glass, swinging his hammer around, and just as he is about to hit the cracked glass he hit prior, he begins to fall back, colliding with the other side. He supported himself against the glass, waiting for the right time, looking at the cracked glass.

Focus...focus...

Then, he flings himself to it, breaking through the glass with Mjolnir, just in time the cell hits the ground, just like Thor crashes to the ground, skidding like a rock to a river. 

An hour after what happened to Thor, meanwhile, Tony, Steve, and Fury are at the table, the two formers sitting while the latter is standing. Natasha decides to stay with Clint, Bruce is nowhere to be seen, Thor is gone, and...and Loki has been taken. 

It...infuriates the two of them, knowing the beautiful prince was taken away, where they could have stopped them, they could have saved Loki. Fury walks around the table to the two.

"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier..."

Tony stays looking down while Steve looks at Fury before looking back at the table.

"There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative," Fury then reaches between the two. "The idea was to put a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more, see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could..." 

Thor looks around the field, looking for his hammer. Once he finally found Mjolnir, he reached his hand out, stilled, then curled his hand into a fist. Loki has been taken. He has once again been kidnapped. And once again, he wasn't able to protect his brother. Thunder rumbles in the distance. They're going to pay, they're all going to pay. He grabs his hammer and raises it to the sky. Lightning and thunder answered his calls, sensed his anger, clashing with his hammer, anyone a mile away would have been blind by it. It's not too late, Thor knows it, he can find his brother and bring him home.

Near where Thor stands is an abandoned building, where Bruce wakes up, naked and surrounded by rubble, a hole in the ceiling.

"You fell out of the sky."

Bruce looks up to see a security guard, looking down at him. He rubs his head, looking up. 

"Did I hurt anybody?" 

"There was nobody around here to get hurt. You did scare the hell out of some pigeons though."

"...lucky."

"Or just a good aim. You were awake when you fell." 

"...you saw?" 

"The whole thing, right through the ceiling. Big and green and buck-ass nude. Here," he threw a pair of pants to Bruce. "Didn't think those would fit you until you shrunk down into a regular size fella." 

"Thank you." 

"Are you an alien?" 

"What?" Bruce finally puts the pants on, standing and looking up at him.

"From outer space, an alien?" 

"No," Bruce huffs out a laugh. 

"Well then, son, you've got a condition." 

Loki stays quiet, arm crossed and staring up ahead, ignoring all the stares that he's been receiving. He's angry at himself, he's very capable of fighting and defending himself, the butt of a weapon shouldn't have taken him out! Yet, here he is. Loki nevertheless still kept his head raised, showing defiance to whoever was looking at him...which is everyone. Loki grinds his teeth when he recalls what happened to Thor. He's not dead, Loki knows that. He's not dead, he's a God, and falling from the sky wouldn't kill him. It does not stop the pit in his stomach from growing. 

They walk him out of the carrier, one putting a hand under his back gently. Even under mind control, they still treat him like a fragile thing. He hates it.

For all the love he has for his family, he hates this.

When he was taken, he involuntarily left Angrboða in the cell. Agent Coulson was there, helping him and his brother, someone had the scepter, ready to stab him but Loki pulled out Angrboða and stabbed them first. Unfortunately, that's when someone hit him in the back of the head, knocking him out enough to take him away.

He can sense her, panicking. He reassures her, sending her love and comfort but it doesn't seem to work this time. 

The portal seems to be almost ready. One approaches him, holding the staff. The beautiful prince glares at it in annoyance before grabbing it. Everything changes, the room now moves to a throne nearby, with The Other lingering.

"Dearest Prince...you betrayed us, lie to us..." 

"I did."

"The Chitauri grow restless, our sweet prince." 

"How unfortunate," Loki clicks his tongue.

The two continued, The Other mainly, speaking about how he felt about the betrayal (much to Loki's boredom), what he's going to do to him (...much to Loki's fear), what the army is going to do to him once they're done after the invasion (again, much to his fear).

Loki scoffs, regardless, giving him a cold glare. "If your force is formidable as you claim." 

"You question us? Question him? He, who put the scepter in your hand, who gave you ancient knowledge. He who gave you his devotion and love?!" 

"I do not want his devotion or his love," Loki pauses then gives The Other his sad, yet beautiful, look. "But... Don't you want me? Don't you love me?" 

"..."

"You told me you would do anything for me," he pouts. "You told me you would do anything to have me. If you want my love, then don't do this. I don't want his love but, I do not mind having yours..."

Loki walks towards the Other, smiling at him. "If you help me, I can give you what you want. It is me, you want, is it not? You can have it... All you need to do is tell the army to stop..."

"...I now see what you are, prince of lies. One way or another, we will have you. If you refuse, no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he can't find you. He will make you long for something as sweet as pain." The Other puts his hand on the prince's head and transports him back to where he was. The conversation left a bad taste in his mouth, he thought he would have fallen for it.

He hopes the others will come.

Clint grunts, trying to get off the restraints. His head hurts, everything hurts. Someone is near, calling out to him. He shakes his head swiftly, trying to ease the pain.

"Clint...you're gonna be alright." 

"You know that?" He laughs. "Is that what you know? I got, I got no window, I have to flush him out." 

Everything seems to be better now, slowly but surely. He hears liquid pouring, water as it seems.

"You got to level out, it's going to take time." 

"Oh, you don't understand. Have you ever had someone take your brain and play?" Clint looks up at Natasha. "Pull you out and stuff something else in? Do you know what it's like to be unmade?" 

She stares back. "You know that I do." 

He inhales and exhales, trying to calm himself, looking around. 

"Why am I back? How did you get it out?" 

"Cognitive recalibration. I hit you really hard in the head."

"Thanks." Natasha begins to undo his restraints. "...Natasha, how many agents?" 

"Don't." She looks at him. "Don't do that to yourself, Clint. This is aliens. This is monsters and magic and nothing we were ever trained for."

He pauses before realizing something, quickly straightening himself.

"Loki, did they take him?!" 

"Yeah. I don't suppose you know where." 

"I didn't need to know. Didn't ask." Clint stood up, taking a drink of the water. "They're gonna make their play soon though, today." 

"We got to stop them."

"Yeah, who's we?" 

"I don't know, whoever's left." 

Clint looks down, exhaling. "Well, if I put an arrow through the enemy's eye socket, I would sleep better I suppose."

"Now, you sound like you...I know what you meant about Loki, you weren't kidding."

He chuckles. "Told you he was beautiful."

Natasha raised an eyebrow at him. 

"That is not the word you described him." 

He purses his lips, smiling at her. That was not the word he describe Loki.

Steve and Tony were at the place where Loki was taken, the latter staring at the empty cell.

"Any idea when Thor may come back?"

"Doubt it. The guy is a mama bear when it comes to his brother...We should've done something, we should've, we should've helped, save him."

"We should've and we still can, who knows what they're doing to Loki at this moment."

Tony glanced back at Steve before looking at the empty cell. "You have a thing for him."

Steve's face heats up, his shoulders hunched up.

"And you don't?" He replies defensively.

Tony rolls his eyes, "C'mon Cap, everyone and their mother wants to get in his pants."

"I mean, he's, uh, he's a nice, a great, um, part—friend, companion, and, and, he's a very, I don't—"

He rambles on, Tony looking back and semi-smirking until he catches something lying on the floor.

"Angrboða?"

"And, and Angrboða is also—"

"No, no," Tony points at the dagger a few feet away from the two. "Angrboða!"

"What?"

Tony walks over to Angrboða, kneeling. The fiery orb in the middle of the cross-guard is glowing brightly then dimly fading as though she was trying to grab their attention. He recalls Loki telling him that someone has to earn her trust to allow her to hold and use her.

"Um, hey, uh, Angrboða." Tony looks over at Steve who has his eyebrow raised before turning back at her. "I know I must earn your trust and I'm, I'm sure you're, uh, worried for Loki and his whereabouts, but um..."

This is pretty freaking weird to talk to a damn dagger of all things. A sentient dagger. Tony wonders...

Is Thor's hammer sentient, too?

He shakes his head. Now's not the time.

"Here's the deal, um, madam, if you let me carry you, then we'll take you back to Loki. How's that sound?"

The dagger didn't respond to him, but the green orb did glow brighter. Welp here goes nothing. He takes a deep breath, preparing himself to fail but to his shock, he was able to pick Angrboða up. She was pretty light, as a matter of fact, possibly light as a bottle of water. It then went back to fading and glowing. Tony frowns, wanting to touch the orb.

"Are you...okay?" Steve glances between the Angrboða and him.

He doesn't know why but something is telling him that Angrboða is trying to inform him about something.

"Stark?"

Next thing the two know, Tony touches the orb, making his eyes glow green.

"Tony?!" Steve tries to grab the dagger away but fails; Tony only grips it more.

Not two seconds later, Tony's eyes went back to normal, now having mixed expressions.

"Tony?" Steve frowns. "You alright?"

"I...know where Loki is..."

"..."

"Sonofabitch," he quickly walked away before calling back to the captain. "Get ready, going to Stark Tower, about to go yell at someone!"

That's when Steve heads his way to the medical room, walking in, in his full suit though without the helmet. Natasha turns, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Time to go."

"Go where?"

"I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?"

Then, Clint comes out of the restroom, looking at the captain.

"I can."

Steve looks at Natasha, frowning. Is he alright?

She nodded, confirming.

"You got a suit?" He turns back at Clint.

"Yeah."

"Then, suit up." With that, he walks out.

Tony heads his way to his tower, Angrboða in his snuggly compartment, seeing Selvig activating the device that's holding the Tesseract. Shit.

"Sir? I just took off the arc reactor. The device is already self-sustained." Shit.

"Shut it down, Dr. Selvig," Tony calls out.

"It's too late! It can't stop now!"

Dr. Selvig looks at the device before looking up at Tony, grinning like a madman. "He wants to show us something! A new universe."

"...okay," Tony held his hand up, shooting a blaster at the device. However, much to his dismay, it only blasts Dr. Selvig backward, knocking him out. It also flew him back as well but he managed himself. He sees the device is still left in one piece.

"The barrier is pure energy. It's unbreachable." Jarvis explains.

"Yeah, I got that."

He looks down, spotting someone worth looking at. The beautiful, captivating, bewitching, Prince Loki, looking up at him, smiling. The blast must have caught his attention.

It also must have caught the agents' attention as well as they ran out, pointing their weapons at him, two more dragging the prince back inside. It didn't take that long to take most of them down. He shoots his blaster at two agents near one another, making them fly off and shoot the others. He then takes one down by slamming him.

Loki sighs, crossing his leg over the other, sitting on the bar, taking a sip of his drink. Once realizing that he was currently in Stark's residency, he decided to look around, finding a bar with interesting drinks, some he never heard of. He's sure Tony wouldn't mind, maybe even endorse it. He tried flirting with the agents, hoping his beauty could break their spell but it didn't do anything other than receive amusing reactions, mostly the agents swooning or proposing. Just as he was starting to feel impatient, he heard a loud commotion from outside. Before anyone can stop him, he runs out, seeing the Man of Iron hovering above him and...

He feels Angrboða!

He smiles at him and even lets out a laugh when Stark pulls Angrboða out from his compartment inside and shows it to him like a child showing their parents something exciting. Suddenly, he's being yanked back by two agents, going back inside while the others begin to shoot at him, though he's sure Stark can handle himself. He humors the two agents for a bit, smiling at one of them, squeezing both of their shoulders.

Before he kicks one on the back of his leg, tripping him, then turns to the other, grabbing him by the neck and slamming him hard on the ground, and spinning back to strike his foot on the head who is trying to get back up. Once checking to see if none of them will get back up, he rushes out to help, grabbing one of the batons they have.

Loki rams himself to one of the last remaining agents to the ground, lightly rolling himself up and striking the man with a baton. He swirls around and throws the baton at the last agent. The prince took a deep breath and let it out, looking back at Stark and Angrboða.

"Hello, Man of Iron. I see you brought my darling dagger with you," he smiles, tucking a few loose strands behind his ear.

"..."

Loki's smile falters a little.

"Uh...hello?"

"...god...damn...that was ho—hoh!" He quickly recovers, raising his hand and ready to blast the remaining agent who's holding the scepter.

However, the agent blasts Stark first, making him fly back dropping Angrboða but was luckily caught by Loki. Quickly, he twirls around, throwing the dagger at the agent, hitting the agent right in the open shoulder. It caused the agent to miss the shot, blasting a few feet away from where Loki stands. Unfortunately, the blast was powerful enough for Loki to fall off the penthouse.

"Loki!"

Loki hears someone call for him, but he's too busy flipping around and falling. Now and then, he sees a bright color blur getting closer to him. Next thing he knows, someone places one arm under his legs and the other propping up on his back.

The prince studies Tony's faceplate, then looks down, seeing how close he is to becoming a splattered body. Loki pales before wrapping around Stark's shoulder. Tony flies up close to where the prince fell, blasting the agent with the scepter (and Angrboða in his shoulder) back, knocking the agent out.

He retracts his faceplate, looking at him with a worried expression on his face.

"Are you alright?" He asks the prince.

Loki gazes at him and then grins.

"My hero," he says playfully, relieved.

Loki reached up and gave him a slow light peck on the corner of his lower lip for three seconds. Three seconds!

Tony gawks at the prince with wide eyes, gaping at him, opening and closing his mouth, trying to say something, feeling his face getting hotter.

"I, I, I, uh, um, I, uh—" Tony stutters out. "This, that, uh, this, that... Wow, that had never happened before."

"Someone thanking you by giving you a kiss?"

"No, no, I, I, just," Tony clears his throat. "Acting like, uh, this."

Loki pursed his lips, smiling at him, and giving him...an unreadable yet familiar stare. "Is that right?"

"I, um, heh," Tony grins back, face getting more flush by the second.

Their moment didn't last long as a loud sound disrupts it and gazes up at the sky, seeing a bright blue beam shoot into it. It creates an enormous vortex, opening a portal. The two can see it. Space. And the Chitauri army quickly made their presence known.

"Oh, no," Loki whispers.

"Right. Army."

"Where are the others?!"

"Running late!" Tony gently put the prince down. "Stay here, I'm gonna go and do, well, something."

He clamps his faceplate back and flies up to the portal. From his shoulder, several mini rocket launchers come out and fire at them, taking out many. Regardless, it was still futile, as thousands of the army fly out, making their way to the streets of New York. Loki stares up with a determined look on his face before walking towards the unconscious agent, pulling Angrboða out. With quick work, he wipes the blood out even though she's going to get dirtied again. He kisses the cross-guard, mumbling about how he missed her, before placing her back in his person.

Then, he grabs the scepter.

"Earth is under our protection, Angrboða," he tells her. "So, let us demonstrate they picked the wrong realm, shall we?"

Loki smiles when he feels Angrboða's anticipation when someone calls his name.

"Loki!" He turns to see his brother, a little disheveled.

"Thor!" Loki jumps down the balcony, rushing to the elder, frowning at his messiness. "What took you so long?!"

"Forgive me, brother, but I did fall from the sky."

Loki's mouth twitches, slowly growing into a small smile. His brother reciprocates before frowning, his forehead crinkling, worried.

"Are you well?"

"Yes, brother," Loki smiles, flicking his brother's forehead before getting serious. "It's time for battle, Thor."

Thor didn't argue with the younger and wrapped his arm around Loki before swinging Mjolnir and the two flew down. Thor then lets go of his brother, and he lands on one of the Chitauri, stabbing right through the back with the scepter while Thor slams his hammer on another. The two continue to fight, not noticing Tony flying by, with a trail of the Chitauri following him behind or the Quinjet coming closer to them.

"Stark, we're on your three, heading northeast," Natasha informs him.

"What, did you stop for drive-thru? Swing up Park, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you." Tony swirls around through buildings, the Chitauri still hot on his heel, then dives down a little closer to the street, then ascends back up, some of the enemy crashing. Taking a left, he flies away, exposing them in sight of Quinjet, more so allowing Natasha to light the Chitauri up from the machine gun, firing all of them.

Meanwhile, Thor and Loki continue to fight on the streets against the aliens, Loki blasting energy at them as Thor slams his hammer at them, occasionally throwing it, killing many. It's easier for the two of them, to use Loki's beauty as an advantage to distract them. Loki at one point jumps on a flipped car, then at one of the Chitauri soldiers' heads, and strikes one down, slamming the scepter against its head but before the others around the prince can try to murder him, he casually leans against the car, tilting his head, smirking and giving them that look, diverting them. Right when the soldiers pause, Thor throws Mjolnir at them, not missing any of the Chitauris, until none of them have heads. The brother grins at one another then have their backs against each other, with their weapons up, ready to win this battle.

Just like old times.

Loki looks up just in time to see a few of the Chitauri manage to land an energy blast at the Quinjet, the wing caught fire, spinning and ready to crash down. Loki uses his spell to carefully and safely land the Quinjet on the ground. Inside, once everyone realizes they're fine, Clint and Natasha unfasten their seatbelt and open the ramp. Following Steve out, they pull out their weapon, preparing for the worst. The three meet up with Thor and Loki in the middle, however before anyone can say anything, a loud deep roar from above, catches all of their attention. As they look up, they see an enormous worm-like alien, known as the Chitauri Leviathan Loki once told Thor, flying out of the portal, carrying soldiers. It passes right above them, Chitauri soldiers shoot out, securing themselves against buildings and some even crash into windows, where the innocent are hiding.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve comms.

"I'm seeing, still working on believing. Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?"

"Banner?"

"Just keep me posted."

"We got civilians trapped in one of those buildings," Clint tries to explain only to be interrupted by a group of Chitauri starts shooting up the streets.

"Those people need assistance down there," Steve agrees, looking down at the bridge.

Chitauri soldiers land close to the group, starting to fire at them. Natasha pulls out her two pistols and shoots back.

"We got this. It's good, go," She tells Steve.

"You think you can hold them off?"

"Captain," Clint looks over, smirking, pressing a button on his bow. "It would be my genuine pleasure."

In one quick move, he pulls an arrow and lands a hit at one of the Chitauri.

"I shall assist you," Loki grips the scepter, nodding at the Captain.

"Let's go."

The two jump off the bridge, missing the explosion following them as the remaining three fight the rest of the Chitauri. Thor flies off, fighting off the Chitauris flying by and shooting, while Clint runs towards the bus full of people, helping children out through the window, then wrenches the jammed door open pointing them to a safe place as Natasha continues to shoot at the soldiers. He joins her, shooting arrow after arrow, not missing his target.

"Just like Budapest all over again!" Natasha comments.

"You and I remember Budapest very differently."

The cops continue to shoot at the flying aliens, even though it seems a bit useless. One of the cops runs over to another.

"It's going to be an hour before the National Guard."

"National Guard?!" 

The two barely miss the energy blast, hitting the police car behind them.

"Does the army know what's happening here?!"

"Do we?"

Before one can answer, Steve jumps in front of them.

"You need men in these buildings. There are people inside and they're gonna be running right into the line of fire. You take them through the basement or through the subway." He commands them. "You keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far as thirty-ninth."

"Why the hell should I take orders from you?"

Just in time, an explosion was set off behind Steve and would have knocked all of them down if it wasn't for Loki using his abilities to protect them. Steve blocks an energy blast with his shield when two Chitauri soldiers begin to attack him but he defeats the two of them in a matter of seconds. Once done, Loki stands next to him, raising an eyebrow at the cops, whose jaws are wide open.

"I propose you should listen to the Captain," Loki says nonchalantly.

"..."

When Loki narrows his eyes at them, it snaps the main cop, turning to his men.

"I need men in those buildings, lead the people down and away from the streets. We're gonna set a perimeter all the way down on thirty-ninth street," he orders.

Loki and Steve smiled at one another at that interaction until something caught Loki's attention.

"Steve, you're bleeding."

"What?" He looks down, seeing his forearm having a deep gash. "Huh, would you look at that, I am."

Loki tsk before hovering his hand above the forearm, chanting a spell, and with a blink of an eye, the gash disappears.

"Healing has never been my strongest but I thank Mother for teaching me a few," Loki gives Steve a small smile, making his heart jump out of his throat. "Please do be careful."

Steve only nodded rapidly, before being able to speak out. "Let's go help."

Meanwhile, Tony fires out mini rocket launchers at the Chitauri Leviathan who roars and turns.

"Well," Tony starts. "We got his attention. What the hell is step two?"

Immediately, he flies off, the worm-like alien hot on his tail. Clint trips a soldier and then jams an arrow at it while Natasha is electrocuting one. One was able to tackle Clint but slice the arrow across its throat and Natasha grabbed one of the soldier's weapon, using it against it. Loki and Steve join them, killing others who are about to kill the other two. Just as they were surrounded, lightning struck down, hitting the Chitauri, now all dead, Thor landed in front of them.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asks.

"The powers surrounding the cube are impenetrable."

"Thor's right," Tony butts in. "We gotta deal with these guys."

"How do we do this?" Natasha asks.

"As a team."

"Whatever you are planning, I implore you to tell us."

"We got Stark up top, he's gonna need us to—"

All of them were distracted by a motor sound, turning to see Bruce, on a motorbike, slowing to a stop, parked the motorbike, and getting off of it.

"So," he says. "This all seems horrible."

"I've seen worse," replied Natasha.

"...sorry."

"No, we could use a little worse."

"Stark, we got him."

"Banner?"

"Just like you said."

"Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you."

Next thing they all know, Tony comes into view, with the Chitauri Leviathan following him. Loki raises an eyebrow at the creature while Thor prepares for it and the others stare at it with mixed emotions.

"I, I don't see how that's a party."

Following his every move, the Chitauri descends to the streets, destroying everything in its path. Bruce then begins to walk towards the alien.

"Dr. Banner," Steve said. "Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."

"That's my secret, Captain..." Bruce looks back, smiling. "I'm always angry."

Chapter Text

Seeing Bruce turning was something Loki never thought he would ever witness. Seeing Bruce turning, getting bigger, stronger, and...green until he officially looks how Loki saw him for the first time. Then he swung his fist straight in the nose of the Leviathan, making it slowly flip over and screaming in pain, and even though it was ready to fall on top of them, it was...it was...

Incredible.

"Hold on!" Tony flew by extending his arm out, shooting rockets at it. It kills the alien, exploding its body and armor. Thor grabs Loki and pulls the youngest behind him as Clint covers near a flip car and Steve raises his shield, covering both him and Natasha. Pieces of the alien worm fly off, destroying whatever it lands. The Chitauri army near seeing this, one ripping off its mask, letting out a roar, though it was not as loud as Hulk. The six heroes stand side by side, back to back, ready for battle.

"What are you all doing?" They turned to see Loki on the side, pursing his lips in an attempt to hide his smile, and tilting his head fondly.

Just when everything seemed fine (or as fine as it gets), more aliens came out of the portal, more leviathans, more soldiers.

"Guys," Natasha gains their attention.

"Call it, Captain."

"Alright, listen up," Steve starts. "Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got that perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

"Wanna give me a lift?"

"Right, better clench up, Legolas." Tony walks next to Clint, grabbing him from the back and lifting him off the ground, flying to where he's supposed to be.

Steve continues, "Thor, you got to try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down, you got the lightning. Light the bastards up."

Thor nods and tells the captain to watch over his brother before swinging his hammer and flying off. Natasha and Loki wait, looking at him.

"Two of you, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk," the said hero turning to look at Steve. "Smash."

Hulk grins at him, then leaps off to a building, where he hits soldiers, snapping one in half. He leaps to another building, smashing one and turning himself to smash the other one with his fist. He leaps to another, throwing a Chitauri soldier through the window and vaults to hit the nearby flying soldiers. He's taking the "smash" thing seriously. Thor finally flew his way to the tallest building, grabbing onto the tower, and raising Mjolnir to the sky, clouds and thunder emerging, lightning colliding with the hammer (and the building). With all his might, Thor aims his hammer at the portal and blasts it, destroying soldiers along the way, including a leviathan which explodes, killing more.

Meanwhile, on the roof, Clint keeps firing his arrow into a murder(?) of Chitauri soldiers, never missing his target.

"Stark," he comms. "You got a lot of strings sticking your tail."

"Just trying to keep him off the streets."

"Well, they can't bank worth a damn," not looking, he aims his back behind, hitting one. "Find a tight corner."

"I will Roger that."

As so, Tony leads the soldiers on, right in Clint's view. He aims his bow, firing an arrow, attached to one of the riders. The longer it stayed, the more it began to melt it, tearing it apart. With the help of Iron Man, he shoots the rest, flying off. He somehow leads them to a parking garage tunnel, one getting destroyed and another colliding with a building once they are out.

"Oh boy," Tony says, to no one in particular.

Once again leading them to another tunnel, he moves around, making the Chitauri soldiers smash against the walls, destroying themselves from the impact.

"Nice call," He tells Clint. "What else you got?"

"Well, Thor's taking on a squadron down on Sixth."

"...and he didn't invite me?"

Another Leviathan flew, looking for more victims to kill. It turns to the building near it, citizens hiding in fear and shock. Right as the worm alien crashes into and people back away from the window, they turn to see Hulk running towards the beast. He crashes out the window, grabbing onto the alien's tooth, and dragging it down. While dragging it down, its side crashes against the windows though nevertheless it falls.

Back on the ground, Natasha was slammed against a car, a Chitauri soldier was ready to stab her but she moved away, wrapping her legs around its chest and shoulder before taking it down by injuring the back of the neck and then using its weapon to kill it. She turns back, thinking it is another one, ready to shoot until realizing it is only Steve, raising his shield along with Loki behind him, all three looking disheveled from the fighting. Natasha slumps against the car.

"Boys, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal," she informs them, looking up at it.

"Our biggest gun couldn't touch it."

"Well, maybe it's not about guns," she then gestures to the soldiers riding in their ship.

"No, it's not," Loki agrees before twirling the scepter out to Natasha for her to take it. "The scepter is just as strong as the Tesseract. Close the portal, Natasha."

"You wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride."

"I got a ride," she says, eyeing one of the mini ships. "I could use the boost though."

"You can do this," Loki smiles, placing his hand on her shoulder.

Natasha stares at the prince of beauty before putting her hand on top of his, like how he did back when they were in the room together, giving him a small smile and nodding. "I'll end this, Loki."

Loki smiles at her then runs back to fight Chitauri soldiers close by, pulling out Angrboða. Natasha begins to walk to the other side of the bridge, Steve readying his shield.

"You sure about this?"

"Yeah, it's gonna be fun."

With that, Natasha runs at Steve, jumping on the car, then on his shield, the owner giving her the boost she needed to hang on her ride, flying off. She starts to climb onto the ride, cutting the shooter's chain and then kicking him off of it. The assassin then plunges her knife into the back of the rider, maneuvering it.

"Turn, turn, left!"

Others are following her behind, shooting at her but with the help of Tony, he shoots them and joins Steve and Loki, shooting more on his way. He lands next to Steve, Loki a bit far from them, stabbing soldiers upon soldiers and occasionally using his magic. Both getting an idea, Steve lifts his shield and Tony shoots his blasters at it, ricochetting it and taking down the Chitauri that was near. He then flies off, blasting and knocking down a few of them that were climbing near the buildings. On the same building, Clint shoots out one of his arrows almost on the ledge, then shoots at one of the carriages, taking it down and slamming it against a Chitauri Leviathan, which Hulk and Thor are riding on, fighting against the soldiers on it as well as tearing the worm alien apart, working as a team. Hulk breaks a large piece of armor and slams it down on the Leviathan, where Thor then slams his hammer, with a side of lightning, bringing it down. It crashes into a museum, the two standing side by side, looking at what they've done to it. And Hulk punches Thor, making the god go flying off somewhere. Payback is a bitch, isn't it?

Back on the ground, Loki and Steve were fighting side by side.

"Steve!" He warns him.

Said man had enough time to turn and lift his shield from a blast that could have injured him. The soldiers start to shoot at him when suddenly one by one are getting killed by something Steve can't see. Wait, where's Loki?! As Steve blocks and fights with them, the last one is close to blasting him when something impales it in the chest. Loki, along with Angrboða, reappears from behind, being the culprit.

"...Woah."

Loki merely smiles at the captain, pulling Angrboða out of the Chitauri and tucking some strands behind his ear.

"You disappear on me, Prince," Steve smiles back.

"You'd be surprised the amount of times I had to turn invisible to escape my—"

Loki couldn't escape as one of the Chitauri carriages flew by, grabbing Loki along the way.

"Loki!"

Steve couldn't have time to chase it when a Chitauri tackled him, pinning him and ready to stab him with his weapon. Luckily, the captain moved it aside, punching the arm aside and to the ground.

"Captain, the bank on Forty-second past Madison. They cornered a lot of civilians in there."

"I'm on it but Loki has been taken."

"On it," Clint echoes, before searching for the prince.

In the hostage, Chitauri soldiers aim their weapons at the hostages, one with a bomb that starts beeping. Steve comes in through a broken window, throwing his shield at the one who was holding it, catching the others' attention. The two raised the weapon at him now, shooting. He runs to a flip table for cover, the bomb still beeping. He kicks the table at them, knocking one over. Steve jumps over the table, punching the remaining one then puts it in the headlock, not caring that he has an audience, throwing it off the second floor.

"Everyone, clear out!" He declares when one of the soldiers grabs him from behind, pulling off his helmet.

Steve elbows him just as it successfully pulls it off, the other still alive raises the weapon at the captain but he flips over the grabber, using him as a shield. The bomb now beeping faster than ever. The soldier frantically tries to pick up the bomb, giving Steve time to get his actual shield, finally grabbing the bomb and ready to throw it at him, just as Captain was ready but the bomb finally exploded, killing the Chitauri and blasting Steve out of the window, landing on a car. He gets off, looking around the destroyed streets and buildings.

It wasn't long before Clint found Loki, struggling before stabbing the kidnapper and accidentally falling from his ride. With no hesitation, Clint leaps off the building he's in, grasping Loki midair and landing on the roof of another building that was thankfully close. Clint groans, using his body to break the prince's fall before getting up, and helping the other.

"Are you okay, Loki?" Clint frowns, checking if he has any visible injuries.

"Thanks to you, I am now," Loki smiles at him, making the poor man go a little red.

"W, well I couldn't let someone as lovely as you fall," he retorts.

"Is that so?"

Loki then raises an eyebrow knowingly until his eyes widen and pulls his savior down, dodging the energy blast just in time. Loki uses his magic, creating an energy blast stronger, and more powerful than the weapon, destroying many of the flying Chitauri. He looks back at Clint with a worried look.

"Are you alright?"

"...thanks to you, I am now," Clint grins using the prince's own words.

Loki laughs at that, giving Clint a small peck on the temple as gratitude before he suddenly disappears on him, leaving the flush man alone, letting what just happened sink in, reaching to his temple and touching where Loki just kissed him, slowly smiling.

"A prince just kissed me on the temple," he mumbles.

"Oh yeah, well he nearly kissed me on the lips!" 

"Shut the fuck up, Stark."

Loki uses his magic to go from place to place but is careful because too much will drain him. At the same time, he's blasting magic energy blasts from enemies to others, carriers to carriers. He lands on a high building, resting. He looks down at his dagger.

"Are you alright, my dear Angrboða?"

Angrboða sent the prince love and reassurance through their link which he appreciates, sending love and affection back. The two being separated took a toll on them, even though it was only a few hours, being so far, especially at a time like this. It's not an experience he wants to go through again.

"It's alright, Madam," Loki smiles at Angrboða. "Once we go home, I'll make sure no one will ever separate us ever again."

That declaration alone makes the dagger feel all giddy and sends the God of Mischief and Beauty so much affection and fondness that it could have overwhelmed any other person but not Loki. Their sweet moment is ruined when Angrboða suddenly sends Loki a warning. He looks up in time to see a carrier heading his way and not slowing down by any chance, going so fast that Loki only manages to get out of the way before the carrier collides against the building, the impact sending the prince, once again, falling off the building.

"I do not like this!" Why is he always the one falling?!

Lucky for them, a green, angry Hulk saw him falling and came to his, and the dagger, rescue.

Hulk wraps around Loki in one arm, using the other to hold on to a building. Using his strength, he carries the two of them onto another building, slowly placing them on the ground like a delicate flower. The green man looks proud of himself.

"Hulk saves pretty puny god!"

...should Loki feel insulted or flattered?

"You did, Hulk and I am very grateful," Loki nods, smiling at him, tilting his head playfully. "I don't have to worry about my life when my heroes will catch me when I fall."

Hulk seems to like him praising him. Loki feels Angrboða sending him encouragement and a little bit of wittiness. Loki pursed his lips before pulling the green man down and giving him a very endearing peck on the bridge of his nose, leaving him with wide eyes. He honestly couldn't tell if he was blushing or not, too green to notice any red.

"Please do destroy these poor excuses of a race."

That seems to give Hulk more motivation and determination, leaping off and destroying a nearby carrier, roaring out something along the lines of anything for the "pretty puny god". Loki laughs with Angrboða sending him what could have been a grin if she wasn't a dagger.

"Let's show them why we are the embodiment of Mischief, shall we?"

If the dagger could speak, Loki knew she would have said: "After you, Dearest."

Back with Tony, he's surrounded by the Chitauris, one slamming their weapon down on him.

"Stark, you hear me? We have a missile heading straight for the city."

"How long?!"

"Three minutes, max. Stay low and wipe out the missile."

Hearing enough of it, Tony speaks with Jarvis.

"Jarvis put everything we got into the thrusters."

"I just did."

With that, Tony flies away.

Steve and Thor fight side by side, with their weapons in hand, hitting any alien near them. As Steve turns around, he gets hit by the blast of their weapons, falling to the ground and struggling to get up.  Thor blocks their fires with Mjolnir then slams it at a flip car at them, flipping it over to the aliens, crushing and killing them.

Turning, he was about to swing his hammer to another when Loki appeared out of nowhere, using his magic to slam the alien against a nearby flipped car before stabbing his dagger and pulling her back. The brothers smile at one another until Loki's went from a smile to a frown upon seeing the captain. Thor walks over at Steve, lending a hand which he takes, picking himself up, clutching to his stomach.

"You ready for another bout?"

"What? You gettin' sleepy?"

Loki smiles at that remark. "In a battle like this, Thor is anything but, Steve. Here, let me heal you again."

Steve returns a smile himself at the prince, face slowly heating up when he feels Loki's finger pressed gently at his stomach. A few seconds later, he no longer feels pain. As Loki steps back, staring at the captain, the two are shocked when Mjolnir flies in between them, turning at the culprit. Thor, who was holding the hammer, with a blank look on his face, but his eyes telling Steve a gentle warning. Don't even think about it.

Steve's red in the face by now.

Up at the roof of Stark Tower, Selvig, now no longer under mind control, turns on the computer, as Natasha is waiting with the scepter close to the Tesseract.

"Right at the crown!" He tells her.

Quickly, she pushes the scepter, through the force field, slowly almost touching the Tesseract itself.

"I can close it," she states. "Can anybody copy?! I can shut the portal down!"

"Do it!"

"No, wait!" Tony steps in.

"Stark, these things are still coming!"

"I've got a nuke coming in and it's gonna blow in less than a minute."

Just as he finishes the sentence, he spots the missile, following not that behind.

"And I know just where to put it."

Going under it, he grips it, holding on tight. With all his power, he moves the missile along with him, steering it. He heads his way to the portal.

"Stark," Steve starts. "You know that's a one-way trip?"

"Save the rest for return, J."

"Sir," Jarvis steps in. "Shall I try Miss Potts?"

"...might as well."

Flying higher and higher, towards the portal. Everyone is looking up at him. Adding more boosters, he along with the missile flies up, through it. Still flying, Jarvis tried to say something but was cut off out of nowhere. Then the suit begins to freeze as Tony stares up at the big ship, watching the nuke explode, engulfing it. Knowing his fate, Tony closes his eyes.

Everyone waits, looking through the portal, hoping, praying.

"Come on, Stark," Natasha pleads.

They can see the explosion.

Steve and Thor share a glance before looking back up.

"Close it."

Natasha, with one last look, pushes the scepter into the Tesseract, stopping the beam from shooting up. The portal begins to slowly suck in itself. And right when it closed, then and there, Tony Stark was falling from the sky.

The team stares in shock.

"Son of a gun."

...he's still falling.

"...Thor," Loki realizes this.

"He's not slowing down."

The god then starts to swing his hammer, ready to catch him when Hulk out of nowhere, catches the falling man, grabbing onto a building to slow down. Twisting himself, until he's landing on the ground next to them, breaking Tony's fall. They all rush to him, Loki pulling him until the head is on his elbow pit and Thor ripping the plates off, throwing it somewhere else. Steve checks Tony's heart, pressing his head against his chest. Nothing.

Loki looks between Tony and the others, clearly distressed. No...

The others stand around, not knowing what to do. Suddenly, Hulk roars, which frightens Tony back awake, gasping, everyone looking down in surprise. Hulk roars in delight while Loki lets out a surprised laugh, relieved.

"What the hell?" Tony looks around the three of them. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed—"

He falters when he realizes the fourth person, who's holding him. Loki grins down at Tony.

"Hello, hero."

"..."

"Stark?" Loki suddenly grows worried, ready to heal if needed when Tony speaks up again.

"God....damn, did you kiss me?!"

"Right now, no. You've already gotten your kiss," Loki is by all means no longer surprised anymore, just happy Tony's alive.

"What?" Loki hears Thor exclaims along with Steve (in woe) repeating, "Kiss?"

"Not on the lips, brother, it's more of gratitude."

That seems to calm the captain down, looking at Tony.

"We won."

Tony relaxes against Loki, lifting his arm occasionally. "Alright, hey, alright. Good job, guys! Let's just not come in tomorrow, Let's just, ugh, take a day. 'You ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is but I want to try it." 

Loki was getting ready to dispatch from them, heading to a park where luckily no one witnessing them. Steve and Loki are a little behind the others, talking softly and quietly to each other.

"Are you a little nervous going back home?" Steve asks.

Loki looks at him, smiling, twirling Angrboða between his fingers. "Nervous? I'm a little over-excited, We've been away from home for what felt like an eternity. I simply can't wait to see my mother and father back."

Steve smiles. "You should visit."

"Of course, I will."

"I mean, you know, besides the whole Avengers thing. We could, you know, we, ah, could hang out. We could go to a park, and grab some dinner sometime," the last part sounded almost like a question even to Steve. Hesitant. Nervous.

And yet...

"I would love that," Loki's smile grew, looking back at the team who were not paying attention and then back at Steve. "Thank you, Steve," a beat, then adds, "Of Brooklyn."

With that, Loki leans in close to Steve's personal space, almost like the time when he asked the captain that he wanted to come along to Germany, nose touching and his face heating up. Only this time, Steve doesn't freeze up. He's slowly leaning in as well, even raising his hand on the side of Loki's face.

Just as he was ready for it, Loki turned his head, to where his lips pressed against near his. Loki pulled away, reclining against Steve's hand and smiling at the man before following the others, who were now way ahead. Steve stands there, not knowing what to say or think. Then, he smiles.

Yeah, Loki is very much something else.

By now, everyone is bidding their goodbyes. The Tesseract was in its container, Thor thanking Selvig. As much as Loki wanted to keep the scepter (he grew a little fond of it), he was informed they needed it for the time being. Loki looks up, seeing Natasha and Clint whispering to one another, most likely talking about the prince himself, before Natasha walks up to him, and hands him a small box.

"They're macarons," she whispers.

"You're too kind, dear." Loki grins. enjoying the faint pink across her face.

Thor stands in front of Loki, holding Mjolnir in one hand, and the container in the other, smiling at him. Smiling back, with no hesitation, grabbed the other side holder of the container, as Thor twists his.

Loki is going home. He is going Home.

"Where are the Avengers?"

"I'm not currently tracking their whereabouts. I'd say they earned a leave of absence."

"And the Tesseract?"

"The Tesseract is where it belongs. Out of our reach."

"That's not your call."

"I didn't make it. I just didn't argue with the god that did."

"So you let him take it?"

"Of course."

"I don't think you understand what you've started, letting this 'Avengers' loose on this world. They're dangerous."

"They surely are," Fury agrees. "And the whole world knows it. Every world knows it."

"Was that the point of all this? A statement?"

"...a promise."

Finishing the meeting, Fury walks out of the room. 

"Sir, how does that work now?" Agent Maria Hill asks once he enters the main room. "They've gone their separate ways, some, pretty extremely far. We get into a situation like this again, what happens then?"

"They'll come back."

"You're really sure about that?"

"I am."

"Why?" 

He answers. "Because we'll need them to."

Chapter Text

Loki's home. He's home.

He can feel Angrboða being overwhelmed as well. He can't believe he's truly here after a year away, after falling from the bridge. He hears something fall and he doesn't notice Thor dropping both his hammer and the container. He embraces his younger brother, both in tears.

"You're back, brother," Thor says quietly.

Loki nods, smiling at Thor, tears blocking his view. "I'm home."

He looks around. He's on the bridge. It's mostly repaired by now. 

"Heimdall?" Loki sees him, standing a few feet away.

He smiles. "Welcome home, Prince Loki."

That's what Loki remembers something. Nodding and thanking Heimdall, he uses his magic to teleport him and Thor back to their palace. Already knowing, he runs to the throne room, ignoring the gasps and screams from any servants who have seen him. Once he opened it and there, stood...

Odin and Frigga look in disbelief at who is in front of them.

Quickly, Frigga runs towards her younger son, holding him, now crying, how her son is back and safe again. 

"Oh, my son, my little Loki!" she sobs out, pulling away only to place her hands on each side of Loki's face. "Let me see you, let me feel you."

"I'm here, Mother," he reassures her, tears now falling. Thor by now, enters, following his younger brother. 

Loki turns to Odin, who's now smiling at him in relief.

"It's good to have you home again, my son."

Normally, that would have made him feel warm in his chest. But instead, he felt something different, something heavy.

"I'm glad to be home again, Father." He says anyway.

It felt like forever, but Loki was left alone.

They threw a celebration of his return and his mother has been extremely adamant that he stayed by her side at all times. He didn't mind it, he understood why. Lady Sif and the Warriors Three welcomed him, Fandral giving him a quick peck on the forehead without anyone seeing, fortunately for him. For a few days, Loki was either by his mother or brother's side and the only time he was truly alone was when he was in his bed chambers.

Which is where he is right now.

Or rather, the illusion of him. His illusion self is asleep while he is...

Loki takes a deep breath before exhaling out from his mouth. He stares down at the white air slowly disappearing.

He hadn't been here for a long time, and he wasn't sure whether it was because it was a painful memory or a sacred one where not even he felt worthy of being here anymore. He can see his old bag where he left it, now completely frozen. He lied to his mother that the abductors had taken it when he managed to escape.

A small smile slowly formed on his lips. He recalled on the third day, he was reading a book to Angrboða. He thought that he was boring her but she reassured him by saying she liked his voice.

Goodness, does he miss her...

Loki takes a deep breath before he pulls out a few papers on his person. He almost feels bad that he took these from Natasha but he's sure he can make it up to her. One of the papers was the one with Angrboða and Loki, and their child Jörmungandr. The past few days when he was here, he has been internally saying the child's name in his mind. He wishes he could say it out loud but is worried Heimdall will hear him.

He's not sure why he's worried about him hearing Loki, it's not like the child is real but...

Perhaps Loki rather wants to keep this to himself; a little secret only for Loki and Angrboða.

"Jörmungandr..." he whispers to no one, smiling.

Loki then carefully shuffles the papers until a different sheet of paper is in front of him. His smile was completely wiped off his face.

Back in the room when it caught Loki's attention, it made him feel ill. It still hasn't changed.

There was a picture on the paper. It was Odin Allfather carrying a baby. The picture shows the Allfather seemingly looking around almost in a suspicious and distrustful manner, as if he were nervous he would be caught. Under the picture is the title.

The Abduction of Loki.

Loki recalls how he skims the papers over and over again, like how he has done with the story Angrboða and Jörmungandr. One of the sentences is ingrained in his mind.

This story has been considered to be the first abduction of the God of Mischief and Beauty...

He remembers how he yelled at his...father that he had stolen him. He also remembers how his father told him that he was abandoned and left to die.

He remembers how his father Laufey told him that he was safe in the temple.

Loki can sense Angrboða. She's attempting to comfort him. Loki then realizes that tears are falling down his cheeks.