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Deep inside SHIELD headquarters, Loki follows Fury down a long hallway.
Fury stops by a door. He presses a button and a little hatch slides open in the door.
With a gesture, he invites Loki to peer inside.
It’s obviously a prison cell. A naked man who Loki doesn’t recognize is huddled in the corner, sobbing.
“That HYDRA motherfucker right there had the misfortune to spend some quality time with Agent Romanov last night,” Fury explains.
Loki grins. “What did she do to him?”
Fury shrugs. “Honestly? I have no fucking clue. There’s a not a mark on him… and he hasn’t stopped crying since she put him back in here.”
Loki’s grin widens. “I do so like the Widow’s style.”
“Yeah, she’s one of a kind.” He presses the button again, and the hatch slides shut.
Fury begins walking again, and Loki follows. “We haven’t talked to the leader yet… thought you might want to take a crack at him.”
“I would be utterly delighted, Director Fury.”
“Yeah, I thought you might be.”
“Just do not tell Captain Rogers; I doubt he would approve of my methods.”
“It’ll be our little secret,” Fury promises.
The bald man with the scar and missing eye looks up when Loki enters the interrogation room.
He’s naked and strapped into a chair. Near him is a table holding a tray stocked with several hypodermic needles and a few really wicked-looking implements.
Loki’s mouth makes a little moue of distaste. These mortals have no concept of ‘subtlety’, he thinks.
He turns his attention to the man in the chair.
“I am Loki,” he says as he pulls off his emerald scarf and black silk duster. He drapes them over the back of another chair. He unbuttons his cuffs and rolls up his sleeves, still speaking. “I suggest you tell me all I wish to know.”
The man sneers at him.
“You don’t scare me,” he says.
Loki’s eyebrows go up. “If that is truly the case, you are either very brave or very foolish.”
“I fucked your daughter,” the prisoner tells him with an ugly leer. “She was so tight. I spread her legs and I – ”
“Ah, trying to goad me into killing you. That’s original,” Loki says, amused. “Sorry, but it won’t work.”
The bald man looks surprised, but says nothing.
“Now, you are going to answer my questions, and you will answer them truthfully. Do not think to lie to me, for I am the God of Lies and I will know. Let us begin with your name, shall we?”
“What about it?”
Loki rolls his eyes. “What is your name?”
“I though you’re supposed to be a god,” the man says musingly. “And yet here you are, playing Fury’s puppet.”
“Do you truly believe that is what’s happening here?” Loki asks. “For I have a different view of the situation.”
“Oh yeah? And what’s – ”
And suddenly Loki is standing right over him. “I am the one asking the questions,” he says softly. “And you would do well to answer. Now, what is your name?” he asks, moving away.
“Go fuck yourself.”
Loki turns, staring down at him.
“I find that difficult to believe,” he says, and he raises his hand. His thumb and index finger are glowing with green magic.
He makes a twisting motion.
The bald man screams in agony, throwing his head back and thrashing around as much as his bindings will allow. Loki realizes now that the chair is bolted to the floor, and understands why.
Loki makes another gesture, and the man stops screaming. His chin drops to his chest. He breathes raggedly, sweat running down his face.
“Intestines are quite sensitive, and they really don’t like being twisted in knots,” Loki muses. “Or so I’ve heard.”
He moves close to the prisoner and bends down, putting his hands on the arms of the chair. He allows the glamour of his Æsir form to fade, revealing the Frost Giant beneath.
When the man raises his head and sees him, he screams again.
Loki gives him a malicious smile.
“I am going to cause you pain, pain like you’ve never imagined. I am going to do this for as long as I please and in as many ways as I can think of. And when you finally cease to amuse me, I will turn the very blood in your veins to ice… slowly.”
He straightens, moves away, his skin fading from blue to pale.
“Now we begin,” he says, and raises his hand again.
Bruce and Tony are in the lab with Hel.
The rot hasn’t spread beyond her hands and feet, a fact that she’s celebrating by wearing a pair of shorts and a pink t-shirt, both borrowed from Pepper.
“I am so sorry I took you away from your parents yesterday, Bruce,” she’s saying.
He smiles. “Don’t worry about it… there’s no way I wasn’t going to help you out. They understood. And anyway, I’ll go back later today.”
“We’re still waiting for the analysis on those cuffs,” Tony says, trying to look anywhere but at Hel’s long, long legs. “So far, JARVIS has no idea what they’re made out of. I’m thinking of calling it ‘unobtanium’.”
Hel laughs. “How clever!”
“Nah, I stole that from the movie Avatar. You’d love it – all your relatives are in it.”
She frowns. “Really?”
“He’s joking, Hel,” Bruce says. “It’s a movie about tall blue aliens.”
“Oh. All right.”
He pulls a stool away from one of the lab benches and sits, motioning her to join him.
“How are you, Hel? How are you really?”
She sighs. “I did not sleep well.” She glances at Tony. “Thank you for giving us a room here last night. That was very kind of you.”
Tony shrugs. “No problem. I never use it anyway.”
“I kept having bad dreams… and I wished only to be a little girl again so I could crawl into bed with Father. When I was a child and had bad dreams, he would hold me close and and tell me stories, stories about Grandfather’s great deeds, Uncle Thor’s bravery in battle, and his own cleverness and trickery. But I am too old for such silliness now.”
“I don’t think that’s silly,” Tony says. “I think it’s… sweet. He sounds like a great dad.” And if you told me a year ago that I’d be saying that about Loki, I’d have laughed in your face, he thinks.
Hel smiles, her whole face lighting up. “He is, Tony.” She lowers her eyes. “I am sorry that your own father was… not as good.”
Tony snorts. “Yeah, that’s an understatement.”
“If you need to talk to someone, I’m here,” Bruce tells her. “Or I can arrange for you to see someone, a counselor who specializes in helping people who’ve gone through traumatic experiences like you’ve had.”
She smiles. “Thank you, Bruce. I will see how it goes. Last night, Pepper invited me to get in bed with her, and Father slept on that small bed that Tony had put in there for me. I got a little bit of sleep… not much, though.”
“You look tired,” Tony observes.
“I am.”
“I can write you for something to help you sleep,” Bruce tells her.
“So can I,” Tony says. “Scotch.”
Bruce rolls his eyes. “Alcohol isn’t the solution to everything.”
“Pretty sure you’re wrong about that.”
“I will be fine,” Hel assures them. “I must be strong, like Father. He has endured far worse… his trial with the snake… and he has not broken.”
Tony frowns. “He told me that never happened. He said, ‘Do you believe everything you read, Stark?’ when I asked him about it.”
“He does not like to speak of it or even think of it.”
“Jesus, no wonder.” Tony shakes his head. “Odin is seriously fu… screwed up. No wonder your dad has issues.”
Loki finds Pepper in the kitchen with Thor. She’s packaging up food in plastic containers.
“This is the turkey breast,” she’s telling Thor as she hands him each container. “And this is stuffing. Mashed potatoes. Gravy. This is cranberry sauce – ”
“What are you doing?” Loki asks Thor as he’s loading the containers into a sack.
“The Lady Pepper has suggested that I take these fine delicacies home to Asgard, that our parents might also enjoy the bounty of this feast of Thanksgiving.”
Loki blinks. “You’re taking… leftovers home to Father and Mother?”
Thor grins hugely. “Aye! Such foods as have never been seen in the halls of Asgard before!”
“I’d thought you’d be staying longer, Thor,” Loki says with a frown.
“I would, were the choice mine. But I must away, for Father has need of me.”
“Ah, yes. I should have known.”
“But I will return as soon as I am able, never doubt it, brother!”
“How ever shall we manage without you?”
Thor frowns, looking troubled.
“If you truly need me, brother, than Father will simply have to wait.”
Loki sighs, suddenly feeling guilty for his sarcasm.
“No, Thor. It will be well.”
“Truly?”
Loki actually gives him a smile. “Yes, Thor. Go.”
“Tell Hel I love her, and that I will return as soon as I am able.”
“All right.”
Thor shifts the huge sack of food so that he can clap his brother on the shoulder with one huge hand.
“I will tell our parents that you are well, and that you think fondly of them.”
“Please, Thor, do not.”
“They love you still, brother.”
“So you say.”
“They are proud of you, as am I.”
Loki says nothing to this.
“Goodbye, Thor,” Pepper says. She surprises both brothers by stepping forward to give Thor a hug. “Have a safe trip. And come back to us soon.”
“Thank you, Lady Pepper.”
Thor leaves, clutching his sack full of Tupperware and looking troubled.
Pepper goes back to the leftover food, storing the containers away in the fridge and reorganizing things so that everything fits.
“That wasn’t very nice, Loki,” she finally says.
He shrugs. “I am not very nice, a fact that you keep forgetting.”
She sighs and shuts the fridge door. He comes up behind her and wraps his arms around her waist. She relaxes against him, leaning her head back against his shoulder.
“Where have you been all day?” she finally asks.
“Out.”
She turns in his arms to look at him. “Out?” she repeats, eyebrows going up.
“Yes.”
“Have you been taking lessons from Tony?”
Loki frowns. “Lessons in what?”
She shakes her head. “Never mind.”
He reaches up with one hand to stroke her hair back from her face. “I’ve missed you.”
She laughs. “You were only gone a few hours.”
“Mmm. It felt like longer.” He tilts her chin up and kisses her, slowly, thoroughly, like they have all the time in the world.
They finally break apart, and without another word she takes his hand and leads him out of the kitchen, through the living room, and up the hall to the room they’d shared with Hel the night before.
“Come on,” she whispers, slipping his emerald scarf from around his neck. She ties it around the doorknob.
He frowns. “What…”
“Sort of a, ah, ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign,” she says, grinning wickedly.
“Ah.”
Without another word, he allows himself to be led inside.
Pepper locks the door behind them.
Later…
Loki gives one final cry, and Pepper collapses on top of him with a cry of her own.
“Mmm,” she hears against her ear, and raises her head.
His black hair is spread out on the pillow, his pale cheeks are flushed and his lips are red.
“You look like a plundered angel,” she tells him, laughing.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been compared to an angel.”
“First time for everything.”
He laughs.
“Loki… where were you today?”
He sighs. “With Fury.”
She rolls off him and props herself up on one elbow. “Doing what?”
He gives her a look. “What do you think?”
“Oh… oh, Loki.”
She knows she should be appalled. She should scold him, tell him that he’s better than that.
But she remembers them escorting Hel off the quinjet, wrapped in her father’s cape and sobbing brokenly. She remembers seeing Hel’s bruised and battered face, before Loki had healed it with magic. And she remembers how she’d felt in that instant… how she had wanted to find those bastards and make them pay for what they’d done.
As she’s already learned during her years with Tony, the problem with climbing up on one’s high horse is that the fall can be really, really bad.
And so instead, she slides out of bed. “I’m going to go wash up,” she tells him.
“Want help?” he asks, grinning wickedly.
Much, much later, Loki and Pepper make their way into the Avengers’ living room, where they find Clint, Natasha, and Steve watching television. It’s some kind of documentary about birds.
“Hey,” Clint says by way of greeting as they drop down on the other sofa.
“You missed dinner,” Natasha points out with a sly grin.
Steve’s ears turn pink, and Pepper deduces that Clint and Natasha must have explained the reason for their absence to him.
“Where’s everyone else?” she asks.
“Bruce went back to his parents’ house, and Tony took Hel out for dinner somewhere,” Steve says.
“Yeah, all those clothes you ordered for her were delivered earlier,” Clint tells her, still glued to the television.
“Oh, good,” she says. “And I hope they have fun. Hel needs something to take her mind off of… well, everything.”
“Yes,” Loki agrees. “I worry for her. She did not have a good night last night.”
“It’ll take time,” Natasha says. “But she’ll heal.” She nods approvingly. “She’s strong, that one. Stronger than she looks.”
“Yes, she is,” Loki agrees softly.
The elevator dings, and they turn to see Tony and Hel coming out into the living room.
Tony’s in a black suit, dark blue tie and a long black winter coat.
Hel’s in a lovely little black silk dress, little black gloves, and little black boots that come up high enough to hide the cuffs on her ankles.
“Where’s your coat, Hel?” Pepper asks, frowning.
“Oh, it was too hot, so I took it off. I left it in the car.”
“Hel, it’s really cold out there – ” Pepper begins, suddenly feeling like a mother hen.
“She has more Jötun blood than I,” Loki reminds her quietly.
“Oh, that’s right.” And now she’s gone from feeling like a mother hen to feeling like an idiot.
“Where’d you go?” Natasha asks.
Hel’s face lights up. “Tony took me to the Red Lobster, where the Shrimp is Endless!”
Pepper is trying hard not to laugh, picturing Tony at Red Lobster.
As if to confirm Pepper’s thoughts, Hel continues: “He did not wish to go there, but I begged.”
Behind her, Tony makes a gesture like he’s pulling up a rope to hang himself.
Oblivious, Hel continues. “And I had three banana daiquiris! Oh, Father, they were delicious! You must try one some day!”
Behind her, Tony tightens the “noose”, his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth and his eyes rolling up in his head.
That’s it… Pepper dissolves into laughter.
Hel hurries over and practically falls onto the sofa next to Loki, taking one of his hands in both of hers. “Truly, it was one of the best times I’ve ever had!”
“I am pleased to hear it, Hel,” he says, smiling fondly. He looks over at Tony. “Thank you, Stark.”
“No problem,” Tony replies. “And hey, they had scotch there. So it wasn’t a total loss.” He removes his coat and throws it over the back of a chair, and then moves to a side table with a crystal decanter and glasses.
“And Father, Tony said that next time, we will go to Uncle Jack’s Steakhouse… he says that it’s even nicer than Red Lobster, but I do not know if they have banana daiquiris.”
“They actually don’t have them at Red Lobster, either,” Tony says, pouring himself a drink.
Hel frowns. “No?”
“No. But they had them for me, because I’m Tony Stark,” he continues smugly. He holds up the decanter full of scotch. “Anyone else want one?” he offers.
“Please, Stark,” Loki says.
“Yes, please!” Hel says, and Tony frowns.
“Three banana daiquiris,” he reminds her, and she giggles.
“Hey, Tony, me too!” Clint calls.
“Screw it,” Tony says, and just brings over the decanter. He goes back to retrieve a bunch of glasses, and puts those on the coffee table as well.
The elevator dings again, and they look over to see Coulson emerging from it.
Loki’s eyes narrow, and suddenly he’s no longer on the sofa.
“Son of Coul,” he hisses, and he’s got one hand on Coulson’s throat, slamming him against the wall and pinning him there effortlessly.
“Whoa, wait, Loki – ” Tony begins.
“Silence, Stark!” Loki roars, but he’s right up in Coulson’s face, and the agent flinches.
“Loki,” Coulson finally manages. “Long time no see. Hey, I hear you’ve joined the team. Good for you!”
“Fury showed me the surveillance recording,” Loki says, and the temperature in the room is falling fast. “You struck my daughter… twice.” Pale skin bleeds into blue, and red eyes blaze out as Loki totally loses control. “You touched her, you foul misbegotten whelp of a bilgesnipe!”
“You stabbed him,” Clint reminds Loki rather heatedly.
“Yes, I did,” Loki snarls in Coulson’s face. “And you thought to take your revenge on my daughter’s body?”
“Stand down, Agent Barton,” Coulson chokes out. “You are not helping!”
Loki pulls Coulson away from the wall briefly before slamming him back against it. “Tell me, do you still believe that I lack conviction, Son of Coul?” Frost is creeping up the walls.
“Father, stop it!” Hel says, rising to her feet. She hurries over and grabs Loki’s arm, trying to pull him away. “If anyone is to give this man what he deserves, it should be me.”
Loki considers this for a moment.
“Very well,” he finally says. He releases Coulson and steps away. “Do with him what you will.” His red gaze sweeps around the room. “The others will not interfere,” and it sounds more like a warning than a statement of fact.
“Hel – ” Natasha begins.
“It’s all right, Agent Romanov,” Coulson says. “They’re both right… she’s earned this.” He swallows hard and closes his eyes, bracing himself. “Go ahead, Hel. Let me have it.”
“Oh, I shall,” she says softly. She steps closer and puts her arms around him, drawing him close. “Thank you, Agent Coulson. Thank you for helping me, for doing as needs must to keep both of us safe.”
Coulson just stands there for a moment. Then he slowly lifts one hand and pats Hel gingerly on the back.
“You’re welcome, Hel,” he says quietly.
She releases him and steps away.
“Father, Agent Coulson did what he had to do. Had he not continued playing his role, we both might have ended up dead. Please remember that.”
Loki sighs, and his skin fades from blue to pale. “Very well, Hel. As you wish.”
Hel pins Loki with her gaze. “No, Father,” she says very firmly. “Not ‘as I wish’… it is the truth. He saved me from those men who would have used my mouth, and he gave me hope when I thought all was lost.”
Loki gives a curt nod, but says nothing.
There is a long silence.
Finally, Coulson speaks. “Are we OK here, Loki?”
Loki’s lips are pressed together in a thin line, but he nods again and makes his way back to the sofa to sit with Pepper.
Hel goes to stand with Tony. He gives her a smile. “That was neatly done,” he tells her quietly, and she beams under his approval.
Coulson makes his way across the living room, giving Loki a wide berth. “I understand that the HYDRA leader died in custody this afternoon.” He takes a seat on the sofa with Clint and Natasha and leans forward to pour himself a scotch. “How unfortunate.”
Loki’s mouth quirks up slightly at this, but he just sips his drink.
“Seems the interrogator got all kinds of information out of him before he left us,” Coulson continues, sipping his drink. “That was nice work.”
Pepper is looking down at her drink.
Steve is looking from Loki to Coulson and back again. “What happened?” he asked, eyes narrowed.
“An unfortunate accident,” Coulson tells him coolly, leaning back against the sofa. “It seems he was left unattended, and somehow managed to slit his own throat.”
“Did he bleed much?” Loki asks, sounding bored.
“Not really,” Coulson says. “His blood was frozen somehow. Very mysterious.”
Pepper puts her face in her hands. “Oh, Loki.”
“Loki…” Steve begins, and then stops. It’s a losing battle, and he knows it.
Meanwhile, Natasha is grinning. “Frozen blood,” she says, and her tone is admiring. “Nice trick… it sounds really painful.”
“Oh, it was,” Loki says smugly, and now he’s inspecting his fingernails. “It’s truly a shame that SHIELD headquarters lacks proper heating. They really should do something about that.”
Clint laughs, and Steve looks even more disapproving.
“You’re not gonna win this one, Cap,” Tony says. “Trust me.”
“We’re better than this,” Steve says heatedly. “The United States does not – ”
“JARVIS,” Tony says, “please find all information about Gitmo and transfer it to Captain Rogers’s iPad.”
“Yes, sir,” JARVIS agrees.
“Do some reading, and then get back to me, Cap,” Tony says, and downs his scotch in a gulp.
Tony comes awake because he’s freezing.
Someone’s in the bed with him.
There’s a soft weight that he recognizes as an arm draped across his chest, muting the light from his arc reactor. There’s another soft weight draped across his thighs that he figures must be a leg.
He tries to think back on the previous night.
He doesn’t remember picking anyone up … he hadn’t gone out and gotten plastered… no, he’d gone to Red Lobster with Hel, of all the damn stupid things –
He suddenly has a feeling that he knows why he’s freezing despite the blankets and the fact that he’s not alone in the bed.
“Oh shit,” he whispers, and turns his head.
Hel is staring at him, her emerald eyes luminous in the semidarkness.
“Hel!” Tony exclaims, rolling away from her so quickly that he rolls off the edge of the bed and falls on the floor. “Ow! Jesus Christ, goddammit!”
“Tony, are you all right?” Hel’s concerned face appears over the side of the bed.
“Yeah… yeah, I’m fine.” And naked, he suddenly realizes. Jesus, if Loki were to see this…
“Tony, do you need help?” Hel asks, brow furrowed.
“Uh… toss me my pants? I think they’re on the floor over there somewhere.”
He hears her getting up to look, and pulls a sheet off the bed to cover himself in the meantime.
She walks around the bed and leans down, offering him the pants. “Here.”
“Thanks.”
Now he can see that – thank Heavens! – she isn’t naked too; she’s wearing a long flowing white nightgown with long sleeves and a high neck, and he wonders briefly who picked it out: Hel, Pepper, or Loki.
“I’m sorry, Tony… I didn’t mean to startle you,” she says, biting her lip.
“That’s OK. Uh… I want to put my pants on now, OK?”
“Of course,” she agrees.
He’s watching her expectantly, and she suddenly understands. She blushes and turns away, giving him his privacy.
He stands, discarding the sheet. “Does your dad know where you are?” he asks. He pulls on his pants and zips them up.
“No,” she admits.
“Yeah, OK, I think maybe you should go back to your own room now, all right?”
She bites her lip. “If you wish it.”
“I wish it. See, I like living. It’s one of my favorite things!”
She frowns. “I do not understand you sometimes, Tony. I only came to your bed because I am unable to sleep. And I did not wish to disturb Father and Pepper.”
Tony runs a hand through his hair.
“Please, may I stay with you?” Her look is pleading. “I will sleep on the floor if you will be more comfortable.”
Tony sighs, knowing he’s about to make a really, really stupid decision.
“Come on, Hel,” he says, pulling back the covers. “You can sleep here with me.”
Her face lights up with relief. “Oh, thank you!”
“But no touching!” he tells her sternly.
“All right.”
She gets into bed, and he moves his pillow from the head of the bed to the foot. He lies down beside her, his head by her feet.
She is quiet for so long that he’s starting to think she’s fallen asleep.
“Do you know any stories, Tony?” she asks in the darkness.
“Not really, no.”
“No brave tales of the Avengers’ valiant deeds?”
He snorts. “Well, one time Bruce accidently blew up the kitchen. I still don’t know how he managed that; he said he was making a Pop-Tart, for Christ’s sake.”
Hel laughs.
“And one time, your Uncle Thor mistook Clint’s iPad for a plate… he was eating his dinner off it when Clint walked into the kitchen.”
“Oh, my!” Hel says, laughing even harder.
“And Steve… well, Steve’s from the forties. He doesn’t know much about modern technology, and he doesn’t really want to learn. There was this one time…”
FINIS.