Avengers/Thor AU

[shadow_claw]

Thank goodness. The last thing Clint wanted was another fight. Pulling the needle from where he had stuck it in his jeans, he carefully set to work. It was much easier to stitch up someone else, especially when there was no fighting involved. Gore had long stoppwd bothering him, so his work was done quickly and quietly. With experienced swoops of his one good arm, the first, shallower injury was closed up. The second one, although deeper, wasn't as long and didn't take too long to sew. When Clint had finished, he wrapped clean gause around Loki's chest so the wounds themselves were covered. He then stood, paused, and reluctantly offered a hand to Loki. If yer still conscious, yer gonna need a hand. C'mon, let me help ya up. I'm done with the sutures, I promise.

[pudding]

Loki struggled to keep himself under control as the familiar sensation of a needle piercing his skin repeatedly throbbed across his chest. His injures certainly hurt and ached but the phobia of needles he had was much greater and much more overwhelming. But no such sensation pierced his lips, even when the archer finally declared he was done. Shocked, he opened his eyes and opened his mouth just to make sure he had not been gagged or his lips not sewn shut. Was that all, then? Confused, he looked up at Clint's outstretched hand before swatting it away, a sour expression forming on his face yet again. Without those strange devices, he couldn't talk but he could surely understand Loki did not want his aid. They were enemies!

[shadow_claw]

As soon as his hand was swatted at, Clint lowered his hand back to his side. Fine. He had better things to do. Turning his back to his enemy, he knelt down on the floor and swept his hand across the tile. The living room and kitchen were connected, so there was no telling where Loki had thrown his hearing aids. He sort of needed those. I guess you'll be stayin' with me until yer well enough t' try killin' me? he asked as he searched. N' I suggest ya don't try t' kill me with m' back turned. You owe me now, remember. Clint wasn't against twisting his good deeds against someone. It was a tactic that helped him survive as a child. When two flesh-colored dots came into view, Clint cried in triumph and dove for them. Yes! There they were!

[pudding]

Loki managed to prop himself up slightly, struggling with the action but needing to check to see what Clint had done to him. He looked over the bandages wrapped around his chest then gently picked at one so he could look underneath at the stitches keeping his wounds closed. That didn't make any sense. Why would the archer help him? They were enemies! He had corrupted his mind, of all things? Looking over at Clint as he triumphantly lifted the strange flesh-colored devices he used to hear, Loki sighed. He waited for him to put one of them into his ears then decided he could talk and actually get a response. "Why did you help me?" He asked, staring at the archer's back. "We are supposed to be enemies."

[shadow_claw]

Clint turned his head as Loki spoke and frowned. He himself wasn't totally sure. Maybe it was because he had been like Loki before? Sad, angry, lonely. It wasn't something pleasant to experience. Because I could, I guess. Or because you couldn't. I dunno. I guess...I guess I did it because I know what'cher livin' through. I started out as a criminal too, ya know. I killed people and stole. It was all I knew how to do. And then when I was vulnerable, when I was in need of help, somebody helped me. His name was Phil. His blue gaze grew pained at the mention of his old friend. He was dead. Coulson, one of his best friends. He coulda let me die as a thief and a murderer, but he didn't. Clint chuckled softly and shook his head. As he slowly stood, he made his way towards the sink. The tile needed cleaned pretty badly now. 'N I make it a motto t' do that. Help people who shouldn't be helped. Like Tash. I disobeyed a direct kill order for her. Snatching a rag from the sink, he got it wet and stooped down to clean up the blood on the floor. He had a lot of cleaning to do. Ya can't force respect on people. It starts with good deeds.

[pudding]

Loki raised his chin, staring at Clint silently as he spoke about his own experience. And he couldn't help but think of how broken these men were Thor had called to his aid. He had researched and researched and not once did he find a member of the group who was untouched by some kind of problem. But he didn't know about Phil. Who was he? He certainly didn't know anyone named Phil. "Well, congratulations," he replied, slowly struggling to stand. His legs shook but he leaned against a wall, giving him some support. "You deserve a reward for being the first one to ever try to help me, honestly. Usually the creatures I cross even lightly seek revenge as quickly as they can. Sometimes, I don't even do anything and still inspire wrath, just because I have become the Nine Realm's scapegoat for all misfortune." He shook his head, pushing away from the wall and moving to Clint's side. He held out his hand, looking down at him expectantly, as if expecting Clint to hand him something.

[shadow_claw]

Clint shrugged as Loki replied. People deserve second chances. I should give them out more often. It was funny how fast Loki flipped switches when somebody did something nice for him. It happened to a lot of people. Blond eyebrows furrowing, he scowled at Loki's outstretched hand. What'cha doin'? You should be restin'. I'm used t' a beatin', let me clean. He waved around the rag dismissively and shook his head. Man, this guy was stubborn. It reminded him of himself. Fine. You can help. The dish rag was released from his hand into Loki's outstretched palm, and he stood shakily to grab another rag.

[pudding]

"However used to pain you are, it makes no difference. My injuries will heal much quicker than yours and are not as critical. I have made the mess and it would do you better to allow me to clean it up." Taking the rag, he slowly knelt, holding one hand over his bandages as he did so. He would lie about it but it did hurt to move about. Kneeling was about the hardest thing to do without pain. But that did not stop him from starting to clean up the red blood as it slowly began to turn blue around the edges. Curious thing, magic was. As soon as it left his body, it began to decay quickly and reveal the true nature of his being. Irritated, he rather violently scrubbed at the blood, trying to catch ahold of all of it before it turned entirely blue. He had done his best to scrub Jotunhiem from existence and while he somewhat regretted that action, there were still impulses to get rid of the blue blood where he saw it. Even with the passage of time, it was still difficult to accept what he was. He didn't want to, above all things.

[shadow_claw]

As Clint knelt back down to help clean, he grimaced. Loki was real rough with a blade. He worked in silence, other than the occasional, near-silent wince. It hurt a lot, what could he say? My brother n' dad sucked a lot too, ya know. He piped up after a few minutes. Loki probably already gathered that from his previous rantings, though. They were alcoholics. My dad used t' beat Barn n' I when we were younger. He killed himself n' my mom in a drunk driving incident. A soft chuckle shook his chest after speaking. I remember when he found out I had gone deaf. He jus' kept screamin' at me, n' I turned my head so I wouldn't see what he was sayin'...It feels like another lifetime since all that happened.

[pudding]

Loki listened to the explanation silently, his hand never once faltering even if the rest of him did cringe. He just wanted to clean up the blood before it's real properties got away from the magic hold he had over it. Dropping the illusion of himself would help him heal faster but honestly, he'd rather hide. It seemed silly but not to him. To him, it seemed very important.

"How much did Thor tell you?" Loki asked, keeping his eyes down on the work in front of him. "Adopted, of course. But did he tell you about everything else? What happened before I appeared here on Midgard from portal and began my attempted conquest?"

[shadow_claw]

He told us everythin' he knew, n' th' rest I had seen fer m'self. Clint stood with his blood-sodden rag and walked to the sink. He was silent as he washed the rag out and re-aplied soap to it. There wasn't much floor to clean up now. I had been contracted as a guard in New Mexico, ya see. I coulda put an arrow right through yer brother's head. Woulda done it, if I was told to. Yer brother was a manaic, tryin' t' get to that hammer o' his. It was a real crazy show. As he knelt back down to scrub, another grimace flickered across his face as his stitched strained. That hurt, like, a lot. He said you were tryin' t' kill Giants, even yer dad n' stuff. Genocide. N' then everythin' went wrong n' ya fell from some sorta rainbow bridge. His gaze softened as he glanced over at the black-haired god. Clint had never attempted suicide. He had considered it multiple times, but never had the guts to do what Loki had. To just...fall into a void like that. It must've been horrifying. T' have yer father figure n' brother gang up against ya...that I know a bit too well. I was raised by a brilliant *** by the name of Swordsman. He was manipulative, but so stealthy he could rob ya blind without ya even noticing. He taught me everythin' I know. N' it was great. Until I said no. They turned on me so fast...I couldn't-and wouldn't-defend m'self. Not against the both of 'em

[pudding]

Heh, Thor. He had felt bad having him stranded on Earth but even he had chuckled watching him attack the human's base to try to recover his hammer. It was amusing how even robbed of his power, Thor was still the same brute he always was. Loki wouldn't have been able to do the same. But he did stop when Clint said he tried to kill Odin. Ridiculous! Angrily, he turned and stared at the archer yet again. "I never attempted to take the life of the All Father," He snapped, though the intensity quickly faded as he began scrubbing at the floor again. His own rag was covered in blood and rapidly turning blue but he seemed so fixated he didn't notice he wasn't cleaning anymore. "But I was trying to destroy Jotunhiem. I nearly had finished obliterating the realm entirely when Thor returned. When I realized Odin did not approve... I wasn't sure what to do. The Bifrost was destroyed and I finally realized that Thor and I would never be equals." He sighed, lifting the bloody cloth and staring at it as it slowly turned blue. "So I let go. I never imagined I would survive and looking back, I feel it would have been better had I not."

[shadow_claw]

Don'cha say that. Clint's head jerked up as Loki spoke. His expression quickly turned sour. Even if ya don' know it, people care abou'cha. Doin' that t' yer family...even if they aren'cher birth family, they care. The archer sighed, and tossed Loki his own, clean rag. He knelt amd took Loki's from him. Once out of Loki's grip, it rapidly turned blue. Yer real insecure 'bout this, aren'cha? I was like that fer a while. I hated being deaf. It made me feel so...inferior. Ya know? Ya don' have t' hide yer skin color 'round me. 'S actually pretty cool.

[pudding]

Loki shrugged his shoulders, trying to adopt a less fatalistic perspective on his life. It was difficult but at least he could fake it from the outside. "I do not know how human families function but I feel as though love is not usually disownmeant and entrapment." There still was Frigga, of course, whom he cared for more than anything. But Odin was enough for him to reject the entire family. "Inferiority has nothing to do with it. I'd just rather not stare into a mirror and see a monster staring back. If my family had truly loved me, they would not have raised me to hate the very creatures I came from."

[shadow_claw]

Depends. Clint answered with a small shrug. He was disowned by his "family". As he never actually had a normal family life, he didn't know if it was common. It probably wasn't. He seemed ready to reply when he seized up again. Another fit, similar to the one he had experienced in the midst of violence against Loki, took hold of him. The muscles in his exposed back locked up as pain seared through his skull. Crying out in agony, Clint clutched his head much like he had before. Sadly, this seemed to happen often for him. Because he still clutched Loki's blood-sodden rag, it smeared ungracefully across his face as he gripped his head. He was in too much pain to take notice.

[pudding]

Loki turned quickly to look at Clint as he doubled over once more. Startled, he started to move closer to him when his hand stopped. Help the human? What was he doing? Thor was the mortal-loving one, not him. He but his lip briefly, musing over things as the archer yelled in agony. Finally, he placed a hand on Clint's chest, trying to steady his own breathing. He was only ridding himself of the debt from when Clint spared him, that was all. He didn't like having loose ends.

Magic flickered in his fingers as he tried to focus on healing. He wasn't sure if it would work but he could always attempt to numb the pain. It was a trick he often used when in the midst of a fight to keep pushing on, even when injured. His skin rapidly turned dark blue as he channeled the magic normally used for hiding himself into his hands. It would've been much easier had he not wasted so much energy escaping but if that was the case, he wouldn't even be here. He'd have to work with what he had.

[pudding]

((Bump.))

[shadow_claw]

It seemed as if Loki's magic wasn't affecting him at first. The archer's muscles locked up so he seemed permanently doubled over. The magic seemed to be enough to put him over the edge. Clint flopped to one side and went limp after a few tense seconds. He seemed to be unconscious, if it wasn't for his labored breathing. How...how do you make it stop? He breathed. It wasn't just the pain he was talking about; all of it was unbearable. It was like someone poured acid in his skull.

[pudding]

Loki pulled back his hands when the archer rolled onto his side, absolutely shocked. His magic had not worked? Usually it did not fail him so much. But what could be expected? He needed his scepter to truly release it's hold but he had it no longer. Retrieving it would not only be difficult but also reveal his location to Asgard. But there was nothing else that could be done. He'd need to know where SHIELD had moved to. But he had the key to that right in front of him, didn't he. "I will fix it," he replied firmly. "But you must tell me where SHIELD is, understand? Can you do that?"

[shadow_claw]

SHEILD...? SHIELD was constantly on the move. It was hard to tell exactly where the Helicarrier was, let alone Fury himself. There're four main SHIELD prisons: The Vault, The Cube, The Raft, n' the Hydrobase. If that scepter o' yers would be anywhere, it'd be there. His brow furrowed as he struggled to think. But'cha can't get in there without help. Stark...you need Stark... As Clint's apartment was in New York City, it wouldn't be hard to find the Iron Man.

 

((I can play Tony.))

[pudding]

Great, another Avenger. Loki had hoped to avoid Tony until the end. Something about how egotistical he was made him really want to have Stark watch his world burn before finally killing him. But he had already strayed from that path, hadn't he? Otherwise he would've left already with Clint dead on the carpet. He had his chance right in front of him but he couldn't bring himself to take it. "Very well," He replied, standing up. "I will return soon and wipe away my debt to you." His skin turned pale once more as he moved swiftly from Clint's side to the door. Hopefully, Stark had not moved from his very obvious building that Loki had used to fuel his portal. He quickly shut the door and hurried down the stairs, holding one hand over his stomach. Quickly now, quickly. Time was of the essence and he had little time to waste on injuries that were not even life threatening.

 

((Should we have Science Bros? I've been working on my Bruce and I feel like it would be fun to have another character in there.))

[shadow_claw]

((SCCCIIENCCCE BROS.

 

I say at one point we'll have the whole team. Should we claim them now? I say we should be one half of each pair, so I'd take Thor and Tony, and you can take Bruce and Natasha? As for Cap and Bucky, we can choose those later.))

 

As soon as Loki left, Clint stopped trying to lift his head and fell limp yet again. He didn't need to pretend to be stronger than he actually was if nobody was around. As the door clicked shut, he drifted unconscious.

 

---

 

"What's the power level at now?" Tony's gaze remained locked on a small set of wires, his brown eyes narrowed. His general hobby now was "tweaking" things around the house so they were ridiuclously tricked out. Bruce was mostly there for moral support. He wasn't great with technology, not like Tony was.

[pudding]

((That works for me! And JARVIS can just be an NPC))

 

"The same as it was before," Bruce replied, glancing at Tony from his spot nearby, a safe distance away from the wires in case anything went wrong. In Tony's case, something always went wrong, usually because Tony couldn't just sit down and say 'done'. He had to always tweak something else. "Haven't you already done enough today?" he asked, glancing up at the clock on the wall. Tony really was restless, wasn't he? "I mean, really-"

"Sir," JARVIS suddenly interrupted, something that was rather uncharacteristic of him. "You have a... visitor. He's... oh dear." Before the AI could get any further, the elevator in the other room suddenly dinged, signaling whoever JARVIS had been trying to talk to them about was already up while the AI's voice was suddenly silenced.

"Expecting any visitors?" Bruce asked, looking at Tony again. Not likely, based on JARVIS's warning. But who could it be? SHIELD?

[shadow_claw]

Well, who is it? Tony frowned at JARVIS's sudden interjection, but remained focused on what used to be a microwave. Only when he heard the elevator door slide open did he turn his head. And boy, did he wish he didn't. The billionaire's expression darkened at the pale figure in the elevator. Bruce, get out of here before something gets hairy. He growled. JARVIS, I want the whole building on total lockdown. Nobody gets in, nobody gets out. Send an alert to SHIELD that we've found their escaped psychopath. Edited October 19, 2014 by shadow_claw

[pudding]

The AI was quick enough to respond as the windows immediately darkened and the lights turned a deep marroon color. Bruce looked up at the lights before turning around to stare at the figure Tony had been so concerned about. Brown eyes met green eyes as Bruce stared in shock at a figure he had hoped he wouldn't ever see again. Loki looked equally as shocked, having not wanted to see Bruce equally as much.

"Well," Loki muttered, cradling his stomach. "This certainly is awkward." He started to take a step backwards and reevaluate breaking into the tower while injured when his legs finally gave out under stress and he crashed to the ground, both hands wrapped around his torso.