Part 1 - Chp 13
“She is here,” Thor says, pointing to a map. Loki looks a bit sullen next to him, arms crossed over his chest; if Tony didn’t know better, he’d say that Loki’s acting a bit like he’s had his spotlight stolen. He catches the god’s eye, winking, and while Loki huffs, he also relaxes a little.
“Really?” Barton asks.
“Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
“Absolutely,” Thor says, crossing his arms.
Tony looks at Barton and shrugs.
“You were under the flooring of a building in Budapest. Maybe she knows someone and got herself out when you decided to hide under some floorboards.”
Barton sighs.
***
“You’re meant to be dead,” Barton points out. “Your armour would be way obvious that you aren’t.”
“Element of surprise,” Loki adds, but he’s preening a bit to have someone else validate his reasoning to Tony.
“There is no one in the Carpathians. No one.”
“Except Natasha. And you know. All the military that likes to use it as a playground.”
“And those following her. You may stay if you wish.”
Tony throws his hands up and goes to find Thor. Like hell is he letting Loki go off without him--he feels like he’s the only one keeping him halfway in check, a feeling only made worse since Thor first showed up.
***
Tony doesn’t miss that Loki is keeping both Tony and Barton between him and Thor, but he also doesn’t say anything. Thor is not doing so good a job from hiding his hurt over the whole situation; at least he doesn’t say anything about it either.
They end up, thanks to Thor’s really worryingly precise directions and Loki’s knack for just stepping places, in a small valley. There’s a small shack, there’s trees, and on the whole it looks very picturesque--other than Loki, they all relax after a few moments of nothing happening. Somewhere, there’s what sounds like trees being felled; they can’t be that far away from civilization.
“She’s here, right?” Barton says, breaking off from them. “The shack?”
“No,” Thor says, “soon. She has been moving quite rapidly since I loc--helped locate her.”
Loki makes a quiet noise next to Tony; his expression blank, eyes considering Thor and not the trees around them. Tony watches him, which is why he notices the flash of red first not too far behind Loki, realizes the tree falling noises have been getting closer way too fast, and that the direction Natasha is going is going to put them right in the path of what’s following her.
“Guys,” Tony says, all it takes for the others to all glance where he’s looking and come to the same conclusion as him.
“Stand aside,” Thor says, utterly calm. “B--Loki, if you would get the agent Romanoff out of the way?”
“You are aware that whatever is following her is knocking down trees, right?” Tony points out, eyebrows climbing as Thor just readies his hammer.
“Yes,” Thor says and grins.
Before Tony can say anything else, Natasha breaks the treeline, not seeing them at first as she turns her head to look behind her. She looks like shit, sticks and leaves in her hair, suit torn and scraped up in several places, and she nearly stumbles in her glance back at what’s following her.
Loki grabs her around the waist before she can, pulling her out of the way to where Tony and Barton are. Barton has his bow out but not drawn. Loki grabs the knife Natasha is trying to gut him with and shoves her towards Tony.
“Stay,” Loki says, then vanishes.
Natasha stares at them, clearly trying to switch tracks with a feral look that reminds Tony a little too much of Loki’s less sane moments.
“Took you long enough,” she finally spits, and draws a gun to level it at the treeline.
The ground is actually trembling now, and Tony gets himself behind the two assassins. Maybe he should have risked letting Loki go with Barton and Thor, stayed behind to plan and get in touch with Steve and start sorting out their next steps.
(And maybe he should just fire a missile at New York for fun--the results probably wouldn’t be too far off.)
Which is when green and angry crashes through the trees, easily dwarfing Thor. It--he, Tony realizes, recognizing the figure from news stills, the Hulk--roars, looking around for Natasha and eyes landing on Thor. Another visceral roar and he dives for Thor and how the hell does Thor think that he can possibly take on the Hulk, fuck—
Thor laughs, catches the punch, and headbutts him.
Tony realizes, after a moment, that his mouth is hanging open and closes it. He’s seen the Hulk pulverize tanks and shrug off missiles, but he’s not getting through Thor. He’s not getting driven back either--just more pissed off--but it’s still something to see.
“Maybe,” Barton says after a moment, relaxing his bow and staring just as much as Tony, “we should back up a little.”
“Yeah,” Tony agrees.
Natasha mutters something Russian and Tony is pretty sure it’s an insult, but she joins them in getting farther away from where the two are utterly destroying the small clearing they’re in.
“Does this just—”
There’s a flash of green, a sudden hiss and ripple of energy that fills the air with burning, and then the Hulk just drops.
“Loki,” Thor says, pulling his hammer blow so it doesn't hit the other god. Loki gives Thor a smug smile, toeing at the unconscious and quickly Banner-fying Hulk.
“I did not wish to be here all day,” Loki says.
Tony stares a few more moments, then fist pumps.
“What the hell?” Barton asks, staring at him.
“I get to meet Bruce Banner!” Tony crows, and yeah, maybe he’s over excited, but finally. He catches Loki looking at him and grins at the god.
Loki smiles back, quiet and pleased.
***
It’s only later Tony thinks to ask Loki how he knew that the Hulk wasn’t the only one in there.
“I know how to read,” Loki sniffs before stalking off.
Tony frowns; Loki hasn’t picked up anything to read since he showed up--Tony knows. Tony doesn’t do print on paper media, and he’d be notified if Loki had used any of the tablets or terminals. He doesn’t chase after Loki, though.
Loki doesn’t lie--Tony believes that even if it might be stupid--but it begs the question where Loki read about Bruce at all.