Chapter 14
Once Loki’s side heals (again), he is treated to a very long speech about not hurting anyone and still being under surveillance. But then they just… keep the cuffs off. Loki doesn’t quite understand why, but he isn’t going to question it. Better they think as little about him as possible.
Loki looks up when the elevator dings. He smiles when Peter comes through the doors but before he can say anything, Peter stumbles forward. Loki scrambles to catch him.
“Oh, you’re not wearing cuffs,” Peter slurs. “That’s cool.”
“Are you alright?” Loki asks.
“I’ll be fine,” Peter says. “Just a flesh wound.”
“What?” Loki looks past Peter into the elevator. There are drops of blood on the floor. “By the Norns, Peter, what happened?”
“It’s a secret,” Peter whispers. He promptly passes out.
“Boss is on his way,” FRIDAY intones from the ceiling.
Loki is too busy looking for the wound to respond. Peter’s leg is bleeding and Loki gathers up the scraps of seidr he has to try healing it.
Before he can start healing, Tony runs through the doors. He looks at Loki on the floor, Peter passed out and bleeding.
“What the fuck is going on here?” He snarls. Tony glares at Loki, prying Peter away from him. “What have you done?”
“I haven’t done anything!” Loki yells. “Why does everyone always assume that when bad things happen, it’s my fault.” And then, because Loki is scared and upset and really, really bad at shutting up, he snaps. “Maybe if you want Peter to be okay, you should fucking protect him better!”
Tony goes deadly silent. “You are going to stay in this goddamn room until I get back.” He picks Peter up, starts walking away. “I’ll deal with you later.”
Loki stays on his knees, staring at the drops of blood on the floor, for a very long time.
“What did he do to you?” Tony demands before Peter’s eyes are even fully open.
Peter sits up, stretching his arms. “It was normal Spider-Man stuff, I’m fine.”
“What?” Tony asks. “No, I meant Loki. He was doing something to you.”
Peter looks confused. “He didn’t do anything to me?” He shrugs. “Well, he kind of caught me when I fell out of the elevator, but otherwise he didn’t do anything.”
“Oh, shit.” Tony runs a hand over his face. “Okay, your leg has already started healing. I’ll put the alcohol and bandages next to you so you don’t have to walk to get them. I’ll be back up in a minute.”
“Okay,” Peter says slowly. “Is everything alright, Mr. Stark?”
Tony shakes his head, mouth set in a straight line. “It will be.”
Loki is not freaking out, thank you very much. It’s not like his singular friend collapsed half an hour ago and he hasn’t seen Peter or Stark since.
The book Loki had been reading lays open on the couch where he had placed it when Peter came in. Loki, finally picking himself up off the floor, grabs a blanket from the couch and wipes the blood off the floor. Then he sits with his back to the couch and waits.
“You’re still here,” is the first thing Tony says when he makes it to the living room. His heart is racing due to running from the Med Bay. “That’s good.”
Loki curls up on himself, glaring at Tony. “Where else would I go?”
Tony sighs. “Nowhere, I guess.”
Loki stares at him, not relaxing in the slightest.
“I owe you an apology, kid,” Tony says. “I fucked up.”
Loki glares at Tony. But he doesn’t say anything.
“Really, kid, don’t go quiet on me now.” Tony tries to joke. “Didn’t know that was possible.”
Loki looks like he wants to stab Tony. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been given back his fucking knives. (Loki knows that he could, theoretically, go grab some knives from the kitchen, now that he isn’t under as much constant surveillance. But it isn’t actually about stabbing Tony. It’s about his goddamn knives being taken away.)
But Loki doesn’t stab Tony, no matter how fun that would be. Instead, he asks one question. “Is Peter okay?”
“Oh,” Tony says, because he conveniently forgot that Loki wouldn’t know. “Yeah, he’s fine. He’ll be up and more annoying than ever in a couple days.”
“Good,” Loki nods. He stands up to go, before turning to look at Tony.
“I want you to know,” Loki says, very slowly. “That if Peter dies on your watch, I will have no qualms about making sure you join him.”
Tony just blinks slowly. He is only a little concerned that Loki just threatened him. That concern is outweighed by the relief that Peter has someone else willing to fight for him.
The Asset comes to the conclusion that he must have been a person once. But people aren’t weapons.
The Asset doesn’t fail. But The Asset usually isn’t given bad information in the first place.
The Asset pays attention, in between cryogenics. He knows that his current handlers are some of the only parts of HYDRA left. The rest of the organization is spread out so thin that the Handlers wouldn’t have any backups. There would be no more Handlers coming after him.
The Asset is tired of killing. But he’s willing to do it one more time. The Asset was once a person. He hopes he can be one again.