Chapter 19
The Avengers are debriefing. That is, they would be debriefing if Loki wasn’t trying to knock down the door.
“Maybe if we ignore her, she’ll go away?” Tony says optimistically. His head hurts thanks to the weapons dealer getting a good hit in during the fight. The knocking gets louder. “Or not.”
Steve rubs his temples. He gets up and opens the door. “Yes, Loki?” he asks.
Loki slips past him, stopping in front of Thor. (Who happens to be sporting a very sore rib cage thanks to the aforementioned weapons dealer.) Her face has the ghost of bruises, once again.
“What is wrong, brother?” Thor asks.
Loki doesn’t even react, her face scarily calm. “Did you know that Peter showed me how to use the TV?” she asks sweetly.
“The technology is great, yes!” Thor agrees. “We can speak about it later!”
Loki shakes her head. “I wasn’t done.” Loki smiles but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “So, I was watching TV, when the news started playing. And do you know what was on the new?”
“Us,” Thor said. “Fighting in a glorious battle.”
“Yes,” Loki says again. The rest of the Avengers wish she wasn’t being so eerily calm. “And in said battle, you almost got hurt. Do you know why you almost got hurt?”
“Everything is fine!” Thor says. “There was a close call, but I am still hale and healthy.”
“Not the point, Thor.” Loki says. “The point is that you weren’t covering your left.”
Thor looks confused. (As do the rest of the Avengers.) “‘Twas a simple mistake.”
Loki shakes her head, almost shaking with anger. “No, Thor. It means that you were, once again, not paying attention.”
“Look, Loki,” Steve cuts in. “You’re right, there was a close call. But we’re handling it.”
Loki shakes her head. “No. Because then I asked FRIDAY if she could show me some other recent fights. And do you know what Thor did?” Loki asks.
“He didn’t cover his left,” Steve says. “Yeah, we’ve noticed that too.”
“So,” Loki says firmly. “Circling back to what is wrong. Thor, you need to cover your left. I’m not out there, and I don’t want to be, but you need to pay attention for once!”
“And you!” Loki turns towards Steve, skirt billowing around her ankles. “If you knew he was consistently putting himself at risk, why wouldn’t you do something!”
“We’re working on it,” Steve sighs. “We were actually going to talk about it during the debrief. Thor will be okay.”
Loki just shakes her head. “Fine.” She turns to leave.
“How did you even know where we are, kid?” Tony asks. The conference room is on the same floor as the living room and kitchen, yes, but FRIDAY isn’t supposed to tell anyone about it, as they might interfere with debriefs.
Loki shrugs. “I always know where Thor is.”
“Okay…” Tony says. “How?”
“Oh. I follow his seidr.”
That just raises more questions. They thought Loki was the magic one, not Thor.
“What do you mean, his seidr?”
Loki sighs. “Well, most people have latent seidr. Some Midgardians can actually see it -- some call it an aura? And Thor has a decent amount of seidr, he just uses mjolnir so much that he never actually learned how to channel it properly.”
“Mjolnir is a mighty weapon!” Thor interrupts.
“Yes, Thor,” Loki says. “But you’re the god of thunder, not of hammers.”
Thor shakes his head. “Must we have this conversation again?”
Loki narrows her eyes. “Well, maybe if you weren’t letting yourself get hurt, I wouldn’t critique the fact that you refuse to learn how to channel lightning without mjolnir!”
“Oh, so we’re arguing now?” Thor asks.
“This wasn’t an argument!” Loki yells. “You’re the one who always makes it so.”
“Well, if we’re arguing now, why must you dress like that?” Thor snaps.
Loki freezes and closes her eyes. Her hands are in fists by her sides, pressed against the smooth fabric of her skirt. “Because I wanted to. Is that not reason enough?” she asks.
“You are dishonoring our parents’ memories.”
“It is completely normal for girls to dress like this, Thor! Even Lady Natasha wears dresses sometimes, and she’s a warrior.”
“That’s different,” Thor says. “They’re women.”
“So am I!” Loki snaps. “I come here because I’m worried about your wellbeing and this is how you respond? You’re a terrible brother, Thor!”
Loki leaves the room and slams the door behind her.
The debrief goes (mostly) smoothly, after that. None of the Avengers except Natasha will meet Thor’s eyes, and Natasha’s cleaning her nails with a knife while making prolonged eye contact with Thor, so he’s not quite sure that’s an improvement.
“Can we talk?” Steve asks after the debrief.
“Of course!” Thor asks. “I am sorry about Loki. He has always been one for his tricks.”
Steve winces. “Look, Thor, most of the team is uncomfortable with how you’re treating Loki. even if Loki is just playing a trick, which I really don’t think is the case, what is the harm in humoring her?”
“I’m just trying to help him!” Thor responds, mjolnir heavy by his side.
“You hit her, Thor!” Steve snaps. “Which was cruel and out of line.”
Thor doesn’t have a response for that.
Steve sighs. “I think, Thor, that you really do love Loki. But it’s sometimes hard to tell.”
T̶h̶e̶ ̶A̶s̶s̶e̶t̶ James sees snippets, sometimes, of another life. A life he could almost see himself in. He sees a sickly blond boy (a friend?) and curly haired little girls (sisters?). He gets a notebook at another gas station when he switches stolen cars to write down fragments of maybe-memories.