Avengers Ice Bucket Challenge

“Well hello, Reindeer Games. Fancy seeing you here,” Tony drawled upon spotting Loki.

“I was invited, was I not, Stark?” Loki questioned, raising an eyebrow delicately.

Stark gulped. Loki was actually rather attractive when he did that, “Yes, it…ahem… it’s a figure of speech.”

“Well, I shall take my leave, then. My room is just down the hall, yes?”

“Hold it, Rock of Ages…there’s something you need to do first.”

“You, a mere mortal, would require me to complete tasks so that I could stay here?! I could have been here with or without your permission or tests.”

“Loki,” Thor growled “Behave. The Man of Iron required it of me as well. It is simply a test of valor!”

“Fine,” Loki sighed, resigning himself to the worst, “What do you want from me?”

“We want you to do the ice bucket challenge.” Clint said, grinning.

“And what might that be, archer?” questioned Loki, frowning.

“Well, you have to douse your body in ice water on video and then give money to charity. Then you get to nominate someone else,” Clint explained.

“No. I will not subject myself to this humiliation.” This was far worse than anything he had expected…this was degradation of the greatest kind…it was cruelty. He teleported to his room without another word.

He arrived in his room and fell to the floor. Who had told them? Was it Thor? They knew he was adopted, but he didn’t think they knew the extent of it. Why would Thor do such a thing?

When he had gone into the archer’s mind during the dreaded invasion, Barton had known very little about him. Perhaps Thor had told them more afterwards. Loki knew his brother could be quite thoughtless, but Loki did love him. But could his brother truly be that heartless? Thor would not-no-he wouldn’t betray Loki’s darkest, most well-kept secret…right?

His door opened and a rather shy-looking Thor appeared in the doorway.

Loki quickly projected an illusion of himself laying on the bed, merely resting.

“Come in, Brother,” he called out as he tried to gather his wits.

As Thor walked in, he casually threw his hammer at the Loki on the bed. As the illusion disappeared and Mjolnir flew back to its owner, Thor spotted Loki kneeling on the ground clutching his sides, his arms riddled with scratches.

“Brother, are you well? What happened to your arms?” questioned a concerned-looking Thor.

The pity made Loki sick, “Did you tell them?! Did you tell them what I am? Are they doing this to humiliate me further? Was my debasement after my failed capture of this realm not enough?! Do they wish to torture me for the sins for which I have already atoned?” Loki raged at his brother, curling in on himself and cursing the day he came to this wretched place.

“Brother, no!” Thor said, realizing that moment the issue, and now trying to calm his brother’s panic, “They wish you no ill! They know nothing of your heritage, I swear it on the Norns! They find things such as this amusing and they simply wish for you to participate in their ‘internet challenge.’ Most all of them have similarly participated in it.”

Loki calmed a little, knowing they knew nothing of what he was, “But they will try to force me to participate. I know these mortals. Stark especially will want this.”

“Why specifically Stark? The archer would want it more, yes?”

Loki smirked. Stark was not as good at hiding his feelings as he wished to believe he was Stark would want to see him in wet clothing, “Yes, Barton, that is who I meant. Midgardians are all the same. They will all be pleased if this happens to me anyways. Even if they do not yet know the repercussions of their actions.”

“They will not be pleased to cause you pain brother. I will leave you now. I will be with Jane Foster for a short while. I shall return within the month.” And with that Thor left for the roof and departed.

_____________Earlier_______________

“What the fuck was that, Thor?” asked Tony as he ran a hand across his face and walked over to the bar, “God, I need a drink.”

“My friend, I have an idea as to why my brother reacted as such. You have touched what you Midgardians might call a sore spot,” Thor explained.

“You should talk to him then,” said Tony as he made a scotch, “Does anyone else want a drink?”

“I shall, my friend. I will see you in time, though I will likely be leaving shortly after this to visit Jane. My brother will stay here with you,” said Thor as he left.

“Now is not the time to be drinking, Tony,” said Steve reprovingly.

“Yeah! Now is the time to be plotting on how to make sure that Loki completes the Ice Bucket Challenge,” Clint said with a smirk, “I will make sure he gets drenched if it is the last thing I do.”

“Yes, let’s prank the trickster god, what could possibly go wrong?” muttered Bruce, rolling his eyes, “I’ll watch but I will not be participating. The big guy won’t be too happy if Loki gets angry.”

“I’m with Bruce on this one. I’ll film it but nothing more.” Steve said with a sigh.

“I’m in, who else?” Bucky smiled.

“Me,” Tony said, bringing down his glass, “I wanna know what he’s hiding.”

And see him a bit more if I can, he added on silently.

“I’m not an idiot, but you dumbasses will need a hand if you want to prank someone who is literally the god of tricks and pranks,” Sam said.

“Nope,” was all Rhodey said.

“Awww come on, Rhodey! Please! It’ll be so fun!” Tony pleaded.

“Not a chance in hell. I’ll watch, but just to make sure you don’t get yourself killed,” Rhodey said with finality.

“I’m in for trouble making,” Natasha said with a smirk as she dropped in from the vents “It’ll be fun to see the look on his face when we get him,” she finished by blowing a large bubble and popping it with a snap.

“Hey that’s my trick! The vents are mine!” Clint whined.

“But I wanted to, so I did,” said Nat.

“So that’s Clint, Nat, Tony, and Bucky for pranking Loki, and me, Steve, Rhodey, and Sam against it,” said Bruce.

“Yeah!” said Bucky enthusiastically, “Let the pranking begin!”

Over the following days, chaos and water ruled Avengers Tower.

Water buckets propped on Loki’s door were countered with a force field, cups of water were thrown and dodged, cold water balloons were deflected back at the attacker (ending with a very upset and very wet Clint), and Natasha shot freezing cold water from mega-sized water guns. They even tried the rubber band on the sink trick.

Over one week, every possible way to get someone wet with freezing or even semi-cold water was tried and failed. They started to repeat things by the next Tuesday, adding more and more elaboration. Tony built a suit that only shoots water, Clint got arrows that were designed to produce cold liquid when they strike their victims, and Natasha, well, she got guns that could shoot ice as well as water, to make sure the temp was extra cold. Bucky was given water balloons galore.

On Saturday, two weeks after this began, a beautiful, very dry, and very smug Loki called an Avengers meeting in the common area.

Everyone gathered with slight caution. Weapons had not been allowed and they were a bit scared of being ambushed. Steve had a camera and Rhodey was with him “just in case” they were supposed to be filming the whole interaction.

“This is not going to be an attack. If it were, you would already be defeated,” Loki said, stepping to the front of the room.

“Big talk from a guy we defeated,” grumbled Tony

“You wish me to be defeated, Anthony?” Loki purred, unexpectedly. The way he said it left Tony more than a little aroused. And lacking a comeback.

“I came here not for war but for a peace treaty,” Loki continued, “I wish to be able to walk freely without the threat of being drenched in cold water and I’m sure that you wish to be able to stop failing to attack me.”

“What do we gain from this?” Clint said, stepping forward. He made a subtle movement with his hand, telling them to get into attack positions.

“Seems like it only benefits you, Loki-Doki,” Tony said, moving to the left of Clint.

“We’re interested in a bit more negotiation,” Nat said, prowling closer.

“Doll, it’s too late for you, we’ve already won…ATTACK!” yelled Bucky.

Loki quickly conjured a force field blocking any and all attacks from getting through.

Loki let out a loud, angry huff of utter frustration, and then groaned, turning away for a moment. When he finally turned back, there was something else in his eyes. Something that spoke of immense pain and fear and terrible resolve.

“If you want me to do it so badly, fine!” Loki shouted suddenly, silencing the room. And then, without any further warning, he summoned a large bucket of ice water and dumped it all over himself.

Tony watched in shock as Loki’s skin slowly turned blue from head to toe, his eyes now glowing red like embers. Small horns were protruding from his hair.

Loki just stood there, trembling slightly. His fists were clenched, and his eyes were wild and unreadable. He was breathing heavily.

“NOW YOU SEE ME FOR WHAT I TRULY AM!!! A MONSTER! ARE YOU SATISFIED NOW?!” Loki screamed after a moment, and then he ran from the room, small shards of ice falling from his eyes…tears, Tony realized.

“Did everyone else see that?” Bucky asked, awestruck.

Murmurs of assent filled the room. No one spoke for a long while.

“Shit. I’m going to go talk to him,” Tony muttered quietly