When I wake I expect to hear Steve laughing and saying I overslept again, and I expect to see his face peering over my cot, but I see Loki, sitting by my side, fast asleep in a chair next to my bed. His forehead on my thigh. Reality comes rushing back as I look at my hands. Dried blood still under my finger nails and an aching pain in my side is indication enough of what happened.

"Romanoff, give me an update on the Lyra situation." I hear in my ear, I jumped, forgetting that my comm was still in my ear. Nick. "She was wounded when I saw her, gunshot." Nat says.

"We need a search and rescue, Clint and I can handle it."

"I think I know where Loki might've taken her," Stark's voice cuts in. I reach up to my comm that he didn't think to take out, but freeze when Loki stirs. He looks up and relief washes over his gaze, but I still remain stiff and tense. "Lyra, are you alright?"

I tensed under his gaze, taught against the headboard of the bed I rested on. His eyes revert to my stomach, I pull my shirt up to see bandages around my stomach. He pulls my hand away and sits up on the bed. "Where have you taken me?" I spat, almost panicky, looking around. "You're in Stark Tower, Agent Clovin." Jarvis says. "Oh, thank you, machine." I say back. Loki was looking at my wound, face pale as the moon. He makes to touch me but I flinch away from his touch. He looks as if I have physically struck him, but feeing utterly unsympathetic, I stare at him skeptically. "Which Loki are you?" I said quietly, but not weakly. He sighs, looking down, studying my wound again. "I don't know," he said so softly I almost didn't hear him, steering the conversation from this topic, I said,

"Why are we in Stark Tower?" I ask Loki.
"Don't focus on that, focus on healing yourself, love." Loki says. I grimace at the pain. "I don't know if I can, most of my energy is depleted from your spell." I say through gritted teeth, examining the bloodstained bandages on my waist.
"I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry, I didn't want to hurt you and I knew you would get in the way." He says, his eyes are emerald green again.  I sigh and give him a sympathetic look. "I will need time to regain my energy." I try to be detached, unaffected by his affectionate gaze but it probably failed. Loki nods and softly brushes his fingers over my cheek, his face was so close I could feel his breath on my skin. "You're burning up, love." Loki says, he draws his hand from over my cheek to my forehead. I frowned at him, my anger still not so easily wavered. "I wonder how that could possibly be." I snapped, I knew he meant well but I had a hard time seeing that.

Loki looked hurt by what I said, but acts to recover quickly. "I shall retrieve you something to eat, and maybe this talking machine can help?" Loki asks. "My name is Jarvis, and I would gladly." Jarvis says. Loki rises from his seat. "I shall do what I can to help you recover."

When he left the room and I was alone, I muttered a string of curses under my breath.

-

"I should be able to heal myself now, but it will take time. The bullet didn't go right through me, I can't heal around the bullet I need to get it out first." I say, motioning to the blood stained bandages on my waist. "What do you need me to do, love?" Loki asks, his hand still resting on my leg. I prop myself up and look at him. "I need you to keep me awake." I say. I conjure a small knife in my hand, then lift up my shirt to cut the bandages off. He grabs my hand. "What do you mean?" He asks me, worry in his eyes. "I don't have any medical experience, but all I know is that I need to rip this bullet out of me. The damage I do I can heal, but my body's natural instincts will kick in and I will pass out. I cannot get it out if I pass out, and if I pass out I will not be able to heal myself, so I could possibly die of blood loss. So I need you to keep me awake by slipping into my mind. Can you do that?" I ask him.

He nods and releases my hand. "Please be careful." He says. I feel him slip into my mind and something tugs at the back of my head. I take a deep breath, but then look at Loki. "Can I trust you?"

He nods. "Of course." He says, though he did not look sure of himself. Which of course was always assuring, I thought sarcastically. I take another deep breath then cut off the bandages, examining the wound carefully. I slide my knife in the wound and wince, my eyes watering. Pain flashed in my side and shot up my stomach, making me bite down on a groan. I  kept sliding it down until I felt the bullet. I pull the knife out and set it down, now I know where the bullet is. Here's the hard part. I reach my fingers in and cry out, my vision already clouding. I guide my fingers through the wound until I feel the metallic substance. I yank my hand out when I realize my fingers aren't long enough and I congure Midgardian tweezers in my hand. I was about to try and retrieve the bullet when Loki grabs my bloodied hand. "Wait one moment." He says. He stands up and exits the room. Great.

"Are you fucking serious?" I yelled after him, crying out as I jerked up, but he didn't answer me. The asshole didn't even turn back toward me.

My language was abnormal for me, but I felt it was well deserved, though I'm sure Frigga would've fainted hearing me say it.
My com starts staticing in my ear and I grimace, clutching the side of my head. "Agent Clovin, you copy?" Stark's voice. "I'm in Stark Tower, I have a gunshot wound and I'm loosing blood quickly," I reply quickly. I tap my com twice, then wait for Tony's voice. "Roger that, entering building now."

"Stark, Loki's in the building too." I say. "He's got some sort of spell on the door that draws my power, I can't get out." I say. Just as I say this I hear a large bang coming from the kitchen.

"Coming up on him now. Can you get to me, Clovin?" Stark asked, and I grimaced at the thought of having to stumble through this blasted building.

"I sure as hell can try-" I said, I glanced at my wound and winced, now or never. "Don't you dare try and remove that bullet. Remember what you told me?" Loki says in my mind. I roll my eyes, but I know he's right. "I'll sooner die from blood loss, you arse." I shot in my head, and of course he doesn't even answer me. I throw my legs over the side of the bed, I limp over to the door and damn myself, because of course it's locked. I groaned in aggravation, and I twisted the knob hard so it broke and I pushed open the door, careful not to make any noise. I started down the hall carefully, clutching my side as every step jolted pain through me, and I was careful not to allow Loki to read any of my thoughts or feelings so he wouldn't catch on that I escaped.

I was about to press the comm to my ear and ask Stark where the hell he was when I heard voices speaking in the room at the end of the hall, which I quickly recognized to be Stark and Loki.

"-please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity." Loki's taunting voice said from the room. Followed by Starks banter.

"Uhh, I'm actually planning to threaten you."

"You should have left your armor on for that."

"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage."

I fell into the doorway of the room, slumped against the wall of the corridor. I could see Tony from the entrance, standing behind a bar in his own lounge room. I saw him looking into the main room, and I assumed Loki to be standing there. Tony's eyes flicked to me momentarily, noticing me sitting against the wall, holding a bleeding wound in my abdomen but to his credit showed no reaction.

"You've got the glow stick of destiny, care for a drink?" Tony remarked to Loki, somehow keeping his face completely serious as he jested. He brought out a glass cup, walking and picking out a bottle with amber liquid inside.

I heard Loki's footsteps from the other side of the room, where I couldn't see him. "Stalling me will change nothing," Loki taunts, his voice almost humored but still keeping his menacing edge. Tony holds his hands up. "No, no no! Threatening!" He corrected quickly. "No drink? Really? I'm having one." Stark said, pouring himself a cup of alcohol.

I looked over at Stark who was messing about with glasses, he was up to something, no doubt. I phased over to the counter where he was standing, laying on the floor next to his feet and still protected from Loki's line of sight. Tony flinched, but imperceptibly, and I had to give him credit. He bent down under the counter and out of Loki's vision, opening the cabinets that I was sitting next to. "Could've sworn I had some damn ice down here," he mumbled, clearly intended for Loki but I couldn't help but grin a little. He pulled out a white box and set it carefully and quietly next to me, a first aid kit. I nodded to him in gratitude as he stood up, back to bantering with the love of my life who I really felt like murdering.

"The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?" Loki's sneer reached my ears and my stomach turned to lead at that. Loki had this phantom menacing tone to his voice, so different from when he talked to me. In any other circumstance, I would've assumed he was possessed, though the idea was ridiculous. I quietly opened to box, finding a pair of Midgardian tweezers amongst other healing items and leaning back to try and flatten my abdomen as I left my shirt and prepared myself for what I dreaded.

Starks eyes flitted to me briefly, an almost undetectable flash of concern crossing his gaze, I hoped Loki didn't notice, he was usually great at detecting such things.

"The Avengers." Tony answered simply, followed by a brief silence from Loki. I imagined a look of confusion played on the God of Mischief's features, causing Tony to elaborate. "It's what we call ourselves, sort of a team. Earth's Mightiest Heroes sort of thing."

My lip tugged at that, but I found myself getting distracted by Stark's words. I had to focus. I held my hand in front of my mouth and bit down on my sleeve to help suppress my cries as to not alert Loki of my whereabouts. I brought the tweezers to my wound:

It was now or never.

"Yes, I've meant them." Loki remarked, referring to our little gang of agents.

"Really? Well, let's do a headcount shall we?" Tony started, taking a swig from his drink.

I forced myself to focus, shoving the tweezers into my wound and letting a small squeak fall past my lips. Tony, seeing what was happening quickly started talking to cover it up.

"Your brother, the demigod. A super soldier; a living legend that lives up to the legend; a man with breathtaking anger management issues, a martian who I'm fairly certain is from Mars," I stifled my laugh at that, even while pain shot up my abdomen as I finally found the bullet and began to pull it out, struggling to force my own magic in my head and stay awake. "a couple of master assassins. And you, big fella, have managed to piss off every single one of them."

I dropped the bullet on the ground and Stark looked down at me, a little less conspicuously. His eyes exhibited shock as he watched me wave my fingers over my wound, slowly healing myself with my magic, and surprisingly enough he kept his mouth shut.

"That was the plan."

"Not a great plan."

"Lyra is not a part of your pathetic team, anyway. She's my captive, so you might as well exclude her from your little ploy." Loki seethed, doing well to hide his intentions through hateful wordplay.

I finished healing myself then, a golden mist conjuring my armor onto my body. Stark looked down at me obviously, a grin pulling at his lips.

"Really? Because she looks pretty pissed off to me."