Bonds (Loki fanfiction)

Chapter 13

Loki was woken up by Peter as they arrived back at the tower, and grumbling the God yawned and followed the others out of the jet. Stark had yet to arrive, though FRIDAY informed them that he would be back very soon. Loki knew the others were still mad at him for using his magic on them, but he couldn't care less. Before Loki could retire to his room however, Stark arrived and called a meeting in the lab. He forbade the kid from coming by making an excuse that the kid needed to get some rest before school tomorrow, but the real reason? There was about to be a lot of noise coming from the nearly soundproof lab.

The moment the God walked in, everyone stopped their conversation to glare at him, minus Bruce and Wanda. The others had already forgiven her, Loki noticed bitterly.

"What did you see when you were in our heads," Natasha growled, looking angrier than Loki had ever seen her, even after the New York and Barton incident.

Loki sighed, exhaustion still weighing him down. He was really not in the mood for this. "I had no choice but to see your thoughts, it was the only way to break the man's hold on your minds. Wanda knows this," he explained, trying not to get too angry.

Wanda nodded slowly. "When using magic on the mind, it temporarily allows you to see the person's most painful memory; it was unavoidable." Steve and Sam whirled to glare at Wanda, who put her hands up defensively. Loki didn't know what she had seen, but he knew that what he had witnessed wouldn't leave him anytime soon.

Natasha and Barnes were glaring at him still, and he shrugged, trying to stay on his feet. No one was saying anything, just glaring at him or in Bruce's case, looking quite uncomfortable. Finally the tension became too much for the exhausted God.

"I didn't want to!" The God snapped bitterly, meeting each of their stares. "You should be glad I even came to find you, I'm certain no one in this room but Thor would have done the same for me. I would've been left to rot!" Now no one would meet his eyes as he dared them to say differently. But no one spoke up.

Finally, Natasha asked, "So why did you? I don't think it was just out of the goodness of your heart." The words stung, more than Loki thought they would, but he didn't allow it to show. As the God opened his mouth to retort, Stark cut him off.

"Peter."

The God was silent for a few moments. "He cares, so I cared." Loki said quietly, not even ashamed to admit it anymore. "No one else did." Nobody met his gaze or challenged him before he turned and silently left the room.

Bruce broke the silence first, a few moments after the God's footsteps had receded down the hall. "He went to the monument the other day," Bruce said softly, and everyone's head whipped around to stare at him, astonished. "It was his own idea. I don't know what caused it." Bruce went to leave, but paused in the doorway to add, "Oh, and while I was gone looking for you guys, Ross stopped by looking for you, Stark. You may want to watch the camera feed—as well as upstairs here directly afterwards." With that, Bruce left the room.