Siren Song

We need to talk

     Clint leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes sleepily. The monitor light had given him a headache and the image of you so willingly holding Loki's hand was burned into his skull. He watched Loki for another hour hoping to see some sinister chuckle or some hint of an evil plan, but there was nothing. He didn't monitor you in your room out of respect, but he could imagine what you looked like. Giddy, love sick, and totally oblivious to Loki's genuine feelings. There was no way on earth this monster was capable of love and it hurt him to see such a smart girl fall for all his bullshit.
     He didn't want to see you get hurt, but it was inevitable at this point. Maybe if he hurt you, you would finally get over this and learn. I guess that's the only way.
     The next morning at breakfast, he stopped Stark on his way to his bedroom after you had gone for your run.
     "We need to talk," he stated. Stark rolled his eyes.
     "What is it, Katniss?" Hawkeye ignored his question and lead him to the back room on the far side of the house. Stark whistled when he got inside and saw the walls lined in a foam material. The security monitors hanging on the walls displayed every room in the house and he saw everyone else cleaning up after breakfast.
"How long have you been working on this?" He asked. Clint shrugged as if that couldn't possibly matter.
"I need to show you something." Clint's determined tone caught Stark off guard.
"Hey, what's the point in sound proofing a monitor room?" Stark asked.
"It was originally going to be a bathroom." Clint replied.
"A bathroom? Aren't there like five in this pl-"
"Look," Clint said while pointing to a specific monitor. Tony leaned closer while Clint watched his reaction to the events that unfolded last night. He had reacted just the way Clint wanted. Anger, fear, and disgust flitted across Stark's face in a timely manner as he watched Loki persuade you into giving him access to your vulnerable neck.
"He could've killed her! What the hell is wrong with this kid? Does she have a death wish?" Stark asked, outraged.
"No, but no good will come of her falling in love with that prick."
"They're in love?"
"No. She's in love. He's using her," Clint pointed out.
"I knew we should've sent the greasy god back to Asgard as soon as we had the chance. He's so quiet I didn't notice he was still here half the time," Stark confessed.
"I noticed." Noticed was an understatement. Clint couldn't sleep soundly at night knowing Loki was still on earth.
"Why is he still here anyway? I thought Thor would've taken him back as soon as they brought Emily here."
"Either Thor wanted him to stay, someone else told Thor they wanted him to stay, or it was a combination of both."
"Poor kid," Stark sighed. Although Clint really did care about Emily's well being, he knew better than to claim it was his chief motivator. He was almost driven purely by the rage he felt towards Loki. The sooner he was gone, the better it would be for everyone.
That night, Clint showed the rest of the Avengers the footage from last night one by one. He saved Thor for last when he had everyone else on his side. But Thor didn't see what everyone else saw.
"I knew this girl could change him," he appraised.
"Thor, you can't possibly be that stupid." Nat snapped. Before he could say anything, Bruce chimed in.
"Thor... I'm sorry but I can't help but feel like you're willing to grasp at any evidence that Loki is capable of change. No matter how flimsy it is."
"Look, we get it. He's your brother, but we have to put a stop to this. I don't care if you want to put yourself in danger by trusting him because we all know you can take care of yourself. We can't say the same for Emily."
"You underestimate her strength," Thor shot back.
"And you seem to underestimate how good of a liar Loki is. Emily is as naïve as they come," Natasha said.
"And quit pretending like this is a test of strength! Loki is manipulating her! I'm not willing to put her in danger just because you think this psychopath is capable of love! Open your eyes! You're only seeing what you want to see! Loki doesn't love her, he loves how powerful she is! He doesn't love you. He doesn't love anyone." Steve finished. Thor stood in a stunned silence as he realized no one had his back.
"You don't know Loki like I do," he reasoned. Steve shook his head.
"No, you said yourself that you don't know this new person Loki had become. We wouldn't be saying all this if it wasn't urgent. This girl is head over heels for him. She's going to get herself hurt. Don't you care?"
"Don't you dare accuse me of not caring for her! I love her like family!"
"Then you should take Loki back to Asgard. It's long overdue." Clint looked at Thor, hoping he would see reason. But then the monitor caught everyone's attention when your voice greeted Loki in a jovial voice. You and Loki didn't hesitate in getting as close to each other as possible. It sickened Clint to see you crave Loki's touch enough to stick both your arms in the slot.
"Good evening, love" Loki greeted you back just as enthusiastically and stooped down to kiss your hand. Seeing the blush spread across your cheeks made Thor smile and everyone else sick.
"How was your day?" You asked almost casually. He chuckled in what Clint thought be an ominous way, but Thor knew better. For the first time in many months, he thought Loki looked nervous. It was a rare sight to see this dark god lose his composure and trip over his words.
"Boring really. I am much more interested in yours" Clint could easily think of what Loki was much more interested in, but the conversation never strayed away from compliments, jokes, and stories. What is he playing at? Everyone watched you slip into a routine of making ramen for the god of mischief while he fired off question after question. It was nothing Clint wanted to hear. Instead of questions about the location of the tesseract, Emily's abilities, and the habitual practices of her teammates, Loki wanted to know her favorite flower, what new slang she had learned today and it's meaning, and how her training was going. She gave it a quick thought before answering them all.
"Wisteria, you made fun of the slang I used last time so I'm not going through that again, and it went well. I beat Natasha in tag," she announced proudly.
"No you didn't," Loki and Natasha said in unison. Natasha tried to avoid everyone's eyes after that.
"Okay, fine. I fell on my ass."
     "Sounds like you," he agreed with an easy laugh. The laugh is what made Stark watch Loki a bit more closely. He knew what being in love looked like. No matter how good of an actor Loki was, there was no way he could feign fondness that well. It made a small part of him root for your romance. And Stark wasn't the only one who found themselves swaying their opinions.
     "Eat up before it gets cold," you urged. He laughed again.
     "Yes, ma'am." Loki tucked into his dish without another word. Emily pulled up a chair and made herself comfortable by leaning her back against the glass. Having Loki tower over your vulnerable back made Clint uneasy, but Loki never did anything more than eat. When he was finished, Loki mirrored your position and sat with his back to yours.
     "Got anymore questions for me?" You asked.
     "A fair few, but they might make you uncomfortable." Everyone watched as you mulled it over.
     "Go ahead and ask." Loki paused.
     "Are you certain?" You placed a fixed smile to your face that Loki couldn't see.
     "Absolutely. Fire away." Loki turned to face your back before he spoke.
     "Did you really kill your mother?" Of all the questions you seemed to be prepared for, this wasn't one of them. Loki took immediate notice of your sudden silence. "I apologize. It was rude of me to ask"
     "No, it's fine. I'm okay." You turned around in your seat and straddled the chair backwards.
"And yes, I did." Loki's expression gave nothing away.
     "You don't have to tell me about it if you don't wish to," he offered politely. You shook your head, unaware of your audience's rapt attention.
     "I was about six, maybe seven. I don't remember it well, but I remember I lived in a house before the facility. It had a fire place and and an upstairs floor. It also had a bar like this one," you said as you gestured to the one behind you. "Now keep that in mind because it's important to the story." You had a joking manner about you, but Loki knew you were reflecting on a very painful memory. "My dad was gone to work and I was throwing a tantrum because he had left. I was doing the whole routine. Ya know, screaming and crying. Little kid stuff. It wasn't my proudest moment." You laughed as you said this, but your smile quickly faded.
     "My mom was trying to hug me and was trying to tell me it was okay, but I just kept screaming. She flew back away from me and hit her spine square on the bar. It was so loud. And you can imagine what my dad must've thought. He left the house for a few hours and came home to find his wife had literally been broken in half. She had probably died as soon as her spine snapped." The house was completely silent as Emily finished. Loki's face was caught somewhere between concern and anger. He pieced the rest of the story together for himself. Her father blames her. His thoughts were interrupted by Emily as she rose from her seat and stretched her ached muscles.
     "And you know the rest I'm assuming. It's one hell of an origin story, huh?" Loki stood from his seat and offered his hand to you. Clint grew restless in his seat. As soon as Loki tried to hurt you, he would have a knife ready for him. But nothing happened except for the two of you holding hands and giving each other comforting looks. Well, one of you was being genuine. He was still so sure that Loki was faking everything. He had to be. He was so resolved on this that he never even entertained the possibility of Loki actually caring about you. But the way he looked at you, like you were the most important thing in the world to him, made him step back.
He shook his head quickly, disgusted that he would think that way. He's just lying to her.
"You mustn't blame yourself. You were only a child," Loki soothed.
"I know. It just gets so hard not to sometimes. I can't help but wonder if it had never happened. How different would my life be? How different would I be?" Loki held your hands gently. He wanted nothing more than to hold you right now. Emily looked to him suddenly.
"But then I don't know if I would've ever met you." Loki stood stunned as you confessed just how much you cared about him. To willingly relive your life's hardships just so that your path would cross his again.
"Meeting you has been the greatest adventure of my life," he proclaimed proudly.
Thor suddenly jumped from his seat and bounded out of the room towards Loki's cell.
I broke my gaze away from Loki's eyes and turned my ears to the sound of footsteps. Whoever it was, they were making no effort to be quiet.
"Someone's coming!" I whispered to him.
"Go," he ordered as he handed the bowl to me. Right, didn't want to make the same mistake twice. I grabbed it while I shut the slot and jumped my way over to the sink. The footsteps were getting so close that I didn't have enough time to make it to my room. I silenced myself and ducked behind the bar just as Thor made his way into the room.
"Brother!" He announced happily. I didn't have the chance to look at Loki's face but he had to be wearing the same perplexed expression that I was. I felt my heart pounding silently as I tiptoed my way into the hall. There was no way I was gonna let Thor catch me crouching behind the counter. Why did he come in here? He's going to wake everyone up! I strained my ears as I proceeded into the hallway, but I couldn't hear anyone getting out of bed. In fact, I couldn't hear anything.
While I listened to their sudden exchange, I turned my ears left and right to try and hear something that suggested where everyone was.
"What could you possibly want at this hour of the night?" Loki spat hatefully.
"Come now, there's no need for all of that! I saw everything! Brother, I couldn't be happier for you!" Thor explained gleefully. My heart stopped as I listened for Loki's response. I was torn between locating my teammates and listening to what the hell they were talking about. I realized I could do both at once, but having my attention divided was making them both difficult.
"I haven't the slightest idea of what you speak of." Loki claimed after a momentary silence.
"Loki, you've been holding out on me!" I crept my way silently through the dark halls of the house when the light of a camera caught my eye. I peered into the lens and suddenly realized what Thor had meant when he said he had seen everything. I quickly sprinted past every room I had known to be inhabited my my teammates and came across a door that was slightly ajar. The bluish white light that shone from the room was being projected by ten monitors at once. It seemed that everyone inside was already expecting me, but no one seemed to be ashamed of what they had been doing. Bruce was the only one that avoided eye contact.
"We were doing it for your own good," Clint tried to explain, but I stormed off before he had the chance.
"If you honestly think I am fawning over some silly little mortal, then you are sorely mistaken." I stopped in my tracks. The hateful intention he put behind the word mortal made me second guess what I was worth to him. I encased my body in shadow as I slipped into the kitchen again. Neither of them seemed to notice.
"Brother, please. I know you. I can tell she means a lot to you." Loki laughed cruelly.
"I'm beginning to wonder if you'll ever learn! But you were right about one thing. Words I thought I would never let escape my lips! She does mean a lot to me. Conquering the earth will be child's play with her among my new army." My heart sunk to my stomach. How could I have been so stupid? I stood up from my hiding place.
     "So you were just using me?" I accused. Loki turned to me with mock sympathy.
     "Well, look who finally managed to sneak up on me. I'm impressed," he praised.
     "I don't believe you. Lying is like second nature to you." He smiled proudly.
     "It seems you know me better than he does, but I don't see a need in convincing you I'm telling the truth. You should've known all along I was using you, deep down." Trying not to show any hint of emotion, I turned to Thor.
     "I'd appreciate it if you'd leave. I want to talk to him alone." Thor turned and left with the most betrayed expression I'd ever seen him wear. When he was gone, I turned to the camera. "And I'd like it if everyone stopped spying on me. I'm not putting on some show for your entertainment." I didn't look at Loki again until I heard the sound of their heartbeats again.
"It's a pity our relationship had to end this way. I was hoping we could be more useful to each other." He explained.
"You were hoping I would release you and switch teams?" I asked. He smiled.
"I'm pleased you caught on so quickly." I couldn't look him in the eye because mine were beginning to water.
"So, that's it? Since this plan of yours failed, you just go back to Asgard?" And leave me behind.
"Seems so," he sneered. "Unless you have a change of heart." I let a tear slide down my cheek.
"I can't do that, Loki."
"Then I have no further use of you" He snapped. Thor was right. I should've listened sooner. Loki sure had impeccable timing. As soon as I share a painful memory with him, he stabs me in the back. But he had looked so sincere when he told me he had missed me. I wish I could've gotten angry so could've yelled. I wish I could've done anything to make me not look as pitiful as I must have looked when I walked away. But I didn't feel anything. I went the opposite way my heart was trying to tug me in. The man I longed for thought I was nothing more than a pawn.
     I didn't bother looking into the hall. Whether anyone was watching or not, I didn't care. I crawled into bed and tried to focus on getting some rest before I had to train in the morning.
     Loki watched your retreating figure with regretful eyes. He wished that hurting wouldn't have been so easy. He wished that you hadn't so willingly and wholeheartedly given your trust to him. He didn't realize that you had actually cared about him, but it was obvious to him now. As much as he cared for you in return, he felt he had just done you a great kindness. It was the most considerate thing he had ever done for anyone. Letting you go was the best chance you had at happiness. He was not about to sit in a cell and watch you waste the rest of your life away for him. He would go back to Asgard and you would stay here and be an Avenger. You were going to fight and live amongst the rest of your team and... you were going to love again. Someone better. Someone more deserving.