Falling (Bucky Barnes)

8 - Exclusion and the Strange Man

Elissavet does not notice the amused smirk that responded to her fear of him and the little squeak that she let out. Loki decides to peek into the frightened girl's mind. He assumes that she is scared of him for the attack on New York, but then shouldn't she be at the meeting? Perhaps she is a servant of some sort, he doesn't recognise her from his time on Earth.

She looks up at him but diverts her gaze immediately as she realises he is staring at her.

Looking into her mind he does not find what he is looking for, but instead, he sees a different memory. Although he promised Thor and Odin not to intrude on anyone's mind, he can't help but keep watching as the scene plays.

It is the same frightened girl that stands before him now, except this one is smaller. She appears much more panicked as well. He takes in the bruises she bears on her face and the ones that litter her body. She is making a cup of tea similar to how she was making it when Loki came into the tower. A figure walks up to her silently, just as Loki had done, and she turns around to dispose of her teabag, almost bumping into the figure -just as she had done to Loki. She lowers her head and mumbles a series of apologies before she is cut off with a slap to the face. The man yells at her, upset that she spoke out of turn.

Loki gets out of her mind and watches her go to sit on one of the chairs in the lounge with a book and her tea in hand. She sits down and opens it to the first page. He decides to ask her some questions, she seems like an easy target to get information from. "Why are you not at the meeting?" Loki asks, taking slow steps forward.

She looks up from her book with her eyebrows raised, "I'm not sure."

He raises an eyebrow as her eyes turn back down to her book. When he sees she's telling the truth he wants to ask more, "Alright, well how do you like living here? I assume you live here correct?"

She looks up again and blankly responds, "yes, I live here. I don't mind living here."

"Do you like the people?" he asks, not actually caring, he just wants to see if she can think of anything that'll give him something that he can maybe use to start a little drama.

Is this Loki? Thor told me he wouldn't talk much. Why is he asking so many questions? Can't he tell that I'm trying to read? Why did they leave me alone with him? I'm the worst person they could have picked. My social skills are almost non-existent and they know I don't do well with new people.

"Yeah," she simply responds. Not bothering to continue reading, she closes the book much to her disappointment.

Loki nods his head as if he is contemplating something to say. "Do you trust your team? Do you all work together pretty well? I mean you must if you all are still together and no one has died yet," he continues.

"Uh, yes I trust my team. We all work along together, some better than others," she responds.

I only trust like three people. Wanda, Natasha, and Pepper are literally the only ones I trust. Why is he asking these questions? I would have thought he'd just have stayed quiet. I wish he had honestly. I just want to read. I'm probably the designated babysitter for him though so I'll probably have to wait until the others come back before I can go hide.

"I see you like to read, do you have any books that I can borrow?" he questions.

This surprises Elissa, but she stands up and brings her book with her to the elevator and abandoning her tea that is long forgotten about. Loki follows behind her. Elissa touches the button for the floor her room is located on and she stands as far away from Loki as she can.

When the sleek doors slowly open, Elissa walks out. She stops at the door closest to the elevator on the right. She motions to the room across from hers and informs him, "that's your brother's room-"

"I'm adopted," he sharply cuts her off.

She glares at him for cutting her off, "exactly, that's why you're his brother."

"No, just call him Thor, you do not need to address him as 'my brother'," he spits out.

"Fine whatever," she rolls her eyes, continuing by pointing to the one next to it, "that is yours." Gesturing to the one next to hers she says, "and this is James Barnes' room, although usually, everyone calls him Bucky."

Loki nods, barely paying attention to her chattering on. Elissa opens the door to her room and motions for him to enter. Loki enters with a bow of his head and Elissa follows, shutting the door behind her as a habit. She notices Loki looking at something at her desk. She shrugs thinking he already grabbed a book or something, but her heart stops when he says, "might I say your drawings are quite dark."

She quickly rushes over to him and pushes him away easily, slamming her book shut and dropping it into the bottom drawer filled with her other sketchbooks. He is so taken aback by her audacity to push him out of the way that he barely registers her mutter, "that is private."

"Correction that was private," he quips back with an irritatingly devilish smirk on his face. She glares at him. He turns on his heel and makes her way over to her collection. He nods taking in the small library.

"I have more if you'd like to see them too, they are under my bed, I couldn't fit them all," she explains, referring to the books.

"I believe this will suffice for now," he states, scanning the collection.

She nods and sits on her bed to read. He glances back at her and can tell that she is uncomfortable. He walks over to her and stands close in front of her. He notices her breathing hitch and her body becomes tense. She unsubconsciously makes herself basically curl up into a ball.

"What are you reading?" he questions, looking over the words that are upside down in his view.

"Uh, it's the second book in the series, it's called The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielson," she weakly replies.

"Why do you not trust your own team?" he asks, seemingly out of nowhere cutting off their previous conversation. Elissavet is taken aback by his question. It was like his train of thought derailed and headed off of a cliff and landed onto a dangerous rail that could collapse at any moment.

"I trust them," she lies.

He sneers, "darling I am the God of Mischief, you think that I can't deduce your lying?" She flinches, closing her eyes tight as if someone were about to hit her. "No as I saw it, you only trust Wanda, Pepper, and Natasha," he explains, staying still.

"You're bluffing," she whispers.

He humourlessly chuckles, "darling, I can go in your mind and see every thought and memory."

She snaps, "I forbid you from looking into my mind ever again. We have rules here, got it, Rudolf?"

He raises his brows as she loses her cool then shoots her a quizzical glance at the nickname. After a minute or two Elissa quietly and hesitantly entreats, "what did you see?" He smiles and walks to her bookshelf not answering her question. Her mouth goes dry and her heart beats faster. "What did you see?" she repeats, a desperate pleading tone to her voice.

"Nothing that you need to know my darling," he smirks, looking through her little library.

Her vision blurs as she can only imagine what he saw. She feels sick to her stomach, what if he tells the others? What if he uses it as blackmail?

Cutting off her thoughts he says, "well I'm going to my chambers, your team is looking for you and me. As I'd prefer to not socialise, I am making my escape."