Nuya! Of Midgard!! - Marvel AU (Avengers and Loki stories)

2 Silver and Gold: You Have To Earn It

Life with the Avengers is interesting. Not to say that it wasn't fun, because it certainly was. But it was also very interesting.

They proved to be a rather hectic bunch. Chaos would ensue from time to time throughout the day and I found they acted less like a team and more like a family. I found mild comfort in that, but I still tried to starch myself to each of them as little as possible.

Meanwhile Loki, I didn't have to worry about attaching to him. After that night he stayed far away from me. It had been nearly a week and the entire time I'd see him having casual conversation or sharing activities with the others. On occasion it seemed like he was enjoying himself - although I still didn't know why he was here at the tower. Whatever he was doing, he'd replace his expression with an intense glare or an eye roll whenever I came into his proximity. He avoided me and ignored what I was doing, never acknowledging my presence besides the hateful looks.

I can't say I was offended or minded anything by it. He'd stopped trying to read my mind and verbally belittle me and that was what mattered.

It was one of those nights where The Avengers were enjoying some downtime. They all were sat in the common room with assortment of beverages among the groups hands.
I tried not to grimace over the sight of so many of them wielding an alcoholic drink.
Especially when it came to Tony, who had a very generous class of scotch in a very expensive glass. Unbeknownst to him I'd been keeping track of how many times he refilled, so far I counted three.

Thor had a massive pint and had no problem downing it. I knew that he was Asgardian and that impacted his liquor tolerance but every time they swallowed a part of my heart ached.

I remembered the smell of booze and the aggressive gulping and choking as Eric kept throwing back shots and other drinks. I remembered the pain in his eyes melting into either numbness or anger with each passing glass. I remembered the feeling of the bottle he finished, the sticky glass thudding and breaking either on the wall behind me or against my skin leaving scratches no matter where it landed as shards went everywhere.

Every time I watched one of the team members nurse their drink it would bring flashbacks to me. I hated it so much but I couldn't tear my mind from it, not while I was here to keep witnessing it.

I finally excused myself and heading to a different floor. I subconsciously went higher, and found a balcony after wandering for a few minutes. I'd always been afraid of heights but the cool breeze and view of the city from this one didn't seem to scare me as much. If anything it helped restore peace and quiet to my brain as the traumatic memories faded away.

I leaned against the railing and let my thoughts drift. I was still wrapping my head around the fact that I was living with the Avengers. Tony was back in my life. There was still such a surreal aspect about it all. As the thoughts whizzed by, one about a certain God of Mischief wriggled it's way in.

Why am I thinking about him, of all people?

I began to look back on our encounter during my first day. I still wasn't proud of the way I'd spoken to him, but I couldn't change the past and he had been aggravating me. It seemed only fair.
Then all of the questions about him I still hadn't answered came flooding back: Why was he even here? Why wasn't anyone tackling him to lock him up? Was he not still a high-class criminal in the form of Thor's brother?

So many unanswered questions. But the most curious of all was why I even wanted to know those things in the first place?

"Probation, Rehabilitation." A formal accented voice spoke right behind me. If I had been any closer to the edge I might have just jumped off out of fright reflex.