A Life of Lies (LokixMafia!Reader)

Chapter Nine

(Your Pov)

"Listen, Marc. I'm laying low for a while until this Avengers thing blows over." You sigh, talking into your mask. You were packing up the necessities, about to head back to the tower. "Cover for me."

"I don't think I can run across any more buildings, Ouroboros." He laughed, as you heard a pen scribble something on a pad. "But I'll do what I can."

"That's all I need. Thank you." You zip up your suitcase, "And good work with the promise. You're always the best."

When he laughed, you ended the call. Resting for a moment, before continuing to check off your to-do list. "Miba? Remember the newest scenario?"

"Of course." Your AI replied, "Would you like me to implement it?"

"Yes."

With a beep she disappeared from your visor, going to do just that. This new scenario would cover your expenses for the next few weeks, paying your bills and making it seem as though you were still alive. Even though you were miles away at the Avengers tower.

Damn them for this. You wished you could just leave, although such things would be so stupid. It wouldn't take long to figure out you faked your own disappearance.

With everything you needed packed, you walk out back toward the tower. Hopefully this episcade wouldn't scare the team too much, you didn't exactly have their permission to leave on such short notice. Let alone disappearing without even a note.

But when trying to balance lives between heroes and villains, what other choices were there?

*

"I have dessert!" You call out, stepping into the tower. You hadn't exactly told the others you were leaving- hoping that ignoring the little tidbit might buy you extra time to check in with your business. Instead of a team member insisting they join you.

"Y/N!" Clint said, rushing to your side first. Followed quickly by the others, who were searching over monitors. "Where the fuck did you go?"

You scoff. "Keep cursing and you get no sweets." When he shuts up, you turn to address them all. "I had to get my stuff, check in with the office, and bring back a bribe from my escape. It didn't take long."

"But that's all the time it takes to swipe someone off the streets." Natasha sighed, accepting your bribe of Starbucks coffee. The sweetest combinations of sugar drinks the café had, anyway. "Apology accepted."

You smirk, handing out the rest of them. Even one to Loki, who hadn't said a word since your disappearance. But when he started drinking your offering, his eyes lit up from the chocolate. You knew how to keep him on your side.

"What is this?"

"Pretty much chocolate liquid sugar." You laugh when his reaction is to drink more of it, smiling when the others look over confused. With a sigh, you turn to address them all. "We need to talk."

"About you leaving?" Bruce asked, the only one whose drink was not coated in sugar. He received his favorite tea instead. "I thought the bribes were to avoid that."

You laugh. "The bribes were to make you more susceptible to agreement. But I can't be locked in a tower every moment of every day for the foreseeable future. I have a job! A life! Friends who are going to need to see me in order to believe I'm okay. I understand that you want to keep me safe. I was kidnapped- As a psychiatrist I can imagine how you feel. But that doesn't mean you get to lock me away like a runaway child."

The team looked amongst themselves, guilty expressions layering over protective ones. "It's just too soon, Y/N." Tony sighed, "At least tell us when you're going out so we don't think you're captured again."

"I can agree to that." It wasn't completely unreasonable. Perhaps a bit difficult to escape the tower unaccompanied, but not impossible. It was better than not being able to leave at all.

"So, what did you pack?"

*

Some hours later, and you've just about finished unpacking. The room the Avengers gifted you was cozy, seeming to be more like a studio apartment than just a bedroom. For now- under Tony's promise of other living arrangements later- you were across the hall from Natasha, and the neighbor of Loki. How did you know these things, you ask? Because you kind of... sort of... entered the wrong room a few times... maybe. It's not your fault all of the Avengers' doors look so similar.

A knock startles you from your evening reading. "Y/N?" A shy voice calls, belonging to none other than the mischief prince.

"Come in, Lokes." You answer, as a beam of light from the hallway shines across the room. "What can I help you with?"

He laughed. "You do realise that is not my name?"

"Do you want me to stop?" You flash him a smile, perfectly able to stop the teases if he found them unprofessional or bothersome. When he shakes his head, you shift your position so he could sit beside you on the couch at the foot of your bed. "So what brings you here?"

"I was wondering if you are alright. Really." Loki tilted his head how he always does, prepared to evaluate your response. Time after time he's done this in your sessions, always when he doubted a certain fact or notion. What- did he expect you to lie? Now? So early on since moving in?

As much as the instinct drew at your emotions, if you lied, chances are he would be able to pick apart the meaning behind your curtain of fibs. But to share your thoughts and problems and... life, with him- You've never done that. With anyone. Not unfiltered. Not to purely confide in a loved one.

You had no loved ones. To allow such things, your enemies might... You just- you couldn't.

Not again.

"Why do you ask?" You flash a bright smile, hoping it would cover for any doubts he held. He wasn't a psychiatrist, and you weren't his patient. There was no need for you to say anything.

Loki smirked at your deflect. "You're not answering the question."

Stupid god of lies. You could fool anyone on this Earth, but not the Asgardian who just so happened to become your patient. "I just have to get used to the move." 

"Moving?" He raised a brow, looking at you suspiciously. "There is nothing else?"

You laugh. "Yes, Loki. I'll be fine in a bit, I just need some time to adjust." You try to reassure him, knowing he wouldn't give up the topic so easily. Another thing on the to-do list, then: appease Loki's doubts that you're okay. "But if this is some trick to make me the patient, it's not working. Our sessions are still on."

He grumbled playfully. "Oh, are you sure there is no other way to convince you?" With his words Loki tapped against your mind, leaving just as soon as he came.

"Not that way." You laugh, "And you're out of luck with our alone time, since I promised the team I'd be there for dinner."

Loki looked confused by your words, until a knock sounds at the door seconds after. "Hey Y/N, dinner is-" Steve peeked through the entryway, spotting both of you sitting together with light smiles still tainting your faces. "-is... uh- you know what, just come down when you're ready."

"Told you."