Hero (Loki & Avengers)

Twelve

The scent of hot, irony blood wakes me up in a blind panic. I sit up straight and squint around the brightly lit space I'm in. My room. It's just my room.

I fall back onto my pillow with a huff, realizing the scent of blood must have just been in my dreams. Slowly, I roll out of bed and get myself ready for the day. I'm pulling up the leg of my black jeans when I hear yelling in the living area.

I finish getting dressed and rush out to see I'm the last one awake. It then dawns on me that I fell asleep outside and woke up in my bed, so somebody must have carried me back. And it was more than likely Loki.

"Well we need to retaliate! They can't just get away with hurting her like that." Tony shouts, slamming a hand on the coffee table. They must be talking about what happened yesterday with Mr. Connors and the lab.

"I agree, but we can't act too rashly and make the situation worse, Tony." Cap adds, being the voice of reason.

"When I get my hands on him Rogers, I'm gonna kill him." Tony leans forward and says in a low and icy voice.

"No." I calmly say from behind them, and they turn towards me, probably not noticing my presence before.

"Cassidy, I know you cared about these people, but–" Tony begins but I silence him.

"No, okay? Nobody touches them. We need to focus on the stones now, we can deal with them later." I add. Coming from me, the person who was just almost murdered, it feels like the final word of the conversation. Tony doesn't argue.

I don't think I want Mr. Connors dead. What if he just doesn't have my side of the story? To him I just look like a repeat thief. I hate what he did to me, but I wouldn't have it in me to kill him. It would hurt Dylan, too. I could never do that to Dyl.

"Okay, then moving onto the mission. What's our next move?" Natasha says, looking at me with her trademark side smirk.

"I have a request, if I might speak." Loki stands, asking for the floor. Nobody objects.

"I want these off." He says, extending his hands towards us and gesturing to the cuffs on both of his wrists.

"Ha! Yeah, right." Clint bursts out laughing, "Do you think we're idiots?"

"If you leave these on me, then perhaps." He says and Natasha has to hold Clint back for the hundredth time it seems like.

"Look," Loki begins, "You brought me here to use me, so do that. Let me be an actually useful member of this team. Cassidy almost died, twice, because of these cuffs! Because I was the only one around to save her, and I couldn't reach her without being vaporized by these barbaric things. I just had to watch her get drugged and dragged away, or attacked by a lizard demon."

Everybody remains silent, thinking, because he's completely right. A small, undetectable smile crosses my lips. It almost seems like his big, brutish, "I hate everyone" persona is faltering.

"Please, I don't know what more I can do to help you all. I've told you all that I know, I've fought by your sides when intruders tried to kill you all, and I've kept my word." He asserts.

"There's no way–" Clint begins but I interrupt him by breaking off Loki's cuffs with my powers, snapping the metal to the floor where it crashes with a bang.

They all look at the ground in shock, including Loki. Then they notice my outstretched hand, palm turned up from snapping off the cuffs with a twist of my wrist. Everyone looks at me expectantly.

"He's right. I trust him." I say confidently. The look on Loki's face is unreadable. I wonder if he's ever had anybody say that about him. Except maybe Thor.