Hero (Loki & Avengers)

Thirteen

"Ouch!" I shout as Clint lands a swift hit with his knee to my stomach.

"Well if you payed any attention to your stance I wouldn't have hit you." He scolds me and I roll my eyes, placing my hands on my hips to catch my breath, "Sideways, remember? Never face your opponent head on. It gives them too much surface area to attack."

Everyone is currently out in the backyard, getting a few hours of training in today before it is scheduled to rain later this afternoon. Unfortunately, hand to hand combat has never been my thing, and that's exactly what Clint is hell bent on teaching me.

"Oh, you want less surface area?" I smile at Clint and then I go invisible.

I fly up and over his head, steadying myself with my palms, and then I throw a light and playful punch to the back of his shoulder.

"Not fair!" He yells back, spinning around with his hands up in fighting position.

I hear Natasha and Wanda laughing at us from beside me, and I come back into being visible.

"Sideways, remember?" I tease him.

"You're no fun to train." He says, but he smiles, "Alright Cas, take five."

A few of them have started calling me Cas recently, and I like it. It makes me feel like I'm closer to them, somehow. Except for Tony, he pretty much exclusively calls me kid. I don't mind that either.

I see Steve standing off to the side on the patio with his arms crossed, watching us all. I walk over to him, throwing a cold sweat rag around my neck to cool me down.

As I walk up to him, I'm reminded of how strikingly attractive he is. The perfect all-American man. I think when I first got here I had a bit of a crush on him. Maybe in some innocent schoolgirl way I still do. I mean, look at him. But that has mostly passed. Something about Cap, despite how much I do like him as a person, has never fully fit in with my personality.

He sees the world in black and white most of the time, I think. Good and evil, right and wrong, us and them. There's not much room to fit outside of those categories.

"How are the recruits looking, Cap?" I say, standing next to him and copying his cross-arms stance.

"Everything is going good." He says, and then pauses before adding, "Except for Loki...I don't think I'll ever trust him. I don't think any of us should."

I can't help but sense the last part was directed at me.

"Oh, he's not so bad." I smile, looking for Loki among the others. I see him, well, actually I see about six of him, off to the side practicing his illusions.

"I could think of a million words to describe Loki. Bad is one of the milder ones." Steve replies firmly.

"How about misunderstood?" I suggest, looking up at him.

Steve turns to face me fully, looking me dead in the eyes. "They only thing Loki misunderstands is trust."

His tone is sharp and hateful. I don't reply.

"Loki is dangerous, not misunderstood. Don't confuse the two." He says slowly, still looking me right in the eyes. He then takes a few steps backwards and walks away, shaking his head slightly.

For some reason, what he just said really made a pang of pain shoot through my heart. I'm not quite sure why, though.

I sigh and look back at Loki. I lean against the fence around the deck and watch him. I smile.

"Dangerous? How could eyes so beautiful be dangerous?" I say out loud, to nobody at all.

I keep my smile as I turn, dragging my eyes off of Loki, and walk back towards the others. As I'm walking, I notice that the Loki I was looking at fades away. He was just an illusion Loki.