Infatuated with a God

Chapter Sixty

The next morning, I stared at the file on the screen in front of me as I tried to force myself to concentrate on my actual work. It wasn't often I was given a solo assignment, so I wanted to make sure everything I did was perfect. So, it didn't help that I could barely sit on the chair without being reminded of last night. His name all over the documents didn't particularly help either. Still, I managed to keep myself in the corner of Tony's lab, enjoying the music he played as he tinkered away on his own projects. Regardless of my distractions, I viewed the files with a mixture of excitement and worry. The charity gala was in four days, and they were finally letting Loki go out publicly for the event. It worked in many ways. Firstly, what we needed to do was limited. Tony had already made a donation in the Avengers name and so all that was required was us to take his and Pepper's place. It was a ball, so Loki would fit in more than any other event. Plus, it was off limits to public members so there would be less fuss and less journalists. For the most part the work I needed to do was limited as well. It took place in Washington D.C., so we had transport and hotel rooms already arranged. All that was needed from me was to answer one or two questions of my choosing and keep Loki from blowing up the city. People were treating it like the second part was going to be difficult, but I knew he could be very easily distracted. Plus, he seemed far too keen for the trip anyway, so he was definitely planning something. Not anything that would need action, but likely something that would leave me just as sore as I was today.

With Hydra gone, there was little to no threat to me at the event, but Tony insisted on a guard joining us. It annoyed me as I was more than capable of protecting myself, but I managed to convince him to let me choose the guard at least, so I was grateful Alex would be there. It had been far too long since I spent time with him, so I was too excited for him to find out from his commanding officer. It was late into the evening when I walked out of the lab, Tony and Banner long gone by then. As I walked to the longue using muscle memory alone, I pulled out my phone and I sent him across a text to Alex to pack some two player games for his weekend trip. He seemed excited to go on a mission with me and a smile lit up my face before I crashed into the corner of a wall. Laughter filled the room around me as I put my phone away with a glower and lowered the screen from my watch. I muttered my annoyance as I grabbed some of the pasta from the kitchen before returning to sit on the sofa. Tony then muttered something about having a whole booth to eat and the sofa costing more than I will ever earn in my life. I retorted saying that with my pay I didn't doubt it. It wasn't often I found this room full anymore. But even Loki was curled up on an armchair rereading the Hamlet I had let him borrow. His eyes were on the page, but he wasn't reading at his usual pace and so clearly was keeping note of the conversations around him. It was a marvel that no one else noticed such things about him.

"So, who had you so distracted you bruised your skull on a wall?" Nat chuckled, taking a swig from her beer. I rolled my eyes at her, using my magic to grab one of the beers from the table and open it before bringing it up to my lips.

"I was just informing Agent Miller of the mission." Nat chuckled with Wanda and Tony spoke up.

"That poor boy has no idea you are so uninterested does he?" Rhodey, Sam and Tony all chuckled at his words, their rowdiness increasing with the rise of my blush.

"He is just a friend, nothing more." I muttered, taking a larger swig of my beer as they continued to tease me.

"Seriously kid, we all saw the way he pinned after you at the Christmas party. I mean really, put him out of his misery already." With a sigh, I pulled another beer over to me, briefly noticing dark green eyes glaring at me as I took another swig from my second. He was easier to ignore slightly tipsy, and with my period of abstinence from alcohol I was already getting there.

"And who is saying that I'm uninterested?" Wanda and Nat now laughed at Tony's expression. He muttered something about a bet, which completely piqued my interest. "What bet?" Sam snickered from beside Steve.