Lies of Silver, Heart of Gold ~§~ Bucky Barnes

-025-

Carina is slowly getting more and more furious at Loki, though the next thing she says isn't out loud, mostly so as to not hurt Bucky or break his trust.

Not only did you disrespect my wishes to not check up on me, she starts yelling in her thoughts, now you're standing there and accusing me of... what? Cheating? I've known you for a week, Loki. Honestly I thought I liked you, and that kiss yesterday was great, but right now you're really just pissing me off.

"Are you suddenly not confident enough to share our relationship out loud with your new friend in the room? Ah, that's right. He can't hear me." He pauses and his magic flickers. "Well now he can."

Bucky takes a moment to get over the shock of a man suddenly appearing in front of him before he asks, "Who the hell are you?"

"Oh, just a friend of Carina's," Loki replies. "A friend she happened to kiss last night, then proceeded to have quite the dream about. Shall I tell him about that, love?"

Carina is glaring at Loki and her skin starts to glow with electricity underneath, which Loki, Nat, and Bucky notice, though Carina doesn't. Nat agilely snakes her way off the couch and manages to get upstairs without Carina noticing. She grabs her burner phone from the guest bedroom and dials Tony's number.

"Who's this?" Tony's voice asks through the phone.

"It's Romanoff," she replies. "If you haven't already, you need to contain Loki asap. I'm not sure what he's saying to Rina right now, but he's really getting in her head and she may or may not be glowing again." She takes a slightly shaky breath. "She's like a bomb that could go off at any minute."

"I guess it's a good thing we had a contingency plan in place," Tony chimes. "Give me two minutes and I'll get him contained."

"And make sure he can't get out of it once he's in," Nat suggests. "I gotta go, you get to work."

Natasha hangs up and presses the button on the compressed gauntlet still around her wrist, allowing it to maneuver into place. She remembers what had happened earlier and opens the window of the guest bedroom, then aims for the street below and fires. The first blast is a dud, but she smacks the wrist piece and tries again. It works, cracking the asphalt of the road, so she heads out of the room, then heads downstairs and is met with something familiar, though unsettling. Carina's skin is brighter than when Natasha left, and starting to crackle and spark, which she guesses means her friend could take out the whole neighborhood.

"Loki!" Nat calls out. "Whatever you're doing or saying to her right now, stop. I know you can see what's happening, and if you get her any more upset she could level this whole street." She turns to Carina and continues. "Peter and May are right next door, Rina. You don't want to hurt them, right?"

Carina looks at Nat and her face softens. Nat glances at Bucky and motions for him to get her on the ground or knock her out, which he does in one swift movement. The millisecond that her eyes flutter out of consciousness, the voltage fades, leaving faint scars where her skin crackled, and Carina collapses. Bucky catches her and picks her up bridal style, then sets her on the couch. When he turns around, he looks where Loki was just standing, only to see an empty space. He walks to the kitchen and grabs a plate of pasta.

"That guy is an ass." He takes a bite and his expression changes slightly. "Wow this stuff is good. What is it called?"

"That would be pasta," she answers as she hits the button to retract the blaster. Her phone buzzes, and a single text from Tony shows up on the screen. Reindeer Games is locked in.

She types a reply and smiles. "I don't think we have to worry about Loki for a while." Nat looks up from her phone to see Bucky's plate empty and a little bit of sauce around his mouth. She stifles a laugh and grabs him a paper towel.