The Avengers: To Love and be Loved By Me

Worth Saving

It had been a pretty dull day and that was the understatement of a lifetime. The God of Mischief had been stuck in SHIELD's glass prison for a multitude of hours now and toying with Agent Romanoff had only provided him with a tinsy bit of fun. He was sitting and waiting, just waiting for that green freak to break lose from that pathetic mortal. Loki could sense the tension, he knew it was coming.

However from that thought sprang one of Loki's many demons. Who was he to call anyone a monster? This thought settled into Loki's mind like a plague and he cursed himself for allowing negativity to be present when he was so close to victory. But how could he not? These pathetic misguided fools SHIELD was using for their defense against him were no less freaks than he was. He was the biggest freak of them all and he hated himself for it.

Loki thought about the casket of winters and how Odin told him of his parentage. He thought of all the years he'd been conditioned to hate the Frost Giants, to want them to pay for the troubles they'd brought the Asgardian people, unbeknown to himself being bottle-fed the basics of self-loathing by the hand of his own "father".

A bitter taste was rising into the god's mouth and tears were stinging his eyes. It wasn't fair. He'd been such a good son, he did everything he was told, he even watched after his oaf of an older brother when it was supposed to be the other way around. Now he was out on a quest for vengeance against a brother that threw him out of his own kingdom when he used to be the only person Loki could confide in, and a father that never quite loved him as much as he should have.

But that was an issue in and of itself, Loki didn't want to submit to the monster he felt he was, he didn't want to be this person. But at this point he saw no other way, because he refused to role over and be Thor's complacent and weak younger brother like he'd always been, that's why he had to do this. Love Thor as he did he couldn't let go of the lies, the pain, the arrogance.

Loki's mind was now fully submerged in his sorrow, forgetting why he was even in this glass container or why he was so far from home. All he could now think about was his failure as king and his failure at making his father proud, the hole in his shattered and broken heart aching for anything, anything at all to sooth it. Tears ran from his shinning emerald eyes down his pale, delicate cheeks, his body beginning to shake gently as sobs broke loose from his chest.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark was upstairs with the other Avenger's, getting in to a pretty fierce argument with Steve Rogers. Tony had already woken up on the wrong side of the bed, after having another night terror about his father. Howard Stark had never been the greatest dad, always working, never appreciative of what his wife and son did while he was gone, and a drunk, verbally abusive asshole when he was actually around. The one thing Tony held on to as a child was that his mother, Maria, loved him with all her heart, but damn him his father tried as hard as he could in Tony's darkest nightmares to rip that security away from him.

"Little Anthony Stark, the brightest child they'd ever encountered, received top marks in all his classes. Yeah, I bet you wish that was the truth. You were always a disappointment, a nuisance. 'Daddy, look at this, Daddy, I made you this'. Sorry, I was busy working to put food on the table you ungrateful little shit. And now you talk about dear sweet mommy like she was a saint, even have a charity founded in her name, yes? Well I have news for you, mama's boy, she hated you more than I did. She pitied and cared for you out of pure recompense for shaming me with a son unworthy of the air wasted to give you life."

These words were ringing in his ears as Steve got dangerously close to his face, his ever self-righteous blue eyes piercing into him. Oh he could punch him in the face, knock out every pretentious little thought in his frost bitten brain.

"Big man in a suit of armor, take that away and what are you?" Tony's fist and teeth clinched, he didn't need this, not today. He pulled on his best smile, though he knew his eyes and voice betray him.