Always and Forever | Loki Laufeyson

Kapittel (13) Tretten ~ Winter and Goodbyes

"Who is this Winter Soldier and why does he show up in Alex's dreams?" Thor asked, looking very confused.

"The Winter Soldier is a myth." Tony rolled his eyes.

"No, he's not." Natasha snapped at him. "I had a run-in with him once. It happened a long time ago, but he left me with a scar right below my stomach. The guy's been around and working for Hydra for just about 70 years. No one has been able to catch him. The only reason he's been able to be recognized is his bionic left arm with a huge red star on the bicep."

"Soldier got the star, Vixen got the fox," I mumbled, deftly rubbing over the tattoo on my arm.

"The soldier has done over two dozen assassinations, and I don't even know how many have been killed by bad luck and being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Probably around 150." I shrugged, making everyone stare at me. "What? We kept track, more or less."

"You kept track?!" Tony yelled, looking horrified.

"When you're forced to kill hundreds of people, you remember every one of them, Stark. We only kept track because we remembered every single one." I glared at him.

"Right. I can see how that would haunt your dreams." He awkwardly looked away.

"What was your relationship with this... Winter Soldier?" Loki asked. I could totally be wrong, but something told me he was not too happy hearing about Winter.

"He became my only family - which is especially hard when you're brain is absolute mush half the time and you only see each other a few times out of the month. He taught me everything I know."

Again, I could be wrong, but Loki seemed bothered by my last statement.

"How could you be friends with someone that goes around killing people? I do not understand." Thor asked.

"He was brainwashed, same as me. I can't even begin to think of how he is mentally compared to me since he's been getting wiped way longer than I have."

"They don't know what wiping is, Alex." Clint placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Um, it's pretty much where Hydra would send lots of electricity into your head in hopes of turning it to mush, effectively making you forget everything and everyone, including yourself."

Everyone just stared at me then, pity in all of their eyes.

"Ok, well, I'm fine now. You can all go back to whatever you were doing. Enjoy your morning, everyone." I quickly turned around, accidentally teleporting myself back to my room.

A few minutes later there was a knock on my door.

"Alex? I know you're in there open up." Nat's voice came through the door.

I sighed, getting up from where I was lying on the bed and opening the door.

"So, you want to tell us why the dreams suddenly came back?"

"Us?"

"Yeah, Clint wasn't so sure you would open the door so he went through the vents." Right as the other redhead assassin said that, the archer fell out of the larger vent up by the ceiling.

"Ouch." The blond groaned as he landed face-first on the floor.

"You deserve that for spying on me via the vents." I sat back on my bed, holding one of my pillows to my chest.

"You can't avoid the question, you know." Nat sat beside me as Clint got up, stretching out his back and rubbing his face.

"I got Loki to open up to me. He told me about what happened when he was captured."

"Alex, I don't know how good of an idea that was. I guess I'm glad you're getting closer, but-"

"But he could be luring you into a trap! Who knows, maybe it's some sick plan of his to get you closer to him before he controls your mind! Or worse, kills you!" Clint yelled, his brows lowering in anger and frustration.

"Shut it, Barton." Nat rolled her eyes, slapping Clint on the back of the head.

"What?! It's totally posible!"

"No it's not, Rooster." I rolled my eyes.

"Clint, we just had the talk about this two days ago. We've gotta give Loki a chance. Especially if he was doing everything against his will." Nat told the archer.

"I'm still not sure about that being true. I mean, he's the god of lies. How do we know it's the truth?"

"Because Alex believes him. And that's good enough for me."

~~

Well, Clint's leaving.

It's been about a month since we've all talked about what happened to Loki, and the possibility of trusting him. While the others became more open to the idea of him being in the tower, they still didn't talk to him much.

Loki and I have mainly stayed on our own floor, leaving it only to go to the library or to mandatory team dinners. He usually stays quiet during them, but every once and a while one of the girls will ask him a question, or Thor will try and bring him into the table's conversation. Any time Loki does say something, though, Clint goes silent throughout the rest of dinner.

Natasha told me that she left some things at the farm, so she's going to go back with Barton to grab her stuff and then come back to SHIELD. I think I heard Olivia and Steve talking about leaving soon too, so the tower will probably be empty for a while.

I was up on the landing pad with the Avengers, and we were all taking turns saying our goodbyes to the two spies. Agent Stark and Captain Rogers were finishing saying their byes, Tony and Avery having already had their turn.

"Say hi to everyone for me. I miss the little gremlins." I told Nat as I gave her a hug while Clint finished putting their stuff into the jet.

"That's almost exactly what Olivia said. Avery said something about having them facetime her so she can see how they're doing." She chuckled.

"That doesn't surprise me, everyone loves those two." I smiled, looking over at Clint, who was fidgeting with one of his bags.

"Alright, stay safe. I love you."

"Love you too, Lex." I gave a small smile, starting to walk over to Clint.

"Hey." I stood in front of the archer, getting him to look at me. "I just wanted to say goodbye. And to ask you to tell Laura I said hi. I miss her." I smiled at the archer, who seemed to try to avoid eye contact with me. I frowned, starting to walk away when I heard his voice speak.

"I'll give you a call." I turned around, seeing Clint looking right at me. "Laura, Cooper, and Lila can all join. They miss their big sis." He smirked.

"Their big sis miss's them." I chuckled, running over and giving the man a hug. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too, kid. Come visit whenever you want. You can even send a clone. None of us can tell the difference."

"I will. Have fun on your break."

"Will do, but I need you to promise me something." Clint had a very serious look on his face.

"What is it?"

"If that greasy weasel does anything, and I mean anything, to hurt you, you call Nat or I. We'll be here in a heartbeat to come kill the bastard."

"Clint." I playfully glared at him.

"I know, I know, we're supposed to blindly trust him now." He rolled his eyes. "But I still worry."

"I know you do." I smiled. "And I promise to give you a call if anything happens."

The two of us said our final goodbyes, and I watched as Clint and Nat walked up the ramp, the hanger door closing behind them. Not much later, the quinjet took off, quickly fading away into the distance.

Another month later, Avery got Tony to calm down enough about Loki being at the tower enough to go back to their mansion in Malibu, where they were going to spend their Christmas.

Another couple of months later, Captain Rogers left for Brooklyn to work at SHIELD. After some difficulties revolving around her discovering some new abilities, Agent Stark joined him shortly after.

So now it was just me and the gods in the tower.

What could go wrong?