Loki's Little Witch [en]

chapter 4. out of time

"Muspelheim was the last of the Realms to quest," the asgardian god of thunder said in a firm tone, "and there was no sign of my brother or your daughter there."

He finished almost in a mutter, cautiously glancing at Tony as he sat alone on the furthest table from him whilst everyone else surrounded him expectantly as they had been from the moment he arrived at the lounge area of the Avengers compound.

They had awaited weeks for the asgardian to return, hoping that he would finally arrive with good news unlike all the times before in the past months, that the room inevitably fell into a deep silence as he revealed the last, a silence that Natasha Romanoff couldn't help but break refusing to accept the undeniable reality.

"Are you sure there isn't a chance they might be hiding there? Perhaps we can go with you and—"

"There's no place left to hide," Thor didn't even let her finish her thought, "they have been weak since my father took its source of power over a millenia ago, but now that we've taken down its ruler for good... there's nothing left behind."

And just as Thor muttered his last words once more, the crashing sound of a table flying through the air and landing on the other side of the room caused everyone to turn and glance at Stark who stood in a fast move, dangerously approaching the asgardian god.

"And how are we expected to trust in any of you, asgardian gods, when it's clear that not even your father—the king, could take down an enemy at its first attempt."

"I know you're in distress Stark, but you shall be more careful of the way you speak about my father," Thor replied, also cutting distance from him.

"I will speak about him or whoever I want however I want because I'm telling the truth," he prompted, overflowing in anger with every single one of his words, "we are not the ones who let Loki escape from prison."

"At least I've done something about it, traveling through the Nine Realms in search of him, what exactly have you done besides sitting in your own pity?"

"As you should," Tony barely even let Thor finish his thought, "this is all your fault and not even with an omnipotent guard you've been able to find him," both Rhodey and Banner took a few steps closer to them sensing that the heat of the moment could escalate even further at any second, "not so superior-race as you claim to be, huh?"

"We've done everything in our hands to find him unlike the sorcerer in the room who holds the time stone on his neck—"

Despite mentioning him, Thor did not take away his glare from Tony, making the room fall into another tense silence, as a couple of stares ended up in the sorcerer who remained seated even further away from the rest, unable to look at anyone in the eye, much less after the god's truthful words.

And it wasn't that Strange didn't care about his daughter, but it was his duty to protect their reality that he couldn't simply temper with natural law in order to bring her back. And not that he hadn't considered it as the weeks went by.

"Alright, I think we all should just calm down," Bruce intervened, feeling the tension starting to mess up with his mind.

"Banner is right," Nat exclaimed as well, "there is no point in fighting each other and—"

"No," Tony suddenly turned to her, "don't tell me to calm down. It's been seven months. Seven!, since my daughter went missing," he spitted out, "none of you have any idea how that feels so if I will react however I want."

A couple of eyes locked away as Tony said the last. None of them could argue that with him. They had no idea how it felt, no matter how much they cared for her since all of them had watched her grow up. Not even Romanoff, who now was the one who took a few steps closer to Tony.