Hero (Loki & Avengers)

Twenty-Four

"Remember that time you told me you loved me?" I smile, resting my head on Loki's chest and tracing letters on his stomach with my finger.

We lay in his bed with hazy and warm morning light streaming through the window, completely entangled in one another.

I feel his chest vibrate as he laughs, "You mean yesterday? I do recall, yes."

"Would you mind saying that again?" I grin, sitting up to face him.

"I love this hair. I love those eyes. I love that smile. I love these hands. I love these beautiful scars. I love you." He says, touching every part of me he mentions as he does.

I lean into him to kiss him, and he flips me quickly onto my back so he's above me. I laugh and bring his lips back to mine.

Suddenly, the door to his room opens and out of fear and embarrassment I quickly go invisible before they can see me, so it now looks like Loki is awkwardly straddling the air on his bed.

"We're probably going to leave to deal with Connors in a few hours. Just so you're aware." Tony says, seemingly un-phased by Loki's position and flushed face.

"Sure, great. Thank you." Loki stammers out, and I have to hold in a laugh. This is so awkard.

"Okay, great. See ya." Tony says, and then he begins to walk out of the room. Just as he reaches the doorway he turns and adds, "Oh, and hi Cassidy."

"Hello." I croak, still invisible.

Tony shuts the door behind him, leaving me mortified and embarrassed beyond belief.

I phase back in, and I can tell I must be bright red. Loki shuffles off of me, and we look at one another with wide eyes. His mouth upturns into a wide smile and he begins to laugh. I join him. Despite what just happened, it's an incredibly carefree moment.

Then later that afternoon, I'm climbing into a small jet with Cap, Tony, Loki, and Clint, who is flying the vehicle for us. We all sit down and buckle up as Clint heads off towards Mr. Connors's lab.

My stomach churns at the thought of willingly going back there. Loki senses my sudden change in mood. He grabs my hand in his, and leans over to whisper in my ear.

"It's all right, love." He says, and then adds, "You could kill him with your bare hands, if you wanted to."

I crack a smile at his exaggeration, even though a part of me knows he's very much serious.

"Okay, game plan." Tony says, "Clearly Connors still has some data on you and Substance X that he's sharing with Ross, so we need to fry their systems entirely. I'll let you and Loki go do that while Cap and I have a little chat with Connors."

"No violence, please." I sigh, because I can't really argue with the plan. If I can avoid Connors and let them handle him, I will.

"No promises." Tony says, and I give him a side-eyed look, "Kidding."

We fly down to the rooftop of the building where Clint lands, and then make our way inside from the rooftop entrance. Not surprisingly, any security guards we pass don't really want to fight Iron Man and Captain America, so they let us pass.

"His office is three floors down, but the computer hard drive systems are a floor below that, if I remember correctly. Me and Dylan used to run down the aisles of machines as kids." I say. Loki glances at me when I mention Dylan.

"Okay, we'll keep him from calling security on you guys." Cap says.

We part ways with Cap and Tony and make our way down to the main frame of the lab's data.