Stars Have Fallen - A Loki Love Story (Marvel/Avengers)

10

Loki raised a single eyebrow down at Estrial. A smirk on his lips, he responded teasingly, "that's adorable; you think I need your protection?"

Estrial scrunched her eyebrows in confusion, not understanding why that was 'adorable'. Still, she tapped on the gold cuff on his wrist. "No magic," she reminded.

"Well, I figured that much," Loki retorted. He then went on to follow Thor to the car that waited outside for them. The driver was quite alarmed at the sight of Loki leaving with them. The demigod found amusement in this; though it wasn't always fun to be feared, in most cases it was entertaining. And the look on the drivers face as he checked on Loki in the rear-view mirror every ten seconds on the ride home was very entertaining.

• • •

Tony was in the kitchen, putting together a quick dinner for himself. It was nine o'clock at night and many of the other's residing in the tower had already eaten. He had been working extra hard in the lab on studying Estrial's DNA. Bruce had even decided to come by for a while, after hearing about the fallen star. The scientist remained in the lab while Tony ate, too engrossed in the study to leave.

Hearing the elevator doors open, Tony easily assumed that Thor and Estrial had finally returned. He continued to eat calmly, until he saw three figured enter his line of vision. Thor and Estrial had, in fact, returned. But they'd brought a friend. Mid-drink, Tony choked a bit on his water upon the sight of Loki smirking his way.

"Oh my," Loki mused, watching Tony work through his fluster, "did he not know I was coming?"

Thor frowned. "No..not exactly."

Once Tony had gotten a hold of himself, he slammed his cup down on the counter and walked over to the other three. "What the hell is going on?" He demanded.

Estrial, who stood between the two demigods, flinched at his raised voice. She took a small, shy step back. "Nick Fury wants Estrial to keep a special eye on my brother from now on," Thor began to explain.

Tony sighed, putting a hand to his forehead. He turned away and Estrial could feel his tension growing violently. "This is exactly why she shouldn't have gone to see him in the first place!" He shouted. He then turned back to Thor abruptly, "why didn't I hear anything about this?"

"It was a very last minute decision," Thor admitted, putting a comforting hand on the shaken Estrial's shoulder.

Tony breathed out in stress and raised his eyebrows. "You don't say?" He questioned accusatively. Looking away again, he muttered to himself, "damn it."

Loki looked around, lips pursed to the side. "Not a very warm welcome," he mumbled, a small laugh in his voice.

Tony looked to him with fiery eyes. Estrial could sense the anger, frustration, and vengeance seeping from him like a toxin. She took Loki by the arm and slowly pulled him back away from the angry man with her. Loki glanced down at her in confusion, but the look of controlled fear on her face stopped him from making another smart remark. He didn't want to cause anymore of an arguement, not if it made Estrial so uncomfortable.

"Hey, I heard some yelling, is everything......" Bruce entered the room casually, just innocently curious to see what was going on. He figured something of Tony's had been broken, or maybe he and Cap were having a disagreement. At the sight of Loki, he stopped in place, mouth gaping a bit. "Oh," he muttered in realization, "shit."

Estrial gripped Loki's arm tighter. If it were anyone else, the God of Mischief would rip himself from them and given a glare. But this was Estrial; the one who he'd always felt so emotionally attached to. He couldn't bring himself to not let the distraught girl squeeze his forearm for comfort. Instead, he simply shifted his feet a bit, hiding their physical contact from anyone else's eyes. The last thing he wanted was to be seen as going soft for this girl. Even if it were slightly true.

"My god," Steve's voice came from behind Estrial and the demigods.

She whipped around in alarm, effectively jerking her hands off of Loki. She felt surrounded once again, just like when she was first found. With Tony, Bruce, and Steve on three sides of her, Estrial panicked. An argument broke out, but she was no longer paying attention. The shouting only stopped when something sparked violently on Estrial's left wrist. Suddenly, she was transparent and glowing again.

Before anything could happen, her glow grew to a blinding light. The light shot outwards from her body, but not enough to cause another explosion.

"Estrial!" Thor yelled, but his voice was no louder than a whisper. All he could do was wait for her to calm down.

Thankfully, after just a few seconds, her glow subsided. Soon, she was back to her usual subtle glow, nearly invisible in the light that shone from the fixures in the ceiling.

Loki's eyebrows were raised as if he were impressed. He looked down to Estrial by his side. She looked much more calm, as if she'd released all of her former fear in the flash.

"Well that was..interesting," Bruce huffed awkwardly.

Tony, who was finally ready to just accept that Loki was stuck there, sighed in frustration. He trudged over to Estrial. The star's face became alarmed once again at the sight of the irritated man walking toward her. She shuffled her feet a bit in discomfort. Loki felt himself growing defensive; was Tony mad at Estrial for some reason? The demigod was not about to risk finding out. He found himself doing something that shocked everyone, even himself.