Trickster of Ice

Settle In And Set The Stage

(Narrator POV)
After the gala (which went swimmingly), they all headed back to Avengers tower for a much needed rest.

Tony led Loki to a room on the penthouse floor and promised to show him around tomorrow. The part they were both most excited for was the lab, but they had promised Bruce that they'd sleep and shower before diving into an inventing binge.

Neither men were happy about it, but agreed after one reminder of the Jolly Green alter-ego. Bruce would never actually use the big guy on them, but the threat was more than enough.

So they all showered and then slept. The night was fairly boring, but the morning was the usual kitchen chaos.

Everyone was in the communal kitchen on the floor below Tony's, when he got up after his long sleep (4 hours, this month's record for Stark's longest nap) and headed in search for a scientist and a mage.

Thor was fighting with the toaster (again) because he still didn't fully understand that it zapping him was because of his own electric-ness and not the toaster trying to question his might. Steve was making breakfast, while trying to avoid the sparks coming from Thor's little corner.

Natasha sat calmly on a barstool, drinking a coffee like the deadly queen she was while Clint sat on top of the fridge with a bowl of Froot Loops (a/n spelling fruit like that actually made me want to scream). On Natasha's right sat Loki and Bruce.

They were both drinking their tea calmly while Bruce looked at a StarkPad and Loki thumbed through a large magical book. A smirk would tug at Loki's lips whenever Thor got a particularly nasty shock, but other than that he remained still.

"What have I told you about using the toaster?" Stark asked rhetorically as he entered and went to pry the God away from his poor appliance. "Don't. Let someone else do it for you so I don't have to fix another toaster." He answered his own question.

He pushed down the pop tarts without a problem and turned a tired glare on the sheepish thunderer.

Coffee. He needed coffee if he was going to deal with these buffoons.

Tony turned and began brewing his own pot of coffee (he doesn't share that bitter heaven), and listened as Thor nearly ripped the door off the fridge (jostling Clint dangerously in the process) when Steve asked for the bacon. He then proceeded to knock over half a shelf in there as he grabbed the item in question.

"Jeez, Wreck-It-Ralph! What is with you today?" Stark asked as he glanced over. It wasn't that big of a deal, but it still peaked his curiosity when Thor started breaking things left and right.

"He's nervous." Loki stated simply without even looking up. He gained the attention of everyone in the room, which he was still not used to. "He produces more electricity when he's anxious and the shelf was because he glanced at me." A smirk crossed his lips at this part. "I'm making him nervous."

"Alright, Snowflake, what'd you do to make him so antsy? Freeze his water supply? Green goo on his ceiling?" Tony suggested with a teasing smile.

"No, but those are marvelous ideas! I shall keep them in mind for next time." Loki responded with a glint of mischief  in his emerald green eyes.

"There was a serpent in my bed!" Thor loudly interrupted them and made Loki scoff.

"It was a snake, not a serpent. Don't be overdramatic." The Chaos God shot back instantly.

"I shall get you back for this!" Thor promised with an accusing finger and a slight sneer. The others had forgotten that he still saw Loki as blue until he made that face at his used-to-be-bro.

"No you won't." Loki replied simply, not even slightly bothered by the look or the threat. Clearly this wasn't his first rodeo with people trying to scare him.

"Can I join the prank war?" Clint asked eagerly with a big grin as he leaned down slightly from the fridge.

"How about nobody gets anybody back for anything and nobody messes with anybody else anymore?" Steve offered up instantly.

Natasha and Bruce remained silent, but they were both trying to hide small smiles from the group.

With the argument at a pause, Tony was quick to pull Bruce and Loki away for the God's tour so that they could all head down to the lab afterward.

He didn't want to wait for the disagreement to be done, because it'd likely turn into a war in his kitchen.

It was a fast tour because they all had a goal of where they wanted to be, and soon enough they were there. The lab was quickly Loki's favorite place and the rest of the morning was spent there.

They did have to leave sometime after noon though, in order to be on time for a meeting where they would discuss the imposing threat and how to stop it.

When they made it into the room full of people (Avengers, Fury, and a few SHIELD agents), Tony was the first to speak.

"He's smart and he's funny, can we please keep him?" Steve sent him a disapproving look, but everyone could see him fighting a grin. "C'mon, Spangles! I've always wanted a pet snake."

Loki just laughed. "I don't know about keeping me, but you'll certainly see me more after this." Tony couldn't hide a grin at that.

The meeting commenced after that and Loki was very helpful in making battle strategies for their future conflict plans. Fury was still upset about everything Loki did when they first met, but he would admit he was useful.

Halfway through them discussing some things that had been happening which they believed related to the new enemy, Loki's eyes seemed to glaze over and his horns revealed themselves (making many gasp).

His eyes and horns were glowing a bright green, and his skin glowed blue where his Jotun markings would have been.

They didn't see it, but he did. The world turned dark and screams filled the air. Rubble was all around him and dead bodies lay strewn about.

The Avengers lay dead in a pile and feminine cackling was heard throughout the strange room he found himself in.

When he looked down at his arms after feeling a stinging sensation, he saw that he was covered in blood and grasping Lævateinn tightly in the form of two daggers.

Suddenly his pale hands turned blue, a chill ran up his spine, he felt breath on the side of his face, and he could see a glowing blue Tesseract-like light out of the corner of his eye in the same direction the breath was coming from.

"You forgot about our deal, brother." Someone whispered in his ear before the world came spinning and crashing down with the sound of manic laughter.

Then it all stopped and he was back in the real world. He looked like he had before, except now he had a bit of panic in his gaze.

His next words sent a shiver down all of their spines, and made them want to run because of the slight horror in his voice.

"I think I know who's coming."

A/N Zdravo! (Bosnian apparently). First of all, I'd like to say that writing Bruce and Natasha dialogue is surprisingly hard so please bear with me while I mostly make them just mentioned for awhile.

I hope you liked his vision. I used some elements from the vision Wanda gave Tony in Age of Ultron , but other than that I made it up.

Enjoy and keep reading!