Who are you? (A Loki Love Story)

Chapter Eight - Blueberries

        I woke up to a blindingly white room and an annoying beeping noise. I waited for my eyes to adjust and I scanned the room, realizing that I was not alone. "Hello?" I said in a raspy voice. The man on the other side of the room jumped and twisted around, and I saw that it was just Dr. Banner. "What's up Doc?" I said, hoping that he found that funny. To my luck I saw that he did. He smiled and let out a quick chuckle.
        "It's not like I've heard that one before." he said, walking over to me.
        "Sorry if I startled you." 
        "It's okay, I just didn't expect you to wake up for a few more hours."
        "What do you mean?" I asked, really confused.
        "It's nothing." he answered quickly. He started to sit down but then looked over at me, "Are you thirsty? I just realized that you need fluids." I nodded and he grabbed a water bottle next to my bed and handed it to me.   
        "Thanks." I said before taking a swig. Something pulled on my arm and I looked down, eyes widening at the sight of the IV in my arm. I slowly put the water bottle down, now shaking. "B-Bruce.." I said slowly. He looked over at me and saw me shaking and wide eyed.
        "What's wrong?!" he asked, quickly coming over and looking around. With my free hand I pointed to the IV.
        "N-N-Needle." I said, stuttering over the word. He looked it over then shook his head.
        "What's wrong with it?" he paused and looked at me, then back at the needle. "Oh," he said, realizing what I meant. He quickly took it out and I relaxed. "You are afraid of needles?" 
        "Yea," I said, nodding slowly. "I'm not good with them. They freak me out." I paused as he nodded knowingly. "When can I leave?"
        "Now if you want, you were only here for an observation to make sure everything was fine." He paused, then looked over at me. "You need clothes." he stated and I saw that I was only wearing a thin hospital gown. He stuck his head out in the hallway and looked around. "Natasha!" I heard him shout towards my red head friend. "Could you bring Sophie some clothes?" he asked when she got there. I saw her nod and she came back a few minuets later with jeans and a t-shirt that said "I may look calm but in my head I've murdered you three times." It was one of my favorite shirts.
        "Thanks Nat!" I yelled at her as she started to walk away. Bruce looked at me and quickly headed for the door.
        "I'll leave you to change." He paused. "Actually, now that you are up I need to get back to the lab." He scurried away and I pulled my clothes on. I wandered around the halls until I saw Tony and Bruce in a room filled with science stuff, and I walked in.
        "Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of..... Broke Harlem." I heard Bruce say. Tony saw me and paused, Eyes wide. I giggled and raised my hands in his direction, showing that I was ok.... for now. He still looked uneasy, but quickly turned back to Bruce and their conversation.
        "Well, I promise a stress free environment. No Tension, No surprises." he said, as he zapped Bruce with something.
        "Ow!" Bruce exclaimed.
        "Hey!" I heard somebody say, and I quickly turned to see that it was Cap. Tony looked at Bruce closely.
        "Nothing?" he asked.
        "Are you nuts?!" I heard Cap say.
        "Jury's out." Tony said calmly. I rolled my eyes.
        "Like they were ever needed in the first place." I said under my breath. Tony shrugged at me and looked back at Banner.
        "You really have got a lid on it haven't you? What's your secret? Mello jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?" he asked, honestly curious.
        "Is everything a joke to you?" Cap asked.
        "Funny things are."  He replied smoothly. I let out a snort of laughter until I felt a buzz of electricity on my side.
        "Ow!" I said, glaring at him. He took a step back.
        "Freaky eyes....." he mused.
        "Treating the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." Cap said angrily. He turned to me and Banner. "No Offence."
        " It's alright, I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." Bruce said. I shrugged.
        "Last night was my first flame out in a couple of months, so I'm all burnt out. Won't be able to flame up for the next couple hours. I used too much energy." I said. Tony started talking again, which was never a good sign.
        "You are tip-toeing big man, you need to strut." he pointed at me. "Like flame freak did last night." I glared at him.
        "You know Stark, I still have a good amount of energy." I said slowly. He paused and turned away. "Good move." I said.
        "You need to focus on the problem Mr. Stark." Cap said as Tony got a bag of food rom a hidden spot under the table.
        "You think I'm not?" Tony asked. "Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us?" Tony said "I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."
        "You think Fury is hiding something?" Cap asked.
        "Captain, he's a spy. He's THE spy. His secrets have secrets." he popped a blueberry into his mouth. "It's Bugging them too, isn't it?" he said, pointing at me and Bruce.
        "I-I just want too finish my work here." Banner said and I just quickly nodded to his statement, because it did bug me.
        "Doctor?" Cap asked. Bruce sighed and took off his glasses.
        "A warm light for all mankind." he started. "Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."
        "I heard it." Cap said.
        "I think that was meant for you." Bruce said, pointing at Tony. Tony held out his bag of blueberries and Banner took a few. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."
        "Stark tower?" Cap asked. "That big ugly......" Tony glared at him. "Building in New York." he finished quickly.
        "That's the one." I said, earning my own glare.
        "It's powered by an Arc reactor, a self sustaining energy source." Banner said, "That building will run itself for , What, a year?" Banner asked.
        "It's just a prototype." Stark says. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he is getting at."
        "So," Banner starts. "Why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" Tony looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
        "I don't know." I said.
        "You were Eric's assistant."
        "A crappy one that mainly ran for coffee and was never told anything. Fury forced me to be there." I said, daring him to argue.
        "Anyway, I should probably look into that, " Tony said, heading for a monitor. "once my encryption program finishes breaking into SHIELD's files."
        "Sorry did you say-" Cap started to say.
        "JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, give or take, I will know every little secret that they have tried to hide. Blueberry?" he asked, holding the bag out to Cap.
        "And you are confused about why they didn't want you around." Cap says.
        "An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?" Tony says mockingly. "Historically, not awesome."
        "I think Loki is trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused he will succeed." Cap said. "We have orders. We should follow them."
        "Following is not really my style." Tony says.
        "Like he has style." I murmur under my breath to Bruce, earning a small grin.
        "And you're all about style, aren't you?" Cap says in a sarcastic tone.
        "Of the people in this room, which one is A: Wearing a spangly outfit and B: Not of use." Tony says and I glare at him.
        "Steve," Banner starts, "Tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?"
        "Just find the cube." Cap says, turning away and leaving. After he is gone, Tony turns back to his work.
        "That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" Tony asks.
        "He's good looking," I say "And built." Tony turns to me with a look on his face. "Did I say that out loud?" I say, and Bruce nods.
        "I'm wondering if they should have kept him on ice." Tony says, then turns back to me. "Is he really that good looking?" he pauses. "Wait, aren't you like fifteen or something?"
        "I will be twenty in two months!" I say, glaring angrily at him.
        "The guy is not wrong about Loki." Banner says, stopping the fighting. "He does have the jump on us."
        "What he's got, is an acme dynamite kit." Tony says "it's going to blow up into space, and, I'm going to be there when it does."
        "I'll read all about it." Banner says.
        "Same here." I say, not looking at Tony. I had just found another one of his hidden bags of food. I check the label and then open it. Blueberries again. I pop a few in my mouth.
        "Or you will both be suiting up with the rest of us." Tony says.
        "I don't get a suit of armor." Bruce says. "I'm exposed, like a nerve. it's a nightmare." I nod.
        "I've been there before. It doesn't hurt any less than if I was in my normal skin, except it doesn't penetrate and the blows keep coming because they can. You are not bleeding so why would they stop." my voice ends in a whisper as I battle back memories, knowing if they surfaced I would be a crying wreck on the floor. Bruce nods in agreement and Tony just looks at me, confused. He turns back to Banner when he sees me watching him.
        "You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying ever second to craw its way into my heart." he taps his Arc reactor. "This, stops it, this little circle of light. Not just amour. " he pauses, and looks at me and Banner from the other side of the screen. "It's a terrible privilege."
        "But you can-" Banner starts. 
        "Control it." I finish.
        "Because I learned how."
        "It's different." Banner says and I nod in agreement.
        "Hey," Tony says, sweeping the stuff on the screen to one side so that he can look him in the face. "I read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure, should have killed you."
        "So you are saying that the hulk..." He pauses. "The "Other guy" saved my life?" he started to bob his head. "That's nice. That is a nice sentiment." he pauses again. "Saved it for what?"
        "I guess we will find out."
        "You may not enjoy that."
        "You just might." Tony says, ending the conversation. it is silent in the lab for a few minuets, I was just sitting on a stool, munching on Tony's hidden blueberries. Suddenly Tony turned to me. "So what happened to you? Why are you like that?" he asks.
        "Like what?" I say, looking at him. He starts to walk over.
        "All flame ball and water control." He says, sitting down across from me. Banner looks up from his work, obviously wanting to know as well. "I mean," he starts again. "Your file has almost no useful information other than the basics, and apparently they only have a little on what you can do. So my question really is, What happened to make you like what you are and what exactly can you do?"
        "Well," I start, seeing Bruce start to walk over. "I wasn't made, believe it or not, I was born like this. And I keep my powers a secret for a reason." He scoffs and rolls his eyes.
        "Is that all I am going to get out of you?" he asks.
        "Yep. I don't like to talk about it, especially not to people I barely know. Even Coulson doesn't know half of it and he knows the most about it."
        "Fine, be that way." he says, getting out of his chair. He comes around to my side of the table and feels under the underside of it. When he doesn't find anything, he gets a annoyed look on his face. "I know I put another package of food under here somewhere..." He notices the silver package in my hand. "Are you eating my Blueberries?!" he exclaims loudly, making Bruce turn to watch what is going on.
        "I have no idea what you are talking about." I say as innocently as I can, while at the same time popping a few blueberries in my mouth. "I found these."
        "You stole my food." he said, in a disbelieving voice. "Give it back."
        "Ummmm." I say, pretending to think about it. "I'd rather not." I jump off the stool and away from Tony, hopping over to Bruce. "Blueberry?" I ask, holding out the bag. He takes a few and I skip out of the lab, pausing at the door. "See ya Bruce" I say, waving to him. I turn to Tony "See ya, light bulb!" I say, waving away. as I walk away from the lab, I hear Tony.
        "Light bulb?" he asks.
        "Your Arc reactor." I hear Bruce explain.