Strangefrost Oneshots

part twenty-six ~ midnight in venice (4)

A few minutes after his abrupt departure from the meeting, Loki sat himself down at a table near the kitchen, ignoring the raised voices from the conference room. He gazed at the dark wood and rubbed his top lip with his index finger, deep in thought. Stephen's face was stuck in his mind; beautiful and stoic and gone. 

Sighing, he phased his clothing from his uncomfortable battle armour into black and green robes. Lost the cape too. He ran his hands through his hair and closed his eyes.

What I'd give to be back in Venice.

Pulled out of his trance by loud footsteps, Loki looked up to see Carol walking towards him and Natasha behind her.

"Hey," Natasha called out to her. "You know, we usually work as a team around here, and uh, between you and I, morale's a little fragile."

Oh, and Steve's here too. Joy.

"We realise up there is more your territory but this is our fight too."

Loki sighed. "Do you even know where he is?" He glanced at Carol.

"I know people who might."

A lower, sadistic voice echoed across the room from Loki's left. "Don't bother. I can tell you where Thanos is."

Nebula. Loki knew her from his days with Thanos. Yet they hadn't had even one conversation. The sight of her merely brought back bad memories, blurry and silent. They were behind him, but he'd forever be damaged by them.

Their hope grew with Nebula's insight and knowledge about her father. The Garden was where he'd be. Power surges similar to those of when he'd used the Stones on earth told them exactly where they'd find him.

Loki felt the tension and misery mutate into excitement and anticipation of the undoing of this tragedy Thanos had placed upon them. He himself began seeing the opportunities of relief their broken plan would unleash.

"Look," Rhodes said, sighing. "He's still got the Stones, so..."

"So let's get them," Carol gushed. "Use them to bring everyone back."

"Just like that?" Loki asked, frowning.

"Yeah," Steve replied. "Just like that."

"Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this," Natasha pondered, eyeing each person. "I mean, we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try."

"If we do this," Bruce said reluctantly. "How do we know it's going to end any differently than it did before?"

"Because before you didn't have us." Carol put her hands on her hips, raising her eyebrow at Loki, who shrugged in agreement.

"Hey, new girl," Rhodes snapped. "Everybody in this room is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?"

"There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."

Loki smirked, but before he could utter another word in Carol's defense, he saw his brother get up from his modest position on the far side of the room. He approached Carol with a sigh. Loki watched her lips turn up into a smug smile. He recognised the respect in Thor's eyes.

Stormbreaker whizzed past Carol's head and into Thor's outstretched hand. The woman didn't even flinch.

"I like this one," he murmured, leaning on his axe.

Carol grinned.

Loki snorted, rolling his eyes at his brother's dramatic announcement. He glanced back to Steve. The soldier looked around the group, determination in his eyes.