Who are you? (A Loki Love Story)

Chapter Thirty Eight - Hypocritical

Tony's POV ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


        We had been in South Africa for almost three weeks. We had figured out that the doctors were here to show off what they had been working on in order to gain investors to build a facility down here. They walked around under fake names, and to anyone who wasn't a possible investor, it was assumed that they were building a nice, friendly research facility. If you were here as an investor, you knew the real deal. They were here to build a facility for research, but of the illegal kind.
        I had set up a bank account with a couple million dollars in it under a fake name, and Legolas was pretending to be the investor, along with Nat, who was pretending to be his wife. I would've done it myself, but I was to well known as Iron Man, and being part of the Avenger. Legolas and Nat were still undercover though. While they attend various social events, Bruce and I were working on hacking into their systems from the vila, while Spangles was doing some agent things, like getting inside and trying to get any information that might be on paper, and keeping an overall eye on things.
        Currently, Bruce, Spangles, and I were watching the conference that Nat and Legolas were at, that was being hosted by our two scientist friends.
        "We have talked to a few of you privately, and hope to talk to you all before our big conference next month." The woman, Samantha Acre, says. Her brother, on the other side of the stage nods in agreement. It was the tail end of the small get together, which was mostly old news. We were watching it through a hidden camera in Nat's glasses.
        "In fact, we can promise to bring you a demonstration of what we have been working on recently." The man, John Acre, says, continuing.
        "Actually, It will be the biggest event. We are showing off Subject 1." Samantha says. John's head snaps over, looking at he wide eyed, obviously not expecting that.
        "Uh.... Yes, we will be. This will be a huge demonstration, and we hope you can all make it." He says
        "Thank you, and good night." Samantha says. As they walk off the stage, We see the man glare at the woman pointedly. People began to file out of the room in twos and threes, making small talk. Nat and Clint left the room casually, but detoured into an empty hall instead of leaving.
        "Stark, you see that?" Nat asks through the earpiece.
        "Somebody didn't look very happy with that last announcement." I reply.
        "I don't think that he was expecting it, actually." Bruce adds.
        "We're going to see if we can figure anything out about Subject 1." Nat says. "Do you have anything on it?" She continues, and we see that under her business suit, she's hidden her SHIELD uniform. When she looked up, Clint had shed his fancy clothes, revealing that he too, had hidden his uniform under his clothes.
        "How in the world did you hide a black and purple vest and a bow under a white dress shirt?" I ask. "Wait, tell me later. Not important now." I say. I see Spangles roll his eyes at me out of the corner of my eye, and I smirk. I love to annoy him.
        "There was barely any mention of what Subject 1 is in the few files we have. Just that they've had it for years, but a while ago it was taken from them. They must have gotten it back. It also said that it was extremely dangerous and hard to control." Bruce says, skimming over our notes.
        "Okay. Clint, I'll see if I can eavesdrop on them, I need you to cover me. Tony, I want you three to keep watching and listening." Clint gives a small nod, and I agree as well.
We watch as she silently slips back into the now empty and dark conference room, and slowly makes her way to the stage. She flicks back an edge of the curtain and ducks to the backstage area. It is dark back there as well except a little light coming through the bottom crack under the door way. She gets closer to the door, and crouches down beside it. We can hear the voices in the room clearly.
        "What were you thinking!" The man, John, yells. "We don't even have subject 1, let alone have it tamed enough for a demonstration!"
        "We can get it quickly, we just need to get it back now!" the woman, Samantha, screams back. "We've been watching the tower! The avengers haven't been seen in weeks, and we've got inside information that it isn't even allowed outside! It'll be easy to hack into the security system anyway."
        "I don't care! We still won't be ready, and you've just garenteed a flop presentation! He'll kill us and you know it." John says angrily.
        "He's going to kill us if we don't get it back by the end of the month, and if we don't get many sponsors anyway! I figure, kill two birds with one stone." Samantha says, explaining herself. "We can amp up the taming triple, and get it in order. We can do this! I am not going to let us die."
        "We don't even need sponsors. Dr. Fuller has enough money to build a few thousand more institutions and keep them working for a couple centuries. We shouldn't even have to do this." John mutters.
        "I know. But we can't get out now. We didn't know what we were getting into." Samantha says back.
        "I regret working for him more than anything." John says. There is a squeak of furniture as one of them sits down.
        "Me too." Samantha whispers, the microphone almost not picking it up. Nat slowly leaves as the room goes silent, and she gets out to the hallway, meeting with Clint, and they make their way back to the vila in silence, going over what they just learned.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

        "So Sophie is Subject 1." Nat says when her and Clint sit down. We're all around the coffee table in the living room.
        "That is the only conclusion we can figure." Bruce says. "Now the only question is if we tell her tonight over the video call." I had finally set up a secure line, and had scheduled a video call with Sophie so we could talk about..... well, recent events involving Reindeer Games.
        "No. She'll just run again." I say. "We do need to tell Fury though. She needs as much protection as she can get right now." That comment got some raised eyebrows, but everyone agreed. We didn't want her running again.
        "I'll call Fury now. Tony, you set up the video call. We still need to talk to her about...." Nat trails off, but everyone gets the message. She pulls her phone out and dials as she leaves the room. I hook up a camera and my computer to the TV screen so that we can all talk, and she can see all of us, and work on finalizing securing the line.


Sophie's POV~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


        "Stop........ It........ Please." I say in gasps.
        "You surrender?"
        "Y-Yes!" I yell. "Just quit tickling me!" Loki smirks, and I see his hand start to reach for my side again. I smack it away and roll my eyes.         "Not funny. I was trying to take a nap so I could stay awake for the video call!" He rolls his eyes.
        "That is in ten minuets." He says, and I snap up, eyes darting to the clock. they were calling at eight their time, and at two am our time. The clock read 1:50.
        "Crap!" I yell before rushing out of the room. I quickly run in and pull a brush through my hair before pulling it back into a fishtail braid. I change out of my shorts and dirty t-shirt, and into my jeans and, well, a clean t-shirt. I ran back out with a minuet to spare, sliding in my socks across the linoleum until I hit the carpet in the living room and face planted into the couch.
        "Graceful." I heard someone say, and I could hear several laughs. I groaned and flipped over so that I could sit up. I look up, and I see the team all crowded on a couch and on the floor in front of it on the TV screen in front of us. Loki is sitting on the other end of the couch, silently chuckling at me.
        "You mock my pain." I say, quoting The Princess Bride.
        "Really? Princess Bride?" Clint asks, rolling his eyes.
        "Hey! That is one of my favorite movies! Its a classic, and Clint, you recognized it." I point out at the end, smirking. Pink slight ly tinges his cheeks, and Nat laughs.
        "You did." She agrees, smiling.
        "I missed this." I say suddenly. "Do you know when you'll be back?" That snaps them all back to serious mode, and I regret saying it.
        "Most likely a month and a half." Steve says. I sigh, defeated.
        "That long?" I don't mean it to, but my voice comes out with a little bit of a whine in it. They all kinda look a little regretful of the news.
        "It's not like we want to be here. I'm bored out of my mind. Can't go out cause my billionare status might blow our cover." Tony says. And I roll my eyes.
        "How do you think I feel? I can't leave the tower at all." I say.
        "You brought that on yourself." Steve points out.
        "And besides, you seem to be keeping yourself busy." Toy adds with a smirk. I frown, and a few of the others glare at him. "What? I saw the moment to bring it up and I took it."
        "Bring what up?" I ask cautiously. They all exchange glances, and I notice a few go towards Loki.
        "Sophie, can we talk to you in private?" Steve asks. I frown, but look over at Loki.
        "Would you mind...." I ask, gesturing towards the door. He rolls his eyes, but gets up, striding over to the door and leaving without a word. "Well. Now we're alone. What did you need to talk to me about?" I say, turnng back to the video call. I'm a little taken aback by the deadly serious look they all have on. "Oh. Ok, serious face time." I say, and make a show of putting on a serious face.
        "Sophie, not the time." Clint says, and I raise my eyebrows.
        "Ok then. Talk." I say. "I was just trying to lighten the mood." I mutter under my breath.
        "So why'd you kiss Reindeer games again?" Tony asks,getting right to the point. I freeze, and I feel my eyes go wide, jaw slack with suprise.
        "Subtle, Stark. We agreed on subtle." Steve says, annoyed. I just continue to sit in shock. Which one had they seen? Had they seen all of them? Did they know that I was technically going out..... No. They'd be much worse if they knew that tidbit of information.
        "Why not just rip the band-aid off? Get it over with for you guys. Bruce and I have already been through this." Tony says. Bruce gives him a look that is clearly begging not to be brought into this. He looks over at me with an apologetic look, and proceeds to hide a smile when he sees my face.
        Tony and Steve continue to argue, and soon, everyone but Clint is involved arguing about me. Clint just keeps giving me sympathetic looks and tries not to laugh out loud. After about two minuets, I give up. I walk out of the room and to the kitchen where I find Loki, sitting and reading a book. He raises an eyebrow when I get out stuff for a PB&J sandwich. "That was a fast conversation." He comments, and I roll my eyes.
        "We haven't even really started talking. They're arguing. I'm hungry, so I figured I might as well not waste the time." He chuckled, amused.
        "What are the arguing about?" He asks, looking back down at his book.
        "You kissing me." I say casually, beginning to put stuff back. That gets his full attention, and his head snaps up.
        "What?" He asks, looking startled. He pauses before adding, "Which one?" On the end. I laugh a little.
        "Thats what I am definitely not going to ask." I say. I look up and see that four minuets had gone by. "I should actually probably go back out there. They might notice that I'm gone." I say.
        "Do you wish for me to join you.?" He asks as I walk over to the door.
        "Better not. Only one of us needs to get in trouble right now." I say, before letting the door shut behind me. I go back out and sit down on the couch where I had been to find them still fighting. Clint does a double take when he sees me eating, and starts to laugh loudly, causing the team to shut up and look at him.
        "Are you... Are you eating a sandwich?" Nat asks after looking over at me.
        "Yep." I say, popping the 'p'.
        "Why?" Tony asks. Everyone but Clint is looking at me strangely. Clint is just trying to stop laughing at their reactions.
        "Because I was bored, hungry, and really didn't want to listen to you all argue about how you were going to talk to me about my private life." I say the last part coldly, arching an eyebrow at them. Steve, being the gentleman he is, immediately looked down, guilty. Bruce and Clint sat awkwardly, looking anywhere but at the screen. Nat and Tony just got expressionless faces. I sat back, taking a big bite of my sandwich, waiting for one of them to respond.
        "I just don't understand why you would let him kiss you." Nat finally says. "Twice no less. You do remember that this guy tried to-" I cut her off.
        "Twice?" I ask, voice hard. Tony looks guilty this time. "You showed them the video in the park." I say in disbelief. "You swore that you wouldn't!"
        "I didn't mean to. It just sort of slipped out." Tony says.
        "Was that supposed to make it better?" I ask. "You showed Pepper too." I point out.
        "She told you?" He asks.
        "Thats not the point, Tony!" I exclaim, a little mad. "The point, is that you agreed not to tell anyone, and now everyone knows. I trusted you!" He squirms under my angry glare, and when I glance down, I see that an orange tinge has creeped onto my skin.
        "Sophie." Nat says, butting in. "You do remember that Loki kidnapped you, right? And he tried to kill us and enslave the world. He's the bad guy." She continues.
        "Natasha, if I remember correctly, you were the bad guy once too." She flinches a little at that. "Clint gave you a second chance. Look at where you are now. You have no right to judge." She looks a little hurt by what I've said, and Clint just looks at me with disbelief.
        "You know what? You're right." Nat says, making me look up at her in surprise. "But I do have the right to worry about you. I want to protect you. You're one of my best friends."
        "Why worry though?" I exclaim, flopping back onto the couch and putting my face in my hands. "I'm perfectly able to take care of myself. You all obviously think so, or you wouldn't have left me here alone with him for two months."
        "We knew that you'd be able to deal with him, physically and mentally." Clint says. "We didn't think we needed to worry about emotionally though. Obviously we do."
        "I can control my emotions as well as anyone can." I say flatly.
        "You can control your emotions as well as anyone who has been in your situation can handle them."
        "No one has ever been in my situation!" I yell, furious.
        "And that's why we worry!"
        "Why? I know what I feel! I know my limitations! I know when it all becomes too much!" I'm yelling loudly, and I can feel my skin heating up. "I know, you, on the other hand, don't!" I run up to the TV and shut it down, hearing them yell not to. I really didn't care how childish I was acting.
        I stomped out of the room, going straight for the elevator. I storm past Loki, ignoring his confused and worried look, and press the button that goes to my floor. The doors started to close, and Loki slips in at the last moment, almost getting the end of his pants caught.
        "Are you alright?" He asks, concern on his face.
        "No." I say frustrated. "They are such hypocrites! They kept talking about how you kidnapped me and tried to...well.. kill all of us and take over the world." I pause at that. "They kept talking about how I shouldn't have let you kiss me, and how you were the bad guy. you deserve a second chance too! I told Nat that she was a bad guy to until Clint gave her a second chance, and so she started to talk about how I'm apparently emotionally unstable! And who wouldn't be after what I've gone through? Why can't they just understa-" My rant is suddenly cut off by Loki pressing his lips to mine.
        I kiss him back after I get over half a second of shock. We both break away when we hear the soft ding of the elevator doors opening. "Well that was a really nice way of telling me to shut up." I say with a laugh, and he just smirks at me.
        "Did you expect anything less?" He says, and I roll my eyes.
        "Sarcastic comment, right on time." I tease. I walk out of the elevator and head towards my room.