A few hours later, Jarvis announced, "Mr. Stark and the Avengers are home."
You almost fell off the couch, jumping up, "Oh shit," you vanished your cat ears and grabbed your book, leaving the room, "Bye Loki! Sorry," you yelled as you ran out.
You made it to your room as quickly as you could, jumping onto your bed in a laying position, moments before Tony entered.
"Oh there you are," he walked over to your bed, "I texted you that we were back and you didn't respond. I was worried."
You picked up your phone from your nightstand, seeing that you had multiple messages and calls from Tony, "Sorry, it was on mute and I was reading," you sat up in a more comfortable position, "Why are you home so early?"
"Well, to put it simply, I overestimated how long it would take to defeat the bad guy."
"Who was it?"
"Someone from Wakanda who stole a hell of a lot of vibranium. The king wanted our help to track him, as he left Wakanda and hid in America."
"What happened to the guy?"
"Well, he committed suicide when he realized he lost. Seems he would rather die than be in jail in Wakanda."
You nodded.
"Anyway, I hope Reindeer Games didn't cause a lot of mischief," Tony said.
"Loki? No he was fine," then you paused, wondering how to tell him what you did.
"What are you leaving out?"
"Well...I kinda sorta maybe touched all your stuff and, with the help of Jarvis, made an automatic food dispenser for Loki's room once I found out he wasn't being fed," you gave him a glare at that last point.
"You touched my stuff?!"
"That's what you choose to focus on?" You muttered, as he left your room, likely going to the lab and see how much of a mess you made.
You laughed and went back to reading, only to have Clint knock on your door.
"Come in!" You yelled through the door.
He opened the door but stayed outside, speaking from there, "Just want to let you know it's lunch time and Cap is cooking."
"Cap is making lunch?"
"Yea."
You put down your book and followed him back downstairs. Everyone knew that whenever it was Cap's turn to make a meal, you came to eat it. He was for sure one of the best cooks you had ever met.
You saw the Avengers minus Thor and Tony, who was likely still in the Lab fixing it, around the table eating already. You took a plate and went to a big bowl at the end of the table and looked in to see what it was. It was Fettuccine Alfredo. You smiled and gave yourself a big helping. You loved it so much, especially when Cap made it, he made it the best.
You took your plate and a fork and sat down next to Nat and Cap, eating your food with the rest of them.
"So how was Loki?" Nat asked.
You shrugged, "He hardly talked to me whenever I tried seeing him. So maybe if I wait a little and come back, he'll start talking."
"I've never seen you not able to crack someone," Nat commented.
"He's...tough. I don't know what it is, but I'll get through it," you promised, and that ended the Loki discussion. Everyone else went back to talking about other random things, like the mission, but you zoned them out. It usually wasn't very important.
When you finished you cleaned your dishes and put them away, saying goodbye and leaving to go back upstairs.
You kept to your word and didn't go back to see Loki for the next three days. Those were the three most boring days of your life. The Avengers were always either training or doing their own thing, and no one had free time to take you out of the Compound. Tony refused to let you leave alone, because as far as he knew, you had no powers, or any training. Although the second one was true. So you mostly did the same things you did the first few days they left a week ago, plus a lot of research about soulmate marks, and anyone who got two, but obviously found nothing.
On the fourth morning, when the Avengers were out on another mission in a different city because Nick Fury, the head of shield, wanted them for some secret thing they couldn't tell you. And you weren't interested enough to read their mind. So you took a book for Loki, the one you were reading, and went upstairs to his room, unlocking it and setting the book on the table as you put on cat ears.
You didn't see Loki, so you knocked on the closed door to the bedroom and sat down on the couch with your book.
A few moments later cat-Loki came out and sat on the other side of the couch, his usual spot.
"So, you want to talk yet?" You asked after a few moments of silence.
"What do you want to know?" He asked.
Do you have any bad plans in motion or do you plan to do anymore evil in the future? It was there in the front of your mind, you knew you should ask it. But that wasn't what came out, "Tell me about yourself."
He tilted his head, as if he didn't expect that, but to your surprise, said, "Be a little more specific."
You sat up straighter and said, "Well, let's start with the fact that you're Thor's brother but you have different last names?"
He sighed, "Yes I am adopted. Odin, Thors father," you noticed he specifically didn't call Odin his father too, "took me as a war prize. Only I didn't know until a handful of years ago."
"Wow," you almost whispered, "Who did he take you from?"
Loki hesitated, as if he wasn't sure he should say, but in the end answered, "He took me from Jotunheim and raised me as his own."
You nodded, this was clearly a sensitive topic so you decided to change topics, maybe that would keep him talking, "So you're a god now?"
"In a sense," he visibly relaxed, not having to talk about his previous home anymore, "I became Asgardian when I was taken in, and given the status of being the god of Lies, Mischief, and Chaos."
That honestly made sense with how he acted with attacking New York.
You weren't sure what else to ask about him, instead asked, "Why are you answering me now? After like a week of nothing," hoping he wouldn't shut down.
"Would you rather I didn't answer your questions?" He smirked.
You sighed, "For real Loki."
He looked down, then back at you and said, "I guess because you're the only person here being relatively nice to me, even if it is just to get information because you were told to."
I'm not just here because I was told to, you thought, but we're too embarrassed to say. Even knowing the fact that he was a bad guy, and you know- a cat, he was nice to just be around with. You weren't as comfortable with the rest of the Avengers. Don't get it wrong, you loved hanging out with everyone, but Loki was different, he was more quiet and kinder in the small ways. You started enjoying hanging out with him.
He seemed to start forming a small smile, even as a cat, but he hid it before you could comment. It didn't seem like an evil planning smile, more like just a happy smile, and you didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable so you didn't say anything.
You thought it was too early to ask him what
Tony wanted, so instead said, "What about me?"
"What do you mean?" Cat-Loki asked, visibly confused.
"You answered some of my questions about you, want to know anything about me?" You had a feeling you may regret asking, but you knew it was the nice thing to do.
"What happened to your parents?" He asked.
Ok right into it, you thought, laughing to yourself.
"I told you. They died."
"No your real parents."
You started fidgeting with your fingers, and shrugged, "I don't really know. I don't remember them very much. I was told that when I was around four years old, they gave me to an adoption center. I sort of remember it, but it's not a very clear memory. And eventually when I was 15, Tony's brother and wife adopted me."
"Why would a parent give up a child?" He seemed extremely confused, "That would never happen on Asgard."
You shrugged, trying not to cry, "I guess they didn't want me."
There was a small pause, where neither of you knew what to say, before Loki asked, "So how did your adoptive parents die?"
You looked down, you really didn't want to answer it, but it was only fair, "I had...a nightmare I guess. I woke up in middle of the night, and saw that the entire house was burning, so I ran to my adoptive parents room because I was scared. And they were both on fire, screaming, telling me to kill them and put them out of their misery," you squeezed your eyes shut, "So...I did. I took a knife and cut both their throats. Only after did I realize it was all fake. The house was fine, they were both asleep, not on fire, and I had killed them. I called the police and lied, saying I found them like that, and it was reported as suicide. They brought me to Tony and I've been living here ever since. Everyone thinks they killed themselves and I would rather it stay that way."
Loki nodded, "I'm sorry."
You shrugged, it was something you tried to keep in the past.
"One last question," he said and you nodded, "why do you hide your powers from Stark and everyone?"
"How do you know I hide them?" You questioned.
"I have my ways," he answered vaguely.
"Fine. It's because they will ask how I got them, and they don't need to know. Also, I've hid them for this long, everyone will be hurt or angry I never said anything."
"How did you get them?" He asked.
"You said one last question."
He sighed, then said, "What if I let you ask me another question?"
You nodded, "Deal."
"So where did you get your powers that you're so afraid of letting them know?"
"Someone from Hydra. I know they're bad guys now, but I didn't then. They came to the adoption place, the orphanage, and offered to help us be more powerful. I gladly joined, they said I might die from it but I didn't care, I didn't have anything to live for anyway. So they did lots of tests on me, I think I was there for a little over two years, when I developed all these powers. And no, I don't know what they all are. Some seem to be a form of illusions, the power of persuasion, teleportation, although I've only been able to teleport small objects. They wanted to use me for their own bad things, but I escaped. I don't think they thought I would just abandon them after they gave me all the powers. I ran back to the orphanage and kept the powers to myself. They trained me so I knew how to hide it. Years later Tony's brother and wife adopted me, but I kept my powers a secret from them, and still keep it from everyone else."
Loki's eyes widened, and you quickly asked, "Now my question. Do you have any evil plans in motion or do you plan on doing anymore evil in the future?"
Loki frowned, "Pick a different question."
"What? You can't do that. You said I get to ask a question."
"I'm sure you have thousands of other questions in your head, pick a different question," he insisted.
You did, but that wasn't the point, "Come on. Tony is getting annoyed that I haven't gotten an answer yet, and you said I could ask a question."
"Yes I did. But I didn't say any question. Pick something else," he hissed.
You stood up, "Why won't you just tell me?!"
"Because then you'll have no reason to come back and see me!" He blurted, then looked like he wished he could take it back.
You immediately softened, "Loki...what if I promise you if you answer me I will keep visiting you," and if you say no to the questions maybe I can get you out of the cell.
He looked up at you, "Promise?"
You nodded. It was actually kind of cute he wanted you to stay, and sad, he was so lonely and you were clearly his only friend.
Cat-Loki sighed and said, "The answer is no to both those questions."
You smiled, "Thank you. Now I have to tell Tony, but I do have an idea now that you answered me. It'll be something you like," you said and waved as you left to tell Tony the news.