With Tony's Christmas party mere days away, the Avengers had taken a brief break from going on missions together- most missions now were duos or trios, which meant that whoever was left behind was tasked with helping Tony plan the party. To Percy and Loki's dismay, they seemed to be the two poor souls tasked with it today.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to leave Loki and Tony in a room together unsupervised must have been absolutely delusional, and Percy was too tired and slightly disorientated from an episode earlier on to stop them from endlessly bickering. It was beginning to give him a headache.
He'd been plagued by these awful visions for weeks now. They'd began by exclusively taking place in Tartarus but, now, they were much more versatile. Most recently, he'd witnessed flashes of a shadow murdering a group of men around a conference table. It was so real, Percy could've sworn he felt some of the blood splatter on his face. He'd been having breakfast with the team when it happened- rather than simply zoning out, he'd fainted this time. A more uncommon occurrence, and much more unwelcome.
When he'd woken up, he was in the infirmary, Bruce and Tony by his bedside, arguing. It was the usual scene he would recover from an episode to, both of them squabbling over what exactly they should do with Percy. Run more tests? Keep him in the infirmary? No, he'd resist that. Stop him from going on missions? Try to contact his father? Any solution one of them produced, the other would disagree with. It was exhausting to just listen to. As a result, he simply got up and walked out of the infirmary, neither of the scientists even noticing. By the time they did, Percy was in Loki's room, recounting the vision. Loki, in turn, had looked through a book he'd asked Thor to get him from Asgard- one that dealt with visions, dreams, the sort. It tended to lead nowhere, as much things involving Percy often did.
"Stark, are you demented?" Loki boomed, his hands out to his sides in exasperation. He'd listened through the entirety of Tony's party playlist, the poor soul. "There is absolutely no way you are playing a single Weezer song at this event. They all sound as if you want someone's eardrums to combust."
"Hey, hey, hey! Don't disrespect Weezer like that!" Tony sassed back.
"Weezer is quite good, to be fair," Percy cut in, raising a hand from his chair in the far corner of the room, where he'd been staring into space for quite some time. Both Tony and Loki whipped around, as if they'd forgotten he was there because of how quiet he'd been, then Tony cackled triumphantly.
"HA!" He pointed at Percy. "Percy agrees with me!"
"But," he held up a finger, raising his eyebrows, "Loki makes a good point. Aren't, like, A-Lister celebrities going to be here?"
"Percy, I am an A-Lister celebrity."
"So wouldn't they, I don't know, expect something a bit more..." he wracked his brain, searching for the right word, "elegant?"
"You're saying Weezer isn't elegant?" Tony gawked.
"That's not what I was- you know what? Yes, Tony, that's exactly what I'm saying."
Tony threw his hands up in irritation and walked out, muttering things somewhere along the lines of: "Weezer? Bad? Not elegant? You idiots. Idiots, I say!"
Loki and Percy looked at each other once Tony was completely gone and out of earshot, and then the two of them burst out laughing.
In that exact moment, Loki looked at Percy and, suddenly, without warning or explanation, he knew. He knew what that feeling in his stomach was every time he looked at him. He knew why his heart would skip a beat every time he met those sea-green eyes. Yes, he knew.
But he also knew something else, something that tainted his realisation with dread: he knew that Percy didn't have that feeling. He knew that Percy's heart didn't skip a beat every time he met Loki's emerald green eyes. And that broke his heart.
"You're looking at me funny," Percy examined with a grin once the two of them had calmed down.
"Am I?" Loki smiled through the pain. They left it at that.
*
It only became harder to be around Percy after that. The next day, Barton, he and Loki were selected to go undercover to a gala in Dallas, where there was a suspected HYDRA agent with documents that could include information on where a few more HYDRA bases could be. Percy borrowed a suit from Stark, whereas Loki conjured one out of thin air for himself, probably swiped from some high street store downtown. He adjusted his tie while Percy put on a pair of expensive-looking shoes, probably also borrowed from Stark, before tying his hair- which now reached to the middle of the nape of his neck- back in a man bun which worked extremely well for him.
"You look great," Loki commented, looking him up and down with a grin that ensured what he'd said seemed entirely platonic. Percy, in return, grinned right back.
"You're not looking too bad either," he winked, which made Loki do a double take, as a response, Percy laughed- Norns, that laugh. Loki laughed awkwardly back, not knowing how else to react, praying to whoever was listening that Percy didn't notice his rapidly reddening face. "Come on, we've got a quinjet to catch."
The quinjet to Dallas was particularly painstaking- not because of the length, how cold it was despite the central heating, or even Barton and Loki being in such close proximity to eachother, but because of Percy's constant questions about whether they were there yet. It was a common occurrence when travelling- Percy would get bored after several minutes and require stimulation of some sort. Loki figured it had something to do with that condition Percy had that shortened his attention span- he'd mentioned it quite a few times during their imprisonment, but Loki could never remember the name of it. Anyway, when the quinjet finally touched down in Texas, a wave of relief passed over Loki and Barton, knowing they wouldn't have to deal with Percy's constant questions for another few hours.
The ballroom the gala was being held in was considerably large and awfully echoey. Loki scowled, wondering how Midgardians hadn't mastered a simple anti-echo charm yet. They were so behind in terms of technology and society.
"Best we split up. If you see anything, get somewhere quiet and let me know," Barton gestured to his earpiece, identical to the ones Loki and Percy also had, concealed by the colour that was as close to each of their skin tones as possible. With that, the three of them split up in opposite directions. Loki kept glancing at Percy across the room, who was undercover as a young technology prodigy with a considerable fortune. He struck up conversation with several older men, looking for information on the HYDRA agent- Loki couldn't tell what they were saying but, by the look of the older men laughing at a joke Percy made, he seemed to be handling himself fine. In the meantime, Loki was undercover as a reclusive billionaire who was only here for a business deal. All he had to do was stand in a corner and observe the gala, occasionally greeting someone that the robotic contact lens in his eye, provided by Stark, told him he knew.
"Percy, you see the guy to your left? Blonde hair, pale skin, blue suit?" Barton's voice came through Loki's earpiece, addressing Percy, who hummed in confirmation. Loki glanced across the room, who was pretending to listen intently to a man in his late forties. "That's our guy. He's got a gun and he's been staring at you for the last five minutes. I need you to distract him for a second- I'm in his office looking at CCTV. I'll let you know when I've secured the files. Loki, keep an eye on him- if something goes South, step in."
"Got it," Loki affirmed and he looked over to Percy, who was saying something to the man he was speaking to, gesturing to the HYDRA agent a few feet away. He nodded in understanding before walking over, smiling, introducing himself and shaking the agent's hand, who remained stoic, his lips moving only slightly. Loki wondered how he formed full words with such a small mouth. Then he said something that made Percy's smile falter- he quickly recovered, but the agent had unmistakeably struck a nerve. Loki stepped forward, getting slightly closer. Percy shook his head at the agent, backing away.
"Ah, you must be the host of this excellent gala," Loki walked over and held out his hand to the agent, gesturing for him to shake, which he did. "My name is Thomas Burton, it's a pleasure."
"Dominik Hofer," the agent shook his hand, speaking with a German accent.
"Nicholas Samaras," Percy shook his hand as well, smiling warmly. This process repeated with the man Percy had been speaking to earlier, John Hernandez. Percy then turned to Hofer. "Again, it is a pleasure to be here and to meet you. I apologise for my father's absence."
"Well, he has much bigger things to be dealing with," Hofer agreed. Something about his tone told Loki that he knew all too well who Percy was and, worse, who his father was. Percy smiled and nodded, then glanced at Loki nervously. "It's a shame. I'm sure he'll be sorry he missed the death of his favourite son..."
"NO!" Realising what Hofer was about to do, Loki lunged for Percy, shoving him behind him as a bullet penetrated Loki's gut. He fell to his knees and Percy stood above him in shock for a moment. Loki watched his eyes, which went from terror to realisation to pure, unbridled rage. Loki had never seen that type of anger in his or anyone else's eyes. He walked towards the agent, but Loki didn't have the strength to turn around and keep watching.
"Don't worry, Perseus, you'll get your turn very soon," he heard Hofer cackle, but his laughter was cut off by a brutal, gruesome choking sound. Loki assumed Percy had his hands around the agent's neck, draining the life clean out of him. Eventually, Hofer collapsed to the floor. Loki turned slightly, grimacing in pain, to see that his eyes, mouth and nose were dripping with blood and his neck thinned so much you could see every organ inside. Hofer was dead, and Percy was fighting off every other guard that came his way. He fought with serious precision and inhuman strength, never faltering like the way he had been for the last few days in training.
"Loki, can you stand?" Barton was by Loki's side now, helping him to his feet. Loki nodded.
"I can teleport us back to the quinjet," he explained, thinking quickly. "If you can get a hold of Percy and bring him over here before he murders someone else, that would be much appreciated."
Barton shot Loki a look before taking a stick out of his trouser pocket, which became a bow. In his other trouser pocket were several arrows, which he took out and fired every few moments, fighting off any more guards that were pursuing Percy. The younger man didn't notice, entirely engrossed in his fighting.
"Barton," Loki rasped. "Shoot him."
Barton whipped around in horror. "What?"
"Shoot him. He's not going to stop, not until he gets himself killed. Shoot him in the leg and drag him over."
"He's a kid!"
"He's not going to stop."
Loki watched Barton's eyes, which displayed the battle he was having with himself internally. Then, within moments, he loaded his bow with an arrow and struck Percy right in the thigh, causing him to double over. The guard he was fighting didn't have a chance to hurt him, though, because Barton struck him in the heart before running to Percy and grabbing him by the arm, dragging him over to Loki, who touched both of their shoulders. A flash of green light brightened his eyes and, suddenly, the three of them found themselves back on the quinjet ten minutes away from the gala. Barton took a moment to recompose himself before rushing to the cockpit and taking off. Loki spat out a mouthful of blood on the floor.
"Percy, get some bandages from the first aid kit under the first chair there and patch yourself up, I'll be back there to deal with Loki in a second," Barton commanded, not acknowledging the fact Percy had been a murder machine mere seconds before. He did as he was told, ripping open his left trouser, exposing his thigh, which had an arrow protruding from it.
"Shit," he cursed softly to himself. "Hey, Clint, we got any water?"
"Should be some in that first aid kit, kid."
Percy dug deeper and set his sights on a bottle of water, which he opened and poured on the wound before quickly covering it in bandages. Loki noticed, however, that no blood soaked through.
********
Percy vecnafied the agent guy lmao