"Wahey! He's finally out of his room!" Tony cheered, swallowing a large amount of the voluminous coffee and bourbon concoction drink.
Loki almost smiled, but instead plastered on a disgruntled expression as Thor led him to the kitchen. Bruce and Clint were sitting by the kitchen island (Clint having finally returned from his SHIELD mission). Steve was at the counter, flipping more and more pancakes as Tony, Natasha and Clint continued to feast on them, smothering them in Nutella and honey and whipped cream and various other toppings in Tony's cupboards. Tony knew there was a reason why he liked having the Captain over; his obsession with military cleanliness and schedule included everyone having enough to eat, and everything being cleaned straight after. It was like having his own personal housewife.
Loki opted for some toast and an apple, isolating himself in the corner of the kitchen as he hesitantly nibbled on the bread. Thor, attempting to not be the over-bearing brother, placed himself a mere few feet away from Loki. It was an improvement though, Tony thought. The first few days of Loki's little recovery programme Thor didn't even leave to go to the loo. It resulted in a rather constipated god of thunder and an inexplicable increase in thunderstorms. Thankfully, those thunderstorms stopped once Thor...relieved himself.
A good half an hour later and the team had shovelled down breakfast to their hearts' content, apart from Loki. He was trying not to panic, reassuring himself with the idea that he could burn it all off later. He just needed to pretend he was ok, that's all he needed to do. Taking in quiet, deep breaths, Loki forced himself to focus on the friendly dispute the Captain and the archer were having.
"It's a great trick!"
"Steve, it's dreadful. It's the most basic trick ever."
"Got to agree with Legolas on that one Spangles. I learnt that when I was like 6."
"Well I believe the trick to be fascinating, son of Roger. It does not compare to the magic of Asgard of course, but tricks giving such a strong illusion of magical involvement have never been seen on Asgard before."
"Well I'll bet Prongs here will love the trick."
Loki didn't notice Tony was talking about him until he found the Captain crouching down to reach him.
Prongs. That ridiculous nickname. Where in the Nine did that mortal even get it from?
"Hey, Loki, look at this."
Loki frowned perplexedly as Steve sat across from him eagerly. The moment Steve pulled out a deck of cards from his pants pocket, Loki had to resist the urge to roll his eyes.
Was this another card game? Like the one Natasha played with him?
"Are we to play a game?" he asked, trying as hard as he could to keep the fear out of his voice. The last several nights had been filled with the nightmares of the games the Chitauri used to play with him.
"Card tricks!" Loki's look of bewilderment had Steve feining shock. "Oh I'm definitely showing you this now. I think I've got something other than books that'll amuse you."
"Okay—so, take the card on the top of the deck. Don't show it to me, but you can show it to everyone else," said Steve, presenting the deck to Loki. Loki raised his eyebrows before taking the top card.
The Joker.
Well, if this magic trick was all staged the the Captain does indeed have a cheesy sense of humor.
"Do you remember it?" said Steve. "Okay, now just put it on the top of the deck again."
Loki slid the card facedown back on the top. Steve nodded approvingly.
"Okay, for the next part, can I ask you to stand up from your seat, please?"
Loki glared at Steve. Was Steve questioning his ability to stand?
He stood up immediately.
"Good, good," said Steve. He dealt the top ten cards face down on the coffee table. "Now, put your hand on top of those so that they won't move, all right?"
Loki placed a hand upon the cards, bending down slightly to reach the table. Steve stepped to the side so he could deal a card onto Loki's seat.
"Abra cadabra!" Steve said, wiggling his fingers over the one card. When he saw Loki shooting a very bewildered look at Steve over his shoulders, Steve added, "I'm using magic words to make the top card switch and teleport."
If this wasn't besmirching the nature and respect of the ancient and most noble art of sorcery, nothing was.
"Alakazoom!" With a flourish, Steve tapped the card on the chair. "Okay, you can lift your hand from the cards now."
Loki withdrew his hand from the pile. Steve flipped over the card on the couch; the Joker stared brightly back at Loki.
"Is this your card?" Steve said.
Loki narrowed his eyes and nodded.
"Magic!" said Steve.
Loki frowned. He held out his hand expectantly. Steve placed the Joker in his palm. Loki narrowed his eyes, inspecting every corner. Well, there certainly wasn't a trace of magic on the card, and Steve was a mortal after all, so Steve couldn't possibly have performed wizardry to accomplish this...
"Pretty cool, huh?" said Steve, looking like a pupil desperately eager to please his mentor.
Loki flicked the card with his finger. There certainly wasn't a curse on the card either, so that was out of the question.
How did Steve do it?
***
The group had collectively moved to the communal room, where most of them had merged with the furniture.
"What are we thinking for movie night?"
Movie night?
Loki's look of confusion caught Natasha's attention.
"They're like moving pictures on a screen. They tell some sort of story, fictional or non-fictional," she said, curled up in the armchair.
Loki nodded to show his understanding, head resting slightly on Thor's legs. Perhaps once his pride would've stopped him from doing such things so publicly, but his dignity had long since disappeared.
"Star Wars!" Tony cried enthusiastically.
"No way! Harry Potter, PLEASE." Clint argued.
"Star Wars is a classic!"
"Harry Potter is a classic!"
"No offence Tony, but I'll stick with Harry Potter. I've seen Star Wars before."
"Flipping traitor you are, Captain Canada." Tony grumbled.
"I'm fine with either," Bruce said diplomatically, "but Thor, please could you take the armchair?"
"I would take offence in your request, son of Banner, but your reasoning is understandable. Particularly after our last movie night."
"Let's not discuss that please," Clint muttered.
"Are we all ok with Harry Potter then?" Bruce asked.
"I'm afraid my brother does not know what it is." Thor said, gesturing towards the silent, forgotten man.
"Oh shit. Rock of Ages is going to relate to all this on a whole other level," Tony cackled slightly, budging up to allow Natasha room on the three seater couch whilst Thor overtook the armchair.
"It's just about this boy who has magic. His parents are dead so he's adopted by his aunt and uncle. And then he goes to this place called Hogwarts and spends like every single year evading death because this dude with no nose is trying to kill him," Clint explained quickly. "Ideally you should've read the books first because they're always better than the movies, but we'll let Shakespeare keep you busy for a bit longer before we get you into Rowling."
"Can we start already? I want to get to the third one at least." Tony grumbled. Loki settled against the back of the couch, lanky legs sprawled out on the floor, careful to not have any body part of his come into contact with the Captain or the doctor.
"I'm ordering pizza by the way. I'll get JARVIS or Dummy to bring it up." The team nodded their assent, snuggling in further into their seats.
"JARVIS? Lights, camera, action?"
A few moments later and the first film started.
***
"Guys."
As the credits rolled at the end of Chamber of Secrets, everyone was stretching their cramped limbs and rubbing their eyes.
"Guys, inside voices," said Bruce.
"What's up, Bruce?" groaned Clint, stretching his legs.
Bruce nodded toward the floor. Between him and Steve was Loki, curled up against the front of the couch, his head resting on some fallen cushions, fast asleep. His right arm was curled underneath his head as a makeshift pillow, the other draped limply across his body to the floor.
The others quieted immediately, turning to see. Natasha offered a small smile at the sight of the slumbering god, and for once she didn't care who saw.
"He hasn't fallen asleep on his own for a long time, has he?" said Tony.
"No," Thor spoke suddenly. "He hasn't."
"You want to take him back to his room so we don't trip over him?" said Tony.
"He's a very light sleeper," said Thor. "I'm afraid I would wake him, and he must be very tired."
Thor crawled over the empty pizza boxes to drape a throw blanket over Loki. Loki shifted in his sleep, but remained blissfully unaware.
"Are you just going to leave him outside of his room?" said Clint.
"He'll be all right. I'll stay with him," said Thor.
They were silent for a moment, staring at the peaceful god. Thor lightly brushed away a stray hair from his cheek.
"Maybe he's getting better," said Steve. "Not just physically. Maybe emotionally."
But Bruce shook his head, to everyone's surprise. "It might be an improvement," said Bruce. "But it's not complete. Not even close."
"How do you mean?" Tony asked. "He feels safe enough to sleep while we're around."
"Sometimes, when the body's had enough, a person doesn't have a choice to sleep," Natasha interrupted Bruce, who was literally left hanging with his mouth half open. However the doctor simply smiled at her, and sat back. Natasha was always better at praising things like this than he was. And he had a small hunch about her changed behaviour around the now sleeping god. "Perhaps he does feel a bit better around us, but he's still scared of something. Or ashamed, or scarred, or something. He's not completely ok."
"What makes you say that?" said Clint.
"Isn't it obvious? He won't even let himself smile for too long, or let anyone see him do so."
The silence that followed was heavy with weighted sorrow.
***
AN: Finallyyyyy a chapter with all of them without one of them leaving and they're watching a movie they're doing something nice yesss go meeee.
Also childish Steve being so excited to show off a magic trick warmed my heart. I would've done Tony but it just seemed so much sweeter with Steve.
BY THE WAY I'll probably be updating like every 3 to 6 days. If I haven't updated in over 7 days then you'll probably be getting two chapters all in one so either way you won't be missing anything!
Also the amount of views Chapter 22 got makes me immensely happy like holy frickle frackle snickle snackle I was like actually immensely proud of that chapter and other people liked it too so now I'm all happy and proud and smiley I love you guyssss 💗💗💗