Chapter 14

It wasn't as if Percy hadn't enjoyed the unexpected treat of a first class flight, or even leaving Milwaukee before she unintentionally picked up a Midwestern accent... but she always hated airports. She swore it was where the last shreds of humanity and politeness went to die, and it always became painfully apparent how much TSA needed to update their policies on treating people with medical conditions that just so happen to pass their little metal detector.

She was better when she had time to hype herself up, but the sudden change in flight left her emotionally unprepared.

And no one would tell her why the hell she had been sent back to New York other than 'a situation had occurred.'

She silently prayed that there was an issue in her alpha Iron Legion suits instead of something wrong with Loki. She would rather be fired for her work being deplorable than anything of any significance happening to Loki... but how many times in life did she end up lucky?

Percy weaved her way through JFK with her small wheeled suitcase squeaking at every step until she exited the frosty air-conditioned building into the oven that was an NYC August. Glancing at the already existing queue at the taxi booth, she became fully convinced that she herself would become a hard-boiled egg before she ever reached the tower.

Beep beep!

She glanced at the black Mercedes for a moment without much thought, but then realized there were no other cars around it for it to be honking at. It slowly rolled to a stop right next to her, and the tinted side window was rolled down for another unexpected detail.

"Hey kid, throw that thing in the back and hop in." Clint commanded casually while stretched across the passenger's side and reached back to pop the trunk. Percy eyed him for a moment before nodding silently and following the orders, skidishly placing down the luggage and stood on the tips of her toes to lower the trunk back into place. As she walked back to the front seat Clint reached over and swung it out for her and she muttered a small "thanks."

He didn't even wait until she had fastened her seatbelt before taking off, swerving in and out of lanes with a smooth precision but without any real sense of urgency. Percy couldn't tell if it was the driving or the man himself that it felt like her heart was hammering in her chest. The two of them had never been on the best of terms, in fact she could probably count the number of words he'd spoken to her on a single hand despite the fact that they worked in such close proximity.

He usually acted distant, and the sunglasses he was currently wearing didn't exactly help make the marksman any less intimidating.

"You cold?" Clint's small remark pulled her back to reality, and the very real fact that she had been shaking was noticeable enough for him to turn down the AC.

"I'm fine... but thanks." She squeaked out in a much higher pitch than intended.

"Relax, kid." He scoffed, "I'm not here to kill ya or anything."

"You know, I'm nearly thirty." She retorted, ignoring the latter comment entirely.

"Seriously?" He turned his head quickly to look at her before refocusing on the road and chuckled. "Hell without the grays you could probably still pass for a minor."

"Thanks?" She said tentatively, unsure how to feel about what was probably meant to be a compliment. Should she get her hair touched up? She had started going gray at the ripe age of seventeen, just a strand here or there that Cora would pluck out without warning. But she had noticed that ever since the Battle of New York they were far less frequent, and couldn't help but wonder if all those studies about soulmates living healthier and longer lives actually had some weight to them.

"Oh shit, what I meant is -" Clint stumbled with his words for a moment, running a hand through his short hair. He cleared his throat with a low cough. "I mean, you look good. Yeah, you look good. What's your secret, botox?"

"Only on half my face." She raised her right eyebrow to demonstrate, the skin on her forehead staying smooth and no signs of winkles.

"Wouldn't have pegged you the type for that sort of thing." He said delicately.

"It was for my chronic nerve damage from my accident." She said candidly, watching as the older man hissed through his teeth with a tightly locked jaw.

"Geez, I'm really fucking this up, aren't I?"

"Clint, you don't have to force banter. Honestly, it's freaking me out."

"That's fair." He barked out with a laugh. "Nat and I haven't really tried, haven't really wanted to give you a chance."

"I don't get out of the lab for social calls anyways." Percy admitted.

"Oh come on. I bet you make friends easy." He insisted. "You know, I was there in New Mexico when Thor came to Earth for the first time. Hell, I thought I had seen everything after joining SHEILD but Norse Gods from space? The world really became something else."

"They are something else... aren't they?" She admitted, a small smile forming on her face.

"What I mean to say, which is uh -" Clint cleared his throat awkwardly. "You knew him for what, two days? I don't know anyone else who would have the balls to do the same for a total stranger."

"I don't know what I was even thinking back then."

"You weren't. Which is er- it's good! Need to trust your gut every now and then, keeps life interesting."

"I think I've had my fill of interesting." She grumbled, tugging at the roots of her hair as if it would remove her constant migraine. "Always figure'd I was gonna retire one day and just live alone... be some sort of old crazy snake lady."

"Pretty sure that the phrase is crazy cat lady." He corrected.

"I'm allergic to cats." She challenged.

"You really aren't a small-talker, are ya?" He chuckled. "Nat says I talk too much, probably true but she tries to keep me humble."

"Well, she's failing."

"There ya go! I knew there was some humor in there! Tony's always going on about how you give'em hell." Clint had seen a tiff or two between Tony and Pepper, but he was willing to pay cold hard cash to see that man get bossed around the quiet little engineer Percy projected herself to be. "By the way, what's the tomato soup story?"

"He didn't tell you that one?" She scoffed, shaking her head back and forth at the memory.

"Nah, something about legal issues."

"Like that's stopped him before. I'll save it for the next Tower party, how about that?"

"Deal." He took one hand off of the steering wheel and held it out to her, and Percy gave a firm grip and they shook hands for a bargain struck. The remainder of the ride was silent until they finally reached the Tower's garage. Clint expertly parked the car next to Percy's blue beetle, which despite it's prime condition after all these years was easily the dinkiest vehicle in the whole place.

"So, am I allowed to know what the big work emergency was now?" She questioned as they both climbed out of the car., Clint took it upon himself to handle her luggage. Though her tone has been teasing, Clint's entire body tensed up as he closed the trunk of the car shut.

"Right well... you see..." Clint's face scrunched up in discomfort as he searched for the words. "No real easy way to say this, but Loki got shot."

"Shot?!" She repeated, her voice raised an entire octave.

"But!" Clint cut her off immediately, raising up one hand. "He's fine! Completely fine... Relatively."

"Relative to what?"

"Well, that's the tricky part, kinda why we had to call you in." Percy stayed hot on his heels as they entered the Avengers secured elevator, both of them holding their IDs to the scanner before ascending. "He took a direct hit from one of the modified alien tech weapons we were scoping for, so no need for bullet removal. But those things pack a hell of a punch, and hasn't let anyone get near. No doctors, no medical supplies... nothing."

Percy was quiet as she processed the information, her emotions quickly turning from concern to guilt. Shouldn't she have known if something drastic happened to him? Would that be the sort of thing she would feel in their connection? She was a sad excuse for a soulmate, leaving Loki to suffer alone.

"You're connected to Jarvis, right?" Clint asked, breaking her away from the self deprecating thoughts.

"Yeah," She lightly shook her head, searching for words to say. "I like taking him along to conferences with me cause then I don't have to take notes or remember names."

"So here's our plan." He started to explain as the elevator arrived on the floor she shared with the Asgardians. The doors opened up into the common area, where Natasha was sitting on the couch expectedly. "We send you to go patch him up, Nat and I will see through your eyes and talk you through it, step by step."

"Are you crazy?!" She accused, turning to look him straight in the eye and pointed a finger at herself. "I'm not qualified for something like this! My CPR licence has been expired for three years!"

"Nat and I have treated flesh wounds in the field with a lost less." Clint reassured her and they entered the floor. Natasha rose from her seat to meet them halfway with short but purposeful strides and offered Percy a specialized medical kit. "Just do as we say, keep your head on your shoulders and we'll have that sucker patched up in no time."

"But I don't understand, if you're going to be telling me what to do, why don't one of you two just kick his door down?"

"Because more than likely he's doing this to make a point." Natasha elaborated. Percy was used to Natasha analyzing her with a hard, unrelenting gaze but this time it felt fundamentally different. This time it felt like the redhead was looking for something specific, and seemed almost satisfied after she had evaluated Percy's unsubstantial height that was equal to her own, give or take an inch or two.

Steve had been right, trust between the team would have to be a two-way street, but now it wasn't Loki with something to prove. Natasha hadn't trusted leaving him to his own devices, hadn't trusted him with any weapon, and in spite of all that... Loki had essentially taken a bullet for her. It was damn near infuriating.

"We've gone over all the possibilities, this was the best compromise we could think of." Natasha gave the other woman an awkward pat on the shoulder and a semblance of a smile before showing her their surveillance set up on the kitchen island. Percy input her credentials and permission codes that would allow the two of them to directly view a live feed from her. She confirmed that their microphone was synced to her own earpiece before making her way down the hall, the medical supplies in her hand feeling much heavier than they realistically were.

For what Loki counted as being the twelfth time, the sound of knocking interrupted his reading. He lazily rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to one of the historical books that Persephone had lent him. He became pleasantly surprised at the caliber and eloquence that humans gave to topics as seemingly trivial as the creation of what was referred to as the Oxford dictionary. What did bother him though, were the small dogears that littered the pages in nearly all of Persephone's books. He wanted to be annoyed at the creasing of paper, but as his finger stroked the corner of the ruined page his features softened, knowing that her calloused fingers had been the ones to leave the marks.

"Loki, open up." He froze at the demanding tone of his mate from the other side of the door, her presence was not something he had accounted for. "I know you're in there!" She called out again, her sharp knocks now picking up speed and unrelenting. Slightly cursing under his breath, he all but dragged himself out of the chair and limped to the door. Hand on the doorknob, he closed his eyes for a moment to compose himself before smiling and swinging the door open.

"Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise?" He said with labored breath, leaning against the door frame for support. "I - well I thought you were away on business for another two days."

"And I thought I told you to be safe while I was gone." She accused with a short tone. Despite her best efforts to seem intimidating, Loki couldn't hide his amusement at seeing her lower lip pout. "May I come in?"

"My door is always open for you." Loki stepped aside and welcomed her with a sweeping arm gesture. The room itself was small and clean, a carbon copy of the white modern furniture that had been in her own bedroom on the other end of the floor. It felt halfway between a hotel and a cell, but she had never really noticed since she hardly spent any waking hours in her own.

"I don't understand you, I really don't." She made quick work to settle the first aid kit on his nearly empty desk, spreading out disinfectants and bandages in varying sizes. He couldn't see her face, but the way that her breath hitched as she spoke threatened to give way to tears. "Who in their right mind just lets themselves be shot and then refuses to see a doctor?"

"My injury was not exactly self inflicted, you know." He said defensively as he locked the door to the room. Percy didn't notice as his eyes raked her up and down, following all the curves that the deep purple pantsuit she was wearing clung to so well. Despite their meeting in Germany, he had only seen her in clothes of a more casual fashion. But like this, she gave the air of a woman in charge. It made him eager to see more sides of her. "Did I mention you look ravishing? You should dress this way more often."

"Don't change the subject, mister." Percy said, somewhat accustomed by now to Loki's flirting whenever the two of them were alone. "How did this even happen?"

"You and Romanoff are a similar height," Loki admitted, now standing beside her while clutching his side, the particular section of his abdomen lining up almost perfectly with her upper chest. "How could I not know where your heart lies?" He whispered with a chuckle, pleased when he saw her cheeks flush with red ever so slightly.

"You're making it very difficult for me to be cross with you." Percy growled, motioning him to sit in the desk chair as she sat on her knees facing opposite of him. Loki sucked in a deep breath as she reached to undo the bottom portion of his shirt, a peroxide soaked cloth in hand.

As soon as the wound was brought to light her brow became fixed in an intense concentration, she let out a small gasp and turned her eyes down toward the floor, shielding her vision away from Loki with her hand.

"Hey Percy, what's wrong?" She heard Clint ask through her earpiece. Her heart pounded violently as she felt a wave of panic being to set in, she was aware of Loki speaking as well, but his voice became drowned out as her limbs became weak. In no time at all, she felt her eyes swell and the cold track of fresh tears trailing down her cheeks.

"I-It's just -" Her voice hitched as tears dropped freely to the ground. She felt Loki shift his body weight and begin to delicately pet her head in the efforts of calming her down.

"Love, it's alright, you don't have to do this. Please, look at me." He pleaded. Percy shook her head back and forth weakly and kept her gaze firmly on the ground.

"You have to take deep breaths, try not to panic." Natasha's voice instructed. "We didn't see it for long, but trust me, those injuries always look worse than they actually are."

"I-It looks so awful." Percy whispered in a quivering voice.

"It's going to get worse if you don't disinfect it. You wouldn't want to be responsible for that, would you?" Natasha spoke again firmly.

"No, no, of course not." Percy snipped, wiping some of the tears away with her sleeve. "Jarvis, can you activate privacy settings?"

"Unfortunately, I cannot. Mr. Odinson must be under surveillance for all hours of the day." The crisp voice of the AI responded from the speakers in the room's ceiling.

"Can you at least turn the auditory off? I really don't want the others to hear me cry." There was a moment of silence, as if Jarvis was calculating the appropriate response. "Please, J." Percy pleaded, a solid beat of silence falling over the room.

"I have removed audio feed from your microphone as well as those within the room." Jarvis responded. "If you wish to revert the setting simply double tap on your earpiece."

"Persephone." Loki called her name gently while she hand remained tangled in her hair. "I assure you, I regenerate faster than your kind. If this displeases you so, I would rather you leave."

"Well that's too bad, 'cause you're stuck with me." She made a point to not look at Loki's face as she lifted up his shirt one more time, and began to dab the afflicted area gently with the cloth with a trembling hand. Although he sat rather stoically, Loki did flinch or hiss from time to time.

"The footage is pretty blurry from all the crying... ow!" Clint shouted as a large slap was heard.

"Clint, stop being such an ass!" Natasha whispered before giving Persephone further instructions to follow.

Percy followed Natasha's words to a T, despite it being very difficult for her to see at all... but she had to make due with her makeshift plan.

"Now listen carefully." Percy whispered in a stern voice, still keeping her gaze on Loki's lower abdomen. "Don't look up, but the camera for this room is in the upper right corner behind me."

She could feel as Loki casually slumped over in the chair and covered the camera's view of his mouth with his hand, pretending as if he was biting on his flesh to counteract the pain. He set his eyes straight ahead at one of the bedroom walls. "What do you wish to discuss in such secrecy?"

"How about the fact that this isn't a real wound?" She retorted. Loki's eyes snapped to her face at the accusation, and while Persephone's face remained red and puffy, her lips held a knowing smirk. "You're a great liar though, everyone else is totally convinced." He yelped and doubled over in fake pain, grasping one of her shoulders and deliberately placing his head near her ear.

"I should have known that you would be able to see through me." He praised, every movement of his lips just barely grazed her earlobe. "When did you figure it out?"

"As soon as I saw it." It had been the same every time that Loki had conjured a double of himself or morphed into a different persona, although his magic always looked believable in every physical sense she had been able to identify them without fail. There was no guarantee that the others would be able to see through him as well, though. So she had to keep the up close footage they were viewing blurry, that way it would be even harder to tell.

"You approve of my deception?"

"Please, this is the best idea you've had since you've gotten here." She smugly answered as she applied a large bandage as a final step. "You're building trust and riddling them with guilt at the same time... genius."

"You should be careful, Persephone." The deep quality of his voice bringing her to finally look at his face, and the gleam in his eyes. "Keep speaking like that, and I may just fall in love with you."

His hands quickly moved to grasp the nape of her neck, pulling her closer. Percy remained frozen as their lips barely brushed together... when the hands that had been holding her were suddenly released and Loki's entire body began to convulse in real pain. He clawed at the bracelet on his wrist as the electricity forced him back in his chair. Percy whips around and makes eye contact with the camera in the corner of the room.

"JARVIS!" She shrieked, the movement from her lips and the anger in her expression was more than enough for the AI to understand.

"Any sudden or unpredictable movement is treated indiscriminately, for your own safety of course." Jarvis explained coolly, earning a grumble from Loki.

"Damn that machine." He muttered, rubbing the area of flesh around the bracelet's contact. Persephone surely refused to see it, but if any computer was capable of holding a grudge, the one she called Jarvis was it. And why Persephone held such a high affection for a program was beyond his own comprehension, it wasn't as if it were a living being capable of caring for her.

"Play nice." She chided while fighting back a laugh. Now that she thought about it, Loki had been exceedingly slow and gentle with every touch since he had arrived. He had been waiting, evaluating her reactions. To be fair, she had been terrified... haunted by nightmares of the past and fresh memories of violence. But she could feel it now stronger than ever, the true Loki and where his intentions lie. "I know you'll never hurt me."

Taking his hand in her own, Percy pressed her lips against the cool pale skin of his wrist. He turned his hand to cup her face and wiped away the last of her tears. Percy placed her hands on his strong thighs to push herself up from her kneeling position, her face now hovering mere inches above his.

"Persephone..." He hissed.

Her eyes fluttered shut as she leaned down and closed the gap between them. The kiss was soft but firm, the way that their lips molded so perfectly together was enough to send a violent current down her spine comporable to the times she had accidentally electrocuted herself in the lab. Just as she began to pull away, she felt two strong hands rake through her hair, nails scraping lightly against her scalp to keep her in place. Loki hungrily deepened the kiss, expertly taking control to the point that her knees began to tremble.

"Uh -" The hesitant voice of Clint in her earpiece was enough to make Percy's head snap back. "Hey so, I think we're gonna go now." The sound of a sharp smack and another wail from Clint was the last she heard before the communication dropped to a dead silence. Loki took it upon himself to remove the device from her ear, tossing it behind him without care.

"Get back here." He calmly demanded, accentuating each word with razor sharp authority. One part of Percy wanted to challenge him, just for fun... but the larger part couldn't resist those eyes that stalked hers like a hungry predator, and she couldn't help but oblige.

A/N: Brownie points if you get the title chapter reference