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it was his lode, his lord, his appointed star

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When Loki steps into the room, the HYDRA goons go silent. It’s a nice change from the demanding rambling, actually, even if Clint’s whole body shudders.

“What is this?” Loki asks quietly, head tilting in what seems to be honest curiosity.

The goons all look at each other. Clint wonders who’s actually in charge of HYDRA this week. Is Red Skull dead again?

“We were interrogating the prisoner,” the head goon says, spine straightening. “He has important information and– ”

“Do shut up,” Loki orders pleasantly, eyes focusing on Clint.

“You in charge of these fuckers?” Clint scoffs. “Gotta say, that’s a step down.” He just barely cuts off the sir before he says it. Fuck. He shudders again.

Loki’s lips curl in what might be a sneer or a smile. Clint can’t tell anymore. He could’ve, once. He’d almost forgotten how right it felt, when his whole reason for existence was making Loki’s will happen.

“A regrettable choice of allies, yes,” Loki drawls, stepping forward. The goons all move out of the way, showing a surprising amount of self-preservation.

“Here to interrogate me yourself?” Clint’s attempt at bravado only makes Loki’s lips curl again.

“Oh, dear Agent Barton,” Loki purrs. “You know that you’ll tell me anything I ask.”

Yeah, Clint knows that. Being this close to Loki – it hasn’t happened since Thor took him back to Asgard. He’s been on Earth again for over a year, and focused on Thor every time the team broke up whatever he was doing. Seemed like he’d barely been trying, to be honest. Clint looked at him through a scope or from the top of a building, and never needed to get closer.

But now… tied to the chair with a shattered ankle and broken arm, with a concussion making his head swim, with at least two cracked ribs and an eye swollen nearly shut, Clint can’t help it. His head hurts, and Loki is- no, Loki was, Loki’s the enemy, and he killed Phil and tried to conquer the world, and he’s crazy, and–

He’s touching Clint’s face.

Clint wants to jerk back, but he’s frozen, staring up at Loki’s eyes. “You’re useless while broken, Agent Barton,” Loki says. He almost sounds gentle, with a matter-of-fact tone. “These fools were trying to show initiative, I fear. You have my apologies,” he murmurs, heat flaring out from his hand.

Everywhere the heat goes, it replaces the pain.

Clint would be relieved, except he remembers that heat.

“No,” he whispers, wanting to close his eyes. He can’t. “Please, Loki.” Not again.

“Hush, warrior,” Loki murmurs, hand dropping away. He turns, looking back at the goons. “Leave,” he orders. “I have no more need of you.” They start to flee, but then he says, “Wait.” Glancing back down at Clint, his lips curl in an unmistakable smirk. “Do you wish to avenge yourself?” he asks. His emphasis on avenge is so sarcastic the air sizzles.

Clint’s gaze slides from Loki to the goons who just spent the past three hours beating the shit out of him for answers he didn’t have.

It’s been awhile since he killed someone with his bare hands.

“Yes, sir,” he says.

“What?” the head goon shouts, but the ropes are gone and Clint’s body is thrumming with energy, and his master deftly steps out of the way, smiling.

The door doesn’t open and their weapons jam, and Clint is determined to impress Loki with both his efficiency and ruthlessness.

He succeeds on both counts. He surpasses expectations.

.

When the Avengers find the HYDRA base, every enemy agent is dead and Hawkeye still missing.

It’s a week before they realize what happened, and then only because an arrow lands at Captain America’s feet. He survives the ensuing explosion because he recognizes the arrow, throws himself backwards, and raises his shield.

“What the fuck!” Iron Man yells.

Loki steps out of thin air, clapping. “Wonderful reflexes, Captain,” he drawls, wearing his ridiculous armor. “You and your team misplaced something very dear to me, so I have reclaimed it.”

He catches the knife a foot away from his eye and lets it fall, grinning at Black Widow. Another arrow shoots past her, embedding in the wall behind her. She lunges away, crouching behind some rubble from the previous battle, before Loki’s appearance, and another explosion fills the air with smoke.

“Give him back!” Captain America demands.

Loki’s smirk is full of false sympathy. “I think not,” he says. “But he requested that I let you know he’s happy and healthy.” Loki shrugs elegantly. “It is an easy enough request to fill.”

“Brother!” Thor thunders, landing heavily at Loki’s back. “What have you done?”

Rolling his eyes, Loki flicks his fingers.

The arrow that hits Thor in the chest, sticking in his armor, isn’t one any of them recognize. Or the smoke that starts billowing out, or the substance that starts eating his armor. Thor’s scream of pain is one none of his team will ever forget, because it’s a sound they’ve never heard before.

Loki vanishes, of course. He takes Hawkeye with him.

.

“Are you happy?” Loki asks, threading his fingers through Clint’s hair. It’s getting long again, longer than he’s worn it in awhile.

“Yes, sir,” Clint answers, closing his eyes in pleasure.

“Would you like to kill in my name?” Loki murmurs.

Clint smiles. “Always, Loki,” he replies, already planning which weapons to use.

His eyes, when he opens them to gaze at Loki, are a clear, unclouded blue.

Chapter Text

Loki watches his warrior send arrow after arrow into the target. Every ring is filled, no arrow touching another, and the one sent into the center explodes, leaving only a scorch mark on the floor after the smoke clears.

“Would you like a mission, Clint?” he calls, materializing behind him, leaning against the wall. He knows it gives his warrior a thrill to hear Loki speak his name.

“Yes, sir,” Clint says, turning on his heel and lowering his weapon.

Loki smiles.

.

Nick Fury takes a two day vacation once a year. No one knows where he goes or what he does, but he always comes back relaxed, with a smile that terrifies all of his subordinates. (Coulson hadn’t been frightened, but he’s been gone for a year and a half now. Even Hill still gets nervous. It’ll take time, but he’s sure she’ll one day be as good as Coulson.)

This year, six months after Loki snatched Barton away and vanished, Nick is in Seattle and watching bad television. His phone is off, he’s not checking email, and Hill has orders to only get him if the fate of the entire world hangs in the balance.

The glass has been reinforced to withstand anything humans can manufacture. That doesn’t stop a bullet made by Loki, aimed by Hawkeye, from going in his one good eye and out the back of his head.

When Hill finds him two days later, the only thing left in the building is his body.

.

Victor von Doom had thought to use his partnership with Loki to his advantage and then execute Loki the moment he became anything but completely helpful.

He used Loki’s intelligence, his abilities, and his resources, and then tried to double-cross Loki, hoping their mutual enemies would take care of the hindrance for him.

Loki modifies the arrow used on Thor, when he revealed his reclaiming of his favorite Midgardian, and laughs when Hawkeye lets it fly.

Dr. Doom is left in the den of the Fantastic Four’s living quarters. Surveillance reveals that Reed Richards’ sobs like a baby when he absentmindedly wanders towards the kitchen for breakfast.

For months, everyone is sure Dr. Doom is simply faking his death – but he never surfaces anywhere and his criminal empire is in shambles.

.

Thor invites his friends from Asgard to visit Earth. He takes them to all his favorite spots, shares with them all his favorite foods, and gives them a tour of SHIELD, to explain what he is doing on Midgard.

With his teammates’ help, he even demonstrates all their strengths.

Volstagg is the first to fall, mid-word. (Loki wonders if anyone understands that is a mercy – Volstagg had always been the kindest.) Fandrall is next, then Hogun. The Avengers institute a lockdown, but Thor is frozen, looking at his friends. He turns to Sif, horror in his eyes, and she dodges, trying to bat something out of the air.

Thor has not heard Sif scream since they were children together, but she screams in pain, in rage, until she can’t anymore.

No explanation is found, for how Hawkeye could have possibly gotten into the facility undetected. None of their scientists can determine the poison used; the pellets that delivered it dissolve before any testing can be conducted.

Loki, of course, Thor mutters wearily. Of course Loki. He takes their bodies home, for a warrior’s sendoff, and does not try to determine what his brot-Loki could have possibly gained from this.

.

There is one man on Earth who can comprehend the tesseract. SHIELD thought to hide him away, following the failed invasion. Hoard his knowledge. Learn everything he knows.

Erik Selvig never notices his shadow. Nor does Jane Foster realize until three days later, when Selvig’s body is found, how close she came to dying.

Clint had no orders regarding her, and so he left her alive.

.

Captain America is the heart of the Avengers. Loki doesn’t want him dead, yet, but he gives Clint leave to do whatever he chooses.

So while Loki’s true plan goes off without a hitch, Clint provides a very distracting distraction by filling Steve Rogers full of arrows. He uses everything in his arsenal but the truly fatal, utilizing a mini-portal Loki created to building-hop so no one can find him.

He waits until the last possible moment, watching Black Widow and Iron Man remove the arrows while Hulk smashes buildings looking for him, and then he leaves.

.

“If I asked you to prove your loyalty,” Loki murmurs into Clint’s ear, arms curled loosely around Clint, his chest to Clint’s back, “if I told you to kill whoever you loved most in the world… what would you do?”

Clint thinks it over for a few minutes, head resting on Loki’s shoulder, neck bared. Then he says, “I’d kill my older brother, sir. And Natasha.”

Loki kisses behind his ear, trails his lips down his throat, and whispers, “See that it’s done, my warrior hawk.”

“Yes, Loki,” Clint gasps, and Loki stares into his blue eyes, clear as the sky, smiling.