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Chapter Text

The day was getting worse and worse by second, Loki decided. He was so sure. So sure that his plan would work out, that he would finally be able to overshadow his oh so mighty brother who has looked down on him since childhood. He thought that maybe today, yes maybe today he would finally find the peace within him that he so desperately looked for. But his happiness was crushed as a man in blue, red and white spandex, a man hidden behind the thickest armour of steel he has ever met a warrior wear and a man with a metal arm had gotten a hold of him. He was so sure. So sure that the little bit of energy that his body provided after months of torture would lead him to victory. But his body betrayed him once more. Doubts started to haunt his mind. Would he ever be equal to the man he so hopelessly wanted to recognize his value? He proved himself worthy of the love of his own brother! Why couldn't Thor see that?

"Loki." he heard the man in question say. It almost sounded demanding. Shamefully he turned his head away from him, closing his eyes as he tried to hold back the tears that threatened to roll down his cheeks.

'No,' he thought. 'Thor can't see me like this.'
All he wanted to do was hide. Hide from the shame he has brought upon his brother while all he ever wanted was to be his equal. 'What would Mother say? She would be outraged.' All his mother ever wanted was for them to get along. Loki remembered her telling him. It was such a small thing to ask but yet in Loki's eyes it almost seemed to be impossible.

"Brother." Thor firmly said as he knelt in front of his handcuffed brother. Under the lights of the quinjet he finally took a proper look at the thin figure sitting in front of him. He wouldn't loudly admit it, not with these strangers on board, but the sight of Loki being nothing but bones and flesh made him sick. He wondered what had happened.

"Why, brother?" Thor continued, quentlier than he had before. Seeing Loki on the edge of breaking mentally was the last thing he wanted. But he needed to be stopped. To be stopped and brought back to Asgard where the right punishment would await him. His heart pained at the thought of his mother seing her beloved son in chains.
Loki gave a painful laughter, the saddened expression wiped away instantly as if he had practiced it for a long time.

"Why not, Thor? Don't you see how easy it is to make them kneel? Look at them, brother!" Loki's eyes wandered throught the quiet quinjet, a devilish smile spread across his thin pale lips. "They are begging to be ruled by a KING!"

"Stop this madness, brother! You are no king nor will you ever be one!"

"I am a king!" Loki screamed more in agony than in anger really. "I am worthy of a throne as much as you are, brother! You are blinded by your own arrogance so much that you are unable to accept a leader other than yourself." his eyes filled with tears that he was barely able to hold back. But what king would he be if he exposed his weakness in front of mortal strangers? So he held them back. But eventhough tears weren't falling, the desperate look in his eyes betrayed him.

"No. No, you are not." Thor was getting sick of his brother's games. He sighed heavily before standing back up, taking his hammer and grabbing Loki roughly by his collar, pulling him into a standing position.

"How deep have you fallen that you still seek Asgard's throne. After failing so many times." Thor shook his head in disappointment. A part of him thought, hoped, that Loki had changed. The dream of power forgotten, but he was wrong. All his hopes shattered to nothing more than tiny shards of a big whole.
All that but Thor still could not see behind his brother's actions. Loki thought that maybe he wouldn't rather than couldn't. How Thor purpously pushed the reality aside to live in this perfect bubble of his.

"I never said that I seek to be the king of Asgard." Loki grinned, once again hiding how he really felt. As it turned out, he was as good at doing that as Thor was good as seeing past the walls Loki has built around him.

"Midgard will work just fine." he took a quick look around the quinjet, studying every individual present before he returned his glance to his brother once more.

"It looks like there is still a lot of work to do anyway."

"What the hell is going on between them?" Bucky whispered to Steve as his eyes focused on the black haired man, who was still captured in his brother's grasp. He wondered why his body would lay so limply in his hold. Why wasn't he fighting back? But instead of waiting for an answer from his friend he directly spoke to the man in chains.

"What the hell is Midgard." Bucky spoke loudly, gaining the attention of the demi god who whipped his head in the soldier's direction almost immediately.

"Ah, finally." Loki laughed, wiggling out of Thor's hold and turning to the other man.

"I'm sure this is all a little too complex for the tiny brain of a pathetic human like yourself to understand but Midgard is, in fact, your Earth." The demi god mocked, saying each word as slow and loud as possible. To Bucky it seemed like he was mocking their, particularly his, intelligence. Which he was, he had no doubt in that.

"For a machine you don't seem to be that intelligent. Why is that, pray tell."

"The fuck did you just call me?"

Bucky squinted his eyes, wishing nothing more than for this asshole to shut up. And if he wouldn't do it voluntarily, then he'd be glad to help him out. But before his metal arm came even anywhere near him Steve put a hand on his chest, holding him back.

"Not now, Buck. We don't want to provoke a fight while flying."

"Listen to him, Barnes." Tony shouted from where he sat in the pilot's seat. All that what was currently happening behind him was merely background noises to the man. Not that he wasn't interested.

"Then get us down, Stark. I'm gonna show this asshole-"

"Enough of that, Bucky. This won't solve anything." Steve interrupted his friend as he put the hand that had restrained him from doing the demi god any harm on the belt of his uniform. He could hear the metal of Bucky's arm flex in anger.

"So we're just supposed to be cool with him parading around like that? He called me a machine, Steve." Bucky motioned to Loki standing next to Thor who was smiling from ear to ear. Oh how he had this mortal enraged. This might not seem like much to someone else but to Loki this was the first step to overthrowing humanity. He might need to change his original plan but for now that will have to do.

"Look how he's smiling, Steve! This is funny to him."

"Oh I am entertained, indeed." Loki laughed, earning a glare from his brother. Loki could feel the tension between every single person present.
But the man in the blue spandax had the man with the metal arm under control. Loki would have guessed that if it wasn't for him, he would not be standing here anymore. He wondered if Thor would have protected him. He was his brother afterall.

Bucky let out a frustrated sigh, trying to calm himself down and Steve wasn't helping him at all. Mister righteous, captain america, god how he hated his good manners.
The anger in his body was rising by the second. The words of this man were running through his head over and over again. A machine. Huh.
And the voices wouldn't stop. They were getting louder and louder until finally, Bucky couldn't take it anymore. With a loud scream he punched the floor of the quinjet:

The jet began to rumble, smoke coming out from underneath the grid on the floor.

"Barnes, what the hell did you do?!" Tony yelled as he tried getting the quinjet back under control. He failed miserably.

There was a loud crash before everything went black.

Chapter Text

Bucky's head hurt. He couldn't remember being in this much pain since his escape from Hydra a while back. He groaned, rubbing the back of his aching head, wincing upon seeing the red liquid staining his warm flesh hand. "Ah, shit."

"Buck!" he heard someone yell. It must have been Steve, he thought. Who else would dare call him by a nickname. This name was reserved for someone he trusts. And besides Steve, noone has yet gained his trust.

"Steve... what?" Bucky asked groggily. Pushing himself up with his metal arm, he put himself into a sitting position. He closed his eyes, swallowing down the nausea that crept through his throat as his head spun in seemingly never ending circles.

"Don't move. You're bleeding." Steve said, cupping Bucky's chin and tilting his head to get a closer look at the injury.

"Yeah. I can feel that, punk." Bucky grumbled. He knew Steve ment well but him poking around in his wound made him a lot more frustrated than he actually felt, given the circumstances he was in right now. "Can you stop putting your dirty hand in my wound, Steve? You're starting to piss me off."

"That coming from the one who caused the plane to crash? I think you're on thin ice, Buck." the blond man put the hand, that was previously busy keeping his pal's head in place on the other mans shoulder, squeezing lightly. "It would be better for you to mind Stark right now. He's practically declared war against you."

"Mind me?! MIND ME?! Steve, this guy crashed my plane! Are you fucking kidding me right now?" Tony yelled from a distance, which was soon being closed by his fast pace.
Bucky looked up, wincing when the afternoon sun hit his face. He could make out Stark's angry face, only slightly being aware of his and Steves heated discussion about what has happened. If he was being honest he barely remembered what had happened. He remembered him being angry at someone. But he didn't know why.
That was until he saw a black haired man being held back by Thor.

"Loki." he muttered, gaining the attention of both Steve and Tony.

"Oh look who remembers!" Stark said, the sarcasm in his tone pissing Bucky off even more. "Well, good to know that you at least remember your agression problem!"

"I don't have an agression problem, Stark."

"Oh really? Because last time I've checked my plane crashed because of you." Tony bent down, now being eye level with the other man. "You think you don't have anger management issues?" Tony whispered threateningly, poking his index finger against Bucky's chest. "I've seen Bruce handling situations better than you do."

"Tony, I think it's enough. Let's focus on what we are going to do now. Have you talked to your.... plane-"

"He's an AI assistant, Rogers. And his name is Jarvis." Tony hissed at the taller man. Steve seeing him slightly stand on his toes, trying to compensate the massive height difference between them made him smirk for just a tiny second. As soon as he realised what he has done though, Steve immediately stopped. Luckily Tony has shown no sign of recognising Steve's small slip.

"I beg your pardon," Loki interrupted the three men in frustration. He glanced at the soldier still sitting on the ground between Steve and Tony's legs, holding his flesh hand against the back of his head. "This place is disgusting. It's all muddy."

"Oh well, excuse me, your highness. We shall bring you to a place that's warm and cozy just the way you like it." Tony mocked. This was definitely not how he had this day planned. It wasn't one of the worst he's ever experienced so far but it came pretty close. Trapped in the middle of nowhere with people he could not for the life of him stand. It was just great.

The rest of the conversation was a blur to Bucky, not being able to take his eyes off the tall black haired man in Thor's grasp. He couldn't make out a single scratch. Nothing. Steve had told him that he was somewhat "special" but he just assumed him to be a difficult personality. He must have been lucky not to be in such an immense pain.

He pulled himself up, Steve immediately stopping where he had been calming Tony down and aided his longtime friend. A wave of nausea and dizziness was rushing over Bucky but he just brushed it off.

"So what are we gonna do now?" he asked, looking around.

"Well, it looks like we're going camping." Stark sighed. "Until I can get Jarvis or the quinjet to work again, we'll have to stay here. Luckily I think we've got some blankets in there somewhere. Make a tent, don't make one, I could care less. Just leave me alone, I have to focus." and thus the mechanic was gone, soon followed by Steve after he sat Bucky down on a fallen tree and making sure he was alright. Thor on the other hand still didn't let go of his brother, keeping him still under the weight of his arm.

Bucky watched as Steve followed the short man into the quinjet before focusing on the Norse god once again. What he didn't expect to see was him returning his glance this time. It was a teasing stare accompanied by a mischievous smile. He didn't know what was going on in the tall man's head but he was sure, he was up to no good.