Natasha Romanoff (justlykbudapest) wrote in newalliance, @ 2013-11-01 10:48:00 |
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Entry tags: | black widow ii, loki |
Who: Loki and Black Widow
Where: S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters cell
When: The day Loki "escaped" for a few minutes
What: Interrogation
Rating: Medium
Loki was walking about the cell, long legs pacing out slow steps. There was no hurry. He could go seemingly nowhere. His injuries became uncomfortably tight though if he did not move at all. So for the last two hours it had been step, step, step, step, step, step, step… turn. Step, step, step step, step, step, step… turn.
He was in the middle of another lap when he stopped, brows bending in query. The head lift, looking to the holographic wall that hid people who would watch him. A tilt of his head, and an amused smile. The person had been watching for some time, he realized. Yet, it had somehow escaped his senses.
“Well, you are new… Not many can watch me without my realizing.”
~~~~
She had been standing there a solid twenty minutes, arms crossed over herself, silently observing the so-called god. She had seen him before, of course, when he’d attacked the helicarrier, and Natasha had been one of those who had stopped him, but had been upset he’d gotten away rather than be captured. Now, seeing him in the box, she had a feeling that he wasn’t really as trapped as Hill or the others thought he would. He had an ulterior motive, and it was her job to find out what that was.
When he spoke directly to her, she pressed a button that shifted the wall so that it was transparent on both sides, and turned on the microphone. Jade eyes studied him for a moment, before she gave a careless nod. “And you’re always observant of your surroundings, I imagine. Did you think we wouldn’t be interested in knowing why you did what you did?” She deliberately used “why” rather than “how”. He was an Asgardian, and it was apparent he had some kind of technology - or magic - that had fooled their sensors.
~~~~
Pretty red waves, jade eyes that were expressive of her assertiveness and seeming readily receptive to any answer he had to offer, yet oh-so-curtained. Loki’s slow pace carried him once more to one side of the window and to the other, but those glacially chill green eyes didn’t leave Romanoff as she studied him right back. When she finally asked her question, his curiosity broke to a brief, wide grin before it diminished to a simple smile.
“Why? ...No one has asked why.” Technically, she had not either. He went to the edge of the window, trailing a finger down its edge where it met the wall of his cell in distraction. “Perhaps no one is curious enough. Or it is almost as though people believe I am naught but a liar. What do you think, Red Hands?” The last bit was said so very lightly. He hadn’t indicated that he remembered her at all.
Unfortunately, he did. A brief bit of detail of red hair and blurring motions. Alas, there must be more to her skill set, since she was questioning him. People who were both fighters and inquirers were … interesting. Also, this was the lady who had snuck upon him, delaying his fatal strike to Coulson. A person who could do that….
~~~~
She knew then that the “why” was exactly what he’d been waiting for, and Natasha was nothing if not gifted in giving men what they craved...though it generally didn’t end up nicely for them. Because he wanted her to notice it, she let her eyes drift to the finger, watching it trace the edge of the glass, then brought them back to his. Admiration was in her gaze, as was respect. There was a slight wryness, too, at his words regarding SHIELD’s beliefs of him, and she nearly physically flinched at the title he gave her.
Natasha’s gaze locked on his for one brief, intense moment, then dropped as though in shame, blinking away memories. “I think that most here would find it very difficult to trust a stranger, particularly one who hurt one of our own - and others.” Her hands clenched into fists, then relaxed ever so slightly, and she fought to school her features. “But what I think doesn’t matter.”
Dragging her gaze - reluctantly - up from the floor, Natasha regarded Loki warily, her eyes betraying nothing of her true intentions, painting only a delicate picture for him. “Why the ruse? Did you want nothing more than to see our reaction, or send us into a panic?”
~~~~
She was good at giving what he wanted. A flicker of uncertainty, a veiled reaction, an avoidance of gaze. She portrayed it so well, he read into the featured emotional displays all too easily, thought he saw what she didn’t wish. His voice was whispery as he leaned close to the glass. “Stranger? Oh. Shall I be more, what’s the word… Chummy?”
The gaze locked with her only briefly. Then the forearm slammed on the glass. The sound thundered under the strength of the strike, and his green eyes became chill. “Bring thy proof I stalked free of my cage. All thy little cameras and pictures, the guard, thy motion detectors, none can show what is claimed. All that is had is that a device thou kindly shoved under my skin as though I were a beast to tag flittered a few meters. Thou hast the nerve to ask me why?”
He leaned away from the glass, features smoothing, smile pleasant once more. “But for someone like you, everyone must have an ulterior motive…” He studied his fingertips, thumb running under the middle finger’s nail as though to clear dirt from it. “What’s it like? Being in a world where you are so damned without innocence that everyone is imagined to be just as painted in crimson as you?”
~~~~~
“You say that as though I have…’chums’,” she said in reply, jade eyes meeting emerald for a moment. When the arm rose, she was a only mildly surprised; however, her reaction was well within the correct parameters, one hand even flickering towards the button that would snap his restraints into place, hovering briefly, then falling away as he spoke.
“Yes,” she replied to the final question daringly, her eyes never flinching this time. “I want to know why.” Her other hand rose and reached out to press the button that would cut the camera feed to his room, causing the tiny red light in the corner to go out. If he knew anything about Earth tech, he likely knew what she’d done.
When he continued, she played her part once more, head tilting questioningly. “Someone like me?” Natasha’s eyes darkened slightly at his words, then cleared again as she shrugged. “I find myself generally not caring a whole lot about guilt and innocence. It all comes down to intentions for me. What are your intentions, Loki? We’ve kept you locked away in this cage, hidden from the world, and you’ve made no demands, no protests. You’ve cooperated. I just want to know why.”
~~~~
His eyes did flick to the camera, and whether he realized it or not, Natasha would notice the flick of what was delight in his eyes. However, he made her wait, starting to walk, fingernail trailing along the barrier between them, making a high-pitched scratching sound that grated on most people’s nerves. All the way to the other side before he turned on heel, the same finger pointed upward.
“Is it that one monster wishes to know another? I don’t think so. I think you are even a little worse than I. You come to me, wanting to understand my motives more intimately, to have some slice of knowledge above the others, to be the privileged one to share that information. I don’t think it’s mere duty or a pedagogue nature that drives you to query after a creature such as I. I think somewhere in you, you’re hoping to find validation that there is someone out there who is worse.” He spread his palms. “But what if I were to tell you that being under the Lasso of Truth has changed me? Why, that would be unbelievable, so let’s dismiss that wild notion. But maybe, in its aftermath, I did desire a little peace. Would it be terribly difficult for you to understand, Red Hands, that after so long of fighting a current, one just wishes to step aside from the world for a while?”
It wasn’t a true admission to stepping outside of his cell, but it was closer, at least a clue that he was there on his choice. But he was still not giving her the why, dangling that tidbit away from her, to see how careless she would get trying to whittle it from him.
~~~~~
She caught the flicker, and knew immediately that he was falling for her ruse, but showed no outward signs of having seen it. Whatever his ploy, he couldn’t keep it up as long as she could. Natasha could tell that Loki was enjoying this game; who was she to deny him?
Her lips parted as he spoke, and she let surprise cross her features before quickly schooling them; dropping her eyes to the side momentarily. Her brow furrowed, and again she flinched ever so faintly at the name he gave her. Loki was telling her a lot more than he realized.
“Perhaps that’s true. The need for validation - but I’m unlikely to find it here,” she half whispered, almost as though she had forgotten his presence. When her eyes finally met his again, Natasha tilted her head a little, studying him. “I know how it is to fight against others’ perception of you. I’ve done my own share of dealing with such. But I’ve never been able to simply ‘step aside’. I don’t understand how someone could. It’s cowardly.” A dangerous thing to say, perhaps, but her purpose here was to find all his buttons and push them.
~~~~~
She was feisty, challenging his bravery so. He liked that. However, Loki had grown up with people questioning his bravery. Fighting with stealth, slipping about, feinting and dodging, using magic... He fought from the shadows and often behind the lines, while creatures like Thor and the Warriors Three charged in directly. For a culture that glorified warriors and dying honorably, he was a shameful killer. Cowardly trickster. He’d heard it far too often to truly be affected.
So she received a frown that bordered on playful at the accusation. “Now, now, flattery will get you nowhere.” He looked up and about his cell, as though taking the facility in as a whole in that glance. “Besides, do you not fit in here? S.H.I.E.L.D. Ha… Such a self-righteous organization. Claiming to be out for the better of humanity and protecting those from themselves, from monsters under the bed, from people who could snap a person with a thought, from beastly technology that could rip the world in two.” He shrugged lightly, tone continuing, his words slippery velvet. “So long as no one realizes that S.H.I.E.L.D. uses these monsters and things for themselves, who is to deny them their righteous roles as protectors of the realm?” He spread his palms, smiling. Then tipped his head toward her. “You are a fine example of that, I think.” Another shrug. “I suppose that is why you were soooo eager to leap to Phil Coulson’s defense. Do you know why everyone is so upset that I tried to rip that man’s heart out? … Because he has one. If this pitiful organization were to lose him, they would have to begin looking in the mirror and wondering if they had any humanity left, any right to say to the world they can empathize with its trouble.”
He swept up close to the glass suddenly, glaring at her. The silky tone was replaced with a breathy vehemence, eyes glowing with that inner hatred. “Without those, they would suddenly realize their organization relies on little, murder-handed beasts like you.”
~~~~~
Being raised as a Red Room operative, Natasha had long ago mastered control over her physiology. At his words, she allowed her face to pale and breath to quicken just a little, giving off a sense of slight anxiety. Like Loki, she too had long since heard words like this; and it no longer affected her. But she let him believe that this time, it did. “You say that as though I don’t already know what I am,” she said quietly, then looked up at him again at the mention of Coulson.
“You’re wrong. We would defend anyone who was a target, no matter who they are. Even if it was m-” She broke off suddenly, eyes narrowing a little as though she’d just realized that the words might not be true. Before she could continue, he was moving again and was pressed to the glass, and she permitted herself a step back.
“I - That’s not - “ Blinking away tears, she turned her back to him and shook her head as though unable to handle what he’d said. “That’ll never happen,” Natasha whispered faintly. “They won’t, because people like you won’t succeed.”
~~~~~
Loki was all too pleased at how his words seemed to affect her, that all-too wide grin passing over his face with the same maliciousness a shadow would over others. His eyes were cruel points of green as she turned away.
However, his words came out the softest, satin tone, as though assuring a child nothing would hurt them, that nothing lurked in the shadows. So opposite the statement. “Oh, I think you know that the monsters always, always win. There is nowhere to hide for that little scrap of humanity you’re clinging to, Red Hands. S.H.I.E.L.D. is proof of that. It is made of monsters. And S.H.I.E.L.D. has things that are the stuff of gods that it never should have.”
~~~~~~
She wrapped her arms tightly around herself as he started to speak, head still bowed, eyes shut at the moment. But then, right there, he said something that caught her attention, and Natasha knew that was why he was there. Lifting her head, Natasha turned suddenly. “An artifact. That’s what you’re after?” She stepped back from the window as she reached out to flip the camera back on, then pressed her earpiece. “Sir, we need to review all extra-terrestrial artifacts currently within our possession.”
Giving Loki a pleasant smile and a nod, she pressed a second button to flip the screen back to one way. “Thank you for your cooperation,” she said lightly, not showing any sign of her earlier distress. That done, Natasha left the observation room.
~~~~~~
The smile slipped from his face at her sudden turn of attitude. At the question he immediately balked, brow pinching and mouth open to ask the question on his lips. It never left him though as she immediately contacted her superiors. Because of course his surprised silence had been all the answer she needed to confirm the truth of the statement.
He had not misread. Loki was certain of it. Her emotional inflections and what she had tried to hide and reveal were perfect. All his art in scrutinizing people’s body language had not faltered in the least.
She had just fed it to him so perfectly he had not caught on till she let him know she had the ace.
Loki stepped back to the middle of his cell, watching the curvy assassin leave, still baffled. In all these centuries, no one had ever been able to play him and read into his coy answers so well. He spread his hands, shaking his head at the empty space.
“Really? Really?!”