Work Text:
“This is just insulting.”
Bucky ducked a laser blast. Sitting precariously atop a telephone pole was Loki, his chin in his hand, glaring at the villain of the week, an obnoxious poser calling himself Shotgun Man. The reason for the name was, as the villain himself had screamed his monologue, that he had come up with the idea for his alien tech augmented gun after finding an old sawed-off shotgun in his basement.
Frankly, Bucky would rather be facing the real shotgun. This new weapon fired more like a machine gun, shooting high powered laser blasts that seared through buildings and cut into roads.
Bucky tapped his com link. “Iron Man, do you remember what exactly this guy is trying to do?”
Tony’s voice came back, snarky and a little out of breath. “I think he’s trying to destroy the courthouse. How he thought he could cut through several tons of concrete with a thin laser enough to cause serious damage, I’ll never know.”
“Hey.”
Bucky flinched. Somehow Loki had gotten right up next to him and tapped him on the shoulder. “Tell the Man of Iron he is correct, and very funny.”
Bucky elbowed Loki in the ribs. It felt like hitting stone but his supersoldier body could take it. “No, I am not facilitating your flirting.”
“Is that Loki I hear?”
“Yes, the little green man has come to throw shade at Shotgun Man.”
Loki huffed. Bucky grinned. He knew Loki hated being called a little green man. But it was almost too appropriate. He wore a ton of green, presented most of the time as a man, and according to Thor was a runt of his species. That, in combination with his status as an alien and when Bucky grew up, made it just perfect. A little green man.
Steve’s voice snapped through the airwaves. “Enough chit chat. If Loki’s here this just got a lot more complicated. Bucky, do you have a clear shot?”
“Uh.” Bucky half-heartedly lifted his pistol in Loki’s direction. He got a raised middle finger for his trouble. “I mean, I guess. Not that it’s gonna do much.”
“Shoot him in the dick,” was Tony’s contribution.
Bucky snorted before he could help himself. He heard Steve huff and coughed, drawing himself up into what the media had taken to calling the ‘Avenger Stance.’ “Surrender now, uh, evildoer! Or I’ll be forced to shoot.”
Loki brazenly turned his back on Bucky. His shoulders shook.
Bucky clicked the safety off then Loki vanished into a cloud of green mist. Bucky tracked the mist as it floated through the air and alighted upon Shotgun Man’s back. It reformed into Loki when it made contact. Unfortunately, Shotgun Man had not distributed his weight very well and the density of a demigod the size of a large human outweighed his gun, sending him tilting backwards.
He roared incoherently, throwing his arm to the side to catch himself. Unfortunately, it was the arm holding the gun, causing it to go off and destroy several parking meters and mail-drop boxes. Natasha, in the path of the blast, leapt out of the way by inches.
Loki cackled, still hanging off Shotgun Man’s back. “Get off me foul fiend! I am Shotgun Man! I will pump you full of lead!”
Bucky groaned. That was an insult to every gun owner worldwide. And Bucky owned a lot of guns.
Shotgun Man yelled again, this time releasing a storm of aggressive Alpha hormones. Loki almost tumbled off his back, then something in his expression sharpened and he dug his nails in, ripping the gun’s powerpack apart piece by piece.
Shotgun Man growled, still outputting ANGER like it was going out of style. Loki was completely unaffected, even as most of the Avengers flinched. Shotgun Man must have been messing with illegal scent steroids as well, to project so strongly.
Loki tore the powerpack off, revealing the Kevlar vest underneath. He reared back, dug his hands in, then kicked off Shotgun Man’s body, tearing the Kevlar and yanking the entire set up off the man.
With a neat flip Loki landed on his feet, the vest flying somewhere far behind him. And Shotgun Man’s backup gun was right in Loki’s face.
Bucky had a second to wonder if an Asgardian could survive a bullet through the eye when suddenly the air filled with DISTRESS DISTRESS. Every Alpha around wheeled around, frantically searching for the Omega outputting the scent. This included Shotgun Man.
Loki took the opportunity to execute a beautiful kick straight up, knocking the gun away into the sky. Shotgun Man tried pushing his Alpha scent on Loki again, only to be knocked flat by a wave of wintergreen Alpha, accompanied by a growl so deep the ground shook. Shotgun Man curled up on his back, whimpering and showing his belly to a superior Alpha. Loki kept growling until Clint, one of the few Betas on the team, slapped a pair of handcuffs on Shotgun Man.
Then like magic the Alpha scent was gone, just as quickly as the Omega scent had, leaving empty air like no scent at all. Except that of blood. Bucky rushed forward, accompanied, curiously, by the Iron Man suit. Together they were able to catch Loki before he hit the ground, unconscious.
Shotgun Man had brought a knife as well, one made of a metal with a mysterious red shine to it, and in that final confrontation had managed to stick Loki in the side with it.
Bucky winced, seeing the depth of the wound. At least it was easy to notice where the poison was, as Loki’s species apparently bled purple. Any other moment he’d be fascinated, but the wound had to be taken care of, former enemy or not.
Tony held out his arms. “I’ll take him back to the tower. Want a ride?”
Bucky considered it. He didn’t love flying with the Iron Man suit, but he was worried about Loki. “Alright.”
Tony pulled Loki close to him. Bucky stepped up onto the handles on the back. He gripped tight. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
Tony bent his knees, and they shot off into the sky. The trip took barely two minutes. Bucky had his eyes closed the whole time.
They stepped off on the helicopter landing pad, Tony’s suit disassembling around his body. “Oof, hey Frozen, could you take him? I’m somewhat lacking in super muscles.”
Bucky snorted but took Loki in his arms. The bleeding had stopped for the most part, Loki’s magic knitting him back together, but every time it came close to fully closing the wound, the poison seemed to pulse a brighter red and push it back.
Tony hissed. “Magic, I hate it.” Loki still smelled like nothing, and it was unsettling Bucky. The elevator swept them down to the medical floor. Bucky set Loki down on one of the beds. “Could you tear his shirt away from the wound? We’ve tried cutting Thor’s clothes before and unless I want to haul a circular saw up several flights of stairs, we’re not going to be making any progress.”
Bucky set his hands at the edges of the tear and tugged. It took a surprising amount of strength considering the effort he had to make to rip regular clothes, but it did eventually rip.
If it was even possible, Loki’s chest was paler than his face. But then again Bucky had never seen him in anything besides head-to-toe leather, so it stood to reason that he didn’t get much sun. There was a smattering of old scars, some lethal on a human, and a set of Lichtenberg figures crawling up his right arm towards his neck. The wound looked terribly out of place with Loki’s magic having healed all the bruising and scabs around the edges of the wound.
The doors to the medical wing banged open. Thor rushed to his brother’s side.
“Thank God, or, Gods, I guess. Thor do you recognize the magic?”
Thor squinted at the wound. Then he hovered his hands over the wound and made a few stilted movements. A thin red overlay appeared over the wound, symbols and runes that only Thor could read. “Yes, it is a simply corrosive spell. If you clean the wound with seawater the spell will dissipate.”
Bucky raised a hand subconsciously. “Maybe I’m not up to date on medical advances but won’t the salt sting?”
Thor nodded. “Yes, it will. Loki likely lost his concentration, and the surge of unfamiliar magic overwhelmed him, but the sting will wake him up. I’ll hold him down, but you must clean the wound thoroughly. I won’t be able to keep him still long.”
Bucky moved around the table. “I’ll grab his legs.”
Tony was tapping away on a hologram. “Will water from the Hudson work? Or does it have to be seawater?”
“This river flows into the ocean does it not?”
“Yeah.”
“It will be sufficient.”
“How much do we need? One bucket? Two?”
“Three would be a good idea.”
“Three buckets of gross river water, coming right up.” Before Tony closed the hologram Bucky caught a glimpse of a video feed of an Iron Man suit flying towards a body of water.
The three of them bustled around, trying to make Loki comfortable and cleaning blood spatter off the edges of the wound. The Iron Man suit returned within a few minutes, holding three covered buckets. Thor moved to the top of the bed and Bucky again to the foot. They got a good grip on Loki’s limbs.
Then Tony, wearing vinyl gloves, tipped the first bucket up and over the wound. There was a quiet sizzle then Loki’s back arched off the table. Thor bent his elbows to push down on Loki’s chest as well. Bucky pushed Loki’s legs down until the table creaked.
Tony emptied the bucket and grabbed the second one. The water caused Loki to make a low moaning noise this time, long, loud, and continuous. He wasn’t entirely conscious but conscious enough to be in pain. He writhed from side to side. Bucky planted his feet.
Tony rushed to grab the third bucket and emptied it all in one go instead of pouring it like he had the others. Loki jackknifed off the table but when the water drained away and Tony stepped back, the wound was bleeding sluggishly, and the redness was gone.
Loki’s eyes were blinking rapidly. He focused on Thor. “Ugh.” He turned his head away. Bucky snorted then dissolved into laughter. Thor looked a little hurt but even he was reluctantly amused.
Bucky took a deep breath and with it absorbed the scents in the air. There were lingering notes of Alpha Pain, Omega Distress, Beta Injury. But none of that made sense. Bucky himself was an Alpha via the supersoldier serum, Tony an Omega, and Thor another Alpha. Neither he nor Thor were injured, Tony seemed relatively calm, and there were no Betas around. Tony also looked confused, but Thor was unphased.
Tony made eye contact with Bucky and tipped his head towards Thor. Bucky nodded. “Hey Thor, can I ask you something? It’s about the gun that guy was carrying.”
“Of course, Soldier of Winter.” Bucky walked out of the door, Thor following. They stopped in the hallway outside the medical wing.
Thor leaned against the wall. “I sense this is not about the weaponry involved in our recent altercation.”
Bucky nodded. Thor could be observant; he just didn’t always want to be. “Do you know what dynamic Loki has? I’m getting very mixed signals.”
Thor nodded. “That would make sense. While my parents were still lying to Loki about his heritage, we put his dynamic switching down to his magic, but when all was revealed, it became much easier to understand. Loki’s species is…dynamic-fluid is the closest word I can find in English. He can shift from one to another at will. I suspect a portion of it is instinctual, adapting to the situation as it appears, but he can also do it on command. But even beyond that Loki has been more prone to switching than his counterparts, who usually spend several years in one dynamic before switching to another. Loki has, many times, switched dynamics multiple times within a day.”
Bucky was fascinated. He’d had an interest in science before the war but in recent years he’d discovered that his love was less for technology and more for the social science surrounding technological advances. There were people on Earth who were trans-dynamic and underwent costly surgeries to switch their dynamic or those who chose to physically present with one dynamic or another but changing at will was unheard of.
“Is he the only one on record who can do this?”
Thor looked down at his feet. “I’m ashamed to say that the animosity between our species has prevented much research from being done by my people. Loki’s species is suspicious of us, and rightfully so.”
Bucky nodded. He’d just have to ask Loki.
There was a metallic clang from inside the medical wing. Bucky and Thor burst back into the room only to see Loki sitting up in bed and Tony kneeling on the floor. “Don’t panic, don’t panic, I just dropped a tray.” He was indeed reaching for a metal tray that he’d been carrying the empty buckets on.
Loki smirked. “Indeed, the mortal is simply clumsy and not in any danger.”
Tony flicked some water at Loki. “I resent that.”
“A pity.” They grinned at each other, looking far too similar for Bucky’s comfort.
Tony moved aside with the tray. The wound on Loki’s side was almost completely closed. Bucky no longer had the body horror of watching wounds close rapidly, having seen his own body do it so often, and it was just cool to see happen on somebody else.
Loki sighed. “Please tell me the nincompoop who stabbed me has not escaped custody.”
Tony checked his phone. “Yup, far as we can tell, he’s being transported to SHIELD HQ right now.”
“As far as you can tell?”
Tony tapped his nose. “Can’t be giving away all my secrets in front of my archnemesis.”
Loki cooed. “Look James, he’s given me a pet name, how sweet.”
Bucky nodded. “Indeed, and not just his nemesis but his archnemesis. That’s a high honor. I only get ‘former enemy’ nowadays.”
Loki held out his arms to Bucky. “I can take better care of you, come with me and I’ll make you my ‘beloved antagonist.’”
Bucky took his hands, gazing deep into Loki’s eyes. “Sorry Tony, can’t pass up such a great offer.”
“Oh, come on!”
Thor laughed. Loki started, having clearly forgotten his brother was there. Thor kept smiling. “It has been a long time since I have seen you speak so freely brother. It gladdens my heart.” He left the medical wing before Loki could think of a particularly cutting retort. Bucky found it harder than ever to believe in their projected animosity when he could sense Alpha Happiness coming from Loki.
Tony slid onto the foot of the bed. “Sooo, green and mean, feeling like escaping any time soon?”
“Not particularly. While the physical damage is gone, my magic will take a period of time to replenish, and the company is so refreshing. I think I’ll stay awhile if that’s alright with you, Stark?”
“That’s my father, may he rot in pain, call me Tony, but yeah, mi casa su casa all of that.”
“You’re not going to keep me locked up?”
“I don’t keep Bucky locked up.”
Bucky smirked. “Couldn’t if you tried.”
“Oh dear, have I too reached ‘former enemy’ status? I couldn’t bear to be taken off SHIELD’s most wanted list.”
Tony waved a hand. “Technically you haven’t been for a while.” Loki gasped theatrically. “I put a fun little bug into Fury’s system where whenever they try to update the list you can’t be removed from the top spot. Originally it was just a joke, but I get the feeling you appreciate it.”
“I very much do. As much as I appreciate jokes and mischief in all their forms.”
“I have a feeling that the three of us are going to get along.”
“Sure will.”