Chapter Text
Prologue
Space was peaceful.
Or at least, it seemed that way to the untrained eye. Tony Stark, however, was aware of the various dangers that were waiting for him among the stars; SHIELD, the Reavers, ships steered by not-so-lawful folks, just like him and his crew. That didn’t change his love for space, though, and whenever he got the chance to go on a space-walk, like now, he took a moment to appreciate the calm and quiet and serenity surrounding him out here; the far-away stars dotting the black, the nearby moon looming close enough that he could just make out the craters dotted over its surface and, of course, his ship.
The Serenity wasn’t a big cargo ship by any means, practically dwarfed by the huge barges SHIELD used for their transports. She was a Firefly class ship, her design loosely based on the insects humans had brought to the border planets. She had a narrow snout where the bridge was located, which jutted out from the more cylindrical rest of the ship. The engine at the back of Serenity was idling right now, emitting a gentle yellow flare.
Tony smiled. She wasn’t the most modern ship and she had a scrape here or there, but she was his, as was the small crew on-board. Tony didn’t need more than that.
“Tony, stop stargazing, we got a job to do.”
Well, except for money.
He pulled his eyes away from Serenity and turned towards Nat, who had apparently already taken a look into the wreck they were both clinging to, aimlessly floating in space. According to the information they had, the ship had been a passenger transport bound for a newly terraformed world at the border of humankind’s territory … and judging by the rather big hole in its hull, it had been struck by a stray asteroid or a big piece of space junk.
Nobody had survived the crash, but Tony and his crew happened to know that the ship had been carrying precious cargo and their client was very interested in obtaining it. Doing so wasn’t exactly legal; the ship belonged to the government and so did the things onboard. But Tony didn’t care much for the Union of Allied Planets, so he was fine with ignoring that fact.
Nat moved her eyes towards the hole in the wreck’s hull and vanished back inside.
Tony sighed, his breath fogging up the visor of his space suit for a moment, before he followed her.
It was dark inside the wreck, the only light coming from the lamps installed on their helmets. The hole had been torn into what had once been a dining hall. The empty tables, shelves and counters were silent witnesses to what had happened. Since they were bolted to the floor and walls, they hadn’t been sucked out into space through the hole in the hull along with the chairs, utensils and equipment … and the bodies. Tony pressed his lips together when he thought about the people who had come aboard to start a new life and were now lost in the black. The bitter truth was that nobody would try to retrieve them. Folks sent to newly terraformed worlds oftentimes had nowhere else to go and nobody to pay for their funeral.
He found Nat inspecting a door at the back of the room and joined her.
She glanced at him, the light of Tony’s lamp reflecting off her helmet’s visor and catching in her blue eyes. “It’s sealed.”
“Okay,” Tony answered. “I'm gonna boil it.” He unclasped the applicator from his belt and held the nozzle against the edge of the door, gently pressing the trigger. The clear gel being ejected from the applicator stuck to the metal and Tony moved to draw a neat outline around the door. By the time he was finished, part of the gel had already started to eat through the metal.
Tony looked at Nat. “We get the goods, we're off this wreck and back on the ship.”
Nat gave him a thumbs-up.
***
Steve Rogers kept one eye on Serenity’s screens and sensors, not wanting to miss a potential proximity alarm, and the other on the stretch of space he could see through the cockpit’s window. Sometimes, he was able to make out an approaching ship even before the alerts started to go off. Serenity wasn’t a young or modern ship by any means and some of her sensors didn’t reach as far as he would like them to. With Tony and Nat inside the wreck floating underneath them and therefore in a vulnerable position, he wouldn’t take any chances.
Other crew members apparently weren’t concerned as much.
“Everything looks good from here,” Clint said in a deep voice from his perch on the co-pilot’s chair, moving the toy stegosaurus in his hand as if it was looking around Serenity’s cockpit searchingly. “Yes. Yes, this is a fertile land, and we will thrive.”
Steve rolled his eyes. The dinosaurs had been a gift from Nat, something she’d picked up at a marketplace on their last stop, just because Clint had mentioned once that he used to play with toy dinosaurs when he was little. Clint had been overjoyed.
Apparently, Steve had to suffer for it.
Clint continued to move the stegosaurus around, turning it towards the T-Rex in his other hand. “We will rule over all this land, and we will call it … This Land.” He suddenly moved the T-Rex around as he made his voice gravellier and louder. “I think we should call it your grave!”
Steve let out a long-suffering sigh, adjusting Serenity’s position a little to float closer to the wreckage.
Clint moved the stegosaurus to stand on its hind legs, exclaiming, “Ah! Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!” He changed back to the T-Rex’s voice, laughing loudly. “Mine is an evil laugh! Now die!”
“Would you stop?” Steve snapped.
Before Clint could utter an offended answer, one of the sensors beeped and they both switched their attention to the radar screen. Steve swept the three dinosaurs aside that were perched on the screen from a previous scene Clint had been acting out, staring at a red blip that had appeared in the upper right corner, getting closer to their position. Clint had moved to look over Steve’s shoulder and cursed.
***
Tony ducked when a piece of metal came loose from the door and almost hit his helmet.
Nat smiled at him. “Full pressure. The goods must be intact.”
Tony peeked through the hole that had formed and, in the light of his helmet, saw several crates sitting in the room. “Okay. Looking good.”
Steve’s voice coming through the comm link startled him enough that he jumped.
“Tony, we’ve got incoming!”
Nat whipped her head around to him, having heard the news as well, her eyes wide.
“SHIELD cruiser,” Steve added, “bearing right down on us!”
“Ta ma de1,” Tony muttered. “Have they spotted us?”
“I can't tell if-“
“Have they hailed us?”
Nat hissed a curse. “If they're here for the salvage, we're humped.”
Tony looked at her. “If they find us at all, we're humped.” He assessed the situation, knowing that Steve was doing the same, had probably come to the same conclusion … and was hesitant. But Tony knew there was no way Nat and him would make it back to Serenity in time, there was no way out … he made a split-second decision. “Steve, shut it down. Everything but the air.”
***
Steve flipped switches in rapid succession. “Shutting down.” Clint stepped out of his way as he leaned to the far side of the controls to shut off the lights, then Steve hit the button for the intercom. “Shuri, go to black out! We're being buzzed!”
Their mechanic’s breathless voice confirmed, “Shi,” and the engine powered down just a moment later. She said, “Going dark.”
Then Steve saw it floating into sight; a SHIELD cruiser, sleek like a shark, painted white, the SHIELD insignia – an eagle with spread wings – a huge black shadow on the cruiser’s flank, which was lit up by hundreds of windows. Cruisers could hold up to 5000 people and were equipped for long journeys. SHIELD mainly used them to patrol the borders. It was rare to see one of them crossing through the center of the human territory like this. They were probably on their way back home to one of the core planets.
Steve and Clint stared out the cockpit window, not daring to move. The sensors on these kinds of ships were incredibly sensitive.
Tony’s voice whispered through the comms, “Steve, are they slowing down?”
Steve waited a moment longer, watching the underbelly of the cruiser as it passed over them. He took a breath and shook his head. “That's a neg. Don't think they're interested in us.” He swallowed as the cruiser passed overhead, banning Serenity and the wreckage into its shadow.
It passed, slowly floating into the distance.
Steve was just willing to breathe a sigh of relief when an alarm sounded. His eyes flew to the corresponding screen. “Tony, they’re scanning us.”
Clint cursed. “We’re humped.”
“Prep the ship now,” Tony’s determined voice carried through the comms. “We move these in double-time.”
Steve pressed the intercom button. “Shuri, fire it up.”
The engine rumbled to life just a moment later. Steve refrained from hitting the lights, exchanging a worried glance with Clint when he saw Tony and Nat emerge from the wreckage, each of them dragging one crate and using the tether line to pull themselves back up to Serenity’s airlock. It was a stupidly brave move, typical Tony, and Nat was just as stupidly brave to go along with it. Steve really hoped that the goods were worth this. His eyes widened when several new red blips appeared on the radar.
“Gunships,” Clint breathed. “They’re coming for us.”
Tony cursed, apparently having noticed them as well. “Steve,” he said, “cry, baby, cry.”
Steve nodded, his fingers flying over the controls. “Make your mother sigh. Engaging the crybaby.” He flipped a switch.
Somewhere behind the little moon close-by, their pre-planted distress signal unit, floating in space, started to send out a signal that would undoubtedly be picked up by the cruiser. Tony had rigged the signal so that it appeared to come from a SHIELD passenger transport running out of air. The kind of signal that a SHIELD cruiser couldn’t ignore without consequences.
The gunships were drawing closer, undoubtedly ready to fire, just when Tony and Nat reached the airlock. Steve watched the controls, ensuring that the airlock was fully closed before he started their escape, sending Serenity full speed away from the cruiser and approaching gunships.
He knew it would take ages for the cruiser to turn and follow them, and they would want to prioritize checking out the distress signal. As for the gunships, they were no match for Serenity’s speed and not built to stray far from their assigned cruiser.
And, indeed, it didn’t take the gunships long before they gave up the chase, falling back to return to the cruiser.
Steve breathed a sigh of relief as Tony stumbled onto the bridge, still wearing the space suit, though he had taken off the helmet. His dark hair was disheveled and his face tense. “How are we doing?”
Steve nodded with a smile. “We look shiny. They are not following us.”
Nat’s voice sounded from behind him. “Close one.”
Clint crossed his arms. “As long as we got the goods, let’s call it a win.”
“Right,” Tony answered, his eyes looking out the window solemnly. Steve knew that encounters with SHIELD tended to bring up memories for Tony, as they did for Steve himself. He gave Tony an encouraging smile when he looked down at him and Tony seemed to shake off his memories, clearing his throat. “We win.”
Chapter 1
The black crates they had retrieved from the wreck were sealed shut and protected with number locks, so Clint used the crowbar to pry one of them open carefully. The lid clattered to the metal grating floor of the cargo bay soon after, the sound echoing through the large empty space, and they all crowded closer to look inside. Foodstuff bars were neatly arranged inside, the silvery foil they were wrapped in shining under the lights of the cargo bay.
Tony smiled. “Well,” he said, “that’s a sight for sore eyes.” Only one of those bars, he knew, could feed Serenity’s crew for half a year if they made it stretch. SHIELD’s foodstuff was highly sought after on the black market, because it lasted the longest, had the best ingredients and couldn’t be bought. At least not officially.
Shuri grinned widely, crouching down next to the crate and wiping her grease-stained hands on the leg of her green overalls. “They're pretty.”
Clint nodded, his thumbs hooked into the back pockets of his cargo pants. “I'd say worth a little risk.”
Nat frowned at him. “Yeah, that was some pretty risky waiting for us to come back you did there.”
Clint gaped at her. “That's unfair. You know I’m wounded.” He pointed to his side. “I was shot last week.”
“You shot yourself,” she answered with a raised eyebrow.
“That gun was complicated! How was I supposed to know that the safety was off?”
“Bizui2,” Tony interrupted them, leaning down to take one of the bars and peeling back the foil.
Shuri looked at him curiously. “Problem, Tony?”
Tony’s thumb brushed over the small SHIELD insignia cut into the upper right corner of the bar. He had already suspected that the bars would be marked, which made them easy to recognize as SHIELD’s, and by extension the government’s, property. He pressed his lips together. It would be much harder to sell these to their client if they were marked. The King was iffy about that kind of stuff, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to easily resell the bars. He sighed and carefully rewrapped the foodstuff, setting it back into its place in the crate. There was no reason to tell the crew just yet. He didn’t want them to worry. If they got lucky, the King wouldn’t check his purchase too thoroughly. “Nothing.”
Shuri was frowning at him, her dark eyes scanning his face carefully. That girl was scarily good at telling when he was lying or glossing over something. Tony quickly turned away from her and towards Steve, who was standing off to the side with his arms crossed over his muscular chest. “We should get rid of these before we run into another SHIELD patrol.”
Steve nodded. “What were they even doing this far out?”
Shuri scoffed. “Shining the light of civilization.”
Clint frowned, swinging the crowbar to rest on one of his shoulders. “Doesn't do us any good.”
“Well,” Shuri answered with a shrug, “we're uncivilized.”
Tony hummed thoughtfully. “How long 'til we reach Persephone?”
Steve shrugged. “Three or four hours.”
“Can we shave that?”
Steve shook his head. “We're down to the wire on fuel cells. If we run too hot, we might not even make it.”
Tony winced, but gave a nod. “Okay. Play it as close as you can. These goods are burning a hole in my hull.”
Nat looked at him with narrowed eyes, picking up on his concern. “Do you think that cruiser could've I.D.'d us?”
Tony shrugged. “Let's hope not. Steve, contact the King, tell him the job's done. Don't mention the cruiser, though. Keep it simple.”
Steve stared at him, a deep frown on his face, his blue eyes narrowed, and Tony hated that he knew him so well. “Tony, are we sure there's nothing wrong with the cargo?”
“It's fine. I just wanna get paid.” He turned to head up the stairs towards the upper walkway, his boots loud against the metal grating of the steps, calling back over his shoulder, “Let's get these crates stowed. I don't want any tourists stumbling over them.”
Another set of booted feet followed him up the stairs and he smiled when Shuri delightedly asked, “We're taking on passengers at Persephone?”
He stopped to smile at her. “Yeah, that's the plan. We could use a little respectability on the way to Boros. Not to mention the money.”
He could practically hear Clint roll his eyes. “Pain in the ass.”
“No, it's shiny!” Shuri said happily, grinning wildly. “I like to meet new people. They've all got stories.”
Clint grumbled, “Tony, can you stop her from being cheerful, please?” but they all knew he didn’t mean it.
Shuri was the youngest crew member and also the most optimistic. She was always able to lift their spirits and they all felt a protective instinct towards her.
Tony winked at him. “I don't believe there is a power in the 'verse that can stop Shuri from being cheerful.” He grinned at her. “Sometimes you just wanna duct tape her mouth and dump her in the hold for a month.”
“Aw,” Shuri answered, leaning in to press a kiss against his cheek. “I love my captain.”
***
Steve was staring out the cockpit window thoughtfully, half his attention on flying, the other on the memory of Tony’s face while they’d unpacked the foodstuff. He couldn’t shake off the thought that something wasn’t quite right with the goods. It was typical of Tony to try and keep morale up, but Steve felt as if he wasn’t quite sure they could sell the foodstuff to the King as planned.
“You okay?” Nat asked, interrupting his thoughts as she entered. She’d changed into a white tank top and a pair of old black jeans that were tucked into her boots, her red hair neatly braided and still a bit wet from a shower. Despite the casual look, she still had her handgun strapped around her waist, though, never quite off-duty. She sank into the co-pilot seat and swung her feet up to rest on the edge of the control panel.
Steve bit back a reprimand, instead answering, “I know something isn’t right.”
Nat quirked a smile. “We're crooks. If everything was right, we'd be in jail.”
Steve shook his head. “It's just that Tony’s so tense.”
“The man needs a break,” Nat answered, picking up one of the toy dinosaurs Clint had left behind. “In fact, we could all use a couple days' leave.”
“We still gotta drop the goods.”
Nat shrugged. “And when we do, we fly off to Boros rich and prosperous.” She grimaced. “Well, less poor. But with enough to find some sweet little getaway.” She sighed deeply and closed her eyes, a smile settling on her pretty face. “I wouldn't mind a real bath.”
“Yeah,” Steve said, “and a meal that included some sort of food.”
Nat moaned. “Actual fruit. Maybe we’ll be able to afford a crate of apples.”
“That sounds nice,” Steve answered. Apples, like most other fruit, were rare and, thus, incredibly expensive.
“Just a couple of days lying around. Maybe finding someone to spend the night with.”
“If Tony says it's all right,” Steve allowed.
Nat’s smile dropped and she released a frustrated huff of breath. “What if we just told Tony we needed a few days instead of asking him?”
“He's the captain, Nat.”
She rolled her eyes. “So he gets to call all the shots?”
“In fact,” Tony said from the door, “I do. It’s my ship and I pay your wages.” He had adopted a more casual look as well, his braces hanging loosely around his hips. He looked at Steve, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants. “Has the Ambassador checked in yet?”
Steve hummed a negative. “I think she had a pretty full docket.”
“Well, let her know we may be leaving Persephone in a hurry.”
Nat shrugged. “Pepper knows our timetable. I'm sure she'll be checking in soon.”
“You’re allowed to call her Pepper now as well?” Tony asked, slightly offended. “Pretty soon, everybody on this ship will be allowed to do that but me.”
“She has her reasons,” Nat answered. “One of them being you calling her ‘Ambassador’.”
Steve interrupted the budding argument by saying, “I can tell her to cut it short, meet us at the docks.”
Tony shook his head. “No, no. Don't want to get in her way if we don't have to.” He turned to leave, adding, “Somebody on this boat has to make an honest living.”
***
Jake was barely twenty-three, but he was more of a gentleman than many of Pepper’s older clients. He was also awkwardly shy, especially when he confessed to her that this would be his first time with a woman.
The afternoon he got to spend with her had been paid by his father and while they talked over tea to get to know each other a little better, Pepper got the feeling that Jake felt suppressed by him quite a lot. He wasn’t the first young client who lost his virginity to her on behalf of his parents, though.
Now, she smiled at him, brushing a strand of sweaty dark hair out of his forehead. Then she reached for the two glasses of water she had set on the bedside table before his arrival. As she handed him one, she picked their conversation up where it had stopped before they’d fallen into bed together. “Sihnon isn't that different from this planet. More crowded, obviously, and I guess more complicated. The great city itself is ...” She hesitated, her mind’s eye supplying her with the beautiful city she had grown up in. Modern, sleek, sophisticated. “Pictures can't capture it. It's like an ocean of light.”
Jake looked at her, his blue eyes wide with curiosity. “Is that where you studied? To be a Companion?”
“I was born there.”
Jake shook his head, averting his eyes. “I can't imagine ever leaving Persephone.”
Pepper smiled sadly. “Well, I wanted to see the universe.” Which was only half the truth, but Jake didn’t need to know that.
He nodded in understanding, his eyes straying to the hourglass showing that their time together was almost over. “Do you really have to leave? I mean ... I …” He swallowed. “My father is very influential, we could ... I could arrange for you to be ...”
Pepper smiled at him gently, leaning in to kiss his forehead. She didn’t answer.
“The experience has been more than …” He cleared his throat. “It was very good. Thank you.”
Pepper got up from the bed and slipped into a heavy silk robe colored a deep red that had stitching of golden roses on it. As she tightened the belt, she turned back around to Jake who was getting dressed as well. “The time went too quickly.”
Jake quirked a sad smile. “Your clock's probably rigged to speed up and cheat us out of our fun.”
The words hurt and for a second, Pepper couldn’t quite hide it.
Jake seemed to notice because he ducked his head quickly, embarrassed. He stepped closer to her and took her hand. “Thank you, Virginia.”
She nodded and watched him leave.
When the door fell shut, Pepper cleared her throat and crossed her arms. She took a few minutes to clean up, moving used glasses and cups together into one corner to be taken to the kitchen later for cleaning. Then she pulled aside the tapestry that hid the door to the cockpit of her small shuttle and settled into the pilot seat. While the engine hummed to life, she hailed Steve. “Serenity, this is Shuttle One, what's your ETA?”
Steve’s voice answered, “Pepper, hey! We're touching down at the Eavesdown docks in about ten minutes.”
“I'll join you there, thanks.”
There was a pause, then Steve added, “Looking forward to it. We missed you out here.”
Pepper smiled. “Yeah,” she said. “Me too.” She took the controls and carefully made her way out of the landing dock of the skyscraper in which Jake and his family owned three floors. Threading into the heavy air traffic surrounding the skyline of Persephone City, she made her way home.
***
Tony shrugged into his brown coat and took a deep breath of air as the cargo ramp at the back of Serenity opened and lowered. The air was hot and filled with dust, the spicy smell of food and the sharp stench of running engines, the sounds of cargo and passenger ships landing and taking off as well as the huge crowd that moved down the dusty pathways. Food vendors were trying to get the attention of possible customers, ships were displaying the goods they’d hauled from all over the ‘verse, some people were dragging their luggage along looking for passage or work, prostitutes were looking for clients, crews were making their way to the pubs and shops at the periphery of the docks. The run-down buildings and dirt roads of the docks and the adjacent village were in crass contrast to the gleaming skyline of Persephone City that towered in the distance, where sleek skyscrapers and bold architecture reigned. Shuttles were making their way from there towards the docks in a steady stream, most of them passing by while some landed to let passengers off and take new ones on. Tony kept his eyes on the arriving shuttles for a moment, trying to see whether Pepper’s was one of them, but with the air traffic being as it was at this time of the day, she would probably need a bit more time.
Shuri stopped next to him and Tony said, “This shouldn't take long. Put us down for departure in about three hours.”
Shuri nodded and moved to the terminal they’d parked next to to enter their arrival and departure time and pay the fee.
Tony turned to Steve. “Grab any supplies we're low on. Fuel her up.”
Shuri said, “I'd sure love to find a brand-new compression coil for the steamer.”
Tony shook his head. “And I'd like to be king of all Londinium and wear a shiny hat. Just get us some passengers. Ones that can pay, all right?”
Shuri’s expression shifted into a pout. “If the compression coil busts, we're drifting …”
“I know, I’m a mechanic as well, alright? We can’t afford it, so best not bust it.”
Shuri rolled her eyes.
Steve was driving the mule down the ramp to head for the supply shops. He’d emptied the bed of the small roofless vehicle and had strapped additional empty boxes to the two seats on the back bench to be able to transport as much as possible. He nodded at Tony as he passed and carefully made his way across the walkway and into the line of cargo and passenger transporters crawling through the docks. Shuri was unfolding a chair and settling into it in the shadow of the ship, opening a brightly colored parasol as additional protection from the sun while she looked for potential passengers.
Tony heard Clint and Nat walk down the ramp behind him and turned towards them. Nat was wearing a tight, black leather vest as additional protection, her handgun resting in the belt she’d slung around her hips. Tony saw the hilt of a knife protruding from her boot. Clint had changed into a faded t-shirt and an old denim jacket. He was also armed, forgoing his sniper rifle for a handgun strapped to his thigh. The guns were government-issued and modern, very different from the old-fashioned six shooters Tony and Steve preferred.
Tony brushed his hand along his hip, making sure he had his six shooter with him before he said, “Right. Let’s go see the King.”
***
It was only slightly cooler between the buildings surrounding the dock. The area was poor, the houses run-down. The King’s business was located in a low building that was accessed via a narrow alley. A man stood guard at the door, but he’d seen Tony and his crew before and let them through without a hassle.
It was cool inside, the thick stone the house was made off keeping the burning heat out. The windows were covered by light strips of cloth that moved in the breeze and kept curious eyes out.
The King was sitting at a large, dark wooden desk in his office towards the back. Despite the heat, he was wearing a three-piece suit that had seen better days, the green button-up a splotch of color underneath the black jacket. His dark, shoulder-length hair was slicked out of his face, his blue eyes only shifting to Tony and the others for a second when they entered. Then they moved back towards the young woman that was standing in front of him, the heavy hand of one of his men on her thin shoulder. She couldn’t be older than twenty. “Let me see your teeth,” he said slowly.
She gave him a pained smile.
He reached out to pull her lip up a little, looking closer. Then he nodded. “Yes.”
The man holding her shoulder led her behind a curtain into an adjacent room.
The King turned his attention back to Tony. “You're late.”
“You're lying,” Tony answered, stepping inside the room a little further.
The King’s blue eyes narrowed. “What did you just say to me?”
“You're well aware we landed two hours before we planned to, with all the goods you sent us after intact, ready to roll. So, your decision to get grumpy, say we're late, means you're looking to put us on the defensive right up front. Which means something's gone wrong.”
The King’s head tilted to the side.
Tony shrugged. “It didn't go wrong on our end, so why don't we start again with you telling us what's up … Loki?”
Loki’s expression shifted into a smile, trying to hide the way his given name irked him. “You're later than I'd like.”
“Well, I am sorry to hear that,” Tony answered with a shrug. He heard Clint snort a laugh.
Loki held up a computer – a see-through piece of plastic on which Tony could make out the picture of a Firefly class cargo ship. His shoulders tensed, his stomach dropping. Loki raised his eyebrows. “If you'd gotten here sooner, you might've beaten the bulletin that came up saying a rogue vessel, classification 'Firefly', was spotted pulling illegal salvage on a derelict transport.”
Tony clenched his jaw. “Didn't I.D. us. Doesn't lead to you.”
“No, it doesn't. But a government stamp on every molecule of the cargo just maybe might.”
Tony could feel Nat and Clint staring at him in surprise. He pressed his lips together.
Loki smiled. “Oh, you noticed that. You were going to hand over imprinted goods and just let me twist, is that the case?”
“We didn't pick the cargo,” Tony said. “You did.”
“And I didn't flash my ass at the gorram law,” Loki answered angrily. “There's no deal.”
Nat stepped forward, her hands clenching into fists. “That’s not fair.”
Loki glanced at her. “Crime and politics, little girl: the situation is always ... fluid.”
Tony didn’t have to look at Nat to know that she was glaring at Loki. She didn’t like being belittled and for good reason: she was a capable fighter and could probably take Loki down with a tablespoon. Loki knew that as well. The only reason he was this cocky was because his men were surrounding him.
Clint scoffed. “We did the job and now you refuse to pay? What kind of businessman are you?”
Tony raised his hands a little, trying to keep the situation under control. “Loki, you know you can still unload those goods. So I can't help thinking there's something else at work here.”
Loki snorted in derision, his eyes pinning Tony in place. “What were you in the war, that big war you failed to win?”
Tony swallowed, his hands clenching into fists. He didn’t like to think back to the war, to that moment he’d realized his life up until that point had been a sham. To the moment he’d lost his best friend.
“You were an engineer, yeah? The Merchant of Death. Built weapons nobody else could build. Now you got yourself a ship and you call yourself a captain.” Loki stepped around his desk and right into Tony’s space. “Well this is my gorram den, and I don't like the way you look down on me. I'm above you. You're just a scavenger, who I keep hiring as a favor to my gullible brother.”
Tony smirked. “Well, maybe I'm not a fancy gentleman like you with your ...” He gave Loki’s suit a derisive glance. “… very fine suit ... but I do business. We're here for business.”
Loki turned away from him. “Try one of the border planets, they're a lot more desperate there. Of course, they might kill you, but you stay here and I just know SHIELD will track you down.” He smirked at them. “I have that feeling.”
Clint’s hand tightened to a fist but Tony sent him a warning look. He turned to go instead, motioning for Clint and Nat to follow. “Wheel never stops turning, Loki.”
“That only matters to the people on the rim,” Loki answered.
1Chinese, appr. meaning “f***”
2Chinese, appr. meaning “shut up”