[ Her eyes blink. Once, then twice. There is nothing in her expression, as it should be, save the seamlessly constructed expression of someone who knows the weight of a lie. It won't be easy, like the time before: this isn't a questioning, this is a bargain, and she knows this as easily as she knew the in-between of his words. Loki might be slighter, his physicality smaller, but Natasha remembers the power of a god and what it means to be selfish. What it means to look at your hands and think this is not the end, because these claws can still tear with a hunger that pains the inside of your maw.
(She wonders what Clint is doing. If there is anything in relation to his disappearnce and the small rise in kidnapped girls, aging from seven to ten. All redheads.) ]
Give him back. [ It's phrased as a demand and disguised under neutrality: there, a tiny kernel of something other, carries the shuttered words. To me; give him back to me.
Natasha wouldn't be herself if she had given Loki alternatives. No bargain, no plea. There's no pretense this time (fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, as that saying goes), no take me instead — just a chair that creaks when she leans forward, arms braced on her knees. She looks at him through the brief smudge of glass.
(Give him back to me, she doesn't say. Before he becomes you.) ]
no subject
(She wonders what Clint is doing. If there is anything in relation to his disappearnce and the small rise in kidnapped girls, aging from seven to ten. All redheads.) ]
Give him back. [ It's phrased as a demand and disguised under neutrality: there, a tiny kernel of something other, carries the shuttered words. To me; give him back to me.
Natasha wouldn't be herself if she had given Loki alternatives. No bargain, no plea. There's no pretense this time (fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, as that saying goes), no take me instead — just a chair that creaks when she leans forward, arms braced on her knees. She looks at him through the brief smudge of glass.
(Give him back to me, she doesn't say. Before he becomes you.) ]