Percy lounged on the bed for all of thirty seconds before he decided that he had stayed in the infirmary for far too long. He shifted on the bed, placing his feet on the ground, heaving himself up. Percy grabbed onto one of the monitors beside his bed, feeling his legs quiver like they were made of jelly. He scowled, glaring accusingly at his legs, he knew it was due to his extended time in bed, but that only proved how much he hated hospitals. Granted, this wasn't exactly a hospital, but the idea was the same. He took a tentative step forward, and when he didn't immediately collapse, he quickly scurried out of the infirmary.

He paused at the door, listening intently for the doctor/Hulk, keeping an eye out for any sign of him. He breathed a sigh of relief when Bruce didn't appear, he had bad experiences with doctors trying to catch their escaping patients after all, and if Bruce was anything like the Apollo campers... Well, Percy quickly made his way to the lift, ignoring JARVIS wry comment of "you're not supposed to leave the infirmary Mr Jackson."

He shrugged noncommittally, absently wondering how JARVIS could sound wry when he was technically speaking, a machine.

He'd almost made it to the lift when- "Are you sure you are supposed to be up and walking?"

He yelped and jumped up in the air, whirling around to glare at the smirking trickster god. Clutching his hand to his chest, he growled, "And aren't you supposed to be upstairs?"

Loki smirked, moving off from the wall he had been leaning on, "Please," the god drawled, "The mortals are as bad as Asgard's council. They have been deciding on my lodgings and my...fate, since the night before. I have no wish to sit idly and wait for them to arrive at a conclusion."

Percy stared at him, raising an eyebrow, "Lodging? Who says that anymore?" he blurted before he could help himself.

Loki just scowled at him. The boy-hero raised his hands in surrender, "Not my problem, and if you're bored, why the hell did you come down here anyway?"

Loki grinned, leaning forward, "Perhaps I just find you...interesting."

Percy raised a dubious eyebrow, "Me? Interesting? Nope. Nothing interesting here. Just completely normal."

The god snorted, moving to the lift, Percy following him, he did need to make an escape to his room anyway, "There is nothing normal about you half-blood," he said, stepping into the lift. Percy instructed JARVIS to take them to his floor. "In fact," the god continued, "I should not have been surprised you are with the avengers."

Percy shook his head, "Nah, I'm not part of the avengers, I'm only here on some private business. And please, don't call me half-blood."

Loki gave him a shrewd look, "Private business? I would hardly call dealing with the power gem, private business."

Percy started, looking at the other raven head in surprise, "How...?"

They both stepped out of the lift, Loki looking around at the-still- sparsely decorated place. Percy had not thought to decorate a place which he would be staying in temporarily (in his defense, at the time, he thought it was only for a short while) and it wasn't as though he had a lot of possessions anyway.

The god whirled around and grabbed Percy's right wrist and dragged it up to eye level, ignoring the boy's indignant cry. Percy tried to yank his hand back, shifting instinctively into a defensive position, but the god had a firm grip on his wrist, and no matter how hard he pulled, he couldn't get out of the iron grip.

Percy was one hairsbreadth away from summoning a weapon when Loki held his captured hand up, carefully not touching the red artifact encircled around Percy's wrist, "You have the power gem on your wrist, you were taken by the chitauri, in a manner of speaking, and this gem is active. It is not hard, as you mortals say, to put two and two together."

Percy looked at his wrist, truth be told, he had forgotten all about the gem. "You called it the power gem, that's what the chitauri said as well. Right before they transported me to that wasteland."

Loki looked at it, feeling the siren call of its power sing to him, he released his grip on Percy's hand, turning away, "That is its name, or rather, the closest thing in your terms that we can call it."

"And you said it was active, what's that supposed to mean? Is it gonna blow up or something?"

"You mortals and your imagination." Loki sighed, "No, you have been able to utilize the gem as a weapon yes?" he looked at Percy, who nodded.

"Well yeah, the chitauri came after that."

Loki rolled his eyes, glaring accusingly at Percy, "Of course they would come, they are drawn to the gem like flies to honey. Using it as you did was an open invitation for them to come knocking."

Percy scowled, crossing his arms over his chest defensively, "Yeah well we needed to know what it does, how was I supposed to know that it would attract the chitauri?"

The god opened his mouth to continue, but was cut short by the sound of the lift arriving.

And the sound of six avengers toppling into the room.

Loki stared at them, irritation bubbling within him as the avengers ignored his presence in the room entirely. Percy on the other hand, was not as lucky, and he ended up with a face full of a disgruntled and highly annoyed doctor Banner and a loud-mouthed Tony Stark. (Because the other man had let go of his hand immediately and left him to deal with the heroes, the bastard) Between the doctor's rants of "I told you not to leave the infirmary!" and Tony's incoherent babble of excitement, well, it sounded incoherent to Percy, and being bombarded by various sounds of concern, Percy was developing a migraine, fast, and he was on the verge of icing all of them to the floor when Steve's command of "Everyone stop!" caused all the avengers to calm down- sort of- and back away from Percy. Except Bruce, but the doctor was stilled annoyed that his patient had ran off when he had explicit orders not to do so.

Percy raised his eyebrow at all of them once they had all calmed down substantially, "What made you run down here like a herd of deer?"

Clint jutted his head in Loki's direction, sneering, "Him."

Percy looked back and forth between them warily, he knew about Clint's short time of service under the god, and the hatred that the archer still held towards him. He didn't comment on their actions though, choosing instead to ask, "And all of you had to come down because...?"

Steve sighed, he signaled for the avengers to leave. Unsurprisingly, Tony and Bruce both stayed. Clint left with a glare at the god, who remained unaffected and who was also pointedly ignoring his brother's pleading looks. Steve rubbed his face tiredly, "I was supposed to tell you alone," he said, "but Tony and Bruce wanted to see you, and when JARVIS told us that Loki was with you, Clint and Thor wanted to follow immediately and Natasha isn't likely to let Clint confront Loki alone."

Percy blinked, his face betrayed no emotion, but inwardly he was surprised, he hadn't known that they'd cared about him that much.

"So," Percy began, not wanting to dwell on that subject for long, "What did you want to talk about?"

Steve gestured for them to sit, and each of them took a place on the couch, with the exception of Loki, who had chosen to take a window view of New York, drawing back into his shell. He didn't see the confused look that Percy gave him before he went to join the avengers.

"You know about why he, uh, Loki is here right?" Steve asked, a tad uncomfortably.

Percy nodded, crossing his legs, "Yeah, Doctor Banner briefed me about it. I don't know the details though."

Steve nodded, "Alright, here's the condensed version..."

Loki stood by the windows, watching the darkening skyline of New York. The placed looked different from when he'd invaded a scant three Midgardian years ago. They seemed to have rebuilt their towering structures fairly quickly from the destruction he'd caused. A lazy smirk graced his lips, he ignored the hushed conversation behind him, scanning the skyline absentmindedly. He knew that he would not be able to get far if he escaped, but it didn't mean that he would obey the avengers like a common mutt.

Loki bared his teeth in a silent snarl, watching his reflection snarl back at him, how dare the Allfather treat me like a mutt, an animal to be used by others.

A second voice at the back of his head piped up, was it not your choice to come down here?

Loki hissed under his breath, annoyed by the mutterings in his head. Anywhere was better than rotting in the bowels of the golden realm. He froze when his gaze landed on the Empire State Building, the golden structure gleaming in the dimming sunlight as it stood proud and tall. His gaze went upwards, and upwards, and upwards some more, until it rested on the faint outline of a city floating above the building.

Looking directly at it did not work, for there was nothing to see, but if he looked away, he could vaguely spot the city's outline in the corner of his eye... He wondered at the power used to conceal the city, if it could affect even gods. Loki breathed out slowly, acknowledging the presence of twelve of the most powerful beings on this realm. He did not know what possessed him to launch an invasion into this particular city of the whole of Midgard. Courage perhaps, he thought, or maybe insanity.

Either way, it left him slightly confused. He was sure that he'd known of their presence before ever invading Midgard but...

He shook his head, what was more puzzling was that he was still alive. If his memory served him correctly, the last few who had challenged the Olympians were now somewhere in their version of Helheim*. Loki sighed, he did not know why the Olympians didn't blast him into a million pieces, Norns know that it would have been their form of defense.

He looked discreetly at Percy Jackson through the window's reflective surface, the boy was wasting his potential by staying with the mortals. He focused on the world outside again, feeling more clear-headed than he had felt in years. He could envision the glittering ocean somewhere further out, and a pang of sadness ran through him.

Almost immediately, he straightened up, his gaze hardening into a glare, he was Loki Silvertongue, he would not be seen as weak by these mortals. He was brought out of his musings when his name was called.

Plastering a smirk on his face, he turned around, knowing it would rile up the mortals. "Finally done with your useless discussions then? Mortals," he chuckled, undeterred by the glare the man of iron sent him, "So petty."

Percy sighed at the god's antics, he had been on the receiving end of far more cruel people than the avengers sitting around him after all, and Loki wasn't as bad as some of them, "Yes, we're done. And they were just informing me of what's happening and why you're here. Caught between a rock and a hard place hmm?" he smirked, enjoying the flash of irritation on the god's face.

Steve sighed, then continued, "Loki, you'll be staying with Percy on this level. You are in no way allowed to harm him. He may not be an avenger, but if you hurt him, you get to deal with all of us. Am I clear?" Steve said sternly.

Loki cocked his head to one side, taking in the tense postures of the man of iron and the skin-changer**, drawing out the silence, enjoying the way they squirmed. Smirking, he nodded his assent. "Well then," he drawled, stepping away from the window, "Where are my quarters?"

Tony gritted his teeth, "You fucking pretentious bastard-"

Percy stood up quickly, overriding whatever Tony was about to say, "You can have the room opposite mine. I'll show you."

He gestured for Loki to move first, following after him. He felt Steve grab his arm and pull him back, saying in an undertone, "Are you sure you don't want any of us to move here with you?"

Percy shook his head, "It's alright, I know you're all affected by his presence here, and I can handle myself." He said gently but firmly, reminding Steve tat while he was significantly younger than any of them, he was first and foremost a SHIELD agent, and that he could handle himself.

Steve looked at him with concern, hating that he was practically leaving a child to deal with the most manipulative being they had ever known because he couldn't deal with his own emotions around said being, "Very well then, I'll leave you to it. If he does anything..."

"I know," Percy replied, almost exasperatedly, "I'll call you."

Steve nodded, and he herded the other two avengers into the lift.

Percy's face wiped of all emotion, he briskly followed after the trickster god, finding him surveying his designated room. leaning against the doorway, the boy-hero said sarcastically, "Is this adequate enough for your needs your majesty?"

Loki shot him a venomous glare, making Percy smirk devilishly. "It is meager." The god commented, "But well enough. Given the circumstances."

"Great!" Percy said, clapping, "Now we can discuss other stuff." He stepped into the room, as the god turned around completely to face him.

He narrowed his eyes at the other man, "I don't trust you." He said bluntly, ignoring the god's amused expression, "And I'm pretty sure that you don't trust me either." Loki inclined his head, showing his agreement.

"But I respect the need for privacy, so first, don't enter my room without my permission unless it's absolutely necessary. I won't do the same to your room either. I'm going to trust the fact that you won't be planning anything against the occupants of this tower. Then again, from what they told me, its not like you could do anything to them anyway."

The god smirked, "You do not consider yourself one of them?"

Percy ignored the jab and continued, "I'm guessing that the avengers told you about whether you'd be eating with them?"

Loki gave into the urge to roll his eyes (again) and nodded, "If by eating you mean mealtime arrangements then yes I am aware of the fact that I will be joining them." He scowled disgustedly at the thought.

Percy smirked, correctly interpreting his facial expression, "Deal with it princess. I don't know if you're allowed to use the gym, my guess is yes but you'll have to check with JARVIS."

Loki sighed, "You are almost as bad as the mortals." He rolled his eyes (one day he'd roll them out of his head...), "I get it, any last instructions?" he said, sarcasm dripping from every word.

Percy scowled, "Yes actually, how the hell did Thor not realize what this was?" he said, bringing his wrist up to show the blood red artifact.

Loki rolled his eyes, moving to inspect the bathroom, "Of course he does not know, dim-witted fool he is. It could be staring at him right in the face and he would not even comprehend what it is."

Percy frowned, he pressed on, "And this isn't important?"

Loki paused in his inspection, "I assume that the Allfather," he spat the name out, "would have told his precious son about the situation in the Nine Realms."

Percy glanced suspiciously at him, but filed the information away to be brought up at another time. "One more question." He said, "Why did you save me?"

Loki froze, turning his head slightly to glance at Percy from the corner of his eye. "Should I not have? It is in my best interest to do so."

"Yeah well, your terms of confinement includes helping the avengers. I'm not part of them, but you still helped me. Why? What is in it for you?"

Loki stood in silence, contemplating his answer. "I have no reason to provide you with an answer, perhaps your little brain can come up with one." He said finally. Percy scowled, "What the hell? You owe me an answer you annoying-"

Loki rounded on him, hissing, "I owe you nothing child. I have a right not to respond to your question." Sensing Percy's protest, he sneered, "Is that not what you mortals are so fond of? Rights?" He glared at the hero and turned to his room.

Just before he entered it, he said over his shoulder, "As dishonorable as I may seem to the majority, I would not let my name be tarnished further by not repaying what was owed out of mere spite. I have many names, I do not wish for oath-breaker to be one of them."

Percy blinked, his heart still pounding from the rapid mood change of one trickster god, "What?"

The trickster god spun around and stalked towards him, coming nose to nose with him, "Do not make me repeat myself. That is all I will say on this matter, now get out."

Percy scowled, glaring at the god who glared right back, "Hey! You can't just say something like that then tell me to forget about it!"

Loki's glare intensified, "I said. Get. Out."

Percy jumped back as the enraged god slammed the door shut. He blinked, scowling fiercely, "What the Hades is his problem? Bipolar god..."

He huffed and returned to his room, running a hand over his sword. The cold metal comforting him.

He would get his answers tomorrow.