No One Else Comes Close pt 1

The God of Mischief paced back and forth in his room in The Avengers Tower.
It had been quite some time since Thor had brought him back here to keep an eye on him, "Didn't trust him in Asgard" he said. He was forced to stay here with these mortals and their strange ways. Tony was always hitting on everything that moved and that included him, though he didn't mind that really, he was rather starting to like Mr. Stark but he knew he could never trust him. Barton was always trying to impress Tony and Natasha at the same time and that usually ended up being awkward. Bruce kept to himself and continued his little 'Science Bromance' with Tony, as Clint called it. Steve was always asking Tony and Bruce questions, tending to keep away from the females because that would usually get him thinking of Peggy.  Natasha thought they were all idiots but often times failed to hide her feelings for Barton, everyone knew that they liked each other but feared her too much to dare say anything...except for Tony and Loki himself. Fury let them do their own thing for now, "Needed a vacation after 'Real Power' half blew up the town of New York".
'Real Power'...Loki laughed to himself as he remembered Fury saying that. When he was alone he was able to Laugh, and even smile sometimes. They would give him books, and he and Bruce had even had calm conversations about science, which confused Tony to no end.  "How can you talk to him after what he did to you? Don't you fear him, Reindeer Games?" Tony would ask, but Loki would never answer.  If Tony knew all the things that Loki had been through he would treat him with Sympathy...Pity...And that is the last thing that Loki needed right now. He had enough on his mind, he didn't need peoples Pity.

Loki looked at himself in the mirror, his black hair was a little looser than usual, his green eyes didn't look as tired and stressed. He almost looked like he did before everything happened. His wounds and bruise's from battle had healed and his pale skin was once again flawless. The God sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, but something caught his eye. He froze and looked at his left hand, at his wedding band. He never wore it, though for some reason today he had felt inclined to put it on. 'Sigyn must be thinking of me today, more so than usual for me to feel such an overwhelming urge to wear this once more.' he thought to himself. No one here knew he was married, except Thor, and sometimes Loki felt that even his brother forgot. He shook his head and rolled his eyes thinking about her, He had fallen for her quite some time ago but his feelings for her vanished soon after they got married. But that was not her fault, he had just simply fallen for someone else...he had not felt that overwhelming feeling of love since then.

His eyes glazed over thinking of the one that still held his heart to this day, he really needed to visit his grave once more but he could not bare it. A Knock on the door interrupted his thoughts; he quickly put his wedding band in the side-table drawer and sat on the bed.
"Mr. Laufeyson?" A voice called, Loki instantly recognized the voice of The Soldier, Steve Rogers.
"Yes, Enter." Loki replied calmly, he had not spoken with the Soldier much so this was a rare occurrence.
Steve opened the door and looked at Loki cautiously, The God smiled and raised an eyebrow, "I will not attack you for entering my room on my command, I am not /that/ heartless." He replied with an amused tone. The Soldier smiled as well, "Sorry." Steve said looking down nervously. Loki nodded to a chair by the door and Steve understood and took a seat, returning a nod as a 'Thank you'.
"So what brings you to me? You were the last person I expected to see here." Loki said leaning forward resting his elbows on his knees.
Steve looked down and sighed, "Well, I know that you liked to read and, well, we are both kind of in the same boat here. This world is strange to both of us. So I was looking through some stuff the other day and I found some books that I read when I was ..." He then dropped his head sadly and mumbled "Awake..."
Loki had not expected this from him, a peace offering of sorts. The God nodded, and Steve stepped out the door and gave him a small bag of books.
"See we had to read some of these in school, and some of them I found just because I heard they were good. I figured I would lend them to you, I don't really know how it will help you but I guess you can read some of the things we do ...maybe it'll help you." Steve said, fumbling over his words slightly, still nervous around Loki after what happened.
But in a way he was right, He and Loki were in the same boat, they both knew the world a while ago but not now. The God smiled and took the bag, "Thank you, Mr. Rogers."
"Hey it's no problem...And you can call me Steve."
"Very well then Steve. I will return these to you in a few day's time, I am quite the fast reader."
And with that the Soldier nodded and left.

Loki opened the bag and began looking through the books, and he found some books with rather strange titles;
Moby Dick
The Scarlet Letter
Black Beauty ( He made a note that of all the books in the world Steve managed to get him one about a horse...)
The Adventures Of Huck Finn

And then Loki froze as he saw the title of the final book;
Sherlock Holmes And The Hound Of Baskerville

He sat down the book and sighed, as he looked out the window at the storm that was taking place. 'Do people even know he was real?' he thought to himself. A boom of thunder made Loki jump slightly, and shook him from his thoughts. It stormed more here than it did in Asgard, he wasn't sure he liked that. He enjoyed the rain and even the lightning as is shot out across the Sky; it was the Thunder he wasn't overly fond of.

He sighed and realized it was just Thor scaring Barton; he would wait until it was a nice stormy night then cause a loud roar of Thunder to scare Barton right out of his 'Nest'. Loki rolled his eyes as he heard his Brothers laughter all the way up in his room. He soon found himself standing outside in the rain on the little balcony that overlooked New York. The lights of the city were blurred by the rain and yet somehow they managed to look brighter than they usually did.

Loki closed his eyes and remembered the sights and smells of London, the people of Baker Street bustling about and creating cases for his dear friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes. It was so long ago and yet he remembered it like it was just yesterday.
He could see the Consulting Detective sitting in his favorite chair, his hair a mess, his fingers together and his eyes to the ceiling. Thinking.
It always drove Mr. Holmes crazy that he could never deduce a damn thing about Loki, he could tell what he had done that day but about where he was from, his family or who he was he could deduce nothing. He would stare into Loki's eyes for hours and not be able to tell a single thing about him.
Except for that one particular time.

---

Loki sat in front of the fire place in 221b Baker Street, thinking about his past and his future. He knew that he had a task to pull off that would cause the Gods to hate him, but in the end it would be for the best. His eyes glazed over and his defenses down, he did not notice Sherlock looking at him from across the room. The man's fingers were together as he looked over his new found friend. He did this at least twice a day, trying to deduce more about Mr. Laufeyson than his height, weight, physical appearance and what he had done or eaten that day. His dark eyes then fell on Loki's emerald ones and the Detective froze. He didn't blink, he did move, he didn't even recall breathing for at least 45 seconds.

The Mischievous dark haired man before him stared into the fire and he could sense that something was troubling him, something was on his mind. It was distracting him so much that The Detective could see right through his eyes, he could for once deduce something about Loki.

"What pain have you lived through that makes you like this?" Mr. Holmes finally said, shocking Loki and bringing him out of his thoughts. His eyes instantly darkened once more and his defenses were back online.
"What do you mean, my friend?" Loki asked, tilting his head slightly. Though he knew all too well what his friend meant, he just could not believe that he had let his defenses down around him. He knew that it only took Mr. Holmes 5-8 seconds to know someone, but for Loki it had taken him weeks to get to know this much.

In one swift move Sherlock had pulled the chair he was in closer to Loki and was once again staring directly into his eyes, unblinking and unmoving.
"I have never seen so much pain in a man's eyes, so much distance between your body and your soul...Your eyes tell a thousand tales and none of them that I saw in those few seconds were pleasant." He said, never breaking contact with Loki's eyes.
Loki froze and looked down, Sherlock knew he was a God and he had even showed him magic, but he had not told him about the tortures he had been through, how he was raised for punishment...and how he was destined to die letting everyone hate him.
Sherlock broke the silence once again, "I see punishment, pain, loss, torture...and i have seen that in many but what I have never seen is the sheer impact that it has left on you. I have never seen so much torture and sadness in one person."
The God looked up at the Detective with saddened eyes, but didn't say a word. Sherlock froze seeing his close friend this way and leaned forward more, getting closer to him.
"Who did this to you?" He asked, Loki smiled sadly holding back tears, his hands wringing anxiously.
"Everyone."