even though she’d spent a lot of time with steve in the immediate time following thanos’ purge, eventually, both of them had drifted off    faded away to pursue separate agendas of their own. he was one of the only people she’d bothered sending a message to when she had decided that she would return to new york at word of the reappearances of so many people. they’d decided to meet in one of the lesser occupied cafés that the city’s current state had to offer. natasha arrived first, waiting for him with sunglasses on and little else with her besides her jacket, phone, and a near-empty backpack. hiding behind the rim of a coffee cup, she lowers her cup and removes the sunglasses and places them on top of her jacket when she notices him walk inside    she doesn’t say anything until he sits down opposite her. “how are you?”

“    anything i can do to help?”

loki resists the urge to roll his eyes, but only just barely.  “have you considered, captain, that i wasn’t trying to be subtle?  if i hadn’t wanted you to see me, you wouldn’t have.”

“you know, i bet we could have an awesome rivalry. something like captain america versus...actual america,” she says. well, team-ups were things, too, but that’s certainly not where america’s thoughts usually were. “if this weren’t such an important event, i’d say, let’s launch this scheme right now.” she’s joking. mostly. she’d be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy chaos.

there was something that he missed -- a piece to the puzzle. there is an increasing ache of annoyance until his mind recalled his earlier conversation with the captain. despite the ongoing silence between them , his eyes widened with a light shining through. he quickly removed himself and before passing steve , he placed a kiss on the top of his head with enthusiasm. “ you are brilliant , i’ll be right back. “

natasha: i'm kidding. won't be able to call back until later, though. what's up?