"We need to figure out how to handle this situation," Steve told the room bluntly, not even waiting until everyone was properly sat around the long, sleek conference table they were gathered around. A meeting had been called, and just like that, Lana's 'vacation' was officially over, even though her job (watching Loki) was suddenly more of an open concept than a literal order. They'd moved to a conference meeting on another secure floor, maybe because it had enough seats for the whole team, everyone included, as well as Thor and Lana, though Lana suspected it had something to do with the fact that Loki was semi-permanently staying with them and had any and every reason to walk into the kitchen and overhear something confidential.

"Which of the situations? Evil space wizard, possibly evil earth wizard, maybe not evil god wiza-"

"All of them," Steve interrupted Tony, raising his voice slightly. Tony raised his hands in an 'I surrender'-motion.

"Just trying to be clear," he claimed, leaning back in his chair.

"We need to take down Hydra before they can do any damage," Natasha mentioned, leaning back in her chair as well. She almost seemed relaxed with her emotionless expression and hands gathered on top of her black shirt, motionlessly resting.

"We need to take down Thanos before he hurts Loki," Lana said loudly, not bothering to meet Natasha's eyes from across the table.

"Our priority has to be the general civilians," she said, eyes still fixated on Lana, who tried to ignore as the person sitting behind her placed his hand on his thigh, either warning her to stay calm or supporting her in her attempt to do so.

"No matter what, we need to get the tesseract back," Bruce interjected, looking more like a professor than ever before with a button-down shirt covered by a tweed blazer.

"We cannot let Thanos claim it," Thor stated. He was dressed in his battle attire and Mjølner was lying on the table in front of him, only slightly intimidating the others.

"Nobody's saying we should," Clint piped up, shooting a look at Natasha, who sent him the smallest of smiles.

"We could just... Let Hydra keep it for a bit," Tony suggested, looking around the table to see the reactions.

"I'm sorry, what?" Lana exclaimed, feeling Bucky's thumb run up and down on her thigh.

"Lana, the adults are talking," Tony told her annoyed.

"Maybe so, but you're talking bullshit," she claimed, almost scoffing.

"What do you mean let Hydra keep it?" Steve asked Tony, not letting the meeting derail into a family feud.

"I'm just saying, if I have to pick between Hydra having it or that Thanos guy having it..." he began, dragging his words out slightly, almost as if waiting for someone to stop him before he continued; "We can let Hydra keep it, get them and Thanos against each other and let one finish the other." He raised one hand as he mentioned Hydra, the other as he mentioned Thanos, and eventually slapped them together, creating a clap.

"They are no match for Thanos," Thor informed, the only one of the participants really knowing what any of the descriptions Loki had given meant.

"Great, two birds with one stone," Tony told with a shrug; "Let him take them out, then after, we'll get the stone from him. Piece of cake."

"Except, that would get Thanos to earth, which is just an entirely new problem," Lana pointed out with a slight shrug; "There's really no reason to get him here, to get him to engage."

"Thor said Hydra's no match for Thanos. He's going to kill them," Steve stated seriously, looking at the group from his spot at the very end of the table, supposedly leading the meeting. Nobody answered the statement, but everybody knew what that meant. The correct thing would be to stop Hydra themselves, insure the least injuries and especially fatal ones as they could, and then let the justice system do it's part. Seperation of powers and the branches of goverment had been a big topic amongst them, and it'd become evident to them that this wasn't just constitutional, but necessary in a society. The legislative and judicial parts of the laws were something they were supposed to be staying out of, but as the executive branch, they saw firsthand the harm that these people did, and they'd seen people be excused for the harm they'd done.

Letting Thanos kill Hydra would, hopefully, mean ending the organisation for good or at least send big enough shockwaves through it for them to be able to untravel it and finish it themselves, but it also meant allowing Thanos to kill them, and not because of what was right or wrong, but because it fit into his plans. Even if it aligned with their morals and plans - which none of them would ever agree on if it did, since it included not just bringing someone in for their crimes, but chosing the verdict singlehandedly - would it be okay to allow it to happen when it would be done for all the wrong reasons, become a crime of its own?

"Or he'll just take the resseract and then Hydra won't have alien weaponry when we go to defeat them," Tony excused, always good at making the rules allign with his goals.

"Another good point. No reason to make it harder for ourselves to get them done," Steve said quietly, crossing his arms above his chest and lifting his shoulders slightly.

"Even if we did that, it would still mean that Thanos would have it. It's another bad guy, but it's still a bad guy that has it," Natasha reminded them shortly, quickly looking back to her fingernails. Natasha probably had an idea of what she believed to be the correct thing to do in the situation, but saying it would never fall her natural, and Lana could see through her arguments as easily as Tony's. Either, she wanted to give justice a chance to prove itself, or she was the only one who remembered that in spite of what Hydra had done, Thanos was the bigger threat at the moment. It made sense, though, that Steve and Tony would be quick to forget that, as Steve had lost Bucky to Hydra and Tony had lost his parents and her mum. Lana didn't remember her grandparents or her mum, and her father never spoke too kindly of his blood and never at all about the mother of his daughter, but luckily, being from the Stark family, she was able to find out plenty online. She wasn't entirely sure about their death, but she'd gotten the gist; Hydra had somehow caused it, and even if her dad hadn't been close with his parents, he'd still lost his family, and he'd lost not just his girlfriend, but the mother of his daughter as well. Considering how it had been between Lana and Tony, she realised it, to him, probably felt like he'd lost all of his family.

She'd often wondered about her mum, who was as well as erased from existence by the internet, but more often than that, she wondered if she'd had a mum, would she had had a dad as well?

"It would strengthen Thanos. Even now, he is plenty a threat," Thor told unhappily.

"Our best chance is to get the tesseract from Hydra before they can make the weapons, and we'll be the strongest defence against Thanos," Lana decided, pushing aside the moral dilemma to make room for the only logical thing; Getting the tesseract back before it could benefit either of the other sides.

"I'm sorry, 'we'?" Tony asked, looking directly at his daughter.

"Fine. That's step one," Steve decided, ignoring Tony's provocative nature.

"What's step two?" Bruce asked unsurely, glancing between Lana and Steve.

"Keep the tesseract safe from Thanos," Steve informed him.

"And keep Loki safe," Lana added, raising her chin in defiance as she faced Steve's unsure look, entirely oblivious to Bucky rolling his eyes behind her and Natasha looked down to conceal the small smile that brought to her lips.

"By battling and defeating him! Our victory shall be grand!" Thor added excitedly.

"Well, yes, but that's if he comes here," Tony claimed.

"A threat mustn't be left unanswered, it shows weakness," Thor told him, moving Mjølner from the table to his lap.

"Has there actually been a threat, though?" Bruce interjected quietly; "I mean, so far, none of us has even met this guy."

"Loki has," Lana disagreed quickly.

"Loki's not here," Tony shot just as quickly.

"Because he wasn't invited. He's right upstairs, let's go get him," Lana suggested, not sure if she did it because she felt the situation was unfair on Loki or because she wanted to provoke her dad a little and get for his earlier comment about the adults talking.

"There's a reason he wasn't invited. We don't know if we can trust him," Tony told. As he and his daughter eyed each other judgingly, it became evident that in spite of their countless differences, in spite of their disagreements and everything else, they shared some things, and this was one of them. The way they both leveled their head and caught each other eyes, neither of them shifting in glances as the quick remarks and clever retorts shot off their tongues, expressions hardly changing as they did... Lana was her very own person, her own thoughts, feelings and opinions, but they were wrapped in a layer of a Tony-like presense and attitude that she, in spite of many years apart and many years trying, could not hide longer than it would take for her to get properly involved in a conversation.

"We need to figure out how we handle Thanos. Even if we want to go against him, we have no way of doing it. He's in space, or another universe," Steve told, not entirely clear on the views of the world and the universe.

"We will travel by stone or bifrost, simply," Thor said unaffected.

"There's too much we don't know. For now, let's just get the tesseract back," Steve decided, taking a deep breath.

"And this probably goes without saying, but as a safety precaution, nobody tell Loki the plan," Natasha reminded the group, not even attempting to hide the reprimanding looks she shot at Thor and Lana.

"It's his life on the line," Lana reminded hardly as Thor sported a slight pout, crossing his arms.

"Exactly. Desperation and fear drives people to do things they come to regret. Let's no give Loki the chance, alright?" Natasha reasoned. Lana stopped herself from rolling her eyes as she leaned back in quiet defeat, unmoving as the team stood up and eventually left. All but one.

"What are you thinking, Doll?" Bucky asked grabbing the back of her chair and spinning her so they were facing each other. Their knees were touching and he sat leaned forward, a clear opposite to Lana, who was still leaning back as far as she could be.

"It seems unfair," she told quietly; "He's risking a lot to be helping us, you know?"

"I know," Bucky admitted, looking at his hands. Lana found herself focused on the dark brown colour of his hair, a brown with so much colour it had almost gotten crisped around the edges by it. He slowly looked up, slightly surprised at her focused look.

"What?" he murmured, not pulling away.

"I like your hair," Lana told softly, sitting up slightly to be able to reach her hand over, running her fingers into the soft locks, almost surprised when Bucky just sat there, smiling contently at her soft face.

"You do?" he asked as her hand reached the bottom of his hair, rolling it between her fingers before removing her hand. She nodded wordlessly, letting her hand fall on his thigh.

"I like your eyes," Bucky told her, seemingly shamelessly as he continued smiling, his eyes darting between hers. Lana's eyes ran over his face, thinking about how his skin would feel against that of her hand, how his nose curved so very perfectly and how his pale red lips parted slightly in the smile.

"I like your lips," Lana whispered, hardly daring to say the words out loud. She felt her breath move through her lungs as Bucky sat up straighter, their heads reaching equal heights. She opened her lips to say something, not getting any words past her lips as Bucky slowly leaned in.

A knock sounded on the door, and before Lana had even realised it Bucky had rolled slightly away from her and the door opened, revealing Loki.

"Darling, I was wondering... Are you okay?" he interrupted himself, glancing between the two people.

"She's fine," Bucky told him shortly. Lana shook her head slightly at Bucky.

"I'm fine," she told Loki, who nodded slightly, accepting the answer.

"I was wondering if your wound was in an as speedy convalescence as possible. If you would like, I find myself in much better keeping now, I would surely be able to mend it with accumulated corollary now," he offered politely.

"You don't have to do that, it'll heal on its own eventually," Lana reminded, standing up from her seat.

"But there is hardly a reason to postpone such an event as you being in fine fettle. I am happy to do it, truly," he added.

"Are you sure you have enough energy?" she asked unsurely, stepping closer.

"Most certainly. I assure you, I have no reason to withhold my strength," he told, smiling kindly.

"Alright, then. Thank you," Lana decided, smiling shyly.

"Though, may I ask, would you mind if we allow Dr Banner to observe? He has requested to see it on closer hold than he did last time," Loki explained. Bucky rolled his eyes, huffing soundlessly. Of course, he wouldn't just offer to heal her, of course, he had some deeper reason to do it. Bucky didn't exactly expect Loki to do anything kind just for the sake of it, but he did think that if anyone had a chance at being the subject of his unlikely kindness, it would have to be Lana; not just because of her inherent goodness, her charming personality, entertaining humour, witty retorts or frustratingly well-considered claims, not just because he had an appearance that could entrance anyone, no doubt even a god, but because he'd seen the way his eyes softened every time they fell upon her, and how he'd observe her with care every time she would talk to Thor about any and everything, and particularly every time she was in her own world, thoughtlessly making coffee or humming. At those times, Loki would fall into a moment of inactiveness, fall into his own world, simply watching her with a loving smile on his lips.

Bucky hated it, just as he hated how she bid him farewell before leaving with the ridiculous god.