thecupboard

It was a beautiful day, the sun shone, the wind was warm and the water had the same colour as the almost cloud free sky. The big black van slowed down at the beach and stopped in the shade of the group of trees that you barely could call a forest.

The front door opened and Tony Stark got out of the van. He was wearing grey shorts and a dark linen. He looked at the beach over his sunglasses and said:

“It will do.”

“At last, I thought we would never stop.” Said Loki, who now also had gotten out of the van. He was dressed in a black shirt with tucked sleeves and dark jeans that went down to his black shoes. Actually he was all dressed in black and didn’t seem to belong at that beach but rather in a TV-series about vampires.

“But the other four beaches were eather too small or too crowded.” said Tony and opened the back door so that Thor could come out.

“That door is cursed, I can never open it.” Thor said while he got out.

“There where two people there, Tony.” Said Steve who climbed out after Thor.

“Yes but I don’t like to share my beach with strangers.“ Tony said while starting to take out things from the trunk and putting them on the ground.

“Ok, Steve takes the parasols, Tasha… Here, take the towels, Clint you can take the food.”

“Why me I’m busy, Thor can take it.” Clint said.

“Thor and food equals no food and taking on sunscreen doesn’t count as busy.” Said Tony and handed over the bag with food.

“Fine.”

They set up the parasols and laid down the towels in the shade of them and then they changed to swimsuits.

“So let’s go swimming.” Said Steve.

“Nah I think I’ll do some sunbathing instead, swimming isn’t really my thing.” Said Clint while putting on his sunglasses.

“You’ll miss all the fun but that’s your choice…” Said Steve and walked down to the water with the rest.

They waded out in the lake. The water felt cooling and calming after the hot and harsh sand.

Thor stood next to Loki and asked:

“Could we do this thing I told you about before, when I hold your hands and you float in the water and then I spin around with you in a circle?”

“What? No, I’m not a child.” Loki said with a stern voice.

“Come on brother, please.” Thor said and looked his brother in the eyes.

“No!”

“But, Loki… Please.”

“Ah fine.” Loki really didn’t want to do this silly thing but if he didn’t Thor would probably go on about it the rest of the day.

Thor smiled and grabbed Lokis hands and dragged him in the water. It looked quite silly so after a while Loki said:

“Stop. It doesn’t work I’m to big for this.”

“No, we just have to go out a little deeper that’s all.”

“I just want to go swimming. Ok?”

“Oh, ok.”

Loki swam away and left Thor alone.

In the meantime Natasha walked out of the water in her black bikini and sat down next to Clint on the beach.

Steve and Tony floated around in the water.

“Are you hungry?” Tony asked Steve.

“Yes lets eat.” Steve answered.

They walked up on the beach and started unpacking the food bag.

Tony called out: “Blondie & Drama Queen it’s lunch!”

Loki and Thor came up from the water and sat down on the towels around the food. They didn’t really appreciate the nicknames Tony had given them but he did it all the time so they were used to it. Besides the food looked so tasty that they didn’t care about any silly names at the moment.

There was a big choice of food; chicken soup, cheeseburgers, bacon sandwiches, grilled tomatoes, Greek salad, chicken drumsticks, meatballs, French fries and for desert: chocolate chip cookies and blueberry ice cream.

It was a lot of food, but when five grown up men are hungry they eat a lot. So a lot of food quickly turned into no food at all.

The sun had climbed past its highest point on the sky and showed that it was now almost three o’clock. The gang laid down in the shade and talked.

“Why didn’t Banner come with us?” Steve asked.

“A science project, I think.” Said Natasha.

“Yes something about washing powder.” Clint added.

“What is washing powder?” Asked Thor.

“Thor really?” Said Loki scornfully.

“What, do you now what it is?” Thor said surprised.

“Well you can hear by the name that it’s a powder for washing.”

“Oh, yeah maybe but I thought…”

“What?”

“…I don’t know.”

“Exactly.”

“Ehm guys maybe we should go swimming again. It’s getting hot here.” Steve interrupted.

Loki looked angrily at him and said: “You go, I'll stay here.”

“Sure. Who’s with me?” Steve asked.

“You make it sound like we’re on a mission to save someone but sure I can follow you Cap.” Tony said with a little laugh.

“Mm… Me too.” Said Thor.

Steve, Tony and Thor went out in the water. Clint fell asleep. Natasha picked up a book and started reading. Loki putted on his shirt again and walked out where the water was over his feet.

He looked out at the beautiful lake. It was like a big mirror were you could see the sun, the sky, the trees… Then he saw something - a fish. It jumped up a little bit over the water and then disappeared.

Loki got an idea.

“I saw something, there in the water.” He said loudly so that everyone could hear him. It worked as he had predicted, the men out in the water turned around looking at him. Nervous about what could live in the lake.

“What? Where?” Thor asked nervously.

“There” said Loki and pointed out in the water. This will be fun he thought.

“What? What did you see?” Asked Natasha and walked up to him.

“I don’t know, it just flashed there in the water.” Loki said.

“Stop it Loki.” Thor shouted.

Then a fish jumped up again and Loki pointed at the spot. “There. Did you see it?” He asked.

“Yes but I didn’t see what it was.” Natasha said.

“That’s it I’m getting out of here.” They could hear Thor say while he started moving towards the beach. Steve followed him with a scared look on his face. It looked very funny because they where clumsier and moved slower in the water.

“Hey guys. Come on don’t be such cowards.” Tony yelled after them.

“Tony I’m not staying there.” Said Steve as he and Thor ran up on the beach.

Loki smiled; he loved when his plans worked.

Tony was now alone out in the lake and he started to become nervous. He looked at Lokis face but he didn’t seem to be lying about the thing in the water.

“Where is it?” He asked.

“There I think.” Loki pointed on a spot between Tony and the beach. Tony’s face became white.

“How are you Tony? A little scared maybe?” Loki asked with a smile and started walking back and forth on the beach, examining Tony’s face.

“No I’m not scared.” Tony answered.

Loki laughed. Tony looked at him and then started going up to the beach. He now knew Loki had fooled them and was angry.

“It was just a fish wasn’t it?” Tony asked.

Loki just smiled. Steve and Thor had now too understood that Loki had made a fool out of them.

Steve walked down to Loki. “You want a hug?” He asked and opened his arms.

“No thanks.” Loki said and backed away from the soaked Steve.

“Come on.” Said Steve and smiled. He wanted some revenge for being fooled like that. Maybe he could at least make Loki look silly by getting him into the lake or something.

Lokis smile vanished, he turned around and started running.

“Catch him!” Steve shouted at Thor, Tony and Natasha and they all started chasing Loki all over the beach.

They all ran until Loki almost couldn’t take another step, then they finally caught up with him.

The sun was going down and the lake laid in darkness. The beautiful day was coming to an end when the black van drove away from the beach back to the road towards New York City.

Steve, Thor, Tony and Natasha were all tired and sweaty but happy. Loki on the other hand was not very happy. The elegant vampire was gone and had been replaced by a soaking wet heap that you could easily take for a homeless person who had tried to drown himself. He sat and stared angrily at everyone while Clint sat and laughed at him.

“Did you want to swim some more? Loki, don’t be so sad, we can go down there next week again, if you want.” Tony said and smiled.

Thor and Steve laughed. Loki did some kind of growl and glared out the window.

When the van reached the Stark Tower the night had fallen over the city and the streets were full of night people that went from bar to bar or from club to club and partied until the sun went up and a new day began.