#except maybe not where loki is concerned

[starlight-sev]

Your Protector (Teen!Snape x Muggle!Reader)

You and Severus have been best friends and neighbours since childhood, only spending summers together due to his strange boarding school.

This summer, however, you uncover a darker secret about Severus. And… maybe end up revealing your own secrets in the process.

Warnings: mentions of bullying

A/N: This is my first fic for Snape, I hope you enjoy :’)

(I also have a main blog over at @starlight-loki where you can find my fics about, well, Loki)

You always wondered why Severus was so adamant about having you meet him outside King’s Cross station. Over the years you had dreamed about standing there on the platform, watching for his raven hair as he clambered off the train with everyone else.

And maybe, just maybe if you were brave enough, you’d kiss him. Just once.

But this summer was no different than any other. You had gotten a letter from your favourite neighbour, spidery letters scrawling across the page:

I’ll be coming home tomorrow, meet me in the usual spot.

You weren’t sure how the postman managed to consistently throw Severus’s letters onto the window ledge of your second floor bedroom, but you knew better than to question it at this point. Spinner’s End was a peculiar place. The people who lived here were no exception either.

You shifted your weight from foot to foot as you stood rather awkwardly by the entrance to King’s Cross. The latest influx of passengers had already passed, and still there was no sign of Severus.

You bit your lip, anxiously glancing at the time. He should’ve been here by now. Severus was never late.

You stepped towards the doors as you debated whether or not to look for your friend. Sure, King’s Cross was huge, and you had no idea which platform Severus would be getting off of, but you were getting worried.

Just as you entered the station, you saw him. He looked like he had gotten taller, skinnier too. His dark hair was a little longer, almost to his shoulders now, but he was still the same Severus you grew up with.

“Oh my god!” You exclaimed, unable to keep from beaming as you rushed towards him. You crashed full-force into Severus, causing him to stumble back and drop his bags as you wrapped your arms around him. “I missed you!”

You sighed comfortably as Severus returned your hug, and you just barely noticed his arms trembling as he did so.

“It’s good to see you again, Y/N.”

You froze. His voice was raspy, uneven.

Severus always spoke quietly, but this was different. He usually spoke with a more level, grounded tone. His grip wasn’t as firm as it usually was. And he was almost half an hour late.

Something was wrong.

You pulled away from your friend, concern lacing your features as you looked him up and down.

“What happened?” You asked softly, your eyes desperately searching Severus’ face for any sign of unease or hurt.

He lowered his gaze to the ground. “It’s nothing.”

“You never look at me when you’re lying. Really Sev, what’s wrong?”

Severus glanced back up at you, anger and a deeper hurt flashing quickly in his eyes. “Nothing.” He emphasized. You noticed how his grip tightened on the handle of his suitcase as he spoke. “Y/N, it’s nothing. Please.”

You knew that tone. Please drop it. It’s too painful to talk about.

You sighed, leaning forward and grabbing one of Severus’ bags, ignoring his protests as you nodded for him to follow you back home.

“I can carry that-”

You smirked, shrugging. “So can I.”

You barely caught the smallest quirk of a smile from your friend. “I see you haven’t changed one bit this past year, Y/N.”

Much of the trip home was spent in silence, which left an uneasy feeling in your stomach. Usually you and Severus could talk for hours, especially after not having seen each other for most of the year, with him going off to his strange boarding school and all. But this was different. A solemn mood hung heavy over the two of you, like a storm cloud just in the edges of your vision.

You had to ask Severus what was going on. You couldn’t just forget about it the way he practically begged you to.

You reached Severus’ house first, and to your surprise, he hesitated and glanced at you anxiously.

“Could we… go right to your place?”

You frowned, trying to ignore the heavy feeling in your chest that grew stronger. “Don’t you want to drop off your things first? It would make no sense bringing all your suitcases to my house.”

Severus looked at you, his gaze pleading. “I just… I don’t…” He sighed, struggling for the right words. “Dad’s home and… I’m tired.”

You had to fight back tears of your own as you gazed at your friend. He had held himself together well on the way back from King’s Cross, but now as you gazed at him, you noticed how the circles under his eyes seemed much darker than usual. The small sparkle of curiosity you loved so much in your friend was gone, replaced with an exhaustion that seemed to seep into your own bones just by looking at him.

What had happened to him this year?

You nodded, setting his suitcase down to wrap an arm protectively around Severus’ shoulder. He winced quietly, this time not even trying to hide it from you.

“Come on,” you whispered as you approached your house. “Let’s go inside. I’ll make you tea.”

To your relief, the house was empty. You were dreading having to put Severus through small talk with your family. He hated it on his good days, you weren’t sure how he’d be able to handle it on a day like today.

Severus remained quiet as he followed you into the kitchen. You noticed how his gaze roamed across your kitchen cabinets, as if he was checking to see if everything was still in the same spot as last summer.

“The usual?” You asked as you opened a cupboard and pulled out a tin of Earl Grey. You shook the tin lightly as you glanced at Severus. “Or has your mystery boarding school converted you to, god forbid, coffee?”

Usually a remark like that would’ve earned at least a crack of a smile from your friend, even on a bad day. This time, Severus just nodded slowly as he leaned against the counter. “That one’s just fine.”

All you could do was nod in return as you set the kettle on the stove to boil.

After portioning out tea for the two of you, you walked over to Severus quietly. Without a word, you wrapped your arms around him in another hug.

Your heart sank as he fell apart instantly, sobbing quietly into your hair. You pulled him closer, your arms closing around him tighter, but pulled away a second later when you heard him wince loudly in pain.

“What is it?” You asked, panic edging into your voice ever so slightly. “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”

Severus shook his head as he wiped the tears from his eyes. He remained quiet.

“You’re scaring me.” You whispered. “Please… can you tell me what’s going on?”

“I…” Severus struggled for the right words, his gaze shifting away from you and onto the floor. You stepped closer to him, gently taking his hand in yours.

“They’ve been… coming after me.”

“Who has?” You ask softly. “People from your school?”

Severus nodded, his gaze still on the floor.

“They got me today. On the train.”

Your eyes widened. “What… Sev, what do you mean?”

Severus closed his eyes as if the very memory of what happened was causing him physical pain.

“On the train home, they cornered me. Locked me in a cabin and…”

He trailed off shakily, and to your surprise, he lifted his jumper up to his chest.

Dark bruises were scattered across his entire torso and ribs. Your eyes widened as you took in the sight before you, and you had to fight to stifle the sob that surfaced.

This was why he was late. You realized. Something horrible happened.

“Is it that bad?” Severus’ voice was no louder than a whisper. You stepped forward, wrapping your hands around his own and helping him gently pull his jumper back down.

“I’ll get you ice.” You whispered back, keeping your hands over his. “You can stay here as long as you need to. Okay?”

Severus closed his eyes, breathing out a small sigh of relief.

He was so sad, so broken, and yet… he looked like an angel.

You stepped a little closer until your chests were almost touching, and you reached up to caress his face softly. Severus’ eyes snapped open at the sensation, but to your relief he didn’t shy away from you. If anything, he leaned into your touch.

“You should quit that stupid boarding school,” you whispered, laughing softly yet bitterly. “Come to my school. It’s a lot better.”

Severus closed his eyes and leaned into your touch even further, and you noticed how he visibly relaxed for the first time since you met him that morning.

“I can’t,” he whispered back. “I’ve got one year left, I have to finish.”

“Surely you could switch?” You asked, fighting the edge of desperation that creeped into your voice. “Think about it… no more stupid uniforms, we could spend the whole year together… besides, it’s not like they’re teaching you anything different. It’s all the same material as what we learn, right?”

Severus opened his eyes, and you could’ve sworn you caught a flash of sadness in his eyes as you spoke.

“It’s… it’s much more complicated than you think, Y/N.”

You sighed in defeat, leaning your head forward. You gave it your best shot every year to try and convince Severus to leave his boarding school, to come attend public school with you, but it never worked.

To your surprise, however, Severus leaned forward too, until his forehead was touching yours.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Y/N.”

You sighed, squeezing his hand gently.

“The months without you go by so slowly, Sev. I’ve missed you so much.”

Severus pulled back just enough to gaze at you, his eyes searching yours for any sign of a lie or a joke. You held his gaze steadily, however, barely catching in the process the quick glance he made at your lips.

“You mean it?” He whispered.

Part of you was terrified this wasn’t the right moment, especially since you weren’t sure how Severus was feeling after what he had shared with you, but you knew you couldn’t wait any longer.

Hell, you had to wait nine months to see Severus again. You couldn’t wait a moment longer.

Before you could convince yourself otherwise, you stepped on your toes and pressed a quick kiss against Severus’s lips. You broke away immediately, feeling heat rise quickly to your face as you looked away.

The seconds that passed between the two of you felt like years. For a second, you thought you blew it. You had gone and stupidly picked the worst moment ever to do something like this-

Before you knew what was happening, Severus was leaning over you, kissing you as if you were his very lifeline. It was rushed, a little sloppy, and you weren’t exactly sure where to put your hands, but this was really happening.

Severus was kissing you.

You broke away to the sound of the kettle whistling intrusively, and you couldn’t fight the giggles that surfaced as you attempted to break away. Severus held you firmly in place, his lips on yours in an instant.

“Wait- Sev-” you managed in between hurried kisses. “The kettle-”

“It’s water…” he grumbled, his grip on your waist tightening. “It can wait.”

You gave in, wrapping your arms around him again, only to earn a pained wince in response.

“I’m sorry,” you gasped, stepping back. You raced to move the kettle off the stove before glancing nervously at Severus again. “I’m so sorry… did I hurt you?”

Severus shook his head, stepping closer to you and extending his arms to request another hug.

“Be gentle.” You could almost hear a hint of a tease in his voice. The Sev you loved so dearly was coming back.

You nodded and, with a small smile, gave Severus a softer hug this time. His arms wrapped around you gently in return. Things felt right this time. No longer uneasy like earlier.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for a while,” you admitted sheepishly.

“How long?”

“…three years.”

With your head resting against his chest, you could feel Severus as he laughed at your response.

“It’s been five for me.”

“Why did you wait so long!?” You exclaimed. “I had no idea, I thought I screwed everything up when I kissed you!”

“I never thought…” his voice was quiet again. “I just never thought you’d like someone like me this way. James and Sirius, they said I’d never…”

Ah. So these were the imbeciles who were bullying Severus.

“Let me tell you something…” you said, leaning back just enough so you could gaze in Severus’s dark eyes. “I will personally kick both James and Sirius’s asses twice as hard if I ever see them.”

Severus gazed at you with a mix of sadness and admiration.

“Those two idiots have no idea how lucky they are to not have me at your boarding school,” you continued angrily. “Maybe this fall I’ll drop them a little visit-”

Severus cut you off by pressing his lips to yours, the kiss making your heart skip a beat with how passionate he was.

“What was that?” You asked breathlessly, earning a small smile from Severus.

“Thank you. For always protecting me.”

[tarithenurse]

Winter Solstice

Fandom: MCU AU. Pairing/starring: Loki x fem!reader. Word count: 3190. Content: Seasonal affective disorder, angst, fluff, smut at the end. A/N: So I thought of this seasonal fic...and then made a poll to see if it should end smuttily or not. You horny bastards (affectionately)! But fear not: there were a lot who wanted pure fluff and so there’s a warning before the smut starts so you can stop reading if you don’t want that.

Winter Solstice

Winter is dark – the sun rises at eight in the morning and sets at four in the afternoon. Winter is cold – but still not cold enough for snow except the kind that melts right away and leaves slushy heaps of grey splatter on the road where the cars have driven until that too is chased away by a new bout of rainy weather. Rain and wind. Blegh! The only comfort you can find is in lighting candles and sipping steaming tea.

It’s on one of these dark days that you’ve managed to get your self out for a walk, hoping it’ll stir up some endorphins to last you the rest of the day. Heavy boots on that can endure the mud, coat collar pulled high against the wind. You have about an hour before it’ll be dark – this is the shortest day of the year.

Then a white, fluffy flake drifts down before you, landing on the ground only to melt a moment later. Looking up, you see more snow fall from the dark clouds above, making you wish it’d stay to light up the world for a few days.

And as if to answer your prayer, the snowfall intensifies and soon everything is getting covered in a clingy layer of white, transforming the surroundings so they look almost alien to you. It’s getting colder too, allowing the flakes to turn from wet snow to the frosty and smaller kind that falls silently.

A little smile nips at your face as you take a different path than normal, entranced by the prettiness of everything.

But the snow keeps falling, denser and faster, making it hard to see your way and suddenly you don’t recognize where you are. Standing still, you listen for the sound of traffic to guide you to the bigger roads that in turn can lead you homewards.

All you can hear is the wind that’s picking up too.

Deciding to retrace your steps, you turn and trudge on but nothing looks familiar and the fork in the path you’ve followed doesn’t reappear even as darkness begins to fall.

Now you’re getting worried. The snow is stinging in your eyes, your hands are cold in your pockets and nothing seems like it should – it’s peculiar how snow can do that to a landscape.

Stopping to pull out your cellphone, you’re surprised to see that there’s no network, and as you foolhardy open the map, the GPS won’t locate you. Concern spikes in your guts and you try to calm yourself. You know you went to the west of your little town, meaning you should head east to find it again...but with the heavy clouds you have no way of discerning which way is what.

Either way, you can’t stay here. Stuffing the phone away with a shuddering sigh, you keep moving. Maybe you’ll come across someone who can help you? You don’t really believe that but it’s a faint hope to cling to as your force your breathing to slow, avoiding spiralling into hyperventilation.

Still, you feel panic creeping in as you walk. Even the plants, covered in snow, look weird now but you know it’s just your mind playing tricks on you.

Eventually, after what feels like hours in increasingly harder terrain, you come to a patch of dense evergreens, firs and pines that shield against what is turning into a veritable snowstorm and loom in the darkness. You don’t recall anything like this in your area that mainly consists of fields or trees like asp and oak. Something warns you against stepping in between the trees but you can’t stay out in the open any longer and underneath the trees are patches of shelter where no snow has made its way yet.

Seeking out one of those spots, you check your phone one more time to no avail. Then you hunker down. You’re tired from walking and your eyes feel strained from having tried to make out anything familiar through the snow. So you lean against the trunk and close your eyes for just a minute, promising yourself not to cry at your situation.

---

The world is moving. Wind is whipping against your face even if you’re tugged in against some sort of leathery surface. Tilting your head, you look through the snow and see the jaw and chin of someone above you. You’re vaguely aware that you should be worried now but you’re tired and cold. Again, you close your eyes and allow the rhythmic movement to lull you.

---

There are soft voices murmuring nearby, speaking a language you are not familiar with.

Opening your eyes, you see a silken canopy above where you’re lying: emerald green with golden embroideries held aloft by black wood carved to looks like tree trunks.

Looking around further, you’re vaguely aware of a grand room with a crackling fireplace but your eyes are captivated by the man standing by the door, speaking with someone beyond the room: black hair and pale skin. Jaw and cheekbone that could have been cut from marble and matches his stature. He’s tall. He’s hot. Leather and silk adorn his frame and he oozes authority. Then suddenly he looks to you and his eyes drill into your very soul, making you freeze up.

Closing the door with a crooked smile, he comes over to sit on the edge of the bed, a hand partially reaching for you before falling to the top of the fur that covers the mound you’re under. He says something you don’t understand.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand you,” you manage to mumble.

Cocking his head, he seems genuinely surprised. “You are from Midgard,” he says, more to himself than to you, “how did you come here? What is your name?”

“No, I’m from...wait...” Old memories about mythology lessons and books you’ve read come to mind. “Where am I?”

“You first,” he shakes his head.

Uncertain what he expects, you tell him where you come from and your name which he repeats. You like the way it sounds when he says it.

“I found you in the snowstorm...purely by chance but it was your luck or you would surely have frozen to death,” the man explains, “I have taken you with me to Valhalla here in Asgard. My name is Loki.”

You gape at him. You can’t help it. “How?” you just ask, knowing instinctively that he isn’t lying.

“That is what I would like to know too.”

Explaining anything is hard, but you try your best, causing him to look pensive.

“There are passages between our worlds. Most have been closed or are guarded...but it seems you have stumbled through one that no one knew of,” he ventures. “Perhaps it is related to the winter solstice?” You’re not sure what to say to that, so you just stay quiet as he thinks. “The magics are stronger at times like these...the Norns must be amused by this.”

You vaguely recall that the Norns are fate-stitchers of Nordic mythology but you hope they haven’t done this on purpose although...you have to school your features as you realize what you were about to think: you don’t mind sitting here in the company of this handsome stranger. Loki.

“I shall ensure to bring you home but not tonight,” he says, making you frown, “now that you are here, you may as well be treated to the full experience and partake in our yuletide feast.”

Grabbing your hand, he firmly guides you out of bed and looks you over. Looking down at yourself too, you realize that he’s gotten then rain pants and your coat off you so you’re just standing in woolly socks, leggings, and the oversized sweater. But then he flicks his fingers and a golden shimmer envelops you and before your eyes your clothes transform to a gorgeous dress of the same green as above the bed with golden embroideries. Sheer fabric hugs your arms and shoulders before turning opaque as it travels over your chest and all the way to the floor.

“Much better,” he smiles appreciatively.

“How...?”

He grins. “Oh, but you know already.”

And you do: magic.

Guiding you by the shoulders, Loki turns you to a mirror where you can admire your new look before you finally remember your manners and thank him profusely.

“I do not ask for much in return,” he smiles. Bending down he whispers in your ear: “Just be my princess at the feast.”

Something warm settles in your guts and you nod without hesitation.

---

The hall for the feast is massive, the ceiling high above kept aloft with large pillars in a mix of stone and wood that in turn are decorated with the green of spruce with candles flickering merrily while no one seems to worry about the fire hazard, and from them baubles of gold and vermilion hang in silken threads, swaying gently whenever someone passes. Great fire pits are laid into the stone floor, roaring with burning logs to keep the grand hall warm for all the people seated at the long tables.

The feast is loud and busy and you are introduced to people you, until a few hours ago, only believed to be part of mythology. Made up stories that had brought an ancient people together. But now...now you’re dining with them, drinking with them. Dressed like you and Loki, they are friendly and boisterous, often proposing toasts by shouting out the word “skål”.

Sitting by the high table, you hardly can concentrate to eat of the delicious food for sheer nerves and because you are all too distracted by everything, but Loki manages to get both food and drink into you and it does your well. You’re warm, your belly is full and the mead is singing in your blood.

“Dance with me?” Loki asks suddenly and doesn’t wait for your answer before sweeping you out on the floor.

He leads you effortlessly and for the first time in your life you feel as though you can move properly to the music even if it’s foreign to you. Following his steps, you twirl and dip, soon out of breath as a bright smile splits your face.

“Ravishing,” he purrs in your ear as he pulls you closer. Heat rushes to your face and you almost miss a step. “Perhaps I should keep you here?”

Some part of your logical thinking that still works immediately begins to explain to you why you can’t but your heart is singing with joy at his words.

Loki has been the perfect date: charming, attentive, intelligent...and yes, handsome too. You are thoroughly smitten by him and while you don’t quite get why he’s lavishing all his attention onto you, you’re not one to complain.

“When we celebrate the winter solstice,” Loki murmurs against your cheek, “we celebrate the shifting of the seasons, that the sun will return – win its battle over the darkness of winter.” He pulls back briefly to meet your gaze. A mix of green, blue and grey swallows you. “I am a child of the winter. I like the cold and the dark,” he admits, “yet now...now I have found the sun I wish to greet with joy.”

Bringing your hand to his lips, he kisses your fingers gently and something sparkles when he retracts from the touch: a thin golden band with a single emerald glistens in the light.

“Loki...” you don’t know what to say.

“It is my thanks to you. Should you think of me and wish me near, you need only twist the ring and I shall come for you,” he smiles softly before his gaze flicks to something or someone behind you and he nods.

---

Turning over in your bed, you brain is full of music and your heart swells at the memories. Wait. Your bed? Sitting up with a shock, you look around to find that you’re home.

Was it all a dream?

Heartbroken, you push the cover aside but catch a warm glimmer in the corner of your eye and as you look down on your hand, you see the ring. Gold and emerald. Hard and real. No, nothing had been a dream and resolutely you grasp the ring, twisting it around your finger before rushing to the window and pushing the curtain aside.

Outside, wet snow is falling, partially melting where it lands. It might be noon but it’s dark enough that you’d need a light to read by.

You don’t know what you’d expected...but the silent nothing that happens is too much to bear. There’s no one and you feel your heart slowly crumbling as you step backwards only to collide with something.

“My sun,” a voice purrs and your heart leaps, suddenly whole again.

Turning, you look up at Loki who smiles at you, his arms enveloping your figure just like you reach to curls your fingers into his hair and tug him closer so your lips can meet for the first time.

[Smut incoming!]

It’s not light and chaste. It’s devouring. Pulling you flush against him, Loki possesses your body from that moment as you gladly give in, allowing his tongue to sweep past your lips and tangle with yours. A tiny whimper escapes your chest and he growls in return, lips curling into a smile even as he doesn’t part from you. One of his hands glides up your back and come to rest at the nape of your neck, tickling slightly and eliciting goosebumps to run down your spine.

It’s divine.

And you want more.

Slowly, you begin to walk him backwards to the bed, causing him to bump into it and lose his balance. Feeling victorious and brave you follow, straddling him.

“My my,” he purrs, “someone is bold.”

You seek out his lips, shutting him up with a kiss before you start second questioning yourself.

Grabbing your hips, Loki grinds up against you, allowing you to feel a hard bulge that rubs tauntingly against your clothed cunt and makes you gasp.

“This won’t do at all,” the god growls, snapping his fingers.

In a golden shimmer yours and his clothes disintegrate, allowing you to admire his body: long and lean, with muscles that coil and bulge with every movement as he reaches to push your upright and you involuntarily move to cover your breasts and crotch.

“Let me see you,” he begs, softly moving your arms aside.

His gaze is both soft and hungry as he looks at you. Pupils widening along with his smile, you’re convinced he likes what he sees...if for no other reason then the insisting nudging of his erection beneath you.

“So beautiful,” you whispers in awe. Allowing his hands to shift to your waist, he slide along the curve of your hips, your thighs. “Move up,” he orders, lust dripping from the two simple words.

“What?”

But he’s already pulling at you, getting you to shift to kneeling over his face so he can place a kiss onto your clit before licking a broad stripe along your folds. You’re already wet and Loki hums in delight, smacking his lips as if it’s the most delicious thing he’s ever tasted...and judging by how he dives in he might be a man starved.

Never have you been with anyone this good: it takes him only a few moments before you’re a moaning mess with shaking legs and still he doesn’t relent. Suckling on your clit, his tongue flicks it repeatedly only to stray now and then to enter you, licking up your juices and feeling the flutter of your cunt when he enters. You’re seeing double and your fingers are buried in his hair – every time you tug at the strands, he growls and the vibrations travel to your very core that’s clenching hard, ready to snap at any moment.

“Cum,” he growls against your cunt.

And you do. With a shout, your back arches as raw bliss rocks you. It steals your breath away. Up and down doesn’t make sense anymore as you feel your world tumble around you.

No wait...the world has moved and you’re on your back with Loki above you and his hips are slotted against yours as he slowly sinks his cock into your heat, causing new ripples to rush through you. You can’t help how your knees rise to hold him and your nails dig into his back. Can’t help how you keen loudly as your cunt flutters around his cock for a second before gripping him tight and pulling him deeper.

The god groans, his forehead against yours and his hair a wild mess that cascades around your faces.

When he kisses you, you can taste yourself on his lips and tongue and it makes you wonder how he’d taste. But then he rocks his hips and you forget everything else than the drag of his cock inside you. You don’t believe in fate or soulmates...but you have to fuzzily acknowledge that he fits you perfectly: dragging along your sweet spot, the tip of his crown just kisses your cervix in a way that borders painful but just exactly isn’t. It’s addictive.

Breaking free of the kiss, you gasp for air, your entire body thrumming with the new build-up, making you rock your hips to meet his thrusts.

“Too good to me,” he gasps in between the kisses and bites he bestows along your neck and shoulder.

Pushing himself up, the man brings your legs onto his shoulders in a manner that has your cunt squeezing him and allowing him to rut into you at a renewed pace.

“Touch yourself,” he groans.

You start with your breasts but he grabs your hand and shoves it between your legs and who are you to argue? Eager, your fingers find your clit and start circling, winding you even tighter.

“So close,” you gasp.”

“Yes,” he growls, “cum for me.”

Pressing a bit harder, you increase the pace and focus on the feeling of Loki’s cock pistonning in and out of you.

That does it. With a silent scream, you topple over the edge once more, body locking up as the hot quakes of your orgasm rolls through you. Your cunt clamps down tightly onto Loki and his hips stutter as he rams as deep into you as he can and releases with a shout.

He keeps rocking slowly, riding out both of your highs and prolonging them until you beg for him to stop. Then he slowly pulls out with a hiss and collapses next to you in the bed. His hand finds yours, fingers interlocking.

It takes a while before any of you can do anything but try to catch your breath.

But eventually you turn to look at him: “Will you always come when I twist the ring?”

“I may not be able to arrive as swiftly, but yes.”

You turn to the side, free hand splaying on his chest where you can feel his heartbeat. “But you’ll stay for a bit now?”

“If you will have me? You are my sun...I need you.”

“I’ll have you,” you smile.

[lokigodofaces]

Since I've been seeing more and more anti-Wanda stuff lately, I thought I'd write something out and express my thoughts in a low-key venty manner.

I really don't trust the vast majority of Wanda criticizers*.

There is so much misogyny, victim blaming, dismissal of trauma, etc. I cannot believe it. And most of this started during WandaVision.

Okay I saw criticisms before mostly for Age of Ultron but it was your classic "poorly written" criticisms which I disagree with I think that in the majority of movies she was in they did a decent enough job of writing her. The only major ones I saw were because they wrote her and Pietro as part of Hydra initially. A) That definitely was not the most well thought out decision of Marvel's, given that they are Jewish and Roma in the comics but of course they've been whitewashed so Feige didn't see it as a concern. B) If it weren't for their ethnicities, it would be kind of genius if it had been fleshed out more. Real life Nazi organizations prey on young people who have been mistreated (or perceive themselves to be mistreated) by the government or other authority figures and groom them to be fascists. Don't get me wrong, definitely insensitive to have that happen with these two given ethnicity, but unfortunately that is kind of accurate still. Unfortunately, this fascist groups manage to get POC, LGBTQ+, and other minority groups to join them. TL;DR: the way AoU handled it was not written well, but it definitely could have been something note worthy if the time had been taken to analyze this. Never claimed that Wanda was written perfectly, will be the first to admit that there are problems as well. But I will say that I used to see lots of people claiming she was "boring" pre-Infinity War. Idk, maybe I wasn't seeing what everyone else was, that's 100% a possibility. Like I said, this is more of a vent post than an academic paper.

Infinity War and Endgame I didn't see that much criticism, but those are the movies where they let Wanda be awesome and powerful so yeah guess no one had too much to say. Other than the occasional dudebro being mad that women can be powerful characters, there wasn't much I saw.

Then we get to WandaVision. Now y'all no by now that I am not a fan of the majority of newer MCU stuff. WandaVision is definitely one of those exceptions. Brilliant series. I was going wild as it was being released. I was so unbelievably hyped for Multiverse of Madness after this (Stephen and Wanda! Two of my favs! Together!). And the majority of it was really good, loved the other characters (or loved to hate them, in the case of Hayward lol), loved the sitcom references, it was a very enjoyable series. And as it came out, I didn't see much criticisms other than the reasonable ones (it isn't a flawless series). But we started to run into some things I hated, and it would just get worse and worse as time would go on.

People have no ability to understand morally grey characters these days. Any Wanda, Bucky, or Loki fan will tell you this because Marvel's been doing them dirty and the fandom hasn't been much better.

What was WandaVision about? Grief and trauma and how difficult it is to overcome these. And I think they did a pretty dang good job at that. But then what does everyone do? Freak the heck out because Wanda took over Westview. Well, first off the series suggests that Wanda wasn't even aware of it for the first couple episodes. Then at the end it implies that Wanda was not aware that she was causing pain the citizens were feeling and she tried to get them all to leave once she found that one out. And you've got Agatha who was messing around, killing dogs, manipulating Wanda, and mind controlling Ralph. And let's not forget the pressure from S.W.O.R.D and Hayward being irrational about it (he literally shot his gun at kids and his employee who tried to protect them and people try to defend him). All Wanda wanted was to be happy and have her family (no one gets mad when other MCU characters do that, such as Tony in Endgame). By no means does this justify her actions, but she is villainized so much over something when clearly her motivations are not out of ill intent but out of trauma, grief, desperation, and also being provoked by Hayward right before she got to Westview. She is feeling all of these emotions, and clearly her powers somehow got stronger/she unlocked or leveled up/something idk that's never explained as she is feeling all of this. I mean, if I had powers as ridiculously strong as Wanda's, it'd be hard for me to control them on rough days.

WandaVision introduced us to this very complex narrative of Wanda doing something wrong but not because she had ill intent yet not wanting to give up the little happiness she is feeling while she is also being manipulated by Agatha and Hayward. It isn't black or white. She isn't a villain, but she isn't Westview's hero. She's a grieving woman that needs therapy and also help to learn about her growing magic (ie what Multiverse of Madness should have been).

But half the time you see anything about Wanda in WV it's just saying that she was evil, that she was purposely hurting the citizens, that it was for nothing but fake kids, etc. Dismissal of trauma. Victim blaming. Misogyny. Let me tell you, if Wanda was a man everyone would claim that he was a good father and that he only wanted to build a family. But noOoOoO, she's a woman so she can't be complicated.

Then we get to Multiverse of Madness. Pretty sure Waldron never watched WandaVision (a literal masterpiece) before writing the flaming pile of trash he calls a script. There's so much to unpack about how Waldron didn't write her well, how she became a villain out of literally nowhere, how while Agents of SHIELD definitely supports the idea of a Darkhold twisted villain even still Radcliffe never was pure evil he was simply misguided by a sudden overflow of information that didn't happen all at once, etc. There's a lot. But, hey, it basically sums up what antis have to say about Wanda. Because Waldron seems to hate every single character he has written other than some select people in the TVA!

Now, even more motivated by the awful writing of DSMOM, antis say that Wanda was crazy for a desire to have kids (again, would they have said the same thing if she was a man?) and that she was actually this villainous the whole time (show me your receipts because even the beginnings of Age of Ultron showed her not being completely evil). And I could go on, they say so much. But, as I have said, all of it is dismissal of trauma, victim blaming, and/or misogyny.

But it's caused me to be very suspicious of people who claim to hate Wanda. Which obviously no one has to like her. Totally understand that she might not appeal to some people that like different tropes and whatnot, that is definitely understandable. But whenever anyone starts to lean into anti territory, I just have to wonder why. Why do you hate Wanda so much? Tell me why? Because generally when I find out why, it's because she's evil and insane and tortures whole towns without remorse (canonically not even true).

*Disclaimer: I am not referring to anyone criticizing the MCU and it's whitewashing of Wanda. That is a reasonable concern. I am talking about everything else listed in the post.

[rems-writing]

An encounter with a Moon Knight

Pairing: Apollo!Hongjoong × MoonKnight!reader (platonic)

Warning(s): It starts out so well and then it gets depressing at the end

Genre: Fluff with an angsty ending

Nets: @blossomnet @mirohs-aurora-society

Context: Apollo is the god of music and the sun. He has a twin sister named Artemis, who is the goddess of the hunt and the moon.

Side note: ok originally I was gonna put the reader as a demigod. However, due to the fact that I didn't finish the PJO series on Disney Plus, I had to improvise

Once I catch up on the PJO series, maybe I'll write this trope again. But we'll see! Anyways

Includes: Yunho as Thor, Yeosang as Ptah, San as Hercules, Wooyoung as Loki, and Jongho as Sekhmet. There will be a tiny mention of Seonghwa as Anubis, but other than that, the ancient Egyptian god of the dead is completely gone. In addition, Mingi will not be in this as well. If you want to know where Seonghwa and Mingi have gone, you may read this so you can find them.

Thank you to @bunnliix for helping me decide the order of the fics I should write and post

In Greece's city square, people all around are doing the most normal things. From buying food/groceries at market stands to walking and chatting amongst themselves about whatever is going on in their lives, it seems like life is easy going, especially for the young god of music and the sun.

The Olympians know him as Apollo, but the mortals know him as Hongjoong.

Hongjoong was at a small cafe drinking coffee and munching on a sandwich slowly as he writes notes on empty staff paper, occasionally dipping his quill into an inkpot if he ran out of ink. He hums softly to himself whilst notating the melody at the same time. It was just another average day for him and he couldn't have been happier.

Until he heard a commotion from outside.

Snapping his head up, he looked out the window to see people gathering around or running towards the crowd to gather around. Looking at his surroundings, he waited until the coast was clear before snapping his fingers. The materials on the table disappeared, except for his coffee and sandwich. He packed up it and stood up from his table before bidding goodbye to the cafe's owner and exiting the small coffee shop so he could join the crowd.

He approached the crowd and squeezed through carefully to see what was going on. He asked one of the people for context on what was happening and that person simply pointed out something that was laying on the ground. Hongjoong turned his head slowly and his face paled.

That wasn't something.

It was someone.

As he got closer, his godly senses were on high alert. It didn't help that the crowd closed in on him now while he crouched down to see who this person was. A silent gasp escaped his lips as he saw the face of the person that was laying on the ground unconscious.

It was one of Khonshu's Moon Knights.

More specifically, it was the Moon Knight that Seonghwa Anubis explicitly told his godly brethren to not go near at all costs.

Y/N.

As the Spector twin laid unconscious, Hongjoong breathed in deeply before standing up to address the crowd.

"GUYS, IF YOU COULD PLEASE TAKE A STEP BACK AND ALLOW A BIT OF BREATHING ROOM FOR OUR GUEST! I'LL TAKE CARE OF THEM!"

His voice rang out throughout the city square and the people, albeit still concerned or curious, obeyed his command and stepped back as much as possible so he could pick up the unconscious twin and carry them to safety.

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You didn't know how you ended up in Greece, yet you did either way.

One minute, you were with Marc in some random town to try and complete this fuckass mission Khonshu sent you guys on. The next minute, the both of you were thrown out of said town and went flying across the globe. You had no idea where your brother was and you were panicking. You felt a hand on your shoulder and you instantly knew that there was a godly presence behind you. Frozen in your place, you slowly looked up to see a kind man looking down at you with concern.

And he was pretty.

Soft lips, pretty nose, high cheekbones, brown eyes that were comforting, and an even prettier smile. His body was clad in an off-white t-shirt with some logo on it and a pair of black gym shorts.

What caught your attention the most was the tattoo peeking out of his sleeve. You tilted your head to the side to try and read it.

"No1LikeMe"

Even though your voice was hoarse, Hongjoong's smile grew bigger as you read the words on his tattoo out loud. You seemed calmer now, which was exactly what he wanted. He sat down next to you on the bed and tucked a strand of hair behind your ear.

"Are you ok?"

His voice was soft and a bit high pitched yet it carried a light feeling as he spoke. You nodded and stretched a bit before sighing and looking at him.

"Thanks for rescuing me. Um... weird question, but which god are you? I sensed a powerful aura when you approached me."

"Ahh. That's fine. My human name is Kim Hongjoong, but in this city's mythology, I'm known as Apollo."

You nodded in acknowledgement to his answer. You studied up on a bit of Greek mythology when you were younger so to have the god of music sitting right next to you was a bit overwhelming but in a good way.

"How long was I out?"

"For about three days."

THREE DAYS?!

WELL SHIT

You laughed awkwardly and were prepared to apologize when you felt his hand grab yours gently. You noticed that he had his pinky finger painted in an olive-green nail polish. You thought that was unique.

"Don't apologize, Y/N. I assumed you were on a mission and somehow, it went sideways and you ended up crash landing here."

Seeing the apprehension on your face due to him knowing your name without you telling him, Hongjoong quickly clarified.

"Before you ask, Anubis told us about you. How he let you go since he would feel even worse if he took you to the Field of Reeds at such a young age after dying underneath the statue of Khonshu."

Upon hearing the old bird's name, you cringed.

"Speaking of that fuckass pigeon, we were on a mission for him. The enemy was strong and we got defeated easily. Hence, how I landed here."

Hongjoong nodded in acknowledgement as you clarified your unannounced presence.

"Ahh. I see. If I may ask, are you in a rush to get back on that mission? If not, I can ask my sister to fend off Khonshu whilst you recover and find a way to contact Marc."

Upon hearing Artemis's name, you nodded eagerly. She was your favorite moon deity and Olympian goddess so you took Hongjoong's offer up quickly.

"Will I have to do anything for her in return?"

"Other than maybe hunt some things for her, not really. Just recover. I'll help you find a way to get in touch with Marc."

"Thank you, Apollo."

"Just call me Hongjoong. Hearing my official name makes our friendship too formal."

You blushed out of awkwardness and Hongjoong patted your head before snapping his fingers. A record player appeared and his music was playing in the background. The soft melody made you relax and forget about everything as you laid down and fell back asleep.

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That encounter happened three months ago. Ever since then, Hongjoong has been keeping up with updates about you through Artemis. As he sat in the same spot in the cafe and composed more music, his mind was completely in the zone.

Until Artemis sprinted into the cafe in her own human disguise and haphazardly sat across from him.

Startled by her sudden appearance, Hongjoong flinched and looked up. Usually, Artemis was calm and neutral so seeing her all frazzled and bewildered was unsettling.

"What's wrong, dear sister?"

"I've been given a message from Taweret. She said that you need to meet up with your friends for a meeting. With the urgency in her voice, I fear it's something bad."

Hongjoong nodded firmly and packed up everything before snapping his fingers and transporting himself from the cafe to the usual meet up place.

A secret room within The Colosseum.

He was soon met with the faces of his beloved friends.

Jeong Yunho, aka Thor Odinson

Kang Yeosang, aka Ptah

Choi San, aka Hercules

Jung Wooyoung, aka Loki Laufeyson

And Choi Jongho, aka Sekhmet

He saw a curly haired woman sitting in Seonghwa's Anubis's place and he instantly recognized who she was.

Layla El-Faouly, the wife of Marc Spector.

She served as Taweret's temporary avatar before so Hongjoong assumed that the hippo goddess asked permission to take over Layla once again since she can't leave the Duat.

"Hello, Layla. It's nice to meet you." Hongjoong politely said and Layla shyly waved. San raked over her awkward form and he was about to say something when Wooyoung whacked him over the head.

"San! She's married! And she's only here for a short time. So stop it!" Wooyoung hissed.

Ever since the Norse god of mischief started dating that Avenger in his timeline, Hongjoong noticed an air of maturity surrounding him. He was still playful and silly, but this time, he actually took things seriously.

Hongjoong noticed Layla stand straight momentarily before going back to normal. However, instead of the French accent she spoke with, a British accent came out of her mouth.

Taweret was here.

As the hippo goddess wrung her hands nervously, she looked to the rest of the gods, who were watching her intently.

"Um... so. I have an announcement for you all."

She breathed in and out shakily before continuing to speak.

"A lot of you are wondering why Anubis isn't here. Well... there is a reason. But at the end of the day, I am just the messenger."

She held out her hand and a scarab appeared. As it flew in her hand, its bioluminescent wings shone brightly to make a screen appear.

In the screen was Seonghwa, aka Anubis

"Hi, everyone. If you're seeing this message, then that means... I'm truly gone."

Everyone gasped, including Hongjoong. Only Yeosang and Jongho were the only ones that weren't as shocked with this revelation.

They knew.

"I'm not really dead per say, but... I've decided to join the mortal world. My memories as the ancient Egyptian god of the dead have been left behind in the Duat. I am a new man in a new body with a clear mind and an open clean heart. You may be wondering to yourselves now. Why would I do this?"

Hongjoong had a feeling but he decided to let his friend say it.

"As all of you were aware, Y/N was in the Duat momentarily when that follower of Ammit shot my beloved twice and left them to die."

Everyone cringed at Ammit's name, including Yunho. And he was usually the brightest god in their friend group.

"I took care of them and made sure they went back with Taweret to the land of the living so they could stop Ammit's wrath. However, in the process... my heart was broken once more."

A quiet sniffle from the god made Hongjoong's heart lurch in pain.

"I wanted to be selfish. I wanted to keep them to myself. However, if I did, then Ammit would've taken over the world. And I couldn't have that. I expressed my frustration with Taweret. She told me that I could be reunited with Y/N... for a small price."

A lone tear ran down the god's face.

"Did I pay it? Yes. Was it worth it...?"

The god smiled sadly yet it was bright and full of love.

"Yes. It was. By the time this message ends, I will most likely be in a new body with a new name. Do not search for me. Rather... remember me and make sure my old name lives on. Goodbye, my dear friends. May we reunite again someday."

The message soon ends and Taweret made the scarab disappear before comforting a crying Yunho. Wooyoung was comforting San while Hongjoong exchanged a knowing look with Yeosang and Jongho.

The three of them knew that this day would come. And yet...

They can't help the small grins on their faces. After all...

Their friend deserved to be happy.

[michelleleewise]

Hi hi it's me again! I hope it's ok to send another request 👉👈

I had this idea where y/n is an Avenger and has the power to shape shift her appearance to look however she wants. She doesn't use her real name, and when she's with the avengers she always looks like a really tall and fit beautiful woman, so everyone just assumes that's how she really looks. She gets along with everyone except for Loki who's oddly cold towards her and they kind of bicker a lot. He doesn't know why, but he just has a feeling in his gut that she's hiding something, so he doesn't trust her like everyone else does. Then one day when out in the city, maybe at a library or cafe, Loki bumps into y/n without any disguise on, and she looks the opposite of how she always makes herself look around the avengers, so Loki doesn't even recognise her. Knowing he doesn't recognise her, she doesnt tell loki who she is and instead she tells him her real name, pretending to be strangers, and over time the two bond and become really close, because she's being more herself without her disguise on and loki grows to trust her and fall for her. But just as he's about to confess his feelings one day, he somehow finds out y/n is the same woman as the shape-shifting avenger, and he feels betrayed and hurt that she hid that from him all this time. She has to finally confess everything to loki that she was always really insecure about her appearance so chose to always shape-shift into someone more beautiful 99% of the time, thinking no one would ever like the real her, and when loki accidentally bumped into the real her, she thought he'd never like someone who looked like her as more than a friend, so kept up the lie in the hopes at least the beautiful avenger version of herself might one day have a shot with him 🥺

Sorry that was suuper long, I hope it makes sense and I'm really sorry it's a lot 😅 thank you so much for all your wonderful fics I love them all so so much aasjfhsf ❤️❤️❤️

ERHMEGHERD!!!!!!! this is an absolutely wonderful idea!!!! Love....love....love it!!!!! And you can send as many requests to me as you like!!! I thoroughly enjoy reading them and am honored you send them to me!! 🥰🥰🥰 thank you so much!! I hope this turns out the way you hoped!! 💚💚💚

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Hidden

Pairing: Avenger Loki x shape-shifting f! Readed

Warnings: self esteem issues, self deprecating thoughts, body issues, lies, shape-shifting, chubby reader, minor betrayal, hurt feelings, angst, fluff, swearing

Summary: you had always hidden yourself away, never feeling enough....until one day you realize you are....

A/n- graphics by @harlequin-hangout......sorry this is super long!! Lol totally got away from me haha

You looked in the mirror, closing your eyes you concentrated feeling the change wash over you making you shiver. No matter how many times you had done it you would never get used to the feeling. Opening your eyes meeting familiar but different ones, you pushed your long purple hair back over your shoulder, the baggy clothes now snug against your tall frame. You reached up, stretching and bending as you adjusted to this form "well, time to face the day." You said smiling at the person in the mirror before walking to the door heading towards the kitchen.

You walked in seeing it empty making you release the breath you were holding. Relishing in the silence you grabbed a bowl form the cabinet filling it with cereal, turning to the fridge you leaned over grabbing the milk jumping as you stood up "Holy shit Loki!' You yelled seeing the god had appeared out of nowhere. "Apologies, did I catch you off guard...amethyst." He sneered walking around you. "You just startled me is all." You smiled returning to your bowl. "What are your plans today?" You asked offering him a smile "I do not believe that is your concern." He snarked putting the kettle on the stove "what is your problem?" You asked slamming the milk on the counter. You stood your ground as he turned to you meeting your eyes, this form only slightly shorter then him "I simply do not see why you want to know...we are not friends." He said crossing his arms.

You sighed looing down "Loki, I've tried to get to know you but you don't make it easy." You said grabbing the milk putting it back "because I don't trail after you as my brother does, or because I don't fawn over you as the captain does?" He asked tilting his chin up "I've only ever wanted to be friends with you Loki but you refuse!" You said slamming the fridge closed "I do not need any friends, especially ones such as you." He sneered "what is that supposed to mean?" You asked crossing your arms "you may have the others under your spell, but I am not fooled as easily." He said stepping forward "there is...something you are hiding, something the others don't know." He said staring into your eyes. You swallowed hard trying to avoid his gaze "I don't know what.." he cut you off "yes...please try to lie to me." He smiled making your nervous. "Forget it, I have to go." You said stepping around him towards the hall.

"Oh, hello lady amethyst." Thor said stepping into the room "Hey Thor." You said quickly walking past him. "Brother, what did you do?" Thor asked stepping up to the counter "you assume it was me?' He asked arching his eyebrows "loki, everyone knows you don't like her, which is puzzling." Thor laughed sitting down "and why is that?" Loki asked grabbing a mug "because, she is tall, beautiful, the exact type you would have bedded many times on Asgard." Thor smiled seeing Loki roll his eyes "there is something off about her, she's hiding something." Loki said sternly. "I do not trust her." He continued as the kettle screamed "you do not trust anyone brother, give her a chance." Thor said standing leaving the room. Loki looked at the clock slamming his cup down "norns, now I am going to be late." He said quickly hurrying to his room.

You adjusted your dress, stuffing your other outfit into your bag unlocking the stall. Walking to the sink you checked your phone seeing Loki was going to be there anytime. "Ok...everything is fine." You closed your eyes taking a deep breath, opening your eyes meeting familiar ones. "Welcome back." You said to yourself fluffing your hair. Pulling your skirt down covering as much as the dress allowed you grabbed your bag walking out into the Cafe. You looked around, releasing a breath seeing Loki wasn't there yet you walked up to the counter ordering your usual caramel machiotto and his earl grey tea. Grabbing the cups you made your way through the Cafe to your usual booth feeling everyone's eyes on you. You sighed, taking a seat setting his cup across from you as you rubbed your temples.

This was your usual spot when you needed an escape from the tower, where you could be another faceless person in the crowd. No one knew who you were, what you could do. And after Thor and Loki moved into the tower it became essential. You had wanted nothing more then to get to know Loki, the way he carried himself, his velvet soft hair you wanted to wrap your fingers in, his laugh that made your heart flutter at the sound only intensified the evergrowing feelings you had for him. But no matter how many men oogled you as "amethyst", loki wouldnt give you the time of day. It was puzzling watching him flirt with other women at Tony's parties while completely ignoring your existance, until the arguments began. You had grown accustomed to his coldness towards you but something had changed, everytime you were in the same room he had a snarky comment, a rude remark ready to sling at a moments notice and if you were honest it broke your heart.

Four months ago, after a rather nasty argument with Loki you came here to deflate, to try to pull yourself together. Ordering your coffee you turned only to run into the one man you were trying to get away from. You craned your neck looking up at him, your original form being considerably shorter "my apologies, I wasn't watching where I was going." He smiled down at you grabbing your elbow to steady you "oh i..its ok, really. No harm done." You smiled up at him noticing he hadn't let go of your arm "my name is Loki." He smiled releasing your elbow holding his hand out. You stared at it for a minute before slowly reaching out "y/n, my names y/n." You smiled as he leaned down kissing the back of it. "If I may be so bold, are you here with anyone?" He asked straightening "n..no, I'm on my own...you?" You asked shifting back and forth "I am as well, I needed to get away for a while." He said. "Well, you could join me...if you want to." You said seeing him smile. "I would love to." He said following you to your booth. You shook your head, clearing the memory when the bell above the door rang and a head of dark curls walked in.

"My apologies darling, had a bit of an issue at work." He smiled sitting down. "It's ok Loki, I ordered your tea." You smiled looking down "you are my hero dove." He said sipping his drink. You looked up at him, his bright green eyes shining at you like stars in the night sky. You wanted to tell him, everything in you wanted to yell the truth at him, tell him who you really were but you knew it would make him hate you and you couldnt lose him. He hated amethyst, of course he would hate you too. "Is something wrong darling?" He asked pulling you out of your thoughts "no, no I'm fine, what happened at work?" You asked changing the subject. "Oh it was nothing, we have a team member, amethyst and I simply do not trust her." He said making you cringe. "Oh, why is that?" You asked fidgeting with your cup "everyone trusts her implicitly, but there is something, I can't quite place it but I will figure it out." He said sipping his tea

"enough about me, tell me about your day darling." He smiled leaning forward on the table. You did your best to swallow your heartache he didnt trust you as you sipped your coffee "Well, nothing too exciting honeslty, i..." you were cut off by his phone ringing "sorry dear one second." He said looking down at the screen "I am very sorry but I have been called on a mission so I must go." He said standing up. You stood with him as he tucked his phone back in his pocket "I should be back in a couple of days, I will call you as soon as I return." He smiled "ok, be careful please." You said, stepping forward wrapping your arms around him "I will darling, do not worry." He said hugging you back. You closed your eyes, listening to the steady beat of his heart knowing this was the only way you would ever be this close to him.

He pulled back holding your arms "I will see you soon." He said grabbing his cup as he walked out of the shop. You flopped back down in the booth sighing "your a coward y/n." You said to yourself as your phone buzzed, pulling it out seeing it was Steve telling you you were paired with Loki on a mission leaving in twenty. "Fuck!" You yelled, throwing your phone in your bag you looked up seeing everyone staring at you "sorry." You said grabbing your things your quickly made your way back to the tower wishing you could brake your leg on the way.

"Loki, where are you!?" You yelled into the coms, stabbing another agent as he lunged at you. "Worry about yourself agent." He sneered into the earpiece. "We are supposed to be working together loki!" You yelled, quickly shifting into a snake as another group of agents ran in "I do not work with liars." You heard as you slithered away from the earpiece. "Hey, ever seen a purple snake?" You head one of them ask, lifting your head seeing them all looking at you you closed your eyes shifted again, this time turning into the hulk...well a purple one. "Shit!" One of them yelled as you barreled at them, knocking them through the wall into the other room before stumbling back. You hated shifting into something this large, it took too much energy to maintain but with Loki a no show you didn't have a choice. You leaned on a desk, trying to catch your breath hearing footsteps running into the room "amethyst?" You heard Loki's voice making you turn. You closed your eyes, slowly shifting back to your alias as he walked into the now destroyed room.

"Um, you may want to.." he trailed off looking away waving his hand. You looked down in shock remembering when you shifted earlier you left your clothes in the corner. You quickly walked over, stepping into your suit, zipping it up you teetered to the side holding your head "what is wrong with you?" He snapped walking towards you "n..nothing...mm fine." You mumbled grabbing the folder you had come for "just tell me." He said grabbing your arm "why? It's not like you give a shit." You snapped turning back to him seeing two of him. "I do not want the team to think I have done something to you." He said releasing you "yes, c..cause it's all about you." You said, feeling tears well in your eyes "if it were up to you, you would let me die wouldn't you?" You snarked, stepping nose to nose with him when you heard something behind you.

You felt him grab your shoulders, trying to move you when a loud bang sounded through the room. A sharp pain shot through your back making you gasp and arch into him gripping his arms when he turned you holding you to him as he threw a dagger across the room with the other. "L..loki...what..." you stuttered, trying to reach behind you "amethyst, look at me." He said sternly making you look up. "You will be fine, we're going back to the jet." He said quietly staring into your eyes "n..no, y..you go." You said shakely feeling your knees buckle "no, we go together." He said stenrly pulling your arm over his shoulder. "Close your eyes." He said. Doing as he asked you looked down feeling a lurching feeling in your stomach before he began to pull you forward "we are almost there." He said. You looked up seeing the jet in front of you

"l..loki." you gasped, pain radiating through your chest as you stumbled forward hitting your knees on the ground "no, get up." He said pulling your arm "i...I can't." You breathed feeling the familiar tingle in your body, dread filling you at what was about to happen "l..leave me!" You urged trying to pull free "no, you will get up now." He said sternly pulling you to your feet when your knees gave out again. "Your going to make me carry you aren't you?" He snarked, reaching behind your knees lifting you up "i..I'm sorry." You rushed out feeling your lungs tighten "it was only an argument, it is..." you cut him off "n..no...i...I'm sorry f..for..." you tried to take a breath in but it felt like there was a weight on your chest "stop talking, reserve your energy." He said walking up the ramp to the jet, laying you on a gurney you felt him pull the straps around you as your body began to change.

"Y...y/n?" He said shakely. You opened your eyes looking up at him seeing shock written across his face. You lifted your arm, seeing your fingers and hand were no longer thin and slender. "Loki.." you whispered feeling tears in your eyes when he stepped back "w..what is this? Have you been following me? How did you..." he trailed "n..no, I...I didn't..." You said grabbing your chest "i..." you gasped looking to the ceiling seeing black spots floating in your vision "you will explain when we return." He said sternly placing an oxygen mask on you. You looked up trying to memorize his face as your eyes slowly closed.

You opened your eyes, the bright light above you making you squint when you tried to lift your arm, a clang drawing your attention when you glanced down seeing a handcuff around your wrist and attached to the bar on the gurney. "What the.." you started when someone cleared their throat, looking up seeing Tony bringing a chair over sitting down next to you "so, what's the story?" He asked crossing his arms sitting back. You sighed, trying to sit up, wincing at the pain in your back "my name is y/n, I was born with the ability to shift into whatever from I chose." You said looking down "I chose amethyst, because.." you trailed off waving your free hand over yourself "amethyst is tall, beautiful, desirable...y/n is...not." whispering the last part you saw Tony shift in his seat. "Prove it, shift to amethyst." He said watching you intently. You closed your eyes focusing feeling the tingle run through you, opening them seeing Tony nodding "tell me something only you would know." He said glaring.

You sighed looking down again "two years ago you were in the lab late at night, you fell asleep at your desk and Clint snuck in with a permanent marker and drew a..." he cut you off "ok ok, your you, but kid why did you lie?" He asked "I just thought, If no one wanted the real me, maybe they would want this." You said waving your arm again. "Amet...y/n, your beautiful the way you are, you don't need to hide yourself." He said making you laugh. "W..where is Loki?" You asked looking up "in his room I think, he hasn't come out since you got back a few days ago." He said as you nodded. "I'll go get Bruce and see when you can go to your room." He said standing up unlocking the cuffs. "Thanks Tony." You said seeing him smile as he walked out.

Bruce had cleared you to go back to your room, making sure you didn't do anything strenuous or he would make you come back. You tentatively agreed and were sent on your way. You spent the next couple of days in your room, trying to rest but your conscience was eating you alive. Everytime you closed your eyes you saw the look on Loki's face as you laid on that gurney, the betrayal written on his face as he watched you shift. You sat up, seeing it was past two am and decided it would be safe to go for a snack. You got up, slipping your robe on you looked in the mirror, taking a deep breath as you walked to the door going out for the first time as yourself.

You walked into the kitchen freezing seeing Loki sitting at the counter sipping tea. You started to back up, heading back to your room when his voice caught your attention "you do not have to leave, I'm going." He said standing up not looking at you as he placed his cup in the sink "l..loki wait, please." You asked as he proceeded to walk past you as if you weren't there "loki...please just listen." You pleaded grabbing his arm as he pulled it from you "listen to what? How you lied to me..manipulated me in to caring for you?" He snapped taking step towards you "n...no, I didn't mean..." he cut you off with another step "didn't what, mean to get caught? How long was your plan to last hmm?" He asked, his eyes boring into you "no! Loki please.." you trailed off taking a step back "it wasn't like that." You said wrapping your arms around yourself "oh it wasn't? Then pray tell what was it about?" He asked crossing his arms.

You took a deep breath looking into his eyes "i...I wanted to tell you...so many times I wanted to." You said feeling your eyes burn "but i...I was a coward, yes I lied...yes I hid it from you but..." you trailed off looking down "when you look like this...you would kill to be anyone else." You said. "When you first came here I liked you, like alot." You huffed a laugh wiping your cheek "and I saw the women you flirted with and I knew..." you said looking up seeing his eyes soften "I would never have a chance. Im not thin, or pretty or what they are...so yes I lied...I kept up the illusion hoping maybe one day she would have a shot." You laughed feeling a tear run down your cheek. "And when I ran into you at the coffee shop I panicked, I wanted to say something but you were so nice, and kind and just...perfect" you whispered looking down at your feet. "I didn't want to lose that, to lose you." You said.

"I'm sorry I deceived you, I never meant to hurt you I just...I knew we would never be more then friends and I would rather have you as a friend then not at all." You said shifting back and forth "but I understand if you don't want to be around me anymore, I'll leave you alone." You said quickly walking past him, wanting to be in your room as quick as possible when you felt his hand wrap around your arm "wait...there is something you should see." He said gently turning you around. "You are not the only one hiding y/n." He whispered. You watched him close his eyes, his hands sliding down to yours gripping them tightly. His fingers felt like ice as you looked down seeing his hands turn blue, the color traveling up his arm "loki...what..." you trailed off looking up as his the pale skin of his face turned blue, ridges raising across his smooth skin when he opened his eyes.

"This is me y/n, the real me." He said, his bright red eyes studying you as you stepped closer. "I am not asgardian like my brother, I am jotun...a frost giant...deemed a monster." He said looking down "I was lied to my entire life by the man who raised me to hate my own kind, that they were beasts. So, I hid behind my own illusion not letting anyone see me, because i believed no one could ever love what i am." He said looking down at your joined hands "but, your beautiful." You said as his eyes met yours "so are you dove?" He smiled reaching up cupping your cheek.

"If I am being honest, I was enchanted with you the moment I ran into you. Your smile, your bright beautiful eyes, your wit... you are more beautiful then you know." He said smiling "and the day i was called away...we were called away, I was going to ask if you would allow me to court you." He said taking another step forward, his chest pressing to yours "so y/n, will you do me the honor of being mine?" He asked. "I would love nothing more Loki." You smiled leaning into his touch. "May I do something I have wanted to do since I met you?" He asked leaning his face closer to yours "y..yes..." you breathed feeling his lips gently brush yours, it was soft and perfect but you needed more.

You leaned up into him, reaching a hand into his hair you deepened the kiss, nipping at his bottom lip with your teeth hearing him groan, feeling his lips parts you slipped your tongue past them, exploring his mouth feeling his hand wrap around the back of your head, his other sliding around your waist pulling you onto him. You pulled back slightly panting pressing your forehead to his "that was better then I imagined." He whispered making you laugh. "So, would you like to join me for coffee tomorrow?" You asked looking up into his eyes "yes, I would like that very much." He said smiling. "Allow me to walk you to your room." He said lacing his fingers with yours he guided you down the hall, stopping in front of your door he brought your hand to his lips kissing the back of it. "Goodnight y/n, I will see you in the morning." He said releasing your hand making you immediately miss his touch.

"Ok, see you then." You said opening your door slowly walking in. You looked around the dark room, your heart already missing him you looked back seeing him start down the hall "Loki.." you called out watching him turn back with a smile "yes dove?" He asked stepping closer. "Fuck it." You whispered gripping the front of his shirt you drug him to you, latching your lips to his as he let you pull him inside kicking the door closed behind him. For the first time in your life you were never happier to just be you...

@vbecker10 @mochie85 @lokisgoodgirl @springdandelixn @kinky-faerie @xorpsbane @midnights-ramblings @simping-for-marvel @holdmytesseract @kkdvkyya @slpnbty2001 @lokixryss @vane28282 @violethaze @coldnique @aniar4wniak @nate-ate-hate @buttercupcookies-blog @brattymum96 @dukes2581 @your-taste-on-my-lips @mybabyh @blog-the-lilly @irishhappiness @sinsandguilt @filthyhiddles @lovebyloki @kikster606 @javagirl328 @misunderstoodself @highkeysimpingforloki @eleniblue @commanding-officer @athalialaufeyson @stupidthoughtsinwriting @lokiandbuckysdoll @loopsisloops @joyful-enchantress @jaidenhawke @silverfire475 @high-functioning-lokipath @kittiowolf210 @slytherclaw1227 @joyfullymassivewhispers @wolfsmom1 @libbybeaz @lokikissesmyforehead @goblingirlsarah @thomase1

[teecupangel]

Ok so I've barely played mirage but what I know from posts and such is that Isu!Loki basically overwrites Basim. But as I was watching the bit where Isu!Loki/Basim in the modern day sees or bleeds Eivor and Isu!Odin talking what if Basim is still partly in there, and Isu!Loki uses the animus to watch them memories of Eivor not just to see what happened but to cause the bleeds. As a twisted gift to comfort what's left of Basim. So that he isn't 'alone' he kinda has Eivor with him at least

From what I understood after finishing Mirage (and if you don't mind spoilers), Loki overwrites Basim by the end of Mirage (or merge with him with Loki taking over but with Basim's memories, kinda like Roberts and Standish).

So Eivor never actually met Basim, only Loki who went on to continue being 'Basim'.

Eivor continuing to talk to Odin but remaining in control might be an 'exception' to how Sages work or the way it occured between them is what happened to a Sage like Jacques de Molay who continued to remain himself and use Aita's 'memories'.

I kinda talked about my heacanons concerning how Sages 'integrate' their Isu memories in this post if you're interested.

Also... it seems more possible that they managed to 'lower' the Bleeding Effect around Layla's (Basim's) time.

Like we have audio confirmation that Desmond could hear and see his ancestors when he was Bleeding (Valhalla audio files) but I don't remember Layla getting hallucinations of Bayek or Kassandra (not counting the time she Bled as Deimos and killed someone, she was warned that it was dangerous at that point so maybe the proper security that keeps her from having the same intensity as Desmond and the early subjects had wasn't in place)

It would be funny though if Loki/Basim does get screwed over by the Bleeding Effect but it's not Eivor who haunts his subconscious.

But Odin XD

[sineala]

I am sorry if you have already gotten an ask like this, but I must admit that I am curious. Which avengers runs would you recommend as must reads? Of course, with special reference to stevetony.

So the thing is that there are A LOT of Avengers runs. We are currently on volume 9 of Avengers, and that numbering doesn't even include things like New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, All-New All-Different Avengers, all of which were the main team at some point. (There are of course also a bunch of other teams; Steve is currently on the Uncanny Avengers again.)

If you're looking for Steve and Tony specifically, off the top of my head, these are the main-team volumes that have had both Steve and Tony on them: Avengers vol 1, 2 (technically), 3, New Avengers vol 1, Avengers vol 4, Avengers vol 5, Avengers vol 8. They aren't always on the team at the same time, but that's everything that might conceivably contain them both.

So. I have a lot of recs.

For about the first half of volume 1, basically everything that shows up on lists of classic Avengers stories are a good bet. You definitely at least want the first 16 issues because that's when Steve and Tony first become teammates. But, yeah, things like the Korvac Saga and the Kree/Skrull War are probably things you will want to read anyway. (The Korvac Saga is the time Steve punches Tony in the face that, weirdly, fandom doesn't talk about much.)

I know volume 1 has nearly 400 issues but you can actually knock out everything after about #230 because that's approximately when Tony leaves the team because he's drinking again (there are some issues afterwards of the Avengers, mostly Steve, expressing concern) and eventually goes to the West Coast Avengers, and he and Steve aren't main-team together until vol 3. Tony does come back for the big events, though. But, yeah, you can basically stop slightly after Steve learns Tony is Iron Man (216) if you want them as regular teammates. In terms of what you might need to know from the second half of volume 1, the big thing that shows up in Steve/Tony fic is Operation Galactic Storm, because Steve and Tony have a big ol' fight by the end of it, and eventually end up resolving everything else they've fought about in arcs like Armor Wars (you did not ask for Iron Man recs, but, you know, maybe read that). Other than that, there's not much you need to know for Steve/Tony purposes because they mostly aren't together. But if you want to read things that are good anyway, I would highly recommend Under Siege, in which the Masters of Evil invade the Mansion (and destroy the only photograph Steve has of his mother). (There is a recent follow-up issue to Under Siege -- Avengers: Loki Unleashed -- by the original writer, Roger Stern, in which Tony does show up in New York to help the team rebuild.) It's not part of Avengers, but you might also want to consider reading some of the big events. I mostly mean Infinity Gauntlet when I say this. The other events in Avengers v1 that get fic mentions are The Crossing and Onslaught, but I swear you don't have to read them.

Volume 3 is my personal favorite and I think it really hits the sweet spot of being a classic Avengers run where everyone lives in the mansion and are friends together, but with more modern art and storytelling conventions. Steve and Tony aren't on the team together for the entirety of the Busiek/Pérez run which is the first half of the volume (and in fact Steve leaves for a reason that is Not Great), and it's not the absolute shippiest volume in the world but I think it's an incredibly solid run. Like, if you want A Really Good Avengers Run, read this run. Steve and Tony are back on the team for most of the second half of the run, which includes Red Zone. You absolutely want to read Red Zone.

After this, Marvel mostly starts new volumes when the creative team changes, which makes them slightly easier to keep track of, except then there's about five years where there isn't a comic called "Avengers," which is more confusing again, so there's really no winning here. Anyway, after vol. 3, we get Avengers Disassembled (which you probably should read just because you should know what happens) and the mansion explodes and everyone moves into the tower and we get New Avengers.

The first half of New Avengers vol. 1 -- which is the beginning of Bendis' Avengers run -- is what a lot of Steve/Tony fans (including me) imprinted really hard on. There are about twenty issues of them putting a team together and being co-leaders and it's really sweet and they work amazingly well together and you will probably really like it... and then Civil War happens and everything is bad and wrong and then Steve dies and stays dead for a few years and that is, uh. Less happy. You will probably want to read all the stuff after that anyway. I have a reading order for that around here somewhere.

Eventually Steve comes back to life and Avengers Prime happens (and you should read Avengers Prime) and we get Avengers vol. 4, which is the end of Bendis' Avengers run. I actually really enjoy vol 4. It is my Underrated Fave. Steve only rejoins the team, technically, for the second half of the run (for the first half he's running the Secret Avengers, which he hates), but he's around for a lot of the first half anyway because he just can't stay away from Tony. It's an interesting Steve/Tony dynamic because Steve remembers Civil War and he's pretty depressed and pretty angry and it's kind of like "what if you couldn't stand to be in the same room with the person you loved most?" because they clearly want to be around each other but they don't really seem to remember how to be friends with each other anymore but they still have a lot of feelings about each other and the best they can manage is A LOT OF SCREAMING and they're like "is this how friendship works???" and the rest of the team is like "no???? stop screaming." Because of course they want to scream at each other about their feelings in public in front of all their friends like two people who have a normal amount of feelings about each other.

This is Avengers v4 #9. This is their teammates watching them having a screaming fight. I wasn't kidding.

And then halfway through they figure out how to be friends again and because it's their particular kind of friendship it involves, like, Steve just gently touching Tony's neck while they are having a conversation.

That is Avengers v4 #18. You'd think Steve would rather put his hand on Tony's shoulder. Like a regular friend. You would really think he would do that. That doesn't appear to be the thing Steve is doing here.

Issue 19 gives us this panel which is basically their entire relationship:

The last arc of v4, where they get Jan back, is one of my favorite Avengers arcs. It's just... the classic Avengers being Avengers, and it's a lot of fun.

So, yeah, Avengers v4 is my Underrated Fave. But also it probably helps to have read the entire rest of Bendis' Avengers run first (or at least New, Mighty, and the major events -- Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, Siege), which is a lot to ask.

And then you get Avengers vol 5, which is Hickman's Avengers run. Reading this run is kind of an all-or-nothing thing, because it tells one story that goes through Avengers v5, New Avengers v3 (if you're wondering what happened to v2, it's just that it's a team neither Steve nor Tony were on), Infinity, and probably also Secret Wars, in a very precise order. This is about a hundred issues. (If you are deeply into Hickman's work, before this you would want to read Secret Warriors and his Fantastic Four run. Which is about the same number of issues again.) It's a big commitment.

Hickman's run was the run that was going on when I joined this fandom -- I actually got into 616 Steve/Tony the week that Avengers v5 #29 came out, which was a hell of a week to pick -- and I think honestly I liked it better when it was coming out. Hickman is a very plot-driven writer, which means that a lot of big epic stuff happens, but it also means that characters often get slotted into positions in the narrative because someone needs to do a thing and I feel like there's often not a lot of consideration about whether this particular character would do that thing. When this was the first run I was reading, I didn't have a feel for the characters and I trusted that Hickman knew them better than I did, but at this point I have read enough Avengers that I have developed Opinions (as every comics fan does at some point; comics is kind of unique as a fandom in a "build your own canon" way) and my opinions are not really the same as Hickman's. Also at the time, it hadn't ended yet, and I thought the ending was a disappointment.

However, if what you want is a big, epic, universe-changing Avengers story in which Steve and Tony are main characters and how they feel about each other is absolutely integral to the plot... well. That's what Hickman's Avengers run will get you. As a Steve/Tony shipper, it's hard to imagine there ever being another Avengers run where Steve and Tony's feelings for each other are what so much of the run hinges on. So this is that.

After that, the universe ends (don't worry, it's fine), and then there's a period of time where Steve and Tony are on different teams. Then Steve is secretly evil for a while, and then Tony is dead for a while (while Steve is secretly evil), and then we get Avengers vol 8, which is Jason Aaron's run, which recently ended. Steve and Tony were both there and neither of them were evil or dead, which was nice, and somehow this run lasted five entire years and I just thought it was... mostly okay...? Steve and Tony didn't have a lot of interaction with each other. Some of the events during this time period were pretty good, though. AXE Judgment Day was the standout for me, though I think a lot of us who like villain AUs have mined and are continuing to mine Secret Empire for some angst material. That was before Aaron's run started, though.

Currently we are on Jed MacKay's volume 9, and Steve is not on the main team, though Tony is.

So, yeah, I'd have to say that my picks are some of the classic v1 arcs, v3, at least the beginning of NA v1, v4 provided you have read everything after NA v1, and v5/NA v3 if you're into that. Hope that helps!

[alexendria-rose]

Tony Starks Daughter- Series One~

Warnings: cussing, and Loki(lmao he needs a warning) 

Story Plotline: This is around age of Ultron, but its a little different Loki joins the avengers at Starks Tower to enjoy human life, one of his punishments, but he meets Tony Starks 21 year old daughter, but who very much like her father, but except was falling for Loki a little bit everyday.

Ps: So I know Loki, Scott Lang, or Spiderman is in age of Ultron but I just really love the dynamic, think of it as a secret universe telling the age of Ultron story, I hope you enjoy, I’m hoping to make this a long series so come long to enjoy this with me

word count:  4321

Being the daughter of Tony Stark was hard enough but being in the Avengers tower where they all treated you like a daughter was way worse. I was treated like a child most of the time when I was in fact 21 years old, so being treated like a child was the worst thing to feel as a 21 year old girl. I heard a soft knock on my door while I sat on my phone scrolling through my social media. 

“Yes?” I ask lifting my head a bit to look towards the door. Peter perks his head in smiling a bit.

“H-Hey Y/n, Mr. Stark told me to fetch you.” I scrunch my eyebrows confused. 

“Why didn’t he just ask Jarvis?” I usually ask if dad asked Jarvis to fetch me whenever it wasn’t so important but it must be serious if he asked Peter to fetch for me. 

“I-I don’t know Miss Stark he just asked me to fetch you.” Peter looked nervously at her.

“Peter you can call me Y/n I’ve told you this a million times kid.” I chuckled at the kid in front of me, he was definitely a shy one, but whenever his Spiderman came out he was more confident as Spiderman then peter parker. “Alright I’m coming I guess.” I mumble under my breath. Peter smiled confidently, opening the door for me. I head downstairs at dad’s little lair as I called it, even though he hated that I called it that “sounds like something for bad guys, and I definitely am not that Y/n” he would say each and everything time I said the name. “Hey dad, you asked for me?” I ask strutting into the room, hands in pocket. 

“Ah my beloved daughter, you’ve been trapped in your room, I just missed ya.” He says as he was building god knows what. 

“Alright dad, what do you need?” I giggled, rolling my eyes at my humorous dad. 

“Well, it's not what I need, more like a warning daughter.” He stopped the humor and looked at me seriously. I cock my head to the side like a lost puppy.

“And that is?” I sit down on the chair next to him straddling the seat. 

“Well, Loki..” I wide my eyes mostly in anger, mostly in fear. 

“Loki?! Is he back?” I stood up from my chair picking at my cuticles. 

“No… I mean well yes but not like that, He’s going to be staying here, I’m not too fond of the idea, but Thor says he really is changing, that maybe normal human life would be good for him.” Dad says playing with his tools looking at her with concern. “I just want you to stay away from him, I have no idea if he’s changed or not, but I don’t want him around my daughter.” Dad strictly states putting his tools down and standing up.

“He’s changed? After ya know killing thousands of people, we’re just going to welcome him here after that?!” I exclaim rubbing my forehead a headache starting to form. “Dad I don’t know about this, how are we sure we’re going to trust him?” I turn my back on my dad still rubbing my forehead, it starts to hurt worse then it just did before. “Alright dad there shouldn't be any problem staying away from him.. When is he coming?” My dad starts mumbling under his breath, I face him “Dad when is he coming?” Dad chuckled a bit, rubbing the back of his head. 

“Right now?” As he said that I heard a booming voice. 

“HEY GUYS LOOK MY BROTHER IS HERE TO ENJOY THE MORTAL WORLD!” I hear Thor boom. If looks could kill it would kill my dad. 

“I’ll yell at you later, we have to introduce a stupid God guest or whatever they’re called.” I scoffed my dad keeping his distance from me feeling the heat burn of my body with anger. I walk up with my dad back to the main living room. I cross my arms stomping like a child up the stairs… maybe that’s why everyone thinks I’m a child… 

“Oh looky what we have here Loki, we swear we missed you, especially since you left your mark on everyone here in New York.” My dad retorts. I widened my eyes at the low remark my dad made. I look up from the ground staring at the stupid go- oh my god, he was gorgeous. Fuck why did he do what he did. His hair was long silk black, he was tall and lanky, he wore this beautiful black suit that hugged his amazing figure. Loki looked up, locking eyes with my own. I tug at my sleeves a little taken back at his eyes, I couldn’t even look him straight in the eyes for some reason they imitated me. “I don’t know if you’ve met my daughter Y/n, but you are not to go anywhere near her, got me?” Loki crosses his arms, smirking slightly. My dad lifts his eyebrows, also crossing his arms walking closer to Loki. “Got me? Loki the emo.” Thor widens his eyes looking at the stance between the two, basically one trying to be more dominant then the other. 

“Alright alright, he understands, don't ya brother!” Thor booms excited. Loki just nods, keeping quiet but observing the room around him. The whole crew eventually comes out greeting Loki, but keeping an eye on him. 

“Alright I think we should definitely have a party, with just us of course.” Scott Lang shouts grabbing the alcohol that was in my dad's cabinets. “What ya say Stark! My dad was still glaring daggers at Loki, not 100% satisfied with Loki’s answer from earlier. 

“That’s fine but Y/n can’t join.” I whipped around from the conversation I was having with Natasha. 

“Um, is that your decision dad?” I quipped back at my father, I love him dearly but he really was a drama queen, huh I really did get my attitude from my dad. My dad lifts a questioning eyebrow at me. 

“You’re like 12.” Steve says, taking a swig of the beer that Scott handed him. 

“Steve! I’m 21 dude, at least I'm not like 100.” I sass Steve, doing a whole sassy head roll. 

“Wait, she's 21?” Steve tries to remain serious but starts laughing when he takes another swing. “Ya know I’m only a joking doll.” I hum a bit swaying my hips moving towards the couch, didn’t realize I was sitting right next to Loki, damn was he quiet. 

“Hi, I’m Y/n.” I whispered while my dad was in a conversation with Thor, I knew I was supposed to stay away, and not really talk to him, but I was just being friendly. 

“Loki.” He states leaning back on the sofa. He just starts staring at me. “Why are you sitting next to me?” He asks, smirking a bit. I knew he was just trying to show his imitating side so nobody would talk to him or be near him, but I was of course used to my father being that imitating even though underneath all of that my dad was just a big old fluff ball. 

“I don’t know, you look interesting, I’m a curious person much like my father.” 

“Ah yes, Tony. I didn’t know he had a daughter. You in fact surprised me very much.” He states, damn this dude really just went straight to the point, which I didn’t really mind, straight to the point is better than oddly weird forced conversations. 

“Mhm, I am definitely a way better Stark.” I giggled a bit at the small smile he was forming on his face.

“Oh is that so?” Interesting.” My dad turned away from the Thor conversations to see Loki and I have a much enjoyable conversation. 

“Uh ah, this ain’t happening.” My dad squishes between Loki and I. “Y/n to your room now.” I groan a bit.

“I am a 21 year old adult, you still can't make me go to my room.” 

“I said room, now, you live under my roof, Y/n Stark.” He pats my leg. “Now go.” I roll my eyes before standing up.

“Alright I’ll see you losers tomorrow, when you’re all hungover.” I smirked walking away into my room. God, I mean I did agree to not talk or be near Loki, but he was so interesting. He didn’t seem so terrible, I mean I think of New York and hate him, but I feel like deep down there's something that nobody knows, I see a hurting man mostly, but I’m curious and I wanna dig deeper.

My throat starts getting dry in the middle of the night, god I hated getting up in the middle of the night just to hydrate god. I rolled out of my bed dragging my big snuggly blanket with me groggy walking out to the kitchen. I was so tired I didn’t see the figure standing in the kitchen. “Fuck!” I half screamed just noticing it was Loki standing there all mischievously drinking some water as well, guess we both had the same idea. 

“Oh hi Loki.” I groaned, desperately drinking the water I poured into my cup.  “Are you doing ok adjusting?” I question leaning back on the counter. 

“It’s better than a prison cell, so I'm doing better than I was.” He starts using his magic to play with his water. I smile at the stuff he was making with his magic. 

“That’s so cool…” I lean closer to him looking at his magic in detail, his magic was beautiful, it definitely is dangerous but beautiful as well. Loki looks down at me smiling a bit before quickly going back to his normal stoic look. 

“You mortals are too impressed by anything you see, hm?” He hums. 

“I just wish I had that kind of magic, I mean look around me, I have all these amazing people who literally save the world from danger with powers or with their talents, I just want to help people one day, and if I had that I would in an instant.” I grin and take my last sip of water. Loki looks down at the floor placing his cup down on the counter.

“My mother thought the same, she always used her powers for good… really was a disappointment of a son.” Loki sighs. I place my hand on Loki's shoulder. 

“I highly doubt your mother is disappointed in you.” Loki looks up a bit through his hair that still stoic look on his face.

“Oh how would you know? You barely know me.” I shrug a bit knowing he was trying to cover his emotions by deflecting on me.

“Because I know parent’s, and your mom from what I’ve heard from Thor sounds like a lovely mother, I think she wanted best for you, you to love your life and make something out of it, now I know nothing about God’s, but that’s just what I think.” I place my cup in the sink, turning away from Loki about to walk off when I stop in my tracks and look at the broken man in my kitchen. “You’re always welcome to talk to me… I really do like to talk, so if you ever need someone here, I’m always here.” Loki somewhat smirks at the comment. 

“If you insist, love.” It rolled off his tongue somewhat easily, I bit my lip to stop the blush rushing up my face. I do a quick hum before rushing into my room. What did I get myself into…

“I know you were talking to him in the kitchen!” My dad screeches. I jolted awake my hair wild and I’m sure all over the place. 

“D-Dad.” I say tiredly I look at my phone groaning. “It’s literally 6:30AM!” I flop head back into my pillow before grabbing the pillow besides me placing it over my face, that was before my dad ripped it off my face.

“I said stay away and you apparently don’t listen.” I groan again, turning my back away from him.

“Another thing I get from you huh?” I remark glaring at the wall knowing my dad would get more upset if I glared at him.

“This is no time to joke Y/n, all I’m doing is protecting you.” I turn around to face him rolling my eyes so he can visually see.

“Dad he really doesn’t seem so terrible, he seems broken…” I say sitting up on my back against my bed frame. “I think he really wants to change, and be a better man God, I have no idea what to call him, whatever it doesn’t matter, I see it dad, please just trust me.” My dad grabs the chair on my desk bringing it close to my bed straddling the chair. 

“I just don’t want to see you hurt and I can see the attachment from a mile away.” I look down at my hands once again picking at my cuticles. God this was definitely a bad habit I needed to stop. 

“You can see that?” I ask my dad hums softly scratching at his beard. 

“I trust you kid, just please be careful, I’ll take him away if he does anything harmful to you, you come before anybody here, you got me?” I smile softly nodding a bit, he grabs my chin before kissing my forehead. “Now the team and I have a mission to attend to, Thor probably wants to celebrate tonight so be prepared for that.” I shake my head laughing at my favorite big god. 

“Alright sounds like a plan, be safe dad I love you 3000.” 

“No, I love you 3000.” He ruffles my hair. “Now go fix up you look like a zombie.” 

“Haha, go away.” I grab the bedsheets bringing them over my head groaning like a zombie, my dad starts laughing heading out the door. 

“Lazy ass.” 

“Everybody get their ass out here, we are going to partyyy.” I hear Thor boom, I walk just wearing simple black pants and a button down t-shirt. 

“Oh Thor, you look nice!” I exclaim, Thor chuckles, twirling his hammer around before placing it on the table. Everyone sits down, some start playing cards, some are drinking their hearts out after every mission. I swear they do this. Barton starts twirling his drumstick clearly drunk. 

“Dude, that is certainly a trick.” Barton says commenting on Thor's hammer, Thor chuckles passing a drink to Steve sitting on the sofa next to him.

“Oh it’s certainly much more than that.” Barton starts laughing, pointing to the hammer imitating Thor’s voice. 

“He shall be worthy should the powwweerr.” he exclaims still pointing at the hammer in front of him  “Whatever man, it's a trick!” Thor scoffs a bit knowing exactly what Barton got himself into.

“Oh I wouldn’t do that Barton.” I say sipping on my wine.

“Oh let him Y/n, please be my guest.” Thor says, pointing towards the hammer. Loki sneaks over and sits right next to me watching all these goons trying to pull on the hammer. 

“Even I’m a god, I wouldn’t embarrass myself like this.” Loki says, laughing a bit. Oh a laugh? He’s enjoying himself. I take another sip of my wine staring at Loki. 

“Once I tried myself to lift that hammer, but nah nothing.” I say bumping into Loki’s shoulder a bit in a teasing way. “And I think I’m pretty worthy.” Loki smiles again.

“I would think so too.” Loki mumbles under his breath. That’s when we all heard it, a blaring noise. I cover my ears.

“Dad what the hell is happening?!” I ask was that Jarvis? Did something happen? We all looked towards the clunky noise when I saw, wait is that Jarvis?

“Jarvis?” My dad asked playing his pad that controlled the place. He starts speaking some nonsense, about how he killed someone and all the crew questioning him. I stand up, Loki does as well grabbing my arm to put me behind him. Ultron sent him… what is happening right now. Loki grabs his daggers from his sleeve, Thor holds onto his hammer waiting for any attack that will happen. 

“I’m here on a mission.” Ultron says in his disgusting robotic voice.

“What mission?” Natasha says sternly. 

“Peace of our time.” Ultron says looking at everyone in the group when two other robots come out the wall, Steve kicks up the table to block the robots from coming towards him, Loki grabs me and pushes me towards the floor out of the way of danger. That’s when everything began, everyone started protecting and fighting. I haven't seen them in action since New York, and god they were good at their job. 

“Stay here.” Loki puts me near the piano to stay away from the danger God. I wish I could help. I wasn't trained, my dad never let me learn. That’s when one of Ultron's army finds me and starts pointing his weapon arm at me, that's when Steve grabs the thing and throws it away from me, Thor slamming his hammer down on it. I see my dad floating on top of the robots trying to break down the thing. 

“Get Y/n out of here now!” I groaned standing up. I needed to help, so I grabbed Steve's shield. 

“Steve!” I throw the shield towards Steve when he slams it on the robot, my dad finally defeating the robot. 

“Well that was dramatic.” Ultron says wobbling away from the scene a bit. 

“Dad!” I run towards my dad who slumps himself on the stairs.

“Y/n I told you to get away.” My dad whispers. 

“I can’t, Loki tried but I can’t not just leave and not help.” I hold onto my dad glaring at Ultron.

“I’m sorry I know you mean well, you just didn’t think it through.” Steve starts walking forward towards Ultron but stops in his tracks when he starts speaking again. “You want to protect the world, but you don’t want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to evolve?” Ultron grabs the robot in front of him by the head. “With at ease with these puppets.” He crushes the head “There's only one path to peace, the avengers extinction.” Thor grabs his hammer, throwing it at Ultron's chest shattering him into pieces.

“Loki get her out of here.” Loki grabs me by the arm when I hear his words. 

“I had strings but now I’m free.” I gasp a bit looking at my dads worried face as Loki brings me to my room. He sits me down on my bed kneeling in front of me.

“Are you okay?” He asks, brushing his fingers lightly across my knuckles. I gasped at the contact nodding a bit. 

“I’m fine… but I didn’t do anything to help, I’m a failure.” I cross my arms, basically cuddling myself. “I need to train. I need to help.” Loki chuckles a bit, rubbing the back of his head. 

“I don’t think your father would be too fond of that idea.” I look up at Loki smirking, that's when he looks at me eyes wide.

“No.” He states. 

“Come on please train me, my dad doesn’t need to know.” He groans, basically ripping his hair. I could tell he was scared that I didn’t even know how to protect myself in that position. 

“I’m already on your fathers bad list but now secretly training you. I don’t know love…” She grinned that word again. He only said it when he was vulnerable and it made my heart burst. Glad I can make him that way. 

“Please Loki. I want to protect myself and others if I have to. Please.” I beg. Loki looks into my puppy dog eyes sighing giving in. 

“Fine but we do this early in the morning before anybody else gets up. Got me? My way.” He demanded. I nodded. 

“How early is early?” I ask nicely but also scared for the answer. 

“5AM.” He sternly states “I’ll meet you in the morning love.” He smirks before walking out of my door and I couldn’t help but blush at the way he was being. I heard the door open again looking up to expect Loki but saw my dad walking through the door. 

“Dad!” I stand up wrapping my arms around his neck. 

“Are you okay kiddo?” My dad asks, wrapping me back into a hug smoothing my hair down. 

“I’m fine dad, are you okay?” I pull back looking at his busted lip. “Dad..”  He pulls away from me.

“Honey I’m fine, come on I’m Iron Man I’ve done worse to my face.” He smiles brightly at me.

“I wish I can help, fight alongside you guys, I hate that y'all need to protect me.” MY dad shakes his head putting his hand up to stop me from talking.

“No, I’m your father, that's my job to protect you first, it’s too dangerous out there sweetie. I can’t have you out there fighting.” He rubs his forehead. 

“Dad… I need to lea-”

“No means no. Now get a decent sleep, we’ll talk tomorrow, I love you 3000 honey.” My dad stops me from talking any longer. He grabs my head kissing the top of it a bit longer than he usually does. “I will protect you as long as I can dove.” He messes up my hair before walking out. I sat down on my bed exhaling the breath I was holding in. He’s really not going to like me if he finds out about me training.

“Oh there she is late.” Loki exclaims. I exhaustingly walk into the training room, walking in with my black tights, and my black crop top. 

“Shut up.” I grumble under my breath, I look at Loki as he stares intensely at me. “What?” I question nervously twirling my hair before grabbing my hair and putting it in a bun to try to keep out of my face. 

“N-Nothing, I um.” Loki clears his throat. “Just thinking about what we were gonna get started with.” I lifted my brow at how difficult he was already being this morning. 

“Well probably some stretches?” I ask radiating a soft smile, he gives me a slight cheerful smile back.

“Uh yes, that we definitely have to start out with that.” We start stretching for a bit. “Come on, really stretch the body love, here.” Loki walks over to me standing behind me grabbing my arm and holding it across my body to really stretch out my arms, but I caught my breath when he starts to hold me close, of course he wasn’t intentionally doing it, but he was so close I could barely bear it. His face was close to mine, If I turned my head at him at all we would be inches away. No come on I needed to train instead of trying to bang some type of God…. but oh hell would that be amaz- no come we’re not doing this. I shake my head slightly not even realizing he stepped away from me and was trying to grab hold of my attention. 

“Alright first things first, some combat training. We’re going to start with just you hitting this, and then we’re actually going to combat, got it?” I nod my mouth still dry from the thoughts surrounding my head. 

“Y-Yes, got it.” I rub my arms walking closer to the punching bag starting out from what I knew but Loki shook his head.

“See I’m not even a fighter really, and I know how to punch better than that.” He laughed as he stood behind me grabbing my hips. “Keep these straight, don’t strain them so much, you lose a lot of power when you do, your form is so far amazing with hitting but you’re losing all your stamina.” He grabs my hips keeping them still, he keeps them placed for a little longer before moving his hands awkwardly. “You’re a Stark, you can do this.” Loki starts teaching me how to punch, kick, and all of the above before we actually get started on hand to hand combat. “Alright” We both got on the training mat. I can already feel the soreness overtaking my body. “This will be a bit harder but I promise I’ll go easy on you okay?” I scoffed, cracking my knuckles trying to show off my competitive side.

“No please don’t I need to train.” Loki smirks getting into his ready position.

“If you say so, love.” I died a little bit inside knowing he was trying to distract me. Loki lunges forward at me grabbing my arm and flipping me over, damn I was already beat. “Hm so easy or not?” I groaned holding onto my side that he slammed me on the mat. 

“Fuck you we’re doing this right.” I stand right back up dusting myself up. I lunge towards Loki and he once again does this a million others times until I start seeing his weak points, he always grabbed towards the same arm. 

“You wanna stop?” He asked teasingly. I grunt, throwing my head back also looking at him smirking a bit. 

“Hell no.” He lunges towards me again and as I was right going towards the same arm. I grab his other arm kicking his legs on balance until wrapping my legs around his dropping him down cradling him onto but barely inches to his face. I look into greenish blue eyes sucking in my breath as he does the same. I inch closer to his face right about to fully kiss this man I barely knew.  “Oh Stark isn’t going to like this.” I jumped up off Loki, looking up to see Natasha. Fuck. 

[tinkertoysdamn]

Stereo Hearts - We Built This City' Verse

Loki shuddered in irritation.  Things were progressing on the overall plan but the rogue Time Agents still needed help, specifically they needed raw muscle.  Mobius had made a suggestion, a good one in fact, but Loki was unhappy with it.  “I can’t believe we are considering this.”

“She was damn useful on the last mission.”  Mobius pointed out.  Thora Odinson had been not merely useful, but the powerhouse behind that particular success.  The fact that her presence had also annoyed Loki to no end was a bonus as far as Mobius was concerned.    

“Yes but she was also–”  Loki’s face screwed up in distaste.  “Pining.”  He spat out the word with great vitriol.  “Obviously.  Obnoxiously.”

It had gotten a little out of hand.  “Maybe if we pull her from another part of the timeline,” Mobius suggested.  

Loki lit up.  “Excellent idea.”  He clapped his hands together, pleased.  “Perhaps after some distance from those blasted Guardians, she’d be more tolerable.”

Considering how Loki had whined to Mobius about his own long-lost Sylvie, Mobius thought the trickster god was being a bit hypocritical.  Still—  “Here’s a good spot,” Mobius said, looking over his Tempad.  “It’s a few years later.”

Now fully on board with the idea, Loki’s eyes glittered.  “Do it.”

Once again, they teleported onto a spaceship, but this one was considerably larger and of a different make then the one they’d been on before.  “Good,” Loki muttered, “perhaps she’s taken up with new companions.”  

Then they heard the music.  It wasn’t nearly as old as that dreaded Pina Colada song, but it still made them pause.  It was entirely possible that Thora was traveling with others who liked Earth’s music, but it was doubtful.    

“Where’s it coming from?” Mobius whispered.  

Cautiously, they made their way down the hallway, ready for anything.  Except for perhaps that.

Up on a repair catwalk where two figures, one was partially buried in a vent, her fluffy tail peeking out and the other was Captain Brandy Quill.  Considering her state of dress, she had not been expecting company.  She was in a tank top and shorts, work gloves in place as they worked in tandem on a repair.  Every once and while she’d exaggerate a hip swing or a movement to dance along.  

Over the music Loki and Mobius could hear Rocket and Quill singing.  Judging from how they split up the duet, it was clear they had some practice.

“Appreciate every mixtape your friends make.  You never know, we come and go like on the interstate.”  Rocket’s voice was less than musically inclined, but it was earnest, carrying through the ship.  

Loki and Mobius lurked, not certain if they should draw attention to themselves or should sneak away without interrupting.  If they were careful enough, maybe they could avoid the wrath of the Captain entirely.     

It was then that the song shifted to the bridge.  Quill elected to stop her repair to tug on the mechanic’s creeper to get Rocket out of the vent, only to belt more of the song at her.  

“I only pray you never leave me behind—”

Rocket snickered under her breath.  “You always get so dramatic at this part.”

Quill was using her spanner as a microphone now.  “Because good music can be so hard to find.”

Rocket grinned.  “I should be filming.  Thunder Head would love this.”  

“I take your hand, hold it closer to mine.”  Quill was eating this up, chewing up the song and spitting it back out again with sheer unadulterated joy.  She tilted her head back, letting the spirit and lyrics pour out of her.  

“Thought love was dead, but now you're changing my mind!”    

“Okay,” Loki admitted to Mobius.  “She’s actually pretty good.”  Then he ducked as the spanner nearly collided with his head. 

Mobius jumped at the sound.  “Oh my god.”  

The music cut off.  Quill stared down at them with righteous anger.  “Don’t you dicks ever call?”

“Captain,” Loki tried to put on his most obsequious charm.  “Pardon the intrusion but this is only the second—”

“Fourth.”  Quill held up four fingers.  “Four times you flarking jerks have done this.”

“We’ve only been here twice,” Mobius said.  “I think I’d remember the other two.”

Rocket and Quill shared a disgusted look.  “Time travelers,” Rocket complained.  “At least it’s not in the middle of dinner this time.”

“Or when Tetrina’s trying to take a nap.”  Once again, the best friends shared a look, but this time one of a remembered agony.  

Things were getting off track.  Loki attempted to regain control.  “We’re here for—”

“We know.”  Quill pressed a button on her com-unit.  “Thora, your not-brother’s here again.  Collect him before we throw him out of the airlock for real this time.”

“Always with the airlock,” Mobius muttered.  

Quill wasn’t having it.  “Stop showing up unannounced and it won’t be a problem.”  

Less than a minute later, Thora barged into the room, already outfitted in her armor, her ax at the ready.  “Where are we going today?” Thora asked, beaming. 

“You seem awfully eager,” Mobius said.

“This is our fourth quest together,” Thora said.  “Why shouldn’t I be?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Loki could spot Quill making a “I told you” gesture. 

It seemed that his partnership with this variant of his brother would continue into the future.  Someway, somehow, Loki wouldn’t drive her away.  Loki found the thought more comforting than he would care to admit.    

“This shouldn’t be nearly so perilous as before,” Loki told her.  “But we need your strength regardless.”

“Excellent.”  Thora was more than up for the challenge. 

“Don’t bring her back full of holes this time,” Quill shouted down at them.  

“No promises,” Mobius said, dialing up the Tempad.  The Time Agents and Thor stepped through the portal, dodging any verbal barbs that Quill had left to throw at them.

As the portal closed, Thora said with a wide grin, "She's my girlfriend now."

Loki pinched the bridge of his nose. It had begun.

My heart's a stereo It beats for you, so listen close Hear my thoughts in every no-ote Make me your radio And turn me up when you feel low This melody was meant for you Just sing along to my stereo

[educatedinyellow]

People I Wanna Know Better

Thanks for thinking of me, @sanguinarysanguinity :)

Last song?

My son has been singing Tale As Old As Time from Beauty and the Beast all day. He's super adorable doing it, too, and you've gotta love a classic <3 We miss you, Angela Lansbury.

My funniest musical adventure from this week, though (as you know, Sang), was finding out that David McCallum -- who apparently played oboe and arranged orchestral scores, having studied music at first before switching to acting -- recorded a jazz number in the 1960s which then got sampled by Dr. Dre in the 1990s to create what, according to my brother, is 'definitely one of the most famous hip hop beats of all time' (warning: explicit language including the n word).

Who knew? Like a good secret agent, his influence pops up where least expected!

Favorite color?

Blue-green.

Currently watching?

Not much of anything lately, to be honest. I just haven't found time to fit in a movie at the end of the day, and I don't have any new TV shows I'm currently following. But I'm sure I'll catch the Dr. Who specials when they come out in a month or two. I might watch Loki season 2. And I do still like to read and watch movie reviews and collect a 'to be watched' list for myself.

A couple films that came out this year that sound good & I would like to catch up with are Rye Lane ("Raine Allen-Miller reinvents the romantic-comedy genre utilizing vibrant colors, a fisheye lens, and British rap to present a truthful depiction of London that celebrates Black joy in Rye Lane." -Jillian Chilingerian; "Rye Lane is a shock to the system and the current landscape of romantic comedies. It’s loving, genuinely humorous, and an effortless crowd pleaser. A beautiful, energetic reminder that love is worth going after time and again." -Tina Kakadelis)

and Fancy Dance ("Cloaking a family drama in crime-film conventions, the plot of Native American filmmaker Erica Tremblay’s exceptional directorial debut concerns a young woman’s disappearance from an Oklahoma reservation and her family’s urgent attempts to locate her....not even halfway through the film, Tremblay (who is from the Seneca-Cayuga nation) and co-writer Miciana Alise’s keenly observant script has touched on a disconcertingly complex array of social issues, including endemic poverty, racism, foster care, and drug and alcohol abuse in Native communities. For the filmmakers, though, it’s the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls that provides the film’s thematic throughline. Handled with candor and grace, these concerns are well integrated into the narrative and dialogue (often in the Cayuga language) so that they’re recognizable, but not melodramatically manipulative." - The Hollywood Reporter)

I'd also like to rewatch some Man From UNCLE, catch up with Spielberg's West Side Story, watch the latest Indiana Jones movie (which despite all the negative press my brother says was good fun), and sometime maybe get around to the Sandman series from last year and Good Omens 2 from this year.

Last movie?

Uhhhhh, maybe Mission Impossible 7 back in July?

Sweet/spicy/savory?

I dislike spicy. I like savory just fine. I like sweet best, but I have had to learn to seek it out in new forms this year. In January my blood test results indicated I was approaching the upper edge of what's considered pre-diabetic and edging close to full-on Type 2. I have been at high risk to develop it, not only due to family history, but also because I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant a decade ago. I was told at that time that 1 in 2 women with gestational diabetes go on to develop type 2 within 10 years, and, ahaha, look at the time. So, this year I have been working much harder to reverse those trends and make healthy changes to my diet and get more active. I joined a Diabetes Prevention Class (there's a national program for this, by the way, though it's not well-advertised. My doctor didn't tell me about it, because they never told me anything, but I found a search engine online that helped me find classes locally. Mine is a free, virtual, 12-month program run out of a nearby hospital as a community health initiative and geared toward helping people make lasting lifestyle changes using a small support group style). All this is just to say that I am eating fewer sugars and carbs these days, but I can still get my sweet tooth fix enjoying my red peppers, honeycrisp apples, chocolate-dipped quinoa crisps, and coconut water :) I'm also happy to say that when I was retested in July my blood sugar was so far improved that I have almost dipped out of the pre-diabetic zone altogether and back into what's considered normal range. But of course, it's not something you can stop once you hit a certain number -- the goal is to keep doing this for the rest of my life. So far, it's been going fine and I'm figuring out what I like to eat that's within my new purview. I have to say that California Pizza Kitchen's cauliflower crust mushroom pizza makes me very happy <333333

Relationship status?

If my marriage were a person, it would be old enough to vote. Hurray!

Current obsessions?

My cousins introduced me to a spelling bee game this summer, and over the last week I've picked it back up and am finding it a bit addictive. The two of them regularly ace its highest levels, but I content myself with the goal of getting to the "Great" goalpost and then walking away :) It's fun, but the full word list is, to me, a bit frustrating because it's hard to guess what anachronistic spellings, odd plurals, or never-used permutations they will decide to count (you won't take 'glugging' one day, but you want me to try 'ufts' the next? bah humbug!!) *shrugs* If you're not a completist and would be happy just finding as many patterns as you can, it's a good little daily hamster run for the brain. The solutions to one day's challenge are posted on the following day.

Last thing you googled?

Glugging, LOL. I was, like, oh god, is it somehow not a real word? Better check before I post. But it is!! VINDICATION!!

I will say I also got miffed at the thing for wanting "annum" but not accepting "unum" (oh, we're accepting Latin if it's for accountants but not if it's for a national motto? FINE.) And I was denied "unarm," but that one I eventually had to concede -- you can be unarmed or you can disarm someone else, but 'unarm' by itself isn't actually a thing, okay. But neither is 'ufts', spellbee, GET OFF MY LAWN.

Anyhow, I argue with it and then come back the next day to play again :)

I tag anyone who wants to share, of course!

[woulddieforloki]

I kinda wanna write a fic that takes place during The Dark World, and it's from Thor's point of view, and Frigga's just died not too long ago and now they're sending her off into the river, and it's just a very emotional moment.

and then there's some big commotion in the crowd, and honestly Thor's only reaction is to feel tired, because honestly, of all the times someone could be making a ruckus, they had to choose his mother's funeral?

except then he notices the crowd parting, and suddenly Loki is pushing his way through to the end of pier. and when he sees the boat taking Frigga's body away, he falls to his knees and he screams.

and obviously Thor's still in "Loki's an evil dickhead" mode, so when he marches over there, he's ready to tell his brother off — for somehow breaking out of prison; for causing a scene; for just being an overall pest. but then he gets closer and all he hears is Loki sobbing, and even though he doesn't want to, even though he's tried so hard not to let himself get sucked back in, he feels a pang of sympathy, because this was Loki's mother, too. even after everything, this is a loss they share.

So Thor stands over him and he says his brother's name and he holds out a hand to help him to his feet, more a show of solidarity than anything because obviously he's going back to the dungeons, except Loki doesn't take it. he just looks up at Thor, tears streaming down his face, and he goes, "it's all my fault." and Thor just looks at him like ??? and Loki goes, "I killed her. it should've been me." and he just keeps repeating that over and over and over until Thor's actually kind of concerned.

and idk what happens next. maybe Odin comes over, and Thor takes a few steps back because he does not want to get in the middle of this, but all Odin does is offer Loki a hand. and though it didn't work when Thor tried, Loki's so taken aback that, when Odin refuses to take his hand back, Loki lets his father help him to his feet. and then Odin hugs him and Loki hugs him back, sobbing into his chest, and Thor's not sure, but he thinks he sees Odin shed a tear.

that's where the fic would end, and even though you don't know what happens next because I don't know what would happen next, you just get the feeling that it's something good, you know?

[hertzdo]

OYE OYE this is my first fanfic EVER (I mean the first I publish for real) It’s about Dirk Gently AND Loki, this is very short for now ‘cause i’m still hospitalized (psy ward, what a fun experience (spoiler: no)) English isn’t my first language, I don’t really know where I’m going with it but I hope you will enjoy? Check out my others tumblr btw :  https://art-saved-my-faith-in-humanity.tumblr.com/ https://lenaylei.tumblr.com/ https://icarusnlokiagainstthesoulkiller.tumblr.com/ https://twitter.com/Lenaylei and my twitter if you want to see me rage against Macron and the nazis

# One

Because the Universe was never kind. And because Dirk Gently knew what it was to feel directionless. But he never felt as directionless as he felt at this moment. He never felt as drowned into the void, as thrown into the abyss of the nothingness, as alone facing the beginning of the end, as he felt at this moment. Because right now, the Universe was silent. And it never was a good omen.

The constant buzzing inside his head was gone. Muted. Far away. Unreachable. Gone.

The thing is, it wouldn't be so concerning if it had happened during a case or a stressful situation like, let's say, *Blackwing*, but no.

Dirk Gently woke up like he did every morning, in his bed, in his appartement, at the Ridgley's, and the Universe was just gone.

Well, he knew it wasn't just *gone*, the Universe didn’t just stop existing, it doesn't work like that (what does work like that anyway) it just stopped its static, its constant buzzing and its pull and its *voices* and-

His phone started buzzing. Because of course it did.

“Yes Todd, I'm awake” he yawned through his phone.

“Dude, where are you, it's like, wait, it's past 3, I’m waiting for you?”

Already this late? He didn't realized he was this late, he didn't realized he didn't even tried to get out of his bed actually. He sighed.

“Dirk? You there?” Todd seemed slightly concerned. But it was an assumption and Dirk didn't like doing assumptions when he was late, without the Universe nudging his back and-

“Dirk, just get your ass up here” Todd seemed now less concerned and more annoyed.

“Yes Todd, right away Todd!

- And bring coffee!

- Coffee?!

- Yes we got a case, now come on dude!”

Dirk started getting up.

“A case? Are you sure about that?

- What do you mean I'm sure about that?

- Nevermind, getting coffee, wait woops- stupid table, bye Todd”

By new case Dirk didn’t excepted this: a man, falling from a strange magical door, working for the TVA, landing directly in the office of the agency.

“Where is Mobius ? Where am I? Who are you ? What the Hel happened again? What- - Hey there slow down would you mate ? My name is Todd, and this is my friend Dirk, he’s a detective- - Yeah about that- - Shut it! As I said he’s a detective. And you who are you? Who is Mobius ? - What year are we, what is this place, is this Midgard ? Dirk took a big inspiration,  - Midgard ? Waitwaiwaiwait are you like from Asgard ? Thor etc ? - Thor’s my brother, yes.

Big silence in the room

- So you are telling me you are Loki, correct ? Asked Dirk - I didn’t say anything. - Oh yes you did! - No I did not! Nevermind I’m leaving forget about me, got business to do. Todd scaugh, - No I mean, what the Hell was that door, who are you working with, are you planning total annihilation again ? - What the fuck Todd ? - I’m serious, this man tried to enslave humanity once! - IT WASN’T- it wasn’t, I wasn’t really myself at this period of the timeline, please I need to find my partner let me go at once! - Your partner, is he Asgardian too ? - ENOUGH! - Todd stop please. Look, Sir, we are a detective agency, maybe we can help you found your partner ? - I really doubt that. - I mean, you quite landed in my office - I’m sorry about that ? Wasn’t part of the plan. - And what was the *plan* then ? - I’m not telling you, for the last time, let me go, there is no need for violence but you won’t stop me for long. - Alright alright chill man, you can go - Sir, if you ever need a detective don’t hesitate

Loki rolled his eyes - “sir” .

He started walking away when one question remained unresponded: - Actually, could you tell me at least what the year is ? Dirk and Todd exchanged gazes. - 2023, Sir - Crap” He walked away.

[blog-of-reaction]

ANTMAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA SPOILERS

More unasked for thoughts on this movie. (Except this time I remember to put it on my thoughts about movie/shows blog instead of my main)

I wish the og? Kang had survived. Like, I’m sure the other Kang’s are cool, but I really liked him as the villain. Also, with Kang being the big and of phase five. (Is it phase 4 or 5? I honestly don’t know.) with him being the big bad though, I can’t help but feel like killing off the Kang that literally all of the other Kang’s were so scared of they banished him to the quantum realm was a mistake. Like, they already (most likely) successfully took down him, how are other Kang’s who aren’t as scary going to feel like much of a threat?

Especially since there will be multiple. Like, I realize the Kang we’ve seen so far could be an outlier, but I’m not so sure they wont be able to be divided against each other. (Then again, them being divided against each other would most likely cause just as much if not more damage then them working together, given the whole monologue at the end of Loki.)

Also, Cassie was great and I love her.

I’m not necessarily an expert on Modok but I liked the what they did with him. Also, the part where Scott asked “Shouldn’t it be Modofk?” was perfect. Ive literally asked myself the same thing ever since he showed up in EMH.

I really liked the family dynamic they had in the movie.

Hope and Scott’s relationship actually had like, some real substance to it this time. Granted, it is very little but their romance is still much more believable than in the previous movies. (Which I mean the bar could not be lower there and it still feels a bit like “what?” but not as much as in the previous movies. Their relationship is mostly like, subtly implied and definitely supported and kind of lifted up via the overall family dynamic everyone had, but it still felt a bit forced at the end. I am slowly coming around to it maybe though? Like, I no longer passively dislike it. Instead I passively accept it.

The side characters were great, fun to see, and I loved them. I actually teared up when torture laser beam for a head guy was killed.

There were a few brilliant scenes that I especially enjoyed or found funny.

First off, like, just put yourself in Scott Lang’s shoes for a minute. All sorts of things weird unbelievable stuff has happened in your life and now you’re in the quantum realm and you lost sight of your daughter after being captured by these strange quantum realm people. And then when he finally sees her, he sees this teenage girl with what looks like blood dripping down her chin and she just cheerily says

“Drink the ooze!”

And then the camera cuts away. Hilarious.

“Those buildings are alive?!”

“What, are yours dead?” said with genuine concern. Beautiful.

The surprise actor for Chidi and pretty much everything when it came to his telepathy.

“How many holes do you?”

*excitedly after being shot a lot* “I HAVE HOLES” and then turning into a vacuum cleaner and just straight up going eldritch something on these guys

Also, Darren’s death. My response to that entire conversation was basically to laugh and ask myself what the fuck? I’m pretty sure Darren said some of that stuff just to mess with Scott but I’m not sure.

I want revenge and im going to kill you and your daughter! “You’re being a dick.” “Yeah but I don’t know what else to do.” “…just stop” great idea, thanks. And immediately doing a 180 and helping your previous sworn enemies.

Also, Kang was great, and a good villain and I was actually like, a bit scared of him. I mean, I still havent seen Wakanda Forever (I know and I hate that about me too) so I can’t comment on Namor and while Killmonger was a good MCU villain Kang is a good villain. And like, those are two very different things. So that was refreshing to see.

Back to Kang I don’t know how the rest of this phase will play out. Like, how will the, for lack of a better term, council of Kang, react and what will they do? Besides maybe destroying the multiverse according to prime Kang. (Speaking of, the Kang in this is just like, a younger version then the one that Sylvie killed in Loki right? It’s never outright stated but it seems pretty clear.)

[deckerroosevelt]

Chapter 13, part 2

   I took my chance and bolted to running. My foot stepped on something soft and I slipped on it. I caught myself with my palms and a spiking pain was on my wrists and my palms were tingling. As an instinct I looked at what I fell on. It was a skeleton that had bones glued on new places. The skin was hanging around it but there wasn’t anything else inside the skin except the bones and a heart that was pulsing inside the skull. The collarbones were taken outside the skin and adjusted to look like the crown of the body on the chest.

   I didn’t want to stay there any longer and got up and ran all the way out. 

   “What the hell?” screamed a voice whose owner I had bumped into by the door. “Loki?!”

   “Saiyan?!” I got up and remembered why I was running after seeing movement in the dark. “We need to get away. Quick! Keep your eyes on me.”

   I grabbed his arm and started running. I heard the clattering and cracking all around my ears. Like I would still be inside. But I wasn’t. There was movement in every shadow and bush. My hands pressed into fists. Wait. Where’s Saiyan? I made a stark u-turn back without slowing down.

   After a few seconds of running I saw him on the ground. There were those worms squirming over him. Saiyan had a few holes here and there. The worms had eaten holes to his sweater and there were bleeding scars on those places. The worms were getting bigger in sight. They were sucking Saiyan dry who was already getting thinner and thinner. He wasn’t obese before but he wasn’t unhealthily thin like he was now. I ran to him crushing every worm I could. After I had gotten the biggest worms off him I lifted him and started running. He wasn’t heavy but bony. I felt sick feeling his bones while holding onto him. I felt like some worms were on me while running and I tried to hit myself and squish every worm I could to death. I was getting very tired and my muscles felt numb. Then I saw the light of a police car. Maybe they had gotten an alarm from the warehouse. I waved desperately to them and an officer came out of the car looking at Saiyan with concern. 

   The next moments were blurry and I tried to explain everything to them but it was hopeless. An ambulance came and gave him hydration and some first aid. Soon Decker came around and he took us home after convincing that he knew a place specialising in these unnatural  wounds. 

  Saiyan was lying on the backseat unconscious and I sat next to Decker on the shotgun. I was in my thoughts trying to come up with a way to explain everything to him when we got there. 

   “That was close.”

   I didn’t process the sentence at first. Did he just talk to me?

   “Surprise surprise”, he said with a sarcastic tone. “I remember you. I just couldn’t talk to someone other people don’t see in public, you know what I mean?”

   I looked at him with my eyes wide open and he gazed at me while driving with a careful smile. A sharp stinging-like pain shot into my stomach area.

   “Kill it!” I heard and I hit myself. My hand had blood on it and my shirt had a stain of green and red that mixed to a nauseating brown.

   “The recovery for Saiyan will be long after this. Your condition we need to check and then we can say more instructions for you”, he said. “The only positive thing is that we now get a sample of the things that cause this.”

   He looked like he was thinking of something else too and he had an unreadable expression again. 

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

sure, here's a bit from a "Loki came back from the dead after Infinity War because fuck canon I do what I want (but also he's not handling it super great)" oneshot that has genuinely been almost done since...uh. before Endgame came out. (when I say I'm the slowest writer ever, I'm really not exaggerating.)

“I’ve been thinking we should build a greenhouse for New Asgard,” Thor says. “Not much in the way of trees, but…maybe that would be good?” It’s an odd thought, in some ways. In another life, he supposes, the idea of grubbing in the dirt would have offended him, never mind that he got his hands dirty often enough preparing various potions and spell ingredients, and he often tended the most important plants in the herb garden because he didn’t trust anyone else to do it properly. Certainly, growing food would have seemed too much like commoners’ work. But he’d always loved his mother’s garden, enjoyed coaxing the trickier plants to produce the ingredients he needed, and…he thinks, just now, that he wouldn’t mind getting some dirt under his fingernails, just as he doesn’t mind the cold water dripping from his hair and trickling down his back, or the way his clothes cling to his skin and his socks have gone unpleasantly squishy inside his shoes. Everything feels…easier, more real and less raw, with that connection to simple living things. If he wants to strengthen his connection to the rest of the world in this life he’s regained—which he does; at least he is certain of that—he cannot spend all his time hiding in the forest.

no wait I have another one, the @grandthorkiday fic from 2019 that was also theoretically almost done at the time (probably less done than I think, tbh) except it still isn't finished because I...haven't really worked on it since then...because as usual I wrote it in disconnected chunks that I never figured out how to stitch together...but it was possibly even more fucked up than my original Grandthorki fic for which it was a sequel, which was definitely the most fucked-up thing I've posted.

the relevant snippet is pretty tame, though.

The Grandmaster smiles back at him from where he reclines on the bed—where Loki was, not 30 minutes ago, and now isn’t. “Afternoon, Sparkles,” he says with a little wave. “Um,” Thor says, trying to hide his sudden panic. “Yes. Hello. Have you…seen my brother?” The Grandmaster laughs outright. “He’s got a lot to teach you about subtlety, huh? It’s fine. He’s fine. I mean, obviously, in more ways than one. No cause for even a tiny bit of concern.” “I’m glad to hear that,” Thor says, or at least he would be, if he believed a word of it. “It’s just, after everything, it makes me…very nervous when he’s not around.” Which he isn’t, unless he’s transformed himself into a decorative plant. There’s nowhere to hide, not with all the mirrors.

This week’s word is…

✨ PLANT ✨

(We'll take both the noun and verb!)

Find the word in any WIP and share the sentence containing it. Play however you want: reply, reblog, stick it in the tags, tag us in a new post, or keep it private.

And please interact with other writers who share sentences.

If you’re new here, hello! Word Game Wednesday is open to fic writers in all fandoms. Original fiction writers, you can play too.

[just-another-blog-of-fluff]

The Stealthiest Among Us - Part 2

Word count: 9,500

Pairing: Loki x reader, pre-romantic (no pronouns used); featuring a whole bunch of other characters

Warnings: Mentions of "murder" and "killing" (but not actual violence - check out Among Us if you've never played!); ruthless Loki

As requested by @cllame34 - here is part 2 to The Stealthiest Among Us! You'll definitely need to read part 1 first if you haven't yet.

I included a lot of the newest updates from the actual game - we play once a week with family and friends via Zoom, so I'm pretty invested in the details 😂 Apologies to those who aren't familiar with the game! There are youtube videos out there if you don't feel like trying it out yourself (but you should, it's fun!)

Since the evening Peter introduced the group to his live-version game of Among Us, you found yourself in Loki's company more frequently than usual.

You quite enjoyed being around him. And you thought - or, at least hoped - he felt the same. Both of you still used the guise of the still-unanswered question as an excuse to spend more time together - you simply had to determine who was the stealthiest of the pair of you at some point. And yet, you each continued to find excuses as to why the other could not yet be declared the winner of this little competition.

Obviously, you didn't want to lose to the Asgardian trickster. It had nothing to do with the concern that you'd stop having these little get-togethers with your mischievous friend. Not at all.

While the two of you continued to battle for the title of the stealthiest, Peter was hard at work making upgrades to the game for the following month. The virtual version of the game had been given a number of updates, and he was excited to incorporate them. Not to mention, there were aspects of the game he couldn't capture in the first go-around that he and Tony were working to find solutions for. Things like using the vents as imposters, being able to cut through walls as ghosts, using some of the sabotage features like closing doors... Peter was bound and determined to find solutions to all of these.

By the time team game night arrived the following month, the enthusiastic teenager was practically shaking with the excitement of showing the group the updates he'd been toiling over.

"OK! So! Mr. Stark and I have made some major changes, so pay attention!" Peter declared, standing in front of the team ready to demonstrate.

"You tellin' me what to do, kid?" Bucky growled. Peter's face paled.

"Uhh, n-no, Mr. Barnes, I didn't mean-"

"Dude, I'm just messing with you!" Bucky chuckled, stepping forward to give Peter a gentle punch on the arm in jest. Peter chuckled nervously, rubbing his arm where Bucky had tapped him with his fist.

"Aheh... right. I knew that. Uh, anyway..." Peter cleared his throat, regaining his composure. "The first update is - we have a vent system!"

"Wait... seriously?" Clint asked in surprise. Peter nodded excitedly.

"Yeah! Mr. Stark let me use the vents from the old HVAC system!"

"Don't worry - I made the kid crawl around inside and clean them all out," Tony interjected. "No spider webs in there. Well - except maybe any webs Arachnakid left behind."

"Hey! I was careful with my web fluid..." Peter mumbled sheepishly. "Only the imposters and the new 'engineer' role can use the vents. They won't unlock if you're not one of those roles."

"What next? Tell me you found a way to let us walk through walls!" Strange exclaimed sarcastically. Peter grinned excitedly, holding up a finger in triumph.

"Nope!" A few groans chorused around the room. "But! When you're a ghost, you can use your comms device to virtually traverse through the tower and complete your tasks remotely! It's the next best thing to walking through walls."

Not a bad workaround, you thought to yourself. But still, not as exciting as walking through walls.

"I already mentioned the engineer crewmate role. The scientist crewmate will be able to see the vitals screen on their comms device to know if anyone has been 'murdered.' And the guardian angel will be whoever becomes the first ghost - you'll also have the ability to protect people on your device! They will be immune to imposter attacks for fifteen seconds."

"Wait... what about the shapeshifter?" Wanda asked curiously. Peter's grin grew even wider at the suggestion.

"Glad you asked! That's my proudest achievement." He stepped around behind a wall and vanished for a moment. When he returned, he was wearing a red jumpsuit that appeared to be made of a silky style fabric. "The vests are so last month. Check out our new gear!"

"Uhh... hate to break it to you, kid, but that looks like a fancy red prison suit," Sam quipped. Peter scowled in response.

"Ok, maybe it looks like a prison suit, BUT - watch this!"

Holding up his matching red comms device, he pressed a button and gazed at the group in anticipation of their reaction. Suddenly, with a flash of blue light skimming up the entire length of his body, he transformed before everyone's eyes into Tony, including the darker maroon-colored suit Tony usually chose as his color. Excited murmurings erupted from the group.

"How... how did you do that?" Steve asked in awe.

"It's a hologram! See - I still sound like myself," the false Tony declared in Peter's usual bubbly voice. "The suits are designed with thousands of microscopic projector lenses to allow the wearer to transform into whoever they want!"

You nudged Loki beside you with your elbow. "Guess you're not the only person who can shapeshift now, hmm?"

Loki chuckled darkly. "As if you could fool me with such subpar projection techniques. Only I have the ability to create a perfect replica of myself."

"Ok, the last update will be a surprise!" Peter declared as he changed back into himself. "There are new sabotage options available to the imposters. Crewmates beware!"

"Wait - if we don't have the vests, how are we supposed to know where to attack to 'murder' someone?" Bruce asked frantically.

"Just tap your weapon stick somewhere on the upper half of the suit!" Peter explained, grabbing one of the other player's weapons off the workbench and tapping it against his chest. The suit responded immediately, creating a red glow outlining Peter's body that looked somewhat supernatural. "See? Now I'm ghost Peter!"

"Clever," Nat mumbled with a nod of approval.

"I suggest we begin playing a round now, Mr. Parker," Vision recommended. "Based on the average playing time of fifty-three minutes and forty-nine seconds from the last game night, we will be playing past Mr. Barton's preferred bedtime if we do not begin within the next seven minutes and fifteen seconds."

"Hey! No need to call me out like that, man," Clint grumbled sheepishly as Nat covered her mouth with her hand to hide her laughter.

Peter distributed the new and improved gear, and you suited up in your cyan-colored jumpsuit over your T-shirt and shorts. It was surprisingly light-weight and aerodynamic for something with so much microscopic tech embedded into the fabric. You attached your imposter weapon to the built-in holster on the belt of the suit, sliding your comms device into the pocket at your hip.

When you turned around and saw Loki wearing his own jumpsuit, you nearly burst into laughter on the spot. You'd never seen him wear anything besides his Asgardian leather, or otherwise business casual Midgardian attire. To see him wearing this green one-piece suit was very out of character for him.

And yet, as your eyes skimmed up and down his body, you realized that the look sort of suited him in a weird way.

"Are you ready to kneel before me when I am crowned the stealthiest?" you teased haughtily. Loki huffed out a laugh in response, a wolfish smirk spreading across his lips.

"I suggest you don't get too cocky before your inevitable defeat. You wouldn't want me to force you to do something humiliating when I earn the title."

"Please. I am the master of this game, and you know it."

"Well, I suppose we're about to prove you wrong, aren't we?"

You enjoyed this playful banter with Loki. As strong as your desire was to defeat him at his own game of lies and deceit, you also had grown to appreciate the way he challenged you. You liked to think he felt the same.

With the group suited up and ready, all fifteen players dispersed throughout the designated floors of the tower to find a starting location and await their roles for the first round. You and Loki exchanged resolute, determined glances before parting ways, and you headed to the common room for the start of the game.

As you entered the room, your comms device buzzed in your pocket. Your heart leapt with anticipation as the lights dimmed slightly around you, and you pulled out your comms device to see what role you'd been assigned first.

Imposter - Shapeshifter

Alright Loki, you thought, let's see how good you really are at teasing out illusions.

Your non-shapeshifter co-imposters were Peter and Sam this round. It was almost unfair, having three skilled imposters working together right off the bat. Not that you were complaining.

You wasted no time testing out this new shapeshifting feature, scrolling through the list of people available to impersonate before settling on Clint. With the press of a button, your outer appearance transformed to look like the archer, complete with his yellow jumpsuit color. You gazed down in wonder at your hands, which now appeared as the calloused hands of your teammate hiding your own familiar skin. A glance at your comms device told you this wouldn't last very long - the moment the illusion took effect, a countdown timer started from 60 seconds and was ticking down fast. You had to find someone to 'kill' to frame Clint.

What you didn't anticipate was running into the archer himself as you stepped into the hallway. Quite literally, actually.

You both stumbled backwards as you collided, almost mirror images of one another as you both straightened your posture and regained your balance. As Clint took in the sight of the person he'd bumped into, his eyes widened and his brows shot up his forehead.

"Woah-woah-woah - what the hell??" he muttered, taking a few steps backward. "This is... so freaking weird..."

You said nothing, unwilling to give away your identity through your voice. As Clint visibly finished processing what was happening, and began to turn to run, you ripped your imposter weapon off your belt and lunged forward to tap it against his back. He swore under his breath as a yellow glow surrounded him, making him appear ghostly. Smirking, you stepped backward and shot him a wink with the illusion still in effect, then turned and sprinted in the opposite direction to find cover before you changed back to yourself.

The timer on your comms device had dropped to ten seconds already, and you were still standing in plain sight. Unwilling to risk someone rounding a corner and seeing you change back to your own appearance, you glanced around wildly, seeing one of the vents inset into the floor at the end of the hallway. You bolted toward it, ripping the vent cover off as you felt it click unlocked beneath your fingers. The moment you swung your legs inside and let yourself drop into the dark crawl space, the holographic projection of Clint's features surrounding your own body vanished.

Phew. That was a close one. What were the odds of running into the one person you decided to impersonate, honestly??

Keeping your motions smooth and light so as not to make noise, you crawled through the vent tunnel in search of another opening. After taking a couple turns through the vent system, you found a few slits of light shining on the metallic surface of the tunnel up ahead. You made a beeline straight for it, pausing briefly to peer through the slats in the vent cover and listen for any sound indicating someone was flitting around nearby. Met with silence, you cautiously slid the cover off the vent above you and hoisted yourself out, replacing the cover swiftly before anyone caught you.

The echo of heavy footsteps sounded in the hallway outside of what you now realized was the library. Playing it cool, you pulled out your comms device and took a few deliberate steps away from the vent, acting as if you were searching for your crewmate tasks on the screen while remaining on high alert for whoever's footsteps were nearing your location. As they rounded the corner, you glanced up as though preparing yourself to run should the need arise, but relaxed when you realized it was Sam in his dark blue jumpsuit.

He tilted his chin at you with a questioning look, avoiding saying anything out loud in case there were others nearby. In response, you gave a subtle nod, a ghost of a smirk playing at your lips. Sam shot you a wink, returning your sly smirk before walking past you into the library. At that moment, your comms device buzzed to signal a body had been reported.

The remaining players convened in the conference room to discuss. Notably, Clint was not the only one missing - both Steve and Scott had also been offed already, and it was Steve who had been found in the fitness room. A concerned grumbling erupted among the group, which you joined in with to avoid suspicion.

"Obviously we're dealing with some skilled serial killers here," Tony declared, his eyes flitting over to you. Feigning surprise, you held your hands up innocently.

"Woah - look, I'm flattered and all, but my hands are clean," you insisted. Which wasn't technically a lie - you 'killed' Clint as himself. "Besides - if it were me, I'd have gone after Loki first."

"Careful, agent... you don't want to become predictable," Loki warned tauntingly. He didn't seem suspicious of you at the moment, so at least you were in the clear for now.

"I just want to mention, Thor was acting pretty sus in the kitchen a couple of minutes ago," Peter announced. Thor laughed heartily.

"Are you attempting to accuse me of murder?"

"Alright, Thor's in the clear," Bucky decided aloud.

"What- how do you know I'm innocent??" Thor demanded.

"You always own up to it when it's you and someone calls you out!" Bucky retorted.

As Thor went on a strange tirade about how no one should assume his innocence, despite not being an imposter, you began plotting your next move. You knew you needed to take advantage of the fact that you were the shapeshifter this round and prove to Loki that he could be fooled. There was no telling whether you'd get this opportunity again this evening, with fourteen other people being randomly assigned roles each round.

Ultimately, no one was voted off as a suspected imposter; most of the discussion period had been consumed by Thor's insistence that he could be the imposter ('perhaps I'm simply skilled in deceit!' he'd stated. That made Loki laugh pretty hard.) As the group dispersed and exited the room to continue working on tasks, you were cautious to keep enough distance from Loki so as not to make him suspicious that you might be planning to follow him. You stepped out into the hallway and held out your comms device in an attempt to feign searching for your next task, when really you wanted an excuse to glance up and determine where Loki had gone off to.

You caught sight of his green jumpsuit vanishing around the corner just in time. Keeping some space between yourself and the trickster, you followed him and watched as he stepped into the stairwell and shut the door behind him.

He had to be going down to the lab. There were few other locations that needed to be accessed through the stairwell, you knew.

Wanda was in the hallway behind you, so you stepped into the broom closet beside the stairwell door to pretend to do a task. Wouldn't want her seeing you follow Loki down the staircase - that would surely be suspicious, even if you 'killed' him in someone else's image. After a suitable amount of time to make it believable that you were actually completing a task, you exited the closet and slipped into the stairwell.

You didn't bother keeping your footsteps light to avoid detection. If you were truly one of the other crewmates, you'd be too busy focusing on your tasks to consider being sneaky. Just as you descended the final flight of stairs, you used your comms device to shapeshift into the one person you knew Loki would be least intimidated by in a game of stealth.

As the illusion of Bruce appeared around you, you shoved open the door to the lab and stumbled inside, pretending to be hyperfocused on your comms device just as Bruce would be. You didn't dare keep your gaze on Loki for more than a second as you glanced around the room as if trying to locate your task, furrowing your brow in much the same way as the two-faced scientist would do. A code task caught your eye, which stood between Loki's current position and his exit. You got to work, squinting at the numbers on the panel and channeling Bruce's energy to appear as unsuspicious as possible.

It worked.

Loki completed his own task, passing within feet of where you stood on his way out the door. Swiftly, you whipped around and tore your imposter weapon off your belt in one smooth motion, pressing it to Loki's back between his shoulder blades with a nearly-inaudible triumphant whoop.

His eyes practically were glowing along with his jumpsuit when he whirled around to face you, no doubt recognizing your voice was not the usual tone of the mild-mannered scientist. Only seconds later, the illusion of Bruce dissipated to reveal your true identity.

"I knew I could get you to fall for it," you whispered with an impish grin. "And you thought you were above the tricks of the shapeshifter."

"Agent..." Loki's voice was a low, ominous growl. "I don't suggest taunting the God of Mischief. You know from experience that gets you into trouble."

"Oh, but it's so worth it," you teased, shooting him a wink before scurrying out of the room. You knew he wouldn't follow and break the rules, lest you get on his case for cheating and not staying put for someone to stumble over his 'body' later and report it. Still, deep down, you knew he would be plotting his revenge.

Fine, then, you thought to yourself as you hopped into the vent near the stairwell. We'll see if he can muster the skill to beat me.

You had to climb up a ladder inside the vent tunnel to reach the next floor up. Once you'd reached the next horizontal section of tunnel, you caught sight of the slits of light shining through the vent cover up ahead.

Still riding the high of having beaten Loki at his own shapeshifting game, you were a bit too careless in your approach, not bothering to take the time to listen for sound above you. You were therefore startled when the vent cover lifted as you reached for it, revealing Nat's face hovering above your head gazing down into the vent.

"How did you..."

Right. Engineer, you remembered, answering your own question before you'd finished asking it.

Nat, of course, wasn't waiting around now that she'd seen you. As quickly as she appeared in your line of sight, she'd vanished, her boots clicking rapidly against the floor as she sprinted toward, no doubt, the emergency button in the conference room. You had to act fast if you were going to spare yourself a vote-off.

Planting your palms on either side of the vent opening, you swiftly hoisted yourself out, springing immediately to your feet. As you made to begin chasing her, you realized two problems - one being the cooldown counter that was still ticking down on your comms device, preventing you from 'killing' anyone else after your recent conquest. The second was the recognition that you'd surely appear suspicious if anyone witnessed you sprinting after the sure-footed assassin. Your best bet was to allow her to reach the button and prepare to lie your way out of this. Perhaps channel Loki's energy this time.

You followed slowly behind Nat, waiting for the moment your comms device buzzed to signal the convening of the group. After a few minutes, you began to wonder where she had really run off to. Did she forget about the emergency button? Was she searching for a 'body' to report?

Then, you saw her.

She looked rather sour, a ghostly glow around her rose-colored jumpsuit as she stood in the middle of the hallway waiting for someone to locate her 'body.' When her eyes met yours, she scowled, motioning to her eyes with her fingers and then to you to signal she was watching you as you passed by.

Figuring it'd be rather suspicious if anyone caught you wandering casually past a 'dead' crewmate without doing anything about it, you decided to report it yourself, pulling out your comms device with a smirk.

"She was there in the middle of the hallway," you explained to the group once they'd all arrived in the conference room. Loki and Nat were absent, of course, but you were pleased to note that Bruce was also missing.

"How can we be sure you didn't off her yourself and self-report?" Tony demanded.

"I was monitoring the vitals screens, Mr. Stark," Vision interjected. "There were approximately twenty-two seconds between Natasha's 'murder' and the reporting of the 'body.' It is unlikely that it would be a self-report."

"Huh. Fitting that the game made Vision the scientist," Bucky chuckled.

"Ok, but guys, we need to figure out who at least one of the imposters is - there's only nine of us left. One kill each and the imposters win," Peter urged. Damn, clever move, you thought.

"You guys think Thor was actually telling the truth when he said he wasn't innocent?" Sam queried suspiciously.

"Unlikely. We all know Thor is a terrible liar," Stephen argued.

"I am not!"

"Are you suggesting that you did do it then?" you asked.

"I... I'm merely suggesting that you shouldn't write me off so easily," he responded, his tone conflicted.

"Ok, let's wrap this up people, we've got twenty seconds until go-time," Tony pressured.

You met Peter's and Sam's eyes for a brief moment each, nodding just slightly toward Thor to indicate your plan as you selected his name for your vote. The tally popped up a few moments later, with four votes Thor, three votes Tony, and two votes you. Thor was voted off.

"Ugh, guys I told you he's a terrible liar," Stephen griped as the comms screens noted he was not an imposter.

"Ok - everybody finish your tasks!" Peter ordered as he sprinted out of the room. Everyone else followed suit.

With only two 'kills' left to victory, you waited impatiently for your cooldown counter to tick to zero so you could make your final 'murder' of the round. You set your sights on Bucky, feigning completing a wiring task in the hallway as he entered the fitness room nearby. You didn't bother shapeshifting this time, knowing if you could land your kill, one of your co-imposters would inevitably strike down the one additional person needed to win the round within a few minutes.

The moment your countdown finished, you dashed inside the fitness room and caught Bucky in the back of the shoulder with your imposter weapon. He groaned out loud as his black suit developed a ghostly grayish glow.

"I knew it!" he mumbled under his breath, shooting you a playful glare. You returned his glare with a smirk, which only broadened when the comms devices began to buzz in your pockets to signal the imposters had won with Vision's 'murder' by Peter.

"Better luck next time, Buck," you taunted.

"Watch it, or I'll start rooting for Loki to beat you," he retorted. You gasped, feigning indignance as you both began heading back to the conference room to reconvene before the next round.

"Ouch. I like to think you like me better than him, Bucky. I'm offended."

"Loki's not the one who murdered me just now."

"You know he would though."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right."

The group gathered in the conference room, bubbling with various conversations about the last round as Peter got the next one set up. You high-fived Peter and Sam for a job well done, boasting loudly about your imposter prowess knowing Loki was listening.

"Say what you want, agent. You'll eat your words soon enough," Loki warned.

"Whatever you say, Loki. So far, looks to me like I'm the one who's winning."

He shot you an unnervingly devilish smirk. "Just you wait."

You made sure to put some distance between yourself and the Asgardian after that look, heading to start the round in the lab as he turned toward the library. Pacing back and forth, you stared impatiently at your comms device until it finally showed you your role for the round:

Crewmate - Scientist

At least you'd get to try out another new role, you thought to yourself, although your heart beat a bit faster at the thought that you may have just landed the rodent role in this game of cat and mouse with Loki. There was no way to know if he was an imposter, but you weren't planning on getting close enough to him to find out.

A couple of your tasks were located in the lab, so you decided to get those out of the way given you were already here. The door to the lab opened behind you as you were completing a lengthier task with flashing buttons that had to be pressed in a specific order. Your ears pricked up the moment they stepped inside, and you whirled around to find Bruce wandering in with his nose buried in his comms device. He appeared to be acting like the real Bruce, but after your trick the last round, you weren't going to trust anyone. You remained on high alert, fumbling with the buttons in front of you on your task as you tried to keep one eye on the scientist until he finally finished his task and exited the room without a word.

With a sigh of relief, you returned your full attention to your task, having to restart at this point after pressing a few buttons in the wrong sequence while you were distracted. You completed it at last, making your way swiftly to the other side of the room to complete a wiring task before heading toward the door.

A sudden clicking noise a few feet from the door had you on edge, weight shifted to the balls of your feet in preparation to run should the need arise. The vent cover in the corner shifted, lifting up and off to the side before the dark-haired trickster you were trying to evade revealed himself.

For a brief moment, you locked eyes with Loki, who seemed startled to see you standing there. Without waiting for him to come after you, you took off running toward the emergency button, bounding swiftly up the stairs from the lab to the conference room. You had no idea if he was following you or not, so you ran as if he might be. Within thirty seconds, you'd made it to the conference room and slammed your palm down on the button, taking a moment to lean forward against the table and catch your breath while you awaited the arrival of the others.

The group gradually filtered in with confused but curious looks on their faces, gazing at you expectantly. Notably, Scott and Wanda were both missing from the group. Obviously Loki must have intended to off you as his first target, but you'd thwarted his plan expertly.

"I just watched Loki vent," you declared, pointing at him accusatorily. There was a murmuring among the group as you folded your arms haughtily, smirking at the God of Mischief as all eyes turned toward him.

"Loki's an imposter, then?" Clint asked finally.

He shrugged nonchalantly, his expression unreadable. "I am the engineer this round. I was merely utilizing the vent system to reach my task in the lab."

"What!? No, no way. I don't believe that for a second," you argued animatedly. "You were clearly coming after me, and you got caught. You wanted to get back at me for last round. Admit it!"

"I suppose I could see why you might believe that," he responded calmly, gazing around at the others without even the faintest hint of his characteristic mischievous grin on his face. "I assure you, I am not an imposter."

"Oh, come on! Are you guys seriously going to believe him?" You looked frantically around the room, searching for anyone who appeared as though they may back you up. "Isn't there someone else who is the engineer? Go on, speak up."

You were met with silence. Huffing frustratedly through your nose, you pulled out your comms device to cast your vote.

"Well, I'm voting for Loki. Believe what you want. I know what I saw."

"You two sort of have a grudge match going on there, Jack the Ripper - forgive me if I don't believe you when you immediately accuse him two minutes into the round," Tony quipped.

"But... he... I... ugh." You knew Tony had a point. No way were the others going to believe you now, not without more evidence.

Sure enough, most people skipped their vote, and Loki survived the emergency meeting you'd called. You muttered in frustration under your breath as the group dispersed to work on their tasks. As you made your way out of the conference room, you locked eyes with Loki for the briefest moment. There was a gleam in his eye that hadn't been there during the voting period as you passed by hm, which unnerved you despite the fact that his expression remained neutral.

No way were you hanging around for him to catch you.

You decided to put as much distance as you could between yourself and the mischievous god, heading off to complete the remaining task that was located farthest from the conference room.

The game lounge was a new inclusion in the Among Us map that Peter had laid out. In true Tony Stark fashion, the room had been furnished with oversized chairs around a sizeable table intended for card or board games, with plush sofas set out in a couple of seating areas for people to hang out, drink, and socialize while awaiting their turn to play. A sorting task had been set up on the table with a deck of cards, which was where your comms device was directing you.

Before starting the task, you glanced quickly at the vitals screen on your comms device. Already, an imposter had offed another crewmate - Sam this time, likely a revenge kill for the last round. It meant the imposters' kill cooldown had finished, which put you on high alert. Best to keep moving quickly, you thought.

As swiftly as possible, you sorted the cards into their respective piles and completed the task. Glancing at your map, you turned to head off to your next task.

About five feet from the door, it slammed shut in your face.

A wave of anxious panic washed over you as your brain registered you'd been trapped inside the room by an imposter. With fumbling fingers, you dug into your pocket for your comms device so you could use it to open the door. As your fingers closed around the device, the lights overhead went out, drenching you in darkness.

And then suddenly, someone's arm wrapped tightly around your waist from behind.

You couldn't prevent the shriek of surprise from bursting out of your mouth at the sudden contact. It was clear to you who it was even before you heard his devious laughter rumbling in your ear. A solid object prodded into your back, and your suit gained the ghostly glow that indicated you'd been 'killed.'

"What was that about winning the title of the stealthiest?" Loki goaded, tightening his hold around your waist as you shoved at his arm. Unwilling to admit that this had been a pretty clever sequence of sabotages he'd pulled on you, you huffed a laugh through your nose and turned your head toward him in the darkness.

"I see you decided to forgo the monologuing before killing me this time. You're catching on, hmm?"

His arm around you stiffened. "You are in no position to be taunting me. I not only succeeded in 'killing' you, but you were quite obviously startled by my attack." You could practically hear the smirk in his tone despite not being able to see his face. "Obviously you didn't even know I was in here. Which means I succeeded in deceiving you."

"Pshh... I knew you were here," you fibbed, "I was just... startled that you grabbed me. You know you don't need to physically trap me to 'kill' me, I should hope. Or perhaps you need a refresher on the rules of the game?"

"Oh-ho, agent. You've become far too brazen with me."

You gasped as you felt his other arm wrap around your waist, stiffening when his hands slid down to latch onto your hips with his thumbs poised against the soft spots inside your hipbones.

"N-noho, Loki, dohon't you daHAHARE NOHOHO!!"

You instantly succumbed to desperate, unbridled laughter as he toggled his thumbs into those wretched spots on your hips. His chest rumbled against your back with his own chuckling as your knees buckled and you sank to the floor. Unfinished with his attack, he followed you down, relentlessly kneading his thumbs into those same two spots knowing very well the effect it had on you.

"I tried to warn you, agent. On multiple occasions, in fact. You're far too bold for your own good."

"Yohou... yohou JAHAH...yohou juhust... OH MY GOHOD MOHOVE SOHOMEWHEHERE EHELSE!!"

He laughed devilishly. "No, I rather enjoy this spot, actually. It seems to render you speechless."

The lights flipped on overhead, which meant at least you could see your assailant now, though it didn't seem to make it any less overwhelmingly ticklish. Especially not once he added his other fingers to the fray, scratching at your sides just above your hips while continuing his ruthless attack with his thumbs at the same godforsaken spot.

Only when your laughter had started to become breathless did Loki offer you mercy, his hands stilling against your hips as you sucked air hungrily into your lungs.

"Learned your lesson yet, agent?" he asked teasingly. You knew you were about to make things worse on yourself, but it was just too tempting.

"Aha... ahas I was saying... you just don't want to admit you've met your match."

With a playful growl, he suddenly wrenched you sideways to tackle you the rest of the way to the floor, pinning you down on your belly with his weight planted on the backs of your legs. Giggly pleas began spilling from your lips as you felt his hands latch onto your hips on their matching sides this time, his fingers slotted underneath your belly to reach their target.

"Asking for more?" He didn't await your response before curling his eight fingers into that same soft spot, bracing his thumbs at the sides of your hips. You didn't realize he could make it any worse than he had before. Each contracture of his fingertips into the hypersensitive pliant skin sent shockwaves of ticklish sparks through your entire body, leaving you breathless as your feet pounded against the floor in desperation.

He paused when your comms devices suddenly buzzed, indicating a body had been reported. You sighed audibly with relief, shifting to try to stand.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"They called a meeting!"

"You don't have to be there. You're a ghost, as you may recall." His fingers began pinching at your sides, traveling up your ribcage. You squealed, bursting into giggles.

"Buhuhut YOHOU doho!"

"Ah, yes..." Without pausing in his attack, an illusion of Loki appeared in front of you, waving cheekily as it turned and exited the room. "Easily remedied."

"Wahahait! Yohou can't... hohow is THIHIS fair!?"

"I'm not breaking any rules - I'll release you when the voting is complete. Have to prepare to take my next victim, after all."

You turned onto your side to look back at the trickster. "Doho you treheat all yohour victims like this??"

"Only the brash ones," he growled, punctuating it with a dig at your belly with one hand. "Seems you're the only one of those around here."

You rolled back onto your stomach again to block his tickling fingers, glancing around in search of an escape route. Without getting Loki's weight off you, there was little hope of getting away. Then, you recalled how you escaped the last time. Reaching around behind yourself, you latched a hand onto Loki's knee where it rested on the floor by your leg, squeezing rapidly at the muscle.

He barked out a surprised laugh, jerking his leg away from your hand. You reached for the other knee, taking advantage of his shifted weight to roll over onto your back and scoot backwards with a digging of your heels against the floor, freeing your legs from under him. Leaping swiftly to your feet, you backed away toward the door as you reached for your comms device to open it, not once taking your eyes off the Asgardian.

"Ticklish knees too, hmm?" you hummed, smirking. A dusting of red blossomed in his cheeks at your taunt, only serving to widen your smirk. "You'd best watch yourself - one of these days I'm going to get you back."

Loki laughed at the mere suggestion. "Unless you somehow find a way to sneak up on me, I seriously doubt you'll succeed in that, darling."

"You doubt my prowess? Don't go underestimating me."

"Ah, yes, how silly of me." He smirked, glancing down at his own comms device as the vote result came through and Thor got voted off. "Seems my dear brother has wrongly implicated himself as an imposter once again."

"Damnit Thor!" you muttered under your breath. You flinched as Loki suddenly advanced toward you with a few powerful strides, holding your hands out protectively as you giggled nervously. With a sly grin, he reached over your shoulder, holding his comms device up to the door sensor.

"Glad to see you've learned to be nervous around me." He brushed past you without another word, no doubt off to find his next victim.

I was nervous around you long before this, you thought to yourself.

As you were now 'dead' and had to complete the remainder of your tasks virtually, the rest of the round was rather dull. It came as no surprise when the imposters were declared the winners for the second round this evening. Tony sheepishly admitted he was wrong to doubt you when you arrived at the conference room to rejoin the group. Turns out he, too, had been 'murdered' by the God of Mischief.

Vision suggested this next round should be the last, noting that 'Mr. Barton would be wanting to head to bed soon,' to which Clint shot back that if Vision had three kids, he, too, would desire an early bedtime. Peter got to work setting up the final round. While the others around you chattered about the previous round's events, you approached Loki with a determined look.

"What is it, agent? Have you come to admit defeat?" Loki inquired with a smirk. You folded your arms across your chest, shaking your head.

"As I see it, we're tied one to one tonight." Loki rolled his eyes at that, but didn't argue with you. "What do you say this next round decides the winner once and for all? Whoever wins is deemed the stealthiest."

"And what if we're on the same team?" he questioned. "It is a random role assignment, after all."

"If we're both imposters, we'll say whoever scores the most 'kills' without getting voted off. And as crewmates, whoever finishes their tasks first or whoever gets 'killed' last wins."

Loki pondered for a moment, considering your terms. Then, he nodded, holding his hand out to shake on it.

"Deal."

You clasped your hand around yours, gasping when he suddenly tugged you closer by your hand so he could lean forward in an effort to intimidate.

"I hope you're prepared to lose, agent," he growled, a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Likewise, Your Highness," you quipped back, holding your ground along with his gaze. He shook your hand once before releasing it, stepping backward as Peter announced the beginning of the round.

"I rather like the sound of that. Perhaps you should start calling me that more often." He shot you a wink before turning to exit the conference room, leaving you standing there with a blush forming on your face.

You were torn as you wandered out into the hallway and toward the kitchen to start the final round. On one hand, you desperately wanted to defeat Loki at his own game and prove yourself the master of deceit. On the other, if the pair of you determined a winner this evening, that would mean there was no excuse for you to spend time together going forward. At least, not just the two of you.

You weren't sure you were ready for that to end.

As you approached the kitchen, your comms device buzzed to provide you your final role of the evening.

Crewmate

Damn, you thought. You'd hoped you'd be an imposter this last round. No matter - you'd still find a way to beat Loki and earn the title you were after.

You found Stephen was already in the kitchen when you entered. He was slipping his comms device into his pocket, glancing around the room for a moment until he locked eyes with you. Warily, you side-stepped around the opposite side of the counter, keeping a barrier between the pair of you in case he was one of them. There was a short task on your list to complete in here - simply flip on the trash disposal. You did just that, your gaze never leaving the sorcerer's as you made your way back out of the kitchen.

Ok, so maybe he wasn't an imposter then? He certainly hadn't gone after you.

You made your way swiftly through the tower, on your guard as you completed the tasks on your list. About halfway through your tasks, you were interrupted by a meeting called to the conference room for a reported body. Groaning, you dropped the wiring task you were working through and headed off to convene with the group.

There were startlingly few people in here for the first meeting of the round. The first person you noticed was present was, of course, Loki. Among the missing included Nat, Vision, Tony, Peter, and Bucky. Five down already - had it been that much time since the start of the round?

The group began deliberating the possible killers, and you glared at Loki suspiciously. No way had it been long enough for two of the imposters to have achieved two 'kills,' had it? Someone must have been cheating, and you had an idea of who it was. Only one person in this room could manipulate the game without touching the electronics.

Loki had the nerve to glare at you suspiciously in return. You knew he was trying to get the others to become suspicious of you without verbally calling you out just yet. More than likely, he would come up with some sort of lie to implicate you in one of the next 'murders' the next time a round of votes was called. You placed your vote for Loki, and you just knew the one vote you received was from him. But no one was voted off, and the three imposters remained at large.

You got right back to completing your tasks, hoping to finish before Loki managed to find you and 'kill' you off. Three tasks remained, though one was a multi-part wiring task. Hurriedly, you headed off to the closet by the staircase where the first wiring panel was located to get that one started.

Just as you reached the door, the lights went out.

You could hear your heart beating in your ears as you glanced around wildly, listening for any signs of movement in the darkness. It would do no good for you to stay put in the darkness - that was just asking to be 'murdered.' The circuit breaker to fix the lights was located down in the lab, which happened to be down the staircase you were standing beside. Forgoing your wiring task for the time being, you swung yourself through the door to the stairs and carefully made your way down to the lab.

The second you entered, you knew something wasn't right. You could just sense it - someone was awaiting you in the shadows, preparing to land their 'kill' and knock you out of the game. And though you couldn't see more than a foot in front of your face, you knew exactly who it was.

"Loki! I know you're in here!" you called out to the darkness. There was a sudden shuffling sound coming from the wall by the circuit breaker. It dawned on you then, what his plan had been. He was waiting for you to come close enough that he could 'kill' you in the process. "Did you seriously think you could trick me into standing still for you to 'murder' me while I fix the lights?"

"While I'm certain I absolutely could, I know you're trying to lull me into a false sense of security," Loki's voice rumbled through the darkness. "Don't bother to come any closer - you won't be succeeding in 'killing' me this round."

"What?! Oho, Loki, you are trying so hard to trick me! It's not going to work. If I have to finish my tasks in the dark, so be it."

"Perhaps I won't fix them, then, if you don't need them. I know your little game, darling. You won't get me to turn my back on you this time."

You opened your mouth to retort, but you were cut off when you felt a solid object prod into your back. The familiar ghostly glow surrounded your suit, and you cursed out loud.

"Damn you, Loki!!"

"You conniving little scoundrel!"

"Wait..." You paused, confused when you heard Loki cursing you simultaneously. "That wasn't you?"

"No. I'm fixing the lights, remember?" He paused a moment then as well. "Then... it wasn't you who 'killed' me just now either?"

Two new voices piped up from the shadows.

"Nope!"

"It was us!"

Suddenly, the lights flipped back on, revealing Thor standing at the circuit breaker beside Loki with his imposter weapon held in his free hand. You spun around to face the source of the other voice, groaning when your gaze landed on Bruce standing behind you.

"Ha-ha!! You should see your faces right now!" Bruce laughed.

"Yes, are you surprised, brother? Did you truly doubt me that much?" Thor queried, patting his brother hard on the shoulder.

"I... wow," you sighed, shaking your head. "Alright, I've got to hand it to you guys - you got us pretty good."

"Don't you have other crewmates to go 'murder,' dear brother?" Loki muttered, shooting daggers at Thor with his eyes.

"Unlikely. If Steve succeeded in his plan of attack, the game should end very... ah!" Bruce held up his comms device, pointing to the screen indicating the imposters had won once again. Thor strode over to Bruce proudly, offering him a seriously overpowered high-five that made Bruce grunt in pain and shake his wrist.

"Come now! We must rejoin the group and celebrate the imposter victory!" Thor declared, motioning for the rest of you to follow. He and Bruce disappeared into the stairwell, leaving you and Loki staring at each other in disbelief.

"So...?"

"Did we...?"

"Yes, I believe we both just lost to two of the least skilled players in the game," Loki groaned defeatedly.

"Yep, that's what I thought." You shook your head, laughing despite yourself. "After all that, we still don’t have a winner."

"I beg your pardon - I think we can both agree that I did a much better job deceiving you."

"Oh yeah? So you... didn't fall for my trick when I shapeshifted into Bruce?"

Loki glowered, and you laughed.

"I suppose we'll need to wait until next month to find out the answer, then, won't we?" he asked.

"Yes, I suppose you're right."

The whole group gathered in the lounge for a while afterward as you often did, rehashing the game and sipping drinks. Gradually, everyone parted ways as they headed off to bed one by one. Soon, only you, Thor, and Loki remained.

You knew Loki's routines well enough by now to know he wasn't going to go straight to bed like the others. He was a night owl, often wandering the tower into the late hours of the night and taking advantage of the rare hours of solitude. Most often, he'd take up residence in the common room on the armchair by the window, reading a book while intermittently gazing out at the stars, or listening to the rain pattering against the window pane.

Not that you were observing him that closely. He was just... predictable.

In any case, it worked out to your advantage this evening. You hadn't given up on winning the battle and being deemed the stealthiest tonight, and you had a healthy dose of revenge you wanted to dish out simultaneously. So, when Thor rose and bid you both goodnight, you did the same, pretending to go to bed but instead finding a hiding spot in the hallway to wait for Loki to head to the common room.

For this to work, you had to be sneakier than you'd ever been. No one sneaks up on Loki. He had this way of just sensing your presence, or perhaps it was his enhanced hearing abilities that allowed him to hear the lightest footsteps. You slipped your sneakers off and left them in the hallway, keeping your weight shifted to your toes to reduce the likelihood of detection as much as possible.

Sure enough, moments later, you observed with bated breath as Loki strolled by on his way to his usual reading spot. You waited long enough to put a few feet of distance between you, remaining outside of his field of peripheral vision, then crept as light-footed as possible along behind him. You didn't even dare to breathe, for fear he might hear the slightest noise of the air passing through your nose.

He entered the common room, suddenly pausing in the middle of the room. You just knew he was on to you, so you had to act fast. Without really thinking about it, you lunged forward, throwing your arms around his waist and squeezing hard, wasting no time in digging your fingers into his ribcage.

"Pffft- whahat in the Nihine..." His hands closed around yours and began prying your arms off of himself.

"NO! I'm getting my REVENGE!" you shouted, resisting as best you could while wriggling your fingertips into every inch of his torso you could reach.

Then suddenly, Loki burst into frantic laughter, his grip on your hands loosening.

"What's this??" you asked teasingly, taking mental note of the spot that you were currently targeting just below his ribcage on his sides.

"A-eheh-agehent! Dohon't even thihink-"

"Think about exploiting your weak spot? Oh, it's too late for that." You dug your fingers in harder and faster, holding tight to his waist as he began thrashing in your arms, much to your surprise. "Wohow! Loki, do you really think you should tease me about my ticklishness when you're clearly just as bad?"

"AHAM NOT!"

"Mm, receding to childish arguments? I think that proves my point."

He fumbled to try to pry your hands off those trigger spots you'd discovered, but you held fast, sneaking in a few more moments of well-deserved revenge as you took in the warm, rumbling sound of his laughter.

With one last mighty tug, Loki managed to free himself from your torment. He whipped around instantly to face you, your wrists still in his grasp as he shot you a devilish, playful glare.

"Did you really think that was a good idea, agent?"

He spun the two of you around so your back was facing into the room, taking powerful strides forward to back you up as you spluttered giggly protests and excuses. The backs of your legs struck the soft cushioning on the front of the sofa, and your eyes widened. With a wolfish smirk, he pushed you down onto the sofa and clambered up to sit on your legs, pinning you on your back.

"Did you think..." He wrestled your wrist down to your side, pinning it beneath his knee before beginning to fight with the other. "... you could sneak in here, tickle me, and get away with it?"

You chuckled as he managed to pin your other wrist beneath his other knee, earning a confused look from your captor.

"What's so funny?"

"You said I 'snuck in here.' Which means I succeeded in sneaking up on you."

Loki clicked his tongue, latching his hands onto your sides. "And look where it got you?"

"Worth i-HIHIT!!" You burst into giggles as his fingers kneaded into your sides, pinching randomly up and down in the most ticklish way possible.

"You may change your tune when I'm finished with you."

You felt your face start to burn at his playful threat, a flustered, giggly whine escaping your lips. His smirk broadened at the sound of it, and he reached behind himself with one hand to squeeze at your knee while clawing at your belly with the other hand. Kicking your leg out reflexively, you tugged helplessly at your wrists as his fingers frayed your resolve.

"Still think it was worth it, darling?" he asked, allowing his hands to go still while you caught your breath. You giggled, nodding your head. It was absolutely worth it, if this playfulness was your reward.

Then he slotted his hands into the space between your arm and your ribs and began scratching at that triggering rib he'd discovered the last time, and you exploded with desperate laughter once again.

"NAHAHAH LOHOKI YOU JEHERK!!"

"Oh-ho, you brought this on yourself, agent." He was relentlessly precise once he'd found his target, digging two fingers right into the spaces along the back of that rib, chuckling as you squirmed and writhed beneath his fingers. "Oh dear... I forgot how effective this spot was. Nearly as effective as..."

"No, no, NOHOHA NOHOT THERE!" You kicked your feet against the sofa cushions as he slid his hands down to your hips, bracing yourself and laughing before he'd even started tickling you. He grinned fondly, releasing your hips and instead turning his upper body, reaching back and skittering his fingers along the sole of your socked foot.

"Have you learned your lesson now? Never to sneak up on the God of Mischief?"

"Y-ye-hah-yehes!" you insisted breathlessly, nodding frantically. For good measure, he scratched gently at the spot just below the ball of your foot for a moment, snickering at your high pitched giggles before finally relenting and releasing your wrists. You wrapped your arms around your stomach, which was aching from laughter. "Gohod Loki! You're merciless!"

"I take pride in it." He lifted his weight off you and offered you his hand, helping you to sit up before taking a seat beside you on the sofa. "Now you know better than to mess with me, I hope."

"Oh, absolutely not. I'm not forgetting this spot." You poked his side for good measure, earning a teasing glare. "So... er... what are we going to do next to try to figure out which of us is the stealthiest?"

"Hmm... perhaps another game?"

"Mm... sure. Tomorrow, then?"

"Agreed."

You rose to your feet, turning to bid Loki goodnight before heading toward your room. Around the time you'd reached the doorway, Loki called your name, stopping you in your tracks.

"What's up?" you asked, turning to face him. His expression was soft, an inquisitive, almost hopeful glow in his eyes, yet still with a hint of a mischievous smile dancing on his lips.

"Perhaps... perhaps we should simply stop with these games."

Your heart sank a bit in your chest. "Oh."

Loki nodded, rising to his feet. "Perhaps we should simply go out to dinner instead?"

Heat rose in your cheeks, an involuntary smile tugging at your lips. "Oh?"

"We can always determine who is the stealthier of the two of us later, of course. But... I think we can both accept the fact that this stopped being about our competition a long time ago. Wouldn't you agree?"

You allowed the smile to overtake your features at the suggestion. Slowly, you nodded.

"Yes... I can agree with that."