#wishful thinking but give us more of lokis powers please he needs a buff

[bards-witcher]

Okay but is anyone else still lowkey shook Loki stopped that tower falling in Lamentis.

That was some king shit right there and frankly its a crime they dont let Loki show off their powers more often.

[hopelessromanticspoonie]

To Keep You Safe

Title: Why aren’t you scared of me? Why do you care for me?

Chapter: 16/?

Author: hopeless_romantic_spoonie

Summary: Life as the assistant to Tony Stark was busy, but boring. All of that changed when I touched something I shouldn’t have and woke up with strange new abilities. If I thought that trying to figure out my new place in life as an Avenger was tough, I had no idea what was in store for me once I ran into the frustrating God of Mischief, Loki.

Rating: E 

Notes: Friendly reminder that this is un-Beta’d, so please excuse any typos or grammatical errors I no doubt missed during revisions! 

Also on Ao3 here :)

Warnings for this chapter: Smut before the first cut (but after the keep reading), brief mention of violence, blood, torture, and a bit of language.

~~~

“Talk to me, little one. I need to know what you’re thinking,” he pleaded desperately.

I watched in silent fascination as his dark brows creased together, creating an intersection with the lines now patterned across his forehead. His tongue–still pink–darted out to wet his lips nervously. Cracking echoed out between us from his grey-blue knuckles as he rubbed his hands together. I had never seen him look more anxious than he did standing before me in that moment.

And all I could think of was that he looked like an incredibly buff smurf.

“A Frost Giant?” I tested how the words felt on my lips, my voice quiet and dripping with curiosity as I stood up to slowly walk over to him.

He watched me with fear tight around his eyes. His breath stuttered in his throat when I reached out to take one of his hands into mine and traced the back of it slowly. My fingers followed the lines up his arms thoughtfully. They looked as if they were implanted beneath his skin and were hard yet supple at the same time, similar to the raised scar tissue on my shoulder. I worked to keep my face neutral beneath his intense scrutiny. It wouldn’t do for him to get the wrong idea about my exploration of his body before I had come to any conclusions myself.

“A lesser race to the Asgardian than you believed me to be. They’re primitive brutes who live on a planet of ice,” he spat out with obvious disdain for the beings he spoke of. The being that he was.

My probing touch settled on his shoulders, and I finally lifted my roving eyes to his face. If I looked hard enough, beneath the blue tint and blood-red eyes, I could see the man that I had fallen in love with deep down inside of him. He still felt like him, maybe a bit colder, but that could be because I, unlike him, wasn’t built for this weather and I was so cold that my fingers were tinted red. I lifted my hand up to run over the lines on his cheeks but I stopped just a hair’s breadth from his skin, suddenly unsure of how he would react.

“I will not hurt you. I am still myself. This…” he gestured to himself with a wave of his hands at his sides, “has always existed. You can touch me.”

But the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice said, ’Please touch me.’

I did as he asked even though he hadn’t said it out loud. My fingertips skated across the ridges of his cheeks and he closed his eyes to lean into my touch with a sigh. My hand cupped his jaw and I traced his bottom lip with the pad of my thumb, parting his lips just enough so that I could feel his short breaths puff out against it.

None of this was normal, but how normal was my life, really? I was a woman with freaking powers, like earth bending nonsense, living in a tower full of superhumans and two aliens. How different was one alien from another? I didn’t know much about Frost Giants or Asgardians when it came down to it. So, Loki was a smurf. He had been one all along; he just hid it well with some clever magic. No matter what he said about Frost Giants being a brutal primitive race, he had proved that wrong in the time that I’d known him. An alien was an alien was an alien. If I was going to start getting alien-racist about this then I seriously had some issues to work out.

I set my hands back on his biceps--still felt like steel cables beneath his cold skin--and squeezed them gently to get his attention. “Kiss me.”

His eyes, so startlingly red, burst open so he could look down at me in shock. “Excuse me?”

I rubbed his arms gently with my thumbs as I answered matter-of-factly, “Kiss me. I want you to kiss me, right now, looking like this. Don’t change back.”

And when he finally shoved aside enough of his doubt to stoop down to brush his lips across mine, it fully cemented the fact that beneath the blue exterior, this was still Loki. His low groan of pleasure when I nipped at his bottom lip was one that I had reveled in countless times before and knew intimately. I slipped my tongue into his mouth and teased his with long, languid flicks that made him gasp quietly and tense up beneath my hands, but he didn’t do anything more. He let me do what I wished with him, but his hands stayed firmly by his sides and his body inches away from mine.

I broke the kiss and pulled away just enough so that I could open my eyes to look into his. He stared back at me, panting heavily, but hesitation marked his brow and tightened his blue lips into a thin line. My lips barely touched his as I whispered the one word I know would break him out of this anxious and fearful rut that his self-loathing had dragged him into: “Mine.”

That did it.

His arms curled around my back and he tugged me against him. He claimed my lips for his own and thrust his tongue into my mouth to tangle deliciously with mine. Once I was firmly held in place by his hand splayed across the small of my back, his other hand traveled down my back to slip over my ass and grind my hips into his roughly. His lips left mine to drag a scorching hot yet icy cold trail down my jawline while he continued to roll our hips into each other, making his pleasure at my enthusiastic reaction very prominent where it ground into my thigh. My forehead dropped heavily onto his shoulder as I focused on keeping my legs from collapsing beneath me from the waves of delicious heat surging through them.

“Not here,” I insisted breathily with a weak shake of my head.

“Hold onto me.” His gruff command was quick and low. He didn’t give me much warning before he hooked his hands beneath my thighs and lifted them so that my only option was to cross my ankles behind his back and circle his shoulders with my arms. I planted lingering, hot kisses on the blue skin of his shoulder as he carried me effortlessly inside. The warmth of the building was so welcome on my frozen skin that my warm sigh of relief ghosted across Loki’s neck, and it sent a shiver up his spine that tightened his strong grip on my thighs.

I was too engrossed in tracing a ridge with my tongue that spanned his flesh from chiseled jaw to shoulder to pay attention to my surroundings. Only when he settled down into a chair that rolled beneath our combined weight did I lift my lips from his collarbone to take in our surroundings. Apparently he couldn’t wait to get to our bedroom, and a nearby conference room was going to have to do. He settled me over his lap with my knees on either side of his hips, and he used his grip on my thighs to push my center down over the sizable bulge growing in between his legs. Between his thin sweatpants and my jeans, it was more teasing than satiating, and a mewl of frustration crawled up from my throat at the lack of friction.

For a moment we just stared at each other in the darkness of the room, our aqua and porcelain faces lit only by the moonlight streaming in through the windows. Even without much light, the difference in our skin tones was apparent, as his didn’t catch the light as mine did as I straddled him. His startling eyes watched me with something akin to wonder lightening up the lust that lingered just beneath the surface. I relaxed my steadying grip on his shoulders to drag my fingers through his jet black hair, starting at his temple and working my way down until I was cupping his neck. He hummed appreciatively at the touch and gave me a small, content smile.

“You are always so beautiful, Loki,” I whispered, voice husky.

“You truly mean that.” His hoarse voice was incredulous, but it wasn’t a question.

“Of course I do.” I shifted on his lap so I could press a light kiss to the lines between his brows before clambering out of his clutches to stand up in front of him with my hands on my hips, all sweet honesty wiped from my face and replaced with sternness. “Take off your clothes.”

His eyebrow quirked up at my soft but commanding tone. With a hesitant but still wicked grin, he rose to his feet. When he reached out for me I took a step back out of arm’s reach and wagged a finger at him.

“No sir,” I said with mock seriousness, “just you. Strip, blueberry popsicle man.”

All hesitation finally left his face as he stared down at me with unbridled hunger. Good. With agonizing slowness, his large hands trailed over his flexed stomach muscles, and the rasp of skin against skin was so loud in the silence of the room it rivaled only the pounding of my own heart in my ears. I couldn’t tear my eyes away as he hooked his thumbs into the hem of his pants and tugged them and his underwear down, revealing inch by tantalizing inch of wonderful ridged blue skin that I longed to worship with my touch.

So worship I would.

Once he straightened up to his full impressive height my eyes flickered back to the rolling chair behind him. A quick flex of my powers and ‘come hither’ motion of my fingers and I urged it forward just enough so that it tapped the back of his legs. He sank heavily into the chair and opened his arms for me to return to his lap. And I would. After I took care of something else first. I had plans to show him just how much I loved him, in any form or color, and I would not let his heavy-lidded red hot gaze deter that plan.

“You always told people to kneel for you. But never me,” I mused, a boldness growing within my chest from the way his heavy cock twitched when I slipped his hoodie from my shoulders to drop at his feet. My head tilted to the side with a challenge lighting up my eyes. “Do it.”

He swallowed and a muscle ticked in his jaw as he clenched it tightly. Even looking like this, the Frost Giant that he was, he was very much Loki. Arrogant and smug as ever as he narrowed his eyes at me and lifted his chin. “Kneel, mortal.”

Calling me mortal had a whole new level of intensity when he looked so clearly like an otherworldly being. At times it was easy to forget that he wasn’t just a man like any other that I’d known, but kneeling down in front of him and coming right up to his hard blue cock settled between his legs left no room for any doubt in my mind. My fingernails scratched lightly against his thighs as I dragged my hands up them to come to rest at the base of him.

A wave of shyness overtook me as I carefully grasped him in one of my hands. He was so big and I had his full attention. What if I wasn’t good enough for him? My other hand came to a stop on the flat of his abs, and he covered my hand with his. I marveled for a moment at the difference in our skin tones as they contrasted so beautifully in the dim light. His stomach muscles rippled beneath my hand as I looked up to him from my submissive position before him. The pure desire that shone in his ruby eyes killed any hesitation that had been swirling in my stomach, and I lowered my head to drag the flat of my tongue along the underside of him.

My name uttered as a curse from his lips sent a rush of heat straight to my already throbbing core. It spurred me on to take the head of his cock into my mouth and hollow out my cheeks while my tongue swirled around him. I reveled in the groans that I pulled out of him as I began a steady rhythm of stroking him with my hand around the root of his cock and my mouth bobbing up and down along the rest of him. His free hand fisted into my hair and encouraged me to move to the tempo that he wanted. His hips rocked into me shortly after, joined by a steady stream of moans that tumbled out of his parted lips.

Even still fully dressed, I was desperate for any sort of relief I could find for the pulsing wet heat between my legs. I slipped my hand out from beneath his to quickly fumble with the button and zipper of my jeans. Once I managed to get them undone my hand dove inside of my underwear to gather my own slick heat on my fingertips and rub it around my aching clit. The sight of me trying to find my own pleasure while using my mouth to give Loki his must have been too much for him, as he pulled my lips off of him with an obscene ’pop’.

He easily lifted me to my feet and pulled me to stand in between his spread legs. I frantically scrambled to pull my shirt and bra off while he helped me step out of my jeans and underwear. Once I was just as bare as him, his hands latched onto my waist and he lifted me to perch on his lap in a move so smooth and quick that a laugh tumbled from my lips. He chuckled softly in return and peppered my neck and jaw with light kisses.

Of course, those stopped when I reached between us to guide him against my wet and ready heat. He held completely still, his lips sealed over the soft skin of my neck, as I rubbed him against my wet outer folds teasingly, drawing an impatient moan from him and a gasp from myself as he grazed my clit. I positioned him at my weeping opening and a single impatient thrust of his hips encased him inside of my warmth. His head fell forward onto my shoulder once he was fully sheathed within me and his panting breaths tickled the bare skin of my chest. I clutched at his back desperately as I stretched around him. He was just so big, and if I was forced to guess, I would say that he might have even been slightly bigger in his true Frost Giant form.

“You are so tight,” he moaned reverently, rolling his hips ever-so-gently, pulling a matching pleasured groan from my throat and sending shocks of pleasure throughout my body.

I could already tell that this wasn’t going to last very long for either of us. My stomach was tight with the tension of my impending orgasm, and his lined brow was drawn together as he grabbed my ass with both hands to guide me up and down the length of him. This angle allowed my clit to rub against him just enough to bring me right to the edge, my legs tight and my breaths caught in my throat, but it wasn’t enough to send me over into oblivion.

Desperate for release, I pushed a hand between our writhing bodies to stimulate my hard clit. Loki watched me with lustful almost glowing red eyes. The sight drove him to thrust into me harder, faster, adding the slapping of our flesh together to the erotic sounds of our moans and breathy sighs that filled the room.

With one final stuttering thrust, he slammed my hips down onto his and emptied himself within me with a loud cry. The erotic sound of my name moaned through his parted blue lips was enough to trigger my own orgasm, and I clutched onto him in a wild attempt to stay tethered to reality as shocks and tremors rolled throughout me and fluttered over his spent cock still inside of me.

I forgot how to breathe. I forgot how to think. I forgot how to do anything other than ride the waves of pleasure and cling to him.

So great was the orgasm that I must have blacked out momentarily, because as I slowly became aware of my surroundings, I registered his hands rubbing my back soothingly, holding me upright and skating over the barely-healed wounds of my middle and upper back with such tender care and devotion. My head had fallen onto his shoulder and I rolled it to the side to leave a soft kiss on his pulse as it pounded in his throat.

“I love you, Loki,” I murmured, sleepy and content to fall limply against his chest.

I could feel his lips pulling back into a smile against the flushed and sweat-dampened skin of my shoulder. “And I, you, little one.”

~~~

“So are you always putting on this appearance if you’re technically a Frost Giant?” I asked softly, afraid to disturb the peace of our bedroom--Loki had been slowly moving his belongings over in the last month since I returned to the Compound--but my curiosity got the best of me. I traced meaningless shapes across his pectoral muscles as I lounged sprawled across his naked torso. Our bare legs were tangled together beneath the sheets and his arms were wrapped around my back and performing similar ministrations to my waist.

His low voice reverberated through his chest and against my cheek. “My true heritage was only revealed to me recently. It requires more effort to-”

I cut him off with a mischevious smirk, “Look like a blueberry popsicle.”

He chuckled and pinched my side, causing me to yelp and swat his chest with a satisfying ’smack’ that most definitely didn’t hurt him. “As I was saying, I have to actively work to hold the form of a Frost Giant as opposed to my Æsir appearance that you are currently pinning to the bed. I suppose it is subconscious to look this way,” he mused thoughtfully, the hint of disdain for his heritage barely lingering in his tone.

I shifted in the bed to cross my arms over his chest and rest my chin on them. This angle allowed me to look into his eyes more easily. He looked so peaceful and warm in the morning light, content even. Only the barest hint of doubt and self-loathing crinkled at the edges of his eyes. I would make him accept himself if it took the rest of my days.

“Well, I certainly enjoy,” I rolled my bare hips against his thigh emphatically, “both forms. And will continue to do so, as we did last night. Again,” I pinched his nipple, “and again,” I craned my neck to press a kiss to his jaw, “and again.”

I made to pull away to start the day, only to be reeled back onto the bed by his arms tightening around my waist and pulling me back so that I was suddenly pinned beneath him. He allowed enough of his weight to hold me down into the comfortable sheets, the length of his firm body pressing into me from thigh to chest. He cradled the sides of my head in his strong hands and tenderly stroked my temples with his thumbs as he stared down at me with a small smile.

“That will have to wait for another time, little one. I have a proposition for you, and I wish for you to listen to it in its entirety before you respond. Understood?”

“Somebody is bossy this morning. Sure, I’ll listen,” I agreed with a shrug of my shoulders. My hands came up to rest on his sides lightly and I drummed my fingers against his ribs idly.

“You have made great strides in your mental and physical recovery in the past month, and I am so proud of you for it. However, the threat of Hydra and Thanos returning continues to grow with each passing day, and I was speaking with your Avengers the other day. We believe that we may be able to expedite the healing process if you allow the Witch to see what was done to you, so we may better determine a strategy to combat it and bring you back to yourself. We need to have you fully prepared to defend yourself if the case calls for it.” He presented his plan clearly and calmly, but his temperate attitude didn’t lessen my heart thudding against my ribs or my fingers digging into his pale flesh.

I centered myself in the strength of his steady gaze. He would not have suggested this idea if he didn’t think it would help and if he didn’t trust Wanda. It didn’t make me feel much better about the situation, but that small nugget of knowledge stopped me from spiraling into a full-blown panic attack. I inhaled when he exhaled, timing myself to his breaths that pushed against my chest. Once I felt reasonably confident I wasn’t going to succumb to my fear, I frowned and looked at the door as if it was going to spring to life and attack me. “They are my enemies. They want to use me.”

His long fingers pushed gently on the sides of my head to bring my eyes back to his. He looked so confident, so sure, and yet so loving as he gazed down at me. “I promise you that they do not intend to use you or hurt you. I searched Stark’s mind for his intentions just yesterday to ensure your safety. They are concerned for you. I believe that the Witch can help me in restoring your mind to what it once was. You have improved so rapidly and have such control over yourself comparitively, but a small nudge in the right direction with your true memories may assist you a great deal. And as you do not want me to see what happened,” I shook my head, “then she is the only one who can help you at this time. I will not let her tamper with your memories. She will not remove or add anything, and most importantly, I will not leave your side.”

I let my head fall back into the pillows with a low groan. I hated the idea of anyone rifling around in my head; that is what got me into this mess in the first place. Now I didn’t know who to trust or what to believe except when it came to the man currently cradling me in his arms. But I also hated the pain on Loki’s face whenever he caught me off guard with his touch and I flinched away, or worse, threatened him with whatever nearby weapon I could find. I wanted the war inside my head to end. I wasn’t about to let him poke around inside my memories; I didn’t want him to see me that weak or brutalized, but I couldn’t continue to live with the trauma that gripped my thoughts like a vice. If it called for it, I wasn’t sure if I could defend myself, and that would only put him in danger as he tried to protect me as well as himself. So, I relented, shoving my fear deep down inside where it was quiet while we both got ready for the day.

Everyone that lived at the Compound, plus Tony, was scattered around the various couches and seats when we left the safe haven of our bedroom, attempting to look natural and doing a poor job of it. I could plainly see the bulge of a vein in Steve’s neck, the clenching of Tony’s hands together, Natasha’s head tilted toward us as she pretended to work on a tablet. Vision was the most obviously apprehensive of the bunch, his anxiety pouring off of him as he stood protectively over Wanda’s side. The only one who looked relatively calm was Thor, who beamed at Loki leading me by the hand into the room.

I watched them just as closely as they did me. My eyes darted between them to watch for an attack as Loki sat me down in my favorite spot on the couch. He didn’t let go of me for a second as he settled down beside me, pressing his chest into my side and wrapping an arm around my shoulders for silent support. I did my best to push down the fear gnawing at my insides, looking up warily at Wanda who had moved to perch on the coffee table in front of me.

“I just want to see what they did to you, so we can try to put your mind back to where it was before. Is that alright?” she asked, regarding me as if I were a wild animal that had wandered into the safety of their home. I could tell that she was trying to be reassuring with her smile but her slightly widened eyes told a different story.

I tensed up to brace myself for the onslaught of trauma that was about to come my way. Loki took one of my hands in his and clutched it tightly in my lap. I lifted my eyes to him and he was leveling Wanda with a warning glare that would make anyone’s blood run cold. I hated this. I hated it so much that I wanted to scream and rip this room apart and hide away forever. But Loki thought this was what needed to be done, and he was watching over me, so I placed my trust in him. I relented, giving her a quick nod before closing my eyes and dropping my head and tilting my torso to press just a little more against the shoulder of the man who had sworn to protect me.

White hot pain exploded across my back, my ribs, my face. Tony Stark is your enemy. Wanda Maximoff is-. Electricity burned through my body. Too many injections to count, each scorching me from the inside out. Hunger clawed at my stomach. No peace. No rest. Only pain.

She ripped out of my head and I released the breath that I had been unknowingly holding. My entire body was one giant clenched muscle as I struggled to hold onto the present against the barrage of memories that she had pulled to the surface.

That cane whirring through the air before it smacked against my broken flesh. No--Loki’s strong arms around me.

Pain blossoming across my exposed skin. Loki’s rough fingers dragging along those same pathways, pulling pleasure from deep within me.

Each terrible vision that tried to force itself into the forefront of my thoughts was replaced with Loki, and I knew it had to be him putting those memories there, as I was still too frazzled to do so myself.

But for all of his efforts, still my ears roared, drowning out every sound around me. I opened my clenched eyes and lifted my head from the safety of his embrace to look around the room as I struggled to place myself anywhere but back in that hellhole of a torture chamber.

“Get her out of here, now!” Tony shouted, his voice far away and muffled, and I turned to him to see glass levitating around the room. A quick glance behind him clued me in that I must have shattered the wall of windows at some point in time. Wanda and Vision were already out of the room, but Natasha, Steve, Sam, and Thor were all standing with Tony, staring at me as if I were some sort of broken monster. Metal ripped itself from the wall and flew to form a crudely made barrier between Loki and me and everyone else. The glass and iron coffee table Wanda had been sitting on groaned before turning in on itself, the glass that made up the tabletop exploding and hovering in the air. It was as if I wasn’t controlling the chaos, but I knew that some part of me deep down was doing everything it could to protect me and this was how it saw fit to do so.

Strong arms scooped me up and cradled me to a lean chest, and within moments we were in my strangely untouched room--apparently my destruction hadn’t extended this far. I forced myself to pay attention to Loki as he sat down on the couch and shifted me so that I was situated in his lap. I almost strangled him with my arms wrapped around his neck so tightly but he didn’t make a sound of discomfort. I closed my eyes and pressed my face into his neck as I fought against the fear that boiled inside of me.

I would not give in to the darkness wanting to overtake my vision. I would not give in to the panic threatening to steal my breath away. I would not succumb to the fear clawing at my throat and pricking at my eyes.

“Shhh, little one. I will never let anything happen to you. You’re safe. I’ve got you. Focus on breathing with me,” he murmured, voice honey and warmth as his lips pressed against the shell of my ear.

I did as he instructed and pressed my ear to his chest to listen to his heartbeat and breath, trying to match mine to his. His hands stroked small circles into my hip and back as he used his comforting touch to try to soothe away my panic. Once I felt like I had more a grip on myself, I pulled away to look up at him, only to see his eyes filled with sadness and rage. He smoothed a hand over my forehead and left a lingering kiss on my temple before settling me on the couch and striding briskly out of the room.

I don’t know how long I sat there, dumbstruck, before a heavy knock echoed throughout the room.

“Milady, may I come in?”

I hadn’t let anyone besides Loki inside since Tony had barged in that first day. But Thor had been slowly worming his way back into more neutral territory lately, and he also might have some information on where Loki went. I stood up and crossed my arms as I walked over to stand several feet away from the door. He may be the God of Thunder, but I would still be ready to do my best to kick his ass if I needed to. He’d win, but I could still try.

“Let him in this one time, F.R.I.D.A.Y.,” I instructed with a heavy sigh.

The door whirred open to reveal the smiling god leaning against the frame casually. When I only stared at him silently he strolled into the room to plop down heavily on my couch. He sprawled out with his arms stretched across the back of it and his legs spread out before him, looking right at home despite the tension pouring off of me.

“Where’d he go?” I cut right to the chase.

Thor scrubbed a hand over his face to reveal a much less pleasant expression tugging on the downturn of his lips at my question. “Tony tracked the vehicle that he commandeered to one of three Hydra bases that we are aware of currently.”

Oh. So Loki finally snapped and went to go blow off some steam be ripping some Hydra assholes in half. I couldn’t say that I was sad for the inevitable loss of life, but I did pity the people that would face the brunt of his rage. He was not one for mercy at the best of times.

I latched onto the one absurd fact I could to stop the mental images of him ravaging an entire building full of people. “When did he learn how to drive? Can you drive?”

The blinding, kind smile was back on his tanned face. “Sam instructed us both while you were training with Natasha. Tony thought it best that we learn how to operate any and all vehicles around the Compound in case of emergency.”

“Of course he did,” I grumbled, rolling my eyes. Always one to be prepared, Tony, and he had given Loki the tools needed to go out and wreak havoc on the world because I wasn’t strong enough to handle myself.

“Sit with me,” Thor instructed with easy arrogance, scooting over on the couch so that there was several feet of empty space to the side of him. He acted like the king he had been born to be, just expecting people to follow his orders without any protest.

But I was not his subject, I wasn’t even his friend, so I stubbornly shifted on my feet and shoved my hands into the pockets of my jeans. It earned me a nod from him in acknowledgment of my decision and a shrug of his shoulders.

“Very well. He had asked me to keep watch over you if anything should ever happen to him, and although I greatly doubt that this is what he had intended, I swore to him that I would and I am not one to shirk my duties. So, if you do not mind, I will wait for his return in your shared chambers? If not I can station myself outside of your door, but this is far more comfortable.”

I wasn’t sure of it, but I knew that I couldn’t take Loki in a fight, and I knew that Thor was physically stronger than him, even if only marginally. Was it wise to let Thor just hang out in here? Did I care about his comfort? He had shown me nothing but kindness since returning from Hydra, and it didn’t seem like he wanted to hurt me. If he did he’d already had ample opportunities to do so in the last month. I kept my eyes locked on him as I backed up to my bed and crawled onto it, watching him closely for any twitch or flicker of movement that could be taken as hostile.

“You stay there and I’ll stay here. Got it?”

The hulking man nodded and closed his eyes, tilting his head onto the back of the couch. I watched his breathing even out over the course of several minutes, and only minutely relaxed when I was sure that he was asleep. Some bodyguard. I couldn’t decide whether or not I was insulted or touched that Loki wanted to make sure I was watched over in his absence. I was more than capable of taking care of myself, especially if my earlier performance was anything to go by.

I wanted nothing more than to curl up on the bed and relax, maybe read a book or doodle, but I was too keyed up with Thor present and Loki in possible danger to even attempt any sort of rest. That left my mind to run away with itself as I sat there propped up against the headboard.

I was able to destroy an entire wall of windows without blinking an eye. I didn’t even think about it and the industrial iron coffee table had collapsed in on itself. I had levitated a room full of glass shards while my mind had been completely and totally focused on the others in the room. What had Hydra done to me that I could now manipulate all these things, and with such ease?

Testing myself, I reached my hand out toward the wooden chair that Loki had stationed by my bedside. I barely tugged on the energy pulsing within me and it rose several feet in the air, not even shaking as I held it with only my thoughts. A twist of my wrist spun it around in slow, controlled circles, and I only had to relax my hand and it fell back to the floor with a loud thud, jolting the slumbering god on my couch awake. He watched me silently with appraising eyes, and I resumed my exploration of my powers once it seemed like he was content to do so. I held out my hand and with the faintest of effort, a long, thin piece of metal came loose from the doorframe and settled into my palm. All it took was drawing my hand over the cool material for the end to warp and bend into a fine point.

I jumped up off the bed when the door to my room opened and held up the makeshift weapon like a spear over my head. Thor was in front of me before I could blink, blocking my view of the door with his broad shoulders. The defensive action startled me enough that I lowered my weapon to my side as I peered around him to see who had come into my room.

Loki strode into the room swiftly, but I could detect a heaviness in his bare shoulders that also dragged at his feet. Where had his shirt gone? From the flecks of blood dotting his arms, I assumed that I didn't want to know. He locked eyes with Thor and nodded his head once, which seemed to be a dismissal, as Thor shot a quick smile my way before leaving the room. I was swept into Loki’s embrace as soon as the door closed, and although I had been worried sick that he was going to get injured, I couldn’t stop myself from melting into him.

“Are you hurt?” I asked into his neck. His skin tasted faintly of sweat and dirt, hinting at what he had gotten up to while he had disappeared.

“No, love. I am perfectly healthy,” he assured me.

“Good.” I detangled myself from his arms so that I could land a punch as hard as I could against his chest. He didn’t even flinch while my knuckles felt like they were broken. Real smart move there, punching a man who can deflect bullets with his skin. His face was expressionless as he stared down at me, and it only fueled my anger. “You can’t do that shit! I only knew where you were because Thor told me. You don’t get to just run away without saying something, anything!”

He arched a brow and tilted his head down at me, narrowing his eyes. “I answer to no one.”

It was hard to intimidate the giant of a god, but hell if I didn’t try by mimicking his pose and crossing my arms over my stomach. “No, you don’t. But we’re in a relationship now, and that means that I love you, damnit. So you can’t just run off and fuck some people up without either letting me come as back up or you telling me where you’re going. Because I care about you, and it would end me if anything happened to you. I was scared for you, Loki.”

The hardness in his face softened and he reached out to brush his hands along my upper arms. “You are angry because you were worried about me?”

I shook out the pain in my hand with a grimace and rolled my eyes. “Yes, smart one. I know what they’re capable of…”

Careful not to jostle my injured hand, he wrapped an arm around my shoulders to tuck me back into his chest. “I apologize for not explaining myself earlier. When we were in the living area, I was ensuring that the Witch didn’t do any damage to your memories and…” he trailed off with a heavy sigh that shuddered throughout his body.

“You saw what she saw, what happened to me,” I supplied quietly. I let my injured hand press against the cool skin of his stomach to soothe the throbbing ache there. It wasn’t as effective as ice, but it’d do in a pinch.

He made a quiet noise of affirmation and took my hand from his stomach to carefully cradle and cool the injury more effectively. “I did.”

So the sight of my torture had driven him to violence? It would fit the suddenness of his departure and his rash behavior. He wasn't known for being the most level-headed in the best of times, and his protectiveness over me was apparent to anyone who saw us together. He had only been trying to protect me. It was sweet and infuriating, which seemed to sum him up perfectly. I craned my head up to look at him. “Next time at least let me know where you’re going, okay? You would ask the same of me.” In reality, he would demand that I stay here while he took care of the threat, but I didn’t need to bring that up when we both knew it was true.

He pecked my lips gently with a soft smile. “Of course, my love. Forgive me for worrying you.”

“Fine.” I tried to hide my placated smile with an angry grimace that I knew he didn’t buy. “Jerk.”

~~~

It took weeks of work to get me to anything close to resembling ‘normal’ after Loki convinced me to continue the test treatment. Weeks of Wanda leaning over me as I sat on my bed in Loki’s arms, her eyes and hands glowing red as she delved deeper into my mind, locking away each moment of torture and agony that I experienced while I was away. And while she worked, Loki brought each happy memory with the Avengers that he could dig up to the forefront of my thoughts, reinforcing the notion that we were family, I was loved, and they never set out to hurt me.

It was thankless, never-ending work that often ended with me shuddering against Loki as I struggled to handle the invasion and manipulation from their very powerful minds. It left Wanda exhausted as well, so tired that she had to be carried out of my bedroom by Vision--who never left her side when she was around me. I couldn’t blame him, given my track record, but some part of me was deeply hurt by the hostility in his eyes as he would take her to rest.

The only one who didn’t seem to be drained from the exercises was Loki, but he was a god after all. If they did affect him negatively, he hid it well as he held me for as long as I needed after each session, rubbing the tension from my muscles and lavishing praises upon my fragile and overworked spirit. If you had asked me six months ago if I would have thought that the God of Mischief would be nursing me back to health I would have laughed right in your face.

He was the constant anchor in my life. Keeping me grounded as I slowly integrated back into a tentative routine with the others. His hand upon my lower back or my arm guided me through the world and kept me from spiraling down into the darkness whenever something triggered the memories Wanda had been working so hard to push down and shut away. It was him I turned to when the nightmares wrenched me from sleep, his arms reaching out to hold me to him before he’d even fully woken up. Without his steady presence at my side, there’s no telling where I would be when it came to my mental state.

~~~

“Did you get that email-” Tony asked as he leaned over his desk and fiddled with a rocket for his suit.

“Sent off to Roger in SHIELD? Sent it this morning,” I cut him off.

“And call back-”

“Mr. Smith over in Programming? Handled that this morning. He won’t be bothering us anymore.”

“And that interview-”

“Scheduled for this Friday at two pm, after your lunch date with Pepper. I made reservations at that Italian place she likes so much. I also hired two new interns that you asked for, had your shipment of wiring sent up to your main lab, scheduled pizzas for delivery for the gang tonight, sent out for your dry cleaning, and called and sent up an appointment for your doctor to come over to take another look at your shoulder,” I replied matter-of-factly, finally looking up at him from my cell phone where had been glancing through an email.

Tony looked taken back and took his glasses off to drop them onto the desk. “How’d you know my shoulder is messed up?”

“When you’re thinking you tend to rub it,” I shrugged. “Plus, Pepper told me.”

“You talk to Pepper?” he asked, looking a little too shocked at that information. Had he met either of us?

“Of course. She is basically running everything around here. And she lives with you. She just got a little busy and needed me to set it up. We talk about everything,” I chuckled, wiggling my eyebrows.

“Jesus. If you weren’t so good at your job I’d have to fire you. But I couldn’t let you live with all the dirt you’ve got on me, and the cover-up for your death would be a logistical nightmare.” Tony rolled his eyes with a smirk.

“You wouldn’t know what to do without me, Mr. Stark!” I called, pulling a bottle of ibuprofen from my back pocket and tossing it to him before walking away. “Take this for the headache. I’m going to go meet with Janet about putting out some fires.”

“You’re the best, kid!” he called to my retreating form. I only smiled to myself and waved back at him.