#thought it would be about tony stark but i have fallen into a loki-shaped black hole

[justthehiddleswrites]

A Midgardian Christmas | Loki x Reader | Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Pairing:  Loki x Reader

Summary:  Christmas time is here and you are so excited! Loki does not share your enthusiasm. With the help of Peter Parker, the two of you decided to help Loki feel the true joy of Christmas. And perhaps a bit of romance as well.

Warnings: fluff

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Christmas Eve

You couldn’t believe that Christmas Eve was finally here. The holiday season had flown by and you couldn’t even remember where the time had gone. After much consideration, you had finally settled on a gift for Loki. Peter and you had gone ice skating down in Central Park. You had fallen more than skating which had bruised more than just your ego. But it had been great fun just the same.

Tony decided to have a Christmas party in the Tower on Christmas Eve. Pepper had gone all out with the decorations and the rooms looked like a winter Christmas wonderland. Dress code was formal and you had enlisted Natasha to help you pick out the perfect dress for the occasion.

You spent the first part of the evening glancing around the room looking for the God of Mischief. He was nowhere to be found. You even had inquired with Thor as to his whereabouts.

“Not to worry. I am sure my brother will be here at any moment. As you know, he likes to make an entrance.”

Thor patted you on your shoulder. Though you had never admitted to him, he knew exactly how you felt about his brother. The attention you had paid to him this holiday season had made it abundantly clear you were smitten.

As if on cue, you heard the elevator ding and the doors open and Loki emerged. He was dashing as always.

While most men had opted for a classic tuxedo, Loki upped the ante. His tux was impeccably cut, showing up his broad shoulders and narrow waist. His lapels were black velvet and his cuff links were emerald. His shoes shone like a mirror.

You could feel him make eye contact with you as you looked at the floor in embarrassment and rushed off to the bar. Loki seemed startled your abrupt exit so he followed you.

“Is everything alright?” he inquired.

You swallowed your drink in one gulp, burning down your throat.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” you choked out, trying to sound normal, “why do you ask?”

You looked up at the Asgardian with eyes pleading to drop the issue. Loki seemed to pick up the hint.

“Well I was just thinking a lovely dress like yours shouldn’t be hidden away.”

“Well you are not looking so bad yourself.”

“Shall we?”

Loki offered his arm. With slight trepidation you took it and he led you to the makeshift dance floor. Tony had opted for a like a swing band. you secretly think it was a ploy to get Steve to dance. But regardless, it added a sense of elegance and glamour to the party.

Loki spun you once, with your mermaid skirt twirling around your legs and then pulled you in close. His hand felt cool on your bare back and you shivered slightly.

“Chilled?”

“No, I’m fine.”

You settled in a bit closer and placed your head on his chest. He adjusted his hands to account for your position and you both began to sway to the slow melody.

You could definitely get used to this.

You closed your eyes and secretly wished for the moment to never end.

Loki took several deep breaths and tried with all his will to slow his heartbeat.

She can’t know how much I am enjoying this.

Your body felt warm and welcoming against his. With your head on his chest, he could smell the hint of your shampoo and perfume. He wanted to continue to breathe in the heady scent but was afraid of drawing attention to himself.

The two of you continued to sway to the music. You were completely oblivious to anything else other than your dance partner. Had you scanned around the room, you would have seen Tony and Thor elbowing each other and gesturing at the two of you. Clearly Loki and you were not as discrete with your feelings as you thought you were.

The song came to an end and you push back slightly so you could look Loki in the eyes. The green eyes seemed to be twinkling. You smiled.

“Thanks for the dance.”

“My pleasure,” he responded.

He continued to stare in your eyes. The intensity was overwhelming and you broke eye contact to stare at the floor, which suddenly became the most interesting thing in the room. You fiddled with your fingers and you felt long fingers slide under your chin. Loki swiftly pulled your chin up and tilted it towards his face. You closed your eyes and raised up on your toes to reach the tall God’s face. You were preparing yourself for the kiss you had been waiting for since you had laid eyes on the god.

“Hey, Mr. Loki, mind if I have this next dance?” Peter interjected, once again ruining a moment.

“Sure, Master Parker.”

Loki spun you out and extended his arm, before presenting you to Peter.

“Oh Master Parker,” Loki spun on his heel to address the young man, “I hope you enjoy you Christmas presents.”

“Thanks Mr. Loki!”

Loki walked again and grinned to himself.

Peter clumsily wrapped his arm around your waist and you grabbed his other hand to place it on your shoulder. This song was more upbeat than the last, thankfully.

After a few awkward moments and at least once stepped-on toe, you felt a tap on your shoulder.

“Hey Underoos, why not let a man show you how it done?”

You had never been so grateful for Tony Stark than in that moment.

Tony expertly weaved you around the floor.

“Thanks, Tony. Or my precisely, my feet thank you.”

Tony smiled.

“Anytime. Sorry I didn’t get to the kid sooner. Looks like you and Reindeer Games were getting along quite well.”

You could feel the blood rushing to your face.

“You saw that!?”

“I think everyone in New York saw that. Except for maybe the two of you.”

“Thanks for pointing that out. I am not sure he is that interested in me.”

Tony pushed you back from him and wore a look of shock.” “Are you serious? I have never seen a man or god more smitten. You know he asked everyone in the Tower what to get you for Christmas. Even Clint and Natasha.”

It was your turn to shock.

“Clint? I had no idea.”

“Oh you believe it or I can show you the security footage of him trying to work up the courage to knock on the door for 30 minutes.”

Your mouth dropped open.

“Actually, strike that. I use it for the year in review meeting in January.”

With that thought, Tony turned to make some calls. You scanned the room for Loki but you could not spot his raven hair anywhere. You went to the bar but he was not there either.

Dejected, you went to go back to the party and sulk when one more place came to your mind. You headed straight to the elevator. It seemed to take ages for the doors to ding. You stepped in and punched in the number.

After much time, the doors opened up to the residence floor. The entire floor was dark except for the lighting Peter and you had painstakingly hung earlier. You could see a tall brooding figure standing by the tree, holding a small package.

“Loki?” you questioned.

He turned to face you and then swiftly crossed the room to meet you.

“I would have thought you would have continued to enjoy the party.”

You could see his shoulders slump in disappointment.

You started to twirl an errant piece of hair.

“Well…it just wasn’t the same without you. I mean your brother offered to keep me company…”

Loki’s eyes flashed in jealousy.

“That oaf would not know how to show a lady a good time if it bit him on the nose.”

You chuckled feeling at bit emboldened. You reached over and grabbed his lapels to pull him towards you facing each other.

“Besides, I believe you and I have unfinished business.”

You smirked at Loki as his face wore an expression of confusion.

“I am not entirely sure what you mean.”

“Well first of all, we are standing under the mistletoe.”

You gestured up towards the arch. Loki looked up and then looked back you. With a glint of recognition, he smiled and stepped even closer, subtracting whatever distance was left between the two of you.

You placed both hands around the back of his neck and pulled up onto your toes. Loki leaned down and finally pressed his lips to yours.

The kiss was warm and electrifying all at once. You pull Loki deeper into the kiss and sigh softly. Loki took that opportunity to slide his tongue into your mouth. His kiss was eager and hungry. The two of you finally parted, both of you breathing heavy.

“Yes, that unfinished business,” Loki said, breaking the silence, “And for once with no interruptions from pesky teenagers.”

You laughed out loud.

“Yeah, Peter did have the worst timing ever.”

You noticed he was still gripping a small present. The bow now flattened and paper wrinkled. You gestured towards that.

“What’s that?”

Loki suddenly blushed.

“Well, it is your Christmas present, darling.”

You smile at the term of endearment.

“Can I open it now or do I have wait until tomorrow?”

You secretly hoped he wouldn’t make you wait. Then you would have the perfect excuse to give him his present early.

“If you want, you may open it now.”

He awkwardly handed you the small box.

You tore off the paper and bow and lifted the lid of the small white box. Inside was a small blue velvet box. It was jewelry box. You swallowed hard as you lifted the lid. Inside was a delicate silver necklace, hanging from it was an ice blue gemstone cut into the shape of heart. Your eyes started well up with tears.

Loki cleared his throat.

“Most of the team suggested jewelry. Particularly Stark. It was Mr. Barton who suggested a symbol of significance.”

“And what is the significance of the heart?”

You weren’t letting him off easy.

“Well,..ehehehe…simply put that my cold Frost Giant heart is yours.”

You blinked and felt tears trail down your cheeks. You felt Loki’s fingers wipe away the streams of tears.

“I am sorry I have upset you. I should go.”

You grabbed Loki’s arm as he turned to leave and pulled him into a short but tender kiss.

“Do I look upset?” you questioned as you parted from him.

“Well the kiss says no, but your tears indicate sadness.” “You ridiculous god. They are tears of happiness.”

You went to the tree and rummaged around until you found a small bag.

“Here you idiot. Open your present.”

Loki seemed shocked as you thrust the bag into his hands. The Asgardian pulled the tissue paper and turned the bag upside down; a small box landed in his outstretched hand.

He shook the box and heard a dull rattle. You rolled your eyes at the show.

“Just open it.”

Loki lifted the lid and saw an ordinary key with a ribbon tied around a key chain.

“What is this?”

“A key to my room,” you stated.

“Why?”

Loki clearly was not catching the hint.

“So you can come and go as you please without drawing too much attention. Plus, you know that thing about symbols. Well this is a symbol of you holding the key to my heart.”

You stared back at Loki as he looked between the key and you. Then a devilish grin came across his pale face. He grabbed your wrist and started dragging you away.

“Where are we going?”

Loki looked back and grinned.

“I figured I would put my present to immediate use.”

You started laughing as Loki led you down the hallway to your door. He put his key in the door and unlocked it. He pushed the door open and then heaved you over his shoulder to carry you into the room before shutting your front door with his foot.

Christmas Day

The next morning, you were awaken at an ungodly hour by an insistent knock on your door. You shuffled your way out from under Loki’s arm and trudged yourself to the door. It was Peter.

“It’s Christmas! I am waking everyone up for presents and hot chocolate. Have you seen Mr. Loki? He didn’t answer his door. Not even his usual grunt.”

You shuffled your feet to close the gap between the door and the wall just in case a certain god decided to walk out of the bedroom.

“You know what, Peter. I will go and try. Maybe he didn’t hear you.”

Peter smiled and gave a quick thanks and he took off down the hallway towards his next victim.

You quickly shut the door and went to roust Loki. You dug through your drawers and found some baggy pajama pants Loki could fit in. You went over to his edge of the bed and began to shake Loki.

“Loki, you need to wake up and get dressed.”

With quick reflexes, Loki grabbed you by wrist and pulled you into a deep kiss, exploring your mouth with his tongue. You moaned as he attempted to pull you on top of him.

“I think…” he growled as he toyed with the straps of your top, “you need to come back to bed.”

You resisted but not too hard.

“I can but we will miss Peter and everyone else opening their presents,” you purred back, nibbling on his neck, “not to mention the rumors that would certainly circulate due to our absence.”

At the mention of Peter and presents, Loki sat up in bed.

“Mr. Parker is going to be opening present. Oh, darling we can’t miss that.”

And with that he was already pulling on the pants and attempting to tame his hair.

“I didn’t realize you were particularly interested in that.”

Loki shot you a devilish grin.

“Oh I am very interested in Mr. Parker’s present.”

“Loki what did you do?”

But Loki was more interested in getting you out the door than answering your questions. By the time the two of you got to the main area, everyone else had gathered around the tree. Everyone except Peter wore expressions of varying degrees of sleep and annoyance. Peter had apparently ruined everyone’s morning.

Tony and Peter took turns passing out the presents. Everyone’s presents seem pretty standard. Except Peter’s.

“Wow, thanks…Mr. Stark. I always wanted a giant pink fully unicorn and rainbow glitter pens.”

Peter was clearly disappointed but Tony was proud.

“I just used your list. I thought some of things were a bit unusual but I never quite understand what you kids are into these days.”

You realized Loki must have switched the lists. A glance over to the beaming god confirmed your suspicions. While you felt bad for Peter, you weren’t going to rat out Loki. You would get something nice for Peter in after Christmas sales as an apology, so to speak.

As you turned to grab a cup of hot chocolate, you felt a heavy arm slam down on your shoulder.

“Where did the two of you go last night?” Thor inquired, his arm tightly wrapped around you and Loki.

“Umm….” you started to explain until Loki interrupted.

“We decided to exchange presents earlier,” Loki offered.

Thor then noticed the necklace around your neck. He clapped Loki hard on the shoulder.

“Excellent work, brother! A lovely token of sentiment. And what did you get my mischievous brother?”

You looked over to Loki to see eyes pleading to not tell the truth. You were interrupted by Steve.

“Hey, why is Loki wearing your pajama pants?”

You were certain the two of you had been caught when Loki saved you.

“These are my Christmas present. She had seen me admiring them and bought me my own pair.”

You breathed a sigh of relief as the two men walked away, seemingly believing the story.

“You owe me a pair of pants,” you whispered.

“Oh, I can think of something much more inappropriate for you to wear to bed,” Loki growled into your ear.

You smiled and thought about all the nights and days ahead. Merry Christmas indeed.

#loki #loki fanfiction #loki fanfic #loki imagine #loki x reader #loki fluff #loki odinson #loki laufeyson #loki series #midgardian christmas

[idjitlili]

Hey that’s Hela!Shut up Thorin

Loki x reader

Summary:Tony started the point break references to Thor,but you take it to the next wave. Thor and Loki were the definition off Bodhi and Utah. Thor decides to interrupt you watching Lord of the rings with Loki.

Word count:2804 y/c=your country or somewhere you wish to live ,as not everyone is from america,yeah I'm from England.

A/n:Loki ,and stark live au,captain dies instead of tony.Sorry not sorry

You were no Avenger,simply Tony starks apprentice all the way from y/c ,so what Tony had done is moved you into the stark tower for the year. You did have to pay for anything ,and in honesty you it was scary being so far away from your parents for so long,only seeing them on facetime. But hey you were learning a lot from the billionaire playboy,Tony Stark,he became rather protective over you in just a week.

He had warned you to stay away from the God of mischief,Loki,you had agreed to,you couldn't go against the man that was feeding,housing,and educating you. You had no idea that Loki was even staying at the Stark tower,aswell as Thor. Something to do with Korg and Valkyrie as temporary management while Thor was away with his brother.

Basically Thor needed to get back into shape using Tony's gym,yep user indeed. Tony had trainer, the trainer being thing guy called Logan. Turn's out his trainer is bloody Wolverine,how he got this to happen I don't know,but it happened. Pretty epic if you ask the scribe, since a child you have admired him. So basically you had begged Tony to introduce him,you were more than nervous ,stuttering and such. Hence the picture you now how next to your bed of you and him. Loki had watched from next to his brother in disgust at your affections to the mutant.

You had understood why Tony called Thor point break;that movie was a classic ,Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves what more could you ask for in a movie.

This one particular day you had no work to do with Tony,from not feeling too great. Scrambled eggs,yeah,Tony knew hence why you were sat on the sofa watching movies,all day eating whatever you wanted. Well that was until Thor decided to interrupt you,sitting down,eating your favourite food,just helping himself. Anger had bubbled in you ,"HEY,that's my food!" It was no surprise that you had became more loud around Thor since this wasn't the first time he had stolen your food. You were mostly quiet,but some things got you rilled up.

Thor had shrugged carrying on eating your food, you were not spolit,but this time in a womans cycle this was uncool ,to say the least. "Tony! Patrick Swayze is eating my food! TONY,HELP" yet you recieved no answer, Loki however had sneaked into the room eyeing the situation ,you had scowled at Thor,still munching on the food ,with a smirk.

You had brought your socked foot up quickly before kicking him in the face knocking the food out of his mouth you had grinned, but the victory was short lived,he had grabbed your foot pulling you onto the floor ,before laying where you were placing his axe thing on your back. "TONY! BOdhi has put his axe on me!TONY! " you could barely take in any oxygen,turning your head you had saw Loki just watching from a far. "Oi, Utah,please,you are the better God,please your brother is a huge ass." you had pleaded with the God of mischief,he had turned away to leave. "I am dying,at least tell Tony,come on stab him I'll take the blame,he ate my food."

Loki had looked back you smirking before leaving ;it wasn't long until Tony came in. At this point Thor had eaten all your food,while you had passed out,he had thought you had fallen sleep. "THOR,what in hell is this?!" He had demanded ,"Oh shit." he had whsipered ,lifting the axe off you,turning it into an unbrella,acting like nothing had happened,but of course Tony had seen it all. Rushing over to your,and turning you over to check your heartbeat. "She's barely breathing!" before anything else could be said your eyes shot open , you had rushed to your feet ,grabbing the candle stick.

"TOny,he ate all my food!" you had cried out before running at Thor whacking him harshly with the candle stick as if it was a bat. "You are supposed to be here to lose weight not gain it ,pointbreak." Tony had a smirk inlaced with his tone ,not making any attempt to stop you. " Y/n go order some food, Thor you idiot." and that was it,for that day,you had brutally attacked a God.

Over the next two months,Loki word speak to you more than two words,asking what you watching or what were you reading.Thus breaking your oath with Tony. He had borrowed your hobbit and Lord of the rings ,even the silmarillon book. Therefore you had convinved Tony to let you have the next day watching the movies,he had agreed as he had to go out for a meeting or something. You knew he would have dragged you along if he knew you were planning to spend time with your new God friend. Tony had left mid afternoon to travel to Europe for his meeting,he would not be back for at least 24 hours.

You were not sure if Loki would even agree to watch the movies ,let alone watch them with you,but you thought just to ask. Plus he was very handsome,yeah maybe you would end up staring at him instead of the movie.

You had stood infront of his door for a minute ,as thoughts flung around your head,deciding to ignore them all and just to knock on the pine door. Knock ,Knock,knock. It wasn't long until the door was pulled open to see Loki standing before you ,with the same greaed back hair ,but instead of his Asgarding clothes or black suit,he wore jogging bottoms? Still with the button up shirt however,he looked at you questioningly as you held a tower of the extended editions of the hobbit and Lord of the rings.

"uh..I was wondering s-since you borrowed my Tolkien books..mayybe you would want to watch the movie..w-with me?" you had spoken quietly ,trying to not anger the God,his reaction was much different to what you had expected,he smiled,his blue eyes shining back into your e/c ones. "Of course,darling,when?" Your cheeks pinken,Loki's grin widening ,you had picked up the name not long ago. "oh..well I thought If we started the hobbit now we could finish them tonight ,and then start Lord of the rings tomorrow."

"well now it is! We shall find snacks first ,but we must hid them from my brother." that is exactly what you both did,soon you were sat on the sofa together the snacks surrounded you both on there. Loki seemed to enjoy the hobbit ,what you didn't know was that he liked seeing your face as you watched it for the 349494 time,as your face lit up when you saw Bilbo. You had both intensely watched the movies ,well except Loki's swift short glances at you.

Before you knew it you were almost to the second appearance of lady Galadriel,when your stomach growled loudly,so loud that Loki heard it, "hungry?" he had asked with his face soft ,you had nodded ,pausing the movie gathering your rubbish to throw away ,looking for the takeaway menus. Soon enough you had ordered waiting for it to arrive you and Loki continued with your film,well not for even a minute before Thor came bonoucing in.

Thor had lost a lot of weight since he ate all your food,he had eyed you and Loki,before turning his gaze to the telly gasping. "OH MY GOD BROTHER,it's Hela! She's still alive." Loki had sighed,you mute expressionquickly turned sour. "It's not Hela,it's Lady Galadriel," you had grumbled,Thor had smirked,walking closer. "Brother leave us." Loki had tried to get his brother to leave ,but no Thor went to sit down. "Awwe , you are courting Lady Y/n." he had teased,you had shot up grabbing the candlestick again,making your way to Thor.

"OI Swayze! We are trying to watch,but you are trying to disturb that.." Thor's eyes went wide ,you pass quickening as you chased him out of the room with the candletick,before returning to the sofa,Loki had chuckled as you had thrown yourself down. "I can see why you stabbed him so often." You didn't realise at the time but Loki had gotten closer to you,before more could be said the door had went ,food was here you had grumbled about not wanting to get up again,efore going to stand. "I've got it." With that Loki had made it to the door,leaving a gently touch on your shoulder before hand.

By the end of the night, you both had became incredibly close,and you had just finished the last movie ,turns out Loki really liked them considering he hates mortals. Loki had apparently had already finished reading the silmarillion and the hobbit and you two just talked about them for a good hour. In which it didn't take long for you to grow tired, you were knee was touching Loki's,yet your faces both facing eachother,as you talked. Soon you had sat back,and drifted into sleep head resting on Loki's shoulder.

He did not have the heart to wake you ,bro he was supposed to be evil,so much for that,and he certainly did not want to intrude your personal space by taking you to your room. He didn't even have time to make a decision as he had turned to lay in the corner of the sofa,you had fallen to lay on top of him. Thus all he could do was wrap his arms around you,whilst he fell into sleep too,hoping to keep you warm.

Once you had awoken you had quickly realised what happened ,blushing,you had pulled yourself up,heading to your room to go get ready to start lord of the rings.

As you returned to Loki he had all the food the food set out,waiting for you,you had smiled back to him practically jumping into your set on the sofa. Today you had felt more comfortable than the day before not knowing what to except from the God ,but he was a chill God in honesty,thus you began watching ,not stopping until Thor had interrupted you again.

"OH my god!That's that guy skarge? I don't know ,I can't remember his name." He had pointed out in shock,you had sighed,he mant Eomer. "no it's not! It's Karl Urban,now get out!" you had thown a pilllow at the God 'hey' he had grumbled ,you reached for the candle stick,but he ran for it already. Yet again Loki had smirkedat you,you had not seen this though.

Roughly when Pippin is taken to Gondor by Gandalf ,you had a thought. No its a stick insect no it isn't. "hey..Loki..uh.. what's the chances of you saying yes to someone.. braiding your hair." you had spoken carefully ,gaining the Gods attention he had looked at you with the same smirk as ever. "Depends who is asking. I would not allow anyone touch my hair ,but for you I shall make an exception." his words smooth as ice,well he is a frost giant ,so what do you expect. You had smiled widely ,running to your room,to retrieve your hair brus, some hair bands and clips,before returning.

You had stood behind Loki ,his eyes on the tv ,as you brought your brush to his hair gently brushing it. Well not that it needed it ,his hair was very well kept,maintained. Using your fingers to section of pieces and cliping them into place,before you weaved your fingers throw is jet black silky hair. You couldn't deny you weren't used to being this forward with guys you liked, well you had no luck with guys you liked dickheads. You end up like the god of mischief and he is so much nicer to you then them all combinded. You hadn't been in a proper relationship.

Securing the three plaits with the bands ,you had finished ,you had recreated...Legolas' hair on a God. You had rushed away to get a mirror before returning and passing it to Loki,who took it to admire your work. "Lovely,darling ,now I am Elven Prince." he had stuck his head up with fake pride you had laughed,as he turned into bloody Legolas. "You look much better with that hairstyle than Legolas," he had simply smiled before making a stoll appear at his feet,gestering for you to sit.

"what?"

"It's my turn now,now come on."

Thus you moved to sit in front of Loki as he began to brush your hair ,still watching the movie. HIs long fingers were soon braiding through your hair with ease,and yet again it wasn't long until he was done.  You hoped he didn't make your hair look like Lord Elrond,oh god. BUt instead he held the mirror for you presenting you with the Legolas hair style too. You had thanked him touching the braids,smiling ,and you both went back to watching.

It wasn't long until you both finished the trilogy ,Loki liked it so much more than the hobbit and you had agreed.

In the next hour you had put the soundtrack of Lord of the rings on,and yoou some how convinced Loki to recreate some of the scenes together,in fact you didn't even have to convince him. You had duct taped a pillow to your middle ,then helping Loki do the same,he had magically got some wooden swords and thats all you needed. Okay so you had no combat training,so you were like a rubbish Merry and Pippin,while Loki was Boromir. Basically he was teaching you how to defend yourself whilst you were re acting the scene.

It was all going well until bloody Thor came in. "Oh hey guys,OH that looks like fun,OH you have matching hair ,why did you not invite me? I am the bravest warrior in Agard!"he had spoken ,resting his hands on his hips, head high, typical superhero pose. You and Loki had just stood staring at Thor.  "we didn't invite you THORin ,because you ate all my food and pinned me to the floor ,"

"you aren't going to let that down are you?" you had shook your head ,nothing else was said from the three over you,as Tony and walked into the room with Peter. Ton'y face was unreadable ,as he stopped walking but Peter continued with excitement on his face. "Mister Stark! They have been watching Lord of the rings! Without me!"his face read betrayal "I got called a nerd  for liking it ,and now I find out Mister Loki,likes it.Mister Stark!"

Peter was buzing with excitement ,as you and Loki now were trying to remove the duct tape from yourselves.Well he had no trouble you were the one struggling well until Loki had appeared behind you ,as he cut the duct take ,pulling the cushion off of you. You had smiled up at him,in which he smiled back in return ,staying like that for a moment ,until Tony coughed.

"Hey kid,why don't you take Y/n to the icecream shop round the corner ,heres my card." he had pushed the card into Peter's hands ,his eyes still on Loki,Peter's eyes had lit up,as Tony pushed you to Peter forcing you out.You had looked back at Loki who watched you leave,it was obvious Tony was going to have a go at the Gods.

"Hey Y/n ,can We watch that when we get back with the icecream?" Peter had questioned ,whilst you both stood in the lift. "Yeah,spiderman." he had gasped,"you know too?!"

"yeah Tony told me."

"Uncool,mister Stark."

To say the least Stark did not stop you talking to Loki, come on he is a God he does whatever. Maybe just to say the least you didn't just stay as friends...

#marvel x reader #marvel imagine #marvel imagines #marvel x you #marvel x y/n #loki x you #loki x y/n #loki x reader #loki imagine #loki layfeyson x reader #loki laufeyson x reader #loki imagines #lord of the rings #lord of the rings crossover #marvel crossover #loki odinson x reader

[imagine-loki]

Atlas: Space, Mercury

TITLE: Atlas: Space

CHAPTER NO./ONE-SHOT: 2/12

AUTHOR: fanfictrashdump

ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine narrating episodes of Loki’s life with the Avengers based on the songs from Sleeping At Last’s “Atlas: Space” album. 

RATING: T-M

NOTES/WARNINGS: Welcome to my Sleeping At Last’s Atlas: Space challenge, aka Another writing project I do not have time for, but my brain insisted on doing.

This series will be less like a multichapter fic and more of a one-shot compendium, but that they all interconnect in one way or another. It will revolve around Loki and Becca’s relationship (Taking Turns, Glow, Helmet Heists–don’t worry, more Loki-Charlie stuff will be along) and I will use those one-shots as reference to the timeline. Each chapter will be one song, used as inspiration for the story.

Warnings include: language, maybe, and morally grey debates about killing bad guys, angst (so much angst), and a thoroughly confused Loki.

Chapter 2: Mercury

Summary: Becca did not expect to feel this way after her first official mission. Loki did not expect to care how she felt, one way or another. Takes place after Helmet Heists.

=

“Heya, Lokes. How’s it going?”

Loki looked up, brow furrowed in a calculating expression. Tony Stark was not one to casually strike up a conversation with him unless it was of the utmost importance and he had no other choice. Therefore, the almost cheery way he had plopped himself down beside him on the couch was a matter of extreme curiousness.

Loki was having none of it.

“What is this?”

“I only asked how you were?” Tony sounded unsure, put looked all around innocent until he let out a long puff of air that made his cheeks inflate. “OK, I wanted to ask you how Becks was.”

Loki rolled his eyes and turned the page on his book, his attention now on the tight script before him. “I daresay she’s your employee, Stark, not mine. Why would I know?”

“Maybe because she’s the only person you talk to, and you’d be able to tell if she were OK. And the fact that you’ve been sticking to her like glue since we got back from the Hellhole. I don’t know, it gives me the inkling that you do, indeed, know.”

Stark wasn’t wrong.

Rebecca was the only human that Loki seemed to find bearable most of the time. She wasn’t loud or brash or mindless. Her taste in literature wasn’t half bad, either.

But she was human. And mortal. And beneath him.

For the longest time, he had tried not to get too attached, but this last mission certainly became a turning point in their relationship. It wasn’t bad, per se. They understood each other’s body language in a way that only two introverts could, and they worked together well as a team, but… she was so soft and innocent and everything he was most certainly not. Loki tended to scoff and ridicule humans such as this, not attempt to ensure their safety and their ongoing wellbeing, even after the fact.

Those eyes, though…

“Lokes?” Apparently Loki had been silent for much longer than was considered normal. He tended to do that a lot, as of late, always in relation to that dreary mortal.

Loki shifted uncomfortably at the memory of Becca’s eyes on the jet ride back. “I would say she takes issue with the moral ambiguity of killing an enemy. Regardless of whether or not they deserved it.”

Rows of houses Sound asleep Only streetlights Notice me

He nearly wanted to laugh at himself. Taking issue was probably the understatement of the year.

More than once, while he was doing his nightly walks, he would find Becca on the roof, staring at the world below–at the forests, the darkness, at the nothingness. She would stand, shivering in the night air, as she tried to make out shapes in the inky black abyss. It would take him two or three mentions of her name to rouse her from contemplative stupor. And, even then, Loki could tell she was not all there.

She always smiled, pushing through the oppressive chaos in her head and ask him about his day. As if she had not been fixing to fall apart a second before.

Damn her and her empathy.

I am desperate If nothing else In a holding pattern To find myself

I talk in circles I talk in circles I watch for signals For a clue

More than once he had swallowed whatever irritation would bubble to the surface in an effort to get her talking. Instead of his usually acidic demands for her to get on with it, he simply nodded in what he hoped was an encouraging manner and waited for her to spill her thoughts, as repetitive as they were. Not that he could blame her.

He remembered the first time he had killed something. He was seven. It had been a rabbit while on a hunt. He cried for three days, afterwards, until an Einherjar had scoffed and told him that was how life worked and he needed to accept it. Loki hadn’t cried when that particular soldier did not come home from a siege in Vanaheim a hundred years later. Nor for the hundreds that had been lost in battles, since. What was the point? Creatures lived and died, sometimes by his blade. That was life.

How to feel different How to feel new Like science fiction Bending truth

“Why do you keep asking that, Loki?” She had whined, pulling the edges of his cloak, which he had laid over her bare shoulders to shield her against the wind. He had asked if she was doing alright. “You know I’m physically fine. You made sure of that.”

He had not meant to inquire after her physical well-being, and Becca very well knew that. She also knew that he would die a fiery death before insisting “but, how do you feel?” Loki had made an annoyed noise and stormed off with the intention to hide in his room. He had doubled back, halfway there, only to watch her wipe away tears from the corners of her eyes when she thought herself alone. He still went back to his room, but he felt like a rock was lodged in his stomach all the way there.

“Could you do me a favor and keep an eye on her? She’s been really jumpy and anxious at work, but she keeps telling me she’s fine.” Tony sighed. “I just worry about her, man.”

Loki offered a sympathetic look, despite his initial reaction to sneer back at the Iron Man. Breaking old habits was hard. “I know. I will.”

No one can unring this bell Unsound this alarm, unbreak my heart new God knows I am dissonance Waiting to be swiftly pulled into tune

The Asgardian prince had found his friend in a hidden corner of the library. It looked like she had started to read one of the many tomes on Asgardian technology he had lent her, before her mind betrayed her. Becca was staring straight in front of her, brown eyes empty of any emotion yet full of doubts and insecurities.

“Rebecca.” His whisper clapped like thunder in the eerie silence of the library.

She snapped out of her trance and offered him a smile. “Sorry, did you say something, Lo?”

Gods above, help me.

Loki sighed, pulling a chair beside her and sinking down. Even seated, he was still significantly taller than her, but she found that she felt a little less nervous when he tried to get on her level. It was a kindness, she knew, but the concern buried deep in his gaze did little to make her feel better. If anything, she felt worse. If she had stayed in the jet, if she had followed directions, who would she be today? Could she be able to sleep? Could she stop waking up in cold sweats at all hours of the morning?

“Dearest, talk to me.” The use of pet names were few and far between with Loki. He much preferred calling anyone “hey, you” or “imbecile come here”. So the use of a term of endearment…

Did she really look in that dire a state?

“Tony sent you, huh?” Becca thought she might as well deflect until he felt uncomfortable. That usually worked.

“No, I sent myself,” he assured, frowning. The expression he received in exchange screamed you’ve gotta be kidding me. “Though Tony expressed interest in also knowing how you were,” he admitted and Becca rolled her eyes. Swallowing whatever shard of emotion that was attempting to convince him to let the whole thing go, he craned his neck until his gaze  could easily fix on hers. “You cannot go on like this, you know it. You cannot keep replaying scenarios in hopes of finding a loophole to villainize yourself with.”

I know the further I go The harder I try, only keeps my eyes closed And somehow I’ve fallen in love With this middle ground at the cost of my soul

Becca groaned, the sincerity in his voice making the pit in her stomach grow larger. The edges of her perfectly crafted calmness began to fray and she was sure that the god could easily feel it unraveling under his stare. “It can’t be this simple, Loki.” She couldn’t live her life without feeling guilty, she meant. Surely, she had to spend the rest of eternity purging herself of these demons before she could allow herself even a morsel of comfort. If not, was she not just a monster? 

Loki chuckled drily, placing a hand on her shoulder and its weight felt like a welcome balm to her shot nerves. “Who said anything about simple? You took lives. Nothing about that is simple. Believe me, I understand. But, on rare occasions, the ends do justify the means.”

Her head fell, hanging between her shoulders in a sign of defeat she should have never had to deal with. Stark shouldn’t have asked her to come on the mission, but she saved ten of the two dozen from dying in battle due to faults in their equipment. She saved him from what she thought was certain death (and might have been). Her heart was too good for this dark, sludgy world of his, he knew.

He wanted to hate it, to scoff at her naivety, at her hopefulness for the rotting lump that was her world. He couldn’t. He craved it, instead, and wondered how he had ever lived his thousand plus years without that little beacon of hope.

His chest hurt. Loki supposed that was the place his heart was meant to be, and the phantom organ had clenched at her tears, once she had managed to face him again.

She sniffed. “I don’t know if I can live with that.”

Yet I know, if I stepped aside Released the controls you would open my eyes That somehow, all of this mess Is just my attempt to know the worth of my life In precious metals

“I can,” he said simply. The surety of his voice and the clear lack of remorse made her something inside her feel warm like lava, rather than a fireplace’s hearth. She shuddered at his set expression and the glimmer of bloodlust in his stare. “I would have killed a hundredfold more, if it meant bringing you back safe. I will never live to regret that.” Loki was surprised to find that none of these words were a lie. He didn’t want her dead. He wanted her to thrive. He wanted her not to feel this gnawing emptiness that followed the taking of life. “You are my friend and you’re worth many more than that.”

“I don’t think that’s true, but thanks, anyway,” she muttered.

“Would I lie to you?” Never in his life had he wished for someone to ignore his nature and reply in the negative, than he did right now.

Becca’s mouth twisted in a reluctant smile. “Absolutely.” His heart clenched again, and this time there was no doubt about it. “But I don’t think you are.”

A long stretch of silence encompassed them.

“I want to return.”

“Return?” He frowned.

“To the field.” She sighed, pulling her shoulders back and sitting up straight. He had seen that pose before, when she was resolute to solve an issue or dissect a conundrum. He saw it when she had run from the jet and skidded to a stop beside him. “The reason I’ve been feeling so miserable is that fact that I feel awful about what I’ve done, but I can’t ever leave you guys out there alone, again. Not after what I’ve seen. And I’ve never felt this conflicted.”

“It’s what we signed up for, dove,” he assured, tucking a strand of her long brown hair behind her ear with incredible gentleness. “You needn’t worry about us. We’ll be perfectly fine as long as you’re there to greet us back.”

“That’s like telling me I don’t have to worry about the sky suddenly turning green. I’m going to do it, anyway.” Becca wasn’t sure why, but she followed up his silent question. “I’m going to get my training certifications back up-to-date, log in some time on local raids, and I’m joining missions.”

“Darling, you don't–”

“I’m going back! That’s final!” Becca snapped so loudly that Loki jumped, startled, and leaned back ever so slightly.

He blinked a few times to live down his surprise and offered her a nod. “Then, I will dutifully follow.” He smirked, nudging her side playfully. “Someone has to keep you alive.” Lest I attempt to destroy this pathetic planet, once more. 

He hated that this was his first thought, but he knew he would follow her to Helheim and back to see her through. He needed to protect that light, that shine, that glow. 

I’ll go anywhere you want me

#Loki #Angst #Others #Submitted fic #submission #atlas space #mercury #Fanfictrashdump #chapter 2

[what-is-your-plan-today]

Stark Spangled Banner Ch5: You Make It Easy

Summary: It’s date night, and it’s its a coin toss between who is the most nervous, Steve or Katie.... 

Pairing: Steve Rogers x O/C Katie Stark

Warnings: Bad language

May 2013

The elation Steve had felt about actually getting a date with Katie soon evaporated the next morning when he realised he hadn’t the first CLUE where to take her or what to wear.

So he sought some advice

“A nice shirt and jeans.” Peggy smiled at him, the old woman elated he had finally done it. “Nothing too flash, and pick a restaurant. It doesn’t have to be fancy, women are more impressed by a man who’s paying them attention, interested in them, it isn’t’ about the flashing of cash.” “Come to think of it she has mentioned a new place in town.” Steve said, suddenly remembering that she had asked Evans one morning in Exercise if he had tried it yet. “La Placa I think it’s called.” “Well there you go.”  Peggy patted him on his arm before she smiled at the look on the young man’s face “Just be yourself Steve, that’s who she wants. No one else.”

“Thanks Peg.”

“And make sure you kiss her goodnight…” she grinned, a twinkle in her eyes “Us ladies do like a bit of passion every now and then you know.” He rolled his eyes at her cheekiness, running his hand through his hair which was in desperate need of a cut. He stayed with Peggy whilst he googled the restaurant number, made his reservation and then text Katie to tell her where he had booked.

Can't wait xxx

He grinned to himself, and then pushed his phone away and turned back to find Peggy watching him, a sly grin on her face.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this happy before.” she said, somewhat wistfully

.He smiled “Been a long time since I felt this good.” he said honestly.

“It suits you.” On his way home he swung into the barbers and stepped in. As he sat in the chair the man asked him what he wanted doing, and he was about to say trim when Katie’s voice stirred in his mind.

“Trying to imagine what you’d look like with shorter hair and a beard…” Fuck it. “Shorn back and sides please” he said, ��and take it a little shorter on top.”

******

Katie woke suddenly on top of the comforter on her bed, fully clothed. She’d fallen asleep!  She sat up, thinking back to the last thing she remembered before her nap, piecing her train of thought together. Ah, yes, Steve had messaged her to tell her he’d booked a table somewhere which had prompted her to start looking for an outfit. She’d realised she had no idea what to wear so had been debating calling Pepper to ask for advice. And she had decided it wasn’t a good idea because she didn’t want Tony to know she was dating yet, let alone who. This had then got her thinking about the first time they had all met when Loki had taken the Tesseract, which must had jogged that particular memory…what a fucked up place the human mind could be at times.

And then she remembered. Shit, she still didn’t have an outfit sorted! Biting her lip she sighed and picked up her phone, scanning through to the person she was looking for. Desperate times called for desperate measures, right?

The cavalry arrived an hour and a half later in the shape of a red-haired deadly assassin.

“There has to be something in here that’s first date suitable…” Natasha mumbled, as she continued to search through the various items in Katie’s closet. Half Katie’s clothes adorned the floor of her walk-in-wardrobe and bedroom as they had discarded everything she’d tried so far. “It would help if I knew where you were going.” she sipped her beer thoughtfully.

“La Placa.” Katie said after a pause, “Tapas place…but if you turn up I swear to God…”

“I got better things to do with my spare time…” Nat shrugged. “No you don’t.” Katie replied, “And I wouldn’t put anything past you.”

“If you don’t trust me why did you ask for my help?“ “Because Pepper is a 4 hour drive away…”

“Well that’s just rude…” Natasha mumbled and Katie grinned, shaking her head as Nat placed her beer down on the top of a set of drawers and moved to a rail “Ok, try this…”

She pulled out a knee length Balenciaga dress with a fitted top half, scalloped neck line and three-quarter length sleeves. As Katie shrugged it on, Natasha hunted in the shoe rack, pulling out a pair of mid-height red Kurt Geiger courts with a chunky gold heel and matching bag.

“Not bad.” She mumbled as Katie stepped into the heels and gave her a twirl.

“Better than the grey one?” “Definitely.” She said, nodding “I think we have a winner!”

Katie gave her a double Hi-Five and Nat picked up her beer as Katie stripped out of the dress and pulled on her T-shirt and shorts, before she glanced around the large bedroom, sighing at the mess.

“Better tidy this up in case things go well.” Nat smirked, before she pondered “Huh, actually, do you reckon Captain America puts out on the first date?”

“Jesus Nat…” Katie shook her head.

“Mind you, knowing Roger’s he’s probably a virgin…”

“I’m pretty sure people had casual sex back in the 40s too you know.” Katie rolled her eyes. “He was on the USO tours surrounded by dancing girls, there’s no way he didn’t do the old horizontal tango.”

“Yeah but…its Rogers.” Nat pressed giving a snort “Imagine if you are the one to pop his cherry.”

Katie groaned, shaking her head. “Shut up Widow.”

She smirked “Ok, so how long have we got?”

Katie glanced at her phone “An hour and 20 minutes. And what do you mean we?” “You asked for my help, right?” she shrugged, “Thought I could do your make-up and hair too…” Katie looked at her for a moment and smiled “Thanks.” She shrugged then drained her beer before turning Katie round and pushing her towards the en-suite “Go shower then we’ll start the transformation.”

An hour later Katie was ready. Her hair was curled in soft waves, and her makeup was done, a bit heavier than normal, but still subtle enough to avoid looking like it had been applied with a trowel.

“Perfect…” Nat said, giving her an appraising look. “Right, I trust you can get dressed without me.” “I think I’ll manage.” Katie said, standing up as she made her way out of the walk-in wardrobe/dressing room and followed her into the hall where she picked up her jacket.

“Oh and if you need me to bail you, just give me an SOS call…” Nat said, making a phone sign with her finger and pinkie by her ear. “I think I’ll be ok.” Katie smiled, “but thank you, for all of this.”

“Have fun…” she said, and then added with a smirk “And don’t do anything I wouldn’t”

“That doesn’t exactly leave a lot…” Katie quipped

“That’s my point.” Natasha intoned as she walked into the hall and pressed the button for the elevator.

“Nat, you won’t tell anyone will you?” Katie asked, “I mean, it isn’t that I don’t trust you, just…” Nat paused turning back to the brunette to find her chewing her lip with nerves. She shook her head “I won’t tell a soul. I know how much you two like each other, you’ve been dancing around it for months, so… just enjoy ok? Have a good time. You both deserve it.” “Thanks Nat” Katie smiled. The two girls shared a quick hug and then Nat left

***** Steve had to admit, he liked his new hair. It was much more like the style people sported now, but in a way it also reminded him of how Bucky had worn his back in the Howlies. He picked a light blue shirt, his dark navy jeans and then pondered before settling on a pair of brown boots that matched his jacket and belt. He was ready with plenty of time and found himself pacing as he thought about how the night could go. There was no doubt it was going to be way different to how he had imagined his first date to be. Back in his day it was movies, dinner and a dance. Now there were no dance halls, and they watched movies all the time. But, as Peggy had advised, for once he was going to “go with the flow” and just see where the night took them both.

Finally, after an agonising 15 minutes during which he had pretty much paced non-stop and drained a good measure of scotch, even though it did nothing bar give him a comforting burn in his throat on the way down, he headed to the cab that was waiting and they set off to pick up his date.

Jesus Christ she looked amazing. Her hair was cascading in waves over one shoulder, the smoky brown eyeshadow she was wearing made the green in her eyes even more noticeable. And her dress… black, knee length with a detailed neckline and sleeves that finished halfway down her forearms. The top half clung to her body where it flared out slightly from her hips and her red heels accentuated her shapely calves to perfection. As Steve looked at her he found himself imagining various crude scenarios where that dress ended up on the floor, but that wasn’t gentlemanly. Nor appropriate.

Katie felt her breath catch when she saw Steve. His light blue shirt was tight enough to accentuate his ridiculously well built top half, and a brown belt with a gold buckle adorned his toned waist. And he’d had a haircut. Gone were his longer locks and side parting, and in its place was a short back and sides with slightly longer strands on the top, tousled into an exceptionally modern style. He looked incredible.

Steve broke the silence between the two, clearing his throat gently.

“You look beautiful.” He said, leaning down to give her a peck on the cheek.

“Thank you, you look pretty good yourself, you do something to your hair?” Katie teased.

“Thought it was time for a change.” he said, shrugging it off casually as his cheeks warmed. “Still getting used to it.” “It looks great.” she assured him.

He beat her to her jacket as she reached up to take it off the peg and held it out so she could shrug her arms into it. Once they were in the elevator, he reached out and took her hand and she laced her fingers into his. He glanced down at her, his eyes meeting hers and she flashed him a smile.

Yeah, he’d lucked out, big time.

******

The restaurant was busy but not packed. They were seated at the back in a little booth in the corner. Steve had never had tapas before, but Peggy had explained it to him before.

“So the idea is we pick, what, 3 or 4 dishes?” he asked, looking at Katie

“Yeah, they’re like small portions and you share.” Katie nodded. “Although you eat like a horse so we should probably order more…”

He grinned and looked back at his menu.

“You pick,” he said, putting the menu back down eventually, beaten by the various choices. “I literally have no idea…”

“Alright…” she grinned. “But you have to try everything…”

“Deal.”

The waiter returned with their drinks and took their food orders. Katie ordered, 3 meat dishes, 3 fish, 3 veg and then a side order of olives and different breads with dipping oils before flashing the waiter a smile and he scuttled off.

“I think this is normally the part where we ask each other questions,” Steve said as the waiter disappeared. “You know, get to know each other a bit more.”

“Yeah… think that ship already sailed though.”

“True,” Steve said nodding bashfully, there wasn’t many things that they didn’t know about each other, although as he watched Katie was biting her lip, almost as if she wanted to say something, but at the same time didn’t.

“What is it?” he asked, reaching out for his drink.

“Something Nat said before…” Katie flushed, caught out. There was no way she was asking that question.

“Why does this worry me slightly?” he asked, his beer raised halfway to his lips. And it did. Romanoff was a total wind up merchant.

Katie looked at him and shook her head, the flush continuing to rise up her neck “Yeah, I’m not…it’s not first date conversation.”

He cocked his head to one side “Now I’m extremely worried.”

“You really want to know?” she asked, cocking her head to one side.

He nodded. Well, he did. And didn’t…

"Alright, you asked for this…” she straightened up in the seat as he did the same, bracing himself. “Are you a virgin?”

Steve groaned and screwed his eyes shut as she bit her lip. She really shouldn’t have asked that, but now as she watched she was intrigued as to his answer.

“No, I’m not.” He sighed shaking his head before he looked back at her "After I first got the serum there was suddenly all this attention on me and I didn’t really know any better…” “There was no one before?” she frowned slightly, almost as if she was surprised.

He shook his head again “Girls weren’t exactly interested in me before hand, Bucky was the one who had the looks and the swag. He had a different girl every weekend. I guess when they finally did I just, I dunno…” He stopped and took a breath. This made him sound like a right jerk. “There weren’t that many” he added hastily.

3 to be exact. And none of them had been anything to write home about. He got the distinct impression they hadn’t particularly enjoyed themselves either, not past the fact they could boast about having bedded Captain America. After the 3rd he’d decided simply chasing a physical bliss that lasted mere moments wasn’t for him, plus he was infatuated by Peggy at that point. He craved the tenderness of the act that Bucky had so often boasted about. As corny as it sounded he genuinely wanted someone to be with him, intimately that wanted him, not Captain America. He noticed Katie was watching him intently and he hung his head slightly, peeking up at her.

“We all have a past Steve.” she said, shrugging easily.

“I haven’t been with anyone since I came out of the ice.” He said, softly, feeling the need to explain that he wasn’t that type of man.

“I haven’t since Grant.” she eyed him. “One night stands are overrated.”

“I wouldn’t know.” He shrugged, locking eyes with her. “That’s all I ever had.”

Katie studied him for a moment. She had no idea why, but to learn he hadn’t had a girl that way before he became some kind of war time celebrity, and that the ones he had been with were probably chasing nothing but the kudos of being able to say they fucked Captain American made her kind of sad. No wonder he was always so self-doubting.

She smiled and reached across the table, giving his hand a squeeze.

“Well, personally, I think all those girls that picked Bucky over you were dumbasses. I’ve seen the photos of you before all this happened…” she raised her free hand and held out her index finger, and gestured up and down his torso “You were sweet”

He chuckled and took a drink of his beer “You know I heard that a lot…you’re really sweet and all but…“

“Like I said…”she leaned back in her chair slightly, “Dumbasses” Steve was aware that her ankle was brushing against his slightly and he felt the warm flush in his cheek at her forwardness, but soon found it disappeared and was replaced instead with simply enjoying the fact she wanted to be so close to him.

“Ok…” he said as their feet gently tangled together under the table. “So, in the spirit of this being a first date…there are a couple of things I don’t know about you…what’s your favourite film?” Katie paused “That’s a hard one. I like a lot of films but if there was one I couldn’t live without watching ever again it would be the Wizard of Oz.”

“No kidding.” he grinned.

“It’s a masterpiece” she nodded, “The music, the story, the colours…” “You read the book?” he asked.

She nodded “Several times. I used to have a copy but not sure where it went. Probably blown up in Malibu.”

“You know when that film came out it was mind blowing. Technicolour…never seen anything like it.” Steve said with a grin.

“I’ll bet…” she laughed “is it still your favourite?”

“How did you know that?” he asked.

“You told me, ages ago.” “Huh.” he said, “And yeah, even if it’s just for purely nostalgic reasons. Although I did like Gladiator when we watched that.” “Yeah that’s a great film too.” she smiled “one of my favourite quotes of all times comes from that film.” “Which is?” “Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back.” she said as her ankle returned to brushing against his.

“Isn’t that a little bit morbid?” he asked, taking a drink of his beer.

“Only if you look at it that way.” she shrugged “to me it’s more of a reminder to live your life like there’s no tomorrow.”

“That’s a good way to look at it.”

The conversation took a natural turn to the renovation of the tower and then New York in general, how much Brooklyn in particular had changed since Steve had left it behind to go to war. It was through this conversation Steve discovered that in all the time Katie had spent in New York she had never been to Coney Island.

“Maybe I could take you one day, down to the fair.” Steve suggested.

“I’d love that.” she smiled and his chest swelled even more.

Their food arrived and they continued to talk. And, considering they had started the date off thinking there wasn’t much more to find out about each other, both of them were surprised to see exactly how much trivial stuff there was to learn about the other. For instance, Steve knew that Katie enjoyed baseball but what he didn’t know was that whilst Tony was a Yankees fan, she actually supported the LA Dodgers, having grown up in Malibu. Suddenly her teasing about the fact they had moved made perfect sense. And in turn, Katie knew that the Dodgers relocating was a bug bear of his but, since he would rather go into the ice all over again than support the Yankees, he had started watching out for the Mets results, but apparently it just wasn’t the same and as such he hadn’t been to an actual game since he came out of the ice. Both of them found out the other preferred dogs to cats, cats making Katie sneeze and their ability to hiss and scratch you with no damned warning whatsoever made Steve not trust them as far as he could throw them. 

“I can just read the headlines now!” Katie said, in between laughs after he had added that if he wanted to he could probably throw a cat quite far… “Captain America killed my Cat.” Steve let out a low chuckle, shaking his head as he picked up his beer “Don’t cats always land on their feet?” “I dunno, depends how hard you’re intending on throwing it.” “I’m not intending on throwing any cat anywhere.” Steve said, shaking his head “As much as I don’t like them I couldn’t deliberately harm one.” “Tony did.” Katie said. “Well not deliberately, and he didn’t so much harm it as kill it…” “Oh you gotta tell me this story!” Steve grinned, leaning forward, topping up her wine glass from the bottle that was in the ice bucket in the middle of the table.

Katie grinned, “When we were kids, the first place we lived in was down this huge, posh road  with like 3 other houses on and we had this really eccentric neighbour, Mrs Livesy her name was. She had like 18 cats or something ridiculous and one morning, Tony was reversing the car out of the garage and he flattened 2 of them.”

Steve nearly spat his beer back into his glass. “He ran them over?” “Yeah…” Katie said, and by now she was laughing “But the best bit is, she comes round asking Dad if he’s seen the cats, dad’s got no idea what’s gone on right as Tony’s moved the cats and bribed me to keep quiet with the biggest ice cream you could imagine, so dad is all like ‘I’ve got no idea Mrs Livesy I’ll be sure to keep my eyes open…” Katie took a deep breath, wiping at her eyes “So then Tony comes back, Dad mentions that Mrs Livesy was looking for 2 of her cats and Tony’s like ‘huh, well you know what they say, curiosity killed the cat’ and me, being the little shit I was at the age of 4 pipes up ‘no that was you this morning, remember?’”

Steve laughed, and watched as she carried on giggling “He never forgave me for that, Dad made him go round and apologise. And he had to attend a memorial for Mr Whiskers and Bagpuss…”

Eventually after desert and a few more drinks it was time to leave, Katie tried to split the meal bill with Steve but one stern look stopped that in its tracks. This was a date, he was paying. Thankfully she didn’t argue too much. Steve then asked her if she wanted to go for a drink, she gleefully accepted so he took her hand, gently leading her across the road, holding the bar door open for her. They both sat at the bar, Katie turning her seat so she was directly facing him, the pair of them leaning closer to one another as they talked. And the conversation just continued to flow, as did the odd but subtle display of affection, moving their chairs closer together, her hand on his shoulder, his falling to her knee. Steve was surprised to find how easy the whole thing was. He had no nerves, no awkward moments. The chemistry fizzled and there wasn’t a single moment he was stuck for anything to say. It was for that reason he was disappointed when the bar tender called time and reluctantly stood up as Katie drained the final bit of gin from her glass.

As Steve held out her jacket, his hands gently brushed her shoulders as she shrugged it on, sending a tingle down her spine and the hitch in her breathing didn’t go unnoticed. She turned to face him, all green eyes and pink lips, blinking as her eyes locked onto his. His hands connected at the base of her spine as she moved closer to him, not moving her gaze from his, hand resting on his chest.

“I’d really like to kiss you again…” he said, shyly.

“You know you don’t have to ask…” she replied. Smiling softly he leaned down and connected his lips with hers, the kiss growing slightly deeper until Steve remembered they were in the middle of a public bar. He pulled away gently, resting his forehead against hers briefly, blushing like an absolute moron a small smile tugging on the corners of his mouth.

“You know, for someone who said they’d never taken a woman on a date before Rogers, you’ve done amazingly well.” she said smiling at him.

“That’s because you make it easy to be around you.” He said, honestly. He took her hand, curled his fingers round hers and made their way out into the street to hail a cab.

All too soon they pulled up outside her apartment and both of them found themselves wishing the night would never end. Steve told the driver to wait whilst he hopped out and walked her into the lobby, their hands still twined together. There was a part of him that wanted to follow her in, and a part of her that almost invited him to, but they both wanted to do this right, take their time. Katie wanted Steve to understand that this was more to her than it had been to any of those other girls he had talked about, and Steve wanted Katie to understand that he had meant exactly what he said the other night because she meant the world to him.

“I think now is the part where I’m supposed to ask you if you had a good time…” Steve turned to face her as they stopped by the elevator door.

“I did…”

“And if you’d go out with me again?” “I already said I would, Coney Island remember?” she replied cheekily, leaning closer to him

“I meant before that.”  he rolled his eyes.

“I’d love too.” she muttered, and then his lips were on hers again and they were kissing, exactly where they had left off in the bar, only this time they were alone. His hand snaked into her soft hair, angling her head as his tongue brushed her lips. She parted them slightly to grant him access and as their tongues tangled easily, Steve felt as if there were fireworks in his stomach, he had never kissed anyone like this before, no one. The kiss grew even deeper, Katie giving an involuntary moan.

“Always leave ‘em wanting more Stevie…” Bucky said, nudging him on the arm, winking as they crossed the fairground towards the girls “That’s the trick…”

Steve couldn’t stop himself from smiling he pulled back. Their night was at an end, it was a perfect place to leave it.

“I really did had a great time tonight, thank you.” she said, as he reached round and called the elevator for her as she pulled her key card out of her bag. He gently ran his finger down her cheek before he pressed a soft kiss there and smiled.

“Me too.” He waited until the elevator doors had shut and once they shut he turned round and grinning to himself he walked out into the night, whilst in the elevator Katie was wearing a smile equally as big.

Date 1 down, and it had been a roaring success.

Tags

@the-omni-princess​

@momobaby227​

#steve rogers x original female character #steve rogers x oc #steve rogers #captain america #tony stark #iron man #natasha romanoff #black widow #marvel #marvel fanfiction #mcu fanfiction #mcu #fanfic #new writer #romance

[hopelessromanticspoonie]

To Keep You Safe

Title: Sometimes the wrong ones are just what you need

Chapter: 7/? 

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 (later on)

Notes: Friendly reminder that this is un-Beta’d, so please excuse any typos or grammatical errors I may have missed! Also, I can’t stop writing super long chapters. Sorry?

Also on Ao3 here :)

Warnings: Violence, blood, language

~~~

“It isn’t wise to threaten me, gentlemen,” he warned, anger rippling off of his body as his elegant suit shifted to his traditional leather armor in a wave of green light. He slowly pulled me towards him so that my hands were against his back so that he could keep track of me while freeing his hands. I did my best to hide the tremors wracking through me from the adrenaline, fear, and alcohol still buzzing through my body. It wasn’t very successful, but at least I tried.

“What about threatening her? How’s that for size? We don’t want you. You can just walk away right now. All we need is the girl.” This voice rang out from behind us, and we both turned our heads in that direction to see another pair slowly advancing on us. At least they were only holding up knives and were, for the time being, ignoring the guns strapped to their backs.

“It would be in your best interest to stay away from her, lest you wish to incur my wrath,” Loki promised, the dangerous implications of his tone even sending chills down my spine. Did they know who they were dealing with? Even if they didn’t, he was still a threatening figure to behold.

In an instant, another copy of Loki was at my back, staring down the two men with knives. Loki and his doppelganger both thrust their arms out to the side dramatically, conjuring long daggers into their hands from thin air. Both the real man and the illusion cast a glance at me over their shoulders. “Stay behind me.”

I turned and put my back to the real Loki, making sure to maintain contact so we were both aware of the other at all times. A fight with razor-sharp knives was not the time to be surprised by your partner.

Without warning, the men sprang into action. Gunshots rang throughout the alley, and grit fell onto my bare shoulders and hair as bullets dug into the wall around us. The men in front of me broke into a full sprint, raising their knives as they got closer. The illusion of Loki stepped forward to distract one of the men, leaving me to deal with the other.

I tore at the skirt of my dress, yanking it out of the way and calling my obsidian blade into my hand. It came easily, and I shot my arm out to send it flying at the man closest to me. Using every ounce of concentration I could muster, I directed the knife low, stabbing into where Nat had shown me if I was ever in real danger. Pretty sure that this counted. He fell to the ground with a pained cry and I yanked it out with a jerking motion, dragging it up his leg as I struggled for control in the chaos and doing more damage in the process. My bloody knife came back to my waiting hand as soon as it left his body, but it was too late as the other man was already upon me, Loki's illusion melting away as he ran through it.

More shouts of rage came from behind me, indicating that more men had come in the stead of those Loki had surely taken care of by now. Their anger drowned out the sound of my attacker’s battle cry as he swiped his knife across my midsection. I pushed back against Loki to try to dodge the blade, but pushing against him was like pushing against a brick wall, and it all happened so fast I didn’t have time to ask him to move. The serrated edge of his knife caught the edge of my dress at one of the cutouts, hooking into it and pulling across my middle. Sharp pain sliced through me from the wound he created beneath my ruined dress and the gravity of the situation hit home.

This wasn’t a training session with Nat. All of my hard work did nothing to prepare me for the realities of battle. I wasn’t going to get a break to get a drink of water or catch my breath. The sweat that dripped into my eyes and blurred my vision wasn’t going to be wiped away by a towel. The fresh wound on my stomach sent another spike of adrenaline flowing through my system that forced me to focus on the man in front of me. I grunted as my leg shot out and connected with his wrist as hard as it could, forcing him to drop the knife he had raised threateningly.

“You bitch!” he yelled, curling his fist and pounding it twice into my eye in rapid succession. It felt like my eye exploded and I saw stars. My hand shot up to protect it as I staggered to the side to get my bearings. He didn’t stop coming for me, though. He reared back again to level another fist at my face and I lunged forward and ducked to slam my elbow into his throat. It caused him to choke, coughing and gripping his throat with both hands as he struggled to breathe.

The opening presented to me, I reared back to dig my knife into his throat, intent upon ending the threat, but large fingers wrapped around my wrist and halted my momentum.

Loki stood beside me and forced my hand to my side, prying my fingers from my blade. Without a word he turned to the man and grabbed him by the throat with one hand, tossing him halfway down the alley as if he weighed nothing. I flinched and looked away after his head cracked against the grimy pavement.

My wide eyes took in the carnage from our brief fight. The man that I had stabbed wasn’t moving from where he had fallen, and no matter how much I willed it, his unfocused eyes never blinked. Looking behind Loki were the fallen that he had taken care of, some of them with throwing knives still sticking out of their chests or necks. Something snapped inside of my chest when I tried to take a breath and all of the air was sucked from my lungs. I couldn’t stop my eyes from darting from body to body, skipping over the dark blood that stained the black concrete.

Gentle fingers swiped away a tear from my cheek--I didn't even know I was crying--and I startled at the touch, jerking away so hard that my back dug painfully into the brick wall behind me. Loki stepped up to encompass my field of vision and he, very slowly, brought a hand up to cup my cheek so that I couldn’t continue to look behind him at the bloodshed he had left behind. No, we had left behind. His lips were moving as he stared down at me, but the words didn’t register as my brain couldn’t handle anything more than trying to block out the images that had been seared behind my eyelids. He kept his eyes locked on mine as he reached for the holster on my thigh, very carefully sliding my knife into the sheath so he didn’t cut my exposed skin. When I didn’t react to whatever he was saying, or to his hand on my leg, he slid his arms behind my back and under my knees to pull me up to his chest. My hands gripped the leather over his chest of their own accord, not even letting go as the blood-stained armor changed back into the suit he had been wearing earlier. My head fell heavily into the crook of his neck as he carried me away toward the road.

A different car than the one we arrived in screeched to a stop in front of us, and Sam's head poked out of the passenger window as it rolled down. Loki’s swift strides never faltered as he walked toward the car, opened the door with the use of his magic, and then folded us inside. He tried to disentangle me from his arms once we were safely on our way, but a small noise of protest slipped out of me and I curled deeper into his chest. I wasn’t sure what had switched in my brain that decided that he was what I needed, but I was completely unwilling to let him go. Encompassed in his strong arms, with his heart beating in my ear, I felt safe. Protected.

“It’s okay, darling. I’m here,” he whispered, the hand at my back stroking the length of my spine over and over again. His other hand moved slowly, as if not to startle me, to tuck beneath my chin so that he could lift my eyes to his.

Blood splattered his fair skin but I didn’t see the source of it. His dark hair had gotten unruly, too. But the most startling aspect of his appearance was the look in his eyes. I hadn’t ever seen him look so concerned and sad in all my time of knowing him. I wanted to reach up and smooth my hand over the furrow in his brow, but that would mean relinquishing my grip on his shirt. Instead, he touched me, his fingertips ghosting over the quickly swelling flesh around my eye, causing me to scrunch my face in pain. He lifted his hand from me quickly, only to replace it with a small ball of ice that he had conjured into his palm.

“Cold.” I jerked back.

“My apologies, little one. I forget,” he murmured, conjuring a thin cloth around the ice. This he laid against my skin and I accepted it. The cool cloth felt heavenly against the hot, throbbing injury.

I allowed my forehead to press against his neck once again. Now that we were heading home the adrenaline saw fit to leave my system and my body became so heavy. Everything was too much and all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep forever. I closed my eyes to surrender to the fatigue and allowed Loki’s steady presence attempt to soothe my frazzled nerves.

Loki had me, and he would keep me safe. That was an undeniable fact that had cemented itself deep within me, and it grounded me--along with his hand softly tracing shapes onto my back and his lips moving against the top of my head to chant quiet words for my ears only. “I’ve got you, love. You’re safe. I will not let anything happen to you. You can rest now. I have you.”

“How’s she doing?” Nat asked.

“I believe that she’s in shock, but not lethally wounded. All I have found is a wound along her abdomen and some bruising on her eye,” Loki’s voice reverberated throughout my head.

I didn’t realize that I had been shaking until the jacket that Loki had been wearing earlier was pulled around my body. It wasn’t warm, because Loki was always freezing, but it helped further wrap me in his comforting spicy and masculine scent. I burrowed deeper against him in the small cocoon of his body and clothing. He only tightened his arm around me in response, and I was eternally grateful for it.

When we arrived my body was sagging against Loki’s heavily. My erratic heartbeat had calmed to more manageable levels and I didn’t seem to be in danger of hyperventilating anymore. A numbness had swept over my mind and body that left me a shell of the person I had been just an hour ago. I only needed comfort, which Loki was willingly providing for me. I kept my eyes closed and turned so that my nose buried into the hollow of his neck when I heard the doors of the car open. I didn’t want to leave this car. It was safe here.

“Come on, darling. We need to go inside,” Loki purred, and the ice he had been holding against the swelling of my eye disappeared and was replaced with his large hand. It felt like it was made of ice itself and I opened my eyes and pulled away to look at the offending limb. His hand, from his fingertips to his arm disappearing into his shirt, was blue.

“What?” I asked, trying to understand another mystery on top of everything else my brain was fighting with. He just shook his head with a sad smile.

Hands of an unknown origin slipped beneath my arms. I panicked and threw myself away from them, ending up sprawling on my ass outside of the car. Everyone who lived at the Compound, plus Tony, had gathered around me and were offering their hands to help me up. Excluding Sam and Loki.

“Give her some breathing room, guys,” Sam said authoritatively, putting his back to me so that he could corral our concerned friends away from me.

Loki gracefully stepped out of the car and knelt in front of me, holding out his--normal-colored--hands for me to take. I slipped my hands into his and let him pull me to my feet, nodding my head silently when he asks if I can walk. The group parts for us as he escorted me into the Compound with his arm wrapped securely around my shoulders.

Neither of us said anything as he lead me inside. I don’t know what I would begin to say to him. All I can think about is stabbing that man in the leg and killing him. I did that. Even if I hadn’t meant to kill him, it was the result. That’s all that’s really important, isn’t it? Do the ends justify the means?

By the time we reach my room I was able to focus a little bit more. The familiar scents and sights of my safe haven lessened a tiny bit of the weight that had settled onto my chest. So when Loki asked me if I need any help cleaning myself up and getting ready for bed, I declined and sent him on his way. As he left he gave me a firm squeeze of my hand and I found myself missing the steady calm of his touch after I’m alone in the room.

But that is absurd and silly and I shoved that thought into the box at the back of my mind where I put thoughts that I don’t want to dig up again, like where I want to put tonight’s events. Since that doesn’t seem to be working right now, I just repeated over and over again what I need to do to get myself into bed.

Take off the dress. Take a shower. Wrap up your cut. Put on PJs. Brush your teeth. Go to bed. Take off the dress. Take a shower. Wrap up your cut. Put on PJs…

That works well enough until I make to go into the bedroom from the ensuite and I grab my holstered knife from where I had dumped it onto the floor with the rest of my clothing. I need to clean it, but when I pull it out of the sheath, the dried blood on the blade sends my heart racing and my whole body trembling once again.

Not my blood. Not my blood.

The sudden sobs that sounded from deep within me echoed around the large bathroom. I bit my bottom lip to attempt to stifle them as I hurriedly scrubbed the blade with a washcloth in the sink. It knicked my skin a few times, but I don’t stop scrubbing beneath the steaming hot water until my hands are pink and I have no more tears left to give. I left the blade drying on the counter and went to bed, crawling beneath the warm sheets and falling into a fitful sleep.

I woke up screaming what felt like moments later, my body sore and drenched in cold sweat. The visions of fallen, bloody men swarmed around me in the last remembrances of my dreams. A glance outside told me that I had slept through the night, but I didn’t feel like I had gotten any rest at all.

I looked to where Loki’s illusion would normally be waiting on the couch, always appearing when he heard my cries to soothe me back to sleep. But of course he wouldn’t be there in the middle of the day. He was out doing Loki things. Whatever those were.

Frowning to myself, I rolled out of bed and mechanically got ready for the day. It was better not to think at all, I was slowly discovering, so that’s what I tried to do. I threw a towel over the weapon on my sink and made myself forget about it. That could be handled at another time when I wasn’t actively fighting the images that wanted to play on repeat in my mind’s eye.

The one train of thought that I allowed myself to indulge in was Loki��s actions last night. First of all: wow. Second of all, damn. I had to admit to noticing the charisma and confidence he exuded as he went about the Compound, but to bear the full brunt of his attention had been something else entirely. Even just dancing with him, I felt confident and desired and sensual. Those weren’t feelings that I experienced very often. But his body had fit so perfectly around mine. And what a body it was. All lean muscle and hard lines that, when thinking about it, made a light blush tint my fair cheeks. You would think that someone so tall with such long limbs would be more uncoordinated and awkward, but he had spent the hundreds and hundreds of years of his life learning exactly how to work with what he had been given.

And it was impossible not to follow that train of thought to that shadowy corner of the club where he had all but claimed me with his touch. Man, that god could play me like a fiddle. I had kissed a few men in my day and I hadn’t ever experienced anything as breath-taking as that. Did that say something about the men that I had been with or about him? Probably a little of both, sadly. It had started as just trying to blend into the crowd, get the attention off of our backs, but when it was over, something had changed. It had in me, at least. But the vulnerability that I had seen in his eyes as he had pulled away, that was something, wasn’t it? It had to be. I needed to find out.

After dressing in a simple and comfortable outfit of slim-fit dark jeans and a soft blue sweater, I padded out of my bedroom in bare feet to head to the kitchen to tend to the grumbling in my stomach. It was around lunchtime, so I expected more people to be milling about, but I only found Sam standing at the counter assembling a sandwich. He looked up with a smile when I walked in.

“Quite a shiner you got there, Poison Ivy,” he said lightly.

“Not you too with that nickname,” I grumbled, grabbing a plate from the cabinet and moving to stand beside him.

Sam handed me the loaf of bread at his side. “You get any sleep?”

I shrugged and piled some cheese onto my bread. “I did, but it sure as hell doesn’t feel like it.”

“Doesn’t look like you did,” he joked.

I leaned over and nudged him roughly with my elbow. “Hey!”

He finished making his sandwich and placed his hands on the counter, looking at me. “We’re all here for you if you need someone to talk to. Steve doesn’t get it so I gotta have my Office buddy for this next season. ‘Kay?”

I managed a small smile and a nod. “Sir, yes sir.”

He got to work putting away the sandwich ingredients after I had finished up, and I took my plate and headed to the elevator to go up to the roof. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath of the brisk fall air as I stepped outside, feeling a little calmer in the open air.

When I opened my eyes to head to the bench I usually favored, I found Loki already sitting on it, leaning forward with his elbows perched on his knees, his hands clasped together in front of him. Encouraged by our progress last night, I approached him. A few steps away from the still god, I loud bang echoed around the grounds, followed by Tony yelling “Sorry!”.

The crash of my plate falling and shattering came immediately after. I had completely forgotten about it, the sudden sound instantly pulling me back to last night. Snapshots of bloodied bodies flickered behind my eyes. I knelt on the ground at the sudden onslaught of images and sounds, throwing my hands over my ears and clenching my eyes shut. It felt like all the air had been sucked out of the world and no matter how much I gasped in great gulps of it it wasn’t enough. I was too hot and my stomach was rolling and I couldn’t do anything about any of it because I was rooted to my spot amongst the broken china and ruined food on that rooftop.

Blissfully cold hands moved beneath the thick curtain of my hair and gently clasped my neck. I instantly knew they were Loki’s, no one else was as cold as he always was, and a sigh of relief whooshed out of me at how lovely the chill of his skin was on my own. His thumbs hooked beneath my jaw and tilted my head upward.

His steady, authoritative voice pierced through the cacophony in my mind. ”Open your eyes and look at me.

I did as he asked, taking in his folded up form as he balanced on his heels in front of me.

“Good girl. Now, breathe. As I do,” he said, out loud this time, his spoken voice holding the same tone as the one he had sent into my head.

He kept his eyes locked as mine as he lead me in taking slower, deeper breaths until I had calmed down and lightheadedness had gone away. His cool touch had lessened my nausea as well. As soon as I closed my eyes once again to focus on holding onto the calm that he had instilled in me, his hands left me and I heard the crunch of his shoes on the rooftop as he walked away.

It was startling to be suddenly without him. Looking up, I watched him settle back onto the bench, this time sitting straight and tall with a detached, expressionless expression hardening his sharp features. Careful not to cut my feet on the scattered remnants of the plate I had broken, I picked my way over to him and eased down on the bench beside him.

“Thanks,” I muttered with a wan smile.

“Sam said that you might be skittish after the events of last night,” he explained, voice bereft of emotion.

I scrubbed my hand along the back of my neck uncomfortably. “Yeah, guess he was right, huh?”

Silence. It was like I was talking to a statue. A very regal, unaffected statue. I summoned all of the courage that I had inside of me and tried a new tactic.

“Um, about last night…”

Loki finally looked over to me, but still without any discernible emotion in his distant gaze. “Ah, yes. I do apologize for being so untoward. It had to be done, you see.”

Oh. That wasn’t what I had expected him to say at all. I rubbed my hands together nervously. “Well, um, I appreciate it. A lot.”

“No thanks are necessary. It was only polite to lend a hand,” he replied flippantly.

Polite? There hadn’t been anything polite about his tongue in my mouth or his leg shoved in between mine. “It just seemed, I dunno, different.”

“God of Lies, darling. We needed to make it believable. And while I will admit that it was very pleasurable to kiss you,” he winked at me, “that is all it was.”

Oh. I wasn’t expecting that. Or for his words to be such a punch in the gut. Beginning this conversation I hadn’t known what I had been looking for, but now that I hadn’t gotten it, I realized that what I had wanted was for him to admit that he had felt something, anything, last night. To let me know that I had remembered it correctly and there might be more to us than a cool working relationship. I was a fool for expecting that from him. What was I, a regular person, to an immortal alien prince? Just someone used in the heat of the moment to ensure our mutual safety. It was foolish to think that I was anything more, but my affection-starved heart had read way too much in the situation. The pang that shot through me at the indifference written on his face was the exact reason why I hadn’t gotten involved with anybody in years.

Salvaging the last of my dignity, I stood up and plastered a fake smile on my face. “Okay, then. I better go make myself a new sandwich.”

He only nodded in response, not even looking at me as he settled back into the same position as I had found him in.

If he could be so unaffected, so could I. I shoved the unexpected hurt to the box of things I didn’t think about at the back of my brain and walked away from the man that had somehow wormed his way into my heart in such a brief period. He had made it very clear that he didn’t want to belong there.

~~~

It took two days for me to leave my room when anyone else was around.

I spent the first day alternating between staring outside and angrily drawing terrible sketches of the cold landscape to cursing myself for being such an idiot for both developing any feelings for him in the first place and for being upset that he hadn’t returned them. He wasn’t known to be sentimental or affectionate, and little ole me wasn’t going to be the catalyst for such a radical personality shift. That night I left my room only after F.R.I.D.A.Y. confirmed that no one else was in the kitchen. I ran in, grabbed a hastily made sandwich, and then darted out without seeing anyone.

The second day I mindlessly watched trashy reality TV, losing myself in the amped-up fake drama of someone else. When I left that night to grab something to eat, I opened the door to find a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and chips waiting on a plate just in front of my door. It had a sticky note on the sandwich that read, “I made it sterile. -S”

“Just saying ‘sterile’ doesn’t make it so, Sam.” I smiled. I bent down and picked up my bounty, disappearing in my room once again.

And on the third day, after deciding to end my pity party, I rose.

“She lives!” Sam shouted as I walked out of my room looking and feeling like a zombie the next morning.

“Not before coffee. Gimme,” I replied, stumbling over to the ready-made glass of iced coffee with a dash of cream, a pinch of cinnamon, and two scoops of sugar waiting next to Wanda.

I sank into the stool next to her and drank it gratefully, closing my eyes with a contented hum. I wasn’t sure who had made it, or when, or how they knew that I was coming out today, but the kindness of the gesture warmed my heart a little. These were good people who cared and I had been acting like a teenager holed up in my room feeling sorry for myself. I was a huge idiot.

“Miss Jennifer, you don’t look very well.” Vision stepped through the wall in front of me, flashing me a look of concern before heading to wrap his arms around Wanda from behind.

“Door!” we all shouted out in unison.

“It’s a common area!”

“It still counts, Barney, and you know it,” Tony answered as he walked into the kitchen. “Pebbles, glad to see that you’ve risen from the dead. Let’s walk and talk.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulder, executing a drive-by exhausted-woman-napping as he steered me and my precious coffee off of my stool, to the elevator and then further into his lab.

“Okay, we walked, now talk,” I grumbled into my glass, plopping down on the examination table that he had indicated and crossing my legs beneath me.

“Good news or bad news first?” He asked as he followed me, hooking up a monitor to the finger I automatically held up for him. My heart rate and oxygen levels flashed across the screen next to the table. Perfectly normal.

“Um, bad news?” Best to lighten to blow of things I didn’t want to hear with something positive afterward.

Tony pulled the monitor from my finger, replacing it with a finger pricker. “One, this is going to sting,” he paused to use the damned thing, ignoring my flinch and squeezing out a tiny droplet of blood onto a slide. “Two, your lessons with Wanda are going to have to be put on hold for a while.”

“What, why?” After what happened at the club, and what happened before that with the invasion, I was more determined than ever to get a better grip on my abilities. I was tired of being the damsel in distress to asshole gods with silver tongues and weirdly cold skin.

Tony leaned over the microscope, squinting at my blood and fiddling with the device. “Well, first her and Vision are going to go visit Wakanda. I told you about it, right?” He waited for me to make a grunt of agreement before continuing, “Well, they have a super-smart princess there and we’ve been talking. She thinks that we can get the Mind Stone out of his head and keep him chugging along, so we’re gonna try that out so Wanda can destroy it. Then we need her to poke around some brains for us for a while so we’re gonna send them around to a few places to see what she can find out. We gotta figure out where these Hydra assholes are coming from, and why they were so interested in you last night. If they were willing to take on Reindeer Games to get to you, it’s something serious. You’ll have to fly solo until she gets back. Probably a few weeks, at least.”

I hid my grimace behind another sip of my coffee. He wasn’t saying anything I didn’t know, but it still wasn’t nice to hear it out loud. I didn't want to accept the fact that those men had been targeting me but ignoring it didn't make it any less real. I think I had enough of the basics down so that I could keep improving without her. I was always up for embracing work as a coping mechanism so this would do in a pinch. Tentatively accepting this change in my life, I quirked my brow at him as he finally stopped fiddling with checking me over and came to a stop in front of me.

“You said there was good news?”

He clapped his hands loudly and then pointed at me with a smile. “Yes, I have another present for you!”

“Another present? Where is it?” I asked, all negative thoughts driven out of my mind at the unexpected gift.

He retreated to a desk in the corner and pulled out a folded piece of hunter green leather from a drawer. He was practically strutting as he walked back over to me and deposited it on the table beside me.

“Is this mine?” I exclaimed, immediately recognizing the armor for what it was and hopping off the table, abandoning my coffee on it so I could unfold the garment to my full height.

“All yours, kid. It seems that you’re going to be needing it, and now is as good a time as any to give it to you. Since so much of your juju requires flexibility, we couldn’t put in too much bullet-proofing besides a bit on your upper chest, since you seem to be needing that. But the leather is thick, so any knives should have a more difficult time getting through to you since that also seems to be an issue that you have. It’s green because you’re our Poison Ivy, and Nat said the brown along the seams and down the arms would make you look less like a little girl in a onesie. You have built-in holsters for two knives on your outer thighs, and a pair of matching brown boots are waiting for you in your closet.”

“This is awesome,” I said reverently, stroking the smooth material. I clutched it to my chest, knowing the care that Tony must have taken into having it made, and permitted myself to feel the full depth of my gratitude for his kindness. I quickly hugged him before rushing back to where I had left my friends still enjoying their breakfast.

I wasted no time in showing off my new suit to the gang, and I stifled my enthusiasm when Nat demanded that I go try it on to get the full effect. It fit me like a glove. I wasn’t sure where or when Tony got my measurements, but I didn’t let myself linger on that awkward detail for long. I pretended to be in battle, crouching around the room and wiggling my fingers at them until everyone was cracking up at my antics. It felt good to get everybody laughing, but after the laughter died and they all dispersed to go about their daily routines, I was left with the deafening silence of their absence and forced to pay attention to the tiny nagging voice that had been at the back of my head since I put it on.

I wanted to know what Loki thought of it. His haunting presence was nowhere to be found as I had proudly displayed my new gear. I had gotten used to him always on the sidelines, watching over me with that curious look furrowing his brow. Now that he was missing I realized how much I had come to rely on that constant company. But I had gone and screwed that all up with trying to make a bigger deal out of our making out than it needed to be and now I was paying the price for it. I just needed to suck it up and move on from our non-existent relationship like a big girl.

~~~

Taking my frustrations out on fight training with Nat later on wasn’t really working as well as I had hoped.

“Again.”

“Again.”

“Again.”

“Aga-”

“I know. Again. I’m never going to be able to fucking pin you so just give me a second to breathe,” I shouted, jerking onto my feet and ripping off my tank top. “And it’s too damn hot in here!”

“Hey, hey, easy there tiger. You’re bleeding.” She grabbed my discarded shirt from the floor to dab it at the blood on my stomach.

“I’ll be fine. It isn’t deep. Well, it was, but not anymore. I probably just caught it with my nail.” I looked down at the knife wound, rubbing at the small bit of blood that had welled up with my finger.

“Is that from-”

“Yep. One of them got a swing in when I couldn’t push the Prince of Assholes away in time. It’s fine.” I rolled my shoulders and bent at my knees. “Let’s fight.”

“No, we’re talking about this. About what’s been going on.” She was putting her foot down, quite literally, as she had placed her foot on top of mine to keep me from bouncing around. I yanked my foot away and walked over to the practice dummy in the corner, giving it a few anger-filled punches.

“Well, Tony gave me my suit. That was cool.”

‘That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it.” Nat smacked the back of my head and knocked the dummy over with one strong kick.

“Ow!”

“You’ll be fine. Your black eye from the club is almost gone. This tiny bruise will heal faster than you can grow a pair and tell me what happened with Loki.”

I grumbled while rubbing my head and trying my best to look innocent. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She rolled her eyes and fixed me beneath her pointed stare. “I’m not blind. I saw you both at the club.”

“It was just dancing. We had to blend in,” I supplied, willing her to drop it so this conversation to be over.

“And grind on each other?” Guess she wasn’t going to let that happen.

“Everyone else was doing it!” What was I? 16?

“Was everybody else also having x-rated makeout sessions against the wall?” she quipped with a brow raised in my direction.

I pushed my finger into her chest with a glare, attempting to look as intimidating as she did. “Now that’s not fair. You told us both about using it as a distraction! We were just doing what we had to do.”

“And that included his tongue in your throat,” she teased, wiggling her eyebrows at me.

I tried a new tactic, pretending to ignore her as I righted the dummy and began kicking at its ribs. Maybe then she’d take a freaking hint.

“And when you were in the car, I’ve never seen either of you like that. He was holding you and looking at you like you were the most precious thing in the universe. And you melted into him, Jen. Full-on trust and dependence. You don’t do that. Ever.”

Maybe not.

“I’m so done with this conversation. Keep the shirt for all I care,” I snapped, getting to my feet and running out of the room. I wasn’t going to stand there and have her reiterate the thoughts that had been plaguing my mind for days now. I didn’t need her to tell me what I already knew. It didn’t change anything, so what the hell was the point?

My feet carried me out of the gym, outside, and around the edge of the Compound, and then they continued to drag me in a jog around the perimeter of the grounds for the next forty-five minutes. I used my last ounce of strength to haul my exhausted ass up to the garden, deciding it had the most diverse natural materials for me to use to also tire out my mind while I was at it.

“Just gotta harness my emotions. Got it. I don’t have any extra feelings going on to make that difficult or anything,” I said to myself as I plopped down onto the sun-warmed roof, letting the heat seep pleasantly through my thin athletic shorts.

I reached out for my power just beneath my skin. It was pure electricity running through me, made even stronger by my heightened feelings. But whenever I tried to draw on it, to use it to manipulate my surroundings, I couldn’t focus long enough for anything to happen.

I could just hear Wanda now: If you can’t control your thoughts, you can’t control yourself.

Fat lot of good that was doing me right now.

I was being dumb. I was acting like an immature child. I should just treat that night like any other one night stand, as if those were a regular occurrence to me, and let it go. But no matter how often I told myself that, it didn’t work. His touch had been electric on my skin. I had never felt so desired as when he had been holding me. Or safe, when we had been in the car. I had known without a shadow of a doubt that he would have done anything to protect me at that moment. And he had, hadn’t he? He had killed those men who were trying to take me without any hesitation. And I craved that delectable balance of desire and comfort.

The thing that made it hardest to forget was the look that he had that night. Nat had been right. He had looked at me as if I had been so important, so precious to him. I didn’t mistake the softness in his eyes; I know I didn’t. I hadn’t ever seen him look at anybody that way. I wanted him to look at me that way again, to make me feel that special again. But my wants weren’t important, especially not to a self-obsessed god.

I lost track of time as I sat there trying to focus. Emptying my mind didn’t work. Making those dumb meditation noises and sitting cross-legged with my hands upturned on my knees didn’t work. Neither did counting my breaths, stretching, or saying the same phrase over and over again. It probably didn’t help that that phrase was ‘I’m such a dumbass.’ But what can you do?

Finally, after I could no longer ignore my stomach demanding to be fed, I stood up and glared out at the buildings and greenery below me as if they were the source of my frustration.

“Fuck you!” I shouted, bending down, picking up a rock, and throwing it as hard as I could over the edge of the building. It wasn’t nearly as cathartic as I wanted it to be. I could have made it fly farther with my mind.

#to keep you safe #loki #loki odinson #loki laufeyson #loki friggason #loki fanfic #loki/ofc #marvel fanfiction #marvel fanfic #marvel #violence tw #blood tw #language tw

[dabblinginmarvel]

Stardust (Part 4)

Plot: The Reader is a fallen star who attached to the Time Stone and, along with Stephen Strange, they go on an adventure to get rid of the villain who brought you to Earth.

Prologue          Part 1          Part 2          Part 3

A/N: This is kind of short again, but we’re getting there. I think you’ll like the surprise I have put in here for you all.

Warnings: None

Word Count Total: 708

Long Imagine #24

Title: Stardust

Part 4

Stephen slammed his fists on the closest table, making the old wood quiver beneath his frustration. He had been so close, but he had still lost you to the same person he had saved you from before. He felt a tug around his neck and it took him a moment to see through his anger that someone had broken into the Sanctum again. When he finally could, he realized it was trying to pull him in the direction of you. He turned in one direction, then in another and could confirm that each time, it continued to point in the same direction. It wasn’t a lot, but it was a start.

He had a lead.

“Get me that magic tracker thing from Sumatra,” he said to Wong.

Wong raised an eyebrow. “You have been here how long and you still don’t know all the names for the artifacts?”

Stephen ignored his sass so Wong walked down the hall to get the Sumatran tracker. When he returned, in his hand, which was covered in an old black leather glove, was a bronze egg-shaped item. The tracking device always reminded Stephen of a dragon, since this item also had upward-facing scales that would fold out as soon as it was activated. He placed the item on the table in front of Stephen and then handed him the glove.

Stephen held it in his hand, closed his eyes, placed back it on the table, but the tracker wasn’t working. Then, a thought struck him. He took off the Eye of Agamotto and placed them both on the table right next to each other. Out of the top of the device, a small projection began and –

“You have to get better security around here,” a male voice said snarkily. Stephen turned around and came face to face with a man with a dark goatee and sunglasses.

“I couldn’t stop him, Stephen,” Wong said.

“You could have, you just chose not to. What are you doing here, Stark?” Stephen turned around with a heavy sigh.

“I’ve seen something’s going on and I want in.”

“Nothing’s going on.”

“So, all of this falling star crash-landing is bullshit? The mysterious figure in dark green leading a lady away from here, this mysterious building?” Tony snorted.

Stephen sighed, then exchanged a glance with Wong, knowing that Wong would have a problem with bringing in someone who wasn’t familiar with the mystical arts. He nodded, anyway, knowing Tony wouldn’t believe any of it was bull.

Tony rolled his eyes and then said, “I want in.”

“Absolutely not.”

“I’m already here, so it’s too late.”

Stephen considered using his sling ring to show Tony the exit, but the more he considered it, the more he realized he and Wong may actually need Tony’s help.

“Okay.” He turned back to the tracking device to study the grey transparent map it was displaying. Once he got used to the three-dimensional appearance of the map, he was able to decipher a few landmarks. He didn’t look back, but he could tell that Wong was scowling at him for the decision. The tracking device was shut and stowed away with the glove in the table’s drawer, which sealed up and could only be accessible by a sorcerer with a specific magic signature – like a fingerprint. With the Eye around his neck again, Stephen stood up straight and the cloak fluttered in excitement, which Tony eyed with his eyebrow raised.

“It’s time we get to London. He’s hiding in the destroyed Sanctum.”

“Great,” Tony chimed in. “I’ve got a jet we can all use or -”

“We’ll just take my way,” Stephen interrupted and opened a portal to a busy London street not too far from where you were being hidden, causing Tony’s eyes to widen appreciatively. He opened his mouth to ask questions about the spinning orange sparks, but Stephen stepped through. Tony turned to look back at Wong and he gestured, none too happily, for Tony to enter. Tony stepped in cautiously and looked around in awe at the change, glanced back through the portal, and then Wong followed. The portal closed behind them and they started off for the remnants of the London Sanctum looking like a band of misfits.

- - -

Stardust taglist open!: @bottled-jellyfish, @seneffp08

Masterlist

Permanent Tag List (please alert me if you change your username, want to be tagged for only one character, or if you want to be untagged): @abbybills22​, @breezy1415, @coffeebooksandfandom, @cxptain-americaa, @deceivedeer, @dreamer821, @everything-but-the-not-natural, @elxrini, @fangirling-equestrian, @feelmyroarrrr, @hellomissmabel, @httpmcrvel, @iamwarrenspeace, @kudosia, @m4df4n, @marrvelle-fics, @mindlessnerd89, @ms-cellanies, @mylittlefandomfanfictions, @princessleah129, @space-helen, @susiejustsusie, @tea-with-loki, @thisismysecrethappyplace, @wkndfrvr, @wxnchestervevo (tag list is open!!)

Strikethroughs are blogs I can’t tag.

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#stephen strange imagine #stephen strange imagines #long imagine #stardust miniseries

[peterparkerneverland]

The Last Fight: A Marvel Family One Shot.

PLEASE READ:

I haven’t seen AIW yet. I’m seeing it tonight, but I know some stuff is going to go down. So, before the MCU is changed forever, I’m going to write a nice long one shot about the reader (you) and all the main crew sitting up in the Avengers Compound before what may very well be their last battle together as a family. Alright. Here we go. Characters: As many as I could get in here.

Warnings: Mild language, mentions of panic attacks. //

It’s quieter than you’d thought it be. Feels like there should be some sort of commotion. Tony should be adding last minute updates to a suit, Cap should be giving Peter advice on how to block a blow from a strange angle, Shuri should be arguing with Bruce about some scientific type stuff you never quite understand, but instead there is silence. You all sit around what Tony’s deemed “the family room”, refusing to look at each other, in fear of what you might say. In fear that everything you feel will come spilling out in a mess of tears and broken phrases. Because you know what this day is, how these next few hours, minutes, seconds...could be your last. “Guys” comes Tony’s voice, that same calm confidence lacing the word. He turns away from the window he’s been staring out of for the last fifteen minutes, taking a heavy breath as he gazes at everyone in the room, his eyes finally landing on you. “I think since there’s a fairly good chance we could die soon,” he says bluntly, “we should take this time to do something special” his words seemingly sincere, but there’s that look in his eyes, that faint shadow of a mischief you’ve come to know so well, “I think, we should all sit in a circle, and tell secrets” And suddenly, you’re not “The Avengers” anymore. Not superheroes who have seen and been through too much, who have lost loved ones and found them again in each other, who are about to risk their lives for what could be the last time, no. 

You’re just...a family. “Fine, but only if you go first Stark” Steve smiles as everyone moves to the floor of the family room, pushing back couches and armchairs to make enough room for you all to sit in a wide circle. You run into the kitchen to grab whatever food you can carry, ending up with an array of chips, cookies, two cartons of ice cream, and the last of the homemade brownies you and Steve made the other day, baked with some special chocolate T’Challa insisted was the best in the world, as is everything from Wakanda. You jump into the circle and put the food in the middle, letting everyone grab what they want, but saving a brownie for Peter. They’re his favorite. You turn around looking for somewhere to sit, when Bucky reaches out his hand and pulls you onto his lap, wedged between Peter and Tony. He wraps his arm around your waist, and you snuggle back so your head lays against his chest, steadily rising and falling with each breath. 

“Alright Stark” Thor says in that commanding voice of his, “Proceed with the festivities” Everyone leans in expectantly, waiting for what is sure to be an interesting tale. “Well I’m a man of very few secrets, an open book really. An intelligent and extremely handsome book some might say-“ “Get on with it Tony” Nat says with a serious expression, but you hear the humor behind her words. “Fine, fine” he sighs, throwing up his hands in mock surrender, “Uh, let’s see here, a secret. I don’t really...well actually I guess...okay but none of you are allowed to laugh” “I can in no way, shape, or form, promise that I won’t laugh” Quill nods swiftly. Tony sends him a look, but continues. “Well sometimes when I go to sleep I keep the television on and put it on a random channel and one night I was bored with the usual news stations and soap operas so I ended up leaving it on that one channel, the Mickey Mouse guy one...” “Disney channel?” you offer, suddenly realizing the only other person who may know what that is is Peter. “Yes! Yes that’s the one. Well I got really into the show about the girl with two lives, one where she’s like a rockstar or some shit, and then she’s a normal girl. And I’d watch it almost every night it came on and yeah. That’s the secret” he finishes quickly. At this point, the only two people cracking up are you and Peter, the idea of Tony Stark lying in bed watching Hannah Montana enough to make your sides hurt with laughter. No one else seems to understand why this is such a hilarious thing, as no one else finds themselves watching much casual television. “Well, since you’re having such a great time, why don’t you go next Parker” Tony smirks, Peters laughs instantly dying down, “Every high school kids got secrets” You shift slightly so your head is resting on Bucky’s shoulder, gazing at Peter expectantly. You two have been close ever since he first came to live at HQ, waking up much too early to train in the gym, and staying up much too late to watch your favorite movies, even rooming together on nights where sleeping alone invited too many tormenting memories to resurface. So you can’t imagine there’s something about him you don’t already know. “And none of that “I don’t really have secrets” shit Parker, we all know you’ve got at least one...” Sam says, letting his voice trail off ominously, and you could’ve sworn his gaze flickered to you. Peter flushes bright red. “Well...I guess...I mean it wasn’t really...we didn’t...” he stutters, not meeting anyone’s gaze. “Just say it. Tear it off quick, like a bandaid” Steve advises, clapping him roughly on the back. He takes a heavy breath, closes his eyes, and speaks. “WELL WHEN I FIRST CAME HERE I SORTA MAYBE HAD A SMALL CRUSH ON (Y/N)” he shouts in a quick flurry of words, sitting perfectly still after the secret has been spoken, as if moving a muscle will break the veil of silence that has fallen over everyone. “Well that’s not exactly a secret” Wanda says, snatching the bag of Cool Ranch Doritos from Loki’s grip, “We’ve all known that for like, ever” Collective nods of agreement go around the circle, Peter’s jaw hanging open in surprise. “But...how...I...” he sputters uselessly. “Peter,” you say after a moment, “We used to cuddle on the couch and watch movies for hours. I think it was sorta maybe a little bit obvious that we liked each other” He tries to no avail to suppress a grin from spreading across his face, turning away so you can’t see him blush once more. “You guy’s secrets suck” Quill complains through a mouthful of rocky road ice cream, “I’ve got some exciting ones” And he launches into a tale about other worldly creatures and planets made of cotton candy and by the time he’s done, you’re all fairly sure most of that was made up. You continue around the circle, everyone’s secrets ranging from small crushes and embarrassing adolescent stories, to petty thievery and the longstanding mystery of who ate Bucky’s entire birthday cake that Steve spent hours making (it was Thor). When finally, there’s only one person left. You. The sun is setting outside the huge glass windows, casting broken beams of orange and red light that fight through dense tree leaves. A soft glow is settled over the room, vivid shadows signaling the moons rise, night approaching as it always has and always will. You could easily pretend it was just another day, just another sunset. But that would be a lie. Because as you look around the circle, a wave of memories comes flooding back. You remember your first week here, unable to sleep for more than an hour at a time. Always waking up with a start and reaching for the gun on your bedside table, pointing it at invisible demons that only lived your memories. You’d walk aimlessly around the compound, until one night Tony found you staring out the kitchen window at 3AM and told you to come down to his lab and help him with some stuff. Since then you’ve spent plenty of sleepless nights tinkering with suits at his side, never talking about what kept you both awake, but being there for each other all the same. You remember Bruce helping calm your panic attacks, whispering for you to squeeze his hands and look into his eyes. Just keep looking into his eyes and everything will be okay. You remember Bucky teaching you to dance, playing vinyl after vinyl of lovely music with singing voices smooth as silk, gliding you across the wooden floors, you feet following his, everything falling into place effortlessly. You remember going on your first date, coming down the stairs to find half the Avengers sitting around your date, looking rather scary as Thor interrogated mercilessly. You remember T’Challa slipping a thin black bracelet on your wrist as you left, whispering that if you squeeze the third charm, he and a set of Wakandan soldiers would be at your side in seconds. You thanked him, but stashed the bracelet in your bag once you left the compound. You remember playing intense games of Monopoly with Nat and Wanda, cooking thanksgiving dinner with Vision and Quill, laughing with Tony until you couldn’t breathe, and crying with Steve until there was nothing left to cry. Your mind is racing with every moment you’ve ever spent in the compound, realizing how much of it you took for granted, how much there is to remember, and much you’re bound to forget. 

So you decide you won’t. You decide that this moment, nestled in Buck’s strong arms, Tony resting his head against your shoulder, Peter tracing the lines of your palm absentmindedly with his finger, everyone gazing at you with playful smiles, you will remember this moment for as long as you live. Sitting with the family you love more than anything in the world, for what will be the last time. “(Y/n)?” Bruce asks softly, and you realize you’ve been silent for a while now. “Oh, um, yes. The secret” words stuck in your throat. You feel hot tears brim in your eyes, threatening to fall at any moment. Bucky hugs you closer against him as your gaze drops to the floor, not wanting anyone to see how close you are to crying. But Tony’s fingers brush against your chin, tilting your head up so you’re looking right into his eyes. They seem to say something words cannot, glistening with tears to match yours. “My secret is...” not breaking his gaze, your voice shaking, “I’m scared” The sharp blaring of an alarm pulls your eyes away from his, everyone jumping to their feet. You all know what that sound means. Steve takes a step forward and you all turn to him, waiting for what, you’re not quite sure. But you always look to him for instruction before a mission, so you do no differently now. “Alright Team” he says in a soft but steady voice, “Time to suit up” Maybe it’s the sureness of his words, or the fact that Bucky squeezes your hand reassuringly while Peter grips the other, maybe it’s the broken smile Vision sends your way, or the nod T’Challa offers, but suddenly...you’re no longer afraid. This is what you do. This is who you are. This is your family. And you fight, together. // I been through some stuff, we all been through some stuff. But damn, marvel has helped me through it all. Tony Stark/RDJ (same person really) was my first crush, when I was eight I spent hours in my basement making my own iron man suit out of cardboard and string, and I’m pretty sure my sarcastic humor is a direct consequence from growing up watching the movies on repeat. I read my dad’s old comics, hiding them in between my notebooks so I could read them in school.  I’ve been to the theater to see every marvel film for as long as I can remember. I’ve dressed up in full costume to walk awestruck around Comic-Con, waited in line for hours to get front and center seats to see an interview with Stan Lee. I’ve made edits and fan accounts and, of course, written a million and one fanfics. I loved Marvel when it was cool to, and when it wasn’t. And yes, these are fictional characters, but they’re so much more than that. They’ve taught me what it means to be a hero in real life, what it means to be a good person. When shit gets hard, and man it seems to a lot, I know I’ve got the best community of marvel kids to stick it out with me. We’re more than fans, we’re family. And no matter what happens, no matter who we lose, we’ve got each other. NOW I KNOW, this is sappy as fuck. But I’m sappy as fuck. Love y’all. Always and forever, -just another marvel kid.

#Avengers #Avengers infinity war #Iron Man #captain america #Steve Rogers #tony stark #Robert Downey Jr #Chris Evans #Chris Pratt #chris hemsworth #thor #thor ragnarok #falcon #mark ruffalo #hulk #loki #Guardians of the Galaxy #marvel #marvel fanfiction #Sebastian Stan #black panther #T'Challa #Black Widow #shuri #Vision #wanda maximoff #peter parker #spiderman #tom holland

[celtic7irish]

Shadow Puppets

It was such a stupid ritual to find comforting, Tony knew. Like seriously, was he five years old? But he couldn’t deny that it helped, when he woke up terrified and disoriented, his eyes staring unseeingly out into his bedroom.  The light from the arc reactor seemed so bright on those nights, glaring and unforgiving, and Tony hated it.  Hated the way that it reminded him of caves and yelling and dying, the scent of blood and smoke in his nose and sand chafing his skin.

The first time it had happened, it had been Dummy’s fault.  Tony had fallen asleep in the lab, and woken up in the pitch dark. He might have screamed; he honestly couldn’t remember.  But the Dummy was there, his claw hand hovering over the arc reactor as he chirped in distress.  And all Tony could see was the shadow that Dummy made on the wall closest to them. It was comforting, a reminder that he was home, that he was safe.

 And so, when he woke up in the middle of the night, shaking and suppressing the hiccupping sobs that caught in his throat, he moved his hands in front of the arc reactor, his fingers making silly shapes on the wall. He’d started out with a simple rabbit, ears and head, and had gradually grown more elaborate.  He’d sworn Jarvis to secrecy when he’d actually gone and looked up various patterns that people could make with two hands and a strong light. Now he could make birds and deer and planes. Elephants and eagles.  Nothing terribly complicated – though sometimes he’d let Dummy and his siblings help, which always made for interesting shadow puppets – but it was still, in its own way, rather soothing.

 Eventually, the nightmares came less often, and Tony learned to accept the arc reactor for what it was.  But still, he never really lost the habit, lost the need for those stupid, ridiculous shapes.

 When the rest of the Avengers accepted his offer of a home and moved into the Towers, starting with Bruce and ending with Steve, the nightmares all but disappeared.  Maybe because there was something comforting in knowing that he was surrounded by a bunch of super-powered and super-talented humans.  Or maybe just because between attending to SI business, attending to the Avengers’ uniform and weapon needs, and being on retainer for SHIELD left him so busy that by the time he collapsed from exhaustion, there was no room for dreams.

 It was on one of these nights – or mornings, as it were, as it was like a quarter after three – that Tony stumbled into the common room, planning to snag the tablet he’d left there earlier and then make his way to bed where he’d pass out for the next six hours or so.  His tablet was right where he’d left it, on a bookshelf just inside the room.  He grabbed it, then turned around to leave.  A noise made him turn, exhaustion causing him to take a few extra seconds to realize what he was looking at.

 Clint was sprawled on the wide couch, his arms and legs thrown haphazardly across the cushions, and he was clearly having a nightmare, judging by the way his limbs were twitching and the awful grating noises he was making, something between a garbled plea and a snarl.  Tony hovered in the doorway for a moment, debating if he should try and wake the other man.  Or maybe he should get Natasha, this seemed like something she might have experience with.  At the very least, Clint would probably accept comfort from her.

 “Jarvis, can you wake Romanov?” he asked softly.

 “I am sorry, sir,” his AI responded.  “Agent Romanov is not due to return for another two days.”

 Tony grimaced; he had been hoping that when Clint and Natasha had left at the same time, they were going to the same place. Apparently, he still had too much faith in SHIELD administration.

 “Great,” he muttered.  Taking a deep breath, he moved further into the room, until he was close enough to see the lines of tension on Clint’s face.  “Hey, Katniss,” he said, careful to stay out of range and to keep his voice down, “it’s fine.  You’re in the Tower.  You’re safe.” Clint showed no signs of waking, and Tony sighed.  He was probably going to regret this.

 Inching forward, Tony reached out and gripped the closet limb, which happened to be Clint’s ankle.  He wasn’t really surprised when Clint kicked at him, and he dodged back out of the way, tripping over the table in front of the couch and landing with a crash and a curse.

 Clint sat up.  His eyes were pitch black in the darkness of the room, wide and terrified, almost eerie washed in the blue glow of Tony’s reactor.  “Clint?” Tony tried, snapping his fingers.  “Legolas? Katniss? Barton? Is any of this getting through to you?”

 Clint didn’t respond verbally, but his gaze shifted, drawn to the blue glow of Tony’s reactor.  There was no recognition, however, and Tony’s hand moved instinctively to cover the glow of the reactor.  Clint blinked when the light flickered.  “Blue,” he muttered, the first words he’d spoken.  Then, “Loki,” and it was a harsh, guttural sound.  Tony cursed in his head; Clint had been dreaming about Loki again.  Tony had never asked for details, but he knew, in his own way, what it was to be robbed of control, to be at the mercy of one who had none.  It was a wretched, terrifying thing, and Tony swallowed hard, biting back the swear words.

 He considered backing out of the room and leaving Clint to finish waking up on his own, but something stopped him.  Maybe it was just that he’d never seen the archer this vulnerable before; maybe it was because seeing Clint like this, wide awake but still trapped inside his nightmare, brought back too many memories of the early days after Afghanistan; maybe it was just because Tony couldn’t just turn around and walk away as if nothing had happened.  Whatever it was, Tony found himself moving without thought, stripping out of his thin tank top and twisting to face the wall, the glow from the reactor throwing blue-tinted light against the whiteness.

 Clint’s gaze followed the glow, and Tony’s hands moved, forming a rabbit with his hand and two fingers.  Clint blinked, his breathing still coming in quiet gasps, his body so tense it was trembling with the effort of holding still.  Tony changed the image to one of a bird taking flight with both of his hands crossed in front of the reactor.  A deer was next, and then he started making random shapes, more interested in Clint’s reaction than in what his hands were doing.

 It took several minutes, but then all of a sudden, Clint snapped out of it, blinking rapidly and turning to stare at Tony like he was insane.  “Stark? What the hell?” he asked, completely bewildered.

 Tony let his hands drop to his sides. “Oh, good, you’re awake,” he said, relieved. “My hands were starting to cramp.”

 Clint just stared at him some more, and now Tony felt really awkward.  “Did you just…make shadow puppets with the arc reactor?” Clint asked, sounding bewildered.  At least he wasn’t laughing, Tony supposed.

 “Technically, I made the shapes with my hands, but yes,” he said at last.  “You were having a nightmare, and the reactor wasn’t helping, so I made stupid animal shapes until you came to.”  It even sounded stupid to his own ears, and he really kind of wanted to just walk out and not look back, but Clint was still looking a bit lost, having sat up on the couch and bent his legs up under his chin, wrapping his arms around his knees and rocking lightly back and forth.

 “Loki,” Clint muttered.  “I…don’t really like the color blue.”

 Tony was sympathetic, he really was; he didn’t much like the beach anymore, himself.  But he didn’t really have a response for the other man that didn’t sound condescending or weak.  “So, then, I should probably go,” he said instead, turning to do just that.

He was at the doorway before Clint called him back.  “Thanks,” the other man muttered.  “It…helped.  The shapes." He paused.  "Even if they were kinda stupid," he added.

 Tony kept his face turned away as he flipped Barton the middle finger. But as he left the room, he couldn’t hold back a small smile.  Maybe the shadow puppets weren’t so useless, after all.

#celtic's fics #celtic7irish #fic prompt fill from mcujumble #tony stark #clint barton #iron man #hawkeye

[imagine-loki]

The Witch's Familiar

TITLE: The Witch’s Familiar CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter 18/?

AUTHOR: nekoamamori ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine getting so attached to Lokitty early on that you insist on carrying him just about everywhere.  RATING: T (so far)

    “Lady Y/N, have you seen-” Thor started, knocking softly on your open bedroom door. You were laying on top of the blankets on your bed. You had been reading, but had evidently fallen asleep and now had a Lokitty curled in your arms like a plushie. Thor had managed not to wake you all the way. Loki squirmed out of your arms and hopped lightly off the bed. “Brother, you turned back? Why? I thought you were happy!” Thor’s voice was so sad, heartbroken.

    You made a soft noise and cracked your eyes open. You saw a shimmer of Loki’s green magic and he was human-shaped again. He gave you a soft smile and tucked a loose strand of hair behind your ear before he summoned a blanket to tuck around you. “Close your eyes. Go back to your nap, darling, I’ll see what my idiot brother wants,” he told you softly and kissed your forehead. You smiled and let your eyes close again.

    “I turned back briefly for her sake,” Loki told Thor after he stepped away from the bed. “She has been without a familiar for too long and it is straining on her health. She has been doing a damn good job hiding it from all of us, too, stubborn little sorceress…”

    “And you can correct it in that form-?”

    “Briefly, I can mask the symptoms for her briefly. What did you need, Brother?” Loki asked.

    “Stark and Barton wished to see you downstairs to ask for your assistance with something. Apparently you know the inner workings of the tower better than anyone but Stark,”

    “Very well, I’ll be down in a moment,” Loki hesitated before he spoke again. “Can you convince the others to allow her to have a cat, without complaining or teasing? I fear she will continue letting her mental and physical health deteriorate instead of imposing on the team…”

    *

    You didn’t know how long it was before you woke again, but you finally felt back to normal when you did. You were surprised to find there was no Loki anywhere in your room when you woke. That was very unusual. You sat up and finally saw the piece of paper on your nightstand surrounded by a shimmer of green magic. You reached out and picked it up, recognizing the magic as Loki’s. The shimmer was just to get your attention.

    Don’t fret, love. I did not abandon you while you slept. The team simply needed my help with a project and I did not wish to wake you when you so desperately needed the rest. ~Loki

    You smiled, touched that he thought of your feelings, thought that you’d worry if he wasn’t here when you woke from your nap. You set the note back down and got out of bed to go find your wayward trickster.

    You found him in Tony’s lab, perched on a stool while they both looked over something on Jarvis’ screens. “Lokitty, Stark,” you greeted them from the doorway. It was prudent to announce yourself before you entered the lab. Things tended to explode otherwise. Loki looked over at you and smiled.

    “Hey kid,” Stark said without looking up from what he was working on.

    “What’re you boys up to?” you asked, stepping over to peer over Loki’s shoulder. Stark had issues with personal space, but Loki didn’t mind. His arm snaked around you and he pulled you into his lap. You squeaked in surprise.

    “There isn’t another seat,” Loki explained as he held you securely on his lap. “And you would protest if I gave up mine,” he added logically. “We are looking over the security footage of the man who entered the tower to try to talk to you, looking for flaws in the system,” he answered your original question.

    “Admittedly, Reindeer Games is good with technology, and is…nearly… as smart as I am,” Stark explained. “Though how he’s so good at technology when he’s a mage is beyond me,”

    “Magic and science are one in the same on Asgard,” you and Loki both recited.

    “So I’ve heard,” Stark said and rolled his eyes.

    “Need help?” you asked.

    Stark shrugged. “An extra set of eyes wouldn’t hurt,”

    So you sat and watched the security footage with Stark and Loki. You watched Loki escort you back up to your room at the end of the Halloween party, watched Loki duck into the room to check for intruders before you entered. The footage fast forwarded to a man in black sneaking onto the elevator. “How’d he get past Jarvis?” you asked as you watched him ride up the elevator directly to your floor.

    “That’s what we don’t know. Jarvis can’t tell us why he let the man through either,” Stark explained.

    “J, can you zoom in on the man?” you asked, concerned when you finally saw him.

    “What is it, love?” Loki asked, catching your tone and expression. The costume was familiar, similar to a priest’s robes, big ugly cross included, but more armored. It had been Halloween, surely it was a costume, not real… It couldn’t be real…

    “He just looked familiar, is all,” you told Loki lightly. You didn’t want to worry him unless you were more sure. You wouldn’t get the entire team in a huff over an imagined foe.

    You looked over the tapes with Stark and Loki and the three of you found a couple things to tighten security on.

    “Are you ready for the business trip?” Stark asked as you all went upstairs for dinner. Loki’s arm was around your shoulders, protective, though you were safe.

    “Yeah, though we don’t head out until tomorrow after work,” you reminded him. “Don’t worry, Stark. We’ll be fine.” Tony was worried about Pepper’s safety.

    “I should be sending proper guards…” Tony fussed and worried. You rolled your eyes.

    “Stark, I can take care of her,” you reminded him firmly. “You’ve seen me fight,”

    “I can still dislike sending two ladies alone,”

    “Stark, I didn’t know you cared,” you teased. “We’ll be fine. I’m just extra security anyway. Happy and the team will be there most of the time,” you reminded him. “Now stop worrying before you get Loki worked up. He worries enough as it is,” you leaned up and kissed Loki’s cheek before he could complain about you talking about him or dismissing his worrying. “We’ll be fine. It’s a few days out of town. We’ll make the business deal and come home. No big deal,”

    The elevator doors finally slid open and you rejoined the team, grateful the conversation was ending, you didn’t need them all worrying. Loki’s arm stayed around you shoulders. “I dislike that you are going out of town with no real backup,” he told you softly.

    “Lokitty, I’ll be fine,” you told him again and cursed Stark for getting him worked up. You kissed him before he could comment and protest again. “It’s a couple of days. You can survive without me for a couple of days,”

    “I can still dislike it,” he pouted. You smiled and reached up to scratch behind one of his cat ears.

    The entire team sat around the coffee table in the living room eating Chinese food out of the containers. Steve had picked the movie tonight, so you were watching The Wizard of Oz while you ate, and laughing at the Asgardian’s attempts to use chop sticks. Thor laughed along with them and graciously gave up. Loki tried harder and finally got the hang of them.

    “So, Y/N, when are you going to get around to getting a new familiar?” Nat asked, lightly, casually, kindly. “Didn’t you lose your last one almost a year ago? I thought witches need familiars,” Nat knew everything so her question didn’t surprise you.

    “I’ve been a little busy…” you hedged. You didn’t want to impose your lifestyle that much on the team. They shouldn’t have to accept a magical animal as part of the bargain or you living here. “Besides, no new familiar has chosen me,” you added lightly and shrugged. “It’ll happen eventually.” You gave them a reassuring smile and the conversation changed from there.

    *

    “So, darling, how exactly does it work?” Loki asked as he walked you back to your room after the movies. It was late before the team decided to finally go to bed.

    “How does what work?” you asked in reply.

    “Finding a new familiar,” his tone was worried.

    “Nothing to worry about, Lokitty,” you tried to reassure him. He grabbed your arms, turning you in the hallway to face him. His arms remained clasped around your upper arms and he glared down at you.

    “Y/N,” his voice was harsh as he forced you to look at him. He wasn’t angry. He was worried, very worried. “Darling, I care for you deeply. Please tell me, let me help you,” he told you firmly. You saw then that he really did care. He was really worried.

    “Lokitty, I still have plenty of time…” you hedged again. He didn’t need to worry. You didn’t want him jealous of a new familiar. Magical creatures took up a lot of time and attention. Loki was so unsure and scared of rejection and abandomlnment already.

    And you didn’t want him leaving you because of it.

    “Love, the strain is tearing you apart. I’m sorry I didn’t see it or understand it until today, but we need to fix it. As soon as possible. You can’t keep going like this. Let me help you, please.” He must have seen the hesitation in your eyes. “Why? Why are you insisting on delaying? Why are you doing this when it’s obviously hurting you?” he demanded, tears in his eyes.

    “Because I love you, you idiot!”

#Loki #Lover #Imagine #Submitted fic #submission #the witch's familiar #chapter 18 #nekoamamori

[crystal-siren]

Knowledge (Dad!Tony x Reader + Loki x Reader)

Requested by @dovies666, I hope this fits your suggestion :p <3 I’m sorry for the delay :( I hope you like <3

@mymourningtea

Author’s Note: The reader has dyed hair so the Y/F/C will be the colour of the hair. You guys know the drill with names so we’re all good there :)

“You enchant me. Do you understand? I cannot resist you at all. I writhe and dance to your every command like a cobra captivated by a snake charmer’s spell. You consume me absolutely, heart to mind, and breath to bone. Every thought, every action, every pulse, is yours.” ~ Beau Taplin (The Snake Charmer)

Of all the places Y/N Stark had been to, Scandinavia remained at the top of the list of her favourites. It was indeed fortunate that her studies had allowed her to travel to some truly amazing and historic places.

Having spent the best part of three months in Norway, Y/N had taken advantage of one of the University Libraries. Primarily the University of Oslo, which was also open to the public. Y/N soon spent her days surrounded by piles of books, some in English, but most in Norwegian. 

It was on one such day that her phone rang, causing her to kick the pile of books before her in surprise and drop the book she was reading. Looking around to make sure no one had seen her little mishap, she looked to see who was calling.

“Dad?”

“Yes honey, who else would it be?” Tony Stark addressed his daughter in mock exasperation.

Y/N laughed as quietly as she could. “Mum sometimes rings via you,” she could just picture his face.

“Why are you whispering?”

Biting her lip, Y/N glanced around and saw she was alone, “I’m in a library Dad.”

“You’re always in a library!”

Y/N grinned, that much was true. Either that, or she was in a book store. “Libraries are part of my studies Dad..or have you forgotten?”

“I will never understand why you chose that path but hey! If you’re passion’s there, what more could you want.”

Y/N smiled to herself, many thought she would follow in her father’s footsteps and were very surprised when she announced that she would be going to College to study Librarianship. Y/N was the bookworm of the family and devoured any book that was within reaching distance.

“I don’t wanna sound rude Dad, but why did you call? Is everything ok at home?”

“Everything’s fine sweetheart,” her father’s voice reassured her over the phone.

“You want me to come home don’t you?”

“You know how your mother worries.”

Y/N nodded to herself, that she did. Her mother, while being very supportive, still worried incessantly whenever her daughter was out of the country for more than two weeks. “You can tell Mum, that I’ll be making plans to leave by the end of the week.”

Tony paused a little before answering, “shall I send the jet over?”

Shaking her head, Y/N ran her free hand through her Y/F/C hair and laughed. “Thanks for the offer Dad, but I think I’ll take a normal plane with everyone else.”

“If you’re sure?”

She nodded as though he could see her, “one hundred percent.”

“Send us your flight info so we can meet you when you arrive yeah?”

Her smile never faltered, “of course Dad, as soon as I know, so will you and Mum.” 

“Much appreciated honey, so I guess we’ll be seeing you soon then?”

“Very soon Dad.”

~ ~ ~

Y/N read for most of the journey home. Her nose was buried in a book of Nordic folklore. While she knew they were all merely stories, a part of her was still fascinated. Her e/c eyes drank in the information in front of her. Her eyes lingered on the sections where the Nordic deities were mentioned. Mythical deities from any culture interested her but these held a certain kind of appeal.

It was only when the voice over the intercom notified the passengers that they were about to land, did Y/N’s focus divert from her book.

Before she knew it, Y/N was walking out of the Arrivals gate and was enveloped in one of her mother’s notorious hugs. “Hi Mum.” She couldn’t help but hug her back.

“Oh sweetie, it’s so good to have you back,” Pepper murmured into her daughter’s hair.”

Gently pulling away, Y/N turned to face her father. “Hi Dad.” She was rewarded with a small smile.

“Welcome back,” Tony reached out and shook her hand before pulling her into a hug. “It’s good to see you kid.”

~ ~ ~

“Wow!” Was all Y/N could say as she exited the elevator. Her parents never ceased to amaze her. Before her was a fully furnished living space on what appeared to be the top most floor of Stark Tower. While Y/N had never been one for heights, she had to admit, the view of New York from where she stood, was breathtaking.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” Her father came up beside her.

Nodding wordlessly, Y/N agreed. It was only when her mother passed her a glass of champagne, did Y/N snap out of the awe-filled trance she had fallen into. A little confused, she turned to look at her mother.

“In celebration,” her mother said in answer to her daughter’s silent question. “In celebration of the completion of the tower.”

Clinking glasses with her parents, Y/N was about to take a sip when they were interrupted. All but glaring at the intruder, a middle-aged man, Y/N commenced drinking.

“Phil, welcome,” her mother got up to welcome their unexpected guest.

Exchanging a look with her father, Y/N began to wonder just who this ‘Phil’ was and how her mother seemed to know him so well.

“Since when is he ‘Phil’?” Her father seemed equally confused. The look Pepper sent him seemed to convey the required explanation.

Y/N watched the rest of the exchange between Phil and her parents in silence. Her eyes flittered between the three of them and then finally landed on the black object her father was given, via her mother.

Curiosity overcame her, so Y/N moved to stand beside her father who stood by a desk of sorts. “Dad? What is that?”

“I’m not too sure,” Tony murmured, half to her and half to himself. “Whatever it is, it can’t be good.” As he opened it, Y/N gasped. Before them flickered images and videos of people she had never seen before causing unimaginable havoc.

“Dad?”

Tony answered her by throwing the images up onto the windows. Amazed, Y/N made her way to the windows and looked at each of the people in turn, her eyes not lingering more than a few seconds. That is, until she came to one of a raven haired man.

Y/N’s e/c eyes lingered longer than they had on the others. There was something about this man that seemed familiar. “Dad?” Her voice sounded far away, even to her own ears.

“Yes?” Tony came and stood beside his daughter. Her tone had drawn his attention away from his study of the other images.

“Who is that ?” Lifting a hand, Y/N pointed to the image of the dark haired man.

Leaning in, Tony narrowed his eyes, “I can’t say I’ve ever seen him before, why?” He turned to face Y/N, whose eyes seemed glued to the image before her.

“I don’t know, he seems familiar somehow, like I’ve seen him before.”

Her words surprised him. “You know him?”

“No, but,” Y/N trailed off, her head was tilted to one side and her eyes were distant.

“Hello in there,” Tony waved a hand in front of her eyes, “earth to Y/N.”

‘Sorry,” blinking, she tore her eyes away and looked at her father and smiled apologetically.

“No worries kid, you just went a little distant for a bit.” Tony patted her on the arm and moved to the desk behind them. His movements not going unnoticed.

“Dad? Is everything alright?”

“Yeah. Just gotta go outta town for a bit.”

Crossing her arms, Y/N narrowed her eyes at her father’s back. “You’re going to join them aren’t you? These ‘Avengers’.”

Sighing, Tony turned to face her. “I see there’s point in lying to you. I’ve been called in by a security agency. The head of this organisation, Nick Fury, wants the whole group together before giving us any more details.”

“Take me with you.” The words came out of her mouth before she could stop them.

“What?” Her father seemed more confused than shocked.

“You always want me to ‘get out of my shell’,” shrugging, Y/N continued, “maybe this could help.”

“Honey,” Tony moved to stand directly in front of her, “this could be very dangerous. I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you. Nor would your mother for that matter.”

“Dad please! I promise I won’t get in the way or get into any trouble.” Her voice took on a begging tone, one that Tony was not accustomed to. “You know what they say…’no time like the present’’.

“Alright, fine, you can come, but you must always tell me if you decide to go anywhere.”

Y/N raised a elegantly-shaped brow.

“I will need to know where you are at all times, is that understood?” Looking his daughter in the eye, Tony smiled, “I know you can take care of yourself but still..its for peace of mind, for me and your mother. Who, by the way is going to murder me when she finds out.”

Y/N couldn’t help but laugh. “You tend to exaggerate sometimes Dad.”

“Y/N. Do you promise?”

Nodding, Y/N grinned, “of course.”

~ ~ ~

The hellicarrier was unlike anything Y/N had ever seen. It was huge and made her feel smaller than she already was. Following her father, she soon came to what seemed like the control centre for the vessel.

Clutching her favourite book to her chest, Y/N drank in every detail and almost shrieked in surprise when a voice spoke from behind her. “Pretty amazing isn’t it?”

Turning around, Y/N came face-to-face with a young-ish looking man with short dark blonde hair. Nodding, she agreed with him, “it sure is.”

“You’re Stark’s kid aren’t you?”

Y/N smiled slightly, “that’s me. What gave it away?”

“He talks about you sometimes.”

‘Oh,” she didn’t quite know how to take that. “Thanks, I guess.”

“I’m Steve by the way,” the young man held out a hand, “Steve Rogers.”

Reaching out, Y/N shook the offered hand. “Y/N Stark.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you Miss Stark.”

Y/N opened her mouth to reply when a tall dark skinned man addressed the small group that had gathered.

Y/N gravitated towards her father and eyed the rest of the group. A young woman with short red hair and a middle-aged man with glasses made the number up to four. She heard hardly a word as her eyes took in her father’s team members. The woman was dressed in a skin-tight black suit and her red hair was cut in a bob just above her shoulders. The man with glasses seemed a little on edge, almost as though he didn’t really want to be there.

“One of our best agents is now under his control. It is paramount that both he and the Tesseract are located as quickly as possibl-” the man’s words were cut off by the excited voice of one of the crew members.

“We have a match! We’ve found him Sir.”

Curious to see just who he was, Y/N followed the dark skinned man to one of the control screen and had to blink to make sure she wasn’t imagining things. There he was, the raven-haired man from the photos she had seen back at Stark Tower. Just who was he?

“Captain, looks like you’re up.”

No amount of begging or pleading got her father to change his mind. “Y/N I can’t let you come with us. I’m pushing things as it is. I need you to stay here, I’ll be back soon honey, don’t you worry.”

Y/N had no idea where this sudden urge to go out and do things came from. Usually she would have been quite pleased if she could stay back. She knew that nothing could changer her father’s mind once it was made up.

Watching one of the numerous jets take off, Y/N’s mind wandered back to the man in the photos. Why did she feel like she had seen him before? She hoped and wandered if maybe the answer lay in some of the books she had brought with her.

Moments later, Y/N was seated on the small bed in the quarters she’d been given. She had unpacked all the books she had brought and was rifling through them in hopes of finding an answer to her question.

Hours passed before she finally gave up. Gently pushing some of her books to the side, Y/N curled up on the small bed and promptly fell asleep.

~ ~ ~

“Y/N? Sweetheart?”

Blinking awake, Y/N saw her father kneeling by her bed and smiling gently at her.

“You’re back,” her voice was still heavy with sleep.

“And you were asleep,” her father teased. “You’ve been reading again haven’t you?”

Nodding, Y/N moved to sit up and rubbed her eyes while trying to stifle a yawn. “Dad?”

“Mmm?”

“Can I explore the ship, just you know, so I know where everything is?”

Her question caught Tony off guard and it took him a while before he answered. “I don’t see why not. But Y/N there will be areas that you won’t be allowed to go, promise me that you won’t go to those areas.”

“I promise Dad. Besides, I’ve never really been one for adventure have I ?” A mischievous grin followed her words.

After her father left, Y/N looked around for her favourite book. She never went anywhere without it, she felt bare and exposed if she did. Leaving her room, Y/N wandered down the empty corridor and went down a few elevators and eventually came to what she perceived to be the bottom of the vessel.

Ducking numerous pipes and walking over a few, Y/N’s interest grew. Coming to a small passageway, her attention was caught by movement. Curious to see who it was, Y/N moved closer and soon came to what appeared to be a huge glass case at the end of a small path.

Loki stopped his pacing when the sound of approaching footsteps could be heard. These were different, they were lighter and little more unsure.

Turning around he came face-to-face with a young woman. She was as still as a statue and was looking at him with thinly veiled curiosity. Her h/l Y/F/C hair was pulled away from her face in a messy bun. Her slender arms were hugging a book close to her chest as though it were her life-line. The right side of her face was slightly red and her eyes looked a little tired, as though she had just woken up.

“Hello,” her gentle voice pulled him from his silent observation. As his emerald eyes met her e/c ones, she smiled warmly. An expression that caught him off guard.

“What do you want?”

The coldness of the question did nothing to deter Y/N. Here he was, the man from the photos. His black hair lightly brushed his shoulders and his eyes were such a deep green, she almost thought he was wearing contacts. What he wore seemed to be from a bygone era, with intricate patterns in the metal on his shoulder and on the belt that was slung across his chest.

“It’s so beautiful,” she murmured to herself.

“What is?”

The question pulled her eyes away from their observation. “What you’re wearing. It’s very beautiful.”

This statement was the last thing he expected to hear. The young woman didn’t seem the least bit afraid of him. Did she perhaps not know who he was or what he had done? “Who are you?”

“Oh forgive me,” Y/N felt heat creep up her neck and ducked her head in an effort to hide it. “I’m Y/N.”

“Y/N,” he murmured. Clearing his features and adjusting his posture, he looked at her, her eyes were still directed to the floor. “I am Loki of Asgard.”

Y/N felt her eyes widen and her head jerked up to look at him. “I-I’m sorry?” It couldn’t be! She remembered reading about him in numerous books back in Norway. Her eyes widened a second time as realisation slammed into her. That’s why he seemed so familiar, she’d read about him in such detail, it was as if she’d been looking at a life-like painting.

Her stuttered response made him smile. Much better. But that smile faded as he caught the look in her wide eyes. There was no fear, only amazement and disbelief.

“I’ve read about you, you know.” She sounded almost a little shy as she looked at him through her lashes.

“You’ve read about me?” Gone was the coldness, replaced by curiosity.

Smiling, Y/N nodded. “You and your brother.”

Usually the mention of his brother angered him, but the way this young woman spoke about him, it was clear that his brother came second in her eyes, not the other way round.

~ ~ ~

Y/N had never once lied to her parents. She never had cause to. But now, as her father asked her if she’d found anything interesting during her little exploration, she found that the truth stuck in her throat, not wanting to come out. So, looking her father in the eye, she shook her head, “nothing aside from pipes and little metal pathways.”

If her father believed her or not, she had no way of truly telling. He simply nodded and smiled before leaving to go back to the lab he had been provided with.

Waiting until she heard his footsteps fade down the hallway, she poked her head out the door to make sure the coast was clear. Quietly closing the door behind her, Y/N went in the opposite direction to her father.

It didn’t take her long to find her way back to the detention level. “Hello again,” she spoke a little louder this time.

Loki turned at the sound of her voice. She was back. This time, as he faced her, the previous shyness was gone, and her eyes seemed to sparkle with unasked questions. His eyes were drawn to the book that she carried with her. “That book, it is important to you?”

Smiling, Y/N nodded. “It’s my favourite. I keep it with me at all times. I know, it’s childish but,” biting her lip, she looked down at the book, “I feel exposed and vulnerable without it.”

Loki didn’t miss the way she looked at the book in her arms. “It is not childish, not in the least.” The way her thumbs traced gentle circles on the book’s cover reminded him of how he’d held and treated the books he’d had back in Asgard.

Looking up, Y/N smiled at him. The words sounded so genuine and she detected no trace of the coldness from their previous conversation.

“You like to read?”

Y/N almost laughed. The amount of times she’d been asked that question were too many to be counted on two hands. “Yes. I do. If you ask my parents, they would say I spend more time reading than in the company of actual people.”

That phrase had been used to describe him on more than one occasion. For the first time, the Silvertongued Prince was struck speechless. Before him stood a mortal who bore such striking similarities to him that he almost thought he was imagining it all.

“Oh dear,” her soft voice brought him out of his thoughts. “I’ve been rambling again. Saying too much. I should go.” She turned and made to leave when his voice stopped her.

“Don’t go.”

Turning to face him, she was greeted with a small, almost hopeful smile. “Will you stay?”

Y/N answered with a smile of her own and cocked her head to the side. “Are you sure?”

~ ~ ~

“Nat? Have you seen Y/N? I’ve checked her room but she’s not there.” Tony ran a hand through his hair. The last time he’d seen his daughter, she was sitting cross-legged on her bed with a book open. 

“I passed her in the hall a little while ago,” the young Russian answered while studiously cleaning one of her numerous blades.

“Where was she headed?” 

“Don’t know,” Nat murmured, squinting at the metal, “I didn’t think to ask.”

Sighing, Tony turned to Thor, who stood nearby, “you, Point Break, have you seen her?”

“Who is she?” Thor asked, a little confused. He had, as yet, not met anyone with the name Y/N.

“She’s my daughter.”

“You have a daughter Stark?!” Thor exclaimed, surprise colouring the words.

“Yes,” Tony answered with some exasperation, “and now I can’t seem to find her.”

“Relax Stark,” Thor clapped him on the shoulder, “we are in the air. She can’t have gone far.”

~ ~ ~

“So,” Y/N bit her lip and held the book a little closer, “can you really do magic? Or was that just the writer’s imaginations?”

Pride took over, “of course I can. Those mortals would never have had the mental capacity to think up something like that!”

Y/N smirked and inched a little closer to the glass that separated them. “Co-could you maybe show me?”

“I don’t do tricks!” There it was, the haughty tone of a royal.

Backing away from the glass, Y/N feigned defeat. “I apologise. I was wrong to ask something of you that you obviously aren’t ready for. My mistake.” Turning around, she grinned to herself and had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

“Mortals.”

Stopping short, Y/N looked up and saw him standing in front of her. Her jaw hit the floor before she burst out laughing, much to his confusion.

“What is so funny?”

Taking a deep breath, Y/N composed herself and met his emerald gaze. “I played to your ego and that you would just love to prove me wrong.”

“My ego hmm?” A dangerous edge coated the words.

Nodding, Y/N answered. “Indeed.” She narrowed her eyes at him as he slowly moved closer. Unconsciously, her feet moved back the more he advanced and soon the cold glass was pressed against her back.

“You think you can play games with me little mortal?” Loki bent slightly and whispered in her ear, sending shivers down her spine.

“I thought you liked games,” Y/N barely managed to answer. Her breathing hitched as she felt him trace the side of her face lightly with one hand.

Loki opened his mouth to answer when a noise nearby caused him to pull away and disappear back through the glass.

Confused, Y/N blinked and looked behind her and saw him in the cell. “You could have escaped, why didn’t you?”

She never got an answer as the sound of approaching footsteps caused her to bolt.

~ ~ ~

Tony finally found her with her nose in a book, sitting quietly by the table by the main control hub for the hellicarrier. Upon closer inspection, he saw that it was her favourite book, the one she took everywhere.

“There you are,” he didn’t bother to hide his relief.

“Mm?” Her mind was half in the book and half in reality.

“I was looking everywhere for you.”

“Well,” closing her book, Y/N turned to face her father. “Here I am.”

“Here you are indeed. Where were you all that time?”

Swallowing, Y/N looked her father in the eye. “I was on deck. I wanted to see what it looked like during the day. The last time I saw it was at night when you and the others went on that mission.” She fervently hoped she sounded convincing.

“I wander why the deck hands didn’t tell me you were there.”

Standing up, Y/N smiled up at her father, “they most likely didn’t know you were looking for me, otherwise I’m sure they would have notified me.” She didn’t know where this sudden ease at lying came from.

“Mmm, I suppose so.”

“Well, I’m gonna go and try and get some sleep.” Standing slightly on her tip-toes, Y/N kissed her father on the cheek.

“Ok kid, I’ll be in the lab if you need anything.”

Nodding, Y/N slipped from the room and headed to her quarters.

Watching her go, Tony smiled. Y/N was so different in so many ways and yet he wouldn’t have her any other way. She would always be his little girl, no matter how old she really was.

Try as she might, Y/N could not get to sleep. She tossed and turned for what felt like hours. Every time she closed her eyes, twin green orbs stared back at her. Her unanswered question didn’t make things any easier either.

Eventually giving up, she threw the covers aside and grabbing her book, she left the room, her body seemed to be on autopilot as she soon found herself heading down.

“You didn’t answer my question.” She saw no point in wasting any time.

Rising from where he had been sitting, Loki moved towards her and smirked. “You were the one that quite literally ran, not me.” His green eyes swept over her, she must have just woken up, her hair was tangled and her clothing had certainly seen smoother days.

Taking a step closer, Y/N sighed heavily.

“What is it?” His gentle tone drew her eyes to his.

“I lied to my Dad, twice.” Saying it seemed to lift a certain weight from her chest.

“Why?”

“That’s just it,” her e/c eyes were sad and tired. “I don’t know.”

“What was it about?”

Biting her lip, Y/N looked down at her book. “My Dad doesn’t know I’m down here. He’s asked me twice where I’ve been and twice I passed up on the truth.”

This made Loki curious. She had lied about being down here with him? Why would she do something like that? Yet, he couldn’t deny that it added a certain thrill to his situation. Why would she take risks for him when no one else did?

“Come now young one. You have managed to do something that only a few have managed to do.”

“Oh? And what might that be?”

“You snuck up on me. Before you even knew who I was.”

Y/N smiled and nodded, “yet you heard me.”

“This is really bothering you isn’t it?” Genuine concern laced his words and surprised even him. “Lying to your father?”

A short laugh escaped her. “We’ve only known each other a little less than a day and already it’s as if you can read my mind.”

“Some things don’t need a lot of time.”

It was something in the way he spoke those words that caught her attention and made her heart skip a beat.

~ ~ ~

“You may want to keep a closer eye on your daughter Tony,” Bruce remarked as he returned to the lab he shared with the former.

“How’d you mean?”

“Oh,” Bruce stopped by one of the computers and began entering data. “It’s just that on my way here, I saw her head down to the detention level where he is.”

This was enough for Tony. Practically leaping up from his workstation, he bolted from the lab.

After many twists and turns, the sound of voices floated out to him. One distinctly female.

“Maybe I should just tell him, you know.”

“Now where would be the fun in that?” The voice that answered was male and sent unpleasant shivers down Tony’s spine.

“You wouldn’t say that if you knew my father.”

“Something tells me you haven’t done this before.”

Tony heard Y/N laugh in response. “What? Lie? I’m proud to say that I have never done it before. I have never had cause to.”

“And suddenly you do?”

There was a pause before Y/N answered, so softly that Tony had to strain to hear. “I think so.”

Before her companion could answer, Tony stepped from the shadows and into the passageway.

~ ~ ~

“You,” Loki hissed as he spotted the newcomer.

Y/N, confused as to his sudden change in behaviour turned to face whoever it was. Her eyes widened and she felt all the blood drain from her face.

“Stay away from her,” Tony spoke as he moved closer.

“Dad, please-” Y/N stepped between them.

“He’s your father?” The words were whispered but held a dangerous amount of venom.

Turning her back on her father, Y/N swallowed as she met Loki’s hard emerald gaze. “Yes.”

“LIAR.”

Y/N recoiled almost instantly. Any kindness had vanished from the eyes that now glared down at her. “You lied to me. You said you never lied but you have. You are just like the rest of them. Weak, and useless.”

Shaking her head, Y/N fought back tears. “You don’t mean that.”

“Oh but I do,” a nasty grin contorted his features. “I mean every word.” It was with those words that he saw fear enter her eyes.

Y/N turned and ran, away from him and away from her father. For the first time in her life, she was truly afraid of someone. His ability to switch from genuine to threatening scared her.

She headed straight for her quarters and hurled herself into bed and cried until no tears came and sleep took over.

~ ~ ~

It was strangely satisfying watching his brother fall from view in the glass cell that he had occupied only minutes before.

Feeling rather pleased with himself, Loki turned to leave, when a sudden blast from his right sent him flying into the opposite wall.

Dazed and disorientated, he shook his head to clear it and slowly made his away out of the hole he had created, not sure if he had any significant injuries. Walking past the now-dead agent who was responsible for the previous blast, Loki started running in the direction of the nearest exit when a strange thought entered his mind, causing him to skid to a stop and change direction.

~ ~ ~

Y/N was woken by a soft knocking on her door. “I’m coming,” her voice was heavy with sleep. Getting up, she padded to the door and opened it only to retreat again.

“Y/N,” the way he said her name almost made her forget his previous words.

Shaking her head, she retreated as far as she could.

Loki used to believe that fear was a good thing, but as he saw it in her eyes, he knew he had never been more wrong. Gone was the sparkle he had grown used to, gone was the warm smile he was always greeted with.

“Y/N?”

“Don’t, please,” her voice was soft and she seemed to be cowering, as though he would lash out again.

“You’re finally afraid of me?”

Y/N nodded and looked down.

He should have been happy. But no such feeling came. “I was wrong.”

Those three words made her look up, “about what?”

“You’re not like the others of your kind.”

Y/N narrowed her eyes, what exactly was he playing at? “Loki, don’t say anything you don’t mean.”

“You said earlier that I never answered your question.”

“Don’t.” She sounded as though she was afraid of the answer.

“I had no answer at the time.”

“But you do now?”

The Silvertongued Prince nodded. “Yes.”

“Well,” Y/N wrapped her arms around herself, “what is it?”

“You.”

Blinking, she stared at him. “What are you playing at? Why do you mock me so?”

“I do not mock you,” taking a deep breath, Loki edged closer, the scepter hanging forgotten in his hand. “You are the first being in this entire realm to look at me with something other than fear and loathing. You were the first to speak to me without fear or prejudice holding you back. You are braver than that whole team put together.”

Y/N had no idea what to say, she simply stood there and stared. “You really mean that?” She was relieved to find her voice again.

He moved closer until he was less than an arm’s length away. “I have never meant anything more in my entire life.”

“Loki-”

“Hush,” he whispered as he gently lifted her chin and pressed his lips to hers in a chaste kiss.

It took Y/N by surprise but she would have been lying to herself if she said she didn’t want it.

The two broke apart when their lungs demanded air.

“You had better go before they find you in here,” her e/c eyes sparkled mischievously and she grinned.

“Come with me,” he whispered but she shook her head.

“You know I can’t. My father would be furious.”

“I could deal with your father.”

“You will do no such thing,” she laughed and nudged him in the direction of the door. “Now go before they catch you.”

Turning to face her, he gently kissed her a second time and rested his forehead against hers. “Farewell then,” he moved to look her in the eye, “my Queen.”

“Farewell,” Y/N fought against the tears that threatened to fall, “my King.”

“I will return for you, I promise.”

Y/N smiled, never in her life had she believed someone more.

Part 2

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