#enchants

He’d wondered as he’d approached if he’d be able to slip past the sharpened edges of the glass without cutting himself, but he needn’t have worried. After the first three years, he’d mostly stopped growing and had remained almost as small as he’d been during— during it. He slipped past the glass and into the crater easily. 

Sliding down the cliff face with an arm raised and a careful hand dragging over the rocks as he passed, he landed safely on the same ledge he’d landed on for the past five years. He followed the trail of footprints that had remained branded in the dust and ash down a few more meters of rock to get closer to the bottom of the crater. Once his feet hit bedrock, he spotted the boulder he’d sat on every year prior and settled himself on top of it. 

Tubbo looked up, up, up at the sky and saw it still covered in traces of night. He took a deep breath of the trapped air and waited for the sun to rise.

Briefly, Tubbo was distracted by the sound of someone walking over the glass, but after reminding himself of the overhang of rock above him, he assured himself that no one would be able to see him all the way down here unless they already knew where he’d be. Reassured by that, his gaze returned to the crater, prepared to wait at least an hour for the winter sunlight to reach him down there.

He’d been considering the red vines that still crawled all along the bedrock floor when he heard noise above him again. Frowning, Tubbo stood up from his boulder and stepped out from beneath the overhang of rock. He scanned the glass above him, looking for any sign that someone he knew was out and about at this hour. He nearly called out a curious ‘hello?’ out of habit before he remembered that he didn’t really want to talk to anyone this morning and stayed silent, watching warily for movement instead.

Not a moment later, Tubbo heard a quiet yelp and watched as a few pebbles tumbled down the cliff and landed at his feet. Unable to stop himself this time, he called out, “You alright?”

This caused another, louder yelp followed by another, larger waterfall of rocks to cascade down the cliff. There was a moment of silence as the person above him presumably caught their breath. Tubbo watched as a hand forming a thumbs-up gesture stuck out over the ledge. “Yep,” came a weak voice in reply after the moment had passed. 

Tubbo frowned, recognition ringing immediately through his mind. “Tommy?” 

A head replaced the hand. “Tubbo?”

“I didn’t know you knew about this way to get into the crater.”

“I didn’t! I just found it today.”

“Huh.”

“Yeah.”

There’s another pause as Tommy and Tubbo just stare at each other before Tommy speaks again. “How’d you get down?”

“I slid.”

“Fuck off.”

“No, I did! I did! All the way ‘til the ledge, at least, then I followed the path I made earlier. There are footprints.” 

Tommy shook his head and pulled back from the ledge. A second later, Tubbo watched as a figure fell towards him, a bucket of water gripped in his hands. There was a splash, and Tommy was standing next to him, unharmed but for the fact that his shoes and the hems of his pants were soaked through. “My way’s better,” he claimed before Tubbo could even properly say hello.

“Sure.”

“The path though—you’ve been here before?”

“Every year.”

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

Tubbo shrugged, walking back over to his boulder, landing hard against it. “Didn’t want to.”

“I was there too, you know. I miss it as well. I mean, that’s why I’m here now, innit?”

“It’s not the same,” Tubbo said quietly, staring down at his folded hands.

“Well, no, it is.”

Tubbo looked up sharply, his eyes full of something cold and hard. “It’s fucking not! It wasn’t your country that got blown up, was it?”

Tommy recoiled. “I mean, guess not, but—”

“Then it’s not the same.”

Tommy went quiet for a moment before responding. “It wasn’t your fault though. It was mine.”

Tubbo just laughed. “No it wasn’t.”

“Without me though, Techno never would have—”

“Trust me,” Tubbo cut him off with a scoff, “they’d have razed this place to the ground even if you’d done everything right.”

“But—”

“It was never about you, Tommy. It was the fact that we were a government, and under my leadership, we were still seen as oppressors.”

They both let the silence hang heavy in the air.

“You’ve thought about this a lot, haven’t you.”

It wasn’t a question, really, but Tubbo nodded anyway.

“I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t know. It’s alright. I’m… more pissy today anyway. Another reason I prefer to just be alone these mornings.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah.”

Tommy sat down on the ground next to Tubbo’s boulder. “D’you… want to talk about it or something?”

“Nope.”

“Okay.”

They both went quiet again, but Tubbo could see from the look on Tommy’s face that he wanted to keep talking. Sighing, he asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Can I?”

Tubbo shrugged. “I offered, didn’t I?”

“Right. Yeah. You did.”

“Right.”

“Okay it’s just that— I don’t know. I just miss it. A lot. I miss the feeling we had, being a part of something, and I miss when it was easier to just… be.”

“I don’t think you really miss L’manburg then. Or, well, New L’manburg. I think you just miss when you didn’t think you had to save the world.”

“Do you not miss it?”

“Well, no, I didn’t say that, but it was— it was more than what you said. It was protection and safety, and at least for my New L’manburg, I wanted it to be somewhere where we didn’t have to worry about dying all the time. I miss that feeling. And losing that feels like— it almost feels like losing a parent or something, I don’t know. The type of grief is similar at least, I think. I’ve never lost a parent though, so like… yeah, I’ve got no clue.”

“No, yeah. I’ve never lost a parent either, not really, but… like. I know what you mean. Wilbur… he was similar to that, at least. And losing him November 16th was like that for me. Losing L’manburg, though, that was like losing a home, losing a place I could call my own. I wasn’t— I didn’t have anywhere like that after—” he gestured to the destruction in front of them— “after this.”

“I guess this place was just different for us, then.”

“Yeah.”

Tubbo had to take a long breath before he was confident his voice would be steady again. “And like— today is bad, and that day was worse than I could genuinely ever say, but… I get it, I guess. I know why they’d want to destroy it. But it still— like, it still, uh—”

“Hurts?”

“Mhm. For both of us. All of us, probably.”

They lapsed into silence, looking up at the sky again, and Tubbo slid off from his boulder, sitting beside Tommy and pressing their shoulders together. “It’s been five years now,” he said softly, “and I’m still not over it. Still makes my chest ache a little bit every year.”

“I don’t think this is ever gonna be something that you’re gonna just. Get over.”

“Yeah, I know. I still— I still try.”

“If it helps, I can tell you do a lot to keep it alive still. It’s nice. Makes me miss it less, too.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. You were the one who made New L’manburg all the good things it was, so even though it’s gone, it’s still… you. You know?”

“Not really.”

“Well, it’s the truth. I wish I could be that for you.”

“I don’t think anyone could be what New L’manburg was to me. It’s not the sort of thing that could be replicated, even if we tried again.”

Tommy sighed. “I know. I still want to help you miss it less.”

Tubbo went quiet, but what he wanted to say was that mourning alone had hurt so fucking much and that Tommy just being here had helped more than anything else ever had. He didn’t say that, but he asked, “Would you come down here with me next year too?”

“For year six?”

Tubbo nodded. 

“Of course, Tubbs.”

“Thanks. The sunrise is boring without anyone to see it with.”

They were both fully aware that’s not why Tubbo wanted to bring Tommy along, but that went without saying. So they didn’t say it, and the truth lay between them, forever unsaid.

“Winter sunrises are my least favorite,” Tubbo commented, forcing the air around them to feel light again.

“Yeah, they’re real ugly, aren’t they?”

“The light’s so watery. Kinda sucks that they didn’t destroy the country a few months later, you know? It would’ve been nicer to watch the sunrise then.”

“We’ll have to mention that to Techno next time he’s dead set on destroying a country, yeah?”

“Oh, for sure.”

“This sunrise doesn’t even have the decency to be that much later in the day. It’s still so early for such a boring experience.”

“Yeah,” Tubbo laughed, glancing over at Tommy with a smile. “Yeah.”

Shoulder to shoulder, they watched in silence as the sun rose over the edge of the crater, marking an official five years since one of the worst days of their lives. Quietly, Tommy pulled a bottle of champagne from beneath his jacket. He popped the cork and raised it in Tubbo’s direction. “Here’s to one more year.” He took a sip and held it out in offering.

    “No,” Steve said firmly as he walked away with a crate full of broken glass and metal in his arms.

    Loki glanced over and chuckled, more at her ensuing pout, then turned back to his task. “What is it, then?”

    “Why this pendant?” Edith asked, holding up the object in question. She’d rather gotten used to wearing it - it wasn’t as though she had any choice, after all - and she figured it had some significance to him, but she had yet to ask about it.

    “Convenience; I was wearing it at the time.”

    “Uh-huh. And the real reason?”

    Loki paused and looked back at her, mildly surprised she had caught him out - it was only half a lie, and one of omission at that. She simply arched an eyebrow and waited, and he sighed, sending her a somewhat apologetic half smile. “It was a gift.”

    “Better.”

    “Why does it even matter?”

    “Because it does,” she replied with a shrug, “Excuse me for wanting to know you better.”

    “If it’s that important; why didn’t you ask before?”

“I didn’t really have to know before; it was just a minor curiosity.”

    He sent the last piece of concrete on its way then walked over and sat down on the floor beside her. “What changed?”

    “You ask me this after we made out for, what, half an hour? Really?” That earned a laugh.

    “Fair enough,” he conceded. “If we’re asking after material details; might I ask about your shark toy?”

    Edith smiled wistfully. “Nat gave it to me. I used to have one when I was a kid, and I saw one in what was left of a store during our first mission together. I didn’t stop to get it ’cause, you know, we were kind of busy; after, when I walked into my room after debriefing, there it was.”

    He smiled at the tale, but there was that pang again, that strange envy-worry-fear. He simply couldn’t make sense of it. “You have a particular bond with La-… Agent Romanoff, don’t you?”

    “Ah, we’re learning!” That got her an unamused look that she giggled at. “Yeah, I do. I’ve mentioned she’s the one who first taught me to fight,” a nod, “Well, that’s not all she taught me. Nat taught me to survive.”

    Loki hummed. “And your ‘rules’?”

    “That’s for me to know, and for you to maybe find out,” Edith replied with a smirk, kissing his cheek and standing up.

    “You really think you can keep a secret from me?”

    “There’s one way to find out…” she sang, walking backwards away from him.

    “Oh, now you’ve done it,” he warned, standing up and following her, causing her to laugh.

****

    He ran into Tony on his way to wash up before dinner, and the two eyed each other appraisingly for a moment before he spoke. “Stark,” he greeted with a respectful nod. And he did respect the man; not many would have the guts to do what he had, and without hesitation besides.

    “Loki,” Tony greeted back, “You and I need to have a conversation.”

    “Is this the part where you warn me away from Edith, like a concerned parent?”

    Tony snorted softly. “I’m not her dad. More like the weird uncle. And I meant what I said yesterday; I’m happy for you. However this whole thing started, you seem to like each other well enough now. If you can make it work, I say go for it; chances like these don’t come along often.”

    “Then what is the point of this?” Loki asked, mildly confused. He had honestly forgotten Tony had witnessed him kissing Edith, much less said anything about it, at all.

    “The point is so I can warn you that if you hurt her in any way, I will personally launch you into the sun,” Tony replied casually then walked up to him. “But no pressure,” he finished, patting Loki’s back once, then continued on his way.

    Loki turned to watch him bemusedly then shook his head and continued to his appointed room, trying to decide how serious a threat that was.

****

    Edith was scrunching her hair dry with a towel, just walking out of her bathroom, when a sharp knock sounded from the door. She bid Steve to give her a second and grabbed a thick fluffy maroon bathrobe, throwing it on and tying it closed as she called for him to come in.

   “Hey,” she greeted, sitting down on her bed and going back to her hair, trying to squeeze as much water out of it as she could.

    “Hey,” Steve returned, grabbing her brush from atop her dresser and going to sit beside her, prompting her to turn her back to him. She dropped the towel and he began brushing out her hair. “So… you and Loki…”

    “I’m not gonna get The Talk from you, am I?” she asked jokingly.

    Steve chuckled. “I’d like to think you know as much as you need to, and maybe a bit more, about that.” She laughed and he smiled to himself at sound. “I’m just a little confused; I thought this was pretty much the opposite of the plan?”

    “Trust me, no one’s more confused about that than we are. It’s just… He’s really not that bad- ow!” she winced as the brush caught on a knot, causing him to apologise and pat her head apologetically, “I actually really like him. Maybe more than like; I haven’t really… I’m not sure I’m ready to think that far ahead yet. It just…” she shrugged, “Happened.”

    He breathed a laugh. “Yeah. It’ll do that. Well, as long as you’re happy. What are you gonna do about his dad, though? He’s probably gonna push for you two to get married a lot more once he gets wind of this, if he hasn’t already.”

    “He can push all he wants,” she scoffed, “I’m not marrying anyone until I damn well want to, when I want to, if I want to.”

    “Well said,” he replied approvingly.

    There was another knock at the door and she called that it was open. A recently showered Loki walked in, pausing as he realised she was not alone. “Ah; I’m sorry, I did not mean to interrupt.”

    “You’re not, I’m just getting interrogated,” Edith joked.

    “A friendly chat is not an interrogation, Edith,” Steve said with a roll of his eyes.

    “Tell that to Fury.” Steve laughed, not really able to refute that, and she turned back to Loki. “What’s up?”

    Loki smiled slightly embarrassed. “It would seem the habit of escorting you to dinner was not, in fact, left behind in Asgard.”

     “To be fair, it’s only been, like, two days,” Edith managed through a laugh. “Give me a minute to get dressed. You know, once Steve’s done playing with my hair.”

    Steve scoffed good-naturedly. “You’re very welcome.”

    She leaned back against him and reached her arms up and back to hug him as best she could from that position, which he returned with a laugh before pushing her forward to finish the job. Once that was done, Steve got up and followed Loki out of the room so Edith could get dressed.

    “I’m surprised I’ve heard no warning from you regarding Edith,” Loki spoke up after a moment, “You were quite protective of her on the battlefield.”

    Steve breathed a laugh. “Pretty sure Tony’s beat me to it. And if it ever became necessary to intervene; I probably wouldn’t get the chance to do anything by the time he and Nat were done with you.” He turned a bit more serious. “You watched her back out there. You were there when she needed someone to be, and when she needed to be stopped. That counts. I won’t say I trust you, yet; I don’t know you. But it counts.”

    Loki thought it over then nodded graciously. “For whatever it is worth; I have no intention of hurting her. I am not yet sure how deep these feelings I have for her go, but I do know that I would greatly prefer to see her happy.”

    “What exactly am I to tell father and mother?” He asked, “I don’t think they’ll be too happy with you staying, what with, well… recent developments.”

    Loki scoffed. “They’re the ones who keep insisting on us accepting their plans for us; I rather doubt they’ll mind where we are as long they think we will.”

    “And will you?”

    “One step at a time, Thor,” Edith replied and Loki nodded his agreement.

    “Fair enough,” He conceded then turned to Loki, “I suppose I’ll see you when you get back, then.” His smile widened. “Perhaps not alone…”

    Loki rolled his eyes. “Just go, already.”

    Thor laughed then stepped back and called for the Bifrost, the beam of light and colour descending shortly after and carrying him away through the realms.

    “Man, that thing is flashy,” Clint commented.

    “You should see the bridge on the other side,” Edith replied. She looked around at them all. “Soo… what now? Do we have plans?”

    “Do we ever?” Steve asked back.

    “We always have plans,” Tony replied, “It’s just that people usually end up shooting at us.”

    “True.” He shrugged. “Lunch?”

    “We just ate, like, an hour ago,” Clint replied.

    “Your point?”

    Edith snorted amusedly. “I mean; he’s not wrong.” That earned some laughs. She glanced around the park, noting the number of civilians gathering beyond the patrolling agents was growing. “Why don’t we figure it out back home? We’re starting to attract a crowd.”

****

    They ended up all going their own ways once back in the tower, with the exception of Tony all but dragging a bemused Bruce with him to one of the labs ‘for some science-ing’, and Loki following Edith back to her room intent on discussing some rather important things.

    Which he might accomplish, he berated himself, if he actually talked to her.

    Instead it was her who broke the silence, sitting on one side of her bed with her shark hugged close to her chest while he occupied the other. “What did you do to Nat?”

    He blinked. “Pardon?”

    “She was judging you.”

    “And you assume I had anything to do with that?” He scoffed. Her response was a single raised eyebrow and he sighed, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling. “Your friend is testing me, and I’m fairly certain she will find me lacking no matter what I do.”

    “I wouldn’t bet on it. She has very high and specific standards, but she’s fair.”

    “You’re biased,” He dismissed.

    “You’re new,” She countered.

    He was silent for a while, not really able to refute that; she did know the woman much better than he did, after all. He straightened up a bit and looked back over at her. “Your dreams last night were troubled.”

    She frowned a bit. “That a fact?”

    “Edith…” He turned to face her fully and she turned her head towards him. “Tell me?”

    “… Nat put you up to this, didn’t she?”

    “You know the answer to that perfectly well, now stop stalling.”

    Edith was quiet for a long while, more than a little reluctant to revisit her nightmare, but finally looked forward again and let out a deep sigh, knowing he wasn’t going to just let the subject go. “I was back at the Helicarrier with Nat, running.” She hugged the shark tighter. “Thor didn’t show up…”

    Loki grimaced a bit, having a pretty good idea where it went from there. “You are in one piece, and so is Lady Romanoff.”

    A giggle bubbled out of her and she looked at him. “I wouldn’t let her hear you call her that.”

    He rolled his eyes, smiling slightly all the same at the sound of her laughter. “I’ll try to remember that.”

    “How did you even know I had a nightmare, anyway?”

    “I had to carry you here after you fell asleep on me, remember?” He prudently left out the part where he was watching her sleep after the fact; whatever the reasons, he didn’t think it would go over too well.

    She narrowed her eyes a bit, but didn’t investigate further, for which he was more than a little grateful. “I don’t usually get nightmares after a fight,” She felt the need to say.

    He huffed slightly. “That was a tad bit more than ‘a fight’, Edith; and I wouldn’t judge you even if you did.”

    “Still don’t,” She insisted with a slight pout, earning a soft chuckle.

    “I believe you.” They were silent for a moment then he reached for her hand, entwining their fingers. “Was there anything else?”

    She shook her head then her brow furrowed. “Changed into that cave you took me to, for some reason.” She caught his quickly suppressed smile and narrowed her eyes. “And now I know why.”

    “My involvement was minimal, I assure you; I was only trying to help.”

    “Not mad at you,” She assured. “Thank you.”

    “You’re welcome.”

    Another bout of silence followed then she tugged on his hand a bit to get his attention, earning a questioning look. “Where do we go from here?”

    He huffed. “I have no idea; this is very much the opposite of what I had planned.”

    “Wow, that’s helpful.”

    “I’m not sure, Edith; I don’t really even know where we are right now.” He sighed. “I care for you, I know that much. I have for some time, I just didn’t want to accept it, let alone admit it.”

    “Oh, come on, I’m not that bad!” That earned an amused snort and she sat up straight and smacked him across the face with her shark. “Like you’re any better.”

    “Excuse you; I am a saint.”

    Edith burst out laughing so hard, she would have fallen off the bed if not for Loki’s quick reflexes as he lunged forward to catch her. As he pulled them upright, he caught her gaze and held it intently for a long moment; before she could say anything, he closed the rest of the distance and kissed her deeply, pulling her as close against him as physically possible, though she didn’t seem to mind as she responded.

    Conversation at first was mostly centred on how they would deal with the backlash from the Council their plans for the next day would likely bring but soon devolved to swapping stories with the asgardian princes, which resulted in further respect all around for their respective skills in battle, and some highly amusing stories from Pepper about Tony and Edith that had the bonus effect of providing Loki with quite a bit of teasing material for the latter, much to her dismay. Eventually they lapsed into a tired but comfortable silence that preluded their drifting away for some much needed rest, and Pepper informed Bruce, Loki and Thor that there were guest rooms they could use before she left, half dragging an equally drunk Tony with her.

    Before Clint left, he glanced Loki and Edith’s way and chuckled, and Loki soon found out why as he nudged Edith a bit so she’d get off him in order for him to stand, only to find that she’d fallen asleep. He looked over at Thor to find a badly suppressed smile.

    “Not a word,” He warned, and the fact that he’d lowered his voice so as not to wake her did not go unnoticed.

    Thor stopped trying not to smile. “You brought that on yourself, you know.” His smile widened. “If our friends were here to see this…”

    “Shut up.”

    “And mother!”

    “If you tell her; I will feed you your hammer,” Loki threatened in a hiss.

    “I can imagine it now; she’d have the wedding planned before the morning broke.”

    “Thor, I swear to Norns.”

    Thor laughed, quietly of course, unbothered by the baleful glare his brother was sending him. “Peace, brother; I won’t say a word.” He stood and headed for the elevator. “Of course; I cannot speak for Heimdall…”

    Loki swore viciously under his breath.

****

    Edith jolted awake just as Loki was setting her down on her bed, and it was only his quick reflexes that saved his face from the fist she instinctively shot out; she relaxed when she saw it was him and mumbled a sleepy apology before settling back, drifting off almost immediately. He let out a soft laugh then pulled the covers over her and got up. For a long while he simply stood there watching the peaceful expression on her face; things could have gone so different and part of him still hadn’t let go of how easily he could have lost her, now that he’d accepted that he cared that much, and needed the visual assurance that she truly was alright. Finally he shook his head a bit then turned and walked towards the door; he was halfway there when a sound from the bed stopped him, so soft he almost believed he’d imagined it. He stood still for a moment and, sure enough, the sound came again: A whimper.

    Loki turned and walked back to the bed, looking down at Edith; her eyes were moving rapidly behind her eyelids, her brow was furrowed, and her breathing was growing faster. She was clearly having a nightmare. He thought for a moment then sat beside her and ran his hand through her hair. She moaned softly but seemed to relax a bit, so he repeated the action, this time earning a sigh. He stayed there, running his fingers through her hair soothingly, until her breathing evened out as her dreams calmed then began to get up, only to be stopped by a hand latching itself onto his coat. Thinking he’d woken her, he prepared an apology/explanation on his lips, only to realise she was still very much asleep.

    “Of course,” He sighed. He debated with himself for a bit then used his seidr to remove his armour, leaving just his undershirt and pants on, and carefully settled down beside her. She responded by turning and cuddling into his side, and he let out another sigh and wrapped his arm around her, hoping she’d still be that keen on being so close to him come morning.

****

    Ultimately he’d decided not to take the chance, slipping out of her bed in the morning as carefully as he could, thankfully not waking her, and left the room, only to be met with Natasha as he stepped back from the door and turned around. He tried and marginally succeeded in hiding his surprise at how she’d snuck up on him yet again. Her expression was unreadable on a level that rather impressed him, and then he realised what his leaving Edith’s bedroom at that hour could look like.

    “Before you ask; nothing… untoward happened.”

    “I know.”

    He couldn’t decide if he was relieved or insulted that she was so sure.

     “She had a nightmare.” It was not a question.

    “Does she have them often?”

    “No, but yesterday wasn’t normal. I’d be more surprised if she didn’t have any, and worried. There’ll be more.”

    “I take it you will take the responsibility of asking her for the details.” Natasha shook her head, surprising him. “Oh?”

    “You will.”

    Loki blinked. “Me?” He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Why?”

    “I think you know why.”

    With that she walked around him and went into Edith’s room, leaving him looking after her half confused.

****

    Natasha was sitting at her desk when Edith awoke, carefully cleaning a disassembled gun. She looked over upon hearing shuffling from the bed then placed the part in her hands down, grabbed something from the floor next to her and stood, making her way to the bed. She sat leaning against the headboard, smiling slightly at Edith’s sleepy greeting of ‘Morning’, and placed a somewhat large plush great white shark on the younger woman’s lap.

    “You fixed her!” Edith cheered half awake, sitting up and taking the plushie, hugging it tightly.

    “Rule seven.”

    “For you or for me?”

    “I had my moment; it’s your turn.”

    “I’m not most people.”

    “Evidently not.”

    There was a moment of silence before Natasha spoke again. “She needs time; a lot happened today.”

    “She’ll get all the time she could want,” He replied coolly, “Thor and I will be returning to Asgard with the Tesseract in the morning.”

    Natasha narrowed her eyes at him then huffed. “If you can hold this against her, she’s better off without you,” She said, matching his tone, before turning and walking away.

    He stood there for a long while, looking out at the devastation below, trying to will his thoughts to cease. “You’d think at this point in our lives I would know better than to listen to you,” He said without looking around as Thor walked up to him.

    “How is this my fault?” Thor retorted indignantly, “If you had let her know sooner, the feelings would have had time to settle and she might not be so angry with you now.”

    “Oh, so suddenly you’re an expert on feelings? All your ‘relationships’ barely last days.”

    “What has that to do with it? I wasn’t in love with any of them. You know I am right, or you wouldn’t be deflecting.”

    “I am not deflecting!” The look Thor gave him at that was disturbingly reminiscent of their mother and Loki found himself unable to maintain his gaze. “Don’t you have anything better to do than to pester me?”

    Thor rolled his eyes and placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Loki; even I know she’s not truly angry at you. Whatever battles she has faced do not compare to this one. It’s a lot to experience even without almost losing one of the most important people in her life. And you of all people don’t get to judge such feelings being expressed in anger at the nearest target; I still remember the hel you put me through after father took Fenrir away.”

    “He would never have found out about Fen if you had kept your mouth shut,” Loki retorted.

    “And had you not stopped her, she would have gone after Stark.”

    “What was I supposed to do? If he hadn’t returned, she would have died with him!”

    “Which she will realise once the shock has worn off.”

    Loki was silent for several moments. “When did you get so observant?”

    Thor scoffed. “I won’t pretend to be at your level, brother, but I’m not an idiot. I’ve known you your whole life, she is a lot like you,” He shrugged, “It’s not that difficult.”

    Loki glared at Thor at the implication that he was easy to read then sighed. “Well, since you’re so keen on giving advice; what should I do?”

    Thor huffed somewhat amusedly. “What neither of us has ever been very good at: You wait.”

****

    Tony had never really considered himself to be a clingy person; he didn’t much like the vulnerability such a thing tended to bring with it, and he much preferred to show his affection towards those who’d won such in other ways. That said; he certainly wasn’t about to part from the redhead currently attached to him as though her life depended on it. With the way she’d cried as soon as they’d confirmed the battle was over and had retired to the damaged tower they called home, it may as well have. The last time he’d seen Edith cry that hard was the day of her mother’s funeral, and he wasn’t too keen on seeing more of it.

    Truth be told, he needed the contact just as much as she did; it reminded him he’d made it back.

    There was a soft clearing of a throat then Steve walked over to them, eyeing Edith somewhat guiltily. “How’re we holding up?”

    “You tell me, soldier,” Tony replied, sounding about as tired as he felt.

    Steve winced a bit, understanding the reference, then walked closer. “Edie?” An amber eye peeked out from under a curtain of hair just enough to glare at him and he sighed. “Edie, I’m sorry, but I had to make the call.”

    “He’s right, kiddo,” Tony added, ruffling Edith’s hair a bit, “I knew what I was doing. I knew what it might mean. It had to be done.” Silence met his words and he pulled back enough to look her in the eyes. “Look, I know you want to be mad at him, at everything and everyone, but you know we’re right. This is what we do, and we’ve always come back more or less in one piece, but that doesn’t change the fact that one day we won’t. You’re not ready to accept that, I get that; just don’t blame him for doing what he had to.”

    Edith thought it over for a moment then looked at Steve. “Sorry,” She offered softly.

    “I’ll forgive you on one condition,” Steve replied then opened his arms wide.

    Edith let out a shaky laugh then extricated herself from Tony, stood and walked over to Steve to hug him. When they parted Edith looked between the two of them. “I think… I have another apology to make.”

    Tony huffed, having a feeling he knew who she was talking about. “Yeah, you and I need to have a conversation about that; I need to know what threats to bring out.”

    Edith rolled her eyes, smiling all the same, then left the room. She asked JARVIS where Loki was, being directed to the now ruined common room, and made her way there. Once there, she hesitated, biting her bottom lip as she contemplated how to actually approach the god; she’d largely been in an emotional daze since they’d gotten back to the tower, but she remembered perfectly well how distant she acted towards him. He knew she was there. She knew that he knew. But he didn’t turn to look at her or acknowledge her presence in any way and it stung, though she knew she deserved it given she’d done exactly the same to him.

    She walked up to him and hugged him from behind. “I’m sorry.”

    The more moments passed without any sort of response, the worse she felt, until finally he reached up to pull her arms away from himself and turned around to face her. He took in the storm of emotions in her eyes, foremost among them being guilt, and wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her closer, resting his forehead against hers. “So am I.”

    She shook her head as much as she could without breaking their contact. “You had to; I was going to get myself killed.”

    “And what a shame that would be.” That earned him a somewhat strained laugh.

    “You kissed me.”

    “That I did,” He said somewhat guardedly.

    “Why?”

    A slight shrug. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

    “And now?”

    “Now I rather wish I hadn’t.”

    Her face fell and she looked down. “Oh.”

    “I should have saved it for the victory feast.”