#well-intentioned

    “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.”

    “Got it,” Edith replied with a slight grunt as she drove her dagger into a chitauri’s eye. She turned to look at the approaching enemy and blinked at their numbers. “That’s… that’s a big wave.”

    “I’ve seen bigger,” Loki replied as he turned to look.

    “I’ll bet,” She snickered, earning an amused snort.

    “Not what I meant, but you’re not wrong.”

    At that she choked on a laugh, still giggling a bit as she ran at the first one that got near enough, knocking its weapon aside and driving her dagger up into its brain. He followed after her, throwing knives disposing of five others before he reached two more, embedding his dagger in one’s skull and using its gun to shoot the other one down before the corpse fell. Edith reached into a belt pouch and threw a handful of explosive pellets out, taking out eight more, and leaped onto another one’s back, stabbing its neck a few times and using it as a shield against the other who fired at her.

    “Well, now you’re just showing off,” Loki commented as Edith pushed the dead chitauri into the one who’d shot at her, taking advantage of its distraction and throwing a knife at it.

    “You’re one to talk,” She retorted with a grin, “Should we be keeping score?”

    “Guys; it’s not a competition,” Steve chimed in through the comm.

    “Of course you’d say that,” Clint replied, “How many dozens have you killed so far?”

    Steve simply let out a resigned sigh in response, earning laughs.

    As the fighting went on, Loki found himself watching Edith more and more closely, looking for signs of her growing tired, though he had no idea what he’d do if he found one; there were hardly any safe places for her to rest, after all. But if she was tiring, she bore it remarkably well. Thor’s words before they’d joined the others rose unbidden to his mind and he let out a snarl and drove his dagger into the chitauri before him with maybe a little too much force. As loath as he was to admit it, his brother had a point; they were holding up well for the moment, but battles could be unpredictable.

    He’d had a chance to tell her before the battle began and he hadn’t taken it; now hardly seemed like the time, but if the worst did come to pass, could he live with himself if he never told her? Was the fear of her reaction worth that risk?

    Oh, to Hel with it, Loki thought and made his way towards Edith, quickly dispatching a chitauri that was coming up behind her along the way. She turned around, the ghost of a smile on her face, and was about to say something when he grabbed her by the waist, pulling her against him, and claimed her lips with his own. When he pulled back she stared up at him completely shocked for a moment as he searched her face nervously, until a small smile formed on her lips, and he released the breath he’d been holding in utter relief.

    “Guys, I’m happy for you, really, but could we maybe focus on the invasion that is currently happening?” Tony’s voice sounded through the comms as he flew by them, causing them to part with a slight laugh before they returned to the fight.

****

    It took some effort and some very big risks, not the least of which was teaching herself how to pilot an alien aircraft in the about thirty seconds before it would have crashed, but finally Natasha made it to the roof of the tower. The Hulk had been there first, dealing with the enemy leader, and though she hadn’t seen how the creature had accomplished that, the… well, remains painted a rather clear picture. She certainly wasn’t about to complain about his methods, considering it gave her the chance to retrieve the sceptre without a fight. The leader’s death broke the control he’d had over Selvig, who wasted no time in telling her how to turn off the device powering the portal.

    “I can close it,” Natasha said, voice somewhat strained as she held the sceptre inches away from the Tesseract, “Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down.”

    “Do it!” Steve replied.

    “No, wait,” Tony countered.

    “Tony, these things are still coming,” Steve replied.

    “I got a nuke coming in; it’s gonna blow in less than a minute,” Tony informed them, sounding a lot calmer about the fact than he thought he would. He sped up as he the missile passed him, gaining on it as an idea finished forming in his head. “And I know just where to put it.”

    Steve was quiet for a moment, realising what Tony had in mind. “Stark, you know that’s a one-way trip.”

    Tony ignored him as he caught up to the missile and held on. “Save the rest for the turn, J.”

    “Sir, shall I try Miss Potts?” JARVIS asked.

    “Might as well.”

    On the ground, the rest of the team looked on as Tony sped by above them, guiding the missile as best he could towards the tower before using the full power of the suit’s thrusters to push it upwards, heading straight for the portal then through it. Before long, every chitauri on the ground and even the larger creatures seemed to die all at once, falling where they stood, much to their surprise. With the threat gone, they looked up to the portal for any sign of Tony returning, despite what Steve had said.

    “Come on, Tony,” Natasha murmured, poised to close the portal.

    “Dammit, Tony; get back here,” Edith hissed, her hand unconsciously reaching for Loki’s, who gripped it tightly, knowing exactly how much the billionaire meant to her.

    After a few tense moments, Steve looked down and let out a deep breath. “Close it,” He said reluctantly.

    “What?! No!” Edith cried.

    “Edie…” Steve began.

    “No; I’m going after him,” Edith declared almost frantically, letting go of Loki’s hand and beginning to make her way to a downed chitauri vehicle nearby, ignoring Steve’s protest. Before she could get very far, though, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her middle from behind as Loki stopped her. “Let me go!” She screamed, struggling against his hold fruitlessly.

    Natasha plunged the sceptre into the device at last, shutting it down as Selvig said it would.

Natasha shook her head sharply, Edith’s voice reminding her that she wasn’t alone. She had to keep her safe. She couldn’t afford to be compromised now. There would be time to feel later. Giving Edith her gun, which was surprisingly still in its holster after their fall, she went on ahead; she had trained the younger woman well, but when it came down to it she was still stronger and more experienced, and they couldn’t risk Edith’s explosives there.

Natasha raised her hand to her earpiece. “Does anyone read?”

“Nat! Are you and Edie alright?” Tony was quick to ask.

“We’re alright, but Banner’s compromised,” Natasha replied. “What’s our situation?”

“Working on getting engine three back up,” Steve replied, voice sounding a bit strained as he fought his way through a group of mercs.

“Loki and Thor went to looking for you,” Tony added.

“Yeah, Thor’s busy with Banner. We haven’t seen Loki, though; probably split to cover more ground. We’ll keep an eye out.”

“Alright; watch your backs,” Steve said.

“Always.” She turned to Edith. “They’re working on one of the engines. Loki’s around somewhere looking for us.”

Edith nodded her understanding. “We better find him; we’re going to need him if the big guy decides Thor’s not fun enough for him.”

With that they continued on, making their way through halls and walkways, some of which had seen some damage. They ran into a few engineers being cornered by several mercs; the men barely had time to turn before Natasha ran right into the closest one to her, jumping into a headlock and snapping his neck then flipping him into the others, knocking two down. Edith shot down three more as they aimed for the spy, leaving her to take out the ones on the floor. Once that was taken care of and the engineers were on their way to a safer part of the carrier, the two women headed on.

****

Natasha rounded a corner only to find herself pinned to the wall with a dagger to her neck before she could react. Upon seeing it was her, Loki took the blade away and backed up, looking to the corner almost frantically then relaxing a bit as Edith stepped into view.

“Are you harmed?” He asked, hating that he was unable to keep all the anxiousness out of his voice.

“I fell through the floor; what do you think?” Edith replied somewhat sarcastically, trying to distance herself from the experience until the enemy was dealt with, earning a slightly strained laugh. “I don’t think anything’s broken, but I’m probably not going anywhere near Dr. Banner anytime soon if I can help it.”

“Thor?”

“Dealing with Banner,” Natasha replied.

“Of course he is.”

The carrier shook under the force of another explosion, though it didn’t feel as big as the last ones, and they stumbled a bit, Loki’s arm shooting out to hold Edith up on instinct.

“We need to get to the upper levels; the others might need help,” Edith said once it stopped, receiving nods in response.

****

Tony was not having fun. At all.

Getting the engine running again was pretty simple, if not necessarily easy what with the people shooting at him and Steve; almost getting torn to shreds by that same engine before Steve managed to get to the lever that would slow it enough for him to get out, however, he could have done without. He had heard Fury order somebody to distract the Hulk before his fight with Thor tore the carrier apart while he was in the engine, and then the follow up declaring that the creature had literally jumped ship just before his suit lost power which caused him to groan; that would complicate things, he would bet.

But that was a problem for later; right now he had to get out of his unfortunately quite useless armour. Preferably before someone decided he would be a good target.

His solution came in the form of one Steven Grant Rogers, and he was sure he would never hear the end of it. Still, he would take it. Once Tony was out of the suit, Steve led the way back into the rest of the aircraft, though they didn’t encounter any more enemies, which they couldn’t quite decide whether it was good or bad news. Halfway to the control room on their way to assist, Steve heard Fury declare that what was left of the enemy was retreating, which was both good news and bad, as it meant that while they had a chance to regroup it likely meant the enemy had accomplished what they came to do.

Steve reached for his earpiece. “Nat; you still there?”

“Still here,” Natasha replied, “Found Loki. You guys good? And has anyone seen Thor?”

“We’re good; though Tony lost another suit,” Steve replied and she could just hear the smirk that Tony could actually see, “We haven’t seen Thor.”

“He’s fine,” Fury cut in, “He’s on his way up; get back to the meeting room now to debrief.”

“Copy,” Natasha replied.

“On our way,” Steve said then turned to Tony. “Nat and Edith are fine, and they found Loki. We’re debriefing in the meeting room; Thor’s on his way.”

Tony let out a breath in a whoosh. “Hell of a day.”

“Day’s not over yet.”

“Yeah, well; I don’t have a drink anywhere near, so I’ll just pretend it is until it’s time to go, alright?”

“It doesn’t,” Loki scoffed, ducking as Thor threw Mjolnir at a group of chitauri behind him, “If anything, it will give me something to taunt them with.”

Thor rolled his eyes, calling the hammer back to his hand. “I’m rather surprised you didn’t object to Edith going off to fight alongside the captain.”

“Why would I have?” Loki asked somewhat defensively.

“It is only that you were so insistent on remaining by her side before; and this is far more dangerous than the previous attack.”

“I’m not her keeper; she can take care of herself,” Loki replied shortly.

“I don’t doubt it…”

Loki stopped and turned on Thor, taking advantage of the fact that there were no chitauri in their immediate area. “What exactly are you implying, Thor?”

“I think you know,” Thor replied seriously, “And I think you need to tell her.”

“I think you need to mind your own business,” Loki snapped, turning and continuing on before his brother could reply.

Thor sighed frustratedly then followed him. “Loki-”

“Not now.”

“Then when?”

“I don’t know, brother; how about when we are not in the middle of stopping an invasion?”

“What if you don’t get the chance later? What if she-” Loki whirled around so suddenly, he almost ran into him.

“Do. Not. Say that,” Loki hissed.

“It is possible. We’ve seen enough battles to know that.”

Loki didn’t reply, simply turned and continued on, taking out his anger and worry on any chitauri unfortunate enough to get in his way.

****

Natasha had appropriated one of the chitauri guns by the time Steve and Edith reached her and Clint, and was busily taking out the aliens around them as Clint gave his attention to the ones firing at them from higher up in the buildings. They joined the agents, grabbing another chitauri gun each along the way and firing away at the multitude fast approaching.

“We’ve got to get back up there,” Steve said, looking up at the tower and the beam from the device on the roof keeping the portal open.

“I’m open to suggestions, Cap,” Clint replied, firing an arrow that splintered off into many smaller shards, taking out a handful of aliens at once.

“You know they’re probably swarming us on purpose to keep us stuck here, right?” Edith asked.

The gun in her hands seemed to jam and she frowned before sticking an explosive onto it and tossing it at a number chitauri approaching; the resulting explosion was larger than she anticipated, causing Steve to grab her by the arm and pull her with him to duck behind a car. She met his incredulous expression with a sheepish smile and he shook his head with a huff of a laugh, ruffling her hair affectionately before they stood.

“We should just send Edie through the portal; problem solved,” Natasha suggested amusedly.

“Plan B, Nat. Plan B,” Steve replied, earning a half-hearted complaint from the young woman. “More to the point, she’s right; these guys are keeping us here, away from the Tesseract.”

Suddenly there was a loud crack of thunder followed by great bolts of lightning that struck down on a large number of chitauri, leaving nothing but ash as they faded, and Thor landed in their place. “Then let us relieve them of their advantage in numbers.”

“Damn; could’ve used that in Laos last year,” Clint commented, causing Edith to snort with amusement at the memory.

“Where’s Loki?” Natasha asked.

Before Thor could reply Loki arrived on a chitauri ship, blasting his way through their numbers before jumping off, leaving it to crash into the remaining ones, and making his way to them.

“Found him!” Edith chimed, earning a somewhat confused look from him.

“We need to control this,” Steve said, “There were a lot coming here to keep us busy, but there’s a lot more going rampant all over the city. We need to draw them as best we can and take them out.”

“Hey, guys?” Edith called, getting their attention, and pointed down the street before them, “Isn’t that…?”

As they turned to where she was pointing, Bruce came into view riding a dirt bike that had clearly seen better days and dressed in clothes that didn’t appear to be his. They walked to him as he dismounted and met them halfway. “So, this all seems horrible,” He said by way of greeting.

“I’ve seen worse,” Natasha replied.

Bruce winced almost imperceptibly. “Sorry.”

“No, we could use a little worse.”

“Tony; we got him,” Steve spoke into the comm.

“Banner?” Tony asked, dodging another blast and responding with one of his own.

“Just like you said.”

“Tell him to suit up; I’m bringing the party to you.” As he said that he turned a corner, coming into their view, and shortly after the leviathan followed, taking part of the building with it as it turned.

“I don’t see how that’s a party,” Natasha commented as they braced themselves for the coming fight.

Tony flew low to the streets, prompting the creature to follow. Bruce looked back at the others then shrugged slightly and began walking towards the leviathan.

“Dr. Banner; now would be a really good time for you to get angry,” Steve said.

Bruce looked over his shoulder at him. “That’s my secret, Captain; I’m always angry.”

With that he turned and the others got a first-hand look at what Natasha and Edith had already seen as the scientist turned into the Hulk, finishing the transformation in time to halt the advance of the leviathan with a punch that crumpled its head almost completely. As they looked on slightly stunned, Loki felt someone bump into him a bit and looked down to find Edith had stepped closer to him, eyeing the Hulk somewhat fearfully; he placed a hand on her waist and she started slightly and looked up at him, finding a small reassuring smile that relaxed her again.

“That’s… definitely useful,” Clint spoke up after a moment.

“Here’s hoping there’s more where that came from; because there’s definitely more of them,” Tony said as he landed, looking up at the portal where, sure enough, more leviathans and chitauri were pouring out.

“Of course there are,” Steve sighed. He hadn’t thought it would be easy, of course, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating. He turned to address the rest. “Alright, listen up; until we can close that portal, our priority is containment.” He looked to Clint and nodded up to a building. “Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything; call out patterns and strays.” He looked to Tony. “Stark; you’ve got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out; you turn it back or you turn it to ash.”

“Right,” Tony replied, grabbing hold of Clint to drop him off along the way as he took to the air.

“Thor; you got to try and bottleneck that portal, slow them down. You got the lightning; light the bastards up,” Steve continued and Thor nodded before taking off. “The rest of us, we stay here on the ground; keep the fighting here.” He looked at Edith, noting Loki’s hand still on her waist. “You stick with him. I know you can take care of yourself, just…”

“I know,” Edith replied.

Steve nodded, feeling a bit easier. “Hulk?” The Hulk looked at him expectantly. “Smash.”

That earned him a grin before the creature leapt several feet onto the side of a building, and right into a chitauri, continuing on from building to building taking out as many of the aliens as he could see.

“Well, at least he’s having fun,” Edith commented, still eyeing the green creature a bit warily. She looked at Loki. “Shall we?”