She'd been gone, off the grid, for at least a week before Loki allowed himself to start getting nervous, remaining at Stark tower all the while she was gone just in case they got news about how she was doing. Steve tried to assure him that she was well enough, that not hearing from Nat was a good sign. Only when she called in did they start to get antsy, knowing that if it wasn't something she could handle on her own then it was pretty damn bad.
"Loki, take a break," Steve assured him as he put an old vinyl on his record player. No matter how often Tony insisted that he could buy Steve just as good of a speaker system for his iPod, the soldier maintained that he preferred the sound of vinyl when he got the chance, and there was something nearly cathartic about how he dusted it off, put the record on, and moved the needle before flicking it on. Loki wished he could be as calm as their captain was, taking a seat in one of the chairs nearest the door while Steve cracked his neck and sat down at his desk to work at sketching. "I promise you that she'll be alright. In the meantime, enjoy the Beach Boys."
"The what?" Loki demanded, looking suspiciously over at the player as the music started to echo out and around the room. "This is shit music-."
"Well, Tony's music isn't going to help you relax anytime soon so shaddup and listen."
Loki scowled as he scooted back in his seat, watching as Steve pulled out one of his sketchbooks and a charcoal pencil, immediately beginning in on a new piece of art. As his pencil skated back and forth over the once blank page, Loki let his mind wander, drinking in the lyrics as they came.
He hadn't realized that tears had begun to leak from the corners of his eyes until Steve was asking if he was alright, standing right beside him and shaking him to try and get a reaction, terrified he'd somehow broken the trickster. Loki shook him off, running a hand through his hair as he struggled to collect himself, wiping the tears from his face.
"I'm fine," he said, gasping for air as he blinked, furious with his reaction and with the position that Natasha had put him in. He'd never been so dependent in his whole life, and then this happened?
But what would happen to him if something were to ever go wrong with one of her missions? If she never did, actually, come back? Norns only knew where he'd be without her. She was fast becoming everything to him. Dangerously so. He'd made many an enemy on Asgard, off, and if anyone were to find out about them-.
He wouldn't let that happen and knew neither would she. She was too smart to let anything of the sort come to pass, he tried to assure himself. Hel, there were days he wondered if she was even more intelligent than him, and he wouldn't have been surprised in the slightest if that was the case. Experience he might've had, but raw intellect? Hers made him weak in the knees. He couldn't ever lose her.
"Mister Stark wishes me to inform you that Ms Romanov has returned." Jarvis' voice said smoothly on the intercom. In a half second Loki bolted from his seat, before even Steve could say something. True to Jarvis' words, and he'd have to thank Stark at another time, Nat was standing in the kitchen, sipping at her coffee. Her eyes widened in disbelief and surprise as Loki rushed up to her and enveloped her in his arms, burying his face in her shoulder as he held her tight.
"Loki? What happened? Who'd you piss off?" She asked, knee-jerk reaction to assume that he'd only come to her for protection, and really that was unfair because he'd only done that once so there was no reason for her to continue to think that he'd done it again-.
"No one. I missed you." He murmured against her skin, his heart aching to have her small, slight frame in his arms again, real and solid and in one whole piece.
She relaxed beneath him, pressing a kiss to what bit of his cheek was exposed to her. "I missed you, too," she admitted in his ear.
A/N: For the anon who requested a not songfic of the song with the same name by the Beach Boys, I present this fluff piece! Hope you enjoy!