"Laura!" My roommate, Anna, yelled from the kitchen. "Get down here, now!"

I sighed, thinking she'd probably misplaced something, and rolled out of bed. The clock read 7:45am - too early. I groaned, shrugged on a warm hoodie, and trudged downstairs, complaining under my breath.

Running my fingers through my long, dark hair, I made my way into the kitchen. Anna was standing by the large window in her Batman pajamas, her thick, blonde hair a bird's nest. I dreaded to think what mine looked like.

"What is it?" I grumbled. Anna jumped, startled; I was notorious for having near silent footsteps. She turned back to the window and opened the wooden Venetian blinds slightly, beckoning for me to look with her. I stood behind her, clearly seeing over head as I was about eight inches taller than her - Anna had stopped growing when she was about fifteen, whereas I continued until I was about twenty or so. The sight chilled me to the bone - there was a man with raven hair stumbling up our driveway, the very man who, two weeks ago, tried to take over Earth, almost destroying New York in the process. And he would have managed it, too, if it wasn't for the Avengers.

I slid my hand into the cutlery drawer and brought out a sharp knife. Anna's blue eyes widened, but she didn't protest. Her boyfriend, Leon, was at work, and with us living basically in the middle of nowhere, we had to defend ourselves the best we could. Me being the tallest and the most aggressive of the pair of us, that responsibility fell directly onto my shoulders. It was moments like this I wished we had a dog.

After slipping on a pair of shoes, I unlocked the front door and stomped out into the garden, concealing the knife in the sleeve of my hoodie. The man saw me and stumbled to a stop. I stopped a few yards away from him and asked him why he was here, the anger clearly showing in my voice.

The man stood his ground, asking, "Is this Scotland?" in a smooth, British accent that almost made my heart stop. Looking closer, I realised how attractive he was: his jet black hair contrasted perfectly with his pale skin and fell past his shoulders. His bright emerald eyes, which were surrounded by thick, dark lashes, burned into my hazel ones, and I began to feel light-headed. He stepped closer to me, closing the distance between us, and I had to tilt my head back to still be able to see him - he was tall, at least six foot.

Snap out of it, Laura!

I mentally shook myself, and held the knife out in front of me to stop him coming any closer.

"Please," he whispered, gently placing his hand on my wrist. "I mean you no harm."

A new scent filled the air, something dark and spicy, and I realised it must have been him. My heart raced. Was there anything not perfect about him? Then I remembered: he was evil, the Norse God of Mischief and Lies. He had killed hundreds of people, and probably would have killed more if he'd had the chance.

"Back off," I snarled at him, and he immediately obliged with a smirk, holding his hands up in surrender. Then the heavens opened and it started to pour with rain. I was no meteorologist, but I could tell that this wasn't normal weather. The man stiffened and looked up to the sky, obviously fearful of the thunder that had begun. I jumped as a fork of lightning flashed through the sky, and would've fallen over if the god hadn't caught me. I looked up into his eyes, mesmerised by their beauty, and almost didn't realise when the rain suddenly stopped as quickly as it started.

"Laura?!" Anna called from the door of our house, the tone of her voice clearly stating what she was thinking: what the hell are you doing?!

"Loki."

Loki and I both looked up to see a tall muscular figure with shoulder-length blond hair, who I was pretty sure hadn't been standing there two seconds ago.

"Thor." Loki replied curtly, helping me stand upright and releasing me. With a pang of guilt, I realised I didn't want him to.

"Hey there, Reindeer Games!" a voice called with mock cheerfulness. I looked up to see some sort of robot landing next to Thor.

"The man of iron." Loki muttered. Then something in my memory clicked. Iron Man?

"Shit!" I said aloud, startling the two gods and making Tony Stark smirk as he removed his mask.

"I heard Scots were fluent in cussing," he teased. "But hey, you guys produce great alcohol!"

I ignored his casual teasing, more worried about the fact that two (extremely hot) Norse gods and a genius/billionaire/playboy/philanthropist were in my garden and I hadn't even brushed my hair. Or my teeth for that matter ...

After a quick, whispered discussion, Anna and I introduced ourselves and decided to invite the trio in. Anna ran around the kitchen like Tinkerbell on caffeine, obviously flustered over the fact that Tony freakin' Stark was in her home, while I hurriedly got dressed, after making sure our guests were comfortable, of course. After serving everyone coffee, Anna excused herself to get ready, while I sat across from the visitors in our spacious living room, silently studying them. Despite the fact that Loki had betrayed Thor and destroyed Stark Tower, Tony's precious baby, there was no hostility between the three, except maybe from Loki, who sat at the end of the sofa, sulking about the fact that his big brother had followed him. When Anna rejoined us, Tony began to explain their predicament.

"Basically, Rudolph here's innocent." He began. Loki made a noise of protest at the nickname, but otherwise said nothing. Tony continued, "His boss, Thanos, decided he was of no use after we caught him in Stuttgart - you did hear about that, didn't you?" he paused long enough for Anna and I to nod. "Well, anyway, Loki's been in a SHIELD custody ever since then. Thanos pretended to be Loki and wreaked havoc on New York."

There was one thing I was still confused about, and I decided to ask them about it: How did Thanos pass as Loki?

"Magic, of course." was Thor's answer.

Anna and I exchanged a glance. "Seems legit." she stated.