Wow, I'm finally here again! I'm so so so so so sorry :( I can't apologise enough for the long wait. I'm really sorry! I don't even know where the time went, but suddenly it's been eight months D: I really appreciate the ones of you who hasn't left! I really hope you enjoy this ^^

As always, I don't own the Avengers, only Emma and the storyline.


Chapter 7

Time Apart

"Ready to go?" I ask him. He nods, shrugging slightly as to reassure me that he isn't looking forward to it. We're sitting in my room, preferring to have some privacy before he has to go.

"I'll look forward to you coming back," I say, leaning slightly into him.

He hums agreeing, "Me too, Emma." He places his arm around me to pull me closer to his body.

Suddenly there's a knock on my door. "Thor's here," Natasha says behind the door.

"We're coming," I answer. I move to stand, but before I can he pulls me closer and locks our lips together in a long kiss. I smile at him when we lean away from each other again and he stands to pull me up with him.

As we're walking towards the living room, where the others are, he grabs my hand and squeezes it. I can almost feel the nervousness radiating from him; I wish he didn't feel like that. I squeeze his hand back, "We should be able to handle two days away from each other, don't you think, Loki?"

He huffs softly, "I assume so. But where does it say we have to? I mean, one thing is being able to, another is forcing us to."

I chuckle hesitantly. "I guess you're right. But I think your father kind of made that rule, and we have to follow it." I hesitate a bit, before continuing, "I know you don't want to, but you should try to have fun."

He only shrugs as an answer, and then moves to stand with Thor as we've reached the others.

I frown slightly, not quite understanding if I said something wrong. But then he smiles shortly at me, too quick for anyone else to notice, but since I'm already looking at him, I catch the slight upward turn of his lips.

"Brother! It's good to see you," Thor exclaims, placing an arm around Loki's shoulder.

"Likewise," he mumbles in reply. I smirk; it's obvious that he actually means it. And equally as obvious that Thor notices it too.

"The stay has been good for you, Loki," Thor says, nodding as though something very obvious has just occurred to him.


(Loki's POV)

"We missed you, Loki," my mother says, hugging me close to her at the first chance she gets. I steal a glance at Odin, doubting that he'd missed me.

"I missed you, too, Mother," I say, mumbling, when she steps back and looks expectantly at me.

"You must tell me everything," she smiles then, probably sensing my slightly awkward mood. She tugs me with her to my room, as I can't help but smile lightly in reply.

"How is it down there?" she asks me as soon as we're alone in my room. And I tell her everything, except I hide the fact that Emma's much more than just a good friend.


(Emma's POV)

"… Stark! Miss Stark!" I wake up to the sound of JARVIS calling my name. It sounds like he's been calling for a while. When I look at the clock I can tell it's only 2AM.

"What is it, J?" I ask sleepily; my brain not fully functioning yet. Though as I slowly regain a conscious state, I remember that it has to be something important if he's waking me up in the middle of the night.

"I'm afraid I had to wake you up according to our agreement from 2010." I frown slightly, not remembering exactly what our agreement is about. Thankfully JARVIS continues, "Your father hasn't been sleeping for 72 hours and I'm afraid he's about to break down."

That makes me widen my eyes and scramble to sit up. "72 hours? And you're only telling me now?!" How did I even miss that?

"I was under specific orders from Mr. Stark not to alert anyone, but you did order me to alert you if he went without sleep for more than three days again, which allowed me to override them." Somehow he manages to sound almost smug about finding a way around my father's orders.

"Thank you," I say, before hurrying out of bed. I grab my bathrobe before walking towards the elevator, determined to get my father to sleep.


(Loki's POV)

"Back already, Loki, haven't even given us time to miss you yet!" The smirks are growing bigger, as the warriors surround me. I really regret walking alone in a place that holds no one else but me and my tormenters.

"You're just a monster, aren't you?!" Of course, I could easily fight them off, if there hadn't been the small problem of my magic missing.

I take the punches they throw at me, trying to keep a positive mindset through all the jeers and hits. I'm picturing honey blond hair, smooth when I run my fingers through it, and chocolate brown eyes, searching my soul, telling me to behave, to not react, even when they call me a monster, even when they punch hard enough to break my nose.

"I guess, without your magic you really can't do anything, can you? Your one useful quality gone, so why do we even need you?!"

"You're worthless!"

I try to resist fighting back, I really do. But it's only for so long I can take being hit, before I have to punish them. They're partially right, though; my magic is gone for now and I've never really been a fighter, a warrior. They're all warriors, though, so anyone would be able to guess the outcome.

In the end I walk back to my room bruised, vowing not to tell anyone as to not make them think me weak. The only one who knows is Eir, and that's only because I needed someone to heal me, since I unfortunately can't do it myself at the moment.

You're worthless.


(Emma's POV)

As I step into the lab I find my father working diligently on something I can't see. He doesn't react at first, just continues working. It's not until I'm standing right next to him, that he moves.

"You should be sleeping, sweetie," he says, moving around me to get to another blueprint.

I lift an eyebrow. "I could be saying the same thing to you, Dad."

I can see the bags under his eyes, as I stand there watching him. The way he's moving also makes it obvious that he's running on far too little sleep; he's slightly slumped over and his movements are slow. I grab his arm softly, when he moves around me again, and he jumps slightly, like he already forgot I was here.

I sigh. "Dad, you need to sleep. JARVIS told me you haven't slept for a while."

"Traitor," he mumbles towards the ceiling. "I'm fine, Em'. I need to finish this."

I frown. "No, you don't, Dad. Not right now. Right now you need to sleep." When he doesn't move, I start to pull his arm a bit. "Come on, Dad."

He sighs, "Emma, just go sleep. I'll stay here."

I look determined at him. "No! We both need to sleep, Dad." I can tell by the look in his eyes that he's considering it. "Look, I'm not sleeping until you are."

He stares at me for a moment; judging how determined I am, I think. Then he says, "Fine." I start to smile, but then he continues, "I'll go lie down, but I won't sleep."

My hand has slipped down from his arm to his hand; I squeeze it. "You know, Dad, it's okay to have nightmares," I say, recognizing the symptoms from myself, back when my father was kidnapped.

He looks surprised at me. "That doesn't mean I have to enjoy them, though," he says, before relaxing his shoulders even more and gesturing towards the elevator.

He can't quite hide a yawn when we stand in the elevator and I smile slightly at him, before yawning myself. His arm is now laying around my shoulder; acting both as a thankful and a tired gesture.

"You should stay here, like when you were little," my father says as he lays down on one side of the big bed. He must have noticed my second yawn.

I shrug and lay down on the other side of the bed. He's fidgeting on his side of the bed, clearly not willing to sleep and surrender himself to the nightmares.

I sit up in the bed, leaning against the headboard. "You used to sing this song to me when I couldn't sleep," I say, before slowly starting to sing Baby mine.

"Baby mine, don't you cry

Baby mine, dry your eyes

Rest your head close to my heart

Never to part, baby of mine."

I watch him roll his eyes slightly at my choice of song; not that it should surprise him since that really was the song he used to sing to me.

"Little one when you play

Pay no heed what they say

Let your eyes sparkle and shine

Never a tear, baby of mine.

If they knew all about you

They'd end up loving you too

All those same people who scold you

What they'd give just for

The chance to hold you.

From your head to your toes

You're not much, goodness knows

But you're so precious to me

Sweet as can be, baby of mine."

As I end my song I notice his breath has evened out and he's sleeping. I hope he'll be able to sleep through the night. I yawn, feeling my own need for sleep, too. So I lay back down and close my eyes to fall to sleep, Loki's face the last thing I think about before falling asleep.


(Loki's POV)

I miss Emma. I miss her smile. I miss her eyes. I miss her hair. I miss her smell. I miss her touch. And I really don't care if it's weird. I'm tired of being laughed at, I'm tired of being here. This place used to be home, I don't know when that changed. Was it when I discovered what I was? When I fought Thor? When I fell into the void? When I fought him again? When I met Emma? When I was imprisoned here? When I was sent back to Emma? I really don't know. Because I do remember a time when Thor and I were young and we had fun and I didn't mean anyone any harm. This was home. And it was still home after I knew I was Jotünn. Maybe it is Emma after all, maybe it's not.

Anyway, I don't want to stay here. I want to go home. And home is where she is. Not here. It's only been 26 hours; I know, I've counted. That means I have about 11 hours left of this. As far as I'm concerned this is the real punishment.

I'm not sure I can take this every two weeks. It might not seem that long, but for me it's close to torture; of course that's only worsened by the very real punches I've received while staying here. I have to at least try to do something.


"Is it possible for this visit to be shortened in the future?" I ask my parents in their salon.

My mother frowns and Odin raises his eyebrow at me. "What reason do you have for that?" he asks.

"I…" I start without knowing how to continue. I stop to think about what to say, but before I can even think of a proper answer, my mother says, "You're not happy here, are you?"

When I look at her shocked, she smiles slightly. "I've known you for a long time, Loki, I know when you're longing for something else."

She doesn't look particularly sad about the prospect, so I shrug, "I guess you're right. I was happier on Midgard." The admission makes her smile genuinely. What I didn't expect was for Odin to smile, too.

"Henceforth you only have to stay one day, that should be time enough to catch up," he says, with warmth in his voice. I frown slightly, not quite understanding his sudden kindness.

"Thank you," I say.

He claps me on the back when I turn to leave, "I'm happy you're happy on Midgard, Loki, you'll get your magic back in no time if you keep it up."

I let myself smile genuinely. "Thanks, Father."


(Emma's POV)

I miss Loki, but it seems I have bigger problems on my hands right now.

"It's my lab, Emma, you don't get to decide whether I'm allowed to work or not!" I roll my eyes inwardly at my father.

"When you're about to work yourself to death, then yes, Dad, I do get to decide," I answer, trying very hard not to yell back at him.

"Dad, come on, I'm worried about you," I mumble, walking closer to him.

"You don't have to worry about me, sweetie, I'm fine," he says and hugs me.

"You're not fine, Dad, and that's okay. I just want you to work this out, whatever this is. That's what you do, right? You fix things." I smile at the end, showing him it's partly a joke.

Luckily he smiles back. "Yeah, that's what I do, Em'."

"Good," I say. "Look, I called Rhodey. If you don't want to talk to me about it, can't you at least talk to him?"

He sighs. "Emma…"

"Please. For me?" I plead, pouting at him.

He rolls his eyes in a way that I know means he's amused. "Fine. For you."


(Loki's POV)

There's one thing I wanted to do when I got here. I haven't seen Sleipnir for a very long time, and it's time I did. I find him on the grass field in front of Valhalla.

"Hello Sleipnir," I greet him, petting his neck. "It's been far too long. Do you want to go for a run?" He neighs in response. I smile and swing myself up.

We ride for some time, Sleipnir knows exactly where to take us. There's a place we used to go to, when we wanted to talk alone. A place of quietness and stillness, like everything is okay there.

As soon as we arrive, I slide off of him. I sit down leaning against the big apple tree that grows here. Sleipnir stands close by; close enough for me to pet him, while he nips at the green grass.

"There's someone I have to tell you about, Sleip'. She's amazing. I think you'd like her."

He neighs in response, She must be special then.

I smile, "She really is."

Then tell me about her.

I smile. "She's beautiful." Sleipnir stops eating for a moment and looks at me as questioning as a horse can look, "Both inside and out. She's kind and forgiving. She's strong, head strong sometimes. She's caring."

You sound like you really like her, he neighs, pushing my shoulder softly with his head.

"I do, and the best part is that she likes me too. Actually she likes you, too, Sleipnir. She is very fascinated by the myths, and she really wants to meet you and the others." I swallow, "But I'm not sure I can grant her wish."

Probably not, though I'd like to meet the woman who has enamored my father.

I chuckle in response. "Maybe I'll figure something out," I shrug. "It would be nice to show her where I'm coming from. Even though it sounds like something from a dream."


"Goodbye, Loki. We will look forward to seeing you in two weeks," my mother says, hugging me goodbye as I'm about to be sent back to Midgard.

"Be happy, Loki," my father says and I smile in response.

"I'll look forward to seeing you. Goodbye, Mother, Father," I nod in greeting before turning to Heimdall. "Send me back."

I don't even manage to turn around again before a swirl of energy and color takes me away and I'm standing in the kitchen of the Avengers Tower, or whatever it's called. I look at the clock on the kitchen wall and realizes with a sigh that it's too late for me to see Emma. I consider for a short moment trying to sneak past her father's bedroom to get to hers, but decide it isn't worth the risk of getting unapproved. Instead I grudgingly make my way to my own room, looking forward to seeing her the next day.


Did you like the chapter? I really want to know your opinions ^^ So please comment, and please favourite and follow this story! It means a lot to me. I really hope you enjoy it ^^ And I'm over halways done with the next chapter, so hopefully it won't take me too long. I'll really try, I promise :D

Oh, and by the way, Eir is an Asgardian goddess, whose power is healing, she's like their doctor :)

See you soon!