Asgard

A/N so sorry it's been so long! It's a long story involving trigonometry homework, but I won't go on! Hello again, and thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: I own nothing, it all belongs to Marvel

They vanished in the night. The Avengers woke up one morning, and they were gone, leaving only a piece of paper in their place.

Dear all, it read. Pressing matters have arisen in Asgard that Loki needs to attend to, and I've gone with him. Don't worry about me. I'll keep in touch. Lena x

They're baffled, to say the least. Steve is worried, having seen first hand what Loki's tricks could do.

"What if he's tricked her?" He says, staring out the vast glass window towards the busy city. He knows Loki, and he knows that tricking and Magic is always a possibility. But he thought Lena was capable of resisting it.

"She's already shown she's immune to his tricks, somehow." Natasha answers. Steve turns, and folds his arms. What Natasha says is true, but he isn't convinced. He trusts Loki about as far as he can throw him. Which isn't very far.

Clint stays silent for the first few minutes. He, of course, knows exactly why Lena left, and it's not because of matters in Asgard. But should he tell them? Would they believe him? Or would they believe that he also had been tricked.

Clint stands up, and breathes out deeply. He runs his hands through his hair, then look at the floor before looking up at the others.

Natasha knows Clint has something to say. He's nervous, and Lena was his best friend, after all. She looks at him expectantly.

The others notice Natasha's gaze.

"Loki didn't trick her. At least not with magic." Clint says, voice cracking slightly.

Bruce frowns.

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is..." Clint trails off, and hits his hands together, looking up at the sky. "She went of her own free will."

"Why would she?"

"Well, she was in love with him. And believed he was in love with her." Clint drops this bombshell, then turns away, hating himself all over again for letting her go.

Nobody says anything for a few seconds, and an awkward silence fills the room. This totally unexpected news even silences Tony, who usually has plenty to say. Natasha opens her mouth, then closes it again.

"Clint..." She says, seeing her friends pain. "She will be okay. She's capable of taking care of herself."

Clint laughs hollowly. He knows that.

"I don't why I let her go. Why did I trust him?" Theses questions have been whirring around his head ever since his conversation with Lena at the firing range, and it makes him feel sick sometimes. Why, Clint, why.

Thor walks swiftly over to Clint, and puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Clint looks up at him, surprised.

"Do not worry, Hawk." He smiles. "I will check up on your tiny friend. I will make sure she is fine."

Clint feels slightly better when he takes this point into consideration. Thor knows Loki, knows Asgard, knows Odin and all the others. He supposes what he was most worried about was the prospect of a new world for Lena. A world where Midgardians are irrelevant and inconsequential.

Tony just stares at Clint.

"You mean, she fell in love with Loki?" Clint nods sadly when Tony says this. Tony rolls his eyes, and sighs. "Loki, who we had her stalk because of how dangerous he was?" This raises a second issue.

Not only did Loki potentially manipulate Lena, but they also may have led her straight into it.

Tony realises this and swears loudly. Steve raises his eyebrows, but says nothing.

"This is stupid. We should go to Asgard, go get her back. She's being stupid, and we all know it. Even you, Clint, have to admit that Lena would probably not have done this in her right mind." He points the pen in his hand at them all.

Clint pinches the bridge of his nose, and closes his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Tony, but she truly was in love with that man, no matter how much we try to deny it. I know her better than anyone, and the look in her eyes, was, unfortunately, love. I don't know Loki well enough to tell if he felt the same, but I am sure as hell hoping he did. For his sake, if anything else. Because if he didn't, and he hurt her, I don't care if anyone cares for him, an arrow or two is going to be finding its way towards him."

The awkward silence again fills the room. Natasha smiles slightly at Clint's words; it reminds her of what Clint said during the catastrophe of New York. Reminds her that the Avengers are still a team, and a good team at that, a team that can take down anything.

Tony ponders his next words.

"Okay, Hawk." He says, his words filled with less anger than before. "We give her a day or two to contact us. I trust you, and if you say she thought her decision was right, then I believe you. But if she doesn't contact us, we're going to find her."

A murmur of agreement runs round the room, and Tony sets his watch.

123445677890

10 hours earlier.

Lena tightens the straps on her rucksack, and tightens her already tight ponytail. She stands up, surveying her room. The few possessions she had in her room have now been packed up, and the room is as empty and as lacking in personality as it was when she was assigned to it.

This makes her smile. This is how it's meant to be. As though the few weeks she spent here never happened, and though she never existed here. A dream, a faint memory. Ey would move on and forget her.

Perhaps the guilt she feels for leaving them would lessen too. She can only hope so, for at the moment it feels like a boulder, weighing her down.

The door opens, slightly, and Loki pokes his head round the door, smiling when he sees her. Lena smiles back, and feels the weight reduce. There is a reason to why she's doing this, and he's standing there, smiling at her.

His eyes question her silently. She nods, and follows him out the room, and they hurry out the building, as quiet as they can.

Then they're running along the empty streets, and Lena can't help laughing, and smiling. Loki looks at her, smiling widely, and punches the air with his fist.

"Haha!" He yells.

They reach Central Park, and Loki stops running.

Lena shoots him a look, and stares around her, as though expecting Asgard to jump out a bush, wearing a hat.

"Central Park? That's where the entrance to the ever mysterious Asgard is?" Lena folds her arms, and raises her eyebrows at Loki.

Loki chuckles, and looks up at something only he can see.

"No, of course not. You can enter Asgard from anywhere. I just thought a stream of rainbow light would be noticed in the middle of a New York street."

"It will also be noticed in the middle of Central Park. And also, rainbow bridge? Seriously?"

"Yes." Loki replies, as if this is obvious. Lena throws her head and laughs. "What?" He says, bewildered.

"Sorry, but rainbow bridge?" Lena doubles over. The idea of something as pretentious as a rainbow bridge connecting the feeble realm of Midgard to Asgard, realm of Kings, is overwhelmingly funny.

Loki frowns. "What's wrong with that?"

Lena, seeing she's not going to be able explain her mirth, waves her hand, but continues to laugh. Loki shrugs, and looks up, waiting for the Heimdall. He receives it.

Loki smiles, and turns to Lena.

"Take my hand."

"Subtle."

He laughs.

"No seriously."

She raises her eyebrows again, but takes his hand anyway.

Good thing she did, she thinks, as a beam of rainbow light carries them upward.

Lena would scream, but there's no air left in her lungs. She watches almost sadly as the Earth fades beneath her, but then looks at Loki, and then upwards, towards Asgard.

She's surprised when her feet touch solid ground, and then her feet walk forwards, and suddenly she's being greeted by a tall man in a helmet, who smiles at Loki knowingly.

"Lady Richards, it is an honour to meet you." He bows. "I am Heimdall."

Lena is rather taken aback.

"Oh, thanks. Nice to meet you." She tries to curtsy, but finds her attempts at elegance failing her. Loki roars with laughter, and she hits his arm gently, blushing.

"Come on, then, show me Asgard." Lena looks up at Loki.

He smiles.

"Of course."