Is anyone still reading this? I am just lost in the fluff now... ahem...

I mean no copyright infringement, and I am not claiming to own the Avengers films - I haven't even seen them!

TapTap

Steve awoke with a smile on his face and the comfortable warmth of Loki in his arms, sighing in happiness at having him there again. The mere was sleeping peacefully, giving his human lover the impression that - while Steve had slept badly and less than usual on his own - the mere had slept even less, if at all. And he had been ill. Steve resolved to simply hold him until he had slept his fill.

It was several hours later, and Steven had drifted in and out of sleep, when Loki finally awoke, stretching his lithe limbs like a large, sleepy kitten, giving Steve an irresistible urge to kiss him on the nose.

"I am supposed to go swim through the sundown with my subjects tonight" Loki mumbled softly after his lover had indulged in this urge "but I never want to move ever again..." "it's a long way to sunset" Steve mumbled back into his lover's hair. "You're suggesting I will grow tired of you so easily?" Loki replied somewhat critically, speaking in turn into Steve's hair, the two of them tangled together and not wanting to move even an insh.

"No, not really, but I never said you'd never come back again" the human teased the mere playfully. "I could capture you and use you as a plaything" Loki murmured in reply, seemingly meant as a playful threat, but with his face hidden in Steve's hair, it mostly came off as a strange variety of a sweet murmur.

"No you can't" Steve critiqued softly "meres do not kidnap and use people. Drown them, yes, and feed them to sharks and killer whales, also yes, but not that". " No" Loki's smile was very amused - it was so obvious sometimes how much the human learnt from his mother and Thor's wife, as he almost sounded like them sometimes - "we only play with willing victims..." He grinned and shifted smoothly, making Steve end up underneath him.

"Obvious" the human scolded his mere partner, but still smiling no matter how critical against the move he pretended to be, and he let the mere prince kiss him without even feigning objection. It is hours before they even leave their bed.

When they finally did, the sun was so high in the sky that it slanted in through the masses of water, and they watched the colours in the water after they bathed, as they sat down in the cozy little study with a late-ish brunch.

"I have missed this" Loki confessed softly, as they sat together, close enough that their sides were touching. He raised a hand to stroke down the human's cheek, smiling as he leant into his hand, eyes automatically closing "so have I" Steve confessed in a low voice. "So have I".