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"Phil, how are you?" Pepper Potts, the only person in the tower to look pleased to see him. The others didn't even try anymore to hide their betrayed looks.

"Miss Potts, nice to see you" Phil didn't remember the last time he had genuinely smiled. It had probably been before the incident.

"Pepper's home?" Phil almost chuckled at Tony's eager voice, almost imagining the look on the billionaire's face. One of full adoration.

Instead, when Stark entered the room, he frowned at his girlfriend. Had something happened while he had been…away?

"Hello, Mr. Stark" Pepper greeted the billionaire in the same teasely manner.

Tony swallowed and nodded.

Weird.

But Tony quickly composed himself.

"Coulson, how's life?"

"As long as I'm still breathing, good"

"Must have been fun being dead" Stark will always be Stark

"You have no idea"

"Hey, Pepper, did you remember to pick up those knives I ordered?" Natasha started talking before she entered the room. Phil saw her do a double-take when she saw Pepper. Well something was definitely off.

"Of course, Nat. They're somewhere in my luggage. I'll give them to you as soon as I unpack"

"Lady Pepper's here? I wonder whether she has brought me the Pop Tarts" Of course, Thor was somewhere in his own room, yet his voice could be heard by everyone standing in the living room, despite it being many walls away from the god of thunder's room.

Pepper chuckled and shook her head before turning to Phil.

"Why don't you take a seat, Phil? I've heard you are here on a mission and that you are going to stick around some time"

After lowering himself on the couch, making sure his suit didn't wrinkle, Phil answered, still watching Tony and Natasha as they looked ready to attack, "

Yeah, Fury decided some bonding time with the team would be good for me." A new realization struck him and said "I'm sorry for the pain my death might have caused you, Miss Potts." Pepper looked a bit embarrassed and tried to brush his apology off, so he tried to change the subject. "I have already apologized to the Avengers for misleading them into believing I was dead, but it's not easy to remember to which person you have to apologize for being alive." That didn't even make them flinch. At least Stark. It had never been easy to get a reaction out of Natasha. Yet, seeing Pepper made her look shocked.

"Pepper, do you mind giving me those knives now, I have some training to do" Natasha spoke for the first time. Phil had realized she didn't acknowledge him, but after seeing Stark's reaction, he realized each of them were trying to cope with the betrayal differently. Even he had been picking up missions he didn't have to, or paperwork, anything, really. It's easier to focus on smaller tasks.

Pepper hesitated, before nodding. Had that been a threatening tone that Nat used? No, it's impossible, thought Phil.

"Yeah, now that I think about it, I also have something to do in the lab. Won't be gone for long"

Phil smirked, if Tony entered his lab, it would be a long time before he saw the man again. Phil heard something land behind the couch, but he hadn't gone into attack mode. Who else could hide the vents?

"Clint. Made yourself at home, I see"

Phil turned his head so that he could see the archer. Clint looked way better than he had while being controlled by Loki. Coulson took in his former agent's appearance. Barton didn't seem to carry any kind of weapon in the sweatpants and T-shirt. That was a miracle, really. Living with other people and not carrying his ever-present knife, or at least gun. The team did wonders on his trust issues.

"Coulson" Clint barely nodded.

'Look, I'm-'

'Spare me the apology, Coulson. Told you it's alright. Stop pushing" Clint cut Coulson off.

"I was gonna say I'm going on a mission and I'll be gone for a while, so be careful" Phil managed not to smile when he saw Clint's reaction. Phil thought Clint knew him better than to think he was going to beg for their forgiveness.

"Oh, yeah, sure" Clint shook his head "I mean, we've managed not to kill each other before so it's not like your coming back from the dead is going to change any of that."

"Right, well" Phil raised his hand for Clint to shook it, but Clint ignored him. "Goodbye"

"See ya"

Phil turned towards the door, wanting to leave, but a hand caught his shoulder.

"If I were you I'd say goodbye to the others. You can't take back what you and Fury did, but you can try to fix things at least now. After you *died*, you've been made an Avenger. You're still part of the team, Phil, and no matter what happens, we stick together."

Phil only turned after he heard something move in the ceiling. He made another step towards the door, but turned around and headed towards the source of the voices.

"Nat, I'm hurt, I thought we were friends" Loki smirked "Don't you remember when we used to braid each other's hair?"

Natasha ignored him and continued to drag him as far away from Coulson as possible. She entered her own bedroom and shut the door.

Loki could have made a joke about the place she decided to hide him, but Agent Romanoff was already pretty angry despite being extremely good at hiding it.

"What did you do to Coulson? Why did he think you were Pepper and mostly, do you have a death wish?"

"I did not do anything to Agent Coulson. Merely an illusion and no, I do not have a death wish. Actually-"

Loki was rudely interrupted by an angry looking billionaire. Before Tony managed to ask anything, Loki answered the questions that have been running through Stark's mind by repeating what he had just said to Romanoff.

"You as Pepper, that is not something I want to think about. No offence" Tony shuddered.

"None taken. Now, I suppose you are going to take me back to my room and lock me there for uhm, maybe eternity?" Loki snapped.

The god of lies expected some sarcastic reply from one of them, but he realized they weren't looking at him anymore, but they were looking at something behind him. From the shocked expressions, Loki expected to see Thor in a wedding dress, but what he saw when he turned around was far scarier.

"Son?" Frigga, his mother-adoptive mother actually was there in all her royal grace and long, beautiful pale-turquoise dress.

"Mother? What are you doing here? Is everything well?" Loki silently cursed himself for showing that kind of weakness in front of Stark and Romanoff, who were still staring at the scene before them, not daring to interrupt, now that they were sure the intruder didn't have any kind of weapon at her. Of course to think that the woman who thought Loki everything he knows and who had raised both Thor and Loki would need any weapon is silly.

"I am afraid not, Loki." And before answering the questions she knew were now running through Loki's mind, she turned her attention towards the two Avengers "You must excuse my rudeness. I am sorry for entering your home without permission. I am Frigga, Loki and Thor's mother, queen of Asgard."

Natasha bowed her head having been taught how to act around royalties. She nudged Tony in the ribs and he quickly mimicked her actions by bowing his head, too.

"I am Natasha Romanoff and this is Tony Stark. We are Thor's friends and teammates."

"I have heard of you. Would you please bring Thor here? Asgard needs its princes."

Natasha nodded and seeing as Tony wouldn't move from his place, she walked up to the door and opened it only to reveal Phil Coulson standing there with the 'you've got a lot of explaining to do' look on his face.

Loki cursed under his breath, receiving a warning look from his mother. The Queen of Asgard stepped between her son and the man that just entered the room, sensing the tension between them.

"Coulson, we can explain" Tony hurried to speak before the whole thing became more messed up than it already was.

"Explain, then. Why is the man who murdered me, here? And why are you hiding him from SHIELD?' Phil was shaking with rage and Natasha thought that was a good thing. He may not think straight at the moment, but he always calms down eventually

'Let's not talk about who's hiding what around here. Let's just not go there. Because you don't have the right to tell us keeping secrets is bad or that it gets people hurt, because we've experienced it firsthand." Tony took a deep breath "Now we can't sit around and talk about our feelings. Thor's mother came here from Asgard and it's clear there is an emergency so someone should get Thor's ass here so we can all find out what happened"

"Mother's here?" Thor's voice echoed down the hall, being heard just a few seconds before his big frame appeared at the door.

"Son" Frigga nodded and Thor did the same. No 'I've missed you hug, no nothing'. Must be the etiquette, or something. Tony thought.

"Okay, so the first question I want to ask is: is Earth in danger?" Phil was, surprisingly holding himself together.

"No. Not yet, anyway. I have noticed Odin hasn't been himself after you two left" Frigga gently placed her hands on each of her sons' shoulders

"At first I thought it was merely because he felt guilty about Loki's punishment. But as time passed by, I have realized he wasn't himself. He wasn't Odin anymore. He started punishing people for anything. He even demanded that I stopped using my magic for all. I have fought with him when he suggested I should give it to him." she blinked a few times, as if to make sure the tears that weren't actually there didn't fall. "I do not know what happened to your father or who this impostor is, but I need your help to make sure Asgard won't be destroyed by a tyrant,"

"We shall come with you back home, mother. Right, Loki?" Thor turned to his brother with pained eyes.

"Yes, of course. I only wish to have a word with Agent Coulson, if you don't mind."

Coulson found himself nodding.

The man and the god walked out of the room. The murderer and the murdered.

Loki stopped abruptly and turned his head so that he could see the man properly.

"I was sent here to ask for forgiveness from this planet and it seems I will not have enough time to do so. I can only apologize to you for trying and succeeding to kill you. If it makes any difference, I did not expect you to die, but unfortunately you did and the fact that you and my brother's team are not on the best terms is my fault and I have truly wished to mend that"

"By making yourself look like Miss Potts? I sincerely doubt that is the best method." Phil replied. The whole business was a bit too weird for his taste. He did not, however, hold a grudge against the trickster. Not anymore. He had had enough time to plot his revenge and to realize how pointless that was.

"Yes, I suppose that has been a rather unorthodox method. I apologize for deceiving you." Loki chuckled, but it wasn't an evil kind of chuckle. Just a proud one.

"I have to admit you could have fooled Stark himself"

"I would rather not think of that" Loki frowned

"Yeah, me neither"

Phil couldn't say the conversation made him magically trust Loki. No, he was as far away from that as possible. But if the team thought the god deserved to be helped a bit, even if they only thought that because of Thor, Phil would made an effort not to tell Fury about him. Not yet anyway. One wrong step and Fury would be coming to get the god.

Sometimes Coulson thinks Fury has been more angry for Phil's death than Phil himself.

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