A/N: I would have updated sooner but I was in the wilderness with no access to anything electronic and transferring the story from notebooks to the laptop and then editing it was surprisingly arduous. Thank you for all the lovely reviews, faves and follows, I'm glad Willow isn't coming off as a tree hugging Mary-Sue (even though she kind of is a tree hugging Mary-Sue).

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Willow.

Green is for chlorophyll

by Arasinyah

Chapter 11

"You're nearly 150 years old?" Steve exclaimed and Tony cleared his throat to redirect the attention to a different matter.

"Before we get to that, and we will get to that, did it work? The Mind Gem-"

"Erika." Loki and Willow said in unison and she grinned at pointed at him, "Jinx!"

"Lady Willow, I would not suggest setting a curse on my brother."

"I'm not your brother." Loki rolled his eyes.

"And I didn't curse him, it's just a children's game, you say jinx whenever someone says something at the same time as you." Willow explained.

"Who is Erika?"

"She's the Mind Gem."

Steve stepped forward, authoritatively."Tell us everything that happened from the beginning."

"I'll tell you what happened with Erika but not about the memories we went through, those are kind of personal." She darted a glance between Loki and Clint. The archer, well aware of exactly which memory she was talking about, flinched, turning his glare at Loki. "But basically we were just starting to go through Loki's parts and this little girl appears out of nowhere, tells us to stop taking her playmates away from her. We talked and she was lonely so I told her if she let everyone else go I'd leave her one of my happy memories to keep and she's have a friend and we gave her a name and she's all happy now."

"So you just asked her to let all the memories go?" Bruce asked.

"Yeah." She shrugged.

"You asked a sentient mind controlling gem holding deep dark secrets to forget them. And she agreed." Clint said flatly.

She shrugged. "Pretty much."

"I can't believe that worked."

"It often does, people are so hung up on being rejected that they never really ask anymore, just assume the answer is a negative and try something more difficult." She shook her head. "I don't understand them. I always ask."

"Great!" Tony smiled a fake, too wide grin. "So, moving on, apparently you're 150 years old?"

"No I turn 137 years old this summer."

"I thought you didn't celebrate birthdays." Loki smirked.

"We don't, we just have a big party once a year and call it everyone's birthday. But I turn 137 in the summer, remember the orchard?"

"What are you talking about?"

"One of the memories." Willow said. "You kind of had to be there."

"So now what?"

"I take Loki back to Asgard." Thor said stoically and Willow turned on him, an eyebrow raised sceptically.

"To face Asgard's arbitrary idea of justice?"

"The Allfather-"

"Oh I'd like to have some words with your father." Willow pursed her lips. "Maybe have a talk about how to be a parent."

"My father is-"

Huginn and Muninn swept down the night sky and landed on the railing of the bar startling Tony who was in the middle of pouring himself a drink.

"Son of a bitch!"

"Huginn, Muninn do your bring word from father?"

"The Allfather asks that Lady Willow be present for the trial of Loki Laufeyson."

Loki flinched but hid it behind a smirk he bestowed upon Thor. 'Call me brother now, I dare you' he seemed to say and Thor clenched his jaw but refused to meet his eye.

"Why is he called Allfather?" Willow asked with a frown

"Milady?"

"Well the King of Asgard, why is he called Allfather?"

"Sentiment."

"Brother, it is no-"

"Literally, sentiment, he isn't actually the father of everyone if that is what you think." Loki said quickly ignoring Thor.

"I had wondered, because the mythology says something like that which seems...icky."

"It is because he is wise and all knowing and treats all like his own child, ruling with the gentle hand of a father." Thor said in a booming voice but his audience was unmoved.

"You got exiled to Earth because you nearly started a war with Jotunheim." Willow said with a quizzical eyebrow.

"Yes." Thor admitted and Steve and Bruce frowned.

"And Loki tried to do the same before trying to off himself by jumping into a void." It was now Tony's turn to pull a face.

For the most part they stayed quiet, knowing full well that there were chunks of the story that they were missing out on. Even before Willow had travelled through the Mind Gem with Loki she had known the most about them having spoken with Huginn and Munnin at length while at the helicarrier.

"I remember." Loki said through gritted teeth.

"Just saying that maybe that title needs to be changed because as a father, he's not exactly been doing very well. If this is his idea of parenting then it's an epic fail."

"Will you attend the trial Lady Willow?" Thor asked in an attempt to change the subject.

"Why would I want to do that?" Willow said sweetly and leaned back against the chair. "Of course there is the question of how you'll be getting back, I presume you'll be using the Tesseract?"

Thor nodded.

"And you have it prepped for that use do you? You know what device is needed to open up a portal to Asgard?"

"Father has sent with me the plans for the device that needs to be created. I had hopes that Man of Iron would provide some assistance? I am not the best of creators and-"

"Don't needle the Tesseract too much." Loki said. "She doesn't like it."

"You know the Tesseract?" Tony said, sceptical, and Loki gritted his teeth.

"I have an affinity for her type of power, she is a door between worlds and I often tread the space between the branches of Yggdrasil."

"…What?"

"He teleports, he gets space travel." Willow wondered if her status on the team was just as a translator.

"But you do too." Bruce pointed out.

"Yeah but only on Earth, I'm very limited in how far and where I can go, the first time I tried to get to someplace I didn't know, I ended up over an ocean! Luckily there was a whale there and he gave me a lift to the nearest harbour. This guys goes from one realm to another easily."

"So 137 years? Really?" Steve asked, turning the attention back to her and she nodded. "Then what was all that about when you asked me what it was like growing up in the twenties?" He sounded greatly offended. "Were you just trying to get to-"

"Why is that your default setting? Every time someone tries to put you at ease you assume it's so that they can use you. You both said the same thing on the helicarrier once you found out about my empathy." She accused Bruce and Steve. "It's very annoying that you're suspicious of me and not S.H.I.E.L.D. but I suppose I should expect that, Steve's a soldier and he kind of likes having someone give him orders that he can follow and Bruce hates everyone but the Hulk is the emotional part of him and anyone with the ability to mess with that part is automatically a threat. Still, very annoying especially when I've done nothing to earn the suspicion."

They both had the grace to look abashed and muttered a soft apology.

"And for your information, I wasn't allowed off the estate until I turned a hundred. I aged slower than most people and my grandmother didn't want me going out until I at least looked like an adult even though I didn't act like one." She rolled her eyes.

"A hundred years in near isolation like that?" Tony said in disbelief. "Didn't you get bored?"

"Not really, the estate is huge, really huge, we even have a lake, a big one. The trees are old and they tell me stories of what they'd seen, I learnt about wars and skirmishes, even the odd love stories and the birds told me about the outside world and how it changed. I thought it was a fairytale for the longest time, that there wasn't actually anything behind the wall but then I went out into the world and…yeah."

"What did you do all these years?"

"At first I just roamed around, figuring out how everything worked and then I got into the swing of things but I 'roamed' into Lebanon which was going through its civil war. Helped out with that but eventually I had to leave there. Then I ended up in Vietnam which was dealing with the end of their war and I helped out with that. The pattern repeated itself. But as of late I've mainly been in Australia."

"Why?"

"Well I hadn't been there before and when I landed there I found out about the kangaroo. I just think they're fascinating." She looked off with a curious expression on her face. "You guys have no idea how much you're missing out on by not being able to talk to them, they are amazing, so, so amazing."

"You just spent the last five minutes talking about kangaroos." Tony deadpanned.

"They're worth it." She said seriously.

"So you really talk to trees?"

"I talk to everything, the grass, birds, trees, anything sentient or even semi-sentient really. I mean your houseplants have been giving me a rundown on their life with you ever since I got here."

"I have houseplants?!" Tony turned to where her thumb was pointed in surprise. They rustled despite the lack of a wind and Willow laughed.

"They say someone named Rhodey and Pepper made a bet to see how long it would take you to notice them. Apparently Pepper is going to win, she said you wouldn't notice them until something in the tower exploded. I don't think she expected the explosions to be from a battle with aliens though."

Tony spluttered.

"You…They really talk to you, don't they?"

"Well yeah, I just said that." She rolled her eyes.

"It's kind of hard to believe."

"Harder than the magic he does?" She pointed at Loki. "Harder than his magical hammer that only allows the worthy, an arbitrary and subjective state, to pick it up?" She pointed at Thor. "Harder than the alien army that you just fought? Harder than the super soldier or the scientist who goes a bit green and gigantic?"

"When you put it like that-"

"It is still harder to believe." Loki contributed to their conversation. "For one thing your very existence is unprecedented, you say that you just came to be. For the rest of us there is a certain basis of comparison that can be used, genetic mutations for the super soldier and the beast, different alien species from other realms for Thor and I but there is no such measure for you. In this set of wildcards, you are the wildest." He said calmly.

"You make it sound so terrible."

"It's not terrible but it is certainly strange. And given that the paradigm we are engaged in is strange to begin with that is not a good thing. In all my studies I have never come across such a case as yours and given the far reaching extent of my studies, that is odd."

"Studies?" Tony looked at Loki quizzically but Thor answered him.

"My brother is a well versed scholar, Man of Iron."

"I'm not your brother and you certainly weren't so proud of my studies when I was actually engaging in them. " Loki said pointedly and Thor looked to the ground gravely.

"Oh crud, he's going to go all emo on us again." Willow complained to Tony.

Luckily they were spared what would have inevitably been another round of Thor trying to ask Loki where he went wrong as his brother while Loki vehemently repeated that he was not his brother when Natasha came into the room dragging a large set of sleeping bags with her.

"What the hell?" The red head said looking at the two who were supposed to be in the Mind Gem in shock.

"What?"

"I dragged these sleeping bags all the way here for nothing?"

"Well not really, I mean I don't think any one of you is going to let Loki be alone."

"We can't leave Loki alone, I mean he may have been messed up in his head but that doesn't mean we just let him go." Clint backed Natasha up.

"I can keep an eye on my brother." Thor said and the rest broke off into various amused snorts and smirks.

"That's not going to happen Point Break, we all know that Reindeer Games has to just make puppy eyes at you and you're a goner."

"Puppy eyes?" Loki frowned, confused.

"Pout cutely." Willow clarified and the confusion changed to utter outrage.

"Cute?! Pout?!" Loki was indignant.

"You do have big anime eyes." Tony closed in to look at Loki and the god leaned away, mouth screwed up in distaste.

"Do you accept the Allfather's request?" The ravens chorused and she frowned.

"Not until I get more information on the nature of the trial and my role in it specifically, I'm not going to another world without knowing why."

"We do not know your role in the trial."

"Couldn't you ask?"

"We could."

"Will you ask? Because unless I know everything, I'm not letting him out of sight, certainly not to let him go to Asgard." She snorted.

"You are not fond of the Golden Realm, Lady Willow?" Thor asked, wounded by her distrust in his homeland.

"It's doesn't impress me much."

"But why-"

"You're asking a pacifist why she isn't fond of a warrior society." Loki commented wryly. "Might as well ask the Jotunn why they aren't fond of Muspelheim."

"I see."

"Do you?" Loki asked a gleam to his eyes. "Do you really? Allow me to elaborate, she doesn't like killing things, cannot stand the very thought of it so think hard and fast about why exactly she doesn't like Asgard where all everyone ever does is go on quests to kill things."

"All things considered, we really shouldn't be surprised that he tried to take over Earth." Willow said conversationally and Clint snorted in response.

"Doesn't make it okay."

"No but someone from S.H.I.E.L.D. passing judgement on what is or isn't okay is hypocritical and makes me laugh." Willow looked around the room with a raised eyebrow. "Bruce you used animals in your experiments when you tried to replicate the serum. But that was okay with you because they were lesser beings wasn't it, but wait that's what Loki said about you all when he tried to conquer Earth. Steve you're a soldier, you fought in war that you never wanted, never started yet you failed to think that maybe that was the case for the soldiers you killed too. Tony was known as the Merchant of Death for the longest time, I don't really need to elaborate why and Clint and Natasha, well I've read your files. You know why you're not the right people to judge. And Thor thinks of us as beneath him too, I can feel his amusement when he talks to us."

"Tiny, petty humans." Tony repeated.

"All in all none of you really get to say shit about Loki. Only I do honestly." She turned to him and punched him on his arm lightly. He didn't even flinch but she did. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have hit you."

"Oh yes, you'll fit right in with Asgard." Loki drawled sarcastically.

"So will you ask?" She repeated to the raven and with a bob of their heads they flew off. "Was that a yes or a no?" She asked the two Asgardians.

"Will you truly not come to the trial?" Thor almost pleaded and she sighed.

"Look, how long will it take to build whatever that thing is that your Dad sent the plans for?"

"I don't-"

"Two days at the very least." Loki interrupted.

"Great so you have these two days to explain the Asgardian system of 'justice' to me and then I'll make my decision."

"I insist that you come with us Lady Willow." Thor said imposingly puffing to his full height and trying to look intimidating. It might have worked if it wasn't for the fact that Willow wasn't even looking at him, far too busy looking out the window.

"Thor don't make me lift Mjolnir off his foot and take your prisoner away from you because I will keep Mjolnir just to be annoying and you will not like that." She said before giggling.

"What is going on?" Tony asked confused.

"There's a pigeon outside planning his attack on a group of kids, he wants the chips they have. It's a terrible plan and he's narrating it!" She laughed harder and Thor sulked. "Like some terrible comic book villain."

"There's a surplus of those going around."

Loki glared at Tony, clearly offended before schooling his face into a look of indifference.

"We should probably get some sleep now." Willow said diffusing the tension. "And Tony probably wants to say goodnight to Pepper-"

Tony's eyes widened and he let out a volley of curses. "I forgot to call Pepper! Oh crap she's going to kill me-"

He ran off and they were left in amused silence.

"We should set up shifts." Natasha said even as she rolled out a sleeping bag. "Someone needs to keep an eye on him." She lifted her chin in Loki's direction.

"You want to watch me sleep?" Loki said sceptically.

"A bit too Twilight-ish isn't it?" Willow's mouth curled in distaste. "Creepy. Besides, JARVIS can keep an eye on him can't he?"

"I shall engage Wake Up Protocol 12.6 if Mr Laufeyson tries to escape." JARVIS announced.

Natasha shivered, apparently familiar with Wake Up protocol 12.6 before looking over Loki. "He's a war criminal, Fury wanted him in secure holding but we don't have a cell for him anymore." She was reluctant to let someone else do her surveillance job for her but had also been up for almost 48 hours straight with most of those hours spent fighting and everyone else was in a state not unlike her own so she gave in.

"You mean a cell for me." Bruce said with a smile and Natasha shrugged.

"It wouldn't have held me anyway." Loki leaned back with a sigh and yawned. The action was contagious and slowly the inhabitants of the room succumbed to the need to sleep. By the time Tony returned from his call all the lights in the room had been shut off and an array of snoring sounds filled the room.

Wedged in a sleeping bag between Willow and Thor Loki, stayed awake. It reminded him of the many quests he'd been on with Thor and his friends especially when Thor stretched out his arm and smacked him in the nose with it.

He was tired. So, so tired but he could not sleep, not now that the snores had died down far enough so he couldn't hear them as much, when the lights were off and in the city even the stars weren't visible. Not now when he was reminded far too much of the void even as Thor's warmth steeped through the thin layers between them.

On his other side Willow shifted uneasily. She had been tossing and turning for quite a while now and a part of him was enjoying the fact that he wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep. When she threw off the covers and sat up with a loud sigh his smile grew and when she made another one of those starry lights in between her hand he sagged in relief.

"Can't sleep?" He asked, his voice low even as he smoothly got up and not a soul stirred even as Thor sighed and slept a bit deeper at the sound of Loki's voice.

"It's too quiet. And high up and metallic and all the other things I can't stand." She pouted. "What about you?"

A frisson of fear ran through him even as he smiled, sickly. "The sheets are too scratchy." He tried to say in his most high and mighty voice but instead it came off as petulant and he cringed.

"Oh, I thought it might have been because of the Void you fell into but-"

"How did you know?" He hissed.

"I didn't. I guessed because when I close my eyes I see you falling into it and that is not fun at all and is also in fact one of the reasons I can't sleep."

Concern, for him even though he'd tried to take over her world and sent her plunging through the sky in a steel cage, humans (well she wasn't quite human though, not quite a mortal either, simply a Midgardian) never failed to surprise him in their infinite capacity to feel.

"It wasn't fun living it either."

"What was The Void like?" She asked softly but he flinched like she had struck him with a white hot poker and she muttered an apology. They went back to staring at the world outside in almost silence, the only sound that of his suddenly heavy breaths and she curled up, berating herself.

"At first," He didn't look at her, every muscle taut and knowing his injuries she knew that must hurt. His voice came out scratchy and heavy and she mentally berated herself for asking the question. "At first it was terrifying. Nothingness all around, and to fall from Asgard which at its most dull is still so bright to a vacuum was…overwhelming."

"Sensory deprivation."

"Yes but after a while, I don't quite know how long, time has no meaning in the void but eventually I got used to it. It was almost peaceful, like sleeping for a long time, no nightmares , no dreams or thoughts just peace. When Thanos plucked me out of the Void I had forgotten how to think, to speak to exist. But I had also forgotten what it was like to feel pain, regret and all those other lovely things and they reminded me of it all. They..taught me how to speak again, I remembered everything eventually although how much of it was real and how much was warped by Thanos, I do not know." He frowned.

"Erika would have told you if he did though."

"I suppose."

"So what does Odin really want from me?"

"Maybe he just wants you to testify against me in the trial."

"Somehow I doubt it."

He smirked. "And why is that?"

"Well I would never testify against you, if anything I would to speak about your state of mind and get a lesser punishment for you which is what a father might want but-"

"But this is the trial of Loki Laufeyson not Loki Odinson." He finished for her.

"Exactly. So why am I really invited to Asgard?"

"Curiosity probably. A Midgardian who is not a mortal and has no idea of how she exists is an anomaly. Like I said before you're a wildcard and Odin is bad at improvising, he probably wants to know more about you."

"Sounds like S.H.I.E.L.D. I don't like S.H.I.E.L.D." She pouted. "But S.H.I.E.L.D. is scared of me. What would it take to make Asgard scared of me?"

He snorted. "A lot. Although maybe not as much as I think, your methods of scaring people are not the same as mine are they?"

"Probably. So should I go to Asgard for your trial?"

He was surprised that she was asking him for advice but didn't show it. She wouldn't have noticed any way, too busy biting her lip with a frown and he was glad for it.

"Won't do any harm. And maybe you could terrify Asgard while you're at it."

A slow mischievous grin took form on her face and was reflected on his own. "That could be fun."