Hello, dear readers!

Here's another fluffy chapter. It contains Lord of the Rings spoilers just in case any of you haven't seen those.

I hope you like it!

I don't own Marvel's characters or any of the movies mentioned.

Our new life in the house soon became familiar and we fell into a comfortable routine. We'd eat together like we always had, I'd go running or biking in the afternoons when Loki was working on communications, and we'd watch TV or a movie at night. I talked to Fury twice a week: once to report on our activities and the second to confirm that we had gotten our supplies delivered. We had a quickly growing library of books scattered throughout the house. The Clarks stopped by occasionally, usually on Saturday afternoons, and we even went to their house a couple times. Fury was, of course, anxious about this, but conceded that it would strengthen our cover identities and allowed us to continue our visits as long as we gave full reports after each one.

I introduced Loki to The Big Bang Theory and Supernatural, as well as my favorite movies, especially the "girly" ones I hadn't watched since I moved onto the helicarrier. He didn't really care what we watched, though wasn't particularly fond of The Lion King. Every night we'd sit in the living room, Loki in the armchair and I on the couch, and watch something. If it was a movie night, we'd make popcorn. Loki didn't understand why I insisted we needed popcorn to watch a movie, but he accepted it as a strange Midgardian tradition.

About a month after we had moved in, Loki and I walked into the living room for another movie night. I put Phantom of the Opera into the DVD player and turned around to find Loki sitting on the couch, on the opposite end from where I usually sat. I hesitated a bit, but decided to sit in my usual place. As the movie began to play, I noticed Loki was watching me. I ignored him and settled into the couch, taking my bowl of popcorn from the coffee table.

Throughout the movie, I couldn't help but wonder why Loki had decided to sit on the couch instead of the armchair. The TV was facing the couch, so his usual seat was at a somewhat awkward angle for watching, but he had always sat as far away from me as possible. I snuck a few glances at him, even though his face was typically near impossible to read, and he was usually wrapped up in the movie, but a few times his head snapped back to the screen like a middleschooler trying not to get caught staring at... somebody.

I decided to ignore it for the time being. I didn't mind sharing the couch; there was plenty of space and Loki wasn't bothering me so it didn't really matter. Maybe he finally decided I was more than a merely tolerable human. Other than that our routine stayed the same, except our mealtimes started getting gradually longer.
_

A few weeks after Loki first moved to the couch, I left him in the kitchen to make popcorn, which he had grown to love, while I started the movie. We had watched Men In Black a few days before, so I decided to indulge my inner eight year old and watch Beauty and the Beast, one of my favorite princess movies. I had always wanted to live in a castle, especially one with a library like the one the Beast gave Belle.

I sat down and grabbed the remote, waiting for Loki before I pressed play. A few moments later he walked out with our popcorn and walked over to the couch. He didn't stop at his side, but took a few more steps and sat in the middle, next to me. I silently took my bowl from him and started the movie. This was very strange.

As the movie played on and Belle warmed up to the Beast, my mind wandered. I was shocked to realize that I didn't really mind Loki sitting so close to me, but I chalked it up to my limited interaction with other people for the past few months.

I kept thinking about how similar Loki and the Beast were. At first Loki had been moody and unsociable, but he had warmed up to me and was actually rather pleasant to be around now. It was hard to believe he was the same god that I had met months ago.

At the end of the movie I looked over at Loki and was rather puzzled when I saw him staring straight ahead with a stony expression. "Loki, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he ground out without turning to face me.

"What did you think of the movie?"

"I... I think I will retire now. Goodnight." He disappeared up the stairs, leaving me wondering what on earth had set him off. I took the popcorn bowls into the kitchen and went to bed, deciding not to worry about Loki until the next day.

Luckily he didn't put up the emotional walls I had gotten used to breaking down after he reacted to something like he had the night before, and Loki was acting normally at breakfast. I didn't mention the movie, just in case, but I was glad that whatever had triggered his strange behavior wasn't affecting him anymore.
_

One morning in early November I woke up to find the entire countryside covered in glistening snow. I ran outside and quickly discovered that it was far too cold to spend any significant time outdoors, so I decided that it would be good day to introduce Loki to Lord of the Rings. All of them.

At breakfast I told him to do whatever communications work he could in the morning so we could marathon the movies. We didn't have the extended editions, but it would still take over nine hours to watch them.

He looked up, a quizzical expression on his face, and remarked, "I believe you told me that a marathon is a long foot race."

"Yes, but it can also mean watching a series of TV shows or movies all at once," I explained, "which is what we're doing today."

Loki shook his head and mumbled something about strange Midgardian ways, but he complied and finished up his work before lunch.

We settled into the couch and I started The Fellowship of the Ring. I had to explain a few things to Loki, like what hobbits were and which was Merry and which was Pippin, but he paid close attention and seemed to be enjoying it. I watched him out of the corner of my eye, smirking when he flinched the first time the Nazgul screeched and when Bilbo tried to take the ring in Rivendell. His eyes widened when Gandalf fell with the Balrog in Moria and when Boromir tried to take the ring from Frodo. When the movie was over, I sent him to make popcorn and get drinks while I switched the discs.

Loki brought the food into the living room, and I pressed play as he sat down next to me. We had started using one large bowl for popcorn now that we sat next to each other.

Loki was understandably surprised when Gandalf revealed himself in Fangorn Forest and grimaced when Frodo fell into the Dead Marshes. I didn't blame him, that part had always creeped me out.

Before Return of the King, we grabbed a bunch of snacks from the kitchen. It was already nine o'clock, so we hurried to start the movie.

As Sam and Frodo got closer to Mount Doom, I found that it was getting harder and harder to pay attention to the movie. I kept drifting off and waking with a start as my head fell forward. Somewhere between Aragorn leading the army to Mordor and Barad-Dur and the Eye of Sauron collapsing I gave in to the tiredness in my eyes.

I was vaguely aware that I was no longer on the couch, but was moving somewhere and gently swaying. "What's going on?" I asked quietly.

"You fell asleep," a soft, familiar voice filtered through my foggy mind, "I didn't want to wake you."

"Mm... 'kay." I leaned my head against something cool but soft, that smelled a bit like peppermint. I was placed gently into my bed and the blankets were pulled up to my shoulders.

"Goodnight, Megan," the voice whispered.

I mumbled back, "Night, Loki," and snuggled into my bed.

Loki.

Suddenly I was very awake.

Loki had carried me upstairs to my room and tucked me in.

And instead of being shocked I was thinking about how sweet it was.

Dun dun dun.

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