Loki became a fixture at the tower. Every now and then Thor would take Loki with him on his visits to see Jane but under strict instructions not to cause trouble with Darcy if she was also there (so far the two of them hadn't done more than vanish to a fair and return with arms full of prizes – Jane was sure they hadn't won all of them but decided to leave them to their soft toys, what harm could it cause?) but Loki spent most of his time in the tower with Stark and Banner. Once in a while one of the Avengers would walk him around the city, something about needing fresh air but those trips weren't very often and it was usually just when Bruce wanted to go for a walk.

It was during one of the small walks out early in the evening that Loki got to explore New York by himself. It wasn't intentional, everyone was under strict instructions not to leave Loki unsupervised (JARVIS counted as supervision so he was allowed to wonder the tower alone) and Bruce wouldn't leave a child to wonder New York alone. Apparently one of the many supervillains was causing havoc a street over which led to a huge wave of people running along the street Loki and Bruce had been walking on peacefully.

Judging by the robots Bruce guessed it was Dr Doom. Loki didn't find out much about what happened because he was swept away by the stampede of people. Loki managed to keep hold of his shopping bag, which was filled with a couple of sweets, some bread and a few other lightweight food items but nothing to help him contact anyone. Loki looked around the best he could but found nothing recognisable.

Loki let out a sigh from where he stood at the edge of an alleyway (it was the only place he could escape the stampede), listening to the sounds of the battle in the background Loki could hear the jets of the Iron Man suit, the sounds of Mjolnir and the roars of the Hulk (little Loki had yet to meet the Hulk, nobody would let him meet the green guy). Loki assumed the rest of the Avengers were fighting the robots so nobody would come looking for him just yet.

Who knew when he would be able to wonder the streets alone again, Loki picked a street that didn't lead back to the battle and began walking, maybe he could walk around the battle back to the Tower, explore a bit on the way.

Several streets later and Loki regretted his decision. He should have stayed where he was, now he was lost and alone in the slowly darkening streets of New York City. There didn't seem to be anyone on the streets at all and the streets themselves were getting more and more scruffy and Loki was becoming more and more uncomfortable walking down them.

Another four streets and the sounds of battle could no longer be heard whether that meant Loki was too far away or it had finished he wasn't sure but either way Loki was walking around broken glass bottles, trying not to step on any shards that could possibly pierce through his shoes.

Loki was about to try another street when he found a sleeping man in an alley. He woke with a start when Loki edged towards him, slashing a knife in Loki's direction which caused the small boy to jump back out of harm's way but Loki stood his ground. The man in front of him remained silent but Loki could see the look of confusion as he noticed the blue skin.

"Why you sleeping out here?" Loki questioned but got no answer which Loki just pouted at with a huff, "Fine then, don't answer. Can you point me in the direction of Avenger's Tower, I am a bit lost."

The man stared at the boy for a long while, seemingly contemplating whether to help Loki or not but after a brief staring contest the man stood up. He reminded Loki of when he first met Sirius, rough, haggard and looking like he hadn't slept in months which made sense since Loki first met Sirius after he had been living in the wilds. The metal arm was different.

The man practically stumbled his way through the streets which Loki followed behind contently, happy that he wasn't forced to jog behind someone for once. By the time the odd pair was back in a nicer, more recognisable area of the city the man looked ready to collapse and Loki remembered he was still carrying shopping. Rummaging through the bag Loki pulled out one of the sweet bags and slid it into his pocket and ran in front of the man to make him stop, holding the bag out in front of him.

The haggard man just looked at him and the bag.

"Take it, as payment and appreciation for your help." The man shook his head and turned around, ignoring the small boy handing him food and walked back the way they came, "if you don't take this I'm leaving it here, then nobody gets it." Loki dumped the bag onto the floor and walked off down the street.

When he turned around at the corner of the street both the bag and the man were gone.

The only way Loki knew how to get back to the Tower was through the destruction zone of the earlier attack. It wasn't pretty but the damage was fixable, sadly there were no superheroes he lived with in the area. However there was Spiderman, he was talking with a group New Yorkers from his perch on top of a toppled car, bashfully accepting praise from the civilians, but Loki didn't know him at all.

Loki never got chance to ask the vigilante directly since a girl had walked up to him while he was distracted before kneeling beside him.

"Are you lost?" Loki span around at the sound of her voice, Loki just nodded and stared at girl, "where do you need to go? I'm sure we can get you home."

"The Tower, you can just point me, I'll be fine." Loki explained quietly and watched the girls eyes light up.

"Avengers Tower? Oh, I remember seeing pictures of you a few months back with the bird thing."

"That was Buckbeak, he's a Hippogriff."

"He was so pretty." Loki smiled, Buckbeak would be happy to hear that, "Looks like he's stopped preening his ego," the girl said, looking over at the red-glad vigilante who had spotted paparazzi incoming and snuck away from the apparent fans, "I'm Gwen by the way."

"Loki."

"Nice to meet you, Loki. Web-head, you want to visit the Avengers?"

"Yes." The hero replied immediately as he walked towards the duo, ducking behind cover to try and avoid cameras, he answered the confused look from Gwen, "I'm trying to give the Bugle as little ammo as possible, they see me here than they'll probably blame me for everything. Now why do I get to see the Tower?" Loki waved from behind Gwen's legs and could just about make out the surprised look, "Hello, you're unfairly cute in person. I guess you need a lift back to the Tower, little guy?"

Loki just nodded with a smile, "If you able to I would appreciate the lift back, I got separated from my escort earlier." The vigilante hopped to his feet and rolling his shoulders.

"'Course, little guy, long boring way or fast awesome way?" The masked man said, offering a hand to Loki after whispering to Gwen, "You okay getting home?"

"Of course, now go, I can see you buzzing with excitement."

Meanwhile in Avengers Tower everyone else was freaking out.

"Bruce, don't you have any idea where Loki is?!" Stark asked, shaking his hands through his hair. No one knew where Loki was, Clint, Thor and Steve were still scouring the city for him but had so far reported nothing.

"I've told you, I lost him in a crowd and then you needed me to help fight Doom bots. He could be anywhere by now." Bruce took a deep breath to calm down.

"Screw it, I'll go out in the suit." Stark made to leave the room but was stopped by a third voice.

"Knock, knock. Delivery for Avengers Tower." Came a third, muffled voice from behin. Spiderman was outside, attached by his fingertips and feet to the smooth glass of the building, on his back was a laughing Loki looking like he had been having the time of his life. Bruce was the one to go forward and open the window for the vigilante, honestly quite amazed he was able to hold on, it was extremely windy this high up.

Once Spiderman was inside he looked around the room while carefully peeling a layer of webbing off of Loki's hands and feet (safety measures when throwing yourself into the air with someone on your back were important) before setting Loki down on a sofa, it was originally going to be the floor but Loki didn't look capable of standing right now.

"You have got to stop your menacing ways Spidey, bringing lost children home, such a horrible thing to do." Tony threw an arm around the younger hero before sending a 'you're in trouble mister' look to Loki, "What did we tell you about wandering off?"

"I got lost." Loki said from where he was lying down on the sofa, grin still firmly plastered on his face.

"Explain later, thanks Spidey, JARVIS alert the others that Lokes has been found." Stark said, patting a rather star-struck teenager on the shoulder.

"I-it was nothing, really, j-just trying to help."

"I've wanted to ask you some questions for ages now. How does the web-swinging work?" You could almost hear the squealing coming from inside Spiderman's head as he talked science with Tony Stark and Bruce Banner.

Once Loki calmed down he grabbed the nearest StarkPad and began flipping through the internet. Todays' attack was minor, Loki was used to similar attacks now that he lived in the tower, New York was apparently the 'in' place to attack despite being where one of the major superhero teams lived; it seemed a little counterintuitive really. Loki couldn't find much else, the news articles quickly devolved into celebratory gossip and he was amused to find speculation about himself still floating around; theories mostly started since his appearance in the Tower at the start of Summer (a few appeared earlier after the Buckbeak incident). The main one most believed was that Loki simply came from another planet like Thor did but then there were the theories suggesting he was Tony Stark's love child with an alien or that he was a Government experiment that escaped and was now in Avengers custody to stop him destroying the world (they got hints of the theory right at least).

Loki's favourite was the one that said he was building an army of cats to take over Australia. He had no idea how this one started but he was still trying to get Stark to buy him a kitten.

Clint returned with a scowl towards Loki who just stuck his tongue out in reply ("Is that necessary brother?" "When he acts mature, I shall act mature") while Thor gave his brother a hug ("I thought something terrible had happened to you brother!" "You're squishing and deafening me!") while Steve just said he was thankful Loki was safe before asking him where he had ended up.

The captain didn't seem happy that he was wandering the streets alone, especially in such a dodgy area ("You almost reached Daredevil territory!" "He's really not that bad Stark") but ran from the Tower at the mention of the man with the metal arm, getting the directions from Spiderman who had glimpsed the direction Loki had arrived from.

Steve returned to the Tower hours later, when the rest of the Tower was eating pizza, disheartened, and collapsed in a heap on the sofa ("Gonna take your suit off?" "Not yet…"). The evening ended once all the pizza was finished and several bad films were watched. Spiderman left before it hit midnight ("Gotta go, got to get out early tomorrow!" he then jumped out the window with no further explanation) and Loki was put to bed at the same time, thoroughly exhausted from his exploring.

Just as he entered his room he was greeted with a tired owl and a letter from the Weasley's asking if he wanted to go to the Quidditch world cup. He agreed to go as long as he could bring some extra people along (Stark would pay). Loki didn't care about keeping magic a secret from muggles, Loki was right in the theory that people had already realised the wizarding world existed because after an alien invasion magic wasn't the hardest to believe.

I'm really not very good at keeping people in character :')

Loki and Darcy's stuffed toys were later used in the Great Noodle Wars, no toy remained clean from the horrors of that day. Jane's kitchen was never the same.