A/N: YATTA! 100 FOLLOWERS! I'M SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW, I GIVE YOU ALL CYBERNETIC/IMAGINARY HUGS! WOOHOO! I LOVE YOU ALL! as a gift and big thank you to all my readers, followers, favorite-ers, and reviewers: longer chapter.

Thor sighed as he stepped back into Stark Tower. It was good to be back home...he thought to himself.

Back in the nest of utter cacophony and dysfunction. After a few days of hanging out with Jane in peace and quiet, he felt as though a deaf AND blind man could have heard and seen the...chaos...in the building.

And coming from Thor, that meant CHAOS.

In the room by the piano, Loki was playing a violin and performing some sort of strange quasi-dance with it and Phil was trying - very unsuccessfully - to imitate him. In the living room Thor had just stepped into, Natasha and Clint were yelling at each other about one thing or another and it ended with a heavy book flying at the archer's face while in the adjacent room Pepper and Tony had a similar conversation ending with another object thrown at the male participant - though in this case it was a shoe. Banner was looking very stressed out in the lab and Rogers kept throwing angry, wary glances in Loki and Phil's direction as subtly as he could as he read a book upside-down, showing that he was more preoccupied with the god of mischief and their de-aged agent than the words printed on the pages before him.

Yep. Home sweet home.

"THOR!" Phil shouted and ran over to the god, squealing with delight as the thunder god picked him up and threw him up in the air to catch him a few seconds later. "You're home!"

"Yes, I'm back. What is Loki playing?" he asked the boy seeing that he was ready to explode at the seams.

"It's a violin! He learned how to play it in two hours and he's really good, isn't he?" Phil asked eagerly, bouncing with the hyper energy of a five year old.

"Yes, he is," Thor said sincerely and Loki stopped playing to look at his sibling with worry.

"You complimenting me? Since when?" he asked shocked and Thor rolled his eyes.

"Since Jane taught me to be nice sometimes," the blonde responded and Loki shook his head in bafflement.

"All it takes is a woman to change you then? What if I'd been your sister?" Steve choked on the cup of tea he was drinking and everyone looked at him, including the arguing agents.

"I'm sorry, Loki as a girl?" the super soldier asked, coughing strangely to cover up laughter. "I'm sorry, just...no." A sudden gleam showed up in Loki's eyes and with a strange swirling magic a tall woman with long black hair and green eyes stood before them.

"OH GOD, CHANGE BACK!" Clint shouted and ran to the other room in horror. Loki began laughing and there was another burst of strange swirling magic and the she was back as a he. Romanoff and Steve had rather disturbed looks on their face and the arguing had stopped from the adjacent room.

"Did Loki just turn into a girl?" came Tony's voice and Thor nodded, smirking.

"We used to do that with our babysitters as children. They would be so confused. Phil, you look baffled."

"Why was Loki suddenly a girl?" he asked, looking up. "How do you know Loki is a boy? He could be actually a girl, but masquerading as a guy his - or would it be her then - whole life?" There was an awkward silence.

"Um, we really don't," Thor answered slowly and Loki looked insulted.

"I am a guy. That is insulting - " One of the pillows from the couch hit the back of his head with slightly painful force and he looked over his shoulder to see Romanoff examining a kitchen knife.

"You were saying something about being a woman in insulting?" she asked innocently and Loki immediately shook his head. "That's what I thought."

"No threatening people under asylum with knives, Romanoff," came a firm voice and they looked around to see Fury standing in the doorway. "Carry on, I'm just here to check in on Bann - "

"NICK!" shouted Phil and ran over to tackle the director in a big hug. The man didn't look amused.

"Come on, Phil. Nick has some things he needs to do, why don't you go and draw?" Loki asked tactfully, leading the boy away to his room. Fury raised an eyebrow.

"Since when did he become the Phil whisperer?" he asked and everyone shrugged. "I find it slightly alarming that the man who tried to kill Phil is the only one who has some measure of control with him."

"Steve has control over him," Pepper said as she entered the room, and Tony laughed.

"Yeah, sure. He's got respect for Capsicle over there because he takes literally every word out of that guy's mouth as gospel."

"Not my fault I'm his icon," Steve protested and went back to reading, only to finally realize that the book was upside down. "It really makes me uncomfortable," he added, scrambling to turn the book back upright.

"And yet for a good part of your life you went around the country singing and doing propaganda dances," Tony teased and the super soldier reddened, trying to disappear into the couch. "Oh don't be shy, Captain! Why don't you demonstrate for us? How did it go...who's strong and brave, here to save the American Way?" At the sight of her boyfriend's antics, Pepper tactfully led the Director over to where Banner was working. Romanoff perched on the arm of the chair and waited for the more...interesting show to begin. "Who vows to fight like a man for what's right night and daaaaayyyyyy?!"

"TONY I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Steve shouted suddenly and vaulted over the back of the couch to chase the billionaire out of the room. Yep, there was the more interesting show, Romanoff thought to herself and randomly said to the empty room,

"My money's on Stark."

"STARK?" came a disbelieving voice from the vent and Barton dropped down to the floor. "How Stark? My money's on Rogers." Romanoff looked around at him.

"Oh, Tony's got J.A.R.V.I.S." The archer nodded in contemplation.

"Good point. Despite the fact that Steve has J.A.R.V.I.S. practically in his pocket." Romanoff's head whipped around again.

"Since when?"

"Ever since Tony blasted 'Star Spangled Man With A Plan' at five in the morning to wake him up. He put a morality coding into J.A.R.V.I.S.'s system so that from now on, it questions what it's doing."

"And how does Steve of all people know how to do that?" Nat continued, still not convinced.

"Oh, a specific giant green rage monster may have helped. I mean, Tony woke him up by blasting 'If You're Happy And You Know It.'"

"Is he trying to get killed?"

"Tony always lives on the edge," Clint assured her and they looked up again briefly as Steve walked calmly back into the room and sat down to read the book. "Problem solved?"

"Oh, yeah. He locked himself in his room and is debugging J.A.R.V.I.S. I was hoping that morality coding would last a bit longer."

"Yeah, me too," the agent sympathized and retreated to the archery range for some more practice after Nat threw one last tease at him.

"Told you my money would be on Stark!"

"Shut up..."

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Loki watched as Phil sang softly to himself and carefully drew a picture of him and Loki holding hands and walking by the beach outside Stark's House. In the boy's style, everything was meticulously drawn in the artist's endeavor to make sure everything was perfect.

"Are you going to leave soon?" the boy suddenly asked, and Loki immediately stood up.

"I'm sorry, I'll leave you alone - "

"No, I meant..." Phil protested, turning around to look sadly at the god. "Are you going to leave...Midgard soon?" Loki sat back down by the boy and sighed.

"I don't know. In fact, I may never actually be able to go back to Asgard, but I'll have to leave Midgard," he explained softly and Phil frowned in contemplation.

"How does that work?" The prophecy whispered through Loki's mind once more.

"I hope you never have to find out, Phil." Phil set down his pencil and set his head on his folded arms, scrutinizing the Frost Giant.

"Do you wanna leave?"

"No, of course not," Loki immediately assured him, the child tilting his head to the side in bafflement.

"Then, why don't you just stay?" he said as though it were the simplest thing in the world. Loki sighed and shook his head, sitting beside the boy, gently dropping his arm about the small one's shoulders as he snuggled into his side.

"It isn't that simple." Phil hmphed in disappointment and went back to scribbling.

"It never is," he responded, slightly bitter and the adult shook his head in agreement, rising and moving towards the door.

"No. It isn't. I wish the whole world was as simple as black and white, but there is no such thing as black and white in the world. Just shades of gray." Phil set down his pencil and turned to face the adult just as he was about to leave the room, door even half-open.

"What aren't you telling me?" he asked accusingly. The dark haired man looked taken aback. "You're sad about something. You don't want to talk about it because it makes you sad. It makes you scared. I can tell because you look so...upset whenever you see me!"

"It has nothing to do with you," Loki responded and looked down at his lap, trying to avoid the topic. But if there was one word that described infant Coulson, it was tenacious.

"Tell me. Or I'll guess, and it will be the right answer." Loki still didn't respond, and Phil cleared his throat as though in preparation to get a large burden off his chest. "You're gonna die."

Add highly perceptive to the list of words that describe him, Loki thought startled and gaped at the boy.

"Told you it was the right answer," the boy said sullenly and looked down at his drawing in disgust. "It looks terrible. It looks terrible because I know it will go away!"

"I - what makes you think I'm going to die?" the adult stammered. Phil looked at him.

"You look sad." Loki frowned, uncomprehending. "When you think we...I...can't see you," the boy elaborated, that sense of him being older returning. "Are you okay? And don't...just say you are, because I know what that means, looking sad when you think we can't see...Everyone thought that about me. They thought I couldn't see, but I saw everything. I still do. You think you're gonna die. That's why you told me that you may never go back to Asgard but you have to leave Midgard."

"I...I don't know what to say - " the fugitive responded, stumbling over his words, and felt his throat constricting with something suspiciously close to anguish.

"Just tell me if I'm right," the boy whispered, looking down at his drawing, fingers creasing the edges ever so slightly in hidden turmoil. "Just tell me if I'm right. Are you..." he let the question hang in the air and Loki took a sharp breath and withdrew his arm from Phil's shoulders.

"I am going to die," Loki finally whispered and when the words were out of his mouth, he felt the fear, the anger, and the sadness that he had been holding back threaten to overwhelm him, and he ground the heels of his hands into his forehead. "I'm going to be killed."

"It's okay to be scared that they will find you - " Phil began, turning to the god, but Loki interrupted again.

"No. It's not me being scared. This is a fact set in stone. There are these things called the Fates that can predict the future, and they are never wrong. You can't stop their prophecies from coming true, ever. If the Fates tie the last thread of your tapestry and finish your story...it ends."

"When?" came the boy's small voice from in his arms, and the adult realized he was hugging the boy as though his life depended on it. And the grip was reciprocated.

"After I save someone four times. I haven't saved anyone four times, and there was no indication of who it was that I was supposed to save." Phil was silent for once, thinking, and then a brief flicker of fear and realization showed in his eyes, quickly masked.

"I won't let you die, Loki!" he proclaimed and hugged the god tighter. "I'll get big again and then I'll make sure no one ever hurts you, never, ever again. They come close I'll chase them away with a cricket bat!" Concerned, Loki pulled away and made the boy make eye contact with him.

"Phil, if they come for me, you need to run. You need to run as fast as your legs can carry you as far away as possible. Thanos will kill you just for the fun of it. And he'll make me watch. He'll make them all watch, do you understand?" He cupped the boy's face in his hands and looked at the young, brave features before him. "He will destroy us all. Starting with you. I almost did that once a long time ago, and I can't allow anyone else to."

Phil nodded and took a deep breath, standing up. He was much subdued and Loki could tell. He felt slightly guilty for making the boy downcast, but the child had been annoyingly right: he had needed to tell someone other than Thor about what was going on.

"Can we go outside? I promise I'll be more careful not to call you Loki," Phil offered. The Asgardian prince sighed and looked around at the air vents. He had noticed a silhouette there a few minutes ago.

"Don't look at me," came a voice and Phil jumped, looking even more guilty than he had before. "I'd say you can go wherever you want, but you may want to not check in with Fury before you leave. He's kinda in a wound up mood."

"Thanks Clint!" Phil shouted and ran out of his room to get his shoes from their hiding place under the couch. The vent creaked open and Barton dropped in, making Loki look very uncomfortable.

"You're dying," he said plainly and Loki shook his head.

"No. I'm going to be killed after I save someone four times. I don't know when I'll die and I don't know who will kill me," the god explained lowly and Clint put a hand on his shoulder.

"Well...go and live your life like you're gonna die," he recommended. "I'll cover for you. Go out with Phil; I think he'll like climbing on the playground." Loki gave a brief smile and put his own hand on Clint's shoulder.

"Thank you." The archer nodded and left the room with the god, beelining for the lab and asking questions with aggravating speed. Fury and Banner both looked like they wanted to throw him out, but his questions must have been good ones because they were actually engaging in conversation with him.

"Come on, Phil," Loki whispered and, taking the boy's hand, crept past the lab door and entered the elevator. They both relaxed when the doors closed and Phil laughed.

"That was fun! Can we sneak around more?" he asked, looking up and Loki shrugged.

"Where do you want to sneak around?" The boy smiled at the masked consent and bounced eagerly on his feet. "So, do you want to go over to the park around the corner? It has a playground that is apparently good for climbing."

"Sure!"

"Well, I'll have to change my appearance...Loki wandering the streets won't be taken too well," the dark headed man mused mischievously, and Phil grinned.

The desk attendant looked up briefly in that habitual, lazy way of desk attendants as the elevator doors opened to reveal a small boy with a large, entirely black and green eyed alaskan malamute by his side. She began looking down but immediately looked back up when her brain finished processing what she had seen.

Phil smiled at the lady behind the desk. She had really thick, round glasses that made her eyes look magnified and bug like and she had frizzy bright red hair. There was something weird about her, the boy decided and waved at her as he walked out of the building. Disconcerted, she gave a hesitant half wave before shaking herself out of her taken aback stare.

That was weird, she thought and turned back to her crossword puzzle. Now, what was the Roman name for Zeus?

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Loki initially balked at exiting the tower. The noises and the smells of the city were all to sharp with his canine senses, and he wasn't keen to go waltzing out into the world of pollution. But his charge was wandering blindly out into the sidewalk, so he padded out after him, sneezing as he took in too big a breath near the street. People were staring at him, pointing, kids smiling. Finally, a little girl ran up to him and asked Phil if she could pet him.

"Uh...sure?" Loki glared at him, but, before he could run off, the girl tackled him in a hug and scratched behind his ears. Strange how a murderer who people hate could be loved by little children when he was a dog, the god thought to himself and proceeded to shake himself so that the child let go and ran back over to her mother, waving to the strange boy and his dog.

"Sorry, Loki. I guess you didn't like that so much," the boy said to the animal and got a low growl in response. "Well, what was I supposed to do? Say oh no, he's got rabies?" Loki looked at him pointedly. "No. I'm not telling people that you have rabies." Phil shook his head and ran ahead, heading for the group of people at the corner of the intersection to wait for them as the light changed. Loki shook his head and was about to look away to watch the streets when he saw a bicyclist coming around a blind corner, on a collision course with Phil. His head rapidly played out the scenario that would follow: the angle was just right that Phil would be knocked over into the turn in the street, into on coming traffic. A car was approaching that corner at a high speed, planning to turn and the math added up to an unfortunate event. Loki barked loudly and began running, throwing his head side to side to shove people out of the way. Phil turned around at the bark just in time to see the bike nearly upon him and he threw his arms up in defense as the rider tried too late to brake.

But then Phil felt something warm, fuzzy, and huge tackle him to the ground, only to yelp and be knocked off of him.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" the bicyclist shouted and dismounted his bike. "Are you okay? Is your dog okay, I hit him with my bike, I'm so sorry!"

"Loki?" the boy asked, disoriented as people gathered around him. "Loki!?" Loki looked up from where he was draped over the curb and whimpered as he got to his four feet, holding his right front paw up off the ground. "You okay? Did you just save me?" Loki shook his head at the first point and nodded for the second. Phil sighed and stood up, sticking close to his friend as they walked back to the tower, leaving a crowd of very confused people.

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"Let's not go outside again," Phil finally said in the awkward silence.

"No. No, definitely not. Nope," Loki answered quickly and looked down at his sling. "Yeah, definitely not." Phil looked at him and frowned.

"I got it the first time." They were seated in the living room, Loki reading and Phil making a puzzle. Domesticity was much better than the outside world, Loki thought, settling back into the couch. In the outside world, he was always saving Phil from the dangers of Midgard.

What had it been, three times now?

A/N: Three times, readers. Right about now, my evil Joss Whedon discipleship is kicking in. I give you a happy Klingon face! }:)