A/N Hello and welcome to the second part of the Snapshot series. I couldn't resist coming back to this sandbox and I always knew as I finished the first part that I was not done playing around in it and I hope you guys like it too. Anyway so let's go and see how this is received.

PART 2

Three months later.

Loki walked the length of the school hallway. He kept his head down, he was aware like he always was that there was eyes on him. Everyone he passed watched him and fell into silence.

The first few weeks they had been discreet about their curiosity, however now, they no longer cared how obvious it was that they stared. They flung words at him. It was not mocking. And it was not ridicule. It's words of praise. He had done something incredible. He had saved the City, more importantly he had saved earth's mightiest heroes. And it was something that was not going to die down any time soon. He was reminded so often how much he had done for others.

Sometimes there was a slap on his back of congratulations and he never looked back. He never turns around to see who it is from. It doesn't matter to him anymore. He had to admit that the first few weeks when he had come back to school receiving the compliments from his peers and kids who had never so much as breathed in his direction had felt good. It was like making amends for what he had done in his past life. But the compliments and the admiration soon began to infuriate him. He just wanted to be left alone. Like he had always been treated.

He got invited to a lot of parties and got the opportunity to hang out with the kids he had once hated and he had turned down every single request. They were phony and fake and they just wanted to be his friend because he had some kind of status now and they wanted part of that. He was "cool" in their eyes.

He told the Avengers about it. How stupid this was for him to be back at school how children treated him and they said what they always said that he needed this, he needed to be normal.

How the fuck was he normal?

Why was normal so goddamn important to them like any one of them were freaking normal.

Loki pulled the cap of his hoodie over his head as he was about to pass a group of football players, they were the worst. They who had ceasingly belittled him before now wanted to drag him into their crowd. As if.

"Hey Loki." He felt a palm on his shoulder, strong and athletic squeezing his muscle.

"Fuck off." Loki shrugged the hand off his shoulder and walked faster his eyes was on the exist. He could have disappeared right the hell out of there if he wanted to because he could, but that was just another prerequisite of his new life, no powers at school. Wouldn't want to freak out the normals.

But they'd seen the footage, they knew what he could do, they'd even played it for him in class, someone had shoved a phone in his face and there he had been. As dogs from hell surrounded him and Odin whispered commands to him and he turned the ground into something movable and the earth had been his. He had watched the video with some interest, it was shaky footage from a phone and it was all over YouTube with over a million views and then Loki's mind had flown into blind rage and he had turned the phone into a ball of fire. That was when he was nearly suspended for good, but Pepper Potts, public relations disaster management expert had given them a how would it look if the school dismissed a hero scenario and that had backed them off. But he was banned from using whatever superior strength he had. Loki wished the school had let him leave because personally it would have been freedom from this joke. This joke he was now desperately trying to escape from. He reached the exit and felt the cool breeze on his face.

He nearly smiled but he noticed the eyes on him. Like they were expecting something from him. Every day it was the same running this gauntlet of faces and gazes. And he was relieved to see that there was three black unmarked vans already parked out across the road, he brushed the hoodie off his head and swept his hair back with his hand and was close to running through the gate. If there was Shield vans that meant the Avengers were away. He hated that feeling but he felt it immediately he was relieved that they wouldn't be home when he got there.

There was one agent standing in a black suit, he wore black Ray bans even though there was no sun shining and the day was overcast, he had an ear piece in one ear. He's name was Agent Williams but that had quickly fallen by the wayside when he had instead insisted that Loki please call him Pete after working Loki's route for a day. Everyone else called him Pete and Loki had nodded. Pete was young and new. One of many new agents that had replaced the ones that had been lost in the city's battle. Out of the frying pan into the flames. He was eager to please and eager to show his worth. He had been nothing but a student until a few months ago now he was out in the field. And he had a wife and young child who had not joined him yet in New York everything had happened so quickly and Loki got the feeling that he was lonely out here in a city that was recovering. Loki also had the feeling his wife was reluctant to come join him in the city and who could blame her really after everything that had happened here.

"Avengers are at SHIELD for a meeting so we're your detail for the day." Pete said to Loki holding the back door open of the van. Loki wondered why nobody had messaged him to tell him that they were leaving and would send an entourage like they usually did. It must have been so important that they had forgotten to do that.

"When did they leave?" Loki asked just to be saying something. Pete pushed the sleeve of his jacket up and looked at his watch and then back at Loki.

"I got the call about an hour ago so they must have left right before then." Pete said and Loki nodded.

"Straight home?" Loki nodded again and got in, behind the drivers seat.
He caught a glimpse of himself in the rearview mirror. He still looked the same. Nothing had changed. But inside him that was where he had changed. That was where he felt the most differences. That inside him there was a storm.
He looked away from his reflection and tossed his backpack aside. He leaned back on the seat out of the corner of his eyes he saw that Pete was looking at him but Loki refused to look back. And the car rolled forward as the agent took that as a sign that Loki did not want to speak today.

The city had changed. The world had ended for a lot of people but for the living it meant to be haunted.

You couldn't escape it even if you wanted to. Some suburbs had been destroyed entirely. Entire streets were cornered off and marked as unsafe and if you glimpsed behind the yellow lines that held you back from entering you would see burned out cars sitting abandoned waiting to be cleared away.

Candles burned ceaselessly on street corners for the dead and flags blew in the breeze at half-mast forever in mourning. It had been that way since after the invasion and Loki wondered if they would ever return to full mast.

There was missing pictures of loved ones plastered on lamp posts and walls.

MISSING.

HAVE YOU SEEN ME?

Such sad pictures flooded the walls of the city. The weather had taken it's toll on the posters some were blowing aimlessly and the rain had dampen and curled them up. But they still asked you the same question.

What happened to this person in this photo? Where are they? Will they ever come home again?

Brothers. Sisters. Daughters. Sons. Mothers. Fathers. Friends. Just simply gone. How could that be?

Loki saw a woman stick up a new poster. They never gave up. The survivors they wanted answers. They were the ones he couldn't stand to look at.

There had been so much death and destruction how could anyone recover from such senseless violence.

He closed his eyes he didn't want to see it. To see it was to feel pain. He didn't want to feel anything.

He opened his eyes when he felt the van's engine turn off and he sat up.

"Hey you want us to come up with you?" Pete asked and Loki forced a smile. He felt it again how lonely Pete was out here without his family. And Loki shook his head trying to make an effort to be friendly to this man who had come out here alone against his will all because of what hell his elder self had wanted to create.

"And what play poker again, you guys suck it's embarrassing." Loki kept his voice light and happy he could pretend that everything was normal with the best of them.

"Well you're kind of a cheat." The driver said and Loki laughed a real laugh one he didn't needed to fake because that was the best part he had won at poker one night and he had won it fair and square.

"I can't help if my teacher was Stark." Loki said.

"So you keep saying." Pete said with a smile.

"We can have a rematch next time, keep your wallets full, thanks for the ride." Loki said.

"We'll be out here if you need anything." He got out of the van and walked through the entrance of what was the new Avengers Headquarters. The other one the one he had known all his life had been deemed a disaster area. Like so many other places and Loki had watched on live television as it got demolished. The end of an era the newscaster had said sounding so cliché. It was so much more than that. It had been his home. The only home he had known for all 16 years of his life and it had gone down in a mass of rubble in a matter of seconds. Loki felt it again how fragile life was.

One moment here. One moment gone.

He got into the elevator and pressed 10 and he rode the elevator to the top floor. He got out and he felt it again how much he missed being greeted by Jarvis. Tony and Bruce had more pressing matters than hooking up the AI.

When he got home it was quiet. Good he thought. He didn't want to speak to anyone. And then Pepper appeared. And Loki felt it was written on his face. How much he didn't want her there. And Pepper could see it.
" Hey how was hell" that was meant as a joke ever since Loki had called it that himself because the school was preppy and he felt like an idiot wearing a damn tie and blazer.
"Okay." He loosened the tie and pulled it over his head. He hadn't even been able to fix it himself the first time Tony had to show him.
"Do you have homework?" Pepper asked and she noticed how Loki wasn't asking about the others. Where they were and that bothered her Loki had always asked. Now he lacked the interest.

"Yeah…I'll do it later." Loki tossed the tie aside and shook the blazer off his shoulder and tossed it on the couch.

"And you're doing the homework, no powers." Loki rolled his eyes and shook his head.

One time.

He had done that one time and they wouldn't let him forget it.

"What's the point of going to school…" Loki shook his head again like the thought was tiring to him as well. "Never mind." They had been through this already. They had been it over and over and not in one of the arguments had he won. They still wanted him to be normal. They still wanted him to be just another kid.

"Pepper can I please for now, just take a break? I'll do the homework later." There was an edge in Loki's voice like the subject wasn't even on the cards. Loki had made up his mind already. Somethings had to still be in his control.

"Sure. Everyone is out at SHIELD." Pepper watched Loki's mannerisms for a reaction but there was simply a noncommittal nod.

"Yeah Agent…" He struggled for Pete's surname. "Agent Williams told me they had some kind of meeting."

She watched Loki walking to the kitchen and she listened as the fridge door was opened.

Pepper's phone rang and she looked at it. It was Tony. She walked out into the corridor so Loki wouldn't be able to hear her.

"Hey." Pepper answered the phone.

"Hey yourself. I'm bored to death here, is Loki home yet I tried to call his phone but it's off." Pepper looked over her shoulder and saw Loki digging around the fridge. At least he still had an appetite.

"Yeah he just got here." Pepper leaned against the wall.

"And?" Tony pressed and Pepper sighed.

"And what? Nothing has changed Tony there hasn't been a miracle breakthrough. It's obvious."

"Don't say it."

"It's post traumatic stress. It is what it is. He needs help."

"I said don't say it." Tony groaned on the other end. They had all known it. They just didn't want to hear it out loud. You could not have gone through what Loki had and come out the same.

"You weren't here. You weren't here when he woke up in that hospital and thought that you were dead. You don't have any idea what that did to him and then afterwards he was just alone running off and doing what he thought would bring you home!" Her voice broke and she was aware now Loki could hear her. "He nearly died. You don't just walk away from something like that."

"Pepper I'm sorry." Tony whispered. She struggled to bring her voice under control.

"When you get home tonight we'll all talk about our options I have already made some calls." Tony smiled on the other end.

"Why do I feel like you've already booked shrinks?" Tony asked.

"We'll talk about it when you get home."

They disconnected the calls and she turned around and looked at Loki who was still in the fridge. She wiped the solitary tear away and cleared her throat. It had just been the two of them when the Avengers had been taken and she had been so afraid and worried that he wasn't going to be alright he was so hurt when he was laying in that hospital. And then her other fear had grown. What if the Avengers were dead? And he thought it too. And what would they have done alone just them. She felt the lump in her throat grow hard. It had not been fair and it had not been easy on either one of them. She walked into the kitchen and she wrapped her arms around his body she felt his muscles stiffen beneath her. But she held on. And she felt him relax. She was always surprised by how much he had grown and now more than ever she felt it.

"I know I'm letting the air out of the fridge." She wanted to tell him that, but she wanted to most importantly tell him that he was not alone and that everything was going to be okay. He just needed to talk. Say something.

"Yeah you are. Do you want me to fix you lunch?" She let go of him. "I didn't even think of that, if Steve was here?" She muttered and he smiled.

"I'd have had a sandwich and cookies and…" She waved a hand around.

"Yeah, yeah I get it Captain America's the greatest. So do you want me to call for a pizza?"

"That doesn't sound entirely awful I'm going to get out of this." He looked down at his clothes. "Whatever the hell this is." He reached out and he hugged her it was fleeting and fast but it said so much to her that she felt herself breaking again.

"No fruit on the pizza please." He said pulling away from her and walking out of the kitchen.

"Pineapple is really good for you." She yelled to his back as she got her cellphone out and it felt a little like normal. This was what needed to happen but it happened so often. One moment everything was fine and then the next. The next you had a boy waking up from nightmares screaming.

Every night. Every single night for the last two weeks he had woken up around three his screams bouncing off the walls in the morning. Steve was up already he had been waiting for it. Waiting but also hoping that please for once let the kid just have a decent night's sleep he silently begged and the universe did not allow Steve that pleasure. He walked into Loki's room and turned the light on. Loki was sitting up against the headboard and around him the furniture was floating inches above the ground. God. This was new.

"Loki." Steve whispered standing by the door and afraid to walk in further. He saw movement out of the corner of his eyes. And saw it was Thor and Steve shook his head asking Thor not to come closer. Which was a lot to ask of Thor because that was his brother. His little brother who was screaming and now was sitting up in bed and looking completely like he was in a trance.

"Loki!" Steve said with urgency and Loki's eyes that had been unfocused adjusted and turned to Steve and the glazed look that was in his eyes left and the furniture in the room that had been hovering inches above the ground fell down back into place.

"It's nothing, it's nothing." Loki said out loud which was what he said almost every single night to whoever had found him first.

Steve walked in and sat down on Loki's bed.

"You came from school and Pepper ordered food when she came to your room you were asleep." Loki looked at his watch. That couldn't be. He had left her in the kitchen. He had walked down the hallway to his bedroom. He had changed out of his school uniform he had turned on the television and laid back for not even a second and he was gone. He looked at himself now. Someone had turned the television off. Someone had taken the time to cover him with blankets to make sure he was warm.

"I'm just really tired, I keep waking up in the middle of the night and then I can't sleep again." Loki ran a hand across his face he looked around wild eyed. Why the hell was this happening to him why couldn't he just get some peace. Even if the other Loki was gone and dead and never coming back was this their life long legacy that they would receive never know peace?

"We had a talk." Loki looked at Steve. In the background he saw Thor.

"Oh Jesus seriously. If this is about me caring and sharing again no I am not in the mood."

"You don't have to talk to us if you don't want to but you have to talk to someone."

"By someone you mean what? A head doctor?" Loki looked over at Thor. "I'm not going to do this you can't make me."

"So would you rather wake every night with the same nightmares? You are a child what you went through, what you saw in such a short period…" Thor's voice vanished and Loki saw her. The woman who had fallen beside him when the attack had first happened after he had left Odin and Frigga and ran. He had tried to help her up and the beam of white light had come and shot her to nothingness and he had felt the grip of her hand leave his own arm as she died. He wondered about her a lot. Who had she been? He had even spent time looking at the pictures of missing people in the street hoping to see her face maybe he could help her family find closure but then all the faces that looked back at him became too much and it hurt so much to look. To know that he had been able to do nothing to save her or them.

"Loki?" Thor asked and Loki looked up at him.

"I don't want to speak to anyone about what happened." Loki whispered.

"I am afraid you have no choice in this matter." Thor said. "You can't go on like this. Tomorrow after school a doctor will come around she is a friend of Bruce's." Loki cut him short.

"That doesn't mean I have to speak to her." Thor sighed.

"Fine then you can listen to her."

"Okay enough it's really early or late to have this conversation. Loki do you want anything?" Loki thought of all the unobtainable things he wanted and needed and instead he whispered.

"I'm kind of hungry." Which made Thor smile.

"I'll go get that pizza." He said disappearing from the doorway and Loki took off his sweater that was drenched in sweat he tossed it aside and Steve got up and got him a clean one from the cupboard.

"What do you dream about Loki?" Steve asked handing Loki the sweater.

"I thought we weren't talking about this anymore?" He asked slipping the sweater over his head.

"It doesn't hurt to say at least what it is about."

"It's the same thing okay Steve, well it was the same thing except now it's different." Loki pulled the sweater over his body and laid back against the pillows.

"What was it about first?" Steve asked sitting down on the bed and hoping that Thor would not come back any moment soon. This was new. Loki was actually talking about the nightmares. Was it the fear that someone new a doctor was coming that was changing his mind about talking Steve wondered but he didn't care. As long as Loki was talking.

"Just what happened. Here in the city when I…when I was running and trying to escape." Loki whispered and he shuddered thinking about the dogs those black dark menacing dogs that had come sniffing for his flesh.

"That must be scary." Steve whispered.

"It is…bad things happened before Steve I've known it all my life. I live here for crying out loud it's not like I didn't know what was happening when you guys were fighting. I saw it on TV. I saw evil before. I saw people dying." Loki struggled for words. And Steve placed a hand on Loki's.

"But it's not the same when you are in the battle and that is why you have to talk to someone about what happened kiddo even if you don't want to talk to us you have to speak to someone."

"I thought I could do what you guys do. Now I am not so sure I can or even want to." Loki admitted.

"There is no shame in being afraid I'm scared all the time."

"You're just saying that."

"No it's the truth every time I go out there I'm scared too I worry about saving people's lives. I am sad about the ones we couldn't help. We all feel exactly the way you do. We just don't talk about it and maybe that's part of the problem."

"I really don't want to talk to a doctor." Loki whispered.

"I'm sorry kid that decision has already been made and it's for the best, trust me."

"Steve the other dream I have been having." Loki said and Steve looked at him and saw how unsure Loki looked. "It's been about the same man. I don't know him. I've never seen him before. He's coming after me that is all I know. Every dream he is coming for me."

"And he wasn't anyone we've met before?" Steve asked.

"Not us but I think you have." Loki paused.

'Me?" Steve asked surprised.

"Steve. Who is Bucky?"

A/N I am gonna leave you hanging! Listen I am on a serious Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier binge at the moment I blame Civil War for everything! EVERYTHING! Okay what do you think? Lemme know. And for the interest of this story boys and girls Bucky is going to be someone who Steve has never brought up before and there is no Smithsonian exhibit etcetera etcetera. Remember he is a ghost. Let us just play with the ghost theory.

And in other chapters we will find out more of what happened to Loki back in Asgard and the tablet and what is wrong with him now. Shame poor baby has PTSD. Can you believe that? Anyway no more hints!

And yes please I'd like to know what you think. Thanks for reading! Cheers till next time.