The spaceship landed in close distance to Wakanda's palace, and as three figures strode out the shield went up, sealing the palace and the spaceship in a transparent and transcendent dome.

No one was getting in. And more importantly, no one was getting out.

"Surrender the stones, and face the inevitable," Phil's voice was magically amplified, his voice echoing in the palace's long halls and sending shivers down the back of my neck. It was as if he was standing right behind me, and I noted the coax of his smooth purring tone that signified sorcery was infused. Irrational fear shot through my veins and my knees went weak.

If I had not seen what Phil had done before and hadn't personally fought against the lure of the power stone and more, I would have been shaking, filled with the urge to give him the stones, the world, anything.

But I had. And the weak-willed had no place on the battlefield.

The Avengers and Loki emerged, face determined and battle-hardened, weapons in hands. Shuri and I watched through the third dimensional live footage of the grassland, my body still and brimming with tension. I had wanted to fight. The adults had disagreed. But then Loki had given me a look that promised what he was best at-revenge, a dish best served cold- and I had accepted, that fine, I'll be the last resort if something goes horribly wrong.

Looking at the screen, I had to admit the chances of something going horribly wrong was very low. It was three versus Earth's mightiest heroes and all of Wakanda's army. They hadn't expected us to be prepared, and they were paying for it.

The fight was over as soon as it begun. The demonic looking woman surrendered first-Wanda and Natasha and Val all together were very scary-, the giant following after Steve and Bucky and T'Challa ganged up on him, striking him without pause until he was on his knees.

Phil, on the other hand, managed to hold up the fight. He lifted a hand, shielding himself from all the ammunition coming from the sky, and muttered spells after spells, manipulating magic to do something that Strange undid with a movement of his hands, his face strained. Then Loki lunged forward and split into a dozen illusions of himself that all lunged and Phil swept out an arm and the daggers of glass shot forward in all direction.

My breath hitched, but the cape flung itself over Strange and the remaining real Loki flicked his hand, and the dagger shot away, driving back to Phil. He reflected easily, eyes flashing with irritation and a hint of fear. He had probably thought taking the stones would be simple. Undemanding.

Well, that hardly was the case.

Tony seized the moment and blasted his repulsors, and under the combined power of War Machine and Vision, Phil staggered, his shield barely persisting. Strange whipped his hands out and ropes of magic slithered up Phil's legs, holding him still, and Falcon shot his bullets, finally shattering the shield.

Loki stalked forward, one hand flipping a dagger, the other hand palm outward and twisting. Phil dropped to his knees with a jerk, moving stiffly like a marionette.

"Any last words?" Loki asked, his voice cold and cruel. I held my breath, knowing that we were separated by multiple walls and the wide space between us, but somehow feeling as if I was the one with the knife in my hand.

Phil looked up, face pale and grim and afraid and accepting his end. He took a breath, his lips turning upwards.

"Be aware. Father is not a merci-"

Loki slashed and Phil toppled, his words dying on his lips as his lifeblood gushed. The giant and the demon woman screamed out in rage, but was held back. Heroes watched in silence, as their once-enemy stood over the corpse of their current-enemy, and I released my breath and Loki dropped his dagger, flicks of blood on his face.

I closed my eyes. For now, the battle was over.

Dinner was a quiet affair.

Everyone chattered, but then everyone still had doubts that they kept locked away in their minds. I talked to the people I knew, and the people I was getting to know talked to me, all curious about my quote unquote power and Loki and what I had been up to when I had disappeared.

I explained, the attention still feeling a bit odd and overwhelming. Steve and Natasha were the ones that were most reserved about me, probably because of my age. But Bucky, for some reason, was easier to talk to. He was so down-to-earth that it made you forget he had been an mindless assassin for about 70 years.

Tony and Strange quipped and snarked and generally kept the mood up, but I still noticed the tension between Tony and Steve. Their animosity had cleared somewhat, but it wasn't completely gone. I made a mental note to ask Tony what exactly had happened.

The others were more easy going, even Vision, and everyone except Loki were smiling by the time dessert was served. Loki was a grouch. I didn't bother trying to include him in the conversations.

But still, it was a miracle that Loki was sitting at the same table with all the other heroes. Fighting together, I hoped, had formed some sort of bond that optimistically wouldn't be broken by his betrayal again. Bruce joined with Shuri for the delicious African fruit with a name I couldn't pronounce and he confirmed my story about Sakaar, due to some people's- most prominently Sam's- disbelief.

Then they agreed to meet up again at night, to talk. I was 70 percent sure I was included. Um, more like 65 percent.

Everyone headed back to their rooms to wash or nap or watch TV or whatever superheroes did in their time and Shuri, who was great company and understood all my pop culture references, lead me to mine. It was big. And well decorated. And...

I admit, I didn't look at everything so carefully. I just bee-lined to the bed and collapsed.

I woke up from a nap I hadn't even realized I had had when there was a knock on the door. I blinked, and someone entered. Judging by how that person didn't wait for an answer, it was most definitely-

"Do you think I did the right thing?" Loki asked, without any preemptive whatsoever. I rubbed at my eyes groggily.

"Since when do you care about the right thing?"

He went silent. I sighed, sitting up and stretching my arms. "Our actions can't be just defined by whether it's wrong or right. It's more complicated than that, which you know very well."

"I do."

"So why do you ask?"

"I don't know."

I nodded slowly. "Having a conscience is a tricky thing."

"...How do humans do it?"

I surprised myself with laughter, suddenly feeling amused about the whole thing. He raised a formidable eyebrow.

"I don't know how humans do it either," I replied, snorting. "I'm even murky about how I do it, too. I'm not the best person to ask, Loki. I'm not really a deep and thoughtful person, although that might shock you."

"I'm incredibly shocked," Loki muttered, rolling his eyes and I smiled wryly.

"You should ask Steve."

"The Captain?"

"Yeah." I lit up, as I thought about it. Steve probably still had doubts about Loki, but if Loki asked him about morality, he would definitely trust him more. It was a brilliant idea. I stood quickly, ushering the dude to the room door before he could say anything. "He's the greatest guy I know. Well, the greatest guy I don't know. You should totally ask him."

"I am not-"

I opened the door with a tilt of my head. "If you talk to him, I'll consider your debt paid."

"My debt," He echoed, eyes narrowed. I bobbed my head upside down quickly.

"You know, that not following my order thing. That almost got all of us killed."

"...Fine." Loki reluctantly answered, with a look that said he didn't like this at all.

But still, ha. That was a great card to play. I grinned.

"Awesome. Uh, do you know where he is?"

He crossed his arms grumpily and strode on, and I almost had to jog to keep up. Ugh. Did I mention that I hate tall people? I think I have.

"They say he's still a virgin," I stage-whispered, grabbing his arm and slowing him down. "Do you think so?"

"I don't care." He replied curtly.

"But still. He's like a hundred years old. I've seen him kiss people, though. I mean not seen, but, uh, yeah." I said awkwardly. "Do you think he's with Bucky? It would make total sense if he was. Wait. Do you think he's straight or not?"

He threw up his hands in the air. "As I said, I don't care."

I scowled. "Well you should. I'm your friend and you should listen and care about what I say."

Loki rolled his eyes. "I can hardly force myself to care about something I don't, not in the infinitesimal bit."

"I don't know what that word means but I can guess, you know." I shook my head, annoyed. "Then at least make appropriate sounds."

"Mmm," He rolled his eyes again, and I paused, amused.

"...That really wasn't appropriate. But anyway. Do you have a gaydar?"

He made a face. "A gaydar?"

"Like can you tell if a person likes people of their own gender."

"Maybe."

"That also wasn't a very appropriate answer, man." I giggled. "You should kiss him."

"Why on Asgard would I do that?"

"Can't you tell if he's gay or not if you kiss him?"

"I don't think he'll appreciate me kissing him."

"Yeah. He'll probably throw a shield at you. You're probably a terrible kisser."

"I'm not-"

"Then you should kiss him," I tried to hold back a giggle. God, what was I doing? But it was funny to prank on Loki. He was oddly imperceptible to what I did.

He abruptly stopped walking, and turned to me with a small frown on his face. "I thought you wanted me to talk to him."

"Uh-huh. Then you should kiss him. Like as a thank you."

"Why would I-"

"It's a bet," I said dramatically, in that hushed tone of voice that egged on other people to do stupid things. "I bet you can't. If you do, I don't know," I shrugged. "I'll grant you a wish or something."

A moment passed, while he considered his options. I really expected Loki to scowl and say no. I didn't expect him to smirk wickedly and nod, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"It's on, then." He said, and a chill went down my spine. I suddenly had a bad feeling about this. Why was it that when everything was going the way I had wanted it to go, I felt like he outmaneuvered me?

I crossed my arms. Nope. I was going to enjoy watching Loki kissing Captain America and get punched in the face. Nothing was going to go wrong.

When we went from therapy session to make-out session was beyond me, and we finally caught sight of Steve standing on the balcony next to where we had our dinner, looking out over Wakanda's lush greenery. We stopped around the corner of the hall, and I gestured at Loki.

Go on, I mouthed with a smirk. He smiled back devilishly, and motioned at me to stay there.

Then he approached the Captain.

I noticed, a moment too late, that he was me. Yes, you didn't read that wrong. He was me. The smirk froze on my face as I realized the hand that tapped on Steve's back was my hand, and the smile that flashed was my smile.

Loki was wearing my bloody body.

I was too far away to hear what they conversed about, but I still knew what was about to happen. God no no no and I tried to open my mouth but I realized, again, that I was frozen. Loki had cast a petrifying spell on me when he had motioned. That son of a-

Loki Me said something, wringing her, no his hands, his face looking sad and embarrassed. I did not look like that, did I? She-no he looked so much like a kicked puppy. Like a lost cat. A sad animal. I internally groaned.

Anger and astonishment all bubbled in my chest and I also, annoyingly, felt a sense of karma, because I had to admit, Loki one-upped me. It was obvious he was going to kis-agh I couldn't say it.

Steve smiled considerately, and said something that made Loki Me look up through her eyelashes in shy awe. I refused the urge to kick Loki Me between the legs, because I would be basically kicking myself, and I did not look up through my eyelashes in shy awe like that. I did not. Loki was a crappy actor, obviously exaggerating his expressions to aggravate me, and the only reason Steve didn't realize anything was off was because he didn't know me that well.

It was embarrassing. And disgusting. And-

She tiptoed on her feet and leaned up and kissed him, and I died a little inside. The worst part was that I couldn't look away, or throw up like I wanted to do. I was petrified to the spot. And apparently Steve was too, because he just stood there, wide-eyed, and let who he thought was me kiss him.

Loki Me stepped back, her face all anxious and sappy, and said something. Then she rushed away, back around the corner and then she was smirking at me with a Loki look, the sappy look wiped off immediately. Let me tell you, it was really weird to see a Loki look on my face. You know how when you take a picture of yourself and it doesn't look like you? It felt like that, except a millions times more mortifying.

"You have lost the bet," She-he said smugly. "I believe now you have my wish to fulfill."

I squeaked with indignation, and found that I could talk again. "I do not look like that!"

"Yes you do." She raised an eyebrow at me and it was so disconcerting that I stepped back.

"Okay fine, ditch the illusion." He did. "You were supposed to kiss him as yourself!"

"There was no talk of which illusion I couldn't use. You just told me to kiss him."

"But it's obviously-" I threw my hands up in the air. "Agh, trickery!"

He grinned, and we started walking again towards the dining hall, me looking back whenever I could to make sure Cap wasn't following us.

"What did you say to him?" I hissed.

"Nothing important."

"You said nothing important and kissed him? Seriously, dude?"

"He didn't throw a shield in your face, at least."

"...Of course he didn't. I'm far prettier than you." He rolled his eyes at that, and I put my face in my palms. This was so mortifying. And I was pretty sure Loki didn't say nothing important to Steve. He probably made an exclamation of his hopeless crush or something. Fuck.

"At least we know one thing," Loki said, flicking hair out of his eyes.

"What is that, and it better be important because if it's not there was nothing out of that kiss and I will punch you." I deadpanned, and he gave me a strange look that was followed by a absentminded shrug.

"I think you'll needlessly violent, and I can't tell if Captain America being a moderate kisser is worthy enough for you."

"Needlessly? Moderate?"

"I am too good for him to compare." He announced proudly, and I sagged. I was so fucked.

A/N: Thank you for all the reviews! They keep me writing.

I have a mild idea of where the story is going, but generally I'm just doing what I want to do. I would appreciate any constructive feedback:)

나는 진짜 아무것도 안하고 있음 수업도 대충들고 학원은 안다님ㅋㅋㅋ그냥 놀아야지 뭐. 굉장히 불량한 학생처럼 보이네요.