A.N.: I think we've earned some fluff and sweetness, don't you?

Birdsong.

It was birdsong that roused her back to the waking world. For the first time in five years she could hear not only the merry chirps of song birds but the fluff and flutter of their wings as well.

The morning sun filled her room with a soft, buttery light that took off all the edges and blunted all the corners, and a blessedly familiar weight tightened around her waist.

If it wasn't for the stark, modern decor of the inner rooms of the compound, Kagome would have sworn she was back in her golden palace home in Asgard.

A slow, lazy grin spread across her face as the formerly motionless mass at her back began peppering feather light kisses across the expanse of her shoulders and neck. A trill ran down her spine, raising a smattering of gooseflesh on her arms. She turned and immediately lost herself in beloved green eyes. She couldn't help her megawatt grin as she ran her fingertips over his sleep softened features, loving every moment of waking up in his arms once more and how he looked in the gilded morning light.

Last night the desperation and relief had been heavy, palpable, overwhelming. But now she was drunk on the giddiness.

"It's you... Loki."

He nuzzled her hand and kissed her palm.

"Where you expecting someone else?" He asked, voice still thick with slumber but lilted with mischief.

"I was expecting it all to be another dream." She replied, and he rolled over her, pressing her into the mattress, watching her face melt in relief at the undeniable weight of him further confirming how real he now was.

"Never again, my darling. We'll not be apart ever again."

He kissed her deep and sweeping and consuming, and she wrapped her arms around his neck in complete surrender. Their minds clouded and their thoughts slowed as instinct and desire took over, wrapping them in a warm, hazy cocoon where only they existed and could continue to reignite the embers of love and passion, reconnect in their hearts and souls.

A loud, furious knocking on the bedroom door dropped an icy bucket of reality over them, and their eyes popped open in alarm.

Loki pulled away from her with a scowl.

"We will be leaving immediately."

"You'll get no arguments from me." She sighed, rolling out of the bed and slipping on the robe hanging on a hook on the wall. She cracked the door, meeting Inuyasha's glare with one of her own.

"This had better be good!"

Bleary eyed and agitated, Inuyasha huffed and thrust his cell phone into her face. Her eyes crossed and then focused, and the name on the screen sent her heart plummeting.

"Oh no..."

She snatched the phone, fumbling and nearly dropping it in her haste to answer.

"Mama?!"

"Kagome! Oh Kagome, I've been so worried! I've been calling you for hours!"

Kagome cringed at the desperation in her mother's voice, cursing herself for being so careless as to forget that her mother had been waiting on a call from her, or for her to return to the shrine, that the return of so many people all at once would have no doubt alerted the Higurashi matriarch that something huge had happened.

"Oh mama, I'm so sorry. I'm sure you've guessed that a lot has happened. I just got overwhelmed and my phone is dead..."

"I thought those Stark Industries phones never died?!"

"Yeah I did too, that's why I never charged it. I guess I reached the threshold on it... heh."

Her mother sighed that typical, motherly, exasperated sigh.

"Well at least I know you're safe now and can get some sleep. Souta's fiancé was returned to us. We're so relieved. Please tell your friends we thank all of you, I'm positive you all had something to do with it?"

"Yes, that was us. I'll tell them. I promise I'll be by soon... and I have a surprise..." Kagome glanced back over to the bed where Loki was sitting up and staring at her questioningly. The sheets pooled around his waist and his hair framed his face in charming disarray. She smiled warmly, and happiness buzzed through her like static.

"Alright dear, I'm just happy to know you came to no harm. I will see you soon!"

The line went dead and she tossed the phone back to an increasingly impatient Inuyasha.

"Sorry Inu, she woke you up, didn't she?"

"Yeah yeah whatever. Charge your damn phone." He grumbled, making his way back to his own room, and Kagome softly shut the door behind him.

She turned back to Loki, who'd stretched back out and patted the spot next to him. She cuddled up at his side, relishing the feel of his arms around her.

"That was my mother. Would you mind if we went to see her before settling somewhere else?"

"Why would I mind?"

She shrugged and tightened her hold on him, nuzzling his chest.

"I don't know, just more people to be around."

"I would love to meet your mother. Especially if she lives far away from these people."

Kagome giggled and then her stomach growled loud and insistent.

Loki grinned down at her, a teasing light in his eyes that she hadn't seen since before the disastrous coronation that had started all of their problems. She'd longed to see him this happy and easy again.

"I suppose we must feed you before we can leave."

"Oh don't act like it'll be such a big deal to stick around for a few more hours. Thor is here, and he missed you so much! And I'll get to introduce you to my friends!"

"I have already met several of those 'friends' and I can assure you they won't be happy to see me."

"We'll see. Let's go get breakfast, I'm starved!"

——————

The walk to breakfast was weird.

People came and went, milling around on the path to the kitchen and Loki had been right when he'd said some of her friends wouldn't be happy to see him.

They weren't hostile, but they were obviously unsure how to act around someone who they'd fought as an enemy.

Loki largely ignored them, but she could feel their astonishment at his presence and how different he was to the last time they saw him. He was the picture of politeness to Shippo and Inuyasha during their introductions, and simply stepped aside and waited patiently while Shippo tearfully hugged Kagome for the first time since he was a small child. He thanked Sesshomaru when he learned of the role his healing sword had played in his return, and Kagome had had a hard time stifling her laughter at their matching airs of regality and tall, stiff postures. She remembered the first time she'd ever seen Loki, centuries ago when she'd been so young and lost and broken, and how much like Sesshomaru he'd seemed, something familiar in a place so far from home.

She knew better now; Loki had so many diverse layers that didn't quite match the mostly stoic demon lord, but they carried themselves with the same poise.

And they were both so damn tall.

It had been especially awkward when Sesshomaru had thanked her for bringing him back. He had never been one for such niceties, however formal he made them, but apparently 500 years could change anyone in surprising ways.

She spotted Gamora and Natasha conversing in a different part of the compound on the way to the kitchen, and her reunion with both of them was sweet and full of tears.

"I know you were always closer to Nebula but.. thank you Kagome. Thank you." Gamora had said, voice broken with tears, and Kagome had hugged her back, so pleased to give her another chance at a life with true freedom.

It was then that Thor tracked them down, and he wrapped Loki up in a crushing embrace.

"Loki!! Brother!!"

"Thor... Wait-"

"Oh Brother, I've missed you so!"

"Thor... I can't-"

Loki struggled against Thor's hold on him, but Thor tightened his embrace, oblivious to his brother's struggles as tears of relief ran from his eyes.

"I'm so pleased you're back with our people, with our family! Three times I've watched you die!"

"Do you want to make it four?!" Loki choked out, and Thor finally released him. Loki took a gasping breath, steadying himself for a moment before gathering his composure and standing straight again. He placed his hand on Thor's shoulder, and Thor brightened even further at Loki's small initiation of affection.

"It is nice to see you again as well, brother. And as I don't intend on dying again any time soon, and have had my wife returned to me at last, I genuinely hope we can find some peace between us again."

Tears continued to run freely down Thor's face, and Kagome felt her own throat burn with emotion. It had been so painfully long since she'd seen Thor's aura shine so beautifully.

"Asgard is nearly made whole again, thanks to the both of you. Loki, you were right. The sun is shining on us again."

Loki stopped for a moment and let that sink in. When he'd said that, he hadn't had any real plan to get them out of the mess they'd been in. He hadn't actually believed it himself, but he knew Thor expected him to always have a plan to get out of trouble. He'd only been trying to offer one last surge or reassurance, one last proof of his redemption, one last apology, one last goodbye.

But it hadn't been the last.

The sun was shining on them again.

He smiled at his brother then, true and heartfelt, like he used to when times had been so much simpler.

And then Thor scooped both he and Kagome into another bone crushing hug, sobbing about his love for them and his happiness that they were together again and Loki lost his patience with being man handled.

Before he could get stabby, Kagome managed to get Thor to release them, and sent him on with promises that they'd join him in New Asgard after a quick pit-stop in Tokyo, and they were finally free to get the breakfast they'd left their room for in the first place.

"New Asgard?" Loki asked Kagome curiously.

"Yeah, it's not much, a little fishing village on a coast in Norway. But it's home now. One of my homes anyway." She grew nervous and fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. Loki laced his fingers in hers to halt her, and then brought her hand up for a comforting kiss.

"What's wrong? I can tell there's something you'd like to tell me."

"It's just..." Kagome began, unsure if there was a more delicate way to put things, settling on just blurting it out. "I've kind of been serving as Thor's de-facto queen these last few years. It was supposed to be just until he found someone else, but he's been way too depressed to even think of anything like that, so it's just been me."

"Yes I noticed he's... not quite in peak condition currently." Loki replied delicately. "Why would you be nervous to tell me such a thing? I've always known you'd make a wonderful queen."

She sighed and gave up on the hope of him figuring out on his own.

"I didn't do a very good job of it when I was your queen and I... I'm doing a great job now, when I can be there. I just feel guilty. I was so worried about you back then, you weren't well, and I couldn't think of anything else but that. I'm so sorry that-"

"Kagome." He interrupted her, cradling her face and smiling with fond exasperation. Her nervous rambling was something she'd never grown out of, and he'd never stopped finding it endearing. "I understand Kagome. There's no need for any guilt. I'm proud of you."

She sniffed and wiped at her eyes, and in between one blink and the next she was halfway down the path toward the kitchen with a gleam in her eye.

"Well enough of the sappy distractions then, I'm starved!"

With a predatory grin Loki dashed after her. She squealed and lunged for the kitchen door sensor, and it slid open just as he collided into her. They fell in a tangled heap just inside the door, breathless with laughter.

"Uh-oh. Morgan, avert your eyes."

Startled, Kagome scrambled up off the floor, cheeks burning, though Loki followed at a much more dignified pace.

"I don't know what I expected out of you two, but it wasn't public indecency." Tony Stark quipped from his place at one of the highly polished kitchen counters, filling glasses and frying eggs, his usual devilish smirk in place. The man was always so full of life, Kagome was pleased his death the day before had been temporary, especially for the sake of the giggling little girl sitting on the counter nearby.

"Sorry Tony. Good morning Morgan." She'd only been able to talk to the little girl briefly here and there, but Morgan was a bright, hilarious little girl already, following closely in many of her father's impressive footsteps.

"We're just here for some food, and then I need to get back to Tokyo to see my mom. She's been worried."

"Well kitchen's open! I'm making eggs, you want eggs? And you," he said, pointing at Loki who had been hanging in the background. "I owe you a drink. You like mimosas? I'm making mimosas. I don't like them, but Pepper does, and she's the boss. Morgan, don't you tell her I said that."

"No thanks Tony, I don't think Loki would like human alcohol. We'd love some eggs though! I'll make some toast."

They bustled around and gathered together a simple breakfast, filling a tray with food and drink that Loki happily picked up to carry since he'd been unable to help cook any of it, and then they prepared to head back to the peaceful sanctuary of the bedroom they'd been so reluctant to leave in the first place.

"Hey kid," Tony called, and Kagome paused at the door and glanced over her shoulder at him. He was leaning casually against the counter with a cup of coffee, Morgan leaning her head on his shoulder and munching a piece of toast with jam. "Don't be a stranger."

She smiled and nodded. There would be no way to cut these people out of her life after all they'd just been through together. Most of them would live out normal human lives compared to hers, but she knew all the Avengers would have a place in her heart no matter how briefly they remained in her life.

"Of course. Can't get rid of me that easily."

"I will probably be a stranger." Loki cut in, and Kagome pushed him back out of the kitchen with a scoff.

—————-

The air of the Higurashi Shrine nearly sparkled with the return of so much life to the world. Squirrels chased each other across the grass, bird wings flashed in the upper branches of the Goshinboku, and the unmistakable buzz of insect wings filled the atmosphere with the soft, comforting kind of noise that had been largely absent the last five years. The world felt so full where before it had felt empty and cold, and it took the edge off the nerves that had begun to build in Kagome's mind.

Would Loki and her Mother get along? Would Loki and Souta get along? Would She and Souta's fiancée get along? There was, yet again, a lot about to happen in one day, and though she already felt tired and ready for some normalcy and a few days of boredom, she couldn't linger too long on the negatives. Everything just felt so vibrant and alive.

They crossed the shrine grounds hand in hand, Loki glancing around to take everything in. It looked like nothing he'd ever seen in his life and radiated a kind of peace he hadn't known a place other than his own home could have.

They entered the home Kagome had grown up in and found the family seated around the table having tea.

Kagome broke the stunned silence at her arrival with an unexpected guest with the news that he was her long dead husband. After the loud rush of questions had been answered, and she'd been introduced to Souta's lady love, Mama Higurashi did what Mama Higurashi did best- she doted.

Loki was seated and presented with a steaming cup of tea and a bowl of fresh noodles. Kagome sat back and watched in awe as he silently submitted to being "mothered," and instead of having the air of one who was enduring for the sake of politeness, she watched as his aura warmed and his eyes softened. With every cheek pat and offer of more food or tea the remaining cracks in Loki's heart filled before her very eyes, and soon he was smiling that boyish smile that had eluded him for far too long.

Wiping away a stray tear before it could draw any attention, Kagome simply sipped her tea and settled in to the normalcy she'd longed for.

For even after all this time and all they'd been through, Loki was still a mama's boy.