Every morning for the next few days, one after the other, each Avenger found a basket full of baked goods in the elevator for them. After Clint received his, Tony found one around noon when he was stumbling out of bed. It was a basket full of dough filled fruity things. Then it was Natasha who received a basket full of tula gingerbread, pirog, and the most chocolatey brownies she had ever tasted. Steve had a basket full of apple pie, marshmallow sandwich cookies, lemon sponge cake, along with some other snacks that Steve hadn't eaten 1945. Thor found a basket full of his childhood favorites, some of which were still a bit singed with the seidr used to make them. Bruce's was full of buckeye balls and hummingbird cake. One morning even Pepper found a basket full of fruit and cookies sitting on her desk on floor 24.

Loki was almost constantly baking. Somedays it was in Stark Tower. He woke up and immediately went to the kitchen and started baking. With a flick of his wrist or a nudge from Jarvis the kettle would begin to whistle with boiling water. After that first cup of tea was poured, the stove was set to preheat and Loki didn't really slow down. He kept baking till the sun set or someone, Jarvis or Tony, practically forced him to stop. On those days he tended to make things for someone, anyone in the tower. The Avengers got their baskets of goodies but sometimes he would also make things for the underlings that worked in Stark's company. If he baked in Stark tower he tended to have a goal, whether that goal was a person or a set number of confections depend on the day.

Other days he made the relatively short trek to Tea and Potions in order to bake there. He either poured his tea into a dreaded travel mug or he simply waited to fully wake up till he got to the store. On those days he baked the day and half the night away. Sometimes he even ended up sleeping, curled up, next to the oven. He would maybe get a few hours of sleep, at most, and wake up to continue baking. He opened the shop when he felt like it. No longer was Loki pressed to work in order to sell in order to survive. He now could open the store when he felt like interacting with humans. He opened the store in order to get rid of all the baked goods he was baking his feelings into. Loki opened Tea and Potions in order to talk with people.

Now Loki could bake in order to heal instead of simply try and survive. It was no longer a method of simply holding himself together. Baking was his therapy. As he plopped cookie dough onto the cooking sheet his bones seemed to be knitting themselves bit by bit back together. As he mixed cake batter his eyes seemed to sharpen their sight. As he sold fruit bars to smiling children and their families he could feel his skin trying to become one smooth piece once again.

The Avengers checked on Loki, especially when he was in the tower. But they mostly left him do his own thing when he left for Tea and Potions. Every so often Tony would walk over with the excuse that the coffee machine broke and this was the closest place for actually good coffee. Sometimes Clint would come and sit in a corner with a partially eaten cookie on his plate. He would sit of hours and pretend not to be intensely watching Loki.

Once Thor came into the shop. The customers recognized him almost immediately. They swarmed around him. Loki was left at the counter shaking his head. A few nearby children heard him say, "Of course he came in full regalia. It probably would have been asking too much for him to leave mjolnir outside." After that Thor thought it best to let Loki have his space outside of the tower. Instead he made it a priority to visit Loki, or in some cases attempt to visit Loki, when he was in the tower. Sometimes Jarvis would allow the doors to open up on Loki's floor. Sometimes the doors stayed shut. Almost everyday, he had to try.

Loki formed as much of a pattern as he ever could. Which meant that no one ever knew exactly where he would actually be. Tony was the most accurate when asked for his guess. Though Clint figured Jarvis was sending details just so Tony could look like he knew what he was doing. If anyone bothered to directly ask Jarvis, they would have known exactly where Loki was at any given point. It just never seemed to cross their minds to ask.

After living in the tower for almost three months, at the behest of Jarvis, Loki went down to floor 71. It was a Tuesday evening. Natasha and Clint had only recently got back home after an assignment. But the inhabitants of the tower gathered together to make it was burgers. Clint had his left hand almost elbow deep in a bowl of seasoned and ground up meat. Tony and Thor were hunting down drinks of various alcoholic and nonalcoholic contents. Bruce and Natasha were mixing and cutting various toppings. Steve was already setting the table.

Loki almost backed out of the room. He had one foot over the threshold. But he was still mostly in the stairwell connecting the floors of Stark Tower. He figured it wasn't his place to intrude, even if Jarvis had said it was alright. He still could simply turn around and go back to his rooms. But before he could successfully turn around he was noticed.

"Brother!" Thor turned around with a bottle in each hand and a smile brighter than the sun on his face. "Please stay for dinner."

From his position in the mixture for the burgers Clint called, "Get in here or we'll have to put up with Thor and his puppy dog eyes for the rest of the week. I promise not to even try and shoot you tonight. Too tired for that honestly."

After a few moments Loki let the door close behind him. He sort of shuffled his way into the room. Step by step he became slightly more confident till he stood before Clint and asked, "If you wish I can help you mix that, since your other hand is a bit preoccupied with being injured."

Clint shrugged and flicked the meat off his hands, "Take it."