"Hello," Melody blurted, unsure of what more to say or do when suddenly put face-to-face with her favorite official Avenger. When she'd realized Loki and Hawkeye were the actual Loki and Hawkeye, it'd come as a gradual realization fraught with doubt and disbelief and I-just-died-ness, and he'd gotten used to Loki being in her presence before she really understood it.

Anthony Edward Stark, on the other hand, was here, and real, and in her face, and vaguely displeased and suspicious. It was all a fangirl could ever wish for, and she nearly screamed in joy.

Nearly.

She did not. She was the picture of composure and elegance as she gaped wordlessly up at the genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist.

"Why are you in my house?" Tony demanded.

Ah, yes. The million-dollar question.

"I'm looking for pain killers," Melody gave a cheerful and somewhat nervous grin, "because Loki got squished." Probably not the most sensitive choice of words, but she had to convince Tony she wasn't a threat before she worried about sensitivity.

"Are you one of his goons?" Another fair question.

"Well, that depends on how you define goons," Melody admitted. "I'm helping him, but I'm not strictly on his side, if you know what I mean." Tony obviously did not, so she went on. "I want him to be happy. I want you to be happy. Currently, what would make the most people happy is painkillers for Loki while you cart him off to Asgard. Right?"

Tony stared at her for a long moment, before reaching over her head and pulling a small white bottle full of little red pills from the cabinet above her.

"Stark!" Captain America was displeased, and he put on his Particularly Displeased voice, the one that made you feel as though the last action you had made had broken the laws of human decency and would send America and all its glory into anarchy and ruin.

"What?" Tony was not deterred by said Voice, plus he was far too tired to give a flying fig either way in this discussion. "She's right. We're the good guys, we make sure people aren't hurting. Even if they're extremely annoying and irritating and just plain the worst."

"I could list a few people in this room that fit that description," Natasha noticed, as she set the scepter down on the counter, but no one stopped Melody as she slipped out from behind the counter, and came around to give a small red pill to Loki. Thor had hauled him up by one arm to his feet, and slapped handcuffs on him that looked distinctly non-Earth-ish. Perhaps they were there to make sure he couldn't do spells, or for some other reason, but they did look very tough and posh and official, which was probably the vibe Thor had been going for.

"You have pills on Asgard, right?" Melody asked, as she held out two little red tablets in her hand. "You know how to take them?"

Loki made a soft, somewhat affirmative noise in the back of his throat. Even if he did know how to take pills, it would be hard getting them through that clenched jaw. Melody's heart did a little flop of sympathy, for even at the best of times, being firmly gripped by a thunder god wasn't pleasant.

"Um, excuse me…" She ventured, peeping up at Thor's extremely ticked off face. She knew that look. She made exactly the same one when her little sister Ava stole her French fries. It made her wonder how much Thor was mad at Loki, and how much he just felt like he ought to be on behalf of Odin and all the Midgardians. "Mr. Thor?"

"Prince, actually," Loki advised after he swallowed his medication.

"I don't care what she calls me," Thor said. "What is it, child?"

"I was wondering if perhaps maybe if you wouldn't mind letting go of your brother's arm?" Melody smiled amiably up at him. Alllll the way up, of course; Thor was almost as tall as Loki, and in his big combat boots, Melody couldn't even look him in the eye without getting a crick in her neck.

Thor blinked several times as if unsure of why Melody had asked such a thing when Loki's arm was clearly in need of squeezing. "He'll run away if I do," he finally explained, and shook Loki a bit, not roughly, but Melody could tell his poor bones were not pleased.

"How long does this medication take to have its effect?" Loki asked through his clenched teeth, giving Thor a very disgruntled glare out of the corner of his eye.

"I think twenty minutes? But maybe less," Melody said, deciding to work up her courage a bit more. "No but really, Loki would've run away earlier if he could've. He's really hurt. Can you let him sit down for a minute maybe?"

"I'm perfectly fine," Loki tried to say, but Thor had turned to him with a concerned crease between his eyebrows. There, Melody had been right. He wasn't actually that mad, more worried than anything.

"You're hurt?" Thor demanded. "What happened?"

"HULK SMASHED PUNY GOD HEHE" The Hulk announced, smashing his fists together with a big grin on his face.

"You sure did, buddy," Tony winced, and moved his hands up a little closer to his ears in case Hulk decided to yell again. "Yeah, Thor, you see those craters? There's a reason they're Loki-shaped."

Thor's eyes widened just a bit, and he released Loki's arm. Loki did not sit down for a minute, opting to sullenly rub his arm as if that was where he was hurting the most, and glare at Thor.

"I'm still mad at you," Thor said. "And you're still going to have to explain all this to our father."

"Your father," Loki muttered, but no one was listening to him.

"Are you mind-controlled, kid?" Tony asked Melody, and he offered her a glass of some blue-ish liquid.

"No, she's not," Clint vouched for her before she could say a word. "She's also not twenty-one. That better not be a cocktail or something."

"Relax, it's Gatorade," Tony huffed, and Melody took a sip. It was indeed Gatorade, and anyone who has tasted Gatorade can agree there's not much more to be said about that. "How'd you fall in with him, then? And… how'd you know he was up here? Jarvis?! Why'd you even let her in?!"

"Several refugees seeking shelter from the battle outside entered the building. I thought it best not to forbid them, seeing as they have a greater chance of survival here."

"Okay, that's fair," Tony allowed, "but why did you let her up?"

The guilty silence from the ceiling made Melody snicker quietly as she realized Jarvis had technically been able to stop her, but hadn't.

"Call it a gut feeling, Sir," Jarvis finally quipped, and Tony muttered something about needing to have Jarvis' guts inspected.

"She's got a gift," Loki quietly spoke up, and Melody turned to lock eyes with him. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to be telling everyone about what she knew, especially considering she still hadn't figured it out for herself, let alone told him everything she knew.

"It's not anyone's birthday, is it?" Natasha asked, and gently took the bottle of Ibuprofen from Melody's hands to take one of the pills herself.

"Not that sort of gift," Melody sighed. The cat had officially escaped the bag, and was working on tearing the bag to shreds. "It's sort of like…" How was she supposed to explain this?

"It's foresight, in a way," Loki said, trying so hard to be helpful and failing so miserably. "She knows what is in store for this world."

"Sort of." That made it sound like she could see the future, and while she sort of could, considering she was currently in the past, it held more connotations than she wanted to be associated with her. "I know the stories of… some select people. Even if they haven't happened yet. In a way."

All six Avengers stared blankly at her.

"You never did explain how you randomly materialized in my car, come to think of it," Loki mused with a bright smile. Apparently, the painkillers were kicking in, and he didn't have to focus on Not Looking Like He Was In Pain.

Good heavens, she really had talked her way into a bit of a mess, hadn't she?

"You know what I think?" Tony interrupted.

"No, but I'm sure we're about to," Steve grumped. Gosh, they really didn't like each other, did they?

Undeterred, Tony went on. "I think this is the kind of conversation best held over shawarma."

"Agreed," Clint cheered. Poor lads, they really were starved, weren't they?

"Can I have some?" Melody asked hopefully.

"Hell no, you're suspect," Tony decided. "You and Mr. Sparkles here need to stay here where Jarvis can keep an eye and a gun on you. We'll be back in an hour." And with that, and a flashy grin, he started towards the elevator.

"Which one of us is he referring to?" Loki asked Thor under his breath. "Because I don't do sparkles; that's your thing."

"I do lightning," Thor cuffed Loki's shoulder in irritation. "Not sparkles. And I'm getting food, because you're twice as suspect as… you, what's your name?"

"Melody," She replied. "Brooks."

"Yes, you're twice as suspect as Melody, considering we actually saw you do the thing." Thor said, sending a glower Loki's way.

"Ah, yes, stating the obvious again, are we?" That was the last thing Loki had the pleasure of saying, before Thor fished in his pocket for a cold lump of metal, and clapped it to Loki's lips. Oh yes, the muzzle. Melody had hoped she wouldn't be seeing it, again.

"Shut. Up." This was all Thor needed to say, but he did accompany it with a withering glare just to make sure the point had gotten across.

"Think about this, Tony," The captain spoke up, "you're really going to leave an alien who just invaded Earth alone in your tower with no one but a kid who might be his accomplice and a robot?"

"Pretty competent robot, you could add," Tony gave a carefree grin. "What, you'd rather get takeout?"

"Maybe we could postpone the meal until after we've dealt with the criminals?" Steve raised his eyebrow sarcastically.

"Okay, Melody isn't a criminal," Clint said, and she couldn't help but smile. An actual Avenger was sticking up for her, vouching for her innocence. It was almost too much to believe. "She's definitely harmless. Look at her, she couldn't hurt a fly if she wanted to."

Okay, vaguely less complimentary. Still, Melody tried to look as innocent and harmless as physically possible. It was her best bet at not being imprisoned, after all.

"I shall not be able to return to Midgard after I deliver Loki to our – to my father," Thor pointed out, and Melody immediately disapproved of Thor's correcting himself. Sure, Loki wasn't comfortable with Odin being his dad and that was perfectly understandable, but when Thor phrased things that way, it sounded more like a division between himself and his brother instead. "We cannot return until the bifrost is rebuilt." With that, he gave a very irritated glare at Loki again. Ah, yes, Melody had forgotten he'd done that too.

"So we'll have to go with you to get shawarma?" Melody guessed. "Please? I'm really hungry!"

"And we can eat in front of Loki while he's still muzzled as our version of justice," Clint pitched in with a wheedling tone. The both of them looked immediately to Steve, partly because he was subconsciously elected as their leader, and partly because he was the only one who'd had an objection.

"Fine," Steve huffed as if they had somehow convinced him to use his face in deodorant commercials. "We'll have to de-hulk Banner, though."

Everyone turned to look at the immensely large and unpleasant green guy in the room, who had been doing little more than heavy breathing and smelling terrible, and they all collectively took a step back.

"Yeah, how?" Tony demanded.

Now here was a truly large dilemma. Melody knew how Black Widow had learned to calm the Hulk down after a few years of working with him on a regular basis. However, the tactic didn't seem to have a very high success rate when utilized by people other than Natasha herself. Sure, she'd only seen Thor try, but she didn't want to be smashed into the floor. For one thing, she doubted she could survive, and for another, there were already too many person-shaped holes in Tony's floor. Still, she was pretty sure she could do it if she tried.

But there was the issue. Should she try? This was a small choice now, but she could easily see it rippling out across the timeline. This was something she could actively do that might affect the timeline, this would be it. In a way, this was almost her Nexus event. Sure, the TVA would've shown up a long time ago if they were to be bothered with such things, given she already had altered the goings-on of things quite a bit, already. She'd already established that she didn't mind creating an alternative universe, but there still was the very real threat of Loki or other characters dying before they were supposed to, and that could be all her fault.

She couldn't take that weight on her conscience.

So she stayed quiet.

Guiltily, she peeped up at the other Avengers to see if they knew she was purposely Not Helping, but they all seemed rather immersed in a discussion as to whether just letting him roam free like last time would work better than tranquilizers. Well, all except for Loki. He was watching her behind his muzzle with a sort of confused interest in his eyes. He knew she knew something, and she'd doubted she would've been able to keep it from him, anyway. Ducking her head in embarrassment, she went back to staring at her shoes.

All the discussion seemed to be boring the Hulk anyway, and he slowly shrunk down to his normal-person size and promptly collapsed in an exhausted heap on the floor.

"Well, there went that idea," Tony sighed as he smirked down at his poor science bro on the floor. "I was looking forward to trying the tranquilizers."

"Shawarma, then?" Natasha suggested with an amiable smile, and was met with a resounding chorus of approval.

TheOnlyHuman.