In the morning, Loki came out of his room wearing a green button down shirt and black jeans. Loki eyed you up and down, and for a moment, you wondered if he remembered anything. You looked at the pair of jeans and T-shirt you wore with a simple brown leather jacket remembering the days of Asgardian leather and fine silks that you dreaded wearing when you weren't in training. Your parents made sure that you were dressed as expensive as possible and Thor and Loki often teased you of the fanciness of your outfits. Many of those outfits would magically go missing or found themselves being "accidentally" torn beyond repair.

"That outfit you had on yesterday," Loki let the door close behind him and started walking down the hall. "You looked like you just got out of prison."

"I did," you answered, trying to hide the disappointment as you fell in step behind him. "I was being inter -"

"Did I ask for your life story," Loki interrupted. You closed your mouth and remained silent as he continued to complain about anything and everything he could. This wouldn't be the first time you heard him complain since he loved hearing himself talk. You smiled to yourself, remembering all the times he came whining to you that Thor bullied him again or Odin had done something to upset him.

You followed Loki until the two of you found your way back to the living room where you were formally introduced to the Avengers. Loki began looking around, and you realized he had no idea where he was going. You attempted to suppress a laugh, hiding a smile behind your hand. You spotted Steve enter the living room and quietly thanked the universe since you did not know where you were going either.

"Good morning Y/N," Steve nodded to Loki before continuing. "How did you sleep?"

"I didn't," you answered, gesturing you eyes towards Loki who decided to remain silent. "How about you?"

"Not so bad myself. Heading to breakfast?"

"That's the plan. Just failed to sign up for the grand tour."

"We eat in the dining room that way," Steve pointed back towards the way he came. "There should still be enough for you two, though with Thor there it might not be for long."

"Guard, make me a plate," Loki spoke before you could thank Steve. "I'll take it in the libra-"

"You can't treat a member of the team that way," Steve's warm gaze turned cold at Loki. "she has a name."

"She is my guard," Loki returned the stare. "Guard dispose of this nuisance."

"I cannot do that, sire," you shook your head. "We must be considerate to our hosts and not risk being detained in a Midgardian, or Asgardian, dungeon."

Loki thought for a second before nodded. "Then back to my original order."

You stepped away from your original position to bow to Loki and turn to leave. You heard Steve begin to berate Loki for treating you like a servant and soon found your way to the dining room with little issue.

"Y/N!" Thor called from his place at the table. "Come eat. There is more than enough food."

"Thank you, sir," you gave a quick nod. "I just came to fix Loki a plate."

"You don't have to cater to him," Thor sighed as you took a plate and started filling it with Midgardian breakfast items. "You're not an Asgardian Guard anymore."

"But I am still honor bound to serve the throne," you popped a grape into your mouth. "Besides. . ."

Your voice trailed off as you remembered when you would bring Loki meals as he studied in the libraries of Asgard.

"What took you so long," Loki didn't look up from his book as you entered the library, carrying two plates and two glasses of Asgardian wine on a wide tray.

"Your mother caught me," you set the tray down on the table he was at and set one of the plates in front of him. "She wants you join at them in the dining room once in a blue moon."

"And listen to father praise that thunderhead while I get ridiculed for choosing intelligence over brute strength." Loki took one of the wine glasses off the tray and drank from it while reading.

"Well, your mother would enjoy your company," you took one of the plates and sat in a nook of the library and started eating.

"Why aren't you with your family," Loki set his book aside and turned to where you sat. "Surely they would enjoy your company."

"And miss an opportunity to raise their social status? They were send me straight back here if I returned home without a title of my own."

"You already are training to be a palace knight," Loki stood from his seat and joined you in your nook. "What other title is there for you?"

You kept silent as you nibbled on the meat that was prepared for dinner. Loki continued drinking his wine, lost in thought, until recognition poured on his face.

"Oh," Loki turned to you, red filling his cheeks.

"Yep," you felt your own face heat up in embarrassment.

The two of you kept quiet until Loki spoke again.

"Well. It would seem you're making good progress."

"Fine," Thor's voice broke you away from your own thoughts. "If it makes you happy."

"If he acknowledged my existence other then being his guard, I would be," you sighed and poured wine into an appropriate glass before making your way out of the dining room. Your hand holding the plate started to heat up as magic kept the food warm as you went to find Loki. You tried not to use magic during your time on Midgard, but you still had some tricks up your sleeve.

"Finally," Loki turned away from Steve's lecture to take the wineglass out of your hand. "What took you so long?"

"I was speaking with Thor," you answered plainly.

"About what?"

"Y/N," Steve took the plate away from you, "I want to see what you can do. Let me show you to the training hall."

Loki continued to drink his wine in silence and he followed you and Steve down a set of stairs to a large room full of different kinds of equipment. It was smaller than the arena you were use to training in, but the arena was meant to house platoons of warriors rather than a small troop of Midgardians.

"His Highness," Steve placed Loki's plate on a bench near the door, sarcasm dripping from the last word, "can eat and relax here while we train."

"All the same to me," Loki sighed and grasp at empty air in front of him. "Guard, fetch me something to read."

You flicked your wrist and a book appeared on the bench next to where Steve had set Loki's plate. Loki's eyes were studying the cover carefully and Steve showed you to the changing rooms and assured you there was a work out uniform in there for you to wear.


You fell to the floor of the training room, out of breathe but with a smile of your face.

"I haven't spared like that is centuries," you were sure the grin on your face made you look insane.

"When was that last time?" Steve stayed standing long enough to get you and himself a bottle of water before joining you on the floor. You looked at where Loki had been sitting reading the book for the last three hours.

Some things never changed.

"I was traveling the wilderness west of the original colonies where I was attacked by the largest grizzly bear I ever saw."

"I feel like that was a movie."

"If it's not, it should be," you laughed, choking as you tried drinking from the water bottle. As you told the story of one of the worst winters of you life, Thor soon joined the room and sat with you and Steve. As you finished one story, you began another and the two of them listened eagerly like children watching their favorite cartoons.

"You met Harriet Tubman?" Steve's eyes were as wide as saucers.

"Helped her a few times too," you laughed. "She could handle herself well, but her plus several former slaves traveling between wilderness and Confederates? It didn't hurt that I knew the area like the back of my hand."

"What happened during the Second Great War?" Steve blurted out the question and you winced in embarrassment.

"Not my finest moment," you admitted. "I'm sure there was more I could do for those in the camps, but. . . I didn't want to be found out. I was nearly burned at stakes, worshipped as a god, and nearly experimented on by some Frankenstein wannabe, but I was a coward. If I think about it, it would have been easy to go to Poland and Germany and put a end to the camps, but. . ."

"Even if you went, there wasn't much you could do," Steve reasoned, but you could only nod silently.

No excuse was a good excuse when it came to lives lost.

"Y/N," Jarvis, the AI Tony had created, came over the intercom. "Mr. Stark has requested your presence in Lab 1."

"Well, changing the past just changes the problems in the present," You stood up and started towards the door. You glanced at the still reading Loki, seemingly unaware of the conversation you had, and walked out of the door.

"Your turn bookworm," you heard Steve call as the door closed behind you.

You took a few steps down the hall before stopping.

"I don't know where I'm going." You chuckled to yourself and the door opened as Thor came out followed by the sounds of combat. "My own Valkyrie come to guide me through unfamiliar land."

"I shall guide you and watch over your soul," Thor bowed low and the two of you shared a laugh. "So.."

"So.."

"How have you been?" Thor was an obnoxious oaf who didn't know what an inside voice was if you had used the vocabulary of a child. But what he lacked in volume control he made up for in intuition.

"I didn't think he would forget everything. He had to remember some things," you sighed, kneading the knot that was forming in your shoulder.

"He nearly died," Thor reminded you, walking with you down the hall. You fell silent as the memories of that night took your mind.

"Loki?" you slid next to Loki, blood rushing from multiple wounds on his body. "You're going to be okay. You gotta be okay."

"Y/N?" a young Loki looked up to you, barely able to open his eyes. His voice sounded so weak and distant.

"Shh," you pressed your hand on one of the worst wounds, magic spreading to stop the bleeding. "You're going to be okay."

Loki's eyes fluttered shut and the hand he tried lifting fell back to the ground.

"Lo?" Your hand moved to his cheek, he felt cold. "Loki? . . . Loki!"

"Y/N?" Thor recalled you out of your thoughts as you exited the elevator you didn't realized you entered.

"Yeah? What?" you shook the remaining memory out of your mind and enter what you assumed to be Lab 1.

"Took you long enough," Tony huffed as you followed Thor into the lab. "Why do you look like you ran a marathon then fought a bear?"

"Sparred with the captain," your hand went back to the knot in your shoulder. "What can I do for you?"

"Just running tests to see what you can do," Tony pointed to a chamber behind him with a window looking into the room instead of a concrete wall.

"But the captain already did that," you huffed, making your way to the chamber.

"I'm talking magic, Swayze," Tony turned back to his screens, typing away on his keyboard.

"Swayze?" Thor asked, his brows furrowed with confusion.

"Patrick Swayze," you stated, Thor still looking confused.

"Bodyguard," Tony spoke and Thor nodded, not fully understanding the reference, but not wanting to ask more.

"So what do I have to do?" you asked, the door you entered closing behind you and locking.

"What's the most you've ever done with magic," Tony asked, not looking at you.

"Downed the Titanic," Tony looked up from his screen in pure shock. "I'm kidding, I was just a passenger."

"Y/N can burn down an entire forest when she wants to," Thor chirped up, leaning against one of the tables.

"That was one time and they insulted my mother," you called from behind the glass.

"An entire forest," Thor repeated himself, his shoulders shaking as he laughed.

"Show me what you got," Tony hit a final key, and the tests began.


"If I have to do one more thing to prove whatever to whoever I'm gonna-" Thor pressed a bag of frozen peas against your shoulder. "Thanks."

"Guard," Loki walked in the living room where you and Thor sat. "Where have you been?"

"Calm brother," Thor groaned. "Y/N is taking a break."

Loki looked you up and down, and heat began to rise up your neck. He must have noticed that you were exhausted, because he took a seat in one of the chairs instead of arguing further. "That captain could pass as an Asgardian warrior if he so desired."

"So he clobbered you in training," Thor laughed and Loki adjusted himself in his chair and began fiddling with a watch on his wrist.

"I wouldn't use such a primitive term," Loki coughed and turned his gaze to you. "I finished the book. It was intriguing."

"Intriguing is good," you smiled. "Let me know if you want to borrow anything else."

Loki gave a too brief smile that faded back to his usual scowl. The memories of his smiles filtered into your mind.

"Where are we going," you whined, trying to pull Loki's hands away from your eyes.

"Almost there," Loki whispered low in your ear, heat filling your cheeks.

Loki guided you through what you could only guess was a forested path from the sound of the wind blowing though trees. The sound of water made you think you were coming up on a creek or river. After knowing Loki for 14 years, you knew all his hiding spots when he got too annoyed with Thor and his friends. You knew how to get to all his hiding spots with your eyes closed, but this path was new and you were disoriented by it.

"Okay, keep your eyes closed," Loki moved his hands from your eyes as you heard him shuffling around you.

"LoLo!"

"One second."

"I'm going to open my eyes.."

"Wait!. . . .Okay, open them."

You opened your eyes to see Loki sitting on a blanket next to enough food to feed an army, or two growing teenage Asgardians. You realized the place Loki took you to was a small clearing next a spring. Moss clung to rocks circling the spring and you couldn't help but stop to smell the forest around you.

This was somewhere new and you couldn't help but feel overjoyed that he brought you here instead of you having to track him down.

"Come," Loki held a hand open to you, his smile sent warmth throughout you body. "Sit."

Thor snapped you out of your thoughts with a gently push. You looked between Thor and Loki looking at you with confusion.

"What?" You picked up the bag of peas you dropped on the floor and started flattening the plastic.

"Where were you?" Loki leaned forward, heat prickling your cheeks.

"Nowhere," you avoided his gaze and focused on the now missing knot on your shoulder.