"Norns, I hate mornings," Loki sighed, staring at the ceiling of their room. Maisy stirred beside him and he felt slightly guilty for waking her, but he knew she'd want to see him off anyway. He sat up and rubbed his face tiredly.

"Don't go," Maisy whispered, rolling over and staring up at him.

"Here I thought you were so eager for me to be an Avenger," he smiled a little and stretched, "Not so sure I ought to be one of the 'heroes' now, hmm?"

"Loki."

Her voice was so small and her eyes looked watery. She pulled the blanket higher and wiped her face with it to clear any sign of moisture. Loki was tempted to lay down again and curl up with her, ignoring the problems of his brother's friends.

"Maisy," he reached over and gently brushed her lips with his thumb, she closed her eyes and he leaned lower and kissed her forehead, "Maisy, you know I'll be fine."

"I don't know that," she said, "It's Hydra!"

"Mere humans," he scoffed, "Stark assures me that the mission is simple. It is only a small base. We'll be back by this time tomorrow."

She sat up and hugged him fiercely.

"You'd better be!"

Loki searched his mind for something soothing to say, but comfort had never been something he'd been good at. Unless he was manipulating someone, and he certainly didn't wish to manipulate Maisy. Kind words that weren't part of a scheme were hard to form.

"Do you remember how dangerous Taka af Brúðr was?" He asked her.

"It wasn't that dangerous," she looked up at him, "I got a bit beat up, but I knew I wasn't in any danger. Except from Egil, but he wasn't actually part of Taka af Brúðr so… it wasn't that dangerous."

"But every time I saw a blade swing your way or a spell or fireball thrown at you, I worried," he admitted.

"No you did not. We weren't, you know, a thing during the competition," Maisy protested.

"I think we both know we had feelings for each other long before we told each other," he said, playing with her hair, "And even when we did not, I still preferred you to the others. You were my champion. I fretted over your safety more than you realize."

"But you knew I was safe."

"Not always. Blaze is completely unstable. Who was to say she wouldn't just lop off your head for the hell of it? And Aoiba was going around poisoning people. I had no guarantee that you would survive," he held her tighter and she looked down, "And I worried every moment that you were in the arena."

"But I was fine in the end."

"Exactly," he tilted her face back up to look at him, "Think of this mission - and the next one, and the one after that, all of them - as being just as dangerous as Taka af Brúðr. It will look bad at times, but it will all be fine in the end."

"If you say so."

"I do. Do not doubt me."

She kissed his lips and they stayed like that far longer than they should have. When they finally pulled apart he climbed out of the bed and dressed. She watched his every move with worry in her eyes and he tried to joke as he got ready to put her at ease. It worked somewhat and by the time he was leaving the room she was smiling and telling him how proud she was.

"I must meet the others, but be sure to see off our quinjet, hmm?"

"Wouldn't miss it."

A note from the author: Short but sweet! I love writing lovey dovey stuff between these two so I hope you like reading it! :) Just to clear up the timeline once and for all, this story takes place not long before Age of Ultron. The base they'll be attacking in the next chapter is not the one from the opening of AoU, but I'm pretty sure they mentioned that they took down quite a lot of bases on their way to that one. So that's where we're at in MCU time right now. It mostly follows the regular timeline, except Loki didn't fake his death at the end of Dark World. If anyone has any questions, lemme know!

Thank you so much for reading and special thanks to my fabulous reviewers:

Guestanewone: He's pretty fun to write too! :D

Ninja Squirrel: See above author's note for comment on the timeline lol. Blaze is definitely going to wreak some havoc... just not quite yet. She's working on it still! *Loki googles cashews and stares at you* "Squirrel, you do realize that cashews had poisonous shells, right? I cannot feed Linn poison." *continues reading* "Why do humans go to so much effort to harvest such a small thing to eat when there is so much poison in the shell?! Humans are crazy." *proceeds to bring peanuts for Linn instead because he doesn't believe the cashews are safe to eat*.

CheetahLover: Thor is nothing if not a protective big brother lol. Even if his little brother keeps on stabbing him. XD

You guys are the most amazingest!