A/N: I'm back and scrambling to post this before I go to NYC, hopefully that will give me some inspiration to write this more! Thank you all so much to: Guest, LeonaMasha, Fido123a, angelic94, Guest, LoveandWinning, xoulblade, LePengwen, nekomichi, Guest, HChannah378, PJMenthusiast, KateKat1992, Shion Lee, Guest, Guest, and nessiesmith2012 for all the reviews and love! I know some of you are confused about Sakura's place in the Avengers, but I promise you, it will make sense. Now, onto the next chapter! I hope you enjoy it! I don't own the MCU or Naruto.

Sakura is eating a rice ball in front of Loki's cell, like she does most Mondays and Thursdays. That's how Loki knows what day of the week it is, and has some semblance of understanding of the days passing him by. She is so utterly casual and it infuriates him.

"You should be afraid of me."

She is sitting in front of his cell, knowing this might be one of the last times she gets to catch a glimpse of the Trickster God, before the Asgardians whisk him away to a world where she cannot follow. She cocks her head.

"Why should I?"

And she wonders, because she can feel him, she knows he is sad. He is sad and hurting and looking at him feels jagged but she can't help but be drawn to the curve of his face and wonder what those lips would look like to smile.

The brunette scoffs condescendingly. "Perhaps because I attempted world domination just a short few weeks ago?"

Sakura shrugs. "We all have hobbies."

Loki shakes his head, and Sakura wonders if the corners of his mouth lift in derision, or amusement. She likes to think it's the latter.

Loki stalks to the edge of his cage, nearly pressed up against the glass, his face twisted in a scowl. He presses his hand against the cold surface, and from his fingers, frost begins to spread. He turns a deep blue, lines in a lighter shade criss-crossing his skin while his irises and sclera glow crimson red. In this form, with the angular ridges on his face, he looks particularly somber. He whispers to her, "Everyone else fears me, so why shouldn't you? I am the monster that parents tell their children about. I am different."

What he doesn't know is that Naruto has taught her to love and she is unafraid. Rather, she is allured by his otherworldly looks, —she's always been a sucker for pretty faces and she will take that secret to the grave before the other Avengers find out, especially Tony— so she won't tell him that. She takes steady strides to meet him and places her hand against the glass, where his rests on the other side. Her other one hovers as if to touch his face, but she can't.

"So?" She asks. "Maybe we are different, but in the end, we all bleed."

She puts her other hand on the glass and looks up at the impossibly tall God. She knows Thor loves him. She doesn't know why he's different from his brother or what exactly he is, but he is Loki just the same, and that is enough for her. And as the blue and the cold recedes, Loki letting his Asgardian magic hide his true heritage, his carefully crafted mask cracks for a moment. He is surprised and it leaves him vulnerable to an old, fluttering feeling in his chest, one he thought had died out quite some time ago.

And Thor, who went unnoticed in the background during the exchange, tucks himself out of sight and against a wall, pressing fingers to his eyes. Thor dares to hope.

Sakura lets out a soft sigh, staring down at the picturebook in her hands. In it is all the memories she holds close to her, and it's what she stares at every night, falling asleep to familiar faces in a foreign world.

Her fingers hesitantly touch the picture she is looking at, and she dreams of going back.

To late nights at Ichiraku with Naruto, who is grinning over his sixth bowl of ramen, four more to go, she's only at one bowl, the cicadas chirping loudly.

She flips the page. To early mornings and tea with Sai, who has a paintbrush in his hand and is finally getting a hang of smiling genuinely.

Another page turn, and she dreams of Kakashi, who is sitting on her sofa, face exposed for her apartment walls to see and never to tell, reading and Pakkun is on his lap, the rest of the pack on the floor.

Of cozy nights cuddled up to Yamato, sharing scary stories over the campfire to a terrified Naruto. To gossip at the stand that sells her favorite tempura with Ino, cloud watching with Shikamaru, late nights doing paperwork with Tsunade-Shishō, picking flowers with Hinata, creating new poisons with Shizune-nee, her life. Her life before the war, before everything went to hell and didn't return.

She misses them more every day she is away, and the ache in her chest does not relent. She feels it with every deep breath she takes.

But even so, she now knows of rambunctious, always ridiculous Tony, always ready to make her laugh. Steve, who understands her and what she is going through. Thor, with his lasting patience and his larger than life presence, to Banner and his hesitant smiles that melt her heart. Natasha, with her cautious acceptance and Clint, who could be her uncle with the way he messes her hair each time she walks past him. Even Loki, who has a certain hope to him, that things can always get better, with time and care.

And with that, Sakura dreams of her birth world at night, and with each passing day, realizes this new world is slowly but surely becoming hers, too. And she knows that it is all thanks to the people in the tower that reaches high into the sky.

It rains when Thor returns from Asgard, a few short months after bringing Loki back to face his punishment. Sakura sits at the top of Stark Towers in hopes to catch the Thunder God somewhere in the lightning. When he lands with a whirl of his hammer, Sakura greets him with a smile. He begins to return it before he notices the soaked state of her clothes and hair.

"Sakura, little one, have you been waiting for me this whole time?"

Sakura smiles at him, and says, "Maybe, maybe not. It's a beautiful day for flying."

Thor walks over to her, his magic stopping the rain from hitting them. "You will get a cold," he scolds, and she rolls her eyes.

"How is he?" She asks instead, trying to fend off the god's surprisingly mother-hen tendencies. She wonders if some of it had to do with her size. She knows she was small, but Thor towered over her.

His eyebrows knit together. "All will be well," he assures her, and she believes him. The two come in from the roof of the building, JARVIS giving them clearance to enter. He places a hand on her back, and steers them down the hall, and she follows diligently. "Shall we go flying tomorrow? The man in the little box says it will be nice weather."

Sakura laughs. "I would like that," she tells him.

A/N: hehe, tell me what you think! Until the next time :)

Anbu-chan