A/N: Yes, hello, *sheepish grin* Sorry for the lateness. This story's been giving me difficulties, and I've been working on some Star Trek and Stargate SG1 stories that I want to post eventually. Anyhow. Here's this chapter.

Spoilers for Spiderman: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok, as much as I've gleaned from the trailers.

EDIT 10/21/2017: Thanks to loyal reviewers I realized that doc manager ate the first part of the chapter which contained the end bit of Spiderman, so... here it is :)

ONE YEAR LATER:

"I now pronounce you Provisional Member of the Avengers," Steve announced, mock-grandly, as he pinned an Avengers souvenir medal to Peter's chest, and the assembled Avengers cheered.

Allie threw confetti into the air gleefully.

"You are cleaning that up," Wanda muttered to Pietro, who was Allie's confetti-accomplice.

Two days after Peter was officially on the roster, he accidentally discovered a black-market alien weapons distributor.

"This is small potatoes," Steve reassured the teen. "Let us hand it to the FBI, and you worry about your school."

"Does that mean I can do actual stuff during the summer?" Peter asked eagerly.

"Missions in the summer, friendly neighborhood spidey in the meantime," Tony promised him.

"Cool."

The gang was rounded up, just as the last Avengers things were being shipped to the compound upstate. Allie would now be shuttling up with one guardian who had business at Stark Tower. It was Stark Tower, again. So basically, she went back and forth on Pepper's schedule. Mostly her dad took her, or Tony sometimes, but mostly Pepper. Allie was a whole eight years old, after all, and could handle commuting like a grown-up.

So when the Stark-Potts marriage was finally announced (they'd delayed Spider-man's announcement since he was still underage), Allie had a front seat to all the crazy reporters.

"That's a lot of cameras," she said, sticking her nose to the glass to count all the flashes going off.

Pepper tugged her away from the window of the office. "Come away from there unless you want your boogers in the news," she teased.

Allie giggled. "Eww."

A~A~A~A

SIX MONTHS LATER:

"What do you mean, you're leaving?" Allie asked Thor and Loki.

They gave her identical guilty looks. "I must return to Asgard, and Loki is on probation," Thor explained. "We will be back in a while."

"How long is a while?"

"When we have finished," Thor said.

Allie pouted. "That's too long."

Thor swept her up in a hug and kissed her cheek. "My dear Allie, the time will fly by. You will not even notice we've gone."

She sank into his arms (Thor's hugs were the best), and sighed, resigned to losing two of her playmates and family members. She looked over at Loki. "Behave," she admonished him. "That way you get to come back."

Loki bowed over her hand and kissed it like a gentleman, making her giggle. "I swear," he said, winking at her.

"Ready guys?" Bruce asked, entering the room with a duffel bag over his shoulder.

Allie's jaw dropped. "You're leaving too?!"

"Just for a bit," he assured her, giving her a hug. "Thor wants me to look over some Asgardian technology. How could I say no?"

"Why aren't you taking Jane?" Allie asked Thor.

He gave her a grin. "She has to finish her project before she can join us."

"You're not taking Darcy too, are you?" Allie asked, horrified. "Who's gonna be Bucky's girlfriend?"

Thor snickered. "No, Darcy is not joining us."

"Good." Allie regarded them seriously. "Come back soon. And bring me a present?"

"Yes, my lady," Thor said, giving her a final squeeze before setting her down on the carpet.

Loki pulled the radio tree carving out of thin air, making her gasp. "And remember, you will be able to hear the music of the world tree, and thus of Asgard, from this." He placed it in her palm. "I found it in the library where you'd lost it."

She kissed his cheek. "Thank you, Loki." Clutching the music box tightly, she waved with her free hand as they walked outside and were swept up by the Bifrost, leaving a stamp on the grass.

Tony swooped in a second later, hollering, "NOT ON THE GRASS- Why do I even bother."

Allie giggled. "Too late!"

He ruffled her hair. "Too slow," he agreed. "Did you see 'em off?"

"Yup."

A~A~A~A

Now that her world tree radio tuner was found (she still didn't have a good name for it...), Allie spent a lot of time listening to it as she did her schoolwork. It was soothing, and sometimes it was exciting, but sometimes it was sad, or happy. The universe had very complicated music, she decided.

Then one day, it sounded like the orchestra had broke. It was a terrible screeching, staticky sound, and it made her feel worried. Really, really, worried. So she took it to Tony. "Tony, I think the universe is broken," she informed him, handing him the radio.

He took it with an indulgent smile. "What makes you say..." his eyes unfocused as he heard it, "that..."

"You hear it too right?" Allie asked urgently. "The screechy bits?"

"Yeah, I do... FRIDAY, pull up the satellites, and get Jane Foster on the line."

"Yes, Mr. Stark."

Allies sat at the workbench and watched Tony for a little bit, and then finally ventured, "So... what's goin' on?"

"I don't know, sweetheart. Why don't you go play, and I'll hold onto this until I figure it out, okay?"

She hovered reluctantly, worried about Thor and Loki and Bruce. "How about, I hold onto it, and when it changes I tell you?" she suggested.

Tony glanced at the anxious little girl. "Well, I suppose, since I can't get any readings from it. But as soon as the music changes you come tell me, or tell FRIDAY, okay?"

"Okay." Allie grabbed the universe music box and zoomed from the lab. She slipped into her room, and dragged her blankets and pillows over to the corner to make a nest. She held the tuner in both palms, and waited for the music to go back to normal.

It was weird for three whole days. She shifted herself into a three-handed person to be able to hold it. She slept with it, ate with it, bathed with it, and flatly refused to do any schoolwork because she was concentrating on the universe.

"I think we need to take it away from her," Natasha told Clint on the third day. "She's starting to get obsessed."

"Tony said that the dimension they think is Asgard is going crazy, so something really bad is happening," Clint replied quietly. "Steve's even thinking of going to Dr. Strange, or Reed, to find a way to get up there."

"What, and in the meantime Allie walks around with two hands sticking out of her left elbow?" Natasha asked.

"Good point. You do it."

"Why me?"

"You're more persuasive."

Natasha rolled her eyes at him, and walked over to Allie. "Any change?" she asked gently, sitting down beside her.

"Not yet." Allie didn't take her eyes off it.

"What if we give it to Tony until it changes back?" Natasha suggested.

"No, it's okay," Allie replied.

"Honey, you're just gonna make yourself worried if you don't take a break," Natasha said gently.

"I'm not worried that much," Allie said, sparing her a glance. "Thor's winning."

Natasha frowned. "How can you tell?"

"If I have the brain of an Asgardian it's easier to tell what the music says," Allie explained matter-of-factly. "That bit, the trumpety one, is Thor. He's in it a lot, and that drum one, is Hulk, and he's stronger than anything, so I think they're winning. And I'm 92% sure that the flute noise is Loki, and he's helping."

"92%, huh?" Natasha asked, slightly amused.

"Yup. There's a harp, too, she sounds pretty, kind of like you would sound maybe, and then there's a screechy one. I think she's the bad guy. Um, girl. Look mommy." She reached out with her right hand and put Natasha's hand on the radio tuner, and pressed her small hand on top of hers. "Can you hear it?"

Natasha listened, and she heard it. There was a full-blown symphony going, apparently, but with some work she could distinguish trumpets, drums, a flute, a harp, and the terrible screeching. "I see," she said quietly.

"Yeah. It's fine, mommy."

Natasha gathered her up into her lap and held her close, resting her chin on the girl's bright blue hair. "If everything's going to be fine, can you take a pause maybe, and I'll play with you?" she bargained.

"No thanks mommy, I'm good." Allie settled further into Natasha's hold. "We can snuggle though, while I wait."

Natasha gave Clint a raised eyebrow. Now what?

He shrugged.

Later that night Allie jumped into her parents' bed, scaring them both. "It's over, it's over, it's all good now!" she declared triumphantly, bouncing on the bed between them. "There's no more static!" She flopped onto the bed, and handed Natasha the radio. "You can hold it now if you want." She fell asleep thirty seconds later.

"Allie?" Clint asked quietly, tapping her shoulder.

Allie turned into a chocolate Labrador puppy and didn't wake.

"Okay then," Clint said, amused, moving her under the covers with them. "I guess the crisis is over."

Two weeks later Bruce came back, looking tired but pleased. "So, Loki's daughter tried to usurp the throne of Asgard," he announced, dropping his duffel bag on the counter. "We won, obviously."

"Cool," Pietro offered.

"Wait," Wanda said, lifting her head from her book, "Loki has children?"

"Uh-huh."

"I did not see that coming," Pietro muttered. His eyes widened. "Does Thor have children?"

Bruce shrugged. "He didn't say."

A red fox skidded around the corner and jumped over a coffee table, turning into a frantic, red-headed Allie, who barreled into Bruce's arms with a small "oomph."

He hugged her tightly and kissed her hair. "Hey, sweetheart."

"I'm really glad you're back," she said, words muffled in his shoulder. "Where's Thor'n'Loki?"

"In Asgard, doing cleanup," he replied, propping her on his hip. "Where's Steve?"

"Training with Bucky and daddy."

"All right. Let's go say hi, okay?"

"Okay." Reluctantly, she slid to the floor, and grabbed his hand instead. "Let's go."

Bruce checked in with the leader of the Avengers, and Steve welcomed him back. The news spread, and Jane and Tony arrived promptly from the city to debrief him. Bruce's story was, frankly, ridiculous, but they had won against Hela and Asgard was more or less intact.

"No more off-world-ing," Allie admonished him sternly, afterwards.

Bruce chuckled. "No more off-world-ing," he promised, and they pinky swore on it.

A~A~A~A

Rhodey walked in to the living room to find Steve staring at something on the coffee table. "Steve?" he asked, wondering if there was a bee inside again.

"Huh?" Steve asked, attention still on the object.

Rhodey walked all the way over, and realized that Steve was staring at a Rubik's cube on the table - it was slowly solving itself, turning over and sliding around on the table. "Allie?" he asked after a second.

"Yup." Steve held up the real Rubik's cube in his hands. "She wanted to try and solve it by herself."

"So she became the cube?" Rhodey asked, smirking. "Very Zen of her."

"Yeah." Steve grinned as the Rubik's cube gave one final spin and all the pieces fell into place. "Excellent job, Allie!"

The cube morphed back into a small girl, and she hugged Steve tightly. "I did it!" she cheered, doing a victory dance around the living room.

They watched her, grinning, and then Rhodey realized something. "Aren't you kind of small for an eight year old, kiddo?"

She paused mid-air guitar riff to contemplate this. "I don't think so?" she asked uncertainly. "What's a regular eight-year-old size, Rhodey?"

"I don't know but I'm pretty sure it's taller than that."

Allie suddenly found the carpet very interesting. "It's just, being smaller is easier for cuddling," she admitted, after a moment of digging her toe into the plush carpet.

"So what's your actual size, baby?" Steve prompted.

She grew a few inches both lengthwise and widthwise, but she was still a skinny eight-year-old. After a moment, she also shifted her hair to a soft honey brown, and let it fall halfway down her back. "There," she decided, "I think this is me."

"Forty-eight inches," Steve decided, and lifted her up briefly. "Fifty pounds. Seems all right to me." He knelt in front of her and chucked her chin gently. "You know we're super strong, right, Allie? It doesn't matter how small or not small you are, you're still the perfect size for cuddles." He picked her up and swung her into a piggyback ride as proof. "Now, how about a snack? Growing children and super soldiers need their snacks."

Allie clung to his back and giggled. "I don't think you're gonna grow much more, Steve."

A~A~A~A