The next morning Loki stood over the kitchen sink holding a lighter in one hand and a slowly burning book in the other. Usually, Loki would be horrified—you should never burn books, that's what the Nazi's did and they were bad—but it was truly an abomination. Watching it burn gave him pleasure. He idly wondered if he was a pyromaniac as well as kleptomaniac and pathological liar. Probably, he seemed to get all the fun conditions. Seriously though, a sparkly vegetarian vampire who can read minds? And, he goes for the plainest most boring girl in his current high school because she smells good. Pitiful.
It deserved to be burned.
This was how the whole avengers gang—plus Pepper—found him two minutes later.
"Dude!" Stark whined dramatically. "You can't just go burning my stuff! It's not cool."
Miss Potts completely ignored him, demanding, "Where's my kitten."
Loki kneels down, and when he rises, there is a tiny orange kitten in his arms. He holds it under the arms, making sure it faces Miss Potts direction, and on cue the little thing makes the most heart-warming "Meow!" that was possible. Instantly, all the other avengers crowd around Pepper, who had pressed it into her chest. They were all enamoured.
Too bad it wasn't real.
Since Loki couldn't get a hold of a live kitten, he had simply made one out of magic. It was like an illusion, except more powerful because it was solid. The kitten wouldn't die either, because it wasn't alive. It would one day go 'missing' and would forever be lost. Really though, what did Miss Potts expect, for him to ask for one of the avengers to get him a kitten? That would require speaking.
Plus, it would be funny to see her face when it ceased to exist.
"Brother!" Thor said happily. "You have taken the first step to your redemption!" He then gave Loki a bone grinding hug.
Now, it was previously stated that Loki was a kleptomaniac; he liked to steal. Sure, he was a Prince of Asgard and he could have anything he wanted, but it never gave him the same pleasure. When he stole something he felt a sense of accomplishment, a high of ecstasy. So his itchy fingers travelled to Thor's belt, took a golden dagger, and left a weak illusion to look like it wasn't missing. And if the dagger happened to be the only one that could cut through the thread that stitched his mouth closed, so what?
Also, how on Earth is giving someone a kitten the first step to redemption?
"What book were you burning?" Romanoff asked.
Loki showed her the other three books in the box set.
"Oh, Twilight." She sounded disgusted. "Can I help?"
His mouth stretched into what was probably supposed to be a smile. He was corrupting them, one by one.