Tony awoke to the sweet scent of Loki's hair in his nose, he was lying on his back with Loki curled on his chest. He smiled at the sight. Even though they'd done nothing but make out like hot, horny teenagers most the night Tony felt victoriously satisfied. He had made subtly hints that he'd wanted more, but Loki stopped him every time. Tony didn't mind though, if Loki wanted to take things slow then he would wait forever. He glanced to the left to look at his alarm clock that sat atop a pile of laundry, it read nine thirty. He groaned softly. He needed to be up and working, but he couldn't bring himself to wake Loki. Thankfully, he didn't have. The workshop door suddenly opened and the sharp clacking of high heels told Tony that Pepper was here to yell at him, and sure enough she stopped in front of the mattress where Tony lay on the floor and glared at him. She put her hands on her hips and stomped her foot, then gestured to the red-head in Tony's arms,

"Really? You're bringing you little bedmates into the workshop now?" She was all but spitting venom. Tony looked surprised as he realized Pepper didn't know about Loki. She'd been so busy the past month that she'd hardly been there to see what was going on. Tony tried to explain but Loki suddenly sat up, yawning. He took in Pepper and her angry demeanor then glanced at the clock, and finally looked at Tony,

"You're late, aren't you?" He asked. Tony nodded,

"Yeah, pretty much." He answered. Loki moved so Tony could get up. Tony grabbed Pepper's arm and headed for the door as Pepper was staring and pointing at Loki,

"That's a man…" Loki heard Pepper say as the two left the workshop,

"Yeah. That's Loki." Tony said.

"WHAT? Ok. So not only are you sleeping with MEN now, but supervillian men?"

"I didn't sleep with him Pepper…" Tony sighed. Loki chuckled as the workshop door clicked close, cutting off anymore of the dialog. Loki wrapped himself in Tony's quilt for another hour, just enjoying the warm, musky smell that was Tony. He had a lot to consider now. Not only had Thor been right about Tony having feelings for Loki, but apparently Thor had feelings for Loki as well and was very jealous of Tony. This could create problems. And despite Loki's subtle attempts to make Thor understand that his feelings were not acceptable, Thor seemed oblivious. In fact, Loki believes he might have accidently made Thor think that he felt the same way. Loki groaned and slapped a hand against his forehead. He needed to distract himself from this craziness, so he hopped off the little mattress and went to gaze at the machine that Tony had been building the previous night. In three seconds flat Loki spotted more than a dozen mistakes. He rolled his eyes. Of course Tony wouldn't notice these mistakes till after he'd finished the machine and blew up half the mansion; perhaps Loki could help avoid that,

"Jarvis?" He called, he'd finally gotten used to speaking to this computer man.

"Good morning, Master Loki. How might I help you?" came the British voice.

"Put on that Nightwish band that Tony likes so much." Loki said as he started tinkering with Tony's little project.

"Yes, sir. And might I ask what you are doing?" Jarvis responded.

"Just fixing some problems Tony has here."

"And would you like me to record the changes you're making so Mr. Stark can compare them later?" Jarvis was always prepared.

"Yes. That's a good idea." Loki answered absently as he pulled out screws and wires from various places.

"Of course, Master Loki." Was the last thing Jarvis said and then the music started. Loki glanced down and saw something white and powdery on the tabletop. He gently moved the machine and its' scattered components so that he could look at the table. Tony had rapidly scrawled the blueprints of his machine upon the table in white chalk. Loki was taken aback, and then he laughed out loud. Tony was defiantly "Stark" raving, mad, Loki thought, but everyone knows the best geniuses are unstable. Loki softly erased certain parts of the carelessly drawn design and replaced them with what he felt were the proper figures, then he continued to adjust the machine accordingly. When he felt satisfied with his work he left it there, telling Jarvis to turn off the music, and going up the stairs. Today marked the very first day that Loki would meet his assigned therapist and have a session with her. He wasn't looking forward to it. He made his way to Thor's room to take a shower. A few things suddenly dawned on him that he hadn't even noticed before; things that might have told him of Tony's hidden feelings, if he'd been paying attention. The first being Tony's apparent uncontrollable urge to buy Loki things. It had started with hair care products, then new clothes to better fit his mortal life, and then just the other day Tony had come home with a big, beautiful grey and silver fur coat that was apparently hand-made from Finland. Loki had squealed like a teenaged girl when he saw that coat, and Tony had put it right in his hands saying it was for him. Of course Loki had no reason to wear the coat because he wasn't allowed to leave the premises, but oh well, it was a damn nice coat. Now Tony came home with new things for Loki on a regular basis; things that Loki will probably never need. Loki chuckled to himself at this thought. He took extra-long to straighten his hair; mainly because it was the first time he was using the device and secondly, he just wanted to waste time. He took a while to dress himself as well, doing anything to avoid meeting this shrink yet. He finally decided on a nice pair of snake skin imprinted leather pants, that were gorgeous green and brown, and a long sleeve black shirt that laced up across his chest. All of which Tony had bought him. He stuck his tongue out at his reflection, he liked his hair straight but still couldn't stand it being orange. He entered the living room to find everyone milling about like usual, and was surprised to see Logan and Kurt still here. They must have spent the night, he thought. Nick Fury was leaning against the wall by the kitchen door speaking to some blond woman, he glanced at Loki,

"Ah. Speak of the Devil…"He said and gestured to Loki, "Come in, Loki! I'd like you to meet Doctor Carrie Leaf." Loki stepped up to the women and shook her hand, but showed her no emotion. "She's especially trained in the rehabilitation of supervillians and the criminally insane. She spent most of her career working with one man in particular." Nick was explaining, "His name was Cletus Kasady, or better known as the alien menace Carnage." Carrie was nodding, "So I think she's perfectly suited for you." Nick grinned at Loki as if to further say "Because you're a psycho bitch and I'm going to torture you with this therapy"; Loki was pretty positive that Nick was making fun of him in some way. Nick led them to a small study, which until now Loki didn't know existed. It was a quaint little library with two soft leather chairs facing each other in front of a grand sweeping window that gave them a whole view of Manhattan. How come Tony hadn't showed him this room? It was gorgeous.

"…and I'll leave you to it." Nick was saying, then he abruptly left the room. Carrie smiled at Loki and gestured to the chairs,

"Shall we?" She said. Loki grumbled but sat down, making an effort to Loki regal and dominating in an attempt to intimidate this small woman. She was obviously very good at her job because she noticed his behavior right away and laughed softly,

"Hunny, I've spent my life trying to turn a schizophrenic, blood thirsty, mass murderer into a normal human being. You are not going to frighten me." She was very stern but friendly. Loki cocked an eyebrow at her,

"And tell me, how did it go with that man? Did you succeed?" He honestly wanted to know. She frowned deeply,

"No." She was whispering all the sudden, "He's dead." She looked very heartbroken by this fact, but quickly shook it off and smiled at Loki again,

"I just want to ask some typical questions first, OK?" she asked.

"Mmhmm." Was Loki's bored response.

"First of all, how old are you?" she was already making notes upon her clipboard,

"VERY old." Loki said and she looked at him with a quizzical expression,

"Could you be more specific? I know you a god like Thor, but you must have an idea of your age."

"Hunny," He used the same tone she had earlier, "I've been alive since before this rock had any sign of life on it, hence VERY old." He was giving her an annoyed grin. She laughed,

"Ok. Let's pretty old." She jotted down something,

"And considering how old you are, do you have any children?" Loki got the feeling that this was a question from her personal inquiring and had nothing to do with the therapy,

"Perhaps. What does that have to do with anything?" he didn't want her beating around the bush, he just wanted to be done with this. She got the hint,

"Of course. Sorry. We'll move along." She began writing again and didn't look up at him as she said, "Now, did you have a good relationship with your parents?" Loki laughed loudly at the irony of that question, and she looked at him with concern,

"Not in the least." He laughed again. Loki could be honest and say she was a very sweet and VERY patient woman. She spent their two hours together listening intently to Loki telling his whole childhood; of his relationship with Thor growing up, of how he'd been treated by all of Asgard his whole life, of how he could never do anything that Odin approved of, of the time he'd had his mouth sewn shut, or the many many times that Odin had him tied to a boulder in some other realm as a form of punishment for something he'd done, and finally of him discovering his true heritage and the havoc that that had created. Loki had cried at only one point in his story. When he was telling her about the gamble he had lost, he mindlessly ran his fingertips over the faint white scars around his lips, and he softly cried as he spoke about how they had made Thor do it, about how Loki had to look into the eyes of the only person who'd ever truly loved Loki while he tied Loki's mouth shut. Of course as soon as the dwarves were gone Thor had tenderly cut and removed every stitch, but the scars never healed, and he didn't mean the physical ones. That's why Loki had taken habit in using his magic to hide the scars, so Thor wouldn't have to look at them. When their time was up, Carrie actually hugged Loki and gave him a sweet smile when she said she couldn't wait to come back and continue. Loki wondered if her friendliness was part of the therapy or just her personality. He returned to the living room while Carrie spoke to Nick who had apparently waited outside the study the entire time.

"Well?" Nick asked her. She sighed,

"I hate to say it, but he's another man with huge daddy issues." She was shaking her head,

"Tell me about it. Almost every one of the men on this team has "daddy issues", and unfortunately it's what got them here. Shitty childhoods make for talented fighters, because they find an outlet for all that anger. Take Hawkeye for example, he let out his anger with a bow and arrow, now he's best marksman in probably the whole country." Nick said.

"Absolutely!" Carrie agreed, "But unfortunately Loki constantly felt ignored, so he took out his anger on others by making them notice him, usually through force; pain, fear, and mischief. And since he was such a natural-born sorcerer he learned how to use that power to push weaker people around, thus beginning his career as villain." She shrugged.

"So is there any hope for him?" Nick asked. Carrie smiled,

"Oh there's always hope. Everything depends on whether or not he actually wants to change. I think if we can find another outlet for his anger and pain, something far less threatening to others, then he'll be just fine. There are of course his other personality flaws," She laughed, "His royal up-bringing has defiantly gone to his head. The way he speaks, it's like he believes he IS God. But he is a genius, just like Stark, and when a person has such a high intellect it tends to give them an ego. I mean, seriously, the first thing he does when meeting someone new is try to intimidate them?" She laughed again.

"Do think he's evil, though?" Nick continued.

"NO. Selfish, angry, arrogant, envious, lonely, narcissistic, paranoid, and a bit delirious, but not evil. He's also very considerate, especially when Thor is involved; kind, emotional, observant, and passionate. Like I said, Loki is a genius. From what I've heard just now, Loki was born very intelligent into a realm of average intelligence people, because he was so much smarter than everyone else they shunned him. Once again, people always alienate things that they don't understand. Loki couldn't handle just taking orders, he had to do what he thought was right based off of what he knew, and he knew far more than anyone else, and then he was constantly punished for being clever. So now he's just confused. He doesn't understand why everyone hates him, or why he's always in trouble, for being smart."

"Hmm. Do you think he's…unstable?" Nick raised an eyebrow at her.

"Perhaps emotionally unstable. But if you mean insane? I'd say no. Someone as intelligent as Loki would hold their mind very preciously; I don't think he'd allow himself to lose it." Nick was nodding,

"Good. That's all I really need to know." And with that they both left the mansion.

Loki came into the living room to find Tony home, sitting on the floor in front of the TV playing Mario Kart against Wolverine, and by his angry cursing he was apparently losing. Loki sat down on the couch next to Kurt,

"Did you two stay the night here?" Loki asked him, he smiled,

"Ja. I felt bad because I didn't do what I promised I'd do for you, so I stayed, and Logan just stayed because he doesn't like to leave me alone." Kurt answered.

"About that, do you still plan to go get Amanda?" Loki would really love to have his powers back by now.

"Oh of course, mein fruend! I was only awaiting your return. I can go now, if you'd like?" Kurt offered and Loki was nodding,

"That would be most appreciated!" He exclaimed. Kurt turned to Logan,

"Logan, I am not going to wait for your approval this time." He laughed; Logan waved a hand at him. Kurt got off the couch,

"Then I shall return! Wish me luck!" He shouted in excitement, then there was a sudden implosion of air, smoke and brimstone, and he was gone. Loki stared at the empty spot in shock and interest.

"What a curious man…" He mumbled to himself.