A/N I am freaking out! This story has almost reached 300 reviews! That is the most any of my stories have ever gotten (not counting my one-shot series, which doesn't really count in my book since each chapter is kind of a stand alone story). I am so excited! Thank you guys so much! :D

This chapter is dedicated to my wonderful reviewers! Hope you guys like it! :)

Allinray

chibitamaora

ThePastReliesOnMemories

Ophelia Lokisdottir

ImperfectIsPerfect

RossyGaray

Princess PrettyPants

Aka-Baka Hoshi

Fawkes83

Son-of-hiddle

DragonsAddicted- Thanks for the review! You're right. Authors are kind of like cats in some ways, and as long as you keep leaving such awesome reviews, then you can compare me to whatever animal you want. ;)

maliha1205

OkieDokieLoki

RoxasGuyXIII

The Real Loki

Steve, Tony, and Loki stood in the throne room at the foot of the stairs with their heads bowed in something between respect and an effort to hide their complete lack of repentance. Odin towered above them as he stood in front of his throne at the top of the stairs, Frigga standing next to him.

"Let me see if I understand," Odin said, slowly and none too happily. Although he was staring stonily at all three of them, his words were more directed at his son, the leader of the group. "On the day the servants are preparing a feast in your honor, you decide to pull a prank on the hardworking staff."

Loki, who had begun to hesitantly raise his eyes to look at his father, ducked his head again and bit his lip in an effort to hold back the grin threatening to spread across his face.

"You three snuck into the kitchens," Odin continued, "and my son used his magic to make the cook believe the food in the oven was burning. Then, while the cooking staff was distracted with that, you two," he looked at Tony and Steve, "stole bags of flour so that the three of you could arrange it so that the flour would be dropped on whoever next opened the door to the food storage room."

The three pranksters each chanced a glance at the displeased king but quickly looked back down at the floor, partially to avoid Odin's angry gaze, and partially to avoid earning even more of Odin's wrath by hiding their borderline grins. Odin, however, was not finished with his summary of their actions.

"Then you made sure to trick the cook into opening the door, thus completely covering him in his own flour, which caused him to slide down, knocking over barrels of wine. The barrels broke open, dousing the cook and two of his assistants, and also liberally splashing several other staff members who tried to help them up, which is why I now have a handful of purple servants!"

Tony snorted, which, of course, set off both Steve and Loki who could only confine their laughter to snickers. That part had actually been an accident, but a rather hilarious one.

Odin stared at the three of them in disapproval but, fortunately, his gaze wasn't as hard as it could have been.

"Sorry, Father," Loki mumbled, still trying to hold his laughter back.

"Yeah, sorry, Sir," Steve added in much the same state as Loki.

"You two straighten up," Tony said, but his own mouth was twitching with amusement.

Loki and Steve both reined in their amusement and managed to school their features into expressions that were at least somewhat contrite.

However, it was at that moment that the throne room doors opened and the cook stuck his head in, informing the king that the feast would still take place on time, before closing the door again. All three men took one look at the cook's purple stained skin, and only managed to control themselves long enough for the door to close before they lost it. They all doubled over laughing and Tony even had to reach out and steady Loki to keep the younger man from falling down.

Odin opened his mouth to angrily demand order from them but Frigga placed a hand on his arm, stopping him. He turned to her and they shared a long look. Odin sighed in resignation but smiled at her slightly. No one had been hurt by the prank. It had been inconvenient yes, but not harmful or dangerous. Besides that, after coming so close to losing their son, the king and queen were just so happy to see Loki recovered enough to pull pranks, not to mention having true friends to pull pranks with. As if that wasn't enough, hearing the wonderful sound of Loki's laughter for the first time in far too long, made up his parents' minds for them.

"All right, enough," Odin said, but his tone wasn't harsh.

With great effort, the three men got tentative control of themselves and looked at the king again.

Odin took a deep breath, sighed, and waved them away. "Go. You're all dismissed," he said.

"What?" Loki asked in surprise.

"The three of you can go. Get ready for the feast," Odin said.

"You're... You're not mad?" Loki asked. "We're not being punished?"

"No one was hurt. It was just a harmless prank," Odin said. "I see no reason to punish anyone."

Loki stared at his father in awe and gratitude. In the past, he was almost always punished for his pranks, even though they were never dangerous or truly harmful. The only time he wasn't punished was when he didn't get caught. This was the first time his father had ever let him off for pulling a prank.

"Thank you, Father," Loki said with a bright, grateful smile.

Odin's expression softened as he looked as his son's smiling face, even as his heart twinged. He suddenly regretted all the years of punishing Loki for his pranks, instead of seeing them for what they were, harmless jokes. He had always been too harsh on Loki and he wished he would have figured that out sooner. There were very few times that Odin could remember ever being on the receiving end of one of Loki's grins like the one he was seeing right then.

The more time that passed, the more Odin was discovering that Loki had always needed a little less discipline and more love and understanding. It was what his wife had always known and tried to tell him and what he had refused to hear until an insubordinate, stubborn, and altogether right Midgardian had stormed into his throne room and knocked some sense into him.

"Mr. Stark," Odin said as Tony, Steve, and Loki turned to leave.

"Call me Tony. Mr. Stark was my father," Tony said, turning back to Odin.

"Tony," Odin agreed.

He met Tony's gaze and held it for a long moment. Tony's amusement dissipated and his expression sobered as he met the king's gaze.

"Thank you," Odin said.

Tony smiled softly and nodded once in understanding.

"It was my pleasure," he said seriously before smirking, knowing he was probably the only person to ever get away with yelling at a king and still live. "In more ways than one."

Odin huffed a soft laugh before waving the three of them away again.

"Go, the three of you, before I change my mind."

Odin had no intention of changing his mind but the three pranksters didn't need to know that. Loki, Steve, and Tony quickly took the opportunity and turned to leave the throne room, refusing to meet each others eyes for fear of bursting out laughing again.

)()()(

After leaving the throne room, Loki, Steve, and Tony split up to go to their rooms and get ready for the feast. Loki went to his chambers and changed his clothes into his slightly more formal wear. He could easily do it in seconds with his magic but sometimes he chose to change his clothing the normal way. It wasn't like he was in a hurry. There was still about half an hour before the feast.

Once Loki was finished dressing, he pulled on his boots and moved over to look at himself in the mirror. He smoothed down a few errant hairs and adjusted his coat. The knock on his door came right on time, just as he had completed his appearance. He walked over to the door and opened it to see Thor standing on the other side.

"Ready?" Thor asked.

Loki nodded and stepped out of his room. Then he and Thor both walked side-by-side up the hall.

"Are we going to stop by our friends' rooms?" Loki asked.

"They have already left for the feasting hall," Thor said. "This should be a wonderful feast."

Loki rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

"You don't think so?" Thor asked.

"You've always been the one for feasts, Brother, not me. You know that," Loki said.

"I have a feeling this one will be different," Thor said with a slight smile.

Loki looked at Thor questioningly, but Thor didn't look at him and his expression didn't give anything away. After that, they were silent. Loki had the feeling Thor might be up to something but he had no idea what it might be.

As they reached the feasting hall, Thor stepped in front of Loki and pushed open the large wooden doors. Loki followed Thor inside, but as soon as Thor entered the room, he quickly stepped to the side, allowing Loki to see the room and in turn, allowing everyone in the room to see Loki. Loki was only able to look at Thor in confusion for a moment before his attention was jerked back to the room as every person in the feasting hall began to applaud and cheer. Loki looked around in surprise, seeing the Avengers, the Warriors Three and Sif, and even his parents all standing at their seats and, along with the rest of those in attendance, clapping.

At first, Loki thought they all must have been cheering both him and Thor, the triumphant princes, but after a moment, Loki noticed that everyone seemed to be looking at him alone and one look at Thor showed Loki that his brother was also looking at him with a wide smile as he too clapped. The cheers and applause were for Loki and Loki alone.

A small smile of wonder and happiness spread over Loki's face as he stared at the crowd in surprise, a warm feeling spreading through his chest. Would he ever get used to people cheering him, and not Thor, in adoration? Probably not, but he would enjoy it nonetheless.

The applause went on for a few minutes, eventually causing Loki to blush slightly and shift uncomfortably from all the attention. Finally, Thor took pity on him. He threw his arm around Loki's shoulders and led him toward their seats. But as Loki moved to sit in the second seat to their father's right, Thor stopped him by tightening his arm around Loki's shoulders.

Loki came to a stop and looked at Thor quizzically, but Thor didn't look at him. He simply let go of Loki, leaving the younger man standing where he was, and stepped forward to stand in front of the seat Loki had been going toward.

Loki actually felt his jaw drop slightly as he stared at Thor in shock. The only empty seat left was the one directly to Odin's right, traditionally the seat of the crown prince. Just this once, they were giving him the honor of sitting at his father's right hand. It might not have meant much to some cultures. After all, it was just a chair. But on Asgard, it spoke volumes. From where he was standing, Thor looked at him with a barely held back smile, his eyes twinkling at Loki's astonishment.

For his part, Loki felt completely overwhelmed by it all, the cheers and adoration, the respect, the honors. For perhaps the first time in his life, Loki felt like people actually saw him, really saw him. He finally stopped feeling invisible and was no longer hidden in Thor's massive shadow. Now he was shining with his own light for all the nine realms to see.

Aware of the eyes on him, Loki turned to the seat that was to be his for the night and met his father's gaze. To anyone else, Odin seemed neutral and impassive but Loki could see the fond approval in his eyes. They looked at each other for a moment, then Odin gave Loki a small nod. A huge grin spread across Loki's face and he couldn't stop it if he wanted to as he stepped forward and took his place on Thor's left amid grins from Thor, the Avengers and even the Warriors Three and Sif.

Once Loki was in place, everyone in the great hall turned their attention to the king and queen. After a brief moment, Odin and Frigga sat down, everyone else following suit a moment behind them.

Then the servants began bringing plates of food out for everyone. If a few of the staff had some purple stains on their hands or faces, Tony, Steve, and Loki studiously didn't notice. However, it was kind of hard to play dumb when the cook himself came in to deliver Loki's food personally. If Loki wasn't the son of the king and assassination wasn't an offense punishable by death, then Loki might have worried his food was poisoned.

One glance at the still purple cook had Loki somewhat worried his food was poisoned regardless.

"I do apologize for earlier," Loki said, trying to hide his smirk and keep his expression genuine. He truly was sincere, but he also still thought it was rather funny, and it wasn't helping that Tony and Steve were snickering across the table.

The cook glanced sternly between the three of them for a long moment before his expression softened and he chuckled. "Well there was no real harm done and I do have to admit that, in hindsight, it was amusing. But did you have to use up all my good flour?"

"In my defense, that part was Tony's idea," Loki said, raising his hands in surrender.

"Sellout!" Tony yelled from across the table and threw a grape at Loki.

Loki ducked out of the way, laughing. "If it gets me out of trouble, then absolutely."

Next to Tony, Steve started laughing too.

"Laugh it up, but I'm not the one who encouraged Loki to pull the prank," Tony said.

"Hey!" Steve cried indignantly. "I may have encouraged it a bit but I didn't come up with it. That was all Loki."

"But he wasn't going to do it, until you convinced him to," Clint said.

"Stay out of this, Feather Butt," Steve said, causing Clint's jaw to drop in shock and Tony to start laughing uncontrollably.

"Really, Steven?" Frigga said, sounding disapproving but the twinkle in her eye belied her somewhat stern tone. "I took you for the more responsible one out of the group."

"Usually he is," Bruce said.

"But he's also his father's son," Natasha said.

"I take that as a compliment," Tony and Steve said in unison, the two of them wearing identical cheeky grins as Tony wrapped an arm around Steve's shoulders.

"Believe it or not, I actually meant it as one," Natasha replied.

"Well, I personally think all six of you deserve the blame for the prank and I am innocent in all of this," Loki said, keeping his expression completely innocuous.

A second later, he was peppered with grapes from his five friends and his brother. He ducked down in his chair and raised his arms to shield himself even as he laughed, the other Avengers joining in, especially when Loki suddenly dropped his arms and caught one of the flying grapes in his mouth. Frigga also laughed at his antics and Odin even smirked in amusement.

Sif and the Warriors Three, and most of the other Asgardians sitting down from them, looked on in wonder at Loki. They thought they had known the younger prince, but they truly had had no idea. There was so much more to Loki than they had realized and it was as if they were seeing him for the first time. Now that Loki had friends, real, genuine friends, he had opened up and was starting to feel more comfortable being himself, instead of trying to be like Thor in order to get everyone's approval.

The real Loki was strong, brave, and an excellent fighter, but he was also funny, playful, and a fun person. Those who were watching him found that they liked him much better as himself and wished it hadn't taken so long for Loki to finally feel secure enough to let people see the real him. It was all thanks to the Avengers that Loki was back home, reconciled with his family and his people, and was genuinely happy for the first time in far too long. He was truly one of Asgard's most precious jewels and the Midgardians had returned him to them.

Asgard owed the Avengers far more than they could ever repay.

A/N I was going for a lighter, happier chapter. Please let me know if I succeeded! :)

Next chapter, some interesting conversation between Loki and the others, and the conclusion of the banquet. It's going to be better than it sounds, I promise.