Thanks for all the reviews! Sorry for not updating in a while. Been super duper busy with work.

WARNINGS : NONE.

Unbeta-ed.

Tony and Steve were able to coax the good doctor, Bruce Banner, to come to the tower without revealing anything about their unconscious visitor. Bruce had been surprised to see a broken and bruised trickster sleeping in one of Tony's many lavish guestrooms. He had been even more surprised when the Captain had asked him to heal the villain that had threatened to take over the world. They were very lucky that he had been practicing more on his meditation and yoga techniques that he had managed to remain calm with the situation at hand.

He was tending to the several cuts on Loki's arm when Steve asked in concern, "Is he okay? He's not dying, is he? Do we need to bring him to the hospital?"

Sure, Sif had said that Loki would heal but Steve would rather trust the word of his fellow Avenger than of a woman he had never met before tonight. Even if it was about the life of a villain he had fought (and defeated, thank you very much).

Bruce replied as he moved on to inspect Loki's other arm, "Well, a few broken ribs but they seemed to be mending. I have cleaned the other wounds. He should be fine when those heal."

Tony asked as he nursed a glass of whisky in his hands, "What about his memories? It didn't look like he recognized either of us when he woke up briefly just now." Loki was only conscious for less than a minute, he may only be confused.

After a few short moments of silence as the doctor pondered on the possibilities, he answered hesitantly, "I'm not sure but I think he has had a few concussions. Or perhaps the traumatic experiences caused the memory loss."

Steve caught on quick with the hidden meaning of his words and asked slowly, "Traumatic experiences? You mean, um, the other thing, don't you? We were right in our assumptions?"

Banner put Loki's arm down carefully, turned to them, sighed and said, "Look, I'm not a real doctor, you do know that right? But yes, I saw some scarring when I was cleaning him up. And I think it was not a one time thing."

The ever eloquent millionaire said just one word, "Shit." while the good ol' captain closed his eyes and said a silent prayer for the trickster's road to recovery. None of them knew what to say after that so Bruce continued with what he was doing.

"We need to keep him sedated while his ribs heal. I do not want him freaking out and jostle his ribs more," Bruce said as he prepared the syringe.

The other two Avengers nodded. Steve then asked, "Okay, so if the memory loss is not temporary, what should we tell him when he wakes up?"

No one knew the answer to that question, so Steve and Bruce turned towards Tony.

"Why are you looking at me for? How would I know?!" Tony exclaimed in exasperation and then turned and stalked out of the room.

What were they to do indeed. When Loki woke up, he went 'berserk' as he realized that he was among strangers. It was fortunate, for the three Avengers anyway, that he was still weak from his injuries.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa... don't freak out. Calm down," Tony said with his arms out as he tried to calm a freaked out trickster. Though he was in pain, Loki had managed to scrambled out of bed and took an attack stance against the three Avengers.

"Who... who... who are you? What do you want?" Loki tried to yell at his 'assailants' but due to the strangulation injury to his throat, his voice was hoarse and raspy. Before he gave them a chance to explain, Loki said an incantation to teleport himself back to the safety of Asgard. The Avengers could see that the trickster started to panic when the incantation did not work.

'Well, this is awkward,' Tony thought as he stared at the confused god. Loki lashed his right hand out and murmured another incantation. And yet, nothing happened. The three Avengers glanced at each other. Steve sighed when he realized that neither Tony nor Bruce would take a lead at explaining the situation to Loki.

"Okay, look Loki, just calm down. We're friends of your brother, Thor," Steve started. The mentioned of Thor's name got Loki's attention and Steve continued, "Look, you don't have your magic now."

Apparently that was not the right thing to say because Loki then screamed on top of his lungs, "THORRRR! THORRRR!"

Tony and Bruce put their palms to their ears to drowned out the screams while Steve continued with his efforts to calm Loki, "Calm down, calm down, listen to me..."

However, Loki did not give him a chance as he snarled at Steve, "MY BROTHER WILL KILL YOU! RELEASE ME THIS INSTANCE! THORRRRR!"

"CALM DOWN LOKI! Thor is not here. You're safe here, okay?" Steve continued as he tried to get closer to the god. But as he did, Loki retreated until he was backed to a corner.

"NO, you're lying! Thor would never leave me! THORRRR!" and with that, Loki lunged at Steve. Unfortunately, he was no match for the super soldier and Steve managed to block the attack and then pinned Loki to the floor. Loki screamed and tried to bucked the stronger man off him but his effort was futile.

"Listen to me! THOR IS NOT HERE!" Steve yelled as he kept his grip on the weakened god. It took a few moments but alas, Loki stilled.

"Where's my brother?" came the whispered question. Steve felt the shivers and the heavy breathing, so he knew that Loki was terrified.

"He is back at Asgard. Do you remember who Sif is?" Steve said softly.

"Yes," Loki whispered as he felt a glimmer of hope, "Is she here?"

Steve shook his head and then replied, "No, sorry, she's not. She brought you here and have asked us to keep you safe."

Loki scoffed and said in disbelief, "Sif? Impossible. Sif doesn't like me."

Steve turned and shared a look with Tony and Bruce before he said, "Well, she did. And she had asked us to keep you safe until Thor returns for you. Look at your wrist, Loki. Do you recognize that bracelet?"

Steve let go of Loki's arms so he could sit up and look at the bracelet. Loki sat up on the floor and pulled his legs to his chest. He took his right wrist and tried to rubbed away the sore. Then he thumbed the bracelet that he remembered that he had enchanted for Sif and slowly nodded. It wasn't much but it was something that was familiar to him and he took comfort in that.

"Listen to me, this is important, okay? Sif said NOT to take it off. She said that you'll be safe as long as you're hidden. Alright?," Steve explained. Loki nodded as he kept his gaze on the bracelet. Steve let out a breath of relief that he did not even know he had held.

"What happened? Why am I here? Where am I? Where's my magic?" Loki asked softly as he continued to thumb the bracelet.

Steve sighed and knelt down in front of Loki to be at eye-level with him and softly said, "Well, something happened while you were in Asgard. And it's currently not safe for you to be there right now. That's all we know for now, unfortunately."

Loki slowly nodded, as if it was a normal occurrence and then asked softly, "What is because of a prank I pulled? Did I do something wrong?"

'You bet your skinny ass you did. You tried to take over the world, you bastard,' was what Tony wanted to say but even he knew that was not the time and place to make the situation worse for them.

"Perhaps. We don't know. Sif did not have enough time to explain the situation to us. Just that you are not to be released to anyone other than herself or your brother. And to keep you safe," Steve explained.

"What about my father? And... my mother?" Loki asked softly as he looked at Steve.

Steve shook his head and replied, "Sorry, Loki. We don't know,"

Loki nodded and then kept his gaze on his hands that were on his knees.

Bruce moved forward and knelt down, just as Steve did and asked, "Loki, can you tell me what you do remember?" He did not missed the flinch that Loki gave when he moved nearer to the god.

Loki opened his mouth and then closed it. He gave it some thought and then he said in panicky whispers, "I don't know. I... "

Bruce put his palms out and said, "Alright, alright. It's okay. You do remember your parents right?

Loki frowned quizzically, nodded and then said softly, "Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I remember them?"

"Okay, that's good. Do you remember anything else about your parents?"

Loki looked at him quizzically, "What do you mean?"

"No, nothing at all. Just asking, to be sure," Bruce quickly replied.

'Okay, so he does not remember about the whole adoption thing,' Bruce made a mental note about that.

"What about the whole banishment of Thor thing?" Tony asked from across the room where he stood. He made no effort to move closer to Loki.

Loki turned his gaze towards Tony and looked at him with widened eyes and exclaimed, "Thor was banished?! Why?! My father would never banish Thor!"

"Oh, no, no, no. He was just kidding," Steve said and narrowed his eyes at the millionaire. Tony rolled his eyes at him and Loki glared at Tony. 'If only I have a camera,' Bruce thought in amusement.

"I shall tell my brother of your lies. He will deal with you then," Loki glared at Tony and proclaimed as loud as he could with his hoarse whispers.

"Loki," Bruce called his name and when Loki gave him his attention, he asked, "Do you know how old you are, in terms of human age?"

Loki shrugged as he wrapped his arms around his legs and rested his head on his knees.

"Okay, let's put it this way. Have you come of age?" Bruce tried again.

Loki nodded and said, "Yes, a few moons ago."

"Recently then?" Bruce asked softly.

Loki nodded and yawned.

"Are you tired? Right, go back to sleep. We can talk more when you're more awake, okay?" ever the caring man, Steve said as he motioned towards the bed.

Loki nodded again and stood up. He climbed into the bed and crawled under the covers. He was still confused but he was also very tired. He may not have remembered much, but he knew strategies. There was no way he could get away if he were to start a fight with these three. Not when he was that tired and certainly not without his magic. So he settled with rest. 'Very well, Sif. I'm keeping my faith in you,' Loki thought as he thumbed the bracelet again. Little did he know that Sif kept the same faith in him just before they left Asgard.

As the three Avengers made their way out of the room to give Loki his rest, Tony turned and asked accusingly, "You really don't remember us?"

"Should I?" came the whisper as Loki tried to make himself comfortable on the bed.

Before Steve could stop him, Tony retorted, "You should. You threw me out of a window."

After a short moment of silence, came a sleepy but definitely cheeky reply, "Good."

I'll try to update as often as I can.

And as usual, thank you for reading and I hope I get to see your reviews! :grins: