Chapter 7

Perfect. Just great. The three were stuck in traffic. New York traffic was nothing to laugh at, and it was not fun to be in. Niki groaned and almost let her head slam onto the horn, which would cause it to go off, joining the other car horns. But she didn't want to be classified like them so she didn't. The watch strapped to her wrist ticked as if to tease her about how much time was going by. One minute… five… ten… thirty! "SHUT UP!" Niki shouted at the inanimate object, taking it off and shoving it in the glove compartment. She grumbled and glared out the windshield.

Loki gave her an odd look. "Problems woman?"

"Shut it Loki! I don't want to deal with your attitude." Niki barked. Loki glared at her and looked out his window.

"I was going to offer council but I guess not."

To save an awkward silence, Ember clapped her hands. "Okay! Okay! We're all friends here aren't we?" Both Niki and Loki turned around in their seats and glared at her. "Okay… maybe not…" Ember chuckled nervously at her sleeves. "This is going to be great," she mumbled to herself. "And we all have to live in the same house… together. Joy! This is great. I'm probably going to get the brunt of it all."

Niki sighed and glared at Ember. "Best watch your mouth girlie."

Ember held up her hands in defense. "I didn't utter a single insult, and or something that wasn't true."

True enough. And besides… hey! Look at that! The traffic started moving, making Niki happy and more tolerant. She sighed in relief and tapped the gas with her foot. "I really hope the rest of the day is better." She said. Little did she know that it was going to get tons worse. After another twenty or so minute on the road, they pulled into their driveway to find the Avengers, dressed out in their gear, standing on their lawn. Niki groaned and turned to Ember. "Get out slowly and keep your head down. Do not make eye contact. Tony sees that as a challenge."

Ember nodded and carefully gathered things together. And then Niki turned to Loki who was grinning, looking out the windshield at the fuming Avengers. "Oh boy…" she sighed. "I suppose it's too much to ask you not to say a word?"

Loki shifted his green gaze towards her and smirked. "Yes it is."

She rolled her eyes. This god needed to be taught a few lessons in manners and people skills that didn't involve plotting or manipulating. "Then please just don't… blow anything up, or turn anybody into anything, or make things too much worse."

"No promises."

Ember, Niki and Loki climbed out of the car and strolled over to the group of angry heroes. Ember kept her head down, Niki just frowned and Loki smirked. The team of Avengers was blocking their way to their door. There was an awkward silence of stare downs and mental questions and then all hell broke loose. There was arguing and finger pointing and shouting.

"Why would you let him into your house?!" Bruce shouted. He was honestly trying to stay calm but with the news that Loki, his worst enemy, was at his friend's house put him on the edge.

Ember crossed her arms over her chest and shifted her weight to one foot. "We didn't. He just appeared in my room yesterday. We talked to Fury and he said that Loki should stay at our place." She and Niki were really the only calm ones in the whole argument.

While Ember, Bruce, Thor, and Natasha argued, Niki was dealing with a deeply confused Steve and an outraged Tony.

"So wait, he just randomly appeared in your home?! And you left him here with your little sister, alone?!" Steve asked.

Niki nodded, calmly even though there was a lot of tension and anger. "Yes. Ember knows how to protect herself. Especially after all those special defense training sessions she was forced to take," she eyed Tony. After the first talk with Nick the girls had to take a few defense and safety classes for a just-in-case. If any of the Avenger's enemies found out that Niki and Ember know and attacked them, they needed to know how to protect themselves until the Avengers came along.

"Those were necessary! Loki living with you is not!" Tony exclaimed.

Niki rolled her blue eyes at the man of iron. He was, no, all of them were getting on her nerves. "This IS necessary."

Those three kept arguing, but all the while, Loki was watching them. A grin had plastered itself to his face out of pure enjoyment. Arguments were fun to watch. Well to him. Being the god of mischief, what can you expect? Mischief is and always will be his thing. He was just about to interject in Niki's conversation, when Clint came and stood in front of him, trying to stare him down.

"What are you doing here?" Clint growled.

Loki rolled his eyes at the archer who used to be under his control. "You are obviously deaf. We've explained this I think twice now."

"Let me rephrase that for you, Frosty," Clint hissed as Loki glared at him. "Why are you STILL here?"

"Best you watch what you say to me, archer. You never know what could happen to your precious, annoyances of friends."

"You would! Just like when you threatened our world."

"I wasn't the one whose mind was subjected to someone else, someone of more power."

"At least I'm not the runt who tried to kill my own people!" Clint shouted. "Yeah, we all know! Hard to keep a dirty secret like that under wraps. Especially when you decide to take your daddy issues out on our world! After that do you really think you could just waltz in and set up hearth and home with our friends as a form of time out?"

At this point, he was loud enough for everyone to hear him. Everyone was staring at them. Clint smirked when he saw Loki's face. He had found a weak point in the god's defensive wall. Just before he was about to give a victory remark, he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head. Spinning around, he found Niki giving him a glare that could've killed.

"Loki, inside. Now." She demanded, still holding Clint in her glare. Loki obeyed and went inside. "Low blow Clint. That was beyond too low." Next, Niki shifted her glare to every other Avenger. "All of you get your butts off my lawn. If you still have a problem, take it up with Fury. I want you gone in the next three minutes. If that doesn't happen, then I will move you myself." Niki then marched inside.

Ember glared at everyone, but mostly Clint and Tony. She walked up to Clint and did an 'epic ninja move' and kicked him in the shins nice and hard. "Be thankful I didn't aim higher," she growled as Hawkeye bent down in pain, holding his bruised legs. She did the same to Tony, and then walked inside, slamming the door behind her. There was a high pitched whining coming from behind the door. "Tony! You bust the door you're buying us a new one!" Ember yelled.

The Avengers grumbled but left.