A/N: Please read this note really quick:
This chapter is going to be a bit longer than the others. But definitely worth it. It might seem like pure crack at first, and that's because it partly is. I wrote the first part originally as a one-shot story, mostly for my own entertainment if I'm honest here. Because I've always wondered what the Avengers tower would be like during Christmas, but there are important plot points contained within.
It seems to be very choppy as the transitions between scenes is rough and not very skillful, and for that I apologize. This chapter was by far the most challenging to write, as it was so many scenes that just needed to happen. I combined important scenes in this chapter. I hope it's not painful to follow.
So without further ado, please enjoy Part 1 of 2 of an Avengers Christmas.
From The Ashes
By Anna Morgan
Chapter 16 The Island Of Misfit Toys
It was early in the afternoon when Thor returned to the tower.
No one even bothered to look up or question the fact that a thunderstorm had erupted in the middle of a blizzard. The tower's occupants –minus, mysteriously, the Iron Man and Captain America – were gathered in the common room floor. The master assassins and partners in crime sat back to back, leaning against one another, in the Nest; Clint cleaning arrows and attaching different tips while Natasha faced outward toward the sitting area, a book open in her lap. Pepper sat at the dining room table pouring over some company work, no doubt, mumbling under her breath as she typed furiously on the laptop in front of her.
Bruce and Loki were locked in an epic chess battle, a ritual they had established and kept to daily now, ever since Loki agreed to assist with his and Tony's project. Their trio had spent hours that morning in the labs, making little to no progress on their work, much to thir frustration. Time was running short, they knew and their lack of answers was grossly irritating and disheartening. This Midgardian game seemed to be a good outlet for their mental frustrations. Every once in a while Loki's eyes would divert to catch the master assassin's, who simply gave him an encouraging smile and returned to her reading as she hummed her lullaby to herself softly. Somehow, the song helped Loki concentrate a little better, draining his frustration away, and he swore it was responsible for the advantage he now had over the chess master.
There was a loud crash and a rumble that shook the ceiling and the floor to signal the God of Thunder's arrival. A few moments later, his smiling face appeared in the common room floor.
"Good day my friends!" he greeted them.
Loki was about to put Bruce in check, but instead of making his move he stood abruptly, his focus completely gone from the game, conjured a great ball of green energy in both hands and blasted them at Thor. So hard was the force of Loki's magic that his brother actually was knocked off his feet, hard, into the wall behind him.
"Woah, Loki, what the hell?" Clint jumped from his Nest with his bow and an arrow in hand.
"You are an utter and absolute ass," Loki hissed with narrowed eyes as he strode to his crumpled brother. Thor chuckled.
"My, how Midgard has taken its toll on your vocabulary, brother," he gathered himself and rose to his feet, smiling.
"And when, precisely, did you intend to inform me of your nuptials?"
Thor's smile disappeared, replaced by a more serious look. "I apologize, Loki, but when last I saw you, you were in no mood to receive such news. Or I would have shared with you first."
Loki rolled his eyes. "And I suppose you thought I would take it better hearing it from Stark first?" He shook his head.
Thor opened his mouth to speak again. Before he could answer he was interrupted by the loud 'Ding!' of the elevator. The doors slid open to reveal Steve and Tony, the latter huffing and puffing, as they dragged a massive Fraser Fir tree through the threshold.
Loki momentarily forgot his dilemma with Thor at the strange view before him. "What is that?"
"That, Obi Wan, is a Christmas tree," Tony huffed as he and Steve picked up the massive tree and leaned it against the wall. Natasha and Bruce abandoned their posts and made their way curiously to the elevator.
"Yeah," Steve pushed the tree against the wall. "I know things have been… a little tense," Steve explained, "with everything going on. We" he motioned to Tony and himself, "thought a good, old-fashioned Christmas celebration would be just what the doctor ordered." he shrugged sheepishly.
Thor and Loki looked at each other, their quarrel momentarily forgotten. "What are we celebrating?" Loki cocked his head to the side curiously.
Steve launched into a quick explanation about Jesus, and the circumstances surrounding his birth, as Tony and Bruce took over situating the tree in front of the panoramic window.
"Let me see if I understand correctly," Loki lowered his head skeptically. "You are celebrating the birth of the eldest son of an all-seeing, all-knowing deity, whose purpose is to protect the Earth and its inhabitants from the forces of evil while showing undeserved, unrequited affection to humans? Am I quite correct?"
"Pretty much," Bruce called over his shoulder.
"So essentially… you're worshiping him?" Loki pointed to Thor.
Everyone, even Steve with his religious devotion, laughed heartily. Tony even gave him a round of applause.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the voice of reason," Tony presented his hand toward the darker god.
"I knew we let you stay here for a reason," Natasha smiled as she elbowed him playfully in the side. Loki couldn't help grinning along with them.
"Well, hey there's a few boxes downstairs in the lobby that need brought up, if you guys wanna help." Steve brought them back to the task at hand as he wiped his brow of some dirt and pine needles.
Loki gave Thor an annoyed, impatient look as Clint, Bruce, and Natasha filed past them. "We will speak on this later," he hissed.
"Of course," Thor looked somewhat more grave than he had a second ago. "I have more pressing matters to discuss with you before I return." He placed one hand on Loki's shoulder and forced a smile. "Come. We will forego this business momentarily. Let us enjoy time with our comrades while we have it."
You mean your comrades, Loki thought, but for one exception.
By 'a few boxes,' clearly Steve meant the Mount Everest of box piles.
It took each and every hand in the tower to haul the mountain's worth of cardboard boxes filled with ornaments, garlands, wreaths, and a very gaudy-looking, multicolored star to match the ostentatiously large tree. Loki and Thor arrived to see all involved (including Pepper, who was dragged by Tony from her work) scrambling about like ants in a colony, passing boxes, assembly line style, to the elevator for Steve and Natasha to escort to the common room floor.
Loki stood to the side and smirked mischievously as they worked before grabbing one of the boxes and teleporting away in a flash of gold light. Once back on the common room floor he waited in front of the elevator for the next load of boxes to arrive with Natasha and Steve before teleporting with a self-satisfied smirk, as if to mock them, back down to the lobby, leaving them looking stunned and annoyed.
Finally, after what seemed to be the world's longest elevator ride in Natasha's opinion – all eighty-six floors of it – the doors opened. "You're an obnoxious bastard sometimes," Natasha chastised the God of Mischief as she stepped out and bent down to pick up another box of garlands.
"Oh, but you secretly enjoy it." He smirked.
Natasha rolled her eyes, but he could see an air of amusement cross her face as she straightened. Feeling like living up to his title, he swiftly wrapped one arm around Natasha, who squealed in surprise, and teleported again to the common room floor.
Natasha crumbled to the ground, breathless and coughing and sputtering. She dropped the box, spilling its contents all over the floor, to clutch her chest and her abdomen trying not to wretch. She felt sick. Above her, Loki still grinned.
"Do my ears deceive me or did the infamous Black Widow just squeal?" He laughed.
But he wasn't laughing a moment later when she gave a mighty leap, wrapped her legs around her neck and flipped him forward, sending him crashing hard to the ground.
"Oomph." He grunted, his smile gone. Above him, her face was stern.
"Don't you ever do that again," she leaned over him and hissed, her brilliant sea-green eyes narrowed.
He managed to flip himself around to face her, and before she knew it, she was suddenly lying on her back, his face hovering just inches above her with his strong hands pinning her by her wrists. She gasped when she felt his cool breath against her ear as he leaned down to whisper, "As you wish. Your imperial highness." He planted a quick kiss just below her ear as she growled in retaliation, and then teleported away, still grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Natasha lay on the ground staring at the spot where his face had been just a second ago, breathless for an eternity as blood swirled in her cheeks and a heat pooled in her lower abdomen. Finally, she shook her head and slowly dragged herself to her feet, though doing so didn't even begin to chip away what she had felt...
….
The rest of the day was spent hanging decorations all around the common room floor, which included all manner of evergreen garlands, multi-colored lights, and luminous ornaments and soon, the place was transformed into a gleaming, immaculate Christmas display. Of course, Clint had decided the most efficient way to hang the garlands was to attach them to the tip of an arrow and shoot them into place from the Nest. So within the garlands lining the perimeter of the room, there were arrows sticking out at perfectly even intervals. Tony recruited JARVIS to play soft Christmas carols in the background as they worked. Steve and Bruce turned out to be poor decoration coordinators, and had to rely on Natasha and Pepper's expert advice to keep the place from looking too gaudy. Even Loki had eventually given up some (though by no means all) of his mischief to chip in, using his magic to help bring the boxes upstairs and coordinate the lights to blink on and off and change colors with the tempo of the music.
Not an inch of space was left untouched; even the dining area table was lined with a dark green garland intertwined with white lights along its edge. It was, in a word, beautiful.
Eventually the issue of where to hang the stockings arose, and the most feasible solution, they concluded, was to hang them on the only fireplace in the tower – on Natasha's floor.
With the decorations hung, and a few more minutes of daylight left before nighttime stole the sun away, the Avengers and their former adversary set to work on their final task for the day – decorating the tree. `
"Whew," Steve breathed. "Look at this place!"
"Looks great," Bruce nodded in approval.
All but Natasha took part in this activity, having busied herself away in the kitchen, scrambling ingredients for some secret concoction that she refused to tell anyone about. Loki inwardly mourned the loss of her presence at first, but found that he was quite enjoying himself after a few minutes. He still didn't quite understand the point of this silly Midgardian celebration, but it didn't matter. This is not so terrible, he thought as he used his magic to place a dark green ornament near the top of the tree. He even got amusement from the archer's rather unconventional way of hanging garlands. All in all, it was not quite on the grand scale that celebrations on Asgard were but it still was not terrible by any means. He felt a strange closeness to these people at the moment, almost like companions, as they worked side by side, the air calm and pleasant between them all.
He mentally scoffed at himself. They put up with you because of Thor, he argued with himself. Only one, besides your brother, would care to have you in their presence. In his mind, he smiled to himself as he thought about her, how her cheeks burned against their will as he pinned her beneath him only a few hours ago. True, she had rejected his first advance, but her body language earlier betrayed her. Perhaps he could make another attempt, and she would change her mind…
"Alright, star time!" Tony exclaimed, bringing Loki's attention back to the task at hand. Bruce reached forward to take it from his hand, a ladder perched against the wall. But Tony shook his head. "Whoa there, big guy. I know someone better to do this." He turned around and held the star as far from his chest as he could toward Loki, who frowned.
"I am not your servant, Stark, and I will not be ordered about," he declared proudly. "My magic will not be used for your parlor tricks any further than they already have."
"Aw, come on Loki, it's an honor, the Lord of the Manor usually does it and we're letting you do the honors," Tony grinned boyishly. Loki narrowed his eyes suspiciously, suspecting an ulterior motive
"Go on, brother!" Thor encouraged.
Loki sighed and rolled his eyes and strode forward, practically snatching the star from Tony and mumbling under his breath all the way to the tree in the corner of the room. He let go of the star, which hung in midair, raised his hand and orchestrated the ugly thing so it perched neatly atop the tree.
Tony suddenly burst into a fit of laughter. "Loki, don't take this the wrong way," Loki turned around and looked at him with one eyebrow raised suspiciously. "but is anyone else reminded of that Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer movie where the snow man puts the star atop the tree?"
There were smiles all around the room, though Thor and Loki looked somewhat lost, though not confused; they were used to not understanding Tony's references by now. "You know I just realized, now you say that," Bruce thought aloud, "never has there been a more perfect personification of the 'Island of Misfit Toys' than us," Bruce rounded his hands in presentation to all in the room, grinning fondly at them all.
Out of nowhere, a decorated pinecone-Christmas tree zoomed across the room to hit Tony expertly in the back of head, earning a round of amused chuckling from all in the room. Loki turned around to see Natasha, smiling amusedly from the kitchen area looking entirely too smug as she stirred something in a large pot on the stove. The smell of chocolate and peppermint suddenly became all too noticeable as it flooded the senses of all in the room.
"Tasha, what is that?" Clint clipped from the Nest.
She smiled. "You know what it is."
Clint grinned like a child being given candy. "Oh yeah, I love that stuff!" He leaped down from the Nest, landing lightly on his feet and made his way to the kitchen. Loki couldn't help but feel an overwhelming urge to curse the living daylights out of the man as a wave of jealousy of his continued closeness with the object of his own affection erupted in his chest.
"What is it?" Steve followed Clint to the kitchen, where Natasha was now pouring the contents of the pot into several mugs.
"Peppermint hot chocolate."
Clint grabbed a couple of mugs, now adorned with whipped cream and crushed candy canes, and passed them around the room, thanking Natasha politely, though with an air of distance. It seemed he was still walking on eggshells, a fact which didn't escape Loki's notice. The storm waters began to calm in his chest.
Natasha was the last to emerge from the kitchen, clutching her own mug, as well as one for Loki, which she handed to him before drinking from her own. He spied Thor practically chugging his down and grimaced slightly at his brother's lack of manners.
"Thor, have you no sense of propriety?" Loki chastised. "Do at least pretend to have more manners than a bilgesnipe."
Thor grinned defiantly behind his cup before he answered. "It is simply my way of acknowledging that Natasha's drink is enjoyable." He returned to his mug, chugging the warm liquid again.
Loki rolled his eyes. "By the norns I am glad sometimes to not be related to you by blood." He took a sip of his own mug.
"Oh yeah, before I forget," Tony piped up after taking a sip. "Happy birthday, Your highness," he grinned.
Natasha suddenly looked very annoyed as she gave Tony an 'Are you serious' look.
"Oh happy birthday Natasha! You never said anything," Pepper exclaimed.
"Why didn't you tell us!" Bruce wrapped an arm around her (Loki thought he might shatter his mug he was gripping it so hard). "Happy birthday."
"So how old are you now? Twenty-six? Twenty-seven?" Tony teased. "God you're not over the hill and turning thirty are you?" The air in his voice, however, told that he already knew the answer to his own question.
"You mean you don't know even after snooping in my file, Tony? God you're losing your touch," Natasha looked stoic, though Loki could see the storm brewing in her eyes.
Clint grinned knowingly "Yeah, Natasha, why don't you tell us how old you are?" He took another sip of his hot chocolate, looking smug.
A murderous glint passed over her eyes for a second before the storm passed and the normally unreadable look returned. Loki was pretty sure he was the only one who noticed. After a few seconds Natasha answered, matter-of-factly. "I was born December 24th, 1938."
The next two seconds were some of the most comical any of them had ever experienced: Steve spit out a deep gulp of hot chocolate and peppermint that he had been drinking, there were several 'What?!'s exclaimed simultaneously, and Bruce withdrew his arm to look incredulously at her.
"And here we thought Barton was the cradle robber," Tony exclaimed, earning an elbow in the ribs from his wife.
"How are you seventy-five years old?!" Bruce still stared at her as if she were about to spontaneously combust.
Natasha shrugged. "I was a lab rat, just like Steve," she nodded toward the Captain. "They wanted to get as much use of me as they could, so they developed a serum, similar to the super-soldier serum, that delayed aging, among other things." She took a sip as if it were no big deal.
"You know what this means, Clint?" Bruce looked directly at the archer as he spoke. "You're the only one here who isn't a mutant or a freak."
Loki turned to Thor, grinning, and spoke in a language that no one, even Natasha, understood. Thor laughed heartily in reply.
"What?" Natasha asked.
"You people are so very young," Thor shook his head, smirking. "I would be afraid to reveal our ages in Midgardian years."
"At least a millennia apiece, I imagine," Loki looked pensive as he spoke. "Thor of course, being only slightly older, perhaps a century or so of your time, than myself."
Thor then launched into a series of tales about his and Loki's past and Asgardian time in relation to Midgardian time. Natasha gave the younger god a 'thank you' look for his distraction from her, absorbing the attention originally meant for her.
Eventually, they moseyed their way back into the sitting area of the common room floor, by now having covered many different topics, leaving the subject of Natasha and her age behind. By the time Loki took his seat at the bar area, slightly apart from the others, he was feeling content; not quite as though he belonged there, but not feeling unwelcome either. For once, he didn't feel like a complete outsider among these people. Thor and Tony, to their credit, put a lot of effort into attempting to include him in their conversation. Though he would add a comment here or there and laugh a bit when it was appropriate, his thoughts were wandering around the swirling vortex of entropy that was his mind at the moment.
Each time he thought that he felt at ease, he had to remind himself that this would all end soon enough, when the Chitauri and Thanos made their assault against this world, and even if they were able to defeat him, and he somewhat doubted that, there would be no place for him among these people afterward. He would be sent back to Asgard to face justice there, for surely they couldn't harbor him forever. Suddenly, his mood fell a bit, and his eyes rested on the now smiling woman who sat beside his brother. He swallowed hard. He couldn't deny that he felt for her. The thought of being sent back to Asgard, never to see her again, genuinely made him feel ill. How had he allowed himself to come to this point? This sentiment…had never boded well for him in the past. What would he do once she was gone? Conceal it, attempt to forget it, as I have done in the past I suppose…
"So… who's going to midnight mass with me tonight?" Steve asked hopefully as he placed his empty mug down. "Anyone?"
Natasha shook her head. "Sorry, Cap, you know I would burst into flames if I stepped foot in a church," she said, only half-joking.
"Me too," Tony shrugged.
"You know what?" Bruce stood up "I'll go with you. Why not?"
Steve's face brightened a bit, and he looked relieved. "Oh thanks! I thought I was going by myself!" Steve stood up. "Thor, you wanna go? Explore some 'Midgardian' culture?"
"Of course I shall, my friend!" Thor smiled brightly. "Brother?"
"Ah, but I am not permitted to leave the tower," Loki searched for an excuse not to go.
Bruce waved his hand dismissively. "It's Christmas. We can make an exception."
….
Much as he hated to admit it, the God of Mischief found the short field trip to be mildly pleasant, despite the fact that he really had not wished to go. He found the old cathedral was beautiful with its stange architecture and colorful glass windows. The pleasant voices of the chorus ringing through its vast chamber were soothing and calm, unlike the coarser and out-of-tune songs that tended to fill the halls of the palace of Asgard during large celebrations. It seemed he finally found a bit of Midgardian culture that was not as unruly as he originally perceived that he appreciated. The only flaw to the trip was the absence of the one person who he made to visit now.
As soon as he rematerialized, the familiar warmth of a blazing fire greeted him as a wave of heat washed over face. The fireplace was alive in the far corner, giving the room an undulated orange glow. The stockings bearing each of their names, Loki's own included, hung proudly over the mantel. Looking around, he first thought the room was empty and made to knock on her open bedroom door when something caught his eye mid-step. Sitting on the floor with her legs bent in, resting her temple on the edge of the sofa cushion, was the Black Widow, sound asleep, with one petite hand laying on a closed book near her knee. Loki smiled to himself at the sight of her; Gods, she was beautiful.
He almost hated to do it and risk waking her, but the overwhelming desire to touch her was too much for him just then. Slowly, with as much stealth as he could, he approached her sleeping form. He kneeled in front of her, drinking in the sight before it was destroyed forever by what he was about to do, and cautiously slipped one arm around her shoulders while placing the other under her knees. All the while, he half expected the master assassin to awaken and make a repeat performance of throwing him mercilessly to the ground (not that he would object), but still she slept on. Loki released the deep breath that he wasn't even aware that he was holding. Once she was in a comfortable position, he stood, cradling her as tightly against his chest as he dared without waking her. With the same stealth he employed in approaching her, he made his way around the sofa and into her bedroom, and laid her gently on the well-made bed. As he removed his arms from her, she stirred slightly. Loki froze; he wasn't sure how she would react to seeing him suddenly, and uninvited, in her bedchamber.
Her eyes fluttered open and she sat bolt upright, just as he suspected she would. Before she could move to strike him, Loki fumbled to find her hands in the dark and clasp them tightly. She struggled against them.
"What the - ?!"
"Shh, Natasha it is only me," he said as calmly as possible. Almost instantly she stopped struggling at the sound of his voice, and he felt her relax before him. Natasha exhaled deeply and lowered her head as if massively relieved.
"You're back early," she raised her head again so that she could barely make out his eyes as her own adjusted to the dark. "You really just scared the hell out of me."
"I apologize, I tried not to wake you," he finally released her hands. "I came only to wish you a pleasant night." The God of Mischief made to stand from the bed, but his once-enemy-turned-friend clasped his hand before he could.
"You don't have to go." He stalled. Had he heard her right? As though to reinforce her words, she tugged lightly on his hand. That was all the confirmation he needed; he swallowed hard as he lowered himself back down so he was seated beside her once again, never breaking eye contact with her. Loki allowed her to take the reins; part of him didn't want to be the one to push boundaries, while another was curious to see where she would lead. She scooted backward to pull the comforter enough for two people to slide beneath it and patted beside her. Loki had to consciously force his heart to slow its intense rattling as he moved toward the headboard, morphing his clothes to something more comfortable to sleep in as he did so. He climbed under the comforter, still not believing he was doing so – and on her invitation – and lay down on his side so that he was facing her as she did the same.
Figuring there was little harm in doing so now that he had found himself in this position, he draped one strong arm around her waist and pulled her forward so that she was flush against him. He could feel her shutter slightly as her warm flesh came in full contact with his own cooler body. He loved the way her heat engulfed him as if someone had just thrown a warm blanket over him. He felt safe. Slowly, he leaned forward and placed a kiss on her forehead as one hand made a smooth line from her hair to her back. To his delight and relief, she did not pull away nor bid him to stop; she only lowered her head slightly and scooted if possible a little bit closer to him. That was how they fell asleep – curled against each other as he continued to run smooth patterns along her back.
Of course, he should have known that wouldn't last.
….
Loki was standing alone, in a vast dark room, so dark he couldn't see an inch in front of him. The sinister darkness stretching out on all sides of him could only be that of the Void. Suddenly from the darkness, he could hear the cold voice that he had hoped to never hear again:
"If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevasse where I can't find you. You think you know pain? He will make you long for that so sweet as pain…"
All of a sudden there was a sharp, piercing pain in his head that completely overwhelmed him. He fell to his knees, clutching his throbbing head in his hands, screaming into the darkness that no one could hear him through. Images began to flash in his head, causing fresh waves of pain as each one appeared. Some he recognized; some, however, he did not:
He was in the observatory, glaring down at the God of Thunder.
" I will not fight you, brother!"
"I'm not your brother! I never was!"
And then he was standing before the kneeling Midgardians, his scepter poised to kill.
"Look to your elder people. Let him be an example…"
He saw himself hit the glass of his cage of the flying fortress, and the terror in her eyes as he spat at her –
"I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you! Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear! And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"
Asgard's golden temples crumbled to the ground in flame.
A city he had never seen smoldered in clouds of dust and fire as what remained of his companions were scattered around him. He could hear screaming, feel the ashes brush his face and he looked down.
At his feet lay the Black Widow, her broken body a huddled mass of blood, her brilliant sea-green eyes staring blankly and unseeing. He tried to scream but he couldn't force himself to do so. His hands were covered in blood, blood that was not his own.
"He will make you long for that so sweet as pain…"
A new wave of pain hit him just then, and it was dark once more. The horrible images were gone, but their imprints were still burned into his mind. Again, the cold voice rang clearly through the darkness.
"I have seen you, Asgardian."
"Loki!"
"I see now where you sleep."
"Loki!"
"You cannot hide from Him. He comes for you. For ALL of you…"
"LOKI!"
And then it was all gone. Loki sprang up from the bed so quickly that he lost balance and fell crashing to the floor. He was panting hard as though he had just run a great distance, sweat glistening from his forehead, and his hand clawing madly at his heart, which was threatening to leap from his chest. He looked up to see Natasha crawling quickly over to him, but before she was too close, he stood up and turned away from her to hide his panic-stricken face. He was light-headed instantly and the edges of his vision blurred. He shot his hands into his hair and worked hard to calm his ragged breathing. For a moment he couldn't remember where he was or why she was there, but as soon as his head cleared the memories of that evening flooded back to him. He was in the tower, not in the void, safe and in good company. But it had all been so real; he could even still see the beautiful red-haired woman drenched in her own blood in his mind's eye, yet there she was, safe and alive, and concerned for him.
It was only a dream, he chanted to himself. A nightmare and nothing more. He cannot possibly see you. How could he? He desperately reasoned with himself, attempting to convince his panicking mind to calm itself.
He could hear her slowly slide off the bed and round on him from behind, approaching him as if he were some frightened wild animal. She was here. She was alive. Wasn't she?
"Loki?" her voice was soft and he could hear a tiny drop of fear. He felt a hand placed hesitantly on his shoulder. He breathed deeply and sighed in relief. Yes, she was there. But he still wasn't completely convinced. He was still trembling nearly uncontrollably as he placed his hands slowly at his side and began to clench and unclench his fists, attempting to do anything that would relieve the tension he was feeling.
Natasha whispered behind him. "It was just a dream, Loki. It's okay…"
He squeezed his eyes shut tightly and released a deep breath as his breathing finally slowed enough to think about what he was doing. He snapped his eyes open and spun around to face her, and he saw the fear and concern in her eyes. Gently as he could manage in his current state, he cupped her face in his hands and stared down into her sea-green orbs, willing his own to say to her what words couldn't express just then. With a quickness that he hardly even registered he crushed his lips against hers. He was only forceful for a second before his lips softened somewhat and to his relief she didn't push away. Instead, she brushed her lips against his with the same intensity, raising herself up as high as her small frame would allow and slipped one arm, then the other, around his neck to pull him closer to her. His heart soared. This was how they stayed for a long time, their mouths molding together perfectly and moving in a slow, synchronized rhythm. He clung to her as though the ending of the world would come crashing upon them the moment he pulled away. It was a desperate, fear-laced kiss that progressed to one of heartfelt passion between the two lost, broken individuals who, in those moments, found they were not quite as broken anymore.
Finally, though he loathed doing so, he withdrew from her and rested his forehead against hers, their breaths shaky and ragged from their kiss. As he ran his hand through her unruly curls he swore on the Nine Realms' existence that he would do whatever it took to protect the incredibly strong yet still so fragile woman in his arms, to protect her from the fate that still burned fresh in his mind.
….
A/N: So there you are, another chapter down. I hope the interaction between them didn't seem rushed. It has been 16 chapters after all and frankly I want some Loki/Natasha interaction! Yes, there are some loose ends here but stay tuned they shall be tied up before the end. Next chapter will probably be just as long as this one as we move into Christmas day (and all of fun and drama that ensues).
On an unrelated note: the reason for my absence was that I was involved in a helicopter accident and I've spent quite a bit of time in and out of hospital. I am a professional pilot and unfortunately things happen in helicopters that don't happen with our fixed-wing brethren. So, for all of you future helicopter pilots out there: pay attention to your emergency procedures; they will save your life someday! To all of you current helicopter pilots: review your emergency procedures; they will save your life someday! (Fixed-wing pilots: same to you!) It's actually quite a tale if anyone would like to hear it.