A/N: Thank you so much to my dedicated readers, new and old. Sadly, I might start slacking with the updates for the next week or two, due to my aunt being in the hospital. I promise that I will keep seeing this story to the end though; it just may not be in the most expeditious manner. Bear with me, please. That said, I love all of the reviews I got about adding Thor and Loki into the mix. There's been a bit of speculation as to why a certain frost giant is now here, but you'll just have to read. I'll never tell. ;) DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Avengers or else I wouldn't be writing this here, it would just be the plot to another movie. Oh, and there's a spoiler alert for those two people who haven't watched Finding Nemo. But seriously, if you haven't watched it in at least two different languages at school by now, I have to assume you're about 5 years old and won't understand my plot line anyway.

Sam was sitting next to Natasha on the sofa in the living room. The room was only slightly tense, as Thor and Loki were also there, watching the Discovery channel. It was the day after their arrival, and things were…well, pretty much as described. No one was enthusiastic about having Loki there, but they didn't exactly want Thor on their bad side. That, and Thor said he and Loki could find a new place. In the end, it was better if they stayed; more people could watch Loki.

There was just one rule Sam was adamant about: Loki could never be in the same room alone with Amber. Steve followed up this rule by saying Loki should never be alone in any room with only one other occupant, with the exception of Thor. Sam inwardly rolled her eyes a little, but kept from commenting. It was pretty clear from the unintentional glance he gave her that Steve specifically meant her. The whole "protective boyfriend" thing was cute, so she just let it go.

Tony strolled into the room, and Amber followed shortly after. She walked right in front of Sam and stared at her, blocking the TV.

"Is there something you need," Sam asked her when she didn't speak.

"Woman, make me cookies," Amber said. Sam sighed and stood up. She could make them now, or she could make them later, either way Amber was going to get cookies. She was persistent.

"Wait, it's that easy," Tony asked, looking between the two. "I just call her 'woman' and tell her to do something, and she does it?"

If glares could kill, there would have been three pairs of lasers straight at Tony's face. "Come closer and say that," Sam said. Loki laughed at Tony's situation, obviously amused.

"Keep laughing, I'll make you do the dishes," Sam said. She and Amber were almost out of the room.

"I do not do chores like some common milk maid," he said. Sam didn't reply, but they saw Amber whisper something in Sam's ear, then both started laughing as they went around to the kitchen. Loki stared after them. There would be mischief afoot.

Steve walked in just as they were mixing in the dry ingredients. "Would you ladies like some help," he offered.

Sam turned around and looked at him. "You know, we've got the flour covered, but you can taste test," she said and watched him turn a light shade of pink at the memory of flour everywhere.

"Hey," Amber complained. "Taste testing is my job!" This continued for the entire time the cookies were baking, and after they cooled. Steve surprisingly did very well when they started bickering. He just learned to quietly stay out of the line of fire while they did whatever they pleased. Their friendship amused him, even if he thought it wasn't quite normal. Then again, not much around the tower was normal.

"Can I at least help with the dishes," Steve asked. Sam and Amber looked at each other for a second.

"No, thank you. We already have a volunteer," Amber said before laughing. Sam just shrugged at Steve and he took a few cookies for the road and went on his way. He would figure out what that was about eventually. Probably something to do with Tony.

The pranks had seriously escalated in the tower in the past week or so. It started when Tony had programmed JARVIS to make Amber's shower cold, because he complained about how long it took her to wake up in the morning. The next day when he woke up there was toast stuck to all of the walls of his own shower, along with the note, "Hope you like your shower nice and toasty!"

He shouldn't approve, but by far his favorite prank had been done on Tony. He caused it on himself, interrupting his and Sam's quiet time by spying on them. He was trying to be the annoyingly protective father and ruin every time Sam was with Steve. Quite a few times he succeeded.

The next morning, they all woke up to find JARVIS had a sex change, of sorts. A female voice with a British accent was used by the AI and Tony had to spend all morning trying to fix it. He knew Sam wasn't that good at computers, so he was going to ask how on earth they managed it, but then he saw her give Bruce a high five under the table. He figured that by the time dinner was served, he would figure out whatever Tony did and the prank that followed.

Steve was partially right. They were all around the dinner table when Loki walked in carrying a large box, looking annoyed. He dropped it onto the table in front of Sam, where the dirty dishes inside clattered around.

"I'm not washing these," he told her as he sat down between Bruce and Thor, obviously thrilled to sit there.

"No cookies for you," Sam said as she moved the box to the kitchen. Steve was giving her a look, so she smiled back at him and grabbed his hand. Loki stared at the movement before looking around the room. For the record, he would have rather eaten by himself and have no social interaction with anyone, including Thor. Quite a few people at the table thought this was a good idea themselves. However, Thor refused. He said Loki needed to become accustomed to "Midgardian ways" and that would be best by being included in the group.

And by "included in the group" that meant that he was placed as far away as the table would allow from Amber, and by extension Sam. Even Tony made sure Pepper was away from him. However, it was Natasha that kept Clint away from Loki.

True to her word, after dinner everyone but Loki got chocolate chip cookies as Sam passed the plate around, purposely skipping around him. Sam wasn't quite sure how Thor would react, but he simply smiled good naturedly as he realized Sam's intentions. She wasn't sure about her new teammate yet, and it was kind of interesting, wrapping her head around him being from another planet.

Loki stared around the table as everyone else ate their cookies. Tony, for his part, was being as annoying as possible. Even Bruce had to struggle to keep a smile off of his face.

"Truly, mortal? You wish to make me an enemy, you blasphemous plebian" Loki asked Sam. Steve, as well as several of the other members of the table, glared at him.

"Come now, brother," Thor said.

"Sticks and stones may break my bones," Sam smiled at him.

"But chains and whips excite me," Amber finished. Sam burst out laughing, which eased the tension in the room. Steve made to scoot away from Amber a little more, which made most of the table laugh more. Thor and Loki simply looked lost.

"I really hope everyone knows that Rihanna song, or else this is just bad," Sam said as she sobered up.

"I think it's bad at any point in time," Tony said. "You just admitted that you listen to Rihanna."

"There's nothing wrong with-," Sam cut short, "there used to be nothing wrong with listening to Rihanna."

"That's it. I'm making you listen to ACDC," Tony told her. "Both of you."

Sam got a blank look. "What's an ACDC? Isn't that something to do with cars, like on the dashboard or something?"

The room became deathly quiet as Tony stared at her in horror. "You didn't just say that. You…you're kidding, right? I have original eight tracks of every album-"

"Wait, what's 'a track'," Amber asked with an equally confused face. "Do you mean, like, the song?"

Tony's horrified expression intensified to where it looked like it would be frozen there. Pepper glanced between him and the girls, and Bruce was seriously considering running for it. Then, both Sam and Amber started laughing.

"Oh god, your face," Amber exclaimed.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry, I had to," Sam said between giggles. Without a word, Tony got up and left the table. "If I had known it was that easy to get him, I wouldn't have bothered with reprogramming JARVIS."

"You do realize he's going to get you back for this," Pepper told them. "Oh god, I don't even want to know what's going to happen next."

"Sorry, Pepper," Amber and Sam said in unison with a grin that cancelled out the apology.

Later on, Amber and Sam were sitting in the living room together watching a movie. A bold move, considering it seemed like Tony was out to get them. It helped that they were both armed with water guns. Because, you know, you could never be too careful.

Sam was listening for footsteps as Nemo was "touching the butt" and heard someone coming. She quickly flipped around in the sofa and aimed at the door way as Amber quickly followed suit. Unfortunately, Amber went ahead and fired as someone rounded the corner, hitting Thor right in the chest.

"I am so sorry," Sam apologized as they both dropped their water guns. "We were expecting Tony and-"

"It is no problem," Thor laughed. "I am barely wet. I was just coming to see if perhaps Loki and I may join you in watching this 'movie'," he said the word awkwardly.

"Of course," Amber said at once. Sam was going to make some excuse, but she felt bad for just soaking him with a water gun. In truth, Amber really got him square in the chest. There was a giant wet spot. Plus, it would look obvious to start a movie and leave just as they enter. She didn't want to hurt Thor's feelings.

Thor sat in one of the nearby arm chairs and Loki slunk into the room, looking like he would rather be anywhere else. Sam wondered why he let himself be drug around, then realized fighting with Thor was probably like going against Amber: he would just keep annoying you until you caved in.

Loki paused as he looked around the room. The sofa was in the center, and Thor had chosen the seat near Amber's half of the sofa. Therefore, he picked a seat as far from him as possible, which was unfortunately near Sam. She made no comment and focused on restarting the movie for them while explaining the plot of the movie.

"So the fish in this movie talk," Thor asked them.

"Yeah, their trying to find Marlin's son, Nemo," Amber explained. "He gets separated and anyway, you get to see a lot of the fish in the ocean in this movie. It's actually a pretty good representation, aside from the whole 'talking' thing."

Steve walked into the room, for some reason in his suit, and Sam promptly scooted over so he could sit next to her. They cuddled together during the movie, or at least Sam rested up against Steve while his arm wrapped around her. He wasn't big on the whole PDA thing; it made him nervous.

They got through the entire movie with Thor frequently interrupting with questions, causing Amber to pause the movie and answer. Of course, Sam and Amber interrupted the movie every now and then to add comments or quote from the movie, at which point Steve had to ask how many times they had seen it. Amber stuck her tongue out in response.

Loki was a surprisingly good sport and sat through it all without comment, and Sam even thought he was enjoying the movie. Oh sure, he acted like he was bored, but you could tell he was watching intensely when they were in the jellyfish scene. He even wore a small smile at the end, when Marlin and Nemo finally reunited. Sam decided she would test this theory and find a movie everyone loved, to see how Loki would react.

They all got up to stretch their legs at the end of the movie. "I can't wait until the second one comes out," Amber said.

"What do you mean? They can't possibly lose Nemo again," Thor said.

"It worked for The Hangover," Amber said as she turned to look at Sam and Steve. "Isn't that right, Sam? Um, don't look now, but you're dating Captain Canada."

"What," Sam said, completely confused. Then she looked at Steve's suit. Someone had stuck the Canadian flag over his shield emblem.

"It wasn't me," Amber defended herself as she laughed. Steve quickly ripped the flag off of his suit and put it on the side table.

"This is war," Sam said with a serious expression as she picked up her water gun and handed the other to Steve. "Come on, Captain. We have a new mission." She pulled him along behind her, with Amber tagging along behind, still laughing. Thor and Loki gave each other a brief look as they questioned everyone else's sanity.

"Mortals are strange," Loki announced.