Loki's eyelids fluttered open at exactly 8:01 the next morning – and them he jumped so violently he nearly hit the ceiling when he saw ten faces staring down at him. "Norns!" he snapped. "Can I help you?!"
"Why are we here?" the woman with the Brooklyn accent demanded of him.
"What did you tell them, JARVIS?" Loki asked impatiently, sitting up slowly.
"How they got here, but I refused to tell why they're here; I thought you might like having that pleasure yourself. The only people who even know they're here are currently staring at you."
"But three more important people are going to be here in four minutes," Natasha declared.
Getting a clue as to who she was talking about, Loki made a disgruntled noise and raked his hair back out of his face, muttering, "And I'm sure those three will be 'why' enough. Now, if you will excuse me, I'm famished."
He stood and shouldered his way between Jane and Agent Romanoff as he headed into the kitchen, ordering, "Tell me there's more breakfast food here than Thor's pop-tarts."
"Miss Lewis and Dr. Foster have various cold breakfast cereals."
"Toast?" he nearly pleaded.
"Bread is in the cabinet; you can manage it on your own… and while you do, there's something you need to know."
"And what's that?"
"Mr. Stark and I have a theory that Thor and Miss Lewis may believe that they are soulmates."
Loki slammed his head against a shelf as he rooted around for the bread and emerged rubbing his head as he squawked, "What?!"
"The probability is heightened due to Miss Lewis and Dr. Foster being soulmates, and according to my research yesterday, Thor and Miss Lewis have actually gone out of their way to never have skin on skin contact."
"You never told me any of this!" Loki snarled accusingly.
"My apologies; you never asked."
Loki sighed, the fight fleeing from him as he muttered, "I'll remedy the issue as soon as I can." He heard the elevator door open and Agent Carter screamed with glee as he added, "But not this instant."
Agent Carter already had her arms wrapped around one of the newcomers to the Tower as he shuffled back into the living room and herded those that weren't Captain Rogers' soulmates into the elevator. Agents Barton and Romanoff clambered up into the elevator shaft, apparently deciding that would be the quickest way to leave as Rogers had to practically drag Barnes into the roomful of strangers.
This left Loki alone with Thor, Jane, and Darcy in the elevator, and already Loki couldn't help trying to position Darcy and Thor side by side. The two of them were well-versed in this game that Loki had never before noticed, though, and Darcy merely tugged her sleeves down to cover even her fingertips while Thor shot his brother a confused look.
Loki barely refrained from growling. Many, many times over his lifespan, he'd dreamed of his soulmate, but she had never taken on any discernible form in his mind. Until last night, when he'd been haunted by a brunette British Midgardian whose face he never saw. Part of him wanted to blame the occurrence on the trust shown to him as Steve by the elderly Agent Carter, all of him wanted to be done with this ridiculous mission, and so he was subsequently out of patience.
Thus his subtlety was gone too.
Jane stepped out of the elevator first – they'd come to her lab – and then Loki, who stepped to the side of the contraption and waited. When Darcy stepped off, Loki grabbed her wrist, tugged her sleeve out of the way, and planted her bare palm against his brother's cheek as Thor passed. If they were soulmates, there was going to be none of this denying it business.
Thor and Darcy both cried out and the poli-sci student snatched her hand away to reveal turquoise runes on Thor's cheek and gold ones on her hand.
Suddenly someone was hugging Loki from behind. Jane, laughing with glee and declaring, "I really do think I like you by now, Loki! I thought they were never going to figure their mess out!"
"You're welcome," he said dryly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to return to Asgard."
"Pick up an Idunn's apple for Darcy while you're there?" Jane called hopefully after him.
He gestured to let her know he'd heard her request, calling out half-heartedly, "Congratulations on completing your triad."
By now, Loki was more than ready to be away from all of the Avengers, their soulmates, and all of the "happily ever afters" that he'd just finished ensuring that they all had.
When the elevator doors opened and Peggy screamed, Steve was justifiably worried. "Peggy?" he asked, only for her to dart out of the elevator and hug the nearest stranger in the room.
"Eddie!" she burst into tears, clinging to him like he was a lifeline as she buried her face in his lapel.
"Peggy?" the crisp British accent was colored with surprise and after a half-second pause, he hugged her back, calling out, "Look who I found, Jack."
Loki emerged from the kitchen and shuffled everyone but the strangers into the elevator… that Bucky was suddenly refusing to leave. His eyes were wide with terror as he stared at the blonde man who was quickly approaching Peggy, and as the pieces began to fit together in Steve's mind, he got the feeling he knew why.
"What's going on?" he hissed at Loki, just to be sure.
The god gave him an "even you can figure that out" roll of the eyes and Steve sighed, turning his attention back to Bucky and pulling him out of the elevator before the doors closed, leaving eight people in the room together.
Peggy gasped, suddenly realizing this as she pulled away from the tight hug Jack was giving her to say, "Forget about finding me; we found Steve and Bucky!"