"Oh my god, stop complaining…" Max rolled her eyes, feeling slightly winded by the time she reached the laundry room floor. "Isn't this like the first time you've ever done a load of laundry?"

She looked over her shoulder at Loki, who wore an unimpressed expression with three bags of dirty clothes squished into his arms. He let out a huff.

"I was a prince, woman," he hissed. "I had servants to wash my clothes."

"Well, tough shit," she said, chuckling as she climbed the last few stairs backwards. "No servants today, and I'm not doing your clothes by myself anymore."

"You might recall that I never asked that of you." He took the steps between them in sets of two, easily catching up to her. "You decided to do that on your own accord… At the time, I was more than capable of simply buying new clothing."

"Yeah, because shopping was a task you used to enjoy so much."

She grinned cheekily at him as his eyes narrowed, and then stepped around him and carried on to the door on the landing. A full day had passed since Peter gave her the gifts he made, and Loki's promise to keep his unnecessary jealousy contained seemed to be holding up so far. He even played cards with Peter, Johnny, and (shockingly) Ben last night, along with Max, and gave her a piggyback ride up to their floor when she was too tipsy—and tired—to get herself up there.

Mercifully enough, there was no hangover to speak of when she woke up that morning—which was earlier than usual—and that was what led her to volunteer to do the laundry that day. She and Loki had run into Sue in the stairwell: the woman had been dressed in her Fantastic Four uniform, and she had told them she was going to do a grocery run now that she wasn't needed in the lab anymore.

Apparently, the antidote was ready, and there would be a meeting in the early afternoon with everyone to discuss the best way to use it.

Sue had looked tired. Even for a superhero, she seemed somewhat sluggish, and her eyes weren't quite as bright as they had always been. So, when she had mentioned having to get both groceries and the laundry done before the meeting, Max had volunteered to do the laundry—with Loki's help, naturally. Loki said nothing, but when she'd turned back, she saw a joyless smile on his lips, one that practically sneered at her.

"Oh, relax," she had groaned, nudging his arm as she ducked around him. "She's been doing our washing for a month now."

So, despite his initial disinterest in the task, Loki bobbed along after her, holding bags and barking for sleepy men to hurry up and gather their dirty clothing. She wasn't sure how everyone had so much to wash: she'd been wearing the same shorts for days now, and no one really seemed to notice. How were they all going through so many items of clothing? No one ever left the damn tower unless in superhero uniform!

She hadn't been to the laundry room since her huge breakdown, but Max was pleased that she had no reaction to walking in there. Loki said nothing about it either, though she could hear him grumbling under his breath about something or another as he tried to manage the three massive bags with dignity. As she stood in front of the various machines, she realized there were enough washers to justify separating darks and whites.

"Ugh, regret," Max whined when she started separating dark and light pairs of underwear into two piles. Loki chuckled, leaning back on a nearby table with his arms folded. "So much regret…"

Apparently, everyone but one person wore boxers in the tower… She wrinkled her nose, trying not to guess who fancied himself a briefs man.

"This is why I didn't want to do laundry," Loki said, nodding down at the steadily growing pile of light underwear. She shot him a look.

"Well, you still aren't actually doing anything."

"I beg to differ," he scoffed, arms folded across his chest. "I helped carry that smelly mess all the way up here."

"It doesn't smell, you weirdo." Max resisted the urge to lean closer to get a good whiff. "I mean, obviously dirty clothes don't smell dryer fresh or anything."

"You're delusional."

"You… have a higher sense of smell than I do," she said lamely in response, sticking her tongue out at him when he rolled his eyes. "You're like my own personal Golden Retriever." She paused, thinking it over. "No, no, more of a German Shepherd, or a—"

"What are you even listing?"

"Dogs," she said with a shrug, and then ducked out of the way when he tossed a bundled up pair of socks at her.

"I'm not a hound, Max."

"You could be my hound—"

"No." She stuck her tongue out at him again, and he pushed himself off the table. "Put that back in your mouth…"

She pushed it out further, and then giggled when he swooped down upon her. However, she avoided whatever he had in store for her by holding up an armful of laundry between them, which seemed to immediately deter him.

"You've won this round, my sweet," he muttered, crouched on his knees in front of her kneeled position, "but I'll get you."

"My pretty," she chirped, "and your little dog too!"

His eyebrows furrowed, head cocked to the side, and she reached out to stroke his cheek.

"Pop culture is lost on you."

"I'm not entirely hopeless," he argued, inching out of her grasp. "As you know, I have impeccable memory."

"And endless humility," she chuckled before scooping up one pile of sorted laundry and marching it to one of the machines. Leaving the bundle on the lid of the dryer, she popped the lid of the washer open and pushed everything inside, and then dumped a healthy dose of detergent from one of the bottles on the metal shelf overhead. Then, after scrutinizing the foreign instructions and fiddling around with the nobs, she managed to get it to what she wanted: cold wash, normal clothing, whites. She took a step back, waiting and watching, and then nodded when the machine started to go.

She was in the process of getting the second load into the other washer when she heard the door open somewhere in the background. Detergent in hand, she turned back to find Sue stalking toward them, still dressed in her fitted blue suit, and carrying a…

"Oh my god," Max squealed, practically throwing the detergent bottle over her shoulder and skipping toward the woman. "Where did you find that?"

"I stole it," Sue said, taking it off her shoulder by the strap and holding it out for Max. "Johnny said you might enjoy it."

"I think… I think I just had an orgasm," Max gushed. Her cheeks darkened when she realized what she just said, and while she heard Loki's shocked puff of air behind her, Sue managed a laugh—one that almost sounded genuine. "Sorry."

"No, no, it's fine."

"It's an AS50 sniper rifle," she explained, whirling back to face Loki with the light-weight, incredibly durable, accurate, and long-range rifle in her hand. "Gas operated, semi-automatic, with the telescope perfectly intact… Oh my god, this is beautiful."

"I figured we could do with some more internal security," Sue said, "and it looked too cool for me to just leave. There was a guard in front of the grocery store with it."

"That seems a little excessive," Max muttered, bringing it up so that she could look through the telescope, finger off the trigger.

"He was asleep." Sue laughed when she looked up at the woman, stunned. "I know… I decided he didn't deserve such a fancy weapon."

"This is… amazing," she said, the butterflies in her stomach almost making her dizzy—like she'd pass out from the sheer brilliance of the moment. The butt pad was still intact—it took the brunt of the machine when resting against a sniper's shoulder. The bipod was folded together, but still in good condition. In fact, the weapon itself barely looked used at all. "I have no idea why they'd have it over here. This is British-made, military-issue… I mean, not that I'm complaining."

"Well, I've now found the way to your heart," Loki interjected, making her jump. Even though she was facing him, she'd almost forgotten he was even there. "Let me see?"

She handed the rifle over to him as though she was passing her firstborn. "Mind the safety trigger."

"I've held a gun before, Max," he said tersely, shooting her a look. She watched him mimic her previous stance, bringing the weapon up and looking through the telescope. "Is it loaded?"

"Let me look," she insisted, taking it back from him and searching for the magazine release. "Yes… Fully loaded."

"Do you want it?"

She whipped around, eyebrows up and mouth hanging open, and then pointed stupidly at the gun. "What?"

"You can have it," Sue said with a smile. "I mean, Peter made you those cuffs, but I think this is something you'd be better with."

"I… This is the most awesome thing anyone has ever given me." She turned back to Loki quickly and added, "Minus the Nolan night."

"I understand," he told her. "Would you like to take it outside to play?"

The corners of her lips quirked upward, and she shrugged. "Maybe…"

"What?" Johnny threw his hands up with a scoff. "Where's the PowerPoint?"

Loki watched Max grin at the man as they all settled into their chairs around a massive circular table. Reed sighed, rolling his eyes a little, and he heard Sue scold her brother weakly. Apparently, the laboratory was something of a disaster after days of continuous use, and the meeting Sue mentioned earlier in the morning took place instead on a floor he had never been to before. There were a number of office squares—cubicles, Max called them—and a few finished bathrooms, along with this round table in the center. If Loki wasn't mistaken, it could pass as a command center in a pinch. All they needed were a few massive television monitors and some flashy buttons—that was all it took in this realm, was it not?

He pushed his chair on wheels back a touch, giving himself some room to cross his legs comfortably without knocking his knees on the underside of the table. As always, Ben preferred to stand, loitering on the other side of the table with his arms crossed, and Peter settled down next to Max. There was no immediate surge of annoyance anymore, not after all he had learned in these last few days. His woman was a genuine person, and if she said that she loved him, then he no longer had any reason to worry.

Jealousy, unfortunately, was not an easy emotion for him to swallow. He had worn it like armor since he was a boy, first jealous over his father's relationship with Thor, and then doing the same over Thor's relationship with just about anyone else. It was a simple pattern to fall back upon whenever he felt even remotely threatened, but since Max had expressed such a disdain for the trait, he decided to try his hardest to keep those feelings hidden.

There were no promises on his end, naturally, but she hadn't really seemed to ask for them. She hadn't even asked for him to say that he loved her, and he was fairly sure he couldn't say it with any real conviction—not now, anyway. But he felt very deeply for her, and for that alone, he would try to comply with her requests to hold his tongue.

The chatter around the room came to a stop when Reed set a small canister on the table. Metallic, small, with a nozzle on the top, it was what Loki had been waiting for this last week.

"It's successful one hundred percent of the time," the man announced. "The trial had to be sped along, but we're using up everything we have to make as much of it as possible. This… This could be a means to a favourable end."

"What a way to put it," Johnny muttered, reaching out to grab the can. "How many can we ice with this?"

"The canister itself acts a lot like spray paint," Reed explained as he set another one on the table. "Very little is needed in the alien's system to kill it, but it should still be used sparingly."

"And how many cans do we got?" Ben spoke up this time, taking a few steps closer to examine the metal can. "How stringent do we gotta be with this?"

"With the amount of ingredients we have now, we can make about two hundred canisters," the man said, "but we'll need to find a place to get the canisters from. We just don't have enough here at the moment."

"Will we need more ingredients?" the Spider asked, and Loki looked at Max. She sat quite still, listening with her head propped up on her hand, her elbow resting on the tabletop. "There was some more at Oscorp, and I know they have a warehouse down by the docks."

"Yes, yes… Yes, that would be handy," Reed muttered, nodding a few times. Loki looked between the people in the room, and then sighed in the lengthy silence that lapsed afterward.

"And what are we going to do with these canisters?" he put forth, gesturing to the can in Johnny's hand. "It's all well and good that you've come up with a weapon, but you need to effectively deploy it."

"I've actually given that some thought," Reed insisted. Johnny chuckled.

"Shocking."

"We have given it some thought," Sue said with a pointed look shot her man's way. He cleared his throat, nodding again, and then set his hands on his hips. Not once had he sat down, and he started to pace, the eyes of the room on him.

"It would need to be an all-out assault on the alien population across the city," he said. "Manhattan seems to be a base of operations for region, because the sheer number of them here is… astounding."

"It would have to be quick," Peter added, "before they have a chance to regroup."

"Did you hear anything else from Stark?"

"No, and I don't think we should count on him for anything," Reed replied, his attention fleetingly resting on Johnny. "He's done his part, and that's all I expect."

Aptly low expectations, of course. Loki resisted the urge to roll his eyes: Stark might have temporarily bested him when he was caught off-guard, but should they be put in the same room on even footing, Loki would surely come out victorious.

"Sue and I have been working on getting the serum into gas form, and then containing it in a home-made explosive." Reed tapped the table, and then turned away, hands clasped behind his back. "We thought we could plant it in Central Park. It'd free the most people the fastest, and we could knock out a lot of their heavy-duty security."

"Plus the random fringes of it on all the exits," the Spider mused. "It would be helpful to get it in the air… If it was heavy enough, it would sweep the city."

"We've got enough for a few other bombs," Reed continued. "Sue volunteered to work Central Park, first planting the bombs and then helping move the civilian population out of there. I still don't know what they're doing in some of those tents, but I don't think it's good."

"Nothing they do is good," Max muttered, fiddling with her nails. Loki reached over and touched her leg, smoothing his hand across the warm surface, and he noticed her shoulders relax a little.

"I can take the rest of the serum bombs to the buildings that look like headquarters and get them into air ducts," Reed said. "You know, take out some of the big guys. Johnny, I thought we'd get you in the air… See if you can handle some of their planes."

"Doable, I suppose."

"Ben, we thought you and Loki could… well, take 'em out on the ground level." Reed looked at Loki as he spoke, clearly asking for permission to give him an assignment. His friend came to his side, and Loki nodded slowly—anything to look like he was making an effort would do.

He then noticed Ben glowering at him, and he offered the stone creature a wry smile. "Glad to help."

"We'll give you small doses of the serum, and you can give them out to people who aren't immediately affected by the gas in the air."

Loki grinned. "I suppose you'll need us to handle the street brigades? If the serum dissipates too quickly, there will be roving military units to deal with."

"Well, yeah…" Reed scratched the back of his neck, and then shrugged. "I'm hoping you won't be alone in that." He turned to the Spider. "I have a task for you for next week, but on the day itself, I need you to get Oscorp's air dispenser working. I know it's been taken down, but I'm sure there are prototypes available somewhere in the building… It'll give us widespread coverage across all the boroughs."

"I'll try my best, but it was pretty deactivated after the last time it was misused."

"If not, we'll have to hope the bombs are good enough."

Conversations erupted around the table, but it wasn't long before he heard a very small voice speak up at his side. "I'd like to help."

Loki looked at Max, and then shuffled his chair closer to her. He didn't want her to help. There was still a very real possibility that this might be a disaster, and he didn't want her to leave this tower if that was the case. He could handle himself on the street, especially now that he had recovered from… extended bouts of torture. But, he also realized that every time he had ordered her to stay put in the past, a fight had erupted. Reed shot him a curious look, eyebrows up, but he sat back this time, arms folded.

"I can watch the kids," she started, leaning forward and drumming her fingers on the table. "They won't leave my sight while you're all gone. We can barricade all the entrances, and we'll just… we'll sit it out."

Loki let out a small puff of air: it was exactly what he wanted, and he finally got it without any dramatics.

"That's very kind of you, Max," Sue said. "They'd be in good hands."

"But I want to do something else," she continued. Her fingers stopped, but Loki noticed her legs jiggling beneath the tabletop. He frowned. "You gave me this… amazing sniper rifle today, and I'd like to use it to kill the asshole who drives around in a convertible."

"Carl?" Loki spoke the name with obvious disgust—it oozed over every letter. He'd wanted to be the one to kill that pesky little imp, and he hadn't planned to do it with Reed's serum. No, there'd be no drifting off to death for the creature who brought him here in a false crown, who'd used his image to extort fear throughout the realm.

"I mean, it definitely wouldn't hurt to cut the head off the snake," Reed mused, and Loki noticed Johnny shoot Max a small smile, his eyes alight with mischief. It wasn't a look he liked. "It could be our starting point… Give us a time reference."

"He sticks with the same schedule," Max added. "I mean, I always see him going by the tower around noon or so."

"If you can guarantee a hit, then why not?" Loki's eyes narrowed at the stone creature: no one asked for his opinion. Was his brain even at par with a regular human's? Did it have the capacity to reason properly? He so seldom heard the being speak.

"I'm a good shot," Max assured him. There was no pleading in her voice today, no begging to be included. She sounded confident, so sure of herself, and Loki found himself looking at her in a new light, even if it was only a temporary one. "I won't miss."

"She'll practice," Loki said, his fingertips ghosting along her arm as she glanced back at him. "She'll hit him, and I'll be there to finish whatever might crawl out after."

The room fell back into various conversations, working out the intricacies of the day itself. It would take place two weekends from now—ten days, to be exact. Time was needed to create enough of the serum, to get it into canisters, to make the bombs. Peter was given the assignment of finding competent leaders in the underground networks, those who can organize their peers for a synchronized assault on the city's alien population—he and Ben would drop off "gift baskets", as Johnny called them, on the day of the strike.

"You know, it'd be handy if we had Captain America in on this," the Spider said suddenly, a notion that seemed to capture the attention of the room. "I mean, isn't he in Brooklyn?"

"We'd need to get him involved today if that was the case…" Reed opened and closed his mouth a few times, and then snatched up the canister. "If he has a lab, he could start making this too."

"It'd definitely take some of the weight off our shoulders."

"It would definitely reach more aliens—"

"How fortunate for you folks that you have someone who can fly in your midst," Johnny mused dramatically. Sue shook her head.

"They'll be looking for you after the incident with Stark."

The Spider chuckled suddenly, and then cleared his throat. "Not if we give them a distraction…"

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

So, I've decided to split this chapter into two sections. I'm about to post the second, and the full author's note will be there. I just know how distracting long chapters can be—I zone out all the time when I read really long updates from stories I follow, so I figured this was a natural break in the chapter. Just doing final edits on the second half now, and it should be up in fifteen, twenty minutes tops.

SEE YOU THERE, DARLINGS!