Requested by: that_damdemigxd

Prompt: Self-given

Warnings: None

Extra: Heres your contest prize! This is one of the only ways I could really express how freaking excited I was to use your cover for Mutant's Endgame. Enjoy!

~*~

The first time I met Loki we didn't leave the encounter on the best terms. Granted, it wasn't the worst possible outcome either. It was a mutual "This is strange, you're pretty hot, but you suck."

The Battle of New York. Aliens flooded the streets, killing hundreds before protective measures were set in by the police and Avengers. At that point, the people of New York were fleeing into the nearest subways and basements. Where was I but helping innocent citizens to those locations?

"Stay close together, scream as loud as you can if you need help," I directed a small family to the nearest subway entrance, just around the corner, "There'll be civilians down there that'll help you."

Frost, it climbed up my side and dampened my clothes as it melted rapidly. Instinct taking over my movement, I swung my arm around, gun pressed against my attacker's forehead. Perfect execution.

"Look at you," the smooth, almost sultry voice cause my ears to sing.

It wasn't until my eyes caught up with my body's instincts that I could place a name to the velvety voice.

"Loki."

Loki hummed when I said his name, eye me like prey. His Chitauri 'bodyguards' were much more feral in their attention, growling and pointing their weapons at me. I was threatening their precious leader, but if they attempted to attack me, I could easily blow Loki's brains out.

"When my soldiers informed me a civilian was protecting others and taking down their ranks, I had to see it for myself. I'm glad I did because my my, you're an interesting specimen."

Without regard for his own safety, Loki slowly pushed my gun away from his face, eyes never leaving my own. Narrowing my eyes, I watched him closely as he approached. He may have been the predator, but that didn't make me helpless prey. On the contrary, this wasn't a hunt, it was a fight for dominance. One I wasn't going to back down from.

"Who are you to fight so well against your betters, human?"

"(Y/n) (L/n), level seven SHIELD agent, I'm sure you know the company I work for," I smirked as he scowled.

"And what are you doing here, instead of dealing with the destruction of the ship?"

"Protecting the people from the likes of you," I answered coolly.

The whole truth was that I was sent on a mission to investigate Wilson Fisk and his sketchy activities within the underworld of New York. Despite my high level, Fury insisted I stay on task. All throughout the recruiting of the Avengers I was stuck handling the Russian Mob.

When the invasion began, I slipped out of my cover and protected civilians in the chaos, fighting the aliens with the limited weapons I had on hand when I left. If I got lucky, I could use their weapons against them.

Loki chuckled, looking back at his anxious-to-attack guards, "Leave us."

The soldiers gave me one last growl, jerk of their weapons, and lumbered off. My attention wasn't on them, I fixated it on Loki. What was his goal in fighting me on his own?

"Clint Barton slipped through my fingers, but you, you're proving to be very interesting. I might keep you once I win this battle."

The tip of the scepter neared my heart, the stone glowing threateningly. Instinctually, I swung my arm out and knocked it to the side. He was trying to control me like he did Clint!

"I'm not that easy to control. I should shoot you here and now," I positioned my gun, aiming for the head, "I don't miss, you wouldn't survive."

"Now I'm tempted to see if that's true," aiming, Loki shot a blue beam from his scepter towards me.

Rolling away, I narrowly avoided the blow. Kicking up a piece of scrap metal, that took the next impact for me, knocking me off my feet.

"Help, help!"

Shit. More civilians were behind me, trapped by a pair of Chitauri. I shifted my gaze behind Loki, squinting. Target in sight, I shifted my gun's aim and pressed the trigger.

The bullet whizzed past Loki, not even grazing him. He smirked as I recovered and jumped to my feet.

"You missed. A bit too confident in your abilities, hm? Midgardians often are."

Loki grunted when a bus slammed into him. It was up the hill braked by a piece of concrete. Instead of shooting Loki, I shot the concrete chunk and freed the truck. Walking over to his injured form I bent down.

"I don't miss."

Leaving him in his painful misery I ran off to help those civilians, hoping I wasn't too late. Shooting both the Chitauri, I wasn't.

The second time I met Loki was with the other Avengers.

Word spread about me after New York. My cover was blown, but Fury presented a new opportunity, one much better than staying undercover; joining the Avengers. There was no hesitation when I accepted the offer.

I wasn't there when Loki went to Asgard with Thor, having to deal with the media and SHIELD before I could technically leave. But I was there when they came back a month later.

"My father has stated that he is to spend his punishment under the watch of the Avengers. It's up to us, not SHIELD, as to what happens to him. We dealt with him, we issue his punishments were his words."

"I have a few ideas," Tony glared at the god, who stood his ground, despite being in handcuffs and at the obvious disadvantage.

"There's something I must discuss with you," Thor ushered us over, doing a double take when he saw me, "Who are you?"

"(Y/n). I'm new, sort of."

"Oh, nice to meet you Lady (Y/n). Anyway, my mother did some research on the scepter and the power it holds. The scepter was controlling Loki like it did Clint."

"Thor, we kicked the crap out of him and he was still an evil dirtbag after. Nat hit Clint in the head and it knocked him out of it."

"Yes, well," Thor sputtered, struggling to excuse his brother's actions, "It wasn't controlling controlling him. It pulled the dark parts of his mind forward."

"Like if I wanted to kill Nat, if I was holding the scepter I'd actually do it," I offered support.

"You could try," Nat chuckled darkly, sending a shiver down my spine. She was brilliant, awesome, but terrifying, "You'd fail miserably."

"Precisely, Lady (Y/n)."

"We can't let him off the hook," Steve shook his head, "I say we lock him up for a month or two, evaluate him, and go from there."

"I agree with that plan," Loki cut in, waving a cuffed hand, "(Y/n) good to see you again."

"Can't say the same," I crossed my arms.

"You know each other?" Bruce spoke for the first time, looking between Loki and me in interest.

"He said I was lying when I said I never miss, so I hit him with a bus."

"Yes, it was quite painful."

The Avengers stared.

"Huh, interesting..."

The third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh times I met Loki blended together into common themes and conversations. He was kept under the tower, in a cell we -metaphorically- threw away the key to. We fed him in shifts.

Whenever I visited I slipped a book in with his good. He'd pretend to be disgusted but would finish it by my next shift, setting it in front of the food slot. I spent hours below, talking to him about books and the like. I learned about Asgard; he learned about my past and family.

We understood each other, and that was the best feeling.

The eighth time we met I was waking up. Heavily sedated previously, the drugs distorted my reality. I briefly doubted the door breaking down was real.

"(Y/n)! Gods look what they did to you. How could you let this happen, Captain?" Loki was flushed with anger, ready to kill. The blood on his armor told me he might of already.

"What are you doing here?" I slurred out, flexing my hands when Steve freed them with his shield.

"Pepper wasn't up to babysitting, so we brought him with," Tony explained briefly, "He was pissed when he found out you were captured during our last mission. We thought he'd put his reindeer helmet back on."

"Let's get you out of this awful place," Loki ignored Tony, picking me up bridal style and carried me away from my personal hell.

On the quinjet, Loki refused to move from the seat next to me. The cold emanating from his body seeped through the shock blanket Nat wrapped around me. I wasn't shivering, on the contrary, I felt comfort from it.

"You didn't have to come along. You could have escaped while they were distracted. Why didn't you?"

"Why would I?" Staring straight ahead, Loki reached out, taking my hand, "You were in trouble."

My body lit on fire. I covered my face with my free hand to hide my embarrassment.

"You and your stupid silver tongue. I hate you so much."

"Hate me enough to go on a Midgardian 'date' with me?"

I blushed even harder, "Yes."

The 9th time was our first date. It was at the tower since the others were still hesitant around Loki.

Loki and I were settled on the roof, a blanket beneath us and snacks spread around. Originally, we were going to watch a movie, but it was a clear night. Tony's spreading clean energy and awareness about pollution had cleared the skies at a greater capacity than it had in the past twenty years. You could see the stars.

"Do you miss Asgard?" I asked Loki, tilting my head to look at him directly.

"No," Loki answered immediately, no hesitation, "I miss aspects of it. It was my home, I miss the culture, and I miss my mother, but I never belonged as Asgard. I knew that."

"Your mother, what was she like?"

"Beautiful, strong, a good queen. She always loved me more than my father and taught me magic."

"She sounds amazing," I reach out for his hand, "So... is the palace really made of gold?"

Loki groaned, which turned into laughter, "Yes! It was such a vanity project. Way back when..."

The 10th time was our second date.

The Avengers were finally willing to allow Loki to leave the tower on short trips. I was ready to take advantage of it. The theatre was doing a special showing of Up in honor of it being out for five years. Loki had never seen it before and I was begging to have him come with me.

"Please, please, please," I pulled on his sleeve, "The movie is amazing, and it'll make you cry."

"I don't cry during movies," Loki scoffed, allowing me to continue my ministrations on his shirt, "But I'll go with you. I'm interested to see what Midgardians find entertaining and sad."

"Yay!" I cheered, running to get my purse and shoes, "You need to change, tunics aren't popular here. I'm so glad you're coming because I need support."

Loki rolled his eyes, shifting his clothes into a sweatshirt and jeans. I grabbed his hand, practically dragging him to the elevator.

"Jarvis, please tell the others we went to the movies. I can handle him myself."

"Can you really?" Loki asked mockingly.

"Shut up. Don't forget who hit you with a bus the last time you doubted them," I warned, laughing.

Hailing a cab we took it to the theatre. Loki was glowering at the worker while I was buying the ticket, exuding murder. Holding out the slips of paper to him, I bought the popcorn and sodas inside.

"Why were you glaring at that poor worker?"

"I didn't like the way he was looking at you," Loki grumbled as he sat down in the small seat, "He needed to understand that you're mine."

"Cute, but he was just doing his job," I soothed, settling in and organizing our snacks, "He wasn't eyeing me up or anything."

"Not that you knew," Loki recanted.

Shaking my head, I held back my argument as the lights dimmed and the Pixar logo popped up. Loki put up a bored expression, and I reached out for his hand. The first five minutes would be hell.

The music began, and I was already tearing up. Loki looked over to me, obviously confused at my instinctive reaction. I shook my head, motioning to the screen. He frowned but continued to watch all the same.

They met, they fell in love; they got married, they couldn't have kids. The further we got, the worse my mental state became. I was aware of how it ended, and despite not wanting to spoil it for Loki, he likely knew what was going to happen because of my reactions to the silent scenes.

Then, it came. Carl bought the tickets, but it was too late for Ellie. She was old, sick, and Carl was left alone with a balloon all to similar to the one they had when they were children. By the end of it all, I was gripping onto Loki's arm, wiping away my tears with his sweatshirt sleeves.

"It's not real darling," Loki whispered to me, running his thumb over the back of my hand. I nodded, the comment not stopping my tears in the slightest, "It's literally animated."

"That doesn't mean anything," I hissed, finally looked up at him, he was teary-eyed too, "You hypocrite! You're upset too!"

"I'll talk to you about it later," Loki kissed my temple and left it at that.

As the movie continued on with happier notes, I composed myself. Russel, Doug, and Kevin were amazing spirit lifters, making me smile and laugh with the other people in the theatre.

As Carl gifted Russell the grape soda badge, I was crying again, watching them on the street with ice cream counting out red and blue cars. The lights came on, civilians chattered happily, and we left.

Hailing another cab to go back to the tower, I kept glancing at Loki. He said he would explain why he was upset. Sure, you didn't have a heart if you didn't cry while watching Up, but this was Loki, and he said he would explain the situation to me later.

"You sure this is your stop?" The cabbie stopped in front of the Avengers Tower, looking back at us incredulously.

I chuckled, digging out cash and holding it out to him, "Very." People didn't recognize me out of uniform very often, I wasn't offended either. It was nice avoiding the crowds, unlike Steve and Tony.

"So are you going to explain why you were upset to me?" I asked Loki as we stepped into the elevator, "Or are we skipping straight to the comforting? Because that movie messed me up."

"The wife died before the husband. He lived longer than she did," Loki mumbled, almost to himself and not to me.

"Well, yeah, that was kind of the point."

"No, you don't understand. I'm a god darling, I'm going to live for thousands of years. You're mortal. Like Carl Frederick and his wife, I will one day lose you to death."

The breath was knocked from my lungs. I hadn't thought about that before. Not that it mattered to me, but the fact that Loki was so worried about it made a hand squeeze my heart. He didn't want to hurt me or himself with the idea of me aging and him not.

"There's something I've been meaning to tell you," I stepped out of the elevator as it opened on our floor, "Bruce ran a lot of tests when you guys rescued me. I was unconscious most of the time so I wasn't sure what they did to me. They injected me with an experimental super soldier serum. Bruce saw that my cells were rapidly repairing themselves at all times. It slows my aging rate beyond anything he's seen before."

Loki laughed in disbelief, stopping when he saw how serious I was, "Wait... You mean to tell me that you're going to age like I am?"

"Give or take a few years, but yeah. I went through hell but it was worth it. We aren't going to be Carl and Ellie, well, I hope we kind of are, but we won't have their ending."

"Thank the gods," Loki wrapped his arms around me and tugged me into a bone crushing embrace, "You're going to stay with me."

"I'm not going to leave," I kissed his jaw, which was as high as I reached on him, "Now, we need to go watch a happy movie together because I'm still wrecked from that movie."

Loki chuckle, kissing the top of my head, "As you wish, darling. It was quite good. Now let me comfort you, despite it not being real."

"It's real enough to me."