An Interesting Arrangement

Chapter Two

After Bucky and the others had learned about Loki's technical age, they had been able to cope with his mood swings and general teenager-y-ness much better. Loki had become best friends with both Natasha and Bucky and good friends with Steve. Thor has become a regular at the house along with a few other surprising faces.
*
One year after Loki's arrival

"All right guys, it's movie night!" Natasha called out cheerily. She loved movie night, though it could be argued that she merely loved the drama of it. After watching The Princess Bride a few weeks prior, Loki, Thor, Bucky, and Steve had all turned the house into a pretty good image of a pirate ship. After Star Wars, the boys had been struck speechless for three days, during which time, Natasha did whatever she wanted. When they recovered, they had gotten Fury to issue them blasters and had created a Star Wars themed obstacle course in the back yard. Of course, when Steve and Natasha had gotten married and ended up with two formerly brainwashed mass assassins, Fury had given them an old safe house that was closer to a billion dollar mansion with roughly four hundred acres. So the backyard was really only a small portion of their estate. (When Natasha and Steve had protested about the generosity of his gift, Fury had simply replied that they were his best agents and he wanted to reward them. Also he was just grateful that he didn't have to worry about detaining Loki)

Steve raised an eyebrow at his wife. "And what, pray tell, are we watching tonight?"

"Something with Tom Cruise probably." Loki said sarcastically as he conjured up a huge bowl of popcorn.

Thor shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me."

"Something with romance." Bucky grinned when Natasha rolled her eyes.

"No, as a matter of fact." Natasha said. She held out the dvd case for inspection.

Loki groaned. "Cinderella."

"But it's the 2015 version." Natasha protested, smirking. "Trust me, you guys are gonna love it!"

Roughly halfway through the movie, Natasha paused the movie. Loki looked at her, appalled.

"She and Kit were having a moment, Romanoff! Don't interrupt that!"

Thor eyed his brother. "I thought you didn't want to watch this."

Loki shrugged. "It's slightly more tolerable than the normal Cinderella movies."

Bucky snickered, then turned to Natasha. "Just out of curiosity, why'd you pause the movie?"

"I thought I heard something."

"That would be the blond man in a suit who got here about ten minutes after the movie started." Loki stated, turning the movie back on and Natasha grabbed her gun.

"Why did you say nothing about him?" Natasha hissed as she surveyed the room.

Loki shrugged. "Because you know him."

"Yes, you do, Natasha. So please, don't shoot me." A youngish blond man said, walking out of the shadows.

"Phil Coulson?" Steve asked, getting to his feet.

Coulson nodded. "Sorry about the secrecy, but I didn't want to disturb you."

"Pish posh." Loki said dramatically. "You were watching the movie."

Coulson shrugged. "Ok, fine. I really enjoy that movie."

"Phil, whatcha doing here?" Natasha asked, sticking her pistol in the waist of her jeans.

"Fury need you guys to come in."

Natasha shrugged. "No problem." It wouldn't have been the first time they left Bucky and Loki here alone with Thor. It was pretty common, as they felt that the boys still needed someone to keep an eye on them. "Steve and I will just go grab our stuff. Thor, you'll be fine here, yeah?"

"That's actually why I came here personally." Coulson said, a little uncomfortably. "Fury wants Thor to come in too, so he sent me down here as ... assassin sitter."

"Just say babysitter." Loki said, eating popcorn. "Assassin sitter, though possibly more correct, is much longer."

"Coulson," Steve walked over to stand in front of him. "You gonna be fine taking care of Loki? I mean, he did try to kill you."

Coulson shrugged. "If he gets out of hand, I'll tase him."

Thor grinned. "I think Darcy Lewis would make a fantastic sidekick for you."

Though Natasha and Steve had originally had some reservations about letting Coulson take care of Bucky and Loki, it turned out that their faith was well placed. When they came back, they found Loki and Bucky coloring some of Coulson's files while Coulson himself caught up on paperwork. However, Natasha and Steve never found out what had possessed Coulson to have them color his files with smiley faces, rainbows, unicorns, and hedgehogs (or as Coulson called them, piles of poop with swords sticking out of them). After that, it wasn't uncommon for Coulson to come to the Rogers' household at any moment with files, crayons, and plenty of chocolate (he'd discovered that like any teenager, Loki was extremely susceptible to bribes of chocolate).

One time, however, he brought a guest.

"I'll get it!" Loki called as he went to open the door. Natasha raised an eyebrow.

"Well Phil has certainly won Loki over." She commented dryly. Despite their rocky beginnings, Loki now looked forward to Coulson's visits as much as Thor's.

Loki opened the door, only to find a brunette girl staring back at him. "Hi! I'm Darcy Lewis. You must be Loki." Darcy offered him a hand, which Loki shook, rather timidly. He'd heard about the girl who'd tased Thor within five minutes of meeting him, but he'd honestly expected someone a little more like Sif as opposed to a cheery ray of sunshine.

Coulson chuckled. He'd picked up Darcy on his way here in hopes that she would help force Loki out of his little shell. And it already seemed to be working. Unfortunately, it worked a little too well.

Natasha stared at the house in horror. "Two days. You two have known each other exactly two days. How on earth did you plan this? And where did you get this much Silly String anyways?" Yep, Silly String covered the lawn Darcy, Loki, Coulson, and what appeared to be a life size statue of Bucky that had probably actually been Bucky at one point.

Darcy shrugged. "He's the one who got the Silly String." She said, pointing at Loki.

He gaped at her. "Only because you suggested toilet paper, which requires a lot more clean up!"

Coulson smiled and made his way over to Natasha. "I'll make sure they clean it up."

Natasha chuckled and threw her hands in the air. "Good luck!"