Loki and the Witchling

Chapter 11

The conversation changed quickly and you enjoyed the comfortable morning surrounded by family, even if you kept reaching for Loki's dagger every time someone moved too quickly. "Brother, why did you arm Lady Y/N?" Thor asked when you had reached for the dagger one too many times.

"I wanted my lady to feel safe," Loki replied innocently.

"So you needed to give her a dagger that might as well be a sword?" Tony growled. He had caught sight of the dagger too.

"I should have given her a bigger one?" Loki asked even more innocently. With a flash of green magic an even larger dagger appeared on his hand.

"NO!" the group shouted at him. You just laughed.

"Can't you two try to behave?" Clint grumbled, looking like he was getting over a heart attack. It was probably fear of being stabbed by that wicked looking dagger that Loki held. Loki vanished the dagger.

"But behaving is no fun and so boring," he whined. Thor whirled on Loki then. Loki being bored was a bad thing. He apparently did stupid things for attention when he was bored.

"Brother! The Man of Iron has introduced me to a new entertainment! You should try it with me!" Thor boomed excitedly. He was obviously waiting for the next time Loki mentioned being bored to pull out whatever new thing he had learned about.

"What is it this time?" Loki asked, sounding bored by Thor's enthusiasm, as well as doubtful that it would actually be entertaining.

"It is called Mario Kart!" Thor boomed. "Tony, get us the Mario Kart!" Tony rolled his eyes, but he and Clint got up to get the controllers to pass out to everyone and Jarvis set up the TV.

"Bruce, are you playing this time?" Nat asked a little worriedly. You weren't sure why. Mario Kart was fun. You explained the controls to Loki while Clint finished passing out the controllers. Even Bruce decided to play, for a little bit anyway.

Jarvis got the game set up so you could all play at the same time. Loki learned quickly that there are no friends in Mario Kart. He learned especially quickly when you had hit him with shells twice. He growled at the screen and leaned forward in intense concentration, determined to win. Nat calmly killed Tony with a blue shell which made him start yelling at her across the room.

Everything was going well until rainbow road.

"I. Hate. Rainbow. Road." Bruce growled in a dangerous tone.

"Dr. Banner?" Cap asked worriedly. Bruce was looking green around the edges. His eyes had even changed to that bright almost neon green color.

"Jarvis," Tony snapped at the computer. The game paused.

Before anyone could stop you, you made the stupid decision of getting off of the nice safe couch and going to Bruce with the calm gentle expression you had perfected just for him. Loki jumped up off the couch and grabbed you around the waist, pulling you to him and forcibly away from Bruce. He grumbled about healers with no sense of self-preservation, who go to heal people even when they have no healing magic to do so, even when they are terrified of everyone in the room due to said lack of magic. Thor jumped up too, standing between Bruce and the two of you. "Get her out of here," Thor ordered Loki.

"No. It's ok," Bruce said, fighting back for control, but he was winning. "The Big Guy likes her and isn't stupid enough to hurt the healer,"

"I think that's enough Mario Kart. Even Loki can't be bored now," Clint commented and quickly gathered up all of the controllers again. Tony got Bruce out of the room claiming to need help with something in the lab. It was a feeble excuse, but Bruce took it anyway.

"Witchling, you are too brave for your own good sometimes," Loki scolded gently as you resettled on the couch.

"I don't feel very brave," you replied cuddling up with him to watch whatever movie Nat was picking.

"You just tried to take on the Hulk with no magic," he replied grumpily. You could hear the hint of fear in his voice, though he was trying to hide it. He still didn't like the Hulk after he'd gotten repeatedly smashed into the floor during the whole New York incident. He had been legitimately scared for your safety.

"He was hurting," you protested. It was hard to be afraid for yourself when one of your family needed help.

"Healers," Loki sighed, exasperated. "No sense of self preservation when someone else is hurting," he grumbled again. "Can you try to avoid sabotaging my job of keeping you safe?"

Thor just laughed and laughed and couldn't stop for a good five minutes. "Now you know how it feels trying to keep you out of trouble, brother," he roared in laughter while Loki grumbled that even he wasn't that bad. He at least had self preservation if nothing else.

You laughed with them, accepting the comfort of being around family.