Wife of Mischief (part 1 of the WoM series)

Chapter 20

"No, no, no no no no!" I cried as I watched Tony fly into the wormhole with the nuke on his back. There was no way he could come back once in there. The nuke would explode, not only destroying the chitauri, but him as well. There was an audible boom as orange light spilled out of the portal, and it began closing. He wasn't coming out. Tears pricked my eyes and I wanted to break down and cry, but knew that there was no use in it, so instead I just kept watching as the wormhole finished closing. Before it was completely gone though, something fell out. Something small and...human shaped. Could it really be?!

I ran towards the direction of its crash landing and hoped that it was Tony. Something flew out and grabbed him before he hit the ground, and I sped up, overjoyed that he was okay! When I got there, Steve, Thor, and the Hulk were crowded around him, worried looks on their faces. My heart sank again and I rushed over to see him lying still. he wasn't breathing. "Is he okay?" I asked, fearful of the answer. Thor wrapped a strong arm around my shoulder as I looked at Tony's unconscious body.

"I don't know," Steve said sadly. Hulk took a few steps back, then roared at the top of his lungs. Tony gasped and looked around, dazed and confused. We all breathed a sigh of relief to see that he was okay!

"What the hell?" he said breathlessly, "What just happened? Please tell me no one kissed me."

I grinned seeing him act like his normal self again, even if it did slightly annoy me that he immediately started joking right after we nearly started grieving him. "We won," Steve answered. Tony breathed a sigh of relief and told us to take a break tomorrow.

"You ever tried shawarma?" he asked no one in particular, "There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."

Thor smiled at everyone, but became serious again and told us we weren't finished just yet. There was still his brother we had to worry about.

-

-

When we got back to the bar room in Stark tower, we found Loki looking quite beaten and bruised as he lay on a few steps. Hulk had a smug grin on his face and I realized that he must have had a fight with Loki, and clearly won. Clint, whom I found out was Natasha's good friend and an assassin for SHIELD, aimed his arrow at Loki, warning him that if he made a wrong move he'd shoot. Loki grinned weakly at us and said, "If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now."

"Loki, don't make this any worse for yourself," I said sternly.

"I'll try not to," he grinned at me. His eyes were green again, and I knew now that he was going to surrender completely. I told Clint he could lower his arrow and he looked at me distrustfully. Thor assured him that he could trust me, as I knew how to read Loki's actions. He wasn't going to pull anymore stunts for a while. Tony chained him up, careful to make sure he didn't have any knives hidden away to stab him like he did to Thor, and lead him to a secure chamber to lock him up until they got everything up and running again and Thor was ready to bring him back.

After everyone had deemed him harmless, they allowed me to see him and discuss what would happen. Loki surrendered the tesseract to me before I left, and told me to give it to Thor to help them get home.

"Why don't you tell him that you were being controlled?" I asked during one of my visits.

"And risk the start of another war? I don't think so. It's better if everyone thinks that I did this of my own volition."

"No, it's not! You're going to get punished for something you had no control over!"

"(Y/n) please trust me. I'll have Thor come to get you the day of my trial so that you can be there for my sentencing."

I looked at him sadly and reluctantly agreed to allow him to continue saying that he lead the attack on New York. Someone knocked on the door of the chamber and told me my time was up. Loki and I got up and I hugged him tightly, knowing that this could be the last time I see him. Slowly, he gingerly hugged me back as if he were unsure of what to do.

"Please don't pull anymore stunts, okay?" I asked, burying my face in his shoulder.

"Of course," he replied quietly. I broke away as the guard knocked again on the door and said goodbye as I closed the door behind me. Clint was out in the hall as I left, and caught me before I walked past him.

"So, what's the deal between you and Christmas Tree?"

"I-I'm sorry?"

"Loki," he clarified, "Are you like, an ex girlfriend or...?"

My eyes widened at the assumption that we used to be lovers and my cheeks grew hot. "Oh, no! No, nothing like that at all! I had to interrogate him when he was in custody and he and I became friends I guess you could say."

"Doesn't seem like it. And how did the other's know that you weren't on his side since you two were so close?"

"I was under close watch the entire time, and I had tried to stop him several times from going through with his plans."

"Why do you still care for him then?"

I was hesitant on explaining Loki's condition to Clint. As much as I trusted him, I didn't know how he would handle the information, or what he would do with it. "It's...complicated. There's so much more to him than just a power hungry villain and it seemed that I was the only one who saw that."

Clint didn't seem to satisfied with the answer I gave him, but I ignored him and walked off before he could ask me anything else.

-

-

The next day came before I wanted it to, and around noon we were standing in central park saying goodbye to Thor, even though I was the only one, Loki as well.

"Hey, Thor?" I walked over to the blonde thunderer.

"Yes Lady (y/n)?"

"Would you mind taking Loki's mouth guard off? I need to talk to him."

Thor looked at me uncertainly but agreed, much to the dismay of our friends. He took off the guard and Loki smiled at me gratefully as I took him a few meters away from the others. I dipped under his chained wrists and stood up, hugging him tightly again. He returned the gesture to the best of his ability and rested his chin on my head. Then I pulled away and smacked him across the face. Not hard, but enough to startle him. Loki looked at me with a hurt and confused expression on his face and I said, "That's for not listening to me!" Then I pulled him down and gently kissed him on the lips. He jumped, but kissed back and melted into it. I tore away after a few seconds and said, "That's for saving my life."

He grinned like a school boy at me and kissed me again, this time it was a bit sweeter. Thor cleared his throat and we stopped and I dipped back under his arms. I was bright red and I could feel everyone's astonished stares boring into me but I ignored them. Thor put Loki's mouth guard back on him, and they held the tesseract.

"Goodbye my friends," Thor smiled at us, then twisted the handle and they disappeared in a flash of blue light.