"Happy birthday!" I hear shouts in my room at the crack of dawn, and I jolt up in bed to see Tony and Pepper at my bedside with a gigantic sheet cake and balloons.
"What on earth is going on?" I laugh, rubbing my eyes of their sleepiness.
I stand from my bed and take the two gift bags Tony hands me.
"Pepper, hi!" I smile, pulling her in for a hug. She stops by the compound from time to time but I rarely get to see her. I'll always remember the first day I got my powers, and how she was the only person able to calm me down and make me feel safe. I'll hold that moment dear to me forever.
"Cassidy, it's so good to see you. I wouldn't miss your birthday for the world." She says into my hair as I embrace her.
I pull away from her and give Tony a side hug, leaning my head against him, because he has his hands full with my cake.
"Happy birthday, kid. The big 23." He says and I laugh.
"Yeah, a really important year." I joke, "You guys didn't have to do all this but thank you."
"Of course we did. Get ready, then it's dining room in fifteen minutes." Pepper commands and I nod.
They leave me be, and I quickly throw on jeans and a nice blouse. I do my makeup for the first time in what feels like forever, and then I head out towards the living room.
It's been a few weeks since we visited Connors lab, and I saw Dylan again. I haven't heard from him since, not that I was expecting to. My anger towards him as morphed into a dull and ever present sadness. The ache of a lost friend.
Still, these weeks have been incredibly bright ones. My mother has come to visit me here at the compound a few times, and she's taken quite a liking to Thor. I can't blame her. He's intimidatingly attractive. Mom came yesterday to visit too because today, on my birthday, she's working a double shift.
I don't find anyone in the living room, so I keep walking down the hall towards the large dining room. The second I turn the corner into the dining room, I'm met with an onslaught of cheers and colors and the aroma of food in the air.
The sprawling dining room table has been decked out in an assortment of every breakfast food I could think of and then some more. The room is covered in streamers and balloons and party hats, and each place setting has china and silverware that look like they're worth more than my house.
"Hey, it's the birthday girl!" Banner cheers, popping a paper party hat onto my head. I look around the room, smiling ear to ear.
"I haven't had a birthday party since I was ten." I laugh.
"You haven't had a birthday party like this ever." Tony comments and I laugh.
Everyone stops by to wish me a happy birthday, and to give me gifts that I can't help but feel guilty for already. Tony brought me out to the garage before we ate and gifted me a brand new car, and I almost passed out. When my mom finds out about this she's going to cry. My family can't exactly afford new expensive cars on a whim.
Then everyone files through the buffet and settles in a seat, and I choose mine right next to Loki and Tony, the two most important men in my life. We all eat, laugh, and drink a lot of champagne.
The rest of the day is a blur of wonderful memories, and I genuinely can't remember ever being this happy. We play games out on the lawn, and I realize I'm horrible at horseshoe but with Clint on my team we win in a landslide anyways. We even sing karaoke, and Loki stuns everyone into silence when he belts out a song. He's a good singer. I don't think any of us knew that.
Banner, on the other hand, is not a good singer. I think all of us knew that.
When the sun begins to set in a brilliant display of orange, Loki pulls me aside from the backyard barbecue and takes me back to the garden where he told me he loved me.
He sits on a bench and I sit beside him.
"I got you something. I wanted to give it to you now, if that's alright." He tells me and I smile.
"That's more than alright, but you didn't have to get me anything. I don't even know how people found out about my birthday." I laugh.
"Oh, Stark told us all to clear our calendars weeks ago. He's very fond of you. I think he views you like family." Loki tells me. It's nice to hear that from someone else.
"I'll have to thank him." I smile.
"Anyways, um, here you go." Loki says.
He hands me a small black velvet box. Inside of it is a necklace with tiny diamonds connected by a small gold bar in a strange shape.
"I hope you like it. It's fine if you don't." He adds.
"It's beautiful, but what is it?" I ask.
"It's the constellation that was above us in the sky the night I first knew I loved you. It was the night when you held my hand and I comforted you and we gazed up at the stars. At that moment, looking out at an infinite galaxy, I knew there was nowhere else in the universe I wanted to be than beside you. That's how I knew I loved you." He says, and I'm absolutely speechless.
My eyes begin to tear up, and I shake my head.
"You hate it." He says, looking concerned.
"No, no. I love it so much. It's stunning. It's perfect. You're perfect." I stammer, at a loss for words, "What constellation is it?"
"Caelum. It's called the Chisel constellation, which I thought was rather befitting because I looked at it on the night you etched your name onto my heart. You've absolutely saved me, Cassidy Martin. I shall wear you on my heart like a badge of honor, so nothing may harm me again." He says in his poetic language, and my heart melts even more.
"You're giving me chest aches from all the love I feel, cut it out before I start to have a heart attack." I laugh and he smiles, "Seriously though, I feel like my heart is going to burst from happiness. Thank you, Loki."
"Of course. Now let's go join the festivities again before they think we've snuck off to do mischievous things." He says, standing and extending his arm for me to take.
"Wait, first will you help me put it on?" I ask. I lift my hair up and hand him the delicate gold necklace. He drapes it across my skin and clasps it in the back.
His touch sets my skin on fire. I turn to him and go to bring my lips to his for a long and slow kiss, but he stops me, giving me a peck instead.
"Later, they're all right here." He mumbles under his breath.
"Probably a good call." I agree, but I smile and steal one last little kiss for good measure. I can't seem to get enough of him tonight. We turn and walk back to rejoin everyone, and they now all sit around a big fire Tony started with beers and whiskey and whatever that Godly alcohol Thor drinks is.
Loki and I take our seats next to Clint and Thor, who are already happily drunk and singing incoherently.
We all sit and laugh and swap stories, and I get to listen to Cap talking about his life in the 40's, Thor talking about golden alien planets and the golden apples that sustain his people, and Nat talking about the crazy truth to the stories about Russian spies that we all somehow believe are lies.
Eventually, when the stars come out, everyone disperses into smaller groups to talk. I sit on Loki's lap, happily drinking a beer, while we talk to Clint and Nat.
"Is it less creepy that you guys are together now?" Clint jokes, clearly belligerently drunk, " A twenty-three year old with a one thousand year old is a lot better than a twenty-two year old and a thousand year old, you know."
"Piss off, Barton." Loki says with a roll of his eyes and I laugh.
"No, seriously." He begins to laugh at himself before he even says what he's thinking, "What happens in fifty years when you're all old and wrinkled and Loki over here still looks like a Norse Hercules?"
Clint loses it at the thought of that and I begin to crack up along with him. Nat smiles to herself. I have to admit, it's a funny picture.
"What?" Loki says. His tone is chilling, as though Clint just told him a loved one died.
"Just joking man." Clint says, trying to hold his smile, though it's faltering.
"Humans don't live very long, just a fact." Nat adds with a shrug, taking a long swig from her drink, "I'm gonna go find Bruce."
"Yeah, I bet you are." Clint teases her, and she hits him on the shoulder. She walks off to go find Bruce, who I know she cares about very much.
I glance back at Loki, but his face is stone cold. He stares straight ahead with his mouth slightly agape, "Loki, what's that face for?"
"Cassidy, you're going to die soon." He says quietly and solemnly.
"What? No, I'm not. I'm only a year older, it's not the end of the world. I could live to be one hundred." I tell him, I smile as I say it, but the underlying concern is apparent.
"A hundred years is the blink of an eye for me." He snaps, growing almost angry, "And then what? A life without you?"
I take a long pause, looking at him intently.
"Loki, what are you doing?" I ask. I don't know what's going through his head, but I don't think I'm going to like it.
"I need to go. I need to think." He says abruptly. He slides me off of his lap and walks back to the house, slipping inside without another word.
Me and Clint exchange a very nervous glance.
"I wouldn't follow him." Clint says. I nod, agreeing with him.
The rest of the evening I feel particularly...unsettled. All I can think about is Loki, and what on earth just happened. He went from happy and content to panicked and detached in a matter of moments.
The roller coaster that is Loki continues.
Everyone is now sitting outside on this warm summer evening watching a movie on the projector screen. It's getting late, but I couldn't sleep right now if I tried. I rub my necklace between my fingers.
About halfway through the movie, I decide I can't bear it anymore. I'm about to get up when Vision kneels beside me.
"Cassidy, may I have a word." He asks, and I nod. "Come with me."
Since I was sitting in the back, nobody really notices us getting up and leaving.
Vision brings me inside to the living room and we begin to walk down the hallway.
"What's up?" I ask him.
"Not to alarm you, but I've heard muttering from Loki's bedroom. I apologize, but I may have spied on him for a minute as a result. It looks like he's planning something big. Something that I don't think will end well." Vision cryptically tells me, and I stop walking.
"What does that mean, Vision?" I ask him.
"It means Loki needs to be dealt with, and I figured he would most likely listen to you. It looks like he plans to steal something for you that would extend your life, but will need to kill to obtain it. At least that's what I gathered from his scribbling, drawing, and muttering. He's in a state of...panic. He isn't thinking rationally." Vision tells me and dread fills my system.
It all makes sense, we did just talk about me dying soon. He's trying to take matters into his own hands.
"I'll put an end to it. I'll talk to him." I tell Vision, who nods and then glides away to leave me be.
"Loki," I say, knocking on the door and walking in, "What's going on?"
Loki looks like a nervous mess, with crumpled papers all over the floor as he scribbles something on a piece of paper. He looks up at me and smiles, walking over to me and kissing my forehead.
"Hello, love." He says to me.
"I'll ask again, Loki. What are you planning? Vision told me he's concerned, and now so am I." I reply, walking over to the other side of the room and standing with my arms crossed.
"Don't listen to the robot. I can do it, Cassidy. I can make you immortal like I am, and this whole mess will be solved." He smiles, proud of himself.
"You're not being serious, are you?" I ask, with an eyebrow raised. So Vision was right, he's lost it.
"I've never been more serious in my life. Cassidy, don't you see? This would be so easy. All I need is one measly apple." He says, shocked to see me fighting him on this. My mind momentarily flashes back to Thor's story about the apples that sustain his people's long lives.
"Easy? Vision said you would have to kill someone. I can't accept that as easy." I shake my head as my tone grows sour.
"Kill someone? No, not someone. Not a person. I would have to defeat an ancient being, who has already lived for an eternity. I wouldn't even have to kill them, just-" Loki begins to defend himself but I cut him off.
"Just what? Just hurt them so badly that they aren't in your way anymore? Just get rid of a problem like you did to Doctor Strange's friend?" I snap. I feel bad for using it against him, but he did kill someone in the time I've known him.
Accidental, maybe, but I won't stand by and watch him do it again on purpose.
"I don't understand why you're arguing with me, I'm doing this for you." He replies.
"Loki stop. I need to nip this idea of yours, whatever it is, in the bud. I want to be with you but I'm not willing to compromise who I am or what I stand for to do so."
"I would never want you to do that." He exclaims sincerely, and walks closer to me to grab my hands in his. He kisses the back of one of them.
"But you already are, without even knowing it. I can only forgive so much, Loki. If you do this, and I don't care what it is because I know it involves hurting someone, if you even attempt it I will stop you. And once I do, I won't ever forgive you." I lay down the line because I have to be tough on him right now.
He can't just go around doing bad things because he wants to, not even for me.
"I won't ask you to forgive me." He replies.
"Well then what's the point?" I exclaim loudly, pulling my hands from his and turning away from him to pace around the room. "What's the point in this if it means I still don't get to be with you forever? Can't being with me now be enough for you? Can't I be enough?"
"Cassidy, there is no point in the universe existing without you in it. Don't you get that?" He raises his voice slightly as well.
I sigh, sitting on the bed.
"I love you, Loki, but if you try something like this you will never see me again. Don't do this to me. I want a happy life with you, even if it's not for as long as you want it to be." I tell him.
"But it could be." He sits beside me, now sounding defeated.
"Please, Loki. For me." I ask gently, placing my hand on his cheek.
"But-" He begins to protest.
"Loki. I need you to promise me." I interrupt him.
He sighs and looks at his hands clasped in his lap. He thinks about it, then nods slowly.
"Alright, I'm sorry. I promise." He tells me.
"Thank you, Loki." I tell him, leaning over to kiss his cheek.
He sighs and gets into bed, still looking defeated. I crawl under the covers with him and lay beside him.
"Listen, I know my life can't be as long as yours, but with you...I know my little lifetime will feel like forever." I tell him and he smiles.
He brushes my hair behind my ear and sighs, "A human life it is."