Hell with Nat was...hell. She was the best one to train you how to fight in the entire tower, but she was also a hardass and training was tough. She finally called it quits after a few hours of hell. If it weren't so important to your future ability to go on missions with the team, you probably would have protested that she was pushing too hard. She must've caught your look. "Bad guys always go for the healer first," she reminded you.
"I know, Agent Romanov," you grumbled as you fought to move. She'd kicked your ass repeatedly today and you were already stiff and sore. You had to get to your shower soon or you wouldn't be able to move.
"You're allowed to use my name, not my title," she reminded you. Again. It was hard to relax around them. You'd spent your whole life hiding your powers in fear and tiptoeing around foster parents so you didn't get kicked out.
"Y/N, you don't have to be afraid. I know you had it rough with the foster system, but you're part of the team. We're not ditching you. You're allowed to relax. This is your home for as long as you want it to be." Cap's voice said from the doorway. Cap was totally team mom and seemed to always show up when people needed a pep talk. You gave him a smile.
"Thanks, Cap," you managed, not quite sure about the emotions you were feeling. It was hard to get over years of hiding and tiptoeing and fear so quickly, but you promised you would try. "Thanks for the lesson, Age-Natasha," she gave you a real smile at that and you could finally escape back up to your room and more importantly, your shower.
One scalding hot shower later, you felt almost human again.
You didn't feel like being anti-social today and took the homework you still had to do down to the livingroom as well as the tablet you'd actually asked Tony for, since you actually needed the internet for school and couldn't just ask Jarvis everything. You figured it was cheaper and easier than getting a full computer. You hadn't expected a super fancy Stark tech gadget. You also didn't complain, though your classmates gave you jealous looks when they saw your tech. You didn't go advertising that you lived in the Avengers' tower, but those kind of things always got out, somehow, especially after the Avengers had been tracking you down for healing for two years already.
You weren't surprised to see that Loki was still on the couch reading when you got back to the livingroom. "Hi, Loki," you greeted him kindly as you took your usual spot on the couch, setting out your homework.
"Lady Y/N," he replied formally, looking up from his book. He was halfway through the second book already. He could devour books.
"How's the hunt for the monster in the castle?" you asked, nodded to the book.
"The new teacher is a moron," he replied with a chuckle. You spent a long time ignoring your homework while discussing the characters and the story with Loki, which was way more enjoyable than calculus.
"Kid, we're ordering Chinese. What do you want?" Tony asked from the kitchen awhile later. You looked up, surprised. You'd lost track of time while talking with Loki. You called out your order to him, which was promptly placed through Jarvis. It wasn't long before the carryout was on the island in the kitchen and everyone was digging through the bag for their orders. "Hey, is that my shirt?" Tony commented, seeing the shirt you had stolen from the laundry. You shrugged.
"I don't know. It ended up in my laundry," you lied innocently.
"Did it appear with a Black Sabbath shirt by chance?" he asked. You shrugged again before grabbing your order, and the unclaimed container, which you assumed was Loki's and darting from the room before Tony could press the issue. "And why do you only wear the same five outfits?" Tony grumbled. You pretended not to hear him and made your way back to Loki and the couch. He had returned to his book when you had left him and didn't seem keen to go fight the others for dinner.
"Tada!" You announced, handing him his Chinese food container. He looked shocked, flat out shocked and tongue tied. "It's dinner. You eat it," you rolled your eyes at him.
"Why did you bring mine as well?" he asked as he reached up to take the container from you.
"Fork or chopsticks?" you asked, offering him both. He took the fork. You returned to your spot to begin eating your dinner with the chopsticks he hadn't chosen. He just looked at you, waiting for your answer to his question. He wasn't as forgetful as the others. Or was just more persistent. "They aren't nice when they're hungry, but they won't hit the healer. I figured you weren't going to brawl with them to get your dinner, so I grabbed it while I was getting mine. It's called being nice," you replied. "The correct response is 'thank you'," you added with a touch of sarcasm and teasing in your voice.
"Thank you," he responded obediently, sounding amused. You finished your dinner and finally got started on the homework you'd been avoiding all afternoon.
"Kid, we're getting called out to an incident uptown. You and Reindeer Games are to stay here, and stay out of trouble," Tony announced awhile later. You looked up from your homework and saw that he was already in his ironman suit. "Reindeer Games, keep the kid safe, that's your first mission." Loki inclined his head regally, accepting his order.
"I'm not a kid!" you protested. Again. Why was this concept so difficult for Tony to grasp?
He ignored you and continued. "Y/N, keep an eye on Reindeer Games, make sure he doesn't do anything stupid, or cause trouble, or try to take the world over again. If he's out of your sight longer than it takes to pee, tell Jarvis to call for help." You just rolled your eyes at him, sure that Loki wasn't going to do anything more interesting than sit on the couch reading. Tony grabbed your hand.
"Hey!" you protested, trying to pull it back from him. He ignored you and in the suit you couldn't fight him. He clamped a piece of tech on your wrist. It was a wrist repulsor. You recognized it from visiting his lab. It was only good for one shot.
"If he tries anything, blast him first and ask questions later," Tony ordered firmly. You rolled your eyes.
"He's not going to try anything," you protested.
"Promise me, Y/N," Tony was actually concerned and seemed to care, so you threw him a bone. This time.
"Fine, I promise," you grumbled. That was the best he was going to get from you. The second they had left, you tried to find the clasp on the repulsor or figure out how to remove it. There seemed to be no clasp on it, no way to get it off until Tony got back. You huffed at it and went back to your homework. You shouldn't have procrastinated on it all day in the first place.
"What are you working on?" Loki asked.
"Homework that I've been avoiding all weekend. Specifically calculus, which is a stupid subject,"
"You are in school?"
"Yeah. It's my last year. I can't officially join the team until I graduate. I'm only living here because Thor found out my last foster father was abusive and hit me," you replied absently, flipping through pages of the textbook to try to figure out the answer to the problem you were stuck on.
"Explain," Loki growled. You rolled your eyes.
"I've been helping out the team for a couple years. I healed Clint on a mission one day and they found out about my powers and started coming to ask for healing. Thor came to me for healing one day and saw through the illusion I had placed over the bruise. He brought me here and I've lived here ever since. Still don't know how he saw through my illusions. They've always fooled everyone else," you grumbled, finally finding the missing piece you needed for the calculus problem.
"Thor grew up with me," Loki explained. You looked up at him, shocked by that answer. "He is quite used to dealing with illusions, as they are one of my specialties,"
"That makes sense,"
"What is a foster father?" Loki still didn't sound like he had calmed. He hadn't gotten off the fact that you'd been hit. Great, just what you needed, another overprotective person in your life.
"Kids with no parents go into foster care. It's hard to explain. The short version is that I was abandoned at a hospital when I was a baby and bounced from family to family my entire life," you shrugged. "Most of them got scared when they realized I have powers and demanded I be placed somewhere else,"
"You have always had magic?" he asked curiously, wisely not commenting more about the foster system. You nodded.
"As long as I can remember, anyway. Mostly healing and illusions," you still weren't comfortable talking about your abilities. You had tried to hide them for so long, but something always made you use them again.
"Will you show me an illusion?" he asked gently, as if knowing that you were afraid. At this rate you were never going to get your homework done. You sighed, but obliged, standing from the couch and leaving an illusion of yourself where you'd been sitting.
"Very impressive," he commented, as he appraised your work. You felt pride in that and let the illusion fade. You had a feeling praise from him was rare indeed. He seemed to have run out of questions for now and let you get back to your homework. It only lasted until he finished his book, though. He got up, clearly bored. "Where are you going?" you asked, more curious than anything.
"To find another book," he commented dryly. You sighed.
"I'm supposed to come with you," you reminded him. He rolled his eyes.
"Surely you're not going to blast me for getting a book,"
Instead you reached into your bag and pulled out the book you were reading in English. "Either you can help me with my math homework or read Hamlet until I finish," you told him dryly, holding the book out to him.
"You are no fun," he grumbled.
"I don't want detention for not doing my homework. Or another lecture from Cap. His lectures are really long and really boring," you whined. He laughed and relented, sitting on the couch again.
"Let me see the problem," he offered. You showed him the question, hoping he would explain better than Tony. Tony knew everything when it came to math and science, but he was awful at explaining any of it. "I can help," he added once he had looked it over. You nearly hugged him.
"Thank god. I was afraid I was going to ask Tony, and he's hopeless at helping,"
The team came back to find you and Loki working on your homework together on the couch companionably chatting while you did.