I had been living with the Avengers for a month now. As well as catching up with Steve and Bucky I was getting to know the other Avengers. Loki interested me the most, he was very easy to talk to once we were alone but became cold of anyone walked in the room.
It was about 3am when I woke up in a cold sweat from one of my usual graphic nightmares. It was a distressing mix of the horrors of war and my time in hydra.
As I was lying awake, trying to calm down I listened to Loki humming quietly next door. He didn't seem to sleep a lot, I often heard him moving around in his room late at night. I assumed that he was reading until late because he has an extensive library in his room.
After a short mental argument I decided to pull on a white T-shirt and stand in my doorway, Loki's room was next door to mine. His door was slightly open, enough to see him lying on his bed only in his boxers reading a book.
He looked amazing, he wasn't as toned as his brother but you could still tell that he is a god. He didn't seem completely focused on his book like he normally is, he was still humming. I had noticed that every time I woke up from a nightmare Loki would start humming, knowing that it calmed me down.
"You can either come in or think more quietly" Loki said softly looking up from his book and smirking at the doorway.
I opened the door wider with my foot and leaned against his door way, "how am I supposed to think quietly?" I asked quietly.
"So you don't want to come in then?" Asked Loki teasingly, he sat up and moved onto the edge of the bed tapping the space next to him.
I shrugged my shoulders and moved to sit next to him, "your nightmares are getting more often y/n"
"Yeah I know, they are getting worse" I agreed.
"What are they about?"
I didn't answer him, I only shook my head. I couldn't tell him. Seeing the events replayed every night was bad enough, talking about them seemed impossible.
Loki stayed silent for a while before suggesting, "sleep in here tonight, if you start having another one I will wake you up before it gets too bad"
I agreed and we both moved under the covers, Loki immediately wrapped his arm around me and started humming again. After a while I could feel my eyelids becoming heavy before I finally fell into the most peaceful sleep I have had since the 40s.
I woke up to an empty bed in the morning, I had learnt that Loki was an early riser so he was probably in the library. I went to my room to get changed and headed downstairs for breakfast. I was greeted with a chorus of "Morning y/n" as I sat down.
I had just finished eating when Tony joined us, "Oh y/n, we have a group training this morning. Do you want to join in?"
I agreed and before I knew it, I was wearing a sports bra and leggings and surrounded by the Avengers on the track outside. Loki kept stealing glances at me, which went unnoticed by the rest of the team.
"Lets start with a running exercise, drop out when you need to and last man standing wins" instructed Steve.
We started running circuits on the track almost immediately. Steve went straight into show off mode, while Bucky and I were happy to stick with the group.
Steve kept lapping us and calling out "on your left" every time he did, much to everyone's annoyance.
Just to shut him up I picked up the pace and managed to over take Steve, teasingly shouting "on your left Rogers"
This caught him off guard, making him stumble a bit in shock. He regained himself and we kept overtaking each other bit by bit until Steve was struggling. The rest of the group had started to drop out by now.
"What's wrong Rogers, old age got to you?" I called out teasingly.
"Your older than me!" He shouted back.
"Your getting lapped by a senior citizen, bit pathetic isn't it Rogers?" I shouted back, causing an outburst of laughter from the group.
"Finish up guys, we are getting bored and Steve might have a heart attack" shouted Tony from the side line.
I slowed my pace until I came to a stop next to Loki, who passed me a water bottle and whispered in my ear, "you were brilliant"
I felt my face blush but thankfully my face was already red from the running so no one noticed.
We continued to do different workouts, all filled with old man jokes aimed at Steve.