After a few moments of peaceful silence, you laughed.

You turned to Loki with a brilliant smile and threw your arms around him, tears streaming down your cheeks as you laughed.

He laughed lightly, gently laying his arms across your shoulders as he rested his head on yours.

You nuzzled into his chest. “Why was Thor here?”

He smiled into your hair. “He was collecting information.”

You frowned and stepped back, looking up at Loki with questioning eyes.

He smiled softly, his eyes tracing your features. “The attack didn’t work.” He looked to your eyes with a sigh. “My… allies… have forsaken me.” He reached up, gently stroking your jaw. “And the plan didn’t work.” He leaned in as if to kiss you. He paused just before he did, his lips brushing yours as he whispered, “And the only thing I care about anymore would have stood in the way of those plans anyway.”

You smile, but it quickly morphs into a frown. You pull away before he can close the kiss. “What was that?”

He smiled, sighing at your defiance. “The only thing I care about?”

You nodded, fighting to maintain a frown where your face yearned for a smirk. You crossed your arms.

He tilted his head, watching the battle of wills on your lips. He laughed lightly and returned his gaze to your eyes. “You are the only thing- the only one- I care about.” He reached for you, wrapping his arms around your waist to pull you back to his chest. He kissed your head and squeezed you tight.

You bit your lip to keep from smirking, digging your nails into your biceps to fight the urge to hug him back.

He laughed into your hair, shaking his head, kissing your head again and again, speaking between kisses. “You are defiant. You are resilient. You are passionate. You are obstinate. You are beautiful. You are perfect. You are mine.”

On the last claim, you broke. You burst into laughter as you flung your arms around Loki’s neck, yanking him down to your height and into a deep kiss.

It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, but it was interrupted. You jumped at the sounds of throats being cleared. You turned quickly to face the source, reaching instinctively for your weapons and wincing when they weren’t there.

You bit your lip and hung your head when you saw who it was though. Tony and Steve. Both with their arms crossed, both with their face red, though one from rage and one from embarrassment.

“Hello.” You sighed, looking up sheepishly.

Tony narrowed his eyes and lowered his arms, looking between you and Loki as he walked stiffly forward. In a quick movement, he had snaked and arm around you and pulled you to his side. “Team meeting.” He said bluntly, turning and walking off, with you in tow.

Steve followed after a moment’s hesitation.

At the end of the hall, Tony stopped, turning, you and all, to face Loki. He frowned. “Ain’t you comin’ with, Commander Arnold?”

Steve’s eyes widened and he nodded, a tone of surprise as he announced, “I understood that reference.”

You laughed, knocking Steve in the chest before turning to Loki with hopeful eyes.

Loki smiled and began walking toward you.

------------

The four of you walked to the bridge together in the complete opposite of silence. In fact, the walk made you appreciate silence and its rarity, especially with Tony.

Tony would not shut-up. Despite protests from Loki, despite strong protests from Steve, and despite STRONG protests from you, he continued in his rant about you and Loki. You don’t know who was most uncomfortable during the big brother speech, but you’re pretty sure Loki turned the reddest during the safe-sex speech.

You eventually tuned Tony out, as you had learned to do years ago. You closed your eyes and rested your head against Loki, whose arm was around your waist.

Steve began walking faster when the bridge was in sight. You prayed that the opening of the doors would finally turn Tony off, but it didn’t. You almost cried at the expression on Coulson’s face when he heard Tony explaining to Loki how condoms worked.

You sighed and pulled away from Loki, leaving him at Tony’s mercy, as you moved to the conference table. You were the first to be seated. You looked around the room, watching as the rest of the Avengers emerged from the corners. Each took a seat at the table, some having to drag chairs up to do so.

When Thor, Bruce, Steve, and Barton were seated, Natasha grabbed Tony and threw him into a chair before sitting beside Barton.

You frowned, looking around. “Something’s wrong.”

Steve turned to you. “What?”

You turned to look around.

Agent Hill was looking around with a frown. “Is someone missing?” she seemed to do a quick headcount.

Agent Coulson stepped forward with a frown. “No.” he looked at you and shook his head.

You smiled, pushing your chair out and standing. You moved to the wall, pulling another chair up to the table. You looked around with a frown until you spotted another chair, which you moved to and pushed up to the table. You did this twice more, pushing the new chairs in wherever they fit among the Avengers.

They all watched with curiosity and/or confusion.

You smiled, waving Hill and Coulson to two of the chairs.

They looked to each other. Hill seemed confused; Coulson seemed to be fighting to contain delight.

Coulson tensely took the seat beside Steve, who clapped him on the back, causing him to smile brightly.

Hill hesitantly took the seat beside Barton, on the side Natasha was not on. They both nodded and smiled at her, and she returned it, though muted.

You turned to Director Fury, who stood at his place behind the table with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. You pointed to the chair you had put at the head of the table, between Natasha and Steve. He smiled and took his seat. But he looked between the last two chairs with a frown. He turned to you with a raised eyebrow.

You laughed, turning to face Loki, who stood shyly in the door. You skipped up to him and took his hand in yours, dragging him to the table. You sat in one of the chairs, the one beside Tony, and pushed him into the other, between you and Thor. You looked around with satisfaction.

Loki, Thor, Bruce, Hill, Barton, Natasha, Fury, Steve, Coulson, Tony, you.

You smiled brightly at each of them in turn and then announced proudly, “The team’s all here.”