Loki Laufeyson - Saviour {2}

Chapter Twenty Three - Talk to Me

The next day, as discussed at dinner between Pepper and myself, I woke up nice and early. Well, it was more like I actually got up from bed earlier than the rest of the Avengers, I had already been awake since about 3 am, tossing and turning as I pushed back the memories that I liked to resurface at night.

Bucky was already awake, as suspected, when I walked downstairs in a thick white woollen sweater and grey tracksuit pants. He was sitting on the couch, listening to music, a new thing he had discovered to help him relax after nightmares. I had tried it once, but it made everything a little too overwhelming.

Pepper was already waiting for me in the kitchen, ingredients scattered all around the bench for all of the Christmas meals and desserts that she wanted to trial. I found cooking therapeutic, so when she had asked for my help last night, I didn't hesitate to agree.

"Morning Emily." She smiled at me, her smile feeling like she was wrapping me in a big hug. "Are you ready? I have a couple of things that I just want to test out before the actual day.

A couple, it turns out, was quite an understatement. We trialed almost every imaginable sweet and savoury foods. But it wasn't a bad thing, there was quiet Christmas music playing while the other Avengers slept. I wasn't complaining, I loved cooking with Pepper, and even Bucky joined in a couple of times, but went on a run with Steve when he woke up.

As the sun began to rise, so did the Avengers, at all different times, and we had to put the Christmas cooking on hold to make some waffles for breakfast.

Once everyone was full of waffles, Pepper and I got back to cooking, with the help of Wanda this time as well, as everyone continued the final preparations for Christmas. At one point, Tony had to drag Wanda away to help her bring a pool table into the lounge room, because he had broken parts of his suit doing something stupid, according to Pepper.

The only problem that we faced the whole time while we were cooking (apart from me completely failing on the first pavlova, and then the seconds and also the third), was that once everyone had finished helping set up everything, they all kind of just hung around the lounge room watching TV and stealing all of our cooking.

"Clint seriously." I grumbled, shooing his hand away as he tried yet again to snag a piece of the gingerbread that Pepper was making while her back was turned. "Go find something else to eat. You're as bad as Thor." He opened his mouth to say something and I immediately glared at him. "And that isn't a compliment."

"It's always a compliment." Came Thor's booming voice as he swaggered past the bench and grabbed the exact piece of ginger bread that Clint had been trying to take.

"Thor!" I yelled at him as he sat down on the couch heavily. "We need that!"

He just grinned at me and ate the whole piece in one mouthful. I rolled my eyes and went back to chopping up strawberries for my fourth attempt of a pavlova, only to see another hand dart towards the chopping board and grab a handful of blueberries. I immediately looked up and saw Tony walking away with a handful of blueberries.

"Loki!" I yelled out, beginning to get annoyed, not helped by the fact that I didn't have enough sleep. I looked over at Loki to see him sitting on the couch with his nose in another book. "Can you create a shield or something, please? We are going to have no food soon."

He looked up at me, a smile playing on his lips as he waved his hand and covering the whole kitchen in a green bubble. He also seemed to take a lot of pleasure in knocking Clint of a stool as he put up the shield. Clint swore quite colourfully, causing Tony to yell at him, and Clint picked up at knife from the kitchen bench, hurling it in Loki's direction. Thankfully, Loki threw out a shield before it could do any damage.