Taking Care Of The Avengers (Loki x Reader) (under edit)

64) Toy Story: Avengers' Edition Part-1

There was a time when I used to have hope in myself. I used to dream about sleeping, napping, dozing off, pizza— on occasion, and being the best big brother I could ever be to my sister, (Y/n).

As I teetered on the edge of the building, my short, child legs shaking, I discovered that I had the sense of right and wrong as mixed up as a faulty compass.
When (Y/n), barely a toddler, wobbled up on her tiny baby feet and grabbed the edge of my underwear with her equally baby hands, she gave me a wedgie as she yanked me away from my impending fall.

It felt like she was the one looking after me instead.
I didn't lose my hope there in being a good, caring brother.

No, that happened when I had left (Y/n)— then just barely eleven. She waited for me to come back from the grocery store with her favorite chocolate—a bar of Twix. I left her waiting at the window sill of my bedroom, as she sat on my bed with the blanket wrapped around her and a bonsai tree on the sill. There were tiny toy figures on the branches, the ones you get for free with a packet of sweets.

I later found out that she hadn't moved an inch until the next morning.

It broke my heart to leave her. But I was a teenager. My decisions were bad then.

They're pretty bad now too.

But I deal with them the only way I can— half-dead and fueled on coffee.

(Y/n) was always the one who could guide me on the right path.

But she was my baby sister. I was supposed to do that for her. In my warped mind, I felt that she could take care of herself easier, without looking after me.

So I left her and joined the traveling circus. I had a knack for targets, and soon rose to become the best archer that existed. The circus was a cover for robbery.

It didn't feel good, but I did it all the same. Only when I was recruited by SHIELD, did I realize that it had been years since I had seen (Y/n).

And for another year, I couldn't gather the courage to say hello to her. On my nights off from SHIELD's training and missions, I stole away from the base and climbed to the roof of a building near my childhood home.

I saw (Y/n) take out the garbage bag every night. She had grown from that eleven-year-old I had left behind.
It made me so proud to see her at age eighteen, not as tall as me— something I could've teased her about, but she was pretty as I was handsome.

I was proud of my sister at a distance.

But every night I had snuck out to check up on my family, every night they went to bed, I saw the light in (Y/n)'s room stay on longer.
Before she drew the curtains closed, she would always sit by the bed and look out the window for a long time.
The bonsai plant never shifted. Its branches drooped and broke off, but it never wilted enough to die. Just like her hope for me to return, she watered it daily.

I know I'm taking way too long to get to the story, but trust me, it's important.

I hated bonsai plants. She knew I did. They were so impractical. But there were two toy figures on the branches, and I just knew it represented her and me.

I hated myself. I was so ashamed of myself for leaving her to battle the world alone. I had always promised to take care of her.

I never did get her that Twix.

I wasn't thinking straight as I was sliding down the mountain with the rest of the team. Being shot at by bad guys in a snowmobile did not make things any easier for this decision to happen. Hell, it was a bad call that Captain America himself delegated me, of all people, to steal the bell.