Loki and the Witchling

Chapter 1

 After six months of living at the Avenger's tower, you still couldn't quite believe it was all real. You'd been helping the Avengers off and on for the last couple of years after you had come on their radar for healing Clint during a mission when you were fifteen. You didn't go advertising your abilities. It was dangerous to do so, and scared your foster parents when they inevitably found out, but when Clint had gotten shot on a mission not five feet away from you, it was impossible not to go to him and heal his wounds.

After that, the Avengers would pop by occasionally, track you down when they needed healing. Bruce was surprisingly your most often visitor, since your abilities included calming his panic attacks. So you hadn't been terribly surprised to see Avengers stopping by to bother you between classes, on your way to and from school, or out at the mall with your friends. At least they were always gracious on giving out autographs after you healed whatever trouble they had found themselves in. You didn't mind healing them, plus Tony had promised you a job after you turned 18 and graduated from high school.

You did start learning sign language so you could yell at Clint for always getting injured even after he took out his hearing aids.

Everything was going just fine until about six months ago when Thor came to find you, asking ever so politely to be healed. He had gotten his arm slashed open pretty deeply. You smiled and did the healing as usual. "Thank you, Lady Y/N" he bid you kindly as you got to work, placing a green glowing hand against his wound. It knit itself closed in a moment. Thor was giving you an odd look, though.

"Is something wrong?" you asked when the healing was done. "Is there another wound?" He hadn't seemed more wounded and you didn't see any other injuries.

"I know an illusion when I see one, Lady," he commented carefully. You felt the color drain from your face. How had he known that you were wearing an illusion? "Please drop it," he was holding your wrist so you couldn't flee. You sighed and let the illusion drop, letting him see the massive bruise on your face and your black eye. "Who did this?" he demanded. You could hear the anger behind his words. "Do not think to lie to me, Lady. I have dealt with the god of lies my entire life,"

Damn. You were trapped into giving him an answer. "My foster father," you mumbled. "It's ok. I shouldn't have upset him!" you protested quickly before his anger could rise. You had jumped foster families so many times over the years. This one was no different than the rest.

"This is certainly not ok," he commented. He pulled you closer, wrapping his strong arm around you, holding you to him tightly, before you could protest. He swung Mjolnir around a few times and took to the skies, bringing you with him whether you wanted to or not. You did the only sane thing you could at that juncture and wrapped your arms around his muscled form. Flying was not one of your skills.

Thor had flown you to the Avengers tower. He landed on Tony's landing platform and led you inside. There was no choice but to follow him. "Jarvis, assemble the others," Thor ordered as you were led into a giant livingroom.

"Thor, I'm fine!" you protested again. He just gave you a look and you quickly shut up. He wasn't going to believe you. You didn't want to cause more trouble, or get kicked to another foster home.

"Thor? What's going on?" Cap asked as he entered the room. He was followed quickly by the rest of the Avengers. The word 'assemble' wasn't taken lightly around here it seemed. You tried to hide behind Thor, to avoid being noticed, but that was impossible, even though Thor was huge. "Why'd you bring Y/N here? I thought we weren't bringing her in until she was of age..."

Thor pushed you out from behind him so everyone could see the bruise on your face. "She is not safe with those...foster guardians," Thor's voice was a deep growl. He was pissed and you wished yet again that you could heal yourself and not just others. None of this would have happened if you could.

The next instant there was a whirlwind of activity. Tony called Pepper mentioning something about lawyers. Soon you found yourself in a car with Natasha in a procession of vehicles that held all of the Avengers in uniform. One of the cars held Pepper and Tony's very expensive lawyers. You and Natasha went up to the room you shared with three other kids to pack your small suitcase of belongings. Your foster parents wisely signed you over, or however it worked with the lawyers, to the care of the Avengers and you moved into the tower that very day.

You didn't go on many missions with the team yet. Tony and more importantly Cap wanted you to graduate from high school before you joined full-time. No one in Shield argued with them on that point either. So you mostly earned your keep by healing up the team when they came back from their missions.

It was late one evening when the team came back. You got up from the couch where you'd been watching a movie to greet them. They actually all seemed uninjured tonight, though Bruce was being...Bruce, so you went to him first with the calming smile you had perfected for him. You offered him a hand and sent calming energy into him. He gave you a shaky smile in return.

There was a newcomer with them tonight. You recognized Loki from the news, of course, but the news had failed to capture how handsome he was, or the sad, lonely expression in his eyes. He looked sullen, but you had seen that exact expression on too many of the foster kids faces, including your own about three families back, when you tried not to form attachments for fear of being hurt.

"Lady Y/N, allow me to introduce my brother, Loki. He will be living with us and is joining the team." Thor boomed the introductions, just like he boomed nearly everything he said. You smiled and offered Loki a hand.

"Nice to meet you." He didn't shake it. You weren't surprised. One, he was being sullen, pretending to be a big scary villain, or whatever act he was portraying... you could see it was an act; two his hands were chained. So instead you reached your hand up to his face and healed the cut over his eye. His eyes widened in shock and fascination.

"Don't bother with Reindeer Games," Tony told you grumpily. "He doesn't play well with others,"

"Neither do you and he's on the team now, Tony," you replied, more bravely than you actually felt. It had only been six months and you were still afraid they were going to kick you out. They only had a couple weeks more until they could legally get rid of you too. You were turning 18 soon. "Teammates get healed after missions, that's the rules. Ignore him, Loki. He's a bit of an ass." You smiled up at the tall, slim, raven haired man. He seemed to be thawing out some at least.

"It is a pleasure to meet you indeed, Lady...Y/N, was it not?" Loki asked, his voice and accent both like warm honey. You nodded and the healing was finished.

"I thought you would like her, Brother," Thor commented while you moved to check the rest of the team for injuries.

"Her magic is-" Loki started. Thor cut him off.

"Yes, brother. I am aware," Thor answered quickly. "She does not know." You ignored them for now, but filed their conversation away for further analysis later. The rest of the team was fine.

"Kid, go up to bed," Tony ordered once everyone had been looked over. You had a feeling they wanted to deal with Loki without the minor in the room.

"I'm not a kid!" You protested. Again.

"Y/N," Cap said simply. You sighed, bid everyone a good evening and headed upstairs to your room. Tony you could get away with arguing with, but not Cap. Never Cap. And extra never Natasha.

"Don't forget you have training in the morning!" Nat called after you. You waved at her in acknowledgment. She was training you on how to fight and you couldn't think of anyone better to learn from. As the elevator doors closed, you caught a last glimpse of Loki, who seemed to be unable to take his eyes off of you.