The Witch's Familiar

Chapter 4

 The group got more comfortable with Loki's presence over the next month. He still spent most of his time with you and Thor, but the others were warming up. You spotted Nat feeding him fish and cooing at him in Russian like he was a real cat.

Clint actually carried him into the living room one day. Both of them were covered in dirt, dust, and grime. "What have you two been up to?" you asked as you took the indignant cat from Clint before he dropped Loki and black pawprints ended up all over the tower.

"Someone decided he needed to help me clean out the air vents," Clint grumbled, gesturing toward the ceiling, but scratched behind Loki's ears. He had appreciated the company.

"Were you battling colonies of dust bunnies up there? Such a brave kitty to battle such horrible foes," you teased Loki, but gripped him more tightly so he couldn't squirm out of your arms. "But you are filthy and need a bath," you told him firmly. He yowled indignantly and squirmed, but you were used to cats and held him firmly.

You took him up to your room and placed him in the timeout ball while you got the water the right temperature for a bath. He immediately sank his teeth into your arm when you pulled him out of the timeout ball. You sighed heavily, pried his jaws off of you and firmly, but carefully placed him in the water. The sounds he made were like you were torturing him. "Hush, you. You're a god, not a brat. You don't want to smell like Thor," you reminded him, wrinkling your nose. He mewed softly, pathetically, but submitted, finally. He even started purring after you had summoned your cat-wash potion to rub in his fur. Yours worked better than anything you found in a pet store and smelled nicer too.

Finally clean, you summoned a fluffy towel. "Come here," you told your Lokitty, who was currently looking more like a drowned gremlin than his usual handsome soft black cat. You pulled him from the tub and rubbed him dry with your magically heated towel. He was a happy purring cat in moments and you smiled at your adorable charge. Clean and dry you set him on your bed. "I need a shower too now," you grumbled, looking at your dirty wet clothes. "No peeking," you told him. He mrowed indignant at the suggestion and curled in a sunspot on your bed to take a nap.

*

There was an explosion in the tower, which wasn't too uncommon. However what happened next was. "LOKI!" Tony's voice roared as a black cat nyoomed into the room and hid behind your legs.

"What'd you do?" you asked him dryly as you picked him up and cuddled him to your chest, willing to protect him as long as he hadn't been too stupid.

"Where's that cat?" Tony growled as he charged into the room. He saw the cat in your arms. "Hand it over!" Tony ordered you. You cuddled Loki more securely, petting him to reassure him.

"What'd he do, Stark?" you asked.

"He blew up my lab!"

"That doesn't sound like you," you told the cat. He was up for mischief and pranks and generally annoying people and being an asshole cat, but after the incident with your room he hadn't been destructive or actively malicious again. "I must like you because I hate this spell," you informed the cat as you drew your wand, with a little focus and you had cat ears and a tail. "Now, what did you do?" you asked him in cat. He just looked at you shocked and hesitated now that he knew you could actually understand him. "Lokitty, what did you do? I can't help you get out of trouble unless I know,"

"His calculation was wrong and caused the explosion. I tried to tell him," Loki finally answered.

You cleared your throat and looked at Tony, switching back to English when you spoke again. "He tried to warn you that your calculation was wrong. He tried to stop the explosion," you told Tony. Thor and Cap had appeared to moderate the debate. You saw Clint's head descend from one of the nearby ceiling tiles. He would speak up to defend Loki. They had spent a lot of time together in the ceiling recently and had actually become friends. The others seemed to always appear when they were needed.