Packless Monsters

Chapter 18

 Barely awake in the middle of the night, but more safe and security in the Avenger's tower than you'd felt at home in years, your body and brain reacted automatically to the intruder in your room. The automatic reaction was the one from your childhood and early teens, not the one of recent years. You slid over on the bed, moving closer to the wall next to the bed, pulling the blankets back from the other half of the bed in the same well-practiced movement, without opening your eyes, facing the intruder, or really waking. Whoever the intruder was, their scent wasn't enough to rouse you, which meant it was someone you knew extremely well and trusted. "The sun isn't awake, so I refuse to be either. If you're joining me, get in before all of the warm escapes and you better be wearing pants or fur. If you're here to wake me, come back when the sun's up. If you're Ethan being creepy and just standing there while I sleep, go the fuck away," your brain told your mouth to mumble the words without bothering to wake you the rest of the way. There was a soft chuckle as someone climbed into the bed behind you. They pulled the covers back up and wrapped their arm over you, cuddling against your back, spooning protectively around you.

"Who is Ethan, love?" Loki's voice asked softly against your ear.

"Idiot brother," your wolf murmured for you. She didn't want to be awake yet either.

"I thought your idiot brother's name is Dan,"

"All brothers are idiots,"

He chuckled and kissed your hair. "That they are. Go back to sleep, little wolf." You snuggled back more comfortably in his arms and did what you were told for once.

*

Your alarm blaring woke you the next morning. You reached over without opening your eyes to shut it off. Instead, your arm smacked into a body. Your eyes shot open while the body 'oofed' at your impact. It was a Loki in your bed. The wolf quickly reminded you of what happened in the middle of the night while you'd been asleep. You leaned over Loki to reach your phone and shut off the alarm. "Sorry, Lo," you told him, giving him a quick kiss, as you settled back on your half of the bed.

"It's ok," he replied with a small smile.

"Do you make a habit of sneaking into ladies' bedrooms in the middle of the night?" you teased, keeping your voice extra light. You weren't upset, just wanted to know why he'd wound up in your bed.

He chuckled. "Not at all. Though I hope I didn't offend-" you waved off the last of his concern.

"I don't mind. The wolf would've woken me if there had actually been a problem," you reminded him. "Just wasn't expecting it, especially after yesterday..." you prompted. You really didn't mind that he had joined you, especially as he was wearing pants as ordered. You just wanted to know why.

"I was...lonely and couldn't sleep. I only came to see if you were awake too. When you invited me to stay... that sounded like a better option than looking for an adventure," he said softly. "I should have known you were too far asleep to offer properly when you thought I might be Ethan,"

You laughed at that. "Sorry, I've recited that speech to my brothers so many times growing up that I can do so in my sleep, as you well noticed. Wolves are cuddlers. Even stupid idiotic brothers, but they were too manly growing up to just admit when we went to bed that they wanted cuddles. Instead, they would wait until the middle of the night to insist they needed to sneak into my bed to protect me from nightmares. Idiots. Eventually they started asking in the middle of the night, or just standing there until I noticed them, so I got really good at reciting that speech in my sleep, or mostly asleep," you explained. He had sat up while you were explaining. "Really, I don't mind. If there's a night I do, I'll wake enough to tell you, I swear," you added. He looked relieved at that. You held out your wrists to him. "Can these come off now?" you pouted, indicating the bandages.