Together (A Loki/Avengers Fanfiction)

XXIII.

"W... Where is he?", Thor asked panicking.
"This is my fault", Peter stated, "If I hadn't been sick..." Tony, who still held the arm of the youngest Avenger, interrupted him. "No, it's not! It wasn't your fault and helping you was his free decision. He surely knew what would happen as he did it."

A few seconds later Loki reappeared in the corner of the room, his clothes bloody, his eyes dull.

"Okay... What the actual hell is happening?!", Tony asked, but Loki's answer was only a whisper. He sat on the floor, rocking back and forth and repeated "Asgard" over and over again.

"Did you teleport to Asgard?", Thor asked while sitting down next to him.
But he got no response at first.
Then the smaller god nodded and buried his face in Thor's shoulder. Silent tears soaked Thor's T-shirt, and Tony and Peter decided to leave the two alone.

***

Three weeks went by, and Loki hadn't spoke a single word since then. Most of the time he sat at the window in the living room, staring outside. He didn't teleport again, but Thor knew it could happen at any time.
Loki had stopped eating and seemed somehow lifeless. Only he and Peter knew what happened at the day Peter nearly died, and none of the two talked about it.

Christmas came closer, and Peter was determined to prepare the best Christmas ever. With the help of Thor, Rogers and Stark he spent the time with buying decoration, presents and other stuff.

There were only two days left till Christmas, and Stark and Peter decided to bake cookies.
Usually Stark didn't like Christmas songs very much, but as the two were standing in the kitchen, preparing the cookie dough, they sang along with the music coming from the radio.
"What are you doing here?", Thor had appeared in the doorframe and watched the two Avengers in amusement.

"We're making cookies for Christmas!", Peter said smiling, "You wanna join us?"
"Of course! What can I do?"
While the three were making cookies, Rogers and Banner were decorating the Christmas Tree. "How are we supposed to get that stupid star up there?", Banner asked, staring at the top of the tree.
"May I help?", a thin voice behind them asked. They rushed around and saw Loki leaning at the wall.
"Uh... If you want?", Rogers answered smiling.
Out of a sudden the star disappeared in a green light and reappeared at the top of the tree.

"Thank you!", Banner said surprised, but as he turned around Loki had already left.

There was a nice scent coming from the kitchen, and Loki realized how hungry he was.
Standing in the doorframe he watched his brother and their friends cutting out cookies looking like trees, stars and snowmans.
"Oh, lil brother! I didn't see you there!", Thor said as he looked up and saw the man standing in the door.
Now the other two looked up, too, and smiled. "You want to help?", Peter asked.
Loki nodded and walked over to them.
"See, you can either use this", Peter held up a cookie cutter, "or a knife."
The god took a knife and started cutting out a cookie. The others watched him using the knife like a scalpel and after a few seconds he looked up and smiled.
"That's the Avengers symbol!", Peter noticed and walked over to Loki to look at it more closely. "You're really good at that!"
Loki blushed slightly and looked at his hands.

The four continued making cookies till the dough was empty and as they were ready the sky outside was pitch black.