A Child of Mischief (Loki/Avengers story)

48. 1 Year Later

As dusk turns to dawn, everyone on Asgard sleeps soundly. Everyone except Loki, he's been worried about Cora for the past year, ever since she went off with Mobius and the TVA. Silently, Loki rises from his and Caitriona's bed, and exits his chambers. Without making a sound, Loki roams the halls of the castle until he comes to the hall with Cora's room in it. For the last six months, Loki has done this, made his way to Cora's room in hopes she'll be there, fast asleep in her bed.

"She's not in there. You need to stop this, and stop worrying for her. She can handle everything that was handed to her." Loki mentally tells himself.

"Ugh. Do you mind? I got back an hour ago and am trying to sleep." Cora mentally says, Loki's eyes go wide and he opens the door and see's Cora in her bed, turned toward the window. Sitting up when her door opens, Cora turns and looks at Loki, who stays by the door.

"Why didn't you let any of us know you were back?" Loki asks as he walks up to Cora's bed. Cora rubs her eyes and looks at Loki.

"You see how late it is, don't you? Everyone was asleep when I got in, so I didn't want to wake anyone. I figured I would surprise everyone in the morning." Cora sleepily says, Loki wraps his arms around Cora's shoulders and hugs her, he lightly strokes her head, before softly kissing the top of it.

"Get some sleep, I'll come and get you for breakfast." Loki says as he lets Cora go, and backs out of her room. Cora nods and lays back down as Loki closes her door. Turning back to the window, Cora closes her eyes and tries to sleep after the last year she agreed to endure.

***

As the sun sits high in the sky, Loki makes his way back to Cora's room. Just as he is about to turn the corner to her room, Thor stops him.

"Brother, is it necessary to check her room this morning? You've done it everyday for the past six months, and she hasn't been there, what makes today any different?" Thor asks as he approaches Loki. Loki keeps his eyes on the hallway to Cora's room as he speaks.

"She could be there. Today marks a year that she left. Never mind the fact that she spent her last birthday fixing timelines and hunting variants. Mobius said she was to be gone a year, and it has been that long." Loki says as he turns his back on Thor and walks down the hallway.

Slowly, Loki opens the door to Cora's room, and a smile appears on his face as he see's Cora sitting at her vanity, fixing a tiara on top of her head. Cora turns to Loki and gives a gentle smile.

"You know, you could knock every once in a while." Cora says, as she gets up from the vanity and walks to Loki.

"I figured you would have still been asleep." Loki admits and holds his arms out. Cora nods her head and walks into Loki's waiting arms.

"I've been awake for almost two hours." Cora explains, Loki pulls away from her and gives her a concerned look.

"Are you sure you've slept enough? Because if not, you can rest some more." Loki says, as he looks into Cora's still tired eyes.

"I'm fine. Granted, the time I slept along with the time I was able to sleep while assisting the TVA, equals out to about twelve hours in total." Cora admits, Loki's eyes go wide with shock as he hears this.

"Over the last year, you've only gotten about twelve hours of sleep. What the hell was Mobius having you do?" Loki nearly screams and turns away from her.

"It was a nonstop job. Every time I thought I would get a break, another timeline would get thrown off course. And I was the one to go fix it and bring in the variants responsible." Cora explains, Loki turns back to her and looks at her with sorrowful eyes.