Loki and the Witchling

Chapter 70

 You linked your arms with Thor's and Loki's and walked with them into the tower and your home. They both chuckled at you and you gladly headed inside with your boys. Both of them leaned down at the same time to kiss your cheeks and you grinned. They could be adorable when they felt like it. Loki had mellowed out a lot. It wasn't that long ago that he wouldn't have risked being so adorable where people could see him. And as usual, the press was there, summoned by seeing the Bifrost in the sky. They weren't surprised at seeing the three Asgardians and you turned when you reached the doors of the tower so you could pose for them and they could get a picture. The boys smirked and kissed your cheeks again. It would be an excellent picture for the press.

You loved your adopted older brother in Thor and he'd only adopted you more since you'd become officially engaged to Loki. You were grateful more and more that he'd saved you from the abusive foster home all those months and months ago.

"Mother said you two did fantastic ruling," Thor told you as you waited for the elevator. You both flushed under the praise.

"We did the best we could," you finally replied.

He pulled you close and kissed the top of your head while Loki mock-growled at him. "I'm proud of you both, and eternally grateful that you took that responsibility. I would have been terrible at it,"

"You would have," Loki agreed quickly which made all three of you laugh. Some things didn't change and you could see how relieved Loki was to no longer have the burden of the throne on his shoulders, the burden of the responsibility of the entire realm.

Thor hesitated before he spoke again. "Brother, you do remember that the line of succession does not necessarily fall to the eldest?" he reminded Loki softly.

"I know," Loki replied just as softly. "I highly doubt Father will change his mind on who he wishes to be heir," he reminded Thor sadly.

"The line of succession falls to the eldest unless the Allfather names a different heir, correct?" you asked, though you knew the laws fairly well now. You'd had to learn them quickly over the last few months.

Both boys nodded. "The law is written that way to ensure the child best suited to rule is the one who inherits the throne," Loki explained for your benefit. "Father cannot name a Jotun as heir to the throne of Asgard," he told Thor. The entire realm knew that he was adopted now, so there was no more hiding it.

"He and Mother will choose whoever is best to rule Asgard to name as heir," Thor replied unconcerned as the elevator doors slid open on the common room.

Everyone was gathered there waiting for you and cheered when you stepped out of the elevator. There were hugs all around except for Loki who didn't do hugs. Nat clapped him on the shoulder which is about as close to hugging as Loki got.

"They let you be king, reindeer games?" Tony teased.

You answered before Loki could stab Tony. "He took up the burden of the throne and did wonderfully. By the way, you're all coming to our wedding," you told them, changing the subject before Tony could say anything else to get himself defenestrated or stabbed.

"How?" Nat asked excitedly. Everyone else was excited too. "Odin doesn't allow mortals in his realm," she reminded you.

You smirked. "Ah, but he can't legally overrule the declaration Loki signed while he was king allowing you all to come to the wedding. I made sure of the laws when I wrote that declaration," you explained.

Loki kissed your temple. "It was craftily written, witchling," he told you warmly.

You turned and looked up at him, your arms on his shoulders as you stood on your toes to "High praise indeed, silver tongue," you teased.

Tony rolled his eyes and huffed in exasperation. There were more things that never changed, including you and Loki flirting all the time. "Stop flirting and come meet the new people. You two disappeared before you could meet them properly,"

You sighed and nodded and stepped away from Loki and further into the room. Cap gestured to the shy looking metal armed man whose mind you'd healed. His eyes lit up in delight as he got to tell you: "This is Bucky, Sargent James Buchanan Barnes. He was my best friend since we were kids and, well you know what Hydra did to him,"

You nodded. You had healed his mind. You knew exactly what Hydra had done to him and had done your best to reverse the damage. "It's a pleasure to officially meet you," you told him warmly and shook his hand.

"Thanks... for your help..." Bucky told you a bit stiffly. He still wasn't entirely back to normal, you could tell, but he was doing better. Even in the few months you'd been gone, you could see that he was doing better.

"It was no problem. We'll help you more now that we're back," you promised him with your warm reassuring healer's smile. He nodded and made a noncommital noise in reply. Poor guy still needed a lot of help.

"The kid with the white hair is Pietro Maximoff, goes by QuickSilver. His power is super speed," Cap said, gesturing to the 18 or 19 year old. You saw a hint of a blur and a rose was in your hand. You smirked while Loki ripped it from your hands and it burst into flames.

He glared at Pietro and you laughed. "Pietro, I suggest you not piss off Loki," you teased. He seemed like he was going to be either a ton of fun to have around or a pain in the ass. There was no middle ground. "He tends to stab first and ask questions later,"

"And is protective of his fiancee," he informed Pietro firmly, wrapping an arm around your shoulders. You leaned up and kissed his cheek reassuringly. Loki was always reassured by small gestures of affection and he calmed when he realized his claim on you was firmly staked. It helped that you were wearing the engagement ring he gave you, plus your betrothal necklaces. His claim was very firmly staked and you weren't going to stray.

"The girl is his twin sister, Wanda Maximoff, goes by Scarlet Witch. Her main powers are telekinesis and telepathy," Cap explained. Loki looked interested in having another magic user in the tower. She looked over from the red-skinned man she was talking to. His skin was literally red, nearly firetruck red. She waved at you and Loki and seemed a bit shy. "The guy she's talking to is Vision. He's the result of Jarvis getting mixed with one of Stark's suits," he explained as if that was as well as he understood the situation. You made a mental note to ask Stark about it later. Vision looked like he was interested in Wanda.

You sat around the common room with the others and caught up on what they'd been up to while you'd been in Asgard. You also told them all about ruling Asgard in return. Everything fell right back into place as if you'd never left.

When you finally went to bed that night, you realized that Tony had redesigned your entire floor while you were gone. The floor was one giant apartment now with a full kitchen, living room and bathroom. All of your and Loki's things were in the huge master bedroom and you had a guest room set up in one of the other bedrooms and a library in the other. It was perfect and you were beyond grateful to Tony for doing it.

Life went back to normal in the tower, or at least as normal ever seemed to. You worked on healing Bucky's mind, went on missions with the team, trained in physical combat and magic with the others. Probably the strangest thing that came was that Wanda and Loki quickly became fast friends. No one quite knew how that had happened, but he liked the little witch. You both helped her with her magic and one night during movie night she and Loki were stared at by the entire team as they sat on the floor painting each other's nails black.

Okay, that wasn't the strangest thing. The strangest thing was a mission shortly after you'd returned. The alarms went off throughout the tower and you and Loki both jumped to your feet, summoning your armor as you did.

That wasn't the strange part either.

Loki's reached a hand out for his daggers on the coffee table so they would fly to his hand.

Even that wasn't the strange part.

The strange part was when Mjolnir flew into his hand instead.