Beauty and the Beast

Chapter 25

"How dare you kick me out of my own room!" Morgan shouted at Tony, all puffed up in her rage. "I am not a child to be locked out of adult conversations, especially when they're about me!" she raged. "Nor am I an invalid, just because I'm blind,"

Tony wrapped his arms around her. "I know. And I'm sorry. I never want you to feel that way, and I never meant to make you feel that way, but Reindeer Games and I needed to come to an understanding," Tony explained. Morgan knew it was hard for her father to express his emotions, especially so openly, so she also knew that he meant the words. He hadn't wanted to hurt her. And she didn't particularly feel like fighting with him. Especially if he and Loki were going to get along.

"I hope you two weren't destroying my windows trying to throw each other out of them," she grumbled, but was at least less puffed up, which made Loki smile, though of course Morgan couldn't see that.

Loki chuckled. "We just talked, my darling," he told Morgan warmly, his voice reassuring.

Morgan smiled at him in return. "Good,"

"We agreed to be civil to one another. That is the best we could agree on," Loki replied.

Morgan laughed, her mood finally improved. "That's impressive enough from you two," she teased, truly impressed that they could manage that much. Before Tony could change his mind and try to kill Loki, Morgan linked her arm in his. "C'mon, let me tell you all about Asgard," she enticed him to be nice to her Loki with new knowledge as she dragged Tony into her living room to tell him all about Asgard.

/Shall I leave you two alone so you can catch up?/ Loki asked, not wanting to interrupt their reunion.

/ I don't mean to kick you out or ignore you, I thought it best to get his attention off you for awhile/ Morgan replied apologetically.

/It's alright. I think you two need some time to yourselves anyway/

/You're right. I just didn't want you to feel unloved or slighted/ Loki always felt unloved and slighted by Odin, by the Asgardians. Morgan never wanted him to feel that way because of her.

/I'm not/ he replied warmly, glad that she cared for him enough to be truly worried. /Come find me when you finish chatting with your father/ he added warmly and kissed her cheek as he left the room so they could catch up without him in the way.

/Will do/ she replied and settled on her couch with Tony to spend the morning catching up with her dad.

*

Much later that day, Morgan entered Loki's room with no more than a tap on his door as warning. Loki was used to such interruptions from her by then and just greeted her warmly. He looked up and saw her cane on its loop on her wrist, holding lunch for them both. "Thought you'd be hungry. Bucky and Wanda both whined that you haven't come to see them yet," she informed him as she sat on the couch with him.

Loki chuckled. "I'll come see them later. i just needed some time to myself," he smiled warmly at her as he helped her sit down and set out the food she'd brought them. He made sure she was sitting as close to him on the couch as possible. She always felt better when she was touching him, when she knew exactly where he was.

"How was catching up with your father?" he asked as they began to eat.

"Surprising him is always such fun," she replied with a giggle. "He didn't want to believe I'm Asgardian. Or have magic," she laughed, imagining the look on his face, though she hadn't been able to see it.

Loki laughed as well, enjoying her mirth. "I assume he didn't take the news too well?" he wished then that he'd stayed in the room so he could've seen the look on Stark's face.

"He's getting over it. With help of alcohol," she groaned at that and at her next words. "But I have to go into the office tomorrow," she grumbled. She was not looking forward to that.

Loki couldn't help being curious at that. "What for?" she hadn't had to go in for the time that he knew her besides a couple lunch meetings with Pepper, which were meetings with her soon-to-be step-mother, not the company.

"Because the board of directors haven't seen that I'm still alive since the accident. And definitely not since I've been out of the hospital," she rolled her eyes, still grumbling. "So I have to go be the polite proper heiress..."

"Would you like me to join you?" he hated the idea of going to Stark's company in Jotun form, but he was willing to do anything she asked of him. Within reason, of course, but then Morgan wouldn't ask for anything that was unreasonable. She just didn't have it in her.

"Maybe if you weren't so against leaving the tower," she teased. He hated leaving the tower unless absolutely necessary, which is why they'd barely left the tower since she'd moved in. "I'm sure Happy will drive me if dad or Pepper don't do it themselves. And dad will be in the office tomorrow too. I'll be perfectly safe," she reassured him and kissed his cheek.

Loki nodded, accepting that she would be safe. "If you need me, you only have to call," he reminded her and tapped her head to indicate that he meant telepathically. He would have tapped his own head, but she wouldn't have seen it, so he had to tap hers instead. There were a lot of quirks and changes to his behavior he'd had to make to accommodate her, but he just enjoyed learning more about her.

She nodded. "Sounds like a plan," she agreed and leaned in to kiss him. He happily met her halfway, purring into the kiss. She smirked when she broke it. "Now who's the kitten?" she teased at his purring.

He smirked and she could hear it in his words when he spoke next. "Still you," he teased right back.

"Uh-huh. You're the purring one," she accused with a smirk.

"But you sleep like a cat and you purr when I run my fingers through your hair while you sleep," he informed her, which made her puff up indignantly. Loki found her puffed up grumpiness adorable. And felt the urge to tell her so. "You really are adorable, love,"

She smiled brightly and hugged him. "I would compliment your appearance, but that is a useless endeavor at this juncture. So I'll go with 'you're sweet' instead," she told him warmly. He chuckled and hugged her tightly to him, kissing the top of her head.

The pair enjoyed a quiet afternoon together until Jarvis announced that dinner was ready. Morgan took Loki's arm, used to letting him lead her and the pair headed downstairs and to dinner. Loki walked her to the table and pulled out her chair for her, helping her sit, not because she was blind, but because she was a lady. She knew the difference.

Most of the others look surprised at the tenderness with which Loki cared for Morgan. They were all surprised as well by how he treated her as capable and not inferior just for being disabled. He knew how it felt to be viewed as inferior and refused to treat her as less capable.

Since he was smarter than the others and didn't treat her as inferior or incapable, when she did get overwhelmed at keeping track of the number of people and dishes on the table it was Loki she turned to to ask for help "Liam? Would you mind passing me the pot of chili?" she asked when her bowl was empty. She was still adjusting to being Asgardian and having to eat like one.

Loki smiled and grabbed it for her, setting it within her reach and taking her hand when she reached, placing it on the ladle.

She gave him a bright smile in return. "Thank you," she replied as she refilled her bowl.

The reactions from the others ranged from whining that they would've gotten it for her between them whining that they would've gotten it or refilled her bowl to exclamations of "Liam?????" Though Thor just chuckled.

Loki calmly kissed Morgan's cheek before returning to his meal.

"Kid? You do know that's Loki right?" Barton asked. She had called him Liam and hadn't met him before she moved back to the tower after going blind. Maybe she was confused.

Morgan burst into helpless giggles. "Since I've been kissing him I should hope it's Loki,"