Your Favourite Boy

Leaving the Avengers was hard. But you’d known that it would be difficult the moment you’d made up your mind to leave. Nothing worth doing was ever easy, you knew that. Nat seemed to mistake your sadness for hesitation, and she pulled you aside after breakfast.

“Are you sure about this?” Her eyes searched your face, and you smiled at her, attempting to ease her worries. “You know you could stay here if you wanted.”

“I know.” You took a plate out of her hands, putting it in the dishwasher for her. “But if I were to stay, who would I be then? I’ve stayed on this world for long enough, I think.”

She took in a deep breath, and you thought for a moment maybe she hadn’t believed you, then she grabbed you in a hug, grabbing you by the shoulders when she released you. “You’ll always have a place here.”

“Thank you, Natasha. For everything.” You closed the dishwasher with your hip. “Good luck with dismantling HYDRA and everything.”

“Good luck with Loki.” Nat rolled her eyes. “I know he can be a bit much sometimes.”

“There will never be a dull moment,” you said truthfully. “I’ll invite you to the wedding.”

“They have weddings on Asgard?”

“Of course they have weddings on Asgard. Or so I’m told.” You washed your hands off in the sink, shaking them out to dry them. “The bride and the groom exchange ancestral swords during the ceremony. Since I haven’t got any ancestors, I guess I’ll have to make my own.”

Nat laughed. “That I’ll have to see. Do they have an honorary sword fight too?”

The mental picture made you grin. “Now they do. Winner of the sword fight gets to pick the honeymoon.”

“Ooh. That might be a pretty even match. Assuming you’re marrying Loki.”

“It’s something I’ve considered. Speaking of which, where has that god wandered off to now?”

Loki was with Thor, rolling his eyes, arms folded across his chest in annoyance while his brother explained something to him.

“Thank you, brother, but she’s not the first woman I’ve ever met,” Loki was saying in an exasperated tone, trailing off as you walked into the room.

“Y/n,” Thor said, giving you a cool nod. You returned the gesture with a peace sign.

“Who’s not the first woman you’ve ever met?” You walked up to Loki, running your hands over his back, stopping them to rest on his shoulders.

“You, my darling. Thor is worried I’m not going to treat you right.” He twisted to put his arms on your waist before spinning you to his front, pinning your back against his chest, resting his head atop yours.

“Cute,” you deadpanned.

“See, brother, she thinks I’m cute,” Loki boasted, and decided to push it. “Would you dare say, y/n, that you find me alluring?”

“Are you asking me to tell your brother that I think you’re sexy?” You tilted your head back in attempt to look him in the eye. The man had the audacity to blush. “You’re a whore for validation.”

Thor laughed; a deep, rumbling sound. “I do not think she will have any difficult in keeping you in check.”

“Really?” You could hear the annoyance in Loki’s tone.

“Do give mother my love.”

“I thought you were coming back with us?” Loki’s head snapped back towards Thor at his offhanded statement.

“Soon,” Thor promised. “I’m sure the two of you will give me an occasion to.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Loki sounded so affronted, you had to let out a little snort. He bent down to you, repeating his question. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“He thinks we’ll be getting married sometime soon,” you told him, patting his arm in its place around your waist.

“What ever has given him that idea?”

“I do think it’s been a joint effort, ást mín.” You hoped you hadn’t screwed up the term of endearment he’d tried to teach you in Asgardian too badly.

“That was passable!” Thor declared brightly. “Given my brother’s general confusion, perhaps I will return to Asgard sooner rather than later, milady.”

“I look forwards to seeing you then.” You gave him a wink as he left the room, off to finish remodelling his bedroom, you presumed.

“Is this weird for you?” Loki asked, lips moving against your hair. He sat down on the couch nearest to you, tugging you down into his lap. You snuggled against him, tucking your head back under his chin.

“You’ll have to be a bit more specific.”

“Saying goodbye. I know you like these people, much to my chagrin.”

“I’ve never had anyone to say goodbye to, if that’s what you’re wondering. But it’s a bit thrilling. Because while we’re saying goodbye, soon we’ll be heading off to the great unknown.”

“Yes, I’ve been thinking about that. We ought to build a spaceship,” Loki said bluntly, his hand splaying itself over your stomach, his other hand lazily tracing circles on your thigh.

“A spaceship?”

“Well, yes, we very well can’t just be jumping across space through hostile galaxies without a place to rest our head at night. I’m thinking a luxury spaceship of sorts; Asgard’s got lots of those. We could probably just modify one to suit our needs.”

“Let’s just get back to Asgard first,” you said, placing your hand atop his. “Then we can do whatever we want to do.”

“They’re sad you’re leaving,” Loki stated blankly. “But I think they’re glad to see me go.”

“I wouldn’t say they’re all sad,” you said, thinking back to the interaction you’d had with an extremely hungover Tony Stark, during which he’d asked you ‘when you’d be clearing out and taking that noisy god with you’.

“Bruce thought that I’d have stabbed someone at least once during my time here. It almost seems a shame to let him down,” Loki said thoughtfully.

“Technically speaking, you did very much stab me. With a very real knife.”

“Hush, you love my knives.” His voice had so much conviction, you didn’t argue with him.

“Funny that we’re here now,” you said once the two of you had lapsed into silence. “I mean, from fight partners to friends to this.”

“I’ve always been your favourite boy,” Loki said, and you could feel him smiling despite the fact you couldn’t see his face. “You were so angry with Fury that the one who should’ve been your greatest adversary became your most trusted.”

“You’re my favourite girl too.” You sat up to look him in that handsome face, the one you knew you’d never get tired of. “My favourite everything, really.”

“I could scourge the universe, and I don’t think I’d ever find someone like you.” Loki’s voice had gone soft. “I’d known that since the beginning, but I only realized it when you made that apple tree comment.”

“Really? That’s what prompted that epiphany?”

“I already loved you, but you made me realize that sometimes people can love you without expecting anything from you.”

“Unconditional love is the only true form of love. Romance is selfish, but love is selfless. That’s what a lot of people don’t realize.”

“And where did you learn this, love?”

You played with the collar of his shirt, leaning forwards to press a kiss to his neck, then pulling back ever so slightly. “You taught me.”

Loki brought your head up to his, kissing you deeply. You’d kissed plenty of times, but somehow it was different every time, always capable of making your knees weak and your heart flutter. This time, his kiss was a promise to you. A promise that said ‘forever’.

You spent the day saying your goodbyes, meeting Loki alone outside at nightfall, looking up at Earth’s stars one last time. The blanket of the universe promised adventure, one so far beyond the life you’d planned for yourself. It was funny how that worked, how often life strayed from any preset plan. Maybe it was all absurd, the way that life worked, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t find your own meaning in it.

People had only ever looked at you and saw your power, and from that, they’d always expected that your life would follow the pattern that those with great power walked down. But in the end, you’d surprised even yourself, finding love where it seemed none existed.

“Soon you’ll be sick of stars,” Loki commented, taking your hand and you turned to look at him.

“I don’t think that’s possible.” You glanced over your shoulder at the compound behind you, watching as the lights on in the windows turned off, one by one.

“Are you ready to go?” His thumb ran over the back of your hand, once, twice, three times before stilling, the Tesseract in his other hand.

“We’ll be back,” you said with certainty. “Eventually. I told Cap we’d come back when they needed us.”

“How will we know?”

“This place is in our bones now,” you told him, watching as the last light — Nat’s room — flickered out. “It will always be a part of us. We’ll know.”

“Hey,” Loki said softly, tilting his head to get you to look out at the night sky. “It’s easier if you watch the horizon.”

And with that, you let yourselves be absorbed by the Tesseract’s power and the blanket of night, leaving with the knowledge that you’d never return as the same person, that even now as the unknown beckoned for you and you found your place betwixt the folds of the cosmos, you were not the same person who had just watched the lights turn off.

Maybe destiny did exist, and maybe it was something you shaped as you moved about, day to day, or maybe things didn’t happen for a reason, and all of it was just one big chaotic mess. You didn’t know, and you probably never would. The only thing you knew was that a magical universe that you were about to take on with Loki by your side, and you couldn’t wait to go exploring.

Together, until the end of time. And you wouldn’t have it any other way.