It worked
When Kat arrived back at the compound, she found everyone else was back too. Steve was in front of her instantly, hands on her shoulders, Tony to his left.
“Where the hell were you!” He asked.
“You were supposed to be with us Kat, what happened.” Tony said. He had a worried look on his face and Kat felt bad. She knew they would be worried about her.
“Kat, what happened.” Steve said again, much calmer this time. She was about to respond when she felt a tingling feeling in her hands, her chest, all over her body. She looked around to the rest of the team and they were all giving her confused looks.
“I um…I didn’t…I can’t.” She mumbled out, pulling out of Steve’s grasp and taking off toward her room, ignoring the calls from Steve.
She passed the door to the room she shared with Steve and went further down, stopping at her old bedroom. Her hand shook as she placed it over the scanner, and when she pushed the door open, her heart almost came out of her chest.
“Loki…” She breathed out, holding onto the handle of the door, because she was pretty sure if she let go, she would pass out. It worked. He was here.
“Katherine, love, what’s happening?” Her resolve broke at his voice, and she couldn’t stop the tears that fell. She took a shaky step toward him and then launched herself into his arms. Loki stumbled for a second, before wrapping his arms around her. He was very confused. He had just left her, hadn’t he? Why did she look so different?
Her body was shaking and she couldn’t stop the uncontrollable sobbing that was coming out of her. She closed her eyes and buried her head in his neck, taking in his scent. She had forgotten what he smelled like. Leather and earth and magic. It was enough to make her head spin. Her whole body was buzzing and she could see the blue magic around her hands. Her magic hadn’t been blue since Loki had died; she had reverted back to the black she had when Tony found her.
“Kat.” Steve’s voice from the doorway made her freeze. She pulled back from Loki to look at him. He looked heartbroken. Everything clicked into place for Steve, why the sex last night felt different, why she wasn’t with him in New York. She had gone back to save Loki.
“What is happening?” Thor’s voice boomed out from behind Steve. He pushed Steve aside and stepped into the doorway, stopping when he saw Loki.
“Brother…” He whispered. Thor staggered toward Loki and Kat moved to the side, folding her arms over her stomach, feeling several pairs of eyes on her as people entered the room, suddenly feeling the weight of what she had done.
“Brother, what happened to you?” Loki asked him. Thor was in tears as he crushed Loki to his chest. Steve walked over to Kat and for a second, she was scared to look up at him, for fear of him being angry with her.
“This is what you did when you didn’t follow us? You went back to save him.” He said softly. Kat nodded, looking up at him.
“I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad at me, I had to try. Not just for me, but for Thor too.” She told him, looking at the brothers embrace, Loki being confused and Thor half crying half laughing, overwhelmed at having his brother back.
Steve took her hand in his and squeezed. “I could never be mad at you for this sweetheart, I just wish you would have told me, I was worried when you didn’t show up in New York.”
Kat sighed. “I know, I’m sorry I should have told you, but I wasn’t one hundred percent sure I was going to do it, or if I should do it, with the risk of messing something up.”
Loki glanced over to Kat and Steve and raised his eyebrow at their conjoined hands. He stepped back from Thor and turned to them. “What’s going on here?” He asked.
“Maybe we should give Kat and Loki a minute, let her explain what happened.” Tony’s voice echoed from across the room. Thor nodded and headed back out and Kat followed Steve to the doorway still holding onto his hand.
“Just give me a few minutes okay?” She said softly. Steve glanced at Loki who was glaring at him, then back down at Kat, placing a kiss on the top of her head. She closed the door and turned to face Loki, who was now standing with her arms crossed over his chest.
“Would you like to tell me what that was about?” He asked. She took a big breath and walked over to the bed, motioning for Loki to sit with her.
“It may seem like the last time you saw me was a few minutes ago, but the last time I saw you was five years ago.” She told him. Loki’s eyes widened and he shook his head.
“I do not understand.” He said.
She took her hands in his and pulled them into her lap. “You left with Valkyrie that day, to go help Thor. You died Loki. Thanos killed you. We failed, we couldn’t beat him, and he used the stones to make half of the population disappear. That was five years ago.” Loki stood and started pacing.
“How am I here now.” He said, looking over to her.
“We found a way to go back in time to find the stones, to bring everyone back. Instead of going with Steve and Tony to get a stone, I came back to warn Valkyrie about what happened and told her not to let you go with her. How did she convince you?” Kat asked.
“She told me you knew I had the Tesseract and she wanted to see it, so I showed her and she knocked me out. Then I was here.” Kat chuckled; she didn’t think Valkyrie would knock him out but hey whatever works.
“What’s going on with you and the man out of time.” Loki asked her.
She looked down at her lap, sighing. “Steve helped me a lot after we lost to Thanos. I wasn’t okay, I barely ate, I never left this room.” She told him, running a hand over the bed. “He was getting an apartment and offered me a room. I took him up on the offer and I ended up opening homes for children who had lost parents in the snap. Steve never pushed himself on me, not once. He was always there for me and would listen whenever I needed to talk. I eventually developed feelings for him and we’ve been together ever since.” She said softly.
“Do you love him?” Loki asked her.
“I do. I love him Loki, but I love you too. I never stopped loving you.” She told him, her voice cracking.
He sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him. “It’s alright little dove.” He told her, and she whimpered at the name she hadn’t heard in so long.
She leaned her head on his chest, breathing heavily. “What are we going to do?”