"Y/N! Heads up!"

You heard Bucky's yell a fraction of a second too late and felt something hard collide with the side of your face – an apple.

"Asshole!" you yelled, clutching your face and pretending to stagger in pain, hearing his laugh from the other side of the room: your target. You reached down and felt for the apple where you'd heard it thud to the floor, picked it up and lobbed it towards the sound of his laughter, giving a satisfied smirk in Bucky's direction when you heard him yell in pain.

That pretty much summed up the relationship between you and Buck. You loved it.

Ever since you had been blinded in a battle with the Avengers a year ago, everyone had started treating you differently. You'd immediately put a stop to it, not wanting to feel worse than you already did with your loss of sight, begging everyone to treat you as normally as they could. After a year you could pretty much fend for yourself, as long as you were within the confines of the compound and around the people who had looked after you from day one. But it still sucked.

You had given it a great deal of thought, and you reckoned would rather be deaf, or mute, or both, just as long as you could see something again. You missed colours.

But you didn't let yourself wallow in your own self pity for too long, that would only drive you more insane. You had your ears still, which had become hyper-sensitive since the accident and allowed you to hear things in a way you never would have when you still had your sight. And you had Loki.

Your relationship with Loki was a unique one. You were closer with him than any of the other Avengers, even though you'd never seen him before. He'd arrived a week after the accident, when you were at your lowest, and he was at his too. The timing couldn't have been better; you had clicked straight away and he had hardly left your side since he had arrived, finding comfort in the fact that you were now an outsider like him.

When he'd kissed you for the first time you hadn't seen it coming (literally), but had felt elated and relieved. If not for your blindness you knew you would have made a move way before he did, but not being able to actually see him had knocked your confidence massively. You could picture him in your head well enough, but only in his human form. You knew about the whole frost giant thing, he had only told you, but he refused to describe himself to you like that. It was a work in progress.

That was why you trusted him to be your eyes: he knew exactly how and when to explain things to you in the right way, which allowed you to picture the things he was describing so clearly in your head. It wasn't the same as actually seeing, but it was close. You had felt vulnerable to start with, but not anymore.

Bucky's overexaggerated moans of pain still carrying across the room were proof of this.

"What's up Buck, Y/N beating you up again?"

That was Steve's voice, humorous and light-hearted.

"You know it." you grinned, bracing yourself for another flying apple, but none came.

"Hey kid."

A large hand descended on your head, ruffling your hair and you swatted it away playfully.

"Hey Tony. Found the cure for blindness yet?"

"Still searching, endlessly, relentlessly... you know the drill."

Tony blamed himself for your blindness. He'd been slightly preoccupied warding off a giant monster from attacking a hospital when it had happened. Selfish really. Not. His excuse was that he'd recruited you and it was only your eighth mission, and he should have been protecting you, blah blah blah. No one else thought it was his fault apart from him, and you especially didn't blame him. It was down to your stupidity, thinking you could take on twenty fire demons or whatever they were at the same time. Which apparently you could not do. You missed going on missions with the team and using your magic more than anything.

Still, Tony was determined to restore your eyesight, which he 'owed' to you. It was a reoccurring joke that every morning you asked him if he'd found a cure. And he said no. Every. Single. Morning. A sad joke when you thought about it really. You had hope though, whether that be a good thing or a bad thing. If anyone was going to find a cure for blindness, it was Tony.

A second later Loki entered the room, you could tell from the subtle change in atmosphere. Bucky shut up abruptly and then started talking with Steve, and Tony stopped humming. You wished they wouldn't.

"Morning." Loki said, brushing the back of your hand lightly and sitting down next to you.

The room slowly filled as people came in for breakfast and ambient chat filled the room, until Tony bought it to an abrupt silence five minutes later by announcing that there was some sort of attack going on nearby. And you needed to leave. Right now.

It took everyone a second to realise what he had said. Then realisation hit.

Panic rippled across the room as everyone hastened to their feet, abandoning their food and running to get their gear on. A feeling of dull sadness settled heavily on your chest as you remained seated, no longer hungry.

"Tony..."

"No Y/N, you are not coming."

Loki squeezed your hand briefly before you felt him leave your side to go after the others.

"I'm sorry."

Fat lot of use that was. Usually you had more time to try and persuade Tony to let you come along before a mission... but maybe you could use that to your advantage today. You allowed your magic to rise to the palm of your hand and felt it grow hot; you could picture so clearly the purple swirling ball of magic that would be sat there right now. No one could stop you from going with them. You weren't going to sit and wait and worry here by yourself anymore.

"Y/N, no... what are you-" Tony's voice interrupted your determined thoughts as you charged past him down the corridor to get your gear on. He grabbed your arm and turned you to face him.

"You can't come with us."

"Let me try. Please."

"Y/N, I'm sorry, you can't get hurt again! This is non-negotiable."

"Great, see you in a minute." you retorted, swinging back around towards your room. He let you go.

You struggled into your gear as quickly as possible, fighting down glee as the familiar feel of your gear enveloped you, and charged back out into the corridor. Hearing the roar of the Quinjet's engine outside filled you with excitement, and you flipped yourself over the banister and used your magic to break your fall three floors below. See! You weren't completely useless after all.

"Y/N? Why are you..." Bucky's voice. Worried.

"I'm coming with you. It's non-negotiable." you told him with a grin.

"I don't... did Tony...?"

"Where's Y/N? What-"

There was Loki. So many questions! Why couldn't you just leave already?

"No. Absolutely not." said Loki after a split second of silence.

"That's what I said." Tony's voice.

"Absolutely yes. Come on!" you told them, holding out a hand for no one in particular.

"You can't come on a mission! You can't see!"

Wow. Way to state the obvious.

"We need to leave..."

"Fine! Fine. Put this on." Tony thrust a small object into your hand. An earpiece.

"Loki, do not leave her side."

Loki grabbed your outstretched hand and pulled you towards the door.

"This is an awful idea." he told you, breaking into a jog.

You couldn't care less. You were running, outside in the cold, fresh air, about to go on a mission for the first time in a year and use your powers, actually use them.

There was an outburst of protest as you entered the Quinjet, and you couldn't help but smile at how much these guys cared for you.

After an intense argument with Tony that lasted about three and a half minutes, you reached the agreement that Loki would be next to you at all times, under no circumstances should you be out of anyone's sight at any one time, and you would go back to the jet the minute things got out of hand, which they undoubtedly would. Although it was annoying and unnecessary, you allowed it, because you knew that it would get easier after this. You were finally going on a mission! Messing this up was not an option, you had to be allowed back out again after this was all over.

"Okay, we're here, and we're going straight in. You know what to do." Tony said. An example of one of his great pep talks.

Loki's hand was in yours as you stood up, buzzing with excitement.

"Let's go."