When you wake up, you immediately come to the conclusion that the entire past day has been nothing more than a weird, weird dream. Then you open your eyes, and find yourself in a bustling medical ward.

Never mind then, you think to yourself gloomily.

Your left leg is bandaged tightly, and a quick examination of the side of your head with your fingers tells you that you have multiple stitches running along the side of your head. Other than that, and the fact that you ache all over, you seem to be doing just fine.

You've definitely been in states a lot worse than this, that's for sure.

You sit up and look around, before immediately regretting your decision. There are a lot of injured people milling around, some of whom aren't being treated yet. You catch a hassled looking nurse as she walks past.

"I don't need to be here. Someone else can take this bed." you tell her, getting to your feet and swaying slightly where you stand. She doesn't hesitate, or argue, immediately hurrying off towards a corridor full of injured people who are waiting to be seen.

You walk tenderly out of the ward (your leg is pretty sore), and realise straight away that you're in Stark Tower.

Where should you go? You reach for your phone, before realising that it's gone. You have no recollection of what might have happened to it. It had definitely been in your pocket when Nat had burst into your office and told you to follow her, quickly, or had it?

How long ago had that been? You don't wear a watch, so you don't even know what time it is.

"Miss Y/N?"

It's good to hear a familiar voice.

"Hey J.A.R.V.I.S." you reply to the ceiling.

"Mr Stark and Natasha are with Mr Barton on the twenty third floor, if you wish to speak with them." the A.I. tells you helpfully.

"Thanks bud. Is the elevator...?"

"Fully functioning, Miss Y/N."

Thank god for that. You aren't sure if you're up for tackling the stairs in the state you're currently in.

Five minutes later you limp into the meeting room which Tony, Nat and Clint are currently sat in.

"Y/N, are you okay? Should you be out of the ward yet?" Nat asks as you walk in, standing up to pull a chair up for you.

"Probably not, but there are people who need a bed more than me in there." you say, wincing as you sit down and remember the state of some of the people you'd seen.

"Are you okay?" Nat repeats.

"I don't know." you reply, looking down at your hands which are caked in dried blood. You don't know where the blood has come from.

The last time you had held a knife had been when you'd worked for SHIELD, almost three years ago now. You were the youngest SHIELD agent ever to have been recruited, and one of the most skilled, too, according to Nick Fury.

On your eighteenth birthday, however, after an undercover mission had gone badly wrong, you had told Fury that you didn't want a part of it anymore. He'd let you go, reluctantly, but only if you'd agreed to stay on with a desk job. Which you had.

You would have been offered a place on the Avengers initiative, you knew, if you hadn't quit. But you had, and you refused to let yourself feel any sort of regret about it.

"So, he got you too, huh? With the spear... thing?" Clint asks you, bringing you back into the room. You look at him, and then Tony and Nat.

"I'm confused. What happened?"

Tony tells you everything, and from what he says you work out what must have happened to you. By the end of his monologue your head is spinning.

"So, you flew a missile into a wormhole." you ask Tony. He nods.

"Not that your ego needs stroking anymore, but that was a pretty cool thing to do. Thank you."

Tony gestures to you in amazement before turning to Nat and Clint.

"No one has said thank you to me yet! Thank you Y/N." he replies. You smile painfully.

Being so close with the Avengers has it's perks, one of which being that you occasionally get to sass billionaire Tony Stark.

"So, what's the damage?" you ask, and the mood in the room takes a rapid turn for the worse.

"Fifty two confirmed dead so far, and that figure is on the rise. They've stopped trying to keep count of the injured. Extreme damage to a lot of infrastructure and... well, see for yourself." Tony replies, pressing a few holographic buttons on the table before you to get up a hologram of the news coverage of the carnage that is New York.

You'd helped cause that damage. Clint seems to be thinking along the same lines as you, because then Nat is shaking her head at you both.

"You couldn't have done anything. Who knows what magic Loki was using to control the two of you, and Selvig."

"And Coulson." Tony adds quietly; uncharacteristically. Nat and Clint both look down.

You look around at the three of them in confusion, and then horror.

"Coulson... he's not..?"

The look Tony gives you tells you all you need to know.

"Shit." you say, wondering as you do so if you're in shock. You worked closely with Coulson during your time at SHIELD, and you don't know how to feel about the fact that he's dead.

The four of you lapse into silence, watching the news footage on the hologram before you.

"Where are the others?" you ask after a few minutes, breaking the silence.

"Bruce is... off, somewhere. He always goes off sulking after he has an episode." Tony tells you; Nat gives him a dirty look.

"Thor is down in the cells with Loki, and Steve-"

"What do you mean 'down in the cells'?" you ask incredulously.

"...he's being held down in the cells." Tony tells you, as though it was obvious.

"You're keeping a god locked up. Here." you repeat slowly. Tony frowns at you.

"Thor was adamant that he wasn't going back to Asgard. From what I gathered Dad isn't overly fond of Loki..."

"I wonder why." Clint mutters.

"...and Thor thinks he'll be killed if he takes him back." Tony finishes.

"I don't see the issue." Nat interjects.

You think for a moment.

"On the news, earlier, when they showed Loki, his eyes were blue. I remember thinking how creepy they looked. But earlier when I was with him, they were green." you say to the others.

"What's your point?" Tony asks.

"You said Clint's eyes were bright blue, right Nat? When he was being controlled?" you ask. Nat nods, and Clint frowns.

"Selvig's were too." Nat tells you.

"Right, so isn't it safe to assume that Loki was being controlled by that spear thing too?" you suggest.

"If I didn't know any better, Y/N, I'd say it sounds like you're trying to defend him." Tony tells you. You scoff.

"Of course I'm not trying to defend him. It makes no difference to me whether he goes back to whatever planet it is him and Thor are from and gets the death penalty... or whatever it is they have up there."

"Death by flying hammer?" Clint suggests, and Nat laughs.

"Anyway, shouldn't we be doing something useful?" you suggest, gesturing to the news footage pf the destruction outside.

"I've just single-handedly saved this entire city and had half of my multi-million dollar building destroyed, I'm going for a nap." Tony informs you, standing up wearily.

"Andd he's back." you say, only half sarcastically. To be fair, he is still in his suit and he looks pretty beaten up.

"I'll come with you to help." Nat offers, and Clint nods. You all leave the room, you, Nat and Clint bidding goodbye to Tony as he goes a separate way to you.

When you reach the elevator, Thor walks out in front of you.

"Y/N, I need to speak with you. Please." he adds as an afterthought. He looks tired.

"I- okay." you reply, looking at Nat, who shrugs.

"See you down there?" she asks, and you nod, following Thor back down the corridor and into the meeting room you'd just vacated. Thor gestures for you to sit down, and you do, on the table. He paces the room.

"Did Loki say anything to you?" he asks. You blink.

"He- uh..." you can't think of a polite way to tell the god of thunder that his brother asked you to kill him. By the look on Thor's face, you expect he already knows.

"I was pointing a knife at him... I can't remember doing it though-" something suddenly clicks into place in your brain. Loki had tried to get you to kill him while he still had control of you.

Thor seems to have had the same realisation, and sits down heavily in a chair, which groans loudly in protest as it takes his weight.

"-he said... 'Do it'. But I couldn't." you tell him. You aren't as close with Thor as you are with the other Avengers, and you don't think you've ever been alone in a room with him before.

You spent time with Nat and Clint as a SHIELD agent, and Tony makes it his business to know everyone, but Thor, Steve and Bruce are three individuals you haven't talked to a lot.

Thor closes his eyes, and you feel sympathy for him rise in your chest. It's clear that he cares for Loki. This must be awful for him.

"Did he say anything else?" Thor asks you.

"No. Only, 'please'." you tell him, and Thor opens his eyes and frowns at you as though you've annoyed him. You shift uncomfortably on the table.

"Loki doesn't say please." he tells you. You don't reply, looking at your hands. That's all very well, you think, but he'd definitely said it to you.

"His eyes..." you begin.

"Yes. I believe he was being controlled by the sceptre as you and the others were." Thor says blatantly. You nod.

"Although he's not making things easier for himself. He's refusing to speak, even to me." he continues.

"He must be confused." you say.

"Yes, but in my brother's language 'confused' and 'hostile' can sometimes get mixed up in translation." Thor tells you humourlessly. You frown at the floor, wondering why you feel sorry for the man, sorry, god, who had mind controlled you and destroyed a good chunk of New York City.

"Thank you." Thor says suddenly, standing up abruptly.

"I- what for?" you ask, wondering if he's being sarcastic, before remembering that Thor probably doesn't know what sarcasm is.

"For not killing him," Thor tells you. "Shall we go?"

You slide off of the table and follow Thor from the room, thinking about Loki's eyes.

...

A/N: okay, now I need everyone to send me prompts! comment them here, private message them to me, leave them on my message board and we'll see how this goes! <3