Somehow, Loki didn't fight you the next morning when you insisted that you needed to go to class. He understood keeping up with your studies, even if he did want you to rest properly. At least you only had a couple of lecture classes that day, so it wouldn't be too strenuous. You'd agreed that Loki could come with you as long as he didn't misbehave too terribly during them.

You laughed at him when he tried to leave the tower in his black suit of sexiness. He wasn't dressing in his battle armor, since he wasn't technically coming as your guard, but he wasn't going to fit in wearing a full suit on campus. Especially not that suit. "You can't dress like that for college. Unless you're teaching the class. And even then..." He looked at you confused. You were wearing your usual jeans, t-shirt, converse, and a hoodie stolen from Loki's closet, your hair braided out of your way. Loki sighed, looking put upon, but magicked himself a pair of perfectly tailored jeans and a comfortable, but elegant sweater. You rolled your eyes, but that was the best you were going to get out of him. "Sit," you told him, pushing him to one of the nearby chairs.

"So demanding this morning," he teased, but sat obediently in the chair you'd pushed him into. You weren't giving him much of a choice. Sure he could overpower you, but that would upset you, which he didn't want.

"You're trying to blend in, right?" you asked. He sighed, looking even more put-upon, but let you brush his shoulder-length hair. He pretended to be annoyed, but was purring within moments of you touching his hair. You were one of the very few who could get away with touching his precious hair and he cherished the touch. You pulled it quickly into a slightly messy manbun at the back of his head.

"What did you do to my hair?" he asked when he stood again and saw it in a mirror. He wasn't upset, just curious. You hadn't hurt his hair or cut it off, so you were safe from his ire.

"Lots of guys wear their hair like that now. It lets you get away with having long hair without people thinking it's weird," you explained easily. You then gave him a mischievous grin and stood up on your toes to place a kiss on part of his neck that was usually covered in hair. "Plus I can do that," you replied while he shivered at the new sensation and purred.

You drove to campus and parked, mostly because Loki didn't know exactly where he was going. He offered to teleport you, but you reminded him again that you were trying to blend in and lie low. It was hard enough blending in being who you were.

Once you had parked, you led Loki to the campus coffee shop to get caffeine. The barista started making your order the second you walked in. You were definitely a regular. You placed an order for Loki, choosing something he'd like, since he'd never been there before and didn't know what to order for himself. "New boyfriend?" the barista asked when you picked up your drink. Which was announced for 'Sigyn' even when you hadn't given your name.

You grinned at her. "Nope, same boyfriend I've had for two years," you replied. She just stared when she realized that meant that the man with you was the real Loki. "It's just his first time visiting campus," you handed Loki his drink and you left the shop to walk to class. It was nice feeling normal for once, getting to stroll to class with your boyfriend. You strolled leisurely across the beautiful campus and made it to class in plenty of time.

The lecture hall was huge and you hoped the professor wouldn't notice the extra student. You didn't need to worry. If they noticed, they wisely didn't say anything. There were whispers from some of the students, but nothing major that you couldn't ignore.

You had to stab Loki hard in the side with a pen when he was flirting innocently with some of the college girls who wouldn't leave him alone. They giggled at his expression when he got 'caught'. Silly Trickster boyfriend. He didn't cause too much trouble though, so you took him out to a yummy lunch on campus. It wasn't a fancy place, since it was on a college campus, but it was still a nice meal.

After your other class of the day, you headed back to the tower. You'd had to promise Tony and Pepper that you would hang out with them some that weekend instead of just hiding in your apartment. You also had no food in your apartment and didn't want to go shopping, so you let Loki drive you home to the tower. He really liked driving because he couldn't on Asgard; he also liked being the gentleman and doing the driving. He could be extremely old fashioned at times.

You did your homework quickly for the weekend in your pajamas in the common room. You weren't going anywhere else that afternoon, so it really didn't matter if you were in pajamas. Even if your uncle grumbled that you were wearing a spaghetti strap tank top. It wasn't scandalous, but he was your uncle and claimed he didn't want to see that much skin.

You luckily didn't have much homework, but you still wanted it all done so you could enjoy your weekend. You also really loved having access to all of Loki's knowledge through the soulbond. It made your classwork and homework a lot easier. Yes, it was cheating. No, you didn't care. You were too overworked as it was. And it wasn't like you didn't know the information. You were just doing the college thing at all to get the degree.

While you were working on homework, Loki got a summons to go talk to Fury. He looked worried at leaving you and really didn't like Fury much, so didn't want to see him.. "Lo, it'll be what, five minutes? You know Fury doesn't do speeches. I'm just going to sit here and finish this assignment. He probably just has some paperwork or something for you to fill out," you reminded him.

He sighed, but got off of the couch and moved to your end of the couch to lean down and give you a kiss. "I will return soon," he promised. He teleported down to Fury's office and you went back to your assignment.

You should've known things wouldn't stay quiet.

A few minutes after Loki had left, the one of the apprentice healers portaled into the room. "Kat, good, you're here!" she exclaimed.

You shook your head, hurt that you wouldn't be able to help with whatever emergency they had found this time. "I can't help, Claire," you reminded her, holding up your wrist with the bangle on it. You knew for a fact that all of the healers had been warned that you were out of commission. Claire completely ignored you, grabbed your hand, made a portal, and dragged you through it. "Claire, I literally cannot help," you reminded her again. Usually the healers weren't quite this ninny-like.

"All of the healers are tapped or out on patrol. You're the only one with any juice left. You have to take this case, Kat," she pleaded. There weren't many healers, really besides Healer Julia most of them only had a touch of healing power in addition to their main ability. You sighed and let her drag you to Healer Julia's desk. Julia was nearly passed out sitting at her desk chair, you could see how drained she was. She recovered insanely quickly, in a couple hours she'd be fine to work again, but she didn't have the same level of healing strength that you did.

"I know you're off duty," Julia greeted you when you were standing in front of her desk. "But it's Pepper-"

"Aunt Pepper?" you demanded, completely on alert then. "What happened?" you asked, your brain automatically going into healer mode and emergency to deal with mode. It was the same state you'd been in for most of the last year and your mind instantly wanted to help.

"She was severely injured on patrol." That was strange. Middle of the day patrols were notoriously safe. Pepper should have been fine. Hel, she shouldn't have even been out on patrol. She should've been at Stark Industries. 

Julia was digging in her desk drawer for something. She dumped the entire drawer's contents on the floor and pulled out a key from the mess. "Your uncle should forgive you for this when you save his fiancee," Julia replied with a glint in her eye. She unlocked the metal bangle around your wrist. She had the whole rest of the infirmary to deal with. Leaving you just the one patient.

Tony was going to kill you, but you couldn't let Pepper die. They wouldn't have called you if it wasn't urgent. "Where is she?" you demanded of Claire. You ran together to the emergency bay.

You knew the second that you saw Pepper that the healers were right to call you. You had seen wounds that bad and in this same method only twice before. Pepper had been impaled by a large metal spear. "This is bad," you told Claire. She didn't have healing magic, but volunteered in the infirmary anyway. You had to focus to call up your healing magic, to get your hands to glow.

Shit.

You was still too drained for this healing, but you were going to have to do it anyway. You were the only one who could, if you wanted Pepper to live. Pepper had been nearly gutted when she was impaled. She would die and you couldn't let that happen.

You went to her side, your hands just above the wound in her chest. "Pull the spear," you told Claire firmly. You had gotten used to taking charge in the infirmary over the past year and the healers obeyed your orders without question. You placed both of your hands on Pepper's wounds the second the spear was cleared and threw every ounce of power you could muster into her, praying it would be enough to save her.

Tony would be devastated if Pepper didn't survive.

You didn't know how long the healing took. You were low enough on power that you were lost to the healing trance. You'd had to let it sweep over you, sweep you away before you could even start the healing. Things were bad when you had to let the power guide you and not the other way around.

"Kat! No!" you heard Loki's voice from far away. His cool arms wrapped firmly around your waist and hauled you bodily away from Pepper's bed, breaking your physical contact with her. Your powers were too weak to do the healing with out touching her and the magic snapped.

"Loki?" you asked softly, confused. You looked over Pepper. She was healed, or very nearly. She'd be sore, might scar, but she was healed. She would be just fine.

Loki carefully set you on your feet, like he was evaluating-

Your legs buckled and you would've been on the ground if his arms hadn't still been around you. He caught you easily and supported you. "M'm ok," you murmured, wondering why your vision was dark and getting blacker by the moment. He cursed and you looked up at him, still confused. You were just tired from the massive healing. He held you against him with one arm and used his other hand to summon a portal, through which your uncle fell. It seemed he'd picked up the portal trick from Doctor Strange.

"What the hell?" Tony roared in anger. Loki lifted you off of your feet and handed you to Tony.

"Keep her away from Lady Potts," Loki ordered, gesturing to Pepper on the bed. He stormed out of the room without another word.

"Kat? What's going on-? Shit! What the hell happened to you?" Tony demanded, turning his attention to you, even above Pepper. He laid you on the couch in the emergency bay.

"I'm fine, Tony," you tried to insist.

"You're bleeding from your eyes, and nose, and ears," Tony replied as he looked you over. "You haven't been able to move an inch since I got here. And your eyes are...black. What the hell were you thinking?" he demanded, terror in his voice. This was magic. Tony couldn't fix magic.

"Pepper," you told him simply. It finally got through to his brain that it was Pepper lying on the bed. "Go to her. I'm fine," you added. You weren't fine. You were a dirty, rotten liar. Now that the adrenaline of emergency healing was gone, you realized how badly you weren't fine. Luckily, you were bound to the god of lies, and Tony believed you. Or at least believed you enough to determine you were stable while he evaluated Pepper.

Loki stormed back in a minute later. He ran to your side when he realized that Tony was dealing with Pepper and not you. "You were supposed to take care of her," Loki growled at Tony. He had left you in your uncle's care.

"She's fine," Tony replied, too busy examining his fiancée. He really thought you were stable.

"She is anything but fine. Her body was seconds from shutting down. I don't even know how she even completed that healing. She should have passed out long before she got to this state." Loki replied heatedly, fretting over you. 

"Lo, the wound-" you had to tell him where you'd seen it before. Each breath hurt, everything hurt. Your body was pissed at your abuse of it. 

You managed to move your hand enough to touch Loki's. You could switch to telepathy with physical contact. You were too weak to do it otherwise. /I've only seen that kind of wound twice before. When Balder did it to you and Tony/ you told him, desperate to deliver your message.

"Stop that," Loki snapped at your use of telepathy. You realized how bad you must look when his voice turned harsh toward you. He fastened the bangle back around your wrist himself.

Yeah, he was pissed.

"We will deal with Balder later. Right now, we are leaving." Loki scooped you up in his cool arms. You couldn't have fought him if you wanted to. You didn't want to. You wanted to rest and sleep forever and your head lulled onto his shoulder.

"Where are you going?" Tony demanded, whirling when Loki said you were leaving.

"I'm taking her to Asgard. She obviously cannot get any rest here. She would have died today had I not intervened," Loki told him, not bothering to mince his words.

"Couldn't let Pepper die," you replied sleepily, your eyes closing when you were safely in Loki's arms.

"Stay awake, darling, just a little longer," he bid you, finally softening his tone.

Tony reluctantly nodded once.

"Go. Get her out of here. You're right. This just proves that we can't keep them from abusing her kindness or her healing gift. Not while she's here." Tony came over to Loki, and therefore to you. "Thanks for saving her, imp. Now go rest. You need to heal." He kissed your forehead. "Take care of her," he ordered Loki. Loki nodded, then recited the spell to open the portal back to Asgard.