You were studying on your couch in the common-room when a piece of paper appeared among your notes in a small flash of gold light. You weren't expecting any messages. Especially not any traveling by magic parchment. Those only came from two places: Loki or Frigga. And coming from gold magic. That could only mean that it had come from Frigga.

You glanced over at Loki and saw that hadn't noticed the magic or looked up from his book. Which meant he wasn't supposed to know about this message. Your heart dropped, knowing it couldn't be good. You finally looked down at the slip of parchment.

On it was written familiar words you had memorized for the soulbond ceremony in Asgard as well as a note from Mama Frigga herself: Learn the words. Learn them well. The day is coming when you will need them. ~Frigga

That was ominous and your heart filled with dread that you had to keep off of your face so Loki couldn't see your dread and terror. Frigga's abilities to see the future were stronger than Loki's. From what you knew, she was never wrong. You were tempted to show the note to Loki, but you knew that Frigga hadn't sent it to him for a reason. He wasn't supposed to know. If he knew, it would interfere with the future that Frigga had seen. So you tucked the note in with your school notes, after reciting the words ceremonial words to yourself once. If Frigga was telling you that you would need them, you knew that it was true.

You tried to distract yourself with your homework after that, though it was difficult to concentrate. You hadn't realized you were humming to yourself while you were studying until Loki commented. "Darling, I love you dearly, but please get a different song stuck in your head. You have had the duet from Superhero Musical stuck in your head for three days straight and it is driving me crazy," he grumbled.

You just laughed at him, but at least he hadn't heard you reciting the soulbond oaths in your mind on repeat instead. "Poor baby," you replied and stuck your tongue out at him. You had thought you'd blocked out the part of your brain that kept singing that particular song on repeat. Loki had taught you a lot about compartmentalizing your mind so you could focus on different tasks, and block out telepathy when you didn't want to use it. Unfortunately for him, you had shoved the song in the compartment with the thoughts of the people around you, so it was annoying him as he could overhear it unintentionally. You moved it to its own compartment and set up another one to repeat the ceremonial words over and over and over again. You were not going to doubt Frigga's word that you would need them and you were determined to be prepared when the moment came.

"Thank you," Loki said when you had moved the song. You nodded and got back to your notes.

"Loki, can you sub patrol tonight for Pepper? She has a meeting tomorrow," Tony asked that evening.

Loki inclined his head, willing to do Pepper the favor. "Will you be alright?" he asked you after he'd agreed and Tony had left to get ready.

You rolled your eyes. "Lo, I'm fine. Try not to kill my uncle while you're out on patrol with him."

Loki chuckled, kissed you goodbye, and left on patrol with Tony as soon as they were ready.

You finished your homework, then vanished everything upstairs except for the piece of paper Frigga had sent you. You recited the words aloud a few times, closing your eyes to not be tempted to look at the page. You vanished it upstairs as well when you had, then turned on the TV, reading a book while you waited for Loki and Tony to come home.

You were dozing on the couch when they finally got back. You stirred when Loki lifted you from the couch in loving exasperation. "You should not have waited up," he scolded. It was half-hearted at best.

You woke enough to look up at him and see that he was hurt. "You should not have gotten hurt on patrol," you scolded back, trying to match his accent.

He laughed while you reached up a glowing hand to heal the cut on his face. "You have been practicing," he replied.

"Oi, Kat, can you heal my broken arm instead of loverboy's face?" Tony grumbled from nearby. His suit was crushed over one of his arms

"Lo, set me down," you told Loki. He sighed, but did as he was told, setting you on your feet. You went over to Tony. "How'd you break your arm?" you grumbled at him as you vanished the crumpled bit of armor so you could see the wound.

"We got in a fight with Colossus. That guy's metal arm packs quite...well a punch," Tony laughed. You rolled your eyes, but placed a glowing blue hand on his arm, healing it and the other cuts and bruises he had in an instant.

"There, all fixed," you told him. You turned to Loki to look him over.

"I am fine," he tried telling you, but you caught the hitch in his voice. He was usually better at lying than that.

You rolled your eyes. "Let me see," you ordered in your healer voice. He sighed and vanished his top. His ribs were a massive bruise. "Loki," you sighed and placed both of your hands against the wound. "You try to carry me to bed when your ribs are broken? Dummy," you scolded him.

He chuckled. "It is truly not that bad," he tried to insist.

"Three of your ribs are broken," you reminded him. The healing only took a minute, "but they would've taken days otherwise. "Any other injuries you're hiding?" you glared up at him.

"No, lady," he replied formally.

"Good, silly Trickster," you grumbled at him, grumpy with lack of sleep and healing magic. You turned to Tony. "Uncle Tony, I made Pepper go up to bed with a sleep spell a couple hours ago. She wouldn't stop worrying and was going to throw herself into a panic attack. She's in your bed, but don't expect her to wake,"

Tony nodded, trusting your judgment when it came to healing. "Thanks for taking care of her. It's time for all of us to get to bed." You all agreed and trudged up the stairs to your beds.

"Are you sure you aren't hiding any more injuries?" you asked Loki when you reached your floor.

"You do not trust me?" he asked instead.

"I trust you to claim you're not injured so I won't use your magic to heal you," you countered.

He chuckled. "That is a fair point," he finally admitted as you walked into your suite. "Shall I disrobe so you can see that I tell the truth?" he asked with a wicked gleam in his eyes. He was expecting you to blush and give a polite refusal.

You put your hands on his hips, calling his bluff. "Yes, you shall," you told him firmly. He gaped at you, his eyes wide. You just stared him down until a flash of green magic had him down to his underwear. You had seen more before. You worked as a healer after all.

You went into healer mode now, looking him over to make sure he really wasn't more injured than he'd claimed. Of course it was entirely for medical reasons that you looked over his very aesthetically pleasing body.

Entirely.

And of course there were no kisses once you were convinced that he wasn't hiding any more injuries.

Nope nope, none at all.

*

"Your friends seemed to have survived your last attack," Balder greeted you pleasantly as the dream materialized around you that night. You had been waiting for him to attack your dreams again. You were surprised it had taken him this long actually. It had been weeks since the attack on the compound.

"Hi, Balder. Long time no see," you greeted him pleasantly, summoning real clothes to face him in instead of your pajamas. He looked taken aback that you weren't afraid of him. "And yeah, everyone survived the last attack,"

"Why are you not afraid, pet?" he asked. "You were terrified to see me last time." He was disconcerted that you weren't afraid. He wanted you afraid.

You shrugged, enjoying taunting him. "All you're doing is keeping me from getting a good night's sleep when I have a test tomorrow," you replied, making your voice sound annoyed an exasperated.

"You're not afraid that I will make you take out your friends again? You are no longer in isolation," he reminded you. He was trying to get an emotional response. You could play this game.

"Yes, and I no longer have that stupid power you forced on me. Our Lady Mother found the spell to remove it," you replied pleasantly, also reminding him that you were his sister by marriage, just to annoy him. "Everyone I love is safe from that particular power, so all you can do is harass me. If you're going to, just get on with it. I have an early day tomorrow," you taunted him.

He rushed you. Predictable when you got his temper on the rise. You pulled two daggers, not quite trusting your magic in the dream world, and ducked and dodged his blows. You managed to teleport out of the way when he surrounded you with clones again. You'd learned from your last dream match.

"You will join you one way or the other," he promised. You paused your dodging of the clones one second too long at his words and ended up with a knife to the gut for your mistake.

You cursed. Loudly and creatively.

The real Balder grabbed you, holding you by the throat off of the ground. "I will come for you, little pet. None of the other little humans have been able to hold the powers I have tried to gift them with," he purred while you struggled for air. "So you better wake up and let my baby brother heal that wound for you,"

With that he tossed you from the dream.

You woke, gasping for air, surrounded by ice, blood, and healing magic. Your stomach was bleeding where Balder had stabbed it in the dream. "Kat? What happened?" Loki demanded.

You was too busy gasping for air and fighting back pain to answer him. "Balder," you finally managed to get out.

"Damn, there's so much blood," Loki said. His hands were covered as he worked on healing the wound. It only took him a couple minutes to finish the healing, but it felt like forever. Once you were healed, Loki pulled you into his arms. You wrapped your arms around his neck, holding him tightly, ignoring that both of you were covered in your blood. Again. You finally caught your breath now that you were healed. "Can you tell me what happened?" Loki asked you gently when he saw your breathing had relaxed.

"Over tea?" you asked. He chuckled, but nodded. You always got tea after nightmares.

He teleported you downstairs to the kitchen. "Kat!? What the hell?" Tony's voice came from where he was standing next to the stove. He had jumped in shock when you appeared before him. He ran over to you, fear in his eyes.

"Uncle Tony, it's stupidly early, why are you awake?" you asked. He knelt down in front of you and lifted your shirt. "Uncle Tony!" you protested, trying to shove his hands away.

"Kat, you're covered in blood!" he protested.

You looked down and saw that your pajamas were soaked in your blood. "Oh. Loki healed the wound already," you told him. "I guess we neglected to change before coming down to get tea,"

"Seriously, Kat, tell me what the fuck happened!" Tony yelled, glaring at Loki like this was his fault. He still always blamed Loki.

You sighed. "Balder attacked my dream again. He stabbed me in the dream and it came true in real life," you explained. "No one's ever down here this early. Why are you?" you asked drawing the attention back to Tony.

"I couldn't and decided to make a cup of tea," Tony explained. He usually didn't drink tea, but apparently tonight had been the exception.

You laughed. "Apparently it runs in the family," you explained your laughter. Loki moved to pour the tea for all three of us. Tony had somehow decided to make enough for more than just himself.

"Did you get attacked too?" Tony asked Loki.

"No, this is all Kat's blood," Loki replied as you sat around our usual table in the dining room with your tea. Someone had replaced your table with a four person table. You still didn't know who had done it, or really remembered when it had happened. You had all just accepted the change.

There was a couple minutes of silence before the boys stared at you, silently demanding answers to why you woke bleeding. You sighed and spoke to your cup of tea, explaining the dream and everything Balder had said.

"He's been trying to implant powers into others?" Tony demanded.

You nodded your agreement "That's what it sounded like."

"At least he has not been successful," Loki commented, looking for any bright spot.

You nodded again, but you wasn't sure that was something to really be glad about. You worried over the people he had tried to put powers into, and hoped they were alright.

"We should all get some sleep," Tony said awhile later after all the tea was gone. You nodded and vanished all of the dishes, magically clean, and put away. "That's a useful skill imp," Tony told you with a smirk. You smiled at him, glad he could still be normal. "Are you sure you're ok?" he asked.

"I'm fine, Uncle Tony. That isn't nearly the worst nightmare I've had," you reminded him, or thought you'd reminded him, until you remembered that Tony didn't know about your nightmares. You shrugged before he could ask. "I've had bad dreams for years. I didn't tell you cuz I didn't want you to think I was weak when I had no powers,"

"The night your parents died?" he asked too astutely.

"That particular nightmare doesn't bother me much anymore," you told him hurriedly. "I'm fine," you promised. You stood and went to give him a hug before you remembered that you were covered in blood. "I'd give you a hug, but..."

He nodded and laughed. "Get some sleep, imp," he laughed at you. You touched his shoulder and he gave you a smile.

After a quick hot shower, and some magic to clean the bed of blood, you finally got back to sleep for a couple hours until your alarm went off for school.