"Darling, it's getting late," Loki told you late that evening. You were half asleep in his arms after your third or fourth movie together. You'd lost track of both movies and time at some point. You mumbled something in reply that wasn't coherent to either of you and just shifted more comfortably to use him as a pillow. "Dearheart, that means you have to get up and go to bed," he told you, chuckling softly at your antics. With more cajoling, he finally got you to wake the rest of the way up.

"Loki, you were comfortable," you mumbled sleepily. He pulled you to your feet and wrapped an arm around your waist so you could lay your head on his shoulder while he steered you to your bed.

You recognized that he wasn't carrying you. And some part of your mind realized the reason and appreciated that he wanted you to feel safe with him. And a male, even a safe male, carrying you to bed after what you'd just been through might cause a traumatic reaction.

"You will be more comfortable sleeping in a bed. You are still healing and a couch is not where you should sleep," he reminded you gently. You knew he was right and you were too tired and raw to argue with him, though you wanted to. He helped you into your bed. You couldn't help stiffening when he did. For all that he was safe, he was still male and the memories were too raw and new. All Loki did was make sure you were safe in your bed and tucked the blankets around you. "You will be alright, my darling. I know it's hard now, but you will heal, and I will always be here for you. I will help you through it, whatever you need," He kissed your forehead. "I love you sweetheart, now get some sleep," he bid you warmly, gently.

"Are you staying?" you asked, more scared than you wanted to admit. You didn't want to be alone.

"I will be on the couch," he gestured to the sittingroom. He was close enough to stand guard, but not staying in your bedroom where you might not feel safe. He left your magic dagger sheath next to your pillow before he left. He also made sure to leave the door open a crack and you fell asleep listening to the sounds of the TV from the other room.

You should have known you wouldn't be safe from the nightmares that night, especially when your defenses were already obliterated from everything else that had gone on. You weren't surprised about the nightmares, not really. You were more surprised that it was the nightmare of the fire, not a nightmare about the party.

You woke coughing and sat bolt upright in your bed. There was a strange orange glow surrounding you and too much heat. Way too much heat. The air was fogged. No, not fogged, filled with smoke. you jumped out of the bed. You fell to your knees instantly, coughing from the smoke. It took a minute of sucking in the cleaner air on the floor of your room before you were able to move. You got back to your feet and stumbled a few steps toward your door.

You had to get downstairs.

Downstairs was the way out.

You vaguely heard laughter from outside as the villains celebrated as you managed to get your door open.

You stared in horror when you saw that your entire world was covered in flames.

You turned to go back in your room, to try to get out through the window, but the way was cut off there. On your knees, you made your way to the staircase. It was the only way to breathe in all of the smoke. It was a fight to breathe and you were terrified you were going to die.

That was the only thought that kept you going.

You had to get out or you would die.

You clutched onto the banister for support and ran down the stairs as fast as you could. They would give out soon if you didn't move quickly. The stairs led straight into the foyer.

You stopped moving and just screamed when you entered the foyer. You fell to your knees again, sobbing at the scene you saw there.

Both of your parents were tied to your dining room chairs. Chairs that didn't belong in this room, but had been dragged there for this purpose. They were both dead already, gunshot wounds in their heads.

You managed to stumble to your feet and run to them anyway. You had to untie them. Had to try to save them. Had to get them out of here. You shook them, trying to wake them, though you knew better. You knew they were dead, you were just so out of it from smoke inhalation and horror that you weren't thinking clearly.

Something crashed through your brain, yelling for you to get out of there or you would die. Some sense of self preservation kicked in, but not before you got one final look at your mom with a bullet through her head. "NO!" you screamed, somehow finding the air as that force crashed through you again. The fire flared up around you, a vortex of flames, which you were at the center of. Everything that wasn't nailed down to the floor was floating around you, sucked into the tornado of flames that surrounded you. You was screaming and crying, somehow able to find air in all of the chaos.

There was a loud crash. You raised your arms to protect yourself, but you were thrown off of your feet. One of the wooden structure pillars that supported...something... in the house was pinning you to the ground, burning the leg it was trapping. Still you screamed, trying to get out from under the burning pillar trapping you .

You felt the water and the ice attacking your fire protections. You screamed for help, knowing someone was out there. They just couldn't hear you. The only thing you could do was strengthen the fire tornado, to tell someone that you were still there. They had to come save you and rescue your parents too.

Tony came bursting in the front door in his ironman suit. You raised your hand and screamed for him to come help you. He rushed to your side and threw the pillar off of you, his suit was fireproof, so of course he could move the pillar. He swept you off of the floor into his arms. "You have to save mom and dad," you begged him with tears flowing down your cheeks. It was getting hard to breathe again. He took in the scene and shook his head.

"They're beyond our help," he told you after Jarvis assessed the scene. He ran back out of the house with you in his arms while you screamed for him to save your mama. The flames grew even higher as he flew through them, getting you to safety. Once you were safe in the fresh air away from the flames, your connection to them was severed. The tornado vanished as you passed out in Tony's arms.

You were pulled out of the nightmare by ice and frost. Your eyes shot open and you were panting, out of breath and in so much pain you thought you might throw up from it. Loki was standing next to your bed, holding you against him. You were both covered in frost. "I'm sorry," he told you as he let you go. You realized you were shaking and shivering from the cold he'd inflicted on you to pull you from the nightmare. "It was the only way to wake you," he told you sheepishly. He didn't like waking you that way with what you'd been through, but he hadn't had a choice. You didn't mind, though, especially as you could still smell the smoke. "At least you have good aim, even when asleep," he mused as he indicated the still-smoldering trash can.

"Did you see?" you asked hoarsely. Great, you had been screaming in the real world again.

He nodded. "I believe telepathy will be the first of yours powers we focus on," he replied dryly. "Do not fear for the others. I was able to shield them," he added at your concerned expression. Of course he had shielded the others.

"You didn't have to do that..." that sounded like pretty big magic. You were relying far too heavily on him.

"Yes, I did, darling. If Fury actually understood how strong your powers are and the true extent of the problem that you cannot control them, he would seek external methods of controlling your powers, and I do not wish that for you." You didn't know what he meant by 'external methods', but you knew that you didn't want to find out either. Fury would do what was necessary to protect the supers in his care.

"Thank you," you murmured, accepting the help he had given you. He kissed your forehead. "At least I know what had been tampered with now in that memory." All of your memories of having powers had been erased.

"Would you like to go get a cup of tea?" he asked.

You nodded almost desperately. "I need to change out of these wet pajamas first, though," you added. The frost he had woken you with had melted. You stood from the bed and it took every ounce of your strength and bravery to hold your hand out to him and ask. "Would you?" your voice shook when you made the request. You were way more scared than you wanted to admit, but you trusted him and loved him.

He saw your hesitation and fear. "Are you sure?" he asked. You nodded. He took your hand and the familiar green glow flew over you. You found myself wearing a t-shirt that was too big, pajama pants that were also too big and too long, and Loki's robe. You realized the pajamas must've been his too. He must've been feeling overprotective to surround you in his scent. You didn't mind, it made you feel safe.

You didn't drop his hand as you walked downstairs with him. You did clutch on to it tighter when you began to overhear the thoughts and dreams of the supers. You weren't stable enough for that and almost ran back upstairs to hide in your quiet room. "Ignore them, love. They can't hurt you," Loki whispered.

"Shows what you know," you grumbled at him, reaching up to rub your aching head. Your mind was wide open to any passing thoughts. Loki settled you on the couch in the common room, wrapped in a blanket while he went to make the tea. He came back too soon, so you figured he had used magic to make the tea. You didn't mind, you didn't want to be alone. You took the cup from him gratefully and he took his spot on the other side of the couch.

He let you finish your tea and relax before he spoke again. "Time to learn how to shield your mind, dearheart" he told you gently.

You just gaped at him in open-mouthed confusion. "Did you forget the part where I can't use my powers, or do anything remotely resembling control?" you asked him. He had told you that much earlier.

He smiled at you understandingly. He was so gentle and patient when he taught. "No, I did not, but this is a trick similar to learning how to speak to me telepathically when you were powerless," he explained. "It does not take magic, only a little imagination," he added. You sighed, fearing this was going to hurt, but eventually nodded and sat up from your comfy slump on the couch, so you could sit up and face him properly. You felt him drop the shielding on his own mind that kept you safe from hearing his thoughts. You didn't focus on what they were, but you heard them like a background buzzing, like the TV on in the background while you were doing homework. "Block it out, love," he told you softly, gently.

"I don't know how!" you whined at him, nearly in tears from frustration at your stupid powers.

"Yes, you do. It is part of who you are. Hide that part of your mind from the others, just like you would hide memories you didn't want me to see from me," he bid you, reminding you of the lessons on how to speak to him before you had powers. You tried to calm your breathing, tried to imagine you were safe and it was quiet, but it just wasn't working.

Loki took your hands and pulled you into his mind. He showed you then how to create barriers around your mind, how to organize it so that the part of your mind that was hearing the thoughts was locked in a separate room of your mind from the rest of you. He was right. It was just like the organization technique of hiding thoughts and memories from him that you hadn't wanted him to see. Now you were just hiding that part of your mind from yourself, unless you opened the door and wanted to see them.

He released you from his mind and you struggled, but eventually got the trick of it. You knew you had gotten the hang of it when you couldn't hear his thoughts anymore, unless you specifically focused on them. "Very well done, darling. I knew you could do it," he grinned at you with open pride in his gaze.

You gave him a smile in return. "Thank you," you told him softly. You vaguely noticed when his shields went back up, since the background noise in your mind vanished.

"So what would you like to do now?" he asked gently. You could tell that he wanted you to rest, but he wouldn't force you to return to sleep and potentially face the nightmares again. He would let you choose what was best for you.

And you were beyond grateful for it.

You couldn't face that nightmare again, though.

"Can we go back upstairs?" you asked softly. You didn't feel safe down here. It was too exposed and you were still in too much pain and your powers were scraped raw. You didn't want to hurt anyone.

Loki nodded and offered you his hand. The thoughts of the others in the compound didn't bother you on the way back to your suite, for which you were grateful. You sat on your couch watching movies for the rest of the night.

You realized partway through that Loki was a lot more tired that he had been letting on. You bet he hadn't slept in at least two days. He had fallen asleep on your couch, his head on the cushion next to you, where he was just going to 'relax', or that's what he had told you. You ran your fingers through his long hair as he slept. After a few minutes of that, you grinned, and turned on the couch to face him properly, then began the work of braiding his hair.