When you and Tony returned to the tower, Tony took Loki's things to Fury. You carried your new books upstairs and gathered the homework you still had to finish before class the next day. Tony had reports to write and other boring adult things to do that afternoon, so you were left to your own devices, namely, doing your homework. So you carried all of your homework and laptop and headed back downstairs. You didn't want to be alone, and you had found out that if you worked on your homework in the common room, you could usually find someone to help you if you got stuck on something. That was the great thing about living with such a large extended family.

When you made it to the common room, you noticed that Loki was gone. You couldn't help being a bit disappointed that he wasn't there, but you knew that you couldn't expect him to be here all of the time. That was your job. Besides, they'd probably be sending him on patrols soon and making him a real member of the team.

So you sat and worked on your homework for the afternoon. Tony came up to help you with your math homework and Bruce came up to help you with science. The older Avengers tried to make time, especially on Sunday afternoon to come help the teens with their homework. So you weren't the only one benefiting from their visit. That didn't mean you didn't thank them for their help as always. They didn't need to take time out of their Sunday afternoon to help you.

You stayed up way later than you should have, engrossed in your new book, sitting in your usual spot on the couch when your homework was done. You were secretly, ok, maybe not so secretly, hoping that Loki would return, but he never did. You hoped that he was he was ok, and that people were giving him a chance, though you highly doubted that.

You finally relented and went to bed once it got too late, your books and homework cradled in your arms. When you got to your suite, you saw two of the books you had lent Loki waiting outside the door for you, sitting on a decorative knick knack table placed beside your door. You picked up up the books and added them to the stack already in your arms.

When you did, you saw a note written in an elegant careful script. There were only two words printed:

<Thank you>

You smiled warmly at the note and ducked into your suite. You carefully reshelved your books, packed your homework and your bag for the next day, and took the note with you into your bedroom. You set the note on your nightstand and scribbled out a reply. All that was on it was your phone number. You made your way back out of your suite on tiptoes so as to not disturb your neighbor and slipped your note under Loki's door before darting back to your own room to get some sleep.

You didn't get much sleep, though you tried. You were plagued as usual with nightmares of the fire. You didn't tell anyone that you still had nightmares. They didn't need to know. It would just make Tony even more anxious and worried about you if he knew.

Once you finally freed yourself from the nightmares, you went to your sitting room and read until it was time to get ready for school. There was no way you were going to attempt to sleep again after nightmares of the fire. You left the door to the hallway open, an unspoken invitation for guests and company.

No one came.

You weren't surprised, it was stupidly early

So you waited until it was time to get ready for school and closed the door to the hallway again so you could dress in your stupid school uniform. You knew that you shouldn't hate it. You went to the most elite private school around, thanks to your buttload of money and Tony's insistence. That, of course, meant uniforms.

You grabbed your bag when you were dressed and headed downstairs. Tony was waiting to drive you to school. The school was within walking distance, but he always insisted on driving you, or walking with you if it was nice, or having one of the other supers escort you. You understood the reason: the world knew you were his niece, and so did the villains. Tony wouldn't take any chances with your safety.

"I'm working this afternoon. One of the others will pick you up," Tony told you as he pulled up to the school.

"I can walk home myself," I reminded him as you climbed out of his sports-car. "I'm 17, not 6," you grumbled, slinging your bag onto your back.

"You're on the hit-list of the every villain in the city," he reminded you dryly. You sighed heavily.

"I know..." you finally replied, defeated. There was no winning when the supers were intent on protecting you.

"So someone will pick you up," Tony replied sternly.

"Fine," you replied and stomped up to the school. You were in an awful mood thanks to the nightmares and the reminder that you had no powers. You hated being treated like a little kid because of it, even though you understood the reasoning for it.

So you suffered through your classes during the super long day. You couldn't stand most of the girls in the school, they were all preppy cheerleader types, and you were a bookworm. You didn't get along on a fundamental level. They were nice enough when they needed help on their homework or wanted to cheat off of you during a test, but that was the extent of their kindness. You put up with it, because the education was worth it.

You were beyond grateful when the last bell of the day rang and you were finally free to get out of that miserable place. You rushed out of the building to see who your ride would be that day and saw Nat waiting for you in one of Tony's fancy sports-cars. You headed straight for it and hopped in quickly. Nat despised waiting. You had a feeling she also hated babysitting duty, which is what this amounted to. You didn't blame her; you hated being babysat just as much as she hated babysitting. She had better things to be doing, despite that she liked you.

The trip home was short at least. Nat liked to drive fast "Thanks, Nat," you told her as you jumped out of the car. She would drive it around the city for awhile longer to get back at Tony for making her babysit. She really did like driving fast. To prove that, she sped off the second you were out of the car.

You trudged back into the compound, chuckling at her antics. You hung up you jacket in the coat closet and went to see who was in the common room. It was just Loki there. You smiled brightly and waved at him. "Hi, Loki," you greeted him with a smile. He looked up, startled, from the book he was reading.

"Lady," he replied with a polite nod. He looked over your outfit and you felt myself blush. "That does not seem like your usual attire," he commented carefully. He was right, of course, short plaid skirts, button-up shirts, and jackets with the school logo on them were not your normal attire.

"No, it's not," you agreed. "Unfortunately, the school I go to requires everyone to be dressed identically. Except the boys get to wear pants," you explained, making a face at how unfair that was. He inclined his head, accepting your answer. "I'll be back down in a few minutes," you told him as you dropped my school bag by your spot on your couch. "I usually work on homework down here,"

"Homework?" he inquired. You sighed. Alien, of course he didn't understand the concept

"Stupid busywork that teachers give to students to torture them," you replied instinctively. Loki chuckled. "In reality it's supposed to be assignments to help us retain the knowledge we learned in class today. Do they not have it on Asgard?" you asked curiously. He shook his head.

"No, once lessons are done for the day, the students are done,"

"Lucky kids on Asgard," you replied. He laughed outright at that. You smiled at his laugh, proud of yourself for eliciting it, and headed out of the room, stripping off your uniform jacket on your way up the stairs. You needed desperately to change into more comfortable clothes. You chose a pair of jeans and a t-shirt instead of your usual pajamas. Loki wasn't family, not yet. And you had promised Tony you'd be careful.

You bounced back downstairs to find that Loki had moved so he was sitting on the other side of your couch. You offered him a warm smile and took your seat before you dug your homework out of your bag and got to work. You sat in comfortable silence with Loki, him with his book and you with my homework until you growled at one of the math problems.

"Is there trouble?" he asked, looking up from his book to see what the problem was.

"Just that math makes no sense," you grumbled in exasperation "I'll have to wait for Uncle Tony to get done with work so he can explain this nonsense." You had wanted your homework done early tonight too so you could have some free-time. Stupid math interfering.

"Might I be of assistance?" Loki asked. It couldn't hurt to let him look, so you shrugged and handed the problem over to him. He looked it over and nodded. "I can explain this concept. In exchange, would you be willing to show me how this device works?" He held up a cell phone, one of the Stark issued ones that all the supers had. That's what your phone was too.

The chain between Loki's wrists clanged as he moved. You hated those damn chains. He didn't deserve them. He had switched sides and helped the Avengers during his and Balder's attack on New York. Now he was working with the Avengers. That should count for something.

You pushed the thought from your mind and grinned at him.

"You have a deal," you replied, holding your hand out to him with a grin. He hesitated, but gave you a tentative smile and shook your hand in return. He spent the next twenty minutes explaining the problem, and then the concept behind it, making it way easier than the teacher had that morning. You showed him the basics of how to turn the phone on and make and answer phone calls. You traded more math problems for teaching him how to text, and told him if he helped with your science homework that you would tell him about Facebook and other social media. With his help, you got through your assignments in record time and by the end, he had a Facebook account, to which you were his first friend, and was comfortable with his new phone.

You felt it was a fair trade.