After you finished your homework and teaching Loki about his cell phone and social media, you both returned to reading on your separate ends of the couch in comfortable, companionable silence.

"Kat, dear, dinner is ready," the housekeeper called from the kitchen.

"Thanks Helene," you replied and set you book aside and stood to go get dinner. Helene always made sure you ate first, insisting that the supers had superpowers and they could fetch their own dinner if they were too lazy to come down when she made it, they could also wait five minutes until the powerless girl had gotten her plate. Since Helene insisted no matter how much you said you didn't need or want special treatment, you stood quickly to get your dinner. You had learned to answer Helene's summons quickly so the supers didn't get upset that they had to wait on you. You looked over to Loki when you saw he hadn't moved. "Aren't you coming?" You asked him, curiously. You thought he'd enjoyed spending time with you.

"In a minute," he replied simply, not looking up from his book. You shrugged, assuming he wanted to finish the chapter or whatever he was reading, and went to get your plate from Helene, thanking her again before you took your normal seat in the dining room. Your normal place was a two person table. You usually ate alone unless Tony wasn't working, but that was rare. He was Iron Man after all. He was on almost every mission and had patrols nearly every night. Plus he had to be a mentor to the younger Avengers.

You looked up at the sound of chains and weren't surprised when Loki approached your table, though you were a bit curious why he was alone or with you most of the time instead of with the older Avengers. You would dwell on that thought another time. Right now, you noticed that Loki had his own plate of dinner in his hands. "May I join you?" he asked. He sounded scared, like he wasn't going to like you answer, and like he didn't like being vulnerable. He still put on his calm court facade, as though it didn't matter to him if he joined you or not.

You saw through the lie.

You gestured to the chair on the other side of the table, offering it to him. "Of course," you replied, warmly. He took the seat as gracefully as he could in chains. You opened my mouth to offer to help him, but you could tell from the set of his jaw and the glint in his eyes that it wouldn't be appreciated. Once he was seated, you both started to eat, discussing the series of books you had lent him while you did. It was a fun companionable conversation while you argued over characters and plot points and what the characters should have done throughout the story.

About halfway through dinner, you heard a roar from the doorway. That wasn't terribly uncommon in the tower, especially when there were new recruits. You looked up to see what it was, concerned only because roaring in the dining hall was a bit odd.

Loki moved before you even finished turning to face the doorway. He was standing in front of you, directly between you and whatever had made that roar, despite that he was chained and could hardly be expected to defend himself, much less you too.

You stood and peered around him to see what was going on. "I thought I told you to stay away from her!" Tony roared as his armor formed around him. He rushed over and grabbed Loki by the throat, holding him off his feet against the nearest wall.

"Uncle Tony! No!" you shouted, rushing over to them. Tony pushed you aside, trapped in his anger at Loki. "Uncle Tony!" you snarled at him and grabbed his arm, trying to stop him, to haul him away from Loki. "He hasn't done anything except help me with my homework. Let him go!" you ordered, trying to sound more firm than a girl without powers in a tower of superheroes should. Tony growled. Loki wasn't even trying to fight him. "Uncle Tony!" you tried again to snap him out of it, tugging uselessly at the arm Tony was holding Loki off the ground with.

Tony slapped you away, hard, with his free hand. You went flying across the room from the impact, slamming helplessly into the wall on the other side of the long dining room and fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. You couldn't think, couldn't breathe. Everything around you was pain. Tony gasped in horror and dropped Loki as he ran to your side. "Kat, Kat, are you ok? Kat, I'm so sorry,"

You blinked through the haze of pain and tried to sit up. The world was spinning and the action of opening your eyes just made you hurt worse. You couldn't tell what was wrong with you, there was just too much pain. Tony in the suit had had super strength after all. You coughed and fell back to the floor, tasting your own blood.

"Take these chains off. Let me help her," Loki ordered Tony in a snarl. He had rushed to your other side, kneeling next to you. Tony hesitated. "Let me heal her," Loki insisted.

"If you do anything-" Tony started.

"I know, you will kill me dead," Loki interrupted Tony's tirade. "You hit her at full strength. Her skull is cracked and she is bleeding internally. It is a miracle she is not dead already. Seeing as she is the only one in this whole building who has been remotely pleasant to me since I have arrived, I would like very much for her not to perish." He held his wrists out to Tony, who hesitated a moment longer before he removed the chains. Loki turned his attention to you. "Stay with me, love," he whispered. He laid one of his cold hands on your head, the other on your stomach. His hands were glowing with a green light. Instantly, the pain began to ease. You could breathe again and could practically feel the crack in your skull knit itself back together. "There now," he cooed, his voice honey and sweet, soothing and you felt yourself drifting on a haze of healing magic. "You will be alright now." Loki turned to Tony. "She will live, but she should still be taken to the infirmary." Tony nodded. He snapped the cuffs back onto Loki's wrists.

"Thank you," he said curtly, only because he had to. Loki didn't protest the treatment. Tony swept you up off of the ground into his arms. You tried to protest, he was the one who hurt you and he was being unfair. "I'm sorry Kat. I'm so, so sorry," he whispered as he carried you off to the infirmary. "I shouldn't have lost my temper like that. Not at you. Never at you," he murmured. "Please, she needs help!" he called into the infirmary as he carried you inside.

"What happened?" a nurse asked as she indicated an empty bed for Tony to lay you on.

"An accident. She has had a healing from one of the supers, but I still want her looked over." Tony explained. You eyes were heavy and you were barely able to focus on the conversation around you. "Kat, stay awake," Tony told you firmly when he saw you dozing off. You blinked a few times, trying to focus on him. One of the doctors rushed over to examine you.

"She has a concussion and will be in pain for awhile. I recommend that she spend the night here. She can return to her own room to finish recovering tomorrow," the doctor told Tony.

"Kat, I'm so sorry," Tony whispered and kissed your forehead.

"Tony, Fury wants to see you. Now," a voice said from the doorway.

"She'll be safe with us," the nurse told Tony as they were setting you up with an IV of fluids and something for the pain. "You don't want to keep Fury waiting." Tony kissed your forehead again.

"Feel better, Kat," he bid you before he turned to leave. He really didn't want to keep Fury waiting

"Kat, dear, tell us what happened," the nurse said after he had left. You sat up and coughed, the action hurt ever part of you. You should have bene sleeping by now. All you wanted to do was sleep.

"I was having dinner with Loki-" you started, fighting through the pain to speak.

"Loki did this?" the doctor interrupted, jumping to the wrong conclusion. You shook your head, though it made your head swim..

"No, it was Uncle Tony," you replied, forcing out the words. You hated throwing Tony under the bus, but he deserved it for this one. And Loki was innocent. "Uncle Tony came in and was upset that Loki was having dinner with me. He grabbed Loki and held him against the wall by the throat. I tried to stop him, but he slapped me, threw me across the room." You coughed again and laid back down, too exhausted to keep sitting up. "Loki healed me enough that I could be brought here," you added. It was important. They needed to know that Loki had helped you. He wasn't a bad guy. He wasn't a villain.

The nurse nodded her understanding. "Rest now, dear. You need sleep to heal." With that, you closed your eyes, allowing the pain meds and exhaustion from healing to lull you to sleep.