When you got back to the tower later that day, you told everyone that you were being sent on an undercover mission together while Loki started trawling through the file Fury had given you.

"So, you're leaving....?"

"Tomorrow." you finished Tony's sentence for him, trying and failing not to feel the immense amount of worry everyone in the room was feeling for you.

"Right. Indefinitely?" Tony continued.

You nodded. You couldn't say you were upset that you and Loki were being sent off on an undercover mission together, but you weren't exactly thrilled either. You were going to be associating with literal Nazi's for the foreseeable future, and that wasn't something that filled you with excitement.

That evening was an uncharacteristically quiet one, and although it was to be your last night at the tower for who knew how long you couldn't bear to sit and listen to everyone thinking about the worst things that could happen to you (and Loki, in Thor's case) on the undercover mission. Usually you would try to block out such unsavory thoughts, but the intensity and number of them which were bouncing around the room was such that you couldn't block them out. Eventually you stood up and bid everyone goodnight, even though it was barely past nine pm.

Once you were safely away from everyone's thoughts in your room, you changed into your pajamas and started looking through the file that Fury had given you and Loki. You put aside the separate plane tickets, hotel booking references and taxi bookings and picked up the fake identities you were about to be taking on. The lady you were going to be impersonating was called Michelle; you stared at the picture attached to the file for a moment before casting an illusion over yourself to become said lady. She was middle aged, in her late thirties according to her file, and had a mean looking face with harsh eyebrows and thin lips. Her mousy brown hair was pulled back into a tight bun at the nape of her neck, and you guessed that she rarely wore it any other way. A quick scan through the rest of her file showed that she had been engaged to be married a few years earlier, but her fiancé had been killed in a freak accident a few months before the wedding. There was a clipping of an article covering the accident, which heavily hinted that SHIELD had had something to do with the 'accident', which had resulted in the deaths of several high-ranking government officials. Turning the piece of paper over, you discovered the word 'HYDRA' stamped in red ink.

SHIELD had obviously been investigating this underground organisation for far longer than Fury was letting on. Further examination of the file led you to discover that Michelle had no other family apart from an older sister living in Spain with whom she had had no contact with for years. This led you to wonder what had become of Michelle after SHIELD had discovered she was really working for HYDRA.

You were drawn from your thoughts by a noise of surprise which emitted from the doorway to your room. Loki obviously hadn't been expecting to find a small, headteacher-like lady sat on your bed.

"Michelle looks like she could use a holiday." he smirked, closing the door behind him. You were far past the point of being surprised that he'd known what you were thinking despite the fact he'd been in an entirely different room.

"I don't think she'll be jetting off on any holidays any time soon." you remarked, dropping the illusion as Loki walked towards you. He hummed in appreciation as your face reappeared.

"That's better." he smiled, lifting your chin to give you a kiss before moving to sit next to you to look at the files; you were unable to stop the smile which spread across your face. Loki picked up the file which contained all of the information on the person he was to be impersonating and barely gave it a glance before tossing it aside again with a sigh. It was the same person he'd been pretending to be on all of his previous undercover missions investigating HYDRA; he already knew all there was to know about them. This you gleaned from his thoughts.

"Here, you'd better look at mine." you said, handing him Michelle's file.

"I thought we weren't meant to know about each other or acknowledge one another at all?" Loki reminded you.

"I'm sure Michelle and Harry have probably met before." you shrugged. Harry was the man that Loki had been impersonating for the last few months, and unlike Michelle you knew all too well what Harry's fate had been when he had admitted to betraying SHIELD. His colleagues in HYDRA were apparently none the wiser.

"So, Fury hasn't been telling us everything." Loki said, holding up the newspaper clipping with HYDRA stamped on the back.

"That's what I thought." you agreed.

"Good to know right before he ships us off to the other side of the world with no backup on a potential suicide mission." he mused sarcastically, pulling the rest of the file's contents towards him.

"We don't need backup, we have each other." you reminded him.

"Might be nice to know that the calvary is nearby, just in case." he suggested.

The two of you spent the next few hours combing through the file and getting every detail about both of your new identities, travel routes and quirks down to a tee. All of a sudden it was almost midnight and your head was pounding from all the new information you'd acquired in the last short few hours.

Eventually the file was pushed aside and Loki convinced you to try and get some sleep.

"You're going to have to keep up an illusion for hours on end, you need to rest." he told you. He was right; you hadn't thought about this aspect of the mission yet. You were confident that you'd be able to keep the illusion up, but he was right about needing rest for it. Once you were in bed, curled against Loki's side, a thought emerged in your mind which you hadn't really had time to think about yet.

We won't be able to talk, or... well, anything. Maybe for weeks.

Loki's hand stilled on your back for a second before he responded.

Yes, we will. We talk like this all the time. They can't watch us around the clock.

This is HYDRA we're talking about.

Even so.

All I'm saying is that it might be difficult.

Loki sighed, deeply.

Maybe. We'll be okay. Unless they have CCTV everywhere.

You started to laugh, but then started wondering whether they actually would have hidden cameras.

Relax. We'll worry about it out when we get there. Now sleep.

It was hard to drift off while your mind was buzzing like it was, but after a few minutes of concentrating solely on the sound of Loki's heart beating, sleep came to you quicker than you had anticipated it would.

The morning arrived far too quickly.

It was just beginning to get light as you got up and you could barely keep your eyes open as you were met by SHIELD agents in the kitchen and they began to explain in excruciating detail how the rest of your day was going to go. After you got on your flights, everything was down to you, they explained, as if you weren't already very aware of that.

Then Tony was there, forcing breakfast on you, and then the rest of the team arrived in various states of consciousness. Thor had never looked more awake, or more solemn for that matter, whereas Nat kept having to kick Clint to get him to stay awake.

After the agents had finished talking to you (you hoped Loki had been listening, you hadn't taken in a word of what they'd been saying) they informed you that there was a helicopter waiting for you on the roof and a taxi waiting downstairs for Loki. You hadn't realised that you'd be split up this early on. The agents left, and Thor immediately immersed you in a bear hug.

"Be careful." he told you aggressively, his voice slightly muffled. You made a noise of agreement, unable to speak due to the bone crushing embrace you were trapped in. Once released you said goodbye to everyone else, apart from Clint who was now fast asleep on the sofa.

You turned to Tony last; he gave you a strained smile and clapped you on the shoulder. Then he seemed to have second thoughts and held his arms out to you instead. You hugged him tightly.

"I'll be okay." you told him as he released you.

"Yeah. You'd better be." he responded, his voice sounding oddly constricted. You felt a sudden, random rush of affection towards Thor, and turned to see Loki looking away from him, curiously bright eyed.

Don't even.

You grinned, and then abruptly stopped when you realised it was time to go. Loki looked at you across the room.

Go, I'll meet you in the elevator.

"Show time Y/N, get going." Nat grinned, and you smiled at her gratefully, happy to have a reason to leave the room before you got upset. You hadn't realised how much you didn't want to leave. The walk to the elevator felt like an out of body experience, but you were brought quickly back down to earth as the doors slid shut and Loki appeared in front of you. The elevator began to move.

"Are you okay?"

You didn't even bother replying, just letting him wrap his arms around you and putting your head against his chest, inhaling the smell of him. The thought of not being able to talk to him, or see him, or touch him for the next however long was almost unbearable.

"We'll find a way, okay?" he murmured, moving a hand to your hair as you clung to him.

What if there isn't a way.

There will be. Of course there will be.

He was worried too. This did nothing to alleviate your concerns, and now you only had seconds left with him before... before whatever was about to happen. There was a split second in which you looked at each other and made a joint decision to make the most of it, and then he had you pinned against the wall and was kissing you hard. Right before the elevator was about to reach the roof you broke away from him and punched the emergency stop button.

Loki smiled, drawing you back to him and resting his forehead against yours, his hands sliding up your arms to your shoulders and then cupping your face. You closed your eyes, wishing you could stop time and just stay in this moment forever.

Me too.

You smiled sadly as the moment passed.

"I'll see you later." Loki said, pulling away from you reluctantly. Just as reluctantly, you let him go.

I love you.

I love you too.

And then he was gone.

You had to take several breaths before assertively hitting the emergency stop button again to allow the elevator to continue its journey towards the roof.

Everything was going to be fine.