You dreamt of nothing, having fallen into such a deep sleep that not even the pain from your stab wound could wake you. When you did eventually wake up you were on your back in a dark room: still in the medical ward. You hadn't been moved from the operating table; the dull ache which remained in your side and your nose proved that that had been a smart idea.

You turned you head to the side and could just make out the shape of Loki, asleep, sat on a chair next to the operating table and slumped forward, resting his face on his folded arms atop of the table next to your torso. Gingerly, you lifted an arm and moved your hand to his hair, running your fingers through it slowly. He must be shattered if he was sleeping this deeply. You didn't want to think about why he might have had to use so much magic that he'd tired himself out like this.

Loki hummed quietly in appreciation in his sleep, causing you to not so much laugh as to breathe out heavily through your nose. This was a mistake. Pain shot through your side and you tensed in pain, biting your lip in an attempt not to make a noise and disturb Loki. He was already awake, sitting up abruptly.

"What, what's wrong?" he asked drowsily, his voice thick with sleep, blinking sleepily in the general direction of your face. He moved to brush his hair out of his eyes, a force of habit, as now there was none there to brush away. You felt a rush of affection towards him.

"I'm okay." you whispered, smiling as he yawned. "Are you?"

Loki threw you a disbelieving look, which you then thought you might have actually imagined; the room was so dark you could barely see his face. His thoughts, however, were crystal clear.

You're recovering from a stab wound, two cracked ribs and a broken nose and you're asking me if I'm alright?

I was worried about you.

I'm fine, it was fine.

You're tired out.

Yes.

Why?

He moved his chair up so that he was closer to you and gently took one of your hands.

You were in a lot of pain. It took a lot of magic to numb it.

So he hadn't used magic on his mission. He'd used it on you. You closed your eyes briefly, squeezing his hand.

Thank you.

What happened?

You started explaining to him about the technology they'd had which made them look like the team, but he stopped you.

"Thor told me about that. I mean how did this happen?" he asked, gesturing towards the stab wound which was now barely even there.

"... I got stabbed?"

Loki rolled his eyes endearingly.

"Obviously."

"There were so many of them; it was hard to keep track. I was so caught up with fighting this one guy I wasn't really thinking about any of the others."

"If I'd have been there..."

"But you weren't. Accidents happen."

"Someone stabbed you." Loki stressed.

"I'm an Avenger. It's in the job description." you retorted humorously. Loki didn't smile.

"I'm fine. It hurts a bit but I'm healing fast, right?" you continued, deciding to prove your point by moving to sit up. The pain brought tears to your eyes, but you made it. Loki was shaking his head at your stubbornness, still half asleep. You lifted the hem of your shirt to examine the stab wound; it looked as though it were a few days old rather than only a few hours. Being Asgardian and having access to high tech medical equipment had probably had a large part to play in your inhumanly fast healing process.

Your back ached from lying on a hard table for a long period of time and you looked longingly over at the beds which lined the far wall as you dropped the hem of your shirt.

Loki sighed, getting to his feet in resignation.

Let me carry you.

No-

He was already gently lifting you off the table; you screwed your eyes shut and turned your face away as pain lanced across your side. Never before had a bed felt so soft or inviting; you were half asleep again before Loki had even put you down properly. You could feel how tired he was even over your own fatigue.

"C'mere." you murmured as he set you down, keeping hold of his arm.

No-

You yanked on his arm, ignoring how much it hurt, and he practically collapsed on the bed next to you.

I'm not going to be able to stay awake.

He thought you were worried about the others seeing.

I don't care. They know.

Relieved, he moved his arm behind your head so you could rest your head on his shoulder and remain on your back. Eyes already closed, you reached up with your left hand, the side which didn't have a stab wound in it, and intertwined your fingers with Loki's left hand which was next to your head. He squeezed your hand briefly before falling straight back to sleep.

Trying to ignore the dull ache which remained in your side and nose, you just had time to wonder if the stab wound would leave a scar before you too fell back asleep.

Bruce refused to speak to you for a week after he came to check on you in the morning and saw you and Loki asleep together.

Six months later

"Y/N, where's your boyfriend?"

"I don't know, hiding from the sun somewhere."

"Find him and get downstairs will you? Fury wants to talk to you."

You sat up abruptly. "Fury's here?"

"No, just on the phone."

"Oh." you sighed in relief, shielding your eyes from the glaring sun to squint at Tony. You were sunbathing on the roof of the Avengers Tower; the mid-August sun still warm enough to justify you wearing summer clothes. You noted Tony's use of the b-word with amusement, it had only taken him seven months to accept that you and Loki were a thing.

Tony disappeared back inside and you stood up and stretched, brushing your fingers over the scar just above your right hip as you did so. It had been half a year since you'd been stabbed for the first time, and since then you'd acquired more than a few more scars on various parts of your body. It wasn't something you were pleased about, but you didn't mind them really.

Lokes?

Yeah?

Tony wants to see us.

Alright. I'll be up in a minute.

The connection between you and Loki had only grown stronger in the last half year. You could communicate with each other over a distance of almost five miles (you'd spent a few nights testing how far you could teleport from one another and still communicate a few months ago), and when you were any closer than that it was as easy to talk to each other as though you were in the same room.

Of course, this wasn't much use when he got sent off on his SHIELD assignments, sometimes for weeks at a time. The worst one had been throughout the whole month of May; Loki had been gone for twenty eight days and you'd heard nothing from either him or SHIELD for that whole time. When he had finally turned up at the tower safe, you'd been on the brink of storming the HQ and demanding to speak to Fury yourself. Upon seeing Loki you were so relieved that you'd gone into shock, been rendered temporarily unable to speak and then cried for twenty minutes straight. The others hadn't let you hear the end of it; you still feigned ignorance whenever anyone decided to bring it up.

They were still working Loki to the ground; he had been almost constantly undercover for the last few months, and when he wasn't in the field he was researching for assignments or training. He told you constantly that he was happy though, just frequently tired, and you believed him. He hadn't been able to lie to you yet, and you didn't plan on letting it happen any time soon.

Six months of training with both Loki and Nat had turned you into someone almost unrecognisable from the person you'd been when Thor had arrived to take you from your foster parents almost a year ago, both in terms of physicality and skills. You could now teleport to more than a metre away, quite a bit more in fact, but you were still working on that. Casting illusions and conjuring items were like second nature to you at this point, and you'd even learnt some healing magic which had proved very helpful on certain missions.

Training with Nat had turned to practice rather than learning. The art of wearing high heels during combat was one that you'd mastered by now (there had been a few more parties over the last six months).

Where are you?

Sorry, coming.

You made your way back inside and then teleported down to the kitchen, startling Bucky and causing him to almost fall off of his stool. He angrily threw a book which happened to be in front of his at the time at you.

"Will you stop doing that!"

You caught the book deftly with an apologetic grin and tossed it back on to the table.

"Sorry Buck."

Loki was already with Tony in the living room, sat on opposite sofas and you hastened over to sit next to Loki. No longer was there an awkward tension around the others and Loki, but you were sure that Tony would rather not be alone with him for any elongated period of time. As you sat down Tony began to talk, but you became somewhat preoccupied when Loki's mind started to wander away from Tony and towards you.

You're burnt.

I'm not burnt.

You are, look.

A quick glance down at your arm proved him right.

Oh.

"-didn't have any plans this evening, did you?" Tony asked.

"...no." you replied, conscious of the fact you had no idea what he had just said to you.

"Good, I'll tell him. They'll probably send a car for you later on sometime."

"Great. Thanks." you smiled, watching as he stood up and left. You turned to Loki.

"We're going back to SHIELD. Fury wants to speak to us both." Loki filled you in. You were only slightly indignant that he had been listening to Tony and thinking about something entirely different at the same time.

"About what?"

"He didn't say." Loki shrugged.

Maybe they want me in on the undercover thing? Investigating HYDRA?

You'd since found out the name of the undercover organisation operating within SHIELD; the thought of going in on it with Loki filled you with equal amounts of dread and excitement. Loki looked displeased.

I hope that's not what this is about.

...

"We need you to go undercover, together." Fury told you.

Loki's jaw went into overdrive, and Fury was watching you in anticipation.

"I'm in." you said.

"No. Wait. Just – why do we both need to go. Why not just me like usual?" Loki asked. It was almost cute how worried about you he was. The thought earnt you a glare.

"Because this is different, you're going to London so it makes sense to have two of you rather than just one; you'll have a better chance of getting out unscathed if things go south. Obviously we'd rather send in actual agents, but they'd be recognised almost immediately. HYDRA are meeting there with representatives from all over the world and you're both going to be representatives from New York and Washington." Fury told you, pointing at Loki and then yourself respectively.

"How long for?" you asked, cutting across Loki who had opened his mouth to argue some more.

"Indefinitely, you'll be finding out intel as you go."

"I see. And won't it look a bit suspicious when we turn up having no clue what's going on?"

Fury tossed a file across the table towards you.

"Everything we have is in there, so you'd better get reading. You leave tomorrow."

You tried to hide your shock. Loki was in a seriously bad mood by now. Opening the file, which looked awfully thin to contain 'everything we have' inside, you pulled out two different sets of plane tickets.

"These are for separate flights." you observed after examining them.

"Yes Y/N, they are." Fury praised you sarcastically.

"Why?"

"Because the HYDRA representatives from New York and Washington will get flights from the nearest airport to them, AKA not the same airport. It would look suspicious if they were to be on exactly the same flight."

"Would it?" you asked dubiously.

"It's for your own safety. It's probably for the best that you have little to no interaction while you're around the other members of the organisation as well." Fury said dismissively, standing up to leave.

"Great." you said flatly.

"I'll be in touch." Fury told you, and strode from the room. You turned to look at Loki, who met your gaze with an unamused scowl.

"Free holiday?" you suggested.

"No."