A/N: Alright guys, this is it! I won't be posting tomorrow night but then the night after I'll post the last two chapters (there's a part one and part two) and then that's it *insert sad noises here*. I'll save all the emotional garbage for the final A/N I think <3 (also I couldn't find another gif of Wakanda and spent ages looking so this'll do) (also sorry for the late update)

...

You stared at Nebula, a barrage of emotions coursing through you as you saw her. Relief was one of them, you were sickened to admit, but it was there, amongst the guilt and the sadness and the gratitude.

A green woman was crouched over her, shaking. Gamora. How was she here? Quill was stood beside her, looking shell shocked. You tried to understand, but couldn't; your brain wasn't up to it right at this moment.

You turned around and put your head against Loki's chest, wrapping your arms around him tightly.

Breathing.

You had no right to cry. You had everything you would ever need right here, in your arms. Loki put one arm around you and placed his other hand on the back of your head, making it ten times harder not to sob.

It could have so easily been you stood in Quill's place, or Loki. Loki's arm tightened around you a fraction. You had no idea how long you stayed like that for, but eventually people started to move. There were others to mourn; wounded to tend to.

And where was everyone going to go? You felt fresh wave of grief as you remembered that the compound, your home, had been destroyed. It was an obvious fact, but not one that you'd been thinking about prominently for the past hour or so. How long had it been?

When you pulled away from Loki the first person you saw was Tony. He was with Pepper, and he looked so unbelievably tired.

But he was smiling.

He beamed so widely when he saw you stood with Loki that you almost started crying again. But you wouldn't let yourself. Not even when he stepped out of his suit and hugged you for the longest time, whispering "This is the hug I promised you on Titan".

Next was Bucky. You tried so hard not to cry, you honestly did. Then Nat, still reeling from losing Clint, but smiling now. Then Steve. And Bruce. And Scott and his girlfriend and her parents, and then Thor again, and Rocket and Peter and Rhodey and Okoye and her friends and the king of Wakanda and Pepper and even Strange...

And then back to Loki. You barely had to wonder where he was before he was by your side. You'd been away from him for approximately five minutes, maximum, but you couldn't stop yourself from kissing him again when you saw him. Properly, this time, uninterrupted by aliens and spaceships.

I missed you so much. I can't tell you-

You don't have to. I know.

You smiled, shaking your head as you pulled away from him, your faces still inches apart.

You will never know. And I'm glad you'll never have to.

Strange was working overtime today, creating more portals to take people back to where they had come from. Most people were going through a portal to Wakanda, including you and all of the Avengers who now had nowhere else to go in the immediate vicinity.

"We'll rebuild it." Bruce kept saying, mainly to reassure Nat. You didn't really care about it being rebuilt. You would have liked your stuff back: your sword from New Asgard, but that was gone. You really weren't that bothered. Loki had his arm around you. That was all you cared about.

"My sword." you remembered suddenly, turning back to the battlefield which was strewn with bodies. Together, you and Loki made short work of finding it using your magic. It was the only part of Asgard you had left; you weren't going to lose it that easily.

The hospital in Wakanda was overflowing with patients. When you and Loki had offered to help the doctors had given you sceptical looks (you did look a bit mental, what with being covered in blood and dirt), until you'd healed an open wound on a patient's leg right before the doctors' eyes.

They'd let you get straight to work after that.

You'd healed people as best you could until you were near passed out, and then you were offered two beds to rest in. You would have been out like a light, if not for the fact that you didn't want to not be looking at Loki.

He was lying on his back on the bed next to yours, eyes shut, already half asleep. Like you he was covered in dirt and blood and all sorts of other residue from the battle, but somehow he managed to pull off the look. Your eyelids were fighting to close, but you wouldn't let them.

He was there. He was right there. Your leg really hurt now. You wish you'd thought to heal it before you'd drained yourself to the point that you could hardly keep your eyes open.

Loki turned his head a fraction of a centimetre towards you, his eyes still shut.

Go to sleep.

No.

He opened his eyes with what looked like all the effort in the world to look at you, before reaching his arm out across the small gap between your beds to take your hand in his.

I'm not going anywhere.

You clung to his hand, watching as he closed his eyes again, still refusing to close yours.

Y/N-

No.

His eyelids moved as he rolled his eyes and the corner of his mouth quirked up into a smile. You couldn't breathe for a second, such was the love that overwhelmed you as you watched him. Loki felt it, but was too tired to do anything other than squeeze your hand.

You had no idea how long you managed to stay awake for, only that suddenly you were waking up from a sleep which felt as though it had lasted at least a year. It took you almost an entire minute to wonder and then remember whose hand you were clutching to your chest like a lifeline, even in your sleep.

So it hadn't been a dream. You dug your fingernails into your arm, hard, just to make sure. Sharp pain shot through your skin, and only then did you dare to open your eyes.

Loki was still lying on the bed next to you, asleep, his arm reaching over to you.

The last time you'd woken up next to him had been on Sakaar. A million years ago. Waking up for the first time to see him lying next to you had almost the same effect on you as when you'd seen him for the first time on the battlefield.

Approximately three seconds passed in which you just stared at him, and then a great truckload of emotion slammed into you and almost rendered you unable to breathe.

Relief was the overriding emotion which you felt, but it was accompanied by many others. Huge amounts and anger and sadness for all the time you'd lost with him. Fear, for what was going to happen next, and the thought of losing him again. Happiness. Love. So much love.

You sat up abruptly as you experienced this wash of emotions, all of them coalescing in the form of a massive lump in your throat which then turned into an overwhelming need to sob your heart out. This you proceeded to do, pressing a hand over your mouth to muffle the sound, as so not to disturb the sleeping patients you were surrounded by.

Loki shifted in his sleep and frowned, being drawn from his sleep by the tsunami of feelings you were experiencing. This only served to intensify said feelings and made you sob even harder.

After a few seconds he opened his eyes, blinking at you for a moment before sitting bolt upright.

"Hey, hey..."

You half fell off your bed in an attempt to get to him and he caught you, still half asleep but holding you tight against him as you tried in vain to quiet your sobs.

A second later you were outside in the cool air. The sky was just, just starting to possess a hint of light, making it early morning. You didn't notice this, clutching at Loki (who was still very much half asleep) and breaking your heart crying into his shoulder.

You're okay. You're okay.

He didn't need to ask what was wrong. It wasn't a case so much of what was wrong than of what was right. You weren't used to having to accommodate for such relief and happiness.

Love, breathe.

He'd never seen you cry like this; it was scaring him slightly. You smiled, inexplicably, through your tears. He had no idea. This was a happy cry. The sad ones, when you'd been at your lowest, had been a thousand times worse than this.

Once you'd got your breathing relatively back under control you pulled back from the embrace and looked up to press your forehead against his, only to find his face wet with tears too.

"Don't. Don't cry." you whispered, your chest aching, reaching up to cup his face in your hands and wipe his tears away. He smiled feebly at you, at a loss.

You've been in so much pain. I'm so sorry.

It's not your fault.

No. But that doesn't change anything.

Now that you'd calmed down you could feel what your memories were doing to him. You thought back to the nights right back at the start when you'd sat on the tops of skyscrapers and hoped that Loki wasn't watching you from somewhere, for his sake. And yesterday you'd just dumped all of your memories into his mind.

No, don't feel bad. I asked you to do that. I don't regret it.

You looked at him some more and then closed your eyes, putting your head against his chest, trying to feel grateful that he was here and not resentful for all the years he hadn't been there for, finally managing to stem the flow of tears.

Let's go somewhere else.

You opened your eyes and nodded, sensing people nearby. Minutes later you'd teleported and walked until you found a small clearing on one of the large hills surrounding Wakanda and sat down facing the direction in which the sky was getting lightest. Thankfully Loki had thought to bring one of the blankets from the hospital, because you became cold very quickly.

You sat in silence for a while, your head on Loki's shoulder and his arm around you, before he spoke.

"I know you gave me all your memories..."

Talk like this.

Loki smiled.

I want to ask you some things. Your memories are still... muddled.

Like what?

Your scar. Who gave it to you and where do they live?

You laughed: a sound of genuine humour and happiness.

I don't know who gave it to me. But I sorted them out pretty well.

You didn't... kill them?

No.

Not well enough then.

Loki-

You were smiling; he wasn't.

"If I'd been there..."

"If you'd been there I wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place."

Loki pulled you closer against him. More quiet, just the sounds of the trees moving ever so quietly in the almost non-existent breeze.

Stark said that 2012 me escaped with the Tesseract.

He did.

That worries me.

And me. But Bruce said not to worry; there are too many timelines to count. That's just one of billions.

I know that. I wonder if we ever meet. In the new timeline I created.

I hope so.

Me too.

On Titan, just before you arrived, Strange told me that you found me in all of the realities that he saw.

Really?

Yes.

Loki fell silent, deep in thought for a while. Then...

Tell me about Asgard.

You couldn't believe you'd only been there yesterday. Instead of telling him you just thought about it, hard. The memories were still near the forefront of your mind, even after the hellish day you'd had since.

You thought especially hard about Frigga for him.

When you see him again, tell him that I love him. And I'm sorry we didn't get to say goodbye.

A rush of grief and love which wasn't yours coursed through you after you thought about what she'd thought to you before you'd left. You took Loki's hand and held it tightly.

"It was... amazing. And awful. I so wish you could have been there, just one last time."

Me too. I miss it. I miss her.

Frigga was wearing the ring.

There was a pause before Loki replied, doubt creeping into his mind even now.

And you're not.

I am. Did you actually get any of my memories?

You're not wearing it.

You turned to look at him. He stared at you for a few seconds before his gaze dropped to the base of your neck. Then he reached forward and hooked a finger under the silver chain you wore around your neck, before lifting it up to pull Frigga's ring from below the neckline of your gear.

Oh.

Oh.

You wore it... the whole time?

I kept it on my finger for a long time. Until I stopped believing you'd come back... somehow. But I didn't want to not wear it-

Will you? Wear it again, I mean. If you still want to get married-

Your eyes filled with tears yet again when you realised how nervous he'd been to ask.

Lokes- I missed you every second of every day. I spent the whole time dreaming about getting you back. And now you're here. And you think I don't want to spend the rest of my life with you?

He leaned forward to kiss you, relief tangible in the way in which he gripped you as he did so. You smiled into the kiss, clasping your hands around the back of his neck. Loki moved his hands to undo your necklace and then pulled away, lifting one end of the chain up to let the ring fall into his other hand.

Then he held it up to you. You smiled as you slid your finger into it, before bursting into tears again.

"Y/N-" Loki murmured sadly, pulling you back towards him.

"I missed you so much. I love you." you sobbed unapologetically into his shoulder.

"I love you too." he whispered, holding you to him again. The sun peeked over the horizon, casting pinky-orange rays over the city before you.

Let's get married.

You pulled away from Loki to look at him properly, wiping at your eyes. He smiled in confusion.

Do you know what an engagement ring signifies?

You smiled, half rolling your eyes.

I mean right away. Now. Today. Or tomorrow.

Loki looked at you seriously.

Really?

Yes. I want to. I've waited long enough.

Loki's face split into a large smile.

Me too.

You proposed to me, like, three days ago.

It had meant to have been a joke, but you weren't sure whether it made you want to laugh or cry.

It feels like five years ago to me.

I can assure you that it doesn't.

He smiled at you sadly, reaching over cup one side of your face in his hand. You leaned into his touch, closing your eyes before shifting so that you were next to him again, leaning against his shoulder and looking out at the sunrise. Loki put his arm back around you.

Where do you want the ceremony to be?

...

"Loki and I are getting married."

Tony looked down at you hand and smiled when he saw that your engagement ring was back on your finger.

"Kid, that's great. When? Where?"

"I... we, were hoping that you'd let us use your cabin? As in, we'd get married outside. By the lake." you asked him hopefully. Tony smiled again.

"That- yes. Yes." he replied, moving forward to hug you, but you held up a hand. Your heart was beating out of your chest. Why were you so nervous?

"I wanted to ask you something else." you said, the beginnings of a smile creeping on to your face, knowing that he knew what you were about to ask.

"...what?" Tony frowned. He knew alright. He was already holding back tears. The answer was yes.

"Will you-" the words got stuck in your throat and you had to try again, looking at him with a proper smile on your face now. Tony's eyes were shining with emotion; he was smiling back at you.

"Will you give me away?"