Tony and Pepper had offered to house as many people as they could overnight, but that still meant that mostly everyone had to get cabs home or to hotels. The music was quiet now; hardly anyone was left sat under the marquee and a few people were gathered around the bonfire, sat on chairs or logs.

Although it was your wedding day, you felt as though you and Loki had both spent more time with other people than together. You were together now, on the empty dancefloor, less dancing and more just holding each other whilst gently swaying side to side.

Happy?

So happy.

Good. Today wasn't as awful as you'd imagined, was it.

Loki squeezed your waist in indignation.

I never thought it would be awful. I'm just not used to being...

Centre of attention?

I hardly was today. Everyone was watching you.

Not me.

Everyone apart from you was watching you.

You smiled, closing your eyes, utterly content.

Thor's asleep.

You opened your eyes and turned your head to see Thor, who was indeed fast asleep in a chair. You smiled.

He's getting better.

I know. He hardly drank today.

He doesn't want to go back to Norway. He doesn't know what he's going to do next.

He's not the only one.

You'd both been determinedly ignoring the subject of what happened next.

We should probably think about what we're going to do next.

Not tonight.

Okay.

You didn't want to worry about anything tonight. You'd spent too long worrying. At least you didn't have to do it alone anymore. Loki pulled you closer.

After a while you went to wake Thor up, who hugged you both and then retreated into the cabin for the night. Then you and Loki went over to the bonfire where Tony, Pepper, Steve, Bruce and Nat were sat, barely awake.

It was another hour of chatting and laughing before you decided to call it a night.

Let's stay out for a bit.

Okay.

You hugged everyone before they went inside, especially Tony and Pepper. They had made today an absolute dream.

"You not coming in kid?"

"We're going to stay out for a bit." you told Tony with a tired smile. He nodded.

"Alright. See you in the morning."

You and Loki walked over to the lake and sat down next to the water. It was a clear night, like the day had been, and the moonlight was illuminating everything really quite brightly, glinting off the water in front of you prettily.

The sky was devoid of light pollution and the stars above you were out in force, shining brightly.

Loki took his jacket off and offered it to you before rolling his shirt sleeves up. It wasn't warm, but it wasn't too cold either. Just cold enough for you to wrap Loki's jacket around your shoulders.

He held an arm out and you shifted to sit under his arm, leaning against his shoulder. You could get the grass stains out of your dress easily enough, and were just about to open your mouth to say so when Loki looked up suddenly, frowning.

What?

Can you hear that?

You listened carefully to the silence, before a quiet, odd rumbling noise broke the silence.

It's coming from the shed.

Turning to look at the shed, you noticed the door was slightly ajar. Instead of becoming alarmed, you grinned.

I think I know what it is.

You got to your feet and crept towards the shed, Loki watching you in amusement. When you reached the shed door you pushed it opened gingerly and laughed when you saw where the noise was coming from.

"Buck." you whispered to the slumped figure in the corner, wearing one of Tony's old Iron Man helmets.

When you received no response you snuck over to him, bending down to remove the helmet from his head. That woke him up; he peered blearily at you.

"Hi Y/N."

You grinned.

"Hey Buck."

You helped him stand up and teleported him into the cabin, where you showed him to a sofa and covered him with a blanket. Then you teleported back outside to find Loki stood in Tony's shed, looking around.

You squished in the doorway next to him.

"Find anything interesting?"

"Just a lot of old parts, by the looks of it."

You summoned your mist to one hand to illuminate the shed and looked around properly, faltering when one helmet in particular caught your eye.

"What?" Loki asked in alarm, looking down at you as he felt your shock.

You couldn't reply, holding out your hand to summon the helmet to you. It was Tony's helmet from the Snap. From the Benatar.

Love?

"I-"

You'd recorded messages for Thor and Loki on this helmet. Loki heard this and sighed in understanding, reaching to touch the helmet as you stared at it. For some reason Tony had never fixed it; it was still as beaten up as the day he'd worn it.

Do you want to listen?

I... can't you remember what you said?

You shook your head, remembering only the awful state you'd been in when you'd last seen the helmet. Loki took the helmet from you and made you look at him.

What do I keep telling you?

You sighed, smiling up at him.

You're here and you're not going anywhere.

Correct. And whether we listen to this message or not isn't going to change that.

He wanted to listen to it, deep down. You knew.

Let's go back outside.

You returned to where you'd been sat on the grass next to the lake, and set the helmet down on the floor. Loki sat down next to you and looked at you. The last time you'd sat before the helmet like this you would have given anything to have Loki by your side.

You kissed him then, for your past self.

Ready?

You leaned forward and pressed the button on the side of the helmet. Tony appeared in front of you on the grass, peering at the helmet. You gasped quietly, pressing your hand against your mouth. He looked like a corpse.

"This thing on?" he asked, doing something with the helmet before slumping back against an invisible wall. His voice sounded as though it was painful to speak. Loki found your hand and held it.

"Hey, Miss Potts... Pep. If you find this recording, don't post it on social media. It's gonna be a real tear-jerker. I don't know if you're ever going to see this. I don't even know if you're... if you're still... Oh god, I hope so. Today is day twenty one, uh, twenty two-"

You leaned forward abruptly and hit the button again. Tony disappeared.

We shouldn't listen to that.

I agree.

Before you could say anything else the helmet lit up again, and this time it was you that appeared on the grass in front of you. Even in the hologram you could see that your eyes had an unnaturally bright glow to them. You, like Tony, looked like a corpse. It was frightening to see.

For a moment you couldn't catch your breath, but that wasn't your reaction to seeing you in such a state. Loki was watching the hologram in horror.

"It's on." you heard Tony say from the side, and then your past self looked up, right at you.

"Hey Thor." past you said. Like Tony, it sounded as though it had been painful for you to speak. Loki reached for you suddenly, pulling you back towards him so you were leaning back against his chest, and wrapped his arms around you tightly.

"I don't know if you'll ever even see this, or if you- if you're... anyway. I'm not making it home, even if you are alive. I don't know why I think this helmet will, if I'm not."

Here you paused, frowning, looking down. Your face was scar free, the beginnings of grief only just starting to make themselves apparent on your features.

"If you do ever see this, I just think it's important that you know. Thanos didn't kill Loki. It was an illusion. A really, really good one."

Another pause, this one longer than the last. Loki's heart was beating hard against your back. You closed your eyes, pressing yourself against him.

"He came and found me. But then Thanos got the stones, and..."

Your eyes looked dead. You didn't look upset, or angry. Just numb. You could remember the numbness of the shock so clearly.

"He's really dead this time. I felt it. I can still feel it now. It's like..."

Here you shook your head, lost for words, lifting one of your hands a fraction of a centimetre in an attempt to gesture towards your chest.

"It's empty. I'm empty. There's nothing there."

Loki's fingers were digging into your arms.

"I so hope you're okay. I was hoping that I could tell you all that in person, but that looks less than likely."

Your breathing looked laboured, and it was clear that you had nothing more to say now.

"Love you." you said, an abysmal attempt at a smile crossing your face, before you leant forward slowly, in what looked like a lot of pain, and you disappeared from the hologram.

You and Loki stayed stock still sat on the grass together, waiting. Past you reappeared again.

"Hey Lokes." you said this time, your voice wavering as you spoke his name for the first time in the three weeks after you'd lost him. Loki pressed his face into your hair, his heart aching for you.

"I can hear Tony thinking that I'm mad for recording a message for you." past you said, looking to the side and tilting your head at Tony, who apparently didn't reply.

"I think I am too. You're gone." your voice broke and you physically balked as you said it, closing your eyes briefly.

Loki exhaled sharply; you turned to look up at him. The sadness he was feeling for you, though immense, wasn't a patch on what you'd felt in the hologram.

I can't bear this.

Past you turned back to the helmet.

"I'll be gone too tomorrow, I think. The oxygen is going to run out. I can't help but feel like it'll be better, then. You were wrong. About the feeling, but... I think I know why, now. When I died, you were on Svartalfheim and I was on Midgard. Time moves differently between realms, so although I was dead for a few minutes, for you it was only a second. You felt what I'm feeling, but only for a second."

That makes sense.

You nodded, closing your eyes, still turned into Loki's chest, his arms around you.

"I've been thinking about the whole soulmate thing, too. Why are we soulmates? The universe is obviously pitted against us. We've both died. This is worse than dying. We're meant to be living happily ever after on Asgard. Well we're obviously not meant to be, are we?"

Past you stopped talking, looking off sideways, presumably out into space. You could remember the relentless, terrifying nothingness that stretched from all sides of the ship. It had been beautiful and horrific all at once.

"That doesn't mean I love you any less. I do love you. I always will. I know you know... knew that. Even if you never get to hear this message. It makes me feel better."

You were remembering the things you'd said as you listened to yourself speak the words.

"Maybe we'll see each other again tomorrow. I love you."

Past you disappeared, and the helmet was just a helmet again, sitting on the grass in front of you. Loki's face was wet with tears. You sat together in silence for a while, processing what you'd just seen.

Eventually, you reached up to wipe Loki's eyes with the collar of his jacket which was still around your shoulders.

Think of it as a reason to be happy. We beat the universe. We're here, together. Married.

Loki smiled, catching your hand in his.

I'm supposed to be the one who makes you feel better, not the other way around.

What, I'm not allowed to look after my husband?

A smile crept on to your face as you thought it. Husband.

Loki was watching you happily. You needed to take your own advice and stop feeling sad about the hologram you'd just seen. It was all the more reason to be eternally grateful for what you had in front of you.

We are.

You frowned up at him in confusion.

We are what?

Loki moved one of his hands to cup one half of your face, his thumb gently tracing the bottom half of your scar. You thought you knew what he was about to think before he did, and smiled.

How could you have ever doubted it?

Soulmates. Meant to be.