Author's note: Hi there, I've been working on this fic for a while now and been dreading posting it because I've spent soo much time on it... I love a slow burn fanfic (I spend so much time reading them at 3am when I should be sleeping) so decided to write one myself. If you end up reading this until 3am when you know you shouldn't be I have achieved my goal! I'm posting this on ao3 too (username in my bio), but I started a bit earlier on there so it's about three chapters ahead. I'll try my best to update weekly, we'll see how things go... I really hope you enjoy this story, please leave a comment if you do! <3  (jan 2020)

Side note: I've had a lot of comments saying that Loki's eyes should be green when I write them as blue; this is only because Tom's eyes are blue in the films! I know they're canonically green but I just like them blue, you can imagine them as whatever colour you like though, that's the whole point of fanfic <3 (nov 2020)

Another side note: there's no smut! I've had quite a few less than pleased comments now about the fact that I skip over smut, but there are underage readers here and I feel uncomfortable writing that sort of stuff when I don't know who might read it, warnings or not. (march 2021)

...

Your day had actually been going quite well. That should have been the first warning sign that things were about to go horribly wrong.

You'd thankfully managed to avoid conversation with your foster parents as you had left the apartment before they'd woken up this morning, and your college professor had given your latest project a glowing review, something you'd been stressing about a lot recently. It was pay day, which meant you were one step closer to finally being able to buy your own apartment and, most importantly, today marked one month with no sign of the purple mist.

You should have guessed that it was too good to be true. It was half past five on Friday afternoon, and you were slowly making your way from college back to the apartment, taking the longest route through the streets of New York as possible.  It had always just been an apartment rather than a home, you'd never truly felt at home there. Or anywhere else, really.

You were walking slowly because you knew what was waiting for you - the price to pay for walking out without saying anything this morning. It was stupid, you weren't afraid anymore, but the thought of going back to that place made you so depressed.

This was what you were thinking about when you heard the screams. They were quickly followed by a loud screech of metal and a cry of "look out!"  You spun around right in time to see a bus flying through the air towards you.

There was no time to think, no time to yell or run, just a split second of disbelief before the bus was on top of you. More screaming. That might have been you, but in your defence you had just had a bus thrown at you.

What a way to die.

But... how were you still thinking if you were dead? Slowly cracking your eyes open, you exhaled heavily, your heart racing.

You were inside the bus. Surrounded by the purple mist. There was a hole in the side of the bus which you had somehow just broken through inside your protective purple bubble of a shield.

Days without mist = 0.

You could hear panicked voices from outside, probably coming from the people who had apparently just seen a girl crushed by a bus. Suddenly the bus was lifted clean off of the floor and moved away from you; the purple mist disappeared. There were gasps of shock from the people who had gathered around the scene, which you initially thought were directed at you.

"My apologies, I don't usually make a habit of throwing vehicles at innocent bystanders."

You turned around to see where the deep voice had come from, and came face to face with a very large, very solid chest. Looking up, your eyes met a pair of bright blue ones, surrounded by a mass of long blonde hair.

You'd just had a bus thrown at you by Thor.

As in, Thor from the Avengers. God of Thunder.

"Er, no worries." you replied, and immediately cursed yourself for being so socially awkward.

"Yes, Stark, I'm still here... yes!" Thor said loudly and suddenly, pressing a finger to his ear. Great. He was on the phone to Tony Stark. He'd probably heard what you'd said too. That was mortifying.

"Farewell." Thor said to you, and launched himself into the sky to who knows where.

"Bye." you said weakly to the empty spot in front of you. You needed to sit down.

Ignoring all the people around you who were still staring and pointing, you hurried away from the scene and collapsed on the first bench you came to, thoroughly shaken. Never mind Thor, the purple mist had just saved your life. You'd lived in constant fear of it, but it had just saved you from certain death. You needed to get back to your room, maybe it was time to find out some more about the mist.

You took a deep breath as you walked up the stairs towards your apartment, bracing yourself as you approached and unlocked the door. The minute you walked in, you were confronted.

"And where have you been?"

"At college."

"College finished ages ago, don't think you can lie to me young lady!"

You stood there and allowed your foster 'dad', if you could even call him that, to yell at you, as you had so many times before. You tuned out, as you so often had, and thought instead about your encounter with Thor earlier on. Odd for him to have just brushed off the fact that you hadn't been squashed by that bus. Although, he was probably used to seeing weird things like that.

"Are you even listening to me?"

He'd been drinking again. He was loud when he was drunk. You hated it. Hated him.

"What, are you deaf now? Answer me!"

A sudden wave of rage coursed through you, and you felt an odd burning sensation behind your eyes, almost like you were about to start crying. You blinked hard, and looked up at the man who had 'raised' you, the man who had made your childhood a misery.

He stumbled backwards into the wall, his expression changing from anger to shock to revulsion. You weren't sure what had made him react like that, but it had shut him up, so you sure as hell weren't complaining.

"Sorry." you said bluntly, eager to escape, edging past him to make your way into the small box room that was yours. Your eyes were still burning.

The minute you'd shut the door, you turned to look into the mirror. And stared.

Your eyes were a deep shade of purple. And glowing. After a few seconds of utter shock, you stepped forward to look more closely. It was quite beautiful really, it looked as though the mist was swirling around inside your retinas. And then it was gone. You looked back into your normal Y/E/C eyes and sighed. What the hell was wrong with you?

You collapsed on your bed. It was a miracle that they hadn't chucked you out by now, especially after the accident. In your opinion it wouldn't be too long before you were made homeless, and then what would happen? Maybe you could join a circus and be part of a freak show, that would earn you some money.

What was there left, really? You had no real family, a small handful of friends who might notice if you went missing off the face of the earth, but life would go on as usual. Without you.

Outside, someone knocked on the door, interrupting your thoughts. Good luck to whoever that was, you thought, with a swell of sympathy for whoever it was at the door about to face the drunken buffoon. You listened, intrigued as the voices became louder and louder, and slid off of your bed to see what was going on. At the end of the corridor you hesitated, pausing to listen.

"What's goin' on hun?"

"This oaf is tryna take Y/N! You can't just rock up here and take her, there's legal things, like, uh..."

"I'm deeply sorry, but I'm under strict instructions to bring her with me. Y/N could be dangerous."

Brilliant. Now you were being kidnapped.

"Dangerous? Of course she's dangerous! She's a freak! The only reason we've kept her around for so long is because she needs to repay us! She owes us thousands, for food, rent..."

That did it. You stormed over to your door and yanked it open.

"You haven't paid for anything for me since I was fourteen!"

All three heads snapped around to look at you from the doorway.

"Lady Y/N! Do not worry, I am here to escort you to the Avengers Tower."

You blanched at what you saw as you looked down the corridor: Thor was stood in your hallway. And had he just said... the Avengers Tower?

"You're not escorting her anywhere! She is our property, and you..."

You decided to miss the lecture Thor was receiving to run and grab your stuff. You could fit all of your personal belongings in one backpack. You raced from your room, not even deigning a glance backwards, and joined the happy trio back in the hallway. You were out of here.

"Ready to go?" Thor asked, glancing at the small bag you were carrying. You nodded.

"Come on then!" he replied cheerfully over the sound of your foster dad still yelling, and strolled away down the corridor to the stairwell.

"Bye." you said to the two people stood in the hallway, who you would hopefully never have to see again, and followed Thor out of the door, leaving them shell shocked. You had no idea what you were doing or where you were going, but anything would be better than what you were walking away from.

Surely.