Apparently, 'a bit later on' in Nat's book meant almost immediately, and so half an hour later you were a in training room stretching with her before you got started.

"So, a royal dance in an Asgardian palace huh? Meet anyone you liked the look of up there?" Nat teased, and you rolled your eyes at her.

"Hardly." you scoffed, and then felt bad as you remembered Fandral.

"Well, there was this one guy, but he was very eager. And I doubt a long-distance relationship between two realms would work out anyway." you grinned.

"Honestly, you go to Asgard for a day and you're already talking like you live there, 'realms'?" she laughed.

"That's just what they're called!" you said defensively.

"I'm joking, it's great that you got to see where you're from and meet your parents. Odin sounds like a dick though." she said.

You only hesitated for a moment before you replied. Would he know you were talking about him?

"Yeah. He is." you agreed, waiting for a bolt of lightning to appear and strike you down. It didn't.

"So this eager guy. What's his name?" Nat asked.

"Fandral." you replied, straightening up and reaching to tie your hair back.

"I see. And how does Loki feel about Fandral?"

You faltered, turning your gaze to Nat, who was smirking at you.

"What's that supposed to mean?" you asked, already feeling yourself turning red.

"Come on, I know you can read my mind." she grinned.

"I don't make a habit of it, but if you insist..." you grinned back mischievously, delving into her mind.

She knew that you liked Loki. And she thought that he liked you back. 'Like' seemed like such a trivial word, but that's what entered your mind when you explored Nat's thoughts. The dislike that she still felt for Loki was prominent too, but you pushed that aside. You could see flashes of memories, of you and Loki smiling at each other and of him watching you across the room; that rare smile which you hardly ever got to see but loved so much. And there was more...

"You guys made a bet?!" you asked, outraged as you withdrew from Nat's mind. She blinked a few times before replying, recovering from having her thoughts intruded upon.

"Yes, we did. Did you kiss him, or did he kiss you?" she asked. She was being serious.

"We – not that it's any of your business, but we didn't kiss." you replied indignantly. She looked outraged.

"Seriously?! Tony's gonna be so smug."

"I can't believe you lot! Tony condoned this bet did he?" you asked, desperate for details.

"He obviously wasn't happy about it, he's in denial, but we all know what's going on between you two. In fact none of us are very happy about it, why'd you have to go for him of all people?" she replied, moving to stand in the middle of the room and gesturing for you to follow.

"Maybe you lot don't have all the facts." you suggested, following her to the centre of the room.

"I think the fact that he's murdered a load of people and tried to kill every one of us here speaks for itself." she told you, not joking anymore.

It hit home when she put it like that. It made you think, but then you thought back to the conversation you'd had with Loki on Asgard.

Does it really not bother you? Everything I've done?

I told you, you've explained everything and... well I may not fully understand some bits, but you're still you.

"Maybe you should reserve your judgement until you've listened to what he has to say for himself. It might make you think about him a bit differently." you said to her, thinking about the scars which covered almost every inch of Loki's skin which he hid from them to seem less vulnerable. You had to resist the urge to ask her to remind you how many people she herself had killed, but refrained from doing so, hearing her argument already: "That's different..."

"Maybe you're right. Even so, it's clear to see that you're crazy about him, and him about you. Hence the bet." she replied.

"Out of interest, who bet what?" you asked, slightly cautiously.

"Everyone bet that he'd kiss you apart from Tony."

You didn't know whether to be offended or not that no one thought you would have the guts to kiss him first. Then again, you wouldn't. Loki would though apparently, and your thoughts started to drift again...

"You're not telling me something. What happened up there?"

You looked at Nat, who was now regarding you with suspicion. She wasn't going to let you get away with this one.

"Okay, so we might have almost kissed..."

Your 'training session' very quickly turned into a talking session which lasted for just under an hour and a half. After your lengthy chat (in which she had demanded that you tell her everything) you decided to do some actual training, which meant that you were in the training room for a total of over three hours, and when you emerged back upstairs you were hungry, again.

You had a quick shower and made your way back to the kitchen on the hunt for food; then sat eating the massive sandwich you had made yourself in front of the TV in the company of Bucky and Clint. The afternoon passed quickly, and soon everyone apart from Thor and Loki were gathered around the TV, Tony had cracked open some champagne and announced that it was steak for dinner, in honour of it being Christmas Eve. At about five pm Thor made an appearance, earning a slightly tipsy cheer from everyone. He sat next to you on the sofa and waved away the champagne he was being offered, still looking quite queasy.

You were on your third Christmas film of the day, Tony was wearing a Christmas apron and chefs' hat in the kitchen with his sous chef Pepper, who had insisted on helping with the steaks in case he 'burnt the whole tower down', and there was talk of a game of monopoly later on which you were thoroughly looking forward to. You were utterly content... almost.

Loki?

I wondered how long it would be before you asked. I'm not joining you.

Please? It will be fun. I bet you've never even tried steak before.

It's just meat. I've eaten meat before.

It's really, really nice meat.

He was smiling at that. You just knew.

Pleaseee. For me?

It's not exactly my scene. And they don't want me there.

I do. They want to play a board game later, we can cheat at that and beat them all?

Loki had never had steak before, and as it turned out he quite liked it. You ate on your laps milled around the sofas and kitchen, all complimenting Tony and Pepper on the food, but mostly Pepper, who had taken over when Tony had almost dropped the tray of tomatoes which were to be cooked along with the steak and cut his finger so badly it had bled through three plasters. For dessert there was ice cream, tubs of it, which you made quick work of between the ten of you. Loki discovered a new-found love for ice cream that night.

You insisted upon helping with the dishes, using your magic to speed up the process considerably, and then Tony left the room and returned triumphantly with monopoly, which was met with various degrees of enthusiasm.

"Pair up, it won't work with ten of us." he instructed, setting the game down on the coffee table. Tony and Pepper, Nat and Clint, Steve and Bucky, and you and Loki squashed yourselves on to the sofas around the board; Thor had eaten an obscene amount of food and was currently snoozing on the floor with a pillow under his head (curtesy of you), and Bruce was happy to look on as the 'banker'.

This had better be worth it.

Loki was looking at the board and cards unenthusiastically. You were hyper aware of how close you were sat to him on the sofa.

It will. We'll win. We just need to be careful.

Who says we'll have to cheat?

Very optimistic of you. Just wait.

The rules were briefly explained for the benefit of Steve, Buck and Loki, and then the game began. It got heated very quickly.

"You can collect rent when you're in jail! Look in the rules, it says- "

"Too late, sorry, Tony already rolled."

"No! Go back, that's cheating!"

This went on for about two and a half hours; you and Loki got an hour in before you started to lose money fast and had to have a diplomatic discussion through your minds (You said we could cheat. Yeah, go on then.) and decided that it was in your best interests to start stealing 100 notes out of the 'bank' using illusions (it was too risky to steal 500s, someone would notice), and a few times even from Nat and Clint's pile when they threw the dice before poor Steve or Bucky had time to realise someone had landed on their property. Inevitably they were out first, (you'd never seen either of them look so confused), and then Nat and Clint when they landed on Tony and Pepper's Oxford Street with a hotel. It got to eleven pm before you and Pepper managed to convince Loki and Tony that you'd run out of hotels and it was time to count the money and see who had the most to announce the winner. Shockingly, you and Loki had the most, which Tony was most unamused with and resorted to reminding you of how much money he had in real life so technically he had won the only monopoly that really mattered: real life monopoly. That did nothing to wipe the smug smirk off of Loki's face.

You realise we cheated our win, don't you?

But we won.

Yeah, by cheating.

But we beat Stark.

You decided to give up and let Loki take the win, deserved or not.

Thor went to bed first, despite the protests from everyone else that he should stay until midnight. Twelve o' clock came and went, and it was Christmas Day. With the prospect of a long day tomorrow everyone else followed in Thor's footsteps and started to leave the room; you were torn between wanting to go to bed and wanting to be alone with Loki for a bit. You hadn't spoken about last night yet. You didn't know whether you wanted to or not.

Eventually nerves got the better of you and you stood up and announced that you were going to bed. Nat, Bruce and Loki were the only ones left in the room at this point, and following your announcement Nat and Bruce swiftly stood up and said goodnight too. You felt unnecessarily nervous and a bit guilty as you followed them from the room, leaving Loki on his own in the living room.

Y/N?

You stopped, and turned around slowly. Why was your heart pounding?

"Yeah?" you replied, trying to slow your heartrate.

Loki stood up and beckoned you over, walking towards the window.

"Look."

Confused now, you crossed the room to stand next to him at the window and looked outside.

It was snowing.

"Snow! This is so cool, it'll be a white Christmas." you enthused, watching the snow fall thick and fast outside the window. How had you not noticed it before?

"Midgard is odd. It's just frozen rain and yet everyone will think it's some sort of miracle." Loki said.

"Loki, it's Christmas Day. Could you try and refrain from making unnecessary sarcastic comments for just one day?" you teased.

"I suppose. But the whole concept of 'Christmas' is just baffling. Why is there a tree over there? And why are there plants hanging from the ceiling?" he asked, gesturing towards the mistletoe Bucky had insisted on hanging in almost every doorway in the tower. You grit your teeth. Why did he have to bring up the mistletoe?

"Oh. Uh... that's mistletoe. People are meant to kiss under it, I don't know why or what the story behind it is." you said, turning your gaze back to the falling snow outside.

After that, everything happened extremely quickly.

"If you ask me it's kind of..." you trailed off as you caught sight of something happening above your head in the reflection of the window. You stared at it for a moment, confused, and then realisation slammed into you like a truck. Looking up so fast you almost cricked your neck, you saw the mistletoe growing from the ceiling above your head as if by magic. Green magic. Something weird was happening in your chest, like all the times you'd ever felt anything towards Loki before all squashed into your chest at the same time and there wasn't enough room and it was crushing your lungs and now you couldn't breathe -

Eventually you remembered that Loki was actually stood next to you, and dropped your gaze from the ceiling to his face. He was blushing.

"Kind of...?" he prompted you, searching your face in the same manner as he had the previous night, like he was trying to find something.

What was he talking about? You were certain that your ribcage was about to explode. There was a loud thundering noise in your ears. Suddenly you were overcome by the overwhelming urge to laugh, and erupted into giggles. Loki's face split into a relieved, almost apologetic grin. He took a tentative step towards you, and as he did so you were flooded with a sudden surge of utter adoration towards him. You loved him. And if he didn't make a move very soon you were not going to be held responsible for your actions.

You bit your lip as you stopped laughing, and when you looked back at him his eyes were fixated on your lips.

Kiss me.

The thought had been loud, and you knew he'd heard it as his eyes met yours. That had been unplanned. Or had it?

Loki was staring at you as though you were some exotic creature he'd never seen before in his life, a small smile still tugging at the edge of his mouth.

"Kiss you?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow. Teasing you.

"Loki," you breathed in exasperation, closing your eyes momentarily as he took a step forward to close the gap between you, "please." Then his hands were reaching for your waist and pulling you towards him, and your arms were circling around his neck, and he stopped as your lips were mere centimetres apart.

"What are you waiting for?" you whispered, feeling increasingly lightheaded. You couldn't take it anymore. Were you dreaming?

Loki smirked at you (which incidentally almost made your knees give out), and then leaned down, closing his eyes, and brushed his lips against yours. It was barely a kiss, but if he hadn't been holding on to you, you felt sure you would have been knocked off your feet. When you opened your eyes he was resting his forehead against yours, gazing at you.

"Y/N-"

That did it. Hearing him say your name like that, in a sort of hoarse whisper, tipped you over the edge and you pressed your lips against his, hard. Loki kissed you back readily, his hands sliding from your waist up to the small of your back, crushing you against him. You were pleased to note that his heart was hammering almost as fast as yours was.

After a while (you weren't sure how long it lasted for, it could have been several days and you probably wouldn't have noticed) it suddenly hit you: you were actually kissing him. And he was kissing you back. You laughed into the kiss, or it might have been a relieved sob. Either way, suddenly Loki wasn't kissing you anymore, and you reluctantly opened your eyes as he pulled away.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing." you breathed, smiling. Nothing had ever been less wrong, ever.

"Good." he said, and then he was kissing you again, and you were in heaven, surely this was heaven.

After another unspecified amount of time you suddenly remembered that you needed to breathe; you pulled away and gasped, feeling more than slightly elated. Loki was smiling, keeping a tight hold on you while you recovered. When the thundering in your ears had decreased slightly, you looked back at him, still trying to remember how to breathe. He was looking at you in such a way that you thought you might just melt into a puddle on the floor.

Are you okay?

You opened your mouth, but no sound came out, and you just stood there blinking at him, wondering how and why this beautiful god had decided to kiss you of all people... You'd have to rely on your mind, your vocal chords appeared to be broken.

Yes. God, yes.

His smile stretched wider, and you smiled too when he closed his eyes and rested his forehead against yours, squeezing you gently.

Finally.

...

Author's note: Thank you all for hanging on with me through 36 chapters to get to this, they don't call it a slow burn for nothing XD The slow burn may be over but the story most definitely is not, I hope you guys stick around for the second half of this journey, and thank you so much to everyone reading, voting, commenting and sharing this story! <3