It was dusk when you woke again, which wasn't surprising, since you were a vampire after all. You could stay up through the daylight hours, unlike most new vampires, but you were still drained from months of not eating properly. Since you had gone straight to the bedroom and passed out, you hadn't paid attention to the rest of the suite. You finally looked around your suite and saw that on top of the bedroom and attached bathroom, you also had a small living room and a kitchenette. It was actually a cute little apartment they'd given you.

Your first stop was to get a proper way too hot shower. Showers had been very short for the last couple of months, and supervised with a Natasha right outside of the shower. It was annoying and embarrassing. So you relished in the hot water now. It wasn't until after you were thoroughly clean and warm that you realized that there were no clean clothes in your room. Well, that was a massive oversight. You sighed heavily in your towel dress, resigning yourself to old gross clothes that you were going to have to clean by magic. You waved a hand over your jeans and grinned when they were cleaned with magic. It wasn't a spell you'd used often, but you had the knack of it. At least you thought you did when the rest of your clothes were clean too. Until your shirt burst into flames. You shrieked and jumped away from it, glad you had tried to clean it before putting it on.

"Y/N?" Loki's voice asked from the doorway between your sitting room and the hall a moment later while you were trying to figure out how to safely extinguish your shirt. You were also glad you had put on the rest of your clothes before the shirt burst into flames.

"In here!" you called, turning the shower back on. Loki rushed into the room as you gestured to the shirt and threw it in the shower with magic to be extinguished by the water. A strong arm encircled your waist and hauled you backwards away from the flaming shirt into your bedroom.

"What are you doing?" Loki demanded after he had set you back on your feet and had verified you were ok and not on fire. He knew that vampires and fire were a bad combination. He waved at the shower and the fire was gone, as was the shirt, and the shower was back off again.

You sighed heavily and crossed your arms over your chest, self conscious standing in front of your very male-shaped friend with no better shirt than your bra. You were suddenly very aware how male he was. He was quite male. And quite a handsome male. Shut up brain, that wasn't helpful.

"No one thought to supply the vampire with any clothes, and I wasn't getting back in dirty clothes when I was clean..." you told him grumpily. "So I was using magic to clean mine... the shirt didn't approve of the spell apparently," you grumbled, growling softly at the stupid shirt and the stupid spell that went wrong. It really wasn't a spell you were comfortable using, obviously.

Loki chuckled, but was flushing and wouldn't look at you. He was so very many shades of red, it was adorable. Were his cheeks actually turning purple? "So it appears. Clint and Lady Natasha are taking you shopping after dinner. You can borrow one of my shirts," he told you and summoned a shirt and handed it to you. You threw it on quickly, turning your back to him as you did.

"Thanks," you told him, embarrassed. "Were you looking for me?" you asked to change the subject, asking him why he was over here.

"I was going to see if you were up and walk you to dinner, but then you screamed," he explained. You nodded. That was fair.

You laughed. "Stupid shirt," you replied. "Shall we go find dinner, then?" you asked with a grin. He smiled and inclined his head and the pair of you left your suite. He gestured toward the elevator. You chatted comfortably with him as you walked. He'd become a good friend over the last couple of months.

"Hey Kid! Loki," Clint greeted the two of you when you got off the elevator. He actually came in from the kitchen to give you a hug. "What's with the shirt?" he asked you. You finally looked down at what shirt Loki had given you to wear. It was green and had an image of a golden horned helmet on it. You looked at Loki and raised an eyebrow. He gave you a much too innocent look.

"I tried to clean mine after my shower and it ended poorly. Loki was kind enough to let me borrow one of his," you finally replied.

"And he just had to pick one with a picture of his ugly hat on it!" Tony laughed.

"What do they mean?" you asked Loki, wanting in on this joke, since they were laughing at what appeared to be your expense, and whatever it was, he was behind it. He chuckled and his magic shimmered around him until he was wearing black and green leather battle armor, and a golden horned helmet on his head. You'd seen the superhero costumes of the rest of the team and figured this was his. The helmet must be his trademark, kinda like Cap's shield.

You sighed and rolled your eyes at the trickster. "You're incorrigible, did you know that?" you asked, teasing him. His clothes shimmered back to normal and he shrugged, trying to look innocent. His innocent look was completely ineffective.

Had you been in a romantic relationship, you might have thought he was making a statement by surrounding you with his scent which would be obvious to any of the vampires. He could also be accused of making a statement by the shirt he had given you having an image of his helmet, like that you were his, or under his protection or something. But that was only if you were in a romantic relationship.

Which you were not.

Totally.

"My brother does like tricks. At least this one is fairly harmless," Thor told you warmly. You laughed and agreed.

"Come, sit, join us!" Nat bid you warmly, gesturing to the table. Cap came in from the kitchen carrying a plate of steaks and bowl of mashed potatoes. Tony followed carrying more dishes. Loki steered you to one of the chairs. The rest appeared to be already claimed. The rest of the team sat as well and soon the plates were passed around the table, just like family dinner. It made you smile.

"So kid, what's your story anyway?" Tony asked, not unkindly, just curiously, with a hint of a spark that he might have remembered you.

You smirked at him, not surprised he didn't remember. "I was a recipient of the Stark Industries Dreamer's scholarship," you informed him with a grin. You'd met him before at a ceremony when you'd been awarded the full-ride scholarship. The entire team looked surprised by that.

"Wait- you're-?" He spluttered.

"Y/N, the girl with four bachelor's degrees at 18. I was about a year from my MD and PhD," you added with a grin. It was fun to tease Tony.

"You died four years ago!" he protested, actually looking sad. You didn't realize he knew of you that well.

"Well... you're not wrong," you admitted with a touch of sorrow in your voice. "The queen of the vampire seethe found me because of my magic and decided I needed to be one of them."

"You have magic?" Nat asked curiously.

"A little, nothing fancy, a little telekinesis, a little pyrokinesis, some ineffective spellwork..." you grumbled and gestured to your borrowed shirt, earning yourself a laugh. That was all of your back-story you were willing to go into at the moment and the team let the topic drop as they introduced more of their back-stories for your behalf.

You felt a flicker of magic and looked up to see glasses of red wine appear in front of everyone at the table. You shot Loki a grateful glance and a murmured 'thanks' as you picked up yours. You had a feeling that yours was the only one spiked with blood, but with everyone having a glass, you wouldn't have to explain why you were drinking it. Thoughtful Loki.

You were also going to have to come up with a solution that didn't involve him donating blood to you all the time. Which meant that you were going to have to tell the others about your dietary needs at some point.

They wouldn't understand.

After dinner Nat and Clint did take you shopping to get a whole new wardrobe. You were surprised that Loki wasn't coming with you until he reminded you that he was on house arrest too. Clint had to carry all of the bags and you protested how much Nat was spending until she told you it was all being charged to Tony's card, plus it was all necessities.

"Um... guys... c-can we make one more stop before we go home?" you asked softly, too hesitantly, but nervously.

"Where to, kid?" Clint asked brightly, not denying your request, just asking where he was driving you to. You hesitated too long. "Just spit it out. We're not going to make fun,"

"It's embarrassing," you told them.

"Obviously," Nat said dryly. "I can tell you all sorts of embarrassing stories about this loon," she gestured at Clint who stuck his tongue out at her in reply.

"You're not squeaky clean either, or should I tell her about the time you knocked yourself out with your own widow's stings?" Nat glared at him and there was a knife in her hand. "So, where are we stopping?" Clint asked you kindly, completely ignoring the knife at his throat like it was a common occurrence.

"A butcher's shop?" you finally spat the words out and stared down at your lap, embarrassed. Neither commented, but Clint drove straight there while he and Nat argued over what actually happened in Budapest. They came in with you because you were technically on house arrest, but neither commented when you bought lamb and cow's blood from the butcher. That would save Loki and was way more humane than drinking human blood. You caught a glance between the two of them and they obviously approved of the solution, though hadn't thought of it themselves.

On the way up to your suite with all of the bags, Nat made a passing comment that the computer system named Jarvis ordered all of the food and deliverable items for the tower. Your order from the butcher's shop was within his capabilities to order. You thanked her for the information and stashed the blood in the fridge in your kitchenette. Clint put your bags down on your couch and they left you to get unpacked.

You did that quickly, then found yourself bored and since the sun was down, decided to explore the other floors of the tower. You found the library, which had way too many books, but no occupants at the moment. Found everyone's rooms and finally found something that interested you immensely and R&D science lab.

Tony found you there at a stupidly early hour of the morning, upside down under one of his iron man suits with a pile of wrenches, bolts, wires, and other mechanical things around you. "What are you doing? How did you even get in here?" Tony demanded. You slid out from under the suit.

"I'm fixing the bug in the Mach 30," you told him pleasantly, not caring that you were covered in grime. This was fun. "The specs were off, which was causing the power issue, and Jarvis let me in... after I forcibly convinced him to..." you added a bit sheepishly. He raised an eyebrow, but brushed that part off.

"What do you mean the specs were off? I designed those myself," he protested. You sighed and stood and pulled up the specs on the screens you'd been working off of.

"Here's the original," you showed him and pointed. "This coupling was off, which caused the short and the depletion from the arc reactor. I bypassed it to here, and rerouted the power," you explained, pointing out your work on the schematics.

"How-?" he asked, not upset, just impressed.

"Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Biology," you listed off your majors.

"Well, Tinkerbell, shall we get to work?" he asked with a grin. You smirked and together got back to work on improving his suit.

Loki and a woman named Pepper found you both around noon the next day. You were staring over schematics and neither had noticed that you hadn't slept. Tony was surviving on coffee and excitement over a new science friend. Bruce had come in during the night and was passed out in the corner on the pile of pillows and blankets there for that purpose. Pepper grabbed Tony by the ear, hauling him away from his work. "You were supposed to come to bed hours ago," she told him and dragged him from the room by his ear.

"But we were working!" he protested. You laughed and watched him get hauled away. "Oi, Tinkerbell! I'll get you an actual keycard for the lab!" He promised. "You should come work at Stark Industries when Romanoff finishes making your new identity!"

"Bed, Tony," Pepper told him firmly and dragged him from the room.

You were still laughing at his predicament. At least you were until Loki came over to you and calmly threw you over his shoulder. "Loki!" you protested and smacked his back, careful not to use your full strength and hurt him.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" he asked you as he carried you away from the lab. You didn't realize how tired you were until you were away from your work.

"I don't need that much sleep," you protested. "I was working," you added.

"So I've heard, but it's noon, love. Bedtime for vampires," he reminded you. You yawned hugely and stopped arguing. You were surprised it had taken him this long to track down where you'd gone.

"Fine," you told him after you could finally close your jaw again. "Put me down. I'm perfectly capable of walking,"

"Hmm... I could, but you might try to run back to your work instead of going to bed where vampires are supposed to be at noon..." he mused, teasing.

"Loki~"

"Very well," he finally agreed. "But only because you distracted Stark from fixing the elevator." He set you carefully on your feet and kept an arm around your shoulders to make sure you didn't bolt into the lab.

"I didn't distract him. He distracted himself," you replied. "Can we get something to eat before you insist I need to go to bed?" you asked as you stepped into the elevator. He huffed and sighed and looked put-upon, but agreed. You rolled your eyes before you stepped into his arms to hide from the sun, trusting him to shield you and keep you safe. "I'm not asking for blood. Besides, I have a whole fridge full now upstairs," you informed him when you were safely on the main floor again. You hadn't seen him since your stop at the butcher's and had to explain the trip there. It was almost safe to tease him about donating blood, mostly because he didn't have to anymore. "But I've had nothing but coffee since dinner and should eat something," He couldn't argue with that point. You washed up and dug in the fridge for something to make. Loki watched with interest while you worked. "Sorry, it's simple," you told him, deciding on grilled cheese and tomato soup and made enough for him too. You saw how he and Thor ate at dinner last night and realized that they were bottomless pits.

"I'm sure it is fine," he replied. You realized then that he didn't realize that you'd made enough for him. Poor baby. You handed him a sandwich on a plate and bowl of soup. He looked confused when you plated the other sandwich for yourself.

"That one's yours, silly," you told him with a bright smile. He just stared at you in shock. You grinned and headed into the living room and turned on Judge Judy. He followed you and joined you on the other side of the couch. "I've missed this stupid show," you informed him while you ate. "Mom and I used to watch it all the time after school,"

"It is a televised trial?" he asked doubtfully. You pulled the blanket from the back of the couch around yourself, shivering.

"Are you alright, love?" Loki asked, watching you.

You nodded. "It's just chilly in here," you told him with a smile. The temperature shouldn't have bothered you. It didn't bother the other vampires to not be able to regulate their body temperatures, but it always bothered you. "Anyway, the show's entertaining because the judge doesn't put up with any nonsense and all of the people try to lie to her," you explained. He looked interested then and got invested in the stupid daytime television. He summoned a teapot and two cups and handed you one when it was filled. He didn't notice when you moved next to him on the couch to refill your cup after the first one had warmed you. Or maybe he had noticed, since his arm was on the back of the couch. You set the teacup down after the second cup.

Somehow, your head ended up on his chest while you bit back a yawn. You didn't know how, even as you laughed and chatted about the stupid people on the equally dumb daytime television. You didn't notice when your responses were becoming sluggish, when his arm draped over you comfortably. You didn't question why your eyes weren't staying open. Or how you'd blinked and suddenly half the episode was over. Loki chuckled and made sure your feet were covered by the blanket. He kissed your forehead and settled you more comfortably in his arms.

"Stubborn little vampire," he told you softly, in a tone that had this relationship been romantic, might have been called loving exasperation.

"Hmm?"

"Shh, love," his cool lips pressed against your forehead again, his fingers ran through your hair. "Go back to sleep," he bid you softly. You settled more comfortably and actually did as you were told.