"Kyrie, I have errands to run this morning. Would you come with me?" Thor asked you at breakfast. You glanced at Loki automatically to see if he needed you instead, your duty was to him after all, but he didn't look up from his breakfast.

"You need an official escort?" you teased Thor. It was within his rights to ask for an official escort, even though your assignment was to Loki. It was a complicated system.

He laughed. "Something like that," he agreed.

You gave him a look. "You just want me to drive, since you haven't bothered learning how yet," you accused.

"Maybe I would like to spend time with you outside of the tower. Just because you were closer to Loki growing up, we all grew up together and you were basically my little sister," you kept neglecting that part. He'd been an annoying older brother to you too and always hanging around Lady Sif and the Warriors Three. "You've barely left other than missions since you moved in. You're not on house arrest and you deserve to have fun too. So I would like for you to come with me,"

"Wait, so he's your brother, and she's your sister, and they dated and no one thinks that's weird?" Tony demanded from the other end of the table. You, Loki, and Thor just stared at him.

"You do realize none of them are acutally related, right?" Nat asked Tony as if he were stupid.

"But he just said-"

"Let me recap for you, shellhead," you growled, summoning your gloves and putting them on in case you had to defenestrate Tony for being stupid. You saw the barest hint of a smirk on Loki's face. "Thor and Loki were told they were brothers and grew up as such, not finding out until a couple of years ago that Loki was adopted. I was Loki's best friend from the cradle. Not sister. Thor treated us both like annoying little siblings. Got it?" you growled, hating defending something so stupid from Tony.

"Yup, I really don't feel like crashing through a window this morning. Carry on with your breakfast," Tony replied quickly. One of these days you were going to break in there and fix everything for him just to annoy the shit out of him. Asgardian technology was years ahead of the stuff in Tony's lab.

You finished your breakfast and vanished the plate clean to the cabinet. "Shall we, Lady?" Thor asked, offering you a hand. You placed your gloved hand in his and let him pull you to your feet.

"Take care of my Valkyrie," Loki snarled at his brother before you left the room. You hid your smile. He did want to make amends.

"She is safe in my care, Brother," Thor replied jovially, giving you too wide of a smile. He knew your reaction, but you gave it anyway.

You growled. "I'm the bodyguard here," you snarled at Thor. It was literally your job and you'd trained for it from birth.

"Yes, you are, little Valkyrie," he agreed. You glared. He was giving up too easily. "But my job is still to look out for your well being too," he reminded you. You glared and grumbled, but didn't try to argue with him again.

Instead...

"Did I tell you guys about the time Thor and his warrior friends nearly got their asses handed to them by the bog monster they swore they could handle by themselves, despite that it was an elemental creature?" you asked the rest of the team innocently. You wouldn't argue with Thor, but you had plenty of embarrassing childhood stories to share.

Thor's warm hand clamped over your mouth, his other arm around your waist. "Enough of that. Come along, Kyrie," he stopped you from finishing the story, but was chuckling.

"Tell the story!" Tony protested. You raised your hands in surrender, but Thor dragged you from the room anyway and didn't let you go until you were nearly at the elevator. You were still laughing when you summoned a light jacket to throw over your t-shirt, though the weather didn't really require it. You didn't want the mortals accidentally bumping into you. Also you could hide way more blades under a jacket than under a t-shirt.

You left the tower hand-in-hand with Thor, just an old familiar casuality to the action, but you caught the jealous look in Loki's eyes anyway.

*

Spending the day out of the tower with Thor was fun. You did have to drive because he still refused to learn how. He was excited to visit all of the Midgardian shops and didn't really have any errands, but just wanted to get out of the tower. You had a nice lunch at a burger place where you both won their eating challenge and got t-shirts for your effort. Five minutes later there was a sign attached to the eating contest rules stating that Asgardians couldn't compete. You still had a picture of the two of you up on the wall for winning. He had even dutifully not complained when you wanted to visit the bookstore and then wouldn't let you leave until you'd picked out an acceptable number of new books to adopt.

You had to stop to take selfies with people when they recognized Thor. You were still mostly unknown, though you did get mistaken for Lady Loki once. You'd also had to answer a lot of questions about whether you were dating Thor.

Thor's phone went 'Ta-da!' in Loki's voice while you were milling around the mall aimlessly. Thor reached in his pocket to check it while you raised an eyebrow at him at his choice of notification noises.

"Why is that your notification sound?" you asked when he put the phone back in his pocket. You also wanted to know what the message was, but that would be rude to ask. He wasn't sharing either.

"Stark set it up," Thor grumbled. "And I have not yet figured out how to change it," he pouted.

You wandered a couple more stores before Thor announced that he was tired of shopping and ready to head home. You agreed. It was after lunchtime, and you were tired of dealing with Thor's fans. When you arrived back at the tower, you vanished all of your books up to your room to sort through later instead of trying to carry them.

"Thor, Y/N, we need you in Lab C," Cap's voice came over Jarvis' PA system when you and Thor stepped into the elevator to head back into the tower proper.

"What's going on?" you asked.

"Just get here," Cap replied. You looked over at Thor, who just shrugged. You had a dagger in your hand before you got to the lab and stepped in front of Thor to enter first. You weren't letting him put himself in danger unnecessarily. He stepped back, letting you take your proper guard position.

You opened the door to the lab and just stared in shock.

You stepped through the doorway, still in awe. You just couldn't believe it.

There were tears of joy in your eyes, of disbelief, shock, awe, astonishment.

You were home.

The lab and whatever its usual contents had been were gone. Instead a room you hadn't seen in 900 years was waiting for you. It was technically one of Loki's sitting rooms, but it had become a shared space by the time you were 10. It was just as much yours as his. You spent so very much time here, nearly every single free moment you'd had growing up on Asgard.

It was perfect. The plush rugs on the tiled floor, the couches in front of the fireplace, with their end tables and lamps, bookshelves along the wall, the desk big enough that you could both work at it, currently holding a selection of books and papers and the ever present pitchers of mead and fruit juice, weapons rack on a separate wall, the giant glass doors leading out onto the balcony. The lighting was perfect, the feel of the slightly sea scented air was perfect, the golden hue from the surrounding city was perfect. It even smelled like home.

You hadn't been here in 900 years, but it was still home. You couldn't express how it felt to be here after so long.

Every single tiny detail was absolutely perfect.

Including the Loki who was uncurling himself from his couch, closing his book carefully, dressed in a green Asgardian tunic and black pants. He had a small tentative smile. "Surprise, Kyrie-love," he greeted you warmly, the even more pet name of your old nickname sliding effortlessly off of his silver tongue.

You ever so vaguely noticed Thor closing the door, having not entered the room, giving you your privacy. Damn older brother had kept you out of the tower while Loki was crafting this surprise.

You had your hand to your mouth, had unconsciously used magic to change into an Asgardian style tunic and leggings of your own, had unconsciously vanished the dagger, and took another step into the room. "How-?" you managed softly, stunned beyond words.

Loki smiled and stepped over to you. "D-do you like it?" he asked nervously. It was an understandable response. You were so shocked you could barely speak and had tears of joy in your eyes. Easy to misinterpret.

"Lohk, it's perfect!" you told him, staring around in awe. You finally turned your attention to the man instead of the wonderful gift.

He was talking to you again!

"Darling, I am so, so, sorry. I never should have treated you like that just because I was angry and hurt by the Allfather. I hope you might find it in your heart to forgive me," Loki told you with a vulnerability you hadn't seen from him in too many years to count. "It's not much, and I can't keep it going more than a day, but I thought you would appreciate the token of a taste of home," he gestured around the room. "I do not wish to lose your love, we have already lost too much time as it is, and I pray I have not done so already. I sincerely hope someday you will forgive me enough to take me back..."

Before he could finish that thought, you had closed the last of the distance between you, your arms around his neck, your fingers wound in his hair, and, after the briefest hesitation for consent, your lips met his for the first time in years.

You really were finally home.