I stumble slightly when we land in the living area of Avengers Tower in a flash of green within the time it took me to blink. I instantly crouch over, grabbing the edge of the couch in front of me for support, and clutch my stomach due to the queasy feeling instantly raking through my body.

I have always been very prone to motion sickness and clearly, teleportation was not exempt from that.

"Oh I'm sorry, I should have warned you. It can be pretty disorientating the first few times you teleport." Loki says while walking closer to where I am still struggling to breathe without feeling like my stomach is being twisted inside out.

"It's all good, but I don't think I will ever get used to that," I say, still crouched over, now resting my clammy hand on my forehead.

Father is about to say something else until he is cut off by another voice in the room that I did not notice before.

"Finnley?! You're back!" Dr. Banner shouts from the other side of the room, clearly just running in.

I lift up my head to look at him.

"Oh, hey Dr. Banner." I instantly change my personality, my tone nonchalant to hide the actual emotion behind it.

"Everyone has been looking for you! Where were you?"

I pause for a moment. "I honestly could not tell you, I'm not sure."

Dr. Banner finally seems to take note of Loki also in the room.

"Wait- Loki, you found them?" He asks skeptically.

"I did," Loki says simply.

"Y-you're not supposed to leave the tower, you can't just-"

"Would you have rather I left you to search for her for who knows how long? When it may have already been too late?" Loki cuts him off.

Dr. Banner looks very caught off guard that Loki is speaking up for himself for once, but he is suddenly saved by Tony, still in his suit, very quickly bursting through the balcony door.

"FRIDAY you said she was here-" he cuts himself off when he sees me standing in the center of the room. "Oh thank god, I was worried about you kid."

"Uhh, thanks," I say awkwardly, thrown off guard and not knowing what to expect.

As Tony is stepping out of his suit he talks to FRIDAY as he does. "FRIDAY, let everyone know that Finnley is back at the tower, have them all come back."

"A-all of them?" I ask, surprised. They were all looking for me?

"Of course kid, we were all very worried. We saw the news and we-"

I cut him off, starting to breathe heavier, my nonchalant mask slipping.

"I-it's on the news? Y-you know... you-"

"Hey hey Finnley it's all right, we are going to figure this out."

Tony tries to step closer but I quickly shake my head and step back.

They are going to turn me in. They are going to separate me from the kids.

"No, no you can't- you... I can't be separated from them... I can't."

My breathing becomes even more labored, I can't get the air past my throat.

Is this how Scarlet felt? Is this what I caused?

My chest aches and the room spins around me. I back away further from everyone, clutching my chest.

I need to get out of here. They are going to separate me and the kids.

I am barely able to make out the voices around me, they all sound muffled and distant.

My vision darts all around the room, not able to focus on anything. But then my entire vision is taken up by Loki as he crouches down in front of me. He grabs my shoulders, causing me to flinch. I see a guilty and pained expression cross his face before he quickly tries to replace it with a comforting smile.

I watch as his mouth moves and he starts saying something, but I can not make it out, it all sounds like everything is underwater.

He squeezes my shoulders more firmly, slowly pulling me back to reality and his voice starts to gradually become clearer.

"-sten to me, It is alright. No one is going to do anything. No one is going to call the police. They just want to talk. It's going to be ok I promise."

My eyes start to dart past Father's head and around the room again. When I see the faces of most of the team now staring at me, my breathing picks up again.

Loki slowly places a hand on my cheek, pulling me to look back at him.

"Look at me, nowhere else. Just focus on me. Can you do that?"

I nod slightly, it takes a lot more energy than it should. I bring up both my arms to desperately grab at his arm that is still holding my face. I am holding him in a death grip, but he does not complain or show any discomfort, he only smiles and continues.

"Good. Now copy me, take a deep breath. Can you do that?"

I try, but it is very difficult. Why is breathing so hard? This is something that I can literally do in my sleep, but now the task seems impossible.

He very gently pries one of my hands off of his arm and brings it to lay on his chest, holding it against him.

"It's ok, just copy me. You can do it, I know you can."

I feel his chest going up and down taking quick breaths. It seems doable so I try to do the same, timing my breaths with his, still only looking at him and ignoring the world around me.

"You are doing so well." he encourages as he starts to gradually slow down his breaths slightly. Slowly becoming deeper and more drawn out, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth and I follow along.

"Good, good," he says when he continues this pattern until eventually both our breaths match a slow pace that actually allows me to take in the air that I need.

When my body can finally function again and my mind clears I slowly pry my hands off of Loki, suddenly realizing how hard I was gripping his arm. He gives me a reassuring smile. I then look past him and towards the rest of the room, this time controlling my breathing as I do. 

Loki steps away from me, standing off to the side but staying in my vision so that I can look at him through the corner of my eye. I then turn to the rest of the people in the room, still staring at me with varying degrees of concern on their faces. 

Once I finally collect my words, they seem slightly surprised at my first question.

"Where is Peter?"

"Wait, is no one going to address what Loki just-" Tony begins but is quickly cut off.

Steve steps forward to speak up. "I'm not sure, he left when we did."

I nod and then pull out my phone, quickly starting to type away. I tell RUBY, which I only just recently integrated into my phone, to get past Peter's firewalls in his suit and let him know that I am in the tower and to come here. I don't want to have to explain this more than once.

I really don't want to explain this at all, but I know that there is no way around it. Especially since they apparently know what happened tonight, along with half of New York.

"Are you able to tell us what happened?" Mr. Rogers speaks in a careful voice.

"Can we just wait for Peter to get here, please?"

"Finnley, he could be halfway across the city by now, it is going to take him a while to get here."

It will not take him long at all to get here, he could be halfway across New York and could still get here in a few minutes, but I can't tell them that.

I am also now realizing that after hearing both names, how much more I like my real name, Lulla, more than the name that I was convinced was mine for so long. I always liked the name Finnley, I didn't have anything against it, and it was given to me by my first caretaker who was a very lovely lady. I just never felt like it actually truly fit, and now I know why.

I am pulled out of my thoughts when Mr. Rogers speaks up to me again, trying to regain my attention.

"Uh, he will be here in just a few min-"

I am cut off mid-sentence by the elevator door opening and a frantic Peter rushing out. I also watch as he very hastily tries to shove the rest of his Spiderman suit under his collar hiding it as he stumbles out. As soon as he spots me he instantly rushes over and envelops me in a massive hug.

"Oh thank goodness you are ok. I am so sorry, I should have- I sh-"

"Peter, it's ok. I'm fine."

He pulls back slightly, looking me over, making sure that I actually am fine. When he finally decides that I am in fact in no immediate danger he steps back with a nod.

"Alright, can you tell us now what happened?" Tony asks, not unkindly, but in a tone that doesn't leave room for debate.

I look toward Father with a worried face. He gives me a small reassuring smile and subtly nods his head. He will be there with me.

"I guess I don't really have much of a choice," I mumble.

All of us make our way towards the couches and all find a spot. I sit in the center of the medium-sized couch, with both Loki and Peter on either side of me. There are several looks from the Avengers that clearly show that they don't like that Loki is sitting next to me, but I ignore them and they thankfully don't actually say anything.

I take a deep breath and try to form words. It doesn't feel as hard to say this time, I already told one person and that was the hardest part. Getting over that rule that I set for myself so long ago, the fact that I can't ever tell anyone what was going on because it would separate me from the kids, was the most difficult thing. Now that I got over that, it is still going to be awful to retell and I most certainly do not want to, but I feel like it is at least possible.

"I don't know where to start," I say quietly, looking down at my lap where I am fidgeting with my hands.

"Just start wherever is easiest." Ms. Romanoff says gently. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

A/n - More of Loki helping Lulla through panic attacks because I am vicariously living through Lulla and I am working overtime trying to heal my daddy issues. Deal with it.