You were already in your lab working when Loki found you the next morning. "Did you eat?" he asked accusingly when he came into the lab. You had the giant pot of coffee next to where you were working, but no food that he could see.

"I've eaten," you replied. You could nearly hear him roll his eyes, he rolled them so hard.

"Have you eaten since dinner last night?" he clarified his question.

You laughed and finally looked away from your work. "Does coffee count?" you asked innocently.

"No, love. Coffee does not in fact count as a food. Come on, food, then I'll help you with the power supply problem," he tried to bribe you.

"Give me a sec to finish this so it doesn't blow up," you said, turning back to concentrate on the piece your were working on. He sighed heavily and pulled you in your rolly-chair away from the table.

"Now, darling," he told you firmly. You glared up at him. He laughed and threw you over his shoulder in one fluid motion.

"Loki!" you shrieked and smacked his back. He laughed and started swiftly from the room. "If that blows up, I'm going to be mad at you," you warned him.

"I expect nothing less," he replied with a smile in his voice. You huffed and grumped at him, but he didn't put you down until set you on your usual chair in the dining room. A plate of eggs and sausage appeared in front of you courtesy of Nat.

"You're just like your dad," she laughed. "Neither of you remember to eat or sleep until someone reminds you how long it's been since the last time you did either activity."

You laughed in reply. "I had to reprogram Jarvis to shut down all of his machines if he tried to go more than three days without doing those activities," you reminded her with a reminiscing smile. "He's gotten better,"

"You've gotten worse," Nat retorted. "Don't forget, it's girls' night, so you have to leave your lab this evening." You nodded in reply. "Sorry, Loki, you're not a girl. You'll have to entertain yourself," Nat teased the god.

"Are you certain of that?" Loki asked pleasantly. With a flash of green magic, Loki was female. Nat laughed and you giggled, though Loki was equally attractive as a female. You forgot that he was capable of shapeshifting. He didn't use the skill much around the tower.

"Fine, Lady Loki can come," Nat relented with a laugh.

"Yay!" Loki exclaimed, clapping her hands in glee, as she took a plate of breakfast from Nat and sat next to you. "Eat, Y/N," she reminded you. You'd forgotten about eating in the excitement. Loki shifted back to male and you two ate breakfast quickly. Loki helped you wash the dishes. He didn't enjoy the chore any more than you did, but you splashed him with soapy water and you were silly about it, which made it slightly more enjoyable. You'd explained how it was fair to clean up, since Nat had made you two breakfast, so he didn't complain too much about helping.

*

You spent the rest of the day with Loki in your lab. He knew a lot more about technology than he had let on and you both poured over your design schematics all afternoon. Between the two of you, you got the power-supply issue resolved, plus some. That led to you scrapping the original project and starting on about ten new ideas while Jarvis made quite a few of the power supplies for you. You'd asked Karen to ask Jarvis to make the power supplies. You'd found out that Tony kept a record of what you asked Jarvis to do, especially things in the lab, but he hadn't thought to keep track of what you had Karen ask Jarvis to do. You were exploiting that fact for as long as you could.

Loki sat quietly reading while you assembled the final pieces. He wasn't good at this part and decided staying out of the way was safer than getting burned or worse by attempting to help. You slipped the metal bangles on your wrists when they were assembled, a huge grin on your face. "Might want to stay back," you warned Loki when you moved away from your lab table and closer to Dum-dum (Dum-e's little brother) so you could test them out. Loki looked up, but stayed where he was, hopefully out of danger. You saw the change in his demeanor and knew he was prepared to protect himself and you if something went wrong.

You hit a side button on the bangles at the same time and both transformed into repulsor gloves, similar to Tony's Ironman gloves, but thinner. The gauntlets went up nearly to your elbows. You grinned that this part had worked. With a practiced move from trying out one of Tony's suits, which he didn't know about, or at least you really hoped he still didn't know about, you fired off one of the repulsors. He wouldn't be pleased if he found out. You fired it off a few more times and Karen informed you the power was still at 100%. The mini arc reactors would continually recharge themselves for at least a year. You grinned that it was working so well.

"Congratulations!" Loki called from where he was sitting. He was watching the show, proud of your accomplishment. You then did something incredibly stupid, pointing both repulsors at the ground like you had watched Tony do thousands of times. You used them both at the same time, trying to fly. At least you got off the ground. Unfortunately, you got off of the ground too quickly and hit the ceiling hard before you could make the correction. "Y/N!" Loki exclaimed, running over as you crashed back to the floor.

"Ow," you grumbled, dazed and in pain. "Dad's going to be pissed that I'm bleeding. Again." Loki was looking over your head where you'd smashed it into the ceiling. He was already holding a cloth to your head to stem the bleeding.

He hesitated, but sighed and finally said. "I can fix this," he said, but his voice was still hesitant.

"You don't have to, the idea is making you uncomfortable," you told him. "A band-aid will do just fine," you told him with a smile.

He rolled his eyes. "This would require stitches, not a band-aid." He said dryly. "And it's not that... healing is not one of my usual gifts. I can heal this, but I would...appreciate...if you would stay with me afterwards so I can recover from using that much magic," he said softly. You rarely if ever heard him say anything that would show a sign of weakness. It was a testament to how much he liked and trusted you that he was saying something now.

You nodded. "We can go upstairs and watch a movie. I'm done playing with these for the day anyway," you told him with a smile. You pressed the buttons on the gauntlets and they turned back into bangle bracelets on your wrists. Loki relaxed and called his magic, healing the deep cut on your head. You saw instantly how much it drained him. He sagged against you sleepily. You smiled softly at him and kissed his forehead. "Thank you," you told him gently.

It took effort, but you got to your feet and helped pull him to his, wrapping one of his arms over your shoulders and holding him by the waist to keep him on his feet. "I can't carry you," you reminded him when he complained about getting to his feet. "Karen, lock the lab," you ordered the AI as you and Loki left your lab. The lock wouldn't keep Tony or Pepper out, but it would keep everyone else from messing with your stuff.

You settled Loki on the couch, quickly set up a movie, and sat on the couch with him. He laid his head in your lap and you spent the movie running your fingers through his hair. He relaxed into a melty purring puddle the second you started running your fingers through his hair and was asleep almost instantly. You made a mental note that his third weakness was having his hair brushed.

*

He was looking much better a few hours later when the girls started arriving for girls' night. He sat up when they started arriving, not wanting the rest of the team to catch him weakened after healing you. "Brother, we are going out for a male bonding night!" Thor announced loudly. "The females are taking over the tower tonight! You should join us!"

Loki shifted to female in reply. "I am staying here. Natasha invited me," Lady Loki replied with a grin. She loved being invited and included, even if she wouldn't admit it most of the time.

"Very well, Sister," Thor replied, as though Loki's shift to female didn't surprised him in the least. "Enjoy your evening, ladies," Thor bid you all. The men escaped from the tower as fast as they could.

They didn't know that while you did all paint your nails, you also got self defense lessons from Nat and watched action movies. As per tradition, you all stayed up way too late watching movies, discussing the stupid boys who lived with you, telling stories, and just enjoying a male-free night. Loki enjoyed being accepted by the women as one of your own and had so much fun learning how to paint her nails. You were all hanging out in a pillow-pile in the middle of the livingroom, that's where you all fell asleep, and where the guys found you at 3 in the morning when they returned from their night out.

They tiptoed loudly through the livingroom, careful not to step on any of the women. You woke just enough to notice that Tony was tucking a blanket around Pepper. Clint was doing the same for Nat. Thor covered you and Loki with a single blanket, since you were curled up together in the pillow pile. Tony wasn't happy, but didn't say anything, since Loki was currently a woman, and obviously nothing had happened in a room full of Avenger ladies.