You successfully pulled the all-nighter, watching as Loki healed throughout the night. You studied by the light of his bedside lamp for the entire night, one hand on the dagger next to you, just in case. Though you kept glancing at Loki while he slept. It was amazing to watch the healing spells work and he was very nearly healed by morning. He didn't stir the entire night, while the spells worked.

You were also grateful that he woke before your alarm went off so you didn't have to make any difficult decisions, such as whether or not to wake him before he was startled awake by your alarm. "Morning," you greeted him softly when he stirred.

His eyes flew open and daggers appeared in his hands as he jolted up, scanning the room for danger. "Easy, Loki, easy, it's just me!" you reassured him, though you had a dagger floating threateningly at your throat. You waited, without moving, for him to realize who you were.

Loki wouldn't hurt you, you knew that. Even half asleep, he wouldn't hurt you.

You hoped.

It took a moment for his eyes to calm as he took in the scene. The daggers all vanished and he pulled you into his arms with horror in his eyes. "Y/N! I'm so, so sorry," he exclaimed, then kept saying the words over and over again while he held you, rocking you as if he couldn't believe he'd nearly slit your throat. It was strange to hear him use your actual name, which is how you knew exactly how distressed he was.

"It's ok. I'm sorry you startled you," you replied soothingly. You had known he wouldn't hurt you, even if a dagger at your throat was terrifying. Loki had just had to remember that you were there, that it was you in his room. That he was safe. You knew the torture he had been through was what had made him so jumpy.

Loki kissed your forehead and finally loosened his grip, convinced he hadn't hurt you. "What did I ever do to deserve you?" he whispered against your hair.

"Are you feeling better?" you asked, instead of succumbing to his romance. Your alarm would go off soon and you'd have to leave for school. You wanted to make sure he was really ok before you did. "It seems like you've healed some." He had healed a lot, in fact. The wound above his eye and the gash on his arm still hadn't closed all the way, and he still had bruises and had obviously been in a fight, but you didn't think you had to worry about his safety.

"I have healed immensely, darling, but I appreciate your concern," he smiled down at you and could couldn't help getting lost in his eyes in that moment of seeing him so carefree.

Of course your stupid alarm started blaring then. You shut it off and got out of the bed. "You are going to school without any sleep?" he asked, frowning. He clearly didn't approve. And he somehow knew you'd stayed up all night.

"Of course I am. I have three tests today," you reminded him. You had been studying for the tests all night. You'd also been telling him about them for a week. He had helped you prepare yesterday afternoon before you went on your ill conceived walk. You kissed his forehead. "You seem healed enough that I can safely leave you to protect yourself. Feel better, love," you bid him. It was strange for you to say 'love' to him, but it seemed like the right word, and it earned you a smile from him, though his smile was tired and wan.

You left his suite to go get ready for school, though you knew it was going to be a long day. You snuck into Tony's suite on your way to breakfast and stole a couple of the energy drinks from his mini-fridge. You told myself you'd replace them, but you knew that was a lie. Especially since he hadn't caught you taking them. You downed the first one before you even made it to the dining room. You cursed yourself for not stealing all of them. He probably wouldn't have even noticed.

Helene handed you your breakfast plate. You waved to Nat and Bruce as they were leaving the dining room, talking about an upcoming mission as they walked. Clint rushed to catch up with them. You rarely saw the original Avengers, besides Uncle Tony, but you were always kind to them when you saw them. They waved back and you continued to the dining room to find Loki at your table. You were tempted to throw something at his head to see if he was an illusion, but held back the urge. Barely. "Loki! What are you doing here? You should be in bed," you reminded him firmly. Especially as he was wearing his battle armor. He was supposed to be in bed resting, not down here eating with you.

He had stood when you entered the room, gentleman that he was. "Having breakfast with you, my dear," he replied with a smirk. He waited for you to take your seat before he would sit again, so you sat quickly. "Please do not tell you you thought you were going to school alone after you were attacked last night,"

"Fine, I won't tell you that," you replied. It was obvious enough that you weren't going to give him the satisfaction. He chuckled. "I will remind you again, that you should be in bed healing. Someone else can come with me if you're really that concerned." You knew how injured Loki had been and he wasn't fully healed.

"I am healed enough to accompany you," he replied, "without jeopardizing our day tomorrow," he added before you could whine. You smiled at that. You had nearly forgotten in all of the excitement that you were going out tomorrow. He still hadn't told you what you were doing on said outing, but you were glad to be off being grounded.

"You're going to have to give you at least some clue as to what we're doing so you know what to wear," you tried that angle to at least get a hint.

He thought about it for a second. "I will pick something out for you," he finally said. You rolled your eyes, but the man had such an impeccable fashion sense that you couldn't argue. He would pick something that was appropriate and that looked fantastic on you. You would have to come up with a different angle to find out what he was doing.

"Don't forget that Uncle Tony and I are going out after school," you reminded him.

He nodded. "Tony will be picking us up from the school," he told you. You raised an eyebrow at that. When had this been decided? "And apparently will not be speaking to me while I am in the backseat of the car pretending I am not there. Or those were my instructions," he grumbled, pouting.

You laughed at that. "Like that's going to happen,"

As you headed to the exit to the tower, you evaluated Loki. He seemed like he was doing much better. There was no sign of any limping and his arm was out of the sling. You couldn't find anything that was wrong enough with him to forbid him to come with you. Try as you might.

Tony stopped you on our way to the door. "Kat, I know you hate guards, but those clowns specifically said they were after you yesterday. I still don't know why they want you in particular, but that's all the information we've gotten out of them. So please, don't do anything stupid like try to ditch your guard," he practically begged you to behave.

You rolled your eyes with a huff. "Uncle Tony, I was thirteen the last time I pulled that stunt. I'm not stupid enough to try it again. Especially not with the ass busting I got from Fury and the three months I was grounded for it,"

"Don't let anything happen to her," Tony threatened Loki, ignoring your comments. You rolled your eyes harder at being ignored. Stubborn snarly males.

"I will guard her with my life," Loki replied. Like that wasn't obvious, he had done it just last night. You rolled your eyes and stomped out of the compound. Stupid boys and their testosterone poisoning. Loki caught up to you before you had taken two steps out of the tower. You weren't surprised. Guarding you was his job that day after all. "What happened when you were thirteen?" Loki asked you when you were out of the tower.

You sighed heavily, but knew he wouldn't give up until you'd told him. "I was a stupid teenager. I wanted to go out with my friends from my old school. It wasn't long after my parents had died, so security was maxed and I had a twenty-four hour guard. Fury neglected to have the guard follow me into the school, assuming I would be safe there. Unfortunately, the kids were ditching school that day, since it was the last day of school in order to go to the amusement park. I walked in one door, walked right out another and caught up with my friends. The guard and the supers had no idea that I was gone until the guard came to pick me up at the end of the day and I wasn't there. I spent all summer grounded and wasn't allowed to step a toe out of the tower. Fury also made me do 'community service' by helping the supers with their training every day and working around the compound. It was the worst summer ever," you told him the story in a whine. You didn't want to live through anything like that again.

Loki was laughing, though at your story. "All of those supers were outsmarted by a thirteen year old civilian girl?" he roared in laughter. You nodded and he started laughing harder. "No wonder they were so upset. I would not lose you that easily," he reminded you.

"Of course not. Not that I'm planning on trying it. Besides, I'm not grounded right now, so I could just tell you whatever I was planning and you'd join in for pure mischief's sake," you reminded him with a grin. He nodded.

"Quite right," he agreed. You took your bag from him before you got to the school. You still didn't want the faculty getting any idea that he was your boyfriend. You didn't want them making a fuss.

"Looks like the kitten was too rough on you in bed last night, loverboy," you heard the sneer of the jock as you walked into the school.

"Loki! No!" you called, grabbing Loki's arm as he turned to face the jock, a dagger already in his hand. "Just ignore him." Jock boy laughed, but you managed to get Loki into the school, mostly by walking that way and knowing he would be obligated to follow to guard you.

"He is insulting your honor," Loki snarled. You rolled your eyes.

"He's a moron and he's graduating in a few months. I'll be rid of him then. He can't actually hurt me," you reminded him. He relaxed then, but only barely. You knew you wouldn't be able to stop him again if the jock did something else stupid today. Loki fell into step in his usual guard position.

It was hard focusing on your Latin test when you were running on no sleep and post attack anxiety. People kept looking at Loki that too. It was obvious he had been in a fight. You had explained to the front office about the attack last night, and therefore about Loki's return to guard duty.

You still had two more tests to survive too. You somehow survived them, and was glad when lunch finally rolled around. You downed the second of the energy drinks you had stolen. Loki looked disapproving.

"Please tell me you will eat something as well," he whispered magically in your ear.

"I will," you whispered back and headed straight for the lunch line. You handed him a full tray instead of just his usual sandwich. "I don't want to hear that you're on duty. You're healing, you need to eat," you told him sternly. For once, he didn't argue, but sat at your table with you and you ate your lunches together. "Do you know why the clowns were after me?" you asked him. He shook his head.

"I do not. They were very insistent that stealing you was the entire motive behind their attack last night, but I do not know why." You nodded and mulled it over, but the only reason you could think they would want you is because of your relation to Tony, but that didn't really seem like a good enough reason, not for as big of an operation as they had the previous night.

Loki was bored by the time your English class came around. You didn't blame him. You were bored and exhausted by then too. <What would you like for your birthday?> one of his magical notes asked during class. You smirked at it, glad you had an answer prepared.

<Where are you taking me tomorrow?> you shot back. You got a doodle of him pouting in reply, which nearly made you giggle aloud. You drew him a doodle of you smiling. Your doodle wasn't nearly as good, but you had to draw it by hand instead of by magic.

You was so very glad when the school day ended. You and Loki left together. Tony's car was waiting out front for you. "How much magic do you have now?" you asked Loki as you were walking towards Tony's car.

"Why?"

"I was going to ask for a favor, but won't if it would take power you need, or if you don't have enough, especially since you're still healing," you admitted, though you wouldn't look at him. You hated asking for favors, especially since your favor might hurt him by taking power he needed.

"What favor, dear?" he asked gently, softening his tone at your obvious discomfort. "You know I will do anything in my power for you,"

You held out your hand to him. "Would you mind... helping, so I don't have to go shopping and out to dinner in my school uniform?" you asked softly. You really hated asking him for magical help.

"Of course, darling," he replied. You heard the smile in his voice and looked up at him. He took your hand and turned you so you were facing him. He lifted your hand and kissed your knuckles. As he did, his green magical glow surrounded you, and you were wearing a pair of perfectly tailored jeans, a comfy, but elegant black sweater, your converse because you loved them, and a black lightweight peacoat. Your schoolbag had disappeared.

"Thank you,"

"Anytime, love. It is no trouble, and you needn't worry about that little spell draining me,"

"That's good to hear," you replied. You took Loki's hand and you walked together the rest of the way to Tony's car. Loki held your car door open for you and closed it behind you once you were safely inside.

"What was that?" Tony growled at you while Loki climbed in the backseat of the car.

"I asked him for help. You know I hate going out in my uniform," you reminded him. "It's not indecent or anything, please, it's less revealing than a magical girl anime's transformation sequence." Tony grumbled again, but didn't argue anymore. You had a point and he saw for himself that nothing inappropriate had happened. "I know it's early for dinner, but I'm starving. Mind getting some food first?" he asked you, completely ignoring Loki. Neither of you were surprised by that.

"Sure. What'd you have in mind?" you asked.

"There's the new Japanese place you wanted to try," Tony suggested.

"Sounds good," you agreed. He took off in the direction of the restaurant.

You laughed your way through teaching Loki to eat with chopsticks. Tony finally seemed to relax around Loki when you could all sit around and be normal. He had even convinced Loki to ditch his battle clothes and dress like a normal person for once.

After that, Tony drove you to the car dealership. You had no idea what he was planning, but your jaw dropped when you pulled in. "A Jaguar? Seriously?" you asked him, staring around you at the gorgeous vehicles. You knew nothing about cars, but you knew that these were fancy and stupidly expensive. Tony grinned.

"I thought you'd like it. I remember you commented how much you liked them during that super bowl commercial," he told you with a smirk. You'd loved those ads. He pulled into a parking spot. "There's yours," he pointed to a beautiful white car with a giant red bow on it. You made some kind of squealing, excited, noise that only teenage girls are capable of, hugged his neck tightly, and jumped out of the car to go examine your new car.

"It's perfect, I love it. Thank you, Uncle Tony!" you ran over and gave him another hug. After a little last minute paperwork (Tony had done most of it already) you were handed the keys to your new car. Tony took your picture in front of it and you were beaming like an idiot.

"You're welcome, Kat. Happy birthday, for like the next 12 years, mind. Try not to stay out too late joyriding, ok?" he chuckled, knowingly. You gave him another hug before grabbing Loki's hand so you could go for a ride together in your new car.