You went down stairs, finding the team all already down there getting breakfast. "Look who it is." Clint announced when he saw you exit the elevator. "The teenager has risen from the dead."

      Everyone tuned towards you and you waved to them all. "Where's your dragon, Hiccup?" Tony asked, using his nickname he made up for you when you first moved into the tower.

      "He went out fishing this morning." You told Tony, taking your place at the table next to Loki.

"You do know we have fish for him here? Right?" Tony asked you matter of factly.

"Yes. I do." You told Tony with an eye roll. "But sometimes Eclipse likes to hunt for his food. He was a wild dragon after all."

"Is it ok for Eclipse to be hunting on his own." Loki asked you curiously, wanting to know more about dragons. "What if he goes after someone's live stock?"

"Each dragon has its own diet." You told Loki, as well as the team at large. You didn't know if you've explained this to anyone yet. It was such common knowledge for you. It hadn't even occurred to you that some people might not know that every dragon species has its own diet. "While some dragons eat things like cows, sheep, and pigs, others only eat fish. Eclipse is one of the dragon species that only eats fish." You explained to Loki. "He won't even give livestock a second glance."

Loki nodded, excepting your explanation. He was about to ask more questions about dragons when Nat cut him off.

"Do you have any plans for today (y/n)?" Nat asked you like she or Cap did every morning. You were the teenager in the tower, so it was safe to assume you were doing something everyday.

"Yeah." You told Nat passively, not wanting her to make a big deal about what you were doing today. "I'm going shopping." Most days you told them just school and training. Maybe a night flight if the sky was good. So having a different answer really threw off the whole team for a second. They were so used to the same exact answer over and over again.

"Shopping." Cap said with interest.

"Looking for anything special?" Nat asked.

"Nope." You lied, as you sipped on your orange juice. "Just regular shopping.

Out of the corner of your eye you saw Loki give you a side eye, wrinkling up his nose slightly. Like he smelled something unpleasant.

      You ignored his looks, knowing he could sense your lie. Somehow...

       "Sounds like fun. I'll come with you." Nat said, inviting herself along. "It's been a while since I've done anything girly."

       "You don't need to come." You told Nat, not wanting anyone to know about the dance in fear it might get back to Loki, "I can take care of myself."

        "I know you can." Nat rolled her eyes. "But it will be fun for us to have a girl day out."

       You reluctantly agreed, not wanting to deny Natasha of her girls day out. Nat was a top of the line assassin, who could fight like it was no ones business, but even she liked to girly things, like shop.

       After breakfast you got ready for the day. When you came back down stairs you went directly over to Loki, who was reading on his couch. "I know I've been boring lately," you told Loki apologetically, "but I hope this will keep you entertained for awhile." You said, bring out a book from behind your back.

      Loki took the book, looking over it to see what you had just given him to read. "The book of Dragons?" Loki asked excitedly, already flipping to the first page to start his reading.

       "Yep." You agreed. "You said you wanted to learn more about dragons. This is the book they give all dragon riders. It talks about every dragon  species we know of. Their diets, their attacks, where they live, what they're like, and even how to train them."

       "Dragon classes." Loki read out loud. "Stocker, Sharp, Boulder, Tracker, Tidal, Mystery, and Strike."

"That's how we organize dragon species. Each one gets put under a different class, and each class has its own characteristics. It comes in handy when your trying to deal with a dragon fast but you either don't know what species it belongs to or if you've never seen it before and know nothing about it." You explained.

"Thank you lady (y/n)." Loki replied politely, formally. "I'm sure this will keep me entertained for a while."

You gave Loki a warm, bright smile, exited to talk about dragons with him but  someone grabbed ahold of you impatiently, "With that settled, let's go." Nat interrupted, grabbing you by your arm and hauling you off to go shop.

You let her haul you away but called to Loki before the elevator doors closed on you, "Don't let me forget to show you the movie 'How to Train Your Dragon.' I helped the producers make it!"

       Loki gave you a smirk, and waved goodbye before the elevator closed and you were trapped to go shopping with Nat.

*

"So tell me, why are you really going shopping today?" Nat asked when the two of you reached the mall.

"Because... I wanted to?" You told her, though it sounded more like a question than an answer.

"You hate shopping." She pointed out bluntly. "And do you expect us all to just ignore the look Loki gave you this morning? That boy can smell a lie before it even leaves your mouth."

You decided to store that pice of information away until you could ask Loki about that specific ability later, instead you focused on the conversation at hand. "Fine," you grumbled grumpily, folding your arms over your chest and slouching in the car seat. " I was asked out to Homecoming."

     That caught Nat off guard. She stared at you for a moment, trying to figure out what you had just told her. Usually a teenage girl is bouncing up and down, telling everyone she knew that she got asked out on a date. Especially if that date was to a dance with the most popular boy in school. None of them grumbled grumpily about it.

      "Well that's great." Nat told you. "You've been needing to get out of the tower..."

      "I have been getting out of the tower." You cut Nat off. "I've been planet hopping with Eclipse all summer. That is the definition of getting out of the tower."

     "...and date people." She finished. You huffed at that. "How many boys have you kissed?" Nat teased. "How many dates have you been on?"

      "Maybe your right." You told her. "But I don't know if I'm ready to date."

      "Your 17, almost 18, and you haven't even held hands with anyone yet."

       "Your point?" You asked her.

       "I'm just saying that dating can be fun if you're willing to give that person a chance." She told you kindly.

       You thought over her words and realized she was right. You haven't even given poor Nate a chance yet. He had asked you to the dance, which took a lot of guts for anyone to do. No one likes the idea of being rejected. And here you were moping about having to go to a dance with someone that wasn't Loki. That was not fair to Nate.

       "Let's go in and look for that dress." Nat told you as she got out of the car. You fallowed her out jogging a little to keep up. "And maybe you can tell me a little bit about that boy."

*

      The shopping trip was long and boring, but you did manage to find a dress to the dance. Along with some shoes, jewelry, and even nail polish. Nat bought some stuff too. Claiming she needed some new dresses for press conferences and Tony's parties.

     You and Nat walked into the living room that night, carrying a ton of bags, most of them belonging to Nat.

      "Looks like you two did well today." Tony commented from where he was working on a pice of tech at the kitchen table.

       "Nat did well." You corrected him, placing Nat's bags you had been carrying for her next to her couch where she was already starting to pull out clothes to show everyone what she bought. You took your bag and went over to your's and Loki's couch, sagging down onto it with a heavy sigh.

    "Sounds like you had a day full of keeping up with Lady Natasha." Loki commented without even looking up from his book he was reading. You noticed it was the same book you had given him earlier this morning.

    "She definitely showed me what it means to shop until you drop." You agreed with Loki. "And I thought keeping up with a herd of wild Speed Stingers was exhausting."

    "Speed Stingers are part of the Sharp class of dragons. Correct?" Loki asked as he flipped to the Speed Stinger's page.

    "Yep. They're the ones who can't fly.

    "And their tails have a toxic barb that can paralyze their victims." Loki supplied, scanning over the page. "I found them quite interesting."

    "So I take it you're enjoying the book?" You asked him lightly, with a warm smile.

    "Very much so." Loki agreed. "Thank you for lending it to me."

    "My brother has done nothing all day but read your dragon book." Thor boomed, sitting down next to you, all at the same time politely oohing and aahing over Natasha's new clothes.

    Nat finished showing the boys what she bought, and started neatly folding them into her bag.

    "What did you purchase Lady (y/n)?" Thor asked you, indicating to your bag. "If I'm not mistaken you were the one who brought up shopping this morning?"

    "I was." You agreed. "Though I didn't do nearly as well as Nat." When the boys, mostly Thor, Loki, and Clint, wouldn't stop staring at you to show off what you had bought you sighed and brought out your dress. It was a two pice dress, the top an elegant long sleeved raisin ivory crop top, and the bottom a cute high waisted white skirt with raisin ivory flowers on them.

    The boys predictively oohed and aahed over the dress, knowing their part very well by now.

    "That is a lovely dress." Loki told you, and you could see in his eyes that he actually liked it. "Is there a particular reason you chose that one?"

    You knew what Loki was doing, ever since you lied to him this morning about why you were going shopping it had been eating away at him all day. You were his best fiend in the tower, and the first one to trust him in a long time, it hurt him when you lied to him. Even if he would never admit it. Your trust was one thing he highly valued.

    "I was asked out on a date yesterday." You told Loki, as well as the room at large. Deciding to just come out with it.

    The team stared at you in shock for a moment before all of them started congratulating you. You thanked them politely, telling them who Nate was and that it should be fun.

    "What are the two of you doing for your... date." Loki asked coldly, his face showing no emotion. Which was weird. You were so used to Loki being your best friend around the tower, only second to Eclipse. Sure Loki had only started warming up to you a week ago, but it still felt weird.

"Well, Nate asked me to Homecoming." You told Loki. "It's kinda like a ball, for high school students." You explained for the Asgardian's benefit, who didn't know what a 'Homecoming' was. "At the start of every school year the football team has a big game, and the school celebrates it for a whole week. No matter if we win or lose. Throughout the week the school dose things like have the students color the sidewalk, have a different themed outfit for every day of the week, and have a Homecoming themed assembly. Then, Friday is the football game which is fallowed up by Saturday's Homecoming dance."

       "That dose sound like a fun week!" Thor boomed, patting your on the back rather ruffly. "Doesn't that sound fun brother?"

       "Miraculously fun." Loki agreed blandly, emotionlessly, before retiring to his book and effectively ignoring everyone in the room.

       Including you.