LOKI POV

I will admit, I was thrown off by Em's bravery on the balcony earlier. I had kept to my promise of always letting her initiate things, but Gods, it was so difficult to try and keep control of myself. Not that I would ever jump into something so intimate after just a kiss, especially not with Emily. The way she had acted was stirring something inside me. And I was repulsed that my body would even think in that kind of way, but I knew it didn't hold the rationale thinking that my brain had. I had been worried that it was a little much at first, after all I had practically left her breathless after the first kiss, but when she had given me that small smile after it, I knew that she was enjoying it as much as I was.

And now, here I was laying next to her in the massive four poster bed that Mother had graciously given her for however long we intended to stay. Em was fast asleep, as to be expected. She was so dazed after the kiss and I basically had to carry her back. If her softly swollen lips and reddened cheeks were anything to go by, I knew she didn't regret it. Or at least I was praying that deep down she didn't. It was a little hard to get the truth out of her at times, so I had to read her surface emotions and at times that was definitely more than enough. She could be quite the expressive thing at times, and it was adorable.

As much as I didn't want to leave her side, the gentle knock at the door made me regretfully pull myself away slow enough that she didn't even stir. I readjusted the sheets over her beautiful body before quietly ducking out the door to meet Thor in the hallway. We took a couple of steps away from the door before he spoke.

"They've confirmed everything." He murmured, his normally loud voice shockingly quiet. "We're going to make a move early tomorrow morning, during that period of time when its not quite day or night."

"And you think you've got the right bunker?" I pressed.

"Stark is sure of it." He nodded. "He tracked it back on the previous mission reports in his metal suit."

"I wish I could go give them what they deserve." I muttered, clenching my hands at my sides as I thought of all the horrific things those bastards had inflicted on Emily.

"We'll do it for you." He promise, reaching out to squeeze my shoulder. "Lady Emily needs you here. Have you told her yet?"

"I'm not going to say anything until it's a successful mission." I shook my head. "She doesn't need that extra stress. She needs to have some sort of peace here first."

"You raise a fair point." He nodded. "I wish much peace onto her."

He began to turn away to walk back down to the hall and find his way back to the Rainbow Bridge, but I called out as much as I dared so I didn't wake Emily.

"Stay safe." My eyes focused on him. "And keep everyone else safe too. I would hate for anything to happen to them, because it would kill Emily."

"I will." He nodded, a small smile appearing on his face.

"Burn that place to the ground." I sighed.

"Burn it to the ground." He repeated. "Happily."

-{+}-

EMILY POV

Loki's arms were still draped over me when I woke up in the morning, but as I twisted around to properly face him, he was already awake. As soon as he saw me move, his face lit up and the small creases caused by his furrowed brows instantly disappeared.

"Good morning darling." He gently kissed the top of my head.

"Good morning." I smiled back, trying to push down the butterflies that immediately burst in my stomach. "Did you sleep okay? You still look tired."

"Just woke up a little earlier than normal." He shook his head, slowly propping himself up. "Come on, do you want to have some breakfast?"

"Will Odin be down there?" It was my turn to frown a little.

"Hopefully not." He replied, smiling comfortingly.

"Can I have a shower first?" I replied after a couple of moments. "I think I need to wake up a little more."

"You don't have to ask." He nodded, slowly pulling his arm off me.

Smiling softly at him, I clambered out of the bed and moved towards the lavish bathroom. While I stood under the water that was a perfect temperature, I couldn't stop my thoughts from darting back to last night. It had been... overwhelming, but in a good kind of way. I think. I mean I enjoyed the kiss, it was way better than when I had been kissed before, even if I was completely breathless afterwards. And I couldn't fault Loki in any kind of way, he was just perfect, and not just because of the kiss. He was gentle yet strong at the time and it was the perfect balance.

But I knew that kiss had opened up so many new doors, some of which I didn't want to venture down yet, and as I gently washed the soap off my body, one practically flew open in my head and I paused.

It was obvious that Loki and I liked each other, we had admitted it many times before, but there was no clear... definition of what we were. We hadn't even discussed the possibility of labelling what was going on between us. I didn't even know what kind of labels there were to put on it. And should we even? It all suddenly felt very... unstable, and I had no idea how to get around it, because that would definitely be another awkward conversation that I had to have with him, on top of the one about the whole physical touch. And that one I was definitely pushing to the bottom of the list.

When I did eventually step out of the shower, dressed in another of Frigga's extravagant dresses that thankfully wasn't as over the top as the one from last night, Loki was sitting on the bed with a book in hand. It immediately disappeared in a green flash and he smiled softly at me, standing up slowly.

"You look beautiful." He murmured, walking over and sweeping back some of my hair.

"It's a very tight dress." I pulled a face, my cheeks tinted with colour. "Do you... do you mind zipping it up at the back?"

I had struggled for quite a bit in the shower trying to zip it up myself, but I eventually had to give up and accept walking out with my hands bracing it at the back.

"Of course darling." He smiled and moved around to the back of me.

I slowly let go of the dress, swallowing thickly at the lump in my throat as I stared down at the ground, knowing how many scars were littering the skin. I swept my hair out of the way, revealing them all to his eyes. His hands didn't even stutter, carefully gripping the bottom pieces of the dress to loosen up the zipper.

"Beautiful." He murmured, the zip slowly sliding up under his fingers until it was just below the bottom of my neck.

My cheeks heated even more and I looked down at the ground as the butterflies looped like crazy in my stomach. His breath brushed against the back of my neck and before I could even process anything, his lips gently pressed against it. I stiffened at the unexpected contact and he immediately pulled away.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled, shaking his head and no doubt internally cursing himself as I turned around.

"No, no, it's okay." I shook my head too, quickly reaching out to grab his hands. "Don't be sorry. It was just an instinct, it didn't mean I didn't like it."

His worry faded a little from his eyes and he nodded slowly, gently rubbing his thumbs over the tops of my hands, a small smile weaving its way onto his lips

"I'll try to talk to Mother about less dresses." The topic change startled me a little. "That looks extremely uncomfortable."

"It is." I nodded, staring down at the inbuilt corset that felt like it was choking my stomach. "I think she must have my sizing confused with someone else's because my stomach is definitely not this small." I chuckled softly.

"And I'm glad of that." He smiled, pressing a kiss to my forehead. "You're beautiful."

"Thank you." My cheeks heated even more as I looked up at him.

"Now, I'll talk to Mother after breakfast about getting you some more comfortable clothes." He gently began to lead me out the door with his hand on my back. "I want you to enjoy your time here."