"How did you go?" Loki asked as soon as I stepped out of the door and I carefully shut it behind me before I let myself sink into his open arms.

"It was good." I nodded, sighing at the feeling of being in his arms again. "He was really good about it."

"I knew he would be." He chuckled softly, gently kissing my forehead. "Are you feeling okay about it?"

"He gave me a talk about you." I admitted, surprised he hadn't assumed anything from my burning cheeks. "It was just about how you were treating me." I nervously tucked my hair behind my ear.

"Well I'm glad I wasn't sitting in then." He chuckled again as he began to guide me away from the closed door. "He didn't make it weird though, did he?"

"He's just being protective." I shook my head, smiling weakly.

"So you're okay with him knowing about us?" He asked as we slowly walked down the staircase to where lunch was being prepared.

"I wasn't ever not okay with it." I shrugged. "I was just going to tell whoever when the time was right."

He nodded and we slid into our seats just as JARVIS announced that lunch was ready. Everyone began to filter out of all different spaces and soon the table began to fill up. I swore Loki had shuffled closer to me because our legs were constantly brushing up again eachother, not that I was complaining. I could feel him occasionally looking down at me as I talked across the table, and the idea of it made heat prickle along my neck.

It certainly did seem like he was making up for the tiny bit of lost time when he had gotten injured.

He didn't leave me alone the whole afternoon; when he wasn't having some sort of physical contact with me, he was still watching me like a hawk from somewhere in the room, like when I was trying to play a board game with the girls before dinner. Even when everyone settled down for a movie that night, he kept me bundled up next to him in blankets. Of course, like the gentleman he was, he was always whispering to me to check that I was okay with it, but I never wanted him to let me go.

That night, I was laying in bed finally by myself with my thoughts. I had a blanket basically cocooning me and I was holding it tightly with my hands tucked up under my chin. It was necisarrily a cold night, but it felt oddly chilly after I had spent a day nest to Loki. I managed to push most thoughts of him away at first, instead focusing on other parts of the day, but it didn't take too long for him to creep back in. At first, it was silly thoughts that made my heart flutter and cheeks burn, but then it slowly began to morph into a spiralling worry.

I didn't know what was happening to him now. I couldn't see him to make sure hw was safe. I wasn't there to feel his steady heartbeat against my ear as I rested against his chest. What if HYDRA had managed to sneak in? What if they had managed to hurt him? I know JARVIS may have said something, but what if they had something more advanced than Stark technology? What if he wasn't even in his room anymore? What if they were making him suffer while I was laying here in comfort?

My feet were moving before I could stop them and I quickly crossed the hallway silently to gently tap on his door. It was weak and pitiful and I wasn't even sure that he could have heard me, but the door slowly creaked open a second later. He looked down at me, his skin pale and eyes droopy, a strange softness to his face. His hair hung around his face and he swept it back with a yawn, his other hand braced on the door.

"Hey sweetheart." He murmured, his voice even rough and tinted with exhaustion. "Are you okay?"

I didn't know what to say at first as his eyes darted down both ways of the hallway; how was I going to explain to him that I had woken him up from what was probably a nice sleep just to check that HYDRA hadn't taken him?

"Emily?" He gently reached out to cup my cheek, bringing my eyes back up to meet his from where they had been staring at the ground. "What's the matter?"

"I just wanted..." my voice was like a soft whimper as I wrapped my arms around myself. "I wanted to see that you're okay."

"I was fine before." He smiled softly, the confusion slowly lifting from his eyes. "But now I'm even better." His finger gently ran over my cheek. "Did you have another nightmare?"

"No." I shook my head, looking away again as my fingers fiddled with my pajamas. "I... I was just worried that... that HYDRA had come to get you."

I could feel the tears burning behind my eyes and I desperatley tried to blink them back. I was blaming my tirednes on the sudden influx of emotions, but I knew that wasn't completely the case. Loki's tight hug afterwards didn't help, his familiar scent causing the tears to finally slip free.

"Em, HYDRA will never be able to touch me again." He murmured, even his voice tightening a little. "I won't let it happen. I won't be caught off guard like that again. They don't even know where we're living at this moment, and even if they did, I'm sure Stark has plenty of technology to stop them. He won't have left us completely defenceless in this place."

"But what if they tracked us back to here?" I managed to say through my wobbly sobs, my hands pitifully tightening in his shirt. "What if they're waiting to strike us at te right moment?"

"Darling, you can't be worrying about every small little thing." He gently pulled back and knelt down on both knees, softly rubbing my shoulders as he occasionally wiped away my tears. "I'm not saying that you're wrong to worry, but it is also not healthy. We all have everything under control as much as we can. Even if we didn't, there is also nothing you can do at this late hour. If you're still this worried in the morning, we can look over the security plans with Stark, okay?"

"Okay." I nodded, sniffling a little as I wiped my nose with the back of my hand. "I'm sorry for waking you up."

"It's okay darling." He shook his head, slowly standing back up with the soft smile still on his face. "Do you want me to help you back to bed?"

"I..." I hesitated, my heart thudding hard in my chest again. "I was wondering if I could maybe stay with you." There was silence and I inwardly cringed. "I-I mean, I'm just worried about them taking you and I don't want a-anything to happen while I'm s-sleeping. B-but you don't have to, I can g-go back to my back if y-you want me t-too."

"No, no, its okay." He seemed to shake himself out of his sudden shock. "You can stay with me if you want. Is there anything you want from your room first though?"

I shook my head, keeping my eyes down before he gently led me into his room. His room was much more bare then mine, it was hard to see any sort of detail when the curtains were drawn to darken the whole room. The big bed in the middle was messy from where he had just been sleeping.

"Do you want anymore pillows?" He asked as I slowly sat down on it.

"It's okay." I shook my head, giving him a weak smile. "Thank you Loki."

"Of course darling." He bent down to gently kiss me on the top of my head before he walked over to a cupboard. "I'm just going to be on the floor if you need anything, there are plenty of spare blankets in this cupbaord if you get cold during the night-"

"Wait, are you sleeping on the floor?" I interrupted, suddenly realising what he had said. "Don't do that, it'll be really uncomfortable. Come sleep up here with me."

"Darling...." He said slowly from where he had been pulling out blanket and pillow from the cupboard, turning around to face me.

"Its okay." I instisted. "I want to be close to you. There's plenty of room."

"Are you sure?" He asked, still standing at the cupboard. "Sweetheart, I'm more than happy to sleep on the ground."

"I want to be close to you." I repeated. "Please. I'll be okay."

"I'm leaving the moment you're not." He broke into a small smile, moving towards the bed and kissing me on my head. "Come on, lay down. You need to get some sleep.

He carefully tucked me into the sheets as I laid down before he climbed into his side of the bed, shuffling under the sheets. Almost immediately, I shuffled over him, the physical contact finally nice when we were alone. He stiffened slightly but I met his worried eyes with a small smile and he slowly wound his arms around me, resting his chin on my head.

"Goodnight Loki." I murmured.

"Goodnight Em."