LOKI POV

It took Emily a little while to settle back into Stark Tower. I wasn't sure if she was afraid of all of us, but she seemed to be jumping at every small movement and sound. Her mind was always sending out panicked thoughts, most of which I couldn't actually understand because they came and went so quickly. She was having nightmares every night as well, but Stark's AI always woke me up when the nightmare started and I would go through my Mother's calming process with her. It worked every time, and normally we were able to do it before she lost control on her power too much. So far the worse that happened was that she had burnt through the sheets of her bed, but thankfully it didn't reach the mattress. Stark didn't care though, he just brought her like three or four more sets of sheets.

She showed many signs of improvement too however. She slowly began to eat more, not so much in the morning, but definitely at night. She still didn't' fill up her whole plate, and she didn't always eat everything that she put on it, but at least she was gaining weight. She occasionally seemed brighter as well, sometimes she would smile at something someone said, and once I had even heard her laugh. She wasn't still entirely settled, but at least she was safe.

"Loki?" A voice interrupted my thoughts and I looked over sharply where Emily was sitting next to me. She held the book out to me that she was reading, her beautiful innocent brown eyes watching me as she spoke. "I found another word I don't know."

We had been doing this most afternoons after lunch, we would sit in the library and read mostly in silence together. Because Emily was so used to speaking Russian for so many years, her English was slightly... rusty. She had trouble understanding and pronouncing a lot of words and I helped her with it. Not only did it help her understand words better, but it helped her to feel more relaxed and safe within the Tower.

"Conspicuous." I replied, reading the word out loud she had been pointing too. "It means... like to stand out clearly, to be very obvious." She nodded and gave me a small smile before turning back to her book, causing me to drift back into my own thoughts.

We had started training with Wanda again, it was only small sessions and nothing as big as what we did in Asguard because we didn't have Mother her to protect any of us. It was mainly just her summoning up a small flame and then putting it out again without it becoming bigger. She had been successful all of the times, even when there were other people in the private training room at the same time to watch.

"Hey, you two." A voice interrupted and both Emily and I looked up from out books to see Romanoff leaning against one of the bookcases, arms crossed. "Pepper sent me to tell you both that dinner will be ready in 20. She suggests that you both have a shower and get changed into pajamas 'cause its Friday movie night." She turned around and left without another word, leaving Emily to finish the page we were on before we stood up.

"What's Friday movie night?" She asked softly as we walked towards the exit of the library.

"Some weird mortal tradition where a movie is played on the big screen and everyone sits around eating Midguard food." I shrugged, opening up the library door and letting her step through. She looked at me curiously for a moment before walking out, letting the door shut behind me.

EMILY POV

When I peeled off my clothes to have a shower, I winced at all of the scars littering my body. Many of the bruises and scratches that had been covering me when I first arrived here had healed, but the scars still remained. They were a permanent reminder of what my life had been.

I didn't feel them when I stepped under the freezing water, a couple of tiny scratches stung at first, but the pain soon faded away. As I stood still under the water, I held my hands out in front of me, the scars shining faintly in the light. I blinked the water out of my eyes as it rolled down my face and fisted my hands, sending pricks of pain through my palms.

I hated myself for who I was, Broken. Scarred. Forever afraid. I hated what my life had been, I hated that I didn't do anything to stop it, to change it. Not that I could have, I was powerless against HYDRA and everything that they did to me. I hated that although I was somewhere safe, I was still broken, and I couldn't be fixed. I had a small amount of control over my powers, but I knew it wouldn't be enough if anything happened, especially if HYDRA decided to try and take me back. I was slightly surprised that they hadn't tried something already, they had spent so much time on me, so much effort was put in to make me the weapon they wanted. But I suppose they had always treated me bad, like I was nothing to them. I suppose they wouldn't even care that I was missing.

"Miss Emily." JARVIS' voice filled the bathroom and I immediately jumped, slipping on the shower floor slightly and I quickly put a hand on the filed wall to steady myself. "My apologies Miss Emily, but Miss Potts wanted me to ask you what you would like for dinner. There is mini lasagna, pesto pasta, mini pies or salad." I paused for a moment, still partly trying to recover from the small heart attack he had given me.

"Maybe small pies?" I replied, though it was more a question than an answer.

"Of course Miss Emily." The AI said. "Miss Potts says it will be ready in around ten minutes."

"Okay." I nodded. "Thanks JARVIS."

"No problem." The AI replied before falling silent. I took a deep breath, rubbing water out of my eyes before I turned off the shower. I stepped out and wrapped myself in a towel, opening up the bathroom door and walking down the hallway to the main part of my room.

"I know it's the middle of summer, but would you like a pink blanket or white?" A voice spoke up as I opened up my cupboard and I swear I jumped a mile high, clutching my chest where the towel was tied and holding out an already flaming hand. I looked around my room wildly, heart pounding rapidly and my throat tight before I spotted Nat sitting on my couch.

"Sorry." She gave me an apologetic smile, though I could sense some cautious in her eyes as they darted to my flaming hand. "I keep forgetting that you're so... jumpy." She gave me another apologetic smile and held out the two fluffy blankets. "White or pink?"

"Pink." I said so quietly, I was surprised she actually heard me. She grinned and nodded, moving over to my bed and putting the blanket down before stepping back. My eyes darted from her to it quickly before I looked down at my feet, shivering slightly as I dripped water onto the wooden floor. Thankfully, the bedroom part of my room has wooden flooring, because if it had carpet like the rest of my room, I didn't think Tony would be happy with me if there was a giant water stain.

"See you down there in 5." Nat grinned, beginning to move out of the room. "Don't forget to wear something comfy!" The door clicked shut as she left and I stood there for a couple more seconds before I breathed out a sigh of relief. My heart was still pounding hard against my chest, but my lungs were beginning to loosen up a little. I looked down at my still flaming hand and closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath as I tried to control it. After a couple of seconds, I opened my eyes and looked down, breathing out a heavy sigh of relief when I saw that the flames on my hand were no more. I had only controlled my power once without Loki's help, but that had just become twice. I smile softly at myself before turning back to my cupboard and pulling out the comfiest pajamas I had. It was pretty hot outside, but I still chose to wear long sleeve. I roughly towel dried my hair before I hung it out, gathering up the blanket off the bed and walking downstairs.

I was immediately hit with the usual wave of noise from all of the Avengers, and it startled me, not as bad as the first time I had heard them all, but my heart still picked up speed. I clutched the blanket to my chest tighter and slowly walked into the kitchen, eyes darting around. Some of the Avengers were already sprawled out on the massive couch in front of the TV, bowls or plates of food in their hands, while some still grabbed stuff from the kitchen. Pepper spotted me first and grinned, holding out a bowl of something. I slowly walked over, eyes darting to the Avengers at their sudden movements. I made my way over to Pepper and looked into the bowl that she was holding out and saw tiny little pies, probably about five or six of them, inside.

"Would you like barbeque, tomato, mustard or no sauce?" She asked, my eyes darting back up to her. I paused for a moment, my brain trying to process what she was saying, but to avoid saying the wrong thing, I just went with no sauce. She smiled and handed me by bowl before handing out things ot the rest of the Avengers. I held the blanket close to my chest with one hand and the bwol in my other before I turned back around to the lounge area where most of the Avengers were already settled. Some were on the couch, cross-legged or knees drawn up to their chest to try and make room for others, bowls of food balancing carefully. Some were on the floor, surrounded by pillows and blankets. Above the fireplace, there was a giant TV screen with different movies flicking across it.

"Can't we watch Knives Out?" Asked Tony, mouth half full of whatever food he had.

"What about Outerbanks?" Asked Wanda, levitating a bunch of popcorn through the air with her power.

"We could go My Little Pony." Clint snickered.

"I vote Ginny and Georgia." Nat interrupted, stuffing a bunch of the popcorn into her mouth.

"Ugh, no way." Clint groaned, yanking one of the pillows out from underneath Nat, causing her to fall flat onto her back.

"Hey give that back!" She demanded, scrambling upright and launching at him, starting a massive tug of war with the pillow.

"If you guys rip that pillow," warned Tony, walking into the kitchen to grab a drink. "You're cleaning the feathers up, with your hands. Thor, you want a beer?"

"Of course Stark." Thor boomed from where he was taking up at least half of the couch with his muscled body, several bowls of food next to him. Bruce was sitting next to him, calmly eating his salad as Clint and Nat continued to wrestle for the pillow, his feet drawn up onto the couch so they didn't get hit. Wanda was next to him, covered in a blanket similar to mine but of a darker shade. Next to her was where Clint had been sitting, with Nat at his feet surrounded by a bunch of pillows. At the very edge of the couch was Loki, leaning against the arm rest as he picked at his food. Tony was sitting on the opposite end of the couch, arguing with Steve about what to watch. It seemed like Steve wasn't approving of a lot of the movies.

"Guys stop fighting." Pepper came over, her own bowl of food in her hands. Both Clint and Nat looked up at her before Clint wrenched the pillow out of Nat's hands and climbed back onto the couch, causing Nat to stick her tongue out at him before she settled back down into the pile of pillows on the floor. She was the first to spot me standing awkwardly near the end of the couch, just behind Tony.

"Emily!" She grinned, patting the pillows next to her. "Come on, come sit down." I bit my lip nervously and walked over to the pile of pillows around her. I slowly sat down and put the blanket over my legs, looking up at the TV as movies continued to flick across the screen.

"Okay, whatever." Tony interrupted the argument he was having with Steve. "We're watching Knives Out, end of conversation." A single movie filled the screen and sound began to play through the speakers. All of the colours and sounds coming from the TV were interesting and slightly confusing, I had only seen smaller versions of screens at HYDRA, and they normally had statistics from the trials they were running on me. I had never seen anything like this.

It took me a little while to relax as the movie played, my brain was working over time to understand anything. I nibbled on my food occasionally, and soon I was so absorbed in the movie that I lost track of everything around me.