The night was pretty peaceful as Loki walked through the city. He had no reason to be out, he just needed an excuse to get away from the Avengers and be on his own for once.

They watch over me like security cameras, Loki hissed silently. Of course, he hadn't expected any of them to trust him immediately since Thor brought him to Earth to join the Avengers. But I would at least appreciate it if they didn't try to practically babysit me.

At least out here, no one recognized him as the same man who attacked the city years ago, so no one could give him trouble.

     Or, so he thought.

     "HEY!" a man shouted. Loki turned around, wondering where the noise came from. Then, he saw someone in a purple hoodie wrestling a bag-he guessed a bag of food-out of someone's hands.

     The hooded person got the bag and started running. The man tried running after them, but the kid was much faster, and they were coming in Loki's direction.

Acting quickly, Loki tried to get in the way of the kid, but they shoved him to the side and kept running. So this is how we're gonna play, he thought. Alright.

     As the kid turned into an alleyways, Loki suddenly appeared in front of them and grabbed their wrists. The kid shrieked and desperately struggled to get away from him.

     "Hey, HEY!" Loki yelled. "Calm down!"

"Let me go!" the kid hissed. From their voice, Loki could tell it was girl.

"No, you tell me why you were stealing," Loki said.

     "None of your concern. Now let me go!" the girl said, struggling harder to get away. But Loki wouldn't let go of her. He wanted to know why she had to steal food, especially since she looked a bit young to be on the streets.

The girl stared up at him, and Loki could see fear in her eyes. He sighed softly.

"I.. I'll help you, if you need it," he offered.

"Why?" the girl asked, sounding suspicious.

"Because no one deserves to live alone," Loki said.

"Well I'm not exactly alone," the girl said softly. "I mean- not like you care."

     "I do," Loki said. "How many others are there?"

     The girl was quiet for a moment. "Three," she mumbled. "I-I'm stealing food so I can feed them..."

     "I could fix that," Loki said. "I'll bring food to you guys everyday, but only if you stop stealing."

     "Who even are you?" Peg asked. Loki felt slightly anxious. If he told her who he was, she might get scared of him and run off. And if he didn't, she wouldn't trust him.

     "M-My name is Loki," he said.

     "Funny name," the girl responded. Good. She doesn't know me, Loki thought.

     "Thanks for noticing," he said with a smirk. "What's yours?"

"Uh, P-Peg. Peg Myers..." the girl said quietly.

"Gee, funny name," Loki said.

"Funny names are kind of a thing where I come from," Peg chuckled.

"Same here," Loki said. "So, uh, if you don't mind me asking where you and your family live..."

"It's down this way," Peg said. "And uh, they're not really family. Not by blood anyways." Loki nodded and followed her. The alleyway seemed to twist and turn into narrower paths, making it a bit hard for Loki to memorize where he needed to go. But finally, the two stepped out into an opening, and just in front of them was pretty run down building.

"I'm guessing you're not exactly the richest people..." Loki said.

"Nope," Peg replied as she walked into the house. Loki followed her, though feeling a bit anxious as he heard the walls creak.

"Guys!" Peg yelled. "I'm back!"

The inside of the house looked just as bad as the outside. There were holes all over the walls, and dust was everywhere. The furniture looked like it could break at any second.

God, how could they have it this bad? Loki wondered.

     He then saw three other people walk out from the hallway. Two of them were boys, and one was a girl. She looked a bit smaller than the others. All three of them had black hair, but one of the boys' hair was significantly darker. They all also had green eyes, but the dark-haired kid's eyes were brighter. Peg looked a bit like an odd one out compared to the others.

     "Hey Peg- WOAH!" the light-haired kid yelped. Before Loki could say anything, the kid grabbed his two other friends and all three of them went invisible as a storm cloud appeared near the roof.

     Loki quickly stepped back, not only because the thought of being struck by lightning intimidated him, but he also guessed that these kids wouldn't be very accepting of him at first.

"Hey, HEY!" Peg yelled, rushing in front of him and creating a force field. "Geezes, I can't even bring anyone to the damn house. Put the cloud away, Breeze!"

Slowly, the storm cloud disappeared, and the three kids revealed themselves again. All of them looked terrified, and Loki guessed they weren't you used to meeting new people.

     "Thank you," Peg said, crossing her arms.

"Uh... who is this?" the light-haired boy asked. Peg glanced over at Loki, as if telling him to speak.

"My name is Loki," he said. "I heard about your, uh... current condition, and I wish to help."

The kids all looked suspicious of him. Loki wondered what they were so nervous about. I've shown no intention to hurt them.

     "I-I'm Misty," the girl said softly. "This is my brother, Shadow." She pointed to the light-haired boy, who just greeted Loki with a nod.

     "I'm Breeze," the dark-haired kid mumbled.

"It's nice to meet all of you," Loki said.

"He says he'll bring food for us everyday," Peg said. Misty's eyes lit up.

     "I like you already," she said to Loki, who chuckled softly.

     "You- You really want to help us?" Breeze asked softly.

     "Of course," Loki said. "I am an Avenger after all. It's my job to help people."

"Avenger?" Shadow asked. "Like, the superhero people?"

"Yeah, that's us," Loki said.

     "That's really cool," Misty said. "What are the Avengers like? I mean, we've seen you guys a few times before, but-"

     "Oh my goodness, Misty. Give him a break," Shadow chuckled.

Loki smiled. "They're all good friends.. mostly." He didn't want them to know that the Avengers didn't feel like friends to him at all. Otherwise he'd have to tell them why they didn't trust him.

"Whats Thor like? He's my favorite," Misty said.

"Excuse me, he's my brother," Loki said, acting offended. The others laughed softly.

"I've actually never seen you with the Avengers," Peg said.

     "Well, I don't go on missions much," Loki said softly.

     Peg nodded. "I mean, I guess I haven't seen a lot of the Avengers," she said. "I've seen Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America, there was some dude with a metal arm... I think there's a fast guy."

"We don't really go out much," Breeze said softly. "J-Just to get food."

"About that," Loki said. "Me and Peg made a deal that of I bring food to you, then she would stop stealing. I think that should go to you guys as well."

     "Sounds fair," Misty said.

     "Alright," Loki said, smiling softly. Then, his phone buzzed and he took it out of his pocket.

     Katie, one of the Avengers, has sent him a message. "Where are you?" she had asked. Loki sighed softly. She was probably worried about him, but he didn't if she was worried about him, or worried about what he'd do. She acted nice to him sometimes, but still seemed not to trust him like everyone else.

"I have to go," he said, getting up. Misty, Shadow, and Breeze all said their goodbyes to him, and he went to leave. However, Peg got up and rushed after him.

"Loki, wait!" she said, stopping him outside the door. Loki turned around.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"D-Don't tell the Avengers about us.. please?" Peg said softly. Loki gave her a confused look.

"Why not?" he asked.

"I-It might seem selfish, but.. I don't want anyone else to know about us," she said softly. "When we were little, we were targeted by this science lab. They wanted to experiment on us, because..." The girl looked down and created a small forcefield in her hand.

"Y-You have powers," Loki said softly. Peg nodded.

"I-It's just so hard to trust anyone now..." she said quietly. "We're lucky we even found you."

     Loki sighed softly. Part of him wanted to just get them out of their miserable state and take them home, and show them that the world wasn't as bad as it seemed. But he knew he had to respect Peg's wishes. "I'll keep it a secret," he said softly.

     "Thanks you," Peg said, before hugging him tightly. Loki was a bit shocked at first, but slowly hugged her back.

     He felt an urge to protect these kids, something he'd never felt before. He needed them, and they needed him. I just wonder how long I can keep this secret.