You weren't surprised when there was a knock on your door later. "Go away Thor," you called through the door automatically. You were sitting against the door with your knees to your chest and knew who it was by how hard the door banged against your head when he knocked.

"No, Lady. I am not leaving you to be miserable because of something my brother did," Thor called back through the door.

You sighed heavily. "Not right now, Thor," you said wearily and put your head back on your knees, where it had been before Thor banged the door into it. You were tired and hurt and didn't want to play with Thor right now. He was loud and annoying and demanding.

"Kyrie, don't make me do it," Thor told you, sounding sad.

"You wouldn't," you replied grumpily, refusing to move until he made you. Unfortunately, he could do just that, and he knew it.

"Kyrie," he warned again.

"Fine," you growled before he could issue the order. You stood and opened the door before he could pull rank and give you an order that duty demanded you follow. You didn't bother trying to hide that you'd been crying. "What do you want, Thor?" you asked him, just as wearily. He didn't answer, just bent and threw you over his shoulder. "THOR!" you shrieked and hit his back, hard. "Put me down!"

"No. I told you I am not leaving you to be miserable. Just because Loki said some hurtful words does not mean the rest of us do not wish to see you,"

"Thor, they all hate me," you growled at him. "Besides Nat anyway," you amended grudgingly.

"No, they do not. And Loki won't be there. He has decided to hide in his room too, but since he is in the wrong, you're the one who gets my company today,"

"Lucky me," you grumbled.

"Verily," Thor agreed pleasantly. "You forget, little Valkyrie," Thor's voice had gotten too loud, like he was expecting that Loki was on the other side of his bedroom door eavesdropping. You saw that Loki's bedroom door was cracked open and you would bet he was eavesdropping. "While the Valkyrie are duty bound to defend the throne, we also have duties to our beloved Valkyrie as their well-being are our responsibility. Especially those Valkyrie that are sworn to personal service. Since my brother is incapable of doing his duty, it falls to me," Thor announced, still too loudly.

"I'm still going to stab you," you growled, but stopped actively trying to fight him. He was right and you knew it. It was a give and take relationship between the Valkyrie and who they were sworn to protect. The members of the royal family also safeguarded the well being of the Valkyrie in general, so Thor was entirely in the right. You hated when he was right.

He shrugged, which was quite unsettling when you were over his shoulder. "It would not be the first time,"

"The last time was 900 years ago," you growled grumpily at him.

He chuckled. "I believe the last time was when you were sick. You insisted on doing your duty to Loki and escorting him to whatever event Father had decided needed doing that evening,"

"There was a diplomat Loki had to meet," you reminded him. "Someone from one of the archaeological digs,"

"It didn't matter to you that you had a raging fever, which I'm still impressed you managed to hide from Loki by the way,"

"He was too interested in seeing what books the archaeologist brought with him," you explained. Loki had been preoccupied that day and hadn't noticed your state. You hadn't enlightened him either and had actively hid just how sick you had been. It would have discredited him to not have his Valkyrie at his side. You were a status symbol for him as well, though someone could have subbed for you since you really were that sick. You hadn't trusted them to do your job as well as you would. You loved Loki. Someone who didn't would clearly not do as good of a job protecting him.

"I believe he expected you to say if you were too ill, which he found out the hard way was a mistake. Especially when you collapsed on the way back from meeting the diplomat. And proceeded to stab me for carrying you to bed,"

"In my defense, I was pretty delirious with fever,"

"I reminded you then that our Valkyries are in the care of the throne," Thor said.

"Fine, you made your point. Now will you put me down?" you grumbled, hating being carried like this.

"No," Thor replied jovially. You growled and slapped his back again grumpily. He was laughing as he carried you to the elevator. He didn't set you down until he reached your couch. He set you down on the couch and told you firmly to stay there. You glared and stuck your tongue out at him.

Nat started talking about some of the moves you had pulled during the demonstration earlier and got you talking. Clint and Tony were in the room too. Tony was playing on one of Jarvis' screens and Clint was killing some kind of monster on a video game on the TV. Thor came back a minute later with two giant bowls of ice cream.

"Midgardian tradition is that this is the proper comfort food for sad emotions," he told you proudly as he handed one to you. You took the bowl automatically, but hesitated.

"You know I can't eat ice cream," you reminded him softly. He should know better.

He smiled warmly. "In public, perhaps. But here, you are among friends, and family. Nothing to fear," he told you. You sighed and realized you had drawn too much attention to yourself. So you shoved the first spoonful of ice cream into your mouth. It wasn't something you had often, and you savored it, even as you shivered and your skin turned blue, your Jotun form taking over at the cold. Ice cream always had that effect. Why was ice cream so perfect for sad emotions? "Loki will come around," Thor told you, not seeming affected at all by your sudden Jotuness. Nat tried to be unaffected, but she didn't do quite as good of a job. The rest were openly staring.

"I'm not so sure of that," you admitted softly, staring at the sigil on your wrist which was fainter than it had been that morning. "He was pretty pissed." You had a bad feeling he was going to completely reject you, and you'd not only have lost your home, and your love, but also your status and position.

"He just found out his entire life was a lie. Again. He historically does not do well with such revelations. The last time he took over Asgard, tried to kill me, and fell from the Bifrost into the abyss," Thor reminded you. You had heard the story. "Give him time. He'll come around once he realizes that he'd rather have the entire future with you than mourn over the last 900 years you should have had,"

"I hope you're right," you told Thor softly.

Then Tony decided that saying the word 'smurfette' was a good idea. He was somehow surprised when you were on your feet a moment later and he was flying through the window.

*

A month passed with barely any words from Loki. He would barely even look at you. You didn't say more to him than a polite greeting, giving him the space and time he needed. It was killing you.

"She won't even speak to me after what I said and she'll barely look at me!" you heard Loki yelling at Thor one day.

"I believe the term is 'duh', brother," Thor replied calmly, nearly gently.

"What do you mean, 'duh'?" Loki growled. "I hurt her and now she doesn't want me anymore,"

"She wants nothing else but your friendship, and more, you fool. She loves you still and has never stopped. But if you want the relationship to mend, you will have to be the one to swallow your pride and initiate the rekindling," Loki growled again at that, grumbling. "You pulled rank on her and ordered her to leave you alone. She is doing her duty and doing exactly that, though it is killing her to do," Thor told Loki hotly. "Since you have been too self-absorbed to notice anything but your own self-pity, let me enlighten you on some things. Your sigil is vanishing from her skin. If you do not make amends soon, you will lose her forever. Yes, what Father did was awful to both of you. But do you want to ruin any future happiness by shunning her now that you finally have her back?"

Loki's sigil was fading, it was nearly half-erased already as he was pushing you away. He was denying he even deserved a Valkyrie and pushing you further and further away, so tied up in his pain of betrayal that he didn't realize he was essentially failing you as a Valkyrie.

Thor had said he would claim your service if Loki didn't some to his senses by then, so you wouldn't be disgraced. It was kind of him to offer.

"Of course not," Loki snarled.

"Then make your amends, brother, and make them soon. Make them before that mark fades, before she goes through with her petition to SHIELD to be transferred. I stalled her once to give you time, but I do not think I can stall her much longer. Or is your pride worth the loss of your closest longest friend? The woman who has loved you your entire life?"

Loki hesitated a long moment. You should have stopped eavesdropping a long time ago, but you couldn't, not when they were talking about you. "I don't know how," Loki finally admitted softly.

"Brother, all you ever had to do was ask," Thor replied kindly, his voice sounding so much like Frigga's in that moment. It made you smile as you took a couple steps backward and vanished from the room before they saw you and realized you had been eavesdropping.