The Tear of Celeste

Chapter 49: Red Blush

You were holding Loki's hands as you got back to the jet, Clint napping on top of it. "How did you convince him to fly us out here?" You whispered to Loki as you looked up at the sleeping archer.

Loki looked at you with a warm smile. "I have some very strong defensive magic, some which make someone undetectable," he said, looking up at Clint too, "I offered to cloak his house with his family to keep them safe."

You looked up and noticed the look in Loki's eyes. "... You like Clint don't you?" He looked at him with a certain level of fondness. Loki looked down at you and frowned "I..." He sighed. "I admire him for being a good father, he loves his wife and children equally and does whatever he can to keep them safe and happy."

You noticed Clint having an eye up and looking back at you, quickly putting a finger to his lips and closing his eyes again, pretending to be sleeping.

With a giggle and warm smile, you look at Loki. "I think you are right, I like Clint too, but we should probably wake him up."

Loki nodded slowly, looking up at the 'sleeping' Clint too. "Barton? Are you ready to take us back or do you need more sleep?"

Clint yawned and stretched. "Hmmm?" He said, rubbing his eyes and looking down at the two of you with a grin. "Oh, how did the courting go?" He asked as he sat up.

You gave him a big grin. "Perfectly!" You did give a small pout and pulled out the golden card. "Though I never got to use this." You looked at Loki a little sad.

Loki chuckled and kissed your cheek. "Next time darling."

You liked the sound of that.

༺☆༻

There was a bit of a mixed reaction when you and Loki announced your courtship the next day to the whole team, but it was mostly positive. You got a lot of hugs and congratulations, while Loki got some handshakes, pats on the shoulders, and some death threats about if he hurt you.

"Yes yes, evidently there will be a line," he said with a grumble, but there was also a genuine smile on his lips and you could tell this was the first time he had been this close to the group. Even though you had been told he had done a lot to redeem himself as a villain there had still been a stale air around the group that was finally breaking up.

Thor hugged you both tight, boasting about his brother finally finding love and having a new sister. You both told him it was too early to call you anything like that, but he did not listen and you gave up trying to convince him too. After all, he was not the only one seeing you as a sister.

༺☆༻

Dating Loki came very naturally to you since you had already been so close, not a lot seemed to have changed, it just got intensified.

You still spend time reading together in mostly silence, now you would just be leaning against each other a lot more and sometimes read the same book.

Like that one time, you were leaning against Loki, reading along with him when you suddenly felt his hand in your hair, stroking your scalp and making you almost purr. You shifted down to lay your head in his lap, closing your eyes as you just enjoyed the head massage.

You heard him give a slightly surprised chuckle, but he keeps playing softly with your hair and scalp while he reads. You hummed happily.

Loki had also let you play with his hair, a thing you knew he took more pride in than most men. He had let you brush and style it a couple of times and even on a few occasions let you braid it as long as it was in a style he liked.

Right now you were sitting on the back of the coach and doing a simple braid in the style you learned when studying in the Nordic countries.

"Do you know what a lovelock is?" You ask suddenly, blushing slightly. Loki leaned his head back so he could look at you. "I'm aware," he said, a curious look in his eyes.

"I was just thinking.... No never mind," you said, blushing, and just kept working on the braid.

Loki looked at you for a long moment "..." He then summoned a dagger and with no hesitating cut a lock of his own hair. You looked at him shocked as you never cut his hair before or even seen him do it himself.

He offered you the dagger and with a warm smile you cut a lock of your own hair. You took the lock you just cut and braided it into his hair, making sure it was on his left side, low enough to slightly drape over his shoulder and toward his heart, and also made sure it was secure.

You then shifted down beside him to let him braid his hair into yours.

When he was finished he tilted your head up and looked at you with an examining expression, like you were an artwork he was appeasing. "... Perfection," he whispered, giving his classic smirk before kissing you.

༺☆༻

A thing that you had found difficult about dating Loki was the height difference, and you decided to complain loudly to the group one day.

"Loki's too tall for me to kiss on the lips!" You said annoyed, feeling like you had to jump sometimes just to get a chance to kiss first! "What should I do?" You whined.

Bucky was the first to answer. "Punch him in the gut, when he doubles over in pain, kiss him," he said with a shrug and smirk.

"You could just tackle him," Thor said with an earnest smile, "that is what the ladies of Asgard will do sometimes."

Tony shrugged, still working on a project. "Dump him, I'm sure you can find better." But you could tell he was teasing.

"Kick him in the shins!" Pietro said in a funny voice, moving like a goblin to demonstrate.

"N-no!" Loki quickly said, having been in the room the entire time. "To all of those!" He sighed, leaning down, and kissed you. "Just ask me, darling, okay? I would gladly bow down for you."

You smiled and wrapped your arms around his neck and kissed again, making the boys make gag noises, but you just flipped them off.

༺☆༻

The other thing that became difficult was that you now had a job. Tony told you that you would be starting to go on more missions as soon as Stephen approved, and you were a very quick learner so that happened fast.

"Now remember," Stephen said as you made your way toward your room to put on your suit for the mission, "if you discover any new powers you need to report it to me immediately."

"Yeah yeah, Dad," you said with an eye roll, making it about 3 steps up before you realized what you just said.

You and Stephen both turn to look at each other at the same time... And then both quickly went your separate ways. You were gonna unpack that one later!

༺☆༻

You arrived at the jet with your suit on, giving some of your teammates a twirl to show it off as they all agreed it was perfect for you.

"Now we are all going on this mission together again, which is overkill," Steve told you as you got into the jet. "After this, you should be prepared to go on smaller missions with only a few team members, we can't all respond every time," he said seriously.

You nodded in understanding but were still thrilled about being part of the team.