Peter woke up with a yell, clutching at his chest as he struggled to pull air into his lungs. His body was so cold that it burned, every nerve felt numb. He gasped for air but it felt like his lungs were frozen, not expanding to fill with the substance that he needed most.

He needed a grounding but his eyes darted around his room to quickly to find anything. His mind was jumping from too many topics to properly think of a grounding method. He was stuck in a loop of panic and pain and he couldn't breathe, oh God he couldn't breathe-

In the frantic movement of his hands trying to grip his chest, he brushed right down the middle of his burn and sent a sharp pain through his body that completely cleared his mind. His body was almost thrown back by the pain, his head crashing back against his pillow so quickly that it took more than a moment to regain his bearings.

Drawing in a deep breath, he was finally able to register the oxygen in his lungs and slowly calmed down. With the calming of his mind though, the pain in his chest became more prominent.

Cursing under his breath, Peter slowly pushed himself out of bed. He needed to find the pain meds that Dr. Banner had prescribed him or his night would get a whole lot worse...

Stumbling clumsily out his bedroom door, he walked down the hall towards Loki's kitchen. The Compound was still being rebuilt, which is where he would have stayed with a wound like his, so Dr. Banner and Mr. Stark had agreed it would be best that Peter stay with Loki while he healed and set up quite a good bit of medicine for him there. But why couldn't Loki be a normal person and have his medicine in the bathroom? Not the kitchen... He had to deal with the stairs because of that.

Letting out a small sigh as he stood at the top of the stairs, Peter wondered for a second if he would be able to just jump down to the bottom floor... But he quickly tossed that thought aside; he could hardly walk straight, there would be no way he could land a jump - especially one that wouldn't wake up Loki.

So he took a breath and slowly started to climb down the stairs. He learned very fast that while his mind seemed awake, his body was definitely not. More than once he found himself tilting to the side and had to stop walking and wait for his world to level out again. The throbbing-burning in his chest was absolutely not helping either.

But he eventually made it to the kitchen without further injury, his eyes set on the cabinets above the stove. Why Loki insisted on keeping it in those cabinets, he would never understand. It would have been just as fine in one of the drawers in the counter. Though he realized a dilemma once he got there...

Because of the burn on the left side of his chest, he couldn't raise his arms high enough to reach the cabinet. His maximum limit was just under halfway without pain, but that was no where near high enough. If only his healing factor would work just a bit faster... He was much better than before, considering he couldn't even sit up for his first four days with the wound and was completely reliant on those around him for his basic needs - which was humiliating. Magical burns were so much harder to deal with than normal burns...

Glaring at the cabinet with all the hatred he could muster, Peter stood there for a minute debating what he could do. Shooting a web at it was out of the question mainly because he left his web shooters in his room... He could always climb onto the counter and open it normally from there, but he would have to bend backwards a bit to avoid the cabinet. There was an option of moving one of the island stools and standing on that, but he didn't know if he could keep his balance long enough to get the medicine and climb down...

The stool seemed to be his best option though, the pulsing pain in his chest beginning to reach unbearable levels that called for near desperation judgment. So he grabbed the stool and pulled it over with his slightly better arm; sitting on it, he brought his knees up to his chest and planted his feet on the seat. Slowly, carefully, he stood up, his legs shaking slightly as he held on to the back of the chair.

"Why do they have to be swivel chairs...?" Peter muttered, letting go of the chair and standing at his full height. He held his arms out just slightly, barely enough to keep him stable but still below his tolerance level. He reached out for the handles of the cabinet, but the dim lighting of the night light on the counter reflected a blue hue onto his hands that made him freeze.

The sound of screams filled his head, visions of a frozen wasteland taking over his mind. For a moment, he forgot everything and pulled his hands back, trying to rub off the blue as he stepped back. It was when his foot caught on the back of the chair that he remembered - remembered that what he saw was only a dream, remembered that he was still in his human form, remembered that he was on top of a swivel chair with a large burn in his chest.

Cursing himself for letting his mind slip so easily, Peter's hands caught the back of the chair to flip himself up and over and land solidly on his feet.

That was the plan anyway...

When his arms were fully extended, that large burn made itself known again. He let out a strangled cry as his arms gave out, sending him crashing to the floor on his back. The sudden weight shifts on the chair caused it to topple dangerously close to Peter's leg, hitting the floor with a loud crash that made Peter flinch and cover his ears.

He panted, trying to regain his bearings as he laid on the floor. Any pain he would have felt from that fall was being drowned out by the flaring of the burn - it was just as bad as when he got it. Bringing a hand to his mouth, Peter bit down on his knuckle to try and keep from yelling out. Though he was sure that Loki heard him fall, he didn't want to further embarrass himself by crying as well.

Through his pain-hazed mind, Peter could still hear Loki's rushed footsteps coming down the stairs and to the kitchen. The lighting slowly started to brighten, but Peter shook his head.

"N-No... Please... Leave the lights off."

"Peter?" The room went dark again, but Loki still turned the corner to see the teen laying on the floor. His eyes widened as he quickly knelt down next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "What happened?"

"Medicine..."

A look of understanding passed through his eyes as he glanced at the chair then to the cabinet. "You should have called me... I would have gotten it for you."

"I- I needed to get up... I couldn't stay in there..."

His eyebrows pushed together in confusion, but Loki let out a sigh as he moved a hand over Peter's burn and cooled the area. Peter sucked in a breath, his body relaxing slightly. The pain dulled enough for him to sit up, gingerly running a hand against the back of his head to feel the lump that was starting to form.

"Can you walk?" Loki asked, watching Peter with careful eyes. At his nod, Loki stood and offered his hand to help him up. Peter wobbled just a bit, Loki's hands never leaving him even after he was balanced. "Come, let's bring you to the living room... What are you even doing awake? You haven't woken up in the night like this since you were in the med-bay."

The boy looked down, biting the inside of his cheek. "I had a dream... When I woke up, I grabbed the burn and made it start hurting. I thought I could get the medicine..."

Loki let out another sigh as he guided Peter to sit on the sofa; once he was sure that Peter was safely seated, he left back for the kitchen and returned with not only the medicine, but a glass of water and an ice pack as well.

Peter eagerly took the ice pack and placed it on the back of his head, Loki setting the water down as he began to unscrew the cap to the pills. While Peter normally hated medicine, especially these pills that were much too large for him to swallow, he couldn't wait for Loki to hand it over. It worked almost instantly, blocking out the pain and letting him drift into the peaceful call of sleep-

Damn.

"W-Wait..." Peter frowned, holding a hand out to stop Loki from opening the bottle any further. "I changed my mind, I don't want that."

Loki's brows bushed together in confusion, looking from Peter to the bottle and back. "You nearly split your head open for something you don't want?"

"I wanted it before, I just don't want it now."

There was a beat of silence, Loki trying to catch Peter's eye and Peter very obviously avoiding it. A look of understanding passed through the man's face though, setting the pill bottle back onto the table. "I see... Would you like to talk about why you're awake right now then?"

A small shake of the head, Peter kept his eyes locked on his lap.

"Peter, my ice cannot keep the pain away forever, you'll have to tell me what's wrong so that I can help you."

Silence again, Loki waiting patiently for him to give in; if the bouncing leg and bit lip meant anything, then it wouldn't be long before Peter finally caved in.

And he was right, not a minute later Peter was sitting up straight and letting out a sigh. "I had a dream about... About that lady- Amora." Loki stiffened slightly as well at the name, getting an idea about where this would be going. "I was back in that room with her and she had just told me what she was making you do... and I killed her. I was planning to kill her in real life, but my dream... I did things I never considered, horrible things... And I enjoyed it. I enjoyed killing her...! But then, that wasn't even the worst part! Even though I wasn't in danger anymore, you still took over Earth and we forced the humans to become slaves to us. I helped you kill the Avengers... I killed Mr. Stark with my own hands... I was evil... I was evil and I liked it."

The ticking of the clock on the wall seemed much louder than it was after that confession. But then Loki shook his head, reaching over to place a hand on Peter's shoulder. "Peter, you're not evil. You never could be evil. What happened with Amora will never happen-"

"But that's the thing!" Peter's eyes flashed red for a second before fading back to brown. "That's what I was going to do! I really was going to kill her so that you wouldn't have to kill anyone! And I would do it again and again and again and again if it meant that you would get to stay as a hero! But what if I really do start to enjoy it...? What if I turn into a super villain in the end? I wasn't strong enough to defeat Amora, but what if I'm stronger than the next one? I can kill a human so easily if I don't constantly hold myself back. What if one day... I just stop?"

The lost and frightened look in Peter's eyes as tears built up in them sent a pang of hurt through Loki's chest; he squeezed Peter's shoulder slightly as he shook his head. "These worries you feel right now are the reason that's never going to happen, Peter. A villain doesn't worry about turning into a villain, he worries about getting stronger - gaining more power. But you don't want that. You want to help people, you spend more hours than the Avengers saving people - on a much smaller scale but it still stands." He shook his shoulder to gain eye contact again, "You could never be a villain because of that."

A single tear escaped Peter's eye and rolled down his cheek. "It still scares me though... I'm scared, dad... I'm really scared..."

Loki's body moved on its own, taking the seat next to Peter and pulling the boy against his chest. "I know, I know. But I won't allow you to become a villain, you have my word."

Peter's head tilted slightly, hiding his face in Loki's collarbone. And they stayed like that for at least thirty minutes, Peter's shoulders shaking with his silent cries and Loki gently rubbing and patting his back in what he hoped was comfort. Having dealt with emotions of sadness very vaguely, he was not the best at comforting... Thor would probably know what to do, he spent so much time with the children on Asgard he had to have learned something useful. But Thor wasn't there, so Loki just had to think like Thor.

As horrific as that idea was.

But before he could begin to act like that oaf, Peter drew in a shuddering breath just as his body went limp against Loki. The man blinked, moving just slightly to be able to look at Peter's face and smiled fondly as he saw the boy sleeping soundly.

Adjusting his arm around his back and tucking the other under his knees, Loki lifted Peter up and carried him back to his room. Nestled safely against his chest, Peter didn't even stir as they climbed the stairs. Entering the room though, Loki frowned.

Ice covered Peter's bed, walls, and some of the floor. The haphazard way the blanket was thrown off led Loki to believe that Peter probably didn't even see the ice when he left. It was already starting to melt though, but there was almost guaranteed to be something frozen when Peter woke up, and that would most likely lead to another panic attack...

Not that Loki would let his son stay in a wet bed. Turning, he walked further down the hall to his room and set Peter down in his bed. His plan was to let Peter sleep as he went to clean the room, but as he was standing back up, Peter's hold on the back of his shirt would not release. He reached back to try and unhook his hands, but that super human strength...

Loki held a short debate in his mind before silently admitting defeat and climbing into bed next to the boy, carefully maneuvering under the covers with him. Holding his hand up to Peter's chest, Loki let out one last wave of coldness over the burn before settling in for the night.

Peter would most likely be in pain when he woke up since he didn't take the medicine, and his room would be a mess... but Loki would wake up early to prepare the medicine, and he could overlook the mess if it meant that his son would sleep well for once...

And maybe... just maybe... Peter would call him 'dad' in the morning.

A/N: I'm honestly a little iffy about the last scene of Peter and Loki sleeping in the same bed... I really hope that's not seen as anything bad. My dad tries to get me to take naps with him when we're in the same house, I'm 21 and it seems weird to me... But my aunt still sleeps with her mom when she goes to visit... So I don't know... It's sweet to me when it's Peter and Loki, but I get that not everyone was raised the same way. Please don't misunderstand that.

NEW STORY ANNOUNCEMENT! I'm going to start slowing down updates for my Peter and Loki stories as I work on a new book! It's going to be an AU of ALL of the Avengers, which will be pushing me out of my comfort zone a bit. I've never been that good at plot consistency (as seen in my story "When Impressions Fail") or writing for a group of characters at once... But I've had this idea in my head for so long, and it's slowly taking over. I don't have that much written that won't give everything away, but I can show you the idea that started it all.

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It was too easy for them to forget - way too easy, especially when they saw him rolling around in the grass like any other kid his age, even if they were, in fact, in a military base camp - that even if he was a fourteen-year-old, he'd been trained to fight, and hurt, and kill like this ever since he could walk. That he had the power and the knowledge to do some serious damage, even if he was barely five feet tall.

Despite all of the stuff he'd trained in, he'd never been taught when to stop. And that was why he was such a liability.

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There you have it! The first look into 4V3NG3R5! I'm so excited to finally be able to work on this story, you have no idea... I've even started drawing scenes for a small video based on the summary. So if you'd like to see it, be sure to follow my Instagram account, karmi_draws, where it'll be posted a week before the story release. And if you don't have an Insta... I may revive my YouTube account and post it there.

And don't worry, my Peter and Loki stories are far from finished! I still have a lot of ideas for them, I just need a little change of pace. Spider & Snake came out in 2018 and has been my main work ever since. And the Lokison idea is still so fresh and new, I can't give up on it if I tried! There will still be updates in between 4V3NG3R5's chapters, so don't fear this is the end!

And with that said, I hope you all look forward to my new story as much as I am!