The quiet scatters of conversation abruptly died as Thor walked back in, with Loki at his heels. Like earlier in New York— good god, had that really only been that same morning? —Tony felt reality warp, like the whole room had missed a step.

Youth and femininity had softened the girl's features, teasing out her resemblance to Hela. And her eyes were different. They looked bigger, although that might have had something to do with the long lashes that now framed her face, and the green of her irises seemed darker. There wasn't a thousand year-old consciousness behind them any more. Just a teenage girl with a curious sparkle in her eyes.

Rather than hide behind Thor under the weight of all the eyes on her, Loki (Lokette?) stepped forward, still studying the room like she was seeing it for the first time. Her gaze swept over them, recognition flashing over her eyes. She didn't say anything. Trailing a hand along the wall, she traced one of the cracks her power had made.

Everyone continued to stare, silently grasping for something to say. Thor shifted uneasily, wringing his hands.

Clearing his throat awkwardly, Sam finally stepped forward, leaning against the wall next to her. "Hey, kid," he said hesitantly.

"Hey," she said without looking up.

"How're you feeling?"

"Fine."

"Good, good," Sam said with waaaaay too much false cheer. He glanced around the room, helpless. "Just let us know if, you know, you need to lie down, or, you need something to eat. Anything, just let us know."

She finally pulled her attention away from the wall crack, tilting her head. "Sam, you're going to start giving me the wrong idea with all this coddling. And, well, once I might not have been adverse to the idea. You have very pretty eyes," she said, looking him over thoughtfully. Much to Sam's rapidly visible horror. "I like that. But now, well, it wouldn't be very appropriate, now would it? And Thor is extremely overprotective, especially now, so such an attempt would almost certainly mean your death. So," she trailed off with a shrug. She kept her expression somber, letting silence hang for a long moment.

Tony broke it, snickering.

"Hey there, Bambi," he said. "Good to see you."

A bright, full smile split Loki's face. Finally taking pity on Sam, she patted the man's shoulder. "I'm fine, Sam, really. But take it down a few notches; I'm not a toddler."

When Sam wilted, Steve stepped forward with that patented look of patient scolding. "This is our first reincarnation, Loki," he said gently. "Give us a little bit of slack. We just want to make sure you're okay."

And then the strangest thing happened: Loki gazed up at Steve, and her expression completely melted. She ducked her head, tucking a strand of her behind her ear. Her smile went gooey, and, yep, that was a blush spreading out from her nose. What the fu—

"It's my first time, too," she mumbled with a little laugh. "I'm okay, though. No negative effects. It's all good. Thanks. For asking. It's really sweet of you."

Steve smiled and gave her tiny shoulder a squeeze. A hard to distinguish sound, somewhere between a nervous laugh and a squeak, jumped out of Loki's throat. She tucked her head tighter into her chest.

Thor watched the exchange with an increasingly suspicious furrow between his eyebrows. Steve didn't seem to notice, patting Loki's shoulder again.

"So what's the deal with these do-hickies," Quill said, redirecting the conversation. He examined the collection of artifacts Loki had left behind, poking at the blue cube in particular. "They any good for Thanos killing?"

"Hey, don't touch those," Loki chided. "They'll fry your puny mortal form."

Quill snorted. "I'm half-god, kid. I think I can handle it." But he pulled his hand back from the cube.

"I'm full-god," Loki countered. She sharply raised one eye-brow with an annoying, very familiar half grin. "Why don't we take my word on this."

"Okay, we get it, you're Loki. Tone it down a little, girl-o," Tony laughed.

Loki stuck her tongue out. "Never." Looking back to Quill, she said, "I put those to the side for a reason, you know; 'cause they're not the greatest things for a teenager to have access to. I didn't do it just so someone else with even less maturity could play with them."

Quill demonstrated his abundance of maturity by flipping her off. She crossed her eyes at him, a gesture the man answered with a lopsided grin.

"What about the Mind Stone?" Natasha asked. She crossed her arms, hip cocked as she stared Loki down.

Loki blinked, perfectly innocent. Hey, look at that, the God of Mischief had those deception skills fully honed even as a kid. "What about it?" she asked sweetly.

Unaffected by the act, Natasha just tilted her head. "Isn't that one of those things a little kid shouldn't be allowed to play with?"

"I'm not that little," Loki protested. And it would have been a stronger argument if she hadn't been unsuccessfully trying to bite back a pout. "Besides, it was given to me, fair and square. No take backs."

"Nat's right," Thor said. He stepped forward, arms crossed and expression stubbornly set. "It's better if you leave the stone in our hands, now. We can keep it safe."

Loki shuffled back, folding her arms over her chest defensively.

"But—"

"I know, you think it's your responsibility. But Wanda and Vision gave you the stone when you were old enough to look after it. Now you should leave it to us, just like with the Casket."

"She's mine," Loki scowled. "She chose me to look after her. She bonded to me."

Thor patiently sighed. "It's not a toy, Loki. It's a dangerous artifact, and Than—that maniac is coming for it, and he's not going to let anything stand in his way. You're not keeping it, so give me the stone, Loki."

"It's not fair," she whined.

Thor sighed, shaking his head. "Loki, this is exactly what I'm talking about—"

But Loki was already switching tactics. She whirled on her heels toward Hela.

"Mom, tell him I can keep the Stone," she said in a rush, ducking her head down so her eyes were angled upward. There was a shimmer of emotion shining over her puppy-eyed expression. "They can't take her from me."

A dark scowl started forming between Thor's eyebrows.

"Loki—"

"Mom—"

"Oh, I like this," Hela hummed.

"Stay out of this," Thor snarled. Thinning his lips over his anger, he looked back to Loki. "I am responsible for you, Loki. It's not safe, and I won't leave you to waltz around with the main target lighting you up like a beacon."

Loki's expression turned mullish. Abandoning her strategy with Hela, she crossed her arms and turned back to Thor. Her eyes flashed dangerously.

Steve eased between them. "Look, it's been a long, really hard day," he said. "We're all exhausted, and everyone's tempers are running a little hot. Why don't we table this, let our hosts show us where we'll be staying? Before we say something that we regret."

Thor and Loki continued to stare each other down; then Thor finally nodded. "Of course," he conceded.

But he was still frowning, aiming stink-eye at Hela.

"Whatever," Loki muttered. Steve tilted his head expectantly, and she grudgingly added, "you're right. Sorry, Uncle Thor."

Thor winced, but kept his mouth shut.

Sighing, but acknowledging that this was the best he was going to get, Steve nodded. He made his way to the door. "I'll go talk to T'challa and Okoye."

"You're not the boss of me, you know," Loki muttered to Thor as she slipped out of the room. "Butthead."

She marched down the hall without another word. Thor sighed, massaging the middle of his head.

Blowing out a sympathetic breath, Tony patted Thor's shoulder as they watched her go.

"Good luck with that, buddy. Teenagers," he said, shuddering.

Thor's expression twisted as he continued to watch where Loki was hovering at the edge of the crowd. Feeling his gaze, she shot a hot scowl his way, then crossed her arms and pointedly looked away. Thor shook his head, focusing back on Tony. "Where's your charge?"

"Sent him off to get a message to Pep."

Tony paused, his mind spinning. That was...surprisingly easy. He hadn't even paused, hadn't even second guessed. There was no desire to deny it.

His charge. His boy. His.

And it caught him off guard. Just that morning, that kind of assertion would have paralyzed him. Tony shook it off for now; he'd tackle the implications of that line of thinking later.

"Pete volunteered to help me ease her mind. It's been a hard day for her. I...when I went after that ship, I left her hanging on the phone. So I've got a lot of things to make up for, after this." He frowned, unease pulling at his gut.

"Not to say I'm not looking forward to making it up to her," he added, conjuring up a bright smile. "I get to pull the 'I'm wounded, take care of me' card. Which means Pep gets to play nurse. Now that I think about it, tonight's going to be great.

"Speaking of, I'm sorry to hear things didn't work out with Jane."

Thor was quiet, eyes down-cast. "I couldn't be what she needed," he finally said. "Even before I decided to drop everything and wander the galaxy; because I needed to be the big solo hero." He scuffed, his face twisting into a scowl of self-loathing this disconcerting to see on Thor's face. "I couldn't be what she deserved. And I didn't even try."

"Yeah," Tony whispered. "I know how you feel. Just today, Pepper was saying that she was afraid our lives would never really get started when I'm always preparing for the next Boogeyman. And then this happened," he trailed off, closing his eyes. She deserved so much better than this.

Pushing that away, Tony smiled back at Thor. "Tell you what, buddy; when this is over, we'll tap into my booze reserves. Pep made sure I got cleaned up after Extremus, but I've still got a cache of some of the best Scotch in the world. It should be enough to get through that pesky Asgardian alcohol resilience. We'll plow through the cache, get you fabulously wasted, and come up with some over-blown ways for you to get Jane back. Or shed man-tears. Whichever's your jam."

Thor grinned, huffing out a breathy laugh. "I'd like that. Thank you, Tony." He clapped Tony on the shoulder in his typical display of affection.

"I missed you, buddy," Tony said, returning the gesture.

"I missed you, as well. All of you. I wish things were—"

"King Thor," one of the guards said. "If you would follow me, we have accommodations for you and your... charge."

Thor nodded his thanks. "We will make those plans so, yes?" He said to Tony.

"I'm a man of my word," Tony said solemnly.

Thor grinned and headed down the hallway, nudging a still sulking Loki along with him. All around, the others likewise made their way toward their rooms. Tony stayed back, rolling the tension out of his shoulders with a heaving sigh.

God, what a day.

The sound of hushed voices drew his attention. Tony peaked an eye, tilting his head to subtly locate the source. Quill was tucked away in the corner, huddled by Nebula. The blue woman had her arms crossed and her frown was more pronounced than usual. Quill squeezed her shoulder, his own expression full of misery.

"We're going to get her back," he muttered. "I promise. We'll find a way to get Gamora back."

Nebula twisted away. Her face spasmed through an array of emotions all too complicated to be properly classified as sadness. But there was pain in there.

Tony turned away and started down the hall, leaving them to their privacy. Guilt pooled heavily in his gut. Maybe Quill and his group deserved a little break.

If Thanos had snatched Pepper, and a bunch of assholes Tony didn't know blew his plan to get her back — or at the very least kill the purple bastard — and then had the nerve to declare her dead...

Yeah, Quill deserved a break.

He sighed, rubbing the tension out of the base of his neck. Heavy thoughts on the back-burner, he reminded himself. There were a lot of them piling up, yes, but they were going to stay that way until he said so. Right now, he needed some recuperating time with Pepper.

"Tony."

Oh god dammit. Tony froze mid-step, flicking his gaze over to Steve. The other man bit at his lip, shuffling his feet like a little kid who'd been called to the principal's office.

"I was wondering, hoping, that we could talk. Now that things have calmed down a little. Or, as calm as things get for us around here," he said with a sheepish smile.

Tony swallowed back a bitter tirade. They needed to work together, to save the world. And that meant maintaining an alliance with Steve. Even though there were so many things that Tony would rather do than talk with Steve.

Like have a couple of root canals done back to back, without novocaine. Or get stabbed again.

Luckily, Rhodey wandered by, looking worriedly down at his phone and muttering under his breath, before Tony had to formulate an answer.

"Hey, you okay?" Tony asked.

"No," he said miserably. "Yeah. It's just...Ross finally got through. It doesn't look like he's cooled down any sense we left New York."

Steve's face pinched in concern. "Rhodey."

"It's okay; I knew what I was getting into." He winced as his phone signaled again. "Might as well rip the bandage off`quick."

"Why don't I help you with that?" Tony offered. "Now that I'm not missing in action, maybe I can smooth things over." He huffed, trying not to be too offended by the doubtful glances both men sent his way. "Hey, don't look at me like that. I know how to be diplomatic. I just usually don't give a shit."

Rhodey shot another stricken glance at his phone. "You know what, yeah. Maybe that's not such a bad idea. If he's too distracted yelling at you, he'll probably forget to court martial me."

"That hurts. That hurts deep."

Rhodey shook his head and finally answered the phone, slipping into an unoccupied room. "Secretary Ross."

Tony shook his head, slipping in after his friend. Suddenly facing the Boogeyman that had been haunting his dreams for the last six years, on an alien planet, just one wrong decision away from losing half the universe (losing Peter), wasn't the most terrifying thing Tony had to do today.

"Tony."

He looked back, hovering in the doorway. Steve stared after him, all bashful and stricken. More bitter anger tried to boil up to the surface. Push it down, Tony. Alliance for the fate of the universe. He had to act like the adult in this situation.

Painting a thin smile over his face, Tony lifted his shoulder in a careless shrug. "Sorry, Rogers, no time to talk. Gotta save my Honey bear."

And he may have taken some pleasure in slamming the door in Steve's kicked-puppy face. But only a little. He was on the moral high ground here, after all.