I sat, staring at the photo of my mother, in silence. Well, I was silent, Tony was trying to figure out what was happening. I was positive he could see what I pulled up on the computer screen, most likely thanks to FRIDAY. Tony didn't get any answers from me, though. I couldn't get my mind to focus on anything other than my mothers picture. It was the first time I saw her in over three years. She wouldn't even recognize the person I was now.

Tony kept asking questions, but none of them got answered until Loki entered the lab.

"What the hell is going on, Reindeer games?" Tony practically snapped at him.

"There might be a copy of Sammee's parents in this reality. We bumped into someone she knew from her world right after you left the bookstore." Loki explained to him. I could hear the concern in his tone, but couldn't reassure him that I was ok, because I wasn't. Loki's answer finally shut Tony up for a few seconds as he thought.

"I'll be there in under a minute." Tony finally answered before the call disconnected.

Once my brain was able to think again, I typed another name into the search bar.

Johnathan Brown

My fathers picture popped up a second later. I always looked like a mini version of my mother, but I had my fathers eyes, without his poor eyesight. I took a few seconds to let the image sink in. My mom and I were definitely closer, but that didn't mean my dad and I had a bad relationship. It was just that he was gone for work a lot of the time, so I was used to not seeing him as much. Three years was a long time not to see him, though. It was actually probably four years by now. My parents still lived in Chicago when I moved to North Carolina for school.

"Kitten, what good is this doing you?" Loki asked. "You're just putting yourself in more pain."

"I don't care." I whispered, my eyes still locked on the screen. Loki was right, I was only adding pain by doing this, but I couldn't stop.

Sammee Brown

I typed into the search bar and hit enter. Nothing came up. I frowned and stared at the screen some more. If my world was just a copy of this one, then wouldn't there be another me? Could they have had a boy, instead?

Samuel Brown

Nothing popped up and I grew slightly frustrated. I went back to my mothers file and scrolled down to look over her information. It had her family history, but it stopped with my mother and father. It said nothing about them having children.

"Alright," Tony said while walking into his workshop. "Start from the beginning. Who did you see?" He asked and came to stand behind me to look over my shoulder at the screen. He was immediately sidetracked after reading what was on the screen. "You're last name is Brown?"

"Stark..." Loki warned him.

"What? I just don't see why she kept it from us, is all. Brown is such a... normal name."

"My last name was irrelevant here." I answered him. "Or, at least, I thought it was." I mumbled as I continued to read her profile. My mom was still working at the hospital, but she was now head nurse. It all but confirmed to me that they never had children in this world. In my world, my mom stopped working when she had me, dedicating all of her time to raising me. "They never had me in this world." I said almost sadly.

"Is that such a bad thing, Kitten?" Loki asked me. "Think about how much danger they would be in if they did. We would have to protect them and this realities version of you from HYDRA." He explained. I nodded slowly and closed the tabs.

"I'm no one to them here." I said more to myself, but both Tony and Loki heard. I knew Loki was right. They would have been in danger, or already dead with how long it took me to realize, but it still hurt. "Uhm... I think- I think I'm going to go lie down for a while." I told them, excusing myself before teleporting to my room to be alone.

I wasn't alone for long, I never was. Loki came in a few minutes later and laid with me in our bed. I think he knew that I didn't want to talk about it, because he didn't ask. He just held me. We didn't talk for the rest of the night and I fell asleep after an hour or two. Luckily, I had a dreamless sleep and not one full of nightmares, like most nights.

I jerked awake at the strange voice. I quickly sat up and looked around, but there was no one in the room with me. The sun was just rising, the first of its rays streaming in through the glass wall. Loki's side of the bed was empty, but I could tell he was close. I must have slept around twelve hours if the sun was rising. I rubbed my eyes and stretched out my limbs before getting up for the day.

I knew I fell asleep in my day clothes, so Loki must have changed them for me. I was in an oversized tee shirt, which was my preferred sleep apparel, though Loki always preferred that I slept in the nude.

I walked out of our room and could smell food cooking. It was strange because Loki didn't cook all that often and it definitely smelled like he was cooking multiple things. I came out from the hall to see Wanda cooking while Loki helped. She looked like she was teaching him and he was absorbing every bit of information she gave him. I took a minute or two to just watch them, a smile spreading across my lips. Their hushed banter carried over to me as Wanda tried to instruct Loki.

"No, no, its not done, yet." She told him when he tried to flip something in the pan they were using. Loki was apparently worried that he'd burn whatever it was they were making. "Leave it alone!" Wanda scolded and smacked his hands away, like a parent would a child.

"She doesn't like them too dark." Loki said and tried touching the spatula again, but Wanda glared at him in warning.

"It's fine." Wanda told him firmly. Since Wanda and Pietro knew Loki from their time at HYDRA, they were a lot more comfortable with him than they were with anyone else.

As I was still watching, Vision phased through the floor and gave me a small heart attack. I sucked in a sharp breath of air, but that was enough to give me away. Loki and Wanda both turned to look at me and Vision.

"My apologies, Ms. Smith." Vision said politely. "Or, would you prefer, Ms. Brown?" He asked. At hearing my last name, a wave of sadness passed over me.

"Uhm... Smith is- uh- is fine. We don't want anyone connecting the dots and going after my... uhm, them." I tried to smile, but I could only manage a small one.

"Brown is a common last name in the United States. I doubt you would be putting anyone in danger by using it." Vision assured me, but it wasn't just about their safety. Just hearing the name made me miss them. I wasn't exactly homesick. I honestly felt like my home was here in the tower with the others, but not hearing or seeing my parents for four years...

"Just in case." I finally told him before quickly looking passed him to Wanda and Loki. "What are you two up to?" I asked to get the attention off of me.

"Loki asked me to teach him how to make a few different breakfast foods. He was trying to surprise you." Wanda told me with a large smile.

"Yes, thank you, Wanda." Loki told her sarcastically. "Surprise being the key word."

"If you wanted it to be a surprise, you should have cooked somewhere else." I defended her.

"I wanted to be close to you, if you needed me." Loki said as he looked back up at me with a soft smile.

"Well, why don't you release Wanda of her duties and I'll help you finish." I told him, the same soft smile on my face.

"But that defeats the purpose of me cooking for you." Loki protested. I ignored him and turned to look at Wanda. She, thankfully, got the message and slowly started to back away.

"Come on, Vision." Wanda said to get his attention. Poor Vision was still clueless when it came to deciphering human emotions, but followed her to the elevator.

"Wait- Wanda!" Loki frowned at her retreating form. Wanda only waved goodbye to him with a smirk as she ignored his calls.

When they were gone, I slowly made my way over to Loki to see what he was making. It was pancakes, perfectly round ones, at that. I smiled as I watched Loki turn back to the stove and take the pancake out of the pan. He laid it gently on a serving plate filled with other breakfast foods and clicked off the stove. Wanda must have flipped it while I was talking to Vision, because it was perfectly done, not burnt at all.

Loki had his back to me, so I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head between his shoulder blades. I felt him let out a sigh before he rested a hand over mine, running his thumb over my knuckles.

"Did we wake you?" Loki asked after a few seconds. I shifted and Loki lifted his arm and moved so that I was safely tucked under it.

"No." I shook my head. "You made me breakfast." I couldn't help but smile as I said it. Loki chuckled and looked at the large plate of food. There were omelets, toast, fruits, bacon, and pancakes. Way too much for just me.

"Well, I made us breakfast." He corrected. "And Wanda really did most of the work."

"See one, do one, teach one." I told him. "You watched Wanda make it and assisted, but next time you'll be able to do it yourself, then you'll have to find someone to teach."

Loki hummed in response before leaning down and kissing me softly.

"You have too much faith in my cooking abilities." He said when he pulled back from me.

"Only time will tell." I shrugged jokingly, Loki just rolled his eyes at me.

"Come on, kitten. Foods getting cold. We don't want all of Wanda's hard work to go to waste."

"I'm sure it'll still be just fine in thirty minutes. I have to thank you first."

The soft look in his eyes disappeared and was replaced by an entirely different hunger. He shook his head after a second, but never took his eyes off of mine.

"Food first, thank you after." He told me

"But-" I started to protest, but Loki cut me off.

"But, nothing. Food first." He repeated. I pouted when I knew he wasn't going to give in. He smiled at his victory. "Now, go sit. I'll bring you your food and something to drink."