You heard noises in the hall while you were laying on your bed in your room pretending to read a book much later that night. "This is a terrible idea Thor!" Tony yelled as you crept to your bedroom door to listen. "There are at least fifty bedrooms in this place and you decide the war criminal should live across the hall from the kid?"

"It is the best place," Thor protested.

"Tony, Thor does know Loki best. I'm sure he has a reason for his decision," Cap said logically.

"Fine, but if he hurts her, it's on your head!" Tony stormed off, probably to go complain to Pepper.

"Brother, try to be kind to Lady Y/N. She is a lot like you. I think you could both use a friend. She has been hurt too, for all she tries to hide it from the rest of us." You rolled your eyes at that. Stupid overprotective Thor. He had decided he was your older brother too sometime during the last six months. Or maybe he had decided it the day he had rescued you.

You went to the small bookshelf in your room and looked over the books you had collected there. Most of your life could still fit in one small suitcase. The habit wasn't broken after only six months, and these books had been constant companions for years. You pulled the most ragged and well-worn of the collection and went back to your door to listen. The voices had gone. You still had to be careful, though and cracked the door open. There was no one in the hallway, so you padded across the hall and knocked on Loki's bedroom door politely. You realized after you had knocked that you had decided to go greet a strange man in your pajamas and swore to yourself never to let Cap, or Tony, or really any of them find out. At least your pajamas were a Black Sabbath t-shirt that Tony was still trying to figure out where it had disappeared off to, and a pair of pajama pants stolen from Clint's laundry, so it wasn't like you were indecent. Most of your clothes were handmedowns anyway, so what if you had stolen more from your new housemates? Tony and more importantly Pepper hadn't figured it out yet that your clothes were all handmedowns. They'd both have an aneurysm.

"Go away Thor!" Loki growled from inside.

"I'm sorry. I should've known you didn't want company tonight. I'll just leave this here for you," you called through the closed door. You set the book carefully on the ground in front of the door and headed back to your own room.

The door opened behind you before you made it back to your room. Loki was standing there in pajama pants and a plain t-shirt. It didn't look like his usual attire. The chains were gone at least, though he was wearing a piece of Stark tech on his wrist where one of the manacles had been. "Lady Y/N," he greeted you, a little stiffly, a little wary.

You gave him a bright smile. "Thor mentioned that you like to read." Thor talked about Loki all the time. "I know these rooms are pretty bare, so I thought you might like some entertainment," You'd been here six months and your room was still only slightly more decorated than the day you'd moved in. Nat and Pepper hadn't seen it, or you had the feeling they would protest.

"Why are you being kind to me? The others will barely even look at me," Loki asked, still wary. He seemed so scared of rejection. You'd seen this bruised expression in the other foster kids before. You knew how to deal with it. You were too much of a healer and a gentle heart not to have learned how to soothe the others, even if your powers couldn't help yourself. Your smile didn't falter.

"Thor says you've changed. I've seen no evidence to prove him wrong. Everyone deserves a second chance. And if half the stories he told me about you are remotely true, it is way better to have you as an ally in mischief," you grinned at him, the last piece of your little speech teasing. He offered a small smile in return. You went over to him and picked the book off of the floor to hand to him. "You do like to read, right?" you asked him, offering the book.

He inclined his head. "I do." He looked over the book quizzically.

"I thought you might like this one. It's the story of a young sorcerer. Sorry it's a bit battered. I've had it forever and I've kinda lost count how many times I've read it,"

"It must be an excellent tale indeed," he commented, seeming genuinely interested now.

You felt that you had worn your welcome annoying the newcomer. "I should get some sleep. As you've heard, I have an early day of hell with Nat in the morning. Goodnight, Loki," you bid him with a wave and made your way back to your own room before he could get annoyed by your presence.

"Goodnight, witchling." You heard his reply, noting the odd pet name, but didn't dare turn back around. It really wouldn't do to annoy him. If Thor was to be believed, Loki was quite troublesome when he was annoyed or bored.

*

When your alarm went off the next morning, you dressed in the workout clothes you'd stolen from Nat's closet. At least you were roughly the same size so the black sweatpants and sports bra fit you well. On a hunch, you grabbed the next book in the series you had lent Loki before you left your room to grab a quick breakfast before hell with Nat.

It was early on a Sunday morning, everyone usually slept in. Besides Nat, anyway, since it seemed she never slept. Occasionally, Tony was up, but that was only until he growled something and went to bed, having stayed up all night working on something in his lab.

Your hunch was right, you quickly realized, when you saw Loki sitting on your favorite couch in the livingroom. He was almost done with the first book. "How's the book?" you asked him as you stepped off the elevator. You set the next book in the series on the end table beside him. He looked up and offered you a tentative smile.

"It is a very interesting tale, though I do question the wisdom of filling a castle with children learning magic with so minimal supervision,"

"And hiding the Philosopher's Stone in said castle?" you laughed, making your way through the livingroom to the kitchen and seeing what you could scavenge for a quick breakfast. "If your idiot brother doesn't stop eating all of my pop tarts..." you grumbled, throwing another empty box away. You could hear Loki laugh from the other room. "Jarvis, can you order more pop tarts for me?" You had come to like Jarvis. He was quite handy to have around.

"Yes, Miss," Jarvis' voice answered. You glanced down at your phone, a crazy fancy piece of Stark tech, and realized you were running out of time. Granola bar it was. You downed the granola bar, threw away the wrapper, and headed back to the elevator.

"Enjoy the book!" you called to Loki as you walked past. He looked up from his book and gave a real smile.

"Thank you, witchling," he replied. You were going to make him tell you later why he had decided to call you that. You didn't mind. It didn't seem malicious. You were mostly just curious. For now though, you were running late to meet Nat.