You groaned when your alarm went off the next morning. You had school, but the second you opened your eyes, you knew that school was a terrible idea. Your entire body ached, your throat was sore, and you were a sniffling disgusting mess. Worse, you were shaking with chills, though you knew it was perfectly temperature controlled in here. It was like you had gotten the flu overnight.

You fwumped back in your bed and wrapped yourself in a blanket cocoon. "Jarvis? Can you please ask Cap to call the school and tell them I'm sick?" you croaked. Your throat was so sore.

"Yes, Miss," Jarvis replied. With that done, you closed your eyes to try to get back to sleep and hide from how bad you felt.

You weren't surprised when there was a knock on your door a minute later. "Y/N?" Cap called.

"Come in," you managed to get the words out. You were not getting out of bed to answer the door.

Cap, the mother hen, came in and sat on the side of your bed. You looked up at him with fever glazed eyes. "I'd ask what's wrong, but you're clearly sick," Cap commented gently. He placed a hand to your head. "You're burning up. Have you taken anything yet?" he asked. You shook your head. He went to your bathroom and came back with cold meds and a glass of water. "Take these." You took the meds without question. "Get some rest, feel better," Cap bid you as he stood again.

"Witchling?" Loki asked from your doorway, concern in his voice, which only seemed to increase when he saw Cap in your room. "You did not come down for breakfast. You are going to be late for school,"

"Loki, good, you're here. Y/N is really sick. The rest of us have to go out. Can you keep an eye on her?" Loki looked downright shocked to hear someone say it was good that he was anywhere.

"Of course," Loki replied, keeping the regal manner he still used on most of the others.

"Feel better, Y/N. Don't worry about school. I've taken care of it,"

"Thanks, Cap," you croaked. He nodded and left your room, leaving the door open. His propriety couldn't face having you alone in the room with a male with the door closed.

The second Cap was gone, Loki rushed over to your bed. You managed to sit back up, though broke into a coughing fit when you did. He wrapped an arm around you while you coughed. "Witchling?" he asked softly.

"I'm ok," you croaked.

"You are not ok," he replied dryly.

"I'm just sick. I'm human, it happens," you tried to reassure him. He didn't look convinced.

He placed a cold hand against your forehead. You nearly melted in relief. "You're burning up," he said softly.

"It's a fever," you murmured, still melted under the immense relief of having his cold hand against your forehead. "Comes with being sick." You weren't always sure what things about Midgard he actually didn't know, so you ended up overexplaining things to him. He didn't seem to mind, and seemed more glad that you would go out of your way to make sure he was included in the conversation and knew what was going on.

He gave you a small smile. "That, I can help with a least." You looked up at him confused. He stripped off his shirt and settled himself against the pillows on your bed. Even through your fever hazed mind, you could appreciate the wonderful view.

"While the view is nice, I'm not sure how this is helpful," you teased, had you been thinking clearly, you would probably not have told him you appreciated the view. He laughed and pulled you to him, letting you lay your head on his cool chest with his equally cool arms wrapped around you and his cold hand on your forehead. You purred and melted in relief. "How-?" you managed to ask.

He chuckled again. "My..." he hesitated, searching for the right words "biological parents were Jotuns, witchling, Frost Giants," he added before you could ask. "I will tell you more about it later, rest now," he bid you softly. You closed your eyes and wrapped your arms around his slim waist, cuddling up to him and holding him like your favorite stuffed animal.

"Brother?" Came Thor's voice from the doorway as you were fading back to sleep. "The Captain said you were most likely in here." You didn't look up when he came into the room, preferring to pretend to be asleep. "Brother...what is going on?" Thor sounded disapproving.

"Lady Y/N has taken ill," Loki replied calmly, almost sounding put-upon. He didn't need to pretend. Everyone knew you were friends. "Captain Rogers asked me to keep an eye on her. Her fever spiked," he shrugged. "The cold seems to help,"

"You have feelings for her, Brother," Thor said, sounding gentle for once toward his brother.

"She is a friend, Thor," you could almost hear Loki rolling his eyes.

"Sure she is, Brother. You may want to consider admitting your feelings before some other man attempts to woo her,"

"Go away before you wake her, Thor. She finally went back to sleep," Loki growled instead of dignifying Thor's statement with an answer. Thor laughed, but left the room.

It was around noon when you woke again. You were still using Loki's chest as a pillow, but you were feeling a lot better and your fever seemed to have gone down. Loki was reading a book that you knew he hadn't brought into the room with him.

"I thought Stark's tech made it so you couldn't use your powers?" you asked him softly when you noticed the book.

"It limits my powers; it does not block them completely. Unless Stark is having a particularly bad day..." Loki grumbled that last part. "Are you feeling better?" he asked more gently. You nodded and sat up. He touched the back of his hand to your forehead. "Your fever is not as bad as it was at least,"

"Thank you for that," you replied. You stretched and moved to get out of the bed.

"Witchling?" his voice was concerned at your attempt to get out of bed.

"I'm going to go see what there is to eat downstairs. Coming?" you asked, unsure what the Avengers hadn't devoured already.

He chuckled and got out of the bed, throwing his shirt back on as he did. "Witchling, stay here. I will fix us something to eat," Loki offered. You just looked at him.

"You know how to cook?" you asked him incredulously. That didn't seem like a skill the prince of Asgard would have.

He laughed. "Tell no one," he replied, earning himself a laugh in reply.

"Your secret is safe with me," you replied and curled yourself back under your blankets and turned on the TV, soon dozing to the sounds of daytime television while he went to the kitchen. You looked up when he came back into the room and handed you a plate of something that looked similar to Japanese curry and smelled delicious. "Thank you!" you told him brightly. He looked shocked by your joy and praise at something as simple as a home cooked meal. "This is wonderful," you added while you ate. "I'm going to have to figure out how to convince you to cook more," you teased. He laughed.

"As long as it does not involve you getting sick again," he replied. "Or telling the others,"

"That's going to be difficult," you mused. "I'll come up with something." He chuckled and vanished the dishes from the room once you were both done eating.

He wisely handed you an old battered leather book before you could get bored of being in bed. "These are Asgardian children's tales. I placed an illusion so they will appear in English for you,"

"Thank you!" you took the book gleefully and he smiled at your child-like enthusiasm for new tales. You spent the rest of the afternoon reading together on your bed, and looking up to wave at each of the Avengers as they passed by your room to check on you when they returned to the tower.

"Witchling, why didn't you tell me your fever was back?" Loki demanded later that afternoon, when he thought to check your head again.

"You were reading," you mumbled. You hadn't wanted to disturb him, or take advantage of his skill, and besides the fever and the cough that wouldn't go away, you were feeling better.

He sighed and placed his cold hand on your forehead again. "Stubborn little witch," he commented, letting you cuddle up with him to steal his cold.

"Didn't want to take advantage," you murmured. He sighed in exasperation again, but his only answer was to pick up the book of Asgardian tales you had been reading and begin reading them to you.

"Kid, are you feeling better enough to come down to dinner?" Tony demanded from the doorway a long while later. You cracked your eyes open as he stormed into the room. "What the hell do you think you're doing in here, Reindeer Games?" Tony roared. You had a feeling he would have dragged Loki from the bed had you not been using Loki as a pillow at that particular moment.

"I believe I am using my powers to cool Lady Y/N's fever," Loki replied dryly. You opened your eyes and sat up, willing to face down Tony over this. Loki didn't need attacked for being nice.

"Kid?" he asked, looking for your answer as to what was going on.

"Tony, he's a perfect gentleman and his powers got rid of my fever, which I heard was really bad this morning," Tony looked chastened a little at that. He must've heard how sick you were from Cap. "All he's done is save me from a facing a lot more illness and took care of me all day even though he didn't have to. Don't yell at him for being nice," you grumbled. Loki wisely got out of your bed and you followed. "What's for dinner?" you asked, trying to diffuse the situation.

"Natasha's making some weird Russain concoction," Tony answered. "Do you own any clothes that you haven't stolen from the rest of us?" he asked, eyeing the shirt that originally had lived in Clint's closet.

"I've lived here for seven months and you're just now figuring out all of my clothes are handmendowns?" Your secret was up anyway, so you might as well admit it, plus it would keep Tony's attention off of Loki if he was busy being pissed with you. You gestured at Loki behind your back where Tony couldn't see to escape while Tony was busy yelling at you. Tony glared.

"Why didn't you say something?" he shouted. You could tell he felt bad for not noticing. He took in your room and looked even worse when he realized how undecorated it was.

"Do you know how hard it was to even ask for a tablet for school, something I actually needed?" you demanded right back.

"That was free homegrown tech I made downstairs, and the phone is standard issue, so don't even think about feeling guilty for that!" he growled.

"I wasn't going to make a nuisance of myself and have you guys turn me out too. I've been through too many foster homes already for that. I sure as hell wasn't going to ask for things I don't need. I'm not here to try to steal your money," you replied.

"Of course you aren't, kid. No one ever thought you were," he finally seemed to be calming, when he took in your side of the story. "But we're fixing this. You're part of the team of misfits we've collected here, and we take care of our own. Don't argue. This is your home. None of us should have neglected that you didn't feel like it was. That changes first thing tomorrow. Now come on, dinner," he gestured you from the room. He still didn't like to be touched most of the time and you respected that. Loki was waiting for the two of you outside of your room. You tried to give him a reassuring smile, but you could tell he had overheard the entire argument. "I'm still watching you, Reindeer Games," Tony glared at Loki.

"Tony..." you grumbled. "Can we please go get dinner? I'm starving," the whims of the sick healer won out and the three of you went down to find the group around the diningroom table already. You, Loki, and Tony took the three empty seats and served yourself whatever stew-like creation Natasha had made. It was delicious and fun hanging out with the group. It was kinda rare to have everyone all in one place, except during missions.