Please trust me the God of Mischief, the Lord of Lies had begged. Begged. It was his tone, his worry, his insistence, his begging which had you creating an illusion spell over the pendant. You weren't going to take it off, you never did, but the illusion would fool everyone. Thor would be able to see the illusion, but he couldn't see through it.

Loki breathed a sigh of relief that you had listened to him. "Thank you, witchling. I swear we will show Thor and the three of us will figure this out together after the party. We will explain it then. Believe me, we do not want Thor making a big deal about this now. There are too many strangers," he added when he saw your confused expression. Whatever was going on was going to get Thor much louder than usual and probably upset.

"I'm holding you to that, Trickster," you warned him softly, but firmly. He inclined his head, accepting your words and you threat that there would be trouble if he didn't keep to his word. You knew it had to be major if Loki actually wanted Thor to be in the conversation.

For now you would let the matter go.

For now.

"Thank you for the wonderful surprise, darling." Loki drastically changed the subject as you walked off of the dance floor, intending to make it to the punch bowl.

"I'm glad you were pleased. Thor said you like dancing."

"Y/N, good job taking care of that creep earlier," Nat said from behind you. She was the one who had taught you and was obviously pleased to see that her work teaching you had paid off. "I would have gone with a leg grapple myself..."

You laughed at that. "You always go for the leg grapple. I wasn't even going to think about attempting that in a dress. He shouldn't have touched me if he didn't want his arm broken," you added with a grin. Nat nodded and gave you a high five before she went to go save Clint from admiring ladies.

"Did you like your surprise, Brother?" Thor asked loudly. You sighed heavily. You were never going to make it to the punch bowl at this rate.

"Very much so," Loki replied, actually pleasantly to his brother for once. "It was kind of you to help my lady prepare for it." Loki wrapped an arm around you and kissed the top of your head.

"It was my idea..." Thor grumbled. That's why Loki was being so pleasant. He was giving you credit for Thor's plan. You couldn't help giggling at their silliness. Thor gave your necklace too long of a look. "Lady Y/N?" he asked, then glared at Loki.

"Thor, your brother is a perfect gentleman and would never hurt me. Stop glaring at him. My necklace broke and I didn't feel like going upstairs to get a different one, so I used an illusion since only you, Loki, and maybe Doctor Strange can even see that it's an illusion," you lied quickly pulling a defensive tone into your voice to sell the story. Thor accepted it, thankfully. He was also distracted when Jane and Darcy arrived at the party and went to go greet them excitedly.

"I was going to ask before we got distracted by your brother," you said to Loki as you finally got back on track with making it back to where the punch lived. "How did that creep get out of here without you cursing him, or killing him?"

"Who is to say he did?" Loki replied pleasantly, casually.

"What'd you do?" you asked him. You hadn't noticed him doing anything to the creep, but you had been distracted breaking the guy's arm.

"He will live," Loki answered.

"That's not what I asked," you grumbled at him.

"He hurt what is mine," Loki protested possessively, holding you more tightly to him. You sighed. You knew about his possessive streak, but didn't see it too often and kept... not forgetting about it, but...neglecting to keep it in the forefront of your mind. You decided it was safer to drop the subject before he got more riled.

Clint was the next one to get injured, predictably. This time he had somehow managed to piss of the girl he was flirting with. She meant to throw her drink in his face. Unfortunately, she was drunk and managed to throw her entire glass in his face. It shattered and left cuts all over his face. So you healed him and gave him blue band-aids up his arm because you weren't mean enough to leave them all over his face.

Tony was next, falling off the stage and bashing his head open. He did get a band-aid on his face.

You thought Loki was going to punch Doctor Strange for asking you to dance, but he graciously stepped aside.

It didn't go quite so well when Thor asked you for a dance. Loki decided he was going ask Jane to dance to annoy his brother. They glared at each other the entire time. Neither of them lasted the entire dance and the partners switched halfway through, much to the amusement of yourself and Jane.

The dancing and partying went on until almost three in the morning. Finally, the last guests were kicked out and your family and friends went back up to the livingroom for the after party.

More alcohol was brought out and you sat around the coffee table as they all told stories of their adventures and heroics. It was then that Thor brought out rather impressive-looking flask.

"Is that what I think it is?" Loki asked while Tony got up excitedly to get glasses. Thor nodded and evaluated those around the table.

"Oh no, I'm not trying that stuff again," Banner said quickly. "The big guy does not like it,"

"What is it?" you asked as Thor began pouring.

Thor, Loki, and Cap each got a full glass of the clear liquor. Tony was only given a mouthful. He protested, loudly. Clint and Bruce weren't given any. Nat took half a glass. "You can have more if you can survive that," Thor told Tony firmly. "This is not a drink for mortals, it has been aged a thousand years,"

"Yeah, we renamed this stuff Excelsior after you took out my WWII buddies with it a few gatherings ago," Cap added. He could apparently only handle the stuff because he was a super soldier.

"We shouldn't even be drinking this," Loki said from beside you a bit warily, looking at his full glass of the stuff. He seemed afraid to let his guard down.

You laughed. "Have fun, Loki. I'm remaining sober enough for the both of us," you reminded him. He gave you a warm smile, knowing that you were offering to take care of him if he had too much fun or got too drunk. He never got drunk. Earthen alcohol just didn't affect the Asgardians like it did the others. "Can I have a taste?" you asked Loki. He hesitated a long, long time.

"I don't think that is a good idea," he hedged. "Thor is right, this is not made for mortals,"

"It is really not," Thor agreed quickly.

"Definitely not!" Cap added sternly. That was the end of that. There was no arguing with Cap.

Tony was sloshed after his mouthful of the stuff. Thor and Loki just laughed at him as he tried to protest that he was fine to have more. He was half-unconscious already. Nat sipped on hers carefully, not nearly as dumb as Tony.

You found out why Loki had been wary of the stuff. His silver tongue turned to lead when he was drunk. Unfortunately, he hid it well before it was much too late. Thor laughed when they were on their third glasses and he realized how very drunk Loki was. Loki was telling a story from their childhood, something you saw from Thor's expression that he shouldn't be sharing, most likely a secret or something that would get them both in trouble. "Loki, maybe we should get you to bed while you can still walk there yourself," you suggested pleasantly. Everyone else was mostly unconscious, especially Clint who had stolen some of the of the stuff when Thor wasn't looking and Tony who had finally convinced Thor he could handle more.

"But darling~ I haven't finished my story~" he pouted and pulled you in to a hug which pulled you into his lap. He was also apparently a lot more openly affectionate when he was drunk.

"I don't think your brother wants you telling that story," you told him gently. "C'mon silly Trickster. Off to bed," you told him. It was nearly dawn. You all needed sleep.

He held out his glass of the alcohol to you. "You should try some of this." You sighed.

"It's not for mortals, remember?" You took the glass and set it on the table. You hadn't expected him to be this difficult when you told him to have fun. He would be like herding cats to get him to bed. You told yourself to not let him get drunk anymore.

"You're not mortal," he protested.

"Yes, I am. Little Earthen witchling, remember?"

"Half-Asgardian," he corrected, almost lucidly. "More if your necklace is right,"

"What necklace?" Thor demanded. He was still the most sober one in the room besides you. You sighed and cursed yourself for not getting Loki to bed earlier. You hadn't known he was incapable of lying or keeping things to himself while he was drunk. Or that he would get drunk. Or that he would get this drunk.

You removed the illusion from your necklace so Thor could see it. "This one," you told him, holding out the chain so Thor could see the pendent.

He just stared at it for a full minute in disbelief and flat-out shock, just as Loki had done earlier. He then blurted to Loki in the loudest boomiest voice you had ever heard from him:

"THAT IS YOUR BETROTHED'S NECKLACE!"