It took a couple of days to get the right dosage for the meds so you weren't in pain, but weren't knocked out either. While you were both figuring it out, Loki held you while you slept them off, made sure you ate something when you woke, and read you stories until the pain got too bad and the vicious cycle began again.

By the time you finally had it figured out, your leg was healed enough that you could put weight on it again. "Witchling?" Loki asked softly and concerned when you moved to get out of the bed.

"I haven't left the bed in three days except to go to the bathroom. I need a shower and to leave the room. I have a broken arm, I'm not dying, but the others will get worried if we don't show our faces downstairs soon," you reminded him.

He smiled and kissed your forehead. "Very well, darling. Let me draw you a bath instead? It will be easier than trying to stand long enough for a proper shower." You nodded and settled back among the pillows with a book of Asgardian children's tales while he did. The book was in Asgardian, which you were painstakingly learning. You were picking up the spoken language a lot faster, as though it was something you were just remembering, not learning from scratch.

Loki returned a few minutes later and moved to pick you up from the bed. "Loki," you told him softly and swung your own legs out of the bed. "I'm not dying, Loki," you reminded him, but let him help you to your feet and brace you. Your leg could support your weight, but it wasn't happy about it. You bit back a hiss of pain that would just make him worry.

"I dislike seeing you in pain, love," he told you softly. "Especially when it is my fault you are in this state,"

"It's not your fault," you told him again.

"I was not there to keep you safe," he protested again. "You are a healer, not a warrior," he added. You couldn't argue with that point. So you let him walk you to the waiting bath, which was of course filled with bubbles and surrounded by candles. Hopeless romantic boyfriend. "You're going to snarl at me if I attempt to help you into the bath, aren't you?" he asked, sounding disappointed, but resigned.

"Very much so," you replied, but sat on the edge of the tub. "But you can help me with the bandage." You'd learned quickly how to work with his overprotective mood. The bandage on your leg had to be changed regardless. Letting him help would keep you both happy. You pulled up your pajama pant leg over the bandage. Loki was instantly kneeling in front of you, propping your leg up under his knee so he could reach the bandage more easily. He carefully removed it and promised to help you rebandage it after your bath.

You were surprised he actually left you to bathe on your own. You were grateful he listened to you for once. He was hard to deal with when he was in this mood, though you had to admit that he was adorably romantic insisting on taking care of you. It would have been extremely romantic in a movie or a book where you could watch the character dealing with it and didn't have to live with not taking care of yourself.

You soaked in the bath for a very long time. The water never cooled and you had a shield over the cast, so there was no need for you to rush. However, baths were boring, so you did eventually try to get clean and get out of said bath. It was going fine until you tried to wash your hair. Washing one's hair is not a one-handed activity.

"Witchling, why are you crying?" Loki asked from beside the tub in an instant. You hadn't even realized you had been frustratedly crying over the stupid fact that you couldn't wash your own stupid hair. It was a ridiculous reason to be crying and you knew it. You looked over at him and flushed, horrified that you were not only crying in front of him for a stupid reason, bu that you were naked while this was happening. He rolled his eyes. "I am quite aware what a female body looks like," he informed you dryly. "Why are you crying?" he asked softly, gently when you still hadn't answered him.

"I can't wash my own stupid hair," you wailed at him, feeling ridiculous for getting emotional over such a silly thing. It was just the last straw on your emotions.

"All you ever had to do was ask, darling," he reminded you just as softly and gently, his voice warm and loving. An instant later, his fingers were in your hair, expertly massaging your scalp. "There, nothing to cry over," he told you softly as he worked on your hair.

Soon, your hair was clean and he had you up and out of the bath, wrapped in a towel before you could protest. With a little magic of your own, you were in clean pajamas with your hair dry. Loki had taught you some useful spells. He swept you into his arms. You yelped in surprise and wrapped your arms around his neck automatically. He set you back on the bed so he could rebandage your leg. "Almost healed," he told you as he did. "The bandage can probably come off in the morning. It seems you heal nearly as fast as Thor and I do,"

"That's a relief at least,"

"Are you sure you don't want me to carry you?" he asked as you let him help you back to your feet.

"I'm sure, silly Trickster," you laughed at him. "Let's go find our friends before Thor decides he hasn't seen us and come crashing in here,"

Loki huffed. "He's already done it three times," he grumbled. You raised an eyebrow. "You were asleep," you weren't surprised. You'd been asleep most of the last three days until you'd figure out how many meds it took to keep you out of pain but conscious.

"How many times have you stabbed him for it?" you asked as you made your way slowly from the room, using Loki as a brace. He didn't mind or show any lack of patience at the slow gait. About half-way down the hall your leg seemed to finally remember that it was supposed to support your weight and the walk got easier.

"Only twice," he replied proudly. You just laughed in reply.

"How many times should you have stabbed your brother for checking on us?" you asked as though it were an exam question. He dramatically thought about it, like it was an extremely difficult question.

"Four!" he replied with a wicked grin. "Three times for the times he barged in and an extra to make sure he didn't forget," you had to hold on to him, fighting for air you were laughing so hard.

"You were so close. The correct answer was none," you both were rolling in laughter as you stepped off the elevator in the livingroom.

"Y/N!" chorused your family from around the livingroom. Thor rushed over and swung you around in a bone-crushing hug.

"Thor!" you protested, giggling. "You act like you haven't seen me in months, not a couple days,"

"We were worried about you, little sister," he said when he finally set you back on your feet. "Loki wouldn't leave your side and was quite rude when anyone tried to check on you," he lifted his shirt and pouted when he showed you the three bandages on his side. You sighed.

"Sorry, Thor," you told him and raised your hand to touch his wounds to heal them.

Loki grabbed your arm. "Stop that," he grumbled. "Thor deserved it and you need all your power for yourself,"

"Nonsense, besides, a simple stab wound from your super sharp daggers only takes a drop of power to heal. And I can't heal myself anyway, might as well do something useful." Loki huffed, but let you take your arm back to heal Thor, even though he grumbled the entire time that Thor didn't deserve the healing.

"So what took you so long to rejoin the land of the living?" Clint asked when you were finished and Loki was helping you to your couch.

"The Asgardian meds were dosed for Thor. It took awhile to find a dosage that would ease the pain but not knock me out for hours..." you explained. The team accepted that answer.

"We were just getting ready to order pizza," Tony said. You nodded. That sounded like an excellent idea.

"Loki, I have received word from Mother through Heimdall. We are to return to Asgard with Sigyn once she is healed and you are no longer grounded,"

"You told Mother I'm grounded?" Loki demanded incredulously, which got a laugh out of everyone.

"Heimdall told Mother you are grounded," Thor corrected calmly.

"Can I stab him?" Loki asked you, already summoning a dagger. You sighed and took the dagger from him.

"No, you cannot stab your brother. I just healed him,"

"But he told Mother on me," he grumbled and glared at Thor, summoning another dagger. You sighed over dramatically and took that dagger from him too.

"I did no such thing. Heimdall saw the whole thing and told Mother what you did himself." Thor's explanation didn't stop Loki from summoning two more daggers. You took them from him too and set them next to you with their friends. Clint went to the dry erase board and started keeping a tally of how many daggers Loki summoned that evening. "Loki was grounded quite often when we were children," Thor told you pleasantly. That dagger you had to grab out of the air with magic to add it to your pile, since Loki had thrown it before you could take it from him.

"Stop that," you scolded Loki. He pouted at you.

"He's being mean to me," he protested.

"Thor, stop being mean to your brother," you told Thor firmly.

"I like him better when he's quiet and anti-social," Tony commented, looking at your dagger collection. You grabbed one of the daggers from the pile to throw at him. He fell off of his chair to avoid it, though you had vanished it back to your pile before it would've touched him. Clint added a tally mark for you on the board.

"Hey! I didn't summon that one," you protested.

"You threw it," he shrugged. "It counts,"

"Good thing you were not around when we were children," Thor commented dryly. "You would have been grounded just as often as Loki. Though the court would have loved you for your affect on my brother; he is much happier with you around. They still will," he added with a soft smile.

You were saved from that line of conversation by the pizza arriving. Tony dropped three pizzas on the coffee table by where you, Loki, and Thor were all sitting. The rest of the stack was spread around the room among the others. The Avengers could all devour food, though the Asgardian boys were definitely the worst offenders. You gave Thor a run for his money. Loki was right, healing Asgardians were bottomless pits.

Natasha ended up on the dagger-count board when she threw a dagger at Clint for making a comment on your ability to eat an entire pizza, since it had made you shy enough to put down the slice you had been eating.

"Oh, Thor, I forgot. I promised you we'd watch the Viking movie after Tony's party,"

"Yes, I wish to see the movie," Thor had his usual puppy-dog excitement.

"You guys don't mind?" you asked the rest of the room. No one complained, so you had Jarvis put on How to Train your Dragon. "It's about Vikings and dragons," you told Loki before the movie started.

The Asgardians were entranced the entire movie. Loki fell in love with the mischief twins who had dedicated themselves to his service. They both looked like they were reminiscing the entire movie, though Thor called out things that were inaccurate.

"Y/N, where is the song?" Thor asked sadly when the movie was over.

"It's in the sequel," you explained, "but the second movie doesn't make sense unless you've seen the first one." He nodded and settled back to watch the sequel when Jarvis started it

"What song?" Loki asked in a whisper in your ear.

"You'll see," you replied, curling more comfortably in his arms. If anyone minded watching two children's movies, they didn't comment on it. You thought they actually might have enjoyed it with all of the crazy things in their life.

Loki's and Thor's eyes both lit up when they heard the whistled beginning of For the Dancing and the Dreaming. They were both entranced, hearing a song from their childhood performed in a movie on Earth.

You did something stupid then that would get Loki upset with you afterwards, but it would be worth it for the duration of the fun. You quickly shoved the table aside with magic, slapped about four layers of shields around your leg and got to your feet, pulling him up with you. You grinned and offered him your arm in the traditional beginning of the dance. You danced and sang to the song along with the characters on the screen. Your friends took pictures of you dancing with Loki in the livingroom while you both wore pajamas. His words were sung in Asgardian, his voice warm and loving, his accented singing voice perfect. You still sang your part in English, your Asgardian wasn't good enough for this yet. Loki didn't mind. He swept you into a kiss when the song ended, holding you off your feet.

"Thank you, darling," he said softly in your ear when he'd settled you both back on the couch. He had settled you in his lap this time, wrapping a blanket over you. He was touched that you thought enough of him to perform the dance with him, even though you were injured and shouldn't have. You knew how much he loved to dance and how much this particular song meant to him. "But that is enough strain on that injury for the evening,"

"I love you," you whispered, curling more comfortably in his arms to watch the rest of the movie with him. He did hand you more of the pain meds, obviously concerned that you had overstrained your injured leg. Which you had, but you wouldn't tell him that. You did take the pills, though.

Thor settled on your couch after he'd gotten another slice of pizza and moved the table back over. You stuck your icy cold toes on his stomach, earning a very satisfactory shriek from him. "Sigyn," he growled at you, getting laughs from the entire group.

"You're so warm!" you protested innocently. He sighed and held his hand over your icy toes, warming them faster.

It was a wonderful evening spent with your family, even if you did protest going back to bed for as long as possible, stubbornly visiting with your family. Loki sighed in loving exasperation when he realized you were falling asleep in his arms. By then the group was dispersing, so you didn't protest when he lifted you into his arms to carry you back to bed. You protested softly, but it was half-hearted at best. "Darling, you need rest. You're healing from rather severe injuries. It's normal to need rest. You aren't shirking, you aren't weak, and you don't have to push yourself to the breaking point. You're allowed to need and ask for help. Your entire family is here for you. They are not going to abandon you or kick you out. You know the hawk has been shot on almost every mission he's been on and they still keep him around," he laughed.

"Hey!" came a voice from the ceiling tiles.

"Clint? What are you doing up there?" you demanded.

"Tony asked me to fix a circuit," came the reply. You rolled your eyes and you and Loki both laughed at him as Loki stepped into the elevator with you.

Loki laid you gently in your bed. "I love you, witchling," he told you softly, kissing your forehead. You grabbed his arm and pulled him into the bed with you.

"Stay with me?" you asked softly. You didn't want to be alone.

"Of course. All you ever had to do was ask," he whispered, settling himself under the covers with you. You curled yourself around him and laid your head on his chest. You were surprised to feel metal on his chest. You reached up and touched the spot on his chest where the metal was. He let you reach up and pull the necklace out from under his shirt by the chain.

"You're wearing it," you told him softly when you recognized the betrothal pendant that was identical to yours. You hadn't expected him to wear his after he'd had such a poor reaction to seeing it again.

"Of course, I am, my darling witchling, and have since the day I found you again my Sigyn," he whispered holding you to him and running his fingers through your hair.