Loki and Thor both relaxed once you all were out of sight of their parents. "That was Mother's subtle way of telling us to go play somewhere else and annoy other people until dinner," Loki explained, wrapping his arm around your shoulders.

"So what shall we do instead of bothering your parents?" you teased him, wrapping an arm around his waist. Loki just held up three fingers, then dropped one, then another, then the last.

The second the last finger dropped: "Thor! You have returned!" came a booming voice you vaguely recognized as one of the Warriors Three, though you couldn't remember which one he was. The three of them and Lady Sif were sauntering toward you.

"Friends!" Thor boomed in reply, his face puppy-excited.

"That is why Mother wanted us to go play somewhere else. Thor's friends are quite loud." Loki whispered in your ear. Thor greeted his friends with hugs all around, and a kiss on the hand for Lady Sif.

"So is Thor," you replied with a grin. You often made fun of Thor's booming ways.

"Loki, you can't escape with your lovely lady before you say hello," the blond warrior called before you and Loki could sneak away. That had totally been your plan. You wouldn't mind spending more time with Lady Sif, she was interesting at least, but you had been intending to sneak away with Loki. You weren't so sure about the warrior boys.

"My apologies, Sigyn. The introductions were not done properly the last time you were here," Thor drew everyone's attention to you, so you extra couldn't hide somewhere quiet with Loki.

"We were kinda busy hiding the fact that I was in the palace last time we were here," you reminded him softly. You were going to have to get used to all of the attention soon.

"These are my friends, Lady Sif and the Warriors Three: Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg," Thor spoke around you, wisely not discussing your last trip here in too much detail. It hadn't ended well. "Gentlemen, this is Lady Sigyn, Loki's official betrothed as of tomorrow evening's ceremony." Each of the warrior boys stepped forward to kiss your hand. You weren't sure what to make of them, but they seemed nice enough. Loki wrapped a possessive arm around your shoulders. You leaned up to kiss his cheek, which seemed to reassure him, and made him smile. His smile seemed concerning to the warrior boys.

"Sif, it's good to see you again," you greeted her with a smile. You knew you liked her. She'd helped you with Loki the last time you were here.

"And you, Sigyn," she replied. She gave a wicked grin to the boys. "If you'd like, I can teach you some new tricks while you're here," she flourished her blade, which extended into a spear, before she spun it back to a dagger and resheathed it.

"I'd like that very much," you replied with an equally wicked grin. All of the boys looked concerned, except Loki, who knew you better. Loki just kissed the top of your head with a grin. You gave him a mischievous grin and pulled him over to the others. "Stand together, you guys," you told them. You pulled your phone out of your pocket and once everyone was together, used magic to hold it and snap the picture of the group. You reached up and grabbed your phone from the air, turning it so everyone could see the picture you'd taken.

"Two questions," Loki started while Sif and the warrior boys stared at the picture in wonder and awe. You looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. "First, how do you have pockets?"

You laughed. "I conjured the dress. Of course I included pockets." You weren't going to have a purse here and didn't want to have to conjure everything you needed all the time.

Loki inclined his head, accepting that answer. "Second, why did you bring you phone? You know it doesn't work here,"

It was true, your phone got no reception. "To take pictures. I thought it would be fun. Stark made the battery life like a week, so it shouldn't run out of juice while we're here."

"Sig, do you have a picture of our friends on there?" Thor asked excitedly. You nodded and flipped through the pictures on your phone until you came up with a picture of the group. The most recent one was the picture from your high school graduation. You handed the phone to Thor so he could show his friends and tell them all about his Earth friends.

You hadn't noticed while you were talking with the others, but you had ended up strolling through the halls with them and ended up in a comfortably sized chamber filled with food and comfortable couches. They all started settling on the couches and you realized this must be their equivalent of a living room. Thor's couch was in the middle of all of his friends. Sif sat with him comfortably. Fandal and Hogun shared a couch and Volstagg and his giant plate of food shared one. Loki settled catlike on the last couch near the bookshelves, just apart from the others. He was settled so he took up the entire couch as he lounged. "Ahem," you told him, realizing that his sprawling on the couch had been automatic from years of curling up here.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly and moved his legs so you could join him.

"Maybe I should've just sat on you," you laughed at him and settled next to him on the couch, slipping off your shoes and curling your legs up next to you, laying your head on his shoulder.

"I would not have had a problem with that," he whispered so only you could hear him. You leaned up to kiss him in reply.

You listened to the warriors tell tales of their adventures for awhile curled in Loki's arms. The warrior boys and Sif all kept looking over at you and Loki. They were obviously disconcerted by his change in demeanor in your presence and with your love. They'd never seen him like this before.

Everything was going great until an alarm started sounding through the palace. One of the guards rushed into the room. "There's a group of bandits with some kind of monster attacking a village outside of the city," he announced.

You all jumped to your feet. Thor raised Mjolnir to summon his battle armor. The warrior boys and Sif were already dressed for battle. You and Loki used magic to summon your own armor. Sif and the warriors stared. They weren't expecting you to have armor too.

"It's useless to remind you that you are a healer and should remain here and leave this to the warriors, isn't it?" Loki asked you, obviously hoping you'd be reasonable for once.

"Duh," you replied. "Besides, you're going,"

"I am a warrior, for all that my main skills lie in sorcery," he sighed, knowing he didn't have time to argue. On Earth he wouldn't have bothered, but here there were plenty of warriors. Asgard was a very warrior-centric nation. "Very well, but if you are injured, I shall be quite cross with you," he replied with a soft smile. He took your hand and you followed the others down to the stables. The horses were already saddled and ready. Loki swung into the saddle of his while the others were doing the same. He offered you an arm, and swung you up behind him. Your armor included leggings, which totally counted as pants in this case. You wrapped your arms tightly around Loki's waist. "I won't let you fall," Loki told you when your grip tightened. The ride to the village was a breakneck gallop and you were glad that all you had to do was hold on to Loki and not fall off the horse.

The second the horses stopped at the village, you dismounted, scrambling less than gracefully from the horse's back. If you were going to spend time here, you really were going to have to learn how to ride on your own. The village was a disaster. There were bandits everywhere and some kind of giant rock monster destroying everything in its path.

"You guys take the bandits. I'll get the big one," Thor boomed the order. The warrior boys and Sif rushed to obey. You and Loki summoned daggers at the same time and headed into the fray. You stayed close to Loki, fighting back to back with him against the bandits. You stuck with daggers, saving your magic for healing after the battle. Loki fought mostly with illusions, bolts of magic, and occasionally his daggers. He'd also had a thousand years of training more than you had and was a much more efficient warrior. You hadn't truly seen the grace he fought with until you saw him fighting other trained warriors. Even sparring with Thor hadn't been like this.

After Thor took down the giant rock monster, the battle ended fairly quickly. Taking a cue from something Loki had said earlier, you used magic to summon your Asgardian dress again, fading your armor away, and making sure your betrothal necklace was in plain sight. Loki nodded his approval when he saw and realized what you were doing.

You made your way to the villagers. They were nervous about your intentions, you saw it immediately. You were a stranger, but obviously a Lady, obviously of the court from your dress and your betrothal to the prince. So you went to the children first. They were braver than the adults on some things, for all that the injured ones were crying in pain. You smiled and soothed them and promised everything would be ok as you knelt in the dirt and ruins of the village to heal each child that had been hurt in the attack. The villagers all relaxed when they saw what you were doing. You sought out each injured villager to heal them while Loki followed a pace behind you, acting for all the world as nothing more than a lady's guard.

Finally, a good deal of power later, all of the villagers were healed. You turned to Sif next, healing her couple cuts and bruises, then the warriors three, who all had a handful of cuts and bruises, though somehow Fandal had gotten stabbed. The others were teasing him in the same manner that Clint got teased back home for getting shot. Thor and Loki were last, the princes refused to be seen until all of the villagers and warriors were tended. They also had no more than a couple scratches between them, so it was no trouble to leave them until the end.

There were cheers and applauding from the villagers and they bowed you from the village. Some of the palace staff would be by to help them rebuild, but there was a lot of work and pain you had saved everyone by doing all of the healings. You knew the story of this adventure would probably beat you back to the palace.

You were beyond drained, doing that many healings in that short of a time. Some of the villagers had been really injured too, but you kept your back straight and didn't let the villagers see any weakness from you. The royal family had to be seen by the people as strong, even if they were not. "Can you ride?" Loki asked softly as you walked back to the horses. You were still being watched. You nodded.

"I'll manage," you replied.

"Well done today, witchling," he kissed the top of your head. "The people will love you even more for your generosity and willingness to heal all of the villagers. Not everyone would have done that."

"Very well done!" Thor boomed. Loki swung into the saddle and hauled you up behind him effortlessly. The movement looked simply like a courteous gesture to all of the villagers. You felt more unsettled riding side saddle behind him, but wrapped your arms around his waist and knew he wouldn't let you fall. You laid your head against his back and the group started back to the palace much more calmly than the breakneck speed that you took to get here.

You must've dozed off on the ride back, because the next thing you knew, Loki was carefully prying your arms from around him and Thor was lifting you down from the horse's back. Thor set you on your feet gently. "Thanks," you told him, steadying now that you were more awake. He nodded and stepped back, you knew then that you weren't safe yet from prying eyes. It was your first day here and you needed to present as a worthy member of the court, even though you'd just taxed your powers healing an entire village. Loki offered you his arm.

"Lady, let me escort you to your chambers so you can freshen up after the battle," Loki bid you courteously.

"Thank you," you replied, laying your hand on his arm. He led you swiftly to a hallway you recognized from your last visit. His formal demeanor relaxed here, when you were in the family wing and safely away from prying eyes. He wrapped an arm around your waist and let you lean on him as you walked.

"That was a warrior's work today, darling. I know how much magic it took to heal an entire village," As you were walking, you recognized the door to his suite, it was one of the few places you'd seen last time you were here. Loki led you to the door across the hall from his. "There should be a hot bath waiting for you. One of the maids will wake you for dinner. You can get some rest until then, witchling," he told you softly and kissed your forehead.

"Thank you," you told him wearily. You could hear the exhaustion in your voice.

"No, thank you, love. You're doing splendidly in making a good impression here, and I know how difficult it is. Thank you for doing it. For going through the effort for me," his voice was loving, but had an edge of bruised to it. He hadn't actually expected you to work so hard to make a good impression, to try to fit in among his people, among yours too, though you'd lived all of your years on Earth.

"I love you, Loki. I mean it when I say that I would do anything for you," you reminded him. "And I would have healed those villagers whether you'd been there or not, whether it would be a good impression on the people or not. You know that."

"I know, now go get some rest, stubborn little witchling," he bid you. After a kiss, you ducked into your suite to do just that.