You groaned when you finally woke again. Your head was on fire, your mouth was dry, and you had a swimming feeling in your stomach that made it seem like throwing up was going to be inevitable. You made the mistake of cracking open your eyes and instantly regretted it. You shut them quickly, clutching your head and making the most pitiful pained noise as the morning light fried your eyes and drove the migraine in your skull up about ten pain points.

In short. You were very hungover.

Though you'd had no alcohol.

"Back among the living, I see, witchling," came Loki's voice from nearby. You whimpered, curled yourself in a tighter ball, then remembered, remembered what you had done and what Loki had been through.

You made the next mistake of jolting upright, forcing your eyes open so you could check on Loki. He'd been through so much. You whimpered at the movement, fought back the wave of nausea and dizziness and tried to focus on Loki. Tried. Really tried. Your eyes wouldn't focus.

There was movement on the bed as Loki joined you. His hands steadied you and propped you up against the pillows. "I should leave you like this to teach you a lesson," he told you. He wasn't happy with you, but his tone was light, this at least was a joke.

"I'd do it again if it meant saving you from that hell," you croaked through dry lips and a fuzzy mouth. "Fuck, I'd do it a thousand times to keep you from going through that,"

"Healers..." he sighed. "You are incorrigible, my darling. I still should leave you like this so maybe you'd learn to never overdose on magic like that again, but we need to discuss what happened over the last few days, so you need to be coherent for that. Now, hold still. I have enough healing gift for this." His cold fingers were on your temples and instantly the pain began to ease.

"Thanks," you murmured when you were feeling human again. It wasn't feeling Asgardian again, but you'd take human over whimpering ball of misery. You raised your hand automatically to summon a glass of water.

Loki grabbed your hand. You saw then the emotions he was fighting. He wasn't happy to say the least. "Stop that. You have used quite enough power, witchling," he told you firmly. He handed you a cup of hot tea and you gave him a small smile. He didn't return it.

You took a sip of the tea. "How pissed off are you?" you asked him softly.

"That is going to depend on the story you have to tell me, witchling," at least he wasn't pissed off enough yet to drop the terms of endearment. That was about the time he got dangerous.

"Thor didn't tell you?" you asked instead of starting the story. Damn Thunderer was supposed to tell him so he wouldn't worry.

"He told me you did something stupid you did not wish for me to know about, that you said you would be fine, and that I should not worry. Since then, they have all been busy with the strays you told them to bring back," Loki growled and his teacup exploded in his hands.

"Loki!" you dropped your teacup and it floated in the air next to you. You took Loki's hands to make sure he wasn't injured as the broken teacup and mess disappeared. You reached a hand up to cup his cheek, brushed your thumb over his lips, before you leaned up and kissed him. You had to check your handiwork, had to make sure he was really safe. You wrapped your arms around him. "I was so worried about you," you told him.

He held you too tightly for a moment. "I was terrified for you when you arrived at that place," he admitted. "I never wanted you to come after me,"

You scoffed. "You should have known better," you told him. He inclined his head with a small smile.

"I should have," he agreed softly. "I never wanted you to have to use your powers like that," he told you sadly.

"I never wanted to either, but they hurt what's mine," you snarled softly. Loki kissed the top of your head.

"I love you too, witchling. Now tell me what happened." His voice had gentled. He understood your motives, though he wasn't pleased. He also still couldn't quite believe you cared enough about him to do that.

You curled yourself more comfortably in his arms and your teacup floated back over to you. You began the story from the moment Loki was taken. "You drank what?!" he demanded when you got to the part about the coffee.

"And that's why I told Thor not to tell you about that," you said softly, looking at you cup of tea. "I needed the power boost," you added softly. He sighed and couldn't argue that point. He knew how drained you'd both been after healing the children and how little you would have recovered by the next morning.

"And that my darling witchling is why you overdosed on magic and why you were so very, very hungover,"

"I realize that," you told him grumpily. "I'm very aware why you told me not to boost my powers like that." You'd known and done it anyway. You had been kinda desperate. He didn't protest anymore so you continued the story. "I'm sorry I lost your lovelock," you told him when you'd explained how you'd given it to Strange so you could find him.

He kissed the top of your head. "I'll give you a new one," he told you softly. He sounded impressed that you'd used it to find him.

Then you had to tell him about the rage and pain of seeing him in that place, of how he'd been bound and chained. About how they'd sewn his mouth shut. They had tortured your Loki and they'd had to pay.

Loki pulled you more tightly into his arms, holding you safely, and kissing the top of your head. "You should never have come there. Thor should have known to stop you. They were after you, my love," his words were harsh with emotion, with the pain and horror you had seen in his eyes when you had removed the blindfold on him in that place. "I stopped them from taking you... and you still went there anyway,"

"I had to get you back. They were torturing you. They. Those fucking pieces of shit sewed your mouth shut," you reminded him, wrapping your arms around his waist to hold him too tightly too.

His voice was haunted when he answered. "They...they said they had to silence my silver tongue before I recovered enough to use it against them. Before they got ahold of you. They thought when you showed up that I would talk you out of doing whatever it was they wanted you to,"

"I would have done anything to save you." And you had. You had exploded every single person in that place. That knowledge was finally sinking in. You'd never killed before, and you had thoroughly destroyed all of those people.

"No," Loki told you firmly when he sensed your change in thoughts. "Don't you do that to yourself." He felt your emotions and could hear thoughts when you were projecting too loudly. He tilted your head up and kissed you. "Sometimes killing is a necessary evil. I never wished for you to have to use your powers like that. I know you're a healer to your core and I love you dearly for it, no matter how exasperating it can be. I know you, my darling, I know that you would never do anything like that except in the most dire of circumstances. The circumstances the other day were very dire indeed," that was an understatement. They had tortured your Loki. "You're not a monster, love. Don't even think for an instant that you are,"

"I love you," you told him and laid your head on his chest while he ran his fingers through your hair. You weren't convinced you were going to get over killing all of those people so easily, but you knew it hadn't been the wrong decision. It wasn't the best decision, you knew the legal system was there for a reason...

"Never anger a Lady of Asgard and never enrage a healer," Loki said softly, more like he was voicing a memory than anything.

"You knew?" you asked him just as softly. He kissed your forehead.

"Of course,"

"You should have told me,"

"I never wished for you to have to use that aspect of your abilities. But I saw it once before. There was only one occasion when Thor and I had reason to witness the depth of a healer's rage," he kissed you lightly. "I can't tell you how much it means that you love me that much. Only that level of love can illicit that response from a healer,"

"You said you saw it before?" you asked, curious.

He shuddered. "Once. Thor and I were seven or eight at the time. We went out on a picnic with Mother outside the palace. This was before Thor had Mjolnir, before I knew more than very basic magic. We hadn't taken any guards with us. It was supposed to be close enough to the palace to be safe, just a mother having a picnic lunch with her sons. We were attacked by bandits. They were going to take us hostage to ransom the queen and the princes for gold. Even at that young age, Thor and I weren't going to stand by and let Mother be hurt. I summoned a blade even then and Thor had his practice sword. We were horribly outmatched, even with Mother. Until she saw that I was injured, bleeding. Until she saw the full extent of the danger. Until my pain and our fear ignited that same healer's instinct to protect the ones she loved. She grabbed us both, held us in her arms, and shielded us from the red rain as the men around us...popped and screamed and died. I don't know how Father knew..." you knew he was lost to the memories and the story if he was actually calling Odin 'father' again. "He was there a minute later with a full squad of the army. They looked horrified, until Father reminded them that it is unwise to anger a Lady of Asgard, and more unwise still to injure the loved ones of a healer. He kissed her, told her he loved her, and how brave she was to defend her family. She was distraught, but she calmed when she realized we were all safe," he told you.

"Frigga-?" you would never suspect the mild, gentle, caring Queen of such violence.

"Yes, darling. My Lady Mother. If Asgard's queen can take such an action to defend the princes without being a monster, then so can her princess," he told you warmly.

"You're really ok?" you asked him. He smiled softly and kissed you again.

"Very much so, darling. Thanks to you. However, I would very much like to go find something to eat and you've been unconscious for over a day, so I can't imagine that you aren't starving too," he told you warmly as both of your stomachs began to growl more insistently. You burst into laughter and finally, finally things seemed like they would be ok.

*

You insisted on getting a shower before you went downstairs. You were still covered in the remnants of the red mist from the warehouse. Loki joined you. You didn't mind as you still weren't steady enough to want him out of your sight. You had a feeling he was experiencing similar emotions.

Clean and freshly dressed you made your way downstairs, Loki's hand tightly held in yours. "Darling, relax. We're safe in the tower," he reminded you. "We're safe," he said again when you gave him a look.

"They hurt you," you protested. "You're a god..." why didn't he understand?

"That was a very extenuating circumstance, witchling. We were both drained to the point of passing out from healing all of those children. It was a clever trap. They knew they'd have to incapacitate me to get to you. It is not something that will happen again. The team is already making plans. Cap is very boring about it," he rolled his eyes and you laughed. You knew Cap's lectures well. They were very boring.

"Hey, we were wondering when you two would show your faces," Nat greeted you when you made it to the kitchen. "Thor said you were sleeping off that shit you drank to save Loki," she added.

"Yeah. He's still mad at me for drinking that shit," you told her with a smile. "Any food around here?"

"Stark ordered about a thousand pizzas. If you don't want to cook that's what we all had for breakfast," Nat gestured to the fridge. "Cap wants to see you down on the detention floor when you've eaten,"

"Pizza ok with you?" you asked Loki, who just shrugged. So you dug pizzas out of the fridge. "What does Cap need me for?"

"We're having trouble with the man we rescued," she looked haunted for a moment before she continued. "I recognize him from before. We met five or so years ago. He goes by The Winter Soldier. We haven't been able to get him calm enough to remove his mask or eat anything or do anything besides try to kill anyone who enters his cell. Cap thinks you might be able to help,"

You nodded. "I'll see what I can do. What about the kids?"

"They're upstairs in guest rooms the floor below yours. Don't know if they're staying yet or not, but they seem to be doing ok now that they're out of that hell. Oh, the man you left alive is currently being 'questioned' by SHIELD. Don't worry, he's not enjoying it. At all. I'm sure Coulson will have intelligence for us soon,"

"Darling, shouldn't you heat that up?" Loki asked as you pulled a slice of pizza from the box to shove directly into your face.

"Wha? Cold pizza tastes just fine," you told him as you swallowed said mouthful of cold pizza.

He just sighed. "Sometimes I forget that you grew up on Midgard and not a civilized place like Asgard," he said mournfully. You rolled your eyes and proceeded to shove yet another slice of pizza into your face. Asgardians could eat. Starving Asgardians were a danger upon anything edible in their vicinity. You were beyond starving. You'd pushed yourself and your abilities way too hard to rescue Loki. You handed a box of pizza to Loki.

"You're welcome to heat yours up. I don't feel like waiting that long when pizza tastes just fine cold." With a wave of his hand the pizza was piping hot. "Cheater," you told him and stole a slice from his box. He sighed heavily and waved a hand over your box of pizza too, looking put-upon. Nat didn't comment as you each devoured an entire extra large pizza. "You coming with me to meet this winter soldier?" you asked Loki.

"Of course," he replied as if that were obvious.

"You don't have to protect me, love," you didn't want him in potential danger either.

He raised your left hand to his lips to kiss your engagement ring. "Together," was all he had to say.