Winter's Hearts

Chapter 8

"Kyrie, I have errands to run this morning. Would you come with me?" Thor asked you at breakfast. You glanced at Loki automatically to see if he needed you instead, your duty was to him after all, but he didn't look up from his breakfast.

"You need an official escort?" you teased Thor. It was within his rights to ask for an official escort, even though your assignment was to Loki. It was a complicated system.

He laughed. "Something like that," he agreed.

You gave him a look. "You just want me to drive, since you haven't bothered learning how yet," you accused.

"Maybe I would like to spend time with you outside of the tower. Just because you were closer to Loki growing up, we all grew up together and you were basically my little sister," you kept neglecting that part. He'd been an annoying older brother to you too and always hanging around Lady Sif and the Warriors Three. "You've barely left other than missions since you moved in. You're not on house arrest and you deserve to have fun too. So I would like for you to come with me,"

"Wait, so he's your brother, and she's your sister, and they dated and no one thinks that's weird?" Tony demanded from the other end of the table. You, Loki, and Thor just stared at him.

"You do realize none of them are acutally related, right?" Nat asked Tony as if he were stupid.

"But he just said-"

"Let me recap for you, shellhead," you growled, summoning your gloves and putting them on in case you had to defenestrate Tony for being stupid. You saw the barest hint of a smirk on Loki's face. "Thor and Loki were told they were brothers and grew up as such, not finding out until a couple of years ago that Loki was adopted. I was Loki's best friend from the cradle. Not sister. Thor treated us both like annoying little siblings. Got it?" you growled, hating defending something so stupid from Tony.

"Yup, I really don't feel like crashing through a window this morning. Carry on with your breakfast," Tony replied quickly. One of these days you were going to break in there and fix everything for him just to annoy the shit out of him. Asgardian technology was years ahead of the stuff in Tony's lab.

You finished your breakfast and vanished the plate clean to the cabinet. "Shall we, Lady?" Thor asked, offering you a hand. You placed your gloved hand in his and let him pull you to your feet.

"Take care of my Valkyrie," Loki snarled at his brother before you left the room. You hid your smile. He did want to make amends.

"She is safe in my care, Brother," Thor replied jovially, giving you too wide of a smile. He knew your reaction, but you gave it anyway.

You growled. "I'm the bodyguard here," you snarled at Thor. It was literally your job and you'd trained for it from birth.

"Yes, you are, little Valkyrie," he agreed. You glared. He was giving up too easily. "But my job is still to look out for your well being too," he reminded you. You glared and grumbled, but didn't try to argue with him again.

Instead...

"Did I tell you guys about the time Thor and his warrior friends nearly got their asses handed to them by the bog monster they swore they could handle by themselves, despite that it was an elemental creature?" you asked the rest of the team innocently. You wouldn't argue with Thor, but you had plenty of embarrassing childhood stories to share.

Thor's warm hand clamped over your mouth, his other arm around your waist. "Enough of that. Come along, Kyrie," he stopped you from finishing the story, but was chuckling.