Winter's Hearts

Chapter 35

You woke wrapped in Loki's arms. He'd been up reading most of the night, you could tell. He still had the book in his hands. Your Loki read fast, you knew, so you wondered just how many times he'd read your accounting of your trials that night. "Pleasant dreams, Kyrie-love?" he asked you with a smirk as you woke.

"I take it you saw them?" you huffed a reply as you sat up. He only had that particular combination of combination of question and smirk when the annoying telepath saw your dreams. He never pried unless invited, since he was a gentleman, but things always slipped through when someone was dreaming.

"Only pieces," he reassured you. "And only what you were projecting." His arms wrapped tighter around you. "And if I ever catch you taking on a nest of ghasts again, I will kill you myself," he growled protectively. Apparently he'd seen the pieces of your trial. Oops.

You leaned up and kissed him softly. "I love you too," you told him warmly, knowing he was only worried. Which was silly of him since the events you had dreamed of were 900 years in the past.

His arms tightened around you. "I told you to be careful during your trials. That didn't include taking on nests of ghasts!" he fretted. "You could have died!"

"I know I could have and had I not completed the the trial I would have died and had I not completed it with top marks I wouldn't have been assigned to you and we wouldn't be here now," you told him logically. Though logic and Loki's worry didn't always exist in the same realm at the same time. "I survived, Loki. I survived, earned top marks, and earned my place at your side. The day I swore my oaths was one of the happiest in my life and I wouldn't have traded that," you told him.

He kissed the top of your head. "I felt it," he told you warmly.

"Damn dream-walker," you teased and leaned up to kiss him.

"I hate that you went through that. I hate that you could have died," he told you and held you tighter.

"I know, Lohk, but it's in the past now. We're together and married and can be happy now," you reminded him. He finally relaxed and kissed the top of your head.

*

You left Valkyria later that morning and spent the next two weeks exploring various locations in Asgard and on Midgard. You saw the sights everywhere, and besides your stay in Valkyria stayed in the best inns and hotels and enjoyed seeing the sites of your homes. You were treated like royalty the entire honeymoon. It was going to take you a long time to finally accept that you were royalty now. Asgard was always your home and you visited all the places you'd missed while you'd been exiled. Midgard had been your home for centuries and Loki had picked excellent places for you to explore and show off what you remembered to him.

The press followed you on your world tour of Midgard. At least they tried and kept picking you up wherever you reappeared. Loki had been to Midgard before and enjoyed revisiting Norwary especially. He'd missed the vikings.

It was a whirlwind of an adventure and you enjoyed every minute of it. It was a perfect honeymoon after a perfect surprise wedding.

*

You finally made it back to the tower after your two weeks of adventuring and honeymooning. There was of course a huge party in your honor courtesy of Stark the night you got home. It seemed like the entire city had invaded the ballroom on the second floor of the tower. You had a feeling it was more for Stark and the Avengers than necessarily for you and Loki, but they all wanted to see you and your wings, so you were at least popular. It was strange being back among the mortals, though, after spending time in Asgard and two weeks in mostly just Loki's company. You had to be careful again about not letting the mortals touch you. At least it was still winter so you could wear long sleeves without issue. You danced the night away with your Loki to the cheers of the crowd. They loved seeing the two of you dance.

Everyone congratulated you and you got to see all the wonderful pictures from your wedding. Stark had them digitized and printed. You spent an entire day going through them, making albums, and picking out your favorites. There were a lot of top contenders, including the shot of Loki getting slapped on the ass with one of the Valkyrie's swords. Really, all of the pictures were fantastic and you thanked Tony for doing that for you.

He had also redesigned your floor into a giant apartment for the pair of you. Seriously, you had the entire floor of the tower to yourselves, plus had an entryway off the elevator so you could feasibly lock Thor out. As if that would actually work, but you theoretically could. It was a full apartment, so you never really had to leave to go see the rest of the team, but you would still spend most of your free time in the common room. It was still wonderful to have the option of your own space. Especially since Tony had moved your Valkyrie bed into one of the guest rooms of your apartment. It warmed your heart that they all accepted that you had different needs because of your usual accompaniment of your wings. They also accepted that they couldn't touch you and there hadn't been any near accidents in months.

*

A few weeks after you returned to the tower Cap called you and Loki down to the common room to talk to you about upcoming missions. "You two make an excellent team and have such complimentary abilities and fighting styles," he started after you'd sat down. That was an understatement. You fought well together and while your powers and abilities were nearly identical, it worked because you could also speak telepathically and knew each other so well. You sipped on your tea, though and let him continue. "Shield thinks you're ready for missions on your own as partners, but Fury is insisting that we call come in for assessments before that happens," he added. You and Loki both rolled your eyes.

"Assessments?" you growled. "I passed the Valkyrie trials at a hundred. I'm over 900 years old now. What other assessments could he possibly have?" You'd been able to tell the Avengers the basics of the Valkyrie trials, if not the details, so they at least had an idea of what you'd been through to earn your position.

"It's the rules. The government stays off our backs and leaves us be as long as we submit ourselves for assessments on our physical and mental health once a year so they can prove we're not all psycho," Stark jumped in.

You rolled your eyes harder. "We are all psycho," you grumbled.

"They don't need to know that," Nat told you conspiratorially, looking up from where she was sitting on the floor at the coffee table cleaning her weapons. Clint was across the table from her cleaning his and polishing his arrows.

Loki sighed next to you, reading what wasn't being said. This wasn't just an audition for a higher ranked position. This was an official evaluation that was much more important and might determine if either of you could stay with the team. You had both kinda been on probation... "We have no choice do we?" Loki asked cautiously, sensing that there was more to this assessment than Cap was making it sound.

"Nope," Clint replied jovially. It was of no concern to him. "It's not that bad," he added. Of course he'd been through it before.

"We leave first thing in the morning," Cap told you firmly, leaving no room for arguments..

You huffed and curled up with Loki on the couch. "Fine, if we must..."