Chapter 36

                                    

                                          
    You were ecstatic the day your cast came off. It happened to coincide with the day Fury let Loki off the hook on his house arrest. The second your cast was off you ignored the doctor's warning to take it easy and went to glomp Loki, running the fingers of your right hand through his hair. He laughed and swung you around. "I'm trying to tell you to take it easy on that arm," the doctor grumbled. You and Loki both put on polite expressions to listen to her, but she sighed and gave up when she realized that neither of you were actually listening and insisted she'd tell Bruce what you were supposed to do instead.
                          
    Thor grabbed you both by the back of your shirts to stop you from escaping the tower to find an adventure the second you could. "Don't forget we have to return to Asgard tomorrow," he told you both when you stopped to look at him and see what he wanted.
                          
    "Thor, I've been studying for the trip for two months straight," you whined. "I just got my cast off and Loki's finally off house arrest. We're going out tonight," you informed him. You had even changed into a dress for the occasion. Thor just sighed and mumbled something unflattering, calling you children again. "If we were being children, we'd go to dinner and movie in our costumes," you reminded him with a glint of mischief in your eyes.
                          
    "That does sound like fun, witchling," Loki added innocently. Thor sighed.
                          
    "Don't you dare. You know we are supposed to keep a low profile,"
                          
    "Fine," you pouted. Thor gave you a look, like he didn't believe you. You grinned and stood up on your toes to kiss his cheek. "See you later," you promised. You took Loki's hand again and left with him before anyone else could stop you.
                          
    *
                          
    The next morning after breakfast, you used magic to change into the lovely blue Asgardian dress and the darker blue cloak that went over it. "Why can't I go in my armor?" you whined at Loki again as he and Thor used their respective powers to change into their Asgardian clothes too. The floor-length dress you wore was not designed for combat.
                          
    Loki rolled his eyes at you over dramatically and answered overly patiently. "Darling, we've been over this. You're presenting as a sorceress, not a warrior. You're a healer and the people will expect to see you as such,"
                          
    "And healers do not dress like Lady Sif," you grumbled the rest of the argument, but didn't argue with the logic. He was right. You knew he was right. It was his culture after all. Besides, you could summon your armor at will if you really needed it. You were still going to miss pants...
                          
    "Are you sure you're ready for this?" Loki asked you again.
                          
    "We don't have much of a choice. Besides, this is just a ceremony to acknowledge the betrothal and announce the official start of the year and a day of courtship before the official wedding," you recited. You'd been over this quite a few times already. "We can go through the ceremony, continue to live our lives. The year and a day is intended to make sure the match will work. As for after that..." you shrugged. "We'll jump off that bridge when we get to it." You still weren't sure you were ok with finding out that not only were you Asgardian, but also betrothed to the prince of Asgard. It was a lot of news very quickly. You had decided to just take things as they came, one day of love and joy with Loki at a time.
                          
    "We will jump off that bridge?" Loki asked, unfamiliar with the expression. You laughed.
                          
    "It's a bad Earth idiom. Please don't learn English from me," you continued laughing.
                          
    "Thank you for going through this," Loki whispered against your hair when the laughter died.
                          
    "Anything for you," you replied and kissed him lightly.