CHAPTER 170

I woke up from one of the most fulfilling sleep I've ever had and the reason for that was the woman laying next to me.

She had proposed staying over for the night and things kinda went all sorts of right after that. 

Tucking away the stray bangs of white hair from her face, I kissed her on the forehead, covering her with the sheets before I made my way downstairs after putting on a robe. 

I immediately made a beeline to the kitchen to brew me a few cups of morning dew because I was craving some heavy black. 

I met Bucky in the kitchen already getting the job done for me and passed the good soldier his deserved praise. 

I toasted a few slices to go with it and then prepared some jam while Bucky grabbed the mugs. 

"So, rough night huh?" Bucky asked which prompted a grunt from me. I was not in the mood to have a quirky conversation with him as some things were better off not said. 

Grabbing two mugs of coffee for myself, I made my way to my room and set one beside the bed along with the toast and a little spell to keep it at just the right temperature. 

I left the room and went to my study to continue some of the projects, though few in numbers, I had shelved for some time now. 

Due to being able to freely move through space, all of the movement runes on my axe lost their meaning as I was now faster than before, incomparably faster. The only rune that still functioned well, even though I haven't used it all that much since its inscription, was the one that increased my momentum and striking power with every hit. 

It was a rather genius moment of thought that made me inscribe it and until I truly fight something that can push me to the limit, I won't be able to use it to its full potential. 

I even thought of inscribing a 'worthy' rune on it like Thor's hammer but my knowledge of runes, or the lack thereof, prevented me from doing just that. 

The 'worthy' rune wasn't actually necessary but just something I thought would be fun to have on my axe since even if someone picked up my axe I could still call in back to my side in any moment's time. 

Since I had been slacking in my magic studies as of late, I picked up a tome and started browsing through it. Apart from the orthodox practice of magic, I also focused on hexes because why not? Curse, imbuing curses to an object, absorbing curses, creating curses, were just some of its little applications. Unless someone knew magic, or was very proficient in the way he handled energy, breaking a hex would prove very troublesome. But even with its fun approach in magic, it still didn't compare to the standard spells most Master Sorcerers knew. 

There were spells that could draw upon the power of Primordial God's, Elder Gods, Dark God's, even the Abstracts, and such spells were downright terrifying when a Master cast it. 

So yeah, while hexes may be fun to practice, it still didn't compare to the orthodox way of magic unless you were naturally aligned with it like the witches were. 

I was deeply engrossed with the books sprawled in front of me that I didn't notice when someone came behind me and wrapped their arms around my neck. 

If it had been any other person that my subconscious hadn't marked as truly trustworthy then it would have been keeping tabs on every step that person took inside the house. 

"Good morning." Ororo's soft voice filtered into my ears causing me to recline into the chair just so I could feel her embrace more. 

"Morning. I would ask you how your night went but I think I have a pretty good idea how it went." I slowly flipped through the pages of the script in front of me while at the same time enjoying the embrace of the woman I loved. 

She hummed into my neck, causing the both of us to relapse into a comfortable silence before she broke it. 

"Nat said to call you down, it's breakfast time." She said softly. 

I hummed in affirmation and she left me while I remained seated. With a wave of my hands, pages were marked as all the open scripts and tomes closed and neatly arranged themselves. 

After that, I went downstairs to join the family for breakfast with a smile on my face. 

Nat called for a family breakfast, keyword being family. That alone was enough to make my day. While we do eat together most of the time, we don't usually call out to the others as we all just gravitate to the dining table or kitchen anytime food is being prepared. Nat didn't call out breakfast for me or anyone in the household, she called out breakfast for Ororo. Though the time was gearing towards noon, it was still breakfast. 

Everyone was already seated at the table before I arrived, clearly waiting for me. Seeing the spread laid out on the table, I couldn't help but mentally praise Natasha. 

She definitely had been up for a while in order to have gotten this done. I gave her a grateful nod as I took my seat and commenced the feast before our eyes. 

Natasha really went all out as she even prepared chicken, rice, beef, Italian stew, hell even pancakes weren't left out. Ororo understood the gesture since it was pretty clear at first sight that this wasn't a breakfast any family would have on a normal day except on special occasions, giving her silent gratitude to our resident redhead. 

Breakfast continued at a hearty pace, like always, since it was a belief of mine that food, especially breakfast should be eaten with peace of mind as there was no other worse way than to start the day cranky. 

 But alas, it seemed I thought too soon as… 

*KNOCK*KNOCK*

Though I wasn't pissed, I couldn't deny the fact that I was irritated by the interference. 

"Don't worry, I'll get it." I got up from my chair and made my way to the door, opening to find the ear reaching smile of Loki. 

"What do you want, Loki?" My patience with this particular god was running thin and I felt that I would flip any second now. 

"I thought it wouldn't do for me not to grace my favorite Midgardian with my presence on this fine day." I would admit that for the psycho that he was, Loki did have a particular charm to him, one that enabled him to weasel his way out of tough situations. 

Grunting since I was mentally tired just from his presence, I walked back to the dinning table, leaving Loki to let himself in. 

I did receive a few raised brows but I chose to ignore it and focus on my breakfast. 

"Oh how wonderfully sumptuous. What's the occasion?" My eyes narrowed at the way Loki just seemed to merge himself with the atmosphere and how he casually pulled out a chair for himself to join us at the table. If I wasn't as attuned with my environment as I was, then I wouldn't have realized that what Loki just did was 'lie' to the atmosphere surrounding us, telling it that he was always this casual with us. Though it did seem to be a passive effect, making me realize just how truly complex and terrifying a god's domain of power was. 

"I don't believe I've been acquainted with this fair lady here. Name's Loki Odinson, prince of Asgard." Loki introduced himself to Ororo, taking the storm goddess by surprise most likely at the casual way a god just walked into our house. 

"I'm Ororo Munroe. Pleasure is mine." Though surprised, Ororo still responded to his introduction, making the God of Lies smile more as he looked between us which caused me to groan. 

Perhaps feeling my rising discomfort, he toned down on his theatrics and helped himself to a serving with such sense of familiarity that made all our eyes, except for Ororo, narrow as everyone was keeping an eye on him even as we ate and joked, not letting any of his gestures out of our sight for even a second. 

"Is something wrong?" Ororo whispered to me as she caught me giving Loki who was now in a conversation with Yelena a flat stare. 

"Gee, what made you think that?" I asked back sarcastically which caused her to roll her eyes. 

"Well maybe the fact that you never said anything about him being a close acquaintance of sorts, and also the fact that I feel as if everything at this table feels off." She whispered back. 

Ororo definitely wasn't an assassin but kudos to her for seeing through this disguise of a happy breakfast. Loki knew he was being watched but his skin was too thick that he wasn't even affected by it, I could tell. He believed he wasn't in any danger as long as he didn't antagonize us and while I hated to admit it, he was right. 

But for the sake of letting breakfast go well, I went along with whatever… this was. Thankfully breakfast didn't stretch out that long and we didn't bother to get up from our seats and proceeded to stare at Loki as he cleaned his mouth before pouring a glass of wine for himself. 

Loki wasn't dressed in his usual attire, going for something more earthly. It was rather simple; a white shirt and black vest complimenting his black pants and topping it off with a trench coat, a classic look that he managed to pull off somehow making him appear like someone from the upper strata of society. 

"How about we cut to the chase and tell us why you are here, Loki." Steve said with crossed arms, the easygoing expression on his face gone. 

"Did anyone ever tell you to loosen up a bit? Trust me, you definitely need to. I recom-" 

"Don't change the topic, Loki. I'm already being hospitable enough by not sending you to a dead planet galaxies away from here. Why are you here?" I cut him off before he could suck us into his pace. 

"It wouldn't kill you to entertain me for a bit, would it? Anyway, seeing as we are in an alliance of sorts, I thought it would be wise to give you a heads up." The smile on his face widened but I knew that whatever would come out next from his mouth was anything but amusing. 

"And pray tell what that is."

"A call has been sent to all Pantheon heads in the Council of Godheads. Father said not to visit Midgard so that our presence here would not be mistaken for an alliance. You should already understand where I'm going with this, right?"

I could feel a headache cropping up but I ignored it in favor of listening to all Loki had to say. 

"I don't understand. What does that have to do with us if the Gods decide to convene?" Ororo asked. 

"It's not a matter of what, but why. The reason they are convening is because a certain mortal of interest decided to go after the Infinity Stones. Though why they suddenly decided it was something worth convening about still escapes me so I thought you could shed light on that for me, Draul. According to my knowledge, there have been a few handful of people to wield one of the Infinity Stones since the dawn of the universe but none of these people caused the Pantheons to gather just because they wielded the stones. So I figured there is something I was missing since just possessing the stones shouldn't have mattered to them, in fact it would have served as a deterrent and kept them out of your way."

Based on the groans everyone at the table made, sans Loki and Ororo, it seemed like they finally realized what Loki was talking about.

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