I would love to thank you all again for all the truly AMAZING support for this story! I couldn't possibly hope to articulate how much it means to me *-*

And here's the last chapter! Enjoy ^.^

Thanos came striding into Death's hall like he owned the place, the mists stirring around his feet so it appeared more like he was wading through silver liquid than walking on a cold stone floor, bones snapping and crunching beneath his boots.

Hela glared at him coldly, sitting up straight from where she'd been lounging on the throne of skulls. "Kneel," she hissed, wiping the smile off his violet face as he obeyed, bowing his head before her.

"My Love—" he started, daring to glance up.

Her void eyes quickly forced him to lower his spectral blue ones.

"You failed," Hela said, voice like the wind that prowls her realm, frighting even the dead with goosebumps, though their breaths are invisible in the chilly air, since breathe they nothing into their empty lungs.

Thanos swallowed though there was no moistness in his mouth.

Hela smirked then, showing the teeth protruding from her skull, through her rotting gums. "And your failure was satisfying. To see you crushed by a boy with cat ears and a tail..." she trailed off, watching in undisguised delight as the titan squirmed uncomfortably, not looking up to see the smug smile pulling at her cheeks till the fair skin looked taught enough to crumble. She leaned forward. "Did you not wonder how Loki came to possess the three Infinity Gems you had held on your person?"

Thanos' eyes flicked along the fog swamped ground, before meeting hers in horror and betrayal, features trying to twist into an expression far too subtle for the blocky features.

She kept smiling. "Yes, it was I who pickpocketed them from you, and gave them to the boy," she admitted, seeming to soak up every flinch and start of the titan, every degree his mouth fell further open.

"Why—"

"You sought to unbalance the universe," Hela shot at him, standing up, her dress swishing as if with pained moans, the phantom faces complaining. "Death is an important part of Yggdrasil—it acts as a counterweight to Life, and end to the beginning," she explained. "You can't have Life without Death, but likewise can't you have Death without Life. And you would seek to tip the scales, so all souls fall here to Yggdrasil's roots, causing her branches to weaken and break as she topples, shattering pieces on us all." Hela sneered, stalking towards him and grabbing his throat with a skeletal hand wrapped with ribbons of rotting flesh. "You used your love for me as an excuse to endeavor for power."

Thanos struggled uselessly against her iron grip, wondering how it could be she could choke someone who's already dead.

"Oh, but I have special plans for you," she crooned in his ear. "I stole it from the fate of somebody else's soul—it's a monstrous thing. It will be perfect for you."

"You can't do that!" Thanos protested, as she began dragging him down mazing halls of darkness. "You can't change the fate that Yggdrasil has carved in her bark!"

Hela snorted. "You know nothing of the World Tree. And yes I can; he gave me his soul after all, and I couldn't possibly stand to see it by pain corrupted into something as evil as yourself."

She left him chained to a rock, a snake above him dripping corrosive poison onto his face in slow trickles of greenish fluid.

Thanos' screams followed her like dogs, and she laughed as they rubbed against her legs, nipping at her shoes as she walked away.

Midgard: several months after the battle of New York.

Steve stands in the kitchen of Stark Tower, holding a large metal bowl in one arm as he stirs with a fork in the other hand, while the two gods hover over his shoulder, watching with interest as the supersoldier makes the waffle batter.

"If you're going to be constantly getting in my way, you may as well help out," Steve says, giving them both pointed looks. They'd been following him around the kitchen ever since he got up, asking him questions about what he was doing, or the different appliances, only a few of which he'd mastered how to work. And frankly, even in normal clothes—well, as normal as they ever got, seeing as though Thor would wear a t-shirt and jeans Loki always insisted on wearing suits, or at the least a collared button-up shirts with black slacks, often with a green scarf—they were still intimidating when every time he turns they're right there, towering over him.

"Of course!" Thor grins, clapping Steve on the shoulder and almost making him drop the bowl. "How can we help?"

"Well, you can go get me a couple eggs from the fridge," the man answers.

Loki opens the fridge and practically sticks his head inside, calling out "The eggs are kept in that strange gray box with the separate compartments, right?"

"It's called an egg carton, and yes," Steve says, setting the bowl down to begin setting up the waffle iron.

"How many eggs?"

"Four."

Loki pulls out the carton from the fridge, opening it up and grabbing four eggs in a single long-fingered hand, holding them like a juggler, before tossing the eggs across the room.

Steve turns, eyes going wide, as he sees the fragile things sail towards where the sink is located—only to be plucked form the air by a grinning thunder god, who then tosses the eggs into the bowl of waffle batter.

The man suppresses the urge to facepalm. "Thor," he sighs, fishing the eggs out of the batter, "You can't just put the eggs in—you have to crack the shells, and just use the yolks and whites."

"Sorry," the thunderer simpers, shuffling his feet slightly as the younger god snickers at him.

"Do you need us to get anything else?" Thor inquires helpfully.

"NO—no, I'm okay," Steve says hurriedly, cracking the eggs into the batter and picking up the fork.

"I can stir if you want."

Steve glances at the god's ridiculously muscled arms. He would probably beat it too fast or something, and either splash it everywhere or break the fork or something. "No really, I'm okay."

The supersoldier turns then to see Loki with the waffle iron, and before Steve can stop him he plugs the chord into the electrical socket, giving the man a wink. "It wasn't warming up just sitting there unplugged."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Steve turns back around, only to jump slightly as he finds that Thor has once again crept up just behind him. "Would you stop doing that?" he asks, exasperated. "You're going to make me mess up."

"Sorry," Thor apologizes again.

"Why don't you two go sit at the table and wait for breakfast to be done?" Steve suggests, as he waves a hand above the waffle iron to see if its hot enough yet.

The thunder god's voice is almost whiny. "But I'm hungry—"

"Oh, stop acting like a child, Brother," Loki rolls his eyes, grabbing the blond and dragging him over to the table, shoving him into a chair, before wandering around the room and picking up a magazine, flipping through it.

They keep bantering about something or other, but Steve tunes them out as he pours the batter onto the waffle iron, careful not to get it everywhere. He then dutifully watches the clock to make sure he doesn't accidentally forget and burn any of them.

When he brings a couple plates stacked with waffles over to the table—he'd gotten used to making double or even triple batches, seeing as the gods seemed to have an even higher metabolism than he did, and ate a freaking ton—only to find Loki sitting on Thor's lap as the thunderer sulks.

"Er...?"

Loki glances up at the mortal's confused face, smirking. "My Brother wouldn't stop scooting his chair around, making an awful noise and scratching up the floor."

"So you sat on him," Steve says skeptically.

"Aye," Loki nods.

Steve just shakes his head, though he really should be used to the brothers' queer habits by now, as he sets plates of waffles down on the table.

The supersoldier and the two gods manage to polish off a good two thirds of the waffles before the other Avengers enter, taking up their chairs and confiscating the rest of the breakfast from the two bottomless pits who are still sharing a chair.

"Hey, why does Sparky get the Kid on his lap?" Tony asks, as he comes in the room. "I think that's hardly fair."

"Would you stop calling me that," Loki grinds out. "I'm thousands of years older than you are."

Tony just smirks at him, grabbing the syrup pitcher as he says "Yeah, but you look younger than me. And also, you wear that crazy helmet whenever we go out into battle that makes you look like a goat—thus a Kid."

Loki growls in the back of his throat, and Thor takes the opportunity to poke him in the sides, making him jump up, turning and slapping the thunderer on reflex.

Thor chuckles.

"No roughhousing at the dining table, please," Bruce chides, waving his a piece of waffle speared on a fork at them.

The god rolls his green eyes. "Yes Mother."

Suddenly Director Fury's voice comes over the loudspeaker. "Robots are terrorizing civilians at the Central Park. Get your avenging asses down there pronto. And I don't want to hear your complains about the early hour."

It switches off with a click.

There's a collection of groans as the Avengers hurry to finish their breakfast, before pushing away from the table to suit up.

"Okay really," Tony says, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "Why is it that everything seems to happen when we're in the middle of eating waffles? This is like, the hundredth time..."

"Second time, sir," Jarvis corrects.

Iron Man blasts a metal humanoid back, Captain America's shield connecting with its head as it stumbles, and he fires a small missile that attaches to the armor, beeping and flashing red a few times, before blowing the robot apart. "No Doombots, again," Tony groans, chasing after one with a jet pack. "Doesn't that dude have a better hobby?"

"I get the feeling he finds it amusing," Natasha answers, which Tony takes to mean that no, Doom doesn't have a better hobby than building robots to send against them, without much purpose except some halfhearted half-baked excuses.

A Doombot zaps Thor with lightning from its gauntlet, though the only effect it seems to have is to annoy him. "You call that lightning?" the thunderer roars, "I'll show you lightning!"

The white clouds seem to absorb moisture from somewhere as they turn a dark gray, roiling and crackling, as Thor uses Mjolnir to electrocute several of them, leaving their green cloaks scorched and their wires fizzling.

"Well, if Doom's doing this for fun, who are we to refuse?" Loki asks rhetorically, as he slashes the sword vertically through a robot.

He really should make himself another scepter, he thinks, as he waves a hand, a smirk budding on his face.

"Nat, watch out!" Clint cries, as the Black Widow whirls around in time to see a Doombot point its gauntlet at her, and she tries to spring out of the way, a second to late—and gets covered in whipped cream.

"What the hell?" she asks, taking the bot down by sticking a dagger in chink in the armor, at the back of the neck beneath the green hood, severing the wires as it drops.

"Shit!" she hears Tony swear on the intercom. "I'm covered in whipped cream!"

Clint licks some of the stuff of his nose. "Well, it tastes alright," he relays. "And it beats getting shocked."

"LOKI!" Thor roars, his hair full of the sugary cream, as he slams his hammer down on the offending robot.

The dark-haired god whirls around, whipping his sword through bots, their severed pieces disintegrating into various kinds of cereal. "What?" he asks innocently.

"THIS IS NOT AMUSING! A ROBOT JUST THREW POPTARTS AT ME!"

"Hulk thinks its amusing," Tony says, as he sees Jolly Green ripping the bots apart like pinatas, candy dropping out of them.

Natasha sighs as the Doombots start self-destructing in bursts of green sprinkles, joining the whipped cream in her hair. "I think Loki's hungry," she mutters. "Either that or he has a sweet tooth."

"I heard that!"

"Well then which is it?" Natasha asks, as the god walks towards her, and she can't help but giggle at the sight of him dripping with chocolate syrup. "Both?"

"That was not completely expected," he says, making a face where he crinkled his nose and shook his head. "And now I'm all sticky."

She took his avoidance of the question as an affirmative. "Join the club," she answers, flicking green sprinkles at him. "Couldn't you have just, like, cut off all their power with your magic?"

"I could have," he acknowledges. He smirks, ducking as Thor lobs a poptart as his head. "But where would be the fun in that? I can't wait to see Fury's reaction when he gets the newsfeed..."

As Tony so likes to say: Fury was furious.

"Would you stop using crazy spells? People aren't going to take the Avengers team seriously!" the mortal yells.

Loki cocks his head to the side, and he's still covered with chocolate syrup. "But it's worked."

"Yes, you defeat the threats," Fury snaps, pacing the room as the Avengers hide smiles behind their hands. "But you look ridiculous! After this shenanigan everyone's going to think you're Willy Wonka or something! And the time before this, when they all turned into flowers..."

The gods and Steve all furrow their brows—Willy Wonka? What?

After putting up with some more berating (the expression on the Director's face was totally worth it) the Avengers all went to their rooms to clean up.

Loki had just gotten out of the shower and dressed in Midgardian clothing, in what Tony always called a 'ritzy outfit', there was a loud knocking on his door, almost as if it would blow the door from its hinges.

"I didn't know you knew how to knock," Loki says, opening the door to his brother's face.

Thor is grinning hugely, and Loki narrows his eyes in suspicion, glancing around the hallway to try to see what's going on.

"Alright, who's hiding behind you?" the trickster remarks, leaning casually against the door frame, crossing his arms over his chest, over his black tie and white long-sleeved shirt.

"Brother, I would like to meet my girlfriend Jane," Thor announces, stepping aside to reveal a petite woman wearing a checkered shirt and jeans, with warm brown hair and eyes, her gaze curious as she looks at the smaller god.

"It's truly a pleasure to meet you, Jane Foster," Loki smiles, holding out a hand. "I've heard much about you."

Jane reaches forward to shake his hand, only for Loki to catch her fingers, bowing slightly to bring them to his lips. "Thor has oft told of your beauty, but I must say that you make an understatement of his words."

The woman blushes, glancing up at her god of a boyfriend as Loki lets go of her hand, continuing "And in that case I can only think that you're even more intelligent than he described as well."

"Be careful around that one," Tony says, walking up to where the three of them are gathered, and nodding to Loki. "He's a charmer."

"Says the playboy..." Loki drawls, smirking.

"I'm actually in a committed relationship right now," Tony says pointedly. He pulls a couple crumpled pieces of paper out of his pockets. "Oh, Steve asked me to give you these invitations," he snorts, as they each take one and gently unfold and smooth it out—or roughly, on Thor's part. "I don't know why he always insists on writing those things. Written invitations are so old-fashioned," Tony continues, shoving his hands in his pockets as they read the notes. "I was going to send you a text message to get your assess up there, but then I remembered that neither of you gods have phones yet. Which is something that needs to be fixed, by the way."

"Thank you for delivering the invitations," Thor says, after managing to read it despite the numerous tears. "We will be right up."

"Well, don't dawdle too long. I still want to test that theory about whether you gods can out-drink Steve or not," Tony calls over his shoulder as he walks away.

Loki groans, letting his head fall back against the door frame. "Oh, so it's going to be that kind of party, now is it?"

"You don't have to partake in the drinking if you don't want to. But please come?" Thor begs, as Jane nods encouragingly beside him, making hand gestures where she pretends to glug a drink, and then makes a face and sticks out her tongue, suggesting that she isn't fond of the whole drinking thing either.

"Well..." Loki sighs. "I suppose I should come, if only so that I can have the pleasure of dumping freezing cold water over your head if you get too drunk."

Thor beams, clapping his brother on the shoulder. "Then let us depart!" he announces. "Our friends await!"

Yes, Loki thinks, as he follows Thor and Jane down the hallway. Our friends.

FIN

Well, I hope it's not too weird... it's like, past 4:30am again... and I haven't gotten much sleep for the past two nights... XD

And yes, I used the snake and venom torture from the myths; because I'm uncreative like that :P

This is my very first long chapter fic with a plot, and the first long chapter fic I've completed! It feels awesome :D

Again, I'm afraid that no, there will not be a sequel to this story. However, if you enjoy my writing, I started posting a totally separate chapter fic entitled "Jotun Snowflakes" which is an AU where Loki discovers his Frost Giant heritage as a teen - and there will be more protective!Thor and BAMF!Loki because I love writing them as such ;3

Anyways! Final thoughts on this chapter/story? =^.^=