"Wait Odin wants us to do what?!" Clint exclaims, having not been paying attention to what Thor was saying in the common area. Everyone gives him the 'look' and Thor continues after sighing in his frustration.

"The All Father Odin has demanded that either the Widow of Black or the Maiden of Iron is to marry Loki. He can no longer remain in Asgard as he is wearying the All Father. If Loki marries either one of you he will not be able to harm the Earth or you. That is as much detail I can give you, you will only learn more if you consent to marrying him and if you find it too much of a burden you may refrain." Thor states and looks at both of the two females in the eye, breaking them from their distractions-well Toni from her distraction anyway, Natasha never seems to get distracted.

Natasha gives him one second of eye contact before stating her decision. "I won't marry Loki unless I have all the details Thor. So unless you can give me some more information then I won't do it."

Thor nods and looks at Toni hopefully. They both know what she's doing, the others may not be able to see it but they can. She will give all the information to SHIELD so that they'll be able to control him and probably do things to him that would cause him to go mad again. Just from looking at each others' eyes allows them to see they're on the same page. Before she verbalises any decision she thinks it over quickly.

Loki had tried to control her and threw her out of the window. He 'killed' Coulson and took control of Hawkeye. Yet when she had been talking to Loki he seemed rather hesitant to fight her, but was genuinely surprised that he couldn't control her. From what she could read from him, he'd had a very similar life growing up as she had. Both of them had been abused and treated harshly, so Toni could sympathise with him and understand his actions despite all the destruction they caused. And anyone deserves a second chance, she's living on hers so why can't he, if Natasha marries him he will be unhappy and still be abused. At least with her he could become better and be happy.

After cataloguing all of this she looks Thor straight in the eye her expression serious. "I'll do it. I'll marry Loki." The others look at her shocked, they'd all thought that she would be the last woman on Earth to ever agree to that, but right now they all think she's being her usual self and hasn't thought any of this through. Which is completely wrong, she always thinks things through, well except when she's running some dangerous experiments in the lab.

Natasha all in all looks angry. Not that anyone else can see it, but Toni has known the redhead a long time and can read her better than Clint can, 'cause, hey, her Father had the best poker face she'd ever seen, even better than Fury's, so if she could tell what he was thinking and feeling on a bad day when it was harder to read him, then she can certainly read Fury and Natasha.

"Very well. Thank you Maiden of Iron. I will go and inform Odin and when I return I shall speak to you alone of what will happen. Farewell my friends." And with that he leaves the building with a swish of his cape and a thunder clap. Toni can feel everyone looking at her but she just ignores them, stands up from her place on the couch, stretches, and walks to the elevator calmly and goes to her room. She doesn't bother locking the door as she knows the others will be down there soon enough to lecture her and accuse her in Natasha's case, Toni's looking forward to that one. In the meantime she starts to undress out of her business suit that she'd been in for S.I meetings all day, and removes the makeup before taking a short, warm, shower and changing into some comfortable PJ's. Sitting on her bed she reflects on what happened in the common area only a month before with Loki and the Glow Stick of Destiny.

"-and you've managed to peeve off every single one of them." She says whilst holding her favourite glass of apple juice out in front of her.

"That was the plan." Loki says in response coming slightly closer to her.

"Not a very good plan Loki, I thought you'd have been smarter than this, I guess I have to be proven wrong sometimes." She says whilst taking a sip of her drink.

"Have you been abused your whole life? Were you put down by everyone and always treated like you were nothing?! Only then to find out you weren't even related to your supposed family?!" He yells at her and Toni can see that he's close to tearing from his eyes and the sound of his voice. She looks down at her hands, which are holding her glass, thoughtfully and she can tell Loki thinks he's won. She looks back up at him, her face devoid of all expression which is found in her voice.

"Yes, I do know what it's like." Her voice is full of sincerity and strength that Loki is taken aback in surprise and seems like he's about to say something when the Glow Stick of Destiny brightens causing him to groan in pain before looking back at her and Toni can tell that he's back to being mind controlled...

The door flying open breaks her attention from the memories and she looks up to see all the Avengers-sans Thor-standing in the doorway, Cap looking ready for a lecture, Bruce seemingly worried, Clint grinning but also worried, and Natasha is practically fuming, although the others can't tell that. She smirks at them and raises an eyebrow. Those single movements causing the dam to break.

"What the heck Toni?!" Cap, Widow and Clint exclaim, although at least Clint sounds excited. Bruce just stares at her. They look at her then walk decidedly towards the bed. Cap coming to a stand in front of her with Natasha on his left staring at her-still fuming.

"What? Widow didn't want to marry him and I'm the only other female on the team so what's your problem?" I ask smartly, and they both glare at me while Bruce just sighs and answers for them.

"They think that Widow would do a better job at keeping an eye on him and making sure he doesn't escape or do anything bad. Plus, she only said she wouldn't marry him if she didn't have all the details. She never gave a definitive no." They both nod at his words and glare at me again, but I remain impassive to them.

"But I said yes, and before you say that I didn't think it through, I actually did and it is not in your power to stop me from doing this. I will not change my mind and I won't let you talk me out of it. I've made up my mind so back off." I say firmly. They're taken aback but I don't care, it's not for them to decide what I do and I won't let them hurt Loki.

"Toni, why did you agree to it though? I thought you'd be the last person to ever do that." Clint asks, no longer grinning, he'd been looking forward to my 'telling off' and lecture from Cap and Widow which hasn't happened yet so he's not feeling as smug.

"Because I can understand things from his perspective, I can understand why he acted the way he did-and I don't approve of it by the way," I add before they can start an argument. "I'm just saying that I can understand where he's coming from. Also if Widow married him he'd be kept almost continuously in a cell, treated like he's going to murder someone, possibly experimented on and be interrogated and just be downright miserable. He's been through a lot of things, most of which you'll never know and if he gets treated the way I expect him to be if he marries Widow, he's more than likely going to fight against everything that is done to him." She snaps at them, she'd had enough of their attitude and always thinking that she did everything on impulse without thinking things through. They always talked about her like that and she didn't need JARVIS to tell her that either for her to know either.

"So now that you can see that I have thought this all through you can leave because despite what you all believe I actually have a job and work to do that leaves me quite tired on a regular basis so I'd like to get some sleep. Good night." She finished abruptly leaving no room for argument and climbed under the covers on the right side of her bed, because she felt quite uncomfortable with the Avengers in her room in full battle armour with her only wearing her jogging bottoms and a purple t-shirt making her Arc Reactor feel very vulnerable to the people in front of her and she didn't trust them right now either.

"C'mon Cap, I thought you were raised never to look at a woman in her nightwear?" She said one eyebrow raised, causing him to blush a deep red at her words. She smirked as they all abruptly left, grumbling amongst themselves over what happened and she distinctly heard the tell-tale of a lock clicking back into place, JARVIS not even needing to be told to do so. She smiled to herself at how natural things were coming to her AI who clearly knew she was tired and didn't want to be disturbed. She rolled over onto her side and immediately fell into a deep sleep, though unfortunately not unridden of her nightmares.


Working on second chapter, I hope you enjoy this. :)