A/N: This one has been floating around for a while, this chapter was a little rough but I finally decided that it would have to do in order for them to meet. Let me know what you guys think!

"Another." She said signaling her drink to the bartender, glad that her neighbor had finally left her alone to drink after dragging her out to a bar. Knowing before it happened that someone was sitting down next to her she didn't even need to turn to look and know that it was a man, who for his sake she hoped didn't try to hit on her.

"That's a lot of drinks for one girl." She heard the crisp British accent he had.

She still didn't look at him as she lifted the glass to her lips, "Takes a lot of alcohol to forget certain things."

"What are you trying to forget?" She noticed his sly smile as she tilted her head to the side to look at him.

"Something I don't want to remember."

"What's your name?" He asked with a smile, "Or do you not remember?"

"Tell me yours, it might jog my memory." She leaned sideways onto the bar, generally she wouldn't have given him the time of day but something about the coyness in his voice and the way he held himself made an alarm go off in her head that said not to ignore him.

"My name is Loki." He said with a smile ordering them more drinks.

She snorted in a laugh, "Yeah and I'm Athena."

"Athena is not real." His smile grew wider.

"But Loki is?" She a smile pulling at the corner of her lips.

"Yes, I'm right here." He put his hands out signaling himself.

"I can't wait to find out how you got that nickname." She mumbled sarcastically turning back to face the bar.

"Yes, well you never did tell me your name, I'm sure it isn't Athena." He mimicked her gesture.

"Raven." She spoke quietly.

"Ah, well then Raven I was wondering if you might be able to tell me where I could find a place to sleep tonight?" He looked at her with a wide smile on his face.

"Does that line work on any other girl?" She looked at him displeased.

"I don't know what you mean, I'm in town for the night and have nowhere to stay." His expression becoming confused.

"Oh, shit were you serious?" She looked back at him with a hint of surprise, "I thought you were trying to have sex with me."

"Well not originally, but if you'd like to we are both two very attractive beings." He smiled leaning towards her.

"No thank you, I'm trying to forget my memories, not create more that will need forgetting." She went back to nursing her drink.

"I like you, you have spunk for a mortal." He smiled at her.

"Mortal? Is there an institution I need to take you back to?" The alarm in her head was still ringing but she didn't know why it was telling her to pay attention to him.

"No but perhaps a bed that I could sleep in would be nice." He smiled again and she could tell he was trying to get an answer from her.

"You can crash on my couch if you're really that desperate. I don't know that you'd be able to afford any hotels in this area of the city."

"What makes you say that?" Loki grinned at her picking up his drink.

"The nice hotels are expensive and the cheap hotels are cheap for a reason. And it looks like you spent most of your money on your clothes." She let out a tiny laugh.

"So instead you would let a stranger into your home?" He sipped his drink.

Raven looked him up and down and had a cocky upturn of the corner of her mouth, "I'm pretty sure I could handle the likes of you."

"I'm not sure if you mean that in the sense of sharing a bed or not." He sounded confused but his smile remained.

"You can try to share a bed with me, but you'd have to pay for all of the drinks it takes to get me there." She challenged him downing the rest of what was in her glass.

"Couch it is then." He smiled back at her. Loki watched as she was approached by another girl, this one seemed a slight bit younger and the two looked very different, much like him and his brother. While Raven had long dark brown hair, which could almost be mistaken for black, the new girl had short blonde hair and she had bright blue eyes while Raven had dark gray ones. The blonde was tan and Raven was slightly pale and her lips were fuller than the younger girls.

"Still drinking I see?" The blonde laughed placing an arm on Ravens back and Loki could see her stiffen slightly at the action.

"Yeah, but I made a friend." She dryly spoke as she pointed to Loki.

"I thought you didn't have friends." The blonde said sarcastically.

"I don't." Raven smiled somewhat meanly at her.

"Ow, my heart." She placed a hand over the organ in her chest and pretended to have pain, Raven rolled her eyes at the girl. While she didn't care much for people and she didn't socialize much, having someone around every now and then was nice. Loki noticed the girls eyes land on him, "I'm being rude, I'm Mae, and you are?"

"Loki." He smiled shaking her hand.

"Okay." Mae extended the last syllable out a bit at his strange name then leaned over to speak in Ravens ear, "He's cute! Go for it!"

"Thanks." Ravens tone had yet to change, "We're going to be leaving now, see you around Mae."

"Oh…Okay. " Mae was shocked as she watched her neighbor place a hundred dollar bill on the bar and signal to the bartender that she was done, then watched as Raven and the man named Loki left the bar together. In the three years since she had lived next to the girl, Mae had never once seen her bring someone home.

As they walked back to Ravens apartment Loki tried asking her questions about herself but they were all responded with short or sarcastic answers and he realized that he knew nothing about her by the time they were at her door. The apartment she lived in was nice, it was very modern and decorated with black furniture and accents with glass in certain places to make it very classy. He watched as she motioned him towards the couch and she headed up a few stairs to the kitchen, "You thirsty? I've still got plenty of alcohol along with tea's, coffee, and soda."

"If we were going to keep drinking why'd we leave the bar?" He smiled still standing and looking around her apartment.

"It's Sunday, last call is at eleven." She said leaning over the counter at him with a coke in her hand and pointed at the clock on the wall that said 11:15, "It was last call when I got my last drink."

"Strange, where I'm from they never stop serving drinks." Loki said thinking of his home.

"So where are you from? And if you say Asgard I'm going to hurt you." She had a small smile on her face.

"In that case I'm not going to say." He mirrored her smile, "I'll just say far away."

"Any family in Far Away?" She brought him out a coke and watched as he took a sip of it and grimaced from the burn of the carbonation, she shook her head and smile, he really was committed to this Loki act.

"Shall I just return your treatment?" He gave a slight cough at the burn still in his throat.

She sat down on the couch and put her feet up on the coffee table, "I just don't like talking about myself or my family. But you seem like the type who loves to share himself with the world."

"Yes, quite the pair aren't we?" He smiled and sat down on the other side of the couch, "Yes, I have a family. Mum, dad, and a rather annoying older brother."

"What makes him annoying?" Her voice was soft and Loki was sure he heard a hint of sadness.

"He's arrogant and reckless, yet always the favorite and I'm always on the sidelines." He drank a bit more of the burning drink, slowly getting used to it, "It's not like I want all the attention or even all the things he has but just being seen as his equal in the eyes of our father would be nice."

"Yeah, if my brother and I had been seen as equals things might have been different." Raven said her voice low again and Loki couldn't stop himself.

"What happened to your brother?" He leaned closer to her, genuinely curious.

He watched as her grip around her can got tighter and all though she was looking down at her lap he could tell she was keeping her voice down trying to suppress anger and not sadness. Raven had a hard time thinking about what happened without destroying something, Mae had walked came knocking on the door many times from hearing the destruction happen, "He was murdered, murdered because I was deemed more important than him, because I was worth keeping."

"By who?"

"Someone who didn't get to keep me." She looked at him and he was taken aback by the fire of hate burning in her eyes, and the ferocity of the flames was enticing to him, this wasn't an ordinary mortal. Her want for revenge was a very attractive trait on her, Loki had to admit. Her voice shook, "Someone who will pay for what they did."

He heard a chiming noise and noticed it came from her pocket. Raven pulled out her phone and looked at a message from a blocked number: NEED YOU FOR A JOB, AVAILABLE TUESDAY?

Loki watched as she tapped on her phone, unable to see what she was writing: PASSCODE

Another chime: 98556248

She responded: SECONDARY CODE

He assumed she was talking to someone, he had seen humans type on a device like it before: THERE ISNT ONE

Loki looked as she smiled: HAVE THE CAR AND INFORMATION IN THE USUAL SPOT AND THE KEYS BROUGHT HERE TOMORROW. HALF WITH THE KEYS HALF WITH THE RETURN OF THE CAR.

She put her phone back in her pocket and looked at him, "Sorry, work."

"What do you do to afford a lovely apartment in a city like New York?" He smiled sweetly.

"I'm a freelancer, I get better clients in a city like this. It pays well, the couch is very comfortable." She said smacking the back of the couch, "Perhaps you should get some sleep on it."

He shook his head with a laugh and realized he wasn't going to get an answer out of her as she stood up and said she was going to her room to get some sleep. Raven pointed out the bathroom and where to get more blankets if he needed them and he watched as she went into her room with no worries that he would try to do something in the middle of the night.

Raven woke up the next morning and walked out into the living room to find it empty, she looked around the entire house and didn't find the man from the night before. She checked to make sure all of the things were still where they should be and nothing had been touched. Shrugging her shoulders she went to make a pot of coffee wondering if perhaps he had been an undercover cop, or if he had really just needed a place to stay. As the coffee was brewing she heard a thump on the ground by her door. Walking over to her front door she noticed the manila envelope that had been dropped through her mail slot, when she opened it she quickly pulled out the keys to the Porsche 918 Spyder and $50,000, the next job must be a fun one.