Now and Then
"I am sorry, Natasha." Loki looked at his now ex-fiancé as she had tears streaming down her face.
"Loki…why?" Natasha choked out.
"I am sorry." He repeated, before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Natasha sunk to her knees as she held the engagement ring.
It no longer had meaning. All the memories they shared. And he wouldn't even tell her why he broke off relations. In a fit of anger and confusion, Natasha threw the ring across the room. It landed with a soft clatter, somewhere behind the couch. She didn't bother to see where it landed.
Natasha would always remember this day, whether she wanted to or not. It was December 20th. The snow was falling slowly, covering the city in an icy blanket. Loki and Natasha had always loved Winter.
Author's Note: Well hopefully this is as good as the other BlackFrost FFs on here. It took me a while writing this, and it may seem a tad cliché, but hopefully it doesn't suck too badly! And the writing style was kind of weird...I dunno.
This is also un-betaed, so if there are any mistakes. Feel free to correct me!
Please Read and Review, Follow and Favourite! (Except this is a one-shot, so there's nothing to follow. Unless (refer to the ending author note)
Italics are when the memory is being written.
Regular is just...regular.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of this, except for the plot. If I did...let's just say The Avengers would be rated R.
Rating: T because of swearing and suggestive themes. Hopefully this is accurate.
"I am sorry, Natasha." Loki looked at his now ex-fiancé as she had tears streaming down her face.
"Loki…why?" Natasha choked out.
"I am sorry." He repeated, before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Natasha sunk to her knees as she held the engagement ring.
It no longer had meaning. All the memories they shared. And he wouldn't even tell her why he broke off relations. In a fit of anger and confusion, Natasha threw the ring across the room. It landed with a soft clatter, somewhere behind the couch. She didn't bother to see where it landed.
Natasha would always remember this day, whether she wanted to or not. It was December 20th. The snow was falling slowly, covering the city in an icy blanket. Loki and Natasha had always loved Winter.
It had been two months since he left. He didn't come back for his things, assuming Natasha would dispose of them, like the memories they shared.
Natasha was doing some spring cleaning. She had spent most of her time training in the S.H.I.E.L.D gym. The other Avengers had known not to disturb her after their failed attempts. They did not know how to help.
Steve had tried to offer consolation, but it was useless. He was happily with Tony and hadn't gotten broken up with without any explanation. Bruce had tried to help, but ended up ranting about science things. Clint was ever the protective big brother, offering to hunt him down, but Natasha had declined. Thor was angry with his adopted brother for breaking Natasha's heart, as he had already started to care for her as a younger sister. Pepper was probably the most helpful. Making sure Natasha didn't forget to eat and checking up on her every day.
Nearly every inch of her apartment was covered in a thick layer of dust. The dull furniture was even duller than usual, with Natasha removing all personal items and shoving them in a box. She didn't want to be reminded of Loki. Every picture, gift or ornament that had something to do with Loki was in the box.
Natasha was glad that no hostile life-forms had tried to take over the world since the Chitauri incident. It would remind her of how she started her relationship with Loki.
The rain was making pitter-patter sounds against her window. All seemed quiet until a puff of smoke appeared in her living room and a God of Mischief lay against her couch, bleeding and bruised.
Natasha dropped her wine glass. A dark pool of crimson liquid was forming on the carpet where the God lay. The gun of Natasha was pointed towards Loki. He breathed heavily, forming the word Thanos before passing out. Natasha called S.H.I.E.L.D. and the other Avengers. She was working on tending to his wounds when they burst in.
Thor ran to his brother's side. "Brother! Why are you not on Asgard?" He bellowed.
"He just teleported into my living room and said the word Thanos before passing out like now. I've just been working on fixing his wounds." Natasha looked at Thor, who looked close to tears at seeing his brother this broken.
"Let's just fix him up so he can tell us what the hell he was doing in here, barging in and why he isn't on Asgard." Clint glared.
Fury thought for a moment. "Take him to S.H.I.E.L.D's medical bay!" He barked and agents loaded Loki onto a stretcher carefully. They took him out to the quinjet, which was just on the roof.
A while later, the Avengers were in a meeting room, discussing what to do with their injured god.
"I say we just take him back to Asgard. He caused enough havoc last time he was here." Tony said, clearly still sore about Loki throwing him out of a window.
"He isn't in a good enough condition to be moved!" Thor protested.
"Thor's right. We need to heal him, so he can talk about how he came here with those injuries." Steve decided.
Fury nodded in agreement. "Agent Romanoff, since you found him, you can be in charge of him. He probably chose your place to teleport for a reason." He ordered.
Natasha tensed. Her, taking care of the god who threatened her just one month ago? But she nodded, obeying orders. She quickly stood up and walked off to the medical bay to see how the god was doing.
Natasha snapped out of her flashback. The memories were resurfacing again. Shaking her head, she walked to the closet where she kept her vacuum. As the door opened, a lavender-coloured carnation floated down in front of Natasha. It was the first gift she had gotten from Loki, on their first date. She thought it was in the box of Loki things.
They were meeting at Natasha's favourite restaurant. Natasha wore one of her favourite black dresses with a pair of black high heels. She went to the seat Loki had reserved to see him in an outfit similar to the one he wore in Germany.
"Hello Loki, looking nice." Natasha gave a small smile.
"Thank you, Lady Natasha, you look exceptionally beautiful." He returned the smile as he pulled out her chair for her. Although he wasn't born of Asgard, he was raised with the manners as how a prince should act.
A waiter walked over with two menus. "Our special today is lobster steak-"
"Then we'll have that, with some wine." Loki dismissed the waiter and gave the menus back.
"Your meal will be arriving shortly." The waiter looked a tad embarrassed as he walked away.
"You didn't have to be so rude." Natasha teased.
"Well, I wanted to be as uninterrupted as possible, so forgive me for behaving rudely." Loki smirked.
"Of course." Natasha smiled. This was fun, no threats, no fighting.
Their meal arrived and they ate, occasionally exchanging witty remarks and smiles and giggles. They soon finished and left the restaurant.
"Well goodnight Loki." Natasha smiled at the lovely dinner they had just had.
In the palm of Loki's hand, a carnation. "For you, Lady Natasha. Are you sure you do not require my help with getting home?" He tucked the flower behind her ear.
"I have weapons hidden all over my body, but thank you for offering. Good night." Natasha tip-toed, being shorter than Loki even in heels. She pressed her lips to his cheek. Natasha slowly walked off towards the direction of her apartment.
Loki touched his fingers to the spot where Natasha kissed him, a tingle still there.
Seeing the flower reminded Natasha of their fifth date, when they started going steady. She closed her eyes and let the memory wash over her like a wave.
They were having a simple picnic in the park. It was nearing sunset and Loki wanted to show Natasha the beautiful sundown. On their blanket lay two sandwiches that Loki had made and orange juice that Natasha had brought. Inside the basket held two chocolate chip cookies and some vodka, just in case.
"Natasha, this is our fifth date, correct?" Loki asked.
"And it is going amazing." Natasha smiled at Loki.
"Since we have been seeing each other for such a while, I think it is time to make the next step." Loki knelt in front of Natasha, in front of the sunset, making Loki look glowing.
"Will you be my girlfriend?" He produced a vibrant red flower, as red as Natasha's hair. "This flower has been charmed, so as long as I love you, it will never wilt."
"I thought you would never ask to be steady." Natasha took the flower and wrapped her arms around Loki as they kissed softly.
The flower was also in the box. Natasha ran to her room and uncovered it, hoping it to be wilted, but partly hoping for it to still be alive.
The flower was still as bright as ever.
A single tear slipped down Natasha's face. If Loki loved her, then why did he leave? Or did he only say that the flower would live as long as his love so Natasha would be his girlfriend.
Natasha looked deeper into the box. A strip of photos from a photo booth, a green and gold bracelet with the letter 'L' on it, silver locket that had Loki and Natasha's picture in it, a short film of their water fight.
All of the Avengers plus Loki, Jane, Darcy and Pepper were at the carnival. It was Loki and Thor's first time going to one. It was a week after Loki and Natasha started dating and Tony had decided to take everyone to the carnival.
"These bright lights are absolutely astounding!" Thor exclaimed, as they had went in the evening.
"Seriously, you guys have to try cotton candy." Clint already heading off to eat some carnival food. Darcy followed her boyfriend off to challenge how much they could each eat.
Pepper was tapping on her phone when Bruce asked if she wanted to go on the merry-go-round. A little childish, but it helped relax.
Jane and Thor were off to the arcade; Jane talking happily about astrophysics as Thor just smiled.
"Um…Tony…do you want to go through the tunnel of love?" Steve asked shyly, blushing.
"I thought you'd never ask, cap." Tony led the taller man towards the romantic ride.
"Loki, let's go to the photo booth." Natasha held Loki's hand and pulled him towards the place.
"And you just take pictures?" Loki asked.
"Yes, you can make a silly face, or serious, or anything." Natasha explained as she clicked the button.
Seeing his girlfriend smile a genuine smile, Loki also made some silly faces. It was one of his rare smiles that Natasha treasured so much.
For the final photo, Natasha leaned in and pressed her lips to Loki. He pulled Natasha closer to him and they ended up making out until someone came looking for them. That person just so happened to be Tony Stark.
"Get a room!" He yelled. Loki and Natasha broke apart and picked up their pictures. It certainly looked nice, with the final shot of them kissing.
Natasha remembered that day. Thor had played whack-a-mole and ending up breaking the machine. Clint won a large amount of prizes for Darcy at the archery game. Then they all went on the Ferris Wheel together. It was some of the most fun she had.
The bracelet. Natasha had worn it up until the day of Loki leaving.
It was a particularly difficult mission. Fury had only sent Natasha and Clint in, expecting it to be easy. They were just supposed to get the information from the Mongolian Ambassador, but he had tons of guards at the ready. Natasha had gotten a nasty head wound and Clint's leg had a deep gash in it. When they finally killed all the guards and the ambassador, they were dead tired.
When Natasha and Clint had gotten back to headquarters, Natasha had a very high fever. Loki rushed over along with the other avengers to the medical bay, which once held Loki.
He worked on healing her, pressing his cooled hand to her forehead. Loki was of Frost Giant heritage, which lowered her fever. With his magic, Natasha had recovered slowly but surely. Clint's leg was bandaged by S.H.I.E.L.D's medical staff and Darcy kept fussing over him.
When Natasha had fully recovered, Loki had gifted her with a bracelet of gold and green. It had a heart on it with the letter L.
"If you are in any grave danger, just simply press on the L and I will be there." Loki said, obviously referring to the Mongolian incident. It pained him to see her hurt like that.
Natasha never had to use the bracelet, luckily. It warmed her heart to know that Loki cared so much. Thor told her that Loki had never shown this much care towards anyone before, except for maybe Frigga, his adopted mother. Frigga always cared for him.
The story behind the locket was very interesting. Loki had taken her to Asgard for their first anniversary together.
Natasha had already shown Loki all of New York and told him about Russia. Now, she wanted to hear about where he was raised. She wanted to know about Jotunheim too, knowing about his Frost Giant origins, but Loki wouldn't say anything. So he told her about Asgard. He wasn't banished anymore, since he held information about Thanos trying to attack Asgard and helped save it. Loki was welcomed back to Asgard.
Being curious, Natasha asked Loki if he could take her to Asgard. He complied, teleporting them both away. They landed on the bridge, with Heimdall just looking at them with a simple nod. The rainbow bridge was shining brightly and Natasha had marvelled at the grand castle in front of her.
Loki's room was covered in walls of books and scrolls. His bed was very large, with soft bed-sheets of green and gold. Loki was wearing his formal battle gear. Natasha felt very out of place in her jeans and t-shirt. Loki had dismissed this concern, saying that he looked good enough for both of them.
Natasha had met Odin and Frigga, who looked at her in approval. The fiery maiden would make a good match for Loki. Sif and the Warriors Three met Natasha. Sif was a female who went against stereotypes and became a warrior, like Natasha, so they got along well. Hogun was his stern self as always. Volstagg just talked about comparing her to food. Fandral tried to flirt with Natasha upon meeting her, but stopped under a glare from Loki, who was still holding onto his girlfriend's hand.
Loki led her to the fountain in the garden. The flowers were in full bloom and looked beautiful under the glow of the moonlight.
"So Natasha, how are you enjoying Asgard?" He asked.
"It's beautiful, and Sif, The Warriors Three and your parents are lovely." Natasha smiled. Loki tensed when his girlfriend referred to Odin and Frigga as his parents; he still felt out of place with them at times.
"As you remember, today marks the day we…coupled. I have a gift for you, as the Man of Iron has told me that this is a tradition amongst Midgardians." Loki took out a dark green box.
Natasha opened the box slowly. It contained a delicate silver locket with chains of gold. Inside, it held the pictures of Loki and Natasha.
"Do you like it?" Loki asked hopefully. He helped Natasha put it on. She looked absolutely gorgeous with the locket around her neck.
"I love it. Almost as much as I love you." Natasha leaned in and wrapped her arms around Loki. He put his arms around her waist. They sat like that until Thor came looking for them, while was nearly morning.
The water fight was held at a park. But this wasn't any old park. It was owned by Tony, which meant no civilians there to ask for autographs or anything. Being a multi-gazillionaire had its advantages.
At first, they couldn't decide the teams. Of course, Clint and Natasha couldn't be on the same team. The laser-tag incident was better left untold. They were on the same team last time and no one could find them. They ended up winning. Then the matter of using their powers. Thor with his hammer, Steve with his shield, Tony and his suit, Bruce being the Hulk, Clint and his archery, Loki and his magic, Natasha and her blades and guns.
In the end, they decided not to use their special weapons because it could end up being unfair. To decide the teams, Natasha and Clint were made captains, which hurt Steve a bit, as he was used to leading.
Of course, the couples had to be separated, to prevent any side-tracking, and it would be made all the more interesting. Natasha's team had Tony, Darcy, Pepper and Thor. Clint had Loki, Steve, Bruce and Jane.
At the park, there were tons of trees and one large fort. The challenge was to see who could conquer the enemy fort first, kind of like capture the flag with protection behind stone walls. Tony had taken the courtesy of getting everyone water-guns.
The guys decided to just wear swim trunks with no shirt, which was quite a sight. Luckily, it was a private park or tons of fangirls would be going crazy.
Darcy wore a cinnamon-coloured bikini top with matching swimming shorts. Pepper had a black one-piece on. Jane wore a simple white tankini and Natasha was wearing a green bikini which Loki loved on her; the same green as Loki's swim trunks.
A loud ring from JARVIS sounded and Thor, Tony, Pepper and Steve rushed forward, like soldiers in battle, spraying each other. Pepper was really good at this, Steve didn't want to hurt Tony and Thor was just spraying like crazy. Darcy and Bruce were the ones assigned to guard the flag. Being master assassins, Natasha and Clint stayed at their fort to spray away any incoming attackers. Jane and Loki were going to sneak over to opposite team and try to get the flag. Clint's team had a purple flag and Natasha's team had a red flag.
Unfortunately, Loki wasn't allowed to use his magic, so he couldn't project multiples of himself to try to confuse everyone and get the flag. He looked over at the opposing fort and his jaw dropped. Natasha was wearing that sexy bikini that he loved very much. He probably wouldn't be able to focus now. Natasha looked over and smirked; Loki was ogling her again.
After a while, still no one had gotten the flag. Being tired of no action, Natasha crawled along the trees and dropped in front of Bruce, spraying him in the face and grabbing the flag. She ran ahead, only to be stopped by Loki.
"Where do you think you are going, little spider?" Loki smirked. Everyone else was still too busy spraying to really notice. Bruce was still on the ground of the fort, dazed.
"Just coming to do this." Natasha smiled as she pressed her lips to Loki. But what he did not realize what that Natasha had aimed her weapon at Loki's butt and shot him. He yelped and Natasha ran off with the flag. Loki shot her back, but Natasha had reached her fort and put the purple flag next to the red flag. Another shrill ring sounded and it signalled the end of the game.
Later, when they had dried off and changed, Tony revealed he had hidden cameras everywhere and had JARVIS make DVD copies for everyone, to remember this event. Natasha's kiss with Loki was on there too.
Natasha made sure all the things that had to do with Loki were in the box. She made a mental note to ask Thor if he could bring it to Loki or Asgard or something.
Remembering how she got to the box, Natasha went to get the vacuum and started with the living room. For some reason, she decided to start under the couch, where the dust bunnies gathered the most. A strange kccccch sound was being heard and Natasha stopped the vacuum.
She knelt down and gasped. It was the engagement ring from Loki. All she remembered is throwing it out a window, but the window must have been closed and it landed under the couch. Natasha was ecstatic when Loki had proposed.
It was movie night at the Avengers Tower. Tony had everything replaced and fixed, except for the dent in the ground where Hulk beat Loki. He kept it so Loki and Bruce could be reminded of that "wonderful day."
They were watching Megamind, which none of them had seen, so they decided to give it a try. Loki was at the end of the long sofa, with Natasha curled up against him. Everyone else was cuddling too.
"This reminds me of Superman." Darcy noted.
During the scene where Minion is talking to Megamind about how the villain never gets the girl, Loki tensed. Natasha felt it and planted a kiss on his cheek, to show that he did get the girl.
Nearing the end of the movie, after Megamind defeated Titan and Roxanne was with him again, Loki suddenly got up and knelt in front of Natasha.
"Dear Natasha, I have given a lot of thought about this and I just want to ask you this one question. Will you grant me the honour of being your husband?" Loki looked hopefully at Natasha as he unveiled the ring. It was shining brightly and looked beautiful, but that wasn't all. The glow from where the diamond would be was blue. Blue like the tesseract which should have back at Asgard.
"Of course I will be. You make me so happy and even…feel things I have never felt before." Natasha smiled as Loki put the ring on her. "But how did you get part of the tesseract on the ring."
"Well, when Thor and I had returned, I discovered that a small piece of the tesseract had chipped off. Of course, I decided to keep it, knowing it would come in handy. This piece was not as powerful as the larger cube, but still held significant power. When I decided to propose to you, I did not want to just give you any plain ring. So I fashioned this from the piece of tesseract." Loki explained. Natasha was smiling brightly, which happened a lot.
When the movie ended, Tony kept talking about feels and Megamind with Metroman, Megamind with Minion and Megamind with Roxanne. Steve just shut him up with a kiss. The girls had gone off to discuss Natasha's wedding, her bachelorette party and her dress. The guys were talking with Loki about his bachelor party and Tony offered to let him have it at the Avengers Tower.
Later, they had decided all of the guys could be the best men and the girls would be the bridesmaids.
All Natasha remembered of her party was that she got very wasted and woke up next morning with a nasty hangover, as well as the rest of the girls in the tower.
Loki's bachelor party was around two days after. No one knew what had happened. A few weeks later, Loki just called off the engagement, but no one knew why. It was already a few days before the wedding, so maybe he realized that he just couldn't be tied down.
Angry with Loki and herself for being so blind to think that he had changed, Natasha went to the roof.
"LOKI LAUFEYSON I HATE YOU!" She screamed. It probably wasn't such a good idea to attract attention, but Natasha was still too hurt. He had broken her. Natasha Romanoff, who had once claimed "Love is for Children", was in love and had her heart shattered by the God of Mischief.
As she calmed down a bit and went back to finish vacuuming, a certain Frost Giant was sitting on her couch.
"Natasha, I'm so-"Loki started.
Natasha put her hand in front of herself in a stopping manner. "No, Loki. I don't want to hear your lies anymore, lie smith."
"You have to let me explain." He pleaded. Loki's eyes were begging and there was no mischievous glint, just honesty.
"Fine, you have five minutes before I kick your ass out of my apartment. Take this box too." Natasha dropped the glowing ring into the box, sealed it and sat down across from Loki.
"It all started at my bachelor party." Loki started…
It was Loki's bachelor party, celebrating weeks before the wedding, just to have fun before getting serious. Tony had let him use the tower for the party and also supplied lots of alcohol.
Loki was impossibly drunk. He ended up dancing on a table and almost got knocked out by Mjolnir. He vaguely remembered what had happened. There were dancers and cake and almost everything was a blur. But Loki did recall a dark haired familiar young lady and waking up naked together. Of course, Loki had assumed the worst and was a wreck. He had cheated on Natasha, which he would never do purposely, but he was wasted. He knew it was a pathetic excuse, but he couldn't face Natasha and see the disappointment, so he decided to hold it off for as long as possible.
"So you broke up with me because you were too much of a coward?" Natasha asked angrily.
"Please, Natasha, let me continue." Loki continued.
Just a few days before the wedding, the mystery girl Loki had slept with showed up. It just had to be her; Loki's previous girlfriend, Sigyn.
"What do you want? That night, I was drunk; it meant nothing." Loki growled through gritted teeth.
"L-loki, I-i-I'm pregnant." Sigyn stuttered.
Loki's glare turned into a look of horror. It couldn't be happening. He didn't want to have children with Sigyn, his possessive ex-girlfriend, but his soon-to-be wife Natasha. She would freak if she found out.
"No." Loki said.
"What do you mean no?" Sigyn glared.
"I don't want anything to do with it. I am going to get married!" Loki was started to get angry.
"Not if I tell the little redhead about our night together…" Sigyn smirked. She was every bit the crazy bitch Loki knew. He was glad to have broken up.
"You wouldn't dare."
"Try me."
"Fine," Loki sighed, "What do you want?"
"You have to leave your little spider and we can raise our new child together. Away from everything, just like we planned." Sigyn grinned evilly.
"You mean what you planned." Loki mumbled.
Sigyn glared at him. "Details. Now pack up your things and let's go."
Loki wanted to say a proper goodbye, but Sigyn was becoming very irritating, so he had to leave. The hardest part was not telling Natasha. She trusted him, and he had betrayed that trust.
"And so why are you back now?" Natasha asked. She was still angry that he had slept with his ex and gotten her pregnant.
"I owe you a proper apology. And I discovered that Sigyn was faking it the entire time, just so she could get back with me. She admitted that we did not even sleep together, she spiked my drink and made it look like we had did things together." Loki said. "Natasha, can you forgive me for all of my wrongs?"
"Loki…I don't know if I can trust you still. You could have come clean and just told me about it. I would have been mad, but not as hurt as I am now." Natasha leaned away from Loki.
Loki looked down dejectedly. He had failed. His one true love, gone because of a jealous ex-girlfriend.
"I'll just take my things and leave. I will not bother you anymore." Loki started to get up.
Natasha stopped him and picked up the ring from inside the box. "Here, take the ring back. You destroyed my trust, but now I'm giving you the chance to start over." She leaned over and planted a kiss on his cheek, just like on their first date.
"But good luck explained to the rest of the guys. They're like the world's most protective brothers." Natasha smirked as she placed the box back in her room, where it would hopefully be unpacked and Natasha could face the memories again.
So...do you think that I should write another one-shot as to how The Avengers react to Loki being back? Or should I just leave it to your imaginations?
I am also thinking of writing an Avengers High School AU, mainly focusing on BlackFrost romance.