Third Installment of Loki and Lulu's Unexpected adventures. For those of you who might be wondering where the other Loki and Lulu stories are, I have decided to make them into a multi-chapter series instead of individual one-shots. Mostly because I think it looks a little more organized.

Loki's POV

Loki watched as Lulu picked at her grilled chicken breast, having already eaten all of the broccoli and rice on her plate. She clearly wasn't enjoying eating healthier because she was pregnant. Silence hung around their table, though the restaurant itself was lively with chatter. Loki could tell she had something on her mind from the firmness hovering in the corners of her mouth and the tension in her brow. He didn't blame her though, there certainly were quite a few things on his mind as well.

It was, perhaps, a week or so after their meeting in the café—that fateful meeting where Lulu told him she was with child. His child. Loki hadn't known what to do, what he was expected to do, besides offer his assistance in anyway Lulu could need. So he had given her the space she needed. Or he had tried to. He hated the helplessness that buffeted him as he watched Lulu at work, looking wane and confused. Eventually, he had given into his more base urgings and asked her to dinner.

"Do you like your food, Lucrezia?" He finally asked.

Lulu looked up, her blue-green eyes wide, as if it were a surprise to her that he would ask such a thing, "Yeah, it's great…I mean, thanks for inviting me out."

Loki tilted his head to the side, aware that she was lying about something. She looked back down at her plate instead of meeting his gaze and fidgeted with her fork for a moment.

"Actually, I was thinking…well, I wanted to talk to you about something," she murmured, chancing to look back up at him.

"Of course," he said, hoping to encourage her, or at least, put her to some ease.

Her little pink tongue darted over her bottom lip, an obscene gesture born out of nervousness. He tried not to focus on her mouth. She put her fork down, meticulously lining it up with the rest of the silverware. After, it seemed, she was sure everything looked immaculate, she returned her gaze to his.

"I think…I think I want go through with it…keep the baby I mean."

He opened his mouth to say something, but she continued.

"I mean, I've got a steady job, two degrees, and decent apartment. SHIELD has a great healthcare plan, so I'm covered on that front. It would be kind of selfish of me to not…to go through with it," she finished, clearly having given her decision much though, and sneaked a look at him.

Loki didn't really know what to say. He couldn't tell where she wanted him to figure into her plans, nor, really, did he know where he wanted to. He considered himself unlucky in father figures; one had cruelly cast him off when it was decided Loki was too alien, too strange, and the other had left him for dead moments after his birth. The realm of fatherhood, for him, was shrouded in ambivalence and self-doubt. Could anyone become a good parent after such poor examples?

Though that wasn't strictly true. His fathers had failed him, yes, but Loki would have to preform feats of the greatest self-deception to think that there was no positive parental influence in his life. Frigga had been all he could have ever hoped for in a mother—kind, nurturing, not afraid to scold when necessary, willing to listen at any moment. She had even been his first tutor in sorcery; the first to noticed that while he had little knack for swinging a broadsword, he was skilled in magic. If he could be even half the parent she was, he could consider it a great success.

But was that what Lulu wanted? For her, this would be her entire life. For Loki, it was different. He had eons ahead of him still, and though he would be sad if she asked him to walk away, it wasn't as if he wouldn't have another opportunity to rectify, through his own experiences, the wrongs done to him. Still, the thought of leaving Lulu on her own with a potentially very alien child made him feel…well…torn in two. Like an amputee missing a limb or a living twin missing their deceased half.

"Loki, say something," Lucrezia prompted, eyes bright with nervousness.

His attention snapped back to the woman before him and he tried to smile, though his face felt frozen. For once, he was speechless, silver tongue turned to lead. He wished he could say all that he had just been thinking, but perhaps that would frighten her, skittish as she seemed lately.

"I…do you…what," he stopped speaking and closed his eyes. After a long moment trying to sort through a storm of thoughts, he took a deep breath and continued, "May I, ah, go through with it, with you?"

This time it was she who reached across the table and tentatively placed her hand over his, giving it a gentle squeeze. Her fingers were so warm; they made his cold bones ache. He squeezed them in return.

"I would like that," she said, a soft smile breaking across her face.

She extricated her fingers from his own, breaking the enchantment surrounding them. With a shy smile, she returned to her dinner.

Loki unlocked the door to his apartment and ushered Lucrezia in. The mood and their demeanors were so different from the last time she was here, their passionate night together almost seemed a dream. He had been careful not to touch her too much, not knowing her boundaries in that regards. They had agreed to be partners through her pregnancy, and he wanted to support her in whatever way she needed, but he wasn't sure if she was ready, or wanted, anything romantic or sexual. Personally, he would be happy to continue courting her. Still, pregnancy and a new relationship seemed like quite a lot to put on her plate. And now did not seem like the best time to bring such a thing up.

She unzipped her coat and he took it from her shoulders, reveling in the brief surrender of her skin under his touch. He hung it in the hall closet.

"Can I get you anything to drink? Coffee, tea, water?"

Lulu shuffled her feet, "I'm not supposed to drink coffee or tea anymore, but some water would be nice."

Loki decided if it killed him he would make this girl comfortable around him again.

"Please make yourself at home, I'll be right back," he murmured, ducking into the kitchen.

They had decided to come back to his apartment after dinner, to spend some time together. She had said 'get to know each other,' and Loki had tried very hard not to point out they knew each other very well. He wasn't exactly sure what Lucrezia had in mind, but he hoped the night would prove enjoyable, and not devolve into awkward silence as their dinner had.

Filling a glass tumbler with water, he returned to the living room to find Lulu perusing the wooden shelf holding his DVD collection.

"I didn't know you liked movies," she commented, taking her glass from him.

"I buy them, but I must confess I don't watch them all that often. I've probably only seen one in ten."

She turned to him and smiled; her entire face lit up and eyes sparkled, "let's change that."

Loki couldn't help the grin from spreading to his face; her enthusiasm was practically infectious, "by all means, choose whatever you'd like."

He sat on the dark leather sofa while she searched the shelves. After a long moment, she plucked something and held it out to him.

"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?" he read out, one eyebrow arched. "Sure."

Lulu busied herself with setting up and starting the film. He tried to help as much as possible, but honestly, he had very little idea how to work the cabinet of electronics in front of the sofa. If he wanted to watch something, he used magic to make it work. Anyway, she shooed him away, and Loki contented himself to watch her crouched in front of him, though he knew it was in poor form.

Finishing all too soon for his liking, Lulu sad stiffly on the cushion next to him, back straight and hands folded demurely in her lap. An energetic tune began to play on the television as the opening scene began. In response, he leaned into the deep corner of the sofa, letting one arm rest along the side and the other against his leg. Loki would have liked to lose himself in the narrative—truly it was entertaining—but he couldn't stop watching Lulu out of the corner of his eye. She would smile in anticipation of a favorite part—begin laughing seconds before a joke was said. He found watching her was just as interesting as the film, especially once the themes of paternal-filial relationships developed. Still, she did not relax from her stiff posture, and, though he never saw her do so, he was convinced she was watching him as well from the corner of her sea-colored eye.

The credits began to roll, the same jaunty song playing from the beginning. Lulu switched it off with a flick of a button on the plastic remote controller. Turning her upper-body towards him, she smiled.

"Did you like it?" She asked, bobbing her head to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

He let an easy smile grace his lips, "I did. Though, I must confess that I am not familiar with some of the historical references. Is it one of your favorites?"

She smiled, shyly, "it is. It's one of the reasons I wanted to be an archaeologist when I was younger," a delicious pink flush crept over her cheeks. "Though, I've since changed my mind. I'd rather work in a library than dig in the dirt under the hot sun."

He chuckled at the thought as he tried to imagine Lulu at an archaeological excavation. "No, I can't say I can see you do such a thing. You're far too pale."

She laughed at his gentle teasing, a light staccato of sound that sounded like she was crying. He couldn't help but smile in response—pleased with himself for making her relax, if only a little. He thought she might have a gentle quip in return, but there was something that had been on his mind nearly all week that he wished to understand. And, honestly, he had found no other way to work it into their conversation thus far.

"Lucrezia, may I ask something of you?"

Her eyes widened and he could hear her heart beat wildly in her chest at the sudden formality. "Of…of course."

He turned towards her and loosely took her hand in If she desired, she could have pull away from him. She didn't, and he let his fingers linger over the pulsing veins in her wrist.

"Why did you not stay the morning with me? Why did you disappear?" His voice was barely above a whisper, and he kept his eyes trained on her hand, so not to encumber her with his gaze.

Silence greeted his query for a long moment.

"I could ask you the same thing, Loki," she said finally, her soft tone matching his.

He looked up at her, peered into her eyes, trying to understand what she meant. Then hit him, sucking all the air out of his lungs with painful force. Of course she thought he had left—how embarrassingly stupid of him.

"I went to the boulangerie around the corner," he explained, his stomach sinking at his own foolishness for causing the situation in the first place. "I wanted to get breakfast for you."

"Oh."

The soft sigh of relief expressed with such a sort sound was rapturous to his ears. The drag of breath over her lips, borne up by a flame of hope. He wanted to take her lovely face in his hands and kiss her. Still, he hesitated.

"I thought," she cleared her throat. The corners of her eyes grew watery, though whether with relief or revisited rejection, he wasn't sure. "I thought you didn't want…me."

For a second time that evening, Loki found himself stunned into silence. Norns, how could she think such a thing?

"Is that why you didn't speak to me until last week?" He inquired when he found his voice again.

She nodded slowly. "You didn't even want to stay in your own apartment. I thought I had repulsed you."

He felt as if he had been skewered in the heart. Had he really caused her to think that? Surely he had made his interest in her, his desire for her, clear enough during their night together.

"Oh Lucrezia," her name dripped from his mouth liked a poem.

Giving in to the allure of her soft skin, he cupped her cheek with his free hand, and, he thought, perhaps, she leaned into his touch ever so slightly.

"You could never repulse me," Loki murmured, again searching her eyes, this time for some spark that she understood him. "I am sorry if I caused you distress, but you must know how ardently I desire you."

A sharp intake of breath; her blue-green eyes flashing in understanding.

"Still?" she breathed, not trusting the truth before her.

"Always, Lucrezia."

Slowly, so she could pull away if she wished, Loki lowered his face to hers. His gaze shifted from her own to the pinkness of her mouth. She again tortured him with that obscene gesture of tongue against lip before he pressed his mouth to hers, stealing a brush her retreating tongue as he did so. His eyes slid closed and he sigh against her as she began to kiss him back after a moment of stiffen surprise. Her free hand traveled up her chest to grip a fistful of his shirt. He wanted to ravish her right there—to hear her soft cries of pleasure and the feel the creamy smoothness of her skin against his own.

But instead, Loki pulled away gently and watched her exquisite face for some sign that she wanted what he did as well. A smile twinkled in her sea colored eyes and a rosy flush brightened her plumped lips and cheeks.

When she didn't say anything, he took the initiative.

"Lucrezia, it would make me very happy, and I hope it would make you happy as well, if you allowed me to continue courting you, as we go through this together."

With a mischievous smile dancing on her face, she leaned forward and brushed her lips against his.

"That would make me very happy, Loki."

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