One month. Loki had been with Abi for one whole month. He'd had no idea that he had so much commitment. Of course, Abi had been working much of that time, so they'd only really had those short, short nights to be together. But still, Loki hadn't entirely forgotten his plans for world domination. He still fully intended to have humanity as his mindless slaves, but Abi had made it perfectly clear that he could take over as much of the world as he wanted, just as long as he left London in the state he found it. And Loki secretly hoped he could do things that way, having seen the city through her eyes.

But now he was taking a break from plotting, and was lounging on Abi's sofa playing Mario Kart. He was right in the middle of the Rainbow Road track, when someone knocked at the door. Loki glanced up with a frown briefly, without pausing the game. It was way too early for this to be Abi yet, and she had her keys anyway.

"Loki! We know you're in there! Now open the door before we break it down!" demanded a familiar female voice.

Loki groaned. If Romanoff was out there, then without a doubt, the rest of the 'Avengers' would be there with her. Still, Loki had never expected to escape their notice for this long. Thor must have convinced them to give him the benefit of the doubt…

Sighing, Loki paused his game and slowly made his way over to the door.

"I don't suppose it's going to do me any favours to open this door, is it?" he called out casually. Things were always were interesting when he got the Avengers pissed off.

"Loki, open this door right now!" came Thor's predictable response. Loki smirked and undid the latch.

"Good afternoon-" he started, but they just barged past him, straight into the living room. Damn, even Barton was there!

"Careful of the furniture! Or Abi's going to kill me!" Loki called out as the Avengers all arrayed themselves in their positions in the living room. Stark had propped himself up on the kitchen counter, where Thor leaned beside him awkwardly. Banner and Rogers were sat stiffly on the sofa, ignoring Loki's Wii game. And then there was Barton and Romanoff, standing by the wall as always, just standing. They all gave him a weird look at his shout though, and there was an awkward pause before Thor asked, "Who is this… Abi?"

"The owner of this flat?" Loki responded, as if it were obvious, "What, did you think this place was mine?"

"Moving on!" Stark interrupted, pushing himself off the kitchen counter, "What do you want with London?"

Loki smiled and leaned against the wall, "Would you believe me if I said it wasn't what you thought?"

"That would depend on what we thought." Romanoff responded from her corner."

"Fine. I have no intentions of doing anything harmful to London. Whatsoever. Happy?"

"I think we'd be a lot happier if we could believe you. Why else would you be here?"

"You are slow today, aren't you?" Loki smirked.

"I don't follow." Rogers frowned.

Loki rolled his eyes, "I'm in London. I'm staying in a woman's flat. The woman knows I am in her flat. While she's at work. Why exactly do you think I'm here?"

The Avengers looked at him dumbfounded, until it finally clicked in Thor's head.

"You are…in love?" he smiled broadly, "My brother has found love!"

"I'm not your brother! And I wouldn't call it love, not exactly. But she's a good enough reason to stick around in this dump as any." Loki heard the front door slam and swore in his head. Abi! Had she heard all of that?


Abi walked home in a hurry. She'd got off work early and was hoping to surprise Loki by turning up suddenly in the flat. What were the chances she'd find him on the Wii again? Abi smiled to herself.

Entering the apartment building, Abi briefly considered taking the stairs two at a time, but even three flights would have been hard at that rate. She climbed the stairs slowly to her flat and opened the door quietly, hoping Loki would be too engrossed in his game to notice her. Instead she heard him talking to someone in the living room. She put her keys down quietly, but froze as the conversation paused. Had they heard her?

Then a deep voice spoke. "You are… in love? My brother has found love!" Brother? But Loki didn't- Oh. Of course. Thor. But that meant… the fricking Avengers were in her flat!

Abi caught Loki's response just as she began to quietly swing the door shut, and her fingers slipped. The door slammed shut with a loud bang. Everything went quiet for a moment, and then Abi slid her bag off her shoulder and stepped into the doorframe of the living room. She looked directly at Loki, trying so hard to see some guilt or even apology. But there was nothing. This wasn't her Loki, the man she'd fallen head over heels for. No, this was Loki Laufeyson, God of Mischief.

"Abi. You're early." He stated, calmly, and it took all she had to respond with no more than a simple "Yes."

Her eyes scanned the room and settled on a tall man with longish blonde hair.

"You-" she swallowed and forced a small smile, "You must be Thor." Don't lose it, Abi. Not in front of all of Them.

Thor frowned. "Yes. Are you this Lady Abi?"

"It's Abigail to you. Abigail Moore." There was another pause, and then she turned back to face Loki.

"Well then. Are you planning on telling me what the Avengers are doing in my flat eventually? I guess I should be lucky everything's in one piece…"

"I'm rather hoping they're on their way out." Loki smirked.

"Actually," a man she recognized as Tony Stark/ Iron Man said, "I want to talk to Abi. She seems interesting. Let's talk to Abi."

Abi sighed. "Fine. Whatever. But do you want to talk here, in front of Loki, or would you rather talk in my bedroom?" she raised her eyebrows and pretended to ignore the snorts and smirks from the rest of the Avengers.

"Bedroom sounds good. Cap, you're coming too. And the rest of you can entertain Loki while we're chatting." Abi resisted the urge to reply with a threesome comment. Instead she opened the bedroom and gestured to the men to enter.

"Don't beat Thor too badly at MarioKart will you, Loki?" was all she said before stepping into the room and shutting the door behind her.

Tony Stark was already sat down at her desk, 'Cap' stood behind him. Abi moved forward and sat on the edge of her bed, facing them.

"So…" she smiled, "What did you want to talk about? Well, Loki, obviously, but was it anything in particular?

"What has Loki told you about himself?"

"Everything."

"Are you sure? Manipulating people is definitely one of his strong points…"

Abi smiled wryly, "Try me."

Stark leaned forward. "He's not from here. He's effectively a god. From another world."

"Yes."

"He's trying to take over the world."

"Yes."

"Okay…" Stark and the Captain seemed a little bit uncomfortable about how easily she responded to that. "He was behind the recent attack on New York."

"Yes, I know that."

Stark frowned, "He really did tell you a lot."

"I can't help but notice, ma'am, that you don't seem to mind that much about what he's done. He attacked innocent people!"

Abi couldn't think of an appropriate way to respond to this without making things worse for herself, so she just shrugged. The questioning continued.


Loki thrashed Thor at MarioKart with very little effort. It helped, of course, that this wasn't technology Thor was familiar with, but Loki didn't care that much. He was finally getting one up over his 'brother'. Soon, the other Avengers in the room had given up on their attempt to seem uninterested.

"Come on, Thor!"

"Noooooo! Loki released a blue shell!"

"Ow. You took that corner a bit sharp, didn't you?"

"Drive faster, Thor! Loki's winning!"

By the time Abi emerged from her room, the room was in full-on "Go, Thor!" mode. Everything went silent for a moment as they suddenly noticed she, Stark and Cap stood there. Loki glanced up briefly, and turned back to the game. Abi looked like she was about to unleash her wrath on the whole room, and Loki was not intending to get caught in their crossfire. He had his own firing range to face when the other were gone after all. 'Hell hath no fury like woman scorned' after all, and what he'd said would almost certainly come under Abi's category of 'scorned'

"I want you out. Now. Get out of my house."

Loki winced. It had been bad on the rare occasions he'd seen Abi completely shouting at someone. This quiet rage was even worse.

The Avengers didn't even argue. As one they moved out of their positions, and out of the door. Without saying a single word. A tiny voice in the back of Loki's head wished that he could do that.

Abi moved across the room to shut the door behind them, and Loki stood up to face her. For a moment, neither of them said anything.

"Loki. I think it's time you left. It's been a month, and we both have other… commitments."

Loki stayed silent. This wasn't what he'd expected.

Abi leaned back against the wall and rubbed her forehead with her fingers. "I mean…. What I'm trying to say is…" She sighed. "Look, Loki, I don't really know why you're here. I don't know what you're trying to get out of this, other than the obvious. And I don't think you do too. But, I'm not saying I never want to see you again. Nothing like that. I just… I think we need some time… God! I can't say this right!" Loki watched her struggle to phrase the right words in her head for a few moments, before helping her.

"It's alright, Abi. I understand." Loki walked out of the door, out of the flat, out of the city. He just kept walking, no destination in mind, just his thoughts reeling around his head. It had gone wrong from the start, he could see that now. But was it too late to make it right?

Loki walked aimlessly down the streets, just as he had done before he ever met Abigail Moore.

A/N- Thanks for getting through all of that, if you've got this far. This bit came out kinda long accidently, because there was quite a lot that I wanted to happen in this bit. Now, the next bit's up to you. This could be a good place for me to stop this story, and just end it here. It was only meant to be a one-shot originally after all. But, I do know how I could carry this on, since the plot kind of deviated from the original plan, but not so far that I can't bring it back. So, please let me know if you want me to carry this on or not, and if no one responds, I think I can take that to mean 'stop here'? Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope you liked it, and please please please review!