Hello! I'm back with chapter four and it's only been two weeks! That's progress, right ;) Hope you enjoy it!

I don't own the Avengers, only Emma and the storyline.

Chapter four

Dating a God

(Loki's POV)

The day of our first date goes relatively easy, I found a restaurant using the internet (and asking Pepper) easily enough. It's later it goes wrong.

"Excuse me, Sir, but formal wear are required in this restaurant. I cannot allow you to go in wearing that," the man manning the door says.

I frown and open my mouth to retort. But before I can say anything, Emma says, "We're sorry, we weren't aware. Have a good night." Then she smiles and walks away, tugging me with her.

"I'm sorry, Emma, I didn't know there were rules for what to wear," I say, still with a frown on my face.

She shrugs. "That's okay, how could you have known? Besides, that's a really expensive restaurant."

"Of course, isn't that the kind of place I'm supposed to take you?"

She laughs. "There's no rule that says that, Loki. You're just supposed to take me someplace nice." She shrugs. "Besides, how were you going to pay?"

"Your father gave me a credit card, like the one you have. So I could buy things I need and for emergencies, he said," I shrug. "I assumed he told you?"

She looks surprised at me. "He didn't." Then she smirks slightly, "So what is this; something you need or an emergency?"

I raise an eyebrow at her, "This is definitely something I need."

At that she laughs and I can't help but smile. "Good. Then we better find somewhere else you can spend that money."

My expression turns serious again. "I really am sorry, though, Emma. I wanted this date to be perfect and it's already going wrong."

She just looks at me, still smiling. "And I told you, Loki, there's nothing to be sorry for. I really don't mind. As far as I know, this date is going to be perfect."

I smile back at her; how can she be so perfect? "Should we find another restaurant?"

"If you really want to, I guess, but not for my sake," she shrugs.

"What do you want then?" I ask, confused at what she wants us to do then. We're going to have to eat something soon, if we're going to keep being comfortable anyway.

"We could just buy a hotdog each and walk around the park," she smiles and gestures to a food cart.

I frown confused, not knowing what a "hotdog" is, but she simply holds my hand and makes me follow her towards the cart. "Trust me. You'll like it."

She orders two of the "hotdogs", which seems to be a sausage lying in a bun with some kind of dressing.

"Thank you," I say as I pay and Emma accepts the hotdogs.

(Emma's POV)

"You know, I feel like I didn't actually get answers to all my questions and I'm sure you didn't either. So what do you say if we resume our question asking?" I ask, and take a bite of the hotdog. I lead Loki a bit down the path in the park, before sitting down on a bench, naturally making him sit down next to me.

"Sounds good. I feel like I know you pretty well, though," he smiles.

I chuckle. "Likewise."

"I assume you had a question then?" he says, after taking another bite of his hotdog. "This isn't bad, by the way."

I smile at that. "Yeah, I did. It's actually about Thor though, is that okay?"

He nods and I lean closer. "Is it true that Thor has a wagon driven by goats?"

He starts laughing. So is it not true or is it just that hilarious?

"Yes, that is true."

I laugh. "Really?"

He smiles. "Yes, really. I've been on many adventures with him in that wagon." There's a wistful smile on his lips and I can't help but grab his hand with my free one.

"I'm sure you'll get to again," I say. He squeezes my hand in response.

"I hope so." Then he seems to shake it off and says, "The goats are magic, too, if you were wondering."

My eyes widen a bit. "How?"

"We used to eat them in the evening, and then the next day Thor would swing his hammer over the skins and bones and they would come to life again."

I chuckle. "That's really handy. They didn't remember it or anything, right?"

"No no, they love him," Loki shakes his head. He smirks, "Of course, it's very important not to break any bones; if you do that the bones are still broken after they get brought back to life."

I raise my eyebrows. "Why do I get the feeling, you once did that, Loki?"

"Well, I didn't," he says, still smirking. I frown at him. "I simply made someone else do it."

I shake my head at him. "Of course, Silvertongue."

He looks surprised at me for a second, before he continues talking, "I assume you want to know the story?" When I nod he begins, "We were on an adventure in Jotunheim and it had turned dark, so we made a stop at this family; a mother, father, daughter and son. They were poor, so naturally Thor offered the goats for dinner, which they gratefully accepted. I wanted to see what would happen, should one of the bones end up being broken, so I talked to the family's son; Tjalfi."

I raise an eyebrow at him disapprovingly.

He waves me off. "I was young and didn't care about consequences. Tjalfi was easy to persuade, and when Thor looked away, he broke the bone to get to the bone marrow. The next morning when Thor revived the goats, one of them had a limp. Thor became very angry." At this he looks at me seriously, "You didn't meet him before, when he had a bigger temper, but he became angry very easily, especially if they were Jotünn."

"What happened then?" I ask, my eyes widened. "He didn't kill the boy, did he?"

"No, I stopped him. Killing children and innocent families is something he would have greatly regretted and so I couldn't let him do it."

I smile slightly at him. I knew he wasn't all that bad. "I'm sure he appreciated that."

Loki simply nods.

While we have been talking, we have finished the meal and are now walking around in the park. We're beginning to head towards the exit we walked through to get in here and are slowly heading back.

"This was a really nice first date," I say, a smile pulling at my mouth. We're standing in front of the door to my room.

"I agree, even though I've never been on a date before, so I wouldn't really know," he says teasingly. "For all I know, this was a really bad first date."

Instead of smiling my mouth has fallen open indignantly. "Seriously?" I cross my arms across my chest.

"I'm kidding!" he says, tugging my arms down from across my chest. "It was lovely, I would very much love to do it again. And you know what made it the best date I've ever been on?"

"The fact that it's the only date you've ever been on?" I say sarcastically.

"No. The fact that it was with you," he says with a small sincere smile. Then he grabs my waist, pulling me a bit closer in the process. "Now, I believe this is the right way to end such a wonderful date."

I frown a bit. "Wha…?" He kisses me, cutting me off of my question. My eyes flutter close in bliss. Yes, this is really the perfect way to end this date.

One date quickly turns into more, and of course my father knows about our relationship by now. He isn't exactly pleased about it, but he did expect it, so it's not that bad. To be honest I never thought of not telling him; it simply didn't occur to me. I guess that's the "downside" of having had only him from the beginning; I don't keep secrets from him, at least not when it's something very important to me and I don't think he should get angry about it. I did hear a conversation he had with Pepper about us, though, the day after I told him.

"Why do you support this relationship?" my father asks Pepper. They're sitting on the couch together in the evening, simply relaxing. I was passing by unnoticed, when I heard the question. Now I'm hiding behind a wall, trying to figure out what my father really thinks.

"Why don't you?" she asks back, like it's that simple.

My father shakes his head slightly. "The relationship consists of my daughter and a war criminal!"

Pepper smiles a bit. "I wouldn't exactly call him a war criminal."

My father shrugs in response. "Well, he's not exactly perfect boyfriend material."

"Neither are you, yet here we are," she says. My father opens his mouth to retort, but before he can, Pepper says, "Look, we both know it has nothing to do with Loki. You just don't want her to date. But you're just going to have to live with it, because that's how it's going to be. If not Loki, then someone else."

My father sighs resigned. I smile slightly; Pepper really is perfect for him. "I know. It's just that she's always going to be my little girl, I don't think I can let her go."

Pepper moves closer to him on the couch, so she can lean against him. "No one says you have to. You just have to set her free a bit, let her make her own choices."

My father cuddles her closer to him and that's when I leave.

After hearing that, I know I made the right decision to tell him. He deserves to know. It's not like I could have possibly kept it hidden from him anyway. And when he found out, he was just going to have a much worse reaction than he did now.

(Loki's POV)

Telling Tony wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Of course that might have been because I didn't actually have to tell him. It seems he doesn't quite trust me yet, though, not that I would expect him to.

"Isn't there something you forgot to ask me?" Tony asks me, he cornered me in the hallway on the way to my room from Emma's. We just came back from our first date, so I'm still on a high from it.

His question confuses me though, and a small part of me gets scared that he saw our kiss. I frown, "What do you mean?"

"Look, I saw the history on your computer, Loki." I furrow my eyebrows, but he ignores my confusion and continues, "You want to date my daughter!" The latter is said as an accusation.

"First, what "history"?" I ask, still lost as to what that means, and how he knows.

"The history on your internet search! The computer remembers what sites you went on," he explains, still angry.

"Oh okay," I nod as he explains. "It's true that I want to date Emma, and I am. We just got back from our first date." I try to stay calm as I say it, even though I know it might not be a good idea to tell him. I also know that Emma plans to tell him about our relationship. But I'm not going to lie to him when he's actually asking me, that's why I told him.

"Didn't you even think of asking me? Do you think I think it's completely okay that you're dating her?!" He's still angry with me; I guess I can understand. I probably wouldn't want my daughter to date me either.

"That's why I searched on the internet and it said it wasn't required that you ask for permission from the parents. That's why I didn't," I explain, still just as calm as he is angry.

I can tell that he believes me; believes that I didn't mean anything bad with it. Besides, he knows I'm right. And he knows that we both know that he's just having a hard time letting go of his daughter, which I understand completely. I know I'm not ideal. These are the facts that calms him slowly.

He sighs resigned. "Okay then, but you better treat her right!"

I nod. "Always. I promise."

All in all, I don't think it went that bad. He seemed to accept it. And the next day when Emma told him, he was pretty calm too. I'm glad. I fear what her reaction would have been, had he not accepted it.

(Emma's POV)

Over the course of the week we went on several dates; every single one as good as the first one or better. They were very varied in places, too. One day we had lunch in the park as a picnic, another we went to the zoo, we went to different cafés and even went to the movies.

Loki is still getting accustomed to "Midgardian technology", he was especially impressed by the movies. Therefore I'm also planning on showing him different iconic movies, but those can wait, for now I'm just enjoying showing him around New York. Movies are also a good way to connect to each other, I think, so I feel like it might be a good idea to make movie nights where my father and the others are there, too.

The zoo was another place that excited him; he really enjoyed watching all the animals, even though he continuously told me he was sad that they were in cages. Not like we could do anything about that, though. Those animals have spent their whole life in captivity, they wouldn't last long in the wild.

We really had fun the past week, getting used to spending time together like that. It's now natural for us to share a kiss or cuddle; of course, it still feels just as special. But we make sure not to get too close when my father is near us. He's slowly getting used to us being together, but we shouldn't tempt fate. The one time he saw us kiss, he asked us not to. He said he's alright with us being together, but he's not ready to see us together, too. For now we can accept that.

One downside though, was all the articles that seemed to follow us. In the beginning they primarily focused on Loki, keeping an eye on him. But then they began to question my identity, that's the problem. We haven't exactly hidden our relationship in public, even though we knew there'd be cameras. The only thing they don't know is who exactly I am and that's the one thing my father and I have always kept hidden.

"We might have to make an announcement again," my father says. Then he looks at me, "The question is what we tell them."

I bite my lip. "I don't know."

"The problem is that if we don't say anything, they're going to find out on their own. They're going to follow you and I won't allow that. If we make an announcement, we can control what they know." Here he looks at me again, "We don't have to tell them who you really are, we can make something else up."

"Won't they be able to figure that out as well?" Loki asks. His hand is resting on my waist, casually comforting me.

My father shakes his head. "Not if we do a good job."

I look at my father hesitantly, "What if we told them who I really am?"

"We can, if that's what you want, sweetie. But we don't have to," he smiles sincerely at me.

"But won't it damage your reputation or something, Dad?"

Pepper chuckles at me. "When has your father ever cared about that, Emma?"

I shrug. I know his former reputation wasn't exactly good, but this is different. This time he'll admit on lying to them for my whole life.

"Emma, if you really want to be exposed like this, we'll do it. I don't care if people call me bad names. If that's what you want, then that's what we'll do," my father says.

I nod hesitantly, understanding what he's saying between the lines. People might call me bad names. And I won't be able to live a life as private as I have been, but maybe it's worth it to be able to be myself. I don't want to lie, and if we tell people I'm someone else, I'll have to stick to that person every time I talk with new people and reporters. I'm not sure I can do that; not sure I can live like that. I know we might be able to tell the truth later, but that'll just worsen the response we're going to get. Then I think it's better to just tell the truth now, and let me be me.

"I want us to tell the truth, Dad. I don't want to pretend I'm someone I'm not. I want to be me," I say with confidence. Now that I've made a decision, it's easy to stick with it.

My father moves to stand directly in front of me; he's looking me in the eyes, hands comfortably squeezing my shoulders. "Are you sure?" He knows I know the risks, that's why he's not even bothering to tell me about them or convince me otherwise.

I simply nod, looking back at him with no uncertainty hidden in my eyes.

"Then that's what we'll do." He smiles at me, not worried I'll change my mind.

Please tell me what you think ^^ I'd love to hear your thoughts. I changed the myth Loki tells Emma; in the original myth Thor takes Tjalfi and his sister as slaves for a while, but I didn't think that would fit with the story, or the way Thor and the Asgardian community is in the Marvel universe. Hope no one minds the alterations!

Once again, I really appreciate the people who has taken the time to comment, favourite and follow, it means a lot to me. So please do follow, favourite and review ^^ See you soon with a new chapter, hopefully!