Chapter 6

*~Loki's P.O.V: Breakfast~*

Katarina allowed me to put the necklace on her. I lightly brushed her shoulders with my finger tips and she reacted almost immediately. After I had sat down and began drinking my coffee I noticed that her cheeks were dusted a rose pink and she refused to meet my eyes. This Misguardian girl truly a strange creature, but she is very intriguing. She slowly ate her breakfast and drank her coffee.

"Thank you." She looked at me curiously.

"For what?" I motioned politely to the breakfast she had made and her cheeks darkened.

"Oh, uh, well no problem. I woke up early to comfort a friend anyway, so I thought you might be hungry." She tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear nervously.

"Really? How kind of you. Who was it? Perhaps I know them." She shook her head insistently.

"No, no, you don't know them." I glanced at her sceptically but said nothing more. She finished her breakfast about the same time I did and quickly cleaned off he table.

"Well, I should go or else Tony's gonna have a hissy-fit." She cleared away the table and left as quickly as she had come, if not quicker.

*~Normal P.O.V.~*

I left Loki's cell faster than I thought possible. After leaving the dishes in the kitchen I made my way back to my room only to find Tony waiting by the door with his arms crossed. He glanced up at me and grinned.

"What do you want?" He thought about it for a minute.

"To know why you hate me." His statement took me aback, and I laughed a bit surprised.

"I don't hate you. I just don't know you." He looked at me curiously.

"You don't know Steve or Thor." His eyes argued my point of reason.

"Well Steve is sweet and innocent, or so he seems. And Thor thought I was sick." My insistence only made him seem to make more sense.

I rolled my eyes in frustration and tossed my hair over my shoulder.

"Fine, you wanna get to know me? Ask questions." He smirked.

"Are you single? Or in a relationship?"

"Single, for the most part." The memory of Steve's hands on my hips and Loki brushing my neck made me blush. He nodded thoughtfully and took a step closer.

"For the most part? I'll take it. Why were you hanging out with Banner your first day here?"

"Fury was killing me, Banner saved my life." I began walking towards the kitchen and motioned for him to follow, so he did.

"What exactly happened between you and Capcycle?" He was keeping pace with me.

"Nothing, I was having trouble getting the seat belt off, on the jet, and he helped. Then, I tripped and he caught me." He nodded sceptically.

"What about with Thor?" I sighed trying to some up with a liable explanation.

"I was going to my room and couldn't see strait. So I kinda stumbled into his room without realizing it, nothing happened, I promise." He chuckled and looked down at his feet without saying anything. We eventually made our way to the now brightly lit kitchen when his phone rang.

Taking the phone out of his pocket he cringed as he looked at the caller i.d.. Letting it ring a few more times he finally answered it sweetly.

"Hello dear...no...I'm still with Fury...sweetheart...honey?..." He sighed in frustration and slammed his hands down onto the kitchen counter abruptly, making me jump.

"Damn it Pepper! If you're going to leave, leave! I don't have the time or patience to live with you anymore. So just get out and have our things gone by the time I get back to MY house." He slammed his phone shut and tossed it onto the counter, letting it slide to the other end with a few sharp clicking noises. I looked on silently, not wanting his obvious anger and irritation directed at me. After a few minutes of deep breathing he came over and sat down next to me at the breakfast bar with an ashen face and eyes shining with fresh tears.

I didn't want to intrude on the private matter between he and his fiancée, Pepper, so I watched quietly as he slowly filled a glass of ice with an even whiskey- brandy mix. He downed about three glasses before he offered me one.

"You're over 21, right?" I nodded a bit and he poured me a glass with amazing finesse. He gently placed the glass in front of me with a clink the echoed in the large, painfully silent room.

"Tony?" I asked carefully. "Tony are you alright?" Giving me a sorrowful, glassy eyed look he shook his head slowly.

"Wanna talk about it?" Nodding he placed his forehead on the cool breakfast bar and groaned inwardly. I put a hand in between his shoulder blades and rubbed softly.

"Come on Tony, talk to me." He looked up, regarding my request for a while, the sat up slowly.

"Where do you want me to start?" I had no idea, so I went with the easiest choice.

"From the beginning I suppose."

He told me how he and Pepper had met and how at first they hated each other. After she had begun working for him, they put their differences aside so that the company they were both running would stay afloat. When he got to explaining the moment they started dating, his face softened and he relaxed into a non-sarcastic or snarky smile that made him seem younger. He relished in the memories of dating Pepper until something like regret flashed over his face. His voice dropped down to a grated whisper as he told me about cheating on Pepper with a blonde C.E.O. of a company he couldn't remember. Once Tony and Pepper got engaged they started fighting more and more, until it got to the point where they weren't sleeping in the same bed anymore.

Sighing he gulped down another glass of whiskey and brandy then threw the glass at a wall making it shatter into a hundred sparkling pieces. He stood there shaking uncontrollably and ran a frustrated hand through his hair with an aggravated sigh.

"Tony?" I gently placed a hand on his shoulder. He looked at me with a pitiful look swimming in his eyes.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to unload like that." He sat down heavily on one of the kitchen chairs.

"No, no, it's alright. I understand, it's good that you're getting your feelings out. But in my professional opinion you need to talk to a psychiatrist at least once a week." He barked out a laugh.

"I talk to Banner whenever I get a chance...he just falls asleep." I tried not to but the slight laughter escaped my lips making him look up at me with surprise.

"That's because he's busy and how can he help you with your issues when he can barely control his own." He nodded slowly with an understanding sigh.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

The intercom whined loudly as a staticy voice broke out overhead.

"Katarina Knightlok please report to observation deck B. Katarina Knightlok to observation deck B. Thank you." Tony pushed me to the door gently.

"Go on, I'll be fine. It seems you have a date with Fury." I cringed at the thought and an inebriated chuckle came from deep within his chest. Reluctantly I made my way to a large observation deck directly beneath Bruce's large lab. I stiffly approached the tall, leather clad man standing at the helm of the deck, with his hands folded firmly behind his back. A slender, female S.H.I.E.L.D. agent stood up immediately with a scowl.

"Miss, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. No unauthorized personnel on this section of the heli-carrier." She quickly and nonchalantly placed herself between Fury and I.

"I was called up here." She looked me over and turned to whisper something into Fury's ear. He nodded accordingly then turned to face me.

"Good morning, Miss Knightlok." He gave the most awkwardly forced smiles I had ever seen, I tried to act like I didn't notice.

"I've had better..much better." He began pacing in front of me nervously, this was odd for more than one reason, but mainly because it made him seem old and tired.

"Agent Hill, will you please explain to Miss Knightlok our generous proposition?" He squeezed the bridge of his nose.

"Lavender." Everyone looked at me curiously.

"Lavender tea. It'll help you relax, and a cup before bed will help you sleep." He chuckled viciously, and Agent Hill's eyes hardened as she cleared her throat angrily. Fury motioned for her to speak and she nodded in a very official way.

"Thank you sir. Miss Knightlok, sit." I sat down in a very stiff plastic chair at an oblong table.

"Now, Miss Knightlok we would like to offer you a very generous proposition that would be very stupid to turn down." She waited for my response.

"My silence is your que to continue." Her upper lip curled into a silent snarl.

"Very well. Director Fury sends his apologies about his behavior the past week. Now onto more pressing matters, like your place here on the heli-carrier." I arched an eyebrow in confusion, and she sighed irritably.

"Honestly, I don't understand why Fury would want an idiot like you to join a team of hero's is beyond me. But the point is that he claims you have great potential, so you ave a trial week of training to prove yourself, not only to Fury and I, but to everyone on board. Am I clear on the circumstances?" Smirking arrogantly to hide my face of disbelief I nodded and breezed out of the room with my head held high and a Stark worthy air of haughtiness surrounding me.

I strutted down to an open dining room and let my armor crack then fall away.

"What am I going to do?" I groaned and sat down in one of the high-backed dining chairs and hopelessly dropped my head onto the table and tried to come up with a strategy on how to not screw up my week of training.

"Well, well, princess, you do look distressed." A chillingly smooth British accent came drifting through the door. Te memories of our last encounter made me shiver unexpectantly and unconsciously I reached up to my neck and grabbed the soft, cool angel wings. I stiffly turned to face him without any emotion.

"Loki, I wonder, who was suicidal enough to let you out of your cage?" He laughed and looked at me out of the corner of his eyes and continued to smile.

"Oh, I like you, so amusing and unreadable. And technically, I'm not here." He took a few steps closer, making me nervous, and stuck his hand through a flower vase. After a moment or two he looked at me to gauge my reaction, all I did was tilt my head in a way that made my bangs fall out of my eyes.

"Cute magic trick."

He looked taken aback.

"Aren't you scared? I have the ability to walk through solid objects! You should tremble in your seat, yet you sit there unfazed." I just shrugged like it was no big deal.

"Aren't you at least impressed?" I shook my head no, and he plopped himself down in one of the chairs next to me. We sat there in silence for a while, honestly I just couldn't think of what to say. I mean really, what do you say to a bad guy who tried to take over the world with an alien army? The minutes ticked by slowly...then there was some loud commotion outside the room that made Loki and I jump up from our seats and run to the door.

Tony was absolutely hammered, and for some reason he was yelling at a door frame. I stepped out into the hall and Loki carefully popped his head out to see what was going on. He nudged me to go get a closer look, after swatting his hand away I quietly stayed out of Tony's line of vision and made my way down the hall.

"What's her name Tony!?" A shrill female voice cut through the air like glass.

"Whose name?" Tony sounded beyond drunk, but oddly enough his words weren't slurred in the slightest.

"The little slut-puppy that made you call off the wedding!" A candy-apple red heel went flying and Tony barely ducked in time.

"It's not because of some broad that I'm calling it off! It's because I can't deal with it anymore!" The woman, who I assumed was Pepper, laughed coldly. Her voice quickly dropped down to an icy chill.

"You can't deal with it? You haven't dealt with anything for almost five years, you self-centered bastard!" A book went hurdling towards him so fast that he didn't have time to get out of the way. I reacted without thinking and rushed over to Tony's side.

"So you're the little tramp?" I looked up at her angrily, and stood up slowly in a defensive manner.

"Say whatever you want about me, but don't you dare bad mouth Tony. Do you even realize how much he loves you!? The only reason he got this drunk was because after the phone call between the two of you earlier he immediately started to feel depressed!" She just stood there looking back and forth between Tony and with wide eyes. This really pissed me off so I slapped her.

"Wake up and take care of him before I really get angry!" The slap seemed to snap her out of whatever daze she was in, and she gathered Tony and his empty bottle of vodka and walked off to his room.

I made my way back to the dining room and I felt exhaustion creeping into my muscles. I walked past Loki and resumed my previous position of sitting down with my head resting on the cool surface of the wooden table.

"Are you alright princess?" Loki's worried voice made me laugh a bit.

"I'm fine, I'm just gonna nap so make sure no one comes in." And just like that I carelessly fell asleep in the presence of a known criminal without a second thought.