Edith was as good as her word and Matilda showed up to the next lesson. She'd pinned her long braid up and was wearing a uniform that bulked her up a bit - probably to make her seem more intimidating. On top of the new outfit she'd also acquired a bigger gun, a taser, and several knives of varying lengths.

The etiquette teacher, on the other hand, seemed more frail than before and kept stumbling over her words. Her hands shook, her hair was askew atop her head, and she kept taking sips from a water bottle that she'd brought with her.

"To properly greet a, um," she looked down at her paper, "To properly greet a duke of Drusselstein you have to… who's hungry? How about a lunch break? Hmm? I'm starved."

"Eddy, you feeling alright?"

"You hardly seem yourself, Lump."

"Shut it, Loki, or I'll make you sorry you ever came to Earth."

"Just making an observation."

"Well don't!" Matilda glared at him and he thought he actually felt his heart give a flutter. How cliche.

"Sorry, terribly sorry," Edith twisted the ring on her hand so much that Loki feared she might severe her finger, "I don't feel myself today.

"You need a break, love? I'm sure no one will mind if you take ten."

"Has Stark done something?" Loki asked boredly, "If you let me out of here I can kill him for you if you like."

"Hey! If anyone is going to kill Stark for being a jerk it's going to be me!" Matilda snapped and then put a gentle hand on her sister's shoulder, "Was it Stark?"

"No, no," Edith waved her sister away, but didn't make eye contact with either of them, "Everything is fine. Let's get back to the lesson. Erm, where were we?"

"Greeting a Drusselsteinian duke," Matilda commented, looking at her sister suspiciously. When Edith didn't say anything Matilda looked at Loki with much less venom than she had ever before. Her expression held mostly concern and she seemed to be overriding her hatred for him in order to find out what was wrong with her sister.

He didn't know why she would think that he knew. It wasn't as if he was privy to whatever Edith did outside of this room. He hadn't even considered it.

"Ed, why don't you go get a sip of water from the drinking fountain? Take a few minutes to catch your breath, hmm?"

"Mmm." Edith nodded and left and Matilda watched her go with concern. The moment the stouter of the Keeves was gone the taller spun on her military grade combat boot and looked Loki in the eye. There was no challenge in the stare, just questions.

"You want to tell me why she's acting like that?"

"You see her far more frequently than I do," He shrugged, "Why should I know what has her behaving so peculiarly?"

"Because you are the cause of most of her strife right now!" Matilda stepped closer to the glass. Loki could tell she wasn't really angry with him. She was blinded by her worry about Edith. An idea struck him.

"I am sorry, Agent Keeves," He tried his best to look sincere, sitting up straighter and furrowing his brow, "But I have no imaginings of what could be the matter with her."

"You haven't threatened her in any new or creative ways lately? Making her more scared than normal?"

"No. She doesn't normally act this way around me," He wondered if it could be because she was having second thoughts about helping him, but he'd worry about that later, "True, she and I are not close companions, but I did think we were starting to warm up to one another."

"Well then," Matilda sighed and tugged at her long golden braid, "We have a mystery on our hands, alien."

It seemed the only thing that Agent Keeves cared about was her sister's safety and wellbeing. Therefore, if Loki also made it look like he cared about what happened to Edith, then perhaps he could get Matilda to like him more. And it wouldn't be hard to feign concern, he was genuinely curious what had caused the abrupt change in his Lump's behavior.

"We do indeed," He taped the glass of his cell thoughtfully, "I do hope she's alright, I'd hate to see the one human that I like have something happen to her."

"You like Edith?" Matilda asked skeptically, "Why don't I believe that?"

"What? Don't you think anyone could like your sister? Just because she's in your shadow doesn't mean she is a shadow, agent," Loki snapped. That one came out with more true emotion than he'd meant it to.

"What?! Excuse you," She put her hands on her hips and glared at him, "I love my sister and I want her to be happy. She isn't in my shadow at all! We do two totally different things and she's good at what she does!"

"Right, right," Loki sneered at her, "But you like keeping her at a distance don't you? You don't think I'd actually hurt her, you just told Fury to get her out of here because when she's here she isn't in your shadow anymore."

"That's not it at all you weasel!" She glared at him.

"If you say so," He crossed his arms, "I say we stop bickering about this and set our minds to finding out what is bothering her instead."

"She is not in my shadow," Matilda muttered, "But you're right. If it isn't you bothering her then it might be someone else. I vote we hunt down whoever it is and make them pay."

"A brilliant plan," Loki nodded, "I don't like the idea of anyone threatening her safety if it isn't me."

"I loathe you," Matilda narrowed her eyes at him, "But I'll work with you."

"Better hold tight to that feeling," Loki said and then lowered his voice, "Because you don't know how long it will last."


Just outside the room Edith chuckled as she listened to them. This plan was working out better than she expected it to. With her false misery to rile them up and unite them they'd be smooching by the end of the week! Why bother to leave something like this to Loki to plan out? Men always made a muck of things and he'd be no different.

When she'd first heard the idea of Matty and Loki together she'd wanted to vomit. However, now that Loki seemed to be somewhat innocent she could see that they actually made quite an interesting couple. Probably not a good couple, but interesting.

Besides, it would be terribly funny.

A/N: Thanks for reading!