A/N: Sorry it's taken me so long to post this. I had/have a ton of things I'm working on and this temporarily got put on the back burner. And to show how sorry I am, an extra long chapter!
"Gingerbread!" Tony placed a small peck on Sam's cheek and that's when he noticed Loki standing behind her, silently fuming. "Is this actually Reindeer Games? He looks much less menacing now. Oh, this is just the best." Tony pointed and openly gawked at Loki who just glared right at him. "Little Orphan Annie." Tony's new nickname for Loki got him to kiss his fingertips while Sam hit him over the back of his head.
"That's a low blow, Nino. Now get us some drinks, we could all benefit from it." Ten minutes later, Sam was able to convince Loki to relax a little and get a drink and soon they were all sitting at a corner table, hidden from plain view. It was one thing to have an Avenger in the room but also the antihero who tried to take over the Earth, in the same bar? Sam was taking no chances tonight.
Loki just watched Sam and Tony converse and occasionally he would watch other patrons mingle with each other, never adding anything to the conversation they were having.
"So as nice as it to sit around and drink with you, let's get down to business. What was this favour you asked about?" Tony leaned in, resting an elbow onto his knee.
"Okay, so I am basically asking for you to take on Loki to help you with the rebuilding. From what I've read and heard about him, he's business savvy and we all know he has a way with words. Get him to help review city plans and read contracts and attend a meeting or two. Just show him how much damage he's made." Loki gaped at Sam with wide eyes at the proposal.
Sam, feeling Loki's eyes on the side of her face, tilted her head, amused at the almost horror-struck look he was giving her.
"Oh don't give me that look. Honestly, Loki. What did you expect? You've gotten it pretty easy this past month. Time to put you to work. All you'll be doing is reading and making notes. This should be easy for you. It's just for a couple days and then we can head back home. So suck it up, you can brood into a book later." Tony watched intently at the exchange, eyes bouncing back and forth between Sam and Loki, waiting for the protest but it never happened. Shocked, Tony called over for another round of drinks and Sam turned back to Tony as the drinks were being placed in front of them.
Happy to have the whole suite to herself for the day, Samantha decided to pamper herself. She deserved it after everything she's put up with - namely Loki. Walking into the master bath, Sam began her pampering by running the most soothing bath she's been dying to have since they checked in two nights ago.
The day after having drinks with Tony was spent entirely in Stark tower. Tony dragged Loki off to god's know where so Sam wandered around the tower with the help of J.A.R.V.I.S. until she was informed by the AI itself that Loki and Tony were waiting for her on Tony's personal floor and by then it was already late in the afternoon. Upon reuniting with them, Tony invited them to have dinner with him and Pepper but Sam politely declined knowing having dinner with them would put Loki more on edge. Instead they just relaxed and and ordered breakfast even thought it was well after 12 p.m.
Knocking at the door pulled Sam back to the present. Quickly shutting off the water, Sam quickly made her way to open the door to see a full cart of all her favourite breakfast pastries from chocolate croissants to vol-au-vent's. Thanking the room attendant, Sam popped a mini apple fritter into her mouth before grabbing a book, her ear-buds and phone, heading back into the master bath where the water cooled just enough to completely submerge her body. Putting on her reading playlist on shuffle, Sam laid back and spent the better part of two hours of just reading and letting the hot water relax all her aching muscles from the drive.
After, getting out of the now lukewarm bath, Sam satisfied her sweet tooth to all the pastries that still had yet to be had. Just when she finished her second cherry danish Sam began to feel all her missed sleep catching up to her. Changing into her softest pyjamas, Sam crawled back in between her blankets and drifted off almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. So much for pampering herself.
Meanwhile, Loki was across town hunched over at Tony's bar in the penthouse, currently flipping through a renovation contract. On the left of him was a stack of sticky notes that had some minor notes scribbled attached to various pages of finished files. On the other side of him was a stack of manilla files with various contract company's and legal firm's written across them. He had already been at this for a few hours and was certainly ready to call it quits and head back to the hotel suite. And although he found this inherently boring, it kept his mind focused and busy with something that wasn't Samantha's annoyingly reasonable logic. This punishment, Loki felt, was just as menial as bargaining with the Dwarves to make a veil for Sif after he cut all her golden locks off.
A little while later, Pepper walked in with more files underneath her arm. Setting them down next to the other pile, she peaked over Loki's shoulder reading a few notes.
"Wow. Tony has you hard at work." Pepper commented, picking up a random files reading a few sticky notes. "Well after you finish that these you can leave. Just leave them here when you're done and J.A.R.V.I.S'll have a driver take you back to the hotel."
"How in the world do you not want to kill that man?" Loki commented scribbling a note about legality rights. Glancing up to Pepper. Loki could not understand how this woman could work for a man like that for all those years without wanting to gouge her eyes out. Just spending an hour with him made Loki more infuriated than Thor usually did in the same amount of time.
"When you have access to his personal bank account you resist the urge." Pepper's attempt at humour was good enough for Loki to crack the faintest hint of a smirk. "And even then, it's hard sometimes to not want to lock him into a cellar thousands of miles away from you in the middle of nowhere."
"Sounds like you have it all figured out. Too bad your love for that moron prevents you from actually following through. A shame, really." After a small laugh from Pepper, Loki was once more left to himself
Another two hours passed before Loki closed the last file, stood up, and gave a look outside to see it had darkened considerably. Grabbing his overcoat from the end of the bar, Loki left the Stark Tower for the night.
Sam was roused from her cat nap when she heard Loki come back from Stark Tower. Flinging the blankets off her refreshed body, Sam found him sitting down in the living area. Looking up at the clock just on the mantle of the fireplace Sam saw that she had napped for another four hours! Pulling out her phone Sam saw that she had had a missed call and a text from Anahita.
"Hey! Where have you been? I went by your place last night with some Chinese but your car wasn't there. Get back to me when yo see this 3"
Sam sent a quick reply saying she was just gone for the weekend for some relaxation and that she'll be back in a couple days. Slipping her phone in the pocket of her PJ shorts, Sam looked up noticing that Loki was looking straight at her.
"What?" And then it dawned on her that nobody in their right mind would still be in their pyjamas this late in the evening. Well lucky for Sam, she wasn't nobody. "This? You should see me during the holidays. This is not as bad as it gets. Trust me when I say: it gets horrendous." Sitting down across from him, looking up close by eateries. "You hungry? I'm starving. I don't want to order in so we should go out. Any preferences?" Sam tapped around on her phone, looking up close places they could go out to eat at. A cute little Scandinavian cafe that was still open and it was literally right around the corner.
"Whatever. Does not matter to me." Loki called out tiredly as Sam got up and went back into her room, closing the door slightly so all communication wouldn't be cut off.
"Somebody sounds tired. We won't stay out too long. I think my afternoon nap made me overtired, you know? When you sleep so much that you feel practically dead on your feet and you haven't slept in ages?" Sam came back out wearing a pair of dark wash jeans, beaded collared t-shirt button down with her black knee high boots.
Grabbing her trench and her purse and shuffling Loki out the door, they made the literal 2 minute walk down the street. Glancing around inside Sam was relieved that it was only semi busy which meant they could get in and out fairly easily without having to wait on other customers.
"Hello, welcome to FIKA. Table for two?" Nodding her head at the hostess, Sam and Loki followed the young lady to a small table nestled into the corner right against the glass peering onto the street. "Can I start you off with anything to drink?" Sam quietly ordered water for the both of them and returned to look at their menus while the hostess brought them their water.
With one glance at the menu reading the food titles, Loki placed the menu and just glared at Sam who was knowingly ignoring him with a smile on her face, reading over the different food options. After about another minute Sam peaked at Loki and just giggled.
"I know what you are doing. It's not going to work." Loki stated just as the hostess came back with two tall glasses of water. Tucking the small tray under her arm, she whipped out a little notepad and pen.
While Sam ordered a tuna salad, Loki had ordered the Swedish meatballs with a red beet salad.
"What do you think I'm doing, pray tell?" Sam took a sip of her water, watching a few people walk by. People watching had been something she loved to do. She always wondered where people were going, what they had for breakfast or what compelled them to wear a certain colour. When she was in high school, Sam and a couple friends would sit on the patio of the local cafe and just make up stories of the civilians who walked by while absently doing homework.
"You're surrounding me with food dishes that will remind me of Asgard and in thinking about it you'll expect to hear me spill something in hopes to peel back layers of myself." Rolling his eyes at Sam.
"Wow, you're even more egotistical, who knew." Loki scoffed at the remark. Yes, he had a tendency to get ahead of himself but his manipulation of words has saved him more times that he cared to recount. It wasn't his fault that people did not understand his humour, or himself for that matter. There was a one person who enjoyed his tricks but that was in the past.
It was silence between the two even when a waiter came and brought their food. Sam who was enjoying her tuna salad, kept sneaking glances at Loki's plate and was just itching to try some herself. Sam always had this problem. Every time she'd go out to a restaurant with friends or family, she'd always end up wanting to eat somebody else's entrée, and after it had become a serious issue with her, she chalked it up to wanting what you can't have and stopped going out. That was why she had ordered so many breakfast pastries, she just couldn't decide what she wanted. And sitting now, she was extremely tempted to create a distraction to steal a meatball. Her unintentional fidgeting was was enough to get Loki's attention.
"What is wrong with you?" Sam's face snapped up from her plate at his voice.
"Oh... well... um... I don't usually go out to restaurants anymore." Sam explained, hoping that was enough of an explanation for the god.
"Really? Because your body language tells me it's more than just that. Your eyes are slightly dilated, and you're trying to not look at something so you're darting your eyes everywhere except down. You're hands are slightly trembling, meaning you're tempted to do something. And you're breathing changed. You want my food." Loki finished with a smug smile on his lips
"H-how!?" Sam's eyes widened at his deduction. What is he, Sherlock Holmes?
"People want what they can't have. Where you are hesitant to take, I am not." Loki smirked, but this time it was more pronounced than his other smirk and Sam noticed that immediately. He's coming into himself again. Sam thought while she smiled right back at him. This confused Loki but just waved it off as just another oddity of Sam. She hadn't
And although he knew exactly what she wanted, he made it near impossible for Sam not to notice his slowly shrinking plate of food. Her chances at stealing just a bite were dwindling by the second and Loki, in all his amusement, kept a bored mask and watched as Sam just fidget in her seat and trying to eat her own food.
"Are you done yet? I'm growing tired." Loki didn't even wait for Sam to reply before he called their waitress over to remove the plates and to bring the bill. Sam's window of opportunity had eclipsed and passed.
She was a little annoyed but for nothing really. He was teasing her, and that was all the progress she was hoping for although it was over something completely different than what she had intended. So maybe making him think of Asgard was not the way to help him. Maybe it was just to do what he is known for; pulling pranks, mischief, and so on.
"That was awfully mean of you." Sam replied, slipping her a couple bills to cover the dinner and a tip into the tray that had the bill. Getting up, she pulled her jacket back on, waiting for Loki to get up so they could leave.
After their night out for dinner, the days after seemed to blue for both Sam and Loki. Sam would spend as much time as she could at various museums while Loki was busy at the tower. And when they did meet up to have dinner, conversation seemed to be a little easier and this time the actually spoke more than three sentences to each other. Today was their last day in Manhattan and in a couple hours they would be back into Sam's Prius heading home. First they needed to go and stop off at the Tower as Tony and Pepper had invited them both over for brunch.
"I've been meaning to ask this, but how exactly do you know Stark?" Loki asked as Sam pulled her car into the underground parkade of the Tower.
"Well, I met him a couple years ago on campus. He was there for the re-grand opening of the science and technology building he, oh so, graciously upgraded. I had gone by the building to check it out but there was such a crowd I could hardly see the infamous Tony Stark. so I headed to the on campus all ages bar after an hour of standing around. After ordering myself a drink I got a call from Anahita and we talked for awhile and then the subject of Tony Stark came up and I ended up ranting about how much of an arrogant wannabe he was and it wasn't until I hung up the phone that the man sitting next to me turned to me and said 'I prefer billionaire, genius, philanthropist playboy.' I didn't apologize but we chatted and the rest is history." Sam could remember that day like it was yesterday. pulling into a free parking slot. Turning her car off she gathered her purse and climbed out and waited until Loki got out as well before pressing the lock button on her key fob.
Loki didn't say anything after her story. He would've guessed that they met through his oaf of a 'brother.'
"Tony can come across as a jackass but he really means no harm, that's just his honesty." Sam smiled meekly at Loki as they both stepped into the elevator and waited until it reached the top and the doors slid open.
"Welcome Miss Samantha and Prince Loki. Tony and Pepper are currently in the living room. I'll notify them that you have arrived." The AI greeted Sam and Loki while they both slipped their light jackets off and set them on the little table near the elevator.
Tony's penthouse had a very open concept design where rooms just flowed into each other. The one wall was just a long stretch of windows, giving the viewer the most broad view of New York and being up here literally made you feel as though you were on top of the world and Sam absolutely loved it. Loki on the other hand was very used to having that kind of view since his own chambers in Asgard were very high up, giving him a similar view.
Sam and Loki were just about to round the corner into Tony's kitchen area where they almost ran directly into somebody who didn't even look at Sam and Loki. They just gracefully swerved around the two and continued down the hall.
"Nino? Where are you?" Sam realized her words when Tony, Pepper and many other people currently seated around the table looked up at them as Sam and Loki halted in the doorway. Glancing to see Loki's flash of uneasiness and defiance was all the information she needed to know that these four other people were apart of the infamous 'Avengers.' There was a blond sitting next to a man with dark hair across from a red headed woman with another blond man to her right. She could only assume from their expressions that the two men furthest away were Dr. Bruce Banner and Captain Steve Rogers and the two closest to Sam was the Black Widow, Natasha and her partner, Hawk-eye Clint Barton. Is he bloody mental?! It is literally too soon for this kind of shit. Sam's ranted in her head at Tony's lack of tact.
"Sam, look, I can explain..." Sam crossed her arms and arched a brow signalling him to continue. "When I invited you and Reindeer Games I forgot I had already invited these guys over. Honest mistake, scouts honour." Tony lifted his right hand as to show how honest he was but Sam didn't care. If it was just her visiting Tony she'd be all for meeting everybody but with Loki at her side she had to take in how he feels about seeing the people he went toe to toe with just several months ago. And if Sam were in his shoes, she would feel very uncomfortable in a room of these people.
"What?" Sam snapped at the four still staring at her as if she'd gone completely mad and at her snark only Dr. Banner and Captain Rogers turned their eyes back to their plates leaving Widow and Hawk-eye glaring at Loki with hatred and confusion at Sam. Their stares only made Sam's annoyance edge into aggravation, Tony looked a little guilty and Pepper just rolled her eyes at him. "It was polite of you to invite us to brunch but we need to get home before nightfall. It was lovely finally meeting you, Pepper. I can't say the same with you four. Bye."
As quickly they got to Tony's penthouse they were just as fast leaving it. Sam, who was still a little annoyed with the looks everybody gave them, stayed quiet but Loki could feel her emotions as if they were rolling off of her in waves. He didn't mind the quiet but it set him on edge a bit, wondering just when she might crack.
Once Sam pulled onto the interstate and out of city limits, her agitation seemed to lessen. It was probably due to the openness, increased speed limit and fresh air from her rolled down window. She just couldn't believe that Tony would just let them walk into that, he could of at least called or sent a text, warning them that maybe they shouldn't come by the tower. He has quite the fiasco to straighten out. With a deep exhale, Sam rolled her shoulders, letting the tension leave and quietly fiddled with her stereo console until music began to play which got Sam to roll her window back up.
"Sorry for bursting like that back there but Tony was not thinking properly. God, I am just apologizing for everything!" Sam hit her steering wheel in mild frustration but she did notice Loki jump a bit. "Hey, you okay?" Sam stole a few glances in his direction while still trying to keep her eyes on the road.
"I'm fine. But yes, Stark was very clueless. But you had no reason to get as angered as you did. You are not the one who fought with them." Loki kept his tone even and eyes straight ahead. Last thing he needed was a 'therapy' attempt in a tin box. He was surprised at her outburst at the penthouse but if anybody was to be angry it should have been him more than Sam. Yes, he was annoyed seeing them but nowhere near as much as Sam and he's has years of experience masking his emotions around people he found particularly vexing.
"I was just taking your past with them into consideration. And because they are devout SHIELD agents, they will probably go running off and tell eye-patch dude I'm harbouring a fugitive... But there's really not much they can do if they do show-up at my doorstep." That piqued Loki's interest the most, what could she possibly possess that could put those control aficionados in their place?
"I highly doubt that. But your vigilance is admirable." Sam only shook her head, he really had no clue. Turning up the volume, Sam internally giggled and pressed her foot harder on the accelerator.
A/N: And you've made it to the end of the chapter! After a few rewrites this was finally something I was mildly happy to publish and it sets up for plot and character development which I'm excited to explore!
It would be really cool to review and let me know what you think because it really does make writing so much easier!