Author's Note:

I really don't have an excuse. I have two jobs, but honestly my free time is about the same, whether that will be the same when I go back to school will remain to be seen. However, I have just been lazy and quite honestly thought about posting every other day and either got distracted or just pushed it off one more day. Well that stops today since I really do want to finish this challenge and hate to disappoint you guys. So here I am, finally using my day off for something productive and not just watching Netflix.

So the premise of this is that Rogue is being tested to join the Avengers, only she isn't quite aware of it. I will touch back on that in another one, so just be patient for it. :)

Disclaimer: No Marvel for me. :(

15: Smiles

'Well Roguey, my chère, you are in quite the jam.' There were some murmurs of agreement that echoed throughout her mind, which she shushed harshly.

'Maybe instead of stating what is so clearly obvious, you could try and help me. Ass,' Rogue mentally snapped back. What was the point of having all these psyches if not one of them could help her when she got in stupid situations like this? She knew these kind of favors never actually turned out to be worth the promised reward. This one being a flight around New York City with Tony Stark in a custom made suit. Rogue paused her mental rant, never mind, this one was probably worth it. Though that didn't mean she didn't have the right to mentally rant and rave. 'Oh God! Leg Cramp!' she cried mentally as she tried to stifle the moan of pain as her the muscles of her lower leg seized up. Whoever designed these air ducts was going to have a very bad day when she found them.

'Massage the muscle to loosen it up,' a psyche, Rogue mentally zeroed in on the voice, Bobby said helpfully. Rogue levelled a cool glower on the poor manipulator of all things subzero.

'Great advice Bobby, if you know, I WASN'T STUCK IN THE VENTALATION SYSTEM!' her angry scream rocked the very walls of her mind. Rogue wiggled, trying to see how much room she had and heroically ignored the irritating pain in her leg. Green eyes snapped forward again to where the shaft actually did widen, that was her goal. Well... her immediate goal. Rogue seriously doubted the Avengers care about the size of the building's air ducts. She wiggled again, shooting a hateful glare at her hips when they didn't budge.

'Rogue it may be time to call for help,' psyche Jean said reasonably. Well fuck reason, it had left her stuck in an air duct.

'I would honestly rather kill myself with a rusty spoon than to call any of the Avengers or Swamp Rat for help. Not only is the most stupid thing that has ever happened to me, I also will probably not get my suit.' The thought of said suit gave her the motivation to try to wiggle out once more before burying her face into her arms to muffle her scream of frustration. She shifted her legs, ignoring the cramp, decided she had given it her all, and was now going to wait patiently for death. Patience really wasn't her strong suit, but now was the perfect time to work on it. With a disgruntled sigh she laid her head onto the bottom of the duct, arms sprawled in front of her.

"Would you lose the guise, my men said they have scared off the silly heroes and their irritating Cajun friend," came a muffled voice from directly below her. Her eyes snapped open. No freaking way. She was never this lucky. Her psyches cheered in triumph. This was ridiculously incredible.

"I do not care, go out and check personally because I doubt they will stay away for long." Well duh, dumbass, she was still in the building. The man who was obviously a henchman, scrambled out of the room to go and hench or something. Leaving her target pacing below her. She leaned forward to try and peek through the grate in front of her and mentally cheered when she watched him change back into his usual form. Using all of her flexibility she managed to slip her camera out of its holster snuggly strapped to her thigh. When she was through with this she expected to have all the Avengers as her personal bitches. Rogue smirked at the beautiful thought of Thor fanning her with a large palm leaf. She snapped several pictures of their adversary before gaining a renewed determination to get unstuck. She wiggled and squirmed for several minutes, completely aware of the man below her. He paced relentlessly and was quite obviously in deep thought, but that didn't stop her from freezing every time he paused, not even breathing until he resumed his wearing of the floor again.

He was muttering lowly under his breath and would often rake a hand through his unruly black locks, that honestly had Rogue swooning between wiggles. There was a crackle of static that caused both of them to freeze. Rogue sent up a desperate prayer.

"Rogue? You there -" there was another crackle which sent Rogue scrambling to grab her communicator. "Rogue? Come in, Rogue!" She managed to finally rip it off its hook on her belt, glaring at the headphone jack that had gotten unplugged in her attempts to get unstuck. "Rogue this is Captain America. Please report in."

"I will honestly kill you," she whispered harshly. A deafening silence fell. "Oh God," she breathed. "Cap, I am in the building and the target is right below my locati-" she was cut off as the bottom of the duct three sections behind her exploded upward, clanging violently against the walls of the shaft. Her hair smacked her face as she whipped her head around to look at the hand that reached up to feel around. With new fervor she began to squirm with a new desperation to get free. However, within seconds she came to the realization that she was not in fact getting unstuck, so instead shoved the communicator into the corner of the grate, jamming the talk button so it would remain on. She jumped and yelped when the next one clattered noisily as it slammed into the roof of the duct. Long fingers brushed against the bottom her boot causing an involuntary whimper to slip past her lips, before she yanked up her legs as close as she could given the circumstances. The last section before the one she was laying on burst upwards and the hand reached in and closed securely around her ankle.

"If I make it out of here alive, I want a sincere apology," she directed her harsh whisper towards the communicator before the hand yanked on her leg. Green eyes slammed shut as with one mighty pull she was wrenched out of the ventilation system. She kicked out once at her assailant, feeling her boot connect and in response he let her slam, unhindered and face first, into the floor.

"Well hello there," the sinfully smooth voice caused a shiver to roll down her spine. She looked up at the god of mischief and was pleasantly surprised by his breathtaking smirk. Her eyes blinked in shock as she realized she was very attracted to this very attractive man...well Asgardian.

"Well that's just bitching," she muttered angrily. Stupid, attractive gods and their effects on her hormones. His absolutely stunning smile widened causing her heart to flutter, which she mentally rallied against and denied passionately. Stupid hormones.

"Aren't you a pretty thing. How odd that you were in the ceiling." His voice rivaled Remy's on the tingles it caused in the rebellious body.

"You know. Just... hanging around," she trailed off awkwardly. One of his perfectly sculpted eyebrows, not that she had noticed, quirked up in amusement.

"You were stuck," he said simply.

"I wouldn't say stuck, necessarily."

"There is no doubt about it." She glared at him angrily.

"What do you know, Mister-Burdened-with-Glorious-Purpose, maybe humans like to hang out in air ducts. I mean seriously, who are you to judge?" Her psyches screamed for her to shut up. "What if I was just looking for something, like my..." she paused awkwardly as she glanced around the room. A paperclip was laying innocently on the ground. "...Paperclip? Well here it is. I best be going now," she said rapidly while picking up the paperclip and rising to her feet, ignoring her still screaming calf muscle.

"Your paperclip?"

"Yep," she said, popping the 'p,' "Precious family heirloom." Rogue sincerely hoped he was having an off day and would let her go.

"I think not, my dear."

"Once again, how would you know? And I am not your chère." Rogue winced and immediately tried to shush all her psyches that were calling her several variations of the word 'idiot.' It wasn't her fault, just force of habit. Loki's unnaturally blue-green eyes levelled onto her and her hormones squeed at how stunning they were.

"You are with that annoying Cajun and therefore with the Avengers," a statement, not a question.

"Well that is just dandy. Your ability to deduce obvious facts is simply astounding. Are you next going to tell me that my decision to come here was dumb as fuck and not worth anything? Not even a custom made suit by Tony Stark?" she snarked nastily. A look of shock crossed his face, then utter confusion. Loki began to circle her, examining her closely and kind of creepily. The psyches demanded that she get some self-preservation so that she wouldn't get them all killed. "You know a picture is worth a thousand get the hell away from me." If she was going down it might as well be going down sassing.

"You are an unusual girl," he paused briefly to look her up and down once more, "well woman that is."

"I prefer the term 'eccentric.'"

"Come, my dear," he ordered calmly, offering an arm, "Let us discuss your eccentric personality to a greater degree." Rogue looked at the offered arm like it was going to attack her, though, to be fair, it probably was. Gingerly she wrapped her arm around his and let him lead her to a set of chairs in the corner of the room. "Not many people would have willingly touched me."

"Join the club. No like seriously, there is a club. We meet every other Wednesday at a café on Fifth." That was a lie. They met on Tuesdays.

Loki shook his head in wonder, allowing a chuckle to escape his lips. He beckoned her to take her seat before pulling his chair closer to her. She watched him warily as he chatted and answered his questions honestly and with enough snark to keep him entertained.

"No I am not currently with anybody. Forever alone, that's me," she quipped simply, reaching down to try and finally get rid of her leg cramp. And nearly screamed when Loki yanked her leg onto his lap. With great care he slipped off her boot and massaged her leg, obviously relishing in her discomfort.

"A beauty like you? Surely there must be someone," his smirk grew when she moaned as the pressure in her leg finally let up. Rogue tried to pull her leg away, but his hold on it was firm and he let one hand trail sensually up it. She internally panicked and immediately steered the conversation towards safer topics.

"So I am adopted. How about you?" She mentally face palmed. She was a dumbass. Yeah let's talk about being adopted with the one person who had more issues on it than she did. His hand froze on her thigh before he yanked it up to attempt and illustrate what exactly he thought on the touchy subject. A quick prayer was said, thanking whatever deity was listening that he talked with his hands and that he hadn't killed her for bringing up the sore, but certainly less sexually tense topic. One hand remained firmly, yet innocently around her ankle, but the other fluttered angrily as he talked about his adoptive father and safely away from her leg.

They talked for what felt like hours to Rogue, the unwilling participant who was getting really creeped out by Loki's chattiness.

"We must do this again, my dear," Loki said earnestly when the conversation had finally died down. Rogue nodded uncertainly. She didn't want encourage him, but living was also nice. And just like that he lead her to the entrance of his stereotypical harbor hideout and gave her kiss on one hair covered temple before waving her off. Rogue took few uncertain steps forward before turning around to make sure he wasn't about to stab murder her. Loki flashed her a beautiful smile before heading back inside.

"What the eff just happened," she asked no one in particular before she sprinted down the wharf.

One quick call on her cell to Remy later and she found herself engulfed in a familiar and welcome set of arms. The smell of leather, spice, and tobacco filled her nostrils and made her feel giddy and warm.

"Missed you too, Remy," she joked, though by the sudden increase in pressure from those arms it wasn't appreciated.

"Don't you ever do that to me again, chère" he murmured softly against her hair. Oh. He referred to himself in first person, so she was in some serious trouble.

"Since I totally intended to get stuck in the air duct, be caught and then have a creepy conversation with a psychopath who appears to be infatuated with me," Rogue snarked.

"Knowing you it was at least semi-intentional," he quipped back.

"Bite me."

"Where?" She smacked him upside the head and in response he gave her a positively stunning smile that knocked Loki's out of the water. It also promised retribution she realized belatedly as he yanked up and over his shoulders before flinging her off the dock and cannonballing in after. The rest of the team found them ten minutes later, mid-splash war, giggling and smiling like idiots.

Author's Note:

Well that's that. Had to include my favorite Marvel villain, Loki. He is just so awesome and fantastic. Hope you guys enjoyed despite the long hiatus. I will try not to do that to you guys again. Love you!

Reviews:

rats xp: You are awesome! Thanks you so much, hopefully this lives up to expectation. Love your deviant art btw. It was fabulous.

tx peppa: I know right. He is so obnoxiously adorable and I love it. My boyfriend will be expected to create a pillow fort at least once a month on my whim. lol

cpdolphin: Thank you! You are what got me moving again, not as quickly as you would have liked I am sure, but here I am not giving up! You are fantastic and thanks for reviewing!

You are the best. I love you guys and can't wait to see what you think of this chapter!