Vanessa stopped in front of the building and the door to her car was opened for her. She handed the valet the keys and started to walk inside as she was bombarded with flashed of light and questions. The questions consisted of information about the company, what she was wearing, and about her dad, none of which she answered.
She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt someone's arm slide around her waist. Looking up she found Loki wearing a dark dress suit with an emerald green scarf hung casually on either side of his neck smiling down at her.
"Loki." Vanessa said in surprise ignoring the new round of questions on who her mysterious date was.
"Hello little dove, you look beautiful." Loki said as he leaned down and gave her a quick kiss.
"You don't look too bad yourself." Vanessa said with a smile as they walked the rest of the way up to the party. "So what brings you to my little corner of the universe?"
"The idea of this party appealed to me greatly when you told it to me." Loki said moving his hand down so it entwined with hers as they walked through the crowd. "I like any chance to dance with you and hold you close."
"Charmer." Vanessa said as they started to lean into each other for a kiss.
"Vanessa, who's this?" Pepper asked as she came over breaking the moment and going into what Vanessa had dubbed her mom mode.
"This is Loki, my boyfriend from school." Vanessa said introducing him. She had told Pepper a little about him keeping the fact that he was from another planet mum. "Loki this is Pepper."
"An honor." Loki said as he bowed lightly. "Vanessa has told me a lot about you."
"Vanessa has talked about you as well." Pepper said with a bright smile. "It's nice to finally meet you."
They talked amongst themselves, Pepper mostly vetting Loki who was holding up remarkably well when they were interrupted.
"You look fantastic! I didn't recognize you." Tony said walking up to them.
"What are you doing here?" Pepper asked, surprised to see him.
"Just avoiding government agents." Tony answered. Vanessa looked around and spotted none other than gent Coulson at the bar watching them.
"Are you by yourself?" Pepper asked.
"Yes." Tony said as he looked her over. "Where'd you get that dress?"
"Oh, it was a birthday present." Pepper answered.
"That's great." Tony said.
"From you, actually." Pepper said.
"Well, I got great taste." Tony said before turning to Vanessa and Loki. "So who's this?"
"Dad, this is my boyfriend Loki, Loki this is dad." Vanessa said as they shook hands.
"Boyfriend huh?" Tony said looking him over. "What do you do for a living?"
"Independently wealthy." Loki answered smoothly.
"Ok." Tony said before turning back to Pepper while making a mental note to look him up later. "You want to dance?"
"Oh, no." Pepper said shaking his head.
"All right, come on." Tony said as he pulled her onto the dance floor despite her protests.
"You were right, they are oblivious." Loki said as they watched them walkaway.
"Yeah." Vanessa said as Loki took one of her hands and led her onto the dance floor pulling her close as they swayed. They danced for a little before Vanessa spoke again. "I'm glad you came, I can give you that gift now. Come with me."
"You did not have to get me anything little Dove." Loki said as Vanessa led him over to the balcony hands intertwined into the warm night air. They stopped at the edge looking as the cityscape before them.
"Then it is a good thing I got it for you because I wanted to and not because I had to." Vanessa said as she pulled out a small black box and gave it to him.
Opening it up he found resting on a velvet cloth was a gold oval locket with the engraving of a snake surrounding a dove and on the inside was a picture of Loki and Vanessa smiling together on one side and a clear frame on the other with a lock of hair tied with small green and blue ribbons.
"Vanessa this is…" Loki began gently picking it up and setting the box aside. A gift like this was very intimate in his culture, a sign of deep devotion. He looked into her eyes as she looked up at him her eyes full of love. "This is perfect. Thank you."
"I hoped you like it." Vanessa said as he slipped it round his neck allowing it to rest over his heart.
"I love it and I love you." He said as he pulled her into a deep kiss which she happily returned. "I believe we have a dance to finish." Loki pulled her back onto the dance floor holding her close his hand on her lower back gently caressing it sending warmth throughout her whole body.
"I love you as well." Vanessa replied resting her head on his shoulder as he laid his softly on top of her head. They danced slowly enjoying just being near one another talking in hushed voices that only the other could hear.
"Hmm, they seem to be getting a little closer." Loki commented a little later as they watched Pepper and Tony dance before they stepped outside.
"They just need time." Vanessa said confidently one again slipping into a comfortable silence before speaking again. "So how go things on your end?"
"Well enough. Thor is as brash as always, running head long into danger." Loki said and went to relate one of their thrilling Thor induced adventures which had Vanessa giggling by the end.
"Miss Stark." One of the party organizers came up to her. "Some people are requesting that you sing. Will you?"
"Well that depends on my date." Vanessa said glancing up at Loki.
"I would love to hear you sing." Loki said with a smile. He escorted her up to the stage where she gave them instructions on what she wanted to sing. She turned back around facing the crowd as she took the mike stand in hand.
Vanessa swayed as the music started up then taking a deep breath she began to sing 'I Love You For Sentimental Reasons.' Her voice flowed with the music washing over the crowd who began to dance as other watched her. Vanessa swayed with the music as the instrumental interlude played sending a kiss to Loki who smiled back up at her with loving eyes. She poured all of her heart and soul into the ending of the song and finished softly. Everyone erupted in claps and cheers as Loki helped her off the stage.
"You were wonderful love." Loki said into her ear before kissing her on her cheek.
"Thank you, it helps when I have inspiration so close at hand." Vanessa said with a playful wink.
"How about a drink?" Loki asked looping her arm through his and resting his hand on top of hers.
"Love one." Vanessa said as he led her over to the bar and ordered two drinks. They talked back and forth a little more before Loki suddenly straightened up and let out an annoyed sound under his breath. "Something wrong?"
"Someone at home is looking for me, I must go." Loki said in an irritated voice.
"That's ok, we can pick up where we left off later." Vanessa said as she wrapped her arms around him and he her.
"Sounds like a plan." Loki said as he leaned down and kissed her deeply. "Until later, my little dove."
Vanessa watched with a dreamy happy smile as he walked away disappearing amongst the crowd. She was sipping her drink when Tony came up to the bar looking a little twitchy.
"Two vodka martinis, extra dry, extra olives, extra fast." Tony said putting some money into a jar. "Make one of them dirty, will you?"
"You look a little unsettled." Vanessa commented, startling Tony.
"Hey, where's your date?" Tony asked looking around as well as avoiding her question.
"He had to go. Family emergency." Vanessa said with a shrug.
"Wow. Tony and Vanessa Stark." Said a blonde woman Vanessa recognized from Vanity Fair.
"Oh, hey." Tony said looking uncomfortable. "Fancy seeing you here… Carrie."
"Christine." She corrected him.
"That's right." Tony said with a nod.
"I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met." Vanessa said with an overly sweet smile as she held out her hand.
"Christine from Vanity Fair, I did a story on your father." Christine said ignoring Vanessa's hand as she turned back to Tony. "You have a lot of nerve showing up here tonight. Can I at least get a reaction from you?"
"Panic. I would say panic is my reaction." Tony replied not making eye contact.
"'Cause I was referring to your company's involvement in this latest atrocity." Christine bit out.
"Yeah. They just put my name on the invitation. I don't know what to tell you." Tony said evasively.
"I actually almost bought it, hook, line and sinker." Christine went on and Vanessa could feel her annoyance rising.
"I was out of town for a couple months, in case you didn't hear." Tony said in a snarky voice.
"So cut the column short and just spit it out." Vanessa snapped.
"Is this what you call accountability?" Christine said as she thrust a small stack of pictures at them. "It's a town called Gulmira. Heard of it?"
"When were these taken?" Tony asked looking shaken.
"Yesterday." She answered.
"I didn't approve any shipment." Tony said as he looked over the pictures which included one of the Jericho missile.
"Well, your company did." Christine retorted.
"Well, I'm not my company." Tony snapped and stalked away looking really troubled. Vanessa turned back to Christine who had a triumphant smirk on her face which really irritated the crap out of Vanessa.
"You know they have a word for people like you, but it's not used in polite society outside of a kennel." Vanessa said evenly looking at Christine like she was something disgusting on the bottom of her shoe wiping the smirk clean off her face before following her dad out.
"Please, do you mind?" Obadiah was saying to the reporters as Vanessa came to stand next to her father.
"Have you seen these pictures?" Tony demanded. "What's going on in Gulmira?"
"Tony, Tony." Obadiah said as he looked between the two members of the Stark family. "You can't afford to be this naive."
"You know what? I was naive before, when they said, "Here's the line. We don't cross it. "This is how we do business."" Tony ground out and Vanessa began to feel sick to her stomach. "If we're double-dealing under the table... Are we?"
"Tony, your picture, please!" Someone called out.
"Let's take a picture. Come on. Picture time!" Obadiah said as he wrapped his arms around both Tony and Vanessa. Vanessa could feel her skin crawl at his touch. "Tony. Who do you think locked you out? I was the one who filed the injunction against you. It was the only way I could protect you and your daughter."
Vanessa and Tony watched with a mixture of deepest anger and deepest betrayal as Obadiah walked away.