Kate came to in the semi-dark of early dawn. She was lying on her bed, still in her some-what restrictive green gown. Loki stood over her smiling, her bronze heels dangling from the long fingers of his right hand.

"How are you feeling, Kate?" he inquired gently.

She sat up and swung her legs off the side of the bed. She felt the warm weight of Loki's grey suit jacket draped over her shoulders. "In my defense, I never used to black-out until I started hanging out with gods."

Loki chuckled. "We can sometimes have that effect on people."

"So S.H.I.E.L.D. is after you?" She looked at him searchingly, shrugging off the jacket. "I don't even know what that means, but it sounds bad."

Loki held out his open palms in the universal gesture of "whatever."

"What are you going to do?"

His eyes twinkled. "Have you much of a background in deception, Kate?"

She looked back at him wide-eyed. "Not really."

"The god of mischief in love with the saintliest of mortals," he muttered to himself.

"I could give it a try?" she offered.

He narrowed his eyes. "Repeat after me. 'I woke, alone in my room. The wedding was the last time I saw him.'"

"I woke, alone in my room. The wedding was the last time I saw him," she parroted.

"Wonderful. I like the American accent. Good touch of authenticity," he nodded, smirking.

She inclined her head in acknowledgement.

"But in truth, Kate," he said, sitting next to her on the bed and taking her hand, "This will have to be the last time you'll see me in this form."

Kate looked at him quizzically.

"I want to stay in this world, exactly where I am. To me, you are the most important creature in all the nine realms and my heart's desire is to remain as near to you as I have been since the moment I came to that realisation."

Kate smiled shyly. She mentally noted that she was deeply touched rather than deeply terrified by his assertions. She was making definite progress.

"But I don't want to turn your world upside down. I know that you're not ready for me to ask you to leave your home and your work to be with me."

She pondered. Maybe the phrase "ready as I'll ever be" rang true.

Loki continued. "I'm simply going to alter my appearance so that S.H.I.E.L.D. will be thrown off my scent."

"Alter your appearance?" Kate repeated uncertainly. "To what?"

"Are you ready?" Loki asked, standing and turning to face her.

Kate looked up at him sharply. "Loki, wait. Am I ready for what?"

He closed his eyes, dropping his arms to his sides and pushing his shoulders back.

Kate watched in awe as an almost imperceptible golden haze clouded him from view. The haze intensified and then dispersed as quickly as it appeared. Before her stood a different man. The pointed black leather shoes remained the same, as did the slim-fitting silver-grey suit pants and the crisp white dress shirt with its hard-working buttons. But Loki's pale skin and long black hair were gone, replaced by a ruddy, golden complexion and closely-cropped tousled blonde hair. She had always found him attractive but now he was the very model of human flourishing. And he was breathtaking.

Kate caught herself letting out a little sigh and Loki's eyes flickered open. She was relieved to see the same striking green orbs gazing back at her. On one level, the change was so slight, he was unmistakably himself. And yet, as she stared at him, he was also somehow completely unrecognisable.

Before she could stop herself, Kate reached out her hand to touch and see if this new golden Loki had corporeal reality. Her fingers brushed against the thin cotton of his shirt and felt the impressively firm resistance of his muscled torso beneath.

Loki placed his enormous hand over hers, holding it against his warm body as he dropped to his knees so that they saw one another eye-to-eye.

Kate's lips parted. He was so close, so warm, so familiar and so new.

His gaze flicked from her eyes, lingered on her lips and wandered tantalisingly back up again. "Kate?" he whispered.

"Mmm?"

"Might I be granted permission...," his eyes found his way back to her mouth, "...To place one kiss on your perfect lips?"

She nodded, smiling.

He moved towards her slowly – agonisingly slowly. His forehead pressed against hers and his hands found their way to her cheeks.

She could feel his warm breath on her face. Her eyelids flickered shut as she felt him draw closer.

"YOU ARE SURROUNDED!" boomed an enormous voice, punctuated by the crash of her apartment door being kicked in.

Kate's eyes flew open. Her bedroom was crowded with black-clad gunmen, their weapons trained on her.

Loki was gone.