It was a nice Saturday afternoon and Tony was about to enter the room where he kept his Iron Man suits and his latest inventions.

"Nononono!

How many times have I told you, Miss Chang: No cleaning in this room!

How did you get in here anyway?" But when the women turned to face him, Tony was surprised.

This was not Miss Chang.

No way!

The woman in front of him was much younger and far too beautiful to be his cleaning lady. She had long black hair and an excellent shaped body. Her movements were almost feline like and so for a split second Tony thought she might be dancing rather than cleaning.

"Pardon me…who are you?"

But before the cleaner could answer, Pepper, who appeared behind him, chimed in: "This is Miss Changs niece, Tony. I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you.

Miss Chang is sick and so Lana is doing her work for a few days now."

"Okay…but what is she doing in my room?" Tony demanded to know.

"It is very dirty in here." Lana said while clutching here feather duster.

"Yes, I know. But see, you and I may not have the same definition of dirt. You could throw something away that seems useless to you but is actually very important to me. You understand? And now go, shoo, shoo!"

"TONY! Don't treat her like livestock!" Pepper reprehended him and said to Lana: "I am sorry, Lana. Just ignore him and this room here. You can continue upstairs. Thank you."

Lana nodded and did what she was told. Then Pepper frowned and shook her head. "Tony, you have no manners at all."

"Hey, I have manners!"

"Oh, yeah? Sometimes you hide them pretty well then, I guess. And don't think that I didn't notice you staring at Lana."

Tony grinned while he tried to act the innocent. "Did I?"

Pepper rolled her eyes and sighed. "Anyway, I'll have to get some stuff from various shops, which is also known as 'shopping' and since I know how deeply in love you are with that, I'll go alone. But I am going to be back for dinner, is that okay?"

Tony smiled and kissed her on the cheek. "You're the best!"

"Thanks. You are not so bad as well." Pepper smiled back and a few minutes later, she left the Stark-Tower and strolled down the street, still wearing a smile on her face.

Tony got a little bit nervous. Why wasn't Pepper back, yet? She had told him, that she would be back for dinner, hadn't she? So where was she? It was eight o'clock and they usually met up at seven to enjoy a meal together. Right this moment, the door swung open and Pepper came in without any shopping bags.

"Hey! You're late. What happened? And it seems like you haven't found anything at all."

"I'm sorry. I totally forgot the time. And you're right. It was awful; I found not one thing I had been looking for." Pepper sighed and sat down at the table Tony had been sitting and waiting.

"Apology accepted." He smiled. "After all, you are punished enough, because you've found nothing. Let's eat."

They had a nice meal and afterwards, they sat on the couch and were sipping some wine.

"You know what, Pepper", Tony said, "You don't have to worry about me, starring at Lana."

"Okay. Why is that so?"

"Because she is starring at ME all the time. It is pretty creepy, actually. Sometimes I had the feeling she was following me from one room to the other. She always seemed to have something to clean that was near me. She's stalking me."

Pepper smiled. "You wish she would."

"No, I mean it. She's odd." Tony's tone was serious and Pepper stopped smiling.

"Okay. If you think so, I'll watch her. Maybe I'll catch her starring at you and then we will ask her what her intentions are."

Tony was satisfied with this answer for now and he moved closer to Pepper, with the attention to kiss her, but before he could place his lips on hers, she jumped up and said: "Oh, I forgot my wallet. Tony I'm sorry, I have to go back to this one store, I left my wallet there at the cash point. Damn! I hope no one stole it."

"What? I thought you did not buy anything." Tony was confused.

"Well yes, technically I didn't. But…I mean…you know…och…why do you have to ask. You know I am not a good liar. It has something to do with a surprise for you. So, no further questions, please."

"Alright." Tony laughed. "Go on then. I love surprises."

"Oh, you're gonna love this one. I'll be back soon."

Loki was lying on a couch in a hotel room in New York. He seemed to be exhausted and was massaging his temples with two fingers. He talked to a woman, who was lying handcuffed and gagged on a bed in the bedroom.

"You know, I am still not on the top of my game, all that stuff about being tortured with dreams was really exhausting.

And running around in the mountains with my brother has not really helped my recovery.

But I must say to disguise myself as you that was genius.

Although very straining. I barely made it out of this damn Tower.

Well, as soon as I have recovered a bit, I'll go back and wait for the perfect moment to kill him. Sooner or later there will be no one around but me and him and since I look like you, he won't suspect anything.

Ahhh…how I've missed my magic!

Those dreams had been…very disturbing and so real.

If it wasn't for Thor, I'd be mad by now, a drooling mess.

Well to be a slave to the Chitauri is nothing to brag about either."

Although the woman was not able to say anything, you could see that she had only hatred left for him.

"Alright, I gotta go again. Hopefully I finish Tony off tonight."

The woman started squealing and immediately Loki covered his ears with his hands.

"My head hurts, so could you please SHUT UP?"

He screamed the last two words and the woman stopped at once.

"I will bash your head in, if you don't keep quiet, you stupid whore!"

Loki spat and fought the urge to kill her on the spot.

Unfortunately he needed her alive to appear in her shape.

It was probably best to leave the hotel room and go back to the Stark-Tower for his last act, he thought.