Author's Note: This one is slightly different - it's in second-person! Trust me when I say it was a pain in the neck to write.

11) That's Not How the Game Works!

You glance around at the assorted Avengers—and Loki. Thor had dragged him down to lowly Midgard from on high to learn important lessons. He'd been there for around three months. Thor thought it was working wonders on his younger brother's soul. Loki obviously didn't agree as he'd spent most of his time here in a cloud of doom and gloom, glaring at everyone.

And then he noticed you.

You weren't sure if he was trying to torment you or what, but he'd been flirting with you all night—and as a silver tongue, he was doing quite a good job. You weren't sure why he chose you, either, but he had and there was no shaking him off.

At first it had been something of a game, but now, as the other party guests had left, leaving only the Avengers, you were really getting sick of it.

Currently, you are sitting with Captain Rogers, Jane Foster, and Thor in between you and him. He is giving you a very sarcastic but seductive look around the bulk of the two naturally biggest and blondest members of the team and his brother's sort-of girlfriend. You give him a triumphant smirk. Thor is sitting next to him and any attempt at advancing on you on Loki's part will get the God of Thunder's arm around his brother's waist and have Loki hurled back into his spot on the couch. You give him a victorious wink and sit back, relaxing next to Steve for the first time since the party started.

Tony stands up; a mischievous grin to rival Loki's curling his mouth. Instantly your blood runs cold and you feel your stomach drop to your toes. Any idea he had was certain to be a bad one. "And now, my dear friends, it's time for…" He pauses, presumably for dramatic effect. "Seven minutes in heaven!" You are not alone in groaning with complaint, but now Tony's got an idea in his head and there's no way in all Nine Realms he's giving it up.

Pepper, complying only because she's guaranteed to go into the closet with Tony, passes around Thor's heavy metal helmet with wings and feathers. Everyone rolls their eyes but pulls their nametags off, and drops them in. Tony had probably insisted everyone wear nametags just for this moment. Who knew how long he'd been planning this?

The billionaire closes his eyes and digs his hand deep into the bowl of Thor's helmet. You cross your fingers that it's not you. This is a bad idea and you have half a mind to just run away now and lock yourself in your room.

But if you do that Loki will come after you—and the slight chance that you'll spend seven minutes locked in a closet with him is better than the one-hundred-percent chance of spending several hours trying to ward him off. So you stay.

"Our first contestant is…!" He pulls out a tag. "You!" Dramatically he points at you.

"How did I know?" you grumble sarcastically under your breath as, next to you, Steve gives you an apologetic look.

"And you, my dear, are going to be paired with…!" Tony offers the helmet to Pepper. Vaguely you wonder what will happen if they draw out Steve and Tony together or something along those lines. Would the rules to SMIH still apply? But you don't have time to ponder for long because Pepper has selected a tag and withdrawn it. Already your throat constricts in frustration and exasperation as you catch a glimpse of the handwriting and the ink.

"You!" Pepper announces, giving you an I'm so sorry about this, expression, and her hand points to…

Loki.

It's Loki's turn to give you an triumphant smirk as Tony hauls you to your feet and shoves you and the trickster out of the main room, into the corridor, and then into a closet. After you face-plant several leather jackets—that probably belong to Steve, Tony, and Wanda—you scowl at the demigod as he chuckles.

He snares his arms around your waist, his cool hands holding you tightly to his armored chest. "Finally," he murmurs seductively, leaning close to you. "We have some alone time."

You want to tell him to bite you, to buzz off, to get away from you and leave you alone—that you're sick of his advances because as charming as he is you still see him as nothing more than a bratty demigod with daddy issues. But the game has rules and Tony would be very angry if you break them. "That's not how the game works!" he'd complain—and you know it.

And Loki knows it. The smile on his face shows that he knows it.

So you give up. Tony's wrath would last far longer than the stupid game and then you can go back to your life as it was and pretend the seven minutes in the dark closet had never happened.

Loki pulls you down by the waist to sit on his lap as he crosses his legs on the ground. You sigh and for the sake of comfort wrap your legs around his waist and rest your feet on the ground behind him. "That's more like it, love," he murmurs, running a single cold finger down your jawline and stopping at the bottom of your chin. He pinches your chin lightly and draws your face closer to his.

The first kiss he gives you is chaste—a gentle peck that barely brushes your lips. Almost as though he doesn't want to offend you.

The next one is harsh and hungry. He jumps over light kissing and deep kissing and bounds straight to heavily making out—something you weren't quite sure you were prepared for. He hungrily tests how far you're willing to go—and shockingly respecting when you pull back.

When he finally pulls away he keeps his arms around your back and keeps his forehead pressed to yours. "I've never been one for expressing feelings," he says. "I don't like emotions. They're messy and they get in the way. But, you… you make me feel things that I don't want to feel. Warmth and light. You make my heart jump and my blood run warm. I don't like it. I don't like the way I feel when I'm around you. But I like the way I feel about you. I… I think… no. I know that I love you."

This was definitely not something you thought would happen when you woke up this morning.

As if Loki's words were a key, a floodgate of emotion smashes through your head, swirling repressed feelings. You like him. You just didn't know it until now. Your mind repressed it because you knew you could never be with him. He would never like a pathetic mortal like you.

But here he is, confessing to you.

You grab his face with your hands and kiss him as hard as you can.

"I'm pretty sure I love you too," you reply. He smiles against your lips.

You spend the next several minutes kissing passionately, reveling in each other's raw emotion.

When Tony comes to fetch you and send the next couple out, you refuse to leave.

"That's not how the game works!" he protests.

You don't care. You're not going anywhere.

End Note: How was that, eh? :-D

Thanks for reading!

~Cass