Chapter Thirteen

"The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual."- Vince Lombardi

"Murderer! You killed him!" Spiderwoman yelled in Loki's ear.

"I DIDN'T MEAN TO!" Loki shouted as he placed his hands over his ears.

"Liar! You wanted him to die! He stood up against you and you just couldn't take it! You stabbed that man in the back! LIKE A COWARD!" she screamed louder.

"GO AWAY! LEAVE! YOU'RE NOT REAL!" Loki tried to push her away, but she moved too fast and knocked him over. He landed on the floor with a painful thud.

"I'm as real as you are. You think those so called "friends" of yours will save you? They won't. They'll leave you for me to finish off. You deserve to die." she was near his ear again, her words sending bits of saliva on his earlobe.

"NO!"

"GO AWAY! LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Loki! Wake up! Loki!" Natasha shook his shoulders and his eyes snapped open.

"What happened?" he asked as he sat up and placed his hand on his left shoulder, where he'd landed in the dream.

"You were having a nightmare. I heard you yelling when I was coming up here to get something to drink. Why are you even sleeping up here anyway?" she asked.

"I don't feel like sharing a room with Thor…nothing is more irritating than hearing him snore." he said.

"I actually know how that is." Loki turned his head quickly and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Like I said, I have a specific skill set, but I don't do things like that anymore." she said. "What were you dreaming? It must have been one hell of a nightmare."

"It was that damned woman again. Something about her is now becoming very familiar. How she speaks, just her tone. If I didn't know any better, I would say that it was agent Renner." he said.

"How can you be so sure? It's not that I'm doubting you, just curious." she put her elbows on her knees and placed her chin on her palms.

He sighed. "Her voice had something to it that reminded me of her. It was dripping with venom, like agent Renner's usually is."

"I haven't noticed, but then again, you're supposed to be far more advanced than I am." she said as she sat back up and stretched her arms over her head.

"I think there is something you can do a whole lot better than I can." he said.

"And that would be?" she asked.

"Will you keep the nightmares away?" the edges of his lips curled into a smile. She rolled her eyes and then laughed.

"Of course." when they went to kiss, they heard the sound of something banging on the bar. They turned their heads and saw that a hand was banging on the wooden surface.

"What in the hell?" Natasha stood and pulled a knife out of her pajama pants pocket.

"You have weapons everywhere don't you?" Loki asked as he walked beside her.

"Remember that I've been trained as an assassin since I was eight." she said.

"Oh. Right." he replied.

They didn't get too far when they saw two hands clasp the sides of the bar and then attempt to try and heave the human they were attached to up. They only saw the top of its head when they both turned and frowned at one another.

"Stark, why do you drink so much?" Natasha asked as she placed the knife down on the table and she and Loki hauled him to his feet.

"Because I do what I want!" his voice slurred.

"That's supposed to be my line, but whatever." Loki said as he rolled his eyes. He helped Natasha take him to the couch, which he flopped down on and nearly fell over on his side. Natasha hurriedly sat by him and kept him from falling over completely.

"You know agent Romanoff-f-faa. You smell nice." Tony said.

"Thank you, Stark. I appreciate it." she made a face at Loki and shook her head. He put his hands up, as if saying: "Don't ask me."

"Hey! You!" Tony nearly hit Natasha in the face when he swung his arm up. He pointed his index finger at Loki. "Whoa, there's three of you! Nice, bro! How do you do that?"

"Uh, accident?" Loki replied.

"This is to the one in the middle! YOUR HAIR IS AWESOME!" he shouted.

"Th-thank you." Loki was trying his hardest not to laugh, but his voice was betraying him. Natasha's eyes were wide at the sound of Tony's exclamation and she had covered her ear, focusing on getting her hearing back.

"Hey, brownie." Tony said as he turned and looked at her again.

"Brownie? That's the first time I've heard that nickname before." she said.

"Nooo, I WANT a brownie! C-can you get me one?" Tony asked.

Loki couldn't hold it in anymore, his laugh bust out of him and he clutched his stomach and turned around, covering his mouth.

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU, BLACKIE?" Loki's entire body shook with laughter; he was having a hard time breathing.

"N-Nothing! Everything is ok!" Loki replied.

"Stark, I think it's time you go to bed, come on." Natasha stood and took Tony's arm and tried to yank him up, it was a failure. He was basically dead weight. She fell back onto the couch, right in his lap.

"Well-l! I like this! One kiss." Tony puckered up his lips and tried to kiss her, but she covered his face with her hand and pushed his face backwards.

"All right, I've had enough fun for one evening, Loki. Come get his other arm and help me drag him to his floor…what floor are you on, Stark?" she asked as she stood up and moved to his right side. Loki had stopped laughing, or tried to, and did as he was told. They didn't make it more than two feet before Tony finally replied.

"I-I-I think this one!" he exclaimed.

"Oh for the love of God, just leave him here." Natasha let loose of his arm and Tony's right half dropped to the floor. Loki released him after he nearly was tugged down with him.

"Here," she had walked over to the couch and grabbed him a pillow. She shoved it at him. He took it gratefully. "Sleep well. You can bunk with me, Loki. He's too drunk to even know what I'm saying, so he won't tell anyone." she said.

"THANK YOU, PRETTY LADY!" Tony placed the pillow under his head and when Natasha and Loki reached the elevator, they heard him snoring loudly.

"That didn't take long, did it?" Loki asked.

"Nope. I've seen him do this before, the last time he was tearing apart his house in Malibu. That was the day I nearly lost my then job as Pepper's secretary." Natasha explained as she hit the button for her floor.

"You were Miss Potts' secretary? How did that work?" Loki asked.

"He signed over his company to her because he believed he was dying. Weirdly enough, all this was happening while Thor was on Earth, a lot of things happened in one week come to think of it." she said.

"Like?" he asked.

"Captain was found in the ice, Bruce disappeared from the human population, Thor was a human, Tony and I were introduced and he was rejected for the initiative, notice how long that lasted? And you…" she stopped.

"And I "died". Is that what you were going to say?" he asked.

"I guess. I have to ask, you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but, what did it feel like, falling into space?" she asked.

"Have you ever held your breath for an extended period of time under water, to the point that you almost lost consciousness?"

"Yeah."

"It feels like that, only, when you try to breathe again, you get nothing and then that's it. You die. Nothing." he explained.

"What does it feel like to die?" she asked.

"It's fast. You don't even know it's happened until you're sent to whatever after life you have earned." he stated.

"Well, I'm glad it's fast. I like everything fast." The elevator dinged and they both walked out. Loki scooped her up in his arms, causing her to squeal in surprise.

"I know one thing you don't like fast." he smirked.

Bruce's Lab

"Dr. Banner, any idea on how the hell I should ask her out?" Clint asked as he stared down at his cell phone. Scarlett had given her his number just in case he ever needed to reach her. He had found it a little weird, but had just shrugged it off and thanked her.

"I'm not the one to ask about that, I'm just here to be the scientist, what about Cap, he might know." Bruce said as he placed the scepter in the glass case that he had requested in his lab. He knew he should have asked for a steel vault or something to that effect, but he wanted to keep an eye on it and it wasn't exactly safe out in the open on the holder.

"You do realize Cap has never had a date in his life, right? Stark might know, but then again, it's amazing he hasn't caught an STD of some sort." he said.

"He's better than nothing. What about Natasha? She could possibly help, she is a woman after all." he said as he put in the pass code to lock the case.

"Tasha's asleep, I don't want to bother her right now." he grunted and then pulled up her number in the contacts.

"I think she'd understand. She actually should still be awake. She usually goes to bed around two or so, it's only 12:17 now. Why not just go and ask her?" he asked.

"You have a point," he sighed and ran a hand over his face. "I'll be right back."

He walked to the elevator, still holding the phone. He yawned as the elevator headed for her floor; this was probably one of the most boring rides he'd ever been on. He couldn't wait to get to his own floor, he desperately needed sleep himself, but he wanted to get this over with as soon as he could.

He tiredly walked out onto her floor and looked at the doors.

"Uh." he didn't know which one was the bedroom.

He shrugged and walked toward the door on the far left. Hopefully that was it.

He knocked a few times and then said; "Nat, you awake?"

Loki and Natasha stopped kissing and looked at the door in horror.

"Shit!" they muttered at the same time. She shoved Loki off the bed and he hit the hardwood with a thud.

"Ow!" he hissed.

"Nat, you ok?" he asked.

"Yeah! You just scared me. I was asleep." she said, trying to make her voice sound groggy.

"Oh, sorry. Is it ok if I talked to you now? I need to talk to you about my "date" with agent Renner and how I'm going to ask her." he said.

"Can we discuss it later? I look like hell." she lied.

"I'd really like to get it out of the way now, if that's all right."

"One second!" she shouted. "I'm gonna make sure he doesn't come in, get in the bed when I go out into the hallway. I'll be back fast." she kissed him quickly before getting up from the bed. They hadn't gotten very far in their little escapade, so she still had on her pajama pants, but she had to get her top from the floor. That was no big deal.

She opened the door and just as fast as she could, she shut it back.

"You don't want to go in there to talk?" he asked.

"No, I'd feel awkward to be honest." she said.

"Your nickname is the Black Widow, how is it-" he stopped when he saw she was glaring at him. "Ok, point taken. Let's sit, shall we?" he sat down on the floor and she mirrored him, leaning her head against the door.

"So, you don't know how to ask a woman out?" she asked.

"No, I was hoping you could give me a tip."

"This is an idea, and I don't know why it just popped into my head, but why not take her on a double date? That way, I can kind of help you out; I can make it a little easier for you. You know how to talk to me and I can give you that little push." she said.

"Who are you going to go with?" he asked.

"Maybe I can con Loki into it, I would ask Cap, but…" she shook her head and he nodded.

"Good idea, well, kind of. You think Loki can contain himself? Doesn't he have a history of losing his cool? I mean, he killed a handful of people in under one minute. I was there, it wasn't pretty." Clint stated.

"I killed people all the time for money, we all go a little mad sometimes."

"Norman Bates quote, I like that. I guess that'd be the best idea. I need to get some sleep, I'll call Renner in the morning." he stood up and grasped Natasha' hand and pulled her to her feet. "Thanks, Tasha." he kissed her lightly on the cheek before returning to the elevator.

She touched her cheek lightly where he had kissed her. Poor Clint, she knew she could never have feelings for him, but she hoped that he could find someone that could. She walked back into the bedroom and collapsed next to Loki, who was shockingly asleep.

"Nice." she said as she ran her fingers through his hair. He stirred a little and she stopped. "Well, as long as you're here." she curled up close to him and rested her head on his chest, falling asleep to the sound of his heartbeat.

The blowtorch sent off small sparks as Tony worked on the new Iron Man suit. He was putting on the silver alloy armor again, he had found that it was a lot more resistant to damage and the color was nice too. He put the final touches on the arc reactor and then stood back to examine his work. He'd spent the past week on it, he made sure it was better than the last one. He'd made sure it could be called to him through the bracelets, which were the most prominent feature.

"Perfecto!" he said as he took his goggles off and placed them on the table.

"Does that not feel uncomfortable when you wear that?" Loki asked as he walked into the large workroom, the basement of the Stark tower.

"Nope, you can barely feel it." he knocked on the chest area and it sent an echo throughout the room.

"That's how you blocked all those strikes against you? I might need you to build me one of those." Loki said as he repeated Tony's action of knocking on it.

"I'll think about it, but I make no promises. I'd be scared to see what you would do with one of these." he swung his body around with his arm extended, pointing to the other Iron Man suits that lined the wall. "I'm also scared to find out what you've been doing with agent Romanoff." he said.

"What?" Loki asked.

"Oh please, you really think I was drunk? Amateur. I wasn't even remotely close." Tony scoffed.

"Oh really? Then didn't you try and wake me up?" Loki asked, folding his arms across his chest.

Tony bit his cheek, trying to find an answer. "I think it would have been a tad awkward, you waking up to see me leaning over you, even though I'm gorgeous." Tony placed his hand on the right side of his head and struck a pose. Loki looked down and laughed quietly.

He shook his head before looking back at him. "I admit, that would have been an awkward incident. What are you working on exactly?"

"I'm making the suit faster." he replied.

"Faster? Isn't it fast enough? Can't it reach Iraq in under an hour?" Loki asked.

"Well, yes. But it needs to be faster, I'm going to test it on myself before I put the same technology on the quinjets."

"You're going to add something like it to the jets? Those things are uncomfortable to ride in, going faster would only make it worse!"

"What happens if we had to get across the country in a hurry? It took Romanoff and Barton a good hour and a half to reach Manhattan, I want to make it where these things can get us to LA in an hour or less." Tony explained. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have some testing to do. If I were you, I'd leave this room, only God knows what will happen when I turn this thing on." Tony shooed him away and as Loki began to walk towards the door, he heard the sound of something like a hatch opening and then the sounds of Tony transforming into the Iron Man suit.

"I could not do something like that." Loki muttered under his breath.

The elevator appeared to take longer than normal to reach the main floor, when he arrived, he saw Bruce speaking with Pepper.

"I don't know what to do, I've just been feeling off lately." he said.

"How off are we talking? Like you might transform into the Other Guy at any moment? Bruce, don't worry, just let your mind fly free." she said with a warm smile.

"I'll try, I've been able to keep it under control since the last time, maybe I won't have to go through that again." he said. "Oh, good morning, Loki." Bruce said when he realized he was present in the room as well.

"Same to you, Dr. Banner. I hope all is well." he said, trying not to get too close. Even though Bruce had said he was his friend, his body still ached from their little confrontation. "And good morning, Miss Potts, don't we look lovely today." Loki took her hand in his and kissed it lightly, causing Pepper's cheeks to turn crimson.

"It's been good so far. Has Tony tested his suit yet?" she asked.

"Not yet, but I heard him putting it o-." A sound that had to have been a supersonic boom filled the room, as well as half of Manhattan.

"I think it's safe to say that he has indeed tested the Iron Man suit." Bruce said.

There was another boom, this time it was thunder.

"Oh no." Loki said.

"What's wrong?" Pepper asked.

"Thor heard the sound and either it has spooked him or he's trying to prove that he can make the louder sound. He's been known to do that." Loki said. There was another loud boom and then Thor was standing outside, with his hammer in his hand, looking up at the darkened sky.

"Thor! Get in here, now!" Loki yelled as he walked to the door and swung it open.

"I thought I heard something!" Thor retorted.

"Yes, you big oaf, it was Stark trying out one of his new contraptions. You are so embarrassing sometimes." Loki said.

"Oh really? Who's the one who has the horns on their helmet, cow?" Thor said. Loki stopped abruptly and turned on his heel to face his brother.

"At least I don't have wings on mine; my helmet could be used to knock someone out."

"You could double as a bull for someone. Like the time you were the horse, remember?"

"YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T BRING THAT UP AGAIN!"

"Desperate times, call for desperate measures!"

"I ought to-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Pepper shouted. Loki and Thor looked at her with still ferocious expressions on their faces. "I swear to God, you both are like oversized five year olds. Now, we have more important matters to discuss. Loki, have you talked to Barton? Don't you and he and Natasha and agent Renner have a date tonight?" she asked.

"I had completely forgotten about that. I don't have anything to wear." Loki said.

"What happened to the outfit you wore in Germany, where did that go?" Bruce asked.

"That is a wonderful question. I'm sure I can- Oh wait, no I can't. I don't have my magic anymore." Loki frowned.

"I'll help you find something. I'm good at picking out suits and such. Just ask Tony. He wouldn't know what to wear if it weren't for me." Pepper said.

"I appreciate that, Miss Potts." Loki said. "Shall we set off then?" he asked.

"Sounds like an idea to me." she smiled.

Pepper had taken one of Tony's many credit cards. The one thing he had lacked to get for Loki in the clothing department was a tuxedo; he hadn't figured he'd need one and seeing as Loki was much taller than Tony, his wouldn't fit.

They went to the best store that Pepper could think of. She dragged Loki around the store; he actually had lost her once or twice. He felt like a lost puppy, looking for its owner. When he finally did find her for the final time, she had all ready found the items he'd need. A white button up shirt, a black tie, and black pants.

"Go try these on, I'm just guessing by how tall you are that the pants will fit, the tie, we know it will, dressing room's over there." she pointed at the opening in the wall that had "Dressing Area" written above it.

When he had dressed and come out, Pepper clapped and smiled brightly.

"Perfect. You look very nice, Mr. Laufeyson." she said.

"Thank you, Miss Potts." he replied.

"I told you to call me, Pepper, or did I? I've got a horrible memory. Well, just a reminder, call me Pepper." she said.

"Thank you, Pepper." he said.

"Good, now, let's see we still have an hour or two to kill, the date's at six, right?" she asked.

"I believe so. That's what Clint told me, anyway." he said.

"Good, just enough time to teach you how to eat in a social setting." she said.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"We don't have time for questions. Go get back into your other clothes and bring these back out here and I'll pay for them. Hurry!"

"Ok then…" Loki went back inside the dressing room and changed again. He had no idea what Pepper meant by eating in a public place, he wasn't a child, he knew how to eat. Then it donned on him, he was supposed to eat in a high society place, like in Stuttgart. That was what she had meant.

"Ugh." he groaned. He hoped this work, because being human for much longer was going to kill him.

I AM SO SORRY IT TOOK ME FOREVER TO UPDATE! I'm a horrible updater, but yes. This was the final chapter of calm just before it hits. Yes, the next chapter is probably going to be UBER long, so it's gonna take me longer to write. Having to register for college classes next week is going to be tedious as well, then I'm housesitting, but I swear, I'll work on it while I'm there as well as in the spare time I have from now until then. I'm sorry the ending was kind of rushed (I really don't know if it was or not), but yeah, I had to have Thor and Loki have a little spat because I've always wanted to see them act like five year olds…until next time!

-Chivalrous Gypsy

P.S. Happy Loki Day! (Friday the 13th is apparently going to be Loki day from now on...)