Darlings... darlings, I am astounded! The story's up to 7.500 views... in less than two months. Gawd I'm baffled. I love you guys! Really, without you this story would be nothing, and I love you all so much. Thank you, lovelies!

But I'll let y'all enjoy this next little installment. Don't forget to toss me a bone and let me know how I did... or was that a review?

P.S. Every Thor/The Avengers/Thor: The Dark World character belongs to the wonderful Marvel. I own nothing, except my OCs :)

Entry #20

"He's a criminal and no matter how much you love him that's not gonna change."

"You fucking asshole..." she hissed, turning on her heels and storming off.

oOo

Location: S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier

Date: May 19, 2012

"Dearest..."

The sound of that voice startled Kara out of her own thoughts, and when she raised her blurred gaze she finally realized that – despite not having consciously intended it – her feet had somehow led her back to the detention wing. Seeing Loki standing there, his slender brows twitching into a frown and his gaze gaining that angry shade she had seen before whenever he perceived that something or someone posed a threat to her, the young woman felt a shaky breath leaving her lungs. Fighting back every urge she had to just tear that door away and run into his arms, she approached the steel and glass case without a word. She knew there was no need for her to say anything... he always knew when she was upset anyway.

Briefly clenching his jaw in anger at the sight of her tear-stained face, the dark haired Æsir ultimately allowed his expression to melt into that loving shade he reserved just for her. Whoever had had the gall to make her cry would certainly regret the day they had been born.

"What has you so upset, love?" he asked, relishing in the fact that she still melted at the sound of his velvety tone.

When she failed to reply despite parting her lips and he sighted fresh tears overflowing from her eyes, his expression took on a vague sorrowful shade whilst he extended an arm toward her. No matter what he had been through, despite all of his own pain and sorrow – which would have likely destroyed any other man – it still hurt him to see her suffer, for whatever reason.

"Come here..." he said softly.

At his words and gesture she seemed to come back to life and for a moment he sighted the Kara he knew when she reached to the console nearby and opened the cage without the slightest hint of hesitation. The next thing he knew, she took a couple of steps toward him only to end up breaking into a run which caused her to slam into him at full speed, the door ultimately closing behind her; fortunately he was much too strong for her to actually move him, which only left him to lock her in a warm, soothing embrace while she silently cried in his arms.

"Hush, dearest... don't cry..." he pleaded in a soft whisper, kissing the side of her head.

Slithering into her mind even as he spoke, he was actually grateful that she had not been looking at him to sight the murderous spark in his eyes. Those fools... he was truly astounded as to how utterly stupid they were to discard her warnings, even if it suited his plans perfectly. No matter; their idiocy would be their downfall and he would take so much pleasure in showing them what it meant to anger the God of Chaos.

But she... she was getting too dangerously close to the truth and for a moment he fell prey to his own fear, which his expression betrayed entirely as did the way he involuntarily tightened his hold on her. And he knew then that he no longer had any other option... he had to win. At least that way, even if she found out the whole truth, he could still keep her safe by fulfilling his part of the deal with Thanos and delivering the Tesseract.

"Don't ask any more questions..." he suddenly said.

When she tried to lean back and look into his eyes, he pressed a hand to the back of her head to hold her in place, instead whispering in her ear.

"Please, love... there is no other way. Trust me, as you once did..."

It was only when he felt her relaxing in his arms – a clear sign that she had given in to his pleas – that he leaned back to look at her; the sight of her parting her lips to speak simply in her attempt to be stubborn had him huff amusedly while a smile blossomed on his expression, before he placed his hands to her cheeks and pulled her into a loving but utterly needy kiss. He almost chuckled, actually, at the sound of her surprised mewl, before he felt her succumbing in the span of just a few moments.

In a sudden rush of euphoria she again wrapped her arms around his neck, arching her back to press herself to his body as much as his attire allowed her to; she was so happy – so happy, in far longer than she cared to remember – that she could have actually cried. And then she felt his hand tangling into her hair while his other arm settled around her waist.

'Should I remove these bothersome clothes, dearest?'

The sound of his seductive tone ringing in her head had her widen her eyes and part their lips, only to sight that mischievous spark in his gaze – which had by now somehow reverted to its original emerald shade – that she had so missed seeing.

"What..." she began only to have him press his lips to hers again to silence her.

"I have nothing to hide..." he retorted, trailing a finger along her neck and down toward the glimpse of cleavage that her uniform showed. "Although I suppose I should feel hurt that you considered another man's body attractive enough to try and forget me."

"Don't..." she said sternly, pointing a finger at his face. "Don't even go there... since you invited yourself into my memories, you know why I did it."

His utterly amused chuckle suddenly made her realize that he had been joking and for a moment she felt like smacking him, while her lips pursed into that pout she knew he simply adored.

"Jerk..." she muttered in annoyance.

It was at that word that she felt his finger hooking into her uniform's zipper, tugging it down until he'd exposed her chest almost entirely. When she grabbed his hand to try and deter him, she now felt his other hand creeping along the back of her head until he pushed her costume's collar away from her neck, his eyes moving to the mark he had left behind.

"Do you have any idea what you do to me, dearest?"

His unexpected question caught her off guard and all she could do was stare at him in confusion. When he leaned down to press a kiss to that tattoo, she arched her back in an attempt to use his body as cover for the fact that he had practically rendered her almost half naked in a place where anyone could see them. But despite being nervous about Fury or Coulson or Steve walking in on them, she couldn't hold back a shudder when pleasure coursed through her body like an electric jolt.

"I need you safe, Kara..." he said with a sudden mixture of sorrow and seriousness in his tone, his lips brushing against her neck as he spoke. "If I lose you, I don't know what I would be capable of doing... I need you safe, and for that I need you to trust me. I have no choice..."

Sighing lightly, the young woman ultimately wrapped her free arm around him, lovingly stroking his hair.

"I trust you..."

She was probably signing over the fate of the entire human race with those words; but how could she not trust him when she loved him so much that her heart felt about to burst from the intensity of her feelings? The moment of silence that followed gave her such an odd vibe from him... she could practically feel just how overwhelmingly relieved he was to hear that.

"I'll always trust you, no matter what happens..." she now said, before even fully realizing she'd wanted to speak.

When he leaned back and she sighted that loving expression on his face, she found it impossible to hold back a smile. It was almost as if she could see that storm of emotions in his chest settling down, and for a second he actually appeared more vulnerable than she'd ever seen him before. Leaning up to press her forehead against his, she briefly pecked his lips.

"I love you." she whispered with a soft sigh. "God, I love you so much..."

"I do appreciate your honesty, love... but really, you can call me Loki." he retorted on a somewhat humorous tone.

His words had the effect he was hoping for and his ears completely relished in the sound of her laughter; oh, it felt so good to finally hear that joyful shade in her tone again.

"You incorrigible jester..."

"You're the one who wanted the God of Mischief, dearest." he teased, hooking his finger in her suit again.

"Stop it." she said widening her eyes and tightening her hold on his hand, although she couldn't fully erase the smile on her lips.

"Mm... I missed that wonderful shade of red in your cheeks."

His devious smile grew when his taunt only made her blush even deeper. Finally, it seemed, she was starting to recover and once more become the Kara he had always known and loved. That last thought, however, made him blink in surprise. Love...? Had she actually managed to instill that sentiment in him without him even noticing it?

"What's wrong?"

Her concerned tone and that worried expression on her face snapped him out of his contemplation, and he shook his head with a smile while retrieving his hand from hers and zipping her suit back up.

"Nothing, dearest..."

When she looked from his hand back to his face in confusion at his unexpected gesture, he exhaled an amused huff and brushed the back of his slender fingers over her cheek.

"Oh, I wouldn't mind if it happened here, love... but your body is for my eyes alone."

OoOoO

"Surprise!"

The sound of a male voice behind her chair, as well as the sight of a fiery red rose dangling upside down in front of her eyes, had Kara lean back and glance over her shoulder to sight Tony standing next to her. For a moment she merely frowned at him, but when he gave her that disarming, pleading gaze she sighed and closed the file she had been studying regarding Selvig's work with the Tesseract.

"What for?" she asked.

"Because I was a fucking asshole..." he replied, extending his arm to offer her the flower.

Despite accepting the rose, she offered him a pointed gaze even while trying to hold back a smile.

"You're still a jerk."

It was the humorous tone in her voice that ultimately made him smile while he grasped her hand and kissed the back of her fingers, winking at her.

"That's why women love me."

"I feel so sorry for Pepper, right now." she retorted sarcastically.

The way he wrinkled his nose at her finally made her crack a smile, although her humor was short lived when Tony now crossed his arms and leaned against the table.

"Look, I may have been an asshole about it, but I didn't say that just to be an asshole."

"I know how this looks to all of you... that it's like I'm letting my feelings cloud my mind. And frankly... that's a high possibility. I don't expect any of you to understand, because you're not in the same situation. If it had been Pepper and you were in my shoes, then you would understand just how hard it is to keep a clear head."

"Kara..."

"The bottom line, Tony, is that I know him better than you or Nick or Steve or anyone else. I think it's pretty safe to say that I know him even a bit better than Thor does. No matter how much he desires to rule, he wouldn't do this without someone forcing him into it."

"Why not?"

"Because he knows Earth is my home... yeah, he doesn't care at all about any other human alive, I know that. But he still wouldn't try to rule them, because of me... because he knows that would hurt me."

"And you're positive he would never do anything to hurt you." Tony retorted skeptically.

"You're something else, you know that?" she replied with a slightly astounded smile. "You're trying to find a scientific explanation for feelings... I just know. That's not something you can put into words. You should be familiar with the fact that when you love someone, you trust them no matter what. I expected Steve or Nick to not understand that... but you?"

The following moments passed in silence while the male merely watched her pointedly.

"So what are you going to do?" he finally asked.

"I don't know... he's a prisoner for now, so all I can do is wait and see what happens. One thing I can already tell you, though. He won't say where the Tesseract is... no matter what kind of mind games you try to play with him. In fact, he will likely use those games against you in a very brutal way."

"I'm curious... just what is he?"

"Well our ancestors called him a god... as they called Thor and the rest of his family. They believed he ruled over mischief, lies and chaos; he wasn't exactly the friendliest of those they worshiped. His worshipers were often merchants or what people later called scholars, because they valued his intelligence and cunning nature."

"And you're sure he's not just manipulating you?"

His unflinching skepticism ultimately drew a brief chuckle from the young woman.

"Yes... you see, that's what first caught his attention about me. That he can't hide anything because I'll just invade his mind and find out anyway."

Well, that wasn't entirely true given that Loki could easily overpower her in a telepathic battle, but she really just wanted to end that conversation before Tony got the idea to ask any really uncomfortable questions.

'Mm... I like your renewed boldness, dearest.'

Barely holding back from jolting in surprise when Loki's amused voice resounded in her mind, Kara instead clenched her jaw.

'Who invited you in here?'

His velvety chuckle was all she could hear before he went utterly silent, leaving her to wonder if he'd really gotten out of her head or not.

Sooo today's replies for my darlings :D

1. SuperNaturalxxFreak - You don't know how happy it makes me to know that you enjoy reading the chapters a second time as much as you did when you read them the first time. And I'm so glad to hear that the scenes are indeed making you go through the various moods they're meant for. If they didn't, I would consider that I failed my purpose in writing this whole thing.

As for helping me, not to worry, we have a lot of fun work ahead of us, not just for this story ;) I'm looking forward to working with you on other stories as well, darling :D

2. EverlastingMuse - Aww don't worry darling. As I said, Steve's too nice to stay upset with her for long. He'll probably get over it at some point ;)

But I'm glad to hear you're conflicted, because that means I did something well with the Kara/Loki pairing. I'm hoping you enjoyed this chapter as well and I'm looking forward to hearing from you again :D

3. Callie Cat - I am so happy to hear that my story made you fond of Loki, that's actually one of the reasons I even started writing it, to hopefully convey his personality in a way that would make people dislike him less.

On a side note, I actually do cry whenever I write a tear jerking scene and I smile or grin constantly when I have to write a happy scene. If you as the writer don't go through the emotions you're trying to convey to your readers, then you're not doing something right and you need to redo that scene. So believe me when I say that all the scenes that made you tear up, or gave you that knot in your throat, that urge to cry, were written while I was tearing up and barely even able to see the screen before my eyes xD

And of course you can share it on tumblr, I'd actually be honored. I have a tumblr myself, but I haven't yet put up anything on it, it's mostly just so I can follow a few blogs that I love there. My main "base of operations" is here or on Twitter where I'm stalking Tom ;)

But yes, I am terribly honored that you would want to share a link to the story there, darling, so go right ahead. I hope you enjoyed this chapter too and I can't wait to hear from you again :)

4. MomentsInSilence - Haha my feelings exactly, darling. I hope I didn't make Tony come across as too much of an asshole and that his fans don't hate my guts now. But such are the risks...

Thank you for the short but utterly expressive review, darling. I'm looking forward to hearing from you again :D

So these are my replies for today. Cheers, lovelies~ ( ˘ ³˘)❤