A/N: Heyo! It's been a while, eh? Yeah, that is due to circumstances beyond my control. I've actually had this chapter written for a long time (along with the upcoming chapters), but I had a ton of stuff I had to get done in prep for going to my very first year of college and then the fan in my computer broke so I had to send it in for repairs and the day after I got my computer back was move-in day and then there was new student orientation (which was awful and took four days) and then I just had my first two days of class and now I have a little bit of free time for lunch so I thought I'd update. Whew. What a crazy couple of weeks it's been!

Anywho, I hope you enjoy this chapter! :)

A kiss from a stranger in the dark. If that didn't sound like something out of a horror story or a cheesy teen vampire novel, Casey didn't know what did. Somehow, she managed to stay calm enough to not turn into Acacia. At this point she almost wished that she would.

Whoever this stranger was, he was strong and it took all of her strength to get him to even move an inch. When his face finally pulled back, she wanted nothing more than to punch him right in the nose. However, his heavy hands were holding hers to the armrests and punching was not an option. Kicking was still viable though and she raised her bare foot to his chest and did just that. He moved back farther, but was still too close for comfort and impossible to see properly.

"Jarvis!" She yelled, "Jarvis, get Hill!"

There was no response except for the stranger giving a short laugh and stepping back. The moment Casey's hands were free she socked him in the jaw, but it probably hurt her hand a lot more than it hurt his face. He flinched slightly upon impact and she thought she felt one of her recently healed bones crack again.

Leaping from the chair, she searched her memory and what little she could see of the room for something to use as a weapon. When nothing could be found she gave a defiant glare to the still silent man and screamed as loudly as she could. Her mouth was covered with a firm hand after a mere second.

"Honestly, sometimes you are impossible," The man whispered in her ear. Upon hearing the voice, Casey stopped struggling. He allowed for her to slowly turn and face him and when she did she went limp and her eyes began to burn with tears. Gripping his Midgardian-made jacket like it was the last free iPod on Black Friday, she wasn't sure whether to hit him again or kiss him.

One arm wrapped around her waist and held her up and the other gently pushed her hair out of her face.

"Sorry it took me so long," He squeezed her tighter, "But I'm here now. Here for you."

Before any sort of response could come to mind she thought of the files she'd just been reading and the summary Tony had given her. Without a second thought, she let go of his jacket and broke free of his hold. A look of confusion crossed his face and she thought she saw a flash of anger, which made her take another step back.

"Why?" She demanded, "Why did you come?"

"I don't like to think of you as stupid, Casey, but I've told you why already."

"Oh yeah? And how do I know this isn't some trick? That you haven't come to kill me?"

His eyes narrowed at her.

"And why would I do that?"

"According to Stark and the SHIELD files you've already killed hundreds - and tried to kill hundreds more. What's to stop you from getting rid of one pesky girl? I mean, if you didn't kill me then I might tell Thor about you. Acacia already told Hydra all about you."

"Stark, hmm? I didn't realize you two were such good friends," He closed the gap between them and grabbed her wrists, "How do you know I'm not here to kill you?" He chuckled and leaned in closer, "Because every moment away from you has been killing me."

Suddenly he was kissing her again and Casey was letting him.

A year of torture and heartbreak flew away along with all of the things Tony Stark had told her and all the facts she'd read. Nothing else mattered except that he was here now and that she couldn't let go.

"Oh ew!" There was a gagging sound from the door and the kissing couple quickly broke apart and turned to see a blonde woman who was covering her eyes, "If I'd have known that was going on I would have given you a few more minutes. Good grief, I'm scarred!"

Loki sighed.

"Blathen, you're ten minutes early."

"Hill got pretty tired of hearing about all the SHIELD prisoners I ever guarded so she said she had work to do elsewhere. We've got about five minutes before she notices that several security cameras have been running a loop and that Jarvis no longer has access to Casey's room - oh hi Casey! Nice to see you again!"

Casey blinked away the light from the doorway and looked at the peculiar woman. Her extremely long blonde hair seemed to be floating around independant of gravity and her neon green shirt clashed greatly with her green, tutu-like skirt.

"Wow… aren't you… outré."

"Aw, thank you!" The woman turned back to Loki, "We should probs get a move on."

"True enough," He looked Casey in the eye, "I trust that in this escape I won't have to carry you out of the building?"

"Oh shut up, that was one time."

He laughed and they headed for the door. Right as they left the room green magic poured over them. Loki now looked like a security guard, the strange woman took on the guise of a janitor, and Casey…

"Loki, why the heck am I a little girl? With pigtails!"

"You were lost in the building and the friendly custodian found you hiding in her cleaning cupboard. Asking a security guard for assistance, the two Stark employees located your father - our getaway driver - and will take you down to meet him," Loki ran his hand through her hair and it was no longer in pigtails, "Then the guard and the custodian will walk around the corner and two tourists will come back out and meet you at Blathen's apartment."

"I guess you guys have got this planned out," Casey raised an eyebrow, but took the opportunity of her disguise to hold Loki's hand. He smirked.

"Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to the elevator we go," Blathen sung quietly. She turned back to look at Casey, "You probably don't recognize me now, but I'm the one who-"

"Wait, Blathen? Like, Lily Blathen?"

"Yes! I'm the one-"

"You helped me escape the first time!"

"Yes! Loki came looking for help to find you. He would have been totally lost without me. Probably would have ended up in Peru or something."

"Well thanks for taking care of him for me and keeping him out of trouble."

"That was the hard part. He almost killed so many people because he was so busy trying to get to you," Blathen rolled her eyes.

Casey felt Loki's grip on her hand tighten and her stomach filled with dread. Phrases from the files came back to her. Unstable, homicidal, no remorse. She clenched her teeth. That wasn't the Loki she knew though… was it?

In their second meeting he had threatened her multiple times. He'd gone so far as to turn her into Acacia just because he was curious. In Asgard he'd pushed her to her limits because she'd irritated him and nearly locked her in a cell because she'd friendzoned him. Truth be told, there were fewer instances of him being kind to her than of him threatening her.

"You almost killed people?" She shot him a glare.

"I think the key word there is 'almost'. I never actually killed anyone on this particular adventure."

"If we hadn't been in such a rush you would have killed Strucker. And that Mike guy. And Grant Ward. I bet if Garrett was still alive you'd have killed him."

"Loki! You can't just-"

"But I have and I most likely will again," He grabbed her shoulders and spun her to face him, "All of those men had hurt you. They probably would have done much worse to you, given the chance."

"But they didn't. I got out in time - no thanks to you, by the way - and I'm fine now," She wiggled out of his grasp and turned down the corridor. Before she got far, he yanked her into the bathroom and locked the door behind them. Their disguises dropped and Blathen yelped about how they needed to keep moving.

"Casey."

"I don't even know why I'm going with you guys. I'm safer with the Avengers and Captain Rogers wants to-"

"Casey."

"But you don't care about any of that because you're just a big selfish alien with a huge ego. And of all the people in the world you could get to help you you had to pick the most incompetent SHIELD agent of all time!"

"I heard that!"

"Casey, would you please just shut up?"

She turned and looked at him expectantly, eyes flashing gold in a concerning manner. He searched her face for any sign of doubt and was glad to find that she was not completely turned against him.

"Yes, I've killed people. You knew that going into this," He searched for a word, "This relationship. So why are you now questioning me?"

"Better question: why in the world would you try to kill all those people just trying to help me out? You had no need hurt anyone."

"You can't seem to grasp this simple fact," He took her face in his hands, perhaps a little more roughly than he should have, "I love you."

Her eyes stayed their natural color and she stared at him.

"What does that have to do with-?"

"On the way to the Hydra base I came across a picture of you," He gently rubbed his thumb over one of the bruises on her cheek and managed to make it fade away with magic, "I've never in my life been so scared as when I was looking at that picture. You were hurt and there was nothing I could do about it," His jaw set, he tried to make her understand with just a stare, "I don't care for feeling helpless. When I saw the men who'd hurt you it was all I could do to keep myself from obliterating them beyond recognition."

"You still didn't need to hurt them."

He laughed in a somewhat menacing fashion.

"No," He admitted, "But I wanted to."

Her mouth snapped shut at that and he was suddenly reminded of his vow that they would sit down and talk things through rather than take part in this kind of argument. He ran a hand through his hair and met her eyes.

"Listen, you may be safe here, but I am anything but. Will you come with me to Detective Blathen's home so we can have a discussion? If you feel as though you must, I will not object if you wish to come back here when we are done," It was a small lie. He wouldn't object much. While he did want her by his side after all this time apart he couldn't deny that she was most likely safest with the Avengers. Even if they were Earth's Mightiest Pests.

"Ha!" Casey snorted, "Talk things through like rational people? Who are you and what have you done to my Loki?"

Exiting the small bathroom, they found Blathen playing around with the thermostat. She looked immensely bored, but at least she hadn't wandered off. They set off for the elevator and were on their way to the ground floor.

As they went Casey rubbed her eyes tiredly and for the first time Loki noticed that they were puffy and red. He was tempted to demand who or what had made her cry, but he managed to hold off. There would be plenty of time at Blathen's apartment to review everything. He hoped that Casey would be willing to share everything after her outburst… and his sneaking up on her. In hindsight, surprising her in the dark probably wasn't the best way to say "hello" after she'd spent a year being tortured.

A/N: Thanks for reading! :)