They decided on watching Child's Play that evening. Loki used some sort of subconscious technique to plant the idea into everyone else's minds, which Clint found exceptionally creepy. Although Natasha had told him she was rather strong in that aspect as well, he knew Loki's purposes were only for his own benefit.

As they turned off the lights, gathered together in the home theatre with popcorn and drinks, he noticed Tony looking rather agitated.

"Hey, you okay?" Clint nudged him as he sat down.

Tony didn't answer, just shrugging.

The movie began to play, everyone settling down in their seats in their pajamas and under blankets. Halfway through the movie, amidst the screams and tense music playing on screen, there was a faint creaking noise.

A couple of them glanced around, Bruce looking particularly nervous. Steve was rigid in his armchair. Clint smirked as he saw Loki pretending to be startled as well.

Then, as the movie became quiet, as if something was going to pop-up at any moment, they heard the creak again. But this time it was louder. A few others turned around again; he saw Thor jump slightly in Jane's arms. She didn't seem any less nervous than him.

Pepper was holding onto Tony tightly, hiding her eyes. Tony was tense, staring straight at the screen. Under Clint's arm, Natasha was relaxed, nibbling on some popcorn; she hated horror movies, not because they frightened her, but because they bored her.

A while later, the end credits began to roll. Tony shut it off quickly and turned the lights on as bright as they would go. Clint had to admit, Tony was playing his part very well.

"Well, guys, what should we do now?" Natasha said, yawning. "It's not even midnight yet. Should we watch another movie? At least it'll put me to sleep," she muttered under her breath.

"Uh, I'd rather not." Bruce put his glasses back on shakily. He looked to Tony with pleading eyes.

Loki was looking back and forth between them. Clint could tell he was assessing whether or not they were frightened enough. Apparently, he wasn't satisfied as he whispered something to Thor.

"Which video game?" Thor said loudly.

Loki smacked him, scowling. He muttered something quietly, leaning closer to his brother's ear.

Thor nodded. "Tony, do you have a video game called Bioshock?"

AAAAAAA

"SHIT, SHIT! WHAT THE HELL?" Clint almost fell over in fits of laughter as Steve screamed at the screen. Steve was playing Bioshock 2 with Natasha and jumped as a Splicer appeared on screen.

"Christ, Steve." Tony muttered, straightening himself as if he didn't get startled when Steve yelled.

Everyone was gathered around the large screen, watching the video game being played. It was nearing midnight, and they were getting tired. Jane was nodding off against Thor, who was still eating some chips. Clint counted five yawns from Pepper the past half hour.

He tried to catch Loki's eye to tell him to hurry the scaring along. Just then, the door of the game room swung shut, the lights flickering. Outside, the wind was still blowing and the rain was pouring heavily. Clint knew that the others would think that all of that was because of the storm.

"Well, that was weird," Bruce mumbled, tugging a cushion closer to himself. He wasn't trying to pretend to be un-frightened like Thor, who was still rigid under Jane.

Then, the power went out, the game screen going dark. The whole room was black for a second before the emergency lights came on. The lights were an eerie fluorescent white.

"Power outage. Of course." Steve tossed the game controller down, rubbing his eyes. "We should just sleep now. Can't do anything without electricity."

Natasha shrugged and left, not glancing back to see if anyone was following her. Clint knew she wouldn't be afraid of the horror movie, or anything else, but Loki was convinced that he could get her.

Apparently Loki was right, as a minute later they heard a blood-curdling scream. They all rushed out into the hallway to the source of the scream.

Natasha was nowhere to be found. There was a creepy doll on the stairs where Loki had planted it. Oddly, it was smiling. Unlike before.

"Natasha?" Clint scanned the area, a little bit worried. "Natasha, this isn't funny. Come out. Please."

Loki was bemused, Clint could tell, but was trying to hide it.

Then, there was another cry, this time in the kitchen. They hurried there, Clint in the lead. Another doll was placed on the island, a mysterious grin on its face again.

Tony's eyes were wide, looking over Clint's shoulder in the direction of the windows. Outside, was a frightening figure: white-faced, long, black hair, dressed in a beige cloak. Its face was bony, with empty eye sockets and protruding cheekbones. But the most startling thing was the blood, dripping down its face and onto the window.

Clint screamed (though later he wouldn't admit he did), and ducked down by the counters. The other guys ran out, shoving each other as they did. Thor dropped Jane, who had been clutching onto him.

Loki frowned, stepping closer to the windows. As he went up to the figure, he sighed, rolling his eyes. Behind him, a figure in a black cloak dropped down from the ceiling, landing soundlessly. Before Clint could say anything, the figure tapped Loki on the shoulder. Loki turned around, exclaiming in shock as he did and stumbling back into the glass of the window.

A second later, he scowled. "Romanoff."

"Odinson." Natasha pulled the cloak off, revealing her bright red ponytail and pajamas. "Nice try, kid. But you know me; I love scaring people."

A grin broke out on his face. "Nicely played." He held out his hand, and she shook it. "This isn't over."

"Oh, I know." She turned to the counters. "Clint, you can come out now."

He stood up quickly, pretending nothing happened. "Good job, Nat. Were the other girls in on it too?"

There were shouts and sounds of people running from the guys upstairs. Clint guessed they were.

"How did you find out?"

Natasha pointed to a spot in the corner of the room. "I hacked into the camera feed. Tony may be a genius when it comes to technology, but I'd say I'm not bad. As well, Jane and Pepper like horror movies. Just so you know."

"We did that for nothing, didn't we?" Clint said to Loki as they headed to their rooms.

Loki sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "The things I do are never for nothing, Clinton."

AAAAAAA

"Can't sleep?" Steve looked up from his book as Natasha entered his room.

She clasped her hands together, rolling her ankle around. "A bit restless, yeah." The dim light on his nightstand accentuated the shadows under eyes.

He set his book aside, patting a spot on his bed.

She sat, pursing her lips. "I have a problem, Steve."

"Don't trust Jane?"

"She's still with Thor. I didn't want to have to pull their lips apart from each other."

Steve knew that it wasn't the reason Natasha had come to him for advice. It took her a while to warm up to people, and didn't have many close friends as a result. It felt good to have her feel comfortable enough around him to trust him.

When he and her first met, it was in their freshman year. He had moved from Brooklyn with his mother, so he didn't know anyone at Marvel High School. Everyone already had their own groups of friends from elementary school. Steve had been eating alone for the first month until Natasha had found a spot beside him in the cafeteria.

They began talking and became friends soon enough. Then Clint came along (obviously for Natasha), and their lunch group expanded to three. Steve and Natasha eventually drifted apart until their senior year, when they had a few classes together. By now, they were closer than they'd been before.

"I have some guy troubles." She made a face. "God, I sound like Pepper. She always has those with Tony. Anyway, I wondered if you could give me some insight."

Steve nodded. "Go on."

"Clint and my relationship is so… weird. I mean, Pepper and Tony had perfect for each other; her calmness and maturity and his energy and immaturity. Jane and Thor are inseparable. Even you and your girlfriend have such a nice relationship."

Natasha looked the most troubled that Steve had ever seen her. Never had he heard her talk about her insecurities with him.

"And Loki is a whole new problem," she said finally, after taking a deep breath. "I think he might have a thing for me."

"Do you have a thing for him?" Steve responded unsurely. He didn't want her to get angry.

Thankfully, she just sighed. "I don't think so. It's just so weird. I'm usually the one being flirted at, but this is only the second person I've ever… flirted back to, in a way."

"Have you told Clint?"

"Of course not," Natasha scoffed. She began to retie her ponytail. "Don't get me wrong, I really like Clint. These feelings for Loki are probably just late-night thoughts." Her hand slipped and the hair tie flew across the bed.

Steve handed it back to her. "You fumbled. You should probably get some sleep."

She nodded, quickly tying her hair up. "Yeah. Yeah, okay. Thanks." As she stepped out, she turned back and said, "Don't tell anyone, by the way. I don't want Clint all over my ass about this."

"Definitely."

After she left, he picked his book back up, and tried to concentrate. After a while, he found that he'd read the same line three times. Rubbing his tiring eyes, Steve picked his phone up from where it was charging.

It was one in the morning, which meant it was four in Manhattan. Peggy was definitely asleep by now. He idly went through phone's photo album, looking through pictures of him and Peggy together. Most of their pictures were on Peggy's phone, but there were a few from their trip to Coney Island the summer before.

Steve almost forgot that Bucky and his girlfriend at the time had gone with them as well. He went through the album, a smile spreading across his face at a few silly pictures of the four of them.

It had been two months, but Steve still missed Bucky a lot.

As his eyes watered, Steve chuckled breathily to himself. "You're such a jerk, Buck. Making me cry in the middle of the night."

AAAAAAA

Their last days in Malibu were spent mainly indoors, as the rain was relentless. On the last day, the clouds finally parted and the sun shone through. It was a warm day, at 68 degrees. The wind let up as well, so they decided to go down to the beach.

Everyone was outside. It seemed like all of the residents of the area surrounding Point Dume were on the beach. After a week of being stuck inside for days, everyone was dying to get some fresh air.

The seven students of Marvel High had to weave through people to find a quiet spot on the beach. They decided to explore the coves as a group, trekking through the sand and onto the cliffs.

Steve and Clint led the way, and trailing behind was Thor and Jane, holding hands. Following them were Tony and Bruce, chatting excitedly about the potential chemicals they could find in the depths of the ocean below. Pepper had her arms crossed, lagging behind her boyfriend and walking with Natasha instead.

"So I told you I filmed him getting scared by our Bloody Mary in the washroom, right?" Pepper smirked. "I posted it on Twitter and it's gotten fifty retweets already. They're mainly the people who've been teased by Tony before."

Natasha grinned. "Oh, did Jane tell you she caught Thor singing in the showers? Apparently, he has a very nice baritone voice."

"Exchanging gossip, are we?" Loki came up between the girls, a smug smile on his face. He turned to Pepper. "Did you know that Natasha's ex-boyfriend was arrested two months ago? Rumour has it that brought a gun to his school and was planning to shoot his current girlfriend's ex."

Pepper looked between the other two, an uneasy expression on her face. "Natasha?"

The redhead grimaced. "Alexei was the jealous type," was all she said.

"Pep! Take some pictures of me and Bruce with the cool background." Tony waved to his girlfriend, who gave Natasha an apologetic look.

As soon as she left, Natasha's grimace turned into a scowl. "What do you want, Loki?"

"Must there be a reason for me to speak with my favourite Russian?" Loki's face was innocent as a child's.

They trekked further on the cliffs, passing by several tourists snapping pictures of the horizon view. Clint and Steve were so much further in than the rest that they were only figures in the grassy distance. Thor and Jane were posing with Tony, Bruce, and Pepper, taking photos of one another.

Natasha and Loki stood off to the side, observing their friends run around childishly, giggling as Thor hauled Jane onto his shoulders. Tony did the same with Pepper, and Bruce took the photos.

"They're like a lot of ten year-olds," Loki remarked, looking on with his arms crossed. "How about we take a picture?"

"What?"

"A photo. Together." He gestured to the two of them, then pulled out his phone. He held it out, turning the camera view to face them.

Reluctantly, at Loki's expectant smile, she moved closer to him. He took a few pictures, each with them making silly faces.

The moment he put his phone away, Natasha's smile dropped, and she made her way to Clint and Steve. Loki was left alone at the edge of the cliff. Thor went over and slung his arm around his brother, gesturing for Bruce to take a picture of them together.

After he took it, Loki shrugged Thor off, and jogged to catch up with Natasha.

"Honest to God, Loki. What do you want?" She quickened her pace, though Loki easily matched her strides with his long legs.

"I apologize if my presence is unwanted." Even when Natasha nodded, he continued to speak. "How are you and Clint faring?"

Clenching her teeth, she answered as calmly as she could: "We're fine. Thanks for your concern."

"Such anger." Loki was enjoying himself.

"Don't you have a girlfriend?"

His expression became confused. "Where could that question possibly have arisen from?"

Natasha didn't answer, looking straight ahead.

Loki sighed. "I don't know what you're talking about, Natasha."

"That girl at your New Year's party: Sigyn. Weren't you guys, you know, together?"

For the first time, Loki didn't seem to know what to say. A few long moments later, just a few steps from where Steve and Clint were standing, looking over the cliff, he responded.

"I haven't seen or spoken to her since January." He was hesitant, but went on: "I used to fancy her a few years ago."

"And a few months ago as well."

"Yes, perhaps so."

Natasha looked Loki full in the face for the first time that morning. He had sunglasses on, so she couldn't see his eyes, though she suspected they weren't focused on her. Despite what he was saying, she knew Loki still had a crush on Sigyn.

But Natasha couldn't tell if he had any feelings for her. Was he just flirting playfully? Being friendly? It was odd for her. Usually, she could tell if someone was hitting on her. With Loki, it was difficult to say – or perhaps she didn't want to accept the fact he might like her.

Either way, if she told Clint any of it, Clint would become jealous. Not the yelling kind of jealous, but the cold, pouty kind. As well, Clint could hold a grudge that lasted a lifetime or two.

"You're such an ass," Natasha muttered quietly to herself.

"Did you say something?"

She focused her gaze on the others. "Why's Thor lying in the grass?"

Loki's eyes flickered over to his brother and made a face. "I am as curious as you… actually, I'm not. I'd rather return to the beach." And he left without a look at Natasha, his tall, lean figure like a tall piece of grass amidst the field.

"HEY, TASH!" Clint jogged closer to her, but was still a distance away. "Come on! We're going to go down to explore the coves."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming." She glanced back at where she last saw Loki, but found that she couldn't see him anymore. "Yeah. Coming."

.

A/N: Do you guys really mind I kind of skip a few weeks in this story? Like, if I were to write their prom in a couple chapters, would it be going too fast?