Chapter Twenty Six

The next day, Tabby was enjoying a much-needed girls' day with Jane, Darcy, Pepper, and Natasha. They had invite Agent Hill mostly out of guilt, but she didn't seem too eager to leave Fury's side. No one cared to question her reasoning.

"So Loki really ruined all of your clothes? Where did you get the clothes you're wearing now? You didn't go to the mall naked, did you? My cousin tried that once. He got arrested." Darcy commented, eying Tabby curiously.

Tabby laughed, shaking her head. "No, I'm trying to keep a low-profile these days. New York is a lot different than Princeton. I sent Loki out to get me something to wear this morning."

"You told a demi-god what to do?" Natasha asked, arching an eyebrow in disbelief, "How the hell did you manage that?"

The younger girl shrugged, an amused smile playing on her lips."I bribed him with waffles."

"Waffles?" Natasha and Pepper echoed in disbelief.

Darcy just laughed. "Hmm. A demi-god with an exceptional love for breakfast food. Where have I heard that before? Are we completely sure that Loki is adopted?"

"Wait, he's adopted?" Tabby questioned, her eyebrows shooting up as she stared at her friends inquisitively.

The women exchanged awkward glances before Jane explained.

"He didn't tell you that? He's really big on reminding everyone else about it. He won't admit it, but that's pretty much the entire reason that he tried to take over the world. From what I've gathered, their dad favored Thor, or at least, Loki saw it that way, and decided to take his jealousy out on Earth. Didn't you ever talk about your families?" She asked softly.

Tabby shook her head quickly. "No; I just thought that he was embarrassed of his family. Fuck," she sighed, unsure of how to respond to the new found information, "is this like, a big deal? Do you think that I should say something to him?"

"No." Jane, Natasha, and Pepper chorused in unison.

Tabby met their answer with a questioning gaze.

Darcy broke out in laughter. "What? Do you guys think that Loki will kill us for telling Tabby the truth? We could just make it up to him with a plate of waffles. I don't see the problem."

Jane rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter if you don't see the problem. This just isn't our business. If Loki wants to tell Tabby, he can. Otherwise, I'd like him to think that I'm staying out of it. I'm already afraid of meeting Thor's parents. I don't need an angry younger brother-in-law on top of that."

"Thor's parents are coming to the wedding? Are they…" Pepper started, pausing to find the correct way to word her question, "should I keep Tony away from them?"

Jane smiled. "That might not be a bad idea."

Natasha snorted. "You should keep Tony away from weddings in general. He's either going to drink way too much champagne and propose to Pepper again, or he's going to make a game out of embarrassing Steve in front of every female in the room."

"You're probably right," Pepper sighed, rolling her eyes, "but I have to at least try to integrate him into society. If I spent all of my time babysitting that man, I'd have myself committed to a mental institution within a month."

"Wasn't that your job for like, years?" Darcy reminded Pepper.

Pepper shrugged. "That was different. That was paperwork and meetings. At that point, I was just happy if he showed up to work sober at least once a week. Now I have to worry about Thor smashing him through a wall if he says the wrong thing."

"If I were you, I'd worry more about Banner. Did you know that Tony invented a new game that involves shocking him every time he falls asleep in the lab? One of these days, he's going to get crushed. I can't say that I won't feel too sorry for him when he does, either." Natasha remarked.

"Hey! Let's not forget that I can sort of get Bruce to calm down. Besides, he's usually super in control of his emotions. I don't think Tony shocking him is going to do that much damage. Although," Tabby mused, briefly glancing in the store windows that the group walked by, "Bruce is spending a lot of time in the lab. Did he sleep there last night? I haven't heard from him since yesterday afternoon."

Jane nodded her head meekly. "He thinks that he's on the brink of discovering how to control the Hulk. He hasn't left the lab since about four o'clock yesterday. You might want to check on him. According to Tony, he gets on these spells where he'll stay in the lab until he practically collapses."

Tabby raised her eyebrows. "Who the hell could get so passionate about science?"

Jane cast her a mockingly offended glare while Darcy burst out laughing.

"So, Jane, do you have any idea where you want to buy your wedding dress?" Pepper questioned, not looking up from her phone as the rest of the group turned to look at Jane expectantly.

The scientist faltered at the unexpected subject change, but quickly responded.

"I have absolutely no idea."

Pepper glanced up at her appraisingly before smiling down at her phone.

"Perfect. I just got in touch with Alexie Marcel. He has some spare time and he's always willing to help out a friend of Tony's. He and Tony spent some time in the slammer together during the less glamorous parts of the 90's."

"You mean the same designer that has worked with real, live princesses? The designer that got mentioned at least twice during the Oscars?" Darcy demanded, her eyes widening as she looked around the group, gauging whether or not anyone was as excited as she was.

Tabby gaped at Pepper as well, just as surprised by her statement as Darcy.

Jane, on the other hand, simply looked confused.

"I don't think I've ever heard of him."

Natasha nodded, looking relieved that she was not the only one who was clueless on the subject matter.

"I'm not really crazy about designer things, either, but his stuff is actually really nice. It's simple, it's elegant - it's hard to go wrong with that combination. And if you don't like the sketch, he won't be offended. Alexie is a nice guy. He understands that everyone has their own tastes." Pepper assured Jane with a small smile, shepherding the group in the direction of said designer's building.

Tabby watched the rest of the group as they squabbled over the second challenge they would have to face; the bridesmaid dresses. She couldn't help but smile as Natasha argued against any color that would make her look like a 'tropical fruit'.

These were actually her friends.

Her female friends.

She hadn't even had to flirt in order to gain their friendship!

A smile crept across her face.

She may have made a lot of mistakes in her life. She may have dated all the wrong guys and sought the company of all the wrong people. She may have studied the wrong chapters for every test she had ever taken and she may have read the comic section of the newspaper instead of beginning the massive list of books she had always meant to read. Despite all of this, however, she had done something that she considered infinitely more important than any of those things: she had turned her life into something she was extremely and unapologetically proud of.

With a small laugh, she followed her friends into Alexie Marcel's office.

"Banner, I think you should consider taking a break. You've been working for hours and you know that you get fairly temperamental when you go more than twenty-four hours without any sleep. I don't mind it, but Tasha is always having a meltdown about it. She really thinks that you're trying to kill her. Why isn't she afraid that I'm trying to kill her? How could she trust me more than you? No offence, buddy, but come on, I could vaporize her with one flick of a switch!" Tony muttered, pacing around the lab as his mind reeled in a completely different direction.

Bruce glanced at Tony for a moment before deciding that the billionaire wouldn't bother him about the idea of taking a break for a little while longer. Tony's short attention span was finally benefiting the scientist.

As Tony continued to ramble on about his 'intimidating' qualities, Bruce glowered at the jumble of information on the whiteboard.

It didn't make sense.

None of it.

With a frustrated sigh, he ripped off his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose.

There had to be an answer.

He hadn't magically turned into the Hulk one day, he had done this to himself. Science had led him down the road to the serum and now science was going to lead him to the road towards a normal life; a life without the other guy.

There was no other choice.

It was the only way he could possibly keep Tabby.

As long as the Hulk existed, the danger of losing everything existed.

As Bruce hunched over the scattered papers lying on the table before him, the lab door sprang open, revealing Tabby, along with the other young women that had gone on the dress-finding excursion.

Both Bruce and Tony looked up, momentarily distracted from their own thoughts.

Tony quickly rushed to Pepper's side, asking more than a handful of inappropriate questions that caused the group to laugh and roll their eyes. Bruce, on the other hand, forced himself to focus on the information in front of him, gritting his teeth in an effort to ignore Tabby's commanding presence.

"Hey, sweetie. I hear that you've been working for a pretty long time. What are you working on?" The young girl questioned, skipping over to Bruce's side, completely oblivious to the danger he was trying to protect her from.

Bruce forced himself to keep his eyes on the papers. "You wouldn't understand it."

Tabby blinked, evidently taken aback by the gruff tone that her usually amiable beau had used.

The rest of the group glanced at each other uncomfortably before starting up a loud and very forced conversation about the difference between a formal place setting and an informal one in a wedding environment.

"Ah," Tabby whispered, her eyebrows furrowing slightly as she continued to watch Bruce, "well, I guess I never really was good at science. Do you think this mysterious experiment could wait until tomorrow? I just heard about this great sushi place down the street from my apartment and I thought that maybe you would want to try it out."

Bruce squeezed his eyes shut as his chest tightened.

"I can't. This is too important."

He could hear Tabby shift in her seat uncomfortably.

Their friends had given up on their efforts at a distracting conversation. They were paying attention, watching the entire scene with judgmental eyes. Judgment that Bruce was sure he didn't want to tolerate in this particular situation.

"More important than sushi? Come on, now. What could possibly be more important than good food and a stimulating conversation with a history major?" Tabby teased, her voice trembling slightly.

Bruce's heart sank.

She was determined to make this harder on him.

She wouldn't allow him to push her away without a fight.

He had to push her away.

If he couldn't reverse the serum by Friday, she would have to leave with Loki.

That meant she would have to believe that Bruce didn't want her to stay.

He was going to hate himself by the time she left the lab.

"This," he growled, unable to resist meeting her eyes, "this is more important than anything else. Why don't you just ask someone else to go with you? I'm clearly indisposed."

Tabby's bright eyes searched his face, as though she were looking for some sort of explanation in his eyes. When she didn't find it, she stuck out her chin and squared her shoulders, recovering from Bruce's harsh tone.

"Fine." She said coolly, turning on her heel to walk towards the door.

Bruce returned his stare back to the papers on the table. He couldn't bear to observe the shocked stares that he knew he was receiving.

He was disgusted enough with himself.

It had to be done, he reminded himself as he tried to make sense of the increasingly incoherent scribbles on the pages in front of him.

And he believed himself, he truly did.

Driving Tabby away was his only hope for keeping her safe until he could find a way to get rid of the other guy for good.

Loki had been right; as long as she was on Earth, she was in danger.

Unfortunately, the only way to protect her was to break the fragile heart that she had guarded so closely.

As if Bruce needed another reason to hate himself.

"I don't want to talk about it." Tabby snapped almost immediately after she entered the apartment.

Loki arched an eyebrow at her, but simply smirked wordlessly.

Dr. Banner must have been exceptionally convincing.

How delightfully unexpected.

Tabby reemerged from her bedroom a few minutes later, sporting pajama pants and an extremely unattractive oversized T-shirt.

She must have been truly hurt if she was sinking to such miserable conditions.

The demi-god watched in mild amusement as the girl wandered into the kitchen and opened the freezer. She stared into the machine for a few moments before turning to face Loki with a fierce scowl, as though he had been the one to hurt her feelings.

"Why don't we have any ice cream?" She demanded.

"I don't enjoy it and it seems that you did not purchase it on your last grocery store excursion with the admirable Captain America. Would you like me to fetch you some?" He responded calmly.

Tabby watched him carefully. "No, that's okay. I think I want to take a walk, anyway. Maybe I'll walk past the liquor store on my way. Need anything? Vodka? Whiskey? A new life? No, just me? Alright then."

Loki's eyebrows knit together.

He had anticipated Tabby's sadness. That was an inevitable part of the process. However, he had not expected her to be this distraught about Dr. Banner's behavior.

After all, she did not love the scientist.

How could someone so utterly meaningless inflict any real pain upon the girl?

"Are you certain that you would not prefer to have the items fetched for you? It would be no burden. I am more suitably dressed for the task." He said slowly, his eyes surveying Tabby slowly.

She shook her head, stomping towards her bedroom once again.

"I'm totally sure. The last thing I need is the god of mischief putting spiders in my ice cream, or turning my liquor into apple juice." She sighed, reemerging from her bedroom wearing jeans and a slightly less baggy T-shirt.

Loki matched her sigh, standing up and striding over to the door.

"Then I'm coming with you."

"Why?" Tabby inquired suspiciously.

Loki smirked. "Perhaps I would like something from either the grocery store or the liquor store and share your distrust."

"Oh, really? You don't trust me?"

"You seem to distrust me."

"That's different. I have a reason not to trust you."

"Pray tell, what is your reason?" Loki questioned as he followed Tabby through the busy streets of the city.

Tabby scoffed. "Why don't we try your sudden departure?'

Loki scowled. "My darling, I believe there is an expression on Midgard about beating a dead horse."

"Oh, that horse is not dead enough." Tabby muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Very well," Loki sighed in exasperation, "if you insist on bringing up this topic once more, I feel obligated to remind you that I did not betray your trust in any way. In fact, I frequently reminded you that you could not reasonably expect me to stay. As I have told you, I am not well equipped for love."

"That didn't make it better, you know. I mean, I thought that was just a joke, towards the end. I really thought that you were teasing when you said stuff about leaving. You could have told me that I was just totally stupid."

"I did call you silly countless times each day. I believe I might have thrown 'ridiculous' and 'absurd' in for good measure, as well."

Tabby couldn't bite back a smile. "Yeah, well, you left out stupid."

"Duly noted. I will strive to call you stupid more frequently." Loki chuckled.

"Good."

Both of them laughed and shook their heads at one another as they walked into the grocery store.

Tabby immediately darted towards the ice cream aisle.

Loki lingered behind, making a quick phone in his companion's absence.

The demi-god couldn't suppress a chuckle when he saw the girl attempting to carry an excessive amount of ice cream, very unsuccessfully.

"Would you like a hand?" He asked, cocking an eyebrow as his mouth twitched into an amused grin.

Tabby scowled down at the collection of ice cream in her arms. "Why would they make something so necessary so damn difficult to carry?"

"I haven't the slightest idea, darling." Loki replied calmly, relieving the girl of five ice cream containers in order to simplify her journey to the cash register.

The demi-god may have been oblivious to the social etiquette of Midgard, but he was very well-trained when it came to Tabby Baker. He knew better than to comment on the copious amount of ice cream that she intended to consume.

Once Tabby had purchased what she had deemed a sufficient amount of ice cream, they proceeded back to the apartment. After Loki had gotten a few laughs out of her, she had seemingly forgotten about the liquor store.

Likely for the best, Loki thought fleetingly. Alcohol served as a depressant, especially on the weaker minds of Midgardians. He disliked seeing Tabby sad, even if it was at the hands of her current romantic endeavor.

He told himself that it was simply because she was irritating when she was unhappy.

"Hey, you know what I really want to do?" Tabby's voice drew Loki's attention in once more.

He raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"I want to watch The Notebook."

He groaned.

She had forced him to watch the dreadful movie once, as a form of punishment.

He had received another punishment afterwards - a full week of night time isolation in the guest room - after commenting that the story had a much happier ending than most of the Disney movies that Tabby insisted on watching so often.

At the end of the horrid week, she had promised him that she would not subject him to such disturbing films again; primarily because she did not want him to 'ruin' any more of them for her.

"You promised." He reminded her stubbornly.

"Oh, come on. You've already seen it, it's not like it will be a new evil. Pretty please? My boyfriend was just a total dick to me in front of all of my friends. Don't you think I kind of deserve a sad movie to go with my ice cream?" She rationed, a coy smile playing on her lips.

Loki scowled.

He knew that there was no point in arguing.

Tabby would get her way.

She always did.

"If you insist." The demi-god sighed, sinking back into the couch.

Tabby grinned.

"I absolutely, one hundred percent insist. You can't be a dick, though. If you don't have anything nice to say, just don't talk." She replied easily, popping the movie into the DVD player before plopping down on the couch next to Loki and snatching her ice cream off of the coffee table as though she were anticipating having it stolen from her.

Loki rolled his eyes, but remained silent.

Instead, he watched Tabby carefully.

He could not tell if she was recovering from Dr. Banner's bad behavior at an extraordinarily fast rate, or if she was simply comforted by his presence. Either way, it was evident that he had a very clear advantage over the scientist.

After a few moments, Tabby noticed the demi-god's intensifying stare and met his gaze.

"What the hell are you smiling about? They haven't even died yet."

Loki chuckled. "It is possible that I am simply content to be here with you."

Tabby looked noticeably confused. "It's possible, but it's not very likely."

Loki rolled his eyes, but grinned.

"I believe this is an appropriate time to remind you that you are a stupid girl."

"Hey!" She objected loudly.

"You were the one who told me to remind you of your intelligence, darling."

"You're an ass."

Loki smiled. "I did miss hearing that frequent reminder. It is inexplicably endearing."

Tabby scowled. "Are you going to be a sarcastic bastard all night? I already dealt with Bruce's bullshit. I don't know if I really feel like putting up with yours. I'm sure I could have a perfectly happy night with my ice cream and my puppies. You don't need to be here."

"I assure you, sweetheart, there was no sarcasm intended. I have no interest in being elsewhere."

Tabby glared at Loki for a moment before folding her arms across her chest and facing the TV angrily.

Loki watched her curiously.

"You need to stop doing that." She muttered.

Loki quirked an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation.

"Stop being so nice."

"Not ten minutes ago you declared that I was an ass."

"You are, but you keep doing this thing."

"A thing? How dastardly."

"I'm going to hit you."

Loki chuckled. "I believe you."

Tabby sulked for a few minutes, glowering at the young couple running across the TV screen, as though they were personally offending her.

Loki watched her patiently.

"You just keep acting like we're back in Princeton and nothing changed at all. And I think I really must be stupid, because I keep falling for it! It's like this impossible vortex that you open up and I jump into it every time. It isn't fair. You left. Now you have to at least give me the chance to get over you." She explained, not meeting his eyes.

Loki eyed her curiously. "Over me?" He echoed, his eyebrows knitting together. "Am I to assume that you are still romantically attached to me?"

Tabby scowled. "No. I have Bruce."

Loki couldn't stifle a laugh. "There's no use lying to me, silly girl. I know a lie when I hear one."

She averted her eyes. "I do have him."

"You do not love him."

Tabby bit her lip. "I want to."

Loki cocked his head to the side. "Why?"

"Why shouldn't I? He makes perfect sense. He's nice, he's smart, and he's consistent."

"He's boring."

"He's safe."

Loki shrugged. "They're one in the same."

Tabby huffed, but returned her focus to the movie wordlessly.

Loki allowed her to take refuge in the movie for a half hour before resurfacing the topic.

"Are you simply aligning yourself with Dr. Banner for the sake of safety?" He questioned curiously.

Tabby glared at him. "We've not having this conversation."

"Very well. I am disappointed in you."

There was silence.

After ten minutes of silence, aside from the movie they had both seemed to forget about, Tabby exhaled sharply and turned to stare at the demi-god angrily.

"What reason do you have for being disappointed? I learned from my mistakes. That's pretty smart for someone who you find so 'silly'." She snapped.

Loki shrugged. "You are humoring the monster in the hopes of attaining a sensible relationship. That is very cowardly of you."

"Oh, I'm cowardly?" Tabby demanded thickly. "Yeah, let me take lessons on courage from the man who ran away from me screaming because of a bowl of soup."

Loki smiled gravely, nodding his head.

"I suppose I deserved that. Now that you have injured me, could you explain to me why you are lowering yourself to such degrading levels? You are Tabby Baker. You are the most inspired woman I have ever met. Surely you could do better than safe, boring Dr. Banner?"

She glared back at him. "And just who do you think is better than Bruce?"

"Countless people. Myself included, naturally."

Tabby rolled her eyes. "Naturally."

A heavy knock on the door interrupted their discussion.

Tabby's eyes lit up.

"Shit. That's probably Bruce. Ugh. I don't want him to see me like this. Can you get the door while I hide the ice cream and change? Don't you dare say anything to him, either. I'm going to give him enough shit for the two of us." She rambled, running about the apartment in a hopeless endeavor to make herself presentable.

Loki chuckled, striding towards the door.

"I would not make too much of an effort, if I were you." He called over his shoulder, reaching for his wallet as he opened the door.

"Delivery for Mr...ah...Odenson?"

Loki rolled his eyes at the incorrect pronunciation, but accepted the large order easily, handing the hopelessly unintelligent delivery boy a large bill in return.

"Keep the change." He muttered as he closed the door swiftly.

"Was that a pizza guy?" Tabby questioned, striding back into the room, now wearing jeans and an remotely acceptable top.

Her eyes wandered to the food now resting on the coffee table.

Loki smirked.

"I was informed of an Indian restaurant a few blocks away. I assumed that you would not object to a food other than ice cream, so long as it contained curry." He responded.

"What's the catch?" Tabby asked hesitantly, eying the food hungrily.

"Always the tone of distrust. You have spent entirely too much time with the Avengers, my darling. There is no catch. Simply food. Consider it my apology for failing to deliver your soup."

"I don't know if this entirely makes up for it. Panera's soup has it going on."

Loki chuckled. "Then consider this my apology for my premature departure."

Tabby chewed her lip before reluctantly returning to her seat beside Loki.

"You're just lucky that I'm hungry." She commented, reaching for one of the takeout boxes resting on the coffee table.

He smiled back at her wordlessly.

"Banner, we need to talk." Tony muttered, running a hand through his dark hair as he approached the scowling scientist.

"Uh oh. Don't tell me you're breaking up with me, Stark." Bruce muttered sarcastically, his tone coming across a lot colder than he had intended. His eyes never left the whiteboard.

Tony sighed, staring down at the ground as his eyebrows furrowed.

"You were an asshole to Tabby earlier." Tony faltered as Bruce's dark eyes snapped away from the whiteboard to meet his angrily. "I know, I know, I'm the last person that should be giving you this lecture. Trust me, if Rogers were around, I would pawn this on him. He's not, though, so we're going to have to have this talk.

Bruce remained silent.

Tony frowned.

"Look, I like Tabby. We all do. As far as I knew, you were batshit crazy about her. I, uh, I guess…" the billionaire let out a frustrated sigh. "Is everything alright between you two?"

He really should have made Pepper do this. She was much better at confrontation, especially when romance was involved.

"Everything is fine." Bruce replied thickly.

"Hey, man, I really don't care if you want to end things with her. You'll get bragging rights either way. Just don't drag this out anymore than you have to. I thought that the girls were going to kill you this afternoon. Tabby's sort of got a fanbase around here, now." Tony reminded Bruce. "She's got feelings, too. Might want to spare those." He added as an afterthought.

"I said everything is fine. Just leave it." Bruce mumbled, finding something interesting to examine across the lab.

Tony followed him in exasperation.

"C'mon, Bruce, I'm not trying to play Dr. Phil here, but you've got to give me something. Pepper is expecting me to report back to her on this shit." He groaned, plopping into one of the stools across from Bruce.

The pencil in the scientist's hand snapped.

Aiming a dark look in Tony's direction, Bruce shook his head slowly.

"Don't push this, Stark. It's not a good idea." He warned.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Fine," he sighed, "I really don't want to push. I don't actually care as much as Pepper thinks that I should. As long as things don't get abusive, you're free to do whatever you'd like. Just take some friendly advice here, bud: worthwhile girls don't enjoy being treated as an afterthought. You keep blowing Tabby off for lab work that you could do any other time and she'll find some other way to spend her time."

Bruce's eyes narrowed, but he didn't respond.

What could he possibly say?

If he tried to explain the conversation that he had with Loki, Tony would just laugh it off and call it paranoia. The billionaire didn't understand the very real dangers in Bruce's life.

How could he? He had never been an internationally wanted green monster.

With an irritated growl, Bruce returned his focus back to his work.

It was the only way to push the image of a confused, upset Tabby out of his head.

"You ass!" Tabby cried between shouts of laughter, throwing a spoon across the coffee table at Loki.

The demi-god chuckled, catching the spoon and returning it to its original place on the coffee table.

"The point of this game is to win, is it not?" He inquired easily.

"Well, yeah, but not by buying the property that I had my eyes on since the start of the game! Come on. Give it back." She replied, giggling as she reached for the small card in Loki's hand.

In hindsight, Tabby probably should not have suggested playing Monopoly. Loki loved to rule things. Naturally he would be a pro at buying all of the valuable properties. She wasn't entirely convinced that he wasn't somehow manipulating the dice to land on the exact numbers that he needed.

The entire night probably wasn't the greatest idea, if Tabby was being honest with herself. She had built a fort while Loki had gone out to walk the dogs. She had expected him to laugh at her and quickly destroy it, but instead, he had crawled in and stared at her expectantly. Unwilling to spend too much time talking to Loki, who always manipulated the conversation back to the subject of her relationship with Bruce, she had decided to suggest playing board games.

She had to admit, she was having more fun than she had in a while. Sitting in a fort, eating ice cream and swearing at Loki every time he took a property that she had been interested in was easy. It was effortless. She didn't have to bother analyzing anything he said, or the way he looked at her any given minute. It was nice.

"I might be bribed, if you have something worthwhile." The demi-god teased, his eyes gleaming mischievously.

Tabby glanced down at the property cards sitting in front of her and laughed.

"You know that I've got nothing but the cheap properties by Go. What if I snuck into your office at night and stole the deeds to your properties? Yeah, let's say I did that. Now fork over the Boardwalk."

Loki shook his head, chuckling. "You do not possess the qualities of a thief. You'll have to resort to another option, unfortunately."

Tabby smirked, glancing up at the top of the fort thoughtfully.

"Okay, fine. Let's say I flirted with your lawyer and he decided to screw you over on a few contracts in order to impress me." She challenged, reaching out to steal one of Loki's property cards.

"That sounds about right." Loki chuckled, allowing the girl to swipe more than one of his property cards.

Tabby grinned back at him as she rolled the dice.

The next hour or so was occupied with poorly thought out game strategies, swearing, accusations of cheating, and eventually, the throwing of game pieces. Neither of the two were heartbroken when Louis' wagging tail knocked over the board, successfully terminating the game that was threatening to last all night.

After they had cleaned up the game, they had opted out of beginning any more board games, primarily for their own sanity. Instead, Tabby insisted on watching Cinderella. So, they modified the fort - which Tabby refused to take down - and settled in for the movie.

Halfway through the movie, Loki was watching the film with an amused grin, mentally comparing his own life's story to Cinderella's, replacing the unpleasant stepmother with his own father, when a heavy weight fell on his shoulder.

After glancing down, he realized that Tabby had fallen asleep and was resting her head on his shoulder as a form of support.

He smiled down at her before returning his attention to the movie.

It was not the worst thing he had ever watched.

It was certainly an improvement from The Notebook.

Once the movie was finished, Tabby was out cold. She was breathing softly, curled up against Loki. The demi-god could feel his own eyelids growing heavy and decided that falling asleep in a makeshift tent would not be the safest option; he had been waiting for the barstool to fall over and crush one of them.

He carefully scooped up the sleeping girl and carried her out of the tent, eying the barstool warily.

As he set her down in her bed, her fingers curled around the fabric of his shirt, holding him in place momentarily.

He sat down at her side, eying her curiously.

"Is everything alright, darling?" He inquired softly.

"Please don't make me fall in love with you again if you're just going to leave me." She replied quietly.

He stared down at her inquisitively.

Her eyes were shut, but she was speaking fairly coherently.

Was she awake, or was this the far more honest, infinitely more charming sleeping Tabby?

"My darling, where else would I have to go? So long as Midgard is your home, Midgard is where I will remain." He murmured.

"Promise?" She questioned sleepily.

Before the demi-god could bestow upon her an answer, she had drifted off into a deep sleep.

At the sound of her light breathing, Loki smiled down at her before leaning over and planting a kiss on her forehead.

Evidently, Dr. Banner was a very distant thought in the girl's mind.

Perfect.

"Fuck." Tabby moaned the next morning, the memories of the previous night running through her head.

She didn't even have the excuse of alcohol to fall back on.

And she had told Loki that she was in love with him again.

Shit, shit, shit.

Leaping out of her bed, she rushed into the living room, fully expecting to find Loki sprawled out across the couch, giving her the same impossibly attractive smirk that he gave everyone.

Instead, she was greeted by an empty apartment.

Oh, better.

He had left again.

Awesome.

Running her hands through her hair, Tabby knocked on Loki's door in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, the demi-god was sleeping in.

After waiting for a full two minutes, she realized that that wasn't the case.

"Fuck." She repeated, stomping into the kitchen.

She needed ice cream and she needed it now.

As she stormed towards the freezer, she couldn't help noticing a brown bag sitting on the counter, a bright pink sticky-note attached to the top of it.

Maybe Loki had left her a bag of spiders as a final 'fuck you'.

Tabby ripped the sticky-note off of the bag before opening it, a scowl fixed on her face.

Much to her surprise, the note didn't say anything about leaving Earth. Nor did it say anything about spiders, for that matter. There was only one word written on the sticky-note, written in frustratingly elegant calligraphy.

Promise.

With an annoyed sigh, Tabby snatched the bag off of the counter, hoping that it was something less endearing.

She needed a reason to convince herself that she didn't love Loki; that she couldn't love Loki.

Maybe a bag of spiders wouldn't be the worst thing, after all.

As she tore open the bag, she was mildly surprised to see that the bag wasn't filled with any kind of creepy crawly.

No, it was far worse than that.

It was a cup of broccoli and cheddar soup from Panera.

"Fuuuuuuuuck." Tabby groaned for the final time, covering her face with her hands.