Max stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, displeased that at twenty-six she could still find the occasional pimple (or three), and then hastily applied some cover-up to the irritating spot. She had about fifteen minutes to go before she and Loki were supposed to swing by Ben's to pick up whoever needed a ride to Burford, and she still needed to get dressed.

Apparently, the flight took more than a little out of her, and after devouring her sushi in record time last night, she had settled down onto Loki to finish the movie, only to awake several hours later alone in his bed. At that point, she spied her roommate hunched over in front of his desktop monitor, scrolling through something or another, and when she asked what he was doing, he told her to go back to sleep. Apparently, she didn't need to be told twice, and she woke up at almost ten that morning – the plan was to be on the road by eleven. Groggy, slightly headachey, and feeling gross despite showering the previous night, Max stumbled out of Loki's bed and took a quick trip to the bathroom.

With her head cleared and face washed, she found her roommate passed out at his desk, sprawled back on that stupid chair, slack-jawed and snoring softly. It almost seemed cruel to wake him, but she knew he would need something in his system before they picked up the rest of her friends. He was pleasant enough when she roused him, but he complained about not getting enough sleep; while she was gone, it seemed as though his sleep schedule had done a one-eighty, and he was up for most of the night, asleep for most of the day. She promised him he could sleep in the car – even though she knew none of her friends would allow for that – and told him she planned to throw a bagel in the toaster for him. The promise of food seemed to get him up, and while Loki showered, Max threw together a quick breakfast while darting back to her room to pack a bag.

Naturally, that meant the bagels burned when she had the toaster on too high a setting, and after Loki had finished in the bathroom, he opted to make breakfast while she finished packing. She hadn't meant to be such a mess, but she still hadn't unpacked from Cancun, and all of her good party clothes were buried in a messy ball at the bottom of her huge bags. So, as she threw unfolded pieces of clothing into her Burford bag, she recalled absently thanking Loki when he left a toasted, buttered bagel on her desk, and then sometime later hearing him chuckle at something in front of the TV.

When she realized she only had fifteen minutes before she needed to be out the door, Max had just stuffed whatever she thought necessary into the bag, threw in a handful of underwear, and then hurried to the bathroom to grab her toiletries. With that packed, she moved onto her face, which seemed to be displeased with the immediate shift away from warm weather.

Glaring, she dabbed some liquid foundation onto the spot, but then when she took a step back to examine the overall effect, Max realized the make-up highlighted the blemish even more. Lips pursed, she tossed the bottle of foundation into her small white make-up bag, and then ripped off a piece of toilet paper to tackle the mess she had made. It was then she saw it: fuzzy, round, small, hairless tail.

As much as she hated being that girl, Max couldn't help herself – she emitted the shrillest, most unnecessarily loud shriek she could muster at the sight of the mouse (or baby rat, who the fuck knows?) and then leapt onto the toilet. She screamed again when it made a dash across the tiled floor and stopped on her bathmat. Moments later, Loki came barrelling into the bathroom, eyes wide and alert.

"What?" he demanded. "What's wrong?"

"Get it! Get it! Get it!" she ordered shrilly, pointing at the little intruder as it bolted out the open door. "Don't let it get in my room!"

He looked bewildered as he turned his gaze to the ground, seeming somewhat unsure of what he was looking for, and her eyes narrowed when she saw him relax.

"Are you serious?" he snapped, shaking his head as he looked up at her on the toilet – the first time she was taller than him in the history of their friendship. "It's a rodent-"

"Get it!" Max repeated, pushing at him as she spied the fucking thing hopping down the hallway.

Loki groaned noisily. "I thought it was something… a little more… serious-"

"What?" she hissed, grasping the fabric of his shirt frantically. "Did you think something crawled up out of the drain to get me? Bloody Mary was lurking in the mirror? This isn't an episode of Supernatural, Loki! Get it!"

"Alright, alright," he said, his hands up in a flawed attempt to calm her. "I think you can get off the toilet now-"

"Stop stalling!"

He disappeared down the hallway chuckling, which did nothing to help her panic. Max peered around the door, arms folded across her chest, and remained perched on the toilet until he had thoroughly investigated the remainder of the apartment. When he reappeared back in the hall, he offered her a half-hearted shrug when her eyebrows shot up, demanding results.

"I think it's gone."

"They don't go anywhere," Max hissed as she daintily stepped off the toilet, eyes wide as she joined him in the hall. "They fester and make babies and eat your clothes!" She stopped in front of him with a huff, and then felt her cheeks darken as he smirked down at her. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing," he remarked quickly, leaning down to plant a kiss on her cheek, its effects more calming than she had anticipated. "I just wasn't aware you had a fear of small rodents-"

"I think my obvious dislike for most things with four legs should have tipped you off," she grumbled sourly. She stepped to the side and poked her head around her doorframe, her eyes doing a sweep of her bedroom for signs of rodent infestation.

"Well, crisis temporarily averted, I suppose," he mused. "Though aren't we running late?"

"Ugh, fuck," Max groaned, glaring at the numbers of her digital clock. "I don't want to leave with that thing running around…"

"Give me your bag," Loki ordered. "I'll at least get everything settled in the car while you debate our next move."

"I think you should take this a little more seriously," she stated as she reached into her room and snatched up her bag by its thick black strap. "Your shit is in danger too. All those expensive computer cords could be gone by the time we get back."

He shot her a look as she shoved her bag into his awaiting hands, and then sighed. "Well, then… I'll buy new ones. I'm really not concerned about one rodent."

"Well, you should be."

"You're insane."

"You're insane."

He readjusted the bag so that it hung off his shoulder, and then arched an eyebrow at her. "Is this everything? You don't have six more bags waiting in there, do you?"

Her cheeks tinged pink again, and she darted back to the bathroom to grab her toiletries bag. She then opened the zipper noisily and stuffed it inside her already bulging bag, and then stood in front of him, hands on her hips.

"I just want options."

Loki rolled his eyes dramatically, and then nodded back to her room. "Get dressed."

"You get dressed!"

"You're incredibly childish when you're nervous," he told her as he sauntered toward the front door. "It's both annoying and endearing."

"Yeah?" she retorted, some of the tension easing out of her limbs. "Well, get ready for four hours of my neurosis with heavy doses of Tiffany's singing!"

She watched him pause at the front door, a hand on the knob, and then cocked her head to the side when he turned back to face her.

"Is it too late to stay home?"

Max snorted, and then pointed at the front door in response, holding her arm up until he disappeared into the white outdoors. Once she heard the door shut, she took a few tentative steps into her room, eyes peeled for any signs of rodent activity, and then hastily shed her pajamas. She scrambled around, heart racing at the thought of the mouse being under a random pile, and soon shimmied her way into a pair of jeans and a purple sweater. Anytime she was forced to take her eyes off the floor felt like torture, and as soon as she finished dressing, she gathered up her most important items and stuffed them into a wooden chest under her desk.

Yes, she was aware that mice, like racoons, can worm their way into anything. However, she hoped that with so many tasty wires in Loki's room, the stupid thing might be distracted enough to leave her shit alone.

She heard Loki return a few minutes later, grumbling about the weather and stomping around in what appeared to be new winter boots, and Max did a quick sweep of her room and the bathroom to ensure she hadn't forgotten anything.

"Bag's in the car?"

Loki held up his small backpack, no doubt filled with two changes of clothes and his laptop, and then gestured for her to get a move on. He hadn't done much sleeping the night before, so Max assumed he may be a little testier than usual, which did not bode well for Ben's future.

"Cool, okay," she rambled, running her hand through her hair and sighing. "Whatever we forgot we can just… buy there."

"Max," he said pointedly. "We are traveling four hours away… to a town in the same state… for five days. I'm sure we can manage."

"Yeah, yeah," she muttered, waving him off as he stalked by. The clock over the stove indicated they were already ten minutes late to grab the others, and she figured it was time to just cut her losses and get in the car. Hopefully, their rodent friend would behave himself, and there would be no need to bring in an exterminator when they returned to handle an infestation. "I just like being overly prepared when I travel."

"This is not travel," Loki remarked. "This is a drive up the road, if anything."

"Alright, Saucy McSaucerson," Max laughed as she tugged on her boots. "Giving me a bit too much attitude this morning..."

"You yelled at me about a rodent-"

"Well, I think it's a serious issue."

He tossed her coat to her, and Max stuck her tongue out as he darted for the door. He may have been mildly annoyed with her, but she saw the grin on his lips as he passed. A sigh slipped out as she gave the apartment a quick onceover; it really felt as though she hadn't been home in months, not weeks, and she almost wished she had another day to relax before they shipped out to Burford.

After she locked up the front door, she followed Loki's enormous tracks across the snowy parking lot to her trusty car. He hadn't said if he had taken it anywhere over the break, but from the outside it appeared to be in good shape. Her roommate was depositing his bag into the trunk as she approached, and she snatched the keys from him in passing. Her evidence that he had driven the car, however, came the moment she sat in the front seat, which was pushed so far back she might as well have been sitting in the backseat.

"What were you doing, sleeping in here?" she grumbled as she readjusted the seat to her measurements. She had long legs, but fuck – Loki had the seat so far back he could have been sitting in another car behind them.

"I wanted to be comfortable," he argued, going straight for the heat as the car hummed to life. "I couldn't quite figure out how to get it back up once I had made the adjustments."

"Shockingly, it's the same lever that adjusted it the first time."

She caught Loki's unimpressed look out of the corner of her eye, and she ignored him in order to figure out how to get the car out of the snow-filled parking lot. Somehow, she managed to get the vehicle turned around, and they were soon edging smoothly out onto the main road. Max went to play with the radio, and Loki caught her by the wrist.

"You get the change the station once every hour," he ordered. "None of your usual fiddling nonsense, understand?"

"I'm sorry," she scoffed, eyebrows shooting up as she tugged her hand away. "I wasn't aware my car deferred to you because you had a key for a week and a half."

"Once every hour."

"Half hour."

He undid his jacket with a huff, and then shook his head. "Fine."

Smirking, Max passed through the stations in an effort to find one that would play enough music to keep her interested for the next half hour, and only managed to land on a good one when they turned onto Ben's street. They parked alongside the curb, and Max gave the horn a few good honks before reaching into her coat pocket for her cell phone. She fired a quick text to Tiff about their arrival, and then caught Loki giving her a look.

"What?" she snapped as she spied the front door opening. "Did you want to go outside in the cold and tell them we're here?"

"I didn't say anything."

"Your eyes said enough."

"Your eyes said enough."

Max couldn't quite hold back her smirk, and Loki seemed to struggle at his serious façade as they held one another's gaze.

"Morning, ladies," Garret greeted. His entrance was jarring and a little obnoxious, and he made an unnecessary amount of noise as he situated his duffle bag in the backseat. Max felt her cheeks blush again, probably at the thought of being caught making eyes at her roommate, and turned back to shoot her friend and Tiff a smile.

"Morning."

"Running a little late?" Tiffany mused, her red hair tousled from the wind, cheeks pink from the cold and exertion of lugging around what appeared to be a bag equal in size to Max's.

"Yeah, we found a mouse in the apartment this morning," Max explained. She immediately felt validated when Tiffany shot her a horrified look.

"Oh, ew!"

"Right?!" she exclaimed, nudging Loki as he groaned. "This guy didn't even care!"

"Whatever, it's a mouse," Garret interrupted, which managed to rope Loki into the conversation. "I mean, it'll probably just leave once it finds something to eat."

"You should have heard her scream this morning when she saw it-"

"Hey, let's not relive my trauma," Max said quickly as she pushed Loki's face out of the conversation. "Where's everybody else?"

Tiff and Garret exchanged glances, and Max felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. What if Loki had upset Ben so much over the break that he actually backed out of their vacation? She shot a quick look up to the house, almost picturing Ben lurking behind a curtain and waiting for them to leave. However, when she saw nothing, she huffed.

"So," Tiffany started, "don't be mad, but…"

"What?"

"Ben and Corey got a ride with Erica already."

Oh, that was so much worse than her original fantastical suspicions. Her eyebrows shot up as she observed the two guilty parties in the backseat, and Loki groaned noisily beside her.

"Why is she even involved in this?"

She wasn't the type to exclude people from a holiday. Hell, if one of Tiffany's friends from back home decided she or he wanted to spend the weekend in Burford with them, Max would have been all for it. The more the merrier! However, the fact that it was Erica soured every ounce of what was going to be a fun, cute little holiday to a party town.

"Garret invited her," Tiffany said frankly, and Max turned her venomous gaze onto the man seated behind her. His eyes widened a little, and he held up his hands defensively.

"She kept prying and pushing and-"

"Ugh, Garret," Max groaned, rolling her eyes as a smile spread across her lips. "You're the worst."

He looked so distressed at the crime he had committed, and as much as it bothered Max that she now had to spend a holiday with Erica and whoever else the girl brought to room with her, she couldn't be angry with Garret. Most guys were powerless to Erica's charms, even the ones who were happily occupied with someone else.

"I'm sorry!"

"I'm blaming you for everything horrible she does while we're there," Max teased. Tiffany giggled softly as she pulled the car back onto the main road, and when she glanced at Loki, it looked as though he had eaten something particularly foul tasting. "You alright, champ?"

"I'm fine."

"That's right," Tiffany cooed, leaning forward and placing both hands on Loki's shoulders. "Have you two lovebirds been in touch since your little Halloween faux-pas?"

Max's stomach knotted uncomfortably, and Loki looked equally appalled by the question. However, the tone of Tiff's voice was that of a tease; the incident was clearly far enough in the past to be joked about.

"Well?" Max demanded lightly, meeting his eyes in the mirror. "Have you?"

"She… approached me at lunch once," Loki started carefully, arms folded across his chest, "and ruined my biology textbook because I did not attempt to correspond with her after the… the…"

"Faux-pas?" Garret offered. Max held in a snort as Loki sighed again.

"Yes, that."

"Awesome," Tiffany laughed, patting Loki on the shoulders twice before settling back into her seat. "This is going to be the best trip ever."

Max shot her friend a look in the mirror, and then rolled her eyes as the woman waggled her eyebrows in response. As much as she adored Tiff, the woman was obsessed with watching drama unfold. She loathed being a part of it, mind you, but if she could grab a bag of popcorn and watch a pair of women verbally assault each other, her day was made. Well, Max had no intentions of having any sort of confrontations with Erica while they were in Burford. No matter how hard the woman tried to push her, she planned to keep her composure. After all, it was fairly obvious at this point that Loki would choose Max over his Halloween hook-up, and she did not want to ruin her holiday over something stupidly childish.

Besides, while Tiffany may have lived for drama to gossip about, Max preferred her drama to be on reality TV. She hated it when friends fought, and she never liked being roped into relationship issues with other people; it felt like a waste of time, and most issues could be sorted out if people would actually talk to one another.

Mind you, that was easier said than done. She glanced at Loki as he and Garret gushed over his new cell phone, which had somehow made an appearance between Ben's house and the first set of lights. Tiffany eventually snatched it up, and was in the process of adding all of their phone numbers for Loki's viewing pleasure.

Their ride through Masonville and by neighbouring towns consisted of a lot of talk about their respective winter vacations. Loki went first, as he claimed to have the least interesting holiday of the group, though Garret remained forever impressed with all the new gadgets he had picked up in such a short time. Tiffany went next, filling the car in on her trip back to Cincinnati. In reality, the woman had roughly the same holiday as Loki, except for the fact that she had to brave the airports to get to another state, but somehow she managed to drag her stories out for a full half-hour longer than Loki did. Garret tried to follow that act, but in the end maybe pushed out ten minutes worth of detail on his brief trip to New York City to visit his cousins. Although he made it all sound rather dull, Max assumed he spent most of that holiday wasted off his face.

Max was the last to regale the group with tidbits about her holiday to Cancun, and it was then that she let all the drunken shenanigans that she and Nolan had gotten up to out. Loki had snoozed through Tiff and Garret's stories, but he seemed a little more alert when he realized Max had been doing most of the talking. At that point, they were on the highway, and Max could no longer mess around with her friends; highway driving had always made her a little nervous. She was perfectly comfortable driving in the city, and she really enjoyed country roads, but there was something about going as fast as all the cars around her that made her anxious.

Besides, people could be assholes on the highway. Even though the Christmas holiday had come to an end, people were still off from work, and they were all driving out to cabins and hotels and family gatherings for the rest of the winter break, generally in preparation for New Year's Eve. They had left early enough in the morning to avoid the traffic, but not the assholes who thought they owned the road.

They opted to stop for lunch at a sketchy McDonald's on the side of the highway two hours into the drive. At that point, Tiffany had been singing along to the radio for far too long, Loki kept trying to fall asleep and failing whenever she hit a rough patch in the road, and Garret attempted to make some sort of conversation with her, but was constantly interrupted by Tiff's singing.

It seemed like a good time to stop.

Shockingly enough, the restaurant was probably one of the nicest McDonald's establishments she had ever been in; the washrooms were clean, there was enough ketchup in the pump to fill several of the little white cups, and the people behind the counter were ridiculously friendly. Once the group had filled themselves up with greasy food, made use of the restroom facilities, and bought a few apple pies for the road, they were off.

Although Garret had offered to drive the rest of the way to Burford, Max politely turned him down. Her eyes may have been a little unfocused when they hit the bustling little town, but she would have preferred that she be the one to wreck her car, not him.

"This definitely looks different from prom night," Garret muttered as they drove through the busy streets of downtown Burford.

"Yeah, well," she sighed, wrinkling her nose as she slowed at a light. "We're not drunk..."

"I am."

Max smirked when she heard Tiffany smack his arm soundly.

Everything looked a little older than she remembered. In the light of day, the bars appeared grimier, and there were the same old stores here that there were in Masonville. They passed a few chain restaurants that were clearly recent additions to the town, but otherwise Burford appeared as though it hadn't changed in almost ten years. She had been back since prom, obviously, but prom was that momentous occasion that had set Burford in her mind as this little party hub in the middle of nowhere; clearly, her expectations had been maxed out this time around.

They needed to drive through town to get to their hotel, and thankfully they had spotted a number of cute eateries and shops that would make the trip worthwhile. Most of the places around Masonville and other little towns tended to be classified as inns, but the establishment they were staying at was definitely a hotel. As she pulled up the lengthy driveway, surrounded by expertly trimmed bushes on either side, she realized it could rival any of the hotels she had seen in Cancun.

Perched atop a gentle slope, the Kingston Hotel was a wonder for any small-town dweller. It looked a little dated, yes, but it still spanned eight stories up, and umpteen windows across. There was a massive lake to its immediate right, which was used for skating in the winter months, and she knew the grounds were preened for skiers and snowboarders of all levels.

There was even a valet to greet them when Max pulled up to the main entrance, and she hesitantly handed over her keys. A busboy appeared with a cart to load their bags on, and the group was herded inside out of the cold almost immediately after their arrival. The main lobby was surprisingly busy, and she guessed that most of the guests were somewhere in her age range or younger; despite the matured looks of the place with its fake flowers and gaudy red and gold interior, its reputation still seemed to draw younger crowds.

She let Tiff and Garret check-in first, opting to let Loki peruse the flyer rack for a few minutes instead of rushing up to their room. Neither of them had discussed the fact that they would be sleeping next to each other without a wall between them for the next five days, and she wasn't really all that sure if she ought to bring it up. If she did, she would draw attention to the fact that they were sharing a room together, and Loki may wonder if she was overthinking it. If she ignored it, Loki may think she thought nothing of it, and possibly that she had gotten over him in the course of the last few weeks.

Both options had their drawbacks, and Max was forced to face them when the front desk clerk stared down his nose at her, cocked an eyebrow, and then glanced at the computer screen.

"We have you in a room with two twin beds."

Max blinked at him, tapping her credit card anxiously on the counter, and then glanced back at Loki. Her roommate was glaring at the business card in his hand, and seemed almost completely oblivious to the conversation happening in front of him.

"Yes," she said with a nod. "That's fine."

The attendant looked between them again, and then resumed clacking away on his keyboard. Loki nudged her, and then held the business card out for her to view.

"How can one be a front desk concierge and a… DJ?"

The corners of her lips quirked upward when the attendant cleared his throat awkwardly, and she then snapped the card out of his hand.

"I'll explain that one later," she murmured, her smile broadening when Loki grinned. She tucked the card into her pocket, and after a few pieces of paperwork were signed, they were free to head up to their room. She handed him his copy of the room's key as they strolled toward the elevator, both of their bags strung across Loki's shoulders. "So, we're on the fourth floor, sixteenth room."

"Oh, look at the fish-"

"Come on," she droned, dragging him by the sleeve as they passed an enormous fish tank at the far end of the lobby. She spied Tiff and Garret waiting for the next elevator, Garret also carrying both bags, and she waved them down. "I thought you'd be in your room by now… That guy took for fucking ever."

"Someone got distracted by the fish," Tiffany insisted, nodding back toward Garret, whose eyebrows shot up in response.

"I got distracted?"

She pursed her lips. "We got distracted…"

Max smirked, and moments later the elevator button lit up and the doors opened smoothly. They had to wait for a family of six to get off, each person lugging two bags with them as the doors tried to close. When there was eventually enough free space, they pressed inward, along with everyone else waiting in the elevator zone, and she ended up being squished against Loki's chest – it seemed like the entire fucking hotel opted to take the same elevator at one time.

"You okay?" she muttered, placing a hand against his chest as she tried to turn her body to the side. He winced a little, and then shrugged.

"There's something from your bag that's digging into my back…"

"It's a shoe."

"It's very pointy-"

"Shoe," she repeated, her tone as matter-of-fact as possible. She then patted his chest, quite enjoying the forced nestling. "Thanks for suffering for me."

"Yes, I feel as though I ought to be rewarded for this," he told her, readjusting the strap to her bag and quirking an eyebrow. She sucked in her cheeks, and then quickly turned away before he saw her smile. Tiff caught her gaze from across the elevator, and Max rolled her eyes a little, which made the other woman laugh.

When the assholes who couldn't walk up a flight of stairs got off at the first floor, there was more room to spread out, but Max found a way to remain close to her roommate right up until they needed to exit the elevator. It turned out that Tiffany and Garret were only three rooms down from theirs, and the group spotted Corey on his way back from the ice machine at the end of the hall. Pleasantries were exchanged, and Max learned that he and Ben were five rooms down, and Erica and Molly (a friend from Masonville who Max knew nothing about) were seven rooms across.

Loki seemed eager to get her bag off his back, and after a quick chat about the drive up, Max made her excuses and they were able to slip off to their room. After struggling with the electronic lock for a moment or so, Max stumbled into their room. To her immediate right was a bathroom, which seemed to have the basics. It was all white, which was a little off-putting, but Max assumed it was to show the hotel's cleaning prowess.

"This is… nice."

She followed the sound of Loki's voice into the main area of the room, which was about the size of their rooms back home combined. Just as the attendant had told her, two twin beds sat on either side of a night table; no romantic comedy mix-ups where they would be forced to share a double. Thankfully, the white theme didn't quite carry on from the bathroom, and she assumed that the darker carpeting and bedclothes were also strategic on the part of the hotel.

As Loki dumped their bags on the floor, Max sauntered across the room to peer out one of their two windows.

"Oh, see, this was what we paid for," Max insisted as she pinned the curtain back. "Look at that view…"

They overlooked the back of the hotel, which was covered in small hills, a lovely forest, and what appeared to be walking trails. There was a coffee bar – or something of that nature – nestled in the courtyard below, and if she pressed herself up against the side, she could just see the start of the frozen lake. Max glanced over her shoulder, expecting Loki to be there, and then frowned when she saw him sprawled out across one of the beds.

"Come see the view," she ordered, and nodded toward the window when he turned his head to her.

"I'm sure the view will be there whenever I am fit to look at it."

"Oh, poor baby," she cooed, which made him scoff noisily. "Is someone tired?"

"Actually, yes."

Max quickly realized she wasn't going to get much more out of him when he was acting that sour, and she decided to just leave him be for a little while.

"Well, why don't you have a nap?" she suggested as he flung an arm over his eyes. "I'm just going to check out everyone else's rooms."

"I bet they all look the same," he muttered sleepily.

When Loki awoke, he still felt like he could have slept for another six hours. A quick glance at the digital clock on the nightstand beside him indicated that he had snoozed for over four hours already, and if he wished to fall asleep at a reasonable hour that night, he ought to force himself up.

His sleeping schedule had been ridiculous while Max was away. Stark and his boys were up at all hours of the day, and without a normal person to keep him in check, Loki went into his own rhythm; he slept when he was tired, and sometimes that was at ten in the morning, other times that was at six in the afternoon. He allowed his weakened body to catch-up on all the sleep it had lacked while he stressed (unnecessarily, mind you) and crammed for school examinations before the break. Surprisingly, sleep had made his body feel better than ever, and he decided that if he was still in this realm when the new year rolled in, he would make more of an effort to treat his body to what it needed.

Unfortunately, Max's return had sent his schedule into a veritable mess. He stayed up long after she fell asleep on him during their movie, spending most of his time searching through news articles – as he was supposed to. She woke up a few times in the course of the night, but she tended to simply roll over and fall back asleep. Once, she was awake long enough to ask him what he had been doing, but his quick dismissal of her sent her right back to sleep. When Loki was finally ready to get some rest of his own, he saw that Max had taken up the entirety of his bed, and he hadn't the heart to move her. So, he tried to relax in his new chair, but the sleep that followed proved entirely useless.

As much as he normally appreciated Max's voice, hers combined with Tiffany's that day had been absolute insanity for his sleep-deprived brain. They were both lucky he had learned to keep his temper under control; otherwise they would have both received a rather harsh verbal lashing for all their chatter. However, when they finally arrived at the damned hotel, Loki was hopeful for a bed and some peace, and he was able to keep himself together until he found both. Luckily enough, Max seemed to understand his need to shut his eyes for a few hours, and after she departed to explore the other rooms, he hadn't heard a thing from her.

However, it was clear she had been back for some time. As he sat up and rubbed his eyes, he could vaguely hear movement coming from their shared bathroom, accompanied by some soft music. He groaned a little, in need of the toilet and some breath freshener, and then staggered to his feet. The light had disappeared outside, and there was no chance he could see the view Max had been prattling on about until daylight the following day. So, he eased himself across the room and leaned against the bathroom door, tapping gently on the ridiculously white panel.

"Max?"

"Hey, I'm just getting ready."

"Do you mind letting me use the toilet for a moment?"

"Uhm…" She trailed off, and he heard her lower the music. "Do you mind waiting? I'm sort of a mess in here."

"Max," he groaned, tapping the door a little louder this time. "I'll only be a moment."

He wasn't necessarily asking, as it was a given that he should be able to use the toilet he had also paid for whenever he damn-well pleased, but she seemed unwilling to compromise.

"Would you mind just using Garret and Tiffany's?"

He rolled his eyes irritably, and then sighed. "Fine."

"They are in four-thirteen-"

"I recall, thanks."

The tone to his response had been a little tighter than he intended it to be, but she ought to realize she was being a little ridiculous. Actually, she had been a little ridiculous all day, starting with the mouse incident and ending here in the bathroom. Loki hoped that she found her sanity again – for both of their sakes.

His need for the toilet became much more pressing as he stalked down the hallway, and he kept knocking at Garret's door until he heard someone unlocking it from the inside.

"Hey, where's the fire, man?" Garret hissed, glaring as he opened the door.

"Sorry, but Max has commandeered our bathroom, and I'm a little desperate," Loki said bluntly, his voice low to keep the man's girlfriend from overhearing. "May I?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," the man replied, moving out of the way and beckoning him in. "You're lucky… Tiff just finished."

He grunted as he hurried in, and said nothing further as he darted into their bathroom. As he suspected, their room looked identical to his. Relief was sweet, and he almost groaned at the sensation of an empty bladder – finally. Afterward, he washed up and took a very quick swig of Garret's mouthwash, careful not to let his lips touch the rim of the bottle. With those two issues sorted, Loki actually felt his temper calm too, and he was able to step out of the room much calmer than he entered it.

"Thank you," he breathed. There was music coming from a set of speakers in the corner, and he spied Tiffany leaning in toward a mirror that hung over a desk; she looked quite nice, actually. His eyes swept up her body, and while although she was quite curvaceous, she did look very lovely in the dark blue dress she had chosen. The woman looked at him quickly, and then laughed.

"You aren't wearing that tonight, are you?"

He blinked stupidly, and then glanced down at his outfit: a black sweater and a pair of dark jeans that he had thrown on that morning, both of which looked wrinkled from his nap.

"I…" He cleared his throat. "Is something happening tonight?"

"Max didn't tell you?"

"I was asleep," he said quickly, coming to his roommate's defense faster than he should have.

"We managed to get the last table booked for dinner tonight downstairs," Tiffany explained. Loki spotted Garret sprawled out on their shared bed, legs outstretched and finger tugged at the cuff of his pressed shirt. Meanwhile, Tiffany continued to apply colour to her face, despite the fact Loki thought she didn't need it. "Afterward, we're going to try the club in the basement… If it's good, we might just stay here for New Year's Eve."

"Ah."

"The reservation's for eight, so make sure Max is ready," Tiffany continued, smirking at him briefly before nodding at the door. He took that as a hint, and after saying his goodbyes, he hurried back to his room. If the meal was set at eight, he only had twenty minutes to ready himself, never mind Max.

As he stepped back into his room, locking the door behind him, Loki wondered what Max had planned to do about the fact that he was asleep. Did she intend to let him sleep throughout the night while she went out with the rest of the group? The idea made him frown a little, and he tapped the door again as he passed to let her know that he had returned. However, notions that she had planned to ignore him went out the window when he spotted a small white note propped up on their mirror. Loki snatched it and held it up to view, a smile spreading across his lips.

We're doing dinner at eight with everyone, and then a bar night. Don't dress like a hobo.

He wasn't particularly sure what a "hobo" was, but he assumed it had something to do with someone who did not dress all that well. So, as Max continued to hog the bathroom, Loki reached into the depths of his backpack for one of three nice shirts he had rolled and stuffed in there. He chose a dark green button-up shirt, and opted to keep himself in the trousers he had already been wearing. With his new outfit sorted, he added some spray that human men used to mask any sort of smell they gave off, ran a comb through his hair, and then sat on the edge of the bed.

It took him all of four minutes to get ready… No wonder Max hadn't bothered to wake him.

He refrained from looking in the mirror, because he knew that if he did, he would have been disgusted with the being he had become. Here he was, fretting over the reasons why Max hadn't woken him up sooner for a dinner, whereas months ago he had been plotting to rule an entire realm. If he succumbed to his thoughts, he would have been lost for the night.

Fortunately for Loki, the music stopped and the bathroom door opened just as he started to sink into those thoughts, and he looked up quickly with the expectation of seeing his roommate. What he saw, however, was something so much more, and for the first time in… well, most of his existence, his jaw dropped a little.

There she was, clad head to toe in black. Well, not entirely, as there was a fair amount of tanned skin showing from her legs. She had a shockingly tight black dress on, one that curved wonderfully over her most flattering features and stopping just below the tops of her thighs. If his eyes were to travel downward, which they did, he would find her wearing a pair of sinfully high heels, which did wondrous favours for the legs he had come to hold in such high regard.

He had never seen her wear something like that. Yes, her outfit on Halloween had been skimpy, but that was a costume! This was… This was a dress.

She had done something different to her hair too, and Loki licked his lips as he stared at it, rising to his feet soundlessly. It looked bigger than usual, perhaps curlier? Whatever she had done, he approved of the whole thing; she even smelled lovely as she breezed by him.

"So," she said, her voice cutting through the dumfounded silence sharply. "Do I look okay?"

"Nice," Loki remarked quickly, and then cleared his throat. "You look… You look very nice."

All of the day's transgressions were out the window, and Loki simply wanted to reach out and trail his hands along the curve of her waist and hips. Yes, he had already seen all of this before, but she had never laid herself out so delicately for him.

"Good," she chuckled, pausing briefly at the desk below the mirror to put their room keys into her purse. "Let's go then…"

He didn't want to leave. In fact, he never wanted to leave this room. She had clearly dressed like that for him, and that made him want to shove her up against that little desk and ruin everything. However, before he had the chance to even attempt to do that, Max was in front of him, smoothing her thumb along his eyebrow. She then offered him a smile, and sauntered by as though it was nothing.

When Max had stayed at the Kingston Hotel after prom, she and her friends had been desperate to try the basement nightclub out. However, they were all so obviously underage that it was laughable, and after getting drunk on wine coolers in their rooms, they went out for a night of wild shenanigans on the town. When she had returned over the course of her early to mid-twenties, Max and her companions had gone back to the familiar for their drinking benders, which usually consisted of the downtown bars and clubs. Therefore, when Erica made the suggestion of trying out the basement club once and for all, she found it difficult to refuse, even if the suggestion had come from someone she found difficult to look at.

Despite the obvious dislike now floating between her and Erica, they had managed to stay cordial thus far. Her friend, Molly, was actually quite a lovely girl despite her terrible taste in friends, and Max had chosen the seat at the opposite end of the table during their dinner. Distance was the way, thus far, to keep the feud from becoming too public, and that seemed to work well with both women. Besides, Erica had clearly moved on from Loki, and made it fairly obvious that either Corey or Ben were going to be her back-up if she couldn't find a guy at the club that evening.

Dinner had been great, though Max spent a lot of that time trying to pretend she didn't notice the way Loki openly gawked at her. Honestly, it was like he had never seen someone in a little black dress before… The thought made Max grin stupidly, her make-up hiding the flush of natural colour in her cheeks. When they had finished dinner and downed a few of the restaurant's fabulous cocktails, the group made their way down to the club. At that point, it was ten o'clock, and the dance floor, booths, and bar were just at the point of being pleasantly full. There was a modest-sized dance floor, obnoxious flashing lights, a bar on either side of the room, and a line of booths and small seats surrounding the neon dance floor.

They had been there for almost an hour at that point, and from what they had heard, the DJ was intent on playing a remixed list of Top Forty tunes, and that was about it. There was the occasional throwback to something from the nineties, which had been a blast to dance to, and the fact that some of the drinks were included in the cost of her stay made the DJ just a little more tolerable.

There had been a clear divide in the group, however, once they settled into the club. Corey, Ben, and Loki seemed intent on remaining in the booth for as long as possible with their beer, while Erica and Molly disappeared to chat up a group of guys at the bar – Max suspected they wouldn't spend a cent on their drinks tonight, especially if the length of their skirts had anything to do with it. Meanwhile, Max, Garret, and Tiffany situated themselves in the middle of the dance floor, and had worked up a sweat to the beats pounding from nearby speakers. She didn't particularly see herself as a third wheel, but there were some songs that were better left to couples for dancing.

Max was on her way back from the rather messy bathroom when Ben intercepted her. At that point, she was about five drinks in, but nothing had been strong enough to give her more than a pleasant buzz; she may have been a little wobbly in her heels, but otherwise she was in complete control. So, she smiled up at her friend, pleased to see him off the leather sofa at their booth, and then tugged him toward the dance floor.

"Come on!"

"No, Max," he shouted, clearly unimpressed to have to yell over the music. "I need to talk to you!"

"Now?"

"It's important," he argued, coming in closer to speak in her ear. She caught the scent of vodka on his breath, and made a bit of a face. "Loki isn't who he says he is."

"What?"

"I saw him with Stark-"

Max rolled her eyes, and then nudged his arm off her. "Look, you're clearly drunk-"

"He had them over-"

"Ben," Max said sharply, taking him by the shoulders and giving him a shake, "Loki doesn't know anything about anyone other than us… So, we're going to pause this discussion and pick it up when we're sober."

"Max-"

"Are you coming to dance?" she demanded noisily, tugging him toward the floor. She stuck her tongue out at him when he resisted and shook his head, and then released him. "Fine!"

She knew Loki and Ben had had a tiff, but this wasn't necessarily the time or place to discuss it. In fact, Max didn't even want to go near the subject right now. All she wanted to do tonight was dance, drink, and possibly entice Loki into joining up with her for a dirty song on the dance floor. Ben disappeared from her mind when she navigated her way through the crowd, and then bounced between Tiffany and Garret for a peppy song about peacocks and showing off. Garret seemed a little unsure if he should touch her or not, and instead put his hands awkwardly on her shoulders. Tiffany, however, pinched her behind and then wrapped her arms around her waist, giggling drunkenly in her ear.

"Get him out here!"

"What?" Max laughed, encircling her waist happily.

"Loki," her friend slurred, nodding back toward their booth nearby. "He can't keep his eyes off you."

Max shrugged her shoulders, expression smug. "I know."

"So bring him out here!"

She glanced back toward the crowd. "Yeah?"

"Yeah!"

Tiffany planed a big, wet kiss on her cheek, and then pushed her drunkenly in the general direction of their booth. Head held high, Max took a deep breath and weaved her way through the people. If everything went to shit because they engaged in a little bit of dirty dancing, she could blame it on the alcohol – even if she barely felt anything from it. When she made her way out of the crowd and spotted her booth, she saw Loki finishing a bottle of beer, looking as unimpressed with the scene as Ben had, and Max licked her lips. Hopefully her hair hadn't deflated too much.

His expression brightened a touch when she approached, and that managed to push her confidence even further.

"Hey," she greeted, not quite as smoothly as she had hoped for, and then grabbed his hand. "Come dance!"

"I… I really don't dance, Max," he remarked tightly, their faces quite near to one another so that they could hear over their music. "It's fine."

"No, just one dance," she argued, leaning back and yanking him up by the wrist. It must have been obvious that she was not up for a refusal.

He made a bit of a face as he rose, and Corey looked positively lost when he was left alone at their group booth. Max could care less, and dragged her roommate out onto the floor just as the song changed into something perfect for a little one-on-one dancing. The heels definitely helped with the height difference, and Max placed a hand at the back of his neck, guiding him toward her as the other tugged at his shirt. For a moment, he looked a little baffled, somewhat unsure of himself, and she wrapped one of his arms around her waist. As she did that, she leaned up on the tips of her toes, bringing her lips very close to his – just to tease – and then turned away before he could kiss her. Instead, she switched up their positioning so that her back was to his chest, her body pressed snugly against his.

She was about to give him a little guidance, perhaps how to move his hips to a beat, when he bit down on the juncture between her neck and shoulder, which brought her movement to a stuttering halt as she gasped. Her hand snaked up into his hair as he trailed his tongue lightly up the length of her neck, and when she turned her head to the side, she let him claim her lips.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

AWW SHIT. AWWWW SHIT, FOLKS.

So I was basically just excited to write the last sentence of this chapter. However, I wasn't just going to skip ahead. When my shift at work got cancelled today, and all my roommates went home for the weekend, I took it as a fucking sign and chewed this baby out for you. The final scene was one of the first few that I came up with, and I've been stoked to write it for ages.

Apparently Max has an intense dislike for mice and rats, but who cares – they're eating each other's faces right now. I'm sure none of you would care right now about anything else I'd say in this note… I found Loki and Max very sassy towards one another during the day, and it made sense in my brain that you take their attitudes, add in some alcohol, a sexy black dress, and it's Make-Out City, population TWO.

Love you guys! This update absolutely brutalized my wrists, so it probably won't be later in the week until we see an update or even a message on my tumblr about the start of an update. But I'm excited.

Thank you all for getting me to 600 reviews! It's incredible, and the most feedback I have EVER GOTTEN EVER. So you're lovely. And a guest reviewer left these thoughtful words from the last chapter: "THEY NEED TO FUCK."

So. Yeah. –throws confetti everywhere-