Loki had almost forgotten all about The Other by the time he and Angela arrived home late into the night. Almost. He had barely laid his head on the pillow and closed his eyes, when a faint yellow glow entered his vision, and he felt himself once again on another plane.

There The Other stood, tall with a glowing scepter in hand.

It wouldn't do to show, but internally, Loki was becoming tired of The Other's nightly visits. Loki had just spent a wonderful day with Angela, and -

Angela. Loki's eyes widened, and heart raced at the thought of the young woman. Here he was plotting to use her, and she had done nothing to him. He couldn't. Not to her.

'No, this will not do. I will find some other way to find the Tesseract. But first, to rid myself of this monster.'

Before The Other could even speak, Loki gave him a self-assured cocky smile. "You need not worry. I shall bring you the Tesseract, and you will give me my army. There is no need for this to resume every night."

The Other paused, considering. "Then we have a deal, Asgardian?"

"Yes," Loki replied, "we have a deal."

"Good, do not disappoint us," was all The Other said.

The scepter in The Other's hand glowed, and the image faded. Loki awoke suddenly, and quickly got his bearings. The room was pitch black, so it was still night. He took a deep breath, calming himself. Now wasn't the time to worry about his dealings. He could worry about all of this at some other time. Angela was none the wiser to him, and he still had time.

He turned over in bed, and closed his eyes, willing sleep to claim him once more.

The following day was good. The weather wasn't the only thing warm and cheerful. Angela and Loki had spent most of the day in good spirits. Angela had slept in for the first time in years. Loki gave her a bit of ribbing over it, but nothing could ruin her mood today.

They had gone to a late afternoon movie. It was some action film that she barely paid any attention to. The real enjoyment she had at the movies came from Loki's snide commentary. It almost caused her to snort her drink out her nose at one point. Which caused Loki to laugh loudly. They were shushed after that. He got to enjoy popcorn for the first time, and her version of popcorn where she adds a handful of M&M's to them and mixes them.

Afterwards they decided to have dinner. It wasn't a fancy, over-the-top restaurant, but it still had great food. Angela was laughing at Loki's impression of the main hero of the movie, when she heard her name being called.

"Angela? Oh my god, Jane come here, it's Agent Lawrence!" That was for sure Darcy Lewis' voice. Angela didn't forget a voice ever.

Oh no. Oh fuck. Oh no. Shit.

Panic seized all her rational thoughts. Her eyes widened in horror, and her breathing stilled. Her gaze snapped from Loki over to the brunette who was approaching quickly with Dr. Foster. They both were waving, completely oblivious to the fact that the man who tried to kill Thor was literally across from them.

'Calm down. You can handle this. For all I know Loki doesn't know who they are, or look like. Handle it quickly,' she instructed herself.

She put on her widest smile and waved back. Then she looked over to Loki. His gaze turned to them, and that's when she realized he did, in fact, know who they were. His jaw tightened, it did that anytime the conversation took a turn and he was upset. His eyes hardened, and then turned to her. His hand that had simply been resting on the table, turned to a fist.

Oh no.

Jane and Darcy had arrived to the side of the table, and Angela still hadn't said anything.

"What are the odds of seeing you here?" Darcy said, oblivious.

"Right?" Angela replied, taking her eyes off the very dangerous god.

"How are you feeling?" Jane asked, concern filling her eyes.

The only thing they should be concerned about is how quickly south this whole encounter could go.

"I'm fine, thank you. I'll be back tomorrow." Angela hoped that was all they really wanted.

"That's good. We were worried about you. But Agent Barton said you were fine." Jane continued.

"Yeah, he called and checked on me yesterday. But they gave me the day off just in case. But I'm just fine." Angela hoped her disinterest would alert them to the fact that this was not a good time.

But Darcy. Lovely Darcy, nuance was never her forte. Angela liked her, but there was no changing Darcy Lewis.

Darcy looked across the table to him. Her eyes widened, and she gave Angela the most salacious smile Angela has seen. "Just fine? If I was sitting with someone this handsome I'd be a bit better than just fine."

Jane shoved Darcy with her elbow, "Darcy!" she chided.

"What?" Darcy asked. It was a rhetorical question because she immediately changed gears, "Aren't you going to introduce us?"

Fuck. "This is-" Angela began. Her eyes locked with Loki's. She could see the many emotions swimming inside; panic, anger, and many others. "-Luke," she introduced, her gaze going back to the duo. "My friend. We were catching up. Luke, these are my co-workers, Darcy Lewis, and Dr. Jane Foster."

They both waved at him, and Angela watched as he morphed from angry to charming prince. "A pleasure," he replied simply, a charming smile in place, but to Angela it looked more like a smiling serpent ready to strike.

Darcy smiled wider at the sound of his accent. "Oh, are you British? Because you don't sound American."

If he didn't know what the difference between Britain and America was it didn't show, because he took the question in stride like he heard it often. "Yes. Born and raised. I came here for work, and since Angela happened to be here I had hoped we could catch up."

A plausible explanation. It was no wonder this man was The God of Lies and Mischief. It sounded natural. No thought.

Jane elbowed Darcy again, and gave her a hard stare before speaking again. "Well, it was nice to meet you Luke, we'll let you guys get back to catching up," she turned to Angela, "and we'll see you tomorrow, Agent Lawrence."

"Yeah, see you guys tomorrow." She replied.

She watched as Jane all but pulled Darcy away from the table, the two bickering the whole way out. She didn't hear them over the sound of her own heart in her ears though. Nor did she hear Loki ask for the check. All she knew was that Loki was pissed. And the day had been ruined in but an instant.