Chapter 25 - Dalmore 62

AN: I'm planning on watching Black Widow tonight. If I happen to say something in this chapter about Natasha's past that conflicts with something in the movie, this fic was pretty much AU from the beginning anyway. Later on, I will be contradicting the MCU some more on purpose.

POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING: I didn't even think about it until just before posting this, but I feel like I should probably warn anyone who hasn't seen at least ONE of the following movies: _Age of Ultron_, _Infinity War_, or _Endgame_, that there's something that might be considered a spoiler in Natasha and Clint's conversation. So if you're adamant about not wanting spoilers for a 6 year old (at the time of this writing) movie, don't read anything between "No Kidding?" and "No, of course I didn't!"

"This is exactly what I was worried about. I think Loki might have a gaming addiction now."

Doc had cornered Tony in his own lab, where he'd been busy multi-tasking, looking over proposed schematics on one monitor for—um, something Pep had wanted him to look at, he thought it might be a solar car battery or something— while leveling up Brirmag'toth Darkbasher, orc mage extraordinaire, on one of his other monitors. He was this close to finally being able to get one of those sweet wolf mounts. He hid his game window, hoping Doc hadn't noticed. "Gaming addiction? Come on, Doc, that 'gaming addiction' stuff is such bullshit. Just the idea is offensive to us real addicts."

"I'm aware you have some firsthand experience with addiction, Tony, which is why I had hoped you would understand how serious this is. You do understand how addiction works, right? It all has to do with endorphins. You can become addicted to anything that feels good. Gambling, food, exercise, sex—"

Flying through the air in nothing but a tin can. Tony knew how endorphins worked, alright. "Hey, at least she's not a sex addict," he joked, but Doc didn't laugh.

"She's hardly left her room since you gave her that laptop. JARVIS estimated that she's been spending between twelve and thirteen hours a day on it. It isn't healthy."

"She didn't try to skip out on therapy, did she?"

"No, but I had to ask JARVIS to arrange for a temporary Internet outage, localized to whatever room Loki happened to be in at the time."

"Oh, I'll bet she was happy about that."

"You know, it wasn't the most productive session we've had? We're going to have to put a limit on how much time she can spend on her devices. The idea was for her to have some contact with the outside world so that she would feel less socially isolated, but she's interacting less and less with the real people around her."

"Some people might think that's a good thing, Doc. I mean, at least she hasn't gotten into it with Clint again. Besides, has it really been long enough for this to count as an addiction? The novelty might wear off after a while, you know."

"Maybe. Or the problem might get worse the longer it goes on."

"Okay, fine. You want to be the one to tell her we're cutting her off?"

"You're the one that provided the laptop and paid for her World of Warcraft subscription, Tony. I'm not saying we have to cut her off completely, but there have to be limits."

"On the other hand, Loki might not be a completely mature adult, but she isn't a little kid either. The rules we've put in place so far have been for her safety or our sanity, and she seems to get that. But she's going to resent it if we start limiting her in ways that feel arbitrary."

"Agreed."

"Oh yeah?" Tony felt like the monkey that had just typed out the script to Hamlet. After all, what did he know about raising healthy, happy, half-way sane teenagers, when he'd never even been one?

Samson nodded. "We need to make her understand why her current behavior is unhealthy and encourage her to do other things with her time. Actually blocking her from using her devices should be a last resort."

"So what, we're staging an intervention? Cool. I always wanted to be on the other side of one of those. Think we should get everybody to help? We could make it like a surprise party, where everyone jumps out from behind the couch in the common room, and we could get a cake—"

"I don't think that will be necessary. The two of us should be able to handle it."

"You don't think Bruce should be involved? The kid seems to like him more than the rest of us at this point. Which I totally get, because he's a totally likable guy. I mean, I'm like ninety-five percent certain I'm straight, plus I'm with Pep right now, but if I wasn't—"

"We don't want to make her feel like we're ganging up on her. We'll go talk to her together now, but if the problem persists, then we can ask Bruce to have a talk with her."

"Saving the big guns for later, huh? Smart."

(￣▵—▵￣)ノ炎炎炎炎炎

"Loki, we need to talk to you about something. Can you find a stopping point in your game?"

"I'm not playing a game," Loki told Doc, as she sprawled out on her bed with her laptop in front of her.

"You're not?" asked Tony.

"Half of my life has been spent doing glorified fetch quests for Odin. Did you really think I would be entertained by being sent on them by computer generated characters?"

Okay, put that way, maybe World of Warcraft hadn't been the best way to introduce Loki to computer games, but the game itself wasn't the point. Loki had complained about not being allowed to communicate with the outside world, and this should have given her a way to interact with actual, live human beings, albeit live human beings who were pretending to be someone else and through a chat window. It wasn't much, but it had to be better than nothing. "The idea was for you to make some in-game friends, remember? An MMORPG isn't going to be much fun if you play alone."

"You can't truly expect me to spend time interacting with mortals who have nothing better to do than spend their time on low value entertainment, and whose real lives are so droll they have to pretend to be warriors and mages in a game." Loki said it with such contempt that Tony knew she wasn't saying something.

And of course, Tony couldn't leave it alone. "Hey, what happened? You get cyber bullied or something?" It didn't seem all that likely to happen on a WoW RP server, but Loki did seem to have a talent for bringing out the worst in the people around her. (Wait, was it terrible that Tony automatically assumed thatLoki had done something to piss someone off? Unfortunately, he could imagine her adopting a strategy that involved kill stealing without understanding why it was wrong.)

"No," said Loki, but the way she said it through grit teeth made it obvious that something had happened.

Oh, there was a story there, but Tony wasn't deluded enough to think he would be the one to coax it out of her. Maybe Doc or Bruce could get her to spill later. "Alright, fine. I won't ask any more questions. What are you doing, anyway? You're not messing with JARVIS again, are you?"

"No, Stark. I am done playing around with your little computer program."

"What are you doing, then?"

"Doctor Samson suggested that I might try writing as a creative outlet."

"You were listening when I said that?" asked Doc.

"I always listen to what people say, and I never forget what anyone says either."

Doc smiled thinly and nodded, but he was probably thinking the same thing Tony was.

"So what are you writing?" Tony tried to look over the top of Loki's laptop, but she shut the lid.

"None of your business, Stark. Doctor Samson told me I didn't have to show it to anyone."

"Oh—okay, well, cool." He could ask JARVIS later. "Keep doing what you're doing, then."

"Hold on," said Doc. "Actually, Loki, you need to take a break. You're spending way too much time on that computer. That's what we came to talk to you about."

"But if she's doing something constructive—"

Doc cut him off. "Not the problem."

"I'm sorry, exactly what is the problem?" Loki asked. "I'm doing what you told meto do."

"And that's fantastic, but you need to leave your room every once in a while and at least try to interact with the people you live with."

"I have been going to my therapy appointments as agreed."

"That isn't enough. What happened to training with Natasha?"

"'Training' devolved into baking cupcakes and drinking alcohol with Natasha. The cupcakes were fantastic, but the alcohol left me with a considerable headache. Not to mention, I'm almost certain I revealed something personal to her, which is highly annoying."

"Getting close to other people might require you to reveal a few personal details. Opening yourself up to another person isn't necessarily bad."

"When that person is Natasha?"

"She isn't your enemy anymore, Loki. None of us are."

"You're not my friends either."

"Yeah, you said that before," said Tony. "After you'd spent like twenty minutes cuddling with me. Then again, Natasha pretty much insinuated that she and I weren't friends, so maybe you should be careful around her—"

"Now, hold on," said Samson. "I think Ms. Romanoff has some difficulty being open with people, but she hasn't revealed Loki's presence on Earth to SHIELD. Tony, you really don't think we can trust her?"

"She hasn't betrayed us as far as we know, but—" Tony caught on as Doc's eyes flicked between him and Loki. "No, no, you're right. There's no reason to think we can't trust Nat."

Loki furrowed her eyebrows at Tony, but then she rolled her eyes. "I actually wouldn't mind trying to learn from Natasha again. I never truly learned how to defend myself in this form before, because before I could switch back to my male form if I needed to fight. After my run in with Barton last week, I'm certain that was a mistake."

"You don't really think you need to be able to defend yourself from Clint, do you?" Because if Clint had done something to make her think that, he needed to have a little chat with the guy.

"He grabbed me and told me to go ahead and scream, presumably because he thought no one would come to help me."

"Whoa, what? That's—seriously not okay." Tony had been forced to change course mid-sentence. While disbelief might be his first reaction to hearing that Clint, his buddy, had done something creepy, he'd sat through enough corporate sexual harassment training seminars to know better. "When did this happen?"

"When I was ill. I ran into him in the common room on the way to the kitchen. I know I wasn't supposed to be out of my room, but there was no call for him to grab me."

Tony swore under his breath. "Why didn't you tell anyone before now?"

"Doctor Banner knew. He was the one who made him let go of me. He said something about having a talk with Barton about what happened."

Bruce hadn't breathed a word about it to him. He wondered if he'd said something to Clint, or if he'd managed to forget.

"Loki, is this the real reason you've been isolating yourself?" asked Doc. "Is it Clint you're avoiding?"

Loki looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "I'm not afraid of Barton. I only wish I hadn't had to resort to calling Doctor Banner for help."

"There's no shame in asking for help when you need it," Samson told her. "But I think we should all sit down with Clint and see if we can get this worked out."

＼＿ﾍ(￣ー￣ )ノ"( ° ෴ ° )

Twenty minutes later, Tony was sitting in on an impromptu meeting with Clint, Loki, and Bruce up in Doc's office. It felt weirdly like an AA meeting, or some sort of group therapy session, which come to think of it, might have been what it was.

"Clint, what the hell?"

Maybe that hadn't been the best way to start the conversation, because Clint just looked at Tony like he had no idea what he was talking about, and he probably didn't. "What the hell what, Tony?"

"Doesn't SHIELD do sexual harassment training like everybody else does these days?"

Clint arched an eyebrow at him. "What exactly am I being accused of here?"

"Loki said you grabbed her, and we've been told that Bruce here can corroborate that story."

"Are you talking about when I grabbed her by the wrist, after she tried to share her germs with me?"

Okay, that wasn't the worst place Clint could have grabbed her. And what was this about sharing germs? Tony turned towards Loki. "You leave some things out of this story, by chance?"

Loki looked up from below her eyelashes in a way that almost made her look authentically contrite. "I did tell Bruce that I was sorry for my behavior. Ah, but I'm supposed to tell Barton that, aren't I?" Loki turned that almost contrite look on Clint. "Barton, I am sorry that I coughed on you and licked you."

Clint glared back at her. "Yeah, I'll bet you are."

"Wait, you licked Clint? Do we need to have you take one of those trainings?"

"I assure you it was not sexual," Loki said, rolling her eyes.

"Clint put his hand over her mouth to keep her from calling for help," Bruce explained, giving Clint a disapproving look.

Okay, that made more sense. If someone put their hand over his mouth, Tony would probably lick them too. What the hell had Clint been thinking? "Do you have any idea how rapey this is starting to sound, buddy?"

"It wasn't like that. You guys said to restrain her if she started acting nuts, right? She went out of her way to cough on me when she was infectious. Who does that?"

"We asked that you try to restrain Loki without hurting her and call for either Doctor Banner or myself if you thought she might harm herself or someone else," Doc Samson reminded him. "What she did may have been immature and even a little malicious, but it didn't qualify as violent behavior. And instead of calling one of us, you attempted to keep her from calling Bruce."

"Well, yeah. I didn't want her upsetting him—"

Bruce gave Clint a look that reminded Tony of the look Pepper gave him whenever he said something stupid at a press conference. "Is that right, Clint, or did you realize that what you were doing might upset me?"

"Uh—" Clint looked away, as if he knew he'd been busted. "Look, I'm not exactly proud of my own behavior," he admitted, running a hand through his gel slicked bleach-blond hair. "I could have handled the situation better, I guess."

Doc Samson nodded. "Next time you think Loki's behavior is cause for concern, you should involve one of us. Don't try to handle it yourself. You still haven't forgiven Loki for what happened during the invasion, and that's clearly coloring all of your interactions with her."

"You think, Doc? Maybe she was coerced into parts of it, and maybe she didn't have any control over what the Chitauri did, but she still admitted to wanting to rule the Earth."

Tony couldn't help smirking at that. "Yeah, who doesn't? Like the song says, 'everybody wants to rule the world.' Besides, I'm honestly not sure Loki could do any worse with it than the people in charge now." That comment got him disbelieving stares from everyone present, including Loki. But he wasn't entirely joking. If Loki ever ran for president against Senator Stern he'd be voting for the Goddess of Mischief. Hell, he might even volunteer to be her campaign manager.

Clint shook his head. "It's like I'm the only one who remembers what she's capable of, or maybe I was the only one who ever understood in the first place."

"It is as you say." Loki tilted her head to the side as she gave Clint a look that frankly, Tony found creepy. "I am a killer and capable of much ruthless cruelty. Perhaps it was the culture I was raised in, or perhaps it is my innate, monstrous nature. But I'm not the only one capable of such things, now am I, Agent 'All I Need is an Eyeball?'"

Clint chuckled darkly. "Fine, you've got me there. Stuttgart might have been my plan, but you're the one that carried it out. You also killed Coulson, which everyone seems to have conveniently forgotten."

Loki's maniacal grin faded. "I'm afraid I don't know who that is, Barton. I killed a few people myself during the invasion. Not so many as you, I think, but enough that I don't immediately know who you're talking about. You'll have to explain the significance."

Oh, crap—Tony really had forgotten about Coulson, or rather, it was one of those things he had willingly compartmentalized away.

"You're telling me you don't even remember him?" Clint asked through grit teeth. "He's the guy you killed on the Helicarrier, right after you dropped the containment cell with your own brother in it!"

"Oh, him," said Loki. "He was pointing a rather large gun at me at the time. You can't blame me for defending myself. And as for Thor, he was fine, obviously."

"Coulson wasn't fine. You murdered him."

"I cut him down in battle, it isn't the same as murder." Just like that, Loki made the leap from an apparent lack of concern to unconcealed vehemence. "His death was that of a warrior, which makes his soul as worthy of Valhalla as any mortal soul ever was." Weirdly, it sounded like she was defending Coulson as much as she was defending herself.

Tony remembered how different Loki's upbringing had been. For Asgardians, dying in battle was something to aspire to. That meant if you killed someone in glorious battle, you were more or less doing them a favor, because then they got a golden ticket to space Viking heaven. No one seemed to know what to say. Even Tony didn't know what to say, which had to be a first, because his brain usually supplied him with half a dozen boneheaded things to say even if it couldn't come up with anything intelligent. Doc was probably trying to come up with some way not to invalidate Loki's religious beliefs while still explaining how screwed up they were. Bruce seemed to have zoned out, or maybe he was doing some kind of breathing exercises.

Clint looked at Loki appraisingly, and then nodded. "You know what? You're right. Coulson died fighting, and he died fighting for the right side. But he shouldn't have been the one to die."

"Then who should have? Are you making a threat, or are you asking me to assist you in putting you out of your misery?"

"Okay, this needs to stop," Doctor Samson interrupted. "No matter what, Agent Coulson can't come back. Now, I didn't know him, but Clint, do you think he would want you to hold a grudge against Loki for the rest of your life, especially now that we know Loki was being manipulated as well?"

Clint stared at the floor for a while before answering. "I think he would have wanted to live."

When Bruce opened his eyes he looked pretty zenned out, which led Tony to believe he'd been right about the breathing exercises. "I didn't know Coulson as well as everyone else did, but I don't think he'd want you to hold on to all this anger, Clint. When you get right down to it, you're the one that's suffering, and he wouldn't have wanted that. Forgiveness isn't just for the benefit of the person being forgiven."

"Loki doesn't want my forgiveness. She doesn't even think she's done anything wrong, that's the entire problem!"

Loki got up. For a second, Tony thought he was going to have to jump between her and Clint to keep her from scratching his eyes out, but then she did something completely unexpected—she knelt in front of him. "I do not actually lack self-awareness, Barton. I am fully aware that I did everything wrong. I should have died rather than submit to the will of my captors, but unlike this Coulson of yours, I am too much of a coward. I humbly ask you to forgive my weakness, not because I deserve forgiveness but because you deserve the opportunity to decide whether or not you wish to forgive me."

It took Clint a few moments to get his shit together enough to answer. "You seriously expect me to believe that?"

Loki winced, but then she growled her response. "What do you think I have to gain by prostrating myself before a mortal?"

Clint leaned forward, so he could stare down his nose at her. "Oh, I don't know. The continued good will of the other people present? Not mine, obviously, since you never had it in the first place. But I'll just bet you're thinking of a way to take advantage of whatever trust you can get from the other three schmucks in this room."

Well, damn. Tony didn't particularly care to be called a schmuck in his own home. He sat up a little straighter. "Now that was a little uncalled for, Clinton."

"You don't know anything about me, Barton." Loki got to her feet. "There. I've given you the opportunity to forgive me if you need to do so. But don't make the mistake of thinking that I need your pitiful forgiveness or even want it." She turned to Samson. "May I go now? I don't see what else I can do here."

Poor Doc ran his fingers through the hair on the top of his head, looking as if he was seriously contemplating pulling it out. Tony found himself sympathizing. "No, Loki, obviously we still haven't resolved anything. Please take a seat." Loki slumped back down onto the couch between Bruce and Tony, and Doc gave her a weak smile. "Thank you for offering Clint the opportunity to forgive you. That was very mature of you. Unfortunately, it looks like he isn't quite ready to forgive you yet, which you have to admit is understandable. I have a feeling it might be because Clint still hasn't forgiven himself for what happened—what do you think, Clint?"

Clint stared blankly at Doc. "Don't try to make this about me. I didn't kill Coulson."

"No, but you did kill or injure a lot of other people during the invasion, many of them your own colleagues."

Clint snorted indignantly.

"Everyone understands that you were acting under the influence of the scepter," Samson continued, "but that doesn't mean you don't blame yourself. When you said that Coulson shouldn't have been the one to die that day, what did you mean?"

Clint didn't answer.

Doc nodded. "I'd like for us to talk about this further in a private session."

"Ah, hell no. I don't need a shrink," said Clint. "SHIELD already forced me to talk to one of theirs."

"Well, not to disparage whatever 'shrinks' SHIELD has in their employ, but you haven't talked to me yet. I'm highly regarded in my field, Clint. I'm good at what I do."

Tony thought it was a great idea. Samson was on his payroll now, after all; he might as well get his money's worth. "Give him a chance. You know I only pay for the best of everything, Clint."

"I know you do, but I'd much rather have a glass from your top shelf." So Clint would rather drink to forget than deal with his shit. Why was that attitude unsurprising?

"Let Doc play with your brain for a while and you can have a whole bottle of whatever you want."

Clint shot him a dirty look (maybe he shouldn't have said that thing about letting Doc play with his brain, damn, talk about a bad choice of words), but then he must have realized the full implication of what Tony had said. "Fine. Give me the Dalmore 62, and Doc can play with my brain all he wants."

Tony arched an eyebrow at the exorbitant demand. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather have a BMW?" He had picked up the bottle in question, the last of only twelve in existence, in an airport in Thailand a couple years back. He had been waiting for the right occasion to open it ever since.

"I've told you before that I don't need a car in New York, and if I go on assignment for SHIELD, they provide transportation."

"If that's what it takes, fine." What was the right occasion for opening a bottle of whiskey that cost as much as the average American middle-class home anyway?

"You're really going to give me the Dalmore?"

"So long as you also promise not to manhandle the kid anymore. Let it be known that Tony Stark happens to care deeply about the mental health of his friends." It would serve the bastard right if the stuff turned out to be corked. Loki's eyes shifted curiously between them, probably wondering if she could manipulate the situation to get something out of Tony too. "Hey Doc, you mind penciling me in sometime this week, too? I'm feeling a little used right now. I think I need to talk to someone about it."

"Any time," said Doc, looking smug. At least one person seemed to be satisfied with how things had panned out.

(´･_･)ゞ (;｀Д´)— (-_-)

Clint had just stepped off the elevator when something weighing approximately one hundred and thirty pounds landed on him, knocking him to the floor. "Ow—seriously, Nat? Let me guess. You were listening in on all that from the vents?" That Avengers Tower even had exposed vents that were large enough for Natasha to crawl through, like something from a B spy-movie, had to have been by design. Tony did like to make sure they all felt at home.

"I wouldn't have had to if I could trust you to tell me what's going on. So what is going on with you? We both know you aren't angry about Coulson."

"As far as Loki knows, she murdered him." What difference did it make if the guy was actually still alive?

Natasha shook her head and rested her chin on her knuckles, elbows digging into Clint's chest. "I know you, and I know the difference between when you're angry for real and when you use anger to mask other emotions—like fear and shame."

Clint narrowed his eyes at her. "When they sent me after you, I should have taken the shot. It would have saved me so much trouble."

The edge of Natasha's mouth quirked upwards. "Face it, you'd be lost without me. So tell me, what's going on with you? You're not a vindictive person. And if you could see good in me—"

"It's not the same."

"It isn't?"

"Of course it isn't. You've never played with my head and made me do things—"

"Are you sure I haven't?" Natasha's grin widened, and Clint thought that if he squinted, he would see devil's horns coming out of her head.

"Not the way Loki did it, anyway."

"So what you're saying is that this is personal. It doesn't matter to you how much more blood is on my hands—"

"You've been trying to make amends."

"Didn't Loki just apologize?"

"Words aren't enough and you know it."

"Will anything ever be enough?" Natasha rolled off him and laid beside him on the floor. "Clint, what's really going on here?"

Clint wished he could say he didn't know, but— "I'm starting to see it, Nat."

"See what?"

"Loki is—not an adult."

"No kidding?"

"Whenever I look at her, I'm starting to see Cooper and Lila."

"She isn't that young."

"Doesn't matter," Clint grumped, thumping his head against the floor. "She's someone's kid."

"Everyone is someone's kid."

Clint looked at Nat sideways, wondering if he ought to tell her that when he'd been sent after her, Laura had been pregnant with Lila, and if he hadn't had a serious case of "dad brain" at the time, he might have made a different call. Natasha had grown up a lot since then, but she probably didn't realize how young she'd looked only a few years before. (Not that his feelings for her had ever been paternal, exactly. She'd always been more like a kid sister.)

Clint couldn't keep his voice from coming out as a whine. "I made a kid gouge someone's eye out, Nat."

He was staring up at the ceiling again, but he could practically hear Nat roll her eyes. "You know it wasn't the first time she'd injured someone. I doubt Loki is scarred for life—not because of that, anyway. And do I really need to point out that you weren't in control at the time?"

"I should have been able to fight it. What does it say about me that I couldn't fight it at all? Selvig fought it enough to build a shut off feature into the portal, and if what Loki claimed is true, she could fight it enough to basically loose on purpose."

"Both Selvig and Loki are geniuses. You're not."

"Gee, thanks Nat."

"I'm serious, Clint. Selvig is a world-renowned astrophysicist. Loki managed to hack into JARVIS after being on Earth for a week. You're—well, you're you. You're a damn good shot, but the one time you tried to do a sudoku puzzle, you filled in one box before you got a migraine."

"So I'm not good at math."

"Sudoku has more to do with process of elimination than math. Remember that time you tried to help Cooper with his social studies homework, and he asked you how many branches made up the U.S. government—"

"I still say they must have added one since I was a kid."

"They didn't."

"Fine, I get it. Clint stupid caveman, good at nothing but hunt dinosaurs with bow and arrow."

Natasha propped herself up on her elbow so she could arch an eyebrow at him. "You do know—"

"Of course I know that dinosaurs and cavemen weren't around at the same time! I'm not that much of an idiot."

"I never said you were an idiot. There are different types of intelligence."

"But you're still saying that my mind was too weak for me to resist being controlled."

Natasha laid back and took her time before speaking, as if she were trying to puzzle something out. "When Loki asked you about the rest of us, did he ask about you?"

"He asked for information on everyone in the initiative."

"So did you tell him about Laura and the kids?"

"No, of course I didn't!"

"There you go, Clint. You could fight back and you did. Enough to protect the one thing that mattered more than anything else."

"But I told him about you, and about SHIELD."

"Anything he couldn't have obtained from alternative sources?"

Clint hesitated before answering. He wasn't ready to let himself off the hook, but Natasha had a point. "Not really. I only told him what anyone could have learned by hacking SHIELD's level one servers—"

"Which are basically a decoy for people like Tony, and the recruitment test for SHIELD's cyber division."

Clint narrowed his eyes at his "little sis." "You did disable JARVIS in this hallway before you started this conversation, right?"

"JARVIS and I have an understanding. Don't we, JARVIS?"

"Yes, Mistress," said the AI, sounding almost bashful.

"You know that having him call you that is creepy, right?"

"Tony has JARVIS call him 'Sir,'" Natasha pointed out.

Clint couldn't help thinking it came off entirely different.

╮ (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) ╭

Author's Note:

Hopefully no one's too disappointed that Loki either rage-quit or got banned from WoW before the chapter even started (I'm thinking she actually got banned). That may be something I have to revisit later—eventually I'm planning on doing some related one shots.