Jimmy Woo was one of the nicest federal agents that Jaklyn had ever met. And she'd met plenty after her attack on the Avengers. She'd met even more, from all sorts of agencies, when it came out that her father had been an ally of Hydra. Out of every one of those agents, she was glad that she got stuck with Jimmy Woo as her parole officer.

He could be a bit annoying at times, but he treated her as a person. When he spoke to her, it wasn't just to get information out of her or as a means to an end. It seemed like he genuinely wanted to know how she was doing at their check-ins and he never asked too much of her at once.

She tried not to ask much of him either, because she wanted to call as little attention to herself as possible and because she didn't want to make his life difficult. And now here she was, for the second time that week, making a request that would require hours of paperwork for her parole agent.

"I'm sorry, Jaklyn, you know that's not going to happen," he was telling her gently.

"Can we talk to Mr. Stark about it?"

"He is sponsoring your probation, but he doesn't actually have any sway with the FBI. Well… legally he doesn't. He probably has someone high up in his pocket," Jimmy cleared his throat, "But you didn't hear me say that."

"I want to use my powers," she pleaded, "I want to learn how to use them to help people and protect myself. You said I should take up a hobby."

"If you want to take up magic as a hobby, learn some card tricks, but I just can't see my superiors signing off on-"

"But you could ask. You haven't even asked. Mr. Stark would vouch for me. I bet even Captain Rogers would vouch for me and I tried to kill him."

There was silence on the other end of the phone. Jaklyn heard a bit of typing and some clicking before Jimmy sighed.

"Tony Stark did offer you a lawyer if you ever needed one," he said, "I didn't say this… but, I think now would be a good time to take him up on that offer. If you're really serious about getting that cuff off. I'll start the paperwork to see what I can do on my end."

"Thank you, Jimmy."

"It's Agent Woo."

"Of course, Agent Woo," she grinned as she hung up. She was about to dial Tony Stark to see what she could do about getting a lawyer, but there was a knock on the safe room door. She checked the time. It was three o'clock in the afternoon. There were still plenty of Avengers in the building and Friday would tell her if the person outside was a threat.

"Come in," she called, searching her phone contacts for Tony Stark. Generally, she would have to go through Happy Hogan to get to Mr. Stark, but apparently, Happy was monitoring another situation for the billionaire. After Loki showed up, Mr. Stark told her to contact him directly. For the time being at least. She doubted he'd answer her calls forever.

"Why isn't this door locked?"

Jaklyn's attention snapped up from her phone when she heard Loki's voice. He stood in the doorway, narrowing his eyes at the knob as if it were to blame for not being locked.

"You're right," she lowered her feet from the desk she'd propped them on and sat up straight, "Go back out and I'll lock it."

"I am serious Jak, if there is a dangerous man on the loose-"

"Pretty sure that fits the description of every man in this building. Except maybe Leland, the weekend cleaning guy. But I'd bet he's probably ex-military or something."

"-you should not be in this unguarded room with the door unlocked!"

"It is guarded. Did you not see the various stun guns built into the walls of the hallway? It's not called a safe room for nothing. Besides, the security guys already cleared the property. I'm only in here until Steve says I can go back to my room," she set her phone down and reminded herself that she needed to ask a favor of Loki as well. Perhaps she'd better get her sass under control. Or, as her mother always used to say "adjust her tone to one befitting of a young lady".

"Thor told me that you thought the invader was me at first," Loki replied, poking around the room and going through the various puzzle books Steve had left for her.

"At a glance, in the dark, he looked like you," she shrugged.

"Thor also told me that you threatened to 'blast my ass back to Asgard'," he turned to her. Gesturing to the dampening cuff on her wrist, he raised an eyebrow, "That might be somewhat difficult given your situation."

"About that," she self-consciously covered the cuff with her other hand, tapping on the glowing lights, "I'm… I'm actually in the process of getting it removed."

A smile slowly spread across his face. He looked unfairly handsome when he was smug.

"Oh?"

"Yes. I figured it would be better to be able to defend myself if some creep is out to get me. Does your offer to help me still stand? Or would you rather just focus on Wanda?"

She tried not to let her minor bit of jealousy show in her voice, but he must have caught it anyway. His smile only became more smug.

"We had a lovely time in New Mexico," he clasped his hands behind his back and began pacing the room. "With so much open desert, she could really show off her powers. I'm not sure that I've ever seen the like in all my years. At least, not on Midgard. Imagine what she could do, fully trained! I'll be spending a great deal of time with her."

"So you won't help me?" She shrugged as if she didn't care, "Then I guess I'll just have to rely on Steve to protect me. He seems plenty willing."

He rolled his eyes, knowing exactly what she was doing, but she could sense hesitation in him too. He truly did not like the idea of her and Captain Rogers together. Not that she was particularly interested in Steve beyond feeling guilty. But Loki didn't need to know that. She liked making him jealous, mean as it was. She'd been in a few arranged relationships over the years, but she'd never had a man interested in her apart from her connection to her father. And she'd certainly never had a man be jealous over her.

"I didn't say I wouldn't teach you," Loki crossed his arms, "But in return-"

"You offered to teach me in order to get me to stay at the Compound," she protested, "There is no 'in return'."

"I offered to help you uncover your parentage in order to get you to stay. In order for me to teach you to wield your magic, you'll have to pay a price," he leaned in close to her, eyes searching her face. She forced herself to meet his gaze, but felt compelled to turn away and blush.

"What do you want?"

He chuckled softly and brushed a hair from her face. "Oh, I want a great many things. But for now, I will settle for one question each day."

"What?" It was hard to think. Hard to breathe with him so close. She couldn't quite process what he was saying.

"Every day that I teach you, you will answer one question truthfully, no matter what I ask."

"What sorts of questions?" She frowned, not liking this idea. She could always lie, she supposed, but she had a feeling that the Norse god of lies would probably see through any untruths.

"As I said, anything I want to ask. Most of it will be about your past," he took a step back and dusted off his shirt, "I am set on unraveling your riddles, remember. And, you can always opt out of answering a question. If you do, I simply shall not teach you for that day. A more than fair bargain, don't you think?"

She considered it. Though she wasn't keen on sharing her past with anyone, she had heard enough stories in her lifetime about genies and fae to know it was easy to twist wishes and truths. She could answer his questions, while still giving him very little information. And, it wasn't like her secrets were protecting anyone but herself. It wouldn't actually hurt her if he learned about her.

But, if he found out too much, then he might grow bored of her. He might find that she was not such an interesting Midgardian after all and his attention might stop. Which, she tried to tell herself, would be a good thing… though she knew she would miss it.

Still, she really did need to learn to control her magic now that her mother was dead. There would come a day when someone would want to do worse to her than watch her through a window. She needed to be ready for that day, no matter the cost.

Finally, she offered her hand to Loki. He took it eagerly and shook it.

"You have a deal," she replied, enjoying the feeling of his hand in hers, "Only if I can convince the government to remove this cuff, obviously."

"Well, if they don't," he lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles chastly, "I can always break it for you and we can run away together."

"Hmm," she pulled her hand back and picked up her phone, looking at the screen as if she were bored, though she was really trying to hide how much her hand was shaking, "That sounds rather like a date. And you know I already said no to that."

"Of course," he winked at her, "And I would never push a lady's boundaries."

"No, never," she rolled her eyes and pressed Tony Stark's name on the screen. She held the phone to her ear and made a shooing motion at Loki. He bowed and left her to bargain with the billionaire.

A note from the author: A deal has been struck! Now Jak just needs to get that cuff off so she can use her magic, but that might be easier said than done...

Thank you for reading/following/favoriting! I am so glad that folks are enjoying this story! :)

Special thanks to kimmieg1018 and Tooka63 for reviewing! Your words of encouragement are very helpful in the writing process and I appreciate them greatly!

Until next chapter!