I didn't see Scott again over the next two weeks. He got called out for work, which I knew meant that he was doing a mission for The Avengers, though I pretended I still didn't know the full truth of his job. He texted frequently. Sometimes his texts came in at really odd hours.

Scott: So, when I get back, would you want to go to dinner or something?

Lexi: Like a date?

Scott: Wait, why are you up? Isn't it like 2 there?

Lexi: It is. Insomnia

Scott: Oh.

Scott: So dinner? Not a date. Just friends.

Lexi: Hm. Sure I guess we could get dinner. As friends.

Scott: Great! It's a not-date!

I stared at the message and for what was probably the millionth time since that kiss, I asked myself what the hell I was thinking. I was supposed to be staying away from all of my soulmates. That was the entire goal I set myself when I escaped my past. I was supposed to be having a nice, quiet life. Being a soulmate to not one, but four superheroes, was definitely not going to lead to a quiet life.

I settled back against my pillows and stared at the patterns the light filtering in the window made on my ceiling. I wasn't lying when I said that I was an insomniac. There were several reasons for it; nightmares, flashbacks, that when I was younger I had to always be on edge. Sighing, I threw my blanket off and got out of bed. There was no reason to keep pretending like I was asleep.

Pulling on a pair of leggings and an oversized cable-knit sweater. It was still cool this early in the mornings. I shoved my feet into a pair of tennis shoes. Then I grabbed my keys, my phone, and my wallet. On the sidewalk, I put in my earphones and started walking. Sure, a woman walking alone in a vast city in the middle of the night was likely unwise. But most women didn't have the same skills I did.

For the first time in a while, I pulled down the walls that I kept around my mind and sent out tendrils. Basically, think of it a bit like radar–I would send out these lines of my mind and they would bounce back and give me information about anyone who might be nearby. It was a good way to learn if anyone was going to be a risk to me.

Tonight, it almost seemed like I was the only one awake. The streets and sidewalks were empty. The tendrils coming back to me were full of sleep and dreams. There was something about being out in a city full of millions, and feeling like you were the only one around.

I walked for countless blocks, enjoying the night. I had been gone from my place for nearly 45 minutes when one tendril of thought came back with a familiar mind-print. Sighing, I turned around to face the woman who was walking behind me.

She was striking, that was for sure. Long black hair, crystalline skin, eyes so green that they practically glowed. I tilted my head as I watched her approach. When she met my eyes, I lifted a brow and she paused a few feet from me.

"Are you stalking me?"

"Excuse me?" Her voice was pretty.

I smiled, "Loki, I know it is you."

The woman opened her mouth, no doubt intending to deny it. I just crossed my arms and fixed her with a look. After several long beats, there was a glow of green and the woman changed. Loki was still striking. He was striking, no matter what appearance he used.

"How did you know it was me?"

I rolled my eyes and lifted a hand, tapping a finger against my temple, "Because of the whole mind thing."

He looked surprised, and I continued, "I always know when you are skulking around, even when you look different."

Now he looked affronted. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

I sighed. "Loki, every living person has a unique mind. And before you go off about how you aren't a person, blah, blah, blah. I use the term person broadly."

"Why are you out so late, or early, depending on your point of view?" He asked.

I shrugged, turning my back on him and continuing on the path I already was on. Loki fell in step with me and I considered telling him to bug off, but figured that wouldn't do anything, so I kept quiet. Three blocks later, we came upon a hole in the wall diner that was open.

I turned to take in Loki's appearance. He was wearing black pants and an emerald green shirt. Good enough. I tilted my head at him, and he eyed me in response.

"Yes?" He inquired.

"Well, I'm going in here. As I am starving. You can either piss off or you can join me. Your choice."

With that, I pushed through the door and took a booth in the back. I had no idea if he was going to join me or not, but as I was looking over a menu that was on the table, I watched him sliding into the booth across from me.

A tired waitress wandered over to the table, and I ordered coffee. Loki asked for the same. I caught his eye over the top of the menu. He had a look of distaste on his face.

"What?"

He ran his finger along the top of the table and then rubbed it against his thumb. "This place is a little grimy, don't you think?"

I didn't respond as the waitress came over with two chipped mugs full of dark liquid. She popped the gum she was chewing and looked at me. I ordered pancakes, eggs and bacon and when she turned her gaze on Loki, he just shook his head. She rolled her eyes lightly as she walked away.

I watched as Loki took a sip of the coffee and he pulled such a face that I bit the inside of my lip to keep from laughing.

"By Odin's beard, that is the most revolting coffee I've ever tasted. And I live with someone who basically makes coffee that tastes like dirt."

He shoved his cup away from him with another sneer. I hid my smile behind my cup, sipping slowly. Loki was right. It was terrible, but I used to bad coffee in my past life. The waitress brought over the plate of food and I drowned the plate in syrup.

"You are not going to actually eat that, are you?" Loki had a look of disgust on his face again.

I grinned, then chomped down on a bite of syrup-drenched bacon. His look of affront was worth it.

"So, are you going to tell me why you are stalking me?" I asked as I finished the bacon and started on the eggs and pancakes.

"I beg your pardon?"

I rolled my eyes. "Please. Unique mind print, remember? And speaking of, you make a cute kid."

He scoffed. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

I hummed, "Uh-huh. Of course you don't."

Loki watched with no amount of surprise and a lot of disgust as she ate everything that was in her syrup lake. As she picked up her cup of coffee and drank the vile brew, she met his eye again.

She smirked. "You're judging me right now."

"I'm wondering about you." He corrected.

Her eyes narrowed at him for a moment, and he felt as she strengthened the walls she had erected around her mind before she said, "Wondering what, exactly?"

Loki didn't say what he was actually wondering, instead gesturing to her plate, "How anyone could stomach all that without dying of food poisoning?"

Lexi grinned before she finished her coffee, "Well, food poisoning takes a little time to show up. It's not an immediate thing."

"Oh, so, you could die of it in an hour, then?" Loki caught the dirty look that the waitress threw him as she dropped the check off and he ignored it.

Lexi grabbed the check as soon as it hit the table, looking it over before saying, "Well, at least you are a cheap date." She pulled out a wallet and dropped some cash on the table before she got up and walked out of the place.

It caught Loki by surprise, so it left him watching her leave before he came to his senses and followed. She was walking back toward her apartment when he reached the sidewalk and he lengthened his stride to catch up with her.

"So, if you might die in an hour, perhaps I should go home with you. You know, in case you need help."

She snorted, "Please, I spent a year and a half on the run living off nothing but greasy spoons and gas station food. I have an iron stomach."

Loki didn't think she even realized that the tidbit she just gave was as big as it was, but Loki filed it away, anyway. He walked with her in silence for many blocks. Watching her out of the corner of his eyes as she made slight movements as she listened to whatever she had piping through her earphones.

Then he tried to change tactics, "So, that was a date, then?"

Lexi tilted her head in his direction to stare at him through amused brown eyes. "No. It wasn't. A date only occurs when someone asks someone else out."

"Ah, but you said I could join you. Is that not you asking me out?" Loki inquired.

Her eyes rolled, "Nope. I said you could either choose to continue stalking me from a distance like you have been, or you could choose to join me while I ate. I didn't ask you to join me."

"That seems like an enormous ball of pointless semantics." Loki pointed out.

She turned around so she was facing him while she continued to walk. "Sweetheart, semantics are never pointless."

Loki disagreed, but he didn't feel like arguing the point. Instead, he continued to walk next to her as she continued to ignore him. Before long, he could see her apartment building ahead and he tried again, "So, what you are saying is that for something to be a date, someone needs to do the asking."

She hummed her ascent as she pulled her keys out and turned towards her building. She stopped at the door and turned back to face him. "That's what I am saying."

Loki nodded. "Well then, perhaps I should ask you out?"

She shook her head. "No thanks. See you around Loki."

She pushed through her apartment door and left him standing there, annoyed. As she disappeared up the stairs, Loki shook his head. Of course, the universe would decide he needed a soulmate that was snarky. As if he didn't already have enough snark in his life. He turned and flashed away.

Clint was crouched on the roof of a building half a block up from the apartment building where Scott Lang lived, and more interestingly, that housed the man's soulmate. Tony had asked him to check her out, seeing as he was apparently too busy to do his own spying. It was a ridiculous assignment, and he was only doing it because Nat insisted he do it.

So far, he had learned little. She worked at the university in the library. Aside from work and occasionally going out with Scott and his infernally annoying friend Luis, she spent no time with anyone else as far as he could tell. At least until tonight, that was.

Tonight she had gone out at 2 a.m. and rather than follow her, he hunkered down in his nest and waited for her to return. He had expected it wouldn't take very long, as in the month he had been swinging over to watch her in between his other missions and duties, he noted that she often would go out at weird hours of the night. Usually, she just went for a quick walk. To his surprise, nearly two and a half hours had passed, and he was considering heading back to the tower and cutting the losses when she had come back.

Only she hadn't come back alone. She was walking with a man. When Clint focused in on the man through his sight, he nearly fell out of his perch. She was walking down the street with Loki. Of all the people he considered she might end up walking with, Loki wasn't even in the book. He watched with interest as she turned away from the door to look down at the god as he said something to her.

He read her lips as she said, "No, thanks. See you around, Loki." and then she entered her apartment. Three minutes later, the light in her living room window lit up, and he watched as Loki disappeared in a cloud of green light.

Clint considered for a moment longer what it could mean that the woman who was apparently the soulmate of Scott Lang was taking late night/early morning walks with Loki. There was something about the woman that intrigued him, but Loki was something else entirely. The guy didn't seem overly fond of "mortals" as he so often referred to humans. And yet here he was, walking with one and apparently offering her something that she had turned down.

Clint packed up his stuff and slipped quietly out of his nest, and climbed down off the roof he was perched on. As he turned towards the Tower and started back, he let his mind continue to puzzle over the night's revelations. The sky was starting to lighten by the time he was walking into the elevator.

F.R.I.D.A.Y. came inquiring over the speakers, "To the training floor, Mr. Barton?"

Clint considered briefly. It was still early enough that he could probably see if someone had made breakfast in the common floor kitchen and he could mooch off them. He had a scheduled training with Nat soon but he was starving, "Not yet. Common floor F.R.I.D.A.Y.."

The A.I. gave her assent to the direction and the elevator's mechanics hummed to life, taking him up to the main common floor. The massive, three building tower that housed The Avengers had originally been built as a testament to Tony Stark's ego. After the Battle of New York and the invasion of the Chitauri, Stark had given himself completely to The Avenger's Initiative and revamped the complex into that. The 35-floor South tower still housed the East coast headquarters of Stark Industries, the 55-floor North tower was filled with various support staff for The Avengers including communications, weapons development, research, and the massive 93-floor main tower was devoted entirely to The Avengers. More labs, training floors, entertainment floors for the nonstop parties that Stark was in the habit of throwing, and the top half of it was devoted as living quarters for the team and various other key people.

Of course, not everyone lived at the tower. Lang was one who insisted on keeping an apartment elsewhere in the city. He had an apartment on site, but he refused to use it. Considering his neighbor, though, it seemed like Stark would never get the guy to move in.

Clint walked into the main common area and immediately smelt bacon and coffee. Following his nose, he found Cap and Bucky in the kitchen. Steve was sitting at the table reading a newspaper, a old time quirk from his past he and the other super soldier insisted on keeping, and Bucky was standing shirtless, his hair pulled back in a short tail, at the stove overseeing a pan of bacon and eggs. There were enough pancakes currently sitting under the warmers to feed a normal army. Clint knew the two super soldiers, with their super metabolism, could devour all the food and then some.

Clint grabbed down a coffee cup and poured himself some from the pot that was always full. When Bucky moved a bunch of bacon off the pan and onto a plate to drain, Clint wandered over and stole some. He got a spatula slap across the back of his hand for his trouble.

"Hey! Rude!" Clint declared.

Bucky's ice-blue eyes stared into the blue eyes of the archer, "Make your own."

Clint gasped dramatically. "But you've already made all this food. It would be rude of me not to eat."

From the table, Steve snorted a laugh. "And if you tried to cook yourself, you'd burn down the kitchen and Stark would blow a gasket on you again."

The super soldier folded the paper up and set it aside as he got up to get his own food, running a hand absently across Bucky's back as he passed.

Clint looked scandalized. "Man, that happened once. I burnt the kitchen once. When are you all going to let me live that down?"

The ding from the elevator sounded and the man himself strode in. "Never Barton. I'm pretty sure that floor still smells like burnt wires."

Clint nicked a handful more bacon, dancing out of the way of the spatula again, before he wandered over to the table and perched himself on the chair.

Steve eyed the smaller man, asking, "Why are you gracing the common floor so early, Stark?"

"Maybe I just wanted to grace you guys with my amazing presence, Capsicle." Was Tony's snarky reply.

Bucky snorted but said nothing as Steve just stared at Tony.

Tony shrugged, grabbing his own coffee. "Because F.R.I.D.A.Y. said this was where Legolas was and I needed to speak with him."

Steve looked surprised as he glanced between the two. "Talk about what?"

"Just a little errand I have him doing for me."

"What errand do you have that requires Barton's skills?"

"That's classified, old man."

"I'm pretty sure that this is my team and nothing should be classified from me."

"I'm pretty sure I'm the one who bankrolls the team and therefore I can use whatever assets I want."

The two continued their bickering as Clint watched impassively until he finished his coffee. Then he got up, returned the cup to the kitchen, and headed to the elevators to head down to their training room to meet with Nat.

Unsurprisingly, the red-head was already in the training room, wrapping her hands as she waited for him. She lifted an eyebrow at him when he entered, sending a quick sign inquiring how his mission was. Clint paused and signed back. Interesting.

Nat's green eyes sparked with interest as she moved to the middle of the room in a ready stance. Clint quickly joined her, and the two circled each other, waiting for the right moment to attack. Two hours later, the pair were laying side by side in the middle of the mat, attempting to get their breath back.

Nat recovered first, and she pushed up to stand before reaching down and pulling Clint back up to his own feet. As they guzzled water and unwrapped their hands, she finally asked, "So, what was so interesting?"

Clint lifted a shoulder. "She went out for a walk at 2 in the morning."

Nat wiped her face with a towel, "Isn't that a usual thing for her?"

Clint nodded, "Well, yeah. But this time when she came back, she wasn't alone."

They headed out of the training room together. "Oh really now? She brought someone home with her?"

Clint rolled his eyes at the look on her face. "Not like that. Exactly. The interesting part was more who it was."

The pair stopped outside the elevator banks. "Okay, so who was it?"

"Loki."

Nat's surprise was clear, but as the doors opened and Steve and Bucky stepped out, she quickly schooled her face into a blank slate as her and Clint stepped into the car. She sent a quick sign to him; you are right that is interesting.

Clint responded, and complicated.