Sorry for the delay. This week has been hell-5 a.m. to 1 a.m., not my usual routine. Eh. I'm catching up on sleep this week, though. Besides that, my Toshiba has been bitchy, but I've got my Pro in the mail. I basically orgasmed when my mom told me. So yeah.

Hope you enjoy!

-XXX-

"If this is the hazard of living with you," she says breathlessly. "Then I think I want to move. I thought I was free of this."

Oh, but he's not about to let that happen. He is not entirely sure what "this" means, exactly, but he knows that moving - "There is nowhere you could hide from them, from me, nowhere you could run..." - solves nothing.

"What happened?" He isn't yelling, not yet. Best to treat this with a gentle hand. She'll respond better. "Besides," the god thinks. "She has been frightened enough for one day." He has his suspicions on the motivation behind SHIELD's temporary kidnapping of his reader, but he wants to hear it aloud for himself.

"They took me." Tatiana has mustered up enough air now to spit. "To ask me questions. About you. SHIELD."

"Of course," he murmurs.

She is incredulous. "'Of course?' You expected this?"

"Not precisely, but go on."

The girl sighs. She approaches, sinking to the bottom step, sitting at his feet. In a muffled voice, she begins her narrative. He listens, impassive. All that she says doesn't surprise him. Of course they took her. Of course they would use the Avengers, even the familiar face of Stark to get the message across. He is not surprised by any of it. What does startle him is her reaction.

"-and they want to make a truce with you-"

There is a sniff.

Loki stops her. "Are you crying?"

Angrily, Tatiana tosses her head away, using long dark locks to hide her face. "Why shouldn't I? I was scared to death, Loki, that they weren't going to let me leave that damned tower. And the things they were saying about you…."

He shakes his head. "My dear, they are just words."

"Aren't they all?" Bitterness plays about her voice, sharpening her tone. Rising, Tatiana crosses the foyer, propping herself against the doorway to the parlor, back to him. For a moment, he lets her weep silently, then he steps down.

"What troubles you? Surely you were not so frightened."

Her back straightens, entire form rigid. Then, quietly: "Why have you brought me here? I've done nothing to help you, and I know you didn't just miss me." She turns, looking back with slightly red eyes. Otherwise, she is perfectly calm. "You're too calculating, Loki. There has to be some other reasoning behind my being here."

-XXX-

Tension rules the air. I'm frozen to the spot as he advances, sneer set on his pale lips. I never knew ice could burn, but his green-grey eyes are ablaze. He is angry. A fool might tell you differently, that he is being ruled by passion as cold hands go to clench my waist, but I know better. This is pure, raw, natural rage. And I'm at the receiving end of it.

I've asked exactly the wrong question.

"Tatiana," he breathes into my throat, where his lips hum against my skin. Teeth graze the tender flesh of my collar, and I feel myself jut forward, gasping. His voice, low and soft and so, so dangerous gentle, holds me to him, though his hands have fallen from my sides. I couldn't move, even if I wished to.

That kind of power scares me.

"What have I said about that question, my dear?" Another jerk forward as his nose skims my jawline. I know the trickster would smile, if he wasn't so focused. This isn't romance-it is solely a powerplay.

I stand my ground. "You have to tell me," I whisper referencing our conversation months ago. "You promised, remember?"

He laughs. "That was before…circumstances were made known to you. I'm a god. I don't have to abide by your rules."

"Not even promises?"

Loki ghosts one hand up my arm, the other traveling to my neck. My skull is pulled back by the shorthairs. I wince, biting my lip to prevent myself from screaming. He need not respond; the answer is clear. Especially not promises.

Gasping, I try again. "It-it can't hurt to tell me, can it?"

Abruptly, I am shoved away. My head snaps painfully back.

"Ah, you see, the very fact that you would suggest that informing you wouldn't 'hurt' indicates to me that it very much would." He clucks his tongue. "I might've expected better from you, Tatiana."

I don't respond. Loki takes this chance to circle me, as a wolf might its prey. There is everything wolfy about Loki tonight.

His anger has not abated. If anything, it's grown. I watch, silent, as he paces.

"I would have you by my side," he rages, eyes smoldering. "Above all others. Protected. And yet…you question me. Your sympathies remain with the very forces that seek to annihilate me. I cannot help but wonder where your loyalties lie."

"Did I ever have a choice?" I shoot back. "No one has yet asked me what I want-"

"It doesn't-"

I cut across him. "Except, for maybe, the Avengers. Not SHIELD. Not the unit, just…" I think of gentle, reserved Banner, and Tony. They were the only two to care about my position as a person, rather than a tool against Loki. "…I want to help you."

"Then stay with me," he croons lowly.

"That's not how you're going to get help." I shake my head, even as he approaches. "I can't do anything, you know that. For whatever reason, they're under the impression I'm some kind of pawn."

He stops before me, pausing. "Pawn?"

"They want me to," I hesitate. "Go somewhere. But it's useless. You'll find me. I know you will. If you wanted, I mean."

Loki stares. "Of course. Of course I would find you. I will always find you."

The wording is ominous, and sends shivers through me. But it also warms me, a little.

"They want a truce. They want you to…communicate with them. Loki, we can stay right here if you talk to them, agree to a truce. They said…" I falter seeing his expression. "They said if you agreed to speak with them, find peaceful ground, than you don't have to go back to Asgard. Thor swore it. We could stay here."

"Lies," he hisses. "That you believed, my lovely little fool. I do hope they don't think to use you against me."

I take his wrists. "We can live hiding from them or not. It's your choice. Or else…."

"What?" Loki's eyes narrow.

"They will make me leave," I say in a rush. "Or something. Until you agree to talks."

"You would go with them?"

I snort. Humor is rather inappropriate, in the tone of the matter, but he's missing the point.

"My status a volunteer would be pretty null and void. I was told I could leave of my own will-or not."

Eyes hard, the god wrenches himself from my grasp. A look of deep consideration has claimed his features. I don't speak, letting him mull things over for himself. Finally, he speaks. "I will not speak to them-not yet."

I groan, turning to hit the wooden door frame with clenched fists. It hurts, but I pay no mind. "Why would you do such a bull-headed thing, you stubborn man? They are giving you a get-out-of-jail-free card! So take it!"

"You may be naïve enough to believe that," he sniffs. "But I am rather not. Oh, we will talk. On my terms."

"What better terms could you ask for?"

Carelessly, he shrugs. "Oh, I don't know. Location, time. Little things. I want to have the advantage, my dear-heart; in fact, I intend it. And as for you, well, you shan't be having anymore walks…at least not after the day after tomorrow. We must allow them to think all is as it was before. But I cannot allow them to pluck you so easily from me."

Incredulous, I blink. The god sails past me, intent on the kitchen. "How do you feel about Thai?"

-XXX-

He likes the spicy cuisine well enough, but it makes Tatiana ill. She glares at the offending red-and-white box as he sits, content to polish off the meal while his reader sulks in the corner of the couch.

She is unhappy - he knows this much. The plan he's set forth bothers her a great deal, and he can understand why. There is plenty of room for error. But he does not intend to allow a single thing to slip him by. A truce would be met on his ground. Eventually.

Though she is across the room, the god can feel waves of regret, fear, and anxiety rolling off of the young woman. She's attempted every kind of distraction; reading, talking, silence. Nothing has helped thus far. He wishes that he might erase the day from her mortal mind-more than once he felt the white-hot flash of fright from her, which he would never wish upon Tatiana. It is in his power, but he dare not attempt it without her permission. And humans are horridly picky about their memories. She would be angry, without a doubt.

Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he feels his own anger rise. How dare they think to take her. What business is it of theirs? She is no pawn in this war! Not, as Thor had said, his woman. Even if she were, to use her is a weak, ineloquent tactic, one that even the slippery Loki cannot stand the thought of. Oh, his rage would be great if Tati were harmed in this mess.

This fight is between himself and the hired guns of SHIELD. No one else. Never mind the past. He is not about to let anything be caught in the crossfires. Let them come, anyhow.

Later in the evening, whilst settling into bed (the same one Tatiana sunk into an hour or so previous), the god thinks to observe his reader. Illuminating her with a small flickering ball he summons into the palm of his hand, he can trace tearstains and red cheeks. This displeases him severely. He doesn't wish to know the cause-though he will pretend it is those SHIELD buffoons. Pushing back a muss of dark hair, Loki presses a light kiss to the back of her neck, right at the base of her skull. Light swells there, fluttering at that point before dying down. She will have pleasant dreams, sweet, light, and lovely, and wake a beautifully as the dreams had come. It is the least he can do.

-XXXX-

We see some cold, bitchy Loki here. *sigh* Lovely.

Whaddaya think?