A few days later, Alice was eating some toast as Loki sat awkwardly next to her, reading a book. She had found it a little uncomfortable with the god after revealing her past to him. He hadn't said a word about it though. She'd noticed that he'd been watching her when she wasn't properly looking though.

It was a little strange. But she guessed that it must have been a strange revelation- even to a god. Still, she couldn't do much to appease the awkwardness.

So instead of trying, Alice just sat watching the television and munching on her third round of toast that morning.

She flicked over to the news to see if anything important was happening in the world, but immediately wished that she hadn't. Alice's mouth dropped open as she watched a report come up on screen about the men Loki had killed in the supermarket car park. The headline read, 'Two men found shot in local grocery shop car park. Suspects unknown.'

"Um, Loki..." Alice murmured, still staring at the screen.

Loki looked up at the news, over his book, and a vaguely-interested expression flickered onto his face.

"Well, isn't that interesting," he said blankly.

Alice looked bemusedly at him.

"You realise that they have CCTV cameras inside the shop?"

He said nothing.

"They could see us leaving about the time that they know those guys were murdered. We're clearly suspects. How are we going to explain that away when the police come knocking?"

Loki rolled his eyes. He didn't care if anyone knew what he'd done. The men deserved what they had been given. But Alice did care.

"They're going to contact us once they figure out we were there," she said blankly.

Loki shrugged. He could barely resist smirking. She was stressing herself for no reason and he couldn't help but be amused. She worried too much.

"Urgh, I have to make a phone call," Alice said, frustrated by Loki's lack of interest in the situation.

With that, she left the room. Turning to the kitchen, she picked up the phone and dialled a number that she hadn't used for a very long time.

"SHIELD," the voice on the other end of the phone answered.

"Hi. It's Alice."

"I know. What can we do for you?"

"I... sort of had a little accident."

"Does it have something to do with the two murdered men in your area?"

Alice frowned. She didn't like how SHIELD monitored her location. She didn't like it one bit and she never had.

"If you already know about it, why are you asking me to explain?"

"Procedure," the voice answered simply.

"Right. Well they attacked me and... I killed them," she said, lying swiftly.

She didn't want them knowing about Loki; for some reason she could see bad things happening if the organisation and the god ever met.

"Anyway, they stabbed me so I had to get out of there before an ambulance was called 'cus, you know..."

"Indeed."

There was a pause.

"We're sending a team to the location."

"Thanks," Alice replied, feeling somewhat relieved.

"Try to be more careful next time, Alice. We can't always clean up your messes."

Loki heard what she'd said, and he used his magic to hear the other side of the conversation. This was an intriguing development. Apparently Alice knew a group of people that would help her clear up the situation. SHIELD, they were called. This bore further investigation of both the magical and non-magical variety. He was determined to find out more. When she came back to the living room looking slightly relieved, he raised a brow.

"Who are SHIELD?" he asked.

She froze at the question.

"What did you just say?"

"Who are SHIELD?" Loki repeated.

She stared at the ground for a moment, not wanting to look back up at him and give anything away in her eyes.

"How do you know that name?" she cautiously questioned him.

"You were just on the phone to them."

Alice frowned, wondering how he could have known that. Even if he had heard her on the phone, she hadn't said the name aloud.

"Magic, remember?" Loki said, sensing her question.

She didn't stop frowning.

"They're the organisation that made me what I am," was all that she said.

"Interesting," he murmured.

"Not really."

He smirked a little. If Alice was still very much in contact with the organisation that made her into this strange being then she might be even more of an asset to him than he'd originally thought.

"We shall see," was all that Loki said in reply.

The next day, after making sure that Loki was preoccupied, Alice took a seat on her bed and picked up the cordless phone she kept in there. With a unconscious smile she started pressing keys so that she could make the 'What's up with you?' call to her adopted brother that she made every Monday at twelve o'clock exactly.

"Nice to hear from you, sis. Right on time," Tony said, not even bothering with a hello.

"As usual," she smiled.

"Ever thought about a bit of variety? Maybe calling on a Tuesday? Or a Wednesday?"

"I think you bring enough variety to the table, don't you, Tony?"

"Touché. Besides, trying something new might just be the thing that finally kills you," he added playfully.

"Oh ha ha," she replied dryly. "So how are you and Pepper?"

"Good, you know, Pepper's... standing right behind me so I probably shouldn't say anything."

Alice chuckled. She was sure she heard Pepper say something in the background, but she couldn't quite make it out. But before she could ask, Tony carried on.

"But if you wanted to know about what's going on with us then you could read about it on the internet - I'm pretty sure that you'll find we're jetting off to three different places to elope, and somewhere else it says we're already married and expecting twins."

She could hear the disdain for the press in his voice. That's odd, she thought. Usually Tony didn't mind the press so much, but apparently he wasn't too fond about them snooping around his and Pepper's relationship. And that was a testament to how much he actually liked her, she knew.

"So what's new with you?" he asked.

"Erm, well... I've kind of met someone... a guy."

"A guy? Now hold on a sec, when did this happen?"

"A couple of weeks ago actually," she replied, trailing off.

"And you're only bringing this up now?"

"Yeah, well... You get what you get, Tony, you're just lucky I'm telling you at all," she grinned, knowing that her playfulness might irritate him.

"Okay... So tell me about him? Name, age, social security number, credit card details?"

Alice sighed.

"Not this time, Tony. I learnt my lesson the last six times that you set up a full investigation of the guys I was interested in. I'm not even telling you his name, so don't even think about trying to run a background check."

"Worth a try," Tony sighed.

Alice wasn't sure that her adopted brother would actually be able to find anything concrete even if she did tell him about Loki. He was a God, after all; she was pretty sure that there weren't going to be any criminal records on his name. Only myths and legends- though admittedly some of those were quite incriminating.

"So yeah, anyway, he's kind of living with me now."

"Nice to see you taking it slow, sis."

"Yeah, well, unforeseen circumstances... But he's great for me. It's nice to be able to talk to someone unusual."

"Does he know?"

"Well, I accidentally got stabbed one time-"

"Wait-wait, you what?"

"I got stabbed. Nothing serious. He kind of killed the guy who did it though, so I think I kind of owed him an explanation."

"Oh yeah, 'cus he sounds lovely. Murderous on the top of the admirable qualities you want in a guy?"

"Hey, he's alright. Trust me, Tony. I've not been this happy for a long time, he must be at least a little good then."

"Oh, at least a little? Promising, Liss, promising."

She rolled her eyes. She couldn't help but notice that he'd called her Liss, a personal name that only he and Howard Stark had ever used. It was his way of reminding her that he had her best interests at heart. Tony always was so protective over me, she thought.

"So are you seeing him then?" Tony asked, genuinely curious.

"Well, no... I'm just putting him up 'til he gets better."

She had no idea that Loki was not as preoccupied as she had thought and was listening at the door. A smirk caught the corner of his lips. Of course, he knew that there was no possibility of any sort of relationship between them, no matter what she thought.

He loved Sigyn, even if she didn't love him anymore. He would find a way back to her after he had got his revenge. He would convince her that they should always be together. No matter what had happened. No matter what other people had said. They would be together again.

Author's Note: So it's 5.45am where I am; couldn't sleep and so you lovely people get a chapter from me. :) Happy no sleep Thursday morninggg! :P Only one chapter left now you guys, and then we'll be moving on to the Avengers, dundundunnnnn.

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter and will let me know what you thought! :)

Kit xx