Spaces In-Between

A/N: The non-con/dub-con deepens. The plot thickens. Tony's jeans are straining. So, on that note, I guess we should continue.

Chapter Four

I stared into Tony's eyes, blown and spidered with red veins. His lips were parted, but I could find his smirk in there yet. "No," I said. My voice sounded far away. In the wake of my first orgasm, my drunkenness came back with a vengeance. I wasn't feeling sick, but... I felt heavy and unreal. Slow. "No, I... can't. I'm too sensitive," I repeated. He bit his lip and leaned forward to lick another slow stripe up between my legs. I tried to jerk my hips back and was reminded of Tony's painful grip on my thighs. I was going nowhere. "Tony." My voice sounded small.

He shuddered and I heard - and felt - a growl vibrate in his chest. It sent a small, sweet thrill down into my belly and I bucked gently beneath his borderline painful hold. He grinned, encouraged, and went to work with fervor. I made sounds that embarrassed me, whining and keening and twisting beneath his mouth, and I watched him press the heel of his palm against the prominent bulge in his jeans. He took that hand and used his thumb to stroke my scar. That fucking scar. Without a shred of surprise, I felt the heat in my cunt explode and I threw my head back, gritting my teeth. The hand not stroking me slipped two fingers easily inside, curling and thrusting. Every muscle in my body seemed to tighten up before a glorious and complete melting. I nearly screamed after I retrieved a ragged breath. Tony's name found itself between many obscenities and wordless noises grating against my throat.

I caught my breath again as Tony withdrew his fingers and tongue. When he stood, I slumped in the tacky seat I was in and lay there, exposed and sopping and absolutely defeated. He palmed his erection once more as he stood before me. "Well, kid," he sighed. "Let's get you dressed up and get back down there. I'm not sure how long we've been up here." I pressed my legs together shyly and scrambled to pull my clothes back on. My face flamed with embarrassment. And alcohol... and arousal. He tipped my chin up and leaned in to kiss me, but only licked my lip. I shuddered and he grinned.

He led me back down to the club and slipped back into the group. If anyone took any interest in our whereabouts, they didn't let on, and the night started to die out. We took our leave and chattered softly in a comfortable, drunken heap on the way back home.

As I drifted off to sleep later that night, Tony startled me awake with his presence. I felt him before I heard him and rolled off the bed. I got ready to transport myself to another location before he pulled me out of my half-awake, half-drunken panic. "Hey-! Kid, relax, it's just me. Hey!" I heard his footsteps rush to the side of my bed and I peered over the mattress at him.

"Stop calling me 'kid'. And what's up, it's like... um..."

"Five in the morning?"

"Yeah. Fuck." I crawled back over the mattress and sighed. My head was swimming. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to know where you took us earlier."

"What? The VIP room?" I cracked an eye open at Tony. "Did you like, black out or something? Because we - we did some things."

He winked and licked his teeth. "Nah, kid, I remember those things. In fact, it was during those things. You took us somewhere for a minute, but I was too busy to look around. Felt it, though."

"Took us somewhere? I didn't -"

Wait. I ran back through the time we spent and remembered imagining being in Asgard, on the throne. I could have accidentally taken us there - it had felt realistic, all right - but for Loki. Loki was there. Loki was dead.

Tony interrupted my reverie loudly enough to make me jump. "There! Yes! Where was it?"

"Nowhere. Go to sleep." I rolled over and groaned when he jumped into bed beside me.

"Come oonnn, where? Where? Come on, babe, come on!"

I made a disgusted sound and made a poor attempt to wriggle away from him before he wrapped his arms around me. "God! I took you to fucking Asgard for a second on accident! Okay? Asgard! Go to sleep!"

"Did anyone see us?"

Loki's wide eyes watched me behind my eyelids, his face a perfect mask of shock.

"No. Sorry. Next time I'll wait til Odin is there."

Tony gave my ass a swat and rolled out of bed, laughing. "Good girl."

As I slept, pairs of green eyes haunted my dreams.

At some point the next morning, I worked slowly toward waking when I felt weight depress the mattress beside me. I groaned and swung an arm around to swat at the culprit. "It's like you never leave. What do you -"

I turned to glare blearily in Tony's direction and saw Bruce instead. I pulled my arm back and he smiled, eyebrows raised. "I thought you were Tony," I mumbled, rolling over to face him.

He huffed a little laugh and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I figured as much. Thought I'd come in and get you up. We're going to do a lot of tests today."

"More tests? I've been poked, prodded and pricked a million times," I whined.

"Yeah, but we haven't monitored your... talent. And some of us are wondering if it's real."

I sat up. "Okay." I studied his ever-patient, guarded, handsome face and couldn't find anything hinting at his thought process. "Some of us? Because Clint and Tony -"

"Claim they saw, yeah. After a car accident, in which they hit you. Stress and panic and shock can do a lot to the human brain, Anne."

I clenched my jaw and nodded. Of course he wasn't going to believe it right off the bat - he was a scientific man, and even among his super-friends, would be a natural skeptic. Yes, of course, okay.

"Can I sit on your lap?"

Bruce's eyebrows shot up and I stifled a laugh. "What?"

I repeated myself and his eyebrows remained at full mast. I slithered across the mattress and poured myself into his lap, wrapping his stiff and awkward arms around me. "Relax," I mumbled, "and close your eyes."

I waited until he did what I told him and linked my arms around his neck. In seconds, we shimmered between layers of existence and appeared in the lab, where, like I'd guessed, everyone was waiting. Bruce's eyes popped open and he looked around, the slightest tremor in his arms. "Fuck," he breathed. "Okay."

"Takes a bit to make the good doc curse," Natasha observed, eyebrow cocked.

"Do we all get a ride?" Tony smirked.

Clint clucked his tongue and held a hand out to me, lifting me gingerly from Bruce's lap. "Only if I get to sit in her lap. Otherwise, no dice."

I went through the motions of performing my ability several times, enough times to lose count. I was observed, hooked up, and measured. I went by myself and took others with me. Everyone got a "turn". By the time I'd done enough to satisfy Bruce for a day, I was exhausted. I took a long, scalding shower and wandered the tower, ending eventually on a balcony. The city bustled and milled about below me. My thoughts brought me right back to Loki.

I struggled with the impossibility of the other night - I saw Loki; Loki wasn't around to see. I was scared that I had really brought us to Asgard by accident in the midst of my distraction, but I was purposely fantasizing about Loki, so I figured I was just having a vivid daydream. But Tony felt us go there. Perhaps he'd been so drunk he had imagined it?

Coincidence? Maybe?

I turned back into the tower and headed for an empty room. I called up Jarvis and his polite, pleasant voice surrounded me from hidden speakers. I asked for footage of Loki and watched.