I do not own The Avengers, they belong to Marvel Comics.

Warning: This chapter is a little goofy. But I can't be expected to take myself seriously all the time.


Chapter 23: Music in the Night

Natasha stood in the hallway. A chair had been provided for her, but she was afraid if she sat that she would fall asleep. It must have been three in the morning, and Loki was still playing the piano, as he had been doing since she arrived for her duty shift. He had a propensity for soothing classical pieces-maybe he was trying to put himself to sleep, but Natasha needed to stay awake.

Her slow slide into unconsciousness was interrupted when she began to realize that he was singing, as well. The song seemed vaguely familiar to her. "No way..." she whispered under her breath.

She let herself into the apartment, locking the door behind her, silent as a cat. She listened as Loki's soft tenor voice drifted around the corner.

"Here lies everything
The world I wanted at my feet
My victory's complete
So hail to the king.
Arise and sing...

So your world's benign
So you think justice has a voice
And we all have a choice
But now your world is mine
and I am fine..."

The music turned a little more sinister, and Natasha silently slid down the hallway, sneaking a glance at him.

"Now the nightmare's real
now Loki Laufeyson is here
to make you quake with fear
to make the whole world kneel
And I won't feel...
...a thing"

It took all of Natasha's willpower not to laugh when he replaced the lyrics with his own name. She let him finish. "What are you doing?"

Loki jumped a little, and then turned smiling. She couldn't help but return it, this time she managed to sneak up on him.

"Don't you know?" his fingers drifted over the keys in a complicated arpeggio. "Music soothes the monster."

Natasha laughed. "Yeah, but... Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog?"

He smiled ruefully. "Well, let's just say that I can relate to dealing with Captain Hammer." He flipped through an array of sheet music spread out in front of him. There were more stacks on the bench and the floor as well. She gestured towards the stack on the bench, and he moved it so she could sit next to him. It felt dangerous to sit so close, but she knew the effect worked both ways, and she could turn it to her advantage.

"Do you know why you are my favorite of your little band of adventurers, Agent Romanov?"

She shrugged, unsure where this was going.

Loki turned to look at her. "Because all of the others would have tried to convince me I'm not a monster. You know better."

Natasha let out a long breath. "We've all got our demons to face down," she offered, but she knew it was merely a platitude for them. They were their demons. "What's with all the sheet music?" she tried to change the subject. "You never bothered with it before."

A sneer marred the perfection of his features. "Music is not unlike magic. It would appear I have discovered precisely why I can no longer cast spells. I seem to be unable to memorize anything very complicated." He let his hands rest on the keys softly.

Natasha tilted her head. "I thought it was just an ability that was stripped from you, like Thor's powers."

Loki laughed humorlessly. "Magic isn't an ability, it is a skill. You need an innate intelligence to understand it, and time to learn it, and I suppose there is a varying degree of talent in how sensitive you are to perceiving energy..." he trailed off, thinking.

"But?" she prodded him.

"But to be honest, if I could get my hands on a good grimoire, I'd be back in business." He tried to smile menacingly at her, but she saw the vulnerability behind it.

"What's a grimoire?" Natasha leaned back. If Loki felt like talking, she certainly wasn't going to ignore any information she could get.

"It's a book of magic, containing spells."

She frowned. "Well, couldn't you just write one, if you remembered?"

He shook his head. "To craft a grimoire, you don't just write down the incantations. You trap the spells within the book, so that speaking the incantation is all that is necessary to activate them. It's a very difficult thing to do."

Natasha thought about that a moment. "But then anyone could use it?"

"No," he chuckled. "As I said, a certain level of intelligence or natural talent is required. I believe Mr. Stark might be able, if he were to open his mind enough, and possibly also Dr. Bryardie, at least the simpler spells, since she is very sensitive to magic. If they were able to work together, absolutely."

She stored that information away for future use. "But I'm guessing they're not terribly common. Since you saw fit to tell me about them, you probably wouldn't be able to get your hands on one."

He sighed heavily. "Alas, no. So I remain here." With this, he turned back to his music.

She listened for a while, taking the opportunity to study him in the single light that sat on top of the piano. She wondered if he knew how little he had really changed. He still opened up to her as he would to no one else, and she didn't understand why. Before he had said it was because she was clever, which was a trait he admired above all others, but Natasha suspected there was something more to it than that. The both of them had managed to get inside of each other's heads, and instead of being scared off, they were intrigued by what they saw.

Not liking where her thoughts were leading her, Natasha paid more attention to what Loki was playing. "What is this? I don't think I've heard it before."

Loki continued to play the rather simple piano part as he spoke. "It's by a deliciously lewd little French girl by the name of Melissa Auf der Maur. It's called Overpower Thee. Shall I sing some of it?" He grinned teasingly at her.

She shrugged. She wasn't Steve, he wasn't going to scare her off with a few bawdy lyrics.

"I like your eyes
I like your shape
And I could easily overpower you
I won't say a thing
I won't tell a soul
But I could easily overpower you..."

Loki somehow managed to put a whole world of threats and promises into those few words with his voice. Natasha felt all the hairs on her neck stand up on end. Once again, Loki had managed to lull her into a sense of security only to jolt her out with a surprise.

He finished the simple piece, and turned to gauge her reaction. He chuckled, low and soft. "Oh, I don't think you liked that," he said teasingly.

"It wasn't that long ago that you decided to play puppeteer with my best friend," she warned him.

For a split second, Loki looked hurt. But he smoothed it over with a look of mild irritation. "Why do you always have to see everything as an attack?" he inquired. "There are much more... enjoyable ways in which I might overpower you..." he gave her a playful leer.

She rolled her eyes, but froze when his hand drifted up her leg. She caught his expression, which still burned with heat but had turned deadly serious. "We could make such music, you and I," he breathed.

Natasha's mind reeled. Were he any other man, she would believe she had him in the palm of her hand. She would screw him, here and now, and draw from him every last iota of information she could. It was, after all, what she did. But with Loki... for all she knew he was playing her. There was no way to tell.

"I don't think so. You'd want me on my knees, and without your powers, there's no way that's going to happen." She was not going to let him intimidate her.

He grinned. "Oh Natasha, I don't need my magic to make you kneel," he murmured close to her ear.

She narrowed her eyes. "I don't trust you," she said, surprised at the words. It was not what she had intended to say.

He laughed softly, breaking the tension of the moment. He stared at his music. "Good," he smirked.

"Why?" Natasha crossed her arms, wishing she had gotten a chair from the kitchen instead of sitting so close to him.

He looked at her for a long moment, assessing her. He opened his mouth to say something, and then paused. He shrugged artfully, turning away again. "Well, because you have nothing to worry about. I only wanted to see how you would react. I have absolutely no intention of pursuing you."

Natasha felt a little lurch in her stomach as reality reorganized itself, and found herself looking at Loki's female form. She sat, swimming in her too-large clothes, looking very confused.

"Where... what's going on?" she asked softly, looking around.

Natasha blinked rapidly. "I have no idea. You tell me."

She got up, staring at the couch. "I was just sitting there, talking to Thor, and suddenly I'm here, with you, and it's night, and why am I wearing these clothes?"

"You... you don't remember?" Natasha stood as well.

Loki was looking more alarmed by the second. "Remember what?!"

Natasha tried to make soothing gestures at her. "Calm down. What's the last thing you remember, exactly?"

"I..." she blushed a little, looking away from Natasha. "I was just telling Thor that I was happy that he was happy." Natasha could tell there was more, and waited for Loki to speak. "I... I lied to him."

Suddenly Natasha remembered the last thing Loki had said before he had switched back. I have absolutely no intention of pursuing you."Lying," she said out loud.

Loki looked up to her, her eyes begging for explanation.

"When you lied to Thor, you turned back into your old self," she said quickly.

She shuddered. "Then why isn't this whole place leveled?"

Natasha laughed. "I don't think he would have gone that far, he didn't even try to escape. But he can't do any magic."

Loki looked horrified at that. She remembered Morpheus's warning that if she used her powers for ill, she would lose them. She held out a hand, and it burst into green flames immediately. She sighed in relief and collapsed on the couch.

Natasha sat beside her. "You don't remember anything?"

Loki shook her head. A thought seemed to come to her. "What lie did He tell?" the emphasis she put on the pronoun was interesting.

She bit her tongue. "It was nothing. Just a joke, really."

She looked at Natasha sidelong, suspecting. But she didn't ask. "I suppose you should call SHIELD then?" she said with some exasperation.

Natasha jumped, and dug her phone out of her pocket. "Shit, you're right."

As she made the call, Loki continued to study her. Clearly, she had been rattled by whatever had happened just before her return. But it was unlike Natasha to let anything affect her like this.

Hmmm...


A/N: Let's see, flirting between Loki and Natasha, check. Return of Femme Loki, check. I do believe that should make everyone happy! The plot thickens… *rubs hands together*

I wrote this chapter shortly after watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog for the first time. After I had written it, my husband Brian showed me this fabulous video: watch?v=xOD2BkrqOOE

In my defense, I came up with the parallels all by myself. I'm just not the first person to do so. .

As always, reviews make me happier than Coulson sitting next to Captain America, so please put in your two cents!