Theme song: "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by the Eurythmics. Not really for the mood, but because it's mentioned in the text.

Chapter 63: Require

Natasha managed to track down Thor easily enough. Jarvis informed her that he was currently "laying siege to the cafeteria," and would likely be there for some time. She found him just as he was sitting down, a tray in each hand, both piled high with an alarming amount of food.

"Do you always eat like this?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.

He chuckled. "No, else I would look like Volstagg," he joked. Natasha remembered a few stories Loki had told of their corpulent companion, and smiled. "But I am accustomed to feasting before battle, to build up my strength." He gestured to the chair across from him. "Please have a seat, L-Natasha." He managed to catch himself at the last moment.

She sat, amused. "You can call me Lady Natasha if it really means that much to you," she conceded. Loki had explained that the term of address was meant as an honorific, not a formality.

He grinned. "It does. I should like to address my brother's consort with the proper respect."

Natasha's eyebrows shot up at the word 'consort' and Thor froze.

"Forgive me, I meant no offense. I forget that words often have different meanings here..." he began apologizing.

"No," she reassured him. "Consort... is actually a fairly decent term for it. Here, when a member of a royal family marries someone not of high enough rank to rule, they are referred to as their consort, like Queen Elizabeth II and Philip, the Prince Consort."

Thor gave her an inquisitive glance, but sensed that a discussion of marriage would go badly. "In Asgard, a consort is an officially acknowledged companion for a member of the royal house or nobility. It's a position of honor, as marriages are often made out of politics rather than love."

She smiled. "I like that even better. I guess you're in luck, then?"

He looked confused so she elaborated. "Marrying Jane will be very politically advantageous for Asgard, it will help solidify the alliance between them and Earth."

He sat back. "I had never thought of it that way," he admitted. "Jane is not of noble birth or a member of any government..."

Natasha shook her head, interrupting him. "That will be to your benefit, here. Lately, there is a trend for the ancient noble houses to marry commoners. Prince William will someday rule with Kate as his queen, despite her humble origins. The next empress of Japan is not from any noble family, and that is the longest-living dynasty in human history. Both couples entranced the world with their love stories. If you had chosen to marry someone of noble birth, it might make the democratic majority of the world perceive you as backward in your politics. Marrying a free citizen reinforces the ideals of equality and opportunity."

Thor looked impressed with her knowledge of politics, royal and otherwise. "I shall have to look into that," he said thoughtfully. "It might actually hold weight with Father."

She nodded gracefully, and not for the first time Thor wondered if she had been trained to socialize with royalty, or if she was descended from noble stock, as her patronymic suggested. "So why did you choose to seek me out?" he asked, judging that she was not there for the food.

She sighed. "It's about your brother," she admitted, "unsurprisingly."

Chuckling, Thor moved an empty plate under a full one and started on the next dish. "He is a complicated person, is he not?"

Natasha smiled wryly. "Understatement of the century," she agreed. "There's something about this mission that is bothering him, and I'm not sure what. He's been a little stressed in general lately. He..." she trailed off. This was not how she had planned to approach the topic, but something about Thor's open, honest face made her say exactly what she was thinking.

Sensing her hesitation, Thor set down his fork and gave her his full attention. "Please, Lady Natasha, you can tell me. I will not pass judgment on either of you."

She smiled a little. "I know. But I don't want this to sound wrong. Yesterday, he almost hit me," she said quietly.

"I take it you were not sparring at the time?" he teased a little, clearly catching the implications. He sighed. "I don't want this to sound wrong, either, but have you been antagonizing him in any way? I know Loki, he keeps his temper well in check, but it's great enough that his control is not perfect."

Sighing, she picked at the edge of the table. "Maybe. Lately I've felt like things have been a little unbalanced between him and me. I tend to get a little passive-aggressive in these types of situations."

He nodded, chewing. "Have you spoken to him about it?"

The corner of her mouth twitched. "I spoke to Her about it."

Thor sighed. "That's hardly fair, Lady Natasha. You and I know that Loki is but a single person, divided, but they haven't figured that out yet. She may be easier to speak to on such matters, but He would interpret it as an act of disloyalty. Not to mention it's hardly fair to involve Her in your problems with Him."

Natasha would have been more affected by his spot-on criticism if she hadn't been distracted by his unintentional revelation. Loki as one person, split into aspects, rather than two people sharing an existence. It was an intriguing theory. "I suppose you're right," she admitted contritely, playing along to hide her reaction.

"Talk to Him about it," he suggested. It was such an obvious, common-sense solution, but maybe that was a good thing. Thor knew Loki better than anyone else. "For someone so skilled with lies, he hates to have anything kept from him," he pointed out.

She nodded, thinking. "But still, this mission. I think there's more to it."

"It will not be an easy thing for him, you know," Thor said softly, surprising her with the depth of his emotion. "He only recently had to face his darkest aspect, convincing himself he was a monster. Now that he is learning the truth, it will be difficult for him to assume the mantle of evil once more. Especially if, as I suspect, he may enjoy it."

Natasha's eyebrows shot up in a rare, unguarded moment of surprise. She had suspected this as well, but she never would have imagined Thor would understand.

He seemed darkly amused by her reaction. "I know what it is to crave the death of another," he said quietly. "I know the rage and joy of the kill, and once I longed to lose myself in it. My sins are not the same as my brother's, but similar enough. I told you truthfully that he has never taken a woman against her will. I never said that the idea did not appeal to him."

She swallowed, thinking of Clint's words. You saw the way he looked at those photos from Poland. How do you know he doesn't want to do that to you? Because I've had a front-row seat to some of his favorite fantasies, and he seemed pretty keen on the idea at the time!

Thor pushed his beans around on his plate. "There are some good men, like the Captain, who do not desire evil things. But most good men are defined by denying their baser natures. Is it more admirable to want evil and turn your back on it or to never desire it at all?"

That had to be the most philosophical thing she had ever heard Thor say. She thought, suddenly, of Tony. He had the capability and the resources to do great harm or great good. Given the choice, he had chosen good, and that was what made him a good person. His personality certainly wasn't the deciding factor.

"I tell you this because I do not wish for you to be alarmed, if I am correct. It would break his heart to see you fear him, I think," he reached out a massive hand, covering her slender fingers. It was not the sort of gesture she normally tolerated, but she knew he meant well. "He has been through hell, Lady Natasha, and I believe you are his salvation."

She stared down at their hands, feeling as if a great weight suddenly lay on her shoulders. "Thank you," she murmured.

Removing his hand, he sat back and smiled, unable to remain serious for long. "Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?" he bit into a chicken thigh.

She almost said no, and then remembered. "Actually, yes. Loki was discussing a number of different spells with me, and he listed one which he would not explain. Something about helmets?" she lied smoothly.

Thor nearly choked on his food, dropping the chicken and regarding her with wide eyes. "The Helm of Awe?"

Crap. So much for being casual about it. "That sounds right. He said it was related to the tracking spell that we used in Poland, and which we're going to use for this mission. I asked if there was a more permanent version, so we wouldn't have to keep asking Her to do it, and he just changed the subject." She shrugged, trying to feign a lack of importance.

Wiping his mouth with a napkin, Thor blinked rapidly. "The Helm of Awe is a spell which binds two people together, permanently. It is often done when a warrior marries a shield maiden, so that they will either both survive or perish together in any given battle."

Natasha frowned, trying to remember how Femme Loki had described it. Energy of various forms can be transferred between the two ends, she had said. "How does that work?"

"The spell connects the life-force of the couple, making them one," he gestured with his hands, lacing his fingers together. "If one of them is injured, healing energy is drained from the other, almost as if the wound is split between them. Too much injury, though, and both parties will die. It is considered a worth-while arrangement if neither person could bear to live without the other."

Suddenly she remembered her own response to the explanation of the spell being permanent, and Loki's subsequent dejected mood. She had not realized what a rejection her comment had been, and was surprised at how it had affected her. "Hmm. Well, I was just curious. It was the only one he didn't explain." Somehow she managed to keep her mask of disinterest in place, but she wasn't sure how long it would hold. "Well, I have to go find Tony, now." She stood and snagged a stuffed roll off of one of the plates.

"Hey, those are one of my favorites!" He protested with a laugh.

She took a big bite out of it, making it irrevocably hers. "Mine too," she teased back, and left.

Natasha walked into Tony's lab to a completely unexpected tableau. Tony and Loki stood in front of a whiteboard that was covered in diagrams and mathematical equations, mixed in with runes and alchemical symbols. Clint sat in the corner, scowling at them both.

"So if you assume that the blood has a quality of x and a quantity of y," Tony drew the figures out on the board, "you can expect the spell to have an efficacy of z?"

Loki shook his head and took the marker out of Tony's head. "There's a threshold for each variable. The quality has to be higher than A and the quantity higher than B. After a certain point, there's a ceiling, too. You can't get better than perfect, and you can only get so much blood from any given sacrifice-" he drew a few figures on the board.

"You can't use an unlimited number of sacrifices?" Tony asked.

"Well, there's the matter of availability, and you're often gambling on the quality, so the more you use, the more you risk. Not to mention the risk of discovery and subsequent consequences," Loki rolled his eyes.

"Naturally," Tony agreed.

Natasha sidled up to Clint, eyes narrowed at the board. "Are they doing what I think they're doing?"

Clint glanced at her and shook his head a little. "Only if you think that they're trying to develop a mathematical theory to explain blood magic."

"Right. What are you doing here?"

He met her glare head-on. "I'm not letting you go out there with just these two nut jobs," he gestured towards the two figures. "I may not like the mission, but I got your back, 'Tasha."

"Thanks." She sat on a stool next to him, and tried to make sense of the mess on the board. Loki and Tony were now arguing about "ambient energy" and how it related to the gravitational effect of the moon.

"I'm not an astrophysicist, Loki, I don't know how that stuff works," Tony lamented.

"I know an astrophysicist," Loki said cheerfully, "And she owes me a favor," he whipped out his phone.

At this point Natasha stood up. "Ok, before we drag Jane into this,"

Tony was sufficiently surprised. "Jane, as in Thor's Jane?"

Natasha glared at him. "Can we take care of more important things first?"

Loki grinned, surprised by how much he had gotten caught up in his conversation with Tony. He had purposely avoided him, not entirely comfortable with some of the undertones in the billionaire's relationship with his counterpart. But now he wondered if he had missed out—Tony was more than willing to set ethics aside (temporarily, of course) in order to reach true understanding. It was a kind of courage he respected.

"Sure!" Tony capped the marker and tossed it onto the ledge below the board. "I'm guessing our standard in-ear communication devices won't do?"

"I would prefer something invisible," Natasha admitted.

Tony's eyebrows went up. "Well, we aim to please." He opened a drawer, grabbed a pair of tweezers, and pulled out what looked like a thin wire. "How's this?" he asked, holding it out to her.

She put an open palm out under the tweezers, and he let it drop. "What is it?"

"It's a hyper resonant receiver," he explained. "Every sound wave that hits it, is communicated down the length of it, to the end where it's emitted. Kind of like fiber optics, but with sound instead of light. It's emitted at a very high frequency, too high for the human ear, which easily passes through most matter, where it can be picked up by this:" From the same drawer he took out a handheld radio, "Which takes it back down to normal levels."

Natasha stared at it. "It's not invisible," she complained. "But it's close."

He frowned at the criticism. "Actual invisibility is impossible."

Loki raised his eyebrows and Tony glared at him. "Go ahead. Tell me you actually make light pass through you, not around you," he dared.

He laughed. "Actually, it's much simpler than that. It's far easier to manipulate the minds around me so that they don't see me than to manipulate the light."

Tony tilted his head to the side. "So you'd still show up on camera?"

"No," he smiled. "The camera can be fooled in the same way."

Natasha cleared her throat, stalling the conversation.

"Right," Tony picked up the wire with the tweezers again. "The principle is the same, though. The receiver can be incorporated into a piece of jewelry or sewn into clothing and still function perfectly. So it will be visible, but they won't see it."

Loki nodded appreciatively, and Natasha made a sound of agreement. "I think clothing would be a better choice, here. Jewelry is too easy to lose in a fight."

"What if you lose your clothing?" Tony grinned.

Both Clint and Loki glared at him, but she just smiled. "Well, then I'll be in familiar territory. Have it put in a pair of jeans for me to wear. If nothing else, they're sturdy."

"Will do." Tony dropped the wire back in the box and shut the drawer. "So. Are you three actually going to play nice for this mission? Or are we going to be battling the green monster who's not my favorite lab buddy?"

Clint sighed, Natasha rolled her eyes, and Loki pressed his lips together in what might have been a disapproving look, but also could have been an attempt not to smile.

"I don't like the idea behind it," Clint said, eyeing Loki, "but if 'Tasha's up to it then I'm not going to make a fuss."

Loki, who had been drumming his fingers against his leg, suddenly stilled. "To be honest, I'm not really comfortable with the idea of you plying your wiles on this man. I don't like the thought of him touching you," He gave Natasha a serious look, which was quickly replaced with one of confusion from his counterpart.

"Oh, hey," Tony said, smiling. "We're going out on a mission and we need you to cast the tracker spell thingy again real quick."

"Ok..." Loki looked around her, trying to take her bearings. They were in one of the labs. "We'll need some privacy," she blushed a little and took Natasha's hand, leading her off to one of the private study rooms.

"Bow chicka bow-wow" Tony said under his breath, grinning.

"I will punch you, you know," Clint threatened.

Inside the study room, Loki ran through the spell in her mind. "Do you want it in the same place?" she asked absently.

Natasha frowned. "Well, I was hoping for something more discrete, but..."

Loki raised an eyebrow. "You don't know what won't be revealed in the course of the mission?" she guessed.

"Pretty much. You're not jealous, are you?" she asked. She knew the other Loki liked to watch her work, and his lie said as much, but she wasn't sure how She would feel about it.

She smiled and shook her head. "No, I'm not jealous." She frowned a little, and tilted her head. "But I am worried, I guess. I'm not sure why." She shook her head, as though to clear it. "Anyway, what if we made the rune so it was always visible, somewhere that a person might have a tattoo?"

Natasha stared hard at Loki. Thor's theory that the two Lokis were one came to mind, and she wondered if the lines between them were starting to blur. Not only His concern for the mission, but also the concept of hiding something in plain sight had carried over the transition. "Ankle?" she suggested, betraying none of her thoughts.

Loki nodded, and gestured to the two chairs. They sat, and Loki pulled her foot up into her lap, removing Natasha's boot and sock before running a fingernail up her sole teasingly.

Natasha jumped, but then smiled at the playful look on Loki's face. Hand on her ankle, Loki closed her eyes and concentrated. When she lifted the hand, there was a small angular B right next to her ankle bone, where many stylish but conscientious girls got tattoos. This time, she could feel the connection between them, and wondered if the spell would grow stronger with every use.

"Loki, I feel like I owe you an apology," she said suddenly.

She looked up, surprised. "Why?"

"I feel..." Natasha sighed, it wasn't easy to put into words. "I feel like I'm using you," she admitted.

Loki patted her ankle and put it down on the floor, allowing Natasha to replace the sock and shoe. "Oh, I don't mind. I feel a lot better knowing you'll have my rune on you, in case you get split up."

"No, I mean..." she ran a hand through her russet curls, surprised to find how much they had grown. "I should never have gotten you involved in any problems I had with Him. It's not fair to you. Not that I didn't enjoy last week, but I feel bad that I was at least partially doing it to piss Him off."

"Oh, that." Loki stared down at her hands in her lap and sighed. "Well, you know how the song goes: 'Sweet dreams are made of these, who am I to disagree?' I suppose I just fall into the second category."

Natasha did know the song, and knew what she meant. Some of them want to use you, some of them want to be used by you... She reached out and brushed the backs of her fingers against Loki's cheek. "Still, it was wrong of me and I'm sorry."

Loki looked up. "Ok. I accept your apology. But I really don't mind," she smiled, but then her face fell.

The corner of Natasha's lip twitched. "It only works when someone believes you, MIlaya Moyna."

She sighed, but then gasped softly as Natasha leaned forward to kiss her. She was surprised further when the door to the study room opened to reveal Clint, who cussed and rolled his eyes. "Alright, but you'll have to wait, I only have a $10," he shouted back at Tony.

"I'll take it!" Tony replied.

Natasha sat back and grinned at the embarrassed expressions on both Loki and Clint's faces. Clint shook his head. "You heard the whole thing, didn't you? And threw the bet?"

"Yup," she smiled and licked her lips.

"You would think you'd be considerate enough to think that maybe she might not like an audience," he chided.

Loki raised an eyebrow and shot him a leer. "You can watch if you like, I don't mind," she said coyly.

Clint's eyes widened, and then he cussed once more as Loki switched. Loki's laughter could be heard all the way out in the hallway.

A/N: Absolutely nothing in this chapter was in my original outline, lol. But I love all of it!

If you're on Facebook, I'm now one of the administrators for a Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow page, under the alias Natalia. You can find it by searching for Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, with no spaces next to the slash.

As always, I love each and every one of your reviews. Stay tuned next Saturday for Chapter 64: Desperate Measures (like we all didn't see that one coming lol).