A/N: Hello all! Just a heads up, I most likely will not update until after the middle of January. I have January exams that are sehr important and need to be studied for. Just so you know.
Also, a very Merry Christmas to you if you celebrate it :) Enjoy the chapter!
Aidan had awoken within minutes, and Eva was thankful for the distraction. She had hated her parents' horror, their despair. But the lie had been necessary to keep SHIELD from putting her on their watch-list. God, she felt guilty, but she hoped that they'd understand why she did it. If they ever found out, that was. If she was ever in a position to tell them.
Somehow she doubted that.
With a smile and a kiss to her brother's brow, she vacated the room, hurrying down the corridors. Her head was held high; she needed to be calm and confident; she'd never get her way if Fury thought she could be coerced or manipulated.
She was let onto the bridge without a problem, and easily entered the conference room.
"Fury. We have to talk."
"Oh, I'll bet you do."
Eva had been so focused on the man standing in the trench coat that she hadn't even noticed the slimmer, yet far more threatening figure seated at the table. Loki's eyes glittered as he sat there, seeming quite at ease. For once, Fury did not have a gun pointed at the god – Eva guessed he'd learnt that lesson quickly enough.
"What are you doing here?" she asked icily. "Shouldn't you be off terrorising most of Russia's politicians?"
Loki laughed. "My dear Eva, Russia has already been dealt with. It is you I have yet to deal with."
She suddenly realised that Loki had known all along about her plan, and she took a step back.
"Then you know what I want."
"Of course. It was not difficult to determine." His smile, if it had a voice, would be crowing, triumphant, and Eva fixed him with a gaze of steel, though she felt like a shaking leaf inside.
"And will you agree to the terms?"
"What terms?" Fury asked warily, his gaze flickering. "What are you doing, Ms Manning?"
"SHIELD has no jurisdiction over me." Eva took the seat opposite Loki, her eyes never once wavering from his. "This is my life. I'll do what I damn well want. Even if that means making deals with the devil. My life for my family's. Take it or leave it. My brother is just a child; he does not deserve this. Let them go, and you can have me to do with as you wish."
Fury stared in disbelief.
"We did not blow up the Palais des Nations and rescue you to simply let you go back to him, Ms Manning," he said angrily.
"It was never a rescue," she replied quietly. "I feel as trapped here as I did in New York. Either way I lose. The lesser of two evils."
"And you pick the one who's more likely to kill you," Fury stated, unimpressed. The corner of Eva's mouth pulled up, her expression wryly amused.
"No. He won't kill me." Her eyes were fixed upon Loki's, and her tone was dry. "If he wanted to, he'd have done it months ago. Am I right?"
"Give me time," Loki replied, tilting his head, and smiling the smile that set her spine ablaze with shivers. "I would not be so self-assured if I were you, Eva."
"You'd get terribly bored without your intellectual counterpart," she responded, rising to her feet. "I don't think killing me is one of your best ideas, darling. Now; do you accept or no?"
Loki eyed her silently, his pupils flickering, catching the artificial light of the room.
"No. I do not."
Eva stared. "What?"
"I said no. Are your mortal ears truly so feeble?"
"But…" She'd been banking on it. She'd wanted her family safe, never mind what he did to her. It had been her last resort. The last card she had to play. Yet now…
Loki raised an eyebrow. "You assumed I would agree. You thought that the pleasure of your body was worth more to me than the scent of your fear. Ah, my dear. You were wrong."
Eva was silent – and then, she snapped.
"What more do you want from me?" she screamed, suddenly standing, her anger and desperation overriding everything as it blazed like a maelstrom. "What can I possibly give you that will make you leave everyone I love alone? What? Tell me!"
Loki leant forwards then, and his words were malicious, twisted, triumphant. Oh, he'd been waiting for her to snap. She wasn't broken, not yet. But driving her to madness, causing her to shatter by his own hand… the sweetest success he would ever taste.
"I want you to kneel."
Eva made a noise of derision then amidst her seething ire. "Nice try. But I told you: I will never kneel."
"Well, then."
She heard a scream – her mother. How she heard it, Eva had no idea, but when her father roared, "Get out of my son!" her eyes flickered.
"Aidan is not a toy, Loki. Leave him alone."
"The entirety of your race is viewed as toys, Eva. To realms such as Asgard, at the very least. Mere playthings."
She tilted her head, and a faint smile curved her lips, taking Loki aback, though he never showed it.
"So you're King of a realm of toys?" Her smile widened. "Nice. Daddy would be proud."
She turned as if to walk away, before pausing. "Oh, and by the way, does your brother know you're here? I'm sure he'd have some very interesting things to say regarding Jane and Pepper…"
Loki's lips twitched, and a soft sound of amusement left his mouth, though his irritation at her words remained beneath the surface. "To chide me, no doubt. He seems to believe it is his duty, being the elder one of us."
"And yet, I would have sworn that you were the elder," Eva retorted, lifting a finger and revolving back to look at him with an elevated brow. "Until I saw you for what you really are. But Thor is the wiser one, Loki. You haven't grown up yet. You haven't got past the feeling of being wronged, of being betrayed and throwing a planet-sized tantrum over it. Perhaps you were, but what's done is done. It's in the past. Move on."
Fury had been watching this all the while, and he could not deny that he was impressed by her. She feared Loki, certainly, but she was not afraid to set him straight. The director's lips tugged into a slight smile, before it faded upon the realisation that Loki probably would not hesitate to stitch them shut – permanently.
In the beginning, he had been wary of Eva's possible loyalty to Loki. Now, the idea of her being devoted to him was clearly laughable. She had more loyalty to Thor than Loki, purely because of Loki's treatment of her. Fury had seen the playback of Eva stripping, and his eyebrows had lifted upon seeing the bruises. Evidently Thor was not the one who was violent.
Suddenly there was a thundering of footsteps, and Eva's father burst into the room, enraged.
"I want him to leave my son alone. I don't care how you get hold of him, but contact him. Now."
"Oh, but I'm already here, Daniel," Loki stated leisurely, and Eva's father recoiled in shock as he realised who sat in the chair. His face paled, but resolve remained, and his gaze did not waver from the god.
"Dad, go back to Aidan," Eva said quietly. "Let me handle this."
"You did that once, Eva, and look where that got you," Daniel Manning retorted, not looking once at his daughter. "Imprisoned and raped by a madman."
Loki's eyebrow visibly lifted; his head slowly turned to face Eva and tilted, his gaze assessing her.
"Is that so?"
Eva knew that look. Knew it well. Loki was not happy, and she supposed the shred of decency that kept him from forcing himself upon her was wholly insulted.
It was only a shred, however. She still thought him abhorrent.
"Loki." Her voice was a warning, her own brows also elevating. Don't.
He eyed her for a second longer, before rising to his feet, straightening his suit jacket in the process – something Eva did not miss, and she almost rolled her eyes at the motion.
"If you will excuse us, gentlemen, Eva and I must discuss a certain… issue."
"No, I will not excuse you –"
"Hold it right there, Loki. You are not taking –"
But Loki simply brushed past Daniel and Fury's vehement oppositions and took hold of Eva's wrist. Her eyes widened as she realised, and she shook her head.
"No, don't you dare –"
Too late. The room spun, and in a single second she was standing on hardwood flooring. Glancing around, she recognised Loki's suite at the Chrysler, and then she glared at the god.
"I said no. Take me back."
"Raped," he said icily. "You told them I took you by force."
"I had no choice," she hit back angrily. "If they knew otherwise, how likely is it, do you think, that they'd trust me?"
He let out a short, strangely bitter laugh. "Eva, my dear, they barely trust you as it is. They are an intelligence agency; do you really believe they trust anyone?"
"Showing them that I am in no degree loyal to you was worth a try. It keeps me from being locked in a cell by them, and keeps my family free of grief. And horror. For their headstrong, independent, morally sound daughter to suddenly crave the touch of a psychopath? How do you think they'd take that?"
"Morally sound? I do hope you're not implying anything," Loki said dryly. "You are talking about the one who is changing your world for the better, may I remind you. I suspect my morals are perfectly sound indeed."
"You blitzed New York City."
"A necessary step, and the city is on its way to being rebuilt to its former heights," he responded calmly, walking away and removing his suit jacket to sit in an armchair, slinging the jacket over a chair back. "The United States was never going to be a nation where they would sit placidly as they were conquered by an – as you would call it – extra-terrestrial legion. Force was needed, Eva. Did you not take politics in school?"
"I dropped it after my penultimate year, continuing German, History and Psychology. But of course you already know that. You know everything about me." Sighing, Eva made her way over sitting in the one opposite. The two of them eyed each other in silence, both calm, both unblinking. She was able to examine every inch of his face like this. The calculating gaze. The mane of hair, dark as pitch but nowhere near as unpleasant to touch. The ashen skin, devoid of any sort of a tan. She doubted Loki was the type to tan. He probably pinked like a lobster, being of the frost giant vein, and thus he was highly averse to intense heat.
"I have never 'tanned' in my life," he said, a sliver of a smile curling the corners of his mouth. "I cannot abide the heat, as you have very well guessed."
"You'll be leaving New York in the summer, then. It gets quite… hot here."
He inclined his head. "I will."
She waited for him to elaborate, but he never did, and judging by the mirth dancing in his eyes, withholding information was just another game to him.
Alright, then. Let's play.
"Scandinavia is too obvious for you," she pondered. "Russia… well, you despise that country. Or should I say those countries? I hear the division is going well."
Loki's lips twitched. "Oh, Eva. Enough with the cleverness." He stood once more, and smiled down at her. "Come."
Her eyes narrowed. "Why?"
"Because there is something I wish to show you."
"Again? I have already seen one thing, and I rather think I should be getting back to my family."
"You'll see them soon enough. Now. I would prefer it if you changed out of that truly hideous apparel into something more fitting of your status –"
"Ah, ah." Eva held up a finger. "I have no status. You'd do well to remember that, Loki. But…" She got up from the chair. "I can't deny I'd feel better in my own clothes. I assume they are all still there, of course."
"Every piece," Loki confirmed, watching as she walked away from him, his mouth curving upwards.
"And I'm having a bath as well. I might as well abuse your apparent hospitality while I can."
He laughed at that.
Fifteen minutes later, Eva sighed in relief, closing her eyes as she sank back in the tub, the hot silky water lapping at her skin. Peace, at last, however tenuous it might be. She knew better than to expect this to last, and when she felt the water level rise and a long leg brush up against hers, her eyes opened.
"That wasn't an invitation," she remarked dryly. Loki's gaze filled with humour, and he crooked a finger. Unamused, Eva shook her head.
"No. Not this time. Because it always ends with guilt and self-loathing."
He canted his head, a slow smile spreading. "And of regret?"
Eva said nothing, and the smile widened. "Oh."
'You already knew the answer to that," she said quietly. "Don't gloat, for god's sake. Do you think I like it? It's damn irritating, but there it is. And I can't lie to you. Not because I don't want to, but because I can't. You can see straight through falsehoods, so where is the point in telling them?"
"Very wise of you," he commented. "Very wise indeed. Like your SHIELD counterparts, you are learning. It will be to your advantage."
"Oh shut up, Loki. Let me bathe in peace."
In less than a second, Eva was straddling his lap, and his fingers gently held her hips. She frowned; intimate as the position was, his expression…
"Not in the mood?" she asked sarcastically. Loki chuckled.
"I am not a being who lives for sex, Eva. I can easily have a discussion without taking you as a King does his Queen."
"Alright, stop." She sat back on his thighs, her lips thinning. "I am not your 'Queen'. No matter how much you like to believe so. It's not going to happen, you fool, so you can get that fantasy out of your mind right now."
"And if I asked you to be?"
"Well, I'd be frankly shocked that you're asking at all, but I'd still say no," she replied. Her brow furrowed. "Why?"
"A King needs a Queen, Eva."
She shook her head. "And it won't be me."
His thumb ran along her lower lip, and for once there was no malice, only genuine curiosity.
"You resist because you still believe I mean your world harm," he mused, his eyes searching hers. Her hand came up to close upon his wrist, her grip tightening.
"Don't do that," she said softly. "Don't act like you're the good one. You're not. You abducted me, killed a friend's other half, terrorised my planet. And for what? This world does not need you. It doesn't need totalitarianism, Loki. It might work on Asgard, but I get the feeling that Asgard isn't nearly as big as Midgard is. You can't control over seven billion people. I told you that before, and I'll tell you that again until you realise just how pointless this regime of yours is."
Loki was silent, and then, to Eva's surprise, he leant forwards to press a soft, tender kiss to her lips that scrambled her mind more than his impassioned kisses did. What…? It lasted only a moment, before he pulled back a fraction to murmur against her mouth:
"Is it so pointless to want to better a world?"
"No. But the method is what is pointless," she replied, equally soft in tone. "There are other ways to improve a world. You must know that."
"I have seen your realm's violence. As I once said to Thor, humans slaughter each other in droves. Do you deny this?"
Eva shook her head.
"No. I'm not blind to my planet's disgraces. I know how bad it gets. But I also know how good it gets. And that's without a world leader. We work together, we negotiate, we compromise. We don't need someone sitting on a golden throne, dictating our every move. That's not how we do things here. Every dictator has failed. Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Gaddafi –"
"For the simple reason that they abused their powers," Loki cut in, his tone still gentle. "I have no intention of harming the human race. They need to be ruled, need to be guided. Subjugated. Can you not see that when shown a way out, or shown a plan, your species is relieved? Even the most independent look for guidance, and I intend to give it."
Sorrow clouded Eva's expression, and her fingertips touched his jaw.
"I wish you could see otherwise, Loki. I know you never will."
Their mouths met again, and this time there was no fight for dominance, no angry passion, no gloating. They would go back to that soon enough – that was a fact she could not refute – but this… there was something sad in this, a tangible thread of regret. She could feel it in his lips, his fingers, the way he held himself. As if he knew that they could not reconcile.
"Even if you could, I'd still say no," she whispered to his mouth. "I'm not meant to be a queen. I don't want power. I never have."
"And that is what I find so fascinating," he spoke, his eyes roaming her face. "You are an intrigue, Eva Manning, no matter how vehemently you may deny that."
"One you'll never untangle," she countered, one hand in his hair. His lips tilted into a slight smile.
"Oh, I can try."
"By all means, go ahead. You won't get anywhere."
He laughed, and it was a warm, genuine sound that had surprise skittering through her. For a second, it was as if she had seen the Loki of years before, of a time before his world had shattered, crumbled and moulded into something anew and twisted.
And what happens now?
His fingers skimmed her spine, and then his mouth closed on her throat. Yet it was only a kiss, no mark or bite.
"You confuse me," she said honestly. He smiled against her skin.
"Isn't that the point of a trickster?"
Eva laughed quietly, conceding. "True. But this changes nothing, Loki. I still despise you."
"I would never expect anything else."
And strangely, her heart gave a tug at those words.
He lifted her up and helped her out of the bath soon afterwards, and with a gesture he was dried and dressed in a decent suit, while she was garbed –
"The dress? Really?"
It was the scarlet affair, the one she'd worn on their second encounter that his gaze had lingered over for moments. The dress she thought he disliked.
His eyes sparked with mischief then.
"The colour flatters you."
"It's not green."
"Exceptionally observant of you, Ms Manning. I do hope your eyesight and mental faculties remain so acute in future."
"Smart-arse."
"Naturally."
Exhaling, she glanced at the draining bathwater, before looking to him.
"You mentioned wanting to show me something."
Loki inclined his head. "I did. But it can wait. I believe you have lingered too long here."
Momentarily taken aback, her eyebrow lifted.
"Are you concerned for me?"
"No." His gaze turned to malice then, and Eva almost felt a sense of loss at that, though she could not explain how or why. "Do not flatter yourself, lítteinn. If you want to keep up appearances – though by the Norns I think you foolish to do so – then I must return you to SHIELD. I refused your deal, if you remember."
Eva bit her lip. "Don't hurt my family. Please. You said you had no intention of harming the human race. Honour that. Leave them be. They're not who you have your quarrel with. Aidan is too young to be so troubled, and my parents… this isn't what they should be caught up in. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Let them go home. Let them live. I don't understand why you refused, but… don't toy with them. They don't comprehend this, you, us. It isn't their fight, so leave them out of it."
Loki's expression was unreadable, but then he spoke, the malice subsiding a little.
"I refused because I want to see what SHIELD do, how they act. It is as simple as that, Eva. Now…" He took her hand, pressing a kiss to the back of it, once again taking her by surprise. "Time to return, my dear."
And the bathroom vanished.
A/N: I hope you liked. I'll see you all in 2013, most likely! Have a great Christmas and a very happy New Year!
Lightning xoxo