Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Anyway, really enjoyed writing this, hope you enjoy reading it!

Chapter 24

"I have convinced father to transport us to Midgard!" Thor announced proudly. Tony and Loki looked at each other, glancing back at the infirmary where Natasha was still recovering.
"Is she okay to travel?" Tony asked. Loki shrugged. "Regardless of her injuries, getting her back to S.H.I.E.L.D is probably the best thing for her now. And if we wait any longer the others might just kill us." Tony and Thor nodded in agreement. Thor went to tell his father that they would be ready to leave the following morning, and Tony and Loki walked back to the infirmary.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk to her?" Tony asked, his voice hopeful. Loki shook his head, quickly diminishing Tony's hope of a lover's reunion. "It's too painful Stark. To have her look at me as if I am going to hurt her, as I'm going to kill her..." He shuddered. "I'm a selfish man at heart Tony. I can't put her or myself through that."
Letting out a mournful sigh, Tony pushed open the large doors. Natasha glanced up, beaming as she saw her companions face. Loki felt a pang of unnecessary jealousy rip through him. Of course her smile faltered when she saw him. Tony made a rather forced cough, trying to break the tension in the room.

"So Tashy, Pointbreak says we should be ready to leave be tomorrow. You up for it?" He asked cheerfully, throwing himself down at the foot of her bed. Natasha nodded vigorously.
"Just get me out of here!" She said with a small laugh before remembering Loki's presence.
"I meant the hospital, not Asgard obviously..." She stumbled over her words. He noticed her shoulders stiffen, her hands curl around the dagger that Thor had left beside her, to make her feel safer. Always ready for an attack. Loki waved off the insult with his hand.
"No offence taken." He said, forcing a smile. The room fell back into an uneasy silence. Tony looked from Loki to Natasha a few times, before gritting his teeth with determination.
"Well," He said standing up from the bed, "I'm gonna go see what I can do about getting some lunch served up. Rudolph, keep an eye on Natasha for me would ya?" Loki and Natasha both stared up at him with alarm.

"Stark, I hardly think that's necessary." Loki began to say, just as Natasha said, "Stark don't you dare leave me with..." They both didn't bother to finish their sentences, realising that Tony was already gone out the door. Loki let out a sigh before, easing himself into one of the small chairs at the other side of the room. Natasha picked up her knife and began to polish it, ignoring Loki with every bit of her strength. Even now, she could feel his eyes boring into her, as if trying to figure out an abstract painting. Having enough, she flung the dagger in his direction, so that it lodged itself in the wall only millimetres from his stupidly attractive face.

"Enough!" She yelled, getting up from the bed, ignoring the complaints her body gave her. "I've had enough of you! I don't know what you want, but just stop okay?" She said, her hands balled into fists. Loki normally would have found her frustration adorable, but knew he had a part to play.
"Stop what, little spider? I wish I could fathom what I possibly could have done to offend the untouchable Black Widow." He said making a low bow. He flinched as she let out a low scream of frustration. He glanced up at her, trying to find some sort of recognition in face. They had argued like this before, did she remember?

"That! Staring at me like you're waiting for me to say something or do something, and I hate it! What is it you know that I don't? What happened in the last three months that Tony won't tell me? It's bad enough that he's lying to me, but when I ask Thor, I feel like he's going to start crying, and then there's you! Always staring, always waiting, you only look away when I catch you! What is it you want? Tell me!" She finished, her tone changing from anger to pleading. Loki walked towards her shaking body, wanting nothing more to simply embrace her and tell her that he understood. Than knowing that you're being lied to is worse that knowing the harsh truth. But he couldn't. He couldn't tell her that she had completely changed him, or tell her that he loved her and have her reject him.

His face was the very picture of pain, she noticed. She wondered what she had said that had saddened him. After what seemed like forever, his smoothed out his features. He reached towards her and brushed a lock of hair off her face.
"I know nothing." He said coolly, and marched out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Natasha stared at the closed-door, until the tears she had been holding back spilled over, and cried her heart out, and didn't even know why.

Tony was just coming out of one of the palaces many kitchens, when he stumbled into a very distressed Loki. He looked at him apprehensively.
"What happened?" He asked, almost scared to hear the gave a harsh laugh.
"Well she know's you're lying to her. She been trying to charm answers out of Thor, and has finally resorted to bullying them out of me." He said, wiping sweat off his forehead. Tony looked up at him with interest.
"Did you give her answers?"
"Of course not. I feel that something amiss here. If she had completely forgot the past months, how would she know that you were keeping something from her? She's not just mildly curious either, she desperate to know. She asks no questions about Son of Coul, about why we're here, about her Hawk, but yet knows she's not been told the whole truth. I just feel..." He sighed, shaking his head. "I know it's just self pity, but I feel as if it's oddly convenient that she has simply forgotten all the time she spent with me."

Tony patted his shoulder awkwardly. "Dude I know. It's like somebody chose the memories she forgot." He said taking a bite out of the bread-roll he had made in the kitchens. Loki ignored the condiments that Tony had spilled on his shoes, looking at Tony with wonder.
"What did you say?"
"I said," Tony started between bites of his roll, "It's like somebody chose the memories she forgot." He jumped back, at the expression of dark fury that had spread over Loki's face.

Loki stormed out to the balcony, slamming his fists into the stone fence. When it shattered, he picked up one of the fragments, and flung it out to the sky.
"You bastard! Are you satisfied now? You have taken her from me in the worse way possible, your plan succeeded! Your revenge is complete, so enjoy your eternal burning in Helheim, it's far less than you deserve!" He screamed, kicking the remaining fence. Tony dodged the rabble and approached him carefully.
"Loki what's happened?" The words hung in the air for several moments until Loki was calm enough to answer them.
"The Other," he spat. "He never intended to kill her. That would have been too kind. He sank his filthy magic deep into her mind and removed all feelings, along with her memories, of me, leaving nothing but hate." He fell to the ground, burying his face into his hands.

Tony sat down beside him. "Okay so it wasn't amnesia, but the plan will still work. Just get her back to Midgard, and then help her remember." Loki didn't react, just looked at him with a sadness that Tony didn't think was possible to feel.
"Stark, the memories have been taken from her mind. To her they never have existed."
"She'll never remember."