Author's NOte: YO. So, so, SO sorry for the huge delay everyone, but I moved houses and that was a big change in my life, so I didn't have the time or the motivation to write for a while. But, I hope this chapter makes up for that!

Queen Martha Pond: I'm glad you love the trickster side of Loki; I think it's my favorite side of him too! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'm so sorry you had to wait so long for an update. Thanks for the review!

TheIronBat: Aww, I love hearing that my updates make you happy!It's that kind of thing that motivates me to write. I've a feeling you're gonna like this chapter, so I hope it makes up for the long wait in between updates! Thanks so much for the review, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Clementine Buttersnaps: Hello there :D Welcome to the story, and thanks for the lovely reviews! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and didn't get put off by the long wait in between updates. I agree. Those two really need to just get it on. Well, I'll let you get to it then. Again, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Crystal12: Well, then, I'm sure you're going to like this chapter! Thanks so much for the review, and I hope you enjoy this chapter! So sorry for keeping you waiting, by the way. I hope you like it!

Zepha: Hi thurrr! Thanks for the lovely review! I hope you like this chapter too, because it has BUCKETS of Loki in it! Sorry for the long wait in between chapters though, and I hope the chapter makes up for it!

Person: Hi! Thanks for your lovely review! I'm so glad you like the story. I must tell you, it was YOUR review that made me get off my butt and motivated to write again! So THANK YOU! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I apologize for keeping you waiting.

Okie dokie, all. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize except Louie and the Typos.

Pepper POV

Pepper was humming as she danced across from drawer to drawer. As a busy woman, she rarely ever found the time to do something as simple as make lunch, but today she did and today she was ready to make a meal to satisfy seventy hungry Thors. As she reached for the salt, the door opened and Tony and Bruce entered, both looking slightly displeased.

"We're here, your majesty," grumbled Tony, "now, will you give us our our food so we can get back to sciencing?" Pepper raised an eyebrow.

"What in the world are you talking about?" Tony rolled his eyes.

"Very funny, Pep, but we were in the middle of a breakthrough, so if you could just give us our lunch and reopen the lab for us-"

"I didn't lock you out of your lab," said Pepper in confusion, "In fact, I would have waited another hour before I did, considering how I just started on lunch." Tony stared at her disbelievingly.

"I think she's telling the truth, Tony," said Bruce, rubbing his arm nervously. Pepper snorted.

"Of course I am. You're both an hour early."

"An hour early? Then who-?" At that very moment, there was a great trumpeting symphony and orchestra music blasted throughout the building. Cries of shock and annoyance erupted throughout Stark Tower and inhabitants fell out of cubicles and winced in pain as their computers were taken over by the deafening noise.

From the topmost floor to the bottom, the Nutcracker was playing and Pepper dropped her spoon and clapped her hands to her ears.

"Tony," she yelled, "what are you doing?"

"I didn't do anything!" Tony yelled, back looking upset.

"Tony..." Bruce was staring out the big glass wall. Pepper followed his gaze and her mouth fell open as several red gold blurs shot up into the air..

"The roof," said Tony, scrambling to the elevator, Pepper and Bruce at his heels. At the elevator they the some of the other inhabitants of the Tower, looking rather alarmed. They shot towards the topmost floor and fell out of the glass box, opera music still blasting on high. As the piece reached its crescendo, Tony's suits, all fifty prototypes were soaring above Stark Tower and -

"Oh my god," said Darcy, clapping a hand over her mouth.

"My suits!" shrieked Tony. In five perfect rows, every single suit danced through the air, twirling and leaping, looking both fabulous and slightly comical. With every rise of music, the suits waltzed around them, doing enormous arcs and rising high into the sky before dropping back down.

"Jarvis!" said Tony, looking utterly panicked "Jarvis, what's happening here?" There was no reply from the AI.

"Jarvis, override the code, manual, enter alpha one one five! Jarvis? Jarvis!" Tony dove out of the way as the Mark 11 swooned into the arms of the Mark 42.

"What is happening to my suits?!" Tony clutched his hair, frantically spinning around to face everyone else. Most of them were trying very hard not to laugh, although Clint and Darcy were in tears, holding each other up, and Natasha seemed very impressed with the Mark 5's pirouette. Pepper had to suck in her cheeks to stop a smile from spreading on her face.

Loki and Louie stood together, both of them smiling innocently, raising her suspicions at once. Tony's genius brain, panicked as it were, caught on equally quickly.

"You," he pointed menacingly at the two culprits, "what did you-"

"Now, Tony," said Pepper, raising her hands consolingly, stepping in front of them. She couldn't help the grin spreading over her face. Tony looked outraged. He opened his mouth, swelling up impressively, raising his fist when-

"Hit the deck!" yelled Louie and Tony spun around, his eyes widening.

"Eep," he squeaked. The Mark 42, Tony's baby, his precious and most favorite, had its cannons out and aimed at them all. The cannon glowed blue and white, and Pepper felt a tiny spark of fear. Until, of course, it let loose a magnificent fountain of whipped cream on their heads. Instantaneously, there was a loud trumpeting as the finale of the recital came on, and fireworks lit up in the sky. All the suits launched their cannons and let loose enough whipped cream to cover half the building. The last thing Pepper heard was Tony screaming like a little girl as an enormous wave of cream hit them like a tsunami.

The silence after was eerie. Pepper wiped the delicious topping off her eyes to watch as the fifty suits retract their dessert loaded weaponry as one and make a single file back into the building. She got up, feeling very much like a snowman, to survey the damage. Her housemates were all on the ground, half covered in whipped cream, looking a little less amused than before.

Tony clambered to his feet first, put his hands on his hips and glared threateningly.

"Loki, Louie," he said, his voice deceptively calm, "do you have anything to say for yourselves?" Louie's blue hair was covered in cream and plastered to her body, making her look like a particularly tall Smurf. She thoughtfully wiped a bit of cream off her nose and put in in her mouth.

"The cream's a bit sour," she deadpanned.

Later, when Pepper managed to soothe Tony's frayed nerves and send him back into the Tower, she ordered him a chamomile tea and set Loki and Louie on cleaning duty. ("And no magic!" she added sternly.) As she herself wiped off the whipping cream and headed into the Tower once more, she saw Louie discreetly give Loki a high five. She went downstairs to change, passing disgruntled teams members and amused ones in the like, and she couldn't quite manage to stop smiling.

Although, once she saw Tony, the grin fell slightly. Not because he was upset, oh no, but because he was chuckling to himself and rubbing his hands in a very Evil Mastermind sort of manner.

Thus began the Prank Wars.

Tony POV

Patience wasn't Tony's strongest quality, but right now he felt the effort would be utterly worth it. Drumming his fingers on the table top he hummed, his eyes skittering around the room. Nat and Pepper were out, so he'd be safe from their wrath if anything went wrong. Most of the others were lolling around in places that kept them out of the way.

If Jarvis was correct, and he always was, the double-L team was on its way into the common room. He gave it two minutes before it happened.

One minute.

Thirty seconds.

There was a loud shriek, and someone stumbled and fell. Tony poked his head out of the door to see Loki and Louie in a tangle of limbs on the floor, pink sludge covering them both. Tony gave them his most winning grin.

"Fake floors and strawberry pudding," he said, smiling. "My new prototype. I'd say it's working pretty well, wouldn't you?" He strolled past the two, taking care to skip over the 3 foot expanse of fake floor. Loki and Louie were still slipping and falling on each other, the occasional "ouch!" being uttered.

"Aww, you two are so cute together," he called over his shoulder. Tony, one, Louie, zero.

"Oh, it's on, Tony." Louie shot back,"It is on."

The next day, Louie had somehow managed up wrangle Darcy into joining her little team of evil plotters and Tony walked into his bedroom to find pictures of a very naked Thor plastered on every inch of the wall and even on the glass windows. He was sure the images would be burned into his retinas for the rest of his life.

The day after, Tony bribed Clint with promises of a brand new bow and they managed to sneak through the air vents and drop baby farm animals into everyone's rooms. Although looking back, Tony wasn't sure whether that was the wisest idea. The Avengers' quarters now smelled like a menagerie.

Team Tall, Dark and Evil responded by ordering two hundred boxes of Pop Tarts (with his money of course) in various flavors and stacking them on every reachable surface inside his lab, leaving Bruce trembling with anxiety and Tony fearing for his science equipment.

And so on and so forth the two teams went, until nobody in Stark Tower could walk into a room before first suspiciously sticking their hand through the door and shaking it aimlessly to ensure nothing would fall on their heads.

A nuisance it may have been to most (Pepper was very close to ripping her hair out) but Tony found himself enjoying the pranks. The bigger the scale, the sillier the outcome, the more enjoyable life was. There was definitely more laughter heard across the Avengers' Quarters during the course of those five days.

But along came Valentine's Day and Captain Spangled cut their pranks short with his shiny vibranium frisbee. Literally. Tony was setting up a spider web (thank you, Peter Parker, you genius little brat) when the red-blue blur came spinning out of nowhere and sliced his pretty little web.

"You," said Steve, folding his arms in a no-nonsense manner. Tony swallowed his insults because being faced by six-foot-something of all American beefcake is a terrifying ordeal.

"Me?" Tony asked innocently, pushing Parker's stolen web shooter thingies under some discarded folders.

"Yeah, you. I know you and Darcy have this little war going on, but I need you to take a break today."

"Why?" complained Tony, "we were just getting started."

"Whatever," Steve rolled his eyes. He really was getting in touch with the new era. "I'm taking Darcy out to the movies, so don't you dare twist her up in those things." Tony would have made fun of Steve right then and there, but the Captain still looked like he might pound Tony into the ground so he filed the information away for future reference. Ah, well, maybe he could put the prank off for just a day. It would give enough time to crack the mechanics of Parker's tech anyway.

He rolled his eyes, though, as if he were making a great sacrifice.

"It pains me to say this, Steve, it does. But since it's your first date in, well, ever, I'll let it pass. Valentine's day though. Cliche much?" To Tony's delight, Steve actually blushed.

"What can I say? I'm an old fashioned guy." Tony snorted in amusement, then snapped his fingers.

"Hey, I got an idea. I could get you reservations at this sweet little restaurant I know of. Don't worry," he added, seeing Steve's dubious look, "it's a really nice place - quiet, laid back." Steve tilted his head and then shrugged.

"Oh, why not? Thanks, Tony."

"Any time, buddy," he replied to Steve's retreating back. He rubbed his hands gleefully, reaching for the web shooter thingies.

"And give Parker back his web spinning gadgets!"

Dammit.

Louie POV

I twirled a lock of blue hair in between my fingers thoughtfully as Darcy exited her closet and gave me a little spin. I sniffed thoughtfully.

"Are you the one who ended up with the chickens in your room?" Darcy shuddered.

"Yep. I'll never forgive Clint for that. I'm still finding feathers in my underwear drawer. Well, what do you think?" she asked, spinning in her outfit once more. I nodded in approval, albeit a little absent mindedly.

"It's a damn shame the pranks are over," said Darcy a little regretfully, "although Steve told me that Tony was planning to string us up from the ceiling so I'm not sure whether I'm grateful or not."

"Oh, it's a pity," I assured her. "We could've released soap bubbles into all his cars."

"I think magic gives us a distinctive advantage," said Darcy with a grin.

"Hey, Tony has a Hawkeye. I'd say the playing field is pretty even."

"Mmhm," said Darcy and threw a sock at me. "Scat," she said "go on, I've a date to meet."

Sticking my tongue out at her I left, making my way to the living room and flinging myself onto a couch. It had been a strange week. The pranks - well, they were what kept me from sinking into a pit of anxiety. Slasher's words were running through my head like a constant, unstoppable, annoying record.

Thor and Jane left to Asgard in the morning, for a few days to spend together. Natasha and Clint had left too, saying they had "reports to file" and nobody wanted a finger taken off so they all nodded and pretended they believed that. Tony was waiting for Pepper in the living room, goatee trimmed to perfection and smelling like something amazing.

"I'm pretty sure the TV did nothing to you, Sunshine, so quite trying to burn a hole through it," he remarked.

"You look dapper as fuck," I commented and sniffed "and, whoa, did you wash your hair?"

"Laugh all you want," said Tony churlishly, "but I'll have you know, oil and grease is very good for your hair."

"Mmhm," I said, catching the disbelieving hum from Darcy and passing it on. Tony flung himself onto the sofa beside me, with so much vigor that it tilted backward a bit. It was a mark of my training with the Avengers that I didn't flail about frantically in shock.

"What's up Sunshine?" he asked kindly, "You've been off ever since Mr. Slasher took a nice whiff of you." I gave him the stink-eye.

"Alright," said Tony lightly, "I won't prod." I didn't miss the way his eyes lingered though, worriedly, on my face. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Has it ever occurred to you that maybe it's the holiday that's getting me down?" I lied easily. Tony chose not to answer that.

In a good half an hour or so, the building was devoid of any Avengers or their respective better halves. Even Bruce, who I had thought was a bachelor up to that point had been swept away by a tall, long haired woman who was all curves and smiles. I didn't think I'd seen Bruce smile until I'd seen him with Jo.

I was alone in the house, except for everyone but Jarvis and Loki. I chewed my lip nervously. There was no such thing as an incognito search engine when using Tony Stark's WiFi. In fact, it might make him all the more aware of secret happenings in his tower. So, this would be the most opportune moment to conduct some research without the nosy inventor breathing down my neck.

"Jarvis," I said as I hurried down the hall, "if Loki asks, I'm in my room." There was a little pinging noise as the AI signaled that he had understood.

Once in my room, I shut the door, picked up my laptop and locked myself in the bathroom for good measure. Tony promised he'd removed the cameras from the rooms but one can never be sure.

I perched on the edge of the bathtub and powered up the computer. Once ready and waiting on the Internet, search tab open, I felt at a loss. What was I searching for?

"Okay. Let's start with what I already know."

Slasher, I entered, mutant. Not very much came up, except for a few news articles about suspects for murder, and a couple of public fights with the group called the X-men. Every time though, the guy disappeared before they could catch him.

"X-men, huh?" I murmured, frowning. I remembered Tony telling be something about the X men, a group of superhero mutants that the Avengers had worked with on occasion.

"What do we have on you?" I murmured. Once again, to my annoyance, it didn't turn out room be much more than news articles and a few fan-made websites. Those websites did have profiles of these superheroes though; a list with a few gritty pictures.

Storm, with the power to control the weather. I'd give a lot to be able to see her go head to head with Thor. There was a Jean Grey, Hank McCoy and of course, the famous Charles Xavier, whose articles, papers and books were referred to by many people. There was a Wolverine, a badass looking fella who kinda reminded me of Slasher himself. I stared at the gritty picture, taken from someone's phone, and felt a shiver run down my spine.

He looked dangerous.

Besides that though, there was nothing. On a whim, I decided to search for any associates Slasher might have. A couple of names came up, but none of them sounded right to me. They couldn't have been my father. I growled in frustration. The internet was too limited. I needed information; actual information. The kind only SHIELD would have. But trying to break into their systems was insane; I wasn't even half as good as Sebastian with a computer.

There was a soft knock on the bathroom door and I jumped. Snapping the laptop close, I opened the door.

Loki was already walking around the room, examining it slowly.

"Nobody else is home," he stated matter-of-factly.

"Nope," I agreed, shaking my head. "Is this the part where you pull out a knife and stab me?"

"Are you scared?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Your attempts at intimidation are getting pretty pathetic," I said tiredly. "Did you want anything?" Loki's face was blank.

"Not particularly, no," he said carefully. I rubbed my eyes and felt a stab of guilt for being so abrupt. I mustered up a winning smile. There was no need to take out my annoyance on the king of teenage angst.

"Come on," I said, "let's make some popcorn and watch a movie."

Loki POV

She hummed.

She hummed far too much.

Louie hummed as she brought in the popcorn. She hummed as she picked out a movie. She hummed as she disappeared for a moment, to return with pillows and blankets, her voice haunting the hallways.

"My funny valentine," she sang, spinning in a circle before plopping onto the couch next to him. Loki wrinkled his nose at the buttery smell of the popcorn that wafted towards him.

"This is the kind of this that makes all you humans utterly obese," he said in disgust.

"Cheat day," replied Louie popping a kernel into her mouth. "Jarvis, play The Titanic now, please."

"What is the Titanic?" asked Loki.

"Only the most tragic love story of our time."

"I thought that was Romeo and Juliet."

"You read Romeo and Juliet?" Louie asked astonished, before waving her hand dismissively. "I forgot who I was talking to. Of course you read Romeo and Juliet; you must have swallowed all of Shakespeare by now." Loki shrugged.

"It was there. It was terribly boring, I might add." Louie only elbowed him in the ribs and hissed at him to hush up, the movie was starting.

Loki personally thought it was an utterly pointless movie. Louie though, sat next to him and cried at all the parts that were even remotely sappy and went red and giggled when they star-crossed lovers decided it was a wise idea to do inappropriate things inside a car. Not that Loki hadn't done his fair share of inappropriate things, but he was determined to dislike the move, so he did.

At what Loki prayed was the end, Louie fell awfully quiet. She was almost holding her breath, he realized as water rushed through the ship. When the torture was over and the dimmed lights switched back on, Louie wiped her eyes, grinning.

"That never gets old," she said with a delicious little sigh, stretching like a cat. Loki's eyes fluttered shut briefly. Asgard give him strength.

"It was stupid,"he said cleverly, trying to cover up his moment of idiocy. Louie shook her head, a spark of fire alight in her eyes.

"Was not," she snapped, although her mouth was curving into a grin.

"Was too," he shot back.

"Was not!"

"They could have both fit on that floating piece of wood," snorted Loki. Louie stared at him for a long moment, amused.

"You know, the debate over that little fact has been going on for over a decade."

"Well, no wonder mortals are so beastly. They waste their already short lives on the most insignificant of things." Louie chuckled.

"For argument's sake, let's just stay they couldn't fit on the plank."

"Why would that be?" asked Loki skeptically

"Well," said Louie, "maybe the plank would have sunk, unable to support both their weights."

"Or the director wanted to make the story as ridiculous as Romeo and Juliet," pointed out Loki, "and the stupid woman dropped the necklace back into the ocean. Mortals and their sentiments." He sniffed in contempt. "I'll never let go indeed."

"She let go," said Louie, shaking her head in mock sadness. Loki felt a stab of discomfort at the thought, images of a broken rainbow bridge flooding into his mind.

"If he were a frost giant, he would have survived," he mumbled suddenly.

"A what?" asked Louie with interest.

"Frost giant," he replied. What was it with him and verbal vomit around this girl? "A race of monstrous creatures of the realm of Jotunheim. They're called Jotuns, or frost giants. It is a realm of ice, so the giants are adapted to extremely cold weather."

"That sounds cool," said Louie, nodding. Loki scowled.

"No. It is most certainly not cool. They are monsters that are sworn enemies of Asgard. They are always ready and waiting to wage war against the Asgardians."

"But why?" asked Louie.

"Has there ever been a valid reason necessary for war?" asked Loki dryly. "The enmity between Asgard an Jotunheim has gone on for centuries. We are brought up to believe they are the monsters under the bed." Louie blinked, going still for a second and Loki felt a flash of discomfort. The girl had, after all, been in his head. Did the phrase mean as much to her as it did to him?

"I see," she said slowly. There was a small pause.

"Have you killed a Jotun?" Louie asked, looking a little squeamish. Loki winced.

"Yes," he said, his tone suddenly biting. "It was, in fact, King Laufey and it happened two years ago."

"Oh." The realisation hit Louie, and her eyes widened to magnificent proportions. Loki folded his arms and said nothing.

"Okay," said Louie, "okay then. Jarvis. Play Austenland."

"Another one?" asked Loki, exasperatedly.

"Oh, but this one is fun," said Louie, and she moved closer, balancing her popcorn on his lap and sidling up to his side.

"I love this movie," she said with a smile. And she really did. She smiled throughout the entire thing, sometimes laughing so hard, Loki had to bite his lip to stop himself from smiling. He was, Loki realised with a sudden rush, enjoying himself. The outcome caused his to freeze up. He'd had fun this past week playing tricks on people in a manner he hadn't since he and Thor were little children.

He was having fun. Immense guilt swirled up inside him. He didn't deserve this. He deserved a rotting cell. He wasn't supposed to be sitting here, alone, in a tower, eating terrible, fattening, confectionery items.

"Hey." Louie looked at him, eyes squinting. "I lost you there, for a second." He blinked slowly, letting out along held breath and automatically reached out to tuck a stray curl behind Louie's ear.

"Had a flashback or two?" she asked softly.

"More of a... realization."

"And what's that?" Loki licked his lips and felt Louie stiffen. He ignored the possibilities of that reaction.

"I don't deserve - this -," he vaguely gestured, "All of this - everything. I don't deserve such luxury."

"Oh, Loki," her eyes filled with sympathy, "don't say that." Loki smiled sadly. She didn't understand. Nobody did.

"Come here," she said, standing. She tugged him to his feet.

"What-?" The breath hitched in his throat as Louie enveloped him in a warm hug.

He dwarfed her, physically, although Louie wasn't a short woman, as an Asgardian he was very tall. Yet, he felt tiny in her arms, minuscule in comparison to her warmth. Her hair smelled like citrus and he buried his nose in it, fighting the urge to let his knees buckle and fall completely into her.

How long they stood there that way, he did not know, Austenland playing softly in the background. He didn't care. Vaguely, he wondered if Louie was using her magic to repel bad thoughts because all he could sense right now was her aura, all he could smell was her, see was her, touch was her soft frame. He shuddered, gratitude filling him.

Thank you for making it stop.

She hummed once more, shifting so her hands were clasped around his waist and her head was lying in her chest. She kicked off her shoes and actually stood on his bare feet, her soles rough, her toes curling. It was a queer little gesture, childlike, quaint and so trusting he actually felt his throat constrict painfully. She didn't say a word when cool tears fell onto her neck.

Slowly, softly, she began to sing, and Loki felt a sense of peace wash over him.

My funny valentine,

Sweet, comic valentine,

You make me smile

with my heart,

Your looks are laughable,

Unphotographable,

Yet you're my favorite work of art.

Is your Figure less than Greek?

Is your mouth a little weak?

When you open it to speak,

Are you smart?

But, don't change your hair for me,

Not if you care for me,

Stay, little valentine,stay,

Each day is Valentines day.

They stood that way, while she hummed over and over and the pinging of the elevator signaled someone had come home.

She released him then, after giving him one final squeeze of reassurance. He cleared his throat awkwardly.

"May I," he hesitated, "may I walk you to your room?" Louie's eyes danced in amusement.

"Of course you may." And because he was a gentleman he offered her an arm, which she took. They swept past Tony and Pepper, whom they both teased for being the first ones home because they were getting old. And because he was a gentleman, he stopped outside her door and swept into a low bow, pressing a teasing kiss to her hand. Louie laughed at that.

"Next time," she said, "we can watch Pride and Prejudice."

"Next time?" asked Loki, a warm feeling curling in the bottom of his stomach.

"Oh yeah," she said, "and before I forget -," She beckoned him to stoop down slightly so she could whisper in his ear.

"Is this about the prank on Tony?" he asked, leaning down, "because Rogers will-" Louie pulled him down by the collar and pressed a soft kiss onto his cheek. Loki was ashamed to say his mouth actually fell open. She laughed lightly, the sound sending shivers down his spine. Releasing him, she winked.

"'Night, Mischief," she said with a grin and closed the door behind her.

A/N: BOOM. There ya go!

ATTENTION: Some of you may be wondering who "Jo" is, Bruce's date on this night. I have to inform you, JO IS NOT MY OC. I REPEAT. SHE IS NOT MY OC. She's the OC in Archaic Kinds of Fun by TheIronBat, one of my most favourite Avengers fanfics. You should go read it and get to know Jo better. GO. SHOO. I had, for a bit, considered leaving Bruce single on Valentine's night but then again, I didn't want my Brucie so alone on such a night and I felt that it would kind of ruin the atmosphere for Loki and Louie. Isolation was key for making this thing work.

Thus I, with full permsion from her lovely author, borrowed Jo Holbrook for those two lines in my story. Because, as I said to TheIronBat, this is fanfiction and I am a fan of her fiction. That being said, know that it is only a small cameo and that I'm not writing this to go along with Jo's story. However, you should read her story, because it is inCREDIBLE. So go find it and give it some love!

Also, the song My Funny Valentine is by Frank Sinatra

And there you have it lovies! I hope you enjoyed that. Please do leave me a review and tell me what you think! Thank youu!

Until next time,

Much love,

xo