So, I was rounding up some plotbunnies for this story, but the bunnies promptly decided that they wanted to make an Avengers Mermaid AU instead - feel free to check it out on my profile. It is now completed, too!
Of course when I gave up and wrote that instead, a plotbunny for this came and sat at my feet too. Sometimes I think they just see it as their job to keep my life interesting.
This story takes place in three different storylines, set in the past, the present, and the future, and I still do not own the Avergers.
TapTap
Future
Pepper smirked at the list on the fridge, and made sure to have it copied and delivered into Loki's rather comfortable cell together with his next meal. When she came by the reinforced room later in the afternoon, she found the god standing by the window, watching the skyline intently. "I used to wonder, back when I held power... what was your free will and what was simply self-preservation. I never dared to believe in your intentions, and so we never got past our first kiss... and now, now I wonder" he turned around, looking at her for the first time "as you're still here - where does that leave us now?"
Pepper gestured to the set of rules now lying on the coffee table. "I know what you want - it was clear back then. And clearly, I am free to do what I'd like". "And what is that?" his eyes were uncertain, even fearful, searching for some sort of reply, some sort of feeling given away, in her face and posture.
Pepper, who had at this point possibly picked up not a small amount of cheekyness from her friend Tony, actually smirked and stepped into Loki's personal space. He didn't move, just watched her all the more intently, and she took that as a good sign. She reached close and kissed him gently, entwining her hands in his hair and watching as he closed his eyes. And she smiled into the kiss. It seemed the rule "Pepper might do what she wants to Loki" was agreed upon not only by the Avengers, but by Loki himself. Unless, of course, it went against that convention she honestly couldn't remember the name of right now...