AN: Unbeta-ed, barely editted, so please forgive any mistakes that will be spotted.

History with Mischief

Have you got colour in your cheeks?

Do you ever get that fear that you can't shift the tide

That sticks around like summat in your teeth?

- Do I Wanna Know?

Arctic Monkeys

Chapter 1

California, 2011

Jane gave up on looking for Darcy a long time ago. Or was it just a few minutes since then? She couldn't remember. And she was starting to loose any care fast.

She slumped over the bar counter with one arm outstretched, and the other pillowed her head with a glass of liquor half-empty. The blood was pounding in her ears as she screwed her eyes shut, and her head was spinning. Was it her third drink, or fourth? Nah, she was pretty sure she had those quite a while back.

She didn't want to put her head up with what seemed to her like a million lights flashing around the dim club, not at all helping with the somewhat darkness, and she was pretty willing to go deaf just so that she wouldn't here the horrible music blasting from the gigantic speakers. Already the speakers were on the other side of the room from her, and still she couldn't hear herself scream at the top of her lungs.

Most of the time, she just kept to herself and kept her head down, letting the alcohol swish in her stomach and muddle her brain, ignoring anyone who would come to her that wasn't Darcy. If the person was being nosy and insistent in getting her to speak up, they would soon regret it, and they would turn away with the speed of light just not to be the receiving end of Jane's strings of curses and murderous glares. The only times she spoke to anyone in relative politeness with her head up was when she asked the bartender to refill her drink.

Bottom line was, she was pissed. And she was in a very, very bad mood.

Jane started to squirm in her seat, the shiny tight dress covered in sequins that Darcy had lent her earlier feeling really confining, despite the lack of fabric that would make it seem more decent. She could barely look at it without getting herself blinded for a couple of seconds, especially with the many stupid flickering lights around her. She wanted to kick off the heels from her shoes and get those tight leather straps from trying to cut the skin of her feet. Really, what was the point of having so many straps and having them so tight? She'd gladly let her stilettos fly from her aching feet and aim them at the head of the annoying and loud girl a few stools away from her, her irritating laughter reaching at least a 5 meter radius. Or maybe she could just march towards her and shove them down her throat.

Where was Darcy, anyway? Jane scoffed. Darcy was the one who insisted that she needed to go out here and loosen up. Take the weekend off, check into a hotel outside of the city; lay off work for just a couple of days. Drink. Dance. Maybe meet some guys. Have fun. She didn't even know why she went to Los Angeles, of all places. And now, she was ditched. So much for good company. And she was definitely not having half as much fun as she was promised.

She lifted her head a little, the action making the room around her spin for a while, and she let her chin rest on her forearm. Jane lifted her glass to her lips, her eyes in a squint as she watched the empty beer bottle in front of her. When the expected alcohol didn't meet her lips when she tipped the glass a little, her eyes drifted down.

Oh. Emptied her drink already.

She motioned for the bartender to refill her glass, and the man was starting to give her odd looks. She couldn't care less. Couldn't care less for any of it. It was a bar, in a club, so what else was she going to do?

Her eyes drifted to a close, and despite herself, she started to think about what she had tried to push to the back of her mind all night.

Vibrant blue eyes, golden hair that barely brushed against a pair of broad shoulders, a kiss that made her toes curl and took her breath away; the night sky clear and the stars in full display, the bright fire lighting his gaze as they shared smiles and stories that bordered on crazy…

A promise of a return that didn't seem to be coming true after all.

But Jane forced those thoughts away, or at least tried her best to, and told herself over and over that it was for more than that. All of her efforts weren't simply because of her pining over a certain Asgardian prince, but also for the sake of science. It was all for the sake of her career, for her love for the stars, for the sake of human advancement and progress and opening it to doors of opportunities to explore the mysteries of the universe.

It was all for good purposes, for the human race as well as achieving her ambitions and fulfilling accomplishments in her scientific work.

Yeah, that was mostly it.

Einstein-Rosen bridges weren't usually built so that you could find second chances at some foolish romantic love, especially one that had more or less half the chance to go down in flames in the first place. And how could it have been love when their time together lasted all but three days?

Jane scoffed. She wasn't the type to hunt down a guy for over a year after having been with him for less than half a week. They weren't even really together, at the time! But… it didn't stop her from wanting him back; to see if there was more to their relationship than what has already happened between them, if there actually could be love, if—

Jane took a large swig from her newly refilled glass, stopping her trail of thought. Stop thinking, stop thinking, stop thinking…

"I'd say you'd had rather more than enough alcohol in your system," a low voice, smooth, silken, and calm, had interrupted her thoughts, "but I can already picture the glare you would send my way if I did." It felt like it was the very opposite of their surroundings, like a never-melting ice is against a raging fire. A wave of calm against an ocean of chaos. As if he was standing by a cool pool with a chill breeze instead of in a humid and packed and sweaty dance club. She was surprised he didn't even have to shout so loud with the noise they were in. Impressed as she was, it still annoyed her like hell.

Not really thinking, she looked towards the source of the voice, to the man who sat at the very end of the bar with his back on the wall. Jane shot up in her seat, giving him her best glower as her nostrils flared and her chest heaved in angry breaths. Her look alone spelled the message she wanted to convey: Any of it your business? No? So please do screw yourself and leave me alone.

He chuckled; loud enough for her ears to pick up over the blasted music that made her ears bleed. There was a glint in his eye that sparked her annoyance, fuelled by her rather large alcohol intake. The man had a lazy smirk gracing his lips, the party lights manipulating the hue of his skin colour greatly as they moved past his features. His hair was dark, slicked back, and it barely reflected any sort of illumination, making its sleek shine hard to notice.

The man's lips quirked up more to reveal a grin, and she did not like the meaning behind it in the slightest. He uncrossed his legs, leaning a bit nearer towards her direction, his eyes watching her with amusement and mockery.

"How predictable you are," he remarked before leaning back slowly, his gaze still observing her disgruntled form.

He had a judging look about him, his eyes roaming over her irritated expression and slightly smudged make-up and tight clothes. It seemed as though he was calculating her every asset and feature, taking into consideration every word that slipped from her lips, leading him towards a conclusion about her self that obviously entertained him. If only she could stand up from where she sat and march over to where he was without tripping… maybe punch his face…

"Thank you very much for your observation," she snapped instead, slurring a bit in her words. Jane rested her chin back on top of her forearm, watching the condensation slide down the beer bottle in front of her. "An observation I obviously did not ask for. Now leave me alone."

He laughed again, and the raspy sound sent a chill down her spine. "You seem to be very determined to keep to yourself for company, yet you chose such an interesting place to do so," he gestured to their surroundings, and despite herself, she watched his long fingers create a fluid motion in the air with grace.

Jane scowled. "It was—" hiccup, "out of my control."

"Oh?" his eyebrow rose at her. "Is this," he waved over her form, taking a large gulp of her drink, "also out of your control?" His mouth softened into a smirk, his chin on the heel of his palm as he put his elbow on the counter, waiting for her answer.

She ground her teeth as she sat a little straighter, drinking through half of her glass, not facing him and determined not to look at him in the hopes that he would leave her be. "No," she replied curtly. "It sure hell isn't." And it was true, sort of. It was either drown herself in her sorrow or probably stick her tongue down someone's throat, and it wasn't really a hard choice, at least as long as she still had a piece of logic working in her head.

Jane let the remains of her alcohol burn down her throat and let her head fall down onto her folded arms once more, hoping to finally dismiss the stranger who apparently either just could not take a hint or was simply ignoring her wishes of being left to sulk by herself.

"What exactly are your circumstances?" his persistent voice asked, sounding nearer to her this time. When she lifted her head, she saw that he had moved to sit a seat away from her. With his back against the bar counter, his legs crossed as he peered at her with unreadable eyes, his long neck straining to look at her. It seemed that the smirk on his mouth was semi-permanent, and it irked her to no end.

"Look, okay? It really isn't any of your business. So, buzz off, will you?" she frowned deeply at him, her lips pursed as she kept her arms locked on the table to keep from giving into the temptation of just strangling him.

She didn't even know why she was being sort of nice to the guy. He was obviously some arrogant prick who wanted to either get in her pants or get on her nerve, and he reeked of a gigantic ego that exudes off from his every word and movement. Everyone before him who tried to get a word out of her mouth had it worse than this guy. No point in trying to be civil, really, but it just seemed like she should at least try to be on his good side. Problem was, she was loosing patience fast.

The man leaned his head to the side, his gaze cool as it bore into her thoughts. "And if I don't 'buzz off'?"

Jane blinked as she tried to comprehend what he had just said and tried to understand just why he was doing this to her.

Oh, right. Pants. Nerves.

Definitely the nerves. Or, at least that was what it seemed like at the moment. Well, he was doing a terrific job at what he was trying to do. She just wanted to slap his face so hard that he would fly to the other side of the room, smashing the huge speakers that forced her to shout herself hoarse all the time in the process. Two birds in one stone. Wouldn't that have been just terrific.

But when she looked up to meet his eyes, she knew she had made a mistake.

She froze in her seat, his look pinning her into place. In that moment, she couldn't hear the blaring music from the other side of the club trying to tear her eardrums apart, couldn't feel the heat from the dancing bodies bumping into each other in sweat and near-ecstasy, couldn't even feel how her stomach plummeted at his fingers suddenly on her knee, lightly caressing her skin in small circles. She didn't even notice that he had walked from where he sat to stand before her, his face only inches from hers, and she saw only his face and felt only his intensity.

She watched as the lights danced across his features, the different hues making his real colours almost impossible to discern, and she felt like a mouse caught in the paws of a cat. His hand stopped in its ministrations and rested on her knee, giving it a gentle squeeze as he leaned closer to her. He invaded her personal space and her senses, and the feral grin on his face wasn't soothing her nerves. It seemed like he was going to kiss her, but for some reason, she couldn't figure out what his motives were and what it was that he was really planning on doing with her.

Her jaw dropped and her lips began to part. Whether in confusion, in fear, in anticipation, in shock, in offence, she didn't know. But before he got any nearer, she found it in her to raise a hand and push him further away, looking anywhere but at him. She lifted her purse from her lap and took out a couple of bills, not even checking her cash, and set them beside her empty glass with shaky hands. Even while sitting atop a tall stool, he was still ridiculously taller than her petite form, and she hated the way he looked down on her.

But no matter what, all she knew was she needed to get away from this man.

Without bothering to wait for her change, she slipped from her seat that made her lower even further to the ground, making her look up even higher at his face. Despite her trembling hands, she closed them into fists at her sides, squaring her jaw as she lifted her chin up higher in the air. His face was impossibly still; the hand that slipped from her knee limp at his side, and his smile as he looked down on her made her insides tremble and her forced confidence falter. He noticed, his lips twitching upwards into an even bigger smile, crinkling the sides of his eyes as only one word entered Jane's thoughts to describe the strange, no, psycho man.

Predator.

Get away now, Jane, she thought to herself.

"Then I will," she almost spat at him, turning on her heel as she made her way to distance herself from the bar and from the stranger.

Before she could take a more than three steps away from him, a hand caught her arm in a tight grip. The impossibly cool skin sent a chill down from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, and she froze. Suddenly, it felt as if she wasn't in a night club with the heat shooting up enough to break a thermometer, with its humidity and lack of space. She could barely even register the people bumping into her as they made their ways to and fro from the bar. Jane felt someone walk closer to her, almost pressing against her back, and her breaths became more shallow and shallow, as if she forgot how to breathe. She felt the stranger lean down a bit, and she could hear little else with her heart thundering in her chest and her blood roaring in her ears other than his breathing. She felt his warm breath against her ear, making her shudder, and despite all her efforts, she simply couldn't move.

Jane looked around frantically at the people around her, wanting to call for help, wishing that they would notice her and that something was just wrong. But her throat closed, and they continued on in sashaying their hips to the beat, downing shots and liquor in speed, and almost ignored her in totality.

"Thor made a good choice in women this time," he purred into her ear, his quiet laugh resounding in her ears. "You are interesting, Jane Foster. I hope to see more of you in the future."

And with that, he let go of her, and she felt no one behind her.

With wide eyes, her heart beating even louder than before, she whirled around, and saw his retreating back as he made his way through the crowd.

But at that moment, only one thought rang and echoed in her thoughts.

Thor.

Jane pushed against the people, ignoring them altogether, and rushed to follow him.

She was frantic, desperate, just to get to him and demand him of some answers. He knew Thor, and maybe he has the solutions to many of her problems and troubles. No way was he getting away from her now, scary and psychotic and insane or not.

"Hey!" she called after him as he slipped through the crowd, and she barged between people to make way. "Hey, wait!" she called again, but he wouldn't stop, didn't even look back at her.

After over a year of hopelessly trying to find her own way through everything, she was not going to let him slip through her fingers when he was her best chance.

At a moment, he did stop, gave her a glance, and when she saw the wide smile on his face, her blood boiled to a maximum point.

Oh, no, he was not getting away from her that easily.

After making her squirm.

After making her feel almost terrified in a way that she never had been in her life.

After dangling what she wanted most in her face and cruelly snatching it away.

Who the hell is he? What the fuck does he want from her, doing this?

Jane barged through the way he came out, through the exit backdoors of the club, gasping at the rush of a cool breeze and thankful for the great diminishment of the volume of the music from the inside as the double doors shut closed behind her. Her eyes frantically searched around what was apparently the club's parking lot, only a tad bit brighter than the inside, and hoped to spot a tall figure with dark hair in a dress shirt that she was chasing after.

Upon seeing nothing, she growled, and ran around every corner she could find and every hidden nook and every person she could find that was present in the car park, but nothing.

It didn't occur to her to check a particular corner of the club, her attentions altered to believe that she had already look at it, passing by it without a backwards glance. She didn't notice a pair of eyes watching her in amusement as she tried to find him in desperation.

How could he have not been there? It was impossible. Jane looked around again, and she was sure that it wasn't possible to have gone that far when she was just less than a dozen steps behind him. She ran to the front of the club, hoping to see him in the crowd as he left the place, but…

But… nothing. He was nowhere. For all she knew, he could already be driving up or down the road already or in a cab going home.

She dragged her feet back to a wall near the exit doors from where she came out, and she slumped her back against the cool brick, hoping to get further away from the people and the noise in the streets. Jane whimpered in defeat, squeezing her eyes shut as she let the back of her head lean against the wall. She ran her fingers through her hair, frustrated at the tight up-do, and caught the hairpins that held her hair up in her hands as her hair spilled down onto her shoulders. She could feel the tears prickling the back of her eyes, threatening to spill over her cheeks, but she choked down the sobs that rose in her throat.

All she could think about was how she lost him, and how she missed her chance.

He was right at her fingertips, and she lost him.

Jane's face scrunched up, her hands lifted to her face as she bit into her knuckles, and she tried to stop herself from trembling.

How could she have let this happen?

She was already having a terrible night, a terrible year, and this was just the cherry on top. Little else felt more horrible than missed opportunities like this.

She was so close at taking a big step in her search for Thor, for Asgard, for the stars above her that she just wanted to get to so bad, and she failed to make it.

She was bad at controlling her life. This wasn't any different.

Despite herself, her tears welled up behind her eyelids, and the traitorous things slipped down her cheeks as her knuckles tried to absorb the sound of her soft cries.

She stayed like that for a while, and after months of keeping up a face, she let herself break down.

She couldn't care less about the people making out or having sex around the car park, nor for the people drinking by themselves in the dark, nor for the people getting high on the hoods of their cars as they lied beneath the night sky. They wouldn't care to look her way, anyway, so what did it matter. She just didn't care.

Jane took her hand from her mouth and let her chin fall against her chest. She heard footsteps walk towards her, getting louder and louder, and they stopped right in front of her. The dim lights of the outside of the club that filtered through her eyelids were blocked by whoever the hell was standing in front of her, and she chose to ignore the person instead of snapping at him or her to just leave. Her. Alone.

"I believe, Jane Foster," a voice said, and at the sound, her head snapping up and her eyes opening wide at the person standing in front of her, "that you are looking for me."

The first thing that she noticed was his eyes.

The lighting was dim, but without any flashing lights to disorient her senses of discerning colours, she could see the real colour of his orbs, and she could feel them boring into her mind and soul.

It was a shade of green she thought that she had never seen before. They were as deep and as cold as glaciers, and they were shrouded in secrecy, in mystery, and in what she could only say was mischief. There was a spark in them as he looked down at her, his smile crooked and his delicate brow raised, and she couldn't place the meaning behind it. He wore a white button-up shirt, the sleeves having been rolled up to his elbows and the top buttons open, and his raven hair, even darker than the sky above them, brushed against the nape of his neck with growth.

He was close; too close, and their bodies only a hair's length away from each other. She could barely take the proximity, and her senses were invaded by a musky scent, laced with pines and the sea and other things she just couldn't place. All she could see was his smirk, his pale skin, his sharp features…

All she could sense was him, and she was suffocating.

"You," she croaked out, and she couldn't even move to wipe away the tears that were still spilling down her face, even with her disdain of letting him, a complete stranger who could just be a total wacko, see her in her current state. "Who the hell are you?"

He blinked once, but he didn't move an inch. He continued to look at her, examining her with his eyebrow raised, and she couldn't for the life of her read his expression.

In fact, she could place barely anything about him. And that scared her.

But Jane decided to end that trail of thought, choosing to stop wasting her time and to start demanding answers.

She licked her lips, and she saw as the man's eyes flicked downwards to watch the action. "How do you know Thor?"

At that question, he grinned, but it dropped immediately, and she saw something even colder in his eyes. He tilted his head to the side, and regarded her with a curious look. He turned, beginning to walk away without a word out of him, but Jane caught his arm. He turned to her with a blank look on his face, waiting expectantly for an answer, and it almost scared her, because it seemed like it was something that she shouldn't have done. Looking up at him, her hands were shaking, but her eyes were defiant.

"I'm not letting you go without any answers."

The corner of his lips quirked up, and he leaned down to her ear. She could feel once more his breath against her skin, and his smell grew even stronger. It was strong enough that if she closed her eyes and just took in his scent, she could fool herself into thinking that she was by a forest, coated in winter, as the ocean sent a biting breeze to penetrate her layers and freeze her to the bones. Jane shivered as his midnight hair brushed against his cheek, and he let out a huff that was almost a laugh.

"I assure you, Miss Foster, that we shall be meeting again."

He stepped back, and began to walk away from her as he put his hands into his pockets. Jane remained with her back against the wall, blinking, nothing quite registering in her head.

"Wait!" she called after him, hastily standing up, prepared to run after him in case he didn't stop.

But he did, and he turned his head to the side to show her that he was listening. His face angled towards the dim lighting of the outside of the club, and she couldn't help but notice the sharp planes of his pale face as the dark shadows played in contrast to his skin, his piercing eyes only peeking through his hooded eyes.

But before she got a word out of her mouth, his expression and aura changed, from mysterious and mischievous to… wild, murderous. Terrifying.

Her jaws clamped shut, and without a word from her, he walked away into the shadows of the night. Goosebumps rose on her arms, and only then did she realise just how cold it was outside.

AN: Hey, guys. First chapter. But just a warning, regular updates won't be happening until... a couple of weeks from now. By the next update, I might even edit out this chapter. But I was just excited to know what you guys thought of this! Let me know what you guys think!

So if you've read my previous one-shot, Dawn to Dusk, you'll know that this multi-chapter fic is just loosely based on that. If I stray from the story plot there, then I repeat: it's only loosely based on it. There is no need to have read that before reading this. Both can be read separately.

Please leave reviews! I'd love to know what you guys are thinking!