The night was deep and dark like most nights are but yet there was something different. The blackness was even more inky and thick, swallowing the stars and the moon with its gaping jaws. The air was tense and seemed to be filled with an unspeakable evil that choked whoever breathed. Whether this evil was real or imagined, Natasha Romanoff wasn't sure. It had been a long and unfruitful day at S.H.E.I.L.D. filled with discussing potential threats but being unable to find anything substantial. The headlights of her car pooled across the ground and the side of her apartment complex as she pulled up into her usual parking space. Her lithe legs swung out of the passenger seat and settled firmly onto the ground, the rest of her form following behind. Emerald eyes cast their gaze up to black sky, searching for any celestial light to shine through the darkness but turned back to the complex when none were found.

A sigh slipped past her full red lips as she walked over to the stairs where she would go to the third floor. It was nice being able to stay in her own home for a longer period of time now. Whenever she was sent on missions, for obvious reasons, she would have to get lodging elsewhere but since the issue with Loki, she had not been sent on many assignments. It seemed that the world was in shock after the attack and instead of looking to conquer each other, the different nations were concentrating on creating adequate weapons incase such a thing ever occurred again.

'No surprise considering that a large chunk of New York was almost leveled by forces that we didn't even believe existed.' Thought Natasha wryly.

Of course, there were some exceptions. There is always someone, somewhere looking to expand their power and cause problems but as of late, things had been quiet. It had almost been a year since Loki unleashed the Chitauri upon the earth with the Tesseract but yet the damage left behind still remained. And more than just the physical debris in Manhattan. Despite having the Avengers, the world was still on its tiptoes, waiting tensely for the next catastrophe to strike so it could dive for cover. Loki was gone but the lingering thought that there were other life forms in existence that may come to challenge the earth lay heavy upon everyone's minds.

But to Natasha, Loki had yet to leave. She had been haunted by his words, the snarled, venomous speech that he had hissed to her from his cell when they had first caught him still ringing clearly in her ears. Hawkeye had been recovered but she still had nightmares of the dark god returning, scepter in hand to corrupt her close friend again and have him carry out his promise. It was on nights like this where she woke with a sweat, terror still gripping her very bones and a dying scream on her lips. But even more than the nightmares, Loki had dragged to light that all of her sins, all of her guilt were never going to go away. She wished that those tears she had in her eyes were faked ones, tears that she brought on of her own will to further her interrogation but it was sadly not so. He spoke words that tore her apart more viciously than any razor could. Forever those sins would be a part of her and that bitter truth made the Avenger's victory against the God of Mischief in that final clash tasteless and dull. Of course it was good that they had saved the planet from being conquered but she had hoped to clean her slate and Loki had ensured that it would never be wiped.

She sighed again, running one hand through her red hair that had grown a little past her shoulders and the other hand slipped the key into the lock. The apartment was dark but that quickly changed when she flipped the switch and light flooded her living room. Before doing anything, any kind of relaxing, the spy did a sweep of her house and checked every nook and cranny to ensure that no one was there who shouldn't be. A nervous habit. When she had checked her bedroom, the last place on her list, Natasha returned to the living room. Green eyes locked onto her refrigerator peeking over the bar counter in her kitchen. Her graceful frame carried her over there, opening the door to peer inside. The red-head plucked a bottle of vodka from the shelves and poured herself a shot, quickly downing it. The clear liquid burned on the way down her throat before it settled into her stomach. She poured herself another shot, feeling the heat pool in her stomach.

In the end, she took 7 shots in fifteen minutes and the alcohol was slurring her brain. Her mind could still function, but the spy could feel her coordination and reflexes suffering under the influence of the alcohol. It was just this that motivated her to put the bottle of vodka back in her fridge. Her apartment complex was supposed to be safe since it was something that S.H.E.I.L.D. built as a safe place for some of its agents. But that didn't mean it was impenetrable and old habits die hard. She shouldn't have drank this much to begin with. Feeling a little unsteady, Natasha walked around the corner, depositing her guns on the dining room table, noisily. She turned sluggishly towards the stools that she had lined along the bar but froze.

Leaning against the counter to her bar was the last person she wanted to see and her heart fell out of her chest. Dark-hair as black as the night outside hung to his shoulders, his pale skin seemed almost luminous beneath the lights from the kitchen and living room. His eyes, a forest green, bore into her brighter ones all resting above that casual smirk of his. Covering his lean frame was his normal attire dyed in green and black hues with the occasional highlight of silver. It seemed a bit strange to see him lacking his scepter that he had used so fondly but that didn't make him any less dangerous.

Natasha went pale and she turned as quickly as the alcohol would allow her to the dining room table behind her where her guns lay. To her horror, Loki was standing right there his smirk growing to an amused one as she looked back over her shoulder to see that he was indeed, no longer standing at the counter. A low, quiet, rumbling laugh purred deep in his throat and it felt like velvet rubbing over her ears.

"Hello, Agent Romanoff."

"How are you here?" she demanded, taking a step back when he stepped forward.

"Oh, you didn't think that I was gone did you? That Asgard would be able to contain me?" He mirrored each one of her steps until she was backed against a wall.

"I suppose it was too much to hope." She admitted, using her petrified expression to her advantage.

Loki drew in even closer, a delighted grin across his lips.

"It must sting. Knowing that the victory you felt you earned with the Tesseract is a hollow one. That I am not gone, that I never will be gone."

'In more ways than one.' Natasha thought dryly.

Loki took another step and it was then that the Black Widow attacked. A barrage of devastatingly placed puches darted towards the green-eyed god, each fist certain to cause crippling pain. It was a shame that he deflected each one of her debilitating punches, his mouth curling into an even bigger smirk, forest eyes glowing with delight. When her hand attacks failed she started stringing in brutal kicks, forcing Loki back and giving her some distance from the wall that she had been against. Her right fist slipped past his defenses and collided solidly with his ribcage, earning her a soft grunt of pain and a few more backwards steps. It was then that Loki turned vicious, his lip curling upwards in a snarl and his hand shot forward and seized her by the neck. Natasha's throat spasmed at his sudden assault and she struggled for air around his grasp. However the Black Widow was not one to take being choked and so she unleashed yet another set of precise attacks. Loki was forced to release her because of those small but strong fists that hit him in strategic locations.

She coughed before continuing her assault, firing forward a powerful punch towards his face only to have it move out of the way. His pale hands seized her wrist and the red-haired woman suddenly found herself on her knees, arms twisted painfully behind her back. As hard as she tried to move around so she could free herself from his grasp, Loki kept her firmly pinned in place. His grip bruised her fair flesh and she could hear his low mocking triumphant laugh.

"Now there's where you belong." He purred with satisfaction, "Like the rest of your kind."

The hands that held her wrists were cold, like ice and seemed to cut straight through to her bone. But suddenly his skin began to grow hot as if it were a blazing poker set over a fire. Then his hands were cold again and they slipped casually off of her but to her horror, Natasha found that she couldn't move at all. As hard as she tried, she couldn't move from her position kneeling on the floor, her face still turned towards the carpet, arms pinned painfully behind her back. Then there was a creeping sensation crawling across her skin and suddenly she could move but her arms were still in place and it felt as if her knees were shackled to the ground. A growl slipped past her lips and she thrashed against her magical bonds but to no avail.

Natasha was not happy with her situation but was at least thankful that she could sit up instead of her back being hunched over in a forced submissive pose. She pressed herself upwards, her knees still to the floor, and raised her chin proudly, her emerald eyes searching for the God of Mischief. He was nowhere in front of her but she could hear his soft footsteps behind her and she could feel the smirk that he had on his face.

"The earth will not kneel to you." She told him defiantly.

"Oh but they will. Your race craves leadership, needs to be lead. I am simply fulfilling that need, satisfying that craving."

"Of course we need rulers. No established order is called anarchy which only sounds good on paper. That being said we need a ruler not a tyrant." Natasha told him.

A hand snatched up her chin in a cruel grasp, forcing her to look into his endless green eyes. There was no sneer on his face, no delighted look. In fact there seemed to be no expression on his face aside from utter seriousness.

"I'm not a tyrant…" He murmured, "I'm a god."

The spy didn't think about her words, never had the chance because they were out of her mouth before she even had the opportunity to think them.

"A rejected god."

He snarled and seized her by the neck and dragged her to her feet. The next thing she knew, she was crushed against the wall, her lungs being deprived of precious oxygen as he squeezed even tighter on her trachea. Loki easily lifted her so her toes were just barely touching the floor and he drew himself close to her, trapping her effectively against the wall.

"Did it hurt? Hearing the truth about you?" He hissed in a deadly whisper against her ear.

Natasha didn't answer, couldn't answer she was far too deprived of air to form words. And she was too busy trying to gulp down the much needed air so she could live.

"Knowing that everyone of those nightmares you are tormented with will never be fixed?"

Loki seemed to take notice that she seemed to be losing color in her skin and dropped her back to her feet and slackened his hold on her throat. The red-head gasped gulping down every breath hungrily, not even noticing the dark god drawing even closer, pressing himself firmly to her. When at last the spy recovered herself, she set her jaw and looked him straight in the face but remained silent.

"Hm? I asked you a question." He said dangerously.

"I was playing the part you would most respond to. I had to learn what your game was on that ship."

He laughed, "Oh but it was more than that. You didn't come out unscathed from that little game. Do you have visions of Barton? Of him still in my control, killing you?"

"Barton's not under your control anymore."

"For now. How long do you think that will last? I plan to have that scepter back in my grasp. Until then….."

Cold lips were suddenly crushed against hers and a tongue forced its way into her mouth as he tightened his grip on her neck for control. Natasha growled against his oral assault and squirmed beneath his attentions but he pressed even harder against her mouth and his kiss became fiercer whenever she struggled against him. Loki growled against her and pressed his knee between her legs to help keep in place and easier to manage.

And suddenly she was kissing him back, pressing just as fiercely against his mouth as he was against hers. A wet tongue of her own engaged in battle with his fight for dominance, pressing as best she could to him. Loki's left arm snaked around Natasha's waist and trapped her body firmly against his while his right hand left the front of her throat to grip the back of her skull and started nibbling at her lower lip lustfully. The powers that held Natasha's arms behind her back receded and she wrapped them around his neck and she switched their positions, pushing him against the wall. The god gave an amused chuckle against her lips and trailed his own mouth to her neck and lifted her up from the ground so she could wrap her legs around his waist.

Loki was walking towards the kitchen, his teeth engaging with the soft skin of her neck, causing Natasha to hook her own teeth into his ear. A low growl purred in his throat at her attention to the shell of his ear and his assault upon her throat became more fervent. Her breathing was uneven and labored when she was set upon the kitchen table and Loki continued ravishing her neck. The red-head's thin but muscled arms unwound from his neck and darted to the side and faster than he thought possible, The God of Mischief had two Glock pistols in his face.

Silence.

The then two feminine lips curled triumphantly upwards to form a smirk in the face of the stunned dark-haired god, "Thank you, for your cooperation."

Not once, but twice now had Loki been tricked by this woman and he was not amused. It was never a pleasant experience when one is defeated in their own game and it is even more unpalatable when it is more than once. Unbridled rage gleamed in his forest eyes. Before those pools of color had the hue of a sun filtered forest but now they were as dark as the deepest woods as if the light of day had never reached their depths.

"I doubt even a god could take a couple of bullets straight to the head at this close of range. However if you want to test it," She pushed the barrels a little closer to his face, "Be my guest."

He backed away slowly, chuckling lowly, but fury still simmered in his verdant eyes, promising her pain the next opportunity he had.

"No need. I've done what I came for. I'll be back and when I do return in all my glory, there won't be a thing that you little Avengers can do to stop me."

And then he vanished leaving nothing but chilling echoing laughs behind him. Natasha let out the breath that she didn't even realize she was holding and slumped in relief. The black pistols in her trembling fingers were set back on the table and she touched her now bruising lips. He was gone and he had fallen for the ploy but like the last game they played, she did not come out unscathed. As much as she would really like to deny it, Natasha knew inside that she had not kept her mind clear that entire time. In fact, she almost lost herself and all control. She had enjoyed that kiss more than a little too much. And she was certain that he knew it.

"Damn you, Loki. Damn you."