The Joy of Agony | Loki

How Mischievously Cute.

His gaze turned to me, and a sly grin formed on his face. He set his drink down and formed a weird shape, which I'm assuming was his attempt at a light bulb, at the top of his head. "Ding! Ding!"

I laughed.

"Since we still have an hour left to arrive, I was thinking...that we could play rock band!" Tony exclaimed.

"You carry a game console and the game equipment around in here?" Natasha asked, confused as to why he would have that here. She needs to remember that this is Tony Stark; he does what he wants, even if it’s stupid and reckless at times.

"Uh, who doesn't?" Tony scoffed, and turned on his plasma TV. He then pulled out a game console, Wii, along with the 'band' equipment. I decided to tune them out as they set everything up. I'm surprised Clint was willing to play with them.

I turned back to our table and finally took a good glance at Vanessa. Her hair was pitch black, skin pale, blue cloudy eyes, and strong cheekbones. "So, Vanessa where you do work at?" I asked, trying to make small talk with the girl who has been quiet for most of the time.

"I work as a private investigator." She replied almost automatically, a smile forming on her face as she stared at both Loki and I. I was a bit confused as to why she was smiling, but I shrugged it off. I overthink stuff sometimes.

"Really? That's nice. I don't mean to be nosy, but how did Jared and you meet?" I asked, again, almost shouting over the loud rock music. ACDC , typical Tony, I thought as I mentally rolled my eyes.

Jared's eyes immediately flashed to mine. "She and I went to college together. She was also a good friend of my sister's, and is visiting."

I nodded, not saying anymore because I could feel the tension begin to build. Instead, I turned my gaze to Loki who seemed to be a bit tense. "Do you want to go to the bar?" I asked him, silently. He nodded and followed me as we went to the mini bar. 

I went behind the bar, and stared at Loki for a while trying to see if he was alright. I finally gave up and sighed. "You look like you need a drink...You alright?"

"Just got my head in heavy storm clouds, that's all."

I just nodded, and bent down to see if Tony had any water stored in his mini fridge. "A-ha!" I muttered as I found the cold water bottles and grabbed two. I handed one over to Loki and sat next to him, a bit relieved that we were no longer Vanessa and Jared. Vanessa appeared to be a total sweetheart, but the vibes I was getting from her weren't good. It didn't help that her eyes were very similar to Macy's when she had died. Also, the looks Vanessa and Jared shared were unusual. Geez, I sound like an over-protective jealous friend...

"Do you find anything strange about Vanessa?" I abruptly asked, voicing my thoughts.

Loki raised an eyebrow at me questioningly and I knew the question he was asking himself. I scoffed; surprised that he was thinking that. "No, it's not that. It's just that, honestly, Jared hasn't been himself lately and I'm worried. And now...Vanessa shows up and there's just something about her...," I trailed off, answering his unasked question.