Author's note: OkaY hear me out I know I said I wouldn't post because of exams but I have one word for you: procrastination. That is all. Leave a comment and make a gal happy would ya :) x

...

You made your way carefully through the crowd towards Loki with your drink, leaving Thor and Bucky at the bar. Loki didn't look at you or acknowledge the fact that you were coming towards him until you were stood by the seat next to him.

"Hi."

"If you've come to try and introduce yourself to me I wouldn't bother." he said bluntly, not gracing you with the gift of eye contact.

He didn't know you could see him. Amazing.

"Why is that?" you asked, hopping on to the stool next to him and putting your drink on the table.

"Because I don't want to talk to you."

Wow, you were glad this guy wasn't a real person. You could hear Loki's voice, but you could also hear hints of what the illusion made his voice sound like: much higher and reedier. If you concentrated hard enough you could see the illusion too, but that made your head hurt.

"What's your name?"

"Did you not hear what I just said?"

"I did."

There was a lengthy pause, in which you counted three separate occasions where Loki clenched his jaw, clearly harbouring a raging internal battle.

"Bertrand."

You burst out laughing, and then immediately put your hand to your mouth.

"Sorry, sorry... Bertrand? Who came up with that one? I bet it was Clint."

Loki stared at you incredulously; you fought not to smile too widely.

"What's your last name? Von..."

"Did Thor tell you?" he interrupted.

You better not push this any further.

"No. I can see you." you said, enjoying the range of emotions which flashed across his face, usually so devoid of character.

"This... is a strong illusion. I don't-" he trailed off, his mouth actually slightly open.

This was fun.

Suddenly, Tony's voice sounded loud around the room, welcoming everyone and inviting them to 'party hard all night long here at the Avengers Tower', at which point there was a huge cheer, and the music started playing even louder than before.

"So, why are you even down here? Couldn't resist the temptation?" you asked, louder than usual to be heard over the music and noise of the guests.

He glared at you.

"Seriously, why are you down here?"

"Apparently I cannot be trusted to stay upstairs by myself for a few hours and not cause problems. But I was also not welcome down here where I might have been recognised by any of these fools who weren't already intoxicated. So here I am, in disguise." he told you in annoyance.

You felt bad for him. Really bad.

"Soon enough they'll all be drunk enough that they won't notice if you disappear, you can just sneak off, it's floor-"

"Fifty-two, I know. Stark will not notice my absence, but I fear my brother will. It takes a lot to get him drunk." Loki said.

You grinned, a plan formulating in your brain.

"Leave that to me." you said devilishly. "How many of those bucket things does he need to drink?"

"Oh, I don't know... about ten?"

"Ten?!"

"You forget he is an immortal god."

"Okay, okay, this is fine. Just keep an eye out, and when you think he won't notice, you can sneak off."

Loki watched you as you downed your drink, jumped down from your stool and turned back to face him.

"Why are you helping me?" he asked.

"Because you helped me. And making you sit down here is as bad as making me sit upstairs alone, in my book." you replied.

He nodded thoughtfully.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." you replied, heading back over to Thor, who had been joined by Bruce to replace Steve and Bucky. To your joy, he was drinking from what looked like a fresh glass.

"How many of those has he had?" you asked Bruce, who was watching Thor drink in awe.

"Three since I got here."

Yes! He was practically doing your job for you. You looked over to Loki, who was watching, and held up four fingers. He gave you a sarcastic thumbs up, which was possibly the funniest thing you'd ever seen. You ordered another drink for yourself and one for Thor, and got drinking.

It was time to get absolutely shit-faced with the god of thunder.

...

Bucky had been right, the party had gotten way more fun than earlier. That might be something to do with the amount that you'd had to drink though. You'd completely forgotten about your mission to get Thor drunk; for the last hour you'd been jamming it out on the dancefloor to an excellent soundtrack with your friends and some people you'd never met before, with regular trips back over to the bar for a small break and a not so small drink, and then back to the dancefloor.

So far you'd only almost died once trying to do the Dirty Dancing lift with Bucky, maybe twice when you said you'd catch Tony when no one else would lift him – Steve had managed to talk you out of that one (much to Tony's disgust). Three different men had offered to buy you a drink, all of whom you'd had to escape from (with Nat's help), and you'd tried six new drinks.

It was amazing.

At about midnight, maybe later, you finally peeled yourself away from the dancefloor again and stumbled back over to the bar, tripping over several times. Hey, where were your shoes? Oh well, you hadn't liked them anyway, they'd been super uncomfortable. There was Thor! Now you remembered your mission, it was time to check your progress. You hadn't seen Loki for ages, hopefully he'd managed to escape.

"Hey!" you said cheerfully, bumping into him and interrupting what looked like a heated argument with a stool.

"How many of them have you had?" you asked, gesturing to the massive mug he was holding, which incidentally was empty.

"Uh, only like... four." he slurred, shrugging.

"Bullshit! How many have you had!?" you demanded. Thor grinned and gestured wildly with the empty mug.

"Lady Y/N, I do not wish to disclose this information-"

"Thirteen. He's had thirteen."

You span around. Loki was behind you. Or Bertrand... you couldn't see either of them clearly, it was like a haze of two people and two voices. Shaking you head and screwing your eyes up, you looked again, but it wasn't much better.

"Brother, why have you been spying on me...?"

"Why are you still here, Bertrand?" you laughed, not registering the momentary flicker of amusement in Loki's eyes.

"I came to check on Thor. He doesn't fare well when drinking." Loki/Bertrand said, eyeing Thor in distaste.

"Aw! See Thor, he does love you." you giggled, poking him playfully. Loki rolled his eyes.

"Try not to die brother. The same goes for you Y/N." he said as he turned around to leave again.

"He likes you!" Thor exclaimed happily.

You were still reeling that Loki had just used your name. And he had come down to check that you were alright, that was nice of him.

At that precise moment your favourite song came on over the sound system.

"YES!" you said loudly, dragging Thor back over to the dancefloor and the rest of your friends.

Loki was forgotten in an instant. Time to dance some more.

...

"Y/N."

Was someone talking to you?

"Y/N, I'm trying to help you, wake up."

Oh, someone was definitely trying to talk to you. You opened your eyes to see a pair of legs stood before you. Looking up, you discovered that they belonged to Loki. He looked exasperated.

"The elevator? Couldn't you have chosen a better place to sleep?"

"I wasn't sleeping, I was just resting my eyes..." you replied, closing them again. You were so tired.

"No you don't. Come on, up." Loki told you, reaching down to haul you to your feet. You would have liked to say it was a graceful ascent, but it was not. Loki half carried you out of the elevator and down the corridor to the living room and, most importantly, the sofa, where you lay back down gratefully.

"Drink." he told you, pushing a cool glass of water into your hand, which you sat up to gulp down, then slumped back on to the comfy sofa.

"Thanks." you rasped, closing your eyes again.

"I don't like to owe people." was his short and simple response.

"And here I was thinking you liked me." you teased.

"I... you are more tolerable than the others, I suppose."

Not the most glowing endorsement you'd ever received, but you'd take the compliment.

"What time is it?" you asked, suddenly realising you had no concept of time.

"Five in the morning."

Oh, wow.

"The music only stopped about an hour ago. When you didn't reappear upstairs I thought I'd check on you. Purely in return for what you did earlier for me." He seemed very eager to stress that point.

"Weren't you sleeping?"

"With that racket going on downstairs? I don't think so. Besides, I don't need to sleep."

"Oh yeah, what with being an immortal god." you grinned, again missing the hint of humour in his expression.

He threw you a blanket and then settled on the sofa opposite you, reaching for a book on the coffee table.

"Sleep, if you like. I'll keep watch."

You smiled, not sure whether he was serious or not.

"Keep watch for what exactly?"

"Oh, the usual, thunder gods, men in iron suits..."

He looked rather pleased with himself when you laughed. You liked this Loki.

"I'll sleep soundly knowing you're keeping guard." you said, turning over and nestling under the blanket. You were asleep again in under a minute.

Loki actually smiled, but only once he was sure you weren't looking. He couldn't go letting you know that he actually enjoyed your company; tonight had been a favour returned, nothing more. But he couldn't lie to himself and say that you didn't intrigue him, far more than any of the others did anyway. Your magic was far too powerful for you to be a normal Midgardian, and you were making an effort to be nice to him, which was more than could be said for the rest of them. Although he'd dismissed your observation that the two of you were similar on that night the two of you had been left alone, he felt that perhaps you were quite similar. Thor had told him about your background, and he had felt... empathy. A word which had been foreign to him for a while now.

You made a noise in your sleep and turned your head slightly; Loki caught himself staring. Time to leave, go back to bed, you didn't need you here. Or he could stay here and read a while longer...

He didn't leave until he heard the elevator moving just after the sun had come up.