Shades of Red

Bent

This scene took me a long time to write. I hope you all enjoy it! I tried to keep both Nat and Loki as true to their character as I could. Sorry for the delay-college homework is the pitz. Hope to get the next chapter up soon, but it may have to be after finals week...

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"What's your play?"

Natasha's angry voice boomed across the holding chamber, echoing off the glass cage Loki had entombed himself in once again. The prince sat slouched in a nonchalant position, hands resting on his knees, back against the glass wall. He looked up at her approach, peering up through dark lashes without moving his head.

"I beg your pardon, Agent Romanoff?"

His voice, though tainted by the glass shield, rang smooth and indifferent as ever.

"Don't screw with me. You know exactly what I'm here for." Natasha marched to the edge of the cage and locked her arms over her chest, glaring daggers at him.

A low chuckle issued from the cage. "Hopefully not another tender dialogue like last time."

Natasha had trained for years to be impassive. She could look the most infuriating jackass in the eye and smile without batting an eyelash. She could eat bitterness by the forkful, take what she needed and manipulate even the most powerful manipulator. Her emotions were always safe.

But now, staring across the cold metal space into Loki's mocking blue eyes, Natasha felt an insatiable frustration that defied all years of training. She fought to remain cool.

"The necklace," she growled. "S.H.I.E.L.D. found it on you when you passed through the wormhole. A medallion, with my face on it."

A beat of silence passed between them. Loki's blue eyes flickered for the briefest moment, before a slow smirk passed over his narrow features.

"Ah," he said slowly, with a glimmer in his eye that unnerved her. "So after all my trying, I've finally stumbled upon the one weapon that disbalances the unfeeling Russian spy?"

Natasha glared at him, hating the uncertainty his words stirred within her. She took a deep breath. She was in control of this situation. He was the one in the cage. She'd marched up to Loki demanding answers, after all, and she'd get them.

"I'm not disbalanced. I want to know how disbalanced you could be to etch the impression of an enemy's face onto a amulet, and bring it back to the very place that enemy defeated you."

A wry smile spread over Loki's face. His blue eyes twinkled. "You think you defeated me?"

"Who is in the cage right now?"

Loki rose from his position on the bench and slowly crossed the floor of his enclosure. Natasha fought the urge to take a step back. There was a barrier between them, she reminded herself. But the look in his eye made her quiver inside.

"I would look again, agent Romanoff." His soft voice carried the edge of a razor's blade. "You are corralled by a fear you can't understand or control. I am merely in a glass box. My mind is free and unchained. Your mind is battered by uncertainty and dread. I daresay your nights are more filled with terror and fright than any of mine."

Natasha swallowed hard. Someone cold and dark twisted itself inside of her, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from his ice blue ones. "You don't know me."

"Ah, but I know my victims." Loki smiled, gaining ground. "I see the fear in your eyes you strive so desperately to hide. You've been scarred, little agent. I've frightened you enough that you're consumed by scrubbing the red from your ledger."