I had an idea. A fairly stupid idea, but an idea nonetheless. May I present: A Midsummer Night's Dream, featuring the Avengers.

Full Summary: After Tony and Pepper are engaged, Steve, Bruce, and a few of Tony's friends plan a surprise for his engagement party. Meanwhile, Jane and Thor are in love, and Darcy is in charge of watching over Loki, much to both of their disgust. Also meanwhile, Clint decides to pull some pranks on Darcy and Loki, with help from Happy Hogan and some of Loki's magic and tricks. However, Clint's pranks end up causing chaos in Stark Tower.

This is just the prologue, but after that it'll follow the five acts of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Oh boy. Here we go.

Darcy banged her head against the elevator wall as the doors slid shut. Beside her, Loki tried to hide his amusement.

"Just a little harder, and maybe you'll knock yourself unconscious," the god beside her purred. She shot him a look but said nothing.

Darcy Lewis had been a poli-sci major who had picked the wrong summer internship a few years back. But now, because of her being in the wrong place at the wrong time and seeing top secret stuff, she was an agent of SHIELD, the sketchy bastards who stole her iPod back in the day.

The reason Darcy was banging her head against the wall was that she'd just received the news from Director Fury that she was 'doing a great job getting through to Loki' and that she was now completely and indefinitely in charge of him. She was supposed to watch over him and make sure he didn't get into any trouble while staying at Stark Tower, but the job could easily be simplified down to glorified babysitting. Fury's verdict simply meant she was stuck with Loki until she died of old age or he got fed up and killed her.

"I should've never taken this job," she muttered, stopping the banging and leaving her face against the wall. "I could be in New Mexico right now. At least then I wouldn't be stuck here, babysitting you and being in the middle of this monkey show with all these superhero drama queens and science babies."

"I am no more thrilled to be here than you are, mortal."

Darcy turned around and leaned back against the wall. "Don't pull that. You're here because you're being punished. I'm being punished because I'm here."

"How poetic," Loki said as the doors opened.

The kitchen was full that morning. Loki and Darcy sat down at the two vacant spots in the middle of the conference-size table and both remained silent. Watching everyone around them was entertainment enough.

Food was being handed around, dissected, and wolfed down, people were standing, sitting, and occasionally throwing things, and everybody was somehow talking and eating simultaneously.

To Darcy's left, her former boss Jane Foster and Thor, the god of thunder, Poptarts, and public displays of affection, were getting awfully close. Since Thor's return a few months ago, he and Jane had been nearly inseparable. When they weren't making out in public, the two of them were making everybody else feel awkward in other fun ways or working down in the lab together.

Beyond the young lovers, Steve Rogers sat at the head of the table. He was caught up in conversation with James Rhodes, one of Tony's closest friends, who was also staying at the tower for the time being. Steve was one of Darcy's favorite people, partially because he was such a sweetheart and was Captain fucking America, but mostly because he was extremely hot.

Darcy and Loki were sitting across from Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff, the two new occupants of the tower. The pair of them were SHIELD's top agents, sent here by Nick Fury himself to watch over them all and regularly report back what they observed.

Natasha had the same idea Darcy had: watch the zoo around them at feeding time. Natasha was currently eyeing Tony Stark, the man of the house, who was heartily laughing at something Happy Hogan said or did. Pepper Potts, Tony's girlfriend, business partner, and babysitter and one of the most patient people Darcy had ever met, stood to leave for her work with Stark Industries and Happy, her head of security, immediately followed suit.

As Natasha watched Tony, Clint, on the other hand, was glaring at Loki; it seemed he still wasn't over being brain-fucked a few years previous. They all knew Loki was no longer a threat and that he was nearing the point of being trusted, but something told Darcy that Clint would be the last one to jump on that bandwagon.

Loki must've noticed Clint staring, because he smiled politely and asked, "What is it, sweetheart? Hard for you to take your eyes off me?"

Darcy snorted. Tony had apparently overheard Loki and was laughing even harder now. Clint tightened his jaw and leaned back in his seat.

Loki smiled smugly at Clint's lack of response. The table returned to its normal noise-level and chaos, and Darcy returned to watching the people around her.

Tony stood and grabbed Bruce Banner, the man who had been described to Darcy as very nice and gentle, but she'd seen the footage of Loki's funday in New York. Tony was already dragging him down to the lab for the day, doing whatever it was they did when they went down there. As the two men stood, Darcy stood up as well and leaned across the table to reach the maple syrup, exposing more than a little cleavage and probably giving Clint a great view.

"Voluptuous as ever, Miss Lewis," Tony said, winking at her. "Red's a great color on you, by the way."

Glancing down at her chest, she noted that the red bra she'd chosen to wear that day was well on display to everyone besides Loki on her right and Jane and Thor on her left.

"You think so?" Darcy said with a cheeky smile, ignoring the fact that out of the corner of her eye she could see Loki discreetly checking out her ass.

"Definitely. And I think Barton thinks so too. They don't call him Hawkeye for nothing." Darcy looked forward at the man across from her and sat back in her seat. He had been looking, but not overly perversely.

Glancing at Loki, she smiled. "Looks like Clint's after both of us today."

"How scandalous," Loki agreed, matching her grin.

A few hours later, Clint Barton stood in Loki's personal section of SHIELD's warehouse of confiscated items. He knew there had to be something he could use to prank Loki and Darcy that would embarrass them without actually harming either of them. Well, Clint could care less about harming Loki. He just didn't want the girl to get hurt over a prank.

Clint sorted through the bags of confiscated items. There were trinkets and stones and weird plants, but one thing caught his eye: a small purple flower in a plastic bag. He quickly read over the paper with it.

Enchanted flower, Alfheim. Found in Loki's pockets. When flower is rubbed on eyes of sleeping person, the victim will fall in love with the first living creature seen upon awakening. To reverse effects, rub flower on victim's eyelids again while they sleep. When they wake, victim will believe it was all a dream.

It was literally too perfect. Clint could get them back by making them fall in love with each other, and then after a day or two he'd reverse it and they'd both think it was a dream but everyone else would make fun of them for it. He knew for a fact Tony Stark would never let either of them live it down.

Wait— there was a flaw in his plan, he realized. Nick Fury had assigned him with a mission for later that day. He would have to wait until later, or have someone else use the flower on them. He thought over the residents of Stark Tower, and the most logical choice for a coconspirator was Pepper's bodyguard, Happy Hogan. Clint didn't know him well, but he was in security so he'd know how to be stealthy. Clint could give him the flower and tell him what to do with it, and he'd be able to do it so that Clint could enjoy the results when he got back.

Smiling, Clint pocketed the flower and headed back for Stark Tower.

A/N: Ok, so this is my attempt at writing A Midsummer Night's Dream mixed with a little Much Ado About Nothing, starring the Avengers universe characters. This takes place after The Avengers, and Loki and Thor have come back from Asgard and everybody's living in Stark Tower.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the idea to put this story with these characters and add a few twists. All of this is kind of crack and silly and not serious at all.

A big thank you as always to my wonderful beta samantha-shakespeare!