A/N: Heeelllooo good people! Okay, I have read (and re-read) some of the most amazing female Toni fan fictions. Not only that, but I have read some fantastic Toni and Loki fan fiction. Alas, I don't believe that this pairing has enough love.

So, I decided to add my own idea. Enjoy!

Title: Second Chances

Description: Toni Maria Stark was a person who believed in second chances. Apparently, having this belief had a habit of getting her in trouble. For example, one green eyed god. When she realizes that Loki may be innocent of all crimes, you better be sure that she's going to try and save him…And find herself along the way. FEMALE TONY. Toni/Loki

Rating: T for Violence and Cussing.

Disclaimer: I literally own nothing.

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Toni Stark didn't know what she was doing.

Sure, she had been in Afghanistan, tortured for days. She had been in numerous battles. She had been betrayed by those closest to her.

But this? This was something else entirely.

Aliens, gods, Asgard, nuclear deterrents… Was there anything right with this world?

But all of that didn't matter. At this very moment, she had to deal with the god of mischief and lies himself.

As her suit detached itself from her, she had a chance to stare directly into Loki's eyes, and a spark went off in her brain.

She had read and reread each and every file on both Thor and Loki. Every picture of them she had memorized in her brain somewhere.

In every single picture of Loki, his eyes were a vibrant green.

Now, watching him, his posture, his pale complexion, his blue eyes, she realized that the symptoms that he had were similar to Agent Barton's.

Was it possible that Loki was under the same influence?

She thought about Thor's dedication to his brother. She wondered what could've possibly pried the two of them apart. Was it never getting the throne? Maybe that had been part of it. But what led up to his hunger for power? Could it have possibly been that he was adopted? Hadn't Thor mentioned that? Or maybe, like most typical physcopaths, he was simply a recluse as a child (was a god ever considered a child?) and was pushed away by his peers. Who the hell were his peers?

All of it was too much, and she was quickly losing track of what the main question was at the moment; was Loki being brainwashed or not.

Going with her gut, because at this point there was really no other option, she decided to hope for the best. Maybe she could somehow get JARVIS to deploy the Iron Man suit and smash him in the head. Hopefully, the hit to the head would be powerful enough to bring him back to normal.

The device was finally done taking off her useless suit, and she slowly but, as confidently as she could, walked to where Loki was waiting.

"Please tell me you are going to appeal to my humanity." Loki gave her a smirk. It only served to highlight his eyes.

"Uh…" Toni replied, distracted for a moment in her thoughts. "Actually," She said. She gave him back a confident smile of her own, "I'm planning to threaten you."

To exaggerate, she headed to the bar and pulled out a shot glass loudly, making sure his eyes were on her hands.

"You should have left your armor on for that." He commented. Toni could tell that he liked this; this meaning the ability to play a mind game using only words and body language.

"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage." Speaking of which, she placed the shot glass down and poured herself a drink, all the while slipping on the metal cuffs that activated her suit. "You've got the blue stick of destiny." She added, making sure to let him know that he was still, technically, in control. "Would you like a drink?

"Stalling me won't change anything." He almost said it as a question.

"No, no, no!" Toni replied, beginning to calm down now that she had some sort of protection. "Threatening." His eyebrow rose just enough so she would notice. She decided to throw him off. "No drink? You sure? I'm having one."

"The Chitauri are coming," He said instead, ignoring her useless comment. For some reason that she couldn't understand, he looked worried. "Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?"

Anger rushed through her. "The Avengers." She added casually.

Loki actually turned to look at her, a question in his eyes. He finally looked interested in what she was saying.

"It's what we call ourselves." Toni said. "Sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type of thing."

Loki smiled sarcastically. "Yes, I've met them."

She smiled right back at him. "Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one."

He walked slightly away from her, already losing interest in what she was saying. Her voice rose due to emphasis. "But," she said fiercely. "Let's do a head count here. Your brother, the demi-God; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every. Single. One of them."

Suddenly, so quick that Toni had no time to react, he was right in front of her. "Tell me, Miss Stark," He said, almost mockingly, "do you not credit yourself in this?"

For once, a question had left her speechless.

"Oh come now," He almost purred. "A woman who sits on a throne of technology; a throne of magic. That is quite a threat."

"Well," She replied as steadily as she could. "You're not wrong."

Instead of walking away like she expected, he only got closer. So close now that she could clearly see his eyes. "Not wrong indeed. A woman who is five steps ahead of everyone around her. Now," His directness made her take a step back. Her back crashed into the bar, holding her in place. "That would make a fine ruler."

"What?" She replied in shock, honestly confused as to where this had come from. What was he getting at?

He finally allowed her her space. He backed up slightly. "You are going to lose." He replied so confidently that Toni actually felt a pang of fear run through her chest. "Why not align yourself with the winning side?"

"You can't honestly believe what you're saying?" She asked, ignoring the way her heart was pounding. She decided to disregard the creepy suggestion. "Listen to me," She said whole heartedly. "There's no throne, there is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it."

For a brief second, she saw it; she saw the blue fade back to its green. She saw his eyes slam close in pain. The green was gone so fast that it was hard to believe it was there in the first place. Loki turned his full attention to her again. Her heartrate increased. The man (god) she was talking to five minutes ago was gone. He was replaced with whatever puppet was controlling him. She was sure of it.

"How will your friends have time for me when they're so busy fighting you?" The scepter tapped her chest, but all that was heard was the light 'ting' noise coming from her reactor.

Surprised, Loki did it again with the same results. "This usually works." He told her, honestly confused.

Relieved to the point of smiling, she answered: "Performance issues, you know."

Instead of answering, he rushed at her, grabbing her by the throat and actually lifting her up from the ground. Reacting out of instinct, she clawed at his hands, hissing the name "JARVIS."

He growled; the only reaction he had to her claw marks. He moved towards the window, obviously intending to throw her out of it.

"JARVIS. Deploy!" She hissed urgently. He squeezed harder. "Now!"

It was too late, Loki violently threw her out the window. All she knew was falling. She spun in the air, watching as her suit rushed out at her. She spread her limbs, giving her tech the best possible advantage for hooking on to her.

As soon as it was on, she blasted off, her thrusters barely missing the people below.

She breathed a sigh of relief. That was close.

"J, you manage to hit him in the head?"

"I am sorry Miss," She groaned. "I was unable to do so due to your impending death."

"Dammit." She muttered. Reacting before thinking, she flew back up to the tower.

The angry face of Loki instantly greeted her. She reveled in the fact that her life was pissing the real enemy off.

"And there's one more person you pissed off." She fired up her repulsor. "His name was Phil!"

As soon as Loki was about to fire at her with the glow stick of destiny, she fired, making sure to hit him directly in the chest. Even a god couldn't stop the damage of her repulsor. He was thrown back, probably not getting up for at least another minute.

All the while, before she had a second to catch her breath, the portal had opened up above the city.

Her mouth dropped open. "Right…" She said instead, trying to ground herself. "Army."

Without a second thought, she rushed at the portal, sending what she called Jericho point 2 into it. The blast itself destroyed a good number of them, but it did almost nothing against the sheer force amount of them.

"Right, Loki." She said, her brain switching back and forth between protecting the city and saving an innocent god.

Before she could think of a way to contact Thor in order to ask him some questions of her own, her intercom dinged, alerting her of an incoming message.

"Stark," The voice of Natasha Romanoff answered, much to her relief. "We're heading north east."

"What?" She asked sarcastically, firing at more of the ugly bastards. "Did you stop at drive-thru?" They continued to follow her. "Swing up Park, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."

Toni blasted around her tower, making sure that the Quinjet was in view of the aliens. Instantly, Natasha fired. Looking around, she saw Thor and Loki were savagely fighting each other.

"Natasha," Toni asked through the comm while blasting more soldiers. "Does Thor have a comm?"

"Yeah, but why-"

"Tell you in a bit." She interrupted. "Hey, Thor." She said to the different link. "Don't say anything, but I have a thought about your brother." She had to pause in order to blast through five other aliens. One managed to hit her, her shoulder taking the brunt of the blast. She held in her groan. "His eyes, they're green, right? 'Cuz they look pretty damn blue from my point of view."

Knowing that Point Break was smart enough to know what she was saying, she shut her comm off. She had seen the Quinjet fall due to Loki's blast and it was her responsibility to make sure that her little team was okay.

Sure enough, Hawkeye, the asshole himself, and Natasha were already out of it, fighting off more of them from the ground. Before she could comment something stupid about them looking like a team, a deep loud 'roar' from the portal stopped her in her tracks.

Looking up, an actual Leviathan managed to come out of the god damn portal. The large, disgusting worm-looking thing carried hundreds of soldiers. Her mouth dropped open once again. No fucking way.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Black Widow asked, a little bit of fear coming off in her voice. Toni couldn't help but agree with her.

"I'm seeing," She replied, still hovering in the air. "still working on believing." A thought so wild popped into her head that she missed one of the Chitauri by a mile. Wouldn't Banner be able to slap some sense into Loki?

In real words, wouldn't Banner be strong enough to slam Loki so hard to the ground that he would return to whoever the hell he actually was.

"That could work." Toni said a loud, mulling the idea over. She was already certain that the doctor would eventually show up.

"What could work?" Captain asked with a grunt, obviously still fighting some of the beasts.

"Nothing." She replied curtly, aiming one of her miniature multiple rocket launcher at the leviathan and firing. The explosions did little to nothing except to annoy the huge monster.

"We got his attention!" She told them below, quickly making a small retreat.

She hovered above the idiots, making sure that none of the Chitauri from above didn't surprise any of them. Unfortunately, it seemed too much for all of them. Toni was now supporting a pain in her shoulder and leg, and was finding it hard to breathe. Below, she witnessed Captain take a good hit in the gut. Widow and Hawkeye were hiding behind a wrecked car.

Before she could try to help, Thor literally dropped in from the sky. His thunder rained down upon the Chitauri and at least twenty of them died instantly. She whistled, impressed.

"What's the story upstairs?" Captain asked.

"The powers surrounding the cube is impenetrable." Thor answered. Toni wondered whether or not he was able to 'fix' Loki.

"Thor is right," She answered instead, "We gotta deal with these guys."

"How do we do this?" Widow asked, some uncertainly in her tone. Once again, Toni couldn't blame her.

"As a team." Steve Rogers replied confidently. For once, Toni felt something akin to loyalty flash through her.

"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor said, much to Toni's disappointment. That meant that Thor was unable to help Loki.

"Yeah," Hawkeye added, "get in line."

"Save it," Captain cut in, much to Toni's relief. She couldn't deal with having to explain to the recently brain washed man that Loki was innocent. She was sure that conversation would go well. "Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need." Toni nodded to herself, surprised to be agreeing with him. "Without him these things could run wild. We got Stark up top, she's gonna need us-"

Over the comms, Toni heard the sound of a small engine appear. It stopped suddenly.

"So," She heard lowly. She could barely pick up Banner's voice over the other's comms. "this all seems horrible."

She held in her insane urge to laugh.

"I've seen worse." Natasha commented neutrally. Toni would bet her tower that that was Natasha's version of a jibe.

"Sorry." Banner commented, not at all angry at her manner.

"No, it's okay. We could use worse."

"Banner!" Toni said with a cheerful tone, cutting off the moment. She had more important things to worry about. "Knew you couldn't resist the party."

"Stark, you know he can't hear you, right?" Natasha asked her, obviously confused. Toni smiled to herself. She was hoping someone was going to comment on that.

"Then give the man a comm!" She said, faking exasperation. "Bruce! Welcome back."

"Erm…" He said awkwardly. "Thanks."

"I would suggest suiting up, greeny. I'm bringing the party to you." She flew up to the Leviathan, taunting it by shooting a repulsor at it, then quickly flew back to their location, knowing the Hulk's strength would be enough to handle the repulsive thing.

"I…" Black Widow trailed off for a second, "I don't see how that's a party…"

She ignored that hilariously timed comment and began her descent down the street, making sure that the Leviathan was following her. Well, she didn't really need to look back. She could hear its tough skin crash into the street.

"Dr. Banner." Cap said, his voice portraying some of the fear he felt. "Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."

"That's my secret, Captain." Much to Toni's surprise, Bruce sounded almost calm. "I'm always angry."

Before her eyes, Bruce changed. In seconds, his tiny frame morphed into the beast that she had only seen videos of. In one more second, the Hulk lashed out with a fist. The force of his punch sent the Leviathan to a full stop, causing it to flip over in a three sixty.

"Oh shit." Toni muttered. In mid-flight, she extended her arm in order to launch a rocket into the soft flesh of the beast. It exploded. Its flesh was left sizzling on the pavement.

Toni rushed back to the ground, making sure that they were alright. Before she could ask if they were okay (in the most uncaring way possible), the Chitauri around them let out loud war cries. Before she knew it, they were surrounded. She turned her back to the Avengers, attempting to protect one side of their flank.

And in that moment, she knew that they were a team.

Above, more Chitauri emerged from the portal. So many of them that Toni was doubtful of winning.

"Guys." Natasha asked.

"Call it, Cap." Toni said, trusting in his ability to lead. This was not the time for petty fighting.

Alright, listen up." He said, his voice unwavering. "Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

"Wanna give me a lift?" Hawkeye asked her.

"Right," She said, realizing that not everyone had the capability to fly. Man, her brain was a mess. "Better clench up, Legolas." She grabbed him by the back of his uniform.

"And Hulk." She heard over the comms. "Smash."

Hulk roared into her headset. And he was off. A blur of motion indicated where the Hulk's next target was.

"Let's do this!" She said, circling the perimeter. "J, hook me up to only Banner."

"Hulk!" She yelled into the comm. "Can you hear me?"

"Hulk hear tiny metal woman."

Toni laughed. "Great! I need you to do something."

"Hulk do anything for nice metal woman!"

Toni laughed again. She was shocked at how verbal he was. Bruce described Hulk as a monster. He seemed to be anything but! "I need you to take care of Loki."

"Loki man with ugly horns?"

"Yes!" She said, excited that he was actually understanding her. "Exactly!"

"Hulk do as asked."

"Hulk, buddy, you are my favorite." Relieved, she now could focus on the Chitauri that were trailing behind her. After that, she could make sure that Hulk didn't kill Loki. Hopefully it took a lot to kill a god.

"Hulk like tiny woman too."

Surprised, she nearly plowed right into a building. Instincts kept her in the air. Did she just gain Hulk's friendship?

"Stark," Barton interrupted her thoughts. "You got a lot of strays sticking to your tail."

"Just trying to keep them off the streets." She responded.

"Well, they can't bank worth a damn." He told her. "Find a tight corner."

She made a series of tight turns. Unfortunately, some of them didn't crash right away, and one of them managed to get her pretty good in the upper leg. The metal of her suit concaved in and managed to protrude into her leg.

"Miss," JARVIS said urgently, "I suggest an-"

"Save it!" Knowing that he was going to suggest a numbing agent. "Probably going to need it later."

One more tight turn, and it appeared that the Chitauri that refused to get off her tail were finally gone. "Huh," She said to Barton. "Nice call. What else you got?"

"Well," Hawkeye said back in the same tone. Instantly, she realized that she was going to like this man's attitude. "Thor's taking on a squadron down on 6th."

"And he didn't invite me." She flew off to help the loveable idiot. She was greeted by a mass of Chitauri swarming over the god. She used her suit to slam into a row of them, then landed in the middle of the mass. She fired at two of the Chitauri that held Thor. As soon as Thor was released, he lifted the hammer to the sky and called down lightning. He killed at least ten of them within the next second.

"Friend Stark." He said before she could fly off. "Thank you."

Confused, she lifted up her helmet in order to read his expression. "For what?"

"For not giving up on my brother."

Uncomfortable by Thor's blunt honestly, she shuffled her feet and threw down the Iron Man mask. "Yeah well," She said, lifting up from the ground, "everyone deserves a second chance."

She blasted off. She could deal with Thor's… gratitude later. Right now, she had to check and see if Hulk had any luck with the god.

Wait a second, where the hell would the god be?

"JARVIS, what's Hulk's location?"

"Hulk is currently in the top floor of the tower. He is… battling Loki."

"Not invited again!" She exclaimed, more than happy that Hulk was dealing with Loki. Time to have another chat with the Reindeer Games. She flew over to her, mostly destroyed, tower. She was unhappy to see that the only letter left was an ironic 'A'.

She landed, spotting Loki literally slammed into a god shaped hole in the ground. She winced. What were the possibilities of him surviving that?

"Loki?" She called, inching her way towards the unmoving specimen. She wasn't willing to get jumped by him. However, she did flip her face mask up in order to better see his expression.

"Loki!" She yelled, attempting to spring the god up. This time, she heard a groan. Grinning at his misfortune (he kind of did still kill Phil), she moved to help him…. And ended up wincing again. Loki's face was a mess. Two cuts on his lip, a bleeding head wound, and a bruise the size of her fist covered the right side of his face. Well, at least she knew that Hulk managed to hit / slam him in the head.

"Are you here to mock me?" Loki asked her, not attempting to get up from his position.

"Well, maybe a little." She said, giving him one of her arms. It was a risky move. This gave him an easy advantage point to harm her. "Mostly I'm here to check on a hypothesis."

"Oh, really?" He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "And what," He grabbed her hand and hefted himself up from the ground. Toni was surprised at his ability to heal so fast and at willingness to let a mere mortal help him up. "pray tell, is your hypothesis?"

"That you're innocent." His head immediately snapped to her gaze. "Your eyes," She said, nodding her head in his direction. "They're green, aren't they?"

If Loki had any strength, Toni was positive the he would have attacked her just to spite her. But, for now, he was left leaning heavily on the wall. He let out a dark chuckle. "You gambled your safety on eye color? How very… Trusting." He said mockingly.

"Not trusting." She said, not liking where this was going. She wasn't one to prep talk someone. "Just a person who believes in second chances."

His eyes snapped up to hers again. He looked beyond shocked. However, what with the title of God of Mischief and Lies, Toni was not surprised when Loki managed to hide his disbelief the instant after she caught it.

Instead, he gave her a smile that sent shivers down her spine. "And what? Now you bring me to Thor's justice?"

Her eyes narrowed. For the God of Lies, he didn't seem to have a grasp on who isn't lying. "I don't know." She replied. "I was hoping you had a way to stop the Chitarui, but seeing as how much of a dick you are, maybe I'll just hand you over to Fury instead."

So quick that Toni had no time to react (caught off guard again, dammit.), Loki headed towards her, his hand outstretched. A green mist surrounded his hand.

"Don't taunt me, mortal." He hissed. "I am not beyond stopping you."

"Please," She scoffed. She was aware of the danger she was in, but was willing to chalk it up as man pride. If she could convince him that he really had his best interests at heart, maybe they could work together. "if you were going to do anything, you would have done it the moment I held my hand out to you."

He lowered his hand, but his murderous expression did not change. Toni took that as a win.

"If the Chitauri, or whoever the hell is running this thing, was controlling you, I'd bet my suit that he'll come after you when they find out that you're back to your usual asshole self. Your part in all of this can't be over."

"Smart." He replied darkly. "I'll give you that much."

"Enough with the crap!" She told him, done with talking. "Either you help us close this portal, or you get taken out by the Chitauri. There's no other option, and I know you know it. Maybe you don't want to help Thor, maybe you have too much hate for him, but this is about my planet and I will not let one god kill thousands."

She was so furious that her breath was labored.

"If I help you," He said lowly, "if I close that portal, he will be back. There is no stopping him."

"I'll take it." She said instantly. "Better to delay something this horrible than do nothing at all."

He nodded, accepting that answer. "The scepter." He said, walking over to the bar. "Its power is connected to the tesseract."

Her brain went off. "Only something as equally powerful as the tesseract can destroy it."

Surprised, he nodded. "Yes."

She slammed the Iron Man mask back on.

"Time to save the world." She muttered. "Loki," She said sincerely before blasting off. "Thank you."

Before he could say anything else, she was off. The last place she had seen the scepter was on the roof of the tower. She spotted it right by her armor detacher, and she quickly snatched it.

Unexpectedly, she spotted Loki below. Green mist encircled his person, but the more alarming thing was the amount of Chitauri surrounding him. At least thirty of them had their spears pointed at the god. Jeez, was this guy the freakin' attraction of all evil? She had barely left him alone for four minutes! She placed the scepter down near the tesseract.

"Loki!" She called, rushing down. Her best strategy for this was to go right into the mess and fight besides Loki. There was too many of them for him to defend off by himself.

With her back to him, she blasted three of the horrid monsters. Behind her, she could hear the cries of pain that Loki was causing the Chitauri. However, the force was massive. For each one she took out, three more appeared.

Thinking about it, she realized that Loki and herself worked flawlessly. When a force became too much for either of them, without words the both of them would switch. Both knew what the other one planned before whatever it was was set in motion. It was a mock version of a dance.

Soon enough, Loki cried out behind her. She turned, an advantage point for the enemy, and fired at the one that hurt Loki. The powerful repluser blasted it ten feet back, charred beyond recognition. However, one of the beasts' she was fighting before took the opening and blasted her right in the middle of her back, sending her flying forward. She caught herself quickly enough, however, and threw a miniature grenade behind her. The blast sent the one who hit her and three others back dead.

"Come on, Reindeer Games." With Loki down, protecting him was her main goal. "Get up!"

"Duck." He told her. Without hesitation, she did so. With some magic force, he let out a beam of green light in a full circle, decimating the rest of them. All that was left of them was ash.

The magic had obviously costed him. His breathing was labored and he looked ready to pass out.

"You alright?" Toni asked, finding herself actually concerned with his wellbeing.

"It'll pass." She told him, waving her concern off. "Yourself?"

Her back, leg, and shoulder burned. Her face wasn't better off. "Fine." She told him.

He smiled, a genuine smile. Toni was surprised by how much his smile made her heart race. "Don't you have better things to do?" Surprisingly enough, it was said in a nice tone.

Toni's smile vanished. "Off to save the world…" She paused, starting up her thrusters. "Again."

"Guys," She said into the comms, racing back up to the top of the tower. "I know how to close the portal."

"Stark!" Nick Fury yelled in her ear just as the Captain said "Do it!"

"What, eye patch?" She asked, dragging Dr. Selvig to a safe corner. He was still knocked out from her attempt at destroying the stupid thing.

"We have a missile heading straight to the city."

Her stomach plummeted. "How long?" She asked urgently.

"Three minutes, at best. Stay low and wipe it out."

"Stark, can you hear me? Do it!" Captain yelled.

"Hold on," She said. "JARVIS, everything to the thrusters."

"Anyone close to Stark Tower?" She asked, already finding the missiles coordinates. "I'm a bit busy."

"I got it." Natasha answered, there was a grunt from her end. "I'm already here. What do I do?"

"Grab the scepter, and stick it inside the tesseract. It should close the portal." Finally she had managed to grab the god forsaken thing. Her thruster barely had enough power to steer it off course.

"Stark," Hawkeye asked. "what are you doing?"

"Saving the world." She replied in a casual tone. "There's a missile headed straight for New York, and I know exactly where to put it. Wait for me to send it up there before closing it."

"Stark," The Captain said regretfully. What did he regret? "You know that's a one way trip."

"Save everything for the turn, J." Toni said instead. This was it. This was her moment. She was going to die a hero. What better way to go out? She could do this. This was the one thing she could easily give up.

She imagined Pepper's face. Would she be angry? Would she cry? What about Rhodey? Would he help her? Would either of them care?

She ignored those thoughts. What she was doing was right.

Instead of looking ahead, she looked down. It was better sight. Almost calming.

She could do this. This wasn't a suicide move. She was helping people. She felt a sense of pride for herself. She was finally going to be a hero.

She was inches from the portal now. As she entered, all of her breath left her. The darkness around her meant no power for her suit, and soon enough her suit failed her, error messages coming up the screen. She released the nuke, sending it straight at the massive spaceship. As the explosion wiped over her, she closed her eyes, not wanting to see her death.

Her last thought was of the green eyed god that resembled her in more ways than one.

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A/N: Feed the muse! Please review! :D Thanks for reading!