And Then You 1/2, by Lena for Skadi/europa_kore
Title: “And Then You”
Author: Lena
For: skadi/europa_kore
Fandom: Marvel
Warnings: Sexual Relations, Some Foul Language
Rating: Mature
Disclaimer: Marvel is god, I'm just a lowly worshiper, blah, blah, blah.
Summary: Darcy is driving in New Mexico when she nearly hits Loki, who has just fallen off the bifrost. Despite every self preserving instinct in her, she takes him to her home to patch him up.
Beta'd By: Just Me
Chapter One:
Of all the things that Darcy thought she would be doing at ten at night, she hadn’t ever thought that a grocery run would be one of them. Maybe a Taco Bell run when she’d been up for way too long getting stoned with her friends at college, but never a full grocery run. No, she’d had to drive to the next town over, which was quite a ways. Puente Antiguo hadn’t exactly been near anything, and, when it was nearly destroyed, that meant that all of the supplies needed had to be shipped in from elsewhere.
Still, Darcy wouldn’t likely trade any of this for the world. Well, she’d love it if Thor’s brother hadn’t shown up a few months ago and tried to level the town in a pissing match and taken out the local grocery store, thus the need for travel, but you couldn’t always get what you wanted. She was probably lucky in that the whole town hadn’t been completely leveled, and that casualties had been minimal. She’d even gained a pet! The man that she had given Baker to have actually returned him when things had settled and the pet shop owner had said that she could keep him since she had thought to help him get all of the animals out of there. Therefore, there was that.
Of course, she also had to deal with a love sick Jane. Who knew that two people could be so attached after only two days? Darcy never would have guessed that. Now she had a mooning scientist to deal with. Being Jane’s little helper elf before had been bad enough, as the woman had a tendency to get distracted by her work for hours at a time, and to not think about things like eating or sleeping, but now that she also had love on the line? Yeah, Jane had almost completely stopped being able to take care of herself. If Darcy weren’t’ around, Jane likely would have starved to death. Erik tried, but he couldn’t compete with raw data. Darcy, however, was great at taking care of people. Well, other people. She hadn’t quite pulled off the task of taking care of herself quite yet.
This was why she was doing a grocery run so late at night. They had run out of pop tarts (the main thing that Jane seemed willing to live off) and a few other things around the restaurant that served as the makeshift lab, so she had elected to go out and get them, not thinking of how far the next town was away, or how late it had already gotten. She could have waited until tomorrow, but Jane got extra cranky when her source of energy wasn’t around, and Jane was already cranky enough. She was far more worried about dealing with Jane than driving at night.
She should have been more concerned, though. She had put in a full day at the lab, plus going out like this, so she was a bit tired and not really paying attention to the road. There wasn’t exactly a whole lot to pay attention to out here. It was just dirt, cacti, lizards, and one straight road. However, when a storm opened up the sky out of nowhere, it caught her attention very quickly. There was thunder and lightning and, despite how she knew that she shouldn’t get her hopes up, she couldn’t help but wonder if Thor had managed to find his way back. With what he had promised to Jane, Darcy couldn’t help but think something had prevented him from coming back. With another flash of lightning, something humanoid dropped in the road directly in front of her. Darcy screamed, swerving her car off the road so that she wouldn’t hit whatever it was. She suspected that, if it was Thor, he wouldn’t appreciate being hit by a car AGAIN. Not exactly the best way to welcome a guy back.
Putting the car in park, she climbed out and headed over to the unmoving form in the middle of the road. The storm was already clearing, which led her to believe all the more that it was Asgardian in nature rather than just another crazy storm in the desert. The wind was still whipping through her long, dark curls as she moved closer to the person on the ground. She could see right away that it wasn’t Thor, as the form was much too lean for it to be the big, hulking blond beefcake. Nothing wrong with lean, as Darcy actually preferred it. She could see from the man’s clothing (it was a man, upon closer inspection) that he wasn’t from around. His clothing looked similar to what Thor’s friends had been wearing when they showed up, if in bad shape. The green cloak on his back was tattered. When she gingerly rolled him over, she could see the dents and tears in his armor as well. His gleamed gold while Thor seemed to have preferred silver as a metal. This guy looked beat to hell, though. Whomever he had picked a fight with, she suspected that he had lost. However, if he were like any other guy, he would likely insist that the ‘other guy’ looked worse.
“You couldn’t drop out of the sky in the middle of town where I could get some help?” Darcy grumbled, more to herself than the prone figure in front of her. She took a brief few minutes to move her car closer to him, and, making sure the passenger door was open, slowly managed to drag him over to the car and prop him up in the seat. “Jeeze, for a skinny guy, you sure are heavy,” she grumbled. Thor had been heavier, but she wasn’t sure if it had been by much. Then again, she had Erik helping her put Thor into the van, while she was doing this by herself.
The guy was obviously Asgardian, as Darcy didn’t know of any other people who dropped out of the sky like this (then again, she hadn’t know about aliens until recently, either, so anything could surprise her at this point). He wasn’t one of the people that had shown up to ‘rescue’ Thor, so Darcy had no clue who he was. Still, she couldn’t exactly just leave him in the middle of the road. On top of all the other obvious things that were wrong with that, it had to be a massive road hazard to be lying around in the middle of the road like that.
As she started the car and got back onto the road, she couldn’t help but wonder just what she was going to DO with the dude in her passenger seat. She couldn’t take him to the hospital. Not only was it still being rebuilt on itself, but Thor had torn the place apart last time. There was nothing saying that this guy wouldn’t do the same. She thought that she should take him by the lab. Jane was likely still there, if not Erik as well, and she knew that Jane especially would want to know anything this guy knew about Thor. She’d likely throw water on him until he woke up just to ask him about the big guy.
As she’s driving, she can’t help but notice that some of the superficial wounds on him are already starting to heal up. She remembered that, once Thor had gone all Asgardian, all of his wounds had healed up like nothing. Even though this guy wasn’t as built as he was, she supposed that he was made of the same stuff as Thor, same physiology. Still, it was a freaky thing to watch out of the corner of her eye while she drove. She could see why old school Norse people thought that these guys were gods. The man unconscious next to her was certainly utterly gorgeous. If she were a little more primitive, she’d be happy to drop down and worship him.
As she drove, she heard him let out a soft moan. He started to move, seemingly waking up from his ‘nap.’ “Hey man, how are you feeling over there?” she asked, keeping her eyes on the road for the time being. “It’s not every day that someone drops out of the sky in front of a car I’m in. Actually, it’s only happened twice now, each time very memorable.”
She slowed down the car a little so that she could turn and look at him. At first he looked highly confused, which she supposed made sense, as he likely didn’t remember last being in her car. Then, before she could properly react, his face changed from confusion to anger. He reached over and grabbed her by both arms, and she managed to slam on the brakes just in enough time to not completely run off the road and move the car into park before he turned her toward him, pulling her inches from his face.
“Dude, what the hell?” she snapped at him, trying to ignore and he was grabbing her arms hard enough to likely make them bruise later. “I could have ran off the road and wrecked! You’re banged up enough as it is.”
“Hush, mortal!” he snapped at her. “Tell me where I am.”
She took a deep breath, telling herself that he might have thought he was kidnapped or something. “Earth, dude,” she told him. “You fell out of the sky in front of my car. I did good not to run you over. Now can you relax a little and let me go?”
He made a face of mild disgust, lessening his grip on her arms but still not letting her go. “Earth, really? Of all the places,” he said, seemingly talking more to himself than to her.
“Hey, insult much?” she snapped at him. “I happen to like this place.”
“That is because you do not know better, girl,” he retorted. “There are worlds much grander than this place.” He was staring a hole through her right now, and it made her want to look away, although she was forcing herself to keep looking back at him. It was the stare down of the ages. “I know you. You were with my brother the day that I sent The Destroyer.”
Darcy’s eyes went wide as her mouth dropped open a little. “Who are you?” she asked, trying to keep her voice from shaking and not quite succeeding.
He sneered at her, and she had to bite back a shudder. “I am Loki of Asgard, mortal,” he said to her. “And you should be kneeling before me.”
“Oh crap,” Darcy said.
Chapter Two:
Loki could see that the girl was trying to put on a brave face, but she looked like she was mere seconds away from screaming. He could understand her reaction, however. He hadn't exactly been after her directly, but he wouldn't have cared that day if she had died if she had gotten in the way. "So, you normally send giant metal people off the kill your brother on different planets or was that a special case?" she asked him.
He narrowed his eyes at her, not seeing the point of telling her anything. He would be away from her quickly enough, if he had his way. He didn't want to be anywhere near anyone that was associated with his not-brother. "I sent it to keep Thor and his friends from getting back to Asgard too quickly. It was merely a distraction," he corrected her. Despite sounding sure, Loki knew that it was a weak argument. He hadn't realized that his father had some sort of failsafe instilled in Thor's banishment that would revive him if he died on Midgard, or if he sacrificed himself, or whatever it was that brought him back to his full Aesir heritage. He had told the Destroyer to destroy everything in its path, after all. To claim otherwise now seemed silly. He had been willing to do anything to prevent Thor's return until he had shown Odin that he was the worthy son, and yet Thor arrived early and ruined everything. Something his brother was perfect at doing.
"Well, can't take you where I was going to take you first, obviously," the girl said with a roll of her eyes. He finally let her wiggle out of his grasp and turn back towards the wheel of her car. At his questioning glance, she seemed inclined to continue. “I was going to take you to the lab that Jane and Erik use, but with you being Thor’s brother I think that would be an absolutely horrible idea.”
“Do not mention that name in my presence,” he growled at her, but he could see the logic in her words. Even though her attention was turned back toward the road, he could see her eyes widen a bit when she growled at her, and that made him glad that he could still menace these ants. “Where are you taking me, then?”
He watched her as she chewed on her lip, as if deep in thought. “Guess we’re going to my place then.” He could see that she had mixed feelings about the idea, and so was he. He didn’t exactly relish the idea of being around his brother’s mortal friends for any length of time. He reached for the door handle, intent upon getting out and getting as far away from her as he possibly could.
He was surprised, however, when she grabbed his arm and jerked it away from the door. “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked her in a surprised voice. He would think that she would be perfectly happy to be rid of him. He had tried to kill her, after all, at least passively.
“Stopping you from hurting yourself worse, more than likely,” she snapped back at him. He realized that he must be in dire straits, because he did not have the energy really to fight her, a mere mortal. He slumped back against the seat, content for now at least to stay in the car while it was still moving.
“Why do you care whether or not I stay in your vehicle?” he asked her. “I would think that you would prefer to be rid of me. I did try to kill you, after all.” Not on purpose, but that was a minor point just the same.
She shrugged at him. “Just seems kind of rude to leave you lying in the road. Wouldn’t want anyone to run over you and mess up their car.”
He rolled his eyes. “I assure you, child that I can get out of the way of cars on my own” he grumbled at her.
“Because you totally could have done that while you were unconscious,” she said, rolling her eyes. “And if you call me ‘child’ again, I’ll push you out of this car, run you over, and then pick you back up. I know you’re like, way old, if people from a thousand years ago were worshipping you, but I’m still an adult, and that’s really insulting.”
He forced himself to bite back a laugh at her threat. Not because he doubted that she would follow through. Of that, he had little doubt. He was more amused by the detail of it. “Then what should I call you?” he asked, smiling slightly.
He could feel the corners of her eyes turn toward him even as he kept his own forward, watching the desert as it moved by. “It’s Darcy Lewis,” she told him, her voice a little softer. For some reason, he had the distinct feeling that hers was a name that he’d be remembering for a while, even as he told himself he’d be fleeing as soon as he had a chance.
OoOoOoOo
When they arrive back at her apartment, Darcy's still questioning her sanity. She's almost positive that she's gone insane and hallucinated this entire encounter from after one too many late nights working with Jane, or she actually picked up the murderous god of mischief and she's REALLY gone insane. Darcy's actually not sure which one she would prefer, although it would probably be better for the world if she was just hallucinating after one too many late nights.
She parked her car in front of the tiny apartment complex. Puente Antiguo doesn't have a large population who need things like one bedroom apartments, so the apartment 'complex' only consisted of twelve apartments linked together. Darcy currently inhabited number six. As soon as she pulled herself out of the car, Loki tried to bolt again, opening the car door quickly so that he can run and get away, she supposed. However, whatever his speed normally was, it was slowed enough so that Darcy could keep up with him. She actually launched herself over the hood of the car 'Dukes of Hazard' style (something that's she's INCREDIBLY amazed at later) and grabs him by the arm. When he turns to look at her, likely going to push her off, her instincts kick in and she slugs him in the stomach.
Loki wheezes, dropping to the ground. "You have a strange way of helping someone," he said to her, hand clutching his stomach.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures," she told him, shrugging. "If you wouldn't keep trying to run off, I wouldn't be sinking to those measures, though. So really, stop it. Besides, god or not, you're apparently hurt enough that I can get the upper hand on you. That must be really embarrassing."
"You have no idea," he said to her, letting her help him up off the ground this time. Even though he's likely pissed at her for punching him like that (totally only to get him to stop being an ass and trying to run), he seems content to actually let her help this time. She grabs her keys from her pocket and shoves one in the door. Before she can get it unlocked, she can already hear barking inside.
Damn, she forgot to tell Loki about Baker. She actually gained a pet by accident, as, when Loki decided to pull his 'I hate my big brother act,' she helped take all of the animals out of a local pet shop, including Baker, a small black and white chubby dog. When everything went a little back to normal, the pet shop owner gave her Baker as a gift for helping out. As soon as they walk inside of her apartment, and before she can scoop up Baker, he's all over Loki's legs, and Loki is staring at Baker like the one he's the alien from another planet, not him.
"Dude, Baker, bad dog!" Baker has no knowledge of the word, though, so he's perfectly happy to keep jumping on Loki and barking in an effort to get attention. Finally, she bends down and scoops the dog up in her arms, looking toward Loki. "You, go sit on the sofa and then don't move, OK? If I have to chase you down again, it's not going to be pretty." She carries Baker off to her bedroom, grabbing the first aid kit she has put up, collecting dust, before shutting the door and heading back toward the sofa. Thankfully, Loki's done as asked, and hasn't moved from the couch after sitting.
"OK, gonna have to get this armor off of you if I'm going to look at you," Darcy told him. From the way that he's been holding himself, she can tell that he's likely taken some sort of hit to the chest. However, he looks at her as if she's insane when she suggests it. "Dude, don't be such an ass. I'm only trying to help."
"Why?" he asked her, still staring at her like she was an absolute loon, and she's starting to agree with him, honestly. She really should just grab her dog and run away screaming from her apartment and just let him have it. Obviously, she has no self preservation, because she doesn't do that. Instead, she starts pulling on the ruined armor, pointedly ignoring the question until he repeats it, grabbing her hands and making her stop moving.
Before she can answer, though, someone knocks on her door and, from her bedroom, Baker went insane again. He didn't appreciate being locked away in the first place and someone knocking now is only making it worse. Despite the barking, she can hear Erik's voice on the outside, and she remembers that she told him to meet her here around this time to pick up the groceries that she went out of town to pick up and all of reality comes crashing down on her in just enough time for her to remember that she didn't lock the door and the knob's turning.
"Pretend that you're a friend of mine," she hissed to him. She could see the protest on his lips and she managed to wrench her hand free to cover his mouth. "Would you rather tell him the truth? He's just gonna call SHIELD the iPod stealers," she snapped at him. She managed to get a curt nod out of him just as Erik opened the door, walking in on Darcy's sitting on a sofa with a now shirtless Loki. She's just glad she got him out of the most obvious armor.
Erik takes a good look at her sitting on a sofa with a half-naked man and immediately blushes. "I didn't realize you had company," he said quickly, turning away.
Darcy rolled her eyes. "SO not what you think," she said quickly. "It's just a buddy of mine from Arizona State. He dropped in on me as I was coming back into town." She jumped up off the couch. "Erik, this is Jeremy, history major of Arizona State. Jeremy, this is Dr. Erik Selvig, super duper astrophysicist that I'm doing my internship with." She smiled a wide, nervous grin as Loki waved mutely from the sofa. "Don't worry about him, Erik. He's in a fight club, but we can't talk about it, or we're breaking like, the first three rules or something, I don't know. Why don't we get those groceries?" With that, she yanked the confused older man out of the apartment, praying that she didn't come back to an empty one. At least if Loki was there, she didn't have to worry about him wandering about doing god knew what.
"So...your friend dropped in on your shirtless and beaten up?" Erik asked as she dragged him outside toward her car. She hadn't even locked her car. Not that there was any real reason for to lock stuff up around here. There were like, four hundred people in this town, tops, and all of them were decent human beings. Now she just had a mad god in her apartment, so they weren't exactly safe for long.
"Well, he wasn't shirtless. I made him strip down so that I could do the first aid thing," she explained as she opened her trunk and started grabbing bags to put in the van that Erik had shown up in. "Honestly, I think he got drunk and got in a bar fight. Totally not the first time that it happened," she said. She hoped that she was making some sort of sense.
"Does he usually drive across the state while drunk to drop in on your after a bar fight?" Erik asked. She gave him another one of those tense grins. "You have strange friends, Darcy."
"Seriously, you have no idea," she said with a sigh.
It actually didn't take her too long to get rid of Erik. He was only supposed to come by for the stack of groceries, after all. When she went back inside of the apartment, Loki was still sitting on her sofa, still shirtless, although now Baker had somehow escaped the confines of her bedroom and was now sitting on Loki's lap, asleep and looking as content as he could be.
"Your dog seems to like me," Loki said, reaching down and petting the animal behind his ear. Baker grunted in his sleep but otherwise didn't do anything.
"That's good. I'd rather him not sit around and bark at you all the time," she said, sitting back down on the sofa. Loki was covered in cuts and bruises, but the biggest one was a giant square shaped one on his chest. "Dude, seriously, did you get hit by a truck or something? What the hell caused that?" she asked, ghosting a finger over the giant purple bruise as she grabbed the kit so that she could at least clean up the cuts. She had the feeling that they looked a lot worse when he had landed. He'd likely be mostly fine by tomorrow, although he'd still at least hurt like hell.
"A rather lengthy battle with Thor," he explained to her, now finally not fighting her in any way as she started to clean him up. After getting the cuts on his arms and chest, she moved up to one on his face, just under his left eye.
"You guys have bizarre forms of family therapy," she remarked. "So, I convinced Erik that you're a friend of mine from college. I have no idea how much he really believed me, but I highly doubt that, no matter how much he questions it, he'll guess who you're really are anyway."
"Does this mean that I have to stay?" Loki asked her. He flinched slightly when she started cleaning the cut on his face. She could tell that he was trying not to show how much pain he was in, but she was guessing that, along with all the cuts and bruises, he likely had at least a few broken ribs as well.
"Well, I’d appreciate it, since I saved your ass and all that," she said to him, grabbing a bandage and putting it over the cut. "Come on, like it’s gonna hurt you to hang around for a few days and pretend to be my friend so that Erik doesn’t get freaked out and think that you’re someone else."
"I believe that would be more your problem than mine, if I decide to flee," Loki said quickly, even as he appeared to be in no hurry now to get off her sofa, much less escape. He didn't even seem inclined to move Baker now.
"Like it would kill you to get more rest, anyway. You look like ass," she told him quickly, grabbing the first aid kit and putting everything back into it.
"You fall into an abyss of space and then slam into the ground and see how good you look," Loki remarked, looking away from her and all but pouting.
Darcy had to laugh at that face. "All the more reason for you to hang around and rest!" she said, grinning at him. "You get the couch, though. Not sharing my totally awesome bed. I'm totally not that kind of girl, you know."
He looked at her, bewildered as she got up off the sofa. Before he could say anything, though, she went off and grabbed a pillow and blanket for him, bringing them out and setting them on the sofa for him. "If you promise not to disappear before morning, I cook a wicked breakfast."
As she turned and went to her bedroom, she wondered again why she was doing this. The easy answer was to say that it was better to keep him in her apartment than to have him roaming off by himself. However, but she knew that didn't hold weight because what she should have done was told Erik who she found and let him call SHIELD. They could likely deal with the angry god. Yet, when she looked at him, she just...couldn't do it. Despite being insanely dangerous, she felt somewhat bad for him, too. He definitely did the pathetic look well, whether intentionally or not.
She just hoped that someone put that on her tombstone if he went nutty and killed her: She felt bad because he looked pathetic.
Chapter Three:
Loki had intended to be gone before the mortal woke up in the morning. What he truly wanted was to get as far away as possible so that he could plot in peace. He had the distinct feeling that he would get absolutely no peace around this woman who seemed to prattle on as if she actually couldn’t control what came from her mouth. However, when he first felt the stirrings of consciousness on the sofa, he could hear her voice as she sang to herself as she moved around the small kitchen that her home had. Damn...he supposed he could put up with her long enough for a meal. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had eaten anything.
He sat up and opened his eyes, immediately wincing in pain as he slowly moved. He had thought that he would be more healed today, but it seemed that having Thor’s hammer laid on his chest was going to take longer to fix itself than he might have suspected. It must have something to do with its magical nature. He shouldn’t still have this large bruise on his chest, much less still be feeling the pain from it.
“Oh, you’re awake!” Darcy’s cheerful voice chirped from the kitchen. He turned toward her, looking her over. “I’m making waffles, so I hope you have an appetite.” She turned back toward the stove, and he took the opportunity of not having her looking at him to study her. She was fully dressed in what he assumed were adequate clothing, but the baggy layers that she wore did absolutely nothing to enhance any beauty that she might have. She was attractive, he supposed, but it was hard to tell what she really looked like with her face hidden by her glasses and any hair that happened to fall in her face. He wondered if she ever wore anything a little more form fitting. He remembered what she looked like through the red haze of the Destroyer and that she had worn similar clothing then. He thought that she might look much more interesting if she wore something like the women in the Asgardian court wore. It would certainly give her a different look.
"Hey! When you're done staring, waffles are done," Darcy said to him, shocking him out of his musings.
He made no apologies for staring, simply slowly pushing himself off the sofa with a bitten back groan, walking toward her small dining table and sitting down in one of the chairs. She made up a plate of the 'waffles' squirting some sort of white topping on them after dropping several types of berries on them, setting them down in front of him. "If you don't eat them, I'll totally be sad and pout at you," she told him, giving him an example of the 'pout,' which looked like the most exaggerated facial expression ever, which made him smile ever so slightly despite not really wanting to.
He took a bite of the breakfast that she had made, and actually found it to be quite delicious. However, he did not want to give away how much he had liked it (or how hungry he was), instead calmly taking bites between sips of drink that she had also provided. After eating in silence for a few minutes, he finally asked her, “Do you usually make things like this for yourself?” he asked her.
“Well, I don’t usually make as much,” she admitted with a shrug. He watched her as she broke off a piece of one of her own waffles and handed it to her dog, who was begging at her feet. “But yeah, breakfast is an essential meal. I’m usually in the lab with Jane for like, twelve hours a day. I’ve gotta have tons of energy to manage to keep up with her.”
“It would seem like the focus of Thor’s affections keeps you very busy,” Loki remarked. “What sort of work do all of you do?” Even with the bit of watching that he had done, he had to admit that he had no clue.
“Now? Actually, looking for a way for Jane to reunite with her paramour,” Darcy said, looking away as she said it. “Not that we’re doing any good with it. Just because Jane was the first on Earth to really realize that it was possible doesn’t mean that anyone knows how to actually do it.”
Loki could explain it to them easy how to do it, but he certainly had no want for Thor to be around here. He was already going through much effort to continue to hide himself from Heimdall’s gaze. As long as he stayed away from this Jane too much, it shouldn’t be too noticeable. They likely thought him dead, anyway. It was pure luck that the abyss went to Midgard rather than some god forsaken realm.
“Well, I should go,” Darcy said as she finished her meal, standing up. “I really feel like I should just call in sick so I can watch you. If you try to flee, you’ll likely just hurt yourself more.” He hated that the mortal had a point, but she did. She walked with her dish over to the sink, rinsing it before setting it aside. “Try not to do anything too...mischief-y while I’m gone.” He could only laugh at that suggestion. “God that does not make me feel better.”
Soon she was out the door, and he actually did briefly think of running, but where would he even go? He had no base of operations here on this realm. Why not let the little mortal take care of him while he licked his wounds and planned. He could possibly even use this Jane to get back to Asgard and take his rightful place on the throne when he was ready. He had done nothing wrong while ruling, after all. They were at war. He was just being preemptive. He should have been congratulated, not discouraged. He thought ahead, unlike some blond headed idiots who shall remain nameless.
So, instead of fleeing, he instead borrowed Darcy’s shower, rinsing away the blood and grime that she didn’t get to wipe away last night (he had only let her touch him as much as absolutely necessary). It didn’t take him long to figure out, although he still preferred the hot springs of ho...of Asgard rather than these Midgardian contraptions. They were claustrophobic.
He didn’t do too much to her home while Darcy was away. He might have changed where a few of her things were, more to keep him from dying of the boredom than for any real need for mischief. This might drive him mad more than anything else he had been through.
When Darcy did finally arrive back at her dwelling, Loki was still wearing the ruined clothing that he had come to Midgard with, even his tunic was torn and stained. Darcy was carrying several bags when she arrived, and he arched an eyebrow at her, curious to see what she might have. She just grinned at him and dumped the bags at his feet. “I bring you clothing that is not ripped to ass,” she explained. “Not that leather isn’t wonderful on you and all, but it doesn’t exactly breathe, you know? You’re going to die in the desert if you don’t start wearing other stuff.”
He peeked into one of the bags, seeing the shirts and jeans that the males of this realm (when he had done some spying) seemed to prefer. He was pleased to note that she had stuck to choosing him greens and blacks for covering, even some white that made him think of his mother’s robes, although he doubted she would have known that. “Sorry that they aren’t exactly top quality, but I’m working on an intern’s budget here, this is like, next to nothing.”
He arched an eyebrow, turning his attention back to her. “Then why would you go out of your way for me, since it inconveniences you so?” he asked, curious.
She just shrugged at him. “You can’t walk around in just that stuff all the time. I got you what you needed. Simple as that.”
He blinked at her, still not entirely sure what to make of this mortal. He had went through his life assuming that so many people were only nice to him because he was a prince, because he was Thor’s brother, or they wanted him to do something for them. He kept expecting Darcy eventually to show that she had some ulterior motive. Finally, he stood, taking the bags of clothing with him. It would be nice to wear something clean, even if it was clothing from this realm. “Thank you for your generosity,” he said stiffly before heading away to her bathroom to change. He missed the slight smile on her face as he walked away.
When he returned (now wearing a pair of black jeans and a green shirt), Darcy had settled onto the sofa, her dog in her lap. The small animal had followed Loki around all day, as if it had no reason to believe that Loki might not want its constant attention, but eventually he had gotten used to the creature known as Baker, and the dog had spent much of its time in Loki’s lap when he sat on the sofa. Darcy grinned up at him when he entered the room. “Looks good on you. I’m glad that I guessed your size right. I had to go for the longest jeans that they had in the place.”
He nodded. “You did well. This clothing will suffice.” He knew that letting servants know that they did a job well meant that they would repeat it.
He couldn’t help but notice that she looked especially nice when she gave a full smile instead of the slight smirk that seemed to stay on her face. Shaking his head, he sat down on the other end of the sofa from her. He would have picked a different seat, but it seemed that this was her only seating in the living room. The dog Baker rose up from his place on Darcy’s lap, trotting over on the sofa and then plopping down into Loki’s lap. He forced himself to bite back a smile when she giggled. “I think he likes you,” Darcy remarked. Now completely unable to help it, Loki smiled slightly, reaching down and stroking Baker behind his ears.
“It seems that he recognizes regality when he sees it,” Loki remarked, letting himself smile wider as the dog huffed, rolling onto his back and exposing his stomach to be scratched, which Loki obliged him with.
“So, exactly why did you fall from the sky, anyway?” Darcy asked, and the smile fell from Loki’s face. He wasn’t entirely sure that he ever wanted to talk about that with someone else, much less a lowly mortal like Darcy. “Did you get exiled, too?”
The only reason that he was able to stay calm at all was because he continued to stroke the dog. He found that it was relaxing. He took a deep breath, trying to cool his temper. “Not exactly,” he finally said. “I fell from the bifrost.” He let go of Gungnir, just absolutely determined to not live anymore and drop into the abyss. “I didn’t even realize where it had opened a hole to. I am lucky that it was here and not some...less hospitable world.”
Darcy chuckled. “You didn’t seem that happy last night,” she pointed out to him, rising up from the sofa and moving closer to him. When he flinched, she rolled her eyes. “Come on, now. I just want to check and make sure that you’re healing OK. I know, you got that super healing alien body and all, but let’s keep up the pretense as to why you’re staying with me, right?”
Her words caught him so off guard that he didn’t have a chance to move away before she was pushing up his shirt to check where the majority of his injuries was, his chest. “Wow, you’re all yellow and purple,” she mused, her fingers reaching out and gingerly touching his ribs. He winced, keeping in a grunt of pain. “Looks like these are doing better, though. They were broken last night.” Her fingers hit the edge of the massive bruise that was left from Thor’s hammer. “What the hell exactly caused that? Did Thor head butt you or something?”
“Thor’s hammer. He laid it upon my chest to keep me from moving,” Loki said stiffly.
“Oh mew-mew? Tough luck there, dude,” Darcy mused, pushing his shirt back down. “Then again, totally tried to kill us, so you kind of deserve it. Why were you trying to kill us again?”
“I can only presume you mean Mjölnir,” he corrected dryly. “I wasn’t trying to kill you, but simply keep Thor from returning to Asgard,” he insisted again. He realized that it still rang as a hollow excuse, but it was one that he would stick with. “I was disposing of an enemy of the kingdom that had been a thorn in Asgard’s side for a long time. I knew that Thor would stop me. He’s a bit soft hearted at times. His time on Midgard made him even more so.”
Darcy snorted, rocking back on her heels and squatting on the floor for a moment. “If that’s really the case, you can blame Jane for that. They fell for each other pretty quickly. Like, three days really quickly. Do all of you in Asgard work so fast, or is he just a playboy?”
“I have no idea what you mean by playboy, but Thor has always had a way with women he desired,” Loki remarked. “It seems to be one of his...talents.”
“So not shocked to hear that,” Darcy said to him. “That Asgardian healing really is something. Wouldn’t think that a person could fall millions of billions of miles without, you know, cracked open like a raw egg. You got away with like, minor damage.”
He blinked when she changed the subject again. It was actually hard to keep up with everything that she was saying. “It does not feel like minor damage,” he said to her. He decided to ask something that had been bothering him all day. “I am well enough to make my way out of here, and yet you have not encouraged me to leave. You even do nice things and bring me clothes so that I need not wear my tattered armor. Why do you still help me?”
She stared at him silently for a moment, studying him to the point where he almost begged her to say something to end it, when she ended it before he started. “No one should feel like they have absolutely no one that they can turn to, even when they make mistakes.” She stood up, patting him on the shoulder gently. “Even big ones like trying to completely wipe out an enemy in a way that suggests something along the lines of genocide, if I’m reading between the lines correctly.”
He frowned, realized that she was smarter than he had given her credit for. He had not said exactly what he had done, using vague language, but it seemed like she had figured it out anyway. “Do you feel any remorse, for what you did?” she asked him.
He did not even think on it, shaking his head. “I did what I did in times of war. There are different rules then.”
She sighed. “Those rules don’t get to apply when you create the way yourself,” she told him, moving away. She headed toward the kitchen. “So, I’m not the greatest cook in the world, but I can put us something together. What do you want for dinner?”
Chapter Four:
Darcy had to admit that, when Loki was settled enough, he was actually engaging to talk to sometimes. One night while she was cooking, she got him to tell her a story about the origins of the universe, and it was actually really awesome to hear. He was a god, or an alien, or something more powerful than she was, so she assumed that his story might actually be right, but who the hell knew? However, when she asked too much about his past, or guessed something too correctly, he would turn dark and either stop talking or, like one time, shout and scream and throw things. The man was a picture of bipolar disorder. She only had to take one semester of Psych 101 to realize that.
She snagged a book on Norse mythology from the local library, deciding to read it while she worked at the restaurant. She did have bits of downtime while Jane ran tests and didn’t have anything for her to write up or file or something.
“What are you reading?” Jane asked, startling Darcy out of her reading. Darcy flipped the book slightly so that Jane could see the cover. “Reading up on Thor and his family. There are some crazy stories in here about them all, Loki especially.”
“Well, we don’t know what of that is truth and what of that is false,” Erik said, walking inside with their lunch. For some reason, he had wanted to go out and fetch it from the diner today. Saying something about needing the exercise. “Thor told me that some of the stories were mistakes and outright lies.”
“What about the one where he had to cross dress and marry some dude to get his hammer back?” Darcy asked.
“I actually asked him about that,” Erik admitted, laughing. “He said that it was unfortunately true.”
“God, with that beard? How did he manage to pass for anything resembling a woman?” Darcy asked with a laugh. “He’s a hot guy, but he had to make one UGLY woman.” Loki at least had a slighter build, but even he gave off an air of manliness that wouldn’t help him with the cross dressing, either.
“Speaking of men,” Jane drawled out with a grin, “Erik told me that you have one in your apartment from college.”
Darcy turned and glared at Erik. “You told!” she shouted, wanting to throw her book at him.
He seemed to guess, ducking behind one of the tables. “You didn’t tell me not to! Why are you hiding him away, anyway? Do you not want us to meet him? Embarrassed at working with us?”
He was teasing, but Darcy was still mortified. “No!” she protested, marking her place in the book and setting it aside. “You’ll likely smother him or something,” she explained quickly. She could hardly admit that she was kind of taking care of the guy who had leveled their town. It seemed insane, especially to her, that she was doing it, but she had kind of a caring nature. She didn’t have the heart to push him out of her home.
If anything, that would likely make him act worse.
“We wouldn’t do anything like that!” Jane protested. “That doesn’t mean that we don’t want to meet him, though.” Darcy grimaced, knowing what was likely to come next. “Why don’t you bring him to the bar tonight? It’s the weekend, so we don’t have to work tomorrow or anything.”
Darcy knew that, if she protested too badly, they would want to know why, but there was NO way that this would end anything but badly. She sighed. “Let me ask him, OK? He may not be up to it.”
“Not up to getting into another bar fight then?” Erik asked with a laugh, finally coming out fully from behind the table. “You have interesting friends from your college, Darcy.”
“Oh yeah, we’re regular party animals,” Darcy said, wondering whether or not she could pull this off without it all blowing up in her face.
OoOoOoOo
When Darcy made her way to her apartment after another twelve hour day (Jane would one day have to be explained to that, while she could run on old coffee and Poptarts until the end of time, some people were human and could not), the last thing she wanted to do was ask Loki if he could behave himself long enough to do one night with Jane and Erik without going insane or blowing the cover that she had so nicely set up for him.
As she walked inside, she realized that the place was clean, cleaner than she usually kept it. “Did you clean?” she asked in disbelief, looking over at Loki, who was sitting on the sofa.
“”One of us should, and I can do it with magic,” he said to her, not looking away from the TV. She couldn’t help but realize that Baker truly had seemed to have adopted Loki, as, whenever she came home now, Baker was always curled up in his lap. It was one of the things that told her that, deep down, he couldn’t be a complete evil nut job. Dogs hate those. That was just a fact.
“Right...well, thanks for that,” Darcy said, mostly still in shock that a prince of a different world would even think to do the dishes, much less set about doing them. Sure, he didn’t have to touch them or anything, but it was still weird. “Anyway, I kind of need a favor.”
That did cause him to turn toward her, eyebrow raised at her. “I thought that it would only be a matter of time before you needed my services for anything,” he said, sitting up stiffly. “I suppose I do owe you. What is it that you need, Darcy?”
“It’s not like that!” she protested. “You’re acting like I’m asking you to kill someone for me, which I’m totally not, by the way.” She leaned back against the door, trying to think of a way to phrase what she needed that sounded the least bit ridiculous. “You remember Erik, from the first night you were here?” When he nodded, she continued. “Well, he told Jane that my ‘friend from college’ was here, and now they’re both dying to get acquainted with you. It’s annoying and I wish that they wouldn’t, but they’ll totally annoy me until they get to meet you, so either we do it on something of our own terms or they drop by when we least expect it.” She hadn’t meant to word vomit all over him, but this whole idea had her feeling a bit nervous.
He stood up, slowly making his way over to her. “Why should I do this? It will only be an inconvenience, especially since everything we tell them will only be a lie.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t have a point there, but more that she was already annoyed and not really in the mood for another insisting person. “Did you miss the part where I said they’ll just drop by and bug the shit out of both of us?” she asked him, pressing herself a little more against her door when Loki stepped closer to her. “Besides, not like you have anywhere to go, so why not do me this little favor?”
Something about that little exchange apparently pissed Loki off, because he pushed himself against her, pinning her to the door. He more startled her than hurt her, causing her to gasp as she hit the door, but she knew that she wouldn’t be able to move until he wanted her to. “I could simply kill the three of you and not have to deal with this at all,” he hissed, bending down so that he could say it in her ear. “Tell me why I shouldn’t do that.”
Even though her body was shaking and her mouth felt too dry to form words, she could hear herself saying, “You wouldn’t hurt someone that’s done nothing but help you, Loki.” Her voice was actually a lot steadier than she would have expected. She turned her eyes up so that she could look at him, and god he was far too close to her right now. She could easily get lost in the sea of green that was his eyes. “You know you don’t want to hurt me. Now come on and help me with this, please?”
He seemed to be stunned into a silence for a moment, but he at least backed off of her enough so that she could catch her breath and not be completely caught up in the completely dizzying spell that was Loki stepping way too close into her personal space for her sanity. “Honesty time, oh God of Lies,” she said, hoping that what she asked him next wouldn’t just anger him again. “Anyone ever just try to help you before?” He seemed to have been expecting far too much for her to ask some big favor of him. Maybe her asking anything at all had set him on edge.
“No one does anything for me without wanting something in return,” Loki said to her, his eyes still on her. “They always want some bit of information, or want me to do something, or encourage someone else to do something.”
Even though now she technically could move, his eyes on her like that still have her frozen in place. “Yeah well, I just want you to go out for drinks with me,” she said. “Play nice for my coworkers. Nothing nearly that hazardous.” She sighed. “Where you’re from must suck if everyone only do things for you when they want something.”
“It does,” he admitted, and she realized that he must have learned that word from TV. He did watch an awful lot of it. Finally, he pushed away from her completely, turning away and she finally felt like she could relax a little bit. Loki was a very intense person, and it was freaky to have that intensity turned on her in any way.
“So, you normally get that snippy when someone stands up to you a bit, or am I special?” she asked, nearly covering her mouth with a gasp when she said that aloud. That was really supposed to stay in her head.
Thankfully, it seemed that the crisis was truly averted, because he just chuckled. “It must be you and your special way with words,” he remarked, not turning around to her.
“Nah, I bet you’re that way with everyone,” she said, smiling with just a touch of nervousness. “You seem like a control freak like that.”
“I don’t know why I put up with you,” he muttered as he grabbed some clothes, obviously going off to change for their night at the bar. “You’re an infuriating creature.”
“Obviously you must totally adore me, because otherwise I don’t get it, either,” she said with a smirk, and was rewarded with a quizzical look and a huff before he stomped off to the bathroom. Score one for Darcy, obviously.
OoOoOoOo
Darcy and Loki managed to put together a decent cover story before making their way to the bar. She had ended up calling Erik and Jane and letting them know that they were on. She was still sort of amazed that Loki had seemingly agreed to come along for this, considering the snit fit he had initially thrown. She wanted to keep it pretty basic, although she had the feeling that Loki could handle remembering anything that she could make up.
She didn’t remember buying the particular clothes that Loki was wearing tonight (she had admittedly raided a local Goodwill to get what she needed for him), but she had to admit that he looked really good. She thought that the black leather pants might be part of what he had been wearing when he fell to Earth, but she knew that she hadn’t bought the black v-neck long sleeved shirt that he had worn. Actually, it looked expensive as hell.
When they arrived at the one bar in the town, Erik and Jane were already there. They hadn’t bothered to change clothes, and neither had Darcy. She didn’t know why Loki had bothered, other than to show off. He seemed like the type that wanted to show off, after all, plus, the whole ‘god’ thing.
“Hi guys!” Darcy said with a wave as she walked up to the table. “This, obviously, is Jeremy,” she said with a smile. He reached out and shook both Jane and Erik’s hands, now simply able to pour on the charm. “Jeremy, this is Jane and Erik, who I work with.”
Jane and Erik had left one side of the booth open for the both of them, and she slid into it on the inside. Thankfully, Loki didn’t seem to think twice about sliding in next to her, or it might have looked weird. They were supposed to be friends after all. They were at least friendly, you know, most of the time when Loki wasn’t throwing a bipolar fit, but they hadn’t known each other long enough for anything else, right?
“So, Jeremy, how long have the two of you known each other?” Erik asked. She knew that Erik was a little suspicious of what was going on, since he had gotten to stumble in on them when Loki was still mostly a giant bruise, which was weird even on the best of days.
Darcy was going to answer, but Loki beat her to it. “We actually shared a freshman English class together,” he explained. “She talked my damn head off, and we kind of became inseparable ever since.”
Darcy giggled, but she couldn’t help but inwardly wonder where he had learned enough about college to be able to speak with any sort of certainty. TV could only teach him so much. Maybe he played around on her laptop, too? It made her grin to picture a Norse god playing around on the internet. She should introduce him to twitter! Oh wait, that could only end in disaster.
The waitress came around and got drink orders for them, with Erik ordering them all something called ‘boilermakers.’ Darcy admittedly had no idea what the hell that was, but she usually stuck to either beer or simply cocktails of some kind that tasted like kool aid. Still, what was brought around looked mostly like a beer, so she rolled with it.
OoOoOoOo
Loki hadn’t wanted to participate in this night of drinking, as, while he felt almost comfortable around Darcy, the other mortals of this realm had yet to impress him. However, Darcy had a point in one of the things she mentioned to him: he liked her. When she wasn’t paying attention, she could actually be a witty and charming individual, although she was horrendously naive. He could only assume that the ones called Jane and Erik protected this girl somewhat. The fact that she had picked him up off the road and then seemed to want to keep him around showed that she knew little about the world.
He had promised his brother that, when he was done, he would pay Jane a visit, but he hadn’t planned on it being in a bar with her assistant and...whatever Erik Selvig was to them. He wasn’t terribly sure. This had not been what he had in mind when he said that.
He wasn’t terribly sure what these ‘boilermakers’ were made of, either, but they packed a hard punch for something that a Midgardian had come up with. He still wasn’t terribly affected by them. Jane had nursed one while Erik had two while they talked, but it seemed that Darcy had gotten a little carried away. She was on her third one when she started to slump against him in the booth. When Loki tried to cut her off, she had simply stolen his drink. Darcy was crafty when she wasn’t trying, or he was just a little off guard because he’d had three of the damn drinks himself.
When Darcy started loudly to sing some song, Loki realized that it was time to go. “Well, it’s been fun getting to know you both,” Loki said to them, sliding out of the booth. “But I think Darcy has had a little too much to drink tonight, and I should be a decent gentleman and take her home.”
He tried to get Darcy to help herself out of the booth, but, as soon as he had her standing, her legs went right out from under her, and he had to pick her up and cradle her in his arms. “She’s certainly had too much to drink,” Loki stated, trying not to laugh at the young woman who immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face into his neck.
“Make sure that you get her home safe,” Erik told him, looking at him sternly. Then the man smiled at him. “Thank the gods that she doesn’t have to be at work tomorrow, right?”
Loki nodded, bidding Erik and Jane both farewell before carrying Darcy out of the bar. They had walked to the bar, as Darcy’s apartment wasn’t too far away. It didn’t take him long to get to her home, fishing her keys out of her purse and unlocking the door. He set her down on the sofa so that he could lock the door, but, as soon as he was turning around from that, it appeared that Darcy had regained her ability to walk, as she had somehow made her way over to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
“Have I told you that I love that shirt on you?” she asked, turning her eyes up to look at him. His mouth went dry when her tongue peeked out, wetting her bottom lip. “Because you look positively delicious in it. I could eat you up with a spoon,” she drawled.
“You need to go to bed and sleep this off,” Loki told her, his breath coming out in short gasps. He couldn’t even remember the last time that he’d been with a woman. That had to be why this was affecting him so much. That had to be it.
“Go to bed? Is that an invitation?” she asked, leaning up on her toes and running the tip of that infernal tongue along the side of his neck.
“No, it was not,” he protested, pushing her away. “And if you won’t go yourself, then I will simply have to make you go to bed.” Moreover, be far away from him. He couldn’t think straight with her pressed against him like that.
When she started to argue again, he picked her up, lifting her up and over his shoulder. He kicked open the door to her bedroom, fully intent upon dumping her on the bed and then running back to the living room. There was a misstep in his plan, though. When he tried to deposit her on the bed, she grabbed a hold of his shirt, pulling him down with her. Before he had the chance to pull away, she tugged him closer, pressing her full, warm lips against his.
He froze for a split second, not kissing her back but not pulling away yet, and that seemed to be all the time that she needed, rolling them both over until she was on top of him, straddling his hips. With a warm, rather attractive woman moving against him, he got a little weak. They were still kissing, and now he was kissing her back, holding her flush against him.
It took him a few moments to come back to himself, snapping back to attention and breaking their lips apart. Her lipstick had smeared, and he realized that he likely had it all over his lips now as well, and she had a questioning look on her face. “Why’d you stop?” she asked, breathing hard.
“You’re drunk, Darcy,” he said to her, somehow managing to push her away and disentangle himself from her, moving to the side of the bed. “You’re very drunk, and not in charge of your faculties, and this wouldn’t be right.” She tried to pull him back and he gently yet firmly removed her hands from him again. “You wouldn’t forgive me for taking advantage of the situation.”
Whether he stunned her or simply seemed to agree, she stopped trying to pull him back, and he got up off the bed and all but ran from the room.
Author: Lena
For: skadi/europa_kore
Fandom: Marvel
Warnings: Sexual Relations, Some Foul Language
Rating: Mature
Disclaimer: Marvel is god, I'm just a lowly worshiper, blah, blah, blah.
Summary: Darcy is driving in New Mexico when she nearly hits Loki, who has just fallen off the bifrost. Despite every self preserving instinct in her, she takes him to her home to patch him up.
Beta'd By: Just Me
Chapter One:
Of all the things that Darcy thought she would be doing at ten at night, she hadn’t ever thought that a grocery run would be one of them. Maybe a Taco Bell run when she’d been up for way too long getting stoned with her friends at college, but never a full grocery run. No, she’d had to drive to the next town over, which was quite a ways. Puente Antiguo hadn’t exactly been near anything, and, when it was nearly destroyed, that meant that all of the supplies needed had to be shipped in from elsewhere.
Still, Darcy wouldn’t likely trade any of this for the world. Well, she’d love it if Thor’s brother hadn’t shown up a few months ago and tried to level the town in a pissing match and taken out the local grocery store, thus the need for travel, but you couldn’t always get what you wanted. She was probably lucky in that the whole town hadn’t been completely leveled, and that casualties had been minimal. She’d even gained a pet! The man that she had given Baker to have actually returned him when things had settled and the pet shop owner had said that she could keep him since she had thought to help him get all of the animals out of there. Therefore, there was that.
Of course, she also had to deal with a love sick Jane. Who knew that two people could be so attached after only two days? Darcy never would have guessed that. Now she had a mooning scientist to deal with. Being Jane’s little helper elf before had been bad enough, as the woman had a tendency to get distracted by her work for hours at a time, and to not think about things like eating or sleeping, but now that she also had love on the line? Yeah, Jane had almost completely stopped being able to take care of herself. If Darcy weren’t’ around, Jane likely would have starved to death. Erik tried, but he couldn’t compete with raw data. Darcy, however, was great at taking care of people. Well, other people. She hadn’t quite pulled off the task of taking care of herself quite yet.
This was why she was doing a grocery run so late at night. They had run out of pop tarts (the main thing that Jane seemed willing to live off) and a few other things around the restaurant that served as the makeshift lab, so she had elected to go out and get them, not thinking of how far the next town was away, or how late it had already gotten. She could have waited until tomorrow, but Jane got extra cranky when her source of energy wasn’t around, and Jane was already cranky enough. She was far more worried about dealing with Jane than driving at night.
She should have been more concerned, though. She had put in a full day at the lab, plus going out like this, so she was a bit tired and not really paying attention to the road. There wasn’t exactly a whole lot to pay attention to out here. It was just dirt, cacti, lizards, and one straight road. However, when a storm opened up the sky out of nowhere, it caught her attention very quickly. There was thunder and lightning and, despite how she knew that she shouldn’t get her hopes up, she couldn’t help but wonder if Thor had managed to find his way back. With what he had promised to Jane, Darcy couldn’t help but think something had prevented him from coming back. With another flash of lightning, something humanoid dropped in the road directly in front of her. Darcy screamed, swerving her car off the road so that she wouldn’t hit whatever it was. She suspected that, if it was Thor, he wouldn’t appreciate being hit by a car AGAIN. Not exactly the best way to welcome a guy back.
Putting the car in park, she climbed out and headed over to the unmoving form in the middle of the road. The storm was already clearing, which led her to believe all the more that it was Asgardian in nature rather than just another crazy storm in the desert. The wind was still whipping through her long, dark curls as she moved closer to the person on the ground. She could see right away that it wasn’t Thor, as the form was much too lean for it to be the big, hulking blond beefcake. Nothing wrong with lean, as Darcy actually preferred it. She could see from the man’s clothing (it was a man, upon closer inspection) that he wasn’t from around. His clothing looked similar to what Thor’s friends had been wearing when they showed up, if in bad shape. The green cloak on his back was tattered. When she gingerly rolled him over, she could see the dents and tears in his armor as well. His gleamed gold while Thor seemed to have preferred silver as a metal. This guy looked beat to hell, though. Whomever he had picked a fight with, she suspected that he had lost. However, if he were like any other guy, he would likely insist that the ‘other guy’ looked worse.
“You couldn’t drop out of the sky in the middle of town where I could get some help?” Darcy grumbled, more to herself than the prone figure in front of her. She took a brief few minutes to move her car closer to him, and, making sure the passenger door was open, slowly managed to drag him over to the car and prop him up in the seat. “Jeeze, for a skinny guy, you sure are heavy,” she grumbled. Thor had been heavier, but she wasn’t sure if it had been by much. Then again, she had Erik helping her put Thor into the van, while she was doing this by herself.
The guy was obviously Asgardian, as Darcy didn’t know of any other people who dropped out of the sky like this (then again, she hadn’t know about aliens until recently, either, so anything could surprise her at this point). He wasn’t one of the people that had shown up to ‘rescue’ Thor, so Darcy had no clue who he was. Still, she couldn’t exactly just leave him in the middle of the road. On top of all the other obvious things that were wrong with that, it had to be a massive road hazard to be lying around in the middle of the road like that.
As she started the car and got back onto the road, she couldn’t help but wonder just what she was going to DO with the dude in her passenger seat. She couldn’t take him to the hospital. Not only was it still being rebuilt on itself, but Thor had torn the place apart last time. There was nothing saying that this guy wouldn’t do the same. She thought that she should take him by the lab. Jane was likely still there, if not Erik as well, and she knew that Jane especially would want to know anything this guy knew about Thor. She’d likely throw water on him until he woke up just to ask him about the big guy.
As she’s driving, she can’t help but notice that some of the superficial wounds on him are already starting to heal up. She remembered that, once Thor had gone all Asgardian, all of his wounds had healed up like nothing. Even though this guy wasn’t as built as he was, she supposed that he was made of the same stuff as Thor, same physiology. Still, it was a freaky thing to watch out of the corner of her eye while she drove. She could see why old school Norse people thought that these guys were gods. The man unconscious next to her was certainly utterly gorgeous. If she were a little more primitive, she’d be happy to drop down and worship him.
As she drove, she heard him let out a soft moan. He started to move, seemingly waking up from his ‘nap.’ “Hey man, how are you feeling over there?” she asked, keeping her eyes on the road for the time being. “It’s not every day that someone drops out of the sky in front of a car I’m in. Actually, it’s only happened twice now, each time very memorable.”
She slowed down the car a little so that she could turn and look at him. At first he looked highly confused, which she supposed made sense, as he likely didn’t remember last being in her car. Then, before she could properly react, his face changed from confusion to anger. He reached over and grabbed her by both arms, and she managed to slam on the brakes just in enough time to not completely run off the road and move the car into park before he turned her toward him, pulling her inches from his face.
“Dude, what the hell?” she snapped at him, trying to ignore and he was grabbing her arms hard enough to likely make them bruise later. “I could have ran off the road and wrecked! You’re banged up enough as it is.”
“Hush, mortal!” he snapped at her. “Tell me where I am.”
She took a deep breath, telling herself that he might have thought he was kidnapped or something. “Earth, dude,” she told him. “You fell out of the sky in front of my car. I did good not to run you over. Now can you relax a little and let me go?”
He made a face of mild disgust, lessening his grip on her arms but still not letting her go. “Earth, really? Of all the places,” he said, seemingly talking more to himself than to her.
“Hey, insult much?” she snapped at him. “I happen to like this place.”
“That is because you do not know better, girl,” he retorted. “There are worlds much grander than this place.” He was staring a hole through her right now, and it made her want to look away, although she was forcing herself to keep looking back at him. It was the stare down of the ages. “I know you. You were with my brother the day that I sent The Destroyer.”
Darcy’s eyes went wide as her mouth dropped open a little. “Who are you?” she asked, trying to keep her voice from shaking and not quite succeeding.
He sneered at her, and she had to bite back a shudder. “I am Loki of Asgard, mortal,” he said to her. “And you should be kneeling before me.”
“Oh crap,” Darcy said.
Chapter Two:
Loki could see that the girl was trying to put on a brave face, but she looked like she was mere seconds away from screaming. He could understand her reaction, however. He hadn't exactly been after her directly, but he wouldn't have cared that day if she had died if she had gotten in the way. "So, you normally send giant metal people off the kill your brother on different planets or was that a special case?" she asked him.
He narrowed his eyes at her, not seeing the point of telling her anything. He would be away from her quickly enough, if he had his way. He didn't want to be anywhere near anyone that was associated with his not-brother. "I sent it to keep Thor and his friends from getting back to Asgard too quickly. It was merely a distraction," he corrected her. Despite sounding sure, Loki knew that it was a weak argument. He hadn't realized that his father had some sort of failsafe instilled in Thor's banishment that would revive him if he died on Midgard, or if he sacrificed himself, or whatever it was that brought him back to his full Aesir heritage. He had told the Destroyer to destroy everything in its path, after all. To claim otherwise now seemed silly. He had been willing to do anything to prevent Thor's return until he had shown Odin that he was the worthy son, and yet Thor arrived early and ruined everything. Something his brother was perfect at doing.
"Well, can't take you where I was going to take you first, obviously," the girl said with a roll of her eyes. He finally let her wiggle out of his grasp and turn back towards the wheel of her car. At his questioning glance, she seemed inclined to continue. “I was going to take you to the lab that Jane and Erik use, but with you being Thor’s brother I think that would be an absolutely horrible idea.”
“Do not mention that name in my presence,” he growled at her, but he could see the logic in her words. Even though her attention was turned back toward the road, he could see her eyes widen a bit when she growled at her, and that made him glad that he could still menace these ants. “Where are you taking me, then?”
He watched her as she chewed on her lip, as if deep in thought. “Guess we’re going to my place then.” He could see that she had mixed feelings about the idea, and so was he. He didn’t exactly relish the idea of being around his brother’s mortal friends for any length of time. He reached for the door handle, intent upon getting out and getting as far away from her as he possibly could.
He was surprised, however, when she grabbed his arm and jerked it away from the door. “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked her in a surprised voice. He would think that she would be perfectly happy to be rid of him. He had tried to kill her, after all, at least passively.
“Stopping you from hurting yourself worse, more than likely,” she snapped back at him. He realized that he must be in dire straits, because he did not have the energy really to fight her, a mere mortal. He slumped back against the seat, content for now at least to stay in the car while it was still moving.
“Why do you care whether or not I stay in your vehicle?” he asked her. “I would think that you would prefer to be rid of me. I did try to kill you, after all.” Not on purpose, but that was a minor point just the same.
She shrugged at him. “Just seems kind of rude to leave you lying in the road. Wouldn’t want anyone to run over you and mess up their car.”
He rolled his eyes. “I assure you, child that I can get out of the way of cars on my own” he grumbled at her.
“Because you totally could have done that while you were unconscious,” she said, rolling her eyes. “And if you call me ‘child’ again, I’ll push you out of this car, run you over, and then pick you back up. I know you’re like, way old, if people from a thousand years ago were worshipping you, but I’m still an adult, and that’s really insulting.”
He forced himself to bite back a laugh at her threat. Not because he doubted that she would follow through. Of that, he had little doubt. He was more amused by the detail of it. “Then what should I call you?” he asked, smiling slightly.
He could feel the corners of her eyes turn toward him even as he kept his own forward, watching the desert as it moved by. “It’s Darcy Lewis,” she told him, her voice a little softer. For some reason, he had the distinct feeling that hers was a name that he’d be remembering for a while, even as he told himself he’d be fleeing as soon as he had a chance.
OoOoOoOo
When they arrive back at her apartment, Darcy's still questioning her sanity. She's almost positive that she's gone insane and hallucinated this entire encounter from after one too many late nights working with Jane, or she actually picked up the murderous god of mischief and she's REALLY gone insane. Darcy's actually not sure which one she would prefer, although it would probably be better for the world if she was just hallucinating after one too many late nights.
She parked her car in front of the tiny apartment complex. Puente Antiguo doesn't have a large population who need things like one bedroom apartments, so the apartment 'complex' only consisted of twelve apartments linked together. Darcy currently inhabited number six. As soon as she pulled herself out of the car, Loki tried to bolt again, opening the car door quickly so that he can run and get away, she supposed. However, whatever his speed normally was, it was slowed enough so that Darcy could keep up with him. She actually launched herself over the hood of the car 'Dukes of Hazard' style (something that's she's INCREDIBLY amazed at later) and grabs him by the arm. When he turns to look at her, likely going to push her off, her instincts kick in and she slugs him in the stomach.
Loki wheezes, dropping to the ground. "You have a strange way of helping someone," he said to her, hand clutching his stomach.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures," she told him, shrugging. "If you wouldn't keep trying to run off, I wouldn't be sinking to those measures, though. So really, stop it. Besides, god or not, you're apparently hurt enough that I can get the upper hand on you. That must be really embarrassing."
"You have no idea," he said to her, letting her help him up off the ground this time. Even though he's likely pissed at her for punching him like that (totally only to get him to stop being an ass and trying to run), he seems content to actually let her help this time. She grabs her keys from her pocket and shoves one in the door. Before she can get it unlocked, she can already hear barking inside.
Damn, she forgot to tell Loki about Baker. She actually gained a pet by accident, as, when Loki decided to pull his 'I hate my big brother act,' she helped take all of the animals out of a local pet shop, including Baker, a small black and white chubby dog. When everything went a little back to normal, the pet shop owner gave her Baker as a gift for helping out. As soon as they walk inside of her apartment, and before she can scoop up Baker, he's all over Loki's legs, and Loki is staring at Baker like the one he's the alien from another planet, not him.
"Dude, Baker, bad dog!" Baker has no knowledge of the word, though, so he's perfectly happy to keep jumping on Loki and barking in an effort to get attention. Finally, she bends down and scoops the dog up in her arms, looking toward Loki. "You, go sit on the sofa and then don't move, OK? If I have to chase you down again, it's not going to be pretty." She carries Baker off to her bedroom, grabbing the first aid kit she has put up, collecting dust, before shutting the door and heading back toward the sofa. Thankfully, Loki's done as asked, and hasn't moved from the couch after sitting.
"OK, gonna have to get this armor off of you if I'm going to look at you," Darcy told him. From the way that he's been holding himself, she can tell that he's likely taken some sort of hit to the chest. However, he looks at her as if she's insane when she suggests it. "Dude, don't be such an ass. I'm only trying to help."
"Why?" he asked her, still staring at her like she was an absolute loon, and she's starting to agree with him, honestly. She really should just grab her dog and run away screaming from her apartment and just let him have it. Obviously, she has no self preservation, because she doesn't do that. Instead, she starts pulling on the ruined armor, pointedly ignoring the question until he repeats it, grabbing her hands and making her stop moving.
Before she can answer, though, someone knocks on her door and, from her bedroom, Baker went insane again. He didn't appreciate being locked away in the first place and someone knocking now is only making it worse. Despite the barking, she can hear Erik's voice on the outside, and she remembers that she told him to meet her here around this time to pick up the groceries that she went out of town to pick up and all of reality comes crashing down on her in just enough time for her to remember that she didn't lock the door and the knob's turning.
"Pretend that you're a friend of mine," she hissed to him. She could see the protest on his lips and she managed to wrench her hand free to cover his mouth. "Would you rather tell him the truth? He's just gonna call SHIELD the iPod stealers," she snapped at him. She managed to get a curt nod out of him just as Erik opened the door, walking in on Darcy's sitting on a sofa with a now shirtless Loki. She's just glad she got him out of the most obvious armor.
Erik takes a good look at her sitting on a sofa with a half-naked man and immediately blushes. "I didn't realize you had company," he said quickly, turning away.
Darcy rolled her eyes. "SO not what you think," she said quickly. "It's just a buddy of mine from Arizona State. He dropped in on me as I was coming back into town." She jumped up off the couch. "Erik, this is Jeremy, history major of Arizona State. Jeremy, this is Dr. Erik Selvig, super duper astrophysicist that I'm doing my internship with." She smiled a wide, nervous grin as Loki waved mutely from the sofa. "Don't worry about him, Erik. He's in a fight club, but we can't talk about it, or we're breaking like, the first three rules or something, I don't know. Why don't we get those groceries?" With that, she yanked the confused older man out of the apartment, praying that she didn't come back to an empty one. At least if Loki was there, she didn't have to worry about him wandering about doing god knew what.
"So...your friend dropped in on your shirtless and beaten up?" Erik asked as she dragged him outside toward her car. She hadn't even locked her car. Not that there was any real reason for to lock stuff up around here. There were like, four hundred people in this town, tops, and all of them were decent human beings. Now she just had a mad god in her apartment, so they weren't exactly safe for long.
"Well, he wasn't shirtless. I made him strip down so that I could do the first aid thing," she explained as she opened her trunk and started grabbing bags to put in the van that Erik had shown up in. "Honestly, I think he got drunk and got in a bar fight. Totally not the first time that it happened," she said. She hoped that she was making some sort of sense.
"Does he usually drive across the state while drunk to drop in on your after a bar fight?" Erik asked. She gave him another one of those tense grins. "You have strange friends, Darcy."
"Seriously, you have no idea," she said with a sigh.
It actually didn't take her too long to get rid of Erik. He was only supposed to come by for the stack of groceries, after all. When she went back inside of the apartment, Loki was still sitting on her sofa, still shirtless, although now Baker had somehow escaped the confines of her bedroom and was now sitting on Loki's lap, asleep and looking as content as he could be.
"Your dog seems to like me," Loki said, reaching down and petting the animal behind his ear. Baker grunted in his sleep but otherwise didn't do anything.
"That's good. I'd rather him not sit around and bark at you all the time," she said, sitting back down on the sofa. Loki was covered in cuts and bruises, but the biggest one was a giant square shaped one on his chest. "Dude, seriously, did you get hit by a truck or something? What the hell caused that?" she asked, ghosting a finger over the giant purple bruise as she grabbed the kit so that she could at least clean up the cuts. She had the feeling that they looked a lot worse when he had landed. He'd likely be mostly fine by tomorrow, although he'd still at least hurt like hell.
"A rather lengthy battle with Thor," he explained to her, now finally not fighting her in any way as she started to clean him up. After getting the cuts on his arms and chest, she moved up to one on his face, just under his left eye.
"You guys have bizarre forms of family therapy," she remarked. "So, I convinced Erik that you're a friend of mine from college. I have no idea how much he really believed me, but I highly doubt that, no matter how much he questions it, he'll guess who you're really are anyway."
"Does this mean that I have to stay?" Loki asked her. He flinched slightly when she started cleaning the cut on his face. She could tell that he was trying not to show how much pain he was in, but she was guessing that, along with all the cuts and bruises, he likely had at least a few broken ribs as well.
"Well, I’d appreciate it, since I saved your ass and all that," she said to him, grabbing a bandage and putting it over the cut. "Come on, like it’s gonna hurt you to hang around for a few days and pretend to be my friend so that Erik doesn’t get freaked out and think that you’re someone else."
"I believe that would be more your problem than mine, if I decide to flee," Loki said quickly, even as he appeared to be in no hurry now to get off her sofa, much less escape. He didn't even seem inclined to move Baker now.
"Like it would kill you to get more rest, anyway. You look like ass," she told him quickly, grabbing the first aid kit and putting everything back into it.
"You fall into an abyss of space and then slam into the ground and see how good you look," Loki remarked, looking away from her and all but pouting.
Darcy had to laugh at that face. "All the more reason for you to hang around and rest!" she said, grinning at him. "You get the couch, though. Not sharing my totally awesome bed. I'm totally not that kind of girl, you know."
He looked at her, bewildered as she got up off the sofa. Before he could say anything, though, she went off and grabbed a pillow and blanket for him, bringing them out and setting them on the sofa for him. "If you promise not to disappear before morning, I cook a wicked breakfast."
As she turned and went to her bedroom, she wondered again why she was doing this. The easy answer was to say that it was better to keep him in her apartment than to have him roaming off by himself. However, but she knew that didn't hold weight because what she should have done was told Erik who she found and let him call SHIELD. They could likely deal with the angry god. Yet, when she looked at him, she just...couldn't do it. Despite being insanely dangerous, she felt somewhat bad for him, too. He definitely did the pathetic look well, whether intentionally or not.
She just hoped that someone put that on her tombstone if he went nutty and killed her: She felt bad because he looked pathetic.
Chapter Three:
Loki had intended to be gone before the mortal woke up in the morning. What he truly wanted was to get as far away as possible so that he could plot in peace. He had the distinct feeling that he would get absolutely no peace around this woman who seemed to prattle on as if she actually couldn’t control what came from her mouth. However, when he first felt the stirrings of consciousness on the sofa, he could hear her voice as she sang to herself as she moved around the small kitchen that her home had. Damn...he supposed he could put up with her long enough for a meal. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had eaten anything.
He sat up and opened his eyes, immediately wincing in pain as he slowly moved. He had thought that he would be more healed today, but it seemed that having Thor’s hammer laid on his chest was going to take longer to fix itself than he might have suspected. It must have something to do with its magical nature. He shouldn’t still have this large bruise on his chest, much less still be feeling the pain from it.
“Oh, you’re awake!” Darcy’s cheerful voice chirped from the kitchen. He turned toward her, looking her over. “I’m making waffles, so I hope you have an appetite.” She turned back toward the stove, and he took the opportunity of not having her looking at him to study her. She was fully dressed in what he assumed were adequate clothing, but the baggy layers that she wore did absolutely nothing to enhance any beauty that she might have. She was attractive, he supposed, but it was hard to tell what she really looked like with her face hidden by her glasses and any hair that happened to fall in her face. He wondered if she ever wore anything a little more form fitting. He remembered what she looked like through the red haze of the Destroyer and that she had worn similar clothing then. He thought that she might look much more interesting if she wore something like the women in the Asgardian court wore. It would certainly give her a different look.
"Hey! When you're done staring, waffles are done," Darcy said to him, shocking him out of his musings.
He made no apologies for staring, simply slowly pushing himself off the sofa with a bitten back groan, walking toward her small dining table and sitting down in one of the chairs. She made up a plate of the 'waffles' squirting some sort of white topping on them after dropping several types of berries on them, setting them down in front of him. "If you don't eat them, I'll totally be sad and pout at you," she told him, giving him an example of the 'pout,' which looked like the most exaggerated facial expression ever, which made him smile ever so slightly despite not really wanting to.
He took a bite of the breakfast that she had made, and actually found it to be quite delicious. However, he did not want to give away how much he had liked it (or how hungry he was), instead calmly taking bites between sips of drink that she had also provided. After eating in silence for a few minutes, he finally asked her, “Do you usually make things like this for yourself?” he asked her.
“Well, I don’t usually make as much,” she admitted with a shrug. He watched her as she broke off a piece of one of her own waffles and handed it to her dog, who was begging at her feet. “But yeah, breakfast is an essential meal. I’m usually in the lab with Jane for like, twelve hours a day. I’ve gotta have tons of energy to manage to keep up with her.”
“It would seem like the focus of Thor’s affections keeps you very busy,” Loki remarked. “What sort of work do all of you do?” Even with the bit of watching that he had done, he had to admit that he had no clue.
“Now? Actually, looking for a way for Jane to reunite with her paramour,” Darcy said, looking away as she said it. “Not that we’re doing any good with it. Just because Jane was the first on Earth to really realize that it was possible doesn’t mean that anyone knows how to actually do it.”
Loki could explain it to them easy how to do it, but he certainly had no want for Thor to be around here. He was already going through much effort to continue to hide himself from Heimdall’s gaze. As long as he stayed away from this Jane too much, it shouldn’t be too noticeable. They likely thought him dead, anyway. It was pure luck that the abyss went to Midgard rather than some god forsaken realm.
“Well, I should go,” Darcy said as she finished her meal, standing up. “I really feel like I should just call in sick so I can watch you. If you try to flee, you’ll likely just hurt yourself more.” He hated that the mortal had a point, but she did. She walked with her dish over to the sink, rinsing it before setting it aside. “Try not to do anything too...mischief-y while I’m gone.” He could only laugh at that suggestion. “God that does not make me feel better.”
Soon she was out the door, and he actually did briefly think of running, but where would he even go? He had no base of operations here on this realm. Why not let the little mortal take care of him while he licked his wounds and planned. He could possibly even use this Jane to get back to Asgard and take his rightful place on the throne when he was ready. He had done nothing wrong while ruling, after all. They were at war. He was just being preemptive. He should have been congratulated, not discouraged. He thought ahead, unlike some blond headed idiots who shall remain nameless.
So, instead of fleeing, he instead borrowed Darcy’s shower, rinsing away the blood and grime that she didn’t get to wipe away last night (he had only let her touch him as much as absolutely necessary). It didn’t take him long to figure out, although he still preferred the hot springs of ho...of Asgard rather than these Midgardian contraptions. They were claustrophobic.
He didn’t do too much to her home while Darcy was away. He might have changed where a few of her things were, more to keep him from dying of the boredom than for any real need for mischief. This might drive him mad more than anything else he had been through.
When Darcy did finally arrive back at her dwelling, Loki was still wearing the ruined clothing that he had come to Midgard with, even his tunic was torn and stained. Darcy was carrying several bags when she arrived, and he arched an eyebrow at her, curious to see what she might have. She just grinned at him and dumped the bags at his feet. “I bring you clothing that is not ripped to ass,” she explained. “Not that leather isn’t wonderful on you and all, but it doesn’t exactly breathe, you know? You’re going to die in the desert if you don’t start wearing other stuff.”
He peeked into one of the bags, seeing the shirts and jeans that the males of this realm (when he had done some spying) seemed to prefer. He was pleased to note that she had stuck to choosing him greens and blacks for covering, even some white that made him think of his mother’s robes, although he doubted she would have known that. “Sorry that they aren’t exactly top quality, but I’m working on an intern’s budget here, this is like, next to nothing.”
He arched an eyebrow, turning his attention back to her. “Then why would you go out of your way for me, since it inconveniences you so?” he asked, curious.
She just shrugged at him. “You can’t walk around in just that stuff all the time. I got you what you needed. Simple as that.”
He blinked at her, still not entirely sure what to make of this mortal. He had went through his life assuming that so many people were only nice to him because he was a prince, because he was Thor’s brother, or they wanted him to do something for them. He kept expecting Darcy eventually to show that she had some ulterior motive. Finally, he stood, taking the bags of clothing with him. It would be nice to wear something clean, even if it was clothing from this realm. “Thank you for your generosity,” he said stiffly before heading away to her bathroom to change. He missed the slight smile on her face as he walked away.
When he returned (now wearing a pair of black jeans and a green shirt), Darcy had settled onto the sofa, her dog in her lap. The small animal had followed Loki around all day, as if it had no reason to believe that Loki might not want its constant attention, but eventually he had gotten used to the creature known as Baker, and the dog had spent much of its time in Loki’s lap when he sat on the sofa. Darcy grinned up at him when he entered the room. “Looks good on you. I’m glad that I guessed your size right. I had to go for the longest jeans that they had in the place.”
He nodded. “You did well. This clothing will suffice.” He knew that letting servants know that they did a job well meant that they would repeat it.
He couldn’t help but notice that she looked especially nice when she gave a full smile instead of the slight smirk that seemed to stay on her face. Shaking his head, he sat down on the other end of the sofa from her. He would have picked a different seat, but it seemed that this was her only seating in the living room. The dog Baker rose up from his place on Darcy’s lap, trotting over on the sofa and then plopping down into Loki’s lap. He forced himself to bite back a smile when she giggled. “I think he likes you,” Darcy remarked. Now completely unable to help it, Loki smiled slightly, reaching down and stroking Baker behind his ears.
“It seems that he recognizes regality when he sees it,” Loki remarked, letting himself smile wider as the dog huffed, rolling onto his back and exposing his stomach to be scratched, which Loki obliged him with.
“So, exactly why did you fall from the sky, anyway?” Darcy asked, and the smile fell from Loki’s face. He wasn’t entirely sure that he ever wanted to talk about that with someone else, much less a lowly mortal like Darcy. “Did you get exiled, too?”
The only reason that he was able to stay calm at all was because he continued to stroke the dog. He found that it was relaxing. He took a deep breath, trying to cool his temper. “Not exactly,” he finally said. “I fell from the bifrost.” He let go of Gungnir, just absolutely determined to not live anymore and drop into the abyss. “I didn’t even realize where it had opened a hole to. I am lucky that it was here and not some...less hospitable world.”
Darcy chuckled. “You didn’t seem that happy last night,” she pointed out to him, rising up from the sofa and moving closer to him. When he flinched, she rolled her eyes. “Come on, now. I just want to check and make sure that you’re healing OK. I know, you got that super healing alien body and all, but let’s keep up the pretense as to why you’re staying with me, right?”
Her words caught him so off guard that he didn’t have a chance to move away before she was pushing up his shirt to check where the majority of his injuries was, his chest. “Wow, you’re all yellow and purple,” she mused, her fingers reaching out and gingerly touching his ribs. He winced, keeping in a grunt of pain. “Looks like these are doing better, though. They were broken last night.” Her fingers hit the edge of the massive bruise that was left from Thor’s hammer. “What the hell exactly caused that? Did Thor head butt you or something?”
“Thor’s hammer. He laid it upon my chest to keep me from moving,” Loki said stiffly.
“Oh mew-mew? Tough luck there, dude,” Darcy mused, pushing his shirt back down. “Then again, totally tried to kill us, so you kind of deserve it. Why were you trying to kill us again?”
“I can only presume you mean Mjölnir,” he corrected dryly. “I wasn’t trying to kill you, but simply keep Thor from returning to Asgard,” he insisted again. He realized that it still rang as a hollow excuse, but it was one that he would stick with. “I was disposing of an enemy of the kingdom that had been a thorn in Asgard’s side for a long time. I knew that Thor would stop me. He’s a bit soft hearted at times. His time on Midgard made him even more so.”
Darcy snorted, rocking back on her heels and squatting on the floor for a moment. “If that’s really the case, you can blame Jane for that. They fell for each other pretty quickly. Like, three days really quickly. Do all of you in Asgard work so fast, or is he just a playboy?”
“I have no idea what you mean by playboy, but Thor has always had a way with women he desired,” Loki remarked. “It seems to be one of his...talents.”
“So not shocked to hear that,” Darcy said to him. “That Asgardian healing really is something. Wouldn’t think that a person could fall millions of billions of miles without, you know, cracked open like a raw egg. You got away with like, minor damage.”
He blinked when she changed the subject again. It was actually hard to keep up with everything that she was saying. “It does not feel like minor damage,” he said to her. He decided to ask something that had been bothering him all day. “I am well enough to make my way out of here, and yet you have not encouraged me to leave. You even do nice things and bring me clothes so that I need not wear my tattered armor. Why do you still help me?”
She stared at him silently for a moment, studying him to the point where he almost begged her to say something to end it, when she ended it before he started. “No one should feel like they have absolutely no one that they can turn to, even when they make mistakes.” She stood up, patting him on the shoulder gently. “Even big ones like trying to completely wipe out an enemy in a way that suggests something along the lines of genocide, if I’m reading between the lines correctly.”
He frowned, realized that she was smarter than he had given her credit for. He had not said exactly what he had done, using vague language, but it seemed like she had figured it out anyway. “Do you feel any remorse, for what you did?” she asked him.
He did not even think on it, shaking his head. “I did what I did in times of war. There are different rules then.”
She sighed. “Those rules don’t get to apply when you create the way yourself,” she told him, moving away. She headed toward the kitchen. “So, I’m not the greatest cook in the world, but I can put us something together. What do you want for dinner?”
Chapter Four:
Darcy had to admit that, when Loki was settled enough, he was actually engaging to talk to sometimes. One night while she was cooking, she got him to tell her a story about the origins of the universe, and it was actually really awesome to hear. He was a god, or an alien, or something more powerful than she was, so she assumed that his story might actually be right, but who the hell knew? However, when she asked too much about his past, or guessed something too correctly, he would turn dark and either stop talking or, like one time, shout and scream and throw things. The man was a picture of bipolar disorder. She only had to take one semester of Psych 101 to realize that.
She snagged a book on Norse mythology from the local library, deciding to read it while she worked at the restaurant. She did have bits of downtime while Jane ran tests and didn’t have anything for her to write up or file or something.
“What are you reading?” Jane asked, startling Darcy out of her reading. Darcy flipped the book slightly so that Jane could see the cover. “Reading up on Thor and his family. There are some crazy stories in here about them all, Loki especially.”
“Well, we don’t know what of that is truth and what of that is false,” Erik said, walking inside with their lunch. For some reason, he had wanted to go out and fetch it from the diner today. Saying something about needing the exercise. “Thor told me that some of the stories were mistakes and outright lies.”
“What about the one where he had to cross dress and marry some dude to get his hammer back?” Darcy asked.
“I actually asked him about that,” Erik admitted, laughing. “He said that it was unfortunately true.”
“God, with that beard? How did he manage to pass for anything resembling a woman?” Darcy asked with a laugh. “He’s a hot guy, but he had to make one UGLY woman.” Loki at least had a slighter build, but even he gave off an air of manliness that wouldn’t help him with the cross dressing, either.
“Speaking of men,” Jane drawled out with a grin, “Erik told me that you have one in your apartment from college.”
Darcy turned and glared at Erik. “You told!” she shouted, wanting to throw her book at him.
He seemed to guess, ducking behind one of the tables. “You didn’t tell me not to! Why are you hiding him away, anyway? Do you not want us to meet him? Embarrassed at working with us?”
He was teasing, but Darcy was still mortified. “No!” she protested, marking her place in the book and setting it aside. “You’ll likely smother him or something,” she explained quickly. She could hardly admit that she was kind of taking care of the guy who had leveled their town. It seemed insane, especially to her, that she was doing it, but she had kind of a caring nature. She didn’t have the heart to push him out of her home.
If anything, that would likely make him act worse.
“We wouldn’t do anything like that!” Jane protested. “That doesn’t mean that we don’t want to meet him, though.” Darcy grimaced, knowing what was likely to come next. “Why don’t you bring him to the bar tonight? It’s the weekend, so we don’t have to work tomorrow or anything.”
Darcy knew that, if she protested too badly, they would want to know why, but there was NO way that this would end anything but badly. She sighed. “Let me ask him, OK? He may not be up to it.”
“Not up to getting into another bar fight then?” Erik asked with a laugh, finally coming out fully from behind the table. “You have interesting friends from your college, Darcy.”
“Oh yeah, we’re regular party animals,” Darcy said, wondering whether or not she could pull this off without it all blowing up in her face.
OoOoOoOo
When Darcy made her way to her apartment after another twelve hour day (Jane would one day have to be explained to that, while she could run on old coffee and Poptarts until the end of time, some people were human and could not), the last thing she wanted to do was ask Loki if he could behave himself long enough to do one night with Jane and Erik without going insane or blowing the cover that she had so nicely set up for him.
As she walked inside, she realized that the place was clean, cleaner than she usually kept it. “Did you clean?” she asked in disbelief, looking over at Loki, who was sitting on the sofa.
“”One of us should, and I can do it with magic,” he said to her, not looking away from the TV. She couldn’t help but realize that Baker truly had seemed to have adopted Loki, as, whenever she came home now, Baker was always curled up in his lap. It was one of the things that told her that, deep down, he couldn’t be a complete evil nut job. Dogs hate those. That was just a fact.
“Right...well, thanks for that,” Darcy said, mostly still in shock that a prince of a different world would even think to do the dishes, much less set about doing them. Sure, he didn’t have to touch them or anything, but it was still weird. “Anyway, I kind of need a favor.”
That did cause him to turn toward her, eyebrow raised at her. “I thought that it would only be a matter of time before you needed my services for anything,” he said, sitting up stiffly. “I suppose I do owe you. What is it that you need, Darcy?”
“It’s not like that!” she protested. “You’re acting like I’m asking you to kill someone for me, which I’m totally not, by the way.” She leaned back against the door, trying to think of a way to phrase what she needed that sounded the least bit ridiculous. “You remember Erik, from the first night you were here?” When he nodded, she continued. “Well, he told Jane that my ‘friend from college’ was here, and now they’re both dying to get acquainted with you. It’s annoying and I wish that they wouldn’t, but they’ll totally annoy me until they get to meet you, so either we do it on something of our own terms or they drop by when we least expect it.” She hadn’t meant to word vomit all over him, but this whole idea had her feeling a bit nervous.
He stood up, slowly making his way over to her. “Why should I do this? It will only be an inconvenience, especially since everything we tell them will only be a lie.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t have a point there, but more that she was already annoyed and not really in the mood for another insisting person. “Did you miss the part where I said they’ll just drop by and bug the shit out of both of us?” she asked him, pressing herself a little more against her door when Loki stepped closer to her. “Besides, not like you have anywhere to go, so why not do me this little favor?”
Something about that little exchange apparently pissed Loki off, because he pushed himself against her, pinning her to the door. He more startled her than hurt her, causing her to gasp as she hit the door, but she knew that she wouldn’t be able to move until he wanted her to. “I could simply kill the three of you and not have to deal with this at all,” he hissed, bending down so that he could say it in her ear. “Tell me why I shouldn’t do that.”
Even though her body was shaking and her mouth felt too dry to form words, she could hear herself saying, “You wouldn’t hurt someone that’s done nothing but help you, Loki.” Her voice was actually a lot steadier than she would have expected. She turned her eyes up so that she could look at him, and god he was far too close to her right now. She could easily get lost in the sea of green that was his eyes. “You know you don’t want to hurt me. Now come on and help me with this, please?”
He seemed to be stunned into a silence for a moment, but he at least backed off of her enough so that she could catch her breath and not be completely caught up in the completely dizzying spell that was Loki stepping way too close into her personal space for her sanity. “Honesty time, oh God of Lies,” she said, hoping that what she asked him next wouldn’t just anger him again. “Anyone ever just try to help you before?” He seemed to have been expecting far too much for her to ask some big favor of him. Maybe her asking anything at all had set him on edge.
“No one does anything for me without wanting something in return,” Loki said to her, his eyes still on her. “They always want some bit of information, or want me to do something, or encourage someone else to do something.”
Even though now she technically could move, his eyes on her like that still have her frozen in place. “Yeah well, I just want you to go out for drinks with me,” she said. “Play nice for my coworkers. Nothing nearly that hazardous.” She sighed. “Where you’re from must suck if everyone only do things for you when they want something.”
“It does,” he admitted, and she realized that he must have learned that word from TV. He did watch an awful lot of it. Finally, he pushed away from her completely, turning away and she finally felt like she could relax a little bit. Loki was a very intense person, and it was freaky to have that intensity turned on her in any way.
“So, you normally get that snippy when someone stands up to you a bit, or am I special?” she asked, nearly covering her mouth with a gasp when she said that aloud. That was really supposed to stay in her head.
Thankfully, it seemed that the crisis was truly averted, because he just chuckled. “It must be you and your special way with words,” he remarked, not turning around to her.
“Nah, I bet you’re that way with everyone,” she said, smiling with just a touch of nervousness. “You seem like a control freak like that.”
“I don’t know why I put up with you,” he muttered as he grabbed some clothes, obviously going off to change for their night at the bar. “You’re an infuriating creature.”
“Obviously you must totally adore me, because otherwise I don’t get it, either,” she said with a smirk, and was rewarded with a quizzical look and a huff before he stomped off to the bathroom. Score one for Darcy, obviously.
OoOoOoOo
Darcy and Loki managed to put together a decent cover story before making their way to the bar. She had ended up calling Erik and Jane and letting them know that they were on. She was still sort of amazed that Loki had seemingly agreed to come along for this, considering the snit fit he had initially thrown. She wanted to keep it pretty basic, although she had the feeling that Loki could handle remembering anything that she could make up.
She didn’t remember buying the particular clothes that Loki was wearing tonight (she had admittedly raided a local Goodwill to get what she needed for him), but she had to admit that he looked really good. She thought that the black leather pants might be part of what he had been wearing when he fell to Earth, but she knew that she hadn’t bought the black v-neck long sleeved shirt that he had worn. Actually, it looked expensive as hell.
When they arrived at the one bar in the town, Erik and Jane were already there. They hadn’t bothered to change clothes, and neither had Darcy. She didn’t know why Loki had bothered, other than to show off. He seemed like the type that wanted to show off, after all, plus, the whole ‘god’ thing.
“Hi guys!” Darcy said with a wave as she walked up to the table. “This, obviously, is Jeremy,” she said with a smile. He reached out and shook both Jane and Erik’s hands, now simply able to pour on the charm. “Jeremy, this is Jane and Erik, who I work with.”
Jane and Erik had left one side of the booth open for the both of them, and she slid into it on the inside. Thankfully, Loki didn’t seem to think twice about sliding in next to her, or it might have looked weird. They were supposed to be friends after all. They were at least friendly, you know, most of the time when Loki wasn’t throwing a bipolar fit, but they hadn’t known each other long enough for anything else, right?
“So, Jeremy, how long have the two of you known each other?” Erik asked. She knew that Erik was a little suspicious of what was going on, since he had gotten to stumble in on them when Loki was still mostly a giant bruise, which was weird even on the best of days.
Darcy was going to answer, but Loki beat her to it. “We actually shared a freshman English class together,” he explained. “She talked my damn head off, and we kind of became inseparable ever since.”
Darcy giggled, but she couldn’t help but inwardly wonder where he had learned enough about college to be able to speak with any sort of certainty. TV could only teach him so much. Maybe he played around on her laptop, too? It made her grin to picture a Norse god playing around on the internet. She should introduce him to twitter! Oh wait, that could only end in disaster.
The waitress came around and got drink orders for them, with Erik ordering them all something called ‘boilermakers.’ Darcy admittedly had no idea what the hell that was, but she usually stuck to either beer or simply cocktails of some kind that tasted like kool aid. Still, what was brought around looked mostly like a beer, so she rolled with it.
OoOoOoOo
Loki hadn’t wanted to participate in this night of drinking, as, while he felt almost comfortable around Darcy, the other mortals of this realm had yet to impress him. However, Darcy had a point in one of the things she mentioned to him: he liked her. When she wasn’t paying attention, she could actually be a witty and charming individual, although she was horrendously naive. He could only assume that the ones called Jane and Erik protected this girl somewhat. The fact that she had picked him up off the road and then seemed to want to keep him around showed that she knew little about the world.
He had promised his brother that, when he was done, he would pay Jane a visit, but he hadn’t planned on it being in a bar with her assistant and...whatever Erik Selvig was to them. He wasn’t terribly sure. This had not been what he had in mind when he said that.
He wasn’t terribly sure what these ‘boilermakers’ were made of, either, but they packed a hard punch for something that a Midgardian had come up with. He still wasn’t terribly affected by them. Jane had nursed one while Erik had two while they talked, but it seemed that Darcy had gotten a little carried away. She was on her third one when she started to slump against him in the booth. When Loki tried to cut her off, she had simply stolen his drink. Darcy was crafty when she wasn’t trying, or he was just a little off guard because he’d had three of the damn drinks himself.
When Darcy started loudly to sing some song, Loki realized that it was time to go. “Well, it’s been fun getting to know you both,” Loki said to them, sliding out of the booth. “But I think Darcy has had a little too much to drink tonight, and I should be a decent gentleman and take her home.”
He tried to get Darcy to help herself out of the booth, but, as soon as he had her standing, her legs went right out from under her, and he had to pick her up and cradle her in his arms. “She’s certainly had too much to drink,” Loki stated, trying not to laugh at the young woman who immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face into his neck.
“Make sure that you get her home safe,” Erik told him, looking at him sternly. Then the man smiled at him. “Thank the gods that she doesn’t have to be at work tomorrow, right?”
Loki nodded, bidding Erik and Jane both farewell before carrying Darcy out of the bar. They had walked to the bar, as Darcy’s apartment wasn’t too far away. It didn’t take him long to get to her home, fishing her keys out of her purse and unlocking the door. He set her down on the sofa so that he could lock the door, but, as soon as he was turning around from that, it appeared that Darcy had regained her ability to walk, as she had somehow made her way over to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
“Have I told you that I love that shirt on you?” she asked, turning her eyes up to look at him. His mouth went dry when her tongue peeked out, wetting her bottom lip. “Because you look positively delicious in it. I could eat you up with a spoon,” she drawled.
“You need to go to bed and sleep this off,” Loki told her, his breath coming out in short gasps. He couldn’t even remember the last time that he’d been with a woman. That had to be why this was affecting him so much. That had to be it.
“Go to bed? Is that an invitation?” she asked, leaning up on her toes and running the tip of that infernal tongue along the side of his neck.
“No, it was not,” he protested, pushing her away. “And if you won’t go yourself, then I will simply have to make you go to bed.” Moreover, be far away from him. He couldn’t think straight with her pressed against him like that.
When she started to argue again, he picked her up, lifting her up and over his shoulder. He kicked open the door to her bedroom, fully intent upon dumping her on the bed and then running back to the living room. There was a misstep in his plan, though. When he tried to deposit her on the bed, she grabbed a hold of his shirt, pulling him down with her. Before he had the chance to pull away, she tugged him closer, pressing her full, warm lips against his.
He froze for a split second, not kissing her back but not pulling away yet, and that seemed to be all the time that she needed, rolling them both over until she was on top of him, straddling his hips. With a warm, rather attractive woman moving against him, he got a little weak. They were still kissing, and now he was kissing her back, holding her flush against him.
It took him a few moments to come back to himself, snapping back to attention and breaking their lips apart. Her lipstick had smeared, and he realized that he likely had it all over his lips now as well, and she had a questioning look on her face. “Why’d you stop?” she asked, breathing hard.
“You’re drunk, Darcy,” he said to her, somehow managing to push her away and disentangle himself from her, moving to the side of the bed. “You’re very drunk, and not in charge of your faculties, and this wouldn’t be right.” She tried to pull him back and he gently yet firmly removed her hands from him again. “You wouldn’t forgive me for taking advantage of the situation.”
Whether he stunned her or simply seemed to agree, she stopped trying to pull him back, and he got up off the bed and all but ran from the room.