"Machiavelli's Favorite Son" 7/?
I honestly didn't realize that I hadn't posted this here. It should have went up last month. Sorry!
Title: "Machiavelli's Favorite Son" 7/?
Author: Lena
Fandom: Marvel
Warnings: Many political discussions.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Marvel is god, I'm just a lowly worshiper, blah, blah, blah.
Summary:
When Thor comes to visit Jane after the events in New York, he has a
tag along, and Darcy, the ultimate tag along, ends up befriending him.
How CAN this end well. Eventually Darcy/Loki. Rated T for now, but I may
adjust it,
depending on where things go.
Beta'd By: By Sietha of FF.net!
Darcy wasn’t initially sure how long she had dozed, but she knew that she had slept like a rock. When her eyes finally did flutter back open,
the sun was peeking around the curtains that she figured Jane or maybe even Loki had shut for her. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes and
looked around. She had no idea what she’d wear or anything like that, but right now all she knew was that she wanted that shower that she
had skipped out on yesterday. She pushed herself out of bed, her feet brushing up against a bag. Opening it, she realized that Jane had
likely tracked back to their apartment long enough to get some clothes for the both of them. She pulled some out, throwing them onto
the bed.
She went into the bathroom, very grateful that Loki had spent some ridiculous amount of money on this place, because the bathroom had a
shower the size of a walk in closet. Stepping into the shower and turning the faucet and smiling as the water ran down her body, she
stripped out of the shirt and underwear that she had slept in. She washed herself all over, feeling something resembling human again.
That interrogation really had done a number on her. She didn’t want to admit it to anyone, even though Loki had seen her and realized in
seconds that she was upset over it. Then again, he was the God of Mischief and Lies, and had caused such discord in so many others,
so why wouldn’t he recognize it in her? It just amazed her that he seemed to care enough to want to put her back at ease. Then again,
he did have his own reasons for wanting her calm and collected.
She headed out into the living area of the hotel suite, and couldn’t quite resist a smirk when she saw Loki sprawled on the sofa, feet
hanging off it. He really was too tall for it, but he had let her have the extra bed, and, well, they had a light friendship and a serious working
relationship. That did not entail her sharing a bed with him.
There was a knock at the door, and, by instinct, Darcy pressed herself up against the wall. It seemed like her nerves were still on edge.
Loki jolted out of sleep as well, falling off the sofa and onto the floor, and despite her concern, she had to stifle a giggle at that. Hard to help
it when you get to see even the always unflappable Norse gods get startled. He quickly jumped up off the floor and straightened himself up.
“Go look through the peephole,” Darcy whispered to Loki when the knock happened again.
He moved over to the door, and she couldn’t help but notice him wearing what looked like black silk pajama bottoms and a black tank. OK,
if he kept walking around in stuff like that, she might go crazy and revise the ‘don’t invite the people you’re somewhat helping to topple the
government with to bed’ policy she had going.
He glanced through the peephole just as Thor and Jane stumbled into the room, looking confused and still half asleep. Loki looked back at
all of them, confused. “It’s Tony Stark,” he said as if that was the last person he expected to see on the other side of the door, and, for all
she knew, it might have been. She sure as hell didn’t expect him of all people to show up. Before anyone could say anything else, they all
heard, “Come on, kids! I know that you’re in there! If you’re having a naked freak party, can I join in, or at least watch?” come through the
door.
“Well, at least Tony Stark lives up to expectations,” Darcy said. “What are you doing here?” she called out through the door. She moved
around Loki, standing up on her toes so that she could look through the door, seeing Iron Man himself standing there, in a suit that probably
cost more than her tuition during her last semester at college, holding what looked like a box.
“I come bearing gifts,” Tony said back through the door, opening up the box he was holding and showing that there were donuts.
“Dude, Thor’s going to eat through that in like, seconds,” Darcy pointed out.
“Well, that’s what these are for,” Tony said, reaching down out of sight and lifting back up two large bags of what Darcy could only assume
were more donuts. Darcy looked to everyone else. “Should we let the billionaire in?” she asked.
“Of course we should! Anthony Stark is a friend!” Thor announced loudly. “I know that he will not bring about any SHIELD agents with him.
He is the one who discovered that they were building weapons with the Tesseract before.”
“Please speak louder so that they can hear you on Asgard, Thor,” Loki said with a quick roll of his eyes. “Thor is right about one thing,
though. Stark is no friend of SHIELD.”
“Yeah, what they said,” Tony called back through the door.
With a sigh, Darcy opened the door, looking him over. “When people are having a conversation about you, you really shouldn’t listen in,”
she said, still stepping back to let him inside of the room.
“And yet I did anyway, and can you really blame me for it?” Tony asked, handing the bags off to Thor, who was more than happy to paw
through them for the food they contained. “Come on, you know enough about me to know that I give a rat’s ass about social norms and
the like.”
Darcy groaned, but she knew that he was telling the truth. From what she had read about him and seen on TV, he was an ass, and he
got away with it because he was ridiculously smart. “How did you figure out where we were staying?” she asked him. She kind of
understood that anything Tony Stark wanted to know, he likely just bugged people until he found it out, but this was something that
she had to know.
“I had people ask around at any hotels if someone had seen anyone checking in that fit Thor’s description,” Tony said as if it were the most
obvious thing in the world. “The man isn’t known for being the type to blend in. He stands out like a massive sore thumb. Which I don’t get,
anyway. Don’t all thumbs kind of stick out a little?”
While Darcy could understand that Tony Stark could be charming, right now she was too jumpy and worried about what was happening in
her life at the moment really to care about his charm. “What are you doing here?” she asked bluntly. “Other than buttering up Thor with
donuts.”
Thor had almost plowed through one box of donuts when Tony laughed. “Actually, I’m here to offer you guys a place to stay.” He looked
around the hotel room. “This place is nice and all, but it doesn’t have enough beds for all of you, if all the blankets on the sofa are any
indication.” Damn, Darcy HATED when people that she didn’t trust were smart and observant like that.
“Why should I trust you?” Darcy asked. She didn’t know when or how she had taken charge of this, but she was the one that had been
held hostage for two days. She just couldn’t really trust a person right now without asking them lots of questions. “You work for SHIELD,
after all.”
She saw a flicker of discomfort across his face before he was smiling again. “I don’t work for SHIELD. I happen to occasionally work with
SHIELD,” he corrected her. “Sucks what they did to you, though. Really not nice to keep pretty girls hostage for a few days.”
He flashed his grin at all of them, and Darcy couldn’t help but feel that he was a little like a salesman. Then again, he showed off his
inventions, so maybe that wasn’t so far off. “I know that what you’re all wanting right now is a place safe from SHIELD, and you can’t
get a place more safe from the than my tower. Come on. Like I wouldn’t find some little bug or twelve if they tried to plant them in my home.”
Darcy had to sigh at that. He had a point. If she wanted to be away from any sort of listening devices from SHIELD, his place was likely the
best. Of course, then she had to worry about what the Avengers might learn of Loki’s plans (and her plans, too, as she really couldn’t
exclude herself at this point). Then again, if the Avengers trusted Loki enough to have him around the tower whenever he was on the planet,
it would be good press.
She looked toward Loki for an opinion. “I doubt that SHIELD really could sneak anything into Stark’s building without him knowing about it,”
he explained to her. Darcy looked toward Jane, but she could see fantasies of laboratories dancing in her brain. Stark had some of the best
research and development in the world.
Even though she was already working for SHIELD, she would have a field day working with the people Tony Stark could attract, much less
Stark himself, along with Dr. Banner, whom Darcy knew was around there as well.
“Tony Stark is a trustworthy individual,” Thor told her. “He would not allow for harm to come upon any of you,” he vouched.
“Alright,” Darcy said. “Think you can send anyone with us to help us clear out the apartment?” If SHIELD hadn’t beat them to it. She also
wanted to make sure that none of their personal belongings had been bugged as well. “Fantastic!” Stark exclaimed. “I’ll come over with
you guys myself, if you don’t mind.” He seemed to realize what she was thinking, if the slight nod in her direction was any indication.
She would just be glad to get all of her stuff back, as long as she was able to do just that.
OoOoOoOo
Going back to the apartment had been a bit terrifying for Darcy. If she hadn’t had the others with her, she might have just said 'fuck it'
and let them have her shit. Thankfully, she had Loki, Thor, and Jane with her. She also had Tony Stark, who couldn't seem to stop
himself from rambling on, but he also had this nifty little device that checked for bugs, and they definitely found a couple of then
amidst their things, so he was useful. Darcy was also very glad to find that both her notebook of notes and the book Loki had
given her were undisturbed. She had buried then deep in a secret hiding place, but she had been worried just the same about
whether or not they would remain unmolested.
Soon enough, though, they were heading up to Stark's Tower, this massive building that touched the sky in a way that Darcy Lewis
would never have the privilege to do. Tony was all about giving the grand tour, but Thor managed to bring up a question that had
been bothering Darcy since this agreement started.
"Will you allow for my brother to stay here as well? It would not do for him to be placed far from me," Thor explained in his usual too
wordy way.
"Don't concern yourself with it, big guy," Tony said with a wave of his hand, as if it hadn't been Loki who had once thrown him through
a window. (So Darcy heard.) "If you think he's trustworthy, I'll roll with it. Besides, he'll only be around when you are, so no big deal."
Darcy thought it was odd that he was so nonchalant about it, but she supposed she couldn’t argue with it. Still, she made a mental
note of maybe asking Loki about it, later.
When they did return to Stark Tower, the first thing that happened was that Tony showed Darcy up to her room, and if she thought
that the apartment from SHIELD was nice, this place was a palace. It put her parents’ home to shame, even on her father’s doctor
salary, as the closet was bigger than the bedroom that she had growing up! She hated having to go through the whole interrogation
thing at SHIELD, but this place almost made it worth it.
Everyone left her alone so that Tony could show the rest to their rooms, so Darcy figured that she could start unpacking. She didn’t have a whole lot of belongings, but she had enough that she figured she’d be busy for a few hours. As she started to pull her clothing out to put away, she heard a voice say, “Is there anything that I can help you with, Ms. Lewis?”
Darcy felt her body go stiff as she jerked around, wanting to figure out where the voice had come from. If she didn’t know any better, it sounded like an old fashioned British butler had spoken to her, but there was no one in the room with her. “Who’s there? Where are you at?” she called out, still looking around.
“I am JARVIS, Ms. Lewis. I am the AI created by Mr. Stark to help him with his day to day tasks,” the voice, JARVIS apparently, spoke again. “I am linked to the house, so I can be in all rooms at all times.”
“OK, no offense, but that’s a little creepy,” Darcy admitted to him. “Do you record as well?” she asked.
“Yes I do, Ms. Lewis,” JARVIS replied.
“Darcy is fine,” she said quickly, sitting down on the bed so that she could get her bearings. “Not that I don’t trust you or anything, but could you not record in my bedroom or bathroom?” she asked. “I just had a really bad experience with my apartment being bugged by SHIELD, so I’m really not in the mood to repeat the experience.”
“I’m already programmed to not record in the bathrooms for privacy’s sake, but I can turn off the recordings in your bedroom as well,” JARVIS replied. “Is there anything else that I can help you with, Darcy?”
“No, I think that’s all for now,” she said, still feeling nervous that Tony basically had a way to peek into her room if he wanted. No wonder he wasn’t too worried about having Loki in his home. Not only would he only be around with Thor, but also he could watch him at all times if needed. Then again, this was still the best option they had. She’d just have to let Loki know about it and that they had to be careful. She figured that the part about not recording in the bathroom was true, because that would be creepy on a completely different level, so there was always that out if she needed real privacy in this place.
She continued to unpack, mostly to keep herself busy and not to think too hard about her current situation. When she was nearly done, someone knocked at her door. “Come in!” she called out. She had honestly figured that it might be Jane, so she was a little surprised to see Loki on the other side of the door.
“This building is quite impressive for a dwelling on this realm,” Loki said as he walked inside of her room, shutting the door behind him. “I take it that a place like this is quite rare?”
She nodded. “Definitely,” she explained. “Most people couldn’t even dream of visiting a place like this, much less being able to live in it.” She looked around, wrapping her arms around herself and sighing. “I just can’t help but wonder if it’s all too good to be true in some way.”
“I have that feeling myself,” Loki admitted to her. “Have you dealt with the AI yet?”
“Yeah,” she told him. “Apparently it doesn’t record in the bathrooms, and I asked it to not record in here as well.” She didn’t say it aloud, but it was kind of hanging in the air that she wasn’t sure if it would listen to her or not.
“Jane asked for the same thing in her bedroom,” Loki said. “Stark said that, if you asked, it wouldn’t record. I doubt that he would want to alienate his teammate’s girlfriend by lying to her, so I believe that you are safe from prying eyes.”
She knew that he had some ability to sense any sort of recording devices (whether it was magic or if he just had good enough hearing to be able to hear any sort of feedback they put off, she wasn’t sure), so she was going to trust that they actually had the privacy that she wanted.
“Thor and I have to return to Asgard on the ‘morrow,” Loki continued. “We’ll still be making our regular visits, though. It’s already too much of a pain for Thor to be away from his Lady Jane for a week at a time,” he said, smirking as he rolled his eyes slightly.
Darcy giggled a little. “Well, before you get whisked away again, can I ask something?” When he nodded, she continued. “Can I see the collar up close? I’ve been meaning to ask, but, well, I kinda got Darcy-napped, so I haven’t had a chance.”
He seemed to think on it for a second before nodding, moving to sit on the bed so that she would have access to it. She sat on her knees, because, even when sitting together, he was still a bit taller than she was. Once settled, the collar reappeared on his neck, and she brushed his hair out of the way so that she could get to look at it. She was actually wondering if she could pick it, but it wasn’t a simple lock as she had hoped. She thought initially that it was something that Loki’s adopted father had come up with, but it actually looked too modern for that.
“Where did this come from?” she asked as she continued to study the collar. It looked like some wicked cross between something you’d see in an S&M shop and a dog shock collar.
“I don’t actually know,” Loki told her. “Odin put it on me, but it’s not something from Asgard’s weapon storage.”
“I can’t get this off myself,” she said, a little softer just in case they could still be heard. “I might shock you, myself, or there might be some sort of alarm on it that alerts others that it’s being meddled with.” She sighed, unintentionally blowing some of his hair around as she did so. “It’s…a lot more complicated than something I thought some old school Norse weaponry would have.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if SHIELD had something to do with it as well,” Loki said. She moved his hair back into place, watching as the collar disappeared again.
“Yeah, no kidding. They probably did,” Darcy agreed. “Look, I don't think I can get this off with a simple screwdriver. I'd need the key...or you'd need to convince Thor to take it off you himself.”
“How would I do that?” Loki asked her.
“Arguing with him less wouldn’t be a bad start,” Darcy pointed out. “He already trusts you enough to let you on his council. Eventually, it’ll make sense for him to put enough trust in you to let you off the damn leash.” Even though she was done looking at the collar, she didn’t move away from him right away. She couldn’t explain it at this point, but she felt a good deal safer when he was around. While he had more or less tried to kill her in New Mexico or attacked her world before, once they’d gotten to know each other, he’d never done anything really to hurt her. Maybe use her, but it seemed like everyone was doing that these days. Why should he be any different?
“Why are you still helping me, Darcy?” he asked. “I am the first to admit that it seems to have caused you nothing but problems.”
She sighed again, leaning slightly against his back for a moment. “I’m tired of people like SHIELD thinking that they own me and can control what I do,” she told him. “I’ve been spied on, dragged around, locked up and interrogated for two days, and they had to be threatened with an interplanetary incident to let me go. I’m not exactly wanting to help them out right now.”
“You could just quit,” he told her.
She snorted with something that, if it weren’t so bitter, might sound like a chuckle. “You don’t quit SHIELD. They don’t even have a retirement plan. You work there until you die.” She had heard low level agents joke about things like that, but it was all true. Hell, she only worked there because she had learned too much and Jane would have pitched a fit if they simply made her ‘disappear.’ “Besides, you’ve at least never hid your intentions from me and you’ve answered all my questions. That actually counts for a lot in my books,” she told him. She sat back up, leaning back against the headboard of her bed. “I mean, you could be lying to me, although I’m not sure what you’d be hiding with what you’ve already told me, but you’re still better than who I worked for.”
Loki turned back toward her, smiling with an arched eyebrow. “’Worked’ for?” It seemed that he had caught her past tense.
“Let’s just say that I’m taking some ‘personal time,’” she said, returning his smile.
Title: "Machiavelli's Favorite Son" 7/?
Author: Lena
Fandom: Marvel
Warnings: Many political discussions.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Marvel is god, I'm just a lowly worshiper, blah, blah, blah.
Summary:
When Thor comes to visit Jane after the events in New York, he has a
tag along, and Darcy, the ultimate tag along, ends up befriending him.
How CAN this end well. Eventually Darcy/Loki. Rated T for now, but I may
adjust it,
depending on where things go.
Beta'd By: By Sietha of FF.net!
Darcy wasn’t initially sure how long she had dozed, but she knew that she had slept like a rock. When her eyes finally did flutter back open,
the sun was peeking around the curtains that she figured Jane or maybe even Loki had shut for her. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes and
looked around. She had no idea what she’d wear or anything like that, but right now all she knew was that she wanted that shower that she
had skipped out on yesterday. She pushed herself out of bed, her feet brushing up against a bag. Opening it, she realized that Jane had
likely tracked back to their apartment long enough to get some clothes for the both of them. She pulled some out, throwing them onto
the bed.
She went into the bathroom, very grateful that Loki had spent some ridiculous amount of money on this place, because the bathroom had a
shower the size of a walk in closet. Stepping into the shower and turning the faucet and smiling as the water ran down her body, she
stripped out of the shirt and underwear that she had slept in. She washed herself all over, feeling something resembling human again.
That interrogation really had done a number on her. She didn’t want to admit it to anyone, even though Loki had seen her and realized in
seconds that she was upset over it. Then again, he was the God of Mischief and Lies, and had caused such discord in so many others,
so why wouldn’t he recognize it in her? It just amazed her that he seemed to care enough to want to put her back at ease. Then again,
he did have his own reasons for wanting her calm and collected.
She headed out into the living area of the hotel suite, and couldn’t quite resist a smirk when she saw Loki sprawled on the sofa, feet
hanging off it. He really was too tall for it, but he had let her have the extra bed, and, well, they had a light friendship and a serious working
relationship. That did not entail her sharing a bed with him.
There was a knock at the door, and, by instinct, Darcy pressed herself up against the wall. It seemed like her nerves were still on edge.
Loki jolted out of sleep as well, falling off the sofa and onto the floor, and despite her concern, she had to stifle a giggle at that. Hard to help
it when you get to see even the always unflappable Norse gods get startled. He quickly jumped up off the floor and straightened himself up.
“Go look through the peephole,” Darcy whispered to Loki when the knock happened again.
He moved over to the door, and she couldn’t help but notice him wearing what looked like black silk pajama bottoms and a black tank. OK,
if he kept walking around in stuff like that, she might go crazy and revise the ‘don’t invite the people you’re somewhat helping to topple the
government with to bed’ policy she had going.
He glanced through the peephole just as Thor and Jane stumbled into the room, looking confused and still half asleep. Loki looked back at
all of them, confused. “It’s Tony Stark,” he said as if that was the last person he expected to see on the other side of the door, and, for all
she knew, it might have been. She sure as hell didn’t expect him of all people to show up. Before anyone could say anything else, they all
heard, “Come on, kids! I know that you’re in there! If you’re having a naked freak party, can I join in, or at least watch?” come through the
door.
“Well, at least Tony Stark lives up to expectations,” Darcy said. “What are you doing here?” she called out through the door. She moved
around Loki, standing up on her toes so that she could look through the door, seeing Iron Man himself standing there, in a suit that probably
cost more than her tuition during her last semester at college, holding what looked like a box.
“I come bearing gifts,” Tony said back through the door, opening up the box he was holding and showing that there were donuts.
“Dude, Thor’s going to eat through that in like, seconds,” Darcy pointed out.
“Well, that’s what these are for,” Tony said, reaching down out of sight and lifting back up two large bags of what Darcy could only assume
were more donuts. Darcy looked to everyone else. “Should we let the billionaire in?” she asked.
“Of course we should! Anthony Stark is a friend!” Thor announced loudly. “I know that he will not bring about any SHIELD agents with him.
He is the one who discovered that they were building weapons with the Tesseract before.”
“Please speak louder so that they can hear you on Asgard, Thor,” Loki said with a quick roll of his eyes. “Thor is right about one thing,
though. Stark is no friend of SHIELD.”
“Yeah, what they said,” Tony called back through the door.
With a sigh, Darcy opened the door, looking him over. “When people are having a conversation about you, you really shouldn’t listen in,”
she said, still stepping back to let him inside of the room.
“And yet I did anyway, and can you really blame me for it?” Tony asked, handing the bags off to Thor, who was more than happy to paw
through them for the food they contained. “Come on, you know enough about me to know that I give a rat’s ass about social norms and
the like.”
Darcy groaned, but she knew that he was telling the truth. From what she had read about him and seen on TV, he was an ass, and he
got away with it because he was ridiculously smart. “How did you figure out where we were staying?” she asked him. She kind of
understood that anything Tony Stark wanted to know, he likely just bugged people until he found it out, but this was something that
she had to know.
“I had people ask around at any hotels if someone had seen anyone checking in that fit Thor’s description,” Tony said as if it were the most
obvious thing in the world. “The man isn’t known for being the type to blend in. He stands out like a massive sore thumb. Which I don’t get,
anyway. Don’t all thumbs kind of stick out a little?”
While Darcy could understand that Tony Stark could be charming, right now she was too jumpy and worried about what was happening in
her life at the moment really to care about his charm. “What are you doing here?” she asked bluntly. “Other than buttering up Thor with
donuts.”
Thor had almost plowed through one box of donuts when Tony laughed. “Actually, I’m here to offer you guys a place to stay.” He looked
around the hotel room. “This place is nice and all, but it doesn’t have enough beds for all of you, if all the blankets on the sofa are any
indication.” Damn, Darcy HATED when people that she didn’t trust were smart and observant like that.
“Why should I trust you?” Darcy asked. She didn’t know when or how she had taken charge of this, but she was the one that had been
held hostage for two days. She just couldn’t really trust a person right now without asking them lots of questions. “You work for SHIELD,
after all.”
She saw a flicker of discomfort across his face before he was smiling again. “I don’t work for SHIELD. I happen to occasionally work with
SHIELD,” he corrected her. “Sucks what they did to you, though. Really not nice to keep pretty girls hostage for a few days.”
He flashed his grin at all of them, and Darcy couldn’t help but feel that he was a little like a salesman. Then again, he showed off his
inventions, so maybe that wasn’t so far off. “I know that what you’re all wanting right now is a place safe from SHIELD, and you can’t
get a place more safe from the than my tower. Come on. Like I wouldn’t find some little bug or twelve if they tried to plant them in my home.”
Darcy had to sigh at that. He had a point. If she wanted to be away from any sort of listening devices from SHIELD, his place was likely the
best. Of course, then she had to worry about what the Avengers might learn of Loki’s plans (and her plans, too, as she really couldn’t
exclude herself at this point). Then again, if the Avengers trusted Loki enough to have him around the tower whenever he was on the planet,
it would be good press.
She looked toward Loki for an opinion. “I doubt that SHIELD really could sneak anything into Stark’s building without him knowing about it,”
he explained to her. Darcy looked toward Jane, but she could see fantasies of laboratories dancing in her brain. Stark had some of the best
research and development in the world.
Even though she was already working for SHIELD, she would have a field day working with the people Tony Stark could attract, much less
Stark himself, along with Dr. Banner, whom Darcy knew was around there as well.
“Tony Stark is a trustworthy individual,” Thor told her. “He would not allow for harm to come upon any of you,” he vouched.
“Alright,” Darcy said. “Think you can send anyone with us to help us clear out the apartment?” If SHIELD hadn’t beat them to it. She also
wanted to make sure that none of their personal belongings had been bugged as well. “Fantastic!” Stark exclaimed. “I’ll come over with
you guys myself, if you don’t mind.” He seemed to realize what she was thinking, if the slight nod in her direction was any indication.
She would just be glad to get all of her stuff back, as long as she was able to do just that.
OoOoOoOo
Going back to the apartment had been a bit terrifying for Darcy. If she hadn’t had the others with her, she might have just said 'fuck it'
and let them have her shit. Thankfully, she had Loki, Thor, and Jane with her. She also had Tony Stark, who couldn't seem to stop
himself from rambling on, but he also had this nifty little device that checked for bugs, and they definitely found a couple of then
amidst their things, so he was useful. Darcy was also very glad to find that both her notebook of notes and the book Loki had
given her were undisturbed. She had buried then deep in a secret hiding place, but she had been worried just the same about
whether or not they would remain unmolested.
Soon enough, though, they were heading up to Stark's Tower, this massive building that touched the sky in a way that Darcy Lewis
would never have the privilege to do. Tony was all about giving the grand tour, but Thor managed to bring up a question that had
been bothering Darcy since this agreement started.
"Will you allow for my brother to stay here as well? It would not do for him to be placed far from me," Thor explained in his usual too
wordy way.
"Don't concern yourself with it, big guy," Tony said with a wave of his hand, as if it hadn't been Loki who had once thrown him through
a window. (So Darcy heard.) "If you think he's trustworthy, I'll roll with it. Besides, he'll only be around when you are, so no big deal."
Darcy thought it was odd that he was so nonchalant about it, but she supposed she couldn’t argue with it. Still, she made a mental
note of maybe asking Loki about it, later.
When they did return to Stark Tower, the first thing that happened was that Tony showed Darcy up to her room, and if she thought
that the apartment from SHIELD was nice, this place was a palace. It put her parents’ home to shame, even on her father’s doctor
salary, as the closet was bigger than the bedroom that she had growing up! She hated having to go through the whole interrogation
thing at SHIELD, but this place almost made it worth it.
Everyone left her alone so that Tony could show the rest to their rooms, so Darcy figured that she could start unpacking. She didn’t have a whole lot of belongings, but she had enough that she figured she’d be busy for a few hours. As she started to pull her clothing out to put away, she heard a voice say, “Is there anything that I can help you with, Ms. Lewis?”
Darcy felt her body go stiff as she jerked around, wanting to figure out where the voice had come from. If she didn’t know any better, it sounded like an old fashioned British butler had spoken to her, but there was no one in the room with her. “Who’s there? Where are you at?” she called out, still looking around.
“I am JARVIS, Ms. Lewis. I am the AI created by Mr. Stark to help him with his day to day tasks,” the voice, JARVIS apparently, spoke again. “I am linked to the house, so I can be in all rooms at all times.”
“OK, no offense, but that’s a little creepy,” Darcy admitted to him. “Do you record as well?” she asked.
“Yes I do, Ms. Lewis,” JARVIS replied.
“Darcy is fine,” she said quickly, sitting down on the bed so that she could get her bearings. “Not that I don’t trust you or anything, but could you not record in my bedroom or bathroom?” she asked. “I just had a really bad experience with my apartment being bugged by SHIELD, so I’m really not in the mood to repeat the experience.”
“I’m already programmed to not record in the bathrooms for privacy’s sake, but I can turn off the recordings in your bedroom as well,” JARVIS replied. “Is there anything else that I can help you with, Darcy?”
“No, I think that’s all for now,” she said, still feeling nervous that Tony basically had a way to peek into her room if he wanted. No wonder he wasn’t too worried about having Loki in his home. Not only would he only be around with Thor, but also he could watch him at all times if needed. Then again, this was still the best option they had. She’d just have to let Loki know about it and that they had to be careful. She figured that the part about not recording in the bathroom was true, because that would be creepy on a completely different level, so there was always that out if she needed real privacy in this place.
She continued to unpack, mostly to keep herself busy and not to think too hard about her current situation. When she was nearly done, someone knocked at her door. “Come in!” she called out. She had honestly figured that it might be Jane, so she was a little surprised to see Loki on the other side of the door.
“This building is quite impressive for a dwelling on this realm,” Loki said as he walked inside of her room, shutting the door behind him. “I take it that a place like this is quite rare?”
She nodded. “Definitely,” she explained. “Most people couldn’t even dream of visiting a place like this, much less being able to live in it.” She looked around, wrapping her arms around herself and sighing. “I just can’t help but wonder if it’s all too good to be true in some way.”
“I have that feeling myself,” Loki admitted to her. “Have you dealt with the AI yet?”
“Yeah,” she told him. “Apparently it doesn’t record in the bathrooms, and I asked it to not record in here as well.” She didn’t say it aloud, but it was kind of hanging in the air that she wasn’t sure if it would listen to her or not.
“Jane asked for the same thing in her bedroom,” Loki said. “Stark said that, if you asked, it wouldn’t record. I doubt that he would want to alienate his teammate’s girlfriend by lying to her, so I believe that you are safe from prying eyes.”
She knew that he had some ability to sense any sort of recording devices (whether it was magic or if he just had good enough hearing to be able to hear any sort of feedback they put off, she wasn’t sure), so she was going to trust that they actually had the privacy that she wanted.
“Thor and I have to return to Asgard on the ‘morrow,” Loki continued. “We’ll still be making our regular visits, though. It’s already too much of a pain for Thor to be away from his Lady Jane for a week at a time,” he said, smirking as he rolled his eyes slightly.
Darcy giggled a little. “Well, before you get whisked away again, can I ask something?” When he nodded, she continued. “Can I see the collar up close? I’ve been meaning to ask, but, well, I kinda got Darcy-napped, so I haven’t had a chance.”
He seemed to think on it for a second before nodding, moving to sit on the bed so that she would have access to it. She sat on her knees, because, even when sitting together, he was still a bit taller than she was. Once settled, the collar reappeared on his neck, and she brushed his hair out of the way so that she could get to look at it. She was actually wondering if she could pick it, but it wasn’t a simple lock as she had hoped. She thought initially that it was something that Loki’s adopted father had come up with, but it actually looked too modern for that.
“Where did this come from?” she asked as she continued to study the collar. It looked like some wicked cross between something you’d see in an S&M shop and a dog shock collar.
“I don’t actually know,” Loki told her. “Odin put it on me, but it’s not something from Asgard’s weapon storage.”
“I can’t get this off myself,” she said, a little softer just in case they could still be heard. “I might shock you, myself, or there might be some sort of alarm on it that alerts others that it’s being meddled with.” She sighed, unintentionally blowing some of his hair around as she did so. “It’s…a lot more complicated than something I thought some old school Norse weaponry would have.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if SHIELD had something to do with it as well,” Loki said. She moved his hair back into place, watching as the collar disappeared again.
“Yeah, no kidding. They probably did,” Darcy agreed. “Look, I don't think I can get this off with a simple screwdriver. I'd need the key...or you'd need to convince Thor to take it off you himself.”
“How would I do that?” Loki asked her.
“Arguing with him less wouldn’t be a bad start,” Darcy pointed out. “He already trusts you enough to let you on his council. Eventually, it’ll make sense for him to put enough trust in you to let you off the damn leash.” Even though she was done looking at the collar, she didn’t move away from him right away. She couldn’t explain it at this point, but she felt a good deal safer when he was around. While he had more or less tried to kill her in New Mexico or attacked her world before, once they’d gotten to know each other, he’d never done anything really to hurt her. Maybe use her, but it seemed like everyone was doing that these days. Why should he be any different?
“Why are you still helping me, Darcy?” he asked. “I am the first to admit that it seems to have caused you nothing but problems.”
She sighed again, leaning slightly against his back for a moment. “I’m tired of people like SHIELD thinking that they own me and can control what I do,” she told him. “I’ve been spied on, dragged around, locked up and interrogated for two days, and they had to be threatened with an interplanetary incident to let me go. I’m not exactly wanting to help them out right now.”
“You could just quit,” he told her.
She snorted with something that, if it weren’t so bitter, might sound like a chuckle. “You don’t quit SHIELD. They don’t even have a retirement plan. You work there until you die.” She had heard low level agents joke about things like that, but it was all true. Hell, she only worked there because she had learned too much and Jane would have pitched a fit if they simply made her ‘disappear.’ “Besides, you’ve at least never hid your intentions from me and you’ve answered all my questions. That actually counts for a lot in my books,” she told him. She sat back up, leaning back against the headboard of her bed. “I mean, you could be lying to me, although I’m not sure what you’d be hiding with what you’ve already told me, but you’re still better than who I worked for.”
Loki turned back toward her, smiling with an arched eyebrow. “’Worked’ for?” It seemed that he had caught her past tense.
“Let’s just say that I’m taking some ‘personal time,’” she said, returning his smile.