(A/N) Here is the sequel to Of Essence and Ice Cream. I don't think you have to read that one first, but it lays some ground work for this one, so it's probably best if you do go and read the one before it.
There is going to be one more in this series, which will cover when Thor finds out about all the drama, but for this one, it's just some of the Avengers(along with Pepper, because she's awesome) finding out.
Happy reading!
Of Blizzards and Capsicles
"You what?"
Darcy shrunk back under my severe gaze, clutching her iPod like it was a lifeline.
"Oh come on, Jane," she whined. "It won't be that bad!"
"The Avengers, here, in this lab, with him?" I jerked my thumb over my shoulder at the innocent looking blue creature currently curled up on the couch with a Tolkien novel. "How is that not a recipe for disaster?"
"You said you wanted to see them all again!" Darcy defended, backing up towards the counter.
"Yes, but without Loki here," I felt like ripping my hair out. "You do remember him throwing Tony out of a window, taking control of Agent Barton's mind, threatening Romanoff, killing Phil Coulson-"
"But he wasn't actually dead-" Darcy tried to cut in.
"And in my defense, you never liked him anyway." said Loki from the couch.
"Hush," I snapped at him, turning back to Darcy. "The point is, the Avengers would probably kill first and ask questions later, and I would rather Loki not become a blue stain on the lab floor."
"I second that," Loki called, his nose still buried in his book.
"Well, it's a bit too late to go back now," Darcy mumbled sheepishly. "I already called Pepper."
I groaned and flopped back onto the couch, leaning back against Loki's freezing cold legs. Summers in Puente Antiguo were fairly unpleasant, what with the lack of humidity and extreme desert heat, but now that I had a Frost Giant living with me, I could cool down pretty much immediately. At first, I just used the air conditioning, not wanting to impose on Loki's personal space, but after the seventh time of waking up with wintry arms around me, I realized two things.
One; Loki had no concept of personal space. Or, at least he didn't with me. He didn't mind Darcy either, but he didn't constantly seek out ways to inconspicuously touch her. Erik he stayed away from completely, often hiding in my trailer when my mentor came around. Actually, now that I thought about it, did Erik even know Loki was here?
And two; Loki really liked cuddling. He didn't mind at all if I threw myself at him and his icy body after spending hours out at the Bifrost site while Darcy and Fandral said their long(and amorous) goodbyes, Loki would be perfectly content to curl up with me on the couch while I cooled down from the heat of the desert. Most of our 'cuddling' Loki initiated himself; wrapping his arms around my middle from behind while I was making coffee, resting his chin on the top of my head while I was working, and reading over my shoulder when I had a book.
While Loki and I shared skin on skin contact, if Darcy needed to stave off the heat she had to cover her skin with some sort of fabric, usually a blanket, and lean against him, since so far I was still the only person who didn't get frostbite from touching Loki.
I really hoped nobody tried to punch Loki when the Avengers got here. I didn't particularly want to have anymore human ice cubes.
"Can you be nice?" I asked him, leaning my head back over his knees to look at him.
"Since when am I not nice?" Loki said indignantly, though I saw in his crimson eyes that he was teasing.
"You did throw Tony out of a building," I reminded him.
"You wound me, my lady," Loki faked a hurt expression. "And besides, he was being difficult."
"Uh huh," I pulled my head back and closed my eyes.
Hopefully this wouldn't be as disastrous as I was imagining.
Three hours prior at Stark Tower…
"Are you sure?" Pepper was pacing up and down the room with her phone to her ear, and it was beginning to make Tony anxious. "I don't want to impose-"
She cut herself off, listening to whoever was on the other side.
"Who?" Pepper's brow furrowed and she was silent for a few seconds. "Oh, I see. She and Thor broke up? Aw, I'm sorry to hear that."
Another pause.
"Oh, well that wasn't what Thor seemed to think." she muttered. "I swear that man is even more obtuse than Tony."
Tony spluttered indignantly, setting his glass down rather loudly. Pepper laughed at something the person said, smiling widely.
"Well, I'm sure it'd do her some good." she said cheerily. "Tony's been aching to check her equipment out again, he didn't get a chance to last time."
Tony frowned, wondering who this was they were talking about. Pepper mentioned Thor…was it Jane Foster? Tony had been under the impression Thor intended to marry her and make her Queen of Asgard, but what did he know?
"Aw, how cute." Pepper was saying. "Well, I'm glad she found someone with as much appreciation for the stars as she has. Is he smart? Not that Thor wasn't, of course, but-"
Pepper cut herself off again, biting her lip to contain her amusement.
"You're right, Thor never did seem the intellectual type." she agreed. "How's Fandral? I heard you two got together. Aw, is he? How sweet of him!"
Tony tapped his fingers impatiently on the table, trying to catch Pepper's eye, but she continued to avoid him.
"Well, I'll see how many of them I can round up, okay?" Pepper laughed again. "Alright, 'bye, Darcy."
Finally, finally, Pepper hung up the phone.
"Okay, so in what world am I 'obtuse'?" Tony questioned, scowling.
Pepper only raised an eyebrow before sitting down on the sofa beside him.
"We're going to Puente Antiguo with the team," she said brightly.
"Uh, what now?" Tony almost dropped the glass he'd just picked up. "Is there a crisis? Or multiple crisises?"
Pepper laughed, resting her head on Tony's shoulder.
"No, but Darcy said Jane needs some more company, aside from her new boyfriend, apparently." she said, still lightly giggling.
"Wait, I thought Thor said-"
"I did too," Pepper interrupted. "But Darcy said Thor hasn't even been there since the first time he left."
"And he just expects her just to wait?" that was new information; the way Thor talked about Jane made it sound like he spent every other moment with her. "Wait for a year while he saves Earth from his psychotic mass-murdering brother who's hellbent on world domination and still expect her not to have moved on? Sheesh, somebody's entitled."
"I'm just repeating what Darcy told me," Pepper said in defense. "And don't start your protesting about bringing along the team. I know you and Steve don't get along very well, but you'll have to suck it up. For Jane's sake."
"Why do you insist on calling him 'Steve'?" Tony crossed his arms. "It's 'Phil' all over again."
"I'm being polite, Tony," Pepper kissed his cheek before standing up again. "Now come on, we've got several stops to make if we want to pick everyone up."
Tony reluctantly stood, muttering about 'star spangled old men ruining his jet'.
Nighttime, Puente Antiguo.
I was still feverishly awaiting the arrival of the Avengers, most of whom I had only met once, although I did get random visits from Tony Stark every now and then, at least before Loki's banishment, and even once Steve Rogers had shown up with Erik.
Tony, for the most part, was cheery and pleasant, although a little irritating sometimes. Steve was a perfect gentleman, polite and kind, and he and I got along very well the times we'd met. Bruce Banner was quiet and seemed to stay away from Tony and Steve, but that was probably because those two were always arguing about something, and it could ride on someone's nerves very easily.
Natasha Romanoff frankly scared the crap out of me, and I hoped a tiny bit that she wouldn't show up. Clint Barton was alright, but I got the sense he wanted as little to do with Thor(and by association me) as possible, because of Loki. He wasn't rude by any means, he was just closed off, and I understood that. Erik had been the same way when he first came out from under Loki's control.
I would need to get Loki to apologize for all of that someday.
Thor-
Well, Thor was not on my good list at the moment. Even though I didn't really mind having Loki with me at all, Thor still dropped him on me without so much as a warning, and didn't even stop to say hello. When the Bifrost first activated two months ago I thought it was Thor, and I was ready to give him a piece of my mind, but in fact it was Fandral.
He was apparently testing out the new Bifrost, and figured this would be a good place to land. He'd come back, taken note of Loki sitting casually on the couch, and proceeded to spend the rest of his time flirting with Darcy. He had actually started flirting with me, but one look from Loki made him stop that endeavor completely.
Fandral and Darcy were amusing to watch, as most of their conversations revolved around Darcy either explaining how Midgardian technology worked(Fandral was just as in love with Darcy's iPod as Darcy was herself), or Fandral regailing her with stories of past battles and Volstagg at different banquets.
I had expected there to be more animosity between Loki and Fandral, but after Loki had 'asserted his status as alpha male', as Darcy said, they got along fine. In fact, some of the times Fandral was telling a story, Loki would chime in with details Fandral had 'forgotten', like the time Fandral had tried to calm a bilge snipe by singing a love ballad to it, or the time he'd drunk so much mead he'd been hitting on Odin's throne.
At the present moment, Fandral was demonstrating several combat forms to Darcy, all the while explaining when he'd learned it and how he'd used it. I was sitting on the couch, Norse Mythology book in hand, leaning back against Loki's chest while he wove and unwove complex braids in my hair.
"Did you actually cut Sif's hair off?" I asked him, having just read that little bit in the book.
"No, I hexed it off, thank you very much." Loki replied, his icy hands still at work in my hair.
"Don't tell Sif I said this, but she was getting rather irritating with her boasting." Fandral added. "She needed to be taken a peg or two down, and I think turning her hair from her illustrious blonde was a good move."
"So she did start out blonde?" it was strange to think of Sif with blonde hair; I thought the dark inky color suited her.
"Yes, she did." Loki answered, nuzzling his cold nose against my neck. "Most Aesir are blonde, the darkest I've seen being Volstagg's ginger. Sif stands out a lot with her dark hair."
"Doesn't that other guy have black hair though?" I questioned, turning around slightly. "Um, Hogun?"
"He's Vanir, not Aesir," Fandral said, swinging his sword around and sheathing it with a flourish. "Sif is the only Aesir to have dark hair. It's one of the reasons Loki was so confusing to the population; his hair wasn't just darker than normal golden blonde, it was black. A lot of people expected him to be like a miniature Thor, I think."
"Thank Valhalla that wasn't true," Loki muttered.
"Ha!" Fandral grinned. "You're probably right there, my friend. Two Thors…especially with the way he used to be.. We'd have been at war with Jotunheim in half the time!"
Loki let out a snort of laughter before burying his nose in my hair again.
"Just imagine how many smashed mugs there would've been," Darcy added. She held her hand up and brought in crashing down on the table with her best Thor imitation, shouting 'another!'.
Fandral was delighted, and both of them dissolved into hysterics. I sighed, leaning back against Loki and opening my book again, smiling as I felt his arms snake around my middle.
I had installed curtains on the large windows, because who knows who might freak out if they saw a weird blue person just casually walking around Jane Foster's lab like it was nothing. Actually, they probably wouldn't care, but having a Frost Giant in my lab wasn't something I particularly wanted to advertise.
The curtains were currently closed, so none of us saw the approaching group of people, and Fandral's and Darcy's laughter had all but drowned out any engine noise from whatever mode of transportation the Avengers had used.
There was a loud knock on the door(which was also obscured by curtains) and I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard it. Darcy squealed and leapt from her seat, dragged Fandral by his collar, and skidded to a halt in front of the door. She pushed the curtain out of the way and opened the door.
"Hi, Darcy," came the familiar voice of Pepper Potts. "And you must be Fandral, right?"
"Indeed, my lady," answered Fandral, bowing.
"Yeah, yeah, scooch-" Tony Stark pushed his way into the lab, catching sight of me and Loki sitting on the couch. "What's with the curtains, sweetheart? Are you up to no good or-"
His eyes caught on Loki, whose face was still buried in my hair.
"What is that?" Tony blinked as if trying to clear his vision. "Why is it blue?"
"Oh, that's Jane's boyfriend, like I told Pepper." Darcy answered before I could, walking over to us. "Don't ask why he's blue. It's a touchy subject."
"Oh," Tony blinked a few more times, before shrugging and walking over to the kitchen. "I've seen weirder, I suppose."
Steve Rogers and Pepper were the next to come in, Pepper chatting away with Fandral about something or other, while Steve looked pensive.
"Hi, Cap." I waved.
"Good evening, Ms. Foster," Steve greeted politely, sitting down when Darcy motioned for him to. "How are you?"
"I'm good," I said, setting the Norse Mythology book back onto the coffee table. "I mean, aside from random aliens showing up in my life from time to time."
"Oh, of course," said Tony from the kitchen, where he was inspecting the contents of the fridge. "Nothing like some craziness to spice up life. Also, do you ever eat? Where's the food?"
"Well, I wasn't exactly expecting company-" I glared at Darcy, who shrugged unashamedly. "But if I had been, I would've picked something up."
"Is this everyone?" I asked, looking around to see if Bruce was here.
"Yeah, I tried to convince Barton and Romanoff, but they declined." Tony responded, sitting down opposite Steve at the table. "Banner had prior engagements. I could, uh, call 'Phil'-"
Tony looked pointedly at Pepper, who gave him an innocent cant of her head. Some inside joke, I guess.
"-if you want," he finished.
"Oh, no," I shook my head. "Coulson and I don't see eye to eye. And I don't want my stuff taken. Besides, I don't think he'd appreciate present company."
"Who, blue boy over there?" Tony snickered. "Why? What's he done?"
"According to Jane," Loki lifted his head from my hair, fixing Tony with his scarlet gaze. "I've thrown you out a building, invaded Barton's mind, threatened Romanoff, almost killed this 'Phil' person, and also tried to murder Thor on multiple occasions. There are probably a few of those that you don't even know about."
Tony blinked again, frowning. Then realization dawned on his face and he stood up, his gaze hardening.
"I thought Thor took you back to magic land when he left," Tony said warily. "Y'know, to face Asgardian justice, or whatever?"
"This is his supposed justice," Loki replied coolly, his arms tightening around my waist. "I was stripped of my magic and power, and sent here, to Midgard just as Thor was."
"Loki?" Steve frowned, standing up as well and moving closer.
"Oh boy," muttered Darcy.
"Jane-" Steve began, reaching over to me, but as soon as his hand got close I was pushed into the couch as Loki stood up, blocking Steve.
"Don't touch her," Loki hissed through his teeth, standing nose to nose with the Captain.
"Excuse me?" Tony cleared his throat. "I think it's you who shouldn't be touching her, after all, what would Thor do if he found you with your hands on his girl?"
Loki growled, the temperature suddenly dropping twenty degrees. He advanced on the two Avengers, lips pulling back to bare sharp white teeth. Tiny little ice flakes started to tumble around the room as Loki's ancestral Jotun magic began seeping out into the room. Apparently Odin didn't remove all of his power.
"Let me make this very clear," Loki's voice was low, but dripping with venom. "Jane. Is. Mine!"
The ice in the room began swirling more urgently, the temperature going lower and lower, dropping below fifty if my thermostat on the wall was to be trusted.
"Steve-" began Tony.
"Suit up, yeah, I got it." Steve ducked as Loki swung a blade of ice at his head.
He retrieved his shield from where it was sitting against the wall, hooking it onto his arm and moving to stand in front of me.
"Pepper, Darcy, get out!" Tony shouted, frantically jabbing a button on some small remote control. "C'mon, JARVIS, quick!"
Loki turned his attention from Tony to Steve, and his anger grew when he saw the Captain guarding me.
"Steve, you'd better-" I started, but didn't finish as Steve suddenly yanked me down, putting his shield up to deflect the sharp ice knives Loki had sent his way.
"JARVIS, quick!" Tony was saying, still slapping the control. "Hey- Fandral, was it? Are you going to help or what!?"
The room now was swirling with ice and snow as a blizzard began inside the lab.
"And get in the way of a Jotun and his mate?!" Fandral's disbelieving laugh came from the opposite end of the now wintry room. I couldn't see him through the thick snow billowing about, but I could hear him fairly well. "Sorry, but I'd rather take a vacation to Helheim!"
Steve and Loki were locked in combat, and it seemed like Loki had the upper hand. Was it my imagination, or did Loki seem taller? Steve appeared to be holding his own, but Loki was bearing down on him, rapidly wearing the hardened soldier out.
"Stark, I could use a little help here!" Steve grunted, fending off another one of Loki's ice swords with his shield.
"Yeah, I'm trying!" Tony called back, seemingly to give up on his remote control and was now making his way over to me through the already knee-deep snow that covered the floor. "Jane, you'd better get out of here!"
"Tony, don't come any closer!" I warned, holding out my hands to stop him. The reason this all happened was because Steve had gotten too close, and I didn't want this to escalate even further than it already had.
"Jane, you have to get out!" Tony repeated, ignoring my words and moving closer still. "JARVIS isn't working in this storm, and we need back-up!"
"No, we don't, just get Steve and get out!" I began backing away.
"And leave you in here? Are you kidding?" Tony snorted and suddenly he was right beside me. "Come on, kid, let's go. I'll call S.H.I.E.L.D. when we get out."
His arm wrapped around my shoulder for about a second before his presence was suddenly ripped away. I whirled and saw Loki looming over him, teeth bared. He still seemed taller, although I wasn't sure how.
"Stark!" cried Steve, who was getting back to his feet from being thrown into a snow bank like Tony. "You've got to get out! You're defenseless without your suit!"
"No kidding, Capsicle," Tony groaned, rolling out of the way just in time and Loki's ice sword came hurtling downwards. "Fandral! Get Jane out!"
"You get out!" Fandral shouted back as he ran over, dragging Tony away from Loki by his arms.
Steve had distracted Loki long enough for Fandral to pull Tony out and to safety, but Loki was going to end up killing Steve if no one intervened soon.
I started forward, clumsily tripping over the snow, which was now waist deep.
"Steve!" I cried. "Get out!"
"Sorry-" the Captain blocked another blow from Loki's ice weapon. "-Ms. Foster, but I won't let him hurt you!"
"Steve, he won't hurt me!" I yelled back, trying to reach the soldier through the freezing snow. "Just trust me!"
Steve glanced my direction for a split second, before vaulting up, launching off of Loki's shoulders, and landing on his shield, sliding across the ice and snow like he was snowboarding. As he neared me, I readied myself for his 'rescue', and when I saw his arm shoot out to grab me, I ducked down, avoiding it.
Steve sailed off towards the door, skidding to a halt on his shield and jumping off.
"Ms. Foster, come on!" he called.
"No, Steve, go!" I shouted, moving forward to intercept Loki.
Said Frost Giant barely paid Steve any heed as he reached for me and drew me into his arms, the blizzard around us calming down.
"You really shouldn't have done that," I mumbled into his chest.
"I was defending what is mine," was Loki's response.
I looked up, and was suddenly met with ice cold lips pressing softly against mine. Slowly, the snow and ice around us dissipated, the room returning to what it was before, and I relaxed into Loki's arms, my arms drawing up around his neck to thread my fingers through his black hair.
"Ms. Foster?" poor Steve sounded so lost.
"I told you they were dating," came Darcy's smug voice.
"Hey- did he get taller?" Tony was irritated.
"I wonder if protecting their mate is a rite of passage in Jotun culture," mused Fandral. "Maybe the rush of magic and power is what makes them grow larger."
"I think it's sweet," said Pepper. Her words were followed by a snort from Tony and then a resounding slap.
"Why are women so violent?" muttered Tony, whose cheek was now smarting rather painfully.
(A/N) And there you have it! There's one more installment to this series, and hopefully I'll have it up soon. Thanks for reading, friend! :3