A/N: Based on a prompt from aenigmaticdays on tumblr.

The kissing booth was either a very good idea or a very, very bad one.

On the one hand, this year's Scientific Committee fundraiser had made double the money of last year's, and they were only on the second day. Jane could pretend that her research partner's butter snap cookies selling like hot cakes, or even the dunk tank Darcy had spent the last three hours manning, were the cause of it, but in the back of her mind, she would always know it was the kissing booth. Their volunteers were some of the hottest guys the campus had to offer, from the rich and suave to the dark and mysterious. Jane could look at that mile long line of excited, jumpy girls patiently awaiting their turn, and those bright pink cash boxes stuffed with bills, and know that she owed it all to thpse brave souls who took up the mantle.

On the other hand, and grateful as she was, she had never planned on actually joining the excited, jumpy girls in line. She had better things to do: money to count, clean-ups to supervise, tickets to sell… she'd been a jack of all trades this weekend, doing whatever job she could and filling the empty slots of those who couldn't make it. It shouldn't have surprised her at all when her friends ambushed her at the ring toss, leaving her to throw one unfortunate child his prize as she was dragged away.

"You've been working way too hard, Jane," said Darcy as she pulled furiously on Jane's left arm.

"It's time you had some fun of your own," said Maria. Being taller and stronger than Darcy, she had no trouble marching Jane around sharp turns and different booths.

"But I am having fun!" Jane had shouted in vain.

That was an hour ago. All that time later, and they were still over twenty people away from the front of the line. Some part of Jane saw this as an advantage: if she was careful, she could slip away and make a run for it. The others would be too busy waiting their turn to notice she was gone. By the time they did, she'd be halfway across the field with Bruce, Betty, and Ian, making plans for tomorrow's activity roaster.

Jane glanced up at Maria, the athletic girl was just ahead of her, her long hair up in a ponytail. Darcy and Pepper brought up the rear, leaving Jane was squashed in the middle. Any one of them could see her and react before she'd taken a step. Damn her and her lack of athleticism that left her slower than a snail on drugs. There was no chance, no hope at all of escape.

"God, this wait is killing me," Darcy groaned. Her body fell into Jane's like a wet sack of potatoes, emphasis on wet. Jane gasped as the cold hit her. Darcy's soaking wet shirt seeped water through Jane's jacket.

"Get off!"

Jane pushed, misjudging her own (lack of) strength and winding up jettisoned out of the line and onto the soft grass below. She fisted it. She could run now if she wanted to, she was finally in the clear. In the time it took her to process that, Darcy and Maria had pounced, dragging her back behind Pepper. The few girls who complained were pointedly ignored, and Jane was trapped once again.

"Sorry about that," Darcy said sheepishly. "I was so excited that I forget to change out of my dunk tank clothes."

"How are you not catching a massive cold right now?" Jane wondered aloud.

"Oh please, my immune system is, like, superhuman or something. I never get sick."

"Knock wood," Pepper said out the corner of her mouth.

"I don't believe in that."

"What I don't get is, if you're so eager to get a kiss from Loki, why don't you just ask him out?" Maria stuffed her hands in her pockets, shifting her weight evenly between both legs. "You do have your own unique charm to you."

"Thank you," said Darcy proudly. "But nah. Loki's hot as all hell don't get me wrong, but he's not my type. Not for a long-term sort of thing. For this? Hell yeah, I'm game."

Darcy pumped her fist in the air, doing a weird little swaying dance and whipping her head in all directions. Several people got droplets of water in the face, but by now most everyone was more concerned with getting this damn line moving. Whoever was taking their turn right now had to be really milking it.

Jane looked up and down the stretches of field that, on normal days, was where the football team played.

"This line is way longer than yesterday's was," she observed.

"That's because Tony was on the kissing booth yesterday," said Darcy, rolling her eyes. "And we all know he had to cut his shift short because somebody decided to drag him away for a little 'extra credit,' wink wink nudge nudge."

She proceeded to do exactly that to Pepper, getting her right in the gut and earning a glare, though the elegant woman's sly little smile could not be contained for long.

"It was part of our agreement," she said. "He runs the kissing booth, and I get a special deal when it's my turn."

"And I suppose getting a smooch from Loki was somewhere in that deal as well?"

Again, Pepper just smiled.

The line was moving faster now. Several girls seemed to be going at once, and now only ten separated Jane from her fate. She hated to be overdramatic, but that was really how it felt. Imagine if Thor walked by, right as she was planting one on his own little brother. Sure, it was just a game and he knew that, and Thor was not the jealous type by any degree. He was, in fact, one of the kindest, most easy-going guys Jane had ever met in her life, not to mention he had a smile that made her knees go weak. It was no wonder her heart pounded whenever he was around, and that his sudden, out of the blue request for a date last month had quickly turned into something greater. Though they weren't official yet, Jane could see it coming a mile away. They had been on three dates, she had gone with him to the homecoming dance, she had met his family, and now there was just that one little question that needed asking.

'Jane, will you be mine?'

She heard it in his voice and felt pleasant warmth spread across her chest. From there it crawled up and down, from her head to her toes, like he was right there with his arms around her.

Jane heard a giggle, and for a moment, mistook it for her own. It was too deep though, too much like Maria's.

Actually, it was Maria.

She was walking away from the kissing booth, a bounce in her step as she waved good bye to Loki and the others.

Maria had just taken her turn.

Only Darcy and Pepper were left.

And then…

"Focus up, Jane," Darcy shouted over her shoulder. "Almost your turn."

She skipped right up to the table, depositing the fee into the box and wasting no time in wrapping her arms around Loki's neck and giving him what had to be the biggest, messiest kiss he'd received all day. That was the thing about Darcy, she always left a big impression.

Three seconds passed and she was done, joining Maria in the corner as the two of them shared joined hands and squealed. Compared to Darcy, Pepper's kiss was like a friendly handshake. One little peck and she was done, staying just long enough to remind Loki that Tony expected him later that night to talk plans for the engineering club's fundraiser next month.

And so, it came down to this.

Jane had to be not-so-gently pushed along by the woman behind her. Loki smiled serenely as she stumbled forward, nearly tripping over her own feet and needing the table to brace herself.

"Good afternoon, Jane," he said.

For a moment, she wondered if that was all she was going to get out of him. Jane had met Loki several times, even before she and Thor became an item. They had shared some pretty intense and interesting conversations, and yet Jane never felt they made it quite to 'friend' level. In many ways, he was barely an acquaintance. She hadn't even known him and Thor were related until she found him reading a book in Thor's living room before dinner.

Since then, she could find herself in the presence of one of two Lokis: the one who conversed with ease or the one who couldn't be bothered.

"Have you read the latest scientific article on black holes? They are the reason I look forward to the day you will be published, so we might finally get something intelligent to discuss," he would say one day in the cafeteria.

"Fine," he would answer when she asked him over his family's dinner table how his day had gone, before he spent the rest of the night pretending she and Thor didn't exist.

"Of course you should expect far more than what that fool could give you. Everything you've told me about him indicates you were never compatible to begin with," he said on the night of what would have been her fifth anniversary with her first love, while she cried bitter tears into her salad.

"No," he would say, and then shut the door in hers and Thor's faces when they asked if he wanted to come to the movie with them.

There was a good chance Jane would get the former today. The latter seemed to correlate with Thor's presence for whatever reason, and as he was currently nowhere to be found, maybe Jane would get lucky.

"Look, I'm only doing this because they all made me." Jane pointed at her friends, who grinned and waved back. "They think I've been working too hard, and I get that they mean well, but they could have just taken me to get some churros if they wanted me to enjoy myself, instead of-"

"Jane, there is a line."

She was suddenly aware of about twenty pairs of eyes on her, not a single one of them friendly. Jane shuddered. She hadn't even turned around, and she could feel the ice in their stares.

"Right, sorry," she inhaled and exhaled deeply, preparing herself for the inevitable. "Let's do this."

Her two dollars went into the box as she leaned in. Surprisingly, Loki didn't meet her. He stayed exactly as he was: arms crossed, elbows on the table, wearing a smile that was so different from Thor's and yet always achieved the same effect. Jane coughed. Looking away would be a good idea, but wasn't it weird to kiss a guy and not pay attention to it?

"How are you and Thor?" he asked.

"What?" Jane said without thinking. When it came to her, his smile was fading, and she felt nothing but relief.

"Are you two well?"

"Huh… don't we have to-"

"He told me that he plans to make you his girlfriend, officially."

Jane's heart did a backflip, cutting off her airways for a moment. For all that she expected it, counted on it even, hearing from a reliable source that it really was true…

She could die and go to heaven right here, right now.

"Thanks for telling me," she said. His nails dug deep into his skin.

"I don't think he should."

Jane furrowed her brow, frowning at him. A shot of anger and indignation went through her, erasing any gratitude she might've expressed before. It wouldn't be so bad if he hadn't been so smug when he said that. Was he trying to piss her off?

"What does it matter to you if he does?" she snaps.

She would leave and let him just keep the money, let him go back to all the girls who would happily pay two million dollars to kiss him, but his hands clamped down on her arms. He was so quick about it, and so impossibly strong. His grip was not biting, but try as she might, Jane couldn't make him budge. He raised his head to meet hers, his eyes burning with something Jane couldn't place.

"It means everything to me," he hissed.

He kissed her. This was not at all like with Thor. Thor was tentative, gentlemanly. He took what he wanted but only with a great deal of build-up. Sometimes, Jane would've liked it if he'd just skip the semantics and get right to the good stuff. That was what Loki did. His lips were soft and smooth and hard and demanding and all-encompassingly brutal against hers. Rockets went off in Jane's stomach as he coaxed her into submission. He was so warm, he set her soul on fire. Flames ignited all around them, all bending to his will. He had total command over their kiss, and his mouth wasn't even open.

How long did it go on for? A minute? Ten minutes? Where there still people in line or had they gotten tired of waiting and left hours ago?

And then, just like that, Loki let go. The world crashed down around her, and Jane could see Darcy in the corner, grinning and fanning herself. The girl behind her was tapping her foot and giving her the stink eye. Jane hadn't moved away yet, Loki wasn't letting her.

"Think of me," he whispered in her ear.

Somehow, Jane walked away from him after that, back to her friends and back to a reality that made sense to her, where a fairy tale prince waited to whisk her away, and his weird, bipolar brother went on with his own life somewhere far, far away and didn't make any trouble for them. Her friends ribbed her about the kiss, about it taking so long. Twenty seconds, as Darcy told her many, many times for the rest of the night.

A godsend came hours later, in the form of the gorgeous blond headed prince of her dreams, arriving without a hint of flourish to the diner they were taking a late meal in.

"Well, I didn't think I'd find you here, Jane," Thor said, leaning over her as the others scooted away to give them some privacy. "Are you following me?"

Jane blushed hard. "We were here first, you know. I should probably be asking you the same question."

Thor laughed heartily, and what a beautiful sound it was. "I suppose you've got me. Very well, I concede defeat."

He lowered his head and Jane raised hers without a moment's hesitation. This was the way it was supposed to be.

This was right.

This was perfect.

Their lips met and it was…

Soft.

Subdued.

Normal.

No flames.

No heat.

No passion.

Just Thor.

Just Jane and Thor.

Just Jane and Thor and a pair of impossible green eyes filling her inner vision, and a tingling in her stomach that did not come from the one she was kissing.

"Think of me."

'Oh no…'

And somewhere far away- Jane would never know exactly where- Loki sipped on a glass of wine and smiled.