A tasertricks idea that has been cooking in my head for a while, only Three complete chapters but more could come.
He watched from across the other end of the big ball room type room as more guests arrived through the doors. The party was being held at the Odinson headquarters in London, and the big extravagant mess hall was acting as a ballroom for the night. All sorts of politicians, corporate moguls, prestigious journalists, and other hoighty toity self-proclaimed bigshots were there. And to welcome them all was the great Anthony Odinson, founder of the Odinson enterprise, and his wife Renee Odinson, the fearless human rights lawyer. Their son Thor Odinson, the world famous footballer, would occasionally rip himself from his fiancée, the nobel prizewinning astrophysicist Jane Foster, to also greet the new guests.
Loki leaned his head back and shot his whiskey and sneered. And here was he, their second son, the not yet acknowledged heir of the Odinson enterprise, the rumored alcoholic but still one of the best lawyers in UK. Hiding on the other side of the room to avoid the judgement of all the self-proclaimed masters of business, it was the coward's way out, and he knew that, but at the moment he couldn't care less. He heard the swooshing of a dress walking closer to him and he looked to his side before turning to look straight ahead again.
"You look good" He said and put down his glass on the waiter's tray who had dared to come close to him. "Martini" The waiter nodded and turned to his new companion.
"Whatever champagne they're serving tonight" Sif answered and the waiter ran away to get their orders. "I look fantastic" Loki smirked a little at her self-assured attitude. Not that she didn't look fantastic, because she did. The dark red sleeveless dress complimented her slightly tanned skin, she must have been abroad lately, short dark hair and dark eyes perfectly.
"How are you feeling?" Her question was careful, he could tell, but she also sounded genuinely concerned.
"Fantastic. Four years at the American headquarters worked miracles for my sour disposition and very much improved my relationship with my family, so I'm fan-fucking-tastic" He sneered and looked around for the waiter, he better have died to take so long time to whip together a martini.
Sif sighed and shook her head. "I'm sorry for what happened to you. He wasn't fair, and I agreed with you at that meeting"
Loki looked at her and raised an eyebrow "Really? I would have appreciated if you had verbalized your support!"
Sif snorted "No you wouldn't. You are his son, his heir and all that. He can't fire you for disagreeing with him and that was why you were sent to New York. He could, however, fire me and I am of far more use to you on the inside of the company. Think about how alone you would have been if I hadn't been here when you had come back" She smirked and he shook his head, but she knew he knew she was right.
The waiter finally came with their drinks and then ran away just as quickly when Loki glared at him.
"Have you seen the guest list for tonight?" She asked and he snorted.
"Do I really need to? It is going to be the usual bigwigs with their cohorts and they are going to be just as boring as they always have been"
Sif nodded "True" She looked at him, she was tall enough to not have to look up at him so she could look straight at him and meet his gaze. "Do you remember my friend from Saint Susannah's, Darcy Lewis?"
As was the English tradition for family's with money, the Odinson brother's had been sent to a prestigious all boys boarding school. Their school had been just a couple of miles away from another school, an all-girls boarding school, Saint Susannah's, were Sif and Jane had attended. Thor and Loki had known Sif since they were really young and had maintained a friendship when they were at boarding school. The two schools would have sports events together, and the students would often have clandestine meetings on the weekends or nights. He remembered a younger girl hanging around Sif and Jane, not that Sif and Jane were close… especially after how Jane had stolen Thor from Sif
"Was Darcy the one stalking you and Jane? Dark brown hair, glasses, braces…her nails each had a different color" He remembered that time they had gone swimming at the lake. Thor and his friends had all thrown themselves into the water, Sif and Jane had run in after them with some other girls. Darcy hadn't brought a suit so she had just sat there on the small pier laughing at the others splashing each other, he hadn't thought much of her at the time, he was too busy getting out into the water to talk to her anyway, but looking back at it she had looked strangely happy in the evening sun watching her friends being idiots. And he remembered that she had painted her nails then, in vibrant shades of purple and red.
Sif rolled her eyes "She wasn't stalking us, we were friends. She was friends with both me and Jane so…I guess that's why it became us three. She glued us together" Sif looked over at Jane who was looking longingly at Thor who was talking to a group of people while holding her hand. Sif was over her crush on Thor long ago, but seeing them together was still not her favorite thing in the world, old habits die hard. Loki noticed.
"I could send you on a classified errand to Bahamas at the time of their wedding" She smiled softy and looked at him.
"Thanks for the offer, but running is not what I do" She looked across the room and then back at him "And neither should you. Go stand by your parents, kill the guests with kindness and make them regret ever thinking something bad about you" Loki swept back his martini and laughed a bitter laugh.
"Maybe later" Sif gave him a sharp look which he shrugged off. "What about Darcy Lewis?" He returned to their previous topic and even though he could tell Sif wanted to nag him more about his appearance at the current party, she knew when not to push him and when to continue, so she folded for now.
"She's coming tonight" Sif smiled and Loki frowned.
"Why on earth would she come here?" As far as he knew there was no person-of-interest in the business named Darcy Lewis.
"Because she was invited" Sif sneered and he glared at her and was about to tell her off but was suddenly pulled forward by his arm, or Thor who was holding his arm.
"Brother! I found some business acquaintances of yours from New York, they tell me that you have humor but I won't believe it until I see it" and so he was swept away into a conversation with Stark, Rodgers and Banner and his brother who seemed to be amazed to see him socialize so easily with other people. If one good thing had come from his stay in New York headquarters it was his new friends, which they openly called each other now (as opposed of how they started out).
Time seemed to move faster when he was actually enjoying the party thanks to his friends, until they were spread out again. Rodgers went to the bathroom, Stark went to show off whatever miracle he had built to some other corporate moguls and Banner was roped into a conversation with another scientist, a very charming, pretty scientist who seemed to adore him. Loki enjoyed seeing Banner blush at the woman's attention and praise and was smirking openly when Banner looked at him in shock. Loki simply shrugged and slid away from the conversation to find Sif again.
He met his mother's gaze from her place among a group of people and he could see and feel her pleading with him to come to her, not to save her, gods knew that Renee Odinson could maneuver any social situation flawlessly. She wanted him to come to save himself, in one of the ways she knew how to help him, by interacting with important people who could elevate his standards in the eyes of the company. He turned his eyes away from her and walked faster through the crowd of people. Their chattering and the slow ballroom music made his head spin, and it wasn't the alcohol, he was no drunk even though they all seemed to think so.
He winced back a little as a hand suddenly grabbed his arm gently. Jane looked at him with startled eyes.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"
"It's quite alright Jane I was just distracted. What did you want?" He liked Jane, he really did. Even though she had a tendency to judge before having all the facts (which made him wonder at how her career and science actually worked out, or if she only did it in social situations), but he didn't really have the energy for her mooning over his brother right now, even though his brother was nowhere in sight.
"I was just going to ask if you had seen Darcy yet?" He looked around for a second and then shook his head, no quirky girl with glasses, braces or multicolored nails in sight.
"No I have not" Jane just nodded and smiled then slipped away. "Your welcome" Loki said under his breath, even though she probably heard him, and continued towards Sif who was standing by the bar talking to Rodgers. Sif leaned her head back and laughed at something the former soldier said and Steve just looked at her in awe with a smile on his face. Ugh, not romance. But as he got closer to Sif he regretted that thought at seeing how happy she looked, flirty and suggestive but happy. She looked at him and smiled.
"Why didn't you tell me that you had other friends? If I had known we could have exchanged notes on how to best handle you sooner" Loki rolled his eyes and leaned next to her on her other side.
"Share notes all you want, but I'm not a friend to any of you" He said and then nodded to the bartender and ordered whiskey.
"Aw Loki, now my feelings are hurt" Steve said and made a fake pout which Loki just rolled his eyes at while Sif laughed.
"Put a band aid on it" Loki mumbled and Steve just continued to pout, but Loki could tell it was more in order to put on a show for Sif rather than to tease him. Loki glanced down at Sif over her head and then moved his eyebrows up and down at the soldier who stopped and seemed to blush only a little, but covered it by drinking from his beer.
Loki was just about to tell Sif that Jane was running around looking for their lost little companion when he spotted a woman making her way towards the other side of the bar. She was wearing a black dress, tight until it reached her knees where it flared out. It revealed nothing at the same time as it showed off everything. She pushed back her dark curls that fell around her face with red manicured nails that matched her dark red lips, the lace looking fabric on her chest didn't show much cleavage, but did an excellent work demonstrating her fantastic curves.
"Oh dear gods" He murmured and Sif and Rodgers looked at him in surprise and then followed his line of sight until it hit the woman on the other side who was currently checking her phone. Sif looked back at him in surprise with a smirk on her face and Rodgers looked like he approved.
"Oh please turn around, please turn around" Loki mumbled and Sif frowned.
"What are you talking about?" Rodgers touched her hand to get her attention and she was pleased when it stayed there.
"He's an ass man" Rodgers said and Sif frowned again.
"I didn't need to know that" She said drolly and Steve smiled and they both looked over at the woman at the other side. Loki tuned them out, yes he was an ass man, but even if that didn't fall through he was still going to go for it. The picture of beauty sighed and put her phone back in her small black clutch and started to walk away from the bar… which gave him a view of her walking away…
Yes! "I'm going in!" Before Sif and Rodgers could blink Loki was walking in the direction the woman had gone off to.
Steve just laughed a little and shook his head "I hope she can handle him, he has been antsy lately. It would be nice for him to meet someone…" He was surprised when Sif snorted out a laugh.
"Don't worry, she can handle him" Steve looked at her and she just smiled mischievously.
"What do you know that I don't?" Sif tried to look innocence as she drank from her champagne. Oh this would be fun.