Maybe it was the whole holiday environment that had made him feel charitable towards Thor's pleading. Maybe it was his mother's heavily spiked egg-nog. Either way Loki had somehow agreed to go on a date. Not just any date. A blind date. With one of Thor's acquaintances. That right there should have been enough to hold him firm on his "no". Thor and Loki were about as opposite as it came, but whenever Loki had even alluded to canceling or backing out of the date, Thor made the worst wounded puppy face and Loki could do nothing but sigh.
And he sighs again now, smoothing the front of his blue button down and trying not to look at his watch, again, from where he is seated in the corner of Lucca's, the nicest restaurant in all of this small town . He should have put a drink order in with the waiter, etiquette be damned. And he has very low expectations for any sort of decorum from his date. Any lady-friend of Thor's was unlikely to be ladylike anyways. And she was already quite late.
"Loki?" a female voice asks, her voice has a gravelly sound but it is warm too. He lifts his head, taking in the boots and dark jeans hugging the curves of a woman dressed in a simple scarlet top under her black leather jacket. A stunning woman. Well that was unexpected.
"I'm Sif. So sorry I'm late. We got called out right at the end of my shift. Luckily the blaze was small, but it still put me way behind schedule for getting ready tonight."
That also takes him by surprise. Thor said he had a friend he wanted Loki to meet, he didn't realize that she was a co-worker to his brother, Fire Chief Odinson.
He tells her as much as she slides into the seat across from him, ridding herself of the jacket and smoothing the hair she has half pulled back. "Honestly, I'm not sure I can ever recall meeting a woman who is a full time firefighter."
Sif smiles knowingly at him, "There aren't many of us out there, it's definitely a boys club but I love the challenge of it."
The waiter stops by their table, handing out menus and taking drink orders. The server is a young man who has also apparently noticed Sif's beauty, hardly giving Loki a glance as he chats away at her. Sif suggests they split a bottle of red, a Malbec, Loki's favorite and he is impressed again. Perhaps this date won't be as unbearable as he first imagined. She at least has all of her teeth, which is more than he expected.
They fall into a slightly awkward silence as they both scan the menus for a moment. Sif sets hers down and apologizes again for being late. "I don't know if this whole blind date thing is as uncomfortable for you as it is for me, but I didn't want you to think I had stood you up."
"It's fine, fine," Loki waves his hand, forgetting his earlier annoyance. "I had only just sat down when you came in," he lies. "I'm afraid my students don't always grasp the concept of office hours."
"Oh you're a teacher? Thor didn't tell me that," she sips from her glass.
"A professor at the university actually. I can't really blame my brother for forgetting such small details," Loki sniffs.
Sif splutters on her drink. "Your brother?" she coughs. "He told me you were a friend."
Loki internally rolls his eyes at his sibling but keeps calm on the outside. "Is that a problem?"
"No," she jumps. "No, no. I'm just not sure I would have agreed to come if I'd known I would be going out with my boss's brother. What if I had nothing but awful things to say at the end of this? That seems a little hazardous, mixing business with pleasure."
Loki tries not to think about how good that word sounds in her mouth, shaking his head. "Don't worry, my brother is nothing if not admirable. So why did you agree? To this?"
"Alcohol probably," she laughs and Loki cannot help but smile at the sound of it. "He'd been pestering me about wanting to set me up with someone smart and handsome and blah blah blah, but it wasn't until our holiday party at the station the other night after one too many shots of fireball that I gave in."
"Well I hope that I at least live up to the handsome part," Loki runs a hand through his meticulously styled hair with a smirk.
"So far so good," she grins, and he can't help but preen a bit under her gaze.
The waiter, Brian, he reminds Sif of his name, returns to take their dinner orders. He puts his hand on Sif's shoulder as he points out their specials and makes his suggestions. Loki bristles, knowing he is being ridiculous, but can't help but feel a tinge of jealousy, of defensiveness.
They fall back into silence as the server departs again. Loki fidgets with the stem of his wine glass, twirling it across the white table cloth to clink with the tealight holder.
"I'm sorry if I'm not very good at this. I haven't had much time for dating honestly."
"No judgement from me," Sif shrugs. "I'm out of practice too, it seems like I intimidate most men away before anything ever gets off the ground."
"What did get you interested in such a crazy profession such as firefighting?" Loki asks, honestly curious, and only slightly intimidated. If he was honest with himself, which he rarely was, he actually found the thought of it quite sexy.
"I grew up in the mountains, forest fires were a pretty common thing and I always wanted to do something to help. So I actually started out as a volunteer wildland firefighter when I was at college. And that eventually led to me becoming a smokejumper." Her entire face lit up when she spoke. Loki was enthralled.
"So you are telling me that not only did you fight forest fires which is dangerous on its own, but you would jump out of a plane to do so?"
Sif laughs. "That's right. I would parachute into remote places all over to help contain a blaze before it could do major damage. It was amazing."
"I knew there had to be a catch to this date with a beautiful woman, you are genuinely unhinged ."
Sif laughs again, throwing her head back, and totally ignoring Brian as he smiles down at her while sliding her plate of wild mushroom pappardelle in front of her.
"It is fun!" Sif tears off a chunk of thick bread. "I always liked getting my hands dirty, being right in the action of things."
Loki digs into his vodka chicken capellini trying not to moan at the delicious pasta. "That must have made you the elite of the most elite. What in the world brought you to our small town fire department?"
"A new adventure," she shrugs. "I needed something a little slower paced for a bit. So now I get to swap my knowledge of forest fires for structure fires."
"Thrilling," he says with a laugh, but means it truly. She is thrilling.
"But enough about me," she waves her fork in the air. "What do you teach?"
"I am a professor of archaeology."
"Wow, a real-life Indiana Jones?" she grins. "How exciting."
"These past few weeks with the end of the quarter and final exams were any but," he runs a hand down his face, "mostly grading papers and listening to insipid excuses from undergrads about what made-up life event kept them from completing an assignment."
"Sounds like a blast! So which part of all that fun made you want to pursue that as a career?"
"Well, there's something about me that not many people know," Loki drops his voice and leans over the table, Sif mirroring his position to share the secret, "I absolutely hate people. But I love treasure."
Sif swats his shoulder across the table and sits back with a laugh. "Oh please! You couldn't teach a subject if you weren't a bit of people person."
"You haven't met some of my coworkers, they are absolutely robotic" Loki smiles. "But no, you're right. There is something very rewarding when you have a student that gets it, one that you can help on their journey."
Sif's face is glowing in the light of the tealight on the table. "What's your specialty?"
"Vikings," he puts his fork down at her excited gasp and questioning. Loki has launched into a retelling his trip to Scandinavia over the summer with a group of grad students and their work to uncover a burial site. "It's a bit difficult to tell for certain given Viking funerals typically include incineration, but it appears she was a shieldmaiden, buried with her sword and her hair combs. She must have been quite something judging by the load of treasures surrounding her. You would have liked her, I'm sure."
"I'm sure I would," Sif grins. "Sounds like my kind of woman."
Mine too, Loki thinks to himself. Both of their empty plates have been cleared and the bottle of Malbec is down to a dribble, and Loki laments the end of the night. Their departure out into the cold and snow is delayed however, when the waiter swoops back in, dropping a large crème brûlée onto the table.
"I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong table," Loki looks questioningly over at Sif who shakes her head, "we didn't order this."
"The man who made your reservations paid for this the other night and requested it be brought out at the end." Loki tries not to take pleasure in how put out the young man looks as he asks "What, is it your anniversary or something?"
"Something like that," Sif grins across at Loki. The server puts the bill onto the table and sulks away. Good bye, Brian. "I see that Thor does actually listen to me sometimes. Crème brûlée is my favorite."
"Or perhaps he was thinking of me, since this has been my favorite since I was a child. Nothing quite like that," Loki cracks the hard sugar with a satisfying pop from his spoon and grins.
"Oh, I've finally figured it out!" Sif claps a hand to her forehead.
"Figured what out?"
"What it was the Thor saw in us to want to set this all up."
"A love of crème brûlée?"
"Uh huh," Sif shovels a large spoonful into her mouth. "Nothing else about us makes sense."
"Yes," Loki licks the creamy custard from his spoon, "and thank god for that, because without this common ground I would say this whole night was just horrendous. Bad food. Bad company. Boring conversation."
"The worst," Sif agrees, her grin wicked.
Their laughter carries them out of the small restaurant and across the ice-slick parking lot to where Sif has pointed out her car. Loki slows his pace, trying to extend the moment before it grows slightly awkward again as they stand in the fluttering snow. Sif turns from her car to face him, waiting.
Loki clears his throat. "Right. Well, I guess I'll-"
Sif surges forward, latching onto Loki's scarf and pulling him into a kiss. The surprise of it knocks him off balance, tipping forward to press her back against her car, pressing him against her. She doesn't release his lips, tasting sweet as their dessert and Loki's heart skips a beat.
She is electrifying, making his blood run hot in the cold December night. Absolutely unpredictable. Just what his rather routine life needed. He reminds himself that he must remember to thank Thor, maybe buy him an extra gift or two for the holidays, as she finally draws her lips away from his.
"Can I see you again?" He sounds more breathless than he would like as he straightens. She nods and puts her number into his waiting phone. He feels dizzy as he stumbles away from her car; this is not at all how he expected this night to go. And he couldn't be more pleased. Her voice breaks him out of his reverie.
"How about right now?" she calls across the lot to his questioning look. "You can see me again right now, down the street at O'Malley's Bar."
"I think I'm free," he grins. He was wrong again; this night could get even better.
Sif laughs, walking up to him to take his hand, "Good. Because it seems that I make some of my best decisions after a drink or two."