Skel: I realised there were some tense mistakes in the first chapter.. a lot of "she'd" instead of "she," which irritates me... but hopefully none of you noticed it, except now I've drawn your attention to it... damn
I hope my laborious descriptions and that lengthy, loki-absent, first chapter wasn't too arduous for you all :p
Chapter Two: Crash
"Who…where am I?"
Loki sat up feebly reaching for his head tentatively. He scrunched up his eyes and moaned.
Darcy slipped the Tazer out from her bag and held it in front of her like a gun. She edged around him keeping a very wide birth so that her back was against the wall as she strafed him.
"What…the…hell…are you doing here?" she asked shakily.
Loki looked up at her with annoyance – like a sly bully eyeing up an insect he's about to squash.
He seemed to be weighing something up in his mind and he briefly rearranged his features. He attempted a smile which he hoped conveyed peace.
"I might as well ask the same question myself."
Darcy gulped, edging her way towards her bed. His voice was smooth, languid. She could hear a sense of calm on its surface, but beneath it all she knew there lay a huge reserve of anger and tense bitterness.
"Um… okay…" she was at a loss for words. "Well… in answer to your first question… uh, you're on Earth"
Loki mmed softly, placing his hand back on his forehead. "I figured as much…" His eyes screwed shut again and Darcy could see he was wincing with pain again.
She reached instinctually over to her bedside cabinet, pulling open the drawer and yanking out a crumpled sheet of Paraceitemol. She wondered how many pills a God would need to kill a splitting headache, then figured the whole sheet would do.
She looked up to see Loki eyeing her suspiciously as she popped them out onto her hand.
"P-Paraceitemol…uh…for the headache." She reached over and handed him the bunch of pills.
"Thank you" he replied fluidly, downing all of them in one go. After a moment he scowled: "they're not doing anything," he said bitterly.
Darcy let out a small laugh, then stifled it quickly remembering her place. "Yeh… uh… they usually take about an hour to kick in…"
Loki sighed, rising to his feet.
Stuck in Midgard… of all the places. He thought and coldly rose to his feet, standing straight and stiff. He checked his reserves to see if he could perform any magic, and realised the fall had taken much more out of him than he'd thought. It would take a few days to summon enough magic to get him out of Midguard without killing himself.
Loki turned to regard the mortal who returned his gaze levelly, but with much more fear. If I have to remain here for that long, I should find Jane's father… someone learned in Asgardian ways. This mere mortal wouldn't know a thing about-
He stopped short.
"How did you know my name?" he asked, lifting his eyebrow and peering down his aquiline nose at her.
Darcy opened and closed her mouth as he stepped closer, towering above her in all his black wiry stature.
"I-I recognised you…from…paintings I'd seen…" she said.
"Paintings? What paintings?" Loki was intrigued now. What a find he mused.
"Uh…um…" Darcy huffed, impatient with herself. She was usually fluent in English, but this strange villain from the world of her dreams had shaken her. And there was something about the way his piercing green eyes and lulling voice affected her which caught her off guard.
"I've been to Asgard.." she said quietly, trying not to meet his gaze. "My colleague, Jane… I think she's married to your brother."
Loki's eyes widened and his mouth opened, and taking a step back everything came into place. The woman who had turned his brother soft… she was this mortal's colleague.
This changes things.
He composed himself quickly, and straightened the lapels of his waistcoat. "Jane… yes… I know of her."
After a moments silence, Darcy worked up what little courage she had and tried to speak with clarity. She had to assert herself.
"L-look…" she began, "I know who you are… a-and what you tried to do. I'm not altogether buzzed about you appearing out of nowhere in the middle of my room, acting all and demure. If you could just tell me what you want and get it over with, I'm not that good with suspense."
She closed her eyes tightly, expecting some icy verbal rebuke - or even a physical one - but there was none. She opened her eyes tentatively.
The man was staring out her window through his brow, his hands slightly clenched by his side. The way the grey light played with his features, he looked both angry and wistfully sad at the same time.
A dark cloud passed over the sun and his face was plunged into a deeper shadow, making the circles beneath his eyes more prominent.
He looked … unwell.
Darcy suddenly felt something then, stirring in some recess of her core which she didn't even know existed. Despite everything she knew about this man, she felt… pity for him.
Maybe I said something wrong, she fretted as the silence dragged on.
"Uh…s-sorry, I uh-"
"No," he replied huskily. "I can see your …predicament. It is I who should apologise" He turned to face her then and bowed his head slightly. As he straightened Darcy thought she saw the flicker of a smile dance across his mouth. But it returned to its normal frown soon as he regarded her.
"Just know I am not a villain." He said softly, but villainously.
"Oh… " Well this is considerably awkward she thought. But she tried to return a small smile anyway.
"As to 'appearing out of nowhere in the middle of your room' I did not intend it," he said tersely.
"Oh… well, no worries…it happens all the time actually," she tried to laugh. "Random guys ending up on the floor of my room out of nowhere, all in a days' work…" It was a joke, but it seemed to fall on humourless ears. She hoped he wouldn't take that the wrong way.
But Loki didn't seem to notice, or didn't appear to show that he did. Instead he walked closer to her and with a complexity in his eyes she couldn't fathom, gazed straight into her eyes.
"There is a lot you do not understand, mortal, about what you have heard about me. You are… perceptive beyond your years – perceptive enough to know you need fear me. Yet…" he bent ever closer, causing Darcy to lean away and flatten herself against the wall.
"Yet…" Loki smiled, "I hope we can come to some… arrangement where we are both mutually benefitted."
Darcy blinked twice, her mouth gaping like a fish. "Uh… come again?" There's that gaze again, and that voice… turning my mind to mush. I wonder if it's a God thing…
Loki chuckled. "There's something I need from you."
"And what the heck would that be?" Darcy said surprisedly. "You're a God. A villainous –"Loki grimaced "- uh… I mean ... a powerful one at that… what could you possibly want from me?"
He deliberated for a moment, searching for the right words. "What I need is… I believe in your mortal language it is worded: 'a place to crash?'" he chuckled again, a soft reverberating laugh which was quite infectious. "Excuse the pun."
"You want to crash here?" her voice cracked at the end in astonishment. "But… there's a Hilton just up the road, and hundreds of mansions you could just… magic your way into. Why on earth cruddy dorm room number 252?"
Loki gazed out the window again, staring at something that wasn't there. Why was he so damn mysterious all the time? She wondered agitatedly.
"Anyone else besides you wouldn't suffice. I need someone who understands where I've come from, someone who's able to hide me until I'm fit enough to travel, er…home..." he faced her again.
Now's my chance, he thought.
He mustered all the charm he had, and willed it into his burning gaze.
"No one else would suffice… Darcy."
