I take it from all the follows that people are actually interested in this. Feel free to tell me things though. This chapter feels a little more chaotic than the others in the writing, so I apologize, but try to hang with me. I'll go ahead an announce that there will be 4 total.
Chapter 2
The next day…
Darcy spun in her chair to look at Jane as casually as possible. She required more Loki information, but needed a nonchalant way to bring it up. Something a little less obvious than, 'Hey so, you've met Thor's psycho dead brother, what do you think of him?'
It didn't help that Jane wasn't keen on discussing any of that since her visit to Asgard ended up with half of her boyfriend's family dead…as far as they know of.
The fact that Loki intimidated her was bothersome and thoughts of him began to take root in her brain. Guys never intimidated her before, plus she and Intern Ian hooked up just fine. Hell, I initiated that! Darcy tased the fucking god of thunder and could hold her own one-one-one with that male supermodel without swooning. Okay, maybe just a little swooning, but Loki was different. Darcy shuddered as a chill ran up her spine. Just thinking his name in her head made her wonder if he could hear her. Oh shit, maybe I'm conjuring him up right fucking now!
"Loki can't read minds right?!" Darcy blurted it out, getting all Erik, Jane, and Ian's attention. "I-I mean couldn't read minds," she said again although this time in an overly subdued voice.
"Loki?" Jane scrunched her forehead in confusion, looking up from her spot on the floor with scattered pieces of broken electronic devices spread around her.
"No, even with the Tesseract he couldn't do that," Erik said stiffly and eyes narrowed suspiciously.
Man, Erik was still pissed at that dude.
"Where on earth did that question come from?" He asked.
Yeah Darcy, why the hell did you bring that up?!
"Psshh, just popped into my head is all. Too much caffeine today," she said quickly rising from her seat and taking her coffee with her. "I'm gonna take a coffee break."
Jane looked to Ian. "Have you noticed her acting weirder than usual today?"
Ian leaned back in his chair and thought hard. "Than usual? That's a wildly sliding scale."
Loki nearly ignored the heavily clothed creature in the corner again. Apparently there was a woman beneath the layers of oversized Midgardian garb. From the last visit he caught her blue eyes behind the thick frames obscuring her face, long wavy brown hair and pale skin. There was nothing even remotely exceptional about this girl.
With her back to him, she was completely unaware. Loki watched her walk across the room and stopped suddenly, as if she could detect his presence, but heard her sigh and speak to herself aloud.
"Relax, Darcy. You are getting too damn paranoid," she muttered.
Loki stepped up behind her with a smile. How should he toy with her? So many options. There was no time to make a decision; she abruptly turned and right into him. She screamed and flailed falling to the ground, while he stood there impassively.
Loki smirked. "Well that was easy enough." He didn't attempt to help her, but she didn't appear to expect it anyway.
"Jesus, Loki!" Darcy shouted, quickly getting to her feet and involuntarily punching him in the chest like she usually did when one of her jerk brothers scared her. And nearly broke her hand in the process; she also noticed he didn't budge when she ran smack dab right into him. "What the hell are you made of concrete?" Then Darcy realized she just punched a fucking god.
Loki only grinned, which put her even more at unease, especially with the look of satisfaction that spread onto his face. Darcy didn't recall him being this good looking the last time. Maybe it was because he looked almost human when he sincerely smiled.
"So you do know my name, mortal."
Darcy caught her breath, still shaking off the shock, before suspiciously walking past him. "Can you not call me that? It's super creepy. I'm all for nicknames, but one that doesn't throw my impending death in my face would be nice."
Loki questioned whether she was a complete idiot or suicidal. He knew she did indeed fear him, so why risk her life to… Is she still talking? He finally became aware that she never stopped speaking, much to his displeasure.
Darcy waved her arms about as she continued to complain. It took a moment for him to pick up on context after zoning out.
"You know, I can give you my number, or hell, my email address to tell you that NOTHING happened. I even can go outside and scream it up to that that dude who watches everything, right?"
Finally, Loki's apathetic expression changed, and his brow furrowed. She knew of Heimdall. It shouldn't have been that big of a shock considering she was friends with Thor's woman, but it still caught him off guard.
"I don't care, woman. Show me." He demanded.
Darcy clicked her tongue and spun to face him. "And now I think I'm liking 'mortal' better than 'woman'." She put a finger to her lip in thought before an idea hit her. "Oooh, call me 'wench' how about that?" She leaned toward him with a snarky smile. "If we're going to role-play I get to choose the name since you're apparently terrible at it." She gave him a once over for the first time, actually taking him in since he arrived. "I see you still have the leather thing going on."
"I see your voice is still as grating as ever." Loki winced at the brash nasal tone coupled with her excessive hand gestures and vulgar, low class vocabulary. She was the worst that this pathetic realm had to offer. And you wanted to rule these people.
Darcy smirked at his words, not offended by the jab, and put a hand to her chest wistfully. "So you remember me."
Loki noted she enjoyed being played with, even when he threw insults at her. "Yes unfortunately, the walking pile of…" he paused looking over her hat and puffy vest, "laundry."
Her cheeks flushed even at his dull appraisal. She cleared her throat and turned back to the monitors, but smiled wide, not knowing Loki could see her grin in the reflection of the screen. Did she take that as a compliment? Loki sighed, his head began to ache and he had a feeling it had to do with being within a ten foot radius of her.
Darcy bent over maneuvering through folders. Loki wandered around the lab again, trying to focus his attention anywhere but her.
"Don't touch anything!" She shouted over her shoulder. "But there's nothing interesting, again." She turned and walked toward him, and he grabbed the paper from her before she could even offer it.
"For royalty you sure have shitty manners," Darcy grumbled.
Loki could feel her eyes staring at him while he leaned against the cheap wooden furniture, going over the numbers.
Darcy found herself glaring at him. Even his casual stance held an effortless grace that made her want to punch him. Her hand still throbbed from her last swing at him reminding her to hold back on the punching. It was time to get some answers.
"So does everyone know you're alive up there?" Darcy asked pointing to the ceiling.
He glanced up at her, already aggravated at the direction this was going. "No."
Darcy scoffed. "Well, how did you manage that?"
Loki growled in warning. "That's none of your concern." Your feeble brain couldn't comprehend it anyway.
Darcy ignored the not so subtle hint. "No one noticed? Not even those buddies of Thor's? By the way, I get the kick ass chick being in the group, but what's up with that dude straight up from an Akira Kurosawa film? Holy shit, you have space samurai!"
He still wasn't looking at her, his lips a hard line. "Still doesn't explain the broken English." He tried not to smile, but it came through and she considered that a win.
Loki finally looked up. Insulting those idiots even from her was a nice touch, even if what she said made little sense. "They're a band of misfit fools that are nothing without their oaf of a leader."
Darcy nodded looking away, trying to keep her smile of victory in check. "I'm getting the sense that Thor is the 'oaf' of the group."
She pulled off her hat and ran her hair through her mess of long brown hair. Her fingers caught painfully in the loose tangles. "Ugh, how does it knot up when it just sits all day?" She growled to herself and looked into the black monitor of Jane's computer, using the reflection as a mirror. "So, are you doing this to, like, keep off of those aliens' radar that you failed or something? I assume they'd be pissed off since that whole plan fell through, right?"
Darcy tilted her head unable to get a good look at herself. Pain shot through her arm when Loki grabbed her and threw her back against the desk, nearly overturning it. The rattling knocked a pile of stuff onto the ground and she was too scared to look over and see what it was. Darcy refused to let him know that she was terrified.
"What the hell?!" She shouted.
The fury in his green eyes silenced her immediately. Apparently her words hit the nail on the head. Now to never speak of it again, if there was an again, because the handle of the desk drawer nearly impaled her in the back, and the expression of pain on her face gave his eyes a sadistic satisfaction.
"Alright I get it!" She sputtered but his other hand grasped her face in a vice-like grip. Seriously, she never felt anything like it before. It felt like cold marble kept her head and arm completely immobile. Her wide-blue eyes stared at him in fear as he towered over her with a snarl. And with her glasses knocked askew and he was half-in half-out of focus.
"This is one of the times you should learn to control your tongue," he squeezed for emphasis getting a squeak of discomfort from her lips. "Do not even for one moment think that I won't kill a useless creature such as yourself." Loki leaned in, speaking between gritted teeth. "Do we understand one another?" She tried to nod vigorously. "Good." He let her go with an extra push of his hand, her neck burned with pain akin to whiplash.
Darcy rubbed her face looking back at him, anger and fear fought for dominance in in her eyes. "Geez, didn't have to go all Hulk on me."
Loki's eyes narrowed dangerously. She quickly recognized her error, and put up her hands in surrender. "Dude, you need to chill out a bit. I am NOT worth getting that pissed off over."
He almost smiled. She's learning, about fucking time. "Finally, something astute out of that mouth of yours."
She leaned over, taking off her glasses and pinching the bridge of her nose. "Can you give me an ETA of your next visit so I can be sure NOT to be here?"
Oh, so he was finally getting to her. Loki chuckled; she glanced up surprised, but squinting without her full vision. Loki could see her whole face for once, and the girl wasn't as homely as he first thought she was. "I thought you liked our visits." He taunted with a wry smile.
A small caustic laugh escaped her full lips. "Well, I do enjoy getting manhandled by a murderous super powered alien as much as the next girl, but I feel like that's more appropriate for a third or fourth date."
Loki was reluctantly impressed. This woman had a never-ending supply of sass. "Yes, you look like the virtuous type." He sniped back with equal, if not more sarcasm. Loki's eyes raked over her, trying to draw something more out of her. The contradiction of both punishing and antagonizing her in the same two minutes wasn't lost on him. Logic didn't seem to apply in her presence.
"You have no idea," Darcy smirked at him.
Darcy couldn't get over how much she enjoyed bantering with him. Even under threat of death she reveled in conversing with one of the most dangerous beings in the universe.
She turned to picked up her glasses and Loki smiled devilishly. Darcy looked back in his direction, then furrowed her brow in confusion. Loki knew all she saw was an empty room, even though he was still only a couple feet from her.
"What? Nuh uh! I call bullshit, there's no way you can teleport!" She said aloud, sliding on her glasses as her eyes passing over him again while he grinned. She turned in an entire circle and even looked up at the ceiling.
She gave the lab one last glare. "Well, that was all very enlightening." Crossing her arms in the middle of the room, Darcy huffed with disappointment. "I thought the god of mischief would be more playful and not such a douche."
Loki had a feeling that she knew he'd still hear that. Did she have no fucking sense of self-preservation whatsoever? He clenched his jaw, forcing his exit before his brother found evidence of his survival with that woman's corpse. He never thought he'd come across a being so reprehensible in the essence of grace, manners, and personality. And that was after he ran into Tony fucking Stark.
After having many lovers already in his still young life, Loki never once lowered himself to an option this close to rock bottom. When the hell did she become an option? Loki frowned; despite the fact that he found nothing about her even remotely worthy of his time and efforts, the fleeting thought that she might be an option sullied him. Sex and that wretched thing didn't belong in the same realm. She wasn't a fucking option. The woman is a classless wench.
Did he just refer to her as 'wench'?
Loki growled, clenching his fist. "Fuck."
Well, thoughts on it are appreciated.