The next day, Darcy sat at her desk typing in data, bored out of her mind, and wondering if Jane would even notice if she went on Tumblr for a few minutes. When Jane was in a note-making mood it was safe, but she was in one of those Busy Scientist Woman Has to Travel From One Desk To Another Carrying Strange Equipment and Making Incomprehensible-sounding Sentences, so it was riskier.

A knock sounded on the door. Jane looked up from her...whatever she was doing, and got all excited.

"Little pig, little pig, come on in," Darcy called.

The door opened and in came a tall man with shoulder length black hair and a weird- wait a minute, Darcy thought.

"Oh my God!" she cried in astonishment. "You're that guy!" How weird. She'd never met half of a couple she'd shipped before.

He paused, looking very confused, and Jane looked at her disapprovingly as she walked over to him and stuck her hand out. "Ignore her. That's just Darcy," Jane said, shaking his hand. "I'm Dr. Jane Foster. We've...sort-of...met." She laughed charmingly.

The man smiled at her. Oh my god, Darcy thought. His face. It just looks so weird.

"So we have," he said. "I'm Dr. Laufeyson. But, if you'd just call me Loki...that'd be great. Because it's my...name," he finished slightly awkwardly. Jane just smiled at him all pleased-like.

"Loki it is then."

Wow guys, Darcy thought. Just get a room already. The sexual tension in here is stifling.

Jane led him off to show him the lab, and as he followed he sort of nodded at Darcy in greeting. Darcy smiled back. One of those smiles when you're all like 'Yeah, okay. I'm socially expected to do this but it's not genuine' . She was not a fan of him. She knew it was really judgmental and all, but...the guy was wearing, like, a tux or something. He was totally suited up. It was weird. They were in a lab! He was probably one of those guys who only watch international films and documentaries, or who get history books and read them just for fun. It wasn't natural.

How strange that the girl from the coffee shop turned out to be Dr. Foster's assistant. What were the odds? he wondered. Technically he could actually roughly calculate them, and his brain even began to do so before he reigned it in and stopped it. Really. His brain needed to understand when he was asking things rhetorically.

Dr. Foster- "No, please- just Jane."- showed his around the lab. He was quite impressed. Jane had a pretty good set-up here, and she was easy to talk to, which was nice. It was hard for him to find common ground with people who weren't in the science world, but he could more than hold his own within it.

He soon got settled in discussing theories with Jane, but he kept finding himself staring over at the girl. Darcy. What an interesting name. And she was listening to an iPod and mouthing the words as she typed on the computer. Frequently she stopped typing so she could wiggle her shoulders and move her hands around in the air in some kind of bizarre-looking seated dance. He wasn't used to people being so unselfconsciously...unselfconscious (Yeah, thanks brain for that stunning vocabulary work, he thought with amusement). What on earth must be going on in her brain, he wondered as she started making these weird puppy sounding whines while looking at the screen.

Okay, so she wasn't going to win Employee With The Biggest Work Ethic anytime soon. So take her out into a dark alley and mug and murder her...she'd gone on Tumblr. And as soon as she had, her dashboard had been filled up with images of Benedict Cumberbatch. Ugh. Talk about life-ruiners, with his fancy old lips and his goddamn cheekbones. And his eyes! "Are you kidding me right now!" she cried (quietly though, because Jane and Brainyboy were like twenty feet away). Were they blue or were they green? The man was just flawless.

Brainman kept looking at her though, and she didn't want to get in trouble with Jane, so she reluctantly signed out of Tumblr and went back to her actual work that she was paid to do. Stupid intruder person. She could've stayed on longer if he wasn't being all attention-attracty. "God, dude," she mumbled to herself. "It's called subtlety. Look it up with that huge brain of yours." Although, it then occurred to her to wonder why he was even looking over at her in the first place. She was pretty sure she looked fine. She never wore much make-up anyway, so it probably wasn't smudged. There was nothing in her teeth, because she hadn't eaten yet. The man was just being weird. With his weird face. Seriously, how did his face even work? He wasn't bad-looking or anything, his face was just all- confusing. And the long-ish hair...meh. Long hair rarely worked on guys. Whatever.

"Oh my god!" she whispered excitedly as the next song came on her iPod. "Laundry day. See you there. Underthings. Tumbling..."

The end of the day came around as usual. Five o'clock. Bingo. Time for home and movies. Darcy gathered her bag and called out to Jane, who was still- still! After hours and hours of talking!- deep in discussion with BrainyMcBrains.

"Yo! Jane! It's five. I'm off."

Jane looked in surprise at the clock. "Oh my god," she said. "Okay, yeah. Well, thank you, Darcy. Have a good night."

Brainman stood up. "Sorry- I should probably go to. I have an engagement this evening." Pshhh, thought Darcy. 'Engagement'. Who even says that? 'Oh darling, yes I'm sorry but I must be off. I'm supposed to become engaged to someone this evening'. She laughed to herself quietly.

"I'll be back in tomorrow morning though, if that's okay. I'd like to test a few of those theories." He said.

"Of course! I look forward to it!" Jane gushed.

Oh my god Jane, you sound like desperation incarnate, Darcy thought. Keep it in your pants.

Darcy walked out, only to realize a minute later that he had left just after her and now they were in that awkward situation where two people who are slight acquaintances have to walk the same long halls together and decide if they should try to make conversation or not, but either way it would be awkward. Ugh. Dude. Seriously.

She took the plunge. "So," she said, pausing for him to catch up with her. "Science, yeah? Go team."

He looked at her and smiled crookedly. Like legit crookedly. Dude, WHY ARE YOU SMILING WITH ONLY HALF YOUR MOUTH IT LOOKS REALLY BIZARRE AND ALMOST attractive in a strange way, she thought to herself.

"Indeed," he said. "Go team."

"Wait wait wait. Hold up." This is completely unfair. You should not have a voice that sounds like this, strange-looking man. You should not have a delicious sex voice of sex so WHAT IS GOING ON.

He stopped walking.

"Oh whoops," Darcy laughed. "Not literally. I just meant- how do you have a British accent! I thought you were raised in Boston."

They were almost to the exit now. Thank goodness, Darcy thought. I need to stop by the local store of the gods and get me some ice cream.

"Right, well, I was born in England. London, actually. And I lived there Until I was fifteen. So I've still got a lot of the accent."

"Gotcha," Darcy said, not liking the way his voice was being so attractive and beautiful. Fuck me, she thought. Good thing his face is so confusing, or I'd be in trouble.

He reached the door ahead of her and held it for her.

"Awww," she said. "Thank you. Chivalry and all that. Good old England."

He did that smile thing again, and damn him if he didn't look just a bit adorable. Still. Good thing his hair is long, or I might have difficulties.

"Well, you're quite welcome, m'lady. I suppose this is where we part then."

"Yeps." Darcy looked up at the sky. It was dark and menacing. "Oh god. Is it actually going to rain?" What a weird concept. Rain. Water falling from the sky. No, thank you very much. Water should stay on the ground where you could avoid it if you wanted.

Unfair Sexvoice looked up too. "It's likely."

"Ugh."

He slanted her a curious look, but she wanted her ice cream, so she just said goodbye and headed off to her beat-up gray Volvo.

Loki watched her drive off. She was the most amusing person he had met in...sheesh. A long time. Shaking his head at himself, he walked over to his newly rented Harley. Checking to make sure the parking lot was empty (he really had meant to change inside, but he'd gotten distracted by the girl and he didn't want to go all the way back in now), he took his suit-jacket and button-up shirt off and changed into a T-shirt and put on his leather jacket. It was so much more comfortable to ride them than in a suit. His arms had more mobility. Sadly he was still wearing his suit-pants, so he probably looked pretty ridiculous: suit-pants, t-shirt, leather jacket. Whatever though. So he would never be a fashion icon.

He put his helmet on and drove off.