Disclaimer: Thor and company belong to Marvel, not me.

A/N: In this chapter Loki's talking about the time he spent in 1920s America. All these flashbacks will be in italics, but he's actually narrating these events to Darcy. Just so that you don't get confused. ^^
I did a lot of research for this chapter. A lot. But at some point, I take artistic license. So don't get too mad if you spot any inaccuracies (although please do point them out, if you will, for future reference XD).

A Trickster Distracted

Chapter Three

Loki stepped onto the nighttime streets of Chicago quietly, taking in the bright lights with a grin. This was much better than Asgard, which had become quite stuffy. Everyone was looking at him sideways in the aftermath of his latest set of pranks. He didn't feel that he deserved any of the negative attention, especially since he had already been punished when they had sewn his mouth shut for a month. You could still see the scars around his lips.

Here, no one knew him. No one could glare at him like he didn't belong. It had been close to a century since he'd journeyed down to Midgard and so much had changed. Loki found himself excited. There were things down here that Asgardians would never have thought up, no matter how superior they believed themselves.

He'd watched from the shadows for a couple days before stepping into the world. Chicago was an interesting place. There was enough going on to keep him entertained for as long as he chose to stay here.

He'd shadowed some guy for a while until he felt he had the hang of the society and then entered it himself. Now he'd been interacting in Chicago for a couple days and was having more fun than he'd had since making Thor dress as a woman. One of his acquaintances, Frank, was supposed to be meeting him here to show him one of the so-called speakeasies. Loki had heard talk about them and was interested in seeing what they were all about.

"Hey, Tom!" he heard Frank greet as he came up behind him (the name Loki was really too ostentatious, so he'd chosen another one).

"Hello," he replied, putting out the cigarette he had been smoking. He didn't much care for them, but so many people smoked that it was the quickest way to fit in.

The speakeasy was actually underground and walking into it was like walking into a whole other world. This establishment could definitely keep him busy for a while. He lost track of Frank pretty quickly, but didn't care all that much with the overabundance of things to take in. He ordered a drink and leaned back on the bar, taking in his surroundings.

The jazz was loud and most of the patrons were busy dancing the night away. Loki was somewhat mesmerized by all the women in their finery with their bobbed hair and short fringe- and bead-ridden dresses—flappers, he thought he'd heard them called. He had just finished his drink when one of them sashayed his way.

"How's about a dance?" she drawled at him.

Loki glanced at the current dancers before looking back at his new companion. "I'm afraid I'm not all that familiar with the steps," he replied.

"That's alright, sugar. I can teach you," she replied as she led him out to the floor. Loki knew how to dance; there had been plenty of balls in Asgard to learn at. However this was a completely different kind of dancing. Loki studied the people around them carefully as she situated his arms around her. He was aware that he would be expected to lead and wanted to get it somewhat right, and he was confident enough in his ability to learn by observation to feel okay out on the dance floor, so he played along.

"So you just danced all night?" Darcy asked.

"Yeah," Loki replied with a shrug, "It's what people did back then."

"Tell me more," Darcy insisted.

Loki sighed and twisted the cap off one of the Tequila bottles. It was probably a bad idea with the amount of alcohol already in their systems, but he didn't really care. "Okay. Well…"

A couple weeks had passed and Loki was a nightly visitor to the speakeasy. He had caught on quickly to the way things worked and realized that causing mischief was as easy as one misplaced hand or thrown word. Loki relishes the power he can have over these people; power that he could never have at the same level in Asgard where they are already too wary of him.

But he does notice a man who has more power over these people than he does. He seems to own the place, if the way the employees and women tend to act around him is any indication. He's a dangerous man by human standards and Loki is curious to learn more about him. Unfortunately no one gets close to him except for the occasional dancing girl or prostitute and his bodyguards.

Loki watches the women in the joint carefully; studying the way they move, the way they interact. They all act like best friends no matter how well they know each other. They have a spellbinding power over any man in the place but him. Loki finds that he's curious as to how things go from that side. He could probably cause much more trouble and figure out more about the owner of the establishment. It's not like he hasn't spent time on Midgard as a woman before…

Darcy interrupted by spitting tequila all over him. "WHAT?" she exclaimed when she was done sputtering.

"I've been on Midgard many times," Loki replied, trying not to laugh at the adorably dumbfounded look on her face (and trying to ignore that he had just thought that) as he takes another sip from the bottle. "Some of those times I've taken on a female form."

Darcy gaped at him.

"Really," Loki deadpans. He feels lightheaded. Tequila on top of the…however many bottles of wine they'd already drained had certainly been an incredibly bad idea.

Darcy grabbed the bottle from him and took another sip. "You're totally telling me more about that later," she demanded.

"You're lucky I'm even telling you this story," Loki replied, taking the bottle back, "Do you want to hear more or not?"

Darcy nodded, "I do!"

"Then hush."

So Loki acquired all the necessary items through various means and created a new identity: Lydia; the typical flapper and party girl, of course. Loki was here to have fun, after all. Besides, he'd always looked good in green and this female form was no exception.

Loki was loitering in a corner of the speakeasy with the other girls, giggling at some unfortunate soul who couldn't take his liquor, when he caught sight of the man from before; the one Loki figured had the most power. Loki would like to take that power. More specifically, he wanted to manipulate it. After all, manipulating one person was easier (and more fun) than just taking their power and trying to exert it oneself. From what he had observed, the man himself chose who surrounded him. So now what Loki had to do was simply catch his eye.

So Loki disentangled himself from his giggling companions and made his way into the dancing masses, making sure he was within the sightline of his target as he started to dance with a couple of the other girls. Loki managed to catch the man's eyes briefly and knew that he was in. He allowed a grin, more of a smirk, as the man leaned towards one of the bodyguard-types to whisper something, eyes still on Loki.

The guy made his way out onto the floor, coming up behind Loki and trying to gain his attention. "Miss?" he addressed him.

Loki giggled and spun around, leaning into the man by placing his hands softly on the man's chest to see if he was in fact carrying a gun (which he was). "Lydia!" he announced into his ear.

The man's lips quirked slightly, as if trying not to smile, before he addressed Loki again. "Miss Lydia, if you'll come with me? Mr. Capone is interested in talking with you."

"How nifty!" Loki giggled, looking for all the world like a drunken dancing girl. He allowed the man to lead him towards Capone's corner. The only room in the circular booth was next to the man himself, so Loki slid in with another giggle, carefully perched on the end so as to not seem too hasty.

"Thank you for joining me," the mysterious Mr. Capone said as someone set a drink in front of Loki. Loki wasn't even close to as drunk as he'd been pretending to be, and Midgardian drugs could be negated by his magic, so he didn't see any harm in taking a sip.

Loki did so, with another giggle (really, his cheeks were getting sore). "Lydia," he reminded again.

"Then you may call me Al," he replied. Loki hid his triumphant grin behind his glass…

"Wait!" Darcy interrupted again, slightly more slurred than the last time, "you knew Al Capone? The Al Capone?"

Loki rolled his eyes. "Obviously," he replied with a slight sneer, taking back the tequila bottle for himself and sipping carefully, "and you should really stop interrupting if you want to hear any more."

Darcy looked properly quelled and nodded. "Sorry. Please continue?"

Loki sighed and shook his head, blaming the alcohol for his compliance in the matter.

Al Capone was a vicious man, Loki quickly learned. After the first meeting he offered Loki a job (it was heavily implied that Loki say 'yes' or else). The job was simple, and nothing Loki wasn't doing anyways. He simply needed to report back to the man with information he overheard in the bar area. Loki, curious as to what his information was used for, gave over a tidbit about the cop he had found frequenting the bar in order to watch Mr. Capone (Loki was very observant, after all, and drunk cops easily talked about their jobs with pretty girls).

He used his invisibility to follow Capone the next day and find out what he would do with this information. He sent a guard out to talk to the man, which Loki soon figured out meant 'bribe' when he followed. When the cop wouldn't take the bribe, he wound up in the river.

Loki liked this man's style. It would be very easy to cause mischief around here with Capone as his puppet.

So, Loki gathered information, carefully selecting which bits would be best suited to gain Capone's trust and, in the long run, put Loki in a position of favoritism. It was actually quite easy.

Another thing Loki noticed was that though Capone had a wife, she wasn't ever around the so-called business deals that constituted Capone's job. In fact, Capone always had someone other than his wife on his arm.

About two weeks into Loki's employment he was called into Capone's office. Loki perched carefully on the chair he was pointed to and took the drink offered him delicately.

"Your information has been very useful," Capone said as he sat behind his desk.

"I'm glad," Loki replied with a giggle, "It's amazing what someone will say when they don't think you're listening."

Capone studied Loki for a moment during which Loki was quite sure he was trying to figure Lydia out. He wasn't unintelligent and Loki knew that he knew that Loki was rather intelligent as well (although he probably had no idea of just how intelligent). "It seems almost like you were born for this job," Capone said finally.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean, Mr. Capone," Loki replied carefully, leaning forward and setting his glass on the edge of the desk.

"I told you that you may call me Al," he replied steadily. Loki caught his eyes drifting to his bosom.

"Al," Loki corrected himself, letting the name linger a bit longer than necessary before continuing. "I've simply been doing what you asked of me," Loki said, lifting himself slowly from his seat, "nothing more."

Al nodded, "Yes, but most ladies such as yourself wouldn't know good information from a deck of cards."

Loki grinned, walking around the desk slowly to approach him. "As you can tell, I'm a bit more…special," he replied slowly, leaning into the man's personal space. He could almost feel Al's pulse quicken.

"I can see that," he replied quietly, almost to himself.

Loki leaned closer, resting a hand gently on Al's shoulder as he spoke into his ear, "I can show you if you like?"

It was at that point that Loki was roughly pulled into the man's lap. Loki laughed and leaned in to…

"Whoa, whoa, WHOA!" Darcy said, skittering backwards a bit, "TMI, dude!"

Loki blinked at her slowly, "I beg your pardon?"

"I do not need to hear stories about your…sexual conquests," Darcy replied with a shiver, "as a woman. Like, at all. Ever."

"I thought you wanted to know?" Loki shrugged, hiding a grin at her expression of half-horror, half-disgust by taking another swig from the tequila bottle. Maybe telling stories about his past could be fun.

"Just…skip the sex parts, huh?" Darcy replied with another shudder.

Loki rolled his eyes. "There's really not much more to say then," he replied, noticing that his words were starting to slur now as well. "I spent the rest of my time there using my…leverage with Capone to get him to do pretty much whatever I wanted. Suggestion is a powerful tool. It was really quite fun."

Darcy gaped at him. "So…you ran the organized crime in Chicago by sleeping with Al Capone?"

"Pretty much," Loki replied with a grin, "It was quite exhilarating, having that power. And just what I needed."

Darcy gaped at him some more.

"You're catching flies," Loki pointed out. He'd always liked that particular Midgardian expression.

She closed her mouth quickly. "I'm sorry, but you just said that living as a woman for a few months was just what you needed?"

"The alcohol must be making you slow…" Loki replied thoughtfully, "It's not like I hadn't done it before. More time, actually. Being a woman removed a lot of the responsibilities I would have had to have otherwise…"

Darcy was gaping again.

Loki rolled his eyes, "But it couldn't last. After about five months I returned home. I felt better enough to brave Asgard again and it was only a matter of time before someone came looking for me. Ever since I spent those eight years hiding out here in the middle ages, they were more wary of where I'd gotten to…" It really saddened him quite a bit. He had liked it when they had ignored his whereabouts for years on end. And more time in 1920s Chicago would have been fun.

"Tell me about that now," Darcy slurred as she stole the bottle back.

Loki considered her for a moment, wondering if this was at all beneficial to him. It couldn't hurt. She was so drunk at this point that the chances of her remembering anything he said now later were smaller than a gnat.

"Okay…" he sighed, "but you'll owe me."

"Whatever you want, dude," Darcy agreed with a drunken grin.

So Loki began the story.

A/N: This chapter was originally going to include another flashback to the middle ages, but it got ridiculously long, so that's the next chapter.

Please tell me what you thought!

PS: My friend drew a flapper Loki because of this chapter, so this is what he looked like in his wonderful flapper getup: estell-chan . deviantart . com / # / d3keq6o