Smells like roses to me

Two young lovers at sea

Tastes so bitter, so sweet

You're my bang, together we go bang bang bang

-Roses

Loki smiled as he heard the guards move away through the door across his cell and louder steps moved towards him. He opened his eyes and looked at his brother, his eyes narrowed.

"Oh my, don't you look midgardian!" His brot- Thor still had his hammer but was dressed in blue pants, jeans if he recalled correctly, and white shirt with arms that were short enough to show off his entire arms. Loki remembered how girls always loved to fawn over Thor's arm muscles, how utterly annoying it had been.

"I'm here, brother. You wished to see me" in one move Loki flew up from his position leaning against the wall to slam his arms into the glass window in front of Thor.

"Don't you dare to call me brother after what you have done!" He bellowed. Thor was left unmoved by the action, but lights around the room started to flicker or burst from the energy pulsing from Loki's magic that fought against the shackles. His magic stretched out to temporarily disable the cameras around the room.

"You don't need to do that, brother" Thor said and Loki frowned, still burning inside from anger. "I requested the cameras to be turned off for this conversation" neither the man of Fury or Natasha had consented to it easily but as Thor had learned, using the alien prince diplomacy card, as Tony called it, usually solved problems rather easily.

Loki didn't believe him of course. "You knew" he hissed and Thor sighed. "You have known for a long time"

"I learned of it three years ago" he answered calmly and watched as his brother bare his teeth barely controlled anger.

"How dare you keep it from me! I deserved to know-" Loki's scream was interrupted by Thor's even more thunderous one.

"What you deserved!" He bellowed and stared at Loki with disappointment. "What you deserved was to set yourself to right. By the time I realized who she was you were sending the destroyer to earth to kill me. You were hurting people in Midgard and deceiving people in Asgard! Tell me brother, when was I supposed to tell you? After you fell from the bridge?" Thor shook his head. "And now you align yourself with the very beings who brought you so much anger from the start, to hurt and destroy"

Thor looked at his brother, he had always been so hard to read but the fact that he had changed his face into a more stony expression told him that Loki was at least listening to what he was saying.

"So do not claim that you deserved the knowledge of her, or to be with her now, ask yourself instead if she deserves what you have become" Loki stared at him and then turned away and walked towards the wall on the other side of the cell. "I did what I did to protect her, and I will continue to do so" Thor said and waited for a reply.

He waited so long that he actually thought he was never going to get one. Just as he was about to turn around he heard Loki.

"Protect her from what? Me?" Loki's voice suddenly sounded thin and Thor closed his eyes in pain, his brother was always so good at catching onto things that he could turn into self-blame.

"Protect her from the dark" Thor answered and Loki turned around to face him again.

"And am I the dark?" He asked.

"Not truly, but you brought it here and as long as you continue to bring darkness... She won't be there"

Loki suddenly smiled a half smile as he looked down at the floor, lost in sudden reminiscence, and mumbled "stars are meant to illuminate the dark" Thor almost missed it due to his quiet voice, but he had heard those words before and he knew what they meant to his brother.

"That may be. But they can also disappear in it" the two brothers watched each other for a moment. "You were controlled by Thanos"

Loki's face remained impassive as he answered. "His control only worked partially over me. It could only work if I wanted the invasion to happen" he shrugged with a smirk "and evidently I did"

"And then you stopped" Thor stated and Loki's smile fell and he looked down at the floor instead.

"Apparently I found something I wanted more" Thor nodded. After a moment of silence Thor started to walk away. "Will you tell them?" Thor turned back to his brother who was leaning against the wall now.

"I have not decided" Loki nodded and then looked up to meet Thor's gaze from across the room.

"What's her name?"

Despite Loki's best effort Thor could still see longing in his brother's eyes as he posed the question. Thor smiled at him.

"Darcy, Darcy Lewis" he then turned to leave, deciding that his brother needed to be alone to process what had been said.

The god of mischief sank down to the floor with his back against the wall. Tasting the name on his lips, Darcy, Darcy. At the same time as he felt indescribably happy he also felt devastated. Gods, what had he done? Thor was right, how was he going to fix this? He closed his eyes hard and concentrated on keeping his breathing even, his thoughts then started to drift to large blue eyes, satin curls and deep kisses with red near constant smiling lips.

Asgard, years before.

It had started out innocently enough, acknowledging each other's existence by a nod or a curtsy. It then progressed to a lingering interest and glances when the other was not watching. But when the chitauri attacks started the relationship moved to conversations and touching, both had been unavoidable actions since she was a healer and he was a prince who actively fought against the chitauri army and sometimes got injuries from doing so.

To the astonishment of the healers and Loki himself, he had demanded to only receive care from her. He had played it off by saying that she was the only one who didn't talk nonsense as she patched him up and that she annoyed him less than the others. From the smile she had given him and the mischievous glint in her eyes he could tell that she didn't believe him, because she did talk near constantly and a lot of it was nonsense, but the prince had found it entertaining and endearing how she could lose complete track of her mind and just ramble. He had also seen her work and she was obviously skilled in the art of healing, which earned his respect... She was also excellent at banter which he enjoyed immensely when he allowed himself to freely converse with her.

Loki entered the healing ward of the palace and took in the sight of the soldiers wounds and the healers actions to mend them. One healer, she was Eir's assistant, looked up from a patient and saw him and immediately turned around to call out towards the back of the hall.

"Darcy, the prince is here!" She then returned to her work. One of the white curtains that had been placed around the beds to give the wounded some privacy fluttered as the young woman appeared from the inside. Her dark blue healing robes, they had a choice between gray and blue robes and she had gone for the more colorful one to not make the patients more depressed than they had to be, suited her well and billowed a little as she almost skipped towards him. Her dark brown hair was collected in a thick braid to be out of her way when she worked, but a few loose curls had fallen out of it and now framed her face gently. Her blue eyes sparkled with a bit of mischief, as well as her smile, as she stopped before him.

"And here I was hoping that I wouldn't have to see you for a while, your highness" she said teasingly and even added a little curtsy. He bit back a smile at her cheekiness.

"Then who would you have such stimulating conversations with? Your brain would rot away from boredom" he said, fighting to keep a smile off his face. She laughed and linked her arm together with his and led him towards the back of the hall where the room he was usually placed in was located. He could feel her warmth as she leaned into him as they walked.

"Perhaps, perhaps. What have you done this time? You don't seem to be dying-" he scoffed.

"How glad I am that our healers have such an accurate perception so that they can deliver such an excellent diagnosis, well done!" She closed the door to the room and then slapped his arm.

"Oh, shut up and sit down" she said with a blush on her face and nodded towards the table in the middle of the room. He smirked and jumped up on it, letting out an involuntary groan as he did. Her head snapped up at that and she walked closer to him, nearly standing between his legs.

"What's happened?" Concern coloring her features as she looked him over with her usual professional focus.

He sighed "it's really nothing, merely a flesh wound and not even a serious one to be honest"

"I am pretty sure I am the healer so I will decide that" she said with a raised eyebrow. "Show me"

Loki shrugged off the top layer of the light armor he wore when he wasn't fighting and placed it on the table next to him. After removing more pieces of armor he was left in his green shirt which he then pulled over his head to give her a look of the wound on his side.

"Lay down" she commanded and he did so. She leaned closer to his abdomen and he started to concentrate on breathing instead of reacting to the sensation of her satin curls on his stomach. Her fingers then gently touched the skin around the wound and removed the temporary bandages sealing the wound. He glanced down at her. She bit her lip and chewed on it a bit as she studied the wound, a sign that she was thinking.

"For once you were right, it's a mild flesh wound and I should be able to fix it right now without any difficulties" she said as she spun around and walked over to the table of ointments and tools.

He frowned at her from where he was laying, "for once? What-"

"I forgot to say that talking might make it worse" she said in a sing song voice, her back still turned and standing on her toes to reach something on the top shelf. He smirked in amusement and tried not to leer at the way her body swayed as she moved.

When she returned to him she just smiled and started to get to work by rubbing an oil into the wound, it stung only for a moment. They were quiet for a while and Loki laid back and just enjoyed the feel of her hands gently massaging his side. He allowed himself to close his eyes just for a moment and tried to relax, it was surprisingly easy for him to feel comfortable around Darcy. She had an air around her that soothed something deep inside him, what it was that she did exactly he wasn't certain of, if it was her smile or her effortless rambling or her respect, or a combination of it all coupled with her beauty.

"You know" she started, interrupting his thoughts. She was still looking down at what she was rubbing on him "a powerful magic wielder like you, despite a limited knowledge in healing, could still heal a flesh wound like this" she raised her eyes from his chest and met his gaze. "Tell me the truth, did you miss me?" She smiled and then quickly tickled the other side of his abdomen. He slapped her hand and she giggled.

"You infernal woman. I need to save my magic" he sat up when he realized that she was done, and she started to put the lids on the little pots back on. "I may have found a way to seal them away from our realm, and all other realms. But to do that I need all my power"

He looked down at his stomach and the left side just had a bit of pinkish looking skin where his wound had been before, it wouldn't even scar. He turned to look at Darcy and saw that she was already staring at him, or more specifically his body. He smirked internally, he may not be as large as Thor was but he was still considerably strong compared to others, not that a lot of people cared when there was someone like Thor. That was probably why the clear approval on Darcy's face pleased him as much as it did, her opinion of him mattered, why it mattered he wasn't so sure.

"Did you hear me?" He asked and her eyes snapped back to his face, her cheeks red.

"Huh? Yes- right! Preserving power to seal them off" she said and the seemed to realize what that meant because she looked at him with a sudden awe. "Loki that's amazing! Where would they go?" He started to put on his shirt again, to Darcy's great disappointment.

"They would go into the void that keeps the realms apart" he answered and she nodded in understanding. She had read about how the void and Yggdrasil worked together to create the separate realms.

"I hope it works" she said with a smile "it would be nice to not have more people die thanks to them"

They remained silent for another moment. Loki slid off the table, now fully dressed in his armor, and slowly walked the short distance over to Darcy who looked up at him.

"I should leave to see the queen, we must discuss how to proceed with the spell and other details" he said and Darcy shivered a little at how smooth and deep his voice was.

"I wish you the best of luck" she smiled, and then bit her pink lower lip and Loki's stare focused in on the action and he swallowed hard. "I think this is goodbye then, when you succeed in throwing them into the void you won't need my services any longer"

His heart swelled a little at the wording she had used. She was so sure that he was going to succeed, no hesitation or skepticism over his abilities like he received from others.

"I will probably figure out some sort of mischief that will put me in harms way and then be back here in no time" she laughed at him and shook her head.

"Gods, no! When you see me next time you better be in one piece" she met his gaze and her cheeks turned a little pink as she did, but she had decided to be bold, who knew when she might see him next time. He leaned his head to the side just a little and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Fair enough, that seems like something I can manage. It would be nice to meet you without you constantly removing my clothes"

She gasped and he bit back a smirk as she slapped his arm and then threw out "How else will you keep me entertained?" She started to smirk and then covered her mouth in mortification at what she had said. Keeping her thoughts to herself was something that she had never been very good at.

Loki raised his eyebrows and smiled a wicked smile "I have an idea". Darcy could feel her face burning but tried to stand up to him all the same.

"Shouldn't you go see your mother?" He smirked at her and nodded.

"Yes, I should" he started to turn to walk out but after a moment of hesitation he swirled his hand around and the stretched it towards her. In it he held a white star lily that grew in the palace gardens, how could he have possibly known that it was her favorite? She took it and brought it to her face and inhaled the sweet scent.

"It's very beautiful" she smiled shyly at him, then curtsied "thank you, my prince". He shook his head.

"Take it as a gift for your excellent care" he then turned to stride out of the room.

"Didn't you say you had to save your magic?" She said to him and he stopped in the door way and looked back at her.

He tried to act nonchalant as he answered her "I guess I did". Despite being the god of lies with a talent to trick people he had a feeling that the young healer saw through his game at once. She made a 'mhm' sound and then smiled at him.

And in that moment, Loki Odinson looked at Darcy Nordenstierna and thought she was the most beautiful creature in the entire world, and he knew he had to have her.

NOTE: Darcy's flashback name is written in an old Swedish way, Nordenstierna means north star, Norden-North, Stierna-Star. So her name is basically Darcy Northstar. You will find out the origin of that name later in the story. As always hope you liked it and please tell me what you think, any questions you have I will answer in the next author's note.