It was almost a relief when he dropped back into her life.

It was when she came home from one of her shifts at the restaurant she found him, laying asleep in her bed. He was fully clothed and covered in dust and her first thought as she crept towards him, almost as if she were being reeled in, was: Washing blankets is such a pain. He looked younger, asleep and sprawled out like that. He even seemed less dangerous, if you didn't know better.

All the tension and uncertainty that had been winding up inside her for the past six months, keeping her going and moving like she'd never managed to do before, drained away at once and Darcy fell to her knees, resting her forehead on the edge of the mattress. She felt empty, and she realized she was shivering and tears were starting to run down her face. Darcy let herself cry.

A hand rested lightly on the back of her head, and for a moment she panicked. But all that happened was that he gently stroked her hair as she sobbed. It took several minutes for her to quiet, and all the time there was that insistently calming touch. "I must say, such supplication suits you, although I expected a more hostile greeting."

She looked up slowly, forcing herself to meet his eyes, and he pulled his hand away. "What do you want me to do?"

Loki smirked. "Many things. What I need you to do, however, is find something out for me." A business card appeared in his hand, written in what looked like an Arabic script.

Darcy sighed, gathering herself together again, and looked at him flatly. "You know I'm one of those lazy monolingual English speakers, right?"

He tsked at her. "I suppose I should have expected that. You could hardly be more useless. No matter, such a problem has a simple enough remedy. Hold still." He produced a knife.

Holding still was easy. She couldn't have moved if she wanted to, and she very much did. He only pricked his thumb, and she relaxed again for a second before he reached over and began to draw on her forehead with blood. "Um. What the hell?"

"You're more useful with languages. It's a temporary enchantment so that you may use Allspeak, although if you've any magical talent it may...stick around. Unlikely," he added dismissively. "Here."

He passed her the card, and suddenly she was free to take it. Darcy stared at it and blinked several times, her eyes watering slightly. The original text was still there, but there was the ghost of an English translation overlaying it, and a third layer on top of that that was a confusing combination of both. She tried reading the English aloud. All that came out was her own voice in an unfamiliar language, and she had to suppress a yelp of surprise. "That's...really creepy. And convenient, I guess." She paused and looked back up. "Uh, am I speaking Asgardian or whatever? Like, right now?"

Loki rolled his eyes. "No. Although should you intend to, you might."

"Huh. Okay." Very deliberately, Darcy swiped her thumb across the spot where he'd drawn, causing Loki to glare at her. Her thumb was clean, not even a trace of dried blood. "What? I had to check, it's my face." She stood. The small distraction of the card had done more to settle her than the unexpected (and very uneasy) contact ever could. She felt better than she had in months. The other shoe had dropped into her bed, and it wasn't as bad as she'd thought. So far. "What do you want to know?"

"This man studies pyramids. I require his data. I'm sure you can figure out something." Because that was just so, so helpful.

Darcy's mouth quirked into a bemused smile. "Uh, sorry, d-" she managed to stop herself before calling him 'dude'. Habit or not it didn't seem appropriate. "You're going to have to be more specific? Because I super doubt you care what pyramid he thinks is prettiest, or something." Although burying him in irrelevant data was probably a good plan, it didn't come naturally to Darcy for her to deliberately do badly, even for a boss she despised. She'd obviously have to work on that.

His expression flickered from its customary resolute disdain in response. "I did wonder if you'd use that loophole to your advantage. I must thank you for your loyalty." Oops. "I require all of his schematics on the structure and layout of Djoser. In addition, there will be documents on radiation testing of the contents and materials, as well as information on the densities of the stone and such."

"Most of that's publicly available, you know, d-" She stopped herself again. "Look, what should I call you? Because I'm pretty sure you'd object to 'dude'."

He smirked. "You are correct in your assumption. I believe the proper form of address for a king in your tongue is 'your majesty', is it not? That shall do quite nicely."

She balked. "Um, hell no. Since when are you a king?"

Loki's eyes widened and he jerked up to sit facing her, his hands curled into loose fists. Darcy forced herself to stand her ground and maintain eye contact. It was tricky. His face was a perfect copy of when he'd tried to strangle her, and every cell in Darcy's body was screaming at her to flee."This pathetic realm would be blessed to call me its king!"

She swallowed, choosing her words carefully. "Kings are made by right of conquest or inheritance. We beat you. They beat you, I mean. Your army's dead. And you're the one who...you, like, disowned yourself. Besides, even if you hadn't, this isn't Asgard. Or-or the other place." He shot to his feet, one hand reaching for her a moment before he jerked it back. Can't kill me. She made herself breathe. He was very tall. Being shorter than Thor didn't mean much in human terms, it turned out, and Darcy had never been forced to stand six inches from Thor with him looking like he was about to kill her. "Thor-Thor told me," she said slightly breathlessly, and closed her eyes for a second, embarrassed at her tone. It took an enormous amount of willpower to open them again. "You're not a king. You're definitely not mine."

"I am your master!" The words were a shout, and she flinched.

Very slowly and very carefully, she brought one hand up to place flat against the center of his chest. She pushed him back away from her gently until he hit the bed and had to sit down again. It was almost shocking that he'd let her. "I'm not calling you that either," she replied firmly.

A muscle in his jaw twitched. Finally, through clenched teeth he said: "You may address me as 'sir'."

Darcy couldn't resist a smirk. "I'm sure plenty of women would love to." The flash of surprise and confusion on his face helped her un-knot herself. "Don't worry about it. I could live with that, if I have to."

"You do."

Can't kill me. She smiled brightly at the thought, causing another split-second of uncertainty to cross his features. "Especially since you can't do anything to me." He opened his mouth and she raised her hands to stop him. "I'll just get to working on this, huh?" Darcy gestured with the card and turned on her heel to leave the room.

She wondered absently if he watched her go.

After several minutes of staring at the spot where she had stood, he'd endeavored to sleep again, but was unable. Not a king. The girl, most frustratingly, had been correct in her assertion. His bid for rulership had failed, and he had little desire to put more effort into ruling such a drab little world. He had spent six months hiding and reading the watered-down history of Midgard, and every second spent choking down the foolishness and lies made him long for Asgard. Not the people. Especially not the man he'd once called father. But the books, the knowledge, the supplies for spells to see the past play out before his very eyes...that was hard to forget.

Loki turned back onto his side to stare at the door of the disheveled room. He was bored. Well, not bored. Frustrated. The spat kept running through his head, overwhelming even the sense of impatience at having to wait for her to complete the task he'd set. Not a king. He sighed. Perhaps eventually...no. He could not even garner the cooperation of one mortal who was compelled to obey him. Without the staff he had been granted, Midgard was far beyond his reach, let alone Asgard. There was a long road full of preparations he had to go down before his birthright would yet again be in his grasp.

He'd felt drained after the battle, for far longer than he should have. Even now, every spell required a far greater effort than he'd come to expect after a lifetime of learning. It had been the staff, he knew now. No creature save the far-gone celestials had the capacity to truly hold one of the gems, and apparently long-term exposure to even a mere key was too much for an Aesir.

Not an Aesir.

Frost Giant.

The words burned in his mind and he threw himself up from the bed, his feet hitting the floor with a loud, ominous crack. Loki sat back down gingerly and reached down to press his hand against the carpet, feeling for damage. It seemed sound enough, and he was bitterly pleased he wouldn't have to use magic. The gift of Allspeak had taken more than he'd shown, even with using blood as an amplifier.

There was a soft knock on the door. "What are you doing? D-sir," she fair spat the word, and he smiled to himself. "Don't break my furniture. I can't afford it."

Loki waited until well after her footsteps had turned away from the room before he got up and opened the door. She was sitting at the miniscule kitchen table, her computer open in front of her, and was writing rapidly in small notebook, occasionally glancing at the screen. The girl didn't seem to notice the sound, nor when he walked quietly up to the table. "Have you found my research, then?"

She jumped, dropping her pen and bringing her notebook up to her rather ample chest like a shield. "Fuck! Du-si-Loki, don't sneak up on me like that!" She set down the notebook, plucked a white wire from her ear, and peered back up at him. "Say again?"

"My research? The task I set you? Have you completed it?"

Her face was incredulous, and she shook her head as she bent down to retrieve the pen. "Uh, no. It's barely been three hours, I'm still mostly doing preliminaries. This isn't a fast process." She paused, considering. "Well, it would be if I were this one girl I knew, but I'm not and I don't know what happened to her so I'm guessing doing things fast gets you-" Loki felt his eyebrows raising higher the more she babbled, and she stopped herself," -nevermind, not important. No. Not done. It's gonna be a while. Be patient."

He sighed. "Mortal-Darcy. I am bored." The words came out far more plaintively than he'd have liked.

The girl's mouth twisted in amusement. "Seriously? You're like a kid." He opened his mouth to protest and she raised her hands to forestall him. He was getting rather tired of that. "Sorry, uh, sir. Person." She paused, thinking. "You like books, right? Stories? I've got books." Loki nodded curtly.

She slid the chair out from the table and stood, brushing bits of paper off herself. The girl crooked a finger for him to follow her, and sighed at his affronted expression. "Sir." It would, perhaps, be foolish to admit how that word worked to balm a wounded ego.

There was a bookshelf on the far wall, small but over-full with several stacks of beaten paperbacks to either side. She knelt and considered for several moments before finally making a selection and standing to face him, smiling an oddly dazzling smile. "Silvertongue, right? This, like, totally stars a niece or something," she said, and proffered the book.

The Golden Compass. The cover had an image of a very blurry girlchild on it, and the book itself was old and falling apart, and probably should have been thrown away long ago. But the usage of his own name had piqued his interest, and he headed to her inadequate little couch to read, ignoring the quiet sigh behind him.

Time passed, and many phone calls were made. Loki ignored them, only taking time to note the gift of Allspeak was working well. Her inability to betray him was a comfort. He'd read the entire trilogy twice through before the mortal came to him, slightly wild-eyed from lack of sleep, a small red rectangle in her hand. Her slightly unsettling smile was strangely charming in its mania, and her words came out in a rush: "I've got it! He thinks I work at Culver and he's going to get another professor's data for his study-you don't care, I know you don't, but here! Got it! The research. The research you asked me for? Pyramid research." She held out the small object to him, and he glanced from it to her uncomprehendingly.

"Yes? Where is it?"

She blinked at him. "Seriously? I hope you don't expect me to print all this crap. It'd be like printing a book. At the library. Which is way out of my price range." She looked around and strode into her bedroom abruptly. Loki turned back to his book. It was several minutes before she returned triumphant, holding aloft a computer much like the one on the table, only looking much the worse for wear, plugged it in, and flopped down next to him on the couch. "I found my old laptop!"

It took the better part of an hour for her to teach him to use the hideously outdated technology, not least because sleeplessness did very little to improve her conversation, and she kept trailing off on tangents and laughing endlessly at her own jokes. By the time it was done he was more than ready to simply disappear, and he did so, taking the computer and the three books with him. Better to peruse her work in silence.

Unfortunately, the sudden departure meant he did quite miss her sudden calculating grin.