Darcy woke Friday morning as she had several days this week, with a bed hogging giant draping at least one limb around her. Loki was apparently not an introverted sleeper, which she had to admit surprised her. She was glad of his warmth, however, since even the piles of furs on the bed were no match for the ice chamber in which they slept.
She was getting used to waking up this way and Loki, though he hadn't been a perfect gentleman, more a slightly tarnished gentleman, seemed to be enjoying it too. As soon as he felt her shifting, the arm that was lying heavily over her side tightened and he pulled her back against him, nuzzling her hair.
"Dude," she said, "Cut that out." She slapped him on the arm trying to wake him fully.
"You were more fun on Midgard," he muttered by way of a response and released her.
Darcy made her way out of the bed and down into a small chamber that had been carved out of the living rock. It contained a hot spring in which she had been bathing for the last several days. Ablutions performed, she re-entered the bed chamber to find Loki still in bed, only now he had moved to the middle and was sprawled fully.
"Hey," she said, tapping his foot through the fur blankets. "I'm headed out, okay? I have my class in like five minutes."
"Alright, don't get into trouble," he grumbled.
As she made her way toward the 'schoolroom' she thought about Loki. He'd been reasonably relaxed for the last couple of days, much more than he had been when they first arrived on Jotunheim. She thought it was likely because several of her students had assured him that they were enjoying her teaching (but it may also have been that he sent a mercenary guard with her everywhere she went). Indeed, she had felt like they were making good progress. Today was technically the last 'teaching' day and then she planned to run a mock election Saturday before returning to New Mexico that evening.
"Appropriations. Say it with me. Appro-pri-ations. This is a very important concept," said Darcy to her class near the end of the day.
"Isn't that dishonest?" said a Jotunn in the first row who had been studiously taking notes all week.
"No…" she said, hating herself a little. "It's totally great. As long as you use it for good. Like orphanage funding," she said, punctuating this by wagging a finger. "So, are there any more questions about anything I've covered?" No one said anything. "It's okay, just shout it out," she encouraged.
"Well…" said a Jotunn in the second row whose name was particularly guttural and hard to pronounce, "It's not really a question, but we were wondering if you wanted to come out with us after class?"
"Out?" asked Darcy, flabbergasted. "You mean, like to a bar?"
"Yes, we go to a tavern nearby sometimes. It's got great food and Jotulschlager. It's a drink," said the Jotunn at her skeptical look. She looked at their faces, which were pretty hard to resist, actually. Overall, they'd been receptive and even laughed at her jokes most of the time. Who was she to refuse? Besides, the lesson had ended earlier in the day than she expected and she'd probably be back before Loki even got home.
"Okay. Drinking with your professor is kind of a college tradition. Of course I'll come." She said.
Loki was pacing his ice chamber. It was late, or late for Darcy anyway. She had been meant to arrive back an hour ago and he usually had a report from her mercenary that she was in for the night. When he had not come, Loki had left the throne room to see if everything was alright. She was not in their chamber and he was trying to convince himself that he was only mildly concerned. It was her last day, perhaps her lesson had run over.
He paced for a while longer, then again, why not send a message if she was going to be late. Women, he scoffed. Flighty, Midgardian women, he corrected in his mind. He would give her another ten minutes, okay, perhaps five minutes. He wasn't worried, of course not. It was just that SHEILD and the Avengers would probably kill him if something happened to one of their associates.
Five minutes crept by without any sign of Darcy and Loki stalked to the door summoning his guards. "Find the Lady Darcy and bring her to me immediately," He ordered, in as calm a voice as he could manage through clenched teeth.
It was half an hour before the guards started to trickle back in with no news of Darcy. They'd searched all the likely kidnapper-type places, caves, storage rooms, alleys of questionable sanitation. It must be a clever one, like one of the ones in her class, he thought, ruefully, getting angrier with himself by the minute. He went out and searched himself briefly before realizing that Jotunheim was going to be impossible to search in time. Darcy had her furs, but in the open, the mortal would freeze. If only there was a way to move more quickly. Jotuns had no transportation machines of any kind. What he wouldn't give to be able to turn himself into a bird and fly, he thought. Actually he could do that, but it would still be too slow. What he needed was help. It might hurt his pride, he told himself, but it was better than going back to SHEILD without Darcy.
It had been a good day so far, for Thor Odinson. Back on Asgard after a close and brutal victory on Alfheim, he was glad to have gotten back to civilization. He'd had two chickens, porridge and a bowl of fruit for breakfast, gone for a run afterward and was now dripping with sweat and shirtless, as he held his trademark hammer close and was practicing deflecting large rocks being thrown at him by a large Asgardian trainer with some wicked looking scars. The man had stopped however, and Thor turned around to see why.
His erstwhile brother and frost giant Loki was coming towards him briskly, a grim expression on his face.
"Thor," he said, slightly out of breath. "I need your help." Loki sounded as though he'd bitten through his tongue delivering those words and Thor took pity on him, deciding for once not to mock him.
"What has happened, Loki?"
"I don't know exactly but Darcy did not return to our chambers at the appointed time," he said.
Thor raised an eyebrow at the words 'our chambers'. "You have managed to bed the lady Darcy? She is a fine catch, brother, be proud."
"No, you oaf," Loki spit out. "We were sharing a room so I could keep her safe. Now she is gone and I know not what to do. I have sent men to search but they turned up nothing. I searched myself until I thought to come to you. I need your hammer. You must fly over the lands around the capital of Jotunheim and see if you can locate her before she freezes to death," he said, quickly. He was trying to drive home the seriousness of the situation, but Thor always had been a bit thick.
Finally, he got the message through and they returned to Jotunheim together. After several passes of the countryside Thor's search had proved just as fruitless as Loki's search of the palace. The two now sat on a sort of mesa overlooking the city. Loki was pacing and Thor was seeing a side of his brother he had not known existed. "We will find her, brother," he said.
"I know that, I just don't want to have to bring her body back to SHEILD, there's no telling what they might do to me, let alone what the All Father has in store."
"It is more than that though, isn't it?" asked Thor.
"More? What more?" said Loki, irritably. "She is a Midgardian. She is in my charge and she is missing."
"She is an attractive Midgardian who you have been working closely with this last fortnight," wheedled Thor, heedless of Loki's annoyance.
"What of it?" asked Loki. "Many Midgardians are attractive," he grumbled.
"Come brother, you like her, don't you?" asked Thor with a wide smile.
"Rrrr! Of course I like her," Loki snapped. "She is irreverent and playful, she is wickedly clever and she draws on a vast spectrum of knowledge about Midgardian culture both for serious and ridiculous purposes." He sighed and sat on a rock. "She doesn't treat me like a prince. That's something I never thought I would actually enjoy. And she doesn't treat me like an intergalactic criminal psychopath either," he said, shifting his gaze off into the frozen landscape, then added in a low voice, "Which she would have been well within her rights to do." He folded his arms and rested them on his knees, glaring at the ground now and looking quite defeated.
Thor came closer and clapped him on the shoulder. "Come, we shall go back to the palace, the lady Darcy is clever. Not as clever as Jane Foster, but more clever than most. I have faith she will get a message to us somehow."
Loki looked up at Thor like he was crazy. The likelihood of that was astronomical. He didn't see what else he could do however and stood. He even allowed Thor to grab him around the shoulders and fly them together into town.