Disclaimer: I don't own Thor…
Loki felt the harsh metal bonds clasping his wrists before he lost consciousness again.
That's when the dreams kicked in. Memories, really. Dreams of a past life: being in Asgard as a child, racing Thor, playing tricks on Heimdall, listening to his father's voice as he talked in court, his mother's voice as she sang songs in their sleep. He went in and out of the memories—first Asgard, then Midgard, then visiting Asgard again—before his mind finally settled on a single memory. Darcy.
Specifically, meeting Darcy for the first time.
Her giant, beautiful eyes had stared at him… and then promptly looked away, as if he had been nothing more than a marginally interesting bit of wallpaper sticking out from the wall. That hadn't bothered him, he was sure, somewhere deep down she was as infatuated with him as he was with her. She was just playing hard to get.
He continued to watch her as she visited Jane. He waited, patiently, as she gently flirted with Fandral and got used to the Asgardian court. Him, being the sly old fox that he was, waited until she was lulled into a sense of security before he made his move. He asked her to dine with him.
She said no. She didn't date men who previously tried to kill her. It was bad for the relationship.
Crushed, but unwilling to be deterred, he helped himself to a mug of mead and decided an actual plan was in order.
-At this point in the dream he woke up a little, moving in the dirty room he had been chained in and trying to draw himself out of the unconsciousness that gripped him. His left arm ached and he fell back into memories.
He remembered following her then, after she went back to Midgard. Heimdall had a small smile on his face as Loki told him where he was going. The ebony man had seen many an Asgardian act more foolishly for love. It amused him that Loki had it in his black heart to act so lovesick.
Loki didn't mind the trip, though the space travel made his stomach churn. He remembered the feeling of turning himself into a black cat and trotting up the stairs to Darcys apartment. Shape shifting was always easy, and made all the more pleasant by the fact Darcy would now willingly scratch him behind the ears.
…not that he had liked that sort of thing in human form, but still.
He finally had a plan, now that he had been reminded of the foolishness of operating without one. Love made one do strange things.
He would observe her for a year or so. When next he saw her Loki would know just what she liked and loathed, so he could easily charm her down to her toes. It had worked, more or less.
-He shifted a little in his sleep, a little more awake now, the bone in his arm still reminding him that he had broken it. It was probably the throb he still felt that prompted his next dream.
He had gone on a walk with Lovely Darcy. They had known each other for long enough that she was comfortable with him, but still short enough that he had the boyish urge to impress her.
She was visiting Asgard again—to see him, this time, not Jane—and they had wandered to one of the creeks outside the giant white walls. She had asked him about his magic, and he had been more than happy to oblige.
"Magic comes from the heart," he had said, using his hand to tap the place where his own, recently softened, heart resided. "It doesn't come from one's head, as they teach in class. While magic is limited by your imagination, it still stems from the heart." Darcy had nodded here, acting as if this had all made sense. She wasn't going to remind him that she had calculus instead of Magic 101. Not when he was being this frank.
Still, when he looked at her he saw the bit of her mind that couldn't comprehend, so he held up his hand—his right hand—to demonstrate.
"I'll use a certain amount of magic to blast that scraggily River Oak," He said, nodding to a tree on the creek bank. "But I'll use my right hand. The magic has to travel longer when it's called to the right hand; hence it tends to be weaker."
Some yellow sparks danced around his fingertips as Darcy watched, and a moment later several branches exploded and fell into the water. Loki smirked a little. He knew she wasn't much one for manly displays, but, when it was just the two of them, he couldn't help himself.
"Now, same amount of magic, but with the left hand."
The tree happily exploded. Or at least it seemed happy to Loki. Or, at any rate, Loki was happy about the explosion. Most likely the latter. There was just something about changing topography that was satisfying.
"Very nice," Darcy had said, the twinkle that Loki loved coming into her eye "But how do I know you didn't cheat, and use more magic for your left hand?"
Loki had laughed at that, wrapping his arms around Darcy as an excuse to step closer.
-Loki fully woke up. As the tendrils of the enchantment that had kept him asleep slithered off, he realized what he needed.
A plan.
Loki wouldn't be caught unconscious twice. Before the day was out, this guy was going to meet his maker.