All That I Can Say: Chapter 9
By: M. Greystone
If I owned it, you'd be watching it on the big screen, guys.
Author's Note: my best friend, ValentineDuchess, wrote a snippet for the story and I had to fit it in. Really, it would have been a tragedy not to, so I do hope you enjoy the little hidden bonus in this chapter. I'm sure you'll find it and love it as much as I do! Cheers!
Loki sat in the booth at the diner, his hands wrapped around a mug of tea, the drone of chatter around him flowing unheeded to his ears as he lost himself in his thoughts. He wasn't really drinking the tea; his appetite had abandoned him for the night when he'd been at Danica's, alone on the outside of her ring of chairs, the shadows cloaking him in their embrace.
She looked happy, an ease about her that he envied as she relaxed in her yard, the chatter of her friends as warm as the fire they were gathered around.
He missed them. He hated to let himself admit that, but it was the truth. And it had been easier for him in his exile to get to visit with Danica, to stay in her home and be around someone who understood where he was from. But now…
He glared as someone slid harshly into the booth behind him, a large group of people jostling the bench even through the padding between the two tables. Mortals. Uncouth, barbaric, smelly, ignorant mortals.
He could not understand what the draw of some of them was for his brother and for Danica.
"…and then her damn dragon set my coat on fire!" one of the heathens in the booth exclaimed, his voice pitched lower so the entire diner didn't hear his complaint, though Loki heard it quite clearly.
"A dragon? Are you kidding me, man?" another scoffed. "I know you get some strange-ass things coming in to your job, but a dragon?"
"Dead serious. She's one of the X-Men, you know those guys up in New York that the news keeps trying to find out about, but no one's saying anything!" the first guy replied, Loki realizing it was one of the men from SHIELD. Marvin or something like that, he couldn't remember.
"So not only do you have some gateway to another world in that place, the girlfriend of some Norse god, and a dragon, you've got one of the X-Men?" yet another question, Loki starting to feel almost concerned that these humans were so aware of what was going on in Danica's lab.
"Yeah, well, a gateway that doesn't work," Marvin said sourly. "We can't get it to run yet, and every time we try to figure out how to do it, either one of the simulations shows us all being blown to hell, or something does actually go wrong in the lab." He chuckled after this, darkly, and Loki's head tilted slightly at the tone. "Not that I'd know anything about that…"
More laughter sounded around the table, and the God of Mischief smirked when the laughter turned to shouts of surprise when Marvin's water glass suddenly sprouted cracks in it as the water froze in an instant then shattered into frost across the table.
Silence reigned in the diner and Loki took a small sip of his tea, closing his eyes and almost smiling as the group left as suddenly as they came in, their waitress glaring at the mess left on their table.
Loki stood slowly and left money under his table's salt shaker, following the group outside.
"Sir, don't you need change?" the waitress called after him, shock widening her eyes as she stared at him.
"No." He nodded slightly to her and left, the woman staring at the $100 bill he'd left for her.
Danica jumped, nearly dropping her toothbrush as she was spreading paste on it when Loki's face appeared over her shoulder in the mirror, the woman whirling to stare at him, her nightgown flaring around her ankles.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, clutching her toothbrush and spreading a hand over her heart as it raced from the surprise. "Are you alright?" She frowned, not liking the tired lines beginning to be evident on his features.
He caught her hand before she could touch him, his fingers cold but not hurtful. "Be careful," he said quietly. "Be watchful."
She blinked, shaking her head slowly. "I don't understand," she admitted.
Loki lifted her hand and gently kissed her knuckles before fading out again. "Just be careful, Danica," he said quietly, leaving her alone in her bathroom once more.
She jumped again, glaring, when someone knocked on the door, and she stomped over to it and yanked it open, still holding her toothbrush in her other hand. On the other side, Fandral stared, mouth open almost comically in his shock, his hand raised to knock again if needed.
"Yes?" Danica asked testily, peering out into her room to see if anyone else was waiting to speak to her. Thankfully, everyone else was either downstairs or outside.
"Er…I heard voices. I wanted to make certain you were alright," he replied, lowering his arm and looking behind her into the empty washroom.
She sighed and moved away to brush her teeth, keeping an eye on the blond man as he moved in to the tiny room with her. "I'm fine," she said, wetting the brush under the faucet and then brushing.
Fandral frowned, leaning closer to watch. "You are foaming at the mouth," he commented, head tilting curiously. He poked a finger into the aqua paste in the end of the tube on the counter and tasted. "H'm…"
She rinsed and spat as delicately as possible, then hung the brush in the drying rack. "You brought the mint water from home, didn't you?" she asked and he nodded. "I was wondering, since no one had removed their brushes from the boxes except Thor."
She'd explained what to do, but hadn't demonstrated, so she wasn't terribly surprised that he was intrigued by this aspect of Midgardian toilet. "Can I help you with anything else?" she asked, herding him towards the door and turning off the bathroom light.
Fandral grinned as he eyed her bed, the downy white quilt puffy and inviting.
Danica lightly shoved him to the bedroom door, Fandral's feet scuffing a little on the wooden floor. "But…" he protested, planting his hands on the doorframe when he reached it and turning about to kiss her quickly, laughing as he caught sight of her gaping after him as he went back down the hall. "Sweet dreams, my love!" he wished, walking down the stairs, Danica growling as she closed the door.
Fandral stopped on the stairs when he heard the latch click, the sound of his friends outside carrying in to the house through the screened back door. He knew he had heard Loki, would have staked his life on it, but there was no sign of the Trickster and Danica didn't look as if…
He shook his head at himself, glancing back to her door, the soft glow of her bedside lamp shining under the portal. She was safe for now, he consoled himself as he went back downstairs. He'd make sure of it.
The next morning Danica rose early to get breakfast started and to get in to the lab as soon as she could. Sif woke slightly before she left the room, but fell back asleep when Danica waved at her that she was going downstairs.
As she walked down the hall, carrying her shoes so her feet didn't make too much noise, she noticed steam curling from the doorway of the upstairs bath, the door cracked slightly. She moved closer, intending to pull it to, when she glanced in and realized Fandral was awake also, the steam being the remnants of his bath. He stood at the sink, hair slicked back and still dripping slightly, long rivulets of water tracking over his shoulders and back and down into the waist of the towel he'd wrapped around his hips.
He didn't see her, his head down as he stood with hands braced on the sink, a slim, ornate dagger and a small pot of clear soap he'd brought with him by the basin, and his clothes for the day were folded neatly on the countertop. He looked as if his thoughts weighed heavily, and she wondered if he was sleeping alright, especially being so far from home. She bit her lip when he exhaled, but she didn't move, transfixed with the man in front of her as he smoothly applied the soap to his face.
Words wounded him, especially when they were hers and were so perfectly aimed. She had learned that skill well, wielding them as deftly as she would her fathers' weapons and they never failed to strike their mark. He knew she'd made the comment about his appearance in jest, but the words still hurt. As he stood in front of the mirror, steam rising up from the water in the porcelain basin between his hands, he knew he would never be so strong as to not feel the sting of her insults to his vanity.
Fandral picked up the shiny blade on the counter beside the sink and sighed, not sensing the presence of the woman just outside the door, not having noticed he'd left it ajar in the fog of his whirling mind.
Danica watched as he slid the razor along his neck, removing the foaming gel in sure, slow strokes, and she was captivated. She had always been so, regardless of her demeanor towards him. He was her weakness, and she couldn't take her eyes away from the gentle grace in his movements. The way his wrist curved, the strength in his fingers, the certainty in his eyes when he finally lay the blade down to splash the hot water over his face.
She sighed inwardly when he drew his thumb along the smooth line of his jaw and turned his head, admiring his work.
It was then that he saw her in the mirror, the whites of her eyes bright and her irises sparkling in the amber light as she watched him and he couldn't help the chuckle that escaped when she ducked quickly into the hallway and disappeared.
Maybe she wasn't completely lost to him, after all.
The lab was quiet and dim when Danica walked in, and she smiled as she set down her back on her desk and just stood there, admiring the gate in the lowered light. For all of her trepidations about the project and its potential repercussions, she was still extremely proud of their work. She'd enjoyed her time at SHIELD, loved her team and the friendships she'd formed, especially with Jane, who now was practically a sister to her because of her relationship with Thor, and she was happy to have been a part of this venture.
She took a breath, eyes tracking over the gleaming archway once more before turning away to raise the lights and start the workday. Soon the computers were humming with power, screens flickering with diagnostic checks that always reminded her of someone stretching out the kinks of sleep before they opened their eyes fully, and she sat down at her own console, immersing herself in calculations and notes within moments.
She nearly jumped a mile, understandably, when Lockheed alighted on her desk a little while later, Kitty laughing to see Danica gasping for breath while giggling also.
"I'm awake now!" she said breathlessly, gently petting the dragon's head and smiling at the younger woman as she came over.
Kitty set her own messenger bag down and looked at Danica's work, nodding. "You were really into what you're doing. How is it?" she asked, sitting down also.
"I think we can make a test run," was the reply. "But I need to speak with the Director before we go into that." She turned as the doors opened again, Tony Stark walking in with Pepper, the billionaire looking remarkably awake at the early hour.
"Greetings, True Believers, what's the sitch?" he asked, straddling one of the other office chairs and scooting over, ruining the line of his charcoal pinstriped suit.
"I think we're ready for a run today," Danica told him, and his eyebrows rose.
"Yeah?" he smiled. "Excellent. But, I think you'll want to talk to Nicky before, though. I spoke with him the other day about your concerns, and he agrees." He stopped and rolled his eyes with a grimace when Pepper coughed delicately behind him, his assistant pretending to be engrossed with her phone once more. "Okay, well, he does kinda. But mainly it's because he and I had some words, shall we say, regarding this project…" He smirked, enjoying being the focus of their attention as Danica and Kitty stared at him. "I think we'll wait until Jane comes in to finish this discussion, though."
"Tony…" Danica said lowly, folding her arms and swiveling to face him, the purple dragon behind her folding its arms also and fixing Stark with a beady glare.
Tony held up his hands and leaned back slightly out of the reach of their ire. "No, she needs to hear this, too, and I'd rather not repeat myself."
"But it would give you a chance to hear yourself talk more," Pepper muttered with a tiny smile, setting off some quiet giggling from the women and a glare from her boss.
"I don't recall hearing you complain last night about my talking—" He laughed and shut his mouth when she turned sheet white and gaped at him, then shifted to an icy frown before turning back to her BlackBerry.
"How have you not sued him yet?" Kitty wondered, her curls sliding against her shoulders as she tilted her head to study the pair.
"It's a daily struggle," Pepper replied, patting Tony's shoulder and he grinned.
Jane walked in then, one eyebrow winging up at the sight of the group now looking at her. "Uh, hi?" she said, approaching her desk with a confused smile.
"Sit, please, so Tony can begin story time," Danica requested, tugging Jane's chair out for her, and Foster sat.
The instant Foster's bottom touched the chair Tony announced, "I'm taking over the Earth to Asgard project, and the Avengers are mine."
It was a matter of heartbeats before pandemonium broke loose, Danica and Jane jumping out of their chairs with loud exclamations, Kitty stepping forward also with Lockheed wrapped around her neck.
"You what?" Danica cried, her eyes wide, though a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.
"Are we moving?" Jane demanded, hands on hips.
Tony laughed, standing up to face them. "I'm taking over Avengers and moving it to New York to my parents' old house for a base of operations. We'll begin moving things over in the next two days. The E.t.A. project will undoubtedly be moving there also though will not be owned by Stark Industries, and neither will the Avengers. I want to speak with your team first before we do anything, and let them, and you, know that I'll be taking over the moving costs for everyone, if they decide to go, and make sure they have residences before this project moves forward in a new location. Both projects will be privately funded, rather than owned. You both will serve on the board of advisors for the gate and as the chief project managers, if you like, and Kitty, you're more than welcome to stay on also," he smiled and she shrugged.
"I don't know if I'll be able to, but I'll look into it," she grinned.
Tony looked at the three of them, folding his arms. "Well? What do you think?"
Jane puffed out a breath and glanced at Danica, both of them stunned by this new twist in their lives. "Um…"
"I think you all need to come over for dinner tonight," Haraldsen said, biting her lip and looking at the others. "Or maybe dessert…" She frowned and Jane nodded.
"Dessert would be better."