See end for warnings if you need warnings for things. Be wary, for there are spoilers.

So, this chapter is a lot longer. Like, fourteen-pages-total-in-Microsoft-Word longer. Also, it's angsty and emotional and stuff happens. Hope you like it.

Shower-time was the best time, as far as Darcy was concerned.

When she showered, Darcy had this habit of pretending she was a Broadway singer or a rock star. Loki had told her that he could hear her when she sang, but that didn't slow her down one bit. If anything, she sang louder. Either it would annoy him, which would be funny, or he'd enjoy it, which would be pretty cool too.

Darcy stepped out of the shower when she finished, wrapped up in a towel, and dried her hair, humming the entire time.

After getting dressed for the day, Darcy continued her Saturday morning routine by going out into the kitchen and starting up breakfast. Well, at this point in the day she should really call it lunch, but that didn't change the fact she was making a breakfast feast of muffins and Poptarts (to tide her over until the muffins) for herself and Loki.

Speaking of the Asgardian, just as she walked into the kitchen, Darcy heard Loki stumble out of his room.

"Good morning, sunshine," Darcy called as she started getting out ingredients.

Loki murmured something unintelligible in response, clearly still half-asleep. His hair was all mussed up—which Darcy greatly enjoyed—and his eyes were heavy-lidded.

"Sleeping Beauty awakens," she commented after watching him bump his hip against the island counter as he walked and rubbed his eyes at the same time.

Loki gave her a look (they hadn't watched that movie yet and the reference was probably lost on him) but didn't comment.

"Do you want help cooking?" he offered. His voice was groggy and his words were almost-but-not-quite formed.

"If you helped me cook right now, we'd burn down the building," she said, turning away and starting up her baking process.

"So, what do you want to do this afternoon?" Darcy asked as she worked.

"Whatever you would like to do." Loki said, leaning against the island. He had a glass of orange juice now, but she hadn't seen him get it out.

"Did you just use magic?" She looked at him with a raised brow and her hands on her hips.

"Yeah," he said defensively. He hopped up to sit on the counter and took a sip of juice. "I believe I am at the point where it won't really affect me anymore. I just shouldn't use magic again for a couple of days now, but a little bit at a time is good."

"You're sure?" she asked.

"Of course I am."

"Of course you are. Of course." Darcy turned away and started messing with different utensils, doing her best to not show him how annoyed she was with his stupid assurance and confidence and of course.

"What is it now?" Loki said, his tone dancing between concerned and annoyed.

Darcy took a deep breath to hold herself together; Loki had a special way of being able to make her really pissed by doing so little. He was utterly infuriating, arrogant, and had the ability to strike a nerve within her as easily as breath. And for some reason I still love being around him.

"Darcy," His tone was softer now. She heard him put the glass on the counter, hop down, and walk up behind her in some non-sexual version of the day before. He put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry for how that sounded. Will you tell me what is upsetting you?"

Darcy sighed heavily. It wasn't this particular instance that was the problem; it was their constant fighting that was grating on her. He was no walk in the park, but neither was she. Darcy was annoyed by him at every turn while Loki could get offended by the littlest thing; what the two of them needed, as cliché as it was, was communication.

"I just— I would really appreciate it if from here on out we could be completely honest with each other."

Loki dropped his hand and turned away, walking across the room as he spoke. "You're sharing your home with the God of Lies, darling. I don't know what you expect—"

"No." Darcy said, turning to him and cutting him off, "I'm rooming with you. And as roommates and friends, I think it'd be good for us to be open with each other."

Loki had walked to the sink and was now rinsing out his cup and taking an exceedingly long time with it, probably more interested in not facing Darcy than anything else. "What do you want me to say, then? I'm not hiding anything from you, if that's what you're suggesting. We don't spend enough time apart for there to be anything to hide."

"I have the dreams too," Darcy blurted before she could stop herself.

The cup Loki had been holding shattered in his hand, the sound of breaking glass filling the room. Loki had frozen in place and it looked like he wasn't even breathing.

"So you know what I'm talking about?" Darcy continued. Looking around him, she could see that his hand was bleeding from the broken glass.

"Which dreams?"

"Loki, your hand…"

"It'll heal. What dreams are you talking about?"

"Can we look at each other when we talk or do I have to look at the back of your head for this conversation?" Darcy said, crossing her arms and sticking out a hip to show her protest.

After a few seconds of hesitation, Loki turned to face her. He was tense, but he relaxed some when they made eye contact.

"Ok." Darcy said. "The dreams. I have dreams literally every night, and I know that you have them too. We wake up in the middle of the night at exactly the same time, and I'm pretty sure that our dreams have the same context, so to speak. It was like nothingness, and then it was nightmares, and now it's… sex dreams. I know we have the same sex-filled dreams, and this is me coming clean and acknowledging it."

"And you're just ok with it?" Loki asked. Darcy glanced at his hand; blood was spiraling around his wrist from a deep wound on his palm. He seemed to not even notice the cut, though he held his hand up so that all of the blood went down his arm and onto his shirt instead of onto the floor.

"I mean, I don't really mind it. The nightmares needed to stop, and they did, and now it's all good. I'm just glad we can talk about it and not be in denial with each other,"

"My mind is literally invading yours as we both sleep and projecting my heightened emotions onto you, or vice versa, and that's 'all good' with you?"

Seeing Loki this bothered by the situation was affecting Darcy more than she cared to admit. Telling Loki about the dreams had been a mistake, she now realized. He had reacted with anger toward the situation and Darcy just didn't want to look at him right now. At this point, she just really wanted to leave the room and not be around Loki for a long time; looking at him reminded her of the great way she felt in her dreams and the constant pain she felt in reality. "Yeah. It's all good, like I said." Darcy turned from him and walked toward the front door. "I think I'm going to go for a walk. You should do something for your hand."

She was gone before Loki could say another word.

Loki hadn't even been awake for a half an hour yet. He had walked out into the kitchen, drank some orange juice, and managed to anger Darcy to the point of causing her to leave the apartment, all within minutes of waking up.

Darcy had said that she had the dreams too. She had confirmed what Loki already knew as fact, but her honesty about it still shocked him. She was all right with his mind affecting hers; in fact, she seemed to embrace it, or at the very least accept it.

Loki cleaned his hand and his body took over from there; though he didn't have a lot of his magical abilities, he was still a god and his body could still heal quickly. The scar would be gone in a little under two hours.

After cleaning the broken glass from the sink and the small amount of blood that had gotten onto the floor, Loki changed his shirt and fell onto the couch in their living room.

Darcy wanted honesty. There were a great many things Loki wasn't honest with her about, the first thing coming to mind the fact that he wasn't truly an Asgardian. He didn't want to tell her that not only to save him from the shame of it, but also to keep her from having to know that she was around a monster.

If he waited for long to tell her, she'd either drift away from him and no longer care, or she'd be angry with him for not telling her sooner. He couldn't tell her now, though, but he also couldn't go on getting upset over things that triggered his memory of his father or parentage. A decision had to be made; he had to come clean, or he would have to not let Darcy see what bothered him.

This all seemed redundant to Loki; his constant conflict between being honest with Darcy and sparing her from pain was wearing on his nerves. He truly wanted her to know; more than that, he wanted to tell her, for her to comfort him like he hoped she would, and for her to treat him the same way afterward. The drop of poison in his mind keeping him from telling her was his fear of her not treating him the same after. He would prefer her to be ok with it and he could deal with her running and screaming, though it would hurt; what Loki feared the most was Darcy saying that she wasn't bothered by the fact he was a monster when she actually was. If she was afraid of him and lied about it, Loki would be destroyed.

It had started raining a few minutes before, but Loki didn't notice until the loud clap of thunder woke him from his trance.

Darcy sat with her legs crossed across from Jane at the table in the lab. After walking aimlessly for a few hours, Darcy had decided to visit Jane, who had ended up getting Darcy to confess why she looked so upset. Darcy had just finished telling her everything that had happened that day, save the whole dream confession. Darcy felt that that was a conversation for another day.

"Well," Jane began, "He obviously cares. He's a deeply emotional person; I've noticed that much. He doesn't like showing when something bothers him because he likes being Mr. Invincible, but a lot of things really bother him, like you said. I just don't think he's ready to bare his soul to you, or anyone, quite yet."

"He doesn't have to bare his soul, I just want him to not get bitchy with me," Darcy crossed her arms and pouted.

"And as for you," Jane continued her deductions, "There's a reason you get annoyed with him so much. I just haven't figured it out yet."

"I get annoyed with him because he's a drama queen who should put trigger warnings on half the things I say or do."

"Yeah, I've noticed that. But, the thing is, he doesn't get as bothered by stuff when anyone else does something. It's just you. It's like whatever his issue is, it's personal to him and it involves you."

"What would anything possibly have to do with me?" Darcy asked, crinkling her nose.

"I think that, whatever his problem is, he doesn't want you to know about it. He cares about your opinion in a way that he could never with anyone else, and he's afraid to let you see that," Jane said.

"What makes me so special?"

"Well that's pretty obvious, Darce," Jane said with a small, understanding smile. "He obviously has feelings for you, and strong ones at that. He trusts you, and he wants to protect you."

"Stop it, Jane," Darcy said, but she couldn't help smiling too. "Don't turn this into cliché sleepover-talk. I'm trying to have a serious conversation for once."

"I am too. You don't usually see how Loki looks at you, but I do. You two take turns staring at each other in the lab. It's like you forget I'm there,"

"Looking at each other has nothing to do with anything. We can look at each other all we want—"

"Darcy," Jane cut her off. "You know better than anyone how I am usually the last person to catch on to anything romantic. If I'm seeing something between you two, there is definitely something there."

Outside, the rain was coming down like a hurricane. Thunder shook the lab, causing some of the devices to shake and rattle. Jane sighed lightly.

"You still miss him," Darcy commented more than asked.

Jane murmured in response. "It's been months. I only knew him for a couple days. I feel so silly,"

"But…" It was Darcy's turn to smile knowingly.

"I am a scientist. I don't believe in fate or soul mates. But, it just felt—feels— special. Thor looked at me the same way Loki looks at you. Maybe Asgardian women are all awful and these guys just fell for whatever girl they met first, but I don't think so. I think we're both lucky and really unlucky at the same time."

Darcy sunk in her seat and sighed dramatically. "Let's just marry each other and save ourselves the trouble of worrying over these Asgardian princesses,"

Jane laughed. "Tempting offer, but we've got a portal to build,"

"If you insist," Darcy said. She stood up and stretched her arms over her head. "I think I'm going home. I feel like this storm's only going to get worse,"

"Do you want me to go with you?" Jane asked, standing as well.

"No, I'll be ok," Darcy said. "Thanks, though,"

Darcy ran the short way home to avoid getting overly drenched. It was already getting dark; the only light in this rare New Mexico storm were the occasional street lamps and porch lights.

By the time she opened the door to the apartment, her hair and clothes were dripping.

Loki was lying on the couch. From where she stood taking off her shoes, he looked like he was asleep. However, that theory was proven wrong when he turned partially to see her.

Loki opened his mouth to speak but Darcy cut him off. "Before you say anything, I'm going to change my clothes. Hold whatever you're about to say."

Once she was in dry pajamas and her hair was curling wildly as it dried itself, Darcy returned to Loki.

Sitting down beside him on the couch, Darcy curled up so that her back was against his side. He put his arm across the back of the couch to make her more comfortable.

"Sorry about overreacting earlier," Darcy said. "I know I have an issue with prying. We are roommates and friends, and we do have a right to know about each other, but we also have a right to keep things from each other. You don't have to tell me whatever you don't want to share."

"No," Loki said lightly. Loki's slow breathing was lulling. "You deserve to know, and eventually you will. Just not yet."

"I'll hold you to that," Darcy said. She pulled her knees up so that her legs were against her body.

They shared a comfortable silence for a long while, the rain more than filling in the empty spaces. Loki's hand fell so that his arm was around her and his hand rested on her knee and his thumb absently circled patterns there.

"Loki?" she asked quietly, not wanting to ruin the moment but wanting to get this out there.

"Hmm?" He was barely audible; she felt more than heard his response.

"How much longer do you think it'll be before you can power the portal?"

"What, are you eager to get rid of me?" he joked lightly. "About six more weeks, I'd say. And that's just enough time to finish up the design."

Darcy murmured lightly to show she had heard. "Loki?" she asked again a few seconds later.

"Yes?"

"Why do you get mad about cold? It wasn't just that first day you were here; if I mention something about coldness or being too hot, you—" Loki tensed up, "—you get upset. Why? You said you would tell me your big secret later, and that's fine, but you promised back a while that you'd tell me about the cold thing."

"It has to do with the 'big secret,'" Loki said sternly, starting to stand up. Darcy held onto his arm, pulling him back down beside her.

"Loki, just tell me. I promise I can handle it." Darcy turned and sat on her heels so she could face him.

"It's nothing you need concern yourself over." Loki was practically snarling. Against all of her better judgment, Darcy pushed forward.

"Come on, there's no time like the present. Lay it on me."

Loki didn't even attempt to hide the roll of his eyes. He took a deep breath, trying to reign in his anger. "I'm not going to lay it on you, Darcy. Let's just talk about something else, please,"

"Loki—"

"Darcy," he shot her a warning look before standing up and walking away.

"Come on," she continued anyway, jumping up and following him. "There's so much you haven't told me. I've been completely honest with you about everything. You know just about everything about me, but I still don't know that much about you. You're obviously upset a lot of the time, and God knows you get angry at the littlest, seemingly most random things. Just tell me something,"

Loki turned to look at her abruptly, causing her to almost run into him. "I do not have to tell you anything. I've told you everything that you need to know, and that's all I will ever tell you if you do not stop this now," Loki rubbed his hand against the back of his neck, like she was literally causing a pain in his neck. Jackass.

"You keep saying this stuff, like your problems are none of my business. As long as you're living here, as long as we're friends, they'll be my problems too."

Loki scoffed. "You're overstepping, dear. My problems are exactly that: mine. I suggest you reevaluate what you consider 'friends' are entitled to as well, because I do not have to tell you anything about myself."

"First off, I know you didn't just call me 'dear' in a sarcastic, total dick-move way. Because then you're going to have to add another problem to your huge secret list of problems. Secondly, friends are entitled to each other's problems because friends are supposed to help each other out, even by just listening to each other. Understand?"

"You just said that we had a right to keep things from each other, but now you're saying that 'friends' are 'entitled' to know everything about each other. You need to pick a stance on this issue, dear."

Darcy shook her head. "God, you are the most arrogant person I have ever met. Half the time you're Prince Charming, here to save the day from my nightmares, and the other half the time you're a fucking asshole. You get angry when I accidentally say something that offends you but you're not willing to tell me why you're offended. You need to make a choice: tell me what's wrong or get the fuck over it."

"Be quiet, you insolent girl," Loki snapped. Darcy really didn't like the way he said 'girl,' as if she was a child.

"Why? Because you're in denial over what I'm saying, or because you don't want to hear it from me?"

Loki shot a look at her but didn't answer. He turned and started walking away again.

"Oh? Now you're just done with the conversation?" Darcy shrilled. "You think you can just turn away, and that'll be it? I'll just forget about it and walk away too? Well you've got another thing coming, buddy."

He stopped walking but didn't respond to her. He was straight up giving her the cold shoulder.

"You're such a shit, you know that?" Darcy called.

He turned back around to look at her. "And you are an arrogant child!" he finally said, bringing his voice up for the first time.

"At least I'm not immature," she snarled, crossing her arms and holding her ground.

"I'm the immature one between the two of us? Please, Darcy. At least try to make your argument within the realm of possibility,"

"It is in the realm of possibility, you douche. And I am the mature one. At least I can handle myself whenever anything bad happens! With you, one little crack in your self-esteem, and you're Mr. Brooding-and-Depressed for the rest of the day,"

"I have dealt with things beyond your imagination, mortal—"

"I'm sure you fucking have. And you know what? I would love to hear about them. But you won't tell me anything!"

"It is nothing you need to know about,"

Darcy let out a sudden short shriek of pure anger, turning away from him in the process. "You're unbelievable. If I ask, it's nothing I need to know about. If I don't ask, then I'm ignorant. You need to make up your mind and not be such a drama queen all the time."

"And you need to stop trying to burrow yourself into my personal life."

Darcy spun around to look at him, glaring. Regret flashed through Loki's eyes, but he quickly put his wall back up before anything could be said.

They glared at each other for a painful moment, their eyes piercing into each other's. Darcy wanted to slap him really badly, but for the life of her she couldn't bring herself to actually do it.

"I hate you." Darcy declared.

"If I could bring myself to actually have strong sentiments over a mortal, I'd hate you too." Loki matched her scowl and intensity.

"Oh, you're gonna get it for that one," Darcy warned, now at the point of fuming. He did not just use the 'mortals are inferior' thing.

"Yeah? Let me assure you: there is nothing you can do that would have any effect on me."

"Oh, really? Is that so?"

"Absolutely not."

"That's what I— wait, wha—" Loki cut her off suddenly as he grabbed her by either side of her face and his mouth claimed hers almost violently, forcing it open and dominating it. Darcy tilted her head, allowing him in, and brought her hands up to touch whatever she could.

This turn of events was quite something, Darcy thought. Deep down, as much as she didn't want to admit it, Darcy thought that this particular fight had been kind of hot. It was as if all of their fighting had been some weird kind of foreplay; half of Darcy wanted to slap Loki and the other half wanted him to just fuck her into the wall already. I guess our minds were in the same place with that.

Loki's hands grabbed her by the ass, pulling her up onto him. Instinctively Darcy wrapped her legs around Loki's waist, her legs and his hands more than supporting her.

Darcy worked her hands through his hair, pulling on it so hard she was sure it had to be painful, even for him. Loki's hands had to be bruising her as they clawed their way under her shirt and up her back.

Their mouths parted as Darcy gasped for air, taking the small break she desperately needed. Loki moved to her neck and she let him, though she was far from done with him.

After a few moments of Loki biting, licking, and generally ravaging her neck, Darcy bent her neck in a way so that she was the one working on Loki's; she bit him suddenly, not breaking skin but definitely bruising (well, definitely bruising if he could be affected by that sort of thing). Loki let out a hiss in response and smacked her ass hard in retaliation.

Darcy came to the realization that both of them were wearing far too much clothes, and that needed to be remedied now. She pulled off his shirt, he pulled off her shirt, and they played with that development for a moment.

Scraping at Loki's shoulders, Darcy closed her eyes, tilted her head back dramatically, and let out a low, wanton moan she was sure would mess with his mind some. Loki responded with licking a thick line between her breasts and then up her neck, ending with a hard bite below her jaw followed by a surprisingly gentle kiss to the same spot.

"Getting tired?" she asked thickly, bringing her head up and eyeing him.

"Not even close," he growled back, and then their rough game of almost-hate sex started all over again.

Loki ripped her bra apart at the front, successfully destroying that piece of clothing. As her breasts popped free, Loki took one in his hand and the other in his mouth, varying in roughness between each side.

"I hate you," Darcy whimpered as Loki worked at her, drawing the breath out of her over and over. In an attempt at payback, Darcy ground against his arousal as hard as she could manage, successfully making Loki falter, if only for a second. She was getting desperate there too, but Loki let out a low moan when she stopped.

"Oh, I hate you too," Loki smiled into her breast and ground right back up into her.

Loki came back up and took her bottom lip into his mouth, roughly sucking and then biting, scraping his teeth over her now-swollen lip. Darcy reached down below herself and grabbed his length through his pants. She felt Loki hesitate as he was taken aback by her action, but then he growled into her neck and grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand back up.

"Not yet," Loki said against her ear, and then took her earlobe into his mouth.

"Fuck you," she said in response. Loki grinned at that but let her comment slide.

Loki managed to remove the rest of their clothing—somewhat violently—without putting Darcy down. She would've found that impressive if she wasn't currently so distracted by the fact that they were completely naked, Darcy's legs wrapped around Loki's waist, their clothes all over the floor around them, and holy shit we're both naked and about to get it on.

"So you hate me, huh?" Loki snarled into her mouth, their lips brushing.

"More than anything in the world," Darcy said, panting.

"Liar," he breathed, and he took her mouth again, raggedly and forcefully.

Loki's hands clawed needily at her back, frantic and desperate. He sucked her bottom lip into his mouth and bit, light enough not to really hurt but hard enough to make her gasp. As her mouth opened, his tongue dove in swirled around hers, sending electricity down to the pooling heat in her cunt.

Darcy pulled her head back, noting that Loki tried to follow her forward and stay connected at the mouth when she did. "Are you planning on doing anything to me?" Darcy asked, her eyes gleaming. "Because I think you're all talk."

Loki's eyes darkened and his grin widened.

Taking the few steps forward to the couch, Loki put her down surprisingly gently. That tenderness quickly fell away as he sunk to his knees in front of her and spread her legs, putting his hands on either thigh to hold her there.

"Scream for me," Loki said darkly, staring at her like he was about to devour her.

"Make me."

Loki's smile widened. Instead of responding with some comment, he lowered his head and licked a thick line up her cunt, circling her clit when he reached it.

Loki sucked and bit at her for a few minutes, reducing her to a writhing, moaning mess. Darcy tried to free her legs so she could pull him closer, but his hands remained firmly in place. As soon as she felt herself drawing close to release, he would back off while still keeping her aroused. Eventually he let her hook her legs around him, but his hands still held her exactly where he wanted her.

"I hate you," Darcy cried as he kept her from her third potential orgasm. She was desperate for him, literally shaking in anticipation. "Do you hear me? I hate you. Please, just fuck me already,"

Loki paused, bringing his head back a few inches. "I thought I said I wanted you to scream,"

Her heel dug hard into his shoulder, drawing a low moan out of him.

"What, are you a masochist or something?" Darcy panted, eyeing him. When Loki didn't answer, she brought her hand up and finally smacked him across the face. His head turned with the blow; he had honestly been surprised by it.

When Loki looked back at her, his eyes were charged and full of intent. He dove forward, his hands plunging under her and pulling her up against him as their mouths connected again, searching and pleading. As it was, Loki was on his knees in front of the couch and in between Darcy's spread legs. This position put her higher up than him, which she used to her advantage. She pulled at his hair and angled his head so that his neck was tilted up and she could capture his mouth. Loki's hands grabbed at her back, scratching just hard enough to walk the line between pain and pleasure.

Darcy separated them. "I've waited long enough, Loki. You have one minute to get inside of me before I finish this myself."

"As much as I would love to see that," Loki drew out, but her expression stopped him. "Where?"

"Anywhere. The floor. The couch. The wall. The kitchen table. Just do it already,"

Loki didn't need to be told twice. Picking her up, he made like he was going to the bedroom but apparently got impatient on the way. When she felt her back hit up against his bedroom door, Loki kissed her cheek chastely and entered her slowly.

Darcy let out a low groan and tilted her head back as she adjusted to his length. Once he knew she was adapted, he began sliding in and out of her. The rhythm was too slow for Darcy; she wasn't going to let him torture her again.

"Faster, Loki. Please," she moaned into his ear, pleading him forward.

Loki complied, but it was still not enough. She was close, but she needed something else to push her spiraling over the edge. As if he could tell she was still desperate for more, he changed the angle slightly and pounded into her harder. He was hitting exactly the right spot inside of her, and within three thrusts she was finally screaming for him.

"Loki," she cried, digging her nails into his shoulder. She was so close, and judging by the frantic way he was thrusting into her, he was too.

Darcy tilted her head and bit down on his shoulder as she came, tightening around his cock. Partially through her climax, Loki thrust one final time and spilled himself into her, sighing heavily against her neck as he did.

The two of them stayed still for a moment. Darcy's legs went limp and the only thing supporting her up against the door was Loki's equally exhausted body.

When he got up enough energy, Loki opened the door and carried her to his bed. He tried his best to put her down gently, but ended up all but collapsing on top of her.

When Loki was eventually able to roll off of her, the two of them breathed heavily, both completely spent. They almost immediately fell asleep, legs still tangled and Loki's arm around Darcy's midsection, holding her close to him like he was afraid she'd drift away while they slept.

Neither of them dreamt that night.

Warning: they gon' fuck

Endnote: This has nothing to do with anything and is kind of dumb, but I thought I'd share anyway. The last part of this chapter (starting when Darcy gets back to the apartment) kind of reminds me of/was inspired from Ed Sheeran's 'Give Me Love.' So there's that.

Also, this is my first go at a hardcore sex scene/hate sex/whatever happened here. Please be gentle with your comments if you decide to drop a review. Thank.