Author's Note:

Thanks to everyone who favourited and/or reviewed! I also enjoy putting the weird glossary and end notes in. Who says you can't learn new stuff from fanfiction?

So. I have to admit that I'm turning my guilty pleasure into text form here. My brain candy is either an entertaining battle of wits or smut. This chapter has both. I hope you had as much fun reading as I did writing it.

Warnings: Latter part is NSFW. Also, has light bondage. Anything vaguely plot-related would've dissolved after the first living room scene, so move directly to the next scene if you want to skip that (as always, Ctrl + F is your friend and look for the scene divider characters '-).

'-

X. Morning Debates (Tie Me Up All Day)

Conversations with Loki don't proceed forward as much as they go sideways. Luckily, Darcy is good at rolling with the punches and crabwalking. She pulls off a counterattack. Loki mounts another offensive. Also; that escalated quickly.

'-

In the next morning, Darcy remembered that this was supposed to be the third day of Jane's consecutive break. She had doubts that her boss would be able to stay out of the lab today—not unless Thor manage to pull her to Disneyland. She wanted to come around, see what Jane's checking, making sure that Jane wasn't doing anything she wasn't supposed to (actually working on her project), kick Jane out of the lab, and then she could go back to bed.

This also happens to be the second morning that her bed actually had Loki in it.

She was still a bit confused on that last bit.

If anyone asked her about what's going on, she's going to tell them to get back later. Not that it wasn't great; the sex was mind-blowing. But she never thought it would be enough reason for the God of Mischief to hang around…? Nevermind. She was overthinking it. There was definitely nothing wrong with having a new friends-with-benefits arrangement when both parties are clearly happy to do so. If he had any problems with it, he could scram. No one's holding him back.

Let's not borrow trouble, Darce.

He was certainly not shy in expressing his complete agreement on that front, and made sure he heard her assent vocally. Darcy sat up, stretched and got down from the bed.

…only to fail when she tripped on Loki's legs, and he took it to himself to reel her back.

"Need to get to the lab," she murmured into his shoulder with a sigh. An Asgardian with this much muscle on him shouldn't be so comfy to hug…

"Back to your job, then?"

She sighed. His lips were tickling her ear. "Nah. Just checking up to make sure Jane doesn't end up doing more work than she's supposed to. I'd get back after that. Going to hang around or off somewhere else?"

Darcy was going to ask 'going off for work?' But that was creepily domestic and she'd just scared the crap out of herself as well. 'Sides, she could imagine that he was more skittish than a fox in a hunt.

"Wait, never mind. I guess you know how to let yourself in with teleports if you want to drop in anyway. So…yeah, you could do that if you want to, I'm fine with that."

Better to stick with an open door policy.

"I haven't even answered your question," he said, amused.

"I sort of forgot it wasn't my business," she said easily. She could tell he was impressed by the way his hands on her waist were suddenly more purposeful in their grip, encircling her. "As long as you don't hurt anyone, why should I poke my nose into your business so much?"

He tensed slightly before he continued to make curlicues on her back.

"You're not, are you?" She asked.

"Would I tell, if I did? Whatever I do, it is certainly more convenient for me to tell you that I have no ill intentions, isn't it?" His voice was perfectly calm when he spoke, with that mesmerising cadence she would never tire of.

"Whoa, good point," she replied. A small grin was on her face.

She'd been waiting for the other shoe to drop since yesterday. She was weirded out how they'd slipped into their new arrangements with each other so well. It was like a fucking fairytale ending—and Darcy never believed in those. If someone promises a perfect life, they're selling you something was her principle.

His word games just restored normalcy to her morning.

"Let me see if I can ask a better question, then," Darcy said, rolling farther to lie on her stomach so she could see him.

"Would you be trying to kill or harm the Avengers? We're not talking about them attacking you and you defending here but an actual active plan against them."

"You have the answer to that already." He looked bored. She had a feeling it wasn't real, but he could very well be bored thirty minutes in the future, so it wasn't inaccurate either.

"You're not planning anything against the Avengers because you're still my guest? No, that's not the only factor; you didn't plan to end up here, did you? This is… a detour from wherever you think you were going to be today, a month ago. You didn't plan for this shit." She clapped her hands together with glee. "Aha! I'm right! No, you can't hide that smirk from me, I saw it already. I know I'm right."

"If you knew, why do you need to ask?"

"Trust, but verify," she repeated.

She didn't know why he looked so pleased that she knew how to ask the right questions. His arrogant smile exuded the sort of confidence and power that a lot of politicians would sell their mothers for. Darcy liked the way his hair showed slight waves—it was different from the perfectly groomed impression he liked to give.

For her, it showed that he wasn't as obsessed at keeping control over everything right now.

"You aren't curious?" He asked.

She shrugged. "I do. Then again, I want to know everything about everyone, because hey, I don't really care about keeping my stuffs secret that much. But I know that's not fair—it's just how I've always been like. So, there's this thing called 'reasonable expectation of privacy' that I could believe in. That's what I use as boundaries of my snooping on other people." He was still running his right hand up and down her bare back, which was nice, but raised some questions. Like, what was she to him, a cat?

"You can tell me if you want, but you're under no obligation to," she finished. His hand was getting a little too focused on her hips and the swell of her ass, but she could ignore the distraction for now.

"On a lighter note," she said, "I was wondering why I didn't end up making out with you in full view of the Avengers."

He was unamused. "Do you want to get shot?"

Darcy faltered. "They won't shoot you when they can accidentally get me, right?"

"I don't believe they would accept any reason I can give them. There is also the issue that under those conditions, the only way I could get out of the place in one piece is if I use you as a hostage, and it is not a good plan to use with these on hand." He replied.

Loki displayed both of his wrists to her. She cringed at the bracelets (cuffs) on his lower arms. Yeah. She kept forgetting that. Damn, she had almost become and actual hostage chick. Not cool.

"What now? Do you want to hide us fucking each other?" She could see him wince at her crassness. "Because honestly, dude? I don't care. It was annoying to have to sidestep Jane's curiosity, but I could do it if you have a good reason to."

Because he's Loki, he caught on to the things she didn't say quickly.

"What's the bad reason to?"

"Because you don't want to be caught banging the 'lowly mortal' since you're a great Asgardian and all that supremacist shit."

His eyebrows rose. She gave him her best intimidating look. "Well? Is that an issue? Because if you diss my species, I'm bailing right now. Thanks for the great sex we've had and all that jazz, but you're not getting more."

"'Great sex', is it?"

"You're not going to distract me that easily. Come on, gimme some answers."

Loki's hand spanned almost the entire back of her waist and pulled her right next to him again. It was a possessive gesture that was shorting her breath without regard of what her higher brain functions wanted. His lips were next to her ear and she could feel the vibrations of his chest when he spoke. "What if I still think your species deserve to be ruled by an emperor who knew how to guide them?"

"You're not answering the question," Darcy said, as calmly as she could manage when all she wanted to do was kiss the life out of him. Down, girl! Humanity first! "Let me paraphrase it for you; do you think we're ants? Not fit for you to bother with? Mayflies? Insert insect of your choice here?"

"If I say I do?"

His lips were skimming her cheek now and she had to grab his wrist and glared. He was unapologetic.

"Then one of your statements is wrong. You're contradicting yourself," she relished his expression of surprise. "If we are ants, then you are a shepherd or a farmer, not an emperor. You can't be emperor of beings with lower intelligence than you. Even if I have a hundred thousand cows and a million miles of square land in the middle of nowhere, I wouldn't start calling myself Queen of Darcyland—people would die laughing themselves to death by the thousands if they ever heard of the Cow Queen."

"Darcyland? I think Lewisheim is better."

"Seriously, Loki, that's what you choose to focus on?" She whipped her head around and saw that he was actually grinning. She sighed and dropped her head on the bed.

"So, you either consider us as ants, and you want to be Farmer McDonald in boondocks Midgard, or you consider us as worthy beings in our own right—and that's why you think it's worth being the Emperor of Earth. Now, which one is it?" She challenged.

"Maybe I always want to have a farm?" He said, idly.

Loki just couldn't help being an ass, could he? It was weird how she found it endearing than annoying. Darcy couldn't help but grin at the first scent of victory. At first, she only wanted him to admit that he did consider humans to be intellectually capable, but if he was going to go around doing it the more painful way, she wasn't going to say no to it. And there he goes, hook, line and sinker.

She gave him a million watt smile. "Go ahead. Call us chattel, I dare you. If you do, I'm going to call you Ze Horsefucker."

The look on Loki's face when he realised he'd been had was priceless.

"You," he stopped, too shocked to even be outraged. "I can't believe you just—"

She pitched her voice to go higher by an octave; trying to go for 'brainless trophy wife' while she slowly moved away from him. "What do you want to name you first child, Honey? Oh wait, I almost forgot—we already have a name, don't we? Sleipnir—"

She ran out of his arms before he can catch her and gave him her best neigh, pulling a blanket around her while doing so. Darcy laughed all the way out of the room as he gave chase.

"You're going to pay for casting aspersions on my person, Miss Lewis." His voice was dark with the promise of retribution, especially when he was staring at her like he could eat her alive. It shouldn't make that heat at the bottom of her belly to spread so easily, but there it was.

"Oooh, I've been a bad, bad girl, Loki," she sing-songed as she ran around the couch. "What are you going to do about it?"

"I have a few ideas." He replied.

"Really?" She made sure there were always the coffee table and the couch between them. Every time he moved, she moved. "Like what?"

"There is that fine collection of silk ropes you have," Loki's eyes were like deep, dark waters.

"What will be your safe words, Darcy?"

A full body tremor ran over her, followed by a flush of heat. She wanted him to tell her all he wanted to do to her with that voice. Darcy had almost forgotten that part of yesterday when he opened the drawers next to her bed out of curiosity and found them. It had been a while since they were used. I was so on the money about the BDSM potential.

"'Data Entry' for stop," she said without thinking. She gasped and covered her hand with her mouth in surprise.

He chuckled. It was a wonderful sound.

"Oh my. And here I thought you were saying you enjoy your work just the other day."

"Um. That's not my work, thanks, not anymore. We just don't have interns right now and it falls to me again," she babbled. He had an amused smile on his face. It was doing things to her concentration when he was casually walking around her apartment buck naked with his dark hair dishevelled looking as pleased as sin. She forgot that she was trying to escape him. When her feet caught up with her head and tried to run to the kitchen, it was too late.

He caught her in a tackle, expertly rolling them so that he was under her and he bore the brunt of the fall while he cushioned her. Darcy was trapped in his arms like a netted mermaid within the blanket. She wasn't sure that he realised his hand was gently stroking her hair. Was it bad that she'd never felt as secure when held as she did right then?

"Caught you."

Loki said this into the skin of her neck, right above her pulse. She shivered when his tongue flicked over skin.

He carried her as if she weighed nothing, walking to the bedroom and her heart beat faster. He dropped her on the bed—she hadn't managed to disentangle herself from the blanket when she could feel her arms being pulled above her by an unseen force. The smooth ropes circled her wrist on their own.

Last time she checked, she was pretty sure she didn't have a metal ring on the wall above her headboard (hey, no complaints from her here), but that was where her hands hung, nonetheless. She was getting really annoyed about the blanket, though, because she hadn't had time to pull it off her. I can't see a damn thing.

Luckily, Loki seems to be of one mind and she could the fabric being pulled away. Soon enough, she could see him once more. A devil-may-care grin was on his face. His whole being radiated the cool confidence of one who has a plan, and whose backup plans have backup plans.

"It would seem that I have a most interesting prey in my clutches."

Darcy tried not to get lost in his eyes because, damn, he might be hotter than the sun, but she didn't want to let him have his victory easily. This meant a counterattack. Her palms sweat as she handled her nervousness. She hadn't done this in a while but she could still remember her sub voice.

"What are you going to do with me now, Master?" It was sultry and soft where she was usually forward, and as any of her exes would admit it hit all the right spots.

He froze, and she could see that he used all of his experience to hold back from taking her right then. A part of her was disappointed, but it was a very small part. A larger part was intrigued, lured by the forceful control he had over his body. Oh, he's very good at this.

"Master, hmm?"

"You did catch me," she said simply, starting to get in the zone as her mind took note of the external cues.

"I would like to unwrap my catch first," he replied.

Loki uncovered her ankles first and slowly revealed more of her legs. He stopped short of her upper thighs.

"I want to know how you taste."

Her nether regions throbbed at that. She restrained her comment of 'oh but you already know' into a watchful curiosity. He lifted her left leg and nipped her ankle. It startled her. He licked his way up her calf and sucked the soft skin behind her knee. She bit her lip but a whimper escaped her anyway.

"Oh, you like that."

"I wouldn't know," she said pertly, "Master Loki. Do you think it's good for me?"

It would seem that her use of the title and his name went straight to his cock. Darcy took religious note of that and swore to use it judiciously.

"It would be up to me, is it?" He asked.

"Yes, Master Loki." she breathed out. Definitely on purpose.

That had him instantly going down to suck on her inner thigh. She jerked forward in combination of surprise and arousal, only to have him backing away after that, a thoughtful look on his face. Oh, come on!

Then his hands came to play. They stroked the skin of her thighs with a very light pressure, only skimming on the inner sides. Every time she moved herself closer, he pulled himself away by just the right amount. It was maddening, but she could stand it. She was sure she felt the tip of a nail skitter over her slit, or an errant brush there, but nothing else.

This time she did whimper. He met her eyes and ran exactly one finger over her opening, its tip getting wet with her fluids. It felt so good that it was embarrassing, her thighs closing around his hand before she realised it.

"Ah, no," he said with a wag of his finger.

"No?"

"No," he answered. His actions explained his thoughts better as he spread her legs apart as far as he felt she could comfortably go (and she could go quite far). With a flourish of his hands, more ropes wound around her ankles from the sides of the bed, holding them down.

Her centre was on display in front of him like a ripe fruit and he was certainly eyeing it like one.

"Much better. A work of art should be exhibited."

A part of her was experiencing embarrassment and her skin was tinged with red right now. Another was getting impossibly turned on, especially as he lowered his head once more and gave her an open-mouthed kiss on her lower lips. His tongue darted into the slit at times and his teeth lightly scraped her clit. He wrung one helpless moan from her after another, especially once he deigned to go deeper. Just when she was getting close to something, he withdrew.

"Hmmm, no. I don't think this is working either," he said casually.

"What?" She yelped. Darcy was pretty sure she wasn't imagining the humour in his eyes.

The ropes on her ankles loosened and fell away.

"One perfect strike," was his cryptic reply as he lifted her by the waist and set her on all fours on the bed. She could get used to that position, but apparently it wasn't his plan because he kept adjusting. Her shoulders went down, elbows resting on the bed. Her ass went higher in the air, and he even placed pillows to support her thighs; all to follow an idea he had in his head.

Her only warning were his hands on her waist, before he entered her to the hilt, balls deep. Her vision whited out in a single gasp.

The jolt of pleasure shocked her senses, especially when he kept a bracing speed and nothing else mattered. The screams she could manage were incoherent, especially when he combined every thrust with a tweak of her clit. She couldn't remember when she came that violently, or when she last came before a guy. When he came, it cascaded with hers and she rode a second high.

She wasn't complaining when he pulled her to lie on her back because her limbs felt like jelly.

Suddenly she could feel her wrists being restrained above her again with Loki between her legs. There was something hard pressing against her thigh.

"Nod twice if you still remember the safe word, Dearling."

She nodded, a little confused. She could feel him placing a pillow under her lower back, raising her hips. They were still on the edge of the bed.

"Good. Because I'm not done punishing you."

Loki braced his hands on her hips and entered her once more. The angle was just as deep but different and she couldn't help but arch with need, meeting his movements as he pounded her aggressively. Her skin was still sensitised and her nerves still raw and the latest assault on her senses overloaded her with pleasure. It wasn't long before she flew right over the edge once more.

'-

It was one o'clock when Darcy finished bathing.

She managed to open her creaking bathroom door and lock herself inside (her last resort at avoiding temptation because bathing would be the last thing in her mind if Loki ever joined her). Even then, she had to spend at least ten minutes to take a cold shower. There was no argument that a turtleneck had to be a part of her outfit if she didn't want to display what she'd been doing to the whole world (or even more critically, make people wonder about who she'd been doing). She was sore at all the right places and was determined to drop in at the lab. Her bed had been made when she walked out, with silky green sheets. Yesterday, she was about to change them when Loki did it for her without a word once he realised what she was doing. She certainly wasn't complaining about the insanely high thread count so tolerated them being green.

(In fact, she received the pile of plush pillows with open arms—she had coveted them since the server room).

He was on the couch, reading the book she'd seen him hold before and she forced herself to keep her eyes on his face—if her imagination drifted the slightest bit, she wasn't going to go out her apartment. Again. His other hand was tossing two toy balls in the air. How he could juggle with one hand, without looking, she had no idea.

Well, this looks familiar.

She also reminded herself to show him modern outfits soon, as he was back in his Asgardian getup. But of course, the downside was that she'd be tempted to take them off more often, especially if they were easier to take off…

"So, how do you think I should break it to Jane? 'Yo, Janey, you know Loki, right? The guy you thought was dead? Well, I'm banging him.'"

He had winced at some point mid-sentence, probably because it wasn't as sophisticated as he would say it.

"I would have thought you'd prefer other people not know." Loki said.

She frowned. "Why? I'm not ashamed of you."

Loki seemed to be suddenly interested in the minute details of her face while she was trying hard not to fall too far into his gaze. What he was looking for, she wasn't sure, but she was beset by the urge to start poking at her cheeks and chin. Do I have a zit?

"I would quote your own word on me: I am a killer of your people." He'd caught the two balls he was juggling. He was using that hypnotically calm voice again that some people might sloppily call heartless. Perhaps that was one of its uses too; to just disengage himself from everything.

"A person would think your morality is finer than that. Most people certainly would."

"You were a killer. Were,' Darcy emphasised, taking care to breathe in and out regularly. Gad, he's going to be difficult about this, isn't he? Not that he didn't have a point—he made a very good point. It was just that Darcy hadn't been one to follow what most people think if she disagreed with them, and she wasn't going to start. He did not answer her directly.

"I still am. I would not hesitate to kill those who set out to kill me."

"Um, no. Because if that's the measure you'd use, the Avengers would've been merely killers too and I know that you know the label doesn't work like that. The world's pretty complex."

"Some would want to interrogate you, to find out if you are compromised." He pointed out. "Fury would gladly place you in a cell so his agents can pick your secrets apart at their leisure, layer by layer."

"Fury doesn't have clout in Stark Industries. In the Avengers, maybe, but not in a civilian company," she said quickly. Never mind that the Avengers Initiative was SHIELD's brainchild and was actually an ongoing collaboration. SHIELD agents with the right pass could freely come and go on many floors, she knew. But she wasn't a SHIELD agent or an Avenger and she hadn't done anything wrong, right? Right? Darcy tried not to show how it worried her, but she was sure he'd seen it already.

He raised an eyebrow. "Would you like to bet on it?"

She was sure Tony wouldn't just stand by and do nothing. She was sure that Pepper would care too.

"Actually, yeah. I'll take it."

Loki made a put-upon sigh as if she'd been testing his patience all this time and he'd been forbearing. She ignored it with ease. "Besides, it would be so very boring, wouldn't it?"

"What?"

"If they had to find out about it at all, why not arrange to be caught in flagrante delicto? Give them a lesson worth talking about. As I recall, ropes suits you."

There was the promise of something else in the sentence and Darcy found herself turning beet red. He wanted to give them a show? Not that she was an exhibitionist, but if he was wearing his full leather outfit and…

…hot damn.

"I'll… I'll just drop in the lab first before we continue this conversation, okay?"

Loki returned to his book with a shrug. She ignored the knowing smirk on his face. Darcy had to give him credit for being able to derail a topic so readily. Maybe it wasn't as much as his skill as how far into the gutter your head is in, a part of her snarked.

Oh shut up. I don't see you complaining when we're doing him.

'-

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Author's Note:

In which it's definitely not news that Loki is a slippery bastard, but it might come as a surprise to him that Darcy's pretty sharp herself. (As she would say, just because she has a great rack and isn't fanatic in using big words doesn't mean she's stupid).

Author Announcement: With this chapter, we're halfway through Part I (which has twenty chapters). Part I is already done, btw. From the way I'm drafting the main arcs, the story doesn't look like it could be done in anything less than Part III (I've only now begun on Part II). There's still a long, long way for the story to go.

I find it difficult to decide whether I'm actually ambitious or merely masochistic. 「(°ヘ°)

'-

More Odds and Ends:

If someone promises a perfect life, they're selling you something: Variations on this theme can be found everywhere. I swear I didn't even think about this when I wrote it, but even Princess Bride has one: "Life is Pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something."

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