Darcy woke a few times the next morning, each time refusing to get up early on Christmas. It was Christmas, and she was on vacation, and she'd be damned if she was going to do anything other than be a completely lazy bum.
But 10:00 am was the absolute latest her body wanted to sleep in. Reasoning that her body was still on New York time, Darcy finally gave up and reached for her phone.
At some point, after the terrible low-budget indy film they'd finally settled on, Loki had retreated to the sofa and left Darcy in the giant bed by herself. Sitting up, Darcy craned cautiously to look over, trying to see Loki from her angle, and was surprised to see him still wearing the pyjamas she'd bought him, apparently getting her not-so-subtle hint after all.
Darcy continued to laze about for a few minutes, just enjoying the sunlight coming in from the crack in the balcony curtains. It lit up the room with a bright, golden glow, making Darcy forget just for a moment that it was Christmas morning. Realising that fact all over again, she sat up and picked up her phone. Part of the squirrelled-away funds she and Jane had collectively saved up were to cover the no-doubt outrageous roaming bill that was going to be coming up, but Darcy was still a little nervous about calling back to New York. That nervousness quickly passed and she dialled her mother's number, surprised when she didn't answer until after the fifth ring.
"Merry Christmas!" Darcy greeted, trying to sound extra cheery without waking Loki.
"Merry Christmas!" her mother said back. "How's the trip? Is everything going all right?" Somewhere in the distance, the T-rex roared loudly, making Darcy grin all over again.
"It's pretty good. We're having a lot of fun. Gonna spend today at the pool," Darcy said, deliberately keeping quiet about the previous day's scare.
"Well, have fun. We've still got snow on the ground, but the forecast is saying it'll probably turn to rain by tonight." Something banged loudly in the background, followed immediately by someone shouting at either a child or one of the dogs.
"What was that?" Darcy asked.
Her mother didn't seem to hear her, though. Holding the phone away from her face, she'd begun shouting across the house as well.
"Your nephew's dropped the turkey on the floor. I have to go. Love you. Be safe!" her mother said quickly.
Darcy tried not to cackle wildly. "Oh my god, okay. Love you too!"
Without another word, the line went dead. Darcy covered her mouth and laughed quietly to herself, realising she wasn't even sorry to be missing the madhouse. Just once, she had the chance to be far, far away from the screaming and shouting and general insanity that came with the holiday.
Still not quite ready to get up and going, Darcy dug out her laptop and connected to the hotel's wifi so she could tool around on Facebook for a while. She wasn't even sure what time she wanted to get going, but even if her ideal plans involved staying at the pool all day, she knew she'd probably get bored and reacting badly to the chlorine before the day was up.
Loki finally started showing signs of life around 11:00 am. Grumbling and growling like some kind of annoyed animal, he made a line straight for the bathroom, and when he came out again – still grumbling tiredly to himself – went straight for his cigarettes, and then the balcony.
"Merry Christmas," Darcy said hopefully as he shuffled past the bed.
"Bah," was all Loki had to say.
Feeling like taking a big chance, Darcy took a deep breath. "Do you wanna call your mom?" she asked.
Loki stopped at the balcony door, his entire body stiff. "It's three dollars a minute. I can't afford that," he said finally, sounding understandably bitter.
Darcy picked up her phone and offered it to him. "I can. Call your mom."
Loki turned his gaze to her phone, looking more contemplative, and less resentful than Darcy would have expected. After a moment, he sighed and stepped forward.
"Thanks," he said, taking the phone and stepping out onto the balcony.
He didn't close the door all the way, so Darcy paid a bit more attention to Facebook than Facebook ever deserved, trying hard not to listen to the conversation being carried on outside. It took her a few moments of studiously ignoring it before she realised that it didn't matter anyway, because he wasn't even speaking English. Darcy had always thought that since both Loki and Thor were born in New York that they had been American, but it suddenly occurred to her there was still a lot she was still assuming about the both of them.
She found herself wondering if there was more to that accent than all the moving around their parents made them do growing up. Worse, she wasn't sure how to ask without sounding like an idiot.
Loki stayed on the phone with his mother a lot longer than Darcy had expected him to. The call lasted almost a quarter hour, but Darcy realised she didn't really care. She wondered if he'd even planned on phoning home at all during the trip, or sent a single text to let anyone back in New York know that they'd landed in San Jose safely.
When he came back inside, Loki gently tossed the phone onto the bed as he made his way over to his side of the room again.
"How is she?" Darcy asked lightly.
"Uh. Stressed, I think is the word for it," Loki answered.
"Because you guys are down here?" Darcy asked.
"Oh, not at all. The damn dog swallowed a toy she'd given him," Loki said, strangely chipper about it.
Darcy didn't see why. "Oh my god. Is he okay?"
Loki bent down to dig through his clothes. "He's a big dog. The toy was small. The vet says he should pass it within a week. The good news is it got my mother out of the house for a few hours."
Darcy snorted unattractively, and quickly covered her mouth. "That's good, I guess?" she said, knowing it was an issue both brothers had with their mother.
"Not precisely what I was going for, but I'll take it," Loki admitted. "I was rather hoping she'd just take him out for a walk or something. The vet is a bit extreme."
Darcy realised that what he was pulling out of his contained mess was some of the things she'd given him the day before, and she watched as he took the board shorts and a clean shirt into the bathroom with him. Realising he was actually getting a jump on her, Darcy gently tossed her laptop aside and quickly scrambled out of bed and rushed toward Jane's door. She knocked on the door, waiting until after Jane called back to open it and poke her head into the room. Jane and Thor were still being lazy in bed as well, Thor still fiddling with the blankets after obviously rushing to cover himself up.
"We're getting ready to head down to the pool in a little bit," Darcy told them.
Jane looked over at Thor, her mouth open as she picked her next words. "I think we'll probably meet you down there a little later," she said.
Darcy gave them a facetious thumbs-up. "Gotchya," she said as she backed out of the room and shut the door behind her.
By the time she got to her suitcase, Loki was on his way back out of the bathroom, dressed for a day at the pool. Pausing as she reached for the zipper, Darcy turned her head to one side to get a look at what he was wearing. "Looks good," she said honestly, glad that the green and black shorts actually fit him.
He looked down at them as well and wrinkled his nose. "They're not completely horrible," he said.
Rolling her eyes, Darcy turned her attention to her suitcase and began digging through it for the red and brown bikini she'd brought. She only got to wear it about once every other year, and suddenly, holding the thin straps of fabric in her fingers, Darcy was overcome with the sudden horror that it might not even fit her anymore. This, compounded with the acute realisation that her one and only bathing suit covered less of her than her underwear did made her suddenly very nervous to even put it on. Balling it up into one of her T-shirts, Darcy took the bundle into the bathroom to change.
Darcy got ready as quickly as she could, trying to cram her usual morning routine, shaving, and quietly freaking out to herself into about five minutes. Once satisfied that her legs were appropriately lacking hair and any huge cuts, she started playing with a few pool-appropriate hair styles before settling on wrapping it up into a loose bun. Having run out of ways to put off the inevitable, she finally pulled her bathing suit from the pile on the counter and stripped out of her pyjamas. The bottom half of her bathing suit went on just fine, giving her hope for the top. But the straps were all a tangled mess, having to be untied before she could even hope to put the thing on. As she tried it on, finding it a little small where it counted, she suddenly remembered why the straps had been tied together, and set about re-tying them into the same knotted mess, using the strap around her back to anchor the straps over her shoulders. It wasn't the most comfortable, putting an awkward amount of weight right in the middle of her shoulder blades, but everything that needed to be covered up was covered up, and wasn't in danger of mentally scarring any parents who might eventually be nearby.
Putting her t-shirt on over top, in a bid of false modesty, Darcy left the bathroom to find her flip flops and her sunglasses, and grab her phone and purse. She looked around the room, trying to think of anything else they might need, and came up blank.
"Got the room key?" she asked.
Loki held up the little plastic card in his fingers. "I don't imagine I can smoke down there," he said, looking at the pack of cigarettes out on the table.
"Probably not," Darcy said.
Loki made an annoyed sound and made his way for the door. Eager to get down to the pool, Darcy rushed after him, her flip flops clacking loudly against her heels. They walked through the hotel in a comfortable silence, past groups getting a start on their day, or coming back to the hotel for a break. They followed the signs to the pool, walking along the boardwalk, far around the giant tank in the middle of the resort. Looking over her shoulder back at the hotel, and then at the sign for the pool pointing in the opposite direction, Darcy stopped in her tracks. They were almost at the innovation centre, and she was beginning to feel more than a little exposed, walking down the path wearing little more than underwear.
"The fuck?" she asked, cautiously following the sign's directions.
The path didn't break off from the main thoroughfare until after the petting zoo, where it continued down an artificially-uneven stone walkway, through large palm fronds where loud, tropical birds made all sorts of noises. Finally, the path opened up again to a wide, sprawling aquatic park, with more slides and rides than Darcy could count from where she stood. It was not exactly the day at the pool she had expected. Though, thinking about it, Darcy wasn't sure why she expected anything else.
"Okay," she said slowly, looking out over the hoards of screaming children in the wave pool before them.
"Lockers," Loki announced, suddenly striding over to a long wall of blue and white lockers. He picked one at random, pulling the key from the lock and handing it over to Darcy to wear on her wrist. They stashed their room key and their shoes, and Darcy's shirt, phone, and purse, making sure the locker stayed locked before turning around to figure out what to do next.
"Is there just a place to lounge in the water?" Darcy wondered aloud, walking along the pool's edge, looking for anything that might tell her where to go. After a few paces, they came to a large map of the aquatic park, hidden in some tall ferns. There were a few proper pools, and a looping artificial river that snaked through and around all the other areas.
"That," she said, pointing at it on the map.
Loki looked at it. "You don't want to go on the three-storey corkscrew slide?" he asked peevishly.
"Hell to the fuck no," Darcy said.
She looked around, trying to figure out where to find an inner tube to even sit in, but she couldn't find anything that wasn't already taken. Suddenly, Loki rushed off, leaving her by the map. Shrugging to herself and shaking her head, Darcy kept walking along the edge of the pool, leaving the screaming kids and the waves behind as she came to the outlet for one of the slides. Someone screamed as they rocketed out of the blue tube, falling gracelessly into the shallow pool. Darcy stood and watched as a few moments later, someone else rocketed out of the second slide that emptied into the pool. Just watching it made Darcy shudder.
She was so involved with watching the people on the slides that she didn't see Loki return, carrying two of the giant, translucent blue inner tubes.
"Let's go," he said, making her jump.
Darcy looked over at him, finding him surprisingly eager to get in the water. Just as eager, she led the way over to the nearest bend of the fake river, stepping down into the cool water. At the edges, it was only about six inches deep, but it seemed to get deeper toward the middle. Darcy took one of the inner tubes from Loki, holding onto it it so it didn't drift away in the slow current, and plopped her butt right into the middle of it. Immediately, she began spinning lazily in the water, but made no effort to correct herself.
There were a fair amount of other people riding the current as well, but it wasn't completely packed like the wave pool had been. There was enough room to splash her hands in the water without having to worry about being bumped into or splashing anybody else. She tried to paddle her way closer to the middle of the river before settling back into the inner tube, resting her head back against the inner tube and dipping her toes into the water. Adjusting her sunglasses, she looked over at Loki, finding him a bit more sprawled out belly-down, taking up as much room on his inner tube as he possibly could. All around them, they could hear people shouting and laughing as they played in the wave pool or zoomed down one of the countless slides snaking together above them. But the sun was warm, and the water cool and relaxing, and Darcy was content to just drift around in the slow current.
"This is so much better than going to my mom's would have been," Darcy said, splashing her toes in the water.
"I was just going to stay home," Loki said. "Watch that Christmas movie five or six times."
"The one with the BB gun?" Darcy asked, assuming she meant the one that aired on constant repeat during Christmas.
"Of course."
Darcy wasn't sure if she wanted to feel bad for him, or was jealous because even that sounded better than the nightmare that was holidays with her humongous family.
"Do you always stay home for Christmas?" Darcy asked.
It was a moment before Loki answered. "It depends. Last year, I felt brave enough to face the rest of my family. Thor broke my nose as soon as I stepped through the door."
She realised immediately it had been a stupid question. She didn't know how big Loki's family was, but she'd heard enough from Thor to know that he didn't have many allies left amongst whatever family he did have.
"Okay. You can tell me to piss off, but what actually happened?" she asked finally, deciding she was tired of dodging landmines.
Surprisingly, Loki laughed quietly. "I have to admit, I'm impressed. I expected this two days ago," he said.
Darcy wasn't sure what to take from that. "So, none of my business," she concluded. She expected Loki to do something – get angry and storm off, or start shouting – but it never came.
"What did Thor tell you?" Loki asked.
Darcy sat up as well as she could with her butt stuck in the middle of a giant inner tube, not wanting to have this conversation lying down. Loki, in contrast, gave the impression of being perfectly relaxed, but somehow, she knew he was just faking it very well.
"I..." she said, not sure if she wanted to actually tell him everything Thor said. But Loki just waited patiently, and her curiosity to figure out which parts were less bullshit than the others was getting too much to bury. "He said you're dangerous. He said that you tried to kill your dad."
"Tried? No, if I had tried, he'd be dead. Not lying in a coma somewhere," Loki said, finally letting some of the bitterness out that Darcy had been expecting.
"So, what happened?" Darcy asked softly.
She watched Loki tense up, but he didn't seem like he was actually going to go anywhere. "He lied to me. I was furious. I figured the best way to deal with it was to have one of my famous shouting matches with my father," he said, putting an odd emphasis on the last word. "And we had a lot to shout about. But I do think Thor may be right."
Darcy gaped. "What?" she asked.
Loki looked over at her with a steady, level gaze. "I absolutely put him in the hospital," he said
It wasn't at all what Darcy expected. "iWhat?/i" she repeated, running through everything she'd been told, and wondering suddenly what she'd missed.
"Oh, it wasn't intentional," Loki continued, looking away again. "We shouted. I threw a few things, hoping to break something expensive, and left. It wasn't until the cops came knocking on my door a week later that I even knew anything else had happened. And Thor. He's still convinced my absence from the hospital proves my guilt. I had no idea, though had I known, I still would have kept my distance. I was packing, and thought the cops were there to serve an eviction notice, until I realised they weren't in uniform."
"Eviction notice?" Darcy asked.
"The house belongs to my father. Surprisingly few places will rent to a felon," Loki said.
"And you thought he was going to kick you out?"
"I did tell him where to stuff his money and his house. Terribly stupid thing to say, but I wasn't exactly thinking clearly," Loki admitted.
"Wow," Darcy said, not sure what else she could possibly say to any of that. She wasn't even sure if she believed Loki's version any more than she believed Thor's. They both sounded ridiculous and a bit over the top to her. But at least Loki wasn't claiming to have the ability to give someone a stroke at will.
"What were you fighting about?" Darcy asked carefully.
Loki shrugged indifferently. "Nothing important," he said, clearly lying.
Darcy still didn't know what to say. She didn't think he'd want to hear any platitudes, and any assurance coming from someone he barely knew would be meaningless anyway. Instead, she sat in silence, awkwardly trying to figure out what to do next, while couples and kids all around them were gleefully riding the current.
"Can I ask you another question?" Darcy asked softly.
"I might not answer it," Loki said with another shrug.
"Why do you keep bugging Thor if you know he hates you?" she asked, having to look away so she didn't have to see Loki's reaction.
She was a little surprised when he huffed quietly. "Everybody needs a hobby, I suppose."
Darcy took that to mean that he wasn't going to actually answer the question, so she let it go. She looked out over the crowds as the current took them along its path through the aquatic park, and saw off in the distance, a row of little cabana huts that looked like food carts in disguise.
"You hungry?" she asked, realising they never actually stopped for breakfast.
Loki looked up at her, and then at the cabana huts. "Starving," he admitted.
Darcy wiggled and shuffled out of the inner tube, finding the bottom of the little river surprisingly difficult, despite its shallow depth. Once she found her footing in the waist-deep water, she let the inner tube drift along without her, and made her way toward dry land, with Loki following close behind her.