Hey! Hope you enjoyed the last chapter (well, I hope you enjoyed the whole story really, but you know what I'm talking about). Anyways, to my reviewers/followers/favoriters/supporters of any kind: I love you/want to have your children. You're the best.
Note: I feel like a lot of the time I'm just spewing history/random information at you guys, so please let me know if it's too much. I don't want a bunch of random crap interrupting the flow and whatnot.
Now: on with the show.
Darcy woke up, smiling as she felt Loki's arms around her. Everything in their room was calm and quiet and perfectly serene. And then she remembered the night before.
Jesus fucking Christ. That actually happened. It happened. Multiple times. Good thing I'm on the pill or I'd be seriously concerned about the likelihood of being pregnant after a night like that. Also: I really hope the rooms around ours are vacant right now. Geez.
Darcy snaked out of bed and stood up and stretched. Her thighs were on fire; she hadn't felt a burn in her muscles like this since she had attempted to start being a runner in high school. If she had no memory of the night before, she would've guessed she had gone horseback riding. Heh. Heh heh. Oh, shut up. Mind out of the gutter, Darce.
She looked back at Loki, still fast asleep, the sheets covering him from the waist down. He looked peaceful, but more than that, he looked happy. He had a satisfyingly bad case of bedhead that looked decidedly very good on him and the smallest of smiles on his lips as he slept.
Darcy 'walked' across the room (walking may be an issue for a while, on account of the 'horseback riding') and into went the bathroom. Upon turning on the light, she almost had a heart attack as she saw herself in the mirror: her lips were swollen (they were usually pretty big, but damn), her neck was lined with hickeys, her hair was lopsided (Loki's left hand had pulled her hair while his right hand was busy), and a very distinctive bite mark was chilling out on her collarbone.
"I look like I've been attacked by a gang," Darcy muttered to herself, staring wide-eyed at her reflection. After getting over her appearance enough to function, she brushed her teeth and turned on the shower. Out in the other room she heard Loki moving around so she stepped back into that room with him. He was sitting on the edge of the bed facing the other way, stretching his back a little.
Look at those scratches. What's wrong with me? Why would I ever think that scratching him was a good idea? She remembered the actual bite mark on her shoulder and calmed down a little. She cleared her throat.
Loki turned to look at her, his eyes lighting up. "Good morning, darling," He stood and walked over to her.
"Good morning. I'm sorry about your back," Darcy said. She quite suddenly came to the realization that they were both standing there naked; of course, they both knew every inch of each other very well after the previous night (he's a thorough guy), but she still self-consciously crossed her arms and tried her very hardest to just make eye contact with Loki and not let her eyes wander over his chest or stomach or-
"Don't be sorry. You're the one with marks all over your neck,"
"And I will wear them with pride. Well, maybe I'll wear a scarf when we're out," she laughed, generating a smile from Loki.
"I'm sorry about your hair," he said, motioning at the rat's nest on one side of her head. "And the bruises. Fuck, the bite left an impressive mark,"
"Yeah, I was just admiring that. I guess we'll both walk out of this a little beaten up," Darcy walked gingerly over to her suitcase and began setting out clothes for her to wear that day.
"Your legs…" Loki began.
"Bit of a rough night. Definitely worth it. Don't worry about it, I'll be fine," she assured. She walked back over to the bathroom, the shower now sufficiently warm and ready for her. "I'd invite you to join me, but we have somewhere to be today."
"I understand," he said, smiling.
Darcy showered quickly and dried her hair, and then walked back out into the room to get dressed. Loki had put pants on, but he went in and showered as soon as Darcy had finished. They both packed up all of their belongings and were ready to go within an hour.
Today was the day they were to make it across the city to the train station as inconspicuously as they could. If Hydra was somehow still on their tail, today would probably be the best day to loose them.
Darcy and Loki went down to the lobby. She stopped in the gift shop and bought a nice big scarf to help cover the hickeys lining her neck. After that, they were off into the city.
They took the subway to the half of the city across the river, but got off a few stops early. From where they were, they had a beautiful view of the Buda Castle. Darcy felt dumb doing this, but she would probably never be back there again, so she got Loki to take a picture with her with the castle across the river in the background.
Darcy, now satisfied with her sightseeing, and Loki took a city bus up to the XIII District, and from there they took a taxi to their train station.
Their train ride lasted about fifteen and a half hours, which was almost completely filled with the two of them sitting in their private compartment reading or talking or sleeping.
In the morning, as they reached Bucharest, Darcy and Loki prepared themselves for their illegal activities. They read over Pepper's specific instructions one last time, and then they left their compartment.
Their instructions told them that the train they were on always stopped outside the station for about fifteen minutes to wait for the track to clear up. Loki and Darcy got off their train then and walked along the side to keep from being seen. They got to the front of the train and were able to sneak into the maintenance portion of the station without being seen. Within a few minutes, they were in the civilian portion of the station and buying tickets for the train to Istanbul. The Istanbul train was scheduled to leave five minutes before the train they had ridden in on even entered the station.
"I can't believe that worked," Darcy said as the door to their new compartment on the new train slid shut.
"So simple, yet so brilliant," Loki agreed, setting his bag down.
The train lurched into motion and they were off to Istanbul, leaving Bucharest just as their old train was starting to inch into the station.
Eighteen and a half hours, the entirety of the book Dracula, and three very heated making out sessions later, their train arrived in Istanbul. Darcy and Loki walked through the city for an hour before taking a ferry to the Asian portion of the country. From there, they rented a car and drove to a small town where they got on a boat that would take them to Selçuk.
There were a couple other people on the boat: a family of four, another couple, and a man by himself. Darcy kept an eye on the man; she caught him looking at her weirdly a few times, but other than that he wasn't doing anything.
They reached Selçuk, where a black car with tinted windows that just screamed Tony Stark was waiting for them. From the dock, the temple was only about a twenty minute ride.
Apparently, Darcy and Loki were the last ones to get there by about an hour. Jane greeted Darcy with a big hug, Stark greeted both her and Loki with a contemptuous smirk, and everyone else simply smiled and said hello. Clint put down a large bag he had with him to give a classic bro-hug to Loki, which left Darcy fighting off the urge to snicker.
The temple really wasn't much; there was the one pillar that they were currently standing beside, a bunch of random blocks lying around, and that was about it. There were a few modern buildings off in the background on one side and a large forest on the other side.
"So, where'd you guys end up going?" Steve asked.
"Budapest, for most of the time," Darcy said.
"You guys were in Budapest? Did you get to see the castle?" Nat asked, a small smile appearing.
"Yeah, it was awesome." Darcy smiled as well.
"That sounds just like when we went to Budapest, huh Clint?"
"You and I remember Budapest very differently," he muttered. Darcy caught what he was getting at and smiled slyly.
"Our trips to Budapest may be more alike than you think, Clint," she said, patting him on the shoulder. His eyes went wide.
"Moving on," Stark said, clearing his throat. "We've been looking around a little. There's not much in the way of Latin inscriptions."
"Everything else has been underground so far, so that's where we were thinking it would be this time, too." Darcy said.
"Who's that?" Jane said suddenly, looking at something behind Darcy and Loki. Everyone turned and looked to see the man that had been on the boat with them off in the distance, looking at some of the ruins by himself.
"He was on the boat with us." Loki said, not taking his eyes off the man.
"So he followed you here?" Stark asked, his eyes narrowing as he looked at Loki.
"This is a pretty big tourist attraction. He's probably just someone coming to look at the ruins. We don't have to freak out." Darcy said.
"Excuse me," Stark said, putting his hands up in mock defeat.
"So, we looked around a bit," Bruce interjected. "And we haven't been able to find anything. You guys are welcome to look around as well, but we're pretty sure there's nothing here."
"Of course, Loki and Darcy are always the lucky ones," Stark said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Darcy said, crossing her arms.
"Oh, nothing. Just that every time you two split off, you come back saying you've found the next clue,"
"We just happen to be looking in the right places," she said.
Loki gritted his teeth before speaking. "In Egypt, it was a one-in-four shot that we would be the ones to choose the correct passage to go down. In Rome, I chose the tombs to search because that's where I suspected there would be the greatest chance of finding something. Now, Mr. Stark, what are you trying to suggest about us?" Loki had spoken with a coldness that had everyone else in the group besides Darcy and Stark looking like they really didn't want to be there.
"I'm simply suggesting, Professor, that you two are getting lucky a lot." Darcy rolled her eyes at his word choice.
"How about we get back on topic, boys," Jane said, stepping over to Stark and Loki. The two of them were currently in what looked like a staring contest, both of them glaring at each other and just about steaming out the ears. "Loki, what exactly did the last clue say?"
Loki broke eye contact with Stark and lost his death-stare to answer Jane. "It said 'Artemis holds' and then something else. I couldn't read the last part."
"Of course." Stark muttered.
Darcy knew it was coming before it happened. That didn't stop the shock from hitting her when it did, though. As soon as Stark had said that, Loki had turned and socked him right in the mouth, causing Stark to turn and fall on his face. Everyone except Darcy turned their attention to Stark, making sure he was still conscious and alive. Darcy, though, looked at Loki, who was looking at Stark with anger and shaking out the hand he had just potentially knocked out Stark with. He noticed Darcy looking at him and his eyes immediately softened. He was probably expecting her to shake her head or glare at him, but instead she decided to surprise him and gave him a thumbs up.
Stark stood back up and righted himself. He turned to face Loki, who now looked a lot more sure of himself. Stark had a busted lip and was definitely trying to play it off as not hurting him as much as it had.
"What I meant to say before you hit me, Odinson, was that we probably can't find the next clue because you couldn't read half the damn clue last time,"
"The last word was inconsequential. All we needed to know was where to look. The first clue only said 'temple to all gods' and we found the clue there. Maybe you, Stark, are not looking in the right place."
"We looked! There is nothing here! Maybe you sent us all to the wrong place. Maybe we're actually supposed to be in Greece, or back in Egypt, or somewhere else, and not in the middle of a field in Turkey." Stark exasperatedly said.
Darcy leaned against the pillar and sighed. Everyone else was watching the argument unfold with little interest now; they all seemed to just want these two to stop arguing.
"I said Artemis. All of us agreed that the most likely place that this meant was here, at the Temple of Artemis." Loki said matter-of-factly.
"It doesn't matter," Stark said. "What does matter is the likelihood that we are just being led around on a wild goose chase and that there is no treasure. The clue back in Egypt didn't say anything about the Pantheon. It probably said 'dead end' or 'watch your step on the stairs' or something like that."
"The inscription didn't say that." Loki sighed. "There is a clue here, we just need to look."
"Fine. Say there is a clue here. After that, we'll be lead to another clue, and then another clue, and another and another. We'll just be lead around forever. The trail will go on for forever. We're lucky we haven't wasted more time."
As Stark spoke, Loki looked distracted. He narrowed his eyes and was looking at something beyond Stark, examining it or trying to make out what it was. Darcy turned her head to look at what he was looking at, but before she could even make sense of what she was seeing, Loki jumped at her and knocked her to the ground. Above her, the part of the pillar where her head had just been exploded, dust falling on the back of Loki's head and on Darcy's face.
A shootout began; Nat and Clint drawing weapons and gunshots filling the air. A group of six armed men about forty feet away were open firing on where their group had just been. Behind them, the man that had been on the boat with them was shooting as well. Nat turned and took him out with one shot.
Everyone else in the group split up and ran off, hiding behind the larger pieces of the ruins or running toward the cars. Loki pulled Darcy to her feet and wrapped an arm around her, the two of them attempting to get out of the line of fire. Clint stepped out from behind where he was standing for protection and walked beside them, shooting like crazy and providing them with cover.
They reached the edge of the open field and Loki and Darcy took off running into the forest. Darcy glanced back just as Clint ducked down behind something again, pulling his bow and arrows out of his bag.