Chapter 21

The room was so dusty it made her cough. White sheets covered the furniture, littered around the room. The floor had a thin layer of grime, and the curtains were thick with dust.

"We're in Asgard, aren't we?" She could recognise the décor from a mile away. The stone walls, the intricately tiled floors, the golden candlestick holders and dusty velvet curtains were all telltale signs of Asgardian taste.

"Yes."

"Isn't this, like, the stupidest place to go right now? The last thing they saw of you, you were a charred body on a slab." She recalled the incident too vividly and shook herself out of her memories.

"No one is stupid enough to take up residence in my old room. Apparently no one is here to clean it, either." He wrinkled his nose in disgust. "No one knows we are here. It is safe." He said, brushing a stray hair and tucking it behind her ear.

Darcy tried to stop the blushing. She wasn't usually one for tender moments, but with a former supervillain, these moments were in abundance, apparently.

"You ruined Christmas. I'm tired. I want to sleep." She slapped away his hand and turned away, beginning to pull the sheets from the furniture carefully. She was pleased to find untouched sheets and pillows in the cupboard, and brushed them off before putting them on the bed with a little more force than she realised. She did the same with the sofa cushions before she felt a soft touch on her shoulder.

"You're mad at me. It's understandable."

Darcy took a deep breath and dropped the sofa cushions. "I'm pissed at Josh for being so goddamn observant. But then again, if you hadn't shown up in the first place…"

"I couldn't keep away."

"I should probably be mad at you, but I'm not. I think I'm… relieved."

"That I'm not dead?"

"Why did you think I followed you to Forseti?" Darcy spun around in annoyance, unable to restrain her curiosity.

"A sense of guilt, perchance? That I did the favour of saving your life, and so you felt as though you had to save mine?"

"Is that why you stayed emotionally distant all this time? You think I don't give a damn?" Darcy frowned, realising that he had, in fact, kept her at arm's length since she had nearly died first time. They hadn't talked about anything. They'd been physically close, but not so much emotionally.

"You think if we 'bang it out', like we said before, you'd just disappear and that'd be that? Nu-uh, I aint buying that bullshit. You would have waited for me in Puerto if you wanted that, but you ended up on my doorstep, even after I told you not to. At Christmas. And all this shit happened. You knew the risk, but you did it anyway."

"Maybe I just like to be a pest." He said defensively.

"I think you love me."

Darcy knew she'd regret it the moment those words slipped out of her mouth, and the silence hung heavy between them for a moment. She couldn't believe she had just said what she'd been holding back all this time, without even realising that she had wanted to know the answer.

Loki, to his credit, barely flinched. His stare was harsher than usual as he struggled for something to say.

"Do you?" Darcy insisted, wanting him to either deny or confirm it.

"I do."

His voice was clear but quiet as he took her face in his hands, leading her lips to his with a hesitant pause to allow her to pull away if she wanted to. Instead, she threw her arms around him and pulled him to her, the taste of eggnog still on her lips as she tugged lightly on his bottom lip with her teeth. Her hands roamed and found their place under his jumper, whilst his seemed more intent on pulling her closer, their bodies pressed up against each other.

His fingers knotted themselves in her hair as he placed tiny kisses on her neck. "I do." He repeated the words between each kiss, before he pulled away from her, leaning down to brush his nose against hers, their foreheads resting against each other's.

"Do you love me?" He asked uncertainly.

Darcy wanted to make a wisecrack, or some sort of sarcastic comment, but instead found herself nodding. "Yeah."

She'd never seen him smile so widely, or genuinely- a nice change from the sullen, moody Loki she had known. She found herself leaning into him on her tiptoes to kiss him again, this time with more ferocity. She had kissed him a dozen times before, but this was different. The urgency to their kisses was messy, their lips bashing clumsily against each other's.

He stopped to hitch her legs around his torso and carried her to the bedroom. She silently thanked her foresight of dressing the bed, and the thought of a dusty, disgusting room ran straight out of her thoughts.

She squeaked in surprise and laughed when he threw her down on the bed and ran his fingers up the inside of her shirt, pulling it clean off. He seemed to admire her for a second before his mouth found hers again, hungrily demanding more. She gasped when she felt him brush up against her and her hands scrambled urgently to pull his jumper off, to undo the button on his jeans.

Loki seemed to shed clothes quicker than she could, and god, was she grateful for it. She swiftly wiggled out of her jeans, helped by the man who hadn't detached his gaze from her since they left her parent's house. He seemed to leave no part of her body untouched, no part unexplored. She groaned softly as he made his way down her body.

"Fuck." She covered her eyes and bit her lip, a whimper escaping her mouth. He stopped abruptly, and Darcy uncovered her face and looked down at him in panic.

"What? What's wrong?" She asked in alarm.

"Nothing," he rocked against her, laughing. "Snowmen…"

She realised what he was laughing about and she scowled, getting up and covering herself. "It's Christmas, Loki. That means festive underwear. If you have a problem with it…"

"…Not at all." His grin turns into a look of sheer panic as she pulled away from him, teasing. He tried to pull her back, to kiss her, but she pushed him away with a sly smile.

"Well it looks like you don't want this…" She shrugged. "Not with snowmen."

"Darcy." He growled. "Of course-"

She leant forward and kissed him deeply. "-Convince me."

And fuck, did he convince her.