"Okay but remember that time we were sick and we watched the Lord of the Rings and you were all grumpy over soup?" Darcy asked, a grin falling effortlessly into place.
"I believe you tried to convince me you owned a magic blanket." Loki said. She tilted her head up from where she lay against his shoulder and saw that he too was smiling, though of course with him it was always more of a smirk.
"Yep well your face at the soup was hilarious." Darcy told him.
"Perhaps but what about when I created the spider illusions?" He retorted. "It was far more amusing. You were hardly the picture of calm serenity."
"Yeah I still haven't entirely forgiven you for that one." She replied bitterly. Loki kissed her forehead.
"I suppose I shall have to make amends."
"Definitely." She agreed, turning to kiss him but his arm around her tightened, holding her in place.
"Your distraction will not work." He said sternly.
She sighed. "You can hardly pretend that you'd rather teach me Asgardian than have sex."
"Oh definitely not but equally you cannot turn to seduction every time you struggle with a word."
She pouted. "Seduction is a coping mechanism."
The corner of his lips twitched slightly.
"Read the sentence, Darcy." He said calmly. "I believe learning Asgardian was your idea."
"That's before I knew how hard it was." She muttered but returned to the pretty lettering anyway. The book was propped up against Loki's knee. "Okay soooo 'The first of the nine realms is Nilfheim, referred to as the world of fog and...and...marsh?'"
"Mist." Loki corrected.
"Right. So '...the world of fog and mist. Beneath its surface lies Helheim..." Darcy continued. She was growing rather good at reading Asgardian now.
Then again she should hope so given that they'd been in the cell for three months and hadn't really had much else to do. The first few weeks hadn't really been that bad. It felt kind of like she was on holiday.
After that it was surprisingly easy to grow accustomed to the cell, so that she no longer felt quite as bored or restless as she first had at being locked away.
Just because she'd grown used to it, however, didn't mean she didn't still desperately want to escape. Didn't want to tear Odin limb from limb for putting her there...
Her mind wandered town to Earth. Of course it was possible that time moved differently in Asgard than it did on Earth but if not then it would be May. Trees would be green again, it would be too hot in New Mexico for her jumpers and if she let herself get too caught up in the half fantasy, half memory of New Mexico spring then she could even smell the barren sandy desert burning in the heat.
Of course she'd actually be in England so it would probably be raining but she had even begun craving the sound of water hitting pavement as the humidity that accompanied it crushed like a warm breath against her skin, her hair frizzing in protest.
That was one of the things Darcy missed most; knowing what the weather was doing. The colour of the sky, the feel of the sun, the strength of the wind...the time...
"Your Asgardian reading is coming along magnificently." A female voice said.
"Hey Frigga." Darcy greeted happily, glad that she was past the awkward phase of not knowing how to communicate with the queen.
Loki closed the book and put it aside. Darcy moved over, allowing him to stand up, restless as he always became in the presence of his mother.
"Loki," Frigga said gently, watching him with a loving expression that Darcy was certain her own mother had never attempted. Not unless someone was watching to praise her fabulous mothering, that was.
"Hello mother." Loki said, not looking at her.
Darcy felt her heart squeeze as it so often did when she watched them together. She felt oddly like a therapist as she watched them. She wanted to tell Loki that he didn't have to close his mother off, that she truly cared for him. She thought maybe he knew that but his doubts over anyone's affection for him tended to beat any certainty he felt in regards for it.
And she wanted to tell Frigga the same. That Loki loved her but struggled not to show it, scared that to love anyone was to risk being hurt; like he had with Odin. With Thor. Darcy was the exception; a mortal he befriended and fucked but a mortal nonetheless, incapable of hurting someone with his level of pride.
Not for the first time, Darcy felt sympathy for Frigga. What was it like to love someone whose whole ethos was to wear his hate like a shield? Despise him in return and what does it matter if he can pretend he hated you first? It doesn't hurt as much, right? Clearly he was too busy convincing himself of his hatred for everyone to recognise their love.
Darcy and Frigga; the two exceptions who for some unfathomable reason Loki couldn't convince himself he hated.
Darcy leant back against the wall, tired of her psycho analysis of Loki and watched them. Why did she have to understand someone so completely who was so complex? So ready to believe they were broken?
A wry smile crossed her face. It was becoming an unfortunate habit of hers.
He walked over to the edge of the energy barrier. She knew why he did it; Frigga was just a projection. He kept his distance because he craved her love so much it scared him, easier to deny it at all.
Darcy rolled her eyes.
Are you really going with the 'Loki is a scared boy who just wants his mother's hugs' excuse?
Okay so it wouldn't fix him but at the heart of all his problems wasn't there rejection? Surely a hug couldn't hurt?
Well you've done a lot more than that.
A hug from someone who wasn't her, she corrected.
Not excusing Loki's actions, she chanted to herself.
Frigga turned to Darcy. "Your friend Jane is on Asgard."
"WHAT?!" Darcy asked, scrambling to her feet. She was wearing a different long dress today, blue this time, but no matter how many she wore she just couldn't get used to the length of the fabric. "Jane's here? Why?"
Frigga smiled indulgently. "It appears her research into the bifrost had progressed much further than we had expected. It caused her to fall ill-"
"Is she okay?" Darcy asked frantically. Three months and she'd heard nothing of Jane, suddenly her stomach was contracting painfully at the thought. And she was ill? Oh God she missed her.
"She is fine. For now." Frigga said. "Nothing serious at the moment."
"At the moment?" Darcy repeated.
"She seems to have connected to some form of energy. At the moment it is protecting her. We are preparing, however, for the instance that it may turn against her?"
Darcy flicked her eyes desperately to Loki, begging him to explain because her mind couldn't understand any of his. He stood facing the barrier, arms folded behind his back.
Her eyes stung with suppressed tears. "She's okay?"
"For now." Frigga confirmed.
"Will you...let me know if anything changes?"
"Of course." Frigga nodded.
"And..." Darcy didn't want to sound too desperate.
"Yes?" Frigga prompted, a knowing smile on her face which implied she already knew the question.
"Can...can Jane visit?" She asked, her voice sounding pathetically hopeful even to her own ears.
Frigga's lips tightened and Darcy felt her stomach sink.
"I am afraid the Allfather has forbidden it."
"The same way he forbids your visits?" Darcy asked, a tad more hostility in her voice than she had intended.
To her surprise Frigga smiled. "I shall try to send a projection."
Darcy grinned. "Thank you!" She would get to see Jane. Jane! Someone other than Frigga and Loki!
There was silence, Darcy marvelling in the fact that she could have her friend visit as awkward silence developed between Frigga and Loki.
After a few moments Loki spoke. "Odin continues to bring me new friends. How thoughtful..." He said, turning back to face them, his self-mocking tone in place.
Darcy looked out the barrier and saw that he was right. In their three months, more and more prisoners arrived. She assumed that meant there were more wars across the nine realms. This time, a group of prisoners were placed in the cell opposite theirs.
Darcy wondered if this was supposed to be part of Loki's punishment from the Allfather: to be with common prisoners.
If it was, it was probably working to annoy him; she doubted his pride could take it.
Frigga looked mournfully at the expression of mocking hatred on Loki's face. She turned instead to the pile of books.
"The books I sent, do they not interest you?" She asked. Darcy knew what she meant, did they interest him rather than something to occupy her with.
"Is that how I'm supposed to while away eternity? Reading?" Loki asked spitefully, so familiar an argument to the one they had had months ago it made Darcy almost nostalgic.
"I've done everything in my power to make you comfortable." Frigga said, gesturing to Darcy.
Loki ignored her reference to Darcy, he had eyes for no one but his mother and they were narrowed in annoyance. "Have you? Does Odin share your concern?"
He snapped. Frigga said nothing. That was a mistake, you had to argue back or he just kept on going. "Does Thor?" He continued, true to Darcy's predictions.
"It must be so inconvenient for them, asking after me day and night."
"You know full well it was your actions that got you here." Frigga said.
Well Darcy couldn't argue with that one, if Loki hadn't gone all diva none of this would have happened. It would be an appropriate punishment, Darcy thought, locked here for the rest of his life. Or until he showed remorse that was, which amounted to the same thing.
If it weren't for the fact that Odin had seen fit to torture him first.
"My actions?" Loki started angrily before turning his lips into a sneer. "I was merely giving truth to the lie that I've been fed my entire life. That I was born to be a king."
"A king?" Frigga retorted, Darcy was glad to see that she was fighting back. "A true king admits his faults! What of the lives you took on Earth?"
"A mere handful compared to the number that Odin has taken himself."
"Dude!" Darcy protested, angrily. His eyes flickered briefly to her as though only just remembering she was there but then he was back to staring at his mother with defiance.
Frigga looked at him sadly. "Your father-"
"He's not my father!" Loki snapped, sudden hurt filling his voice. Darcy would feel bad for him if he hadn't just tried yet again to defend his attempted world domination.
"Then am I not your mother?" Frigga challenged.
A long, pregnant pause filled the silence. "You're not." Loki muttered at last.
A brief look of hurt flashed on Frigga's face before she smiled. Smiling through obvious pain, Loki? And you have the nerve to say she's not your mother? You do the exact same thing! Darcy thought.
"Huh." Frigga said. "Always so perceptive about everyone but yourself."
To Darcy's surprise, Loki looked remorseful. She knew he loved Frigga of course but this was one of those rare moments that she saw proof of it.
He stepped towards Frigga, covering the distance he usually so desperately kept and placed his hands on her upturned palms. The moment he touched her she dissolved.
Darcy felt her heart tug. Had he really forgotten she was a projection?
Loki looked down and closed his eyes, clearly affected by what had happened. Darcy had to look away, his own pain and self hatred hurting her too much.
She wanted to shout at him for still blaming everyone else for what he'd done. But he knew he' gone too far. Somehow his own guilt was worse because it was so unnatural. Loki wasn't supposed to feel guilty. That was the one thing he just wasn't supposed to do.
But there he was, guiltily staring at the ceiling, a look of deepest self loathing on his look just made her want to hug him.
He swallowed and lay down on the bed.
Darcy felt like she ought to say something, she needed to. But she couldn't think of anything to help and as she thought desperately for something to say the time for her to speak passed so that if she had it would have been awkward.
She figured the best thing would be to just let it pass. Darcy tried to convince herself that he would forgive himself, apologise to Frigga next time he saw her and move on.
But Loki forgiving himself was even more unlikely as him feeling guilt. Of the few times he'd felt the latter he'd never been able to do the former.
He'd told her about the time he'd let a frost giant into the Allfather's room and Frigga had been hurt. Guilt with no forgiveness.
She remembered another example. When he'd destroyed the bond between them and she'd been hurt, hadn't he spent the whole time afterwards trying to protect her? Trying to make amends?
Lokiiiii, she thought affectionately. Why can't you just be normal?
It was the kind of irritated, annoyed affection that she associated with fictional characters she'd loved on TV and in books. Going through pain again and again.
She supposed it made sense. Loki's life was so painful it could have come straight out of a film.
And she was equally responsible. Because she'd forgiven him for what he'd done. He'd been punished enough, she thought. Forgiving him had allowed her to befriend him and now here she was getting upset over his pain.
You're kind of pathetic, Darce, you know that? She thought.
Yeah brain, thanks. Very much aware.
She pulled a book from the pile, trying to read to distract herself. She couldn't focus on the words, they swam on the page and never had Asgardian letters looked so foreign.
When she glanced up, Loki was throwing and catching the cup on the bed absent-mindedly. She watched him for a bit. He always got this eerie beauty about him when he did things like that, slow, peaceful contemplative things. So different to the rash God everyone else knew.
She expected him to make a sarcastic comment about how she should stop watching him but no such comment came.
Suddenly the sound of electricity screeching filled through the cell. Darcy jumped, startled. Loki was on his feet and looking round. Slowly, Darcy got to hers too.
The aliens in the cell opposite them were fighting, one huge scary looking guy with horns was holding the other one's head to the energy shield.
The horned guy dropped the alien he was holding where he hit the floor, dead. The monster one started hitting the barrier.
"Holy shit is he breaking out?" Darcy asked, watching as the energy splintered, cracked and fractured, tumbling away into unnecessary matter.
The monster started smashing the energy barriers on other cells.
Loki was smirking as he watched.
Darcy's heart leaped. Would the monster let them out? Were they finally escaping?
She grinned. It was about time.
The monster walked over to them. Darcy's heartbeat sped rapidly as he approached in anticipation.
He looked not at her but at Loki who was still grinning smugly.
It appeared to consider him as he drew closer. Time seemed to stretch, the seconds dragging by as though they could sense her need for freedom.
And then it left. Darcy stared in shock. She'd been so certain it would let them out.
She looked at Loki to see how he was handling their inability to escape.
To her surprise, he was still smiling.
"You might want to try the staircase to the left." Loki said clearly. The monster paused as though to take in his words and then continued smashing in the other cells.
"You gave it directions out despite it not letting us out?" Darcy demanded. Loki picked up a book and sat on the ledge, opening it to where she'd left off.
"Yes." He said, turning the page and not looking at her.
Her mouth gaped. Did he love mischief that much that he didn't care who caused it as long as it was against Asgard?
"But we could have escaped!" She protested.
"Yes but clearly it did not wish to let us out."
Darcy was struggling to remain calm. Her fingers curled into fists. "You said we had to wait." She snapped. "You said if we waited then an opportunity would come."
"Yes and one did. I'm sure we can wait for the next one." He said calmly.
"We can wait?" She repeated, her voice rising now.
"You are immortal here." He pointed out.
"Immortal or not I don't want to stay here!" She screeched.
Outside chaos was reigning but in here Loki was reading, his eyes finally lifting to her with a disdainful expression. "Is escaping Asgard something that you really wish to risk failing?"
She bit her lip. "No." She admitted.
"And do you not think we could wait for a more subtle moment to make our great escape than in the middle of a prison mob?"
Her eyes flicked to the corridor. She saw Fandral and Volstagg run past, swords swinging.
There was no way that Loki, Asgard's most wanted criminal, would escape now without them noticing. They'd probably make a priority of catching him over everyone else.
And she may be immortal on Asgard but she was no Asgardian . She'd probably get hurt out there. One sway sword stroke and she'd be dead.
"Fine." She said. She felt eyes turn to them, ensuring that they were still in their cell. She sat opposite Loki on the edge, her toes brushing his. It had become a comforting place to her over her time in the cell, like a favourite armchair. Though of course when she'd said she wanted a window seat when she was younger this hadn't quite been what she'd meant.
She narrowed her eyes at Loki. At least the prison break out had cheered him from his guilt over his words to Frigga.
"You know it's a bad sign, don't you?" She said to him. "When the evil alien decides it's better to keep you locked up?"
She saw him smirk over the top of the book. He didn't care what happened out there now. He was just content with the fact Asgard were having trouble.
She sighed and leant her head back against the wall. "One day all this mischief is going to turn on you."
Chapter title from I Predict A Riot by the Kaiser Chiefs. Thanks for reading and reviewing.