Darcy took a deep breath as Clint and Natasha rounded the corner. Her heart was racing. Whatever happened next was down to them. She'd done her part.
But she couldn't stay here and wait for the guards to show up.
If they hadn't been notified yet then her lack of presence might make them realise sooner. She wanted to give her friends as much chance to get away as possible.
Darcy felt a grin spread across her face as the adrenaline faded from her system. They'd made it. It had actually worked.
And then her gut twisted. Oh God she was going to be in so much trouble.
Okay, she thought, think of that later. Firstly she had to act normal. So if she hadn't just helped two of her friends escape being imprisoned by her more than complicated sort-of-boyfriend then what would she be doing?
Her question was answered by a growling of her stomach. She hadn't had breakfast and it had to be around midday so she would be getting lunch.
She started walking to the cafeteria. They would have definitely noticed by now which meant it was only a matter of time until they checked security footage and realised she'd been responsible. After that...she'd have to deal with Loki's anger.
Her immediate response was that she would just shout back. Arguing with Loki seemed to come pretty naturally to her.
But for once a more rational part of her brain stepped in. Shouting back would only anger him more and that might end up with her chained to a wall again. She'd have to be...not apologetic per se, but maybe just accepting of whatever he did? That, she figured, was probably the way to minimise the amount of punishment as much as possible. Technically she'd committed treason so her hopes weren't very high for being let off but maybe he'd stick to his current Darcy's-not-allowed-to-leave-the-building plan.
She sighed. That was going to take some serious pride swallowing. It was worth it, though, if she avoided those chains. That was just humiliating.
No one was in the halls, not even guards which set Darcy's teeth on edge. She noticed her heart was beginning to beat faster again and willed herself to keep calm.
It took her about ten minutes to find her way back to the cafeteria. Though the place wasn't unreasonably large, she was certain she'd taken a few wrong turnings.
The place was packed, far busier than the one in New Mexico had been and it was slightly worrying being around so many people. Especially since so many were giving her filthy glares.
They think you're dating Loki, she reasoned, that probably makes you a traitor to your own species in their eyes.
She joined the queue, trying not to look guilty.
"What can I get for you?" The man behind the counter grinned. Darcy's stomach clenched with anxiety. She felt like she was going to be sick. The idea of eating was repulsive.
But she had to keep up appearances, she supposed.
"Just a salad, please." Darcy replied, even managing to force a smile in return.
"Sure thing." He said and began pulling lettuce into a container.
The sight of it made her hungry again. She'd never really been a salad person but she'd missed fresh fruit and vegetables the most down in Stark's bunker and the sight of so much green was practically ecstasy.
Until she remembered why she was there in the first place and the queasiness returned.
She found a seat at an empty table, her back to the door.
She picked at the food but her stomach was doing somersaults.
He's going to find out. He's going to find out. He's going to find out.
Her mind chanted.
Of course he's going to find out, she thought in frustration at her own thoughts but the panicked chanting continued.
After five minutes the noise in the room cut off abruptly and Darcy's stomach clenched painfully. There was only one person who could have silenced them like that.
Sure enough she heard the soft footfalls of his leather boots on the linoleum floor as he walked towards her.
She didn't look round. Maybe if she didn't then he wouldn't notice her.
She had no such luck. He stopped behind her and her heart hammered in her chest, her throat dry. She was close to hyperventilating. Only the thought that at least she'd got her friends out kept her from having a full on anxiety attack.
"Come with me." He said, his voice so low she could feel it vibrate in the air. "Now." He added in a growl.
Darcy stood up, leaving her mostly uneaten lunch where it was. Better to walk out than have him make the guards drag her.
Her blood was roaring in her ears. She'd been prepared for him to shout and scream and maybe even scare her with magic spiders. His low, collected voice brimming with anger was infinitely scarier. It was the closest thing Darcy had come to finding him terrifying since they'd started getting along. This was the man who crushed nations. The man who destroyed races. And she'd managed to piss him off.
He turned and walked back to the door and she followed hurriedly, keeping her head low and eyes on the floor. She didn't want to see the people staring at her and she didn't want to look at Loki to see if he looked as furious as he sounded.
He led her down the hall towards her room.
"In." He said, opening the door. She obliged, not wanting to anger him anymore, desperate to avoid chains. As much as he may have cared about her, she knew he'd sacrifice whatever they had together to stop her from doing anything dangerous. The easiest way to do that would definitely be attaching her to the wall.
She walked in the room and heard the door slam behind her. She turned in shock to stare at it. He wasn't even going to follow?
"Sit." He commanded from behind her and she jumped. He must have apparated in or whatever.
She scuttled over to the bed, fighting the urge to snap that she wasn't a dog. Being submissive really wasn't in her nature. Loki must have been loving this. She kept her eyes averted.
"Well?" He asked, voice taut.
Darcy swallowed but kept quiet. She wasn't going to apologise and anything other than that was sure to only make him angrier.
"Something rather odd happened earlier." He hissed. "Both Romanoff and Barton escaped their cells. Strange given that they were sedated. Nine agents were shot. Another and a doctor were hit with a stun gun, a weapon I certainly would not believe either prisoner would have chosen. Oh and you were seen on camera helping them to escape."
Darcy nodded. There was no point denying it.
Meanwhile another part of her brain, the part that wasn't slightly scared right now, was thinking of the cameras. She'd forgotten about them. There was no way whoever was monitoring them hadn't seen them. Which means they just didn't raise the alarm. That was nice of them. Loki would kill them.
"Why?" He demanded. "If you're so angry with me for keeping you here then why pretend? Did you plan this all along? Encouraging me to let you out of here just so you could release them? Was it all a ruse?"
"No." Darcy said meekly, fighting every urge to shout at him.
"Then why? You detest me so much? Your hatred I understand though why that required you to-"
She rolled her eyes. "Oh Loki you ignorant slut." She said without thinking before pausing, every muscle tightening. Shit. So much for the civilised approach.
One day I will get a filter between my mind and my mouth and it will be fabulous. I will think before I speak and everything.
That is if I live that long...
Oh well she'd already blown the 'go along with whatever he said' approach. She may as well take it the whole way.
"I'm here! If this was about me getting angry at you locking me up here then I would have left with them. Believe it or not, this isn't about you." She said, lifting her eyes to meet his. That was a mistake. The fury burning in the blacks of his eyes could have levelled a small town. He seemed paler than usual and his everything about him, from his posture to his expressions, was contorted in rage. "This is about the fact that my friends were being drugged and held captive."
"Friends?" He repeated scornfully.
"Yes." She said, not wanting to elaborate too much.
"They sent me off to the torture of the Allfather!"
"That's Odin's fault not theirs!" Darcy snapped back. "It was my world you tried to enslave! You want me to hate them? I may...have some undetermined feelings for you," Not quite sure what those were. "But I'm not going to support what you did! Jesus, Loki. Team Avengers. Every time."
He looked like she'd slapped him.
"I don't hate you." She continued. "And I understand your reasoning for taking over the world even if I don't agree with it. But I will never ever support your decision to drug and imprison innocent- no wait not even innocent- good people because of your own personal grudges. Get over yourself. My God, you put the dick in dictator."
"So you send them back to the others so that they may resume their development of a weapon to kill me. Which I need not remind you would prevent me finding Thanos. You believe my death would stop him? He would take you anyway as the next best being on which to get his revenge." Loki snarled, his hands curled into fists at his sides.
"What? You think Stark and the others stopped doing that when you took Clint and Natasha?" Darcy threw back.
"Either way you have given them two more allies!"
"All I did was release my friends from the torture you were putting them through." Darcy retorted.
Loki made a derisive noise. "You call that torture? That was a mercy."
"That was you drugging two of my friends. And keeping them strapped to beds." Darcy replied.
"Did it never occur to you that I may have had more reasoning for keeping them imprisoned than a personal grudge? You do realise the extent of Thanos's powers, correct? The avengers could have aided that."
"Gee Loki, imprison and drug them, that'll encourage them to help you." Darcy rolled her eyes. "You were a douche. You actually want me to apologise for this?"
"For releasing two of my prisoners? Yes!" Loki was pacing across her room in his annoyance.
"Well I'm not." Darcy replied calmly, knowing full well it may result in her being back in the handcuffs.
Loki glared at her. "You may not be now but-"
"Oh shut up." Darcy knew where he was going with that.
"Excuse me?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
Darcy almost laughed as she remembered her plan to just roll with it. She was well and truly screwed. May as well go down swinging.
"I said shut up." She told him, crossing her arms. "I know what you're going to say. Some punishment or other to make me feel sorry but you don't get it, do you?"
"Well perhaps you ought to enlighten me." He said, sounding like nothing she said would matter.
"You think I didn't see this coming?" She asked and she had to admit, her fear was melting away, replaced with triumph. Whatever he did it wouldn't change the fact that Barton and Romanoff were free and that he didn't even understand why. Her only regret was that she couldn't find Banner. "You think maybe I was hoping I wouldn't get caught? I'm a lot of things Loki but stupid isn't one of them."
He sent her a disbelieving look. "And yet you helped them escape."
"Ouch kitty cat has claws." She mocked. He didn't look impressed. "Loki," She said more seriously. "I knew you'd find out. And I didn't do it to spite you. They're my friends, that's all there was to it. And they don't deserve what you were doing to them. I didn't do it hoping to avoid punishment, I just knew that whatever punishment you gave me it'd be worth it."
Loki shook his head slightly, one hand reaching for the back of his neck. "I don't want to punish you." He said in irritation.
Well that Darcy wasn't expecting though she didn't get her hopes up too much. She sensed a hidden 'but' there. "Umm so don't?" She tried.
He narrowed his eyes at her. "As the man who lo-" He hesitated. "Cares about you I do not want to punish you. It is not my place to punish you like a child."
Ahh. Now she got what he meant. "But as the current ruler of Earth..." She said quietly.
"Therein lays the problem." He said.
"You could give me a warning?" Darcy suggested, half smiling.
Loki exhaled softly. "You had to let them out didn't you?"
Darcy's smile fell. "I had to, Loki." She said earnestly.
"You stole a card without the agent noticing, stole weapons and knocked out two grown men." He smirked slightly. "Irritated though I am, I have to say that I am slightly impressed."
Darcy grinned. "So how many times have you watched the footage?"
"Enough. I don't know how you managed it."
"I'm sorry?" Darcy asked.
"You aren't exactly intimidating." He answered pointedly.
"Well it'll serve you right not to underestimate me." She replied. Had she really been scared of him only a few minutes ago? It was only Loki.
"A mistake I intend to never make again. Though I suppose I ought to have realised when you shot me." He replied.
"Oh my God Loki that was one time! Let it go." She joked. "And besides, I only hit your shoulder so stop whining."
"Well for you it was a surprisingly good shot." He started to smile but then he stopped. He closed his eyes and tilted his head up. "What am I going to, Darcy? I trusted you to leave the room and you repaid that by setting prisoners free?"
He opened his eyes and met hers. "In my defence, you never explicitly said 'don't let my prisoners out.'"
"It was implied." He replied. He shook his head and turned away from her.
And for some stupid reason she felt bad for him because he clearly didn't want to punish her. Like he said, as her boyfriend it was hardly his place. But equally she'd committed treason and even if it was for her friends, how did he know she wouldn't do something else like send information to the avengers?
But then, she reminded herself, he shouldn't have imprisoned them in the first place.
Well Darcy if you're making a list of things Loki shouldn't have done...
"Just not the chains." She said to him, throwing the metal a filthy look.
He turned back to her. "You are not to leave the room." He said at last.
Darcy swallowed and looked away. It wasn't the worst punishment but the thought of being stuck in the room was horrible. "Am I allowed visitors?" She asked, thinking of Matt and Priya.
"By the nine realms..." He muttered.
"What?" She asked. "For God's sake, you're the one imprisoning me here."
"You think I want to?" He asked, suddenly angry. "You don't understand, do you? I don't want to lock you in some room for your own safety. I want to give you everything, Darcy." He laughed bitterly. "But of course I can't. Because the only thing I can give is danger and pain."
"Loki that's not-"
"True?" He spat. "It is quite possibly the most truthful thing I have ever said to you. Yes you may have visitors."
She wanted to hug him. To tell him that he didn't only bring bad things. To tell him that even if he did it was worth it to be with him.
But Darcy dealt in snide comments and innuendos. A sudden poetic candor was not quite her area of expertise.
Not to mention that she wasn't the most articulate. Things rarely sounded as good out loud as they did in her head.
And the fact that she was pissed off that he was punishing her. She didn't think she'd ever felt such a complicated mix of emotions.
Loki was locking her in a room. By all rights she should only be angry. But if Loki was to find Thanos he needed to be seen as powerful. He couldn't just excuse it. Just as she'd sacrificed her freedom for Clint and Natasha's, maybe she also had to for Thanos to be found.
She hoped he was because at this point she was ready to kill Thanos herself. He was responsible for all this. All of it.
"If you attempt to escape," Loki said, his voice calm again. "If you try to contact the avengers or try to do anything that does not involve staying in here, I will have you back in the handcuffs."
She understood what he was saying but she didn't like his tone. "You do realise that will firmly make up my mind that we are never going to get back together, right?" She said.
"Understandable." He said, nonplussed. "But you will be safe."
He didn't even say goodbye. He was just gone.
Darcy sighed and fell backwards onto the bed, longing for a time when her life made sense.
Chapter title from Replace You by Silverstein. Oh Darcy...you tried. Thanks for reading and reviewing, hope to update soon.
