Chapter 6
Show 'em what you're worth
Darcy was glad to have had another girlie evening with Jane after the incident with Loki; Jane had actually noticed her low mood (Jane was a great friend, but with her head up in space so much, she was quite easy to hide from when Darcy felt down and was atrociously unable to hide her feelings). While Darcy didn't want to confess her little rendezvous' with Thor's evil brother, she did allude to her feelings that came from Loki's little tirade. Jane guessed immediately that someone had made her feel this way after they had confirmed the opposite the day before and Jane didn't push for a name, she just got out a tub of ice cream and they watched Legally Blonde. Ice cream and a film about girl power was always a good way to end a day.
It was the next day now and Darcy felt like she could confront the asshat and give him what for. Sure, she had invaded his privacy, but she hadn't deserved getting ripped into like that. Preying on her insecurities like that; he had no right to go there. So, he would get an earful from her. Darcy steeled herself and went to his door, knocking on it and waiting; it was a longer wait than yesterday, but when he finally opened the door, she barged past him and stood in his living room, unwilling to budge. She watched Loki shut the door with slight irritation in his expression.
"I thought I had gotten rid of you," Loki growled.
"Shut the hell up, you arrogant asshole! Just because you're some self-proclaimed God and a Prince does not give you the right to treat people like dirt! Then again, what can I really expect from an evil jerk like you who finds it fun to go around blasting cities off the face of the Earth? First you send that giant robot down to New Mexico, nearly killing your own brother, then you bring an alien army down to destroy New York!" Darcy shouted at him. Loki looked taken aback.
"Thor is not my—" Loki started, someone feebly.
"Oh, just shut up! Thor still loves you and your parents still love you, even though you did all of this and tried to blow up some planet. Some parents would disown kids for less than that, you ungrateful son of a…anyway. You can call me useless and stupid, but I'd rather be that than a heartless dick who has no friends!" Darcy berated him. She could have sworn she saw a flash of hurt flicker across his face before it disappeared.
"You don't even know me. Yet you'll happily insult me. You know, before all of that shit you pulled, you sounded like the type of guy I'd have fun hanging around with. And Thor misses his brother, the one he had before he turned crazy. There are people out there who don't have families and now there are more because you frikkin' killed them. So I hope you're happy with yourself, because if you are, you're going to need to be enough to keep yourself content because no one likes evil bastards!" Darcy ranted, before stomping out of the room and slamming the door, not even giving a last look at him to see how he reacted. She didn't care; she was too angry. She was aware that maybe she had gone overboard and far too harsh, especially since she shouldn't have invaded his privacy, but anger didn't particularly make good friends with logic and reason. Despite this, she also felt a little accomplished. She returned to her room for the time being.
Loki stood there speechless, which was becoming more and more regular an occurrence. He had been in a bad mood the day before after a brief visit from Thor and he had not wanted her company. He still didn't really want her company; company meant the small chance of getting to know them and getting close, and Loki did not want any of that. Loki was not sure what he wanted, aside from his powers and immortality back. That would mean making amends, but could he? This was not the work of an arrogant Prince marching into Jotunheim against orders. This was so much more and he didn't know whether it was reparable. Loki stepped closer to the sofa and sat down, deep in thought before realising he had sat on something. Moving, he picked up the remote control for the TV. He settled back down and clicked the on button, turning it to the channel that Darcy favoured. The words Seven Pounds came up on the screen after the film began and he silently watched the film.
Loki also thought about her words; he had wondered over their few encounters why she came to his room, knowing full well he was the monster who caused great chaos, twice, upon her realm. Why would she place herself in such a presence? Why would she not feel disgusted by his presence? She was a normal person with nothing bad in her background, unlike some of the members of the Avengers team. Loki could already see that this film was not quite like the others; it was a tragedy from the very beginning, and just under two hours later, he is staring at the credits, feeling something inside that hurt. But he did not cry like Darcy would have.
Loki stood up and turned off the TV, settling the remote control neatly down on the coffee table and exiting his room. He stared at Darcy's door for a moment before he left the corridor completely and made his way up the stairs towards the room that Dr. Banner had made his case against him. It was almost completely empty, save for the quiet gasp coming from a random corner. Loki looked over to see a fair haired woman who appeared to be neatening out the room. Stark's woman. Her shocked expression quickly became a guarded one and he turned away, walking to the windows and stepping out of the door to walk onto the platform Stark had relinquished his armour on. Naturally the woman was suspicious of him. Therefore a smart one. He came to the edge of the platform, looking over the city. It seemed little better off than when he had arrived; smoke billowing, emergency sirens polluting the airwaves…the Chittauri bodies had been removed, at least.
Loki sat down on the edge, feet dangling over and staring down at the city before closing his eyes. The Avengers were down there shifting rubble and trying to repair the city. Loki knew he could do it faster. Glass started flying back towards its place, repairing itself as if it had not been smashed when the metal beasts had scraped the sides of the building. Concrete roads and pavements mended themselves, and cars flipped back over onto their wheels, restored to how they were before. Fires were extinguished, road signs re-aligned and shop fronts fixed themselves. There was a lot to fix and it took a couple of hours. In the meantime, Stark had landed behind him and removed his armour, saying nothing. One by one the Avengers had each returned to that room, conversing and he knew his reparations were the focal discussion. He ignored them, for the most part, concentrating on fixing what he had broken.
After he finished, he stood up and looked around at the city that was now fixed. Loki felt drained; he was still very weak and the mortal body did not help. He turned and walked back into the room, which seemed to grow silent as he entered.
"So, you finally decided to help. Well, perhaps you could have a drink with us," Stark said. Loki merely made eye contact with Thor and left them to it. Loki was not in the mood to celebrate with those who he had not even made amends with. It would be some time before any of them became friendly with him, though he supposed Stark would be one of the first. Barton would be last, if at all. Loki had no problem with this; his desire for company was not so desperate that he wanted the archer to forgive him. It did fascinate him that there were humans who still practiced archery, but that was as far as it went. He found his way to his floor and room, taking hold of the handle before turning when he heard footsteps. Darcy. Loki kept an unreadable expression on his face as he regarded her. They said nothing to one another and Loki pushed the handle down before entering his room and closing the door behind him. He stepped over to the sofa and lay down, closing his eyes.
Darcy was surprised to see Loki out of his room; she had started to think of him as a hermit, as she had certainly heard nothing from the others about him taking little trips out of there either. Not to mention there was something about him; something different. Like he had aged a decade or something, which was weird given how he and his brother were, you know, immortal and all. Darcy knew he didn't particularly look healthy to begin with, but his current look was even worse. So rather than going to her room as planned, she decided to head upstairs. When she found the Avengers sitting around and laughing with drinks, Darcy walked up to them.
"Hey, Darcy! Come and join us," Tony said, beckoning her over to sit with them. When she did, he got up and got her a drink he knew she liked. She thanked him and looked at Thor.
"I bumped into your brother just now; I don't think I've seen him come out of his bat cave before today," Darcy said, neglecting to say that she had seen him since the tasering incident. She watched as Thor practically lit up.
"Yes! He came and helped us fix the city!" Thor boomed, sounding proud and happy. Clint snorted.
"You mean he came and fixed it all with his magic, leaving us looking like useless beggars. Don't get me wrong; it was his shit to clean up, but that was way too easy," Clint said, displeased.
"Did you tell him he had to do it by hand?" Darcy asked.
"Well, no, but—" Clint started.
"Maybe he can read minds, I don't know, but it doesn't sound like he did read them, so how's he to know?" Darcy asked.
"Why are you defending him?" Clint asked. Darcy shrugged.
"I'm not; I have a degree in political science. It's in my nature to try and see both sides, work out better solutions," Darcy said, before sipping her drink. One glance at Thor showed her that she was definitely on that man's good list. She was really glad Thor hadn't given up on Loki; sure, she wasn't on Loki's side. He had a heck of a lot to make up for and she didn't trust him, but she was sure that things would be worse if he had no one left. That sort of thing could really make a person desperate and give them no reason to bring themselves back up into the light.
"I am sure my brother will carry on proving himself; he came up here of his own free will and assisted us. It is a good start," Thor said, standing up and retrieving another beer for himself. Darcy was so glad the sofas were big, because she would be squashed between Thor and Tony. Not that Tony was huge, but whatever.
"So, what do the rest of you think? I'm curious," Darcy said, sipping her drink and making a mental note to make sure she didn't drink too many of these.
"It's a good start. He started sooner than I had anticipated," Natasha replied. Darcy raised an eyebrow, but the Black Widow said no more. She was truly a woman of professionalism; Darcy, from hearing the full story of what happened from the various members (at her persistence), had expected Agent Romanov to say something along the lines of what Clint had said.
"I am of the firm belief that if a man wants to atone for his sins, then we should allow him the chance. If we didn't, then we would just be giving him fuel to try again," Steve said.
"I'm with Steve. I haven't forgiven him, but if he makes an effort, then it's something," Bruce said.
"A good number of us have our skeletons; his are little different," Tony said.
"Thank you, friends," Thor said, beaming.
Maybe things wouldn't be too bad after all, Darcy thought.
