RATING: T
GENRE: Modern/Non-magical AU, Humor, Friendship
PROMPT: "I need a date for this wedding" (from averbaldumpingground on Tumblr)
SUMMARY: Jane gets roped into being Loki's "plus one" for a wedding.

PLUS ONE

"Stop fidgeting."

Jane scowled up at Loki. "I can't believe I agreed to this." She tried to adjust the dress he demanded that she wear—sorry, asked her to wear (while nixing every other option his personal shopper presented them with). "I can't breathe in this thing."

The corner of his mouth curved up as his gaze dipped in a lazy perusal of her. "What is it you ladies say? Something about beauty being pain?"

She snorted. "I'm not that kind of woman." Why again did he want her to be his plus-one for a glitzy wedding?

"You are today." He crooked an elbow toward her. "Shall we, Jane?"

She made a face at him before linking her arm with his.

The venue was opulent—there wasn't another word for it. (Well, maybe "decadent.") Thousands of twinkle lights woven in a silk organza canopy, hiding the ceiling. Huge bouquets on stands dotting the aisle on either side, full of flowers and sprigs of foliage practically dripping to the floor as if bowing in preparation for the bride. Gilded chairs set up for the loved ones were covered with shining white fabric held in place with a large pale rose ribbons, tied in a perfect bow in the back.

A man wearing a bluetooth device and carrying an iPad stepped forward, blocking their path. "Bride or groom?"

"Bride," Loki answered. Did he sound a little terse? "Loki Odinson and my guest, Jane Foster."

The man looked up from his iPad with an overly ingratiating smile. "Of course, Mr. Odinson and Miss Foster." His gaze flicked toward her like an afterthought. "Right this way, please."

He led them to the left, along the wall until they reached three rows from the front. He offered Loki a nod, gesturing toward the others already seated there before leaving them to get settled. Loki laid a hand at the small of her back and encouraged her forward. As she drew closer to the group, a beautiful middle-aged woman stood up, gaze pointed over Jane's head. Surprise flickered across her features.

"Loki!" she said. "You came." The statement sounded more like a question, as if his presence wasn't expected.

"Yes, mother. I came."

Jane spun around and mouthed, "Mother?" He'd told her that this wasn't a family affair, that it was just a friend's wedding.

He glanced down at her, expression inscrutable, then looked back at his mother. "Allow me to introduce Doctor Jane Foster. Jane this is my mother, Frigga Odinson."

Jane swallowed down her nerves and offered a hand to shake. "Pleased to meet you."

Frigga's brows lifted. Apparently this was another surprise. "Doctor Foster, I've heard so much about you!" she said, taking Jane's hand in both of hers with a wide, genuine grin. "I'm glad to finally meet you."

"You've heard about me?" Jane shot Loki another look, but he only gave her a half-shrug in return.

"The brilliant astrophysicist who's on the verge of cracking wormhole theory? Of course!" Frigga tugged Jane to sit down next to her. "I want to hear all about it."

Jane smiled, wondering just how this friendly woman managed to raise the stubborn, arrogant knucklehead behind her. (Had he really told his mother about her? Had he really called her brilliant?)

Frigga monopolized her for the next half-hour as the rest of the guests arrived. Jane was introduced to Loki's brother, Thor, who seemed to have gotten all of their mother's charm. She met Loki's father, who barely acknowledged her and had an air of arrogant disinterest. That actually explained Loki.

The wedding began with a string quartet. Everything was perfect down to the twin flower girls dropping rose petals tipped in gold down the aisle. When quartet struck up Pachelbel Canon in D, Loki stiffened next to her. He stood with the other guests, but didn't turn as the bride entered. She looked like a princess, with a veil and train that extended several feet behind her, all those tiny pearls and faux diamonds catching the light.

A poetry reading came next, then the vows. Sigyn and Theoric swore their undying devotion to each other, and it would have been beautiful if Jane actually knew these people—and if Loki didn't glare at the couple as if he could turn them to ash with his mind. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding when the officiator announced the pair could seal their union with a kiss.

Now she had to get through the reception, and they could be done with this weirdness and go back to one-upping each other with science.

The reception line was a blur, then it was cocktails, dinner, toasts, and making polite conversation with a bunch of strangers. Loki was strangely silent through most of it. He was usually silver-tongued, the master of manipulating social situations to his advantage. She had half a mind to check him for a crank in his back in case he'd been replaced with an automaton. Several times she had to elbow him to get him to respond.

It was some time after the wedding party performed a mash-up of *NSYNC's greatest hits—complete with the dances—that some guy at their table, Fandral, had made enough use of the open bar to have loosened his lips.

"That was almost you up there," he waved his tumbler of scotch toward Loki. "We all thought it would be with the moon-eyes you made at each other since childhood."

A giant of a man joined Fandral with a boisterous laugh. "You remember in Year 11 when we locked them in the closet and didn't come back for them for an hour?"

A tall, dark-haired woman with striking eyes—Jane couldn't remember her name—interjected, "No doubt Sigyn finally realized that she could do far better—"

Jane stopped listening, frowning at Loki. Why didn't he say anything? Verbally eviscerate them with clever insults like he did whenever she went toe-to-toe with him? Where was the overconfident bastard? She couldn't find him in that hollow gaze of his, and that felt so wrong. She called him the bane of her existence, but the truth was, she kind of liked how sharp he kept her. Now he was as dull as a butterknife.

She stood up, and grasped him by the cuff of his jacket. "Please excuse us."

She dragged him to the dance floor, did her best to loop her hands around his neck—even in heels, she was dwarfed by him. It was a beat before his fingers curled around her waist, swaying her to the music.

"Okay, what the hell was that?" she hissed. "Did you bring me to your ex's wedding? Why did you tell me it was a friend?"

He breathed a hollow laugh. "Because she is a family friend." At her flat look, he added, "And my ex."

"Great," Jane muttered. "And what, you're still in love with her? Is that why you've been having a pity party for one? Are you using me in some twisted revenge plot? Because I did not sign up for making a scene on someone's special day. I don't care how bad your break-up was."

He laughed again, and this time it was more reminiscent of the man she knew. He opened his mouth to say something, but it was lost when someone called to him.

"Loki!"

It was Sigyn, the gorgeous bride. Tall and statuesque like all the rest of Loki's acquaintances. She crossed the room toward them, and Loki let go of Jane. He wore a plastic smile as he greeted his ex.

"Congratulations, Sigyn."

"You came," she said.

"You invited me."

"Yes, but..." She glanced at Jane. "Hi, I don't believe we've met."

This was so awkward. Jane was going to make Loki pay for this later. "I'm Jane Foster."

Sigyn's mouth rounded in an unspoken oh. "I... yes, Jane Foster from Harvard, right?"

"Yep. That's me." She wanted to yank Loki away and demand more answers. How did so many of these people know about her? "Congratulations. It was a beautiful ceremony."

Sigyn stared at her for an uncomfortable beat. "Thank you." She turned her gaze to Loki. "It seems we both got what we wanted." Though polite, there was something brittle in the edge of her tone.

"Indeed," Loki returned in kind. "Remind me, Sigyn, when exactly did you get what you wanted?"

Sigyn's breath caught as if his words were a knife in her gut. "It's been years."

"My apologies, I was unaware there was a statute of limitation for—"

"Don't," Sigyn said. "You're not being fair."

Loki's expression turned positively feral. Jane had only seen him look that wild with rage once, back at grad school when one of the other students had thrown a fit over Jane winning a prized fellowship. The chauvinist had implied that she'd traded special "favors" because "we all know the bitch doesn't have the brains for this kind of work." Loki's fist connected with his jaw before he could utter another disgusting word.

Loki leaned over the petulant jerk and, with a chilling calm, said, "I wonder what it will take to remove that bigoted stick out of your arse. Shall we theorize?" He flexed his hand.

Jane hadn't needed him to stand up for her, but it was nice to have someone on her side. (It was why that, despite their rivalry, despite the barbs they shot at each other over science, despite how sociopathic he could seem at times, she trusted him.)

Sigyn had awakened that beast that lived inside of him, and if Jane didn't intervene a scene was most definitely going to be made.

"I'm sorry," she said to the other woman. "I don't want to be rude, but we really need to get going." That snapped Loki out of whatever he was about to say or do. He drew his brows together as he met her gaze. "Remember? I was going to show you the latest batch of data my model generated."

"Right," he said, catching on. "And the comparative analysis—"

"—is probably going to take most of the night," she finished with relief. "Anyway, nice to meet you, Sigyn. Best wishes for a happy future."

Jane locked an arm with Loki and pulled him away as Sigyn offered them a stunned farewell.

She let out a long breath once they were at the coat check, glad to have successfully removed the spark from the powder keg (or was it the other way around?). "You owe me," she said as Loki gave their tickets to the clerk.

He dipped his head. "You turned out a singular performance, Jane Foster."

Jane rolled her eyes. "I have one question."

"Only one?" A smirk played on his lips, and she liked that he was behaving more like himself again.

"How did she know about me? What does she know about me?"

Loki helped her into her coat. "Sigyn has always suspected that my relationship with you is something more than colleagues."

What? Jane's eyes rounded as the implication hit her. "Wait, wait, wait. She thought you were cheating on her? With me?" She ran a hand over her face as another revelation bowled over her. "This was a twisted revenge scheme. Bringing the woman she thinks you had an affair with as a date to her wedding. Are you serious?"

"Well, yes," he said, completely unperturbed by the drama he had created. "It seemed perfectly reasonable, considering she just married her illicit paramour."

Jane shook her head. Nuts. These people were nuts.

"Don't look at me like that." He tied her scarf around her neck. "You've never been my lover."

"Thank god for that," she said, reaching up to fix the collar of his double-breasted overcoat. "Even the idea of it is ridiculous."

"Is it?"

Her knee-jerk objection lost its voice as he held her gaze with troubling intensity. Was it ridiculous, this idea of something more between them? She couldn't answer that question, didn't want to touch it.

"Come along," he said, making for the exit. "We've data waiting for us."

"What?" Jane scrambled after him. "No! I only said that as an excuse. I'm not letting you anywhere near my work, Odinson!"

"Too late, Foster. You're stuck with me for a lab partner for the night."

She huffed in frustration. "If you steal any of my data, I will set fire to your lab!"

"Promises, promises."

~FIN~

A/N: Thank you so much for reading! If you ever want to send me a prompt for a ficlet, I take them in my askbox on Tumblr. (I'm therealstartraveller776 over there.) You don't have to have an account to send me one! As for this tale, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Drop me a review! XD