Written for Sifki Week 2020. Day 5 prompt: matchmaker
"You guys really picked your costumes out without me?" Sif asked dejectedly, standing in the middle of her dorm room. The three of them held up their newly purchased matching outfits. "The Three Musketeers?"
"Sorry, Sif," Volstagg looked sheepish. "This party was so last minute."
"It's difficult to find something that would work for our whole group," Hogun agreed.
"Maybe if we weren't all so popular," Fandral put his feathered hat on his head and brandished the plastic sword in front of her. Sif resisted the urge to punch his smug smile off of his face.
"What am I supposed to go as?" she crossed her arms, trying not to feel left out. "Your horse?"
"Don't horse costumes usually require a partner?" Fandral asked. "And you're quite single."
She did grab the sword from him then and landed a swift hit to his thighs.
"Ow, I'm kidding. Ow, sorry!" he threw his hands up in defense.
"I have class in an hour," Sif swatted him again before turning her blade towards the other two. "I don't have time to go to the costume store before the party tonight."
"Come on," Volstagg held up his palms in surrender and moved towards her closet, "We can figure something out. Let's look and see what we're working with."
Sif watched as her friends rummaged through her wardrobe, which mainly consisted of sweatshirts with the university's logo and athletic wear. Fandral had nearly disappeared into the back of the closet before he emerged with a shout, and pulled out a black dress.
"Wowee, Sif," he whistled. "Well, this is it."
"How is a black dress a costume?" Sif eyed the plain dress. At least it had long sleeves to fight against the autumn chill.
"Bride of frankenstein," Volstagg exclaimed.
"Vampire," Hogun suggested.
"Seductress," Fandral waggled his eyebrows.
Sif rolled her eyes. "Maybe I should just stay home."
"No!" they all exclaimed, and Sif took a step back.
"No," Fandral repeated and held the dress out to her. "We've all been working hard this semester and we deserve some fun. And Thor throws the best parties."
"Hmm," Sif muttered noncommittally.
"You won't be the only mopey one," Fandral continued. "Loki will be there."
Sif kept her face impassive. Nobody knew, and nobody needed to know about her crush. She pretended to consider it for a moment. "Alright, fine. I'm not moping."
"You have to, Loki!" Thor complained.
"I don't actually," Loki replied, holding his phone against his ear as he walked across campus, the crisp air turning his cheeks pink. "Why am I just now hearing about this party? That is apparently being thrown at our house?"
"It was last minute! And what else are you going to do tonight? It's a Friday."
"I have classes this morning and then I'm working this afternoon. I don't even have a costume."
"You own a suit don't you? Just wear that to the office and then you'll be good to go when you get home."
"And who am I supposed to be?" Loki drawled.
"I don't know, James Bond? Wait, wear that pinstriped one and be a mobster!"
"That's stupid, Thor," Loki grumbled.
"C'mon Loki, who cares," Thor laughed. "Nobody is going to question it, everybody will just be there to drink and have fun."
"Everybody?" Loki groaned. "How many people did you invite?"
"Not that many," Thor sounded entirely too innocent. "The usual guys, some of Val's friends."
"Maybe I'll just crash somewhere else tonight."
"Sif is going to be there."
Loki paused. He'd been head over heels for Sif since she'd first laid eyes on
"Fine," Loki sighed and heard Thor whoop in reply. "But you owe me big time."
Sif's ankle boots crunched against the fallen leaves strewn across the sidewalk. The air was crisp and cool, and felt alive with a sort of magic buzz that seemed to appear during Halloween time. Or maybe that was just the pre-game beers she'd drank with her friends going to her head. A little liquid courage. Sif wasn't sure why she felt so keyed up - even if her costume didn't have a clear theme, she knew she looked good. She'd put on dark eye makeup and red lips with a heavy hand, and she knew the slit of the black skirt showed off her toned legs. But still she felt some hesitation.
Maybe it was Fandral's comment about being single. Not that she didn't have plenty of offers and opportunities for hook-ups. It was more just that none were what she wanted. Unfortunately for her, the dark haired boy who lived in the house they'd arrived at didn't seem to even know she existed.
Whenever they all hung out, she couldn't help but stare at him. He was just so pretty, moved so fluidly compared to the hulking boys her three high school friends usually spent time with. She was drawn to Loki's witty comebacks and obvious intellect when he bantered easily with his brother. But anytime she tried to talk to him one on one, he would clam up and stare at her with wide eyes, excusing himself from the conversation as soon as possible.
She shook her head as they walked up the drive, past brightly lit jack-o-lanterns, and let themselves into the house the Odinson brothers rented together a few block from the university.
The house was busy, but not yet crowded. Music played in the background and many of Thor's football teammates and their respective partners or romantic hopefuls milled about the living room. Sif scanned over the small crowd of superheroes, sexy kittens, and some apparent pop culture references that were lost on her. She didn't see him.
Volstagg walked them towards the center of the room, where a cheap disco ball hung.
"Stand right there," Fandral put his hands on her shoulders. "I'll get you a drink."
"No jungle juice!" Sif called after his retreating form.
Loki arrived home, parking his car in the garage and entering through the door that led to the kitchen, smoothing the arms of his suit. It was an attractive navy with silver pinstripes, and much too modern and well fitting to pass as a boxy mob suit, but he was at least happy to not be forced into some ridiculous store-bought costume.
When he entered the kitchen, he saw Thor and his girlfriend Val whispering near the fridge. Val was wearing one of Thor's scrimmage jerseys, black stripes painted under her eyes.
"What in the hell," Loki stopped, looking his brother up and down, "are you wearing?"
"Loki!" Thor bolted upright and then spun in a circle. "You like it?"
Thor was wearing a cropped top with a giant "A" emblazoned on it that was entirely too tight and a matching...skirt? He picked up a set of pom-poms from the kitchen counter and shook them.
"The cheerleader and the football captain! Get it?"
"Matching costumes? Isn't that a little cheesy?" Loki rolled his eyes and attempted to lean forward as casually as possible, peering out the door towards the living room.
"No, it's fun!" Thor protested.
A hand shoved Loki back and he startled, turning his eyes back to the kitchen. Val walked him backwards until his back hit the wall, cornering him. Grabbing his chin, she painted a thin strip of black above his lip with her eye liner pen.
Loki knew better than to fight with Val, he'd seen how intense she was on the lacrosse field, but that didn't lessen his confusion. "What- what are you doing?"
"More authentic," Val shrugged and leaned back to survey her handiwork before retrieving her red solo cup from the counter and draining its contents. "This was all Thor's idea."
Loki cut his gaze over to his brother but Thor didn't make eye contact, suddenly taking interest in the kitchen's light fixture and sipping his beer.
"What exactly was Thor's idea?"
"Loki!" Fandral shouted as he strode into the kitchen. He thumped Loki on the back several times. "Looking dapper as always."
Loki did not return the compliment, thinking that he wasn't the only one suffering poor facial hair choices tonight.
"Hey, Sif asked me to grab her a drink but I've got to take a leak," Fandral walked backwards towards the hallway and Loki tried not to show his disgust. "You don't mind bringing it to her, do you?"
"Charming," Loki grumbled under his breath and swung open the door to the fridge, hiding his face so that nobody would notice his cheeks flush at the mention of her name. He held up two beers in salute to his brother. "See you in a bit."
Thor, bafflingly, gave Loki an encouraging smile and a thumbs up. Shaking his head, Loki transferred both beers to one hand, running his other hand through his hair self consciously as he walked past a few groups of people, looking for Sif.
When he pushed past a group of zombies, he saw her and nearly froze. She was stunning, her long legs peeking out from the slit of a black dress, illuminated by the light of the disco ball. It seemed like the whole party disappeared in that moment and all he could see was her. His gut churned, the desire to bolt suddenly strong, but he also felt inexplicably drawn towards her. Loki took a deep breath and moved forward.
Sif tried not to crane her neck, wanting to search the room without being too obvious. Not that it would matter much since she was suddenly standing alone. Hogun had seemed to just disappear, and Volstagg had looked over her shoulder and then stopped mid-sentence, turned and strode away from her, moving towards the stereo on the mantle.
"What the hell," Sif grumbled.
"I heard you were waiting for this," a smooth voice intoned. Sif's stomach flipped in anticipation and she turned towards her secret crush.
Loki held up a beer in offering. Sif took a moment, drinking in the sight of him. He wore a well cut suit, and wore it impeccably.
"Thank you," Sif replied and her hand brushed his as she accepted the drink, making her heart leap.
"Nice to see you," she said and Loki leaned in to her, trying to hear over the music that was suddenly turned up quite loud. She could smell an inviting cologne and from this angle, the light from the disco ball highlighted his striking bone structure. He had a strange little mustache drawn on his upper lip, which seemed all the more out of place given that she'd only ever seen him clean shaven. "How are your classes?"
"Grood. I mean good, great," Loki corrected himself and suddenly looked like he wanted the floor to open and swallow him whole. "They're fine. I'm glad to see you."
Before she could reply, someone bumped into her from behind, making her stumble. She wrapped her hand around Loki's arm to steady herself. He held her weight easily, his beer hardly sloshing. Had she ever been this close to him before?
"Sorry," Hogun mumbled as he skirted around them, keeping his gaze down and heading towards the kitchen.
"You look lovely," Loki said into her ear, and she resisted a shiver that wanted to run up her spine, "but who are you supposed to be?"
"I was going to ask the same of you," Sif looked him up and down openly.
"Gomez and Morticia!" Darcy yelled, pointing at them as she walked through the room, wearing a ridiculous carrot costume.
"Aw I love The Addams Family!" Jane agreed, carrying a lightsaber and waving to them as she followed her friend towards the kitchen.
"You two look hot," Darcy called. "Definitely the best couples costume I've seen this year."
"We're not -" Loki shook his head
"I'm actually -" Sif started and then looked back at him.
Loki looked down at himself too. And then back at Sif. Her hand was still holding on to his forearm and she was staring at his upper lip with confusion.
"Oh," Loki glanced back towards the kitchen, just in time to see Thor and Fandral's heads pop out of sight from where they'd been peering out at them. "My god."
"What?" Sif asked, shaking her head in confusion and trying to follow his gaze.
"We've been set up," Loki leaned back into her. Sif turned her ear towards him. It elongated her neck in the most inviting way.
"Excuse me?"
Loki moved his hand to gesture between them. "I was told to wear this particular suit and had this drawn on my face against my will. I suspect my brother was trying to play matchmaker."
"But I didn't even talk to Thor, this whole idea came from-" Sif stopped and peered around him back towards the kitchen, her eyes narrowing. "Fandral."
"Are you offended?" Loki flicked his gaze, watching her from the corner of his eyes. "Repulsed?"
Sif turned her gaze back to him, appraising. "The mustache is bad. Very bad. But no, no. I'm just a little confused."
Loki swiped at his mouth as casually as possible. "About why they would do all this behind our backs?"
"I just," Sif dropped her hand from his arm and looked away. He wished desperately that she'd put it back. "I just didn't think this was mutual."
"Yes, of course," he responded. "Wait, what?"
"I may have mentioned to Fandral that I thought you were good looking." Sif took a drink of her beer. "But I didn't think you had any interest in me."
Loki just stood there, staring like an idiot.
"You hardly even talk to me when I hang out," Sif continued in a rush and Loki felt as if he was being stabbed in the heart. "I wasn't sure that you even knew I existed."
A fool. I'm a fool, he thought, watching the flicker of pain on her face.
"I see you," Loki confessed, feeling his cheeks grow warm. "I can't help but see you and it's less embarrassing to just leave or to sit quietly and not let myself get tongue tied around you."
"Oh," Sif considered and then smiled. "Do I make you nervous?"
"Let's go back to the part about you finding me attractive," Loki countered tipping his beer can towards her.
"We do look rather good together," she tapped her beer against his in deflection. "Maybe the deception of our friends has some perks."
"Indeed." He mentally recanted his stance on coordinated costumes. It was rather thrilling to pair up with another, claiming each other so openly.
"So, what do we do now?" Sif stepped closer. "I feel like it would be inappropriate to egg your own house to take revenge on your brother."
"Agreed," Loki pondered. As annoyed as he was with his friends for meddling, he supposed their little trick did end in quite the nice treat. "Tonight we drink and we dance. And maybe overturn one punch bowl onto Thor's head. Tomorrow, you let me take you to dinner."
"Deal," Sif laughed and held out her hand. Feeling bold and ready to fully embody his true costume, he lifted her knuckles to his lips, earning a happy laugh from her. Loki could have sworn that over the music a cheer went up from the kitchen.