A/N: Welp, I'm back! I've been reviewing the MCU timeline, and I need to quickly mention something that I neglected in the earlier drafting of this fic. Although I vastly enjoyed Iron Man 3, none of that movie's events exist in this universe; it would be way too hard to explain why in the heck nobody else from the Avengers got involved in Tony's seriously life-threatening issues with Killian, since in this AU they stay a closer knit bunch after the battle of New York. Also, this story being Loki/Darcy-centric, I don't want to devote time, energy or page space to explaining away what Marvel has yet to satisfactorily explain; Tony blowing up all his suits, getting his arc reactor removed, then suddenly having suits again in time for AoU/Civil War. Like, if he could have had the shrapnel removed and all that and just attach the arc reactor directly to the suit, why didn't he do it right away in Iron Man, or when he was having the crap poisoned out of him in Iron Man 2, and save himself a lot of risking his life? (shakes head.) So, yeah, no Iron Man 3 in this universe. Tony and Pepper continue collaborating on projects the way they did in the beginning of The Avengers—no (major) arguments about tinkering. If anything, she's been working on ways to use his tech to make awesome prosthetics, like (CW SPOILER!) what he designs for Rhodey at the end of Civil War (END CW SPOILER!). Cause she'd totally be down for that.
Thank you xbecbebex for being the only person to review the last chapter!
The Easter Egg from chapter 13 was Jack—Captain Jack Harkness, from Doctor Who and Torchwood. Of course, he's totally AU here, not a time agent, not immortal, all of that stuff. Just Jack being… Jack. (Hehe)
Spooky
"Spill!" Darcy exclaimed as Loki closed the front door behind him. He looked up in surprise to see her sitting cross-legged on the sofa, Netflix paused, looking at him in gleeful expectation.
"Spill… what?" he asked, half faux-innocently, and half blearily. He was exhausted. It had been worth it—so worth it—but he was pretty sure he was going to sleep for a week. "Why aren't you still in bed with a hangover?" he asked as he dropped his keys in the bowl by the door and flopped down in what they'd both started calling "his" armchair.
"Because it's seven pm, dude," she chuckled, nodding at the clock. "I got over that hours ago. And don't change the subject—were you with Mr. Hottie McHotness this whole time?"
"Up until half an hour ago, yeah," he responded with a smirk. "'Hottie McHotness?' He'd probably love to hear that, actually," he snorted after mulling it over.
"Wow," Darcy whispered, still grinning ear to ear, eyes sparkling. "This whole time?"
"Well, we ate brunch, and had some snacks," he shrugged. "And we talked too. Well, a bit," he amended. "He's a member of a traveling theatre company," he added. "They're performing Shakespeare's Henry V next weekend. He gave me a couple of tickets—you should come." He waved four slips of paper with theatre information printed on them.
"Yeah, awesome, back to the good stuff," Darcy pressed.
"I'm not giving you a play-by-play," Loki snapped indignantly.
"Now you're suddenly shy?" Darcy exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air in exaggerated shock and confusion. "Are you going to see him again?" she added. "Other than on stage."
"This Thursday," he admitted with a proud smirk. "Told him I'd take him to that comedy club on Fifth Avenue."
"Guessing I shouldn't wait up for you?" Darcy checked, eyebrow raised, eyes gleaming.
"Ah, no," he responded. "Definitely not."
"Lucky!" she groaned.
"Me or him?" Loki asked innocently. Darcy—having learned better than to give him her pillows by throwing them—smacked him on the arm with one.
"Maybe I wanted to go to the comedy club," she shot back. "I like to laugh." Loki snorted.
"So, no new fellow for you yet?" he checked, remembering her flirting with at least one guy at the party. She shook her head.
"Nah, I got really wasted and tried to break the back of Ted's closet, shouting about Narnia. Then I spent the rest of the night alternately making really bad puns and trying to convert people to the religion of the almighty pizza. Not very sexy. Fun as hell, though," she added with a reminiscent smile.
"Well, maybe you'll meet a nice gentleman at church—Dominoes church, I mean."
"Oh, no, Lou Malnati's was crowned the ultimate victor last night. You left before we decided."
"Ah, so that's the Vatican of all pizza," he laughed. His roommate nodded proudly. Then her stomach growled.
"Shall we go to mass, then?" Loki asked, pulling out his phone to order said pizza.
"Be downright sacrilegious not to," Darcy agreed, pressing her palms together sanctimoniously.
"Amen and hallelujah," Loki chuckled as he hit the call button.
-0-
The first time Loki saw a small child wearing a Captain America mask and shirt, carrying around a little plastic shield, he thought nothing of it. The Captain was not only a famous hero, but a staple of modern folklore. Children everywhere adored him. Sometimes he'd appear in the background of news broadcasts, and when people recognized him, the adults flocked to him, forming an awkward perimeter on the edge of his celebrity aura, but the children ran right up to him, flinging their arms around his middle in excitement.
So the tiny "Captain," trotting along, gripping his mother's hand, had little effect on the demigod. Loki's train arrived, he boarded, and thought little of it.
But when he arrived at the station near the SHIELD HQ, he noticed another little Captain, and a little Iron Man. It was a bit unusual, wasn't it, he thought as he entered the lobby and gave the passcode, that two different children would be dressed up as the Captain on the same day, and that one would have an Iron Man sidekick? It was odd that parents would let their children idolize the man of iron—he wasn't exactly role model material.
Well, until he saved the world, Loki reflected. He'd largely avoided thinking about the battle of New York and his involvement; when he did, it was a headache-inducing blur, culminating in being suddenly beaten to a pulp by Banner's huge, angry monster. Granted, the pain had brought him back to himself, for which he was grateful in a twisted sort of way, but his wounds from that confrontation had hurt for days. He blinked, trying to dispel the image of the Hulk's snarling face, and the floor of Stark's tower flying up to bash against his whole body with all the force of Thor's hammer…
"Good morning, Loki," Coulson greeted him, cool and professional as always. The taller man sat gracefully down in his habitual chair, and leaned back, getting comfortable for what was always a long day—and would hopefully distract him from his painful memories. "Before we begin, I have a serious matter we need to address." Loki raised an eyebrow.
"Oh?" he asked, more interested than concerned. Phil tapped a few keys on his computer, then turned the screen to show Loki a scrolling group of images. Loki involuntarily snorted, and Phil glanced sharply at him.
"Am I to take that as an admission that you put a curse on Jeffrey Parsons?" the agent demanded disapprovingly. Loki shook his head, trying to get ahold of himself.
"No curse," he laughed. "How could I? I haven't any magic." He cleared his throat at that sobering statement, then continued. "No, this was just some wonderfully petty revenge," he explained, watching what was now a video of Jeff rocking back and forth, tearing his Nair-soaked hair out, spittle flying from his mouth and snot dripping from his nose, both running down his allergen-puffed face. A priest of some sort walked around him, shaking a cross and reciting what was probably an exorcism.
"You call this petty?" Coulson asked, his eyebrows pulling up his forehead in consternation. Loki nodded, clearing his throat again.
"Got everything I needed from local businesses—craft supplies, a few hygiene products, and a lot of catnip," he admitted freely. "He's through the worst of it by now," he added with a shrug. "As long as he replaces some of his hygiene supplies and digs up the catnip in his yard. Oh, and gets used to how I shifted the furniture."
"And why, exactly, are you tormenting this human with craft and hygiene supplies?" Phil asked slowly.
"Because he didn't stop at breaking Darcy's heart," Loki explained with just a hint of menace. "He spent weeks making her life miserable, tried to destroy her, and then blamed the whole thing on me. I would've let him be if he's just stuck to ending their relationship, but he didn't, and I wasn't going to let him get away with how he treated her."
"Huh," Phil commented, looking back at the screen. Jeff sneezed as the priest tossed holy water on him. "Good man," he added with something like approval in his face.
"How dare you?" Loki muttered with a smirk and an evil gleam in his eyes.
"On behalf of SHIELD," Phil added with a sigh, closing the window on his computer.
"You have to strongly dissuade me from committing such acts in the future," Loki finished for him. "I'll remind you that the only illegal thing I did was the breaking and entering, and that any property damage can't be more than a hundred dollars or so. I did hardly anything, and if he goes to court, I can get half the school to testify that he was stalking miss Lewis, plus one professor was ready to file a complaint because his activities were interfering with her academic success."
"Guess this is what happens when we put the god of mischief and Darcy Lewis together in an apartment," Phil snorted, pulling up the latest research data he wanted Loki to look over.
"Well, I wasn't about to get domestic with anyone else," Loki muttered. "And you'd all be swimming in horny Syrinians by this time of year if I hadn't warned you off of them, plus possibly started a war with the Xandarians. Your planet owes Darcy Lewis a great debt."
"So, if living with her hadn't been an option, you wouldn't have taken the deal?" Phil asked curiously.
"If she hadn't shown up and convinced Fury and the others to give me a semblance of freedom, there wouldn't have been a deal, remember? Even if Fury had offered me a job and stalled extradition to Asgard, I would have turned him down flat; if I was going to sit in a cell, I'd rather one where I'm hailed as a prince and a god. Not to mention the food is probably worlds better."
"I can't argue with that," Phil nodded. "But it didn't occur to you to try to escape? Take over the world again?" Loki scoffed.
"What use have I for your world?" he demanded, spreading his arms wide to punctuate his point. "Just restructuring it so I could rule would be more trouble than the whole planet's worth."
"Then why attack us in the first place?" Phil demanded, affronted. "Why kill me?"
"Part of a larger plan, naturally" Loki responded vaguely. 'I wish I knew why,' he added privately. 'Or perhaps I don't.'
"Pitiful little godling," the Other crooned, his spittle damp on Loki's cheek as the young god hung limply in his bindings, mind spinning as he tried futilely to think his way out of this. "You don't need to know why we want it—you don't need to know anything. You simply… need… obey."
Then the blinding pain took all of his focus, and he couldn't wonder about anything but his tortured nerves, and how many more milliseconds he could survive this agony…
"Simply… obey."
"No," Loki whimpered pitifully. "Please… get out… get out of my mind… no!"
"Loki!" Phil was exclaiming. Loki blinked the vision from his eyes, gasping for air. The smaller human had rounded the desk, and was leaning over him, a hand on his shoulder. "What just happened?" Coulson asked, looking shaken.
"I…" Loki began, not knowing where to start.
"Is everything all right in here, sir?" an agent Loki didn't recognized demanded as he and two others burst through the door.
"Stand down," Coulson ordered immediately. "Call Simmons up here." Loki waved him off, catching his breath at last.
"No," he insisted. "I'm fine. Ignore that."
"You were so white I thought you were going to keel over and die right here," Coulson responded. "Shaking so hard you looked like somebody out you on vibrate, staring off into space. Then you started hyperventilating, and didn't come out of it until I touched you. I'd like Simmons to examine you."
"And what, exactly, does she know about Frost Giant physiology?" Loki shot back, straightening up in his chair.
"Plenty," Simmons herself responded, entering a moment later and hearing that last comment. "Your mum left me with some books on the subject. They were quite informative."
Loki wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that, and so sighed moodily and slumped lower in his chair. Whatever had just happened seemed to have drained him. He glanced fearfully at his hand, making sure he wasn't turning blue; he wasn't, thank the Norns. He hadn't had a gruesome flashback like this since… since he'd been kidnaped and tortured by those rogue agents, he realized.
Well, it was no surprise, realizing that he'd been tortured. He'd seen the footage of his arrival; the state he'd been in before his magic had rejuvenated enough to cover the marks. He'd actually been a bit grateful that he didn't have much memory of that time. Did the flashbacks mean that eventually he was going to have to remember all of that time, he wondered in rising horror?
-0-
"But you're all right now?" Darcy checked, shouting over road noise as she drove, using speakerphone on her way to work.
"Yes, I'm perfectly fine," Loki assured her with a sigh, sprawling across two seats in the half-empty train car. "I don't know why Phil called you," he muttered, remembering when he'd gotten kidnapped and Coulson's first act had been to contact Thor. Was that man going to call him a babysitter every time anything remotely unusual happened? That was going to get irritating fast. Simmons thought he had PTSD, but at his insistence, they'd let the matter alone, other than calling Darcy and telling her bloody everything.
"She lives with you," Coulson had explained flatly. "She has a right to know, for your safety and hers." At least he hadn't told Thor. Yet. As far as Loki knew. He tried to imagine his not-brother's reaction to the news… He'd come flying in, Mjolnir whirling, thunder crashing, shaking Loki in a panic, probably dislocating something in the process, the stupid barbarian.
"Look at this!" Thor roared, shaking him and forcing his head to turn so he could survey the destruction of New York. "Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?"
The jarring battle of the past few minutes had started to clear his head, and Loki knew he was right—more than even Thor knew. This was madness and chaos and nothing could come of it.
"It's too late," he rasped. "There's no way to stop it."
"No!" Thor, assured him, pressing a hand to the side of his neck, trying to turn his rough hold into a fraternal embrace. "We can, together." But Loki had caught his breath by then, and the control on his mind had strengthened. He smiled sadly as his hand pulled out a knife, jamming it into Thor's side, the limb moving without his permission. At least he'd kept his shoulder still, preventing the wound from going anywhere higher or more important. Then the moment of clarity was gone.
"Sentiment," he whispered, but was it him whispering it, or someone else forming the word with his lips? He didn't know. It hurt to think about. He didn't want to know. He turned and left his brother bleeding on the ledge.
"Loki!" Darcy was shouting through the phone. It lay neglected on the floor of the train. A tiny hand was laid across his arm, and Loki turned his bleary eyes to see a human girl of perhaps five or six, looking up at him in concern.
"Are you okay, mister?" she asked. He blinked.
"Yes," he whispered back, voice strangely rough. "Yes, I'm quite all right. Thank you."
"Lucy!" the girl's mother exclaimed, noticing her proximity to the big stranger. "Don't bother the man! I'm so sorry, sir," she added, standing up to collect her daughter.
"Don't worry about it," Loki assured them both, collecting his phone. A surreptitious glance around the train showed that the little girl was the only one who'd noticed his lapse.
"I'm here, Darcy," he added into the phone. "I got distracted and dropped my phone."
"Uh-huh," she responded, unimpressed. "And what exactly 'distracted' you so badly?"
"Tiny Black Widow and Hawkeye," he responded, realizing what the little girl and what appeared to be her older brother were dressed as. "Darcy, is there some reason that children are wearing Avengers costumes today? This is the third time I've seen them doing it."
"Well, Halloween's coming up in a few weeks," Darcy sighed, clearly not wanting to change the subject. "It's Saturday; there must be kids' costume parties."
"I see," Loki responded with a silent swallow. He remembered her explaining about Halloween. He just hadn't expected to be reminded of the Avengers so many times. If he was going to keep having flashbacks every time something reminded him of New York…
This was going to be a bad few weeks, he realized darkly.
A/N: There isn't really an Easter Egg for this chapter; they don't seem to be super popular, in any case. Drop me a review!