A/N: You know, as an adult out in the workforce, I think I inflated in my mind how long a school year was. Now that I'm working at a school and back on their schedule, I'm shocked at how fast the time is going. Three days ago there were like two whole months of school left, and now boop! It's May. Time to get that swimsuit out of storage because the beaches open in a couple of weeks. (Although it snowed near me last weekend, so I can't pack up my sweaters just yet.)
Thank you SpaztheMagicBeanstalk for your review of the last chapter! Glad to see that someone is still reading this after such a long break, lol.
Also, I have an apology to issue. Glancing at my outline just now, I realized that throughout the Loki-pranks-Jeff-the-douche scenes, I somehow missed the opportunity to have someone say he'd gotten revenge "in a low-key way"?! I don't know how I missed that opportunity, because that is absolutely the perfect joke for the situation, and I am sorry.
Joy
"I had no idea drinking could be this much work," Bobby muttered as he carefully poured a second layer of green vodka-jello over the existing layers of red, green and more red.
"It'll be worth it though!" Mitch exclaimed sealing little plastic lids over the cups and carefully stacking them on a tray that Loki was holding.
"I've visited a lot of places and drank quite a variety of alcohols," Loki commented as he held his hands steady, carrying the tray to the refrigerator and retrieving another empty one, "but I can't say I've ever eaten liquor, so this will be a new experience."
"It's tradition, guys!" Milo lauged from where he was furiously beating a bowl full of egg yolks while Darcy stood by him, slowly spooning in sugar.
"Alpha-Sigma-Sigma Christmas," Junior added, "means holiday-themed jello shots, eggnog, Pozole and the Battle of the Gingerbread Fortress."
"How go the defenses, captain CJ?" Darcy called over her shoulder. At the kitchen table, CJ sat, hair pulled back by one of their collection of beanies (which rivaled even Darcy's, something Loki hadn't thought possible) carefully gluing panels of gingerbread together with gooey frosting. The long, pointed pentagonal shape was actually starting to resemble the picture of an Imperial Star Destroyer that CJ had taped to an empty milk jug for reference.
"It's gonna beat the hell out of last year's Isengard for sure!" CJ promised, waggling their dark eyebrows for emphasis. "And the offense?"
"Comin' along, comin' along," Zach muttered as he put the finishing touches on his fifth candy-covered X-wing. Each year, according to CJ's excited description that morning, they'd build a fortress and a fleet, then fight (read: throw candy around) until one gingerbread mass was judged more broken than the other. All combattants would then feast on the sugar-coated remains.
In the week he'd been staying with them, Loki never ceased to be amazed at not only the level of inside jokes and traditions these people had, but also at their immediate willingness to invite new people into said jokes and traditions. He'd never once felt like they were talking over his head or forgetting about him, and although it did get a little tiring to constantly have people taking a moment to explain jokes and references, it did do a brilliant job of distracting him from his constant underlying state of fear.
He was actually starting to fall into a routine with his nightmares, when he awoke at two, four and seven in the morning (and then around ten, if I didn't give up on sleep at seven and stick his head into a book until the sun came up). He'd gotten better about not making any sound—in fact he suspected that the constant adrenaline rush was increasing his tiny magic reserves—so V had only caught him one other time when the other man happened to be awake. He'd passed it off as a sudden need for the toilet, and the Russian hadn't pried.
During the day, Darcy and her family kept him busy, and he'd thrown himself into every activity, every movie, every game of D&D or Final Fantasy with gusto. He knew Darcy was a little surprised by it, because he tended to be introverted and had certainly packed enough books to entertain him on his own for several hours a day, but she didn't comment on it. She probably knew, on some level, what was going on…
"Back in Mother Russia, we just did shots of Vodka," Darcy was commenting in a passable imitation of V's accent. "We didn't feel the need to add jello to it." Everyone snickered, while V protested that he'd said that years ago, and wasn't that ever going to die?
"Never; I'll learn necromancy just to resurrect it every Christmas," Darcy assured him as she added rum to the eggnog mix and took over the stirring so Milo could take a break.
Loki had spent a lot of time feeling hurt when he looked at other people's close-knit families, because it just reminded him that that was something he'd never have—a fact of which he'd became more and more starkly aware in the last few years. But this patchwork little group was a different kind of close, and a different kind of beautiful, and for the first time since he was a kid, he thought that maybe he could belong with someone.
Of course, all that lovely thought did was remind him of the other type of belonging with someone, and the way that he'd started seeing Darcy differently. The way that the dimples in her cheeks and the corner of her mouth had developed some sort of magnetic pull on his eyes, and the way her blunt yet infectious friendliness drew in everyone around her—and him most of all.
It didn't help that everything in that house was done at close quarters when the whole family were squeezed into one kitchen or living room—as they often were. This meant that on many, many occasions, she'd be standing close enough to him that he could feel her body heat, or even leaning against him as they squeezed five people onto a three-person couch.
"Okay, that's the last of it," Bobby announced as he rinsed out the measuring cup he'd been using to portion out the Jello and stuck it in the dishwasher. Loki carefully refrigerated the last stack of little cups, then lent CJ a hand finishing the Star Destroyer.
Several hours later when the eggnog had chilled and the Jello had gelled and the candy glue had dried and the Pozole had finished slow-cooking, Allen arrived with his sister and nephew, and the whole mess of people crowded around the table—elongated by the addition of several folding tables—for a traditional Alpha-Sigma-Sigma Christmas.
Team Empire destroyed team Rebellion (it helped that Loki was a better shot than anyone had known until he started flicking skittles with the skill of an expert) and the fighters stuffed every inch of themselves that wasn't already full of dinner with gingerbread. The fancy drinks were, in fact, worth the effort to make them, and by the time Allen's family had to bow out to put his nephew to bed, Loki thought he might actually have a light buzz.
Afterwards, with the warmth of alcohol and celebration running through their veins, most of the remaining group piled into Bobby's pick-up truck, and Jose—the only sober person in attendance—drove them through the nearly-empty streets of pre-dawn Chicago. The December air was frigid, but it felt oddly good as it stung against the passengers' skin, after the nearly suffocating warmth of the house. Milo and Zack rode in the cab, and Bobby, CJ, Junior, V, Tessa, Loki and Darcy all crowded into the truck bed, wrapped in coats and muffled in the scruffy blankets that Bobby stored under the seats for emergencies—such as picnics or unexpected naps under the stars.
Mitch and Kinsey had opted to stay back at the house, but even without the full group, seven people in the back of one truck was—like everything at Alpha house—a crowded affair. Loki's arm wrapped around Darcy's shoulders quite naturally, and when hers looped around his waist in return, no space was left between them, and it was like they'd been fitting together like this for a lifetime. He'd never imagined he'd be so effortlessly comfortable touching someone—particularly as he recalled his stay in Thanos's dungeons. But now, it was very strange to remember a time—only a week ago!—when they'd sat two feet apart to watch a movie.
Jose pulled into the parking lot of a grade school—empty and silent at four in the morning on Christmas day, and with a yell for everyone to hang on to something, he started driving around in tight circles and figure-eights, turning the little joyride into a mock-roller coaster. Screams of fear and glee mingled from the passengers, and Darcy's mittened hand gripped the side of the truck tightly. Loki kept his arm around her, grabbing the metal side with his free hand as well. Darcy was whooping and laughing, and her cheeks were raised in that big, happy smile that she always insisted didn't look good on camera.
Loki's eyes were drawn to those round cheeks again, and again he thought that he should like to kiss them. Being here with her, with them, in the ordinary-ness of Midgard, breathing the cold air of a lakeside city in winter, riding in a rickety truck in a fragile human form made the trickster god feel freer than he could ever remember feeling in his thousand-plus years of existence. It was because no one here wanted or expected or demanded anything from him besides his mere presence, and the quality of just being himself.
And oh, how he wanted to kiss those smiling cheeks! Darcy squealed as she was flung into him, and then laughed breathlessly as Jose hit the brakes and brought the mad ride to a screeching halt. The truck lurched once more as he put it in park, and then all was still, except for the frazzled, buzzed passengers yelling and applauding and demanding or protesting another round, depending on individual disposition and state of sobriety.
Maybe it was the alcohol doing his thinking for him, he mused, as Darcy yelled "again!" and the shape of her face changed subtly, from grinning to speaking to laughing and back to grinning. Maybe tomorrow he could say that he had been tipsier than he realized. Maybe he was. He wanted to kiss that face.
"Look!" Darcy exclaimed suddenly, pointing to the dark sky. Nine sets of eyes followed her red mitten heavenwards.
"Dude, it's snowing!" CJ exclaimed as the thick white flakes began to drift into their line of sight. "No way—the first snow of the year was actually on Christmas Eve. How does that even happen?"
Before anyone could answer the rhetorical question, Darcy had scrambled to her feet. Stepping out of her boots, she proceeded to shed her coat, sweater, scarf, gloves and socks—most of which articles fell onto Loki's lap and head, due to his proximity.
"What are you doing?" He demanded in confusion, struggling to free himself from the little avalanche of cloth. Darcy—now clad only in her tee-shirt and jeans—hopped over the side of the truck bed and landed silently on the black pavement.
"Geez that's cold," she exclaimed, jumping a little as soon as she landed.
"What the hell?" V called after her as she ran a few paces away from the truck.
"I'm gonna try and catch one on my tongue," she responded, as if it were completely obvious and they were being rather dense not figuring it out.
"Why'd you get half naked to do it?" Bobby shot back, holding up one of her discarded gloves.
"If you do this right away in the season, you won't be cold for the rest of the winter," Darcy informed them, thumbs shoved into her pockets.
"You made that up," Junior accused. She grinned widely.
"Yeah, I totally did," she admitted, and then flung her arms wide and spun around in a circle. "But it might work anyway! C'mon, try it!"
"You're crazy-pants!" Bobby yelled, but Zack had already opened the passenger door and hopped out, shrugging out of his coat.
"Just come run around the parking lot once," he called to Milo as he got out of the rest of his outer clothes and began to walk backwards towards Darcy, eyes still on the others in the truck. "Just to say we did it." His boyfriend shook his head, but proceeded to strip off his coat and hat.
"Well," Jose said, turning off the ignition, "I guess that's as good a reason to do anything as any…"
"You're all gonna get eaten by the abominable snow-monster," Bobby warned, causing general laughter and no actual concern.
"Luke, V, c'mon!" Milo yelled, already shivering. "Come be young and wild with us!"
"Join the dark side—we have ice cream!" Darcy added, bringing on another round of laughter.
"I will not strip," Valery said, pulling out his phone. "I will, however, take video."
"Close enough for government work," Zack allowed with a shrug.
"Luke?" Darcy asked, eyes turning to Loki. It was the damnedest thing, then. The Jotun had been about to make some excuse to remain with the semi-responsibles, motivated by an intense desire to prevent his skin turning blue from contact with the cold. But his eyes were drawn to Darcy's hopeful smile—and… those… damnably… cute… cheeks. As if he was caught in a magnetic field, he stood up, jumped down, and began unbuttoning his coat. Milo had kept his boots; as long as Loki did the same and thereby didn't come into contact with any actual freezing object, he figured he'd be fine.
Darcy whooped happily, and while the boys got ready, she threw her head back, stuck out her tongue, and teetered around backwards, trying futilely to catch a snowflake.
"We doing this or what?" Junior asked loudly, having taken Loki's example and retained his boots.
"Epic fail," Darcy announced, straightening up and closing her mouth. "Okay everyone! On your marks! Get set! Chaaaaarge!" And they were off, dashing around the parking lot, snow flurrying around their bare heads, like complete nutters. Darcy had had a head start, but the guys' longer legs soon overtook her, and Zack—who was on the track team back in high school—and Junior—who jogged in the mornings—soon peeled away from the group and raced one-on-one. Loki, with his speed and lanky frame, could have easily beaten them, but the magnetic effects of Darcy's now very red cheeks acted upon him again, and he slowed down to keep pace with her.
"Only you would think this was a good idea," he informed her without real venom.
"I beg to differ," she shot back, gesturing widely at the other runners. Loki rolled his eyes and half shrugged, half nodded, allowing that. The air was frigid on his bare skin, but it felt good, either because of his heritage, or because it counteracted the intoxication and exercise. The contrast was remarkably invigorating. But although he'd conceded Darcy's point, he still had the words "only you" echoing through his head.
Junior outran Zack by a tiny margin, although, since they hadn't started out racing, and hadn't had an endpoint in mind, it hardly mattered, and both laughed and fist-bumped. The rest of the group arrived back at the parked truck and stood there, panting and blowing and rubbing their arms and legs.
"That actually felt kinda' good," Milo admitted. "And you're right, Darce—I don't feel cold anymore."
"Tol'ja!" She crowed, pounding her fist in the air. "V, you still rolling?"
"Yup," Valery responded, pointing the camera of his phone in her direction.
"I'm gonna go do the monkey bars!" she yelled, running in the direction of the playground.
"Why?" Bobby exclaimed, although he was laughing along with everybody else.
"Because I can!" Darcy called over her shoulder, to general nods and shrugs. The other runners pulled boots and coats and gloves back on haphazardly and then filed across the stiff, frozen grass to watch Darcy do the monkey bars at a grade-school play-park in the dead of winter with no coat or shoes. Loki put his alacrity to good use, dressing rapidly and retrieving Darcy's boots and coat from the truck bed, and still arriving at the edge of the mulch before the others. Darcy had already climbed up on one platform, and was gripping the first bar experimentally.
"Time to watch Darcy fall on her ass," Valery announced to the camera. Several voices hushed him, but others laughed in agreement.
Darcy swung between the bars with ease, despite the coating of ice and the distraction of her own chattering teeth. She landed on the opposite platform, took a bow, and then hopped off.
Then she slipped and fell backwards, bashing her head against the metal platform with an echoing "clang!"
A/N: Heh, so that happened…
Don't forget to drop me a review! I'm not much of a Christmas person so I hope the first bit was "Christmassy" enough.
Also, a PSA: I'm going to be cross-posting some of my fics to AO3 in the foreseeable future; probably not all of them, but this one is on the list. So if any of you are thinking "yeah I like this fic, but I like AO3's formatting better," congratulations my dudes. I'll finish posting it on FF of course, it'll just also be available over there. Probably I'll repost some of my better oneshots first so I can get used to the options. I'll have my AO3 username available in my profile when I do.