Sssshhhhpppttt... It was the sound the painkiller made, which dissolved in the water after Erik had dropped it in a glass with a pained and exhausted face. Darcy had to stop herself from laughing at him, seeing him with a hangover, while Thor was helping Jane with the breakfast, with a huge smile, not looking like the alcohol had effected him whatsoever. He held two plates, so Jane could scoop the eggs on them.
"Thanks." Darcy grinned at Thor, when he put the plate with the eggs in front of the woman.
"Thank you." Erik said less enthusiastic, yet genuinely.
"You're very welcome." The blonde replied politely.
"So what's the plan for today?" Thor asked joyfully, when everyone was sitting at the table enjoying or withstanding their breakfast and coffee without puking - at least in Erik's case.
"Well, we can't do any research because of S.H.I.E.L.D." Erik started talking slowly. "We don't even have equipment."
"I do have some other equipment." Jane stated. "But that is in New York, in my lab."
"Great." Darcy responded, with a big, ironical smile, not really taking this conversation seriously.
"We could go there and get the equipment." Thor said to everybody around, like it was the most normal thing ever.
"That is a 7-hour flight! We can't just go there, it takes a while."
"A flight?" The man looked confused. "You fly?"
"Yes. We have wings on our backs." Darcy replied sarcastically.
"With airplanes." Jane corrected her, since she had seen the look on Thor's face. How could he explain the world to her by a mythology, but did not know what airplanes were? She couldn't just put a finger on it, this guy was something else. "We cannot afford that. It is expensive and time-consuming." The scientist explained.
"Well, if we can't do research or anything else that is boring, I'm going to have some fun today!" Darcy grinned.
"What?" Jane asked confused.
"Fun, Jane. You know the thing you have, when you do something you like and smile or laugh at the same time?" The brown-haired woman took another bite of her eggs. "You should twy it sometimes." She said with her mouth full.
"I have fun!" The scientist uttered indignantly.
"Yes, when you're playing with your scientific equipment, while you're watching the stars." The woman rolled her eyes at her friend. "Not really a healthy kind of fun. More like a compulsion."
Jane looked at her intern with shock. "That is not true!"
"Just kidding." Darcy laughed, while getting up from the table. "However, I'm going to look for something fun to do in this hicksville." She waved at her friends, when walking through the door and left.
"And I'm going back to bed." Erik groaned as he stood up from his chair. "Have a nice day you two." He said and left as well.
"What the hell?" Jane asked annoyed, when both of her colleagues had just left her with the work alone.
Thor was still shoving his breakfast into his mouth with a big grin, not letting the woman's upset frown affect him.
Without Erik's help she would take even longer to investigate the geometry of the wormhole she thought she had seen in the picture of the foreign star constellation. If that wasn't a wormhole, then how could it be explained, that stars she had never seen before appeared out of nowhere on earth? The astrophysicist sighed and got up from the table, after finishing her breakfast. She walked over to her Jacket and took her notebook out of the pocket. She opened the pages and searched for the wormhole metrics, she had written into the book. Einstein and Rosen had explained the bridges as some sort of sheets or congruent parts, which were joined by hyperplane. Meaning, one could put two dimensions on top of each other - like layers - and for example jump from one to the next, so that there was no distance nor a time barrier. But how did this theory fit to the ones of Thor and John? There had to be a connection somewhere. John had described it as a bridge made out of matter, while Thor talked about a tree, that linked the worlds to each other. Maybe, this matter, her former lover had talked about, were the bricks that formed the branches of the tree Thor meant. Now, how does a child get to an apple in a tree? She looked into the emptiness, so she could imagine a boy or a girl standing in front of an apple tree. There were 3 solutions: waiting for the apple to fall down, climb up the tree or - and the last one was the one she liked most in the given situation - move the branches, with a helping arm, like a hook. So, what if it is possible that one could create a helping arm and move the branches of the worlds tree together, so that two dimensions and worlds are suddenly next to each other and it isn't that hard to reach it? Jane, wrote the words in her notebook and made a sketch of a tree and a hook. She was so excited about this new idea, that she didn't notice, Thor had moved behind her and peeked over her shoulder at the scribbling she was making. "What are you doing?" He asked with his deep voice, almost touching her head with his cheek.
"WOAH!" Jane nearly spilled the coffee in front of her with her wavering hands in, since the man had startled her. She had totally forgotten that he was still there. "Jesus, Thor! You can't just sneak up to people that are in the middle of their thoughts!"
"Sorry." The God's son chuckled, seeing the tousled hair of the woman in front of him. "What is Jesus?" He asked interested.
Jane's eyes widened, but not for long. She was getting used to the weird questions of this man, who didn't seem to know a lot about this world. "Never mind." She said and waved it off.
"Nevertheless, what are you doing?" Thor asked again, because she had not answered yet.
"I'm doing research on my investigations." She answered with a voice that said: isn't that obvious?
Thor's thunderous laugh echoed through the room. "That is your idea of fun?" He asked her, still giggling.
"Yes - uh no!" the astrophysicist didn't know to be honest. "It is important work, alright? If I won't do it, then no one will."
"Maybe." Thor came closer to her and grabbed the book out of her hands.
"HEY!" The woman yelled outraged. She jumped up and tried to reach the notebook in the man's hands, but he held it too high and she was to small. "Very funny." She snorted, when she gave up. She held her hand up, so that Thor could lay it into her hands. "Give it back."
"No." The blond was seemingly having fun with mocking her.
"Wh-What? Why?"
"You have plenty of time to do research. I want to do something with you that is for the both of us a joy."
The woman crossed her arms. "And what do you have in mind?" She asked with piercing eyes.
Thor raised his hands as a resigning gesture. "Not like that." He said laughing. "Don't worry, I respect your private space. No, I don't know. What do you mortals do, to have fun?" He asked self assured.
Mortals? The woman shook her head with a resigning smile. "Fine." She said. "I'll figure something out. Can I have my book back now?" She asked and opened her hand again. The muscled man released a smug grin and lay the notebook into her hands, whereupon she put it back into her pocket of the jacket. "Let's have a walk first then, since I have no idea what this town has to offer."
"Good. After you." He held the door open with a charming smile.
Loki was sitting in the library at a window seat, reading Hamlet. He had needed a distraction from his thoughts, so he had decided to look for a book he hadn't read yet.
It was something that he and Jane shared, especially in the cold time of the year. When they were living together in his apartment in New York they had been reading every evening. Jane would sit on a pillow on the windowsill in front of the best view of the city. She would take a break once and a while and let her eyes run over the skyscrapers and thousands of lights. Loki would sit in his armchair with propped up legs on a stool and watch her inconspicuously every now and then. He loved how she reacted to the text, sometimes she laughed or chuckled to herself, sometimes she got a sad frown and he had to hide a smirk when she tried to hide her tears, by quickly wiping them away. She loved to read science fiction, biographies or documentaries, while he was more fond of the classic literature. He had read a lot of books from '1984' over 'Anna Karenina', 'Frankenstein' - which was by far one of his favorites -, 'Siddhartha', 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' to 'The Great Gatsby' and more.
He asked the librarian for a classic story and she gave him Shakespear's books. He had read Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth, however he didn't know Hamlet yet. He was a fast reader and even though the phrases were dry and long, it was no problem for him to understand, but the book didn't satisfy him that much. It was quite ironically really, to be reading about a guy, who takes revenge on his uncle, the new king. He could feel into the struggles of the man, yet he did not understand why Ophelia had to die in the end. It had never bothered him that most of the stories in the books he read had tragic endings, however this time it did. What was the punchline of the story? Never fight to be with your true love, because she will die anyways? Great, what a stupid moral. He shelved the 500 pages book and sighed, rubbing his eyes. When he opened them again he was just in time to see a young woman standing in front of a pub, talking to three or four men. Well, standing was an overstatement, she was rather faltering. Darcy. The Demigod looked at the drunk friend of his former lover. Why was she drunk? It wasn't even past seven yet and she looked like she had been drinking since 10 o'clock in the morning. Maybe he could take advantage out of this situation. Was Jane with her? He peered to the other side of the street, but it didn't seem like it. He stood up from his seat and collected the books on the table, so he could put them back where they came from. He hung his jacket around his shoulders sweepingly and left the library with a "Goodbye".
The Demigod strode slowly towards the pub. He didn't change his appearance, he wanted to talk to Darcy as himself. The brown-haired woman glanced over to him, but she hadn't recognized him until now. Her eyes wandered back to the men she was talking to, but made a halt all of a sudden and snapped back at him. Her eyes widened as she saw that she hadn't been mistaken. "John." She whispered more to herself as she saw who was walking towards her.
"Hello Darcy." The mysterious man with long black hair smirked at the woman, who was gazing at him like she had seen a ghost. "Oh my god." She managed to say, but nothing more as she wavered in his direction.
"How have you been?" He asked nicely, as if it was the most normal thing they met in New Jersey in the middle of nowhere.
"Fine. But..." She shook her head in disbelief. "What are you doing here?" There was confusion in her voice.
"I could ask you the same." He replied smoothly.
"We are here to do researches." Darcy answered proudly, however she slurred her speech.
"We?" The God of Mischief sounded as if he was surprised. "So you are here with Erik and Jane?" As if he didn't know.
"Yes. We were investigating some kind of bridge and then a storm came - and a man, who is all muscly an stuff - and then more men came and they stole all our equipment and now I'm having a drink." Darcy explained.
"That sounds like a chaos." Loki chuckled. If he hadn't known what he knew, he had not understood at all what she was saying.
"Yes." The woman nodded.
"So where is Jane?" Loki had to ask that question, he couldn't bare it any longer.
"None of your business!" Darcy smiled self-assured at the man and raised a finger. "You should stay faaaaaaaaaar away from her." She made a movement with her hand that meant something like 'as far as possible'.
Loki crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow. "Is that so? And why is that?"
"Because she is finally doing fine without you, now that she has that super hot, strange dude she's flirting with."
Loki clenched his teeth and tried to stay calm. "It wasn't easy for me either you know." He tried to explain himself.
"You left her, you prick!" Darcy grinned wickedly. "Then you just should have thought about your decision before it was too late."
"Where is she?" He tried to ignore the harsh words that were spoken to him.
"Probably having a fun time with Thor." She gave weight to the name as if it was something holy and wiggled with her brows.
"Where?"
"I'm not gonna tell yoouuu." She sung the words like a five-year old, mocking another child. Enough. Loki thought. She wasn't going to say anything. He pressed his hand on her forehead roughly, so that Darcy fell backwards and the Demigod had to catch her so she stayed on her feet. The locals at the bar were already looking strangely at the two, so he had to do this quick without getting noticed. He entered the mind of the woman as fast as possible and erased the memory of this meeting. "You will stay here all night." The man told her. "And you will not remember anything you did tonight." He added. Darcy nodded dumbfounded and Loki released her, so she could talk to those douche bags again.
He sighed when he walked through the street. This town isn't that big, how could it be so hard to find the woman - he did not end his thoughts, because a sight interrupted his mind. There in a restaurant was Jane, his Jane sitting with the braggart that was his brother. The astrophysicist was looking exactly like he had remembered, just as perfectly and beautiful as she always had been. The long dark blond hair fell softly over her shoulders and her smile was brighter as ever before. Her cheeks were slightly flushed and she looked at Thor with the exact same look she had always given him. He felt his heart beating against his chest strongly. There was a mixture of feelings inside of him. The excitement of seeing his love again and the rage that got bigger and bigger, since Jane was ogling Thor.
He had to talk to her. He needed to talk to her. But how? He couldn't go inside like himself, he had to test her first and find out if she had fallen all the way for his brother or if she still had feelings for him. But how? He thought of Darcy, who he had told to stay in the bar and would forget everything anyways in the morning. Perfect, he thought while changing into the feisty woman with dark hair before entering the restaurant.
Be Darcy, he thought while walking to the table the two love-birds were sitting, be Darcy, be Darcy.
"So." Loki spoke in the woman's voice, when he had reached the table. "I show up to work at the lab slash the empty house." He grabbed a chair at the adjoining table and took a seat, while snatching a knife and one of the breads in the breadbasket. "But since you were not there and were not working, I fully expected you to be moping around in your trailer, obsessing about you-know-who." He spread butter on the slice of bread. "But you're not! You are wearing lady clothes, you even took a shower didn't you! You smell good." He had to say that, since she really did. The scent of the woman he loved was something he couldn't escape from. He quickly took a bite of the bread to shake it off and gazed at Jane, who was looking at him reproachfully, signing towards Thor, who was smiling amusingly at the both of them, awaiting an explanation. "You-know-who?"
Oh, so his charming brother didn't know about him, well then, he had done the right thing in assaulting the couple with the truth.
"You remember my ex, I told you about?" She asked Thor. "From whom I gave you the clothes?"
Thor nodded.
My clothes? Loki eyed his brother confused. That were his clothes? He hadn't even recognized them. Of course he hadn't. They were far more tight than when he was wearing them. The rage grew inside of him. So now Jane was giving Thor his old human clothes? Well done, woman. He thought angrily. That must have been love, if you can give them away so easily to a good-looking muscled stranger.
"It's complicated." Jane started carefully, how would she explain that she still loved her ex-boyfriend to a man she was interested in? She probably shouldn't.
Loki was sitting on the edge of his seat, waiting for Jane's explanation. Complicated sounded good. It sounded like something that she hadn't processed yet. Maybe she did still love him.
"He..." she took a deep breath, searching for the right words, "went away." She then added and looked at Thor as if she was expecting a horrifying reaction.
The way she said the words and the expression on her face while doing so, made him feel like he choked. There was sadness in her eyes, he was sure of it. He felt sentiment growing inside of him and he wished nothing more than to lean in and kiss the woman, while taking her into his arms. Nevertheless it only lasted a moment, since Jane managed to burst the atmosphere with the next words: "Yeah he never explained it to me and I never heard from him again." She shrugged her shoulders indifferently. "So, I can't say anything else than asshole."
"I am sorry to hear that." Thor said understanding. "You do not deserve that."
"Oh, and you are the one who is authorized to judge over her?" The fake Darcy asked the man tauntingly.
Now Jane looked at her friend more than confused. "Are you saying I deserve that?"
"No." Loki quickly said. "But Thor is claiming you a little bit too much, don't you think?"
"I am not at all." Thor stated nicely.
"Maybe you should leave now, Darcy." Jane whispered. "I would like to be alone with him."
"Well then!" Darcy slapped the table with her hand as she got up. "I'll see you around. Have a good time." She hissed through her teeth, almost as if she didn't mean it.
"Okaaay." Jane breathed, while rolling her eyes in confusion, when she watched her best friend leaving the restaurant with big steps. "That was kind of strange."
"Maybe she is jealous." Thor said with a smug smile.
The woman eyed him. "You are very confident, aren't you?"
"Am I not ought to be?" He asked taking another bite of his steak.
Yes, he was able to be that confident with his looks. Nevertheless she was unsure if he wasn't just conceited.
Loki clapped the door shut on his way out and didn't care that people were staring at him shocked. What was she thinking? He had never thought her to forget him that easily. Asshole. It was the only word that echoed in his head. Asshole. Asshole.
A.n.: No Loki! She still loves you! Don't be stupid!
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