After receiving a series of extremely helpful reviews from Skytteflickan, I've gone back through the first few chapters of Like the Pharaohs of Old and fixed a few grammatical things, as well as added a few sentences here and there to patch up minor plot holes. It's nothing that will change the story, but I just thought I'd say I did it. (Everything after the first five chapters or so has been un-beta'd, non-proofread, etc. Just me reading through it once to make sure I didn't do anything stupid.)

I'd like to thank Skytteflickan for the great reviews that were extremely constructive, and also everyone else who has reviewed, letting me know that they enjoy what I do here. I love you and you warm my heart.

So, I had planned for this chapter to be sweet and full of fluff, but it kind of took a direction of its own.

Oops.

"Darcy, I don't know if I can do this."

"Oh, shut up. You look beautiful."

"You keep saying that. It's nice, but it's not doing much for me."

"Fine. You're bammin' slammin' booty-liscious. Better?"

"Not at all."

Jane and Darcy were waiting alone in a back room in the chapel. Jane kept messing with her dress or her hair or her veil, until Darcy finally just smacked her hand away and attempted to give her a pep-talk that mostly resulted in Jane being slightly insulted but a lot better off confidence-wise. Every few minutes, though, she'd become nervous again and begin her spiral of self-doubt and fear until Darcy could talk sense into her. Darcy just wished Pepper was here instead of off checking on things and making sure everything was going according to plan; Pepper was so much better at this sort of thing.

"Darcy," Jane began, her eyes fearful.

Darcy put her hand on Jane's shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "Jane. You and Thor are so in love it's literally sickening. You're going to go through with this and it'll be the best day of your life. Unless you'd prefer we cancel the whole thing and—"

"No," Jane said, realizing what Darcy had been getting at: Jane's love of Thor outweighed her fear.

Pepper returned a few minutes later and said that they had fifteen more minutes until they'd have to get into their positions. Darcy snuck off as Pepper and Jane started crying, hoping to get a peek at the boys before this shindig went down.

"Hey, I really hope nobody's naked, but I don't care that much about it to knock before coming in," Darcy said loudly as she opened the door to the room the men were in. The three of them, Thor, Loki, and Fandral—moustache-man, as Darcy preferred— were each holding a glass of some mystery liquid. Stark was present as well, so it was probably alcohol they were drinking.

"What's this? I get hysterics and tears and you guys get alcohol? That's it. I want a penis."

"Jane is distressed?" Thor asked, stepping toward her.

"Calm down. It's just the pre-wedding jitters. She'll be fine." Darcy walked over to the group of men and grabbed the glass from Stark's hand.

"No, please. Help yourself," Stark said bitterly as Darcy drained his glass.

"Wow," Darcy said, taking a moment to get used to the drink. It burned her throat in a half-lemon juice half-alcohol kind of way and made her half-hiccup/half-burp as she took it in. "That's pretty strong for a wedding day toast. And before eleven in the morning? For shame. Et tú, Loki?"

"What can I say? It's a good drink," Loki said, accenting this by taking a sip.

Darcy could feel the drink settling in her. "God, what's in this? Pure alcohol and battery acid?"

Stark finished off the glass he had just re-poured himself and burped. "It's called an 'Adios Motherfucker.' It's like vodka, gin, rum, Curacao liqueur, tequila, and Sprite."

"Jesus. Sounds about your speed. But really, on Thor's wedding day?" Darcy asked.

"It was for the nerves and meant to be taken over a little bit longer time frame than one shot," Stark explained.

"What have you got to be nervous about? You're sitting on your ass in the second row. We're the ones up in front of everybody," Darcy put her hand on her hip to accent her sass. She was definitely feeling the alcohol now.

"Notice how I'm not the only one drinking it," he replied, motioning at the surrounding wedding party members.

"Just an excuse to drink. You should be more careful," She smiled smugly and put the empty glass on the table beside them.

"Yes, I could wind up getting shitfaced at a bachelorette party and making a fool of myself. Aw, too soon?"

"I'm more concerned as to why you'd be at a bachelorette party, Stark," Loki remarked. "Tell us, do you secretly want to be truer to your inner femininity?"

"Or would you be the entertainment?" Darcy added.

"You two are funny. I had no idea this was comedy hour,"

"I'm taking that as your surrender," Darcy said, smiling.

"Never."

Their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door and Pepper summoning Darcy. Before leaving, Darcy quickly kissed Loki, much to the comically exaggerated retching and gagging from Stark.

Breathe. Just breathe, Darce. Fuck, this isn't even my wedding. Why am I nervous? I guess I know how Jane was feeling. Oh god, am I sweating liqueur? The ceiling looks funny. I think this is what an acid trip feels like. God, Loki looks so fuckable right now. No! Focus. Shit, the music's starting. Wait— was I supposed to wait sixteen beats or thirty-two? Shit! I didn't start counting when it started! Oh my god, I've ruined the whole wedding!

Apparently Darcy was in luck; Pepper had been paying attention and when the time came she gave Darcy a light push out into the sanctuary. Darcy started out her walk down the aisle attempting to regain her footing, but once she grew accustomed to her feet again she gave a polite smile to the people who had noticed and stepped in time with the music. She looked up the aisle to the men— Thor looked sick with nerves, Loki looked concerned for Darcy, and moustache-man looked absent-minded and Darcy was ninety-two percent sure he was staring at her breasts. Oh well.

Pepper followed Darcy with much more grace. Well, at least I haven't thrown up yet. I guess that's what the reception is for.

When Jane walked in, she took the breath from every person in the room. Darcy glanced over at Thor; every ounce of fear he had seemed to have before was gone. The look in his eyes said it all; he was looking at his wife and he loved her more than life itself. A man-tear even fell down his cheek as Darcy watched him watch Jane.

Darcy tightened her hold on her flowers as she tried to keep herself from crying as well. She looked over and made eye contact with Loki; to her surprise, his eyes had been on her instead of Jane. She winked at him, to which he responded with a wink of his own. She one-upped that by winking and sticking her tongue out in a more than suggestive manor, but then she remembered she was in a church and in front of a crowd of people and she stood stock still, eyes on Jane, not daring to look at anyone else's face.

The priest began his spiel once Jane reached the alter. Darcy did her best not to laugh or make any noise the whole time even though she was incredibly tipsy. At one point she was pretty sure she was about to fall over, but she was able to steady herself in time.

After the ceremony, Loki walked out of the sanctuary with Darcy. She only almost fell over two or three times, tripping over her own feet. Once they were out in the other room, free from the view of all of the other people, he turned and scooped her up into his arms and carried her down the side hallway toward the rooms they had gotten dressed in.

"I do believe you are a bit tipsy, darling," Loki said as he walked down the hall.

"I do believe you are correct," she said with a smile, perfectly aware that her words were slurred. "I think we're just going to blame Stark for this and call it a day."

"Sounds perfect."

Jane and Thor were immediately driven in some fancy car to the place the reception was at, Jane to get dressed there. The rest of the wedding party was to make their way over immediately as well, even though they were all supposed to make their grand entrance after everyone else had arrived.

Whatever. More time to get this fucking Adios Motherfucker out of my system.

"You know, I used to barely even drink at all. I think it's Stark. It's his fault, I know it. Two times in the past three days I've gotten like this? Fucking Stark, man."

"Not that I'm defending him, but he wasn't even present for one of these instances," Loki said, straightening his tie in the mirror. Darcy finished redoing her lipstick and began attempting to fix her hair. They had gotten into this predicament when Darcy had suggested that the best way for her to sober up would be to get her metabolism up and just work off the alcohol, which had led to their little adventure against the door of the powder room out behind the ballroom where the reception was being held.

Their grand entrances had been made and the festivities begun, but Darcy still hadn't shaken that damn drink. Five shots of strong alcohol mixed into one drink can do that to a person, especially on an empty stomach. After mentioning the metabolism thing to Loki and dirty talking him a bit, the two of them had snuck out and found the powder room, successfully getting her heart rate up at the very least.

"Should we walk in separately?" Loki asked, turning to Darcy as they were about to reenter the reception.

"Why? I'm not ashamed."

"Neither am I, but in the interest of decorum—"

"We already snuck out together. There's not much else we could do along those lines. I mean, I could have you fuck me on a table in there,"

"If you'd had one more of those drinks, I bet you would've insisted on it."

"Oh, if we do that later, can it be on the table Steve's at? His face would get so red it'd match Nat's hair,"

"Tempting, but if you remember, my mother is here,"

"Pussy. Whatever. Come on, let's go take our walk of shame with pride."

After an evening of dancing, cheesy wedding activities, and finally meeting Loki's dad— an old, somewhat Santa-esque fellow who hadn't corrected Darcy to a first name when she referred to him as Mr. Odinson— Loki and Darcy finally went home and finished off what they had started in the powder room. Darcy had found herself another sip of that Adios Motherfucker stuff and though both she and Loki were drunk off their asses, she knew she would have the hangover of her life the next morning. Judging by how Loki was currently acting, her thighs would probably match in pain as well. Completely worth it.