CHAPTER FOUR

"Now, now, Jane…"

Darcy pressed her ear to the door, straining to hear what Erik and Jane were saying.

"This can't be true. This is not happening. He promised!"

She flinched. Jane's angry yelling was a sizable decibel difference from Erik's even tone. She pulled away from the door only to find a pair of light green eyes inches from her face. She stifled a yelp.

"Sorry to interrupt your eavesdropping," Loki said, "but the morphine is beginning to wear off. I require more."

Darcy blinked rapidly, trying to slow her racing heart and resist the urge to taze Loki. "Here on Earth," she ranted in a low voice, trying to avoid being heard by Jane or Erik, "we don't sneak up on people." She looked off to the side. "Well, unless the results are guaranteed to be funny and someone has a camera and YouTube account handy…" Loki stared at her blankly. She shook her head, waving a dismissing hand in the air. "Nuance. Ignore my babbling. Anyway, how the hell did you get out of bed? I thought you were like, crippled or whatever."

"I am. For the moment." He uncrossed his arms. "I am astral projecting. You are not actually having a conversation with me in person. This is only my consciousness. My body is still back in the bed." He reached out and guided her hand through his face casually. "See?"

Darcy gaped at him and then at her hand, opening and closing her mouth wordlessly. Loki flinched.

"Please excuse me. My physical body is in pain and it grows taxing to project in this condition. If you would fetch the morphine…"

He vanished, leaving a very surprised Darcy in his wake. Shaking her head, she began searching for the med kit.

Loki wasn't sure why he had done that. The mortal girl wasn't simple; surely she could comprehend that he was not corporeal without a demonstration. And even if she did require a demonstration, why not just walk through a wall? Why did he pass her hand through his cheek like that?

The idea troubled Loki for a moment until it occurred to him: shock value. He had done it to scare the girl. He smiled. God of mischief, even when injured.

You did it to impress her, a nagging voice in the back of his mind said. Scare, impress…it's a very thin line between those two words.

But Loki ignored the little voice.

Darcy still wrestled with the childproof cap on the morphine when she entered Loki's room.

"So…" she said, breathless and distracted by her efforts with the bottle. "Totally weird question for you…"

He quirked an amused eyebrow at her display, watching as she struggled in vain.

"Go on."

Darcy gasped in exasperation, wringing her hand as she failed once again to open the bottle. She breathed hard for a moment, then found her voice.

"Why aren't you healing faster? I thought you god-types were nearly invincible."

Loki smiled wryly. "Invincible? Far from it. We can be hurt and die just like humans. It's merely more uncommon. We heal somewhat faster from most minor injuries." He glanced after Darcy as she ducked into the bathroom for a towel to assist her battle. "As to this injury's particular difficulty, I don't know. It may be a normal side effect of my rough landing."

Darcy mmed noncommittally on her way out of the bathroom, bottle still unopened.

Loki rolled his eyes. Mortals. He flicked a wrist gently and the bottle opened with a quiet 'pop.'

"Aha!" Darcy smiled triumphantly and looked up to share her grin with him. He quickly lowered his hand and forced a benign smile to hide his amusement. Let her think she did it.

"How much did Jane give you earlier?" she asked absently, holding the bottle up to eye level as if to gauge how much was missing.

He made a low noise in the back of his throat. The pain was coming back stronger again. "We do not use the same units of measurement on Asgard," he said hoarsely. "I couldn't say."

"Eh, let's go with 'a butt-load,'" Darcy said, noticing his discomfort out of the corner of her eye.

Loki frowned, more a reflex to the spike of pain that had just shot up his spine than to her comment. He swallowed hard and closed his eyes. Distract yourself. Focus on talking.

"A 'butt-load?'" he said thickly. "That is a most unusual form of measurement."

Darcy snorted abruptly. Loki opened one eye to glare at her. It was an honest if somewhat dull inquiry.

"Sorry," she said, swallowing her laughter. The corners of her lips kept twitching upward, threatening to smile. "I was kidding. We don't actually measure things like that on Earth. It's just an expression."

He pressed his eyes shut again against another wave of fire. "Odd expression," he said through gritted teeth. He felt the small hand from earlier on his wrist—so that had been Darcy. He squinted at her hazily.

"Can you relax your arm a bit? I can't stretch it out. You're clenching."

Loki realized distantly that he was and unflexed his arm.

It was as if a floodgate opened. Streaks of pain began shooting up and down his right side, the tendons in his arm tensing involuntarily. He gritted his teeth.

"Hurry," he grunted.

"I've got it. This might hurt a little."

He laughed hollowly as he felt the needle brushing the crease of his elbow, the muscles in his stomach aching from the motion. She had no idea.

He heard the noise of a pin dropping across the room. He realized with a start that Darcy had finished and was throwing away the needle. The pain was already beginning to taper away.

He breathed deeply, revelling in his ability to do so without fear of pain.

"Thank you," he muttered. He froze instantly.

Darcy paused. "You're welcome."

Loki heard the noise of a box being closed and Darcy's footsteps fading away down the hallway. Only when she was gone did he allow himself to go limp again.

The bitter voice in the back of his mind was furious. Why? Why did he thank a mortal? And more to the point, why did he thank one of Thor's friends?

Self-preservation, he told himself. From a purely utilitarian perspective, it made sense to be courteous his caretakers. If he could lead them to believe that he was trustworthy, they would give him better care and possibly allow him to walk free more quickly. Logical.

The voice fell silent at that, and Loki managed to fall asleep with a small smile on his face.