A/N: Chapter two! Sorry this should have been up forever ago! Ya'll deserve better! Okay so I'm going to try to update every time I get five reviews from now on. I know that's not too much to ask for because just the first chapter brought tons of followers! Every time my email beeped at me I leaped with joy. You guys are the best! All my lurves, Kake!
Darcy's alarm went off and she sat up quickly. Turning to Ian to wake him up, she screamed in terror. There, lying with his head tilted back, waking suddenly from an evidently deep sleep was not Ian, but someone she never expected to see. Probably because he was supposed to be dead.
Loki lay there motionless as everything fell into place for Darcy. Everything that she had for sure noticed about him by now was making since to her, no doubt. He watched her pace from the couch and yell accusatory statements and threats at him. She said things like 'What'd you do to Ian?' and 'Why?' as well as 'I'll kill you!' but what made him stop her was mention of her telling Thor.
"No, Darcy, please." He got up quickly, grabbing her shoulders in a pleading manner. "You can't tell Thor. He can't know." His eyes conveyed seriousness and worry. He knew his plans would be foiled if Thor knew about the truth this soon.
"Why would I do anything for you?" She asked, wishing he'd let go. Her arm burned where their skin touched.
"Haven't I been good to you these weeks?" He replied, eyes searching hers for signs of forgiving. He saw a flicker, just a flicker, but something. He knew this level of begging was simply degrading, but his only hope perhaps.
"We'll discuss that later." She said. "First," she shook herself from his grasp, moving back from his reach, "answer my questions." She looked angry. "What'd you do to Ian? Why? And how? You're dead! Or you were..." She reached forward to touch him, making sure be was really there. Not some ghost thing, which didn't make sense. You can't kiss ghosts. Wait, she'd kissed him! She felt the need to brush her teeth.
"I did nothing to Ian, I am Ian. Why: Because I needed insight into the progression of the convergence. How? I am a sorcerer Darcy; I can do many things unimaginable, even unfathomable, to the mortal mind."
"You can't be Ian! You were in prison when I met him and then you died two days later!" She tried to rationalize.
"Asgardian prisons can't fully leach or contain the power of a full-fledged sorcerer such as myself. The Ian you knew previously was a hologram; the Ian in the battle after my 'death' was me myself. I never died, it was an illusion. Much like my slicing off Thor's hand in battle." The last was an afterthought to offer an example.
"You sliced off his hand?" She squeaked, eyes widening and bringing her hand to her mouth. Her eyes widened and she looked slightly appalled. Obviously the whole illusion thing hadn't registered with her just yet.
"He didn't tell you that story?" He seemed genuinely confused. He knew his brother was a verbose story teller. Loving to exaggerate detail and make a play of it.
"If you didn't notice at dinner the other night, talking about you is painful. That's the second time you died when he could have saved you." She explained, "He's really hurting."
"I'm sure. Anyway, does that answer your questions?" He wasn't sure he believed good brother mournful, though he'd seen the proof himself.
"I still don't believe you're Ian." Darcy stated adamantly. She had her arms crossed and turned her head away, like a child.
"Why?!" He was exasperated and frustrated. He had given her all the answers to her questions, the truth. And he wasn't exactly known for being truthful.
"Well, you're... he's too... You're you and he's..." She stumbled around. Normally, being the fearless girl she was, she would have said it straight, but to Loki who could kill her with a small of his fingers and a blast of magic voodoo stuff, she was hesitant.
"Darcy, you're suggesting that I'm too evil to be Ian. Not sentimental enough?" He was angry now, she hadn't been a part of the plan. Honestly, he'd hardly noticed her in the New Mexico incident, and hadn't expected her to be in London. Everything with her head been unplanned, real. He hasn't even intended to stay after the convergence. He'd planned to either kill Ian off in the battle or make him disappear later, claiming the job was too much. He'd stayed for her. But now, he was the same guy, without the hologram, and she hated him. The same man she had loved the night before. He wanted to scream.
"That's exactly what I'm trying to say. Either that or it was all fake. You're a cold blooded snake Loki. A killer!" She growled. "I'm calling Jane!" She screamed, running for her phone. He threw up a force field and she ran smack into it. Sitting up she opened her mouth to show profanities his way but he stopped her.
"I'm afraid you can't do that. Thor cannot know I live." He was calm, oddly. "Now you can both be a good actress and accompany me to work; or I'll leave you here and tell Jane when I went to retrieve you, you had taken ill and could be out a few days."
"I'm not doing anything you want." She proclaimed, crossing her and defiantly. She was severely pissed. She knew she'd do anything to ruin his plans. He'd toured with her heart. Not cool.
"Very well then. I'll go without you, and I'm taking this." He called her phone to him. "Feel better, Darcy." He said, transforming into Ian, leaving the apartment. Darcy listened carefully. When she heard his car pull out she ran to the door, but it was locked, from the outside somehow. She needed to get a hold of Jane, but she didn't have a landline, and Ian... Loki, took her phone.
She rushed about trying to think. 'My laptop!' She thought excitedly. She ran to her 'bedroom' and grabbed it off her bed. It was dead. She screamed aloud in frustration, while she searched for the cord. 'Where the hell is it?' She thought, near the phase when she'd start yanking hair out and all spitting fire. Loki would pay for this, she was sorely pissed now.
"Hello Jane." Ian smiled, waving at Jane as he entered. "Selvig, Thor." He nodded. He waited to see their reactions, judge his ability to fill the mortals. And Thor. Something told him Thor was already wary of him. "Hi Ian, where's Darcy?" Jane asked, looking up from her work. She had been repairing some device, or altering it, he wasn't sure. Thor was eating pop tarts and watching her, looking up to assess Ian, his mouth full. His face was calculating, am of expression got him. Loki snickered, he felt as pleased about fooling his oaf brother add he ever had as a child. Perhaps more, got this was a far better scheme than those performed in his adolescent years.
Selvig didn't even notice Ian, or if he did he didn't care enough about Ian to leave whatever he was working on with the whiteboard. It was perhaps complex looking to mortals, but he understood it completely. What bothered him about the picture was Selvig was still wearing simply his underwear and a golf shirt. Loki had really messed with Selvig's head in order to make him do those things. He had to counter and cross all of Selvig's morals. Barton had been a price of cake. He was built and conditioned for taking orders.
"She felt sick this morning and stayed home. I'll cover for her though. I do her work half the time anyway." He laughed. Yeah, he was correct in assuming it would be no task to fool the mortals, they thought him one of accepted all his oddities because they thought he was one of them. It was the same with Darcy too. She had been falling in love, she "Okay, that'd be great." Jane smiled, hardly thinking much of it. Loki couldn't help marveling how easy this was. Darcy musn't have had an awesome attendance record to start with. He went over to her computer and started to work. This was practically a normal day from outside perspective.
Darcy found her computer cord finally, maybe an hour later. 'I should tidy more often.' She surmised, but instead just plugged in the laptop and waited for it to boot up. She waltzed over to the kitchen and prepared cocoa because it was a chilly day. When she sat back down at her laptop, she wondered if she was too calm about all this. If e-mailing and waiting for a response was too long to wait. Maybe she should bust a window and catch a taxi. 'I'm crazy, but not that crazy.'
Loki blended in perfectly in the office and none of his co-workers thought anything of it. It was so pleasantly amusing he couldn't believe how easy this was to get away with. He was sure everything would work out fine. Even if Darcy found a way to contact Jane she wouldn't do it. She was too curious about him, and what he was doing here on earth. She'd want more answers before she turned him in. While this wasn't quite a pleasant thought to Loki it was good insurance for the time being.
'Send the e-mail Darcy, just do it. He's a criminal. He doesn't deserve your mercy and trust. Tell Jane not to tell Thor, that'll work. No it won't she tells him everything. Just tell her! Who cares about Loki?' She saved the e-mail ad as draft. She felt stupid. Sighing she got up, stretched, and carried her cocoa to the couch, curled up, and watched a harry potter marathon on ABC. The commercials were painfully long, and during the third movie, she finally passed out.
"Ian?" Jane called across the lab. Loki's ears perked and he swiveled in his chair to face her.
She had done the same, but had an overflowing clip board in her hands that she was attempting to decipher. She glanced up just a second to confirm she had his attention. "You can go home early if you want. There's nothing for you to do until I get this paperwork done anyway."
"Sure you don't require a fresh perspective?" he asked, offering help, like he figured a mortal man might. Thor was eyeing him suspiciously and that worried him frankly, he wasn't sure he could fool Thor for very long if it ever came down to it.
"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt. It's a bit more than they teach you in college though." She held up the clip board over her head and she swiveled around. She was punching in digits and formulas on a calculator when he made it over there to take a look at her work himself.
He smiled at the board when he laid eyes on it. It really was pretty advanced, but he understood it completely, perhaps better than Jane even though this was her area of expertise. He was more of an alchemist than an astronomer though. He picked up a pencil and circled a few choice phrases. He scribbled notes off to the side, before setting the board on the desk beside her. She didn't even notice it until he was collecting his coat from his seat across the room.
"Ian this is brilliant!" she exclaimed. "How did I miss this?" she asked, more to herself. She began taking a whole new set of notes on a clean sheet of paper.
"Like I said, a fresh perspective can be vital." He smirked, which he couldn't help but feel didn't look right on his fabricated face. He turned on his heel and head toward the door, calling out a farewell to the room's' inhabitants. Thor's eyes followed him out the door, scrutinizing his every move.
Loki arrived back at Darcy's apparently l apartment to find her asleep on the couch, some movie playing on the TV with a boy, apparently magical, and some bald, odd-looking man. Darcy had a half drunken cup of cocoa sitting on the coffee table. He sighed, feeling bad about the way he'd left her. He'd had no choice though right? He was sure of this. With a sigh he wrote her, gently shaking get shoulder. She stirred, smiling up at him. He was still Ian.
"I had the most awful dream. And you were there!" She exclaimed, "Gosh I sound like Dorothy. Anyway, let me tell you about-" he cut her off. Her mouth still open, prepare to tell her about her fantastical dream and laugh with him about it's impossibility.
"Darcy it wasn't a dream." He transformed into Loki. Her eyes widened, and maybe it was her sleep like stupor that made her so emotional, but regardless, she was crying. Big cascading tears, and Loki knee not what to do. "Darcy, really, don't cry. We need to work things out. Darcy, calm down. I still lo-"
This time Darcy cut Loki off, angry, red faced, and tease soaked she turned on him. "Calm down? Calm down! You tricked me, trapped Mr in my own house, then begged for my faith in you! How can I trust you, when you are you?" She screamed, eyes refilling with hot tears, spoiling over her lashes. "I trusted Ian, but Ian was a lie! I won't be fool enough to trust the good of lies himself! You're not so smart as you think I'd you think otherwise." And spat, turning her head away from him.
Loki was angry now. He got up from where he'd knelt beside her, stood, and marched out; slamming the door behind her. She heard the magical click, knitting she was locked in once more. She felt like a prisoner. She was a prisoner. She cried more; angry, confused tears permeated with the pain she was feeling. When she cried so long her eyes were dry, she showered. Then, hair still wet, head pounding from so many years shed over love and lies, she slept.
She slept passed her alarm, ask the way to noon. Jane would be worried, but she didn't care. She was so angry. So hurt, she couldn't stand the thought of seeing Loki. Ever again. She contemplated sending the e-mail, but forging still stopped her. She rolled over, starting up at the ceiling. Glancing or the window she wondered how long she'd survive in confinement. Not long, she knew, but long enough to suffer.
'He wouldn't do that.' She thought, 'but he would. He's evil, a murderer, he attempted genocide. He was going to kill me anyway, by default. I'd be one of those humans. I could be dead now. 'She sighed, not sure what to think. Stupid hope still beat in her heart. Defying herself, she got up, and shuffled to her computer. She sent the e-mail, before she could change her mind.
"Let him deal with it. He did it." She said with a small breath of finality.
Loki entered his apartment. Nicer than Darcy's, and only five minutes away. He took off the illusion spell he'd set on it in case Darcy ever showed up. No point in that now. The room shimmered and came back into focus. Alchemy tables were set up in one area, beside his library. It was a studio apartment like hers, but top floor and much bigger. His bedroom was a hanging loft above the kitchen, facing the living area. He'd bought a TV and couch, he rather enjoyed watching some of the mortal shows, but many still bored him.
His whole apartment was spotless; he had a cleaning spell set on the brooms, mops, dusters, and other such house hold cleaning tools. It was an industrial, utilitarian style. He preferred his Asgardian quarters, but this would suffice. He made himself some food. Pasta with red wine. He sat down to watch television while he ate.
He left his dishes on the couch. He went over to his library to read, looking for a book to calm him down, perhaps a book on the study of mortal minds. He was searching through the index of a Freudian psychology text, when something made him look up. Voices, he glanced around to see if the TV was still on. He heard a rap on the door and then it opened swiftly. Loki looked up in astonishment.
A/N: Dun, dun, duh! How exciting! I'm so excited about what's happening next, are ya'll?