Okay, this one came out a little weird. I tried to rewrite it, but nothing would come to mind that didn't lead back to the same topics here. So I ran with it. Seriously, I don't know where this came from so please don't ask. Let me know if its too out there for anyone.

Prompt: Darkness

From: avengers-tables .livejournal under 50-word prompt (yes, I do intent to use all 50 words)

Pairings: Darcy/Clint, Loki & Darcy interaction

"You are rather brave, to wonder through the darkness as you are." Loki's voice whispered through the air, no threat in its tone. Merely surprise.

Darcy snorted slightly and turned towards where she could see him standing. He was hovering in a patch of almost complete darkness, but his form was still visible. His eyes nearly glowed, red as a demon's, from the shadows. She noted with some pleasure that he was letting his Jotunn blood show.

"Didn't you get the memo? Not all of us are afraid of the things that go bump in the night," explained Darcy mildly, hip cocking slightly. "Besides, what is there to be afraid of? There's nothing in the dark that isn't there in the light. Its just a question of if people are aware its there or not."

Loki nodded slowly, sliding a bit more out of his corner towards where she stood. "Perhaps, but you should be more afraid little mortal."

"Little?" asked Darcy with a raised eyebrow. "Dude, check again. I'm not exactly small in the weight department." She wasn't big either, curvy perhaps but not heavy set. Still, little didn't even begin to describe her.

He shrugged slightly, leaning on a wall. "All mortals are small to me. Now tell me, mortal girl, why it is you do not fear the dark."

"And you're interested, why?" asked Darcy, looking unhappy with the inquiry.

For a moment, the two just stared at each other: Loki keyed off that Darcy wasn't apparently afraid of him and Darcy irritated that Loki felt the need to question her lack of fear. Loki broke first, moving completely out of the shadows to walk around her slowly. "I have been observing you, mortal. You lack the basic fears most mortals suffer from."

Again, one of Darcy's eyebrows came up. "I wouldn't say there is a baseline set of human fears."

"I would," corrected Loki as he continued to pace around her. She let him, her eyes tracking him when he was in front of her but not shifting her head even as he moved behind her. "For example, most humans dislike having anyone who is a threat to their health behind them, yet you let me pace around you without flinching."

"I have my tazer if you try anything," replied Darcy calmly. Her voice gave no indication of the tension which thrummed through her body. She didn't like having people walk behind her hand more than any other human, perhaps even less than most, but she wasn't going to give Loki the satisfaction of knowing he made her uneasy either. She was a poli sci major, sheknew the psychology. He was using a classic intimidation move. Clearly, Loki was a man who ruled through fear. "Plus, you're a prince who rules through fear. So why give you exactly what you want?"

Loki paused in his pacing so he was directly behind her. Still, she did not move. "You are a scholar of the courts."

"Wrong word dude," corrected Darcy. "Its called politics here. Courts were thrown out in the 20th century with the two great wars. Court now refers to an aspect of the legal system."

She could feel his nod behind her, almost see it. He wasn't threatening her, he was curious. The way he was looking at her was the way Clint looked at her sometimes, when she did something that he was surprised she would be willing to do. Or even knew how to do.

"You understand how the modern methods of ruling work," confirmed Loki calmly. "I will keep this is mind. Your knowledge may come in handy when I have taken control of the world."

Darcy snorted slightly. "You want me to be your personal Machiavelli?"

"My personal what?" questioned Loki, coming to stand in front of her again. He didn't sound angry, just severely confused.

She sighed and shook her head. "He was a political adviser who wrote one of the best known guides for rulers in existence."

"I see," muttered Loki. "Then, if he was as fearless as you appear to be that is an apt comparison."

"I'm hardly fearless dude," pointed out Darcy, slightly annoyed. "I'm just not afraid of the stuff you seem to think all humans are afraid of."

Loki just shook his head. "Perhaps you have fears, mortal, but they are not the common ones. You walk the darkness as if you are protected by it, you speak to me as if I could not kill you with a snap of my fingers, you do not suffer from the fear most would feel at having a dream even a quarter as bad as the ones your mind produces every night, and even my presence did not frighten you when you first laid eyes on me."

"Because I already knew you were down here," growled Darcy. "Well, not you specifically but I could feel something inhuman down here. It just happened to be you. As for the lack of nightmares, every human has a different set of fears so what one person finds scary might be normal for another. I'm not afraid of the dark because I know it shields me as much as it could shield any threats, so someone isn't going to see me any faster than I see them, if they can even see me at all. Great night vision is a huge bonus. And I'm not afraid to talk to you because all you want is someone totalk to."

She felt him stiffen and knew right then that she'd struck the nail on the head. "You cannot know this mortal."

"Dude, I'm sleeping with Hawkeye, the king of not telling me what he needs," pointed out Darcy. "I've adapted. You learn to read people pretty quick when one of the people you're closest to won't tell you what he wants." She paused to consider that for a moment. "Honestly, you two are probably more similar than you'd want to think, though you and Tony are the closest in personality. Not that I'll ever tell Tony that, but still..."

Loki frowned and stepped close to Darcy, leaning in towards her face. "You have a strange ability, Darcy Lewis."

She blinked up at him, startled by the topic change. "Uh, and what ability would that be?"

"Simple," replied Loki with a smirk. "Your eyes see more than what is in front of you. We have been standing in absolute darkness for the past ten minutes, since I emerged into view, and you have yet to stop following me with your eyes. There is no light here little mortal, so I know your eyes can not see me."

Her back stiffened and her whole body went on alert, even as her hand fell towards where she kept her tazer and a knife Clint insisted she carry, because a tazer only had so many charges. "What do you mean? I can see just fine. Your magic must be out of whack."

"Hardly," assured Loki with a grin as the alley began to grow lighter, the physical objects she hadn't realized had faded to the point of being completely invisible coming back into view. "I know what my magic is capable of, and I have now confirmed exactly what you are capable of as well. Perhaps I should tell your Archer that you are not so normal, hm? That you can use the Midgardian variation of magic? The question which now stands concerns which magics you can see and use." One of his hands waved through the air as if the thought were of no real consequence. "This will not be our last meeting, Darcy Lewis. You intrigue me, and now I find myself curious to know the extent of your powers."

"Darcy?" the sound of a voice calling her name from near the end of the alley drew Loki's attention, but hers never wavered.

Loki just smirked. "It seems our little game is over for now." His eyes drifted back to her own, still that same glowing red, except now there was only interest reflected in their depths. "Return to your love, Darcy Lewis. I will come to test you again at a different time."

With that, Loki disappeared, leaving Darcy standing in the middle of a darkened alley with Clint running towards her almost frantic. His arms were around her in a heartbeat, just as the rest of the Avengers came barreling into the narrow thorough-fair. One of his hands drifted to her cheek, turning her eyes onto him. She watched his eyebrows furrow, felt him stiffen a little.

"Darcy?" he sounded confused, as if he weren't sure who he was looking at.

She gave him a soft smile instead. "Hey Clint, where's the party?"

"Here, apparently," muttered Tony, who was clad in his Iron Man suit and scanning the cramped space for any sign of Loki.

Natasha narrowed her eyes at Darcy. "We were chasing Loki when he disappeared down here. Then, we come down here and you emerge from seemingly nowhere."

Darcy opened her mouth to respond, but Clint tilted her head up so he could look her straight in the eye. Confusion radiated from his own orbs. He opened his mouth to attempt to say something, but couldn't seem to form the words. She just waited patiently for him to work out what he wanted to say. For all of ten seconds. "Geez Clint, spit it out already."

Tony cut in before Clint could say a word. "Hey Darce, aren't your eyes blue?"

She blinked at him like he was insane, jerking her head out of Clint's grip. "Uh, yeah? Why?"

Natasha cut in. "So why do they now appear to be yellow."

Thankfully, poli sci meant you learned how to bullshit on the spot. And well. "Its just the lighting down here."

Clint narrowed his eyes at her. "I've seen your eyes in the dark before Darce, and they've never looked yellow before."

Again, Darcy shrugged, trying to remain completely relaxed and casual. She should have realized the color change would occur as soon as Loki pointed out that she could still see him, even in absolute darkness. "Eh, sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. Different lighting and all that. The reflection changes and the color appears to change."

Clint still didn't look like he believed her, but he didn't push it either. Especially with the others looking on and apparently accepting her explanation. That was one of the best things about Clint, if she didn't want to talk about something in public, he didn't push it until they got some place where they were alone. And by then her eyes would be blue again. No one would ever know that, sometimes in the dark, her eyes faded to the soft yellow of a wolf's. Or that the change was why, even in almost absolute darkness, she could see everything.

Yeah, I've actually been asked that about my own eyes. I have blue but there's a ring of yellowish orange around the pupil that expands to take over my whole eye when its dark outside. So that's where that came form.