It took a couple more weeks, but eventually Lyn found she was comfortable working with Loki. Loki however, could not say the same.
Every time she walked into the room the smell of her seemed to head straight to him. He couldn't focus when she was there. And the worst part was the thoughts he had while she was there. Loki was not some inexperienced fool, but he didn't enjoy thinking about a woman like that in his workplace. He had to sit ridiculously close to his desk and keep his head down. He barely spoke to her and stopped taking forms directly from her; she had to place them on his desk like she did for Tony. Hating these thoughts and emotions made him exhausted. He thought about confiding in someone, but the only person he trusted with this kind of…well, he couldn't really call it a problem as that would imply he disliked it. And he didn't. He liked these feelings, he liked her. He decided to confide in Thor the next moment he became available. Tony, however, had other plans.
It was a Friday afternoon and Loki had spent a relatively stress-free day. The woman, he still hadn't remembered what he'd been told was her name, had delivered their coffee and then left them to their work. This appeared to be a regular Friday routine, as she had to make sure all of this week's work was properly filed. Tony approached Loki's desk as his eyes began to wander towards the doors, curious if she would enter.
"Desperate to leave?" Tony joked. He didn't wait for Loki to respond. "We're going out for some drinks, do you feel like coming?"
"Sure." Loki replied. Maybe going out, drinking, that would help a little. Perhaps not as a long term solution, but at least until he could talk to Thor. It occurred to him that prior to his forgotten time on Midgard he would have never sought out Thor's help, but he had been feeling different lately. He had stopped resenting his father's decisions, and had begun to see the reasons behind them. It was all very confusing, maybe considerable amounts of alcohol would make it all go away for a bit.
Loki stared at the amber liquid sitting at the bottom of his glass. It had been untouched all evening. It would probably have been gone and replaced multiple times, except Tony had forgotten to mention that the secretary was joining them on their night out. He didn't want to drink around her in case the alcohol got the better of him. He couldn't hold his drink as well as Thor. It was a pretty interesting evening so far. Bruce was not present, he had work to do, and Steve had to meet someone. So it was just Tony, Natasha, Clint, the secretary and him. Looking up briefly, Loki saw the secretary had also kept the same drink for the past few hours. She was staring into much like he was, but he was certain she'd been looking at him moments before he looked up. He felt an elbow in his side.
"Her name is Lyn." Clint whispered in his ear. Loki was surprised.
"Thank you." He whispered back. He drank the amber liquid, which did not taste as sweet as its appearance implied, and stood up.
Lyn was drunk.
No-one had seen her drinking; she was subtle about it. She knew she was drunk because the room gained a slight tilt and wouldn't stop swaying. Also she had the urge to do some things which would probably get her fired, or even killed.
"Lyn, right?" a familiar voice gained her attention.
"Loki!" She exclaimed. He looked surprised. Clearly he thought she was sober.
"Are you drunk?" he laughed.
"A little." She giggled. She attempted to stand to talk to him better, but ended up tripping on the chair leg and stumbling into him. The rest of the table appeared to be distracted by some flaming shots which had been brought to concern themselves with what was going on. Loki laughed at Lyn as he caught her.
"Maybe you should have some coffee."
"Hate it. I prefer hot chocolate." Lyn mumbled, managing to stand. Loki smiled.
"Hot chocolate then." He suggested. Lyn nodded. Loki gently sat her down in a chair before leaning over to Tony.
"Lyn needs to sober up; thanks for inviting me." He said. Tony nodded and returned to the shots, laughing and falling over as Clint failed to understand how to drink it.