Refusing Silverware

Chapter 5: In Walks the Devil on a Saturday Night

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Author's Note : Sorry for the wait. I keep trying to come up with Darcy's voice but it keeps filtering in and out. I hope you all like this chapter!

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After that day in Tony Stark's kitchen, along with the large one grand tip for the delivery, which might have just been Stark's way of just blowing his money, and re-making of the cupcakes which were mostly due to the Avengers's and Ms. Potts's appreciation as they ended up enjoying the chocolate cupcakes she had been able to make on the whims of Stark's prominent genius, Darcy had yet to receive a call back to make another delivery for them.

She was extremely thankful for it, though Caroline had murmured in amazement at the amount of money they had earned from that job alone, especially with their mix-up, though that was due to the No on the order form that Caroline had given her being faded and illegible. They had been working at the diner for more hours, still using the income from it as a supplement to their rather ok-doing cupcake business.

Well, Darcy thought they were doing okay. Caroline, not so much. Her bright blue eyes were trained on the woman who was throwing her hands up in the air and ranting about how they needed to get out there even more than they were, which usually ended up in a complaint about Darcy's lack of ambition. The brunette pastry maker could only smirk at the usual never-ending rant they tended to have every day they were working in the no-account crappy hole in the wall diner. However, with each word about success from her roommate and business manager only made the brunette want to sink her heels in the ground and go back to living from paycheck to barely paying paycheck to keep out of the limelight. Being stubborn was a trait she had cultivated well in her life.

The need to hide from Coulson over rode her need to have her cupcakes recognized for their amazing flavors, though she did feel a desire to have that beautiful bathtub that she had used at Caroline's old summer house. Right now, the need to hide from Caroline's nagging was far too powerful to have their business discussed. The diner was filled with patrons, whilst her and the other waitress were in the freezer getting pies they would need to cut. After the billionth, 'MAX, PLEASE!' whine from the blond waitress beside her, Darcy Lewis had just about enough.

"Caroline, I can't help that I like the way I live." Her hands lifted the chocolate pie out of it's box that the blonde once-upon-a-time heiress took and flattened at record speed. Darcy turned away, hoping that her words would cause the whining and pleading that was close to grating on her nerves to end for once in the day. Living in a stressful job, half-panicking every time she saw a plain brunette with plaid and a ratty shirt that belonged to their neice- Hipsters the very definition of irony and making her see Jane Foster every time one walked into the diner- only made the taser-toting brunette near her wit's end half the time with Caroline adding pressure she didn't know could perhaps tip the scale on her mental well-being. Darcy, if only for a moment, as she passed the door into the hot and sweaty domain of their cook, wondered if she did lose her mind, if she could possibly send a bill to Coulson to pay for the mental break.

However, it seemed that today, Caroline Channing was not to be deterred from her objective! In fact, Darcy mused to herself, passing the saloon doors of the kitchen to the counter, she had likely made a 'dream' board of this conversation causing Darcy to change her mind on becoming a bigger industrial giant...well, as much as one could be with only two over-worked, under-paid waitresses as the only employees.

"But just think!" Caroline's enthusiastic glee could cause Mrs. Claus to wither in the background from how bright she sounded. "We could end up in a better apartment finally!" Darcy damn well liked her apartment that she had nabbed. Hell, her bed was comfortable and they had unsecured wireless down the stairs she snuck off and grabbed at times. "We could have our own internet connection, even!" Technically that would be a definite plus. No more sneaking down the stairs with their laptop just to check their email, nor escape to watching kitten videos, since Darcy was unable to get a cat at all with her current situation. No way to be responsible for a little furry baby if she couldn't even be on the grid to the world.

"It just comes with more bills that we don't really need." Desperation tinged her voice as she finally reached her destination, the pie fridge next to the counter. It seemed that Caroline really wasn't giving up on this for today. Turning her head to the sound of a whistle, Darcy felt a smug smirk fall on her lips. She knew the older jazz-influenced register clerk would have her back. He tended to in these arguments for no one could really argue with his frankness. "Earl, tell her!"

"If I can't pay for my women, my booze, and my place, then I don't need to add more." Earl didn't even look up from his magazine he was reading. He had heard this tale a dozen times by now. The first argument being right after they had made money, more than any other day, when the alien invasion of New York had happened. People, with little left, and mass evacuations happening, had migrated to the only places that would take cash, no questions about the blood on it, and no questions about how strangely bedraggled they looked. This mostly ended up being the Bronx.

"There you go!" Darcy closed the door to the fridge, taking out a pad of paper to drop the bill to table three where the two old biddies were currently glaring each other half-way to the funeral home. She half-imagined that Caroline and her would wind up doing that when they were older and close to the finish line of life. Dropping the piece of paper on the table and walking away towards the counter, Darcy was hoping that Earl had settled the disagreement like he had a few times before.

"Earl doesn't count in this, Max. He's all vintage. You can't stop at antiquidated values of self-worth." Heaving a sigh, Caroline circled around Max, stopping in front of her. Her big blue eyes looked imploringly into Darcy's, making the brunette only want to back away. She gave a grunt of disagreement before trying to head past the blonde heiress.

"Earl counts. He's not bonkers yet in the nursing home." Caroline moved to block her, stopping her from trying to get past to the relative safety of the kitchen, where perhaps, if she was lucky, their cook would say something sexually harassing and they could forget this issue had come up yet again.

"It's cause the nurses weren't pretty enough." Earl's yell made a smirk appear on Darcy's red lips. She could always count on Earl for a pithy one liner to help her case. The blonde waitress could only roll her eyes as she responded back for Darcy.

"Not helping, Earl!" Earl laughed with his cheeks brightening up in mirth at his age, crow's feet showing on his face as the ring of a new customer came to all of their ears. Caroline was giving Darcy one hell of a stare, meaning business as they stopped vocalizing their discussion. Anytime Darcy tried to side-step around Caroline, the blonde was there to block her, continuing this strange sort of silent standstill, until finally Darcy feinted going for one side then darting through the open space Caroline had made.

A wide grin of victory was the blonde's only answer as Darcy was putting up tickets on the wheel for their cook to start making more orders. With her back turned from the entrance of the diner and from Caroline, she began getting out packets of sugar and sweet-n-low out.

"Excuse me," The charismatic voice seemed to slice through the noise of the diner, making every other noise except for the jingles of Caroline's bracelet and the clicking and clacking of plastic sugar holders being placed and filled on the counter almost silent. The voice, deeply coated in charm and honey, came from behind the blonde.

"Oh!" Caroline turned to look at the entrance of the diner, mouth opening wide in appreciation of the voice who called out to them. "OH." To which the blonde started repeatedly patting her hand on the back of Darcy's uniform as she rolled her eyes to finally turn around, more so out of childish annoyance than actually caring what Caroline was "OH"-ing about. When she did, the choked noise she made could have made top ten most embarassing sounds chart in the world.

"OH." She quite agreed to Caroline's tone and her room mate's need to drag her eyes up and down the male of their admiration. Darcy knew she totally shouldn't be checking out the fully tall and gloriously lean appearance of Loki Laufeyson, but he could rock a suit like no one's business. (Quite frankly, she assumed, it really wasn't her business that he could but hot damn, she could admit she did like it on him.)

"How quaint to hear parrots but I swore I was in a shabby hole in the ground and not the tropics." His words registered that he was being a jerk but Darcy could only feel like karma was sucker punching her in the stomach yet again. Why did he have to have such an attractive voice? Even more, she groaned inwardly, why did she have to love accents? It was sort of unfair, really. She took a glance at Caroline but quickly knew she was seeing the blonde nearly spellbound by his words.

"Well, you certainly make a room as hot as one." Darcy smirked to herself, keeping her head on as straight as she could with Loki's presence around her. Her words were off-handedly truthful, cause he for certain made brains melt, if Caroline was any indication. He had the sort of magnetism that drew people to him, like cocaine or heroine. He smirked at her retort. Darcy could see that Earl was about ready to get his baseball bat out if his "Max" needed it.

"I can, but I would prefer a more private setting for that." Oh by all of Asgard, she was in it now. She licked her lips nervously, noting that Loki's eyes flitted only momentarily down to her lips before looking back at her eyes. The cheshire cat grin upon his face was enough to set her off on a furious need to have some alone time, preferrably without Caroline in her apartment.

"What's the problem then?" Her bravado, though forced, as she shook her head over at Earl, making sure he put the bat away, didn't waver with her psuedo-sarcasm coming through. She felt a weak smile slip upon her lips as her hands became clammy. All the while, Loki looked as if he had caught the mouse in its own trap, enjoying the look on the poor mortal's face as he toyed with her.

"I came to look for you, actually." Seeing as how Johnny was back with Cash, and she had not had any recent flings for who knows how long, (4 months, but she wasn't really counting.) Darcy knew that she was going to keep that phrase in her spank bank even when she was dinosaur aged and becoming a fossil fuel. Caroline's sharp intake of breath definitely let her know that her room mate would most likely be doing the same.

"It took you six months to eat that cupcake? I thought I put down enough of that frosting you were so keen on." Putting her hands on her hips as she sashayed -making sure there was extra sway in her hips- towards Loki, matching his gaze with a mischievous one of her own, Darcy Lewis could only smirk at how her fate was already playing out. Deep down though, with each step towards Loki, until she stood in front of him, shielding Caroline, she was making another outlandish decision. She was already playing it dangerous being in the same city as over half of Shield and most of the Avengers, she reasoned.

Playing it dangerous with Loki Laufeyson? Why not just add it to the long list of crazy things in her life?

"I like my sweet treats like any other man." The way he emphasized the word 'treats' only made Darcy Lewis realize that he definitely was not meaning the fluffy sugary kind. He was meaning her and the fact that she realized this only made her knees wobble and her chest compress painfully as a line of fire went straight down to her hoo-ha, which had not had that much lady action since her last fling with Johnny. "Having just one is never enough."

His eyes burned an emerald blaze, set to stroking her insides until she cooked.

Oh by all of Asgard and space, she was sure that she had stepped out of a mess only to fall ass-backwards and heels over head into the frying pan, doused in oil that came from those who preferred her to be punished.