Refusing Silverware

Chapter 6: Parley for Teatime!

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Author's Note : Still going with this. I hope you all are enjoying every bit.

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Darcy, sitting down across from the once overly prideful but now probably banished but still prideful Prince of Asgard, was trying her best to string some form of an ice-breaker together. She couldn't think of anything to really say. What should she say to someone who is a maniac that tried to rule over the earth-according to the internet-and is now in time out -according to the same website-on that same planet and is wandering around in disguise, even if it was just modern clothing sans armor? Did she bring up his foiled plans and try to figure out what went wrong with them? (Somewhere on the deep part of her brain she knew this to be folly, for if anyone wanted to go on past mistakes, she was sure that he could easily bring all of hers up without care and air them in front of all her restaurant coworkers.)

She came to the only thing she could think could possibly be a safe enough topic.

"So...uh...How's space?" He turned his face from looking disinterested out in the diner to drilling a hole into her face as if she was a speck that had floated into his eyes to his annoyance. Irritation rose in her at the idea that he was treating her as if she was mundane.

"Wouldn't know. I'm on Midgard." It took a moment to translate what he meant when he said Midgard. Her mind flashed back to the texts that she had devoured during and after her internship with Jane. The mythology and sociology of the Norse era, though not her favorite things to read about, as she preferred reading the non-fiction political biographies of her favorite political people, had been more or less a fantastic read, filling her up with information when it came down to Thor.

"I see..." His matter of fact tone only brought her back to his banishment, well, as far as she could guess and from what internet rumors on the dark side of the net were speaking about. She was still following Jimmy Novak's twitter feed to which she learned unreal things that sometimes made her question why she didn't want to join SHIELD, if it was not to at least learn about the same things. Her voice trailed off, annoyance building up. There was an art to getting someone to speak about the real reason why they would come to a dumpy place such as the diner and during her time as a waitress in the quaint trashy place. That art, though, seemed to be flailing uselessly against the god in front of her.

The silence between them was loud in the way a cicada was during the summer nights, blanketing the quiet with the tension of its own making. Darcy fidgeted. She hated the quiet. Quiet reminded her of the man she had left behind in California, the one she took a Volkswagon Bug from and left behind. Memories of fire and stone and blood bled into her thoughts as she desperately reached for something else to continue the conversation.

"Why did you come here?"The unspoken question between them echoed. 'For me?' She knew better than to think like that. Thor had been the same way, selfish and completely enthralled into his own quest, his own needs before Jane, Erik, or her own. She had no doubt that Loki came for his own reasons, reasons that she had no idea of. Why would a god come shimmering out of nowhere into this crappy slop joint? Sometimes she questioned why she did and she was human.

"I came here for your cupcakes." His stress upon the possessive 'your' did her body in like an avalanche. She felt like she was free-falling down the mountain of hope and lust, at least until her rational mind broke through and reminded her that she was dealing with Loki, Viking Paragon of Mischief and that seduction was really nothing more than a tool in his arsenal of chaos. Darcy Lewis, if anything, hated to be played like a violin. She knew when she started this conversation that she was courting the devil and Loki was a master violinist.

"Well, go ahead and pay Caroline." Grumbling, moreso out of her own self-interest to not fall prey to his sulty words and key phrasing, Darcy moved to get up and out of the booth. Her movement was stopped by the flash of a pale hand around her lower arm. The cold from his touch was a shock, which made her turn to look at him in bewilderment and fear. His hand upon her flesh made her feel as if she was in a storm, a hurricane of lightnening racing hotly under his cold fingers.

"Oh? Then do you suppose your little blonde friend is willing to know all about you then?" Those fingers tightened slightly in their hold on her. His words made a noose to hang herself with as she stood in front of him, inwardly too fearful to move as she could tell that his fingers held strength more than in her entire body. He was the cobra with his hood up, baring fangs at her ready to strike.

"Don't you go near her." Her words were a whisper, forceful with a braveness to them that she wasn't feeling. She was standing on the platform, facing him as if he was her executioner with his cobra hood hypnotizing her with the knowledge that he would just have to tighten and twitch his hand to break her arm with no care.

"Ah-ah-ah. That's not how this works." He clucked his tongue at her, mocking in its own way. Darcy could feel the inferiority that he uttered without caring if she was offended. He was a prince in his own right, according to Thor. He was probably used to people being below him and for her that rankled, twisted inside of her.

"How what works?" Her whisper was quiet, almost imperceptive to the ears of the Asgardian in front of her. Loki smiled. He loosened his hold upon her arm to a bare minium, a brushing of his fingers as she breathed. Her blue eyes were watering from fright as her flush lips furrowed into a thinned grimace.

"You know who I am. It entails things that include listening to cries for help." He stated his evidence on just how he knew. To be fair to the mortal in his grasp, according to her, he should be a deity. She didn't need to know he had used the meager amount of magic he was allowed that day to read her mind without permission, to see what she thought before he had come to appear behind her.

"I-I didn't!" Her quiet protest did little to her cause as Loki's lips only spread in a wide cheshire grin. He had fully caught her and knew it. She shook in his grasp with her warm skin bristling against his cold fingers.

"Oh please, don't let Coulson find me." He did a poor imitation of her voice, pale hand on his chest as he spoke mockingly. His smug look afterward did her no favors as her stomach plummeted. He knew.

"I don't sound like that!" Her protest was weak as her body seemed to be shaken to the core, drenched in clammy fear. He knew her fear. He knew that she didn't want Coulson to find her and drag her into the clutches of SHIELD. The words kept repeating themselves in her head as she tried to put herself back to rights, to keep the shaking from her fingers and the fright from entering her face.

She took a glance over to Caroline who was behind the counter, watching them but thankfully out of ear shot. Her blonde friend's eyebrows waggled in a way that made Darcy smile gratefully. She could always count on her best friend to make her remember that she wasn't a shaking leaf on the wind but a strong, independent nearly-homeless-and-penniless-half-the-time woman of the Bronx.

"It was when you were traipsing around in a cook's cloth in the kitchen of the Iron Man. I thought to let it go but it intrigued me enough to garner my interest." Loki continued speaking, dismissing her protest with nary but a twitch of his lips.

"You don't even know who I am!" Her words were harsh, spitting out of her lips as she tried to call him out on his words, hoping that he was joking around. His green eyes drilled through her as if she was truly wasting his time. Any chance of her hoping that he was just messing around with her soon dwindled to nothing as soon as he opened his mouth.

"Your name is Darcy Lewis. You were born in Richmond, Virginia to a Ms. Elizabeth Bennet Lewis and James Frederick Lewis at eight twelve in the morning on M-" Every word was matter of fact as if read from some sort of file and his laconic smirk wasn't helping her either. The rise of irritation travelled to her stomach as the heat roiled sickenly through her.

"I got it! I got it! What did you do, look up my file or something?!" She sat down roughly, landing with a soft ploof of air from the cushion on the seat. Her cheeks were tinged pink from her indignation at being so thoroughly caught, something she had been trying to avoid for at least two years so far.

"Magic, my dear." He had actually looked up her file in the Iron Man's computer, especially after remembering the name of Agent Coulson from reading her mind. He had seen the man's last few missions that had been given to him, one including gathering the Avengers against him, the other had been in the recruitment of an intern that knew too much.

"Fine. What do you want?" Fully defeated, Darcy crossed her arms and wondered if pouting her lips at him would be considered too childish. She fell back in the booth, blowing her hair out of her face from the annoyance of being so thoroughly screwed sideways by one Loki, God of Mischief.

"I want your cupcakes. One hour after you close this shabby little place so I do not have to share my food with the rest of the human stains of the poor." His arching hands, long and looking very dexterous despite how much Darcy Lewis was trying not to think of how dexterous they might be, started picking on a stain with bits of food in it on the seat next to him. With his hoity-toity attitude, Darcy could only smirk to herself. She let silence reign over their conversation for a few minutes, watching him pick at the stain with a look of annoyance.

"That's actually dried up vomit from like, four hours ago. I haven't cleaned it yet. It kept the hipsters out." Enjoying the inner gloating to herself, Darcy let slip what Loki's pale hands were touching, with almost vicious glee. His face blanched at her. Those long fingers hurriedly wiping themselves on napkins she handed his other hand that had immediately reached for her.

"You let me sit here!" He hissed. 'Damn it.' Darcy groaned inwardly at the fact that even when he was angry, his voice still sounded like melted chocolate. His accusation only made the waitress shrug.

"You sat there before I could stop you." His frown only made his eyes appear more severe, but the severity left him rather quickly before he went back to his placid tone of his voice, having fully wiped his hands clean on the napkins. (She chose not to tell him the napkins were the ones she had picked him from another table and had been going to throw away.)

"Do we have an accord?"

The words hung there in the air, waiting for her decision. She could say yes immediately. She could also say no and leave it at that. Something in her though wanted her to be impulsive. Darcy Lewis was already set to the side for the rest of her life, set to watch the world while she waited on people, to continuosly hate hipsters just because they ended up reminding her too often of Jane Foster, to look up at the stars and wonder if Thor was alright in space. She chose to leave herself out for protection.

This answer she gave him would change something. The Sword of Damocles dangled above her on this. She could damn herself. She could change something. The possibilities were many but she knew the most part would be that Loki technically really held the fate of her in his hands.

She would let him dangle before answering the question he knew she would answer.

"You mean, you won't rat me out to all your super black and white buddies, and I have to make you cupcakes when the diner's closed?" Loki only gave a nod as an indication that he was listening to her. Skepticism ran across Darcy's face in spades. There was no way that it was thiseasy. No. Way. In. Hell. Darcy arched an eyebrow at him with her dark blue eyes darkening in suspicion. He could go and get the best cupcakes in the world with little effort. He practically lived in Stark Tower. (Well, she was assuming. Why else would he be in Tony Stark's kitchen unless he lived there?) "I don't get it. My cupcakes aren't godly. What makes them so special?"

Studying the alien in front of her, Darcy could see the internal debate that was going back and forth in a span of minutes as she waited to see if he would answer. When his green eyes looked at her, Darcy knew that she was treading on something he didn't want to let her know.

"They..." He sighed, turning his head away from her to the side. His eyes lowered to his hands as they clasped each other, while his cheeks started becoming a hue that his alabaster skin wasn't hiding so well. 'Holy shit!' Darcy thought upon the realization that he was blushing. He was embarressed about the reason why he came to her. "They taste like Frigga's."

"Wait. What?" The brunette waitress gaped about his revelation. She baked like a goddess?! If there were any chance that Caroline had overheard her, there would be definite dollar signs in the blonde's eyes. The name of Frigga barely phased her until she thought upon who Frigga was exactly. Thor had explained to Jane to which Jane had whispered to herself while conducting science in front of Darcy, and Darcy's ipod had ran out of battery and had been forced to overhear in the quiet of the lab, that Frigga was his mother, thus... Her eyes widened considerably as she mouthed the name to herself.

"Do not make me repeat myself, mortal." Loki seemed to have let it slide that she was mouthing his mother's name and was looking away from her in a sniff of his rather defining nose. His cheeks were still tinged pink enough once Darcy came back to earth that she could only smirk in the rise of her confidence. Well, she knew her baking was good but to be that good? She might as well enjoy it.

"Whoa, cool it on the 'mortal's and whatnots. People are going to be thinking you're who you actually are." With a look around the diner, she could see Caroline eyeing them, without trying to hide it too well, while staying out of ear shot. (Wasn't that the tenth time she had wiped precisely in that same spot on the counter with Oleg peeking out of the window as well for the last ten minutes?) Dealing with Caroline was gonna be even more of a hassle if it got out that Loki was actually himself.

"Fine. Do we have a deal?" She didn't expect Loki to actually choose to give up anything. He didn't really seem to have anything to lose in the deal other than having her cupcakes. Darcy looked down at her hand in thought. The knuckles were red from the rag she had been using earlier to wipe down the tables and booths. The bleach and scalding hot water having done their damage from two years of hard work. Would he even dare to touch her weathered hand? There were scars over her fingers and her palms, telling stories to her of what her job was costing her in beauty. When she chanced a look at the beautifully pale and cold length that his fingers were, the brunette wanted to mar them, not in vengence to his arrogant attitude but in jealousy. The reasons for even being noticed by SHIELD was sitting right there in front of her. He could have his family and his perfect fingers and she had to leave hers because she was there in the wrong place, wrong time.

"Spit on it." Darcy spit in her hand, holding out her palm to him. Determination lined her face as if it were an armor that would guard her from his penetrating eyes. He leaned back from her hand as if it were acid thrown at him.

"What?! Why in the Hel would I do that?" His green eyes tried to penetrate through her veneer but she was thinking on how much she was going to make sure if she was to be dragged through the ringer, she was taking him with her. She was going to smear that spit all over those perfect fingers and have him know that no matter how much he washed his hands, he had come into the so-called dirt and made a deal with her and her grubby, cut up, and scarred over hand.

"Well, I'm not sure when I last took an HIV test, so I don't want to have to cut my hand open and swap blood with you." His incredulous look only got better to the satisfaction of Darcy Lewis. She smirked in enjoyment. He would back down.

"Spit is supposed to be better?" His incredulity was working in her favor. He wouldn't touch her hand to get his cupcakes and that would be the last of it.

"If I'm getting into the nitty-gritty god BS that I think I am, it better, but if you wanna be a big baby about a little itty bit of spittle then you can go." She shook her hand out to him again with the lob of spit wobbling in her palm, hypnotizing him with the feeling of impending doom. Her smugness at the impending feeling of him backing down was her downfall. Loki spat in his own palm, reaching out and grasping her own firmly. Her taunting smirk fell almost instantly.

"Fine, Ms. Lew-" She cut him off sharply, gritting as his grip on her caused the feeling of ice to travel into her arm, lightning following it's flow in a strange intensity that she had no name to give.

"Max." Her fake name was breathlessly spoken. The shared secret of her true name dancing between their accord.

"Ms. Black." He amended to her last name.

"We'll go with that then, Loki." Saying his actual name was as if she was praying to him in fervor, in quiet supplication and a thrill of adrenaline spiked in her blood. His eyes darkened with his name from her ruby colored lips.

"Magnus will do." He withdrew his hand after tightening his grasp on her almost painfully. The threat behind it all too clear. She would pay for having made him take her spit on his hand. Slowly, as if backing away from a predator, Darcy took her hand and wiped it on her uniform. He reused the napkin from earlier with a laconic look upon his prominently regal features.

"I prefer strawberry cupcakes. I require at least a dozen kept aside for me." She balked at him. A dozen unpaid for cupcakes? Caroline would kill her. The thought of her business partner finding out about this arrangement and finding out they weren't really going to get paid for this special order every night

"A dozen? In that scrawny ass body?" He shrugged, imitating her though she couldn't tell if it was mockingly or not. His disregard for her comfort seemed to be little enough that she almost wished she had hocked a huge loogie on her palm instead of spit.

"I have a very high metabolism."

"Godly, more like." She grumbled under her breath, but his smirk told her that he had heard her. She looked away in annoyance as irritation crawled under her skin. She didn't know if she wanted to damn herself for this deal already or not.

"Yes, it is." Loki matter-of-factly stated to the amused snort of the once-been intern.

"Any other orders, your cupcake highness?" Darcy gave him a dismissive wave, hoping he would get the hint that she was done with all of his talking. Loki snorted in derision. She could only be so lucky, she thought.

"I will sit in the back, over there. I expect my booth to be clean when I get here." He pointed over to a corner booth that was out of the way and looked half-way cleaner than the rest of the diner ever did. This was mostly due to the fact that Darcy used that as her silverware folding table and anyone whoever came near instantly feared for even trying to nab the booth for themselves.

"Don't wear designer duds then." Her words slid off him as he continued speaking.

"Lastly, I only want to be serviced by you. I don't want the batting eyes of your compatriot, midget friend, or that...thing in the kitchen near me." Loki's green eyes looked over her shoulder, to which Darcy quickly joined to comically see Oleg, Caroline, and Han quickly try to find themselves looking busy. Glancing towards Earl, Darcy inclined her head to him.

"What about Earl?" Loki turned to stare at the elderly gentleman before shaking his head.

"...Only you." With a groan, knowing she had likely sold her soul to the devil without knowing it, after all, cupcakes were innocent. They couldn't really be a gateway drug to sensually being thrust in the middle of a strange adventure she had never really signed up for.

"Mind if I ask something real fast, since you're making all these demands on me?" He didn't say anything, only pointedly looked at her as if she knew she had just asked a question. Darcy quickly continued on before she could feel his eyes roll up to the sky. "Why wait six months to find me for these cupcakes?"

To be fair, she hadn't really thought on the time since she last saw him. Darcy Lewis had been trying to bury the fact that she knew who he was and that he was on Earth, especially after trashing New York City. Loki seemed to nitpick at his suit, picking off imaginary dirt before answering.

"I have been under stipulations made by Odin and the Director of SHIELD which included being under constant watch for the last six months. Due to good behavior, under Thor's terribly annoying good intentions, I have been given an hour per day after all things are done to which I am tracked by them, but not actually undermined with their minions tripping over themselves in front of me all the time." At her look of distrust, Loki gave her a level look. "It's the truth, Ms. Black."

"Huh and you chose here? Don't you think they're going to put listening devices in the area or at least have a survalliance van put in?" Deciding to trust Loki's words as they seemed sincere enough, Darcy eyed the window, trying to see if there was anything more suspicious than the drug deal she saw going on across the street. It would make sense if SHIELD was nearby to keep an eye on him but she couldn't really tell if they were anywhere nearby.

"Ms. Black, I doubt anything in this diner lasts long without crumbling under it's own rotted weight and to be fair, they have vehicles that do not look as if they are made with discolored parts from a wreck. They stick out rather well." She had to admit that he was right where the diner was concerned. The brunette had once tried to fix a cork board when she had first started at the joint and that had ended up with the fire department taking out a fire and half the diner nearly destroyed.

"Good point."