Oh god the flavors. So many to choose from. Darcy stood frozen with indecision in the ice cream isle at the supermarket near her house. Did she want Mint or did she want Coffee? She groaned. "Sweet sweet ice cream," she murmured to herself. "Why do you do this to me? Why give me so many choices of deliciousness and then make me pick only one?" She stroked the glass of the freezers. "You naughty little wonderful devil, you."

"Darcy?"

"Oh my dear sweet lord!" Darcy shrieked in surprise, spinning around.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to startle you. That's actually not the first time I've called your name, though, so I just thought...you know, I'd go louder."

It was Brainysexman, of course. Had he actually just said 'that's not the first time I've called your name'? Ugh, brain. Stop putting everything in a dirty context, Darcy told herself with annoyance. Just because his voice is stupid and incredible does not mean you should sex him. But focusing on a more important issue- he was standing behind her at the grocery store not even half an hour after she'd left him in the parking lot. What the fuck?

"Dude, what are you doing here?" Darcy asked, slightly suspiciously. "I mean- hi."

Sexypossiblestalkerman laughed a little bit- and what was his tongue even doing! WHAT WAS GOING ON because his laugh was doing weird things to her stomach, and she was pretty sure it wasn't all just ice cream hunger.

"Yeah, sorry," he said. "I know. This is a bit weird, right?"

Ummm, yes, just a little bit, Darcy thought. "This is SO weird," she said, waving her arms around to indicate the huge weirdness of this.

He rubbed the back of his neck kind of endearingly. "Well I've got this thing later tonight, and I wanted to get a snack. And then here you are, in the frozen section and I thought it might be weirder if I didn't say anything. You attention seemed pretty consumed by-"

"Shyeah," Darcy interjected, relieved and a bit unwillingly charmed by him. "Consumed by lust."

He blinked at her uncertainly. They just stared at each other for a moment.

"What?" he asked. His voice cracked slightly.

Darcy laughed, shaking her head. "Sorry! Sorry, yeah, I meant by ice cream. You know- consumed by lust...for ice cream." He didn't say anything, so she felt like she had to keep explaining. "Not like, for sex or anything. That would be silly!"

"Silly," he echoed, this funny look on his face.

"Yeah, silly. Because I could like, get that wherever I...wanted...to get...sex at. Sexytimes. All that sex I could get. So much sex."

He was just looking at her now with his eyes all surprised and his eyebrows- he did have nice eyebrows, she would admit that much- all tilted up in this funny little quirk, and it kind of sunk in what she'd just said. She had a habit of babbling, and sometimes her mouth was far more ahead of her brain. Why was she talking about sex though! What had happened!

"I'm sorry," she said, laughing at herself a bit. "Wow. We both seem to just be really sorry tonight. Anyways, I am sorry- my mouth sometimes doesn't tell my brain what it's going to do, so we're both surprised, really, by me talking so much about sex when what I really want is ice cream."

He smiled that little crooked smile thing he had going on, and said, "Don't worry about it. I'll just leave you to your ice cream then. It was..." he quirked his eyebrows, "nice to see you so unexpectedly." And he turned to go.

Darcy was going to just let him leave, but when she turned back to the ice cream she remembered her dilemma.

"Oh wait! Hold on just a minute. Can you help me?" she asked.

He turned around. "Umm, okay...?" He walked back.

"See, because here's the thing- I don't know whether I should get Mint or Coffee. Which one should I get? I'm, like, extremely terrible at making choices. I know I'll regret it. I just know it."

He smiled and laughed a little. Ugh, she thought, what the fuck, man. Why do you get to laugh like that! It's completely unfair. And you, like, bite your tongue or something when you laugh and it just looks all yummy and this is not a thing that is good! This is not a thing of goodness!

"Wait- can you not just get both?" he asked, confused.

Darcy gave him a look. "Are you kidding me?"

"Umm, no. Why? Is that bad?"

"Dude. This is Breyers we're talking about. It's like five dollars for one. You want me to spend ten dollars on ice cream?"

"Oh. I guess not. Okay then...Mint?" he suggested. Poor guy, he was pretty out of his element here. She wondered what his 'engagement' even was. It was really hard to imagine him on a date. What would he even talk about with someone? Science? But that was harsh of her, she knew. He probably had...lots of other interests, whatever they were.

"Mmm," she made a noise of painful deliberation. "Mmm." Oh god. But what if what she really wanted was Coffee? FML, she thought. Decisions are stupid.

Confusinglysexy started chuckling.

"What?" she asked. "I might want Coffee. This is hard!" I wonder what else is hard, she thought. Oh my god brain! Calm down!

"No, it's just...the sound you made," he shook is head. "It sounded kind of like a puppy whining. In a good way!" he added, realizing how what he said could be interpreted.

"Oh," Darcy said, laughing. "Yeah...I do that sometimes. It's a thing. And Christ- is it just me or did it get really cold?" She was just wearing a t-shirt and she must have been standing in the frozen section for fifteen minutes by now. She rubbed her goose-bump covered arms. "Brr. Okay, decision time has to come quick."

She didn't really realize what he was doing as he took off his leather jacket until he was offering it to her.

"Awww, thank you," she said, putting it on. That was so nice of him! Kind of overboard seeing as all she had to do was open the freezer and pick a flavor, but nice nonetheless. Ahaha, it was so big on her. He really was pretty tall, and his chest was more built than she had remembered. Hmm. But- WHAT ON EARTH.

She tilted her head to the side and asked him very suspiciously, "Okay. Okay. So I know there has to be some perfectly reasonable explanation, but...why do you have a TARDIS on your shirt are you kidding me?"

He looked down in surprise at his chest and then smiled. "Huh. That's funny- I forgot I was wearing this," he said.

"Wait, but you actually know what it is, yeah? Please tell me you know what it is."Darcy was a major Doctor Who fan.

"What, the TARDIS? Time And Relative Dimension In Space? Yeah, I love the show. Doctor Who. Why, do you know it? It's actually what made me want to be a scientist when I was growing up. Of course, they've rebooted the series recently, so now there's all these new episodes and stuff, and..umm...well, yeah. Anyways, I like it."

Darcy stared at him in shock. She wrapped her leather-jacked-covered arms around herself and pretended he was hugging her. This was terrible news. Why did he just look like five times more handsome now! His face wasn't even...'weird' anymore, it was just, like, the only face he would make sense with. His green eyes were really expressive and his eyebrows were always making statements and quirking up or slanting down, and his nose fit his face just right, and his cheekbones were quite...mmm...well, quite a bit better than they had any right being, and his lips were just ugh because it was not okay for him to have those amazing lips and the way he held his tongue with his teeth when he laughed- like, what the hell man. Not okay. Even his hair! Well, not that it looked good, necessarily, but it wasn't awful anymore, either.

"Know it? Are you kidding me? It's like, my favorite show ever. BBC is finally airing season six in the States tonight at seven, and that's the whole reason I even stopped in here to get ice-cream."

"Oh my god!" Surprisinglyhandsome man exclaimed, getting really exited. "I'm watching it too! That's the thing that I was doing later tonight. I just came in here to get a snack, too."

"That's your 'engagement'? Oh my god! Oh my god oh my god oh my god!" It was so exciting to meet other fans of the show. It was seriously under-appreciated in America!

When Darcy liked people, she started getting a bit possessive of them, and she wanted nice things to happen to them and for them to never get hurt or sad. It was a small group, because for one reason or another, she just found most people boring or annoying in some way. Mostly the group consisted of her mom and dad- well, she was adopted, but they were the only parents she'd ever known- and a few friends back home in Virginia. Possibly Jane, to a lesser degree. With this new revelation though, she felt like he was one of hers now.

"Okay, dude, here's the deal," she said, grabbing his hand. "Which snack did you want?"

He seemed a bit taken aback by her holding his hand and leading him off out of the frozen section, but he went with it. "Oh, but what about your ice-cream?"

"No! Who can think of ice-cream at a time like this? What snack did you want?"

"Okay. Well, carrots and hummus."

Darcy gasped. "Oh god that sounds soooo good. Right. Off we go. Vegetables are over here." She led him over to the the carrots. "I'm assuming you want baby carrots, yeah?"

"Yeah," he said, bemused.

"Of course. Because only crazy people like the regular ones with their disgusting bitterness. Okay, and hummus stuff is over here- you want plain, right? Other ones are gross." She stuck her tongue out to indicate how gross other ones were, just in case he had other ideas.

He chuckled. "Yeah. Just plain. I like plain and simple."

"Awww, that's nice. I like that. Plain and simple," she smiled at her feet. "Right. Okay, so we've got the food, now- and hear me out!- I know this sounds a bit mad," she laughed. "'Mad'. Nothing like a bit of English slang, eh?" she said, nudging his ribs with her elbow. Oh my lord, she thought, his chest is sooooo firm. Fuck me.

He looked down at her in amusement. It was funny, how she was just becoming aware of their height difference. He was like a foot taller than her! Not really, but probably like six inches or something. It was...not altogether a bad feeling, walking next to a, somewhat newly, handsome man, holding his hand (which was a bit calloused, for some reason, and very surprisingly strong feeling) and leading him off to the register.

"Anyways, since we're both watching the same show, and you're staying at, what, a hotel or something?"

"A B&B, actually."

"Whatever, my apartment is way comfier. I have blankets. And my couch pulls out to have footrests. It's really great. But anyways, everyone knows it's way funner to watch things with other people who love them, so what I'm saying is-" she looked up at him. "Ugh. Just come over to my house and watch it with me. Also because I want some of your food."

He did that crooked smile thing again. Fuck me he is dangerously gorgeous, she thought. But that will not be a problem, because...of...I just won't let it be, because I need this to happen!

"Wait, really? Are you serious?" He asked. Oh my god why were his eyebrows doing that really cute quirking thing. God damn it.

"Dude," she said. "I am the most serious serious-person ever right now. It'll be sooo fun! And don't worry, it won't be awkward at all. I know we basically just met earlier today, but I promise I'm not a murderer-person or some kind of weirdo, plus you're a man, so technically I should be more afraid of you than you should be afraid of me..." she paused, wondering how she even got to this point.

He looked a bit confused too, yet still amused, which- frankly- was pretty incredible. She was honestly just amazed that he seemed to have such patience with her. Most people did not. Hence another reason to dislike most people.

"Okay," he said. His lips were annoying her so much. They shouldn't curve that way. How did he work? It was the most perfect slant that lips had ever slanted to.

"What?" she had lost her train of thought.

"I'll...come over if that's okay. To watch. Yeah?" They were at the check-out now.

"Oh yay!" Darcy smiled up at him, pleased. "That's great, because I really want those carrots now."

Out in the parking-lot, she gave him directions to her apartment, just in case he got cut off as he was following her.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know what to call you. I've...erm, yeah. I've forgotten your name." She was kind of actually embarrassed about that now, seeing as how she felt like she knew him so much more. Whoops.

He smiled and almost seemed to blush slightly. "It's Loki. Loki Laufeyson."

"Loki. Cool name. And I'm Darcy, by the way," she said, just in case he hadn't remembered either.

"Right," he said. "Darcy."

"Okay! So off we go, yeah?" She opened her car door and he turned to leave. "Oh, wait! Just one more thing."

He turned back.

"Just to be clear, you know? That this isn't, like, a date or anything. Just people watching a show together with food. Because I don't really do that dating stuff."

He smiled at that and raised his eyebrows comically. "How do you get all that sex that you were talking about then?"

Darcy laughed. "Oh, jeez. I forgot about that. Umm...let's change the topic really obviously, or better yet, I'll actually get in my car and leave," she said, giving him back his jacket. "Thanks for this, by the way."

"No problem," he said, chuckling, and headed off to his vehicle as she got in her car.