Darcy yawned as she stretched in bed. Mmm, she thought sleepily. Comfy pillows.
She sat up slowly, rolling her neck. Tea. That's what she wanted. Just some yummy tea and maybe a bagel. Rolling herself clumsily off the bed, she took her baggy pajama t-shirt off, belatedly realizing that she hadn't brought the laundry in from the dryer yet. Bah.
"My life is soooo difficult," she grumbled good-naturedly to herself as she blearily strolled into the living room wearing only a black bra and dark green sweatpants.
The washing machine and dryer were to the left of the front door. Opening the dryer door, she sifted through the clothes looking for a shirt. Thankfully Jane wasn't super-strict on wearing a uniform or something at work, and she let Darcy just wear a t-shirt and jeans, which were her favorites. Picking out an old, yet still bad-ass, fitted Captain America t-shirt, she straightened up to put it on.
"Ah," said an accented rumbly voice. "Oh dear."
"Jesus Christ!" Darcy shrieked, clutching the shirt to her chest in surprise. "Oh my god you gave me a heart attack."
Loki looked distressed, as he stammered out an apology for waking up at a really bad time as he looked pointedly in a completely different direction from her, which was sweet.
"No, no," Darcy said, feeling bad now. She put her shirt on hastily. "It's totally my fault. It's a bad habit of mine, walking around half naked. Somehow I just didn't remember you were here or I'd have been more...erm, ladylike, I suppose. You can look now- I'm fully clothed." Darcy smiled as Loki turned his head cautiously.
"I'm going to make some tea," she said, heading off to the kitchen. "Do you want any?" she asked over her shoulder.
"No thanks," he called.
She heard him rustling around in the living room as she started her tea, and she couldn't help but think of last night. It almost didn't seem real. It had felt like a dream at the time, and now in the morning it didn't seem much more plausible. If she hadn't felt so familiar with Loki- like she'd known him forever and ever- then she'd be tempted just to think she'd imagined the whole thing. But she felt so connected to him. It was unprecedented.
The kettle started whistling and Darcy turned it off right away, before it could work itself up.
She thought of her past 'relationships'. In fourth grade Russell Talver had tried to kiss her and she'd punched him. She'd gotten detention for that, which still made her angry. Eighth grade she'd had a crush on Michael Andrews, but he'd transferred before she'd worked up the courage to say anything. In high-school there was Brett Denver. They'd gone out for seven months before she realized that he just bored her. Then college, where the guys were always out drinking or partying, and she'd just had no interest in that.
"You just don't connect to people easily, babe," her mother had said back in twelfth grade when Darcy had despaired of being alone forever. It was true. Darcy had little patience with people and found it difficult to meet anyone she felt were worth the effort to get to know.
"Any chance I could snatch something to eat?" Loki asked, coming into the kitchen.
"Not much, I'm afraid," Darcy said apologetically. She didn't have much in the way of spare income, so she tended to go light on the groceries and just go to the supermarket often. "There are bananas, bagels, and cereal. That's kind of it."
"Ooh, bananas," Loki smiled, picking one out of a bowl on the counter. "I love bananas."
Darcy made a face. "Yuck."
"What?" Loki asked. "You don't like bananas?"
"They're the food of the devil."
Loki laughed. "Why do you even have any then?"
"Another moment of weakness!" Darcy despaired dramatically. "I was trying to be healthy." She pouted. "I make terrible decisions when I'm trying to be healthy."
Loki shook his head in amusement.
Chugging her tea, Darcy realized it was getting quite late and she still needed to wash her face and put jeans on, etc.
"Oh, shizzle. We should go soon. Here, hold this," she said, handing her cup to him and rushing off to her bedroom to get ready.
Loki smiled and put her cup in the sink. He hesitated. Oh what the hell, he thought, and washed it. It just felt like the right thing to do.
He tried not to think about how he'd seen her in her bra, and how she'd looked incredibly sexy and just- fuck. It was a bad road for his imagination to wander down. Although, really, who would wander down that road when they could sprint down it recklessly.
There really wasn't much for him to do, so he wandered into the living room to check out the bookshelf he'd vaguely noticed the other night. It was funny to hear the muffled sounds of Darcy getting ready. She would run from her bedroom to the bathroom muttering to herself and opening cupboards, coming back out holding some new item she'd been searching for: a pair of earrings, a brush, jeans, a belt.
Each time she made the trip she would kind of smile at him and make an unintelligible noise of amused frustration meant to convey something along the lines of: "Oh dear, see how silly I am? I'm making yet another trip. My brain, you know. Too many jumbly bits to keep everything straight." It was quite entertaining.
In between her little trips, he studied the contents of her bookshelf, which was, in fact, mostly home to DVDs, with a small selection of books tucked away in a top corner or of the way. Clearly she was more into TV than reading.
She owned Firefly, Seasons 1-5 of Doctor Who, the fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spinal Tap, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Third Star, season one of Sherlock, seasons 1 & 2 of something called Suburban Shootout (which looked quite peculiar), seasons 1-3 of Arrested Development, P.S. I Love You, Hot Fuzz, and 10 Things I Hate About You. He was amused by the fact that she seemed only to own DVDs that were either quite comical or quite sad.
Off in the corner her books sat awkwardly, out of place among all the DVDs. There were four paranormal romance novels by someone called Kresley Cole, and then she had The Great Gatsby, some books by a John Green, and the 100 Greatest Poems of e.e. Cummings. It was a bizarre mixture, and seemed very much in keeping with what he knew of Darcy.
Looking around, Loki thought of his own apartment back home. He'd never really been one for decorating and such. It was really basically a bedroom with a bed and a dresser, a couch and tv in the living room, and a table and two chairs (he never had people over, but his optimism had gotten the best of him). He liked things to be very neat and organized. It just made everything easier. Darcy's place on the other hand...well, she had a different approach. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was about her place- but it had something, some spark, some comforting factor, and that made it feel like a home. She wasn't messy, necessarily- because everything felt like it should be where it was- more like her stuff just took up more room than it ought to physically be able to.
"Okay, okay," Darcy said, slightly out of breath as she emerged once more from her bedroom. "Sorry! I know- I take a while in the morning, which is a bit ridiculous since I don't even do much but of course I forget where everything is and spend ten years looking for socks and such...But I'm ready now. Ugh. Finally. How 'bout you?"
It hit Loki almost painfully, as he stood there in her living room, surrounded by her possessions, the smell of lemons floating around for some peculiar, welcome reason- how utterly gorgeous she was. She was wearing a t-shirt with a star on it that he was sure meant something (though he was sure that everything Darcy did/wore meant something), and jeans, with silver stud earrings, and black rectangular glasses. Her mahogany, and what he knew to be silky, hair was in a high ponytail that waved slightly down her shoulders, and her eyelashes were dark and her lips were pinkish-red, and she was just so fucking gorgeous that, embarrassingly, he couldn't really remember what she'd asked and floundered for a moment before she prompted him.
"You ready? We probably should really head out."
Right. "Oh. Yes," he said eloquently. "We should probably...get on...out there...to that work...thing."
"Boy," Darcy smiled, "I like the way you be talkin'. Let us depart. Allons-y, Allsonso!"
Outside, they got in/on their respective vehicles. "See ya soon, then," Said Darcy, saluting him jauntily. "Don't die on your little bike."
"Careful of reefs with that boat of yours," he tossed back happily, putting his helmet and leather jacket on.
They arrived at the lab at the same time and walked in together, laughing as Darcy teased him about his slight facial hair.
"Well I hadn't brought a razor with me, so, yeah," Loki smiled, a bit embarrassed. He liked to keep his face shaved, so it felt kind of strange and itchy. He couldn't stop stroking it, which Darcy thought was hilarious.
"You look totally evil when you do that. Like some kind of brilliant villain going, 'Ah yes. I am stroking my beard as I dwell evilly on my evil plan of evilness. Muahahaha.' It's so funny."
"'Evil plan of evilness'?" he asked, quirking a brow.
"Oh shut up," she laughed, smacking his arm lightly. "You know. Because you're so un-evil,, and- oh, well you...stop those eyebrows! No! Bad skeptical eyebrows! Bad! Un-evil is a word and you and your eyebrows can just deal with it!" She shook her head mock put-out and threw her hand over her forehead dramatically. "I'm so unappreciated!" She opened one eye to see how Loki reacted (he had smiled widely and his eyes were all crinkley) before resuming her pose. "It's the curse of being a Time Lord."
Later Loki would find out that that particular phrase came from something called Tumblr, but at the time he just shook his head in amusement. Oh Darcy, he thought. You silly little delightful thing.
Darcy was still belligerently defending herself when they walked into the lab-room, but abruptly trailed off on seeing that Jane was already there (of course. She was always early for everything, looking gorgeous, god damn her) and had looked up on seeing them enter and had furrowed her brows in confusion.
Well fuck-all, Darcy thought in slight annoyance. Once more Jane is a kill-joy. But it was okay. Darcy was glad for the intrusion of Jane, honestly. It really put into perspective she had only just met him yesterday and had kind of disliked him. Today it felt like she had known him her whole life, and she wanted to keep knowing him for the rest of her life, and- in truth, she wanted to know him biblically before too long. Nudge nudge, wink wink. He just made her girl parts happy! And her everything happy. Just, he was like sunshine on a cool day or a breeze on a hot one and he was so pretty, and with that slight shadow from not shaving he looked fucking sexy as all hell and she could talk to him and he liked Doctor Who and HOW WAS SHE SUPPOSED TO NOT WANT SEXYTIMES! His voice, motherfucker that accent, and he had actually stayed over and wasn't freaked out and there was no awkwardness and it was all just a little too perfect to seem real. He must have some huge, terrible flaw. He had to! Because no one could be so perfect!
They looked at each other like two kids caught doing something wrong, and Darcy shuffled over to her desk smiling somewhat guiltily, though she realized she really didn't need to feel guilty. She was aware of how Jane was crushing on him, though, so she felt kind of bad that they had come in seeming so chummy.
Oh whatever, she thought pragmatically. Let Jane feel how she feels. I just want to live my liiiiiiife!
Sighing, and trying not to glance over at Loki too much, she started actually doing her job.
Jane seemed a bit formal and stiff this morning, Loki noticed. It confused him and made him feel vaguely like he'd done something wrong, because yesterday it had seemed like they could be friends. Trying not to think about it too much, because he always felt like he analyzed things and put more meaning into things than there might be, he just focused on conversing with her about their mutual passion (science, of course) and trying not to notice Darcy (who had put her headphones in again and was swaying and shimmying her shoulders sometimes) too much. Eventually Jane relaxed and by the end of the day they seemed to be friends again.
He vaguely noticed that Darcy left for an hour and then came back, but it didn't really sink in that she'd gone for a lunch-break. When he was fully engrossed in science it was hard to tune back into the outside world.
Eventually though, Darcy broke into their conversation, startling Jane and him.
"Yo dudes," she said from the doorway. "So it's five. I'm out." And opened the door to go.
Suddenly coming back to the here and now, Loki stood abruptly, his chair scraping the floor sharply. Wincing, he called for Darcy to wait and hurriedly said goodbye to Jane.
Darcy had stopped just outside the door and waited with a smile of curiosity. "What can I do you for?"
Loki gathered all his courage (he absolutely hated doing this, it was so nerve-racking), and praying that he hadn't misread what he thought were some pretty large signs, said, "Darcy. I like you." He floundered for a moment but pushed on. "I want to...ask you out. Like on a date. Please."
Darcy looked at him wordlessly, her expression mildly surprised and slightly panicked.
Fuck, he thought. I'm such an idiot. Of course she's not into me. Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck-
Suddenly Darcy smiled brilliantly and blushed. "I...um. Yes. I would like that."
FUCK YES! The world was beautiful. Loki grinned at her, and she grinned at him, and they just stood there grinning ridiculously until Jane accidentally opened the door on Loki because he was right in front of it.