A/N: Sorry about the long break, guys. I finished the other Darcy/Loki story I was working on though, and found the inspiration to finish this one- so I should be updating pretty regularly until then. There will be a sequel. As always, you guys are the shiniest fanfic readers in the 'verse. 3

Darcy had been reading up on symptoms of each trimester of pregnancy, trying to get as much information as she could about what to expect- never having known anyone in her adult life who'd had a baby- and was surprised by how easy her first two months had been. She hadn't even started having morning sickness until the end of the two months, and her aversions to certain things like cigarette smoke and seafood had been there before, so she hadn't really thought much of it. Though she had been craving watermelon and mushrooms pretty bad, which was unusual for her.

It was the mood swings of the first trimester that she'd really picked up. One moment she was laughing, and the next she was crying. It was exhausting, the constant shift from extreme emotion to extreme emotion. By the third month though, it had luckily evened out a bit and she'd been able to get through a whole day sometimes without tearing up at something.

Poor Loki. He'd been wonderfully supportive about the whole thing, but he just looked so out of his depth the first few times she'd burst into tears after hearing a joke. He'd gotten the hang of bringing her out of it though, and was a pro by the time that period had passed. She'd never felt more lucky to have him than she had then, when she'd been a blubbering, gross mess and he'd just talked her through it or distracted her- generally just being his sweet, amazing self.

Loki played with the small, red velvet box in his hand as he sat at the table waiting for Darcy to come back from the bathroom. They'd gone out to dinner to celebrate the fact that they were going to be parents, and Loki had decided to propose here, amid the soft candlelight of the Italian restaurant. He'd bought the ring before he'd even found out that she was pregnant, and had just been waiting for the right moment.

Loki wasn't sure why he was so nervous- it wasn't like he thought she'd say no. He figured probably everyone felt nervous when they asked someone essentially to be with them for the rest of their lives.

Darcy came back, making a face. "This baby is a real control freak," she said. "It's always telling me what to eat and when to pee. Sheesh."

Loki rolled his eyes at this, smoothly slipping the box into his pocket again. Not yet.

"I'm telling you," Darcy continued, "It's going to need to learn to compromise, because I don't want to became just a shadow of myself under it's tyranical demands."

"Maybe we should just name it Napoleon," Loki suggested.

Darcy gasped. "No! I know we haven't really talked about baby names yet, but I've already decided. There's only one name this baby could have."

Loki smiled, knowing she wasn't being serious. "And what's that?"

Darcy grinned at him playfully. "Why, Rory, of course. Because of reasons."

Shaking his head, Loki chuckled. "The way you love Rory Williams, should I be worried?"

The smell of garlic bread and lasagna preceded their waiter as he set Darcy and Loki's food on the table.

"Oh my god," Darcy said, inhaling deeply. "Yeah. That's the stuff. And no- of course not! I have a deep, abiding love for Rory, but you're real. You're mine. And anyways, Rory's what- like 2,000 years old? Talk about cradle robbing." She made a face. "Ooooooh, god. Whyyyy do I think of things like that? Because I'd be the baby in that scenario. And I'm giving birth. A baby giving birth. Lokiiiiii- distract me! I don't like that thought!"

This was not the first time he'd been asked to distract her from a strange thought that she didn't like, so he knew what to do.

"Dinosaurs," he said, and she bit her lip and whined. Somehow, months ago, the topic of dinosaurs had come up and it was discovered that Darcy had incredibly strange mixed feelings about them that Loki didn't exactly share but found amusing. She was very invested in her feelings though, and in figuring out what she actually felt, so something like this would typically become a fixation for her.

"They're so cool," she said, sighing and twirling spaghetti on her fork. "Like, Loki, they actually existed. On Earth. With their scales and their talons and teeth and weird shapes and everything. There was probably at some point even a dinosaur walking around right where this restaraunt is now. Like- whaaaa? How?"

Loki grinned and took a sip of wine. "Indeed."

"But," she said, "Then at the same time they're terrifying, of course. Or actually, some of the ones that had wings you might be able to say were terriflying. Eh? Yeah?" Darcy grinned. She loved her puns.

Loki shook his head, smiling. She was such a weirdo, which was probably why he loved her so much.

"What do you want to call the baby, though?" Loki asked a few minutes later. They had decided not to find out the sex of the baby in advance, but he figured they should probably toss some names around.

"I hadn't actually really thought about it," Darcy said, frowning and tilting her head to the side. "Huh. Well, did you have any names in mind?"

"I was thinking Mildred, if it's a girl. And maybe Darwin if it's a boy."

Darcy smiled painfully and Loki laughed.

"No," he assured her, "Just kidding, just kidding."

"Oh thank god," Darcy said, sighing in relief. "I don't like to say no to you, but...my baby is not going to have a name that an old person would have. Because kids are cruel! I don't want to give them more ammunition to make fun of this baby with. God knows it'll probably be weird enough just having our genes. Can you imagine the field trip some bully could have with a name like Darwin? 'Oh, you want to play...dodgeball?'" Darcy said, imitating the supposed bully, "'Well, why don't you go back to the old folks home and try to dodge death.' Oh my God," Darcy said, her eyes wide. "I could have been a hella mean bully if I wasn't so nice."

"That was pretty impressive," Loki said, his eyebrows raised. "So, I guess-"

"Wait," Darcy said. "I'm not done. 'Oh, you're name's Darwin? What are you, an animal...finder? Like Noah. Two by two. Well what about love triangles!'" Darcy smiled and looked expectantly at Loki. "Praise me?" She asked. "That was pretty good."

Loki chuckled. "Yes, that was pretty good. Well done."

Darcy sighed happily. "Wow. Praise feels really nice. And you're a really sincere praise-giver," she said.

"Thanks," he said wryly.

"Do you see what I did there?" she asked. "I turned the tables on you. I gave you praise. How does it feel?"

Loki propped his elbow on the table and and rested his head against his hand.

"It feels incredible," he said.

"The Incredibles," she said, delighted.

"It feels amazing."

"The Amazing Spiderman."

"It feels wonderful."

"Alice in Wonderland."

Loki hissed in a breath. "Ummm, I don't know about that one. That might be a little too far from off base."

Sometimes they slipped into a game- he had no idea when or why it had started, but it was ongoing- where one of them would say an adjective and the other would think of a movie, or book, or some pop-culture reference that incorporated that word.

How boring other people's relationships must be, Loki thought, if they didn't play the little games that he and Darcy did.

"Whaaa? It is so on base! That target was like a bull's eye!" Darcy was always indignant about her choices. She loved winning.

Loki just shook his head. "Let's put it this way: that was, in no way, a shot made by Katniss."

"Well, mister high and mighty, what would you have done? If you're so clever then you figure one out."

"But it wasn't my turn," he smirked. "So I think I'll just save mine for when it is."

"But Loki!" Darcy cried, her eyes wide. "If you love me, you'll let me get away with it." She batted her puppydog eyes at him adorably.

Loki just laughed and shook his head. "I think because I love you, I shouldn't let you get away with stuff like that."

Darcy made a face at him and then smiled brightly. "Okay, coolzies."

And that was one of the things that he loved so much about her. She was competitive as all hell, but in the end, she wasn'treally that concerned about losing.

"Speaking of cool things," Loki said, rubbing the back of his neck and raising his brows in that way that Darcy loved that made him look so sexily adorable. He laughed. "And of seguays..." He took a small velvet box out of his pocket and Darcy's mouth fell open as she beamed at him. Oh my god, she thought. He got down on his knee before her. "Darcy Lewis, you are the peanut butter to my jelly. You are the cream cheese to my bagel. You are the apple of my eye-"

Darcy laughed even as she was starting to tear up. "You're food metaphors are getting weirder," she whispered to him conspiratorially. She sniffed.

"I know," he whispered back. "But don't worry, I'm working up to a big question."

"Okay," Darcy grinned, a few tears tracking down her cheek. Still whispering, she said, "And just so you know, I'm going to say yes."

Loki smiled at her tenderly, and wiped the tears from her eyes. In a soft voice, he asked, "Darcy Lewis, will you do me the incredible honor...of being my wife?"

Starting to actually cry now, she sniffed. "Yes!" she said, nodding. "Mmhmm. Yeah. Mrs. Darcy Laufeyson," she sighed happily.

Loki winced. "I do apologize," he said. "That sounds a little-"

She glared at him and he stopped mid-sentence, realizing that it would be wiser not to finish that thought. Darcy loved the way that sounded. Mrs. Darcy Laufeyson. "It's perfect," she said, perhaps a bit confrontationally.

Loki smiled, holding up his hand. "I meant no offense, my lady," he said. "I'm glad you like it."

Darcy beamed happily. "The ring!" She said. "I want to see the ring!"

Loki flushed slightly, having forgotten to open the box. He did so.

"Ooooh," Darcy said, surprised and pleased by what she saw. She picked it up.

Loki watched with nervousness as she examined the ring. Darcy wasn't really the type to wear jewelery much, and he didn't think she'd really go in for the traditional diamond ring. It felt a little too ostentatious for what Darcy liked. And he knew for a fact that she hated gold, as they'd had a discussion about it before. So he'd settled on a plain, white-gold wedding band. But he hadn't wanted it to be quite so lacking in weight- after all, it was a wedding ring- so he'd had it inscribed. In green script along the inside it read: My other half. That was how he felt- that she was a part of him. She completed him. But now she wasn't saying anything and he started to have doubts about that inscription. It was such a little thing, and yet now he felt like a fool...

"Sorry about the inscription," he said self-consciously. "That was a little over the top, yeah? I can bring it back, I'm sure, and they can-"

Darcy gasped. "Don't you dare change a thing!" She cried, her eyes swimming once more. "I love it. It's so..." She sniffed. "So right. I feel the same way about you."

Loki sighed quietly with relief. Thank god.

"But what about yours?" Darcy asked. "Does your ring have an inscription?"

Loki shook his head, taking it out of his pocket. It was just a plain band- the same as hers, minus the inscription.

Darcy frowned. "Well. That's not okay with me." She patted his shoulder. "Don't worry," she said. "I'll fix it for you."

Loki gave her the ring, intrigued.