"So when's our flight to New York? I've never managed to go, and I want to see if Broadway still exists," said Darcy as she passed Jane her third cup of coffee of the morning. Not that Darcy would ever tell Jane this, but it was also the older woman's last caffeinated cup for the next six hours or so. There were ways to keep Jane alert without giving her heart palpitations, even if Jane would ever acknowledge that. But an intern's job was to protect the mind and cardiac functioning of genius, or at least Darcy kept telling herself.
"How did you know we were going to New York already?" Jane's eyes didn't even manage the full flick up to Darcy's face and back to the data, her vision instead landing "nonchalantly" somewhere over Darcy's left shoulder.
"Duh. Hot n' blond is there and Erik's in the hospital. Not even you can ignore that combo for-" Darcy waved her hand vaguely at the ceiling, "-especially since, like, false pretenses and all that S.H.I.E.L.D. junk getting us here. So did you get the tickets or is that my job?"
Jane sighed and managed to make eye contact this time, a rare wonder. "Yeah. I asked our handlers," Jane nearly snarled the word, turning the full force of her glare on the nearest S.H.I.E.L.D. lab monkey; who turned slightly pink, to Darcy's endless amusement, "if we were allowed to go back to our own country. They've got us on a red-eye tomorrow, which means we'll be getting to New York in the middle of the fucking night, but I guess that doesn't matter."
Darcy was impressed. It was extremely unusual to hear Jane cuss about something other than faulty equipment, but probably the stress of your potential boyfriend being back on the planet and your father figure being involved in nearly destroying the world would bring anyone's head out of science. "That seems like a really long fli-time difference, right. Hey, that could be called time travel, right? That's science-y, isn't it?That's fun!"
Jane did not appear to be amused by the oddities of heading west through different time zones. "It means I won't be able to see Erik for hours! I tried to get them to fly us out this afternoon-they're using their own jet since the New York airports have an emergency shutdown-but they wouldn't listen to me!" Jane's voice turned ragged, and Darcy laid a tentative hand on the woman's shoulder.
"Hey, hey. You can't go into a hospital all wigging out and junk. A couple hour's sleep means you won't be freaking Erik out while he's in the hospital, right? And I can totally get somebody to brief you or whatever when we land. I've got a very convincing crazy smile." Darcy was doing her best soothing voice, which had gotten a lot of practice when Jane called her the night before.
Jane sighed again and rubbed a hand over her eyes. "You're probably right. I can't believe I'm saying that."
Darcy grinned, patting Jane on the shoulder. "See? I knew I'd get you to admit it eventually, boss-lady. You take the day off, huh? I can pack for us both if you let me out of the lab." A day off for Jane meant not having to worry about dumb people things like clothes and truth be told, Darcy probably knew Jane's wardrobe better than Jane did at this point. And Darcy wanted to check on the little problem she'd left behind, besides.
"Yeah, sure, thanks. I've got plenty of qualified grunts for once," said Jane absently. That stung a bit, but that was scientists for you.
Opening the door to her hotel room was a careful and nerve-wracking process. First, Darcy had to make absolutely sure that the hallway was empty. This included checking around all the corners and calling all the elevators to the floor, because you never knew when some S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel would pop up behind you like a Hun in the snow. Halfway through her check, Darcy remembered that security cameras were a thing and that someone was definitely watching them and probably wondering what the hell she was doing. Feeling like an idiot, Darcy hustled back to her room and walked in with her eyes closed. She wasn't ready to deal with him if he was awake, yet, and she'd prefer to delay finding out as long as possible.
"Midgardian." Definitely awake.
His voice was smoother than it had been the night before, although there was still something in it that chilled Darcy. Of course, that could also have just been the fact the room was extremely cold. Apparently he'd figured out the AC in the three hours she'd been gone, which had to be the equivalent of Darcy teaching herself how to use one of those giant old computers that ran on vacuums.
"Darcy. My name is Darcy," she said, opening her eyes nervously.
He was sitting on the edge of the bed with a book in his lap, one of the various mythology studies Darcy had acquired since Thor had dropped out of the sky. She'd managed to get several extensive binders together on anything having to do with Norse mythology and had made some select and untranslated purchases since she'd landed in Norway, but it seemed Loki preferred something called 'Unexplained Mysteries' that Darcy had picked up at a yard sale while on a visit home. He looked her over with a critical eye, and Darcy was sure she had been found wanting. Honestly, that was probably a good thing.
"So you have said," he murmured as he turned back to his book. "I require a large amount of food. Fetch it for me." He dismissed her with a wave of his hand.
Darcy bristled, opening her mouth to tell him exactly where he could shove his 'fetch it', but her legs were walking her out of the room of their own volition before she could. Not okay, very much not good, and honestly slightly terrifying. Not...entirely unexpected, though. For all the times she'd made up extremely specific wishes as a kid on the off-chance she encountered a genie, Darcy hadn't done too hot during the previous evening's negotiation.
At least there was a store within walking distance.
Despite the vagueness of the command, Darcy resisted her impulse to buy all the worst that the Scandiwegian palate had to offer her. He might ask her to be a food-tester or something in case he thought she'd try to poison him. Which was probably fair, since she was already greatly regretting not taking the best opportunity she'd ever have to perform the Cellblock Tango last night. He ran into my knife ten times, you know how gods are, officer. She let out an involuntary little giggle of terror.
Besides, Asgardians probably loved that sort of thing, and were probably the ones that came up with the terror of Scandiwegian cuisine in the first place. Darcy had trouble believing that anyone other than a race of super-resilient beings would consider lye a good ingredient.
He didn't look up when she returned, laden with bags, only when she dumped said bags in his lap on top of the book he was frowning at. Then, Loki glared. "There are many ways we could go about this, girl. Do you really wish to make it more difficult for yourself? I did not think it possible to overestimate your intelligence."
"I repeat: my name is Darcy. Lewis. And the more scared you try to make me, I promise the more annoying I'll get." It probably wasn't a good idea for self-preservation to threaten him, but Darcy thought it would be difficult for her to be more terrified than she already was. It had changed to be less of an actual emotion so much as the background music of her mind, and she'd take the chance to get on some better footing.
Loki rolled his eyes, picking the bags up off his lap and setting them down on the floor next to the bed. "Of that I have no doubt." He smiled suddenly. It was not a nice smile. If anything, it only made him look more skeletal. A weirdly handsome skeleton, but still a skeleton. "The use of your name for your obedience, would you say? A more than fair trade, surely you agree?"
She crossed her arms, trying to make it look more like defiance and less like she was giving herself a much-needed hug. "No. But you play nice, I play nice."
"Very well, Darcy. Please," the word dripped with condescension, "do set out the sustenance you've acquired."
With a very quiet huff, Darcy started to lay out the food on the bed next to him. Estimating by what Thor ate when he was hungry, she'd gotten three grocery store roast chickens, a loaf of bread, and some vegetables of the finger food variety. And some fancy cheese. She hadn't been able to resist, and snagged a piece as soon as she was done. "I hope you can leave soon, because in the morning we're gone." And thank god for that.
"Adequate," he said, glancing at the food and deftly tearing off a chicken leg. "I should be restored enough by then. Sit. I have questions."
She turned the desk chair around to face him and sat, her stomach twisting in unease. "I don't understand anything about Jane's research. Just fyi. Please don't ask me." Darcy wondered if the strange compulsion to follow his orders let him know if she was lying. It was only really a lie in the technical sense, though, right? She'd gotten better at the technobabble translating, but it didn't help much. Maybe he wouldn't notice. She hoped he wouldn't notice. Darcy closed her eyes briefly, willing herself to calm the fuck down before she started having a full-blown panic attack in front of a mass murderer. Although, thinking like that wasn't helping.
If he didn't notice, that could be very good.
It was a shame Midgardians were so susceptible to temperature changes, really. The girl had a decent figure and it was wasted under her many layers of fabric. But loathe though he was to admit it, cooler temperatures seemed to help speed his healing and despite the knot of loathing building in his chest, a swift recovery was paramount.
Lovely, but currently useless and now impossible to dispose of. And staring at him with unsettling attention. "What are you skills?" he asked sharply. She started, discomfited by the tone, and dropped her eyes. Good. "Useful ones, mind." Although certain recreational ones could certainly be put to use down the line.
"I'm good with computers. And...finding things with them. Sometimes things I'm not supposed to." She paused. "I've got a lot of practice organizing data. And stuff." She fidgeted in her chair, avoiding eye contact. "Look, this is turning into a very weird job interview. I'm a fast learner, love people, I super want this job and think I'd make great contributions to the world of supervillainy or whatever, especially since it seems like I don't have a choice."
"You don't."
"Thanks for reminding me. I'm majoring in politics, if that helps. With the prince thing and all that."
Loki couldn't help but laugh, especially when the mortal seemed to realize what she'd said and clapped a hand over her mouth. "I am no prince, but I will be a king. Be wiser in the future." She nodded hurriedly, bringing another smile to his face.
There was silence for a time as he ate, which was mortal did nothing but stare at her hands and fidget, but as long as she maintained her quiet it didn't matter. Her books, at least, were informative, although Loki doubted she realized how much. "What do you know of pyramids?"
"Which ones? They're all over. It's not exactly a rare kind of shape." Her answer was prompt, a sign of her cowing. Good. "Why, planning are starting human sacrifice up again?" The sarcasm of her tone proved, however, that it was not enough.
He smiled the same unfriendly smile again. "Perhaps. I speak of Egyptian pyramids, 'the' pyramids, as it were. There is evidence of time slowing?"
"Yeah, it's super weird. It's got something to with, like, gravity and density and shit. But it's way more than it should be, a couple minutes. It was almost Jane's pet project instead of her wormholes." The girl shuddered and gripped the arms of her chair like she was trying to will her legs to let her up. "Look, I have to pack, okay? I have to go." Loki nodded his assent, and only then did she manage to flee.
He'd been gone by the time she returned, and to her great relief he hadn't popped up again since. That was one less thing for Darcy to deal with, and with Jane's impending breakdown she had more than enough on her plate without douchey megalomaniacs. Especially since he'd taken some of her books with him.
They'd been informed of Thor's departure when they'd landed in New York and Jane had started looking around hopefully.
"Where's Thor?" Darcy asked, since actually asking didn't seem to occur to Jane.
The agent accompanying them looked surprised. "We don't know. He left not long after the battle, said something about Asgard? We thought Dr. Foster could tell us about it."