Chapter Eight:

(Once again, I'd like to say thank you for all of the reviews! Thank you to Imperial Dragon, Sara60691, Kyrie Twilight, Dontgotaclue88, NoControl, GhibliGirl91, scarletwitch0, quarterlifecrisis, NewDrWhoFan, GPRox, fringeperson, Elsinore Castle, angsty, LaFemmeQuiRit, Gyoro and Ururun, Chuuulip, Pawn'sVictory, Phoenix Rebel, Adri, Potkanka, MetaAuria, jinglyjess, camiguin, Firehedgehog, Vahinepapaya, and camierose!)

Darcy managed to get through her first few weeks of living in Stark Tower without much happening to her. That was likely because she spent most of it hiding in her room that Tony had given her. She had to admit that she felt safer in this place than anywhere outside of it, but that wasn't really saying much. The only way that she really felt anything remotely safe was when Loki and Thor were around. She knew that she should probably see a shrink or something, but she had absolutely no clue who she would talk to about this stuff. She did try talking to Jane about it some, but there was only so much that she could tell the woman. It just got complicated so she gave up trying to talk to anyone about it.

She did manage to talk to Loki about it a little when he was able to come around, but he and Thor had only managed to drop by on the weekends, and they weren't usually even able to spend the night as they had before. She did manage to notice that, when they were around, the two brothers were able to get along decently well, which Darcy was very happy to note. Public image wise, Loki getting along with Thor showed that he was learning from his past mistakes, and Thor held the key to allowing that collar to be removed. She hoped that the trend of them getting along continued.

From what she was hearing, though, her image at SHIELD wasn't doing too good. Of course, when someone is interrogated and then stops showing up to work after basically having to be rescued from said interrogation; it doesn't look good to all of those involved. She was sure that anyone who actually talked to Fury or even Coulson (if regular agents even knew that he was alive) were getting a slanted version of the story. She couldn't even remember if Loki and Thor had seen Coulson alive or not. She talked as little about her stay there as possible, so she just didn't bring it up. She could only somewhat remember her time under interrogation, anyway. It was better that way. She was sure of it.

She doubted that Fury and the rest of SHIELD liked that she was staying with Tony Stark, either. She hadn't seen too much of the man himself, but he had told her and Jane to both make themselves comfortable and enjoy themselves on his dime. Of course, Tony Stark had more money than the Catholic Church, so Darcy could literally buy anything that popped up into her head and she still wouldn't make a dent in any of his bank accounts. He had given her and Jane both credit cards, and Darcy had no idea what the limit on hers was. She just knew all of a sudden that she lived in a gorgeous tower with a great view and had access to more money than she'd ever had in her life. She was too freaked out to go out and do anything on her own, though, because she worried that SHIELD might try to snatch her away again. She knew that she was being ridiculous, that she was likely nothing to them, but her brain wouldn't quite understand that.

She also figured that Fury didn't like her staying with Tony Stark because it was kind of known that Tony didn't exactly like being told what to do by anybody, much less a secret government organization. The whole of SHIELD gave off something extremely creepy and weird to most people that dealt with them, it seemed. She figured that Stark was letting her stay there just because it annoyed SHIELD, but right now, she was grateful just the same.
However, it seemed like she was traumatized in some way. Did she really get PTSD from this or something? It wasn't like there was a shrink with whom she could talk. She was afraid to even talk to any of the Avengers. She wondered if Fury had people like Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton watching her. They came by from time to time and, unlike the rest of the Avengers hanging around, they were still full agents with SHIELD. People like Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, and Tony Stark were only at best affiliated with them. It wasn't the same. She wasn't nearly as afraid of what she said in front of them as she was in front of those two.

OoOoOoOo

Loki was finding that he was looking forward to his visits to Midgard more and more. It wasn't just to learn about the place and plot, though. No, he was also looking forward to it because, unlike before, he had little time to himself on Asgard. He was grateful to not be locked away like before, but he missed having time to do what he wanted. Being a part of Thor's council kept him rather busy.

Every time he visited, Darcy all but threw books at him and talked to him until she passed out from exhaustion. He was reading the books slower than before, but he was still getting through them. After the biography on Napoleon, she had given him a biography on Adolf Hitler and a book that the man had written himself, Mein Kampf. According to her, he shouldn't only read about people that he could take good advice from, but also see the things that he shouldn't do. He couldn't help but think that was a pointed remark, since, as soon as he started to read about Hitler, he realized that the man had been something of a genocidal maniac who, according to some, might have been partially Jewish himself. It seemed too pointed of a remark, but he couldn't help but appreciate the shrewdness at the same time.

When he and Thor arrived again, he found Darcy hiding away in her room, writing away in a notebook that she had. He had noticed that she was always in her room, and only seemed to come out with coaxing. He didn't like that she hid herself away as she did, but he understood why. At least she would come out when others encouraged her; he knew that it could be a lot worse.

She jolted slightly when he first walked inside, but relaxed immediately when she realized that it was him. "Hey, didn't realize you guys were coming this weekend," she said to him, setting her notebook down.

"Thor and I were able to get away for the weekend," he explained to her. He wished that he could get away longer, but, with the collar still around his neck, it seemed like he would forever be tethered to Thor's side. He desperately waited for the day when Darcy could find a way to release him. He knew at this point that it would come down to her. Nothing he was able to do seemed to be able to remove the collar from his neck. He hated it; it made him feel like a lowly dog. If he didn't get rid of it soon, he'd be willing to risk the electrical shocking to try to get it off. Surely, it couldn't kill him, right?

"The whole weekend, huh?" Darcy asked with a bit of a grin. "That's almost a real vacation for you guys." He watched her as she folded up her legs against her chest. "So, what are you planning to do with this two whole days on Midgard?"

"Well, you are the one who knows what there is to do on this place," he pointed out to her with a smile. Moreover, it had to be something that they could drag Thor along with if they left the tower. Being tethered the way that he was had been growing to be annoying for a long time now.

"Hmm...good point," she admitted to him. "Well, I'd say that we could go and get something to eat, but we can have anything we could ever possibly want delivered to this place, or find it in here somehow."

"Can you get wild boar?" Loki asked, more to challenge than for any real want of it.

"Yeah, probably," Darcy said with an absent minded shrug. "This is New York. There are all sorts of things that you can get here." She leaned back against the wall. "Is there somewhere that you want to go, anyway?"

"Well, I'm sure that there are sites that I should see eventually," Loki said, sitting down on the edge of the bed, not wanting to crowd her. "But I'd have to bring Thor along for that, so maybe tomorrow." He didn't want to say it aloud, but he honestly just wanted to spend some time with her.

"And I'm sure that Thor is like all the worst parts of a tourist put together in one giant, blond package," Darcy said with a good natured groan, smiling. "Maybe just ordering take out wild boar and hanging here for tonight would be a good idea." He could tell that she was joking about the wild boar, but he'd likely just let her pick whatever they did eat. "Actually, there is something that I wanted to ask you about. People around here are getting curious about you, like, the good kind of curious. I wondered if you'd be up for some sort of televised interview one of the times you guys get to come here."

Loki thought on that for a moment. There was so much that he could tell in an interview, but there were so many questions that he could be asked as well. He wondered if he could pre-approve the questions, but that sounded like cheating. Not that he minded cheating when it truly benefitted him, but he had the feeling that it would quickly get out that he chose the questions, or the interviewer would spring something on him and catch him off guard.

"I am not sure if that is a good idea," he said after turning the idea over in his head for a few minutes. "There are many things that are hard to talk about for me to one person, much less an audience full of people."

Darcy tilted her head as she looked up at him, seemingly lost in thought for a moment herself. "Is it because you're adopted?" she asked him. "The homicidal parts that you did? What all concerns you?"

"All of that and more," Loki said to her. "It is...it is hard to talk about myself to one person, and the idea of talking about myself to such a large audience is worrisome."

Darcy nodded. "Well, try it on me first. Practice makes perfect, after all." She grabbed a pen. "I can even ask you questions like any interviewer will come up with. Prep you for them."

"Is this something that we must do?" Loki asked. He knew that it would be one thing for Darcy to be asking him questions and a complete other thing for a stranger asking them likely in front of an audience, whether the audience was in the studio with them or simply watching from televisions at home. He couldn't predict how he would do, but he wasn't sure that he would do well.

"Come on, Lokes," Darcy said to him, sticking out her bottom lip at him in an exaggerated manner. "I know you can do this. You'll be charming the panties off of any interviewer before you know it. They'll be eating out of your hand."

"It is hard to say not to that face," he conceded. "It cannot hurt to try," Loki said with a sigh. It could get worrisome, but he wanted to at least try this. If he wanted the people of this realm to trust him, then he needed to put himself out in the open.

Darcy smiled at him and nodded. "Alright, so just relax, and show me that charming Loki smile and personality that I know you got," she teased, and, despite himself, he did smile back at her. He wasn't sure how, but she managed to put him at ease.

"Alright, so we can start off with the obvious big fat question that anyone is going to want to ask you," Darcy said to him. "Why did you invade Earth? Some interviewers might hem and haw around the question, but others are going to jump out at you. Either way, anyone who talks to you is going to ask that."

He took a deep breath. This was going to take a longer explanation than she likely realized. There were many things that he hadn't told anyone about his time between falling off the bridge in Asgard and appearing through a portal on Midgard. Things that he didn't want to ever relive again. "That is…a much more involved question than you may realize," he admitted to her.

She frowned as she looked at him. "OK, well, let me tell you kind of what I know, and you can fill in the gaps," she offered. "This is just stuff that I snuck a look at while working at SHIELD and heard from Thor, so god knows how much of it is right or not. Feel free to correct. You came to Earth looking for the Tesseract and stealing it to open the portal and let the Chitauri army come through. Some of the more educated guesses out there were saying that you were either working for or with someone, since you kind of popped in with an army out of nowhere that even Thor knew only a little about."

"None of that is…incorrect," Loki said to her. "There is much that SHIELD and Thor do not know." He wondered how much he could keep to himself. From Darcy, likely very little. She seemed to know just what questions to ask and how to get the answers that she wanted. "When Thor returned from his banishment, he came to fight me. That much you know. I fell into the abyss." He let go, hoping to die, but that hadn't happened. Not in the least. "I drifted for what felt like eons, but what I think was likely only six months or so in your time. Eventually I was found, more than half mad, by a creature that wishes to court death. I mean this literally, he wishes to court the entity of death herself."

"Dude has some freaky tastes, I get you," Darcy interrupted. "He wanted to get close with Lady Death herself, and then what?"

"He had to say little to me to get me to agree to work for him. He only needed to remind me of everything that I already thought," Loki told her, grimacing. "That I was a monster, that I would always be seen as second best to the golden child that was my brother, that I needed to do something…big to be seen by everyone as the person that I wanted to be." He sighed heavily. "By the time I arrived on Midgard, I'd had my head filled with so much that he wanted me to hear that there was little room for anything else."

"That's not the first time I've heard you call yourself a monster," Darcy said to him. "Why do you keep saying that?"

He hated talking about these things, but he knew that, every time he did it, it would get easier. Possibly, by the time he was truly giving interviews, it would be second nature. "It was the bad news I received before I laid out my attack on Jotunheim. It…I am…" He had to admit that he had no idea how to phrase this. "Perhaps it is better that I show you rather than try to say it."

"I'm...I'm not sure that's wise." He Ihated/I to admit to any real sort of discomfort, but he had discomfort with this idea of actually showing her. Frost Giants were something that he had been brought up to hate and fear, as well as the rest of people in Asgard. Thor used to tease him that they hid under his bed! To show himself as one of these things to the one person that he...he had come to respect just made him shudder at the thought.

Darcy seemed to understand immediately where his reluctance was coming from. "Look Loki, any prejudices that you have...I don't have them. I didn't grow up with them. I know that it's hard to let them go long enough to even show me, but you've got to show people that you have no secrets about who you are, and that no part of you is anything to fear." She reached up and rubbed the side of his arm for a moment, a comforting gesture. He hated that he needed something to simple, but it helped just the same. "We don't have to show anyone else any time soon, but it helps to practice showing it to me first. I promise I won't be afraid or repulsed."

After thinking on it for seemingly forever, he finally nodded. He Itrusted/I what she said, and he couldn't remember the last time he had actually trusted a person. Maybe Thor, back when they were children? Despite that he still had unease with the idea, he stood before the bed, allowing for his second nature to come forth. He focused his eyes on the wall as his skin changed from its pale alabaster hue to the icy blue, ridges forming on his face and arms. He remembered reading one that some of them stood for the royal house of Jotunheim, proving that, despite Laufey's rejection of him, he was of royal blood. He had studied them growing up, mainly so that he would have the knowledge to defeat his 'homeland's' hated enemy, but now it helped him understand his own nature a lot more. "I am what I was brought up to hate and fear," he said, his voice level and numbed of emotion. "I am a Frost Giant. As you know now, I did not handle the news very well."

He searched her face for any revulsion or even pity, but he saw neither. Instead, he just saw the curiosity that he had seen on her face many times before. "Wow…" she breathed, starring at him. "It's too bad that you were brought up to hate that, because you look really cool." She sat up on her knees, scooting closer to him. "May I?" she asked, holding her hands up, indicating that she wanted to touch him.

He almost asked Iwhy/I, but he managed to swallow that down and simply nod. She didn't know any better. She wouldn't realize that Frost Giants were to be treated as barely anything more than animals. He watched as her hands came up, first reaching out and touching his bare lower arms, her face full of curiosity and fascination, but none of the disgust that he was still expecting.

"Your skin's cold," she said as her fingers danced over his skin. "You're kind of like touching an ice carving," she continued with a giggle. Her fingers moved up to his face and neck, tracing the lines of the ridges. "Do these mean anything? There're almost like raised tattoos or ritual scarring that tribes do."

"I am of the royal house of Laufey," he said, actually enjoying the warmth of her fingers over his skin. "I was rejected by him because, by Frost Giant standards, I was a runt." He realized that, other than Odin and very briefly, to Heimdall, he'd never shown this form to anyone. It was terrifying for him to be 'naked' in this way, but Darcy's almost childlike curiosity about him was managing to put him more at ease.

"You were adopted when you were a baby, right?" she asked. When he nodded, she continued. "Then they're likely either just part of your form or were done after you were born like ritual scarring. I honestly wouldn't be surprised by either."

"So, you were brought up to hate Frost Giants, only to find out that you're adopted and wound up going more than a little crazy when you found out that your birth family was full of Frost Giants as well," Darcy continued. Her fingers actually kept moving, so it was hard to concentrate on what she was saying. She was one of the few people to really touch him, so he wasn't used to it, anymore. When he managed to finally nod, she continued. "Not too shocked that you went off the deep end for a while then. It's not an excuse, but people will understand it a little more."

"I am starting to understand that myself." He really had done everything wrong when he came here before. If he truly wanted his own place to rule over, he should have been a lot more subtle about it. He was actually quite good at subtlety. He had just been so full of hurt and rage (some of which had been planted) that he could barely think straight.

"Would you show yourself like this to anyone else?" she asked him.

He shook his head quickly. "No, just you," he said to her. He wasn't sure why, but he trusted her. He didn't want anyone else to see him like this.

"People are going to be thinking that you're duplicitous if you won't show all of you," she pointed out, her hands now resting on his shoulders as she looked up to him.

"I Iam/I duplicitous," he pointed out. "I'm called the God of Lies, remember?"

"Well, it sounds like the mythology books left out a lot, anyway, so let's not go into what people called you in the past," Darcy said quickly. "If you're going to be king of humanity, then you got to know our favorite rule: you're in control of your own fate. Anyone can be redeemed if they try hard enough. Even the super duper Ironman was once known as the Merchant of Death, you know. He was a weapons dealer and dealt to both sides. If he can change and people can love him, then we can do the same for you."

He hadn't realized that about Stark's history, actually. If that was true, then she did have a point. Still, he wasn't exactly relishing in the idea of showing himself like this to anyone else. He'd have to put some deep thought into it.

He was about to reply, but he heard movement outside of the door. Darcy yelped and fell over in her bed, and he managed to change back to his usual form just in time to avoid being seen by Tony Stark, wearing what Darcy had taught him to call a 'shit eating' grin as he looked at both of them. "I didn't interrupt anything, did I?" Tony asked, sounding almost innocent.

"Just two people having a private discussion," Loki replied coolly. "I understand that you own the building, but there are such common courtesies as knocking on a door before entering," he said, helping Darcy to sit back up on her bed.

"You're right, I do own the building," Tony replied quickly. "Pepper complains all the time that I lack basic manners, although I try to make up for it with wit, charm, and genius level intellect." He grinned at them again. "Anyway, I was coming in for something now…what was it…oh right! We ordered out for dinner, so we've got about twenty or so pizzas waiting in the common room for when you guys are done…talking, and can come eat."

Darcy picked up a pillow from her bed and hurled it at Stark, who easily dodged it. "Either you start knocking or I start paying people to play pranks on you," she said to him.

"No one can prank me," Tony said with a shake of his head. "I'd like to see you find someone who can try."

Loki filed that away in his head for later. Obviously, Tony Stark had never dealt with a God of Mischief.

OoOoOoOo

The weekend was actually really nice. Darcy had gotten Loki to open up some, and he had encouraged her to come out of her room a lot more. He helped her calm down a lot more. She was sure that most everyone thought that she was insane because a former wannabe dictator was the one person she felt the most calm around right now. She didn't really care, though.

There were also many strange things happening to Tony over the weekend. All of his tools disappeared one day, only to all end up at the bottom of his pool. One of his Iron Man suits was turned bright pink by some paint that wouldn't come off or be covered up. Apparently, someone had taken up a bit of a pranking war against Tony, and Darcy couldn't complain in the least. All roads pointed to Loki being the culprit, but it seemed like there was no real way to get him back. It paid to be a little paranoid, it seemed.

Darcy ended up saying goodbye to Loki on Saturday night, as he and Thor would be leaving so early on Sunday that she likely wouldn't be up. When she could pull it off (which was a lot more lately), she liked to sleep late. However, she could swear she heard a pecking at her window around eight in the morning.

When she finally gave up and opened her eyes, looking at her window, she saw what looked like a bird, except that it looked to be made of metal. Sitting up, she opened the window, and the little bird flew in, perching on her headboard and starting to sing a song. When she got close to look at it, she realized that it had a little note attached to its foot. Taking the note, she unfolded it and immediately recognized it as Loki's handwriting.

I am still not sure if I am a monster or not, but thank you for believing in me.

Loki

She smiled, hiding the note in her stuff after rereading it a few more times. She hoped that she could get him past this whole 'I'm a monster' thing. It would help a lot in his plans. Still, she couldn't help but marvel at the bird. Did he make it? She had no idea where he would have gotten it. It was beautiful, though. She wondered what the song was. She'd have to ask him when she saw him again.