sarahsmoores asked you: Intense philosophical conversations/arguments between Jane and Loki during late night sessions in the lab, maybe to do with Loki's struggle to understand mortals (that may or may not lead to sexy times *cough*)
Wherein Loki and Jane disagree about both astrophysics and exhibitionism. (PWP. NC-17.)
"It's not that difficult to understand," Jane tells Loki for what is, at this point, at least the tenth time. "Clearly an Einstein-Rosen bridge is traversable, since you're here—"
"Astounding conclusion on your part."
"—but there's no logic, none, to the hypothesis that a wormhole like that can be created and collapsed on command."
"Except for the part where that is precisely what happens."
"But that's what I'm telling you. It can't be. I can understand how you might make that mistake—"
"Mistake?"
"—because it does make sense that the connection might migrate with the rotation of the planets, even the galaxy. Well, not migrate exactly, but what is for all intents and purposes stationary at a cosmic level could be such a substantial shift here at our level that it might seem as though it is disappearing and reappearing. After all, you and Thor departed—"
"We were banished."
"—at almost precisely the same moment, and from the same exit point, but you wound up miles apart." Jane motions to the topographical map spread out on the table; pins mark the locations of Puente Antiguo and the respective landing points of Thor, Loki, and Mjolnir. "Evidence doesn't lie. And if the wormhole could move so much — to our eyes, at least — in only a few seconds, then it could be nearly anywhere by now."
"Or the Bifrost opens and closes at Heimdall and the All-Father's will, and the fact that Thor and I fell in different spots is simply because Odin felt spiteful."
"An Einstein-Rosen bridge is not influenced spite."
"Oh? And out of the two of us, which one has actually traveled across this bridge?"
Jane wishes she were as strong as Thor, because if she were she would shake Loki until his teeth rattled. Not because of the way he lords his greater experience over her — though he does. No, she'd do it out of sheer, raw jealousy. She's self-aware enough to realize that.
But she won't have to be jealous for long. When they find the bridge, she's going to travel it too. As many times as possible. With as much observational equipment as she can carry.
There's a whole universe out there to study.
"I thought you'd be happy," Jane says. "Since the bridge never closes, it's only a matter of finding it again." She elects not to tell him she has no idea how long that will take. "We just have to collect more data. I was able to predict the last several events. Sooner or later we'll find another one."
"And while we collect your data, we will be wasting time better spent uncovering a method by which to force the Bifrost gate to reopen." Loki scowls down at the map. "We have neither Gungnir nor Hofund. Thor is torn from his hammer, and I…"
His fingers flex.
Jane doesn't understand the nature of these artifacts Thor and Loki are always talking about, but that's because she hasn't had a chance to analyze them. And whatever Loki used to do… she'd like to analyze that just as much. Probably his 'tricks' were connected to the armor he lost in Asgard and he never realized it. Kind of like Tony Stark's Iron Man suit.
She knows better than to suggest anything like that, though. There's no quicker way to send Loki into a bad mood, and when he's sulking she loses the best assistant she's ever had.
"Okay," she says. "Assuming you're right — and this is only for the sake of argument, mind — is there any way other than the bridge that you've traveled?"
"Oh, yes. There are secret paths between the worlds to which even Heimdall, with all his gifts, is blind."
"To Earth?"
"Indeed."
"Then we should be looking for those, too."
Wrong thing to say. Loki turns on her with a snarl. "Do you think me a fool, that such a notion has not entered my mind, Jane Foster? The Bifrost can be influenced by relics, but these paths require magic to cross. I cannot use them as I am now, so there is no point in seeking them out! It would only be yet more wasted time!"
She wanted to shake him a minute ago; now it looks like he might do the same to her.
It's been a long night.
Come to think of it, it's probably been a very long night. Jane glances up at the wall clock — yep. Two-thirty. "Look, we're both fried," she says. "Tomorrow we'll start with the particle data and—"
His mouth is on hers, and that makes it kind of hard to talk.
Which is a really manipulative way to shut her up.
And she'd complain — seriously, she would — but it has been almost a full day.
As Jane grabs hold of Loki's hair and gives as good as she gets, it occurs to her that there's no real justification for the way they've been acting. Teenagers might have sex at literally every opportunity, but she's a full-fledged adult, and Loki is— okay, she doesn't want to think about how old he might be. Well past the age of behaving like this. They've got no excuse.
On the other hand — specifically, the hand that just unsnapped her bra — who cares.
Loki hoists her up to sit on the edge of the table, which alleviates the height difference problem, then somehow manages to strip her naked from the waist up in about three seconds. "Are you a ninja or something?" she asks, just before his tongue starts to lave at her collarbone and she loses all power of speech.
"I don't know what a ninja is," he replies, working a hot path along her shoulder. He's been paying a lot of attention to what she likes… a theory confirmed by the way he palms one breast with exactly the right pressure to make her arch into his touch. She can feel him smile against her skin as she gasps for breath. "More," he says. "Louder."
Always louder with Loki. He's determined not to understand how basic manners work here on 'Midgard'. "It's impolite," she tells him — okay, whimpers.
"Your conventions are ridiculous."
"Half the town has been listening."
"To their privilege."
"We have—" she chokes a little as his lips find the spot just behind her earlobe "—we have floor to ceiling windows."
"We've no windows at all in Asgard. And few doors."
"But that — oh — that's on Asgard. Here—"
"Why must you be so easily distracted by these insignificant concerns?" His roaming hands pause. "Am I not pleasing you?"
It took Jane a while to see that it's Loki's ego she strokes more than — um — other things, but once she caught on she felt really stupid for not getting it earlier. She should probably care more than she does that this is about a borderline megalomaniac's inferiority complex. In a weird way, she's kind of taking advantage of him.
Then again, she's given up anything that even remotely resembles respectability in Puente Antiguo. Maybe the whole state of New Mexico. So it's not like she hasn't made sacrifices of her own.
"I could be more pleased," she says, unbuttoning his collar.
Loki searches her expression for a moment, then smiles as he sheds his suit jacket. Thor accepted t-shirts and jeans immediately; Loki's sole concession to it being the middle of the night is that he's taken off his tie. He'd probably wear armor if he could.
She helps him out of his clothes as best she can, given that he's started kissing her again. With purpose.
This is going to be good.
All right, the windows don't matter so much.
Jane has seen Thor nearly naked, and it was… ah… something. Loki's build is different, but no less impressive. They can really make them on the other side of the Einstein-Rosen bridge.
While she is distracted, Loki manages to get her sweatpants to her ankles. Formality isn't her thing as much as it is his. "Come now," he murmurs, lifting her down and turning her around to bend over the table. "What do you want, Jane Foster? You need only ask."
She can't think straight to request anything specific. She just says his name.
That's more than enough for him, apparently.
And, yes, soon the lips on her throat coax her from moans to cries, and the fingers between her legs coax her from cries to wails, and the hard deep driving movements in and out coax her from wails to shrieks. And, pressing closer and closer until she's sandwiched between the map of the county and his hotter-than-the-desert chest, he's really not any quieter. Just lower-pitched.
It's not only his ego getting stroked.
When they're finished he pulls away, raining kisses along her back as he goes — which is how he gets, after — and Jane glances around, sighing. "We didn't even turn the lights off," she grumbles. "Anyone who looked saw that."
"It matters not."
"You might think so, but I'm the one who gets stared at in the laundromat."
"Then send Darcy Lewis in your place. That's what servants are for."
"She's not my servant."
"Slave, then."
"She's definitely not my slave!"
"Does she receive compensation for her labor?"
"Well, no, not exactly, but… she gets college credits. Those count."
Loki just chuckles as he fastens his belt into place. Thor says he laughed plenty on Asgard, but here it's a very rare thing, and usually only after they've had sex. "As you say, Jane Foster."
Speaking of Thor, he's probably awake on the roof. And Darcy's bedroom — a converted storage closet — is only twenty feet away from where Jane is currently re-hooking her bra. They've got to stop doing this.
But Loki's starting to examine the map again, which is more than a little crinkled now. The tension is returning to his shoulders. "Do you know how much more I could manage," he says, "if we were in Asgard?"
Jane snorts. "If you managed any more," she replies, "I wouldn't be able to walk."
He looks over at her — and grins.
It's a nice grin.
Yeah, it's going to keep happening.
Except, maybe, in the future, they'll at least stay away from the windows.