Day 80

Loki Laufeyson

This is much better than being cooped up on that sad little island. He should've suggested taking a day trip ages ago. Now they can explore this charming city Jane calls Los Angeles all day long. It's late in the evening and there's much to do. He dresses them appropriately for a night out, ignoring Jane's pout as she pulls her skirt down over her legs.

"Why hide them?" he asks as they enter the street and a passing car honks. "Your legs are your best physical attribute."

"One, I never wear anything shorter than biker pants." She pulls again fruitlessly. Were he less mature, he might shrink it another few inches. "Two, I know you have some kind of snarky aside planned to turn that compliment into an insult. Get on with it so we can move."

"I would," Loki says, glaring off a man who is a bit too preoccupied with Jane's backside, "but I can't let myself become predictable, now can I?"

He links an arm through hers and they stroll down the street towards a chic restaurant with a line around the corner. They pass the end of the line and approach the door where a man in a suit prepares his speech telling them to go wait their turn. Loki drops a bag of gold coins in his hands and keeps walking. The man's jaw is on the floor and neither he nor anyone else stops them from sitting at the closest empty table. Jane doesn't even question it.

"The cheapest thing on this menu is more than I make in a month," she says.

"Which is exactly why we're here. You deserve only the finest in life."

"I thought earth food was tasteless and inedible."

"It is."

Even he doesn't know why he continues to argue that point. No, he doesn't like Midgardian cuisine. The flavors don't suit his palette and aside from the miracle that is Reeses, the overprocessing of fats and (what were they called again? Oh yes) preservatives make him feel like he's gained ten pounds after only one bite. He's not surprised to learn Thor loved the food here. He's been kind enough to try both pop-tarts and coffee. Both made him question Thor's intelligence even more than he already does.

Still, it's not so important to him that he must remind her every other day that her people are abject failures at one more thing. He would've lost interest in the debate ages ago, except she always has the same reaction. Puffed out cheeks, balled fists, heavy breaths. His lower half tingles each time. He just wants to pound her into the nearest flat surface until she can no longer think, let alone speak.

Why oh why does he give her so much power over him?

Their meal is uneventful. He replaces his roast duck with a plate full of Reese's which no one but Jane can see. She only doesn't because she's intent on finishing her chicken cacciatore and not looking away from the plate until every morsel is down her throat.

"Enjoying yourself?" he asks.

She mumbles through a mouthful of food. Crumbs fall from her lips onto her dress. She didn't put a napkin in her lap. He realizes now what a favor he's done her. She'd never be accepted by the royal court with manners like this, so it's a good thing she won't become Thor's queen after all.

Back at their suite, Jane flips through twenty channels of interchangeable programs before switching the television off. She rolls on her back and stares at the ceiling. There's something on her mind and he knows it.

"Want to play a game?"

They've played games before, all of which involved some manner of nudity. He has a feeling this won't be one of them.

"What kind of game?"

"Any kind." She sits up. Her legs are crossed as she pulls her dress down again. "Truth or dare?"

"Excuse me?"

"You have to pick one," she says. "You pick truth and you have to answer a question truthfully. You pick dare and you have to do one thing I tell you to do."

Loki blinks. "This is a game or a torture method?"

"Both. Truth or dare?"

Perhaps there's more to be said for Midgard than he gave credit for.

"If I say truth, will you force me to reveal a humiliating secret from my past?"

Jane shrugs. "You said it, not me."

"In that case, I choose dare."

"I dare you to reveal a humiliating secret from your past."

She smiles. She thinks she's clever. At no point does she consider that rules only apply to him when he wants them to..

And yet, all the many colorful yarns he dreams up in the ensuing silence will remain unspoken. "When I was a boy, I decided I would impress my father by conjuring a live goat to be butchered for dinner that night. I did it in front of the entire court."

"And it didn't work?"

"It did. The animal merely appeared inside out."

A pause. Jane is expressionless and then, slowly, the mask cracks. She grins so hard, it pains him to look, but her laughter eases the ache.

"Oh my god," she wheezes. That can't be good for her lungs. "Wow, that really humanizes you for me."

"Thank you kindly," he says. He waits for her to regain composure, but it's taking far longer than it should. His mother liked to repeat that story to her friends every so often. No one else has ever found it so funny. "Now, I believe it's time for you to make a choice?"

She's still smiling, her eyes bright and brown like chocolate. He needs another Reeses. "Okay… truth."

Loki raises an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

"If I say dare, you'll ask for some depraved sexual act. So truth."

"Very well." She's just given him the power to break her and she doesn't even know it. "Then tell me truthfully… what is your embarrassing story?"

She hides a blush behind her hair and audibly scoffs. He commends her for trying, but he hears the whimper beneath it. "Can't think of your own question, so you steal mine?"

"I have sacrificed to your whims a significant portion of my dignity," he says. "I'm only asking you to do the same."

Jane Foster

'Oh he's good,' she thinks. She twirls a lock of hair around her finger. 'Really good.'

Too good.

What possessed her to challenge him to a game of truth-telling to begin with? That might not even be a real story what he told her. It sounded like a scene from a movie she saw once.

"Okay." She is, sadly, not much of a storyteller. Her creativity all goes to her scientific theories. Without it, she is regulated to the truth. "When I was in high school, there was this guy I had a huge crush on. My friends all told me to play hard to get, so whenever he asked me something, I was aloof and only gave him one-word answers. Eventually, he stopped talking to me as much and I freaked out. Figured my friends were wrong and I should've been more upfront about my feelings."

"That would be the logical course of action," Loki says because he can probably tell any woman on the street in Asgard to get naked and they'll do it.

"So I cornered him in the lunchroom, asked him out on a date, and he very nervously informed me that he was gay, which was apparently common knowledge at that point to everyone who wasn't me."

"Oh dear. That can't have helped your budding relationship."

"You think?" Jane picks up the TV guide and pretends to read it. "I was utterly humiliated, he ended up dating a guy on the football team, and we more or less stayed away from each other for the rest of the school year. The end."

"A riveting tale," Loki says, "It has been an honor listening to you."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Jane tosses a pillow his way. It doesn't hit him. Not even close. "Okay, come now. Truth or dare."

"Dare," he says automatically.

Jane snorts. "Coward. Okay… take your clothes off."

Loki's face lights up. "Finally, something good."

He raises his hand, ready to magick them away.

"Hang on," Jane says, "not like that."

Loki frowns. "I'm sorry?"

"Take them off slowly." She sits at the foot of the bed, her eyes intent on his lean body. "One piece at a time. With your hands."

His subsequent smile, as it dawns on him that she's not joking, is so evil she expects him to go out and step on a ladybug before coming back inside and fucking her until she forgets her own name.

"If that's what you wish," he says as he undoes his shirt buttons.

A/N: And I think that's a good place to cut off. Have a good night everyone! :D