Warning: there is a bit of strong language, but nothing worse than what is used in the actual MCU films.
Also, brief note: This is in no way connected to my Till Death Do You Part series, this is a completely seperate OC/Loki story. With the possibility of a love triangle in future chapters... Ok, enjoy!
Of all the people who she'd ever danced with, the mop was by far the least glamorous, but at least it had the decency not to step on her toes as she waltzed around the darkened lobby of the Avengers Compound. With her large headphones fitted snugly to her ears, Jaklyn could almost block out her surroundings and pretend that she was spinning around a polished dance floor in a flowing dress. Rather than spinning around with a mop, wearing baggy coveralls with her last name stitched over her heart.
She was tempted to take off her headphones and connect her phone to the overhead speakers for the lobby. Jarvis always told her that she had good taste in music, back when she'd worked at Stark Tower. But after the whole Ultron thing, there was a new AI. Jak didn't care much for Friday and Friday liked Jak even less. Besides, the Avengers were home. And while they were in a separate wing of the building, she could never be sure that Captain America wasn't going to pop up and comment on her music. That had happened once and she'd been so mortified that she had studied Steve Rogers' schedule so that she would never run into him again. They had enough history without throwing awkward musical encounters on top of everything.
Spying a muddy footprint just a few feet away from her, Jack twirled the mop, lifting it from the ground and slapping it down with a satisfying splat. She grinned to herself and scrubbed at the mud for a moment before resuming her waltz. After the song ended, she sighed and allowed her immaculate posture to slump. Dragging the mop over to the last of the dirty spots on the floor, she quickly finished the lobby and went back to her utility cart. She snagged the "wet floor" sign and propped it up in the middle of the room. Even though a fair amount of the residents of the building had super powers, they still slipped on wet floors. She'd learned that the hard way when Vision had hit a wet patch and slid right through a wall. Luckily he'd phased so there was no mess, but still.
Moving on to the hallway, Jak began to scroll through her playlist for the perfect score to play. She finally settled on Waltz No. 2 by Shostokovich—her favorite classical piece of all time—and began her dancing again. Before she was even ten seconds into the music, there was a loud bang and a tremble went through the whole building.
"What now?" She muttered, jabbing her mop back into the bucket of cleaner. She stomped over to the emergency button on the wall, prepared to hit it and alert the Avengers of the disturbance. Disturbances at the Compound were common. Every second rate criminal or supervillain wanted to test themselves against the Earth's Mightiest Heroes and others just had beef with Tony Stark and thought he would be hanging around. They usually forgot that the billionaire spent most of his time in Malibu doing whatever genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropists did.
Jak had been present for five disturbances so far in her time working for the Avengers. Three of them were back at Stark Tower (one of which involved an evil robot playing music from Pinocchio before deciding to destroy the human race) and the other two involved wild animals that had somehow broken into the Compound. Back before she'd worked for the Avengers, she had been the cause of a disturbance… but that was in the past.
Feeling experienced enough to handle anything, she was about to hit the emergency button when she heard a familiar voice echo down the hallway.
"That wasn't funny! I've had just about enough of your so-called jokes for one day!"
That sounded like Thor. And he didn't sound like he was getting ready to punch anything in the face or pummel anything with his hammer so Jak relaxed. She left the emergency button and took a step back toward her mop and rolling bucket. However, her foot did not connect with the solid floor that had been there a moment ago and she found herself tumbling through a red sky, hurtling toward a desolate landscape. She screamed in terror and clawed at the dampening cuff around her wrist. It went against her probation to remove the cuff, sure, but she didn't really care about breaking probation to save her life. Alas, the electronic bracelet held firm.
Jak braced for impact, finding herself somewhat annoyed that this was the way she was going out. Splattering against the ground in an unfamiliar place was not what she'd envisioned when she'd pictured her death in the past. She'd always thought it would be something more elegant. Like a sniper rifle, or a sword blade. Maybe even being incinerated by someone's super powers. But she made her peace with the messy death moments before impact and closed her eyes.
And never hit the ground.
She opened her eyes and found that she was suspended in the air above her mop and bucket. She yelped in surprise and then whatever force had been holding her let go, dropping her face first into the bucket of water and lemon-scented cleaning chemicals.
"Gah!" She spluttered doing her best to spit out whatever chemicals had made their way into her mouth. Her tongue had already begun to burn and she didn't dare open her eyes for fear of hurting them too.
She reached for the bandana in her back pocket and cleared her face of the dangerous liquid. When she was able to open her eyes she saw her cleaning cart fall through the floor and then, ten seconds later, fall through the ceiling and hit the ground with a loud crash. Spray bottles and garbage bags tumbled across the room. Jak scrambled to her feet and picked up her mop like a weapon.
"Hey!" She shouted, wet strands of dark pink hair falling out of her ponytail and hitting her in the face, "Whatever miserable excuse for a supervillain is doing this… whatever this is, leave me out of it! I'm just the janitor!"
In response a heavy boot fell out of the ceiling and hit her on the head.
"Quit it!" She picked up the boot and lobbed it back at the ceiling. The boot fell harmlessly to the floor and she vaguely recognized it as being of Asgardian make. Was Thor throwing shoes at her? What had she done to piss him off? She didn't even know the guy. He'd been absent when she'd first "introduced" herself to the Avengers and he hadn't paid her any attention since she started her probation.
Gripping her mop fiercely, she looked around and waited for something else to fall out of the ceiling. When nothing did, she took a tentative step forward, testing the ground with the toe of her sensible sneakers. The floor seemed solid enough, so she took a full step in the direction of the emergency button. She poked the big red circle with the end of her mop and then took another hesitant step. She fell through again.
Screaming at the top of her lungs, she plummeted downward toward what appeared to be the ocean. She hit the waves, and felt the chill of the water, but then she was falling out of the ceiling back in the Compound again. Instead of landing in a bucket, this time the sopping wet janitor fell into outstretched arms.
"Got you!" Thor beamed at her. She coughed up the sea water that had gotten in her mouth as she'd screamed and shoved against the big blond's chest, trying to get away from him. He let her go and she smacked into the hard floor.
"Oww…" she groaned.
"Apologies, I thought you wished to stand on your own," Thor offered her his hand and she hit it away with her mop handle, still coughing and now finding that she was freezing cold and dripping sea water all over her freshly mopped floor. He reached again to help her and she flinched.
"Don't touch me," she hissed, "I can stand on my own."
"Jane!" Thor hollered down the corridor, "Jane, turn it off! We are causing chaos!"
Jak mustered the strength to push herself to a sitting position and she took a deep, trembling breath. If she remembered correctly, Jane was a scientist of some sort as well as Thor's girlfriend. She also recalled hearing that Jane was supposed to be in Norway studying some science related thing or another or teaching other scientists. Jak had never been much of a STEM person.
"What happened?" A feminine voice asked as a petite brunette woman came skittering out into the corridor. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Jak sitting in a puddle of water on the floor. "Oh shit. I'm sorry! Are you okay?"
Jak glared at the other woman. "Teleporting people without their consent has got to be illegal."
"Did you actually leave the building?"
"Unless someone installed an ocean in here somewhere then, yeah, I'm pretty sure I left the building," Jak looked down at her drenched coveralls and began to shiver. "What the hell was that?!"
"Midgard aligned with Vanaheim like a mini Convergence and we were testing to see if equipment we used during the last Convergence would—"
"Forget I asked. I don't care as long as I'm not going to be falling through anymore oceans or red skies."
"Red sky?" Thor asked. "There wouldn't be a red sky in Vanaheim at this time of year. Are you certain that's what you saw?"
"I don't know and I don't care," Jak threw her hands in the air and got to her feet. "I've got two hours left on my shift, but I'm leaving now. If someone wants to tell my parole agent then go right ahead. I'm pretty sure Jimmy will understand given the circumstances."
"Hey, hey wait!" Jane called as Jak collected her bucket and mop and shoved them onto her cart. "I need to ask you some questions for my research!"
"Hell no! I'm cold, I'm wet, and I'm going home!"
"Wait just a moment, servant—"
"Thor!" Jane hissed, "We don't call people servants!"
"Err, right. Wait just a moment… woman."
Jane slapped her forehead.
"Mr. Thor, I'm really sorry, but science and research are going to have to do without me. I need dry clothes and, and, and I don't know, a soothing cup of tea or something," Jak cringed inwardly. She usually did her best to avoid the Avengers and she certainly didn't like to yell at them, but there was no way she was hanging around a moment longer.
"Dry clothes and tea, hmm?" A new, male voice said. A moment later Jak found that her coveralls and the clothes beneath had dried, though her hair was still a stringy, wet nightmare. A cup of tea appeared in her hand and she almost dropped it out of shock. "Simple requests. Now, stay and talk with Dr. Foster."
Jak spun on her heel toward the voice, fully prepared to cuss out whoever it was. When she spotted the person a mere two feet away from her, she screamed again and tossed the liquid from her cup at the man. He hissed as the scalding tea hit his face and then glared at her.
"If I weren't so very well reformed I would make you pay for that, mortal. In fact, I still might, reformation be damned."
"You're... shit," Jak dropped the tea cup on the floor and backed away.
"I've been called that before, yes, but I much prefer to be called Loki."