Loki: First date

[moonshadows]

Darcy threw herself into the backseat of the cab, arms crossed, radiating unhappiness, a small black-sequined purse clutched in one hand. Loki gestured to the driver and the cab pulled away.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s stupid,” she sighed.

“If it’s distressing you, then it’s not stupid.”

“My iPod died.”

Loki frowned. “Your music player has malfunctioned, and you were unable to repair it, is that correct?”

She groaned, flopping over to rest her head on his tuxedoed shoulder. “I even called Apple support. They said the drive was damaged, and it’s out of warranty.”

“What did you do with it?” he asked, gently sliding one arm around her waist in a comforting gesture. “Might I take a look at it?”

“You going to tell me you can fix my iPod?”

“I won’t know until I try.”

“Well…let’s have dinner first. I left it back in my apartment, and I’ve kind of been looking forward to this.”

“You look stunning,” he whispered into her hair. “Between the neckline and the color of your dress, your neck seems longer – pale and graceful like a swan’s.”

Her cheeks flushed. “Flatterer.” She sat up and half-glared out the cab’s window, arms crossed

“Flattery,” he teased, “is merely the art of stating the truth such that it sounds even better.”

Darcy flushed harder, down her jawline and up to the tips of her ears.

 

“Where are we going?” she asked as the cab pulled away from the fancy restaurant in which they’d had dinner. “I hope you’re not going to take me dancing because I gotta warn you, I can’t dance.”

“In that, you and my brother are equal.” He grinned at her snorted laugh. “We are going to replace your poor departed iPod, because I truly would not want you going back to your dreary office without the armor of good music with which to ward off the inanity of your coworkers.”

Darcy perked up at that. “You’re serious? You just spent more on dinner than I make in a day, and you’re buying me a new iPod?”

“I can make no promises regarding my ability to repair your old one,” he warned. “Whether I succeed or fail, you will have music.”

Her mouth dropped open as she stared at him for a long moment. Then, slowly, she closed it. “You’re really serious. This is just our first date, what are you going to do for our one-month anniversary?”

Gracefully, he swept her hand into his and brought it to his lips. “Conquer your home state and install you as absolute ruler.”

“Stop that,” she giggled, but she did not reclaim her hand.

“Did you want to be Queen Darcy of Darcyland,” he asked with a smile that made his pale eyes shine, “or President Darcy of Lewis State?”

“Oh, please.” She rolled her blue-grey eyes. “Like I’d go for anything so garish? Just install a puppet ruler and let me be the power behind the throne.”

“Excellent choice, my lady. Ah, I believe we have arrived. Please-” he vanished, to reappear outside her door – “allow me,” he finished, opening the door and offering her the hand she thought she’d been holding.

Sequined purse clutched in her other hand, Darcy allowed him to assist her out of the cab and took a moment to admire her reflection in the window of the Apple store as he paid the cabbie, the heavy fabric of her black dress accentuating her figure without feeling flimsy, a sheath that hugged her body before flaring at the knees.

“My companion requires a new iPod,” he announced grandly as he swept into the store, Darcy on his arm. “Her previous musical minion has perished outside of its warranty period. You,” he said, pointing to an employee at random. “Assist her in her search for a replacement, or I shall smite you utterly.”

“Stop it,” she muttered, smacking him on the arm and trying not to grin.

“As you wish, my dear.” He smiled fondly as the employee leaped to obey and Darcy bent her head to examine the newest models on display.

It didn’t take long before Darcy, Loki, and the new iPod were in another cab, heading toward her apartment.

“Are you alright?” Loki asked when they’d gone a few blocks in silence.

“I’m just kind of overwhelmed,” she said, staring at the box. “My old iPod…it was a Christmas present from my mom, the last one she bothered to give me, the year I got into college. I had it with me when your brother dropped in. It got confiscated during that mess, and it was almost three weeks before I found it in all our stuff. It’s kinda got sentimental value, but I’m not sure anymore if it’s sentiment I want to hold on to.”

“Because of your mother?” His voice was low and soft. “Or because of my brother?”

Darcy’s fingers stroked the sleek package. “Because of my mother. I’m actually more fond of it because we survived your brother together.”

“Then consider this a gift, Darcy Lewis, for having faced my brother in battle and been victorious. There are not many that have bested him, and none so swiftly as you.” As she laughed, he said, “If you wish, you can send the corpse back to your mother with a note that her contributions are no longer necessary in your life.”

She sobered at that. “You don’t know anything about her, and you’re suggesting I tell her to butt out of my life?”

“I know she does not value you in hers,” he said quietly. “I may have been overlooked and taken for granted by my brother, or my father, but my mother…I was always first in her eyes. I am not so naïve as to think that all mothers are as loving as mine, nor that a loved one could never be a toxic presence in one’s life. If she has driven you away for so long, if you have achieved everything in your life without her help, then there is no dishonor in being proud of all you have accomplished despite her apathy. And if her gift causes you nothing but guilt and unhappiness, then rid yourself of it. If you inform her of how wrong her assumptions were by returning it, all the better.”

“I’m not sure I should be taking advice from you,” she said, laughing, “but I have to admit I like the idea. So much for – never mind.”

The only way you’ll make it to the top is on your back, taunted her heart. And guys seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.

“On your back?” Loki snarled, coldly furious. “She thinks so little of you?”

Darcy jumped and pressed herself into the corner of the cab, as far away from him as she could get. “Whoah, whoah, whoah, back up, time out. How the fuck did you know that?”

He stared at her for a long moment, weighing his options. “If I give you my word that I will not trespass on your personal boundaries, will you accept my hospitality for the evening? The answer to that question is a tale unsuited to our present accommodations and the flimsy protection of a silencing spell.”

Curiosity won out over wariness. “I trust you. You just startled me really badly.”

“I apologize, Darcy Lewis.” Gently, he took her hand and brought it to his lips. “I was enraged on your behalf, and allowed my temper to get the better of me.”

“Apology accepted. So…your place?”

“Indeed. Driver…” Loki gave a new address, and the cab changed directions.

 

“This is really nice,” Darcy said, admiring the open layout of the living room.

Two sides, north and east, were nearly entirely window with a door that opened onto a rooftop garden. Couches of rich brown leather filled those sides, while the largest flat-screen TV she’d ever seen took up the majority of the west wall, ideal for evening entertainment. The south half of the room was a tiled serving area, nearly a small kitchen, with a door that led to the entry hall while the west wall allowed access to the rest of the penthouse. On the elegant glass and steel coffee table, bowls of pure white stones sat as accents.

“I’m afraid I don’t keep the bar stocked, or the fridge. I didn’t anticipate having company. I have coffee, though I am uncertain as to its quality, and water, and half a two-liter of Pepsi that came with the last pizza I had delivered.”

“You don’t drink coffee?” she asked curiously. “Thor liked it.”

It was the first time either of them had said his brother’s name.

“The process involved in making coffee palatable is a mystery to me.”

Darcy took two steps towards the coffee maker, then stopped. “May I…?”

“Of course.” Loki retreated toward the north couch. “Please, make yourself at home. I have offered you my hospitality; by Asgardian custom, that makes you nearly as family while you are under my roof.”

Back to him, Darcy stilled. “Can we talk about that? About your family? Because Thor’s side makes you sound pretty bad, but we’ve established that he’s not the brightest bulb in the box.”

Loki’s tuxedo melted back into casual Asgardian clothes, green and black. “That was the bargain I made with you; that you would allow me to lavish courting gestures upon you, and I would allow you to ask things of me that I would not otherwise permit.”

When she finished with the coffee maker and turned around, Loki was curled nearly into a ball in the far corner of the couch, visibly unhappy. Almost defiantly, she kicked her high-heeled shoes off and sat cross-legged on the other end, facing him.

“So,” she said calmly. “Thor.”

“What would you know?”

“Do you hate him?”

A bitter laugh escaped Loki’s mouth. “Hardly. Quite the opposite; everything he blames me for, I did for him.”

“You – I’m not accusing, I just want to understand – you sent a walking, fire-breathing suit of armor to destroy a small town…for him?”

Pale eyes evaded hers. “I did my best to avoid casualties. Property damage only. I was controlling it, you see.”

“Okay, I’m still not getting it. Why did you send that thing to destroy a small town?”

“You thought him heroic, did you not?” His eyes flicked to hers, held them. “Risking his life to get innocents to safety. Offering his life to me for theirs.”

Darcy shifted slightly. “Well…yeah.”

“There cannot be a hero without a villain.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Wow. Okay, yeah, I get it now. That’s all we need to talk about there, I think. I just wanted to be sure that you didn’t, like, secretly hate him and I was going to be responsible for the two of you fighting or something.”

Loki shook his head. “Hardly a fair bargain. Keep asking.”

“No. You’re not comfortable with it and I’m not comfortable with pushing it. How about you tell me what you couldn’t tell me in the cab?”

“How I knew the insulting words your mother hurt you with.”

“Yeah.” Darcy hugged her knees. “That.”

“My father, Odin, gave one of his eyes for the gift of seeing into the heart of anything. He can use that gift to watch the goings-on of any place he cares to think of, or see the solution of any riddle he can put his mind to. If he turns the Odinsight on the riddle of a person, he can read what is written in their heart at that moment.” Loki’s quiet voice trailed off for a minute. “It is not a difficult gift to master, but it requires harnessing one’s thoughts. Seeing into another’s heart is trickier, and I cannot always control it. When you cut yourself off, your heart screamed the words you declined to say aloud.”

“So it’s not that you were trying to pry or anything, you just have another set of ears you can’t turn off.” Awkwardly, she scooted down the length of the couch until she could lay one hand on his. “I’m sorry for freaking out like that. You probably got that a lot from people who didn’t understand.”

It was a long, slow several breaths before his gaze returned from where it had been, wandering over the contours of the white stones on the coffee table, and his hand twisted until he could curl long fingers gently around hers. “You are the first to have asked how it was that I came by my knowledge.”

Incredulously, she asked, “What does everyone else do?”

Loki’s pale eyes drifted away from her again, back to the bowls full of stones. “Whisper about magic, fear and distrust me.”

“Even Thor?” The question was quiet, hesitant.

“No. My brother does not fear my gift, any more than he fears our father for it.”

“Well, good.” Darcy scooted closer. “At least he managed to not screw that up, right? I’m sorry all your other friends are shitty. I don’t really have room to talk, though. I don’t really have friends outside of Jane and Erik.” She paused. “And you.”

“You don’t have to-”

Shut up, you’re my friend.

“-keep wearing that dress,” he continued smoothly, his tone lighter. “While I’m sure it’s quite comfortable, it’s not really suited to casual lounging. If I’m to be a proper sugar-daddy gay boyfriend, I ought to have a wardrobe here for your use. We’ll have to rectify that. Shall we say Saturday at ten? We can shop for a bit, then have lunch, shop some more, and return here to create your wardrobe.”

“Just as long as you remember that not pushing my boundaries thing,” she said, tossing her hair in a gesture of defiance.

“My dear, I wouldn’t dream of foisting sexual advances upon you. As a prince of Asgard, my honor demands that I hold your virtue even higher than my own.”

“Can we watch a movie?”

“Whichever one you like,” he assured her.

“Can we order pizza, too?”

“I’ll even let you choose the toppings.” Loki smiled, but Darcy’s expression faded. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing,” she protested, then glanced guiltily at him and sighed. “I’m just…afraid that you’ll decide I’m not worth it.”

He frowned. “Not worth what?”

“The time, or the energy, or the money, or the risk of SHIELD learning something you don’t want them to know.” The hand he wasn’t holding waved vaguely.

Gently, Loki drew her closer until she was cradled against his chest. “You asked. You apologized. You tased my brother. Darcy Lewis, if anyone is worth my time and energy it is you. The money is stolen from those who would do your country harm, and no risk could be greater than the ones I’ve already put myself through. Director Fury is no doubt aware of our bargain. You may tell him this: I will speak with no other of his subordinates but you. If he would have my secrets, he must prize them from your lips.”

In as quiet a tone as he’d ever heard her use, she said, “Really?”

“I could do no less for my pseudo-girlfriend,” he assured her loftily.

“I was jealous of Jane,” Darcy confessed. “The way Thor smiled at her, bowed to her, kissed her hand. Kissed her. Even though I knew he’d never look at me that way because I-”

“Shhh. He sees you as I do, as a warrior who struggles to keep her ferocity and her womanhood at the same time. That he does not treat you as a maiden to be rescued is a mark of respect, a lesson the Lady Sif taught him many years ago that he learned slowly, and with many bruises.”

“I don’t feel much like a warrior,” she said, but there was no heat to the protest. “Especially not in those heels and this dress.”

“Allow me to teach you ways to defend yourself, then, that you may wear whatever you wish and still not fear the uncouth grasp of an unworthy man.”

Darcy took a deep breath. “Okay. But first you try my coffee.”

She considered him a friend, and very likely preferred his company to Thor’s. Loki reveled in the feeling for a long moment before saying softly, “Deal.”