Loki: Erik calls

[moonshadows]

A low buzz from somewhere; Loki paused the movie while Darcy dove for her purse and came up holding her phone.

“It’s Erik.”

“I’ll let you have some privacy, then.”

“Don’t.”

Loki froze and, at her angry look, slowly sat back down on the other couch.

“Don’t leave. I’m putting it on speakerphone.” She jabbed at her phone. “Erik! What’s up?”

“Darcy,” Erik hissed, “that’s Loki that you’re dating!”

“I know.”

“Loki, Darcy. Thor’s brother. He’s dangerous!”

Sprawled on the other couch, Darcy rolled her eyes and lifted the phone to her lips again. “I know, Erik.”

“Then why…has he gotten into your mind?”

The hand not holding the phone covered her eyes. “He’s not going to hurt me. He hasn’t gotten into my mind. SHIELD knows what I’m doing, and he knows he’ll be in deep doo-doo if he does anything to me.”

“But after New York…after what he did in New Mexico…”

On the other couch, Loki flinched.

“Erik…have you ever heard the saying about truth being a three-edged sword?”

There was a pause before the scientist’s voice came from the phone’s speaker. “No.”

“Well, there’s three sides to any story. My side, your side, and the truth. We saw Thor’s side of the New Mexico incident. I’ve heard Loki’s side. I can’t tell you about it, because it’s classified, but just think about New York for a minute.”

“I’d prefer not to, Darcy. What he did to me…”

“What did he do to you, Erik?”

“He took over my mind. Forced me to build that device, to open that portal…I had no control, no free will.”

“Then how was the portal closed?”

“I built in…” Erik’s voice trailed off. “My god.”

“It’s easy to make people see what you want them to see, Erik. I put on a dorky sweater and my reading glasses and people think I’m just a bubbleheaded ditz and ignore me, and it’s armor that I put on and it works, but it’s not who I am and even when it works? It hurts. Now think about Thor. You thought he was dangerous, remember? He just…walked in like he owned the place, like the rules didn’t apply to him. I don’t know if you had any older siblings, but I don’t have to imagine what it’s like to grow up with an older sibling that’s the favored child, and that’s why I’ve got that social armor. Now think about New York, and then think about New Mexico again.”

The silence stretched while on the other couch, Loki curled into a ball and stared at the bowls of white stones on the table.

“He could have done a lot worse,” Erik said finally, grudgingly, warily.

“Yeah. He could have. But he didn’t.”

“I feel like I owe him an apology.”

Loki snorted. “It’s hardly customary for the victim of manipulation to apologize for having been manipulated.”

“Was that – Darcy, where are you?”

Darcy raised her eyebrows. When Loki nodded, she said, “His place.”

“You’ve got me on speakerphone, and he just heard everything I said.”

“He would have left the room, but I told him not to.” With her eyes, she threatened unknown dangers should he attempt to do so now. “I don’t have anything to hide.”

Loki reached for the phone and, startled, she handed it to him. “I give you my word as a Son of Odin, Erik Selvig, that I have not, and will not, perform any act of a sexual nature with Darcy.” His voice was quiet, the silk-and-steel rustle he only used when he was being so honest that it hurt to watch. “As stained as my honor is, it is still good in the Allfather’s eyes. Believe whatever else of me you will, hate me if you must, but Darcy Lewis is as safe with me as she would be on Asgard, surrounded by a hundred warrior-eunuchs sworn to defend her with their lives.”

“Thank you,” the scientist said slowly. “And I’ll think about everything, really think about it. You’ll understand if I’m not eager to see you face to face again for a while, though.”

The ghost of a smile flitted across Loki’s face. “That’s why I haven’t dropped by.” He handed the phone back.

“So,” Darcy said, like she hadn’t just upended a vital part of Erik’s worldview, “how’s everything else going? I don’t have clearance to read your files.”

“Well, obviously my projects are a lot different without the Tesseract, but I don’t miss it. Jane’s been out in the field. Have you heard from her yet?”

“We had a series of intense texts a few days back.”

“What’d you tell her?”

Darcy grinned at the look of reluctant curiosity on Loki’s face. “That my Asgardian was hotter than hers, and he was housebroken.”

Erik’s laughter mingled with Loki’s.

“Then I pointed out that I had Director Fury’s express approval, and that was pretty much the end of that.”

“Why didn’t you just say that, Darcy?”

Storm-blue eyes met pale ones fearlessly. “You’re a scientist, Erik. You’re supposed to think objectively about things and come to your own conclusions using all the facts available, not take someone else’s hypothesis for granted.” In a lighter voice, she continued, “I put the science back in political science.”

“Fair enough,” Erik chuckled. “I’ll let you get back to whatever I interrupted.”

“Pizza and movies,” she supplied. “And cuddles.”

“…I’ll let you get back to that. Talk to you later.”

“Cuddles?” Loki asked as she put the phone back in her purse.

“Well, yeah. It falls under the gay boyfriend part. You’ve never cuddled?”

Slowly, he smiled. “We don’t have Netflix on Asgard. My technique may be unfamiliar due to cultural differences.”

It wasn’t long before Darcy was cuddled up to a chest that, while not as bulky as Thor’s, was definitely just as cut.

“You really think I’m more attractive than Thor?” he murmured as the movie resumed.

“Geek is the new chic,” she replied. “And if you aren’t the Asgardian equivalent of a geek, I’ll eat my new wardrobe.”

She thought he was more attractive than his brother. That, even more than the cuddling, made him feel warm and fuzzy for the duration of the movie.