"Loki, I'm gonna kill you! Do you hear me? Kill you! Put me out! NOW!"

Darcy Lewis was fuming- almost literally. Her and Loki's last prank against Thor and Jane had resulted in a section of Darcy's hair and part of her sleeve catching fire.

Loki growled and yanked her over, brushing his hand over her sleeve to stop the embers there, and twirled the few strands of hair that had suffered the same fate,gave them a gentle tug and it was repaired, as well as the normal length.

"Any more bright ideas, Ice Brain?" Darcy asked.

"Oh come on. You thought Thor having to deal with a fire in the kitchen was golden. It's not like either of us expected the flames to come back at us."

"Uh, pretty sure the second I noticed the window was open I said 'Bad idea, bad idea, bad bad bad.'" Darcy pointed out.

"Formalities."`Loki replied.

Darcy stuck her tongue out at him. The two of them had come a long way. She, Jane and Erik had found him, half dead in the same spot they had found Thor the first time. Jane was thrilled at first when they went to chase the impact- until she saw a black head of hair after the dust had cleared. However, they were not ones to not help complete strangers who were almost bleeding out and practically grey with paleness. So when the doctors took him in and patched him up, the trio took him in. At first, Loki was hostile. He refused their help, and leered at Jane like he was plotting her death- he was, but they didn't know that. What he didn't know, however, was that his powers were completely drained with the fall, so he had little to no choice but to accept their help. Despite his own judgement, just as Thor did, he grew fond of them. He valued Jane for her smarts, Erik for his greater smarts and the way he cared for the girls like a real father should, and then there was Darcy. He adored her- first, because she fell Thor with a weapon that used something of his own design. Two, there was her own love of mischief that rivaled his.

When Thor made his return, he was thrilled and relieved to see his brother. He spent the first few days without leaving his brother's side, worried about him running from them or getting harmed. But then, of course, his attention turned fully to Jane, much to Darcy and Loki's pair had teamed up for a prank war in retaliation, and that was how they got to that point.

"Fine then. You owe me hot cocoa then. Fair's fair. You accidentally set me on fire, you do me a favor."

"Deal," Loki replied. He raised his hand, and with a flourish, magicked up a cup of cocoa and handed it over to her. He was starting to get his powers back ever so slowly. Darcy would never admit it, but she dreaded the day he would get all of his powers back. She had a sickening feeling he would just leave them hanging, and maybe even revert to his old ways.

That thought crossed Darcy's mind for about a second as she watched it appear, but she shook it off and beamed at him, then glanced at it before looking up at him and offering a puppy face.

Loki rolled his eyes and with another flick of his fingers, a candy cane popped into existence in the cocoa. Darcy resumed grinning from ear-to-ear at the drink. "Thank you!"

"Child," Loki accused.

"Blue-" Darcy's comeback was cut short when he sent her a dirty look. Sure, he allowed for 'ice' puns, but blue was too far. They weren't there yet. Duly noted. "So, what're you doing for Christmas?"

"For what?"

Darcy pointed at the giant Christmas wreath on the diner's lamppost. "Christmas- you know, the holiday all the songs described. Yay Jesus, yay presents, to put it simply?"

Loki blinked at her.

Darcy sighed. "Come on. We almost died, or I just died, at least, so let's go take a break. Izzy'll be happy to see us since we haven't been in there for a while." She hooked her free arm through his. "Just FYI, if you really like the food or drink you have, do not be all 'Hulk Smash' on it, got it?"

"… What smash?"

"Nothing. Just come on." She led him towards the diner, downing the cocoa as they went.

"Hey, Darcy. Long time no see." Izzy greeted. "Just two this time? Where's Erik? Jane? Jane's boyfriend?" She asked the last part with slight disdain, then smiled at Loki. "And who's this? Your fella?"

"Just a friend, and the others are busy. Just us." Darcy replied.

Loki, who had put enough pieces together from what Darcy had warned and how the older woman had described Thor. "Yes, fear not as well. I am not the brute that Jane's… fellow, was it, is I assure you." He replied, offering a little bow.

Izzy smiled at her. "I'll bet. Why don't you sit at your usual table. I'll bring you two coffee, then take orders, huh?"

"You got it, Izzy Baby." Darcy replied. "So, any word about the weather for the next couple of days?"

"Dry as usual, Honey."

"Ugh, Oh My Gooooooddddd, Izzy. Make it snow. I never thought I'd say this,but I miss snow."

Izzy laughed. "I would if I could, Honey." She patted Darcy's shoulder, then headed behind the counter.

Loki watched the woman fiddle around with the various items behind the counter, then looked at Darcy, who had suddenly gone quiet when a brunette little girl and her father walked by them before taking their seat at a table on the other side of the diner. Loki turned his attention to her watching them, a soft, sad smile playing on her face. He was used to the girl being obnoxiously bubbly with a side of sarcasm, but even that air she held suddenly dropped out of existence. "Are you alright?"

"Huh?" Darcy looked at him. "Oh, yeah, fine. Just…" She sighed. "I miss that with my parents, ya know? I don't see them much anymore now that they're in New York and I'm on the other side of the world." Darcy replied, then looked back at him, smiling when she noticed it looked like he had zoned out. "How badly do you hate me since I'm singing praises about my folks when you haven't had that much luck in that department?"

"Just a little." Loki replied, then glanced up when Izzy came back with the coffee and started pouring the coffee. "Thank you."

"Oh, and polite to boot. How about that? I dunno, Darcy. This one might be a keeper."

Loki hesitated. "Keeper of what?"

"Well-"

"Izzy, Woman, I will harm you." Darcy teased.

"Mm hm. So, did you two even get a chance to look at the menu?"

"No, but you know what? Just give us a couple of cheeseburgers and we're good."

"Your friend okay with that?" Izzy looked at Loki.

Loki nodded. "Yes, it'll be fine." He waited for Izzy to leave, then looked at Darcy. "So what is this… cheeseburger?"

"Dude, you've heard of them before. That's what we gave you the first week. You know, the sandwich kinda thing that you practically inhaled?"

"… Ah. Oh, yes, you just called it a 'burger' back then."

"Yeah, not much difference." Darcy shook her head. "So, yeah, we can scarf down those, and then be on our way. So what's the next prank? Oh, can it just be on Jane this time? Can we hide some of her research- oh, no! Make her main laptop blue screen. She might cry!" She added eagerly.

Loki grinned. "Your adoration for your friend's misfortune is… concerning, yet quite amusing."

"Eh, the way she can sass me and use her work as an excuse? She totally earns it." She shrugged, then started drinking the coffee Izzy had brought.

Loki's grin faltered to a smile smile. "Fair enough. Can't say I blame you, the way she is."

"And that's why you and I are good friends." Darcy patted his cheek.

The pair settled for making small talk before their food came, then headed back to the trailer.

Right before they had left, Izzy had asked them to assist decorating the place the next day, since they were such 'nice regulars.' Darcy, figuring there was nothing better to do around, she agreed for the both of them, promising to drop by once they were done decorating the trailer. She was surprised Loki gave no protest.

However, when the next day rolled around, watching Loki help out decorating the two places was possibly the most adorable thing Darcy had ever seen. First of all, Loki had been given Donald Blake's old things Thor had worn since Jane had bought the latter new clothes. Loki was practically drowning in fabric as he tried to work with the lights and fake reindeer. The sleeves were rolled up but still belled out at his elbow, and the shirttails fell to just above his mid-thigh. It was almost the same with his jeans. Erik had to find an old belt to help with the jeans. An old pair of Erik's work boots were the only thing that fit properly. Second, she got to experience him fighting a losing battle with Christmas lights.

The man struggled on the ladder, attempting to twist himself out of the lights he had practically mummified his torso in. He had ended up slipping off the ladder at one point, but before Darcy could stop laughing and screech in alarm, Loki had disappeared in a flash of green light and reappeared standing on the ground, lights in hand and no longer around him. He had all but shoved the lights into Darcy's arms and gotten back onto the ladder to set up one of the reindeer on the roof. When one of the reindeer fell off the roof, he gave up on not using magic to show them what he could do for them without it. With a flick of his wrist, each reindeer was set up properly on the roof, and he gave the one in front a red nose. He didn't know why it was so special, but Darcy had noted that they didn't have any deer resembling 'Rudolph and his very shiny, glowing red nose.' He would be lying if he wasn't pleased with himself with the giant smile Darcy sent his way upon seeing the nose.

When Erik and Jane got back from their errand on the other side of town and came back to see the pair fast asleep on the couch with Darcy curled into Loki's side, neither had the heart to disturb them. They had all gone through a long day for various reasons. In fact, they took after their friends and went their separate ways to go to sleep themselves.

The next day marked the twenty-third of December. The group had all agreed on a day off to extend the 'family time', as they called it. Loki, Thor and Darcy had started off the day playing chess to pass the time away. Loki had been the victor of his and Darcy's game within ten minutes, so Thor had taken her place.

Darcy would have been lying if she didn't know Loki's competitiveness didn't triple in the game with Thor because of the military-tactic competition that some people claimed chess had. There was no doubt in her mind Loki just wanted to beat him for that reason alone.

She had found the game quite entertaining, between Thor looking half confused, half completely absorbed in the game, and Loki looked like he was contemplating flipping the table and punching his brother after a while. She couldn't stop smiling as she looked between the pair until she heard a familiar sound- an odd, loud popping. She froze, then looked at the others. "Do you guys…?"

Erik shrugged. "Just a car with a bad engine passing through, I suppose." He offered.

Darcy continued to stare at him.

"Darce? Darcy, are you okay?" Jane asked.

"Not just any car!" Darcy shot up out of her seat so fast the bench even creaked. She hurried out of the camper, letting the door slam on the way out.

Jane looked at the others, and then turned her attention at Loki when he slipped outside of the camper after her without a word.

Loki wandered over to Darcy as she gawked at the big red pickup truck putting its way into the diner's parking lot, a smile slowly growing on her face. "Those are my parents in there! My parents- for Christmas!" She squealed, grabbing his arm and jumping a couple of times. She looked at him, and her smile dropped just a bit when she saw him look down at her with a knowing smile. "Did you…?"

Loki shrugged. "They sounded deserving enough, same as you. A little weather change here, a few undone traffic jams there, them 'magically' appearing at the halfway mark in their 'truck'…"

Darcy stared at him for a while and couldn't help noticing that she was on the verge of tears at that moment. The look changed the second she saw her dad getting out of the truck. "Daddy!"

"Suprise, Dar!" Her father greeted, letting out a bark of laughter when Darcy practically jumped into his arms to give him a hug, then did the same with her mother a moment later.

The others came out of the camper to investigate, and Darcy dragged her parents over to introduce them.

The second surprise came when Darcy was enjoying watching Erik sing her praises to her parents. She had been in the mock-bowing when she felt something cold on her cheek. She glanced up and saw small, white specks floated down to the ground. Not specks, she realized. Snow. It was goddamn snowing. Another thing she had asked for in front of Loki. She looked up, and sure enough, a dark grey cloud just happened to be above them- in the exact shape of the town, no less. Now it was too good to be true. She looked back at Loki, who abruptly looked down and pretended to find something on the ground quite interesting.

And then the last surprise happened. The group was just about to head back into the diner, when Jane screamed "No!" from somewhere inside the camper. Darcy froze again and waited- just waited, and then it came. "I just- it was working fine, and then I just turned it on, and it just blue screened! What could have happened?!" Jane continued to rant.

Darcy looked back at Loki one more time, and this time, she caught his eye before he could stop his smirk from showing as he looked down. He threw caution to the wind and looked at her again, chuckling.

Darcy stood still for a moment, then walked over to him, barely any space between them. "You actually did all this."

"I told you- you're one of the few I know who deserve it."

Darcy felt the tears coming again. She let out one breath's worth of a laugh, and then without another word, she yanked him down by Donald's old, ugly-ass yellow and black houndstooth scarf and kissed him, pleased to find he met her halfway and gave just as much as he got.

They pulled back with Darcy giggling.

"Merry Christmas, Darcy." Loki replied.

Darcy beamed up at him and contemplating going with the corny Love, Actually approach and tell him all she wanted for Christmas, but settled for hugging him. He didn't at all seem to mind.

And when Thor, who had seen the whole thing happen from the window, came barreling outside and running over to the two to envelope them in a bear hug and congratulate them on them admitting feelings, it was Darcy's turn to not mind.

Best. Christmas. Ever.

The End.

Annnnd there you go. Sorry for the uber convenient plot points early and the blocks of exposition… and the super corny ending and fluff… but now I seriously want an Avengers/Love Actually AU…