Disclaimer: Thor and company belong to Marvel, not me.

A/N: So, there's not enough Loki and Darcy stories and my friend told me to write one, so I started to. And now I'm posting it here.

A Trickster Distracted

Chapter One

Loki waited until he was out of the sight of Thor and Father before slipping through the folds of the worlds. He was relieved when it worked, for the fall through the empty space below Asgard was disconcerting and his own power was drained. Loki used the last of it to slip through to another of the worlds, landing with a thump in the dusty desert that Thor had landed in when he had been banished only a short while ago.

"Damn…" Loki cursed. He had hoped to not land on Midgard, but it looked as though those hopes were not to be answered. Loki sighed, guessing that he should try to make the most of it and brushing the dust from his clothing as he stood. He reached for his magic to heal the slight throbbing from the uncontrolled impact and was disappointed to see that his reservoirs were truly drained. It would take a while for them to be replenished in a realm with so little magic.

Loki cursed his luck again. He would never blend in in these garments and he couldn't change them right now. Loki squinted at the horizon as he saw a vehicle approaching through the dust it kicked up.

"Well, that's just great," he mumbled, crossing his arms and standing there. It wasn't as if he could go anywhere else and he could use a ride into some form of civilization. The van screeched to a halt a ways away and a small woman and tall man that he recognized from Thor's time on Midgard hopped out. "Of course," Loki mumbled as they ran towards him.

"Are you from Asgard?" the woman questioned as she took in Loki's appearance.

"Jane," the man admonished before she shushed him.

"Why do you feel the need to know?" Loki replied carefully.

"There was a small disturbance reminiscent of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge on this spot and you're standing here and—"

"Jane," the man said again, holding her back when she stepped towards him.

"I do not know what that means," Loki replied, taking in Jane's appearance carefully. He didn't see what the big deal was. He had no clue why Thor had fallen for such a woman. But he did know that this was an opportunity to keep track of the Midgardian's progress on the Bifrost from this end, and it was one he couldn't pass up. "I am, however, from Asgard, as you previously asked."

"Tell me, do you know how Thor is?" she questioned, "I know he's only been gone for a week, but—"

"A week?" Loki interrupted, "It's been a week?" Apparently the slip between worlds had taken longer than he had thought. If he had been between the worlds for a week, then he had more catching up to do than he had anticipated. Although these Midgardians might not have made any progress.

"Yes. A week since Thor left," Jane replied, looking slightly confused.

"I…was lost between worlds for that time," Loki admitted, not wanting to deal with any more of her questions about a time that he didn't know of, "I left Asgard a mere hour after Thor's return."

"Oh," Jane replied, seeming to deflate on the spot before looking back up at him, "Well, you should come with us anyways. You won't fit in with the way you're currently dressed and you might have insight on the Einstein-Rosen Bridge phenomenon."

Loki nodded. "I would be very grateful if you could give me a place to stay, and perhaps some food if I have truly been lost between worlds for a week."

"As long as your appetite is less than Thor's, we have plenty for you to eat," Jane smiled as she led him back towards the van. She suddenly stopped and turned towards him again. "I'm sorry, but I didn't get your name?"

"Of course," Loki smiled at her with a small bow, "My name is Loki."

Loki hid a grin as her jaw dropped and she stepped away from him. "Loki? Thor's brother?"

"Of course," he replied as the man stepped between them.

"It's your fault, then, that Thor was almost killed and that he went back to Asgard in the first place!" Jane replied as she ducked around the man.

"Fault? No. Although much of it was my doing," Loki replied, "I never meant to kill my brother. I was simply helping him get his powers back." Jane glared at him and Loki smiled at her as he finished his lie.

"Why should we trust you?" Jane demanded.

"As you said, I'm your only connection to my home, Asgard. I may not be able to help you much as my power has been drained, but you must believe that I want to be able to get back there as much as you do. And the only way to do that is to rebuild the Bifrost, which was shattered during a…confrontation with some Frost Giants," Loki lied smoothly. He didn't currently have the power to travel between worlds himself, but his magic would more than likely be fully replenished before any progress was made on the Bifrost by these humans. "The Bifrost would surely be easier to rebuild on Asgard's end if it is also being worked on here," Loki added as an afterthought.

Jane and the man studied him intently before moving away to hold a hushed conversation Loki could still hear every word of.

"He's right, Erik, we need him," Jane said.

"He's untrustworthy, Jane. He's a trickster and we don't know him," Erik replied.

"Then we take him back to the compound and don't allow him to leave. I'm sure SHIELD can make sure of that. He admitted that his power is drained—"

"But how do we know that that's the truth. Jane?"

"We're just going to have to take it on faith, Erik. Keeping him in our sight is better than letting him lose on the public!"

Erik sighed. "Fine, Jane. But you have to keep an eye on him."

They came back over and Jane smiled at him. "We'll take you back to our research facilities. I'm sure you can stay in one of the extra rooms."

"I thank you, Miss Jane," Loki replied with another small bow. She smiled and giggled a little before opening the door to the vehicle and letting him climb in. Loki rolled his eyes as she turned her back to him. If all humans were this easy to charm, his stay here would be both entertaining and easy.

Upon their arrival at the expansive compound (apparently humans could get a lot more done in a week than he had thought, as none of this had been here when Thor was), Loki was led to what Jane said was her lab and sat at a table in a room off of it. He said nothing as she brought him a sandwich from a supposed kitchen that he didn't see. Just as he was biting into the somewhat bland meal another girl walked in. This one he recognized as well.

"Darcy, meet Thor's brother Loki," Jane said as the girl walked over.

"Did he fall from the sky too?" the girl questioned as she sat across from Loki at the small table. Loki swallowed down his bite of sandwich and glared at her.

Jane ignored Darcy's question. "He's staying here until we can figure out how to get into Asgard," she explained.

"Cool," Darcy replied, opening a bag of snack food, "So you do magic and stuff?" Jane rolled her eyes and left to go back into her lab area.

Loki looked back at Darcy and raised an eyebrow, taking another bite of his meal.

"In the legends, it says that you do magic," the girl said as she chomped quite loudly on her snack.

"I do," Loki replied carefully after a bit of silence, "but at this moment my powers are all gone. I used the last of them to get here instead of falling through nothingness for the rest of time."

"Oh," Darcy replied as she crumpled up the now-empty bag in her hands.

Loki nodded and finished his sandwich silently, glad to have had some sustenance, even if it was not very appetizing.

He was given a small room down the hall from Jane, Erik, and Darcy. Loki thought it odd that they had him so close to themselves if they didn't trust him, but decided this must be part of the "keeping an eye on him" that they were doing. The room only held a twin-sized bed and a desk, but it had a bathroom attached, which he supposed was nice. He was also provided with some "normal" clothes by Darcy (who had apparently had to go out and buy them after his arrival) so that he could blend in with the Midgardians.

The compound wasn't really all that exciting. It was just Jane, Erik, and Darcy plus a couple of "underling scientists" (Darcy's words, not his) hired by SHIELD and a bunch of SHIELD agents guarding the facility and looking very stoic as well as Agent Coulson, who seemed to be the one actually in charge. Loki was given a tour of the facilities and the town (which had been put back together by SHIELD after the incident with the Destroyer), which were both rather small. He was unimpressed, but he supposed that that would be the case with a lot of things here on Midgard.

The only thing that was actually interesting was the town library, where he found enough history books to educate himself on what he'd missed since the last time he'd been on Midgard (which was much longer ago than he had thought—between the two "World Wars" which had been impressively and disturbingly destructive).

He was in the library reading through a Norse Mythology book he had found (that was highly disturbing—he had never given birth to a horse, and if he had he wouldn't have let Father ride it) when Darcy plopped down on the other side of the table. He'd been here almost two weeks now and this was only the third time he'd talked to her (the second having been the tour she gave him the second day he had been in this stupid town).

"What's up?" she asked, putting her feet up on the table.

Loki glared at them before pushing them off of the table with one of his fingers and going back to his book. "I am reading this absolutely delightful book about my home," he replied sarcastically.

"Have you gotten to the one where you give birth to a horse?"

He glared at the girl and closed the book. "I don't understand how people created such messed up stories about my family," Loki replied, ignoring the twinge in his stomach at the thought of the people he called his family. He wondered if they still thought of him that way after all he'd done.

"What about the one where the dwarves sewed your mouth shut?" she asked with a grin.

Loki grimaced. "That one actually happened." And it had hurt.

Her smile fell a bit. "Oh. Sorry."

Loki waved the comment off and leaned back in his chair. "So why are you here?"

"Well," Darcy announced much louder than needed, "I decided that you were being kind of pathetic hanging out in here all alone all the time, so I decided it was time to make you less pathetic-like."

"How?" Loki questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"By taking you to do something remotely interesting," she replied.

Loki sighed and leaned forward into the table again. "Did Jane put you up to this?" he questioned, just out of curiosity. It seemed like something she'd do to make sure he wasn't getting up to trouble.

Darcy rolled her eyes and sighed, "She seems to think you might be getting up to trouble. I told her you just hung out in here like a loser all the time, but she insisted you were being devious."

"Of course. Because I have so many resources in this blip of a town," Loki replied. He really hated it here. And to make matters worse, his magical reservoirs were filling back up so slowly that he doubted they would be full again for another five months. Maybe more.

"Ooooookay, Mr. Depression," Darcy replied, standing and grabbing his arm to pull to his feet.

"Where are we going?" Loki questioned, resigned to letting her drag him along behind her. The less trouble he caused, the better.

"Bowling!"

The "Bowling Alley" was a run-down building on the outskirts of town. The only people there besides him and an overly-excited Darcy were the employees, most of whom seemed half asleep. Darcy took some sort of fiendish pleasure in the grimace that crossed his face when she handed him some shoes and told him to put them on.

"I already have shoes, Darcy. And these smell bad."

"Bowling rules, Loki. You have to wear bowling shoes," she replied with a grin as she put her own shoes on.

Loki sighed and sat next to her. "Do I have to?"

"Yes," Darcy replied, leaning over and pulling his shoes off. Loki sighed and put on the bowling shoes with a scowl. As soon as he was finished Darcy grabbed him by the elbow and dragged him over to a rack of what he assumed were bowling balls. He saw one of the guys behind the desk shoot him a sympathetic look and scoffed, pulling his arm out of Darcy's grip as they came to a stop. She took one of the bright green ones off the shelf and setting it in his hands. "Here ya go!"

"What exactly am I supposed to do with…this?" Loki questioned.

"It's bowling! You take the ball and you roll it at the pins at the end of the lane," she explained, pointing at a lane as she picked up a bowling ball for herself. She took hold of his arm again and dragged him to one of the lanes. "Stand here and I'll show you how to bowl," she ordered, standing him on the slightly slick wood floor by some weird mechanical contraption.

"What is that?" he asked, pointing at it.

She turned and looked at it. "The bowling ball comes back here into that after you roll it," she said before turning back around. "Now watch."

Loki sighed and watched as she threw the bowling ball down the lane. It rolled to the side and went back without knocking any pins over. "Is it supposed to go into the side like that?" he asked.

"Shut up. It's supposed to hit the pins on the end, but if you don't throw it right it goes into the gutter," she replied as the ball was spit back from the machine, causing Loki to jump. She picked it up and went back. "I throw one more time, and then you get two throws," she explained, "and we keep switching back and forth."

"And this is supposed to be fun?" Loki pondered.

She turned and glared. "Would you rather be stuck in the library all day reading stupid legends about Asgard?"

Loki considered this for a moment before sighing. "I do spend too much time in there with the books," he admitted.

"See?" she grinned, "Now have fun!" She turned and threw the ball down the lane again, this time knocking over a few of the pins. She grinned in triumph as she turned back towards him. "Your turn!"

Loki sighed and imitated Darcy to the best of his ability. He scowled as she laughed at him when the ball went into the gutter. "I don't see what's so funny," he complained.

She smiled, "I'm just glad that there's things you gods aren't good at," she replied, "although you still look disgustingly graceful while doing so." She handed him the bowling ball.

Loki sighed and went through the whole thing again, still confused as to how this could be considered fun. Again, it rolled right into the gutter.

Darcy grinned at him. "See? This is fun!"

Loki plopped down into one of the chairs, "How?"

She rolled her eyes and bowled her turn with an intense concentration that had her tongue sticking slightly out the corner of her mouth. The concentration apparently helped, as she knocked over all but one of the pins between her two tries. She turned back to him, fists thrust into the air in triumph.

"Congratulations," Loki drawled, "do you want a prize?"

"I haven't won yet," Darcy replied, handing his ball back to him, "but when I do win, you can take me to the movies."

"Movies?" Loki questioned, grudgingly taking his turn at the stupid game.

"Yes," she replied, giggling when his ball went into the gutter, "it's a big live-action story on a giant screen."

"And I'm assuming that this would cost Midgardian money, which I don't have," Loki replied, still having not much of a clue what she was talking about, although he assumed that it was like the television he had seen Darcy and Jane watching once.

"Oh, I'll pay for it," Darcy replied, handing the bowling ball back to him and turning him back towards the lane, "you just have to come with me."

Loki sighed as he threw the ball into the gutter again. He could hit a tiny target a hundred feet away with a throwing knife, but he couldn't hit ten pins at the end of a bowling lane. It was embarrassing. "What's the point of making me take you if you're paying for it?"

"Company," Darcy replied simply, "I keep getting in Jane's way and I'm not smart enough to actually help with any of that physics crap, so I have to find ways to entertain myself. And you're kinda hilarious."

"I'm sure my company is endlessly amusing to you," Loki responded as he sat back down.

Darcy threw her ball down the lane with surprising precisian, knocking down all but the two back corner pins. "It's more your complete lack of knowledge of human culture."

"I know more that Thor did," Loki snorted, "I've actually visited Midgard before."

"Really?" Darcy asked as the ball came back, "When?"

"A few times. Most recently back before the Second World War…"

"Dude! That was forever ago. Sooooo much has changed since then," Darcy laughed before throwing the ball again, straight into the gutter.

"So I've noticed," Loki replied as Darcy pushed him at the lane again. He sighed and sent the ball down the lane again, grimacing as it rolled into the gutter inches before hitting an actual pin.

Darcy giggled at him again. "Seems like a god could hit some bowling pins," she teased.

Loke glared at her and retrieved the ball from the machine, tossing it down the lane again. Apparently he'd finally done something right, as it hit the pins straight on and they all fell over.

Loki blinked a few times as Darcy ran up next to him. "Holy crap. You totally did it," she said before punching him in the shoulder.

"Of course," Loki scoffed back as he stepped away from her, "I'm not a complete invalid."

Darcy stuck her tongue out at him as she went to start her turn.

"It's quite unseemly for a lady to do such things in public," Loki reprimanded, "Of course, you don't seem to be a lady."

Darcy turned back to him and stuck up her middle finger. Loki blinked.

"Is that…supposed to mean something?"

"Dude. You're sooooo behind," she replied without explanation. She rolled the ball down the lane without paying much attention, hitting the gutter.

"You humans are entirely confusing," Loki said quickly as she retrieved the ball, "Many of the things you do make no sense and the rest of it is ridiculously unintelligent."

She rolled it into the gutter again before turning to him. "Well, Jane is trying to create a wormhole-thing to get to Asgard."

"I didn't say that humans weren't intelligent, in fact many of you are smarter than my brother; I simply said you spend most of your time doing unintelligent things. Using your intelligence for stupid reasons."

"And what do you use your intelligence for?"

"All sorts of things. None of which I feel inclined to tell you," Loki replied.

Darcy rolled her eyes and shoved the bowling ball at him. Loki sighed and threw it down the lane the exact same way he had last time. Unsurprisingly, it knocked all the pins over again. Darcy scowled and picked her ball up.

"I thought we rolled it twice?" Loki questioned.

"You usually do. But if you knock all the pins down in the first try, it's a strike and it's the next player's turn."

"…this game makes no sense," Loki replied.

"It doesn't have to."

Loki blinked, "Then why play it?"

"As I told you, it's fun!" she grinned before throwing the ball.

"I don't see how…"

Unfortunately, by the end of the game Loki was having fun despite himself. Every time he rolled a strike she would glare at him, which was endlessly amusing. After the last ball she crossed her arms and glared.

"I'm guessing that means I won," Loki smiled.

"Yeah…" she replied glumly before brightening up, "Hey! You smiled!"

Loki quickly wiped the smile from his face, "I did no such thing."

"Yes you did!" Darcy replied happily, latching onto his arm again.

Loki scowled and pulled away. "I did not. Are we finished here?"

"I guess," Darcy replied with a pout.

Loki sighed. He much preferred it when Darcy was smiling to when she was pouting. Something about the fact that he had caused her to do so rubbed him the wrong way. "I'll still go to the movies with you," he offered.

She smiled. "Really?"

"Sure," Loki shrugged, "it can't be much worse than this."

Darcy hopped a little in what Loki assumed was joy and put the bowling ball into his hands. "We have to put these away and give the shoes back."

"Good," Loki replied, "I hate these shoes."

A/N: Please tell me what you thought!