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

A/N: So so sorry for the wait. ^^

A Trickster Distracted

Chapter Five

The next morning when Loki woke up he was delightfully hangover-free. Darcy, unfortunately, did not share this fate. Loki thanked his other-worldly alcohol tolerance as he stumbled (gracefully) into Jane's mini-kitchen to find Darcy with her head down on the table, groaning into her arms. He got the milk from the fridge and poured a glass for himself before sitting next to her.

Darcy hadn't seemed to notice him yet so he leaned closer to her ear before speaking. "Good morning," he announced, much louder than necessary at this time of morning, especially if Darcy's headache was as bad as it seemed.

Darcy's reaction wasn't nearly as satisfying as Loki had hoped. She simply looked up at him, glared, and stole his milk.

"So not a good morning then?" Loki replied with a grin, deciding to let the milk theft go for now.

"Shut up," Darcy replied, draining the glass and setting it back on the table, "it's your fault."

"My fault?" Loki replied indignantly, "You were the one who came into my room with the great idea to go on a drinking binge."

"But you were the one telling the interesting stories and opening all the bottles," Darcy replied, resting her chin back on her arms.

Loki paused, face warming, "You…remember those?"

"It's fuzzy…" Darcy replied, "I remember a lot about the twenties and not a lot from there…"

"Good." Loki relaxed back into his seat.

Darcy glared at him again, but didn't speak. Loki sat in silence and glared back. It was actually rather pleasant until Jane came stumbling in (much less gracefully than Loki had earlier). Darcy turned to Jane, who was bleary-eyed and seemed mostly out of it. "There's no coffee yet," she announced.

Jane grumbled a little under her breath and went about clumsily making a pot of the strong-smelling drink. Loki had yet to try any of it, but from what he knew it was good for helping one wake up and it looked like Jane needed it.

Loki turned back to Darcy when the girl started tugging on his sleeve. "More milk?"

"Get your own milk," Loki replied, pulling his arm out of her reach.

Darcy pouted, but didn't get up. Loki glared at her. Darcy glared back.

They were interrupted when Jane sat down heavily in the third chair. "What did you two do last night?" she asked tiredly.

"Drink," they replied in unison.

Darcy spent the whole day with her head in her arms in the kitchen. Loki thought it was a bit pathetic, really, but he hadn't expected much else. By the end of the day Jane had roped Loki into helping her via explaining the Bifrost. Unfortunately, Jane couldn't understand a single thing he said and he hadn't yet completely grasped the concepts of science the way Midgardians used it. By nightfall he had made a decision to fix that as soon as possible and had convinced Jane to loan him her small library of physics books.

Dr. Selvig spent the whole day watching Loki skeptically. Every time Loki caught Selvig's eye the man gave him an intense look that seemed to be meant to communicate "You touch them and you die." Loki usually just grinned at him in reply.

Around nine o'clock Selvig got a pizza delivered and the four of them sat down in the kitchen for dinner. Loki picked at his two slices a bit disgustedly as the other three chowed down. Darcy was much more her usual self and kept making faces at him when he picked things off of his pizza. He methodically separated all of the toppings into piles before ripping the crust part off and eating them first. He then picked through the more appetizing of the toppings before pushing the plate away.

Darcy quickly grabbed the plate and finished off his picked-at meal. Loki scooted away from her in disgust and tried to focus on the question Jane seemed to be asking him.

"…think it will take to explain the Bifrost?"

"That depends on how well you understand it," Loki replied, "As soon as I catch up on your Midgardian science it should go rather quickly. And that should only take a week at most. Depending on how fast I read. That should cancel out most of the communication difficulties we're having."

"Okay…" Jane replied slowly before turning back to Dr. Selvig. Loki went back to ignoring the conversation happening. Unfortunately the only other thing of interest in the room was Darcy, who was just finishing off Loki's share of the pizza.

Loki got up and went into the lab to start reading from Jane's library. A few hours later he was almost finished understanding how basic physics applied to Asgardian magic when Darcy came in and sat next to him on the small couch kept near the bookshelves.

"What'cha doing?" she questioned.

Loki groaned. "Is it possible for you to not be completely annoying?"

"Nope!" Darcy chirped, obviously in a much better mood than she had been this morning.

Loki closed the book and turned towards her. "What is it you want then?" he replied with a sigh. He had found that when it came to Darcy it was better to acquiesce to her pestering or it would just get worse.

"Well, there's still a lot of alcohol on the roof…"

"You spent all day with a hangover from last night's drinking binge. I don't think you require another night of it," Loki pointed out.

"But I want to hear more stories," she protested.

Loki snorted. "Not happening. You already know too many."

"Buzzkill."

"…what?"

"Buzzkill. One who kills the buzz. Also known as a fun-murderer."

"That can't be a real word."

"Oh, it totally is."

"Your abuse of the English language has now reached new heights."

"Whatever, Loki. I think you're just a depressing person."

"What does that have to do with anything? It's a complete non-sequitur."

"You're just jealous."

"I'm no longer having a conversation with you," Loki replied wisely, going back to his book.

Darcy didn't bother him for a full two minutes before she started poking at his shoulder repeatedly.

"You do realize that I have been known to disembowel people that annoy me?"

"I'm sure that's a myth. You're too nice."

"I just have you fooled."

"I'm very hard to fool."

"Really?"

"Yup. I know you can't be trusted, too."

"Now you're contradicting yourself. How can I be both nice and untrustworthy?"

"Easily?"

"Oh really? Do explain."

"Well, you—"

"I didn't actually want you to explain anything that goes on in your flimsy brain."

"My brain is not flimsy!"

"Really?"

"Yes! I'm a stable person. Very stable."

"I have seen no proof to support that claim."

Darcy stuck her tongue out at him.

"Very mature."

"Shut up. I hate you."

"Then go away."

"No."

Loki rolled his eyes and went back to his book again. "You are the most obnoxious person I have ever met."

Darcy didn't reply, but he could see her grinning out of the corner of his eye. Loki was beginning to wonder if he would ever be able to get rid of her now that she seemed so attached.

It took almost exactly a week for Loki to read through the relevant books from Jane's library and figure out how to explain the Bifrost in terms Jane and Dr. Selvig would be able to understand. In that week he noticed that Jane was getting more and more despondent. She was mooning over Thor to an extreme extent at this point and it was incredibly grating on Loki, especially since he was in closer contact with her now that he was in the lab all day.

Dr. Selvig wavered between trying to comfort Jane and watching Loki suspiciously. The man still didn't trust Loki one bit, which Loki appreciated as he seemed like the only person around here that remembered that Loki was the God of Mischief and therefore not everyone's best friend. Loki would like to know where he kept disappearing to though. During the week he had noticed that Selvig spent surprisingly little time helping Jane and a lot of time going off to somewhere else. Jane didn't really seem to notice, but Loki did and was very interested in finding out what was more interesting than trying to create a Bifrost on Earth.

Loki also managed to charm the ladies in the complex's cafeteria to set aside the nicest foods they offered for him so he wouldn't have to touch anything that might have been touched by the Midgardians. He even convinced them to bring his food down to him in the lab so he didn't have to venture into the mess hall, which was like being at a feast on Asgard but with less manners.

As soon as Loki had finished explaining everything to Jane in a way the woman could actually understand it was as if she suddenly knew exactly what to do. She jumped up and started scribbling stuff down muttering about finally having a new idea and Loki decided to just leave her alone.

Unfortunately he didn't get far before Selvig pulled him aside. "Thanks for helping Jane," he conceded gruffly.

"Something you've never seemed to understand, Dr. Selvig, is that I want the Bifrost rebuilt as much as she does," Loki replied, carefully removing the man's hand from his arm.

"This doesn't mean I trust you. Or like you," Selvig reminded.

"I would expect nothing less, Doctor," Loki replied with a smirk, "But if you'll excuse me, I must find Darcy. I told her that when I was finished here we could have dinner somewhere off-compound."

Dr. Selvig seemed to be about to reprimand Loki for spending time with Darcy, but luckily she chose that moment to appear in the hallway with a grin. "Are we leaving now?" she asked happily as she bounded like a hyperactive puppy over to the two.

"Of course," Loki replied, allowing Darcy to latch onto his arm, if only to smirk at Dr. Selvig and appreciate the glare now on his face.

Somehow Dr. Selvig managed to make his farewell of "Have fun" sound like the most menacing thing Loki had heard on Midgard so far. He made sure that they left quickly.

The restaurant they wound up going to wasn't all that fancy or anything; just a small family-owned place that served what Darcy called the "fuel of America." Loki saw what she meant as it seemed everyone loved to eat these burgers.

"I feel like I haven't seen you all week," Darcy said after the waiter took their orders.

"We've seen each other," Loki replied hesitantly.

"Well, yeah. But we haven't talked or anything. I've missed it," Darcy replied with a shrug, playing with the straw in her water glass.

Loki wasn't quite sure how to reply to her at this point. It was true that they hadn't talked a lot recently. But what bothered Loki was the fact that he had missed it too. Loki hadn't realized just how much he was starting to become attached to Darcy until he had stopped talking to her for a week. And he really wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Loki?" Darcy asked suddenly, pulling him out of his thoughts.

Loki looked back at her quickly. "Sorry. Lost in thought."

"I could tell. What about?"

"Nothing," Loki replied, waving a hand in dismissal, "So I know what I did all week, but what did you do?"

Darcy shrugged. "Ran errands, mostly. But I was generally ignored. I read Harry Potter."

"Harry Potter?"

Darcy's jaw dropped open. "You've never read Harry Potter?"

"I've only been here a month, Darcy. I haven't had time."

"Oh. Right. Well you should. You'd like them," Darcy replied as the waiter came back with their food.

"What are they about?" Loki questioned, genuinely curious at this point. To be honest he was interested in what Darcy was interested in because he still didn't know much about her.

So Darcy launched into a long-winded explanation of the Harry Potter books in which he actually learned surprisingly little about the story. By the time their meal was gone they were talking about Jane's research again.

"Do you think she can do it? Build the bridge-thing to Asgard?"

"The Bifrost?" Loki replied. "Possibly. She has a better chance to do so now."

"…would you…leave?" she asked in a small voice, much more timidly than her normal demeanor.

"I'm…not sure," Loki replied truthfully, "I'm not sure if I'd be allowed back. I'm sure Thor hates me now. I'm sure Fa—Odin does too."

Darcy nodded, looking down at the table as she fiddled with her bag.

"Darcy…" Loki said, not sure where he was going with the sentence and trailing off before he could get much further.

"I'd miss you. If you left, you know," she whispered, not looking up.

Loki bit his lip, shifting uneasily in his seat as the waiter came by with the check. When he left Loki reached across the table to get Darcy's attention, gently touching the bottom of her chin with the tip of his index finger. "I'd come visit. If I did wind up leaving, I mean."

"Really?" Darcy replied, voice pleading and hopeful.

"Of course," Loki assured, removing his hand from her face and allowing a small smile at the girl in front of him.

Darcy ducked her head again, digging through her bag for the money to pay for their meal as her face split into a radiant grin.

The next morning Loki made his way into the kitchen later than usual. Selvig, Jane, and Darcy were already sitting around the table with their breakfasts by the time he got there. Darcy grinned up at him and handed him the cereal box before going back to whatever conversation they had been having (it sounded like they were talking about the best way to convince SHIELD to get them better equipment and more funding). Loki shrugged and went about serving himself before sitting down.

"…think we can convince Coulson to get us better equipment if I show him my new ideas," Jane was concluding as he took the first bite of his breakfast.

"So you think you're on your way to solving the problems you'd had?" he questioned, genuinely curious now. His magic was coming back so slowly that he just wanted to get back to Asgard to replenish it. He briefly wondered if it would be possible to use the energy created by any Bifrost-like apparatus Jane could create to fix his magic problem and decided that it was a valid idea. And probably much more quickly accomplished as Jane would need to generate the energies before she could even think about opening any portals.

Jane nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah. Coulson's coming by today to look it over so that maybe we can get better equipment."

"Coulson?"

"The SHIELD guy that's kind of in charge of this operation," Jane explained as Selvig glared at Loki. He was obviously still untrusting.

"Ah," Loki replied as he went back to his cereal.

"You…should probably not meet him. There would be a lot of questions," Jane said thoughtfully, "maybe you and Darcy could go do something in town?"

Darcy snorted. "What town? There's not much here. And the stuff that is here we've already explored."

Loki nodded in agreement.

"You could go bowling or something, I don't know. Just…it would probably be better for Coulson to not know about Loki…" Jane replied, somewhat pleading.

"No," Loki replied sharply, "No bowling. I refuse."

Darcy giggled a little. "Don't worry, Jane. We'll stay out of your hair."

"Good. You should probably get going then. Coulson should be here in a half-hour and he's very punctual," Jane ordered softly.

Loki sighed, but got up when Darcy tugged on his sleeve and followed her to her room, where she collected her purse before latching onto his arm in order to lead him out of the complex and into the hot summer sun.

They walked in silence for a bit, wandering down the road into the center of the tiny town. Loki was surprised by his degree of relaxation with the whole thing. His brow furrowed a bit as he tried to figure out why he felt so at ease with Darcy, even though the girl was practically glued to his side on a hot summer day (and he had never liked to be in close proximity with people).

He supposed that Darcy was the closest thing he'd had to a friend in…ever, really. On Asgard he had always just hung out in the background of Thor and Thor's friends without making any of his own. But that still didn't explain the…attachment his subconscious mind had formed without his say-so.

In fact, Loki was beginning to notice a distinct feeling of happiness that would hang around in his chest whenever he and Darcy 'hung out' by themselves (and he was also starting to use the phrases Darcy seemed fond of). Loki shook his head, as If that could dispel this track of thinking that was starting to make him uncomfortable.

Loki decided to ignore the feelings that he couldn't interpret (mostly because he just didn't want to interpret them) and focus on trying to have some kind of fun in this tiny town.