This was an idea that has been floating around in my head for a while now after someone gave me the prompt 'what would happen if Darcy met Loki?' The product of my weird imagination xD enjoy, and don't forget to review!

Edited 31/8/12

A Visit to Asgard

Asgard was even better than Darcy had imagined. It was massive - 'beautiful' Jane said, Darcy said 'epic'. The whole place looked like it was made of pure gold, and probably was. Darcy thought that was a little OTT, but in an awesome way. The one thing she couldn't quite get her head around was the fact she was on a whole different planet. She had seen outside - it was scarily huge, and absolutely breath-taking, and she really hoped she'd get the chance to have a proper look around. It was very obviously different from Earth, and she loved it.

Within ten minutes of their arrival, Dr. Selvig had gone off somewhere with Odin, Thor's father, deep in a complicated sounding discussion. Jane and Thor had wandered off on 'the full tour' - Darcy was 99.9% certain that meant Thor's bedroom. It was really ridiculous just how loved up they were - the year's separation seemed to have made it worse; they hardly even looked away from one another. Or, at least, Jane kept staring at Thor.

Which was exactly why Darcy was exploring on her own.

Asgardians she met on her explorations bombarded her with questions: about Midgard (otherwise known as Earth); about their customs; about her jeans and sneakers; about almost everything. Darcy tried to answer as best she could without laughing - their eager curiosity and way of talking amused her a lot. She was offered food like she'd never tasted before, and treated with the type of respect she'd never experienced in her life.

The palace was huge, and kept her happily occupied for several hours exploring the whole place. Most of the rooms made her feel very, very small. She found she was allowed almost anywhere, with the exceptions of the weapons vault, and people's bed chambers. So when Darcy came across a corridor with a guarded door no one had warned her away from, she was very curious. A young woman holding a tray of food was standing a few feet from the door, looking at it in distaste. Darcy walked over, thinking to herself that she'd never wear a dress that long and pretty if it would save her life.

"What's up?" she asked, rolling her eyes at the woman's confused expression. She forgot they didn't always understand what she meant. She rephrased, "What's wrong?"

"I am supposed to give this to the trickster," she said with a frown, gesturing toward the door, "but I do not want to be in his company, even for a moment."

Darcy, curiosity piqued, smiled and said, "Want me to take it for you? I won't tell anyone."

The woman smiled in releif. "Oh, thank you! I am in your debt."

"No worries," replied Darcy, trying to hide her grin. Boy, she loved how these guys talked. All formal and very polite. At least she understood why Thor spoke like that now.

The woman smiled and curtsied, before saying in a low voice, "Do not listen to anything he says, he speaks in riddles and is most convincing when he wants to be. His magic may be bound and his lies rendered useless, but his tongue is as gilded as ever."

Curiosity fully engaged, Darcy nodded; the picture of full attentiveness as the woman handed her the tray and

walked away. One of the guards opened the door and Darcy went in with a sense of nervous anticipation. She was pretty sure she was finally about to meet the infamous Loki, Thor's adopted brother.

The room was nicely furnished, and there were books everywhere, on all sorts of things. Loki, it seemed, was a bit of a bookworm. Darcy smiled to herself at the thought of the so-called God of Mischief being a geek. She noted that a fair amount of the books were in messy piles near the door, half open and ripped. Darcy counted herself lucky she hadn't had a book thrown at her yet.

"I have already told you, I do not want food!"

Darcy jumped, nearly dropping the tray. She hadn't noticed the figure sitting with his back to her at a desk on the far side of the room. She moved forward cautiously, holding the tray in front of her carefully. "Well... since I've brought it shouldn't you eat it?"

Loki stood up and Darcy tensed, waiting for a book to come flying at her head, but all he did was slowly turn to look over his shoulder. Darcy was surprised to see that the trickster was just as handsome as Thor, but in a darker, more thin way. She had expected something more like the pictures in Erik's book, which was in her bag with her. She stood very still as Loki glared at her, trying not to admit she was quite scared.

"Oh, perfect," he said in a voice dripping with contempt. "Thor brought his pet humans with him."

"I take offence to that comment," Darcy replied indignantly, pride replacing caution. To her satisfaction, Loki looked somewhat surprised by her response, which gave her the confidence to walk briskly forward and put the tray down on the desk. Loki gave her a cold glare, but said nothing. Wariness creeping back, Darcy took a step away. Then another. She swallowed hard.

"I suppose my brother's mortal woman is here too?" Loki drawled, giving the tray a disgusted glance. He pushed it away from him.

"Yup, me, Jane and Dr. Selvig," said Darcy, with forced cheerfulness. She took another step back, looking to the door and trying to figure out if she could run before she had something thrown at her.

"So we're inviting humans to Asgard now." Loki gave her a black look. "And I suppose you came to see the traitor?"

Darcy, panicking now, said quickly, "I'll be going now, uh, sorry to bother you, bye."

Loki smiled suddenly, his expression pleasant. "Please, stay. I'm exceedingly bored of being treated as if I do not exist."

Darcy paused, squinting at him suspiciously. She reached into her bag and pulled out her taser - never went anywhere without it - and pointed it at him. Loki eyed it with some confusion.

"What is that?"

"A taser," replied Darcy, "it gives an electric shock that'll knock you out flat, so don't you try anything funny. It worked on Thor, it'll work on you." I hope, she added silently.

Loki stared at her for a moment. "What do you mean it worked on Thor?"

Darcy grinned. "I tasered Thor when I first met him. He was freaking me out." She smiled proudly to herself as Loki raised an eyebrow. Without warning, he burst into laughter. Darcy stood stunned for a moment, completely taken aback.

"That is possibly the most amusing thing I have heard in a very long time," he said, still laughing. "You, a mortal girl, knock out Thor with such a tiny weapon!"

Darcy smiled. "Well, Jane also hit him with her car. Twice."

Loki laughed even harder, and Darcy relaxed a little. He might be the God of Lies, but she was pretty sure his mirth was genuine, even if it was at someone else's expense. When Loki calmed down a bit (he seemed one of those types who had a little trouble stopping once they start laughing) he regarded Darcy with curious but still hostile eyes. She shuffled from one foot to the other, thinking that maybe she should leave after all, when he spoke again.

"What is your name?"

"Darcy," she replied after a moment of hesitation. It couldn't do any harm for him to know her name, even if he did seem to be reverting back to scary mode. "You're Loki, obviously."

"Obviously." Loki folded his arms across his chest and Darcy relaxed a little more. He couldn't throw things with his arms folded. He was still doing the scary glare thing though. Darcy looked around the room, trying to figure out what she should do. She decided to talk to fill the silence and hopefully show she wasn't scared. Which she was a bit.

"So, um, do you guys have last names here? Like, a second name?"

Loki's mouth soured slightly. "Yes."

"What's yours?"

Smirking and very obviously seeing right through Darcy's attempts at nonchalance, he replied "Laufeyson. Thor's is Odinson. I do hope you're not too dim witted to see how that works."

Darcy frowned, really not liking his jabs at her pride. She raised her chin defiantly. "Of course I get it, I'm not stupid. Odin-son, yeah, that's simple. So... your father's name was Laufey. Oh, man, that's not kind. But still, I like your name," she said absently, "sounds better than Thor."

Loki looked at her oddly, apparently wrong-footed. "Uh... thank you?"

Darcy blinked and realised she'd been babbling. A self-defence mechanism she used when she was nervous. "Oh, sorry. My mouth just sort of goes on rambling. Jane always tells me I talk rubbish way too much."

Smirking, Loki made a vague gesture. "I'm inclined to agree, but that's my opinion on most people so..."

Darcy raised her eyebrows at his sudden change in mood once again. He sounded almost like he was joking just then. He really was lonely - or 'bored of being treated like he doesn't exist' as he put it, if he was making jokes to her. At least he wasn't glaring anymore. Well, not quite so much.

"Y'know," she said after a moment. "You look absolutely nothing like how I imagined."

At his look of confusion, Darcy pulled out the book Erik had given her and opened it to the page that had a picture of Loki. She held it out to him, but didn't move forward. She wasn't quite brave enough for that quite yet. He took it and frowned at the page.

"I look nothing like that!"

Darcy couldn't help laughing a little at Loki's indignant tone, even as he gave her a look that she guessed was supposed to shut her up. Darcy watched with growing amusement as he flicked through the book, commenting on every inaccuracy and making frequent jibes at 'human ignorance'. When he stopped and blanched at one of the pages, she immediately leaned forward to see despite herself. She caught only a quick glimpse of a picture of a horse before Loki snapped the book shut. Darcy grinned widely.

"Oh my god, is the eight legged horse baby thing true? Please tell me it is, that's one of my favourite stories in there."

Loki handed the book back mutely and Darcy took it, trying not to laugh. She took his silence as a yes, and flipped through till she found it again. Geez, she couldn't even begin to imagine how painful giving birth to that. She said so aloud, and Loki winced, shaking his head.

"I don't really wish to remember that," Loki said, going slightly red but maintaining an icy glare. It really would have worked if he hadn't looked so embarrassed. "It wasn't the most... pleasant of situations."

"I can imagine," Darcy giggled, unable to hold it back anymore, "and you're Sleipnir's mother! I can't get over that, it's too funny!"

Putting a hand over his face, Loki shook his head. "Please, do not remind me..."

Darcy managed to stop laughing after a bit, and she looked at Loki with interest, taking advantage of him not looking at her. She prided herself on being able to make non-judgemental observations, and she did so now. Aside from his power-hungry war assault on Earth, Loki didn't seem all that bad a person to her... a bit messed up, and very very angry maybe, definitely needing some therapy - but considering what Thor had told them about Loki's true heritage and how Odin treated him, Darcy really couldn't blame him. So, Loki was a little crazy. So what?

All the best people are, Darcy thought to herself. Besides, I'd be mad if I found out I was part of a race that grew out of another giant's armpit.

When Darcy made the observation aloud, Loki looked back up and smiled bitterly.

"Well, I'm glad someone thinks so."

"And no offence or anything, but you'd look really weird blue."

Loki was once again startled into laughing. Darcy was pleased that someone found her funny, even if it was in a round-about way - Jane and Dr. Selvig just got annoyed with her. And she was also pleased to find she wasn't as scared anymore - she was actually finding herself more and more intrigued by Loki. And she thought maybe if she could get him in a good mood, she could ask to borrow one of his books - they looked a whole lot more interesting than the ones back home. She looked around and spotted another chair.

"Can I sit down?"

"You want to stay?" asked Loki in a mix of surprise and disbelief.

Darcy nodded. "Yeah. You're interesting to talk to. And for once, I'm not being asked a gazillion questions about how denim is made."

"By all means, sit." Loki sat back down himself and looked at her curiously as she moved the chair so she could sit facing him. His glare had finally gone, replaced by an open interest and a slightly sarcastic expression. "Tell me, what has my brother told you about me?"

Shrugging, Darcy replied, "Not an awful lot really. Just what happened after he vanished, the whole bridge being destroyed scenario, a sort of summary about the whole Tesseract thing - which was totally not cool by the way, we were totally not 'born to be ruled'."

"Did I say that?" said Loki with mild surprise. He shrugged. "Well..."

Darcy kicked him, grinning when he jumped and glared at her. "We have tasers, oh God of Mischief - good luck with that one."

"You can't protect your planet with tasers," Loki scoffed with a smirk. Darcy smiled back and pointed hers at him, right between his eyes. She would have been lying if she said she wasn't the slightest bit tempted to use it.

"Wanna bet?"

Loki eyed her apprehensively. "Perhaps not. You are most unusually bold for a human, and very bold to come in here alone. Why did you?"

Darcy shrugged again. "I was curious. No one seemed to want to come in here. It's not exactly very nice to be avoided by everybody, is it?"

"After what I've done, I am honestly not surprised," said Loki with a surprising amount of bitterness. It almost sounded like regret. "I was never very popular in the first place - my actions against Earth and Jotunheim haven't exactly helped."

Darcy frowned. According to Thor, Loki had tried to destroy Jotunheim to ensure Asgard's safety. Okay, bad plan and the complete wrong way to go about it, but it still made a bit of sense. The attempt to invade Earth... okay, that she could understand people hating him for. Still... he didn't succeed. And if she was honest, it's not like he would have been very successful at ruling Earth anyway. Even she knew humans were a very stubborn race.

"Hey, tell you what," she said suddenly, smiling, "I can come visit you! Odin's said we can stay for a little while. Then you won't be avoided all the time."

Loki smiled wryly. "I very much doubt you'll be permitted to do so."

"Permitted? Pfft," Darcy waved her hand dismissively. "I'm not gonna be told what to do. I'd like to see him try."

A slow grin spread over Loki's face, and he laughed. "Yes, I can see he would have trouble persuading you. Well, Darcy, if it is possible, I think... I would like company. It really does get tiresome to be left alone constantly... and I admit I find myself very much intrigued by you."

"Um, thanks?" Darcy smiled uncertainly. "So, cool. I'll do that. But, um, just a request. Please don't throw books at me? I have to say, I'm very glad you didn't in the first place-"

"There weren't any within reach. Otherwise, I would have."

"Oh, great. Lucky me." Darcy shook her head. It seemed like Loki had a comeback for anything she said. Silvertongue indeed. She frowned suddenly as something occurred to her. "What exactly are you doing in here with a guarded door anyways? Like, waiting for trial or something? Cos I thought there'd be a dungeon or something for that. Oh, sorry, wait, that was rude."

Loki stared at her in a mixture of amusement and disbelief. "The trial is done. This is my punishment. Confined to this room until Odin sees fit to let me out, with no magic, no talking outside of this room, no contact unless it comes from my father, brother, or the stupid maids who bring me food I do not want and is probably poisoned. Everything I say and do it watched by Heimdal and reported to Odin - including the conversation we are having now. I cannot even lie, thanks to my father's meddling." Loki scowled. "I could be fine with it if I could use but a bit of magic."

Darcy stared at him for a moment, not sure how to respond. "You, uh, like magic then?"

A brief but definitely there smile flashed across Loki's face. "It is the only thing I am good at, and better at than Thor. Aside from lying, but that I learnt from my father."

"Always a competition between you guys, huh." Darcy rolled her eyes. "Talk about sibling rivalry."

Loki was silent, looking down at his hands moodily. Darcy sighed and stood up. "I should probably go. Unlikely that Jane or Dr. Selvig have noticed I'm gone, but I'll bet if I'm in here too long someone's gonna think you've kidnapped me."

A strange look passed over Loki's face, but it was gone in an instant. Darcy paused, looking at him carefully.

"I was joking you know."

"I do." He looked up. "However... I admit that was my original intention."

"Say what?"

Looking away again, he said, "I thought perhaps if I could convince one of Thor's mortal friends that I am harmless... I apologise. It wasn't exactly the best of plans, and I am-" he looked up, and the sincerity in his eyes shocked Darcy. "Surprisingly, I am quite ashamed of trying to take advantage of you. You're... kind. No one has showed me kindness in a very long time."

Darcy stood speechless for a long moment. "Um. Well. That's..."

"Perhaps now you won't want to visit me." Loki looked self mocking. Darcy shook her head.

"Actually, I still will. You apologised, and you can't lie, so I forgive you. And I've only just met you, I'm not about to just give up the chance to talk to someone who doesn't want to run away from me."

Raising an eyebrow, Loki replied, "I could say the same."

Darcy smiled. "Cool then. I will go now, though, cos I've been in here for quite a while. I'll come back later, okay?"

Loki nodded and smiled, a genuine smile, as Darcy walked toward the door. Just as she was about to leave, he called after her, "Feel free to take one of the books - I saw you looking at them earlier."

Darcy grinned and looked around. She picked up one that caught her eye and waved. "Thanks!" He nodded again and she left, feeling like she'd just made a new friend.

Now, she thought. How do I convince Odin to let me come back?