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The worst part of this entire thing, Darcy thought, was that she actually felt grateful to her kidnappers for saving her life.Seriously. She rolled over on the surprisingly comfortable bed and threw her arm across her face. How was she supposed to sleep when she was, you know, kidnapped. And grateful. And ugh. Darcy sat up and slowly slid out of bed so she didn’t disturb Jane or Ayanda in the other bunks, then grabbed her glasses from the bedside table. They were still asleep as she slid open the panel that hid the bunk room from the main room and padded out to go find herself something warm to drink.Darcy slid the panel shut and padded across the main room in her socks. She veered around the haphazard equipment littering the large space and slid open the panel to the kitchen area. She slid it shut behind her. Lights snapped on immediately.She sighed and pulled at her messy braid. They’d been shoved in here several hours ago, then completely ignored. Not literally shoved. More like firmly escorted and then made clear they wouldn’t be allowed to leave. Not that they’d want to, given the climate of the freaking planet they were on, but still. No choice there. Darcy shivered at the thought.Yeah. Time for something warm. Coffee would be nice, but her body screamed that it was the middle of the night (even if it wasn’t. Jees, what time was it here?). Caffeine would do her absolutely no good at this point, save in hot cocoa. Not that they might have some.Then again, everything was human-sized. And they’d tried to take Jane three years ago... Darcy shook her head. Of course they’d be prepared. But why take her? Jane was the brain, Ayanda the engineer. She was just... superfluous.Well, she also worked at the Asgardian embassy. Maybe there was a more sinister reason they didn’t let that mercenary shoot her. Not that mercenary was the right word. She knew her history. God, she was even friends with Captain freaking America. That was a HYDRA symbol those men were wearing.Darcy shivered again and finally moved to the cupboards. Ayanda had explored earlier while Jane ranted at the door they’d come in through. Darcy finally gave up trying to calm her down and helped Ayanda. There’d been a cupboard full of mugs. The next one over held prepackaged drinks. She couldn’t remember what.Mugs were easy. The drink cupboard... Darcy reached in and pulled out a glass bottle of something dark. She couldn’t read the language. It looked interesting, but not really what she wanted. She set it back with a thunk and reached for something with a Starbucks logo half-hidden behind a box of chai tea. Nope. Coffee.Darcy rested her hands on the counter and closed her eyes. This... this wasn’t working. She didn’t even know how to heat up water or milk. There was no microwave and nothing she recognized as a stove. She... she...She needed to take a breath. Right. Darcy opened her eyes and glared at the cupboard. She could break down after she finished her drink. As soon as she found it and figured out how to make it. Distraction helped. It gave her something to think about besides a gun pointed at her and a deep voice saying that it “would be a bit of fun, but it’s pointless to drag baggage around.”The mug she held crashed to the floor and shattered into about a million pieces. Darcy flinched and stayed absolutely still. She leaned against the counter and yanked her glasses off. They skittered across the stone surface, but it was so much easier to cry when they weren’t on.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. She’d come out to New Mexico to visit Jane for a week while the embassy was closed for the Asgardian New Year celebration. Loki had gone home and she literally had nothing to do in New York. Tony and Pepper were in California, Bruce liked his routines, Clint and Natasha were who-knew-where, and Steve was in the process of finding a place in DC. Her friends/roommates/whatever the hell they were these days all had their jobs. And Darcy didn’t fancy getting up at three in the morning just to hang out before Antonio went to work or hang out with her roommates around their weird-ass work schedules. It was so strange. They’d been close in college, and even when they had decided to share an apartment in the New York, actual lives got in the way. At least they’d stopped being weird about Loki after that awful documentary on the Chitauri attack. They’d just gotten weird in other ways. And it got worse after the treaty signing. The side-eyes Loki got when he came over just meant that he never came over. It had all turned so awkward and Darcy refused to ask why. It was just easier that way. She was such a coward.So here Darcy sat in the back seat of a car as they drove through the New Mexico desert on the road to Albuquerque so she and Jane could be dropped off at the airport. Jane had a conference in Florida and Darcy needed to get home. She turned to look out the window at the snow-dusted desert and sighed. At least this week had been nice.Darcy grabbed for the edge of her seat at a loud bang. Ayanda cursed in Xhosa and managed to get the car to the side of the road. Darcy scrambled for her seat belt as Jane got out of the car muttering something about tires. Ayanda said nothing and managed to pry her hands from the steering wheel. Darcy smiled at the engineer and they both got out as well.Well, there wasn’t much tire left. Bits of it lay scattered down the road for at least a quarter mile. Jane sighed and went to go open the trunk. Ayanda crouched beside the tire well.“I checked all these before leaving,” she said. “I do not like to think of being stranded in the desert.” She gave a short laugh. “At least I have company. It would be scary alone.”Darcy glanced around. Jane had started piling their luggage outside the car so she could get at the spare tire. Her expression and under-the-breath mutterings meant that Darcy was quite content to remain where she was. And then there was the desert, all barren and cold.“Terrifying,” Darcy said in total agreement. “From what I remember, there’s not a lot of traffic on this road.” They hadn’t reached the main highway yet.Ayanda nodded. “But there is some now.”Darcy glanced down the road at the approaching semi. They might or might not stop, but it wasn’t like the three of them couldn’t manage to get a spare tire on a car. Her dad made sure that she knew how. Jane had built much of her equipment before getting hired on by SHIELD (and then quitting dramatically over not being allowed to publish half her research). Ayanda was an engineer who Jane loved to work with. She turned Jane’s ramblings into functional technology.Yeah, the semi was slowing. Darcy stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets and found the gloves she’d stuck in there. She pulled them on as the truck came to a stop about a fifty feet away. The driver opened his door and climbed out.“You folks need a hand?” he shouted.Jane popped out of the trunk with the tire in one hand and a toolkit in the other. “We’re fine!” she shouted back.The driver shrugged. “You sure, lady?”Jane rolled her eyes at Ayanda and Darcy. Ayanda’s mouth twitched. Darcy was too busy clenching and unclenching her hands to try and control her temper. Jane turned back to the truck driver after dumping her load next to the destroyed tire. “We’re sure.”“All right, all right,” he said. He climbed back into his truck. The engine growled to life, but he didn’t go anywhere.Darcy’s skin crawled. She didn’t like this. And she didn’t have her taser. Right. Okay. What could she do? This was creepy. He was just sitting there watching as Ayanda and Jane wrestled off the ruined tire. Sure, he could be watching just to make sure they actually knew what they were doing. Darcy rather doubted it.“Hey, Heimdall,” she said under her breath. “If you can hear me, great. ‘Cause this is creepy and I want someone watching. Thanks!”Not that she knew if it would do anything, but it sure made her feel better. She leaned against the car and continued to watch the semi.The driver noticed her staring. In a state of apparent discomfort, he leaned over to fiddle with something. Darcy frowned. Why would he care? She jumped as something metal hit the hard ground. What the hell was that? She couldn’t see anything. There hadn’t been any - oh shit, there were armed people coming around the truck.“Jane.” Neither Jane nor Ayanda heard her. “Jane!”Both women glanced over at Darcy with varying looks of annoyance, then they followed her waving hands. Ayanda straightened from her crouch, wrench clenched tight. Jane held something in her hand. Darcy dreamed of her taser, but the thing was in New York and therefore utterly useless. She stayed absolutely still as the mercenaries approached.Mercenaries, right? They certainly didn’t dress like SHIELD or any other military she was familiar with. Plain black outfits without any emblems. Except a weird octopus looking thing. Darcy swallowed as the soldiers cocked their guns. Behind her, something clicked on the pavement. She did not turn to look.The truck driver joined them, all affable kindness completely vanished from his face. Darcy found herself starting to hate him. He barely glanced in her direction. “Take the two scientists in back, along with whatever they have.””And the other one?”The driver considered Darcy for a moment. She started to tremble. There wasn’t an ounce of kindness in his eyes. “Her intelligence might be useful to us. Bring her, too.”Like hell she was going. Darcy shifted her feet just slightly, the tremors she’d been fighting vanished completely. She might not have a taser, or any other kind of weapon. But she sure as hell could defend herself. Loki and Natasha and Clint and Steve had all made sure of that. Because she was the vulnerable one. And if anyone ever realized her connection to the Avengers, if anyone thought they could try and hold something over Asgard by taking her (really, though? No one knew about her and Loki except a handful of people outside her friends. Coulson, Nick Fury, maybe a few other SHIELD agents....)“Not saying a fight wouldn’t be a bit of fun, but it’s pointless to drag baggage around,” a soldier said as the driver turned around to walk back to the truck. “Shoot her in the leg.”A gun swung in Darcy’s direction. Her breath caught in anticipation of utter pain. She was no superhero and this wasn’t a Hollywood movie. She could never move fast enough to get out of the way.The finger squeezed the trigger. And the bullet thudded into a brilliant blue wall of ice. The soldier on the other end... Darcy flinched and looked away. He’d been impaled on spikes. Blood colored the ice red. She ducked as a hail of bullets fired off to her left at something. The whatever that had created the ice. She cowered under the scant protection of the wall and looked frantically around for Jane and Ayanda.They, too, were hidden behind an ice wall. Ayanda was feeling the ice rather cautiously with a stunned look on her face. Fury graced Jane’s face. Bolts from the tire littered the ground around her knees. Oh, that’s what that sound had been. But the anger radiating from Jane brought Darcy back to reality. She’d never seen her so angry.“You bastards,” Jane shouted. “Did you plan this entire thing!?”And swearing. She was really, really angry. And Darcy couldn’t tell who she was screaming at. The mercenaries wearing the octopuses (and boy did she not want to think about that. A little metaphorical Captain America was jumping up and down in her brain and she just had to ignore him right now.) or whoever had caused the ice. But the ice....They’d tried to take Jane once before. It looked like this time they were going to succeed. Damn it. Darcy blinked back a rush of frustrated tears. Damn it all.The guns abruptly stopped. Darcy refused to move. It would be the one time and she’d never see the bullet coming. Then a large blue hand appeared in front of her face. She looked up at the Frost Giant.“We leave now,” he said.Well, it’s not like she had much choice. Darcy stood, ignoring the proffered hand, and looked around. The mercenaries were dead. All of them. The truck driver lay draped over the steering wheel of the semi in a failed attempt at escape. Darcy felt a rush of satisfaction at that. She followed the Frost Giant to Jane and Ayanda. Jane grabbed Darcy tight. She let out a shaky breath. Jane was okay. That was good.Two of the Frost Giants held the ropes to an ice sled with their baggage piled atop. Darcy clenched her hands. They weren’t going to let them go. She glanced around at the carnage a final time. They’d rescued her. They’d rescued them all. And she had nowhere else to go.
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“Have you been here all night?”Darcy looked up through bleary eyes at Ayanda. The Wakandan woman frowned down at her. Darcy pulled the soft woolen blanket closer around her shoulders. She looked at her hands.“Couldn’t sleep,” Darcy finally said.Ayanda frowned, then sat down beside Darcy on the couch. “I kept dreaming that these Frost Giants never showed up.”Darcy shuddered. “That’s what keeps me awake.” She took her glasses off and rubbed at her eyes. “And I’m so tired.”“Jane is still asleep.”“Jane can sleep through anything at any time,” Darcy said with a roll of her eyes. “At least she has somewhat respectable hours now.”Ayanda smiled. “So tell me about when you first met her.”Darcy huffed a laugh and settled the blanket better over her shoulders before leaning against the seat back. “Well, this was when she was not well respected by the scientific community. Her ideas were just a bit ... out there for them, even for other astrophysicists. Never mind that she blazed through getting her Ph.D. with a thesis that wowed everyone. Once she started talking about Einstein-Rosen bridges...” Darcy shrugged. “Theoretical physics is all well and good, but it doesn’t engender you to people. Even Eric thought she was going a bit too far.“I met her when she was in desperate need of an intern and I was in desperate need to get out of Culver,” Darcy said. “Family issues. I was Jane’s only applicant and she took me on despite not having practically any skills she could use beside my computer background.” Darcy eyed Ayanda’s slim figure. “I got no respect in the computer science side ‘cause I’m a smart girl with boobs. So I moved on to my second love - politics.” She shook her head. “Anyway, so there I was following Jane to Puente Antiguo and my boyfriend Luke following me.”Ayanda scoffed. “And Jane’s thoughts on that?”“It didn’t matter,” Darcy said. “He stayed in town writing some kind of epic poem cycle and hung out when we weren’t working.” She idly twisted her ring. “But Jane- oh, Jane. If I could get her on a normal sleep schedule, it was a good week’s work. She wanted to be up until like 4 AM every night just in case.” She grinned. “The just in case turned out to be Thor.”Ayanda grabbed a blanket of her own. “Of course it did. That’s when the Frost Giants came to kidnap her the first time?””Yeah,” Darcy said. “Thor and his brother Loki stopped them.”“Jane never mentioned Loki in all her retellings of how she and Thor met,” Ayanda said, suddenly very stiff. Tension lined every bit of her. “She said it was because Thor had been tracking the Frost Giants.”Jotuns, Darcy thought idly. She shrugged. “It wasn’t really her story to tell. And it really is kinda a secret.” She twisted her ring again. “Did she ever say anything about the whole Jotun-Asgard problem with Loki?”“Only that Loki is regarded as Laufey’s son stolen by Odin and that he prevented a war by hiding, which I do not understand.” Ayanda sounded frustration. “In what respect does hiding prevent a war?””If he wasn’t on Asgard and left of his own volition,” Darcy said. “They had no excuse to attack. So he hid on a little planet pretty much disregarded as unimportant in the grand scheme of things. And went by the name Luke.”Ayanda’s eyes widened. “Your boyfriend.”Darcy sighed and snuggled into the couch. “Yeah. It was a bit of a shock. Then he went and got captured by the Chitauri and things have pretty much gone to hell out there in the universe.”She glanced around the small room, again a sliding panel away from the main room. It was quite clear this was where the Jotuns had wanted to bring Jane the first time. And now they had her. Darcy sighed. It was like Tony disappearing in Afghanistan, except the Jotuns didn’t want a weapon, they wanted an on-demand transportation wormhole.“So if Luke is such a secret, why did you entrust it with me?” Ayanda asked softly.Darcy shrugged. “It’s going to come up, with Thor dating Jane and all. Asgard really can’t interfere - there’s no legal relationship that comes with dating - but I work for them and they’re really the only way that Earth can talk to Jotunheim.”“And you dating Loki would not have any regard on our situation?”“No, I don’t think so.” Darcy shrugged a shoulder. “They’d have to know first and that’s still a secret.”“Thank you for trusting me with it,” Ayanda said after a moment. She threw off her blanket and stood. “Would you like some coffee?”Darcy considered it. Caffeine and more hours spent in a half-awake daze? Or was it morning already (or what their bodies thought was morning) and actually time to wake up? Well, she could always take a nap later. “Sure,” she finally said. “If you can figure out that kitchen.”Ayanda grinned at that. Right. Never give an engineer a challenge. Darcy watched her head across to the kitchen and decided to remain right where she was until there was actually coffee ready. The exhausted heaviness in her bones made her want to melt into the sofa. She was so tired.Darcy slid off her glasses and placed them on the side table. Human-sized. She just couldn’t get over that. They really, truly had planned to kidnap Jane. Darcy rubbed her face and leaned her head back. She closed her eyes. Why did life have to be so complicated?She opened her eyes to find the sliding door shut and a mug sitting next to her glasses. Darcy put her glasses on. She picked up the mug to find the coffee ice-cold. Hah, ice. Very funny. Darcy sipped it anyway. Her fuzzy head demanded it. Either caffeine or more sleep and she had no clue how long she’d been out. Long enough for her lovely coffee to get cold, obviously. She shed the blanket and clambered to her feet.The door slid open at a touch. Jane was poking around at something on the wall. Ayanda was nowhere to be seen. Darcy sighed and walked over.“What are you doing?” she asked Jane.Jane turned and pulled her flannel shirt tighter. “Trying to figure out how to get the heat to come on.”Darcy blinked. Now that Jane mentioned it, it was rather cool in here. Maybe her shivering after coming out of the warm blanket cocoon wasn’t that she missed it. “You sure the walls won’t melt?”Jane made a face. “Darcy! They’re stone. I checked.”Translucent blue stone that looked like ice. Darcy laid a hand on the wall. Okay, it sure didn’t feel like ice. Then her brain caught up to her. “How did you check?”“There was a box of matches in the first aid kit from the car,” Jane said, still staring at what could be the thermostat. “The Jotuns took everything from it. Even the removable carpets.”Darcy shook her head. That was a rather depressingly funny image. Their car, sitting abandoned on a New Mexico road, with a ruined tire leaking bits of rubber and no carpet pads. What the heck where the police going to think?She leaned against the wall. What was everyone going to think? They were gone, bodies all around, and ice walls stretching ten feet high. Where those even there anymore? Had the Jotuns cleaned any of it up? Did they leave any clues behind at all? Did anyone know where they were?Darcy prided herself on her roll-with-it attitude that served her so well. Yeah, sure, she’d been utterly depressed when Loki... but her optimism. She didn’t seem to have any right now.Right. She let out a shuddering breath. Jane was trying to fix an immediate problem. That was what Jane did; she solved problems. So what problem could Darcy solve to keep her from sinking into the depths of utter despair?She took a sip of her coffee. Right. Cold. Time to learn how to use the kitchen. At least she could do that. Shouldn’t be that hard. They’d designed this place for humans. Darcy thought of the mess she’d made last night. Though maybe not in the wee dark hours of the morning. Earth kitchens were confusing then, too.Okay. Action plan decided on. Time to go make edible coffee. Two cups of coffee later and Darcy was still only moderately awake. Her hands shook every time she looked down at them. Tears pricked her eyes. Exhaustion dragged her into nonsensical sentences. She trailed off in the middle of them, feeling the irritation Ayanda and Jane tried their best to hide. They could try and get them out of here. Darcy was helpless. She was an embassy staffer with computer skills that looked like they were out of the Stone Age compared to what was so efficiently keeping this place habitable for them. Because she had no reason to think that a place on Jotunheim would be hospitable otherwise.At least Jane had managed to turn the heat on. Darcy no longer needed to walk around wrapped up in a blanket. She just sat curled up on the couch with one. Her legs turned to jelly every time she moved. And she’d volunteered to make dinner. At least she’d be able to contribute something to this mess.Darcy slithered off the couch and forced herself into the kitchen. She opened all the cabinets and stared at the mess of contents. Nothing was organized aside from separating them between drinks and solid food. Darcy closed the drink cabinet and sighed. Right. Organization first.She pulled out every single can she could find and set them in piles on the counter. Vegetables to the left, fruit to the right. The things she couldn’t identify she left in the center. Then there was the entire shelf of pasta. And the bags of potatoes stored underneath the counter. Why did they need five bags of sweet potatoes? They were going to go bad so fast. She pulled up on the edge of the counter to stand. She shut the cupboard door and gazed at the cans. How long had those bags been there? It couldn’t have been yesterday... except maybe it could.The Jotuns had obviously planned the kidnapping expedition. Maybe they just hadn’t planned on interrupting another one? Or maybe they just took advantage of the situation. They had to have someone like Heimdall. Okay, maybe not exactly like Heimdall, but a spy network of some kind keeping an eye on Jane. They obviously hadn’t given up on wanting her to do something for them.Okay. Set the thought aside for later. Darcy pushed her glasses up and went back to examining the cans. Okay. Veggies on the top shelf. Fruit on the middle. Pasta on the bottom. But there was no sauce. Weird. Okay. She hadn’t looked in the other two bottom cabinets once she found the bags of potatoes. Maybe they’d be in one of the other two.The first held what should be cooking utensils. Pots and pans were pretty much the same everywhere. Metal bowl meet handle. She blinked. That made little sense even inside her head. How long until she was able to crawl into bed? Right. After dinner. After making and eating dinner.Screw this. There had to be some kind of microwavable frozen meals hidden somewhere in this place. She’d found the microwave earlier, hidden by a panel. So that big one had to be hiding a fridge and freezer. She hoped.Darcy pulled on the handle. The entire thing popped open. Yup. Fridge. Eggs, cheese, milk. Lots of stuff Ayanda would probably recognize, ‘cause she sure didn’t. Darcy might live in a metropolitan city - some would claim the metropolitan city - but that didn’t mean she’d tried everything. And Wakanda was pretty much closed off. Ayanda was pretty much the only Wakandan citizen she’d ever met outside of the UN Ambassador and his staff. And considering it had been a brief meeting in a hallway and one of the staff needed the nearest restroom, not really memorable. Well, memorable for her. Probably not anyone else. Because everyone needed the restroom and she was just a flunky.Ugh. She shut the door. Freezer. No way was she up to anything that didn’t involve peeling off a plastic seal and punching buttons. Even the oven was above her mental state right now. Dealing with things that burned? No thanks.The freezer was stuffed with frozen vegetables and frozen fish and things not remotely easy. Darcy shoved the door shut, closed the cabinet with a bang, and grasped the edge of the counter. Soup. She’d seen cans of soup... somewhere.“Darcy, stop,” Jane said.Darcy looked over at her friend. “But I said I’d make dinner.” She hated how her voice came out as a whine.Jane shoved her out of the kitchen. Darcy could not muster up the energy to protest. Jane pushed her onto the couch and hauled the blanket back around her shoulders. She shook her head and headed back to the kitchen.“Cereal may be the easiest thing to eat,” Jane called over her shoulder. “But I do know how to cook.”Darcy blinked. Cereal. She hadn’t even thought about that. Not her thing, but she sure remembered one memorable morning when Thor started coming around after Loki’s disappearance and Jane had put the cereal and her half-filled bowl away in cupboard. They got a good laugh about it later. They’d both done stupid shit when crushing on somebody.Ayanda finally wandered over from the pile of machinery she’d been ensconced in all day. She didn’t look happy. Darcy blearily blinked at her.“In all your experience with Asgard,” Ayanda said. “Has anyone mentioned anything about the state of politics between them and this place?”Oh boy. “I am way too tired to talk about that,” Darcy said. She yawned. “Way too tired. I’d mess everything up in the telling. Tomorrow.”“That is acceptable,” Ayanda said. “Please tell me you are going to bed after we eat our dinner?” Darcy nodded. “Good. Because Jane and I can neither of us talk our way out of this situation. There are no grants involved.”Darcy laughed. Figured. “I can try.”“That is all I can ask,” Ayanda said with a smile. “Now, what is Jane making for dinner?””No clue.”“Then I shall make sure she produces something more palatable than cereal,” Ayanda said. And did as she said and marched over to the kitchen. Darcy watched through half-closed eyes. Then closed eyes as the sounds of talk and banging utensils and boiling water sounded through the space.Jane shook her awake. Darcy stuffed the mashed potatoes filled with cheese and vegetables into her mouth as fast as she could. Which wasn’t. She considered for a moment, then took the fastest shower she had ever done. Loki would never believe she was in and out in five minutes. She braided her hair back, then crawled into bed. Tomorrow had to be better. It had to be.Darcy pulled the soft woolen blankets over her head. They didn’t feel artificial, but they didn’t feel like any animal she knew, either. Loki appreciated items that were handmade; it was the culture he came from. All of Asgard... machine-made or not, everything had a personal touch. She sighed and burrowed until she was against the wall. It felt safer that way. No one could come at her from there.It wasn’t quite comfortable, though. She pulled the covers back and crawled out of the bed. She went to cabinet she thought held pillows and stared in befuddlement at a mound of blankets. There were more? She blinked. Right. Wrong cupboard. Next one over. Fortified with the longest pillow she’d ever seen, Darcy retreated back to her bed and stuffed the pillow next to the wall. She crawled back in, pulled the covers over her head, and snuggled against the now-comfortable wall.And finally, finally, she could sleep. “So it’s really complicated,” Darcy said after breakfast, feeling much more coherent today. She really didn’t think she made any sort of sense yesterday at all. “Asgard is your traditional monarchy. Sort of? I mean, Odin surrendered the throne several years ago to Thor, which makes him kind of a dowager but not really. More of an abdication, but he’s still really involved in things. Which makes Thor’s life all kinds of hell when he wants to do anything that flies in the face of Asgardian tradition. Which is a lot. Thor isn’t your stereotypical warrior king all war all the time nor he is as ignorant as he can sometimes present himself. He’s smart. But playing the buffoon has worked in the past for him, so he does it. And then he steamrolls through whatever change he wants to enable because no one is on the lookout for it. Makes the traditionalists upset. They’re getting used to staying upset. Thor does not suffer fools easily.“Anyway, so Asgard’s version of Loki’s adoption is that Odin had discovered him as an abandoned infant left out in the snow to die. It was right after Jotunheim's failed invasion of Norway. So he was brought back to Asgard, raised Asgardian as the son of the king, and found out he was adopted when he was a kid.“Jotunheim's version is completely different. There’s a long-running tradition that runts are left out in the snow to die and if they survive three days and nights they’re welcomed to the family with open arms. Their size has not indicated their weakness. So Odin taking Loki meant that he survived and is therefore part of Laufey’s family. But he wasn’t raised by Laufey, so he was fostered. And because he was never returned, he was kidnapped. And kidnapping a prince of the line is grounds for war.Darcy sighed. “So that’s the basics, regardless that Loki wants nothing to do with Jotunheim or Laufey and considers himself Odinson. Laufey thinks Loki needs to be brought to Jotunheim to show him what being his son entails. And that’s disregarding the entire point that Laufey found out Loki was alive and hadn’t perished when Loki is considered a legal adult by both cultures.”Ayanda shook her head and cupped her hands around her steaming mug. “All right. So how does Loki running away to hide on Earth prevent a war?”“I think it boils down to if they can prove he’s not on Asgard,” Darcy said. “They wouldn’t attack it immediately. And if no one can find him, it might delay any other attacks long enough that they’d be able to defend against them. It’s not like Asgard has a giant standing army.”“That makes little sense,” Ayanda said.Jane shrugged. “It’s never made sense to me, either. And I’m dating Thor. He’s explained it in a lot more detail. People who live for thousands of years don’t rush into things quickly.”And it really wasn’t an excuse. Darcy shoved her glasses up her nose and settled her hat more firmly on her head. Loki did things rather without thinking them through. Like eloping. If that ever came out, there would be absolute hell to pay and everything would go bonkers.“Yeah, so,” Darcy said, trying to regain control of the conversation because there were things that really needed to be said before it wandered off onto the topic of long-distance relationships and ones that weren’t necessarily approved of. Though Darcy rather thought that Ayanda had it better. Her boyfriend’s father hadn’t called her a goat the first time they met. “Anyway. The long and short of it is that Asgard and Jotunheim have a treaty that’s been threatening to break under pressure. Earth has zero political relations with Jotunheim and has what amounts to a mutual-defense treaty with Asgard, with some minor trade deals worked independently between them and the various nations. So if Earth wants to talk with Jotunheim, their only real channel is Asgard. And Jotunheim really doesn’t want to do anything with them right now.”“And that’s even if Earth knows we’re on another planet,” Jane said. She shoved her hair behind her ears. “Look, so Ayanda and I have been looking at the equipment that the Frost Giants dumped on us and we have a plan.” She smiled at Darcy. “One that doesn’t involve Asgard.”Darcy straightened. “Really? Do tell.”Jane and Ayanda exchanged a smug smile. Darcy played with her empty mug as Ayanda started to speak.“The machinery left for us is very similar to what we were working on at the lab,” she said. “Jane and I think there is a distinct possibility that a spy works for us. So it will not be hard to adapt it for our purposes. They need us to build them a wormhole, so for the Einstein-Rosen gate to work properly, we will need star charts. Properly labeled star charts.”Jane cut in. “And once we have those and a working machine, we’ll be able to send a signal to Earth. Or Asgard, whichever one’s closer.” She blinked. “I’ve tried calling out to Heimdall, but I don’t think he’s heard me.”Darcy shrugged. “Loki’s mentioned that some types of magic are able to shield from his gaze. That’s- that’s how the Chitauri. No, how Thanos was able to keep him hidden and out of reach for so long.””Who’s Thanos?”“The biggest bad of them all,” Darcy said. “He’s convinced that the utilization of resources and overpopulation... no, let’s just say he’s a maniac and wants to destroy half the life in the universe.”Ayanda looked extremely skeptical. “That hardly seems possible.”“There’s these things out there called the Infinity Stones,” Darcy said, staring straight at Ayanda. “They control Time, Space, even Reality itself. There’s six of them and Thanos is hunting them. Using every single person he possible can. He has people he calls his Children. Tried to break Loki into becoming one. There’s at least two on Earth. So one day he’ll come and he needs to be stopped.”She still looked skeptical. “I fail to see how something-”“The portal over New York City? When the Chitauri attacked?” Darcy needed to make her understand. “That was opened by an Infinity Stone. They aren’t myths. They’re fucking terrifying.”Ayanda nodded once, her lips thinned to a frown. She followed the whorls on the table with a finger. “I still find it so hard to believe that existence, that reality itself, could be... eliminated so readily.”Darcy shuddered. She didn’t. She’d seen the Chitauri attack. She’d seen that damn scepter. The question of where it was now niggled at her, but it could wait until after they all got back to Earth. Loki would know, anyway. He’d taken it back to Asgard, after all.“So we need to get back to Earth,” Jane said into the sudden silence. “Because we’ll be useless if Thanos attacks and we don’t have a working Einstein-Rosen Bridge. And that means getting a signal out.”Darcy eyed the pile of metal crap and machinery in the workspace. “Right,” she said. “What do you need me to do?”Jane shrugged. “Make sure we eat? Darcy, I really don’t know what help you’ll be at this stage. We don’t even know what half of that stuff is.”That hurt. It was expected, but it still hurt. Darcy bit back the pang of frustration and worthlessness. She’d deal with it later. “I could take a look? See if it’s anything at all similar to what I’ve seen at the embassy. They didn’t let us humans use much, but if it helps get us home....”Ayanda nodded and waved her hand. “Of course.”So Darcy did just that and identified jack shit. She sighed and ran her hands through her hair as she retreated. Honestly, just once, it would have been nice to be validated.The rest of the day passed in quiet. Darcy longed for a bit of music, but her iPod was dead and her phone was on its way to being that way. Off to the side in the living area was a small bookcase stuffed full of various books. Most were in English and she thought the rest was in Xhosa. The sight chilled her. The Jotuns had clearly taken advantage of a terrible situation. She looked down at her ring. Her relationship to Loki might be the only thing that could get them safely out of this situation. And it was a trump card she had no desire at all to use.Darcy finally pulled Pride & Prejudice from the shelf and collapsed onto the sofa. She didn’t open it for a moment. The cover blurred. She tore off her glasses and blinked until the tears retreated. She was not going to cry. She was not.When the urge passed, Darcy settled down to read the adventures of her namesake and laugh at the ridiculousness that Austen wrote so well. She could think of some grand plan to get them off this planet later. For now, she let the familiar words distract her. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” She hadn’t even reached the Netherfield ball yet when the door to the suite (if it could be called that) slammed open. Darcy yelped at the gust of blood-chilling air. She abandoned her book and practically ran across the main room to stand next to Jane and Ayanda. Three Jotuns stared down at them. Darcy met their gaze fearlessly. All her anger came rushing back. Finally, something she could do.“What do you want?” she snapped before the intruders could say anything.The one in the front, the one with the most elaborately patterned kilt, blinked. He narrowed his eyes and sneered. “It is nothing to concern yourself with.””You kidnapped me and my friends,” Darcy bit back. “That’s something I greatly concern myself with.”“We brought you because your friends value you and there was no reason to leave you in the custody of those who would otherwise harm you,” the Jotun said. “We might be alien to you, but we are not monsters.”“Then you and I have a very different definition of monster,” Jane said before Darcy could. “Because no one sane kidnaps someone and then demands they build something in exchange for release!”The Jotun looked frustrated. “We are only trying to get on equal ground with Asgard.”Darcy couldn’t help herself. She snorted. “Dude, no one else in the galaxy has anything like the Bifrost. That’s why everyone else has spaceships and interstellar drives and jump gates.”“There are also naturally occurring wormholes,” Jane added, voice suspiciously bright. Darcy didn’t look back, but she knew Jane was about to spit fire. “Have your scientists thought about studying them?”One of the smaller Jotuns snarled. “You foolish human. How dare you think we haven’t?”“You have shown us no reason to believe you have,” Ayanda said as serene as ever. “The logical conclusion must be that you have not.”Not really logical, but Darcy was betting the Frost Giants were getting to incensed to realize that. She grinned at a sudden thought. “And don’t those portals that brought us here work?”“Naturally occurring-” the leader broke of as he realized what he was about to say. He glared at the three of them. “You have someone managed to discover a way to do what the rest of the universe has yet to realize.”Yeah, well, Darcy thought. The rest of the universe didn’t have the Space Gem open up a portal three different times on their planet and managed to have a good chunk of the data recorded. Jane had access to information no one else did. And as much as she was very much open source, open science type-y, Darcy really doubted she’d share her information with the group of hostile aliens that kidnapped her.“Luck,” Jane said. “I happen to be dating the king of Asgard. He visits, I get data.”The Jotuns blinked. They clearly hadn’t expected that answer. Darcy was having a heck of a time keeping her grin from stretching across her face.“Asgard cannot help you here,” the leader snarled. “So you’ll do as we say and you’ll go home soon enough.”They left. The door opened with another gust of air. Darcy shivered until it shut again. She turned to look at Jane and Ayanda. Ayanda, of course, had an entirely emotionless face. But her fists were clenched. And her eyes gleamed with anger. Jane had begun pacing back and forth, muttering something under her breath.She snapped around. “Right. We’re going to get that signal out. Ayanda, ready to start building?”Ayanda’s teeth flashed. “Yes.”“Good,” Jane glanced at Darcy. “If they come back, distract them. Tell them... tell them something that’ll keep them out of our hair until we are ready to press the button.”Darcy saluted. “Yes, ma’am!”Jane turned to survey the room. “Then let’s get to work.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It all came tumbling down what felt like three weeks later.There were no windows in their rooms. The lights never went off unless they were physically shut off. All of their electronics had died due to lack of charging. They had been provided no clocks. Ayanda had finally built one just before the last of their phones died, using her expertise to at least create something to keep track of time. None of them wanted to screw up their circadian rhythms. Well, not more than usual, anyway. Jane... well Jane was Jane. Her schedule was already screwed up because astrophysicist. She loved looking up at the stars.So they’d calculated it out that they’d been held captive for three weeks. They had not seen any Jotuns since the day their kidnappers invaded their space. Darcy had come to terms with being utterly useless, aka the person who hung around Ayanda and passed her tools. She couldn’t spend all her time reading. What would she do when she finished the last shelf, anyway? She’d had absolutely zero luck trying to hack into the computer system that controlled the living environment, even if she had the niggling suspicion that it was tied into whatever building they were in. It was too well-prepared for them that.Right, so Darcy had a wrench in one hand as she crouched beside Ayanda. Ayanda lay on her back half underneath the machine she and Jane were cobbling together, fiddling with something. The only indication the main door opened was the sudden gust of arctic air. Ayanda cursed after she flinched from the cold. She came out from under the machine, rubbing her head and muttering something in Xhosa. Darcy’s hand tightened on the wrench. What did they want now?She and Ayanda stood and faced the door. Five Jotuns stood in it, but only one was from their kidnappers. Darcy took a deep breath. Okay, maybe the group was larger than she thought. The one with the fancy kilt stood beside another man with an even fancier kilt, one with cloth of gold woven in. She was starting to get a really bad feeling about this.“Where is Jane Foster?” the man with the cloth of gold kilt asked. Unlike the Jotun standing next to him, he sounded kind.“I’ll grab her,”Darcy said. “She’s taking a nap.”The Jotun nodded once in acknowledgment. Darcy and Ayanda exchanged a worried look. Darcy glanced at the Jotuns one more time before walking over to the sleeping chamber. She slid the door open and stepped inside.“Jane,” Darcy said, and shook her friend’s shoulder. “Jane, wake up. The Frost Giants came back.”Jane poked her head out from the blanket. “Mmm, tell them to come back later.”“Jane, now!”Jane finally stumbled out of bed, but made little effort to tidy her mussed hair. At least she was dressed, Darcy thought as they went back out. Jane stiffened when she saw the group.“That’s Helblindi,” she hissed to Darcy. “The one with the gold kilt.”Darcy’s stomach swooped. One of Laufey’s sons. She’d never seen images of anyone but Laufey. Loki grew agitated whenever the subject came up and no one at the embassy cared enough to show them. Earth had no reason to know, really. (Except they did and it made Darcy so mad because humanity really did not need the protection. It irked her. A lot.)She forced herself to breathe. Okay, so one of Laufey’s sons, three guards... was this a rescue? God, she hoped so.Helblindi did not react to Jane’s appearance. He just regally nodded at her. Ayanda squeezed Jane’s hand. Jane glared.“I have come in apology,” Helblindi said. “My brother-””Brother!?” Jane said. “The- you- brother- how-””Jane, let him finish,” Darcy said. She kept a careful watch on the non-guard, on her kidnapper, on who had to be Blyeistr. Asshole. He looked only slightly discomfited.Jane sputtered some more, but fell silent. Helblindi took a breath and continued. “I am here with an apology and the means to send you home.”His words were met with shocked silence. Darcy blinked. How? This was like a dream come true. Ayanda shook her head once. “I do not believe you.”“If you allow me to escort you,” Helblindi said. “Representatives from your respective governments are here. Your prince T’challa and your Secretary of State.”Oh. Maybe this was actually happening. Jane lifted her chin. “Then take us there. Right now.”Well, okay. Darcy felt a small smile cross her face. Jane was the brave one. She’d self-sorted into Ravenclaw, but there was definitely a lot of Gryffindor in her. Darcy was quite content with her Hufflepuff. And right now was not the time to go all badger. Maybe later, when she got home and could actually deal with this in a situation that might not end up killing her. Because what if it all went wrong and they were stranded here with no good environmental controls? They’d be dead in an hour.One of the guards stepped forward, three necklaces with glowing stones in his hand. “They will keep you warm,” he said gruffly in very accented English.That honestly disturbed Darcy more than the necklace she draped around her neck. Why were they learning English? Was this guard part of the apparent conspiracy to kidnap them? Or was Helblindi’s appearance a sham and it was actually government sponsored and they’d just been caught out because of who they took? Darcy couldn’t help but shiver as she left the rooms, the direction her thoughts were going was just too disturbing.Embroidered tapestries covered the weird glowing crystalline ice-stone. Darcy glanced at a few of them as they walked by. Jotuns in various activities were shown in immensely complicated patterns. Darcy slowed. They were beautiful; she had never seen their like.“Our women take great pride in their weaving of our history,” Helblindi said.Darcy jumped. She hadn’t heard him come up beside her. “What is that one?” she asked, pointing at the next one down the hall. It shimmered in the bluish light.Helblindi smiled. “It celebrate our taming of the winter. Our formation of the Casket of All-Winter, so we could thrive. Thor did right when he returned it to us.””You sound like you admire him,” Darcy said as they turned into an even more elaborate hall.“He is a good king,” Helblindi said simply.Oh. Darcy looked at Helblindi for a second, suddenly recognizing just how much like Loki he looked. Just blue. With raised lines. And red eyes. And no hair.Now was not the time to ask, but Darcy was suddenly struck by the fact this was Laufey’s heir. And he’d called Thor a good king. Did that mean that he thought his own father was not? Or that he wanted to be like Thor when he eventually took the throne?Darcy took a deep breath before entering the room one of the guards was holding open the door to. She stepped in, the last and least consequential person in their group, and flinched when the door shut behind her. Ayanda was already in deep conversation with a man and a women wearing beautiful woven clothing. The prince and a bodyguard, Darcy guessed. The Secretary of State had guided Jane over to a chair and they sat talking. Only a women with them glanced over at Darcy. She made one step forward, but suddenly stopping with wide eyes.It wasn’t because Helblindi, Laufey, and Blyeistr stood at the far end. Only Helblindi looked content with the whole thing. Laufey looking like he’d bitten into something bitter and Blyeistr glowered at everyone. No. It was because of the Asgardian contingent that Darcy hadn’t seen, standing to left as she walked in.Darcy and Loki stared at each other for a moment, frozen. She longed desperately to ignore all bounds of propriety and throw herself into his arms. But for the moment, Darcy knew that she could not. Their marriage, as of yet, must remain wholly secret. She eyed Laufey. And right now would not be the best of times to reveal it.Loki lifted his chin slightly and turned to look towards Jane. Darcy got the hint. Definitely not right now. She walked over to Jane and the Secretary of State, wondering just why he was the one to have come. Seriously, he was sort of the reason, well, he was the reason that Jane... damn. It wasn’t like the Jotuns wouldn’t have tried to kidnap Jane three years ago anyway. She, probably all of them, would have disappeared in New Mexico with no one the wiser. It was just sheer happenstance that Loki was hiding and Thor came for him just when - yes, it had to be Blyeistr - attempted the first time.She shoved her hands into her sweater’s pockets after shaking the Secretary’s hand. Even with the pendant, it was still chilly in here.“Miss Lewis,” the Secretary said. “I am so glad to see you safe and well.”Darcy looked at him. He looked so tired. His glasses didn’t hide the bags under his eyes. “Thank you,” she said.The woman with him looked vaguely uncomfortable. Her eyes kept darting the the three Frost Giants. She took a step closer and spoke in a very low voice. Darcy almost strained to hear her.“We have assurances that your return will not be impeded,” she said. “But due to current circumstances, we will route through Asgard and debrief there.”Darcy nodded. What circumstances? The lack of a treaty? Why Asgard? Why the Secretary of State? Well, she could reason that one. High-level negotiations with a foreign government they had no relations with. That’s probably why Prince T’challa was here.The sound of raised voices drew Darcy’s attention. Loki had somehow ended up talking to Laufey, and they were both glaring at each other. His guards had their hands on their weapons. Blyeistr's hand clenched shards of ice. Helblindi stood still, hands at his side, watching and doing nothing to make himself a threat. A small, proud smile lingered on his face. No one else seemed to notice.“-Odinson, repeated thrice and claimed!” Loki snapped. “I renounce myself of any connection to you, your your blood and clan, and your title.”The hell? Helblindi’s smile stretched across his face. “Heard acknowledged, and bound by blood and honor.”Laufey snapped around and spit something in his own language. Helblindi responded in kind.Jane poked Darcy. “What did he just do?””I’ll explain later,” Darcy said as the Asgardian guards began herding everyone towards the door. None of the Jotuns appeared to notice. “We need to leave now.”The Secretary nodded. “I concur.”They made it past the door and into the hallway. Neither of the Jotun guards made any move to stop the group from leaving. T’challa and the Secretary were talking quietly as they walked quite fast down the hall. Darcy winced as they turned a corner at the shouting now extremely evident coming from the room they’d vacated.Loki somehow ended up beside her. He almost looked normal. But there was a pinched look around his eyes and his hands kept opening and closing. Darcy kept her mouth shut. Anything she could say could wait until they reached Asgard and had a private moment together.Darcy kept looking around at the palace - it had to be, given Laufey’s presence - and the sheer beauty of it. Now that they were away from the shouting, the daily business of it seemed oddly out of place. She shivered slightly. And they’d been trapped here without evidence of any of it. She thought of the spartan rooms she and Jane and Ayanda shared and pressed her eyes closed for a moment. Darcy felt like her mind was going to shake to pieces. she took a breath and walked on.It seemed to take forever for them to reach an outside courtyard. Within moments, Loki had called for Heimdall and they were all whisked away in a rainbow storm.Jane gasped in wonder and kept looking around. Darcy felt a hand sneak into her own. She glanced down. Loki squeezed it once and let go before anyone noticed. Darcy let out a breath as the terminus approached. It was hers and Jane’s and Ayanda’s first experience inside the Bifrost and Darcy could only regret the circumstances.Darcy smiled at Jane’s obvious delight. She barely acknowledged Heimdall’s nod, too entranced in taking everything in. Jane turned in a circle with a wide grin on her face. Darcy had never seen Jane so thrilled in her life.The Secretary sighed a little. He seemed marginally less stressed now. Darcy finally went up to Jane, since it was apparent no one else would. Jane looked at her with sparkling eyes.“I want to see everything,” she said.Darcy laughed. “I know, I know. But later?”Jane sighed. “It’s going to hours of debriefing, Darcy. I’d rather be here. I mean, think of the observations-” she stopped at the look on Darcy’s face. “After, then. I’ll make sure Thor takes me back here.”Not like that would be hard. Thor adored her. And with him actively trying to court her (not that Jane realized what such a big deal that was), the answer would be a very obvious yes.Darcy stopped dead in her tracks as they left Heimdall’s observatory. The rainbow road glittered before them, stretching to a golden city nestled between mountains. It shone in the darkness. The palace gleamed under the light of the stars and nebulae above.“Welcome to Asgard,” Loki said.Darcy scarcely heard him. This was the home of her husband. She swallowed. And if she could make it so, her home, too.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Darcy yawned again. She couldn’t help herself. After a meal, and over the protests of Jane, they’d been led straight to guest suites in the palace and ordered to go to bed. Darcy lay in the overstuffed bed and looked out the window for the millionth time. Her circadian rhythm was all out of wack. Her body thought it was the middle of the afternoon. There was no way she was going to be able to fall asleep.With a sigh, Darcy crawled out of bed and grabbed her glasses from the bedside table. She’d been promised better quarters in the morning, rooms with her family - her family in Asgard? Really? - but at the moment, getting the former captives proper rest was considered more appropriate.And, in her more cynical thoughts, better to keep them separated until the debrief occurred. And an explanation of whatever current events were going on on Earth that necessitated them to be on Asgard. As far as she knew, the tourist visas weren’t even ready yet and wouldn’t be until May. Although their families weren’t exactly tourists....She grabbed a robe from the closet and shuffled out to the sitting area. The open doors to the window fluttered the floor-length drapes. Darcy went to look out. Her window looked over the city. Very little moved through the streets and canals. It was much too late at night. Just like any city. She needed to remember that. All the Asgardians she’d ever met were in some way connected to the royal court or government flunkies. There were people down there who had never heard of her (but maybe Jane) and who would never even care. She had no presence in their lives, not even in passing. Thousands of strangers and they would never know her.The thought depressed her. She had always wanted to make a difference. She honestly thought she was on the path to that, but at the end of the day all she did was write social media posts and try to connect the world of Asgard and Earth in the only way she knew how. All her college studies, her time spent talking to people, what did it matter? The only reason she had her position in the embassy was her connection to Thor. If Asgard’s intelligence service wasn’t so worried about that, Darcy doubted she’d be there at all.“I can have some tea made up.”Darcy jumped at Loki’s voice. He stepped out of a hidden panel in the wall and shut it behind him. She shook her head. “I don’t think anything will help me sleep right now. And what the hell are you doing in here?”Loki shrugged. That’s right. He did what he wanted. Darcy turned back to the window. Loki joined her. He leaned gently against her. She rested her head on his shoulder. Very, very slowly, his arm crept around her waist.“I couldn’t not see you,” he said. “The servants’ passages are the easiest way in without anyone asking questions. They’re too accustomed to me sneaking around.”His voice shook. Darcy moved her head to look up at him. He stared out the window over the city. Her heart sank. This time, he was on the end of waiting and hoping. She’d never wished it on him. The last three years had been hell. Why did this have to happen? Why now?“Well, if either of us can’t sleep,” Darcy said with a smile. “There’s other things we can do.”Loki met her smile with his grin. It almost reached his eyes. “What are you suggesting?”“We haven’t shared a bed in a month,” Darcy said. “I’ve missed you.”His grin melted into a warm smile. “That, I can rectify.” He pulled her close for a kiss. She melted into it.They broke apart and walked back into the bedroom with entwined fingers. Darcy stared at him for a moment, heart aching, then wrapped him in a hug. She didn't need sex right now. She just wanted to be next to him, to be kept safe and warm inside his arms. Loki’s arms tightened. They lay entwined, finally together, and it was all they needed. The required interviews took the entire day. Darcy answered what seemed like the same questions over and over and over. What had the first attempt been like? How was the second, successful one, different? What did she remember of the first group of attackers this time around? What was their imprisonment like? What did she remember of the palace? On and on and on it went.The interviews occurred at the embassy. Security concerns, Darcy knew. None of them were Asgardian citizens and no one trusted each other. The glances the officials exchanged at so many points were incredibly telling to Darcy. So were the questions about the soldiers who attacked them. Those were handled, after the first round, by an entirely different team. Darcy rather thought they were CIA. She couldn’t tell, but, really. She was no expert in gun models. How could she have told them what they wanted to know?They broke for lunch, but Darcy was flatly forbidden from talking with Jane or Ayanda. They were forced to sit apart in the cafeteria. She picked at her food. Sure, it was great having something that didn’t come from a box, but. Fried chicken turned her stomach at the best of times. The coffee, though, oh the coffee was glorious.Darcy cupped her hands around her mug and breathed in the wondrous aroma. Freshly brewed, not Kuerig burnt pod, it smelt like heaven. Heaven in a mug.She looked up as someone pulled out the chair across from her and sat. The man wasn’t anyone she recognized. His small stature and kind smile set her a bit at ease, but his eyes were far too calculating.“I’m Everett Ross,” he said.Her eyes narrowed and she set her mug down. “Any relation to General Ross?”He blinked, then gave a crooked smile. “Does working with him count?””Oh, I’m so sorry,” Darcy said without thinking.Ross laughed. “No worries. Look, I just figured I’d stop and say hello. I’m coordinating the interviews with the three of you and thought I would introduce myself.”Figured. Darcy shrugged and poked at her chicken with her fork. It was even less appetizing cold. What she wouldn’t give for a good steak salad. And fresh grapes. Any kind of fresh fruit or vegetable, really. Ones that didn’t come prepackaged in a plastic cup. She was willing to bet that the high-ups here weren’t fed this stuff.“Not hungry?”Darcy looked up at Ross and shrugged. “Nothing else up there was even remotely appetizing.”Ross looked apologetic. As if it was his fault. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I believe the staff wanted to give you all something familiar to eat.”She could hardly fault that. It wasn’t like they knew of her food preferences. Most Americans liked fried chicken. She’d at least eaten everything else. But still. She set down her fork and looked at Ross. “You think they can make me a grilled cheese?”After lunch was more of the same, but it felt like they were winding down. She’d told them all she knew time and time again. It wasn’t like any of the facts about the kidnapping were going to change.And finally, finally she was escorted out of the bland chamber - so different than the rooms in the palace she stayed in last night - and into a lavishly decorated room. She took a quick breath and forced herself to swallow against the lump in her throat. Her mom and dad stared at her from their place on a creme couch. Then her mom stood. Two steps later they crashed into each others’ arms. Tears streamed down Darcy’s face.“Oh, Darcy,” her mom said. “You’re home now.”Darcy hitched a breath. She couldn’t speak, only burrowed her head closer into her mom’s shoulder. Arms wrapped around her from the other side. She glanced through askew glasses. Dad. A fresh stream of tears streamed down her face.They ended up on the couch, Darcy smooshed between her parents. Her mom kept squeezing her hand, as if to check she was actually there.“Did they-” her mom started. “Did they hurt you?”“No,” Darcy said. “They pretty much ignored me.”“Good,” Dad said. “Because I’d hate to have to go over them with my rifle.””You wouldn’t be able to,” Darcy said. “You wouldn’t survive five minutes on that planet.”Dad shot her a look. “Honey, let me have my imagination. Do you have any idea how helpless I felt after we’d been told you were kidnapped by aliens?”“Yes.”Her flat statement had her parents exchanging looks. She already knew what they were going to say. They hadn’t really believed SHIELD’s story when they’d taken her to identify Loki and put her under their protection (like that had worked).“Honey...” Mom said softly. “It’s not the same. You were his girlfriend, not his parents.”She couldn’t say anything to that. The blinding fury that struck her rendered her absolutely mute. How dare they. Her love was different, but it was absolutely not lesser. Darcy pushed away from the sofa and walked to the other side of the room with clenched fists.“Darcy,” Dad said. “We don’t- she didn’t mean-” He stopped and took a breath. “Darcy, please. I don’t want to fight. We just got you back.”She shook her head. “I have spent the last month on an alien planet because I was kidnapped,” Darcy said with a voice that wouldn’t stop shaking. “I have spent pretty much every hour since being interrogated about the entire experience. All I want from you is hugs and you just insulted me.”“I didn’t mean to!” Mom said. Darcy could hardly look at her distraught face. “But... we’re your parents. You are our only child. And we could have lost you forever.”“And I could have lost Loki forever,” Darcy said. She was not going to concede this.“Darcy, I think you mean Luke,” Dad said after a pause.“No,” Darcy said flatly. “I don’t.”“Oh,” her mom breathed, and crumpled into her husband.They stared at her. Darcy didn’t say anything word. Her dad shifted so he was more comfortable. He forced a small smile to his face. “Thank you for finally telling us.”Darcy staggered. “You knew?”Mom nodded, but the tears streaming down her face meant she was not going to answer. Dad sighed. “We suspected... and then after the kidnapping, we and your friends wanted answers. And they were answered.”He’d told them? Darcy let out a shaky breath and most of her anger. “Why?”“He...” Dad said. “He wasn’t doing well. I think it helped to get some of it off his chest.”Of course it did. Their relationship was the one secret that hung over everything. Darcy returned to the sofa, but only perched on the free end. She wanted to be able to look at both her parents during this conversation. A weird sense of pride filled her chest. He’d finally, finally taken that final step of trust.“Darcy,” Mom said suddenly. “Your relationship isn’t going to last forever. He’s going to live for millennia.””I know,” Darcy said. It kept her up at nights, sometimes. “But at least we have each other now.”But that was when Darcy realized. Loki hadn’t told them everything. They still didn’t know she and Loki were married. Because otherwise their reactions would have been entirely different. And how they were rescued from Asgard would have been far more complicated. Her suspicions were right; Loki had been there as a neutral party who took advantage of the situation for his own ends. How typical. She wanted to smile at the realization. Then reality intruded. One more secret still to tell and she couldn’t without her husband. It affected everything.“Darcy...”“Enough, dear,” Dad said. “Now is not the time.”Silence fell for a moment. Darcy settled more. “So how did they find us?”Dad flinched. “It’s really complicated, Darcy. Let’s just take the rest of the day easy, okay?”Darcy frowned. Not what she wanted. It was so aggravating to be treated like a child again. She was an adult, grown-up with her own life in the big city of New York. As comforting as the thought was, to just be wrapped up and protected from everything for a little while, Darcy knew herself to well to know that she’d hate it within hours. She didn’t want to be smothered by overprotectiveness.All she wanted right now was her childhood bear, some good music, and good food. Not the crap they served in the cafeteria for lunch. She wanted familiarity. She wanted home.There. That was a conversation that shouldn’t be fraught with any kind of tension. “So what’s for dinner?” Darcy stared up at the ceiling for a second, sleepless night. She had been moved out of the palace to stay with her parents in their suite in the building all the embassy staff lived in. She could hear her parents talking softly in the living room, but she’d claimed exhaustion and went to bed early.Dark curtains had been drawn over the windows to lessen the brightness outside. Asgard’s nights were never dark, the nebulae giving a glorious show. Jane would be enthralled. Darcy doubted she was sleeping either.She rolled onto her side and curled into a ball under the blankets. Her body was exhausted. The stress of everything had finally caught up and it felt like she was going to fall over if she stood up again. Her body was leaden.Her mind was not.Darcy squeezed her eyes shut and tried to think of anything that would distract her from what she’d learned over dinner. Anything. How to prepare tea. How to calculate a billing statement. The exact method she used to log in to all her social media, every click of the mouse and every single tap on the keyboard. Nothing helped because everything reminded her that somehow the world had gone terribly wrong.It had been HYDRA that tried to take them with guns and violence and fear. Their tire had been shot out by someone called the Winter Soldier. HYDRA had taken over SHIELD - or had been there from the very beginning, rotting it out from the inside. It meant people knew about her and Loki. It meant that the institutions she’d trusted to keep them safe never had. It meant that the government itself was corrupt.It didn’t matter that Steve and Natasha and Fury and someone called the Falcon had banded together to take HYDRA, and therefore SHIELD, down. It shouldn’t have been that easy, but Steve was never one to stand by. And Mom and Dad had shot down all talk of the Winter Soldier, saying it was Captain America’s business. Whatever the hell that meant. Had they forgotten he was a friend of hers?Her eyes flew open. Dammit all. She just wanted to sleep.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Darcy sat in the breakfast nook, stirring her oatmeal idly as she stared out the window at the bustling city. She couldn’t see the palace from it; the suite was on the wrong side of the building. Instead, she stared up into the snow-dusted mountains. Somewhere in there was a small cabin, brought by Frigga with her marriage, a sanctuary away from all the pressures of ruling a kingdom. Loki had mentioned it in one of their late night conversations in which they practiced her Asgardian. She was far more fluent than she’d ever let on at the embassy. Most everyone that was human was stuck around the conversational level. It would take her years to become fluent the way a native-born speaker would be, but she had the time. And the determination.She finally forced herself to eat breakfast. She’d be no good to anyone, including herself, if she skipped it. Darcy swallowed the last cinnamon-flavored bite and took the empty bowl to the sink to wash.“Honey, what are you doing up so early?” Mom said from behind her.Darcy shut off the water and turned. Her mom stood in the doorway holding a bathrobe closed. She looked like she’d just woken up.“I have appointments at the palace,” Darcy said. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up.”Mom made a face. “This early?”Darcy glanced at the clock. “Yeah,” she said. “I’m probably going to be there all day.””Oh,” Mom said. She sighed and walked in to sit at the small table. “Did you make coffee?”“Of course.” Darcy went and poured her a cup. Milk, no sugar. She sat it before her mom. Her mom picked it up and cradled it between her hands.“You’ll be careful?”Her mom’s voice cracked on the last word. Darcy could only nod. Her mother would never stop worrying now. She left her mom staring out the window, coffee seemingly forgotten in her hands.She walked out the front door, closing it softly behind her. There was a guard stationed at her door. She hadn’t noticed it last night. Grated, once she reunited with her parents and they went up to their suite, they hadn’t left. Dinner had been brought up to them by room service.Darcy smiled at him, then headed downstairs. There should be a carriage waiting. She stepped outside to look for it. Immediately, one of the Einherjar snapped to attention. The soldier opened the door to the waiting carriage immediately. The horses barely flicked an ear back.She ignored the stares of the embassy residents waiting for their transportation and climbed inside. Darcy glanced back out the window to see the Secretary of State waiting for his own ride, frowning at her. She grinned and waved at him. His frown deepened. She shrugged and settled into her seat. Oh well.It felt slightly weird to be sitting in a horse-drawn carriage with a guard riding on the outside. It was like she was in some kind of Regency drama. Horses. She knew they were a status symbol here - Loki had told her in no uncertain terms that she needed to learn how to ride - but looking at the high-tech transport surrounding them, it was strange. How could it be any safer?Darcy climbed out of the carriage at the palace. She glanced around for a moment before a servant approached her. He seemed rather ill at ease. “La- Miss Darcy?”“Yes?”He gave a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness you’re here. Please, follow me.”Darcy didn’t think she had a choice. She followed him into the palace, the guard inexplicably following behind her. She hadn’t had one the night she’d been rescued. Something must have happened.The servant knocked on a door deep in the bowels of the palace. It opened. He walked in and spoke to someone inside. He came out and bowed slightly. “They are ready for you.”Darcy blinked, but did as beckoned. She walked inside. The door shut behind her. She barely had a chance to smile before Thor walked around the desk and gave her a hug. She squeaked when he lifted her from the floor. Behind him, Loki rolled his eyes. Thor set her down and gave her a beaming smile.“I thought it was a grand joke when Loki informed me that you and he had eloped,” Thor said. “It is just like him.” Somehow, his smile deepened. “Welcome, sister, to Asgard.”Oh. Oh.Darcy forced a smile, feeling rather weak in the knees. Thor knew. She groped for a chair and sat down. She took a few deep breaths until the lightness receded from her head. Darcy didn’t think she’d ever come so close to fainting in her life.“Thank you?” she ventured.Thor laughed. Loki took the seat next to her and slid his hand into hers. She smiled at him. He looked better today. Not as stretched with worry.“I shall leave you to discuss what entails next,” Thor said. “I shall go and face court.”Loki grimaced. “Have the rumours reached them yet?”“No,” Thor said, just before he opened the door. “I have been content to let them speculate about Jane and I.”“Good,” Loki said with a soft sigh of relief. He let go of Darcy’s hand to stand and pace around the room. Darcy stayed right where she was. Yeah, something was definitely going on. At least Thor knew. Thor knew. That meant Odin probably did, too. Shit.She jumped as the door opened and a group of people walked inside. They all bowed or curtsied after shutting the door. Loki looked relieved. He stepped forward and greeted them. After a round of introductions - lawyers. They were all lawyers. - and after they all settled around the desk, they began. Because paperwork.Because paperwork was absolutely necessary. Too many things were coming to light, too fast. Darcy sighed as the lawyers flicked open a document. She peered at it, taking a moment to switch languages in her brain. It was always easier for her to read something when she forced herself to think in it.Her blood ran cold when she finally wrapped her head around the first paragraph. It was here, now, that she finally understood what she had done. Darcy clenched her hands. Her mother called her impetuous and her father said she just flitted through life without worrying about how the cards fell. Mom had grown up in a very religious household and even though she’d left most of it behind, it shaped her worldview. Dad was an accountant. He liked things neat and orderly. Darcy could never be either of her parents.She took a breath. Okay. So she was in the line of succession for Asgard’s throne. Right. Nope. Still utterly terrifying.She caught Loki’s eye. He paused in his slow pace across the room. The expressionless lawyers looked on as he walked over and put his hands on her shoulders. He bent is head to rest on her forehead.“We talked about this,” Loki said.“I know,” Darcy said. She worried at her bottom lip. “But seeing the paperwork makes it all real.”He kissed her forehead. “Take what time you need.”She watched him resume his pacing, then reached for the document. She did have the time. So she took it, going word by word and phrase by phrase until she understood it. Then she read the document again, suddenly amused. This was the universe’s most complex pre-nup ever.“Who is representing my interests in this?” Darcy said, in Asgardian.The woman smiled. “That would be myself. Are there issues that need to resolved before we proceed?”Darcy considered the document before her. “I’d like an explanation of Asgardian marriage laws, social requirements, and norms before I sign anything.””Excellent,” she said. “I am Hilda and I think we need another office.” She glanced at her colleagues and Loki. “If you’ll excuse us, Your Highness?”Loki nodded. Darcy followed Hilda out of the room and into the next one over. Hilda sat not behind the desk, but settled into a comfy-looking setup with two overstuffed chairs and a small table. Darcy slowly curled into the second chair.“I am also Frigga’s representative,” Hilda said. “She has also looked over the terms of this agreement and think them fair.”Fair? A title all her own, land in Asgard, a veritable fortune vested upon her if divorce ever became a reality. It was unheard of. Darcy felt overwhelmed. She’d never prepared for this and no one could help her now. She took a deep breath and began barraging Hilda with any question that she could think of.Darcy listened carefully to the answers. Her Asgardian was not up to this intense legalese and she had to ask Hilda numerous times to explain something in a different way or use simpler terms. And not once did Hilda look annoyed or try to condescend. She was calm, and patient, and in her own way, kind. Darcy liked her for that alone.It took hours for them to pour over everything. First it was explained and then Darcy had to decide whether she liked it. It wasn’t really hard. The lawyers had to have been working on this for ages.They finally returned to the original office the hour before dinner, only taking a break for a delivered lunch. Loki was talking with the other two lawyers, but they broke the conversation off when the door closed.Darcy grinned at her husband. “When did you have them start working on this?”“The day after we married,” Loki said. “They are bound to confidentiality.””I figured as much,” Darcy said. “I’ll sign it.”Some of the tension in the room eased. One of the lawyers set a stylus and ink before her. Darcy blinked, then shrugged. Okay. She held the pen over the paper document and paused. Then she grew fierce. Her fears hadn’t stopped her before. They wouldn’t do so now. Darcy bent and scribbled her name. There. Done.“We shall break until tomorrow,” the lead lawyer- Arvid - said as he rolled the scroll up. He gave a small smile. “We have still much to cover.”Darcy nodded and leaned against Loki. “I understand,” she said.The lawyers left first. Loki kissed the side of Darcy’s head. “Would you prefer to dine with your parents or do you desire to join Thor and I?”“Is Jane going to be there?” Darcy asked. She hadn’t seen her friend in over a day. She desperately needed to see how Jane was handling everything now.“Yes,” Loki said.Darcy heaved a sigh of relief. “Then I’ll join you.”“A servant will send word to your parents,” Loki said as they separated before leaving the office.Good. They’d worry otherwise. Who was she kidding? They’d worry anyway. But she wasn’t going to let the thought spoil dinner. She was so hungry.Her parents were still awake when Darcy returned. Her mom was knitting something. She tossed the needles onto her lap. “Is everything all right? It’s so late!”Darcy glanced at the clock. Not that late. “I had dinner with Jane, Mom. We needed to talk.”Mom picked up her needles. “Of course you did. Is she doing all right?”Darcy shrugged and walked to her bedroom. “For a given definition of the word. Mom, I’m tired. Let’s talk more in the morning. I’m going to bed. Good night.”She disappeared into the bedroom and shut the door on her parents saying good night back. Darcy looked at the dark drapes over the window, then walked over and yanked them back. She needed to get accustomed to the sensation of falling asleep under the strange sky. This was, one day in the future, going to be her home.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Miss Lewis, may I have a moment of your time?”Darcy lowered the travel mug from her lips and turned to the man who spoke to her. The Secretary of State looked at her with a troubled expression. Darcy’s carriage hadn’t arrived yet; she’d come out early to enjoy the weather. She shrugged. “Sure.”They stepped over to an alcove tucked into the pickup area. Most of the early morning risers were still half-asleep, tucked up in scarves and thick jackets and obsessed with the travel cups held in cupped gloved hands. No one seemed to pay them any mind.“I know we promised a swift return to Earth upon your rescue,” the Secretary said. “I do apologize for being unable to follow through on it, but the political situation is still rather delicate. Your .... friends .... have upset Washington.””Upended an entire department and ruined people’s trust in the government, you mean,” Darcy said. She shrugged. “And got a whole bunch of people thinking more critically about the role of superheroes. Am I right?”He gave a wry smile. “That is a good summation, yes. I am afraid I cannot share with you some of the nuances.”Darcy took a sip of her coffee before responding. “That’s okay. I don’t exactly have a security clearance.”Utter frustration passed across the Secretary’s face. “Which is one of the things I wanted to discuss with you, but you have all your appointments at the palace and have for the past three days. Is Doctor Foster all right?”That was not exactly the inquiry Darcy expected. Of course, she thought bitterly. Everything she did in relation to Asgard had to do with Jane.Something of her thoughts must have shown on her face. The man sighed. “Miss Lewis, I know you work for their embassy, but you must have considered your career after your contract with it ends.”Darcy smiled, suddenly amused. “Mr. Secretary,” she said as sweet as she could manage. “That is what I am in the midst of right now. As for Jane, she’s doing as well as she can at the moment. She’s moved into the anger camp and is so far not looking to move far from it. She’s dealing.”How she was dealing... Darcy had never seen her angrier. The fact that she was kidnapped really didn’t seem to phase her. At all. The fact that she had been forced to leave behind a wealth of research and technology... that annoyed her more than anything. Darcy was quite content to have Thor take the brunt of that anger. He might actually be able to get a productive result back, if the rumours currently floating back from Jotunheim about a brewing civil war weren’t actually true.The Secretary shook his head. “Miss Lewis, I think I shall arrange a meeting with you in a spare moment. Before you make any further commitments to Asgard, I would like to perhaps introduce you to other options you may not have considered.”What could she say to that? “Thank you. I’d be honored.”Their conversation ended just as her carriage pulled up and the Secretary’s armored whatever it was. Darcy really needed to learn the names of things around here. It looked like a hovering boat to her. She climbed into the carriage and leaned against the seat, taking occasional sips of her coffee as the horses moved through the early morning traffic.It really did seem to be as bad as the Secretary had implied. Steve and Natasha had pretty much dumped all of SHIELD’s files onto the Internet. Loki had informed her upon that upsetting revelation that any data relating to her, Loki’s actions during the Chitauri invasion, the related actions including Clint and Eric, and random other clusters of data - mostly HR personnel info - had somehow mysteriously been corrupted upon upload. Darcy dearly longed to interrogate whichever Asgardian techs had been responsible for that because it was so cool from a coder’s perspective. And a terrible one from a security one, but Earth systems were light years behind Asgard’s. It must have been child’s play to work around SHIELD.Darcy knew she should feel more conflicted about the hacking, but she couldn’t bring herself to it. It only meant positive outcomes for her and the people she cared for. Illegal as hell or not, she was grateful.Besides, it was not the worst thing to come out of that debacle. Steve’s oldest friend wasn’t dead. No, what had been done to him... Darcy could actually imagine it, that was the terrible thing. Loki had been so close to that... Once Loki had heard that, he’d shut down the rest of the day. Darcy pushed through with her meetings, but he’d left and hadn’t reappeared until dinner. She still didn’t know where he’d gone. He’d tell her when he was ready, if he ever was.She took a deep breath and finished her coffee. This crash course in Asgardian marriage, inheritance, and political law was absolutely exhausting. She would probably have another two or three cups before the day was over. Someone in Asgard’s kitchens was earning their keep and her utter gratitude just for keeping a pot on. (It probably didn’t hurt that she’d seen Angar, another one of the team of lawyers handling this slow transition of hers into Asgardian political life, carrying a mug of it around yesterday. Score one for awesome Earth imports. And maybe Asgard would be able to help keep the species going against climate change.)Jane was waiting for her in the courtyard when she arrived at the palace. Darcy grinned and wrapped her friend in a hug. Jane returned it briefly, then stepped back. She kept wringing her hands in apparent distress. Darcy grabbed them.“Jane, what’s wrong?””Frigga and Odin are back from their vacation.”Well, shit. “In the three weeks your mother and I went on a much-needed rest,” Odin said. “You and your brother have completely upturned the societal fabric of Asgard.” He turned around and speared Loki with his one-eyed glare. “And you delay informing me so as to formally acknowledge your wife.”“You are no longer king,” Loki snarled. Then, much quieter. “At least you acknowledge her.”“How could I not?” Odin’s voice was bitter and angry. “There are two treaties in place that ensure I do. You counted on that, did you not?””Not for the second, Father,” Loki said, voice every bit as angry, but so, so cold. “It had been my intention-””I know your intentions!” Odin spat. “Yet they always spiral out of control and you are left to pick up the pieces.”“Even though it led to this?” Loki waved his hand. “What do you think they are saying me in court, Father? That I took the opportunity presented to declare my loyalties to Asgard once and for all? There has yet to be an announcement of my marriage.”The set of his shoulders convinced Darcy that she needed to remind both men she was there. She stepped forward and froze under the weight of Odin’s sudden regard. His single eye bore into her, stripping her bare before him. The blue of it burned with sudden fire. He turned away and left her gasping.Loki grabbed her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders in an attempt to keep her upright. She shrugged him off. She didn’t need it. She took a deep breath and raised her chin. Former king or not, Odin All-Father was not going to bully her into submission.Odin gave a soft, sad smile. “I would have preferred you listen to me.”Loki snapped. “Of course you would. We are all pawns before you, pieces to move as you like. What was it Mother says of you? Oh, yes. ‘There’s always a purpose to everything your father does.’ What was this one, I wonder? Shoving the second son out of the way, hiding him on Midgard so when Thor takes the throne there was no one to contest it? Showing Asgard that the Jotun sorcerer knew his place? That I was a stolen relic just waiting for his proper use-”His voice rose with every word until he was near shouting. Darcy stared. She had never seen him like this. Even the arguments they had, even with the biting, hurtful words he said, Loki rarely said anything so hateful.“Enough!”Darcy never again wondered just where Thor got his commanding, thunderous voice from again. Odin’s shout set all of Thor’s anger to shame.“Do you have to twist my every word against me?” Odin said.Loki’s fists clenched. Darcy took a deep breath and glared. Odin didn’t even glance her way.“You have always done what is best for Asgard. For Thor,” Loki said with a sneer. “He wants to marry a mortal. Fine. You crowned him king so the true son of Odin would rule while you slept. And yet I stand in the shadows for you, spying and traveling to convince those who might be threats that Asgard would be better left alone, alike the realms that it protects. And with all I have done, you saw fit to deny me the one thing I desired.” Loki said, seething. “Oh, no, Father. I know precisely where I lie in your regard.”A door in the back of the room opened, spilling light in as a tall woman with long, curled hair walked in. Odin didn’t turn. Loki glanced over and a smile cut across his face. Then it disappeared again beneath the outrage. He stalked across the room and barely spared the woman a nod as he went by. He slammed the door shut as Darcy stared after him.Odin sighed and his shoulders slumped. Darcy glared and pushed her glasses up her nose. The new woman shook her head at Odin.“Did you not think to inform me that you were meeting our son?” she said. “And you argue with him in front of his wife?”Darcy blinked. This was Loki’s mom? Damn, but she was gorgeous. And furious, if the way she spoke was any indication. It gave Darcy back her tongue.“You know,” Darcy said. Her voice cut across the anger filling the room. “You might have been considered a great king, but you’re kind of a sucky father.”Darcy walked out of the room, following Loki’s path. She found him with little trouble. He stood a little ways down the hall, sitting on a delicate-looking chair tucked into a curtained-off alcove. His hands trembled. He looked up as she approached. Darcy gave him a smile.“Why don’t you show me around the gardens while your mother yells at him some more, okay?”Loki nodded and stood. Darcy ignored his over-bright eyes and grabbed his hand. They walked through the palace, for the first time not caring who saw.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Darcy walked into one of the small conference rooms in the embassy. It struck her a bit how normal it was to have a guard stationed wherever she went in the palace and how weird it was to not have one now. She would have to tell the American government soon, but the timing was just not right. Not yet. She needed to hear what the Secretary said first.He smiled at her and motioned her to take a seat at the table. There were several files and papers scattered across it. One of the aides offered her coffee. She took it, then stirred some cream and sugar in. Not the best coffee she’d ever had, but good enough.“Have you given any thought to what we discussed earlier this week?” the Secretary said.Darcy shrugged. “Not much. I’ve had other things on my mind.”“Yes, I had heard Odin and his wife had returned,” the Secretary said. “How is Jane handling it?”Jane. It was always about Jane. Darcy clenched her jaw, then relaxed it. “She’s fine.”The Secretary added some more sugar to his coffee. He stirred it for a while. “I suppose that is the answer you will always give me.””Sir,” Darcy said. “It’s not really your business.”He looked at her. “The welfare of American citizens abroad is my concern. But yes, from some perspective, you are correct. I am no acquaintance of hers.”Darcy conceded the point with a nod. And made a mental note - who was in charge of Asgardian citizens abroad. She blinked. Just like that, she knew. It wasn’t the palace, it wasn’t the paperwork, it wasn’t the confrontation with Odin. No. It was a simple as wondering so she would know who to talk to if anything happened to people she considered hers.She barely even knew any Asgardians outside of the royal family and the embassy staff. But years of on and off conversations with Thor, months of working in close quarters with people from ordinary walks of life, talking practically every night with Loki about Asgard in Asgardian... the change had been building so slow that she only now realized it. Strange. She didn’t feel any different. Just... not American, not quite, not anymore.It should have been a shock, but it wasn’t. Just a quiet ‘oh’ and quiet acceptance. Darcy took a breath and smiled. “What did you precisely want to talk to me about, Mr. Secretary?”He pushed the pile of papers over to her. Darcy set her coffee down and picked up the first one. It was a very intense job description, like some of the worst ones she’d seen on the government’s job website. The rest of the papers were the same.“I already know you will have questions,” the Secretary said. “But I can assure you that your friendships will not be a problem as long as you fully disclose everything. Keep them and look them over. Ask questions of my staff. Loretta will stay here with you as long as you need. I must go; the negotiations begin again in an hour.”Darcy set the paper down. “What is being negotiated?””A revision of the treaty, perhaps, in light of recent developments on Earth,” the Secretary said. “But Asgard is being rather reticent and the conflicting needs of other countries are slowing the process.”“I know Wakanda’s here,” Darcy said. “Ayanda and Jane and I have spent time together. Who else? Or can’t you discuss it?”The Secretary sighed. “The negotiations are not that closed door. The major powers, China, Russia, Britain... Brazil sent representatives, as did Saudi Arabia. There are a few other countries present as well.””Thanks,” Darcy said. She looked at the files. “I’ll go through these. But Mr. Secretary, please. I’m not going to take you up on any of them.” She stood and looked him in the eye. “My ties to Asgard are firm and irrevocable.”Well, not irrevocable. Not entirely. But that was going to be a bit hard to explain when she obviously wasn’t saying what her ties were.The Secretary looked rather annoyed. “Miss Lewis, please. We can discuss your future later. I do have to go.””Of course,” Darcy said. She waited until he was gone and then turned to the aide. Darcy stacked all the papers and folders and handed them to Loretta. “I don’t need these.”She finished her coffee and left the conference room. Darcy walked down the hallway, noticing just how much everyone ignored her. She was just someone else who had business here. Invisible.It grated, a bit. If Jane was here... well, she’d probably be treated the same way. Why was the Secretary so concerned with her? Did he honestly think that she was going to drop everything and marry Thor this instant? What a laugh. Jane wasn’t ready to get married. She’d said it so many times, even to Thor’s face. Too much research she wanted to get done first.Darcy smiled. Well, that was a plus with this whole SHIELD debacle. Darcy was willing to bet that whatever virus that Asgard had used to corrupt those files hadn’t touched the research Jane hadn’t been allowed to publish before she quit.She decided to walk to the palace. It wasn’t that far away. And she hadn’t seen much of the city from the inside of the coach. If she was going to be a part of the ruling family, it was time to see just what she was to manage.Darcy stepped out of the embassy and glanced around. A dark-haired woman sitting outside the restaurant across the road waved at her. Darcy cautiously waved back. She didn’t know anyone that would be eating locally. Her parents had ventured out a handful of times, but seemed content with the safe Earth-American the embassy provided.Then woman walked over, darting through the traffic with ease. “Hello, Darcy.””Sif!” Darcy grinned. “I didn’t recognize you.”Sif scowled down at her dress. “I hate this thing. But Loki realized that you were not willing to take the coach today.”“Well, thanks for volunteering,” Darcy said cheerfully. They walked off together in the direction of the palace, idly chatting. Darcy kept looking around as the conversation ebbed and flowed. Trees were everywhere, hanging from the sides of the craggy hills Asgard was built on. Water glistened in the canals far below. Darcy stopped and peered over the side of one of the pedestrian bridges. The water sparkled in the sunlight and still somehow managed to reflect the panorama of stars that never quite vanished during the daytime.And the buildings! Darcy stared from the top of one of the crags as the road crested it. The city had to be as large as - if not larger - than New York and held just as many people. But everywhere was green and gold and shining. She turned to Sif with her breath almost strangling her.“I never imagined anything like this,” she forced out. “I mean, floating buildings?” She gestured off to her right. “Loki mentioned the university used anti-grav, but... Sif, am I doing the right thing?”“It’s too late to change your mind.” Sif was one of the few who knew the secret. Thor trusted her with his life and Darcy chose to trust in return. “But yes,” she said slowly. “You give the people a voice. No one has married into the royal family who hasn’t been in court in a very long time.”For an Asgardian to say that, it meant something. “Huh. I’m a regular Cinderella.””Who’s Cinderella?”Darcy laughed. “It’s a fairy tale, about a girl who’s the daughter of a merchant forced by her evil mother-in-law to become a servant in her own household who eventually marries the prince of their kingdom.”Sif shook her head. “The resemblance is slight.” She stiffened and pulled Darcy into a nearby shop. “Jotuns.”Darcy glanced out the window as the small group walked by, then hurriedly pretended to browse through the racks of baby clothes. She held a dress up in a vivid lime green and wrinkled her nose. Ew. “I heard a rumour of civil war,” Darcy said once they’d exited the shop with the dress. Sif’s sister was having a third child. Reason enough to buy something.“That is all,” Sif said. “Our spies are not the best. The Jotun culture is too insular to talk much with traders and other visitors. But the lines are clearly drawn now. Laufey is beset by talk of vengeance by Blyeistr and peace by Helblindi. Of the two, he is more inclined to listen to his second-youngest. Helblindi is currently favored by the majority of the populace. The situation is volatile.”“Sounds it,” Darcy said. She shivered a little and pulled her hands into the sleeves of her jacket. Mild as it may be, winter still clung to Asgard. Spring wouldn’t arrive for another month at the earliest.It took another hour for them to reach the palace. Darcy didn’t mind. The walk and idle chatter with Sif did her a world of good. She wasn’t trapped in some office staring at paperwork charting out her future. That trapped her. Seeing the people, seeing the city full of normalcy, that, that was her future. She could handle the paperwork now. She had something concrete to base her dreams on.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It was one of those odd days that Darcy could not wrap herself around. The final meeting with the lawyers started off the entire thing and she just could not get the distinctly meant to be overheard conversation out of her head. They all knew she was good in Asgardian. The words just would not stop echoing....“How dare you not even mention her options-” Loki seethed.“Your father,” the lead lawyer said quite loudly in Asgardian. Darcy looked over at the two. They stood on the far end of the room, in front of the small fireplace, and seemed to forget that anyone else was there. “Has flatly forbidden anyone from mentioning the APPLE serum to Darcy Lewis without his express permission.”Loki’s face turned into a thundercloud. Wait, not wrong metaphor. That was for Thor. Still apt, though. “The decision to offer the serum is the prerogative of the king of Asgard, which Odin in no longer!””I do know that, Prince,” the lawyer said. “Which is why I am not mentioning it to Darcy Lewis now.”Loki fell silent. He glared at the lawyer, then glanced over at Darcy. She raised her eyebrow at him. Hey, it was obvious to her. And what was the APPLE serum, anyway? Had to be a big deal if Loki was that steamed over her not being told about it. But she couldn’t ask now knowing that she wasn’t supposed to know... because then she would have been told. Which was flat out against the edict of someone who technically could not order it forbidden in the first place.So Darcy wandered the halls of the palace following the meeting, trailed by her usual guard. She saw a few of the Earth politicians engaged in the talks, but they took one look at her in her jeans and sweaters and scarfs and proceeded to ignore her. Even the Secretary had the audacity to look her up and down and shake his head in disapproval. Dammit, they were her clothes. She had every right to wear them where she wanted. It wasn’t like she had important meetings with kings and heads of state and major politicians. No, just lawyers who she had realized did not care. Loki dressed as informally as she did. Well, informal for an Asgardian. That was something else she needed to get used to. A whole new wardrobe.The fittings had been interesting. Darcy, on the whole, was much shorter than the average Asgardian. And bustier. At least the advances in support technology were really, really nice. Her back wasn’t hurting at the end of the day now.Darcy paused and sat down on a bench in an alcove. A small portrait hung in it, of a black-haired girl with a puppy. Cute. She sighed and rolled her neck. Her meetings were over, dinner was hours away, and she for once had nothing to do. Loki was trapped in that negotiation - the proceedings were finally far enough along for it - and she didn’t want to venture out into the city because she knew she would get distracted and be late. Odin was trying enough as it was when she was behaving herself. But she couldn’t expect anything else from the man who’d once called Jane a goat.How dare he? Darcy stood up. She wanted to march up to him, wherever he was, and give him a piece of her mind. He was an asshole and abused his authority. It was so strange how well Thor and Loki turned out. Wait, aside from Frigga’s influence and... well, there was so much history left to learn. Family history. She sighed and redid her braid quickly. They were all so similar and Darcy could easily see what traits Odin had passed on.Odin. Everything came down to him. She glanced at her guard, then made up her mind. If no one was able to tell her what the APPLE serum was, she was going to find out herself. And she knew just where to go.Darcy walked into the healing rooms. The woman sitting at the desk wearing a simple green dress smiled. “One moment please, my lady,” she said.Within a minute, the head of the entire place appeared. Darcy noticed several people staring at her. She lifted her chin. Let them gossip. They’d find out the truth soon enough. The thought made her smirk a little as she followed the healer to a private room. So what if she liked her jeans and oversized sweaters? And that hat she wore Loki had given to her. Yeah, sure, she knew she should dress according to her station, but the seamstresses hadn’t finished anything yet. And besides, it gave Odin fits. All the better.“What can we do for you today, Lady Darcy?” the healer asked.Darcy looked at her, a random question popping into her head. “Why does everyone call me lady?”“Your relationship with the prince,” the woman said, slightly awkwardly. “It is obvious he cares for you, but until there is something official, we just use that honorific.””We’re married,” Darcy said flatly.The healer blinked. Once. Twice. She let out a soft ‘oh’ and shrugged. “Is that known?”“Not yet,” Darcy said. “Soon.” She eyed the healer. “Anyway, not what I came here for.”The healer straightened. “Well, Thor is expected to do his part to have an heir, but if you’re worried... our species should not be that incompatible, but we’d have to run some tests.”Darcy paled. Oh, no. Not what she wanted to hear right now. “Ma’am,” Darcy said. “Neither Loki nor I intend on having children anytime soon.”Not with Thanos coming. Not with Infinity Stones scattered who knew where across the universe. Asgard had two. Thor had been contacted (or he had contacted, Darcy wasn’t quite sure of the details) by the Nova Corps; they had one. So three were known. Three were not. Darcy knew Loki would have his work cut out for him locating the rest. And until Thanos was stopped, that was all he could focus on once everything was resolved with bringing her into Asgardian society. It was no place for a child.The thought actually kind of terrified Darcy. She was in no way, shape, or form ready to be a mother. She shuddered. No, thank you.“Birth control would be great,” Darcy said. “But it’s still not the reason I’m here.”The healer nodded. “We can discuss your options to prevent a pregnancy later, if that is your wish.” Her mouth twitched. “I do wish all women recognized that the first few months of marriage is perhaps not the smartest time to have a child. You are still adjusting to sharing your life with someone without adding a third person to the mix.”Oh, good. “Thank you,” Darcy said. “So...” How to best approach this? “Well, I happened to overhear a conversation that I wasn’t supposed to and have a question. I think I’ve phrased it so I don’t have to get you in trouble. Umm, there’s some kind of serum that Loki thinks I might need?”The healer blinked once, twice, then stood. She smoothed her hands over her gown. “Please excuse me, I must fetch someone else.”She curtsied and left. Darcy stared after her for a moment, then decided to sit in one of the decidedly comfy looking chairs. She’d never seen a consulting room this plush. She perched on the end and burst into giggles. The woman thought she was Loki’s lover and they still treated her like this. What was the room like where they’d treat her with respect to her station? Or would they make house calls? No, she was in the palace already. Suite calls?Darcy took a breath and got herself under control. She didn’t want to be hysterical when the healer returned with someone. Unless that someone was Odin and then she would be absolutely furious. He had no right to interfere in her life the way he was trying, the meddling bastard.“Princess,” the healer said. She curtsied to Darcy. The woman behind the healer did not. She glanced Darcy up and down, then raised an eyebrow. “You can leave us, Alles.”The healer bobbed another curtsy and left, shutting the door behind her. The new woman moved to sit on the empty chair. She moved her heavy skirts out of the way. “My name is Idunn. I’m a biochemist.” She sighed. “If I knew I was going to have a patient consultation today, I would have worn different clothes.”“Sorry,” Darcy said.Idunn waved a hand and relaxed against the high seat back. “Don’t be.” She smiled. “Now what precisely did you need to talk to me about? Not that I don’t have a good idea already. Don’t worry. I will not tell Odin.” Her face drew a wry expression. “There’s this thing called patient confidentiality.”“Even for family?” Darcy said. Different planet, different rules.Idunn waved her concern away. “At the moment, you’re an adult, married to an adult. And I think both of you have a bad habit of acting before thinking.”Stung, Darcy frowned. “I don’t see how that’s relevant.””Because you are asking for something that can kill you,” Idunn said, suddenly very serious. “The APPLE serum literally changes your genetic structure to make you more Asgardian. If you aren’t compatible with it, you will die. Is that a risk you are willing to make?”“Yes.”“You have family and friends back on Earth,” Idunn said. “What about them? If this works, you will live for millennia beyond them. Can you handle that?”Darcy snapped. “Yes, I can, okay! Because if things go the way Loki thinks they are, everyone in the universe is in danger of dying. And yeah, I know the whole throwing my life away for a man is cliché, but... I’m going to do it. I’ve been stuck between two worlds for a while and I’ve made my choice. I love Earth. I love my home. But I can make something of myself here in a way I’d never be able to there.”Idunn sat back and considered Darcy. Her fingers ran over the smooth silk of her gown. Darcy glared back. She didn’t move as Idunn stood and left. She stayed where she was, trying to control her temper. Why did everyone have to doubt her?Even her parents. Every time she went back to the suite at the end of the night, they mentioned home and recovery time and stress reduction. And divorce. Like what she had with Loki was a fling and she’d come to regret it soon enough. No one understood. Jane might, but Darcy hadn’t had a chance to talk to her in days. Steve, but he was on Earth. And their circumstances weren’t the same.Idunn walked back in the room holding something in her hand. She set it on a small table. The liquid inside the vial glittered golden as it swirled around. Darcy’s brain immediately went to Harry Potter and Felix Felicis and then went oh. It stuttered to a halt as Darcy stared. She looked up at Idunn, shocked.“When you decide to take it,” Idunn said. “Inform me first. You will need monitoring.”Darcy nodded, still enraptured by the choice in front of her. The choice she’d already made. She stood and picked up the small vial. The liquid shimmered of promise. She tucked the vial into her jean pocket, then gave a small bow to Idunn and left. Dinner that night was vile. Frigga could not check her husband and his criticism. He ran right over Thor, who was at least shouting back. Frigga glared constantly, but kept her mouth shut. She glanced between Jane and Darcy. Neither one of them moved, not afraid of Odin, but afraid of opening their mouths. And it looked like Jane was going to explode first. And then Odin’s next sentence made Darcy snap her head up, finally done.“-to choose women that are at least worthy of Asgard, instead of someone who barely understands basic scientific concepts and another who is scarcely even worth-””Worth!” Darcy dropped her fork and slammed her hands onto the table. “Who the hell are you to determine my worth?”Odin glared at her, fire crackling in his eye. “I ruled Asgard for four thousand years before you were even born. And you come in here like some animal determined to claim it for yourself. You are not worthy. You will never be worthy. You will live out your short life and your husband will mourn. And Asgard will carry on, unaffected by you at all. Worthy,” he scoffed. “You are not even worthy enough to muck out my stables.”Darcy pushed back her chair and stood. Her hands shook as she pulled out the vial of scintillating liquid from her pocket. It took the work of a moment to open it. Odin stared, stunned to silence at last.“There is only one person in this universe who can determine my worth,” Darcy said. Her voice did not shake, but anger filled her every word. “And that is myself.”Before anyone could stop her, Darcy tipped the vial into her mouth. Liquid heat spread through her as she swallowed. She finished it and set the empty vial back on the table. Odin still hadn’t moved, still hadn’t said anything.The room swirled around her. Darcy staggered, then grabbed Loki’s shoulder. He stood and wrapped his arms around her. Black descended across her vision as she heard him rather distantly shouting for a healer. She collapsed in his arms and welcomed unconsciousness as the warmth filling her body turned into fire.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Darcy woke in a dim room. The soft sounds of trickling water reached her ears. She turned her head. There was a small fountain in the corner with blue and green lights playing over the water. She took a deep breath and let out a soft groan at her aching body. Every inch of her was sore.“Darcy!”“Mom?” she whispered. “What are you doing here?””You got sick, honey,” Mom said. “That’s what they told us two days ago. And we came to visit and Frigga explained exactly what happened. Darcy, why?””Because I’m tired of being invisible,” Darcy said. “Because... because I was tired of Odin being a rat bastard. I count my own worth, Mom. No one else does.”Mom reached over and gently hugged her. “I do. You are my precious daughter and I love you.”Darcy drifted off to sleep again in her mother’s arms. The next time she woke, the room was just as dim and she could hear her parents talking from another room. She pulled back the covers and made a face when she realized how gross she felt. At least her body wasn’t screaming at her anymore if she tried to move a muscle.“Silly girl, don’t move,” Idunn snapped. Darcy hadn’t even seen her. She rolled her eyes, but kept firmly upright. God, she wanted a shower so bad.Idunn activated something that sent swirling images over Darcy. Idunn glanced at them for a moment, then sighed. One motion of her hands sent the swirly stuff away. “You came through all right,” Idunn said. “But it was a battle and I was convinced at one point we were going to lose you. Are you satisfied?”Darcy nodded slowly, still convinced her head was going to turn into a drumline if she moved it. “Yeah. I don’t regret any of it.”“You will,” Idunn said. “They always do, when the first family member dies.”Darcy glared. “It’s not like you’re going to change the past.””No,” Idunn said. “It is a warning for the future. You will have regrets and you will curse your decision. But it is far too late to change anything now. What is done is done. Now rest, I will send your parents back in.”“I want a shower!”Idunn smiled. “Then I will send in an assistant to help.” Darcy grumbled, but accepted. She didn’t think she could stand on her own, anyway.The rest of the day passed in a blur. She got her shower - oh, it felt heavenly - and climbed into fresh sheets. Bliss. Her family stayed until hunger got the better of them and they were escorted to have lunch with Frigga. At least someone was trying. She got angry every time she though of Odin and decided she wasn’t going to talk to him unless she couldn’t avoid it.The best part was when Jane came to visit with a message from Loki. He could not escape the negotiations without causing a total breakdown... because no one knew they were married yet and none of them would understand why he was so concerned with her. She was a nobody. He would come by as soon as he was able.Then Jane settled in to talk and proceeded with a sharp poke to Darcy’s shoulder. “You could have told me you and Loki were married!”“Ow! Jane!” Darcy rubbed her shoulder. “That hurt.”Jane glared. “Should have told me.””Uh, secret kinda means secret.”Jane threw her hands in the air and dragged over the nearest chair instead of perching on the edge of the bed. She sank onto it with a humph and crossed her arms.“Why?” Jane finally asked, curiosity winning over.“’Cause Odin didn’t approve,” Darcy said. “But we did it anyway.”“Anything else Odin didn’t approve of?” Jane asked. Her eyes gleamed. Darcy smothered a smirk. Jane was just as much a rebel in her own way as she was.“The APPLE serum.”Jane made a scathing noise. “I’m not a biologist, a microbiologist, a pharmacist, or anything that could make sense of that thing. But honestly - something that can extend someone’s life like that? Okay, Steve’s super-soldier serum defies all logical explanation. How could someone so, so . . . skinny look like that after an experimental cocktail and some ‘vita-rays’? Or Bruce’s Hulk and where the hell does that extra mass come from? And how Tony miniaturized arc reactors in a cave-”Darcy looked at her brightly painted toenails. They’d just started to chip. “It works, Jane.”She could sense Jane looking at her. “I know. Darcy, why?”Darcy looked back at her toes. It had been one of the hardest decisions she’d ever made, yet it had been so easy. Yeah, she knew what it would cost her. But it would also gain her everything she’d wanted out of life. A friend and lover whom she would never, ever abandon. A place to call home. The universe to travel in. And somewhere were she could fulfill her dreams. Make a difference for people. Do what was needed.“Dunno,” she finally said with a shrug. “it just felt right.”Jane shook her shoulder, forcing Darcy to look at her. Jane looked almost frantic. “Darcy, everyone you know is going to die and you’re going to watch it happen. Everyone. All the kids your college friends have, the Avengers, your family, me.”Darcy shifted around, letting one knee drop. She removed Jane’s hand from her shoulder and held it.“What do you mean ‘you’?” Darcy asked. “I’ve seen the way you look at Thor and I know he’s going to offer it.”“Let him!” Jane cried. “I’m still going to say no.” She licked her lips. “I can’t do it, Darcy. It’s kept me up at nights when I’ve thought about it. I’d watch everyone I care about die. And I’d still be here. I can’t do that to myself. I’m human.””Think about the science.””I have,” Jane snapped, her hand tightening on Darcy’s. “And everything I’ve worked my ass off to discover on Earth is common knowledge here. I’d be useless.” She took a breath. “Darcy, I don’t want to be queen. I’m a physicist. I don’t know the first thing about ruling a kingdom. I can’t even keep a decent lab partner for more than three months.”“Jane, Thor loves you.””I love him,” Jane said and stood. She walked over to the fountain and stared down at it. “And I‘d like to marry him.” She rested her head against the side of the window. “But I can’t be what he’ll need of me.”Darcy stared. “Are you going to break up with him?”Jane turned around with an incredulous expression. “No! I just... can’t be his queen.””Does he understand?”Jane shrugged. “I think he’s starting to.””But you don’t know.””No,” Jane said, sounding lost for the first time the entire conversation. “And I’m not sure that I won’t change my mind.”Darcy got out of bed and walked over to her. She wrapped her in a hug. Jane clung back and cried. Idunn finally declared her free to leave early the next morning. Loki escorted Darcy to their suite in the family quarters. They spent the morning together. She needed him there. This was her first time appearing in public as his acknowledged spouse and everything needed to be perfect.Darcy took a deep breath as Loki fastened her dress up the back. She’d chosen the rich forest green to compliment him. It was modest, fit her perfectly, and she felt strong in it. She was going to need the strength today.Finally, it was time. Loki grasped her hand just before the went into the room. She smiled at him and squeezed it. A guard opened the door. Everyone in the room looked over with varied expressions of irritation. They weren’t late, but the session could not begin without Asgard’s representatives.Darcy smiled at the Secretary of State as he took in their joined hands. He shook his head in disapproval, then muttered something to his aide. Loretta glanced over, then nodded while making a note on her tablet. T’challa had raised both eyebrows, then a brief smile flitted across his face. He’d gotten it. Smart man. Darcy suppressed her smile. Everyone else just looked scandalized.Loki grinned, savoring every moment. It was not one of his nice smiles. “Gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you my wife.”