Darcy woke slowly. She was sprawled on top of Loki, and while normally that would bring a smile to her face, the whole side of her face hurt too badly to attempt it. So she didn't move, other than an aborted little twitch. A gentle sigh told her that Loki was waking. She felt fingers on her jaw line, and then blessed numbness spread through her face.

"Oh thank you," she breathed. "That was really hurting."

"It looks terrible," he told her. Darcy tilted her head up so she could look at him. He always looked so adorable in the mornings – mussed and a little more open than he normally was. Today even more so, she noted.

"Have a good visit with the parents?" she asked curiously. "How's the rat-bastard ruler of Asgard?"

Loki laughed in genuine delight, and she just melted some more. Wow. That must have been one hell of a visit. He looked so...relaxed.

"The visit was...illuminating, and went a long way toward healing some old wounds. But I simply cannot leave you alone, can I?" He kept lightly stroking her jaw.

"What do you mean?" she asked artfully, trying to look innocent. Leaning into his touch maybe just a little.

"I leave you alone for two weeks, and you storm Asgard and declare war on my father. I leave you alone for one day, one day Darcy, and you attract an unsavory mortal." He ran a finger across her lips, brow creasing. "What am I to do?"

She propped herself up on one elbow and smiled, albeit lopsidedly due to her half-numb face. "Don't leave me alone anymore, then."

His lips twisted into a wry smile. "That would be the logical solution." He sighed. "I had wonderful plans for today, for our second date."

"I'm looking forward to them," she said, knowing he didn't believe she would still want to do anything.

Both eyebrows rose sharply. "My plans were a little on the physical and public side."

"Kinky!" she gushed, waiting for the telltale blush. Ah...there it was. Then another grin.

"You are teasing." Loki shook his head. "Are you sure you want to continue with our date?"

"Can you keep the pain away?"

"For brief periods, yes."

"Then I'm totally not cutting out. No mere mortal man is going to postpone my second date with a god."

He tilted his head in question. "What do all these other times that we have spent together count as, if not dates?"

Darcy frowned, thinking about it. "Foreplay? Wait, that doesn't work. We kinda jumped right in. Um...Pre-date workouts?"

"Hmm..."

"Ya know, this is the first time we've had clothes on while in bed together!"

She loved the adorable little blush that colored his cheeks. "Clothing did not seem appropriate on the other occasions." He sat up, carefully easing her into a sitting position as well. "Are you sure, Darcy? Maybe you should look in a mirror first?"

Hmm...that was probably a good idea. Darcy allowed Loki to pull her out of bed and escort her to the bathroom. He seemed to need to touch her right now, and act like a protector. She wasn't going to protest.

The face that stared back at her from the mirror was not hers. Darcy had to blink at herself, and see the battered woman in the mirror blink back at her, before she could reconcile the image with herself. The side of her face was swollen and bruised. She had one hell of a shiner around the eye on that side, and her lip was split and bruised.

"Damn," she murmured. "What an asshole! Did I say you couldn't kill him?"

Loki sounded amused when he answered. "You did."

"Shit. Maybe you could find him and do something really nasty to him?" She couldn't tear her eyes away from the mirror.

"Already done. He will wish he had died, in the next few days."

Darcy grinned. "Thank you. I still want to do whatever you have planned." She reached up and touched her reflection. "Maybe I should bruise up my knuckles a little, so I look like I was in a fight. Then I can tell everyone that they should see the other guy."

Loki touched a finger to her hand, and terrible bruises spread across her knuckles. Darcy grinned, and looked up in time to see her face resuming its normal appearance.

"Too cool Loki," she praised. "Will it stay that way?"

He shrugged. "Not indefinitely, no."

Darcy swiveled to face him. "You're awesome. You know, just in case your rat-bastard father didn't tell you that lately."

He smiled. "Shall we get ready then? Our day begins in two hours, and I need to let others know that we will be there." He ducked his head, looking shamefaced. "Can you show me how to 'text?'"

Darcy laughed. "We are so corrupting you. I love it."

She laughed even more when she had to follow him to the kitchen, where he opened a drawer and pulled out his cell phone. "What is it doing in there?"

"I was not going to need it while in Asgard," he explained.

Darcy thought about it, and then shrugged. "Probably no service in Asgard anyhow. If there was, it would probably be one hell of a roaming charge."

"I do not understand anything you just said," he admitted with a blank look.

Darcy patted his arm. "Eventually you will." She gave him a quick tutorial on how to text. Loki was a quick study, and soon nodded his understanding. He withdrew to the bathroom to complete his secretive texting, leaving Darcy wondering exactly what they were doing today. She was sure it would be good. He had a flair that other men couldn't duplicate. She was forever ruined for normal men.

When he emerged, smiling smugly, she shook her head. "This oughta be good." She raised her arms and turned in a circle. "Do you need to magic me into something different?"

"You are fine as is," he assured. "There is a lovely café nearby that serves a hearty breakfast. We should take advantage of that."

Darcy was a little nervous when Loki asked her to wear a blindfold. "It is a surprise, after all," he told her as they exited the café where they'd had breakfast. "You do trust me, yes?"

"Unconditionally," she answered. It never failed to amaze her that the simplest thing could undo him. Her one word stripped his masks and filters away, leaving the vulnerable child who only wanted to be loved and accepted. She smiled warmly at his open, almost awed expression, and bound the blindfold around her eyes.

It was a little scary, not being able to see, but hearing the usual hubbub of NYC all around. Darcy wasn't moving, but she felt unsteady, like she might fall over. A hand on her elbow made her draw in a surprised breath, and warm lips on hers caused her heart to flutter. He was kissing her on a sidewalk, in front of so many people, and that was really freaking awesome.

She fumbled a hand out to his chest, and slid it upward until it could slide around his neck. "You completely rock," she whispered against his lips.

She felt him smile. "And we have not even started yet."

He guided her a few fumbling steps to somewhere out of sight, or so she assumed, and then put his arms around her. "Hold on."

They blinked. She could tell by the sudden change in sounds. They were now someplace more rural. She could hear birds, and wind, and people shouting? Gunshots? What the hell?

"Loki?"

"It is all right, Darcy. Trust me."

The anticipation was killing her. Gunshots? Really? It sounded like a small war was being fought nearby. What the hell were they doing? That involved gunshots and people shouting?

She could feel a change in the sounds around her that told her that other people were surrounding her. It was super creepy because they weren't saying anything. She was surrounded by silent people she couldn't see, with gunshots and shouting in the distance. She turned her head from side to side, trying to get a handle on what was going on, but couldn't guess what was going down. Damn, Loki was good. She hoped the actual date lived up to this mysterious beginning. But it was Loki. Of course it would live up to the beginning.

A nearby titter sounded almost suspiciously familiar. Like it belonged to a pain in the ass, playboy billionaire. What the hell was Stark doing on their date? Oh wow. Darcy's evil mind seized the bit in its mental teeth and just took off. Oh god! The images her twisted mind was conjuring! No. Pepper wouldn't be into 'loaning' out Stark, and Loki wouldn't share. Would he?

Then she caught a whiff of Barton's cologne. It was a subtle, earthy scent, but it was all Barton. So sue her, she liked the way guys smelled, and it didn't mean she wanted to jump on them, or anything. Why were both Barton and Stark there? The images in her mind were getting worse (or freaking fantastic) by the second. She knew, KNEW, that Loki wouldn't share her. It wasn't in his nature. But her evil mind kept supplying very naughty images.

When she smelled Jane's perfume, Darcy nearly lost her mind. "Loki! What the hell is going on?"

"So impatient," he teased, laughter in his tone. "We're almost ready to begin."

"Does it involve taking my clothes off?" she had to ask, sniffing madly to try and identify other scents.

"I suppose if you really want to, you may," he replied after a pause. "Though Nicholas might get angry with you if you get arrested for exposing yourself."

She heard footsteps approaching, walking over...gravel? "Ah finally," Loki said. He touched her shoulder, and Darcy yelped as she felt her clothing altering.

"That felt weird, Loki! Weird."

He laughed softly. "Brace yourself. I am removing your blindfold."

Darcy blinked against the sudden light as her blindfold was removed. The first thing she saw was Loki...dressed in camouflage? Wow. He looked hot. Like really 'man in a uniform' hot. Why was he in camo?

Then she saw the others. Thor and Jane, Stark, Rogers, Barton, and Natasha. All dressed in camo. So was she. Thor was hefting the biggest paintball gun she had ever seen with a smile that was bordering on manic. Wait. Paintball gun?

Darcy took a quick look around. Yep. They were in the parking lot of a paintball field that she had checked out when first moving to New York. There were other people running around, similarly attired, heading for the 'war' zone. She felt a rush of giddiness.

"Paintball?" Her voice rose into nearly a squeal.

Loki looked hesitant. "You are not pleased?"

"Oh my god!" Darcy threw her arms around him and squeezed the hell out of him. She hadn't played since New Mexico. How had he known? She thought maybe she had mentioned it once, before they had started 'dating', but he couldn't have remembered that, right?

"You are awesome," she told him. "The best god-boyfriend ever."

"Skip the gooshy stuff," Barton suggested. He hefted his own huge paintball gun. "Let's play."

"Two teams of four," Stark called. "No using anything but the paintball gun and your own reactions." He grinned. "I'm assuming you two and you two don't want to be split up, right?" He indicated Thor and Jane, and Loki and Darcy with a jerk of his head.

"You are correct, my friend," Thor told him. With the camo and the big freaking paintball gun, he looked like some kind of mad mercenary. "To be fair, my brother and I should not be on the same team." He was watching Loki with a wicked, sly look.

Darcy bit her lip at the matching wicked expression that slid onto Loki's face. "I agree. We must be fair. Darcy is with me, and my minion, of course. Who will be our fourth?"

Stark was staring at Loki, probably trying to figure out how he'd lost control of the situation. "Uh...sure. Who's fourth?"

Natasha volunteered. "Not that I wouldn't enjoy the chance to shoot you, Stark. But I really want to shoot those guys." She pointed to Barton and Rogers and offered them a tight smile. "Plus, who can turn down a chance to shoot the God of Thunder?"

Thor snorted at her. "Good luck with that."

Darcy was psyched. "Let's go!" She bit her lip and looked around with wide eyes. "Where's my gun?"

Stark led her over to a nondescript black SUV – S.H.I.E.L.D issued, no doubt. Stark opened the cargo door, and she practically squealed in delight. Paintball guns littered the back of the SUV – all shapes and sizes. Since she didn't have size issues, she looked the guns over carefully, and went for speed of fire.

Natasha and Loki fell in beside her. "Do we go for the BFGs, like Thor and Barton?" the Widow asked.

Darcy lowered her voice. "No. Both of those models are prone to jamming. They may look impressive, but they're not very reliable. Besides, we don't need to compensate for anything."

Natasha bit back a startled laugh, and glanced sideways at Loki. "None of us?"

Darcy smirked. "I can't speak for Tony, but Loki doesn't have a need to compensate. Not at all. Poor Jane."

"Behave," Loki chided softly.

"Not likely." Darcy pointed out a gun to him. "Take that one. It's a quick shooter and doesn't jam often."

He scooped it up and slung it over his shoulder. He looked so insanely hot in camouflage! She had to remember to have him wear it later. So she could take it off. Or maybe have him stalk her while wearing camo. She shivered just thinking about it. He raised an eyebrow when he saw her shiver, and Darcy licked her lips, giving him a saucy wink.

"Save it for later, you two," Stark advised. He hefted his own gun choice. Tony Stark in camouflage was...disturbing. It didn't work. Darcy just couldn't imagine the billionaire playing paintball war games.

Natasha looked totally kick-ass though. She had pulled her hair back into a ponytail, and was completely believable as a soldier. Darcy would not mess with her, even if she hadn't known her. Natasha looked like she could eat someone's spleen, and then pick her teeth with their bones. At the same time, she was killer hot.

"You suck," she told the older woman. "How is it that you look so dangerous, and so hot?"

Natasha grinned. "Practice. You, on the other hand, are completely deceptive. You don't look like the type to storm another realm and declare war on your boyfriend's godly father." Then she frowned. "Stark told me about what happened last night. It's not acceptable. You're a S.H.I.E.L.D employee, but you haven't been given the standard self defense training. I'll be taking care of that."

Darcy gulped. "Really?"

"Really. You could be valuable at any time, since you have knowledge of classified data. Besides, I wouldn't want to be the one to tell Loki that we'd allowed you to get killed."

"Let's go!" Stark yelled impatiently.

The four of them joined the other four as they walked across the parking lot toward the check in, where they would get a supply of paintballs, and safety gear.

Steve Rogers fell in beside Darcy. He looked baffled, and guilty at the same time. He also looked completely normal in camouflage. Not as comfortable as Barton, but close. He wanted to say something, that was obvious, so Darcy waited patiently. She wondered if Sheila had worked her magic on the good captain. He was harder to read than she had thought he would be. Then again, as she noticed the small blush on his cheeks, she thought maybe Sheila had been successful.

"What's up, Cap?" she asked, aware of Loki not-quite watching from the corner of his eyes. Was he jealous?

"I heard about what happened last night. With Sheila's ex-boyfriend. I'm sorry. I guess I didn't do a good enough job persuading him to be nice to women."

"Don't you worry about it, Steve. It's not your fault that he's a little crazy. So he did come after Sheila when you two left Loki's the other night?"

"He did. I tried to encourage him to be nicer and less creepy."

"Did you hit him?" She had to know.

"A couple of times, yeah. I wasn't convinced that he was done being a jerk though, so I stuck around Sheila all day yesterday. I...I didn't realize he would go after someone else."

"Like I said, Cap, don't worry about it. How's Sheila holding up?"

Bingo! The small blush spread rapidly. "She's doing well," Rogers stammered. "I...I have to thank you for bringing her to Loki's. She really needs someone to look after her."

"And you're happy to do that?" she asked craftily.

Wow. The roots of his hair were probably blushing at this point. Darcy stopped walking so she could turn to look at him, and Rogers reluctantly stopped as well. He was looking anywhere but at her.

"Cap...you're blushing."

He stared at his feet. "I do that a lot. It's my coloring."

"Do you like my friend?"

"She is pretty neat."

Darcy stared at him hard. "That's not really a reason to blush, Cap. What did you do with Sheila that's making you blush?"

Everyone else had stopped too, and they were staring at Rogers. He had what was probably a full body blush going, and couldn't meet anyone's eyes.

It was Loki who came to his rescue. "If there is anything the good captain wishes to share with us, he will do so. It is not a requirement. He has proven himself a gentleman as well as a hero, and should be accorded the respect that goes with both." As Stark was opening his mouth, Loki shot him a daggered look. "I know you are capable of it, minion." When no one else said anything, he nodded. "I believe we were about to begin a game, yes?" He walked away without a second glance.

Rogers looked so grateful, and offered an apologetic shrug to Darcy before trailing after Loki.

*******************************************************************************************************************************

They got through check in and the hike to their first location with no incidents. Darcy almost had to laugh at the godly brothers, who were itching to go toe to toe with each other. They kept sniping back and forth, bragging about their own prowess in battle.

Their first location was on a hill, with bush piles dotting the hillside. There was a fort at the top and the bottom of the hill. After some squabbling over who would get the high ground, Barton tossed a coin into the air, and Jane called heads. The coin landed tails up, so Loki's team got to choose. After a brief, whispered consultation, they chose the high ground.

"I'll guard the flag," Natasha volunteered. "I can pick them off as they come up the hill." Her grin was wicked.

Loki nodded. "Stark and I shall be knights, charging down the hill, drawing their fire."

"And I go for the flag." Darcy nodded. She pulled her goggles down into place, and flicked the safety off her paintball gun.

They took positions at the edge of their fort, and waited for the whistle that signified the beginning of play.

When the whistle sounded, they began their descent. The other team had had the same idea, Darcy noted through quick glances around and over bushes. Thor and Rogers were leading the charge up the hill. Barton was probably being the defender, and Jane was nowhere to be seen. Ha!

"Sharpshooter in the fort," Darcy called to her knights.

"Got it," Stark affirmed. He was crouched behind a bush pile downhill from her location. Loki was off to her left. "Cover me so I can advance!"

Loki popped up and fired down the hill. Thor and Rogers dove behind bushes, and Stark jumped up over his pile, and ran downhill to the next pile. Then he fired blindly while Loki and Darcy advanced. Having the high ground definitely gave them the advantage, and Darcy could hear Thor's frustrated bellow as he was pinned down.

"Hold your position!" Barton barked from the bottom of the hill.

Thor only managed to stay still for another minute before losing his patience. He jumped up, opening fire up the hill as he charged.

"For Asgard! For glory!"

Loki popped to his feet and fired one shot. "For Darcy!" he yelled. Paint blossomed on Thor's chest, and the big guy came to a stop, looking down in disgust. Distance weapons were not something he was comfortable with, or used to fighting against.

Darcy was just all a tingle. Loki fought for her. Sigh. That was just so...wow. She blew him a kiss as he dropped back under cover, and he smirked.

Thor walked off the field, muttering to himself. He had paint splatters in his golden hair, Darcy saw when he reached the all-clear zone. She had to laugh. The God of Thunder, with pink streaked hair.

"Advancing," Stark hissed to them. Loki and Darcy popped up to cover him, and he ran down to the next pile of bushes. Darcy saw the danger, but too late to warn him. Stark ducked down behind the bushes, and yelped in surprise as paint blossomed on his arm. A grinning Jane, who had been on the other side of the bushes, popped her head up to give him a quick smile. She had used Thor's charge to advance unseen. Clever girl. But Darcy had her position now.

Rogers was going to try the same thing as Thor. He opened fire up the hill, and started a charge. Darcy ignored him, trusting Loki to take him out, and kept her eyes glued to Jane's position. A brief shake of the bushes was her only warning, as Jane wiggled around the far side, belly to the ground. She was counting on Rogers being enough of a distraction to advance again, but Darcy had her, and squeezed off a stream of paintballs. One of them took Jane in the goggles.

"Got ya Foster!" she called.

Jane glared at her, but jumped to her feet and took herself off the field to join Thor. Darcy heard Loki's triumphant shout and moments later, Rogers was walking off the field as well. It was down to Barton, but they still had to get past him to get the flag. The marksman.

Loki shared a speculative look with her. He had worked with the Avengers often enough to know how good Barton was, and she could see him thinking it through, trying to figure out a scenario where they both didn't get picked off.

Natasha figured it out for them. The Black Widow came racing down the hill, paintball gun blazing, in the most acrobatic charge Darcy had ever seen. She bounced from one spot to another, twisting and jumping like some kind of mad warrior goddess bent on revenge. It was going to be very hard, even for the marksman, to hit her.

"Go!" Loki called, jumping to his feet to follow their teammate. Darcy was right behind him. They opened up with a hail of paintballs, to keep Barton under cover, hopefully, but he was very good. He kept popping up and firing in different places, and one lucky shot took Loki in the leg. Darcy kept going, trying to emulate Natasha's strange all-over-the-place charge.

Clint was yelling as he fired at them, but he had to fire almost blindly, and kept missing them. Darcy and Natasha both made it to the fort, and began climbing the ladder. When Barton realized what they were doing, he held his paintball gun over the side and fired, taking Natasha out. He peeked over the side to see if he'd gotten them both, and froze when he looked right into the barrel of Darcy's paintball gun.

"Awe crap," he swore, right before she pulled the trigger. His face and safety goggles were covered in pink paint moments later.

Darcy's team erupted into cheers as she finished her climb and claimed the flag, waving it triumphantly.

They played in four more fields during the day. Darcy's favorite was the one with the trenches surrounding the forts. She and Loki got a little distracted on that one, and found themselves covered in pink paint when Thor caught them making out in the trenches instead of defending the fort. Stark and Natasha went down not long after, and yelled at them all the way to the next field.

Natasha took her frustrations out on Barton and Rogers at the next field, with a little side of Thor as well. She shimmied up a tree near the fort, and waited for their team members to start arriving. She emptied her gun on Clint when she saw him, totally covering him in paint, even after the whistle that he was down. Rogers got almost the same treatment, and Thor...well, it was just so much fun to watch the God of Thunder grousing about not winning a paintball competition, while covered in pink paint.

The brother versus brother fight was awesome to watch when it happened. Thor had crafted a shield out of discarded sheet metal he'd found in one of the forts. After a brief consultation, the field judges had allowed it, and agreed that any paintballs that hit the shield would not count as a hit. This gave Thor an advantage, and he was the only one of his team left after a fierce clash. Loki was also the last man standing on Team Darcy, so the two of them went at it. They walked toward each other, firing away. Thor kept blocking paintballs with his shield, while Loki dodged. It looked to be evenly matched, until Thor's huge gun jammed. He had the time for one chagrined look at Loki before he was covered in pink paint.

It was late afternoon when they wrapped up. Darcy was tired, and sore, and covered in pink paint and bruises. But it had been so much fun. Loki kept setting the bar higher and higher for each date. She didn't know how he could possibly pull off a better date than this one. She was ready to call it a day though. Her face was hurting, and she just wanted to crash for awhile.

Loki seemed to sense that. After they waved good bye to the others (who had to drive like normal mortals!) he pulled her closer and they blinked back to his place.

"Was it too much?" he asked softly, seeing her wilt, just a little.

"Nope, it was perfect. I'm just really tired, and a little sore. That Jacuzzi is calling my name."

He titled his head. "I do not hear anything." Then he grinned to let her know he was joking. "By all means – soak in the Jacuzzi."

"Will you be joining me?" she asked. "I don't know if I'm up for anything else, but you're kinda like my big rubber ducky, and I don't want to Jacuzzi without you."

"I think I should be offended to be compared to a rubber ducky," he told her. "But since you are tired, and in pain, and covered in pink paint, I shall forgive you. And Jacuzzi with you."

Darcy grinned tiredly. "Cool. I'll get it started."

♾️ ♾️ ♾️

Lmao, Rubber Ducky.

So guys we have like a fifteen more chapters left or something like that, so buckle up!!!

Love,
InfinityHaze ♾️