"So, how's things going with Loki?" Jane asked, during what seemed to be a rather obligatory phone call.

Darcy hadn't actually seen Jane for several days now, and she couldn't help but feel slightly resentful that her work colleague and friend hadn't bothered to check in on her sooner.

But hey, she was busy these days. With Thor.
Since the God of Thunder's return, all of Jane's free time was now taken up.
Though Darcy didn't resent Jane at all for that. She wanted her friend to be happy above all else.

And besides, she had her own boyfriend now to keep her occupied with extracurricular activities -- the lovely Greg.
He was studying Town and Country Planning -- whatever that consisted of was anyone's guess -- and admittedly, Darcy couldn't help zoning out each time he began his lengthy, in-depth ramblings about it.
But he was nice enough.
He was built like a bear, and therefor gave great hugs. He also had nice teeth, was kind of cute, and most importantly......made Darcy feel wanted.

In fact she'd been single for so long, she hadn't realised just how much it meant to her, feeling wanted.
Not that she was the clingy type, but having someone text to ask how her day was going, made all the difference. And having the option to cuddle up in front of the TV and watch Netflix shows with a guy from time to time, was pretty nice.
Though admittedly, Greg was more of the outdoorsy-type, so chilling out on the couch, eating ice cream straight from the tub, wasn't really his thing.

"Oh, great." She responded to her friend's question with her usual form of sarcasm. "Loki's a little ray of sunshine. He hasn't said above five words to me all week, and he mostly sulks in his room like a petulant child. So yeah, the job satisfaction is overwhelming."

"Perhaps he's just worried about you tasering him again."

"That was just a tiny misunderstanding. I'm sure he'll be able to look back on it and laugh someday."

"I doubt it, Darcy."

"Yeah me too. I haven't even seen him smile yet, so laughing might be a bit of a stretch."

"Well at least he's out of the way, and not being intimidating." Jane pointed out.

"True. But for all I know he could be plotting to overthrow the Queen of England or something. I've no idea what he does in there by himself. I'd be bored stiff. I already am bored stiff. Don't get me wrong, the unlimited channels are a bonus, I know not everyone gets paid to watch Sky TV all day....but the time drags when you see no one. I've nobody to talk at."

Jane laughed airily down the phone. "If that's all you've got to complain about, consider yourself lucky."

But Darcy couldn't help considering herself rather unlucky.
What had started out as a potentially exciting, challenging job was now proving to be the complete opposite.
Getting paid to sit on her butt and eat Cheetos, wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Deciding something had to be done, for the sake of her own sanity -- and waistline -- the following day she decided to take matters into her own hands.

Even at the risk of infuriating the potentially malevolent God of Mischief.

Squaring her shoulders, she knocked on the door of the ensuite room which had been allocated to Loki.
For the longest time there was no response, and she started to worry that maybe he'd been tunnelling his way out of the tower somehow, and was now on the run.

She was about to knock again, when at last he called out in response....

"What do you want?"

Without invitation, Darcy grasped the handle, and opened the door. "Hey. 'Sup?"
She entered the room, and then froze.

Okaaay.
She hadn't been prepared for the sight of a semi-naked Loki, who stood shirtless and stunned, by the foot of his bed.
Clearly, he hadn't been prepared for her entrance either.

"Do you mind?" He said, stiffly as his spine.

"Um, nope. Not really." She joked clumsily, lowering her eyes, feeling suddenly bashful. Which was quite out of character for her.

"Since when has "What do you want?" been interpreted as "come in"?"

Oh great. He was pissed off at her again.
Deep joy.

She knew she really ought to leave and allow him his privacy, but Darcy didn't always do what she knew she ought to.
And her traitorous eyes kept overriding her will, by darting stolen glances at his startlingly impressive physique.

Yowza.
Loki was...well he was, hot!

Who would have thought that beneath all those layers of metal and leather, he'd be hiding such a smooth expanse of chest, sinewy arms, solid shoulders, and a stomach that bore the etchings of lean abdominal muscle.

Okay so he wasn't as well cut as Thor, who had boulders for biceps, but there was no denying that Loki had a mighty fine body, with more than reasonably sized bulges in all the right places.
To add to the look, he was only wearing what appeared to be a thin pair of designer lounge pants, and his inky mane of hair hung down wet, dripping from having apparently just been washed.

"My bad. I'll knock and wait next time, okay?"

"Next time? Please tell me you're not going to make a habit of invading my private sanctuary?"

"Look, just chill out. I only wanted to bring you this..." She held out a slightly trembling hand, proffering him a glass tumbler of whiskey that she'd helped herself to from Tony's drinks cabinet. "Call it a peace offering."

Loki stared at the glass, and then at her. His blue-green eyes narrowing sceptically. "And what makes you think that I want an alcoholic beverage? Especially at this hour of the day?"

Darcy gave a casual shrug, but didn't withdraw her offering. "If I were cooped up by myself day after day like you, I'd sure as hell want a drink."

She saw him perceptibly bristle, her words having hit a nerve.

"It's an infringement of my human rights. Keeping me locked away here." He growled, taking the glass from her reluctantly.

"Well, technically you aren't human. "

"It's a figure of speech. I still have rights nonetheless. And I cannot even begin to express how much I resent your presence, Miss Lewis."

Ouch. That actually sort of hurt.

He wasn't exactly being fair, it wasn't her fault he had to remain inside the facility, but she could see why he would be so cranky about it. Especially being allocated a minder when he was, after all, a fully grown man.
Which she couldn't help but notice now for herself.

Ugh.
She mentally reprimanded herself.
It appeared that a freshly showered, alarmingly underdressed Loki, did peculiar things to her hormones.
But she couldn't allow herself to be distracted.
Though she ought to be forgiven, because this was one scenario she had never in a million years prepared herself for.

"Geez. Don't hold back." She pouted. "It's okay though, I'm sure your insults are nothing personal. I can understand why you'd be pissed at having to be babysat."

He examined the dark liquid in the tumbler, and swirled it around before bringing it to his nose. Then, seemingly satisfied that the drink met with his regally high-standards, downed it in one.

"You have no idea." He remarked, his silky voice now sounding more like barbed wire rather than crushed velvet. "Being 'babysat' as you so eloquently put it, is only the tip of the iceberg. This is about being confined inside a claustrophobic complex whilst Earth's mightiest heroes go about their business." He affixed her with a venomous look. "Then just to add insult to injury, I'm being guarded by an inept mortal who could easily inflict pain and suffering on me whenever she so chooses....or drops the controller on the floor, whichever the case may be."

Darcy held her hands up in mock-surrender. "Fair enough, you've a right to be hacked off. But I've said I'm sorry, and that drink was a peace offering. So can't we just....move on now?"

"Move on?"

"Yeah, I mean......come on, I am trying here. So please, can you just cut me some slack?"

Loki turned his full body toward her now, so she came face-to-face with his chest.
Hot damn.
Why was it so warm in here all of a sudden? She had to resist the urge to fan her face with her hands. And he was so tall. Those long legs of his seemed to stretch on never-endingly.
But suddenly she got the distinct feeling he was domineering her with his height, as he drew unnervingly closer. His 6ft-something frame dwarfing her 5ft-nothing one.

"Cut you some slack?" He echoed menacingly. "And why should I do that? When I have no desire whatsoever for your company?"

Darcy instinctively took a step back, her hand poised over the activation button on the controller. "Fine then. Stay in here and be all angry, and brooding, like some character from a Jane Austen novel. The long winter evenings must simply fly by-"

"For your information, I'm actually rather fond of my own company." He cut in sharply.

"If you say so. But why you'd want to isolate yourself, especially when you've already spent enough time alone in a jail cell, is beyond me."

His mouth kicked up slightly at the corner, twisting his lips into a cruel smirk. "As are most things no doubt."

Okay. So that was personally meant, and the insult actually hurt more than she thought it would.
Anger swirled in the pit of her stomach, and it took a great deal of self-control not to tell him to go F himself. A small part of her shamefully even wanted to zap him for his uncalled for meanness.

"You know what, Mister High-And-Mighty? I don't want to be here either. D'you think I actually enjoy having to keep an eye on your sorry ass all day? Because let me tell you something.....I don't. There I said it. But at least I was actually willing to give you a chance. But no, you just throw it back in my face. Well, thanks a bunch."

Loki arched an elegant eyebrow at her in bewilderment. "Give me a chance? A chance for what exactly?"

"A chance to prove that maybe you're capable of being nice. The chance to make a friend. Because no one else around here is going to start a Loki fan club anytime soon. They tolerate you because of Thor. Whereas me, I'm a lot more easy-going. But you won't even help yourself. It's as if you actually enjoy being a complete jerk! So you know, maybe it's a good thing you like your own company so much, otherwise it would really suck to be you, being completely alone for the rest of your ridiculously long life!"

Loki looked visibly shocked, as if he'd just been slapped in the face. He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again. Apparently lost for words.

Slowly, she backed out of the door, deliberately feigning a confidence she didn't truly feel. Really she was worried she might have overstepped the mark, which made her hesitant to turn her back on him.

Once she'd safely crossed the threshold of his room, she slammed the door shut.

Well, that was him told.
Though she was more than just a tad disappointed, because she had hoped to break the ice and offer an olive branch. Now they were never likely to even be on speaking terms.
His haughtiness gave her the distinct impression that he was the sort of guy who could hold onto a grudge for eternity if he chose to.

Sucking in deep breaths to calm her nerves, she stomped over to the long, curved couch and flopped down in defeat.
Pulling her phone from her jeans pocket, she contemplated texting Greg to take her mind off the crappy situation she found herself in.

Just then she heard the eerily familiar sound of Loki's door clicking open, and then he sashayed passed, en-route to the kitchen area.
Darcy made a point of deliberately ignoring him, pretending instead to be solely focused on her phone. But she watched him slyly from the corner of her eye, just to be sure he wasn't going to try and sneak up and stab her with a bread knife.

He was now back in full head-to-toe leather, she noticed, though his hair was still wet.
Her mind momentarily wandered, and she found herself idly wondering if he was really dressed in that gear at all, or had simply cast an illusion to appear as if he was.
She made a mental note to find out, and then promptly erased it.
No, wasn't a good idea.

A few moments passed of him opening and closing the various kitchen cupboard doors at random, huffing in exasperation as he searched for something he obviously wasn't able to find.

It became evident he wasn't going to ask for help, and she wasn't prepared to offer him her assistance. She begrudged offering. The only way he would learn, was if he got down from his dangerously high horse, and treated people with a bit more respect.

The huffing grew louder, as his searching continued to prove fruitless. The big bad wolf, for all his huffing and puffing, had nothing on an irritated Demi-God. In fact, the little piggy with the brick house would've been screwed.

Eventually, Loki ceased his assault on the cupboard doors, and unwillingly stalked around the counter, where he lingered at the end of the coach, waiting for her to notice he was there.

"Do you happen to know where the whiskey is kept?" He asked finally, having grown tired waiting for her to acknowledge his presence.

"Well obviously I do, being as I gave you a glass of it." She responded curtly, keeping her eyes firmly on her phone screen, and one hand on the controller just in case.

"Then would you mind telling me where it is?"

Darcy pointed disinterestedly in the direction of the drinks cabinet, which stood over in a far corner of the room.

"Thank you." He said quietly, with disarming politeness.

She watched with growing curiosity as he sauntered over to the drinks cabinet, then pulled out the freshly opened bottle of Jack Daniels, as well as not one, but two glasses.

When he turned suddenly and caught her looking, she wanted to kick herself.

"Take a drink with me, Miss Lewis?" He stated rather than asked. And something told her that he wasn't accustomed to having people refuse him.

Well, it was time he learned some basic Midgardian courtesy.

"Is that an invitation or a command? 'Cause it kinda sounded like a command."

She stared at him defiantly, crossing her arms. And he stared back at her. But Darcy could do this all day, and to her silent delight, he cracked first.

"Please?" He sighed, again in that same soft voice which made her feel almost sorry for him.

She nodded almost imperceptibly in response, his pitiful tone making it impossible for her to deny him.
He then proceeded to shock her further by manoeuvring his long legs around the glass coffee table, before perching down on the end on the couch. It was one of those outsized numbers, with numerous squishy cushions, which meant they didn't have to sit anywhere near close to one another.

"Well, this is....unexpected." She mused, cautiously taking the drink that he offered her.

"Indeed." He poured himself one, then unexpectedly leaned forward to clink his glass against hers. "Here's to....friendship."

She blinked rapidly, wondering how he could've possibly undergone a personality transplant within the space of a few minutes.
Once more he downed the drink in one, whilst she on the other hand, hesitated.

"What's the problem? Is whiskey not to your liking?"

She shook her head.
It wasn't that. Darcy was in fact quite partial to a few glasses of JD or Jim Beam.
Her hesitation was due to a thought that had struck her.
Was this the charm Jane had warned her about, of which up until now she hadn't witnessed?
Or was he attempting to take advantage of the situation, by getting her wasted?

"Are you trying to get me drunk so you can escape? Because it won't work. I'm totally onto you."

He smiled coyly, looking almost boyish, and Darcy was shocked yet again. This time by actually having seen him smile.

"Heavens no. I'm merely heeding your advice. Which was unarguably wise. As much as I'm loathed to admit it, you made a valid point."

"I did?"

He nodded, running a large hand along his razor-sharp jawline in contemplation. "I'm afraid so. You're right. Isolating myself won't solve anything, and in all honesty, I am in desperate need of an ally."

Her small brow furrowed slightly. "An ally? Um, you mean friend, right?"

"If that's how you'd prefer to word it. Then so be it."

"Okaaay. Then I suppose you won't mind if I hold out on the drink until I've eaten something? Otherwise it'll go straight to my head."

He shrugged nonchalantly. "As you wish. Though I'm not attempting to get you inebriated. In spite of your suspicions."

She rose, setting the tumbler down on the table. "It's not just that. I've only had this job like five minutes, and I don't wanna get fired for being wasted at work."

He quirked an eyebrow in apparent amusement. "But I thought you didn't care for the job? So what would it matter?"

Hmph. Smart ass.

"I'm actually thinking of you." She quipped. "If it wasn't me working here, God knows who you might end up getting stuck with. It certainly wouldn't be someone as hilarious, and forgiving, and awesome as me, that's for sure."

"Miss Lewis, I'm touched. I didn't realise you cared so much for my well being." He grinned devilishly, his eyes now alive and twinkling with mirth.

"Um, no. It's only fair that you shouldn't be deprived of my awesomeness." She riposted, though for an unsettling moment she felt she may be at risk of blushing.
Which was preposterous.
She wasn't naturally a blushing sort of girl.

She made her way into the kitchen area, and began efficiently hunting for cutlery.
All the while she could feel his eyes following her from across the counter, which made her feel oddly prickly, and jumpy. But not in an entirely unpleasant kind of way.

In an attempt to shake off her irrational jitters, she called out... "In fact, I'm so damn awesome, I'm even going to make you some lunch too. See how lucky you are? I make a mean cheese omelette."

"I don't know what that is." He admitted, as he stood in order to watch her at work.

"Really? You don't eat omelettes in space?"

"Not that I'm aware of. Though I can't vouch for every other realm and galaxy."

"Ah, okay then I guess you really ARE lucky. You don't know what you've been missing. Here...." She held out an egg whisk to him, hopefully.

He frowned slightly at the foreign object. "What am I to do with that?"

"Come and help me. It'll be fun."

He stared at her incredulously, but then gave in. "With respect, I think what you consider to be fun differs somewhat to my own ideas. But, fine. If you insist, I will assist you in making these....what are they called?"

"Omelettes. And cool, let's make omelettes worthy of royalty." She laughed, unable to keep a lid on her sassiness any longer. "Omelettes worthy of a Prince."

"Omelettes worthy of space." He fired back dryly, as he joined her.

"Yeah! Space omelettes. That so needs to be a thing."

Darcy turned on the radio, and within a few minutes she was bopping along to a retro 80's hit, as she busied herself grating cheese.
Meanwhile Loki had been set to work whisking eggs and milk, and he even smiled in bemusement at her appallingly tuneless, and ear-piercingly high-pitched, rendition of 'Kiss' by Prince.

"Is this what passes for music on this planet?" He remarked, turning his imperial nose up in mock-disgust.

"Excuse you! This guy is a legend!

Loki snorted rudely. "I suppose I'll have to take your word for it." In spite of his snyde remarks, it didn't escape her attention the way his heavy-booted foot tapped against the tiles, in time with the beat.

And just like that, she suddenly found herself liking her job a whole lot more...