Darcy/Loki 2
Darcy knows the exact second that her whole world changed. It was a Tuesday, of course, it’s always a Tuesday. She was driving back to the middle of nowhere because the fucking logistics team had forgotten the kind of coffee creamer she liked, and shit was about to go sideways if she couldn’t get her coffee perfect. With as much as she had to deal with, it was the least she could ask for. Fury hadn’t even batted an eye when she told him she was borrowing his SUV for a trip into town. Yeah, he knew what was up.
It wasn’t really that bad of a drive, either. The SHIELD base was out in the middle of nowhere, but it was pretty. It was fall, and all of the deciduous leaves were all different shades of orange and yellow.
And. It was quiet. She turned off her phone when she was in the car. Fury knew how to reach her in case of emergency, as did Steve and Nat, but no one was dropping by her office with stupid questions that she’d already answeredfive fucking times. Or trivial shit that, really? You’re bothering me with this, really?
She’d stopped off to get herself some coffee before she headed back, too, and steam was still curling pleasantly out of the slit in the black plastic lid, filling the car with the scent of caramel and coffee. Basically just the best thing ever.
Except she was getting a feeling. It was a weird feeling, like a spot on her back that was itchy that was just out of reach, only it was her brain. And it was really starting to make her skin crawl.
There was an old dirt road just up ahead, and she flipped on the indicator and eased the black vehicle onto the gravel. It was all overgrown and shit, and she hoped to hell that no one was going to be coming in the opposite direction because there was no way the road was wide enough for the SUV and another vehicle.
Branches thunked against the outside of the car, making her wince every time. If she scratched the finish, she was going to owe Fury. Leave rustled and fell free, yeah. She was going to have to spend, like, an hour picking leaves off when she got back to the base.
She kept going, though, because as she kept going the nagging feeling in her brain eased. It was really easiest. Eventually, the road opened up into some kind of clearing with overgrown tire ruts sunk deep into the earth.
Darcy turned off the car and picked up her gun from the passenger seat before pushing the door open and stepping out onto a mixture of gravel and grass. The grassy parts were a little squishy, apparently this particular spot didn’t get a whole lot of sun to dry out the ground.
She stretched, looking around. The road kept going on the other side of the clearing, but there was absolutely no desire for her to keep going. No, this was where she was supposed to be.
“What the actual fuck,” she muttered, pocketing the keys and shutting the door before starting towards one side of the clearing.
She almost didn’t see him, but the black hair was so out of place that it stuck in her mind until her eyes made sense of the body. There was a man there, his long black hair snarled and filled with twigs and bits of fallen leaves. He was looking up at her, his face all bruised and cut. He looked like he’d lost a fight with the pine tree he was lying under.
“Help me,” he whispered.
She sighed, hands on her hips as she looked around. “How did you get here?” she asked, crouching down beside him to see if she could get a better look at some of his injuries.
She wasn’t entirely sure how it happened. One second she was crouching, the next she was on her back on the soggy ground with him looming over her. He was grinning, his green eyes filled with a sort of triumph. “I remember you,” he said. “You’ll do nicely.”