Frank's Friends Make Weird Decisions
Sigyn sat by a lone window in the ladies’ chambers, a book sitting open in her lap. She had read it before and usually she could count on this particular story to pull her out of boredom for a while. But the Asgardian winter was upon them. Snow drifted around outside, white flurries breezing through the gardens.
Snowy winters on Asgard were not uncommon, though they did not happen every year. Sigyn rather liked them; though many of the other ladies complained about the cold, she always wanted to go play in it.
Sighing, she gently closed her book, setting it off to the side before making up her mind to go visit the training grounds to find Sif.
Lately, they had been spending much time together.
Sigyn smiled at the thought of her friend as she stopped by her chambers to grab a fluffy pale blue cloak. Sif was truly amazing. She was tall, beautiful, intelligent, and strong.
Strong.
Sigyn was in utter awe at Sif’s strength, both physical and mental.
Ladies of the court spent so much of their time practicing to be dainty. Sigyn remembered many a lesson on what she must do to obtain a decent husband. She was taught that to attract royalty, she had to be delicate. But, the more time Sigyn spent with Loki and Thor, the less she believed her lessons had any value.
It occurred to Sigyn that both princes’ closest acquaintances were female. Loki had Darcy who contradicted just about every lesson Sigyn had ever taken. She fought with swords and challenged men. She talked too loud and laughed too merrily. But she was herself and she had yet to meet anyone who truly disliked Darcy. Even many of the ladies had come to have a begrudging affection for the girl over the past few months.
Then there was Thor. His dearest friend was Sif.
There was so much to say about her.
Sif wasn’t afraid to show how strong she was, nor was she overly proud. If she wanted something done, she did it. She would not wait around for a guard’s help or maids to assist her. Sif would spar with anyone who wanted to practice and didn’t let any judgment get in the way of her improvement. She did not act like the typical lady, but nor did she behave like a man. Sigyn valued that.
Because Sif did not want to be a man. She wanted to be a warrior. And she could do that as a woman.
Cloak fanning out behind her, Sigyn walked brightly to a small deck that overlooked the training grounds. There, fighting in the snow were the next warriors of the military. It went without saying that most of them were young, but none so much as Sif.
The black-haired girl was dressed in her armor and was rolling around in the frozen cold dirt with one of the men as they fought in weaponless combat. Sigyn’s heart stuttered in a strange kind of way as Sif caught her opponent’s head between her thighs and squeezed, rolling them so she had the upper hand. The man beneath her fought, but Sif held him down with her bare, dirt covered arms until his face was beet red and he was banging the earth with his fist.
The overseer of their training indicated for Sif to let go and she did, standing up and freeing the poor man’s neck. Sigyn almost laughed after he stumbled to his feet. He was at least two heads taller than Sif and was three times as bulky. Nevertheless, they were laughing together and he clapped Sif on the shoulder just as he would any of his other warriors in training.
Sigyn tentatively waved her hand to Sif as her instructor dismissed the group. Sif caught sight of her friend, her responding smile lighting the gray around them.
“Sigyn!” she called rushing over, belting on her sword on the way. “How fare the fine ladies of the court on this wintry day?” Sif asked in a teasing voice, dirt smudged on nearly every inch of her face.
“Miserably,” Sigyn answered in kind, a matching grin upon her lips in the presence of her friend. “They demand summer from the gods and seek courtship with exotic men from warm places.”
Sif hummed, “I think I’ll settle for a hot bath.”
“Shall I accompany you?” Sigyn asked, blinking snowflakes from her eye lashes.
“Please,” Sif replied, tossing back her black mane with a grin.
Together, the two friends made their way to the Ladies bathing chambers. Those in the military typically had their own public bathing space, but being that Sif was a woman, she was permitted to use the ladies’. Warriors who were honored by royalty and were part of Asgard’s elite forces and required to spend most of their time in the capital were given either housing in the city or chambers within the palace. Sigyn often wondered, when Sif became one of the elite, which option she would choose.
Would she stay in the palace as she had her entire life?
Or would she leave?
Sigyn imagined her life after she was married. She was forced to think about it nearly every day. The ladies teased her most unpleasantly about her impending courtship with Prince Loki.
She did not know if they would eventually marry. But, after some consideration, Sigyn decided that if she ever had to marry any man, she would want him to be Loki. He was kind, intelligent, and gentle. He was confident when he needed to be and far too curious for his own good. There was no doubt that Sigyn held a certain affection for the younger prince. He made an effort to please her that so few had ever attempted.
Many told her that she could have done better. That she could have sought courtship with Prince Thor instead. But Sigyn did not even like to think about being wed to Thor. She was loyal to him only as her prince. Still, she granted him respect that came only through his relationship with Sif.
Thor supported Sif. Lately, he had been going out of his way to prove how strong a warrior she was. He was loyal to her and he treated her with the respect she deserved. Because of this, Sigyn did not detest Thor. He was arrogant at times, ignorant at others. But he was a good friend and Sigyn appreciated that.
The bathing chambers in the mid-afternoon were empty. The bathing pool was hot and scented oils stirred just on the surface of the steaming water. Sigyn helped Sif out of her armor and called forth a few hand maidens to have it cleaned and sent back to Sif’s chambers.
The black haired girl smirked at her friend once she was settled in the water. “Sigyn, if you continue to pamper me, I will go soft.”
“You are already soft,” she teased, poking her friend’s muscled arm before removing her clothing and sinking into the bath as well.
Sif offered a humorless laugh before wading through the pool to go stand beneath the waterfall, showering herself clean. Grime washed off her body, the black dirt trailed off her shoulders leaving tanned skin in its wake. Soap suds had seemingly just begun to melt over Sif’s belly when Sigyn caught herself staring.
She had seen Sif’s stomach only once before. It was about a month ago Darcy had come to Asgard. The eccentric friend of Loki’s was frequenting the palace a great deal more as of late and the three girls had been spending quite a bit of time together. Whenever Darcy came, Loki made sure that she was given her own private chambers that typically accommodated traveling lords and ladies.
The last time Darcy visited the capital, she, Sif, and Sigyn had spent the night in her rooms. They talked until late at night when Darcy and Sif began discussing strength building. Sigyn had nothing to include this conversation, but listened nonetheless as she found it quite interesting to listen to women talk about something as predominantly male as muscle growth.
Darcy had mentioned that she was weak but her muscles were bigger than they used to be and Sif told her of personal methods she used to strengthen herself. Sometime later, when their conversations became rather ridiculous and they were laughing so hard it hurt to breathe, Sif had lifted her shirt to show them her abdominal muscles.
Sigyn, on many occasions be it wrestling matches or a trip to the water gardens in high summer, had seen muscles on men. They were big, bulky, and made them look like they were pumped full of air. But they were something entirely different on Sif. Smooth lines skated upwards from the waist of her pants, framing the fine lines of muscle there.
Most women of Asgard, Sigyn had come to notice, were very narrow. Not bony, or sickly. Just verging on plain. At least, that is what Sigyn thought after she had seen Sif. Her entire frame was lithe, cut, overwhelming. Unlike a man, her muscle did not make her look hulking or unattractive. In fact, it added to her. It helped Sigyn to define Sif with the one word she’d never be able to apply to any other ever again.
Strong.
Sif was strong.
“Are you alright?” the older girl asked, stepping out of the waterfall and wading over to her friend. “The only time silence has ever been so loud is after Darcy leaves a room.”
Sigyn laughed because it was true. Darcy could talk so much that, after she left, what was usually a normal, peaceful quiet seemed deafening. “I’m quite alright,” she assured, sitting down on the ledge of the pool, gesturing for Sif to stand in front of her.
“There is something on your mind, Lady Sigyn,” Sif insisted, turning her back to her friend so she could begin sectioning off her hair for a braid. “Tell me.”
Sigyn blushed a deep pink, positive that she was never going to tell Sif her exact thoughts. The mere idea was humiliating. She instead chose to divert the conversation, a trick she learned from Loki when he wished to avoid talking about himself. “For not being a lady, Sif, you do enjoy gossip.”
She shrugged as Sigyn went on with plaiting her hair. “Well, I do spend much of my spare time with you.” She tilted her head forwards to allow better access to the hair on the nape of her neck. “You are avoiding the question. Now I am truly curious.”
Sigyn sighed, deciding that she would settle for a small white lie. “I was considering something Loki told me earlier today. He claimed that he would be gone for a few days but he did not say where he would be going. I’m wondering what he could possibly be up to in this weather.”
Sif sighed in thought as Sigyn tied her braid. “Well, Lady Sigyn, I think you may be wondering for a very long time.”
***
It was Christmas on Midgard and Loki was riding Hel to the portal to Earth. He was strong enough in his magical capabilities that he no longer needed to ride Hel to get to the cave. Yet, he did so anyways in order to spend quality time with his four-legged friend. On this day, Loki was particularly excited.
He and Darcy had been spending copious amounts of time studying two things.
Politics and the map.
Darcy had started doing research on what she wanted to learn from political studies on Midgard to better ask her teachers at school for learning materials. She’d come across an area of study called “political science” which focused on the analysis of political behaviors and activities. Darcy was in love with the concept of it and had been using many of the new skills she was learning from textbooks in deciphering their current situation.
She had told him of her encounter in the library with Lord Bjarte and his mother and, quite honestly, Loki was unsurprised.
His and Darcy’s theory was that because Darcy had beaten Lord Bjarte in Hnefatafl, she had some control over him. It wasn’t a lot because of the spell’s restrictions, but if Darcy had been born with the ability to wield magic as Loki did, the magical connection between her and Lord Bjarte would grant her a great deal more control over his person. It made Loki that much more happy that Darcy was as clever as she was, for if she had lost the game, it would have been the Weird-Bearded lord with control of her rather than the other way around.
In four years time, when a war was bound to take place on Vanaheim, Lord Bjarte would be a general for Nornheim’s armies. Loki, personally, did not think that Lord Bjarte particularly liked warring and fighting. He did, however, believe that Lord Bjarte favored great power.
If he and Darcy went to Vanaheim as well, then they could be prepared for any outrage that Lord Bjarte had planned.
Of course, that was just their theory.
There was still so much that could be deciphered from the chunk of information his mother had granted them.
Though, for the time being, the majority of their studies had been on the map.
In the library, Loki had come across only a few books to aid them in their research. One of them was a language book that proved he had been correct in his identification of the squiggly lettered language. It was Titanian.
Darcy’s side of the map displayed Yggdrasil as a very small part of an encompassing galaxy. After fitting the pages together, more languages became evident. Many of them he had yet to classify. It was all very confusing.
Yet, after two long months of incessantly poring over the map, Darcy found a pattern.
The day she made the discovery, Loki had been tired. The night prior he hadn’t been able to sleep. He found himself restless at night without Darcy. Usually, the smell of her hair or the sounds of her even breaths were enough to lull him to sleep before her wiggling started up. It was a vicious cycle. He couldn’t sleep well with her and he couldn’t sleep at all without her.
That night, he was just starting to nod off on top of Darcy’s covers while watching her stare intently at the map. It had been pinned up on the wall with the section of Yggdrasil facing them. For the time being, they had chosen to ignore the other side. Loki did not yet have the resources to allow them safe travel outside of Yggdrasil. Not to mention, he had never been there before.
There was a good chance that things outside of the Nine Realms could kill Darcy in a bare instant. And there was no possible way he was taking that chance. Not even for the Tesseract.
Darcy had stared at the map for a very long time. Her unblinking blue eyes traced every word on the sheet when at long last she snapped her fingers, claiming that she found something.
Loki had hurried over as she excitedly explained her findings.
Each section of the map was marked with the native language that region used when the map was created. The section that created Midgard was made up of a bunch of tiny languages, many of which didn’t seem to exist anymore; the entirety of Asgard was made up of the Allspeak and so on.
Darcy had found a small anomaly in all of this.
Within the writing that mapped out the different realms, there were small snippets of phrases from different parts of the universe. The phrases themselves still did not make much sense, but the origin of language had deemed itself significant.
They suspected that the location of these small instances of different languages could mean one of two things:
Firstly, that the creator of the map had stayed up far too late writing in language after language after language and had made a mistake.
Or secondly, that the placements of the misfit languages were intentional and they could potentially be implications as to where the infinity stones are.
They had decided to go with the second prediction for the time being.
It was a far-fetched idea to suspect Infinity Stones. The purpose of the map was undefined. The only thing that Queen Frigga had made clear when giving it to Darcy was that it would assist her in her studies on Midgardian and Asgardian interactions.
Still, Loki and Darcy had reason to believe that the stones were a part of the map. The inclusion of the known galaxy as well as Yggdrasil implied that whatever the purpose of the map was, it stretched beyond the Nine Realms.
Universally speaking, Yggdrasil was isolated in some ways from the rest of the universe. The existence of the rest of the Galaxy was rarely talked about and any reason to converse with those outside the Nine Realms had been cut off long ago. This is why it confused Loki to find chunks of Celestial phrases etched into the lines of text that made up Asgard.
The only form of contact Asgard had ever been known to have with the outside worlds concerned the Infinity Stones. Those times had so long since passed, that many believed they were legend.
And that is where Loki and Darcy came in.
The morning after Darcy had discovered the pattern Loki took the map back to Asgard and began mentally picking apart the text word by word until he was able to pinpoint a few places where the language changed. It was easiest to do in places like Asgard, where everyone communicated in All-speak, or Svartalfheim where the language had consistent until the fall of the dark elves. Now, there was simply no one left there to change old lingual traditions.
Midgard was by far the hardest scenario.
As far as language was concerned, Midgard was extremely diverse. Modern day Midgardians spoke a plethora of different languages, even within the same country. Deciphering any distinct change in text made Loki’s head hurt, especially when so many early languages were reminiscent of All-speak. Telling the difference between the two was easily one of the most frustrating tasks Loki had ever attempted to accomplish. Given that he did not believe any Infinity Stones to be residing on Midgard, he made the decision to let it alone.
After much persistence and more late nights, Loki came to the conclusion he was at now.
He had found a very plainly located change in language centered at the heart of Jotunheim. Darcy had seen it a while ago and had been asking non-stop if they could go. Loki did not have the slightest inkling as to why she would want to go to Jotunheim. But she did.
So, as a Christmas present, he had planned a trip to go there. As long has he kept on a spell that kept them concealed from any Frost Giants they might see, what was the worst that could happen?
Of course, they would be breaking Asgardian law to do so. Though, Loki found it was debatable that he was doing anything wrong. They were simply going to Jotunheim in search of a certain artifact. There was no harm in looking, was there?
No. Of course not. He and Darcy would be fine. He would protect her against any Frost Giants should they be discovered and he had what Darcy would call a ‘back-up plan’ for their escape just in case he suffered a similar reaction that he had on Muspelheim.
Telling Darcy that they were going to Jotunheim was his surprise gift to her. He planned to tell her as soon as he made it to her bedroom.
Hel trotted merrily through the forest, hardly making any noise as they made their way through the field. As soon as the portal was in sight, Loki dismounted Hel, Jörmungandr close on his heels. He stroked her mane fondly. “I may need you soon Hel. Darcy and I will be going to Jotunheim. Will you be able to make it there?”
The horse bowed her head in a manner that quite deliberately answered him with a ‘yes’. The bony side of her muzzle bumped Loki’s head in a goodbye cuddle that he reciprocated happily. Loki watched Hel dart away into the forest and disappear behind a cloak of leaves before making his way to the passage to Midgard.
By the time he was pulling himself out from under Darcy’s bed, he could hardly stop himself from rambling off in a very Darcy-like style his current musings. “…Darcy! I have spoken with my mother and she has granted me permission to be gone from the palace until the start of the Midgardian New Year. We—“
Loki stopped talking when he turned to face Darcy’s bed only to find, not Darcy, but rather a small boy with brown hair and glasses far too big for his small face. He seemed young. His eyebrows came together in curiosity. “Who are you?”
Taken back, Loki’s first reaction was not to magically cast the boy into unconsciousness, but rather answer his question. “I am Loki. Who are you?”
The boy nodded, scooting to the edge of Darcy’s bed to hold out his right hand. Loki recognized the familiar Midgardian-American custom of shaking someone’s hand upon meeting them. “My name’s Peter. Peter Parker.”
Loki took Peter’s hand and shook it. “It is good to meet you, Peter Parker.”
Peter smiled with a sort of genuine happiness that Loki found he identified with. It was similar to Darcy’s smiles, freely given and borne from her own amusement. Peter’s smile was almost shy, as if pleased at the prospect that someone might like to know him. Loki was familiar with that smile. The hesitancy of it…
Immediately, Loki felt some sort of personal connection to the young Peter Parker. He deserved to be befriended. “Loki?”
“Yes, Peter Parker?”
“Are you friends with Darcy?” he asked, a twinge of fear in his tone as Jörmungandr slinked down Loki’s shoulders onto Darcy’s purple pillow.
Loki nodded. “Indeed. She is my best friend.” He paused for a moment, waiting to make sure that Peter Parker was comfortable with Jörmungandr’s presence. He relaxed slightly upon receiving a nose-lick. “Are you also friends with Darcy?”
The boy shook his head. “No. Well…maybe. We’re cousins.” Cautiously, he smoothed a hand over Jörmungandr’s head and the snake let his tongue loll out in satisfaction. Loki nearly rolled his eyes at his scaled friend. One would think that he was neglected and starved of attention. “Do you think Darcy would be okay with me reading her books?”
Loki could not think of any objections Darcy would have to Peter reading her books. “I think she would encourage you to read her books. What is it that you find interest in?”
Peter Parker thought about that for a moment and Loki thought it was funny how he took off his glasses to fiddle with them while he considered the question. Comparatively, Darcy would have tapped her chin.
“Well,” said Peter Parker, “I like science fields. Biology, chemistry…physics is the most interesting though.”
There was some timidity in his voice that Loki was now determined to vanquish, for Darcy had not told Loki that there were other people around her age on Midgard that enjoyed the study of applied sciences. “I find interest in these very same things. What is the extent of your studies?”
***
About thirty minutes later, Darcy thundered into her room, cheeks red and snow clumping her hair into frozen strands around her face. Fenrir was at her side, melting snow flurries in his gray and white fur. Immediately after her door was promptly slammed shut, she collapsed to the ground, not even acknowledging the studious occupants of her bedroom.
Loki set aside the textbook he was using to explain the basic ideas of quantum physics to Peter Parker. Darcy had been interested in the subject over the summer and had insisted that they learn all about it. Loki was beginning to truly like Peter Parker. He was shier than Darcy, but overall they shared many favorable qualities.
Only, at that moment, Loki was more concerned for Darcy and he rushed to her side as she groaned into the carpet. Quickly, and with anxiety fresh in his chest, Loki stripped Darcy of her wet coat and socks, wishing, for the first time that evening that Peter Parker was not there so he would be able to magic warm clothes onto Darcy.
Instead, he leaned to her dresser and pulled out a fresh pair of thick socks and fit them onto her feet. “Darcy? Are you alright?”
She groaned again and spoke, her voice muffled by the carpet. “Loki, your dog is an idiot.”
Loki cast a wary glance at Fenrir who was now chasing his tail, the tip just touching his nose. After a few seconds, he stopped and sneezed enthusiastically. “He is an idiot. But he is our idiot. What has he done?”
She remained lying face down, possibly oblivious to the company of her cousin. “I think he got into some weird magic somewhere on Asgard. You know the cat who lives three doors down?”
“Snootie the Cat?”
“Yeah. Fen got it in his mind that he needed to go chase after her…” she sighed heavily. “He can run super fast. Not just faster than me. But, like, almost as fast as Hel.”
Loki’s eyes widened just slightly. “Interesting. So, you chased after him? That was not the wisest decision.”
Darcy shook her head solemnly against the floor. “No. I didn’t chase after him. I had to go get the poor cat down from the stupid tree and she clawed my hand and then I fell out of the tree.”
In an instant, Loki was magically searching her over, forgetting entirely about Peter Parker’s presence and the secret of magic. She had fallen from a tree? “Are you alright, Darcy? Can you move everything properly? Where is the injury the blasted cat gave you?”
She lifted her arm limply and Loki worked at removing her gloves and scarf, continuing his examination of her vitals. Golden light emanated from his hands as he found no permanent damage in her body. There was a significant amount of internal bruising on her ankle, he supposed from jumping out of a tree.
With almost no forethought, he cast a spell to heal her wounds. “Darcy, by Odin, you must be careful. There is only one Darcy Lewis in all the Nine Realms and I would mourn to have lost any part of her.”
Finally, Darcy sat up, inspecting her hand where three red scratches had previously pained her. “Loki, you’re such a mom.”
“And you are a mess. What is your point?” he quipped, rubbing her upper arms soothingly.
She groaned again, leaning into his chest and embracing him firmly. “Happy Christmas,” she grumbled into his neck, her chilly face soaking up the heat of his skin.
He laughed and rubbed her back, letting his heartbeat return to its normal rate and his nerves to settle. Stroking Darcy’s hair, he let lose a few charms to dry the brown locks and relieve them of their melting slush. Darcy sighed in relief when the cold on her head dissipated and she hugged him a little tighter.
Loki could not help but have his spirits lift at her affections. Often times, Loki worried that perhaps his desires for closeness with Darcy were too much. On Asgard, there was no such thing as a casual touch between those of the opposite sex. It was something that, upon developing his friendship with Darcy, he had not known that he needed.
In some ways, it was embarrassing. An onlooker might perceive his want for closeness as childish or needy. Loki sincerely doubted that Thor or Sif or any of those on Asgard felt as he did, and because of that, he kept these feelings to himself.
It was comforting to him to know that she was safe with him. If Darcy was sound and laughing in his arms, he could know for certain that she was not dead, or dying, or falling out of trees. She was with him and he was with her and that’s exactly how Loki wanted it to be.
Eventually, a small voice spoke from behind them. “Loki, how did you do that to Darcy’s hair? Is that a science-trick I can learn?”
Darcy’s head shot up from Loki’s shoulder, eyes focusing on her younger cousin. “Peter! You’re still here!” she looked between him and Loki. “And you met--?”
Peter Parker smiled, “Loki was teaching me about quantum physics. He said you might know some more about it too. Can I borrow one of your books? I know we don’t see each other that much, but I promise I’ll take good care of it. Uncle Ben just put a bookshelf in my room.”
Darcy’s wide blue eyes were lit up with a series of confused reactions. She shot a questioning glance at Loki, clearly asking why he had allowed himself to be seen by Peter Parker. “I guess?”
Loki stood, offering her his hand. “Indeed it is, in a sense, a ‘science-trick’, Peter Parker. However, I do not think you would be able to learn it. Not now at least.”
Darcy accepted Loki’s hand, standing up to go sit by Peter Parker who now looked just a tiny bit disappointed. “Okay. Darcy? Do you have another book that explains this more? I don’t understand it all the way.”
For the rest of that afternoon, Darcy, Loki and Peter Parker spent their time in Darcy’s room, sharing knowledge, drinking hot chocolate and eating pizza rolls until someone called down the two Midgardians for dinner. Before they left, Darcy tugged on Peter’s shirt sleeve. “Hey Peter?”
“Yeah, Darcy?” he inquired, pushing up his glasses.
Darcy’s eyes flicked back and forth from Loki to her cousin. “Um, downstairs, can you not talk about Loki? He’s kind of…well…he’s my secret friend. No one knows about him but you and me.”
Peter Parker nodded, eyes wide and ready to make anyone happy. “Sure. I kinda thought that maybe no one knew about him because he was under your bed. I’m going to go wash my hands.”
On that note, Peter Parker exited the room, Fenrir on his heels. Darcy watched after him, her black rimmed glasses balanced precariously on the end of her nose. Loki touched her shoulder comfortingly. “What troubles you Darcy?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. Peter’s my favorite cousin. I’m three years older than him, but he’s still really great.”
“Well, I am a little over two thousand years older than you, and you are bearable.” He teased, receiving a light punch on the shoulder in return for his jest.
“Hahaha, very funny,” Darcy laughed, pushing up her glasses at last. “I was just thinking that he reminds me of you a little bit.”
“How so?”
She tapped her chin, staring at him analytically with her lips puckered. “Hm, I don’t know. He’s just really nice. He’s got kind of a soft personality.”
Loki scoffed, “Soft? I am not soft.”
She smiled, taking his hand in hers. “Maybe not, but when we first met, you looked like him. Or acted like him at least.”
“What did I act like?” Loki asked, fairly upset that she thought of him as soft. He was a Prince of Asgard! He had killed a man by filling his brain full of steel. He was a sorcerer and a political snake. He was not soft.
“Like you needed a friend,” Darcy told him quietly, giving his hand a gentle squeeze before hurrying down the stairs after her cousin.
Loki stood there for a long moment, thinking back to his days before he met Darcy.
He remembered his days as a young child sitting on his mother’s lap learning little bits of magic. After he had grown some and began to conduct his own studies, for many…many years he was alone every day. In the library he studied to the best of his abilities. Of course, he hadn’t known how lonely he was.
How could he? He had never experienced another life but his friendless existence. He was a devout learner. He had his future to look forward to. Loki thought back to his compliance. If anyone would have asked him to do something, he would have done it if it meant potential companionship. But so few had ever been eager to converse with him.
Thor was always much more popular. He was more outgoing and better at fighting. Loki had many ailments as a child; ailments that he could not remember much of. Thor told him that once they had spared with blades poisoned with a special brew concocted on Vanaheim. It was a training exercise. The poison was meant to be added encouragement not to let your opponent land a blow.
But Loki had never been quite as strong as Thor, and at that point, he had yet to truly define his style with a blade. The cut his brother gave him had taken forever to heal. The poison…
Loki remembered the poison. It had burned almost as hot as the air on Muspelheim. Not long after being hit, he lost consciousness and awoke a week later in Eir’s soul-forge with Thor at his side. Unlike most Aesir, Loki did not have a strong aversion to poisons from Vanaheim. The effects of that particular toxin had cast him into a state akin to hibernation.
After the humiliation of being proved lesser than Thor once more, Loki did not leave his room for nearly a year. He devoted time into learning everything he could to make up for his slights. It had taken pleading from Thor to pry him away from his books and back to interacting with people. Loki had not trusted most people at that time lest they be his parents or brother. People always talked about him.
But books…books didn’t talk.
For most of their childhood, before Thor started his adolescence, the brothers were fairly close. Thor defended Loki when others spoke ill of him and on rare occasions, or on particularly boring days, the two would find trouble around the palace. Usually, the trouble was aided by what little magic Loki had.
These adventures they had were far and in between their times apart. Thor had his friends and Loki had his studies.
Thinking back on it now, Loki had been so very much like Peter Parker. Small, bright, and entirely too eager to please.
At the peak of his childhood loneliness, right before his adolescence, he met Darcy Lewis.
She had asked him to be her friend.
It occurred to Loki how lucky he was to have stumbled onto that passage to Midgard. Without it, he would still be holed up in his library, unknowing of his own despair.
The rest of that night, Loki was fairly quiet.
Darcy and Peter Parker returned and Darcy brought him a slice of chocolate pie that he very nearly fell in love with. Unfortunately, he devoured it before any true feelings could be formed.
They sat in the floor of Darcy’s room, playing one of Darcy’s new thought engaging card games. Admittedly, they were quite fun. But most of the answers were trivial. Loki did not see the point in knowing what the name of every single capital city on Midgard. Darcy thought it was of some use though, for she knew most of them.
Peter Parker was, by the end of the night, given three books from Darcy’s collection. One for each of the three basic science fields: Chemistry, Biology, and Physics. He left Darcy’s room sometime around eleven to go to bed. His sleeping bag had been set up in Darius’ room.
Darcy put her game away, running downstairs to tell her family goodnight before changing into her pajamas and crawling into bed. Loki magicked on his preferred nightwear of simple black pants and a shirt. Fenrir and Jörmungandr got comfortable at the foot of the bed and Loki smiled at how ridiculous their situation must look. Both he and Darcy had grown, he more so than her, and Jörmungandr had halted in growing lengthwise in favor of getting thicker. Loki decided that it was not that his snake had been indulging on too many Fire Giants, rather that his body was thick with muscle. It did make the serpent a great deal heavier.
Darcy yawned, taking off her glasses and burrowing herself between Loki’s arm and a pillow. “I like Christmas. I made you a present, but it’s on Asgard.”
Loki’s brow furrowed. “You made me a present? On Asgard?” he thought back to when she would have time to make him a present. If she was on Asgard, usually they were at council meetings or in the library. Unless she decided to go spend a night with Sif and Sigyn or practice sparing in the training fields.
“Mhm,” Darcy said tiredly, changing positions so her leg was thrown carelessly across his body and her head was nearly hanging off the bed. “Well, kinda. You’ll see.”
Loki tried to repress the excitement that bubbled in his chest at the promise of a gift from Darcy. Suddenly, he was reminded of his original purpose of visiting Darcy on Christmas. “I have something for you as well.”
She wiggled a bit more, sitting up to kneel at his side and press her palms to the center of his chest. Her blue eyes almost lit up the room for how brightly they shone. “Really? What is it! Loki, I can’t believe you waited till almost midnight to tell me! Christmas is almost over!”
Loki sat up, curious to see her reaction to his gift. “Well, I wasn’t sure how you would feel about it. You see, I cannot simply hand it over to you.”
Darcy was nearly bouncing now, her hands balled up in anticipation. “What is it?”
He smirked, “Are you sure that you wish to know? Or--?”
“Yes! Loki! Come on!” she demanded, the wide toothy grin on her face making every second of his procrastinated response worthwhile.
Slowly, he brought their faces closer together and spoke in a mere whisper. “I have safely found a way for us to visit Jotunheim. I—“
He didn’t get much else out after that. Darcy leapt so high with joy that she had fell off the bed and was now giggling in the floor. “Are you serious?!” she asked in a whisper after she was breathing properly again and threw herself back on the bed.
Loki nodded. “We leave when you are ready. There we will search for the Tesseract.”
Abruptly, Darcy was out of bed again and she paced the room, her oversized blue pajama pants swishing as she walked. “Peter leaves tomorrow for upstate New York. We…by Odin, I can’t believe this is happening!” she jumped up again, punching the air with her fist. “Alright, we’ll do all our planning tomorrow and leave the first thing the next day.”
She took a second to collect herself before settling down into bed. Loki raised his brow, “Are you sure laying down is wise? I fear your body may burst with all the energy it’s giving off.”
Darcy nudged him, squirming around and kicking the covers in hysterics. “You’re the one who gave me the awesome Christmas present.”
Loki laughed tiredly, finding peace next to the chaotically beautiful whirlwind beside him. And somewhere in the midst of her storm, he fell asleep, mentally preparing for whatever Jotunheim had to offer.