Slowly Slipping
This mundane facade, the great lie that was Darcy Lewis, began to crack after she met God. Okay, she did not meet god, capital G. But she met a god, so it totally still counted.
Her life which had previously been made up of poptarts snuck between science benders with Jane and worries over her impending graduation (the six remaining college credits that were gained through her internship assumed), quickly became one consisting of red tape and big scary governmental bodies who had the uncanny ability to steal iPods with no apparent repercussions. Suddenly she was graduating and moving to New York so Jane could bump uglies with her God boyfriend. This move also meant that Jane would now have access to Stark tech and funding that made her threats to split open the universe (when Darcy tried to pry her away from science) that much more intimidating.
Her lie, which she had spent her whole life perfecting, was starting to crumble away. And it had only been two months of living in Avengers Tower, rubbing shoulders with heroes who could put the Greek legends to shame.
Two months of limited normality and Darcy could feel her shrewdly made front slipping. She was surprised no one noticed.
Of course, with Natalia and James being away on a mission in Siberia for the last few weeks, it made sense that her slips had been given no consideration. Steve and Sam were far too trusting to think anyone in their inner circle could be hiding secrets, let alone one this big. They took anything she cooked for them with absolutely no questions asked, just a boy scout grin and an “aw shucks, thank you ma’am” attitude. Tony and Bruce often kept their heads firmly buried in the sand that was whatever new science project they were working on. When they did come up for air from their little love affair both were too self centered to notice her. Tony was more unapologetic about it, but Bruce gave the impression that he had to be a bit more removed in order to keep the other guy in check all the time. Clint, well Clint may have noticed, but he was often away from the tower, living with his family (a tidbit Daeira would never have been trusted with, but the non threatening and dearly held Darcy was).
That only left the brothers from different mothers, Thor and Loki. One of whom was so proud of having a sister, however adopted and non official it was, to see any fault with her. The other, well Darcy had never really met Loki. Sure she saw him around, mostly in the elevators or during Family Movie Nights, but she had never worked up the courage to introduce herself. This was of course mostly due to the fact that should she ever do so, it was highly likely she would mention that nasty habit he seemed to have of cheating death and the time he tried to take over her planet. In short, Darcy was convinced that any formal meeting between them would be, well to put it lightly, bad.
He was unnerving, always watching everyone in the unblinking way a cat stares at a particularly enticing bird.
During Family Movie Nights, or any other time she had to be around him, Darcy could feel the burn of his stare on her and it always made her feel naked. Not in a fun sexual way, no, this was being stripped down to her core, her most basic elements put on display in front of a God who could never be trusted.
The fact was, Darcy only ever truly felt like Daeira when he was around, and that worried her.