Thor x 2 Broke Girls, "One Good Deed" Master Post | Rated T

[paynesgrey]

Fandoms: Thor (2011), 2 Broke Girls
Title: One Good Deed
Author: Paynesgrey
Pairing/Characters: Loki, Darcy Lewis, Loki/Darcy, Max Black, Caroline Channing, Nick Fury, Wanda Maximoff, Phil Coulson
Status: Complete (3/3)
Warnings/Spoilers: It's slightly AU/Divergent from the end of the Thor (2011) movie and only briefly inspired by the first Avengers movie. 
Notes: Began on 12/06/2011 and laid unfinished for some time. I always meant to finish it, but the wipbigbang  challenge for International Fanworks day inspired me to finally complete it.

Art that inspired the Fic: One Sweet Ringer

Links: FFnet | AO3

Previous Links on Dreamwidth: Prequel | Part One 

Part Two: One Honest God

Searching for Darcy Lewis had become futile, but in all his failures, this was the one thing that Loki would not give up on. He’d finally made peace with his father, thanks to Darcy, and he would not give up on the woman who had changed him so drastically and saved him from the spiraling loser that he was becoming.

He didn’t care what Thor thought of him either, or their father for that matter. Yes, making peace was nice, and the Avengers had, somehow, pursued him less doggedly, and he wondered if that was thanks to Thor or Darcy.

They still wanted to capture him, to make him pay for his crimes, and for all the redemption that Loki had found, he did not agree that human justice was for him. He’d been given Asgardian justice, and the All-Father did not make his acceptance back into the royal fold come that easily.

For months, Loki was spent undergoing mundane tasks, as well as tolerating the barbs and idle mockery from the Warriors Three. He’d even been summoned to babysit Frigga’s new infant son, the sweet and innocent Baldr whom could not be harmed, and for whom Loki thought with some prophecy could take up the All-Father’s throne if Thor decided to stay on Midgard for good.

Caring for an infant was not his ideal choice for punishment. Loki was sure the All-Father would chain him to a rock and torture him with poison for some time, but he did not. He only punished him with boredom, a slow and grueling pain of monotony and trivial affairs.

Loki even offered to help repair the Rainbow Bridge himself, but his father did not want him anywhere near it. He didn’t blame him.

When the All-Father was more satisfied with Loki’s steady penance, he brought his foster son into the throne room by himself and looked down at him with scrutiny from his gilded throne.

“My son,” he said, still calling him that and still sending a pang of power through Loki’s bones and straight into his heart when he heard it. “I cannot help myself from having my suspicions of your motives despite your earnest path of redemption these last months.”

Loki knelt before him, his eyes finding a shiny spot on the floor. His lips pursed. He should have known his father still did not trust him. He couldn’t blame him for that either. Even though the All-Father had neutered his magical source since coming here, Loki was hardly a threat, and since without his magic he was more than an average combat fighter, he was mostly harmless. Loki wondered, if this would be the point where Odin would restore his magic. Perhaps this was the crossroads he would take. He could throw away all his progress and defy his father again, but what would be the use? He had no master plan. He had no allies in the shadows.

He only had his redemption, and through all of this drive to please his father, to earn his forgiveness, Loki had only one thought on his mind once All-Father would return his powers: Darcy Lewis. He would return to Midgard for her. He would find her, he would thank her for all she had done, and he would repay his debt.

After that, he had no plans. Beyond Darcy, there was nothing else that held Loki’s interest. Perhaps his lust for power was fading, but his obsession with the mortal girl’s favor was a new mission, a new scheme after all his selfish retired schemes.

The All-Father made a noise in his throat, and Loki almost had forgot himself in this room, in his weighted presence. He was almost shocked himself that Darcy made him forget himself that much he would block out his own father.

“Clearly, you have had some sort of epiphany to change this much. You brought down a great destruction to both Asgard and Midgard, and other creatures as well. Yet you come home, tail between your legs, and give up your powers for my favor? Bah! I would think my son Loki would abhor such a notion, and he would rather fall to his death than come back to the old ways which had drove him to betrayal in the first place,” his father surmised.

Loki looked up, meeting Odin’s grey eyes. “I hope, Father, that I have proven to you that I have changed. I am done scheming. I am done... losing to stronger foes,” he said.

“Ah,” said the All-Father. “For now, you are tired, but will you change your mind again? Will you lurk in the shadows, biding your time, gaining everyone’s favor and helping as a dutiful son?”

“It is for you, Father, to make those judgment calls, not I,” Loki said. “I only wanted to prove to you that I could change.”

“Hrmmm,” he responded, and there was a chilling, stark pause they both fell into, and Loki awaited his father’s next observation. “I would like to know what had caused this change. Surely not loss after loss to those group of humans? And not even your own brother could get through to you.”

They were all the observations Loki had reflected upon himself, but only one person came to mind. That person, initially, made him feel like a fool. He felt like a copycat, falling into his brother’s footsteps by letting a mortal woman change his whole perception of his life, to teach him things by her own sincerity, affection and ideals that would shape him into a better person - and even a better man.

The thought of her immediately made heat rush to his face, and he hoped it was not visible under the All-Father’s eye. But of course, Loki knew it was impossible. The All-Father had power and magic beyond anyone, and he might as well be looking through Loki as if he were made of glass.

“A woman, again,” the All-Father said, his tone seemingly curious. “What strange creatures these mortal women are. The Lady Sif is still upset about Thor, and yet he goes to Midgard to be with this woman Jane.” He paused, and Loki burned a hole into the floor with his stare, feeling exposed as Odin hit him just where he didn’t want him - personally and privately. “And now my other son has fallen for one.”

Fallen for...? Loki wondered. Yes, Darcy consumed his thoughts, but had he fallen for her? His brow creased and he forgot his father’s ramblings for a minute. He wondered. Had he fallen for Darcy? It seemed unreal, even for him. He only wanted her, felt she belonged to him, and tried to convince him that she was nothing more than a Midgardian pet he couldn’t dare release out of fondness. Was she truly more?

He looked up at Odin, who stared at him in silence, judging him with those old eyes. What did his father see when he looked at him? Did he see that Loki would fall to destruction by a mortal woman?

Whether or not that was true, it was how Loki felt, but he still couldn’t be appeased.

He would search out Darcy Lewis, and once he found her, he’d know what he was to her, and what she was to him.

.xxxxx.

Months strained by and Loki could not locate Darcy Lewis on Midgard. He followed Thor. He followed Jane. He followed a myriad of SHIELD agents.

Nothing.

He was beginning to think there was more to Darcy’s disappearance than human intervention. More than the Avengers could do to her. Maybe, he thought, Stark had developed some technology to SHIELD her, and despite his ease at getting into the Avengers Tower even with only half of the power Odin had allowed him back, she was nowhere to be found.

No, something else had to be hiding her. Something otherworldly. Loki couldn’t quite decipher it, so he continued to look, and as his search provided him nothing but frustrations and dead ends, Loki went back to once place that he knew he could find some comfort.

He entered the lowly Midgardian dinner in New York, the city which he had once caused so much destruction, and he asked for the waitress who looked Darcy. He bought two more cupcakes from her, listened to her as she addressed other patrons with her sharp tongue and he found himself becoming lost in her voice.

The next moment when he looked up, he saw her at his table again, smiling at him and catching him off guard at her next phrase.

“So,” she said boldly, “When were you going to finally ask me out?”

When he felt a familiar presence in the corner of his eye outside the diner, Loki narrowed his eyes and finally made a decision. Now more than ever he felt like he was being played, and when he turned back to the waitress named Max Black, he grabbed her hand and met her startled eyes.

“Oh, my dear, if there was only ever a better time than now.”

.xxxx.

For as boring and aggravating as this was, Darcy didn’t mind her newfound captivity. It was obvious that Fury had something up his sleeve, and when Loki had disappeared for a long time to return to Asgard, more than likely, her bosses at SHIELD shuffled her around in safe houses and in the meantime, made their plans to use her to draw Loki out.

She supposed that was where Wanda Maximoff came in.

Darcy gave a side glance to the woman who was sitting on a sofa on the other side of the room. She was filing her nails and using her mutant power to hold up the latest issue of Vogue as she read it with a bored expression.

Wanda rarely spoke to her, and this was a pretty typical afternoon. Darcy was left with a whole theater or movies to watch, take-out menus to choose from and other innocuous things she could request from SHIELD that kept her busy in her captivity. Not more than a month ago, SHIELD swiftly pulled her out of another safe house, only it was to be her last. Now, she was just chilling with Wanda at SHIELD headquarters, who had a versatile magic ability that could apparently counteract Loki’s, or at least, manipulate the reality around them. She’d been hexing off any sort of locator spells for Darcy’s presence ever since.

It wasn’t bad for one half of an orphan troupe that defected from Magneto’s camp and joined the Avengers. For the most part she was on a trial basis with the Avengers, but Wanda was more than proving her worth.

Finally, the monotony was broken up when Wanda’s iPhone flew off the end table next to her in a ball of magenta energy and dialed a number.

“He’s looking for her again,” she said with her slight accent, still staring into the magazine. “Uh huh, I can feel him in New York again.” A pause. “Yep, around that diner he hangs out at, with that look alike.”

Darcy swallowed and Wanda met her eyes. “She’s here and she’s listening.” Another pause and Darcy strained to hear the voice on the other line, undoubtedly Fury or Coulson, to no success. Wanda grinned at her. “Yes, sir.”

“Loki’s looking for me again,” Darcy said bluntly.

“He can’t find you,” she said with her imperious tone. “Besides, he won’t have the chance.”

Darcy frowned, and she dreaded what SHIELD had in store for him at the diner they kept scoping. She’d heard bits and pieces about this place, how there was a waitress who looked like her there, and it made her wonder if she had a cousin or a long lost sister out there she didn’t know about. After all, her dad had been a slut back in the day, and her mother had always been sketchy about talking about their past with him. She had a brother, whom she loved out of pure family notion only, an asshole that followed their deadbeat dad’s footsteps. It was possible there were secrets in her own family that she didn’t know about.

Maybe SHIELD did, and the thought made her uncomfortable.

Whoever this person was, she was about to be in trouble by SHIELD and by Loki. She already felt sorry for the woman.

She could hardly feel sorry for the SHIELD agents though. Their arrival and ambush might undo all the progress she had made with Loki and make him mad enough to start fighting and endangering innocents again.

That was what Darcy was scared of most.

.xxxxx.

“Hey! You! Let her go!” A screech fired behind him and he winced as a pain shot through his ears. Loki rolled his eyes. It was the blonde quim again, butting her nose in his business. As he grabbed Max against his chest, he felt her struggle slightly after the shock of his forwardness. Her friend came running toward them in the meager diner space, so he felt he had to react fast.

Summoning a bit of magic, he conjured a portal, hoping to steal Max inside without a fuss. Well, he was sure that this belligerent woman would make a fuss, but he’d get her away before anyone could intervene, or if she could prove to resist him.

What he didn’t plan on was her friend running after them hysterically, diving into his portal after them as he teleported them out of the scummy diner and into another dimension he’d hope was out of SHIELD’s range.

If they knew he’d be looking for Darcy, and they’d set him up with Max, as he’d suspected, so he’d hoped his friends at SHIELD noticed that he’d taken the waitress.

What he hadn’t planned is her loud, banshee friend to tag along.

“Caroline!” Max yelled, pulling away from him and rushing toward her friend. Both women leapt for each other, but Loki pulled on Max’s midsection and drew her backward. As Caroline flung toward him, he slapped her aside and watched her crumble to the floor.

“Asshole!” Max yelled at him, and he felt a large crack against his face. He was startled more than pained, but the impact had irked him.

Darcy wouldn’t have slapped him. Not like that.

Well, maybe she would have, but she’d never done it. This woman wasn’t Darcy. She looked like her, but he had to convincing himself it was the only thing they had in common.

He only hoped the resemblance was known by SHIELD, and that he could make a bargain.

The two waitresses for Darcy. That was all he wanted. He hated to resort to kidnapping, and really it was completely amateurish, but he was desperate.

He wanted Darcy, and Max Black was his best bet.

In the meantime, he waited and plotted his next move. He knew he could tap into SHIELD’s security systems. He’d sent videos before, threatening a burning world in exchange for Darcy. And always his threats would go unnoticed.

Maybe they knew he was bluffing. Maybe Darcy told them he wouldn’t hurt anyone because she’d taught him differently.

Loki turned back to his too hostages. Max was clutching her friend Caroline who was nursing a bloody temple from cracking on the floor. She looked dazed, but Max continued to glare at him. He reached the surface of her thoughts and knew she was not happy, wanting to call him all sorts of names.

If she only knew he wanted her gone as much as she’d want to escape. But as long as she could bring him Darcy, they both had to stay.

With the girls’ glares burning a hole into him, Loki sighed. There was only one option. He waved his hand, and his magic produced a conduit to the only person who would have the power to meet his demands. Like a Facetime phone call, he created a link with Director Nick Fury and put on his smarmiest smile.

“Director Fury, just the person I wanted to chat with. As you might know at this moment, I have two very scared human hostages. Well, I would like to make a trade. Also you know that you are holding someone dear to me, so I suggest we talk. Is there something, perhaps, we can do to make a deal?” Loki asked.

Director Fury seemed unfazed by the unexpected interdimensional call, and he turned to Loki with his one stern expression. “Loki, you have nothing we need to bargain with. If you turn yourself in for your crimes, then we can talk.”

Loki shook his head. “I’m sorry, Director. It doesn’t work that way.” He shot the SHIELD director a dangerous glare. “Where is Darcy Lewis? You are holding her against her will.”

Fury was still unmoving. “What is your interest in Darcy anyway?”

“That is none of your concern. Now, before I get angrier and do something that we’ll both regret, I want to see Darcy before I dispose of these fine ladies.”

“Are you into kidnapping now, Loki? That’s low even for you. What did these girls do to piss you off so badly?”

“You know why,” Loki said through gritted teeth. “Where is Darcy? Or do you prefer me to sink even lower and kill more than these two hostages? Maybe that whole diner? Or what about a substantial section of your precious New York?”

Fury’s jaw clenched. He must know that Loki could be unhinged and unpredictable if pushed too far. He didn’t want to kill humans, or innocents as Darcy would call him, but he refused to be denied the one and only thing that he wanted - and that he deserved. He had made so much progress with the All-Father that Darcy was his prize.

Surely, she would understand the means he was taking to get to her? He was going to rescue her after all.

Loki saw Fury open his mouth, sure he was going to refuse his demands. Loki almost rolled his eyes. He didn’t really want to kill innocents, but…

Fury then turned to another agent, someone giving him news that he couldn’t quite make out.

“Give us an hour,” Fury said as his underling scurried away. “We’ll have an answer to your demands by then.” Loki gave him a light bow, nodding that he would comply. Until then, the two waitresses would stay in his possession.

He reluctantly looked over at him. They were huddling together, hugging and staring him down. The blonde was muffling her cries, but Max Black refused to look scared or demure. She gave him a look that he’d never seen on Darcy’s face before. She challenged him, almost daring him to try to hurt them. She was resolute in protecting her friend, and he knew that if he made a motion toward them at all, she’d launch a volley of obscenities at him that would make Frigga blush.

Instead, Loki smiled at them, saying nothing until he waited.

Xxxxxx.

Coulson had stopped Director Fury from outright refusing Loki’s demands. He had an ace up his sleeve, and her name was Darcy Lewis. He visited her in Wanda’s care, and he quickly briefed her on the situation.

“He has the girl that looks like you as a hostage. Somehow, a coworker of hers came along too,” Coulson told her. “He’s threatened to kill them, as well as a small part of New York to get to you.”

“And Director Fury is hearing him out because...?” Darcy asked, feeling sick to her stomach that Loki was back to his old ways and causing trouble without any care for innocent life. She thought he’d learned his lesson. Suddenly, she felt like a failure as his so-called therapist.

“I asked him too,” Coulson said with his cryptic smile. He acted as though he was already five moves ahead of the God of Mischief. Darcy guessed that he probably was. “I have a feeling this can end on a happy note. He only wants you; we have you. Problem solved.”

“So, you’re just going to hand me over to him?” Darcy scoffed, crossing her arms. “Genius plan!”

“Not only that, but you’re going to talk to him. He seems influenced by you. If you can convince him to release the hostages and stand down, we can easily avoid any loss of life if we have to. Especially if you’re that important to him,” Coulson said.

“And you’re not going to try and capture him if I distract him? Nothing like that?” Darcy asked.

“Fury asked that too. No, after talking to Thor, he said that he will handle Loki. The chaos and destruction he could cause just trying to evade our capture isn’t worth it. We’re still reeling from financial and political discourse from the last time we dealt with Loki. You just have to convince him to stand down, possibly convince him to go back to Asgard,” Coulson answered.

Darcy’s face fell. “Oh,” she said. It was good that they weren’t going to try to capture him, but Darcy didn’t like the idea of him leaving Earth for good. Did that mean she’d never see him again? She wanted to make some attempt at helping him again if he was resorting to kidnapping. It was like he still hadn’t learned not to do bad things. She guessed some things were just part of his nature; however, it didn’t really matter to her as long as she got to see him again.

“Okay. I’ll do it. Set up the meeting. I’ll talk to him,” Darcy said, and Coulson looked ready to move. He wasn’t even really waiting for her go ahead. “But one condition,” she said as he met her steadfast eyes. “You have to let me out of here and transfer me to another job or something. I’m done with SHIELD and I can’t be cooped up with that weirdo any longer.” She glanced at Wanda who was engrossed in her book, turning each page with her red magic. Wanda didn’t seem to even hear her anyway.

“Fine. SHIELD has been been meaning to fire you anyway,” Coulson said, and Darcy’s jaw dropped. His smile stretched somewhat. “We don’t normally allow our staff to consort with known fugitives.”

“Well, duh,” Darcy said. “Just find me something else. Is there a politician that needs re-electing? I’m really good at campaign work.”

“Consider it done,” Coulson said, and he straightened his suit jacket. “After you take care of Loki.”

Darcy nodded, and he beckoned her out of the house. She shot one more glance back at the place she’d been staying at for weeks, trying to see if she would feel anything sentimental for it. It felt empty to her, and she couldn’t wait to get back to her own place.

She followed Coulson out the door, and she hoped that at least when this was over, they gave her back her stuff too.

Xxxxxx.

Darcy was elated at the opportunity to see Loki again, but she was sick inside at knowing what she had to do. She had to basically break up with Loki so he’d leave Earth and go back home, thus saving the lives of many people.

Fury and Coulson had somehow contacted Loki, and he agreed to bring the two hostages with him. They were meeting at the diner where he’d kidnapped them. Darcy arrived in a standard black SHIELD limo, and when they drove up to the curb, Darcy saw him waiting on the street, dressed in a full black suit with a gray tie. She noticed his green eyes searching anxiously for her through the tinted windows.

Darcy bit her lip. She didn’t want to tell him to leave, but she knew she had to. He’d disappointed her and despite all that she’d taught him about Earth, he still went back to threatening people that were weaker than him.

When she stepped out of the limo and looked up at him, she saw a serene smile overtake his expression. Behind him, a greenish-blue portal opened up and ejected the two women hostages from whatever dimension he was storing them.

Darcy’s eyes widened when she looked at the woman named Max who’d she heard so much about. The dead ringer looked at her with the same wonder.

“Shut up!” the woman said and she grinned. “We look like twins!”

Darcy opened her mouth to say something quippy, but Loki put up a hand and squashed the moment. “Another time,” he said. “Be gone.”

Max was eager to keep the connection going, so she reached across Loki’s personal space and slapped a wrinkled piece of paper into Dary’s palm. She put up her hand like a phone. “Call me,” she mouthed to her, and her friend had pushed her into the diner to finally be safe and rid of their kidnapper.

“Finally,” Loki said, and he turned toward Darcy. He moved to take her into his arms, but she pulled back with her arms crossed.

Glaring, she pointed a scolding finger at him. “What do you think you’re doing? You kidnapped someone who looks at me! Why because you couldn’t have what you wanted? You have magic! You don’t need to harm people.”

“Listen, I know what I did may not have been the most diplomatic of choices, but I really needed to see you but SHIELD was keeping you from me. That was unacceptable,” he said.

Darcy agreed with him to a point. SHIELD was keeping her from him and a prison of boredom, but that did not justify his actions. She wasn’t going to give him a pass just because it was for her.

“I get it. You wanted to see me, but did you have to threaten New York again? You know SHIELD and the Avengers are sensitive about that,” Darcy said with a heavy sigh. “It’s like you learned nothing from me.”

“But that’s it. I have,” Loki insisted. “I have fallen into favor with my father again, and he has granted me back most of my magic. I needed to tell you. I do not wish to start wars or skirmishes any more with the humans or other innocents. I only want one thing,” Loki said, taking her hands into his. “You.”

Damn, it was sweet, Darcy thought, but she still had to go through with the plan. He did go back to his ways, after all, and she was afraid if she didn’t spurn him, that SHIELD would go back on their word and try to capture him.

No, breaking up with him and rejecting him was for his own good.

Darcy let go of his hands and walked back. She hugged herself instinctively, as if she was not only rejecting him, but also her own heart. “I’m sorry, Loki. It’s not enough. Yeah, you let the women go, but you shouldn’t have taken them in the first place. I really don’t feel you’ve learned anything from me or your father.” Loki looked stunned, and Darcy had to force the next words to come out of her mouth she resented them so much. “I can’t be with you. Not until you do something good. Not until you make up for what you did here and understand that threatening to kill people for selfish reasons is not the answer. It’s not worth giving up all that you’ve done to become a better person, and I’m not worth it either.”

Cold, stark emotion fell over his face, and Darcy thought he looked like a stone. He gritted his teeth and whatever light in his eyes that he had to her had been swallowed away by darkness. They even turned red he was so angry and hurt.

So, this was what a broken heart looked like.

“Perhaps you’re right,” Loki said. “Maybe I have not changed that much. I mean, can a human female really affect a God that much? You were spot on about something else too.”

Darcy swallowed an uncomfortable lump in her throat as he glared at her. Then, like a light switch his emotions feel flat and he looked at her like she was an insignificant bug.

“You’re not worth it,” he said. “I know not what I ever saw in you, mortal.”

“Loki, please,” she said, and his nostrils flared with anger that she dare speak to him.

He stared at her for a moment, and she saw a flicker of softness in his expression before looking away from her gaze. “Perhaps you did change something in me, mortal. But that’s over now.” He couldn’t admit it to her, but he still cared about her because she had been there for him at his lowest point when no one else had. Despite that, she was rejecting him now and he wondered if he’d ever get a chance to get her back. Or did he even want her back? A voice deep inside his core said that yes, he did still want her, but she wounded him too much now for it to motivate him.

“Please, I still believe you can do good, Loki. If you were to make up for what you did to those women, one good deed that could show that you have changed and you understand your mistakes, I’d believe in you again for sure. I’d know that you’re a changed man, that you do things out of honest intentions and not out of selfishness,” she said, and as he still looked away from her, her words began to sink into him.

Darcy held out her hand but Loki shook his head. A gust of otherworldly wind spiraled around them, and the moment she blinked through the breeze he was gone.

Xxxxxx.

Loki felt lousy enough to admit that even though he was shitfaced, the lonely and dingy alien bar he was in was actually kind of charming.

When Darcy had rejected him, Loki wandered around dimensions and old favorite haunts until he settled on this place to drink mead and stew over his dejected thoughts.

He’d fallen for a mortal woman. He hadn’t even touched her yet, albeit a kiss and a few movie night snuggles, and yet she had a firm grasp on his heart. Every time he closed his eyes he’d see Darcy’s face. She’d always be pointing her finger at him, scorning him like he was a dog that just messed on the carpet.

The liquor he’d been drinking did not help his unstable thoughts and heart. He was quite certain this drink had some sort of wormwood in it, among other unknown narcotics, and he started to see Darcy in front of him at his table, judging him and rejecting him all over again.

“I fucked up,” he said, and another patron on a nearby table raised his glass to him in solidarity.

“You have to one good deed to make up for your mistake,” he said in a tumble of slurred words. His scoff was watery and loud. “What does that even mean?”

Maybe she was right. Maybe he couldn’t change and he would just fall into his old ways again. It would be so easy to be the man he once was, to take on the Avengers with some new weekly scheme so he could seize power and rule Midgard.

But he would still fail, and Darcy was the one who showed him that he could do more than just lose the game.

“Damn you, female,” he slurred, and his new friend next to him toasted him again. Wanting to be alone, he teleported out of the bar, wondering if teleporting and drinking was dangerous, and he found himself in one of his old hideaways on Asgard where he learned magic. He passed out on the old blankets and cloth and fell into a vertigo of darkness.

Xxxxxxxx.

Loki was stuck in his dreams, and he was losing again. He was in front of a typhoon of dust, and inside was a monster with a very large maw ready to suck him and the rest of existence in it.

He’d done it again. He’d set loose some sort of unstable power onto the world and it had come for its payment: Midgard. Everything would suffer because of him. Everyone would die and the Earth would be the monster’s meal along with Loki in it.

Betrayed by a partnership with evil again, he mused.

Screams echoed in his head, and he turned to his left. Darcy was crying out for him. Tears that streamed down her face were turning to dust. He watched her, impotent and unable to save her, and she turned to rock and mist before him, swallowed by the creature before her hand could reach his. To his right, his brother was trying to bring down lightening that only turned to dust and sand. He glanced at Loki with anger and disappointment before he too befell the Monster’s wrath.

As the monster ate him, Loki tried to hold onto his heart. If only he had done good deeds instead of conspiring to gain power and rule. If only he had listened to Darcy so that she hadn’t rejected him. He’d be holding her in his arms, kissing her lips and exploring her soft skin.

Instead, his dreams made him watch her die.

Xxxxxx.

Loki knew there was only one thing he could do now.

He had to go back to the woman he kidnapped and atone for his sins. He had to do a good deed for her and her stupid friend to make up for his mistake.

However, sneaking up on her while she and her friend were on the bus was probably not the best way to approach her. When he’d teleported in front of her and gave her his best, apologetic smile, she screeched and came at him with a pink mechanical device that sent volts of electricity through his body and knocked him to his knees.

“Creep! You’re not going to kidnap us again!” Max yelled at him. She kicked him in the shoulder for good measure.

“Wait, please.” She kicked him again. “Ah!” She shot him with the pink taser again. “Please, I came to say sorry,” he managed to get out between kicks and jabs.

Her friend, who was equally upset and horrified, joined Max in kicking him. The taser went off a few times again, and he wondered if he’d even be conscious to do his good deed on these women. Though he couldn’t blame them for their anger.

“Please, wait,” he said, holding up his hand in surrender. “I came to give you money.”

When he said the magic word, the women stopped kicking him. The taser was pointing too close to his face, but not enough to touch. He looked up at them cautiously.

“What did you say?” Max asked hesitantly, as if she heard him wrong. If she had, she’d probably start kicking him again.

“I came to say I’m sorry and...invest in your business,” Loki said. They gaped at him, and he stood up and brushed off the subway dirt from his black suit. He cleared his throat. “I owe you a huge apology so I want to give you some money to fund your sweets business.”

“Are you seriously?” her friend asked, and Loki nodded locking eyes with Max. She was the one he had to convince. He knew she wouldn’t believe him so easily.

He held out his hand, opening it with wads of cash in his palm. Max looked hungrily at his money, but she hesitated on taking it.

“Please, I assure you it’s legit. I had to sell a few Norse heirlooms if anyone asks, nothing of importance, but it is real Midgard money. It’ll help you get your shop,” he said.

“Why? Why help us after you tried to kill us?” Max asked.

“Ah that was a mistake,” Loki simply said.

“Are you buying us off to make up with your girlfriend? The one that looks like Max?” her friend squeaked. Loki didn’t want it to seem that simple, but she was dead on for his reasoning. Well, he saw it as a good deed too, but the gesture was entirely up his alley.

“You can believe anything you want of my intentions,” he said haughtily. “But these are reparations for your distress. I am humbly apologize for the damage I caused.”

Max said nothing at first, but she grabbed the money from his hand and shot him a curious look. When her face broke out in a grin, he watched her stuff the money into her pronounced bosom and hold up her hands. “Hey, it’s all good. The only thing is you have to come by and see the place when we open.”

He nodded and took his leave of them, hearing them celebrate behind his back before he warped into another dimension. However, Loki returned unnoticed several times to check on the two waitresses and their business.

When it was open and serving customers, he had one last thing to do. He would bring Darcy to their place. Then she would see that he was on the road to redemption once again.

Xxxxxx.

Working for Republican senatorial incumbent Andy Fleiss made Darcy miss Loki all over again. In fact, she was quite sure the senator was a shadier human being than Loki ever was as a villain.

Months had shaved by since Darcy last saw Loki, and the longer he was out of her life, the guiltier she felt for rejecting him. SHIELD had been happy to be rid of the Loki problem despite her feelings, but they were good on firing her and finding her a new position. She was good at dealing with politicians and arrogant personalities, but sometimes she felt Fury and Coulson had set out to torture her with a job like this.

But she was damn good at it. She only wished Loki was around so she could tell him all about the people she worked with and all the scandal she had to bury.

After one particularly bad day of getting yelled at by another staffer, Darcy set back to her apartment that evening intent on ordering pizza and watching bad horror films on Netflix. When she opened her door, she noticed a small paper napkin had been slid underneath. Her mouth dropped when she read the text. It was an address in a sketchy part of New York, and it was merely signed with a drawing of two horns.

Horns that looked like Loki’s helmet.

There was no date on the napkin, so Darcy didn’t know when he expected her, but she guessed that knowing Loki, he waited for her the moment he gave her the address.

Locking her door again, Darcy turned heel and made it back down the stairwell of her apartment complex and hailed one of the cabs. She waited eagerly as the cab took off, heading in the direction of the address - and Loki.

The cab pulled up to a dingy block with a diner, a dry cleaners, and on the end, a confectionary. The confectionary seemed out of place in the area, with its curb appeal at a slightly higher class than the rest of the urban decay of the neighborhood. It boasted big windows to look inside the store, where the walls were painted pink and yellow and displayed a myriad sort of desserts with the prominent sweet being cupcakes.

Darcy slowly headed inside the shop and made sure the address painted on the window was the same on her napkin. Inside the store, her dead ringer greeted her with enthusiasm.

“Hey! It’s you!” The woman came out from behind the counter and took her hands. “I’m Max, by the way. He’s been waiting for you. Come on!” She pulled her along into the back of her shop. Max directed her to a small table that looked out of place in the white kitchen. On the table was one red rose, two plates on either side with cupcakes, and Loki was seated in one of the chairs. He stood up gracefully to greet her.

“Loki,” she said breathlessly. “What...what is this? I thought you left after I…”

“I did leave for some time. Not to Asgard. I just… I needed to think. I came back to Midgard and knew what I had to do.” He took her hand. “Let me show you.”

He gave her a tour of the shop, from the kitchen, to the pantry of supplies, to the cute little front where all the cupcakes were on display.

“I don’t understand,” Darcy said, but she didn’t let go of his hand.

“My one good deed. This is it. I funded Max and Caroline’s business. They’ve been selling their cupcakes for months now. They were able to quit their jobs at the diner, get a better apartment, and live on something better than minimum wages. Caroline has even been taking care of her horse again.”

“Wow, you paid for all of this?” she eyed him suspiciously.

“It’s legit,” Max said. “He sold some Norse stuff or something. All totally legal.”

“Yeah, no problems at all,” Caroline said.

“I donated some of the more priceless artifacts to the Natural History Museum. The smaller items I was able to sell at auctions. All the money went into this business,” he said. “But I own none of it. They hold full proprietorship.”

“Wow,” Darcy said. “You did this for them? Because you kidnapped them?”

Loki faced her, taking both hands in his again. He pulled her close, and she looked up into his clear eyes. “Yes, because I wanted to show you that I could make up for my mistake.”

“Just for me?” Darcy asked him.

“And for myself, I suppose. But yes, mostly for you,” he said.

Darcy stared at him for a moment, processing everything he had told her about this business and how he had come back to help Max and Caroline, not just come back to her without anything to show for his progress. She sniffled, suddenly overwhelmed with emotion. Impulsively, she jumped into Loki’s arms and embraced him, feeling pride and love swell from his touch all over again.

“Does this mean you forgive me?” he asked.

“Shut up, just shut up,” Darcy said through tears. She pulled away and then pointed her finger at him. “You really worried me.”

“You rejected me. What else was I supposed to do?” Loki said.

“You know damn well that I was forced to do that to you. SHIELD made me convince you to leave. They couldn’t deal with you and they didn’t want to clean up some mess if you resisted. They even fired me; though I sort of asked them to,” Darcy said.

“They fired you?” Loki asked. “Pray tell why?”

“Because I consorted with the enemy,” Darcy said, showing pride. Max and Caroline sniggered in the background. Loki pulled her against him again and cupped her cheek.

“They don’t even know the half of it,” Loki said, and he leaned down and captured her lips. Darcy melted into him, and Caroline and Max whooped and whistled at them in encouragement. Their sounds were drowned out as Loki’s tongue delved deeper, eager for her taste and feeling too lonely for way too long. He pulled back reluctantly and nuzzled his nose against hers. “I’ve wanted you for way too long, Darcy Lewis, and nothing will keep you from me again.”

Darcy planted a light kiss on his nose. “You read my mind. Now let’s go back to my place.”

“Hey! Not before you finish those cupcakes, you lovebirds!” Max said, throwing cold water on their emotions. They looked back at her, somewhat annoyed. Darcy laughed and Loki rolled his eyes. The two cupcake owners ushered them back to their romantic little table in the kitchen, and Darcy finally tried the cupcakes that Loki helped invest.

She gave a thumbs up to Max, and the dead ringer winked at her. “Listen, Darcy, we totally need to get together. I mean, we look like twins. It’s crazy! Like we’re total doppelgangers, which we could use to our advantage…”

Darcy watched as Loki paused, and one of his eyebrows lifted. She grinned at Max.

“So I was thinking, if you ever want some fun… we could swap places, totally fool some people and maybe even make some money,” Max suggested.

Darcy considered it for a moment, but Caroline huffed audibly. “Don’t listen to her, Darcy. She just wants to trade places with you to avoid the IRS. I’d steer clear of that if I were you.”

Darcy laughed, and she looked over at Loki’s amused expression. She held out her hand over the table, and eagerly he took it. Their two new friends chattered in the background, but Darcy was too busy being lost in Loki’s gaze.

“You really have redeemed yourself, haven’t you?” she said to him.

“If I have, it was because of you, my mortal,” he said, and he pulled her hand forward and kissed the top of it. “Let me redeem myself even more and prove to you how much I’ve changed.”

“I’d like that,” Darcy said, and she leaned down toward the table and whispered. “Now let’s get out of here before they make us eat more.” Loki nodded, and Darcy shot him a mocked serious look. “We have a lot of catching up to do.”

“That we do,” he said seductively, and his tone made Darcy shiver with anticipation.

“You weren’t talking about Netflix, were you? Because I was,” she said, and Loki laughed. He pulled her up from the table and they fell close together, saying their goodbyes and heading out into the unpredictable future.

Loki was glad he did that one good deed, and Darcy was glad to have him back. To her he was her true home, and to him, she was not only his reason for redemption, but also for his reason for winning for a change.

With Darcy Lewis by his side, Loki would never lose again.

END

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