Loki

Chapter 12

"Hey, Loki, wake up!"

Deeply asleep, Loki heard Darcy's voice as though from far away.

"You need to wake up now! I mean, um, unless you have to sleep longer than we do…How long do you people sleep? God, I wish I had some idea what the heck I was doing…"

Loki forced himself to stir, if only to stop Darcy's babbling.

"Oh, okay, you're awake!" she said.

"Your incessant babbling awoke me," Loki grumbled - as he was still half-asleep, he wasn't quite able to manage his typical silver-tongued charm.

"Oh, gosh, I'm sorry!" Darcy exclaimed. "Did you need to sleep longer? Like, how long are you supposed to sleep?"

Loki didn't answer, instead struggling to overcome the lingering dregs of sleep. It was a full minute before he could open his eyes. He sat up and looked at Darcy, and forced himself to give her a charming smile.

"My apologies," he said; "I'd not slept in over a year. A few hours is typically more than enough; this should not happen again."

"Over a year?" Darcy repeated, confused. "That's not possible! I mean, no one can go a whole year without sleep - they'd die!"

"No mortal, perhaps," Loki said, raising an eyebrow at her.

Darcy blinked.

Loki chuckled. "I am not human, Darcy," he said. "I thought that much was clear?"

"Uh…" That seemed to be Darcy's default response to everything.

Loki closed his eyes and put his hand over his face, exasperated. Why did fate do this to him?

"Well, um, anyway," Darcy said after a moment, "it's time for breakfast. Uh, here."

Loki looked up, and saw that she was holding out to him what he assumed was his new, crude clothes for living among mortals.

He took the bundle silently and looked through the garments. A black shirt and coarse blue pants, both - as he had expected - very crudely made with different but equally flimsy fabrics; black socks, again crude and flimsy, and probably as thick as his boots; and shoes that he guessed were made of about three times as much material as his boots were, but wouldn't even reach his ankles.

"Like I said, no one's going to take you seriously if you're dressed like that," Darcy said. "How'd you even sleep in that outfit, anyway?"

He looked at her. "I often do," he said, raising an eyebrow at her. "As for your comment about my garments, know that I will feel like a barbarian and a fool wearing these crude, flimsy things that pass as clothes here in your realm."

"And I'd feel like a freak if I dressed like you," Darcy said. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."