Feel Something

Chapter 5: Runaway

They had been driving for almost an hour, and Loki had not uttered a single word since they left the lab. Although she normally was the type to fill silence at all costs, Darcy didn't mind the quiet. She could tell Loki needed the space, and she kinda did too, if she was totally honest with herself.

Darcy still had no idea what she was doing. She had always been such a good little Jewish girl. Straight A student. Went to synagogue every week. Never mixed with the bad crowd and was always home before 10pm. Even in college, without her parents supervision and rules, Darcy always took care to be with the right people and in the right situations. She didn't like drama and didn't like getting in trouble, so she steered clear of anything that might bring unwanted risk or danger.

And yet here she was, road tripping across New Mexico with a dude she'd known for less than 24 hours. A dude who she was about 90% sure really was an alien from another planet.

Either the bomb her parents dropped on her over the holidays really seemed to be taking its toll, or Darcy was officially certifiably insane. Or maybe she just couldn't turn a blind eye to someone in need.

He may not have said a whole lot about who he was or why he showed up in New Mexico of all places, but Loki clearly needed help. He pushed away everyone who offered so much as a kind smile, kept his guard up constantly, and didn't have a penny to his name. Nowhere to live. No one to turn to. How could she just abandon him to an aggressive battalion of armed soldiers who seemed more likely to turn him into a science project than actually help him?

There was also something oddly relatable about him. Darcy was more of the open book type, but ever since finding out her mom and dad weren't her real mom and dad—biologically speaking—it was hard to be so trusting as before. She didn't know what had Loki so guarded and wary of everyone he met, but it was a feeling she knew all too well from recent months. And in her personal experience, not knowing who to trust seriously sucked.

And that brought things back to the present situation. Why exactly did Darcy trust him so much, given her own trust issues? Empathy for his emotional damage wasn't a particularly logical reason to throw caution to the wind like this. Don't-go-on-road-trips-with-strange-men was Being Female 101.

As if reading her mind, Loki finally broke the silence. "I'm beginning to think you do not care much for your personal wellbeing, Miss Lewis."

"What?"

"This is the second time you have put yourself in a vulnerable situation with a man you hardly know. What if I'm not the innocent you paint me to be? What if I'm everything Erik Selvig and all those warriors fear me to be? A security threat."

Darcy pondered this for a second—still wondering the same thing herself—but eventually just shrugged and answered, "You're not."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because...I know a hurting person when I see one."

Loki looked taken aback, but quickly schooled his features, "Being a hurting person does not inherently make someone safe. But as I told you before, I am not a charity case."

"I didn't say you were. I said you're hurting. You don't have to talk about it, but you just seem like a guy who got stuck in a tough situation and could use a little support. I'm not saying I'll buy you a house or anything—I'm a dirt poor college student—but I can help you find a new place to start if that's what you want. I get the feeling you don't have anywhere else to go?"

"Quite the astute observer, aren't you?" Loki bit back.

"And your family? They're all still on...Asgard?"