Feel Something

Chapter 14: Secrets I Have Held in My Heart

Two weeks passed with no further word from Coulson regarding Loki's "first mission." Loki figured they either realized how foolish it was to trust a Jotun—never mind the fact that these mortals didn't even know what a Frost Giant was—or Thor's grandstanding made them wary of Loki's other heritage. Regardless of the reason, Loki was apparently on shore leave. And he hated every minute of it—well, almost every minute.

Between sulking in his room reading and attempting to seek out alternative accommodations (now that he had a somewhat legitimate mortal identity to work with), Loki spent the majority of his time accompanying Darcy and Jane in their work. The two had largely finished setting up all of Jane's equipment, creating a near replica of the lab where he first met the astrophysicist.

Jane's constant barrage of questions was, surprisingly enough, not unwelcome to Loki. It was refreshing to converse with someone who actually had an interest in things beyond combat and conquest, and Dr. Foster was far more intelligent than most. She also greatly appreciated his own intellect, which was an unfamiliar feeling. Never had Loki felt so appreciated for his academic leanings.

On this particular afternoon, they were yet again discussing Jane's favorite subject: the Bifrost.

"So if you can merge the two singularities across locations," Jane said, tracing a number of planets on the whiteboard and drawing a line between two of them, "then it creates an Einstein-Rosen Bridge—"

"In its simplest form, yes. But you're still thinking far too linear," Loki approached the board next to Jane and began drawing an intricate series of branches connecting the planetary points.

"Sooooo...it's a tree?" Darcy interjected, picking up on the shape Loki was creating.

"Yes. No. Well, somewhat," Loki sighed, pressing his fingers on the bridge of his nose in frustration, "It is called Yggdrasil and—Norns, if I only had my seidr I could create an illusion projection and demonstrate this so much more clearly."

"Your seidr," Jane mumbled, scribing furiously in her beloved notebook, "And that's magic, right? Which you can do normally, but not now?"

"Indeed," Loki murmured in reply, still fixated on the whiteboard and trying to piece together an explanation for the Bifrost that the mortals could comprehend. Jane and Darcy were certainly a cut above the rest, but it was still a massive undertaking to explain something in a matter of weeks that he himself had studied for centuries. There simply was not enough time in a short, mortal life.

A shortened lifetime that Loki now shared with his new companions.

Thinking about his temporal nature always left Loki agitated, which he expelled this time by childishly flinging the marker against the board and storming over to sit in a chair on the other side of the room, crossing his arms in a clear sign of leave-me-alone-or-I'll-bite-you.

It never worked, of course. Darcy was frustratingly immune to Loki's irascible nature. Leaving Jane to her fervent study of Loki's bare-bones diagram, Darcy skipped over to perch on the table next to him. "You know," she began, swinging her legs casually, "You told me you didn't have your magic because you were tired from the whole interdimensional travel thing. But it's been a few weeks since then...I'm no expert, but you seem fine to me, physically speaking anyway."

She left her question unspoken, hanging in the air between them like a noose awaiting Loki's neck. He shot a glare in her direction before rising and making his way out of the laboratory. He didn't have to look behind him to know she would follow soon after.

It had become a sort of code between them. Darcy had an uncanny ability of reading Loki—even when he himself didn't know what it was he wanted or needed. If he truly needed to be alone, she would let him be. But when he needed someone to talk to—or someone to just be there—she always knew somehow. She always came.