Dark Star || Loki [1]

[55] Destroyer

4 MAY, 2011

ASTRID

She didn't eat breakfast with the others. She was too busy convincing herself that no, she did not have feelings for the God of Mischief. No, she did not like how his touch lingered like a frozen burn on her skin. Yes, she positively hated how raw and vulnerable he made her feel, how disastrously open she was with him. And she definitely hated how perfect he looked, all the time-even in the darkness of night, when his eyes sunk deep into his skull and she couldn't do nothing to help him because they were both selfish and bad, bad, bad for each other.

Bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. She knew it and he knew it and she hated how her heart beat so hard when she thought of the way his lips curved upwards into the smile she used to hate that she could barely breathe.

Well, shit.

"Lady Astrid!" shouted Thor from the other side of the glass. She was surprised his voice didn't shatter it.

Astrid turned, trying to look amused but instead looking, she imagined, quite pained. "Thor!"

"Please, Jane made plenty of eggs that are scrambled," he said cheerily. There was a goofy, permanent grin on his face from the night he'd spent with Jane on the roof after Astrid decided to sleep downstairs on the squashy couch... reliving and reevaluating her dream-that-wasn't-a-dream, crying into the cushion and then cursing herself. She did not need this. She did not need to think of his lips on hers, his hands absorbing every inch of her skin like a poison, while she tugged on his black hair and gave herself, willingly, to him.

She didn't need that. Because she had a job to do, and an entire city's worth of former criminals to lead. There was no room for any of those consuming, pathetic, sweet thoughts. God, his scent and his mouth and his hands... so sweet, she'd bet her life on it. Sweet and dark and dangerous.

She wanted it.

But she didn't need it. And she could live without it.

Right?

She went inside and sat at the table across from Dr. Selvig, so drastically hungover that he had his body turned away from the New Mexico sun and his eyes half-closed. "Good morning, Doctor," said an amused Astrid over a glass of orange juice.

Selvig just grunted. Astrid helped Thor dish out breakfast for Darcy and Selvig while Jane tried to hide her rosy face over the stove, where she stirred more scrambled eggs.

"These are delicious, Jane," said Astrid through a mouthful of food. It was a lovely distraction.

"The secret is paprika," she said. "Was the couch okay?"

"I'm just grateful for a place to sleep," said Astrid. Smiling puckishly, she added, "Did you have a nice night?"

She saw Jane's hand stutter around the spatula that was flipping the eggs around. Thor watched her from his place to Astrid's left, and she could have sworn there were little hearts in his eyes. "I slept just fine, thank you," said Jane pleasantly.

Astrid winked at Thor. "I'm glad."

Thor smiled at her, and there was mischief in his eyes that struck Astrid across the face. "When you visited Asgard, did you sleep in the same bed as my brother?"

Her mouth fell open. "I... We didn't... I only..."

"I am only teasing, Lady Astrid," laughed Thor.

She mumbled a weak "Shut up" under her breath, poking at her eggs with a fork and feeling much less hungry. Jane sat down next to Thor's right and started a conversation with Selvig, while Thor tentatively reached out and placed his huge hand over Astrid's.