I planned to wait until after NaNo to start this sequel. Maybe even until the new year. But sometimes you just need your freakin' crack!fluff.

You'll probably want to read Ordinary Love before starting. But if you don't mind missing the exhibitionist smut and video games, the basics are this: a) Thor and Loki got banished to New Mexico for awhile and more or less worked out their issues, b) the Bifrost is gone with Jane and Darcy stuck on Asgard, c) Jane and Loki have all the sex but are still in kind of uncertain 'relationship' mode, and d) Darcy and Thor are besties due to pop culture bonding and mutual disinterest in angst.

Last note: this series, like Ordinary Love before it, will be primarily prompt-based. Got an idea? Don't hesitate to share :D

So we're good? We're good.

Redgryphon: Asgardian table manners! Throw that cup Jane! Throw it!
Vaneria Potter: When in Asgard… Asgard customs are very different to Midgard customs

Wherein Thor gives a toast and Jane smashes a mug. (Humor/Romance. PG-13.)

The first thing Jane learns about Asgardians is that they can throw a party together really quickly.

She would have liked to have spent her first night on the other side of the universe (seriously, is she really here? Decades of work and tears and stargazing and she's done it) doing… well, really anything. Exploring. Taking notes. Getting to the highest building possible and charting every single new constellation she can find.

Stuffed in a crowded sweltering hall that's taken all its decorating cues from medieval Europe surrounded by a thousand shouting drunk people who keep goggling at her and Darcy while covered in dust and sweat and bloodstains? Wouldn't even have been in her top twenty choices.

Not that it's completely awful. Thor's clearly ecstatic to be home, and she's never seen Loki so relaxed. (She knows he's relaxed because she can literally feel it, having been in his lap since the moment they sat down. Which she suspects has a lot to do with the staring.) And Darcy—

Darcy prods Jane in the side, grinning. "This beer," she says, mug in hand, face flushed. "Have you tried this beer? This is great beer."

"I'm not a beer person."

"You'll change your mind for this stuff. Seriously, try it. It's awesome."

Loki's chuckle vibrates against Jane's back. "If you like the ale," he tells Darcy, "wait until the mead begins to flow."

"Cool."

Darcy's quickly pulled off into another conversation with Thor, who's introducing her to about fifty people a minute. Jane's not sure if Loki's supposed to be doing the same for her, but she's glad he's not. "You will enjoy the mead as well, Jane Foster," he says, pressing a kiss to her shoulder. On his lap they're the same height. "I will be… interested to learn your reaction to it."

"That sounds ominous."

Loki only grins.

It's been a mess of a day, but one thing's for sure: Jane is so glad he's not dead.

Glad enough that she hasn't minded the way he's been stroking her thigh for the last ten minutes, even when making conversation with whoever comes over to talk to him (a whole lot fewer people, Jane has noted, than come to talk to Thor). But now his fingers have moved to the button of her jeans and it's time to intervene. "Knock it off," she hisses to him, grabbing his wrist before he can pull down her zipper. "It was bad enough being porn stars in Puente Antiguo. I am not going to provide a bunch of free HBO to a whole new planet."

But Loki just chuckles again — before saying in her ear: "This isn't Midgard, Jane Foster. I could take you here on the banquet table and no one would bat an eye."

Jane swallows. "I kind of doubt that."

"Doubt all you wish. You'll learn our ways soon enough." Yeah, he's definitely gloating now. "But if the idea discomfits you — for now — there's no reason anyone need see or hear." And he takes his hand from between her legs (which she is not disappointed about) and makes a quick gesture at her mug of beer.

The mug vanishes.

It vanishes.

Jane's mouth drops open. "Did you do that?"

"I did."

Fascinated, Jane reaches to where her beer had just been sitting. Her fingers brush the invisible ceramic side, and with a little shimmer of gold, the mug returns to sight. "Oh, my God," she breathes.

"Hold still." Another gesture, and the mug is gone again — along with Jane's hand, right up to the wrist.

She squeaks in shock and yanks back instinctively. Her hand turns visible the moment she does. There might be a conversation later over not disappearing body parts without a warning, but for now, Jane's too amazed to care. "It's got to be changing the light refraction. It's light refraction, right?"

"It's magic. And it has many practical applications." Loki hitches her a little closer, and she can feel him half-hard against her backside. "Shall I demonstrate a few of them?"

Jane definitely isn't about to agree — really — when the blond guy, the one with two women on his lap, calls from his seat across the table: "I see you've finally found someone impressed by your little tricks, Loki!"

A few people nearby laugh.

Loki's embrace stiffens slightly. But his voice is light as he calls back: "Not all of us need compensate with a lengthy blade, Fandral!"

More laughter, including from Fandral himself. He raises his mug in salute. "Well-played. But if your lovely mortal loses interest in illusions and decides to seek solid swordplay, you will remind her of Fandral the Dashing, will you not?"

It's like the time in her freshman year at Cal Tech when her first astrophysics professor told her she'd watched Star Trek one too many times. The whole class had laughed just like this. And it wasn't the last time, either. "We've had 'solid swordplay' on Earth for millennia," Jane snaps. "There's nothing to study in that." To Loki she says: "Show me again."

Loki obediently vanishes the mug once more. "Light refraction," she mutters, putting a decade of mockery out of her mind. "I need a mirror."

"Whatever you wish," murmurs Loki.

Fandral just shrugs off Jane's criticism and turns his attention to Darcy (who, Jane hasn't failed to notice, has been watching the exchange). "And you, pretty one? Are all Earth maidens as fair as you?"

Darcy smiles. "Nope."

"Come then, love." He pushes the pouting women off his lap and beckons. "Sit by my side and tell me your tales of Midgard."

"Nah," says Darcy. She takes another swig. "No offense, but you seem like kind of a dick."

Once again, the entire table bursts into laughter — and no one louder than Thor (though Loki's close). "Darcy Lewis is too much for the sorry likes of you, Fandral," he says. "She is wise beyond all things."

Sif, sitting on the other side of Thor, looks at her beer like she could freeze it with the force of her glare.

Loki snickers, but — Jane has to give it to him — not in a mean way. "Before the week is out," he whispers to Jane, "Darcy Lewis will have her own statue at the palace gates."

Jane doesn't get a chance to reply before Thor's climbing right on top of the table, mug in hand. "I have been remiss," he announces, voice booming through the hall. Everyone immediately falls silent; looks like there are benefits to being a prince. "A toast, my friends: a toast to the women who sheltered my brother and I in our exile. Who helped us, who taught us, who guided us through a strange land when we were lost and powerless. Without their knowledge and cleverness, we would not be here amongst you on this day." He raises his beer. "We drink to the health of Darcy Lewis, bestie of Thor Odinson, and Jane Foster, consort of Loki Odinson."

Now Jane gets a whole lot of new stares. Many of them aren't good.

And, hey, when did she actually agree to this whole 'consort' thing? Is there a job description somewhere?

Volstagg looks as confused as she feels. "No, truly, what is a bestie?"

Loki reaches around her to lift his own drink. "To Darcy Lewis and Jane Foster," he adds. "May they receive from our realm all the welcome and acclaim that is their rightful due." Unlike Thor, there's an edge of warning to his words.

Jane glances at Darcy, who shrugs and drains her beer along with everyone else.

Thor's done first. He winks at Jane, grins broadly, and throws his mug to the stone floor. It shatters on impact. "Another!" he shouts.

Suddenly the hall is filled with flying cups and the sound of smashing. "Another!" "Another!" "Another!"

"It must suck to be part of this cleaning crew," Darcy comments to Jane. Not that that stops her from tossing her own.

This is so weird.

Jane hasn't been drinking herself, but Loki hands her his empty mug. "Throw it."

"Uh…"

"Go on. I learned your ways, and now you will learn mine."

"I'm not sure 'learning my ways' is what you did, Loki." Still, he's kind of got a point. When in Rome, right?

Jane throws the mug to the floor with all her strength.

It explodes.

Okay, that was really satisfying.

And Loki's back to nuzzling the side of her neck. "I am going to take you to bed now," he informs her.

"Sounds good." If he keeps touching her like this she's in real danger of submitting to the whole public sex thing (again). A bed is a definite improvement. A real bed, she assumes, not the foam mat of the trailer. There are a lot of possibilities in that.

But before they can even get to their feet, a guard bursts into the hall, throwing open the huge doors with a clatter. "The All-Father has awakened!" he shouts. "The Odinsleep has ended once more!"

An enormous cheer goes up from the crowd.

Thor and Loki glance at each other.

"Um," says Thor.

"Um," says Loki.

And Jane kind of suspects there's about to be a raincheck on the bed thing.