A/N: Inspired by Nemhaine42's Asgardian flowers. Go to her tumblr and check out the artwork [tagged #tasertricks]. It's perfection. [Prompt + art used with permission]. Other fic to be updated as I re-train my writing muscles.

Suggested listening:

Florence + The Machine – Hardest of Hearts
Angus and Julia Stone – Big Jet Plane
Zedd [feat. Matthew Koma and Miriam Bryant] – Find You
The Civil Wars – Dust to Dust

From his perch on the balcony of the Golden Palace, Loki found himself looking out upon the great expanse of the colourful Asgardian sky. It wasn't that long ago that he was imprisoned for his crimes, and though he wasn't exactly 'reformed' (as some might like to think), he was certainly glad to be back where he belonged.

Odin had a mouthful to say about Loki's deception when he finally awoke from the Odinsleep. One of the younger prince's allies was unexpected in his fervent defence, however: Lady Sif. There had been enough bad blood between the two, yet she stood up for his decisions over the last year, claiming that he brought a sense of stability to Asgard, not unlike Odin himself. The great king had lifted a silver brow at that, but had accepted her word — along with the grudging agreement of the Warriors Three — as fact. The unspoken yet ghostly feeling of guilt haunted the Allfather as he declared to all of Asgard that Loki would serve a probationary period in the palace.

His magic as strong as ever, Loki began to hone it to an even finer point during his probation. Thor was back on Midgard with his mortal woman, so there wasn't much in the way of "innocent" mischief to be caused. The library and his mother's old tomes held plenty more for him to learn as he holed himself away from the rest of Asgard. Within those pages, he learned more about his transportation magic and the many things he could do from his own bedroom.

It began innocently enough. Loki had been curious how far he could extend his sphere of magic. Shutting his eyes in concentration, he curled his legs into himself and sat straight as a board.

He'd been a religious practitioner of meditation, so his mother's gardens came to mind fairly quickly. It was peaceful there; the scents, sounds, and feel of the petals beneath his fingertips reminding him of simpler times. Frigga's favoured silver-tipped, sunset gold petalled lilies drew his mind's eye, glistening in the waning Asgardian sun as though winking at him.

His lips lifted into a soft smile, the breath leaving through his nose as he focussed his energy.

It was just a fleeting thought. Who could have expected that anything would come of it?

"Jane!" came the shout of a definitely irritated assistant.

Rolling her eyes, the scientist set her notebook on the lab bench and turned around in her wheelie-chair. "What is it this time? I'm so close!"

Darcy huffed as she lowered her own notebook filled with illegible Jane-scrawls. "Yeah, yeah. Why don't you get Thunderman to finish up for a sec?" She tossed her head in Thor's direction, who was busy fiddling with Stark's latest gadget. "I need you to go over these figures again. Were you, like, high on the epic Fumes of Science when you wrote these?"

Jane wrinkled her nose before rolling over to Darcy's table, completely disregarding the latter's suggestion. Thor was busy anyway.

"It's simple," she said, fingers already tracing the figures as Darcy's eyebrows grew tighter and tighter.

The end of the day seriously couldn't get there fast enough.

Luckily, a few hours later, they were locking the lab up. The back of Darcy's head was the only thing Jane saw as she called out:

"6am tomorrow!"

Muttering "6am my ass," Darcy swiped her keycard for the elevator and tapped her foot impatiently. The sooner she walked through her door, the quicker she could shuck every stitch of clothing and laze about in a sudsy bathtub. Lavender this time. Or maybe freesia?

The ding of the lift broke her train of thought for a split-second, only to return to her imaginings of the rest of her evening during the smooth ride up.

"Floor 20," FRIDAY's crisp accent called out. "Have a lovely evening, Miss Lewis."

"Same to you!" Darcy chirped back, a definite bounce to her step.

Dreams of bubbly little fairies danced in her head with each step closer to her apartment. The sweet scent of lavender and… was that lilac? …filled her nose as soon as she got within ten feet of her door.

"I need to cut back on the coffee," Darcy murmured to herself, the green light beeping to let her in.

What met her senses was seriously something out of the twilight zone. That lavender-y/lilac-y fragrance hit her stronger, with a touch of jasmine and sweet tea just tickling the tip of her nose. It was the strangest smell she'd ever experienced, despite its pleasant effect on her whole body. Like a sleeping draught and stress-reducer wrapped into one, she felt her cares wash away, her eyelids threatening to droop any minute.

One by one, her things littered the hallway and living room in a messy trail leading to the bathroom. Darcy crouched butt naked next to the tub, her fingers wiggling under the faucet as the water became gloriously hot.

"That's a good girl," she cooed to the faucet, her toes already tingling in anticipation of the first step into the steamy water.

"Miss Lewis?" FRIDAY's artificial voice questioned. If Tony's new AI could sound perplexed, that was definitely it.

"Oh, nothing. Just complimenting your boss's superb plumbing. Carry on!" Her salute looked blurry in the mirror without her glasses on, but she could make out her mega-watt smile all the same.

"Very well. Pleasant bath."

The thumps and thuds of her rooting around under the sink fell quiet as she found what she was looking for. Pepper Potts has the best taste in toiletries, she thought happily, tipping the glass bottle under the faucet and watching the frothy bubbles take shape. Lavender swirled through the room, effectively pushing that odd scent out the door for the time being.

As soon as she slipped into the bath, she felt her entire body turn into a puddle of amazing goo. That whatever-it-was effect from before coupled with the everything of this bath knocked her right out.

Thank god she always used a floatation neck pillow, or she'd be really fucked.

Lots and lots of flowers. All over the place, like a whole ball pit filled with them as far as the eye could see. She was swimming in flowers, for god's sake.

"They represent youthful curiosity and hope," whispered a disembodied voice.

Darcy felt like she was moving super slo-mo as she turned to seek out the source of those words. All she could see were those flowers, their fragrance filling up her nose and making her want to wrap herself in the silky petals and roll around like a cat cracked out on catnip.

Was that a spot of drool on her lip?

All of a sudden, a bright image lit up around the edges of her vision that she absolutely could not make out. Even squinting left her more confused than before. Like a word on the tip of your tongue, it was slipping away faster than she could whip out a butterfly net and take a swing at it.

Shit! Darcy cursed mentally, that last image startling her from the weird-awesome-still-weird dream she'd just had. Water sloshed over the rim of the bath as she sat up straighter and got to work scrubbing the day's grime off.

"Seriously Darce, cut back on the caffeine. And alcohol. Maybe even cut down on Mad Scientist Jane rambling. She's turning you nuts, too." It didn't escape her notice that she was talking to herself.

Bath time finished, she got up, nearly avoiding a fatal and would-be embarrassing slip. "Oh my god, shitty way to die," she murmured to herself as she started wrapping a colourful striped towel around her chest. Foregoing drying and brushing her hair in favour of a messy bun, she finished up with her teeth and smacked her lips, glasses slipped right back in place.

The hallway clock read 8:16pm as she puttered about. A quickly nuked dinner and watered down glass of tea later found Darcy padding into her room to change for the night.

That scent again. It got way stronger as she crossed the threshold. Searching the room out didn't immediately shoot up any warning flags so she shrugged to herself and pulled on a set of sleepy panda PJs. "Thank you, Forever 21!" she sighed in praise. Cute PJs were so damn hard to find anywhere else.

When she went about drawing down the sheets on her bed, she saw it: sitting atop her night table, casual as could be, was a crystalline jade vase. In it was a single deep orange stem topped with the most unusual flower she'd ever seen.

Crawling across her bed, she gingerly touched the tip of a petal with her index finger. Darcy's senses were overwhelmed by the softness and the fragrance. As though the stuff of her dreams had plopped down right in front of her, beckoning her with its rich detail.

"This is so weird." The same index finger absently stroked her lower lip as she tried to connect the dots. "FRIDAY?"

"Yes, Miss Lewis?" asked the AI.

"Did someone send me a flower delivery?"

Darcy looked around for a card, but she found the table otherwise empty. Just the half-full glass of water for the middle of the night.

"No Miss, none that went on record. Shall I question the front desk staff?"

Dropping her hand from its absent touch, she pulled off her glasses and kicked the sheets back. "No, no, it's fine. Probably just Jane or Thor. Thanks FRIDAY!"

"My pleasure. Sleep well, Miss Lewis."

The undeniable sensation of exhaustion tugged at her mind again, her blue eyes turning hazy the more she tried to recollect ever seeing a flower like that before. "Yeah, you too," she belatedly replied, her mouth already closing as she felt herself succumb to sleep.

Far, far away, on the Realm Eternal, Loki looked down from his balcony into seemingly nothing. His eyes shut before a slow current of magic moved through him, the unspoken confirmation that his mother's flower had ended up someplace bringing a smile to his serene face.

Midgard was the last place he'd imagined, but when he pictured the mortal girl in his mind's eye, he thought perhaps it was fortuitous. He'd covertly watched her before, when Thor had landed himself on the realm in his banishment, and subsequently when Loki himself went down to subjugate the populace. Unfortunate that he could not call himself King of Midgard today.

No matter. This would be far more interesting a diversion.

The more he thought about the direction his magic took him, the more intrigued he became. As though the forces that be were telling him some unspoken secret he should be wise to listen to.

Perhaps a future delivery was in order.