Darcy Lewis was by all means extremely ordinary. Exceptionally lucky, that was for sure, but there really wasn't really anything about her that screamed unique or fascinating. Two months before, she had been accepted into a grad-student study-abroad program that let her work under Jane Foster at Cambridge University. That was incredibly lucky, even though she had worked her ass off to get there. Mostly luck was what got her everything awesome in her life.

"Good morning," Darcy said as she walked into the workshop. Jane was already hard at work studying an artifact that came in the day before, some kind of coin from ancient Rome or something like that.

Jane Foster was extremely intelligent when it came to her field of expertise, but beyond that she was very simple. She enjoyed her life being simple, nothing too exciting, just living with her boyfriend and working at the University and not much else. She was an American as well, getting her doctorate in archeology.

"Hey, come look at this. It's absolutely stunning." Jane said, not taking her eyes off the coin.

"I'll take your word for it. Has anything else come in?"

"Just the mail," Jane half-heartedly motioned toward her desk, where a fresh pile of mail sat, waiting for one of the two women to go through.

"Oh joy, bills," Darcy muttered, flipping through the various envelopes. She stopped at the last one: it was from someone else in their department, a professor she'd never heard of before.

"Hey Jane, who's Professor… Odinson? That's a dumb name. Do you know who that is?"

"Odinson? Like Thor?" Jane looked over at her with one eyebrow raised.

Darcy removed her foot from her mouth before answering. She had just called her boss's boyfriend's last name dumb. There was no way in hell that Thor Odinson was a professor of anything, but the name was the same and she had just called it dumb. Truthfully, it was a lame insult, but it would probably upset Jane.

"Yeah, except it says 'professor'. Do you know Professor Odinson?" Darcy decided to play it off.

"I can't say that I do. What is he or she the professor of?"

"Mythology. Can someone be a professor of that? Well, I guess they can, but—"

She was cut off by a sharp knocking on the door, followed by Thor Odinson himself sticking his head into the room.

"Jane!" he all but yelled, stepping through the door. Jane got up and ran over to him, greeting him with a full-on hug.

"My greeting was that friendly," Darcy commented with a smug smile as the two broke their embrace.

"Sorry, Darcy. And what did that letter say?" Jane asked, walking back over to the coin.

"I don't know; I haven't opened it yet. It says on the front though that it's from Professor Odinson."

"Ah, my brother, Loki," Thor said, smiling widely.

"You have a brother?" Jane asked, surprised. Darcy couldn't help smiling at that: these two have been dating for several months now and Jane didn't know something that huge about him. This would probably result in an argument which was usually very entertaining because of Thor's thick-headedness and Jane's use of big words when she's upset. Darcy sat down at her little desk in the corner, spinning slightly back and forth on the wheelie chair.

"Surely I have told you," he said unsurely, obviously just trying to avoid a fight.

"No, it must've slipped your mind."

Darcy then zoned out, opening the letter slowly to avoid making noise to distract Jane. When she was angry, she was in the zone. If Darcy took her attention, it may be the last thing she ever did.

The letter was addressed to both of them. Well, more like 'Jane Foster and assistant'. It basically said that Professor Odinson wanted their help looking at something and that he would be stopping by today to talk to them about it.

I hope he's hot, Darcy thought. Wait, what if it's a woman? No, Thor said brother. Loki. What kind of name is Loki? Then again, what kind of name is Thor? Or Darcy, for that matter? Digressing. Anyway: I hope he's really hot. If he's related to Thor, then he probably will be. Although, he is a professor, so he's obviously not like Thor in the intelligence department. Who knows—

Darcy was abruptly pulled out of her thoughts by another knock on the door. Jane stood and walked over, still fuming from her argument, and opened it. Darcy couldn't see the person from her angle, but Jane was looking up at them.

"Hello, my name is Professor Odinson, I—" The voice suddenly stopped. "Thor?"

"Brother," Thor called out, walking to the door as well. He was obviously going in for a hug, but stopped for some reason.

"It's been a while. How have you been?"

"Good. I have Jane now," Thor beamed, putting his arm around her.

"I see. I was wondering if I could speak to Ms. Foster for a moment, if she wouldn't mind," he asked ever so politely.

"Of course, come in," Jane said, turning around and walking back to her desk. Darcy wheeled over to sit beside the desk, finally getting a view of this Professor Odinson.

He was tall— even taller than Thor, and that was saying something— and that was where their similarities ended. Thor was blonde and built and had a big smile almost all of the time while Loki Odinson was black-haired, lanky while still being a little muscular, and this brother had a weird expression on his face. He seemed downright disturbed by the fact his brother was there. His eyes, though, were what drew Darcy: dark, observing, intelligence practically seeping out. Everything Thor's weren't. The fact these two were brothers was astounding. He was also surprisingly young for a professor, probably around thirty years old. Most professors here were past their forties, tenured, and well aged. But then again, he was new. Maybe he was freshly graduated or was super-smart and graduated college at fifteen or something.

"What is it that you need?" Jane asked Loki almost impatiently. Darcy could see that Loki caught that and ignored her rudeness, beginning his proposition.

"I have recently discovered a site in Egypt," he began, "that could possibly be a huge archeological find. It is believed to be the site of a large tomb to several different pharaohs, spanning before and during the Roman occupation. My proposition is that you and your assistant accompany me to Egypt to study the site for two weeks, and help me try to find an entrance to the tomb."

There was a moment of silence as everyone seemed to look to Jane, who was staring at Loki. She opened her mouth to say something but apparently decided against it, instead just biting her lip.

"I'm in," Darcy belted, grinning. Everyone turned to look at her. Jane looked shocked, Thor looked like he had forgotten she was there, but Loki's face drew a small smile. "It sounds like fun. I'd personally love to discover some mummies."

"Well, that's one of you. What do you say, Ms. Foster?" Loki said after a moment. Once again, all eyes were on Jane.

Jane seemed to be contemplating something. "Would the university—"

"I've already talked to them. They'd let us borrow the equipment we need, pay for transportation, and it'd even be a credit for Ms. Lewis. We don't have to worry about checking in with the university or anything; Doctor Sterns was very adamant in us not bothering him as much as possible during the trip."

Darcy was slightly surprised he knew her name. So far, he'd just called her 'Jane's assistant', which in all honesty what she was used to being referred to as.

"Would it be safe?" Jane asked.

"I have personally arranged for a man to accompany us. He's an old friend and a specialist. We'll be very safe." Loki assured her.

Jane contemplated for a moment. Darcy was really hoping she'd say yes; she wasn't sure if Loki would still bring her if Jane said no. She was, after all, just an assistant. Sure, she was knowledgeable on the subject, but Loki wanted a specialist and an assistant, not some grad-student who had just recently switched from political science because of her undying love of adventure movies.

"I'll do it," Jane said. "On one condition: Thor can come too."

At that, Loki's face drained as Thor's lit up. Darcy thought that request was kind of rude on Jane's part, but knowing Jane that was understandable. Those two were inseparable. Loki looked like someone just told him Christmas had been canceled.

"I suppose he can come, if you think he'll… help you." Loki muttered, obviously not excited about his brother coming with them on their big journey abroad.

Jane jumped up and went to hug Thor, obviously forgetting about their fight a few minutes ago. As it began to heat up, Darcy stood and faced Loki.

"Would you like to talk with me outside about some of the details?"

"Yes please," Loki said, and the two of them moved quickly for the door.

"Are they usually that… friendly?" Loki asked as the door shut behind him.

"Sometimes more. I've learned to zone out really easily." They were slowly walking down the long hallway, not really aiming to go anywhere.

"Sounds like a handy trait to have, working around Ms. Foster and Thor," The tone Loki had when talking about him, the way he looked at him, the expression he had when Jane said she wanted him to come, and simply the way he said his brother's name said so much about Loki's view on Thor.

"You don't like your brother?" Darcy asked.

"Um," Loki looked taken aback. Admittedly, that was kind of a random thing to say. It had little to do with what their conversation had just been, but Loki seemed to follow. "We don't usually get along. I haven't seen him in a while, is all."

"You know, Thor and Jane were just arguing because he had never mentioned you to her."

"He hadn't?" Loki asked. She could see he tried to say that impassively, but there was pain there.

"Sorry," she muttered.

"It's all right. I understand. I don't go telling many people about Thor, either," he said, smiling a little.

"Well that's understandable. His most shining achievement was being on a rugby team that didn't lose every game."

"Was?"

"Yeah, he didn't make it this year. He's just been living with Jane. I don't really know what he does all day, but it really doesn't take much to keep him entertained, you know?"

"Hmm," Loki murmured, trying to hide a smile. At that, Darcy started laughing.

Behind them, the door to the workshop busted open and Jane and Thor walked out, heading for the exit quickly.

"I guess Jane's calling it quits early today. Wow, before 10 AM. I think that's a new record for her."

"That is very impressive," Loki commented, watching them go as well.

"Well, I suppose I'll get to work. Study up some Egyptian. Send us the deets when you get the chance."

"I'll get right on that," Loki grinned at her word choice. She turned to go back into the workshop.

"See you later,"

"Goodbye, Ms. Lewis," Loki said.

Darcy turned back around to see Loki turning to leave, when she called out, "Darcy." He looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "My name's Darcy."

He smiled again. "Goodbye, Darcy."