1

This was nice. Jane had given Darcy the afternoon off, after somehow convincing her to lug around what felt like a couple tons of equipment. Of course, by offering her the afternoon off, what Jane meant was that she didn't trust Darcy to not break anything while attempting to set up the lab. Needless to say, all the heavy lifting left her kind of sore. So when she got back to her apartment, Darcy stripped off her clothes and started running a bath.

She wasn't usually a tea sort of person, preferring the quicker jolt of caffeine provided by coffee, but she kept a box of herbal tea around for those times she just needed to relax and unwind. Thinking about it, she was probably just a little too dependent on her morning (and mid-morning, and afternoon) cup of coffee. But she didn't really care. That stuff was good. As she waited for the tub to fill she boiled some water, grabbed one of her many mismatched mugs, and prepared her tea. She made sure to add a gratuitous helping of honey before she left the kitchenette.

Darcy knew how to enjoy a bath. She'd worked it down to a science. She knew exactly how far to turn the temperature dial so the water was hot and the relief instant, but not so hot that it burned. Through an embarrassing process of trial and error she knew exactly how full it needed to be so it wouldn't overflow when she got in, and exactly how long it took the water to reach that level. Just the right amount of time to make tea.

So when she stepped in and sat down everything was perfect. She took a sip of her tea before lying back. This was sweet. She gently closed her eyes and –

"Hello, Ms. Lewis."

Darcy yelped in surprise, and trying to hoist herself up slipped down just a little, flailing about ungracefully before finally managing to get to her feet. She noticed she had knocked her tea over, that she had splashed enough water onto the floor to require actually cleaning it up, that there was a man standing in the middle of her bathroom, that this man was miraculously dry, and finally, that he was staring at her quite intently while she was completely naked. Without a second thought she pulled the shower curtain in front of herself, taking a moment to try and collect her thoughts. She really wished she had her taser.

Unable to make any sense of things with what little information she had, Darcy dared to poke her head out from behind the curtain. The man was smartly dressed, wearing a black three-piece suit and a scarf patterned with swirls of green and a sort of off-white. He was pale, his jet-black hair only emphasizing it. The slicked back style offered an excellent view of his face, which was familiar in all too terrifying a way. His eyes were exceptionally green, and in them she detected a hint of smugness.

"Loki!"

The way she blurted it out was almost a question, but mostly a startled recognition of who exactly this man was. She was scared. Darcy hadn't been in the city during the battle, but she knew what had happened. This was Thor's brother. Thor's younger sort-of-but-not-really brother. The guy who had sent some sort of crazy magic robot thing to destroy them in New Mexico. The guy who more recently had tried to enslave humanity by letting an alien army loose on the city of New York.

And he was in her bathroom.

He raised an eyebrow before repeating his original greeting, "Hello, Ms. Lewis."

There were altogether too many questions racing through her head at that moment for her to respond in any sort of comprehensible manner. "What— How did— Where's— Why the fuck are you in my bathroom?"

It occurred to her that Loki was probably not someone you should yell at. It occurred to her that she was terrified. It also occurred to her that she was far too confused for either of those things to matter. And when she was this confused, she fell back on anger. It was something of a character flaw, she supposed.

"I was bored," he deadpanned.

"And do you just make a habit of creeping on girls when you get bored?" She paused, "Wait, you're supposed to be on Asgard." The fear started to replace the anger, "You were serving out your punishment, right? For the whole trying to take over the world thing?"

"Oh, I am still on Asgard." His features betrayed no emotion.

Now even more confused, she became angry again. "Then what is this?" She pointed at the figure which appeared to be Loki.

"I am hardly a 'what,' Ms. Lewis." He was silent for a moment, obviously reveling in her complete and utter bewilderment. "And simply because I am on Asgard does not mean I cannot also be here."

This was just getting weirder. "Look, I may not be all science-y like Jane, but that's like basic physics or something. You can't be in two places at once. It's not possible. You are either here, or there, or potentially somewhere else for all I seem to know."

He seemed almost amused. "Why would you suppose I am constrained by the laws of your trivial Midgardian science?"

"It's not just Mid—" she decided not to even try to pronounce it, "Whatever you said. It's universal! You can't just do things that aren't possible! That's why they're called impossible!"

"And yet," he gestured to himself.

Darcy suddenly remembered that she didn't particularly care how he was there, in her bathroom, but that he was there at all. She also remembered she was angry.

"Get the hell out of my bathroom!"

He smiled obligingly, "Of course, Ms. Lewis. I wouldn't want to encroach on your privacy. All you had to do was ask."

Loki vanished.

She flicked some water towards the spot he had just been standing in to make sure he was actually gone, and not just invisible. Satisfied, but hesitant, she pushed back the curtain, quickly wrapping herself in a towel just in case. She drained the tub and wrung her hair out before venturing from the bathroom.

Darcy stepped into her bedroom and was relieved to see no sign of Loki. In the mirror she noticed her hair was a mess. Rather, more so than it would usually be after a long, hot, relaxing bath. Of course, she hadn't actually had one of those. So she brushed out the knots before walking over to her dresser and pulling on some clothes. She chose a nice pair of leggings and her favorite sweater. This was definitely the time for her favorite sweater.

Looking into her bathroom yet again, she confirmed that she would need to mop up the water and tea from the floor. But that could wait. She hung up the towel to dry and grabbed the mug. Thanks to Loki's little interruption she hadn't even gotten to enjoy most of her drink. She pouted slightly as she inspected the mug for any cracks. Finding none she brightened up slightly. It was a nice mug.

Darcy decided that she deserved cookies for dealing with whatever the hell it was that just happened. Leaving her bedroom for the kitchenette she passed into her living room and froze. Loki was sitting on her sofa. She dropped the mug.

Thank God she didn't have hardwood floors.

Author Note: I have not written fanfiction in years and omigod is it fun! I've been on a crazy Avengers (more specifically Loki) kick lately, and I have found some absolutely beautiful TaserTricks (Darcy/Loki) works. Funny That Way by LuvaGoodMrE is absolutely incredible, and I think the writing style kind of rubbed off on me here. I have no idea where this story is going, I just thought of the premise of Loki showing up while Darcy is bathing (don't ask where that came from because I have no fucking idea) and had to write it down. So here we are.