Darcy awoke, hot and panting like a Saint Bernard in the Sahara Desert. The clock said it was only 9:30 AM, but the late summer sun was already baking the house. Rolling onto her back, she contemplated the vent in the ceiling, thinking the air coming out wasn't as cool as it should be.

Squirming, she eyed the bedroom door. She had to pee and was trapped in bed. This morning her immortal protector was going with a new version of comatose. Instead of conquering every corner of the bed with his long arms and legs, he had her in a death grip, like a child with a favorite stuffed animal. She tried poking his eyeballs, but that just earned her a growl and his grip tightened like a boa constrictor.

"I really like you better when you're awake," she said, after escaping by slipping down and out of his arms and worming her way out from under the covers on the side of the bed.

Once she'd taken care of business in the bathroom and changed into shorts and a T-shirt, she followed her nose to the kitchen and the smell of fresh brewed coffee. She had the kitchen to herself, which wasn't unusual. Darcy wasn't much of a morning person, but fitting in a quick run or ride before work got her up before the rest of the household.

Normally, however, Jane would be up by eight, compelled by some scientific revelation that she got while dreaming and wanting to explore it further. But usually, Jane went to bed by nine, not one in the morning.

Darcy yawned. The action made her head pound faintly, but overall, she felt pretty good. She gulped down the rest of her coffee, strapped on her helmet and headed out the door for a bike ride.

Waves of heat were already starting to rise lazily off the asphalt, promising another hot day. The last rain, more that a week ago, had been the first and last in months. The landscape was so dry it practically crackled. She licked her lips, feeling like she was living in a food dehydrator under a cloudless blue sky.

A red van passed by and she watched it, thinking it looked familiar. Distracted, she let out a little scream when something erupted from a clump of sagebrush by the road. A leggy jackrabbit, startled out of hiding, bounded across the road and Darcy laughed at herself.

When she reached the Richards' place, she hit the brakes and hopped off the bike, steering it carefully around yellowy patches of grass heavy with sand burrs. Rocket and Meteor were already pressed against the iron gate, tails and butts wagging in ecstasy. Both dogs knew she carried treats, but Rocket shoved her fat white body against the metal bars, hoping to be petted as well.

A rescue from a fighting operation, Rocket had been consigned to bait dog when her sweet disposition made her too docile for fighting. Scars from other dogs' teeth showed up pinkly all along her rotund body. Darcy reached through the fence and scratched behind the tattered remains of the dog's right ear and marveled, as always, at Rocket's forgiving nature.

Meteor, adopted as a puppy and trauma-free, clambered over patient Rocket's back, whining and vying for attention. Darcy fed them both a few biscuits and then got on with her ride, the canines' chorus of barks following her down the road.

She remembered where she'd seen the van before when she passed the burn scar, where the red vehicle was now parked. The whine of an electric saw and ka-chunk of an air nailer came from the barn. The exterior of the building was still the color of the hot dogs that Thor grilled a week before - coal black. (He'd been distracted by a football game.) All the activity seemed to be confined to the building's interior. "Weirdest remodel ever," she said and continued with the ride.

The ride, leisurely and meandering into town, ate up about 45 minutes and banished the hint of hangover that pinged in her head. Back home, she went into her room for her cell phone.

Without a Darcy to treat like a favorite stuffed toy, Loki was now sprawled all over the bed. The warm morning light gave his pale face a golden cast and brought out highlights in his bed-mussed black hair. Okay, so he wasn't too that bad asleep, either. She considered him for a moment, then walked over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Since her room was occupied, she went into his, where she spent some time calling and chatting with a few friends. It wasn't like she was going to spill SHIELD's deepest, darkest secrets, but she preferred a private conversation. Other than her room, Loki's was the only other that would be consistently bug free.

Though he was still unconscious when she returned to her room for a change of clothes, Loki had crept back to his own room when she returned from her shower.

It was well past eleven when Thor and Jane finally emerged, blinking like moles in the light and seeking caffeine and breakfast. Darcy sat on the couch, feet on the coffee table, alternately checking out male models in Esquire and using the magazine to fan herself in the growing heat.

"Is it just me or is it like an oven in here?" observed Jane, as she sat heavily on the loveseat, still wearing her pajamas, a T-shirt and matching shorts in a stars and solar system pattern.

"Lab lizard agrees." Darcy pointed at the television. The little creature straddled the top of the television, legs and skinny tail hanging over the edge, mouth open, panting.

Thor strode into the living room, coffee in hand, and stared defiantly up at the air vent, as if the malfunctioning cooler was an adversary to be conquered. "I will go up and investigate the matter."

"NO!" said Jane and Darcy together.

Surprised and a little hurt, Thor said, "Why not?"

"Two words," answered Darcy. "'Kitchen faucet.'"

"Don't forget the back door," added Jane.

"That was ugly," agreed Darcy. "Mjölnir is not for home repair."

Thor rubbed a hand over his beard and peered thoughtfully at the kitchen sink where a new, shiny faucet gleamed. "The faucet functions," he said, petulant.

"Dude, so did the old faucet." The only problem had been that the aerator screen on the end of the faucet needed to be removed and cleaned of debris. Thor, eager to make himself useful, had removed the aerator and somehow managed to break the faucet. Jane and Darcy ended up doing the new faucet installation themselves, because Thor's continued "help" resulted in the destruction of the p-trap under the sink.

"The back door was of poor quality," said Thor, obviously knowing what was coming next.

Jane put a hand over her mouth, trying to hide her smile. She chided him gently. "This whole house is poor quality, especially if your definition of poor is 'can't stand up to repeated blows from Mjölnir.'" The plan had been to replace the feeble door lock with a sturdy deadbolt. While removing the old lock and handle, Thor got impatient and whacked it with Mjölnir, with predicable breakage. Hello, entire new door.

"We can do this, can't we, Darcy?" Jane sat up and set her coffee on the table. "I've built complicated sensors from whatever I could find at Radio Shack–"

"-and we replaced a faucet and installed a new door," finished Darcy. "Girl power!" She didn't bother to note the obvious; that she and Sean had sort of blown up the only local heating and cooling repair business.

Jane hurried off to change out of her pajamas and Darcy went to get tools from the back room, and a baseball cap since the sun would be pounding down on the tin roof.

Thor made one last attempt to salvage his masculine pride before Jane and Darcy left the house. "It will be too hot on the roof. I should summon clouds."

"Can you do that?" asked Jane, "Without the lightning and thunder?"

Realizing that a roof wasn't the safest place to be where lightning was concerned, Thor looked crestfallen. "I don't know."

"Don't sweat it. We're good," said Darcy.

Down the hall, door hinges squeaked and seconds later, Loki wandered into the kitchen. As usual, he ignored everyone, instead opening the fridge and getting a beer. In place of his black Asgard garb, he wore blue jeans and a black T-shirt with an alien, flying saucer and the words Roswell, New Mexico on the front. He leaned back on the kitchen counter, flicked a finger at the bottle's top, sending it popping off and into the trash, and then took a long sip. The T-shirt wasn't fitted, but it followed the contours of his lean and very male form: broad shoulders that tapered to narrow hips, long legs. Oh, hello, sexy.

"Isn't it a little early for that?" said Darcy to distract herself from the X-rated supervillain movie that played in her mind (In it, Loki was doing the male stripper thing, just for her).

"There's a Midgard saying...'It's five o'clock, somewhere.'"

Thor laughed appreciatively.

"And it is hot," Loki observed. "I take the cooling system has somehow failed."

Pushing her baseball cap lower on her head, Darcy said, "Jane and I are on it." Jane nodded and started for the door.

"Wait!" Thor looked imploringly at Loki. "You repaired the cooling device at the lab. Couldn't you-?"

"The HVAC system at the lab is computerized and my magic works best with complex electronic technology."

"In other words, what Thor would break with brawn, he'd break with brains," said Darcy. "We've got this. Really."

Thor looked pouty, but Loki shrugged and took another long drink of beer. His gaze moved over Darcy, stopping on her legs. "I believe," he said with a pointed look at Thor, "it is Midgard custom for men, not women, to do mechanical repair and similar tasks."

Sexy and sexist. "This is the twenty-first century. A vagina doesn't mean 'no mechanical skills,'" noted Darcy. "Jane's got a PhD and I've got...three screwdrivers and pliers."

With a lift of a dark eyebrow and tilt of his head, he conceded her point. "Nevertheless, shouldn't the person with the power of flight be the one to scrabble about on the roof?"

In the end, everyone except Loki ended up on the roof, fiddling with the reluctant swamp cooler. Loki retreated to his lair to read a book, although Darcy caught him watching them from time to time. Thor was given the important job of handing tools to Jane and Darcy when needed.

The problem turned out to be the spider, a plastic device that distributed water to the cooler's straw pads. Its little tubes had become clogged with deposits from the hard water.

Ten minutes later Jane and Darcy were in Western Feed and Supply, which also doubled as a hardware store. The place didn't have the fancy displays of kitchen and bath remodels seen in big hardware stores, but the two rows in back carried a good selection of electrical and plumbing parts for everyday repairs.

At the front counter, Phillip, one of the sales staff, was ringing up a sale for an older woman with iron gray hair pulled into a pony tail. He greeted Darcy and Jane cheerfully. The woman gave them a long stare. When Darcy looked back, she saw the woman lean toward Phillip and say something in a low tone of voice.

They walked past shelves stocked with horse wormers, fly repellent and farrier tools, chicken feed and cages full of peeping-cheeping baby chicks. A Native American man, who was picking through a display of gopher traps, gave them a polite nod. In the hardware aisle, however, a young couple gave them tight smiles and exchanged a meaningful look with each other, before picking up a can of plumber's putty and hurrying away.

Using the old spider as a guide, Darcy and Jane found a replacement and went to pay for the part. Phillip looked like he belonged on a farm somewhere, lifting huge hay bales with a - Ping! - twinkle in his smile. He was at least six feet tall, with short strawberry blond hair and probably descended from the kind of Viking ancestors who worshiped Thor and company. "Credit or debit?" he asked, demeanor friendly, but when Darcy met his eyes, she had the feeling he was scrutinizing her, looking for something.

"That was strange," said Jane. "Did you feel, like, a weird vibe, directed at us?"

"Yeah. Did we grow horns and demon tails?" said Darcy. She paused, key in the car door, and studied her reflection in the window glass. Same old Darcy. Long hair, glasses, a baseball cap. Frowning, she looked at her knees, which still had a few scabs and pink scars from her two falls. The bruises on her hip, now a faint yellow, were at least hidden by her shorts. Yeah, she did look like her nephew after a fall from playground equipment, but that didn't explain the evil eyes that she and Jane got.

***

Replacing the spider took just a few minutes. Darcy and Jane watched Thor fasten the metal panels on the swamp cooler, each cringing every time he twisted the screwdriver.

"Thank you, Thor," said Jane when he was done. Darcy, however, just puffed out a sigh of relief, her gaze wandering to the airplane cabin. A familiar flutter started in her stomach and spread through her as she met Loki's eyes.

The low grumble of an engine and crunch of tires moving from asphalt to gravel pulled their attention away from each other. Darcy's quiet euphoria was replaced with a hollow sense of dread.

The black SUV rolled onto the property and parked at an angle, directly behind Jane's SUV and Darcy's car. Seeing the vehicle, Thor hopped off the roof and held the ladder steady as Jane and Darcy made their way down. Director Fury and the two guards, Terrance and Miguel, were standing just a few feet away, their faces inscrutable.

"Now what?" muttered Jane under her breath. Darcy shot a glance in Loki's direction, finding him striding toward them.

"Who did I kill this time?" he said as he approached.

Fury turned and did a double take at Loki in ordinary Midgard clothing. "A rancher named Arnold King."

"Ah, apparently I've grown tired of slaughtering SHIELD's finest and gone for easier prey." He turned to Darcy. "Has life in the desert made me lazy? What became of my great aspirations?"

She rolled her eyes. "Not funny, Mad Science." King? Coincidence?

"I know that name," said Thor. "Is he not the one who was killed several days ago?"

"That was Mark King," said Fury. "Arnold was his older brother."

Creeping dread started to twist Darcy's stomach into sausage links. "Frozen?" she said.

"Uh-huh." Fury's full attention was on Darcy. "It gets better," he said sarcastically. "Wednesday night, just a few minutes before Izzy's Diner is about to close, Arnold King shows up, drunk. He tells a story about how you and Sean broke into Edwards Heating and Cooling and killed his brother, then blew up the place to hide the evidence."

Thor's laugh and sneer combo had a lot of Loki in it. "So? The man is obviously a lunatic and a drunkard."

"And now he's dead," stated Fury. "This morning Arnold King's wife goes out to feed the horses and finds her husband frozen solid in the barn."

"My brother did not kill this man." Thor's posture tensed. "He was in the city of Santa Fe, within my sight, most of the night. Ask Natasha."

A hot breeze skittered through the sagebrush, pushing Darcy's hair in her face. Shoving it back and behind her ear, she glanced at Loki, who was scowling at Fury and the guards as if they were a suspicious brown smudge in the bathroom.

Oddly, neither the guards nor Fury were paying Loki any attention, their eyed fixed on Darcy instead. Somewhere dogs barked; Rocket and Meteor, probably welcoming their master home judging by their high pitched yelps. Across the road, something moved, a roadrunner, hunting for lizards, its profile low and sneaky. But Darcy felt distant, the sounds around her muffled, everyone's focus closing in a tight bubble on her.

"You don't really think Sean and I killed Mark King? Or his brother?" She didn't get to see the expression on Fury's face because at that moment her view was blocked, first by Loki's back, then Thor's. Jane moved close to her side.

"Why aren't you harassing the boy," snarled Loki, "if he is an alleged accomplice in the crime?"

"Darcy has harmed no one," said Thor at the same time. "She and her friend were nearly slain by the madman's explosive device."

"Arnold King didn't just claim that Darcy and Sean were at the site," responded Fury. "He had photos, taken with a cell phone, of the two going into the building. And running out a few minutes later. He showed them to Esther and the others in the diner."

Jane squeezed Darcy's hand and craned her neck around Thor. "Why didn't he call the cops when he saw Darcy and Sean going into the building? Something sounds fishy."

Loki said nothing, but his posture was belligerent, and Darcy thought she smelled a faint whiff of burned cinnamon. The two princes' protective stances warmed her heart and at the same time filled her with a dark dread.

Director Fury and the guards were overmatched against one Asgardian; the two actually united could turn the trio of mortals into bloody confetti. Thor might pull his punches, but Loki had no compunctions about killing mortals. She swallowed, horrified at the idea of anyone getting killed over her.

Bracing for the shock of magic shooting through her skin, she latched onto Loki's bare forearm. It still felt like hot lava melting into her flesh. This time, she imagined her skin thickening, resisting some of the power and it didn't feel quite as bad. "Sean's got an alibi," she said. "He's in San Diego."

"So do you," said Jane. "You were with us most of the evening. And the rest..." Jane shut up, probably disinclined to mention that Loki could vouch for Darcy and vice versa because he was in her room.

Not that Fury couldn't read between the lines. Turning to Loki, he said, "Good thing you're immortal, because Ms. Lewis is the kind of woman who'll knock decades off a man's life." A faint glint of humor sparked in Loki's eyes.

Fury did the cyclopean glower thing at Darcy. "Thanks to you, I've had to spend most of my morning doing damage control and trying to convince the fine citizens of Puente Antiquo that you aren't a murder. I haven't even had my morning coffee, yet."

Darcy grinned crookedly. "Want some of ours? It's chocolately."

"I'm taking you and Jane into protective custody," Fury held up a hand, forestalling arguments, "because Thor is needed on Avenger business. The killer is getting bolder, nosing around even when Thor and Loki are here. With them gone, it's not safe for you two out here alone. " Darcy opened her mouth to protest and Fury cut her off. "You can move back home when these two come back."

"Can't you just station a guard out here?" asked Darcy.

"We've already lost two good men to this prick," said Fury. Terrance and Miguel nodded grimly.

"Yeah, but, maybe this is the perfect time to catch him. You could hide more guards in the neighborhood. We'd be like bait." As soon as Darcy spoke she knew it was a bad idea, but she wasn't a gopher. She wasn't made to live underground.

Fury, however, looked like he might actually consider the idea, but Thor spoke first, "No!" He smiled apologetically at Darcy. "I admire your bravery, Darcy, but it is too dangerous."

"But-" She shut her mouth and just stared at Thor, willing him to refuse to go, to say that he'd needed to stay home and protect Jane and her.

Except Thor was all about honor, band of brothers, blah-blah-blah. He'd never say no to his fellow Avengers. With a sigh, she slumped, defeated, eyes moving to her hands that were clenched like iron bands around Loki's arm. She let go, gave his arm an apologetic pat, and lifted her head to meet his eyes.

Caught watching her, he turned away and said to Fury. "This is Darcy and Jane's home. They are content here. If this is a ruse to force them to live in the compound permanently, my cooperation in Thor's Avenger adventures will end."

"You're not exactly cooperative, now," snapped Fury. "But you've got my guarantee, on the day you return, Jane and Darcy can come back home."

Feeling a little betrayed, Darcy look sadly up at Loki. "You too? Why?"

Their eyes locked and something softened in his eyes. He blinked slowly, green eyes abruptly turning cold, and stalked away. Even in jeans and a T-shirt he looked like an otherworldly being out to conquer the world. She watched him yank open the front door and vanish into the house.

"Who's going to feed Inkblot?" said Jane breaking the brief silence leveled by Loki's abrupt departure.

Despite her grim mood, Darcy grinned. Jane couldn't remember to pay the utility bills, but she always made sure the stray cat got his dinner. "Maybe we can come out on our lunch break and feed him. With guards?" She gave Fury a pointed look and he shrugged and nodded.

Fury gave Thor and Loki a few minutes to collect their things, which was mostly unnecessary since Thor traveled light and Loki, who could conjure a change of clothes out of the ether, lighter. Another security team was on its way to escort Jane and Darcy back to base.

***

As they entered the house, Thor touched Darcy's arm. "May I have a word, Darcy?" He gestured toward the couch, his mannerisms almost courtly, as if he were dealing with some high and mighty princess and not a lowly science assistant.

He sat next to her. "I would speak with you regarding Loki."

Uh-oh. She felt a sinking feeling that had nothing to do with Thor's weight on the couch. What do you bet, she thought, this lecture begins with,"You're a nice girl, Darcy, but Loki is a Prince of Asgard"?

"You and Loki have become close," he stated.

"All we've done is kiss. No sex," she blurted, unable to keep the exasperation out of her voice.

Taken aback by her annoyed demeanor, he blinked, blue eyes clouded with confusion. "I know," he said slowly. "He told me."

He told you? Her mind boggled at the idea that Loki was discussing their non-existent sex life with his brother.

Thor continued before she could ask him more. "I would ask a favor of you."

"'K?"

"You are the only person he might pay any heed to." Thor bent, elbows on knees, a hint of frustration in his muscular frame. "Loki delights in antagonizing the Avengers."

"He doesn't just ignore them? Like he does everyone else?"

Thor nodded, but it wasn't a happy gesture. "He rarely speaks, though when he does, his words are cruel. The problem is his magical mischief. Equipment fails, or vanishes or transforms into something useless, like a teapot. People walk into invisible walls that appeared out of nowhere." His mouth twitched with poorly repressed humor and Darcy wondered which Avengers had smacked face first into said walls. "Footing becomes suddenly slick as ice or sticky as tar. His tricks grow in frequency as he regains his lost magical knowledge."

The front door opened and slapped shut as Jane headed out, fresh water and food for Inkblot in hand. Darcy gnawed on her lower lip. She could see where this conversation was headed, into a neighborhood close to the one visited by her talk with Natasha last night.

Was this how it started? With SHIELD, through Thor, asking her to nudge Loki in the right direction? "That's what he does," she said, with an exaggerated shrug, "he's Loki."

"If he only did this in training, it would be a small thing. But he endangers missions. He provokes." Thor smiled over his shoulder at Jane as she came back in the house and made for her room. "I fear for his safety," he said to Darcy.

"They can't hurt him. Much." She squeezed his powerful biceps. "He's not breakable, and 'sides, he's got you, right?"

"The magical bond between us," he said, "could be used against us, against Loki."

Darcy pressed her lips together, finding them dry. She needed some lip balm. "That can't happen. You're both too strong for-" Thor tilted his head, lifting his eyebrows. "Oh."

In her mind, the link between them was handy means of keeping Loki from wandering off and raising another army. She'd never thought of it as a weapon to be used against him. Sort of how I never thought about SHIELD using me to control him. D'uh.

"It really hurts him, bad, when you're separated?"

"I have never seen anything cause him so much pain, so quickly."

Darcy considered his words. This still seemed wrong, somehow, but she nodded, "Okay. I'll talk to him."

***

Loki's door was closed in a way that screamed, "Keep out!" She raised her fist to knock and then lowered it. It wasn't fear that drove her reluctance. She just knew that he needed solitude like a drug.

"Maybe we could get you your own iPad," said Jane from her room to Thor. "Darcy can probably charge it to SHIELD as some kind of expense."

"God of Thunder pacifier," muttered Darcy. She knocked on Loki's door. "Hey, I need to talk to you." She opened the door a crack, counted to ten and then strolled in confidently.

He was sitting on his bed, back to her, head bent as he tinkered with something. Once again in Asgard mode, he was dressed in layer upon layer of black leather. Bits of metal caught the afternoon sunlight, bright against the dark leather. He looked stunningly out of place in the drab room.

"And now you are doing Thor's bidding," he said, without looking up.

Darcy studied the thing in his hands, before answering. It was metal and vaguely insectoid, with little segmented brass legs. Can't lie to a liar, so she went with truth. "He's worried about you."

"I don't require his concern."

Reaching back, she gathered her hair and pulled it over her right shoulder. She combed through it with her fingers, idly searching for split ends. "What about my concern?"

His gaze lifted from the thing in his hands to the window. "That is not your place."

She drew in a breath for a sigh and held it. He was definitely in belligerent-ass mode and she knew it would be best to beat a hasty retreat. Her eyes lit on his slim fingers as they continued to twist little segments of the device in his hands. You can be such a prick, but I don't want to see you hurt.

"Yeah, so what is my place?" She clenched a chunk of brown hair in her fingers. "Waiting around in SHIELD's bunker, hoping your magic isn't writing checks your body can't cash?"

He eyed her, ice in his green eyes. "You place is where ever you wish it to be, so long as it isn't playing messenger girl to Thor."

"Thor's not the boss of me. Neither are you, by the way. I'm here because I-" She stopped, hearing the words in her head, but unable to say them out loud.

She said the next thing on her mind. "Why not just play along, Loki? Blend. For while. Lull them into, um, complacency. At least until you figure a way out of the link between you and Thor?"

For a second, she thought she'd gotten through to him, as a dark smile quirked up the corners of his mouth. "Shouldn't you be urging me toward goodness, light, and all that, and not simply suggesting I bide time before my next bit of villainy?"

"How about more mischief, less villainy?" In the hallway, she could hear the clomp of Thor's steps as he and Jane walked toward the living room. "You won't get to do either if you're dead." She choked on the last word. "That bond between you and Thor is the one thing that can do that, right?"

"It isn't your concern," he said with an imperious sniff.

She rolled her eyes. "Do you like have a death wish?" Was that it? "I'm going to live like a mole for the next few days, partly because of you. The least you can do is not get your skinny ass kicked into the great beyond." She took a deep breath. "Just let the past go. Move on."

His face twisted, transformed from boyishly handsome, to sharp-edged, hollow-eyed fury. Still handsome, but scary. He set the device on the bed with unnerving calmness and rose. In a second, he was less than a step before her, looking every bit the hated villain, beautiful devil in black leather armor, raining white-hot rage down on her.

"What would you know of the past or of my pain? You've been alive but a heartbeat."

"Uh, that's long enough to know that you can't live in the past because it will eat you alive, make you...crazy."

"Ah, so it's better to be like you, pretending the past never existed, hiding like a coward from your pain," he replied, acridly.

His words had the sharp edge of truth, but they pinged off her emotional armor. Nonetheless, anger rose in her chest. "At least I don't let the past control me. Your 'pain,'" she made air quotes around the word, "owns you. You let it be the boss of you. It says, 'Jump!' and you ask, 'How high!'"

"You know nothing of me, nothing!"

The taste of magic saturated her skin, clogged and burned her throat like smoke. She knew she should shut up, but she was now too angry. "I know more than you know. Grow the fuck up, Loki."

"You have no right to speak to me in this manner." He snarled down at her. Without touching her, his powerful presence buffeted her with waves of anger. Her eyes stung; her fight response had conceded to flight five minutes ago, but she didn't move.

"You are nothing," he said, words dripping with contempt. "You are insignificant."

"I thought we were friends," was all she could say, because his last few words actually hurt, they ripped a little hole in her mental armor and a tight pain clenched in her heart.

"I am Loki of Asgard. I do not make friends with the likes of you!"

"Why? Because I can't smack you around and then hand you an army? Because I can't give you the twisted, fucked-up misery you crave?"

"Because you are a stu-" He stopped, a muscle in his jaw twitching, mouth an angry slash.

"Say it," she said, chin raised, defiant, but inside she was beginning to crumple. "Say. It. Say it, say it. Say it!" Tears started to bead in her eyes. "'Stupid girl, right?" He returned her glare, eyes glacial, not even a trace of humanity in his expression.

Taking a few steps back, she nodded. "You're right. I am stupid. For ever giving a shit about you." She started to go because a wall was turning to dust and giving way inside her. If she stayed much longer, it would fail completely and her few tears would become sobs, and no way was she giving him the satisfaction.

But she stopped, eyes on the wall, anywhere but on him. "You think we're less than you, insignificant and small. But you're no better. And you should be. You should be able to put aside the petty bullshit and live." She met his eyes one last time. "But instead you," she gestured vaguely, "all of you, Thor, Odin, all of you, just do drama and stupid on a humungous scale, for much, much longer."

Before she turned and bolted out the door, she said, "You should have the happiest endings of all, but in the end, you ruin it. Just like us."