Work Text:
“Can I try on your helmet?”
He looks up from his midgardian papers, even though he will not admit it to another soul the writing and equations give him problems so much so at times that he needs to fully concentrate on them forgetting everything around him, and because of this the mortal woman known as Darcy catches him by surprise.
“I beg your pardon?” He frowns up at her, letting the pencil drop from his hand.
“The horns?” She imitates their shape with her hands, a crude imitation of how they are suppose to curve from his head and Loki's frown deepens.
“I do not see why you would want to try it. Mayhaps you can ask my idiotic brother to let you borrow his feathers.” He waves her off, impatient to get back to this thing humans called physics.
“No, please I really want to try yours. It's so cool, it's way cooler than feathers. Please Loki, please?” Loki looks up again at the mention of the word cool because according to the mortals this means they like the things define as 'cool'.
She gives him a pleading look, hands clasped in front of her and bottom lip sticking out in a pout.
“If I do this, you will let me be?” He will not admit he is a little taken back with her insistence, and a little terrified of what she will do if he does not give in. He has heard from his brother about the mortal weapon known as a 'taser' and anything that makes his brother cringe should be hesitated upon.
“Yeah, promise I won't bother you again.” Loki knows she does not mean it for she will be back later to ask for something else.
“Very well.” He waves his hand and his helmet appears on his work table, crushing the pencil underneath it.
Darcy's eyes widen and she hesitantly puts her hands on the helmet, feeling its texture and its smoothness. Loki leans back on his chair and lets her play with his helmet feeling aware of the prickly of apprehension at the back of his head, no one touches his helmet, much less so wears it besides himself and this feels like a violation of his regalia.
She attempts to pick it up, slowly but surely she raises it to her head and puts it on.
“It's heavy, way heavy.” She sways for a moment trying to get her bearings, Loki watches in amusement as she takes out the thing midgardians proclaim as a iPod and attempts to take a picture of herself.
“Damn.” She murmurs, fumbling with her iPod and trying to get an angle.
Her spectacles are askew and she did not take off her hat from her head before putting on his helmet and he can see the tint of pink on her cheeks from the heat, the helmet is hot enough on its own without adding something underneath it. She is still trying to take a picture as she stumbles with the weight of the helmet and she absolutely looks a sight and Loki cannot help but laugh.
“Instead of laughing, you should be helping me.” She complains with a whine and Loki stands up and snatches the electronic device from her hand.
After telling him what to press and making a few poses, one including something midgardians called a peace sign which Loki immediately shut down since his helmet was for battle and not to symbolize peace, Loki finally snapped a picture he deemed acceptable enough and returned the device to her.
“Thanks dude, this is super cool. I'm totally making it into my facebook picture.” She pocketed the device and attempted to take off the helmet, but it seemed her wool hat was tangled with his helmet and she seemed to hesitate by pulling it.
Feeling helpful, Loki waved his hand again making his helmet appear in the table once again though this time with an addition.
“Oh no.” Darcy whispered while Loki removed the knitted wool hat from his helmet.
There appeared to be no damage to the wool hat but Darcy snatched it out of his hands and inspected it with the precision of a spell master.
“It seems okay.” Saying so she put it back on her head and Loki stared confusedly at her.
In his head he tried to remember a time where she was not wearing a hat or her spectacles, he knew she did but so far he had only caught glimpses of her without both of the items and it started to unnerve him how he had never seen her on her own without something obstructing his view.
“Tell me, do you always wear such insignificant items? I would rather think you would only wear them when necessary.” He knew she could see from afar and therefore she did not near to wear them all the time, at least this what Thor's little mortal lover had said and Loki knew if he had a choice he would never wear something unless completely necessary.
Especially hideous things like spectacles.
Darcy frowned at him before turning on her heel and leaving his small, compact office.
Loki naturally follow behind her.
“I wish not to offend but curiosity is a weakness of mine.” And one of his greatest strengths, Loki wanted to add but refrain to let Darcy set the pace of the conversation.
“It's important, they're all important.” She huffed as she kept on walking towards the room given to her for her temporary quarters.
Loki always felt claustrophobic in the small, confined building. He was not allowed to leave it unless it was with his brother and the sometimes scorching heat of the desert did not stop at the building's doors and it hurt to know this was his punishment.
The caged bird, who could still sing but could not leave.
“All?” He asked as he stop in the entrance of her room.
Darcy did not answer him but instead she pulled two medium size wooden boxes from underneath her bed, and set them both on her small bed and opened them.
Loki could see from the doorway the millions of colors in the boxes and he stepped closer, stopping when he realized what all the colors were.
“How many do you have?” He asked her, still entranced by all the knitted hats in the boxes.
“I don't know but they're important.” She kneeled on the floor in front of the boxes and grabbed as many as she could before she settled on the floor, she motioned him to do the same and Loki hesitantly did so.
She took off the one on her head and added it to the pile between them.
“All right, pick one.”
Loki gave her a quirk of an eyebrow in question but did as told and randomly selected a hat from the pile, a blue and yellow thing that Loki thought was quite hideous.
Darcy nodded her head at his choice and took from him and put it on.
“I got this when I turned twelve, my mom had made Sheppard’s pie and my grandpa presented me with it when I blew my birthday candles. I still remember the taste of the pie, my mom was always a good cook.” She gave him a sad smile before taking off the hat and dropped it next her, away from the pile.
Loki looked at the pile again and picked up a lavender hat, small and with tiny white hearts around the edges.
“My third birthday, I don't remember obviously but there are tons of pictures with me wearing this thing. Apparently I really liked purple back then.” She took it from him and took a deep breath of it and smiled.
“I do not understand.” Loki was pondering the whole point in this exercise, unsure of what Darcy was trying to tell him except of course that she had a hat for every occasion.
Darcy sighed and grabbed a pink and white knitted hat, too small to even fit on a fist of her hand.
“My grandpa gave this to my mom to give to my dad when she found out she was pregnant with me, she wrapped it and gave it to my dad on thanksgiving day. Dad always said it the most special thanksgiving ever. I got one of these every time something happened in my life, when I was born, when I started kindergarten, when I got appendicitis, when I graduated high school. For as long as I remember I've always had a hat on my head. I don't have a picture without them.”
“Special then.” Loki concluded with a nod of his head.
“Yeah, you know what a security blanket is?” Darcy asked still holding the pink and white hat.
“I am unfamiliar with the term.” Though the term was peculiar, soft cloth used as security?
“Is a term for something that makes you feel safe, something that when you think about or when hold it makes you remember better times and it makes you feel like you're home. My grandpa loved to knit, grandma never got the taste for it, my family has always been a little weird but anyway.” She stops for a second trying to get her bearings and Loki sits in wait for he knows how hard opening up to someone can be. “He would knit everything he could, hats, scarfs, even purses. Every time something bad happened to me, my grandpa would be there with a kind word and a new hat.”
Her breath stutters and Loki picks up another hat, a completely blue one, to give her time to settle before she continues.
“It was my first year of college and it was my first time away from home...and then I got a phone call telling me my parents and my grandpa had been in an accident, it was a horrible time for me and everything sucked and I just... the next day I got a package, right before I left for the airport and it from a couple days earlier. It was a hat, this gorgeous green and gold knitted hat and it was from my grandpa, it should have made it hurt more but it help, it helped so much and ever since then I always wear my hats, he even taught me how to knit. It was great skill to have in life, or so he told me.” She swipes at her cheeks, trying to get rid of her tears and Loki feels a sliver of sympathy for this mortal girl, who did not have to open up to him but did anyway.
“You know what.” She stands up and looks through the boxes again, a triumphant smile on her face when she finally finds the hat she is looking for.
“You can have it if you want.” It's the green and gold hat she talked about in her story and Loki finds the sentiment of it chokes him.
She does not let him answer and instead puts the hat on his head and Loki tilts his head in help.
“Looks good.” She murmurs, still arranging the hat on his head. “Maybe I'll make you a scarf to go with it.”
She knew of his love of scarfs and the offer made him smile in gratitude because most of mortals hated him and compassion was not shown to him, not even in his rare outings in the small town.
Darcy stepped back from him and Loki stood up to look at himself in the small mirror Darcy kept hanging by her door.
“It looks presentable.” Loki told her teasingly and she smacked his arm for the sass.
“Here put this on.” She handed her spectacles and Loki put them on, his vision was blurry but he could see well enough from the corner of his eye.
“There now you look like a hipster. I feel like I should bring you Starbucks or something.” Darcy giggled and Loki gave a chuckle of amusement as well because the skinny black jeans and tight blue shirt that had been given to him in the beginning of his stay were most certainly not his style but they suited him somehow, so much so that Darcy had ranted and shown him pictures of the mortals known as 'hipsters'.
“What are you two doing?”
Neither had heard the returned of Thor and Jane, and they both startled at Jane's presence on the doorway.
Darcy snorted before she started to laugh hysterically and Loki could only take off the hat and spectacles in horror, he shoved them at Darcy before giving his brother's lover a threatening glare that made her move away from the doorway letting him escape.
“Brother what is--” Thor started talking as soon as he saw him but Loki waved him off before retreating back to his tiny office.
Embarrassment burned his cheeks and he neglected to hear how Darcy had follow behind him.
She dropped the hat next to his helmet and give him a soft smile.
“Keep it, I'll make you a scarf. And I really just want to say thank you for hearing me out, not a lot people have the patience to.”
Loki nodded tensely and Darcy sighed before leaving.
He fingered the soft cloth and then waved it away with his helmet, sending them somewhere safe.
As he threw away the pencil and got a new one, his thought circle back to Darcy and an honest smile blossomed on his face.
He hoped she had not been jesting him about making him a scarf.