Chapter Text
“Darcy, it’s 11:30 and you haven’t talked to him yet.”
“So?”
“Darcy! It’s almost midnight on New Year’s and you’re not even going to talk to the guy you liiike?”
“I already told you: we’re just friends.”
“He says he’s your best friend. And seeing as how you haven’t mentioned him to me, your best friend forever, I’m kind of thinking that ‘best friend’ is code for ‘guy I totally liiike but am too scared to tell I liiike him’.”
“Grace.”
“You know I’m right.”
“I don’t even see him. He probably left.”
“Well, do you have his number?”
“Yeah.”
“Then text him.”
“Fine.” Darcy texted Loki, Hey, where are you? I can’t find you.
The response came back almost instantly, I’m on the roof, avoiding the annoying mortals.
Darcy grimaced. So he was still mad at her. She texted back, Does that include me?
Of course not. You aren’t an annoying mortal.
Good. Meet me at the picnic table in the backyard; I can’t very well go meet you up on the roof.
~~~~~~~~~
Loki stretched. He had just finished identifying all the constellations when Darcy had texted him. It had taken her over an hour to even notice he was gone. See, Loki, he thought to himself, she truly does not care for you that way. So stop fretting over it and accept it. Having Darcy as a best friend was not worth losing Darcy altogether over wanting to court her. And he wasn’t even sure he wanted to court her! Well, he’d better get to the picnic table Darcy had specified.
~~~~~~~~~
“Hi Loki.”
“Hello Darcy.” He swallowed, then said, “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?”
“I have not been a very good friend this evening.”
“Oh, Lokes, it’s alright. I shouldn’t have made you come. And, well, you just have to ignore Grace when she gets like that.”
“She talked to me earlier this evening.”
“She mentioned that.”
He had to tell her he liiiked her without telling her. “She’s convinced I have romantic interest in you.”
“She said the same thing about me.”
“Well,”
“Yeah?”
What was he supposed to say? “If it will make the remainder of your evening more enjoyable, I could just leave.”
~~~~~~~~~
Grace wasn’t eavesdropping. She just happened to be crouch behind the grill near where her BFF was having a private conversation. It wasn’t her fault she could hear every word, right?
That said, she had a lot of questions. For one, what was with ‘Loki’? Was that a weird pet name or something. Wait! He wanted to leave? Gah! These two were impossible.
“Loki, if you don’t want to be here, I don’t want to force you to stay.”
“It is not that, Darcy.”
“Then what is it?”
Ooh, he was going to tell her he liiiked her. Grace just knew it. She had to see Darcy’s face when she realized he liiiked her back. She moved her head to peek around the corner. Justin still hadn’t said anything. Poor guy must be pretty nervous. He narrowed his eyes, then swallowed.
“It is something which I do not wish to discuss in front of your friend hiding behind the grill.”
Darcy spun on her heel, then started towards the grill.
Well, there was nowhere to hide. Grace stood up, “Ok, guys, you got me.”
“Grace!”
“Darce, c’mon.”
Justin was still standing by the picnic table. Grace watched as Darcy ignored her, turned to him and said, “I’m out of here, Loki. You coming?” A look passed between the two and then Darcy was throwing her blanket/cape over herself.
“Darcy, I’m sorry. What are you doing?” she said.
Darcy’s head looked up under the blanket. “You know what, Grace: poof.”
And then, Grace assumed she’d lost her mind, because Darcy and Justin had vanished in plain sight.
~~~~~~~~~
Invisibly, Loki walked to the spot where Darcy had poofed. He hoped she’d had the common sense not to move. Without incident, he grabbed her invisible arm and teleported them back to her room.
Darcy looked sheepish when she took off the cloak. “I’m sorry this was such a disaster, Lokes.”
“It is clearly not your fault, Darcy.” He couldn’t believe he’d ruined yet another New Year’s for her. Though, there was still eight minutes until midnight. “Darcy, want to go celebrate a traditional Midgardian New Year’s in the City of New York?”
“You mean Times Square?”
“Yes.”
“It’s going to be packed.”
“Well I do have this little thing called magic, you know.”
~~~~~~~~~
She’d been right; it was packed. Loki had managed to teleport them to the very front of the masses of sheeple. It was so, so cool. She could see all the news reporters being followed by bright lights and cameras roving around. One was even headed in her direction.
Coming straight toward her.
Putting a microphone in Loki’s face and asking where he was from.
“New Mexico” he lied smoothly.
“Kiss for the camera.” The reporter was saying.
“Darcy?” asked Loki.
She couldn’t respond. What would she say? Kiss Loki? He’d know she liiikes him? Answer Loki? New Mexico? Kiss Loki????
~~~~~~~~~
With a single spell, he simultaneously made Darcy and himself invisible whilst casting doubles for each of them. With another spell, he made the doubles kiss.
Darcy- the real Darcy- smiled at him. “Why not knock their socks off, Loki?”
He grinned. “Very well, my dear.”
Let’s just say that the doubles’ kissing was causing the news show’s rating to be changed to PG-13.
When the camera panned away, Loki canceled the doubles.
“Have I ever mentioned that you’re the best?” Darcy said, smiling at him.
“Well we wouldn’t want to inflate my ego.”
Darcy guffawed. “As if it could get any bigger.”
“Hey!”
Some time passed as they watched the many bright screens around them and took in the sheer multitude of Midgardians crowded together for this hallmark of time passing.
10…
9…
~~~~~~~~~
8…
7… She couldn’t wait any longer. Seven more seconds and she’d lose her nerve.
6…
~~~~~~~~~
5…
4… Darcy leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. His eyes went wide. What? He’d thought she didn’t want to kiss him after how she’d frozen a few minutes ago.
3…
2…
1…
And then they were hugging, shouting, “Happy New Year!”