Calling sister midnight
Well, I'm an idiot for you
Calling sister midnight
I'm a breakage inside
Calling sister midnight...

"Isn't it 3AM there?" Valkyrie's mother asks on the phone.

Valkyrie looks up at the clock in the lounge and groans. "Yes."

"Why exactly are you calling me at 3AM on a Wednesday?" Her mother is laughing. Valkyrie would be laughing if she weren't so completely pissed at Darcy. The door to the lounge opens and –

"MomIhavetogoIwillexplainlater!" Valkyrie says quickly before hanging up on her mother.

"Well, well," Loki smiles, leaning in the doorway. "Who on earth were you talking to at 3AM on a Wednesday?"

"My mom. She's in Norway. The museum she works for just acquired a bunch of new Viking findings...aaaand I'm boring you, sorry," Valkyrie laughs.

Loki shakes his head. "No, no. Not boring at all." He finally looks her up and down as she is sprawled on the couch. She's wearing a towel and appears to still be sopping wet. "I hate to ask, but, why exactly are you in here and basically naked?"

She sits upright. "I am not naked!" she protests. She looks down. "Mostly. Sexiled. You?"

"Sexiled," he laughs in defeat. "Do you mind if I join you?" He gestures to the couch. She notices the towel and clothes in his hands.

"Not to be completely odd, because I don't think we're really there yet, or anywhere really, but, can I please, please borrow your clothes?"

Loki is taken aback. He looks down at the clothes from earlier in the day in his hands. After his shower he gratefully got into his pajamas, but when he was heading back to his room, he got the fateful text from Clint not to come back as the room would be otherwise...occupied. So he'd been wandering the halls holding his jeans and t-shirt and towel until he'd settled on the lounge. He looks to the girl sitting on the couch in front of him and then back at his clothes and sighs and tosses them to her.

"Let the record show that I do find this to be totally odd, but, weirder things have happened at 3AM," Loki shrugs.

"Bless your heart," Valkyrie cheers before disappearing into the bathroom. Loki throws himself down onto the couch. He picks up her phone and inspects it. "Yeah, I can definitely agree with the weird. Like your roommate having sex to Enya? No? Just me?"

She appears next to him in a flash, a huge burst of energy, despite the untimely hour. She sits sideways, facing him, with her knees pulled snug against her chest. He smiles at the sight of his pants, too long for her, the material crumpled up at her ankles, and folded over.

She gestures widely to herself. "It's a good look, right?"

"Soon to be taking runways by storm, I'm certain," Loki jokes back. She observes him for a moment with a faint, strange smile on her face and he suddenly feels twitchy, like he's frying under a magnifying glass.

"You're pretty alright, you know that?" Valkyrie says suddenly before looking down and away. Silence passes between them, unbearably. "Thanks for not having so much sex, by the way."

"Uh...you're welcome?"

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that...right? No filter!" she laughs and then covers her mouth, shaking her head. "It's not that I'm glad you're not having sex, it's just that I'm glad that I get to sleep, you know? Except that now Darcy is the one having all the sex that's forcing me to be awake all night, so I guess she's next to be forcibly put on probation."

"You think you forcibly put me on probation?"

"I mean no, but it worked didn't it? I ask you to stop having loud-ass sex all the time and suddenly, it's like a nunnery up there," Valkyrie laughs.

"Monastery," Loki corrects.

"Whatever." She slides off the couch and rolls over to the vending machine. She looks back over her shoulder at him, but he's too busy mulling over what she's just said. It wasn't because she'd asked him....he...he barely knows her. It just so happened that he was going through a bit of a dry spell. Because with every girl he spoke to he just kept messing it up. Everyone except Valkyrie of course, but only because he's not trying to sleep with her. And he barely knows her. And she sort of seems to dominate the conversation anyway. "Do you have any money? I'm starved."

"Nope," Loki says sharply. Valkyrie puts her hands on her hips and stares at him.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I don't know," he says, looking suddenly confused. He scrunches his eyebrows together and she finds it actually kind of adorable. She saunters back to the couch and turns the lounge TV on and it's the weird campus news channel that runs at all hours. They're reporting about the football team's tremendous turn-around this season, all thanks to team work, and Thor Odinson's tremendous sportsmanship and blah blah blah.

"I secretly think he's not real," Valkyrie says suddenly. Loki is snapped out of his reverie.

"About whom are we speaking?"

"Listen to you, about whom are we speaking?" Valkyrie laughs heartily, mocking Loki. Despite the potential offense, he takes it well, finding it actually kind of endearing as she fails horribly at emulating his accent. She points to the television screen. "Thor Odinson. I mean, have you ever seen him in real life? Honestly? Because I feel like I would notice someone like that on campus. He's like a fucking legend."

"He's definitely real," Loki says with a severity that draws Valkyrie's attention.

"Touchy subject?"

"You could say that," Loki grumbles. He looks at her. "Do we have to watch this shit?"

Valkyrie reaches for the remote and instantly turns it off without breaking eye contact with him. "You said shit so now I know it's serious. What's up? He stole your girl? He killed your family? Bullied you in high school? An ex-lover?!"

"What?" Loki scoffs, almost offended by the pure absurdity of her...her...existence.

"I'm throwing stuff out there. Just give me a signal if I figure it out. Former best friend who betrayed you? What about—?"

"You are utterly relentless, aren't you?"

"I prefer determined, honestly."

"He's my brother."

Valkyrie stares at him. And then she keeps staring, her mouth hung slightly open.

"Are you going to say anything, or...?" Loki prompts, suddenly feeling uncharacteristically uncool under her gaze.

"Are you fucking with me right now?"

"No! I am not. He's my bloody brother. Adopted brother, actually."

Valkyrie is gasping like a floundering fish and Loki winces away from it. "Wait, are you adopted or is he?"

"What do you think?" Loki asks, his tone a bit more biting than he intended. Valkyrie's eyes are wide for a moment and then flounders again, but this time differently, in an embarrassed panic.

"Let's talk about something else. Yeah...um... oh! So Darcy, my roommate—"

"Yes, I've had the pleasure of meeting her."

"Right! Right. So Darce is having sex with this guy named...um...uh...oh god she told me and I forget." She scrunches her face as she thinks. "Clint!"

Loki's mouth falls open. "Wait."

"What?"

"Clint?"

"Yeah. I said it was funny because his name is just one letter off from—" Loki stands up abruptly. Valkyrie mutters to herself, "Okay, guess it wasn't that funny."

"No, no. It's..." He pauses and looks down at Valkyrie. "Wait, one letter from what?"

Valkyrie snorts and then arches an eyebrow suggestively at him. Suddenly his mouth is very dry. He extends his hand to her. She takes it without question and he leads her to the elevator and punches the button hard. She opens her mouth to ask but decides better. She's very excited by the prospect of adventure--judging by the look on his face. He doesn't look mad, exactly, but something she just can't quite pinpoint.

When they get off on his floor Valkyrie trails behind him as they go to his room. He knocks rapidly on the door to no response. He pauses, purses his lips and then presses his ear to the door.

"That son of a bitch."

Loki opens the door to his room and he and Valkyrie both pop their heads in.

"Ugh, so much for being sexiled!" Valkyrie laments. She claps Loki on the back.

"You're lucky, dude."

"Yes, well, it seems we got our wires crossed somehow. Or rather, our roommates didn't quite pin down where their little rendezvous would be. But I guess it's your room. Sorry about that," Loki assesses.

"Wait...Clint is your roommate?!" Valkyrie nearly screams. "Our roommates are having sex...TOGETHER?"

A door creaks open at the end of the hall and so Loki shoves Valkyrie into his room and closes the door.

"Uh, yeah. I guess we've figured it out," Loki says slowly, scratching the back of his head as he looks down sheepishly at Valkyrie.

"Is it gonna be weird? I feel like it's going to be weird," Valkyrie says, deciding to make her way more into Loki's room. She surveys the room carefully, taking it in. It's decidedly not well decorated or particularly homey but it seems to make sense for Loki. Clint's side seems a little more...human and lived-in. At least, she assumes it's Clint's side. Loki comes right up behind her, grazing her back accidentally.

"Well, welcome, uh..." Loki trails off. "Actually I was going to ask if you want to stay?"

Valkyrie turns to look at him. "I mean because you're currently homeless and I have a free bed to offer you."

"Clint's?" she asks.

"I promise he just changed the sheets. But you can stay in mine and I'll take up temporary residence in his bed if you'd prefer?" Loki suggests. "You don't have to stay at all if you don't want I just thought I'd offer?"

Before he's even fully done with his sentence Valkyrie has flopped face first into Loki's bed. "Satisfactory," she mumbles into his sheets and he chuckles to himself.

He watches her silently for a few moments and then feels awkward. He sits on the edge of Clint's bed.

"Are you staring at me?" she asks, words muffled by the dark green comforter on Loki's bed.

"Yes," he says quietly. He clears his throat. "Um what? No!"

She laughs and rolls over. "Smooth."

He tries to find something to do and so goes into the bathroom to brush his teeth, leaving the door open.

"Hey, do you know what?"

"What?" he asks, mouth full of toothpaste. He hears her laughing quietly and rolls his eyes.

"I think this makes us friends."

Loki chokes on his toothpaste and Valkyrie laughs even harder.