When the familiar sound of Liv's motorcycle rumbles through the scrap yard, it is… late. Or, early, depending on one's point of view. Point is, it's three in the morning, she hasn't slept yet, and for whatever reason, she's come to be awake here.
The Asgardian parks the bike just outside the garage itself and swings off the back, running both hands back over her hair, and just… waits, oddly anxious. She's not dressed for work, her one suit has too many bullet holes in it to keep wearing. Back to jeans and t-shirts and her leather jacket, at least until she can go shopping.
*
Coz's bark is like a cannon going off. WOOF! Just once, though, because it's three in the morning. He comes bounding up from a far corner of the yard, where he'd been on patrol. When he catches sight of Liv, though, he whines sadly and comes up, wriggling, tail down. He's worried. He snuffles Liv with concern.
The garage door rumbles up to reveal Tex, wreathed in flowers and set with a dozen candles in various stages of burning. Duke emerges from the shadows at the back where the stairs lead down into the bunker, running his hands through his hair. He's remembered to pull on a pair of jeans but otherwise is barefoot, shirtless, and unarmed. Good thing Liv isn't here for anything nefarious.
*
"Hey handsome," Liv murmurs when Coz comes up to her, cracking a small smile as she reaches down to affectionately ruffle the dog's ears. "I'm okay, honey. It's just been a rough week. Where's —"
She cuts off when the door starts rumbling and Liv looks up, still idly petting Coz's head. Ah. There he is. "Hey. Sorry, I know it's late." She doesn't sound that apologetic. She knows he doesn't mind.
*
"Late. Early." Duke shrugs with the air of a man who doesn't really keep track of time. "Come in." He gestures at the couches, then pauses. "Or, all the way in." He beckons for her to follow him down into the bunker. "If you want. Either way, you need a drink."
*
Liv allows herself a tired smile and carefully picks her way around Coz, dutifully following Duke inside as beckoned. The notion of going all the way down to the bunker doesn't seem to bother her at all. "Sure. Thank you." After a moment's pause, she adds, "Jack might be coming to see you soon. She thinks she still hears him in her head. Vlad. She's worried."
*
"It happens. I'll give her something. I just have to see her first." Duke leads the way down into the bunker. "I can't tell what's wrong until I look at her."
It's a little like a hospital down here and yet also like an alchemist's and also a laboratory and a library. The lights are off, there are candles burning and an couple oil lamps and something that looks like it might be a jar of magical light. Duke heads past the apothecary area, with its odd creatures in great jars and jars of glowing flowers, past the curtained-off hospital beds, and into the library area, where there's a fire burning in a wood stove with a small cauldron on top. Whatever's bubbling in there is luminous and green. It smells like eucalyptus and menthol, only a little, if one gets too close.
There are a couple couches here, from different eras and different countries on Earth, both comfortable and inviting. It looks as though Duke had been reading on one, given the discarded book and blanket.
*
"That's what I told her. She's apparently had a rough couple of weeks," Liv says tiredly, trailing along behind Duke and down the stairs. "But if you don't see her in a day or two? Come by the apartment. I'll apologize afterwards."
It's that couch with the book and the blanket that Liv immediately heads towards, nudging the blanket to make a bit of room before she drops heavily down to sit. "I need to not think about my life for a little while. So tell me about yours. What's been going on lately?" she asks curiously, looking down at her hands. "Anything?"
*
"Met a guy in the park. Red shields. Interesting. Think the plant child, Mree, is in love with Tex, maybe. Saw them, too. Had to shoot a carousel." There's a liquor cabinet build into the shelves and Duke rummages around before he comes up with a blue bottle from the back and a couple glasses. "Felt bad about the carousel. I like those. The things that go around, all the gilding and the mirrors, the music box in the center. The little horses. Don't know why. Something cheerful about them. The same moment over and over, the same little dance."
Duke pours a drink for each of them. It's not too thick, almost opalescent, and it glitters. "Think it was ghosts. Getting into the cars and things. Here." He comes over, offers Liv a glass. "Eiswine with cassiope flowers. Good for you." It smells like honey with an undercurrent evergreen resin…and a kick underneath all that.
*
Whatever Liv was expecting Duke to reply with, this was not it. She just blinks owlishly as she listens, and by the time he comes over to offer her a glass, she has a very strange smile on her face. "Same as always, then," she says wryly, accepting the glass with both hands.
*
"Even the different is the same. The new, the out of place, the strange. The confusing. I prefer the same-same. It's less confusing, less wondering if I should know it, if I forgot it." Duke settles down on the couch beside her. "I like it when you come by. I know you'll tell me if I forgot a thing. And I don't have to try as much to talk in straight lines. Especially when you don't want to talk about you or why Coz is worried about you. If you want to see him, I can call him down. He just likes to keep an eye out upstairs. Things are still not right in the world."
*
Once Duke's settled in, Liv immediately shifts to lean against his side. He's comfortable, in a whole host of ways. "I'll give him some attention before I go home," she promises, casting a brief look back towards the stairs. "I'm honestly fine, this last week has just been… tiring. Very tiring." She grunts softly and looks down. Time to sample that drink.
*
Duke accommodates Liv, leaning into the curve of the sofa so that she can cuddle up to him better, and he slides an arm around her because it seems like it would be a good thing to do. The drink tastes like cold green-yellow sunlight and honey, even though it's not actually cold. It's almost possible, closing one's eyes, to see the grapes glowing on the vine under the strange sun of the Other Garden. The glitter is the pollen of tiny Arctic flowers, evergreen flowers, sweet and resinous, almost like pine. And there is a kick to it that rivals Asgardian liquors. It is, after all, not local. Neither are they.
"And you aren't sleeping. Tired but not sleeping means more than just tired." Duke pets Liv's hair gently with his free hand. Soft, a little tangled, not like petting Coz. Liv is a little tangled, like her hair.
*
Liv has to consider it a moment before she does, in fact, cuddle up under Duke's arm. There's no other word for it. "I'm awake on purpose, not due to trouble sleeping," she promises him, pillowing her head against his collarbone and closing her eyes. "I stepped in front of some bullets for my new boss, which was… fine. Noone was hurt, though the guy got away. Jack and her boyfriend had an assassin come at them a while back, but they're fine, too."
*
"An assassin?" It takes a fair amount to make Duke twitch but that does. "Not in your home, though? Also, not all bullets are equal, Liv. You can't just go stepping in front of them. A person could make one to hurt you. Even in this time and this place." Duke keeps petting Liv absent-mindedly. "It would be bad if you died."
*
"In Steve's home, I'm told." Liv can't help but make a face at the rest, mumbling unhappily around another long draw from her glass. He's right and she knows it, but it doesn't make her feel any better about it. "The Director is their target and she's human. No need for special bullets," she murmurs, just a touch defensively. "And keeping her safe is part of my job."
*
"Now they know better," Duke's tone is different. Focused. "They know they cannot just shoot you the way they would shoot her." He winds a lock of her hair around one of his fingers, then lets it unravel. "Keeping yourself safe is the first part of your job. Then keeping her safe. Any other way seems inefficient. And undesirable." He's not usually irritable about things. "That's two assassins, Liv. Not just one. Two. No wonder you're tired."
*
The change in Duke's tone actually makes Liv pause, her brow furrowing. Slowly, she pushes herself up to sit a bit straighter, enough to let her peer into his face. "…Duke, I'm going to be fine," she says easily, reaching up to lightly pat his chest. "I've been shot by tanks before. I don't even know what they'd need to make bullets out of in order to hurt me, so how would they?" She offers him a hopefully-reassuring smile, raising her eyebrows at him.
*
"The people of this place love a challenge, Liv. You are an obstacle. And I do read the newspapers." Duke shakes his head slowly, hist expression uncharacteristically grim. "They will be looking for ways to kill your kind, Liv. Things are not as they were. And I am not as scattered as I seem — not when it matters." He touches her cheek with his fingertips. "And you matter. So I cannot be scattered when it comes to you. They will find a way, maybe because they must. I would like for you to tell me I'm wrong, or I've forgotten something, but I don't think I have. I even wrote it down so I don't forget. They know what you are now. You're more than just a mystery or a miracle to the people in this time."
*
The longer his face remains grim, the more Liv's smile fades, replaced with a look of quiet concern and confusion. This isn't like him at all. "I'm not… Duke, the only people who know that I am Asgardian are people that I have personally told," she says gently, absently reaching up to cover his hand. "Everyone knows that Loki is an Asgardian, and knows where they 'embassy' is." The quotation marks around 'embassy' are audible. "And half the world thinks he's a mutant with a fetish for norse mythology. Honestly. I'm going to be fine."
*
"As long as you're sure. But even so. Things are not the same, now. Even if they don't know now, they will. Or they will prepare for others like you, in time, and then it will be a happy accident for them. Not happy for you. Or me. I'm not good at worrying, Liv, but I…you can't just be careless with yourself." Duke is perturbed. If he were Coz, he would have his tail and ears down. "I would not be happy if you were gone. I might forget you, in a very long time, if I lost my books, but I think I might still be unhappy. You know me and I don't want to forget you. You're important."
*
It is perhaps not Liv's brightest idea, given who the drink came from, but she's too distracted to really consider it. She throws back the entirety of her glass in one gulp so that she can set the glass aside, freeing up both of her hands. She needs them.
Liv brings both of her hands up to cup Duke's face, dropping her chin slightly as she peers right up into his eyes. "I will be fine," she repeats firmly. "If I ever get hurt, I have SHIELD to patch me up, and if they can't, I have you. You know I'm not too proud to come to you for help if I need it."
*
"Tell them, if something happens to you, they have to bring you here. Yes? People don't think to come here unless they know. And they might think you were delirious. You'll do that." Duke put his glass down, then tucks Liv's loose hair back behind her ear. "And then I'll stop doing this thing I've never been very good at doing. I'd rather think about the carousel, and taking you there in the summer. I'll write it down this time, when we go."
*
"I'll tell them the next time I'm in the office. I promise." With an odd smile, Liv uses her grip (light as it is) to gently draw Duke's head down far enough for her to kiss his forehead. "Okay? It will be fine. Honestly, I don't think I've ever had anyone scared for me like this before," she admits, actually laughing a bit. "I don't know how to respond to it. Thank you?"
*
"I think that's right. Thanks are always good, but you don't have to." Duke has a baffled expression on his face. "It's not like I can help it. I never worried about you before but then I remember your face, when we met again. When you talked about…before. I remember that look on your face. That means something. I don't want to feel like that look said you felt, and I think I would. I'm sorry you did, then. I didn't mean for it it happen. I keep thinking about it. Not before. But that look on your face. I am more careful now. …I shot a carousel for acting strangely, Liv. That might be as careful as I get but I am trying. Just. You try, too, and it'll be okay."
*
"There was a Hellmouth in the Park, Duke. I'd probably have shot the carousel, too." With an odd smile, Liv drops her hands from his face, dragging the blanket over before tucking back up under his arm. There, that's better. "Still… it really is very sweet of you to worry. But don't worry yourself sick, okay? I promise I'll be careful."
*
"I can't get sick." Duke wraps his arms around Liv and snuggles her up to him because it's more comfortable like that. "I wouldn't know what that was like. Sometimes I feel like I'm missing out on all this life around me. Getting sick. Remembering things. Having a family. Having history. But I have you. And Coz. And Tex. And I get hurt once in a while. That's a bit the same. It's enough."
*
"You have history, Duke. Even if you don't remember it." Liv steals one of Duke's hands long enough to drag it up where she can kiss the back, then lets go so she can settle in to be snuggled. Not in a mood to turn that down. "And I know it isn't quite the same, but I consider you family, you know. You and the boys." Coz and Tex. They're just 'the boys' to her, nothing strange at all.
*
"They like you. Coz and Tex. Do you remember Tex, before?" Duke laughs quietly. "I wrote it in one of my books, that's how I remember. He didn't like anyone. He used to bite people. I guess I wrote it down in case he kept doing it, so I'd know to stop him. Not that I think it would have done him any good. Even as a horse he'd only have hurt his teeth biting you. Did he?"
*
"Once or twice," Liv admits with a laugh, pulling the blanket up to her chin. "I don't know if he ever really warmed up to me so much as gave up on the notion that I'd ever go away."
*
"I'm sorry about your shirts. However many he ruined." Duke's chest still shakes slightly with his laughter. He strokes Liv's hair gently, absent-mindedly still. Someone warm is on you, you pet them. "Are you going to sleep now?" That seems like the obvious thing to do at the moment. Liv is tired and now she's tucked in and has a pillow. It's Duke, but he makes a good pillow. He's happy to be a pillow, it's a useful thing to be.
*
Liv hums softly as she considers this, her brow furrowing slightly. She hadn't planned on sleeping over — with Duke for a pillow or otherwise, if she's entirely honest — but the drink and the company are rather nice. So. "I suppose I should consider it. I do need to go buy a new suit before work in the morning, though," she sighs, running a hand over her face. "So I can't sleep too long."
*
"I'll wake you up when the sun rises, if you want. You can sleep here any time, Liv." Duke huffs against her hair like Tex used to do — slightly less irritably, of course. "This is your place, too. Remember that. You remember me so, remember that."
*