Fic: Lucky Emeralds (Sifki)

[bookishwench]

It was all Nat’s fault, or that’s what Sif told herself.

College was completely different than anything Sif had dreamed it might be. When she had applied to Yale, she hadn’t really thought she could get in. The acceptance letter had frankly stunned her and her family, as had the full-ride scholarship that meant she would actually be able to go. No one in her family had been to college before. She came from a long line of dairy farmers in Wisconsin, and none of them had ever been interested in college outside of rooting for the Badgers on general principle. But as much as Sif loved her family and the farm, she had other plans for her future. She’d always been more than a little different. While most of the girls she’d grown up with had been cheerleaders or dancers who looked down on anyone who got As, Sif had always wanted to be an architect. Even as a little girl, she’d built her dolls wild, fantastical homes out of cardboard boxes. People back home tended to look at her funny.

Unfortunately, as the only girl majoring in architecture in her year, she was still getting those funny looks, especially from the other students in her classes.

Most of the time, she didn’t let it bother her. She really liked her roommates, which helped. Natasha, who everyone called Nat, was a law major who had managed to test out of nearly ever freshman year class and was essentially a sophomore already. She exuded cool from every pore. Wanda, who came from an Eastern European country that was so small most people had never heard of it, was a history major. She was bubbly and fun, a loyal friend. And then there was Pepper, who was working on a business degree and who Sif swore would probably own a Fortune 500 company by the time she was 25. She already very quietly ran an illegal betting pool for every sport on campus and had reimbursed her family for tuition for all four years by October with the profits. Even better, all three of them didn’t seem to think her choice of major was weird. They spent a lot of their free time together, eating cookies and renting Disney movies from the local Blockbuster and watching them on the VCR connected to the tiny TV Wanda had brought from home.

It was nearly enough to make Sif forget about the attitude of the other students in her classes. Even the professors, all of whom were men, looked at her like she was from another planet. She was still pulling the highest grades, though, but it seemed to make everyone angry at her rather than respecting her. By the end of the first semester, she’d decided to ignore them completely and took to sitting in the back row of every classroom, taking notes at a furious pace and keeping her mouth firmly shut.

When the last final exam was over in December, Sif drew a sigh of relief. Grades would be posted outside of the professors’ offices by student ID number in a few days. Until then, she was free. With a spring in her step, she jogged across campus, up the steps of her dorm, opened the door, and gingerly dropped her ludicrously expensive textbooks on the couch before flopping down next to them. That was when she noticed the stranger in the room. Immediately, she sprang back up to her feet.

“Who are y… Nat?!” she said, her mouth dropping open.

“Hey,” she said, waving her hand playfully. “I knew I looked different, but I thought you’d still recognize me.”

Natasha, a natural redhead, was known for her signature ringlets that reached just above the middle of her back. Her hair was now much shorter, skimming above her shoulders in a curly bob.

“You like?” she asked, tipping her head from side to side.

“It’s really cute!” Sif said.

“I was going more for ‘intimidating’ or possibly ‘professional,’ but I’ll take it,” she said with a shrug. “I like it anyway.”

“Why did you cut it?” Sif asked, then immediately realized that probably came out wrong and back-pedaled, saying, “I mean, it’s great. You look like a badass.”

“I wanted a change,” she said, shrugging, then grinned. “Besides, the guy who did it is fantastic. And I think you know him.”

“Who?”

“That kind of Goth guy down on the third floor,” she said, her smile getting bigger. “The one with the accent.”

“Loki? The biochem guy?” Sif asked.

“So you do know him,” she said, sounding oddly satisfied. “I thought so.”

Silently, Sif thought that she didn’t know him half as well as she’d like to. She didn’t exactly know him, but she knew of him. He was the brother of some really muscular guy who was on the football team and known for throwing crazy frat parties. Loki mostly kept to himself, though, although there were rumors that he was responsible for the fake fire alarm that had gone off at three in the morning every day for a week during November. Depending on who you asked (not that she’d been asking, of course), he was building a nuclear bomb in his dorm’s bathroom, had memorized half of the textbooks within the first three weeks of school, was secretly the son of a Norwegian diplomat, had an enormous pet boa constrictor that he kept hidden in the basement of the science building, and had used his freakishly good hacker skills to come up with blackmail that compelled a notoriously misogynistic physics professor into resigning his post and moving out of the country. A few people thought Loki was crazy, but he was also extremely cute, so that sort of balanced out in the end.

“We so need to go out and party tonight,” Nat said, interrupting Sif’s thoughts that absolutely did not in any way mean she was crushing on Loki. “The semester’s over. We survived. And I want everybody to stare in awe at my new hair.”

“I kind of want to just sleep until January,” Sif said. “The first thing I’m doing is taking a nap.”

“No, you’re not,” Natasha said. “You have an appointment.”

“I do?”

“I booked you with Loki for a makeover,” she said, a slightly wicked grin crinkling her mouth. “Merry Christmas. It’s on me.”

Sif wasn’t sure whether to feel angry or not. Her own blonde hair wasn’t anything spectacular, just long and straight, but she liked it fine.

“Trust me,” Nat said. “You know how Wanda keeps cycling through classic hairstyles? I think she’s had something from every decade back to the 1950s?”

“Yeah?”

“Loki did all of those. And you know how Tony started growing that beard back in October and now he has women literally falling out of trees for him? Loki convinced him to do that,” Nat said. “He did Carol’s haircut too. Hers is a little out there, I grant you, but she loves it. He’s really good, no lie.”

“There’s something you’re not telling me,” Sif said suspiciously.

“I also think he’s got a crush on you,” Nat said, eyeing her Vamp nail polish critically.

“Me?” Sif said. “That doesn’t seem very likely.”

“But you wouldn’t be against the idea, would you?” Nat asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve never even met him,” Sif said.

“Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?”

“If I did, would it stop you?” Sif said.

“Actually, no,” Nat said. “You’ve been here for months and I’ve never seen you go out on a date once. Why?”

“I don’t know,” Sif said, feeling very uncomfortable now.

Natasha had a penchant for being a little too perceptive about people, able to size them up fast and figure out their motives before they said much of anything. It was unnerving sometimes how she could see right through people, and Sif was sure she’d make a great lawyer because of it. Still, having that lens turned on her made her squirm.

“I do know,” Nat said. “You spend all your time in your architecture classes, and the guys in there are massive jerks.”

“You’re not wrong,” Sif said, grimacing.

“I know I’m not,” Nat said. “And neither are you. Not dating any of them just means you have good taste. So change into something that isn’t the pair of overalls you’ve worn over twenty times this semester, put yourself in Loki’s capable and highly hot hands, and flirt a little.”

Sif felt herself blushing, and weirdly tears were stinging her eyes.

“Or not,” Nat said, sitting up and looking concerned. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, fine,” Sif said, waving a hand as though to push away her overreaction. “Just end of semester stress and—”

“And you’ve been treated like crap by every guy you’ve met this semester, and you don’t relish the idea of it happening again,” Nat finished. “That’s not going to happen. I think you know me well enough to know I wouldn’t put you in a position like that. Loki’s a little odd, I admit, and his family has more issues than a really bad episode of Jerry Springer, but he’s okay. I can tell.”

Sif frowned. She wasn’t good at trusting people, but she had to admit Nat had a perfect track record when it came to being a good judge of character. Nat was looking up at her from the couch with a hopeful expression, and Sif had to admit, her hair really did look fantastic.

“Okay,” Sif said, earning a gleeful air punch from Nat, “but if I wind up with Rachel’s hair like every third girl on campus, I reserve the right to punch somebody in the nose!”

“No Friends hair, I promise,” Nat said, bouncing off the couch and hugging her. “Now go change! And remember—”

“I know, I know, no overalls,” Sif said.

“I was going to say use a condom, but that too,” Nat said.

Sif rolled her eyes and threw a pillow at her, then started digging through the closet until she found an old Packers shirt. She threw it on with a pair of jeans and black high-heeled boots, glanced in the mirror, and shrugged.

“Good enough?”

Nat squinted, then said, “Wait a second.”

She got up and dug through the dented peanut can she used as an unobtrusive jewelry box and pulled out a pair of earrings.

“Nat, not your emeralds,” Sif said, her eyes going wide as Natasha walked over and handed them to her.

“Just a loan, mind you,” she said. “I inherited them from my Uncle Dreykov, who was my least favorite person in the world, may he rot in peace. But, they’re lucky. You are now guaranteed a perfect evening.”

Sif was doubtful about that, but she put them on and hugged her roommate gratefully.

“He’s in room 323,” she said. “Now scoot!”

Sif practically ran into Pepper as she opened the door to leave.

“Hey, Sif! I was wondering—”

“Nope, she has no time to talk,” Nat said, taking Sif by the shoulders and literally pushing her out the door. “Whatever you’re wondering, I’ll fix! Bye!”

The door slammed shut, and Sif found herself alone in the hallway. As she walked towards the stairwell, she heard at least three different songs by TLC coming from various rooms, one very loud argument, and several rooms that had the kind of dead silence that could only mean that if anyone was behind those doors, they were studying frantically. She opened the stairwell and started down to the third floor, her knees feeling shakier with every step. By the time she reached the right floor, she was seriously considering going the rest of the way down to the main floor and just sitting there with a cup of vending machine coffee until she felt less like she was about to throw up.

But if there was one thing Sif wasn’t, it was a coward. The weight of Nat’s earrings reminded her how disappointed her friend would be if she didn’t go. Taking a deep breath, she straightened her back and opened the door into the third-floor hallway. Room 323 was the second door on the left. She bit her lip, then knocked a little too loudly on the door.

“Thor, I swear if you want me to tutor you for another five hours in basic biology only for you to sleep through the damn exam again, so help me, I will find a way to turn you into a frog!”

The door slammed open, and Sif stood there with her eyes wide, looking a little frightened.

“Oh,” Loki said, instantly blushing. “Oh, it’s… it’s you. Not my dunderheaded brother. I apologize. I didn’t mean to—”

“No, no, it’s okay. I get it,” Sif said, feeling bad for him as he was obviously embarrassed. “I have a brother back home who has no concept of privacy. Family can be a real pain.”

“They can,” Loki said, smiling at her in a way that made her heart skip a beat.

“But if this is a bad time, I can always come back later,” Sif offered. “I mean, you know, maybe I should start by saying I’m Nat’s friend Sif.”

“Right, yes, no, I mean I know you’re Sif,” Loki said. “I’m Loki, and no, now’s perfect. The place is kind of a mess. I hope you don’t mind.”

“No, it seems like that’s the usual thing for boys’ dorm rooms,” Sif said, then realized how that might sound. “Not that I’ve been in a lot of them or anything! I’ve just heard that.”

Loki chuckled, then opened the door further, and Sif went in, noting that he hadn’t been wrong. There was literally a pair of jeans hanging from the acoustical tile ceiling. A poster of the periodic table of the elements was dangling by one thumbtack on the wall above one of two unmade beds. A rickety folding chair was sitting by the window, and Sif noticed that Nat’s long red curls were still scattered on the floor from her earlier makeover. She swallowed nervously.

“So,” he said, “I’ve seen you around campus. You’re in the architecture department, right?”

Sif nodded, not quite trusting herself to speak. Instead, she shifted her gaze to him. He was wearing a rumpled pair of black sweatpants and a green t-shirt with a washed-out picture of a Chinese dragon on it. His feet were bare. Somehow, that one detail made her simultaneously feel both less intimidated by him and flustered that she was seeing his feet naked, which seemed weirdly personal. He also looked absolutely gorgeous, which wasn’t helping her nerves.

“I think you know my roommate Peter,” Loki said.

“Parker?” Sif asked. “He’s your roommate?”

“Yeah,” Loki said. “He’s a good kid. I’m not sure who thought it was a great idea to have a fifteen-year-old freshman living on campus, but he’s here. Or was. He’s gone home to his aunt’s for Christmas break already.”

“I didn’t realize he was that young,” Sif said, her eyebrows raising. “We had a literature class together this semester.”

“And you were the one who told the idiots in that class to stop bullying him,” Loki said, giving her another smile. “He told me about you standing up for him. You really have no idea how much that helped.”

“I’ve been there myself,” Sif said.

“Me too,” Loki said. “That’s why I already know that I’m going to like you.”

Sif felt herself blushing again, but she also felt strangely more connected to him. She had the feeling that whether they wound up dating or not, they were definitely going to be friends.

“Would you like some water, a Coke, anything?” Loki said, wandering over to the minifridge. “I don’t keep beer in the room because of Peter, but I think we might have some orange juice in here that hasn’t gone bad yet.”

He pulled out a completely empty juice bottle.

“Thanks, Thor,” Loki mumbled sulkily as he threw the bottle in the garbage.

“No, thanks anyway,” she said.

“Right,” Loki said, closing the fridge door again. “So, let’s get down to why you’re really here. What would you like me to do with your hair?”

“I have absolutely no idea,” Sif admitted. “I only found out about Nat getting this appointment as a Christmas present for me about ten minutes ago.”

“Then would it be alright if I made some suggestions?”

“Okay,” Sif said. “Nat says you really know what you’re doing, and she looks great.”

“Natasha’s gorgeous, so that was easy,” Loki said, then added, “and so are you, so I don’t think I can really make any mistakes.”

“Thank you,” she said, feeling shy again.

He walked closer to her and put a finger under her chin, lifting it up so he could look at her carefully.

“You really are stunning,” he said, “but I’d like to see more contrast between your skin tone and hair color. Those hazel eyes of yours would really pop with something darker.”

“Okay,” she said nervously, then admitted, “I’ve always kind of wanted to be a brunette.”

He continued looking at her and hummed softly, gently turning her head this way and that and brushing her hair back with his hands.

“Those earrings look spectacular on you,” he said.

“They’re Nat’s.”

“Green happens to be my favorite color, but it’s not just the jewelry. Your ears are really well proportioned. There’s a sort of balance with them, and they have a lovely, delicate shell shape that compliments your features beautifully,” he said, observing her.

“Um, thanks,” she said.

“My honest opinion?”

“Please.”

“If you let me, I’d dye it a midnight black, then give you quite a short haircut that will show off those perfect ears of yours.”

Sif froze. She had always liked her hair, and she had used it as a security blanket over the years, hiding behind it when she was the butt of jokes at school for not being like all the other girls with her weird penchant for math.

“And here I was worried I’d end up looking like Jennifer Aniston,” she managed to say with a nervous laugh.

Loki laughed, then stepped back.

“No pressure. The choice is entirely yours,” he said. “I can do whatever you like, but I swear, you’ll love the result if you go with the bolder option.”

Sif could never say for sure what happened in those few seconds, but something inside her suddenly decided that it was time to stop hiding. If being herself made her a freak, so be it. She wanted something new.

“I’m holding you to that. Let’s go with black and short,” she said firmly.

“You won’t regret it,” he promised, taking her by the hand and guiding her to the folding chair. “We’ll just get most of the length off first. No point in dying what’s just going to wind up on the floor anyway.”

She caught one last look at her long blonde hair in the reflection in the window as Loki retrieved his scissors, then squeezed her eyes shut and hoped she wasn’t making a mistake.

“Ready?” he asked from behind her.

“Okay,” she said in a voice that sounded strangely small to her own ears.

She felt his hand rest encouragingly on her shoulder for a moment, then a second later, she heard the sound of snipping. She nearly passed out when she saw the first long blonde strands join Nat’s curls on the floor at her feet. He really wasn’t kidding when he said it was going to be short.

“There,” he said a few minutes later, and she heard him put the scissors down again. “We’ve started. No glancing in the mirror until we’re done, though. It looks a bit of a fright right now, but that will change. I know I have a box of black dye around here somewhere. Excuse me.”

Loki went towards the bathroom. In spite of herself, Sif’s hands went up to touch her hair, and a small gasp escaped her when she realized it was shorter than Nat’s already. It was too late now, though.

“Got it!” he sang out, coming out the room and waving the box victoriously. “Come in here and we’ll get on to the next bit.”

No sooner had Sif entered the bathroom, though, than she noticed something on the wall in the shower. Thankfully, it wasn’t the rumored nuclear warhead.

“Uh, Loki,” she said, trying not to startle him, “no big deal, but there’s a spider the size of my hand on the wall behind your head.”

“What?” he said, sounding only mildly surprised and turning around. “Oh, that’s Stan. He’s Peter’s pet. And he really shouldn’t be hanging about in the shower.”

Sif could almost swear the spider looked at him and smirked in self-satisfaction.

“He’s a bit of an escape artist,” Loki said. “Also, he nipped Peter yesterday, so if this goes wrong it should be the exact opposite of fun.”

Loki glanced around the room and found an empty Solo cup sitting on the sink.

“This should do it,” he said, then popped it over the top of the spider. “Hand me a tissue, will you?”

Sif glanced around and found a box of Kleenex on the sink, then handed him one. He held the cup with one hand and put the tissue on the wall just above it. Tipping the cup just enough to slide the tissue underneath, he slowly moved the cup up the wall until the tissue covered the entire opening. Then he pulled the tissue tightly around the cup and took the now trapped spider out of the room and gently returned him to a glass terrarium she hadn’t noticed before that was tucked under one of the beds.

“There,” Loki said, stacking three heavy textbooks on top of the terrarium. “That should hold him for at least a couple hours. You were very calm in all that.”

“Spiders don’t scare me much,” Sif said, “but that one was pretty big.”

“He’s a hefty boy,” Loki said, looking at Sif with undisguised admiration. “Thor, my brother, is terrified of him. Screams at the mere sight of him.”

“Why do I get the feeling you might have made sure he gets a good look at him regularly?” Sif, said, grinning impishly.

“Because you mentioned you have a brother and have probably done something nearly the same at some point,” Loki said, returning her smile. “Come on. There shouldn’t be any more unwanted visitors in the bathroom, and if there are, I’m leaving.”

Sif chuckled and followed him in again. She wasn’t really sure what exactly he was doing, but he was mixing a bunch of bottles together and stirring them. He almost looked like some weird mage casting a spell. After he had very carefully applied the solution to her hair, he dug around in a drawer and pulled out a shower cap.

“Put this on,” he said, handing it to her. “Then we have a wait until it can be rinsed out. I don’t suppose you like tea?”

“I do, actually,” Sif said.

“Then allow me to make you a cup on our horrendously unreliable hot plate that is, of course, a violation of the dorm rules,” he said.

In a few minutes, Sif was sitting by the window again, Loki perching on the sill. The late afternoon winter sun lit up his face, making the green in his eyes sparkle, but Sif found that rather than her shyness returning at how handsome he was, she was relaxing. Conversation between them flowed easily, and in a little while she learned the truth behind a lot of the rumors. He had indeed been guilty of the faked fire alarms at three in the morning. His reason for them was he knew his brother was going to be entertaining a lady in his dorm room that night, and after Thor had made one too many nasty comments about Loki being a nerd, he’d decided to spoil his brother’s fun. Repeatedly.

However, it turned out the boa constrictor in the science building was a myth. It was really stashed in the business department, specifically inside the janitor’s closet.

“When I found out the guy who owned Socrates was bored with him and was planning on just releasing him in the woods behind the school, I took him instead,” Loki explained between sips of tea. “I like snakes, but he wouldn’t do well in the dorm room. It’s too cold in here. That closet is right next to the furnace, so it’s actually the perfect temperature for him, and he’s happy as a clam. He not as affectionate as my dog back home, but we get along fine.”

“What kind of dog do you have?”

“An Irish Wolfhound named Fenrir,” Loki said.

“I have an English Sheepdog named Little Bo Peep,” Sif said. “I miss her something fierce. She’s a cuddler.”

“Well, feel free to stop by and cuddle Stan whenever you please,” Loki said, “or I can introduce you to Socrates, though I’d advise against letting him get too firm a grip on you.”

“I may just do that,” she said, and she saw his face light up delightedly at the idea. “One last question. Did you really get Prof. Jenkins to leave?”

“That idiot? Too right I did,” Loki said, setting down his cup. “I had proof he was purposely marking all of the girls’ papers lower for no reason other than being a pillock who can’t stand the thought of a woman being a physicist. When he realized he was caught, he bolted like a scared rabbit. I hate that sort.”

Sif nodded in agreement. She’d run into enough professors like that already.

“It should be time to rinse that out now,” Loki said, gesturing to her head. “It needs cold water. Do you want me to do it over the sink or would you prefer doing it yourself in the shower?”

“The sink is fine,” Sif said, not quite comfortable enough to use the shower in a guy’s room.

She soon found herself bending over the sink, watching black water go down the drain and wondering if anything at all had stayed on. Loki’s hands very efficiently ran over her hair and scalp, then guided her gently back into standing. She felt slightly dizzy. He used an old towel to carefully remove the glop he had put around her hairline to keep it from dying her skin. Once he was done, he smiled triumphantly.

“It’s perfect,” he said. “Black as a raven’s wing, and I would know. My father keeps a pair of them as pets. Come on. I’ll finish cutting it for you.”

She went back to the folding chair and sat down again. She avoided looking in the window by closing her eyes, and she felt more than heard or saw Loki standing behind her. The pressure of a comb slid through the hair on the back of her head, and she heard him begin snipping again.

They started talking again, and this time, he drew her into revealing more about her own life. She suspected he was trying to distract her from panicking since she was certain he was cutting her hair very short. Honestly, while she was a little freaked out by that, she was a lot more distracted by the gentle way his fingers ran through her hair. They talked about the environmentally friendly apartment buildings she wanted to design (snip), her roommates (snip), how difficult it was living in the shadow of her over-achieving big brother (snipSNIPsnip), how happy she was to be away from her horrible high school (snip snip), her life on the dairy farm (snip), and then they discovered they both loved reading Gaiman’s Sandman and listening to The Cure and had even read some of the same Gothic novels (snipsnipsnipsnip).

“I’m glad Nat came in today,” he said quietly. “I’m not sure I ever would have had the chance to meet you otherwise.”

Sif smiled and said, “She’s a good friend.”

Loki came around to stand in front of her and bent to finish with the hair above her forehead and just in front of her ears. He ran his hand lightly over her brow, removing stray hairs, then took her own hand and helped her to stand, her eyes still closed. Very slowly, she opened them, and her first sight was Loki drawing in a sharp breath.

“Shit,” he whispered.

“What?” she said, immediately horrified. “What is it? It’s bad?”

“No, no!” he said. “No, it’s just… you’re even more beautiful than I expected. Your eyes… you look like an ancient goddess who’s just stepped out of the mists of time. Or something. Come on. You have to see.”

Still holding her hand, he took her back into the bathroom and stood her in front of the mirror over the sink.

Sif blinked. It was a little like when she hadn’t recognized Nat. Her reflection was so different she could be a completely different person. Her hair was cut even shorter than she had expected. Her bangs were now a very short fringe that blended into the hair on her crown, all of which was perhaps the width of her thumb in length. Two sharply pointed wisps of hair rested just in front of her ears, leaving them completely exposed, Nat’s emeralds sparkling in the dim light of the bathroom. She felt the back of her head with her fingers and found it was similarly short, reminding her a little of petting a cat.

“I, uh, still need to define the hairline in back with clippers,” he said, sounding uncertain. “You… you don’t like it, do you.”

Sif was still trying to remember how to speak but managed to say, “Yes.”

“I’m sorry,” he said immediately. “I’m so sorry! I can try to fix it for you. Maybe I could—”

“No, no, I mean I like it,” she said, turning her head on an angle to the mirror and looking at the sleek line of her black hair.

“You do?” he said. “You’re not just saying that?”

“I mean, it’s different. Really different,” she said, looking in the mirror. “I feel like I don’t really know this girl. Not yet anyway.”

She meant it, too. Something about cutting off her old hair and having a whole new image felt like she had finally left behind the quiet, perpetually embarrassed girl who felt like she was a disappointment to her parents. The girl in the mirror was tough, some kind of warrior who didn’t bother with what other people thought. And, she realized with a start, she had traded being a little awkward and shy for being undeniably sexy. Hell, she looked like she could hold her own against Nat.

“I think I’m going to like her,” Sif said.

Loki looked relieved, then took her hands again and said, “I’d like to get to know her too. Would you have dinner with me tomorrow night?”

She smiled and nodded. He immediately grinned.

“Come on. Let’s get the back straightened out,” he said.

He popped the clippers on, and with her still standing, he put the blade against the back of her neck and started working.

Almost immediately, she heard Loki say, “Uh oh. Um, whoops?”

“Whoops? What do you mean whoops?” she said, reaching back and running her fingers over her nape, afraid she was about to encounter a bald spot.

“Gotcha!” he said, laughing. “Everything’s fine. Just a little prank.”

She turned around to roll her eyes at him and slap him lightly on the chest, but she was grinning as well.

“I’ll finish up for real, and then you’re done,” he said.

Only a minute later, he unplugged the clippers and put them away. Sif ran her hands through her hair again, enjoying the slightly prickly feeling on her fingers.

“We really did make a mess, didn’t we,” he said, surveying the room. The sink had black dye stains, used towels were thrown everywhere, and hair in three different colors and a variety of lengths covered the floor like a weird rug.

“We did,” she said. “Can I help clean up?”

“No, it’s my mess,” he said.

“And Nat really did pay for everything? I don’t owe you any money?”

“Not a dime.”

Sif took a couple steps closer to him. She remembered the new girl in the mirror, the bold one who looked like she had the courage to go after what she wanted. She looked up at him and rested one of her hands on his chest.

“Can I give you something anyway?” she asked, keeping her voice low.

His eyes, a shade of green that matched her earrings, seemed to deepen in color as he looked at her.

“If you wish,” he said quietly.

She stood on her toes and kissed him, hoping she wasn’t misreading the situation and feeling immense satisfaction when his arms wrapped around her, his lips warm and hungry. She had kissed a few boys back in Wisconsin, but nothing had felt like this. Sif felt like she could keep kissing him for days, a slow heat building in her veins until she could swear molten lava was coursing through her. Part of her wanted to take it much further right now, preferably on the bed that didn’t have Stan lurking under it, but she hadn’t changed quite that much. At least not yet. A few heartbeats later they drew back, and Sif noticed both of them were breathing a little ragged.

“I’ll see you tomorrow night,” she managed to say. “Eight o’clock?”

“Perfect.”

She smiled and walked to the door. He opened it and she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before going back down the hallway and up the stairs.

When she arrived at her own dorm room, she could hear Wanda talking inside before she even got to the door. It was locked, and Sif hadn’t taken her key with her, so she knocked.

“Hang on!” she said. “I’ve got it!”

The door swung open, and in a split second Wanda’s eyes went enormous, and then she absolutely screeched excitedly at Sif and threw her arms around her in a hug.

“Sif! Oh my god, you look fantastic! You’re, like, a hard rock version of Audrey Hepburn!” she yelled, prompting at least five doors to open down the hallway and people to stick their heads out, wondering what was going on. “I knew it! Loki’s amazing, isn’t he!”

“He is,” Sif said, smiling at her.

Nat was sitting on the couch with Pepper, whose mouth had fallen open.

“I owe you ten bucks,” Pepper said to Nat. “She really went through with it.”

Sif wasn’t sure Pepper was as enthusiastic about her hair as Wanda was, but she suddenly realized she didn’t care. Sif loved it, and that’s what mattered.

Nat gave Sif an approving smirk, then said, “Go on. Say it.”

“You were right,” Sif said.

“Such sweet words every time I hear them, which is often, as it should be.”

“Also, these earrings of yours really are lucky,” Sif said, taking them off.

“Keep them,” she said. “I think they look better on you anyway. An extra Christmas gift.”

“Really?” Sif said, looking stunned.

Nat nodded, then gave her another, softer smile and said, “Wear them on your wedding day.”

Four years later, on the day Sif married Loki, she did exactly that.