RED HOT (WITH RAGE)
“I THINK I HATE YOU,” OLIVIA DECIDES, GIVING BRUCE A SIDE-EYE OVER HER BOWL OF COLD CHILI. He rolls his eyes, swallowing another spoonful of his.
“You are so dramatic,” he complains. She raises her eyebrows at him challengingly.
“Oh yeah? I’m too dramatic? Go take your chances with Stark then,” she scoffs, gesturing at her apartment door with her spoon. “See who’s dramatic then; breaking in at 3:00 in the fucking morning.”
“I did not break in,” he protests. Her eyes narrow at him in annoyance, grumpily sifting her food with her spoon.
“You picked the lock,” she reminds him flatly. “Pretty sure that’s breaking in.” He groans, pressing his forehead to his hand instead of the other way around.
“I already apologized for that,” he grumbles. “I even said I’d do the dishes, even though it’s not my apartment and I’m not the one who was hungry.” It’s her turn to roll her eyes now.
“You are the one with the audacity, though,” she snaps back. “You break into my house in the middle of the night, insult my chili—“
“I just said it was spicy!” he exclaims, interrupting her. She reaches across the table to pick up her salt shaker and throw it at him. He dodges out of the way of the shaker, but her glare catches him full-on.
“Insult my chili,” she repeats, louder this time, “and then complain because I made you food! Who does that?” She throws her hands up in exasperation and outrage, angrily eating a spoonful of chili.
“Okay, fine,” he relents, sarcastically, “I’m sorry I insulted your chili. There. Better?” She narrows her eyes at him, then sighs in annoyance.
“Turn on the TV and I’ll forgive you,” she replies. He gets up to do just that, and she takes a second to chill out. She has no idea why Bruce pisses her off so much. Actually, no, she knows exactly why.
It probably started somewhere around breaking into her house at 3am and waking her up while she was having fun eating banana bread with Loki.
The TV starts playing some kind of science documentary— it makes Olivia want to roll her eyes. Bruce Banner, everybody. The most boring man on Earth.
“—expert Dr. Erik Selvig—,” the TV narrates, and Olivia’s passing glance at the screen turns into a double-take.
“Oh, hey,” she recognizes, “isn’t that the guy Loki brainwashed or something?” Bruce nods, putting his bowl of chili on the coffee table and sitting on her floor.
“Yeah,” he confirms. “He’s friends with Thor, I think.” At this, Olivia hums, dropping her spoon into her empty bowl and walking it over to the sink.
“Wonder if they keep in touch. Hell, maybe he knows how Thor even gets between here and Asgard,” she hums conversationally. Bruce nods, a small smile gracing his face.
“If he does, I’d love to hear about it. I have no idea how any of Thor’s tricks work,” he muses. Olivia half-smirks, stretching as she steps out of the kitchen.
“God, you are such a nerd,” she taunts. He rolls his eyes at her. “I’m going to bed. Crash here for the night if you want. Just keep the volume down and don’t drive the electricity bill through the roof or my landlord’ll be on my ass.” He nods.
“Night,” he calls, waving. She passes by him into her room.
“Night,” she calls back. Once her bedroom door is shut, she walks over to her nightstand to pull out a pen and some paper.
Dr. Erik Selvig.
If she ever wants to see Loki in person and physically interact with him, instead of wandering the dreamscape seeing the visual equivalent of guesswork…
He’s her best shot.