A FLASH OF GREEN LIGHT
“LADY BANNER?” THOR BLINKS AS SHE STANDS. “What are you doing here?”
“You know her?” Jane wonders, glancing between the two. Olivia ignores both of them.
“You said Loki’s dead? Are you sure?” she prompts, watching Thor’s expression. It becomes solemn again, and he nods once.
“He died a hero,” he claims. Olivia steps forward.
“Where?” she questions him, not bothering to hide her urgency. Thor isn’t really the type to check for a pulse. His brows knit with confusion.
“Lady Banner? What has brought on this sudden—?” he starts, but she cuts him off, not in the mood and short on time.
“Explanations later, directions first,” she states, waving her hand as though to tell him to hurry up.
“We came through a portal; um, here, give me your phone and I’ll type in the address,” Jane offers, sticking out her hand. Olivia hands it over immediately, and Jane types as quickly as she can.
“Thank you,” she replies appreciatively, already on her way out the door.
“Wait! Lady Banner—,” Thor starts, but she’s leaving.
“Talk later!” she exclaims back, and then the door shuts behind her. Her taxi driver cannot leave fast enough.
***
Olivia practically jumps out the backseat of the taxi at the old abandoned warehouse. It peels off as she walks forward, towards a part of the air that seems to be rippling, like a mirage.
With a deep breath, she plunges through.
She emerges into a cave full of shoes, but she doesn’t really have the time to wonder at that right now. Instead, she pushes past it, into a large, desolate expanse.
On the other side, a guard that she recognizes as Asgardian is walking towards a spaceship of some kind.
“Hey!” she calls, as loud as she can, pushing into a run. He doesn’t hear her. “HEY!” she shouts, managing a little more volume this time.
The guard stalls a little, glancing to his left, but sees nothing and brushes it off. The boarding ramp comes down, and Olivia fights the exhaustion.
“Hey! Wait!” She screams, and this time he turns. He stops dead when he sees her running towards him, waving. His body shifts to Loki’s in a flash of green light.
“Olivia?” he calls, bewildered, as he starts towards her. She slows down a little, huffing for breath, and he speeds up.
They meet in the middle in a tight hug.
“What are you doing here?” he wonders, pulling away to look at her properly.
“You have really cold hands,” she reflects breathlessly. She blinks a few times, shaking her head to focus. “Uh— Thor. He told me you were dead, and he doesn’t really seem like the type to check a pulse, so I thought you might be dying,” she explains.
“Thor?” he repeats, bewildered. “How did you encounter Thor?” She takes a second to catch her breath, and he figures it out in the silence. “Your vacation— I knew you were lying. You’re horrible at it.”
“Only for you,” she jokes, winking. “I actually tricked the shit out of a receptionist today— you should’ve seen it.”
“Well, you need to go home,” he tells her, though he glances back at his ship as if he isn’t especially keen on it himself. “I’ll speak to you later— right now I have work to do.” She sighs.
“Okay,” she agrees, drawing herself up to her full height. She winces, her hand raising to press gently against her stomach. “Yeah. I’ll probably… walk this time, though.”
His attention is already refocusing on her stomach, his brows knitting together.
“Are you wounded?” he questions, reaching forward to pull up her shirt. Seeing the bloody bandage, his expression drops into an unreadably stern one. “How did you get this?”
“Uh,” she shifts a little, ignoring the pain, “my old boss was not happy when I told him I was leaving the country for two weeks. Sent me on kind of a rough one. Must’ve opened it with all the running.” He frowns, reaching for it instinctively, but hesitates at the last second, and then pulls away.
He glances behind her at the cave; it’s pretty far away.
“You’ll never make it in time, in your condition,” he decides, returning his focus to her. “We have better healers on Asgard; just… do exactly as I say.” She nods, following him onto the ship.
It’s incredibly cool-looking, but she can’t help her yawn. She’s been keeping incredibly busy these last two days. Loki shoots her a slightly amused smile.
“I like the new outfit,” she comments. He looks down at his clothes, and then back up at her.
“Do you?” he hums conversationally. “I do too; much easier to move in.” She nods, humming.
“Yeah, getting rid of the cape was a good choice,” she agrees. “I wasn’t gonna say anything since it seemed like you were feeling it, but it wasn’t really doing it for you.” His brows furrow a little.
“No?” he wonders, looking a little put out. She shakes her head with a lighthearted grimace.
“No,” she confirms, “definitely not.” He pouts a little, turning to the controls; before he can say anything, though, she yawns again.
“Tired?” he wonders. She nods, but remembers he can’t actually tell while he’s looking away.
“Mmhmm,” she confirms, a little drowsily. “Stayed up pretty much all night and all day tracking down Selvig.” He frowns a little.
“Selvig; isn’t that Thor’s friend who built the Tesseract machine for me?” he recalls.
“Yeah,” she sighs. “It’s kinda hard tracking people down without any resources, but I managed. My Google ads are probably going to be astrophysics forever now, though.”
Loki glances back at Olivia, sitting on the floor against a bench.
“Here,” he offers, letting the ship steer itself for a moment since it’s a straight shot for a while. He grabs a blanket, putting it over the bench. “Sleep under there; and don’t move until I come to get you.” She narrows her eyes at him for a second.
“I should probably be upset that you’re making me sleep under a bench,” she frowns, “but honestly, I’m tired enough that I don’t even care.” She scoots under the bench as instructed, and he drapes the blanket over top, keeping it down with the ship’s instruction manual. It’s incredibly thick, and definitely not going anywhere.
Despite the uncomfortable metal floor and mildly cramped space, Olivia falls asleep almost instantly.