Common Grounds

A gift fic for alyxielle

Jane had just set out her chicken sandwich and unrolled a stack of hastily-printed JSTOR articles when Darcy leaned against the doorjamb of the break room.

She looked up in horror. "No."

Darcy's full lips scrunched in sympathy. "'Fraid so."

With a groan, Jane bent so her overgrown bangs drifted across Conflicts between Expansion History of the Local and Distant Universe. "No," she whimpered, "I literally just sat down. My stomach feels like it's going to implode. This is a Dunkin' Donuts, for crying out loud. It's not like he wants a..." she fumbled for an appropriately fussy drink, "a half-caff macchiato with extra foam."

"Okay, first of all, you don't go to Starbucks often enough to make fun of it," her friend laughed, "And second, he says you're the only one who can get his order right. Says you've got a light hand on the pump," she shrugged. "I think that's a compliment."

"Probably not the way he means it," she muttered into the paper. "Fine. I'm up."

()()()

Dredging up her customer-service face felt like hauling a lead weight from the bottom of the ocean. Her mouth ached; after six hours of smiling through the morning rush, she'd really been looking forward to a break. Her false enthusiasm was as threadbare as the rest of her.

"Just get it over with, Jane."

Loki was leaning against the counter, flirting with the shift manager. At least Sif had better sense than to be into it, but Loki could easily carry on a conversation unassisted. After all his efforts with her, Jane could attest that it didn't even seem to matter whether he succeeded or failed with a woman. Most of the time Jane thought he just wanted to be noticed.

Which was ridiculous. What with the way Loki looked—sooty black hair, jade green eyes, tall, muscular body—he never had to fight for anyone's attention.

Jane shook her head and blinked hard; she really must be exhausted.

"Good morning, Jane," he purred, "No one would guess you'd been up half the night."

She was going to pull a muscle in her cheek before this was over. "It's all the caffeine," was all she said. "What can I get for you?"

"A large coffee with 2% milk and a half pump of hazelnut and coconut syrup each," he answered promptly. "And Banner and Selvig want mediums with whole milk. Selvig wants his sweet, but put Splenda in the other; too much sugar makes Dr. Banner go kind of nuts."

"You got it," her hands moved automatically towards the stack of cups. I could've been halfway through my sandwich by now, she screamed at him through the silent veil of her bland smile, and I was really looking forward to that article. Now I'll be lucky to get through the first page.

"While I'm here," he eyed her over the counter top, "I thought I'd let you know Dr. Selvig was looking for another assistant tonight. His theoretical models didn't render properly; I thought you could help us look through the equations for any errors."

Her hands jerked, coffee spilling in a molten burn across her wrist. She didn't even feel it. "Are you kidding?" she cried, "Of course, I—I'd love to help out. What time are we meeting?"

"Selvig's last lecture finishes at nine, and he has a retirement party to stop in at after. I doubt anyone will get to the astrometrics lab until eleven."

"Eleven," she repeated flatly. Her mental shrieks of excitement turned to a filthy stream of profanity. The astrometrics lab was on the downtown campus, and even though she could take the bus to get there, they would have stopped running by the time she needed to get back.

But this wasn't the kind of opportunity an aspiring grad student could turn down. "I'll be there," she promised, putting the three drinks into a carrier and handing it over the counter. "Should I confirm with Dr. Selvig?"

"No need," he popped the lid off his cup and sniffed. "I'll tell him."

Jane waited for him to take a sip, roll it around his tongue, and swallow. Past experience had taught her it wasn't good policy to leave Loki before he allowed you to. He was just petty enough to call you back to remix a drink if it tickled his fancy. And once she sat down on break, she had no intention of getting up again.

"Delicious," he sighed. "So, how are you going to get to the lab?"

"I'll take the bus," not that it's any of your business, "It's no problem."

"And you'll just walk the ten miles back to your dorm afterwards then?"

She shrugged. "I have friends. One of them can come pick me up."

"At two in the morning? Or later?" His smirk trailed away; all of a sudden, he seemed to have trouble meeting her eyes. For the first time since he'd started haunting the shop, Loki seemed...shy.

Impossible. She must be delirious from too much caffeine and too little sleep.

"Jane, it's January. Why don't you let me drive you? We'll stop somewhere and get dinner, then pick up coffee for the group. It'll be fun."

"Fun?" she repeated, blankly. "You—what? Are you asking me out on a date?"

He scoffed, but his heart wasn't in it. Jane knew how smoothly Loki could flirt when he didn't give a damn, and there was a suspicious furrow between his brow that wasn't casual at all.

"Well, as your TA I couldn't do that—not officially anyway—but I think we could have a good time together. Don't you?"

This was too much to process.

"Loki...you're a great TA," she began, slowly, "But you're kind of a jerk to my coworkers. And me, for that matter. So..." did he really look crestfallen, or was he just that good? "No. I don't think I want to go out with you."

Loki turned a shade paler than usual. His throat worked hard before he spoke again.

"Okay," he said, "but would you please let me drive you back to the dorms? You can't walk ten miles when it's snowing."

"Will you start going to the Dunkin' Donuts on Spring if I say yes?"

He laughed. "You got it."

"Then you're on," her fake smile bloomed into an expression far more natural. "And if you wanted to stop and buy me some dim sum on the way...I guess I'd be okay with that."