Chapter Six

Jane peered over her laptop at Loki and frowned. He'd been tapping away at his profile for the past ten minutes and she was a little worried about what he was typing. She'd agreed to look at it after he was done and before he posted the final draft, but she was getting antsy. What would someone like Loki Odinson put on his profile? Good God, she could just imagine!

"I see you looking at me, Foster. What do you want?" Loki said, never taking his eyes off the screen.

"Tell me, under the list of personality traits is 'arrogant ass' listed? Because don't forget to check that one off," she told him.

Loki smirked, his eyes still on the screen before him. "Have I said something wrong?"

"Yes. 'What do you want?' It was rude."

"I hadn't realized," he said and finally looked up at her. "But, did you want something?"

"Yes."

"So, then asking—"

"It was still rude. Be less rude."

"I feel as though someone is pitching a moody here. And it isn't me."

This could go on all day. Instead, Jane stood up and moved around the table to where Loki was sitting in the booth half of their table. Since no one was currently sitting near them, she made a 'shoo' motion with her hands. Loki arched a brow. She shot him a look and folded her arms across her chest. Finally, Loki rolled his eyes and slid to the side.

The first words that caught Jane's eye was 'sexually adventurous'. "Uh, what?" she mumbled and read the sentence attached to that phrase: I prefer a woman who is sexually adventurous. If you must pretend that you are not for some misplaced propriety—

"No," Jane said and sat back. "Just no."

"What?"

"Are you looking for dates or for one night stands?"

He considered this. "Well, I wouldn't be opposed to having sex, Jane. Would you?"

"Don't be gross."

"Are you saying sex with me would be gross?"

She cocked her head to the side. "Are you propositioning me?"

He laughed. "No. I just meant that I think you could stand to…"

"Get laid? Yeah, tell me about it. So could you."

"Well, I am trying, but you're telling me no," he said and gestured to the computer screen.

"Yeah, because as a woman with a brain in her head, if I read that I would either send you an email telling you what a jackass you sound like or move right on to the next profile. Women do not go on these sites to just 'hook up', Loki."

"I don't really think you can be so definitive about such a thing. Statistically speaking—"

"You're doing this to win a bet of who can get the most dates in a month. You'll have more success not sounding like some pretentious sex maniac." She leaned in closer to the screen. "What else have you got here…oh for crying out loud. Is knowing Plato's allegory of the cave really necessary?" She looked at him incredulously.

He shrugged. "I prefer to weed out simpletons."

"You're going to weed out everyone at this point aside from other elitist snobs."

"You know the allegory of the cave. We've talked about it."

"Argued about it."

Loki grinned. "Jane, it was a friendly discussion. Even when you threw that goblet at my head."

"Not a shining moment. You goaded me into an argument and I fell for it."

"The point is that you could hold your own with me."

Jane blinked. "Did you just compliment me?"

He nodded once. "Do you find it a compliment to be able to hold your own with me?"

She wagged a finger at him and chuckled. "I see what you did there."

He smiled. "Do you?"

"Yes, and I'm not taking the bait. See, Loki, I don't think it takes a special sort of person to be able to 'hold their own with you'. I'm beginning to think that those who prefer to run the other way might be the smartest ones yet."

"And yet here you sit," he said and leaned toward her with what could only be described as a lascivious smirk. Something about that and the sudden invasion of her space unnerved Jane. She noted the musky scent of cologne. She liked it. That unnerved her too.

She reared back and pushed him on the spot of flesh just below his shoulder. It was rock hard and it made her gut clench. She moved her hand off him and drew a semi-circle in front of her with her hand. "This is my dance space." She then drew a semi-circle in front of him. "That's yours."

He smirked but said nothing and Jane turned back to his profile. She set about deleting the section on "What I'm Looking For" and ignored Loki groaning as if in agony beside her.

"All right, so," she said and placed her hands over the keyboard in typing position. "How do we get you what you want and hopefully what you need?"

"What I need? Since when do you care about what I need?"

Jane looked over at him, her hands still in position. "Loki, do you really want to just go out on a bunch of dates just to win a bet and not consider the fact that you could also be using this as an opportunity to meet the one?"

His head tipped back as he barked out a laugh. "The one? Christ, who knew you were so sentimental?"

"I can be," she said indignantly.

"Well, I suppose even though you are a scientist you are an astrophysicist at that so I suppose a bit of whimsy – ow!" He rubbed his arm and glared at her. "Was hitting me really necessary, Foster?"

"Yes. Don't be an insensitive prick."

"You have quite a lot of rules for me. Don't be this, don't do that…when it's time for me to look at your profile may I apply some rules to you as well?"

She snorted. "You're not looking at my profile, Loki."

"Why not?" he asked indignantly.

"You asked for my help. I didn't ask for yours."

"You don't think that yours will need any tweaking?"

"Nope. And even if it did…"

"Oh, I see." He looked down and then away and Jane had the terrible sense that she'd hurt him. she moved her fingers off the board and turned to face him.

"Loki," she said and then stopped. She didn't really know what to say. Did she apologize? Did she and Loki apologize to each other? Although, he had apologized to her earlier…"I'm sorry," she said softly.

"Well, it's not like we're friends, right?" he said and looked at her. He shrugged. "You've made that abundantly clear."

Despite the fact that she felt bad for making him feel bad, Jane refused to take all this on herself. "Now hold on a second here," she said. "You're blackmailing me into helping you. That doesn't exactly speak of friendship, Loki. Not to mention the fact that as I have mentioned before it's not like you've made things easy on me. You'll have to excuse me for not thinking this—" she gestured between them and the computer "makes us friends."

"Honestly, Foster, I've never hated you and in some weird way – I've always thought of us as friends. The idea that I hate you is something you created in your own mind."

She gaped at him and he just looked at her, awaiting a response. When it was clear he wasn't going to get one he cleared his throat and held out his hand. "Friends?"

She looked at his hand. "Does this mean you won't give me a hard time anymore?"

He cocked his head to the side. "Does that sound like me?"

She frowned. "No."

"Secretly, I think you like it," he whispered conspiratorially.

She looked at him witheringly. "Do I, Loki? Do I?"

"How about I promise to give you less crap."

"Especially about Thor."

Loki groaned and his head fell forward. "You're killing me, Foster."

"Promise."

He lifted his head and nodded. "I promise."

She frowned. "Perhaps we should do a trial run before we commit to—"

"Jane."

She sighed and slid her hands into his for the second time in two days. And still there were no signs of the apocalypse. She wasn't sure she would ever stop waiting for it. She also wondered if perhaps she shouldn't have put more conditions on their friendship before shaking his hand. Well, this would just be her living life on the edge.

His smile was triumphant. Of course. "Can I see your profile now?" he asked.

She sighed and looked at him. "Oh, Loki…