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Marina sat on her bed, clean and wearing fresh clothes. Towel on her head, she delicately dried her ears, while her green eyes locked onto the bag sitting in the corner of the room. Frankly, Marina wasn't even sure why she had bothered to take Banner's bag with her. Of course she planned on taking it to the lab like she promised, but her reasons for doing so befuddled her: mostly because there weren't any reasons. She sighed, pulled the towel off, stood up, and pulled the hood of her jacket up. Dropping the towel onto the bed, Marina grabbed the bag before exiting her room.
Her thoughts continued as she slipped the strap onto her shoulder. Yet the harder she tried to come up with a reason for her uncommon politeness (unless of course, Erik had rubbed off on her more than she had thought), her thoughts merely left her with displeasing migraine. Coming to the lab, she banished her thoughts as she dumped the bag on one of the tables. Besides, what use is there uselessly scrounging for an answer when you already knew there wasn't one? Shrugging, she continued her journey towards the bridge.
Upon arriving at her destination, Marina stepped through the automatic doors and made her way towards the table just as the Helicarrier lurched up into the air. Sidling up next Steve, she nudged his arm and was rewarded with a small smile.
"You look kinda antsy, Cap." Marina whispered while they watched Fury direct everyone to send the ship into stealth mode.
Steve glanced at the brunette as he crossed his arms. "This whole thing just isn't sitting right with me." He paused, confused. "What exactly is stealth mode for this transport?"
"Reflector planes, covering the bottom, portray the Helicarrier as a part of the sky."
Nodding, Steve uncrossed his arms and reached into his back pocket for his wallet. Pulling out a ten, he walked forward and handed it to Fury before walking past. Snickering behind her hand, Marina smirked at Cap who sheepishly smiled back with a shrug.
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear." Marina's ears twitched, tuning into the conversation going on around the area.
She heard Bruce walk away from the outskirts of the debriefing center. "Where are you with that?"
Turning her head, Marina focused in on Phil as Steve came to stand behind him. "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops, if it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."
"That's still not gonna find them in time." Natasha pointed out.
Marina frowned as the conversation continued on. While none of this was her area of expertise, it was clear she wouldn't be needed. At least not until damage, people, and utter chaos was out of any form of control. Tugging on the hood of her jacket, Marina moved to go hide away in her little alcove until her presence was needed.
"Agent Oswell," Fury called, stopping the brunette in her tracks.
Marina turned back. "Yes, sir?"
"I want you to keep the doctor company, help him out in anyway if you can. Try not to bite, or threaten to rip someone's vocal cords out." Marina chuckled as Fury glanced at her. "Also, I know you have some intel as to what Dr. Selvig was doing; so don't bother playing innocent with me."
Not even bothering to deny the accusation, Marina simply shrugged and flashed a wolfish grin in the director's direction as she followed Natasha and Bruce off the bridge.
They didn't speak for hours; not even once (or at least not to each other). Bruce had taken to mumbling to himself as he worked while Marina had her head in her arms on the counter next to him: listening to every sound that echoed in the room. Between the combined sounds of Bruce; working, breathing, and the tap of his fingers against the screen, all were slowly working to lull the hybrid to sleep.
"This could take days without the proper signature." Bruce muttered a bit louder than before, running a hand through his hair.
Turning her head so one green eye peered through curled tresses; Marina watched as the doctor pulled off his glasses and pinched the bridge between his eyes. Unsure what to do, she remained in her position until her ears picked up on the light growl of the other occupants stomach. Feeling her own grumble in response, Marina chuckled.
"Wouldn't it be great," she mused, catching Bruce's attention. "If Domino's© air delivered? That would make being here so much more bearable."
"And fattening." The doctor conceded. "Yet, pizza sounds oddly appealing right now, which is a shame I don't think they planned on feeding us anything other than military food."
Marina lifted her head as she spoke her current thought train slowly, "actually… we may be able to snag some of the bread dough they keep in the mess hall. They always make too much anyway just in case. So if some went missing I doubt they'd notice or even care. "She grinned mischievously. "Plus it's not like they wouldn't mind accommodating us." Bruce shook his head with a small smile, and Marina knew she had gotten him to relax slightly.
"Are you usually this devious?"
The female's grin grew until a wicked glint sparkled in her eyes; "only mostly."
.
Marina was pleasantly surprised when she managed to conjure a light chuckle out of her accomplice pleased to a successfully managed to receive one again just outside the doors of the mess hall. If she knew this was how he would have reacted, she'd have spoken sooner. However; people generally ignored her antics as they tended to include her overbearing sarcasm, and playfulness. (Then again she was surrounded by agents who didn't have time for humor: unless it was Erik who quite enjoyed it; Clint, only indulged on occasion; Coulson rarely let himself be entertained while he was "working"; or Tony or Steve, both of whom she rarely had the pleasure to talk with or be around.) Marina paused in her thoughts and nodded in conclusion as the door before them opened.
"Care to let me in on your little space cadet moment?" Bruce asked, bringing her back to the present.
Walking into the large room, Marina spread her arms wide in a kind of grand gesture. "Prepare to be amazed!"
"Is pizza going to magically appear?" Bruce mused, clearly amused by the woman's antics.
"No, though that would definitely be the second most mind-blowing thing."
"The first being?"
"A few people within shield have sense of humor-more or less."
Bruce cocked an eyebrow. "Really now?"
"Yes." Marina nodded in all seriousness as she slipped around into the kitchen. "Though for some reason those that do have accepted me to different extents, every single one of them is a guy and I'm finding myself in desperate need of a female companion."
The doctor shifted as he followed her causing her to wonder if she had misjudged something or if the information she displayed was too personal for their sort-of-relationship. Suddenly feeling self-conscious, Marina turned and began looking for the dough as she scrounged up some way to save the lively atmosphere that was quickly dissipating into an awkward one.
Spotting the object of her search, she grabbed for it like a life line only for her hands to freeze when Bruce spoke first.
"I'm sorry, "He murmured, having noticed her sudden desperation. "I suppose that I've been without a friend for so long that I wasn't aware how to react to such a proposition."
Shocked, Marina spoke the one word she could manage, "Friend?"
He shrugged. "The last people I considered friends I left again for a final time about four years ago."
Marina pulled the large bowl out and set it on the counter as silence engulfed them for a moment. Reaching up, her hand traveled underneath her hood and brushed against her ears. "You don't plan on going back?"
"I could never do that." He shook his head. "No, it'd be better if I just let them live their lives normally without me running in and out of them."
Torn between hugging him and doing nothing, the hybrid hesitantly reached out and lightly dropped her hand onto the doctor's shoulders. As he looked up, she gave him a smile that she hoped conveyed her empathy for his situation.
"Well, if you ever need some friends with not so normal lives, I'm always willing to have more people in my life and I'm sure Tony will beg you to join him in that tower of his."
Bruce gave a wry chuckle and copied her previous action, "I think... that would be nice."
Giving him a wide smile, they dropped their arms as she turned back to the fridge and began pulling out items for their pizza.
"So dear friend," she drawled her grin as cheesy as the dairy product she just fished from the refrigerators' depths. "Have you ever made a pizza before?"
"Not since I was a teenager." Bruce admitted cracking a grin. "Have you?"
Marina shook her head while she grabbed a can opener and other various "pizza making" utensils. "Not exactly, I watched as my first friend tried to show me how and I didn't really participate as I was far to entertained watching him get sauce everywhere." Her eyes sparkled in excitement.
"Then this will be quite the experience for both of us."
The two of them rolled up their sleeves in preparation for the task to come. Sharing a laugh, they began possibly the messiest pizza making attempted along with a new found friendship.
