Maria POV

Bruce and I were sitting by Steve's hospital bed. I had asked around and Corey never showed up. Steve had woken up not to long ago and he was going to be fine but he looked like someone had hit him in the face with a pickup truck.

Loki was off…somewhere. He tried to avoid being around Bruce unless it was absolutely necessary. Steve seemed to be more accepting toward him but he stayed away from him mostly, too. Now that I think about it, he has been kind of staying away from me as well. What's up with that? I mean I-

"Maria." Bruce snapped me out of my mental rant "Are you even listening?"

"Yes." I agreed automatically

"What are we talking about?"

Um….uh… "Okay, you caught me, what?"

He sighed "We were talking about where we would find the captured people."

"Oh, well, I was thinking that we could ambush them at one of their execution thingies. Go in, guns a blazing… Fuck shit up. You know, the usual."

Steve shook his head "It works in theory but, you would need a proper team… Your team is far from ready. We don't even know where they are."

"They are doing their best to get here." Bruce informed us "It's getting pretty hard to travel around here."

"So once they get here, how many people we talking?" Steve asked

"Well," I counted them out "Me, you, Bruce, Mayday, Speedy, Kitty, Corey, Lok-"

"No." Bruce interjected

"Come on, Bruce! We talked about this already. You are going to play nice."

"Bu-"

"No."

"Maria-"

"I don't wanna hear it." I looked down at Steve, he was laughing at us.

"You two…" he rolled his eyes "We need Loki to get in on our strategic meetings."

"Steve!" Bruce cried "Whose side are you on?"

"The side where we don't all die."

I smiled "I'll get Loki to start coming. Anyway, total we have about eight people…give or take. But, we still have to do something if they don't get here in time."

"Like, what?" Loki's voice inquired behind me. I jumped about three feet in the air. "They probably won't get here in time and the Solider doesn't look quite battle ready. Bruce will have to stay behind and hold down the fort… That leaves you and me."

Bruce stood up "I don't think me staying behind is-"

Loki turned to him "What do you think will happen the second we all leave? What if the mission fails and we cannot return? Utter chaos."

"Steve is staying behind already, why would I have to-"

"Oh yes, because Rogers looks fully capable of calming down swarms of people in this state."

Bruce sat down in a huff "What did you have in mind Maria?"

"We have limited supplies down here but up in the lab I have all the equipment I'll need. I was thinking that we could blow 'em up."

Bruce's eyes widened "Maria, the materials you have would make nuclear weapons. If you use that to blow them up, you'll take out all of Manhattan."

"N-n-n-n-n-n-no, I was thinking of something much simpler." I turned to Loki "Have you ever made a pipe bomb?" He shook his head "Well, you get to learn something new today." I grabbed his hand and dragged him toward the elevator. We reached the doors and he slid his hand out of mine. I looked at him incredulously. We stepped into the elevator and I hit the button for the pent house. "You can sleep with me but you are too good to hold my hand?"

He sighed "It's not that. I just think that maybe we should, I don't know…distance ourselves from each other."

I glared at him for a long moment "Fury talked to you, didn't he?" he opened his mouth but I spoke before he could finish "Don't lie to me."

"I wasn't about to."

"You have your lying face on."

"What? I don't have a lying face."

"Yeah, you do. It has about three more layers of innocence compared to your normal face."

He rolled his eyes "Yes, Fury talked to me." The elevator doors binged open and we stepped out.

"Mhmm, did he tell you he was going to shoot you out into space?"

He snorted "No, he said he would give me to the Jotuns."

"Do you believe him?" He started down the stairs to my lab.

"Yes and no. I believe he could but I don't think he would be willing to risk your allegiance to S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Then, why listen to him?" I started gathering stuff we would need some Teflon pipe tape, a drill, bag of cotton balls, some fuses, some gun powder, etc.

"I'm not…exactly. This just… isn't healthy on any level. You show up once a week and we violently take out the stresses of our lives out on each other. That's not really an example of a good relationship."

"You are such a girl." I set the supplies on the work table "It's not like we don't talk or anything. We talk for hours on Thursday and I always call you later."

He laughed "That's not what I'm saying." He shook his head "Neither of us are what you could call 'stable'. I mean, look at us Maria. We are a little twisted."

I scowled. I am not twisted. "Shut up and help me make these stupid bombs."

I was not about to get dumped when I wasn't even really dating him. I was giving him step-by-step instructions on how to make the bomb without blowing himself up. We added some of the finishing touches and finished I glared at our work.

"We finished?" He asked

"I don't know, are we? You seem to get to make all the big decisions."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know what you meant." I threw my hands in the air and stomped out of the room. He followed close behind me. I made it to the bar and poured myself a drink.

He stood on the other side of the counter with his arms folded over his chest. "Why are you being like this?"

I ignored him.

"God, do you have to be a child about everything?"

"Excuse me?" I set my drink down and marched to his side of the bar. I stood toe to toe with him. "I feel like I am the only adult out of the two of us. You are always so busy trying to make everyone else happy that you can't even really… argh!" I ran out of words. "I'm not twisted." I stormed toward the elevator.

"Are you really arguing with me over nothing? We aren't even really dating!"

I spun on my heel back toward him. He was a lot closer than I thought he was. It was a little disorienting. "Well then, I don't see why you are taking the time to break up with me. Just don't tell me where you move to and change your phone number… It's that easy."

"No, it's not that easy."

"And why not?"

He groaned "Because I actually like you! A lot! But, while emotionally we are near the same age, I am thousands of years older than you and a whack job with a history of violent crimes! Do you really want some one like me around?"

"Maybe I do!" I yelled up at him

"Then you are just as crazy as I am!"

"I feel like we had already established this!"

He growled "You are ridiculous!"

"And somehow, you seem to like me anyway!"

"I don't understand why! You are a crazy bitch, who is yelling at me for trying to do the right thing!"

"Well…Fuck you!"

"Fuck you too!"

"UGH! I hate you!" I shouted

"I hate you more!" His lips crashed against mine… I would like to tell you what I was thinking at this moment but mostly I was thinking "warm….soft… warm…teeth?...soft…wet…good." It was kind of intense really, we had a lot of pent up frustration. Wow…we really are unhealthy.

I pulled away from him and caught my breath. He set his forehead on mine. "What happened to 'I hate you more'?" I panted

"Yeah, I'm still working on labeling my emotions."

"Hey," I shoved him back "I'm still mad at you." I got in the elevator

He shook his head and sighed "Women."


A/N: For all of those people who think that argument was kinda ridiculous... I just want you to know, it was based off of a real one.

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