Hiii! Have another chapter, complete with Spock having more feels than he probably should. Excuse any (inevitable) ooc-ness, and I hope you enjoy! Revieeeew. It helps me write faster!

Disclaimer: Things that I own: sparkly Disney princess chapstick. Things that I do not own: Star Trek. Avengers.

Chapter Five

Spock doesn't return immediately to the main flight deck, instead he allows himself the time to walk around the Enterprise, briefly acknowledging those that he encounters, but mostly lost in calculating thought. He has never put this much thought into the life forms he encounters, except perhaps James Kirk, and he's not sure what to do with that new information. The Norse god-Spock had realized Loki was in fact a Norse god after connecting his odd word choices and his name-has somehow endeared himself to Spock's more human nature. He will blame that on the sense of familiarity he felt when he spoke to Loki, the lost, lonely, misfit nature that they shared.

And to quote an Earth phrase, 'speak of the devil, and he shall appear.'

Loki doesn't seem to acknowledge Spock's appearance, instead he keeps his eyes fixed on the bright science laboratory, scanning the equipment with interest. Spock stops walking a few feet away from him and doesn't say anything, simply waits for the Asgardian to initiate a conversation.

They stand in without speaking for a few minutes, the silence only interrupted by the soft hum of the equipment in the lab. Then Loki says, "This is unlike anything that I've ever seen before," while still looking at the lab.

"It is a very sophisticated laboratory, even for the times." Spock knows that his statement is vaguely unhelpful to Loki, but he's not sure what else to say, so they fall back into silence as Loki wanders around the empty lab.

The silence is broken again, in a much more jarring manner as one of the doors slams open-it probably doesn't really slam, but in the peaceful room, it seems like it does-and two people in blue shirts indicating their specialization in a field of science walk through, talking animatedly to one another. As they pass Spock and Loki, they nod, greeting the First Officer with quiet efficiency, before carrying their conversation from the lab.

Loki looks to Spock, with no question in his eyes, only a look of cold understanding, before speaking. "What's wrong with you?"

Spock is actually surprised by his callousness, and doesn't respond.

"We're in the middle of space, that much is clear. You're crew is, as you said before, seeking out new life forms to interact with, ally yourselves with, learn from, and yet everyone that has passed us has tensed and greeted you with far less warmth than the few that I saw greet the captain did. Why?"

Spock assesses Loki, applying every bit of his knowledge on emotion to make sense of the emotion in Loki's eyes before the shutters come down and he's only looking at the god's blank face.

"You understand why."

Loki blinks, looks down, smiles a bit and then turns away, eyes fixed on an empty test tube. "I think I do."

Neither of them sees a need to continue the conversation, but neither can find or forge a valid excuse to remove themselves from the other's presence, so they wander the science laboratories together, then the botany bay, and then, when Spock decides it is time for him to resume his duties, he bids Loki farewell.

"Well, what am I to do here?" Loki says nonchalantly, but Spock can tell that really, Loki wants to feel useful while he's on the Enterprise.

"I will see what I can do," Spock says and then leaves. As he walks away, he tries to force away the feeling that he's made a friend which is not wholly unnatural or unusual, but he just met this out of place Asgardian, and he already has a keen interest in insuring Loki's well-being and acceptance on this ship.

When he enters the cockpit, Jim is smiling at him with the painfully obvious smirk of someone that is up to something, and Spock knows that this is another instance where Jim realized something before Spock, namely that Spock and Loki would get along better than expected. And Spock accepts this fact with less disinterested indifference than usually, resistig the urge to smirk back.

(I have a question for anyone that is better at Star Trek than me: I call it the cockpit, because I was raised around airplanes, but is it really called the cockpit or am I just butchering the terminology?)

Next chapter includes Loki and Bones being bros! And should be up by the end of next week!