ONLY FOR YOU | Loki

CHAPTER 1: IT'S BLUE (DA BA DEE DA BA DI)

     OLIVIA'S WORLD IS BLACK AND WHITE. That's the way it's been since the moment she was born.

     Or, more accurately, it's mostly shades of grey— but either way, she was born just the same as everyone else. Soul-blind.

     Soul-blindness is like colorblindness, except not at all like that. Instead of not being able to differentiate between certain colors, people are almost always born with all of the color removed from their vision.

     So, as she stares down her brother, she allows herself to idly wonder what color his button-up shirt is. Whatever the color, she thinks a lighter shade would've suited him better.

     "There is a criminal on this helicarrier," he reminds her. "He killed eighty people in two days, and I'm pretty sure he's a Norse god. You cannot be here." Her eyebrows raise at him.

     "Remember when you told me to let you know if you said something stupid?" She inquires, earning herself an irritated glare from her brother. "You really don't get to police where I go and what I do."

     He purses his lips as if he has more to say, but sighs.

     "What did you bring from McDonald's?" he prompts, defeated. She smirks slightly, reaching over to point at one of the bags.

     "That one's got our two twenty-piece McNugget meals," she hums, turning her pointer over to the other bag, "and that one has our fries and a Big Mac. So, do you want the forty piece nugget or the Bic Mac?"

     "I can't eat forty McNuggets by myself," he reminds her flatly, "and I know you bought the Big Mac for yourself." She grins with a measure of self-satisfaction.

     "Fine, then share your nuggets with your friend," she shrugs, gesturing to Tony. "That's twenty each, and I get to have my Big Mac." Bruce's face twitches slightly, but he sighs.

     "Tony," he calls, catching the attention of said man, who looks up. "Do you want some nuggets?" Tony shrugs, approaching with his tablet in his hand.

     "I don't think I've had McDonald's in years," he comments, looking at the bag with very slight disgust. Olivia rolls her eyes.

     "I literally watched you eat Burger King on live fucking television, like, two weeks ago," she reminds him. "If you can stomach that shit, I think you'll live." He considers her words, and finally shrugs.

     "Alright, sure," he agrees, "let's eat." With that settled, the food is pulled out of the bags and distributed amongst the three. As they eat, Tony and Bruce chat about science, with Olivia occasionally piping in with a question or two.

     The conversation is derailed completely by one of Olivia's comments, of course; by the end of the meal, the three are discussing the merits of fold-out chairs.
     "I'm just saying," Olivia shrugs, raising a hand in surrender, "have you ever sat on a comfortable folding chair, in your entire life?"

     "Yes," Bruce replies, leaning forward. "You know those fabric ones with the little cupholders?" Tony scoffs, but he continues before he can contradict him. "Hold on, hold on! I put a cushion in one of those once and it was pretty comfy!"

     "It doesn't count if you have to put a cushion in it," Olivia retorts, as if that should be obvious. Tony nods his agreement.

     "Those fabric chairs are terrible, I swear they're all made for kids," he tuts. "They never come up far enough." Olivia points at him, am exasperated expression exploding across her face.

     "Right?" she exclaims, slight outrage in her tone. "Like, come on, if I turned around I'd have to lean down to use it as an arm rest!" Tony nods sagely, in absolute agreement.

     "Maybe you two should just start bringing cushions," Bruce shrugs, crossing his arms with a slightly smug expression. Olivia rolls her eyes, and starts to retort, only for movement on one of the monitors to catch her eye.

     "There's someone down there," she remarks idly. Tony and Bruce both turn to look, seeing Natasha approach Loki's cage. "Hey, why is there a cage there anyways? Doesn't really seem like standard-issue equipment." Bruce grimaces.

     "Why do you think?" he sighs grimly. She glances between him and the cage for a moment before it dawns on her.

     "Oh," she hums. A small, displeased frown forms on her face. "Seems like a waste of money to me." Bruce shakes his head, turning away.

     "We should get back to work," he decides, moving towards his work station. Olivia frowns, looking at the footage of the man in the prison for a moment longer before turning away again. "I need a password to access this."

     Olivia nods, shooting her frowning brother a thumbs up.

     "I'll go get Romanoff," she offers. "We met on the way in; she's probably got what you need." Bruce looks up in alarm, remembering that he just saw her talking to Loki.

    "Wait—," he starts, but she ignores him entirely, already out the door. An annoyed groan passes his lips, and he presses a hand to his forehead with a displeased frown.

     "Kids," Tony remarks unsympathetically, leaning over to Banner's screen. He taps a few buttons, and the password screen is bypassed.

***

     Meanwhile, Olivia lets herself into the cage room, catching Natasha halfway through her exit.

     "Hey— you're not supposed to be in here," Natasha tells the other woman shortly.

     "Hey," she greets casually, letting her eyes wander to Loki's cage. "Bruce needs you in the—," she cuts herself off as her eyes meet the prisoner's. Something about them is so extraordinarily bright and more than anything she's ever seen before.

     She realizes with a start that suddenly everything is much more than anything she's ever seen before; she recognizes the phenomena from rumor alone. Color— she's seeing color.

     "Banner?" Natasha prompts, forcing Olivia to tear her eyes away from the suddenly overwhelmed eyes of the Norse god in the room. She struggles to remember what she was talking about— wow, her hair is so bright.

     "Right," she agrees, "yeah. Yeah, Bruce needs you in the... the lab. He needs, uh... a password." Natasha fixes her incredibly bright eyes onto Olivia with some concern. She wonders what that color is called.

     "Are you okay?" she prompts, glancing back at Loki, who seems to have gotten his expression under control; his eyes are shut tightly, though.

     "What? Oh, I'm-I'm fine," Olivia claims quickly, pressing the back of her hand to her forehead. "Just... headache." It's true; the sudden onslaught of color is starting to inflict a migraine upon her. Natasha nods slowly, absorbing the information.

     "Maybe you should sit down," she suggests, gesturing towards the door. "Come on, I'll walk you to the break room." Olivia nods, following her; though not without risking one last glance back at the man who has moved to watch her leave.

Her soulmate.