tell me what you really want

the golden trash can

"I don't believe it. Nope. He's lying. This is all one big, manipulative plot to take over everything. No, no, nope!"

Bruce sighs as his fellow science-bro rambles. The Avengers had put their stuff in their guest rooms and met up in Thor's chambers. Just like his style and armor, everything is red and glittery gold. Even the fucking trash can is made of gold. The roof is tall and painted with murals depicting faceless warriors slaying beasts in a bloody massacre.

"You're being paranoid."

"I'm not falling for it!" Tony snaps, "For all we know, this could be a trap. He could be ready to lock us in a cage at any moment or-- or poison us or--"

"Gosh, Tony," Steve interrupts, "Aren't you overreacting just a bit? He hasn't shown any malicious intent. Toward us, I mean."

"Steve's right," Natasha nods.

Clint scowls, "I, for one, do not agree. Tony's right. This could be one big plot to dispose of us and take over Earth."

"He's already in charge of Asgard. Why would he want Earth? The Tesseract is here and if he wanted what remained of the scepter he probably would've manipulated Thor into bringing Vision here."

"But, my friends," Thor says, "My brother is very good at concealing his true intent until the last moment."

"Like during the invasion? When he outright told us his plan?" Bruce rolls his eyes, but no one seems to hear him.

"We'll just be cautious," Steve says, "I mean, if he wanted to kill us, he'd already have done so. Let's just go to dinner."

"What, so he can poison us?" Tony snarks.

"You watch too many movies," Natasha says, turning to Thor, "What would be good for us to wear?"

"Your best clothes."

"Our best ones?" Clint frowns, "But it's a normal night. Shouldn't we save them for something important? Like, I dunno, celebratory feasts or something?"

"I'm afraid, my friends, that what is considered extremely fancy on your planet would be average in this realm."

The room is silent for a moment, mostly because everyone is uncomfortable about the cultural differences on Asgard.

"Whelp!" Tony claps his hands, "Good thing I brought at least five suits!"

"What should we wear if something special happens?" Steve asks.

"Your armor would suffice."

Right, Bruce thinks, because this is the guy who wore his armor to the first party we held. Warrior realm, this is.

"Alright-y, folks!" Tony, the over dramatic man he always is, says with a grand gesture of his arms, "We're gonna go put on our stuff and be back soon. Meet outside this room in ten. Good? Good. Let's head out, team."

The group exits the room and Bruce goes into his chambers. It's two to the right of Thor's and the others' rooms are all to the left of Thor's. Bruce wonders what's in the room between them.

His borrowed chambers have only one similarity to Thor's and that is the gold. The room itself is half as big (and even that is pretty big) and the murals are of happy royals holding garden parties instead of battles. The sheets on the bed are off-white with gold accents and the furniture has simpler carvings.

Bruce slips out his suitcase from under the bed, going through the clothes until he finds the suit Tony had forced him to pack. The blazer and pants are both a deep purple, the collared shirt is white, and the tie is dark green. Tony chose it, not him.

When he steps out again, feeling suffocated in his tie, Bruce finds most of the group assembled outside Thor's room, sans Thor himself and Tony. Obviously, because they were probably the ones who were going to take the longest because Tony is a diva who wears stuff to get attention and Thor has all that armor.

Steve has a navy suit and black tie. Clint has a grey suit and a lavender tie. Natasha wears a simple black dress that falls to her knees and has long ruffled sleeves, her hair tied up in a messy bun.

"You okay, big guy?" Natasha asks and Bruce realizes he's been pulling on his tie. It isn't his fault. He feels like the damn thing is choking him.

"Fine," he mumbles, "Just-- Er--"

"Nervous?"

"A little. And... confused."

"Confused?"

"I--" Bruce glances at Clint, who's conversing to Steve about the difference between an arrow and a spear. Bruce lowers his voice a bit, "I have a weird feeling about Loki."

"Yeah, me too," Natasha says with a nod, "He's... strange. His body language is so different from when we were fighting him and the way he's acting, it's like..."

"Like he's a completely different person."

"I was going to say like he's being possessed. I mean, think about it. He could've been venerable in his cell, so something could've gotten to him there. Then, when the time came, he took the throne. Whatever is affecting him could be using him as a kind of vessel, a puppet, to rule one of the strongest Realms."

Bruce frowns deeply, "You really think that? It seems kinda far fetched."

"It's possible."

"But Loki is a very strong sorcerer. He wouldn't let someone just sneak into his mind."

"He's not what Thor says he is," Natasha shakes her head, "I mean, all we've ever seen him do is a few illusions. All the power he had came from the scepter and the Tesseract. He's not powerful, he just tricks people into thinking he is. He's all bark, no bite."

"Well--"

"Alright, people!" Tony's voice echoes throughout the corridor and Bruce turns to see him wearing a matching dark grey suit and tie with a red collared shirt.

At that moment, Thor's door opens and he steps out. His heavy battle armor is replaced by a lighter-looking version without his cape and still with a lot of leather.

How many animals died for this entire realm to have clothes like that?

"Alright, my friends, we best be off," the hammer wielder declares.

"Yes. Onward!" Tony says, dramatically pointing down the hall. 

"Friend Tony."

"What?"

Thor points in the opposite direction. Tony pivots on his heel.

"Onward."

"You seem excited," Steve notes.

"For the guy who thinks we're gonna get poisoned," Clint adds.

"Well, I just think this is going to be fun," Tony shrugs, "Pepper is trying to get me to have a positive outlook on life, ya know?"

"You're gonna annoy Loki."

"I'm gonna annoy Loki."

~~~

So this chapter was kinda boring, mostly just a filler. But hey you guys seem to like this kinda stuff so here ya go.

Bruce's train of thought here is really kinda funny. I kinda model him after me, so I like adding random thoughts that come to my mind and, in turn, his.

The golden trash can thing is something me and my friend were talking about in the comment section a while ago. I thought it was funny and had no better idea for the title of this chapter.

As you can see, my book cover is changing shape more often then Mystique and I can't figure out a cover I actually like so if there are any graphic designers who could lend me an idea plz tell me.

Also I modeled Clint and Tony's outfits after some images I saw of the actors online. Bruce's suit was something I'm pretty sure was in the comics. I legit just googled "Bruce Banner in a suit."