The Scientist (Loki x OC)

Pt. 53: The Master At Work

A/N: ok y'all, this is a different day from the last chapter. Alright? Different day. Of course, Luna's been doing her work, but now it's a different day.

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The apartment was quiet when Luna walked in. Too quiet for comfort, and Loki was nowhere in sight. He wasn't on the couch, the armchair, the floor, or in the kitchen. Setting her bags down and pulling off her boots, Luna scanned the area a few times.

"Loki?" she called out softly. "I'm home."

No reply. No sound at all.

She crept closer to her room. Passing by the bathroom, she peeked inside. Nothing there either. Anxiety sizzled up in her chest as she pushed open her door, but the sight within made it all fizzle away.

Loki had fallen asleep on her bed. How he managed it, with his cheek was resting on an open textbook and is feet entirely hanging off the edge, she didn't know. Luna breathed a sigh of relief and continued quietly. Standing by her closet, she took off her glasses and pulled off her sweater. She looked behind her to see if the sleeping beauty had stirred, but he had not.

But as she pulled down her pants zipper, Loki groaned sleepily and raised his head.

"Oh, you're home." He rubbed an eye. "What time is it?"

"It's, uh," Luna checked her watch, "around 6."

"Mm." Loki rested his head back and closed his eyes. "I didn't mean to fall asleep."

"I don't blame you. The, uh," Luna peered over to the uncovered page, "anatomy of a sperm cell can be pretty dull." Loki opened one eye and looked up at her. "My developmental biology book. Those were the days," she sighed and eased the top of her jeans over her hips. She paused as she didn't hear Loki rushing to leave. She looked over her shoulder and saw him still lying on her bed, wide awake, studying her. "What?"

"Oh, nothing," he smirked. "Just enjoying the view."

Luna did her best to hide her smile. "Well, Romeo, as much as I love being a sight for your sore eyes, I'd like to change out of their view." She pulled on his sleeve, and Loki angled off of the bed. On his way out the door, he turned around, intent of having one last word.

"But if I'm Romeo, then who are you? My Juliet?" Luna's brows shot up, and he laughed.

"Out," she chuckled and shoved him lightly from the door frame. She shut to the door and leaned against it, but she didn't bother locking it. She didn't need to anymore.

With her pants off, Luna checked the side of her left knee. She'd repeated her experiment there, and as she'd hoped, it went the same way as it did the first time. But looking closer at the wound site, she saw that the bruising didn't linger as long. It was strange, but it didn't hurt, so she left it be and made a mental note to include it in her lab notebook in the morning.

Dressed in her lounging clothes, she rubbed her hands together and approached the kitchen. Loki was leaning against the counter and peeling a rambutan.

"Last one?" Luna asked, pointing at it.

Loki tossed out the peel and picked up another one from the fruit pile. "Second to last." He handed it to her, and she rinsed it. He watched her cut it open and take a bite. "So, how was work?" he asked.

Luna hummed and nodded. "It was good. I did some PCR today, so that was exciting." Loki furrowed his brow and tilted his head, eager for her to expound. "PCR. It stands for polymerase chain reaction. It's a method used to rapidly make millions of copies of a DNA strand so scientists can use it in experiments."