Loki's eyes narrowed a bit. "Why will you not look at me?" he asked, his voice cold. "Fear? Or am I simply repulsive to you?"

"I would if I could," Elaine replied. "I'm blind. I can't see anything." She turned her face towards him, but that was the best she could do.

Loki blinked, clearly taken aback by that. Instead of actually replying, he just snorted and moved away again to look around the library more and think over that. He'd seen that Kae was missing part of her limb, and Elaine was blind. What curious company his brother kept.

"Mythology is against the far wall, if you're interested," Elaine called as he walked away. "All sorts of mythology." That way, she didn't specify Norse, but let him know it was there all the same.

Loki didn't reply, but he did go look. Now he was curious to see what the humans had to say about him.

It was almost an hour before Elaine heard the meeting room door open again, and she heard Thor's heavy footsteps on the carpeted floor. He seemed to wander for a moment before getting closer to the counter.

"What is this beverage my companions speak of?" he asked. "This... 'coffee.' Is it good?"

Elaine barely managed to cover a snicker.

"You've never had coffee?" Kae asked, amazed. Sure, she knew he was new here, but even so. Tony so frequently had coffee she figured he'd have shared at one point.

"I think he's been sent on a coffee run," Elaine muttered to Kae, grinning. "I think it's Mr. Stark's fault. Some men just want to watch the world burn." Turning back to Thor, she worked on bringing her grin under control. "There's a coffee shop around the corner," she offered. "I'm sure my intern wouldn't mind making a coffee run, if you're interested."

"That would be helpful," Thor replied, flashing a bright grin.

"I think I'll go this time," Kae said. "I think I want to get outside for a bit." She didn't go to the coffee shop often, but it sounded like everyone would be getting a drink, so they'd need more than one set of hands to hold everything. And she could manage well enough with one crutch rather than two, so she could hold at least her own drink. "Hey, Ben! We're going on a coffee run!"

"One second!" he called back from peeling stickers off old books so they could be recoded and scanned.

Thor nodded, although he looked slightly wary of a third person going with them. He hadn't met this 'Ben' yet.

"Ben, you can put that down until you get back," Elaine called. She knew what he was doing; she'd set him to it half an hour before. "Go get coffee."

Ben put the book down with a sigh of relief and got up, going over to Kae. Then he blinked when he saw Thor. "Uh."

"Ben, this is Thor. Thor, this is Ben. He works for Elaine, although he does some things for me, too." Kae grinned. "There. Introductions made, time for coffee."

Elaine could hear the intimidated squeak in Ben's voice, and grinned a bit.

"Just roll with it, Ben," she said. Digging out her card, she handed it to him. "You know what I want."

"Uh. Sure." Ben took her card and opened the door for the two of them automatically, still kind of frazzled. He didn't even comment when Kae only took one crutch instead of two.

Thor didn't speak much as they went around the corner; instead, he just kept glancing around not unlike a small child in a toy store. It was rare that he just got to walk around on Midgard, so he visually explored while he could.

Kae noticed and took her time heading down the street. One crutch was harder than two, anyway, and she knew Ben didn't mind. Sometimes it was nice to get out and just get fresh air for a bit.

Ben opened the door to the coffee shop, and Kae went to get in line.

"Alright, Thor. What kind of drink do you prefer? Hot or cold, and do you like more bitter or more sweet?"

Thor blinked when his attention was brought back to the subject at hand.

"Such things matter?" he asked. Already, this 'coffee' seemed to be complicated. It wasn't simple like mead. "Hot," he finally said, picking one. Maybe it wasn't that different from warm mead.

The barista, when she noticed Kae and Ben, started on the drinks she knew they would want. She raised an eyebrow at the tall, well-muscled blonde with them, though. Definitely not the same guy from before, that much was clear. And oh, how good his muscles looked.

Kae nodded, deciding he'd be like the Captain. She'd start him out with black coffee and see how that went.

"Our usuals, and two black coffees, one black tea no nothing added because he's silly, and some complicated thing with rasberry." Kae grinned as she handed over Tony's order, which he'd written on a post-it note. "Hopefully you understand that better than I do."

The barista took the sticky note and snorted.

"This one again," she said, nodding. She set the two already-made drinks on the counter, and quickly took care of the two black coffees and the tea. Then she got to work on the raspberry-white-chocolate-mocha. That was definitely the most complicated of the drinks.

"You're a lifesaver," Kae chirped with a grin. This one was definitely her favorite barista, and she set her credit card on the counter. "Half on mine, and half on Elaine's, as usual." Ben handed over Elaine's card too.

The barista nodded and split the check evenly, putting half on each card. She knew how this worked, by now. Handing back the cards, she put the drinks into the cardboard carriers and grinned.

"See you tomorrow," she chirped.

"Thanks. See you tomorrow." Kae grinned, taking the cards. Ben took one cardboard carrier, leaving Thor with the other.

"There. Now you can try your coffee, once we get back to the library." Kae opened the door and held it for the two men.

"And you are certain this is normal on Midgard?" Thor asked, glancing at the cup. The coffee didn't smell unpleasant, but that didn't mean anything.

"Oh yes. This is very normal. My drink has coffee in it, just in a different form." Kae opened the library door too once they got there. Ben went straight over to the counter with the girls drinks as well as his own.

"Here you go, Lainey." He slid her drink against her hand so she'd know where it was.

"Thanks," Elaine said as she accepted the drink. Taking a sip, she sighed in pleasure. "Ooooh, nectar of the gods," she murmured into the cup. That made Thor eye his own cup again. Time to try this magical-seeming beverage. He took one (definitely NOT hesitant) sip. Then he paused, and took another. It was surprisingly good.

Kae snorted when she noted his surprise. "I did tell you," she reminded him with a grin, moving over to the counter to get her own drink.

Loki eyed them all warily before he took his tea. He'd heard weird things about coffee from some of the others, so he'd rather stick with tea. For the moment at least.

Especially since Elaine really had no idea what nectar of the gods actually was like.