Authors Note: This is my first ever fan-fic that I've ever published! I'm usually the kind of person to keep these things to myself because I'm afraid of what people will think. I'm enjoying this story too much to keep to myself, though, and I feel like this is the best place to publish it.

Metis struggled to get the door to the Avengers tower open as she balanced a coffee and a bag with a bagel inside on top of her school books. All while trying to stand up right with her heavy book bag slung over her shoulders haphazardly. The rain pouring down on her kept reminding her that keeping her umbrella in the back of the closet was a bad idea.

She had been working here for three years under Dr. Banner but opening the door every morning was still an ordeal. Though she hated starting her mornings like this she let it roll off her shoulders because the knowledge she gained by working next to him was priceless. She was a full-time student in her junior year of college majoring in chemical engineering and minoring with a math degree. She didn't like to toot her own horn but lets just say she could hold her own in a conversation with Stark and Banner.

Finally making it into the lobby she passed a few workers who were on cellphones or who were sharing memos with others. She just smiled and mustered a "Good morning!" in as cheerful of a voice as she could managed feeling embarrassed for dripping water on the carpet. Adjusting the books in her hands she walked to the elevator and pressed the button to summon the lift. Steve Rogers, otherwise known as Captain America to the city-goers (or cap-sicle to Tony Stark) walked up next to her.

"Can I get some of those for you?" he gave a small smile while gesturing to take the books from her.
"Oh..yeah...thanks. My arm was starting to fall asleep.." she gave a sheepish laugh. He was always so polite and offering to help others. Probably the best choice of a man to represent the country. "Have you seen Dr. Banner this morning?" she asked him as the door opened and they both stepped in. She reached over and pressed the button that would take them up to level 12. "I saw him earlier...he stopped in the kitchen briefly to get a cup of coffee. But of course he-"

"Had his nose in a book.." she finished for him while chuckling. "So I guess it's raining outside?" he asked her jokingly. She chuckled once "Yeah..I forgot my umbrella. Bad idea." The elevator came to the 12th level and the doors opened smoothly. It opened to what looked like a sitting room. Large comfortable couches set in front of an equally large television. A bar towards the back of the room with many bottles of wine and any sort of liquor you could want if you had the particular rich taste of Tony Stark. Pepper was sitting at large table along with Tony, Clint and Natasha.

"Good morning Metty" Pepper gave her a cheerful smile. She motioned towards an empty chair "There's plenty of breakfast made if you're hungry." Metty loved that Pepper used her nickname. It made her feel like she had some sort of family to come "home" to. She lived in an apartment close to here with her friend from school, Kate. The two girls met in a dance club that Metis had attended in an attempt to get to know people. Possibly make a few friends.

"No I'm fine I grabbed something from the coffee shop down the street. And something for him because I'm sure he didn't eat...probably hasn't even sipped that cup of coffee Steve said he made for himself." she chuckled a little. She enjoyed her job here. Loved learning everything from Dr. Banner but also loved to watch over him. She didn't really understand the satisfaction she got from the job.

"You'll probably want these back." Steve said to her as he moved to give her the books back when he saw her start to leave for the lab "Oh yeah..duh" She shuffled the coffee and brown bag that housed the bagel to her left hand grabbing the books from him with her now empty right hand. She glanced up at him and smiled. "Thanks..Cap" she said while shifting her weight. "Well I should really go check in on him..It's dangerous to leave him alone for too long." To which Pepper chimed in across the room "Him and Tony both!" Clint laughed and Tony made a face towards Pepper who continued to read her paper innocently. Metty waved good-bye to the others telling them she'd try to bring him out for lunch today. He had a habit of skipping meals but with no windows in the lab it was easy for him to lose track of time without the sun there to remind him.

Pepper watched Metis walk down the hall and smiled "She reminds me of myself sometimes." Steve sat down across from her and started to pour himself some orange juice. "What do you mean?" he said before bringing the glass to his lips and taking a sip. She sighed contently and grabbed her plate as she stood up. "Just the way she dotes on him. Gets his bagel every morning. Makes sure he doesn't skip meals." she gave a sweet look over to Tony who was slurping the milk out of his cereal bowl. He glanced over and smiled at her as she sighed and patted his shoulder. "I have a conference call to get to. I'm going to need you on it as well Tony but I'm not letting you speak this time." He raised a finger to argue his point "No Tony! I'm surprised I was even able to keep the investors on the phone the last time!" she started to walk away as he got up and followed behind her. "What?! They loved me on the last one.. You can't tell me they didn't love my jokes..." their voices trailed off as they walked towards the elevator to head to Peppers office.
~~~~~

Metty reached the door that opened to the lab and pushed a few buttons on the keypad. The door gave a positive beep and she pulled it open allowing her to walk in letting the hydraulic door close behind her. "Good morning, Dr. Banner." she announced. Over the years she learned it was safest to announce your arrival when he was in the lab. When he was consumed in his work he had a tendency to scare easily. Tony swore he "hulked out" once because of this but Dr. Banner denies it. regardless of working for him for three years she felt she wasn't quite ready to deal with his problem just yet. He refused to talk about it with her whenever she tried to ask questions and she wasn't the type of person to pry.

She took her book bag off and let it fall to the floor with a dull thud. She was desperately in need of a new one as this one was hanging on for dear life. There was no light at the end of its tunnel either as her books for school kept getting larger and heavier. She laid the books in her hands down on one of the lab tables. She had sort of claimed this table as her own. It had various little nick-nacks on it that helped her relax a bit whenever her mind was wracked with equations and chemistry problems. Mostly little stress reliever balls and colorful paper clips that she used to keep her notes together.

She walked over to where he was sitting hunched over some paper work. Numerous books lay open around him. He had his finger on one of the pages and was scribbling something down looking from the book to the paper and back again. The neglected cup of coffee sat untouched and now cold in front of the papers. He put his pencil down and made a move to grab it. She picked it up and placed the hot cup she had purchased for him in his way. He grabbed that instead the heat of which made him realize there was someone else in the room with him. He looked up with his dark grey eyes. "Oh, good morning..," he looked at his watch. "It's still morning, right?" he looked at her.

She laughed "Yes it's still morning. This is for you.." she handed him the brown paper bag that had the bagel in it. He unraveled it and pulled it out taking a bite. "Thanksth.." he said with a mouthful of bagel. "Oh and I was able to look at those algorithms for you last night," she walked over to her bag and pulled out a folder that was labeled BANNER. He turned and watched her as she walked. She never made any sound as she moved and was quite graceful. She must have picked that talent up while working with him. He wasn't exactly the most organized man while he worked. He suddenly felt self-conscious of his work area and started to pick things up. She walked back and handed him the papers.

"You made a few errors here..and here," she pointed them out with her finger. "But I got your basic meaning. I'm sure Tony will be able to understand my chicken scratch..it was late. I was up most of the night trying to solve these and also study for school. Finals are coming up soon.." she stared off into nothing trying to plan her day out. "This is great. I really appreciate this. What would I do with out you? You're just..so amazing." He didn't mean to say the last part out loud and felt embarrassed. She just laughed as if it was nothing and started to pick up some of the papers. She sat down and started to copy his notes down in more legible handwriting. When she wasn't tired and doing two things at once her penmanship was great. He would always compliment her on it and she would always complain "You should really stop writing in the text books.." she pushed one over and pointed to his writing on the margins of the page.

He scratched the back of his head absentmindedly and gave her a sheepish grin. He was much older than she was but he didn't look his age. She assumed it had something to do with the exposure to the gamma radiation. His hair was a dirty blonde but had grey through out it. He was sporting his usual outfit of khaki pants and a long sleeve dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. She just sighed and pulled the book back towards her focusing back on what she was doing. Her mind would wander a bit if she looked at him for too long. She was always curious if he ever felt lonely. Sure he had friends in the others upstairs but he, like her, never talked about a significant other. He spent most of his time in the lab working and when he wasn't here he was sleeping in the next room over.
"So what exactly was I working on?" she motioned her head towards the "homework" he had given her while she continued to copy his notes. He cleared his throat before answering "Just um..just something Tony wanted me to look at but I figured it'd help you with school since you're minoring in math." he tried to sound casual as he sat back down at his desk. Metty looked up and squinted her eyes in suspicion but just smiled at him and let it go. They both continued in silence each working on their respective projects. She always enjoyed how quiet it was in here with him. She was able to get her thoughts together or let her mind wander.

"I have a date tonight.." she said out of nowhere meaning to keep the thought in her head. He looked up from the papers she had handed him. "Oh?" He wasn't sure how he felt about this and didn't have much else to say. "I figured I'd tell you...so you wouldn't be concerned when I didn't show up after school today.." She was hoping that would justify the sudden outburst of her personal life. He just nodded his head with an expression she couldn't quite read.

"Um.." he cleared his throat a bit and sat down across the table from her at his own desk. "So who's the lucky guy?" he tried to sound as light hearted as possible. He began typing something into his computer while he waited for her answer. She looked over at him trying to think of an answer "He's in my trig class. We're in the same study group and I guess he decided to ask me out...honestly we've never even talked much." She started to think about this and it made her feel uncomfortable. She'd never really spoken to this guy and now he was asking her out on a date. Maybe he was just the shy, intelligent quiet type. She had always been attracted to that type of personality. She caught herself watching him again and looked back down to her things. She got up from the table and started to organize his books back onto their bookshelves.

"What are you guys going to be doing?" still trying to keep a light tone in his voice. He stole a glance at her as she put the books away. "You don't need to do that..I can get it-" she cut him off as he was getting out of his seat. "Dr. Banner...how many times do I have to explain? Me?," she motioned to herself "Lab Assistant aka maid..you?," she motioned to him "Scientist aka mess maker." she flashed a big smile at him and leaned against the bookshelf. "And I'm not sure what we're doing other than dinner..he told me to meet him at a restaurant in the area. And I guess we'll just go from there afterwards." she shrugged. "I haven't been on a date in years...since before I started working with you.." she admitted mostly to herself.

He just laughed "Join the club. We're just two geniuses with major social deformities." she laughed and let a smile linger on her face as she looked down at her watch she realized it was close to 10:15 "Oh shoot..I have class at 10:30..I need to get going. So I wont see you tonight but I will be here tomorrow morning. Please remember to actually drink the coffee you pour for yourself. Trust me..It tastes much better when it's nice and hot." she said as she swung her book bag back around her shoulders. He walked over to give her a hand "That looks really heavy..and has to be horrible for your spine." he examined the book bag and noticed how ripped it was.
"It's mostly the chemistry text books that are the problem..I'll see you tomorrow morning." she turned and opened the door for herself making her way out of the lab and soon out of the building. She ran into Steve as he was leaving the boxing ring supporting Happy with arms. Happy was leaning on Steve with his sparring gloves still on and his mouth guard in his mouth. "Oh my..god. Is he okay?" Metty asked with a concerned look on her face.

"Yeah he should be fine..he kept asking me to "go all out" so..I...did.." Steve felt ashamed for hurting Happy like this but it wasn't malicious at all. "Aw Cap..It's oaky," she said to him touching his shoulder. She could see he felt bad. "I was going to take him up to the infirmary for a while...get him patched up." Steve said. "Yeah he should probably take it easy...I have to get going..I'll be late for class." she walked off towards the elevator and got in as it opened.