Chapter 2: Science, Muffins, Baking

"Man of Iron we have come at your request to assist our brother in arms." Thor announced as he and Steve walked into the lab. Bruce and Tony looked up from the shield they were analyzing as the two men stood before the desk the glasses doors sliding closed behind them.

"Who is the young woman making muffins with Miss Potts?" Steve asked taking one of the empty seats.

"Her? She'll be Pepper's replacement while she's in Australia." Tony answered off handedly. "So Cap, I figured that we could try out titanium, steel, tungsten and iridium to see which would work best with the vibraniam."

"There is quite a bit of it. How did you manage to find all this?" Steve asked.

"Brucie here has a friend in Wakanda who was kind enough to send him some." Tony answered. "We have enough to make at least a hundred or so shields."

"And what of I man of iron?" Thor asked.

"Once we have created the shields then you get to have a go at them. And if possible we'll have a guest appearance by the green doctor himself." Tony answered. "So let's get to work shall we?"

"So how are you adjusting to New York?" Pepper asks Nicolette.

"Well, my boss to be possibly doesn't like me; my closest friend is leaving for Australia for a year and the nuclear physicist that I've admired for years treats me just like I'm already Mr. Stark's personal assistant. So fairly well." Nicolette answers with a bit of sarcasm. She sighs as she continues to mix the muffin batter.

"You could be helping me with this you know."

"Oh no, I wouldn't want to be in your way." Pepper replied. Nicolette rolls her eyes but smiles at her friend.

"Doctor Banner just likes to stay out of the way of things, he doesn't like being in the way. He'll warm up to you." She replies. Nicolette wipes her hands on her apron and sighs again.

"Will you at least coat the muffin tin for me?" Pepper sets her wine glass down and starts coating the muffin tin with butter.

"Do you like doctor Banner?" Nicolette looks up.

"Why do you ask that?"

"You seem dejected that he isn't talking to you much." She answers.

"It's not that Pepper. I've just…I've admired him for so long. He is quite brilliant and his research paper's and studies are just incredible." Nicolette says. "I just want to have a conversation with him that doesn't end with 'well I have to go back to the lab'."

"You could always try winning him over with muffins." Pepper offers. Nicolette shrugs.

"I was thinking science." She says, turning on the oven.

"Hey Thor, you look upset. What's wrong?" Pepper asks as the Thunder God enters the kitchen.

"My hammer seems to have caused damage to the room of science." He answers. "What are you maidens doing?"

"Making muffins." Pepper answers.

"I'm making muffins. Pepper here is watching." Nicolette says, slightly annoyed.

"What are these muffins you speak of?" He asks curiously.

"Here, why don't you try one." Pepper hands him a blueberry muffin.

Thor takes a bite, then his eyes went as big as saucers. He finished the muffin and reached for another only to have his hand swatted with a spatula. He loos up with almost a wounded puppy look.

"Those are for after lunch and I will be damned if anyone touches them." Nicolette told him before turning to wash the dishes. When she turned around however all twenty four blueberry muffins were gone.

"Hey, don't look at me." Pepper said.

Nicolette turned her gaze to the thunder god with crumbs stuck in his beard and was whistling quite suspiciously.

"Well, seeing as we are all out of muffins, I guess I have to make some more. How would you like to help me Thor?" Nicolette asks him, even more annoyed now that she has to make more.

"But I do not know this task of making muffins." He replies.

"Well then you are going to learn. You too Pepper." Nicolette tells them both.

"Oh I just remembered that I have make sure Tony's all set for his business meeting tomorrow morning." Pepper says, giving her an apologetic look before leaving the kitchen.

Nicolette faces Thor with a smile. Thor on the other hand looked like a deer in the headlights.

"I should warn you, she's a serious baker." Pepper calls from down the hall.

Nicolette wipes flour off of her face and pats Thor's shoulder.

"At least you managed to get the flour into the mixing bowl this time."

"I am sorry maiden Nicolette. I shall help you clean up at once." He apologizes.

"It's alright Thor. Why don't you go wash up." She tells him.

He apologized again before leaving the kitchen. He flashed Pepper a smile as she entered the kitchen.

"Well what happened here?" she asks.

"We made one batch of muffins and started the second batch, Thor goes to grab the flour and poof, it rains flour." Nicolette answers. Pepper snickers at the sight of Nicolette covered in flour.

"You look like a snow angel. Literally."

Nicolette picked up a bit of flour and tossed it at Pepper only to miss and get it on Steve instead.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry!" Nicolette apologizes. She did not even realize he had entered the kitchen. "I was aiming for Pepper!"

"It's alright darlin'." He says as she hands him a towel. Nicolette sticks her tongue out at Pepper, only to get doused with flour by Steve.

"What was that for?" She asks.

"Now, it's alright." He answers with a teasing smile. Pepper laughs and Nicolette threw a handful of blueberries at her.

"There." She said wiping her hands off with a towel. "Matches your hair."

"Sir. If I may interrupt your work, there seems to be a problem in the kitchen." JARVIS tells Tony, an amusing tone replacing the robotic one.

"What seems to be the problem?" Tony asks, taking off his safety glasses.

"There seems to be a food fight in the kitchen." The AI answers.

"A food fight?" Tony frowns. "I have to go check that out. Bruce, I'll be back in a minute."

Tony punches in the code to open the doors, heading up to the kitchen. Once he arrived, he was met with a face full pie filling and silence.

"Oh. My. God. Mr. Stark I am so incredibly sorry." Nicolette apologizes for the second time in one day.

Tony scrubs a hand down his face and looked at Nicolette, then pie filling in his hand, and patted her on the head before breaking out into a grin.

"Okay. I deserved that one." Nicolette smiles at him. Tony wipes the rest of the pie filling on his hand.

"You know who else deserves a nice face full of pie? Brucie."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Steve asks.

"The green doctor may not react so well to that joke." Thor replies.

"Says the God and America's Hero covered in pink frosting. It'll be funny, what do you say?" Tony asked turning to Nicolette. "You got anything good?"

"Well I have some left over muffin mix and blueberries." She offers, a slight smile on her lips.

"Great." Tony says, clapping his hands together. He drops a several blue berries in the batter and stirred it up.

"JARVIS, be a nice guy and call doctor Bruce up to join us." Tony tells the AI.

"Yes sir."

"Tony, I don't think this a good idea." Steve warned, feeling worried about how the Doctor will react.

"Oh loosely up Captain, it'll be worse if we walk on eggshells." Nicolette replies, starting to clean up the pink icing on the counter.

"Is everything-"

"SUCCESS!" Tony shouts gleefully as Bruce walks into the kitchen, splattering Bruce's face with the batter.

"Is that muffin batter?" Bruce asked slowly.

"Yep. With blueberries." Tony answered.

Bruce takes off his glasses and wipes them off slowly. The tension is thick enough you could cut it with a sharpened steak knife. Then, Bruce grabs the bowl of flour and dumps it on Tony's head. Bruce smiles in victory while putting his glasses back on. Tony coughs and tries to dust the flour off of him.

"Oh it's on green man." He says, grabbing another bowl of blueberries.

Nicolette sighs as she wipes up the last of the flour off the counter. She wipes her forehead off with the back of her hand and dips the sponge into the sink to wash it off.

"Oh, you're still up?" Bruce asks as he walks into the kitchen. It is late at night and by now he would be expecting he to be at home in bed, not cleaning.

"Figured the kitchen could use a good scrub down before I head home. Besides, the icing on the ceiling wasn't going to clean itself." She smiles gently at him. "What about you?"

"Late night research." He answers, yawing tiredly. "Just came up to make more tea."

"Oh, the tea pot still hot. I had made some a few minutes ago actually." She tells him, the smile staying in place. He refills his mug, sitting in the chair at the table and taking a sip of it.

"You look like you could use something to eat." She says drying her hands off. She picks up the plate of muffins and holds it out to him. "How about a muffin? Fresh batch seeing as my others were used to pelt people." He chuckled, remembering the food fight earlier that day.

"In my defense, Thor and Steve started throwing whip cream at us. I was just keeping you out of the line of fire."

"My hero." She teases, a laugh escaping her lips. He picks up a muffin and takes a tiny bite.

"Wow. These are good." Bruce compliments, smiling at her.

"Thanks, it's a secret family recipe."

"Must be a well-kept secret. I have never tasted muffins this amazing." She smiles at him again, tossing the sponge into the sink.

"Well I have to go. See you tomorrow." She tells him. He picks up the plate of muffins and says good night before disappearing back into the lab.

Nicolette sighed. "Well… The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Goodnight JARVIS."

"Goodnight Miss Brit." The AI replies.

Author's Note: Yay! another chapter all done and ready to go. Awesome Thanks to my Beta Editor *hands her platefulls of cookies* enjoy