Here's another chapter. I hope you guys like it. I'm writing for pure enjoyment right now. :)
"Homier than I remember." Eve commented and tossed down two duffle bags onto the floor as Ember threw hers down and ran to the plush couch to jump on it.
"This place is so cool!" Em shouted, jumping up and down as Pepper skirted around, turning the electricity on full power.
"Is this whole tower really empty?" Eve asked in dismay as she watched Pepper pull up the hologram of the tower.
"Yup. Each floor is themed too since before HYDRA attacked, the Avengers were going to live here. Do you want your old floor or one of the others? Ember! Same question." Pepper called out and the hyper girl stopped bouncing to come closer to the hologram. "Do you want your own floor or are you girls sharing? What about Kelsey and Katerina? Do you want to call them up to ask?" Pepper asked and turned to them, her hand hovering over the hologram, so she could decide which floors to activate.
"For now I think we'll share." Eve said with a hesitant look at her friend to see if she agreed and Em grinned in response. "Yeah, we'll share for the first couple of days, so activate these floors." Eve pointed at her old floor, the entertainment one, the gym floor, the guest one, Em's floor, the lab, and two random ones that had been remodeled as living quarters in case they had more than one guest.
Pepper activated them as the basement where the cars were kept and the main floor, the one they were currently on.
"Why does that one have my name on it?" Ember asked curiously, leaning her head towards the blue outline and poked it as it enlarged at her touch. Pepper's phone rang out loudly at that moment and Ember flinched back as if she was in trouble and then laughed at her reaction as the older woman walked away to answer it.
"After I graduated from MIT, we were going to move here and since we were remodeling it after the Invasion anyways, and I requested you have your own living quarters. Since you had been sharing my apartment with me during college, you deserved your own space." Eve explained and then sighed as she closed the floor on the hologram so it transformed back to the outline of the whole tower. "But then HYDRA attacked and everyone was exhausted. Not only did we all go our separate ways, but dad, well he couldn't stay here. We ended up in LA and just never got around to telling you. Let's name these for Kels and Kat." Eve finished saying and clicked on two of the guest floors right next to her and Em's and named them for Jarvis. "There, now they can decorate it however they like when they get here. We'll just give our guy a call and have a session for all our floors. It will be fun." She said, trying to get into the same upbeat mood that Em was in. She needed to shake off her worries for her brother and just enjoy being in the city.
"You're telling me that we're going to decorate these for ourselves? Professionally?" Em asked as the blue light from the hologram glowed in her eyes and she turned towards Eve with a fresh sense of hope.
Eve nodded slowly as she gazed on the little shield and hammer on two of the levels, where Steve and Thor would have been living if things had been different. She could imagine waking up and seeing Steve in the gym with Nat as Clint hid in the vents, Bruce and dad would have been doing drunk science in the lab, and ever cupboard would be stocked full of poptarts for Thor. Kelsey and Harrison would still be working for Phil, while Kat invented neat gadgets to help them for missions. Eve could see the tower bustling with silly arguments about where the last of the tea was placed, who failed to buy more milk after Tony chugged it, or even random movie nights that they could have partook in.
They would have been a ticking time bomb, waiting for the next enemy to attack, but they still would have been a family.
"Can we afford to do that?" Em asked and then reached up to smack her forehead lightly. "Am I seriously asking a Stark about money?"
Eve laughed and opened her mouth to respond, but she saw Pepper turn and begin approaching them.
"That was Rhodes. He just got Harrison checked in and emailed you the hours for visitation, however it will take 2 months before they allow anyone to see him according to their protocol." Pepper said, her heels clacking against the floor.
"Sounds like our plan may be starting to come together. Only time will tell." Eve trailed off just as Ember spun around in a circle and the other two women raised their brows at her eccentric behavior.
"It can only go uphill now! Let's celebrate with Pizza!" Ember shouted and pulled out her phone to place in an order online.
"She's lived with us for how many years and I am still confused by her behavior. Have we ever thought of putting her through a psych evaluation test?" Pepper joked with a laugh.
"She is a strange one, isn't she?" Eve commented and turned towards Pepper. "We're going to call the decorator tomorrow and have him redo our floors." Pepper put her arm over Eve's shoulder and they gazed around the room in remembrance.
"Don't worry about calling Marvin, I'll get all of that covered." Pepper finally said and walked towards the window to dial their decorator.
"Halleluiah! I ordered 3 pizzas." Em called out from the couch. "Are they calling back already?" Em questioned as her phone vibrated in her hand just as Eve's dinged from her pocket.
"It's Kelsey in a group message. She'll be here with her stuff tomorrow at noon." Eve read out loud and Em bounced up from the couch.
"This is so exciting! We had freedom back in LA, but whenever it's been the 4 of us, we've had to go our separate ways after a while. We've never been together longer than a week. It's so exciting. And the boys! We can go meet new boys!" Ember whispered as if it was a secret and Eve laughed at the wide grin that had taken up permanent residence on Em.
"I texted Kat and she said she's almost here!" Ember said with wide eyes and ran towards the elevator.
"Em! What are you doing?" Eve hollered at her and instead of a response, Em danced with a beckoning finger towards her. "Pepper, any time after 2 tomorrow is fine for Marvin." Eve called out and Pepper nodded in response and then turned back to her phone conversation as Eve followed her odd sister.
"She said she's here. Let's go!" Ember explained and Eve's confused frown turned into an excited smile.
The elevator couldn't seem to descend fast enough for them, but they finally found themselves in the basement.
"Jarvis can you open the garage?" Eve called out and the dark basement glowed with the new light as the large mechanical door vanished into the wall.
"Thanks Jar!" Em squealed out and jumped up on the balls of her feet as Kat drove in and parked. Eve was just as excited as her sister, but it seemed that their lack of sleep from the plane ride only managed to give Em a boost of adrenaline.
Kat opened her door and stepped out, only to be smothered in a tight hug from Em and after the initial shock of her invasion of space, she hugged her back as Eve stepped forward to join the embrace.
"It's so good to be with you guys ,especially after that long drive. How's your brother doing?" Kat asked but instead of answering, Eve pulled her in for another hug.
With the lights on now, Eve stepped back and looked over her friend to see if there were any substantial differences. Nope, Katerina was still as white as milk with the only difference being that her short brown hair was in a bit of a frizzy mess from packing all of her things on such short notice.
"You didn't have any problems moving?" Eve asked with concern, hating that these girls dropped everything just to come do nothing with her in New York.
Kat waved her hand dismissively though with a small chuckle. "Not at all. My lease is up in 2 months in that awful apartment. I've been looking for a new place for a few weeks now, so this offer was just in the nick of time. Plus my roommate was horrendous. Did I ever tell you that you're my favorite roomie?" Kat said with a sheepish smile.
"Hey! I lived with you guys too!" Em cut in and threw her arm around Kat with a speculative look.
"Did you really?" Kat teased and Eve laughed as Em playfully smacked their arms.
"So funny. But, I have pizza coming. Let's get this car unpacked." Em ordered and reached in the door to push the button and a second later the trunk popped up.
"Don't you always have pizza coming? Do you eat anything else?" Kat groaned out and reached inside for her purse before following the girls to the trunk.
"Her main food groups consist of pizza, Chinese, Italian, and more pizza." Eve answered and Em turned around to stick her tongue out at her.
"I earn it! That's why I work out so much! The moment I stop going to the gym is when we can cut pizza out of our diets." Em defended and reached in the car for some bags.
"Even though you work out, how do you stay so thin? I have to eat healthy or else I'd be the new Hulk." Kat remarked while trying to lift her suitcase out of the trunk.
"That's cause you spend all of your time on your technobabble stuff. Look at Eve, she does both! Computer hacker and she eats everything I do. Eve, do you secretly work out without telling us?" Em asked, leaning forward to peer into her eyes.
"I don't understand it either. Hey! I work out!" Eve defended and grabbed the bags from Em's hands.
"A jog once a day or week doesn't count." Kat huffed out and stepped out of the way so Em could pull the suitcase out.
"Geez, what do you have packed in here? A library?" Em asked as the bag hit the floor, almost tipping over from its weight.
"Those are expensive books so I couldn't leave them behind." Kat stated sheepishly.
"Let's just put these on your level and then we can worry about grabbing what you'll need for tonight." Eve said while lifting up the bags that she had set on the floor when the other two were trying to get the suitcase out.
"Wait, floor? I have a floor? A whole level?" Kat asked in disbelief as she reached in to grab the big box in the backseat.
"We each have one. But we're going to sleep on my floor until we get the decorator here tomorrow. You can choose a theme and everything." Eve said as she stepped inside the elevator.
"You have got to be kidding me." Kat said in shock.
"If your jaw drops anymore, we'll have to sew it back on!" Em teased, getting on the elevator last with the cement bag dragging behind her.
"Jarvis, shut the garage door and bring us to Kat's floor." Eve called out and Kat grinned.
"I've always heard of Jarvis from your phone, but is he really in the whole building?" Kat whispered incredulously and the British computer responded.
"Good afternoon Miss Katerina Adams. Welcome to Stark Tower."
Kat froze and almost dropped the box in her hand.
"Are you gonna be ok?" Eve asked worriedly, but she needn't worry because the young girl laughed and gazed around the elevator in dismay.
"Jarvis, you are amazing. I can't wait to figure out how you work." Kat breathed out in amazement and Em chuckled.
"Why thank you Miss Katerina. As you are now a permanent resident of the Tower, I welcome your curiosity." He responded and the doors opened to an empty lot. The walls were covered in plain white paint and the hard wood floor held no furniture on it.
"This is mine?" Kat asked as she wandered in and set the box down to the side of the entranceway.
"Yeah, there is a small kitchenette right there, the bedroom is down that hall along with a grand bathroom. These were made with the intention of being mini apartments." Eve answered as her and Ember set Kat's belongings next to the box.
"This is stellar." Kat commented and turned around to grin at the two girls.
"Let's go get the rest of your bags and then we can wait on the ground floor for the majestic pizza man. They said it would be a 30 minute wait so now we only have to wait 15 minutes." Em said and ran back into the elevator. "Come on Jarvis, I know you can hear us." Em called out and the other two girls shuffled back in just as the doors began to close.
"Of course Miss Ember Waddell." Jarvis responded and the girls finished carrying up the rest of the bags and then only had to wait for a couple of minutes for the young delivery guy to hand them the pizzas.
Their first night at the tower was full of laughs, stories, food, and the promise of good things to come.
