Chapter Six:

It Burns

Sugar had managed to give Aph another reason of why she hated it, despised it fact now. Yet she knew Thor and Loki were to blame as well. If Loki had shared with his brother then he would have gone away. Or if Thor had left his brother alone, Loki would not have caused the shock or the burn that was now on her leg. She hissed as she carefully touched her red skin that had three small blisters. She thought she had removed her pants much quicker but turns out she didn't. She almost wanted to cry yet again knowing she had gotten a second degree burn on her leg. She couldn't help but wince as she splattered cold water onto her leg.

Tony had quit his laughter immediately when he saw the hot sugar land on her leg. He only hoped she managed to remove her pants in time before it really burned her. Stalking over to the two brothers in the front he couldn't help yell at them for what they did. "You better hope she isn't burned. The stuff was boiling in the damn bag."

"How can sweets burn her? Those sweets were not hot." Thor said, because he remembered when Clint gave him a spicy sweet. He thought it was disgusting but convinced to try it, he had actually liked the hotness and the sweetness in his mouth.

"Sugar doesn't cool down after many hours, Point-break! That sugar was boiling hot!" Tony clarified for him.

Tony's phone began to ring and shaking his head at Thor, he answered the call as his phone was still in his hand. He looked at the caller id and frowned, hoping he wasn't like Fury. Bringing his phone up to his ear he answered, "Hello?"

"Aphrodite's bracelet just went off. Did she by any chance try to take it off?" David asked quickly and sternly.

Tony glared at Loki before he replied, "Yes and no. The two god brothers here got in a fight over a bag of candy and Reindeer Games set off her bracelet."

"How did he set it off? Did he pull her bracelet?"

Tony sighed, "I don't know how it even happened. All I saw was a flash of light and Thor yelling that he got the candy. Can I call you another time? Aphro isn't so hot right now."

David chuckled over the phone, "She passed out, didn't she?"

Tony laughed nervously, "Um, actually because Thor was on top of Reindeer Games and he was on top of hot-head the shock melted the candy. And Reindeer Games was nice enough to spill the hot sugar on her leg. She hasn't come out of the bathroom so that's kinda telling me she got burned. But hey, I promise I'll make sure she's ok. Alright? Byeee!" He hung up quickly to quiet David's screams over the phone. David had insrtucted Tony to keep a close eye on Aph because now that she was human, David was afraid she wouldn't respond well to an injury. And Tony had just done the opposite; he didn't keep a close on her and she got injured.

"You," Tony angrily pointed at Loki who quietly sat in the seat, "are going to be in a world of trouble if she got burned badly."

"I did not know the melted sweets would land on her." Loki defended himself.

"If you had shared your stupid candy with point break I wouldn't be in trouble with the agent in the first place. She wasn't supposed to get injured anytime soon!" Tony said angrily and walked back to his seat beside Bruce.

Thor sighed quietly and sat beside Loki. "Brother-"

Loki simply shot up from his seat and went to sit far away from Thor. The last thing he wanted was to be near his stupid brother right now or even hear him try to apologize to him. It was all Thor's fault and I get blamed as usual, Loki thought madly as he looked out the window.

Aph groaned as she pulled her wrist out from underneath the running water. The bracelet was waterproof. And even if wasn't she had taken the chance to get electrocuted because she was desperate to remove the burning pain from her leg. She had never felt any kind of pain before because she blocked it. Now all of sudden feeling this kind of burning pain was like ten cargo trains ramming her all at once. She blinked hard and then diverted her attention to her surroundings. Behind her on the wall a light brown cabinet called her name. She opened it quickly and almost let out a cry of joy. There were first aid kits and not hesitating a moment she shot out of her hand and grabbed one. Opening it she read everything before she used something on herself. She opened an ointment that would help with burning pain and gently applied it on her leg. Later when the plane landed she would buy some Aloe Vera gels or even fresh Aloe Vera to help more with the pain. Because she didn't want anyone to see her burn she wrapped it with a bandage. She made sure the wrapping was loose and not tight so it wouldn't irritate her burn further. Finished, she sighed and put everything back in it's place.

"Are you ok," She heard Natasha ask from outside the door. "What are you doing in there?"

"Oh you know," Aph replied rather rudely, "slaying dragons and demons and saving the Kingdom." Before Natasha could reply Aph opened the door a little and poked her head out. "Do you mind getting my bag of clothes? It's underneath my seat."

"Did you burn yourself?" She asked as she saw Aphrodite's reflection from the mirror behind her. Natasha saw her leg was bandaged and looking at her face she could see Aph showed pain and discomfort in her eyes.

"A little," Aph replied quietly as she felt a throb of pain on her leg.

Natasha turned around and walked to retrieve her bag of clothes. Once she got it she returned and handed it to Aph. "We'll be landing any minute now so get dressed quickly." She told her softly and went to sit beside Clint.

Aph decided to wear shorts because she was afraid jeans would cause her even more pain than she had now. Once she put on her light blue jean shorts she walked out and walked back to her sit. On her way back Tony asked her, "How badly did you get burned?"

"Second degree burns." Was all Aph replied. Pain was the only thing dominating her mind at the moment. She carefully sat in her seat again and picked up her puzzle book that fell in the crack between the seat and the wall. She couldn't find her pencil and she guessed it rolled away. She opened her bag and stuffed her book inside with a loud sigh and leaned her head on the wall as she looked out the window. As she looked out she noticed the plane was starting to go lower than before and she knew they were going to land already. Trying to push the pain of her mind, she closed her eyes and focused on the humming of jet's engine.

"I am sorry for hurting you yet again, Aphrodite." Aph snapped her eyes open and glared at thunder boy who had just ruined her mediation. "Will you sue me?"

Aph couldn't hold back a small laugh that escaped her mouth and then said, "No, I won't. But I promise if you hurt me again I will sue you for sure."

The plane finally landed in New York. The Avengers stood from their sits and walked out of the plane with Loki and Thor arguing. As Aph was getting up from her seat as well, Tony walked over to her with the biggest smile on his face. Aph had a feeling he was getting ready to start boasting about something or planned to torture her. Tony clapped his hands once and said to her, "Well, it seems I'm going to have to start teaching about your job now."

"Why now?" She asked him a bit confused. And now that she thought about it he never really mentioned what kind of work she was going to do. But seeing that little smug smile on his face, something told her job was not going to be good.

"I need some help maintaining my suits, the sooner the better. I have many protocols that I still want to test and many suits with a lot of mileage in them. We start early tomorrow. Remember, you ruined my suit so you owe me!"

Aph blinked, not believing what her job was. Her job was actually pretty easy and fun. Heck, she could even learn a little more about weapons while working with him. Tony took out a device from his pocket that had a clear screen and handed it to Aph. She took it and inspected it, twisting it in her hands until the screen lit up on it's own. "Good evening, Aphrodite." The device suddenly spoke by itself.

Aph blinked and then said, "Oh, hello JARVIS."

"Yeah, from right now until we arrive at my tower JARVIS will give you the basics and rules. We'll be stopping at a hotel for the night so just listen to JARVIS." Tony then beckoned Aph to walk out of the plane with him. As they walked off the jet Tony had taken yet another thing out from his pocket and handed it to Aph. They were earphones and sighing she put them in her ears and connected them to the device in her hand. She really didn't want to listen to JARVIS or learn the job, but she figured that if she pretended to be good the bracelet would come off much quicker.

"What would you like to know first? The rules or the basics?" JARVIS asked her.

"The rules," Aph replied bored.

Aph couldn't believe it, she thought her head was about to explode for the first time in her life! Tony had so many rules in his tower and lab that Aph didn't know if her human thinking would memorize every single rule. Not to mention that some rules he implied were so stupid! Like she was not allowed to touch his pot of coffee at all, or the cabinet that held all his favorite treats. But this continued till they arrived at a hotel and when JARVIS finally decided to give her a break while she got her room. Sighing with exhaustion she removed the ear buds and glared at Tony who was asking for rooms. Aph looked around and saw that she had walked into one of the most expensive hotels in New York. Looking down at the device in her hand, she wrapped the earphones neatly around it.

"Alright, we got seven rooms." Tony said coming back to the group.

"There are eight of us, Stark." Steve said.

"That just means one of us is going to have to share." Tony replied.

"I get my own room and that's finale." Natasha spoke and made it clear so no one would bunk with her.

"My brother and I will share a dorm," Thor said happily, but Loki was far from happy. "I will not share a dorm with you!" Loki growled at his brother angrily. It seemed that no one understood that he didn't want to be near Thor at all!

Everyone remained quite as they didn't want to share their room with one of the gods. Finally Aph spoke, but made sure she showed her annoyance, "Loki will share with me."

"Are you sure Aphro? I mean he's a guy and you might not feel comfortable. If you want you could share with me?" Tony grinned at her.

Aph glowered at Tony, getting what he had proposed. "I think I trust the god of mischief more than I trust you, Stark."

"Ouch," Tony mumbled as his playful grin dropped from his face. That really had hurt him a bit in his ego. He looked at Loki and then at Aph, "Your room is 254. Here's your key."