A/N: Okay, as promised, a new chapter to compesate the tardiness! Hope you like it, 'cause from this chaprter on, the story takes a few turns and stuff.

Enjoy!

-K

11 AM

A few days later, I was taken back to the SHIELD base I was taken before, I felt like I was a circus freak and everybody around was there for a show.

The two agents who escorted me from the dorms led to a room that looked no different from a doctor's office.

"Can any of you robots tell me what I'm doing here?" I asked.

No reply.

"I'm getting bored, you know? If I get bored enough I'll get the hell out of here, just saying" I added.

"We have orders to take you back after the tests have finished, not before" one of them said

"You were not supposed to tell her, she doesn't have the clearance, you idiot!" the other one scolded him.

Amused, I watched them snap back and forth, soon enough, they weren't paying attention to me, so I sneaked out, seeing how far I could go, without them –or anyone for the matter– noticing I was gone.

I had been told that my body needed detox from the alcohol or any other substances I had used. I'm not a fucking junkie, who do they take me for?

Wandering around, I realized that my black tight jeans, plus my black leather jacket and black boots were similar to their uniform (sort of), so I walked pretending I knew exactly where I was going and no one approached to me.

After a few turns and poorly lit stairs, I ended up in a floor that I hadn't seen before. Then again, that was my second time there.

The entire floor was practically empty, except for a few people passing here and there, at the end of the hall I was walking in, there was another one, slightly better illuminated, I noticed that one of the rooms was being used, since its door was ajar.

There were two voices, both female, and they weren't exactly whispering.

"Hill, we both saw the footage" the first voice said.

"Yes, I saw it, that's exactly why I don't trust her" the other one argued.

Her? Who the hell are they talking about?

"She can fight, she's orphan and the only friend is one of ours already, I'm telling you, she could be very helpful"

"You already said that" the second voice snapped "Romanoff, listen, we're already crossing several limits about the clearance, I don't want to break any other procedure rules for her"

"She saw Loki in the Battle, he saw her, too, and she killed like 30 chitauris; she hasn't tell a soul and Reed said she's practically invisible in college" the first voice reasoned.

What the hell is a Loki?

"Reed is emotionally invested, we can't trust her judgment" the other one hissed"And we already have an Agent Jones"

Jones? No, they can't be talking about- or can they?

"She's technically Stark"

Shit.

Fuck.

Dammit.

I frowned to the last thing I heard, then I turned around to leave, I realized that if I ran, I'd make too much noise and they would notice, so I fast-walked (or something among those lines) trying not to make a single sound.

As I was about to take a run for it in the stairs, I heard,

"Hey!"

Fuck.

I ran as fast as I could, but one of them caught up with me, grabbing me by the arm and slamming me against the wall.

Had I been drunk, that would've been hot.

"Hi" I smirked.

"What are you doing here?" the red haired woman from the other day demanded.

"I got lost" I lied, kinda.

"You got lost" the other one repeated incredulous.

The two of them exchanged a look and the red-head squeezed my arm, I suppressed a grimace and she pressed harder.

"What were you doing here, I asked"

"I told you, I got lost" I said simply

"You were supposed to be under surveillance" the brunette said.

"By two agents" the other one added.

"Yeah, I guess Harry and Lloyd forgot about that, they were pretty busy with their little chat" I said ironically

"You sneaked out from two agents?" the brunette asked incredulous, again.

"No, of course not! I teleported here, exactly here for you to find me" I smirked.

"Hill, I told you about her" the red head said smiling to the other one, Hill.

"Oh, yeah, you told her I could be an agent" I mocked

"I knew it! You're spying on us! Who do you work for?" Hill snapped.

"Currently, I'm a part time waitress in this bar near Central Park, the tips are good" I said halfheartedly.

Hill sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose in annoyance, I tried not to smile amused.

"She's a mere civil, Hill"

"A mere civil who managed to sneak out of two secret agents, walk around in a secret base -or whatever this is- and eavesdrop to your conversation" I pointed out "and I want answers about the last one"

"You don't have the clearance so, no answers for you, I can offer you to run a series of tests instead, how about that?" the red head said mockingly.

"How about no? I haven't signed anything yet, so I could just unsay everything not cooperate with you, people" I said smirking "Or, we could get to an agreement where you give me the answers I want in exchange for my oh so needed help"

"Deal" she said loosening the grip on my arm, tomorrow that'll be a bruise.

"Romanoff!" Hill exclaimed "She doesn't have clearance for that"

"She's got clearance for level 4 and it's not even an agent, she shouldn't even know that you and I exist" she replied.

"Fury insisted that we-" Hill argued.

"Yeah, I know, but-" Romanoff cut her off

"You know, this is exactly how the other two were before I left" I pointed out.


Meanwhile a doctor-looking agent was running the blood tests, urine test and a series of tests to see if he had any STDs (as if), agent Romanoff stayed and answered my questions, according to my clearance level.

I had found out so far that I wasn't born in early 1993, but late 1990, so, technically, I was 21. Howard Stark was indeed my biological father, he and his wife died two months after I was born, a month earlier he had fired my mom. That made his son Anthony my half brother (no, really?), he was Ironman and kinda crazy. Both father and son worked with SHIELD.

According to Romanoff, to get a certain clearance level, your background must be investigated, giving SHIELD had been keeping a file on me since I was born, all that was covered, however, since I wasn't an agent, that made things a little difficult; she, Hill, and some other agents were in a far superior level, in which you are barely known between the organization itself, but after the incidents in the Battle of New York, she was far more recognized both in and out of the organization.

As far as public knowledge concerned, the events of that day were by mere chance, the Chitauri just wanted to attack, Thor, a nose god who had sworn to protect the earth came to help, and Tony –how everybody called him- almost died.

After the battle, Tony presented symptoms of PTSD, then he had to fight some guy and that left him both exhausted and exposed to genetic radiation coming from a virus or something. Romanoff was being –on purpose- vague.

It was a lot of information to swallow, but I could tell she was not telling me something about the battle of New York, so I said,

"What's a Loki?"

"What?" she blurted out.

"You told Hill I saw Loki"

Maybe Hill said it, I wasn't sure, but I believed it worth the risk.

"Thor's brother" she whispered barely audible, then coughed "I can't you anything about it" she added seriously.

"C'mon! Tell me something! Anything!"I followed her lead.

"I think we are done here, I've said enough" she said the left.

I turned to the girl who was tagging the last tube of my blood and told her

"You know what's a Loki, don't you?"

"You don't have the clearance for that"

"Fuck the clearance" I hissed.


As soon as I stepped in my dorm, I headed to bed, fuck classes, I was tired, I was, literally, drained. But more than anything, I needed to sleep.

"Rough morning?" a male voice said.

"Not that much, I just had sex with three professors to make them improve my grades" I said halfheartedly.

"Wha-you-uh…really?" he mumbled.

"God, you're so easy" I laughed tiredly "Of course not, Cadbury, I'm not Gabe"

"Indeed, you're not" he commented.

"What are you doing here, twinings?" I asked rolling on the bed in order to face him.

"I just arrived, I was hoping I could stay here, my dorm-mate is a…ladies' man and they're not precisely quiet" he said.

"Are asking to crash here, United Biscuits?" I arched an eyebrow.

"Not really, I just want to read in peace, and it's painfully annoying how they keep screaming, it's too fake for me to bear it" he said casually getting comfortable in the little couch we had.

"It's too fake for me to bear it" I repeated mockingly "as if you, hipster, could notice the difference between a real moan and a fake one" I said taking my bottle of water from my backpack.

He looked up from his book and said,

"Want me to differentiate yours?"

I looked at him questioningly; he had a mischievous smirk on his face, a confident attitude and a dignified pose on the couch.

"Cat got you tongue?" he asked standing up.

Oh, it takes two to tango, honey.

"Not really" I licked my lips "it works perfectly" he approached, but said nothing, he just stared at me, his eyes focused and intense "Like what you see?"

"Very much" he whispered.

Does this count as flirting? I blame it on the blood tests, they affected my brain. How does that has anything to do with any if this, anyways? I'm sure there's an explanation for my…let's call it behavior. My head is kind of dizzy, sleepy or whatever, what if it's lack of oxygen in the brain?

"Charlotte" he called, then he licked his lips.

Damn, he's got nice lips.

"Don't think" he said and leaned in to kiss me.

I know that perfume.

I pulled back before our lips even touched; he looked at me confused, tilting his head to the right as I placed a hand in his chest, keeping him from leaning again.

"No" I said

"I thought-"

"It never happened" I cut him off.

That was hot, but there's no way in hell in going to actually happen. It's Mr. Tea bags who I'm talking about. Nah-uh.


The days didn't felt so slow and boring anymore, the second transfusion went well, Tony's body was responding very well to it, soon enough he would have his meal thingy removed from his body without any complications, a week after that I got a call from a girl named Pepper, who claimed to be Tony's PA, she asked me to go to the Stark tower. Said she wanted to meet me or something among those lines.

The large, pretentious, blatant building screamed billionaire with daddy issues, the cab took forever to get there, and the driver apparently didn't know the meaning of being quiet, I approached the main entrance, two glass, giant doors that opened themselves. I took the elevator and pressed the button for the last floor, according to Pepper's indications in the text she sent me the day before.

The elevator made a little ring sound and stopped, the doors opened and I was welcomed by an android-like voice greeting me good morning.

A woman, in her mid thirties appeared from a door on a hall to the right, there as a huge fireplace, a couch bigger than any other I had seen my whole life and 2 out of the five walls were tall, clear windows with a sight of all Manhattan.

"Hi, I'm Pepper" she said extending her hand for me to shake it, I did "It's good to meet finally meet you"

"Yeah, you too, I'm Charlie" I mumbled

"Wow" she said looking at me up and town "you- you look a lot like him. The resemblance is amazing"

Suddenly, I felt self conscious, she was so pretty, her smile stunning and her figure slim and delicate, her manners and voice so lady-like tat I felt as if I was a combo made out of the sisters of Cinderella.

"Want something to drink? A coffee, a beer maybe?" she asked standing up out of nothing.

"Um, a coke would be fine, thanks" I said, she nodded.

Almost everything in that apartment was made by some device or robot or whatever. Pepper explained to me that Tony had invented all of it, he had a few labs in the building and one of those was right bellow the kitchen, the robotic voice was J.A.R.V.I.S., an AI system he had made himself when he was around my age. I couldn't help but thinking how different we were. Even with the transfusions working, I had my doubts about us being related, since we were so different.

"I called you here today because I wanted to thank you for what you're doing, Charlie, it really means a lot"

"Pep, you here?" a male voice called from the same hall before I could even answer.

A guy appeared wearing pajamas and a red nightgown, sporting a bed head.

"Tony, you should be resting"

"I'm bored" he said.

Before he could even ask who I am, Pepper said

"This is Charlotte Jones"

"Huh" he nodded "so you're making up a family reunion without even telling me? Nice shirt, by the way, kid" he rambled rather quickly.

I was wearing a AC/DC shirt, one of my favorites and the first one I ever had.

"Tony, behave" she told him, her voice demanding.

He went to the one of the couches and sat down, Pepper followed and so did I, in the other couch.

"So you're the old man's last affair, huh?" Tony said, I frowned.

"Tony!" Pepper scolded him.

"It's okay, Pepper" I said.

"How old are you, kid?" he asked.

"I'm 21"

"I was your age when they died, mom and the old man" he stated avoiding my gaze.

"You know, he had a lot of women after my mother decided not to have any other children" he started saying "my dad tried to convince her to have another kid, he always wanted a girl, but she refused, the fighting started and eventually they barely spoke at home, that is whenever they happened to be at home" he added "funny thing: he got his girl anyways"

"Was he a good dad?" I asked, he wasn't expecting that, I could tell.

"Not really" he replied "he was always so severe, so cold, like he never cared, why?"

"I wanted to know if I missed anything by believing Erik was my father"

"You're tough, I can tell"

"She's got his eyes" Pepper added.

"The same look, but younger"

"And kinder"

"Could you stop talking about like I wasn't here? It's making me even more uncomfortable than the awkwardness of the whole situation" I spat.

Tony looked at me, as if he's was studying me or something, the said

"What does your mommy think of you visiting your dear brother?"

"She's dead"

"Sorry to hear that, what happened?"

"A fucking chitauri happened" I hissed.

"Yeah, so I heard"

"I guess you saw my file, then?" I commented.

"Yeah, and the footage, nice moves, Tomb Raider"

I stifled a laugh then said

"Thank you"

"The way you killed that girl, that was not so sweet, though"

"Tony!" Pepper said then punched his arm.

"Ow!" he complained.

Then I remembered what nobody fully answered

"You know what's a Loki?"

Tony laughed as if I had just said the funniest joke ever.

"You know Loki, you saw him!"

"So it's a who and not a what, get it, anything else you can tell me?"

"He planned the whole thing, the Battle, the Chitauri invasion, he's Thor's brother, he's adopted, but still, he tried to take over the earth, he stabbed Thor, he killed like half a thousand people himself and he threw out of that window" he explained, then pointed out to a large window, which one, who cares, they're all the same."

"The Chitauri were under his command, then?" I asked, thankful for Tony not being a SHIELD agent.

"If you want to know if your mother's dead because of his god-level tantrum, then yes"

"Any chance you know where he is?"

"Asgard" he said simply "Know much about norse mythology?"

"Absolutely nothing"

"Then you have homework to do, kid, it was good to meet you, you're not that bad, I thought I'd hate you, to be honest" he commented before standing up, heading the way he came.

"Um, thank you I guess?" I said before he disappear.

"Thanks for being my blood bank!" he called out.

He nerve of the fucker.

"I'll send you some documents for you to sign around thursday, it's something Tony found in his dad's old stuff the other day" Pepper said walking to the door "next time we'll meet for lunch and have an actual conversation, okay?" she smiled, I nodded.