Thanos moved the scanner over Layla's body again. He still couldn't figure out a way to remove the Tesseract, which irked him. He felt he should have already figured out how to extract it, but the solution was stubbornly out of his grasp.
"Have you felt anything odd, recently?" Thanos probed. Layla shook her head.
"No, not at all. At first, I was nervous when you told me that the cube was inside me, but not anymore. Honestly, I forget it's inside me half the time. I don't think it'd be so bad if you couldn't remove," she replied. She was saying that for his sake, he could tell. Her pity always got him on edge, which was the opposite of her intentions.
With a sigh, Thanos flicked the switch, turning off the machine. Layla patted down the wrinkles of her dress after getting up. Her students would laugh at her if she went to class looking like she had been playing a sport, she informed Thanos.
"Well, you know the drill. I'll be home no later than seven." Oh, he knew all right. It had already been a few weeks since she had graciously let him stay at her house, so he was used to her arrangements. The only times she arrived home late was if she had gone shopping, or had stayed after class for the sake of a child.
Thanos smirked when he remembered the unfortunate discovery on they had made the day after Layla purchased his clothing: while the shirts and sweaters Layla had purchased fit just fine, the jeans she got did not, forcing Thanos to stick with his purple ones for now. Layla claimed they clashed with all of his upper-body clothing, but he didn't know (or care) of such things.
A few hours after Laya had left, and Thanos was getting restless. The house was very quiet and still when Layla was absent, and his patience only extended so far. It was time to stretch his legs.
The bell rang, which caused the kids to shoot up like fireworks. Yelling their farewells for the day, the kids all scrambled out of the room, to go play with friends or watch after-school cartoons. Layla didn't blame them; Wednesday was smack-dab in the middle of the week, and the kids would start to get jittery for the weekend.
Gathering her book-bag, she closed the door behind her as she left the class, trying not to make too much noise. The last thing she wanted was for Mr. Haynes to scold her for letting the kids run in the halls, or something. Luckily, she managed to escape the school with no principal incident.
Maybe he was on the phone. More likely, he was having "discussions" with another teacher, she thought ruefully.
The weather wasn't so bad, considering it was autumn. The sun was still up, at the very least, so the walk home wouldn't be too frigid.
Walking down the front stairs of the school, Layla almost tripped and fell when she saw a familiar, purple figure waiting near the school gate. Briskly jogging towards Thanos, she couldn't help but let out a confused, "What the heck are you doing? I thought you didn't want people to see you?"
"Ah, I was anticipating that question, although I didn't think it would be so upfront," Thanos began, leaning on the metal gate, which would probably stain the orange sweater he was wearing. "It's a simple trick to alter passerby's perception of me, using my telepathy. Most people will only see an average, unassuming human male." His tone was almost proud. Layla supposed he liked showing off.
"You can do that? Wow. But I can still see it's you." Thanos crossed his arms.
"I'm not altering your perception, of course. How else would you have known that was me?" Layla decided that was a dumb question, but then her mind got back on track.
"That doesn't answer my first question. Why come outside at all?" Thanos hummed, looking in the air.
"I suppose I just needed to stretch my legs. Also, memorizing the terrain around here was something I had to get around to eventually. When I realized that it was almost time for your school to be let out for the day, I thought it might be a good idea to wait for you. It might be safer for you if I was present."
Layla felt like informing him that she had walked alone for years, even after dark, and had always been just fine, but it was a nice gesture from him (was he trying to be friendly?), so she would just let it go. Before she could say anything, though, she heard an unfortunately familiar voice calling her to her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Miss Dunham, I'm glad I caught up to you," Mr. Haynes huffed, apparently having run out of school (hypocritical, Layla though) to catch her. Layla turned to him, doing her best to smile a real smile at him. She was coming up short, though.
"I just wanted to remind you that the parents-teacher meetings are coming up, and I wanted to make sure that you made yourself presentable. You wouldn't want you to embarrass the school and the students, right?"
He only then seemed to notice Thanos. Layla tensed up, almost ready for Haynes to scream in fear. Instead, the principal rolled his eyes.
"And here I thought Miss Dunham was single. Are you some new boyfriend?" Turning back to Layla, Haynes gave her a disappointed look. "If you're having some illicit relationship, I want to know about it. You wouldn't want me to reconsider keeping you at this school, would you?" As he stepped into Layla's personal space, Mr. Haynes got lifted into the air. Thanos had grabbed the man by the collar of his fancy suit. Layla was shocked; what was Thanos thinking?
"I would suggest you watch your tone. Or would you rather I crush you right now, insect?" Mr. Haynes was starting to gasp for breath, so Thanos dropped the pathetic creature on the ground, where he scrambled backwards, staring in fear at what he saw as a seemingly meek guy.
"And I suggest you don't tell anyone about this encounter, or I will find you, and do things that will make you long for Death's cold embrace," Thanos growled. The man wisely nodded his head, before getting up and running away.
Thanos looked on with satisfaction. Still, part of him wanted to kill the human anyway, but all his work with Layla would go down the drain, and there could be witnesses. Layla looked at him in shock, her eyebrows scrunched together.
"You shouldn't have done that! He's a jerk, but you may have gone too far." Thanos knew she didn't care for his methods, practical as they were.
"Come now, Layla. I'm sure you must have enjoyed some part of it," Thanos said, looking her in the eyes. Layla looked away, but grinned self-consciously, smoothing her hair.
"OK, maybe the guy had it coming…but let's try to keep a low-profile. I want to keep my job!" Surprising him, she linked a slender arm with his much larger one.
"But thanks. I mean it. You're not the kind of guy I would have expected it from," she said softly. Thanos almost said something, quickly coughed to hide his stumble, and let out, "He made it easy. I dislike worms like him," deciding he didn't at all mind the feeling of having her close to him.
What am I thinking? Such a foolish thought! I like her company because I have been alone for a period of time, not because of physical want.
To distract himself, Thanos asked Layla, "This may have been prudent of me to ask beforehand, but who exactly is that man to you?"
"My boss, basically," Layla said dismissively, but Thanos wouldn't be waved off.
"Your boss speaks to you in such a manner?" Thanks asked angrily. "What cause does he have to do so?"
"It's a long story, but to make it short, he propositioned me. I gave him a negative answer, and ever since, he's been on my case. I think he's hoping to wear me down, so that I'll say yes next time he asks. Or he's just really bitter, and wants any excuse to fire me. I don't know."
Thanos gazed at her, an unknown emotion spreading through him. He wanted to go back and kill this Haynes immediately.
"I have heard enough. He has no right to hound you," Thanos snapped. "I will go back and deal with him!" Layla stopped.
"No, don't you dare! I don't like the guy, but I don't want him dead either! He might have a family of his own!" Thanos wanted to shake her off and hunt down the fool, but that would chase away Layla, and the thought of being alone, this time without Death, was surprisingly frightening.
"Very well," Thanos relented. "But if that man bothers you again, I will not be accountable for my actions." Layla nodded.
"Fair enough," she murmured, hoping that Thanos wouldn't find out about any future incidents. Her arm slightly tightened around his, not going above his notice.
"Did his accusation bother you?" he asked, regarding the assumption that they were a couple. Layla laughed.
"Actually, I was worried you'd be annoyed by that." Thanos grunted.
"He can believe whatever he wishes. It doesn't matter to me." Secretly, he wondered why he was so okay with it.
When they arrived home, there was a package at the door. Layla grabbed it excitedly, having a strong hunch what was inside.
Opening the brown box was difficult. The sender had wrapped a ton of tape around the box, but Layla was too proud to ask Thanos for help. Finally, with help from a knife, she yanked it open, pulling out her prize; a TV remote. Seeing the questioning look Thanos gave her, Layla handed it to him.
"My TV remote broke a few weeks back, so I had to order a new one off Amazon. It was a pain waiting for it." Thanos handed the device back to her, seemingly disinterested now.
"After a long day at school, there is nothing better than putting your feet up and watching a good movie. Care to join me? I hear there's a good action film on tonight!" She was hoping he'd say yes; it had been a long time since she had seen a good film with company.
Thanos looked like he was about to answer in a certain manner, then changed his mind. "I'll have to decline. I plan to keep studying the Tesseract's mysterious behavior, and I have some more work to do on my ship."
It all sounded like excuses to Layla, but she shrugged, taking off her red scarf. Thank goodness the heater in the house was strong. As she lay on the couch and flicked on the television, she wondered about Thanos. Part of the time, he seemed to be trying to get closer, and then he would suddenly pull away, as if he was scared to get too close.
Late that night, Thanos sat up in his too-small bed, wondering what had awoken him. Thinking hard, back to his dream –
Oh.
He had one of his dreams, the ones he shared with Death, only Death wasn't in this one. Layla had been in it for some odd reason. Thanos crumpled his hand into a fist, ripping part of the bedsheet.
Was he becoming attracted to her? No, that was foolishness. But the dream…
This attraction, if that is what this is, is dangerous. I have stayed long enough. I will fix my ship as soon as possible get back the Tesseract, and leave. It will be better for both of us that way.
Author's Notes:
Back to a more calm chapter, more slice-of-life. Mr. Haynes is a jerk, but I have plans for him later. Luckily, I don't know any principals/teachers like him in real life.