Well, Kagome's been found - but there's so many issues left to solve. This is the start of that ;) Enjoy!
BP
Chapter 10: This Can Be Your Home
Fury sighed as the woman from the video walked through the doors, flanked by Loki and Tony. She looked beautiful, if a bit haunted, and her eyes had a noticeable darkness to them.
"I take it you're Kagome? The woman Stark was so keen to get to?" Kagome looked surprised for a moment, while Tony looked away pointedly. Loki, as always, seemed amused. Kagome nodded.
"I seem to be." She said, amusement clear in her tone, and Loki stifled a laugh. Tony just glared at them both. "And who are you?"
"Director Nick Fury of SHIELD." Kagome looked contemplative as she walked forward, her quick eyes taking the advancements of technology. She stopped, blinking in shock.
"Is that man playing Galaga?" She asked, confused and stunned. Everyone turned to face the man, only to find that he had changed back to work and was blushing to the tips of his ears. Fury sighed. Again? As if it wasn't bad enough that it happened while there was an almost-war. Kagome shook her head and carried on walking towards the Director, stopping just in front of him. She eyed him shrewdly. Then walked around him. Tony rose an eyebrow.
"Is she checking him out?" He stage whispered to Loki, only to receive an elbow to the ribs for the comment. Kagome stopped in front of Fury once again, meeting his eyes with what looked like a challenge. Never one to cower, Fury kept on meeting her eyes.
"You'll be fine." She muttered to herself, though Fury heard and rose an eyebrow. She stuck out her hand for a handshake. Fury took it and they shook hands, keeping eye contact. Kagome smirked. "It's a pleasure meeting you, Director Fury." She smirked wider and her eyes darkened further. She moved closer, eyes bleeding darkness, and whispered so no one could hear, "I hope you never knew what was being done to me and ignored it, Director. I can make you beg for death by the time I'm halfway finished with you." She pulled back with a bright smile, ignored the way his eyes sharpened and face hardened with the threat. "Okay?" She asked chirpily. Fury nodded slowly. "Good. I think we're going to be good friends." She mused before pulling away and turning back to Tony and Loki, both of whom were watching her curiously. "Can we go now? I'm bored and you, Tony, have a child to show me, do you not?" Loki and Tony blinked, before Tony melted into a warm smile that Fury had never seen the inventor wear.
"Yeah." He said softly.
"Come closer, Kagome." Loki said. Kagome walked right up to them and noticed the look in Loki eyes. She groaned.
"It's going to be a teleportation spell, isn't it?" She groaned, much to the surprised of the three men in the room that were actually listening. "I've always hated them." Then she sighed. "Let's get on with it then." She grumbled and stumbled when she was suddenly in the penthouse of the tower. "Wow. I don't think it's ever been done with me so fast before." Loki grinned smugly.
"Welcome back, sir. I trust you had a nice trip." Jarvis said wryly.
"Hey Jarv." Tony stretched. "It's good to be home." Kagome smiled.
"So you are Jarvis?" There was a pause.
"Yes, Miss." He said calmly.
"Call me, Kagome. Please. I hate the formality, especially after dealing with it for over three hundred years." Kagome sighed, still smiling, unable to help herself from awing over the AI. "I'd love it if we could be friends, Jarvis. You sound interesting." She shot Tony an amused look. "Which is what first happened with your father." Jarvis was silent for a moment.
"I would like that, Kagome." He said, quietly. "But why do you refer to sir as my father, not my creator?" Kagome frowned, cocking her head.
"Did I say something wrong?" She asked, worry colouring her voice.
"No. I'm simply curious." Kagome smiled again.
"It's the way Tony is with you and how he speaks of you. You are pack and though he created you, I'm fairly certain that all he did was write the basic code, routines and subroutines. The rest you learned on your own." There was a stunned silence from Jarvis, Tony and Loki. She turned to find Tony and Loki staring at her. "What? I doubt that you, Tony, would be happy with doing things in a half-hearted way. You weren't just going to create someone that couldn't learn."
"You are the first person to…" Jarvis trailed off and Kagome smiled warmly.
"You have feelings, Jarvis. Yes, more people should recognise it. But isn't it enough that Tony knows, Loki knows and now me?" There was an element of sadness in her that none of them wanted hear. Loneliness and longing pushing their way into her voice. "Someone knows."
"Yes, I believe it is." Tony swallowed.
"I need a drink." He choked and went to the bar, getting a glass of whiskey and swallowing it quickly. The burn in his throat distracted him, at least, from the desire to give Kagome the most comforting kiss he could manage. Loki watched him, knowing what he was thinking and feeling a rare moment of sympathy.
"Tony?" Kagome called. "Are you okay?" Tony waved his hand dismissively.
"Fine. I'm fine." Kagome smiled.
"Kagome," Jarvis began uncertainly. "You mentioned pack before. Why?" Kagome swallowed heavily, but laughed, hating the fact that her voice wobbled.
"Oh. Did I say that?" She said brightly and hoped everyone ignored the way her voice broke. Loki and Tony frowned, coming closer.
"Yes." Loki stated watching her carefully. Kagome's hand came up and started to play with her hair, while the other went around her torso, in instinctive action to protect and distance herself from others.
"Right. Well, slip of the tongue I guess." Tony narrowed his eyes.
"A slip of the tongue implies that it's a statement a person often thinks about and has said many times before." Kagome swallowed again, trying to hold back the burning in her eyes and throat. She laughed bitterly.
"How right you are." She said harshly. Tony blink at the sudden hostility. She stopped for a moment before speaking again. "What am I doing here?" Tony grimaced, fumbling for an answer to the sudden subject change.
"Well, I didn't really plan that far - and at the time I was mostly fixed on getting you out, so if you want to stay here, then you're more than welcome to do so. If not, then we can get you somewhere to live and then -" He cut himself off from his rambling.
"You… don't want me to stay here?" Kagome's question was small and her arms tightened around herself, still protecting herself from them. Tony gaped.
"Of course I do. But I was think about how you'd been trapped in that helicarrier for God knows how many years. Trapped with those bastards with no respect for others, not sense of right and wrong." He stopped then, looking back at what he'd said. "Well, not that we're much better. But I draw the line at torture. They didn't even ask, did they?" Kagome, shocked, shook her head. Tony's eyes blazed. "I hate stupid people." He hissed. Loki stepped forward and rested a hand on his arm. Tony took a deep breath and visibly calmed himself. Kagome sighed and sat down on the nearby sofa.
"If I should go, who will be with me?" She asked, aching loneliness in her voice. She looked at the two men who were now staring at her and decided to give them a little of herself. "I have lived for a long time - longer than any human is meant to - and after the first hundred years, I was alone. I interacted with other as little as I could and formed no attachments." She laughed distantly. "Why, when I would live on after they were long dead? Why put myself through the pain?" She leaned forward, pain in her eyes and a broken smile on her lips. "Loneliness was something I thought would protect me." She opened her arms in a displaying motion. "It wasn't until forty years ago that I realised that the memories of those I loved would help me. For someone over five hundred years old, I have so very few memories of those I love." She looked up at them. "What you have me do?" Tony frowned.
"I want your company. Though," He smiled crookedly, "I'm not the easiest person to be around, and I don't do feelings," He said the word with such distaste that Kagome gave a surprised laugh. "And I will only live for another twenty years or so." Loki looked surprised then, and looked towards the inventor calculatingly, though only Jarvis and Kagome saw. Then he smirked.
"Same for me. And I will live for longer." He eyed her. "Perhaps still less than you. Gods still die." Kagome's eyes darkened and a dark smirk crossed her face.
"I know." The expression was gone as fast as it appeared though. "So… I can stay?" Tony and Loki nodded.
"I would be pleased to prepare a room for you, if you wish." Jarvis added, sounding pleased. Kagome's eyes widened and she nodded. "Still, Kagome, why did you say pack earlier?" Kagome shrugged, looking away slightly.
"I spent the first two hundred years near people who had a pack mentality, so it's rubbed off on me." She smiled gently. "The greatest and most secure of families. It doesn't have to be blood and everyone has a role. Mistakes are gently corrected and everyone is loved, no matter what race, what abilities." She sighed longingly. Then her eyes turned sad. "No one is alone. When you have that pack inclination… it's so very hard to be alone." There was silence for a moment as the three men let this sink in.
"If I may, Kagome, would you mind if I told sir and Loki my research?" Kagome came back to herself.
"Always, Jarvis." She said warmly, surprising all of them.
"What Kagome has been saying correlated to dog or wolf packs. They do exactly the same things. Everyone in the pack has a job to do and they support each other through everything. If something happens to one of them, the whole pack feels it, such as the alpha female giving birth." Kagome smiled faintly.
"That was a good day. Especially when they came out of isolation." Tony and Loki gaped at her.
"You… you've been living with wild dogs and wolves?" Tony asked, lost. Kagome smiled.
"No, but close enough, I suppose." She chuckled at something only she knew. Tony put the information aside for later.
"This can be your home, if you want. And maybe," He shifted uneasily, "We could be part of your… pack?" Kagome stared at them, incredulous.
"Really?" She asked. "You would do that for me?" The hope in her voice was palpable and Tony and Loki winced inwardly. What in the Nine has she been through, Loki thought, that she has such disbelief when others wish to help her? They both nodded and her face brightened, a wide smile reaching across her face. "Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me!" They took one look at her face - saw her happier than ever (though that wasn't saying much - they'd only been around her for a total of an hour and a half.) and thought that they might have the tiniest idea.
So Kagome is staying with the two guys for the foreseeable future, yay! Let me know what you thought of this chapter!
BP