Ok... well I failed you horribly... I did not make it for Valentines day...so whatever. Enjoy.
I woke up in a soft warm bed, not fully remembering what had happened the night before. I remembered tutoring Hannah and then driving over to Loki's… My eyes snapped open and I sat straight up. Loki dodged out of my way quickly, barely missing being head butted by me, and I looked over at him quickly before freaking out. "Oh my god! Are you ok? I'm really sorry."
Once the shock wore off his face Loki began laughing heartedly making me blush in embarrassment. "You really startled me there. Do you wake up so suddenly a lot? I may want to be prepared for next time." Pouting I just threw the blanket off of my legs and went to get up. "Aww… don't be mad at me Lanie darling." Loki's arm wrapped around my waist pulling me back into bed with him.
"Well that's what you get for staring at me." Peeking over my shoulder I saw him staring at me again and so I stuck my tongue out at him.
He purred at me slightly, making me blush worse, and smirked a little evilly. "Oh, don't tempt me with that tongue of yours." As my face grew hotter his smirk became more and more playful before finally relaxing into a grin. "Oh by the way, I took the liberty of grabbing you some clothes to change into since you were going shopping with Phil." Loki kissed me gently on the cheek as he stood up to walk over to a small pile of clothes on his dresser.
He picked up the pile and handed it over to me. Rifling through the clothes I became embarrassed again. "You went through my underwear?"
"Well… uh… not really… I just grabbed the ones on top…" Looking up at Loki I saw a small tint of pink on his cheeks but not a full blush. Nodding I gathered the clothes up to my chest and walked into the bathroom to change and get ready. A few minutes later I walked out in a pretty red t-shirt and slightly ripped jeans.
"Thanks for getting me some clothes. Do you know where my phone is?" Loki tossed me my phone and I caught it in midair. Unlocking it I checked my messages and saw two from Phil, one getting on me for not texting him yesterday and another saying that Bruce wanted to go shopping with us so he would be bringing him along. Sighing I texted him back to apologize and say that if he was bringing another friend so was I. "You not coming along with us?"
"No, I already have my costume for Tony's celebration." He snatched my phone from my hands and looked at it for a moment before messing around with it. "Why don't you take Marcel with you? I bet she would love to go shopping. And I bet Phil will let you get more than just a costume." His hands stopped for a little bit until my phone went off. "She says she'd love to."
"Hey! Don't just make plans without my consent." I scolded teasingly, giggling a little and taking my phone back. "Don't you think she'll find it odd having Phil pay for everything?"
"He'll think of something to tell her. Now go have fun with your best friend. I'll see you later." Loki kissed me and grinned before shooing me out of his apartment. "Phil will be waiting for you downstairs." He chuckled and waved as I walked to his door and paused.
"Wait… Loki… why are you and Thor going back to Asgard so soon? You were there a few days ago…"
"Odin has something important he wanted to talk to us about but since Fury needed to speak to us as well he said that we could come back for a few days." I nodded and gave him a small smile as I walked into the elevator, pressing the button for the parking lot.
Looking back through my phone I looked to see what Loki had sent to Marcel. Hey Mar, you wanna go shopping with me and some guys? Sorry it's last minute. Then the text that "I" had received back. That sounds great… But who're the guys? - Mar I chuckled slightly as the elevator dinged at the parking lot. Don't worry, they're cool. Looking up I saw Phil standing next to his car with a very awkward looking Bruce pacing beside him. They both looked up at the sound of my arrival and I walked towards them, texting Mar to tell her we'd pick her up in about ten minutes.
"Morning guys…" I muttered in mid yawn, walking towards them and stretching my arms above my head. Bruce gave me a small smile, which I returned, and he walked around the car as Phil opened the back door for me. "Thank you."
"Good morning Lanie. So who's the friend we're picking up?" Phil asked as he closed the door. Bruce peeked up in curiosity as he sat down in the front passenger seat. Looks like Phil hadn't told him the plan.
"Marcel. You still remember who she is I assume." Buckling the seatbelt I looked up at the rearview mirror to make eye contact with Phil. He nodded as he started up the car and I looked to Bruce who had turned to look at me.
"Morning Lanie. How did the tutoring go?"
"Not too bad, Hannah is a pretty good learner. I may need you to explain something to me better though cause I still don't understand it the way the professor is explaining it." He nodded in acknowledgement to my request. "We can discuss it later then."
"That's fine, then you'll be able to take notes." I nodded in agreement and Bruce turned more in the seat. "Who's Marcel?"
"She's my best friend. She's a cutie, so awkward and motherly." I watched something flicker across his expression for a second. My heart rate increased a little, which it always seemed to do when Bruce's eyes showed an unknown emotion. Once his expression relaxed so did I.
"I'm sure she's very nice."_
Marcel dropped into the seat next to me as she entered the car. Phil and Bruce introduced themselves kindly to her and she smiled cutely at them, causing Bruce to blush slightly. "So these are the guys you were talking about?" She asked, buckling her seatbelt.
"Yep, they live around the same place I do so I see them around a lot, and we became pretty good friends. Phil's the one who helped me move into my new studio a while back." I gave Marcel a smile back as her face lit up in acknowledgement.
"Wow, that's pretty awesome. You have such an easy time meeting guys don't you."
I laughed a little and saw Bruce peeking around the seat to try and get a better look at Marcel. She was smaller, about 5'3", with a thinner but robust figure, meaning she had thin limbs and a thin waist but full hips and a bigger chest. Her brown hair was pulled up into a ponytail with some waves still framing her face and her brown and green eyes shone brightly. She would look like a beautiful elven princess to me if not for the fact that she was a bit tan.
Looking back at Bruce I saw him blush again slightly and one of my eyebrows rose in question. It wasn't the first time I had seen someone react this way to Mar, but it was the first time I'd seen Bruce react to a woman. I mean he walked around the base all the time and I'd never seen him stare at Natasha, or Pepper for that matter, and they were both exceptionally beautiful women. Not that Mar wasn't beautiful, but hers' was in a more unrealistic way, while theirs was like runway models. Bruce's eyes analyzed her quickly until she looked up into his gaze, making him freeze.
"You said your name was Bruce correct?" He nodded. "What do you do?"
"I-I'm a scientist."
"Any specific kind of science or just a bit of everything?"
"I know a bit from almost all fields but I prefer the chemical field."
"That's pretty cool. I'm trying to get into medical biology." Bruce's face lightened up and he smiled. I blocked them out as the two started talking and started looking out the window, watching as buildings and people went by. A few red and orange leaves flew past on the sidewalk while others clung defiantly to the trees. The city around us was lively as they tired to enjoy their last few weeks before the cold started to set in.
Time passed by quickly and before I really knew it we were parked outside the large mall in the center of town. We stepped out of the car and walked into the mall, heading for a small café that was on the outer ring. Walking in Phil stepped beside me and slid a card into my hand without Marcel noticing. Feeling the surface I noted that it was a debit card and smirked.
"So what you wanna get for breakfast Mar?" I asked moving up beside her. She looked over at me and moved her lips as she thought, which was an odd thing she always seemed to do.
"Uhh… I don't know… Maybe a muffin would be good, but I'm really hungry."
"You could get a muffin and a sandwich, or we could just get some drinks and head to the food court."
"Oh yeah, the food court sounds awesome!" Her face brightened up and I grinned.
"Are you two ok with that?" I questioned, turning slightly to look at Bruce and Phil. They both nodded and smiled slightly. "Alright." Marcel walked past me and up to the counter ordering a drink and I moved beside her getting my own, a raspberry Italian ice with two shots of energy drink in it. I paid the woman behind the counter with the card and we walked to the other side of the counter. As we waited the guys ordered their own drinks and walked over to join us.
A few minutes later we all had our drinks and were heading through the rather empty mall to the food court. Mar and Bruce talked animatedly with each other as we walked and I looked into Phil's knowing eyes. Sliding up closer to him I talked lowly. "Did you all plan this?"
"I don't know what you're talking about Miss Mathews. Tony didn't tell us you had a friend named Marcel or that Bruce really needed a girlfriend. And he definitely didn't ask Loki to help us with a covert mission."
"Wow… that's really sly." I nodded in appreciation as we kept walking, ending up at the escalader above the food court. We headed down and Marcel and Bruce led us over to the Chinese restaurant where we all ordered our food and sat to eat. We all talked about random things as we ate and laughed at some of Marcel's stories of the medical wing of the college.
Once we were done we headed back up and found the large costume shop the all the anime lovers always crowded in. Today was rather relaxed though seeing as it was rather early in the morning and in the middle of the week. Phil walked around, his deft eyes scanning the racks quickly as he looked at everything. I walked behind him and held everything he passed off to me, watching as Bruce teased Marcel and they ran around like little kids, getting costumes of their own. I laughed as I watched Bruce chase her around with a fake knight sword and she ran away, giggling and smiling happily.
"I've never seen her this happy before. It's nice… Do you have a girlfriend Phil?" I looked up at him and saw a small smile spread across his lips. "Oh? What's her name?"
"That's above your pay grade." He chuckled and kept walking around making me scoff. After another short while I had a pile of costumes and was changing in the dressing room with Marcel in the one beside me. After each one I tried on I would walk out and deal with Phil and Bruce's criticism. It felt like hours later before I was finished trying everything one and finally had a single winning costume thrown over my shoulder.
"This was terrible… I'm never taking you two shopping ever again…" They both chuckled and Bruce actually ruffled the back of his hair. Marcel nodded in agreement and cracked her back as I took out costumes up to the counter. Paying the girl behind the counter we walked out and left the mall.