A/N slowly heating up in a couple more chapters...if you don't like that sort of thing, I would understand if you slowly started backing away from the story before you get hurt...
Pepper lifted her head and groaned. Why was the room spinning, and why was Tony grinning at her? The last thing she remembered was seeing everyone gathered in a large room. And there was a man with one eye, except he laughed. Fury didn't laugh, so it must have been Odin. And Phil was there. And there had been wine and well, something else going on but she couldn't really remember. Was this how Tony felt after drinking too much?
Sitting up, she noticed Tony looking through a shiny suitcase like a kid at Christmastime. In the back of her mind she was wondering why he had luggage, but pushed the thought away, shaking her head to clear it. Obviously Asguardian wine had a kick.
"Tony, where did everyone go? Are we still in Asgard?"
"Yep, how do you feel?" He walked over to the bed and smoothed back her hair from her face. "You were pretty sexy back in the throne room. What's under the toga?" She slapped his hand away.
"The same stuff that's always there, Stark." She paused. "We saw Phil. Phil's alive. Where is he?"
"With his lady love, Miss Lewis, I'd wager. Did you see the way she was looking at him? Who knew he'd land a babe like that?" Pepper laughed and pulled him down for a quick kiss.
"Stranger things have happened. You landed - I mean, you convinced me to give you a chance."
He smiled at her, and she sat up more, pulling down the hem of her toga. She noticed that his suit of armor rested within the case, along with some scrolls. "What is all that?"
"While you were sleeping off your wine, Odin gave me a cool new case for the suit. And some instructions or something, but it looks pretty basic. See I just throw my hand out and the suit teleports onto me without flying through the air first," as he did so, the case snapped shut and growled at him.
"Did that case just growl at you?" Pepper asked, amused.
"No! It was more a purr, you know, playful. Come here suit," he said, and the case bounced off of the bed and, and then under it, after pushing Tony backwards onto the floor. Pepper bit back a laugh as he jumped back up, glaring at where the case had disappeared.
"Very playful," she agreed. "What else have you been playing with?" Tony gave one last glare to the case before answering.
"Just this parchment Thor uses to write to Bruce. Apparently you write your message and wish it to the recipient. That's how the letters found their way to him. If you use it to have someone meet you somewhere, it opens a portal or something. I'm not sure, but it might be a version of trans dimensional replication. I wished one of these to Fury but it's still here, so maybe a copy of it reached him and the original stays here like a back up or something."
Pepper's head still hurt a bit so she just shrugged. "Or maybe you have to be an Asguardian for it to work."
"Maybe," he let his eyes travel up and down, appreciating the way her toga showed off her long legs. He ignored the still growling suitcase and focused on his girlfriend. "You know, you must still be tired." He faked an obnoxious yawn and jumped into the bed, pleasantly amused when the case let out a sharp protest. "Me too, how about we just take a little nap until it's time to dress for the party?" Deep chocolate eyes stared up at her and she let her eyes narrow as she crawled into bed.
"Well if you're in here with me you can't get into any trouble," she conceded. He grabbed her around the waist and flipped her onto her back. Biting her breast gently through the thin, blue fabric, he smiled at her again.
"Shows how much you know," he said with an evil grin, and started proving her wrong.
ddddd
Director Fury was not a man of many words. He preferred to review the intel, send in the right agents, and get a report on his desk as soon as the dust cleared. So being in the middle of an occurrence like Doctor Jane Foster disappearing in a burst of lightning was not helping him find his happy place. Three hours after she left, he was still fuming and still clueless on what had happened.
He was missing his best agent, half his Avengers, and some civilians who had a knack for having a mind of their own. And it wasn't even lunch time yet. Throwing his hands into the pockets of his trench coat, he glared at a young agent scrambling around barking orders. He had no clue, Fury thought to himself. Time to pull the scary dude routine with the junior agents.
"Harrison, what do we know about unauthorized aircraft in the area?" Harrison froze. Director Fury was speaking to him on his first official mission with senior agents. Was that good or bad? He wished he'd paid more attention to office gossip.
"We've run the all of our data and gone over the air traffic control reports twice. No unrecognizable aircraft has been within 30 miles of here, sir," Agent Mark Harrison said, happy Fury could not see the panic behind his sunglasses. No one liked disappointing the Director.
"No unrecognizable aircraft. Then something was out here."
"Well, not a plane," Harrison faltered, glancing at other agents who would not meet his eyes.
"Well - what was it, Agent? Angels? Fairies? Damn goblins?"
"We - we don't know sir, it seemed to be a flash of lightning that lit up the sky for a twenty mile radius. Radar at the time showed a flash and then barometric pressure reversed then righted itself. The science team is quite impressed."
"And all that means what exactly?" Fury asked calmly, knowing the answer but wanting to make the younger man sweat it out for a few more minutes.
"Well, it um, it means that something came and - got her. Then disappeared. Fast." The agent looked ill, and Fury could have sworn he saw Harrison flinch. Good to know the rookies believed he exterminated the agents who didn't get results.
A sound startled the agents and everyone looked up to see a giant red eagle fly overhead. It was carrying a shiny object which fell to earth a few feet away from Fury. After determining that the object was not going to explode, he cautiously held up a hand and approached. It seemed to be a cylinder, with runes and symbols etched upon the metal. Gold by the looks of it.
As he picked it up, it opened and a scroll of parchment fell out - Fury braced himself and unrolled it carefully then swore under his breath, recognizing the hand writing.
"Dear Cyclops, we're all partying it up in Asgard and Phil's got himself a mate. Come up and join the fun...Tony Stark AKA the Man of Iron."
"And just how am I supposed to do that?" Fury asked no one in particular.
A softly whirling light appeared in front of him and he motioned for his agents to stand down. He'd go alone this time and grab Phil. But he'd be back with reinforcements if they'd done anything to shorten his best friend's life span. Walking into the light, he let himself be pulled toward Asgard.
Happy shook his head. "That's it, I'm out of here. Clear me for take off boys, I'm driving home." No one argued.
dddd
Avalyn paced the long veranda that ran the length of her suite, muttering under her breath. The fool child had blocked her attempt at mind control. It was not possible for a mere Midguardian female to have such defenses against dark arts. She knew this male had great power but had not yet unleashed it, unless he was lending some to the girl. She refused to believe Darcy Lewis had power of her own. Because if she did, that would mean Coulson had chosen her for his mate, whether he knew it consciously or not. And if that were true, Avalyn would have no hope of destroying them.
She felt a chilled breeze across her face, almost like a slap, but shrugged. Paranoia was for the weak and she was far from weak.
She would get Phil to destroy Darcy and then fall into her bed. And then, after that, she would drain every last bit of magic from his body. Munr would be under her control and with that power - she could overcome Odin's brainless son Thor and his so called Avengers. She took a sip of tea and smiled. So many plans she had for this backwards realm. The people had too much freedom, too much - choice. Loki had been a willing pawn, but she could sense the beginnings of remorse in the god through her magic. No matter, she'd found someone more powerful than the god of mischief. The Conduit would supply her with the Cosmic Cube - the ultimate in raw energy.
Choosing her gown carefully, she started chanting the spells that would increase her power. She had so much hunger for it, she could barely breathe. Killing lesser sorcerers had fed her need, but her latest victim was decomposing in a bog nearby and she was feeling restless. If Asgard could only breed more mages and less warriors, she would have ruled the fools eons ago. She shrugged again, warriors had their place, she supposed. She would need some sort of army to let loose on Midguard once she made her way there as queen.
She called a servant to her side and demanded a hot bath prepared. If she was to be the seductress this evening, she must be relaxed and at ease. So much depended on how this night would go. She mentally went over the list of people she could use to get closer to Phil and nodded to herself. The archer that Loki had used was still unsure of himself. He would make the perfect pawn and no one would suspect her involvement as the man obviously was a bit unstable. She leaned back into the steaming tub and sighed. When she was queen, she might even let Coulson live long enough to supply her with his seed. A son of the Conduit would be an appropriate heir to her new, dark kingdom.
ddddd
Phil and Darcy had been talking for hours, filling each other in about what they'd been up to since their last encounter in New Mexico. Somewhere in between hearing about her work with Jane and her irrational fear of clowns, he'd learned that she had a mother who never called, a sister who never called, and a father who had died before she was born. She also had one cousin, somewhere, who had skipped town the moment he turned eighteen. That was ten years ago and she hadn't heard from him since.
As for Phil, he had two loving parents in their seventies who were still active in community service and volunteer work. His father was in government work and his mother was a somewhat famous painter. Two younger sisters, Amy and Beth who both had jobs that kept them out of the country a lot, and a multitude of relatives that he rarely saw due to his work.
Kissing had not been enough for Darcy, but somehow she knew that they were not ready for more. There was an expectancy to whatever this was between them, a learning curve of sorts. She felt like there was a current of electricity jumping from his heart to hers and the closer they were to each other, the stronger the pull. She was nervous because this felt like an emotion she usually ran from, but she couldn't keep her hands off of him. He was alive, he was happy to be near her. She smiled to herself, realizing that he was actually talking with her as if she had intelligence, and not just a large bra size.
Thinking of bra size made her remember that woman who had burst into their suite and she frowned. Phil noticed and tilted his head to the side as they lay together, talking.
"Something I said?" The question made her giggle a little and she shook her head.
"No. I almost forgot though - you had a visitor earlier. A very - um, female visitor. She seemed to think you were escorting her to our party later."
"Really? Was she pretty?" Darcy smacked him and he laughed. She felt such a rush of warmth hearing that sound that she bit her lower lip and pretended to be severe.
"She was a witch. Blonde, boobs and bad attitude."
"Hmm, well I can assure you that you are the only one with bo- I mean bad attitude that I want to take tonight."
"You were gonna say boobs!" Darcy laughed, slapping his arm. He kissed her forehead and grinned.
"You'll never really know, will you?" he winked. At her slightly frowning face he paused. "She bothered you that much?"
"It sounds petty and jealous, and I don't have any right to be either."
"But?" His eyes asked a question she wasn't ready to answer and she laughed lightly.
"Maybe I don't like competition." Her voice was carefree, but he could see she was hiding her discomfort. He pulled her into his arms and held her like she was a fragile piece of art.
"Would you?" There it was again, the unspoken questions. She swallowed, gazing into his eyes.
"Would I what?"
"Compete for me?" She stared at him, a million flip remarks coming into her head but for some reason, refusing to leave her mouth. She slid her leg over him and pulled him to her roughly.
"Depends what I got if I won," she whispered. He smiled and her insides melted into a puddle of warmth.
"A relationship with a cranky, old workaholic who hardly ever smiles unless he's trading Captain America cards or kissing a beautiful brunette coffee goddess."
"Wait, that's me right? I'm a goddess?" She laughed as he kissed her tenderly.
"So?"
"Sounds fun. And you're not that cranky. Old people tend to just get stuck in a rut sometimes. That's why you need a coffee goddess to keep you occupied." She paused. "And awake. Caffeine is good for old and cranky."
He narrowed his eyes for a moment before pouncing on her to tickle her. Soon they were kissing again and Darcy forgot to mention the mind control attempt. There would be time for that later.