The theme song for this chapter is "Money" by I Fight Dragons, but you're also going to want to queue up the main theme from Jurassic Park ^.~.
Chapter 45: Welcome Committee
The two jets landed in the tiny airport. It was so small that the first plane had to taxi into the hangar before the other could land. Once the engines were off, the passengers began to disembark and stood staring out the hangar doors at the incredible view.
"What do you think?" Tony asked proudly.
"Dude, I totally have the theme song from Jurassic Park playing in my head right now," Darcy breathed reverently.
Tony frowned, but Clint laughed. "Got any dinosaurs here, big guy?" he asked.
"God, I hope not," Pepper said darkly.
At this point a stocky man came half-walking half-jogging into the hangar. He looked as if he was in a hurry, but didn't want anyone else to know it.
"Happy!" Pepper shouted, and rushed over to hug him, and Tony followed.
"How go the preparations?" he asked, clearly confident in Happy's ability to perform the task at hand.
"Well, um," he paused to catch his breath. "Everything's ready, but..."
Tony frowned. "But what? It's gotta be perfect, Happy."
"And it is!" Happy said quickly, "It's just... Well, I hired some of the locals to get the work done in time, and they started talking with the staff you sent in, and..." he looked nervously between Pepper and Tony.
"Spit it out, Happy," Pepper suggested.
"They sent a welcome committee," he said at last.
There was a moment of silence, and then Tony laughed. "The guy I got this island from is a real douchebag, to borrow a term of yours," he glanced at Darcy. "They're probably just glad to be rid of him."
Pepper frowned. "Who did you get the island from?" she asked suspiciously.
He shrugged, "Some old mob guy, organized crime, that sort of scumbag."
"Wait, you gave money to a crime boss?" Steve demanded. "That's like funding terrorism."
"I never said I gave him money for it," Tony argued back. "I simply... pointed out that I knew of its existence and... maybe I knew some other people who might like to know about it too."
"You blackmailed him." Natasha rolled her eyes.
"Well done," Loki grinned slyly.
"I do what I can," Tony placed a hand over his arc reactor in false modesty.
There was some commotion behind them as Thor attempted to carry Bruce out of the plane and smacked his head on the doorway.
"Ow," Bruce groaned.
"Dr. Banner, you're awake!" Thor said with surprise, trying to look over his own shoulder.
"I am now," he said miserably.
Nearby, Jane put a hand over her face and laughed.
Thor put Bruce on his feet, where he wobbled dangerously. Loki ducked his head into the cargo compartment of the plane, and came back out with his concealed naginata.
"Here," he twirled it casually, and then held it out, handle first, to Bruce.
"Thanks," Bruce took the walking stick and used it for its more mundane purpose.
"You brought that with you?" Jane asked incredulously.
Loki shrugged. "Better safe than sorry, as you say."
Jane continued to look surprised. "Who brings a weapon to a wedding?" she asked Thor, who laughed.
"I would wager Lady Natasha has a number on herself right now, doesn't she?" Thor asked Loki.
Loki gave Natasha an appraising glance from across the hangar, which was not entirely professional in its enthusiasm. "At least five," he agreed.
Natasha turned her head towards them, as if she could feel Loki's gaze. She walked over, narrowing her eyes. "What are you three talking about?" she teased.
Loki grinned. "Just speculating how many weapons you have stashed on your person at this time," he said, managing to sound innocent.
She gave him an assessing look. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Loki gave her a leering smirk, but before he could reply, Jane interrupted.
"But you do have some?" she sounded more curious than incredulous at this point.
Natasha now looked to Jane, frowning a little. "Thanks to my training I'm never really without a weapon, but yes, I do have several devices on hand. You can never be too prepared," she explained.
Three convertibles pulled into the hangar, as well as an SUV.
"C'mon, folks, let's see what kind of hospitality they have in these parts," Tony called cheerfully, and everyone started moving towards the vehicles.
Thor held out his arm to Jane, and she took it, smiling. They followed Natasha and Loki, whose hand ghosted possessively near the small of her back. Thor and Jane shared a grin.
"They're certainly well-matched," Jane whispered.
"That they are," Thor agreed.
Happy, it turned out, was given to understatement. His 'welcome committee' appeared to consist of the entire population of the small village which nestled between the two hills that comprised the island. They stood on either side of the road, cheering and throwing flowers.
"I did mention that the former owner was a jerk, right?" Tony asked cheerfully.
Pepper rolled her eyes and prayed this didn't go to his head too much. Not much chance for that.
"Look at Thor," Tony laughed.
In the car behind them, Thor looked right at home, smiling and waving like a beauty pageant queen. Now it was Loki's turn to roll his eyes and turn back around.
"Is this what it feels like to be a god?" Tony asked him cheekily.
Loki ground his teeth and resisted the urge to say something nasty. "Not exactly," he muttered instead.
Once Tony had turned back around, Loki was surprised to feel Natasha slip her hand into his. He looked to her, but she was staring out at the people and the view, as if nothing had happened. He squeezed her hand gently, and he saw a smile tug up the corners of her lips. Then he too looked away, unsettled by an uncomfortable sensation in his chest.
The guests and their luggage were brought to the clubhouse. Their bags would be taken to their individual rooms during the wedding, but for now they would get ready in two separate, spacious rooms. Loki changed into his clothes for the reception, a white dress shirt, sleeves rolled up, and ash-grey slacks and vest, with a green and silver brocade tie. Then he waited for the others to change, listening to their conversations and looking for an opportunity to lie.
Suddenly, Darcy burst into the room, surprising them.
"Hey! Knock first," Tony frowned. Loki gave him a sarcastic look, which he missed.
"One of us might have been changing!" Steve added.
Darcy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, 'cause that would have scarred me for life. We have a bit of a crisis," she explained. "Loki, do you know anything about fixing hair?"
Loki felt all eyes turn in him, as his amused comrades waited for his answer.
He frowned. "No...why?" Someone in the room must have believed him, as he seemed to waver and then resolve into his female form. There were some chuckles, but Darcy just took Loki's arm and led her out of the room.
"Come on, I think we're going to need magic to deal with this stupid humidity anyway."
"How's that?" Loki asked, stepping back.
Pepper looked in the mirror, and then at the fashion magazine they had been referencing. "Oh, it's perfect!" she gushed. If anything, she thought it looked better. The small jeweled pins artfully arranged in her strawberry blonde curls seemed to shimmer with a life of their own, like tiny stars.
"The curls might fall out when I go," she warned, "but the pins will stay. Consider them my wedding gift," she offered.
"Oh, thank you," Pepper turned around, grinning. "Just stick around for the photos, and that should be fine."
"Sure," Loki smiled, pleased with her work.
"You're a real lifesaver, Loki," Darcy sounded relieved as she packed away the curling iron and hairspray.
Before Loki could object, someone tapped on the door. It was Happy. "Ready to go?" he asked cheerfully.
Pepper took a deep breath, and sighed, smiling. "Yes."
A/N: Short chapter today, I'm afraid. But fun. Random fact of the day: Jurassic Park was Tom Hiddleston's favorite movie as a kid. He does a really great raptor impersonation, too. Look it up for laughs.
On the last chapter, a guest posted a review asking who held which signs in the last chapter. Since I couldn't reply here, I drew a little comic to explain and posted it here: fav . me / d5yc43t (remove the spaces). I often do illustrations for this story and others over there on deviantArt.
Still kind of stuck on this story... my buffer is starting to look a little lean. My muse is convinced that I need to move on to my next story (especially since I plan on publishing it) but I keep trying to tell her that I have a duty to you guys to tell the rest of the story. Hopefully I can arm-wrestle her into cooperating. Your wonderful comments always help!
Next Saturday, we have some fun at Tony's expense and sexiness between Natasha and Loki in Chapter 46: Just a Dance.
