CHAPTER 1

OF COFFEE AND PIZZA

"We are all books containing
thousands of pages
and within each of them
lies an irreparable truth."

― The animus, 'Assassin's Creed'

Nick Fury was talking to her about something, his deep voice echoing inside the car, but she wasn't listening at all, his words completely turned into a background noise.

Eris was, instead, looking at a S.H.I.E.L.D. report of the man she would have to spend some time from now on. The photo, snapped on some elegant event, showed a man that when she was younger, she had seen quite often on the media.

He was sporting a huge shit-eating grin towards a red-head woman who was giving her bare back at the camera. She was dressed in a beautiful and fancy blue dress with high heels, and was, without a doubt, Pepper Pots, the new CEO of Stark Industries.

He was a handsome man, in his early forties, not much taller than the woman, with tan skin and dark hair perfectly styled. His beard was also clean cut and there were little wrinkles near the eyes from the white smile that barely showed his age.

He was wearing a beautiful dark suit that had to be costed a small fortune and seemed to be tailored, hugging his lean but quite muscular body superbly. In the centre of his chest, under his clothes, a small circle of blue light could be seen shining.

Her eyes shot a little under the picture where there were his behavioural evaluation.

TONY STARK

Displays compulsive behaviour, PTSD, prone to self-destructive tendencies, Narcissism, difficulty to follow orders, suffer from insomnia.

Under that, all that had happened to him, the incidents, his kidnapping, the operation and a bunch of other things that really didn't interest her, making her hazel eyes shot again to the picture and the words just behind them.

His evaluation was probably just a little lighter than hers.

"Eris, are you listening?" asked for the second time Fury when he noticed that the girl was not, in fact, listening to a word.

Eris lifted her eyes to look at the road, rudely throwing the papers in the seats behind, making them scatter everywhere. She crossed her arms and looked outside the window where the trees were passing in a blur of green. She heard a deep sigh of frustration from the man on her left, but she didn't care. She wasn't in the mood of listening to his patronizing words, and she didn't care if she was being childish.

This was not something she had agreed to do, and he had done it without her knowledge.

"Just listen for a second" said Fury, his eye not leaving the road "Stark is an irritating man, and right now doesn't want you there, or anyone else for the matter. Still, he is a curious person and will probably try to ask or know something more about you. Just try to ignore him and you will be both fine".

Eris snorted at this, knowing well that the man in question would never comply to that order. She was sure he would find immense joy in annoying her with questions. He seemed the type that would incessantly talk, and talk, and talk about things, and nag to know more if something didn't appear immediately clear to him.

She really didn't have the patience to deal with that type of people right now. Or people in general.

"Don't kill him, he may not be in his best moods lately, but he is extremely important to S.H.I.E.L.D." added Fury. He looked with his good eye at the figure next him, expecting some nodding. The girl didn't move her head in understanding like she always did, showing that she was really unhappy over the development of things.

Eris looked for a second at the little screen on the car that showed the hour, 7:22 in the morning, and huffed in irritation. Nick had said that they would have been there at 9 a.m., but he had woken her up more than an hour early, not knowing that she had just managed to fall asleep after looking at the ceiling for what seemed years, her insomnia kicking her in the ass.

Now she was cranky as hell, tired and utterly annoyed to be left like some sort of package at the front door of a person she didn't know, or trust. When the day before he had told her that he would have to go for some time, he cleverly didn't add until morning that he leave her with Tony Stark of all people.

From the rest of the ride, until ten minutes prior when he had handled her the S.H.I.E.L.D. report, she had simply glared down, never talking, just drawing, ignoring the man and letting the pencil run with angry maniacal movements, almost tearing apart the paper.

Eris wanted peace, she wanted quiet, and he had decided to left her with the possibly most noisy person in the world. She remembered that years ago the tabloids always talked of the crazy parties the eccentric man would often throw, she had frequently seen his interviews and how he always seemed sarcastic, with the bad habit of flirting shamelessly with every cute journalist.

Now he was thankfully staying under the radar, after the incident with Ultron and successfully the disappearing of the Avengers, Tony Stark had basically vanished from the news entirely, not that the journalist didn't search of stories to tell, usually inventing them.

Still, Eris knew he was an extremely intelligent man, and intelligent people always wanted to find why some puzzles couldn't be complete, sometimes not understanding that some pieces had just been lost along the way.

She didn't have the faintest idea of why Fury had decided to take her away from the small secure apartment she had occupied for the last five months, watching trash TV, eating trash food and drawing. He had simply said that he was going away, that he couldn't watch over her for some time, and that he had had the big idiotic idea to bring her to a person he thought could help her stay away from troubles.

What he had never understood, was that even if Eris wanted to stay far far away from them, didn't even want them, troubles always managed to find her in a way or another. It didn't matter where she was or what she was doing, something would always screw up at some point. And it had already passed too much time from the last one.

It was also extremely sure that the mere presence of Tony Stark would only bring problems, chaos and stress. Eris really didn't dwell well with stressful situations.

Soon, before she could even think of jumping out of the car and send to hell Fury and his moronic ideas, they had arrived at the New Avengers Facility. They quickly passed some gates without stopping the car at the check-in, the face of Fury enough to make him go without showing any ID, and arrived in front of a big structure where agents passed running here and there shouting things, or walking fast with dark uniforms and big scowls.

She ignored their curious glance when she stepped outside, knowing she stood out with her quite rugged and, in some places, broken clothes. They immediately scurred away when the dark gaze of the director paused on their figures. She followed him silently with just a ripped bag on her shoulder with her few important belongings, the last things she had of her previous life.

They walked fast around the building until they arrived to a more secluded area, where no people could be seen around. He stopped in front of a door and paused, hearing a blasting music from behind it. Then, without hesitation, Fury ripped open the door, not bothering to knock, and throwing it hard against the ceiling behind with a loud thump.

The person inside jumped at the sudden interruption, and the music immediately stopped. The man turned around, probably to glare hard at the director, but his eyes were strangely obscured by dark sunglasses. He had slipped some coffee on the table.

"Some warning next time would be appreciated" snapped the man in a rough voice, almost if he had a cold. He grabbed a towel to clean the mess and then grabbed all the paper scattered around, piling them messily on a side.

For a moment Eris didn't recognize him. He hardly resembled the happy person on the photo. He looked tired, even sick from how pale he was, and thinner. His hair were pointing in every direction, like he had passed his hands on them countless times, his beard needed to be shaved and his once white t-shirt was stained with what seemed oil, likely from some work. He had still not noticed the other person behind Fury.

"I don't have time for pleasantries" replied the black man with a tone that didn't admit discussions "I told you to get some sleep" he added as he also took in the dishevelled figure.

Eris glanced around the room. It was simple: a small functional but surely expensive kitchen, some armchairs and a coach on a side, and a big glass table with at last ten seats on it. Hanging from the ceiling, a television put on mute with the faces of the Avengers and a man talking behind them.

There was a headline on top with written: 'WHERE ARE THEY?'. On the table, tons of papers, a tablet, a cup of coffee and a bottle of some alcohol almost empty. She was quite sure the coffee was a little spiked.

"And I told you that I sleep just fine" he replied, then his eyes finally landed on the small woman who was looking around with a calculating gaze "You are here early" he added.

"I need to go away sooner than expected. Stark, this is Eris Guerra" he said, pushing a little the woman forward, making her glare at him for a second at him before reversing in an expressionless face "And take those glasses off"

"No, thank you. I quite like them" replied Tony as he came towards, handling her his hand, at last trying to be a little polite to her "I guess we will spend some time together" he said to her in a casual tone, then flashed her the whitest grin she ever saw.

She simply stared back without showing any emotion, looking into his dark sunglasses, catching a little glimpse of his tired empty eyes. Eyes just like hers. A light bulb lit up in her mind as she realized why Fury had brought her here. He wanted her to fix him. To help him bring back Stark from whatever was bothering him. He wanted her to fix the smartest person in the world.

Fury had lost his mind, she was sure. He was going nuts with his age.

Eris didn't reply. She knew that even if he was trying to be civil, he didn't want her here as much as she didn't. She could see it in the fake but perfect smile he had thrown her that was now slowly falling, changing into a frown when she didn't replicate the action.

After another moment of hesitation, he brought his hand back at his side, looking a little uncertainly at the man with the eyepatch.

Eris simply walked away without a word, passing near him and bumping a little on his shoulder, feeling his hard stare follow her. She took position in front of a giant window, putting down the bag on the ground with a big noise that resonated on the silent room, a mark of her irritation, and sat next to it. She took outside her drawing book, immediately starting to draw with a small used and crippled pencil.

She was absolutely horrible at it, it seemed more like a child drawing than an adult, but it calmed her. It was soothing the rumour of the paper being worked and not having to think of anything else than sketching.

She heard Stark open the mouth, probably to tell her something about her rude attitude, but was thankfully interrupted by the director.

"She doesn't speak much" he informed Tony, taking his attention away from the young woman "She will stay out of your way and you will stay out of her"

"Yes, dad" replied sarcastically Stark, and she almost felt him rolling his eyes.

"I am serious Stark, leave her alone" he continued, still looking at the genius with a reproaching look "Here" he said, handling the man an object "These are to use only in extreme cases"

From the corner of her eyes, she saw Tony glance down dumbfound at the three syringes that contained a dark bluish liquid inside. He took off his glasses to look at them better, wincing a little at the bright lights of the early morning. His eyes were bloodshot and on top of bruises bags, and they held just a little spark of curiosity as he looked down at his hand.

"For me? I hate to inform you that I still haven't gone in the druggie phase" he said, looking quite contrite at Fury.

"For her" replied the director, indicating Eris with a nod "In case you make her lose control, you give her one of these to calm her"

"Lose control?" he asked, now his curiosity definitely picked up. He glanced with an elegant eyebrow up from the dark man to Eris who was now looking at them with an empty stare. She didn't really care of what he thought, she just wished she wouldn't become his next little source of entrainment in figuring her out. From the look he was sporting, there were little chances of that.

"Yes, listen I have to go" said Fury, glancing at his clock "You" he said in a strict tone indicating with a finger his chest "Don't bother her"

"Me? I would never" replied Stark, making an angelic face and lifting up his hands with still the syringes on, in a mock surrender that didn't convince anyone.

"Eris, don't kill him, we need his brain" he said then, ignoring Tony and talking to the girl without looking in her direction.

She ignored him and returned her attention to the book. Eris had never been good with goodbyes, she hated them from the bottom of her heart. She didn't want to see him go, she didn't want to say goodbye to the only source of normality she had, well, if the hard man could even be considered normal.

"I will see you hopefully in a month or two" he said and turned, leaving without muttering another word of departure before the genius could even shout something in indignation or ask some questions. Clearly, from the face of shock he was sporting, he hadn't been told for how much she would stay there.

Neither she.

The door closed with another loud thump just as he had entered, leaving the two people on an uncomfortable silence.

Seconds passed without Stark speaking and still looking at the door as if it had done something unimaginably cruel, the quiet only interrupted by the sound of her pencil sketching and the distant ticking sound of a clock. Eris heard him sigh and pass a hand through his air as he probably decided to what do with her.

"Friday?" he finally spoke out loud, voice heavy with tiredness.

"Yes, sir?" a feminine voice replied immediately.

Eris snapped up her head and looked around in search of the source, her heart spiked up in fright as her hand immediately ready to form a ball of energy in her hand, the papers almost falling down for the sudden move. Fortunately, before she could do something irreparable, she realized the voice belonged only to the A.I. Fury had talked in the car, and relaxed her ready to jump muscles.

There was no one else in the room besides them. She was certain that if she blew the room up on the first five minutes of her being here, the director would have strangled her. Or at least tried to.

"You show the lady her room, I am going to the laboratory" he said, already starting to retreat and not noticing her actions. He didn't mutter another word to Eris, not even glanced at her from, as if ignoring her presence would make her disappear and dragged himself out.

"Sure boss" replied the voice back from the ceiling as Stark disappeared.

Eris returned to her relaxed pose, retaking her pencil that had fallen down.

"When you are ready miss" said than the voice to her.

She ignored it and continued her work that consisted in a horrible drawing of Fury barking orders and his head fuming.

Yes, she was aware of how childish it was.

Eris didn't move for hours, always sketching or glancing out the window, sometimes stopping on her reflection in the glass, but there really wasn't much to see, only empty eyes and a cold face. Not much passed on these days on it, maybe some irritation sometimes.

Now her heart were just made of emptiness and anger and if she was right, and she was usually, and Nick wanted her to help him, he didn't know what he was asking.

It like using a bomb to stop another bigger bomb. An explosion would be unavoidable and someone was bound to get hurt.

She couldn't even fix herself, what could she do for someone else?

She felt her stomach grumble and just wished for some pizza.

At least the view was beautiful.