A/N: Here's a longer chapter to make up for the wait. I was stuck on this chapter, mostly because I had lost over 600 words of this chapter at one point and had to rewrite it. But here we go!

I don't own The Avengers, Loki, Iron Man, or anything of the like. Just the thoughts inside my head. And taking some personal freedoms with mythology and lore.


"You know, third star to the right? It makes no sense." Chandra turned and blinked when she heard a voice vaguely familiar. "To whose right was this star? And what star is the central point?"

"Why am I not surprised that you're complaining about a children's story." She looked at Tomas as he sat in the bay window of her old childhood home.

"I'm complaining about the bastardized version," Tomas corrected. "The original is much more dark and creepy." He looked around the room, inspecting the light colored room, with the pink bedding on the big bed. "This is where you lived when you were younger?"

"In America, yes. Not everyone lived in a giant Tower in New York," Chandra teased.

"Manhattan," he said without thinking. "There are some weird territorial attitudes. Although we vacationed in Malibu, a lot."

"What are you doing here? What am I doing here?" Tomas looked at her and shrugged his shoulders.

"This isn't my dream, you've never told me anything about this place." Tomas pushed himself up and walked around the room. "I gotta say though, I think I might actually prefer to be here than where I am right now though."

"Laying in a pink bed?" She raised her eyebrows at him as he flopped back onto the bed, arms out. "I think your family might have some comments about that."

"That's a pretty good educated guess," Tomas confirmed.

"I work for your brother, so it's not exactly a guess." Tomas sat up and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "I work as a secretary at SI now. I get to organize, it's a good job, and I actually like the people I work with, so I can't have many complaints about working with another Stark." She smirked a little and Tomas snorted.

"If you would have come to Spain with me, you wouldn't have had to put up with my brother." He pushed himself up and gently pat her cheek. "I miss our college days sometimes."

"The study group that usually ended being just the two of us?" She smiled at him. "Then someone had to go and get an internship and leave."

"We made a good team though. You were always good at figuring out the puzzles." Tomas looked at her, face getting serious. "I need you to figure this one out for me, one more time, help me out."


"Did he give any hints to what kind of puzzle it was?" Tony asked. Loki was silent beside him, taking in all the information. "Did he happen to give any hints?"

"I think if he knew what to do, he wouldn't be asking for help," Eindride said. "He asked you to go to Spain with him?"

"I was taking a semester off, and he said I should go with him for a week or two, as a vacation," Chandra explained, voice soft. "I had to remind him that I was taking a semester off to save money for a future internship, unpaid, and not to go on vacation."

"I was actually footing that bill, I'm sure he would have just added that to it," Tony said, leaning his chin on his folded knee. "To be honest, I probably wouldn't have noticed the added charges." Chandra glanced up a little the noticed that Loki was watching her. He looked like he was going to say something before Emma spoke first.

"Did you love my brother?" Chandra's eyes widened as she whipped her head over to look at Emma. "Maybe love was the wrong word. Feelings, yeah that sounds better. You have feelings for Tomas, don't you?"

"Way to be direct," Eindride mumbled. "Taking tact lessons from our Father?" Emma made a gesture that made Loki snort a little. Obviously something she learned from Jotunheim.

Chandra tried to cover up a nervous cough, a little color rising to her cheeks. "This is not exactly that way that someone would like to have this revealed," she murmured before straightening and looking up. "Yes, I do. I did back when we had classes together and I still do now, for that matter. When we switched schools we kept in contact mostly through email, and a few phone calls, like when he got the internship. I had hoped that he felt the same, but I never had the chance to figure it out..." Chandra glanced at the family and noticed that most were looking towards Sander.

Sander let out a sigh. "There are a few certain things that Tomas and I had agreed not to discuss details about. Relationships being one of them, up until a certain point." The others had relented with their looks. Sander's fingers fidgeted a little in his lap. "Alright, fine. "You said that he had asked you to go to the Islands with him?"

Chandra nodded a little. "He said that he needed someone smart to help him get settled so he didn't end up living out of his hotel room the whole time. We both knew that he could get carried away with his job and completely ignore all other necessities until he no longer needed them."

"He takes after Dad in that regard, that's for sure," Kaia threw in.

"He may have mentioned that he was hoping that he wouldn't have to make the initial plane ride alone," Sander continued. "Although, thinking back to that day, it's probably a good thing you didn't go, you might have ended up in that car accident as well." Chandra's eyes widened a little, but Sander kept talking. "We don't give names of anyone we're dating until we're absolutely sure that it's serious."

"Or if your name is Mellisande," Eindride said under his breath, earning a soft glare from his brother.

"That way, the other one doesn't know who the person is that they might be interested in, and if something happens and fates plays a trick, and we meet that person by chance, there's an equal shot."

"Oh my god," Emma said, staring at Sander. "You both made a clause for what is essential a dick-measuring contest. Why does that surprise me, I shouldn't be surprised."

Sander let out a low growl. "I'm only continuing this for Chandra's sake, but I would Really appreciate it if you would stop interrupting me." He could feel Fay's hand on his back, rubbing small circles with her thumb. "If you're the same person that he was talking about, he may have let it slip that he might not be coming alone to Christmas that year."

"Oh..." Chandra blinked as she took in the information, before taking a breath. "Um, ill timed question, I'm sure, but where is the bathroom?"

"I shall assist you Miss Bandhar," JARVIS spoke up and Chandra jumped slightly at the new voice.

"That's just JARVIS," Tony said, thinking that everyone would know who that was. "You can trust him to not lead you astray." She nodded a little and got up, following the AI's direction, the voice disappearing down the hall.

"Is she having dreams about him because she misses him, or is it actually Tomas reaching out?" Emma was the first to ask. "She admitted to practically falling in love with him."

"But why would she start having the dreams now? Why not even two years ago?" Tony argued. "When you're missing someone like that and start having detailed dreams, you don't do it after 5 years of not talking to the person. You do it maybe 5 months, after the thought has had some time to make root in your brain. Depends on the attachment..." They all knew that he was talking from experience.

"This is Tomas," Loki said quietly, finally speaking up. "I think he's finally found a way to reach out from wherever he is, and he just so happened to find her."

"Maybe he's been unable to reach any family because he's being blocked," Elpis suggested. "I mean, when I was in the Box I was unable to reach out to anyone that I knew, I was unable to reach anyone, but I felt that there was a distinct disconnect from family and friends." She wiggled her nose a little when the attention was turned to her. "If I was crazy and wanted to keep someone in my personal collection, I would make sure that they sure as hell couldn't reach anyone from their very powerful, very influential family." Eindride kissed her cheek.

"And since no one knew about Chandra, there was no block," Kaia finished. "We can't let anyone else figure out that there's a connection between them. That would instantly put her in danger."

"And vanish any hope in what little we already have," Balder added, looking at his brother, who just nodded. "We'll need to keep an eye on her without actually changing anything in her life."

Tony snorted a little. "Once you get involved with this family? Good luck."


Chandra leaned on her elbows on the railing of the balcony, looking out at the ocean underneath her. The sound of the waves was soothing, but reminded her nothing of home. She prided herself on not jumping when someone was suddenly next to her, leaning on the railing as well, even though they were taller. She pulled some of her long hair over her shoulder, running nervous fingertips through the ends.

"You know, I'm just a human, a regular human," Chandra said after a few moments, still not entirely sure who was standing next to her yet. "I want to help, but I don't know what else I can do other than telling you about my dreams. I don't know how he wants me to help..."

"We don't know either, yet," she heard Sander say. His voice was softer than it had been when he first found that she had been able to talk to his brother and he couldn't. "But it won't be long now until we figure something out. We have a lot of resources at our hands, unearthly resources."

"You came out here to do more than give me comforting words," Chandra turned a little to the side to look at Sander now. "Do you have more questions?"

"Tell me about your twin." Sander moved his head to look at her. To anyone else he would have sounded rude and insensitive and they would have been well within their rights to call him a name and walk off. But Chandra had already told him that she knew what he was feeling, and he was going to cash in on her words.

Chandra let out a little sigh and turned to lean her back against the balcony railing now, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Her name was Laksmhi, she was younger than me by by 22 minutes." She looked over at Sander's raised eyebrow. "My Father is from India, and my Mother is half Indian and American, so they chose Indian names for us." Sander nodded a little and let her continue. "Oh we got into all sorts of trouble and mischief, specially when we would go to India to visit our relatives. It's so easy to get lost on purpose in the bigger cities."

She rubbed her arm a little and looked down at the ground. "Tomas met her, actually, several times. We decided not to go to the same colleges, but we still visited each other at school. Those two got fabulously. He must have seen a lot of you in her, because he treated her like a younger sister." Chandra let a little smile grow "She told me that she hoped I would end up with him, that we were too alike, and different, to be just friends."

Sander licked his lips, feeling the downturn to the story. "What happened?"

"She went traveling with our parents, three years ago. They were going back to India to visit, and I was finishing some of my classes, so I couldn't go." Chandra turned back to look at the water. Sander made note of the many times that she had changed positions. "They decided to take a bit of a vacation trip, traveling to several different cities, including Dubai. I was so jealous, I've always wanted to go there. Somewhere during the trip her and our mother got sick, looked like it might be some kind of flu, and it very could have been."

Sander had been watching her while she talked, then reached over when she paused, an arm around her back, guiding her over to one of the chairs on the balcony. He moved another chair so he could still see her and sat down. "Our mother was sick for a week, but she did start to get better. Regular colds affect her more strongly now, and she regularly goes to the doctor for treatment. Lakshmi did not have the same reaction... She developed pneumonia, it had attacked her lungs fiercely, putting her into the hospital. I made it to India after that," she finished softly.

"I died six years ago," Sander said suddenly, pulling Chandra's head up to look at him. "It was right after our youngest sister was born." Sander was going to continue when they heard the glass door open. Looking over they saw three kids peeking through. "Speak of the littlest devil. Come on out here you three," Sander said as he waved Cyrus, Key, and Melisande over to them. "This is Chandra, she works with your parents, Cyrus, and is Tomas's very good friend.

"Have you come to help find him, too?" Key asked the older woman quietly. She smiled when Chandra nodded. "Good, because we all want Sander to celebrate their birthday again."

Sander blinked and looked at Key, then his eyes widened a little. "Oh my god! I forgot!"

"You forgot it was your birthday?" Melli asked frowning at her brother. She squeaked when Sander wrapped his arm around her waist and picked her up to his face level.

"No, I forgot to tell you that Fay and I are going to get married." Melli squealed and wrapped her arms around Sander's neck, hugging him tightly. Chandra smiled a little watching them, then laughed when Melli smacked his arm, telling him it was about time.