I felt kinda bad that I forgot to do this last chapter but I'm doing it now.
Guest (1/15/23): So far I like it. You said this is your first time writing a story plus english isn't your first language and that the story is coming out really good. I like that I can see the improvement from this chapter and the first. Longer and over all better written chapters, your learning as you go. I hope you continue to improve and hope you're having fun.
Thank you very much, I encourage yall to give me criticism. It's better to learn things early on while my writing style is still developing rather than later.
On to the show
Mornings, in Elliot's opinion, suck. She doesn't care if it's good for you to wake up early to start your routine. Steve tried to invite her to his 6 am run "to push her in the right direction" but it failed. At one point the team wanted to start training at "the ass crack of dawn" but all the night owls were only getting their asses handed to them and not gaining anything so they stopped. Yeah no, mornings and Elliots don't mix well together.
So when Elliot's phone alarm started blaring you can imagine she was less than pleased. She groaned and, while still half asleep, stretched for her phone on the bedside table. Once she successfully slapped the off button she shifted back to that comfortable spot on the bed, her arms wrapping around something, her brain was too foggy to know what.
"Mmmm good morning" a voice said groggily, normally Elliot would have sprang to action since someone was laying next to her but she could recognize the voice from a mile away. Penelope, Elliot smiled a bit
"Hey, we slept on top of the blanket. Mmmm, were you cold?" Elliot didn't have to worry about being cold since her electricity took care of that, ever since she was young, before the powers really kicked in.
"Na sleeping cuddled up with you is like sleeping with a space heater." Penny's voice sang a mellow song.
That more or less sobered Elliot up a bit. Enough to notice what her arms are wrapped around, Penny. Then she finally felt the arms that were wrapped around her own torso. Lastly she felt Pennys and her legs all tangled together.
She guessed Penny's own words woke her up too cause they both opened their eyes at the same time. Elliot blinked twice to focus her eyes while Penny was squinting without her glasses. They also noticed how close their faces were, if they each puckered their lips they would probably graze lightly. Elliot turned red from the tips of her ears to her collar bone.
Penny immediately moved back to have some distance. Elliot mirrored but she didn't notice that she was already on the edge of the bed so she ended up falling to the floor with a yelp. Whoever wrote her life for sure directed some Disney Channel show on the side cause this is ridiculous.
Penny right away looked over the edge to see Elliot on the floor staring at the ceiling face still as red as a boiled crab. "Are you good? You didn't hit your head or anything right?" She asked in genuine concern. "No" Elliots voice was full of embarrassment.
"No you didn't hit your head or no you're not good?" Penny almost didn't wanna ask. "Both" Elliot subconsciously groaned. "I figured, well I guess that we should start getting ready.". The flush on the Elliots face calmed down a bit but it was definitely still visible.
Elliot's phone started ringing so she finally got up and looked down at the night stand to see who it was. Golly-gee-willikers, mister tin can man himself. She answered on speaker, trying to calm down and make her voice as neutral as possible, she didn't need his banter this early.
"Hey Tony, just woke up, what's up?".
"You know your voice is usually more groggy if you "just woke up". Did you and Dime wake up to continue your game of-" of course he's going to continue his stupid teasing.
"YOUR ON SPEAKER… by the way" Elliot squeezed her eyes shut and cursed herself out.
"Well that was your first mistake."
"Is there a reason why you're calling me this early? I don't have to leave for another hour." Elliot hoped that the change of subject wasn't too abrupt
"1 I wanted to make sure you actually woke up when your alarm rang, it's always a pain to wake you up early. And 2 I wanted to let you know that bruce and I are going to be expecting you and Peter to be here in say 30 minutes."
"What, 30 minutes? I thought Peter and I were at least gonna be able to have breakfast with everyone."
"Don't you remember I told you that we were going to need you extra early to get ready?"
"Oh yea, fine i'll get ready right now, was that all?"
"Yes, because im generous Ill give you and Quarter an extra 5 minutes to finish up your-"
"Im going to hang up now."
"Are you sure you don't want my offer?"
"No"
"Ok ok see you in a bit, I love you"
"Bye tony"
"Say it back"
"No you dont deserve it"
"Im telling Friday to block the hang up button and mute button until you say it back"
"Ok? Go ahead imma start getting ready"
She set the phone down and started walking to the bathroom when, "Hey Penelope, do you want to hear embarrassing stories about Elliot?" Penny didn't have a chance to reply before Elliot rushed back to her phone "I love you Tony, bye." Tony just replied with "That's what I thought" and finally hung up.
Elliot groaned and put her phone back down. "Man, I hate him with a passion". Penny looked at her fondly "Do you?". Elliot looked back at her and Penny's contagious smile had her wrapped around her finger. Elliot sighed fondly, "No I don't"
All Elliot could really do is go to the bathroom, brush her hair and teeth and go. She wore her regular clothes to bed so she didn't have to change. Of course when she goes to the upper levels she's going to at least change out of her hoodie. The pants were fine though.
She put on 1 loop of the backpack and was ready to swing it on her back when Penny caught her eye. She looked nervous as if trying to decide something. "Penny, you alright?" Penny snapped out of her thoughts. "Oh yea I'm alright." But the thing is she didn't sound alright. "You sure?"
"I-, no I'm not." Penny gave in, remembering Elliots words from last night. "Is there anything I can do?"
"Well yes, I mean you don't have to if you don't want to, but can I borrow 1 of your shirts?" Penny looked down at her feet. "Oh yea sure I could give you 1 from upstairs, does it have to be any kind I mean you have a sweatshirt right now so I could give you one of those or a hoodie. If you get cold and stuff." Elliot was just happy that Penny willingly asked for something.
"Oh um just whichever you want to give me." Penny's gut was basically screaming at her to say 'never mind it's fine' but she stayed strong.
"I could always take you to the upper levels so you can pick. It's cool, come on, let's go." Elliot tried to seem as inviting as possible.
"You sure, didn't Mr Stark say he needed you at 7:30 to start your work?"
"It's barely 7:15 that's for sure enough time to take you up and give you something to wear, I'm going to be fine and you're definitely going to be ready in time by 8"
"Ok, let's go."
They left the room and headed for the elevator. Once they got on Elliot finally asked. "If you don't mind me asking why do you need to change tops?"
"Oh um, I have this thing where my clothes have "cool down times". If I wear some clothes overnight and just try to wear them the next day I just don't feel comfortable in my own skin. It would have been fine if I changed into my pajamas but I forgot to. I don't know why, it's just always been like that."
"Hey, it's cool, I'll keep that in mind."
"Thanks, I appreciate it"
The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Penny hesitated a bit but she slipped out on the elevator and was by Elliots side. Some of the avengers were in the kitchen waiting for Steve to finish making breakfast and some were lounging on the couches watching TV. And a couple of the ones who weren't half asleep or busy turned to see who came.
"Damn Steve that smells good"
"Thanks, what brings you here so early? We expected you to be 10 minutes late not 10 minutes early" Steve said in a teasing tone while cooking some link sausages. Rhodey, Sam, and Bucky chuckled from the couches.
"Ha ha very funny," Elliot said sarcastically as she moved through the kitchen to the fridge, to grab her energy drink. She didn't notice how Penny followed her like a lost puppy so some of the avengers smiled at the scene.
"I'm just gonna give Penelope a change of clothes, you want a bang?" Elliot told the group then turned to Penny. "Na I'm good thank you though" Elliot turned back to the Avengers. "And believe me, if I could have stayed in bed for an extra 20 minutes I would have."
"Ok well you guys get changed I'm going to need you to eat before we get to work" Bruce said from his seat at the counter.
"Yes mom" Elliot said as she turned to the hallway.
She knew all good things had to end. "Keep the door open" "Stay at least 3 feet apart" "leave room for Jesus" "Friday will be monitoring," "tonsil tennis is prohibited" multiple people yelled out. Elliots back was turned but they didn't miss how her ears turned red and her pace quickened.
They made it to Elliot's room without any more banter from the rest. "Welcome to my room, again. I have some shirts and sweaters that I don't use often since they're my exact size or a bit tight, and I usually prefer my clothes to be loose on me. The tight ones should fit you correctly, and the others should just be a bit loose, I'll get them for you."
Elliot set her Bang down and walked to her closet while Penny went to sit on the bed. The second she opened the closet a bunch of junk fell on the floor. Not only the clothes and random junk but also her Static mask and goggles. Penny quickly focused on Elliot the second she heard everything tumble down. Thankfully she was fixed on Elliot instead of what the mess was.
"Are you ok? What happened?" She asked, confused.
"Well my room was a mess and before everyone came into the room during the tour yesterday I was allowed to hide away as much as I could. I kind of just shoved everything out of sight and forgot about it."
"Elliot can I come in? What happened in there?" A British sounding voice asked
"Yea Vision you can come in" Of course, instead of opening the door Vision fazed though it. At least he waits for permission now.
"Everyone, heard the loud noise and right away assumed that you 2 were-"
"Well we weren't," Elliot said quickly before Vision could finish. Vision was always so blunt with everything. "A bunch of stuff just fell out the closet when I opened it."
"Oh well, I recommend you put that all away properly later. You 2 must get changed soon."
"Yes ok Vision thank you." Elliot stepped closer to the closet, simultaneously kicking the mask and goggles into it, and pulled out a couple hangers that were all in the corner. "Here you go Penny, choose whatever shirt and a sweater you want"
"Well I'll leave you 2 to it" and with that Vision left. Penny already picked 2 things. 1 gray plain shirt and 1 sweatshirt that had a checkered design. "I'm going to take these 2, I'll wash them and return them on Monday."
"Oh you don't have to return them, I don't even remember the last time I wore them. If you like them, keep them." Elliot said while pulling out a black tank top and a blue and black flannel from the closet.
Penny changed quite quickly, she has always been shy about changing in the locker room at school so she has gotten faster and faster since middle school. She turned assuming Elliot finished as quickly as her but was wrong.
Elliot had barely taken off her shirt, Penny knew it was wrong of her to be sneaking a glance since Elliot didn't but her eyes were glued. She never noticed how toned Elliot's back and arms were. Probably because she always wore loose shirts or layers. They weren't super jacked like a bodybuilder, but muscle definitely showed without even flexing, like a gymnast. Penny found it impossible to look away until the black tank top was completely on.
She turned around quickly and started trying to cool down. Penny didn't usually blush but she for sure felt her cheeks warm. "Are you done?" Elliot asked shyly. "Oh um yea, you?" Penny asked as if she didn't know the answer. "Yea just finished now" Once there was confirmation they both turned around.
"Aye, you look great in that sweater. You should for sure take it. The checkered pattern suits you well." Elliot said fondly.
"Oh thank you, you look good too." Penny said while pink was still lightly tinting her cheeks.
"Nice um let me walk you back to the elevator, Friday will automatically know what floor you need." Penny only heard half of what Elliot just told her. That image was for sure ingrained in her memory, wasn't a bad thing though. "Um yea let's go."
They walked to the elevator together and everyone definitely noticed the dazed look on Penelope's face and the goofy smile Elliot was wearing but decided, for once, to keep their comments to themselves, for now.