Loki entered his own room, still surprised to have heard something so inappropriate. And irritated of the similarly inappropriate image that wouldn't leave his thoughts. A loud knock at his door. From the resonance, Thor.

He groaned internally. "Come in."

Thor grinned. "How are you enjoying Stark Tower, brother?"

Loki sighed. "It is... not as terrible as I had originally expected."

"You have the company of the beautiful Lady Eira, who has many unique qualities."

Loki examined the book in his hands. "She is interesting, I will admit. Slightly more than mere mortal, but mortal nonetheless, Thor. What are you here for?"

"Only casual conversation, brother. I suggest you spend time around Lady Eira, I'm sure she will be to your liking."

"My liking? What are you suggesting?" What was this about? Was he suggesting that he court her? She certainly was not difficult to look at, and was more tolerable than most, but that was entirely absurd.

"Nothing, brother." Thor shifted awkwardly.

"Mr. Laufeyson, Mr. Stark would like to speak with you."

When Loki exited the elevator, as Eira had called it, he was greeted by a sight of Mr. Stark toying with one of his contraptions.

Stark looked up, and set the contraption down. "Alright pretty boy, let's get some things straight. I don't like you. You don't like me. Mutual disliking, publicly respectful, occasional sarcastic jabs at each other, et cetera. With my disliking of you, I also believe that you aren't entirely worthy of the company of anyone remotely kind to you, which means that I believe you especially are not worthy of the company of one of my closest friends. If you try anything weird, I may very well dismember you. Got that?"

"All this testosterone and suggestive conversation." Loki shook his head. "Understood, I suppose. I'll be getting back to my book, if you don't mind." He turned on his heel to leave.

"Oh, Loki?"

"Yes?"

Stark grinned. "She bites."

What the absolute hell was wrong with everyone in this tower?

Natasha burst into her room, snickering.

"Jesus christ, you people are supposed to be superheroes, not sniveling teenagers." Eira shot at her.

"I'm not the one who has hots for.. Oh what was Fury's nickname? Loki of Sassguard." She giggled.

Eira buried her face in her hands. "Jesus christ, Romanoff. You and Tony both, you're just awful."

"So you do?" She wiggled her eyebrows at me.

"Get the hell out of my room." Eira grinned, taking most of the acid out of her statement. Natasha sauntered off, pleased with herself, as Nola jumped on the bed.

Loki strolled back to his room from the elevator, and nodded politely to a snickering Black Widow. About to enter his room, he heard Eira talking.

"You won't judge me for thinking less than appropriate thoughts about a God, would you Nola?"

Loki decided that this was an appropriate time to embarrass her as much as she did him, and poked his head into her room.

"I certainly won't judge you." He said earnestly.

He ducked back out immediately, and heard something shatter on the door frame.

"YOU GET BACK HERE YOU EAVESDROPPING SON OF A BITCH." She shouted.

He decided that this was an appropriate time to run. He dashed up the stairwell and slammed the door behind him. This should be interesting.

"I do what I want!" He shouted back at her. Great, he was having fun. This would reflect so well on his hatred of mortals. Although, he mused, she wasn't so mortal.

"Not without getting your head ripped off!"

Loki stopped and swung himself over the edge of the spiral staircase, dropping behind her. He ran back down and through the doors, and through the still-open door to her room.

Where could he run from-

His thought was interrupted by the breath being knocked from his lungs as he was pinned forcefully to the bed.

"Now that's what I call kinky." Stark's voice came from the doorway.

Fabulous.

"Of course, could you hand me my whip and collar, Tony?" She asked smoothly.

"Ooh, you're getting good at that. Anyway, came up to ask if you wanted to grab dinner with me and Pepper later. We're swinging towards sushi tonight."

"Hell yeah, I'll be down around seven."

"Nifty. You kids have fun."

It was like everything was purposely going in the most awkward and sexually tense direction for her, Eira thought as Tony strolled out, obviously bottling laughter.

"I do believe that you're putting your weight on my vital organs." Loki said under her.

"Serves you right, then." She said, not moving.

"I'm not the one talking to animals." He grinned.

"I'm not the one eavesdropping." she replied.

"I can bring the entire human race to it's knees and I have no problem doing the same to you." Only when the words left his mouth did he realize what it sounded like. "I mean, I.."

Eira fell off of him in fits of laughter. "Tell me you did that on purpose, and you're just that funny."

"I really didn't." he meant to apologize but felt his smile would void it. He also felt mildly speechless due to the fact that she hadn't hit him for that.

When she had finished laughing, she sat up and yawned.

"Okay, time for you to leave. I need sleep before I tolerate an hour of sushi and sexual innuendos from the tin man."

"Completely understandable." He grinned as he strode from the room, and then groaned inwardly as he realized what the images in his mind had done to his... more private regions. He leaned against his door and thought. That kind of physical reaction was understandable, as Miss Derosier was extremely physically attractive, and in a way very foreign to himself.

He recalled Stark's words... "She bites."

Loki wondered idly if this was true, and realized that he would like very much to find out.

Eira panted as she lay on her bed.

She had way too much restraint.

"Eira, go to sleep." She thought to herself.

His cool hands on her ribcage, she moaned his name.

"Loki."

His lips grazed her jaw, slowly moving down her body as she grasped his shoulders. His hands moved slowly to her hips as he hooked his shoulder under her thigh and began to-

Eira gasped, her eyes fluttering open. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock. 18:07. She had time enough for a shower. And by the feeling between her legs, she needed one.

"Hey Loka." Eira scratched the cat's ears affectionately. "Jarvis, tell Tony to bring me something sweet and strong."

"Will do, madame."

This would be the third shower she had taken today. Good thing she wasn't paying bills.

The hot water had relaxed her muscles like nothing else when Tony's voice pierced her thoughts through the curtain between them.

"Hey dollface, brought a neat Cruzan Strawberry for you. Stressed?"

"Eh. Weird dream. Alcohol craving." she said, reaching her arm around the curtain for her drink. She grasped it happily and and took a gulp, burning her throat nicely.

"Ah. Have fun with that then, and Pepper said to tell you she's wearing black, so you can wear anything except white or brown." He sighed. Pepper was always one about appearances.

Eira laughed. "Will do. Tell her I'm planning on green."

"Goddamnit shortstack, now I can't wear my red tie, it'll look like christmas."

She laughed again. "Fine, fine. Navy it is."

He grumbled something unintelligible and strolled back to the elevator. Eira set the empty glass on the ground and turned the shower off. She toweled her hair dry and glanced into the walk-in closet filled with dresses and nice pantsuits and shoes she rarely wore.

"Navy, navy, navy..." she searched through the varieties of fabric until she found a capsleeve, dark blue dress that would come to her knees.

"This should do." She agreed with noone in particular as she bent down to find shoes. She tried to recall everything Pepper had told her about navy. Coral went with navy, right? she thought as she grabbed a modest pair of coral heels and the hat next to them.

Eira finished dressing and glanced again at the clock. 18:43. She opened her door to find Loki, shirtless, his fist up to knock.

"Hello there?" she said, determined to only look up at his face.

He blinked. "I finished this book. It was rather impressive for mortal literature."

Jeez, he burned through it quicker than she had in high school. "Oh, uhh, you can just set that down and thumb through those, then." she gestured to the books beside the bar.

He nodded. "Thank you."

..."Was he going to move? Or at least stop staring into my soul?" she thought.

"I'll just, uh, be going then." she said, wondering if she could get any more awkward. Speaking of high school, she didn't even remember feeling this awkward back then.

He blinked again, shaking his head slightly. "Of course. Thank you for the open access to your literature." He said politely, maneuvering around her.

"Uh huh." she said bluntly, rushing to the elevator.

She walked out to see Pepper, obviously waiting for Tony.

"Well don't you look flustered." She commented, raising her eyebrows.

"Just a bit. Heels don't help though." she chuckled.

Pepper smiled and poked Eira's shoulder. "So, you have a thing for Reindeer?"

Eira wondered what the nickname could possibly be, and then realized it was Loki's helmet. She giggled. "It probably doesn't help that I don't meet guys who live up to my standards... well, ever. New blood. Curiosity. Lack of any romantic activity over the past 4 years."

Pepper patted her shoulder, understanding. Eira hadn't been interested in dating since her siblings had died. With no distraction of family or friends, she had blazed her way through the military up to the rank of Lieutenant General. The first friend she had since she was 17 (aside from Nola and Loka, of course) had been Tony.

"I would lend you Tony but you already beat the hell out of each other on a regular basis."

Eira laughed. "Wrong!" Tony exclaimed. "I let you win occasionally to keep your spirit in the game."

"Of course you do, and I don't have any tattoos." Eira laughed. Most of her tattoos were easily concealable, on her back and sides, all related to things that made her happy. Music and literature, mostly. The odd one out was a square, with the periodic table's symbol for iron, on the side of her hip. Only two tattoos were immediately visible. The last words she had heard from her siblings sat on the inside of each forearm. "Don't get yourself killed." from her brother, as they joked over the phone about her being deployed, and "Love always, Jenna." at the end of a letter from her sister.

"You're getting soft." He teased, poking her mostly-solid abdomen.

"Careful you don't melt with all that hot air coming out of your head." she retorted, climbing into the backseat of a Mercedes.