Tears streamed down her face as she shot up into a sitting position. Her hands shook as she reached into the drawer of her nightstand.
"Pills, pills, pills..." she thought numbly as she popped two white capsules into her mouth. It was 3 am. Nola and Loka were looking at her worriedly.
"Jarvis, get a punching bag and stereo set up for me, would you?" she said shakily, trying to clear her head.
"Right away. Would you like your usual drink?"
"Please. And bottled water."
"Of course."
Eira clutched her chest, still gasping as she tried to rub tears from her face. She had to calm down before she left her room, lest someone see her like this. The only person she could bear seeing her was Tony, and that was only because he understood how she felt since his brush with death.
After several minutes, she was steady enough to splash cold water on her face and scratch Nola reassuringly. As she opened her door, she faced none other than Loki, who had been debating whether or not to knock.
He cleared his throat awkwardly. "I heard you...shriek. Are you okay?"
Oh christ. Couldn't he see she was fine? "I'm perfectly alright."
He blinked, not knowing how to respond. "Err.. Alright then. I'll leave you to your business."
"Thanks." she nodded briskly, stepping into the elevator with Nola.
Eira wrapped her hands and rolled her neck as she stepped up to the punching bag. "Jarvis, playlist 7, start with Eminem's Spacebound. When that finishes, Tony's AC/DC playlist."
"Excellent choice, miss Derosier."
Surely an hour had passed and her knuckles were raw through the wraps when she heard the door open behind her.
"What's keeping you up, dollface?" Tony asked, sipping a cocktail.
"Nightmares." she replied, not breaking her rhythm.
"Anxiety?"
"You know it." she replied heavily, throwing a kick at the bag.
He sighed. "You know, even if you weren't some kind of mutant freak, which can be credited to me, I think you would still kick my ass."
"Thanks, honey." she grinned. Finally, she unwrapped her hands and took several mouthfuls of water.
"I feel like pretty-boy and I might end up being friends when he normals up a bit." Tony commented nonchalantly.
"Oh christ," she chuckled, "You guys would be calling me at 2 in the morning and asking Thor and I to bail you out of whatever the hell shenanigans you got up to."
Tony laughed. "That sounds about right. Except I'd let myself rot in jail before asking you for help."
"I'm sure you would." Eira smiled. She glanced at the clock. 5 in the morning. "You're cooking breakfast."
"Like hell I am, I'll set the tower on fire."
"Fine, starve to death." she grinned as she yawned.
"We're both about to pass out anyway, let Romanoff cook."
"Fair enough." Eira mumbled as she lay her back against Tony's side.
"I admire so many things about this entire situation." Jane said, smiling as she and Pepper looked at Tony and Eira snoozing on the couch.
"Like?" Pepper inquired, turning the knobs on the stove.
"Well, for one, the fact that Eira's trustworthy enough to be left alone so much with Tony. And that it's just so casual. Not like a bromance, more like Tony is a woman." Natasha checked the fridge for whatever food Tony might have around.
"Wait, Tony isn't a woman?" Banner asked, looking up from his book. "And here I was wondering why Pepper was a lesbian."
"Pepper, if you're ever a lesbian, I got dibs." Natasha grinned.
Pepper laughed. "I thought Steve had dibs."
"I'm no woman, do you see me cooking?"
Jane, Natasha and Pepper turned to glare at him.
He put his hands up. "Alright, I take it back."
"Damn right you take it back." Natasha replied, flipping a knife up.
"Hmm," Jane mused, "It's almost noon. Where are Thor and Loki?"
"Thor had business in Asgard. Who the hell knows what Loki's up to?" Rogers shook his head.
"Hey, Tony's up!" Bruce said in mock excitement.
"The party starts now. And speaking of parties, it's almost Thanksgiving. We should plan one. And-"
"Christ, no, Tony." Pepper sighed. "Let's save that for New Years and keep Christmas and Thanksgiving semi-personal this year?"
Tony rolled his eyes. "Fine, I was thinking about dragging my favourite midget to New Orleans at some point anyway." His brow furrowed. "Hey Banner, you guys get anything off of that atmosphere-thing? Sounded like Fury was about to bust a vein over it."
Banner shook his head. "Nothing yet."
"Keep me posted. Hey, shortstack's awake!"
Eira rubbed her eyes as she walked into the room. "I'm going back upstairs. Banner, try not to cry too much."
"That'll present a challenge of intense magnitude." he drawled.
Eira smirked as the elevator doors slid shut, and she resisted the urge to lean back and close her eyes. The resistance was worth it when she stripped and fell onto her cool, silk covers.
She yawned. "Jarvis, lock the door. In a couple hours, unlock it and tell Tony to bring me some Rum and sushi."
"Will do, madame."
Eira awoke to a furious knocking. She grabbed a robe. "What the hell do you want?" She asked irritably as she tied a knot around her waist.
"For you to have some kind of genuine, lady-like fun for once in your life." Natasha grinned.
"Oh for Christ's sake." Eira rubbed her eyes. "If I go with you without argument this one time, will you ever make me do this again?"
"Yes."
Fuck. Well there was no getting out of it, Eira thought to herself and sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll dress all flashy and whatnot too."
"Kickass. It's already 21:00, so the clubs open soon. We're taking the Jaguar." and with that, Natasha shut the door and left Eira to herself again.
"Goddamnit, Romanoff." she grumbled, going through the clothes in her closet to find something flashy. She gingerly took a short white dress labelled "Jovani 72638" off of the hanger and slipped it over herself. After she had (finally) managed to zip up the back, she found silver heels with a god-given ankle strap, and a satan-given platform.
"I have spent more time trying to figure out how to walk in these goddamned heels than I ever have actually walked in them." Eira mumbled as she took several steps to a mirror and applied a generous amount of silver eyeshadow and earrings. The white dress was particularly striking with her stark-white hair and eyebrows. It would definitely have to be enough for Natasha, she thought, and she stepped out of her room and hope dearly that Loki wouldn't be out there.
"Of course, he and Thor are out here." she sighed inwardly.
Thor looked up at the sound of Nola padding her way out of Eira's room and toward him, and raised his eyebrow questioningly at Eira. Loki, Eira observed, looked genuinely surprised.
"Don't either of you dare say a word or I will beat the ever-living hell out of you." she practically snarled as she stepped into the elevator, much to Loki's amusement.
Natasha grinned as Eira strolled towards her. She was wrapped in a tube-like emerald dress, with gold accents and shoes.
"You're oblivious to how voluptuous you are, you know that?" Eira said, rolling her eyes at how ridiculous she thought they both looked.
"Yes I am. And so are you,to yourself. Oh, we're going to Sapphire NY."
"So, the snob club?" Eira groaned as they peeled out onto the street.
"Pretty much." Natasha grinned. "You'll have fun, don't worry."
"Since when does being borderline sexually harassed and smelling like drug-induced sex qualify as fun?"
"Since now."
Eira groaned as she gave up. There was just no way out of it. When they finally came to a stop, she stepped out of the car and followed Natasha past about sixty people waiting in line.
"Romanoff." A bouncer nodded and lifted the velvet rope. Natasha flashed him a smile and grabbed Eira's elbow as they entered the pulsing building.
Eira blinked and realized that the pulsing beat was so thick, she could barely hear herself think. She understood why people needed so much alcohol in here as she strode to the nearest bar. A woman with shaved-looking blonde hair sat at the bar in a red dress, playing with the olive in her martini. The woman glared at Eira as if she was sincerely offended by her presence.
Eira ignored her. "Rum and coke. Keep the change." she said, sliding the bartender a $20.
She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around, to be faced by a familiar-looking man holding an empty glass. Comparing him to the faces of people she had met in the past several years, she put this man's face closest to the likes of Ryan Gosling. But he was much too skinny.. Who the hell was this?
"Eira? Eira Derosier?" he asked in a heavy voice.
"That depends on who's asking." She replied cautiously. Even being in SHIELD behind Tony and Natasha, she was rarely pointed out in public.
"Oh my God, it is you!" the man laughed, as she eyed him (extremely confused at this point). "Liam Howell." he said, shaking her hand. "Remember? I asked you to prom senior year and said no, and then pointed to a bunch of cheerleaders and said they would say yes?"
Eira blushed. She had been such a bitch to almost everyone who tried to have romantic contact with her. She had had one or two fuckbuddies, but that was really it. "Oh yeah.." she rubbed her neck awkwardly, "Sorry about that."
He laughed and took a seat next to her. "It's totally fine. I ended up playing videogames on prom night, though, which was a bummer. You might have to make up for that."
Jesus, was he trying to be flirtatious? Tony would have some kind of goddamned fit. "Haha, would a drink be enough?" she asked, trying to be as casual as she could manage.
"Yes, I would love one." A familiar voice said enthusiastically. Think of the devil, Tony had appeared next to her. At least there was someone she could semi-communicate with.
"You have enough alcohol on a daily basis, so what the hell are you doing here?" Eira grinned as he leaned his elbow on her shoulder.
"I came to rescue you and tell you how hilarious you look."
"I disagree. I think she looks divine." Liam said, sipping a glass of wine.
"Then you seriously need glasses." Tony laughed, tugging her elbow. Eira stood and walked briskly out of the club with Tony, and she shot Liam a final smile before ducking out of the door.
"Okay, so what's the real reason you came to get me?"
"We think we know what's behind all that weird-ass stuff going on with the atmosphere in this area." Natasha said, stepping out of the car and holding the door open. "Fury'll be here in the morning, he's in Russia for god-knows-what reason."
Eira sighed. At least she was out of that club. She couldn't have even been in there for two hours and her eyes still throbbed slightly. She also remembered the report she needed to finish for Fury. Fuck. She would do it in the morning.
She stepped out of the car with Tony and Natasha and made her way to the elevator. "You guys coming?"
"Target practice." Natasha answered briskly, grabbing a pistol.
"Science and shit." Tony answered, strolling towards the lab.
Eira allowed the doors to close.
"Hey Jarvis. You know where I want to go."
"Of course, madame. Ms Romanoff give you any trouble?"
"Plenty." Eira smiled, "But nothing I can't handle."
Eira stepped out of the elevator and sighed. She should check that Loki wasn't up to anything horrifyingly devious or evil, she thought, and knocked on his door.
"Enter." He said, sounding bored.
She opened the door to see him thumbing through an unfamiliar-looking book...shirtless. What was it with him and being shirtless? "Where did you get that?"
"Thor brought me books from one of my Archives." he waved to a large pile without looking up. "Do you require me?"
"Nope. Just making sure you aren't up to anything particularly mischievous." She replied.
"I could easily be." He finally looked up, his eyes bored into her own. He raised an eyebrow. "How would you know? You have no way of identifying my magics."
She sighed. "You're right. I'm not being very thorough. But I won't be the one getting in trouble for it." She grinned as he closed his book.
"Define trouble." He strolled over to her, so close to the point that she had to look up to see his face. She was almost intimidated, her heart pounded in her ears. Before she could even process her own thoughts of the potential situation, his slim fingers gripped the sides of her thighs and lifted her, leaning her back against the wall behind her.