Taylor frowned at her hair in the mirror, wrinkling her nose when it refused to settle into proper curls. How was it that she had trained and disciplined herself to complete perfect, but her hair of all things absolutely refused to submit to her will? With a groan of frustration, she went in search of Natasha or Pepper, either one of which usually aided her when things like this happened and ignored Steve's snort of laughter when she passed him in the living room. Twenty-two years old and Taylor still couldn't tame her own hair, how embarrassing.
They'd finally decided to party at home, where she was more comfortable and where food of any kind could be ordered in an instant. Besides, Loki couldn't get too far if they stayed in Stark Tower. The only problem was that Tony had invited way more people last minute and had somehow convinced almost all of them to show up, which meant she had to actually be presentable. She could deal with the dress, and the shoes, and even the copious numbers of people, but her hair? That she could not deal with.
"Natasha?" she asked, tapping on the spy's door.
"Hey, what's—whoa, never mind. Okay, come in. I can fix this."
The spy sat the younger girl down in the chair by the desk in her room and immediately went to work. Natasha had just been finishing up her own outfit for the night when Taylor had sought her help, so she wasn't too concerned with her own appearance.
This was not the first time Natasha had had to fix one of Taylor's hair disasters…although this wasn't the worst it had ever been. Once it had been a fluffy, frizzy mess and it had taken nearly an hour to get it in order. This—the failed curls and the slight frizz—was almost nothing in comparison to that night. Even so, Natasha worked patiently and methodically at the younger woman's hair.
"I'm sorry to bother you with this again. I gave it a good effort, but I always manage to mess it up somehow," Taylor sighed.
"Don't worry about it," Natasha replied easily, "I'm not in any rush. I wish I had someone to help me with my hair when I was younger too."
Taylor, despite Natasha's best efforts, had become something like a younger sister. Natasha kept up the wall between them, but Taylor never pushed it. She knew when to reach out and when to stop.
"There," the redhead said at last, sounding satisfied, "I fixed it."
Where there had been kinky, messed up curls before, her nearly blue hair fell in thick, manageable curls around her face and shoulders now and it was pretty.
"Thank you so much," Taylor sighed with relief, "you're the best."
"I know," Natasha joked, squeezing Taylor's shoulder, "now let's get going. You wouldn't want to miss your own party."
Bucky was, thankfully, waiting for her with Steve when she arrived. He already had a drink in hand, even though he couldn't actually get drunk, and another for her. Taylor generally avoided more than an alcoholic beverage or two a night—her brother had kind of ruined it for her; she'd cried on 21st remembering his drunk stumbling, black outs, and, occasionally, his rages. All of the Avengers were sympathetic to this—bless them—and generally didn't get too inebriated around her.
"Hey, doll," Bucky murmured, nudging her with his elbow and pulling her from her dark thoughts, "relax. Celebrate! This party's about you, remember?"
She chuckled, glancing at him sideways.
"Yeah, yeah, I know," she grumbled, a reluctant smile pulling her lips up.
"Go talk to Thor," Steve suggested, "You love talking to him."
"Yeah, I think I'll do that," she agreed, patting Steve's shoulder, "I'll see you guys soon."
Thor did, indeed, have stories to tell her, and he managed to lift her spirits enough to actually enjoy her party. She listened to all of his tales with great enthusiasm, laughing and joking with the people she'd quickly come to know as family and friends.
"So wait, Taylor, you haven't been on a date since you became an Avenger?" Tony's friend, James Rhodes—Rhodey—asked at one point.
Her cheeks immediately flushed because that was a point that somehow always came up at social events like these. She didn't really mind the fact that she was single so much, or the light-hearted heckling from her friends. It was when it was absolute strangers asked her about it that she got uncomfortable.
"I've been on dates," she answered indignantly, voice a few notes too high.
Well it was true. She had been on dates…she could just count one both hands the number of times in four years that had happened.
"Really?" he questioned, raising his eyebrows at her.
"I have!" she insisted, quickly trying to change the subject, "How come you don't ask any of the others that?"
He laughed.
"Because I know where all of them are at. Thor has Jane, Tony has Pepper. Natasha might or might not be interested in Banner. Barton supposedly has a girlfriend or something like that. Bucky and Steve are single and awkward like you."
"Oh yeah? Where's your girlfriend?" she scoffed, placing her hands on her hips in challenge, raising an eyebrow expectantly.
"Okay, okay, fair enough," Rhodey allowed, "but at least I date."
"I date!"
Loki couldn't understand what the big deal was with this mortal woman. She seemed completely normal to him—apart from the fact that she didn't know who he was. How could someone care so little for their own planet that they didn't know the man that had nearly conquered it? Then again, watching her interact with the others, she seemed a bit absent, like she kept getting lost in her thoughts before one of her precious team members would claim her attention again.
"Enjoying the view, brother?" Thor questioned slyly, sidling up beside Loki with a drink in his hand.
"Hardly," Loki snipped forcefully turning his gaze away from the girl to eye the blond man, "I don't understand why I have to celebrate this sniveling child like the rest of you. She means nothing to me."
It seemed that Thor was better behaved in front of his Midguardian friends. Loki could remember countless numbers of times Thor had gotten hopelessly inebriated, but apart from what seemed like the slightest buzz, his adopted brother was fine now.
"It is easier to enjoy myself when I can keep an eye on you here," Thor answered simply, flashing one of his infamous smiles, "I would have thought you'd jump at the chance for merriment."
Loki curled his lip at the prince.
"Not with these mortals," he snarled the word, looking at one blue-eyed female Midguardian in particular.
Thor followed his eyes, taking a nonchalant sip of his beverage as the girl said something that was apparently funny, because the group of people surrounding her began laughing. That smile of hers was truly infectious, as there was a long time when it was so rare for her. Thor found the corners of his mouth lifting slightly just watching her interact unabashedly with people.
None of the Avengers were given to talking about their families, but it became especially obvious that Taylor made a point of avoiding the subject entirely, even now. Steve and Tony had disclaimed some information they'd gathered, either through SHIELD or observation. She was adopted; her stepmother was physically abusive, and her brother was a verbally abusive drunk. The scar on her forehead was a testament to the tortures she'd had to endure under their care before joining them.
"Have you tried speaking with her?" Thor asked abruptly, as the similarities between the two suddenly occurred to him.
"No," Loki replied immediately.
In fact, he'd been avoiding her for the entire pointless event. It wasn't exactly easy, she travelled from group to group like a bee to flowers. She never stayed in one place for long, but always she had a chat with someone and by the time she left, everyone had a smile on their face. It was like she was running on smiles alone, because she certainly was avoiding the alcohol, he noticed.
"And why not?" the other demanded with a laugh, "You aren't really that resentful that she didn't recognize you?"
"Of course not," Loki lied.
It wasn't quite that he was resentful—it was just that the whole conversation had left a bad taste in his mouth. There was something about her that didn't sit right with him. There was something about that innocent expression when she spoke and the way she was completely oblivious to the danger he posed her. He could probably kill her before she could even blink but she just offered him politely clueless smiles.
"Taylor is an interesting woman. She's very intelligent, and she's got a sharp tongue, once she warms up to you," Thor offered, although Loki hadn't asked.
"Well that doesn't make sense. Shouldn't it be the other way around?" the trickster inquired, frowning at the girl as she made some ridiculous gesture that sent Stark into a fit of laughter, nearly pitching him from his barstool.
Thor's chuckle pulled Loki's attention back to his adopted brother.
"Not everyone thinks as you do, brother," he answered, "actually, you two are almost complete opposites in disposition."
As Loki turned his attention back to her, someone seemed to be asking her to do something. She appeared to say something like "just this once" and then proceeded to light the shot of liquor offered to her on fire. The person holding it downed it at once, but not before Loki noticed she put it out so as not to burn whoever the recipient was. So she could control fire. That could be useful…
In that same moment, someone suddenly stumbled into the girl, hopelessly drunk, and began babbling at her. The girl looked completely stunned and uncomfortable for a moment, freezing up on the spot. Lucky for her, her friend with the metal arm and the patriot intercepted them. The soldier, the one normally in spandex, diverted the accoster while the one with the metal arm smoothly led the girl away, engaging her quickly in conversation.
That was certainly an interesting reaction, considering the people she lived with. As far as he could tell, Stark was perpetually drunk, but she seemed to get along with him just fine. Then again, perhaps it was that the girl didn't know the person that had approached her, so she'd been surprised? Either way, it was an odd response that he silently filed away to investigate later. Perhaps she meant something to him after all: an interesting puzzle to solve.
