With fall drawing near, Steve found the crisp air a refreshing change, promising better things to come. Ever since the Avenger's initiative began, he was sure it wouldn't work. Bringing a group of completely different people together, to work together under one order, seemed completely impossible. With enough work and the right motivation, they finally managed to make it work; however, to some extent.
Over a short two years since they started, they've seemed to really have things worked out. Natasha had a large majority of the red, already wiped from her ledger, but she still had a long ways to go to get back into the green. Even after she was in the clear, many of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s members had bets in place that she'd stay even after. Especially if Clint stayed with them.
With the help of Bruce and Pepper, Tony had managed to mostly convert Stark Tower, into the official meeting spot of the Avengers. Tony of course still insisted in having at least twenty private floors for, "stuff and junk," his exact words. No one really complained, however, it is his building after all, and they really only used a few of its many floors.
Recently, Thor had gotten into contact with them again, and had a proposal he wanted to run by the team, but he hoped to do it in person, hence the meeting. Steve flipped through some paper work as he entered the building. He gave a quick nod towards the receptionist, before continuing to the main elevator. Once inside, he hit the button then returned his attention back to his paper work.
"Hold the elevator!" a woman called, running towards him.
Steve looked up, his head tilted in curiosity and slight amusement. How a woman managed to run in a tight knee length skirt and Stilettos, he will never know. Raising a hand, he held the door until she got in. Once the doors fully closed, he couldn't help but notice her features.
She had long, dark, curly hair, pulled into a pony tail, pale skin, high cheek bones and green eyes. Dark framed glasses, did something to bring out her eyes, that was hard for Steve to ignore. She wore a purple blouse and a straight black skirt that reached just to her knees.
The woman shifted the purse on her shoulder along with the binders she held in her arms, which somewhat reminded Steve of something from an old high school flick, or rather something from his time, that would be considered old. He shrugged in his mind and it was then he realized he had never seen her in the Avenger's Tower before. As if she could read his thoughts, she looked to him, offering a sweet smile.
"Hi, I'm Lonna," she began, shifting her binders once more to free her a hand from the entrapment of her work, "I'm new to S.H.I.E.L.D. and they wanted me to get a feel for things through this meeting."
Steve couldn't help but return the smile as he accepted the hand shake, "Steve Rogers, welcome to the team," he greeted.
"Oh, I know who you are," she replied a little too excitedly. "You're Captain America," she exclaimed, before turning away quickly as her cheeks flushed bright red. "Sorry, Fury warned me not to get too excited and that I should hurry up and get used to it if I plan on staying with you guys as a part of the team."
Steve kept the smile on his face, "I think you'll be just fine," he assured her. The elevator gave a soft ding and the doors opened, "I believe this is our stop."
The pair stepped off the elevator and entered the meeting area. Everyone was already sitting around the large table in the center, marked with the Avengers logo. A few other S.H.I.E.L.D. members dotted the room, but Lonna decided to take a seat, which Steve felt the need to hold out for her. Pressing out the wrinkles in her skirt, she accepted the gesture with a smile and set up her note pad and binder.
Tony rose a brow at her old fashionedness, but paid no more attention to her and instead, directed his attention towards Steve, "Late to your own meeting, Captain Spangle Pants?"
Steve hardly reacted to Tony's comment, then glanced at Thor, "Technically it's his meeting, I just picked the date and time," he shrugged, "But you're right, I am late, sorry. I was reading and walking again," he admitted sheepishly, "I had a few incidences."
"You're as bad as people who text and walk," Tony pointed out as he glanced at his phone, while walking about the table to find his seat, which happened to be beside Lonna.
"Are we about ready to start now?" Fury asked, irritation rising in his voice.
Everyone's eyes fell on Fury, telling him that he had the floor. "Alright. As you all know, Thor set up this meeting, because he had a proposal he wanted to bring about to the group. Now let's just skip all the formalities and skip to the end." He gestured towards Thor, "You have the floor."
Thor gave a nod, before standing from his seat. His eyes scanned the group of people, falling on Tony, for only a moment, watching as he flirted away with the new woman, who was currently trying to take notes of the whole situation. Shaking his head he finally poke.
"Recently, in a world beyond Midgard, there was a war. I fought in that war among my trusted friends," he paused for a moment, "And my brother. The others didn't take kindly to the situation at first until they found that he could be trusted...to an extent. My brother will always be a trickster and no matter how hard he tries he gets bored and needs some form of prank to keep himself occupied." His eyes watched every member of the group as he spoke. "I myself never thought I'd be able to work alongside my brother and only went to him as a last resort. Just when we thought it wouldn't work, he came through for us all. If it weren't for him..." Thor paused, "My proposal to you all, is that I wish to allow my brother to, what was it Lady Natasha said, clear the red from his ledger?"
As the words left his lips, an uproar boasted through group like wild fire. Every person disagreeing at once, sharing their side as to what Loki had done to them and what he caused. It was hard to determine which voice began where and ended when, even being a god, there was no way Thor could hear who said what.
"SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!" Fury shouted. The room went still and slowly, each member took back to their seats. "Now I know as well as everyone in this room, just what kind of shit Loki caused and the damage that had been done, but Thor is no moron. He sure as hell might be a dumb ass at times, but I don't think he'd suggest allowing his brother to join, on a whim. I suggest you all at least consider the idea for a day or two, then perhaps-"
"Are you insane?!" Natasha demanded, slamming her hands onto the table as jumped from her chair. "We've all seen how he works." She looked to Thor, "No offense, but this could have been his plan all along, pretending to be good during a war just so he can be accepted into the Avengers to tear us all apart from the inside out. I don't know about the rest of you, but no thanks!" she snapped, plopping back into her chair, arms crossed over her chest.
Thor scrunched up his nose in protest, "Honestly, I don't think he'd have the attention span for that," he mumbled.
"She's right," Steve finally chimed in, "One good deed, even with good intentions, does not resolve you of many bad ones. He'd have to really prove himself to us before we'd even consider discussing allowing him to join."
Thor remained as he stood, listening to Steve's exact words, "And how exactly would we go about doing that?"
"We could allow a trial period," Bruce suggested.
Everyone turned to look at him, almost forgetting he was there.
"Any suggestions?" Fury demanded, frustrated with the whole situation. He directed his attention towards the new recruit who was currently playing with the plastic Captain America shield bouncing on the small spring attached to the end of her pen. "Time to put your intelligence to the test Ms. LaChance. Any idea how we could give Loki a trial period?"
Lonna looked up from her pen, her face blank as if she didn't recognize her own name for a moment, but without making a comment towards it, she sat up straight, "We could, put him through a few simple tasks, ones that don't take a lot of effort, but require working with a team and relying on one another. You know, mindless tasks and those of the sort," she shrugged.
Fury snorted and looked to the rest of the group, "Any better ideas?" he asked.
They exchanged glances with one another, but no one could come up with a single idea, or at least none they wanted to share. Perhaps they really weren't ready to test boundaries.
Fury shook his head with a sigh, looking back at Thor, "Sorry, son, but looks like the team isn't ready for this kind of step."
Thor nodded resting his chin between his thumb and crook of his index finger, "I thought as much, twas a long shot," he sighed. Looking up at his comrades he gave a nod, "But it was worth a try."
"Are we quite finished here, then?" Tony asked, "I left my latte downstairs," he pouted.
The brow over Fury's patch rose and he looked to the team, "Well?" The looks were all he needed, "Alright then," he looked over towards Lonna, "Hand me next week's agenda," more demanded more than anything.
Shuffling through her work, she pulled out a notebook and held it out towards Fury. Fury took the notebook flipping through it, and frowned, "I think this is the wrong one," he said holding it up so everyone could clearly see it. On the page he had flipped it too, had the group as they sat in their seats, drawn skillfully in blue ink. Flustered, she lurched forward to snatch it from Fury's hand and began digging once more through her three binders.
"Did you take any notes?" Fury asked, rage growing in his voice.
"I'm so, so sorry Director," she apologized repeatedly. "I-I," her face flushed bright red at the situation as Tony rose from his seat, moving along side her. He held out a glass tablet that's completely see through with hardly any form of frame other than the handle.
"Time you've joined the present," he smiled, "This is my old one..." he paused pulling a smaller version out of his pocket then with one swipe of his hand, as if by magic, all the saved data he had on the large one, transferred to the smaller one, "Practically brand new," he beamed.
Lonna stared at him wide eyes, "Are you sure?"
Tony nodded, "Of course, that's the kind of person I am now...I do nice things for lesser people," he beamed.
"Well, he almost had it," Bruce mumbled.
Tony glanced over his shoulder at him, and Bruce only smiled back.
Lonna beamed at him, "I'm sorry I'm just so...old fashioned," she sighed.
"We're done here right?" Tony asked.
"Not quite," Fury interrupted, then looked back to Lonna who quickly found the agenda and handed it to Fury. "We meet again on the third," he announced, "Five o'clock, if you can't make it, then too damn bad," he handed the agenda back to Lonna who quickly accepted it, putting it back into one of her binders.
"Now are we done?" Tony groaned.
Fury answered by turning to leave the meeting room.
"Good," Tony beamed, then looked to Lonna, "Walk with me as I give you a quick tutorial on how these work," he said with a gentle hand on her back, guiding her out of the room.
The rest cleared out quickly, but Steve stayed behind when he caught a glimpse of a notebook that had fallen under Lonna's seat. She must have missed it when she left. Picking it up, curiosity got to him and he found himself flipping through it, half hoping to find some more of her drawings. When he looked inside, he was a bit confused, however. It was blank. Perhaps she's just well prepared and didn't like to waste time to stop and go out to buy more notebooks. He had to get it back to her either way.
Hopping back into the elevator, he made his way back down to the lobby and immediately spotted her. He began to walk up to her, until he spotted Thor with her. They seemed to be having an intense conversation, that ended with her smacking him hard across the face.
Thor gave little reaction, aside from rubbing the spot on his face where her hand had made contact. Mumbling under his breath, in his native language, Thor exited the building, leaving Lonna to herself.
Steve waited a few heartbeats before approaching Lonna, notebook in hand, "Mind telling me what that was about?"
Lonna had the faint remains of a smirk on her face as she looked after Thor, then turned to look at Steve, taking a moment to register the question, "Hm? Oh, that? Nothing," she assured him. "I s'pose I over reacted."
Steve roses a brow, but didn't comment, as if waiting for more to the story.
"He said something cheesy about the blue in my art matching the blue in my eyes," she shook her head, "I guess I just took it the wrong way, not to mention, my eyes are green," she waved it off.
"Well, from what I saw, your art is quite good. All in pen too, that's quite amazing. I can hardly draw a stick figure in pencil, " he admitted with a smile.
Lonna looked down sheepishly and Steve noticed the hint of pink in her cheeks, "It's nothing," she shrugged, "Just doodles." She offered a soft smile, "I'm kind of a huge fan of you guys," she admitted, "Which is part of the reason I wanted to join S.H.I.E.L.D." She caught sight of the notebook in Steve's hand, "What's that?"
Steve had almost forgotten, as he lifted the notebook to look at it, "Ah yes, you left this back upstairs," he held it out too her. "Speaking of which, where are all your other binders."
Lonna giggled, "Stark smooth talked me into letting him carry them to my car for me," she winked.
Steve pursed his lips in amusement, "Ah, well, I ought to get going," he said looking to his watch, "I'll see you next week." He offered a smile and began to leave, when she spoke again.
"Or we could get a drink," she blurted out. Her face lit up again, "As co-workers," she quickly added.
Steve rose a bemused brow, "I'd like that."
A/N: So I think I've got most the character's down pretty well, or at least decently, but I need some work on getting Thor, so if anyone has any pointers, let me know. :D