Woot~ Another idea~ Okay, so...I am kinda stuck on "The Pain of Summer Heat". But I will get to it, I promise!
Anyways, here is another random chapter~ Not sure if I like this one. Y'all need to give me some ideas people! D: Haha, or at least leave reviews telling me what you think. It sure would help. :p
OH! And a big thanks to all those who favorited and followed! And to those who reviewed, I love y'all! XD
Natasha growled as she struggled to close the doors to the last kitchen cabinet without slamming them. "How is it that a billionaire has practically NO food in his own kitchen?" she grumbled, running her hand through her short, red hair in aggravation. Sighing, she crossed her arms and frowned, glaring at the floor as she mulled over her options.
Clint was sick. Like, running a fever, stuck in bed, and throwing up his guts sick. Bruce had conveniently been called away just the day before, so that left the second person with the most medical experience in charge: her. She assumed it would be an easy fix with Loki's healing magic. Well, apparently his all superior knowledge did not lie in 'mortal' sicknesses. And so the slow and mundane way it was. However, that included eating soup. Chicken Noodle Soup. Which Tony did not have, because he stuffs his face with take-out most of the time!
Natasha visibly tried to calm herself down. She would just run to the store a couple blocks down. No big deal. Mentally smacking herself, she realized it was a big deal. There were only two other Avengers in the house besides her and Clint at the moment: Loki and Tony. Thor was away visiting Jane, Bruce was on that darn mission, and Steve was at headquarters. Someone had to be here for Clint, and she did not like the options. To make matters worse, Loki and Tony had decided to start a contest of who could play the most pranks on Clint. She had caught Tony every time he had attempted, but Loki proved to be a challenge. She had to keep on her toes with him.
She seriously doubted Loki had any knowledge over what soup would be the best though, so she could not just send him out. She would send Tony, but something told her that he is no better than Loki at choosing food to buy. Maybe both of them? No, that would not work either. Something would get destroyed.
Coming to a decision, she turned sharply and stalked her way down to Tony's lab, where he had been in since his last attempt on pulling a prank on Clint ended with him getting a good roundhouse kick to the head. Reaching the bottom stair, she was met with the blare of Tony's loud music.
"Jarvis, could you be so kind as to turn down the music so I can actually talk without having to yell?"
"Certainly, Miss Romanoff," replied the AI, and seconds later the music was cut dramatically in volume.
"Hey! Jarvis! What gives? " came a loud shout of protest from somewhere in the back of the lab. Natasha walked further in and found Tony bent over some wires and metal, hands and clothes smeared with grease and oil. She cleared her throat, and took satisfaction of the unmanly squeak that Tony let out.
Turning around, Tony pointed sharply at Natasha. "Dont ever! do that! again!" Glaring at her, he grabbed a rag on the workbench near him, running it over his hands. "I have been a good boy, so why are you down here giving me such a murderous glare?"
Natasha blanked, then realized she was scowling at him without even meaning to. She couldn't help it though. Tony pushed all her wrong buttons just by opening his mouth. "Look. since your fail of a kitchen upstairs has no soup, I need to go and get some from the market. Clint needs to be checked on while I am out. You are to do it," she said in a no-nonsense voice, crossing her arms for more emphasis.
Tony raised an eyebrow, amusement clear in his eyes. "Oh, so you actually want me near Legolas now, is that right?" he said, smirking ever so slightly. "Well, now that I have permission the thought has lost all its appeal. Go try 'asking' Reindeer Games." He realized he made a mistake when Natasha's eyes glinted with anger and she visibly tensed. Suddenly he felt a finger poking his arc reactor as a set of murderous eyes locked onto his. Natasha had closed the distance between them, leaning in menacingly.
"Listen, Tony. There is no way I am leaving the house with both you and Loki still here. I am not stupid. And I can not send either of you two to go get the soup, because you would probably come back with everything in the store but the soup. So, you will get you butt up and check on Clint while I am gone, or you will find that you will regret waking up today," snarled Natasha.
Tony gulped, and decided to swallow any smart comments. He quickly nodded, and breathed a sigh of relief as Natasha pulled away.
"Good. Now that that is settled, Jarvis, could you tell me where Loki is at?" asked Natasha, looking up at the ceiling.
"Currently, Mr. Loki is in route to what appears to be Mr. Barton's room," replied Jarvis. Natasha snapped her head back down, anger clear in her eyes once more.
"Oh no. he. is. not!" she yelled, and took off sprinting towards Clint's room.
"I fail to see why you felt compelled to include me in your task of purchasing this 'chicken noodle soup'" grumbled Loki as he kept stride with Natasha through the busy streets of New York.
"Maybe it is because I had not even left the tower and you still tried to take a sharpie to Clint's face," snapped Natasha, quickly checking both sides of the street before crossing it.
"You lack a much needed sense of humor, Romanoff."
Natasha gritted her teeth and ignored him as they finally made it to the market. Truth be told, she would rather not be here with Loki, but she really could not see how leaving him at the tower could have played out well. Grabbing a basket, she began walking briskly to the aisle she thought the soup was down. She did not think to check on whether Loki was following until she glanced back and was met with empty space.
She blinked, then blinked again. "You can't be serious!" she growled. Pausing, she debated just leaving Loki to whatever it was he was doing and looking for the soup. Sighing, she knew that most likely he would cause some sort of mischief in that time and delay her even longer from getting back to Clint. Grumbling, she turned and retraced her steps, keeping a look out for the god as she did. Seeing as how she had not gotten far before realizing Loki was not with her, she quickly made it back to the entrance of the story, not once seeing the missing god.
"No teleportation skills my foot," she snarled under her breath, tension and anger rising quickly. She had hoped to go about this in a quick way, not wanting to leave Clint with Tony for too long. She should have known Loki would mess up that idea. Rubbing at her brow, she decided just to go get the soup. "He can just stay here for all I care. Would be easier for me anyways," she spat, making her way back to the soup aisle.
Meanwhile, Loki was in an aisle of his own, and he would never, ever admit it, but he was at a loss about what to do.
When they had arrived at the store, he had every intention of staying with Natasha. But he overheard a conversation that ended up changing that plans. A boy had complained to his mother over feeling sick, and she said that she would give him tea and honey and that it should fix the problem.
Tea and honey? That simple a remedy was all that was needed for curing Clint's ailment? He had paused to listen, and when he turned to ask Natasha if she knew of this he was shocked to see she had already left. He scowled at the empty air. He knew she was anxious to get back, but really, did she make it her mission to forget he was here? She was the one who forced him to come with her. Crossing his arms, he pondered what to do. He could begin the search for the Widow, or he could go find some tea and honey. He was sure it would not take long. He would just meet up with Romanoff when he was done. So he began walking the store, and after a few minutes of wandering around, growing more agitated by the second, finally just asked a passing elderly woman where he could find tea and honey.
"Why, I don't work here sonny, but, if you look at the signs they will tell you," she said, pointing at the ceiling. Loki moved his gaze up and saw what she was talking about. Huge signs that held what each shelf held was positioned at the entrance of each aisle. After thanking her, he had located the aisle with the tea...and that is where he had been for the past ten minutes.
"Humans," he snarled, massaging his temples as a headache started to blossom. "Why must they find it necessary to make things so complicated?" He gave the shelves a scathing look. There was too much tea to choose from, and frankly, he did not know which one would work best with honey, which one Clint would like, or even would taste good. On Asgard the tea came from hand-picked leaves, not a box or container. He was starting to regret separating from Romanoff.
"No matter," he sighed, "I will just take one of everything."
Even after Natasha had spent a good couple minutes choosing the best brand of chicken soup she could find and waiting in line she had not seen Loki. Grabbing her bag filled with the cans of soup, she started to make her way to the doors.
"He is a big boy," she thought as she exited the store. "He will find his own way home."
The walk to the tower was alot quicker, and quieter than the trip there. Natasha loved it. Finally, a few minutes of peace. She even smiled a bit. Then a thought crossed her mind that made her immediately grimace. What happens if Loki decides to get something from the store? From what she could recall, he had never been out shopping in the time he had spent with them. Did he even know that things cost money? Did Asgard run on currency? Since he technically came from royalty, did he ever need to buy anything himself? Her quick walk started losing speed slowly with each thought that crossed her mind, and within a few seconds she was standing still on the side walk. She could see the tower from where she was. Maybe five more minutes at most. She should just go and be with Clint. He needed her. If Loki got into trouble, it was his fault. He separated from her, so he could pay the consequences. She would continue on to the tower. That's what she would do.
Yet, she still found herself making a u-turn back to the store. "This is only because if he got into trouble then I would have to deal with it later," she thought furiously, every passerby giving her a startled glance as she stormed by them. In her anger she made it back to the store rather quickly...and immediately regretted turning around. "I should have let him deal with it himself," she spat darkly.
Loki was attempting to exit the store with what appeared to be a large cart full of...was that tea? He actually succeed in walking out without having anything fall from the cart and ignored the blaring of the alarms that sounded as he exited the store. "Looks like he didn't pay," mumbled Natasha as she quickly made her way over to him.
"Ah, Romanoff, I was looking for you. I have finished gathering what I needed. Shall we make our way back?" asked Loki, wearing a proud smile on his face and acting oblivious to the noise behind him. Natasha was about to say something when a pretty heavy-set, balding, angry man grabbed Loki firmly by the arm. Natasha winced at the anger that flashed in Loki's eyes.
"And just where do you think you are going, buster?" sneered the man. Natasha winced again when she saw 'manager' on his shirt tag.
"Unhand me, you oaf," spat Loki, and jerked his arm out of the man's grasp.
"Oaf!? That does it, you are coming with me!" snarled the man, and tried to reach for Loki again. Loki was quicker and sidestepped the man. That just made things worse. In failing to grab Loki the man turned his attention to Loki's cart, and tried to pull it back into the store. Loki grabbed the other side and pulled himself, causing the man to stumbled forward from Loki's overpowering strength. Instead of giving up like a sane person would do, the man had gotten a flash of determination in his eyes, and he grabbed the cart with both hands and jerked...hard.
Something flickered in Loki's eyes, and before Natasha could stop him he had let go of the cart, causing the man and cart to fall. Tea, and Natasha noticed a couple of bottles of honey, spilled out next to the fallen man.
"Loki," hissed Natasha, "What. have. you. done!?" Loki turned to her, a smirk playing on his lips.
"Well, he seemed so persistent, so I let him have it. His falling is from his own doing." Natasha gaped at him, willing herself not to smack him upside the head. The man had stumbled back to his feet, and apparently did not share Loki's insight of the situation, for he started to call security. Natasha looked from the mess, to Loki, and to the bag in her hands. She could not deal with this right now! Clint needed the soup.
"Loki. we have to go!" yelled Natasha, snatching the front of his shirt in her fist and dragging him forward. She was relieved when he willingly complied, and they both broke into a run. They did not slow down until the were back at the entrance of the tower.
"Loki! I do not know how they did it on Asgard, but here, things cost money," explained Natasha, trying to keep a lid on her aggravation and anger.
"Asgard was no different," coolly replied Loki as he entered the building and walked to the elevator, Natasha following suit.
"Then why? Why would you walk out with a cart full of things that you did not pay for?"
"I explained to the man standing guard at the entrance that I would come back with someone who could pay in due time. That I was short on time and had no money at the moment," sniffed Loki. Natasha just looked at him, then brought her free hand up to smack her forehead. Sighing, she pinched the bridge of her nose. "At least we got the soup. And you did not take anything, so no harm done." When she was met with silence she dropped her hand and looked at Loki.
"You...did not take anything...right?"
"Take...no. Borrowed is more the correct term, Romanoff."
"Loki!" exclaimed Natasha "What did you take? Give it here!" Reluctantly Loki produced a rather squashed box of tea and a small container of honey and put them in Natasha's outstretched hand. She looked at the two items, then up at Loki.
"It is suppose to help with this mundane ailment Clint has acquired," informed Loki, slightly mumbling his answer. Natasha was confused for all of two seconds before she put two and two together. Loki was, in his own way, trying to help Clint. Some of her anger dissipated with that thought.
"Okay, but...why did you want to get so much?" Loki scowled, and grew silent, so Natasha just sighed. "Well, I do not like that you took this. Tomorrow we are going back, and you are to apologize."
"That man should apologize to me," grumbled Loki, crossing his arms and looking very much like a little kid. Natasha gave him a look, and was about to scold him when the elevator dinged, doors opening to the main living area.
And to a very annoyed looking Tony. He crossed his arms, and gave them both a reproachful look.
" You guys took to long! Robin Hood in there missed the trash can and threw up all over my shoes! Next time, order soup from that Korean Restaurant down the block. They even deliver."
Natasha's eye twitched and seconds later Tony narrowly just missed getting hit in the head by the bag of soup.
Okay, so I did not know how to end this chapter. My mind has been focused on other things like jobs and college, so I did not put in as much effort into this as I should have :/ Oh wells~~ Haha, I kinda wanted to do a Loki and Natasha chapter, and this is what my mind produced. Product of being bored people~ :p
Review and rate please~ :D