A/N. Heyy :) So everyone seems to like JARVIS' POV. I'll probably put it in again sometime later in the story. Anyway, this chapter is just checking up on everyone before things get started but the main action will be happening with either Steve or Tania. Enjoy! :D

CHAPTER XI

Pepper sat on the bed in her hotel room working furiously on her laptop while speaking to someone via Bluetooth. She was in her business suit and very visibly stressed. Because of the stupid fact that it was Saturday, Arrow Industries had opted to continue the meeting on a business day; aka Monday. Originally, that was what Pepper had wanted. Now, all she wanted was to go back home and check up on Tania.

It was a little past four o'clock in the afternoon when a knock almost brought her entire door down and she jumped. "Lady Pepper, tis I, Thor, son of Odin. I have been sent by the Avengers to act as your protection." His voice boomed through the door and probably all around the entire hotel floor. She made a mental note to try and have Thor stay away from hotels in the future before getting up to let him in.

When she opened the door, the God of thunder himself stood in full battle armour in her doorway with the top of his head cut off from her view because he was so tall. "Hello Thor," she greeted warmly in her shock.

The demi-god crouched and walked into her room before straightening, just barely avoiding the ceiling when he stood at full height. "Tis very cramped in here," he observed.

She chuckled. "Maybe for you. Thor, what are you doing here?"

"I have already told you. I am here for your protection."

"That's sweet but I already have a protection detail. Happy's here and he's got eyes on everything."

"Then think of me as merely a plan of safety should your first response fail."

Pepper sighed. "Are there any others with you?" she asked hopefully, wondering if maybe Tony had come as well.

Thor shook his head. "I have come alone. Friends Tony, Steve, and Natasha have flown to a place called England while the others remain in the Tower of Avengers."

She tried not to let her disappointment show. "Oh, alright then. Um, we don't have any extra rooms and I don't know where you'll be staying."

"I shall venture to ask another to share their quarters." He started for the door again when Pepper stepped in front of him, preventing his exit.

"Uh, no I don't think that's a very good idea. Why don't we just go to the front desk and ask if they have a room on another floor?"

"If this, 'front desk' is another way of saying the people who manage this building, then yes, let us consult the front desk."

He stomped (probably unintentionally) out the door and down the hallway noisily. Pepper sighed. The other Stark employees were going to kill her before any murderer would. She followed him as quietly as she could down the corridor.

On a plane to England, Tony struggled with Natasha's hold on his chin. He wiggled and tried to wrench his face away but that woman was persistent and had an iron grip. She held him in place as she applied the makeup. He twitched again, causing the brush she was holding to smear across his nose.

"Hold still, Stark!" she ground through her teeth.

"Why don't you make me, Romanoff?"

"Do you I need to get out my tranquilizer?"

"Actually, I was thinking more of you straddling me with your perfect thighs."

She clapped her makeup brush against the palm of her other hand, creating a huge cloud of beige dust in Tony's face. He coughed and his eyes watered.

Steve watched, amused, from his seat across the aisle. His makeup was already on and he had to admit that the Russian had done a good job. He didn't even recognize himself anymore.

"Now don't move or you'll get a pencil to the eye," she warned Tony before grabbing the eyeliner.

The billionaire's eyes widened. "Nuh uh! Keep that thing away from me!"

"I'm not going to stab with you with it unless you keep struggling."

"What happened to Katniss' contacts? I thought we had professional makeup artists on stand-by?"

"Turns out this is faster. Now look up."

"Why would I do that when you're in front of me?"

She grabbed his chin and forced his head upward. "Stare at that ceiling until I tell you not to. Find something interesting on it and don't look away. Don't blink either."

"Kinda hart not to when there's powder in my EYE."

"Shut up and be a good victim."

"Steve! Help a guy out!"

"Sorry Tony, you're on your own."

"Aw come on!"

Natasha lowered his head and the genius obediently kept his eyes trained on the boring white ceiling of his private jet. "Don't move," she cautioned before popping off the cap to the eyeliner.

As she outlined his bottom lashes with the darkest black she could find in the kit provided by Clint's contacts, Natasha shifted positions so that she was kneeling to his right and mere inches away from his face.

Tony, for once, didn't dare talk for fear of her utensil mistakenly stabbing him in the eye. The other two passengers relished the silence.
Steve stared out the window, thinking back to his good-bye to Tania a few hours previous.

They hugged each other tightly on the helipad among the others. Tania whispered in his ear. "You better be back for my birthday, you hear?"

He chuckled. "Wouldn't miss it."

"Got anything planned?"

"Yes I do."

"Good. Now go kick some bad guy ass and come back as unscathed as humanly possible."

"I'll do my best."

She blew him a kiss. "I love you."

He grinned back at her. "I love you more."

She rolled her eyes as he stepped onto the jet. "That's what you think!" she called to him just before the doors closed.

It was true. He did have something planned for her birthday. It was their anniversary he had to worry about. He was going to take her out at night while she would take him out during the day. But where could he take her? He frowned. He had no idea. They'd already gone dancing, seen movies, played miniature golf, been to an amusement park, visited a museum, had dinner, went for walks in the park, participated in laser tag, gone shopping, been to a wedding, and probably so much more together. What else was there that they hadn't already done?

"Hey Tony?" he turned his attention to the eccentric philanthropist who had now been released from Natasha's grip on his face. "I know I'm probably going to regret this later, but do you know anywhere special I can take Tania for our anniversary? It has to be during the evening, preferably somewhere neither of us have been together before."

A smirk played across the former playboy's face as he sat up straight. "You've come to right guy, Cap'n Crunch." That's a new one. "I know this great bar that- oof!" Natasha elbowed him again. "Okay, fine! No bars or strip clubs. What about casinos? No? Oh yeah, Tania and the girls went to Vegas for Betty's bachelorette party. Okay, strike out casinos. How about… skiing?"

"Skiing?" Steve repeated.

"Yeah. It's winter. Why not? I'll send you both to Whistler in Vancouver and you can ski in the same place as the two thousand and ten Olympics!"

"I don't know Tony…"

"What? It's perfect! I own a chalet there you guys can borrow. Think about it! Cuddling up by the fire with hot chocolate after a day full of skiing or snowboarding, maybe even tobogganing… how 'bout it?"

Steve seemed to contemplate it for a few seconds. He turned to Natasha. "What do you think?"

"Don't look at me; I don't know anything about this stuff."

"But you're a dame. Would you like it if Clint took you skiing in… Vancouver, was it?"

"That's right. And… I don't know. I guess? We've never really… been on a date…"

"What?!" Tony exclaimed. This was apparently news to him as he stood up from his chair. "Okay! I have a new project. Operation Clintasha is now in the process of getting planned out."

Natasha groaned. "Tony, Clint and I don't need to date in order to-"

"Be in love, I know. I've been in love with Pepper for years and didn't even know it. But seriously? Not one date? You guys go all around the world for missions! How do you not have time to stop by at a restaurant and grab a bite to eat? Heck, even McDonald's counts!"

She shrugged. "It never really concerned us all that much. But we were talking about Steve and Tania's anniversary date, not mine."

"Fine. But I'm not forgetting this. I have an eidetic memory."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "To answer you, Steve, yes, I would like it if Clint took me to Whistler."

"It's a five our flight though. I suggest you stay overnight. Maybe for a few days, heck! Even a week!"

"I don't know Tony…"

"Come on Cap! It's perfect!"

Steve was silent for a rather long time before he turned back to them and smiled. "One condition. Not hot chocolate. Coffee."

Tania sat in the party deck, scrolling through news articles on her Stark tablet. She was all over the news. Her attack was everywhere she looked. Now that everyone knew who she was and what she meant to the Avengers, her private life had suddenly become almost nonexistent. The paparazzi knew her every move outside the Tower. It was annoying.

What bothered her the most though was probably the fact that everyone referred to her as Sonata and put her real name in brackets as if she had some alter ego. She was the same person! Hel-lo. She knew Tony must have leaked the name to the press, considering he came up with it first. Luckily, she and Clint had already pranked him by making him think someone had stolen his arc reactor in his sleep. That was before he had gotten it removed. His reaction had been priceless.

But even though the name itself was growing on her, she was still adamant that she wasn't a super hero. Betty and Bruce's marriage was also all over the news. Why wasn't Betty considered a super hero? Okay, sure, Tania had accompanied the Avengers on a few missions here and there and calmed down the Hulk but she was positive that Betty could calm him down just as efficiently.

Singing was not a super power. She wasn't even that good. She was decent enough to break someone's eardrums and her range wasn't even that large. There were a lot of decent singers out there. Yeah, she sang in Latin, but she had no idea what she was saying or if she was even pronouncing everything correctly.

She had no costume or catch phrase or alter ago. She wasn't anyone's sidekick and she wasn't an agent. She was just a business woman who was dating Captain America. Why couldn't the tabloids just accept that? JEEZ.

She sighed and closed the window on the tablet before setting it down on the counter. Maybe she could hold a press conference and tell everyone that she wasn't a superhero. Pepper could come along as well as tell everyone she wasn't one either.

She opened up a new page in the NOTE app on her tablet before she started typing. With nothing much to do and quite possibly a murderer wanting to kill her, Tania distracted herself with work. Like Pepper, when she had something important on her plate, she often became engrossed in her work and didn't stop until she got it done. Tony had once said it was something he shared with her as well.

So for the next hour and forty-five minutes, she sat there on the uncomfortable bar stool and tapped away at her device, working, planning, organizing, video chatting Pepper on how everything was going, more working, planning, and organizing.

As the sky darkened outside, Graham waltzed in dressed in a pair of dark-wash jeans, a white collared T-shirt and a black leather jacket, twirling his keys around his finger. He tossed them onto the counter beside his sister and she jumped, spinning around to see who it was before relaxing.

"Hey," she greeted before going back to work.

Graham frowned and leaned on the counter next to her. "Hay is for horses."

She rolled her eyes without ceasing her typing. "You know what I meant. What's up?"

"We're going out."

She stopped and looked up at him. "Out?"

He nodded. "Yup. My old roommate always said he wanted to meet you and I thought, why not right now? Neither of us are doing anything."

"Why not right now? How about there's some guy out there bent on my death?"

"Don't worry, we've got comms. Loosen up, sis. We're not even going that far. We're going to a restaurant just down the street to have dinner."

"I don't know…"

"Aw come on! We don't ever do anything anymore! I'm always swamped with schoolwork and you're always busy with regular work or hanging with the Avengers. There's never just you and me anymore, brother and sister by actual blood. That's why we need to go do something. Just you and me."

"I thought your friend was coming with?"

"Just for a bit. He can't stay long."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, he has a date later tonight but he said he can squeeze us in."

"I feel so special," she deadpanned.

"Come on, sis, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?"

"Graham…." She whined.

"If it makes you feel any better, we can have Clint follow us in the shadows as long as he doesn't interrupt. I'll take what I can get."

She sighed. "Fine. You're obviously not going to let up so I'll go. Just let me grab my jacket and I'll come with you."

Graham whooped and did a little victory dance which she laughed at. "You're almost as bad as Steve at dancing."

He stuck his tongue out at her. "Nuh uh!"

"Yeah huh!"

"Nuh uh!"

"How old are you again?"

He smirked cheekily. "Twenty-three."

She blinked. "Holy crap! You're graduating this year!"

He nodded with pride. "Yup! I'm totally on my way to being an architect."

"Wow…" she wrinkled her nose. "You're old."

He laughed. "Nope. I'm still a kid at heart."

"You can say that again."

"I'm still a kid at heart."

"Haha."

"Come on, let's go." He threw an arm around her and steered her toward the elevator when they were interrupted by JARVIS.

"I'm sorry, Mr. and Miss Banks, but I have explicit orders from Agent Barton and Dr. Banner not to let anyone leave this Tower without their permission."

Tania sighed. "Well then could you please ask them for permission, then?"

"Yes, Miss Banks."

The siblings continued on into the elevator. "They'd better say yes or I'm going to have a hell of a time convincing them to let us go," Graham muttered under his breath.

"Agent Barton has given his permission, however Doctor Banner is against it."

"Works for me! Let's go!" The elevator doors closed.