Chapter Eight:

A Deer or a Goat?

Aph sat on a bench by herself, alone, watching her younger sister's play with their friends. She sat there alone because her siblings and their friends had excluded her from the game. She didn't mind though, liking the quietness that surrounded her on the empty bench. She didn't need friends to survive, like her sisters did, or anyone by that matter. She was always alone from the day she could remember. Her father always paid more attention to her sister's and she rarely ever saw her mother. Her mother was a very busy woman all the time but when she finally had spare time she would always see her little Aphrodite first. But other than that Aph was always alone, learning how to read on her own, how to dress on her own, and how to act in certain situations. Her books were her teachers and friends, they taught her much about life and how it worked. She suddenly felt an arm wrap around her shoulders and Aph smiled as she wrapped her arms around her mother in a tight hug. "Mom!"

Her mother laughed and hugged her back even more tightly. "Aphrodite, my little baby, I missed you so much!" She let go of her and kissed her forehead.

"I thought you were going to come next week?" Aph asked her, not letting go of her mother's arm.

"I had a day off today," her mother replied and then rubbed her hair back saying, "why aren't you playing with your sisters?"

Aph frowned slightly as she replied, "They don't want me to play with them."

Her mother frowned as well and pulled her daughter into another hug. She knew exactly well why her sisters didn't want to play with her and it hurt her. "Aphrodite, I don't want you to feel left out. You are a very special little girl."

"I'm too special, mom." Aph replied quietly against her mother's chest. At age four Aph understood how gravity worked, how the earth revolved around the sun, how atoms worked, so she knew exactly what special meant to her. She knew she was much different than any other child her age, but what she didn't understand was why? Why couldn't she just have been a normal toddler who barely knew how write their name on a paper? Aph could write a full blown essay at her age, perfectly needless to say. Not to mention she had found more things she can do now, things a normal human adult could never do in their life span.

"Just because you are so special Aphrodite, it doesn't mean you can't play with them. Go talk to them and be friends with your sister's friends." Her mother tried to encourage her.

Aph pulled away from her hug and said, "I don't want friends, mom."

Her mother smiled sadly as she caressed Aph's cheek, "You must have friends, Aphrodite. Being alone all the time is not healthy, especially for someone like you. If you don't have friends you won't know how to socialize later in life, or how to act like a normal human."

"Mom," Aph said seriously then, "I'm four and I already act like a normal human. I know how to socialize and I know how to behave, but no one wants to understand me. I'm not a child anymore...at least not mentally."

Her mother sighed in response and for a moment she stayed quite. Then she smiled at Aph again and said, "You are right, you are not a child anymore. But you must have friends, even just one. You'll be surprised how just one friend can change your whole life for the better. And when you find that one friend that you need, never let them go because you will need that person and they will need you."

For the first time Aph didn't understand something. How could a person need another person? One person can help themselves, like she helped herself all the time, so she didn't need to help another person or someone help her. She was fine on her own and she will always be; she needn't no one in her life.

"Wake up," her mother said.

Aph stared at her confused, "What?" But instead of looking at her mother she looked at the sun as it exploded in her eyes in a white flash. Aph winced and covered her eyes with her arm and then opened them again.

She stared into the faces of the Avengers as they laughed down at her. Tony was right above her with his phone as he took another picture. Aph winced again as she closed her eyes and flipped onto her stomach to hide her vulnerable face from the flashes. Aph was ok with Tony taking pictures of her in the morning but what she wasn't ok with was waking up early in the morning. She knew it must've been about six or seven in the morning and she was not an early riser at all.

"Wake up, sleepy head! We have to go." Tony said ceasing his laughter and putting his phone away in his pocket.

Aph groaned painfully as picked her head up from the couch, "What time is it?"

"Six thirty." Clint replied chuckling.

Aph had guessed the time correctly. Sitting up on the ouch with another groan, she stretched and looked around her. "Where's the god?"

"Reindeer games?"

"Yeah," Aph replied to Tony. "That one."

Tony chuckled as he said, "He already left with his brother down to the lobby."

Aph eyed him suspiciously because of his chuckle. "What are you still laughing about?" She wanted to know, now, why she had been rudely awakened with laughter and pictures. Was she snoring with her mouth open?

This just made the others laugh again and walk out of the room leaving Tony and Aph alone. With a grin on his face Tony said, "Nothing to worry about! How about you get up now and do your girly business so we can leave already. We start work at eight."

Aph rubbed the grit out from the corners of her eyes and stood to head to the bathroom. She was too tired to deal with what had just happened. Once out of the bathroom, she groggily walked out of the hotel and into the limo. Inside the limo was Thor, Loki, and Bruce only. She wondered where the other three had gone. But she was so tired at the moment that she didn't care and just plopped herself in a seat away from the others, and rested her head on the side of the car. She sighed and closed her eyes, hoping that she could fall asleep again.

The car ride was quiet and comforting but it brought no more sleep to Aph. So she focused on her dream instead. That was the first time she had dreamed about her mother and when she really thought about it, it was a memory from her past and not a dream. She didn't like to dwell in the past so Aph never really remembered memories unless it was needed. She just wondered why she had dreamt that memory though, when her sisters hadn't let her play tag with them. And till now she still didn't understand how one person could help the other with friendship. Aph had always and still helps herself, needing no one. But...just perhaps, she really did want a friend now? After so many years being alone and doing everything alone, did she crave company now? She scoffed in her head, nonsense she thought, she didn't need a friend and she never would. She would prefer to be alone until the day she dies. The limo stopped and she opened her eyes, pushing the memory and thoughts about a friend back into their hiding spot in her mind. Looking out the window she saw Tony's Stark Tower in all it's glory, glimmering from the rising sun.

"Pretty nice, uh?" Tony said to her with a proud smile plastered on his face.

"Eh," she replied, "just another grey building in New York."

"It's not just another building, this one has my name on it!" He replied as he pointed out the window to the Stark letters on the building.

Aph gave him a look that screamed at him 'seriously', and she pushed passed him and out the limo. She stretched as she saw the others walk into the building as if they had already been there. "Have they been here already?" She couldn't help but ask.

Tony nodded as he walked out the limo, "Yup, actually we almost practically live here. Except for point break when he comes to visit from Asjard."

"Asgard," Aph corrected angrily for some reason. "So I take it Loki lives here or does Shield have a place for him."

"He lives with me," he sounded annoyed as he said it, "Fury thought I can keep a close eye on him." He shot his eyebrows up with a nervous smile. The look told Aph that he rarely kept an eye on Loki, or on his own things for that matter. She didn't care though, Loki or his things were not her problem.

Following Tony into the tower she remembered she still had the device he had given her. Getting it out of her pocket she handed it to him as they entered an elevator. He pushed the button for the fortieth floor and then somewhat glared at Aph. Aph was used to getting glares all the time, but with reason, and this time she couldn't remember what she had done wrong. Had she offended him in some way? Because if she had she was glad, but if she didn't then what did she do?

"JARVIS told me you didn't want to learn the basics. What I do is seriously top-notch technology, hot-head. I won't stop my work to teach you."

Aph was about to reply that she knew how the universe worked and how it was created, even planning to go into detail. But just yesterday she found out gods existed along with eight other realms. She clearly did not know how the universe worked, she only know how her world worked. "Don't worry, Stark. Look at it this way, if I mess up then that means I won't have to work for you anymore. As if I wanted to in the first place."

"And my top-notch technology isn't for you to steal. I've already told JARVIS to keep an extra close on eye on you, so don't try anything funny." He warned her now, too. He had a feeling she wouldn't mess up like she said because she had a big ego just as him. She wouldn't dare show anyone she wasn't capable of doing something. But he did kind of get the feeling that she might want information on his ARC reactor. It's bad enough one person had already built it and Tony only thanked the gods that the man died.

Aph scoffed and tapped on his ARC reactor, "I don't want to know anything about this little toy, Stark. I have my own idea and my idea makes this thing right here look like a child's toy. If it just wasn't for this..." She snapped up her wrist for him to see the bracelet. "The world would be in palms now."

"That's the first time I hear you say you want to the rule world," he smirked at her, "what's the reason for it? Daddy issues like reindeer games?" He said this just as the doors to the elevator opened in the lobby and Loki got an earful of Tony's words.

"Yes," Aph replied without denying it, "I had daddy issues, so what? I'm sure you had them too, Stark."

"I did," Tony said without denying it as well and then whistled as he twirled his finger on the side of his head. "But I didn't go bonkers like you two."

"I'm not crazy," she almost yelled at him as she followed him out the elevator, "you don't see me wearing an antler helmet! And sure as hell you won't see me trying to take over the world looking like a possessed deer!" Catching Loki's glowered face and his presence in the lobby she stopped following Tony and said to Loki, "Don't get me wrong, if that helmet is made of pure gold then awesome. But it still made you look like a possessed deer trying to take over the world."

"They are horns," Loki corrected her.

"Oh, so you're a goat then and not a deer." Aph couldn't help but say with a grin.

"Neither!" Loki replied with acid in his voice as he turned and sat on a couch giving his back to her.

Turning her head to find Tony she saw him walk into the kitchen that was connected with the lobby. Tony was serving himself a cup of coffee as she walked in. Aph remembered the rule that she was not allowed to touch his pot of coffee, but she knew she was going to do more than touch it later to get on his nerves. If there was something she didn't like was being called crazy. She sat on one of the bar stools behind the counter island and watched as Tony drank his coffee pure black. Tony caught her looking at his cup of coffee, and setting the his cup of coffee on the counter he slid it over to her. Aph caught the white mug in her hands easily and stared down into the dark liquid. She knew he had let her try the coffee because first, she was staring at it and wondered how is tasted and second, he wanted to find a way to tease her. Finally taking a sip herself, her face instantly wrinkled up and grimaced at the strong and bitter flavor. Tony burst into laughter at her reaction and without hesitating Aph slid him back the coffee across the counter.

"Let's get to work already," Aph said as flicked her tongue inside her mouth, hoping the taste would go away quicker. But after a couple of seconds Aph knew the taste would remain on her mouth all day. At least the bitterness is gone, she thought as still grimaced a little.

Tony was still laughing as he said, "Alright, into the elevator!"