This chapter is long overdue. Sorry about that.

It's been a week since the Manwich incident (as it was lovingly dubbed by Iris), and Lauren couldn't help but feel a bit restless. Admittedly the Manwich incident did make her restless, with embarrassment, exasperation, and maybe a bit of arousal (the two were unfairly attractive sue her). She was still a fully functioning young woman – thank you very much. But that wasn't the cause of her restlessness at that particular moment.

Her restlessness was because of a certain package that was set to be delivered any minute now. She already received the courier's notice that the package was to be dropped off that day. It was already midday – so it should arrive any minute now. The fact that she had no idea what the package contained and who sent it just added to her nerves. It couldn't be Iris. She had other means to send a package, discreetly. Not to mention that if it was her she would've told her outright. It couldn't be her family either since they only sent stuff using relatives who lived in other states.

"Ms. Grimms, there's a package for you." Friday's voice brought her out of her musing. Just in time to prevent her thoughts from spiraling.

Friday helpfully informed her that the communal would be the best place to open the package. It made her wonder what kind of security measures the place had – and for what reasons. Hulk reasons maybe? Or Thor? It wasn't really relevant to the situation. So, she agreed to receive the package in the communal.

After making sure that Friday already called whoever was free to the communal as back-up. In case things exploded in her face. Hopefully not literally. Friday already assured her that there wasn't anything explosive in the package but it didn't stop the morbid thoughts from filtering in.

When she arrived at the communal she was met by a wiry young man who had curly brown hair and matching brown eyes.

"Hi – so, uhm – are you Lauren Grimms?" The young man? – god damn she felt old saying that – shyly asked her.

"Yup! I think you have something of mine?" Lauren teased. She couldn't help but grin when the boy – young man, she really wasn't sure – remembered the package he held and fumbled to hand it over.

She was impressed that despite his fumbling the package didn't seem to jostle. The bright shade of red that his face took on was just a tad more impressive though.

"So who do I have to thank for this?"

"Happy signed it off for you but Mr. Stark asked him to do something so…"

She raised an eyebrow at the young man's – because she couldn't guess his age and she'd really rather not – rambling. She wasn't normally this … mean … but after all the embarrassment she suffered the previous week she felt justified to dole out some teasing herself.

"Uhm, yeah…" She maintained her pointed look to get her point across to him. "Oh… Oh! You meant me. You were asking for my name! Sorry… Uhm, sorry. Peter. Peter Parker, ma'am."

She shook his hand and gave him a large smile after taking her package off his hands. "Thank you, Peter. You must be Tony's intern then? Your name comes up a lot whenever Tony and Bruce talk."

Peter Parker, she learned, was a genius on par of Tony. It explained why he was already an intern at whatever age he was… The point was he was fucking smart. They made a bit of small talk about his schooling and internship while they waited for someone from the team. She could sort of understand the project he was working on with Tony – thanks to Greez. It boiled down to them trying to work on making the Iron Man suit better and possibilities to build a version of it for each Avenger.

They were about to start talking about Sci-Fi movies when James and Sam entered the communal. They both greeted Peter enthusiastically, James more so than Sam. They seemed close – in a way that reminded her of two troublesome siblings and their long time baby sitter.

So, with the presence of two Avengers and Friday's clearance of the package – which just meant that it wasn't something explosive that was already discovered, but you never knew – Lauren started to open the package.

Her eyes skimmed over the parcel information and cut the bag open. Once she got the thing out of the outer plastic bag, she couldn't stop the groan that escaped her and the urge to facepalm.

It was a rectangular box that was wrapped in blue-grey wrapping paper dotted with white pawprints. She hadn't bothered to check the sender but based on the wrapping paper she already had an idea. To her exasperation, when she re-checked the sticker on the outer plastic was the name of the sender, or rather the lack of name of the sender. It came from a pet grooming studio in Japan whose owner she knew. He should've known better than to send her packages out of the blue. She briefly wondered how he even knew her present address but that question was quickly forgotten when she felt the stares boring into her. She sighed, muttering "Why me?" before proceeding to tear off the wrapping paper off the box that revealed a dark wooden box and a notecard that just said "Congratulations".

The box had a simple latch that she flipped open to reveal a gun.

A mother fucking gun.

Admittedly it was a gun she had admired one time many summers ago, mostly because of its aesthetic but also because of second-hand accounts of its reliability. But still... Why the fuck would anyone send her a gun across the world? Why would that eccentric, perverted, gray-haired person send her a fucking gun? He really should've known better.

The papers tucked under the gun told her that – somehow – he was able to get all the clearances for her to own a gun and carry said gun with her… from across the world. What the fricking fuck?

Just as she was going to cuss the sender out for making her life so troublesome Tony Stark announced himself by saying:

"Why is there a non-Stark weapon in my building?"

Because, of course, all security and Avengers were fitted with Stark Industries Technology. A weapon of unknown origin would raise flags. She also had the feeling that Tony was also curious about who had the balls to anonymously send a package to a resident of the Avengers Tower. Fan mail did not count.

She didn't – couldn't – answer him though. She was still stricken by the gun before her. All the eccentricities of the sender did not answer why he would send a mother fucking gun across the world. But at the same time, it sort of did.

She pushed the questions away to study the engraving on the left grip panel. It looked to be an odd but simple tribal spiral that had two tails going opposite directions pointing to the top and bottom of the handle. She had no clue as to why it was engraved on the gun or what it could possibly mean. She filed the question away for later with a mental note to also cuss out and thank the sender when she had the time.

Tony repeated his question. As the owner of the building he had the right to know and needed answers else, he did… something. She had no idea what he'd do if she didn't answer him and she didn't want to find out. So she tried her best to explain.

"I'm really sorry about all the trouble and worry this caused Tony. I have a very troublesome friend-slash-sort-of-brother-slash-mentor who really should know better. But apparently, he decided that sending me a gun as a graduation gift was a brilliant idea. He's a mother fucking little shit for sending it out of the blue and I have no fucking clue to how he even knew that I live here. So I'm really, really sorry about this... If I knew beforehand I would've warned you. "

She should probably tone down the cussing because there was a (possible) minor in the room but she was feeling too many conflicting emotions to really care. Tony seemed to accept her explanation. He hadn't even bothered to ask if she had a license for the weapon and just left after he absently commented on the listed sender with an amused smirk. "Mother fucking indeed."

She would later realize that Tony could read and probably also speak Japanese and made sure to remembered to store that little fact at the forefront of her mind.

Peter, who looked torn between wanting to stay and following after his mentor, followed him out after some subtle encouragement from Sam, who was eager to separate James and Peter for some reason.

Sam and James decided to stick around after James sheepishly asked Lauren for snacks that she gladly provided. They were both obviously curious about the gun and why she was gifted one. Which she readily explained when Sam asked.

"Remember I told you that my family used to spend summers near military training camps? Marksmanship was part of the stuff they decided to teach me. The one who sent this taught me how to handle a gun better. Before him, I only knew how to fire and safely handle a gun but could barely hit the bullseye."

Her explanation seemed to make him more curious but he didn't ask further. James on the other hand had a mischievous look in his eye. She had a feeling that she'll be spending some time in the Tower's firing range soon.

Just when she was convinced that the gun would be the last surprise of the day, Friday informed her that someone had dropped something off for her once again. She didn't receive any notification of a second package arriving for her. So of course her two companions were put on edge once again.

People should really stop sending her stuff without telling her.

With a heavy sigh, she told Friday to have it brought up to the communal. After making sure that the package was already scanned and deemed safe, a member of the Tower's security team brought it up and handed it over without a word.

It was another wooden box. It had no notable features. It was closed with a sliding panel. It didn't have any stamps or stickers that told them of its source. James offered to open it up, just in case.

The wooden panel didn't trigger anything. Which was expected but still. Inside was something wrapped in a grey silk cloth patterned with brown branches that spread out and were dotted with dark green leaves nestled in wood shavings. On top of the cloth sat a note.

Just in case

- Cervus

The note earned her raised eyebrows from her companions. Sam had a cheeky look and James had a knowing look that just told her that she was not going to live this down.

"Another graduation gift?" Sam teased.

Lauren ignored them in favor of checking what was inside the silk wrapping. From the shape of it, she already had an inkling to what it contained. It warmed her chest in excitement and fondness. She missed her kendo days when her hands and feet had callouses from handling the shinai and practicing footwork.

Untying the wrapping revealed what looked to be two wooden tanto. Closer inspection revealed that one had a blade but its sheath and handle were cleverly carved to look like one whole piece.

"That's a pretty expensive gift from someone who's just a friend," James commented.

"Lauren, if this doesn't tell you that this Cervus guy has a thing for you I don't know what will," Sam added in with a huge grin.

"That dude from the bookstore has his work cut out for him." James teased. Sam agreed with his statement by wiggling his eyebrows at her.

"Damn girl, you're getting more attention than us, and we're the superheroes. What's your secret?"

Lauren could only groan in reply and half-heartedly tell them to shut up.

If they found out that bookstore guy and Cervus was one person… She had a feeling the teasing would be worse than whatever Iris could muster. Although it did make her think.

Cervus wasn't the type to casually send gifts. Hell, their group of friends rarely exchanged gifts, more content to spend time together either through video calls or get-togethers. Him sending… a gift? Care package? Something… must mean something? It could be that he was just worried about her. It could also be that it was a group thing, but then, only he signed the note. She really didn't want to assume but her mind sort of already did judging by the warming of her cheeks.

While she was busy deciphering what the package could mean Sam and James already went off somewhere – leaving her alone with her thoughts.

She recognized that what she felt for him wasn't strictly platonic. He was a great guy. Incredibly smart, caring, and funny in his own way. After getting to know him she found herself looking for his advice and conversation. So yeah, maybe she did had feelings for him but it wasn't anything romantic. Surely it was just admiration? Not… love. Point is, it wasn't anything that would push her to want a relationship with the guy. No matter how much she found herself smiling throughout their conversations and her gravitating towards him whenever he was near.

She shook her head of her thoughts. Silence was bad. It made her think too much and too deeply. She didn't feel like going back to her room just to listen to music. Surely, Tony had all sorts of music in Friday's system stored away. If that didn't work out there was always the internet. The communal had an impressive sound system and it would be a shame to not use it. After asking Friday to play whatever, she made her way to one of the couches and set herself comfortably to just listen and enjoy the music. A few songs later she started to mouth the lyrics of most of the songs while the rain started to pour down. The pitter-patter of the raindrops adding to the relaxing atmosphere she found herself in.

A few minutes go by and the rain started to escalate quickly. The sound of the rain and wind hitting the tall windows grew so loud that it drowned the music out. She didn't want to play so loudly so she looked around for a headset so she could hear the music better. She ended up finding one. It was the noise-canceling kind that inevitably made her sing louder than she usually did. Not that she noticed. She was also too busy browsing to even notice how bad the weather became and then suddenly just stopped.

It's pretty obvious who's coming up in the next chapter. The original plan was to have him appear here but well, it sort of felt right to cut it off before then.

Also, I'm already starting to in blatant clues to what fandom this fic sort of cross overs with. Virtual chocolate chip cookies to whoever already figured it out before this. Hope you enjoyed it!