The Secret Asgardian (An Avengers Fanfiction)

Chapter 22: Thoughts

22. Thoughts

The drive back was oddly silent. There were no jokes from Tony, and no sarcastic remarks about them from me. When we got back, I didn't see Stark again for the rest of the day. 

Nick, Thor, Diana and I all sat together for dinner at six before retiring to various rooms. I went to my favourite room, the top floor room, and gazed up at the ceiling from the couch, looking at the sky as stars began to slowly appear. 

I tried to make sense of my thoughts and feelings but couldn't. I felt ill when I tried to comprehend them, and soon gave up caring. 

"Aren't you going to bed?" I asked Thor tiredly, sensing his presence from near the lift and not bothering to look over. I hadn't heard the lift ping in my distant state. 

"I can't sleep," He admitted, sitting beside me. I didn’t reply, and he sighed.

"What’s wrong, Eldrid?" You seem ... preoccupied."

A vacant smile crossed my lips briefly. 

"That's one way to put it."

He waited, his concerned blue eyes trained on me. 

"Have you ever met someone on Earth who has made you ... feel differently? Like a new sensation or emotion?" I struggled to word how I felt, but my uncle looked liked be understood.

"Yes, I have. She's called Jane, a scientist, and the first human that ever ran me over in her car… twice.” 

I smiled wearily. 

"Uncle, why is everything so complicated on Earth?" I whined suddenly, and he chuckled softly. 

"You'll get used to it."

"I've been here about twenty years and I still haven't got used to it,” I muttered.

"But have you spent twenty years feeling like you do?" He asked wisely. 

"No," I said reluctantly. 

"Well then, trust me. I know how you feel - I think. I don't know who you feel this for -"

"Neither do I," I grumbled in a low voice, but he didn't hear me. 

 "-But you'll get used to these new emotions ... eventually. And then you'll grow to understand them as I now do." 

Later that night, as I was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, I heard a noise. It was the sound of the lift. 

I waited for a moment, before jumping out of bed and pulling jeans and a top on. I stopped and debated whether to put a cardigan on, then decided I would. I’d realised that Scotland was nearly always cold. 

I knew that the elevator had been going up. It was hard to explain, but with my extraordinary hearing it was easy to distinguish the quietist and most similar of different sounds, and the lift sounded slightly different going up then it did going down. I hopped in.

"JARVIS which floor did the lift go to just then?"

"The top floor, Miss Eldrid."

"Thank you."

"I live to serve."

I pressed the button and waited patiently, unconsciously brushing through my hair with my fingers. 

I walked out into the dark room, illuminated only by the moonlight streaming in through the window. I scanned the room, saw it was empty, and was about to leave when I saw a shadow of a figure on the balcony through the window. I approached the sliding door cautiously, before gripping the handle on pulling it across.

Just as I opened it, Tony fell backwards over the edge, arms spread out and eyes closed. My heart literally stopped beating as I watched him fall in slow motion. I gasped in shock, and ran to the side, looking over the railings in fear. There wasn’t enough time for me to grab him. However, he didn’t look as scared as I would have been if it had been me falling off the edge of a 93 storey tower. Something shot out of the room behind me, following Tony’s fall, and it began to mould itself onto him when it reached him. It was his Iron Man suit, folded up like a travel edition. In a matter of seconds, he was suited up, and rocketed back up. He hovered in the air before me, and I knew he was smirking.

“That was the most reckless thing I have ever seen in my life,” I said angrily, and he stared back at me with the glowing eyes of his suit.

“I needed to test my new suit,” He said in amusement.

“By falling off the side of a building?” I asked dryly.

“Pretty much, yeah.”

He landed back on the balcony, the face of the suit lifting.

“What’s up, firefly?”

I sighed and looked away. The balcony looked out over the city and the estuary.

“Nothing.”

When he didn’t reply, I glanced back at him and found him studying me with a scrutinising expression.

“What?” I asked slowly.

“Nothing.”

I fought not to, but my lips twitched into a reluctant smile.

“I was just about to try the new suit out – I upgraded the boosters and-” He stopped himself, and the smiled ruefully, “Care to join me?”

Tempting as it was to improve my own flying skills, I turned the offer down with a grateful smile.

“Suite yourself,” He winked, helmet flipping down again, and shot into the air.

I contented myself to sitting on a luxury deckchair that was out on the balcony. Obviously Tony had misjudged British weather big time.

I watched Iron Man dive and spin, trying out various moves with his new thrusters. It was amusing to watch him rocket around in the sky like a shooting star, trying out this button and that switch.

At one point he shot a tiny missile, no bigger than a dart, into the air. I watched it sceptically, until it reached a few miles up in the sky and suddenly it exploded. The blast was colossal, and I could feel the heat it created from where I was sat, and I automatically winced. Whoever’s name was on a missile like that would definitely not live to tell the tale.

As I watched him, the seat began to grow comfier with every second, and my eyes began to drift shut. I struggled to keep them open as time ticked on, but at last I gave up.

A little while later, I had a vague memory of being carried. Blearily, I opened my eyes slightly, half asleep, and I snuggled up to the person’s chest, sighing in content as I felt warmth. It had been icy outside. I heard a soft chuckle, and felt myself smile as I fell asleep once more.

When I woke up in the morning, I was in my bed, still wearing the same clothes, but the covers had been pulled over me.

Maybe Tony Stark wasn’t as self-obsessed and intolerable as I had once thought. I smiled to myself.

Tony Stark, the enigma within a mystery. 

Would I ever find out who he really was?