Escape (An Avengers fanfiction) [ON HOLD]

Chapter Sixteen

Lunch ends and I follow Thor and Steve to the room where I'll be having my history class. They sit opposite of me at the table and look awkwardly at me. Steve clears his throat, "Okay, so um, I guess if you don't mind, we could start with World War II. As everyone knows, I helped with taking down Hydra, an organization that made powerful weapons for the Nazis." "Powered by the Tesseract, one of the infinity stones. The Tesseract is extremely powerful and can be used for mass destruction if in the wrong hands," Thor fills in. "The stone now is locked away in Asgard, one of the nine realms and my home. This realm is Midgard. The other seven are Alfheim, Jötunheim, Svartalfheim, Vanaheim, Niflheim, Muspellheim, and Helheim."

Thor taps the table top, and a hologram of a large tree pops up. "All the realms are connected by the world's tree, Yggdrasil." He finishes and Steve takes over. He talks about the second World War until Jarvis announces for me to go to my next class. I start to walk out, but run back and hug them both, catching them off guard. They stiffen then sandwich me in a bone-crushing hug for a few seconds. I follow Jarvis' instructions to my next class.

Pepper and Loki wait in the greenhouse area, a beautiful glass dome with every type of plant you could think of growing. I'm admiring a rose bush when Pepper comes up from behind me. "I asked Tony to put this in when he remodeled the building. He got every plant he could get his hands on. It's a nice place to relax in." I look around and smile. "I didn't even know this was here. I may have found my new favourite room." She laughs, "You and me both. I'm in here whenever I can be."

We go over to the wicker furniture, where Loki sits reading Romeo and Juliet. He gives an irritated glance which softens when I smile.

"Ready to start today's lesson?" Pepper asks, looking from Loki to me, a hint of suspicion in her eyes. I sit at the smaller chair and get out my pencil case. "Today we're going to start on the basi-" Pepper is cut off by a frantic Steve who runs in. "Sorry to interrupt ma'am, but we have a problem downstairs." Pepper stands up quickly and Loki and I look at each other, confused. "What happened?" We all ask at the same time.

Steve glances back, worried. "The uh, two are back and they brought some stuff with them."

"Don't we have enough to hold them back?" Pepper asks. Steve nods, "We do. But they have technology we thought was gone forever. We'll have to improvise. In the meantime, hide her," he says pointing to me. "And keep her safe." He runs out right before something hits the glass dome surrounding the greenhouse, sending glass shards flying everywhere. Pepper grabs my arm and we all run to safety, Loki following behind quickly. We get halfway to the kitchen when the building shakes again. I look up in time to see Tony in his Iron Man suit whiz past the window.

"Loki, take Anna to her room and keep her safe. I'm going to go down to the basement and contact Fury." Pepper demands. Loki nods and leads me to my room quickly.

We get to my room and he locks the door behind us while I run to the window to see what's going on down on the ground. All I can see are two people firing weapons at six people, the Avengers. One of the two looks up at the tower, searching for something. Loki pulls me away from the window and tugs the curtains closed. "What are you doing?!"he shouts while shaking my shoulders roughly. "They could've seen you! Then what? They'd try to take you away from us, from me!"

His sudden harshness and raised voice scares me and I start crying. He takes a step toward me, "Anna I-I'm sorry, I'm just worried. I didn't mean to raise my voice." He reaches toward me and I flinch back. Hurt flashes in his eyes as he takes a step back. "Is there anything I can do? I can heat up something." Loki offers. I nod at the mention of food.

He walks to my little kitchenette and opens the cabinet where I store my candy, grabs a chocolate bar and tosses it to me. I catch it and peel off the wrapper. Loki watches me carefully as I take a bite. "I'm not mad if that's what you're wondering. I just got a little scared." I say, trying to get rid of the awkward silence. He smiles gently, "Great, I thought you hated me." I finish my chocolate and walk over to hug him. He holds me for a few minutes and then picks me up.