Now I wouldn't say I avoided Loki after that, but it had been a week and I still hadn't seen him. Work was very busy, I was making sure each intern got settled in and now that most of the Avengers were back from their mission reports had to be made to SHIELD. Yes, I was sleeping in my room now, no longer staying in the penthouse like I usually did.
I had my own room on a pretty much otherwise empty floor, I might as well use it.
As I was seated in my office, which I definitely did not con Tony into giving me, I worked on the weekly update report for each intern. I would have to have a meeting with some of the team leads to finalize the plan for what the intern would be doing this semester and meet with the intern to see how their week was going.
A knock sounded on my door, which was already open. Looking up I called out, "Come in," looking up to meet the brown eyes of Peter.
"Hello, Ms. Gomez," Peter said, a bit nervous and with a timid smile.
Smiling back, since there was no way I could be anything but happy while seeing him I gestured for him to come in, "Peter, what a pleasant surprise. Please, close the door behind you."
Closing the door, Peter walked in and took a seat in front of my desk, "Now, what can I do for you?"
Biting his lip, Peter seemed tense as he moved around on the chaid, "Peter, is something bothering you?" It had only been a week, barely enough time to get to know anyone yet. Surely he couldn't be having trouble with another inter or worker already?
"No, not at all," He said quickly, "It's just. I'm so grateful to have this opportunity and I know it's an honor to be chosen when I'm so young and inexperienced. You probably had so many more qualified people, so truly thank you for giving me this chance. Oh my, why did I think this was a good idea..." He started mumbling to himself and I opened up a drawer to take out some chocolate I kept for emergencies.
"Peter, breathe," I said, handing him a chocolate. He grabbed it, mumbling a thanks, "Now, what exactly do you want to tell me?"
Peter seemed to settle himself and looked at me, "I saw the plan for the next couple months. It mostly has me shadowing and helping here and there with the project of the other interns. I know that I have no official experience to show, but I think it would be much more helpful for me to have my own project."
Opening his bag he took out a folder and handed it to me, "These are some blueprints for plans that I have made. They're very rough and the technology behind them is experimental, but I'm sure with the right tools I could get them to work-" I knew that he would keep talking and I didn't want to make him even more nervous so I just stared at him with a small smile and hummed. He stopped talking and blushed all the way down his neck.
"Thank you, Peter." That was all I said and he looked so crestfallen. I tried not to smile, it was a bit fun to bully him.
Alright, it was really fun. But just some light teasing, nothing that would actually hurt him. He waved goodbye as he left, not even noticing that I had kept the blueprints.
* * *
That afternoon I went up to Tony's office, blueprints in hand. Knocking on his door, I opened it after hearing a 'come in' and was greeted with the sight of Tony Stark in glasses as he was surrounded by paperwork.
"What do you need?" He asked without even looking up, "It better be important if you decided to bother me when my door was closed."
I chuckled, "I guess I can't even come say hi anymore then. The great Tony Stark must not be bothered, after all." He quickly looked up, pushing himself away from the desk.
"Aliana," He said, "What are you doing here?" A smile crossed his face as he stood up to greet me. I hugged him hello and he led me over to a sofa he had in his office.
"I came to drop somethings off," I gave him the blueprints and he immediately opened them. Benefits of working directly with Tony Stark- I got to skip all the official mumbo jumbo and get directly to the man himself.
I could see his eyes widen and get that intense look he usually did when working on a project.
"Where did you get this?" He asked as his eyes stayed on the page. I just smiled and crossed my legs.
"What do you think?" I asked back, "Does it have potential?"
"The draft is rough, there is a lot that can be optimized or just removed." He started, "The technology needs to be improved, why are they even thinking of using this alloy?" As he kept talking I just smiled, noting that Tony hadn't even noticed that the sketch was made on general blueprint paper, not the official Stark one.
"So, I take it you're interested?" Finally Tony stopped talking and stared up at me.
"Aliana," He said, "What did you do?"
"Nothing much," My voice was definitely smug, "Just handed you the plans that a new intern proposed to me today."
Tony's eyebrow raised, "An intern? An intern made this?"
Nodding I answered, "Brand new, started just this week. He's working in the robotics department getting coffee for Rudra currently." Standing up I dusted off my clothes as if they would get dirty sitting on Tony's pristine couch, "Oh, did I mention he just turned 18 as well? Got into NYU last fall."
As I left the office I stayed right outside the door as I heard Tony call down to the robotics department. Hopefully, Peter will be working with him before the day ends.
* * *
That night I walked through the streets of Queen, making my way over to Wade's new flat. His last one had been found by one of his enemies and he had to move. Unsurprisingly he ended up in Queens, by total coincidence of course. Not like he had been stalking the new vigilante or anything.
Making my way down a dimly lit street, I could hear the sound of someone following me. Picking up my speed, the footsteps sped up too.
Great, a creep decided that I was his target for the night.
I turned into an alleyway, deciding that if I was going to beat someone up it should be away from the public eye. As the man sped up and shoved me into a wall, I pretended to stumble and walked deeper into the alley.
"What's a pretty thing like you doing here all alone?" Gross, were all creeps unoriginal? I could feel myself getting angry, this reminded me way too much of the night I died. As I decided that knocking him out was way too nice and that I should give him nightmares for a month I heard the sound of someone landing behind the creep.
"Wow, that was probably the cheesiest pick up line I've heard in a while," The figure said, "Did you hear that from Dateline?"
The creep got angry and turned around, letting me see the red and blue clad figure of Spiderman.
"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" The creep said and Spiderman shook his head.
"You don't know who I am? You would think that after working night after night, people would start recognizing you." As he talked the creep got angrier and took out a knife, pointing it at him.
"I think you should leave, before things get ugly." Wow, he really was a cliche villain.
"Uglier than your face?" I couldn't help it, I laughed. I did try to cover it up, but obviously they both heard me. The creep growled and swung at Spiderman, who easily dodged and threw out a web at his hand. The knife fell to the floor with a clatter and Spidey knocked him out.
"Are you alright?" As he turned to look at me, he took a step back as if surprised but quickly regained his calm, "You shouldn't be walking alone this late at night."
"Thank you," I said, "I'm just going down the street to visit a friend. I wasn't expecting to get mugged or..." Letting my sentence trail off, I gave my best scared look to Spidey, "Could you maybe, walk me over?"
I knew he would agree, it's Spiderman, your friendly neighborhood hero after all. So, he walked down the last block with me, making light conversation. When we reached Wade's building, I stopped and Spidey looked up and went, "Huh, your friend lives here? What a coincidence."
Yes, what a coincidence indeed.
"Yep," I said, "I'm visiting my friend, Wade Wilson. He just came back from a trip and I wanted to welcome him back."
At that Spidey seemed shocked and I could hear him mutter to himself, "He came back?"
I smiled to myself, by now Spiderman had been active for a year and Deadpool had been bothering him for half of it. In the beginning Spidey and Pool did not get along, well on Spidey's part at least. Wade would always call me and complain about how mean Spidey was to him, how he would ignore him or web him up and leave him on whatever rooftop they found themselves in.
But, the last three months they have been teaming up, Spidey being his superhero mentor. Wade had promised to quit being a mercenary if Spidey taught him how to be a hero. It had been going well, they had become almost friends. So, two weeks ago Wade went on his very last mercenary trip before he quit completely.
Wade had been thinking of quitting for a while now, I had been trying to convince him to get out of the game as well. He was very good at killing, but I worried about how it affected him mentally. I was very happy when he told me and would be celebrating with him tonight.
"Thank you, Spiderman." I told him, "I hope you'll be safe tonight."
Spidey seemed to come out of his thoughts and looked down at me, "Thank you. You be safe too!" Shooting his web, he whipped away and disappeared into the night.
Chuckling to myself, I hoped that Wade's and Peter's relationship would progress even a little more after this.
AN: Sorry if there is any bad grammar, I'm on vacation and honestly just don't have time to check over it right now.