She dragged me to the labs, where Darren had cleared off a workstation to eat on. I sat down. "Sorry, Darren," I said.
He just smiled understandingly at me. "It's okay."
I just shook my head. "While we eat, let's talk about something that's not related to work," I proposed. "I'm combining food and mental break to save time."
"Can you tell me more about how you published your stories?" Darren asked shyly.
I shrugged. "Sure. I was terrified to publish it, but I worked through it and emailed a publishing company. We got to work and soon it was out. I immediately felt a sense of relief. Once I had gotten up the courage and actually did it, it became a lot less scary. I started with letting one or two people read it. The librarian that I had befriended and my English teacher. After that, it became easier to overcome the doubt and fear."
He bit his lip thoughtfully. "I finished my story last night... would you two read it?" he asked.
I smiled. "I would be honored. Are you sure you want me to read it instead of a friend?"
He blushed. "You guys are my only friends."
Shuri and I exchanged glances. "Well, we'd love to read your story," Shuri said happily.
"I'll print it out for you. Would you mind giving me some feedback?"
"Not at all. We'll help you however we can," I promised.
The rest of the day was spent talking and working in the lab. The interns had come up with a name: Spidey Club. I couldn't help but chuckle at that. We worked on the phone while they worked on their own projects. Darren worked on his schoolwork, getting his Chemistry and Math work done. At 6:00 he made us all stop and eat dinner.
I went home that night, trusting that Shuri would watch over Darren.
We had a family game night and Loki and I crushed Mom and Dad at Monopoly.
Loki came to the tower with me the next day, as Tony would be at the compound for the next week. He absolutely adored Darren and made me promise to bring him by the house sometime. While Loki taught Darren to stab someone, I called Legal to ask if hiring Darren as my assistant would be legal.
"I'll look into it," the intern promised.
"Thank you. I will need it by the end of the week."
I also finished the phone with Shuri. Usually, it would take much longer to finish a project like that, but when Shuri and I got together, we became unstoppable. We made two others and set them up with contacts and all.
The tablets were completed that day as well, being just a slightly different version of the phone.
"Loki! Ren!" Shuri called. "We have presents."
They materialized in front of us, Loki having teleported them. "Really?" Loki asked excitedly. On Asgard he was never given presents, so we made a point to do it often.
"Really," I confirmed. "For both of you."
We handed them each their present. "So cool," Darren whispered as he examined the tablet. I had custom designed it for him, just like I did with Loki's phone.
Loki also looked at his in awe. "A phone?" he asked. "Like the one Mom gave me?"
I laughed. "Kinda. That was a generic StarkPhone, this is a very limited addition, one of a kind, custom made phone. It has a ton of cool features."
I had designed Loki's with a black snake on the back and it had bright green gems for eyes. They weren't real emeralds, as we didn't have any of those, but they looked real enough.
Darren's StarkPad had a case that had a keyboard attached so he could write on it, and a stylus as well. It was vibranium and the black case had his favorite quote inscribed into it in gold: "Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching." - C.S. Lewis.
Shuri and I spent the rest of the day teaching the two how to use their new gadgets. Darren was amazed we gave him something, and Loki was happy that we cared enough to work so hard to make literally the best phone in the world for him.
Everyone went to bed happy that day.
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Thoughts?