"What do you mean your first enemy?" Dr. Banner questioned.
Sighing, I pulled myself up to sit on the table so I could explain the past Taylor and I shared. It wasn't a fun road to go down, but, hey, who else is going to tell them?
"Have you ever been at a point in your life where you have to make a decision that will change you forever?" I took their silence as a yes. "Well, Taylor was mine. He's the one who I had to...get rid of in order to protect my team and family."
The wall started to seem very interesting as the group in front of me started to process what I had said. Clint was the first to speak up, voicing what no one would say or hadn't connected yet.
"You killed him?" he deadpanned.
Before I could respond, Logan stepped up, "Technically, he did it himself."
Logan put a hand on my shoulder to comfort me and let me know that I wasn't the one who killed him.
"Get real, Logan. It was me."
"You gave him a choice."
Rolling my eyes, I shrugged Logan's hand off and got off the table to stand behind Remy who was typing on the keyboard again.
"Doesn't matter. What's done is done," I crossed my arms as I leaned over to watch Remy. "Code Red?"
"Oui," Remy smirked at me over his shoulder. "We'll be able to find him if he so much as walks across a street."
"Code Red?" Thor asked, watching as windows popped up on the screen and Remy dismissing them as he typed in line after line of codes.
"Remy is hacking into security cameras so if Taylor is near one we can find him." I explained.
"I should make you do this, petite. I am on vacation, sort of." Remy commented, causing me to pull the rolling chair that he sat in away from the desk and pulling up another for me to sit in.
Cracking my knuckles, I looked up at Remy to give him a challenging smirk as if to say 'Watch this'. Once my fingertips met the holographic keyboard, they started to dance across it as my eyes remained trained on the screen. My eyes never strayed to look at the keyboard, confident in moves as I typed in the codes Remy taught me growing up.
Remy kept a hand on the back of my chair as the others watched in amusement as the Frenchman teased me about my skills in a friendly way that I familiar with.
"Are you sure that's the right line?"
"That looks wrong to me."
"Petite, surely Remy has taught you better."
He kept shooting out comments as I kept typing barely containing my smile as we fell back into our old ways.
"Like you could do any better, LeBeau."
"I know for a fact that I can do better."
"Back off, old man. Times have changed."
Laughing at my last comment, I didn't notice Remy move his hands to my stomach as kept my eyes trained on the screen. His fingers moved against my rib cage, causing me to laugh and try to pry his hands away.
"Remy." I tried to reprimand him, but my constant giggling made him continue.
Finally, Logan separated us so I could finish typing the codes. A slight smile stayed on my face as I put in the last of the code and leaned back in my chair.
"Done. Jarvis will alert us when we get a hit on him."
Pushing the chair away from the table, I stretched and yawned, causing me to check the clock on the wall. It was close to 11 and I hadn't done any homework to turn in the next day.
"I better get going." Remy stated, following my eyes with his own.
"Are you staying in town any longer?" I questioned, wanting to spend more time with my long time friend.
"I'm staying at a town house my family owns," he said before pulling out a card and giving it to me. "Give me a call if you need anything. And I mean anything."
"Thank you, Remy." I smiled, taking the card and pulling him into a quick hug.
"Anytime, petite."
After he released me, he took my hand in his and kissed my knuckles before saying, "Et bien qu'elle soit petite, est feroce."
"And though she be little, she is fierce." I translated.
He always said that Shakespeare was talking about me.
"And she better stay that way." Remy winked.
With that, Logan said he'd show Remy out, which was code for him to make sure that Remy wouldn't steal anything else. After they left I excused myself from the meeting room to do my homework before any questions could be asked.
All I wanted to do was get my homework done and collapse on my bed from the exhaustion that today had caused.
Once in my bedroom, I changed out of my catsuit and into my pj's to relax in. When I sat on my bed to do my homework, I realized that my backpack was in the penthouse. Before I could groan a knocked sounded on my door.
Loki stood on the other side with my bag and jumpsuit from work, both of which I left after finding out about Gwen being followed.
"You left these upstairs." he handed the to me.
"Thank you."
Loki looked like he was about to walk away but opened his mouth instead.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, just tired." I half-lied.
I was tired, but I also felt like I was going to explode from the revelation Taylor had been alive or cloned. Loki must have seen through my response because he didn't leave. He did just the opposite. He walk into my room and stood in the middle of my room.
"I know your lying," he said before pointing to himself. "I am the god of lies."
"You're not a god, you're an alien. Now go. I have homework."
"I'll help you."
"I don't think my teacher should be giving me the answers to the homework." I was still standing by the door, but Loki sat down on the bed.
"Loki, leave."
He stayed seated.
"How can I make you leave?"
"Tell me what's wrong."
Glaring at him, I shut the door and dropped what he brought up next to it before walking towards him.
"You really want to know what's wrong?"
"Yes." he stated, crossing his arms.
I mimicked his posture as I stood a few feet from him.
"Where to begin? The Beast wants to be released, and she's very persistent; someone who hates my guts may or may not be alive and wants to kill me; Tiffany and Flash like to get under my skin everyday; we can't find the Tesseract; and an alien is sitting in my room when all I want to do is get my work done and sleep for eternity!" I ranted, breathing deeply when I stopped.
"Is that all?" Loki questioned, looking amused as he stood up and took a step towards me.
"Beside the fact that I also have people watching me all the time and girls are hitting on my teammates, yeah. That's all of it." I replied with a hint of sarcasm and sass laced in my voice as I took a step forward.
"That seems like a lot for an 18 year old." Loki took another step.
"You have no clue."
We were now one foot away from one another. One part of me wanted to step closer while the other wanted to step back.
"Katherine."
"Loki."
"You don't have to take on the world alone, you know." he whispered, like it was a secret.
His words were so simple but they had a big effect on me. They made me feel like I had back up, a support system to lean on if I needed it.
"I guess I'm so use to doing things alone that it's hard to break the habit." Loki nodded at my words before glancing at my backpack.
"We can start with your homework."
**************
So many things had been happening that week that I barely noticed when the weekend rolled around. I also forgot that I was suppose to be an Avenger in training, so when Dr. Banner knocked on my door Saturday morning I was a little confused.
"What's up, Doc?" I questioned, leaning against the door frame as I rubbed my eyes.
"Since you have no school today, I figured that we would do your training with me." he answered, smiling.
How was it possible to be happy at this time in the morning? Let alone dressed and looking like he was ready to take on the world.
"What are we doing? Combat? Boxing? How are you in the ring?" I joked.
"Lab work." he said simply before walking away.
After that I quickly dressed and grabbed something portable for breakfast and headed for the lab. When I got there I found Dr. Banner in his lab coat while he looked in a microscope.
"What's on the agenda, Dr. B?" I asked, slipping on a lab coat that he pointed to.
"Our patients should be here in three...two...one."
The glass doors slid open as Loki and Thor walked towards them. Thor stopped for a second to study the doors before joining his brother on the other side of the table we were standing at.
"I'm not following." I commented.
Why were the brothers our 'patients' for the day? What are we doing?
"We're studying to see how alien and human anatomy differ or are similar," Dr. Banner smiled at me. "I thought this would be more fun than separating atoms."
"When do we start?" I copied his smile.
An hour later we had scans of Loki and Thor's bone structure and internal organs. They looked fairly similar to a human's. We ran a few tests involving blood samples, skin tissue, and Thor looking nervously at a needle Dr. Banner had in his hand.
Now, Dr. Banner was in the gym with Thor to test him down there while I remained in the lab with Loki, who I had sitting on the examination table. Dr. B had me treating him like someone who went to go see their doctor for a check up.
"Hold still." I told him as I moved his raven black hair to take his temperature from his ear.
"What's that?"
"An ear thermometer, it measures your body temperature." I answered as I wrote down his abnormally low temperature.
After that I checked his reflexes and eyes. He didn't seem to like the light that I had to shine in his eye to see his pupils dilate. Then again, who does like that? It took me a while to get him to let me shine the light, but in the end I had to bribe him.
Note to self: Take Loki to the bookstore.
"This is the last thing, I swear." I promised as I grabbed the stethoscope.
Placing my hand on his shoulder, I put the circular part to his back, telling him to take a deep breath and release it. We repeated this as I placed it on multiple areas on Loki's back and chest. Finally, I rested it over his heart and listened to the beat of it.
Stethoscopes were always my favorite tool for a doctor. I use to play with Hank's, the doctor at the Institute, when I lived in North Salem with Logan and the other X-Men.
"Done." I informed Loki when I caught him looking at me oddly.
"Will I live, doctor?" he joked.
"Seems like it, Mr. Montgomery." I played along, making him chuckle as I referred to his fake identity.
Turning around, I returned the stethoscope to where the other tools rested before I went to face Loki again to find that he was closer than he had been a second ago. Even though it startled me a bit, I didn't jump. Too many years of training had edged how to control my reflexes into my brain.
"But there is one thing that made me curious." I stated.
"And what would that be?"
"Your inner body temp is really low. Like, you should be frozen low." I explained, leaning against the table behind me.
"It comes with being a Frost Giant." he muttered.
Did I know he was a Frost Giant? Yes.
Did I know it was suppose to affect his temperature? No.
Was I going to push the subject? No, because he wore an expression similar to the one I had on when I had to explain about the Beast.
"What's favorite color?" I changed the subject.
Loki studied me, trying to find out why I was asking such a random question before responding, "Green. Yours?"
"Blue."
"What's your favorite book?"
"To Kill A Mockingbird. You?"
"To many good ones to pick from." he pointed out.
"Touche," I pulled myself up to sit on the table as I thought of another question. "If you were stuck on an island, what would be the one thing you would take with you?"
"How could you predict that you would be stranded on the island?" Loki raised an eyebrow skeptically.
"Just answer the question."
Loki threw a squeeze ball in the air as he thought about it, only answering when he had repeated the action several times.
"A way off." he finally said, making me roll my eyes at his lack of detail.
"I would take the Iron Man suit. That way I could fly off the island."
"You could always use Mjolnir. You could probably even summon it." Loki shared.
"Maybe." My eyes shifted to the ground, not wanting to talk about the hammer.
Loki trained his eyes on me as he took in my movements, but I didn't look up to let him see the heat in my cheeks that my hair blocked from his view.
"Favorite food?" he suddenly asked and I was grateful.
He was avoiding the subject I didn't like like I had done for him. Before I could answer, Jarvis' voiced filled the room.
"Miss. Howlett, Mr. Laufeyson, you are both requested in the meeting room."
"Thanks, Jarvis." I called as I hopped down from the table to walk out of the lab, Loki following me to the elevator.
The others were already there, waiting for us, and arguing. Mostly, it was Logan against Tony.
"She's old enough to make her own decision!" Tony yelled at Logan.
"I'm still her father!"
"She's 18 years old! She doesn't need your permission for anything anymore!"
If looks could kill, then Tony would be six feet under by now. Logan stepped forward to take care of Tony and make him regret what he had said when I spoke up.
"What's going on in here?" Every head snapped towards me and Loki standing in the door way. "And since when is it okay to discuss things about my life without my consent?"
Tony and Logan opened their mouths to explain, but I held up my hand, not wanting to hear them talk about what the other was doing wrong and why I should listen to them. Turning to Natasha, I asked her to explain, knowing she wouldn't sugar coat anything.
"We found Taylor."