"Miss Strange , a delivery man is in the lobby for you." Jarvis announced form the speakers the next day when you and Eclipse where lounging in your bedroom.
"Thanks Jarvis." You thanked the tower politely before you headed down to the lobby, telling Eclipse you would meet him in the living room.
When you got down to the lobby the delivery man was over in the waiting area looking over the Avenger memorabilia that the team, mostly Tony, set out for decoration. Things like Tony's old arc reactors, Nat's guns, Clint's arrows, and many others things all in bulletproof cases for show on display.
"I was told you have something for me?" You asked the delivery man with a bright smile, announcing your presence.
He quickly turned to you, startled for a moment, before he held out a box with your name on it. "I do." He agreed politely. "If you could just sign here."
You signed the paper, and in exchange the delivery man gave you the box. You thanked him before heading back up the elevator to meet Eclipse.
You found Eclipse in the living room waiting for you. "Look what I got!" You told your dragon brightly, holding up your box.
He fallowed you into the kitchen where you got a knife to open your box. Eclipse watched curiously as you cut open the box and pulled out a thick, long, bungee cord and a harness. "We've been needing to practice this." You told Eclipse. You and your dragon rider friends had come up with this move over the three months you were out with them. The idea was that you could jump off your dragon and bungee jump down to whatever needed picking up. It could be used as a rescue move or an ambush move depending on the situation.
Eclipse looked from you to the rope and harness you were holding up then back to you. "What do you think Eclipse?" You asked him excitedly. Eclipse sniffed the bungee, pinning his ears back and glaring at it. "Come on bud," you told your dragon, "you know your wing span is too big to get us up close to ledges and tall cliffs. If we can get a hang of bungee jumping then that's just one more useful thing we can do."
Eclipse continued to glare at you.
"Remember the time Anna fell off that cliff and we couldn't get to her because of that updraft?" You asked your dragon. "Or that time Hunter fell down a sink hole but you were to big to go in after him? Or that time when some dragon hunters got that baby Triple Strike, and we couldn't fly in and save it because whenever we got too close they could hear us?"
Eclipse glared at you some more, but snorted his agreement to practice bungee jumping.
"Perfect!" You exclaimed excitedly.
*
"Ok." You told your dragon as the two of you flew over the city. "Step one is to get used to the bungee."
Eclipse growled in protest and looked put upon, but continued to fly steady.
You tugged on the bungee, making sure it was securely fastened to the saddle and to your harness. The last thing you wanted was for it to come loose and plummet to your death. You would never hear the end of it from Eclipse.
"I think we're ready." You told Eclipse as you stood up on his back.
Eclipse grumbled and rolled his eyes, but you knew he wouldn't let you fall. He was just tired of you always coming up with new, more dangerous things to do.
You threw the bungee cord over the side of your dragon, making sure it didn't have any knots or tangles. "Don't think just jump." You told yourself as you looked down over the city.
It wasn't that you were afraid of falling. You did that in a regular basis. No. It was trusting a cord with your life instead of your dragon. That's what was intimidating about this jump.
"Go!" You yelled as you leaped off the side of your dragon, falling to the earth. You laughed and giggled, loving the feeling of free falling, even if it was a little scary. About 60 seconds latter you hit the end of the bungee cord and you felt Eclipse pull up on it, yanking you back up into the sky. You flew up over your dragon then fell back towards him. As you fell you grabbed onto his long thick tail to keep from falling all the way down again.
"That was awesome!" You yelled as you dangled from Eclipse's tail, holing on with both hands. "We could definitely use that in the field!"
Eclipse looked back at you, giving you a toothless smile before he whipped his tail up. You let go of it, doing a practiced flip in mid air as he launched you a few feet into the sky, and landed gracefully upon his back. "Now we just have to learn how to time it right." You told your dragon, still thinking about all the possibilities you could do with the bungee. "And we'll have to experiment with the length of the cord as well. I would hate to accidentally hit the ground."
Eclipse roared in agreement, happy that the new bungee jumping wasn't as dangerous as he originally feared. It was much safer than all the flight suit tests the two of you had done over the years.
*
"Look what the dragon flew in." Tony announced when you and Eclipse walked into the living room around noon. The two of you had been out all morning practicing with the bungee cord.
At first it was fun. Jumping off of your dragon in the middle of the sky with nothing to crash into. But then you decided get practice dummies.
That was a mistake.
You missed all the dummies, either overshooting your target or undershooting it. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that the dummies were on the ground with the trees.
Tony then took in your disheveled appearance. You had leaves and twigs sticking out of your wind swept hair. Light scratches and cuts that were still bleeding, and bruises all over your arms.
"What happened to you? You look like you lost a fight with a tree." Tony pointed out nonchalantly.
You and Eclipse glared over at him at the same time, your expressions matched. "I don't want to talk about it." You growled at him while Eclipse snarled the same thing.
"Just wondering," Tony replied, raising his hands up in surrender, wisely not provoking the angry teenager and her equally angry dragon.
You ignored him and crossed over to the kitchen to get both you and Eclipse some lunch. You got Eclipse's lunch set out first. It was easy to prepare since all you had to do was go into the giant walk in freezer, that was set up specifically for Eclipse, and load up a bunch of raw fish into a giant woven basket.
You slung the basket over your shoulder and set it out on the balcony for your dragon to eat his meal in peace.
Eclipse wasn't allowed to eat inside if the weather was good. The team always complained about how his food smelled fishy.
Which it did.
When Eclipse was all settled down, with his fish and water, you made yourself a sandwich. The team watched silently as you made your lunch then sat down on your couch to eat. Non of them wanting to make you more upset, but they also wanted to know why you looked like you ran headlong into a tree.
Loki came in a few minutes latter, carrying a book in his arms as he crossed the room to get his afternoon tea.
You had taught him a few days ago how to make Midgardian tea, which he found extremely interesting. Now it was his favorite Midgardian drink. He would have one cup of tea in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one right before bed.
He made his tea, then settled down on the opposite end of your couch. Much further away then he usually sat, still upset with you for saying yes to a date.
He glanced over at you, probably to give you a quick glare, but then let his glance last longer than he intended it to. Finally taking in your beat up appearance.
"I know!" You grumbled at Loki, "I shouldn't have started my bungee jumping training in the middle of a forest. But was it wrong of me for wanting to push my limits and place the rescue dummy in the middle of a few trees? I'm training for the real world after all. I don't think my target will just be standing in an empty field all by themselves."
"That's what happened?" Nat asked with laughter in her voice from where she was cleaning her guns. "You bungee jumped into trees?"
"You do realize trees don't move? Right?" Clint asked matter of factly. "They're trees."
"Yes Clint." You snapped at the archer. "I'm aware trees don't move."
Really?" Clint asked. "Because the branches sticking out of your hair don't seam to agree with your statement."
Tony was practically rolling on the ground, laughing historically. "I can't believe you bungee jumped straight into trees." Tony laughed. "Next time tell me when your going out jumping again so I can video tape it."
You grumbled at them before standing up and stomping straight up the stairs, not bothering to wait for the elevator. It had been a long day full of mistakes and you wanted to go take a shower.
*
After your steaming hot shower you were feeling much better. The sticks and leaves were out of your hair. The scratches and scrapes were now mostly scabbed over. And you felt clean and relaxed.
Eclipse was lounging on his bed when you came out of the bathroom, taking his afternoon cat nap. Or would it be a dragon nap?
You changed into some oversized sweats and braided your wet hair back out of your face and off your shoulders. You stepped out of your bedroom, letting Eclipse rest after a long day of saving your butt. When you closed your door you noticed Loki's door was cracked open a hair.
You sighed, feeling bad for lying to Loki the other day about going shopping. You shouldn't have lied. And now you lost your best human-ish friend in the tower. Only if you told Loki the truth about Nate. Then you wouldn't have had all this drama.
You were sure the reason Loki was upset with you was because you lied to him about the dance. Surly there would be no other reason for this current mood. It wasn't like he liked you. That would be preposterous.
The week you were friends with Loki he wouldn't stop complaining about stupid, weak, pathetic, mortals. As to which you were one. Even if you weren't mortal.
He despised humans. Thinking them weak and inferior to his kind, the Asgardians. So there was no way in Valhalla he would ever develop a crush on you.
You stared over at his door longingly, wanting nothing more but your friendship back. It had only been a day since Loki had become upset with you but it was eating you up. That's when you decided you were going to go talk to him. Say sorry for lying to him, and try to save your friendship.
You crossed the hall, knocking on Loki's partially opened door. "Loki. It's me. (Y/n)." You called into the room as the door slowly swung open from your knock.
You peaked into the room to find Loki pacing next to the window that looked over city. He quickly stopped and looked over to you when he heard you call. "Lady (y/n)." Loki greeted you stiffly, coldly. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"My stupidity?" You told him quietly, though it sounded more like a question than an answer. "May I come in?"
Loki nodded, from where he was standing. His shoulders were back, his spine ramrod straight, and his hands firmly clasped behind his back as he watched you enter his room with his piercing green eyes.
"I wanted to say sorry." You told Loki truthfully. "I shouldn't have lied to you about the dance, or tried to hide it from you. I was just... scared... I guess."
This caught Loki off guard, he let his court mask drop for a second as he waited for you to continue.
"I've never been asked out on a date before. Let alone a dance. I don't know what to expect. Or what's expected of me. I didn't what to tell you about the dance because I don't know how I feel about it."
"And how do you feel about it now?" Loki asked you softly, letting his court mask melt away into the friend you knew.
"I don't know." You told him honestly before thinking it over. "I guess I'm a little bit exited, I've never been to a high school dance before. But then again I'm also kinda disappointed. Me and Eclipse usually have a whole day to ourselves whenever a dance rolls around. We go out and explore. Especially at night. No one ever questioned me about it, assuming I was trying to get over my hurt feeling of not getting asked to the dance. Which was never the case. I never cared if I got asked. If I wanted to go to a dance that badly I would have just gone stag."
Loki thought over your words for a moment before asking the question that was burning inside of him. "And how do you feel about this... Nate? Do you like him?"
"Nate's nice." You told Loki, trying to put how you felt about Nate into words. "All the girls at school think he's the bees knees. He's a gentleman, smart, athletic, a ladies man, but that's about all I know about him. I don't like him like him if that's what your asking."
Loki nodded and you could have sworn you saw relief in his eyes. Though that couldn't have been it. It wasn't like he had a crush on you.
"Are we still friends?" You asked him once he got his thoughts back together.
Loki gave you his signature smirk, "still friends." He agreed. Though he never lost his Cheshire Cat grin as he watch you carefully. Which made you immediately suspicious.
"What are you smiling about?" You asked Loki trying to sound stern but it came out as a slight giggle.
"Nothing." Loki told you, never losing his mischievous glint in his eyes. "I'm just wondering how that Nate boy will like your new hair due."