When they got back to the helicarrier with their prisoner, Loki, and he was escorted to his cell, Tony had to lock his suit away in a secure room. She was looking around at the weapons in the room as Tony stepped out of the suit and it closed up behind him.

She was facing away from Tony and failed to notice his eyes were glued to her bottom half; the uniform she wore was very form-fitting and the curve of her behind was well defined. Then Tony wrapped his arms around her from behind and placed soft, slow kisses along her neck, "This has to be my favorite look on you."

         She shook her head yet she couldn't help but smile a bit from the touch of his lips as she muttered, "You are so bad..."

"Yeah," he smirked. "But I love you so it's justified."

               She bit her lip with a small blush before she rolled her eyes, "It's possibly the end of the world and all you can think about is me stripping out of this outfit."

           "Well if it truly is the end of the world, why wouldn't I think about that?" Tony questioned. "You'll always be my first and last thought, angel."

           She turned in his arms as she looped her arms around his neck and she smiled a bit in amusement as she raised her eyebrows and teased, "But dirty thoughts?"

           "Yes, absolutely," he joked as he leaned his forehead against hers. "Always dirty."

              "I'm glad I could occupy your mind in such enlightening ways," she joked back.

         "Well you always occupy my mind in some way, Snowflake," Tony hummed so softly. "Like now I'm thinking about that question I asked you..."

       Her eyes widened and her heart raced. Then she merely pecked him on the lips before she moved out of his arms, "Let's go join the others."

        Tony wanted to argue before he sighed. He quickly grabbed her by her hand and pulled her back, "Hey, if it really is the end of the world, that will so not be our last kiss..."

         And Tony kissed her. It was the kind of breathless kiss filled with fireworks from the mere touch of his lips. She was reminded once again that he was her electricity, the one with goosebumps that she never wanted to end, the one that made her think she was in Heaven.

         The public knew her as the Angel (the name Tony always called her) like she could somehow carry people to the golden temple in the clouds. But the only Heaven she knew was the one that existed inside her heart (with all the love inside) and she'd given it to the man with a suit of armor. He certainly would love to wrap it in armor like it was a delicate flower to be protected; his marigold.

          _____

              Now that Loki was captured. They needed to figure out his plan and still find the Tesseract. She sat in the main room (next to Bucky) with the rest of the group as Thor had explained that Loki had an army from outer space called the Chitauri but Loki just needed to open a portal to get them here.

       "Iridium...What do they need the iridium for?" Bruce mused.

      "It's a stabilizing agent," Tony said as he walked into the room.

        She had kind of quickly walked away from him after that kiss. She had been afraid that if she opened her eyes and she looked at him, she would've said yes and she wanted to avoid that which made her feel a bit guilty as she practically ran away and arrived first.

         "It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD," Tony said before patting Thor's arm as he walked past to the monitors. "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing."

        "Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long, as Loki wants," Tony explained before speaking loudly as he looked over all the workers. "Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails. That man is playing Galaga. He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did..."

        Tony put a hand over one of his eyes as he looked at the monitors, "How does Fury even see these?"

         "He turns," Agent Hill explained.

         "Sounds exhausting," Tony said and she shook her head a bit before he played with the settings on the monitors. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density. Something to kick-start the Cube...."

       "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill asked.

      "Last night," Tony approached them. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

          "Tony, we don't read things we don't understand," Eira crossed her arms before she teased. "That's why you were assigned the homework part of this whole mission. The fun part..."

          He rolled his eyes a bit before Steve asked, "Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?"

       "He would have to heat the Cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce explained.

      "Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunnelling effect," Tony said.

       "Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."

            "Finally, someone who speaks English," Tony said as he approached Bruce behind the table where she was sitting; although, she didn't notice (but Bucky did) Bruce seemed to linger near her.

              "Is that what just happened?" Steve questioned as Bucky muttered. "If that's English, I'd rather be put on ice again."

          "It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner," Tony said as he shook hands with Bruce. "Your work on antielectron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm also a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage-monster."

          "You did not just say that," Eira said in disbelief as she gave a small glare to Tony before looking at Bruce softly. "Bruce, I'm sorry."

          "It's...okay," Bruce smiled a bit awkwardly.

        "Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube," Fury said as he joined them and looked at Tony. "I was hoping you might join him."

        "I would start with that stick of his," Steve stated. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

           "I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube," Fury said. "And I would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

        "Monkeys?" Thor questioned. "I do not understand."

            "I do," Steve interjected loudly and almost excitedly as Bucky shook his head. "I understood that reference."

             "Well, I don't," Eira said in confusion. "Does Earth have flying monkeys?"

            Bucky actually started to chuckle and Nat had bit her lip with an amused smile. Tony gained an exasperated look before he sighed, "Snowflake, you're embarrassing me...."

          Snowflake. Thor gained a look of understanding as he mouthed oh. Lady Eira was the thing that the man of iron did not want him to touch. Now he thought it best not to call her pretty mortal anymore.

          "It's a movie," Tony explained as he placed his hands on her shoulders and kissed the top of her head gently. "We'll watch it later...."

______

Eira was now in the lab with Tony and Bruce. She was sitting off to the side of the table where Tony was working. She was watching The Wizard of Oz on a device and she gained a look of understanding.

"Oh, flying monkeys..."

"Hand me the, uh," Tony tried to think of what she would understand. "The red thing."

She handed him it and Bruce commented, "Is this how you two usually work?"

Eira hummed in agreement before she smiled, "Yes, I look pretty and hand him things as he does his...mechanic stuff."

"Did you just give yourself a compliment?" Tony asked.

"Well, you tell me I'm pretty all the time," she argued and Bruce looked back and forth between the two of them with a small smile.

"So now you have an ego..."

"Not as big as yours," she teased before she got them back on track. "So how long is this tracking supposed to take?"

"We can clock this at around 600 teraflops," Tony guessed.

"English, Tony," she gave him a look.

"It depends, Snowflake."

She sighed before Bruce commented, "And all I packed was a toothbrush."

"You know, you should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it. It's Candy Land," Tony said.

"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York, I kind of broke Harlem."

"Well, I promise a stress-free environment," Tony said as he walked towards Bruce. "No tension, no surprises...."

Then Tony poked him with a little electroshock stick. Bruce grabbed his side in pain, "Ow!"

"Tony!" she scolded as Steve did so as well once he entered the room the room with Bucky. "Are you nuts?"

"Nothing?" Tony inspected Bruce as he responded to Steve. "Jury's out."

"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you?" Tony said. "What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked.

"Funny things are," Tony said as Bucky came over to lean against the table next to her; he gave her a questioning look.

And she knew what he would question. How reckless is your boyfriend? She sighed and gave him a look back as she shook her head telling him not to even ask that question. Sometimes, they could just speak in complete silence.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve said before looking at Bruce. "No offence, Doc."

"It's all right, I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

"You're tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut," Tony stated.

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark."

"Do you think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked.

"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets," Tony said before looking at Bruce. "It's bugging him, too. Isn't it?"

"I just want to finish my work here, and..." Bruce tried to stay out of it.

"Doctor?" Steve asked.

"A warm light for all mankind. Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube..."

"I heard it."

"I think that was meant for you," Bruce looked at Tony. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."

"The Stark Tower? That big, ugly..." Steve said as Tony gave him a look. "...building in New York?

"It's powered by an arc reactor, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?" Bruce stated.

"It's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at," Tony stated.

"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" Bruce brought up good points.

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files..." Tony revealed and she scolded. "Tony, that's...bad!"

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around," Steve clenched his jaw.

"An intelligence organisation that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome."

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up," Steve advised. "This is a man who means to start a war and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them."

"Following's not really my style," Tony uttered.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve smiled patronizingly.

"Of the people in this room, which one is, A, wearing a spangly outfit, and, B, not of use?"

Eira pouted, "Take that back. I like his outfit. And stop being mean. I keep having to defend you and it makes everyone question why I'm even with you."

"People are always going to question why you're with me," Tony said and she gave him a look as she crossed her arms.

"Fine," Tony rolled his eyes.

"Steve," Bruce said. "Tell me none of this smells a little funky to you."

"Yeah, I bet it even sounds fishy to your buddy over there," Tony said as they looked at Bucky.

"Hey, I'm wary of anything except butterfly," Bucky said.

Steve sighed before he walked out, "Just find the Cube."

Bucky gave her a short smile before he followed out after Steve. Then she pouted again as she thought, "Why would Fury have secrets, though?"

"Everyone has secrets, angel," Tony replied and Bruce raised his eyebrows at the wrong thing to say.

She furrowed her eyebrows before a lightbulb went off in her head. She gave him an accusing look, "So you have secrets?"

"What? No."

"You just said everyone has secrets."

"Well not from you obviously," he said uneasily.

She gave him a small glare and Tony caved, "Okay, alright. Sometimes, I'll sleep on the couch because you like to steal the covers and I don't have the heart to steal them back. There, I said it..."

_____

She had watched the complete movie of The Wizard of Oz. There was nothing to do but wait for the computer program to find the location of the tesseract. But now Fury was here.

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Fury questioned.

"Kind of been wondering the same thing about you."

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."

"We are. The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now," Bruce said. "When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

"Yeah, then you get your Cube back. No muss, no fuss," Tony said as the encryption was cracked on the SHIELD database. "What is Phase 2?"

"Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the Cube to make weapons," Steve entered with Bucky as they set down prototype weapons. "Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're making...

"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony moved the monitor around to show the blueprints of Phase 2 that had weapons drawn. "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong, Director," Steve said. "The world hasn't changed a bit."

"When has it ever?" Bucky muttered sadly as Natasha and Thor entered.

Bruce gestured to Natasha, "Did you know about this?"

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Nat advised.

"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"Loki is manipulating you."

"And you've been doing what, exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy," Bruce said in frustration. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him," Fury revealed as he looked at Thor.

"Me?" Thor said in confusion and Eira placed a gentle hand on his arm with a small smile; he looked down at the pretty, reassuring mortal and gave her a smile back.

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that levelled a small town," Fury explained. "We learned that not only are we not alone but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor said.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And you're not the only threat," Fury stated. "The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled."

"People shouldn't be controlled," Bucky argued and she looked at Bucky sadly.

Then Thor spoke again, "Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" Steve questioned.

"You forced our hand," Fury said. "We had to come up with something."

"A nuclear deterrent," Tony stated. "Because that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark."

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep..." Steve started.

"Hold on. How is this now about me?" Tony asked.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve said.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor said.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury looked at Thor.

"You treat your champions with such mistrust," Thor argued.

"Are you boys really that naive?" Nat said. "SHIELD monitors potential threats."

"Captain America's on threat watch?" Bruce said incredulously. "And Eira? She looks like Bambi."

"We all are," Nat defended. "Well...maybe not Eira."

"Of course it doesn't have Eira. She's Eira," Tony said before looking at Steve. "But if you're on that list, are you above or below angry bees?"

"Stark, so help me God, if you make one more wisecrack..."

"Threat! Verbal threat. I feel threatened."

"Guys, we don't need to fight," Eira said but she was ignored.

"Can you not be so sarcastic for one minute?" Bucky got involved.

"1, 2, 3..." Tony counted.

Everyone was arguing except for her and Thor. She felt like melting into a puddle on the floor; she really wanted a flower pot as she hugged her arms around herself.

This time, Thor placed a hand on her shoulder and he smiled, "It is alright. Warriors fight among themselves sometimes."

She could barely manage a smile before Thor spoke up and no one could ignore his booming voice, "You speak of control, yet you court chaos."

"That's his M.O., isn't it?" Bruce said. "I mean, what are we, a team? No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."

"You need to step away," Fury suggested.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony said.

"You know damn well why. Back off!" Steve argued.

"I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armour. Take that off, what are you?"

Tony answered easily off the top of his head, "Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over