The Ides of July // Loki - Book 1 ✓

Bonus Chapter #1: Hanging With the Team

"So, let me get this straight," Tony quips, pointing at Anna and Natasha whilst clinging to his glass of scotch. "You knew about...baby sister here...and didn't tell us?"

Natasha groans and folds her arms over her chest, and Clint Barton rolls his eyes. It's been two weeks since Thor returned Anna to the tower, nearly dead, and they've finally got their first bit of downtime since then. Tony's house was absolutely destroyed after a very public run in with the Mandarin, who ended up being nothing but a puppet set up by Aldrich Killian to cover up the flaws with his Extremis program. Now, Tony has moved into the tower permanently while Pepper undergoes treatment for Extremis and focuses on repairing the damage done to Stark Industries' stock after Tony's 'escapades'. Steve already moved to Washington D.C. to build a life, choosing to get out of the craziness that is New York City while working at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, meaning it's just been Bruce and Anna at the tower - and now Tony.

Tony brought Natasha back, who subsequently dragged Clint with her, and they've been swapping stories since. Well, Tony's been swapping stories. Everyone else is listening to him enjoy the sound of his own voice.

"What?" Tony asks, "I thought we were a team. Teams share things. You didn't share that you had a sister, which violates the team...pact."

"I thought she was dead, Tony," Natasha reminds him.

He shakes his head and takes a sip of scotch, "Poor excuse for a superspy. Do you believe her?" Tony glances at Anna, "Superspy. Completely fooled. Now that I know it's that easy to pull the blinds over your eyes, Nat, I can't be held accountable for my actions."

"Tony..." the redhead warns him.

"What?" He asks, "I just want to make sure your skills stay sharp. I'm helping. I'm a helper. Isn't that right, Bruce?"

Bruce lifts his hands in surrender from where he's working out calculations in his notebook, "I'm staying out of this."

Clint stands, running a hand through his hair, before heading over to the bar. He grabs three beers from the fridge and pops the tops off each then returns to the sofa to hand one to both Anna and Natasha. If they're going to sit here and listen to Tony, they at least need a little bit of alcohol to make it more tolerable.

Anna smiles at him, taking a sip. After Thor brought her back to Earth, she didn't expect to wake up in the infirmary of the Avengers' Tower with no one but Bruce Banner and Jane Foster to keep her company. Tony had already returned to California, throwing himself into his suits while he coped with the mental fallout of the wormhole in New York and being captured by Restitution, but it was less than a week and a half before Tony returned with Natasha in tow and Jane went back to work. She was glad to be reunited with her sister, although she couldn't remember her in the least, and she appreciated the opportunity to get to know herself a little bit better.

After everything that's happened, it's nice to be given the opportunity to learn more about the latent abilities programmed into her from her training at the Red Room. She knows Russian, for starters, and it now makes sense why she never had a problem picking up other languages. Her reflexes have always been fantastic, something she always attributed to the years of ballet training in her youth, but Anna has definitely been enjoying exploring her combat skills. She's nowhere near skilled enough to take down Natasha or Clint, but daily training sessions are serving as an excellent distraction from thoughts of Loki.

"You okay?" Clint asks her quietly.

His voice snaps her back to the present, and she nods.

"You sure, space cadet?" Tony questions, lifting an eyebrow. "You seem a little...out of it."

Anna smiles and takes a drink of her beer. "Can you blame me? You never shut up."

Tony narrows his eyes without responding, and Clint lets out a laugh. Even Bruce chuckles to himself while Natasha reaches over to tap her beer bottle against her sister's.

"Wow. You shut up Tony Stark in less than ten words," she says, giving Anna a wink before lifting her bottle. "I'll drink to that."

*****
Author's Note

What's that? I'm bringing you fresh chapters of The Ides Of July? IT'S TRUE! 

If you're reading the sequel, All Hail The King, (which you should be because it's BETTER), then you know that things are currently a bit...gloomy. To break up the feels, I thought it would be fun to revisit Anna in a somewhat happier time + introduce the rest of the Avengers a bit more.

Want to see her interact with your favorite Avenger? Leave a comment + vote on who you'd like to see more of in these bonus chapters! 

Vote + comment! 

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