I know this update took forever, but college classes and AP exams have been kicking my butt! Sorry its a little short!

I don't think that I've ever appreciated a shower so much.

The water was so warm for so long that I seriously debated on never leaving it, but I knew that people would miss me eventually. So, I had begrudgingly left it behind.

I was surveying my donated clothes for anything to wear when I heard a knock on my door. I scampered over and hid my body behind the door as I cracked it open and peeked through. It was Natasha, in street clothes and freshly curled hair. She cracked a small smile at what she could see of my appearance.

"Having trouble finding clothes?" she asked.

"Yeah," I half sighed.

She motioned towards the door and I let her into my room. I clutched onto my towel but she didn't notice; she went right over to my clothes that I had laid out on the bed. I noticed her visibly cringe.

"Pretty awful, huh?" I asked.

She nodded and picked up a shirt that said "Love the Earth" on the front and seemed to be considering it.

"The shirts aren't too bad; it's the bottoms situation that I'm having trouble with." I said.

Natasha only nodded again and I pursed my lips and silently cursed at myself. She obviously wasn't much of a talker, so why was I blabbing away? I noticed her taking off her tan colored jacket and looked up. It wasn't that warm in my room. Then off came her long red shirt.

She tossed it towards me and I flailed around in an attempt to catch it and still keep my towel up. She pulled on the Earth shirt and then looked over at me.

"If you wear my shirt with the uniform pants, it won't look as bad." She said nonchalantly, as she pulled her jacket back on. She walked towards the door and let her hand rest on the knob as she turned to me.

"I'm going to get clearance from Fury so we can go get you some actual clothes. I'll be back."

She closed the door behind her and I scurried to get ready.

I looked out the car window contently as we drove down Melrose Ave., watching all the tourists take pictures of graffiti art and shop. I could remember when Dante took me window shopping when we were in LA for a year. We used to steal from the thrift stores regularly.

"Have you been here before?" Natasha asked.

"Yes, closest place I've ever had to a home, actually." I turned to her and smiled.

"Ok, do have any ideas of where you'd like to start then?"

"Yeah, if it's still there."

I directed her a few blocks down, where we parked and headed into small store. I drifted down the aisles until I found my size and began sifting through pants. Natasha ended up beside me looking at the wall opposite us that held bags. I stopped my search after picking out two pairs.

"Um, Natasha?" I asked quietly.

"Yes?"

"How much am I allowed to spend?"

She turned to me and smirked. "It's SHIELD's money, so as far as I'm concerned, as much as we want."

I giggled and moved on to the register.

After a while, we stopped to get something to eat. We sat outside and watched as the people walked by in silence. It wasn't awkward though, it was very pleasant. Natasha was quiet, but was enjoyable. She honestly wasn't as much of a terror as she I thought she was when I first had met her. She even bought a few things herself. It was funny to see her sip contently from her iced tea and know that she's probably killed hundreds of people. Then again, I've killed at least 15. I shifted uncomfortably and she looked over at me.

"Is something wrong?"

I shook my head, "No… I was just wondering what Dante must be doing."

"Ah, he was pretty irritated when I saw him last,"

This piqued my interest, "Really?"

Natasha nodded, "I guess he wasn't doing too well with the clothes situation either. I guess he wanted to go with us, but Fury is playing a one-at-a-time rule when it comes to you two."

"'So long as one of you are here, I know that the other won't leave without our notice'," I quoted dryly.

"His exact words."

"I figured."

"You ought to tell him to ask Stark for new clothes," she said as she stretched back in her chair. "That man looks for any reason to spend money."

"Do you know him well?" I asked, hoping that I wasn't prying.

"One could say that."

I decided to drop that subject. "What about Captain Rogers? Or Dr. Banner?"

"Not really. I trained a bit with Steve last night and we talked some. As for Dr. Banner, you probably know him the best out of all of us at this point."

I couldn't stop a small smile from forming on my face. It kind of made me feel special.

"You realize he's like, 40, right?"

"Huh?"

"Banner, he's 40. Maybe a little bit younger, but that's still, you know, up there."

I cocked an eyebrow at her, "Yes?"

She sighed, "I'd hate for you to think that I'm assuming things, but I am. Just, don't get your hopes up too high, kid."

I blushed and avoided looking her direction. "It's not like that." I muttered.

"Not like what?"

"THAT."

"That?"

"You're warning me about his age, I know his age. It doesn't matter."

"Why?"

"Because it's not like that."

"And 'that' is?"

"'That' is impossible."

"Why?"

"Because he's… I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"I'm below his standards. Totally beneath them."

"So then you do like him?"

"I NEVER-"

"You said you're beneath his standards."

"So?!"

"So that implies that if you met his standards you'd go for it."

"Is this how you kill your enemies?"

"Yes, but that's beside the point."

I groaned, exasperated.

"Well then," -I could hear the victory in her voice-"How do you know what his standards are?"

"I just kind of assumed."

Natasha remained silent and stared me down. So I continued.

"The really smart type, like how he is. Probably somebody who is very caring, somebody who has mother-like tendencies and who is… Older. She'd be really pretty too; the blond hair, blue-eyed type." I peered up at Natasha, who now had an incredulous look on her face. "What?"

"So, you're basically saying that his type is the perfect woman?" she asked.

"Everything I'm not."

I think I caught her rolling her eyes at me as she stood up and began gathering our shopping bags.

"Maybe you don't know him as well as I thought. Come on, the parking meter is going to run out soon."

I nodded and picked up some of my own bags.

We were parked about 3 blocks away, so we walked quickly. Natasha's legs were longer than I thought, seeing as I almost had to run to keep up with her strides. When we were about a quarter of a block away, she stopped abruptly in the middle of the walk way.

"What?" I asked her.

She began to walk again, this time at a slower pace. "Seems like Dante did as I suggested."

I looked ahead and noticed another expensive car next to ours. I listened and sure enough, I heard Dante's voice, along with Tony's and Steve's. We made our way to the trunk of our car and began stacking our bags in the back.

"Should we be kind and grace them with our presence?" I joked.

She nodded, "If you want."

She let me guide her to the source of their voices. We walked into the men's store where we saw Dante arguing with Tony. Loudly.

"Dante!" I said harshly.

His head snapped my direction. His face relaxed and he smiled but then frowned as Tony pushed past him roughly and walked towards me.

"Alyss! Now why would you go shopping with a spider when you could've gone with good ol' Daddy Warbucks?"

"I thought that Dante would have more fun with you. Hey, I thought I heard Steve too. Where is he?"

"Oh, he and Bruce are in the back trying something on. Don't worry, I sent Barton to watch them. You know, I really think that I should switch my profession over to fashion designer, I'm starting to get the hang of this LA style." He said, waggling his eyebrows at me over his sunglasses.

I rolled my eyes at him.

"Are you going to at least buy my brother something?"

Dante interrupted Tony before he could say anything, "Yes, but he wants me to dress like him!"

I laughed at him, "What's wrong with that?"

"A Stark look-alike? That's humiliating."

"More like a blessing." Tony said smugly.

"Some clothes are better than none." I reminded him.

Dante sighed in annoyance and I turned back to Natasha, who had been watching the scene play out contently.

"Do we want to stick around here?" I asked her.

"Oh, I think we can stay for a bit longer," she said, looking past me.

I followed her gaze and saw Bruce, Steve, and Barton walking back from the changing rooms. Barton was attempting to explain to Steve why clothes were now so expensive, but Steve was obviously not catching on. Bruce looked up and smiled at Natasha and I. I smiled back and Natasha gave him a small nod of her head. I remembered mine and Natasha's conversation and felt my knees go weak

"We should go." I whispered to Natasha timidly.

She nodded and turned to Tony and Dante, "Well, have fun shopping boys."

I waved good bye to all of them as we walked out the door. We got inside the car and I breathed a sigh of relief. We began heading back towards the Helicarrier, and I stared out the window.

"So are you going to avoid him now?"

"What?"

"Are you going to try to avoid him?"'

"Ah…" I stammered. Was I going to?

Natasha waited quietly for my answer, but it never came. An awkward silence arose between us. She finally broke it.

"I won't pry anymore, but I will say this: the sooner it's out in the open, the easier it gets. Trust me."

The rest of the car ride was silent until we made it back to Helicarrier. Another agent came and whisked Natasha away almost immediately, so I was left alone. I sat outside the dock for a while with my bags and watched as large machines made repairs to the battered ship. I thought for a moment about the casualties but I quickly pushed the thought out of my head. It was no good to dwell on it now. I did wonder a bit about what our next move would be. If we were going to hunt down Loki and the Tesseract, and how, considering that the lab was now wrecked. He could begin his attack at any time now, and we wouldn't even know.

I frowned, as depressing of a thought it was, I knew that Dante and I couldn't do much, even with our abilities. We weren't trained like Steve or Natasha. I sighed heavily.

"What is wrong?" I heard a deep voice say next to me.

I nearly jumped out of my skin. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't hear Thor come near me.

"H-hello Thor," the words tumbled out of my mouth, as I was still in shock.

"I did not mean to scare you."

"I know. It was my fault for not listening." I scooted over on the bench that I was sitting on, "Would you like to sit?"

"Verily."

He sat down next to me and ended up taken up more than I expected. I scooted over to the very edge and made myself as small as possible to allow room for the large man.

"Your forename is Alyssandra, is it not? And your brother is Dante?"

I nodded and looked up at him, "Yes, but you can call me Alyss if you like. Alyssandra is kind of a mouthful."

Thor didn't look at me; he continued to watch the Helicarrier. "Very well then, Alyss, how did you manage to conjure that shield when we fought off the Hulk?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. Why was he interested in that?

"I'm not sure," I said warily. "That was the first time that's ever happened."

"Ah," he answered. "The power that some of you Midgardians have are extraordinary. In my realm of Asgard, only powerful sorcerers can manage such things."

I assumed by Midgardians he meant humans. "Do you have many sorcerers in Asgard?"

"Nay. It is a difficult skill to learn, even if it is in your blood line. There are few in all of the 9 realms." Thor paused. "Although, it came quite naturally to my brother Loki, though he is not of sorcerer's blood."

I struggled to keep conversation with him, "Really? Did he have a good teacher or something?"

Thor's eyes darkened and I chomped down on my tongue.

"Aye, a sorcerer by the name of Amora the Enchantress. Possibly the best if not for the legend of the seer of old. However, the woman is filled with a darkness."

The conversation officially became too strange for me. I stood up and began to gather my bags.

"Well, Thor, I'm going to retire to my room now. Thank you for the conversation." I turned to him and I noticed that he was staring at me strangely. "Thor?"

He shook his head and came out of his daze, "I apologize. May I help you with your belongings?"

I reluctantly said yes and we headed towards the Helicarrier.

Around 7:00 that night, I heard Steve coming down the hall and stop at my door. He didn't knock and just stood there, so I came the door and opened it myself. He stared down at me and smiled lightly.

"Those ears of yours," he said.

"Hello to you too, Captain. Is there anything that you needed?" I hoped he would say no, I wanted to remain anti-social and think about nothing for several more hours.

Steve cleared his throat, "Well Ma'am, I was hoping to ask you a few questions. Not for Fury or anything, just my own interests."

"Oh. Ok." I stood the side in an effort to invite him in.

He stood there frozen for a second, but then hesitantly stepped in, ears going a shade of bright red. I raised an eyebrow at him before realizing.

He's from the 50's, this must be a little intense for him.

"Ah, Ste- er- Captain? Would you like to sit?" I asked awkwardly, closing the door behind me and nodding towards the desk in the corner of the room.

"Yes, thank you Ma'am."

"You can call me Alyss, you know."

"Thank you Alyss, feel free to call me Steve from now on too."

I sat on the edge of my bed quietly. "So, um, questions?"

"Ah, yes. Well, I was looking at your list of powers earlier-" Seriously, does EVERYONE have access to that? "- and I was wondering if you've ever had professional combat training?"

I sighed, "Well, some nomads that my brother and I traveled with taught us some cheap tricks, but other than that, no. I've been fighting mostly by impulse. And having great reflexes doesn't hurt either."

Steve nodded thoughtfully. "Well, in that case I'd like to extend the invitation of training with me."

I thought it for a minute. It wasn't a bad idea, and I did want to lose some weight. "I assume you've been trained in combat?"

"Yes, among other things. Against a force like Loki and his alien friends, I think we should all be at the best of our abilities. Not to say your abilities are poor."

"No, I get it. I'd love to. Will anyone be training with us?"

He smiled bashfully, "Not yet. I asked your brother and Tony. Dante said no because he'll do fine on his own and Tony said his suit is all he needs. I plan to ask Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton too, though."

"That's fine, when can we start?"

He was taken aback by my ready answer. "We can start now, if you'd like."

I nodded and began to stand up. He did the same and walked towards the door.

"Training room in 15 minutes?" he asked.

"I'll be there in 5."

He laughed, "Alright, but I'm warning you, don't let my good manners fool you, I won't go easy on you."

He left my room and I smirked to myself. I'd give him a run for his money.

Again, I apologize for the shortness, I'll do better next time!