"Miss Strange, a gentleman named Nate is here for you. Shall I inform him to wait in the lobby?" Jarvis asked you a few hours later.

     "That would be great Jarvis." You told the AI politely, getting up from your bed to grab what you needed before heading out for the night. "Got my purse, my wallet, my keys, my axe." You told yourself patting all the items as you vocally checked them off your mental list. "What else am I missing?" You looked around the room, knowing something was amiss, but not sure what. That's when you heard a gentle low purr coming from behind you.

        "My phone!" You explained gratefully taking the little device from Eclipse who held it gently in his mouth. "Thanks bud. Wouldn't want to be leaving without that. What if the team needs me?"

       Eclipse gave you a firm look and let out a tiny roar in protest.

       "I know they can handle themselves," you sighed, "but it's always nice to have back up." You could tell by the look your dragon was giving you he was not amused with this conversation.

      "Alright, I'm going." You replied with a sigh. "I don't know what time I will be back so don't wait up for me."

*

       That's how you found yourself with a group
of high school seniors in the middle of a ginormous reck center trying on ice skates.

        "It's so cool that you live with the Avengers." Nate was telling you as the two of you were lacing up your skates.

      When you found Nate in the lobby of the tower he was drooling over all the team's memorabilia. It took a while to convince him to leave the tower without a tour of it. Then on the car ride here all he would talk about was the team. Asking you questions about them and asking if he could get their autographs from you.

       You didn't hold it over his head. Nor did you blame him for his reaction. The Avengers were heroes, and celebrities. Of course people, especially a high school boy, were going to be awestruck by them.

      But you did wish Nate would ask you some questions. And, at least, pretended to be interested in who you were.

      "Yeah." You agreed with him, "it's pretty great living in the tower with the team."

       "Do you get fighting lessons from them too?" Nate asked excitedly.

       "Yeah."

       "That must be so cool."

       "It's actually not as cool as you would think." You answered him, as to which you got a confused look from Nate, and the other kids that were listening in on your conversation. "Natasha trains with me most of the time, the whole time it's just her kicking my butt and telling me about how, in the the field, the bad guys won't be taking it easy on me like she does. Even with almost three years of dragon rider training I'm not even close to the teams level of fighting. Most of the time I'm just a glorified punching bag."

Nate was about to say something more, probably about your team mates, but you cut him off by standing up. "Are you ready to hit the ice?" You asked your date, offering him a hand.

Nate took it and you hauled him to his feet. "Meet you guys out there." Nate called to the rest of the group before offering you his arm to you like a gentleman.

Ok. Maybe Nate wasn't as bad as you were originally thinking.

You took his arm with a grateful smile before the two of you walked off to the ice rink.

Nate opened the gate for you, letting you go through first.

"Thank you." You told him gently with a warm smile as you gracefully stepped onto the ice. At least he was doing his best to be gentlemanly.

"Of course." He reapplied.

When Nate stepped onto the ice you weren't actually expecting him to take your suggestion to 'hit the ice' so literately. His skate quickly shot out form under him the moment he set foot in the rink.

"Are you ok?" You asked him, quickly sliding over to him to help him up.

"Yeah yeah yeah." Nate told you as he scrambled to his feet. Trying to save what little dignity he had left. "I'm good."

When Nate got up he grabbed onto the rail to help keep his balance. "It's just that I've never been ice skating before." He told you, focused on keeping his feet under him. He then looked over at you. "But you seam to be doing well."

"My cousin taught me how." You told him. "She's training to go to the Olympics."

       Nate nodded. "Is your whole family just extremely impressive?"

      You laughed at that. "Let's just say my family won't stop until they achieve what they want."

        Nate nodded.

      "Do you want me to teach you a few things about ice skating?" You asked him.

      "That would be appreciated."

       "Ok, first you will have to learn how to balance while moving forward."

      "Or just balance in general." Nate supplied.

       "Correct. Let's start with the march. Your going to hold your arms out like this," you told him as you raised both your arms out to your sides, making a T shape with your body. "Your just going to pick up one foot at a time like you're marching."

       "Like this?" He asked you as he let go of the wall, holding his arms like you told him.

      "Just like that. Now keep your back straight, chin up, and core tight."

      He did as you instructed.

      "Pick one foot up and then place it right back down. Like a march."

     You helped Nate learn the beginnings to skating, while you watched the other couples around you. Some knew what they were doing and immediately took off,  racing each other around the rink, while some immediately ended up sprawled out of the ice. You saw a boy dragging his date across the ice as she shakingly tried to keep her feet under her, giggling and over the top screaming whenever she almost lost her footing.

       'Teenagers.' Your inner voice groaned silently. 'So dramatic.'

       Nate actually caught on relatively quickly. He fell down a few times and ran headlong into the wall quite a lot, but he wasn't terrible.

      While the two of you were skating around with Nate's group of friends you caught a glimpse of two very familiar looking girls.

      "Hey, Nate, I'm going to head over to the restrooms."

       "Ok. We'll just be here." Nate told you.

       You nodded and glided over to the gate before getting off the ice and walking over to the restrooms. "I can't believe you guys are here!" You explained as you walked slightly faster over to your two friends.

       "We heard you got asked out on a date." Your friend, Lauren, told you happily accepting your hug.

       Lauren was a Dakarian, and also one of your dragon rider buddies. She was tall, probably the same height as you were, with long straight chocolate brown hair that went down to her waist. She had kind brown eyes that fit her perfectly. Her build was like that of a cross country runner, long and skinny.

"We had to come see for ourselves that it was true." Anna finished.

Anna had a lot of the same physical attributes as Lauren did. Which made sense because they were cousins. Anna had long brown hair, shorter and slightly lighter than Lauren's, that was always tied back in a braid. Energetic brown eyes, and a pointed face. Resting on the brig of her nose was her blue, rectangular, glasses. She was also tall and had a sprinters body build.

"I just thought that after spending a whole three months with me you guys would be sick of me by now." You told them with a laugh.

"Well you know, you are kinda annoying." Anna joked, giving you a mischievous grin, telling you she didn't really mean what she had said.

"I appreciate the honesty." You laughed.

"So, who's your date?" Lauren asked, scanning over the group of high schoolers with her eyes.

"That one." You told them, pointing to Nate who was goofing off with some of his male friends while the girls cheered them on.

The three of you watched as Nate and another boy started playing a game of 'chicken' on the ice. They started out on different sides of the rink then skate into each other as fast as they could, nocking each other to the ground.

"Well," Lauren said with a forced smile. "At least he's cute."

"Are you going to kiss him?" Anna asked with a smile.

"Heaven forbid no!" You objected quickly, shaking your head at the thought. "No! Kissing is so gross. I will only ever kiss someone if I really really like them."

"That's fair." Anna agreed.

"How's life in the tower?" Laurin asked. "I heard there is another Asgardian living with you. Loki? Isn't it?"

"He's not that bad." You told them, hearing the slight uncertainness in her voice.

"Is he the younger prince of Asgard?" Anna asked. He voice the same uncertainness as Lauren's.

"Yes." You told them, as to which they exchanged a worried look to each other. "Hey!" You protested with slight defensiveness in your voice. "I know the rules. I will not set foot on Asgard."

"We believe you." Lauren told you gently. "But you must be wary of them. You know how the king feels about Asgardians. And about you being on a team with not just one but now two of the princes of Asgard."

"Hey," you told them with confidence in your voice. "I can handle this."

"Just make sure Odin doesn't find out about you." Anna told you. "Who knows what he will do when he finds out both of his sons are hanging out with a dragon rider."

"Odin hates humanity." You told them. "The last thing he's going to do is ask his sons about their earthly team mates."

Lauren and Anna both nodded at that. "Just be carful." Lauren warned you.