Anja stared down at her large duffle bag with a frown on her face. No matter what Thor and Loki had said, there wasn't any good way to pack your things for an extended trip into outer space. Especially if you had no idea where you were going, what those places were like, or even how long you would be gone. So much for her boasting she could fit everything in one bag. So far, she had two large duffle bags, and an impressive stack of blankets and one pillow sitting next to them.

    "I think... I have everything," she murmured quietly, tapping one finger to her lips as she glanced around the room for the millionth time.

    "You sure?" Tony snickered from the doorway, looking at the disaster that was the girl's room. "That's a lot of blankets."

    "There are never enough blankets," Anja huffed, crossing her arms. In truth, though, she may have gone overboard; the small pile of blankets next to her bag was proof of that. Thor had mentioned that there was little concern with having enough cargo space since the ship they had was more than big enough, so she packed whatever she felt she would need. What could she say? She liked being cozy.

    "Sure thing, sweetheart. Doesn't matter, though. You think you have everything? Spencer, Layla, and Bruce just finished loading their things onto the second Quinjet, and my stuff is already on there."

    Anja just nodded and looked around one last time before she zipped up the duffle bag. "You sure you have everything? I saw you downloading F.R.I.D.A.Y. to a remote server and packing a bunch of tech stuff."

    "I'm not leaving F.R.I.D.A.Y. here all by herself," Tony grumbled, grabbing one of the duffle bags as well as her pillow and blankets. "The bots will be okay, since Rhodey promised me that he will still come in every so often, and that he'd keep an eye on Peter for me. Pepper, too, since she's pretty much gonna come live here once she gets back from her trip."

    "Yeah? That's good. She nearly have a heart attack when you told her we were going space avenging?" Anja asked with a smirk, ignoring Tony's sigh and the dark look he gave her.

    "Oh yeah, she wasn't exactly thrilled, but hey, whatever. I don't really want to leave her here, but I know it will be safer for her and she can keep things running around here," Tony muttered, leading Anja out towards the helipad. "The last thing I need is for her to get drug into this space massacre too."

    Coming to a stop right before heading outside, Anja grabbed Tony's bicep and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Hey, I know it's going to suck without her, but in the end somehow this is all going to work out. We'll be back home before you know it, and you'll have your sweet Pepper in your arms again." She paused and then added quietly, "At least you have her to come back to."

    Tony gave her a small smile, fully ignoring the sad tone in Anja's voice just like she knew he would. He shrugged instead and led the way out onto the helipad. Spencer, Layla, and Bruce were standing there looking over a checklist, while Thor and Loki came and went between the two Quinjets. Brunnhilde leaned against the edge of the helipad, looking at the traffic going by down below. Honestly, it looked a lot less chaotic than Anja thought it was going to be.

    "So, Anja's things are the last of the stuff needed to be loaded. Bruce already went over the pre-flight checklist, so we should be good to go once Anja's things are all loaded," Spencer explained, turning to look at her friends.

    "Thank god," Layla groaned, ruffling her blonde hair. "I hate packing things for trips and getting things set up. It's so boring."

    Tony shook his head, handing Anja the bag of hers he carried out. "Layla, most things are boring to you."

    Layla opened her mouth to argue, but stopped short when she realized he made a good point. "Okay, so I guess that's fair," she replied sheepishly.

    Anja snickered as she walked past her friends and made her way into the Quinjet with everyone's belongings. Loki was standing off to the side and grabbed one of her many duffles, stacking it neatly with the rest of their cargo.

    "Ready to head into certain death?" Loki teased, moving back just slightly to give the girl room to place the rest of her things down.

    "Oh, most certainly! What's the point of having fun if someone isn't gonna be threatened with death?" Anja laughed, tossing her own smirk towards the mage. She sounded more confident than she felt, that was certain, and she hoped he wasn't able to see through her facade.

    "Ah, exactly," Loki hummed, raising a hand to indicate she could leave before him. "Perhaps you can pass that sentiment onto Thor. He finds the whole thing bothersome."

    "Yeah, okay. If you can't get Thor to see that, I certainly won't," the girl responded, walking down the ramp. "Last I knew, you were the one with the silver tongue, not me."

    Loki hummed and came down the ramp, too, leaning in close to her ear as he walked past. "I don't know, I feel like you can be very persuasive."

    Anja flushed lightly as the man calmly walked away and turned to throw a filthy smirk at her. Layla looked at her questioningly, but Anja just shook her head and shrugged, making the blonde roll her eyes.

    "Alright, is that everything? I'm gonna go back inside and do one last pass through, but I suppose everyone can hop on the Quinjet and get situated. It's not a very long flight," Tony called out, heading back into the tower.

    Brunnhilde and Bruce headed towards the second Quinjet with all of the cargo and began to prepare for their own trip, while the rest of the group, sans Tony, made their way to the other waiting aircraft. Thor made his way towards the cockpit where he would assist Tony while the rest of them took seats along the Quinjet walls. Spencer and Layla sat on the left while Anja and Loki sat on the right. That didn't shock Anja in the slightest. She knew her friends were going to do anything in their power to make her feel awkward. They had always gone out of their way to make her uncomfortable around a guy she liked. It seemed this would be no different. Anja was already uncomfortable with flying, and now she was going to be doubly panicked. She was trying to shake the feeling when Tony's voice shook her from her thoughts.

    "Alright, Thor, go ahead and close the doors," he commanded as he walked onto the jet, making his way towards the driver's seat. "Time to get this show on the road."

    It was silent for a moment as Thor shut the doors as Tony requested. Just as it looked like takeoff was going to happen without consequence, there was a comment from the peanut gallery.

    "It just occurred to me that I'm going to be stuck in space with Stark," Loki sneered quietly, ignoring the pointed look from his brother.

    "Aw, Tony isn't so bad, even if he gets on my nerves a lot," Anja soothed, turning to look at the god once she finished strapping herself in. "He's snarky as hell and I'm pretty sure once you guys move pass the manly pissing contest, you guys are gonna be great friends."

    "Friends with that oaf," Loki grumbled, hardly resisting rolling his eyes, "I think not."

    "Relax, Loki. I stabbed him once and we're cool now," Anja huffed as she got comfy in her seat. "I'm sure he can get over you throwing him from a window."

    "He also set your room on fire in retaliation," Layla chimed in, grinning. "It was pretty freaking great. Seeing your bed on fire was hilarious."

    "And yet I still bought her all new things afterwards, and helped put the fire out," Tony grunted, flicking switches and tapping a few screens. "Don't worry, Elsa; we can at least try to be on civil terms."

    "If you keep calling me annoying names, the only terms we are going to be on is one where my dagger is sticking through your chest," Loki hissed, eyes narrowed.

    Spencer stared at the mischief god with a blank look before smiling lightly. "You don't have many friends do you?"

    "Oh my god, Spencer," Anja groaned, slapping a hand to her face. "Seriously? You can't just ask people if they don't have friends."

    "What? It's a valid question!"

    "And you guys think I don't have a brain-to-mouth filter," Layla laughed, shaking her head as the jet took off, causing Anja to grasp Loki's wrist in unintentional panic. "Oh man. Space is gonna be so much fun."

*****

Hi everyone! Sorry I didn't post this sooner. It's been a weird few days with appointments and stuff around here so I wasn't able to get on my tablet and edit this chapter like I wanted until now.

Today is the one year anniversary of me starting this story! It seems like only yesterday. I still want to do something special to commemorate it, but I'm not 100% sure as to what. Still open to suggestions. :)

Hope all is well with you all!

~arty_writes