Bolting upright, Tony groggily glanced around for the loud, annoying noise that jarred him out of his sleep. Muffled groans and hissed threats were coming from around him, so at least he knew he wasn't the only one grumpy.

"You guys look too cute," a feminine voice cooed, making the genius look towards the entrance of their little blanket fort. Brunnhilde was standing there looking like she had seen the most adorable thing in the world.

"You have one second to cease speaking before I throw this dagger through your skull," Loki spat out, rolling over to bury his head in some pillows.

"Seconded," Anja groaned, rolling over and unintentionally sticking her head under the same pillow Loki had commandeered. Surprisingly, the man didn't say anything and just let her be.

"Awww, you guys are so adorable when grumpy," the scavenger continued to coo, opening the sheet flap wider to let more sunlight in.

"Lady Valkyrie, I say this with the utmost respect. I will strike you down with the most massive lightning bolt known to this universe if you don't leave us in peace this second," Thor warned before rolling over and giving her a pointed look before throwing a blanket over his head.

"What some spoilsports," the woman grumbled, dropping the sheet and shuffling away. "Lady Layla, do you hear this?"

"Yep, and I did tell you to leave them be," Layla murmured quietly. Tony turned to look and noticed that she indeed wasn't snuggled near the God of Thunder. A second later, it also registered that he could smell coffee and bacon.

"God bless you, woman," Tony moaned happily, shuffling around to stand and make his way out of their little fort. A few stumbles and a painful squint later, the genius shuffled into the kitchen to see Layla moving quietly around, a massive stack of pancakes and a mound of bacon sitting off to the side.

"Morning, Tones," she greeted, coming over to press a gentle kiss to his cheek. "Sorry Bru woke you, I told her to let you guys sleep a little longer."

"Why are you even up so early in the morning?" he whined, making grabby hands at the steaming mug of coffee that the blonde possessed.

"It's, like, close to two, Tony," she laughed, pressing the cup into his hand. "And I couldn't get comfortable, nor sleep when Thor snores like a chainsaw."

"I, for one, am happy that she was up. She has regaled me with tales of these pancakes and a meat substance called bacon. It smells delicious and I cannot wait to try it," Brunnhilde piped up, sipping coffee from a mug. "This coffee stuff is pretty good, too. Could use a little alcohol, though."

"My kind of woman," Tony snorted, moving to sit next to the Asgardian. "I've got whiskey for that."

"No, Tony," Layla sighed, giving him a look. "I forbid drinking until at least dinner. I swore to Pepper I would make sure you behaved."

"Ugh, fine," he groaned, leaning his head on top of the granite countertop in front of him. "So, you plan on feeding an army there, Lay?"

"Just Asgardians," she replied, snickering. Serving up two plates, she sat them in front of Tony and Brunnhilde with different flavor syrups, butter, and fruit preserves. She also had a large bowl of cut up fruit set out, since she knew how Bruce could be. "Enjoy."

"Oh, god, marry me," Tony moaned, digging into his plate. Layla snickered and playfully slapped his arm as she made her way towards the blanket fort.

"Nah, we know that wouldn't work out. Plus Pepper would kick my ass," she teased, pulling back the sheet flap. "Hey guys, I know you're sleepy, but I did make breakfast. If you're hungry, come on out."

"What did you make?" Bruce mumbled from his blanket mound, his disheveled hair barely peeking out.

"Pancakes, bacon, I cut up some fruit, and I have eggs out should anyone want any," the blonde replied happily. "I also made some coffee and fresh orange juice."

"Oh man, you are the best," Anja slurred, sitting up and disturbing the pillow over Loki. He growled in frustration but sat up as well, blinking sleep out of his eyes.

"I suppose I can come eat," Thor rumbled, moving to get up. "Thank you Miss Layla."

The blonde shrugged and headed back into the kitchen, where she stared in amusement at Tony and Brunnhilde. The Asgardian woman looked like she was just shy of licking her plate clean and was staring with hungry eyes at the remaining tower of pancakes.

"Eat your fill, Bru. I can make more," Layla laughed, pushing the overflowing platter towards her. "I have more bacon in the oven already, too."

"You and I are going to be great friends," the woman laughed, piling up her plate. "One of us needs to know how to cook, and I'm glad we found someone."

"Alas, I'm only loved for my culinary skills," Layla playfully sighed, sending a teasing pout at the woman. "But let it be known I am not the only one who knows how to cook around here."

"What in the hell happened to make you guys best friends so quickly?" Tony queried around a mouthful of pancake.

"One, ew, chew before you speak, Tony," Layla grimaced and then smirked, "and two, we bonded over the murder of innocents this morning, don't ya know. You missed the morning sacrifice."

"I like murder," Anja mumbled, shuffling into the kitchen with Loki before leaning against Layla. "Saw quite a bit of it last night. Loki has some pent up frustration he took out on the citizens of Los Santos."

"Oh, I bet he did," Tony snickered, chewing on a piece of bacon.

"Careful, Stark, you might become the next sacrifice," Loki purred, grabbing a plate and butter knife, which he then twirled between his fingers.

"All of you are going to be sacrifices if you don't leave me some pancakes," Bruce grumbled, pushing his way between people. "Hulk will smash."

"Relax, Jolly Green. Maybe we should roofie your pancakes," Tony laughed, ignoring Bruce's middle finger.

"Lady Layla," Thor boomed, finally entering the kitchen. "You are the most marvelous of women!" Layla jumped in surprise and then flushed as she felt the god pick her up and squeeze her to his chest. "I thank you for this breaking of the fast."

"Can't breathe, Thor," Layla wheezed, tapping the man on his bulging bicep.

"Ah, my apologies," Thor laughed, setting the girl down before joining the rest of his friends filling their breakfast plates.

"Anyway," Layla sighed, "there should be enough food for everyone, so eat up. We have a long day ahead of us."

Anja paused piling pancakes on her plate to look at her friend. "What do you mean we have a long day? We don't have anything pressing to do today."

"Uh did you not check your phone?" Layla questioned.

Anja hesitantly took a seat between Loki and Bruce. "Uh no. My phone is in my room. It's been nice to be able to ignore it. Why? What's up?"

     "Uh, Spencer texted me," Layla explained. "She'll be here in a few hours, so as soon as you're all done eating it may be a good idea to freshen up."

    Tony rolled his eyes. "She is always late," he muttered.

    "Wouldn't be Spencer if she was on time," Anja commented with a shrug. She looked to Layla. "I'm not taking the blanket fort down though, and I think she'll agree with me. We can all sleep out there again tonight. Honestly I was quite cozy."

    Layla smirked. "Oh you looked mighty comfortable when I got up this morning," she chuckled, finally making herself a plate. "I don't think I've ever seen you so cuddly."

    "Shut up," Anja muttered, her face turning bright red as she looked down at her food. "You act like I was the only one who was snuggly. I mean, it was kinda chilly in there."

    The blonde shrugged. "When I got up everyone seemed to be pretty comfortable in their respective spots," she commented.

    Loki snickered a little bit from his spot next to Anja. "Were you comfortable, Layla? You fell asleep in a pretty interesting position."

    Layla leaned against the countertop and started to eat her breakfast with a smirk. "I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you. I have incriminating photos," she countered, "while there is literally zero proof of me sleeping in any compromising position."

    Loki's face went blank, but Tony's eyes lit up. "Dude if you got incriminating photos you need to share them with the class," he replied, seemingly excited for the first time other than when he realized there was coffee and food.

    Layla shrugged again. "You know the passcode to my phone."

    Tony leapt from his chair and made his way back over to the counter where Layla's phone was, taking his empty plate and mug with him. He picked the smartphone up off the counter and expertly keyed in Layla's passcode before swiping through to her pictures. Sure enough, she did have pictures of them all sleeping that morning. However, Tony doubted any of this was really incriminating. Thor was sprawled out, he and Bruce were curled up in their spots, and Loki and Anja were both using the same pillow and had their arms tangled in some odd fashion.

    He glanced up from her phone to see Layla giving him an amused look. Tony knew from all their time together that Layla was merely calling Loki's bluff on this, and decided to play along.

    "Well shit, Lay. You weren't joking. These are terrible!" he announced, giving her a wink as he slid her phone back onto the counter. He started to pour himself another cup of coffee before adding, "Also Spencer just texted you; said she just landed at the airport so we may have less time than we thought."

    Tony watched in amusement as Loki's facial expression changed to panic. "Let me see these photos," he demanded.

    "Nope!" Layla answered. "Got to save them for blackmail." The god merely huffed in response, so Layla continued. "So if she's at the airport we really need to kick it into high gear. I already showered and all that this morning so I can clean up the kitchen and what not. The rest of you do what you have to."

    "Then that should be everyone. Spencer doesn't know it yet but she's coming to space too," Anja replied, seemingly very unconcerned about whatever pictures Layla may have taken. "We're going space hunting, bitches!"

    Tony sighed, taking a sip from his fresh cup of coffee. "You are way too excited about facing certain death and destruction. You concern me."

    Anja stood, and started to collect some of the empty plates and dishes from off the table. "Haven't I always concerned you, Tony?" she asked with a smirk.

    As the girl attempted to walk past him with a stack of dishes that she could barely see over, Tony stopped her and took them out of her arms, bringing them to the sink himself. "Always, Anja, always," he muttered in response, shaking his head. "And I feel like that will only continue as time goes on."

    He saw Anja make an uneasy glance back at the table as she laughed nervously. "Haha, yeah. I'm sure it will too," she mumbled. "I see a lot of questionable choices in my future."

    Tony knew exactly what she was suggesting based on what he had observed between last night and this morning, and he repeated, "Anja, I told you the answer is no."

    "My mind's tellin' me no, but my body... my body's tellin' me yes," Anja practically sung, dramatic hand motions and all.

    Layla shook her head, but smiled at her friend's antics. "Now is not the time for singing, Anja. No matter how accurate the lyrics may be."

    The three Asgardians all exchanged confused looks at the table, but it was Bruce who spoke up. "I feel like I have really missed something here," he replied. "Like is this a joke, or is there something weird going on?"

    Tony sighed. "I'll explain it to you later, Bruce, despite it being inherently obvious."

    Anja's face went red, and she quickly exited the room, mumbling something about a shower. Tony shook his head at his friend in wonder. Anja acted like she was so well put together and proper, but deep down he knew she was a raging ball of hormones just like the rest of them, although this was the worst he had seen from her since the girls had been out of MIT. Normally the man crazy one was Layla, but the past day or so Tony was a bit surprised to have seen both girls openly gawking at Thor and Loki. He was going to have to keep an eye on them, but for now he had other things to worry about. Like Spencer's impending arrival.

******

Hello everyone! I meant to post this update yesterday but I got distracted with my parents visiting and having dinner with us. My dad offered to cook, and I'm not going to lie, it was nice to not have to cook something myself. After they left and the baby was settled, I was too tired to look at my tablet (or even my phone really) and I ended up napping instead of getting the formatting right. Ah well.

It's so weird to me when I go back and read/edit the beginning of this story since I am writing scenes from like 10+ chapters from now. I have never been this far ahead of my postings before, and it just seems super odd to me. These first so many chapters were written months ago and it's crazy how much I have actually gotten done in this.

Anyways, I don't think I have anything else to report. Hopefully this week cooperates so I can continue to get further ahead with my writing. I love that I can update regularly in at least one story, and I hope I can keep it that way!

~arty_writes