Only a few hours passed after breakfast, and everyone had gathered back in the makeshift tent in the living room when the elevator dinged again. Anja immediately jumped from her seat in her little nest and ran to the elevator to greet Spencer, while Layla was less enthusiastic with her efforts to get to the elevator. When the elevator doors opened, a young brunette woman stepped out and was immediately pulled into a tight hug by Anja.

    "Nice to see you too, Anja," the woman greeted, hugging her friend back, dropping her bag to the floor.

    Anja pulled away, and allowed Layla to hug their friend. "Don't bother unpacking, Spencer, cuz we're going to space, bitch!" Anja announced, smiling more than she should've been given the circumstances.

    When Layla stopped hugging her, Spencer braced herself against the wall, trying to figure out what her friend was talking about. "The hell you mean we're going to space?" she questioned.

    By this point, Tony had sauntered into view, and had his arms crossed against his chest. "Well, Spencer, your dear friends here think it's a great idea to go on some grand adventure in space to try to stop some all powerful alien hellbent on killing us all," he explained, not hiding how against the idea he still was. "You know, a complete suicide mission."

    It was then Spencer noticed the sheets hanging from the ceiling. "What the hell did I just walk into?" she asked. "This was supposed to be just a trip home to see you three, and now there's some space war, and what appears to be a damn blanket fort in the living room. Someone needs to explain this to me like now before I lose it."

    Anja sighed, and took a few steps back towards the living room. There was really going to be no good way to explain this to Spencer. Things were not well on any front. "Well you have some people to meet first before any of this makes sense, so c'mon," she said.

    Spencer hesitantly followed her friend, and Layla gave Tony an exasperated look before she followed as well. Tony sighed before he too went back towards the living room and took his seat in the blanket fort once again. Anja took her seat in her nest area next to Loki, while Layla went back to hers next to Thor. Spencer hesitated and decided to sit next to Bruce, smiling at the familiar face.

    "So who the hell are all these people?" Spencer asked, looking around at the three Asgardians. "Like I said, this was only supposed to be us and Tony, although Bruce is a nice surprise. It's been a while since I've seen him."

    Tony shrugged. "Well, the big blond man next to Layla is Thor Odinson, God of Thunder. I think you briefly met him before during the whole Ultron thing." Spencer nodded, so Tony continued. "That slimy git next to Anja is Loki Laufeyson, God of Mischief and general asshole-ry, and the one who attacked New York. They're the current king and prince of Asgard, and are brothers. The woman on the couch is Brunnhilde; she's a valkyrie sworn to protect the Asgardian royal family." He looked to Spencer, raising an eyebrow. "Does that answer your question, princess?" When she nodded, Tony looked to the three Asgardians and said, "This is Spencer Grey. She's a close friend of ours."

    Spencer waved at her new acquaintances, and then looked to Tony. "So that answers one of my questions. Why are we going to space? And what is the deal with the blanket fort?"

    Layla sighed. "Well long story incredibly short, there's this alien named Thanos who is collecting these things called Infinity Stones. He's a terrible guy and wants to kill everyone in the universe so we're going to try to intercept the remaining stones and try to forge alliances with some other realms so we stand a better chance at stopping him."

    "Well, technically his plan is to destroy half the universe and instill his twisted views of reality on what remains," Loki mused, hardly hiding the snark in his voice, "but... details."

    Thor waved his brother off. "It's still not far from the truth. He is terrible, and he does want much of the universe dead, us included."

    Anja frowned as she glanced between her friends. "As for the blanket fort, it was my doing," she piped up, and her shoulders shrunk a little bit- something that did not go unnoticed from her friends. "I... I was feeling nervous about the whole thing. I still am, really. All of us except Brunnhilde slept out here last night, which is why there's all these pillows and blankets and what not."

    It took the brunette girl a minute but she finally caught on. "Oh, Anja. I'm sorry. I... err... sorta forgot about our old habit," she muttered sheepishly. "It's been a while."

    Anja shrugged, trying to downplay it and the anxiety she was feeling. Layla leaned over and hugged her friend. "It's alright. We're dealing with it," she tried to calm her. "We'll sleep out here every night until we leave if we have to."

    Tony nodded, agreeing with his friend. "But once we get to space, you're going to have to put those big girl panties on, okay? I don't think the ship will have space for a blanket fort, but I mean worst case I'm sure you can convince someone to cuddle-" Layla gave him a look and whatever else he was going to say died in his throat.

    "Not to be that guy, but what is for dinner? I am starving," Spencer inquired, quickly changing the topic. "I haven't eaten since this morning before I boarded the plane, and I highly doubt that little peanut packet they give you counts as food."

    Layla shook her head. "You are always hungry, Spencer, and despite that somehow you're the thinnest of all of us."
The woman shrugged, causing some of her curly hair to fall over her shoulder. "High metabolism? But seriously. Food."

    "I second this," Thor suggested. "It has been some time since breakfast."

    Layla sighed. "I take it I'm cooking dinner then?" When she saw the puppy eyes being sent in her direction by nearly everyone in the group, she stood, brushing out some creases in her shirt. "Fine. I guess I'm going to make chicken alfredo; there's way too many of us for me to make something more complex."

    Layla carefully made her way out of the fort, trying her hardest to not step on anyone. Light conversations resumed amongst everyone, and Anja watched in silence as her friend left the room to make dinner. She didn't intend for Layla to become the mom of the group- even though she had always been that way- and she felt bad she felt obligated to cook dinner. Against her better judgment, Anja stood too, and left wordlessly to go help her friend in the kitchen. Helping with one meal wouldn't hurt.

    After all, who knew how long they would be in space, or how many meals Layla would end up cooking in the long run?

    When Anja entered the kitchen, Layla was already digging through the cabinets, placing pans and a cutting board on the countertop. The blonde popped back up, surprised to see Anja standing there.

    "Yes, Anja?"

    "What do you want me to do to help you? Do you want me to make the sauce or cut the chicken or something else?" Anja asked, hoping her friend wasn't going to shoot her down. Layla had a tendency to want to do things on her own, even when she was overwhelmed. "I know you have to make quite a bit to feed all of us and I want to help."

    Layla sighed, knowing very well her friend was right. "Fine. I know you get squeamish about touching raw meat, so if you want to make the alfredo sauce, put on a pot of water for the noodles, and get the oven preheating for the chicken and some garlic bread, that would be delightful."

    Anja nodded, grabbing a few of the pans Layla had placed on the counter and moving them to the stove. "I can do zat."

    Layla smiled and shook her head. "Alright, Chekhov." She paused as she got into the fridge, pulling out several ingredients. "Although I thought you would rather spend time with them than help me make dinner."

    In some ways, Anja would've loved to be sitting with the rest of the group; in other ways, not so much. What she truly needed was a distraction, and not just from the fact they all could be killed at any moment. She had a lot more on her mind than she cared to admit. The girl grabbed some of the ingredients from Layla and started focusing on making the sauce. "Eh," she answered with a light shrug. "I just thought you could use the help. You already made a big breakfast today. I figured you didn't need to make dinner alone."

    "Hmmm," Layla hummed, starting to season the chicken. "If you say so, Anja. I still think you'd rather be spending time with Spencer and uh... getting more acquainted with some of the others."

    Anja stopped grating cheese in the middle of a swipe. "More acquainted? What the hell do you mean?"

    Layla smirked. "Oh you know exactly what I mean."

    As it turned out, Anja did know exactly what Layla had meant, but she wasn't ready to admit it. Not out loud. Not to anyone. So she lied. "I think I'm acquainted enough with everyone here," she answered, although not as confidently as she would've liked, as she resumed grating the cheese. "This is not the first time we've worked with Thor and Bruce, after all."

    "I wasn't talking about Thor and Bruce," Layla reiterated. "I meant Loki and Brunnhilde. I would've thought you would want to get to know them better."

    Anja shrugged, trying to divert the conversation. "We're all friends here. I'm not worried about becoming more acquainted."

    "You're a terrible liar, Anja," Layla replied. "But I won't push you on it."

    Anja was grateful for that, and returned her focus back on the meal. There would be plenty of time to talk about her feelings later, and preferably more in private. Right now, this was more than enough to keep her mind busy and off of everything plaguing her thoughts. There would be plenty of time for that later.

******

Hi everyone! Nothing new to really report here. It's been a relatively uneventful week outside the normal chaos I have with the husband, baby, cats, and dog. Life is always crazy here- even on the "calm" or "lazy" days. This chapter was initially much shorter (most of the chapters for this story are well over 2,000 words and this one was only just over 1,200 at first), and I didn't like that so I spent the last two days trying to add a little more to it. I finally got that done this evening!

How has everything been for you all? Hope you all have had a wonderful and exciting week since the last post. :)

Hope you all enjoyed this! Expect the next update in roughly a week!

~arty_writes