<Stephen's POV>

"It's okay now, Stark. You can open your eyes and..." I said, trying to calm this scaredy cat down.

"No, just one more minute." He whispered, eyes still closed. 

Well, this wasn't really bad at all. Besides, I always want to hold him a bit more. Just one more minute.  My eyes fell on Stark's fluttering shut eyelashes as he slowly squirm and turn ever so slightly in my embrace, subconsciously tried to make himself comfortable

"Alright love birds. Sorry for interrupting your lovely reunion but we need to clean up this mess." Natasha said, fishing out her phone in her pocket to show us the screen. The screen lit up and I immediately squint in order to cope with sudden brightness. It was already 3.47am. "We need to clean this shit up fast and go to sleep and hopefully we can get up and go to school on time.

I nodded, felt my lids could not keep up anymore as I came up with an insult towards Romanoff but couldn't. Street light from outside shone through thin curtains of Stark's bedroom, revealed that the group was completely terrified and exhausted. Potts helped us gather discarded pillows that flew all over the marble floor, while Romanoff fixed the bed so I could lay Stark on it. 

"Stupid ritual, stupid widow. That scared the shit out of me,"  Banner mumbled, and we just couldn't but quietly laughed at his remark. 

"You know," I started as I summoned all my magic to levitate discarded paint that we used in the ritual, as well as the flipped over coffee table on the other side of the room "You are so scared for someone who has basically taunting Romanoff earlier". The bottle of paint landed nicely on top of the table as I finished.

"Shut up," Banner hissed, probably did not want to wake the Sleeping Beauty on bed "Who would've thought that actually worked? As expected from the next in line Sorcerer Supreme." 

Shook my head at his mocking tone, I turned to coo everyone to sleep together on Stark's fluffy bed. Once everyone was nicely tucked under a velvet blanket, Potts suddenly spoke up "It's been a long time since we sleep together like this, right? " 

"Just the five of us," Romanoff said, and I can clearly hear the exhaustion in her raspy voice. 

When I was six, it was the very first time I met this gang in a primary school, where I saw Stark somehow landed his face first in the school's playground sandpit. Quickly rushed over, I reached my hand out for him as an assist offer. But to my surprise, Stark only brushed it away, quickly standup and dust all the remaining sands on his face. I didn't know it was something with my eyes, or it was because of the sun light reflected on sand particles that made Stark's blush cheeks glistened. It took me some second to get back to Earth, as Stark instead reached out his hand this time in a friendly manner "Hey, my name is Anthony, but you can call me Tony, just like my mom does," He grinned, just enough to show his pearly teeth. Not letting Stark wait any longer, I quickly caught his hand and shook it, just to feel how soft his hand is. 

"Tony," I heard a shout behind Stark, so I peeked over his shoulder as Stark turned his head around to see who was calling out his name. 

"Pepper!" Stark remarked, and I snapped to realise that I still held his hand, thus release the grip as a little girl ran up towards us. Flush cheeks with pigtails and pink bows, Potts swiftly reached where me and Stark stood. She wore a white dress, decorated with sone renowned patterns, and I must admit that the dress suited her well, as contrary to Stark's black T-shirt and trousers that practically covered in dust, caused it to lose its original shade. 

"Are you okay?" Potts asked, her little hands ran over Stark's face, worry written all over her baby face, as her brows furrowed and the corners of her lips curved down to examined if there are any open wound. After she was done with her little roleplay of a doctor checking on her patient, she slowly turned over to notice me, her hazel eyes scan my foreign face first before she decided to speak up " Hi, sorry for not introduce myself sooner. I'm Pepper," she sheepishly smile, coyly raised one of her arm up and waved at me. 

"Oh this is..." As quickly as Stark wanted to introduce me to his friend, he quick to realise that he didn't know my name either. 

"It's Stephen," I said, saving Stark from obvious gestures of embarrassment. Scratching the back of his head, nervous laugh and diverted eyes. Turned to Potts, I politely smile at her, as she just lovingly scolded Stark for not even ask for my name. 

"Why did you injured yourself in the first place anyway?" I asked, studied Stark's even redder cheeks after hearing my question as if he did something he wasn't supposed to let anyone saw. 

"It's for my science class," Gingerly answered, Stark kept scratched his head " I was challenge to build a flying cart by a dickhead-" 

"Language!" Potts reminded, crossed her arms in disapproval of Stark's profanity.

"By a not-so-nice classmate of mine" Attempted to fix his mistake, but Stark still earn a razor-sharped eyeing from Potts that could probably cut through layers of his skin.

"Bruce is not a bad guy, Tony". Potts said, now put a hand on Stark's left shoulder to remind him.

Sensing her sincere, Tony quickly diverted his eyes to look anywhere but Potts, but finally let out a defeated sign before continue, " Okay, but I swear if he said that any of my invention is trash then there will be consequence." Stark claimed, pouted in order to gain Potts' sympathy, " Anyway, so I decided to build a flying cart on the roof top of the school, then launch down a ramp with a bunch of propulsion system that I stole from my dad's rockets to fly-"

Before Stark could even finish, I intervened in his little ambitious story with a loud yelp "You what?" Bawling my eyes out as Stark appeared to be surprise at my remark, but even more surprise to see Potts' disbelieve face. 

"I can't believe you just did that. And on the roof top too? Are you crazy?" Potts spoke up, now that she looked even more worried than when she discovered us at the sand pit.

"If it was not for this sand pit, you could have injured badly", I finally said, in utter disbelieve. 

" Guys, it's okay. I did not get hurt. Nobody was hurt in the process." Stark grinned confidently, but the quirkiness on his face soon shatter when we heard a screeching noise that I refused to believe that was from our Vice Principal, " STARK! I better see you in my office before your parents arrived."

Well, looks like I just made friend with a smart ass trouble maker on my first day at school. 

So we had to parted away from Stark, me and Potts were on our way back to class. Turned out that Potts and Stark household has been in touch with each other long before they were even born. Sneaked in a few of Stark's secret here and there, like when he cried as his dad accidentally stepped on Stark's favourite teddy bear, leading him to believe that the teddy bear was dead, Potts continued to spill out everything she knew in her 6-year-old memories.

Our first class was just plain out boring, since it just singing along an alphabet song. Decided to tuned out from the rest of the class, I looked outside the glass hole on the entrance door, saw 2 adults swiftly walked by and one of them turned to peak inside our class. From the split second my eyes landed on the woman, she seemed to be a well-off person, since she was wearing pearl earrings and her cream blazer made she looked sophisticated. On the other hand, I couldn't catch features of the man accompanied her, but I assumed that they are in a rush, as they appeared to be frantically looking around in search for something or someone. Before I could observe them better, the teacher knocked slightly on her wooden desk to catch everyone's attention, and it successfully snapped me out of my trance.

With that knock, I am back to reality, ending my journey down memory lane. Looking over to see that everyone is sound asleep, I try my best to slowly put on leg down from the bed first, then silently move my hip without making any distortion of the bed sheet and finally sneak out of bed.

After standing up fully and ignoring my drooping eyes, I make my way over the large, stained from paint mirror that had been cautiously placed in a corner of the room. Once my reflection appears clearly on the mirror, I take out my handkerchief to swipe away excess paint, reveals a bloodshot eyes.

" Well, now I know why Stark is trying to keep you a secret". I speak first, only to earn a menacing growl from the handsome creature.
With a sigh, I turn back to look at Stark who is still sound asleep, then turn back to the mirror - or rather the creature in the mirror. "You are going home with me, and I will deal with you then."
The creature balls his fists up, then banging repeatedly on the mirror surface, but he quickly realise that all of his efforts prove to no avail. He then turns to face me, his teeth elongated and bare as if trying to overwhelm me.
"What are you doing?" He hisses, his dull red eyes still glued on my face, trying to read into my facade.

I know that eyes, that the eye of a feeded vampire. That only fuel my anger, as I know that he indeed feed on Stark at some point, and his scarf was only to hide the bite mark.
Quickly gather the very last drop of my magic, I swirl my hand in the air in a circle motion. Sparkles appears out of nowhere, followed my hand as I open a portal that lead to my own house.
Assumed that the portal is big enough for the mirror to go through and stable enough for a short while, I swiftly pick the mirror up, despite the vampire keeps banging on the glass surface in hope to break out of it, and walk through the portal with one last glance at Stark.
" I'm sorry Stark, but I need to make sure you are safe". I whisper, before close the portal.

Exhausted, I put the mirror face down on the cold, hard floor and use my feet to slightly kick it under my bed, decided to deal with the creature later before drifting to sleep in my bed.

"I should have stay there and cuddle with Stark, but this is for the best."