POV Rio
"I had a nightmare. Would you sleep in here?" Lucy asks with sad eyes.
I stare at her with suspicion, but we both know I can't prove she is lying. We also both know that this won't go the way Lucy wants.
"Fine," I say with a smug smile as I pull out a bed from my inventory and place it on the opposite side of the room.
Lucy's eye twitches, but she otherwise doesn't break the act.
"Ugh, I'm so weak and fragile, can't you sleep a bit closer for my protection?" Lucy says with puppy dog eyes.
"Hmm, if you are so scared, I can get old Barney out of storage," I reply with a smile.
Lucy's entire body shivers in a combination of fear and disgust, before she shakes her head strongly.
"No... No, no, no, just no," Lucy says firmly.
"What's wrong with Barney? Sure, he looks off-putting, and his eyes almost seem like they are following you, and he says some really strange things, and even seems to move on his own, and just overall makes others feel uncomfortable, but he hasn't harmed anyone... That anyone can prove," I say the last part quietly, but Lucy catches that.
"It must be destroyed," Lucy says darkly.
"I'm afraid that can't be done via normal means. He was forged in the Mountain of Fire in the Land of Shadow. Only by returning it from the fires that created him can he be destroyed," I say with confidence.
"Who made him?" Lucy asks with raised eyebrows.
"Nobody knows for sure, but some say it was the Dark Lord Dormammu himself, others say it was forged by a fallen god," I explain cryptically.
"Why do you still have that thing?" Lucy asks seriously.
"It's fun to scare people with. I usually leave it in a cell with some of the really bad prisoners. It causes most to break after a week at most. As long as you are only exposed for a night or so, you won't be too affected. Also, I really don't like dealing with that thing any longer than I have to, so it stays in my inventory most of the time," I respond honestly.
Lucy looks at me with a look that I can't quite describe.
"Now I believe it is bedtime for you, so have a good sleep; I'll just be over here reading," I say with a smile.
"No, you should sleep like a normal person," Lucy complains.
"Huh? I am a normal person, or elf," I comment.
"No, sleep like a human," Lucy demands.
I was about to argue with her when a sudden thought stopped me.
"Huh? I wonder how long it has been since I slept a full eight hours instead of Reverie?" I comment to myself.
The logical rebuttal could be to say that Reverie was far more effective than normal sleeping, but it didn't mean I couldn't sleep like a normal person; I just never needed to do so.
"Alright, you win, I shall sleep like a human tonight," I say with an interested tone.
When you think about it, I had used Reverie for far longer than I had slept normally as a human.
I settle into bed and try to recall how to sleep like a human. Eventually, I drifted into a deep slumber.
POV Shift Lucy
I listened to Rio's breathing for a moment to see if he was really asleep. It was sort of hard to tell, as I have never heard Rio sleep before; whenever he is in Reverie, he is extremely serene and quiet. But when I was certain he was asleep, I got up from bed and walked over to his bed.
Sometimes I just liked to stare at him. Sure, part of the reason was that he was attractive, but the more important reason was that I never wanted to wake up from this dream. Part of me wondered if I deserved this. To be happy. To be with him. To be loved by him...
'If only I could just say... say those three words.'
I reach down and move a stray hair from his face, and start to feel flushed as I feel his breath on my hand. I then focus on his lips and feel tempted, oh so very tempted. But I control myself and return to my bed, and I can't stop myself from using my vectors to slowly move his bed next to mine. Thankfully, Rio was a very heavy sleeper by the looks of it, as he didn't wake up even as merge our two beds and started cuddling with him. I felt so wrong but so good at the same time. I had to use everything in my power to control my arousal to manageable levels. It also meant making sure my vectors didn't start roaming. Though my lower regions were a bit of a different story. It was like an earthquake in a tuna factory down there.
POV Shift Rio
When I woke up in the morning, the first thing I noticed was the feeling of something squishy on my arm. The next was the feeling of warmth on my left side. Then, when I looked to my left, I saw pink. Lots of pink.
'What?'
I went to get up, but noticed I was being held by Lucy's vectors in a very tight embrace.
I stayed as calm as a cucumber, which was a lot easier given that I have the experience of a lot of playboys in my repertoire. It quickly started to piece together what happened.
'I have been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amok, and flat out deceived!'
I knew exactly what happened here, and I had to admit I wasn't sure how to feel about it. On one end, this wasn't unpleasant. But on the other hand, she was invading my personal space without permission. And as the saying goes: 'One: personal space. Two: personal space. Three: Stay out of my personal space. Four: keep away from my personal space. Five: get out of that personal space. Six: Stay away from my personal space. Seven: keep away from that personal space. Eight: personal space. Nine: personal space.'
I wasn't about to rip my own skin off to maintain my personal space, but that didn't mean I liked people just coming into my personal space. Though I guess with Lucy it wasn't that big of a deal.
'I guess I can let her have her fun.'
Now, despite my nonchalant reaction, the fact was that I didn't have good ways of getting out of this. My hands and arms were in positions where casting spells wouldn't be easy, and I must make it abundantly clear that Lucy is ridiculously powerful, easily strong enough that I can't break free with force.
'I might be able to apparate.'
I figured it was worth a try. Though it did make me wish I knew Substitution Jutsu, or Shadow Clone Jutsu, or, honestly, a lot of Jutsus from Naruto would be really useful.
'Wait... Isn't there a magic cloning spell? What was it called again? Simso Duplex? Similo Duplexis? Yeah, that sounds about right. I should look into that. I really need a way to be in two places at once.'
POV Shift Tony Stark
"That should do it," I comment after blowing a hole through the last Hydra member on my list.
"Are we sure that Hydra is really gone this time?" Selene asks.
"Well, according to the AI program I gave Rio to replace Zola, this should be the last member on Earth," I comment.
"On Earth? So what, they live on the moon as well?" Jessica asks.
"What? No. Of course not; the Nazi's weren't that good, and moon travel has been very small. No, the last member outside of this is the creature that was the entire reason Hydra started in the first place. From what Rio told me, he's some sort of sentient virus or parasite that can only live as long as his host can live. Hydra has been sending its master sacrifices via a portal for centuries at this point, as it lives on a distant planet," I reply.
"That's why Hydra exists?" Jessica says with shock.
"You didn't read the reports?" Steve asks.
"Uh... Tehee?" Jessica says while trying to act cute.
"That only works if you are cute," Selene says brutally.
"Who you callin' ugly, you Hot Topic going Big Tiddy Goth Emo Hag?" Jessica snaps back.
I do a double-take and look at Jessica with a shocked expression that was hidden by my helmet.
"Ladies, let's not fight," I try to intervene.
"Stay out of this!" they both yell.
I backed down instantly as I didn't feel like testing my suit's capabilities against either of their skill sets. And a gentleman knows when to back out. Even Steve was looking at his phone as if it were some piece of alien tech, though knowing him, that might be true to him.
"Let's go settle this in the training room," Selene says with a predatory grin.
"Hah, as long as you are good with losing," Jessica mocks arrogantly.
'Well, it was nice knowing her.'
Even Steve winced at that tone as he knew exactly what was about to happen. Selene doesn't look like it, but she is the second strongest member of the Guardians and is also the second most skilled fighter. She was several centuries old and was a combat genius. I watched her battle with Batman, and I had to admit I would get my ass handed to me if I even tried to spar with them. I once tried to have Jarvis compile the fighting styles and thought I was hot stuff now that I knew how they fought and could have my armor replicate it. When I sparred with Steve, I was not only defeated, but I also pulled several muscles as I didn't have the flexibility or baseline to perform the moves.
I had to get healed by Rio or risk being out of service for a couple of weeks due to all the injuries. But I did learn from the experience and have been taking some training lessons outside and inside my armor as well as working on my flexibility.
An hour later, Jessica came out of the training room with a swollen face and limping. Selene had a few rips in her usual outfit but was otherwise unharmed.
"Cheating Bitch," Jessica murmurs quietly, but everyone hears her anyway.
"Who's next?" Selene says with a smile.
"Uh, I just realized I have a date with Pepper I need to get to; if I'm late, she'll kill me," I make up an excuse and quickly run to the teleporter to get home.
"Uh, I also had plans to spend time with Peggy," Steve says nervously.
"I uh..." Luke starts to say, but he fails to think of anything.
"You don't have a girlfriend, so come on, I'll teach you some combat stances," Selene says with a smile.
Luke looks at everybody else, but we all avoid eye contact and leave him to his fate.
'He's really durable, I'm sure he'll be fine.'
Was I maybe lying to myself? Probably, but I had a date to get to. A very legitimate date. I'm late, I'm late for a very important date.