Beautiful Chaos

{part two | chapter four}

Lilith rung out her hair and wrapped the soft, cream-colored fabric of the towel around her body. She let out a contented sigh. The shower had done just the trick. The cold water had felt refreshing against her sweaty skin and woken her up enough so she'd have energy for the party. 

She lifted the corner of the towel around her just enough to dry off her face before blow-drying her hair and straightening it. Soon after she was digging through her makeup drawer. She loved makeup, and whenever she wasn't on a mission with the Avengers or in her office carrying out therapist duties, she was experimenting with her makeup. She sprawled the contents of the drawer in front of the full-length mirror in her bedroom and sat down. Still in her towel, hair dripping down her back, she picked through the collection of products looking for a very specific shade of red lipstick. 

She decided she'd do something simple to match the simplicity of the silky red dress that was laid out on her bed, thanks to Nat. Knife sharp black eyeliner, false lashes with a little mascara, and lipstick that almost exactly matched the color of the dress. She applied some light blush to her freckled cheeks before slipping on the dress and red, strappy heels -also thanks to Natasha's generosity- and headed down stairs.

"Allfathers almighty! You look ravishing, Lady Stark."

"Thank you," Lilith said, blushing at the compliment. 

"Aw, Lils, you look very beautiful," Steve said.

"You clean up pretty well yourself, Captain."

"A dance, miss?" Steve held out his hand, ever a gentleman, and Lilith took it with a grin.

"Of course, kind sir." He led her out onto the dance floor and the pair laughed as they did a clumsier version of the foxtrot to the modern music. They clutched their stomachs that hurt from laughing so hard as they approached the bar where Tony, Thor, Maria, and James Rhodes were mingling as Natasha mixed drinks in front of them.

"Rhodey!" 

"Heyyy munchkin! How you doing?"

"Better now! Where's your sorry ass been lately?"

"I was just telling these guys. Okay so, I'm doing this mission thing and there's this tank, right? And this general? Bad news so, you know the suit can take the weight. So I take the tank and fly it over the the general's palace and drop it at his feet. And he's all shocked and I'm just like, 'Boom! You looking for this?" 

Lilith snickered a little bit.

"Hey," Rhodey slapped Tony lightly on the shoulder, "She laughed."

"Aw, Rhodey," Lilith said between laughter, "That was... that was awful."

"I taught you well, daughter," Tony smirked.

"Hey, where's Pepper? She not coming?"

"And what about Jane," Maria asked, sipping her drink, "Where are all the ladies?"

"Well, Ms.Potts has a company to run," Tony said.

"And I'm not even sure what country Jane is in. You know, her work on convergence has made her the world's foremost astronomer."

"And the company that Pepper runs is the largest tech conglomerate on earth. It's pretty exciting."

"You know, there's talk of Jane winning a uh, a Nobel Prize..."

"Oh," Lilith said sarcastically, "I'm sure they hate missing this for work."

"Testosterone," Maria mock-coughed.

"Oh, you want a lozenge?"

"There's some over here," Lilith said, "Maria, Rhodey. If you'd kindly follow me."