Loki Laufeyson - The Experiment {1}

Chapter Twenty One - Breakfast Visitors

When I went down that morning for breakfast, I saw Pepper already cooking in the kitchen, delicious smells filling the whole level. I timidly walked down the stairs, trying to figure out what the smell was as I reached the kitchen bench. Pepper had her back to me, too focused on the cooking to realize that I was sitting on one of the bench stools. I watched her for a couple of moments as she stirred something inside a bowl, adding different things into it every now and then before stirring again.

"What are you making?" I asked softly and she spun around before smiling at me.

"You really are stealthy." She laughed, setting down the bowl to wash her hands, which were covered in flour. "It's waffles. Have you had them before?" I shook my head, craning my neck to look inside the bowl, which was full of a pale yellowish mixture.

"Do you want to help me make them?" She asked and I looked up at her sharply, shaking my head instantly.

"I don't know how to cook." I said quietly, sitting back down in the bench stool.

"That's okay." She smiled, pushing the bowl towards me. "All you need to is just stir that until all of those little flour lumps you see are gone." I hesitated for a moment before pulling the bowl closer and picking up the wooden spoon in the mixture, slowly stirring the mixture, which was thicker than I was expecting. Pepper began to move around the kitchen and I watched her curiously as I continued to stir, the flour lumps she was talking about slowly beginning to disappear.

"Thank you very much Emily." She said after a couple of minutes of me stirring, gently taking the bowl away from me. I continued to watch as she moved over to a different machine I hadn't seen and poured some of the mixture onto it. The mixture seeped down into the squares all over the machine thing and Pepper put the lid down on it, causing a sizzling sound to fill the room.

"Is that waffles I smell?" A very tired voice called out and both Pepper and I looked over at the couch to see Clint sleepily raising his head, his hair sticking out at all different angles and his eyes half shut. Pepper chuckled and nodded, Wanda popping her head up from the couch seconds later.

"Did someone say waffles?" She asked through a yawn, sweeping her hair out of her face.

"They'll be ready in about five minutes." Pepper smiled at them both. "So maybe go wake yourselves up before then and have a shower." They nodded and Clint slumped back onto the couch with a groan, but he over balanced and fell off the edge, the outraged yell of Nat filling the room immediately. Thor woke up suddenly with a loud grunt and fell off the edge of the couch, thankfully not on Nat too, who had jumped up and was pummeling Clint with a pillow.

"Tony reckons they're like a dysfunctional family." Pepper chuckled and I turned back to her, smiling softly.

"He's right about that." Came Steve's voice and I looked over my shoulder at the lift to see him walking out, the light blue shirt he was wearing soaked in sweat and clinging to his obviously muscular body. He gave me a smile and opened up the fridge, grabbing a bottle of strange looking blue liquid. He immediately gulped it down thirstily.

"I'm always right." Called out Tony's voice from the bedroom level above us and I looked up to see him leaning on the railing. He smiled and me and waved, to which I smiled back softly before he looked over at Steve. "Seriously Rogers? Training already?"

"I'm an early riser." Steve replied, throwing the now empty bottle into the bin. "What better way to spend the morning than running in the streets of New York as the sun rises anyway?"

"Maybe sleeping in." Tony rolled his eyes, walking down the stairs. "Like a normal person."

"Steve's anything but normal." Nat called out from the couch, pinning Clint down on the floor. Tony clicked his fingers and pointed at her in agreement, walking around to Pepper and grabbing a strawberry from the bowls of chopped up fruit for the waffles. Pepper gave him a soft glare but couldn't help but smile.