Loki

Not Exactly Besties

I liked Happy.

Correction. I liked Happy when he did what I said.

I'd been back in this reality for a week now. It had been a good week. Well a better week than back Home. I had gotten a lot of work done. This included an upgrade to my Night Mistress suit, which was needed practically every time I came back to this reality.

Running SI wasn't that different than my job back at the Centre. At least this place didn't have my stupid assistant, trying to take the fun out of everything.

Pepper was nicer than that. She wouldn't force me to work rather than risk mental health. She was nice.

My assistant back Home was a horror. Her name was Tracy Strauss and I hated her. Of course, my usual assistant in this world had died...

Forgetting that. Back to work.

The paperwork was a bunch of nonsense anyway, in both realities. I was getting them done in half the time, with half the effort. The other half of that effort was spent ignoring Happy.

"You know, you're not my bodyguard." The words came out of my mouth, they might as well have been the musings of a madwoman for all the attention Happy paid to them.

Ever since the events of Iron Man 2 ended, Happy had been on my back. Maybe because he was worried I couldn't defend myself, or maybe it was because Tony told him to stick to me like syrup on a pancake. I didn't know which one annoyed me more.

It was getting restricting. I felt like I couldn't breath with Happy hanging around.

"Happy." I warned.

"Your father said to watch you." Happy reminded, dutifully.

Which made it easy for me to decide what I was annoyed by.

"He also said boarding school is like Hogwarts. Let's not take his word as gospel." I replied easily. "You can leave. I won't tell on you."

To his credit, Happy didn't flinch. He stood firm by the door.

Well he'd gone up against pre-Iron Man Tony Stark. There wasn't much I could do that Tony hadn't tried.

"Will you at least stay on the other side of the door?" I asked, hoping I sounded so desperate that Happy would concede.

The head of security shook his head.

'Time to pull the Afghanistan card.' "I can't work with people watching me." I stated. "It's too much like- like what happened last summer."

Happy's expression faltered.

"I know you don't mean it like that. But it's freaking me out." My voice shook for added measure. "This work needs to get done. Please leave before my brain explodes."

It's not like it wasn't true. I didn't want people to watch me work. Happy himself admitted he was watching me for Tony. He was going to report everything I did to Tony. I didn't like knowing that someone else would know my every move. It made me feel watched and the last guy that watched me like that-

"She makes really quick cuts. Now, wanna play a game?" Dominic tried shaking his head. "It's called 'How Many Cuts Can Knifey Make In The Hour You Can't Move'. I think a hundred. What about you?"

-didn't end up happy.

"Becky, look-"

"I'm not asking anymore." I warned. That sounded like a proper Mom voice.

This was going to become an actual panic attack. The reminder of Dominic, plus the fact that I used Stark Tech on him wasn't helping calm me down. I needed to be alone.