Idiosyncratic || Peter Parker ||

||43||

Sprawled across her bed, Isabelle laid uncomfortably on top of mounds of textbooks with her hair scattered everywhere. She had woken relatively early in the morning and decided to continue with her studies only, she had fallen asleep twenty minutes after opening her textbooks. Miraculously, she had managed to salvage part of her grades for Chemistry, English, and Calculus, yet there was still much needed time for improvement in the other classes.

Her peaceful slumber didn't last all too long with the incessant knocking on the door, followed by Sam's voice, "Tony's home and by the looks of things we're about to get our asses dragged for Lagos so get up." She groaned in response to being woken up, but hauled herself up off the bed and dragged her feet to the door where Sam remained. "Why wait a month to do any course of action?"

"Ask Tony yourself since he was the one who contacted the Secretary of State." Sam slightly rolled his eyes and pushed himself off the door frame, Isabelle followed with a sigh. The two of them walked in silence, allowing time for Isabelle to wake herself up more before she would meet with the man who had the potential to end the Avengers right then and there. Tony stood outside the meeting room staring at his watch until he heard footsteps caused by Sam and Isabelle.

"Great you two are here before we get this show on the road I need a word with you." He pointed at Isabelle who nodded in response and exhaled deeply. Sam grumbled something under his breath and makes himself useful by darting into the room behind Tony where everyone else sat awaiting some form of punishment. "Nice to see you too," Isabelle mumbled, having not seen the man at all over the course of a month with the exception of seeing him on TV. "Someone's a bit grumpy this morning - I thought you'd be ecstatic to see me, you're officially an Avenger now and you get to sit in on your very first meeting as an Avenger. I thought a thank you would be properly suited for this, actually."

She stared at him momentarily before answering, "you're right, I am grumpy and tired and really not in the mood to deal with whatever nonsense is about to happen." Tony chuckled and nodded, resting a hand on her shoulder, "great which is why I wanted to talk to you. Just because you're an Avenger now doesn't mean you can go around and tell everyone who's boss-."

A scoff formed in her mouth, "when have I ever-" Tony cut her off, "-you're doing it right now, you get... touchy and easily offended when you're tired and right now is not the time to backchat. Do you understand me? Some things might be said in this meeting that'll piss you off but you need to hold your tongue. Am I clear?"

"Crystal." She answered with a sigh, she could already tell this was a recipe for disaster. He quickly gripped her arm firmly, "he knows who you are -- who Scavenger is under that suit of yours so I need your support on this a-hundred-and-fifty percent." His tone was warning, suppressing the guilt behind it. Sure, Tony felt immensely bad for blowing Isabelle's alter ego to the secretary of state but there was no use trying to find a peaceful resolution if the government can't even trust one of the Avengers to reveal her own identity. 

She folded her arms, shrugging off his hand in the process and nodded, "is it just him that knows because really I only want to deal-" Tony cut her off once more and nodded, "Yeah - got it, you only want to deal with a handful of people -- don't worry Uma Thurman, your secret is safe with Secretary Ross and the entire government." Her eyes widened and she threw her hands in the air, "The entire government - Tony! What if someone leaks information, all it takes is one rat to do that and obviously there goes my cover." 

"Listen - it's for precaution, the people who run this country have the right to know who's underneath the mask... right now we have a bigger issue to discuss than them knowing who you are, we'll talk about it later." Tony pressed, ushering the teenage girl inside the conference room where everyone was murmuring to each other. Isabelle seated herself toward the back near Tony and Steve as Secretary Ross stands and greets the team.