Thaw

Goodbye.

(^The ring)

I collapsed on my bed when I got back to my room. "I'm Thor's niece, my 'mother' is evil, I was born in HELL, my 'grandfather's' scared of me, and I'm part of the royal Asgardian family! Great." I recalled the things I've learned about myself this morning. Almost 10 years of being in the Triskelion and I'm finding all this out in 2 weeks here in the Avenger's tower. After thinking it all over I decided to get to work in packing. Although I was sad to be leaving I couldn't help but feel excited about starting school. It kept being pushed back because something always had to come up. I remembered seeing a suitcase in the closet but groaned when I saw it was all the way at the top.

I climbed up the shelves and stood on my tip toes in the closet to reach the top shelf. My hand reached the side of the suitcase slightly but not enough to pull, I jumped slightly and my hand enclosed on the zip, I pulled as hard as I could and the suitcase came crashing down on me, it was much larger than I had expected and I fell to the ground with a loud thud, it came soon after and landed on top of me. Ouch. I lied there with the suitcase on top of me before pushing it aside and dusting myself off. I heard my door slam open and I jumped slightly. "Astrid! Are you okay? Where are you?!" I heard Steve's voice call. "In here!" I said poking my head out of the closet. I sat down and opened the suitcase. If it were full I would have been crushed like a bug. "What was the noise," Steve asked leaning over me.

"This." I motioned to the suitcase.

"Why didn't you just ask for help?"

"Because I'm... independent." I said matter of factly. I started to pull off clothes from the hangers and shelves.

"Need help?"

"Nope," I said popping the P.

"Alright, suit yourself, you know where to find me!" He called and I heard the door close. Darn, company would've been fun. I sorted through clothes I knew Id never wear like the dresses, skirts, and heels. I made 2 piles of clothes, the one's id bring with me which was a fairly small pile, and the ones Id leave behind. I decided to bring 2 casual dresses which caught my eye. It took 2 hours but I finally finished folding and packing all the clothes into the large suitcase. I put a few pairs of shoes in as well and closed the suitcase. I rolled it to the front of the room and then turned to my desk to pack up the rest of the stuff. Tony had bought me an iron man backpack for fun, but when I seriously took it he was joking and gave me a plain black one instead. I put the packs of pencils, pens, notebooks, and other school supplies inside the bag and also made a pile of a few books I haven't gotten the chance to read yet to ask Tony to bring with me.

I made the bed, put the books on the side table away, and placed the laptop and phone neatly back on the desk. When the room looked the exact same as when I first came here, I turned around and brought the suitcase and backpack to the front of the room. I went upstairs to see if Tony was still in the library to ask him if I could take some of his books with me but was disappointed to see he wasn't there. I found myself on the lower floor which branched out onto the iconic large terrace. I've only down there once with Bruce, I had been following him around in the lab that day and he had come up here to get something from Tony's workshop area. He didn't talk much to me, aside from sometimes explaining what he was doing but for the most part, I understood and let him work in peace. I wandered out onto the terrace and was happy to see Tony in half of his Iron suit, the suit only covered his legs and he worked on them still latched onto his body. Id only saw his suit on one occasion, the first week I got here, I was talking to Pepper in the living room and he walked in with the whole iron man attire like it was nothing. "What're you doing out here kiddo?" he asked without looking up. "I'm done packing." I told him.

"You're leaving in an hour," He checked his watch and I watched as the suit detached itself from him and packed itself up into a briefcase which he left on the table. He then started to walk off and I jogged to catch up. I followed after him and we soon stopped at my room. We entered and I went to the table which had the books piled on it, "You didn't take everything," Tony called from inside the closet. "I don't need clothes for my whole lifespan!" I joined him inside. I had cleaned up and put everything I wasn't taking neatly back on the hangers and shelves. He didn't reply and instead exited the closet. "Why didn't you pack your laptop and phone?" he asked.