Brother's Rivalry of God-Like Proportions

Chapter One:

Lori was walked through the top floor of Stark Tower, New York; she was standing on the balcony overlooking the Big Apple waiting for Stark himself. But he was always late and this was no exception.

Time was ticking by. Two o’clock, half two; it was now quarter to three... The lift doors slid open with a ding.

“Mr Stark, you have a meeting with the Mayor of New York at four. He would like to know how you’re going to make the rest of New York eco-friendly, since the prototype of the Arc-Reactor you engineered is up for review this year.”

“Good Miss Rose,” he took a moment to correct himself, “Lori, tell the Mayor I’ll be there at half five-ish. ISH,” replied Tony Stark, owner of Stark Industries.

“I will call it in sir,” Lori answered.

“Good, and take the rest of the weekend off, because I’m an awesome boss...” she was about to respond when— “Go ahead – I’ll have Pepper do everything, now go before I turn into a crappy boss and change my mind.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I like having people call me sir...” Tony mused and left the room.

~

With this odd newly found freedom, Lori decided to look around Stark Tower. She’d been in the foyer, on the top floor over-looking New York and the floor Tony had converted into an apartment for her; Tony had been kind enough to convert the top six floors into apartments for the Avengers and Lori. They boasted to have the best view in New York; now it was time to discover the other rooms that Tony was usually found when not wanting to be found. Pepper was the one who usually found him.

Lori took a left walking down a long corridor, which had many doors on either side. Suddenly Lori heard a large grunt come from one of the rooms near the end of the corridor. She hesitated to enter then curiosity got the better of her. She stepped into the room silently.

She discovered a man standing in front of one of the pinball machines, and his muscles kept flexing as he moved one of the sticks that helped control the game. He was wearing leather and metal. His blond hair swayed as he turned and looked at Lori.

“Do you feel ill?” He asked.

Lori couldn’t conjure a coherent thought because she was too busy looking at his sculpted figure. He inched closer and she responded, “No, I’m just fine. Dandy, actually.”

“Dandy?” He replied.

“It’s another word for fine.” Something clicked in Lori’s head. So this must be the God, in the Avengers Initiative…

“Very well; I don’t think we’ve been introduced – My name is Thor.” Thor extended his hand.

“I’m Lori.” She said, shaking it. “I’m the Second Personal Assistant to Tony Stark – I work here.”

“Lovely to meet you, though I don’t think Tony has ever spoken of you…” He replied.

“Oh no, I don’t suppose he would – I’m just a helping hand for Miss Pepper Potts.” Lori explained. Silence consumed the room.

Lori looked behind him at the pinball machine, “It looks like you were having a bit of trouble…” She smiled, shyly.

He turned to look at it in irritation. “The contraption doesn’t seem to work, you have to keep the metal ball on the board to receive points, and I just can’t sustain it.” He looked at her crest fallen.

Lori walked toward the pinball machine, “The thing about pinball is – it’s all about timing. You see these levers? Yeah, well they control those,” She pointed to the components on either side of the trap, where the ball goes down; Thor leaned against the machine, listening. “You’ve got to anticipate when the ball is going to touch the components, then you move the lever and it should make the ball go upward on the board, and then you should score points.” Thor placed his hands on either side of the machine, trapping Lori there.

 “Want to go out for coffee, some time?” He asked; his lips inches from her ear. 

“Trapping a girl against a machine isn’t exactly how you ask, but I’ll see what I’m doing and I’ll let you know…” She smiled to herself, and looked at him, she ducked under his arm and made her way back to the door, she gave a fleeting look behind her and Thor was grinning from ear to ear. Did she just successfully, lead a guy on? Yeah, she did.

~

Lori sat at her desk contemplating if Thor would actually ask her out for coffee. It had been three days. He hadn’t sought her out yet. Maybe he wasn’t interested? She glanced down on her desk, and noticed something that she hadn’t noticed there before, it was a memo with the Stark Industries emblem in the corner, she took a look.

You said you would let me know when you were free…

She knew it was him. It was true, she did say that. She looked at the clock that was situated above the door of Tony’s room. It was almost lunchtime, she could find him. A non-daydream-like thought erupted her deliberation – Why wasn’t she doing any work? She was working for the largest company in the entire world and she was too busy thinking of those big, strong, oh so capable arms of the Norse God… She bit her lip. Why can’t her shift just be over already?

Pepper walked through the door, and saw Lori fantasizing, “Lori? What are you doing?” She was broken out of her trance.

“Er, just thinking…” She blushed.

“Well, I hope you were thinking about your work. We do have company to help run.”

Lori nodded, feeling slightly ashamed of her-self; she looked on her desk. Tony needed to desperately do publicity; he always put it off until he made sure the interviewer was a woman. It annoyed Pepper because then it was delayed even longer. So who wanted him? Forbes, TIME, the Rolling Stone, the usual’s. Well, Lori would on the phone to them all afternoon, talking about when the interview would be, if it would be a spread or a story or both and photo shoot setups.

Pepper looked over and saw the magazine list, she said, “You can start on this after lunch…” They both exchanged a smile and Lori grabbed her purse and went into the lift, in search of the God of Thunder.