Disclaimer: The Avengers practically belongs to the boss, Stan Lee. But I love them so much, I just have to write and continue this fic.

Chapter 17

A Chance Meeting

It had been three days since the incident with Loki's imploding magic, and with the ever boisterous and gallant Tony Stark's invitation, the siblings have been staying in Stark Tower since, camping out by the Hulk's containment unit, turned makeshift medical bay to monitor Loki's condition, who has until now still hasn't regained consciousness.

After coming to the conclusion that their father is no longer in harm's way, Hela, Jörmungand and Fenrir were now able to rest easy.

While the brothers chatted away with Tony, Bruce and Natasha in the yet again newly renovated lounge area, Hela quietly made her way towards the bar where Steve and Bucky were. Having been the last to come up, she took it upon herself to let her brothers get settled and get to know their new somewhat uneasy allies.

Greeting the Captain and his friend, Hela took a seat next to Bucky and get herself vodka on the rocks, rewarding herself with a drink after a long arduous day of looking after her father, and an even long day of trying to get Thor out of the containment area, which in the end was a losing battle.

"Long day, mademoiselle," Bucky asked, smooth as ever Steve noted.

Hela swirled the drink in her glass and flashed Bucky a look that Steve knew was his cue to leave, excusing himself to join the others.

"Oh? Leaving so soon, Cap?" Hela flashed him a smile, albeit a tired one and Steve gestured towards the other group whose boisterous voices permeated throughout the large room, "I think I heard Tony calling me."

With that, he left to join the others on the L-shaped couch, everyone's voices drowning out the other with their chatter.

"Not so slick, is he?" Bucky said at last once he was out of Steve's earshot and Hela couldn't help but chuckle, "No, not slick at all."

In the midst of the group, Bruce sat quietly listening in on everyone's story in peace until his so-called Science Bro destroyed said peace with an elbow to his side garnering his attention. Leaning in too close for Bruce's liking, he tried to keep a distance away from Tony without so much as bumping into Natasha on his right while she was engrossed in conversation with Fenrir, which he knew would earn him a death glare and more if he so much as disrupt her talk with the charming businessman.

"What is it, Tony? You're too close," Bruce said with chagrin before looking at the direction where Tony was looking, where Hela seemed to be in light banter with Bucky. Banter as in flirting from what he could see, and what Tony might be getting at.

No sooner than the thought crossed his mind, Tony and his mouth started running on promptly, "Looks like you have competition my friend. But as good old Jolly Green's and yours especially's wing-man, I must say I got this."

"Tony, what the hell are you talking about," But he was too late as Tony was already on his way to the bar to mediate, or in Bruce's head, meddle on the other two.

"So you remember Jack's and Perry's, huh?" Bucky said, reminiscing on their chance encounter during the war way back when, "I do. I remember how you tried to get a dance with me clear as day."

"And how I epically got turned down," Bucky grinned bashfully at the recollection of their encounter in a pub in Manhattan before his deployment.

Shaking her head, the dark haired lady corrected him indignantly, "I did not turn you down! You got called back to camp before I could answer."

Without noticing as Bucky and Hela laughed at the memory of their brief time together, Tony creeped up behind them and put an arm around the two's shoulders and joined the conversation, force festively obvious in his intent, "Hey, what's the commotion about you two? You seem to be getting along quite swell."

Tony dragged the last part of his statement, emphasizing on their quick camaraderie as Hela tried to pluck of Tony's hand on her shoulder. "Geez Stark, you reek of liquor."

"That wasn't the question," Tony drawled, much to the annoyance of the two.

"We're just talking Tony," Was Bucky's retort as he looked for Steve in their crowd of friends, "Hey Steve! Remember that woman I talked to you about? The one I met in Manhattan?"

Steve Rogers raised a brow and folded his arms over his chest, trying to recall the list of women Bucky has talked about in the past and shook his head, giving him a shrug, "I don't know Buck. You mentioned quite a handful of them."

"Hm. So Mr. Barnes here is quite the playboy here, huh?" Tony grinned and tightened his grip around Bucky in approval, his previous life of philandering flashing across his eyes, the various women whom he sacked and more, a long and winding list of women that if Pepper saw him now she would scream bloody murder and would most likely do just that.

"Looks like Stark found a friend," Natasha said under her breath as she chugged on her beer bottle, while Bucky looked on, exasperated by Stark's antics and was just about to elaborate what he meant, when he realized his choice of words to describe the woman seated next to him was while not crass, was too embarrassing to announce to Steve's group of friends.

Quickly breaking free from Tony's grasp, Bucky quickly went over to where Steve was seated; now occupying the seat of the genius, playboy, philanthropist's spot next to Banner.

"You remember right?" Bucky whispered in Steve's ear, which wasn't completely out of Bruce's earshot. "You know, the really classy and foxy lady from Manhattan? The one I was supposed to get a dance from before getting deployed?"

Foxy? Bruce really couldn't help but eavesdrop and toyed around the word as if it was a subject ready to be dissected and studied. Foxy; that would mean an extremely hot, extremely gorgeous woman, not exactly Bruce's choice of adjective but one he couldn't really deny of the woman who was trying to push Tony's liquor induced person away from her.

"Seriously Stark, lay off the whiskey," Hela said finally before leaving the barstool for the empty space next to her brother Jörmungand.

The night wore one and the rest of the Avengers, now Thor included with his niece and nephews gathered 'round for more chit chat and beer, with Tony continuously teasing Banner like a shoulder-devil, and Thor finally asking the hard-hitting questions from his estranged niece and nephews.

It was pushing midnight, but Thor had questions needing to be answered. With a huff of breath, Thor turned to his niece who was most likely the reason and asked, "Dear niece, how in Helheim did you get your brother's out of captivity?"

As the question dropped, the chatter simmered down as everyone's attention turned to the Queen of the Fallen, whose reaction was from from what everyone expected.

Authors Note: Sorry for the incredibly long (2 years?) hiatus. I've just recently found my love for this fic and decided to pick it up once more for my lovely reviewers and followers.

Stay tuned everyone. I know this chapter wasn't much in terms of action packed scenes, but I promise we'll get to them soon.

Anyways, please review and follow as I have more sweets from Helheim.