LAURA

'About to meet the man behind the mask and here I am, dressed as a trash goblin,' I murmured into Eddie's ear. There was no denying the fact that Eddie's shirt and my old pair of dress pants were an awful combination. I was a wrecked disaster - sweaty and pulsing with excitement.

Eddie sat to my right on the large steel table with Scott having the time of his life sitting opposite to me. He had his booted feet up and flipping through a random folder in front of him. Unlike us, Peter was leaning onto the wall and slyly watching Eddie and I converse.

'You look pretty,' he said back and nipping a frigid kiss on my bandaged temple. He stunk of sweat which was the symbiote adjusting to him, I realized immediately. 

'Pretty damn hot in my shirt. Why don't you wear more of my clothes?'

I flushed slowly and elbowed him, eyeing our onlooker. Peter acted nonchalantly busy with something on the wall. 'I dunno. Never occurred to me.'

'Good. From now on, our tees only. Or,' he hummed thinking of something else. His voice was very feeble and his lips brushing my ear ever so gently. 'Even better! Sports bra and pants. Get the ones that lift the ass, y'know. Just shape 'em like, ooh - '

My tone turned like I was throwing a hissy fit. 'Ssh, zip it, Brock. I asked for affirmation. Not...lecherous...fantasies.'

'Say it,' he whispered with his eyes hooded. 'Sexual. Or are you afraid of shrinking man and spidey kid over there?'

'Spidey kid?' I scoffed. 'The boy can kick your ass in thirty seconds straight.'

'Denial.'

'Ah. The fallacies of a symbiote.'

'We are the next-level feat, baby. Some spider-bitten teenager is no match to - '

'It's a radioactive spider,' Peter corrected silently, bracing his hands over the back of a chair. 'And I'm pretty sure Mr. Stark heard all of that.'

It was all silent until we heard a distasteful groan.

'Damn it, Pete. What did we say about ruining my moment?'

All our eyes shot to the door where Tony Stark himself, leaned onto the door frame considerably suave. For a man in his late forties, he rocked the stylish trimmed goatee and spiked hair with vogue. He was clad in the least professional clothes - a Morse-coded tee, trekking jacket, and trail pants. There were orange hued sunglasses shrouding his too skeptical gaze around the room, a cursor of some sort moving amidst the glass in his specs. 

'Hey, Mr. Stark.'

'Kid,' he nodded and then at Scott. 'Man who broke my suit.'

'My bad,' he said sheepishly, playing with a wire in his helmet. 'I got into character and sort of, had to catch Cap's orders.'

'No hard feelings. Great satirical words using my conscience.'

'I learn from the best.' 

I stumbled my way up the seat, my hand shooting forward to clutch Eddie's arm to prevent a painful head rush. I was still healing so I had to take it slow. My palm soothed the slight prick near my eyes.

'Please, Mrs. Brock. Sit down.'

'Miss Sharp,' I chided nervously, taking my seat back politely. 'We're not together. I mean, we are but not gotten to the marriage situation.'

So sophisticated, I regretted inwardly.

'Spare me the details,' he shook his hand. 'Ignoring the fact you guys need to go stroller shopping for the bun in the oven, heh?'

The room fell silent. I fisted my hands inside Eddie's palms who rubbed a finger over my knuckles to reassure me. I forced myself to rein it in and not letting my maidenly instincts ruin the note.  

'It'll have to wait, Mr. Stark,' Eddie filled in the silence with a clipped voice. 'If you know what - '

'I get it, I know. I'm sorry for your loss,' he sympathized and tilted his head awkwardly, looking away from me. 'It's Tony to you. Between you and me, I've tried to get Ms Preece into a sporty two-piece but my timely persuasiveness pissed her off.'

'Tony, the problem first.' Director Fury appeared from behind him, tossing a few sheets onto the table.

'Right, the immigrant alien. I mean,' he looked at Eddie, whose neck was already climbing with black swirls of Venoms doing. 'Symbiote. Man, Drake was a little bitch. They sent his rockets to space to smell the roses and he comes back with a bouquet.'

I rolled my lips to conceal laughter and Peter let out a small chuckle.

'Make that super Kree soldier.' Fury said, crossing his hands behind his back. 'As we all know as, Tel-Kar.'

'Input be added?' Tony piqued. Placing a thin glass-like projector on the table, tap-tap-tapping on it. A holographic screen propelled itself into the air, reflecting on the surface of the black-topped table. The screen showcased a grotto-like Peter had said, except it wasn't in Malik's basement but a mud-based entrance. Tony's hands swiped through the screen, zooming into the half-symbiote half-human figure of Tel-Kar inside the entrance.

 Behind the screen, Peter's mouth formed a perfect O.

'He broke into my dad's old warehouse on Roosevelt Hill. Snuffed it down to shards.'

'He was looking for something,' Eddie filled, brushing his lips in deep thought. 'In the basement of Malik Enterprises, I saw weird lights through a crack in the wall. Something like a bridge that led to something else. But it was covered up after I got knocked out.'

'Maybe it's a metaphor. Like all reporters do. A coup d'etat.'

Eddie cleared his throat as if being patronized. 'There are not one but two in the room. And one of us - '

'Oh, okay. I thought all you did,' he pointed at me, 'for the last few weeks was watch the grass grow and lose your job over a wronged tequila.'

'Excuse me?'

So, I had respect for Stark. Heck with respect, I admired the man. Inventions that took over the world by the storm, funded for the Avengers initiative and make our home a techno-savvy place to live. But, antagonizing me was a different matter. And if anyone were to offend a woman, any matron, facing a loss and in pain - Anthony Stark would've known better than not to poke at it.

'Laura, relax,' I heard Eddie murmur as I rapped a condescending fist over the table. The knock echoed through the glass office.

'I had crawler goo in my body during the most crucial weeks of my life. Language indeed - Smurfville fucking shove it up my ass to kill me only to take it back and have me dying again. Yeah, that's right,' I scoffed at him. 'It pulverizes you from the inside out. Keith used it as his advantage and made things worse. So talk to me about - '

Nick Fury interrupted me with a loud voice.

'Stark, we do not alienate guests,' Fury reminded with an unfriendly look his way. Fury nodded at me. 'I'm sorry, Ms. Sharp but we are running out of time and we don't know what shit this guy has.'

I looked away, crossing my arms. What surprised me was the dainty smirk on Stark's face as he tucked the monitor into his jerkin pocket. 

'We know that this guy wants to leave our planet to launch some sort of a bioweapon into a planet we will not talk about,' he said and raised a brow. Behind him was a clear glass wall which overlooked a lab with all sorts of play-tings for scientists and white-coated workers already in their field. He dragged a finger through the tech-glass and presented to us the recent sighting of Tel-Kar.

He'd bonded, to our extreme horror, but the symbiote nothing like how I remembered it. It wasn't white - but a black, with neon yellow, going down in stripes around his chest and arms. His talons and fangs were enlarged, the jaundiced-looking tendrils floating out with some sort of an acridly displaced substance shooting out of it.

This was no symbiote. Tel-Kar had made a monster.

'Connections I will prefer to keep a secret tell me they have been at war for decades. This bioweapon if released could mean mass extinction of the human race so what we have to do is get this Boy-Band in cuffs, get the symbiote and contain the weapon he has with him.'

'A bioweapon?' Peter spoke after a long time of silence. 'Like a virus bomb?'

'Exactly, Parker. Air-borne, fragile and contagious. So I'd use non-lethals for this one.

'So, you don't where he's keeping it? As in - a room, a spaceship or something?'

I raised my eyebrows with a weak smile at the only superhero suited man in the room. He smiled back, sending me a sideways look.

'Millenials got to you, Mr. Lang?'

'My five-year-old daughter got to me,' he corrected with a smile. 'But, I'm still going with the spaceship system. I mean, cmon. This dude is a Kree - he's bound to have a space saucer or Corvette.' 

'We'll look into the details, Scott. Til now, just Roosevelt Hill.'

'Alrighty,' Scott blew a breath. He did not speak the entire time and that had me questioning his character. 'So we smoke this dude, get the alien and grab the bioweapon. Done and dusted?'

Eddie nodded with a huff, rubbing his forehead. He looked between me and Tony with hesitant eyes. He knew things were going wayward given the silent one-sided war between a genius and me, so decided to not address it. 

'Just like that; laissez-faire.'

'I'd advise you to suit up and wait,' he said to the lot. 'Orders might come in round the clock.'

With that, Fury exited the large room and leaving his commands hanging in the air. Peter shot us all a salute and following Scott out the room who made an eye-roll upwards at me, depicting his utter tiredness. I tightly smiled as the glass doors shut behind him leaving me with Stark and Eddie. Stark used his side of the room to focus on something on his holographic screen while Eddie pulled me to the side.

'What was that?' He questioned authoritatively, his hand at my elbow. 'Is it a concussion - '

'He was being hostile and tried to put him in his place,' I susurrated back in the same tone. 'You heard what he said.'

'He's a man who has the world like putty in his hands, Laur. He can do anything and you take him on? Jesus, you need impulse-control.'

'I know, I know,' I nipped my lip aggressively and rethinking my adverse decisions. 'I'm so sorry, I can't imagine what - oh.' I groaned. 'God. I'm not gonna be put on probation or something right?'

He grimaced. 'You better hope not. I can't function without you.'

I sent him a deserted glance, cupping his cheek for a chaste kiss. He gruffly groaned when I pulled back quickly.

'Goes both ways, baby.'

When Eddie smirked, leaning forward for another peck we were interrupted. Again and by the same person who I'd rather not speak about.

'Hate to break you lovebirds up,' Tony piped up from behind us and motioned to me behind Eddie while fitting a pen behind his ear. 'But, can I talk to you privately?'

I cast him a taken aback glance, pushing a very daunting Eddie aside. 'What godsend topic shall we discuss, Mr. Stark? With all due annoyance, of course.'

'I had it coming,' he mumbled. 'Evolution, Sharp. The one Blue-Man is going after. I can, quite literally, save you.'

[ w/n: YES GUYS MISS PREECE IS ELLE FROM MY BOOK 'THE DARKEST HOUR' I'M SO - but remember, they're nursing a breakup-ish at this point of time?    Gah! I just love building up the tension. who loves a bitchy Stark? y'know I do! wait until he redeems himself with something, unlike anything. y'all don't know what's coming. wait for it. what do you think is the problem between Laura and Tony? Sexual maverick versus Laura-the-untainted?]