Chemical Poison

Waking up alone on the couch could only meant two things: Yesterday was a highly disturbing, and wonderful fever dream, or Howard had left already. The first thought was quickly made wrong as Anneliese admired the bandage around her hand, she was still wearing the same dress from yesterday and her hair was down... made knotted by fingers and pillowcases.

A rush of red flooded Anneliese's gaze. "Oh my," she whispered silently to herself, she had actually kissed him. Nothing innocent, nothing like before. Impulsively, Anneliese buried her face into the pillow, as if that would remove the memory that begged to remain permanent. She could remember it all, the way he tasted on her lips, the sounds he made - she made - in front of far too many cameras. How his fingers trailed her hair, the way he slammed her back into the porch post.

But she remembered the tender kisses behind closed door; gentle kisses, loving kisses, and warm embraces. She knew the two quickly fell asleep, after all the day was a rather big day in the scheme of it all. Yet, she was unsure if Howard was still there. Surely, he would've left during the night?

Groaning, Anneliese got up and slowly made her way to the bathroom and showered. Removing her make-up from the day before, before replacing it again. She was all "dolled up" as her father often said. Next, she slowly wrapped her hair around her fingers, forming a bun her mother had taught her when she was only seven. Anneliese made her way back to the kitchen, waiting for the kettle to finish boiling the water for her tea, when she managed to find enough bravery within her bones to open the curtains.

She was surprised to see no press, but even more so when she noticed Howard's car remained in her driveway. With the whistling of her kettle, Anneliese quickly made herself a cup of tea, carrying it with her as she slowly entered every room, trying to figure out if Howard was still in her house. Upon arriving at her room, Anneliese decided that he must've called his butler to pick him up. Opening her door, just a creek, she entered her bedroom. She hadn't even realised she had been walking silently when she reached her desk, placing her tea on it. She had decided she would work on the organisation of the letters of consideration for the World Exposition of Tomorrow. 

She could hear a soft sound coming from the other side of the room, and that was when she noticed Howard's clothing was wrinkled on her floor. With a deep sigh, Anneliese walked back to the front of her bedroom where her light switch was.

"There better be a good reason why I still see your car in my-", Anneliese flicked the lights on, only to see Howard, sprawled out on her bed, "Is there a reason you're naked in my bed?", she asked cooly.

His chuckle filled the room, but Anneliese was less than pleased. Not only had he decided it was appropriate to leave every item of clothing scattered on the floor of her bedroom, but he was also in her room, absolutely naked. What was even worse, he left her on the couch. Her eyes narrowed on him as he slowly stretched and sat up. And that was when Anneliese realised she was right, she was absolutely and utterly fucked.

Her eyes couldn't stop from zoning in on his bare chest, memorising (unwillingly, of course) every muscle, every scar and every vein. She couldn't even bring herself to be embarrassed as she openly studied him, and it seemed Howard had realised this; an eyebrow quirked. 

"How do you know I'm naked? Had a peak did you-"

"Your clothes is scattered all over my bedroom."

The pin seemed to drop just then. She had a man, naked in her bed. Not only was she not married to this man, but he was her boss. The headlines were already appearing in her mind, 'Anneliese Lorenz: Stark's fling or flunk?'. Shaking her head, removing the imaginary image of the possible newspaper, she slowly made her way back to her desk, her back to him as she started sorting out the letters.

She ignored the rustling sheets, and the loud thumps his feet made as it made contact with the floor. Her eyes suddenly became very invested in a memo Harold Lockes had given her, updating her on the budget for the expo Howard was putting together. Numbers had never looked so good.

That was when she heard her clothes being moved in her wardrobe. Her head snapped over her shoulder to see Howard was going through her wardrobe, and mumbling critiques for each item. Mouth gaped, Anneliese spoke, "What on earth are you doing?"

No response came from Howard, instead he kept looking through her clothes, and that was when Anneliese realised he was only wearing his undergarments. Everything was exposed, and her cheeks flooded red. This was more skin she'd ever seen on anyone else, this was too much, and far too improper. 

With her trembling hands, she picked up her tea, taking a rather large sip from the hot drink, she didn't stop sipping at it until she knew she had burnt that taste of Howard from her lips. She watched as Howard found a collection of suits in his size on the other side of her wardrobe, her eyes remained on him as he picked one up and turned around to Anneliese, his eye brows quirked. 

"What is this?", he said, raising the suit higher.

Clearing her throat, begging the words come out stronger. They did not. "I started using company money on suits that fitted both you and Alexander, after that one incident when you both spilt wine before a press conference. I'd always bring two extra suits, in case you two do something stupid."

The answer made Howard's lips form a toothy smirk as he turned back around to the suit collection, and Anneliese forced her eyes away from him. Refusing to glance at his skin, and returned back to the letters that desperately needed her attention.

An hour passed, and she assumed Howard must've found the shower, as he entered the bedroom again in one of the suits Anneliese had. She had waited for him to say something about the lack of variety, it was either all blue or all black. Allure pulled Anneliese's eyes to rake over him, but it wasn't so much the suit that made her lips part slightly open. It was the dress in his hand, and especially the suit in his other.

The dress was simplistic, a nice light blue - an identical colour to the tie he had decided to wear. Even more so, the dress was shorter than what she would usually go for, and tighter. It wasn't so much Anneliese was insecure of her body, but she did like to dress modestly... and that dress was probably the closest dress she owned that screamed immodest. Leave it to Howard to find that dress.

Yet, the blazer he was holding was the very one he had worn the night before: navy and long. Her response seemed to be the correct one, as Howard placed the dress and blazer on her bed, and made his way over to her desk. His eyes furrowing as he noticed the letters on her desk.

"It's only five thirty, are you fucking working?"

Glaring at him, the only action she could make. She didn't trust herself to say something stupid. He looked beyond handsome, devastatingly so. 

"Get dressed, we should probably go make an appearance at some cozy cafe."

Howard gave no opportunity to argue as his hand wrapped her hand, pulling her from her seat. And Anneliese couldn't help her face from flushing a deep scarlet, remembering exactly what had happened last night - and what he could do with his hands alone... when all he was doing was kissing her. What his hands could do to her.

His eyes widen, not out of surprise but out of curiosity. It was the same look he would make when Anneliese or Alexander would suggest a change to one of his prototypes, and he would already be running to his laboratory to test out the theory. But, instead, he was curious about her.

"Alexander was right, you really are conservative."

Biting her lip, she forced words out, "And is that meat to be an insult?"

They were already at the end of her bed, Howard's hand dropping from her's as he begun walking towards the door, leaving her at the bed - next to the clothes. And just as he was about to leave the room, he flashed her one of his winning smiles, "It makes it all the sweeter to watch you loose your innocence."

It was decided in that moment, she hated Howard Stark.

The two had taken longer than expected, having to miss the cafe Howard had suggested as they were running late to a very important meeting. Anneliese wondered how they could possibly be running late, but it seemed Howard was determined in teaching her how to create a scandal. One thing lead to another, and Anneliese had to redo her makeup and didn't even have enough time to place all the pins in her hair to make it a bun. For the first time, she would be entering Stark Industrials with her hair down.

Business started straight away in the car, Howard asking about the process of the expo and the relations with the American Military - especially if they were offering the funding he wanted for the machinery. She would reply in a dutiful way, informing him of the new increased budget Harold had managed to pull together - deciding it was smarter to start investing in other technology companies and slowly claim them as Howard's.

Then the conversation shifted to a familiar domestic type, Howard asked if she had eaten and she replied with no. Inversely, she asked when was the last time he had eaten, and surprisingly it was breakfast the day before. She watched as he opened a small compartment in his car to find a telephone, and once the light had turned red, he dialled a number and instructed whoever was on the other side of the phone to prepare two blueberry muffins. Anneliese would've argued against it, but her rumbling stomach said otherwise.

"What is this meeting about?", Howard asked, his thumb rubbing circles on her fingers. The second the two entered the car, he had claimed one of his hands, whilst his other hand stayed on the steering wheel. 

Much like the night before, Anneliese's eyes remained on Howard the entire drive. Even as he yelled out his window for the car in front to drive quicker, saying that it was terrible luck that they had managed to catch peak hour. Glancing at the time, they were already late.

"It's rather important", Anneliese begun, and she heard him mumble 'fuck' before she continued, "They're beginning the search for a candidate, and the Colonel wanted to debrief everyone about the new task the SSR have been assigned - wondering if Stark Industrials would assist."

Eleven minutes later, and the two had finally arrived at the front of Stark Industrials. Howard's butler was already waiting to move the car, and he passed Howard two small brown paper bags. The smell of warm blueberry muffins catching Anneliese's nose as Howard opened the car door for her. His hand gripping onto her's tightly, as he made a path for the two. Press was everywhere. Even the security on the door seemed to double, and Howard whispered a small thank you to one of the men who had ensured that no press made it within the foyer.

Howard, still pulling her hand, ignored the glances and whispers from the foyer and pulled her into an elevator - empty. Once in, Howard informed the elevator woman to go on a break, resulting in them only being in the elevator. She watched as he punched in a code, locking the elevator from the public, leaving them alone.

"Sit", he said, his hand gesturing to the stool in the corner where the elevator woman sometimes sat whilst working. Anneliese didn't argue, she needed a second to calm down before she had to begin negotiating with the American military. Which unsurprisingly, was a hard feat to do. 

Taking the seat, Howard passed her the paper bag, and Anneliese automatically begun eating from the muffins. He did the same whilst seated on the floor, neither made a noise, well given a small - almost moan - sound Anneliese made when the muffin first landed on her tongue.

"So a muffin has the same affect as me?"

She would've berated him, but the muffin was too good to let cool down slightly to even argue with Howard. So she ignored it, and once both of them was finished, he pressed the button and the elevator opened.

It should've felt like a walk of shame, but for some reason it felt awfully normal. Anneliese was paces in front of Howard, her bag leaning against the nook of her elbow, papers in her other arm. Whilst Howard was casually walking behind, pockets in his pants.

Upon opening the room, all eyes landed on her. She should've felt ashamed to meet her father's eyes, or any of their eyes, But it was Alexander's that left her feeling shameful. He was seated where Howard usually seats, assuming the role of representative of Stark Industrial as neither Anneliese or Howard was present before.

Howard arrived right after, mere seconds, and he was standing awfully close to her.

"Get out of my seat, Gray."

A dangerous smile tugged at Alexander's lips, and Anneliese knew she was about to face the consequences of her actions.

The meeting did not go well, not in the slightest. 

It all begun with conversations with the American military representative saying that the president will only provide the correct amount of funding if Howard was to become their weaponry specialist and builds them even more planes. Anneliese didn't give anyone in the room the chance before she started arguing back, informing that if the president doesn't give them the correct amount of funding regardless... Stark Industrials will not be supporting the government. 

That caused a stir in the room. Instantaneously, her authority was questioned and she went into overdrive. Informing that she is in charge of all relations with the government. The debate, or more so... an argument, lasted for over an hour. It was the only success of the entire meeting: they were provided twice as much funding in exchange for Alexander being the representative for Howard, if they wanted any information about weaponry... they couldn't take Howard.

Following this, the Colonel informed that the SSR was building a base in Brooklyn and Italy, and was hoping Stark Industrials wanted to partake in it. Howard quickly agreed, throwing money they had only managed to gain towards the cause. This caused Anneliese to spiral, and if it wasn't for her father sitting further down on the long meeting table, she would've raised her voice.

And then, half the room left. Leaving only the necessary staff for project rebirth. This is when it got bad, extremely bad.

"My father is not going anywhere", Anneliese cooly said, her eyes narrowing at Alexander, "He doesn't have permission."

Alexander scratched the back of his neck, "Well, I signed off it. I was the supervisor at the time, so I authoris-"

Slamming her hands on the table as she stood up, leaning over the table to get closer to Alexander as she spoke, "You did what?!"

The room quickly became colder, and Anneliese was burning bright. She was beyond enraged, but her anger quickly changed from unrelenting rage for Alexander because of his stupid decision to a wet type of anger towards her father.

"Have you gone insane?", she barked at her father.

"Do not speak to your father like that," Abraham retorted, "Have some respect."

She scoffed. For the first time, Anneliese disrespected her father. Her eyes trained on the balding man, and the picture she used to have of him slowly crumbled; this wasn't the man that made rational deacons, calculating deals and was always unnervingly cunning. The man who sat further down at the table was not Josef Lorenz, it was a fool.

Staring up at the ceiling, she let the ball drop, "Why are you doing this?"

Spoken in German, her father's voice was hush, "Your mother would've wanted me to bring honour to her death."

Now, that pissed Anneliese off. In all her youth, her parents never started arguments, never started fights and most certainly never set a flame they couldn't control. Her mother wanted them to live, with or without her. Her father was purposely trying to get himself hurt, to get captured.

"So this is some suicide mission?", Anneliese lowly said, "Do you really think mama died for you to only get killed by him."

No glass broke, but shattering was all she could hear. How could he want to join Abraham and search for a candidate for the serum, to be in the public and to want to go to Italy to ensure the base is correctly set up. He was moving into enemy territory. But what about her? Even if her mother wanted him to complete an absolute suicide mission, why would he want to make her an orphan.

"Do you want to make me an orphan at twenty-four?"

This caused Howard to step in, "Anneliese..."

His soft words were forgotten, as her tongue spew venom, "You're a fool, a right fool. The second Johann finds out you're working for the American's... he will come for you."

"I know", her father said strongly in English, "But if anyone is in danger of being murdered it is you my dear."

And this is when the meeting collapsed.

Josef Lorenz had placed the morning paper on the table, pushed it towards Anneliese. And she knew what was on the front of the cover. Her mouth slightly gapped, she scanned over the paper, from the photo of her back against the porch pillar, to Howard's punishing kiss, and then the small black box. The headlines were massive, 'Anneliese Lorenz, future wife of Howard Stark?' and in an even smaller headline was the presidents address that Stark Industrials will be funding the war cause.

The words may've not screamed it, but anyone could easily link Anneliese to the war cause. She had became a target, a clear and accessible target. And the only people who knew this was her father, Abraham and Alexander: all of them conspired against her to allow her father to make the dumbest decision of his life.

A rougher voice piked up, "Why is Stark kissing Lorenz a big matter?", the Colonel asked.

"You mean Stark's tongue down Ana's throat-"

"-Oh shut up", Howard snapped at Alexander.

Anneliese was still staring at the paper, her eyes meeting her fathers, "Are you blackmailing me?"

She knew exactly what her father was doing. No one in the room needed to know the target Anneliese already was, before she was a scientist, before she was a press secretary for Stark Industrials and well and truly before she begun fake dating Howard Stark. The Lorenz family seemed to create a circle, and she was thrown back to her days in Germany. Money was no longer currency, blackmail was.

"Are you being targeted because you're associated with me?", Howard asked, Anneliese didn't have the heart to face him.

Alexander cackled, "I'd say that photo is more like sucking away her soul-"

"-Oh shut up!", Howard snapped again.

Meeting her father's eyes, the two seemed to come to an agreement. He gets to go with Abraham, and he keeps her secret away from prying ears. 

Before.

A small cry flooded the laboratory. At twilight, and with only a few oil lamps illuminating the dark room, Erna and Josef Lorenz welcomed their daughter, Anneliese. The chilling tiles cold against Erna's skin, her lab coat still on - defending her from the winter's night from outside. Yet, it was the small child in her arms that did not make a noise, it was Erna.

She was hot against her skin, warming Erna up far too quickly. She watched as her daughter's cheeks grew redder and not one sound came from her mouth, not a single giggle or gaggle. Sweat was slowly sliding down Erna's forehead as she turned her head to watch Josef muttering profanities after profanities as he mixed chemicals into a single flask.

"She's burning up-"

"I know sweetheart", Josef replied, as he used a scapula to pick up a small amount of blue - glowing powder from a glass petri dish and slowly added it to the beaker, "I'm nearly done I-"

Another muffle cry came from Erna, her fingers gently brushing away Anneliese's short dark hair, carefully moving her fingers to her neck to check the pulse. It was slowing down, another choked sob left her lips. She begun muttering prayers to any god, whispering, 'my poor, poor baby' and many other inaudible words.

Another few minutes passed, and Erna's eyes widen as she noticed a small amount of blood dripping from Anneliese's nose. With a terrified whisper, she alerted Josef, "She's-she-"

Before she finished the sentence, Josef was knelt down next to Erna, cooing her to calm down as the infant Anneliese rested on her breast. Not even a few hours old. 

"I need you to keep her mouth open," Josef said softly, "Can you do that for me sweetheart?"

She nodded, slowly parting Anneliese's lips - not a sound leaving her mouth - and Josef slowly begun pouring the liquid into her mouth. The glowing blue radiating her skin, and Erna quickly noticed Anneliese's veins seemed to turn a glowing blue as well, but only for a few seconds.

The door creaked open and a priest was standing at the door, his eyes solemn. Yet, it was the cry from Anneliese's lips that caused Erna to wrap her newborn tightly as she let out an avalanche of tears. She could hear Josef sniffing away some tears, and the slightly 'thanks be' from the priest and other religious men and women behind him filled the room.

Anneliese would live.

Hours passed, after many hours of screams and cries, Anneliese had fallen asleep in Josef's arm as Erna laid exhausted on a sofa the church had offered for her to rest on. The glowing blue powder from before was quickly taken by the priest, and locked away, yet none of that mattered. 

"Johann can never know," Josef spoke softly, "He'll kill for her blood, harvest her organs."

The silence was ripping, "I fear he already knows," Erna replied, "And he is capable of much worse than harvesting blood and organs, I fear he may corrupt her."

"I won't let that happen sweetheart," Josef whispered, "I'll sacrifice myself before he touches her ever, we both will." 

And both Erna and Josef kept their promises, they may be compulsive liars but before they were liars, they were truth seekers. It's what lead Erna to marry Josef, a lowly scientists from a poor district in Germany, instead of a man of her own aristocratic standings. They were lovers before liars, but violence only makes monsters out of men. And by saving their daughter, they signed her life away. After all, the tesseract never gave without taking anything in return.