Got a Copy
Four in the morning was not an unusual time for the world to be silent, but the Avengers Tower never was. It was easy to find someone awake; Stephanie getting up for a run or Toni getting out of the lab to go to sleep. Tonight, Toni wasn’t sneaking out of the elevator to grab a cup of coffee or find a missing screwdriver. Tonight, the elevator was the only noise as it made an express route from the street-level lobby to the communal floor. It was four in the morning, no one would know.
Briana knew. She watched the numbers tick up, moving so fast they blurred. Or maybe her eyes were blurring. She rubbed at them, balancing her mug of tea precarious on her knee as she shoved her glasses out the way.
Toni didn’t notice her. The billionaire crept across the floor to the kitchen, soft boots barely making a sound. She placed a bag on the counter, taking out boxes and other items that lost their shape in the darkness of the late night penthouse.
Darkness that was quickly banished as Briana turned on a light. Toni jumped but didn’t scream. Her only noise was a sharp gasp, followed by the sound of whatever she’d been holding falling to the floor. Wild eyes searched the room and landed on her partner. “Bri, oh thank fuck.” She put a hand over her chest, but the arc reactor didn’t have a chance of shining through her brand name scarf. That bundle of fabric likely cost more than Briana’s salary – back when she had a job that wasn’t ‘hulk smash’.
She’d been ready to smash something when she woke up alone in Toni’s massive bed. It was an odd hour to wake up, but an even odder hour for Toni to have left at. Whatever anger (and denied betrayal) was there, dissipated when she saw Toni in the light.
“Is that my shit?” The light denim button-down was massive on the smaller woman. Briana always wore it tucked into jeans, usually on a hike or for a slower day in the lab. Toni seemed to have paired with with… nothing. The hem fell halfway to her knees, sleeves rolled up like she was back in Malibu.
She grinned, knowing that she could pull of anything, including an oversized shirt with her hair in a bird’s nest of a bun. She bent to pick up what she’d dropped, shirt-dress riding up just enough for Briana to see the lace she had the pleasure of revealing just a few hours prior. When Toni stood, she held a book, a title Briana had offhandedly mentioned to her weeks ago.
“Wanted to make sure you got a copy,” Toni said, then she held up one of the other boxes, “and I passed that donut shop you and Nat love that always runs out before noon.”