Clara waved a hand to Irene; she could handle the table. Irene could focus on Tony.

Tony eyed Irene, a bit suspicious still, but did as she said.

"There. Not so bad, is it? And now we know one thing not to do with teaching you, although that makes things a bit harder. Usually, for a beginner, that's the best way to find your magic, is for someone else to kind of point it out to you." Irene kept her focus on Tony to make sure she wasn't freaking him out again.

"Do you have any idea how weird that feels?" Tony asked, watching her. "That was definitely not normal, okay?"

"I know how strange it is at first," Irene said with a little shrug. "That's how I learned, after all."

"So you're just going to keep poking me with it until something happens?" Tony asked. He raised an eyebrow. "How many times has that worked?"

"Well it just did, you were making the table rattle, which counts as something." Irene grinned. "Besides, the point is for you to figure out what your magic feels like so you can actually access it voluntarily instead of just, y'know, temper tantrums."

Tony made a bit of a face, but nodded.

"Fine," he said. He waved a hand. "Continue."

Irene snickered a little at him but poked him again with magic. This was going to be interesting.

Tony jumped and swore, but didn't do more than that.

A few days later, Clara was sitting off to one side as Irene worked with Tony, intently focused on her own project. She occasionally came across spells that seemed to be left for her to unravel, and they were usually elegantly, brilliantly difficult. She'd been working on this particular project for a week.

Loki had discovered the little human mage a while back, and it amused him to leave her spells and such to undo. It was harmless, and it didn't get anyone's attention because the spells weren't strong enough to attract attention in the first place. But he had been making them gradually more and more complicated. So far, she'd been up to the task. He found himself rather pleased with that.

Clara was delighted with the spells. So when she finally managed to undo the current one, she couldn't help but cheer to herself.

"Yesss," she said, grinning widely. "Gotcha."

Tony eyed her warily.

"What's with her?" he asked Irene.

"She's playing," Irene said with a little shrug. "Someone keeps leaving her little spells to undo and figure out. It's kind of adorable, actually." Except that she still didn't know who the anonymous person was, which could be worrisome.

Loki smirked when he felt that spell go out, and he started work on another one for her. It was amusing, and it passed the time, so why not?

"What, like a secret admirer?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's a thing?"

Clara smirked and sent a tiny spell back along the unraveling one, essentially just greeting the other spellcaster and acknowledging their skill.

"Not a very common thing at all," Irene said, shaking her head. "Happens once in a while, yeah, but it also has the potential to blow up if one party or the other is a little too... zealous."

Loki grinned at the greeting and sent one back of his own, though of course his had his own personal touch. He couldn't help it, really.

"Interesting," Tony replied. He watched Clara for another moment before shrugging. "Not my business right now."

Clara grinned brightly when she got the return greeting. It had a bit of a zing to it that she really liked, and it pleased her.

"Nope," Irene agreed. "Your business is focusing right now, I'm not done with you yet today."

Loki sent her another spell, a seemingly simple one. But it had a few twists that people never expected.

"Of course you're not," Tony sighed. "Fire away."

Clara grinned when she found the new spell. Her weekend was looking up.

Irene looked at him for a moment before she nodded and got back to work with him.

Loki smirked when he felt her working on the spell. Ah yes, this was entertaining, at least. He briefly thought about finding this entertaining little human.

It took Clara a couple of days to solve the new spell. It didn't seem as difficult as some of the previous ones, but she'd also found that she had anticipated some of the twists hidden inside of it. But it was still elegant and efficient, and she enjoyed working on it.

"I swear, this is some of the most gorgeous spellwork I've ever seen," she commented to Irene.

Irene snickered. "You should find whoever it is," she said. "They keep sending you these, right? So they're probably not opposed."

"I wish I could," Clara replied. "But these are super tight. As soon as I unravel them, they dissolve before I can track them."

"Hmm. Maybe send one back that they could track?" Irene pondered, shrugging. "Or just keep flirting back and forth like this for a while."

Clara turned a bit pink.

"It's not flirting," she protested. There wasn't much force behind the protest.

Irene quirked an eyebrow at her. "Uh huh," she said, sounding totally unconvinced.

"Not flirting," Clara reiterated. "Just playing, that's all."