"Well I guess you can give it a try." Tony smiled and pulled up his shirt so that she could see the bruise that was forming over his stomach. "Oh look it's colorful." he snorted.

Aurora blinked and couple times. "You found the strangest silver lining." she laughed and shook her head.

Gemini bent down to examine the bruise, going into what she often called "healer mode." "Hm...it's a tricky one, but I think I can heal it." She said after a moment. "Stand up straight and hold still." She waited for him to comply before placing one hand over the bruised area- not quite touching but close- and closing her eyes. A very faint, teal green aura enveloped her hand, and a cool sensation would begin on the bruise, numbing it. If one looked closely, they would actually be able to see the bruise receding and shrinking until it was gone. This all took less than a minute. Gemini opened her eyes to examine her work, smiled, and stood up straight. "There you go."

Steve blushed a little bit and shrugged. "I always try to find a silver lining. And it's not often I get to exercise my full strength, so it's kind of refreshing when I do get to." He explained.

"Much better." Tony sighed then smirked a little. "You can touch if you want to." he really couldn't help himself sometimes.

"I'm glad I could let you use those muscles." Aurora stared at his arms for a second and then quickly looked away blushing.

Gemini rolled her eyes. "Thanks, but I'll pass on- shit!" She doubled over suddenly. "Ow. Okay, ow. I forgot about that."

Steve noticed Aurora staring and blushed a little as well. "So...you're really good at riddles." He said randomly. "It was kind of entertaining, watching you and Tony go back and forth like that. Especially when Gemini got into it, too. You got so excited, it was kind of...cute."

Aurora blushed. "I've read a lot of riddles and books. I enjoy trying to solve them...plus that part of The Hobbit is the best."

"Are you alright?" Tony dropped his shirt and held her up frowning.

Steve smiled. "Yeah, I can see that. You're smart. Just the type of person who would like riddles." He said.

Gemini took a shallow breath and stood up straight. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that I haven't healed anyone in a while, and I forgot about a somewhat...unpleasant repercussion." She said. "It's the same with almost all empaths- we've all got some low grade healing ability, but there is one major drawback. Whatever wound we heal, we take on ourselves. An empath with less skill, or more power than they can control, will take the full force of the wound, where one with more control can lessen the damage to themselves. Long story short, I now have the same bruise I healed from you a moment ago. But I'm half kitsune, so it'll be gone in an hour or so."

"You should have said that first I wouldn't have let you heal me." Tony frowned at her. "I can't have you getting hurt because of me."

"Yeah smart." Aurora sighed a little and shifted. "So um...I guess since everything is over I'll go pack." she seemed almost disappointed to have to leave.

"Now, don't you go getting all protective on me! I'm an adult, I can take care of myself and make my own decisions. I don't need to be looked after. And like I said, I completely forgot about it." Gemini said. "Anyway, I can handle a little pain. After everything I've done while the Aether was in me, I deserve some punishment. I'd rather take pain from others than cause it, and maybe by doing so I can make up for things a little."

Steve frowned, feeling his heart drop at her words. He opened his mouth to speak, came up with nothing, and closed it again. He took her hand gently instead. After a few moments, he finally thought of something to say. "Do you really have to go?" He winced at how needy that sounded, but he didn't know how else to say it.

"That's the stupidest thing I've heard." Tony pouted at her. "You deserve to be looked after." He leaned closer. "And I'm just the man to do the job." He grinned.

Aurora smiled and made a decision she knew her heart would hate her for. "Yes Steve I have to leave. I'm a agent of Shield I go where I'm sent, this was the first mission I have chosen in a long time. I'm sorry Steve but this is where it ends." She pulled her hand from his hoping he wouldn't see right threw her.

Gemini blushed, not sure how to respond. "I...that's...I'm not..." She stammered, trying to come up with a coherent sentence. She didn't think she deserved to be looked after, not with all the things she'd done. On top of that, she'd never met anyone like Tony, so she didn't know how to react to him. "You're wrong. I don't blame you, you don't know...but you're very wrong."

Steve raised his hand slightly, as if he were about to try and catch hers back, but he paused a moment and then dropped it. He looked broken. "I see. I understand." Peggy had been the same way. He did understand it, but that didn't stop him from feeling like he'd been rejected- like he didn't mean anything to her. "I guess I can't stop you. If you're ever in the neighborhood, feel free to stop by."

"I'm never wrong." Tony corrected her. "When when I'm wrong I'm right." He smiled. "Plus I like to get things that I want and I want to help protect you."

Aurora nodded. "Yeah I'll do that." She hurried away. Nat entered shortly after and leaned against the door frame. "She's lying you know." Nat smirked. "She's planning on running away and never seeing you again. She doesn't have another mission not yet."

Gemini backed up a little, shaking her head. "You don't understand. I wouldn't..." She sighed. "I'm dangerous. As much as I'd like to...it's not safe to get too close to me. If I hurt you, I..."

Steve sat where he was for a while after Aurora left. He almost didn't hear Nat when she entered, but her words caught his attention. "What? Why would she...how do you know that?" He asked, standing up.

"I'm a big boy." Tony shrugged. "In more then one way. Besides I don't just kiss girls I don't like. I already know that I want you and there is nothing that's going to convince me otherwise. Unless you turn into a troll or something like that."

"Because I'm her ride." Nat smirked. "She didn't tell me we had to leave in a hurry. She hasn't gotten a phone call from Fury all day so unless he can talk in her mind. She's got no place to be."

Gemini chuckled, sounding a bit hysterical. "A troll? No, not quite. I'm half kitsune. You know what that is, right? It's a demon. I'm half demon. You can go ahead and want me all you like, but it will get you nowhere." She didn't say that she wanted him, too. She knew if she said it, she wouldn't be able to do the right thing. "Not even my own parents were safe, and they knew what was coming. I'm...I'm a killer, whether I want to be or not."

"I don't understand." Steve shook his head. He was confused, a little angry, and more than a little hurt. "Why would she do this? Did I do something wrong? Or does she just...not like me?" He had to find her and ask. "Where is she now?"

"I've lived a full life and besides thanks to the reactor I'm living on borrowed time anyone's. At least you would make a beautiful Grim Reaper." Tony grinned not easily dissuaded.

"She's packing up in her room." Nat smiled a little. "Better hurry before she decided to walk to town."

Gemini frowned. "You accept death too easily. I thought most humans feared it." She said.

Steve was gone almost before she finished the sentence. He was upstairs and in Aurora's room in less than thirty seconds. "Aurora." He confronted her. "Tell me the truth. Why are you leaving?"

Aurora jumped a mile. "Don't do that!" she glared and then blinked at his question. "I have a mission." she said the lie with ease. "It just come up." she looked away.

"Well I do fear it but if you where death I would go without a fight." Tony touched her cheek. "Your beautiful and every thing." he sighed. "I'm not making sense am I?"

Steve stepped forward, blocking her in. "Don't lie to me." He said angrily. "If you didn't want to see me anymore, you could have just said so. I would have accepted that. I don't like being lied to, Aurora. So tell me the truth this time. Did I do something wrong? Do you just dislike me? Why are you really leaving?"

Gemini shook her head and went to step back again, but found she had backed herself against a tree. "No, you're not. You're not supposed to be okay with dying. You're definitely not supposed to like me. That's like a lamb falling for a wolf. It's just asking for pain. It's...it should be wrong." She put emphasis on should be, as if implying that it didn't feel wrong.

"You forget I'm part wolf." Tony grinned. "Don't fight how you feel it will just make things worse." he trapped her between him and the tree.

Aurora blinked. "No I don't dislike you." she ran a hand threw her hair. "It's me. I can't be with you. I just...I don't know what to do." she started to cry.

Gemini's breath caught in her throat, and her heart started racing. Everything in her wanted to give up, but... "I can't...if anything happened...I couldn't..." She couldn't seem to think straight, and part of her wondered why life seemed so unfair at the moment.

Steve broke down instantly. He couldn't stand to see her cry. "Aurora, please don't cry. Can you just...could you just talk to me? Tell me what's wrong. Why can't you be with me?" Maybe he could help.

"It's fine I think I can handle myself." Tony smiled and kissed her gently hand threading threw her hair.

Aurora sighed and sat on the bed then smirked. "Because I want that stone and you are not getting in the way again." She looked up eyes red as his outfit caught on fire. "I'm afraid you lost Captain." She laughed.

Gemini told herself that she wanted to protest. She tried really hard to convince herself that this was wrong, that it wasn't what she wanted. She figured out quickly that she was lying to herself. Realizing that she had lost, she gave in and kissed him back.

Startled, Steve shouted out in pain. "Aurora?!" What the hell happened? How could the stone be possessing her from so far? No, dammit! I am not losing her! Ignoring the fire, he threw himself forward and pinned her to the bed. "I've had enough of this!"

Tony kissed her senseless and pulled away grinning. "Told you it would be easier.." He jumped as the house erupted in flames. "Holy."

"This is only the beginning." Aurora laughed setting the whole house on fire ramping up the temperature of the fire that was licking at his skin.

"You cheated." Gemini said. Then there was fire, which startled her so much her fox ears popped out. "It wasn't me, I swear."

Steve still didn't let go, doing his best to ignore the flames. "I don't know...how you're doing this...but I swear...I'll find some way to get her free!"

"This is the real me!" Aurora spat. "Your just to stupid to have realized I was playing you."

Tony did a head count. "Wheres Steve and Aurora?"