"Okay, latte for Anna, Peter, what'll you have?" Harry asked as they entered the cafe. He'd picked them up from the sidewalk in his overly fancy car, claiming he knew of an even better coffee house. Anna was DJ'ing in the passenger seat while Peter sat in the back and attempted to get Ned to reply to his messages.

"Huh? Oh, just whatever is cheapest," Peter told, still looking down on his phone.

"Anna, what does Peter seem like to you? A mocha guy?" Harry asked Anna instead, making her laugh yet again.

"Could be, could be," she agreed.

"Why don't you find a table, I'll be right back," he offered, quickly touching her arm as he passed them.

"Peter?" Anna interrupted Peter's texting, making him look up. "Is Ned okay? I'm sorry if I ruined anything, I just got so excited at the thought of having a friend that Tony didn't set up for me, I forgot you'd have to follow me around like a bodyguard."

"It's fine, Anna," Peter said with a sigh; "Ned knows I can't just leave my duties as Spider-man to come hang out!"

"Well, try to think about it from his side," Anna suggested as they sat down at a table.

"What do you mean? He knows Mr Stark told me to watch over you," Peter pointed out.

"Yeah, but does he know why?" Anna continued pushing it.

"What do you mean?"

"Well," she looked at him to make sure she could continue; "I'm just thinking, he doesn't really know who I am, he only really knows that I have something to do with that part of your life. It's not like I look like I need protection when going to a cafe, maybe he just feels like you're ditching him for a friend you made hanging out with people he can't hang out with."

"That's not what it's like, though," Peter told frustratedly.

"I know that. I mean, I guess I kind of took all of your attention, and then I invited Harry to sit with us where he thought you'd get to hang out and... Well, I get it if he doesn't really like me that much," Anna admitted.

"It's not like that-"

"Peter, it's fine," Anna quickly interrupted; "I mean, I do want to be friends with him, but right now what's important is your friendship to him. I know you can't ditch me here, but I could say my dad called and I had to get home?"

"Are you guys planning on ditching me?" Harry asked as he returned, a cup of coffee in each hand and on top of the one in his right hand, a second one on top, which he was holding in place with his jaw.

"No, no, it-"

"Yeah," Anna interrupted Peter again; "I'm sorry, my dad just called."

"After I just spent the entire wait thinking of coffee-related pick-up-lines?" Harry asked disappointed.

"Seriously?" Peter asked, sounding slightly judgemental.

"Oh yeah," Harry said with a happy grin before looking at Anna; "I had to clean my filter twice after I saw how beautiful you are because I couldn't believe my Arabicas."

"What is arabicas?" Peter asked with frowned eyebrows.

"A kind of coffee beans," Anna told him before turning to Harry; "I do have to go, and Peter actually promised to walk me home. However, you can have my number and text me the rest you already prepared. But only because I feel guilty for ditching!" she added.

"We both know it's the lines. They're beginning to work, aren't they?" Harry asked sarcastically, handing her his phone.

"You're an idiot," Anna told with a soft laugh while putting in her number.

"But a cute one?" Harry suggested lightly.

"Cute's a strong word," she replied.

"Hear that banter? There's definitely something brewing between us," Harry told, receiving his phone after Anna had finished. She just shook her head at his joking manners before saying bye and leaving with Peter, both of them with a cup of warm coffee with them.

"You didn't have to do that, you know," Peter told quietly after they'd walked in silence almost all the way.

"You've watched over me yesterday, the least I could do is not make you work after hours," Anna replied jokingly.

"It's... It's not just work," Peter told softly, a rosy colour reaching his cheeks.

"Huh?"

"I mean... We-We're friends, aren't we?" he asked quietly. Anna smiled at him as they reached the tower.

"We're definitely friends, Peter," she told him kindly; "Mostly because I can't afford to pay you, though."

"Oh, tha-that's-"

"I'm kidding, Peter," Anna interrupted with a small laugh; "Thank you for hanging out with me today." Before Peter knew what was happening, Anna hugged him quickly before saying her goodbyes and entering the tower.

"I have not seen you so involved with your electronics until now," Loki commented, sounding a tad sour. He'd been unable to find her the day before, despite serious efforts, and was only reluctantly allowed to stay with her overnight as most others were unable, and the lack of attention he was receiving was bothering him.

"Sorry, I just have to reply to this message from my friend," Anna explained while tapping furiously away on her phone. She was replying to the apparently never-ending lines Harry managed to present to her, the last one being 'Words are not enough to espresso how much I like you'.

"I did not realise the Spider-boy could read," Loki told, looking at his chipped black nail polish.

"Thinking about it I haven't fact-checked that, but I'm assuming he knows how to read. This isn't him, anyway, though," Anna told, taking her phone off silent and placing it on her nightstand.

"Another friend?" Loki questioned, raising his eyebrows; "I told you humans would like you, Anna."

"I've made two friends, don't get ahead of yourself," she told with a smile, crawling down under her blanket; "And one of them Tony even forced to be my friend."

"But you made the other one all on your own," Loki pointed out teasingly as Anna's text tone sounded again, making Loki quickly move in front of Anna's bed, looking directly at the door.

"Loki?" Anna asked softly.

"I will let no harm come to you," Loki told her in a whisper, a knife appearing in his hand; "Trust me."

"I do, and thank you, but it's just my text alert," Anna explained, unsure why she was whispering, too.

"Oh," Loki realised, relaxing his body slowly; "Then I suppose you are in no harm's way."

"Probably not. Unless Harry is planning to murder me," Anna joked, picking up her phone before noticing Loki's worried look. "Kidding! He probably just texted me a lame pick-up line."

She lit the phone on her screen up so she could see the message; "Yeah, that's all it is. No need to worry."

"What is a... pick-up line?" Loki asked curiously, returning to the armchair near Anna's bed.

"It's just kind of, like, a compliment, I guess you could call it. It's a line when you try to pick someone up," she explained, lying down in her bed again.

"When you try to pick someone up?" Loki asked as he sat back down; "I'm afraid I do not understand."

"When you want to take someone out," Anna added helpfully.

"So he does want to kill you?" Loki asked, immediately sitting up straight.

"What? No, no, take someone out as in on a date," Anna quickly assured him.

"A date?" Loki asked slowly; "He is... Courting you?"

"No. I mean, I guess, kind of, but, it's just a joke we have going," Anna tried explaining it, picking her phone up; "The lines are usually funny, and like this time, I texted him goodnight and he wrote 'You'll keep me up all night - you're way better than caffeine' which is funny because caffeine is energising and we had coffee earlier."

"Ah. I see," Loki replied shortly.

"Yeah, so, it's really just a joke. Like, earlier he said 'Affogato where I am when I'm with you', because like it's meant to be charming and funny and, and I guess it is, but it's a joke, and-"

"Anna," Loke interrupted softly. Anna looked at him.

"You need not explain," he told; "You are free to be courted by whoever you see fit."

"I guess you're right," Anna realised slowly, furrowing her eyebrows. Of course, she was free to flirt with whoever she pleased, she was young and single. Just because she'd never had a relationship didn't mean she never could... But that wasn't what had bothered her. It didn't bother her earlier when Tony made snark (Stark*) comments about the coffee date, or when she mentioned Peter being there as well and Clint made a single snarky comment about the three before getting whacked very hard by Natasha in the back of his head as she said that there was nothing wrong with polyamory. That, however, had Tony very strict, as Anna wasn't allowed to distract Peter from his job. During the ruckus she's seen her chance to sneak back to her room, but not because it made her upset. It made her annoyed in the way any young woman will be annoyed at her family for being overly invested in her love life and assuming she was in a relationship with anyone she neared, but upset? No.

Loki, however, was a different case, because while she didn't get annoyed with him, she definitely didn't like him thinking she had something going with Harry. Or Peter, for that sake, even though she was fairly certain he knew that.

"But I'm not being courted by him," she added as she turned to her side, hoping to get some sleep.