It had been a couple of months and the Avengers, especially Ghost and Iron Man had made many forays into Africa, South-America and Asia when terrorists and militant groups started attacking the distribution centres, for fear of losing control of their territories. The message had been clear. The distribution centres were under Avenger protection.
The local populations had all worked together to protect their resources, some had built walls, while others simply buried and hid theirs. As the resources became known, communities started converging on the sites and set up bigger towns and communities. Wherever a new distribution centre was set up, hope bloomed and people started defending themselves and what they had.
Harry didn't like it when he had heard of people dying to defend the resources, so he took things into his own hands. It had taken a while, but it was later found out that the leaders of said terrorist organizations and militant factions started turning up dead. Some with a stuffed unicorn doll on their decapitated bodies. Harry had not commented. It's not like they could prove he had given Wade those portkeys. Fury knew of course, but said nothing. Harry had paid Wade in cash. He was doing reasonably well for himself these days.
Meanwhile, the island started flourishing with life. Something about the magical creatures they were bringing in, made life seem to want to bloom there. Harry had ended up building Logan a cabin in the dead-centre of one of the most wooded areas. Every convenience he could give was there, and Logan loved the sounds of nature all around. It had become his home. He would care for the creatures and requested supplies when necessary, but he was trying to get everything to live in balance. So far he'd done an admirable job.
The island now had four rivers that criss-crossed through the growth and rolled all the way into the ocean. The reservoir Harry had planned, was turned into an expanded dam, which was replenished with many of Tony's water runes from a nearby submerged intake.
Tony had tried an experiment with Harry. He had placed new rods, ones that focussed on the expansion charms Harry used, and placed them around a piece of wooded area. What they achieved was to increase said area into ten times its original size, the plants having shifted away from each other to accommodate the expansion inside the location. Since then they'd expanded larger portions until the island itself could fit a small city. Logan had been impressed and started setting up some of the animals in areas that suited their needs, with Harry's help.
Once the guest house had been built, Harry had ended up building two more. One for Bruce to use as his own and the other for the other Avengers and their guests. There was also a hot spring. Tony had worked out a system that kept the water clean and warm using runes to heat the water and cycling it so the water always moved slightly.
And then there was Tony's favourite area. It was a large swimming pool. It was built in a circle around a circular central bar with stools all around and a walkway to cross if you didn't want to get wet. The pool was lit from underneath and the water automatically circled. He could often be found just relaxing in the water, in an inflatable chair, as it slowly flowed around the pool, drink in hand. Harry had even added a charm on the entire living area and beach to not require sun protection, for the skin at least.
Harry was in his lab working on one of his projects when he got a call. "Hello, Pepper! How are things?"
"Hi, Harry. To be honest, things aren't great." Pepper said.
"Why, what's going on?" Harry asked, stopping his work. "Should I come over?"
"No, it's just…" she stopped, thinking of how to say it. "Well, have you noticed anything strange about Tony recently?"
"It's Tony. Strange is kind of a given." Harry joked. "Why, what's he done now?"
"I don't know. He's been spending more time on his suits and we were just sleeping when one of the suits walked in on us while he was having a nightmare." Pepper said. "I'm really worried about him."
"Damn! I told him to speak to someone about it. I've noticed some strange behaviour especially when New York is mentioned. He changes the subject and rattles on until he leaves the room." Harry said.
"What should we do? I know he's been closer to you and Bruce. Couldn't one of you talk to him?" Pepper asked.
"Okay, here's what we'll do. I'll come over tomorrow after lunch. I've got an enclosure to finish. We're getting something big in and we need to prepare for it. Once I'm done with that, we'll sit Tony down, force a calming draught down his throat and make him talk while he's capable of handling talking without getting emotions involved." Harry said. "Sound good?"
"Yes, thank you. We really need to help him." Pepper said.
"We will. Don't worry, Pepper. He's my friend. I'm here to help. Just keep him out of trouble in the meanwhile." Harry finished.
"Okay. Bye Harry. Get some sleep. Natasha complains about you working too hard too, you know. I'll bet she's waiting for you." Pepper said, a small smile on her face. Natasha had told her that she'd been sleeping in Harry's room to keep his own nightmares at bay.
"That's a good idea, thanks. Night." Harry said and hung up.
He went to bed and found Natasha already asleep on her side of the bed, arm over his side of the bed. He crawled in, lifted her arm over his chest and smiled when she moved her head onto his shoulder automatically. He'd really fallen for her. He'd had the realization a while back. When he had walked in on her sleeping in his bed after another long day. He'd found himself wanting to say it then. He wanted to say it now. So he whispered it, "I love you." and fell asleep.
He never saw her eyes shoot open, and look up at him, a small smile on her lips. He never heard her sigh of contentment before she too fell asleep.
The next day, they were expecting something interesting, something big. It was a Dragon from Alfheim. It was smaller than the others in its den and was cast out. Harry had liked that Logan looked for outcasts and misfits. His magical preserve would help them as they helped him. And most of them were happy about the change of scenery. They had yet to take an animal that was at home in its native land.
He spent the day making the environment in its cave exactly to spec as Logan had instructed. This beast would eat larger prey, but less often, so it wouldn't need so much upkeep. Once it was settled, Logan would go about what he called orientation, where he would first make sure it knew he was its caretaker and then he'd slowly introduce them to the island's inhabitants. Making sure the animal had no urges to eat the other magical creatures.
He'd had massive successes so far. Not all creatures had the intelligence needed, so the violent or carnivorous ones were locked up, but were happy in their enclosures. Those who were intelligent soon found out that there were many others on the island that they lived with and tolerated each other's presence. Most of them still returned to their enclosures to sleep.
Harry had found it interesting to watch as Logan brought one of the creatures out for the first time. Some of the other creatures had shown up, as if they knew they were going to meet a new inhabitant. Logan would then allow them to sniff and observe each other looking for hostile tendencies and when he saw anything of the sort, he'd step in again. The process was apparently repeated often till the creatures realised there was no threat from each other.
Once one of a kind of creature had been established, Logan would see if he can find them a mate and then other pairs, if possible. The dragon would have to wait though and get situated, before such a thing could be attempted.
Harry finished up the work and waited for Logan to arrive. Natasha had decided to go home ahead of him and make something for when he got home, knowing he had another appointment. Just before 12pm, they arrived. Perfect timing. He helped them unload what looked like a cross between a Swedish Short Snout Dragon and a Chinese Fireball Dragon.
It was still quite large and Logan used whatever knack he had to lead it quite sedately into its new home. Harry followed at a distance. Once he was inside he was happy to see it had found the nest he had made for it and was sniffing around it. It apparently found nothing wrong as it decided to climb in and rest, after licking a couple of wounds on its hindquarters.
Logan walked back to Harry and pointed at the opening. Harry went out first and when they got outside, he said, "We found her just in time. She was able to track down some game and had killed some kind of large deer. The others of her den showed up and started attacking her for her kill. We were able to drive them off with a couple of scratches and then I helped her into the cage. She's almost lost the will to live. It will take a time to get her back to health, but it's doable."
"You're amazing with these creatures, Logan." Harry complimented.
"It's my job." he shrugged. "I'll have to feed her a bit extra for a bit, but she'll recover. I'll actually need to start now, as the den took her kill with them. So I got to go." he said as he walked off.
Harry shrugged. Logan was never the type to stand around and chat. He looked at the time and decided to leave for lunch.
He arrived home and found Natasha in his apartment kitchen, having made some sandwiches. He thanked her and then ate his meal.
"There's been an incident. Stark's old bodyguard was caught in an explosion of some sort. He's at the hospital." Natasha said as he finished his food.
"What? Why didn't you tell me?" Harry asked, getting up and ready to go.
"Because if I did you'd have skipped lunch. You need the energy, you've been working non-stop for the last couple of weeks. You're at the Island, the institute and the distributions centres more often than home. When you are home you're working in your lab." At his look she said, "Look, I know you're looking out for everyone else, but I'm looking out for you."
"Okay, I get your point. I'll try to take it down a notch. But we need to go see if I can help." Harry compromised.
"Okay." she said and hugged him as he transported them to the hospital.
They found Tony sitting by Happy's bed. When Harry walked in, Tony stood up, "Oh, thank God. Can you help him?"
"I could, but you know the rules here. Nothing unexplainable an unsecured environment." Harry said cryptically, looking around the room. He handed Tony a jar. "It's a burn cream, newly created by Potter Innovations." Actually it was some of the stuff Harry still had from his old world. Bruce could make it now, so it was no loss. "Nothing gets left behind. This is not for the general public. We can't produce enough yet, so we can't release it. You understand, right?"
"Thank you, Harry. I'll make sure someone I can trust gets this stuff on him." Tony said. "It won't leave my sight."
"That's good. I'll see you at your house in one hour, so you get that stuff on him ASAP." Harry said.
"I'm sure he'll be fine. He's a fighter. Still not as strong as me, though." Natasha joked.
"Not many are." Tony replied.
They left the hospital room and apparated directly to Tony's house as soon as they found a safe spot to do so. Then they waited. An hour and a half later, Tony came storming into the house. He saw them waiting and stopped. "You didn't just happen to watch TV for the last half-hour, did you?" he asked sheepishly.
"No," Natasha said, seeing Tony sag in relief, "But we did receive calls from several different people saying something about you inviting a terrorist group to come kill you at home." Tony tensed again. "You wouldn't be referring to that, would you?" She didn't wait for an answer as she started walking to him deceptively calmly. "Did you run this by Pepper? Did you ask my friend if it was okay for you to get her killed so you can challenge a mass-murdering terrorist?!" the last part was screamed.
"She's right, Tony. You had no right. If it was just you, I could understand, but you completely forgot about her, didn't you?" Harry asked scathingly.
Harry was looking at Tony like he had never seen before. Harry was angry at him. He never wanted that. Suddenly the weight of what he had done broke through the rage he felt. He paled and ran to the stairs to go get Pepper. "Oh, she's long gone. We sent her to the guest room at my house." Harry said. "She wasn't happy about it, but we made her. I'm afraid she'll be quite cross with me when she wakes up." Harry finished.
"You knocked her out?" Tony asked angrily.
"I did." Natasha said waving her gloved hand at him. "She was being unreasonable. Apparently she would have rather stayed here and try to convince you to leave. And now I've got to leave Harry to go make sure she stays put." She then closed the last distance between Tony and herself. "If anything happens to Harry while he helps you with this, I'll make sure you never have children." She said this softly so Harry wouldn't hear and Tony saw a flash and looked down to see a knife between his legs. He froze. "Do you understand?" she asked sweetly.
"Yes ma'am." Tony said softly.
"Good." the knife vanished and she turned around to Harry and went to give him a hug. "See you later. Be careful." She said. Then she let him go and ported home.
"Your girlfriend is crazy scary!" Tony said, looking at the spot she had just vacated.
"You realize she could just be invisible, right?" Harry mocked.
"No, I did not." Tony said looking around, just in case. "Is she?"
"No, she left. Good thing too, because we have to talk." Harry said. "What's going on with you man? I've been telling you for months I know you're not okay, but you keep telling me you're fine. I know you; you wouldn't have done that if you were in your right mind."
"I don't know, okay?!" Tony exclaimed as he started breathing hard again.
"I believe Master Stark, that you are experiencing another anxiety attack." Jarvis spoke up.
"No I'm not, I'm just out of breath." Tony wheezed.
"I thought so. Jarvis, have you identified all of the triggers?" Harry asked.
"It started mildly, but has since progressed in severity. These days it's almost anything that makes him nervous or stressed. Probably due to lack of sleep and his habit of ignoring the problem." Jarvis informed Harry.
"Shut up Jarvis!" Tony exclaimed. "He doesn't need to know that!"
"I'm sorry, sir." Jarvis apologised smugly.
"Yes, I do. You're in pain and I've not helped you. I blame myself for this. I should have just forced you to sit with a shrink." Harry said.
"Would you?" Tony asked sarcastically.
"If I needed to, but I don't. I'm not falling apart at the seams and endangering the person I love or the people that I supposedly care for." Harry replied.
"Like you know anything about…" Tony stopped, realizing what he was about to say. Of course Harry knew. He'd seen it all. Harry was forced into much the same situations over and over again before he was even 18. "Sorry. I know you can actually understand, but it still doesn't make it easier. Every time I close my eyes, I see the void, knowing I will never come home. I accepted it you know. I had to, before I entered the portal."
"I'm sorry, Tony." Harry said as he walked up and put a hand on his shoulder. "We should have made a different plan. I'm sure I could have done something."
"No, your magic would have detonated the bomb right there. We made the right call. I just don't know how to deal with it. I'm still up there and I don't know if I'll ever come back down." Tony finished weakly.
"We'll figure something out." Harry said, confidently. Tony smiled weakly at him and then the doorbell rang.
"Jarvis, aren't we on full security lockdown?" Tony asked.
"Come on Tony. You told everybody where you live. Don't blame Jarvis if he doesn't fire lasers at a reporter." Harry said.
"Thank you, Harry, but I don't have lasers. Mr. Stark decided that would be overkill." Jarvis replied.
Tony got in a nearby suit, noticing Harry vanish.
While they were talking, Harry noticed that this Maya Hansen seemed stressed and Tony kept deflecting, being his usual self, when faced with people from his past. She asked about Tony's gift to Pepper, the giant stuffed rabbit, and somehow that made him explode. While he was ranting on about the gift, Harry noticed what she was pointing to on the TV screen. A missile was headed straight for Tony's house.
Tony noticed it too and said, "Don't worry about it."
"Don't worry about it?!" Maya exclaimed, covering her head as instinct old as man took over.
Harry did what he did, while he made himself comfortable in front of the window, and cast an inversion hex at it. Immediately it turned around and started heading for the chopper that had fired it. The magic though, proved Tony's point by making it explode before it hit the chopper. It swerved a bit and fired another missile. Two other choppers joining it.
Soon there were a lot of explosions right outside the house. Tony had not wasted his time though and had called his latest creation to him. He was soon in the air going after the attackers. He'd taken two of them down, when things went slightly pear-shaped. Harry had been protecting the house still when one of the missiles he had redirected veered towards Tony. And exploded right behind him. "Tony!" Harry screamed, forgetting for a moment he had company and watched as Tony plummeted into the water.
He was still watching the water, when everything went black.
When Harry woke up, he was tied to some kind of table and there was a doctor bringing a needle to his skin. Instantly awake, he made a quick illusion and held the needle so the doctor would think the needle was in him. When a strange orange liquid started flowing through the pipe connected to the needle he started vanishing it off his arm before it left the scope of the illusion.
"Hello. Good to see you're awake, Harry Potter, CEO and founder of Potter Innovations." It was a man Harry had never seen. He was blonde, with a strong jawline and dressed in a tailored suit. "I'd say more but there's so little of you available except for what Stark Industries releases, which is nothing."
"Where did you take me? How long was I out?" Harry asked the man.
"You don't seem to know how this works. This is where you ask me: 'Who are you?'" the man said.
"You're the bad-guy. Bad-guys always start with a speech. 'I'm planning on killing you and destroying the world and here's how I'm going to do it.' You're all so predictable." Harry scoffed, rolling his eyes.
"You have me all wrong. I'm not going to destroy the world, I'm just using you as bait. See, Tony is out there right now wondering what happened to his friend. When we tell him you're with us, he'll come running and when he arrives he'll want to save you. And for that, he'll need to help us finish the serum that sometimes blows up the person it's injected into." The man smiled then. "How does it feel, is it starting to burn yet?"
"Not really. I'm unique in that things that I don't want, don't affect me." Harry stated. It was a complete lie, but the man seemed to buy it, looking over at the screen monitoring his vitals.
"How… You're a mutant, aren't you? That would explain the invisibility, the missiles and the reason you're so secretive." The man said with another amazed smile. "Oh, we are going to have so much fun taking you apart. Seeing what makes you tic."
"That, or you could go to sleep." Harry said. He waved his hand and knocked the goons out when the man simply toppled over. Natasha became visible, finger where the man's neck used to be. "How long have you been looking for me?" Harry asked as he freed himself.
"For an hour or so, once we realised Tony was alone, I had Fawkes try to find you. We followed your trail till we got here. You've been missing for a day, Harry." Natasha informed him.
"I'm so not letting you leave my side again. I think that Maya woman knocked me out while I was focussed on Tony falling into the sea." Harry said hugging her tight. She was not reciprocating. "What's wrong?" Harry asked, moving back and looking in her eyes, concerned.
"It's nothing, let's talk about it later. Not when we're surrounded by unconscious enemies." She said looking about the room. She had been so scared. Harry had never been taken. She was concerned for him and herself, wondering what she'd do if she ever met the person that hurt or killed him. She didn't like what she came up with.
"Okay, I understand." Harry let it go for now. They turned to where the main guy was lying only to find a hole burned through the ground. "What the?" Harry asked looking down through it. The guy was still lying there, unconscious. "I'm a mutant, am I?" Harry asked sarcastically. "Let's take them to SHIELD. We'll need one of their power dampening cells to interrogate this man."
It was an hour later when they had finished the interrogation. Aldrich Killian was not immune to Veritaserum. Harry did the standard obliviation for knowledge of who he was and his goons got the same. They were soon on their way to where 'The Mandarin' was being kept. Fury was on the line directly to the President. They'd leave without the Iron Patriot suit on board and Secret Service would take the Vice-President into custody the next day. Once all the evidence had been gathered.
When they arrived, Tony had been captured and was tied to an upturned bed. He was still unconscious. Maya was sitting there, working on her laptop, awaiting Killian. Harry didn't even give her a second glance. They had knocked all the armed guards out and he'd left her for Natasha, who knocked her out the old fashioned way. She was still considering waking her up so she could do it again, when there was a groan from Tony.
Harry put a finger to his ear and said, "We got Tony, how are things your side?"
"We got Rhodes. The suit is gone, though." came the reply from Steve.
"Okay, bring him this way. See you now." Harry said. Then he looked at Natasha, "Want to have some fun?" he asked.
"Pepper, I think." Natasha confirmed.
Harry quickly disillusioned the knocked out lady after immobilizing her and went invisible before he changed Natasha to look and sound like Pepper.
Tony woke up slowly. When he finally focussed, it was to see Pepper, sitting on a chair, hands behind her back looking at him. "You still think it was a good idea to invite a terrorist to our house?" she asked angrily.
"Pepper?! Hold on, I'll get us out of here." Tony said starting to struggle to loosen his bonds.
"And what if they come in here right now and shoot me in the head? Will you take my body home to be buried?" Pepper continued.
"That won't happen, I'll get us out of this!" Tony said doubling his efforts.
"What about next time then?" Pepper asked him.
"This will never happen again, I promise. First thing I'm doing when we get home is having Harry hide it." Tony said.
Suddenly 'Pepper' got up and turned into Natasha. "I'll remember to tell her that." she smirked at Tony. "And don't think I've forgotten that you let Harry get taken." There was suddenly no smile.
Harry then became visible. "Steve and Logan joined us to help out. They just found Rhodes. The suit is gone, though."
Tony was still shocked, his heart was running a mile a minute. "You assholes! That was too mean!" Tony exclaimed.
"You deserve worse." Natasha said emphatically as a knife appeared in her hand. She cut him loose and put it away again.
"On second thought, maybe you deserve an apology." Tony changed his tune. "On the bright side, I met this kid who helped me through an attack. Smart kid." Tony changed the subject.
"If you've found someone that helps, I suggest you keep them in your life." Harry suggested.
"Yeah, I'm going to set him up, so he can work that brain of his. Maybe one day he can join us at Stark Industries or Potter Innovations." Tony said conversationally, still eyeing Natasha who had not stopped glaring at him.
Steve and Logan soon arrived with Rhodes. He was banged up, but okay. "We've got to get to Air Force One. They've got plans for the President." Rhodes said.
"The president is aware. They plan to leave without him." Harry said.
"Ghost? I should have known it was you with how quick help arrived." Rhodes said. "But we have to go, this guy won't stop because it's in the air."
"You know the flight plan?" Harry asked.
"No, but I can get it." Rhodes assured him.
"Okay, everybody grab hold, we're going to the airport." Harry said.
"I need a lift home quick for a suit. Can you drop me? My portkey got lost at the ocean. I think the new suit cut it off accidentally." Tony said. Well that at least explained one thing, Harry thought.
"Sure, but make it the MI tech one. We need to do this quick." Harry agreed.
Natasha had just gotten off her coms with Fury. He'd be sending people to round up the people they had knocked out. "Let's go." she said.
Everybody put a hand on Harry and they were apparated away. "What the hell was that?!" Rhodes asked.
"Questions later. Don't discuss this with anyone, do you understand?" Harry asked while Tony quickly got in a suit and came back.
"Rhodey, this is above your pay-grade. Don't tell anyone. The information stays with you or it gets removed, okay?" Tony said.
"Removed?"
"Mission now, talk later." Steve interrupted urgently.
"Okay, take hold again." Everybody put a hand on Harry and soon they were standing on a runway. Harry handed Rhodes his phone. "Get that flight plan." He then took out his bag and unfurled his new carpet. He'd have too many to carry otherwise.
Rhodes got the information and turned around to see everyone had vanished. A hand appeared out of nowhere and pulled him onto the invisible carpet. They were already rising into the air. "Which way?" Harry asked impatiently.
"Are we on a…" Rhodes began.
"Which way!?" half the group exclaimed. Rhodes pointed in a direction and sat down. Soon the Carpet had taken off in that direction accelerating faster and faster. Rhodes was dumbstruck.
They had soon caught up with the plane and Harry flew alongside it. It seemed they were in time. There didn't seem to be any damage to it. "So, what do we do when Iron Patriot arrives?" Rhodes asked.
"Harry will take care of it." Tony said.
"I will, but you'll need to be in the air to catch him. We want the President seeing something being done, not just hearing about it." Harry suggested.
They waited and when Rhodes spotted the gleam off in the distance, Tony got ready. They moved away from the plane and Harry got the suit with a stunner. It died instantly and started plummeting. Tony jumped off, caught the suit by one hand and flew up and to the plane. When he was close enough, he found the president staring at him through an open window and Tony saluted, before veering off again.
They waited until they were out of view before Harry made the carpet visible. He hit the suit a couple of more times with a stunner just in case the man inside was playing possum and they left to deliver their final prisoner to SHIELD.
The headlines the next day were all along the vein of: 'Avengers stop Mandarin and his plot against the President!' and 'Vice president caught conspiring against the president with Mandarin!'
Memories were wiped where necessary and Rhodes signed a Contract, so he could keep his. He had an invitation to visit the Avengers house, but was waiting till his suit was repaired.
They had been requested to present themselves to receive medals for service to the country the next week. Harry had declined. He had more important things to do. He had promised his girlfriend a week away, simply enjoying a bit of time on the beach. Just the two of them.
It was the third night and they were lazing in the open air hot spring. Harry had charmed some fairy lights to fly about and soft music was playing in the background when he broached the subject. "So, Natasha. I know you've had something on your mind. Can we talk about it please?"
"I don't know if I want to spoil the mood." she replied evasively.
"Well it's been bothering me and I can't fully relax knowing you are unhappy with me." Harry said. "Please tell me what's going on?"
Natasha closed her eyes for a minute and then started talking. "I was taking care of Pepper. She was really worried. The news cameras had seen Tony fall into the water, but never saw him come up again. We knew you were helping and wouldn't let him drown, but you never came back. When we went to Tony's place the next day, we found a message from him. You were not with him and we know you can go anywhere instantly, so I panicked." She closed her eyes to fight the tears. She failed.
"Harry, I thought you were dead. I thought it was my fault for leaving you alone. I know you can't do everything, but sometimes you make it feel like you can't lose. You've never been so heavily injured that you couldn't get back up, even with your spine severed, you just kept getting up and carrying on. When I found out you were missing…" here she stopped for a moment trying to reign in her emotions, but she was losing the fight. She suddenly jumped on him, hugging him fiercely. "Harry, I can't feel like that again. I let you in and now I can't not care." She leaned back a bit, looked him in the eyes, seeing his own tears running, and whispered, "I love you."
"I love you too." Harry whispered back and hugged her fiercely again. After a minute he said with a bit of a smile, still holding her, "I wanted to tell you first, no fair."
"You did. The night before you went missing. You crawled into bed late and I heard you say it. When I looked up you were asleep already. I had a very good night's sleep. I was planning on telling you the next day, but…" she was interrupted with him kissing her.
When the kiss ended, he said, "I'm so sorry you went through that. I screwed up. I should never have let my guard down. She must have heard where I was when I screamed after Tony fell. I thought I had killed him and I forgot for a second that I had company."
"Well, you'll never have to worry about that again, because I'm never leaving your side again." Natasha promised fervently.
They spent that night under the stars in a hammock.
The following morning they woke up to a soft hoof beat close by. The unicorn foal had found them and was approaching them interestedly. Its parents were close by and watching warily, but didn't seem scared. Logan had done a marvellous job with them. The whole island was the foal's playground. He was sometimes even seen playing in the hot spring since it was shallow enough for him, with steps in and out. Quite the energetic little guy. He had never approached them before, though.
Natasha smiled and slowly reached her hand out to its head. It smelled her hand and then took a step forward so she could rub its neck. After a short while, it looked up and went to join its parents as they wandered off again. Pepper was going to be so jealous. "You should trust its judgement." Harry said as he hugged her close again for a moment. "Normally a unicorn would only approach a person with a pure heart. It was often confused with virgins where I come from." Harry chuckled.
"Me, a pure heart?" Natasha scoffed.
"Just like I told you." Harry confirmed seriously.
Natasha thought about it for a second. If she had a pure heart it was all thanks to one person. She didn't say it, but the kiss she gave him imparted her meaning clearly.
They spent the day in luxury, eating and drinking as they pleased until Harry felt his Mirror vibrate. "I swear if this is work, the world better be ending." He went inside and activated the mirror.
"Greetings Lord Potter!" Odin said from the other side.
"King Odin! To what do I owe the pleasure?" Harry was glad it wasn't Fury or the Avengers.
"We, the Queen and I decided to take you up on your offer to come stay on your island for a couple of days and were hoping you wouldn't mind the company." Odin said.
"Let me just quickly ask Lady Natasha. I promised this week to her. It needs to be her choice, if you don't mind." Harry apologised.
"I know well what it means to keep a promise to a lady. I'll wait for an answer." Odin said and then stood there, waiting. He was going to expect an answer right then, it seemed.
"Just one moment." Harry said and put the mirror down on the table looking out onto the ocean. He went out to where Natasha was reading under an umbrella in front of the sea. "Natasha, dear. The King of Asgard has decided to take us up on the offer of a bit of time away."
"That's wonderful! When was Odin planning on visiting?" Natasha asked with a smile.
"As far as I can tell, now." Harry said. "I told him it was up to you as this is your week." he quickly clarified.
"Thanks for putting it all on me. I can't very well say no now, can I?" she asked in mock annoyance.
"Is that a yes?" Harry asked hopefully.
"It's a yes." she smiled at him.
"Thank you!" he said with a smile as he ran off to go give Odin her answer. She smiled after him. If she didn't know any better, she'd think he was a kid expecting his beloved grandparents to visit. Then she remembered that he never had such things. If they could be that for him, she'd not hold it against him.
Harry picked up the Mirror and turned it around again. "She said its fine." he said with a smile.
"That is marvellous news! I shall inform the royal guard." At Harry's look he laughed, "I jest. It shall be only the Queen and I. That way we can be certain nobody is around when I instruct you in the arts, as was my promise."
"That would be wonderful! But please remember to rest. If you are to enjoy the time away, you cannot be on your feet the whole time." Harry said.
"Very well. We shall take the Portkey you left last time for the island and bring only the necessities. We shall see you in a couple of hours. Goodbye." Odin finished.
"See you soon." Harry said with a smile and closed the connection.