"You... what do you want?" She bit her lip and asked.
"Simple." Cloud sat up on the pool float. Water droplets traced down his perfect muscle definition—worthy of Michelangelo's David—leaving Natasha's throat suddenly dry.
He teleported directly in front of her. The distance between them closed to the point where they could feel each other's breath.
He reached out and gently lifted a strand of her fiery red hair, bringing it to his nose for a sniff.
"Mm, lovely scent."
Then, amid Natasha's racing heartbeat, he leaned close to her ear and spoke slowly:
"My conditions are..."
"First, I want the top-floor suite at Stark Tower—the one with the best view. All renovations must be completed overnight according to my specifications."
"Second, during my time tutoring Wanda, no one may disturb me for any reason. Including your one-eyed director."
"Third..." His voice dropped lower, more suggestive.
"You, Agent Natasha Romanoff, will serve as my personal lifestyle assistant."
"Responsible for all aspects of my daily living during my stay."
"That's not an unreasonable payment, is it?"
Natasha felt her face grow hot enough to fry eggs.
She knew this man was blatantly teasing her.
But she also knew she had absolutely no grounds to refuse.
Finally, she closed her eyes and squeezed out a single word through gritted teeth.
"Fine."
And so, in an atmosphere rife with various rose-tinted dealings and ulterior motives, Cloud officially moved into Stark Tower's top floor as its newest resident—bearing the distinguished titles of "Special Mental Health Consultant" and "Exclusive Tutor to the Scarlet Witch."
On move-in day, Tony Stark surveyed his top-floor luxury suite, which had been transformed overnight into a "Chinese courtyard style" complete with an outdoor hot spring bath. He nearly summoned his armor on the spot.
Meanwhile, Cloud sat sprawled on the living room sofa like he owned the place.
To his left sat Wanda, looking constrained and uneasy.
To his right stood his "personal lifestyle assistant" Natasha, maintaining a professional demeanor despite her slightly flushed earlobes.
"Mm, not bad at all." Cloud surveyed his surroundings and nodded with satisfaction.
"Beautiful women, a mansion, and an adorable student who might go berserk at any moment to add some excitement to life."
"This retirement is finally getting interesting."
He picked up the top-grade black tea Natasha had just prepared for him and took a sip.
Then his gaze casually drifted toward the window.
Out there, he sensed fluctuations sharing the same origin as the "Space Stone" and "Mind Stone" he'd previously encountered—yet imbued with the power of "Time" and "Reality"—quietly awakening somewhere on Earth.
And in the deepest reaches of the cosmos, a massive purple figure seated upon a floating throne slowly opened his eyes.
"Earth..."
Thanos's whisper echoed through the void.
"An increasingly interesting place."
A storm centered on the Infinity Stones, one that would sweep across the entire universe—and a different kind of storm brewing in Stark Tower's penthouse, thick with the atmosphere of romantic rivalry—had both quietly begun.
Ever since Cloud had forcefully moved into Stark Tower as a "Mental Health Consultant," this iconic New York landmark had transformed into a peculiarly surreal "International Elite Exchange Center."
The daily routine went something like this:
Each morning, Cloud would take Wanda to the rooftop courtyard for "meditation training."
Said meditation consisted of Cloud napping in a rocking chair while Wanda used her chaos magic to transform the koi in the courtyard pond into fire-breathing dragons—and then back again—all without waking Cloud.
In Cloud's words: "This is called precision control training. When you can swap my cola for soy sauce under my nose without me noticing until I drink it, you'll have graduated."
Meanwhile, "personal lifestyle assistant" Natasha would don a sexy casual outfit that made Tony Stark whistle (naturally, the wardrobe change was Cloud's "suggestion") and prepare his meals.
Though her cooking skills—lethal enough to kill a cow—produced dishes that only Cloud, the "immune to all poisons" Dimensional Sovereign, could consume without changing expression, even offering high-EQ reviews like "very layered, leaves a lingering aftertaste."
As for the building's owner, Tony Stark, he had completely devolved into a tech hermit.
Abandoning his wild parties, he spent every day trying to use his most advanced equipment to scan, analyze, and crack the spatial laws governing Cloud's room that had been converted into a "hot spring bath"—gaining nothing but garbled data and several tripped circuit breakers.
The entire Stark Tower was enveloped in an atmosphere that was harmonious and warm, yet inexplicably bizarre.
Just as Cloud was enjoying this "training and cultivation pleasure," an uninvited guest shattered the peace.
Loki—the "God of Mischief" from Asgard—after obtaining the Tesseract, didn't immediately go into hiding. Instead, he made a dramatic appearance at a plaza in Stuttgart, Germany.
Clad in an ostentatious green battle robe and wielding the Mind Scepter, he descended upon the mortals like a divine king, forcing everyone in the plaza to kneel before him.
"Kneel!" His voice, amplified by magic, echoed across the entire plaza. "You pathetic mortals were born to be ruled! You crave subjugation, crave freedom from the burden of freedom!"
Most of the civilians, trembling under his overwhelming presence and the scepter's mental influence, dropped to their knees.
Only one white-haired elderly man shakily rose to his feet, eyes blazing with defiance.
"We will not kneel to men like you."
"Oh? Spirited." A cruel smile spread across Loki's face. He raised his scepter, and a beam of blue energy shot toward the old man.
Just as disaster was about to strike—
Whoosh—!
A circular shield striped in red, white, and blue descended from above, positioning itself precisely between the old man and the blast, deflecting the energy beam!
Immediately after, a figure in matching red-white-blue tight combat gear—tall, blond, blue-eyed, and impossibly handsome—leaped from a Quinjet and landed firmly before Loki.
None other than the recently thawed "living fossil"—Captain America, Steve Rogers.
"Last time I was in Germany, I saw a man who liked telling everyone else what to do, just like you." Steve's gaze was unwavering.
"Soldier!" Loki looked at him, face full of contempt. "An outdated relic."
"Outdated, but not expired."
Battle was about to erupt.
...
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