**IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!**

**Some of you may have read the title and thought that this would be a Bucky/Steve pairing story. YOU ARE WRONG. To those who thought that: I am sorry. It wasn't until one person reviewed and reminded me that Starbucks is the name of the Bucky/Steve pairing that I saw my mistake. Bucky and Steve and only going to be good friends in the story. Nothing more. Sorry about the misnomer.**

I don't write lemon or shounen-ai yaoi Fics. Not to anger or ruffle anyone's feathers or start a fight, but it is against my morals to do so. If this bothers you, I am sorry. It is not my intention to offend anyone.

**There will be ScienceBros, BirdBros, and Starbucks (all those pairings) in the Fic, but only platonic.**

This story is called Starbucks in Manhattan because it will contain a lot of adventures about my OCs working at Starbucks, in Manhattan. It will also contain adventures of the Avengers on missions and interacting at the Tower.

I do not own anything. I do not own Marvel or Starbucks or anything else that I use in this story. I do not even own Manhattan, contrary to popular belief.

That said, ON WITH THE STORY!


Chapter 2: Bird Bros

Okay, so I haven't been very truthful. I have had a fairly normal childhood, except for one little thing: I have a superpower.

Yes, I know, awesome right!?

Well, it would be if it was cool like being able to control ice or being able to fly, but I wasn't so lucky.

I was cursed with the power of-

"Ping pong?!" Donny asked, looking at me incredulously. "You seriously want to play ping pong while we are working?!"

No, I do not have the power of ping pong. That's just stupid.

The power of ping pong just comes with it. I have the power of trajectory, sight, and agility. With trajectory I can make any shot from anywhere within reason, whether I am using a gun, knife, wad of paper, basketball, or even ping pong paddle. Sight is self explanatory; I can see really well and far away if I want. Agility allows my to have quick reflexes and keep up a high level of fitness, strength, and flexibility without the hassle of stupid workouts. I am actually a very lazy person, but at least I admit it. Basically, I am a female Hawkeye that can use more than just a bow and arrow, but with less training so not as lethal. (Hawkeye is the bomb!)

My talent comes in handy a lot; probably more than you would think.

Cockroach in the house? Give me a rubber band and problem solved. No más cucaracha. Too lazy to get up to go to the garbage can? I'll just toss it from the living room to the kitchen garbage can over my shoulder. Ping pong competition at the workplace? Game on.

"Yes," I say with a nod. "The counter is a perfect playing field and you can rig the surveillance cameras to not show the footage. Plus if you haven't noticed, tonight is a blue moon and Starbucks is deserted. I seriously think I saw a tumbleweed blow past. No joke."

"That was some old lady's poodle being blown away by the wind again and we are not playing ping pong in here. If we get caught, we'll be fired," Don-kun said with an unamused face.

"Oh okay. But come on! Please?" I plead with puppy dog eyes.

"Those eyes will not work on me this time. The answer is no," He says even though sweat was building on his forehead. He turning away so that the full force of my gaze was directed to the back of his head.

"Please with sprinkles and whipped cream on top?" I beg.

"The amount of sugary treats that the please is coupled with does not affect the outcome of my response: the answer is still no."

Jerk face. Oh, well, I guess it's time to implement plan B. B for Blackmail!

I look away from him and fiddle with the two paddles that were in my hands, bouncing a pingpong ball back and forth with them. I fake a sigh and say, "You know, this reminds me of a funny memory. You were nine I believe, and had the cutest little chubby cheeks. I think I have some pictures-"

Donny cuts me off, saying, "You said you would never mention my weight problem!"

"But you were so cute with your little pudgy belly! Wouldn't it be just dreadful if Clair got ahold of this little fact about your childhood?" I say innocently, as if talking to my self, and continue to focus on the ping pong ball. Donny used to have a slight weight problem as a child. I say slight, he says blimp like. He really wasn't fat, just not fit and in today's age that means the same thing. His parents fought all the time and his father yelled at him a lot; this caused Don to start stress eating. His father called him a disgrace because he wouldn't go out for sports and because he just stayed in his room on his computer all the time. Donnykinz is what the world would call a computer nerd/hacker and basically lives in his room except for the times he has to go to work or school or I drag his sorry butt out for an adventure.

Clair was Donovan's crush since third grade, but she never noticed him except to ask him to do her homework. He always did it for her, but, for the love of chocolate sprinkles, I will never know why. Donny started working out in his room and going running with me and eventually lost the weight and gained some nice muscles. After he lost the weight and got a nice hair cut, his hair was a rat's nest let me tell you, Clair finally noticed how great a guy Donovan is. She's a total b-

Suddenly, Donikinz grabs the ball out of the air, causing me to stop my train of thought, and says, "Fine, but if you dare to breathe a single word of that to Clair I will delete Sherlock."

I gasp, eyes wide in terror. When he says that he will delete Sherlock, he doesn't mean that he will delete the episodes off of my phone or TV. He means that he will delete every trace of Sherlock ever created in the history of the internet so that no one would be able to restore the information. "You wouldn't!"

"I would and will if threatened."

"Uhg, Fine, I won't say anything your sweetums. You just go work on the cameras."

Five minutes of clearing away coffee supplies and ten seconds of hacking into the cameras later and we are ready for a little friendly competition.


Tok. Tok. Tok. Tok.

The ping pong ball flew back and forth across the table, creating the only sound in the cafe other than the shuffle of feet and occasional grunt of exertion. The score was twenty to one with me in the lead. The only reason Donny got even one point was because he cheated by telling me that the poodle was flying by the window again. Dirty, rotten, cheating son of a-

Ding!

We both stopped and the ball fell on Dondon's side, scoring me yet another point, as we turned, guilty faced, towards the intruders: aka the Once in a Blue Moon Customers. We froze when we recognized who they were: Hawkeye, aka Clint Barton, and Falcon, aka Sam Wilson. Last week it was Bucky Barnes and Captain Freaking America and now the Bird Bros!? It was like a dream come true for me.

They didn't notice us at first as Hawkeye was complaining to Falcon.

"I can't believe you thought it would be a good idea to carry me bridal style for five miles just to get Starbucks" Clint said, nearly yelling, crossing his arms and pouting.

They took one step inside and froze, staring agape at us as we did at them.

"What in the world are you two doing? I thought this was Starbucks not the National Ping pong Championship," Sam said with a slight disapproving look towards us less than professional employees.

Donny gave me a stern, 'I told you this was a bad idea' look and said, "See? This is was I was afraid of! Someone was bound to walk in!"

I just shrugged my shoulders at him, nonchalantly, and asked Hawkeye and Falcon, "Wanna join? We have extra paddles."

The Bird Bros looked at each other and twin devil smirks came across their faces. Clint turned toward me, leaning against and counter, and asked, "What do we get if we win?"

I leaned in closer to him, using my best negotiator face, and said "A free drink every day for a month, each. Our treat. But if you lose, you each owe both of us a favor."

Clint thought it over for a moment and stuck out his hand, "Deal."

I shook it and then handed him a paddle, saying, "Game on."


The game was serious from start to finish with a small fortune of free drinks on the line. We started out in teams: Donny and I against the Bird Bros. Though, after a few rounds, Don and Sam got tired out and pulled out of the game at the same time, leaving a heated battle between Hawkeye and I going strong. The score was only ten to four with me yet again in the lead, the losses were mostly because of Donny who doesn't have the best reflexes for this game. We had been going nonstop for an hour.

Now that the two lesser players had withdrawn, the game was a fury of underhands, backhands, and sidesteps. After ten more games, it was obvious who the winner was as the ball hit the ground in a last resounding tok. The score was twenty to four. I was victorious!

"How can this be?" Clint asked aloud, as if to himself. "I never lose... Not since..."

He suddenly looked at me with a new light, scrutinizing my face. After a moment, his eyes grew wide and his mouth agape.

"No. NO! It can't be!" Clint exclaimed as he realized exactly who I was.

"But it is," I said smugly.

"Wait," Sam said, looking between Clint and I, before pausing on Clint. "You know her?"

"It was a dark time for me. Just after Budapest... I needed time to think and find myself after everything that happened," Clint sighed with a haunted expression. "I... I turned to ping pong as an outlet. I got good at it. Really good. I was addicted to the game and pretty soon I was attending competitions and was headed to Nationals. I heard a rumor there of a masked ponger who never missed a step, never over or under shot, and never lost a match. I won every match at Nationals until I got to play her. I... I never had a chance." He turned to me and asked, "It was you wasn't it? What happened? I never heard about you after Nationals five years ago."

I sighed and was about to speak, but Donny interrupted first looking between Clint and I, thoroughly confused, and said, "Wait, what now?"

I ignored him and answered Clint saying, "I've tried to put that behind me for so long."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Donny asked, trying again to get an answer out of me.

Ignoring him again, I continued, "It just wasn't the same without anyone near my level to compete with. You were the first person to ever get that close to beating me."

Clint deadpanned, saying, "The score was 50 to 1."

"But no one else even got one," I pointed out.

"WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT?!" Dondon yelled, waving his hands in the air frantically.

Sam, bless his soul, decided to explain to poor, extremely smart, but very lost Donny, saying, "Well it looks like your girlfriend-"

Donny said "Not my girlfriend" the same time I said "Not his girlfriend."

Sam rolled his eyes and started again, "It looks like your friend was a secret world champion ping pong player and Hawkeye here played her at Nationals and was schooled worse than when he tried to out-drink Thor."

"I had him in the ropes," Clint mumbled, pouting again.

"No, you didn't and stop stealing Steve's lines! He's patented that phrase, you know," Falcon said, hitting Hawkeye on the back of the head with his hand.

"Well it looks like you lost the bet," Donovan announces, breaking everyone out of their little revelry.

"Well put, Donikinz," I say with a smile and then deadpan at Clint, saying, "It is getting late today and we are about to close shop, so we would not want to waste our favors at this time. If you would, please write down your phone numbers and we will get back to you if and whenever we need a favor. Thank you and good bye!"

Begrudgingly, they write down their contact information and we bid each other farewell; ending yet another interesting day in the lives of average Starbucks Employees.


I hope you all liked it and sorry for the long wait! I really have no excuses other than I didn't ever feel like writing. Oh well. Please review! Ideas and prompts are welcome, but whether or not I use them is up to me. Also next chapter will most likely include Loki. Thank you for reading! ^_^