Chapter 25: Through Yori's Eyes

Steve walked down the hall, heading to Howard's lab. Peggy said he had some equipment to test out, and he was torn between being excited and being nervous. He knew from the project that Howard Stark was a certified genius. Of course, he also recalled the expo, where the flying car had crashed to the ground after barely ten seconds.

Peggy had faith in him, and that was a huge selling point for Steve. Then again, he knew that a lot of ladies approved whole-heartedly of anything their beaus did, no matter how good or bad it was. But Peggy had Josie backing her up, and Howard had flown him out to get Bucky…

Really, it could go either way.

He saw a familiar tail flick around the corner ahead of him – Steve had to stop for a minute and wonder what it said about his life that he not only knew a woman with a tail but could recognize it easily – and considered calling out to Yori, but decided against it. Yori was a member of his team, but she was also very much a loner. From what Steve understood, she'd been on her own for years. He didn't want to pressure her into being social.

Steve reached the corner and made a right, but froze immediately when he heard voices. Two soldiers were leaning against a slightly recessed doorway and Yori was straight-backed and frozen. To his surprise, she wasn't wearing her usual layers to hide her from stares.

"I'm sorry, but it's just not natural. We should just exterminate the vermin and be done with it."

"Imagine waking up in the morning and seeing that? Hah, it's no wonder she hasn't got a husband to stay home and cook for – I think I prefer the demon mask she wears."

"And that little scientist bitch she's always with, she's no better. Get rid of them and let us normal people go on about our lives."

Steve knew that Yori was fast, but he didn't think he'd realized how fast until that moment. One moment she was standing frozen in the middle of the hall, the next she had moved, dragging both men out into the hallway. One had her tail wrapped around his throat and was being held against the wall by it and one foot. The other was pressed against the opposite wall with Yori's hands curled around his neck. He scrambled to pull her fingers free, but he wasn't as strong as she was.

"Exterminate the vermin?" Yori purred in his face. "Such a good idea, I agree. Let's start with you and your friend, shall we?" Hatred poured off of her and her grip tightened. The man's eyes bulged as he started to go blue.

Steve couldn't just stand by and let this happen. "Yori!" he shouted, and stalked down the hall. "What are you doing? Let them go!"

Yori's head twisted around to look at him over her shoulder. Red eyes narrowed at him and her lips pulled back in what might have been a snarl.

"Why should I?" she snapped. Stave held out his hands to her placatingly.

"I know, Yori, I heard what they said. You want to prove them right?" Steve shook his head. "They're just guys shooting their mouths off. They don't matter."

Yori's eyes narrowed further and more a moment he thought he was going to have to rip her off of the men. But then her nose wrinkled in a snarl and she released her hands. The man coughed and wheezed, sliding down the wall to crumple helplessly into a ball.

"And the other one," Steve chided sternly, nodding to the man still held in Yori's tail. She grunted in annoyance, but dropped her foot and uncurled her tail. Steve noticed that the pointed tip trailed across the man's cheek, opening a shallow cut that welled with blood.

"Oops," Yori said saccharinely. The man stared at her in horror, his hand clutching his bleeding cheek. Yori leaned forward and raised her hands in claws.

"Boo!"

The man jolted, grabbing his wheezing friend and high-tailing it down the hall. Yori watched them rush past Steve, her arms crossed and a smirk on her face.

"Miss Tsukuda," Stave began, only for Yori to scoff.

"Just call me Yori, Miss Tsukuda sounds strange. Tsukuda-san if you must."

"Yori then," Steve said agreeably. He didn't know what 'Tsukuda-san' meant so he decided to play it safe. "I can't have you doing that. Not only does it reflect poorly on the team but it reflects on me as well. I know it's hard to hear people saying things like that about you, but you can't lash out every time it happens."

Yori chuckled, surprising him. "Captain," she said, shaking her head, "do you think what they said hurt me? That I lashed out because my feelings were bruised? I have heard so many worse things. I have had insults hurled at me from everyone I pass in the street, I have had mothers pull their children away from me, and I have had men chase me down with torches and pitchforks trying to kill me. Men like that, shooting their mouths off? They're like flies to me. I could swat them easily, but it's more effort than just ignoring their buzzing."

Steve was a little unnerved by Yori, and it was for reasons like this. The way she talked about her past, so dispassionate even as she talked about horrible things. Men had chased her down to kill her? Children had been pulled away from her? It was a miracle she was as normal as she was!

It was also how familiar she seemed with violence. She seemed completely comfortable with it, like it was just another tool in her tool belt. She wanted to fix a pipe, get a wrench; she wanted to shut someone up, she laid open their cheeks. He himself was trained and fully accepted that he would be going into battle hurting and killing men, but he didn't enjoy it. The way Yori had spoken to that man, it was like she was savoring the experience.

"If you were paying attention," Yori continued shortly, "you'd notice I only did anything after they said something about my protégée. I can handle anything they say to me, but Josie's skin isn't quite as thick as mine. She hadn't had a lifetime of insults hurled at her to build up her tolerance. If I teach them now not to talk that way, then there's much less chance they say the same things in front of her."

Steve was beginning to understand Yori and her motivations a little better. She had a lot of rage inside of her, and a lot of hurt. But she tried to channel it into something useful. She had taught Josie how to fight so that she could protect herself if she ever ended up in a situation like the one Yori described – people attacking her for her abilities.

One thing was still bothering him, though. "Why do you call Yori your protégée?" he asked, walking down the hall towards her. He still had to get to the lab and meet with Howard, after all. Yori fell in step beside him easily. Steve noticed with a little amusement than she had to take two steps for every one of his. He wondered if she would have seemed so tiny to him before the serum and realized she would have been shorter than him even then.

"Because she is," Yori said bluntly. "I taught her most of what she knows about fighting – she learned to box from her father, but other than that it was all me," she said smugly.

"I got that," Steve nodded. "But where did you learn all of this? You're barely older than she is, right?"

Yori doubled over laughing. "Barely… older… haha! She hasn't told you, has she?"

"By she I assume you mean Josie," Steve guessed. "Told me what?"

Yori was still chuckling as she said, "I was born in 1833."

Steve tripped over his own feet, the first time he'd done that since just after the serum. He gaped down at the woman next to him. If he had to guess he could have said that she was around his age, maybe a year or two older – Josie had called her 'durable' after all. But to think that she was that old!

A quick bit of mental math later and Steve stammered, "Y-You're… 110?"

Yori smirked up at him and tossed her hair, winking coquettishly. Steve flushed. "I look good for my age, don't I?" she said proudly.

"I… uh… s-suppose so…"

Yori was still grinning a little as she explained, "I call Josie my protégée because she is. She's not the first person I've taught to defend themselves, either. Things get boring when you've lived as long as I have. Whenever I found a mutant, I stopped my travels and spent some time with them, helping and guiding them."

Steve was still staring at Yori, trying to grasp how much she'd lived through. The first world war was nothing to her, she could probably remember the Civil War. And she mentioned travelling – with her ability to fly, she didn't need to bother with planes or other means of transport and landforms weren't obstacles. She could have been anywhere.

"Where's your favorite place?" Steve asked interestedly. "I mean, you must have seen a lot of amazing things."

"My favorite place…" Yori turned thoughtful, her shoulders loosening out of their usual tense set as she considered. A wistful smile covered her face as she said, "I don't know, really. I like so many different places for so many different reasons. Obviously, Japan holds a large part of my heart. I grew up in the mountains there. There's a swimming hole near Josie's home, and it's a beautiful place. The island of Mykonos in Greece is a personal favorite of mine…" She shook her head. "I can't decide."

"What about the people?" Steve pressed interestedly. Yori's face darkened.

"The people? Mostly homo sapiens, mostly unremarkable. A few kind souls who looked past what I was, but mostly they were afraid of me or hated me. People have very little draw for me," she finished. Her mouth twisted bitterly. "In fact… I think this might be the longest friendly conversation I've had with a person who wasn't a born mutant like me in… probably a decade."

Steve didn't know what to say to that. Instead he cleared his throat and asked, "So… where are you headed?"

"Stark said he had something for me," Yori replied with a shrug. "Well actually, he said he has something he wants to trade a blood sample for."

"I'm supposed to be meeting with Howard too," Steve said as they approached the lab and office area of the compound. "Shall we go in together?"

Yori smirked and planted her back firmly against the wall, crossing her arms and bracing a foot against the plaster. She nodded to the door, through which a dozen or so uniformed workers could be seen bustling around. "Go ahead. Like I said, people have very little draw for me."

Steve was hesitant to leave her there alone – it didn't seem very polite since they were going the same place – but like he'd noticed before, Yori was downright antisocial. If she didn't want to be in an open room with people bustling around, it seemed cruel to make her.

"Okay," Steve said, and entered the room.

Yori watched, eyes narrowed suspiciously as Steve approached a pretty blonde officer who was reading the paper. He asked for Stark and she replied that he was in with Phillips, barely glancing up from her paper. She did a double-take when she realized who was standing there, a predatory glint in her eyes.

Yori smirked at that. Like she'd said, she wasn't too fond of people and romance was definitely not in her future, but she'd have to be blind not to notice just how delicious Steve Rogers looked. Gleaming blonde hair, muscular, tall, with chiseled features and boyish blue eyes. She licked her lips. Yes, she noticed his looks alright.

But aside from his looks, she'd also noticed an almost unbearable naïveté to him. He was like a little boy in a man's body. It was hard to believe that someone as… as sweet and innocent as him had been the one to break into the HYDRA facility and set her free. She tried to picture him wading into the mud and the blood she had in the past and somehow it didn't work. He was too good to be in a place like that.

She hated him for that, just a little. Standing near him and the goodness that just oozed off of him made her feel like even more of a monster and a freak than she normally did. She remembered the familiar sensation of squeezing the life out of someone. She'd done it a hundred times before without flinching, but there in that hallway, with Steve looking at her, she hadn't been able to make herself do it. She felt disgusting for even trying.

Yori watched from around the corner as the blonde advanced on Steve. She didn't bother trying to make out the words, just heard the purr in them as she slunk forward. Steve crossed his arms, visibly uncomfortable. He stiffened up, looking caught somewhere between terrified and awed as the blonde grabbed his tie and pulled him behind a file cabinet.

Yori watched, feeling like quite the voyeur as the blonde dragged Steve in for a kiss. Instinctively, Steve's hands moved to her waist although his jaw seemed frozen in disbelief. Her hands clenched an unclenched at her side. Didn't that woman see how uncomfortable he was? How innocent? She was ruining that by touching him that way. It made Yori angry. She couldn't remember being innocent, hadn't been around much innocence in her life – she wanted to protect it.

She wasn't the only one angry, either. Yori watched as Peggy stalked past the cabinet. She just happened to glance to the side. Her eyes landed on Steve and the blonde. Hurt flashed across her face for a moment before being replaced with anger and annoyance. She turned to face them fully, planting her hands on her hips. So that's how it is…

"Captain!" she barked out.

Steve face snapped up and away from the blonde so fast she might have just punched him in the face. His hand came up like he was shielding his mouth.

"Yeah?"

"We're ready for you, if you're not otherwise occupied," Peggy said, staring at the blonde woman coldly. "Yori?" she called over her shoulder, starting off without waiting for Steve to reply.

Yori stepped from the hallway and followed Peggy as Steve scrambled to catch up with them.

"Agent Carter, wait," he begged.

"Looks like finding a partner wasn't that hard after all," Peggy replied coolly.

"Peggy, that's not what you thought it was." Steve's case wasn't helped by the fact that he was stuffing his tie back into his jacket.

"I don't think anything, Captain, not one thing. You always wanted to be a soldier and now here you are… just like all the rest," she added bitterly. Yori watched Steve's face fall.

"Well, what about you and Stark?" he countered, stopping in his tracks. Yori paused as well, fading into the shadow of a filing cabinet. "How do I know you two haven't been… fonduing?"

Peggy turned to stare at him, her expression caught between exasperation and disbelief. "You still don't know a bloody thing about women," she said shortly, turning back around with a toss of her curls.

"You really are a bit helpless," Yori said, stepping out of the shadows. Steve looked at her and blushed, realizing he'd forgotten she was even there.

"Did you… see?" he asked uncertainly.

"Poor girl, you seem to be a terrible kisser," Yori said bluntly. Peggy had already vanished through the Restricted Access door, the MP guarding it waving her through. She moved to pass and Steve hurried to walk beside her. She glanced up and saw him licking his lips.

"Stop that," Yori said shortly. She spoke up for two reasons. One, if Peggy saw it really wouldn't help his case. Two, she had a six foot four attractive blonde next to her licking his lips. She only had so much self control and be damned if she was going to jump him like that blonde.

Yori smirked as they reached the door. The whole time they'd been walking she could hear Peggy ranting under her breath to Josie inside the lab about what she'd just seen and what an idiot Steve Rogers was. It was when she heard Stark comment that she knew Steve was well and truly busted.

"I need Captain Chiseled Cheeks for a moment," Howard said, sweeping past and dragging Steve off the moment they entered the room. Yori moved towards the corner where Josie sat at a desk, Peggy leaning against it with her arms crossed, chewing her cheeks.

"I take it you saw?" Peggy asked as Yori approached. She nodded, seeing no reason to lie.

Josie looked up from her notebook. "I'm sure there's an explanation," she said, grey eyes begging Yori to come up with one before Peggy exploded. Yori tilted her head thoughtfully and Josie outright pouted at her. Smirking slightly, Yori spoke.

"If it makes you feel any better, she ambushed him. He was helpless, and from what I could see, he wasn't kissing back."

"There you go!" Josie insisted. "See? Steve's an idiot when it comes to girls, we all know that!" She tossed Yori a thankful look. "Just let him figure out exactly what he did wrong and I'm sure he'll apologize."

Peggy's jaw tightened. "He accused me of fonduing with Howard," she said tartly.

Josie looked at her blankly. "He… what? Peggy," she said slowly. "I'm pretty sure Steve doesn't know what fondue is."

Yori raised an eyebrow. "Coming around to that… would someone please explain it to me as well? I feel a bit lost and I don't like it."