Hello, hello! So, I'm going to try and post every Friday from now on. (I know it's not Friday, I've already failed at this. Lol) Thanks for all the awesome reviews! Let me know what you think!
"You know, I'm not going to push you out of bed," Nova tried for a little levity, relaxing a little when James wandered back over to the side of the bed she'd left open for him. He'd already secured the apartment and shut the door, making sure it was locked and dead bolted against intruders. As if someone was going to attack them while they were in the Tower.
It was interesting to see him in her space. Sure, Nova loved her lab dearly; it was far more personal to her than her bedroom. But she'd never imagined James in her bedroom. If he was in her bedroom, it was personal. Personal in a way she wouldn't have considered before. She wasn't sure how she felt about it being personal.
"I know," James nodded slightly as if affirming his statement before climbing into bed. He was dressed in one of his new pairs of sweatpants. They were black with symbol of a black widow spider on the right leg. A red hour glass shaped symbol that denoted Natasha. Nova had been the one who found them, but James was just as interested in supporting his teammate. They were fairly good friends, after all. His tee shirt was a plain dark grey that had no writing or logos on it. It was meant as an undershirt, but Nova didn't bother telling him that. He could wear his clothes however he pleased.
"You say that, but you're being careful not to touch me and haven't even gotten under the covers. I swear I'm not some bed hog, I won't get mad if you stay warm or get comfortable. It's not a big deal, we're two grown ass adults who can share a bed without making it weird, right? Or are you making it weird for shits and giggles?" Nova narrowed her eyes at James, considering him in the dark of her bedroom. He was a dark outline now that the lights were all out but Nova could practically feel the look he sent her.
Without saying a word, he started moving. The entire bed shifted with him, the mattress jolting a little as he executed some move that put him under the covers with her. Nova was already curled up, one pillow tucked between her arm and her head as she waited for James to make himself comfortable. Instead of adjusting himself like a normal person, he shifted again. This time, he threw an arm out, wrapped it around her waist, and dragged her the rest of the way across the bed into his arms.
"Hey!" Nova squeaked in surprise as she was suddenly pressed against his obscenely muscular frame. He managed to prop her pillow under her head with his arm supporting it, forcing her to change position to make room for him. One of her hands fell against his abdomen, the ripple of muscle there enough to start pulling heat to her cheeks. For once, Nova thanked the darkness surrounding them for giving her the cover to hide behind.
"You said to get comfortable," James informed her rather sassily, throwing one of his legs over both of hers and slipping his free arm around her waist. His cool palm pressed against the exposed skin of her lower back causing Nova to jerkinto him, trying to dislodge his hand where is was sending ripple of goosebumps up her back.
"Hey, ass hat, get your hand off of me, you're freezing!" Nova cried, batting at his chest gently. James's low chuckle rumbled through his chest and Nova felt it, an accompanying smile curling her own lips upwards. How could someone not smile if James was laughing? It was one of the rarest things on the planet to begin with and, when she was the person to make him laugh, an unnatural well of accomplishment rose in her chest.
"Why would I do that? You're right where I want you," James teased, ducking his head down so that his lips brushed against her ear. Nova snorted as his hand started to warm to her body temperature, his arm a comforting weight around her.
Accepting that there was no way she was going to get out of this without telling him to fuck off, Nova kicked her leg out to cover the one of his that was left unattended before slipping her free hand along his side, to his back. Settling into the position, Nova curled into James, letting her forehead fall against his chest and fisting her fingers in his tee shirt to hold him there. She felt the warm puff of his exhale brushing the top of her head and exhaustion caught up to her moments later.
Muffling a large yawn in his sternum, Nova nuzzled closer afterward, intent on getting a couple of hours of good sleep.
"See? You do need sleep," James hummed, his breathing starting to even out. Nova matched his breathing, asleep in seconds.
Something wet met Nova's shoulder, her sleep hazed mind slowly rising to consciousness. The same instance happened again and again, a wet suction at the back of her shoulder, at the top of her shoulder, and again closer to where her shoulder met her neck. Shrugging angrily, Nova groaned, stuffing her head back into her pillow and hoping whatever it was would go the hell away so she could sleep. The next time it happened, something clamped on for a moment, biting down.
The sharp pain sent Nova bolting upright, eyes flying open wildly in an attempt to locate the offender. Hands caught her as soon as she was upright, both warm though one was distinctly flesh while the other was a prosthetic Nova had been mooning over since first hearing about the theoretical concept. Storm blue eyes met her own and Nova scowled fiercely at the laughing assassin that was watching her with nothing less that absolute glee on his face. Those blue eyes were dancing as he observed her, rubbing his thumbs along her arms.
"Did you bite me?" Nova grumbled, reaching up to scrub at her eyes. James let her fall into his body, where she propped herself on his chest instead of assuming a completely upright position. His chest was still sleep warm and his tee shirt rumpled. His human hand came up to rub her back gently, obviously trying to help her wake up.
"You weren't responding to the nicer options," James informed her, as if biting her was the completely rational option that came after gentle nudging.
"Why do I even let you hang around?" Nova mumbled sleepily, nuzzling deeper into James's chest.
"You let me hang around to warn you that Evangeline and Steve are on their way to find you and that we should get out of bed in case they think we've done something we haven't," James informed her in a strangely talkative mood. Nova hummed lightly, not really caring what Evie thought. Evie would be upset that they hadn't told her if they were sleeping together, but they weren't having sex, so it was a moot point. It was Steve's rage Nova wanted to avoid like the plague. If he got mad at her, he could knock her head clean off. Literally. Not that he would on purpose. But he definitely wouldn't be happy and he was one of the only conceivable people Nova could think of that could actually get her kicked out of the Tower if he put his mind to it.
"I have a brilliant idea," Nova finally turned so her mouth was free of his rumpled tee shirt, glancing up to see a nice outline of James's perfect jaw. He wasn't bothering to look down at her, instead one hand brushing along her back and the other arm settled around her waist comfortingly while he stared up at the ceiling. "You get up and go to your apartment and I'll stay here and sleep until Evie tracks me down. It's a perfect alternative."
"Your ideas of perfect are a little warped," James informed her, pulling back from her just enough to be able to see her face. His lips were quirked slightly, dark lashes fanned over warm eyes. He didn't give a shit that she basically just tried to kick him out of her bed for a few more minutes of sleep, but Nova simply smiles at his response. Yeah, her ideas of perfect involved waking up to an ancient assassin with a state-of-the-art arm-turned-weapon-turned-back-to-arm. It wasn't like she could disagree with him. Her ideas of perfect were a little warped, after all.
"But I could make a hundred arguments for this. Listen, number one is that you're already awake and have to go away to get dressed while I, on the other hand, have a bunch of clothes still tucked in the drawers here. Number two is that you're the man and should, even though I'm a devout feminist, chivalry isn't dead is it?" Nova teased, knowing that she shouldn't make him leave. Hell, she didn't even want him to leave, which was all sorts of fucked up because Evie and Steve could appear at any moment. Evie had a habit of showing up at the absolute worst moments possible without any forewarning. "Number three is that this is my apartment and I say so. Should that have been number one? Maybe that's number one and number one is number two and number two is number three? Or would number two stay number two and number one flip down to number three?"
"Okay, calm down," James chuckled, shaking his head a little as he sat up straighter. Nova was dragged with him and then he's shuffling her off the bed with all the grace of a man who knew how to get what he wanted. She would have argued more if she wasn't kind of curious about what he was going to do now. "Coffee first, then talking."
"Why?" Nova barely constrained herself to the one word, wanting to demand all the answers she knew he held.
"Why? Because at least after coffee you make sense," James informed her, motioning toward the door as if to tell her to go out first. Nova shrugged and accepted this as fact. It wasn't like she didn't already know that she didn't make sense to regular humans. James was no regular human and she was pretty sure he understood her almost eighty percent of the time. Unlike the rest of the human population on earth, who only understood her twelve percent of the time.
"I agree. Coffee sounds like a fantastic idea," Nova started out of the bedroom, not too surprised when James didn't follow after her immediately. Assuming he'd gone to the bathroom or something, Nova started into her kitchen to the coffee maker that Evie had thankfully left behind, choosing a small cartridge to put in. It was a nice caramel mocha that she intended to inhale. She'd gotten the mug under the spout when James came after her. She didn't actually see him, instead heard the footsteps he was obviously making louder for her benefit. If he didn't want her to know he was there, she wouldn't know.
"They're almost here," James informed her, Nova watched the first little dribble of coffee before turning to look at James, blinking in surprise at the sight of him fully dressed, standing behind her like there was nothing weird about seeing him in jeans and an obscene Christmas sweater with a large print of Santa's sleigh and the reindeers across the front where Rudolph's nose actually sparkled in the low lighting of the kitchen. Honestly, even without the surprise costume change, it would have been something to think about for a moment.
"You're wearing Jas's sweater," Nova pointed out dumbly, not really sure how else to ask what the hell he was wearing and where it had come from in a calm tone of voice without bursting into laughter. James had an unnatural affinity for striking her speechless.
"You gave it to me," he reminded her, narrowing his eyes slightly and cocking his head. His hair fell over his shoulder and Nova motioned for him to come closer, choosing to ignore the mysterious appearance of his clothing until they had time to properly talk about it. Right now they needed to prepare for Evie and Steve. Because there were bound to be questions when two adults were found in the same apartment in the morning. It was stupid, because she seriously wasn't having sex with James.
That wasn't to say that she was opposed to the idea. If he was willing… Yeah, better to not go there because that was a well she didn't need to drown in.
"Come on, I'm fixing your hair. Just your luck that Evie leaves ponytails in a trail behind her wherever she goes," Nova teased as James moved to stand before her, turning his back and crouching so she could actually reach his hair and see what she was about to do. "Only, I'm not doing messy bun for you today. No sir, I'm giving you Thor braids because I think you'll look hot in them."
"I look hot in anything," James informed her just as she started sectioning pieces of his hair for the braids she was planning. Nova's surprised laughter burst from her lips just as the door to the apartment opened and Evie and Steve walked in.
Both Evie and Steve stared at them like they'd never met them before. Nova's fingers buried in James's hair and she was leaning up against his back. His hands had come up to catch her against him, still perfectly balanced, and Nova let out another peal of laughter when she realized that their questions were about to get a lot more uncomfortable. Because there was no way they were going to see this and let it go. And for some reason that made Nova laugh harder.
"I'm not asking," Evie announced into the silence that came as soon as Nova calmed down. Evie walked right into the apartment without waiting for Steve. Instead, she swiped Nova's coffee from the counter as soon as it was done and made her way to the couch just like she would have had she still lived there. Nova felt a sharp ache of loss in her chest, wishing that it was true, that Evie had never left. Okay, maybe she wouldn't have met James if Evie was still her roommate. And that would suck. But couldn't everything be the same accept Evie just still lived with her?
"Good, we don't want to share our secrets with you anyway," Nova huffed, snickering again as she focused back in on James, pushing the empty feeling in her chest back. He was leaning against her legs now, propping himself up as he had some sort of intense stare-off with his best friend. Steve was just standing in the doorway, looking shocked and not sure how to feel about it. Nova hoped he didn't jump to hate because that wouldn't be cool.
It wasn't really Nova's prerogative to get into a fight with Steve. He just made it so easy by getting upset over stupid things. Like her being friends with James. Was it so odd that James might like to hang around with her? She knew people found her annoying. And hyper and talkative and a hundred other things that usually ended around bitchy. It wasn't that she didn't try to be welcoming and nice. Her mouth just had an unfortunate habit of going faster than her brain and sometimes the words that came out were offensive when she didn't mean them to be. James, thankfully, saw past that and understood her intentions instead of just her words. Steve; not so much.
Starting to braid, Nova let her fingers work with the familiar motions, James's hands still firm against her calves. Steve slowly, so slowly Nova questioned his health, made his way into the room. He gave them a wide birth, watching as Nova wove strands of hair deftly. Trying not to let his stubborn silence bother her, Nova turned her complete attention to James, whose grip on her legs tightened fractionally when Steve had to get closer to them to slip between the chair and the couch so he could sit beside Evie.
"Almost done," Nova promised in a low murmur so Evie, at least, couldn't hear. Steve had better hearing than any of them and Nova knew it. But she was going to do her best to make sure that James was comfortable, Steve's feelings be damned. James didn't answer her, but he didn't have to. She was used to his silence.
"So, while you're doing that, I have some information on the chatter coming up about home," Evie started, her voice taking on a more crisp, business-like tone. James's entire body seemed to tighten and Nova knew that he was listening, the hands on her calves becoming steel bands. Ignoring that uncomfortable thought, Nova glanced at Evie. "Maria's been working on it too. We came up with a few sources but not much we didn't already know. Obviously, the Dugan compound is a target for HYDRA. It's a safe house for the Legacies and Grandpa Dugan has put more than a few wrenches in their plans."
"Wrenches? I'm pretty sure he hotwired their plans and blew them straight to hell," Nova teased, turning back to James for a moment. "Here, hold this piece. Just pinch the end between your fingers and I'll take it from you in a minute."
James did as she asked, carefully pinching the braid she'd handed him between his human fingers, his slow release of her leg enough proof that he wasn't feeling particularly comfortable. She didn't blame him. He wasn't quite sitting with his back to Steve and Evie, but it was close. And that wasn't cool when Steve was still acting kind of like a dick. Not to mention that James preferred having eyes on the entire room when he could. It was part of his conditioning.
"You know what I mean. HYDRA isn't happy with our family. We're too big of a threat and have too big of a network. If they take the Dugan family out, they'll have too big of an advantage. It would be a spiral that SHIELD wouldn't survive," Evie reminded her, as if she could ever forget her family's involvement in the agency. Still, Nova kept her mouth shut as she took the braid in James's fingers and tied it to another braid that she'd made on the opposite side of his head with a small ponytail holder.
"I thought your family retired from SHIELD service?" James spoke, surprising Nova a bit. She patted the top of his head after tying off two more braids, happy with her work. James pushed off of her and rolled to his feet in one easy move that Nova was immediately jealous of.
"We did. Most of the Legacy families did. We've lost too many good agents from the fuckup that is SHIELD. It's better to work on our own. But that doesn't mean that we don't provide certain services if asked by the right people. There are a few Legacies who chose to stay with SHIELD and we protect our own. If they need information or help with something, we give them what they need," Nova explained, turning to the coffee machine. James stayed by her side, watching as she pulled another mug out of the cupboard. This was the last mug in the house and Nova silently judged herself. Did she really have so few useful belongings?
"There have always been people trying to infiltrate the Dugan house. Luckily, we're fairly adept at avoiding those people. Maria is already looking into all the known cases of possible infiltration, but no one is raising red flags yet. I'm back tracing a few emails, but the people who are tracking the information are good. It could take years to track them down at this rate," Evie reminded them. Nova just sighed, wishing she could curl into James's side and forget that the outside world was so fucked up for just today.
A warm hand brushed the back of hers and Nova glanced up, her eyes meeting James's. He was already watching her. His lips twitched and her automatically softened into a small smile, the tension falling from her shoulders. Maybe the world was fucked up, but she'd lived through all the bad days so far. They could figure out who was trying to infiltrate her home so long as they worked together to figure it out. If anything, at least she had some really kickass superheroes on her side.