Author's Note: It's been a while... Anyway, thank you all for the nice reviews and please enjoy chapter 2!
Chapter 2
Ghouls, Agent Romanova noted to herself, can easily break through handcuffs and chains. She should add that to her report. She stared in bewilderment as the ghoul she met in the alleyway slowly woke, took in his cell and burst through his bindings through sheer physical strength. At least the glass he was behind was of really strong stuff that even the Hulk wouldn't be able to get through. It would hold him back. Hopefully.
The man looked up at her with aware, intelligent eyes. A spark of the awkward man licking blood off his fingers remained in his eyes, but for the most part, he shut down. A cold, unforgiving look entered his eye and she knew the second they made eye-contact that he was going to be tough to crack. They were hard as flint.
She had stripped him of his clothing and mask and replaced them with loose, cotton clothing that would make it difficult to conceal weapons. She had removed his shoes, his tight-fitting outfit... his mask. She held it now in her hand casually, as if she hadn't inspected it with surgical care when she had been out of his sight. It made for a good conversation starter. And once you get them talking, its hard for them to stop.
"Good morning, Mr...?" she trailed off at the end to let him fill in.
The ghoul's only response was a raised eyebrow. He seemed unimpressed by her tactics. His lips were sealed for now. Sighing, Natasha tried a different approach.
"Why," she asked, "do you wear this?"
The ghoul's eyes locked onto his mask more quickly than Natasha thought was healthy. She had expected he would think of his mask the same way she would think of her lemon shampoo, but it seemed she was mistaken. If the twitching in his eye was any indication, he was angry that she had it. Much angrier than when he found himself captured.
He really should know better than to get attached to his mask.
The ghoul rose to his full height, a glare in his eyes as crimson overtook one of them. Natasha found it off-putting. The ghoul she had seen in alley had been all leather, blood and apathy, his human eye hidden from the world. He had been a monster in every sense of the word. But under the harsh neon light and dressed in pale cotton, one eye cruel and the other sad, Natasha was unsure what to think. She didn't like the strange position. She liked knowing what to make of the situation, knowing what to do. With ghouls, this ghoul, every move seemed wrong.
Natasha liked protocol. Protocols told her what to do so that things wouldn't go awry. And if things did go awry, protocol had a backup plan, because it knew the probability of protocol being followed in the first place was low. But protocol isn't perfect. Because no matter how thought out protocol is, it can't account for some things. You know, the really crazy things that no one dares to actually do. Like hacking the S.H.I.E.L.D. or injecting yourself with unstable super-soldier serum. Or kidnapping a ghoul.
Oh no, thought Natasha to herself, I'm turning into one of them. But, unlike most other Avengers, she would try to follow protocol. And since there was no protocol to follow in this scenario, she would do the next best thing: calling Nick Fury.
It took Tony Stark 2 cups of coffee before he noticed that he hadn't even made coffee that morning. He blinked drowsily up at someone pouring him a third cup. That was weird. When did they hire a housekeeper? He downed the third cup of coffee. Damn it was good coffee. It also gave him the clarity he needed to realize that if they had a housekeeper, he would know about it. And they most certainly did not. He scrunched his eyebrows together. White haired chinese guy. Nope, it didn't ring any bells.
"Who are you?" he asked.
The man paused, placing a hand on his chin as if deep in thought. Then, he leaned close to Tony placing his elbows on the table.
"Your worst nightmare," he said, dead serious, and straightened up again.
Tony cocked an eyebrow even higher.
"Kidding," the stranger added almost as an afterthought.
"Jarvis!" called Tony, eager to have his AI intervene.
No response.
"Jarvis?" He was getting a bit anxious. Where was his AI?
"I swear that brilliant mind of yours turns to mush during the night," Natasha called from the door frame. "You flew in last night on Fury's orders. You are to help me with my latest problem. And no, Jarvis is not here because we are currently in an old Japanese complex with no internet wiring."
Tony choked on his coffee.
"What? We are in one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world, and you're telling me that there's no internet? No Jarvis?"
Natasha's lip twitched at his despair and commented no further. The new guy filled his cup again.
"And you! Who are you and what are you doing here?!"
The asian man put down the coffee. He picked up a glass from the sink and started wiping it clean as he spoke in a casual but slightly broken English.
"My name Kaneki Ken, but can call me also Mukade. Miss Romanoff knock me out and bring me here." He finished polishing his glass before placing it in a cupboard. Tony turned to Natasha who sat down, perfectly stoic.
"You kidnapped him." It wasn't a question.
"Yes," she replied without hesitation.
"And you are probably trying to get information out of him for some reason if he hasn't been harmed yet," he said.
"I was."
"So why," he wondered, "would you need me? I'm not into all this spy/torture business, you know that."
Natasha breathed deeply.
"I was not successful," she spoke slowly, "and so I contacted Director Fury."
Tony blinked at her.
"So?" he asked.
"So, as I was describing the situation, I mentioned how easily he freed himself of his bonds... And how this far out and as strange as he is, he probably doesn't have any affiliation with Hydra or Loki..."
"...And Fury decided he wanted him in the Avengers."
Natasha had the urge to smile a goofy kind of smile, nod her head obnoxiously and reply "Yu-p" while popping the "p". But she settled for a single slow nod.
"And you need me to convince him because you tried to torture him, didn't you?"
Another nod.
Tony slumped in his seat.
"It's too early in the morning for this."
He sniffed himself and was repulsed by the smell.
"But first I need a shower."
"You need to familarise yourself with this report before doing anything else," said Natasha as she plopped a pile of papers in front of him.
"Oh come on! This is going to take forever and I smell like socks! Right, Kaneki?"
The man that had returned to his dishes looked over his shoulder at them.
"No worry, Stark-san, you smell like hamburger dropped in cologne. Not the most appetizing, but not the worst either." Natasha and Tony briefly paused.
"In any case, I have business to tend to," said Natasha, "I should be back in two hours top. And I don't care whether you've taken your shower or not as long as the place is in one piece, Kaneki is breathing and that report has been read. Am I clear?"
"You're leaving me too? With him?" he pointed towards Kaneki. "He just compared me to a hamburger!"
But Natasha paid it no mind, already heading out the door.
"Take care, Stark," she called out behind her before leaving them.
Tony stared at the white-haired man in horror as Kaneki smiled back innocently.
It was going to be a long morning. Oh well, thought Tony to himself, at least I have some damn good coffee. He held his cup out to Kaneki for a refill, who was happy to oblige.