"I mean… I'm just normal," Eva struggled to explain to the interviewer sat behind the camera. "Like, I have a cat and a job and another job to make ends meet, because I live in the most expensive city in the country and I'm also drowning in college fee debts, and I like scary movies and classical music and stuff. I'm nothing special, really. It's my friends that are weird as shit," she added, and laughed.
"How did this happen?" the interviewer asked.
"I got the wrong job, working at an overpriced coffee shop round the corner from Stark Tower, and unfortunately I'm the only person who can make espresso the way Iron Man likes. I guess most people would've freaked out with the customers I got, but I was never very impressed with superheroes. All that mattered to me was whether they're a jerk to serving staff, and if they tipped big."
"What changed that led to you working here?"
"Vision. I… owe that guy my life, I think." She stared down at her fingers, and picked off her nail varnish as she talked. "He's like… every so often, you come across someone and they just bring this light into your life, when you didn't even realize it was dark. For most people it's like, a boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever, but I got a friend, a best friend, and that's what I needed. And, god, I was so lucky - for some insane reason, he liked me!" She laughed. "Vision was the first person ever to like me for me, to - to be interested in what I have to say, who thought that I mattered.
"And that's all I needed, really. It's what I needed to agree to going on a date with the one and only Sam Wilson, and what I needed to get through college, and see my first commission all the way through to the end, and stop being pissed off with these larger-than-life superheroes coming through my shop door and actually, like, get to know them instead. And I still don't entirely believe that they like me, that these world-saving weirdos like me, but they're fun to be around and I believe them just enough to think that maybe I am worth something after all.
"And, uh, I'm a damn good gardener, so they offered me a job here and it's got really great health insurance, which is good because, I shit you not, I have been shot for those people."
"Can you tell us anymore about that?"
"I've kind of half-helped unofficially with some-" she faltered as she noticed Hill, who was stood behind the interviewer, shaking her head. "Yeah, I don't think I'm allowed to tell you about that. Which is funny, because I always get really pissed off when they don't tell me stuff. That okay to say?" she asked Hill, who gave her a thumbs-up.
"Thanks, Miss Kresk. You can go now." The interviewer sounded somewhat disappointed that Eva had, on the whole, been rather positive about everything.
"Look – they're jackasses. All of them. Complete douche canoes, but they're useful to have around. Sometimes. When they're not making a mess of things. Okay, I'm done now. Bye." She stood up a little awkwardly and left the room, pausing outside the door to the next interviewee.
"Ready for your five minutes of fame, Pete?"
"Bog off."
"Hollywood's calling," she said with a sunny smile.
"I hate you."
"Oh, Pete. The feeling's mutual."
A/N UK's earlier release date means it's only eleven days until I'm going to see Civil War! But worry not my buddy pals, there will be no spoilery chapters until at least a week after the US release date and when there is, I will notify you in the chapter title. I'm kinda conflicted because ethically I agree that superheroes should be regulated and I trust the Vision's good judgement enough to know that whichever side he's on is probably the more morally right one, but on the other hand I am very attracted to Bucky Barnes, but on the OTHER other hand (third hand or first hand?) I know, I just KNOW that I'm gonna fancy T'Challa. I can already feel it happening.