Eva dug the spade in as deep as it could go and, with an unattractive grunt, turned the soil over, breaking up the dirt that had become compacted over the last couple of months. "That's this plot done," she announced, then put her thumb and forefinger inside her mouth and whistled shrilly. "BRING ME THE SPROUTLINGS!" she yelled, in as impressive and deep a voice as she could manage.
The dozen or so kids that lived in her apartment block ran over with trays of tiny green plants that had been growing on their bedroom windowsills for the last few weeks until they were mature enough to go outside. Vision followed them with an armful and knelt down next to Eva as she showed her tiny workers where and how to plant what would soon become enough vegetables to feed the plot for a week. She liked growing useful stuff the best – her block was on the border between Brooklyn and Manhattan, one of the least gentrified areas of the city, so most of its residents were those who wouldn't live anywhere less central than the middle of New York but couldn't afford anywhere nicer. As such, the free food (since the rooftop garden was funded by a charity scheme) had made Eva's little skyline allotment one of the most popular ones in the city.
"They've asked me to be an ambassador for the project," she told Vision, who liked to help on his days off and, even with the recent stuff involving the Accords dispute (to put it mildly), was immensely popular with the younger ones. "How cool is that? It's voluntary, so I'm not getting paid or anything, but it's still work."
"Very cool," Vision agreed, and Eva grinned at his echoing of her casual language, since it sounded very odd in his formal voice. "That is a magnificent jumper, by the way."
Eva narrowed her eyes. He was so nice most of the time that at moments like this she could never tell if he was being sarcastic enough. "Hmm," she said, pushing the sleeves of the enormous knitted sweater up past her elbows. "Mrs J knitted it for me. Y'know, the woman you met in the elevator – no, Raj, you use the trowel the other way around! – when you first came round."
"It's very colourful."
"She used special rainbow wool," said Eva, "it's got tinsel strands in it too, so it glitters."
"I can see."
She stuck her tongue out at him. "How're Stark and Rhodey?"
"Quiet," Vision replied. "Eva, would you mind if we – it's just that I'd rather not talk about it."
"Got it," she said. Vision visited her far more than she did him, and she got the impression it was to escape the HQ and the people within it – or, perhaps, the lack of people. "I was only being polite. I don't actually care about Stark at all."
Vision laughed. "Tell me more about being an ambassador."
"Well," said Eva, "they want me to go out to Queens some more, since it's pretty much the only borough they haven't got much of a presence in, and once we're spread throughout the city we're gonna try and get other urbanised areas involved, too. But I dunno," she added uncertainly, "it's a lot of responsibility. And I'm kinda, y'know. Crap."
"Eva," Vision said sternly, "you are nothing of the kind. They would not have asked you to be an ambassador if they didn't think you would do an excellent job – which you will, by the way."
"Aw," she said, pressing her hands to her cheeks to hide her blush and smearing mud all over them in the process, "babe. Shut up."
"Eva," said Maya, one of the kids, "I done the tomatoes. What now?"
"Grab the watering can from the shed and fill it up," Eva instructed her, "get one of the bigger ones to help you carry it back, it'll be heavy. And don't water your sister, I got in enough trouble with your mom last time. Actually, Vision, can you give her a hand?"
"Of course," said Vision, standing up. "Lead the way, Miss Maya."
"Yay!" Maya grabbed Vision's maroon hand in her tiny one and hauled him off to the shed. Eva smiled as she watched them go, feeling an odd, blossoming sense of pride. It would have been so easy, she thought, for him to have hidden away in that damn compound and felt sorry for himself ever since half the A-team went rogue. But here he is, running around after me and my block like any other ordinary, long-suffering person. It didn't even occur to her that the reason he was there in the first place was because of her.
"Oh," Eva said once he had returned from his quest, "Alvie called last night. She says hi. Which is weird, when I think about it, considering you're technically enemies. Or at least, you were last time I checked."
"Is Alvie the crazy lady?" Maya asked, splashing water on the greenery. "I like her. Sam thinks she's a witch."
"Not gonna lie, she would probably be pretty flattered by that label," Eva said.
"How is she?" Vision asked.
"Good. Wakanda's doing her well, I think. She says I might be able to go out and visit her at some point – would you be okay if I left you for a couple weeks?"
"I'm sure I could manage," Vision told her.
"Well, last time I left you unsupervised you went to Berlin and blew up an airport, so…" she tailed off, and giggled at his expression. "Kidding. I just worry about the only influence on you being Stark."
"Colonel Rhodes is there, too," Vision said, and, like every other time he mentioned the soldier, his tone was edged with guilt. Eva sighed and patted him on the shoulder.
"Not your fault, remember?"
Vision nodded, not looking at her. "Yes."
"Maya," said Eva, "hit Vision for being an idiot."
"Ouch!" Vision said, in mock pain, and Maya giggled as she ran away.
"Can't catch me!" she yelled, from the other side of the rooftop.
"Hey, be careful!" Eva called after her. "I don't want anyone else falling off the edge! We're lucky we had someone who could fly here last time to catch Jimmy when he was being an assho – an idiot. Thanks again for that, by the way, V."
"It was no problem. His mother has thanked me more than enough already."
"She baked you the pie, right?"
"Yes."
"And you didn't tell her you don't eat?"
"I thought it would sound ungrateful," Vision mumbled, "besides, I took it back to the compound and somebody ate it, so it didn't go to waste."
Eva neglected to mention that, when she had slept over the following day, she had got hungry during the night, sneaked into the kitchen and devoured the entire thing without telling anybody. "You're an idiot," she told him, and kissed his cheek. "Never change."
A/N I got into university! I did WAY better in my A-Levels than I thought I would, too, and I am, to use the proper British terminology, well chuffed. Now I just have to spend the next 3-4 years of my life working my way through all of English literature. Yay!