"Hey. Do you have a minute?" Steve asked, slipping on to a stool at the counter beside Natasha.
"Yeah sure, what's up?"
"I have one of these now." He declared, setting a small box between them.
"Ooh the future huh?" She smiled, pushing the remains of her breakfast and newspaper to one side to accommodate the new addition.
"I don't even know where to begin."
"Well, first of all," she began, taking the lid off the box, "it's a phone, not a bomb. You can pick it up." She gestured for him to take out its contents. With an uncertainty rarely seen outside of a parent being handed their newborn for the first time, he slowly picked up the small flip phone, experimentally opening and closing it a few times.
"This is the sim card. It stores all the information for your phone. Numbers, things like that." She handed him the card. "Now, pop that little chip out – yeah, that bit. Take the case off the back of the phone and slide it in, between those pins."
She was methodical and thorough, traits which did not surprise Steve, though he found she was guiding him through with an easy and casual manner, with no sense of impatience or condescension. This did surprise him a little, wondering where she had picked up a teaching style that was so different to the one exacted on her growing up.
"SD card next. This gives the phone extra memory. In there, yeah, great. Battery. You're lucky you are only starting to use one now, these things used to be massive. You may as well have used those field phones we had during the War."
Steve laughed, remembering the metal box some poor boy would have to lug around with his own kit.
"I'll show you how to add our numbers and then you can use it to make calls. Turn it on with the red button – this is also the 'end call' button, or hang up as we elderly used to say."
He did as she said and watched it come to life.
"It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. And don't listen to anything Tony tells you – his explanations aren't made for luddites like us."
"You're no luddite."
"You'd be surprised. Just because I know what I'm doing doesn't mean I like it." For emphasis she nudged her newspaper with a finger. "Some of Tony's holographic stuff makes me feel sick."
"The ones where he throws up some ridiculous diagram so you can look at it, but you've barely focused on it before another one comes spinning over to take its place?"
"That's the one. I'm sure he does it just to show off. And switching off a hologram doesn't give you the satisfying whumph of heat you get from burning a mission brief."
Steve stared at her with raised brows.
"What?" She said, a little self-consciously.
"You are such a spy." He laughed, shaking his head.
A/N: Thank you for your kind reviews.